The Dark Night of the Soul

Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Matthew 21:1-11

at Batesville Prebyterian Church on Palm Sunday, April 1, 2007

We are looking out the window of a tour bus in Cairo, Egypt. There is a man riding a small cart being pulled by a donkey. Next to him is a family in a late model Mercedes Benz. The bus stops so a man herding sheep may cross the busy street. Welcome to the post-modern Middle East. Long ago, Jesus rode a donkey in a bustling Middle Eastern city called Jerusalem. Hosts of his disciples shouted "Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" Later in the week a crowd will be screaming, "Crucify him." Holy week is a bumpy ride for Jesus and for us. Holy Week starts with Jesus riding a donkey down the sloping hill of the Mount of Olives. The Holy City, Jerusalem, stares back from below. We descend upon Jerusalem with Jesus.

We are flying in an airplane over the Atlantic ocean. This flight goes from New York City to Amman, Jordan. On board is the President of my seminary, 25 seminary students and 3 seminary professors. The seminary president is a short man with a booming voice. He is an experienced traveler. After the flight is underway he puts on a pair of ear plugs and covers his eyes with a blinder and reclines his seat. Within minutes he is laying with his arms spread out over his head, snoring loudly. He knows the importance of timing on a long journey. He knows the time will come to stare in wonder at the tomb of Christ in the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. But now is not that time. Now is the time to relax and rest. So I relax my grip on the magazine and trust the Lord to keep us safe and sound on this flight and on this trip. My fear is deeper than the fear of flying. My fear is that I am not in control. I am a passenger and not the driver. I am really afraid because this trip may change the way I view the world and my faith. No one who journeys to Jerusalem comes back as the same person. Jesus will never be the same after this donkey ride into Jerusalem. He will exit Jerusalem from his own tomb.

I am walking through Manhattan on a Sunday morning in August. I am 25 years old. The walk begins at the Statue of Liberty. There are many people there. A juggler entertains us as we wait in line to climb up into the Statue of Liberty. My turn comes to climb the stairs, one by one, going up to the top of Lady Liberty. From the crown of the Statue of Liberty, I look across at Manhattan Island. It shines like a diamond across Hudson Bay. I climb down the Statue of Liberty and begin walking up Broadway Street through Manhattan heading toward Central Park. The sun is out and it is hot and humid. The concrete sidewalk and empty streets intensify the heat of the sun. Even the skyscrapers seem to be heaping heat down on my head. The soles of my feet are burning from the hot pavement. The streets are nearly deserted except for a stray car here or a taxi cab there. I walk alone in silence infected by intense heat. Something clicks. I have achieved some unspoken goal. I feel my self confidence rising with the heat.

Jesus walks alone on a Friday. On his back he carries a cross. He winds his way down the Via Dolorosa. He straggles up to the hill of the skull. He is so hot. He feels the heat of all the sin, fear, guilt and dread of the human species throughout all history. He feels the heat of hell summoning him down to where he would willingly go after his death on the cross. He descends into hell, as we say in the Apostle's Creed. Jesus is intimate with suffering. He walks alone when he has to do it. He walks from Pilate's quarters to Golgotha. As the great spiritual song says, "Nobody else could walk it for him. He had to walk it by himself."

There comes a time in our lives when we must walk alone. The crowds no longer support us. Our friends provide no consolation. We must walk alone through the valley of the shadow of death. Our family and friends may stand with us during the funeral service but there comes a time when everyone goes back home and we are left alone in the house without our loved one who has died. Or perhaps the problem is that we feel apathetic toward life. Or we may feel spiritually numb.

Gerald Mays explore such times in his book, The Dark Night of the Soul. He says we grow spiritually when what we were formerly doing no longer brings us any satisfaction. Such times are called "dark night of the soul" because God's presence is obscured. It is hard to see at midnight when the lights are all turned off. During times of spiritual obscurity, when the way before us in unclear, the Spirit may be maturing our faith. Certainly Jesus' solitary walk on Good Friday was an experience framed by poor vision. His eyes were swollen from the beating he had taken at the hands of the Roman soldiers who mocked him. There was blood and sweat in his eyes from the crown of thorns on his head as the heat of the day beat down upon him. He vision was blurred. Surely that solitary walk on Good Friday caused more growth in Christ's faith than the joyous journey on the donkey's back down Mount Olives into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

We all long for the spiritual high of Palm Sunday but are less enthralled to experience the pain of Good Friday. Yet we grow more during the Good Fridays of our lives than we do on the Palm Sundays. Part of our growth may involve not knowing what God is doing in our lives. God sometimes works in obscurity. According to Mays, it is not so much God does not want us to know what God is doing in our lives. Rather, God is able to lead us further when we do not know where we are going. During the dark night of the soul, during the times when we are unsure where God is or what God is doing in our lives, God may be purifying our soul and cleansing our spirit. Good Friday was for Jesus an experience of the dark night of the soul. From the depths of his soul, he cries from the cross , "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

The question we have during the dark night of the soul is the same question everyone asked when Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem: "Who is this?" We do not always know the answer to that question. God's presence is sometimes unknown and unseen in our lives. We do not always understand who Jesus is or what he wants from us. This is especially true during the dark night of the soul. The key to spiritual growth is obedience to God even when we do not know who God is. We do not recognize the dark night of the soul when we are experiencing it. Later we may recognize a slightly noticeable change in our attitude and behavior. We have more inward freedom. Wehave more compassion for others. We have a broader perspective. These are the fruits of the dark night of the soul.

God suffers with us in the bad times and rejoices with us in the good times. We don't have to be always in control. We can relax. God is leading us onward even when we find no evidence of God's active presence in our lives. During the season in our lives when God's activity seems faint and shadowy, we may be experiencing the liberating power of the dark night of the soul. One thing we know for certain and we take hope in this fact. After every dark night there comes the dawn, and after every Good Friday comes Easter Sunday.

We journey with Jesus through his Passion. We take it one day at a time during this Holy Week. We wax warm in the glow of Palm Sunday. We wane before the mystery of the dark night of the soul on Maundy Thursday. We cry at foot of the cross as Jesus dies on Good Friday. We are surprised by joy at the resurrection Jesus on Easter Sunday. Holy Week is a spiritual passage that commemorates Christ's dark night of the soul. We are making that journey now.

A Light, An Attraction, and a Power

Jon Burnham preached this Lent 4A sermon from Ephesians 5:8-14
on March 2, 2008 at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston.

Even in this post-modern, scientific world, our lives still revolve around light and darkness. We have not transcended the animal aspect of our human nature to the extent that we may disregard the circadian rhythm of our bodies. We must still sleep in the darkness of night and rise in the light of day. This basic aspect of existence has been well understood for thousands of years and often used against the human species by priests and nobility. Our human nature is a yin and a yang of light and darkness. As we read in our text today, "For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light." That progression from past darkness to present light in the Lord is what we will explore in our time together this morning. Far beyond a mystical, esoteric mystery, the interplay of light and dark within us defines how we experience ourselves, others, God and our very existence in this world in which we live and move and have our being.

An ancient priesthood ruled the world for hundreds and thousands of years by manipulating the human perception of light and darkness. They knew astrology in minute detail and used that knowledge to scientifically manipulate the commoners into paying them big bucks to keep the sun rising each morning. The sun, in ancient times, was believed to sail across the ocean of the sky. The only way to guarantee that the sun kept sailing was to pay the priests to perform ceremonies that would resurrect the sun each morning. For you  see, the priests told the people that the sun died each night and must be raised from the dead each morning. The job of the priests, according to the priests, was to resurrect the sun each morning and thus provide light to the land and the people. But if the priests were not well paid, they could not guarantee the people that they would continue to perform this valuable service of raising the son from the dead each morning so it could sail across the ocean of the sky. Now the priests knew this was a great hoax they were playing on the people but it worked for them for thousands of years. The common people were kept in ignorance and were illiterate. All they knew was what the priests and the royalty told them. Thus did the priests and the royalty live good lives at the expense of the downtrodden people whose minds they controlled. In ancient mystery religions the term "the dead" referred to people who did not know the sacred truths which was considered the real reality.

The phrase "raised from the dead" is still used in today's secret societies. For instance, the often discussed Skull and Bones Society at Yale University has been brought to our attention over the past decade as two of our Presidents and one nominee for President are members of that secret society. I am referring to President Bush Senior and Junior and Senator John Kerry. The defining ritual in the Skull and Bones Society finds the candidate for membership laying inside a casket. He must tell the other boys in the fraternity every sexual experience he has ever had including names and dates. The candidate for membership is then raised from the casket, symbolically raised to new life or resurrected from the dead. This is the society's ritual to signify being born again as a member of the Skull and Bones. So whenever a member of the society is asked if he has been born again he can honestly say he has been born again, although it may not be in the way in which the person asking the question is thinking.

