Awakening

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from John 11:32-44
on November 5, 2006 at Batesville Presbyterian Church.

They were away from Bethany when Jesus told his disciples, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him." The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right." Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was no there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." (John 11:10-15) So began a journey that would lead to the awakening of Lazarus.

The awakening of Lazarus was a life and death issue in more ways than one. First, of course, Lazarus was dead. He had been in the tomb for four days. This was not a case of a near death experience. He was so dead that his sister Martha was worried about the stench they would encounter if the tomb was opened as Jesus had ordered. Secondly, the scent of death was in the air in regards to Jesus and his disciples. For if Jesus did indeed raise Lazarus from the dead, such a public miracle only two miles from Jerusalem would be the last straw for the powers that be and they would almost certainly decide that Jesus must be killed if he took this fateful step.

So when Jesus makes it onto the scene, four days after the death of his good friend Lazarus, and after he cries with Lazarus's sister Mary, Jesus calls for the mourners to roll back the stone that covers the cave where Lazarus has been wrapped up like a mummy and laid to rest. This is a risky situation for Jesus. For if the stone is rolled away and Jesus calls Lazarus to rise from the dead and Lazarus does not come back to life then Jesus will look like a cheap magician who has lost his touch and who may then be discounted as a has been. On the other hand, if the stone is rolled away and Jesus does in fact raise Lazarus from the dead and does this on the home turf of his fiercest critics then that will likely be the last straw -- strike three -- and Jesus is likely to be murdered by the people in charge who will feel he has become too powerful and threatens their place in the sun. So Jesus is faced with a terrible double bind. Whatever he does will have negative consequences in some way. Jesus chooses to raise his dead friend back to life. He puts his friends concerns ahead of his own. This is typical of the way he lived. After Lazarus walks out of the tomb where he has been dead for four days, wrapped up like a mummy, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped with kerchief, Jesus says to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." Jesus takes the situation of his own double bind and uses it to unbind his friend Lazarus.

Many of the Jews standing there believed in him. But some of them went to the religious authorities and reported what Jesus had done, thus demonstrating how they were dead to the power of God as powerfully demonstrated through Jesus' bringing Lazarus back to life. The religious authorities called a meeting of the council, and said, "What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our temple and our nation." The religious authorities felt threatened by Jesus. They had some justification for their feelings. Jesus brought more to the game than they could handle. And, strangely enough, I think this is the key point of the text.

Roaches scatter when we turn on the light in the storage shed. They scatter because they fear the light. So some of the witnesses of the resurrection of Lazarus scattered after the event. They ran away from the light. Fear drove them away from Jesus and into the hands of the authorities. They were not awakened to the reality of God's power in Jesus. We wonder how such people could be so unaware and recalcitrant in the face of the power of God in Jesus. We wonder why the religious authorities turned against him. We wonder why the Romans crucified him. And as we wonder, we can hear Jesus speaking through his pain on the cross saying, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." They were unaware and Jesus recognized that and asked God to forgive them for that.

Think of the resurrection of Lazarus as being a parable in motion. This time instead of speaking a parable Jesus enacted it. He lived it out. Before beginning the journey to Lazarus's tomb Jesus told his disciples, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him." Jesus knew Lazarus was dead and plainly says so a few verses later. But his purpose, beyond literally raising Lazarus from the dead, was to enact a parable of awakening so that we would recognize the power of God available to us through Christ.

Jesus wants to awaken us. You may argue that we are already awake and you would be correct up to a point. We are awake enough to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, our Savior. But being awake is more than a belief that we come to hold. Being awake is an attitude that we take toward life. Being awake is a way of experiencing the world. It is a world-view. People can be asleep in the sleep of disbelief or the sleep of fear and so need to be awakened. And this awakening is not a one time shot. It's not that we awakened once and joined the church, were baptized, and from now on we are awake. There are different levels of being awake. There are different stages of understanding about God and ourselves and the world. Christian theology has a broad term for this unfolding of the spiritual life into ever greater spirals of love and devotion. Sanctification is our term for this awakening to Christ.

Today as we welcome new members into our congregation, we acknowledge their sense of spiritual awakening and we join them in opening ourselves to the power of Christ within. Also this morning, as we remember our dearly departed loves ones on this All Saints Day, we realize that our time is limited, our days are numbered, and we gain a sense of urgency in the great task of sanctification. We don't take life for granted. We awaken to the precious quality of life. Jesus went to Bethany for the specific purpose of awakening Lazarus. When Jesus called his name, Lazarus came forth from the tomb. Listen carefully this morning and you may hear Jesus calling your name and challenging you to come forth from the tomb in which you have been sleeping. Our appropriate response is clear. Like Lazarus, all we have to do is respond to Jesus voice, awaken from our slumber, and walk out of the tomb. Jesus is standing there waiting for us. Let us not make him linger.

Blind Recognition

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Mark 10:46-52

at Batesville Presbyterian Church on October 29, 2006

 

            A blind beggar sat on the side of the road just outside the ancient city of Jericho with a cloak over his shoulders and a cup in his hands. The cloak was for warmth and the cup was for begging. The blindness was for his sins. Or so thought his family, his village and his people. He was considered to be cursed by God. Blind. Beggared. Thrown away. Alone. The system was not working for Bartimaeus son of Timaeus. But Bartimaeus did have two things that served him well. He had faith and he had hope.

            Bartimaeus was ecstatic when he learned Jesus would be passing his way. He had heard about Jesus perhaps from a member of Jesus family. He knew Jesus was from the royal family, the lineage of King David of old. And Bartimaeus had heard that Jesus was not only a member of the ancient royal family of the Hebrews but that he was the very one, the very Messiah that the prophets had foretold. This Jesus was the Son of David, the ruler of Israel, the one who would return the downtrodden nation to glory. As the Hebrews of old who were enslaved by Pharaoh in Egypt, so the Hebrews of Jesus' day were calling out to God for deliverance. And just as God had heard and answered their prayer by sending them Moses to deliver them from Egypt and Pharaoh so God was hearing their prayer now and sending them Jesus to deliver them from Rome and King Herod. The blind man would love to join the cause of the Messiah, to march with him in the great stride toward triumph over Rome. If it meant his death in battle, little did he care about that. For he had suffered these many years the disdain and disgrace of blindness which in his culture and to his people meant that Bartimaeus had sinned against God and was worthy of the punishment of blindness. Only later would Bartimaeus learn that Jesus was a different kind of king than he had imagined.

            Even though he was blind Bartimeaus reconized the identity of Jesus as the Messiah. So when he heard Jesus was coming down the road he began to shout and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Bartimaues begged Jesus for mercy.

            Last week a middle-aged man whom I had never met walked in the church and caught me in the hallway. I could tell from his body language he wanted something even though it was not a good time for me. It was lunch time and I was headed out the door when he caught me in the hallway and demanded some attention. The man said he was seeking money for a doctor. He had been getting treatment for his back at the emergency room but was now getting scolded for doing so. He needed to be under the care of a physician but without $80 or $100 he could not get in to see a doctor. He had applied for disability but it would not come through until next year. He had no insurance. He had no money. He had no doctor. He had no access. The system was not working for him.

            I told him our church offers two things and two things only: Gasoline or food. I could send him to Rascal's gas station if he needed gas for his car or he could come to the food pantry if he needed food. He said he did not need gas and he had already been to the food pantry earlier that morning. Like blind Bartimaeus this man was begging for help and like Bartimaeus he was crying out to me, a representative of the church, a disciple of Jesus, "Have mercy on me."

            I wanted to hush him up like the crowd wanted to hush Bartimaeus. We do not want to hear from people whose lives are not working for them. We think of poverty as a curse from God and we wonder what these people did to be so damned by the divine. We do not want to know about people for whom the system is not working.

            So it was for Bartimaeus that, as he shouted loudly, many in the crowd tried to hush him up, this blind beggar, this man whom God had cursed, but he cried out even more loudly, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" This was his one chance in life and he would not be denied an audience with Jesus. His faith and his hope rose like a powerful wave that crashed over his tongue and he cried out as loudly as he could: "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

            Jesus stopped in his tracks. He crowd stopped in their tracks. There was a hushed silence as the sound wave from the shouts of the blind man cleared the air. "Call him over" said Jesus.

            They called him. "Get up old man. This is your lucky day! Get up! He's calling you to come!"

            Bartimaeus leaped to his feet and threw off his cloak. He would find it later with his own two eyes. He came to Jesus with eager expectation.

