New Life!

Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Acts 2:1-8 on May 11, 2008 (Pentecost & Mother's Day)

 
     The state of Texas is large enough to hold every human being on the planet with 1000 feet per person. This is a diverse state and Houston is the most diverse city. For instance, Meyerland has a large Jewish population. None of us will live forever. All of us are offered new life in Christ. It is appropriate to celebrate Pentecost on Mother's Day. For on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit birthed the church. And if we don't pay attention the Holy Spirit may give us new life on this Pentecost Sunday.

    There are many folks, particularly those from outside our state, who have the opinion that Texas is one flat prairie. Perhaps this story will convince them that we have some pretty steep hills also. The story appears in Bill Cannon's book, Treasury of Texas Humor.

    It is said that one beautiful little Texas town, which is the county seat of a Hill Country county, sits at the foot of one of the state's longest hills on an interstate highway. The hill has such a steep grade that one staying in nearby motels can hear the big eighteen-wheelers grind their gears trying to come into town at a safe speed! At the top of this hill, and a few hundred feet off the interstate, in a small stand of trees is the Mt. Pisgah Missionary Baptists Church. One if its longtime members, Sister Ludi Mae Simpson, had died and her funeral was planned at the church with burial in the small town.

    After the last three verses of "Rock of Ages" were sung, Sister Simpson's coffin was loaded in the back of a hearse to be driven to the cemetery. The hearse had to cross a small bar ditch between the churchyard and the highway. The sudden jolt caused by crossing the ditch resulted in the rear doors of the hearse coming unlocked.

    After pulling out on the interstate, the vehicle lurched into motion. The movement sent the coffin bearing Mrs. Simpson out of the hearse where it landed flat on the pavement and squarely on the white line in the middle of the interstate, as if director there by the Almighty, Himself! The steep slope of the hill was such that the coffin started sliding down the interstate in the direction of the county seat about half a mile below. As the coffin continued downhill it began to pick up speed, slowly at first and then faster and faster until it reached a speed of 75 to 80 miles per hour.

    At this speed it didn't take long for Mrs. Ludi Mae to reach the city limits! The pine coffin was smoking slightly by the time it ran through the town's only signal light, which hung from poles at the intersection by the town square. fortunately for the speeding corpse, the light was green when she flashed through at a speed quite a bit above the speed limit! the coffin whizzed by the Confederate statue on the courthouse lawn. Fortunately, by this time the coffin had lost most of its speed. It crossed the street around the square doing only about 30 mph, when it jumped the curb and hit the double doors or Rexal Drugs. It crashed through the doors, flew past the front register, past the candy display and flew past the cosmetic counter.

    It came to an abrupt stop when it hit the prescription counter. The sudden stop caused the coffin lid to fly off and Ludi Mae, who was know to all, to sit straight up in the now immobile coffin. Wilburn Moody, who had been the druggist at the store for nearly twenty years, said the same thing he had said daily since he started working there, "May I help you?"

    To this Mrs. Simpson gave a perfectly legitimate reply, "Can you please give me something to stop this coffin?"


    The coffin symbolizes the reality of death. We cannot stop that coffin. That is the challenge of being human. Although we cannot stop the reality of our own death, perhaps we can use it to our advantage. Consider the conquering generals of ancient Rome. When they would return home victorious, gigantic parades were staged to honor them. Displaying the treasures that they had won, and the defeated people that they had turned into slaves, the conquerors paraded, riding in their war chariots. Riding with them was always a slave whose job was to whisper in their ear: "All fame and glory is but transitory. All fame and glory is but transitory. All fame and glory is but transitory." Some people who come to terms with their imminent death display an otherworldly peace in their countenance. They shine. They seem to shimmer with new life. Confronting the reality of our own death offers the possibility of living a fuller life on this earth.


    Let's not forget today is Mother's Day.

     Bill Cosby once asked a girl of six named Laurie: "What does your mother do?"
    "She's in charge of everything." Laurie said.
    "And what does your father do?"
    "I can't remember."
    "Isn't he in charge of anything?"
    "I'll have to ask  my mother."
    "Why not ask him?"
    "Oh, he wouldn't know."    (Kids Say the Darndest Things, 70) Some fathers today are perhaps more involved in their children's lives than ever before in human history and get less credit for what they contribute than ever before in human history. Yet in eyes of some children, even such committed fathers pale in comparison to their mothers.

    Rabbi Lawrence Kushner in Jewish Spirituality for Christians, challenges us to remember where we came from, saying:

In the family album, or in one of those little frames that stands upright on an end table in your mother's apartment, is a photograph of you when you were a child. You have come a long way since those days, in many beautiful ways and in a few disappointing ways. If you were given a time machine, is there anything you would like to tell the child in the photo who once was you? Just looking at who you were seems to awaken the possibility that you could go back to that time and, if not relive your life, at least begin again. Teshuva is the Jewish concept of "return" -- as in going back to who you meant to be, returning home, returning to your Source. Teshuva is the possibility that even the most degenerate sinner can be reunited with God. Indeed, according to tradition, someone who has strayed and made teshuva is more beloved by God than someone who has never sinned. Jewish spirituality teaches that the world endures because of this ever-present yearning and gesture of returning. (Kushner, 88-90)


    We are all capable of experiencing and giving away new life. Even after we think we've blown our chance. When the chips were down, Peter denied he knew Jesus. Peter must have replayed that scene over and over in his mind a thousand times. On Pentecost, God's Spirit gave Peter new life, a second chance. He preached the gospel and 3000 people were converted. Peter was back with a passion. Peter reminds us that new life is possible for each one of us. Even after we commit what we may consider to be an unforgivable sin.

     Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach visited a prison in upstate New York. He had been invited by the Jewish chaplain, who asked that he perform a Hanukkah concert for the Jewish inmates there. It was a schlep, three hours each way. "No problem!" said Shlomo cheerfully.

    The concert was a huge success, and Shlomo made the event into a real Hanukkah celebration, but that was only the beginning. When the party over, Shlomo turned to the chaplain and said, "Please ... I would like to visit with the rest of the inmates here. Could you get permission?"

    Shlomo went into every cell, where he hugged, kissed, and talked with each inmate. Then he went into the dining room, into the recreation room, into the kitchen, into every possible nook and cranny of the prison where he was permitted to go, not satisfied until he had ferreted out every prisoner, making certain that no one had been overlooked. Finally, he was ready to leave, and as he walking down the hall a big, burly inmate with a scarred, pitted face started running after him. "Rabbi, Rabbi," he shouted. "Please wait." We stopped immediately, and Shlomo turned to beam at him. "Yes, my holy friend?" he inquired sweetly. The man began to shift in embarrassment, almost as if he regretted his impulsive act, and then, finally gathering courage, blurted out,
"I just loved that hug you have me before! Would you mind giving me another one?" Shlomo gave him the most radiant smile in the world, and then tenderly enfolded him in his arms. Thy stood clasped together for a long time.

    Finally, the inmate broke away and heaved the deepest sign in the world. "Oh Rabbi," he said. "No one, no one, ever hugged me like that before." And then tears began to stream down his face.

    "You know, Rabbi," he sobbed in remorse, "if only someone would have hugged me like that ten years ago, I surely wouldn't be here in this prison today." (Yitta Halberstam Mandelbaum, in Jewish Soup for the Soul, 38-39)


   Thank God that tough prisoner did not die having never experienced a loving embrace. Mother Teresa said: "We can do not great things; only small things with great love." Just this is teshuva, is returning to our Source. God's Spirit gives us new life for one purpose: To share it. Let' share the Pentecost spirit. Let's hug someone like Rabbi Shlomo. Let's love our neighbors like our mothers love us. Let's acknowledge we will take a ride in a coffin one day and let that vision propel us to live a new life. Let's preach the gospel like Saint Peter. Let's be the church that was born on the Day of Pentecost.

Going Through Trouble

Jon Burnham preached this sermon from 2 Corinthians 4:8-9
at Bayou Manor Assisted Living on May 4, 2007

A Marine Colonel on his way home from work at the Pentagon comes to a dead halt in traffic and thinks to himself, "Wow, this traffic seems worse than usual, nothing is moving."

He notices a police officer walking back and forth between the lines of cars, so he rolls down his window and asks, "Excuse me, Officer, what seems to be the hold up?"

