Job 29:1-20; Acts 14:1-18; John 10:31-42

There came a point at which the disciples’ lives changed.  That “change” is witnessed in the gospel of John.  Something new happens – something extraordinary with Jesus, the incarnate God.  Something is rising from the ashes of extinguished hope to lift them to new heights of hope and change.

Are we a people filled with that kind of hope?  Or are we people who are burnt out and consumed with the ploddings of daily life.  Because it seems to me that some of us are down.  Some of us seem to have lost that fire and that spirit that we once had.

Personally I have been battling allergies, which seem in full force.  I suspect our new pastor is battling the same thing.  It is also an election year, and the media is on spin cycle so much that some of us get that glazed over look.  Hillary. Trump. Hillary. Trump  Oh, give it a rest already.

Yet others of us are consumed by our children’s back to school routines and the daily stresses of our jobs.  We have fallen into the groove – the drudgery.  Have we forgotten that are true lives are like that of the phoenix and that we have risen from the ashes to a new life?

Today can be an exciting new beginning!  Our chance is now!  The world is at our doorstep hungry for change – hungry for a new breath of fresh air in this world of stale hope.

We are also nearing an important anniversary of the September 11^th attacks.  My hope and prayer is that this one will be not just about looking back and remembering, but looking forward and grabbing on to the same courage and working toward a brighter future.  Looking deeply into scripture needs to be the same process.

We can bring that message of hope and light.  We don’t just read scripture, and then say “That’s nice” and put it down and never do anything with it.  Through it we can see beyond the grave – knowing that God is on our side and that the world has yet to see the greatest chapter.  But we must step up.  We must claim the joy that comes from serving others.  We must claim the joy of possibility.  We must see beyond ourselves to the prize that awaits.

And what is that prize?  It is laid out in scripture.  It is a day of no more suffering – no more pain.  And we are a part of making that happen.  We must spread the joy and the peace.  It may be as simple as taking some time to listen to a friend, or helping a neighbor.  It may be simple gestures of loving-kindness.  But it begins that spreading of joy and hope.

So start small.  But aim big.  For God is on our side.  And God can lead us to the joy eternal.

-Matt

God of the rough-worn hands, as we honor workers this day,
let us not forget those whose work is without honor:
those homemakers who watch over children and homes
but are not recognized as workers because they are not paid;
those who are forced out of jobs by corporate changes,
those forced into early retirement,
those who are denied employment because of their age;
those who live far from home,
struggling to save a bit of money to sent to their loved ones;
those who must work illegally in order to survive;
those who lose jobs because employers use undocumented labor.

Christ of the aching back, you worked the rough wood,
you walked the long and dusty roads,
you know the bitter thirst of the poor.
Let our thirst become a passion for justice.
Help us to work toward transformation of economic policies
that allow only a few nations to hoard the world’s wealth,
policies that pay women as only half a person or less,
policies that do not recognize the worth of labor exactly without pay

Spirit of creative power, move among us this day.
Heal the wounds we carry because of jobs we hate but must do,
jobs we want but cannot have.
Heal all those who labor to survive.
Renew in us our sense of vocation.
Help us discern your Presence in even the lowliest tasks we face. Amen

– The prayer comes from Chalice Worship.

Job 12:1,14:1-22; Acts 12:18-25; John 8:47-59

Goodbyes are never easy.  Saying goodbye to that close friend on hospice care dying of cancer, or saying goodbye to a colleague in ministry who is venturing off to seminary, or saying goodbye to an important relationship – goodbyes are often not fun at all!

There is a dramatic goodbye in our scripture reading, although one that probably brings relief to many, not heartache.  In Acts, Herod dies.  He is struck down by an angel of the Lord and “was eaten by worms and died.”  I am not even sure what that means, but it sounds gruesome and awful!

Herod has been the arch-enemy of the Christian faith since the beginning.  He hunted down the infants under two and had innocent boys murdered.  Now the soldiers who let Peter escape suffer the same fate – death.  Herod is uncompromising.  Herod is strong and determined.  Herod is rigid in his policies and rambunctious in upholding them.

But this time the crowd has turned against him.  When the crowd gathers to hear him speak on his royal throne, and having won over Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, the crowd boldly shouts out, “The voice of a god, and not of a mortal!”

What we see in this story is that despite the overwhelming evil, God’s purposes are not thwarted.  Dramatic Hellos and Goodbyes do not phase God, because God is forever.

How easy it is to believe that God can be overtaken.  In the midst of cancer treatments, divorce, death of loved ones, breakups, sickness, betrayal, or loss, it can be easy to lose focus on God and misunderstand what is going on.  I remember as a child saying goodbye to summer and having school start, and everything being so different.  It was like my whole world had been upturned.  One unfailing constant was church – a sign that the church family is always there, and that God never leaves us.

