I DO CHOOSE

A Sermon for the 6th Sunday of Epiphany
by Pastor Laura Gentry

Mark 1:40-45 • 1 Kings 5:1-14 • Psalm 30

It is practically impossible for us to comprehend how horrible it was to be a leper in biblical times. People had no idea how this ugly and painful disease was spread. It struck fear in their hearts. And how did they handle this paralyzing fear? They totally isolated those who showed signs of infection.

According to the Levitical laws, lepers were considered unclean and forced to live outside the city. As late as Medieval times, a priest would read the burial service over the leper before he or she was cast out of the city, doomed to die alone. It seems outrageous to us today, but those sick with leprosy in the ancient world had to live in large unlivable pits, far away from civilization.

So not only did lepers have physical pain, they lived with the emotional pain of being abandoned by their family and friends in their dying days. In today’s reading Jesus has a brief encounter with one such person. Here is a man who had lost hope. Yet, he has heard about Jesus and it fills him with hope again. Lepers weren’t even supposed to approach the healthy, yet this man comes directly to Jesus and says, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” The audacity of his faith is striking.

The ancient audience would expect Jesus to toss rocks at the leper to keep him at bay. That was what normally happened in such a circumstance. Yet, Jesus does the unexpected. He does not rebuff this leper. In fact, he is so moved by compassion that he breaks the religious law by stretching out his hand and physically touching the man. He reaches out to him in more ways than one. Then Jesus says: "I do choose. Be made clean!" And the man is healed instantly.

In the reading from the I King, we hear a similar story of a leper being healed through the power of God. In it, Naaman, an enemy military commander, is given words of wisdom by the prophet Elisha that he is to immerse himself in the Jordan River 7 times. Now Naaman’s got a bad attitude, but at length he agrees to follow these instructions and is immediately made clean. This demonstrates how God’s healing power knows no limits. Even God’s enemies are given mercy and healing! And perhaps this news is even more miraculous than the fact that Naaman’s leprosy disappears.

Today’s Psalm gives voice to the joy God’s healing can bring. “O LORD my God,” says the Psalmist, “I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O LORD, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit. Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” This Psalm concludes with the profound cry of faith: “You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.”

And today, there is great cause for the people of God to not be silent but rejoice and give thanks. Why? Because today a great healing is about to take place, which we will be privileged enough to witness. I’m talking about baptism. In this holy sacrament, we are adopted into God’s joyful family. We are healed of our sin through the gift of forgiveness. And we are promised deliverance from death and the devil forever. Can there be a more marvelous healing? Can there be a sweeter balm for our mourning souls? No. In baptism, we are all transformed into happy, dancing people.

For many of us, this healing took place before we were consciously aware. We were infants at the font and we only learned about the healing of baptism years after the event. Today, however, we have the rare opportunity to witness an adult baptism. Jamie Horkheimer has been walking with Jesus for quite a long time and has developed an active worship life. Yet, the Holy Spirit has led him to seek a deeper fellowship with his Savior. Jamie wants to have the assurance that he is accepted by God and promised the gift of eternal love. In asking to be baptized, he is saying to Jesus precisely what the leper in the Gospel lesson said: “If you choose, you can make me clean.”

Jamie is crying out with the Psalmist for healing. His soul wants transformation so that he may be fully God’s own—filled with peace and joy that pass understanding. He wants his mourning to give way to dancing. And that’s what all of us want, isn’t it?

So many times the harsh waves of life come crashing over us and we feel lost and alone in the universe, like drowning souls. We sense our own helplessness. We run aimlessly and box at the air, unable to live as we know we should live.

Yet no matter how far we have moved from God’s way, there is grace for us. There is compassion. There is healing and rebirth. And so in faith we cry out to Jesus: “Won’t you choose to save us!”

And Jesus responds with unbelievable compassion. He reaches out to each one of us and says: “I do choose. Be made clean!” Let us dance for joy at this miracle today and every day. Amen.

© 2009 Laura E. Gentry

HEALED TO SERVE

A Sermon for the 5th Sunday after Epiphany
by Pastor Laura Gentry

Mark 1:29-39

Healed by faith. Is it possible? In Lourdes, France, there is a world famous Roman Catholic shrine at which the Blessed Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to a saintly young woman named Bernadette a century and a half ago. Thousands of pilgrims throng the shrine every year, hoping to be cured of their ailments. Over the decades, people have left behind their crutches, braces and other tokens of healing as witnesses to God’s power to make them well.

Some say it’s a total sham—that Lourdes and other such places are just tourist traps with no power at all. If a “healing” occurs, they claim it is either pure coincidence or the placebo effect. And with all the modern therapeutic advances, time and money would be better spent visiting medical experts.

What ever you think about modern day faith healing stories, healing is an essential element of the Gospel message. Christians of all denominations have embraced the scenes of healing found throughout the bible.

