Aha! Embracing the God Moments: Together 

I Corinthians 12:1-11 

April 24, 2016 

Mark S. Bollwinkel 

            It is true in professional sports as well as in amateur sports.

It’s not the teams with the best players that win championships but the players with the best teams that do. Josh Donaldson and Bryce Harper won Major League Baseball’s “MVP” awards last year.  Carey Price won the Hart Trophy as the National Hockey League’s “Most Valuable Player award last year.  In 2015 Cam Newton was the
MVP of the National Football League.  Although outstanding individual athletes not one of their teams would end up winning a championship. 

“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a [dime].”  Babe Ruth

It’s true of our nation as well.  If you’re frustrated with government consider this: After the 2010 Census, ten states lost seats in congress due in part to the high number of folk refusing to turn in their census forms (AP 4/28/10).   In 2012 US voter turnout was 53.6%, unusually high in a country where most often less than half of registered voters elect our representatives.  In voter turnout, the USA lands 31st among the 34 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, most of whose members are highly developed, and democratic states” (pewresearch.org). 

It’s been said “We get the government we deserve” (Joseph de Maistre, 1753-1821).  If over half of us take our citizenship for granted, what kind of government can we expect?

When people work together for a common good it makes a better sports team, it makes us a better nation and it makes us better people.  That is also true of the church.   Church life is much more than our individual experience on a Sunday morning. 

During the Easter Season we are inspired to consider the God moments in our lives beyond what we do on Sundays.   God’s resurrection spirit can be found in our lives Monday thru Saturday, in all sorts of places; a park, a gas station, a kitchen, even at work when we pay attention.   When we work and live together as a community the church it is one of the places we find God.

            Status, role, title, the money we make are all indicators of self-esteem in our culture.   We judge each other by those qualifiers.   We rate our success and status in society by them. 

I have only been a “Senior Pastor”.  In six of my seven assignments since ordination in 1976, I have been the Presiding Elder or pastor-in-charge.  I came out of seminary at the age of 27 and was assigned as the Principal of a seminary in South East Asia.   I have only ever been “on top of the pyramid” as they say in business.   

Now in one of those churches, a very small church, St. Paul’s UMC in Reno, Nevada, I was the “Senior Pastor”…and the custodian and the church secretary and in charge of snow removal and lighting the pilot light of the boiler in the winter.  But I was the “Senior Pastor”!  When I sat on two city commissions during my stay in Reno, right there on the name plate on the city desk I was identified as “Mark Bollwinkel, Senior Pastor”!   Title and status is an important thing.  Let’s be honest.    

But a Senior Pastor, the President of a corporation or the captain on a ship in the Navy will tell you that every person in the organization is a part of their success if they enjoy it.  That certainly has been my experience in churches.  Regardless of title, role and status everyone in any organization contributes to its success.  Every role from bottom to the top in our social ladders plays an extremely important part in the success or failure in any organization. 

You may not be aware, but I love baseball.  It is has been a passion in my life and a passion in my family since I was young.  Growing up in Indiana, it was the game we played, sun rise to sun set.  Especially in the summers when there wasn’t anything else to do.  We played baseball.  We played baseball without uniforms, without adults keeping score or going to a pizza parlor after each game.   We had our friends and we played.  Now being a heavy and slow kid, I was always chosen to be the catcher.  I could hit.  I could throw.  But I couldn’t run the bases ‘if you threaten my mother’s life’!  I could not do it.  So I always ended up being the catcher.  Now some will tell you that the catcher, usually batting at the end of the batting order, is not as important as the pitcher or the star hitter playing at centerfield.  But without the catcher where would baseball be?   In fact I would argue that the catcher is an equal to the quarterback on a football team.   Very little good can happen in baseball without the catcher. 

The point being, on a team everyone has a role, everyone has a place.  Regardless of the status we place on any one position everyone is going to have to function if there is going to be success on a team.    That’s even true in the church.  For the Apostle Paul in our scripture lesson today, he is trying to remind everyone in the church that in spite of differences in status, role and title we are all a part of the body of Christ.

Corinth, Greece in the first century was a bustling, cosmopolitan sea port.  It was a melting pot of nationalities, classes and religions; picture San Francisco in its “Barbary Coast” days.   The apostle Paul writes his first letter to the church in Corinth to encourage the young Christians to get along with each other.   Church leaders had written Paul about a number of issues that were dividing the church in conflict. Paul writes back with advice and admonitions about sexuality, the use of wine at Holy Communion and how they are all supposed to worship together without fighting.   We shouldn’t be surprised that from the very beginning the church has had to deal with conflicts within.  Ours is a very human institution.  Since Easter afternoon we have brought human pride and weakness to mix with our noble efforts to “love God and neighbor”.

In our text this morning Paul teaches that despite their differences the Corinthians need to acknowledge and respect them not judge each other by them.  Everyone has a role in the body of Christ even when their gifts are different.   No one should hold themselves spirituality superior over and against another because their gifts are different.

The heart of Paul’s teaching about conflict in I Corinthians is his “still more excellent way”:

…love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful, arrogant or rude.  Love does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful; it doesn’t rejoice in wrong doing but rejoices in the truth…love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends…the greatest is love.”( I Corinthians 13) 

This much beloved chapter, often cited in weddings ceremonies, was actually written to suggest how church members are supposed to get along with each other even when they disagree.

