THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST                   June 6, 2010
I Kings 17:17-24                 Galatians 1:11-24                    Luke 7:11-17

                                             “The Power of Life”

          The news broke on the 20th of May.  Scientists had taken a step toward what could be called “man-made life.”  The headline on the Huffington Post website read: "Artificial Life Boots Up: Scientists Unveil Manmade DNA.”  The article begins: Scientists announced a bold step Thursday in the enduring quest to create artificial life. They've produced a living cell powered by manmade DNA.
          While such work can evoke images of Frankenstein-like scientific tinkering, it also is exciting hopes that it could eventually lead to new fuels, better ways to clean polluted water, faster vaccine production and more.
          Is it really an artificial life form?  The inventors call it the world's first synthetic cell, although this initial step is more a re-creation of existing life – changing one simple type of bacterium into another – than a built-from-scratch kind.
          In one sense, this has been the greatest quest in human history. Can human beings, by their own knowledge, wisdom, and technological expertise create life?  It has been the stuff of science fiction for generations.  Have we reached the place where it becomes the stuff of science fact?
          Human life has enourmous value – that goes without saying, or at least it should.  There are aspects of our modern world and what has become scientifically and medically possible that have served to lessen that intrinsic value.  By abortion we place the life of the unborn at a lower level of importance, subject to the will of the mother or of someone else in authority.  By euthanasia we place the life of the very old or the chronically ill or disabled at a lower level of importance, subject to the society’s imposed value or lack of value.
          As people of faith, we understand that human life has value no matter what.  Each and every human being has been and is created in the image of the God who loves us all.  Each and every human being has been and is loved by God to the extent that God sent his only Son to be one of us, to take on our form and our flesh, and to die for us that we might have life beyond this earthly life.
          Jesus himself shows us that he understands the importance, the value of this life in that he took miraculous action to save life, to heal and restore life, and even to raise the dead.  We have one of those stories before us as our Gospel reading – a widow’s only son had died.  Jesus happened to come along the funeral procession and his heart went out to her with compassion and mercy. Jesus stopped the procession and dared to touch the dead man’s body (there more than likely wasn’t a coffin as we would understand it).  He gave a word of command and the dead man sat up.
         We know the story of Jesus raising his good friend Lazarus.  He raised the young daughter of Jairus.  By the power of God over death Jesus was able to bring joy to those in deep grief, restoring to them their loved ones, but not always and not forever.  Jesus did not bring an end to dying, did he?  He did not heal every one.  There were still blind, deaf, and crippled people in Galilee even after his ministry.  He did not raise all the dead either. 
          What, then, is the message?  Sickness and disability are still real in this world.  Death is still real in this world.  As much value as human life has here, it is not the ultimate value.  The ministry of Jesus shows us this as well.
          The same science that is, perhaps, on the verge of creating some form of artificial life, has done amazing things to extend human life.  Modern medical science, technology, and medicines have pushed out life expectancy to lengths previously unimagined.  We are now able to imagine a day when living to 100 years and even older will be almost commonplace.
          But, we now have to ask, is anything and everything that extends human life necessarily a good thing?  Thursday morning at Bible study we laughed at the thought of having our bodies frozen so that we can be thawed some time in the future when whatever would have killed us can be fixed or cured.  We know that is being done and yet we wonder what the hope is that makes it seem worth doing.  Is anything that might extend our human life the right choice?
          No matter how far medical science and knowledge expands and how great our life expenctancy grows, the power of life and death will continue to elude us.  We are not the creator but merely the creatures.  As long as we fool ourselves into thinking that this life is always the final value we will be heading in the wrong direction.
          The widow’s son raised in the story today would die again, as would Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus.  As important as this life is, and it is important, we are all going to die at some point.  THAT’s what we need to wrestle with.  THAT’s what we need to come to grips with if we are going to come up with what is truly of ultimate value.  When this life is over, and that day is surely coming, we will need to deal with the realities of eternity.
          The apostle Paul knew this so well; that we debated with himself about which was more important – going to be with the Lord or continuing his life and ministry here.  As we trust in the good news of God’s saving love in Jesus Christ, the end of this physical human life is no longer something to be feared.  The One who created us and has given us such a good and blessed life here has something even better in store for us in eternity, in the Kingdom of God.  Physical death is not the end.  It does not and will not have the last word over us.  The power of sin and death has been conquered by the one who was crucified and then raised from the dead never to die again. 
          As we read and hear the stories of Jesus’ power over death, it should give us a confidence and an assurance that the One who loves us will not abandon us to the grave when our time comes.  The God we worship, the God in whom we trust is the One with the power of life – the power over death.  There is no need to desperately cling to this life as if this life is all that matters, all that really is.  There is a place prepared for us, a life to be lived in the intimate presence of God. 
          God has, in fact, given us incredible minds that have made amazing things possible, things that have advanced knowledge and made life both longer and better.  Diseases have been wiped from the earth.  People are able to beat cancers that just a generation ago were considered fatal.  This is just part of the blessing God has given, but the real gift, the real blessing is knowing what life is to be lived for and that when death comes, the One with the Power of life will welcome us into his eternal presence.  Be not afraid.  Death has no real power.  The victory is ours in Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