Our culture also is obsessed with light and darkness, even now, when our technological advancements allow us to flip a light switch to "on" any time of day or night so that we no longer have to restrict our activity to the hours of daylight. Even so, we want more daylight to conserve energy. The purpose of the Spring time change is to lengthen the amount of light. The highest levels of our Federal Government voted to change the schedule of daylight savings time in order to squeeze more light out of the day. So this coming Saturday we will move our clocks forward by one hour for Daylight Savings Time. We want more light for more energy. Futurist and Inventor Ray Kurzweil, who has received 15 honorary doctorate degrees and been recognized by three presidents, says 20 years from now most of our energy needs around the world will be provided by solar energy. He thinks the break even point between solar energy and oil is only five years away. After that break even point, solar energy will begin to become cheaper than oil year after year after year. Kurzweil claims the sun provides enough energy to earth each day to provide all the energy needs of every human being on the planet 10,000 times so if when we are able to use nanotechnology to proficiently extract solar power we will need to extract only one ten thousandth of the energy of the sun each day in order to meet the energy needs of every human on the planet. The point Kurzweil is making is that the sun provides 10,000 times more energy than humans need. In a similar way, the light of Christ provides 10,000 times more energy than we need to propel us forward in our spiritual journey. The question for us spiritually, as for the solar engineers, is how we secure the light of Christ and use it for spiritual energy. That is the question that is raised in our text today. Children of Light is the phrase used here. Children means we are growing, evolving, developing, dependent, and trusting. Light means we are reflectors of our source as the moon reflects the light of the sun. As Joni Mitchell so beautifully sings, "We are stardust, we are golden, and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden..."

I was blessed in my childhood in that the food I ate was mostly vegetables from my father's back yard garden. Those vegetables were eaten straight from the garden in the Summer and plenty of them were put in the freezer for the Winter months. Those vegetables kept me going even through the high energy sport of football. When I was in high school I played quarterback on the football team. Our team had some good receivers and I was a decent passer but our offensive line was small and skinny. Beyond that, we were a small school and most of the teams we played came from schools that were at least three times the size of our school, so they had much larger, stronger and faster players on their roster. No wonder then, that on the Friday afternoons before home games, when we players would lay around the gym resting and mentally preparing for the game, I spent my time in fervent prayer, praying that I would not get killed or paralyzed during that night's game. I was smart enough to know that injuries were part of the game. I knew that all it would take was a broken neck and I would be dead or paralyzed. I felt this fear acutely as we took the field each Friday night. I knew this could be my last game. It gave each moment of the game a highly intense, almost surreal quality. During the game, I would calm down only after being hit for the first time. Then I could settle into the game. On the day after the game, on Saturday morning, I awoke early to go bag groceries at the grocery store. That was my weekend job, and although I may have been sore, I was always happy to be there at the grocery store because it meant I was still alive. When I awoke each Saturday during the football season I felt as if I had risen from the dead and I gave thanks to God for my life. I felt Christ shine on me each Saturday as I bagged groceries and delivered them to the cars of friends, neighbors and strangers in the small town in Mississippi where I lived. Each Saturday during football season was a time when I seemed to rise from the dead. As our text this morning puts it: "Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you."

We are much more powerful and capable than we ever imagined. As Marianne Williamson wrote, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us." (Beyond Change Management Advanced Strategies for Today's Transformational Leaders, Dean Anderson Linda S. Ackerman Anderson, 96)  Our text tells us how to turn on the light of Christ within: "Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord." Traditionally, Christians have tried to find out what is pleasing to the Lord through Bible reading and prayer. When we read the Bible we find we are encouraged to immerse ourselves in prayer. Paul said, "Pray without ceasing." Jesus said, "Seek and you will find the kingdom of God within you." When we immerse ourselves in prayer, we notice the Spirit starts shining a search light into the darkest recesses of our being. The Holy Spirit's search light shines on our selfish motivations and reveals that we are seeking God for our own gratification. We find we are filled with spiritual pride. We notice lust and greed that we thought we had put aside. The light of the Spirit makes us notice how we treat other people and encourages us, as it is put earlier in Ephesians, to put away from us all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and to be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven us." (Eph 4:31-32) This process is called spiritual purification and while it is not a pleasant experience it is a necessary one.

French contemplative Lucie-Christine experienced Christ as a light, an attraction, and a power. She envisioned Christ as a light that showed her how she belonged completely to God alone in this world. She saw Christ as an attraction by which her heart was subdued and delighted. And she experienced Christ as a power which inspired her with a generous resolution that somehow placed in her hands the means to carrying out her desire to live as a child of light. (Journal Spirituel de Lucie-Christine, p. 11) During this Lenten season, which may be for us a season of spiritual detoxification, may we too experience Christ as a light, an attraction, and a power. Therefore it says, "Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." May we join the azaleas and budding trees during this Spring season as we unfold on the inside light, the attraction, and the power of Christ at work within us. Then we will live as children of light— for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.  

Journey by Stages

Jon Burnham preached this Lent 3A sermon from Exodus at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas on February 24, 2008.

In their journey through the wilderness, the people of Israel came to a place with no water. The people complained against Moses and tested God. The people of Israel journeyed by stages to the Promised Land. In a similar fashion, we journey by stages in our spiritual lives as we evolve through different levels of consciousness. James Fowler discusses the Stages of Faith development. Philosopher Ken Wilber has contributed greatly to this field of knowledge. We are on a spiritual journey through Lent and we journey by stages through this holy season from Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday.

We journey by stages even in mundane situations such as training a dog to walk on a leash. I was inspired to walk my dog Pal on a leash after watching Cesar Millan demonstrate how to do it on his TV show, Dog Whisperer. It would seem obvious how to walk to a dog but if you will notice the people walking dogs in your neighborhood you may notice that more often than not the person is not walking the dog but the dog is walking the person. The Dog Whisperer teaches how a person may walk a dog and not the other way around. For instance, when walking a large dog the leash should be placed high up the dog's head just behind the ears so that when you pull on the leash the dog will feel constricted in the throat and so is more likely to follow your lead. Secondly, the dog should always walk one step behind you and never in front of you because this demonstrates that you are the leader and the dog is the follower. Finally, the most important part of the walk is how you begin the walk by stepping outside the door of the house. Cesar recommends you walk out the door first and let the dog follows behind you on the leash. By stepping out the door first you are demonstrating to your dog that you are in charge of this experience and that you will be walking the dog rather than the dog walking you. So there is a method even to walking a dog.

I followed the Dog Whisperer's advice as I began to teach my dog Pal to walk on a leash. Several months later, I was walking my dog, Pal, around the back yard of our house on a very hot morning in Mississippi. It was hot and humid and dry and dusty and I was thirsty. Round and round we walked inside our fenced in back yard. I had a leash with a short rope around Pal's neck and made sure he walked one step behind me as I had learned from the Dog Whisperer. As we walked and round the yard, I realized that I had been walking through a spiritual desert for several years. I found satisfaction in nothing. I was going through what mystics refer to as the night of sense which is a time of trial and a purging of the physical appetites. I was so thirsty for some experience of God. Suddenly it dawned on me that just as that leash tied Pal to me, his master, so Jesus had a leash around my neck that tied me to him. But while Pal was delighted to have the leash around me and was happy to be walking with me, his master, I was not delighted to have Jesus' leash around my neck and I was not delighted to be walking with my master, Jesus. I was not grateful. I was resentful. Like the children of Israel murmuring against Moses, I was murmuring against Jesus as Jesus was leading me on as if I were on a leash.

As the children of Israel as they journeyed by stages through the wilderness toward the promised land, so we as a congregation and as a society are journeying by stages through a time of great transition. From scientists we hear about the transformative power of nanotechnology that promises an upheaval in society only matched in the past by the industrial revolution. From medicine we hear of the possibility of new therapies that may enable humans to live into the hundreds of years of age as did some people in the Old Testament accounts such as Abraham and Sarah, who parented a child when in the 90s. How do we "go on ahead" of this society in order to find water in the spiritual wilderness of a postmodern world? The Spirit beckons us the church to "go on ahead" of the society and this is hard for us to do as a church. We are accustomed to being reactive rather than proactive. We are by nature a conservative organization. We Presbyterians are not know for being on the cutting edge of technology but we are known for being on the cutting edge of mission. When it comes to mission, we have a history of going on ahead of other churches and religious organizations. We are trail blazers in the area of mission to the community. If we are to build on our strength, we will be asking how do we go on ahead of other churches in reaching out to Southwest Houston in Christian mission? What human needs should we meet? How may we remain faithful to our tradition and yet use technology in new ways in our worship and service in order to remain relevant in this rapidly changing society? These are some of the questions of "going on ahead."

