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August 2016 Sermons:
The Reverend Joyce Smothers
"Getting A Life" — August 7
"Tough Love" — August 14
"Set Free to Praise God" — August 21
"The Prophet of Hope" — August 28
“Getting A Life”
August 7, 2016
First Presbyterian Church of Hokendauqua
The Reverend Joyce Smothers
Luke 12:32-40
Jesus tells us not to be afraid. But many of us are afraid. Fear may be the dominant emotion in our world. When I was little and something frightened me, I was comforted when my parents said, “Don’t be afraid.” Their authority and their bigness took away my fear. If they said, “Don’t be afraid,” that was enough. They were in control. Everything would be all right. Fear melted with my dad’s gentle word of assurance, “Don’t be afraid.” But we aren’t children anymore. Who speaks this word for us now?
Jesus says, "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear." These are comforting words, but they don’t seem realistic. Did Jesus really expect His disciples to stop worrying? His followers were poor people. They didn’t always know where their next meal would come from. You couldn’t go into a store and buy clothes. They were hand woven or sewn at home. Each adult generally had just one spare robe. Of course, those people worried about the details of daily life. How could they not?
A few verses later Jesus continues, "Do not be afraid." How can a person follow it, if there is real danger? Let us say a car filled with teenagers has been involved in a traffic accident. Their parents have gotten the midnight phone calls every parent dreads. They wait in the emergency room for news from the doctors. This is the crisis of a lifetime. Of course those parents are frightened.
How can Jesus give advice like this? “Do not worry about your life?” Is He serious? At its heart, Christianity is a radically different way of thinking and feeling. Our faith is supposed to enable us to look at the world around us as God wants us to see it. Because we see the world differently from people who have no faith, we are being called to live differently. When Jesus tells His followers not to worry, He’s telling us to change our perspective so we can see the big picture.
That is not to say that we have to eliminate fear and worry. In the right amounts over the right things, fear is a gift of God. Worry is sometimes called “contingency planning.” Envisioning the worst case scenario gives us time to plan the ways we will deal with catastrophe. Some things will always scare us. The stock market could crash. Our Social Security checks could stop coming. A terrorist attack could happen in the Lehigh Valley. When Jesus tells His followers not to be afraid, He is warning us to keep fear in proportion. Jesus did this. He knew time was short. He was on His way to Jerusalem to die.
Our lives can be transformed by looking at the bigger picture. This chapter of Luke is one of many places in the Bible where Jesus paints the world the way God would like us to see it. It’s the human condition, to concentrate only on what concerns us in the present moment. Faithfulness calls us to see things in the way God sees them. I know my needs and wants. God knows the needs of all creation. I am familiar with my little corner of the world. God has intimate knowledge of everything from the tiniest microbe to every star in the furthest galaxy. I can recall my life from about the age of two or three to the present. God has experienced the universe from the time of Genesis up to now, and God can see the future. God calls me to try to see more from His perspective than from my own.
They say that if a newborn shark is kept in a small tank of water it will never achieve its full size potential. No matter how much the shark is fed it will not outgrow its surroundings. In the open ocean, a shark that grows to sixteen feet would be full-grown at two feet if it were kept in a small tank. The shark's environment determines its size.
People are the same. If we insist on living in the miniature world of personal needs and desires, our growth is stunted. What shall I eat? What shall I wear? When we get entangled in ourselves, we become consumed with worry and fear. We give our days to un-important things. We waste our lives hour by hour, day by day, in many small ways.
To paraphrase Jesus, "Quit focusing on yourself. Push the limits of your vision. Haven't you noticed that even crows have enough to eat? God takes care of birds and you are more valued than any bird. Trust God. Don't fret about what you will wear. Take a look at the lilies. They never worry, and God takes care of them." With these words Jesus offers a perspective which makes it possible for us to live lives of victory, putting fears aside.
After telling his followers not to be afraid, Jesus goes on to say, "It is the nations of the world that strive for these things," that is, “for food and clothes.” As people of faith, we need not accept the values of this world. Jesus calls us to strive for the kingdom, and these things will be given to us.
Instead of being consumed by worry and fear, work for the reign of God. When you feel drained by worry, go and do something for someone else. Nothing alleviates anxiety more effectively than helping another person.
Jesus ends His teaching with a lesson on the coming day of judgment. The Bible says there will be an end of this world that God created. There was a time before we were born and there will be a time after we die. The end times frighten us in the same way they scared people in the ancient Middle East. Jesus says that the end of our earthly journey could happen at any time. Therefore, we need to live every day of our lives as if today might be the day we will answer to God.