Soli Deo Gloria

THE DAY OF PENTECOST                                        May 23, 2010
Genesis 11:1-9              Acts 2:1-21              John 14:8-17. 25-27

                              “The Words of My Mouth”

           Every year on the Day of Pentecost we celebrate the Rite of Confirmation.  In my ten years here at Zion’s there have been three years in which, for some pretty good reasons, it didn’t happen.  Even so it has become our tradition, our routine.  There are other times in the year when churches celebrate Confirmation but Pentecost might be the most common, the most popular. 
           Try as you might, you won’t find anything like Confirmation in the Bible.  It is a tradition, a practice the church developed centuries later as infant baptism became more common. There was a time before all of this when young people like these four and even older adults were candidates for baptism rather than Confirmation. The Gospel was being preached in a world that did not know Christ.  Those adults who came to believe were baptized at that point.  Luke tells us in the Book of Acts that in some cases entire households were baptized when the head of the household came to faith.  We heard a couple of those stories the last two weeks – the stories of Lydia and the Philippian jailer. 
           Infant baptism developed much later as the Church became more settled, more stable; when new generations of young children were born into the communion and fellowship of the church and were raised with the teaching of the Scriptures and the faith and values of the Church as their basic way of life.  These children were not going to be converted from some other religion, some other confession of faith and way of life.  For that reason, the infant children of active Christian families became candidates for baptism.  In the sacrament God’s grace claimed them as his beloved children even before they were old enough to grasp what was going on. For them, a teaching ministry was necessary, both from their parents and from the local congregation.  This teaching ministry was designed to bring them to a place where they could, on their own, affirm the relationship God has established with them in their baptism.  That, in a nut shell, is the historic origin of Confirmation.
          Hear these words from the Apostle Paul written to the church at Rome (from the 10th chapter):  If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  This might be seen as a Biblical foundation for Confirmation. 
           It is, basically, what these four young people have been preparing for over the last two school years.  In regular worship, in Sunday School, and in Catechetical class, we have sought to instill in them what it is the church believes and how it is the church lives.  Here, this morning, they will declare to God and to us, their church family, that they desire to continue in the relationship they have with God and in the relationship they have with us, their church.  It is about confessing with your mouth and believing in your heart those basic things that the Church of Christ has confessed and believed for two thousand years: that Jesus is Lord and that God raised the crucified Jesus from death.
           Over the years there have been times when certain pastors and congregations have had their confirmands write their own personal confessions of faith unique to them.  I’ve never bought into that concept.  As important as it is that our young people make the faith of the church their own, what really matters is that what they believe is “the old, old story of Jesus and his love” as the classic old hymn says.  This is no place for a new, unique, and original statement of faith.  It is the right place and the right time for the old classic statement of faith – the Apostles’ Creed and our four confirmands will declare their faith in those old words that have stood the test of time.
           What is important is that the old, old story remain relevant to this generation in its vocabulary and the melody to which they will sing it today.  Every confirmation class is different and this one is no exception.  These four young people came together to form what might be among the most unique classes I’ve ever had.  Some of you have happened by on a Sunday after Sunday School as we were getting set for catechetical class.  Some of you may have been surprised, even shocked to hear the kind of music we’ve listened to before and, sometimes, even during class – some hard rock, even some heavy metal, and once in a while some rap and hip-hop – all of it, mind you, sung and played by committed Christians using these new and different melodies to lift up the name of Jesus Christ as Lord. It’s the same mes-sage, the same old, old story of the crucified and risen Jesus as Lord and Savior and THAT is what matters most of all.
           Let me tell you something that you already know.  Every year I hear the same lament after we celebrate confirmation.  The school year is going to be over and it will be summer.  Attendance kind of slides down and we just don’t expect everybody to be here every Sunday but then it will be September, school will be back in session, and we will look around and wonder where the confirmands went – not just these four but the four from a year ago and the seven before them and the six before them.  Our young people are NOT just the church of tomorrow.  They are, they need to be an important part of the church right here and now, but many of them simply aren’t here.  They got confirmed.  They confessed their faith.  They told us they believe what we believe but they have chosen not to be here on any kind of regular basis.  Now, of course, some of them are.  Some of them ARE here worshiping with us nearly every Sunday and we need to be happy about that.  But we can’t simply complain that the others aren’t here without seriously asking why that might be.
           What have I done to keep them active?  What have you done?  There’s plenty of responsibility to go around and the young people themselves bear a significant share of it, to be sure, but not the whole load.  Are we, as a church, doing everything possible to program and plan things they will be interested in?  Have we even asked them what that might be?
           The status quo is what so many of us grew up with.  For many of us the status quo is simply what church always was and still is – or at least that’s the way we like it best.  We remember full churches and the old familiar hymns and the liturgies out of the Reformed or the Lutheran hymnals from way back in the 50’s.  We remember a world that simply doesn’t exist any more.
           At the beginning of this sermon I mentioned that the early church was preaching the Gospel to a world that had never heard of Jesus before – the world that required the baptism of adults as they came to faith from other world-views and religious traditions.  As I see the world today, it’s getting more and more like the world at the time of the early church.  The Christian message is becoming a minority faith, even in a world that claims in a large majority to believe in God.  People want some kind of spirituality but they think the Christian church is old, tired, and worn out and has nothing to offer them today.
           We’re Confirming four of our young people this morning in the historic faith of the Christian Church, the faith of the Apostles’ Creed, the Reformation traditions of the 16th century, and this congregation going all the way back to before the American revolution.  But the calendar tells us that we’re in the 21st century and we need to be the church in a 21st century way, even as we confess that the message hasn’t changed and isn’t changing. 
           As we look at Lauren, Karina, Emmeline, and Chad this morning, they are looking to us.  We’re in this thing together and we need to get it right.  We need to make the old story, the old timeless faith relevant in 2010 and on.  We can’t do it alone and we don’t have to.  God continues to pour out his Spirit on his people, on those who believe in Jesus. As we look to him, God will guide us forward. AMEN.

