Devoted to community

Acts 2:42-47  (CEB)

42 The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. 43 A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. 44 All the believers were united and shared everything. 45 They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them. 46 Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity. 47 They praised God and demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily to the community those who were being saved.

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This is without a doubt one of my very favorite stories in the New Testament.  I mean, I love the Pentecost reading, but this one . . . If one is to consider the Acts of the Apostles as the closest thing we have to a history of the early church, that means that somewhere back in our church DNA we have a gene for perfect church unity.  I love this so much.  “All the believers were united and shared everything - with gladness and simplicity.”  I get all fan girl when I read this. I tear up a little bit, and sigh.

But then the cynic in me says, “Yeah, but how long did that last?  It was only like a minute later (Acts 5)  that Ananais and Sapphira kept back part of the proceeds from the sale of a piece of property.  And right after that, (Acts 6) “the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.”   It didn’t take long for before the perfection of the earliest days was tarnished by humans behaving humanly.  And that goes all the way back to the Garden.   Regardless, we do have a history of perfect unity in the church even if it was only for a very short time.  We can see how community, especially Christian community, can look.  For a minute, followers of Jesus put God and each other ahead of personal issues, and it was good.  

Right now, in our current situation of being separated in this time of quarantine, our focus is on community.   Especially for those of us trying to find ways to make sure everyone is kept informed of everything - which is really pretty complicated, because some people don’t have internet, and some have internet but don’t have Facebook, and some have Facebook but not enough bandwidth to get Live to work right, and some who are looking for us can’t find their way around YouTube, and the website went insane the other week. . .  It’s ok - Jason fixed it.  Thank you, Jason.  Print versions of the Pastoral Prayer, the Message and the Lord’s Supper are snail mailed to our less technically inclined members on Mondays.    Jordan and the Quarantine Qrew - Kenneshae, Jessica, Jorge and Joe on vocals with Isidro and Abel on tech keep working to make the livestream experience better.  Different people contribute to the parts of the service that are pre-recorded in a variety of locations - including the little recording studio located in my living room.  Beginning today an Elder will preside at the Lord’s Table.  We will be adding new things, like a time for members to share what they are doing during quarantine and even a Children’s Time when we can. We are trying to include as many people in our online worship experience as possible while still working to keep each other safe and healthy.

You see, we talk about All means ALL as something that is really important to our congregation, and we do mean that, but trying to make that work, trying to really include our entire community, can be crazy making.   One positive outcome of online worship is that we are much more aware of who in our congregation has been left out in the past.  Another is that our community is growing, as we have a number of folks who for one reason or another didn’t come to the church building for worship services but who are now attending virtual worship. Previously they may have watched the sermon on YouTube later that evening, but that was just the sermon.  Now they are able to not just watch the sermon, but participate in the entire worship Live, and take communion with all the rest of us, and pray the prayers with all the rest of us.  When the time comes that we can worship together in the building in groups of more than 10 and without face masks - and that could be a long time coming - we need to keep making these folks welcome.  We need to keep doing and improving our online worship even when we can be face to face in the sanctuary. 

Peter W. Marty editor/publisher of the Century and senior pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa.,  recently wrote an article titled “The coronavirus pandemic is nurturing neighborliness”  He says that, in a time when it is fairly common to not even know the names of our actual neighbors, we seem to be relearning the social benefits of building community with our not-so-close neighbors.  In his article are stories of children playing tic tac toe with dry erase markers with residents of a nearby nursing home.  Neighbors on a cul-de-sac who didn’t know each other very well before are now sitting at the end of their driveways in the evening for “happy hour” conversation.  I have seen quite a few stories online about folks dropping off food (and toilet paper) unasked at the homes of neighbors who can’t go out.  Friday I saw stories about people receiving May baskets for the first time in years.  It used to be a thing, when I was growing up anyway, that on May 1st you would pick flowers from your yard and leave small bouquets or baskets of them at your neighbor’s front doors.  I have not seen that done in a very long time, but this year, when we aren’t preoccupied with all the millions of things that we would normally be doing, some of those old neighborly practices are coming back.  We have seen teacher parades, and drive by baby showers, and birthdays.  Today someone I know is attending a drive by memorial for a recently departed friend.  These events have brought people out of their houses to at least wave at each other.   Now that we cannot go out and about, we are finding new ways of being community. 