Are we eager for Christ’s return? If not, why not? A California pastor tells of his reaction when he thought his life was ending. On a red-eye flight, he was taking advantage of an empty row of seats by lying across them. The plane hit a pocket of turbulence and seemed to plummet instantly. The pastor flew up and crashed into the overhead compartment. He hadn’t fastened his seat belt. Lights on the plane flashed. Passengers were screaming. Several seconds later, the plane righted itself. The crew was visibly shaken and people admitted they had thought they were going down. The pastor sat surprised by his knee-jerk reaction. In the moment of believing he was about to die, he didn’t feel any fear — just a wave of peace and joy. Though his life was really fulfilling here, he knew he’d be headed home. Nobody could ever have a reaction like that, without having spent time developing an eternal perspective.
God wants us to celebrate life. God wants us to understand that, through sorrows and trials, whatever our lot, it will be well. If you want to know the deepest joys, live each day as if it might be your last. Don't put off important things, for the Son of Man will come at an unexpected hour. Our job is to stay awake to everything life brings us—so that we don’t miss Jesus when He comes again.
Let us pray. We are here, O God, because you have called us as your children. Enable us to put aside the worries and focus on you. Open our hearts to the truth of your love, that we might be renewed and refreshed. AMEN
“Tough Love”
August 14, 2016
First Presbyterian Church of Hokendauqua
The Reverend Joyce Smothers
Luke 12:49-56
Jesus has been doing ministry in Galilee and now He is traveling toward Jerusalem. Crowds gather and grow wherever He goes. He’s very popular! He performs miracles. He casts out demons and heals people all along the way. We like to think of Jesus as having been above the effects of stress and fatigue. He is always there for His friends. He doesn’t run away at the first signs of crisis, and He stays alongside them and helps them work though their issues.
All along His journey, Jesus has been teaching. Earlier in chapter 12 of Luke, Jesus’ teachings were comforting. He had told His followers not to worry, to consider the birds of the air and lilies of the field, and reminded them that they are precious in God’s sight. And hear His words of comfort, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” “In my house, there are many rooms.” That’s my kind of Jesus… the Prince of Peace! The rock, upon which we build the church.
But then, fast forward just a few verses to today’s passage. What has happened to “gentle Jesus, meek and mild?” It sounds like He’s having a very bad day. “I have come to bring fire to the earth! Do you think I have come to bring peace? No! I’ve come for division!” Jesus is suddenly turning things upside down. “Why?” we wonder. Don’t we have enough social conflict, without these upsetting words from Jesus?
What has happened to considering the lilies? And our preciousness in God’s sight? Where on earth did this angry guy come from? Is this the kind of Jesus we want? Not many children are memorizing verses about fire and division in Vacation Bible Schools. We won’t find it embroidered on decorated pillows at Hackman’s. But Jesus’ anger has a place in our modern world. Most of us hate conflict. We’d rather worship Baby Jesus in the manger, with angels singing all around. But the Baby has to grow up and so do we. And in this election year there is plenty of conflict all around.
We understand the anger that crops up in the midst of family love, or in groups of friends. Loving parents know the unique heartache that bubbles up when their child gets involved in dangerous things. Similar to a parents’ love, God’s holy anger must always be viewed through a lens of His love. His love can overwhelm us, but we know it’s fundamentally good. Anger that is rooted in hatred, differs from anger grounded in love. Anger that is motivated by love can be part of the process of becoming the person that God intends. However, sometimes a bluntly stated remark has a sting to it. Cleaning agents may sting and burn a wound, but they also remove the debris that can poison it, and they make it ready for healing. The anger of a good God may not feel like love. And yet, because it is grounded in love, it is offered with hope for your growth, not for destruction.
Anger and fire are linked in this passage, as they are in much of the Bible. But fire is not just a sign of anger. It is also a sign of transformation. Think back to Moses’ encounter with the burning bush in Exodus. When Moses encounters the great “I am” in the burning bush, he is led to overthrow the Pharoah of Egypt. He also ends up acting as the agent of God to lead and to liberate his people.
There is a story of a woman who visits a silversmith. She asks him how he knows when the silver is refined. The silversmith responds, “When I can see my face in the silver.” God is the refiner, carefully holding His gaze on each of us as He refines precious metal, in the fire, until it reflects His own image.
