January 9, 2005  Rev. Dr. Brian Jensen     

THE REST OF THE STORY   Scripture:  Matthew 3:13-17

     Besides, perhaps, Garrison Keillor, is there a better story teller in America today than Paul Harvey?  I just love it when Paul Harvey closes one of his patented stories with these eight words: Now you know the rest of the story!  After impacting us with one of his powerful stories, Paul Harvey then closes quickly by saying, “Good day.”

     One of my favorite Paul Harvey stories is the story of a mischievous five-year-old boy named Alfie.  Apparently, five-year-old Alfie had gotten into some kind of trouble.  So his father quickly scribbled a note and told little Alfie to take the note down to the police station.  So, five-year-old Alfie did as he was told.  He donned his coat and hat and he skipped the two or three blocks down to the police station.  He handed the note to the sergeant behind the desk.  The sergeant read the note, chuckled to himself, and said to little Alfie, “Come with me.”  He led little Alfie down a long corridor of jail cells filled with criminals of every kind.  When they reached the end of the corridor, they came to an empty jail cell.  The police sergeant said, “Step inside please.”  When little Alfie did, the police sergeant slammed the cell door shut, then quickly made his way back up the corridor.  Five-year-old Alfie was terrified!  Can you imagine what that must have been like for a five-year-old boy?  Finally, after a couple of hours, Alfie’s father came to rescue him.  As the police sergeant opened the jail cell door, Alfie’s father said to him, “This is what happens to bad little boys.”  Five-year-old Alfie never forgot the terror he felt that day.  In fact, as an adult, he learned to depict that terror quite well.  For you see, five-year-old Alfie grew up to be the man we know as Alfred Hitchcock.  In the haunting words of the one and only Paul Harvey, “Now you know the rest of the story!”

     The story I read from the gospel according to Matthew is the story of Jesus’ baptism.  Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized in the River Jordan.  After he was dunked, he came up out of the water.  And immediately the heavens were opened and the Spirit of God descended upon him like a dove.  And a voice from heaven boomed, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”  What a wonderful story!  If Jesus had any doubts as to who he really was, all questions were answered now.  Jesus was the Son of God.  It was confirmed by the voice of God and by his reception of the Holy Spirit.  Yet look what his reception of the Holy Spirit led him to do.  Immediately he was led into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights, and he was tempted by the devil.  His ministry led him into constant conflict with the religious leaders of his day.  He was utterly betrayed by one of his closest friends.  And he ultimately suffered a horrible death.  In the haunting words of the one and only Paul Harvey, “Now you know the rest of the story!”

     We still practice the sacrament of baptism in the church today.  What does the sacrament of baptism mean for us today?  Baptism basically symbolizes three things.  Number one, we are symbolically cleansed of sin.  Number two, it symbolizes our admission into the church universal.  And number three, it symbolizes our reception of the Holy Spirit.  We are quite pleased to receive the first two gifts of baptism, but how comfortable are we with the third?  For you see, the first two elements mean that our sin is no longer counted against us, and now we have the hope of life everlasting.  But it’s that third element of baptism that trips us up.  For in the receiving of the Holy Spirit, we are thus obligated to a life of service and sacrifice.  We are “commissioned,” as it were, in service to God.  How comfortable are we really with that? 

     I recently read a wonderful article in The Tryon Trumpet, the newsletter of the Tryon Presbyterian Church in Tryon, North Carolina.  It was written by none other than David Hosick.  So if it was written by David Hosick, you know it was substantive and well documented!  He begins by discussing an article in a 2002 British tabloid.  The headline read, “Christianity Has About Expired in the United Kingdom.”  He notes that such could be said about much of Europe.  Then he talks about research in Canada that indicates that a generation of Canadians growing to adulthood today is no longer familiar with the stories of the Bible.  They don’t know the story of Moses and the Exodus, or what the Ten Commandments are all about.  They may know who Jesus was, but they couldn’t tell you the story of the Prodigal Son or the Good Samaritan.  A generation of Canadians, he says, has grown to adulthood with no knowledge of the Bible or of Jesus Christ.  Then he notes how the same thing appears to be happening in the United States today.  We no longer live in a Christian society.  Mainline churches all across the country are dying.  Then he points out what seems to be working in America today.  What works in America today is the “prosperity” gospel.  The prosperity gospel talks about everything God has to give you, and nothing of the responsibility you have to God.  In other words, it focuses on the first two elements of baptism: your cleansing from sin and your glorious heavenly reward.  Yet it fails to talk about the responsibility we have in receiving the Holy Spirit.  So says David Hosick.

     You think he’s overstated things a bit?  Let me tell you this.  I recently encountered an article written by a college professor at a well-known university.  He teaches young people who are the beneficiaries of the sacrifices of peoples of days gone by…things like Affirmative Action and the women’s movement.  Addressing a class one day, he tried to find out what might stir his student’s souls – what might move them to social action.  Racial injustice?  Nobody said a word.  Gay bashing?  The class was silent.  How about the fact that forty million people in our country today are living their lives with no health insurance?  Again, the class was silent.  Finally he tried a last-ditch effort: “How do you feel about the treatment of Iraqi prisoners?”  And nobody said a word.  Finally he asked, “People, what on earth would it take to move you?”  A young lady piped up, “Well, I’d be pretty upset if somebody bombed this school.”  That’s evidence of people living in an “I” world.  As long as things go well for me, I remain totally unmoved.  That, my friends, is why the church is dying.  The church doesn’t die when people don’t know their Bible stories.  WHEN COMPASSION DIES, THE CHURCH DIES.  Write that down.  When compassion dies, the church dies.

     As you know, the region about the Indian Ocean was overwhelmed by a devastating tsunami.  Over 140,000 people have died, and many more will die of disease and hunger unless significant aid comes through.  I have been asked by a number of people to explain how God could let such a thing happen.  It’s easier to explain things like the bombing of the World Trade Center, where we can blame zealots and religious fanatics.  Yet natural disasters – things we call Acts of God – are more difficult to explain.  Perhaps it’s my job to get God off the hook.  Theologians will tell you that things like tornados and hurri-canes and tsunamis are natural outgrowths of God’s good creation.  God created weather and sometimes weather runs amuck.  But that doesn’t help much, does it?  I can’t explain why God lets things like that happen.  But what I do know is this.  Maybe it’s like the man born blind that Jesus healed.  “Why was this man born blind?” the people asked.  “Was it due to some sin he committed in the womb, or was it due to some sin of his parents?”  Jesus said, “This man was born blind that the works of God might be made manifest.”  Perhaps that’s why these bad things happen – that the works of God might be made manifest.  We must be led by the Holy Spirit, and we must be moved to acts of compassion.  Isn’t it interesting that in our community that charge is being led by a nine-year-old boy?

     Ladies and gentlemen, our baptism is our commissioning.  It promises some wonder-ful rewards.  Yet it also compels us to be led by the Spirit.  It compels us to be moved to acts of compassion.  Oh, you’ll get to heaven all right.  But the point is that you’ve got something to do while you’re here in the meantime.  Now you know the rest of the story.  Good day!  Amen.     

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January 16, 2005        Rev. Dr. Brian Jensen     

WHAT DO YOU SEEK?         Scripture:  John 1:29-42 

     Karl Barth was arguably the greatest theologian of the twentieth century.  He was the author of the Declaration of Barmen, a treatise that refuted Nazi German ideology, and can still be found in our Presbyterian Book of Confessions today, alongside other such noteworthy compositions as The Apostles’ Creed, The Nicene Creed, and The West-minster Confession of Faith.  He was the author of a 13 volume work called Church Dogmatics, which is some of the most difficult reading I have ever encountered.  It’s in my library if you don’t believe me and you want to check it out for yourselves.  Karl Barth was the father of neo-orthodox systematic theology.  Karl Barth was truly a brilliant man.  In fact, theologians joke that the reason Karl Barth died was so that God could bring him to heaven to find out more about himself.  Now don’t quote me on the year, but I think it was in 1968 that Karl Barth was in the United States to deliver a lecture series at the University of Chicago.  A reporter walked up to him and said, “Karl Barth, you are a brilliant, brilliant man.  You could have done anything with your life.  Why on earth do you choose to believe in Jesus Christ?”  I’m sure that reporter expected some long, convoluted dissertation on Christian apologetics.  Instead, Karl Barth looked at the reporter and said, “Because my mother told me so.”  Karl Barth became one of the greatest theologians the church has ever known, all because his mother told him so.  And that brings home a very important point.  If we are to become Christians ourselves, someone has to point us in the right direction.  For the most part, that begins with our parents.  One of the things that deeply disturbs me about that is that in far too many cases, it’s the mother who gets the kids up, hurries them off to Sunday School, then drags them into worship.  And all the while, the father sits at home, drinks coffee, and reads the newspaper; or maybe he’s on the golf course.  Do you know what that says to little boys?  It says that church is for women and men don’t really need all that religious stuff.  If we are to become Christians ourselves, someone has to point us in the right direction.  For most of us, that journey begins with our parents.