What we see in Acts is not just the mission of the church playing out, but the mission of God in overseeing the creation.  Peter is delivered.  Paul is delivered.  The people are delivered from spiritual prison to light.  What God is reminding us is that, while the world may rage around us, the world can no longer get to us, because we are born from above.  Despite all the raging powers and the chaos the people experience, ultimately God will intervene and make things right.

In Jesus’ case, the justice brought on Herod took a while.  It was well after Jesus had come into this world and left this world that Herod’s justice came.  But the fact is, it came.  And so whatever strife you are enduring, know that God is there and that justice will reign.  It may take some time, and God knows it may take more time than you feel you can endure, but in the end God’s justice, peace, and righteousness will overcome.

-Matt

Job 12:1,13:3-17,21-27; Acts 12:1-17; John 8:33-47

When I think about all the trials and tribulations that the early Christians faced, I am in awe.  How did they go on?  What gave them the strength to never give up?  Very early in our story, even in Acts, we discover there is a dark side to following Christ: sometimes being hunted down or risking one’s own life.  In today’s Acts story: James is killed; Peter is imprisoned; Herod, the Christians’ powerful enemy, seems to have the upper hand.

Guess what comes to their rescue?  An angel!  “Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell.  He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, ‘Get up quickly.’ And the chains fell off his wrists.  In the midst of this story we realize that God will not leave us.

The angel is a symbol of God’s presence.  This is a theme we see not just in Acts, but a common theme throughout the New Testament.  While persecutions and oppression may come, time after time we get reminders of God’s perpetual presence and faithfulness.

We also must stand firm against the powers and principalities, for God’s reign is coming.

There is also an element of delayed realization for Peter.  It took a while for things to sink in.  “Then Peter came to himself and said, ‘Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.’”

This is the true deliverance.  It is not from the hands of Herod, but from himself.  God saves Peter from Peter.  And isn’t that often the case for us as well?  Sometimes it is easy for us to become our own enemies.  We set our minds up for it, deciding that transformation isn’t possible, that situations are hopeless, only to find later that God had not given up on us.

This is reassuring, knowing that God’s faithfulness is not reliant on mine.  God not only goes before me, but does not give up as easily. Have you experienced this?

Where have you felt God’s reassurance and comfort in the midst of doubt?  How has God delivered you?  Maybe from an addiction?  Struggles with your children?  Your own mental state?  As you look back on your life, how far have you come?  What is left, unrealized?  Where do you see God at work in your current predicament?

-Matt

Job 12:1-6,13-25; Acts 11:19-30; John 8:21-32

Acts is one of my favorite books in the Bible.  It is one of surprise, intrigue, almost dare-devil undertakings that result in the amazing growth of God’s kingdom.  Here in today’s reading, the Spirit is bubbling over into Antioch, a place of a great number of Hellenists.  This spillage of God’s Spirit is no accident, but a deliberate and evocative growth for the body of Christ.

This story today makes it clear that God’s word is being heard and understood by those rooted deeply in Greek culture.  It is not just Jews who “get it” anymore.  God’s word has spread.

Today mission work by Christians has transformed to look very different than in years past.  The statistics of missionaries sent and received around the world tells the story.  While the USA sends a lot of missionaries, along with Brazil, France, Spain, Italy, and South Korea, where these missionaries go may surprise you.  It seemingly does not match our Acts story, where God’s word is spreading in new ground and a predominantly non-Christian context.  Overwhelmingly today, Christian missionaries go to predominantly Christian countries, especially around Oceania and the Caribbean.  Those destinations elsewhere, like Africa and North and South America, are also to predominantly Christian countries.

In fact, none of the 10 top countries for receiving missionaries is less than 90% Christian.  Why is that?  Are Americans timid about sharing the story as it is being shared in Acts?  Well part of the answer has to do with some of the largely populated non-Christian countries that deny or restrict missionary activity.

And this is OK.  God finds a way.

The face of mission long ago changed anyway.  This is no longer about Western civilization exporting their way of life, along with a message of “hope” which sometimes sounded dangerously like idolatry or colonialism, with a God who always seemed to be cast in their own image.  Instead, mission today is from the margins, with God most powerfully speaking to us FROM the global south TO the global north.  It is also much more about partnerships, relationships, and gathering resources.  It sounds healthier to me.

A good example is our team that recently went to Uganda.  When this mission started many years ago, the feedback I was getting from many of you was that it was sounding a lot like the colonialist-model 19th Century form of proselytism of old.  That perception certainly has changed, as people awakened to the reality that Uganda is an overwhelming Christian nation (upwards of 90% compared to 65% in the USA).

What we came to realize is that Ugandans knew a lot about how to be Christian, and it was our time to learn how to tell the story, how to receive and give hospitality, how to “do church” and how to be in partnership with another national Presbyterian Church.  As it turned out, ironically, it was the Ugandan church that was providing life-sustaining hope in the gospel to us.