Here at Church of the Wayfarer we envision our purpose as “Reaching Up, Reaching In and Reaching Out”, a modern way of affirming Jesus’ greatest commandment “…to love God with heart, soul, mind and strength…and to love our neighbors as ourselves…” (Matthew 22:34-40).    We cannot succeed in faith or in life all on our own.  We need each other to fulfill the promise of our mission.  We need to share our strengths and our weaknesses.  We need to share our dreams and our failures.  We find God in our lives together, even when we disagree, even when we are at odds with each other, if we keep the commandment to love one another as our focus and commitment.  And when love reigns in our community nothing can stop us.

Mia Hamm is not only the greatest American female soccer player, she may be one of the best of all time regardless of gender:

“I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.”  Mia Hamm

            Isn’t that true of our families…or workplaces…at school…or for our nation as well?  It’s certainly true of our churches.

            To illustrate the point simply consider the faith community’s response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  Someday the story will be written how long after governmental services left, the churches of this nation offered hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours, tens of thousands of volunteers and millions of dollars to assist our brothers and sisters in the Gulf Coast rebuild their lives.

            Are you aware that the United Methodist Church has joined with the United Nations and the Gates Foundation to eradicate malaria in the tropical world?  The World Health Organization reports a dramatic decline in malaria deaths in Africa due to increase use of insecticide netting, new medications and public health education.  Thousands of lives are being saved in part due to United Methodist efforts to end this disease.

            Since 1975 the United States has resettled over three million refugees into our nation, most from Southeast Asia and Russia (www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/about/history).  Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Orthodox and Muslim voluntary agencies oversee the resettlement process of support and assimilation for these folks fleeing oppression and war. 

            Why?  Why do the faith communities again and again strive to serve the least and the lost?  Because if some of us are suffering we are all suffering (I Corinthians 12:26)!

            We are all in this together.   That’s especially true of the church. We are not always going to agree.   We are not always going to like each other.   But when we put the larger goals ahead of our own we can accomplish amazing things…and we find together that God is with us.

            Amen.

Aha!  Discovering the God Moments in Ourselves 

Isaiah 6:1-8 

April 10, 2016 

Mark S. Bollwinkel

Isaiah, son of Amoz, proclaimed his message of faith in the One God to royalty and the powerful during a disastrous period in the life of Israel (742-701 BCE, chapters 1-39).  The Northern Kingdom would be destroyed by the armies of Assyria.  The Southern Kingdom (Judah), with its capital in Jerusalem would become a vassal state.  Isaiah preached around the same period of Amos, Hosea and Micah.  He shared their common theme attacking social injustice not just as a moral failure but indicative of our relationship with God. (“Introduction”, The New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV, 1991, p. 866)

In our text this morning we hear of Isaiah’s call to prophecy by God as it occurred in the Temple of Jerusalem.  Scholars suggest that Isaiah had to have been a priest there since only the authorized could have access to “the throne of God” within the Holy of Holies of the sanctuary.  Isaiah protests the call saying, “I am lost…a man of unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips…”  God sends a heavenly creature to purify Isaiah and then asks, “Whom shall I send?” to which Isaiah replies, “Here I am, send me!”

In the midst of calamity and injustice, this Isaiah will proclaim such visions of Israel’s future as in these beloved words: 

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined.

For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire. For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (9:2-5)

Not all of us are called to be prophets of God.  Many of us are reluctant believers.   Intellectually we struggle with the tenants of the faith.  We are mystified by the way others use religion to hurt and control.    For all too many of us “whose got the time?!” to pay attention to “godly” matters when our highest expectation is to just get through the day.  Our hectic, multi-tasking life style throws serious obstacles in our way to cultivate the mindfulness of the holy all around us.

This is the Easter season.  Christ has risen.  Are we paying attention to his spirit all around us?

When our son Daniel was in third grade, we went to a teacher evaluation at the beginning of the year.  The teacher expressed her concerns that Daniel was showing signs of burnout.  At the third grade!   He wasn’t playing at recess.  He was compulsively working on his homework.  Everything had to be perfect.  His tests had to be turned in first.  He just wasn’t showing any signs of joy while at school.   One of the things that was concerning us was that he wasn’t eating his lunch.    We know that Daniel takes after Bonnie’s side of the family; extremely intelligent, very bright, ambitious and driven. For a Bollwinkel to stop eating raises major concerns! 

So along with talking with a school counselor we took him to our family pediatrician.  The doctor gave him a complete once over, a full check up and some great advice.  He said, “Dan, if you are going to have the energy to succeed in school you have to eat your lunch.  You’ve got to take the time to take a break and enjoy lunch time.”   He went on to explain this metaphor to my third grader, “Daniel, it’s like putting gas in a gas tank.  If there isn’t any gas in the tank then the car isn’t going to get any where.  That is the same for our bodies.”  For Daniel, he got the point.

 The metaphor is true for us all as well.   We all know that the more we invest ourselves, whatever the endeavor, the more we will get out of it.  That’s true for our marriages, work, school and recreation.  The more we give the more we get in return.

Well, isn’t that true for our spiritual life as well? 

Yet somehow most of us think of our spirituality as some kind of organic, natural experience that we find in the midst of our busy, multi-tasking days.  We need to take the time to fill our spiritual tanks as well.

