City of Hope

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5 at Batesville Presbyterian Church on May 13, 2007

"There is a church in the Northeast with a stained-glass window problem. High above the chancel, set in glass, is a picture of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, dipping out of clouds toward the earth. Some of the church members want to tear the window down: 'it is,' they claim, 'too otherworldly.' Well, perhaps they're right. After all, with terrorism and the soaring price of gasoline, we've enough on our hands without hankering after some make-believe town in the sky. Perhaps like the stained-glass window, we should dump the book of Revelation and stick to the here and now. Yet, there's something about the vision that grips us: 'And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down...from God...And I heard a loud voice ... saying ..., "Death will be nor more; mourning and crying and pain will be nor more."'

What a wonderful vision for we who live in a world where the mortality rate runs 100%.
We could all use a new heaven and a new earth. The very thought of it brings hope to our hearts. And yet the city of hope portrayed here is more than a personal talisman ... a symbol to get us through this weary life so we can have our pie in the sky by and by. For this apocalyptic vision has a universal scope. The nations will walk by the light of the city of hope, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Bob Dylan pegged us in his song "Political World,"

We live in a political world
Where peace is not welcome at all,
It's turned away from the door to wander some more
Or put up against the wall.

There is an American primitive painting entitled The Peaceable Kingdom. It shows a lion lying down with a lamb, a barnyard cow and a grizzly bear nuzzling each other, while in among the animals children laugh and play. The picture's a little romantic for our tastes. Apparently the artist had never heard of Al Queda or torture prisons. Perhaps the lion and the lamb will declare a truce, but what about the Middle East? The fact is we live in a world of power politics, not in zoological society! So at least the Bible is realistic; the Bible knows there can be no peace until national power—including American power—bows down before the throne of God. Then, and only then, will we see a new heaven and a new earth and a many-gated city of God.

And this city of hope is so God-occupied that there are no churches there. That's right. In God's city of hope, there are no churches, synagogues or mosques. Imagine a place in which there is no need for the moderating influence of religion. No priests, ministers or rabbis. Unemployment runs at 100% for all clergy in heaven. There is no need for human intermediaries in the city of hope for God Himself dwells in that city. The city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light.

I know, it sounds too good to be true. If the Christian vision of God's city of hope is too far removed from reality, then perhaps we should tear it down and face reality, knock down the stained glass vision and replace it with the hard reality of life in this world as we know it. Albrect Durer has a famous woodcut. He pictures a woman sitting dejectedly on dry ground. in the distance is a city waiting to be built, and beside her is a box of tools for building, but she doesn't move. She has no hope. Without hope, nothing is possible, and therefore, nothing attempted. We cannot live without hope.

Of course, it all depends on what hope you have, on what kind of vision you cherish. We've seen so much death in the past five years from Baghdad to Virginia Tech. Unless we can be changed we'll dream a Holy City but end with death and pain and a warring of nations, everytime. The Revelation writer envisions "A new heaven and a new earth." What we need is nothing less than a whole new human race.

Of course, that is what we celebrate during the Easter season, a whole new human race. Jesus Christ, the firstborn from the dead, the new Adam, the firstfruits of a new creation. The resurrection means God has power to overcome the old order of sin and death, manipulation and greed, to make something new--a risen Christ and a new humanity.

Hear's the good news for today. God is busy creating the city of hope right now. According to the verbs in the Greek text, the vision of the city of hope is in the present tense. Yes, we live in a political world where might makes right. Yes, we live in a world where the color of your skin still means something. Yes, we live in a world where our nation has been at war every day for the past five years. Even so, God is busy building the city of hope. And if we have the eyes to see, we can get glimpses of that holy city every now and then. We get a glimpse of the city of hope being built when we see global warming becoming a matter of concensus even among conservative religious people in this country. We get a glimpse of God's city of hope being built when we hear a growing clamor for peace, not just among left-wing types, but among people of goodwill everywhere. Yes, there are still pockets of rural povery pounding our counties and there are still ghettos festering in our cities but God's people are getting geared up to work for justice for the working poor, the migrant workers and the hungry in our land of plenty.

What about the church with the stained-glass window problem? "Too otherworldly," the people complained. Well, they decided to keep the window after all. For they discovered that through the years the glass had faded so that through the golden image of the new Jerusalem they could see the towers of their own town; one city seen through the vision of another. We are meant to live in the world with a vision of God's promises, judging injustice with hard truth, but taking hope where hope is sure, and trusting the power of God that raised up Jesus. See, our God is making things new! The vision of the new Jerusalem, that Holy City, God's city of hope, is our guiding light. Let's march on—toward the guiding light—until the time comes when God makes all things new and there is no more night.

Revitalized and Ready

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Revelation 21:1-6 at Batesville Presbyterian Church on May 6, 2007

David Buttrick tells the story about the Black woman deep in the bayous of Louisiana who had raised over a dozen children, most of them adopted and foster children. When a newspaper reporter asked her why she had done this, she replied, "I saw a new world a'comin." She saw a new world a'comin' and she is not the only one. The author of our scripture reading today from Revelation writes, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth." We, too, have witnessed a new heaven being built in the past couple of decades. This new heaven, called cyberspace, has demonstrated the law of accelerating returns.

Five years ago, no one had heard of Google. Today, the Google company is worth $100 billion. Today corporations have to be quick and nimble. Sony launches a new product once every twenty minutes and Disney launches a new product once every three minutes. When we examine the accelerating rate of change and imagine where it may lead us we find that Revelation's vision of God creating a new heaven and a new earth does not look as improbable as it did even a few years ago.

In his book, The Singularity is Near, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil claims we are heading toward an event called a singularity some time around the year 2040. At that time the pace of technological change will be advancing so rapidly that ordinary humans will be unable to keep up with it. Kurzweil notes how the pace of change is accelerating exponentially. We've had 18% growth in constant dollars in information technology for the past 50 years. Take this 18% growth in constant dollars in information technology forward and things start to get really interesting. For instance, Kurzweil predicts that three years from now, by 2010, computers will disappear. They will be so small they will be embedded in our clothing and in our environment. Images will be written directly to our retina, providing full immersion virtual reality. We will be interacting with virtual personalities. The pace of technological change is speeding up as we move toward Kurzweil calls the singularity.

In the past several years we have experienced some exponential growth in our church as well. Batesville Presbyterian Church is not the same congregation we were seven years ago. Several years ago we didn't have many young families with children. Today, our church is predominantly young families with children. We are a young church with a bright future. We have been revitalized and we are now ready to move forward.

A couple of weeks ago the Long Range Planning Committee met with an architect to look at the layout of our church facilities. Over the course of our conversation I became convinced that we need to acknowledge how our church has grown younger by rearranging our current facilities to better reflect the church that we are today rather than the church we were several years ago. Our vision includes putting all the children on the Church Street side of our facilities and adding an elevator to make the upstairs accessible for youth and adult education. The Long Range Planning Committee hopes to display these plans and seek your input in the next few months.

I had always heard that God would create a new earth when I read Revelation chapter 21. What I hadn't noticed as much was that God will also create a new earth. In many ways, the book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible, compliments the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible. In Genesis, God created the heavens and the earth. In Revelation, God creates a new heaven and a new earth. In due time, God will revitalize heaven and earth. We are ready for that to happen. In fact, more and more people are beginning to work toward revitalizing the earth with green technologies and practices that conserve, reduce and reuse. This is an old practice with new terminology. Our ancestors on the farms of this county and others practiced a kind of frugality that we have forgotten. We need to reclaim our past in our to prepare for our future. By taking responsibility for our actions and changing them as needed, we can reverse the current tide of consumption and leave our children a healthier planet.

As we look to the future, let's not forget the present moment. Someone once said, "The future is now," and I think that is how Jesus viewed the new heaven and new earth. Eternity begins in the present moment. Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is within you." In a mystical sense, Revelation 21 is about the inner transformation that occurs when God begins to disrupt our emotional programs for happiness. We are not amused when we learn the way of the cross means dying to our false self programs for happiness. We are not happy to know that God is not interested in our project for personal glorification. But as we work with the Spirit and deny our flesh, our sarx, our false self systems for emotional gratification, then the Spirit carves out more and more new space in which to operate. Little by little the Spirit cleanses us of the emotional wounds of a lifetime. It is as if our inner lives were a cramped and close attic in our house. As we clear out useless old stuff from the attic, we create more space to be filled with useful items. As we clear out the false self's system for happiness we find we have more room inside ourselves for God's light and love to flow.