            Jesus said: "What can I do for you?" Although it seemed obvious that the man wanted to be healed of his blindness, Jesus wanted to hear his intention. If he was cured then he could no longer be a beggar. Some people become habituated with their role in life even if it is the role of a beggar. They fear change and do not want to be cured. 

            The blind man said to Jesus, "Rabbi, I want to see." He knew the implications. He was aware of the potential downside of even such a positive change as being cured of blindness. He wanted it anyway. He wanted to see.

            "Go on your way," said Jesus. "Your faith has saved and healed you." Jesus saved him from his shame by restoring his dignity in the eyes of the community. Jesus healed him by curing his blindness.

            In that very instant he recovered his sight and followed Jesus down the road. This was what Bartimaeus wanted. He wanted to be able to see so he could join the cause of the Messiah. He followed Jesus down the road ready to live or die for him.

            Bartimaeus recognized Jesus. He knew his true identity. Even though he was blind he could see clearly that Jesus was the Son of David, the Messiah promised of old. Bartimaeus recognized Jesus. And Jesus recognized Bartimaeus. Jesus stopped walking when he heard Bartimaeus' cries. He heard him crying out for the Messiah as God had heard the children of Israel crying out for a savior in Pharaoh's Egypt. Jesus recognized Bartimaeus. Here was a true believer. Here was a person of hope. Here was a person of faith. Here was a person who could see without eyes.

            My encounter with the man seeking money for a doctor did not come to such a dramatic conclusion. I did not solve his problem. I did not cure his illness like Jesus cured Bartimaeus. But I did recognize the man who came to the church seeking help. I did recognize him as a human being like me. I did recognize him as a child of God. I saw Christ within that man. And from the way he looked me in the eyes, I think he knew that I recognized Christ in him. And I think he recognized Christ in me. So even though he did not receive money for a doctor he was recognized by a person who represented Christ to him. And that may have been miracle enough for him for that one day. I hope it was. I pray it is.

Moving on Up

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Mark 10:35-45
 at Batesville Presbyterian Church on October 22, 2006.

One day two disciples approached Jesus to ask a favor. James and John had reason to believe Jesus would consider their request for they, along with Peter, were the elite among Jesus' disciples. James and John were brothers, sons of Zebedee, whose family could afford to hire servants. (Mark 1:20) Jesus had nicknamed the brothers "Boanerges," meaning "sons of thunder."(Mark 3:17 ) Only Peter and they were present at some key events in Jesus' ministry such as the raising of Jairus's daughter (Mark 5:37) and in the Garden of Gethsemane with where Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss (Mark 14:33). Only Peter and they joined Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration where they saw their Master transfigured before their very eyes and witnessed him discoursing with Moses and Elijah. (Matthew 17:1-3) Only Peter and they had witnessed these things. James and John belonged to the inner circle of Jesus' disciples.

Now these sons of thunder, James and John, were ready to move on up so they tested the limits of what Jesus could offer. The sons of thunder made their move for authority over the twelve disciples and this included dominance even over Peter. Their ambition reached way beyond the group of Jesus' disciples and included all the angels in heaven and all human beings in heaven and on earth. They had their eyes on the prize and as children sometimes shout to one another, "That's mine; I called it first," they beat the other disciples to the punch. Their request to Jesus was simply this: "Arrange it so that we will awarded the highest places of honor in your glory--one of us on your right, the other at your left."

I have in the past considered the disciples as rustic fishermen who were not too bright. They are often portrayed in such a negative light in the gospels. But I have lately come to appreciate the disciples as very advanced beings who were chosen by Jesus because he recognized their spiritual potential. Their level of commitment was complete. Each of the twelve disciples had left everything behind to follow Jesus. Yet sometimes even spiritually advanced persons must find the edge through experience, through trial and error. The sons of thunder requested this from Jesus: "Arrange it so that we will awarded the highest places of honor in your glory--one of us on your right, the other at your left."

Jesus plays the adult to the disciples childish grasping for ultimate power. Jesus said, "You have no idea what you are asking. Are you capable of drinking the cup I drink, of being baptized in the baptism I'm about to be plunged into?"

"Sure," they said. Why not? And they were telling the truth. James was martyred by decapitation at the command of Herod Agrippa I. (Acts 12:2) We are not sure how John died but his commitment to Christ is beyond question. They were indeed capable of drinking the cup of suffering that Jesus drank and of being baptized into his death and resurrection. They were ready to suffer for Christ. Even so, Jesus hesitated.

Jesus said, "Come to think of it, you will drink the cup I drink, and be baptized in my baptism. But as to awarding places of honor, that's not my business. There are other arrangements for that." They were asking for more than even he could give.

When the other ten disciples heard of this conversation they were outraged and they confronted James and John. How dare you single yourselves out? Who chose you as our ruler? Jesus got them all together to settle things down. Then he used this teachable moment to share his vision of moving down in service to others.

"You've observed how godless rulers thrown their weight around," he said, "and when people get a little power how quickly it goes to their heads. It's not going to be that way with you." This is a hard truth that seems to work against the very fiber of our existence. We want the best seats at the football stadium. We want the head table at the charity ball. We want to be the queen in the homecoming parade. Moving on up. That is what we have been trained to do and moving on up is a natural human desire. We want more and Jesus is not against our having more. He once said: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things you desire will be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33) He also said whoever wants to be great must become a servant and the greatest of all will be the servant of all.

Jesus demonstrated the balancing act between moving up and moving down. His very birth, his incarnation, his coming down from heaven to be born as a human being, is the ultimate example of moving down in service. We remember during the season of Advent how Jesus moved down from heaven into human birth on planet earth. We remember during Lent Jesus' ministry of teaching and healing and feeding as a demonstration of moving down into servanthood. In the Apostle's Creed we say of Jesus, "He descended into hell." His servant nature took Jesus all the way down into the desperate depths of human experience. Jesus moved down as a servant of humanity.

He also moved up. He referred to the cross as being lifted up, saying: "When I am lifted up on the cross I will draw all people to me." He was lifted up he ascended into heaven. And that ascending into heaven part is what James and John, the sons of thunder, had in mind when they asked to sit at his right hand and his left hand in his glory.

As we begin this stewardship season our desire is for our church to move on up. We would like to upgrade our facilities, hire a full-time Director of Christian Education, provide programs for our children, youth and adults. But as we're desiring for our church to move on up, Jesus reminds us of the need to move on down. Down to where the need is -- beyond the hallowed walls of our sanctuary and out into the community. "Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave." And he didn't just say it, Jesus lived it. He came to serve, not to be served -- and he demonstrated the meaning of serving others in both his life and his death.

Let us follow the exampls of our Lord by moving on up in our relationship with God and moving on down as servants of others. This balance between moving up in spiritual development and moving down in service to others is one of the keys to life in God's realm. May God grant us the wisdom to find the balance between improving our own situation and serving the needs of others.

Utter Surrender

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Mark 10:17-31
at Batesville Presbyterian Church on October 15, 2006.

       We're rich! I discovered I was rich a few years ago when I came across a British website soliciting funds for charity. There was a place on the website to input your annual salary and see where you fit in financially compared to everyone else in the world. Imagine my surprise when I typed in what I considered to be my modest annual salary and clicked the "enter" button and discovered I was richer than 99.2% of all people in the world! The numbers were staggering. There are 5,947,438,586 people poorer than me. Close enough -- let's call it 6 billion people who are poorer than me. Even allowing for the possibility the numbers may be off a bit you get the point. (And the point is not, as one woman said when I mentioned this in a Bible study: "Jon, we pay you too much!" The fact is that many of you make more money and have more assets than me.) The point is you and I are among the richest of the rich in the world. We are richer than 99% of the world's population.

I make this point to help us avoid the first mistake we usually make when we hear the story for today. Jesus starts talking about the how hard it is for the rich person to enter God's realm and we immediately start thinking of people who have far more money than we do – millions of dollars more than us -- and we admire Jesus for showing them where it's at. Let's not make that mistake today. This is a text that speaks directly to each one of us. So let us listen carefully and hear what Jesus will say to us in this story.

       As Jesus is setting out on a journey, a man runs up and kneels before him, and asks him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" At the end of the story we  will learn he  is a rich man. This man is not trying to trick Jesus as is sometimes the case with some other questioners. He is sincere. I think he knows enough to realize that eternal life is here and now, where one is, not in some future time or place. And this eternal life is what he seeks.

