Month: February 2024

Deny.

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PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work
You do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.
May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those
Who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.
May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement.
May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in the bland absences.
May the day never burden you.
May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams,
Possibilities and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.
May your soul calm, console and renew you.

― May The Light Of Your Soul Guide You, by John O’Donohue

Mark 8:31-38

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

How many times have we heard something, but we just don’t get it?  It may be right in front of us, or someone we are close to may be telling us something…but, we just don’t see it or hear it!  I know that’s true in my life!

And, how many times do we say something and wonder, is anyone listening?  Believe me, I wonder that all of the time as a dad and as a preacher!!  

In our gospel lesson, we see Jesus giving a somber declaration, a prophetic word, that he must suffer, that he will be betrayed, and that he will be killed.  Peter would have none of this!  He had put his identity and expectations in and on Jesus.  His sense of self, his image, was wrapped up in a triumphant Jesus, a victorious Messiah.  Yet, Jesus says that tragedy must come first, that suffering is a key part of our identity in Christ.

Identity is interesting.  I have an identity…I’m a runner, pastor, parent, husband, friend…you have an identity as well.  Our church has an identity…we think of it in some ways, others may think of it in other ways.

In our culture, we also put our identities in somewhat vague national ideas…I’m a Democrat, or I am a Republican, or something else.  We place our identities in things that we have been conditioned to place them in.  Now, I’m not saying it’s wrong to have political or cultural opinions, I certainly do.  Yet, in so many ways, we have lost our identity, our connections to ourselves and one another.  We do not feel an identity in the local, in our neighborhoods and even in our city.  We’ve let ideologies and marketing shape us rather than getting into the nitty gritty of everyday local relationships, as well as an awareness of who we really are.  We have lived above place, not in or with place and we have lived in the layers that we have created rather than from our deepest selves, our humanity, our souls. 

There comes a time in our lives when all of the identities that we have taken on, and even the roles we play, come into question and we ask, “who are we really?”  

Oftentimes, when we put our identities above our human experience and relationships.  We don’t often like to deal with struggle or suffering.  Even if we know we can’t avoid it.

Friends, this is what Jesus is sharing with us this morning.  Life is filled with suffering.  We do all that we can to avoid it, but it’s there. 

Jesus says in our text this morning that in order to be a follower of Jesus, we must deny ourselves and take up Jesus’ cross, the way of suffering.  We must be willing to enter into the darkness of our lives, the lives of others, and this world.  This is a hard word, but if we are to enter into life, true life where we grow and become all that God intended, if we want to experience true joy, we must be willing to suffer and look at who we really are. 

Jesus knows this and addresses it head on.  Peter rebukes Jesus for saying this, yet Jesus gives a strong response as a Rabbi should and would do to one of his disciples, “get behind me Satan”.  Don’t deny what I’m saying or will experience.  Jesus is frustrated, but Jesus loves Peter and wants Peter to understand that he cannot hide from suffering.  

We don’t want to deny ourselves, we don’t want to struggle, and we don’t want to ask hard questions of ourselves oftentimes in the church.  We look for miracle workers instead of looking for the miracles that we have deep within us.  We want the church to be filled with people, to come and join us, but we don’t stop to think about what those same people really want…a group of folks deeply committed to each other and willing to put others ahead of them and to deny themselves, enter into the struggles of others, be uncomfortable, and inconvenienced.  We want a new identity, a new chapter, but do we want to enter deeply into the questions of our lives, our life together as a congregation, and our identity with Westwood, the place that is in our name?!

We have an amazing church filled with amazing gifts in our people.  How do we release ourselves from what we’ve always done and find replenishing and renewing life by inviting others in to co-create new possibilities with us, while also engaging the community and joining in with what God is already doing around us?

I think it starts with vulnerability.  This season, this church has blessed me personally by so many folks being vulnerable with me…honestly vulnerable.  So many folks have allowed me to also be vulnerable…when we start their, which, by the way, is the example of Jesus and God’s power…humility, emptying, and listening…

We feel like we have to have answers, have it all together, when, in reality, none of us do! 

Jesus does go on to say that if we deny ourselves, if we take up our cross, if we are willing to look at our lives and become aware of who we are even in our suffering and darkness, to embrace the suffering and darkness, empty ourselves and be open to the Christ presence within and around us, then we will find Jesus with us.  Jesus will not give up on us.  