The fire of God’s anger is directed at sin, and it burns away until what is precious and beautiful is revealed. This fire transforms us into the likeness of Christ. Fire signifies the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s power comes to all of us in the congregation when a baptism takes place. Each new member, each new child in Sunday School, brings transformation to the church. Today our three baptisms are a joyful transformation for Jessica, for Mikey and for Emma.
But let’s be honest, we’re talking about fire in this gospel passage. And we all know that burns hurt. The process of transformation is painful. Anyone who has been through significant personal transformation knows this. The good news for us is that God is not just the refiner— God is the fire. God is with us in the searing heat of the flames, burning with us until all is made pure. There is a verse from the first chapter of Second Timothy that says “fan into flame the gift of God that is in you.” It is the will of God for Jesus’ story to come blazing to life in us.
Crisis is the edge where change is possible. Crises allow us to seek God’s transformation. What would it be like to see each crisis as an opportunity for God to do a new thing? When you break your arm and it doesn’t set properly, the only way to prevent a life of pain is to re-break the arm and set it again. Jesus is telling us that if we will ever achieve the deep peace of the reign of God, we may have to be taken apart and put back together in a new way.
Can you look back on your first job, or your first serious illness, or your first marriage, or your first year in college, and say that it was a baptism of fire? God gives us opportunity to stand in fires that burn, but don’t destroy. The next time you find yourself in the middle of a crisis, remember that God is with you in the fire. Think of it as an opportunity to be molded into something precious. That’s true not only for the young, but for us older folks too. We grow all though our lives. Where we see only destruction, where we feel only pain, God sees hope.
Jesus won’t put us through anything He Himself has not suffered. The one who breaks and resets the bone, is the one who makes the lame walk. The one who divides us is the one who brings us together in His body. There will be no peace for any of us, until there is peace for all of us. A Presbyterian pastor named Frederick Buechner said, “For Jesus, peace seems to have meant, not the absence of struggle, but the presence of love.”
Let us pray. Lord Jesus, there are times when being your disciple in painful. But we know that following you isn’t about doing something with you, but rather to have YOU do something with US. Remake us into the faithful followers you would have us be. AMEN
“Set Free to Praise God”
August 21, 2016
First Presbyterian Church of Hokendauqua
The Reverend Joyce Smothers
Luke 13:10-17
Sylvia Stayton was a 62-year-old, Presbyterian grandmother. She had a mission in life---to feed the expired parking meters of total strangers in Cincinnati, Ohio. But unfortunately, her kindness had reduced revenue for the city, so the “powers that be” made sure to make it a jailable offense. Eventually Ms. Stayton got arrested.
When she was arrested, she might have walked away with only a fine. But she admittedly tried to prevent a police officer from issuing tickets to two parked automobiles by feeding the expired meters. Ms. Stayton resisted the officer’s attempt to bring her into custody. This led to a scuffle, during which she claimed to have gotten a bruised forearm. After paying $500 plus court costs, she went back to her life as a homemaker, director of her church youth group, and Sunday school teacher. A few years later, after she passed away, her church group honored her memory by continuing to donate nickels (secretly) to Cincinnati parking meters, while wearing t-shirts that read “Sylvia Stayton... guilty of kindness.”
Jesus gets in trouble for breaking rules in order to show compassion, in today’s gospel story. The scene opens with Jesus preaching in a synagogue. You didn’t have to be a rabbi to do this, in those days. Any man in the congregation could read from scripture and then teach or preach.
This is not the first time or the last time that Jesus’s kindness gets Him into trouble. However, this is the last time He is invited to preach in a synagogue. The religious authorities have started to worry about Him. He’s a troublemaker. They follow Jesus everywhere, looking for any reason to challenge Him. More and more, they focus on His seeming contempt for the strict rules.
Penalties for breaking Sabbath laws, in those days, could lead to death. For Jesus to lay hands on this woman in order to heal her, flew in the face of the Jewish law. Why? Because the act of healing was considered work, and no work was allowed on the holy day.
We can tell when we read this story that Jesus realizes His ministry is in danger. Healing is work—ask any doctor or nurse. Though He rarely goes out of His way to start conflict, Jesus always puts love for neighbor first.
In the synagogue, Jesus sees this woman who is unable to stand up straight. She never asks Jesus for help. Actually she is so bent over that she probably can’t even see Him. But He sees her, and calls out to her: “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” He places His hands on her and immediately she stands up straight.