Along with filling up the gas tank when I go to the station, I love to wash my windows.  Not because they will stay clean for very long.  But because it just feels so good to look out that clean front or back window and see clearly the way before me or the way behind me.

You’ve heard me say it before; if we are not feeling close to God guess who moved?  It’s time for us to open our eyes and be aware of God all around us!

Church of the Wayfarer is committed to “Reaching Up, Reaching In and Reaching Out”   We believe such words are simply a modern version of Jesus’ greatest commandment to love God with heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:34-40).    There are many of us who struggle with the call to faith, we want to be better people and make a difference in the world, we want to grow closer to God but don’t know how?    What does “Reaching Up, Reaching In and Reaching Out” look like?

John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, had plenty of moments of doubt and struggles.  He knew that living assured of God’s presence and purpose didn’t just happen for most.   He taught the early Methodists that by the practice of the “Means of Grace” we would find God in our lives.   He broke them up into two categories:

Works of Piety, such as:

Prayer

Fasting

Searching the Scriptures

Healthy Living

Attending to the sacraments of Holy Communion and Baptism

Christian Conferencing (or "community")

Works of Mercy, such as:

Doing Good

Visiting the Sick

Visiting the Imprisoned

Feeding & Clothing those in need

Earning, Saving, & Giving all one can

Service focused toward communal/societal needs--

Seeking of Justice; Opposition to Slavery

 These things ‘fill up the tank’ when it runs dry.  These things open our eyes to the God all around us a ready source of “aha moments”.   Practicing the Means of Grace can change our lives.

At one of the lowest points of his own life, John Wesley sought out the wisdom of a fellow Christian, Peter Boehler a Moravian Brethren.  They talked and prayed together, sharing their deepest hurts and hopes:

Immediately it stuck into my mind, "Leave off preaching. How can you preach to others, who have not faith yourself?" I asked Boehler, whether he thought I should leave it off or not. He answered "By no means." I asked, "But what can I preach?" He said, "Preach faith till you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith." (John Wesley, Journal, 4 Mar 1738)

John Wesley and his brother Charles would begin a movement that would change the Protestant world forever.

If we are down, doubtful or exhausted, do something for somebody else…take a moment to begin and end your day with a prayer, even a moment of holy silence…reach out to the community of those you trust and love and open up…and you will see God.  At the gas station, at the grocery store, at work or at home, God is with us.   All we need do is pay attention when given the opportunity of grace.  That’s true for preachers as well. 

Thirty some years ago in Reno, Nevada I was getting our station wagon ready for a long awaited, well deserved family camping vacation.  I am no mechanic but I figured I could save us some money by changing the oil in my own garage.   Some gorilla must have put the oil filter on during the previous change because no matter what I did I could not get it to budge.  I tried every tool in my box to no avail.  I ran over to the auto parts shop and bought a special tool just for such occasions.  It did not work.  Bonnie was about to come home from work.   I was supposed to have the car all loaded up and ready to go on our long awaited, well deserved family camping vacation.  

Time was running out. 

In desperation I figured that if I drove a large screw driver through the body of the filter itself, I could then torque it off the thread of the base to which it was fused.  So I drove the screwdriver through the filter and the body of the filter tore as I tried to turn it.  I succeeded in getting oil all over the engine and floor of the garage but failed to get it off.   Now I couldn’t even drive the car.

I was overwhelmed with frustration and shame.  Bonnie was going to blow her stack.  I was a failure as a man.  I felt as if I was about to break down and cry.   I didn’t know what to do. 

Just then my nine year old son Dan came into the garage and asked me what was going on.  I briefly explained the mess and my frustration, to which he replied, “Well, Dad, have you prayed about it?”

I was dumbfounded.  I hadn’t prayed about it at all.   I had been using God’s name quite vocally but I wouldn’t call it prayer.  That such a suggestion would come from my nine year old son stopped me cold.  After Dan left indeed I did pray for help.  As I did it came to me to call the mechanic who occasionally worked on the car.  I got off my knees, called my friend and he patiently explained how one can tap a stuck oil filter off an engine block with a hammer and chisel over against the rim of the filter in the opposite direction of the thread.  I thanked him, went out to the car and had it off in 30 seconds.

Sitting in a hospital as one’s beloved is in pain, waiting for solutions to the crisis is a perfect and essential time to call on God’s loving grace and presence.  We all know the aphorism to be true, “There are no atheists in foxholes.” Even strangers to faith turn to God when there’s a crisis and they don’t know where else to turn.

I was amazed this week by the overwhelming number of positive affirmations and words of encouragement for Bonnie as she went through her hospital stay.   A number of our friends and family are agnostic or atheist and yet they had no hesitancy to say “We are praying for you!” which will make for interesting conversations at Thanksgiving!

Yet if God is God, then God is ever present and all-knowing in each and every moment, good or bad.   And as we learn from Jesus, if we cultivate the awareness that sense of spiritual connection can be with us anytime and anywhere. That is an essential message of Easter.  Not even death can separate us from the love of God.

If we don’t feel close to God, guess who moved?  If we are down, doubtful or exhausted, do something good for somebody else…take a moment to begin and end your day with a prayer, even a moment of holy silence…reach out to the community of those you trust and love and open up…and you will see God.  At the gas station, at the grocery store, at work or at home, God is with us.   All we need do is pay attention when given the opportunity of grace. 

Amen.