The officer replies, "The President is just so depressed that Hillary has moved to New York, and may leave him altogether that he just stopped his motorcade in the middle of the Beltway, and he's threatening to douse himself in gasoline and set himself on fire. He says his family absolutely hates him and he doesn't have the $33.5 million he owes his lawyers for that whole Monica and Paula thing. So I'm walking around taking up a collection for him."

"Oh really? How much have you collected so far?

"So far about three hundred gallons, but I've got a lot of folks still siphoning."

Bill Clinton is one man who knows something about going through trouble. One of the things he learned is that there are people watching you. We get that same idea in Hebrews 12:1-2 except instead of watching us to catch us doing something wrong these people are watching us to cheer us on in our lives. We read ... "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us ..."  That scripture passage reminds us that we are not alone. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. They are cheering for us. They want us to succeed in our earthly mission. To use a sports metaphor, we have the home field advantage because God came down to this planet. God became human. God has claimed planet earth through creation and redemption. Wherever we go we are never the visiting team. We are always the home team. We always have home field advantage, even here at Bayou Manor. Momentum is on our side.

We also gain momentum from the cloud of witnesses that cheer us on as we run the race of life. This cloud of witnesses is found in our families, our congregations, our neighborhoods and the society at large. We are all greatly indebted to the persons who raised us, guided us, taught us and protected us. We repay those debts by doing whatever we can to better society by passing on some of their love to others, by reaching out and listening to the cries of those who have fallen through the cracks of life. We reach out to others because somewhere along the way someone reached out to us in God's name.

Professor Paul Brown is one person who reached out to me. Paul served the church as professor of preaching and worship at Memphis Theological Seminary. I got to know him when he taught one of the seminars in my Doctor of Ministry program. Paul then became my advisor for the final paper I had to write for that degree. He was a great editor and mentor and we became close friends. I had been preaching for several years by that time but I still was not comfortable writing a sermon. In fact, I did not know how to write a sermon. Paul graciously consented to teach me. Over the course of a couple of years, each week I would email my sermon in progress to Paul and he would comment on it and help me edit it. He always challenged me to focus in on one idea and stick with that theme for the entire sermon.

After a few years, I remember one week when I thought I finally had gotten the hang of sermon writing and I no longer needed to send my sermons to Paul for his review. I sent it to him anyway out of habit. Strangely, he did not immediately respond to my email as he usually did. In fact, he did not respond for several days. I thought he must be having computer problems and that is why he hadn't responded to my email. That had happened before. Finally, after two weeks of no response, I called his house and talked to his wife. She said, "Jon, I'm sorry. Paul died last week. He was in a car wreck on his way to preach in Arkansas. He was at a stop sign and there was an 18 wheeler approaching and he thought he could beat it across the road but it ran right into him. He struggled in the hospital for several days but he never regained consciousness. Last Monday he died in the hospital." In the midst of my shock, I told Paul's wife how he had been a mentor to me and how we had been emailing one another every day and how he helped me learn how to preach. She said she had heard similar stories from several people since he had died.

I attended Paul's memorable funeral service. The funeral preacher knew him well and did him justice. The church was full of people whose lives Paul had touched over his years as a seminary professor, preacher and community activist. The casket was in front, closed, with a beautiful white pall over it. And I knew Paul, antsy as ever, was skipping up in heaven. I felt in that moment as if Paul had passed a part of himself on to me. It was akin to the feeling I got when I ran in the 400 meter yard dash in high school. I was on the second relay of that race. The first sprinter would carry the baton half-way around the track. I timed my start to when he reached a certain place on the track. When I was running at full sprint the first relay runner would hand the baton to me. I carried the baton half way around the track and then passed it on to the next relay runner. Paul Brown is now among my cloud of witnesses. He is sitting up there in heavens bleachers cheering me on. You see, when he died, Paul Brown passed the preaching baton to me.

You have your own stories you could share. Stories about people who have made a difference in your life. Stories about people who passed the baton of faith to you. Their early race is done and now they cheer you on from the heavenly bleachers.

Former presidential hopeful John Edwards drifted away from his faith when he left home to attend college. His faith became a matter of routine. He attended church, but had no personal , vibrant, resonant faith. Then, tragically, his 16 year old son died. Afterward, his faith in God "came roaring back" and hasn't left him since.

I know some of you have similar stories. Stories of pain and loss. Sometimes struggle makes us aware of just how much we depend on God: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." (Ps. 46:1)

Whatever trouble we're going through, God is always with us. Paul himself was "perplexed" as to why he was suffering, but he knew that he could have faith (trust) in God. Since Jesus suffered, as followers of Jesus, we too will sometimes suffer, for "no servant is greater than his master" (John 13:16). How great a promise God gives us that he will never abandon us!

A couple had two little boys, ages 8 and 10, who were excessively mischievous. They were always getting into trouble and their parents knew that, if any mischief occurred in their town, their sons were probably involved.

They boys' mother heard that a clergyman in town had been successful in disciplining children, so she asked if he would speak with her boys. The clergyman agreed, but asked to see them individually. So the mother sent her 8-year-old first, in the morning, with the older boy to see the clergyman in the afternoon.

The clergyman, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the younger boy down and asked him sternly, "Where is God?".

They boy's mouth dropped open, but he made no response, sitting there with his mouth hanging open, wide-eyed. So the clergyman repeated the question in an even sterner tone, "Where is God!!?" Again the boy made no attempt to answer. So the clergyman raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy's face and bellowed, "WHERE IS GOD!?"

The boy screamed and bolted from the room, ran directly home and dove into his closet, slamming the door behind him. When his older brother found him in the closet, he asked, "What happened?"

The younger brother, gasping for breath, replied, "We are in BIG trouble this time, dude. God is missing - and they think WE did it!"

Sometimes our imaginations run wild and we get stuck in a negative mode of thinking. What is troubling you today? Our natural instinct is to obsess over the "why?" question. Instead, why not try to focus on the "What?" question: "What shall I do next?" Then leave the rest to God, who is our refuge, gives us strength in times of trouble, and gave His life so we will live.

Several people have told me their favorite Bible verse is from Philippians 4:13: "I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me."

As the prophet Isaiah says in our text today: "Thus says the LORD, he who created you ..., he who formed you ...: 'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.'" We are here today because God has redeemed us and called us by name.

God's message to each of us today is this: "Do not fear." The Lord says: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you." We are not in this alone. As Paul says, "Whether we live or whether we die; we belong to the Lord."

God's final word to each of us when we are going through trouble is this: "Do not fear." This is the message God gave to the exiles from Israel. Do not be afraid! That is the message the angel gave to Mary when he came to tell her she had been chosen to bear the Messiah. Do not fear! That is the message the angels gave the shepherds when they appeared to them proclaiming the birth of Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem. Do not be afraid. So said the angel in the empty tomb to Mary and the women when they came looking for Jesus' body after his crucifixion. Do not be afraid. That is God's message to each of us today. Do not fear!

            And we respond with the Psalmist, who says so beautifully in Psalm 23:

 

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

 

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

 

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. (vs 4-6)

Let's pray ... Lord, help me today to trust You and leave the "why" with You and move on to the "what?". Please help me to see what You would have me do next. Thank you. I trust You to guide me. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Crack the Code

Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Ephesians 1:15-23

at St. John's Presbyterian Church on May 4, 2008.

Before performing a baptism, the pastor approached the young father and said solemnly, "Baptism is a serious step. Are you prepared for it?"

"I think so," the man replied. "My wife has made appetizers and we have a caterer coming to provide plenty of cookies and cakes for all of our guests."

"I don't mean that," the pastor responded. "I mean, are you prepared spiritually?"

"Oh, sure," came the reply. "I've got a keg of beer and a case of whiskey!"

As the sheriff said in the movie, "What we got "he-ah" is a "fail-ya" to communicate." The pastor is speaking on one level and the young father is hearing on another level. If only we could crack the code, transformation would be possible. For the "heavenlies" as described in our text today is not so much a location as a symbol of the transformational power of God through Christ. Never doubt the power of God to transform a person or a congregation.

Christopher Flett wrote a book called What Men Don't Tell Women about Business: Opening Up the Heavily Guarded Alpha Male Playbook. There he describes the two ways to make partner at a law firm. One may make partner by generating a ton of money for the firm thereby making one's departure painful for the bottom line of the firm. Or one may make partner by being a strong ambassador or the company so that one's leaving would have a negative impact on the company. If you want to make partner, make yourself indispincible at St. John's, generate new members or significant income for the church.