Those earliest Christians, who weren’t even calling themselves Christians yet, were doing something new.  We can be pretty sure of that because Luke made a point of writing about how they were all getting along and sharing everything “with gladness and simplicity”.   Even the Gospel writers didn’t write about everything that was done by and around Jesus.  We don’t know what common practices were other than by way of the exceptions the Evangelists wrote about.  Jesus eating with “unclean” members of the community and talking to the Samaritan woman and stopping the stoning of an adulteress, taught us a little bit about common practices of his time.  Reporters, and this is really the role Luke took in writing down the Acts of the Apostles, don’t tell stories of every day, ordinary behavior.  They write about things that are different, unexpected, exciting.  So, for this diverse community of people whose only common connection is their belief that Jesus is the Christ to be praying together daily in the Temple, eating together in each other’s homes, sharing everything in common, even selling pieces of property and possessions and distributing the proceeds to everyone who needed them - this was different.  This was not the way most people lived.  Then as now, people were focused on surviving, paying their bills, getting enough for their own family to eat, acquiring possessions, acquiring or keeping wealth and power.  In short, people behaved in the ways that we expect people to behave.  This perfect community of believers stood out from society.  And for as long as that lasted, it was very good.  

We don’t know for sure how many people made up this community of believers.  This was after Pentecost and the baptism of thousands, but many of those would have headed back home after the festival.  In order for them all to be together in one place they met at the Temple, probably in one of the large courtyards, where men and women could be together.  It is very likely that this is where one or another of the apostles would preach and tell the stories of Jesus.  This part would have been fairly normal for the time, for teachers to instruct their followers in the Temple Courtyard.  We know that they met in homes for meals, and we know that most homes were pretty small, so the groups who met together for meals and prayer and discussion of what they had heard from the apostles would have been fairly small as well.  I like to think of those as pot lucks, where everyone brought what they had to share with everyone else.  That’s the way I read the story, anyway.  At some point, either while they were all together at the Temple or over supper, they would share what they knew of the needs of their community - the community of believers and their physical neighbors.  Like we do prayer concerns.  And just as we look for ways to help our friends and neighbors meet their needs, so too did the early church - thereby demonstrating God’s goodness to everyone.  As a result of their continually praising God and helping their neighbors, “the Lord added daily to the community those who were being saved”.

Those early believers were doing something very new and very different from things they did before . . . before the Resurrection and before Pentecost.  Likewise, we are doing things that are very new and different from the way things were before - before the shelter in place orders, before Covid19 entered our lives.  We are worshipping differently.  We are gathering differently.  We are making connections with other people differently.   But the thing that has not changed, and that was the same for the early church, is that we are devoted to the teachings of the apostles - to the Gospel stories they wrote where we learn what Jesus said.  We are devoted to praying for each other, and to caring for those who need our help.  We may not share everything or sell our possessions to give to those in need, but we are devoted to giving of what we have to those who have less.  That might be food or toilet paper but it might also be connecting with those who are alone by writing a card or calling or dropping by and talking through the screen door from a safe physical distance or leaving a May basket at their front door.   I see you all on Facebook praising God and demonstrating God’s goodness to everyone, sharing your faith freely and openly, as did that perfect community of believers Luke describes.   In our current reality we are acting more like that community all the time.  

My dear siblings, we may not be meeting face to face, sitting in our favorite pews, nevertheless we are gathered as one community in all our separate places.  In a moment we will share a meal in our homes, as did the early believers.   May we leave our time of worship today united in our devotion to our community, to caring for one another, and to the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.  

The Road to Emmaus

 Luke 24:13-35 Common English Bible (CEB) 

13 On that same day, two disciples were traveling to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking to each other about everything that had happened. 15 While they were discussing these things, Jesus himself arrived and joined them on their journey. 16 They were prevented from recognizing him.

17 He said to them, “What are you talking about as you walk along?” They stopped, their faces downcast.

18 The one named Cleopas replied, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who is unaware of the things that have taken place there over the last few days?”

19 He said to them, “What things?”

They said to him, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth. Because of his powerful deeds and words, he was recognized by God and all the people as a prophet. 20 But our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. 21 We had hoped he was the one who would redeem Israel. All these things happened three days ago. 22 But there’s more: Some women from our group have left us stunned. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 and didn’t find his body. They came to us saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who told them he is alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women said. They didn’t see him.”

25 Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! Your dull minds keep you from believing all that the prophets talked about. 26 Wasn’t it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then he interpreted for them the things written about himself in all the scriptures, starting with Moses and going through all the Prophets.

28 When they came to Emmaus, he acted as if he was going on ahead. 29 But they urged him, saying, “Stay with us. It’s nearly evening, and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 After he took his seat at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts on fire when he spoke to us along the road and when he explained the scriptures for us?”

33 They got up right then and returned to Jerusalem. They found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying to each other, “The Lord really has risen! He appeared to Simon!” 35 Then the two disciples described what had happened along the road and how Jesus was made known to them as he broke the bread.  