Aha! Embracing the God Moments: Family

 John 2:1-11

 April 17, 2016

 Mark S. Bollwinkel

                                                                                   

Dorothy Canfield Fisher once wrote, “A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.”

            If that is the case then Mary did a great job with Jesus.

            No sooner was he twelve years old than he ran away while on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in order to stay in the Temple.  Unable to comprehend his parent’s concern or their demands to return home, he says, “But this is my father’s house” (Luke 2:48).

            (Do any of you know any young people who have a smart answer for everything?)

            In some ways it appears that Jesus and Mary struggled with each other during the course of his adult life.   Scholars suggest that Mary is widowed soon after Jesus begins his ministry as she moves in with her other children (Mark 6:3, Luke 8:19-21).  The fact that Jesus doesn’t take her into his household, a duty expected of an oldest son, may relate to their inability to understand each other.   Soon after Joseph’s death, Jesus’ siblings and his mother Mary come to see him in Galilee and Jesus dismisses them: 

While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to him. ⁴⁷Someone told him, ‘Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.’^{* 48}But to the one who had told him this, Jesus^* replied, ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ ⁴⁹And pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! ⁵⁰For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother’ (Matthew 12:46-50, Mark 3:31-35, Luke 8:19-21).

             The tension that the gospel writers faced in presenting Jesus as both human and divine becomes evident in how they portray his relationship with his earthly mother, even when it comes to food.

Food and families seem to go together.   When families gather for the special holidays like Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas it’s all about the food.   For a birthday and an anniversary, the food is central.  There are special dishes made by your mother or a special dish made by your grandfather; these can be a great source of memories.  They are a source of love!  When a family member or friend makes your favorite cookies or prepares your favorite meal, its one of the ways they express their love and concern for you. 

That was certainly true in the family in which I grew up.  About the only time in the course of a day that we would all be together; me, my brother, two sisters and my mom, after dad got back home from work, would all have dinner together.   My mom was an indifferent cook.  She wasn’t excited about the domestic arts as a young woman.  She mastered about a dozen dishes that she did real well, very basic, simple things.  One advantage of such a system was that you could tell the day of the week by what she served for dinner.  On Thursday we would have Spam and yams, my dad’s favorite from his military service in the Pacific during WWII.  On Sunday afternoons we would always have pork roast, browned potatoes and sauerkraut.  It became like a sacrament; pork roast, browned potatoes and sauerkraut, my dad’s favorite meal.  I lived in that household for seventeen years.  And whenever I have pork roast, browned potatoes and sauerkraut I always think of those special Sundays when we’d get together, share the stories of the week, laugh together.

Food in my family was “love”.   It’s true for a lot of families.  The opposite is also true.   Food can be a bone of contention.  Food can become an agent of shame, for young people struggling with their weight as their parents are nagging about what they are eating or not eating.  Food choices can become battle grounds.  My aunt Ruth and my mom had a huge battle once over zucchini.  My brother and I refused to eat that strange green vegetable one time while visiting my aunt and uncle’s home in Lafayette, California. 

To make a long story short, it led to a big family harangue between my mom and my aunt.  They didn’t talk to each other for years!    Thanks be to God they found their way back to each other and enjoyed many years as good friends.   But zucchini ended up splitting them apart!  Food can be a blessing.  It can be a curse.  It really depends on what we do with it.  In our gospel lesson today, we learn that Jesus and his mother have a bone of contention about food and what to do with it at a wedding.

The miracle of Jesus turning water into wine is found only in the gospel of John.  In first century Palestine, wedding festivities usually lasted a week.  Those invited …especially if they were family…were expected to bring provisions such as food or drink to be shared by all.  The quality and quantity of the food or drink shared would then become a matter of pride and social status within the clan.   Such food hospitality may be Mary’s concern as she asks Jesus to do something when the wine runs out for the wedding.  His response to her request, “What concern is that to you and to me…woman”…is not necessary disrespectful although for 21^st century ears it can certainly seem like Jesus is perturbed by his mother. 

Regardless of the impression that the son and mother misunderstand each other there isn’t any argument.  Jesus obeys his mother’s request.  He instructs the servants to fill six stone jars with water and turns them into the best wine of the party (scholars suggest it could have been 15 to 25 gallons each jar!).

Food hospitality may have been Mary’s concern but Jesus’ concern was that such a display of his divinity was premature; he says, “My hour has not yet come” referring to his eventual death and resurrection (4:21, 7:30).  The miracle of changing water into wine at the wedding of Cana  is “the first of the signs” (also see 4:54, 2:23, 20:30) in the gospel of John revealing Jesus’ “glory” (:11) or the presence of God in Jesus’ life (Ex 16:10, 24:15-18, 29:43-46, 40:34-38, I Kings 8:10-11, Ps 26:8, 63:2, Ezek 11:22-23, 44:4). 

Whether as a sign of filial love and respect in sharing the costs of a wedding or a metaphysical sign of God’s glory indwelling in the Christ, the wine in our gospel lesson reminds us that the importance of food and drink in our families is all in how we use it.   It can be an extravagant gift for a special occasion.  It can be a means of nurturing love.  Or, as an example, as many of us know all-too-well, the mis-use of alcoholic beverages in our families can be the basis of terrible suffering and pain.