In his book, Transforming Church, Kevin G. Ford claims we need to crack the code of St. John's. Here are some clues. This church does not have a nice little women's parlor with antique furniture. We've got serviceable rooms with simple chairs and tables. There is no fancy Session Room here. The Session simply uses a Church School classroom with no frills. In fact, this is a no frills congregation. We are more interested in giving away than holding back. We are more interested in helping others than helping ourselves. We have a reputation among those who know us as an unselfish congregation. Unselfish giving is part of the code of St. John's Presbyterian Church.

On January 7, 2002, Walt Kallestad suffered a nearly catastrophhic heart attack. His treatement set a record at a Phoenix hospital: the first six-bypass surgery. His doctors were stunned he survived. As Walt came back to consciouness from a morphine dream, he understood what was to become a defining metaphor of his new journey: His heart needed to be miraculously healed. (Ford, 36) Now that is transformation. Or, as the author of Ephesians put it: " ... With the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which God has called you." The challenge we face in the church today is a challenge of the heart, not the head. We do not need more facts. We need more compassion. We do not need more studies. We need more commitment. We do not need more statistics. We need more tears. Tears of disappointment. Tears of joy. We need more tears. We need more passion. With renewed passion we will rediscover the hope to which God has called this congregation.

Some churches have cracked their own code and have experienced transformation. What is the code of St. John's? Who are the heroes of this church? One hero of this church is the founding pastor, Rev. McPhail. He got out in the community and recruited members to join this church in the early days. So part of our hero's code of conduct involves bringing people into the church. Be an ambassador for St. John's. Invite people to worship. Tell them what this church has done for you.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal and a bottle of wine they lay down for the night, and went to sleep.

Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend awake. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

Watson replied, "I see millions and millions of stars."

"What does that tell you?" Holmes questioned.

Watson pondered for a minute.

"Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.

Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo.

Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three.

Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant.

Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.

What does it tell you?"

Holmes was silent for a minute, then spoke.

"Watson, you idiot. Someone has stolen our tent!"

That is the problem in the church. Someone has stolen the tent of our joy. To find our tent, to rediscover our joy, we need to dream again, to have a vision for the church. Flett's advice to women in business is good advice for the church:

A. Have a main plan.

B. Have a Plan B!

That is what your Session is working on.

The Session's Ministry Teams are dreaming up a "Vision Budget for 2009." The vision budget may be introduced to the church in the early Fall. The Session will challenges the congregation to support the vision budget. That is the main plan. If the congregation doesn't respond to the Vision Budget then we go to Plan B. Plan B is to scale back our vision to what we can afford to do. The good news here is that we are beginning to dream again! We may have misplaced our joy but we have not lost our hope!

Today we have remembered Rev. McPhail as a symbol of our need to invite others to worship here. We have heard about some dreams that are being birthed by the Session. We have faith for the present moment. We have hope for the future. Going forward, we will find the joy! As the Proverb wisely proclaims: "Without a vision the people perish." This is fun stuff. Let's acknowledge our excitement instead of working against it. Today is the day to ascend into the heavenlies. Today is the day to participate in God's transformation of this congregation. We will cooperate with God in the transformation of this congregation. That is our pledge to God and to one another on this Ascension Sunday. We have begun to crack the code of St. John's Presbyterian Church. We will continue until the job is done.

Conversion 101

Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Acts 17:22-31
at St. John's Presbyterian Church on April 27, 2008

    The Apostle Paul was willing to do whatever it took, within reason, to convert Athenians to Christ. Like Paul, I want to be flexible in my approach today, so I will draw on the metaphor of baseball in this sermon. In particular, I will draw upon Don McKim's article in The Presbyterian Outlook called "The Spiritual Lessons of Baseball." The Apostle Paul teaches "Conversion 101" to extremely religious Athenians. Some of these same truths may be learned by us on a baseball field.

    Baseball is a game of decisions. From the owner to the manager to the team on the field, decisions are made every moment. Victories are often won by the accumulation of small advantages -- good decisions made again and again . As New York Yankee Yogi Berra put it, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it.' He reminds us of he need to decide. We cannot escape making decisions about how we will play the game or live our lives. Paul challenges the Athenians to make a decision for Christ. Christianity in a nutshell is making a decision for Christ. We decide to follow Christ each moment of every day. Decisions must be made.

    Let's imagine the Apostle Paul was up to bat against the Athenians. He had to decide on a strategy for his at bat. Paul begins with the recognition that all people order their lives according to some ultimate loyalty. That was true then and it is true today. Following Paul's pattern, the initial moment in conversion is a person's recognition that they order their lives according to some ultimate loyalty.

    The next step is an admission that God is knowable. The ultimate Biblical argument about God is that God is transcendent yet personal. God is up there and God is down here. God is as light years away from us and God is closer to us that the blood that runs through our veins.

    Paul concludes with a call to repent built on the meaning of Christ's resurrection. This belief is what singles Christians out from people of other religions. Most in Athens are unable to do this, and secular intellectuals today face a similar challenge when they encounter the gospel. They follow some form of ism: Liberalism, Conservatism, Feminism, Consumerism, Scientism , or some other kind of ism. They get so caught up in whatever movement catches their fancy that they lose sight of God. And sometimes we in the church get so caught up in on some "ism" that we lose sight of our call to make disciples and meet human needs.

    There are two channels broadcasting at all times. One channel broadcasts negative thoughts and one channel broadcasts positive thoughts. Whichever of these channels we are tuned into will have a big influence on our attitude toward life. One of the great college coaches of all time, Skip Bertman at LSU, tells a story about one game they were playing on an incredibly hot day. It was so humid that it was hard to take your hat off your head, it felt stuck there. The players were not doing well and were complaining about the heat and humidity. Finally, the coach had enough and called the team together and said, "I'm tired of you making excuses about the weather. The other team has to play in the same weather as we do and I don't hear them complaining about it. The next person I hear complain about the weather I'm going to fine you $1000. That's it!" At the end of the next inning, the pitcher, who had a bad inning, came sulking into the dugout and yelled, "This heat is crazy! It's so hot I can't even think!" Suddenly his eyes met the eyes of the coach and he realized what he had said and quickly added, "And that's just the way I like it!" Coach Bertman knew if he could get his players thinking positive thoughts then positive things would happen on the field. But if they kept thinking negative thoughts then negative things would keep happening on the field. The same principle holds for us in the field of our lives. When we think positive thoughts positive things happen to us and when we think negative thoughts negative things happen to us.

    Concentrate on the basics. That is the message Paul conveyed to the Athenians. The best baseball teams and players over the long haul are those who concentrate on and master the basics of he game -- hitting, fielding, base running. This focus on the key ingredients of play can eventually pay off. In the early 1960s when Yogi Berra was manager of the New York Mets , after a particularly dismal game, Yogi closed the clubhouse to reporters and said to his team: "You guys played lousy today. You were terrible. We're going to go back to basics: This is a ball. This is a bat!" Then from the corner up piped Jesse Gonder , a reserve catcher, who called out: "Slow down, Yogi; you're going to fast." Sometimes in life we go too fast and forget the basics, the things that make life count and worth living. We skip over love, forget to care, or take for granted our friends, family, or the needs of others in society. Religious faith can help us focus on these basics.

    A man of faith had recently recommitted himself to God. This man had struggled all his life to get ahead and finally it had paid off. He had a beautiful family, a soaring career, an expensive car, and a sprawling house in California where he lived. He had recently reconnected to his faith and was looking forward to slowing down and enjoying being at home one evening. He and his wife were going to watch his favorite show, the Grammy Awards. All his life the Grammy Awards had been his favorite show of the year. He dreamed about the day he would write the story for the film of the year. So he and his wife ordered out pizza and sat back to enjoy the Grammies on their big screen TV. Then his little boy stomped into the room and wondered if anyone would throw the baseball with him outside. The man had mercy on his son, and being in the religious frame of mind, thought he would give his son some attention even though it meant missing some of the Grammy Awards show. They went outside and threw the ball some. The man asked his son if they were finished now and his son said, "No, I want you to play with me until bedtime." The man looked at his son, recalled the Grammy Awards he was missing, and something clicked inside him and he said, "OK. Let's play." The man played baseball with his son that night like there was no tomorrow. He really got into it. Suddenly the boy started crying. Tears were streaming down his face. The man asked his son what was wrong and the son said he was crying because he was so happy that his daddy was playing with him. And then it struck the man, all these years, he had spent so many hours at work, had been so consumed by his career and getting ahead financially. He had always told himself that he was doing this for his family. But now he realized that all these years he had been working for himself. His family didn't care if they lived in a great big house or drove a fancy new car. All they wanted was a father who would play with them. And at that moment this man repented and changed the direction in which he was looking for happiness. Baseball reminds us of the need for basics and so does Paul, who has just spoken God's word of conversion to us, stolen home, and scored a run for Christ's kingdom.  