Jesus didn’t give up on Peter, and doesn’t give up us.  Peter is often called the rock.  Jesus said that he’d build his church on this same Peter that he rebuked.  He believed in Peter.

And, this same Jesus believes in Westwood First Presbyterian Church.  Like Peter, we have to be vulnerable, and authentic, and also realize that we need healing and growth.  

I believe in this church.  This church’s best history is ahead of us, and that means embracing change, growth, and even the times we live in now.  We have to change, we have to think differently, we have to open the doors of our church to others with love and with wisdom, we have to move beyond the way we’ve done church and think differently in order to build community with those around us.

Friends, yes, God’s story, and ours, is filled with suffering and tragedy, but the story doesn’t end there.  Yes, Jesus is betrayed, Jesus suffers, Jesus is killed.  We are betrayed, we suffer, and we die.  Yet, there is resurrection.  There is new life.  There is a Risen Christ.  WE will rise with the Christ, and, in fact, we are rising daily with this Christ, even as we experience suffering.  We are learning to trust as we hang in there with the story, living through the tragic as well as the triumphant, while staying committed to the authenticity that we’ve demonstrated for a long time.  The world around us is looking for that authenticity and a willingness to embrace the messy world we all live in, knowing that we aren’t alone in the messiness or the suffering.  God is with us, and Lord willing, a community of folks around us.  Amen?

Deconstruct.

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The Baptism of Jesus

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

The Temptation of Jesus

12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

In a world of division and disillusionment, it is hard to know what we can depend on.  And, here we have a faith that says nothing is certain other than God’s love that resides within us and around us.  Yet, there are so many layers in our lives and culture that cloud that vision.  A lot of it stems from experiences.  

When I was a kid in a youth group, a freshman.  I remember going on a missions trip.  I loved our youth group.  I felt a part of something.  Before we left on that trip, the youth director, someone that I really respected, told us that we were going to King’s Island at the end of the trip.  Sounded fun!  Then he said we would have to wear long pants and our youth group t-shirts, which were 3/4 sleeve shirts with a funky hand coming out of heaven design on the front.  It was 1982, but not sure if that ever was fashionable.  I did not want to wear those at King’s Island…simply ugly shirts.  Plus, it was July! Who wears long pants in July at an amusement park.  I protested, yet, got over it.

That week, there were lots of great memories…and also a lot of practical jokes.

But, by the end of the week, we were all excited to go to Kings Island.  We boarded our church bus, it was full of kids and adult leaders, but I got a seat at the front.  I wanted to be the first one to see the Eiffel Tower…which was a big thing in our family when we went to King’s Island…a kind of competition.

Well, sure enough, as we got closer to King’s Island, I was excited, looking for the Eiffel Tower…I forgot all about having to wear my long pants and ugly shirt…even led a chant on the church bus with everyone saying “almost there”…then, like magic, I saw the Tower first and let out a yell of happiness!  I won!  Then I turned around to see everyone on the bus taking off their shirts and long pants to reveal that they had on short sleeve regular shirts and shorts on underneath their clothes.  I looked over at my youth pastor, who was also taking off his long pants and youth group shirt…I was the brunt of one major practical joke. I laughed, told everyone how funny it was…went to the back of the bus…and, yes, you probably know how I felt…dejected, alone, and disappointed.  

Over the years, I have felt more disappointment with the church…I know many of you have as well.  Yet, I still hang on to a notion that church can be so much more, for all of us.  Also, if you are like me, you have found great disappointment in what life was supposed to offer you and you have been disappointed with God even…like Jesus, wandering the wilderness…these have been amazing seasons of growth actually.  There is a word that describes what happens in our faith journeys in the wilderness of life, when we are faced with life’s ups and downs…that word is “deconstruction”, when we have to tear down all of the things and roles that we’ve been handed in our faith in order to “reconstruct” a faith that is not about certainty, but about living in beauty and mystery.

In our faith journey, we have times where we doubt God’s commitment to us…we forget…I know I do.  These are times where my faith is “deconstructed”, sometimes even a time of wilderness…but, it is through those times where my faith also grows.  And, through it all, at different times, we see that God’s commitment to us is deeper and more intimate than we could imagine.  