     In the passage I read from the gospel according to John, we see that John the Baptist had quite a flock of followers himself.  John the Baptist had disciples of his own.  Shortly after Jesus’ baptism, he was still in the vicinity.  As Jesus walked past, John said to his disciples, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”  John the Baptist pointed his followers in the direction of Jesus Christ.  In fact, Jesus drew some of his own disciples from the disciples of John, and all because John pointed them in the right direction.  If we are to become Christians, someone must point us in the right direction, right?

     Yet some leaders choose to point to none other than themselves.  I think of my old buddy Jimmy Swaggart.  I heard him preach on T.V. one time.  He said, “I don’t care what the seminarians say.  I don’t care what the other preachers say.  I don’t care what the Ph.D.s in theology say.  I preach this book,” he cries, as he holds his Bible aloft; and everyone cheers and claps and hoots and hollers.  Then he says, “You don’t need the church.  You don’t need communion.  All you need is the word of God, and I’m a gonna give it to you.”  Just keep those dollars flowing, right?  Of course, Jimmy Swaggart had a fall from grace, did he not?  That’s what happens when we set ourselves up as the Messiah.  But churches can do the very same thing.  They become institutions that try to wrap peoples’ lives up in and of themselves.  They try to get people so deeply involved merely to perpetuate the institution, and build multi-million dollar facilities while people in their own communities don’t have enough to eat.  The church is meant to point us to Jesus Christ, not to itself.  That’s why our churches have steeples.  Step outside the front of this church some time and see where the steeples point.  As long as I have breath in my body, this church will point to Jesus Christ.

     John the Baptist pointed his disciples in the direction of Jesus Christ.  When he did, two of them began to follow Jesus.  They followed him, literally – almost like stalkers!  Finally Jesus stopped, looked at them and said, “What do you seek?”  Now if you look at the text, you see that they never really answered Jesus.  Almost as if they didn’t know what to say, the said, “Rabbi, where are you staying?”  Jesus said, “Come and see.”  They went with Jesus to where he was staying and they ended up spending the night.  It was then, I suspect, that they began to have their real questions answered.

     We’re all following Jesus Christ, or we wouldn’t be here today.  What would we say to Jesus if he looked at us and said, “What do you seek?”  I think many of us would respond on a personal level.  We seek the kingdom of heaven when we die.  Or we seek to keep our kids in line, keep a good paying job, or keep our marriages intact.  I knew someone once who was a really spiritual person.  She said to me one time, “I just want peace.”  I just want peace.  A lot of us have a lot of spiritual “demons,” and we just want peace.  What would we say if Jesus asked us, “What do you seek?”  A lot of us would respond on a personal level.  We seek heaven, or we seek a comfortable life, or we just seek peace.  And that’s all right.  We all have a tendency to think of ourselves first.

     Yet what do we do when we don’t get what we want?  I’ve been begging God for 15½ months to sell a house in Ohio, and God remains mysteriously silent.  Even Christians have marriages that break.  Even Christians are diagnosed with dread diseases where the prognosis is absolutely terrifying.  Thus, faith has to do with more than mere personal satisfaction.  Faith has to do with more than meeting our personal needs.

     Ladies and gentlemen, faith ultimately seeks God.  Faith is a journey.  Sometimes the way is smooth, sometimes the way is rocky.  Yet as we seek God, we will find ourselves taking part in God’s will.  God’s will is this: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  And as we find ourselves taking part in God’s will, we will find a strange sense of fulfillment.  And that, my friends, when it comes right down to it…is what we really seek.  Amen.    

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January 23, 2005   Rev. Dr. Brian Jensen

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN  Scripture:  Matthew 4:12-23 

     The year was 1916, and American innocence was about to take a turn for the worse as the horrors of World War I began to unfold in Europe.  American poet Robert Frost         – with his typical New England charm – turned heads in a completely different direction with his poem, The Road Not Taken.  This poem meant a great deal to me as I sought to choose a direction in life.  Thus, I invite you to try to experience the poem more fully.  Close your eyes, and try to picture what Robert Frost saw on a brisk, autumn morning in a dense New England woods.  

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth. 

                Then took the other, as just as fair,

                And having perhaps the better claim,

                Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

                Though as for that, the passing there

                Had worn them really about the same. 

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back. 

                I shall be telling this with a sigh

                Somewhere ages and ages hence:

                Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

                I took the one less traveled by,

                And that has made all the difference. 

     Robert Frost died in 1963, so I cannot ask him exactly what he meant when he wrote The Road Not Taken.  Yet perhaps that’s a part of the timeless beauty of classic poetry: it can mean different things to the people who experience it.  Here’s what I think it meant to Robert Frost.

     Robert Frost was born in San Francisco in 1874.  In 1885, his father died, and his mother moved the family back to Lawrence, Massachusetts.  After graduating from high school, Robert Frost tinkered with college and earned a living as a “bobbin boy” in a wood mill, as a shoemaker, as a country school teacher, as a newspaper editor, and finally as a farmer.  He had little success getting any of his poems published.

     Then in 1912 – at the age of 38 – he sold his farm, gave up a teaching post at the New Hampshire State Normal School, and went to live in England.  There he befriended some established English poets who helped him get published, and the rest is history.  Robert Frost was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943.

     Robert Frost came to a fork in the road of his life.  He took the road less traveled by   – knowing full well there would be no turning back – and as he said in his poem, “That has made all the difference.”

     We all face forks in the road of our lives.  Do we take the path that everyone else takes – do we follow the advice of family and friends – or do we follow our hearts and take the road less traveled by?  Ah, we make our decisions knowing full well that there may be no turning back.  And as Robert Frost said, how we decide is likely to make all the difference.

     In light of that, I invite you to consider the passage we read from the gospel according to Matthew.  Jesus is just beginning his public ministry, and he’s in the process of calling disciples.  He first encounters Simon Peter and Andrew, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.  Jesus says to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  Then he encounters James and John in a boat with their father, Zebedee.  They were mending nets when Jesus called them.

     Now if we take the gospel of Matthew at face value, this is the first time that these four men had ever encountered Jesus Christ.  But if we take the gospels as a whole, we are led to believe that Peter and Andrew, James and John had actually spent a little time with Jesus.  They knew who he was and something of what he was about.  But that’s beside the point.

     Jesus called these four men – Peter and Andrew, James and John – to leave their livelihoods behind and follow.  It could not have been an easy decision for any of them.  We might well say that these four men – Peter and Andrew, James and John – had come to a fork in the road of their lives.  All four opted for the road less traveled.  All four opted to leave their day-to-day lives and follow Jesus Christ.  I think we can safely say     – in retrospect – that that made all the difference.

     Peter and Andrew, James and John became the first disciples of Jesus Christ.  Peter and Andrew, James and John formed a relationship with the Living Lord.  As Luke Timothy Johnson wrote in his book, Living Jesus, “Although the social sciences tend to treat people as problems to be solved, people are in fact best learned when they are viewed as mysteries to be experienced.”

     Jesus stood before these disciples as a mystery to be experienced, not as a problem to be solved.  They formed a relationship with him, and it followed a very basic pattern.  It began with trust.  Trust is a fundamental openness to the reality of another.  Trust, then, grew to respect.  Respect has to do with seeing the other as equally worthy as one’s self.  Then the relationship moved to attentiveness.  Attentiveness is present when we truly listen to another person.  We don’t assume to have figured them out, rather, we see them as capable of change and surprise.  A relationship grows when we meditate on the other in silence.  It’s like falling in love.  We think about that person, we replay in our minds the things they said and did in our presence…in short, we meditate in silence.  We learn of the other person through the passage of time.  Thus, patience is a necessary component in forming a relationship.  Finally, a relationship requires creative fidelity.  This is a willingness to trust, to be attentive to, and to suffer with the other…even as the other person changes.

