God Cries Too

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
The First Presbyterian Church
Washingtonville, New York
May 29, 2005

God Cries Too
Genesis 6:5-22
Psalm 46

Joel Friedland was one of the good guys.
He was my roommate when I was at the Wharton School in Philadelphia.
We were both in the MBA program, both Finance majors,
and we were both passionate fans of Monty Python’s Flying Circus,
the British comedy troupe.
After graduation Joel returned to his hometown of Chicago,
married a lovely woman, had three children,
and was extremely successful in his career as a banker and investor.
Even with his success and the trappings that came with it,
Joel was always down to earth, friendly,
a man who spent his days dealing with company presidents,
yet was most comfortable playing with his children.
So when he telephoned me in the summer of 1998 and told me his news,
I thought, “wait a minute, this isn’t supposed to happen.”
Joel had been diagnosed with cancer a few months earlier.
Joel’s cancer was among the worst: it was cancer of the esophagus,
and that particular type of cancer is almost always fatal.
Joel knew he was going to die and
he was calling because he wanted to know
whether I would lead a memorial service for him after he died.
I said yes, of course, and six months later
I flew to Chicago to lead 300 men, women and children
who knew and loved Joel in a service to celebrate his life.

Joel was only 44, much too young to die.
It made no sense…..It simply wasn’t fair.
He loved his wife and children,
he was honest in his business dealings,
kind to everyone with whom he worked,
and charitable to those less fortunate than himself.
He was one of the good guys.
When Joel died, his family cried,
his friends cried,
his colleagues at work cried.
When Joel died, I believe God cried, too,
cried that one of his children died so young.

One of the many topics we discuss right at the beginning
of Confirmation Class each year
is the fact that life can often seem unfair,
that many things in life don’t seem to make any sense at all.
We talk about the fact that for men and women of faith,
lots of things that we experience or we read about trouble us,
because we wonder how a loving, merciful God
can allow bad things to happen to good people.
After all, if God is just and kind and good,
why do we read about good people dying,
dying from illness, dying by accidents,
or most tragically, dying by their own hand?

We talk about the fact that God does not cause these people to die.
It was not God’s will that Joel died a painful death
from cancer of the esophagus,
any more than it is God’s will that a teenager dies in a car accident
caused by a drunk driver, or that a baby dies from a sudden illness,
or a young man or woman is killed in war.

God’s activity, God’s presence is not in the death,
it is in the comfort, the reassurance,
the love, the strength we need to carry on,
even in the face of numbing grief or overwhelming tragedy.
As the Psalmist reminds us, God is our refuge, our strength,
our sure help in times of trouble.
God is always there for us;
Even as God grieves, even as God cries, too,
God is there for us:
our strength, a source of comfort,
for “underneath are the everlasting arms”
(Deut 33.27)

I believe God cries whenever one of his children dies,
but especially when death could have been avoided,
could have been prevented.
As much as we have learned about cancer,
we still do not understand how many cancers start:
We don’t know what causes cancer of the esophagus.
But we do know that most of those who are diagnosed with lung cancer
are smokers, or tragically, people who have been around smokers
and breathed in their smoke.
Four hundred thousand people will die from smoking-related
illness this year, and those deaths could easily be avoided
by simply throwing away the package of cigarettes.

God will cry twice at each of those deaths:
Once from grief at the loss
and once from anguish over the fact that the person chose
to do something that he or she knew would cause death.

We often choose paths that brings tears to God’s eyes,
because we often choose paths that jeopardize our health.
We eat the wrong foods, we drink too much, we smoke,
we don’t exercise enough, we worry and fret too much.
We choose to jeopardize our lives and the lives of others
by doing things like driving too fast, or recklessly,
the woman who rides the bumper of the car in front of her,
or, as I see too many times, the driver who doesn’t like
the speed limit on Toleman, and will cross a double-yellow line
so he can go 50 or 60
With summer comes motorcycles, both the big, absurdly noisy Harleys,
and now the new breed of European bikes
that seem to be favorites of the young and reckless.
We choose paths that lead us to immoral behavior,
which we tend to shrug off as harmless fun,
because no one gets hurt.
Pat and I had dinner at Hudson Valley Coffee Roasters the other night.
it’s a favorite place,
and as we walked from the parking lot to the restaurant
we followed a man who looked like your neighbor or mine,
but he wasn’t going to the restaurant; he was headed for
an adult video store across the street
apparently for a little “harmless” fun.

Go just 6 chapters into the very first book of the Bible
and we find that God’s tears for his children have worn him out.
He has watched with dismay how his children have shown
how quick they are to make bad choices,
to choose paths that steer them away from God.

And so we read,
“The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great on the earth,
and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts
was only evil continually.
And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth,
and it grieved him to his heart.” (Gen. 6:5-6)
A literal translation of that last line tells us that humanity’s behavior
“hurt God’s heart”, it gave God a heartache
and brought tears to God’s eyes
as God wondered, “Why do my children behave this way?
This is not what I wanted for them,
not what I expected from them.”