The ministry of Jesus is particularly loaded with healing. He heals from the very start. In the gospel of Mark, Jesus calls the disciples and then immediately cures a man with an unclean spirit. In today’s lesson, he leaves the synagogue, and enters the house of Simon and Andrew where he find Simon’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever. So what does he do? Of course, he heals her. He takes her by the hand and lifts her up—quite literally. She stands up beside him and her fever leaves. It seems to me that she must have been from Iowa since doesn’t delay a moment after being healed—she gets right back to work in the kitchen.

Like others whom Jesus touched withhis healing, he gives this woman a second chance. He gives hope where there is no hope. In an instant, healing brought freedom from physical debility and not only that, it brought inner change. No wonder “the whole city was gathered” at Jesus’ door. The scene was probably not that much different from contemporary Lourdes at pilgrimage time. People flock to healing.

But healing was never an end unto itself in the ministry of Jesus. In his very first words, as recorded by Mark, Jesus proclaimed, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.” Healing is but a foretaste of the coming of a kingdom that transcends this world of pain and death. And most importantly, this kingdom, Jesus demonstrated, is here within anyone’s grasp, not in some far off place. It has come near.

We are all still in need of healing—physical and otherwise. Everyone seems to be searching for something to improve their lives. These days, the web seems to be overrun with an obnoxious banner ad for some diet plan. The ad is an animated jiggling belly. You try to read the news page and all you see out of the corner of your eye is this wiggling belly. You can't ignore it! And it is trying to make you think: is my belly okay? Does it wiggle and jiggle like this horrible ad? Must I click the ad and go buy this diet plan that will make my belly suitable to be seen in public? But all makeovers and the latest fad diets the world offers cannot assure us of happiness and fulfillment. Real transformation, as understood in the Gospel, has nothing to do with belly fat. It is about our need to for God's healing. We must embrace our own ultimate frailty and death so that we can recognize our need for grace.

I remember reading the story about the Egyptian ferry that sunk in the Red Sea in February of 2006. Only 388 people of the 1,400 on board were rescued. Because the boat sunk so quickly, most of the lifeboats went down with it. The ferry captain apparently was able to get one of those boats but reportedly rowed away from the drowning wreck in it all by himself. He just abandoned his passengers in their time of greatest need.

I think a lot of people fear that God is like that runaway captain, that we can't quite trust that God will always be there for us. What if I'm just not good enough? What if my sins become to vast? What if the bottom falls out of my life? Will God still love me? Will God still be there for me? As humans, it is hard to trust such unconditional love. But we can be assured that God is nothing like the captain who rowed from the wreck by himself. God is always here for us, no matter how far we stray. God holds us close, offering healing for our brokeness again and again.

In the English language the words healing, health, wholeness and wellness all share the same etymological root, meaning full or complete. At whatever state of health we may be, we must recognize our deficiencies, our incompleteness. We need something or someone beyond ourselves and without it we know we are not complete. We are missing something. We are forever longing. We need God’s strength not just to make us well, but to make us whole.

Jesus “cast out many demons.” In our quest for wholeness, we face demons too—habits and behaviors that lead to ruin and self-defeat, sometimes even to death itself. Yet despite these demons, we press on for wholeness, for oneness with God. And healing is about God showing up in the midst of our pain and making that oneness possible. Jesus took Simon’s mother-in-law by the hand and raised her up from her sickbed, and she was made well. She must have understood, as no one else, the meaning of the kingdom and oneness with the Lord. And that closeness and oneness is ours to have as well.

How can you know when you have been healed? Seems like a silly question. For many, the answer is obvious: when the pain is gone, the fever has come down, and the disease is no more. But the Gospel gives a better answer. “The fever left her,” we are told of Peter’s mother-in-law, “and she began to serve them.” As she was healed, she immediately began to serve others. When we are ready to help others in their need and focus once again outside ourselves we will know that we too have been cured. We will no longer be slaves to our own hurts and resentments. We will at last be made whole.

My friends, our captain is with us—reaching out to save us. Let us heed Jesus’ invitation today to be healed and to share that healing by serving others.


Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.

© 2009 Laura E. Gentry

WHEN BEING RIGHT IS WRONG

A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany
February 1, 2009
Pastor Laura Gentry

1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge." Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him. Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that "no idol in the world really exists," and that "there is no God but one." Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as in fact there are many gods and many lords-- yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. "Food will not bring us close to God." We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall. (NRSV)

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

There’s an old story about a man who was put on a very strict diet—he was to have no sweets and very little fat. And everything went well for him for the first week. Then one morning, he showed up at work with a large, decadent, half-eaten coffee cake. One of his co-workers questioned him, “I thought you were on a diet?”

“Oh, I am,” he replied, “but this is a very special coffee cake because God wanted me to have it.”

“God wanted you to have it?” the coworker asked skeptically.