Our gospel, or “good news” text this morning is also about coming to a now moment of a promise fulfilled. 

The Israelites had been promised a Messiah, a deliverer.  Jesus, who’s very name means “salvation” comes on to the scene after John the Baptist had been announcing that the time was upon Israel for the Messiah.  John the Baptist recognizes Jesus as the messiah, he baptizes him, and then the voice comes out of heaven, the voice of God proclaiming that Jesus has relationship with the Father, his son.  That the relationship between God and humanity has been marked in Jesus through a shared essence with God and with humanity.  Jesus is the bridge.  And, he is loved by all that God is…when the voice of heaven pronounces this love, that is a message to us that God loves all of us as we share in Jesus’ humanity. 

It’s interesting to me that in the Gospel of Mark, the temptation of Jesus, Jesus’ going into the wilderness, comes right after this amazing moment of baptism, of commitment, and of God’s voice calling Jesus “beloved”.  

Mark doesn’t go into as much detail about the temptations in the desert as the other writers of the gospels do.  Mark seems to want to give us the facts without the details, the writer of Mark seems like he wants to get to the end of the book, the end of the story quickly.  

We know from the other gospel accounts that Jesus was tempted to be relevant, powerful, and to solve the worlds needs.  Yet, he resisted.  Jesus knew who we was and that his life had more meaning, that hope for the world.  In order for us, to know and love each other well, to be inclusive and work towards personal and communal wholeness and abundance, we needed to see Jesus’ life, his coming to us, his living with us, his dying because of us, and his rising from the dead, overcoming everything, Jesus had to do the hard work of confronting his doubts, his demons, his temptations.

I think that says something to us…we are marked by God’s love…and that love, all love, doesn’t grow until it’s put into the wilderness, where temptations to move past something and get back to “civilization” or “normal” too fast prevents us from growing.  Friends, as we are walking this wilderness of life and culture, and faced with temptations of different voices calling us to this conspiracy theory or some ideology or so called “leaders” with empty promises…or, even worst, acting like nothing is happening and just ignoring what’s going on around us and wanting to be comfortable, we miss the opportunity to grow and become all that God intends.  

During this season of Lent, we have been given time to go to the desert with Jesus.  To confront our own demons, doubts, and temptations.  To see Jesus as the one who loves us and believes in us…and to mark our allegiance to God’s kingdom presence over anything or person in this world.  To deconstruct, or to die to self, in order to reconstruct or to live into new life, new birth.  

This is a call for us personally, and for us a church and a member of this community, this neighborhood. 

Our calling as a church is to be the people who live into mystery, into living in the universal presence of Christ, or the Kingdom of God if you will.  To have confidence and humility in who we are as the Jesus’ body.  To repent, which again, in Greek is “metanoia”, or change of heart and mind, where we need to and to grow from a time of being in the wilderness to a place of paradise and promise for the world around us.

It is hard work, letting God’s Presence emerge within us…seeing the Kingdom of God..yet we have a redeemer-kinsman, a friend, who is with us, in us, around us who want so reveal to us the abundance that is life with God. 

Friends, believe in the good news.  The time is now for Westwood First Presbyterian and for me and for you, to live into the promise of God’s Presence in our lives, of God’s kingdom of justice, fairness, honor, deep love, of God’s friendship with us to be lived out and made real for us and for our neighbors.

Salty!!!

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Matthew 5:13-20

Salt and Light

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

The Law and the Prophets

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter,[a] not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks[b] one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Our passage this morning comes on the heels of the sermon on the mount.  The beatitudes simply mean blessing.  It has an implication if you have an ethos, or a characteristic, that points towards inclusive and welcoming love of self, others, and God…then you are blessed.  That inclusive and welcoming love flows from the dynamic of God’s being in us, and flowing through us.  The characteristics or ethos are like the flavors that we give off as we are transformed, converted, changed through our awareness and relationship with God. Flavors such as salt. The sermon title this morning is “salty” …so, I’m going to encourage us today to be a salty congregation!  Which, after a few weeks of getting to know many of you, we certainly are salty aren’t we?

And, what’s the purpose of salt?  Anyone?  It’s a preservative when you put it on something…it keeps things like meat from rotting away.  The ancients used it because they didn’t have refrigeration and it kept their meat from spoiling. 