    Conversion 101 is a course in possibilities. Paul faced a tough home town crowd in Athens and he started out behind in the game. Yet, he did not give up. Anyone who believes the story of Christ's resurrection knows that comebacks are possible. As long as there is an at-bat, a chance in the field, another inning, or another game -- comebacks are possible. The errors may stand on the record, or the string of losses, but redemption can happen. The player or team in a rut may put together a hitting streak or a winning street that can turn a season or a team around. In 1914, the Boston Braves were in last place on July 19. but remarkably, they won 60 of their last 76 games and ended up winning the pennant by 10 1/2 games over the New York Giants. The comeback was fantastic! In life too, "comebacks are possible." Religious faiths speak of 'redemption' or "salvation" in which life can become brand new. No matter how "far down" we are, we can be forgiven, restored. The last can "become first." Baseball reminds us of these possibilities and so does the Apostle Paul in his sermon to the Athenians on Conversion 101.

Faith Seeking Understanding

Faith Seeking Understanding

Jon Burnham preached this sermon from John 14:1-14

on April 20, 2008 at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston

    On Teacher Appreciation Sunday we celebrate faith seeking understanding. Our teachers give us the courage to ask Jesus questions even as Thomas and Philip question him on our text today. They want to know the way to the place where Jesus is going and so do we. We want to know the way to those mansions Jesus has prepared for us in heaven. It is not easy to find our way today. Our postmodern world presents us with many ways. What was heralded as the way to heaven in our younger days may no longer be under consideration in this time of exponential change. He we are, worshiping God in a Christian church on Sunday morning and studying Eastern religions on Sunday nights. Ours faith seeks understanding.

    My own spiritual journey has never strayed from the Christian path. Even so, it was Autobiography of a Yogi by a Hindu teacher, Paramanhansa Yogananda, that led me to one of the greatest spiritual practices I ever found. In the pages of that book I discovered God leading me toward a practice of meditation. Yogananda practiced meditation from an early age and led a remarkable life as a Hindu teacher who eventually made the journey from India to America. His journey was just the opposite of many young people in the 1960s and 70s who were making a journey from America to India. George Harrison of Beatle's fame picked up a sitar and served as the pied piper that led young people into an interfaith dialogue the Eastern religions. We Americans are still making that journey today.

    My personal search for a meditation practice led to attend a Buddhist study group with a friend. There I was directed to explore a Christian form of meditation called centering prayer. I attended a workshop and started the practice of centering prayer. Thomas Keating started what became known as centering prayer as a response to his own interfaith dialog. Teenagers would stop by his monastery seeking to learn a Christian form of meditation and Keating, who was in charge of the monastery, had no practice to offer them. So Keating entered into an interfaith dialog with a near by Buddhist monastery and learned about their practice of meditation. He took what he learned there and what he knew from the medieval spiritual masters of the Christian religion, St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. He studied the Desert Fathers of the Christian tradition and reclaimed the practice of centering prayer. Centering prayer arose from an interfaith dialog between Christianity and Buddism.

    We are not the first people to seek understanding. The Hindus have been seeking understanding not for centuries but for millenniums. Back in the Middle Ages, when Western Christians still believed the earth was just thousands of years old, Indian astronomers declared life began precisely 1 billion, 955 million, 818 thousand and 501 years ago. The Hindu holy book, the Bhagavad Ghita is thousands of years old. Henry David Thoreau said, "One sentence of the Bhagavad Ghita is worth the state of Massachusetts many times over." America is a melting pot nation of religious seekers from every tongue, tribe and nation. Our constitution guarantees us freedom of religion and that is one of the factors that attracts people to move here.

    As Christians, we come from a long line of seekers. The father of Arabs, Jews and Christians -- Abraham -- was a seeker for God. Jewish mystical tradition holds that Father Abraham had access to teachings called Kabbalah, meaning "Receiving." Kaballah teaches that concealment always precedes revelation. A seed is concealed in the ground in order to produce a tree. A baby is concealed in the womb before it is born into our world. Electrical energy must be concealed in a wire to express its power in our lives. The genuine Light of the Creator and the ultimate truths of life are also first concealed before they're revealed. It's up to us to strive to uncover these truths, to restore the Light into the world so that pain and suffering, deceit and hatred are eternally abolished from the landscape of human existence. (Yehuda Berg, The 72 Names of God, p. 133)
    Christian theology teaches we may know God through general revelation and specific revelation. We may experience God through nature as we enjoy beautiful days such as we enjoyed this week in Houston. But nature may also bring destruction as did Hurricane Katrina. General revelation leaves us feeling ambivalent toward God. Specific revelation gives us a clearer view of the nature of God. Christians believe Jesus Christ is the clearest image of God humans will ever see. Jesus himself taught that truth. Jesus' disciple, Philip, challenged Jesus to reveal God. Jesus was not insulted when Philip questioned him. Jesus shows hospitality toward Phililp's question. Jesus told Philip, "I am the way to the Father." Philip didn't understand the incarnation of Jesus was the ultimate revelation of God.  Yet this is what Jesus claimed for himself. It is through Jesus Christ that Christians have access to God. This is what distinguishes Christians from other world religions. We seek understanding of God and find that understanding most completely in Jesus Christ.       
    What makes us unique among religions is our faith in Jesus Christ. We believe Jesus is the unique and sufficient revelation of God. Jesus is Lord and Savior. We believe Jesus Christ is our path to salvation. We do not anticipate or desire a merger between the Presbyterian Church (USA) and any other religion. Our Christian faith in the God revealed in the Bible and our desire to live like Jesus requires us to engage in dialog with people from other religions.

    The interfaith dialogs we have hosted have brought prospective members into our church. This is an outreach opportunity for our church. This program has been attended and supported by a diverse group of church members and people from the community. Join with us in this opportunity for mission and ministry to our community. Jesus welcomed Philip's questions about God and Jesus shows hospitality toward our questions about God. Questions are always appropriate for Christians. Questions are how we grow in our faith. The beginning of wisdom is asking the right questions.
    We are not the first Christians to be in dialog with other religions. The Apostolic Fathers are a small collection of Early Christian authors who lived and wrote in the second half of the 1st century and the first half of the 2nd century. These authors were leaders in the early church. The apostolic fathers include Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna. The label "Apostolic Fathers" has been used since the 17th century to emphasize that these authors were of the generation that had personal contact with the twelve apostles. The Apostolic Fathers have advice to offer as we seek to live as Christians in a religiously diverse city and nation.
    First, the Apostolic Fathers encourage us to remain humbly and peaceably in Christ's church. Do not get angry and leave the church. Neither should we get so curious about other religions that we leave the church. We are free to seek understanding of other religions but this should not cause us to leave Christ's church. The church is the faith nest from which we venture out into the world and to which we return for nourishment.  
    Second, the Apostolic Fathers would counsel us to look to our Christian faith hoping for our salvation and for the salvation of all Christians. God's salvation is available to us now, during this lifetime on earth. We experience God's realm within us through centering prayer and other spiritual disciplines. We also believe in life after death and we want to spend our next life in heaven rather than in low places. Jesus said, "I will prepare a place for you in heaven." We look to Christ for salvation.
    Third, pray for mercy for all sinners. We are not out just to take care of ourselves. We seek the common good of all people so we pray for God's mercy on all people. As Calvin put it: "We are saved to serve." Our goal is not to save our own hide. Our goal is to serve others in Christ's name. While we believe Christ is the only way to salvation for us and for all Christians, we do not know whether God has made other arrangements for others. Jesus himself said, "I have sheep you know not of." Therefore, we may leave certain matters, such as the eternal salvation of people of other religions, in the very capable hands of Almighty God.
    Finally, and this may be the hardest one, put up with everyone and everything in charity. Kaballah describes love as chesed. Chesed is symbolized by the right arm. We use our right arm to reach out in love to people of all religions. We use our left arm, our might, to hold other religions away from stealing our peace and joy in Jesus. This balance between the discipline of pushing away and drawing closer symbolizes the balance we are to maintain in an interfaith dialog.
    Spiritual teachers are very important people in all religions including our own. Paramanhansa Yogananda, Thomas Keating, Father Abraham and the Apostolic Fathers are all spiritual teachers. We are thankful for all they have taught us. We are especially grateful for the spiritual teachers of this congregation including Abel DeSouza and all the others mentioned this morning. Let's thank our teachers, encourage them, and pray for them. Jesus himself was called "Rabbi" which means "Teacher." Jesus welcomed Philip's questions. Spiritual teachers welcome questions. May God grant us the courage to ask questions and the humility to hear the answers, even when the answers are not the ones we want to hear.