For Jesus, doing good for a needy person goes hand-in-hand with the greatest commandments of the Jewish tradition: love God and love your neighbor. From this teaching it’s a short jump to healing and restoring a person’s spirit on the Sabbath.
Have you ever met someone who has suffered a severe, but not terminal, affliction for so long that they have lost any hope of getting help? Of course you have. Loren Eiseley, the eminent anthropologist and philosopher, once told a story about a man he saw on a train between Pittsburgh and New York. As Eiseley entered the lounge car, he saw a man who looked “down and out.” He was dressed in old clothing and sat with his eyes closed and a paper bag balanced on his knees. It seemed to contain everything he owned in this world. The other passengers on the train all watched the man when the conductor came in to take tickets. They were expecting the usual confrontation. When the conductor asked for his ticket, the haggard man reached into his pocket, pulled out a roll of money, and said, “Give me a ticket to wherever.” The conductor chose Philadelphia for the man, gave him back the rest of his money, and left. Eiseley said of the experience that he wondered if somewhere down the line this man would finally find a place or a time—“wherever”—that would put life together for him.
This seems to be the hopeless condition of this poor woman. Jesus takes the initiative and reaches out to her. The leader of the synagogue is highly offended by Jesus’ disobedience of the Sabbath laws. He doesn’t speak directly to Jesus, but instead he complains to the assembled crowd. He says, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.”
Jesus responds to the leader of the synagogue and the congregation by calling the people hypocrites. He accuses them of treating their animals better than they’ve treated this woman. She is a daughter of Abraham, He reminds them. Why should she be treated with less dignity than anyone would treat his or her donkey? Jesus had not broken the Sabbath; He had only broken the Jewish law concerning that commandment. The crowd got the message; He won that argument. The woman was a winner, too--she got a new way of seeing and a new lease on life. She hadn’t been able to see anything but dirt and people’s feet for eighteen years.
In our world, we are surrounded by people who suffer. Sometimes their problem is obvious, like the bent-over woman’s. Sometimes the affliction is hidden, but no less real---men who are unemployed, women who have been abused, kids who are struggling in school or being bullied. Since helping people can get complicated, we find reasons not to help. We might contract some illness from them. There is no extra money in the budget. We’ve already given to their cause at the office. It wouldn’t be safe to be alone with that person. Parking is impossible at the hospital. It’s too hot to drive there. God helps those who help themselves. That one isn’t in the Bible, by the way. Have you ever used these excuses?
Laws play an important part in our lives. Our Christian tradition encourages us to abide by the commandments in the Bible. But Christianity isn't entirely about following rules. It's mainly about giving of yourself in love, and it’s about liberation. Following Jesus is about standing up for people in need-----even if the rules, or public opinion, may condemn those people. Christianity is about going the extra mile, often being inconvenienced, and sometimes even risking danger, in doing so. The story of Jesus' healing of the bent-over woman invites us to look up to Him, and live.
Let us pray. Loving God, may we hear the call of your Son Jesus Christ to us and respond with total commitment. May we stand proud, straight and tall, and praise you with joy. AMEN
“The Prophet of Hope”
August 28, 2016
First Presbyterian Church of Hokendauqua
The Reverend Joyce Smothers
Jeremiah 2:4-13
Handling complaints isn’t much fun. When I worked at the library, I was the one who ended up doing that job most of the time. A good outcome depended on how well I listened. There were things I learned not to say to an angry person, such as, “You’ll have to talk to ‘so and so’ and he’s in a meeting.” Any sentence that began with the words, “You’ll have to,” was a turnoff.
I got used to forgiving overdue fines most of the time, if people gave good reasons for returning books late. The fines were small, and they weren’t really the issue. Sometimes I had to uphold the rules, kindly but firmly. When I did, sometimes I got called a “public servant” in a nasty tone of voice.
Conflict blows up in our faces for a lot of reasons. Sometimes we don't listen well. Our experiences may be completely different from the other person’s. You know the “we tried that and it didn’t work” approach. Disagreements may turn on a single word. Finding fault is easy --but getting to the bottom of a disagreement, and resolving it, can be much more difficult.
In our Old Testament reading, the prophet Jeremiah speaks of God's anguish over Israel's lack of faithfulness. “Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord: What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?-- Jeremiah 2:4-5
Jeremiah was a young priest in the Jerusalem temple. His book of prophecy is the longest in the Old Testament. It tells us a lot about his life. Priests in the sixth century before Christ had judicial as well as spiritual authority. He was forced to be a tough leader, having to judge the people of his congregation.