     These disciples formed a relationship with the Living Lord.  It involved trust, respect, attentiveness, silent meditation, patience and creative fidelity.  And in the process, they truly learned who Jesus was and what their response to him should be.

     But it was different for those disciples than it is for us, wouldn’t you say?  Jesus, to them, was the Living Lord.  He was there before them in flesh and blood.  Jesus died 2000 years ago.  Jesus is not the Living Lord to us…or is he?

     Jesus died 2000 years ago.  But we believe he was raised from the dead, do we not?  Jesus is still the Living Lord.  Thus, as it was for the disciples 2000 years ago, so, too, it is for us.  Jesus is not a problem to be solved.  Jesus is a mystery to be experienced. 

     Ladies and gentlemen, listen closely.  Is Jesus the OBJECT of our faith, or is Jesus the SUBJECT of our faith?  Is Jesus the OBJECT of our faith, or is Jesus the SUBJECT of our faith?  This pulpit is an object.  It is made of wood.  It is ornately carved.  As an object, we can know everything there is to know about it, can we not?

     A human being is a subject.  We know a person is composed of flesh and blood.  We know a person is comprised of mind, body and spirit.  Yet can we know all there is to know about another person?  NO, WE CAN NOT!  A person is not a problem to be solved; a person is a mystery to be experienced.

     Jesus is alive.  Therefore, Jesus is the SUBJECT of our faith, not the object.  Jesus is not a problem to be solved; Jesus is a mystery to be experienced.  People, we are not called to “figure out” Jesus Christ.  We are called to form a relationship with him, in much the same manner as the disciples did before us.  That involves trust.  That involves respect.  That involves attentiveness.  That involves silent meditation.  That involves patience, and that involves creative fidelity.  That, my friends, is how we form a relation-ship with the Living Lord.

     Thus, we come to the proverbial “fork” in the road.  Is Jesus Christ a problem to be solved, or is Jesus Christ a mystery to be experienced?  If we take the first road – that Jesus Christ is a problem to be solved – then we can simply say, “I believe in Jesus Christ,” rest assured in our heavenly reward, and go about life as we have always known it.  But if we take the second road – that Jesus Christ is a mystery to be experienced – then we must form an ongoing relationship with him.  We must trust him to guide our lives, even when we do not see the destination.  We must respect his leadership, even when we do not understand what he’s doing.  We must be attentive to his call, even when we don’t know for sure where it will lead.  We must spend time in silence thinking about him, even when other issues are pressing all about us.  We must be patient, even when we’re in a hurry.  And we must be open to change, for relationships are in constant transition.  It’s not an easy path, and surely it’s the road LESS taken.  Yet I think you can clearly see that it’s the path Christ desires us to take.

                Two roads diverged in a wood and I –

                I took the one less traveled by,

                And that has made all the difference.  Amen.  

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January 30, 2005   Rev. Dr. Brian Jensen

BROKEN PROMISES     Scripture:  Micah 6:1-8 

     I am a Presbyterian minister.  I am a staunch advocate of what we call the Reformed tradition, and I truly believe the theology we espouse in the Presbyterian Church.  But I could just as easily have become a Baptist minister.  There is one reason and one reason only why I am a Presbyterian minister and not a Baptist minister.  Let me explain. 

     My mother and father were married on the 27^th of December in the year 1957.  My mother was raised on a farm outside of Vail, Iowa, and my father was raised on a farm outside of Kirkman, Iowa.  When they were first married, my father tried his hand at farming.  We lived in Kirkman.  Now my mother was raised Presbyterian, and my father was raised Baptist.  And since the Baptist church in Kirkman was much closer than the Presbyterian church in Vail, that’s where they decided to go.  One Sunday morning, that old Baptist preacher climbed up into his pulpit and began to rail against public school teachers.  Guess what my mother was?  My mother was a public school teacher, and that’s the last time they ever darkened the doors of that Baptist church.  They began attending the Presbyterian church in Vail, and the rest is history.  I am a Presbyterian not because of any great decision I made, rather, I am a Presbyterian because that’s the way my mother and father raised me.  Not that there’s anything wrong with the Baptist church, but clearly – I am a Presbyterian by the grace of God.  I’ve got to admit that I really had very little to do with it. 

     If we really looked at our lives, I think all of us could safely say that we are where we are because of the grace of God, and not due to the great decisions we made on our own.  For example, I have a wife and three children.  People often times look at me, then they look at my wife, and they say to me, “How did you ever get her?”  I always say, “Well, Leslie was raised in a very small town.  She was 23 and single.  She was desperate!  She settled for me since there was no one else around.” 

     But seriously, when I came out of seminary in May of 1985, I had my choice of three churches: one in St. Louis, one in North Platte, Nebraska, and one in Columbus Junction, Iowa.  I chose the church in North Platte, Nebraska.  To make a long story short, let’s just say that everything blew up in my face.  I eventually accepted the call to Columbus Junction, Iowa – a church I initially turned down – and the rest is history.  God had to knock me down a peg or two to get me to go where he wanted me to go, but in the long run, I’m kind of glad he did.  For had I not gone to Columbus Junction, I would not have the wife I have, the children I have, and I certainly wouldn’t be here.  Thus, I truly owe everything I have to the grace of God. 

     In the passage I read from Micah, that’s exactly what the prophet Micah is trying to say – that the people owe everything they have to the grace of God.  Now the time when Micah spoke was around the year 730 B.C., shortly before the nation of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians.  Micah hearkens back to the time of Moses and the exodus.  He reminds them that Moses delivered the Hebrew people from the land of Egypt and led them to the Promised Land.  Now granted, that had been some 600 years before, but that didn’t change the fact.  God established a covenant with his people when he gave them the law, saying, “I will be your God and you will be my people.”  The law God gave was the Ten Commandments – there’s more, of course – but that’s a decent summary.  God gave the people the law saying he would be their God and they would be his people.  God made a covenant with his people, but they broke the covenant.  They were a people who were living on broken promises. 

     Micah points out the most egregious of their sins a little earlier in his book.  He says that they were devouring widows’ houses.  Do you know what that means?  Do you know what it means to devour widows’ houses?  Let’s go back in time about 3700 years.  It was clearly a patriarchal society.  As it is today, a man and a woman would marry and have children.  But what happened to that woman and her children if her husband died?  He was the breadwinner, not her.  There was no life insurance; there was no Social Security.  How do you suppose these widows made their house payments, or put food on the table?  They couldn’t.  So these wise Jewish businessmen would buy the widow’s house for a song, and cast her and her children out into the streets.  I don’t mean to sound sexist when I say this, but widows and their children were truly the most helpless members of society.  So these shrewd businessmen bought the widows’ houses for a song, and cast them and their children out into the streets.  Then these businessmen would sacrifice a lamb on the Day of Atonement, and believe their sins were forgiven.  They felt no guilt about what they had done; they had no remorse.  There were making good money, but they were truly a people who were living on broken promises. 

     Are any of you familiar with the East Liberty Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh?  It is one of the most beautiful Presbyterian churches in the country.  It is truly a Gothic cathedral.  It was built in the year 1932 at a cost of 4 million dollars.  The entire cost of the building was underwritten by one man.  His last name was Mellon.  Perhaps you’ve heard that name.  Someone once referred to that church to me as Mellon’s Fire Escape.  Now I don’t know anything about the Mellons – whether they were good people or not.  The point is this.  We cannot buy our way to forgiveness.  We cannot purchase our way to a clean slate.  Yet let me go on record as saying that I don’t want to discourage anyone from leaving this church 4 million dollars.  If you leave the church 4 million dollars, I promise you – I’ll do what I can to pave the way with God for you!  But seriously, that’s not the way it works.  We cannot buy our way to forgiveness. 

     The people of Micah’s day were living on broken promises.  God had made his cov-enant with them saying he would be their God and they would be his people, but they broke the promise.  And it wasn’t long after that that Israel fell to the Assyrians.  They broke the covenant with God, and their nation fell. 