"Revitalized and ready" is a term that applies on macro and the micro levels. On the macro level, God is already at work creating a new heaven and a new earth and God seeks our cooperation and assistance in this mighty project. We have a role to play in the greening of this planet and the more we learn and practice how to conserve energy then the more we can help God in creating a new earth. On a smaller macro level God has revitalized our congregation and we are ready to consolidate our gains by remodeling our facilities to better enhance our ministries. On the micro level, God's Spirit is ever working in our hearts, wills, and unconscious minds to bring about revitalization and make us ready for greater service.

God is ever busy creating a new heaven a new earth. God calls us to participate in this great project. The vision in Revelation says it well, "And the one who was seated on the throne said, 'See, I am making all things new.'" God is in the business of making things new. God is revitalizing the heavens and the earth, this congregation, and each of us as individuals. Let us participate in God's great project of revitalization. We are revitalized and ready to move forward. Let us open ourselves to God in the present moment and go forth with God into the future.

Let it Shine

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from John 10:22-30

on April 29, 2007, (Senior Sunday) at Batesville Presbyterian Church

Our scripture this morning begins by pointing us toward the significance of a Jewish festival. John's gospel tells us: "At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem." Many of us are not familiar with Jewish festivals. I turned to wikipedia and learned this Jewish festival is now called Hanukkah. Hanukkah is celebrated during the winter around Christmas. Whereas we put lights on our Christmas trees, the Hanukkah ritual is to light a single candle each night for eight nights to celebrate the miraculous survival of the Jewish people through the ages. Jesus once said: "I am the light of the world." Perhaps he got this idea from observing the lighting of the eight candles during the celebration of Hanuakah.

In our scripture this morning, it was the season of Hanukkah, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. Jesus' opponents gathered around him and said to him, 'How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.' Here is a question of identity. These are two of the most important questions for teenagers such as our graduates this morning. One of your tasks for the next four years, and indeed for the rest of your lifetime, is to determine who you are. According to our Biblical faith, our identity is revealed not so much by who we are as by whose we are. Like the Jewish people who celebrate Hanukah, we also are children of God not only by genetics by also by faith. All humans are made in the image and likeness of God and in that respect all human beings are children of God. We are children of God in that respect but also in a more radical way. We are part of God's family not only by genetics by also by choice. God has chosen us to be part of God's family and we have chosen to be part of God's family. So we are twice blessed, by birth and by choice. This is what we mean when we say we, along with the Jewish people, are members of God's covenant people.

Jesus' opponents demanded that he tell them whether he was the Messiah. The next step after discovering our identity as children of God is to express that identity through our words and actions. We can say we are God's people by the work that we do as well as by the words we say. Part of our Christian vocation is to discover, claim and express our identity as children of God.

It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. Our graduating seniors have been walking in the temple for some years now. They have been walking in the temple of this sanctuary, the temple of our youth house, and the temple of their own bodies. Young people, take good care of your temple. Your body is the temple of your soul so take good care of your soul's temple by taking good care of your body. Feed your body good food and give it plenty of rest as enough physical exercise to keep it toned up and ready for service. Jesus walked through the temple in Jerusalem and you are walking today in our version of the temple, this sanctuary here in Batesville. As you walked the center aisle during the processional this morning to the sound of the organ playing Pomp and Circumstance, you passed a milestone in your human development. You have crossed over this morning from the land of childhood into the land of young adulthood. As you enter young adulthood you will likely find yourself in another congregation, or perhaps for a time, not active in weekly worship. Even so, the roots of faith have been rooted deep within your souls and you will return to worship in the congregation of your choice in due time.

Jesus answered his critics who wanted him to tell them he was the Messiah, saying, 'I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.

Along the way in our journey, we will face opposition. Some people will want to influence or control our speech and behavior. Such people and situations call for us to exercise the gift of discernment. Some people we meet will have chosen not to belong to God's covenant family, and we respect these people too, even as we learn to guard our heart. We may experience seasons of doubt in God and ourselves and if we do I hope our parents or family and friends will have enough faith in us to give us time and space to find our way through our doubts. If so, we will come out on the other side with an even greater faith in God and a more secure foundation in Christ.

Throughout the times of struggle and conquest, learn to listen for the voice of the good shepherd amidst the din of doubt and diversity. Learn to hear the voice of Jesus in your own conscience. Learn to listen to the still small voice from within. There is no doubt in my mind that God dwells inside each one of you. Learn the language of silence which is God's first language. Learn a spiritual practice such as centering prayer that teaches you how to communicate with God on the level of spiritual communication. As you learn that language you will learn that there is nowhere you can go where God is not already there. There is nothing you can say that God has not heard before. There is nothing you can do that God will not forgive and redeem. You are, in an ultimate and eternal sense, safe. You are safe in God's heart because God is securely situated in your heart. Jesus says about you what he said about his original disciples: "I know them, and they follow me. No one will snatch them out of my hand."

Jesus said: "The Father and I are one." As we get to know God better, especially through a practice such as centering prayer, we learn that Christ is one with God and we are one with Christ therefore we are one with God. This revelation transforms our lives and causes us to reconsider our priorities. No longer will getting ahead be our primary motivation. Now we are satisfied to rest in God. That rest will recharge our spiritual batteries and propel us into the depths of greater service of God and all people.

As we grow older we will learn the truth that we are one with God. We learn that the kingdom of heaven is not something up there or after we die. The kingdom of heaven is here and now. We learn this when we discover the power of now. The lesson we need to learn is how to live in the present moment. Then we will find ourselves living in heaven on this earth and we will be very happy indeed.

The oil in the Hanukah candles is a metaphor for the miraculous survival of the Jewish people through millennia of trials and tribulations. Persevearance is the key to spiritual growth throughout our adult lives. The Christian journey continues every day that we are alive on this earth and it continues even after we die. Throughout the ages for the past 2000 years God has guarded and guided Christ's church. We are part of a remarkable heritage. Jesus says about us: "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish."

The reason for the Hanukkah lights is not so that passers-by should see it and be reminded of the holiday's miracle. Therefore, lamps are set up at a prominent window or near the door leading to the street. The lights of Hanukah remind us of our graduating seniors whom we honor this mornig. They have the light of Christ within them. They will share the light of Christ with the world. Our graduating seniors are beautiful lamps full of divine light and we bask in the glow of God's love that you cast upon the world. We send them out into the world as living flames of Christ's love.

More Than These

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from John 21:1-19 at Batesville Presbyterian Church on April 22, 2007

Once, after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples at the Sea of Galilee. This is how he did it: Simon Peter and six other disciples were together. Simon Peter announced, "I'm going fishing."

The rest of them replied, "We're going with you." They went out and got in the boat. They caught nothing that night. When the sun came up, Jesus was standing on the beach, but they didn't recognize him.

Jesus spoke to them: "Good morning! Did you catch anything for breakfast?"

They answered, "No."

He said, "Throw the net off the right side of the boat and see what happens."

They did what he said. Note the progression here. Before the disciples recognize Jesus they follow his fishing directions. All of a sudden there were so many fish in it, they weren't strong enough to pull it in.

Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, "It's the Master!" The disciples recognize Jesus after they follow his fishing instructions.

As the story continues we become aware the Jesus is using the fishing incident to teach a deeper lesson. After breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" The text doesn't say this but I wonder if Jesus was holding up a piece of fish when he asked Peter, "Do you love me more than these fish?" The fish reminds Peter of his life as a fisherman before he left everything behind to follow Jesus. Peter had discarded many things for Jesus sake. He had left behind his family and his career. Jesus wonders if Simon would like to go back to the life he had know before he met Jesus. Peter responds that he loves Jesus more than anything he has left behind, even more than fish. He is happy he followed Jesus. He would make the same choice again.