Soli Deo Gloria

THE SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER                               May 16, 2010
Acts 16:16-34      Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21       John 17:20-26

                                          “My Chains are Gone!”

           Chris Tomlin, one of the most popular singer, songwriter, worship leaders in the church today was asked to do something that seemed unthinkable, impossible.  He couldn’t believe they actually wanted him to do it, but they did.  The production team that was working on the film, Amazing Grace, a few years ago wanted him to add a chorus to what just might be the most well-known, most popular hymn in the history of the Christian church around the world.
          How many of you are familiar with the film?  For those who aren’t, it isn’t a film about the hymn or about John Newton, the 18th century British pastor who wrote the hymn – although Newton does play a very major role in the story.  The film is really about a man by the name of William Wilberforce who was a member of the British Parliament and a family friend of Newton.  The film centers on the ultimately successful work of ending the slave trade between Africa, America, and England.
          The rather ironic thing is that John Newton, the pastor who wrote Amazing Grace, was in his earlier life an active part of the slave trade.  He worked rather successfully as the captain of a slave ship for a number of years before coming to faith in Christ and realizing what an awful and sinful work he had been a part of.
         When Newton wrote the opening stanza of the hymn he wasn’t just making it up in his mind.  He wasn’t getting overly spiritual.  He was writing his life story: 

Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see.