       Jesus replies to the man's question about eternal life: "You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.'"

The rich man tells Jesus: "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth." Envision this man's inner and outer life as a castle he has built by the strength of his will. Everything inside him makes sense. His actions are wed to his beliefs. His convictions are manifest with concrete actions. This man is a sincere seeker. He has lived right and done well his entire life but something is still missing. His life is off center. Something is slightly askew and he is spiritually sensitive enough to feel this imbalance in his very joints and bones.              

            Jesus, looking at him, sensed a kindred spirit. Jesus, too, had kept all the commandments since his youth and he knew the level of dedication it takes to keep the commandments not only in actions but in intentions. Jesus looked him hard in the eyes--and loved him. He recognized the dedication in this man. He saw his sincere desire to love and serve God. He sensed a kindred spirit.

       In answering his question about how to inherit eternal life, it is significant that Jesus says nothing about the man's beliefs. Sometimes we miss the mark when we conceive Christianity as primarily a matter of right belief. We think if we can say the Lord's prayer and the Apostle's Creed and really mean it then we've got Christianity under control. But Jesus says nothing about beliefs. This is not a mental challenge. It is deeper than the mind can take us. The challenge is to a practice not a belief. Jesus says: "You lack one thing. Go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor. And come follow me." (Mark 10:21)

      Aside from the obvious challenge of organizing a garage sale of all his possessions and giving the proceeds to the poor, Jesus is asking the rich man to surrender his inner vision of reality. Jesus challenges him to tear down his interior castle and start with nothing in the  bank, nothing held in reserve through complete and utter surrender to Jesus.

       This dramatic story reminds me of another spectacular story told in a book called The Golden Legend. Here is the story.

 

Saint Dionysius, first bishop of Paris, was beheaded with the sword before the statue of Mercury, confessing his faith in the Holy Trinity. And at once the body of Dionysius stood erect and took his head in its hands; and with an Angel guiding it and a great light going before, it walked for two miles, from the place called Montmartre to the place where, by its own choice and by the providence of God, it now reposes. (Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea; trasl G. Ryan and H. Ripperger, The Golden Legend, New York, 1948, pp. 620-621; quoted in Meditations on the Tarot, Anonymous, 9-10)

 

            This remarkable story reminds me of the rich man seeking eternal life from Jesus. In both stories, someone needs to lose their head before they can get where they need to be. The rich man refuses to lose his head. He is caught up in his egoic consciousness, his sense of "I" and "me" and "mine" and he can not get beyond the mental level of consciousness to the more subtle level Jesus requires. The rich man cannot get beyond his mind. If only he could have figuratively chopped off his head like Saint Dionysius and stood up and walked under the power of the Spirit then he could have followed Jesus into the realm of God within. But the rich man could not. So his face clouded over and he walked away with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go.

            Looking at his disciples, Jesus said, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who 'have it all' to enter God's kingdom?" The disciples couldn't believe what they were hearing, but Jesus kept on: "You can't imagine how difficult. I'd say it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to get into God's realm." (vs. 23-25)

            Now we understand, of course, the rich man did not sell all he had and follow Jesus and we sympathize with the rich man. Yet, as Peter points out, this is exactly what he and the twelve disciples had done. As Peter puts it to Jesus: "We left everything and followed you." If we, like the disciples, could move beyond our minds and be guided by the inward compass in our hearts, we could find our way to a place to lay down and die to our false selves so that our true selves could be birthed into the realm of God within. Then we could follow Jesus' directive to utterly surrender ourselves and all we possess and go follow Jesus.

            Death to the false self by the relinquishment of desires is the way into God's kingdom – God's realm within. The realm of God is here, now, within us. As Cynthia Bourgeault puts it: "The kingdom of God is not later but lighter." It is not "pie in the sky when I die" but a way of living our lives in this world. The realm of God is hard for us to enter because we are always distracted by our desires. So he says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God -- God's realm within you -- and all these things will be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33) The realm of God within is a place few Christians manage to find. It is especially hard to find for rich people like us. So now we know the meaning of Jesus hard to swallow statement: "Many are called but few are chosen." (Matthew 22:14)

Remember the story of the man named Job in the Old Testament. He had everything including a beautiful wife, children, land and wealth and he sacrificed it all on the altar of God. After the trial, God restored everything back to Job and then some. Likewise, Jesus says to Peter and his disciples, "Mark my words, no one who sacrifices house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, land—whatever—because of me and the Message will lose out. They'll get it all back, but multiplied many times in homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land—but also in troubles. And then the bonus of eternal life! This is once again the Great Reversal: Many who are first will end up last, and the last first." (Mark 10:28-31, The Message)

Angels In-Between

Dr Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12
at Batesville Presbyterian Church on October 8, 2006.

The seminary assignment was not unusual -- write a paper on a topic assigned by the professor -- but the topic was more personal than usual. "Do pets go to heaven when they die?" Our sources were a book assigned by the professor and the Bible. Using the book and the Bible I concluded that pets do indeed go to heaven when they die. It was a pass or fail course and I passed. As children we wonder what happens to our pets after they die and we wonder what happens to us after we die. We are told that we go to be with God in heaven with Jesus and the angels. From the Bible we see that heaven and earth are not so far apart for even here on the earth there are angels that make appearances.

In fact the Bible resounds with angel appearances. Whomever wrote the epistle to the Hebrews assumed readers were familiar with angels. As Bible students we know angels are spiritual beings from heavenly realms who serve as God's messengers to humans on earth. They appear in both the Old Testament and New Testament. For instance, an angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar and told her she would give birth to Ishmael who would be the progenitor of the Arab peoples from when comes Mohammad and the religion of Islam. An angel appeared to Abraham and prompted him to leave behind his current life and travel to the Promised Land and become the progenitor of the people of Israel.

We are accustomed to the thought of angels appearing within the Bible. The psalmist sang: "The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them." (Psalm 34:7) And again the psalmist sings: "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways." (Psalm 91:11) In the book of Job we learn that angels served God before the creation of earth. At some point there was an angel rebellion led by a beautiful and intelligent angel named Lucifer. Many angels joined Lucifer's rebellion and he tricked other angels into following him into the darkness. The angels that remained with God in the light continued to worship God and work for God.

We read about angels in the New Testament. Jesus and his family was acquainted with angels. An angel appeared to his mother, Mary, and told her she would conceive a son who would be the savior of the world. An angel of the Lord appeared to his father in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 1:20)

Angels helped Jesus to accomplish his mission on earth. When Jesus faced his darkest hour on the night before his crucifixion, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. (Luke 22:42-44) It was an angel that rolled back the stone of Jesus tomb and angels appeared to the women who were looking for Jesus in his tomb. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen." (Matt. 25:31) The Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament, acknowledges the existence of angels.

We acknowledge their existence in certain hymns of the church. We sing about cherubim and seraphim (these are types of angels), falling down before Him, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. We tend to think of angels as being higher than us and while we are on earth they are. But in the heavenly realms to which we are going we may be higher than the angels by virtue of our family connections. As Hebrews tells us, through our connection to Christ, we are members of the family circle of the Trinity. Christ considers us humans as brothers and sisters. So, by virtue of our adoption into God's immediate family, humans are higher than the angels.

Jesus Christ is also higher than the angels. That is the point our text wants to make. Our text today uses angels as a comparison device so we can appreciate the superiority of Christ. Christ is mentioned by various titles 23 times versus 10 mentions for angels. In this text, angels are described as winds and flames who worship God. Angels are spirits in the divine service, sent to serve human beings who are to inherit salvation. (Hebrews 1:14) But God did not put angels in charge of human salvation. That job belongs to Christ.

We humans wander through our earthly lives like wayfaring strangers. We are for a time lower than the angels but we are destined for glory and honor and all things will be subjected to humans. Of course we don't see it yet, we don't see everything under human jurisdiction, but according to scripture this will come to pass in due time. The human transition from our lowly status as earthlings to our exalted status as rulers in heaven is made possible through our family connection to Christ. We adopt creatures called pets into our family and we take care of them and they become a member of our family. God has adopted us into the family of the divine Trinity and we are members of the family of God.
 
We are members of God's family and we have tremendous power available to us. Power to heal our deepest hurts. Power to help us find the guidance we seek. Power to accomplish the mission for which we have been sent to this earth. Whether children, youth or adults, the power behind all creation stands ready to help us. We may call on a God when we need assistance, saying with the Psalmist: "O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me." If we ask for their assistance, the angels stand ready to help us as well.