Then Jesus has a chore for Peter. If Peter loves Jesus more than these, more than these fish, more than his past life as a fisherman, then Jesus wants Peter to fish for people, to bring people into relationship with Jesus.

Christ is an equal opportunity employer in this regard. Christ extends to each of us the same challenge as he gave to Peter: Become fishers of people! Christ calls disciples to be fishers of people. The purpose of one's faith is to share it, to harvest a catch, to bring others into the net of God's grace. As an old gospel hymn urges: "Bring them in, bring them in."

How do we Presbyterians bring them in? How do we engage in evangelism? How do we share our faith? We share our faith through relationships. We share our faith by inviting others to come and see our church. We share our faith by introducing others to our risen Lord.

A woman was to preach at an African Annual Conference. She was a very bright young woman who had recently receiver her PhD. An African man, who knew fairly good English, was to be her interpreter.

She began her sermon that morning by saying, "I want to talk this morning regarding the relationship of the East and West with special consideration for the psychological and theological implications for Christian Mission."

Many of these words the African interpreter had never heard. He paused for a moment and then turned to the congregation and said, "Mama is glad she is here."

Thankfully, Christ does not call most of us to share our faith with big words and fancy sermons. Christ calls most of us to share our faith through relationships.

We see the relational side of evangelism in the way Christ brings Peter back into the fold. Peter had denied Jesus three times around a charcoal fire in a courtyard near where Jesus' was being interrogated on the night before he was crucified. Now, Jesus addresses Peter in the full light of morning on the beach of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus does not deliver a sermon to Peter on the etiology of ethical behavior towards authority figures. He just shared a down-home breakfast with him and asked him if he loved him more than these fish. That's something we all can do. We can all talk. We can all eat. We can all become fishers of men.

We Presbyterians feel comfortable recommending a restaurant to a friend or family member but we hesitate to recommend our church to them. Evangelism revolves around simple invitations. The reason someone will visit our church for the first time is because we invite them to come. Most of the people who become part of our church do so at the invitation of friends and relatives. Yet we still feel somewhat awkward in extending an invitation to come to church or to meet Jesus. We may believe that such a departure from our usual conversations will strain our friendships.

Yet we Presbyterians have a gift to share with a troubled nation. We have the gift of tolerance and mutual forbearance. We have all kinds in our church. We have people on the left and people on the right of the political issues. Like American society, Presbyterian churches are not in agreement on all the hot button social issues of our day. We sometimes wonder if our church can hang together during these turbulent times. Yet, notice what happens in our gospel story. Jesus tells the disciples, "Bring some of the fish you've just caught." Simon Peter joined them and pulled the net to shore — 153 big fish! And even with all those fish, the net didn't rip. The net didn't rip! One commentator says the part about the net not ripping even with all those fish may suggest that the unity of the early church was maintained even in the face of a diverse and growing company of people. (Texts for preaching. Year C / Charles B. Cousar . . . [et al.]) This story gives us hope for unity amidst diversity in our particular church, in the higher governing bodies of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and for the Christian church at large.

Our church, like America, is a big tent society. We have people of all persuasions in our pews. The diversity of our membership is something to celebrate as Presbyterians. People in our community are hungry to have relationships with people who are like them and with people who are different from them but still treat them with dignity and respect. We know how to make some elbow room in the Presbyterian Church. If we invited people to come, our churches would be growing instead of declining as is in the case in so many of our churches. The fellowship of our church is a gift we can share and it all starts with a simple invitation.

Invite people to come and see what our church is about. How do we invite them? What do you say when you invite someone to church? None of us can promise what a person will come across in our church. We don't want to make promises. Don't say: "Come to worship, and you'll get a lot out of it." Or "Join us for a fellowship dinner, and you'll have a great time." Or "You'll be very welcome in our congregation." Just say, "Come and see for yourself."

Thankfully, you are inviting people and our church is growing. The atmosphere at our recent joint meeting of deacons and elders was very positive. The church officers are excited about the growth in our church. We have experienced growth in numbers and growth in a spirit of fellowship and mission. Attendance is up at services such as the Kirkin' o' the Tartans and our church wide picnics. We have love left over every time we get together and that love is looking for someone to bless. Let's speak to the unchurched friends in our lives and invite them to worship at our church, saying, "Come and see."

The goal of our evangelism is that others may meet our risen Lord. We are learning how to be serious fishers--fishers for people. Take a chance. Invite an unchurched friend or relative to come and see our church. Who knows, with God's help, we might just catch one! We have room in our congregation for all kinds of people. Like the disciples in our story today, Christ challenges us to become fishers for people. Evangelism is part of the package for Christians. As he invited his disciples around the Sea of Galilee, so Jesus invites us, saying, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers for people."

Pass the Peace

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from John 20:19-31

at Batesville Presbyterian Church on April 15, 2007

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you." (John 20:21)

Peace is the first word the risen Christ says to his disciples. On Easter Sunday evening, Jesus finds his fearful disciples huddled in a corner, hiding, and says "Peace to you." Then he showed them his hands and side. The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant. Jesus repeated his greeting: "Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you." (John 19:20-21 MSG) Jesus gave peace to his disciples and he told them to pass the peace. How we turn our attention this morning to how we pass the peace of Christ to one another, to all God's creatures and to even to the earth.

The Bible tells the story of a broken relationship between God and humankind. The Old Testament tells us how God chose a people, Israel, and made a covenant with them. God kept the covenant. The people broke the covenant. Finally, things got so bad that God was ready to destroy everyone and start over. So God told Noah to take his family and a pair of each of the animals and put them on an ark. God sent a flood over the earth and destroyed all living things not on the ark. There were more animals on the ark than people. God apparently cares more about animals than about evil people. God made a new covenant with Noah's descendants and promised never again to destroy the earth by flood. We learn from the rest of the story that the flood changed God but not humankind. God kept being faithful to God's covenant but God's people kept breaking the deal. Finally, in a move that demonstrated just how completely God loves humankind, God sent his only Son, Jesus, to bridge the gulf that had developed between God and humanity. Jesus came to planet earth as the new Adam. The first Adam perverted the order of nature by trying to be God. Jesus restored order to the chaos by laying down his divinity and taking on the cloak of humanity. Jesus came to heal the gulf between God and humankind.

Now Jesus expects us to follow his lead. We are to pass the peace with one another as Christ has passed the peace to us. The Bible is painfully clear on this issue. Forgiveness is not optional. It is required. The Lord's prayer says, “Forgive us ... as we forgive.” We are to live out the forgiveness of Christ in our human relations. That is not always to do.

Radio talk show host Don Imus was dropped from the NBC lineup this week after some racially disparaging remarks he made in regard to the Rutgers women's basketball players. Imus later apologized about his remarks and the Rutgers women's basketball team, whom he had insulted, agreed to meet with him. The public debate over Imus's remarks continued on throughout the week and ended with Imus being forced out by his employer, CBS. Democratic Presidential Candidate John Edwards said in regard to Imus's remarks: "I believe in forgiveness, I believe in redemption." Other candidates were less forgiving. Jesus sends us out to be peacemakers in our human relationships. Passing the peace means being careful about our language. We pass the peace by speaking in peaceful ways.

It is hard for me to talk about passing the peace without mentioning the 800 pound gorilla in the room.

Polls now show the vast majority of Americans want to declare peace in Iraq and bring our troops home. Some political pundits say withdrawal of our troops would mean even more death and chaos in the Middle East. How you view this issue will have bearing on the way you think peace will come in Iraq. Whatever your opinion, work for peace in Iraq as you envision it. Jesus sends us out to be peacemakers in our human relationships. Passing the peace means waging peace. We are to pass the peace to our neighbors both here and afar.