“Well yes, I was driving down the street minding my own business this morning, when I heard this coffee cake calling out to me from the window of the bakery I was passing. It called and called, ‘buy me, buy me.’ So I prayed to God and said, ‘God, if you really want me to have that coffee cake who is calling out to me, let there be an open parking spot right in front of the bakery.’ And you know, sure enough, on the fifth time around the block, there was an empty parking spot right there in front of the bakery!”

Many of us have been on diets and have struggled to avoid those tempting treats that seem to call out to us. Yet, we would rarely consider our diet a religious issue as the man in the story with the coffee cake did.

But that’s exactly what is going on in our second lesson for today from First Corinthians. The issue was not about losing weight, however, it was about losing faith. You see, most of the meat available at the local butcher shops was leftover from sacrificial ceremonies in pagan temples. What do you do with all those sacrificed animals? You sell it for meat. Therefore, trying to find non-pagan meat was difficult. It’s not like your waitress would say to you, “Hamburger, and a large Coke, okay...oh, did you want that burger pagan or non-pagan?” It would be kind of like trying to find a meatless steak at Sizzler—believe me, I know how difficult that can be. Non-pagan meat was simply hard to come by. But according to the Jerusalem agreement (Acts 15:29) Gentile Christians were supposed to abstain from meat sacrificed to these gods because it was considered idolatry.

Now this may sound like a little technicality, a silly issue to you and me. But to the Christians in Corinth, it was a huge matter. Corinth, you must understand, was a dominantly pagan city. The Christians were the minority in this culture. It was a large metropolitan area in the center Greece that was known for its wealth and its impropriety. On a hill overlooking the city, there was a temple dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. It is said that there were about a thousand prostitutes who worked out of the temple. And in addition to the prostitution, there was an abundance of alcohol abuse. Indeed, Corinth was “Sin City” in those days.

Many Christians in Corinth were converts from paganism. And for them, to eat meat which had been sacrificed to the pagan idols was a big struggle. It made them feel like they were slipping back into their old religion—that they were moving away from the God of Israel and back into their pagan ways. And of course, being a Christian requires that you give all your allegiance to God, not to any “false gods” and certainly not to any idols of the pagan religions. To do this, the Christian converts simply had to stay away from all thing pagan, including the bargains at the pagan meat counter.

Meanwhile, however, there was another group of Christians in Corinth. They believed they had every right to eat this meat. Why? Because, they claimed, these idols do not really exist, only God does. So, therefore, food sacrificed to them has not meaning. There is only one God, so what’s the problem? “We can eat it and it doesn’t compromise our faith one bit!” they argued. Since they were so strong in their faith, they didn’t have the issues with pagan meat that the new Christians did.

So all of this led to a division in the Christian church. Can you imagine that— Christians having differing opinion about matters of faith? Indeed, Christians have always had trouble navigating the do-s and don’t-s of the faith. So the Apostle Paul is called upon to help them figure out how to solve this disagreement. That’s what today’s scripture is: a letter Paul wrote to these Christians of Corinth. He explains that yes, the strong Christians are right: the idols don’t exist and since there is only one God, there is no real harm in eating this food. But he goes on to explain that they are also wrong. Because they are eating meat sacrificed to idols, and oftentimes they are eating it right in the pagan temples, they are leading others astray. These new Christians see them doing so and feel that perhaps it is okay to stray from the Christian faith and return to pagan worship. So, Paul plainly states: by having such great knowledge, by being right, you are wrong because you are leading people astray. Thus—and I love this part—he arrives at a vegetarian conclusion to the problem. He writes: “If food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.” Isn’t that great?

But actually, I must admit, the modern application of this teaching has nothing to do with meat. We no longer have the issue of meat sacrificed to idols. But we do still face the issue of the secular world being pressing in on our Christian faith, just as the Corinthians did. What worldly activities can we safely participate in without compromising our faith?

What we must remember is that what’s okay for you might not be okay for someone else. So Paul urges us to really examine what we do. “Are my behaviors becoming of a Christian?” We must ask ourselves. “How does it look to others? Might it lead them to stray from their faith?”

But then you may say that if we refrain from every activity that might lead someone into sin, we’d end up locked away doing nothing and then we’d have no ability to witness to the Gospel! And Paul would have agreed with that. We are bound to offend someone at some point, even if we are trying not to. So are there some hard and fast rules about what we can and cannot do as Christians so that if we just stick to them we’ll be okay? If only it were that easy! Paul believed that each Christian should use his or her own judgment on these matters. “Let everyone be convinced in their own mind.” He writes in Romans 14:5. In each circumstance of life, we are to be sensitive to the needs of others around us and make a judgment call about what behaviors would be appropriate to engage in and what would not be.