Zero Degrees of Separation

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Mark 9:38-50
on October 1, 2006 at Batesville Presbyterian Church

       When the disciples told Jesus about an unauthorized person who was casting out demons in his name Jesus said, "Do not stop him. Whoever is not against us is for us." Jesus saw zero degrees of separation between his authorized and unauthorized disciples. The mistake of disciples then and now is to think we have a copyright on the powerful name of "Jesus." Christians are constantly struggling to determine the boundaries between who is "in" and who is "out" and Jesus is constantly redrawing the boundaries to include everyone. For Jesus sees zero degrees of separation between humans and God.
       Jesus challenges disciples to seek the same union with God he experienced. This union with God is a treasure that any person may seek and find but it is not an easy path and in fact it is very costly. We must be totally committed to this path to obtain union with God. So Jesus tells his disciples,

"If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed  — to obtain union with God in this lifetime with one hand missing — than to have two hands and live in hell — a state of separation from God.

And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life in God's kingdom lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell — to live in a state of separation from God in this lifetime.

And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for to achieve union with God in this lifetime with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. For in hell — in the state of separation from God in this lifetime — the fire of your ego is never quenched.

     We can see the hell to which Jesus refers all around us: War, violence, greed, and destruction of the earth for profit. These are the way of hell on this earth. Jesus calls us to another path. He calls us to follow the inward path to the kingdom of God which is union with God in this lifetime. Much has been made of Jesus statements to cut off our hand or foot or cut out our eye. They sound like such radical solutions to a problem that we rarely experience. The cure is radical but so is the disease of following the ego. But the goal is so wonderful — union with God in this lifetime — that the level of commitment Jesus challenges us toward seems like it may be worth it. Imagine achieving a state of union with God in this life. Imagine living your life and experiencing each moment a sense of zero degrees of separation between yourself and God. That is the kingdom of God. That is what we are challenged to pursue.
       Now when we hear Jesus challenge us to a level of commitment that would cut off our hand if it held us back from union with God our ego kicks in and we resent the idea that Jesus would challenge us to such a high level of commitment. The ego feels threatened. By ego I am referring to the false self that abides in each of us. The ego — the false self — is the source of the thoughts that run constantly through our heads. The thoughts in our head come from our ego, not our soul. Jesus calls us to go deeper than our minds — to go down deep into our bodies — to the level of the soul. The ego — our mental jabber — will do anything to keep us from moving beyond it and going deeper into ourselves. The ego will keep us distracted from the deeper self by focusing on anything it can find — our past, our future, even the present moment if it can get us to find something to complain about in the present moment. The ego, our mental jabber, loves to complain about other people and also situations. We think we don't want to be where we are in life. We want to be somewhere else. Or perhaps we want to be someone else. We craze to be
recognized, acknowledged, remarked upon.
       Many people are always waiting for the next thing to react against, to feel angry about. Their anger and outrage is like a drug. They need a fix several times a day in order to satisfy their craving. This too is hell on earth for the person who lives it and for those who must live and work with this person. Complaining and craving for anger like a drug — this is our ego 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 tha lies within us.
       In contrast the cravings of the ego, Jesus calls us to walk the path of humilty. 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 wholness and so "all things will come to you." (Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, 216) Humility is what the disciples lacked in our lesson today. They felt themselves superioer to the unnamed disciple who cast out demons in Jesus' name. They rebuked him but Jesus encouraged him. The disciples got trapped in their ego and cut off from the power of humility.
       Humility is our lesson for the day on World Communion Sunday. As we join with disciples of all races and denominations from all over the globe we come to the communion table we acknowledge we do not have a trademark on truth. We do not have an exclusive contract with God. Jesus sees zero degrees of separation between East and West, Catholics and Protestants, Greek Orthodox and Syrian Coptic, Pentecostal and Presbyterian. Zero degrees of separation.        
       Jesus saw zero degrees of separation between his authorized and unauthorized disciples. Jesus sees zero degreees of separation from us and other Christians. Jesus offers to all the same bread and the same cup. Some religious leaders once asked Jesus to condense the entire Old Testament into one sentence and Jesus said this. Love God with all your heart and mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. That means see yourself when you see your neighbor. For in the kingdom of God — in God's realm within — there is literally zero degrees of separation between any two human beings and between any human being and God. Zero degrees of separation.

Sticks and Stones

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon on James 3:1-12
at Batesville Presbyterian Church on September 17, 2006

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words may never hurt me. As children we were taught to say that when someone said hurtful things to us. As an adult, we realize the words should be changed to reflect the truth. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words may really hurt me. Perhaps our deepest wounds in life come from words spoken about us or against us. For spoken words are perhaps the most powerful force on this planet.

Politicians and preachers recognize the power of words. As we begin the Fall election campaign for Congress we anticipate negative campaigns because that is the nature of current politics. Believe it or not American political races may have been even more vicious in the past. For instance, consider the presidential election of 1828. This was the most Presbyterian election in American history in that both candidates -- John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson -- were pew holders at Second Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. This campaign between two Presbyterians who belonged to the same congregation was one of the bitterest campaigns ever waged in American politics. Slander and character assassination were the order of the day. The personal attacks included lurid lies about Andrew Jackson's mother.

When the votes were counted Andrew Jackson won the campaign, but the viciousness of the fight carried over into his first term in office. Historians have noted that most of Jackson's energy during the first two years of his presidency were given over to fighting vicious rumors against the wife of a friend, Margaret "Peggy" Eaton, wife of John Henry Eaton. Rumor said Mrs. Eaton had been involved with her current husband while married to her previous husband, John Timberlake, who had died under mysterious circumstances while serving overseas in the Navy. Like President Jackson, Mr. and Mrs. Eaton were members of Second Presbyterian Church in Washington. So imagine the heartache that they experienced when they learned that their pastor, Rev. John Campbell, was the source of the rumors. Nor would the pastor deny the rumors even when presented with evidence to the contrary and being confronted first by President Jackson in the White House and later by Mr. and Mrs. Eaton in the pastor's study at the church. Poor Mrs. Eaton. Her pastor was the source of vicious rumors against her.

How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. (James 3:5-10)

And the tongue can work against the minister as well. A nationally known pastor told a small luncheon group how his daughter had been destroyed by her teacher who intentionally used language to destroy the girl's self-confidence. Unfortunately, the pastor did not realize the nature of the problem until it was too late and the damage was done. The preacher's daughter is now able to hold only a part-time job doing unskilled labor due to the deliberate destruction of her self confidence. The pastor later learned the teacher had deliberately done this to his daughter because she was the daughter of a Presbyterian minister.

We wonder why a pastor would be so vicious as to attack the character of a church member or why a teacher would intentionally damage a student. This does not seem to be rational behavior. We can begin to answer the question by recalling a concept from Psychology 101 as taught in universities across America. There a is a concept called "projection" whereby one person projects onto another person or group of people all the negative traits that the person doing the projecting cannot face in himself or herself. Someone who is obsessed with the behavior and life of the Pope or the General Assembly, a coach or a pastor, may be projecting onto that person or group their own negative feelings about themselves. We feel safer projecting our negative feelings onto someone else rather than recognizing them in ourselves.

Projection causes someone like the pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. in 1828 to single out a woman in his congregation as someone who must be destroyed even to the point of telling lies about her. I think the pastor of Second Church projected onto this congregation member because she belonged to a different faction in the political infighting in the denomination in those days. The Old School versus the New School was the debate and most people today do not even know what they were fighting over. And projection is what caused a teacher to focus on an innocent girl whose father was a Presbyterian minister because the teacher had a bad experience with another Presbyterian minister in her past.

Now we are not here today to talk about psychology so let's turn to the spiritual aspect of the damage we do with our tongues. In verse 12, James mentions a fig tree. "Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs?" When James mentions the fig tree we recall Jesus' dramatic encounter with a fig tree. The day before Jesus had set Jerusalem to talking by lowering the boom on money changers in the temple. That night he lodged outside the city in Bethany. Early the next morning Jesus was returning to the city. He was hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree alongside the road, he approached it anticipating a breakfast of figs. When he got to the tree, there was nothing but fig leaves. He said, "No more figs from this tree—ever!" The fig tree withered on the spot, a dry stick. The disciples saw it happen. They rubbed their eyes, saying, "Did we really see this? A leafy tree one minute, a dry stick the next?"  (Matt. 21:18-20) Thus did Jesus illustrate the spiritual principle of the destructive power of the spoken word. The more we mature spiritually the more closely we must watch what we say for our words literally have the power to heal or to destroy.