Passing the peace is not limited to human interactions. There is more to passing the peace. Jesus once said: “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? " (Matthew 6:26-27 NIV)

Jesus tells us to behold the birds, for lessons about life are in them. Now we can't look at the birds if there are no birds left to look at. Yet, day after day, acres and acres of bird habitats are destroyed in the Amazon rain forests to make room for cow pastures to raise cows so that we Americans can eat fast food hamburgers any time we wish. We acknowledge God's glory by admiring God's works in creation. We mar God's glory when we are unmindful of how our choices effect animal species on this planet that we share. Our stewardship theme last Fall was Noah's Ark. God tells Noah to gather a male and female representative of each animal species and put it on the ark so that the animal species may be preserved. God's command to Noah demonstrates that preservation of animal species is important. God was more concerned about preserving animal species than sinful people. Jesus wants us to pass the peace to the animal kingdom.

Jesus challenges us to pass the peace to the human community, the animal kingdom, and even the earth itself. Jesus sends us out to be peacemakers on behalf of the earth's environment. Part of peacemaking is practicing stewardship of God's creation. Rock star Sheryl Crow is performing this month in "Stop Global Warming College Tour." She started the tour in Texas because it is the state with the highest carbon emissions of any state. She is touring with Laurie David, who produced Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth. But the global warming issue is no longer the sole abode of the so-called liberal elite. Add former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to the list of former (and possibly future) politicians who are urging action to fight global warming. His forthcoming book, A Contract With the Earth, will present a 10 point plan of "market oriented" policies that will lead to a "bipartisan environmentalism." The book is due in November, around the same time Gingrich said he would decide about a possible presidential race. http://politicalwire.com/archives/2007/04/09/gingrich_to_urge_action_on_global_warming.html

Several years from now, China will be emitting more greenhouse gasses than America, and by then, I imagine everyone in the United States will be on the bandwagon against China for ruining the environment of the planet we share in common. Of course, right now the United States is the biggest source of harmful greenhouse gases and the rest of the world looks upon us with the disdain that we will look upon the Chinese when they become the primary polluters. Writer Thomas Friedman says we better our act together as Americans on this issue because billions of people in India and China want to live like we live. They want to own their own cars and have refrigerators in their homes. We Americans pride ourselves on being leaders and if we take the lead on the environment these other nations will likely follow.

It is time now for our government to follow the lead of some of our leading corporations. WalMart is getting in on the action of green technology and so is silicon valley. WalMart has a huge initiative underway to conserve energy because it is good publicity and it also will save them millions of dollars. WalMart is marketing energy saving light bulbs that costs more money on the front end but saves you money in the long run because it lasts longer than conventional light bulbs. The business world is learning that green is as good as gold.

Meanwhile, there are still some who sound like doubting Thomas saying: "Unless I see the evidence for global warming I will not believe." Sometimes we have trouble seeing what we would rather not see. The vast majority of scientists say the argument is over. Global warming is a reality. We must come to terms with it. Listen to what Jesus said to doubting Thomas: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." Even if scientists never mentioned our responsibility toward the environment, our Bible repeatedly mentions it.

We Presbyterians pride ourselves on being people of the book, people of the Bible. The Bible clearly teaches that God put humans on this earth to take care of the earth, not to destroy it. Stewardship of the earth's resources is a primary chore given by God to humankind. From beginning to end the Bible tells the story of how God charges humankind with being responsible for the care of the earth. The Biblical story of human stewardship starts with the story of Adam and Eve who tended the Garden of Eden. God gave humans charge of the earth not so that we could use it to satisfy our greed. We do not have a blank check from God to do with the earth anything that makes money for the shareholders of companies in which we invest. God expects us demonstrate moderation in all things, including how we use the resources of the planet over which God gave us charge. This is basic, conservative, Biblical stewardship.

Environmentalism is not the provenance of one political party. It is not merely a Progressive or Liberal issue. Today, Conservative Evangelicals are claiming the issue of stewardship of God's creation and embracing environmentalism as one of their new justice issues. They choose to focus on this issue not to be politically correct but because they are people who take the Bible seriously. From the beginning of creation, God tasked humanity with care of the earth. That means, for us, taking care of the environment. Passing the peace from humankind to the environment is part of what it means to be a Christian.

The risen Christ challenges us to pass the peace. We are to pass the peace of Christ from human to human and from the human species to the animal and plant kingdoms. We are to pass the peace to the rivers and oceans, the mountains and soil. We are to pass the peace of Christ to all of creation. This is God's will for us. This is why God put us here. As he said to his disciples after his resurrection, so Jesus says to us, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." Let's pass the peace of Christ to other people, to all sentient beings and even to planet earth. The Bible recommends it. Christ requires it. Let's do it. Let's pass the peace.

The Quest for Jesus' Bones

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

on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007 at Batesville Presbyterian Church

Where's Waldo? is a hide and seek style game that my children enjoyed playing when they were small children. The game consists of finding Waldo who is hiding somewhere within a crowded background of people and objects. Where's Waldo is a fun game for small children. As adults we play similar games. For instance, we all enjoy playing the where's Jesus game. Now some archaeologists and film makers have made a movie called The Lost Tomb of Jesus that claims to have found the long buried bones of Jesus of Nazareth.

The Lost Tomb of Jesus, a made for TV movie that aired on the Discovery Channel on March 4, 2007. The documentary claims to have found the bones of Jesus in a 2,000-year-old tomb containing 10 boxes of bones. Two millennia ago, the dead were left to decompose in a cave and their bones collected a year later and buried in bone boxes or ossuaries. The movie claims that inscriptions on six of 10 ossuaries found in a single tomb indicate that there is a 1 in 600 chance that bones in the tomb were those of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and a son, along with other family members, a press release said.

Not everyone is convinced the movie makers have found the bones of Jesus. For instance, 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." And Hebrew University archaeologist Leah DiSegni said that 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," says DiSegni.  It's not only the professionals who doubt the movie, an informal survey by the Kansas City Star newspaper found that 73% believed that the Jesus tomb had not been found. Moreover, 73% of the people said their faith would not be effected even if the movie were true. Count me among the 73% whose faith would not be affected if it was definitely proven that the tomb contains the remains of Jesus Christ. 

This movie is the latest participant in a long line of people who have been searching for the bones of Jesus. The quest for Jesus bones started on the first Easter Sunday when Mary Magdalene went to his tomb in a quest for the bones of Jesus. 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. 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 Waldo" game in regard to Jesus. We went to college with a pre-rational faith and met professors who challenged us to move toward the rational level of faith. What so many people fail to understand is that there is a rational level of Christian faith and even a post-rational level of Christian faith. Developmental psychologist James Fowler contributed much to our understanding of the levels of faith development and Ken Wilber has carried the torch even further with books such as A Brief History of Everything. Beyond the "Where's Waldo" pre-rational stage of faith there is the rational level of faith, and there are levels of faith beyond the rational level. Centering prayer is the best spiritual discipline I have found for moving toward the next level of faith consciousness. I invite you all to the centering prayer workshop this Saturday at All Saints Church in Grenada. Come learn the benefits of speding time in the silence and darkness of your own unconscious self.

Mary Magdalene is standing inside a tomb looking for Jesus' bones and she is about to be taken beyond the rational level of faith. 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 spoke to her, "Woman, why do you weep? Who are you looking for?" She was weeping because she couldn't find the bones of Jesus. In fact, Jesus was standing right there in front of her but she couldn't perceive that is was him. Sadly, we have the same problem. We search for Jesus bones in the church, in the sermon, and in the Bible. Yet we can't find Jesus even when he is standing right in front of us. Like Mary Magdalene, we don't expect to see Jesus alive today. We come to church but we don't really expect to meet Jesus. He is standing right there in front of us and we don't recognize him.

When we go home today we can say to our children: "I have seen the Lord!" We have seen the Lord in the feet of the children that came scuttling down the aisle for the children's sermon this morning. We have heard the Lord singing in the sound of your voices singing hymns and from the choir as they sang the anthem. Look around and notice who is sitting beside you, in front and behind you. Look closely at them and you may see Jesus bones. Don't go home weeping because you can't find Jesus. He will be riding with you on your way home. Look at yourself in the mirror and you 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 because we are the body of Christ.