Over the centuries theologians have tried to rationalize
the fact that we humans tend to choose actions and words
that lead us away from God,
more often that we choose actions and words
that lead us closer to God.
We have been told for centuries we do these things
because of “original sin”, that somehow because
of Adam and Eve, we have all been infected with sin.
But the term “original sin” was one coined by Augustine
almost 400 years after the birth of Christ.
Our Lord Jesus never used any such term,
never made any such assumption.
Jesus knew we humans always had choices set before us,
choices we could make:
if we followed God’s commandments and Christ’s teachings,
we’d make choices and decisions that would lead us closer to God;
and if we substituted our own will, our own desires,
and gave in to the temptations that are always around us,
we’d make decisions and choices
that would lead us away from God.

When God created us God expected that we would spent our days
in loving relationship with him,
and with each other.
With God because he is our Creator and the one who gives us life,
and with each other
because we were supposed to see,
supposed to recognize God’s image in each other.
But we don’t.
We go our own way;
we ignore God
and when we look into the faces of others
we first size them up, judge them,
determine whether we like them or not,
determine whether we should like them or hate them,
call them friend or enemy.

We don’t do this because some sinister force
we might call Satan or the devil
seduces us and puts bad thoughts in our minds.
C. S. Lewis once wrote that if he were asked,
the Devil would tell us,
“It is funny how mortals always picture us
as putting things into their minds;
in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.”
(C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Letter 4)
No, we do these things because we are selfish,
we want our own way.
And so we make choices that surprise God,
stun God, dismay God
We do things that bring tears to God’s eyes.

On this Memorial Day weekend as we honor those
who fought for our country,
we will shed tears as we remember family and friends
who gave their lives so selflessly.
But even as we shed our tears,
we must remember that God cries over the death
of every man and woman killed in war.
Over the past two years almost 2,000 young America men and women
have been killed in the war in Iraq and God has cried over every death.
At the same time, more than 10,000 Iraqi men,
women and children have died,
and God has cried over their deaths, too,
for Christians and Muslims worship the same God,
and those people are also God’s children.

God has cried over the death of every one of his children
who has given his or her life in war for this country.
But God cried over the death of all his children
and so God cried over the deaths of his children
who once wore uniforms of German or Italian soldiers.
When this church was only 20 years old God shed his tears equally
for men in Union Blue and Confederate Grey.
Abraham Lincoln observed that in any war,
both sides pray that God might be on their side,
but the more important question he thought was,
whether we are on God’s side.

If we are causing God’s heart to hurt,
causing God to shed tears for any of his children,
then we have to ask ourselves whether we are really on God’s side.

The Psalmist reminds us that we always have God as our source of strength
our ready refuge in any bad situation.
But who comforts God in his sadness?
Whose arms are underneath God in his grief?

You and I can wipe God’s tears away,
take away his grief and his sadness
by working to eliminate those things in life that cause God to cry.
We can work for peace,
for that is what our Lord Jesus calls us to do,
“blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called
children of God.”
We can work for reconciliation of all God’s children,
for our Lord Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray
for those who persecute us. (Matt. 5:43ff)

You and I as obedient children, faithful disciples
can wipe away God’s tears
We can cure his heart-ache
By living in obedience, by following his commandments
and his teachings more faithfully
You and I can cease God’s crying
when we “behold God’s works,
when we quiet ourselves, still ourselves
and know that our Lord is God.
AMEN

Who Is He?

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
The First Presbyterian Church
Washingtonville, New York
May 22, 2005

Who is He?
John 15:12-17
Proverbs 2:1-15

Jesus walked into his office and sat down.
The top of his desk was covered with pink slips
from calls his secretary had taken while he was out.
It never failed: every time he left the office
to take a few minutes for himself,
that’s when everyone would return his calls.
Now he had to call all these people back,
playing telephone tag the rest of the day.

He looked at the first message.
It was from his brother Mort, a successful tax accountant.
Mort’s message was not good news: the tax service had denied his claim
from last year to take a tax write off for dinner for 5,000.
Now he owed back taxes, interest and penalties.
He had asked Mort not to take the deduction,
but Mort had insisted it was a legitimate business expense.
He was glad he hadn’t told Mort about the dinner for 4,000 last week.
He had a message from Peter’s mother in law.
He didn’t want to return that call.
The last time he stopped by her house,
he had helped her recover from a serious illness ,
but all she did afterward was complain about the mud
his disciples and other followers had tracked in her house.

The next message was from his sister.
She wanted Jesus to come for an early dinner on Friday night,
before the start of the Sabbath.
He loved having dinner with his sister, her husband,
and their four young children.
He would just have to be a bit more careful about
what he said in front of the children.
The last time he was there, when his sister
asked her children whether they had washed their hands
before dinner, they all replied in unison.
“Uncle Jesus says having clean hearts matters
more than having clean hands.”
Jesus thought it was cute,
but he could tell his sister was annoyed.

He’d make his calls later.
He had work to do now.
He was planning his next journey.
His disciples would go with him; he had twelve now,
good men, even if they were at times
awfully slow to understand
and awfully weak in faith.