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Good morning.  I just want to say . . . I really miss seeing you all.  You are in my prayers, as I hope I am in yours.  When I find myself wanting to break out of my house I think of all of you, and how important it is to stay home and keep us all healthy.  It is also important to keep ourselves spiritually healthy.  In March I began posting a daily Bible Study titled 30 New Days.  At the end of 30 days, we reached the end of that Bible study.  So this past Monday I began a practice of writing a Daily Journal entry in my blog “Everyday Thinking”, the link to which is posted on Facebook, or if you don’t do Facebook, can be found on our website.  I find writing a daily meditation on a scripture verse has been very helpful in my own spiritual journey.  Perhaps you will also find it to be so.   

So.  The Road to Emmaus.  I’ve always found this passage a bit confusing.  I mean, I kind of understand Mary at first not recognizing Jesus, thinking he was the gardener.  After all, who expects to see someone that you watched die and be entombed to be walking around talking a few days later?  It might have been like the time I ran into my hairdresser at the laundromat.  Not only was she in the wrong place, but she didn’t look the same.  She was in shorts, with her hair in pigtails and no makeup - a very different look than I was used to, so it took a minute to place her.   Plus, Mary  was upset and had been crying and, I don’t know about you, but when I cry my vision gets pretty blurry.  But she knew him as soon as she heard his voice.  

Here we have two of Jesus’ followers walking along the road discussing the recent events in Jerusalem when they were joined by a stranger.  We know it was Jesus, but Luke tells us they were prevented from knowing him.  This stranger wanted to know what they were talking about so they told him about Jesus and how he was a prophet, whom how they thought was the Promised One, but that he had been killed so maybe not.  But then his tomb was discovered to be empty and now they were all confused and astounded.  I can just see Jesus walking alongside them, shaking his head as they expressed their uncertainty, so he used the rest of the journey to set them straight. Mind you, this was roughly a 2 1/2 hour walk, so he had plenty of time to school them.  I wonder if this was the first “Come to Jesus” moment?   Anyway . . . two and a half hours on the road, listening to Jesus talk about the prophets and their prophecies about the Christ . . . and they didn’t know him.  Yes, I know we are told they were prevented from knowing who he was, but I mean really.  Mary recognized him as soon as he spoke, but Cleopas and his friend had no idea who their companion on the way was until . . . they were together at the Table and he broke the bread.  

The Road to Emmaus.  The Upper Room offers a program called the Emmaus Walk.  It begins with a 3 day short course in Christianity, and continues as small groups of participants meet regularly to support each other in their ongoing walk with Christ.  The object of the Emmaus Walk  is “to provide an opportunity to meet Jesus Christ in a new way as God’s grace and love is revealed to each participant through other believers”.   I know a few people who have participated in this Walk, and each of them has told me what a huge difference it made in their spiritual lives.   Perhaps the most important thing they shared with me is that this is not intended to be a “me looking for Jesus” sort of journey, but a “me and you and that other person over there looking for Jesus in each other” sort of journey, holding each other accountable as they continue their walk together.  

We talk about that sometimes, about how important it is to see Jesus in the face of other people.  We work hard to encourage seeing Jesus in the other - the grumpy person in the checkout line, the homeless woman, the immigrant, the politician we don’t like.  And admittedly that can be really hard.  We might have to break through our own prejudices and preconceptions about that other before we can begin to see Jesus in them.  Some of you may have seen images of the bronze sculptures known as The Homeless Jesus by the artist Timothy P. Schmalz, which is a man huddled on a park bench, wrapped in a blanket.  The only way you can tell this is Jesus is by the wounds in his bare feet sticking out from the end of the blanket. There are now many copies of the Homeless Jesus around the world, in front of churches and on university campuses.  It has been described as a "visual translation" of the Gospel of Matthew passage in which Jesus tells his disciples, "as you did it to one of the least of my brothers, you did it to me”. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeless_Jesus ) Everywhere it has received both blessings as a sharp reminder of these words of Jesus and criticisms as “an insulting depiction of Jesus.”  It can be hard to see Jesus in the other.    

A greeting common in India is namaste, which said while holding ones hands together as in prayer and bowing to the other person. It means “the divine in me respectfully recognizes the divine in you” or “I bow to the divine in you.”  While we might not say namaste or bow, the practice of respectfully looking for the divine, for Christ, in the other, no matter who that other is, will help us to recognize them as our neighbor, and as such, someone we are to love as we love ourselves.  