I grew up on country ham in KY.  I still love it.  I was so excited to find a sandwich that changed my life a few years ago while visiting friends in the UK.  A simple “toastie” which is British farm bread toasted, splattered with melted butter and what the Brits call “bacon”, which is really just country ham.  The saltiness of the butter and ham is fantastic.  It’s simple, but rich with flavor.  

Now, salt on its own, not on anything, is a mineral…doesn’t do anything.  But, when applied to meat or something else, it preserves it and gives it flavor.  Here’s the kicker though, eventually, if that salty food isn’t consumed or used for something good…it can eventually lose its saltiness.  And salt without flavor or no longer useful as a preservative, it’s no good…throw it out.  

Now, God doesn’t give up on us, God doesn’t discard us…that’s not God’s character.  God’s characteristic or ethos, or salt if you will, is intense fidelity, commitment, loyalty, and faith in us.  But God does want us to be the salt of the earth, God wants us to have, and be, flavor in life,  and if we aren’t willing to be salt, then God will work in other ways.  For us to be salt, we must be willing to practice loving ourselves authentically and deeply and giving ourselves away in order to let the salt emerge within us, salt that the world hopes for the church to be…and needs it to be.

We must let the salt, the spice of God penetrate deep into our lives, into the recesses and pores of our very being.  That requires first a recognition that we cannot live this life in our egos.  Ego can be defined by how we view our self worth or self esteem.  It is a mechanism formed early in life to help us navigate life.  For our egos to move beyond self worth or self esteem to self love, we  need to allow God’s salt in our lives to open us up, to the deepest parts of who we are.  We need this salty God, and we need salty, authentic, community with one another as we pour out that salt..to be saltshakers if you will…  We cannot pull ourselves up by our bootstraps either and make changes…we must recognize our need for conversion and that we can’t foster conversion or change while feeding our egos.  We have to empty ourselves in order to be filled with salt and then to be saltshakers.  Sometimes, though, we have to hang for a while in the storage room!  

At some point in our lives, we are disrupted and given the opportunity to be brave and begin to allow our true selves emerge and have the possibility of living our lives out of that true self rather than our ego, letting our egos become subservient if you will to our authentic selves. 

Jesus also reminds us also in this passage that as we are being salty, that we are allowing God’s light shine in and through us.  Friends, let it flow and be a light into the world!!!  Don’t hide it, let light do its thing as it shows up in the darkness, illuminating goodness in the midst of the uncertainty of the darkness.

In a beautiful and fascinating way, I’ve seen so many of you have an honest approach at trying do this in the church in the short time I have been here.  We not only have to let the work of God’s Presence emerge within each one of us, but also in our collective lives as a congregation.   Personally, over the years, I’ve had to let go of my vision of the church, and I think many of you are as well.  In that space, again, we become a bit vulnerable, allowing trust and relationship become the salt of that work as we let go.  This is an important part of our journey together, in letting go and listening intently, we can hear God’s unique vision for this church.

When we begin that process of letting go…and starting out is the hardest part, we begin to see God’s expansive love work its way into our lives, like salt into meat.  It preserves us and it gives us a good taste in lives.  We begin to practice being salt by loving each other…as well as our neighbors.  We find ourselves being peacemakers, practicing justice, standing up for those on the margins, being merciful and graceful, as we live into the commitment and bonds of friendship with ourselves, within community, as God’s salt in us does it’s work.  

Jesus talks about the law in the passage this morning, remember that Jesus fulfills the law by being the embodiment of the law as a person…the characteristics/ethos of the law in right relationship is Jesus.  And our relationship with Jesus, which brings out our true selves, means that we are also called to apply Jesus righteousness, which we possess, in our relationships with others…which leads to being light in a dark world, speaking up for the oppressed, the marginalized, the refugee.

Living in Christ means moving towards a higher level of consciousness, of awareness…. going beyond a literal observance of laws and rituals to a radical openness to relationship with God and others that is very much fluid and  requires faithfulness, trust, and even risk and marked by radical love and becoming salt that permeates into the lives others, preserving life, and giving it some spice!  So, friends, let’s keep on being salt and light!!!  And let’s pour that salt out and shed that light around us!!  Let’s stay salty and, to quote the great theologian of our time, Taylor Swift, let’s shake it out!  Let’s be saltshakers, amen?