Good Shepherd Blues

Jon Burnham preached this sermon from 1 Peter 2:19-25

on April 13, 2008, the Fourth Sunday in Easter, at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston

The made for televsion series, Frontline, offers a disturbing glimpse into the global trade in human slaves. A woman from Eastern Europe is shown being kidnapped from a city street and forced to serve as a slave in another country where she does not speak the language. She is jailed in an apartment with several other enslaved women who are forced to service a dozen or more men a day. The most poignant moment in the show comes after she has been rescued by her husband and reunited with her young son. We see mother and son in a poignant embrace and we may only imagine what they are feeling. Our country has some experience with human slavery. Human slaves cultivated the South in the days before the Civil War. Although outlawed today, human slavery has moved to the black market and still thrives in Houston and major cities across the world. As Christians, we condemn all forms of human slavery.

Human slavery serves as the backdrop of our text today. 1 Peter chapter 2 provides a code for household slaves. Newly Christian slaves are serving non-Christian masters. They are encouraged to endure suffering and so gain God's approval. The unspoken issue is the text is how should we respond when we are treated unjustly? The answer is we are to act as Jesus acted during his trial before Pilate. Jesus did not retaliate against his accusers. We should not strike back against those who cause us harm.

The power of non resistance has been taken up by various political parties in the past century. Like a shepherd guiding his sheep, Ghandi led the Indian people to a peaceful revolution by means of non violent protest. In the United States, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the African American people in a Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. As a Good Shepherd, Martin Luther King, Jr. led his people toward the green pasture of freedom. He died a young man, shot down by a sniper in Memphis, Tennessee. He was there to organize sanitation workers toward more say and better pay in their work. Like Moses, Martin Luther King did not make it into the promised land with his people.

Beyond Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr., Christ challenges each one of us to take up our cross and follow the path of suffering our Savior trod. This seems weird to the people of the world. They just don't get it. They think the cross is ridiculous. However, to those whom God has called, the cross explains everything. Paul put it like this: "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are called by God, it is the wisdom and power of God on display." It was our pains Christ carried. It was our punishment he took upon himself. The horror of the cross is that it is intended for each one of us. If we want to be saved from ourselves, we need not enlightenment but crucifixion. As Reinhold Niehbur puts it: "The human personality is so structured that it must be possessed to escape the prison of self-possession." (The Nature and Destiny of Man: Vol 2, p. 111) Niebuhr lived in a time of great suffering. He wrote during World War II in a church in England. He heard German bombs exploding in the near distance. Niehbur tried to come to terms with the evil forces of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Regime. He decided Hitler was possessed by dark forces. He is not the only person to reach that conclusion. Hitler had a history of dabbling in black magic. He certainly looks possessed if you have ever seen film clips of him giving a speech. After the speech his sits down calmly and once again looks like a shy, lost soul.

Niehbur, who is considered a theological genius, claims the human soul is so designed we must be possessed by the Holy Spirit to escape imprisonment to our own petty nature. The power to change is not our own. This is a strong statement that comes from the pen of a Protestant genius who was wrestling with the darkest night of the soul the human race has experienced in the past two hundred years. Perhaps we should pause this morning and listen to this strong word. We who are called by God are broken down, crucified, and raised up. We employ the wisdom and power of Christ's cross. We are possessed by Holy Spirit.

The dark nature of evil that we see in human slavery is echoed even in that old warhorse of a Psalm, Psalm 23, where we catch this phrase: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." Jesus the Good Shepherd carries that comforting staff. It is comforting to us because we know if we get lost out in the wilderness of selfish pursuit then Christ will use that staff to bring us back into the righteous path that leads to God our rock and fortress, our stronghold. We are also comforted in the time of our own impending darkness, as we trod the valley of the shadow of death, because we know the shepherd's rod may also be used to fight off and frighten away any wolves that would tear us apart. This is not to say that bad things will never happen to us when we follow Christ. We know sometimes bad things happen to good people.

The Bible teaches the way of the cross . This is a path of transformative suffering. There is nothing here about getting ahead or making more money or finding a more attractive partner. This is the Good Shepherd Blues. The purpose of suffering is to purify us as fire purifies gold. Suffering turns up the heat in our lives. Heat changes things.

Someone sent me a link to an inspirational movie called 213 Degrees from simpletruths.com.  At 211 degrees water is hot. At 212 degrees it boils. And with boiling water, comes steam. And with steam, you can power a train. 212 degrees, the extra degress, is the definition of success. "Some men obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous effort than before," said Polybius. The Olympic margin of victory in the Men's Giant Slolom is 0.17 seconds. "Triumph is always nearest when defeat seems inescapable," said B.C. Forbes. The Olympic margin of victory in the Men's 800 Meter race is 0.21 seconds. "You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it," said Margaret Thatcher. The Olympic margin of victory in the Women's 1000 Meter Speed Skating is 0.07 seconds. By going the extra degree these champions received results beyond their wildest expectations. The "extra degree" is something we can all apply every day.

Imagine the possibilities ... Add a few "extra degree" hours each month to your professional development. That's an investment in your most valuable assett ... You! Give a few extra hours each month to your church's efforts ... At the end of the year, that a full workweek of added contribution. Make a commitment to give one "extra degree" act of service to a coworker, family member or customer each week ... That's 52 moments of kindness each year. Eliminate 1/2 hour of television each day ... That's 182.5 "extra degree" hours each year to devote to your family. With 212 degree awareness comes responsibility ... a responsibility to act. It's your life ... You are responsible for the results ... Results that can take you beyond your wildest expectations. 212 degrees. The extra degree. It's time to turn up the heat.

What is your one degree of heat that puts you over the top? A perceived injustice? A slight by the person behind the counter in the check out line at the store? When we are near the boiling level, any little thing can put us over the top.  Instead of going negative, what would happen if we went positive? What would happen if we returned evil with good? That is the radical suggestion of our text today. It is not a popular idea. It is a counter cultural call to action. Here is the action of non-violence. Here is the judo of returning evil with good. Here is the challenge of turning the other cheek.

When Jesus was abused, he did not return abuse. When Jesus suffered, he did not threaten. He entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. Jesus sings the Good Shepherd Blues. We hear him singing it. Telling it like it is. We were going astray like sheep. But now we are returning to the shepherd and guardian of our souls. May God possess us with the Holy Spirit. May God free us from the chains of self absorption. May God give use ordinary circumstances in our lives to give us that extra degree of heat that makes us reach 212 degrees. May we receive God's seal of approval. We are beloved children of God. God only wants what is good for us. God is on our side. God is not against us. Let's cooperate with God's work in our lives. Let's live into the freedom Christ provides.

Be What You Are

Jon Burnham preached this sermon from 1 Peter 1:17-23
on April 6, 2008 at St. John's Presbyterian Church

Our confirmands are blessed to be growing up in a church family whose love for them is deep and genuine. Someone said it takes a village to raise a child. We are that village to the youth of St. John's. We have reared these young people in the faith. They know they are loved by their parents and by this congregation. They are holy in God's eyes. God has set them apart for a particular purpose. They are joining our pilgrim band. Our message to the confirmands today is 1 Peter's message to us all: "Be who you are, holy children of God."


God calls us to a love that is deep and genuine. Our English word "love" is burdened with several meanings so let's consider some of them. When our Epistle today speaks of love as deep and genuine it means "not hypocritical" and "not feigned." Buddhists describe love as unselfish interest in others welfare. Similar, but distinct, from love is the Buddhist concept of compassion. Compassion is wanting others to be free from suffering and untouched by cruelty. The Hebrew Bible uses the word chesed which translates as loving kindness. The Hebrew word Chesed is sort of a conjunction of the Buddhist concepts of love and compassion. Chesed is an active verb that implies we will do something for one another beyond thinking good thoughts. We will take action on behalf of one another. This congregation shows chesed when we take care of one another physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.