Sometimes it can be difficult to see Jesus in the faces of people we know well, our families and loved ones, for instance.  Especially if we are suddenly forced into being together 24/7.  I live alone, which has its own difficulties.  But I do live with four cats who are suddenly needier than they have ever been.  They can be annoying, actually, making it hard to get anything accomplished.  Just try typing around a 14 pound lap cat.  But they are cats, not people. They sleep for 12 - 16 hours a day.  They are not family members or roommates.  I don’t have to homeschool them or keep them entertained or put up with hearing the same joke for the zillionth time or pick up their socks.  Even people who dearly love one another and usually get along perfectly can start being snarly when they don’t get any time away from each other.  For most persons and families, however, recognizing Jesus in each other’s faces will not be terribly difficult.  You might need a time out, a few minutes to yourself.  It could be a time of prayer or coloring or reading or playing a game on your phone or screaming into a pillow - whatever works to help you to stop focusing on the thing that is irritating and remember what you love about the others in your household.  

It will be so much harder, however, for those who have difficult family lives.  Some are living in situations where verbal and emotional abuse is constant, where every moment is fraught with emotional pain.  Others are dealing with physical abuse and are stuck, quarantined, sheltering in place with their abuser.  Not surprisingly, calls reporting incidents of domestic violence have increased since the shelter in place orders went into effect. The pain of emotional and physical abuse may prevent us from seeing Jesus in the other.  As a survivor of domestic violence myself, I am not sure I could have done it while living with my abuser or for a number of years afterwards.   We do know that the disciples were able to recognize Jesus only when the time was right.  Perhaps this will also be the case for those who cannot get away from their abuser while sheltering in place.  Although if you can get away to a place of safety, please try to do so.  Stay safe.   And Know that although you may not be able to see Jesus in that other, Jesus is walking alongside you even as he walked with the disciples on that long ago Easter evening.  

These two travelers had set out on the road to Emmaus uncertain, confused by the events of the  last few days in Jerusalem.   They had been so hopeful that Jesus was going to set everything straight, that he would be the savior of Israel they had been waiting for.  And then he died, a terrible death, crucified like a criminal, and when he died on the cross, so too had died their hope.  Then came the news that he wasn’t in the tomb.  They didn’t know what to think.  They were stunned.  

We also are stunned.  We are living in a time when everything changed in a flash, just as it did for the disciples.  Just as they were unprepared for Jesus’ arrest and trial and death, so too we were unprepared for a pandemic.  We looked to our leaders, to the experts, for answers, and there were none.  The disciples had no one to ask.   They had to sort of figure it out as they went along, as do we.   They met a stranger who walked with them and explained all the prophecies to them.   They invited him to dinner. 

“After he took his seat at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.”  And suddenly the two travelers were able to recognize him.  And as soon as they recognized him, he disappeared from their sight.  And they immediately went back out on the road and made another two and a half hour journey to tell the other disciples that they had seen the risen Christ.  A new thing had happened, Christ had risen.  So they immediately went out to spread the Good News, to share with the others the teachings that Jesus had shared with them along the road to Emmaus - the words that had set their hearts on fire.  

And then . . . they waited for the next new thing to happen.  They waited in a new world where they knew not what would come next.   As do we.  But unlike those two disciples, we know that Christ is risen.  We know that he walks along side of us every step of the way on this new journey we are taking.   We know that he is always with us in the breaking of the bread.

Trust issues

Scripture 1 Peter 1:3-9 CEB

3 May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! On account of his vast mercy, he has given us new birth. You have been born anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 4 You have a pure and enduring inheritance that cannot perish—an inheritance that is presently kept safe in heaven for you. 5 Through his faithfulness, you are guarded by God’s power so that you can receive the salvation he is ready to reveal in the last time.

6 You now rejoice in this hope, even if it’s necessary for you to be distressed for a short time by various trials. 7 This is necessary so that your faith may be found genuine. (Your faith is more valuable than gold, which will be destroyed even though it is itself tested by fire.) Your genuine faith will result in praise, glory, and honor for you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Although you’ve never seen him, you love him. Even though you don’t see him now, you trust him and so rejoice with a glorious joy that is too much for words. 9 You are receiving the goal of your faith: your salvation.

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Before I begin, I need to tell y’all something. It is really hard to preach to my phone.  It is hard not to have you all here in front of me, not to see your facial expressions, not to hear your chuckles when something that I hope is funny actually works, not to feel your energy as I move through the message, and see your heads nodding . . . or not.  The cats have decided this isn’t terribly interesting, so they’re off sleeping someplace.  So it’s just me and my iPhone in my living room.  Comedian Henny Youngman used to say,  “I know you’re out there, I can hear you breathing.”  Well - I can’t even say that.  Because in fact, you’re not out there.  Not yet anyway.  I’m preaching to my phone on Saturday morning and you won’t be watching until Sunday.   I would like for this not to continue for very much longer, but I very much fear it will be a while before we can move back to the sanctuary, and even longer before we can consider gathering in the way we are used to gathering.

