January 20, 2008
THE FIRST LESSON - Isaiah 49:1-7
1 Listen to me, O coastlands,
pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The LORD called me before I was born,
while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me away.
3 And he said to me, You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
4 But I said, I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my cause is with the LORD,
and my reward with my God.
5 And now the LORD says,
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honored in the sight of the LORD,
and my God has become my strength
6 he says,
It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
7 Thus says the LORD,
the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,
the slave of rulers,
Kings shall see and stand up,
princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,
because of the LORD, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.
THE RESPONSIVE LESSON - Psalm 40 (VU page 764)
Refrain: You put a new song in my mouth, your name to glorify.
I waited patiently for you, O God;
you bent down and heard my cry.
You lifted me out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay,
and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
You put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.
Many shall see and wonder,
and will put their trust in you.
Blessed are those whose trust is in God,
who have not turned to the proud,
nor to those who follow a lie.
O God, my God, you have multiplied your wondrous deeds
and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you!
I would proclaim and tell of them,
but they are more than can be numbered.
Sacrifice and offering you do not desire,
burnt offering and sacrifice for sin you have not required.
But you have opened my ears to hear, and I said: 'Here I am,
ready to do what is written in the scroll of the book.'
I delight to do your will, O my God,
your law is in my heart.
I have told the glad news of deliverance in
the great congregation;
I did not restrain my lips, as you well know.
I have not kept your goodness hidden in my heart,
but have spoken of your faithfulness
and your saving help.
I have not concealed your steadfast love,
nor your truth from the great congregation.
Do not withhold from me your tender care, O God;
may your love and truth ever preserve me. R
THE GOSPEL LESSON - John 1:29-42
29The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me. 31I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel. 32And John testified, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. 34And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.
The First Disciples of Jesus
35The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, Look, here is the Lamb of God! 37The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, What are you looking for? They said to him, Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are you staying? 39He said to them, Come and see. They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 40One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41He first found his brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah (which is translated Anointed). 42He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas (which is translated Peter).
Talking the walk
“Thank God for Andrew.” That’s the headline banner in one of this week’s Sunday school resources. If Andrew had not spoken up and told his brother Simon about Jesus, then Simon may never have met him and may never have become Simon Peter. Andrew was not one of the big name disciples like his brother but he shows up in the gospels at crucial times.
One day the crowds follow Jesus into the country, then suddenly realize the time. Stomachs start to growl. The disciples say to Jesus, “We can’t feed all these people. Send them home.” And who is it that finds a child willing to share his food? Yes, Andrew. He’s the one who calls out, “Does anybody here have some food they can spare?”
Everybody starts looking at their private stash and begins to consider sharing. But it took someone to speak up and ask the question.
In this morning’s story, Andrew again has a crucial part to play.
First of all Andrew follows Jesus, spends the day with him. Then Andrew tells his brother, “We have found the messiah.” He doesn’t say, “Your life is a mess Simon. You have to be saved.” There’s no put down, no guilt trip, no coercion. He just tells his brother about his afternoon with Jesus. Then says, “Come and see.”
That’s a pretty good model of how to respectfully share your faith with others. But the very idea of talking about our faith makes us nervous. We’re more doers of the faith than talkers about the faith. Why is that?
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Some of us are reticent to talk about faith because of personality. Introverts may think deeply about faith but not put it into words.
There’s a member of our family who used to be a person of few words. When my wife Jan sent this person emails, they might be a page long. She often ended them with a question hoping this would bring a response.
We were always surprised at how few words this person needed to answer. You’d think it was a telegram and you were paying by the word. Over time the responses got shorter and shorter. When a sentence became too long, we would get one word answers. When the word “okay” became too verbose, we began to get emails with just the letter, “k”. No name at the end as that was self evident. And since you didn’t have to separate it from another sentence or letter, there was not even a period at the end. Now that’s economy of language.
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Some of us stay quiet because of personality, some stay quiet because of our culture. There was a time when to speak about your faith was considered to be in poor taste, a sign of bad manners. Faith was a private matter between you and God. Sure there were churches that encouraged that sort of thing, but not us. Start that and the next thing you know we’d be carrying signs through the market announcing, The end is near.
That’s what made Flip Wilson say, “I’m a Jehovah's Bystander. They wanted me to be a Jehovah’s Witness but that was a bit too scary.”
We can understand that. The average United Church member likes their faith in a quieter, less obtrusive package.
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So what do we make of some of the new research on mainline churches that are growing. First of all, that’s not supposed to be happening.
The United Church is adapting to shrinking numbers, right? There are budget cutbacks at the General Council. Churches are closing, amalgamating.