The LORD said to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go."

Going on ahead requires courage and discipline but the effort is worth the reward. Failure to go on ahead means we may get left behind. So let us be about the task of going on ahead of the cultural changes we are living through and learn to flow with the Spirit into the bright future God is already arranging for us. These are exciting times to be alive and we are blessed to be alive at this time in human history. Let us fulfill our sacred duty to God and humankind by being faithful to our divine calling in practical and meaningful ways. Leadership means going on ahead of the people. Our Session needs to go on ahead of the congregation. We need to be out there leading them toward our next destination.

When we take the chance, when we put ourselves out there, when we go on ahead, and finally get there, wherever "there" may be for us, we make a startling discovery. We are not the first ones to be there. We may think of ourselves as trailblazers, first movers, early adopters, but we never have to worry about getting too far ahead of the crowd. However far we may go when we "go on ahead" we will find that God is already there. God is already there. That is what Moses and the elders of Israel found when they went on ahead of the people. In fact, God had already told Moses and the leaders that God would go before them and he tells them again in our text today. God says: "I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink." Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. So we relax in the knowledge that God has already gone on ahead of us and is already there wherever it is we are headed. God is there waiting for us at our future destination. And when we finally catch up to God, God says: "Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink." Go knows the location of the water of life. Our Session, our leaders, must lead our congregation to the water of life so that the people may drink. One of my favorite Bible verses is from Joshua, "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for danger, to give you a future with hope."

One day we may look back at this time in the history of St. John's and say, "That was the time when we searching for leadership. We were looking to the future but were uncertain how to get there. We were in a time of transition and everything seemed to be up for grab. We were not sure the Lord was still with us. We thought the Lord may have forgotten us. We questioned our leaders saying, "Give us water to drink." We were afraid we would die of thirst in that spiritual desert." But thanks be to God, we had leaders who went on ahead of us to a new level of consciousness, a new awareness of how we could be relevant in ministry to the community. And we will look back at this time in our history, and we will give it a name. So did the people of Israel. They called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"

We feel sometimes as if we are beating our head against a rock. That is how I felt that hot day in Mississippi when I was walking my dog in circles in that fenced back yard. I felt spiritually fenced in and I wanted out. Finally, I relaxed into the feeling. I said "Yes" to what is and a shift occurred. I accepted the idea that I may never get beyond this dry and parched place in my spiritual journey and that was okay. I would still worship God. Jesus would still be my master, even if it meant I got no water, no reward -- even if there is no heaven above -- I decided I would still be leashed to Jesus. I said to myself then, "Even if I die in this dry and barren place, I still love my master, Jesus. Even though God may kill me, yet will I still love him." A shift happened. It was still hot and I was still bothered an disappointed, but not I knew I could survive this stage in my spiritual journey. Shortly thereafter, a few months later, I experienced a shift in consciousness as I was delivered from the desert and entered into a higher level of consciousness that seemed like a spiritual oasis.

As individual Christians and as congregations, we journey by stages to ever high levels of consciousness. May the Spirit lead us all to a place of water, a place of refreshment, and a season of creative ministry and relevant ministry. God is calling the leaders of this church to go on ahead of the congregation to a new level of consciousness. God is waiting for us there. Leaders, let's lead. Followers, let's follow. Together, let's boldly live into this moment in history. Let's believe in ourselves and trust in God, knowing that one day we may look back at this time and say, "That was a time when we questioned God and challenged our leaders, that was our Massah and Meribah. That was an important point in the spiritual development of St. John's Presbyterian Church." This is a turning point. This is a time for repentance and renewal. This is a season of spiritual detoxification as we journey by stages into God's future, now.

A Dark Conversation

Jon Burnham preached this sermon from John 3:1-17
on the Second Sunday of Lent, Year A, February 17, 2008
at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas

In the New Testament of the Bible, Pharisees are presented as antagonists. They question Jesus. They challenge Jesus.  They even plot against Jesus how they may destroy him. So when our text begins by mentioning a Pharisee who came to Jesus at night we fear the worse. Our senses on edge, our heart pounding, we wonder what may transpire in a dark conversation between a Pharisee named Nicodemus, and our Lord, Jesus Christ.

In the shadowy darkness Nicodemus initiates a conversation with Jesus with this polite, but neutral, remark: "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." This sounds nice but we think it could be a set up, considering what we know of previous exchanges between Jesus and other Pharisees.

Jesus responds to Nicodemus with a one sentence parable, saying, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." With this response, Jesus immediately dives down into a deep level of communication by speaking of the kingdom of God. We know from elsewhere in the New Testament that Jesus locates the kingdom of God not somewhere high up in the heavens, but right in the middle of our chest. The energies of heaven facilitate our ability to perceive the kingdom of God within us. Jesus recognizes a relationship between being born from above and seeing the kingdom of God within.

Nicodemus does not comprehend the meaning of Jesus' remarks about being born from above so he asks Jesus, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" As we often do, Nicodemus gravitates toward literal thinking while Jesus uses metaphorical language so Jesus' saying about being born from above does not compute in the brain of Nicodemus. It is as if Nicodemus approaches Jesus in a modern, scientific, fact finding frame of mind, and finds Jesus operating in a postmodern, quantum mechanic universe where the normal rules of matter and energy seem no longer to apply.

Jesus continues the cryptic conversation, using the words wind and water to describe spiritual realities. First, Jesus says: "No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit." Being born of water may refer to the birth process as when a woman's water breaks before her child is born. Being born of spirit may refer to the powerful spiritual activation that occurs in our baptism. Both birth and baptism use water to literally and spiritually activate the kingdom of God within us.

Jesus next employs the energetic images of wind and water, saying, "The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes." We are familiar with wind and water. Insurance providers and attorneys are still arguing whether it was wind damage or water damage that caused hundreds and thousands of homes to be destroyed on the Gulf Coast. Last week a tornado blew through my former residence in Jackson, Tennessee and devastated a small Baptist college called Union University. All the buildings were destroyed but no one was killed. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to when and where these hurricanes and tornadoes hit, whom is harmed and whom is left untouched. Wind power may destroy or create. On the positive side, wind is a clean, inexhaustible, indigenous energy resource that can generate enough electricity to power millions of homes and businesses. The wind blows sometimes with hurricane force and other times as a devastating tornado. Yet, wind power is a source of renewable energy in use in Texas and around the world today.

"So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit," says Jesus. We have the power of Katrina blowing within us. We have the power of the tornado inside our mouths. Each of us has the power to destroy or build, to kill or give life through the power of our tongue. The tongue has the power to destroy people and congregations or to give encouragement and build community. We are baffled when we hear Jesus tell his disciples, "The signs I do you will do and greater than these will you do." Yet, if we truly acknowledged the power we have over people, the power to curse or to bless, we would be careful in our speech, we would watch what we say and how we say it. Our tongue has the power to create positive energy like a wind mill and the power to destroy like a tornado.

Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" We too, would like more details. We live in a scientific world where everything must be quantified and measured before we may acknowledge that is is real. We are taught to distrust our feelings. For instance, mothers are taught to rely on experts in child rearing to tell them how to be a proficient parent to their child. One of the best pieces of advice my wife ever received came from her physician who offered the following parenting advice upon the birth of our first child: "Trust your instincts. No one knows this child better than you, her mother. No expert can tell you how to raise this child better than your own instincts. Follow your intuition, do what you feel is right and don't worry about what the experts say." Jesus was talking to Nicodemus about trusting his spiritual instincts and insights instead of relying on his theological education. Nicodemus needed to reclaim the territory between his mind and heart and so do we. We need to rediscover our hearts. This is the new frontier for Christians in the 21st century. Our challenge at this time in history is to rediscover our heart and live our religion from our heart and not just from our head.