If you heard Disciples General Minister and President, Teri Hord Owens, preach on Easter, you heard her say, “It is unlikely that things will ever be the same.”  She called on us to prepare for a ministry of imagination, to let our imaginations take flight as we consider how we will go forward as church, how we will shape a new world.  She reminded us that it was in the midst of disruption that the church was born.

The disciples faced a time of disruption and change in the days and weeks after the resurrection.  They were confused and uncertain about what was coming next, about what they were supposed to do and how to do it.  They were in hiding and fearful.  They would figure it out in time.  They would find new ways to move forward that didn’t look at all the way they had expected their lives to look.   Thirty years later, Peter could look back upon those early days and write this letter drawing upon his experience to comfort Christians who were undergoing severe persecution.  Like the early disciples, Christians in around 65 AD quite frankly, did not know if they would survive from one day to the next.  They were hunkered down in their homes, unable to meet in large groups, uncertain of the future.   Peter knew first hand how easy it is to let fear rule your heart.  He remembered that Jesus had said  “I assure you that, before the rooster crows tonight, you will deny me three times.”  And so it happened.  Peter, fearing for his life, did indeed deny knowing Jesus three times and when the rooster crowed remembered Jesus’ words, realized he had fulfilled that prophecy, and went out and cried uncontrollably.  Peter totally knew how that fear felt, and he knew that it was possible to move beyond it if they grabbed on to hope.  So he reminded them of whose they were. “[God] has given us new birth. You have been born anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” . . . "You now rejoice in this hope, even if it’s necessary for you to be distressed for a short time by various trials. This is necessary so that your faith may be found genuine.”  

Peter wrote these words to the Christians of his time that they might be emboldened by hope to go forth in faith.  They did the things that Christians do - caring for the sick in their communities, praying with the lonely, helping the poor and hungry - but they did them differently than when they were free to meet openly.  They met in even smaller groups than the house churches they were accustomed to.  They heard Peter when he said, “rejoice in this hope, even if it’s necessary for you to be distressed for a short time.”  And note that Peter said, Even if it is necessary for you to be distressed.  Not even though it is necessary.  It might happen, or it might not.  Whether it does or not, your hope and your faith will bring you through.

I do not believe that this plague we are facing today happened in order that our faith might be tested.  But I do believe that how we face this particular threat is a result of our faith.  Like pretty much everyone else, I would love to go out to lunch, chat with the servers, hug my friends, work in my office where all my files and books are, worship together.  I would love to see everything go back to the way it was this time last year, when the Spiritual Growth team could say about any upcoming event, “What we usually do is. . . “  But that is not our new reality.  From here on out we will have to look at completely new ways of being church, of worshipping together.   And this change we are facing may be a very good thing for the church - our congregation and the Church universal.   I have seen a multitude of persons say, “I have participated in more worship services this week than I have in probably the last 5 years . . .or 10 years.”  People who do not attend church or claim any particular tradition as their own are listening to sermons, praying along with our pray-ers, asking questions, seeking answers rooted in faith.  I am certain this would not have happened to the extent it is has we not had to move all of our worship services out of buildings and on to the Internet.   

We must also recognize, however, that there are many who do not have access to the internet to see our service live-streamed, who don’t have smart phones that will let them watch YouTube.  Under shelter in place orders, these are already feeling isolated.  We must not let them believe the church has forgotten them.  Even though we cannot be with them in person, we can and should call and write notes.   We can mail copies of prayers and sermons.  We can reach beyond our comfort zones to bring hope, as Peter’s letter brought hope to the Christians of his day.  

The Rev. Teresa Hord Owens called upon us to “prepare for a ministry of imagination.”  She asked us to imagine a new world, to pray for the courage to change and help shape a new world.  She encouraged us to let the things of the past go, to let our prophetic imagination take flight so that we might envision new ways to be Church, new ways to connect, new opportunities to carry the Good News of Jesus Christ far outside our doors.   

The trial that lies ahead of us is, as has been said before, unprecedented,  even unimaginable in scope.  But so are the solutions.  So are the opportunities to share our own hope and faith.   Each and every one of us has been forced to find  ways of being and living that we couldn’t imagine in the before time.   Our home life has changed.  Our shopping habits have changed.  Our work life has changed, or disappeared altogether.  How we do school has changed.  How we have meetings has changed. Our devotional practices may have changed, now that we have more time to pursue devotional practices - prayer, meditation, reading and writing, sewing, coloring . . .   On Facebook I have seen many more recommendations of books and spiritual practices, more prayers, more poems, more encouraging memes, more groups that focus on spiritual life than ever before.  Yes, there is still ugliness there.  There is still anger and name calling and divisiveness.  But these other things, these new and increased spiritual things, are a good thing, another way we are sharing our faith, spreading the Good News, being church.  Because Church is a community of like minded people gathering to worship God - and there is no rule that says that the members of a church community have to all be in one place.  The closest thing to a rule is found in Matthew 18:20, where Jesus said, “Where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them.”  And we - this online community of faith - are definitely gathered in Jesus’ name.  For, as Peter said, “Although you’ve never seen him, you love him. Even though you don’t see him now, you trust him and so rejoice with a glorious joy that is too much for words.”  We do not see him now.  We may not even see each other right now.  But we know we are together, and that he is with us.  We trust in him, and we rejoice in his love.  