Mary Magdalene is not the only person who has seen the risen Christ. You and I have seen him too on this Easter Sunday! 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 loved ones, our family, our friends, our neighbors both here and abroad. We never imagined we could look beneath our skin and find the bones of Jesus. Yet we are the bones of Jesus. So let's join Mary Magdalene, saying: "I have seen the Lord." I have seen the Lord today, in you, and you, and me. I have seen the Lord today in all of us, in we. 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.

So let's do what Mary Magdalene did on Easter Sunday. Let's go tell everyone we know the good news that we have seen the risen Christ. And if tomorrow or the next day you forget what the risen Christ looks like; Or if you begin to doubt that you really saw Jesus here this morning, do this: Go stand in front a mirror and look yourself squarely in the eyes and say, "These are the eyes of the risen Christ!" Recognize in yourself the risen Christ for truly he lives in you. Recognize in others the risen Christ for absolutely he lives in them. Mary Magdalene went, telling the news to the disciples: "I saw the Master!" And she told them everything he said to her.

Look with the eyes of your heart and see the risen Christ in yourself and others. 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 thing 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 2007 years after that first Easter Sunday. Let's use his bones in our bodies to continue his work in the world today. 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 convinced that we are the body of Christ. We pledge to God, to one another, and to ourselves, to live into that truth in the Easter season that spreads before us; for we are the bones of Jesus.

The Feast of Victory

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from

Exodus 12:1-14 & 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

on Maundy Thursday, April 5, 2007

at Batesville Presbyterian Church

We call it the Last Supper although it was not the last supper. Yes, it was the last supper Jesus had with his disciples before his death on the cross. But he would have other suppers with them after his resurrection. He broke bread with them at Emmaus on Easter evening. He broke bread with doubting Thomas one week after his resurrection. He ate a broiled fish breakfast which he prepared for them on the beach in Galilee.

Over the course of time the so-called Last Supper became memorialized in the ritual we now call The Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper has now become the most practiced religious ritual in the history of humanity. We gather to share the bread and wine in Jesus' name and in his memory. "Do this, in remembrance of me," the celebrant says, quoting Jesus. The Lord's Supper has become thick in the variety of meanings it is able to hold and carry. Most of all, we are grateful that this Lord's Supper ritual is able to carry us, our bodies, souls and spirits, from where we are right now toward more proximate union with God.

The Lord's Supper is flexible enough to handle any tense we throw at it: Past, present or future. The Lord's Supper is not limited to service in the past tense as a memorial of an event that happened on that first Maundy Thursday. Rather, the Lord's Supper also celebrates a future event when God's purpose will be fulfilled in heaven and on earth. Jesus taught us to pray in the present tense saying,"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it in heaven." The Lord's Supper touches us where we are in the present moment and propels us into God's future. In the future tense, the Lord's Supper is a feast of victory that celebrates God's final triumph over the age old nemesis' of humanity: Sin and death. Sin in the sense of separation from God and death understood as the termination of life and subsequent corruption of our physical bodies. The promise of the Lord's Supper in the future tense is that one day we will sit down at a feast of victory in the kingdom of heaven. At the head table will sit the holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When it's time to serve the dinner, Christ himself will serve heavenly bread and wine. That cosmic celebration of the Lord's Supper will be a feast of victory.

The theme of "a feast of victory" is common to both the Lord's Supper and the Jewish Seder. Both the Lord's Supper and the Seder have roots in the Jewish Passover. Our Christian heritage intersects with the Passover. Jesus, himself a Jew, came to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem on the week that we Christians now call Holy Week. The Last Supper occurred during Passover and both the Last Supper and the Passover commemorate a past event when God broke into human history to achieve salvation for God's people. Passover celebrates God breaking into history to save the Jewish people from their slavery in Pharaoh's Egypt. The Lord's Supper celebrates God breaking into human history to achieve salvation for all people.

Whereas our Lord's Supper has roots in the Passover, our Jewish friends have another religious ritual that originated in the Passover. It is called a Seder. The Jewish Seder uses liturgy, food and music to retell the Passover story of how God sent Moses and saved the people of Israel from slavery in Pharaoh's Egypt. Some of our older members have experienced a Seder meal with a Jewish family that once lived in this community. I have participated in two Seders. I once celebrated a seder at the home of a Jewish friend. Most recently, I attended a Seder at Temple Israel synagogue in Memphis last Tuesday night. It was a powerful service in a beautiful setting in their newly remodeled Fellowship Hall. I was surprised to learn Temple Israel has 1850 families who are members of their synagogue. That means there are over 5,000 members of Temple Israel, making it one of the largest Reformed Jewish congregations in the nation. The Xyz group and I had heard the Rabbi of Temple Israel preach at the Lenten Noonday Preaching Service at Calvary Episcopal Church in Memphis. I enjoyed visiting Rabbi Greenstein's temple for the seder and was surprised when he introduced me as an honored guest to the Jewish celebrants at the seder.

As I sat at table at the seder with a minister friend and several Jewish folks I noticed the name of the bottle of wine sitting on the table. Thus I said: "Mogen David, named after King David, what an appropriate name for the wine at your Seder!" One of the Jewish men at my table responded, "Yes, mogen means star, so Mogen David means Star of David." My minister friend told me the Mogen David brand of wine had been created by a Jewish man. He named his wine "Mogen David," meaning "Star of David," which is the emblem on the flag of the nation of Israel. So even the brand of wine used at the seder is laden with special significance. Of course, our sacramental wine has a history as well. The so-called wine we use for the Lord's Supper is good old Welch's grape juice. According to the Welch's website, in 1869 Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch, a physician and dentist by profession, successfully pasteurized Concord grape juice to produce an "unfermented sacramental wine" for fellow parishioners at his church in Vineland, New Jersey, where he served as communion steward. His achievement marked the beginning of the processed fruit juice industry.

We use Hawaain bread for the Lord's Supper and it reminds us of the Last Supper when Jesus broke a piece of bread and passed it to his disciples, saying: "This is my body broken for you." In comparison, Jewish celebrants of the Seder use unleavened bread to remind them of the way their ancestors left Egypt so fast they didn't even have time to add leaven their bread.

One tasty item we enjoyed at the Seder was lamb brisket. A year-old male lamb without blemish is the chief food at the Passover meal. According to the Old Testament, the people are to eat the lamb with their loins girded, sandals on their feet, and their staff in their hand. To gird your loins means to pull up your robes and tuck them into the belt around your waist the way you would if you were about to start walking somewhere. In other words, the people are to eat the Passover fully prepared for a long and arduous journey such as the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness that followed the liberation of the Jews from Egypt.

Every year on the day before the Passover begins, a lamb was slaughtered for each Jewish household. At the time of Jesus, in a land where virtually everyone was Jewish, thousands of innocent lambs were killed in preparation for this great and solemn festival. The Gospel according to John reports that Jesus died on the same day when the lambs were butchered. John is the only gospel writer who says early on that when John the Baptizer saw Jesus coming toward him, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Clearly, John's Gospel means to portray Jesus as the Lamb of God who is slaughtered at the time of the Passover, who offers the whole world a new kind of deliverance from slavery to sin and death, a slavery far worse than anything the Israelites experienced in ancient Egypt.

Like God's ancient people in Egypt, we gather at this quickly eaten meal, and know that death has passed us by; its fangs have been removed, its venom neutralized, its bite endured in our place. The story didn't end in Eden, nor in Egypt, nor in the upper room nor at the cross nor in the rock-hewn tomb. This is the feast of victory for our God! Tonight we celebrate it to the sound of chariot wheels clogging in the mud, the sound of water crashing back when it had been divided, and the sound of saints in light dancing on the other side of the river Jordan, celebrating victory.

My wife, Jana, and I were married in her home church, Ascension Lutheran Church in Jackson, Mississippi. Almost every time I worshiped at Ascension Lutheran Church they were serving communion. And every time they served communion they sang a service hymn called This is the Feast of Victory. We are going to sing that hymn after the affirmation of faith. The lyrics of the hymn bring together many elements of the Lord's Supper. The hymn reminds us of connection between the Jewish Passover and our own Lord's Supper's by its reference to Christ as the Lamb that was slain. The last verse of the hymn puts it well: "For the Lamb who was slain has begun His reign."