Of course, we may use our minds in our religion, and in fact, Presbyterians excel in the neocortex. We build statues to John Calvin and admire him as an author who wrote reams of books about God that laid the foundation for the Reformation.  Presbyterians value the mind. But John Calvin was also a man of heart. He was aware of the vital importance of the heart in the relationship between humans and God. Calvin was aware of the mind/body connection and he lived our his faith with warm passion as well as cool intellect. Calvin the Reformer, like Nicodemus the Pharisee, had been trained as a lawyer. Both were people of the book. Words were their great companions, their weapons and their building blocks. Jesus challenges Nicodemus, Calvin, and us, to move our religion about 18 inches lower down in our body. If we desire to experience the power of God's wind moving in our lives, we must make the journey from our heads to our hearts during this Lenten season, from our tongues to our sternums. Without a heart that beats to the contemplative dimension of the gospel, we may not resonate with God's wind blowing in us.

Finally, we arrive at a familiar place in this text. We find ourselves in the company of our childhood crib mates, grade school kids in Sunday School, and playing capture the flag on the playground during Vacation Bible School. We find a place that is an island of stability in this wavy, watery, windy world that Jesus has been describing, this world of water and wind and being born from above. We find ourselves standing on the solid ground of John 3:16. It's right here in this passage. It comes next, like a life boat finally coming to rescue us from Gilligan's Island. We wave our arms and loudly shout, we set off flares so someone on board will see us and direct the captain of the ship to turn the boat toward our island and come set us free.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." So the God whom Jesus called Abba is not out to get kill us in Katrina or devastate us in a tornado or abandon us on a lonely island. The God whom Jesus reveals is a God of love. "For God so loved the world" is the biblical phrase on which we stake our existence.

Love is the basic power of the universe. Not fear. Not death. But Love. The kind of love that gives everything away. A love of total abandon. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. That radical, personal, sacrificial love is the kind of love God has for each one of us. This compassionate God is the God we discover when we see the kingdom of God within. Listen, I'll tell you a dark secret. I've seen the realm of God within me and I've seen the realm of God within each of you. Some days I see the kingdom more clearly than others days. Other days I fee like I need a new prescription on my spiritual bifocals. I hope that you are able to perceive the kingdom of God within yourself. If not, Lent is a good time to get a new prescription for our spiritual glasses. Let's update the prescription on our spiritual glasses and perhaps we will discover the realm of God within us. For anyone interested in where go to get your prescription filled on a new set of spiritual glasses, Jesus provides directions in Matthew 6:6.  We may renew the prescription on our spiritual perception in a place called the inner room and the prescription is filled by God in silence while we wait.

Now here is a disclaimer for any who may wonder if we've short changed heaven in this discussion by continually referring to the kingdom of God within instead of pointing to the kingdom of God as somewhere up above where we go after we die. We conclude with a quote from Jesus during that dark conversation with Nicodemus. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, so he says to us, "If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?" As the movie title suggests, "Heaven Can Wait." The kingdom of God within us cannot wait. Now is the time of salvation. Now is the time for us to experience the realm of God within us. Let's give Jesus the last word in this dark conversation. Here it is, straight from Messiah's mouth, as translated from the original Greek: "For thus loved God the world, that the Son, the unique one, he gave. That everyone believing in him may not perish but have life eternal." Have eternal life is in the present tense here. The realm of God is within us right here on this earth, right now in this moment. The Lenten season beckons us to enter into the dark conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. We emerge from that conversation feeling stretched, wind blown, and wet. Life in the power of the spirit never felt so real as it does right this very second.

Free Gift

Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Romans 5:12-19
on the First Sunday of Lent, Year A, February 10, 2008
at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas

Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive but in the case of salvation it is more blessed to receive than to give. Like a card game where the deck is stacked against us, Adam's sin lays us low. Yet, in the world to come, we will play with a different deck of cards, one in which Christ is our partner in the salvation story. In the meantime, we get all tied up in the legal language of our false self versus our true self. Let's try to untangle this web this morning. We'll start with the offer of God's so-called free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. I say "so-called free gift" Christian faith is based on a free gift that isn't free.

We excel at giving but are not as good at receiving. Receiving implies lack, need, interdependence. Receiving goes against our lone ranger image of ourselves as self sufficient beings. Receiving highlights our imperfection and we prefer to think of ourselves as able to handle things pretty well on our own. Many of us are not interested in free gifts. We rarely use coupons when we shop because we are experienced enough to know that nothing is free. Let me clarify that statement. "Nothing" is indeed free but who wants nothing? Something worth having is never free.

The very term, "free gift," that Paul uses so often in this text, brings negative images to mind. The term "free gift" implies a cheap or worthless gift. Free gift is a sales term that reeks of huscksterism and hints that whatever is being proffered is not worth a dime. Free "gift" is a term that comes with the junk mail where the hidden agenda is to sell us something we do not want or need. We know from experience that nothing is free and this is certainly true in regard to God's gift of salvation in Christ. This "free gift" is not free at all. The so-called free gift of salvation through Christ cost Jesus his life.

Likewise for us, , if we take advantage of God's free gift of salvation, it will cost us our false self. That is why Paul contrasts the words "death" and "free gift" in his letter to the Romans. Our false selves must die if we are to live into God's free gift. What is the false self? According to Thomas Keating, our false self consists of our emotional programs for happiness. We are conditioned from early childhood to do certain things to be happy. For instance, our cultural conditioning teaches us that if we buy the right consumer item, such as the correct brand of toothpaste, then we will be enjoy exciting romantic relationships with beautiful people and be happy for the rest of our lives, or at least until it time to once again brush our teeth with the magical toothpaste product that makes our happiness possible. Multiply this kind of message by thousands and possibly millions of times, all delivered to us in scientifically efficient multi-media messages including print media, radio, television, and the web, and you have but one example of how our emotional programs for happiness are programmed into us from earliest childhood by outside forces whose only interest in us is our ability to pay a couple of dollars for a tube of toothpaste once a month, thus increasing values for share holders in the company that produces the product. We are scientifically manipulated from earliest childhood, programmed into purchasing happiness, and this is but one example of how our false self is formed. It is this false self that must decrease while gospel values increase if we are to live into God's free gift of salvation.

God's salvation program, the way out of the matrix of the false self, is only possible because of one man, Jesus Christ. In Paul's understanding, this one man, Jesus Christ, undid all the damage done by the one man, Adam. It was one man, Adam, whose sin brought sin and death into the world so that many died and judgment and condemnation came upon all humanity because of the disobedience of this one man named Adam. But in the greatest come back in the ledgers of human history, it is one man, Jesus Christ, whose obedience to God brought down the grace of God as a free gift available to all who are willing to step out of Adam's sin matrix and into Christ's grace realm. Through one man's obedience, many exercise dominion over life as they decrease their false self system and increase their true self system. Our true self is that part of us that is our basic core of goodness. Our true self is very closely related to our Christ self to the extent that it is hard to tell where our true self ends and where our Christ self begins. This one man, Jesus Christ, enables the possibility of justification, which is getting our true self back in the driver's seat.

The great theologian of the Reformation, John Calvin, taught that the purpose of the law is to show us our inability to keep the law, thereby demonstrating our need for Christ, the one man who was able to beat the false self system and break through into union with God. Because of Christ's pioneering work in the field of salvation, all of us are now able to break through sin and death and as Paul puts it, exercise dominion in life. Or, as Thomas Keating puts it, because of Christ we are aware of and able to diminish the false self system with its emotional programs for happiness.

Janis Joplin sang, "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose" and that is sound anthropology and theology in a nutshell. When we have diminished our false self programs for emotional happiness to the point where there is nothing left to lose then we experience the freedom of salvation in Jesus Christ. Lent is a time for spiritual detoxification and part of the spiritual detox program involves diminishing the false self system. Here are some suggestions for how to diminish the false self system for emotional happiness. First, you may take up the practice of centering prayer. Come to the church library at 4:00 P.M. today and you will have an experience of centering prayer. It is a method of prayer designed to move us toward an experience of the contemplative dimension of the gospel. At its heart, Christianity is meant to change our hearts, to move us toward an alternate reality that is not based upon our false self system that we absorbed from the scientific manipulation of the greatest marketing companies in human history. Christianity intends to break us down from Adam's way of sin and self-reliance, and bring us into Christ's path of grace and God-reliance. This path from Adam to Christ is neither free nor quick. The invitation comes as a so-called free gift but the implication is that if we receive the free gift then we owe everything in return.

This is the way life works in God's economy. God comes to us in the form of Jesus Christ and gives us an offer of the free gift of salvation. Before we receive that free gift offer we are responsible for reading the fine print which includes this disclaimer: "By accepting the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ I hereby relinquish all claims to happiness that I previously enjoyed under Adam's false self system. Furthermore, by accepting God's free gift of salvation I acknowledge my own tendency toward sin and my inability to completely rid myself of the sin that resides as a cancer in my soul. Therefore, by accepting God's free gift of salvation I hereby pledge myself to diminishing my false self system which is based on sin and leads to death; and I hereby profess my desire to follow my true self program for happiness that includes dying to my false self in order to live into the realm of God." I know, this legal terminology is hard to parse, but Paul was a Pharisee before he became an Apostle, and Pharisees were schooled in the law and had legal minds and used legal language.