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Surviving the Desert

Scripture Ezekiel 37:1-14   (CEB). 

37 The Lord’s power overcame me, and while I was in the Lord’s spirit, he led me out and set me down in the middle of a certain valley. It was full of bones. 2 He led me through them all around, and I saw that there were a great many of them on the valley floor, and they were very dry.

3 He asked me, “Human one, can these bones live again?” 

I said, “Lord God, only you know.”

4 He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, Dry bones, hear the Lord’s word! 5 The Lord God proclaims to these bones: I am about to put breath in you, and you will live again. 6 I will put sinews on you, place flesh on you, and cover you with skin. When I put breath in you, and you come to life, you will know that I am the Lord.”

7 I prophesied just as I was commanded. There was a great noise as I was prophesying, then a great quaking, and the bones came together, bone by bone. 8 When I looked, suddenly there were sinews on them. The flesh appeared, and then they were covered over with skin. But there was still no breath in them.

9 He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, human one! Say to the breath, The Lord God proclaims: Come from the four winds, breath! Breathe into these dead bodies and let them live.”

10 I prophesied just as he commanded me. When the breath entered them, they came to life and stood on their feet, an extraordinarily large company.

11 He said to me, “Human one, these bones are the entire house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished. We are completely finished.’ 12 So now, prophesy and say to them, The Lord God proclaims: I’m opening your graves! I will raise you up from your graves, my people, and I will bring you to Israel’s fertile land. 13 You will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you up from your graves, my people. 14 I will put my breath in you, and you will live. I will plant you on your fertile land, and you will know that I am the Lord. I’ve spoken, and I will do it. This is what the Lord says.”

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The title of today’s message is “Surviving the Desert.”  I selected the passage and the title in early February, long before we had any idea that we would be facing a pandemic, and attending worship from our homes.  At that time I was focused on the theme the Spiritual Growth Team selected for Lent - the Road Home.  As I planned each sermon for Lent I was thinking of road trips and the different roads I have taken to get home physically.  One of those roads runs through Death Valley, which can be a pretty stark landscape, and seems to go on forever.  The mountains in the distance don’t even look real.  They look like a painted backdrop in one of those old TV Westerns - Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger, the Cisco Kid.   But the desert is not always that way.  Sometimes it blooms, and when it blooms it is astounding.  Life, abundant life, vibrant colorful life, springs forth miraculously from the desert floor and from the dunes and the hills.  Knowing that about Death Valley, I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted this message to go.

But then, stuff happened.   Covid19 happened.  We had to make difficult decisions about keeping the congregation, and everyone we are all connected with, healthy.  We are, most of us, now sheltering in place.  If you are seeing this, it is through the miracle of the Interwebz.  (I will make sure it is mailed to people who are not connected to the internet.). We are praying that we get this right the first time - the music and the message, candles and prayers - the Lord’s Supper.   We are pretty sure that won’t happen, cause technology, but we are praying for a good outcome with minimal glitches.  

So God took Ezekiel and set him in the middle of a Valley - this is where my Death Valley imagery came from - and that valley was full of bones, dry bones, entirely lifeless bones.  This sometimes happened in ancient days, that a piece of land would be full of bones.  After a great battle, the bodies of the common soldiers were left where they fell.  When God asked Ezekiel if those bones could come back to life, Ezekiel, a very wise man, said “I dunno. You know, but I don’t.” So Ezekiel spoke the words God gave him to speak and the skeletal remains became flesh.  But not yet living beings.  Because God had not yet put the breath of life into them.   But when Ezekiel, at God’s command, called the breath to come from the four winds and fill the bodies, they lived again and stood on their feet.  Ezekiel trusted the Lord, enough to follow directions, and when he did that, the people came to life again, and they knew that God was Lord.

Right this minute, we may feel like those dry bones in the desert.   We may feel alone, isolated, because we cannot leave our homes.  We cannot gather together for worship or Bible Study or any of the other ways we usually interact with other people.  We may be frightened.   We hear this thing and that thing and the things we hear contradict each other.  We don’t know who to listen to.  We don’t know who to trust.