Really, what this all boils down to is love. “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” If we go around smugly doing what we believe is theologically and morally permissible based upon our great wealth of knowledge, we could be hurting others in the process. Exercising our rights as a Christian could well wrong another. It is not being right that counts—for there are times when being right is wrong. What is important is our love and concern for others, especially others who do not share our values and perspectives. God deals so graciously with us; and so in turn, we are to be gracious toward others.

The only problem with this is that love is difficult. There is a Buddhist saying that goes: “He who loves 50 people has 50 woes. He who loves no one has no woes.” So love is woe? I’m afraid so.

We have trouble loving. It’s hard to love others and it’s hard to love ourselves. The spiritual teacher Pema Chodron wrote: “The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes.” His point is that to be open and loving with others requires being open and loving with ourselves—looking upon ourselves as God looks upon us.

When we can do this, we find that love is joy. It is the whole thing. When we come to die and we look back at our lives, what we’ll be able to hold onto is the love we have given and received. Everything else pales in comparison. That’s why Jesus came to show us how to love. And that’s why Paul urges us to use our Christian freedom in a way that is loving. Even though we have to curb our behavior, it is worth it. What matters is not how much we know, but how much we love.


Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.

© 2009 Laura E. Gentry

COME AND FOLLOW ME!

A sermon for the third Sunday after Epiphany

by Pastor Laura Gentry

Jonah 3:1-10 • Mark 1:14-20

Crabby people. They tend to be crabby about most everything. “It’s a sunny day!” You say to them and they retort with an irritated response like, “It’s too bright.” Well, that’s Jonah. I would say he’s among the Bible’s most crabby people.

So crabby was Jonah, that when God called him and gave him a special mission to go preach to the Ninevites, he ran away and ended up getting thrown overboard in a storm and eaten by a very big fish. See where crabbiness gets you? But that’s Jonah.

And in today’s passage, he has been spit up by Mr. Fish and God gives him a second chance to go preach the Word to the Ninevites. He does it. He appears to do it quite halfheartedly but it works, nevertheless. It really works! The entire city turns around. They repent and believe. They fast and put on sackcloth to demonstrate their sorrow for their sin. And I don’t mean just a few—the entire city puts on sackcloth, even the animals. Imagine the sight of that! So God looks upon their repentance and changes his mind. There will be no destruction of Ninevah, God will spare them. Mission accomplished.

Jonah’s preaching has saved this entire city—a city large enough that it takes three days to walk through. So is he pleased with this positive result? Oh no! He huffs off and sulks like a spoiled, over-dramatic child. Now do you see why I name him among the Bible’s most crabby?

But for all his faults, Jonah understands something that not just everyone understands. He knows the incredible power of the Word of God. He knows that God’s Word has untold power—power to activate, to radically transform. And that’s why he doesn’t want to proclaim it to the people of Ninevah. That’s why he ran away in the first place. He knows that the moment it springs forth from his lips, God’s word unleashes a title wave force that cannot be controlled. Not by Jonah. Not by anyone.

Surely this is why Jesus was able to call those four fishermen with such ease. I mean here comes Jesus along the shores of the Galilee. He’s nothing but an itinerant preacher. He’s got no credentials, no financing, not even a home to call his own. And he has the audacity to invite them to “Come!” He says, “Follow me.” And they do.

In Mark’s gospel, we hear that Simon and Andrew, then James and John immediately leave their nets and follow Jesus. They don’t even stop to ask questions like: is Jesus offering them a health care plan along with that job or at least a nice 401K so they can retire comfortably? They don’t seem to have a clue who Jesus really is or what he is asking of them. Yet immediately, they leave their lucrative careers, their homes and even their families and get whisked away by this Jesus fellow to begin new lives.

That, my friends, is the power of God’s Word! It is active and alive. It changes things. It changes people. We see examples of this throughout scripture where people encounter the living Word of God and nothing is ever the same. The effects are immediate.

Do we know what crabby Jonah knows? Do we perceive what the fishermen perceived? God’s Word is calling us too. It is calling us to come and follow, to leave our nets behind and be wholly God’s own.

In our own time and place, do we even know what that means? What is God calling us to do? How will we know when we hear God’s voice? Last week during the adult Bible study after worship, we had an interesting conversation about this. It is not always easy to sense where God is leading us and even if we know, it is not always easy to follow these instructions. But that is the exciting thing!

You see, Jesus ushers in a new day—a day of compassion, reconciliation and justice. We pray in the Lord’s Prayer that we want God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. On earth as it is in heaven. How thrilling! Our faith frees us to see the world as God wants it to be, rather than the way it is. This time we live in—this time of hatred and bloodshed, of corruption and exploitation, of injustice and starvation—is coming to an end. The Word of God pushes forward like a mighty plow, overthrowing the old order and bringing in the new, where earth will live in peace and joy as heaven already does.

That’s our calling—to be part of this radical transformation process. Jesus walks along the shores of our lives day in and day out, calling us to come and follow. We are called to believe in the power of the Word of God. We are called to be transformed by it ourselves so that we embrace the joy and freedom given to us, even as we live in this world of pain and woe. And we are called to join the disciples in being fishers of folks—ever about the business of calling others to join us in this great spiritual adventure.