If we are the client then Christ is our attorney, and when we come to trial before God at the final judgment, then we will discover to our great relief that our attorney is also the judge. Christ is both our heavenly legal representative and our heavenly judge. As John Calvin put is, our judge is our redeemer. So as we struggle through this life striving to diminish our false self system and live into our true self system, we have the peace of mind of knowing that when push comes to shove we have an ace in the hole when it comes to eternal salvation. Adam may have stacked the deck against us and all humanity but Christ beat Adam at his own game. And the Holy Spirit will teach us how to run the table when it comes to the interplay between the free gift of salvation and the diminishment of our false self program for happiness. In this world the deck may be stacked against us, but in the world to come, the cards are stacked in our favor. Maybe that is what Paul meant when he referred to the free gift of God's salvation in Christ.

So we end where we began. Our future in heaven is secure thanks to Christ, our judge and redeemer. Relieved of having to carry the burden of wondering about our eternal salvation, we are then free to serve God while we live in Adam's world. The free gift, in the end, is the gift of the freedom to serve God in this world, knowing that when the cards are down, we will come out winners in the game of eternal salvation. This is God's version of Texas hold 'em. God holds us through thick and thin, through life and death, and brings us safely across the Jordan into the promised land. Along the way, our lives are a series of diminishments of the false self's program for happiness. A falling away of Adam's rule and a coming to terms with the fact of our own mortality and the hope that in the end, as Teresa of Avila said, "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."

Listening for the Peace

Listening for the Peace

Jon Burnham preached this sermon on Matthew 17:1-9

at St. John's Presbyterian Church on February 3, 2008

When I was a child my daddy would hold me and rock me in a rocking chair as he sang, "You get a line, I get a pole, honey, you get a line, I get a pole, babe, you get a line, I get a pole, we'll go fishing in the crawdad hole, honey, oh baby, now." I felt totally loved, completely safe in my daddy arms. That is the kind of relationship Jesus had with God, whom he called "Abba" which means "Daddy." We too, may have such a personal and loving relationship with God. That is the kind of relationship God, Pappa, Daddy, wants to have with us.

It was when the disciples, Peter, James and John, were safely ensconced with Jesus, high on a mountain, that they experienced transformation. It came to the disciples in the form of the transfiguration of Jesus. As they were standing by him on a high mountain, Jesus was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. As if that weren't enough for the three disciples to process, suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with them. I wonder what Moses and Elijah said to Peter, James and John. Perhaps they asked them how the fishing was back in Galilee, although we have no reason to think Moses and Elijah were fishers. Rather, Moses was the great leader who took the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt to the promised land of Canaan. Of course, Canaan is short for Canaanite, which was the name of the people who lived in the land of Canaan with whom the Hebrew people had to contend. It is funny how history repeats itself, with the modern day Israeli's moving from holocaust in Nazi Germany or L.A. or New York City to Palestine after WWII. Palestine used to be the name of the place that is now called Israel. It was so called because Palestine was inhabited by the Pealestinians and had been for hundreds of years before their land was sold out from under them by the big boys who were dividing the spoils of war after WWII.

Moses and Elijah were talking to Peter, James and John. Elijah appears in the Hebrew Bible, Christian Bible, and the Qur'an. According to the Books of Kings, Elijah raised the dead, brought fire down from the sky, and ascended into heaven on a whirlwind. In the New Testament, both Jesus and John the Baptist are on some occasions thought to be Elijah. Based on a prophecy in Malachi, many Jews still await Elijah's return as precursor to the coming of the Messiah. (From Wikipedia.com) Elijah and Moses are quite a tag team, both heavy weights from the Old Testament. I wonder what kind of small talk they carried on with Peter, James and John. Perhaps it wasn't small talk at all. Perhaps Elijah and Moses were bearing witness to Jesus, telling Peter, James and John how Jesus really is the Messiah, the real deal, the full meal deal, no kidding. Believe it or not.

Now Peter, feeling completely overwhelmed and totally out of his league, and not being accustomed to small talk with the big boys, he needed to relieve some of the stress building up inside him so he suggested doing the holiest thing he could think of for these holy ones. Finally, when the stress becomes unbearable, Peters says to Jesus, the only one of the three big boys with whom he felt comfortable, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." No one knows why Peter said this but it must be signifcant to have been recorded. I wonder if Peter thought the big boys would need a place to pray and so he suggests building a place for them to pray. It would relieve some of Peter's stress if he could work with his hands. We all want to do something significant when we are in the presence of esteemed holy men such as Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. Let's build something. That is the way we tend think in the church as well. Let's build a family life center and that will solve all our problems. Build it and they will come. We'll bring in the young people. The young families with children. We need a building project to inspire the church.

And just as the building campaign is gaining momentum among Peter, James, and John, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" This is the voice of God to Peter, James and John. This is the voice of God to us today. Put aside your plans for restoration. Give up thinking you can transform the church. The Lord doesn't need our techniques for spiritual success. We don't need to go out an hire a consultant, a church doctor, to restore our health. God's word to us is simply this: "Listen to him." Him being Jesus. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.

When Peter, James and John are trembling on the ground. Jesus touches them, saying: "Do not be afraid." May Jesus touch us and take away our fear. May Jesus remove our fear of God and replace it with loving respect for God such as the loving respect I felt for my daddy when I was a small child rocking in his arms as he sang that sweet song to me. In such safe and loving moments, transformation becomes possible. May the Lord create in us a feeling of security in God's love.

Instead of feeling secure in God's loving arms, our response to God's intiative is often the same response as Peter, James and John, when a voice from a bright cloud said to them, "This is my beloved Son, listen to him." We fall down to the ground, paralyzed by fear. For to listen to Jesus, we must be quiet. To listen to Jesus, we must silence our own voice. To listen to Jesus, we must admit that we don't know how to build a dwelling place anyway. To listen to Jesus means we were on the wrong trail. We thought God wanted us to do something, to build something, but God only wanted us to be something, to hear something. To listen to Jesus scares us to death because it means we must enter into the silence.

Entering into the silence is a frightening thing. When we sit down, alone, enter into the closet and shut the door behind us, we are alone before God. That is a frightening place to be for some of us. We are afraid to be alone with God. After all, what will we talk about? Once we have spoken our laundry list to God, when we come to the end of the prayer list, one, two, three, four, on the down the list to the end. What do we say then? This is the challenge of building a relationship with God. Relationships grow with time and with trust. We must move beyond our bearded grandfather in the sky image of God if we really want a relationship with God.

A voice from a bright cloud said to them, "This is my beloved Son, listen to him." How often have we been in Jesus' presence but were too nervous to be quiet and listen to him? How would we listen for Jesus? We are not expecting to hear an audible voice such as God spoke to Peter, James and John on the mountain of transfiguration. No, God doesn't normally speak to us in an audible voice. We listen not for words. We listen not for a message from God. We listen for a peace. We listen for the peace that passes understanding. That is how God speaks to us in prayer. God speaks in sience through the peace of Christ that passes understanding.

It is the peace of Christ that passes understanding that gives us courage to get back on our feet when we have been cut down by illness, tragedy, or misfortune. The peace of Christ give us strength to get back up on our feet after we have been betrayed by dear ones that we trusted. The peace of Christ gives us the backbone to stand alone at the gates of hell and we won't back down.

When the disciples heard God's voice in the cloud, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.

But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid." Jesus, touch us, and take away our fear. Take away our fear of failure. Take away our fear of success. Take away our fear of death. Take away our fear of life. Jesus, touch us, and say, "Get up and do not be afraid."

And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. No more Moses. No more Elijah. Only Jesus. In the end, Jesus is the only one that remains. People come and go, family, friends, and lovers come and go. Only Jesus remains. From here to eternity. He is with us always, to the end of the world.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead." There are secrets in Christ's peace. There are secrets in the peace that passes understanding. There are secrets that we may not share with another. For unless they have experienced the peace of Christ, they will not understand. The mysteries of God are worth more than sound bites in the political arena. The peace of Christ passes understanding. Language can't do it justice. Words can't come close to expressing the mystery that we have experienced. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."