Confronting the Pharisees’ hypocrisy about Torah dietary laws, Jesus says, “It is not what we take into our mouths or our bodies that defiles us but what comes out of our mouths and bodies that make us unclean…” (Matthew 15:10-11, 17-20).  Alcohol is not an inherent evil in and of itself.  Rather it is how we use it that makes it a good or a bad.

Alcoholism is an illness.   Alcoholism is not a moral failure.  It is a disease.  Alcoholics are dependent not because they are bad people or lack will power. It affects all races, incomes levels, genders and nationalities.   It is an illness that affects not only its victim but the entire social system in which they relate.

 

For most people who drink, alcohol is a pleasant accompaniment to social activities. Moderate alcohol use, up to two drinks per day, is not harmful for most adults. Nonetheless… nearly 14 million Americans - one in every thirteen adults -abuse alcohol or are alcoholic. Several million more adults engage in risky drinking that could lead to alcohol problems. In addition, 53 percent of men and women in the United States report that one or more of their close relatives have a drinking problem.  (medicinenet.com)

One of the most insidious symptoms of this disease is the stigma it engenders that promotes deceit and falsehood.   If a person deals honestly with the disease the resources for recovery are enormous.   But the layers of dishonesty addicts wrap around themselves make the journey of recovery something begun most often as a last resort for survival.  The lying and deceptions used to maintain one’s dependency can ruin a life and those most important to that life.

As a pastor, when someone comes to me asking if they are an alcoholic I simply respond, “Can you tell the truth about your drinking?   Not to me.  Can you tell the truth about your drinking to yourself?”   The inability to be honest is one of the most devastating aspects of the disease and one of the prime indicators of its severity.   The family of the alcoholic is so often invested in the lie it is as if walking around an elephant in the living room that everyone pretends is not there.  

Many of us just don’t know what to say.   Blaming, shaming, threats and bribes are useless.  Al Anon, the twelve step support program for the families of alcoholics and those who love them teaches that the best thing we can do for our loved one is to be “safe, strong and free” ourselves.  About the only thing to be said to one with an addiction is, “Do you want help?”

[If you aren’t aware, we have an AA meeting here on church campus every Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. and if you want to learn more about relating to your loved one with alcohol issues I strongly recommend that you attend one of the many Al Alon meetings in our area, you can find out their locations and meeting times on line.]

            One of the things I love about our Bible lesson today is that Mary is so honest with Jesus; “Jesus they have no wine….The servants will do whatever you ask them to do…”  Regardless of his theological concerns Jesus performs the miracle none-the-less.

In spite of apparent difficulties between Jesus and this mother during his three years of ministry, she traveled with the disciples and she was there at the cross.  Only a deep, parental love could have made Mary stand near a son who was being crucified as an enemy of the state.  Most of his disciples weren’t there.  Jesus’ brothers weren’t there.  But Mary stood by him in the last hours. 

Just as he dies, looking down from the cross, he asks the disciple John to care for his mother after he is gone.  At the end of Jesus’ life, all that mattered between them was the love between a son and his mother (John 19:25-27).

            If you know or you’ve known a parent’s love, give thanks to God not just today but everyday.   If you didn’t but found such love and acceptance in other healthy relationships, give thanks to God too, for such relationships are just as much our family as those who brought us into the world.    Parental care and nurture, biological or not, is one of the places where God is at work in the world, a place full of Easter resurrection “aha!” moments of divine incarnation. 

And may our prayer be that the food and drink we share in such community is a celebration reminding us of the miracle of love, overflowing and abundant.

Amen.

           

The Way in Relationship with Sinners, Outcasts and the Poor

Mark 14:3-9

March 13, 2016

Mark S. Bollwinkel

The story of the anointing of Jesus at Bethany in the gospel of Mark, which has variations in the other three gospels teaches us about Jesus' approach to the subject of "sinners, outcasts and the poor" (Matthew 26:6-13, Luke 7:36-50 [although place name is not identified], John 12:1-8).

Remember to his disciples Jesus says "I am the way, the truth and the life..." (John 14:6)  Over and over again he invites them to follow his "way", the word in the original meaning "path", "road", and “journey".  In fact one of the first names for the early Christians was "children" or "followers" of "The Way" (Acts 9:2, 19:9, 24:22).

This Lenten season we have been studying what it means to be followers of The Way of Jesus.  

So far we've learned that The Way begins in the desert as Jesus is tempted and tested by the devil.  We learn that The Way of Jesus is to face evil head on and call it out for what it is.  

Jesus then moves to Capernaum where he calls disciples, lives in the home of Simon Peter the fisherman and begins three years of ministry.  We learn from miracle after miracle that The Way of Jesus is healing; physical, emotional, spiritual healing.

In the Mountains, Jesus would retreat to pray and meditate.  He would also gather crowds of people to whom he would teach about the Kingdom of God; the reign of love, peace and justice in the world and in our hearts.  In the Mountains, he would invite any who would listen on The Way.   The Way of Jesus is Kingdom living.

Last week we were reminded us that The Way of Jesus includes finding those quiet places of renewal where we can recharge our physical and spiritual batteries.  Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat when he and the disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee running into a huge storm.  He offered them and the waves "peace"; something he offer us today as well.  The Way of Jesus is the gift of peace in the midst of the storms of life.