Today, God is calling you. No more excuses, no more putting it off, no more being crabby and running away like Jonah. The Word of God is alive and ready to work through you. Do you perceive it? Are you open to it? Imagine what will happen when you set the Word of God free to change you. Imagine how our world will change as we work together in the Spirit’s power to bring heaven’s reality to earth. There is nothing more important than this calling, no endeavor more life-giving. So “Come,” Jesus says to you today, “Don’t even worry about what you’ve got to leave behind to do it. Come and follow me!” Amen.

© 2009 Laura Gentry

YOU CALLED ME

A Sermon for the second Sunday after Epiphany

by Pastor Laura Gentry 

1 Samuel 3:1-10 • Psalm 139 • John 1:43-51

It was back in 1973 that Motorola unveiled the prototype of the world's first portable cellular telephone. Portable, of course, is a debatable claim as the phone weighed almost two pounds and spanned a foot in length. Oh, and did I mention that it cost $3,995?

It wasn’t until 1983 that cell phones became commercially available. At first, they were just for wealthy dignitaries and drug dealers. No one ever thought they’d catch on with the rest of the population. Why would normal people want to be accessible at all times? That sounded absurd.

But today, over 260 million Americans have cell phone service—that’s more people than have land lines—and they spend, on average, seven hours a month talking on them. These wireless devices keep changing to keep up with the demand. Nowadays, you are considered prehistoric if your phone doesn’t include a video camera and allow you to surf the web.

We are more “connected” than ever before. Our friends and family members can reach us just about any time any where. We have the technology that makes communication more convenient than we could have imagined 35 years ago when the first cell phone debuted. But are we really more connected? Are we really listening to each other? Are we really listening to God?

Today’s scripture lessons contain stories of call. No, not cell phone calls, but divine calls. God reaches out and calls people to action.

From the Old Testament lesson, comes the call story of little Samuel. This boy is a miracle baby. His parents waited so long for him, wondering if he’d ever show up. When he does, they are so pleased with God’s gift that they dedicate him to service in the Temple. It is here, in the Temple, that Samuel hears God’s voice.

God calls him by name: “Samuel, Samuel!”

The boy replies, “Here I am. You called me.” But what the child does not realize, at first, is that the voice is God’s. He thinks it is the voice of his sleeping mentor, Eli. I’m sure it would take you by surprise, too, if you heard God calling your name in the night. It is not always easy to discern the voice of God.

Eli helps Samuel to understand that this quiet, persistent call is coming from God. Here in this dark place, God has chosen to show up and to stir Samuel to action—action that will renew the whole nation.

Then in the Gospel lesson, we hear the call of Nathaniel. Philip invites him to follow the one from Nazareth.

“Nazareth?” Nathaniel protests, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Again, the divine call does not meet with people’s expectations. Nathaniel has all kinds of prejudices against Nazareth and is unable to believe that the Savior could be hiding out in such a loathsome town. Fortunately, Philip presses him to check it out anyway.

“Come and see!” he urges.

And sure enough, Nathaniel comes and sees and is transformed by the call of Jesus.

So the question for us to look at upon hearing these stories, is how might God be calling you and me? This call is not ordinarily as obvious as a cell phone call or the callings Samuel and Nathaniel experienced. But as baptized children of God, we can be sure the call is being issued nevertheless. In a still, small voice, God is calling us to an important mission.

The Psalmist understands this intimately. In today’s reading, we heard these amazing words:

“O LORD, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me…. For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.” (Psalm 139:1-5, 13-14, NRSV)

During my sister’s first pregnancy, I read that the ancients used to acknowledge the sacred state of maternity by giving pregnant women amulets to wear—little pendants with important verses of scripture. They believed in the importance of keeping scripture ever a part of their lives by having it physically manifest on their person, especially when the miracle of new life was happening within. So I went to the mall and picked out a silver pendant for my sister, upon which I had them engrave part of verse 14: “You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Kathy wore it throughout both of her pregnancies as a constant reminder of the incredible work that God was doing to create her children.

Do we recognize just how fearfully and wonderfully each one of us was made? Do we perceive the ever present hand of God in our lives—who was with us from the time before we were born? No matter what we are going through, we can be assured of the powerful presence of the Lord. We can hold fast to the knowledge that we are a wonderful work of God who is loved more than we could ever fathom.

And this God calls to us. When we sit down and when we rise up, when we go to the grocery store and when we shovel the walk, when we watch tv and even when we do a crossword puzzle. Wherever we go, whatever we do, regardless of how mundane it may seem, God is with us and every moment is sacred.