And I say, Trust the Lord.  I chose this passage, this dry bones in the desert passage, in February!   I found the Lenten Candle Lighting meditation for today - in February!  Let’s hear that again:

God has proven trustworthy throughout history, but at times we question and doubt, and even deny, God’s presence in our lives. We worry and fret about what is happening and what will happen next, rather than trusting in our Savior.

Right now we have no idea what will happen next with this virus.  We have heard predictions and guesstimates, but really, no human knows for sure what will happen next.  We know only that we are on a road that is completely unfamiliar,  and the best way to travel on any road is one mile at a time, one step at a time.

To help each other on the Road Home through what might seem like a desert filled with dry bones, reach out.  Make phone calls.  Encourage one another.  Read the Bible and pray  together on the phone.   Pray for those who must continue to work and risk exposure - our first responders, health care providers, grocery workers, truckers, and all the others who are doing their best to get us all through this.   And as we breathe life and hope into each other’s hearts, the desert will bloom, and it will be glorious.  

We are halfway through Lent.   We may be looking ahead to Holy Week, specifically to Good Friday - to the passion of Christ - the arrest, the torture, the death on the cross.  We might be stuck in the idea that this road we are on, this Road Home, is the road to the Cross.   And it is.  But the Cross is not the end of the road. It is a stop on the way, not the destination. The Empty Tomb is.  The end of the Lenten Road, the Road Home, is the Resurrection.   And so we continue on our Road Home, through the desert and beyond, with trust in God. Amen.

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Because we were not meeting in person, the Lord’s Supper was celebrated online, as follows:

I don’t know whether we will be worshipping in person together on April 12 - the date of Easter Sunday this year - but I do know that whenever that happens, whenever we get back together, whenever we reach the end of this road of uncertainty we are currently traveling, we will celebrate the Resurrection. 

And we will do that now, as well.  Because when we come together, whenever we come together, we celebrate the Resurrection by sharing the Lord’s Supper.  We remember Jesus’ sacrifice, yes.  But the Lord’s Supper is not merely a memorial of Christ’s death. It is a celebration of his resurrection. And when we share this meal, we are breaking bread with the living and reigning Christ who is present in our midst. 

For on the night he was betrayed, Jesus gathered with his disciples in the Upper Room for one final meal.  And at the beginning of the meal, he took the bread an after giving thanks to God for it, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is broken for you.”  When the meal had ended he took the cup, and again giving thanks, blessed it saying, “This cup is the new covenant, my blood poured out in love for the forgiveness of sin. Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, do it in remembrance of me until I come again.”

I invite everyone “here” with us this morning to join me in this meal.   If you have bread (or cracker) and cup of juice (or water or wine)  - you may eat and drink when you are ready. If you don’t, please pray as you would during the Lord’s Supper if we were together.

Partake and Pray

We thank you Lord, for the gift of your love, the forgiveness of sin, witnessed in the sacrifice of your son, Jesus, and in the resurrection.  May the elements we have shared this day give us the strength to do your will, and spread the Good News, especially in these difficult days.  Amen.

Following Directions

Scripture Genesis 12:1-4   (CEB) 

12 The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation and will bless you. I will make your name respected, and you will be a blessing.

3  I will bless those who bless you,
    those who curse you I will curse;
        all the families of the earth
            will be blessed because of you.”

4 Abram left just as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him. Now Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.

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Many of you are well aware that I am directionally challenged. If I name a place  and point toward it, I will invariably have pointed in the opposite direction of where that place actually is.  And that includes the church parking lot while I am standing in my office.  Directions that include words like North or South or whatever are pretty much useless.  Left and right are good.  So are landmarks. Tell me something like “go 6.2 miles on that road and turn right at the orange house.”   So it should come as no surprise that I rely heavily on Siri to help me get from point A to point B and back again.  Yesterday as I was about to head home from Vacaville where I had been attending a mandatory anti-racism training, I stopped for gas near Interstate 80 and then told Siri “get directions home.”   I mean, I knew the directions were basically “take 80 to Sacramento, turn right at 99 and follow that to Selma.”  Easy Peasy.  But you know, I am perfectly capable of going the wrong direction on even a familiar freeway for miles and miles without noticing a problem, so it’s just safer to have Siri direct me.  Siri says, “Make a U-turn on Depot Street.” OK.  Then “In 2.6 miles turn right on Leisure Valley.”  And I’m all “But Siri, there’s the freeway right there.  Why are we going away from it?”  Siri didn’t respond to my question, so I just kept following his directions.  As we drove further and further in the “wrong” direction I kept asking Siri what on earth he was doing - he never did answer me! - but I kept following his directions. I did notice that the distance to home was getting smaller - as were the roads I was traveling in between crops and cattle and windmills - so I kept following his directions.  I had no idea where I was or even what direction I was traveling in, but hey, it was a pretty nice ride through the countryside.  I crossed 3 drawbridges over pretty rivers.  Nice.  Eventually I ended up on I5 South, found my way to 99S in Stockton, and came home.    