     We’re living in a world today where it seems as if the rest of the world hates us.  We saw evidence of that on September 11^th, 2001.  Shortly after that event, a reporter was interviewing Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy Graham.  The reporter said to Anne Graham Lotz, “Where was God in all of this?  Where was God?”  Anne Graham Lotz offered a lengthy dissertation, but what she said in essence was this: “We have cast God out of our classrooms.  We have cast God out of our courtrooms.  We have cast God out of our lives.  God is, in essence, exactly where we want him.”  We are living in a world where it seems as if the rest of the world hates us, and we have cast God aside.  Are we living on broken promises as well?  Are we devouring widows’ houses as well?  A wise businessman once said to me, “We have built our great society on the backs of the Third World poor.”  We have built our great society on the backs of the Third World poor.  Does the rest of the world hate us because of our freedom, as some politicians like to say?  Or does the rest of the world hate us because we’ve built our society at their expense?  Does the rest of the world hate us because we’ve devoured widows’ houses?  Does the rest of the world hate us because we have exploited the poor?  Are we living on broken promises as well? 

     God is not concerned so much that we follow the letter of the law as he is that we abide by the spirit of the law.  I think Micah put it best.  Micah said, “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.  We cannot devour widows’ houses and think it’ll be all right.  We cannot build our great society on the backs of the Third World poor and think the slate will be wiped clean.  We must remember that what we are is but a product of the grace of God.  If we would but remember that everything we have and everything we are is but a product of the grace of God, I think that would solve the problem.  Because, ladies and gentlemen – that’s what it means to walk humbly with our God.  Amen.

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February 13, 2005        Rev. Dr. Brian Jensen

THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT!     Scripture:  Matthew 4:1-11

     One day God was looking down upon the earth and he was not pleased with what he saw.  He was appalled by the way human beings were treating one another.  Thus, God decided to send an angel down to earth to confirm whether or not his suspicions were true.  So an angel of the Lord came down to earth, spent a little time, then returned to heaven to make his report.  He said, “Lord, it’s true.  Ninety five percent of all the people on earth are bad, and only 5% are good.”  God thought about that for a moment, then decided he would be wise to get a second opinion.  So God sent another angel down to earth to see what things were like.  The second angel came down to earth, spent a little time, then returned to heaven to make his report.  He said, “Lord, it’s true.  Ninety five percent of the people on earth are bad, and only 5% are good.”  Thus, God decided to encourage that 5% on earth who are good.  He decided to send them an e-mail to encourage them in all righteousness.  And do you know what that e-mail said?  What?  You didn’t get one either? 

     Of course, that brings to mind the concept of the sinfulness of humanity.  Are we sinful human beings, or are we really pretty good?  You know, one of the basic concepts of the Reformation was the depravity of humanity.  In other words, we sinful human beings are incapable of any good, save for the influence of the Holy Spirit.  Consider for a moment the last four commandments in the Ten Commandments.  They are: Thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor; and thou shalt not covet what thy neighbor has.  Maybe we don’t commit adultery.  Maybe we don’t steal.  Yet aren’t we all guilty of telling a little white lie every now and then?  Aren’t we all guilty of wanting something someone else has?  Of course, these days, what we do is rationalize our way around our own sin and try to pick on the sins we don’t commit.  Honesty, that’s why I think homosexuality is such a hot topic today.  When we call homosexuality a sin – and I think it is – yet when we call homo-sexuality a sin we can safely point a finger at someone else and avoid pointing fingers at ourselves.  Yet ladies and gentlemen, until we learn to confess our sin and repent of our evil ways, we have absolutely no hope of spiritual growth.  All are in need of confession; all are in need of repentance.  

     Ah, but in order for us to sin, something must first tempt us.  In order for us to break the laws of God, something must first try to lure us away.  In the passage I read from the gospel according to Matthew, Jesus himself was tempted by none other than the devil.  Jesus had been in the wilderness, fasting for 40 days.  That’s when the devil came to tempt Jesus – at a moment he thought that Jesus might be weak.  (Ain’t that the way?)  Anyway, the devil said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.”  Jesus said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”  Then the devil took Jesus up to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem and said, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down so that the angels might break your fall.”  Jesus replied, “It is written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”  Then, in a moment, the devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.  He said to Jesus, “All this I will give to you if you will bow down and worship me.”  Jesus said, “Be gone, Satan!  For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”  The devil came to Jesus at a moment when he thought Jesus would be weak.  Yet Jesus managed to per-severe in spite of the devil’s wiles.

     Now we’re all Presbyterians here.  Perhaps some of us don’t even believe in a devil.  At the very least, we certainly don’t speak of him very much.  I’m reminded of a skit comedian Flip Wilson used to do.  Now some of you younger folk may not know who Flip Wilson was.  Go out and buy a Baby Boomers’ Edition of the Trivial Pursuit game.  I think you’ll find him there.  Anyway, Flip Wilson played this character who would occasionally do something bad.  And every time this character did something bad, Flip Wilson would cry, “The devil made me do it!”  The devil made me do it.  Now for many of us, that’s a copout.  We want to believe that our evil actions come from a baser place within us, and not from some outside entity called the devil.  Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve thought about this a lot.  For the life of me, I cannot understand why there would be a devil.  For the life of me, I cannot understand why God would allow such a being to roam the earth and wreak such havoc.  Perhaps it’s all a part of our free will, I don’t know.  But there is a devil.  And he’s alive and well in our world today. 

     I recently came across an interesting story that depicts the devil’s wiles.  Once upon a time, the devil called a convention of his demons, and the news was not good.  The devil said, “We can’t keep people from going to church.  We can’t keep people from reading the Bible and finding out the truth.  We can’t keep people from forming relationships with Jesus Christ.  So here’s what I want you to do.  Fill their lives with so much clutter and noise that they don’t have time for Jesus Christ.  Make sure their radios are always blaring when they drive so they can’t hear that still small voice.  Keep their televisions and computers and video games on at home all the time so they can’t keep their family relationships together.  Come up with a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition so that men start to think that’s what women are supposed to look like.  Keep them working long hours to support their empty lifestyles.  Make the women tired at night – and give them a headache – so their relationships suffer.  Give them a Santa Claus at Christmas so they forget about the birth of Christ, and give them a bunny at Easter so they don’t think about Christ’s resurrection.  And give them worthy causes.  Keep them so busy at their worthy causes that they want to sleep in on Sunday mornings.”  What do you think?  Is the devil alive and well in our world today?  I think he is. 

     So how do we avoid the devil’s wiles?  How do we escape the temptation to sin?  It’s called the expulsive power of a new affection.  The expulsive power of a new affection.  According to ancient Greek mythology, there was a place called the Isle of Sirens.  The sirens sang so beautifully that ships’ crews were drawn to their singing, and they ended up shipwrecked on the rocks.  When Ulysses passed the Isle of Sirens, he had himself tied to the mast and his ears stopped up with wax.  He tried to fend off temptation by way of his sheer will.  Yet when Orpheus passed the Isle of Sirens, he was not lured by their songs.  You see, he too was a musician.  So he sat down on the deck and played music far more beautiful than the sirens could ever hope to sing.  That, my friends, is the expulsive power of a new affection. 

     We must learn to play more beautiful music.  We must learn to prefer righteousness to licentiousness.  We must learn to prefer peace and love and harmony to hatred and anger and strife.  We must learn to prefer the ways of God to the ways of anything else.  Do that, and temptation will become nothing more to you than mere notes of discord.  Amen. 

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Rev. Brian K. Jensen, February 20, 2005     John 3:1-17

WHO ARE YOU? 