            So, that’s the background.  That’s the back story that brought the producers of the film to Chris Tomlin, asking him to write new words, a new chorus for a new version of the hymn that would be part of the film.  He talks about how he sweated this job out; how he prayed about it seeking some kind of inspiration for the task.  The Lord blessed him, as he so often has, and the church has again been blessed as a result.  Some of you know this version.  It became a bit of a Christian radio hit when it first came out.  Tomlin’s chorus is this:

My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace.

            This morning we heard a story from the 16th chapter of Acts that fits so well with this topic, with God’s amazing grace that looses all of the chains that bind us in life.
            We’re still in Philippi with Paul, as we were last week as we heard the story of Lydia’s conversion.  The ministry of Paul and Silas was so very successful that it got them into trouble with the locals who were not interested in the message of Jesus.  As you heard, Paul cast out a demon from a girl who had been a fortune teller and who had made money for her owners.  When Paul’s ministry cut off their livelihood they had Paul and Silas arrested and thrown into prison.  As Luke tells us, they were stripped, severely beaten and flogged, thrown into prison with their feet securely fastened in the stocks.
            What do you imagine they might have been doing through the middle of the night?  Of course, they were praying and singing hymns to God.  An earthquake hits, everything is shaken, the prison doors are opened, and all the prisoners’ chains come loose.  That’s the worst possible news for the jailer.  He’s responsible for each and every prisoner.  If any escape, his neck will on the chopping block for sure.  In the darkness and chaos, that is his certain fear and, so, he is about to take his own life when Paul calls out that everyone is still there.
            The jailer had been there through the night.  He had heard the believers praying and singing.  His fear in this chaotic moment has him thinking about all he has heard about this Jesus. He calls for lights and has Paul and Silas brought to him and he asks them the most im- portent he will ever ask – in truth, the most important question any of us will ever ask – What must I do to be saved?
            The answer is simple, isn’t it?  The answer is simple and it is the reason we are gathered here in this place this morning.  Paul and Silas told him, Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.  They preached the truth of the Gospel to him, all that God has done for him, for the whole world, in Jesus Christ.  Luke tells us that the jailer and his whole household were baptized that very night.  He was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God – he and his whole family.

Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see.
My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace.

            It is amazing to think about these two men on that day in Philippi; two men who couldn’t possibly have been more different: Paul a Jew, the jailer a Gentile; Paul a prisoner in chains while the jailer was free and in control.  And yet we see in the story that there was an even more striking spiritual difference.  While Paul was the one who had been flogged and locked away, he was the free man.  He had come to know the truth and the truth of God’s love in the crucified and risen Jesus had set him free; so free that chains and bars could not stifle his spirit.  The jailer on the other hand seemed to be the free man, the one with power and authority, but how free was he?  His life was so filled with fear that he was ready to take his own life rather than face those in authority over him.  He was physically free and yet he had no peace of mind and heart, no sense of real security in his life.  Not, at least, until that night when he heard the good news and came to believe.
            How free are you?  We live in a land where freedom seems to be the ultimate value – freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion.  We understand that we have rights that others cannot take from us.  Our culture tells us that no one can tell us who we can be or what we can or cannot do.  That’s the kind of freedom we hold and cherish, right?
            But are we free from fear?  How secure are you in life?  The Bible tells us that there are chains we cannot see, that we are in bondage to forces beyond our understanding.  As human beings we are chained by sin, slaves to sin and especially to death, and that fills people with fear beyond their ability to handle it. 
            In Christ our chains are gone, we have been set free.  All our fears are washed away and there is a peace and joy that passes human understanding – even as we face death.
            You’re here.  You know the idea, but do you really?  You know the story but do you know the experience of freedom and real peace and security?  We live in a world of slavery and bondage to so many false gods and idols – money, success, beauty, popularity, and all the rest.  Our culture is obsessed with them all and it is a slavery, a real slavery.  Only in Christ will the chains come loose and the prison doors get opened.  I call on each one of you to recommit your lives to Christ and really know this freedom that the world has not experienced.  It is a gift that will change lives, that will change the world.  it is a gift from God to you.  It is a gift that we, that the church has been given that, with it, we might change the lives of those around us.  AMEN.

Soli Deo Gloria