Today we consider the anointing of Jesus at Bethany.  Bethany was a small village in the mountains a few miles east of Jerusalem.  In the gospel of John it is the home of one of Jesus' best friends, Lazarus and his two sisters Martha and Mary.  Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which we will celebrate next week, began in Bethany (Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-38). In Mark and Matthew's version of the story Bethany is also the home of Simon the Leper of whom history knows very little.

This is an extraordinary and surprising story with many of the same themes as the story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well (John 4).

A respected Hebrew rabbi would not sit down for a meal at the same table with a leper; remember that the ill were considered sick because of some sin that they or a previous family member had committed (John 9:1-f).  And a respected rabbi, or any pious male for that matter, would never allow himself to be touched by an unaccompanied woman in public let alone allow her to anoint his head with oil.  In Luke's version of the story (7:36-50), the woman is identified as "a sinner", which means a "moral outcast" often referred to in tradition as a “prostitute”.  She anoints his feet with the ointment, kisses his feet in front of a bunch of Pharisees and then dries Jesus' feet with her hair.  In John's version Mary does the same, except the kissing part!

For first century Palestine this is scandalous stuff.   The pious in these scenes are outraged.  Jesus in each version defends the woman's actions as more than appropriate.  This moral/social outcast can see in Jesus something that the pious cannot.  She weeps.  She is in the presence of the God who can redeem even the most broken life.  She lavishes Jesus with attention out of gratitude and praise for the God within him that seeks and saves the lost; even people like her.   And she is preparing Jesus for the journey to the cross.

The anointing by oil was the official consecrating of Israel's king in the Hebrew Scriptures (1 Sam 10:1, 2 Kings 9:6).  The term "Messiah" in the original language means "the anointed one".  Just before his last supper, the betrayal by Judas and his arrest and torture, Jesus is symbolically anointed Messiah by none other than an outcast woman to the shock and offense of the pious.  In Mark's version of the story immediately after this scene Judas goes to the Temple officials to arrange for Jesus’ arrest.

It has been said that one’s character is defined "by the company you keep".   Along with his disciples, Jesus associated with all sorts of folk his religion would consider "unclean/profane"; the demon possessed, lepers, rich tax collectors, prostitutes, Samaritans, the poor, gentiles and even a Roman centurion, a leader in the military occupation forces of his country (Matthew 8:5-13, Luke 7:1-10).  In fact the religious law at the time would require that one be ritually cleansed in the Temple if one had come in contact with such people.

Who would we not welcome at our dinner table?

The heart of Jesus is reaching out to the outcast, sinners and the poor inviting them into relationship to God not in pity but empowering them into the fullness of life in the community of love and service.

Our commitment to the I-Help programs for the revolving men and women’s shelter here at Church of the Wayfarer is the opportunity for us who live privileged lives to be in relationship with those who are struggling.  I-Help isn't just about food for hungry people and a safe, dry place for people to sleep who spend most nights in their cars or on the street.  Providing such is a good and necessary thing.  I-Help is also about building relationships and expanding our world beyond normal expectations.

Are we intentionally building relationships with the kind of people with whom Jesus associated?  Are we connecting with people outside the church...our beliefs, our traditions? With atheists, agnostics, "spiritual not religious" folk? Do we allow others to see the love of God shining through us? (Adam Hamilton, The Way of Jesus, Abingdon, pp.121-122)

He is not referring to some kind of "converting" technique.  It is not about "those people" becoming "people like us".  Do we share the spiritual passion and commitments we have with others?  Not in a false sense of superiority.  Because that is also Jesus' point in welcoming the woman's anointing.   Those outside of our circles may be getting the point we are missing.

Much has been made about Jesus' words, "...and the poor you shall always have with you..."   Those promoting free market capitalism have long heard a justification in those words of Jesus for the inherent inequality of income distribution in that economic system.  But The Lord wasn't making a social economic point.  He was trying to tell the pious and his own disciples that while a moral outcast, a sinner, could see the divinity within his life and celebrate the potential of it within her own, they could not!  While they were busy arguing doctrine and policy she was celebrating the Messiah in their midst.

Monterey County estimates that on any given night there are 2,308 homeless on our streets, an 11% decline in previous surveys (Monterey Herald 07/18/2015); most in Salinas, approximately 300-400 in Monterey, a handful in Carmel.  Along with collecting donations of clean socks for the homeless ministry of First UMC Salinas each first Sunday of the month, we are now collecting donations of non-perishable food items each week for the food pantry at All Saints Episcopal Church, Carmel, just down the street.  They daily offer donations of food to those in need and we are told that half of the recipients are residents of Carmel.  That reality may not conform to our expectations for our privileged community but indeed some of our neighbors are struggling to make ends meet.

For those of us who follow The Way of Jesus, participating in the promised future of God…where everyone will have enough, where everyone will live in peace, where everyone will know dignity and freedom…as important as it is to offer charity to the poor it is as important that we learn why they are poor in the first place.  And that happens as we grow in relationship to the lost, outcast and poor.

That's why we build houses with Habitat for Humanity in Santa Cruz, San Jose and Oakland.  It is why we serve dinner and breakfast with I-Help.  It is why we donate socks and cans of food.   Not just to pass out charity.   Those outside of our circles may be getting a point we are missing.  They may have something to teach us...like an outcast woman anointing the Messiah when the pious are about to plot his death.