     Once upon a time, there was a little boy who wanted to meet God.  He figured it was quite a journey to where God lived, so he decided to pack a suitcase.  He packed a suit-case with a box of Twinkies and a six-pack of root beer, then set off on his journey.  He’d only gone about three blocks when he came to an elderly woman sitting a park bench, just staring at some pigeons.  The little boy sat down on the park bench next to her.  He opened up his suitcase and was about to take a sip of root beer, when he noticed that the woman sitting next to him looked hungry.  So he offered her a Twinkie.  The woman accepted the Twinkie without saying a word, but she smiled at the little boy.  Now the little boy thought that the woman had the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen, so he offered her a root beer as well.  Again the woman accepted the root beer and smiled at him.  So they sat there all afternoon – just eating and drinking and smiling.  It was getting on toward evening and the boy thought he ought to be getting home.  So he closed up his suitcase and started on his way.  Suddenly he stopped, turned, ran back to the woman and gave her a great big hug.  She gave him her biggest smile yet.  When the boy got back home his mother said to him, “You sure do look happy.  What did you do today?”  The little boy replied, “I had lunch in the park with God today.”  Yet before his mother could respond to that, he added, “And do you know what?  God’s got the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen!”  Meanwhile, the elderly woman returned to her home.  Her son said to her, “You sure do look happy.  What did you do today?”  The woman replied, “I had lunch in the park with God today.”  Yet before her son could respond to that, she added, “And do you know what?  God’s much younger than I expected!”

     I suspect a lot of us are a lot like that little boy.  Each and every one of us would love to meet God.  For deep down inside of us, we all have a restlessness, an emptiness, a lack of inner peace.  We truly believe that meeting God would put an end to that restlessness, that emptiness, that lack of inner peace.  Ancient church theologian Augustine was right, you know.  As he wrote some 1700 years ago, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.”  Truer words were never spoken.

     In the passage I read from the gospel according to John, we encounter a man named Nicodemus.  As it says in our passage, Nicodemus was a Pharisee – a ruler of the Jews.  What that means is that Nicodemus was a member of the prestigious Sanhedrin.  The Sanhedrin was the Jewish high court – the court that would ultimately sentence Jesus to death.  Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the prestigious Sanhedrin, so Nicodemus came to Jesus by cover of darkness.  Why did Nicodemus come to Jesus?  Because he felt what all of us sometimes feel…a sense of restlessness, and emptiness, and a lack of inner peace.  Yet what does Nicodemus first say to Jesus?  He says, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these things that you do unless God is with him.”  Why, it’s almost as if Nicodemus has borrowed a page from Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.  In other words, flattery will get you everywhere.  So Nicodemus says to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”  Yet Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter.  What he says to Nicodemus has nothing to do at all with what Nicodemus said.  Jesus says, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  You see, Jesus knew what Nicodemus really wanted.  Nicodemus knew the restlessness, the emptiness, and the lack of inner peace that many of us feel.  The question burning inside of Nicodemus was this: Who are you?  Who are you?  That’s why Jesus said what he said.  He knew the question that was really on Nicodemus’ mind.

     I think deep down each and every one of us has the very same question.  We want to say to Jesus, “Who are you?”  We know for a fact that Jesus is not Santa Claus, or our fairy godmother, for Jesus did not come to grant our every wish.  Perhaps we’ve found that out the hard way.  The Bible refers to Jesus as Messiah, Savior, Son of God, Son of Man and Son of David.  We know all these terms, but what do they really mean?  I think Jesus himself answers the question in verses 16 and 17.  There Jesus says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God sent the Son into the world – not to condemn the world – but that the world might be saved through him.”  Jesus came to grant us the hope of life everlasting, but Jesus also came to transform the world.  Again, Jesus came to grant us the hope of life everlasting, but Jesus also came to transform the world.

     Now in our religious circles today, we have conservatives and we have liberals.  The conservatives tend to say that our salvation is wrapped up in acts of personal piety and holiness.  They urge us to get right with God in order to be saved.  The liberals tend to say that our salvation is wrapped up in acts of social justice and peacemaking.  They urge us to be moved to social action in order to be saved.  I say…they’re both right.  I see acts of personal piety and holiness and acts of social justice and peacemaking as being like the wings of a bird.  How far can that bird fly if he only flaps one wing?  He must flap both wings in order to fly.  Thus, like Jesus said, he came to give us the hope of eternal life and to transform the world.  We fulfill God’s will when we flap both wings.  We fulfill God’s will when we seek personal piety and holiness AND when we seek to do social justice and peacemaking.  As someone once said, “We need to picket AND we need to pray.”  Thus, we must seek to bridle our passions, yet we must also seek to transform our community in Jesus’ name.

     Our vision for ministry in this church has gradually been getting clearer.  We have a passion to reach out to the young people in our community who are being raised apart from the church and – essentially – bereft of the influence of the Holy Spirit.  Some of the specifics of that vision may now be getting clearer as well.  In the state of Pennsyl-vania, there is a thing called “release time.”  In it, school children are allowed to leave the school for an hour to get some kind of faith-based education during the school day.  They’ve been doing this in Saegertown for 15 years now.  Now some of us are trying to do the same thing here.  We want to start with Second District School, where 93% of the kids are being raised in single-parent households, and many are growing up without a faith-based education.  We plan to do this at the Salvation Army building.  It will be a vacation Bible school-like program.  I think it’s a marvelous way to reach out to the kids in our community who are being raised apart from the church.  I sincerely hope others will support it prayerfully, support it financially, and support it with your time and talents.  I think it may be a part of how we transform our community.

     Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”  Jesus came to grant us the hope of life everlasting, but Jesus also came to transform the world.  Thus, personal piety and holiness and social justice and peacemaking are like the wings of a bird.  Ladies and gentlemen, we must flap both wings in order to fly.  The church has been spinning in circles for far too long.  Amen.

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Rev. Brian K. Jensen, March 6, 2005     John 9:1-41

BIBLICAL ILLITERACY 

     Once upon a time, a man of “questionable” character passed away.  He knew his eternal destination might be somewhat touch and go, so he was quite pleased when he found himself at the Pearly Gates.  He said to Saint Peter, “I feel quite fortunate to be here.  But still, I’d like to see what might have been.  Would it be possible for me to see what Hell is really like?”  St. Peter said, “Be my guest.  Just hop onto that elevator over there and press the bottom button.”  So the man climbed onto the elevator, pushed the bottom button, and began his descent.  When the elevator stopped and the doors opened, the man was amazed at what he saw.  Hell was actually ice-capped mountains, snow-covered ground, frozen trees, frozen plants and frozen lakes.  The man went back up into heaven and met St. Peter again.  Peter said to him, “Well, what did you think?”  The man said, “It wasn’t like I expected at all.  I thought Hell was a fiery place.  But everything I saw was completely frozen over!”  St. Peter said, “It was?”  Then suddenly, Peter came to his senses.  “Oh,” St. Peter said.  “The Cleveland Browns must have won the Super Bowl!”

     Speaking of the impossible, consider the rather lengthy passage I read from the gospel according to John.  In it, we see Jesus healing a man who was blind from birth.  Jesus heals the man of his blindness, but the Pharisees didn’t believe it.  So they questioned the man who was healed.  Then they questioned his parents, wanting to discover if he really was blind from birth.  Then they again questioned the man who was healed of his blind-ness, but the man turns the tables on them.  He says to the Pharisees, “Do you, too, want to be his disciples?”  This outraged the Pharisees, so they threw him out of the synagogue.  He was, in essence, excommunicated from the Jewish faith.  Now the point of this passage in John is this.  Jesus healed a man born blind.  No one can heal a man born blind but God.  Thus, what John is really saying is that Jesus is God.  So the theological point of this passage from John is that Jesus is God.  But that raises a practical question, does it not?  The practical question is this: Can Jesus still heal our blindness today?  Can Jesus still heal our blindness today?

     I recently came across an interesting article entitled, “No-Strings Sex.”  It discusses the sexual activity of children as young as junior high.  There’s a new craze out there called “Sex Bracelets.”  Girls wear different colored bracelets on their wrists and when a boy snatches a bracelet off of a girl, he is rewarded with a sexual favor – anything from a kiss to whatever.  This casual attitude toward sex is then perpetuated by T.V. shows like Sex and the City, and by videos like Girls Gone Wild.  The article then notes that Abercrombie and Fitch is marketing thong underwear to 10-year-old girls.  The thong underwear has little phrases on it like, “Wink, Wink,” and “Eye Candy.”  This is for 10-year-olds!  Then there are the Bratz Pack dolls.  These dolls wear skimpy little skirts and lots of makeup and hook up with a mystery man for romance “and more.”  These Bratz Pack dolls are marketed to six-year-olds!  But we are the beneficiaries of the research of Alfred Kinsey, the so-called “Godfather of Sex.”  He spent a lifetime trying to dispel our Victorian age sexual mentality.  Thus, when it comes to dealing with kids and sexuality, parents are caught between trying to teach what they think is right and not wanting to seem prudish.  Ladies and gentlemen, our society has become incredibly blind.  But the question is, “Can Jesus still heal us of our blindness?”  Can Jesus still heal us of our blindness? 