Yet we toss this sacredness aside when we fail to listen to God’s call. We cannot afford to do this because God has plans for our lives—exciting plans to give our lives meaning and purpose. At the end of Jesus’ conversation with Nathaniel, he says “you will see heaven open and God’s angels ascending and descending.”

This truth is artistically depicted on the front of the cathedral of Bath, England. I was so impressed by it when I saw it my junior year of college. There are stone carvings of two giant ladders that stretch from the top of the front doors to the roof. There are angels all over the ladder. At first glance they look very heavenly and serious, but upon closer inspection you can see some humorous variations. Some are contentiously climbing upward, while others are tenuously looking over their shoulder as if looking for reassurance that they’re doing it right. And there are some who look downright lost, discombobulated, upside down and barely hanging on to the ladder by their toes.

You see, those angels ascending and descending that Jesus talks about are you and me. We are the ones called to be the bridge—to bring the joys of heaven to earth by our Spirit-filled living. That’s our calling. God wants us to be like Philip and bring others to Christ. We are expected to say “come and see,” not just with our words but with all of our lives.

But like the angels on the Bath cathedral, we don’t always get it right. Some days we don’t feel like we’re good mentor for others—we feel like we’re just hanging on to the Christian life by our toes. Still, God continues to call us to this mission. We are fearfully and wonderfully made and not only that, we are assisted by the Holy Spirit. We CAN do it! We ARE connected. God calls us day and night—and this is a call we don’t even need battery power to receive.

And so as we hear God's call today, may we answer enthusiastically answer with Samuel, “Here I am. You called me.”

© 2009 Rev. Laura E. Gentry

GOD'S FAVORITE CHILD

September 21, 2008
By Pastor Laura Gentry

Jonah 3:10-4:11

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.... But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." And the LORD said, "Is it right for you to be angry?" Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city. The LORD God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, "It is better for me to die than to live." But God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?" And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die." Then the LORD said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?" (NRSV)


From time to time, I have been accused of having a flair for the dramatic. I have no idea how this could be but that’s what they say. Because of this, I can certainly relate to the Biblical character of Jonah. More than anything else, he seems to have a flair for the dramatic—in a way that would put my dramatic antics to shame.

In today’s passage, we hear how Jonah’s big mission is accomplished: the Ninevites turn from their wicked ways and repent, but that's not good news to Jonah. He spitefully says, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Better to die than to live just because God wants to forgive a repentant city? Scholars tell us that Jonah's not just being dramatic in asking for death; he is saying that he believes he has participated in an act of injustice and is worthy of the death sentence. It is not fair that this horrible city should be spared from punishment. Simply not fair!

And then when Jonah’s beloved little bush dies at the teeth of a worm appointed by the Lord and he again wails out: “It is better for me to die than to live!” Hey, my house plants die all the time and you don’t see me going around shouting: “It is better for me to die than to live!” And God responds to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” Jonah answers, “Yes, angry enough to die.” I want to die! I want to die!

How easy it is to look at Jonah and think what a ridiculous, overly dramatic prophet he was and just laugh. How hard it is to see ourselves in Jonah—to see how we too, would rather God NOT have mercy on just any old body. We wish God’s mercy was more selective. We want to think that we who deserve it are more loved by God.

That's Jonah's mistake. He is a sinner—he has been given God's mercy. He has been saved by the grace of God, but he appears to have totally forgotten that. So when God tells him that he is called to be a prophet and he must go and tell the Ninevites to repent or be destroyed, he protests. Now Ninevah is a nasty city. There are all kinds of immoral and despicable things going on there. But Jonah knows that God is merciful—so that is his first excuse out of his mouth. Oh no, God, you are merciful and you'll probably forgive those terrible Ninevites. So I don’t want to go. I'm not going to tell them to repent because I don't want them getting any of your mercy. I want to be your favorite, not them!

And of course, that's just what God does in the end. God's mercy spreads over all those undeserving people when they repent and it gripes Jonah so much that he actually wants to die because it is so grossly unfair!

And that's the same thing that the workers in the vineyard cry in our Gospel text for today. They show up and they work hard all day long in the hot sun and then some Johnny-come-latelies show up at the very end of the day and yet the master pays them all for a full day of work anyway! Shouldn’t the ones who worked all day get paid more? Not fair!

This kind of thing happens in congregational life all the time. First of all, you have the loyal churchgoers who have been faithful to their congregation and faithful to God for years—they’ve served on council, taught Sunday School, volunteered to help with all kinds of tasks, made jello for countless potlucks and the list goes on and on. And then when newcomers enter the picture, the pastor often welcomes them right on in. Other parishioners welcome them, too. Sometimes, they even get into church leadership positions in their first year or two! And then those faithful folks who have been there forever can get bent out of shape about it. This is OUR church, they protest. How dare these new people come in and take over? How dare they enjoy the same benefits of this Christian community that we do? That's not fair!