There was no peace in the Southern kingdom of Judah in the sixth century BCE. Egypt and Assyria, the biggest empires in the Mediterranean, competed to conquer their little country, and Jerusalem’s leaders faced huge pressures. They had to be ready to resist attacks that could come without warning. The Hebrews had long since lost confidence in the God of Abraham. Jeremiah spoke for God, a lonely voice during that time of impending terror.
The Hebrews of Jerusalem had forgotten that they were God’s chosen people. Barbaric beliefs had taken over. Worship attendance at the temple had dropped. People ignored warnings against stealing, murder or adultery. In fact, the ten commandments of Moses had been forgotten, as the Hebrews worshiped other gods. Jeremiah was heartsick, and God was angry. They, of all people, should have known better.
We all know people in our own time who worship the gods of money, beauty, and power. Many have judged God and lost confidence in His power. Perhaps you know people who were raised as Christians, but no longer believe God even exists.
When I listen to people who doubt the existence of God, I try to hold back from giving easy answers. I must admit that there are parts of the Bible that make me uneasy. For example, why does God command, in Joshua, that the Israelites kill every living creature they encounter as they enter into the Promised Land? Why, in the story of Noah’s ark, do all people have to die except for Noah’s family? And why must all the animals in the world get killed, except for the pairs that Noah saves by taking them on the boat? I don’t accept destruction as God's will.
I have spoken with many people who have lost all faith in God. They have expected God to wipe out forces that threaten life on earth, and that has rarely happened—since the days of Noah’s ark. Often, their grudge against God is rooted in a life of suffering. Whether it has been the death of a child, or of a dream they have never achieved, they’ve decided that God doesn’t care. Talks with people who are angry at God, always call for the deepest respect we can offer. Automatic answers never work.
God’s authority will not stand or fall based on our stories of His love for us. If the people who doubt, see faith and hope and love at work in our own lives, their minds may be changed. We can talk about joy, peace, and all the other fruits of the Holy Spirit. People who are disillusioned with God, will be watching to see if our walk matches our talk.
Perhaps the greatest witness we can offer to them, is to listen. Viewing nonbelievers as people for whom Jesus laid down His life, makes it easier for us to offer hope. Facing conflict directly and working through it, helps everyone get stronger and wiser. This is what Jeremiah tried to do as a young priest, six hundred years before the birth of Christ. It took courage. He was in his early twenties when he wrote the prophecy Carol read today.
Jeremiah is sometimes called “the prophet of doom.” His words in the passage we heard, are harsh. But later in his career as a priest, he preached hopeful messages of God’s faithfulness. Although a run of bad kings and lost battles had nearly destroyed the kingdom of David, Jeremiah assured the Hebrews that God would save them. When in exile in Babylon, Jeremiah received a word from God about a new covenant God would make with His people, in which the law would be written on their hearts, not tablets of stone. As Christians, we believe this covenant has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
When we worship together, we affirm that Christ is the greatest prophet of hope who will ever live on earth. Worship can’t be a sometime thing. We need to come to church regularly.
Stephen Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, tells a story of two lumberjacks who are cutting down a mighty tree using an old-fashioned cross-cut saw. Back and forth they pull the saw, their motions synchronized in rhythm. Yet the longer they work, the less effective their labors are. Each stroke of the saw seems to be taking less of a bite out of the tree trunk. But still the men keep sawing. What they need to do is to stop and sharpen the saw. Yet there's something soothing, even hypnotic, about the rhythm of the sawing. The more exhausted they become, the more they imagine that if they keep going, they'll finish the job.
Yet, if they would just perform this essential maintenance, they'd be done in half the time, without aching muscles from pulling a dull saw blade back and forth. Worship is like sharpening the saw. Week in and week out, we saw away at our work. Without taking weekly breaks for worship, the bite of our labor becomes dull, and we become detached from God. It's not enough simply to confess Christ as Lord and Savior -- once -- and leave it at that. The saw needs to be kept in good repair. I pray that you’ll keep on sharpening your Spirit by worshipping every week as we face challenges of the fall and the winter ahead.
Let us pray. Most merciful and gracious God, thank you for inscribing your law on our hearts. Help us to conform to your eternal rule of love, that we might love you and our neighbors with all of our being. Amen
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