James reminds us of the negative power of words but he also alludes to the positive power for good that words can convey. In our text today James mentions every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature and so reminds us of that the power of the spoken word is a foundational component of creation. In the Genesis account of creation God creates the world with the sound of God's voice. God said, "Let there be light" and there was light. (Gen. 1:3) God's spoken word created the birds, sea creatures, vegetation and finally, human beings. God spoke and created the world. And God said that it was good.

Such a small little part of our body, the tongue, yet it is our primary way of projecting ourselves onto the world. No wonder the number one way to judge the wisdom of a person in the ancient world was how well they were able to control their tongue. As James puts it: "Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check." The tongue is a power instrument for positive or negative energy. Let us use our tongues to produce the positive energies of love. That is the best thing we can do for our own happiness and health and for the happiness and health of the world.

Opening Act

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon
on Mark 7:31-37 at Batesville Presbyterian Church
on September 10, 2006

Tomorrow we mark the fifth anniversary of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. In the days immediately after the horror, we felt united as Americans in a way I had never experienced. I'll never forget the packed worship services on the Sunday after nine eleven. As a people we were tuned to the frequency of compassion. As I look consider where we are today, we seem to have changed frequencies along the way. We are now operating on the frequency of fear instead of the frequency of compassion. The good news is that Jesus can heal the ears of our heart by tuning the frequency back to the compassion frequency. In order to receive such healing we must open ourselves to the Christ within.

Jesus own ears were tuned to the compassion frequency even as he traveled around the northern coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon. Then, as now, these were Gentile cities. Both were heavily bombed by the Israelis in their recent war with Lebanon. As he visited these coastal cities, I wonder if Jesus heard the wind blow on the shores of the Mediterranean. Perhaps he saw a wild flower blooming along the Roman roads he traveled on his way back down to the Sea of Galilee. Somewhere along the way, Jesus encountered a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. They begged Jesus to lay his hand on him and heal him. We don't know if they were the deaf man's friends or family or a crowd that was following him. What we do know is that Jesus heard their petitions because his ears were tuned to the compassion frequency.  Jesus took the deaf man aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, 'Ephphatha', that is, 'Be opened.' And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

Would that we could be healed as well. Would that our ears and tongues were cured so that we could hear and speak with compassion. Of course most of hear well enough with our natural ears. The healing we need has to do with our spiritual ears. The healing we need is an opening of ourselves to hear what I'll call the compassion frequency. A radio can play different frequencies such as A.M. and F.M. Our spiritual ears are also able to tune to different frequencies. For example, we may tune our spiritual ears to the frequency of fear or the frequency of compassion. Sometimes even when we want to change our spiritual frequency we cannot because we are paralyzed by fear. Fear keeps us on a negative frequency. Perfect love casts out fear, giving us the grace to tune our spiritual ears back to the compassion frequency.

Cynthia Bourgeault tells a story about her friend, Hank, who was an old and fierce fisherman in Maine. Shocked describes how his friends felt when they learned tough old Hank had contracted pancreatic cancer. Not long thereafter Hank and Cynthia were engaged in a broad conversation that landed on the subject of fog on the ocean and making passages in zero-visibility conditions. Hank described several techniques for keeping fear at bay and navigating through the fog. Then Cynthia blurted without thinking: "Yes, or else you can just let the fear come up and fall through to the other side ..." And Hank looked at her as if she had pierced him in the side. Over the next few weeks Hank began to die and Cynthia was amazed at how his soul grew large and she could feel the energy of love radiating from him almost as a force field. She says he faced his death with open heart, utterly trusting and utterly serene.

Three days before the end Cynthia went for what turned out to be her last visit with Hank. Hank was curled in bed, his body totally broken yet somehow radiantly powerful. They hugged each other and said farewell. And then his last words to her--so muffled and unexpected that she did not catch them at first: "Are you fearless yet?"
"Not yet, Hank, " she said. "I'm trying."

Then came Hank's last words to Cynthia, words that it took her another ten years to fully understand. Hank said: "Fall ... fearless ... into ... love." (The Wisdom Way of Knowing, 68-71) The Christian life is a process of falling fearless into love. Hank experienced this as a human being at the time of his death and all of nature seems to know this basic truth of life.

Consider the flower. The flower seed is planted into the ground like a dead body. The seed is cracked open and out of it springs forth new life. It grows up through the soil. It opens to the sun and receives energy. It opens to the soil and receives nourishment. It opens to the wind and receives exercise. It opens to the rain and its thirst is quenched. All this opening makes the flower strong. The power of the flower is in its opening. So it is with us. We open our mouths and eat food and drink water and our bodies are nourished. We open our hearts and receive love and our emotional life is nourished. We open our ears and receive truth and our souls are nourished. All this opening makes us strong. For, as the psalmist says, "Our strength comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth." Lord, open us, like a flower, to the softening of your Spirit so we may be strengthened to carry your Word into the world. Give us the courage to fall fearless into love. Grant this grace to our country and grant this grace to us as individuals. The grace to fall fearless into love.

The baptism of Warren, infant child that he is, reminds us of the mystery of human birth. From among the millions and millions of possibilities for human life only one solitary sperm survive a difficult journey and implant an egg. So each of us and every human being from the moment of conception is literally one in a million. In the recently rediscovered Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says, "I choose you, one from a  thousand, two from ten-thousand, and you will stand to your own feet having become a single whole." (The Gospel of Thomas, Logion 23) I think Jesus could have said that to this man whom he had just healed. He chose this man, one among many, one among thousands, to heal and make whole. He opened his ears so he could hear. He fixed his tongue so he could speak. The healed man could now stand on his own feet. Jesus had made this man a single whole.

Jesus wants to say that to us, too, each one of us. "I choose you, one from a thousand, two from ten-thousand, and you will stand to your own feet having become a single whole." That is God's desire for each of us--become a single whole. United within and without. Healthy in body, mind and soul. Wealthy in love and rich in relationships. Secure and safe. The Christian life is a continual opening to the Christ within. 'Ephphatha', that is, 'Be opened.'

Sowing the Seeds of Happiness

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from James 1:17-27

on September 3, 2006 at Batesville Presbyterian Church

           

            Thich Nhat Hanh, in his book, Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames , talks about "watering the seeds of happiness." He suggests the importance of watering the seeds of happiness especially in our family relationships, husband and wife, parent and child. We water the seeds of happiness when we value and compliment the positive aspects of those whom we love. Instead of trying to change them we love them as they are and bring out the best in them. We encourage the good in one another. We emphasize what they excel at. Promote the positive within them.

            This is what Mrs. Young did for me when I was a student in her 5th grade math class, and this is what she did for me when I visited her home, and this is what she did for me when she led my youth group at church. She watered the seeds of happiness in me. Mrs. Young is the mother of a good friend. She recently died and as I conducted her funeral I remembered the ways Mrs. Young had watered the seeds of happiness in me.

            I remember the 5th grade classroom where she taught. It was a clean, well organized room. And she came to class to do business. She wasn't marking time on the pay clock. She meant for math to be learned and I must say that I learned in her classroom.

            Mrs. Young will always be associated in my mind with my home church where she and her family were active in the church. She helped rear me in the faith. She and her husband, led the Sunday night Training Union class for the youth when I was in the youth group. The Young's were good youth leaders. They kept us straight. They put up with us. I always felt safe when they were in charge because I knew things would not get out of hand. I wouldn't have to do anything too stupid or embarrass myself in front of the gang as long as Mr. and Mrs. Young were in charge because there wasn't going to be any kind of radical silliness going on in the room. Mrs. Young watered the seeds of happiness in me through her leadership in the youth group at church.

            She also watered the seeds of happiness in me when I visited her home to play with her son, Phil, a close friend. This play was always educational for me because Phil is smarter than I am and I usually learned something new when I visited Phil. Mrs. Young had the good sense to make presence known when I arrived at the house and then to generally stay out of the way so Phil could educate me on the symphonies of Beethoven or the finer points about what made Napoleon the greatest general in the history of warfare. And of course there were the war games we played, usually created by Phil which meant that half way through the game, just when I was getting my momentum going and had finally figured out how to beat him and made my big move Phil would nearly always say with a contrived, disappointed look on his face, "You can't do that."