Fairness, yes this is the big question that these two scripture lessons bring up for us. How in the world are we going to cope with a God who chooses to be more merciful than fair? There’s no getting around it because that is who God is and who God will continue to be. God is endlessly full of grace and mercy and for reasons we’ll never comprehend, God wants to bestow this grace and mercy on all humankind—not just us. Puzzling, isn’t it?

But God works out this unfairness in a pretty amazing way. Let me tell you a a story. An elderly woman once told me about growing up the oldest of four children. “My mother was always very fair,” she said. “She didn't play favorites. We always knew that we could count on her to be fair. But my father—well, that was another story. The truth is, I grew up secure in the knowledge that I was ‘Daddy's favorite.’ I was the oldest, after all, and the only girl until my sister came along when I was thirteen. I figured it wasn't hurting anybody; my father loved all his children, and probably they never even knew that I was his favorite. But I knew—and that was enough for me.”

“But then one day," she continued, “after I was grown and married and a mother myself, I fell into conversation with my brothers and sisters, and I was surprised and a little bemused to learn that each of them had also grown up with that same unspoken conviction. Each of us had always felt sure that he or she was ‘Daddy's favorite.’ How my father accomplished that, I'll never know!”

In the Lord’s prayer, we pray, “thy kingdom come.” We say we want God’s reign to come here on earth, but in our hearts, do we really want it? What if God's kingdom is not about competition? What if “fair” isn't even a word that can be used in God's kingdom, because in that kingdom each and every one of us is “God’s favorite child”? What if everybody gets the best seat in God's kingdom because we all get the place that is prepared especially for us? What if the kingdom is a place where we don't get what we deserve (which is a good thing), but rather what our loving Father wants to give us? What if God's infinite love and grace and mercy is poured out on each of us and no matter how much everybody else gets, there is still plenty for me? If that is the case, we can’t be likeJonah—protesting God’s unfairness, now can we?

This is the kind of kingdom for which we pray, “thy kingdom come,” and so like Jonah, it is up to us to help make it happen—to proclaim the wideness of God’s mercy to all people and to zealously welcome newcomers regardless of how worthy they appear to us! It is up to us to forgive others their sins, realizing we have all been forgiven by God. It’s up to us to stop worrying about whether or not we are getting our fair share and, instead, recognize each of our brothers and sisters as God's favorite child, too. We must make ourselves available to be the instruments of God's love to these other children of God. We must open our ears to God and be willing to act upon what we hear. That is what will make God’s wonderful kingdom come here on earth.

Indeed, the story of Jonah teaches us that God’s favoritism includes everyone and we are not to begrudge God of giving that grace and mercy to all people. In fact, we cannot stand in the way, no matter how much of a flair for the dramatic we may possess. And not only are we not to stand in the way, we are called to help God’s kingdom come.

Psalm 40 verse one says: “You have put a new song in my heart! Many will see it and fear and will trust in the Lord.” This day, God is singing to you. There is a new song in your heart—a song of grace and freedom, a song of love that was given to you by our Savior Jesus Christ: You are God’s favorite child...and, remarkably, so is everyone else! Therefore, we simply must proclaim this good news to everyone—and stop keeping it under wraps!

Let us pray:
Oh help us Holy God. May your kingdom of love and mercy come to our earth. Help us to kick our Jonah-like pride and recognize that we do not deserve your love more than anyone else. In humility, help us to freely share your mercy with others that you may be worshipped in all the earth. Through your son, our savior we pray. Amen.


© 2008 Laura Gentry

FORGIVING FOR FREEDOM

September 14, 2008
By Pastor Laura Gentry

Matthew 18:21-35

Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

During the Holocaust, Eva Mozes Kor and her twin sister, Miriam, were selected for a series of horrifying genetic experiments at the hands of the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele—who became known as the angel of death. Ironically, because of these experiments, the girls were able to survive Auschwitz even though much of their family did not. In a quest to heal her wounds, Eva returned to  Auschwitz for the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the camps in 1995, and on that occasion she did the unthinkable. She read aloud her personal "official declaration of amnesty" to Mengele and the Nazis. She explained that to be liberated from the Nazis was not enough; she needed to be released from the pain of the past. To extend forgiveness without any prerequisites required of the perpetrators, said Eva, was an "act of self-healing." Through the act of "forgiving your worst enemy" Eva said that she experienced "the feeling of complete freedom from pain."

Could you offer such forgiveness? Most people have not been wronged to the extent of the victims of the Holocost, but everyone has been wronged. Everyone has opportunities for forgiveness. Lots of people end up on our “to-forgive” list: bosses, co-workers, teachers, friends, children, spouses and even people we haven’t met personally but whose decisions can harm us, like policy makers and other politicians.

But how much should we forgive? Peter thought this was an important question and so in today’s Gospel, he poses it to Jesus: Should I forgive someone more than once? What about seven times? That sounds like quite a lot. Generous enough? Nope. Jesus astonishes him by saying “No, not seven times, but I tell you seventy-seven times!”