But then, just as we begin to think that the end is near, we hear this news that there are mainline churches that are adapting and evolving. And surprise, surprise, they are even growing in size.
One of the characteristics of these churches is testimony. The ability to speak out loud about your faith.
Let me share with you a story about one of these evolving churches that began to encourage testimony. Testimony sounded too Pentecostal to them so they called it Lenten reflections.
Darrell gave this reflection on the first Sunday in Lent:
“I grew up in an agnostic household, where Lent was an exotic part of other people’s lives, but I’d like to relate a time in my life, much longer than forty days, when I was in a kind of spiritual wilderness, cut off from connections between my true self and the people around me.
At the age of thirty-four, I came out as a gay man, first to myself, then to my family and friends. Loyalties were stretched, some toppled, most survived. I divorced my wife and struggled to find what it meant to be a gay father to our five-year-old daughter.
I was in church every week, singing in the choir, but not connected to worship... When I was invited to serve on a search committee for an interim minister, (I did so) but I was still in the wilderness.
One Sunday afternoon, I was in my office working alone on a long-term deadline. There was a church leadership meeting at Lillian’s house. (She was the minster) For reasons I don’t understand, I decided to go.
It was hot. I didn’t feel comfortable with the people there. I didn’t know what would happen. We started with a simple exercise: Lillian read a passage of scripture about the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Then she asked each of us to write about a transformation in our own lives.
I couldn’t think of a “safe” example, so I wrote about the personal transformation I experienced in coming out, in accepting myself as a gay man. No one had to know: I was writing this for myself.
But when Lillian asked if anyone wanted to share their story, the Spirit moved me to volunteer. I didn't know what would happen. There was a lump in my throat, my palms were sweaty. I took a leap of faith. It was a leap back from the wilderness into a new relationship with God, one based on my true nature. It didn’t hurt that no one gasped or avoided me: in fact I felt affirmation. In moving me to speak form my heart, the Spirit had also transformed my relationship with the congregation.
I felt radiant. I felt lighter than air. I felt I had found a home. I hope together we can call others from the wilderness to a home in this church.”
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This is what testimony can be. It’s not about being somebody with all the answers. It’s about honestly sharing where you are on your journey.
You offer a gift to a church if you can take the risk of standing up and saying, “This is me.” It encourages the rest of us. It draws us closer together as a community because you only share deep things with those you love and trust.
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This is Martin Luther King jr. Sunday in the United States. King came out of a southern Baptist tradition where people were welcome to come to the front and speak of their faith journey. That’s one of the gifts of the African American and Latin American churches - testimony.
I attended church while on a Habitat build in Amarillo, Texas. It was a southern Baptist service and our little group were the only whites there that Sunday. Despite the 45 minute sermon.. did you hear that? You get off easy here...there was still time for testimony. One woman stood up and thanked the congregation for supporting her brother who was getting his life back together after being very ill. It was an unforgettable moment.
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Testimony is not new to this congregation. We had stewardship speakers talk about their faith each week in November. It was profound. There were powerful messages by Phyllis at the Jesuit Martyrs service and by Meghan on her trip to Kenya.
These are very significant moments for us in worship. I would like to encourage this democratic practice of testimony - so that at least once a month someone here will be invited to take a few minutes to tell us how your life has changed because of your faith and your life here at Emmanuel .
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Howard Thurman was the first African American professor at Boston University and a respected leader in the civil rights movement.
Thurman credits his own sense of dignity to his grandmother, a former slave, who told her little grandson words she heard in worship. She told him over and over again, “You are somebody.” That’s what she heard in church.
Decades later, Thurman was on a family trip through the southern states. The family stopped for a break at a park. His daughters began to pull their father toward some nearby swings. They couldn’t read the sign which said, “Whites only by state law.” Thurman explained to them simply but truthfully that they were not allowed to play there. This was the first time they had felt the cruelty of racism and they burst into tears.
What did Thurman do? He repeated what his grandmother had done. He put his arms around his children and said, “Listen, you little girls are somebody. In fact you are so important and so valuable to God and so powerful that it takes the governor and the whole state police force to keep you girls off those swings.”
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Thurman told them what his grandmother had told him. He drew upon the good old words of his tradition and spoke their truth into his circumstances.
That’s testimony. It’s what Andrew did. It’s what disciples do. Walk the talk and then talk the walk.
Amen which means may it be so for us.
With thanks to:
Diana Butler Bass, Michael J Coyner, Thomas Long, Seasons of The Spirit, Howard Thurman, Flip Wilson.