            "What? What do you mean you can't do that? I'm doing it!"

            "No. You can't do that. That's against the rules."

            The best thing about making up your own games is that you get to write the rules and if they're not working for you can always change them if you need to. Seriously, I was never going to beat Phil in a strategy game and I knew and he knew it too. That's why he was always happy to see me come over. My friendship with Mrs. Young's son watered the seeds of happiness in me.

We water the seeds of happiness in our children, our friends, and even among people whom we've never met.

            The writer of the epistle of James wants us to water the seeds of happiness in others even God waters the seeds of our own happiness. I love Eugene Peterson's translation of James 1:21,  "In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life." God waters the seeds of happiness by landscaping up with the divine Word, making a salvation-garden of our lives.

            We sometimes make the mistake of limiting God. Sometimes we in the church put religion in a box. Some of us got this message from the church when we were growing up: Jesus is nice and he wants us to be nice too. How surprised we are then when later in life we find the Holy Spirit moving us to acts of charity beyond our wildest imagination.

            That is what happened to Rev. Rick Warren. Rick is the pastor of a mega-church in California and the author of a book called The Purpose Driven Life that has sold over 20 million copies. One of his passions is training pastors and one of his wife's passions is working for healing the millions of women and children in Africa who are victims of AIDS. Mr. and Mrs. Warren recently went to South Africa where she was attending a conference on AIDS and he was training pastors. After his seminar, Rick took a tour out into the bush country and visited a small church of less than 100 members. This congregation was so poor they met in a run-down tent. They had none of the material things we associate with a successful church. And in that run-down tent this small congregation was taking care of 20 AIDS orphans. I saw Rick Warren tell this story on the Charlie Rose Show. Rev. Warren said that one little side-trip to a small church out in the bush country had changed his life and his ministry. He was completely humbled to learn that this poor little church that took full-time responsibility for the care and education of 20 AIDS orphans. This poor, tiny church in rural South Africa was doing more the loveless and homeless of the world than Warren's 20,000 member church in prosperous Southern California. Rev. Warren returned to his church in California and set about organizing his 20,000 member congregation to water the seeds of happiness among AIDS victims around the world. We never know how God may use once we open up our lives to the Holy Spirit and allow God to begin watering the seeds of happiness in others.

            We can being watering the seeds of happiness by doing what James suggests: "Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear." (James 5:19) Learning to listen is a vital first step. Learning to lead with our ears. Learning to control our tongues is also necessary. Someone has said "Silence is God's first language" and we should learn to speak that language well. Converting our anger into positive energy for spiritual transformation is another step along the way. In a recent sermon, I spoke about the power of the "Welcome Prayer" to transform anger into quantum spiritual growth. We welcome God into our anger and work it out that way.

            Let's follow the program James lays out in our reading today and we will learn to sow the seeds of happiness. "Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear." Let's use our ears for listening and so begin watering the seeds of happiness in others. Let's use our tongue for blessing, encouraging and laughter to water the seeds of happiness in others. And let's let anger straggle along in the rear. We never know where such sowing may lead. James makes it very simple for to understand, saying: "Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight." (James 1:27) Sowing the seeds of happiness is about more than being nice. It is an intentional form of spreading God's love in a dry and thirsty world. Let's water the seeds of happiness in others as a demonstration that our religion is real.

We Are With You, Lord

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon on John 6:56-69
at Batesville Presbyterian Church on August 27, 2006

A student came to a great Buddhist teacher and asked if he would teach him the great mysteries of the faith. The teacher asked the student to tell him about himself while he made them a cup of green tea. The student began telling about himself and the list of his accomplishments all about his spiritual experiences and as he was talking he noticed that the teacher was pouring the green tea into a cup and the cup was full but the teacher was still pouring tea so the tea was spilling over the tabletop and onto the floor so the student said, "Teacher, the tea, the tea, the cup is full and you are spilling the tea."

The wise teacher replied, "Yes, the cup is too full to hold any more tea and so you are too full to hold my teaching. There is no more room in your head." And the student left full of the sad understanding that he was too full of himself to harbor any new instruction.

Once there was a great teacher by the name of Jesus of Nazareth. He was a real person called "Jesus of Nazareth" because Jesus was his first name and he had grown up in the village of Nazareth. When he became an adult and took on the role of mishal, full-time wisdom teacher, he made his home in Capernaum, a village on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (Matt 4:13). Peter, Andrew, James and John were fishermen living in the village. Matthew the tax collector also resided here. Visit Capernaum today and you may still walk through the ruins of the ancient synagogue where Jesus preached. The synagogue made of stone is about half the size of our Fellowship Hall, our original sanctuary. Strange and wonderful things happened in the synagogue in Capernaum.

For instance, once when he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum on the Sabbath day, Jesus was confronted by a man with an unclean spirit, who cried out: 'What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.'   Jesus shut him up: "Quiet! Get out of him!" The unclean spirit threw the man into spasms, protesting loudly—and got out. (Mark 1:21-27). And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, 'What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.'      

In this same synagogue in Capernaum Jesus gave a teaching that would send some students packing. Jesus told his students: "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them." ( http://www.bibleplaces.com/capernaum.htm) Now if this sounds strange to us imagine how weird it must have sounded to his disciples. We are supported by 2000 years of Christian theological about the meaning of the Lord's Supper. We have the Bible and 20/20 hindsight. We know how the story ends. Jesus' disciples had none of these advantages. And some them simply could not believe that this man, Jesus, could be all that he claimed. Things were getting too weird and some of the disciples checked out of the Capernaum hotel and went back to their former lives. 

It must have been a terrible disappointment to Jesus when some of his students left. We wonder how his voice sounded when Jesus asked the twelve disciples, "Do you also wish to go away?" The question driving them away is the question that Christians have had to answer for themselves in every generation: "Who is Jesus really?"

In the modern era, Jesus has been understood from one end of the spectrum to the other. From the sublime to the ridiculous. Some Christians during the Nazi regime in Germany tried to turn Jesus, a Palestinian Jew, into an Aryan superhero. Karl Barth recognized the danger and wrote "The Theological Declaration of Barmen" as reminder that the true Christ is the one revealed in scripture and not the one Hitler's henchmen were foisting upon the church. More recently, theologians such as Gustavo Gutierrez who labor among the destitute of Latin America have spoken of God's "preferential option for the poor" and see in Jesus as an ally in the struggle for justice for the poor.

"Who is Jesus to me?" In the final analysis this is a personal question. Each of us must answer the question of whom Jesus will be to us.

"Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them." This image of eating and drinking Christ is at the heart of the Christian sacrament of the Lord's Supper. It is a basic question of nourishment. Jesus says "I am the bread of life" and the bread image does move us much, we who live in a world where there are reportedly more people overweight than people starving. We live in a land of abundance and we are not completely convinced we need the bread Jesus offers us. If we don't have a taste for that spiritual bread then Jesus' next question to us is this: "Do you also want to leave?"

We have often heard the word repent interpreted as if it means we are to be sorry for our sins but that is not what the Greek word metanoi, which we interpret repent, literally means. To repent is not to feel guilty for what we done or not done. Neither does metanoi mean to turn our lives around and go in a different direction. The literal meaning of the word metanoi is meta which means beyond and noi which means mind. So metanoi, to repent, literally means to move beyond our mind.

Move beyond your mind. Venture beyond your ego. That is what the Buddhist teacher was saying to the student when he kept pouring the green tea into a cup that was already full. The student's mind was full. There was nothing the teacher could add to it. The only thing left to fill would have been the student's heart. The student did not understand the teacher and walked away. And we can only imagine the joy he left on the table when he walked out the door.      

Jesus, the divine human teacher, challenges us to repent, to metanoi, to move beyond our mind, to engage life with the intelligence of our heart. This is not an invitation to a romantic feeling. It is an invitation to an altered consciousness. A new way of seeing the world. To move with the Spirit into a realm of intuitive knowing, the kind of knowing we sometimes feel in our very bones. The kind of heart knowing that Peter had for Jesus. The kind of knowing that goes beyond the knowing of the mind and enters the realm of the heart.