In the kingdom of God, as in all else, timing is everything. Timing is everything. We are in no hurry here. God has been at work in this congregation for many years. Now is the time to focus on the peace that passes understanding. We will get to the action. But the action must come out of silence. The action must come out of silence.  As we enter into the Lenten season which begins this week with Ash Wednesday, now is the time for silence. Now is the time for seeking and finding the peace that passes understanding. And that is where we find ourselves today, on the cusp of this Lenten season. We find ourselves down on our knees, in our closet, with the door closed behind us, sitting in silence, listening for the peace of Christ.

Location, Location, Location

Rev. Dr. Jon Burnham preached this from Matthew 2:13-23
on Christmas 1A, Dec 30, 2007, at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston

    "Where ya' from?" That's the first question you are likely to be asked in the small town where I grew up. Or, depending on the ethnic origin of the person asking the question, you may be asked: "Where's your crib?" Such questions were common in Jesus' time as well. Although we don't know much about Jesus' adolescence or early adulthood, the gospel writers go to great lengths to identify where Jesus was born, where he grew up, where he traveled during his ministry, where he died, and where he went after his resurrection. Real Estate agents tell us there three important things to consider when purchasing property: Location, location location. This is what our new church development strategists consider when planting a new congregation. St. John's is no longer a new church development but our location still holds a key to our mission.
    Location is very important to the New Testament writers and especially the location of Jesus. They tell us his crib was in Bethlehem and his childhood home was in Nazareth. Although he was from Nazareth, he did not remain there his entire life. While still an infant, Jesus moved from Bethlehem to Egypt. I've spoken to Christians from the Coptic Church in Egypt who claim to be direct descendants of those Egyptian families who took in the holy family of Jesus when they moved from Bethlehem to Egypt. Later, when still a child, Jesus moved from Egypt back to Israel and lived in the district of Galilee in a town called Nazareth. Recent excavations of the area reveal that although Nazareth was a small town, it was located a few miles South of Sepphoris which was a booming city in the time when Jesus lived in the area. Having been burned to the ground by the Romans 4 years before he was born, Sepphoris is likely the place where Jesus worked as a carpentar with his father Joseph as they worked to rebuild the city. In that city he would have been exposed to different languages such as Greek and Latin and various cultures and cultural influences.
    Sepphoris, like Houston, was a city of tremendous diversity, and a city in which many of the people who lived there had moved there from somewhere else. Many of us moved here from somewhere else. Some of us can relate to the person who said, "I'm not from Texas but I got here just as fast as I could." We did not grow up here.  We are from elsewhere. We are from Cameroon or Chicago, Kenya or Kansas, Scotland or Dallas. Some of us are even from Mississippi. Our diversity is our strength. Let's not blame where we are from for our failures but rather celebrate the fact that God has called us to this place at this time to work together in ministry for Christ. Let's not fall into the negative frame of mind that we could fulfill our calling from God if only we had not been born in a small town, or a large city, or in a certain part of town, or to certain parents, and so forth. God's plan for us may be fulfilled even if we are from Nazareth.
    No matter where we are from, our focus as Christians is not on the past -- where we are from. Our focus is not on the future -- where we are going. Our focus is on the present -- where we are now.
The power of now is a principle worth remembering as we begin a new year this week. Let's not get burdened down by where we've been or get whisked away in dreams of where we are going. Let's live in the present moment. Let's live at this place in this time. Jesus knew where he was from and where he was going but he lived in the present moment because the present moment is the only time and place where we can access the realm of God within us.
    Some of us live our lives in future tense or past tense, propelled forward by anger because of what we experienced in the past or what we fear may happen to us in the future. Anger is like a drug. Those who get their energy from anger need a fix of an anger fit several times a day in order to satisfy their craving. This means suffering not only for the person who lives it but also and for those who must live and work with this person. Complaining and craving for anger like a drug — this is our false self  in operation and this is what Jesus calls us to move beyond if we would enter what he calls "the kingdom of heaven" which is the realm of God that lies within us. Location. Location. Location. God's realm is located within us. If we would find God we must search within. When we open ourselves to the presence and action of the Spirit within, then God is there.
    Jesus calls us to walk the path of humility. Humility is the key to power in the realm of God within us. In one of his parables, Jesus says, "When you are invited,
go and sit at the lowest place ... for everyone who humbles himself will be exalted." Instead of trying to be a mountain, teaches the ancient Tao Te Ching, "Be the valley of the universe." In this way, you are restored to wholeness and so "all things will come to you." (Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, 216)
    When Roman guards and their servants came to arrest him in the Garden of Gethsemane, with their lanterns and torches and weapons, Jesus asked them whom they were looking for and they replied, "Jesus, the Nazorean." To refer to him as a Nazorean is to acknowledge that Jesus came from humble beginnings.  We also come from humble beginnings. If we think of starting anew today, on this cusp of a new year, we would have to admit that we are starting from humble beginnings. Yet, although he was known as a Nazarean, Jesus went on to change the world. And he promised us that those who followed him would do greater things than he had done. We must wonder then what kind of great things God has in store for this congregation in the future. I believe God has great things in store for us here at Saint John's. As the proverb says, "Despise not the day of small beginnings." We have made a small beginning and we look forward with great anticipation to the wonderful things to come. Jesus was a Nazorean. Can anything good come from Nazareth? You better believe something good can come from Nazareth. Can anything good from 5020 West Bellfort Avenue? You better believe something good can come from 5020 West Bellfort Avenue!
    Jesus decided to go to Galilee. When he got there, he ran across Philip and said, "Come, follow me." Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
    "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked.  But Philip said, "Come, see for yourself." (John 1:43-46, MSG)
    If we want to make new disciples, we will tell our friends, family and colleagues what Philip said to Nathaniel: "Come, see for yourself." Invite folks to come and see what God is doing in our congregation. If they say, "St. John's? Can anything good come out of St. John's?" then tell them to come and see. Let them know we are open for business and our business is making disciples and meeting human needs.
    Our challenge is now to come to terms with our location here at 5020 West Bellfort Avenue. It is time to look around and rediscover the context of our ministry. When we look at our location with the eyes of Christ we may discover what we need to be doing to meet human needs and make disciples in this place. God's realm lies within the hallowed walls of this sanctuary and God's realm lies within Meyerland, Westbury and all of Southwest Houston. God is already at work in this community and has been for some time. Our task it to discern how we may continue to cooperate with the Spirit in bringing God's realm alive in this place we call home. If we bring this to God with an open mind, God will show this congregation how to proceed in this new year. Whatever God may have in mind for us, I think it will have something to do with our location. So let's focus in like a laser beam on this one thing: Location. Location. Location.

Migrant Workers in God's Field

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 at Batesville Presbyterian Church on July 15, 2007.

Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It's not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God's field in which we are working.(The Message, trans. by Eugene Peterson)  

~*~

A minister who was a mentor to me had just left his church to go serve God in another place. I asked him how his congregation had reacted to his departure. He said: "Same as usual. Some are glad, some are sad, and some are mad." I laughed. Because it is true in own experience. Whenever I have left one congregation to go serve another congregation, the reactions of the congregation I'm leaving usually falls into one of those three categories. Some are sad. Some are glad. And some are mad. However you may feel about my leaving is okay with me.

There is a natural grieving process that congregations, members, and friends of the church go through whenever a pastor leaves. This occurs whether the pastor's tenure was a good or bad experience for the pastor and for the church. Let me tell you as clearly as I can that our time in Batesville has been a good time for my family and for me. I have grown tremendously as a person and as a pastor over these past eight years. Many of you have graciously let me into your lives and let me be your pastor. We have journey together through hospital visits, home visits, baptisms, confirmations, weddings, and funerals. We have laughed together and cried together. My pastorate here has been a good experience for me and for the church.

We have been close and we have grown together. I have baptized babies, officiated funerals, taught confirmation classes, taught new member classes, taught the Xyz class, officiated weddings, and visited you in your homes and in the hospital. After the pastoral relationship between this church and me is dissolved on August 15, I will no longer do such things for this congregation. Our presbytery has ethics guidelines that forbid former pastors from performing pastoral function in congregations they have previously served. These guidelines exist to foster relationships between interim pastors and installed pastors and their congregations. Call on your interim pastor or installed pastor to do your baptisms, weddings, and funerals. After August 15, if you call and ask me to perform any pastoral functions I will say no. I will abide by the presbytery's ethical guidelines for pastors and their former congregations.