This is the feast of victory for our God. Christianity is an optimistic religion. We join the Jews in celebrating how God acted in history in saving God's people from slavery in Egypt. Furthermore, our Christian religion is founded on God's action in history in the person of Jesus and the saving work of Christ. The seminal moments of our past give us courage in the present and hope for the future. Finally, we have a vision of the future in which everything that is wrong about the world is ultimately made right. At the feast of victory of our God justice will be served to all creation. God's kingdom will finally come on earth as it is in heaven.

The Dark Night of the Soul

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Luke 19:28-40
at Batesville Prebyterian Church on Palm Sunday, April 1, 2007

Images of donkey carts and cars run through my mind when I recall looking out the window of a tour bus in Cairo, Egypt. I saw a man riding a small contraption with wheels being pulled along the street by a donkey. Next to him was what appeared to be a family riding in a late model Mercedes Benz. At one point the bus had to stop so a man herding sheep could cross the busy street. The place was bustling with people traveling by foot, donkey cart, and luxury car. Welcome to the post-modern Middle East. Long ago, in another bustling Middle Eastern city named Jerusalem, rode a rabbi named Jesus. His mode of transportation was a donkey. Jesus rode the donkey down the slopes of Mount Olive as hosts of his disciples shouted "Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"

Like Jesus on Palm Sunday, the people I saw riding donkey carts and Mercedes Benzes on the streets of Cairo in 1994 were people in motion. They were people who were going somewhere. They had not yet arrived at their destination. They were on the way there. On Palm Sunday, Jesus was on the way to the cross, the grave, and God's glorious resurrection. He had not yet arrived at the upper room where he will meet with his disciples on Thursday night for their last supper together. He had not yet arrived at the hill called Golgotha, place of the skull, on the outskirts of Jerusalem but he would get there by Friday. He had not yet arrived inside the enclosed stone tomb where his body would be laid for burial for crucifixion. He had not yet arrived in hell where he would completely identify with human suffering on a cosmic scale. He had not yet arrived at the moment of his resurrection. Jesus is on his way on that morning that we now call Palm Sunday when he rides a donkey into Jerusalem. Jesus was on his way through Holy Week and so are we.

I remember the flight from New York to Amman, Jordan. The President of our seminary, the Rev. Dr. T. Hartley Hall, was traveling with our party of 25 seminary students and 3 seminary professors. President Hall was a short man with a booming voice. When we got settled in the airplane I could tell he was an experienced traveler. After the flight was underway he put on a pair of ear plugs and covered his eyes with a blinder and reclined his seat. Within minutes he was laying with his arms spread out over his head, snoring loudly. President T. Hartley Hall knew how to travel. He was aware of the importance of timing in a long journey such as we had undertaken. He knew the time would come to stare in wonder upon the slab of rock where Jesus is claimed to have been resurrected in the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. But now was not that time. Now was the time to relax and rest. Timing is important in the spiritual journey as well. We have to learn when to speak and when to remain silent, when to move forward and when to lag behind, when to pray and when to remain silent in God's presence, which is, I believe, the highest form of prayer. I found reassurance in the sleep of President T. Hartley Hall. If he could be so relaxed as to fall asleep and snore his way through the night on that flight from New York City to Amman, Jordan, then maybe I should relax my grip on the magazine I was grasping and trust the Lord to keep us safe and sound on this flight and on this trip.

My fear on that trip was more than merely the fear of flying. It was deeper than that. Whether riding in the bus in the Middle East or flying on an airplane, I was not in control. I was a passenger and someone else was the driver. In a larger sense, that trip to the middle East was frightening to me because I was opening myself to the possibility of change in the way I viewed myself, the world, and my faith. So it was for Christ during holy week. he was not in control, he was not driving events.

Let's travel with Jesus through this Holy Week. Let's stand on the slope on Mount Olive and join his followers shouting: "Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Let's follow Jesus into Jerusalem and stand by his side even when the crowd turns against him. Spirit will be our mode of transportation this week. We will walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. We will be, as Jesus put it, "In the world but not of the world." Holy Week is a spiritual passage and we are on that journey now.

I remember another trip. I took this trip alone. It was a walk I made in Manhattan one Sunday in August when I was 25 years old. The walk began at the Statue of Liberty. There were many people there. A juggler entertained us as we waited in line to climb up into the Statue of Liberty. My turn finally came and I climbed the stairs, one by one, going up to the top of Lady Liberty. Finally, we got to the top and walked around the deck on Lady Liberty's crown. Manhattan shone like a diamond across Hudson Bay. The twin towers of the World Trade Center stood like two giant toothpicks holding together a juicy hor d'oeuvre called the Big Apple. Then I climbed down the Statue of Liberty and made walked up Broadway through Manhattan where I was staying with a friend near Central Park. As the sun came out that Sunday morning it was so hot and humid. The concrete sidewalk and nearly empty streets seemed to intensify the radiant rays of the sun. Even the tall skyscrapers seemed to be heaping heat down on my head. The soles of my feet were burning from the hot pavement. The streets were nearly deserted except for a stray car here or a taxi cab there. I walked alone in silence. Surrounded by intense heat. Such a walk may not have meant much to a young man from Brooklyn, but for a young man from a small town in Mississippi, to walk halfway across Manhattan Island alone on a Sunday morning on a nearly deserted street, it was a turning point in my life. Something clicked. I had achieved some unspoken goal. I was more self confident after that walk than before it. No one saw me do it but to me it was a growing experience.

Jesus walked alone on Good Friday. The Palm Sunday crowd of followers and well wishers were nowhere to be found. Jesus made his way down the Via Dolorosa, carrying a cross up to Golgotha, the hill of the skull. Imagine the heat he felt then. The heat of the accumulated sin, fear, guilt and dread of the human species throughout all history. Jesus must have been hot on that lonely walk. He must have felt the heat of hell summoning him down to where he would willingly go after his death on the cross. He descended into hell, we say in the Apostle's Creed. Jesus was no stranger to suffering. He walked alone when he had to do it. He walked from Pilate's quarters to Golgotha. He had to walk it by himself. As the great spiritual song says, "Nobody else could walk it for him. He had to walk it by himself."

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

I found an interesting book in the Great Hall of Calvary Episcopal Church in Memphis on my recent trip there with the Xyz Group. We arrived early enough to browse through the bookstore before the preaching service with Rabbi Micah Greenstein. As I browsed the books, I was drawn toward one called The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth . Author Gerald Mays, a psychiatrist and spiritual director, suggests we may experience unseen spiritual growth during those times in our lives when what we were formerly doing no longer bring us any satisfaction. The experience is called "dark night" not because it is evil but because God's presence is obscured. It is hard to see at midnight when the lights are all turned off. During times of spiritual obscurity, when the way before us in unclear, the Spirit may be maturing our faith. Certainly Jesus' solitary walk down the street in the Old City of Jerusalem named Via Dolorosa, the way of grief, was an experience framed by poor vision. He could not see well. His eyes were swollen from the beating he had taken at the hands of the Roman soldiers who mocked him. There was blood and sweat in his eyes from the crown of thorns on his head and the heat of the day that beat down upon him. Surely that solitary walk on Good Friday caused more growth in Christ's faith than the joyous journey on the donkey's back down Mount Olives into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We all long for the celebration of resurrection on Easter Sunday but are less enthralled with the ugly details of Good Friday. Yet good Friday is just as much a part of Holy Week as Palm Sunday and we grow more during the Good Fridays of our lives than we do on the Palm Sundays.

God is inviting us toward greater freedom and love during this holy week. Part of that growth may involve not knowing what God is doing in our lives. God works through obscurity. According to Mays, it is not so much that God does not want us to know what God is doing in our lives. Rather, God is able to lead us further when we do not know where we are going. During the dark night of the soul, during the times when we are unsure where God is or what God is doing in our lives, God may be purifying our soul and cleansing our spirit.