Seventy seven times I’m supposed to forgive the same person? This is outrageous when you think about it. Simply outrageous! This seems like license for other people to sin against us. Wouldn’t we just become a doormat if we forgave at this radical rate? I mean, Jesus can’t be serious, can he?

Well, to show Peter how serious he is about this answer, he launches into an outlandish parable about an unmerciful servant. This servant received forgiveness for his gigantic debt, but he turns around and offers no mercy to a person who owes him a relatively small sum. He is so unmerciful, in fact, that he throws the man into prison.

The point is that God has forgiven us all our sins—the sins of the past as well as the sins we have yet to commit. God has forgiven each one of us such a vast amount of wrong-doing that it is incomprehensible. Therefore, we are obligated to pass the forgiveness along to others. Paul later puts it sucintly in his letter to the Christians at Ephesus to, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.”

This is a must for the Christian. In fact, if we do not practice forgiveness, we actually limit God’s ability to forgive us. St. John of the Cross, a 16th Century Carmelite mystic, wrote that “Attachment to a hurt arising from a past event blocks the inflow of hope into our lives.” If we keep a hold of our grudge and refuse to forgive, we actually keep God’s love out of our hearts. We block the inflow of hope into our lives.

Frederic Luskin, co-founder of Stanford University's "Forgiveness Project," says that forgiveness "reduces anger, hurt, depression and stress and leads to greater feelings of optimism, hope, compassion and self confidence." And according to the results of the Human Development Study Group at the University of Madison, Wisconsin, forgiveness leads to improved physical and mental health as well as better relationships. Indeed, scientists have proven what Jesus taught so many years ago: forgiveness is necessary for us to be healthy and happy.

Even though we know this is true, forgiveness is hard. Let’s admit it. I cannot count how many times I’ve heard people say, “But I just can’t forgive.” Even if we want to forgive, we sometimes feel powerless to actually do so. Yet there are amazing stories of forgiveness, like Eva Kor’s who forgave the Nazis who killed her family and the doctor who caused her such pain. We know it is possible to forgive. Jesus told us that God wants us to forgive. But how?

In the book Forgiveness Is a Choice, Robert D. Enright outlines a 4 stage process for forgiving. This method is the first scientifically proven forgiveness program in the country. Enright demonstrates how forgiveness, approached in the correct manner, benefits the forgiver even more than the forgiven. He explains that forgiveness does not mean accepting continued abuse or even reconciling with the offender. Rather, by giving the gift of forgiveness, readers are encouraged to confront and let go of their pain in order to regain their lives.

The first phase of forgiveness, according to Enright, is uncovering your anger. Have you faced your anger? Archbishop Desmond Tutu, retired Anglican bishop of South Africa and formerly chairman of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, says “to forgive is a process that does not exclude hate and anger. These emotions are all part of being human.” Tutu continues, “You should never hate yourself for hating others who do terrible things; the depth of your love is shown by the extent of your anger.”

Has your anger affected your health? You can’t stay healthy if you’ve got bottled up anger. Are you obsessed with the injury or the offender? Has the injury changed your life or your worldview? Admitting your anger and letting this emotion be what it is—this is the vital first step toward forgiveness.

The second phase is deciding to forgive. Looking at Jesus’ mandate to forgive can help you make the decision to forgive. Looking at how not forgiving has not worked can also help you come to that conclusion. You must be willing to begin the healing process by making this vital decision. Remember that you don’t have to wait until you feel like forgiving. You don’t have to warm and fuzzy feelings about the offender. In fact, you can still be feeling great pangs of anger towards them. But if you make the decision to forgive, the process will continue forward.

The third phase is working on forgiveness. Work on your compassion. Work on your inner pain. Then act. Do an act of kindness toward the offender, or to honor your decision. Act as if your forgiveness has already occured and this will help bring your intention into reality.

The fourth and final phase is discovering release from your emotional prison. In the case of Eva Kor, she found immense release through forgiveness and finally began to live. Others were highly critical of her decision to forgive—stating that to forgive the Nazis would be to condone a terrible evil and to open the door to future tragedy. Yet through her faith and through her understanding of her deep need to forgive, she found the power to forgive and this gave her ultimate emotional freedom. This really takes a leap of faith. Until you forgive, you cannot know the extent of healing it will bring you. But when this release is accomplished, the process of forgiveness is completed.

Feeling your anger, deciding to forgive, working on forgiveness, and then finding release—these are phases of forgiveness, which have offered a reliable path to freedom for many.

The fact is, we’ve been forgiven for more than we can even imagine. We are saved entirely by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, not by any of our own doing. And so we are obligated. We are duty-bound to pass on this forgiveness to our brothers and sisters. Just as there is no limit to God’s forgiveness of us, there should be no limit to our forgiveness of others. Amen.

© 2008 Laura Gentry