What we have experienced as pastor and people has been a precious commodity and I don't give it up lightly. I realize that not every experience between pastor and congregation is a good one. There are times when the pastor and congregation are not a good match. Perhaps they don't jell. They don't see eye to eye. Things fall apart. But not with us. We've been good for one another. And that is what we are celebrating here today. Some may wonder why I would even consider leaving here when things are going so well. We seek stability in our lives. We seek order and simplicity. Change, even positive change, can be stressful. Well, let me answer that question. The reason I am leaving you is because that is the Biblical pattern.

You can see it right there in our text this morning. Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, says, "Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow." The great Apostle Paul didn't stay in any one place for too long. He moved in, organized a cell group of Christians, and then moved on. He repeated the process many, many times. Much of the New Testament are Epistles, letters written by Paul because Paul did not spend his entire ministry in one place. Neither did Jesus. Jesus, during his three year ministry, moved around from town to town, so much so that he once said of himself, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but I've got nowhere to call home." Moving along is in the DNA of Christ's church.

Paul says in our text today, and here I paraphrase him: "The church is not about the pastor. The church is about God. God is the one who makes things grow. Your pastors are basically migrant workers. And you happen to be God's field in which we are working." Wow. What an image. Imagine your life as God's field and your pastor as a migrant worker in the field of your life.

One of the positive things we know about migrant workers is that they work hard. That is true for most pastors. Yes, our schedules are more free. But pastors are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We work on Father's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We work every Sunday except a few each year. Pastors work schedule is a bit like migrant workers. And like migrant workers we pastors frequently move. We've got work to do over there, you see. Tomatoes to pick. Orange groves waiting to be picked. Chicken houses to clean. You name it. There is work to be done. We do the job. Then we move on to work somewhere else. In the power of the spirit. There are exceptions to this rule. There are so still some decades long pastorates. But that doesn't happen much these days. People are more mobile and so are ministers. Let me tell you why I'm leaving here. I'm not leaving because you did something wrong. I'm leaving because we both did something right. We accomplished the mission for which God sent me here. Now God is sending me on to another congregation to work in God's field there. After I leave, God will send you a new servant leader. In the meantime, keep it together. Keep moving forward. God expects you to do that.

From this day forward let's focus on the positive things we accomplished together. This congregation is at a much better place now than when I arrived. You can do even better now. This is not the end for you. This is merely the prelude. Decide today that you will give thanks to God for the time we have had together. And then make up your mind that, with God's help, this congregation will move forward and accomplish great things for God's kingdom. Pastors are spiritual migrant workers laboring in God's field, your lives. Any good that comes from our work together did not come from me. It came from God. As Paul puts it: "It's not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow."

To God be glory. Both now, and forevermore.

Amen.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from
2 Kings 5:1-14 on July 8, 2007 at Batesville Presbyterian Church

Follow the yellow brick road. Follow the yellow brick road. Follow the yellow brick road. So said the Munchins to Dorothy and her companions as they sought to find the Emerald City to see the Wizard of Oz. Follow the yellow brick road. That is, in effect, what this congregation is about to do as you begin your search for new pastoral leadership. The yellow brick road for you will require that you navigate the twists and turns of finding your way toward calling a new pastor within the framework of our Presbyterian call system. Follow the yellow brick road. That is a way of thinking about the journey toward healing and transformation taken by Naaman in our Old Testament story today.

That's right, in our Old Testament story today, Naaman learns to follow the yellow brick road. Naaman journey starts when his world falls apart. He is on top of the world. His career is at its zenith. Everything is going his way. Then one day the bottom falls out. He wakes up one morning and notices an itch that will not go away. Soon his body is covered with a debilitating skin disease called leprosy. If left unchecked, this illness will destroy his health, his career and his standing in the community. And there is no known cure for leprosy. Fortunately for him, one of his servant girls, a young war slave from Israel, tells him about a prophet of God named Elijah who lives in the land of Israel. She claims God may work through Elijah to cure Naaman's leprosy. Naaman is desperate enough to give it a try. Thus begins Naaman's journey down the yellow brick road from Syria to Israel.

Naaman's test along the yellow brick road, his price for personal transformation, is whether he will put aside his pride and follow simple, but seemingly stupid, instructions from the Prophet Elijah, who represents God's will and God's power. Elijah's prescription is for Naaman to wash himself seven times in the Jordan River. Naaman initially balks at this seemingly nonsensical suggestion. He does not see how washing in a river can leprosy and he is right. Washing in a river cannot cure leprosy. It doesn't matter whether you wash in a river one time, seven times, or seventy times seven times, bathing in a river will not cure your leprosy. Thus God tested Naaman. For God also knew washing in a river will not cure leprosy. But God also knows that faithful obedience can transform a person. When Naaman followed God's prescription and washes seven times in the Jordan River, his leprosy is healed and his life is transformed as he comes to have faith in the powerful God of Israel.

Now, from the Bible story about Naaman, I would like us to transition to another story about the yellow brick road. This is the story that is told in the movie called The Wizard of Oz. In the movie, the main character, a young girl named Dorothy, begins her journey toward personal transformation when a cyclone throws her and her dog, Toto, into the land of Oz. Dorothy never expected a cyclone to hit her in her small town in Kansas. Yet, as with Naaman, it is an unexpected tragedy that triggers the events that set Dorothy along a path that will eventually become the yellow brick road and lead to her personal transformation.

Here is how it happens. When a nasty neighbor tries to have her dog put to sleep, Dorothy takes her dog Toto, to run away. A cyclone appears and carries her to the magical land of Oz. Wishing to return, she begins to travel to the Emerald City where a great wizard lives. On her way she meets a Scarecrow who needs a brain, a Tin Man who wants a heart, and a Cowardly Lion who desperately needs courage. Dorothy and her traveling companions are convinced that all their problems will be solved and all their dreams will be answered if they can just speak to the great Wizard of Oz in Emerald City. Some Munchins tell them how to get to the Emerald City. Follow the yellow brick road. Follow the yellow brick road. Follow the yellow brick road. Dorothy and her motley gang follow the yellow brick road to Emerald City. When they finally find the great Wizard of Oz, he turns out to be an impostor. But in the end, their journey succeeds despite the wizard, as they discover within themselves the very gifts they thought only the wizard could give them.

Now, let's make a connection to this congregation. Like Naaman and Dorothy, this congregation started down the yellow brick road this week week with my announcement that I have accepted a call to serve as pastor of St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas. The journey down the yellow brick seems always to begin with a shock that jolts us with a seemingly tragic event. Now this congregation finds itself, like Naaman and Dorothy after their intial shocks, in a strange land, in a place that is somewhere we think we'd rather not be found, in a sort of no-man's land with a pastor who has announced he's leaving and yet is still here for one more week.

The yellow brick road for this congregation is the path that will lead toward finding a new pastor. It is a long journey. It normally takes a few years for a Presbyterian Church to find and call a new pastor. That is why the normal procedure is to hire an Interim Pastor and I recommend you do that first. Then, when you start down the yellow brick toward calling a new pastor, do not assume that God has one and only one special person already chosen by God to serve as your pastor. Do not think the job of your Pastor Nominating Committee will be to go out and find that one special person whom God has already chosen to serve as your next pastor. A healthier way to think about finding a new pastor is to realize that that there are many pastors who may be a good match for this congregation. Your task is not to find a perfect preacher. If that is your goal then you will fail. For there are no perfect preachers. As you may have discovered about me after our eight years together, I am not a perfect pastor. In fact, your PNC, the one that called me to come here eight years ago, seemed reluctant to call me, as I recall. Perhaps they did not think I was the one person whom God had ordained to serve Batesville Presbyterian Church. But thanks be to God, they did finally extend me a call to serve as your pastor. And while I may not have been their first choice, or a perfect choice, I think I have been a good match for this congregation.

The congregation has grown over these past eight years. We have increased in membership and in spirit. When I came here, the congregation seemed to be at a low point. There were some young adults and some children but nowhere near the number there are today. My own children were young. Jennifer was 2 1/2 years old. Jackson was 6 months old. They have had a terrific early childhood here. We love this place. I appreciate your generous support of me and my family financially and emotionally and in so many ways. I appreciate the teachers who have taught my children in church and in school. The staff people I have worked with have been tremendously helpful and excellent leaders. I think this congregation has been a good match for me. Your task is to find a good match.