We all long for the clarity of the view of looking down on Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives but the more significant spiritual growth occurs when we walk the Via Dolorosa knowing that at the end of our path lies a cross and that we will be crucified upon it. Holy Week for Christ was an experience of the dark night of the soul. Hear him cry out on the cross in confusion, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

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

Kierkegaard Revisited

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from John 12:1-8

at Batesville Presbyterian Church on March 25, 2007

The brilliant Danish philosopher and theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, was very close to his father, through whom he encountered profound theological questions at an early age. Kierkegaard's father believed that due to his own personal sins none of his children would ever live beyond the age of 33 years, the age at which Jesus died. This odd idea proved untrue when two of Kierkegaard's seven siblings lived beyond 33 years, but it set the tone of young Soren's sober interpretation of Biblical Christianity. As a young man, Soren fulfilled his father's wishes and attended seminary and became a theologian. In his writings, Kierkegaard proclaimed the shrill message that Christendom had "lost its way" and decried the shallowness of so-called "Christian living" he witnessed in Denmark in the 19th century, a European country whose church was controlled by the state.

I suppose if Kierkegaard had to pick one Bible character to illustrate the radical nature of Christian faith he may have chosen Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, as she is described in John 12:1-8. There we read that Jesus is visiting in the home of his recently resurrected friend, Lazarus. Lazarus's sisters, Mary and Martha, are there along with other guests and disciples of Jesus. Martha is doing the dishes as usual. Mary, ever the mystic, is pleased to be in the presence of Jesus when suddenly she shocks everyone. Mary kneels at Jesus feet and washes his dusty feet with her tears. She then wipes his feet, back and forth, using her hair as a washcloth. Next she takes out a pound of expensive perfume, worth a year's wages, and pours it all on Jesus' feet. The exquisite aroma staggers everyone present as it sucks the oxygen from the room.

Mary used her body, her tears, her hair and her hands, to minister to Jesus by anointing his feet like a servant. Mary's faith moved beyond her mind and into her body. Mary's relationship with Jesus was not a belief in an abstract concept. Mary had a personal relationship with Jesus, this person who was now in her house, which now reeked with the odor of a pound of expensive oil that cost an extravagant amount of money to buy and which she had poured onto the feet of a stunned by appreciative Jesus, her Lord.

Theologian Karl Barth said, "Do not fear the wrath of God. Do not fear the wrath of God. Fear the love of God. Fear the love of God that will strip away everything you ever had." Mary got stripped of everything she ever had. Jesus, like Kierkegaard, liked what he saw in Mary, a heart aflame with desire for God, a faith that left her stripped down by the love of God she found in the person of Jesus. Kierkegaard would approve of Mary's wild abandon, her leap of faith, her abandonment of herself in the presence of Jesus. Mary's wild act of devotion is a fine illustration of what Kierkegaard considers genuine Christian faith.

On the other hand, Judas Iscariot, was in the room and he was not amused by Mary's extravagance. Judas said, "Why wasn't this oil sold and the money given to the poor? It would have easily brought three hundred silver pieces." The texts tells us he said this not because he cared two cents about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of their common funds, but also embezzled them.

Jesus said to Judas, "Let her alone. She's anticipating and honoring the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you. You don't always have me."

I imagine Kierkegaard would see in Judas a metaphor for the Christian church of his day and time in his native Denmark. This was a church that was state run and operated. It was a church that was more concerned with banking money than serving the poor. It was a church that was more a social club for the elite of society than a rescue mission for the down and out. Not so with Judas. To him, the business with Jesus was all about money. Judas pretends concern for the poor but it is an attempt to cover his pilfering. Judas was greedy, it was a fatal flaw in his character and let to his terrible act of treachery. Instead of kissing Jesus' feet in thanksgiving like Mary, Judas will kiss Jesus cheek so the Roman guards know which one to arrest—the ultimate act of betrayal. The spirit expressed by Judas is as small and mean as Mary's was expansive and giving.

To some people Christianity may seem to be a superficial social club but that is not the Christianity of Kierkegaard and and Mary. Kierkegaard wrote: "The thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die." Mary discovered in Jesus the idea for which she could live and die. Mary found her truth not in a concept or a religious belief. Mary found her truth is the person of Jesus. He was truth enfleshed. He was truth incarnate. He was truth for which she could live and die.

A group of children, confined to a basement play area on a rainy day, decided to "play church." One child was the preacher, another the organist, a couple kids were ushers, and the rest served as the congregation. One little guy said, "What about Jesus? Shouldn't Jesus be in church?" The rest agreed and the child who made the point was made "Jesus."

"What do I do?" he asked. "How do I play Jesus?"

He was told by some of the older children that they would tie him up to one of the support posts in the basement, pretending that it was the Cross. Then the others would call him names, throw things at him, and be mean to him in other ways. The little boy thought about that a minute and then said. "I don't want to play Jesus; let's just play church." Kierkegaard challenges us to play Jesus instead of just playing church.

As the Lenten season draws to a close and we confront once again the Crucifixion of Jesus, we are reminded of the cross each of us is asked to take up and bear in the name of Christ. To leave out the Cross is just to play church. That is what Kierkegaard wants us to remember. That is why Jesus praised Mary. She was completely committed to him as her ultimate truth and she was preparing his body for burial. The cost of discipleship is very high. Let's not settle for what Kierkegaard called "cheap grace," the idea that God's grace is free. God's grace is not free. It cost Jesus a lot. When he saw Mary's perfume running down his feet perhaps Jesus envisioned his own blood that would soon be pouring from his feet. That's what happens when your feet get nailed to a cross.

Jesus showed us the cross is a requirement in our faith journey. It is not an option. It is a prerequisite. Christian faith carries a cost. For Mary, that cost was a year's wages worth of expensive oils poured out upon the sacred feet of Jesus in a moment of passionate devotion. For Kierkegaard, that cost was to set himself apart from the church of his day and to stand up as a prophet to them, and to us, to call us task for not counting the cost, for not taking up the cross of Christ, and for thinking that God's grace is cheap. God's grace is not cheap. Let's not pretend the Christian faith is easy. Go back and read the gospel story. Christ's death on the cross always precedes his resurrection on Easter Sunday. It's right there in the book's Kierkegaard wrote and it's right there in the gospel according to John.

During one period in my childhood, as perhaps in yours, my favorite game was hide and seek. I would close my eyes and count to ten while everyone ran to hide. Then I would open my eyes and have to go find them. When we become adults we still play that game with ourselves and others, and we even play it with Jesus. When we get frustrated looking for him and feel like we'll never find him, Jesus breaks the rules of hide and seek. He comes right out and let's us know where he is, calling out to us:

If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself.

But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me. (Matthew 10:39, MSG)

We too may find Jesus if we forget about ourselves and look to him as did Mary. When she found Jesus she found herself. When we find Jesus we will find ourselves as well. May we, like Mary, find the truth for which we can live and die. May we, like Mary, find ourselves, in the person of Jesus Christ, during this sacred season. This is the place. Now is the time.

Notice Mary on the floor at Jesus' feet. Perhaps we can manage to get down there ourselves one time during Holy Week. Surely our pride is not too great to manage that simple posture. Kierkegaard will applaud our appropriate pose: Kneeling at the feet of Jesus. If we get down there we may even help Mary pour the precious oils on Jesus feet. We may help her prepare his sacred body for death. It's the least we can do for him now. Look at Jesus standing there. He is so humble. His sheer integrity is overwhelming. I think he needs us now. Let's try to show some respect for him. For heaven's sake, let's try to show him some respect.

The Sin You Can't Keep a Lid On

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
on March 18, 2007 at Batesville Presbyterian Church

This superb parable is actually three parables: the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the parable of The Elder Brother  and the parable of The Forgiving Father. We'll concentrate on the Elder Brother, which is far less popular and less widely known that the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

The elder brother could not stand the reception his brother received. After all, his younger had blown it. He had wasted his inheritance chasing prostitutes, embarrassed the family name, and hurt the family business. When his younger brother returned home, the elder brother resented the way his younger brother was received. Why did the elder brother take offense? It was the party that was so offensive. The older brother has a point, of course. Let the penitent come home. Both Judaism and Christianity provide for the return of sinners, but to bread and water, not to the fatted calf; to sackcloth, not a new robe; to ashes, not jewelry; to kneeling, not dancing; to tears, not merriment. The elder brother resented that party.