"Do you also want to leave?" We hardly know how to answer Jesus. Thankfully, Peter speaks for us, saying to Jesus for us: "Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life." We are with you, Lord. We're not always sure where you are leading us but we are with you. We are not sure what you are trying to do in us but we are with you, Lord. We are not sure what you are trying to do through us but we are with you, Lord. Even so, Lord, stay with us. Abide with us. Show us the way and we will follow you — one day at a time — always living in the now — into a new way of perceiving God, ourselves and the world. Then we will open our minds and open our hearts and open our mouths and join with both Simon Peter and the demon possessed man whom Jesus cured in the synagogue in Capernaum, confessing to Jesus, "We have come to know that you ... are the Holy One of God."

Love Trumps Fear

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Psalm 111
on August 20, 2006 at Batesville Presbyterian Church

We know plenty about fear and all of it is bad. Fear has a profoundly negative effect on our world. So how strange it sounds to our ears when we hear from the Psalmist: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom." That sense of dissonance begins to disappear when we learn that the term "fear of the Lord" is a technical term that means we are to "respect" and admire and feel a positive attraction, a fascination, for God.

A positive attractive to the Lord was the drawing card for a woman with an illness that made her bleed. She came seeking help from Jesus. When she found him he was surrounded by a large crowd. The woman's desire to be healed was so strong that she touched his garment and she was healed. The garment of the Lord is an allegory for the liturgy that surrounds the Lord in our worship. We approach the Lord with desire and through our worship liturgy we are able to touch the Lord and so be healed. Rather than discouraging us, the Lord cheerfully invites us to come, saying, "Come unto me all you who are weary and I will give you rest." Our healing comes from the Lord. We can touch the Lord's garment through our hymns, our prayers, and our affirmations of faith. We can touch the Lord's garment and we can be healed. The "fear of the Lord" refers to our desire to touch the Lord and to be healed. We praise God in the church and it is in the worshipping community among the people of God that we learn that love trumps fear. We learn that love transcends fear by studying the works of God, by touching the Lord in our liturgy and in our relationships with God's people.

We seek a relationship to the Lord because, like the Psalmist, we too are fascinated by the works of the Lord, God's wonderful deeds. We sing with the psalmist about the wonderful works of our gracious and merciful Lord. The Lord provides for our physical needs and keeps covenant with us. God shows us the power of God's works. The works of God's hands are faithful and just; they are trustworthy. They are established forever and ever, performed with faithfulness and uprightness. God sent redemption to God's people, God commanded God's covenant forever. Again and again, the Psalmist reminds us of God's faithfulness to the covenant. Then we get the final thought and it sounds out of touch with what we have just heard: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Joan Chittister defines "fear of the lord" as "holy astonishment, complete wonder and awe at what God does in my life and the life of everyone around me."

I had a sense of wonder and awe as I arrived in a basement room at Sacred Heart Monastery on the first day of a centering prayer retreat this Summer. There were 22 ecumenical retreatants and only four of us were ordained ministers. Centering prayer is a prayer of profound silence and silence is what we all expected as we sat in a large circle and began our first 20 minute prayer session together. But the silence was rudely interrupted shortly after we began when someone quickly scraped their sandaled feet against in a sound that solicited a similar response as someone scratching their fingernails down a chalkboard. I had to take a peek and see who it was and was surprised to see it was one of the ministers in the group. He looked like Walter Mattheau and breathed like Darth Vader. The next several days required each of us to learn to deal with the distraction of the loud prayer in our midst. Some of us wanted to kick him out of the retreat. He was that distracting. Others, including the retreat leader, insisted we must let him continue with us because he was in a fragile emotional state as he was grieving the recent death of a close friend. In the end, the Walter Mattheau slash Darth Vader minister stayed and by the end of the retreat was an accepted part of the group. As I think back on that retreat I realize that each of the retreatants in effect made a covenant with one another before the retreat that no matter who showed up we would accept them and pray with them. In the end, some of us may have lost some quality prayer time but we kept our unspoken covenant with one another.

In the Presbyterian Church we make a more formal covenant that includes vows taken in a public worship service. It happens each year when we install elders and deacons. As part of that ritual the church officers take vows. I took similar vows when I became an ordained minister in 1994. One of the vows taken by deacons, elders and ministers is a vow to remain faithful to the Presbyterian Church (USA), the denomination into which we are ordained. We make these vows in front of God and this congregation. Beware of any minister, elder, deacon or church member who encourages you to consider breaking your vows to this denomination. As for me, I have no desire or intention of breaking the vows I made to the PC(USA). I am not interested in serving with church officers who entertain the notion of breaking the vows they have made.

This is why I am so pleased that our church officers have not gotten caught up in the latest round of hand wringing and big talk that predictably followed the last meeting of the General Assembly this Summer. Such talk distracts us from the mission of our church which is to be an inclusive church that is constantly opening our hearts to new members and to new ways of serving Christ together in this community.
Unfortunately, there are a few congregations in our presbytery who have been led astray by their pastors and who are now facing painful divisions within their fellowship. I will never lead this congregation toward division. I will never lead this congregation to break the vows we have made to the Presbyterian Church (USA). I will never do this because I have too much respect for God, for you and for myself. Such respect is one characteristic of "the fear of the Lord" that is the beginning of wisdom.
God never gives up on us and we should never give up on one another. The demands of love are rigorous. There is no question that by taking vows to remain faithful to a particular denomination we are restricting ourselves. Love is about restrictions. When we make marriage vows we are restricting ourselves as well. We are saying, "This one and no other." Love makes stringent demands and offers lots of opportunity for the hard work of patience, endurance and forbearance.

Mutual forbearance is characteristic of the Presbyterian tradition. Mutual forbearance means we stick it out with one another even during times of disagreement or turmoil. Mutual forbearance means we focus on the 80% of things we agree upon instead of the 20% of things we don't agree upon. Our disagreements in the Presbyterian Church, the 20% on which we are conflicted, are not essential matters. We believe in the sovereignty of God. We believe in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. These are essentials. On these we agree. That is what matters. The other 20%, the non essentials upon which we disagree, these call for mutual forbearance.

I resonate with Paul's vision for the church in Ephesians 5:18-20 where he writes, "Be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts; giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." That is what we are doing today and what we do each Sunday when we gather for worship. One of our elders at the last Session meeting shared an idea he got when he had several out of town family members here for the baptism of his granddaughter. He suggested we make a CD of our choir and sale it and give the money to the youth group. These are the kinds of positive ideas we can build on.

My vision for Batesville Presbyterian Church is nothing fancy or glamorous. I envision a future of singing together, giving thanks to God and working together with respect for one another and for God. Let's keep the covenant we have made. Let's bear with one another. As the Psalmist so eloquently puts it: "Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation." We praise the Lord with all our heart in the congregation. That is enough for the Psalmist and that is enough for us as well.

The Welcome Prayer

Be angry but do not sin;
do not let the sun go down on your anger,
and do not make room for the devil.
Ephesians 4:26-27

Some of us are brought up in homes in which it is considered inappropriate to express anger. In contrast to what some of us learned at home, Jesus expressed anger on more than one occasion. When Peter said to Jesus in regard to the cross, "This must happen to you!" Jesus responded in what I imagine was an angry tone of voice: "Get behind me, Satan." Another time Jesus was angry at the money changers in the temple. In his anger he threw stuff around in the temple. Of course, there are good theological reasons that Jesus acted this way, but these do not dismiss the reality of his anger. And with Jesus, when the situation is over, so is the emotional response. His emotions were appropriate responses to the present moment with its particular contents. Jesus practiced the seemingly impossible admonition we read in our text today, "Be angry but do not sin." Jesus did that and so can we.

Welcome anger. Welcome anger. Welcome anger. I never thought I would be saying it but that is what I'm saying these days. Don't get me wrong. I'm not welcoming anger. The "welcome" is an invitation the presence of God within me. When I say "anger" in the welcome prayer, I am naming of an emotion that I am experiencing in the present moment. So when I say, "Welcome, anger," I am welcoming God, welcoming the Holy Spirit, inside my body to mix with my feelings of anger until the feelings are transformed into energy for spiritual renewal.

Cynthia Bourgeault describes how the welcoming prayer works in her book Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening. First we focus and sink in. To focus means to feel an emotion as a sensation in your body. We know how to feel a pain in our bodies such a sore tooth. We can also learn to feel anger in our body. We feel our jaw clench. Our stomach is in knots. Our breath gets shorter. Stay present to these feelings as they happen. You've got to pay attention here because if you've been brought up in a family where it was inappropriate to express anger, you may be able to whisk it away into your unconscious so quickly you never even register that you are angry. Then the unrecognized anger goes right back down into your body, where it becomes more sludge in the pipes blocking the free flow of your being. Keep a firm grounding in physical sensation, feel your anger, focus on the feelings and sink into them.