     The answer is, “Yes, Jesus can still heal us of our blindness.”  And the secret is found in the pages of Scripture.  The problem is that many of us suffer from what I call Biblical Illiteracy.  In other words, we don’t know what’s in the Bible.  For example, do you know where the phrase, “The Lord helps those who help themselves” is in the Bible?  It’s not!  But Biblical Illiteracy is not entirely our fault.  The Presbyterian Church, for example, did a grave disservice to a generation of Baby Boomers.  By the time we got into junior high and high school – a time when we were finally capable of actually grasping biblical principles – we were learning to apply biblical concepts.  We weren’t learning the Scriptures, we were applying them.  It’s like we were trying to build a house without first building the foundation.  We never built the foundation of biblical knowledge.  And the result has been a generation of biblical illiterates.

     Ladies and gentlemen, it’s not too late to change that fact.  Begin by dusting off a Bible.  Before you begin to read, pray.  Pray to God for understanding – that God might send his Holy Spirit and grant you an open mind.  Begin by reading the gospel according to Matthew.  Then try the gospel according to Mark.  Read Luke and Acts together.  Then, if you feel really brave, try tackling the gospel according to John.  Just stay away from the book of Revelation for a while!  And listen, family devotions wouldn’t hurt a bit.  Jesus can still heal our blindness today.  The secret is found in the Scriptures.  For when you really read the Scriptures, you discover who God really is and what God really desires.

     I think of a wonderful quote from the book, As A Man Thinketh, by James Allen.  He writes, “The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart, this you will build your life by; this you will become.”  In other words, we are what we watch, we are what we see, we are what we read.  It comes to shape our values.  How would you rather have your children’s or your grandchildren’s values shaped: by Sex and the City, or by the Scriptures?  Reading the Scriptures will solve our Biblical Illiteracy.  But more than that, it might also come to heal our spiritual blindness.  Amen.

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Rev. Brian K. Jensen, March 6, 2005     Matthew 26:14-25

WHAT WAS JUDAS THINKING? 

     Ladies and gentlemen, today is Palm Sunday.  On Palm Sunday we remember Jesus’ triumphal ride into Jerusalem.  On December 15^th, I will celebrate 20 years in the full-time ministry.  Thus, I have preached about Jesus’ triumphal ride every year for nearly 20 years now.  It’s the same old theme about how Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.  A king riding on the back of a donkey is meant to signify peace, whereas a king riding on the back of a horse is meant to signify battle.  You’ve heard it before; I’ve said it before.  This year, however, we’re going to go in a different direction.

     If you take a look at our liturgical calendar, you see that today is also called Passion Sunday.  On this Sunday, we are also called to remember Jesus’ passion.  Now passion didn’t originally mean what it seems to mean today.  The word “passion” comes from the Latin word “passio,” which means, “to suffer.”  Thus, on Passion Sunday we remember Christ’s suffering.  You see, for some strange reason, suffering always precedes signifi-cant spiritual growth.  Jesus suffered and died before his resurrection.  I think also of the miracle of childbirth.  Out of tremendous pain and suffering comes the most precious thing in the world.  Now I have three children, and I’ve got to admit that the birth of them didn’t hurt me quite as much as it hurt my wife, but you get the picture.  Passion means suffering.  As today is Passion Sunday, we remember Christ’s suffering.

     In the passage I read from the gospel according to Matthew, we see how Judas caused Jesus’ suffering.  Judas went to the chief priests and sold Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver.  Then he had to look for an opportunity to betray Jesus.  As the passage continues, we see Jesus celebrating the Passover with his disciples.  The Passover, of course, was an ancient Jewish feast commemorating the angel of death’s “passing over” the Hebrew homes and taking the lives of the first born sons of the Egyptians when they were in bondage in Egypt.  It is here that Jesus predicts his betrayal.  “Truly, truly I say to you,” Jesus says, “one of you will betray me.”  Each disciple asks in turn, “Is it I, Lord?”  And finally Judas says to Jesus, “Is it I, Master?”  To which Jesus replies, “You have said so.”

     At this point in time, we have got to ask the question, “What was Judas thinking?”  What was Judas thinking?  How could be betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver?  The Scriptures tell us that Judas was the treasurer for this little band of disciples.  They were not without means.  Yet Scripture also indicates that Judas was a thief.  Could Judas have betrayed Jesus merely out of greed?  After all, 30 pieces of silver was a heck of a lot of money in those days.  But I have a small problem with that theory.  I simply cannot imagine how anyone could spend three years walking and talking with Jesus and not be impacted.  Thus, let me postulate another theory.  The Jewish people had been anticipating a Messiah for a long, long time.  Yet the Messiah they had in mind would be something of a warrior king, akin to King David who had lived 1000 years before.  Surely this was the kind of Messiah Judas expected too.  Is it possible that Judas was merely trying to force Jesus’ hand?  He knew Jesus would be arrested.  But then Judas probably expected Jesus to call upon a legion of angels to squash the hated Romans, thereby establishing his kingdom by force.  Maybe that’s what Judas was trying to do.  Maybe Judas was merely trying to force Jesus’ hand.

     But then I came across something in my research that is very startling indeed.  Note how in the Upper Room at the feast of the Passover, when Jesus said that one of them would betray him, each of the disciples asked him in turn, “Is it I, Lord?”  That’s not what Judas asked though, is it?  Judas said, “Is it I, Master?”  Now the Greek word translated “Lord” here is “Kurie,” a form of the root word “Kurios.”  Kurios means literally, “the owner of something, the one who is in complete control.”  For the disciples to call Jesus “Lord” meant that he was in complete control of their lives.  But Judas didn’t call Jesus “Lord.”  He called Jesus “Master.”  The Greek word translated here as “Master” is “Rabbi,” which means, literally, “teacher.”  In other words, Judas did not see Jesus as Lord and in complete control of his life.  Judas saw Jesus merely as a good teacher.  And maybe that’s why he felt it was okay to betray him.

     So the question for us today is obvious: “Is Jesus Lord, or is Jesus merely a good teacher?”  Is Jesus Lord, or is Jesus merely a good teacher?  To say that Jesus is Lord is to say that Jesus has complete control of our lives.  To say that Jesus is merely a good teacher is to say that we can come to Jesus when we need him – for a little good advice.  Is Jesus Lord of our lives, or is Jesus merely a good teacher?  There is a world of difference between the two…a world of difference.

     Listen now to the words of a poem entitled, “Why Do I Love This Sacred Space?” 

WHY DO I LOVE THIS SACRED SPACE? 

Why do I love this sacred space?

Why do I long for Jesus’ face?

Do I seek out the Lord of life,

Or merely look to ease my strife? 

                I’ve got a lot of cares, you know.

                It’s human nature to want to go

                To church on Sunday and hope to find

                A gentle God who will treat us kind. 

I’ve great responsibility

So surely God can come to see

I badly need his gentle touch,

But don’t want to be bothered much. 

                If only Christ would teach the way

                To think of him once or twice a day.

                Then I’d be satisfied, and he

                Might come to be quite pleased with me. 

How ‘bout a message for the kids?

We all know that’s what Jesus did.

He said, “Let the children come to me,”

And then they sat upon his knee. 

                We see our God this way because

                We’d like a God like Santa Claus

                Who’s there to meet our every whim

                And keep our lives from growing dim. 

But when God looks upon our world

He sees his plan has not unfurled.

We send our children off to war,

And try to even every score. 

                And in our streets the homeless go.

                These poor folk only want to know

                If our God cares for their needs too.

                And if so, what are we to do? 

God made our world from up above

And tries to teach us how to love.

But is the love of God revealed

When children hurt and hope’s concealed?

                God sent his Son to be our Lord.

                God sent his Son to be his Word.

                For us, he made great sacrifice.

                To follow him, there is a price. 

Why do I love this sacred space?

Why do I long for Jesus’ face?

Because Christ came not just to teach.

He came to earth, our souls to reach.

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Rev. Brian K. Jensen, March 24, 2005     John 13:1-17, 31-35

WHAT DOES LOVE? 