The history of resentment, says Leo Madow, professor at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, is the history of Humankind. If we really feel steamed about something (as we rightly express it), we can go from zero pressure to over 500 lbs. per square inch within a short time. The target can be a friend, a spouse, a child, a neighbor, a co-worker—even the person who promised to fix the vacuum cleaner. It can be a woman with two children, whose husband left her for another woman, and now she faces the full financial support of the family. She's resentful. Or a woman who resents her husband's boss and company so much it is destroying what could be one of the better homes around. Or a person with a chronic illness, now facing the prospect their condition will never get better. Or a person nearing retirement, watching their retirement go up in smoke because of bad investments by the fund trustees. Or a high school student who didn't make the team ... or cheerleader ... or first chair band ... or the leading role in the school play. Resentment. You can't keep a lid on it.

   Resentment pops up early in the Bible—with the two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain and Abel are a prototype of the two brothers in today's parable. Cain resented Abel because Abel received more favorable treatment. His offering was acceptable to the Lord and Cain's wasn't. Resentment was kindled (as the Bible puts it) in Cain, until it exploded and he summoned his brother out into a field and killed him. Murder is the ultimate destructive manifestation of resentment. This story is speculative, but  some time probably passed between the start of resentment to the eruption, what we call today "repression."  But repression doesn't solve; it only postpones. Resentment—you can't keep a lid on it.

     How does one rid oneself of resentment?  It is difficult, extremely difficult, but the answer is very much in this Parable of the Elder Brother. The meaning of the parable lesson is simply that God loves the world—the common, mixed-up, moral-immoral, world. Jesus' mission expresses that love. His joy is that sinners respond to his message and are brought back into fellowship with God.

Like the Elder Brother, proper, religious folk have a rightful claim to legitimacy. However, like him, they sometimes show an incapacity to forgive on the basis of mere repentance. Resentment arises when those who "follow the rules" perceive it as unfair that those who do not "follow the rules" suddenly are welcomed into the mainstream of "good" society without, seemingly, "paying their dues."  This perceived unfairness fosters resentment.

God's saving love goes out to sinner and self-righteous alike. If only the "elder brothers" of the world would forget themselves!  If only they were not so resentful, so selfish, so petty, and uncharitable, so lacking in humility, in compassion, and the desire to serve, they could rid themselves of resentment—and get a party like the prodigals get.

What about us—are we like the Elder Brother—are we resentful? Let's open our hands and our hearts—let go of our resentment and enjoy the celebration today. We have so much to be thankful for—two weeks ago we had a wonderful Kirkin' o' the Tartans service; our church is growing; the Session has started a new Helping Hand fund for those who come to our church seeking emergency assistance. We celebrate together what God is doing in our midst and we support one another in the midst of grief. The Holy Spirit is at work in our church. When our hearts are full of gratitude to God there is no room in our hearts for resentment. Let's let go of our resentment and join in God's great celebration.

God's Windows Vista

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon on Isaiah 55:1-9

at Batesville Presbyterian Church

on March 11, 2007

 

            The next time you buy a computer chances are it will come with an operating system called Windows Vista. This is the new computer operating system from Microsoft that looks better and is more secure than its predecessor. Each of us human beings also run an operating system. From birth, we are trained to use a dualistic operating system. Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault noticed this even in her 4 year old grandchild who learns to sing this song watching Sesame Street: "One of these things is not like the other, not like the other, not like the other." We are taught from early childhood to make distinctions and to notice differences. We define ourselves by the color of our skin, what model of vehicle we drive, the size, location and style of our house, and so on and on it goes.

            We constantly upgrade our things because that is what we are taught to do running the binary operating system that we use. If we buy a brand new high definition television this week we know as we carry it out of the store there will be one twice as good as this one for the same price or less twelve months from now. We buy it and before we get it installed it already dated. Having satisfied our desire for a new television, we move on to some other item of interest, perhaps a new cell phone. You get the picture. One day we wake up and we find our identity crowded out by all the stuff in our house, in our life, in our head.

            Into the den of our despair, into the wasteland of our devices, we hear an otherworldly voice:

 Why do you spend your money on junk food,

   your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?

Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best,

   fill yourself with only the finest.

Pay attention, come close now,

   listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words.

   (Isa. 55:1-5, MSG)

 

            Scientists tell us that our taste buds change every seven years. Of course, they are changing each moment, as some cells die and others take their place. But this system of constant turnover runs its course in such a way that every seven years we find our mouths populated with a brand new set of taste buds. This is why turnip greens that tasted horrible when we were 5 years old may taste great when we are 55 years old. Our taste buds change and so can our operating system. The Apostle Paul challenged the church in Corinth, saying:

Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ.

I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. (1 Cor. 3:1-2)

This biblical concept of maturing in the faith by graduating from drinking milk to eating solid food, is fleshed out by Dr. James W. Fowler III in his delineation of the stages of faith consciousness. Fowler's stages follow along the lines of the stage-theorists Jean Piaget , Erik Erickson & Lawrence Kohlberg. Based on his interviews with over 5000 people, Fowler has described seven distinct stages of faith development from the primal faith development of an infant to the universalizing faith reached by some adults. Fowler's stages of faith development help us understand that growth in our Christian faith is a process that is never complete. Today I am using the metaphor of upgrading our operating system as a metaphor for how it is possible to grow in Christian faith. We can upgrade the operating system of our computers and we can upgrade our spiritual operating system. God says clearly in our text from Isaiah:

 "I don't think the way you think.

   The way you work isn't the way I work."

 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts..

            (Isa 55:8-11, MSG)

            Let me describe how the world may look if we upgrade our spiritual operating system to God's Windows Vista. Look around you and you will see many different people in the pew in front of you and in the choir loft. Notice the difference hair colors and styles and even the fact that one person is a female and another one is a male. Now, imagine you are sitting on an airplane several thousand feet directly above the place where we are now. You look out the window of the airplane and look down, way down, at this sanctuary which is below you. You see from the airplane this sanctuary is but a speck in size. You can see no individual people inside the sanctuary but you can see for miles around the sanctuary in every direction. Your vision is exceedingly broadened as you look down at this sanctuary from several thousand feet up in the air. If your airplane were a space shuttle and carried you a thousand miles above this planet and you looked down you would not be able to distinguish this sanctuary and the people in it. All you would see if a round, blue orb called earth. This is how God sees us using God's non-dualistic operating system. God does not focus on the differences between us. We are but part of the whole. When we upgrade our spiritual operating system we notice new patterns that show us God's imprint in all aspects of creation. We notice a growth in the fruits of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience and kindness. These are the fruits of upgrading our spiritual operating system.

One of the best ways I've found to upgrade my operating system is through the spiritual practice of centering prayer. This ancient form of Christian prayer predates any schism or heresy and it works. I have found centering prayer to be the most effective way of upgrading my operating system from my own version of Windows, let's call it "Jon's Windows XP" to God's version of Windows Vista. I encourage you all to take advantage of the introduction to centering prayer workshop that will be held in the Recreation Room of our church on the Saturday after Easter. Come experience centering prayer and see how you can upgrade your life's operating system to God's Windows Vista. So mark your calendar for the Introduction to Centering Prayer Workshop. Come learn the secret that Isaiah was referring to when he described God's Windows Vista using God's own voice: "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

God's Windows Vista is a profound operating system. Like a person looking out the window of airplane in flight, God's Windows Vista gives us a broader view of the world . God's Windows Vista does not destroy our current operating system. We can upgrade our operating system to God's Windows Vista. Centering prayer helps us do that. We can upgrade our home computers to Windows Vista and we can upgrade our mental, emotional and spiritual operating systems to God's Windows Vista. Isaiah challenges us to upgrade our operating system to God's Windows Vista. Centering prayer is an installation program that helps us upgrade our mental, emotional and spiritual operating system. Think about upgrading your operating system. This is not for everyone. It will require some time and some effort. It takes some time to learn how to run a new operating system but the result is worth the effort.