Our confirmands are surrounded by the chesed, the loving kindness, of this congregation. They need our support because according to 1 Peter they are holy resident aliens. As the old gospel song puts it, we are poor, wayfaring strangers, traveling through this world of woe. The image of the wandering pilgrim goes all the way back into the deep roots of our faith history, as Abraham says, "My father was a wandering Aramean ..." Father Abraham who journeyed by faith from his home in Ur, modern day Iraq, to Egypt. Along the way he became the father of Isaac, father of the Hebrew people, the people of Israel. He also became the father of Ismael, the father of the Arabic peoples who eventually would follow the Prophet Mohammad. The image of the Christian as an exile, a resident alien, is further developed in the New Testament in 1 Peter and elsewhere. Later, St. Augustine paints a picture of the Christian as pilgrim on a journey in his book, City of God. Augustine describes Christians as pilgrims who live by faith trusting our journey from earth to heaven to the one God.


That image of holy resident aliens may have felt more real to the initial readers of 1 Peter in the generation after Jesus and Paul. They faced trials and tribulations that included physical suffering. If one of their Christian brothers or sisters were to betray them the dire consequences could include death. So their commitment to one another had to be complete and true. In our American history, we see this same sort of commitment to one another in the relationships. As Ben Franklin said to John Hancock when signing the American Declaration of Independence, "We must all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately." The original readers of 1 Peter had to hang together or they would hang separately. We need to hang together too. Today our confirmands join this single pilgrim band in which we all hang together.


Today our confirmands say "YES" to a pilgrim journey that will take them from earth to heaven. As we travel that journey from earth to heaven, St. Augustine challenges us to live as contemplatives who balance learning with action. Some American universities now prefer prospective students who display a balance between learning and service to the community. Balance is the key in our pilgrim journey. Balance is the vehicle that gets us from here to there. We must balance our physical and spiritual nature, our minds and our bodies, our hearts and our heads. The Christian life is all about balance. Sometimes we get out of balance when we live upright lives but are not willing to take the next step which is to return good for evil and blessing for slander. When we take the extra step the light really shines through and we may draw people to Christ by being Christ-like. God calls our confirmands, and all of us, to live faith filled lives as resident aliens in an unbelieving world. Like Christ, we are to live holy lives in an unholy world. So our challenge to our confirmands today and the challenge each of faces as Christians, may be summed in this phrase: "Be what you are."


God is holy and 1 Peter challenges us to be holy as Christ is holy. To be holy means to be set apart by God for a use in accord with God's will. We are set apart by God not to be better than others but to be servants of all. 1 Peter uses the image of Christ as the Lamb of God to convey the meaning of being holy. The image of Christ as the lamb of God comes from our text today and other Biblical texts all the way back to the book of Leviticus. The Jewish holy code calls for a lamb without spot or blemish to be sacrificed for the people for the forgiveness of their sins. The perfectly sinless lamb symbolically takes on all the sins of the people. Then the lamb is ritually slaughtered to symbolize the termination of the sins of the people. The New Testament transfers the image of the sacrificial lamb to Christ and suggests Christ serves as the sacrificial symbol of the possibility of forgiveness of human sin. In New Testament theology, the sin of you and me and all people is put upon Christ, the sacrificial Lamb, who is ritually put to death on the cross to signify the possibility of our forgiveness before God. We are made holy through Christ the Lamb of God. This is something that has already been achieved for us by God and through Christ. All that remains is for us to claim it, for us to be what we are, which is holy and forgiven creatures of God.


Let's live into this Easter truth. Let's be holy as Christ, the lamb of God, is holy. Let's be courageous as Christ, the Lamb of God, was courageous. Let's be willing to sacrifice for others, as Christ, the Lamb of God, was willing to sacrifice himself for us. Let's demonstrate by our actions the love for others we profess with our mouths. Be what you are. Confirmands, that is all we expect of you. Be what you are. People of God, that is all God expects of any of us. Be what you are. When we set our intention on being holy God will meet us more than halfway and take us the rest of the way. We are pilgrims in this unholy land. We are merely passing through. Blessed are those who realize the transient nature of existence even in their youth, for they are on the holy road to wisdom.

The Future of Church

Jon Burnham preached this sermon from 1 Peter 1:3-9 on March 30, 2008
at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston

    My, how times change. If you had told my mother when she was 16 years old that one day she would be able to put a bag of popcorn in a small box and push a few buttons and a few minutes later have in her hand a steaming hot bag of popcorn she would have laughed in your face. Today my mother can log onto her laptop computer and buy an 800 watt Sharp compact Microwave for $62.99 and amazon.com will deliver it to her doorstep for free. Forget the lemonade, we are drowning in data. It is estimated that a week's worth of New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 1800s. More than 3000 new books are published every day. In this era of accelerating change and information overload, we wonder how the church may reach the next generation of Christians. This issue is of vital importance because Christianity is always one generation away from extinction.
   Our outreach population is known as Generation X (also known as Busters, 13ers) who were born between 1961 - 1981; and Millennials (also called Blasters, Generation Y) who were born from 1982 - 2003. People in their mid-40s to early childhood are the target audience for this congregation. While my mother's generation has lived through dramatic changes in society, people who are today in their mid-40s, 30s and 20s are living through a time of exponential change. For example, the amount of new technical information is doubling every two years. For students starting a four year technical or college this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated in their third year of study. By 2010, only 2 years from now, the amount of new technical information is predicted to double every 72 hours. Now that's cooking! Our target audience is this younger generation who are technologically savvy and riding a wave of exponential change.
   In his book The Once and Future Church: Reinventing the Congregation for a New Mission Frontier, Loren Meade suggests we need to "reinvent the church." He says we are in the beginning stages of the greatest transformation of the church for 1,600 years. He says this is the greatest challenge the church ever experienced in America and may eventually make the Protestant Reformation look like a ripple in a pond. Things have fundamentally changed in the church in the last 50 years.
   Meade divides the history of the church into three paradigms based on three time periods. The first period in the church, the time from 0-325 A.D., Meade calls the Apostolic Paradigm. The early church consisted of a group of believers who were a distinct minority within the larger culture. The boundaries between the church and the world were clear during the times of the Apostolic Paradigm. Meade says the second period in the history of the church is the era from 325-1965, which he calls the Christendom Paradigm. This period began when the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and insisted that all his subjects, which included most of the people in the world, should be baptized and become Christians or they would be killed. The boundaries between the church and world were less clear during the Christendom Paradigm. Meade calls the third period in the history of the church "The Time Between Paradigms." This time began in about 1965 and and will continue indefinitely into the future at least throughout our lifetimes and perhaps for several generations.
   In 1965 the Christendom model started to break down. Since the 1960s the Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians and all the other mainline denominations have been losing members. Meade says the situation the churches are in is much worse than we have been led to think by leaders whistling in the dark, telling us that the troubles have "bottomed out" or that "we are turning around." He says we will not recover by returning to the simplistic ways we have used before. This is not something we can generate a program to fix. A project to increase church membership will not work. Meade says we are in the midst of a storm that is not likely to blow over in our lifetimes.
   During these turbulent times in the church we turn to the Bible for instruction and encouragement. There is no easy way out for the church today and that was also true for the early church who received the Epistle called 1 Peter. Our text for today talks about being "tested by fire." So are we Christians today. It is time to reclaim our New Testament roots. Meade suggests we emulate Jesus' ministry. Recall how Jesus performed his first ministry at the wedding in Cana. The wedding party ran out of wine. They presented their problem to Jesus and he responded to the need by turning water into wine. So Jesus cooked up a creative response to a real need. Jesus' strategy was to meet specific needs as they arise. That strategy will work for us as well. As chefs in training, we watch how Christ cooks and feeds and meets the needs of people. We learn to cook like Christ.
   In 1692 a catholic monk named Brother Lawrence wrote a book called God-Illuminated Cook: The Practice of the Presence of God. Amid his pots and pans, Brother Lawrence became known for his serenity and joy while he chopped potatoes and washed dishes. Cardinals, theologians, and even the Pope came to learn his secret. What they learned is that Brother Lawrence practiced the presence of God during every moment of every day. He communed with God while chopping onions and cleaning plates. Brother Lawrence demonstrated how to practice the presence of God. We too may practice the presence of God while cooking, driving, working, or volunteering. As we learn to practice the presence of God we come to see our mission field is right under our feet. Our mission field is right here on West Bellfort in Southwest Houston, in our homes, where we shop. Wherever we are God is there with us.
   We at St. John's, along with all Christian churches, face a great challenge. God's message to us is do not retreat! Go forward. Now is the time to dream big dreams. Now is the time to clarify our vision for the future. This church has a bright future. God is doing great work in this congregation and through this congregation. The Spirit moved in the Easter Sunrise Service. The youth and adult leaders did a great job leading that service. We mentor the youth in this congregation. We need to continue that and build on it. We need to refocus our energy on reclaiming the 20 to 40 year old age group. That is the age group that we are lacking here and in most mainline churches today. At the same time we must honor and encourage the great mission work accomplished by the older adults of this congregation. We need the wisdom and wit of our older adults.
   In our scripture today (1 Peter 1:3-9), God offers hope during this time of transition. God is doing a new thing now. Let us go with God's flow in the present moment. Let's practice the presence of God in the kitchen of our daily lives. Imagine Christ as a Cosmic Chef. We may not be certain which recipe the Cosmic Chef is cooking but we know it will be one fine meal, for we have tasted the bread of heaven and the cup of eternal salvation. We have yet to taste the soul food served in heaven. But once we do, we'll never die again. In the meantime, let us feed those who live around us. Let us offer them the bread of heaven and the cup of eternal salvation. The future is unpredictable. That is one characteristic of this postmodern era. So let's be patient with one another as we change with the times.
   As 1 Peter puts it: "The genuineness of our faith is being tested by fire." We know fire burns and fire purifies. Hot grease on the hand makes us howl. Our faith is being tested by the hot grease of God's Spirit. The purpose of this test is not to hurt us but to purify our souls. This church and all churches are being purified by the fire of the Holy Spirit. The purification process is not pleasant. In fact, it is painful. Yet it is necessary. As God purifies the church, we learn to listen to our own inner voice, which is God's voice within us. We work to get our interior kitchen in order. Then we get cooking with Christ. This is a time for moving forward. May God give us the courage to rise to the occasion. May Christ strengthen us for the days ahead. May the Holy Spirit continue to purify us with the fire of the Spirit. The genuineness of our faith is indeed being tested by fire. May it be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