Thirteen years ago, 17 members of the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church travelled to be in relationship with our brothers and sisters in the West Angola Conference of the UMC in West Africa.  Bonnie and I were included on the team.  We were the first United Methodist Volunteer in Mission team into Angola following the end of their 27 year civil war.  Bonnie and I had previously lived in India, Mexico, Kenya and Northern Borneo, yet we had never seen the level of poverty and squalor in any of those countries as we did during that trip to Angola after their civil war.

During our more than two weeks there, along with providing a medial assessment team, we split up our group each Sunday to visit and worship with churches in the West Angola Conference.  Bonnie and I were assigned to attend St. Paul’s UMC in a ghetto section of Luanda, the capital of Angola; a city with a infrastructure built for 500,000 people with a population 6 million fleeing the violence of the civil war.  When the taxi delivered us as close to the church as we could get, we walked about a half mile through dirt streets with open ditches of human sewage, houses made of mud and wooden board, tin roofs.  We arrived at St. Paul’s, a large building with benches for about 100 people with at least four times as many there eager to worship.  They stood outside by the windows to hear the words of the music and the prayers.

I was asked to preach and did so through an interpreter.  Before the service of Holy Communion began, three lay leaders came up to the altar to pray for us.  During our time in Angola the United States was invading Iraq.  After coming out of their own period of war, these good people knew what was in store for our nation and its families.   They prayed for us, for our people, for our nation and its leaders that we would find our way to peace.

Impoverished beyond any expectation, these good people prayed for us, citizens of one of the richest nations of the world, as our country embarked on yet another international conflict.  I will never forget the moment.  You see, we too have something to learn from the marginalized and poor if we will listen.

Roman Catholic Pope Francis, the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina is the first Pontiff from the Americas and the first Jesuit Pope.  He is described as a humble man with a passion for social justice and a practitioner of "the preferential option for the poor".   This is very exciting and encouraging for the entire Christian community.  We love a Pope who the day after his election paid his own hotel bill and then took a bus to the Vatican!  Would that all who follow The Way of Jesus find humility, a passion for justice and understand God's heart for those who suffer poverty and rejection.

Because.

The Way of Jesus is to seek and save the lost, "recognizing our own "lost-ness" in the process" (Hamilton).

Amen.

The Way: Peace in the Midst of the Storm

 Matthew 14:22-33

March 6, 2016

Mark S. Bollwinkel

            The gospel writer Matthew takes this original story of “Jesus calming the storm” from the gospel of Mark and adds a few twists.  In Matthew, Jesus isn’t asleep in the boat, rather we walks on the water out to the ship.  Matthew adds a profound and marvelous dialogue between the disciples and their Lord.

            Matthew is writing to a church in the beginning of persecution by the Roman authorities.  He is writing to Jewish converts who face the scorn of their families for their new faith and excommunication from the synagogue.  Matthew writes to people who expected the world to end in their life times and must now adjust their faith to await the glory promised by Jesus.

            The storms in life were very real for the believers in Matthew’s church.

            The boat, a metaphor for the church, is in trouble without Jesus.  It is a night of fear and helplessness.  It is the fourth watch, about 3 hours before dawn, the darkest time of night.

            […maybe some of us have been there before, too?…]

            Terrified by the storm and what they initially perceive as a ghost, the disciples cry out.  To which Jesus replies, “Take heart, it is I: Do not be afraid.”

             “Do not be afraid?!”

            In the Bible God is always telling us not to be afraid. 

When the angel interrupts the Mary’s sleep to tell the 13 year old unwed girl that she is about to give birth to the Son of God, Gabriel says, “Do not be afraid!”  (Luke 1:30, also note 2:10, 5:10, 8:50)

            God will call Abraham to leave his home to settle in a strange land.   God will command Abraham to circumcise himself and all of the males in his household.  God will rain sulfur and fire down upon Sodom and Gomorrah.  God will call Abraham to sacrifice his own son Isaac on a stone altar.  And God will say to Abraham, “Do not be afraid!” (Genesis 15:1, also note, 12:1-f, 17:1-f, 19:24, 22:1-f)

            God will commission the prophet Daniel to confront the most powerful King in the world resulting in Daniel being cast into fiery furnaces and lion’s dens, and God will tell him, “Do not be afraid!” (Daniel 10:12)

            The apostle Paul will be jailed, tortured, nearly beaten to death three times, ship wrecked and finally martyred and God says to him, “Do not fear!” (Acts 18:9, also note, 27:24)

            One would suppose that God is trying to comfort those called into service but who is God trying to kid?  God doesn’t guarantee a blissful existence even to the most faithful!

            How can we not have fear?

             How can we not have fear in a world where the media tries to convince us of impending doom?

            How can we not be afraid when each must face cancer, heart disease, stroke or HIV-AIDS?  Illness doesn’t just happen to the other person, but to those we love and to us.

            The storms of life are real.

            There are plenty of things which warrant our anxiety.  Fear can overwhelm even the strongest people.

            In the comic strip, “Frank and Ernest”, Frank says to his partner while reclining on a park bench, “I didn't go to college.  I figure a broader education would have just helped me discover more things to worry about.”

            Jesus’ comforting words, “…take heart…do not be afraid…” are wonderful.  But let’s be honest, aren’t we a bit skeptical hearing them, knowing full well how pervasive fear is in our lives?

             Peter is skeptical.

            He replies to Jesus’ assurance with the phrase, “If it is you…”

            Now who else would it be?  Who else could walk on water, in a storm, in the dark of night, proclaiming, “Have no fear!”?