Now comes the strange advice. Sitting there, stewing in the upset of your anger, begin to say, ever so gently, "Welcome, anger." Common sense tells us to get rid of feelings of anger. But by welcoming it instead, you create an atmosphere of inner hospitality.
There is a wonderful fantasy novel by Ursula LeGuin called A Wizard of Earthsea. A young wizard named Ged is training to become a sorcerer. One day, horsing around with his friends, he inadvertently conjures up a minor demon. The demon proceeds to haunt him throughout the book. As he grows in power and influence, it grows right along with him. Gradually it turns very dark and begins to stalk him; he flees in terror. He runs to a city by the sea, but it follows him there. He hires a boat and rows out into the sea, but it follows him there. Finally he jumps into the water, but the thing is till right on his back. Finally, with all escape routes blocked, he does the only thing left to him: He turns to the demon and embraces it. At which point it vanishes, integrated back inside him as the shadow he is finally willing to own.

Ged's experience of liberation illustrates the power in the Welcoming process. By embracing the thing you once defended yourself against or ran from, you are actually disarming it, removing its power to hurt you.

A couple of important qualifications are in order here. First of all, what you are welcoming is the physical or psychological content of the moment only, not a general blanket condoning of a situation. For instance, a woman who just learned she had colon cancer said, "I tried to work with Welcoming Prayer but colon cancer is a hard thing to welcome." Again, you can spot her error. What was on her plate in that moment was not cancer, but the fear of cancer. That was the situation she needed to be working with. It was not "Welcome, cancer," but "Welcome, fear." Welcoming a feeling is the second movement in the welcoming prayer. We feel an emotion rising. We sink in and focus on the feeling. We welcome God into the feeling. And then we let go.

Letting go is the third step in the welcome prayer but don't get to this step too quickly. The real work in the Welcoming Prayer is actually accomplished in the first two steps. Stay with them--sort of life kneading a charley horse in your leg--going back and forth between "focusing" and "welcoming" until the knot begins to dissolve of its own accord. When you are ready to let go, you simply say something like "I let go of my anger," or, if you prefer, "I give my anger to God."

Mary Mrozowski is the founding genius behind the Welcoming Prayer. Mary was a New Yorker with an "in your face" kind of pizzazz. Mary practiced the welcoming prayer in her own life with emotions ranging from anger to pain. For instance, on her long-awaited first trip to Italy, her expectations were suddenly turned completely upside down when a car hurtling out of control ran up on the sidewalk, slammed into her, and pinned her against a wall. In the midst of intense pain and a madhouse of confusion, she was able to keep saying, "Welcome, pain, welcome pain, welcome pain," and to recite the litany, "I let go my desire to change the situation." Her calm was not only amazing but actually contagious; the crowd began to calm down. The Welcome Prayer helped Mary to survive that terrible accident.

The welcome prayer provides opportunities for quantum spiritual growth by working with common emotions such as anger, fear, pride or pain. Again, there are three steps to the Welcome Prayer. First, we become aware of an emotion rising within us and we focus on the feeling it brings. We determine which emotion we are feeling. Name it. Now welcome God into the feeling. If the feeling is anger, say, "Welcome anger. Welcome anger. Welcome anger." Stay with the emotion you are feeling--sort of life kneading a charley horse in your leg--going back and forth between "focusing" and "welcoming" until the knot begins to dissolve of its own accord. When you are ready to let go of the feeling, say something like "I let go of my anger," or, if you prefer, "I give my anger to God." The Welcome Prayer is a spiritual technique that helps us fulfill Paul's admonition: "Be angry but do not sin."

For more information see "The Welcoming Prayer" written by Cynthia Bourgeault in the book Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cowley Publications, 2004, pg. 135-152.

Everlasting Bread

Everlasting Bread
John 6:24-35

       Last Thursday I went to Kroger to buy some groceries. One thing I needed was a loaf of bread. There were several types of bread from which to choose. I picked one called "Baker's Inn: Sliced Bakery Bread." It is 100% whole wheat. I put in the shopping cart, paid for it at the check-out stand and took it home. Last night I ate a piece of bread with my soup. The bread tasted good.
         It is hard for me, as a well fed American, to understand the importance of bread unless I turn on a TV and watch what is going on in some parts of the world today. I wonder how much a loaf of bread would cost today in bombed-out South Beirut, Lebanon. A simple loaf of bread in certain parts of the world means life itself.
         The Bible recognizes the importance of bread. The key event in the Old Testament was the Exodus event--the trip from Egypt to the Promised Land. A drought in the land of Israel had led to famine. There was no bread in the land. This lack of bread led the people of Israel to Egypt where there was a surplus of bread. Later, when Moses led the Jewish slaves to freedom in the Promised Land they were facing starvation in the wilderness and God rained down bread from heaven in the form of manna. Manna. Daily bread from God. Daily bread is no joking matter to a starving person. But for well fed people like us an obsession for bread can sometimes seem humorous and perhaps even enlightening.
       There is a bit of Jewish humor that goes like this: An old man goes to a diner every day for lunch. He always orders the soup du jour. One day the manager asks him how he liked his meal. The old man replies, "It was good, but you could give a little more bread. Two slices of bread is not enough." So the next day the manager tells the waitress
to give him four slices of bread. "How was your meal, sir?" the manager asks. "It was good, but you could give a little more bread," comes the reply. So the next day the manager tells the waitress to give him eight slices of bread. "How was your meal today, sir?" the manager asks. "Good, but you could give a little more bread," comes the reply. So . . . the next day the manager tells the waitress to give him a whole loaf of bread, 16 slices with his soup. "How was your meal, sir?" the manager asks, when he comes to pay. "It was good, but you could give just a little more bread," comes the reply once again.
         The manager is now obsessed with seeing this customer satisfied with his meal, so he goes to the bakery, and orders a six-foot-long loaf of bread. When the man comes in as usual the next day, the waitress and the manager cut the loaf in half, butter the entire length of each half, and lay it out along the counter, right next to his bowl of soup. The old man sits down, and devours both his bowl of soup, and both halves of the six-foot-long loaf of bread. The manager now thinks he will get the answer he is looking for, and when the old man comes up to pay for his meal, the manager asks in the usual way: "How was
your meal TODAY, sir?" The old man replies: "It was good as usual, but I see you are back to serving only two slices of bread!"
     Bread. Daily bread. Manna. This was on the mind of the Jewish crowd that found Jesus in Capernaum. Like the old man in the diner, they wanted some more bread. But Jesus does not respond to them like the manager of the diner responded to the hungry old man. Instead of feeling responsible to give them a memorable dining experience Jesus puts the responsibility back on the crowd as he challenges the crowd to make a deeper commitment to him.
         The crowd waffles: "Show us what you can do. Moses fed our ancestors with
bread in the desert. They called it manna. It says so in the Scriptures: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' Show us what you can do. Got any manna for us today?'"
         Jesus responds, "Forget the manna. Let's get real. The significance of that Scripture is not that Moses gave them bread from heaven but that my Father is right now offering you bread from heaven, the real bread. The Bread of God came down out of heaven and is giving life to the world."
         They jumped at that: "Master, give us this bread, now and forever!"
         Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever."
         We are hungry like the crowd that came to Jesus seeking bread. We are starving for security and stability. We are starving for affection and esteem. We are starving
for power and control. We go to great lengths to satisfy our hunger. War. Lust. Greed. Like the old man in the diner who never gets enough bread for lunch we never get enough. We try to satisfy our hunger in various ways. We seek to make the best grades, die with the most toys, or even attend church more than our neighbor. All the while we are grasping for bread that will never satisfy our deepest hunger, the mother of all hungers, which is the hunger for God's approval, God's peace, God's love. Our problem is not a lack of bread but a lack of the experience of God's love.
     There is only one bread that can satisfy our deepest hunger -- the hunger for God. That bread is Jesus Christ our Lord. The one who referred to himself as the Bread of Life. This is my body, broken for you. The body of Christ. The bread of salvation. Feed us, Lord, for we are hungry for an experience of God. Feed us Lord, for we are hungry for you. Feed us, Lord, with the Bread of Life -- everlasting bread. And then we shall feel fully accepted and loved by God just as we are in this present moment. This everlasting bread is eternal life. It is available right now. Jesus offers it to us. Let's eat.