The Quest for Jesus' Bones

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from John 20:1-18

on Easter Sunday, March 29, 2008, at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas

 

"Where's Elvis?" is a book game for small children. The object of the game is to find Elvis who is hiding inside a crowded background. Mary Magdalene played a similar game when she went looking for Jesus' bones on Easter Sunday. The risen Jesus was standing right in front of her in a dark tomb. Yet Mary had a hard time recognizing Jesus. Even today some people are still searching for Jesus' bones. Let's join them in the quest for Jesus' bones. We may find Jesus bones in this sanctuary today. I think we will.

Some archaeologists claim they have found the long buried bones of Jesus of Nazareth. They presented their findings in a Discover Channel movie called The Lost Tomb of Jesus. They say the bones of Jesus were hidden in a 2,000-year-old tomb containing 10 boxes of bones. In Jesus' lifetime, the dead were left to decompose in a cave. Their family collected their bones a year later and buried them in bone boxes called ossuaries. Archaeologists found inscriptions on 6 of 10 ossuaries in a single tomb. The inscriptions indicate a 1 in 600 chance these are the bones of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and a son, along with other family members.

Not everyone is convinced the archaologists have found the bones of Jesus. Professor Kloner of Hebrew University, who oversaw the original archaeological dig 27 years ago, says: "It makes a great story for a TV film, but it's completely impossible. It's nonsense. Since Jesus was from the Galilee area, there is no way he and his relatives would have had a family tomb in Jerusalem." Hebrew University archaeologist Leah DiSegni said because the names found in the tomb were among the most common names of the day it would be like finding a tomb with the name "George" on it in the future and people asserting that it must have been the tomb of President George Bush." It's not only professors who doubt the movie, an informal survey by the Kansas City Star newspaper found 73% believed the tomb of Jesus had not been found. Moreover, 73% of people surveyed said their faith would not be effected even if the movie were true. The archaologists behind the movie, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, represent a long line of people going all the way back to Mary Magdalene who have been searching for the bones of Jesus.

Mary's quest for Jesus bones started on the first Easter Sunday when she went to search for Jesus' body. As she wept, she knelt to look into the tomb and saw two angels sitting there, dressed in white, one at the head, the other at the foot of where Jesus' body had been laid. They said to her, "Woman, why do you weep?" This is where our Western culture is today. We are weeping because we can't find the bones of Jesus. We do not know how to connect to Jesus Christ in our scientific, postmodern world. We went to college with a pre-rational faith and met professors who challenged us to move toward the rational level of faith. Many of us left behind our childhood, pre-rational faith, in college. But what so many people fail to understand is that there are levels of Christian faith beyond the pre-rational level.

There is a rational level of Christian faith and even a post-rational level of Christian faith. Many of us left behind our pre-rational view of the world when we became adults. We no longer find meaning in playing the "Where's Elvis" game in regard to Jesus. The challenge and opportunity of our Christian journey is to evolve into ever deeper and broader levels of faith. Centering prayer helps Christians move onward toward their next level of faith. Centering prayer acts as an escalator that takes us toward our next level of faith development.

Mary Magdalene moves to a higher level of faith on Easter Sunday. She enters Jesus tomb at the rational level of faith and leaves the tomb at the post-rational level of faith. She stands inside a tomb looking for Jesus' bones. She sees someone with her in the tomb and she thinks it must be the gardener who tends to the tombs. "They took my Master," she said, "and I don't know where they put him." After she said this, she turned away and saw Jesus standing there. But she didn't recognize him. Jesus was standing right there in front of her but she didn't see him. Let me reread that line from the Gospel According to John so we don't miss it. This is the key sentence: "Jesus was standing right there in front of her but she didn't see him."

Jesus asks her, "Woman, why do you weep? Who are you looking for?" She was weeping because she couldn't recognize Jesus even when he was standing right there in front of her. She was talking to him but could not perceive that is was Jesus. Sadly, we have the same problem. We search for Jesus bones in the Bible, in the church, and in the sermon. Yet we don't recognize Jesus even when he is standing right in front of us because, like Mary Magdalene, we don't expect to see Jesus standing right in front of us. We come to worship on Easter but we don't expect to meet Jesus here. Jesus is standing right here in front of us and we don't recognize him.

Where's Jesus? He is right here in front of us if only we have ears to hear him and eyes to see him! We have seen Jesus in the scuttling feet of the children coming down the aisle for the children's sermon this morning. We have heard the voice of Jesus as the choir as they sang the anthem. Jesus will be riding with us on our way home. When we look at ourselves in the mirror we will see him. According to the Apostle Paul, you and I are the body of Christ. We are the bones of Jesus! Look around this sanctuary this morning and you will see the bones of Jesus inside the people in these pews. We are the body of Christ. We are the bones of Jesus. Look at your own hands and you will see the hands of Jesus. Look at the face of the person who is sitting beside you and you will see the face of Jesus. We are the bones of Jesus!

All our lives we have been on a quest to find the bones of Jesus. All this time he was standing right there in front of us and we didn't recognize him. We never expected Jesus would be hiding within the bones of our family, our friends, our neighbors but he is there. We never imagined we could look beneath our skin and find the bones of Jesus. Yet we are the bones of Jesus. We don't need an ancient ossuary or a movie to help us find the bones of Jesus. For those with eyes to see, he is right here in our very midst today. Mary Magdalene is not the only person who has seen the risen Christ. You and I have seen him too on this Easter Sunday!

Now if tomorrow or the next day we forget what the risen Christ looks like; Or if we begin to doubt we really saw Jesus here this morning, all we need to do is go stand in front a mirror and look ourselves squarely in the eyes and say, "These are the eyes of the risen Christ!" Let's recognize in ourselves the risen Christ for truly he lives in us. When we look with the eyes of our heart we see the risen Christ in ourselves and others. Then we go share the good news! We have found the bones of Jesus! All this time they were right in front of our eyes: Hidden beneath the cloak of our skin.

We are the bones of Jesus. So let's use Jesus' bones in our hands to heal the sick. Let's use Jesus' bones in our fingers to feed the hungry. Let's use Jesus bones in our feet to bring good news to the poor. We do these things because that is what Jesus did with his bones when he walked this earth 2000 years ago. And that is what Jesus wants to do with our bones today. Jesus is counting on us to do these things for him and take care of his business on earth. We are the only bones he has available now. We are the bones of Jesus on earth some 2008 years after that first Easter Sunday. Let's use his bones in our bodies to continue his work in the world today.