Now back to the yellow brick metaphor. Like Naaman, your test as a congregation, will be whether you will follow the guidelines for finding a new minister within our PC(USA) call system. Speak to someone who has served on a Pastor Nominating Committee, and they likely will tell you about all the hoops you have to jump through. The mission study. Writing the church's information form. Reviewing pastor information forms. Interviewing prospective pastors. Hoping the person you want to come serve as your pastor also wants to come be your pastor. It is a long, time intensive, process to call a pastor through our system. And there are no short cuts. There is no easy way out. When the Presbytery Executive says you have to go wash yourself in the Jordan River seven times you will simply have to follow his directions. You will have to put aside your pride and follow simple instructions in order to find a new pastor. The good news is that although it is a cumbersome process, our call process does work. If you stick with the program and follow the rules and guidelines, you more than likely will find a good match between your church and a new pastor. In the end, if you find a good match then you will agree that it was worth the effort. I believe this congregation will find a good match in your next pastor. This church is extraordinarily young and blessed with excellent lay leadership in every age group. Due to your size and your gifts, you will be attractive to prospective pastors.

So, as did Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion, you will make your way down the yellow brick road and it will eventually lead you to find new pastoral leadership. But you have more to look forward to than merely calling a new pastor. There is a possibility for real transformation for this congregation through following the yellow brick road. Here is the good news I have to share with you today. When you finally get to the point of calling a new pastor, you may, as did Dorothy and her companions, discover that it doesn't matter nearly so much what kind of wizard of a pastor you find. The key to your future will not be determined by the nature of your new pastor. The key to your future comes from the hidden strength, gifts and talents you discover within yourself along the yellow brick road. The fact is that this church already has everything it needs to be successful. You already, right now, possess, inside yourselves, everything you need to succeed. You will find and call another pastor. You will find a good match. But the real key to your success will be the discoveries you make about yourself along the yellow brick road.

Along the way, I hope you will make the greatest discovery of all. I hope, like the Tin Man, the Lion, the Scarecrow, and Dorothy, that you also will discover at the end of your journey that all the time you already had the essence of what you were looking for. The courage of the lion. The brains of the tin man. The heart of the scarecrow. It is hidden away inside yourselves. The essence of what you are looking for in a new pastor is Christ, who is the true head of the church. And Christ already dwells in you and among. And you already know this. Yet you will come to know the Christ within yourselves in a deeper, more intimate and more authentic manner as you follow the yellow brick road in your search for a new pastor. My prayer for you on your journey is that you will discover the gift of God that lays hidden within you. So do what the Munchins tell you to do. Follow the yellow brick road. Follow the yellow brick road. Follow the yellow brick road.

Spiritual Freedom

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon
from Luke 8:26-39
on June 24, 2007
at Batesville Presbyterian Church

Our shadow selves lurk around and leave a corrosion effect on our inner lives. Sometimes our shadow selves break through to the surface and manifest in unhealthy behaviors and activities. Let us take as an example a 26 year old Grammy Award winning pop singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and author. She was born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised Southern Baptist. She was an accomplished gymnast, attending gymnastics classes until age nine and competing in state-level competitions. She performed in local dance revues and her local Baptist church choirs, and was auditioning for the Disney Channel's The New Mickey Mouse Club by the time she was eight. Her career skyrocketed during her teenage years and she has now sold over 76 million albums worldwide according to TIME magazine. The RIAA ranks her as the eighth best-selling female artist in American music history, having sold 31 million albums in the United States alone. Recently, she has been in the press for less flattering reasons. In January, she lost an aunt with whom she was very close, after a long battle with breast cancer. That shock sent her into a nosedive. Since January she has checked in and out of a drug treatment center, shaved her hair with clippers in a possible show of solidarity with her aunt, and now is back in treatment.

This week her lawyers have demanded a Florida radio station remove "offensive" billboards which feature her with a shaven head. The billboards, meant to advertise a Florida radio station, included the slogans: "total nut jobs", "shock therapy" and "certifiable", which ran across a picture of a bald Brittney Spears. Due to our jealousy at her success, we may join the throngs who now look down on her. But the truth is, if we look deep enough inside ourselves, we all need treatment. Thomas Keating refers to centering prayer as divine therapy. We all need divine therapy to rescue us from the shadowy mob that inhabits our inner lives. We all need spiritual freedom. Jesus dishes out spiritual freedom.

One day Jesus and his disciples sail to the country of the Gerasenes, directly opposite Galilee. Apparently they have not landed right at the town, since the first person they meet is a man with a disordered mind who lives among the tombs. Tombs where Jesus lived, in Palestine, were often caves, where an outcast could find shelter. This distraught man, who lived in the cemetery caves, hadn't worn clothes for a long time. When he saw Jesus he screamed, fell before him, and bellowed, "What business do you have with me? You're Jesus, Son of the High God, but don't give me a hard time!" (The man said this because Jesus had started to order the unclean spirit out of him.) Time after time evil energies threw the man into convulsions. He had been placed under constant guard and tied with chains and shackles, but crazed and driven wild by the cryptic energies, he would shatter the bonds.

This story raises the question of how we understand malicious energies. In our Book of Confessions, part of our Presbyterian constitution, we find a belief in rebellious angels. The Second Helvetic Confession, written in 1563, says "Consequently we teach that some angels persisted in obedience and were appointed for faithful service to God and men, but others fell of their own free will and were cast into destruction, becoming enemies of all good and of the faithful ..."¹ The Larger Catechism, written about 100 years later (in 1647), warns against "all compacts and consulting with the devil."² Of course these confessions were written before the scientific age that we live in. Later Presbyterian creeds and confessions do not mention such specters. We prefer to focus on the love of God expressed in Jesus Christ. But our Bibles can not be tamed, nor can they be silenced, and our Bible story today finds Jesus speaking to the demons who are infesting a man.

Jesus asks a very important question: "What is your name?" The man can only answer, "Legion," and Luke explains that many demons had entered him. "Legion" is an interesting name. The Roman army occupied the Jewish state of Israel during Jesus' lifetime. A Roman legion consisted of 6000 foot soldiers. The demon-possessed man says his name is "Legion." Perhaps that means he is possessed with 6000 demons. Eugene Peterson, in The Message, suggests the man's name is Mob. "Mob. My name is Mob," he said, because many demons afflicted him. And they begged Jesus desperately not to order them to the bottomless pit. (Luke 8:30-31, The Message) Our false selves fear transformation. Our shadow selves shirk from recognition, remaining hidden from us if possible, so they may continue to drag us down and hold us back from a fuller life of freedom in Christ.

The first step toward spiritual freedom is to name whatever has us tied with chains and shackles. We may name it addiction. We may name it gluttony. We may name it greed, jealousy or anger. We may name it bitterness. We may not even know what to name it. Even so, we can identify something in ourselves that is not holy, something that is fragmented and in need of healing. Then Jesus can provide us with spiritual freedom even as he did with the tormented man in our Bible story today.

A large herd of pigs was browsing and rooting on a nearby hill. The demons begged Jesus to order them into the pigs. He gave the order. It was even worse for the pigs than for the man. Crazed, they stampeded over a cliff into the lake and drowned. (Luke 8:32-33, The Message)

Those tending the pigs, scared to death, bolted and told their story in town and country. People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had been sent, sitting there at Jesus' feet, wearing decent clothes and making sense. (Luke 8:34-36, The Message) Jesus' response to the man is not only to make him whole again. He finds the man some clothes as well. A small, simple, necessary gesture that there is a human being worthy of respect. Jesus even commissions the man as an evangelist—a gentile evangelist: "Go and tell." It was a holy moment, and for a short time they were more reverent than curious. Then those who had seen it happen told how the demoniac had been saved.

Later, a great many people from the Gerasene countryside got together and asked Jesus to leave. He had brought too much change, too fast, and they were scared.

So Jesus got back in the boat and set off. The man whom he had delivered from the demons asked to go with him, but he sent him back, saying, "Go home and tell everything God did in you." So he went back and preached all over town everything Jesus had done in him. (Luke 8:37-39, The Message)

Jesus has power, power even to defeat our ultimate enemies. He boldly confronts those forces which bind us and commands them to come out form us, to leave us, to unbind us, and let us be free. Jesus is more powerful than any addiction, any shadow self, any false self. Jesus would not let demons control the Gerasene demoniac, and he will not let negative forces "get" us. When we name the negative energies that hold us back, and ask Jesus to heal us, we are healed. Jesus grants spiritual freedom from the negative energies that would bind us. Let us claim God's free gift through Christ and begin living a fuller and richer life today.

Spiritual freedom means seeing clearly whose we are and the nature of the world in which we live. We belong to God, whether we live or die, according to Paul. We are children of God redeemed from sin and death. Jesus freed the Gerasene demoniac from the mob of demons that bound him. We have our own issues that web us up and tie us down. Jesus furnishes spiritual freedom when we are willing to confront our shadow selves.

1The Book of Confessions, 5.033

2The Book of Confessions, 7.215