     There are four gospels in our English Bibles, are there not?  They are: the gospel of Matthew, the gospel of Mark, the gospel of Luke, and the gospel of John.  We refer to the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke as the synoptic gospels.  We refer to the gospel of John simply as the fourth gospel.  Now the synoptic gospels seem to provide a synopsis of Jesus’ life.  In other words, the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us, in essence, what Jesus did.  Not so with the gospel of John.  John seems to have a different agenda.  The gospel of John seems to be more concerned with telling us what Jesus means.  Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us what Jesus did.  John tells us what Jesus means.

     This distinction between the gospels is especially obvious in the passage I read from the gospel according to John.  All four gospels discuss the fact that Jesus and his disciples gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.  Matthew, Mark and Luke discuss how Jesus instituted the sacrament of Holy Communion.  Not so in the gospel according to John.  John talks about how Jesus washed his disciples’ feet.  Why do you suppose that is? 

     A quick perusal of the gospels reveals that something happened that night.  There the disciples were, gathered together in the upper room.  The wine flowed freely; they had reached what they thought was their final destination.  Then the disciples started arguing amongst themselves as to which one of them was the greatest.  I suppose they were concerned with the historical record.  But they were arguing amongst themselves as to which one of them would be the greatest.  Suddenly Jesus got up – in the middle of supper – and began washing the disciples’ feet.  This was a task generally reserved for the lowest of the low.  Yet here, their Lord and Master began washing his disciples’ feet.  He was showing them that love implies humility.  Love gladly takes the lower place.  Then Jesus seems to close this act in the drama by saying, “A new commandment I give you; that you love one another.” 

     And it is at this point that we begin to wrestle with the question, “What is love?”  What is love?  You know, of course, that the ancient Greek language had four different words for love.  They are: eros, philos, storge and agape.  Eros is passionate love, like that which might exist between a husband and a wife.  Philos is like the love that exists between best friends.  Storge is like the love that exists between a parent and a child.  And agape is what we call unconditional love.  This is the word Jesus uses.  The disciples were called – and we are called – to love one another unconditionally.  That is the answer to the question, “What is love?” 

     But Jesus doesn’t seem to be concerned with the question, “What is love?”  Jesus seems more concerned with the question, “What does love?”  What does love?  Jesus seems to indicate that true love implies that we gladly take the lower place.  True love is revealed in humility.  It’s one thing to say that you love someone.  It’s another thing entirely to show that you love someone.  True love is not revealed in what we say.  True love is revealed in what we do.

     I think of a timeless story about Mother Teresa that I’m sure you’ve probably heard before.  Mother Teresa, of course, ministered to the lowest of the low; the poorest of the poor.  One time, a reporter was trying to do a story on her.  He watched as Mother Teresa stooped to tend to the oozing sores of a leper.  The reporter said, “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars!”  Mother Teresa looked at him and said, “Neither would I.”  What she would not do for money, she would do for love.  Thus, the question is not, “What is love?”  The question is, “What does love?” 

     I recently saw a profound illustration of this in our own church.  Several beloved members of our congregation have taken up residence at the Rolling Fields Nursing Home in Conneautville.  A group of women in our church went out to Rolling Fields to hold their Bible study a couple of weeks ago.  Then they told me when I was to show up to serve communion.  They didn’t ask me, they told me!  (I gave them a hard time about that!)  But let me tell you, it was a beautiful service.  They revealed the depth of their love.  The question is not, “What is love?”  The question is, “What does love?”  These women revealed it when they loved unconditionally, even when these people can no longer be active in the church. 

     If everyone in the world could learn to do that, the world’s problems would quickly be solved.  There would be no more hatred, no more enmity, no more bitterness, no more strife.  As we celebrate the sacrament of communion tonight, don’t reflect on the question, “What is love?”  Reflect on the question, “What does love?”  Think of how you can reveal the love of Christ to a strife-torn world.  Amen.

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Rev. Brian K. Jensen, March 27, 2005     John 20:1-18

BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING 

     Once upon a time, there was a college football team that was locked in a heated battle for the conference championship.  It was late in the 4^th quarter, and the team was down 20 to 17.  They were pinned back on their own 10 yard line.  On the first play from scrimmage, the quarterback dropped back to pass.  He was sacked hard, and was down for the count.  He had to come out of the game.  The second string quarterback was sick that day – he hadn’t even dressed for the game.  The coach was forced to put in his third string quarterback – a young freshman who had never even taken a snap with the varsity team.  The coach said to the boy, “Son, I want you to go in there and hand the ball off to Kowalski.  (Kowalski was their all-American fullback.)  Then I want you to hand the ball off to Kowalski again.  Then I want you to drop back and punt.”  So the young man did as he was told.  He went in the game and handed the ball off to Kowalski, and miracle of miracles, Kowalski gained 50 yards!  Then he handed the ball off to Kowalski again, and this time Kowalski gained about 40 yards.  So there they were – inside the 10 yard line – behind by three points as the clock ticked away.  The young freshman quarterback then took the snap from center, dropped back, and punted the ball into the end zone.  The game was lost.  Everyone was dumbfounded.  As the young freshman quarterback trotted off the field, the coach grabbed him and screamed, “What on earth were you thinking?”  To which the young man replied, “I was thinking what a dumb coach we have!”  Hey, say what you want about what happened in the game.  At least the young man was able to follow directions.  That’s better than a lot of us do.

     Consider Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Bill Cosby puts an interesting spin on this story.  He sees God as the Father and Adam and Eve as God’s children.  God places Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and says, “You can have the run of the place.  The only thing I don’t want you to do is to eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  Of course, Adam and Eve say, “Where’s that?”  At this point in time, God is wishing he’d stopped making creation at the elephants, but he said, “It’s over there.”  Of course, Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and God confronted them on it.  “Why did you eat of the fruit of that tree?” God said.  “I told you not to.  Why did you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?”  To which Adam and Eve reply, “I don’t know.  I don’t know why I did that.”  So God banished them from the Garden of Eden and a part of their punishment – so says Cosby – is that they would have kids of their own.  That’s part and parcel to one of my great theories on life.  One of my theories on life is that children are God’s punishment to us for the way we treated our parents.  My mother always used to say to me, “When you grow up, I hope you have kids just like you!”  Of course, she doesn’t hope that any more.  Those kids are her grandchildren after all.  Still, I pray that’s not the case.  You see, the people who grow up and become ministers – when they were kids – were either perfect little angels or perfect little devils.  I’ll let you decide which kind of kid I was.  Ah, that’s the way it is with kids, is it not?  Like Adam and Eve, they tend NOT to do what they are told.

     Let’s say that you do have kids.  Let’s say that you have three kids, and you and your husband or you and your wife have to go out of town for the day.  So you leave the oldest one in charge.  He is responsible for seeing to it that his younger brother and his younger sister have breakfast, lunch and dinner.  You’ve left a stocked refrigerator and loaded shelves.  How are you going to feel when you come home that night and discover that your oldest child did not let his brother or his sister eat all day long?  You left him in charge – you gave him responsibility – and he failed miserably.  You’d be angry, you’d be hurt, you’d be frustrated, would you not?  You blessed him with responsibility, and he failed miserably.

     I wonder if that’s the way God felt about the Hebrew people.  As we see in the 12^th chapter of the book of Genesis, God made a covenant with Abraham.  He promised him a son.  He said to Abraham, in essence, “You will be a blessing that all the nations might be blessed.”  But what did the Hebrew people do with God’s covenant?  They hoarded it unto themselves.  They began to refer to themselves as the chosen people of God, and referred to those who were not among them as Gentiles.  Trust me, it was not a complimentary term.  God made a covenant with the Hebrew people.  They were blessed to be a blessing.  But they hoarded it unto themselves.  So God changed the covenant, didn’t he?  He established a new covenant in the person of Jesus Christ.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I am not saying God abolished his covenant with the Jewish people.  He fulfilled it.  God established a new covenant in the person of Jesus Christ.

     We see the consummation of that new covenant in the passage I read from the gospel according to John.  Christ died that our sin might be put to death once and for all, and Christ was raised from the dead that we might have the hope of life everlasting.  We are the blessed recipients of forgiveness and everlasting life.  But we’ve got to ask the question, “So what?”  So what?  Are we blessed to hoard God’s blessings unto ourselves, or are we blessed to be a blessing?  Are we blessed to hoard God’s blessings unto our-selves, or are we blessed to be a blessing?