Today we join Mary Magdalene, saying: "I have seen the Lord." And we do what Mary Magdalene did on Easter Sunday. We go tell everyone we know the good news that we have seen the risen Christ. For now we have completed the quest for Jesus bones and discovered a great mystery. We have learned the post-rational truth that we are the bones of Jesus. We are the body of Christ. Let's live into that truth in the Easter season that spreads before us. We are the bones of Jesus!

I Thirst

Jon Burnham delivered this meditation on John 19:28 for the Tre Ore Service on Good Friday at Salem Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas on March 21, 2008.

As he hanged upon the tree on that Good Friday, Jesus felt the terrible thirst of dehydration that comes to all who suffer from crucifixion. Being the good Jew that he was, even in his deathly delirium, Jesus' mind churned through the Hebrew Bible. He remembered the Psalm of David when was in the Desert of Judah, "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water." (Ps 63:1-3)

Then the lyrics from Psalm 69 seared his broken heart:

Scorn has broken my heart
       and has left me helpless;
       I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
       for comforters, but I found none.

 They put gall in my food
       and gave me vinegar for my thirst. (Verses 20-21)

From childhood he recalled these lines from Psalm 143:

I remember the days of long ago;
       I meditate on all your works
       and consider what your hands have done.

 I spread out my hands to you;
       my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.      
  Answer me quickly, O LORD;
       my spirit fails.
       Do not hide your face from me
       or I will be like those who go down to the pit. (Verses 5-7)

His racing heart then skipped on to the Prophet Isaiah:

"Come, all you who are thirsty,
       come to the waters;
       and you who have no money,
       come, buy and eat!
       Come, buy wine and milk
       without money and without cost. (Isaiah 55:1)

Finally, his parched throat silently moaned this Lamentation:

Even jackals offer their breasts
       to nurse their young,
       but my people have become heartless
       like ostriches in the desert.

Because of thirst the infant's tongue
       sticks to the roof of its mouth;
       the children beg for bread,
       but no one gives it to them.

Those who once ate delicacies
       are destitute in the streets.
       Those nurtured in purple
       now lie on ash heaps. (Lamentations 4:3-5)

With a sense of irony, Jesus remembered how he had told the woman at the well, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again. But no one who drinks the water I give will ever be thirsty again. The water I give is like a flowing fountain that gives eternal life."" Funny how things can sometimes get turned around. Right now his fountain felt dried up. Right now those words he had said made no sense to him. It is hard to be rational when dehydration sets in. Now the only flowing fountain he had to offer was his life blood that was spilling onto the ground.

There are many kinds of thirst and Jesus experienced them all as he died upon the cross. He thirsted for human compassion. He thirsted for God. He thirsted for a sip of water. Instead of giving him water, a jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. That's all he had coming on Good Friday. That's all the consolation he received. May God have mercy on us all.

The Terrible Joy of Holy Week

Jon Burnham preached this sermon from John 18:1-11
at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas on Maundy Thursday
March 20, 2008

During his gospel music phase Bob Dylan wrote a song called "In the Garden." Here is the chorus: "When they came for him in the garden did they know? When they came for him in the garden did they know? Did they know he was the Son of God? Did they know he was the Lord? Did they hear when he said to Peter, "Peter, put up your sword?" Peter's sword was to him a symbol of security. Our cultural symbols of security are the brand of car we drive. We find consolation in driving a late model car. We like to be identified with a particular brand of automobile. We are Lexus people. Or Honda people. Or good old Ford folks. Jesus tells Peter to put his sword back in its sheath. Jesus tells us to lay down our false sense of security. Cultural symbols of security do not hold much sway when you are standing with Jesus in the garden and the soldiers and the guards have come to take him hostage.

This garden was well known to Judas because Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers and police and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. The scene is set for a violent confrontation. Jesus knew why they were there. He knew their plan. Jesus was aware of the betrayal of Judas. So Jesus, being the fearless leader he was, came forward and asked them, "Whom are you looking for?" They answered, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus answered, "I told you that I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these men go." Jesus, the Good Shepherd, protects his sheep, the disciples. Then Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave's name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup the Father has given me?"

Alexander the Great once approached a great walled city with only a handful of soldiers and demanded the inhabitants surrender to him. But the people inside the city just laughed at him and his pathetic army.

So Alexander had his men line up in single file and begin to march towards a nearby cliff. Alexander guided his soldiers directly to its edge, and one by one they stepped over it and fell to their deaths on the rocks below, as the people in the city watched in horror. At a certain point Alexander halted the march and ordered the rest of the men back to his side. They responded without any sign of fear, relief, or panic. This is the kind of dedication Christ showed. When faced with the cross, Jesus did not run away. He faced his fears and pushed forward to do his Father's will. Jesus showed courage and determination. He did not turn away from his destiny even in the face of death.

The shaken residents of the city surrendered to Alexander the Great at once, realizing that defeat was inevitable from the hands of a leader who commanded such loyalty. [Tom Finley. The World Is Not Enough. (Ventura, Ca.: Regal Books, 1986)]. Jesus showed that degree of commitment to God. Jesus was sold out to God. When we see his commitment and loyalty to God, we are inspired to surrender our lives to Christ.

Don't get wrong here. To surrender does not mean to become passive. Surrender is one of the most courageous actions a person can take. When I think of a person who has surrendered their life to Christ I think of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In Memphis he made his famous speech, "I have seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I have seen the promised land." Was Martin Luther King, Jr. passive? No. He was active in his resistance of evil systems in the world.  How did he put it? "We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart ... A third way is open in our quest for freedom, namely, nonviolent resistance, that combines toughmindedness and tenderheartedness and avoids the complacency and do-noghingness of the softminded and the violence and bitterness of the hardhearted... God has two outstretched arms. One is strong enough to surround us with justice, and one is gentle enough to embrace us with grace." (Martin Luther King, Jr. "A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart," in Strength to Love. New York: Harper and Row, 1963, 2, 6.)

King was effective in his action because he had surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. He lived in the Spirit and not in the flesh, although yes, he struggled in the flesh even as we all do. To surrender does not mean to quit everything. It means to give up control to a higher power that we call God, Christ, the Holy Spirit. To surrender is to relinquish control of our lives and place our destiny in the hands of Jesus Christ.

In the summer in the Smoky Mountains a drama called Unto These Hills is presented for the tourists by the Cherokee Historical Association. It depicts an episode in the 1830s when the white man secured, through deception, the lands of the Cherokees. Tsali, an Indian leader, in anger killed a white soldier, and then fled to the hills with thousands of his people who feared massacre.

General Scott sent word to Tsali that if he and his kin surrendered, he would have to face trial, but the government would grant his people permission to live in the Great Smokies. If he refused, the soldiers would hunt down all Indians one by one. Tsali and his sons came down from the hills, surrendered themselves, were sentenced and put to death by the military tribunal, but the Indian reservation was given to his people.

What a fool Tsali was. He was safe in the hills. He had a chance to live, for he knew the woods better than the white soldiers. Why didn't he stay in the hills instead of returning to his certain death? He returned because he loved his people so much! He had a commitment to them that would not let him do anything else. He was a fool for his people's sake because he loved them, yet he was full of the joy that comes from surrendering ones life to a higher cause. ("What Kind of Fool Am I?" by C. Thomas Hilton, THE CLERGY JOURNAL, February 1995, p. 21.)

This is what our Lord did when he put down his life for us by willingly submitting to death on the cross. Jesus showed us the way to surrender. Tonight we feel the terrible joy of Holy Week. Tonight we feel the terrible fear of surrender. On this Maundy Thursday we remember Jesus' last supper with his disciples. Even as he ate the bread and drank the wine on this night, Jesus knew his moment of surrender was drawing nigh. Jesus is about to walk right into the terror of the crucifixion. We must take the first step toward Jesus. We must follow Jesus into the terror of the cross. The joy of resurrection lays beyond the grave. With God's help, we will walk with Jesus during this Holy Week.  May God grant us the grace to get up off our knees where we have been bowing down to the false gods of more and better and faster and me. May God give us the wisdom to bow our knee to Christ alone. May God give us the courage to surrender.

Tonight we experience the terrible joy of Holy Week. We feel terrible because Jesus was taken from the garden and delivered up to his death on the cross. Yet we have the joy that comes from knowing that on the third day God will raise him from the dead. Lord, give us the grace to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. May God give us the grace to surrender our lives to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.