            Here Peter is representing our own faith.  We want to believe, but we need some encouragement to get out of the boat.

            Peter is our hero, after all.  Throughout the gospels, he plays our struggle between fear and faith in dramatic fashion.

            Peter drops his nets to follow Jesus (Matthew 4:18-22).

            Peter is the first to publicly proclaim that Jesus is the Christ (Luke 9:18-22).

            Peter is the first disciple to rush to the tomb and see it empty on Easter morning (John 20:6).

            And…Peter is also the one who rebukes Jesus for suggesting that his Messiahship must come at the expense of his death (Mark 8:32-33).

            Peter is the one who will betray our Lord three times before the cock crows (Mark 14:66-72).

            Peter is the one who runs away from Golgotha, rather than face the reality of the cross (John 19:17-30).

            It had to be Peter who would question “if” it were the Lord.  It had to be Peter who upon receiving his call, steps out of the boat and walks on water himself.

            Isn’t Peter’s struggle our own?

            Many commentators interpret Matthew’s scene here as an example of the failure of faith; Peter glances away from Jesus and concentrates on the wind, thus sinking.

            But at least Peter tries.  At least one disciple was willing to leave the boat, respond to the Lord’s call and try to walk on water.

            Paul Tournier writes in his book, Reflections: A Personal Guide for Life’s Most Crucial Questions:

“The fear of not succeeding is, for many people, the biggest obstacle in their way.  It holds them back from trying anything at all.  And for lack of trying, they never give themselves a chance of succeeding, the very thing that would cure them of their doubts.  It is not, after all, such a terrible thing not to succeed straight away in some new undertaking.  What is serious is to give up, to become stuck in a life that gets emptier.”

            At least Peter lives with passion, even in his failures.  On the night of Jesus’ arrest, it is Peter who pulls a sword to defend his Lord only to accomplish nothing (John 18:10-11).  In spite of his blunders and his own terror, Peter did not give in to the reality of fear.

            How many of us live lives, adhering to the words of Charlie Brown in the Peanuts comic strip, “I’ve developed a new philosophy…I only dread one day at a time.”

            At least Peter is honest about his fear, crying out as he sinks, and “Lord, save me!”

            There come many instances in a life time for appropriate desperation.  The death of a loved one.  Marital separation or divorce.  Losing a job.  Watching your children grow isolated from, and intolerant of, your love.  The list can be long.

            Yet how few of us are willing to honestly face the fear and call out for help.  I find no fault in anyone who crises, “Lord, save me”.   But I can see disaster guaranteed for those who refuse to ask for help.

            If we were to look at the life of Abraham Lincoln prior to 1860, when he was elected President, we would probably label him a failure.  He was defeated twice for Congress, twice for Senate and he twice failed in business.  After the death of his sweetheart in 1835, he suffered what we would have called “a nervous breakdown”.  He struggled with depression most of his life.  Yet in the few short years he served as President, he became one of our greatest leaders.

            During the Civil War, Lincoln was asked by a friend how he could personally withstand the strain of his responsibilities, to which Lincoln replied, “I have often been driven to my knees in prayer, because there has been no place else to go”.

             Jesus doesn’t condemn Peter for his failure of faith but merely asks, “Why did you doubt?”  We can’t condemn Peter either.  I am convinced that such was Matthew’s intention in teaching his church…and us…how to live with fear by faith.

             We may be people of little faith.  Some clinging to the boat.  Others willing to venture out.  But all of us come to those testing experiences which at worst can break us and at least most certainly move us to our knees.

            It’s convenient to criticize Peter as a failure of faith from the comfort of the boat, but at least Peter had the faith to try, to live with passion and to honestly ask for help.

            That is how we can face fear and not be defeated.

            After the winds ceased and Jesus is on board, the disciples corporately confess, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”

            We are not alone in our struggle with faith and fear.  There is strength and hope to be found in the boat, in the community of believers, which is willing to travel with this Jesus.

            That is Matthew’s lesson to us on how to endure.

            Jesus says to his disciples, “I am the way, the truth and the life”.   This Lenten Season as we consider what it means to be “children of the way” we are not offered an insurance policy which would guarantee protection from the storms.  In fact, faith offers us no escape.  Rather, faith empowers us to face fear, to muster the courage to risk; and even in failure, faith never leaves us alone but keeps us in a community of fellow travelers.

             In the Gardner Museum in Boston hangs Rembrandt’s painting of “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee”.  The artist recreates the scene so powerfully that a viewer can sense the danger and panic of those who are on board.  The small boat is being lifted in the crest of a giant wave.  Sail and lines are torn loose from the riggings.  Five disciples are struggling to reef the sail while they hold on desperately to the mast.   The rest are in the stern of the boat, clustered around Jesus.  Some frightened almost to death.  One miserably seasick, hanging over the side.  It is apparent from the calm expression of the face of Christ that this is the moment when he says, “Do not be afraid!”

            There are 14 figures in the painting.  The twelve disciples.  Jesus.  And a stranger.  It is Rembrandt himself.  There he stands, clutching one of the stays, holding his head in terror.  There is where the artist saw himself and painted himself into the scene.

            It is there that many of us find ourselves.

            If so, don’t forget to turn your eyes upon Jesus.  Although the storms will rage, you’ll never go under.

                        Amen.