     Ladies and gentlemen, we no longer live in a Christian society.  As I’m sure you saw on the news last week, a boy in Minnesota went on another shooting spree in his school.  God knows, we don’t want that to ever happen here!  Don’t we truly believe that if every-one encountered the grace of God in Christ, they would be dramatically transformed?  I believe that.  I believe that with all my heart.  That’s why – like I’ve been saying for the last 18 months – we need to move from mass evangelism to relational evangelism.  We cannot be satisfied with simply advertising our church over the radio and in the newspaper.  We’ve got to start to share our faith with those around us.  We are not called to hoard God’s blessings unto ourselves.  We are blessed to be a blessing.  For when we share our faith, the world comes to be changed – one transformed soul at a time. 

     That was going to be the end of this sermon, but with the terrible accident that recently shook our community, I feel compelled to say one more thing.  Two young men were in a horrible accident the other day.  One of them is dead; the other faces serious jail time.  Young men sometimes battle a case of what I call adolescent omnipotence.  They think they’re indestructible.  It takes some men longer than others to grow out of it.  But do you know why young men get all liquored up and then go out and take foolish chances?  It’s because they don’t love themselves.  They don’t have enough love and respect for them-selves to keep them from taking foolish chances.  Listen, I have done several funerals for people who got wasted, and then got killed behind the wheel of a car.  The questions are always the same: “Where was God?  Where was God when they needed him most?”  Do you know what God says?  God says, “Where were you?  Where were you when they needed you most?”  We are blessed to be a blessing.  It is imperative that we share our faith.  Amen.    

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Rev. Brian K. Jensen, April 10, 2005     Luke 24:13-35

GOD IN RETROSPECT

     I recently heard the story of a minister who was standing in his pulpit preaching the word of God with conviction.  Suddenly, a man in the congregation stood up and walked out of the sanctuary.  The man’s wife walked up the minister after the service and said, “Please forgive my husband for walking out of church in the middle of your sermon.”  The minister said, “Well, actually, I did find it a little disconcerting.”  To which the man’s wife replied, “Oh, please don’t take it personally.  He’s been walking in his sleep since he was a child!”  Yeah, yeah, I thought you’d like that one.  Incidentally, I have a rule about sleeping in church.  The rule is that if you’re under nine or over 90 years of age, you can sleep in church.  But if you’re between the ages of nine and 90, you have to stay awake!

     Speaking of sleeping in church, one has to wonder at times if the disciples weren’t sleeping when Jesus spoke to them.  How many times did Jesus predict his crucifixion and resurrection, and still, the disciples failed to understand?  Such was the case in the passage I read from the gospel according to Luke.  Two followers of Jesus named Simon and Cleopas – there were not a part of the original 12 disciples, but they were followers of Jesus just the same – two followers of Jesus named Simon and Cleopas were making the long, lonely seven mile trek from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  It was on that first Easter Sunday, and Jesus had been crucified but three days before.  It was truly the lowest point in their lives.  They had believed Jesus to be the Messiah, only now he was dead and gone.  Suddenly, Simon and Cleopas were joined on their journey by a third man.  This third man was Jesus, but as our passage says, somehow their eyes were kept from recognizing him.  He said to them, “What is this conversation which you are holding with one another as you walk?”  And they stood still, looking sad.  They said to him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”  And he said to them, “What things?”  They said, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in word and in deed.  We had believed he was the one to redeem Israel, only now he is dead and gone.  Our own chief priests offered him up to death.”  To which Jesus – as yet still unrecognized – said, “Oh foolish men and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.  Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”  Then this third man told them of all the Old Testament scriptures that foretold that this would happen.  And as our passage says, “Their hearts burned within them.”

     Finally, they arrived in Emmaus.  This third man appeared to be going further, but they constrained him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is on toward evening and the day is now far spent.”  This turn of events holds a significant message for us.  Jesus walks with us, but Jesus will keep right on going unless we invite him inside.  I think of how Jean Vanier describes his L’Arche community, a ministry to the mentally handicapped.  (I hope I pronounced “Jean Vanier” and “L’Arche” correctly.  My French is not so good.)  Anyway, Vanier describes his ministry this way.  What would happen if you held a wounded bird in your hands, and you closed your hands together?  The answer is, he would be crushed, or he would suffocate.  And what would happen if you held that wounded bird in flat, open hands?  He would fly away or fall to his death.  But what would happen if you held that bird in cupped hands?  There he would be nurtured until he was well.  Vanier says that that’s the way God holds us.  He does not close his hands together such that we be crushed or suffocate.  He does not hold his hands flat such that we might fall to our death.  Rather, God cups his hands to hold us.  We can still fly away, or we can rest in God’s hands and be nurtured.  That’s really what our passage is trying to say.  We must invite Jesus inside.

     Once inside, Simon and Cleopas and this unknown stranger sit down to dinner.  Then this stranger takes bread in a strangely familiar way.  Then he blessed it and broke it in a strangely familiar way.  Suddenly their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus!  Then he vanished from their sight.  Simon and Cleopas said to one another, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he walked with us on the road, while he interpreted to us the scriptures?”  Suddenly Simon and Cleopas realized that at that lowest point in their lives, Jesus Christ was with them all along.  Yet we often don’t see that Jesus was with us until we look back on those trying times.  In other words, we see God in retrospect.  We see God when we look back on the troubled times in our lives and realize that he was there.  I think of that famous story by an unknown author entitled, “Footprints.”  You know the story.  A man dreamed one night that he died, and he stood before the throne of God.  The scenes of his life were laid out before him, and they appeared as two sets of foot-prints in the sand.  One set of footprints belonged to God, the other set of footprints belonged to him.  But then he noticed that at the most troubling times in his life, there was but one set of footprints in the sand.  He said to God, “Lord, you promised me that you would never forsake me, that you would never leave me alone.  Why is it, then, that at the most troubled times of my life there is only one set of footprints in the sand?”  To which God replied, “My precious, precious child.  I love you and would never leave you.  The single set of footprints in the sand you see are the times I carried you.”  We see God in retrospect.  We see God when we look back on troubled times in our lives and realize that God was there.

     Speaking of seeing the footprints of God, listen to this powerful story.  A hospice physician in Denver, Colorado was heading home at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday evening.  He was driving down Colorado Boulevard, and traffic was a bear.  Suddenly, his car died, yet he managed to coast into the parking lot of a convenience store.  He was cursing his apparent bad luck, but at least he was thankful he wasn’t blocking traffic on Colorado Boulevard.  So he pulled out his cell phone, called a tow truck, and settled in to wait.  He noticed a young woman walking out of the convenience store with a couple of small bags in her hands.  Suddenly, she slipped on the ice and appeared to hit her head on the gas pump.  The hospice physician got out of his car to see if she was all right.  As he helped her to her feet, he noticed that she dropped something.  He picked it up and handed it to her.  It was a nickel.  Then he noticed that she had only put $4.95 of gas into an old rusty Suburban.  Inside that rusty old Suburban he saw three children – one of them still in a car seat.  The woman said, “Please. I don’t want my children to see me cry.”  They stepped to the other side of the gas pump.  Then she explained her sad story.  She was from Kansas City and her boyfriend had walked out on her and their children.  She called her parents in California – with whom she had not spoken in five years – and they invited her to come stay with them until she could get on her feet.  Then the doctor asked the woman, “Were you praying?”  The woman stepped back a couple of steps and looked at him like he was a nut.  He said, “I’m not a fanatic.  I just want to help.”  Then he swiped his credit card at the gas pump and gave her a full tank of gas.  Then he went into the McDonalds next door and bought three big bags of food.  The kids tore into the food like ravenous wolves.  The woman said to the man, “Are you an angel?”  The doctor said, “No.  Sometimes God sends people to do his bidding.”  Then he sent the woman and her kids on their way with a full tank of gas and full stomachs.  Then the doctor went back to his car and – just for the heck of it – put the key into the ignition and turned it.  Miracle of miracles, the car started right up and the doctor drove home.  The doctor believed he saw the hand of God.  We see God in retrospect.  Do you see God in this story as well?  Amen.  

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