It is not all one-sided though.  We Americans have gifts to share too.  Much of that I see as Uganda struggles with human rights, gender equality, political corruption, and LGBT rights.  We provide hope to the Ugandan Christians who seek to stand up to that kind of injustice, just as they provide us hope as we try to turn the tide of our broken religious system and the deterioration of Christianity in the US.  This is the true meaning of partnership, where each provides new life, and a life-sustaining hope in Christ and the gospel.

So the face of mission has changed.  From one predominant Christian nation to another, we seek solidarity and increasing hope.  We all seek new life.

We must trust that God can take care of those areas where we fall short and that our message of new life will continue to spread, and that the story of Acts continues to morph and change as we respond to a changing landscape of God’s kingdom.

-Matt

To get involved with Mission at FPCOKC, go to www.fpcokc.org/serve–volunteer

(Statistics come from the Center for Study of Global Christianity, 2013. http://wwwgordonconwell.com/netcommunity/CSGCResources/ChristianityinitsGlobalContext.pdf)

Job 8:1-10, 20-22; Acts 10:17-33; John 7:14-36

By the time we get done with this bizarre election cycle, I get the sense I will know everything there is to know about Trump and Clinton.  I will have read all her emails, and I will have seen him take every possible stand on every issue that is possible defending each view point.

Sometimes I wonder if I know too much.  The 24 hour news cycle, with cameras following them and every Olympic athlete is almost too much.

Not so with Jesus.  No cameras or paparazzi following him.  In fact part of the story of the Gospel of John is now Jesus remains hidden – enshrouded in mystery.  Part of the awesomeness of God – and specifically Jesus – is that we don’t get it.

What I like about John’s words is the mystery and conundrum itself.  Not only are his words about Jesus difficult, but Jesus himself is elusive and confusing.  That’s part of the story!!!  People didn’t get him!  At times we see how hard that was for Jesus himself.

To me it is comforting to know that this is all above and beyond comprehension.  God is awesome and his love is unfathomable.  We get glimpses occasionally…if we are lucky.

I suppose I will spend lifetime trying to get to know God.

And that’s OK.

-Matt

Job 6:1,7:1-21; Acts 10:1-16; John 7:1-13

It was a cool, crisp evening in Jerusalem.  My friends and I decided after a long week of classes, to treat ourselves to a fancy dinner.  We walked to one of my favorite parts of town, right outside the Old City, and with a spectacular view of the Temple Mount lit in the background, we enjoyed a glorious meal, as so many of the meals in Israel are.  With the fresh produce and the trade routes that go through Israel, it is easy to find fresh, varied, top-quality in just about everything – from meats to cheeses to fresh produce.

I am hazy on a lot of the details of the meal, but I remember the stuffed Cornish hen and all the fresh vegetables.  After supper, with our palettes craving more, we longed for dessert.  I boldly ordered, also asking for coffee.

When dessert and coffee arrived, I asked the waiter, “Excuse me, sir, may I have some cream.”  The waiter glared at me, and in a move that would rarely happen in America, he barked back loudly, “Heavens NO!  No cream for you!!”  And he stomped off.

I was shocked!  Waiters don’t talk to customers like that in America, my internal script thought.  I turned to one of my Jewish friends and said, “What was that all about?”

“He is not going to let you break Kosher,” my friend quietly explained.  “You ate meat for dinner.  You won’t be getting cream now, you moron!  Why don’t you ask for some non-dairy creamer.  Would that be alright?”  This was also a reminder to me that staying Kosher was a lot more involved than avoiding pork and shellfish.

I didn’t really think about or understand the intricacies of his argument, I was still focused on the fact I had been yelled at by the waiter.  And I was thinking that staying Kosher was much more about Jews than about me as a Christian!  What did it matter?  That part I did not understand – the fact that no good Jew in Israel was going to aid in someone else breaking God’s law.

It is in that context that I encounter today’s passage in Acts, with Peter and Cornelius.  Peter is on the roof having this strange dream.  He is also hungry.  Heaven opens and a sheet is lowered on four corners.  In the sheet are all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air.  “Get up, Peter; kill and eat,” says the Lord, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”

So begins a new chapter for Christianity.  This passage is seen as the quintessential passage releasing us from the Kosher dietary restrictions.

This also marks a significant change for Peter.  He was the one who had been adamant about Christians first becoming Jews, and following all of the Old Testament Law.  Peter’s focus was on rules and restrictions – God had other plans.  Instead God declared that the Law had been fulfilled in Christ, and that we were to follow the Law of Love.  This, of course, means that the Old Testament remains intact, but it means a recasting of the vision of the Law back to its original purpose.

The Law is not meant for God, but for us – to help us live into loving God more and loving one another.

And this is when the true feast begins, doesn’t it?  When our table is more than just a table full of food, but a table full of love, then its power is truly understood.  When God’s Law becomes an instrument to call people together in love and fellowship, then we have begun to discover the true meaning of the law.

May the true feast begin for each one of us – a life where the table is open to love yourself and others and God in new ways!  Bon Appetit!

-Matt