We first heard of Abram just a few verses earlier, at the end of the list of Noah’s descendants. All we really learn is that his father Terah was 70 when Abram was born, Abram was married to Sarai, and that Terah’s family had moved from Ur to Haran, including Abram, Sarai, and Lot.  On today’s maps that is like moving from just north of the Persian Gulf in Iraq, up along the Euphrates River through Syria to just barely over the Turkish border.   We are going to assume that his family still knew of the God who sent Noah out in the ark - the flood had only been 350 years or so earlier.  Of course, the whole Tower of Babel confusion of languages thing happened in between Noah’s story and Abram’s, and if we learn nothing else from the Old Testament it is that people are really good at forgetting about God . . but we are going to assume Abram knew about this particular God, because if we believe that these patriarchs really did live for centuries, then Abram was a toddler when Noah died, and Noah’s son Shem, who had been on the Ark, lived until Abram was about 150.  Abram would most likely have known Shem, and the stories about God’s relationship with their family.  So he would have, should have known about the power of this God who spoke to him.

So God, this particular God . . . the one we know today as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Moses, the one who had saved Abram’s ancestors from the flood . . . that God, came to Abram and told him to pick up his entire life and move to who knew where.  The rewards set out were pretty attractive.    . . . . “You will be a great nation and your name will be respected, I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.”  And did you notice that there were no threats at all - no “be obedient or I will smite thee!”  God expected that Abram would obey, and he did so, without question.  So in verse 5 “Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all of their possessions, and those who became members of their household in Haran; and they set out for the land of Canaan.”  I realize that the reading today only went to verse 4, but verse 5 is important, because it tells us that , unlike Moses hundreds of years later, Abram knew where he was heading.  He was heading to the very place his father had been heading toward when he left Ur, but never got that far. Instead he stopped and settled in Haran.   But God’s plans for this family included the land.   So God came to Abram and said, “Pack up all your stuff and leave your comfortable life.  Leave your parents and all your other relatives.  I have something better in mind for you. Just do what I tell you and I will bless you in ways you cannot imagine.”  

Abram would have many adventures in the 100 years between leaving Haran and his death.  You can read about those adventures in Genesis.  He did some really smart things, and some not so smart things, but the one thing he always did, the one thing that Abram is best known for, is following directions. Obedience.  Beginning here, with this instruction to leave his family and all the familiar things, and go to a new place, from this time forward whenever God says, “Do this thing”, Abram does it.   Some of the things God insisted upon were incredibly difficult - but Abram trusted that if he did what God told him to do, all would be well. Leave home.  OK.  Change your name.  OK.  Sacrifice your child.  OK.  Wait, what?  Beginning here, with leaving home, Abram would prove over and over again that he was willing to follow God’s directions even when he was asked to do the unimaginable.  And yes, Abraham’s descendants became a great nation, and his name is still respected some 4,000 years later!  Three major world religions revere his name.   God’s promises to him have been fulfilled. 

Abram apparently knew exactly when God was talking to him.  I don’t know if he heard a voice in his head, or what.  The Bible doesn’t tell us how he recognized God’s voice.  But he knew God’s voice.  He could hear God’s instructions and follow them.  It’s often more difficult for us to figure out when God is talking to us.  Sometimes God speaks through our conscience. If you feel like something might be a little hinky, chances are good that it is and you shouldn’t do it.  Sometimes God speaks to us through other people, as when people recognize gifts that we don’t see in ourselves.  Sometimes there is a sign, or a series of signs. It usually takes me a while to hear it. I often have to be hit upside the head with a God by four.  And sometimes we do hear a voice that we know is God’s.   When I was one of the chaplain interns at the Indiana State Psychiatric Hospital the head Psychiatrist was mentioning various diagnoses and said, “if they think God is telling them to do things, they are schizophrenic.”  The five of us students looked each other and Hal said, “Uh, most of us in this room believe God has spoken to us.”  The doctor said, “And I believe he did.  The way to tell the difference is this - if the voice is telling you to do good things, it is God. If it is telling you to hurt people, you need medication.”  However God’s instructions come to us, it is important to follow directions.   

Just as I depend on Siri to keep me from getting lost between one place and another, so we should all depend upon God to guide us on our way.  We may not recognize we are being led or why we are being led that way, but the Good News is that if we let God lead us, if we follow God’s directions, we cannot go wrong.  We will always end up exactly where we need to be.  For we are God’s people, the adopted descendants of Abram, and we know that the promise God made to him, that “all the families of the earth will be blessed because of him" continue to be fulfilled among us.