He knew he needed to make a decision about his brother’s suggestion
to incorporate as Jesus Ministries, Inc.
He could hear Mort’s voice,
“You know these lawyers: one of your healings goes bad
and bam, you’ll spend the next five years in court.
You remember what happened when you put those demons
in the pigs. The owner of the pigs wasn’t too happy.”

He was tired and reflected on all he had yet to do.
The day was at an end and yet he felt like
he had accomplished nothing.
He often felt so drained, so tired.
He remembered the story of Sisyphus, from Greek mythology,
the man who was sentenced to spend all eternity
rolling a stone up a hill only to find that each time
he neared the peak,
the stone would go rolling back down the hill
and Sisyphus would have to start all over again.
He closed his eyes and prayed for strength,
prayed for energy,
prayed for guidance.
“Tell me father what is your will
for it is not what I want that matters,
but what you want”.
The prayer left him feeling refreshed,
and he picked up the telephone
and dialed his sisters’s number.


Each year our Confirmation Class spends a lot of time
talking about Jesus Christ.
The students know the basic stories about Jesus
from their years in Sunday School:
his birth in the stable, his baptism in the river,
his crucifixion, his resurrection.
The come to Confirmation with an image of Jesus
as a man with long hair and a beard,
wearing a dust-covered robe and sandals,
skin dry and cracked from the sun and wind.

They have heard the different words we use for him: Messiah,
Christ, Savior, Redeemer, Prince of Peace, Son of God.
But we can all know all those stories and reflect on the pictures
and still ask, who is he?
We read that he was the Son of God, that he is God himself;
but we also read that he was human, the son born of Mary
a man who laughed and cried,
a man who felt hunger, fear, and pain.

For three hundred years following the death of Jesus on the cross,
church leaders argued over just these questions.
They asked how could Jesus be divine, the Son of God,
when they believed in only one God.
And, they wondered, if he was the Son of God,
divine in every way, how could he also be human?
It wasn’t until all the church leaders gathered in the year 325
in a town called Nicaea that everyone finally agreed that
that God was a trinity: Father Son, and Spirit,
God acting in three ways, distinct yet the same,
separate, but the same substance.
And they also agreed that Jesus was fully divine,
the Son of God, and God himself.

But they also agreed that Jesus was fully human,
and that’s what we try to help our Confirmands understand.
Jesus was born just like you and I were,
making that terrifying trip from womb to world,
learning how to walk, how to talk,
He felt every human emotion – every emotion you feel,
every emotion you are likely to feel:
He was angry, sad, happy, anxious, fearful, impatient.
He was hungry and thirsty.
He was hot and tired.
He was lonely and exhausted.
Now Jesus may not have been quite as human
as I portrayed him a few minutes ago,
but yet we know that at various times in his life
he was explosive, exasperated, elated, exhausted.

Ultimately it was this human Jesus who said to his disciples
“You are my friend”.
Ultimately it is this human Jesus who says to each of us,
“You are my friend”.

And as our friend, Jesus will be there with us,
Jesus will be there with you…all the rest of your lives.
Jesus will walk with you everywhere you go
and be with you in everything you do.
You can’t shake him, you can’t get rid of him,
because, as he reminds us,
while you may have just professed your faith in him,
you did so because he first chose you.

Jesus doesn’t expect you to be perfect,
any more than he expected his disciples to be perfect.
What he wants you to do, and what he can help you do
is learn how to be your best,
to learn how to be all the God created you to be,
all that God wants you to be.

When you slip up, Jesus won’t scold or nag,
he won’t fuss or fight.
He will simply be disappointed
but then he will try to help you not to make the same slip again.
Jesus knows life can be hard,
and he knows that there are lots of paths that can attract you,
call your attention from his path.
Like a good friend, he will let you make your choice,
hope you make the right choice,
and if you don’t, he will wait patiently,
even hopefully until you return to walk with him on his path.
You won’t find a better teacher, a better guide,
a better friend.

Life with Jesus will never be without its problems and difficulties,
but life with Jesus will be so much better than life without him.
Jesus chose you,
chose you so that he could be your friend,
chose you so he could walk with you
talk with you, teach you, guide you,
comfort you, encourage you,
push you, challenge you.
Jesus chose you so that you would go out and bear fruit,
good fruit, taking his love out into the world,
working for peace and reconciliation with all men and women
serving those who are poor, or sick, or lonely, or afraid.
Jesus chose you to take his teachings, and his Father’s commands
out into the world.
Jesus chose you to reflect his image,
even as you see his image in others,
friends and strangers alike.
So go into the world, with Jesus as your friend,
your teacher, your guide.
“And may the peace of God, the peace of Christ,
the peace which surpasses all understanding
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus
this very special day, and always.”
AMEN.

Fire in the Belly

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
The First Presbyterian Church
Washingtonville, New York
May 15, 2005

Fire in the Belly
1 Cor. 12:1-11
John 7:37-39

I have a fire in my belly.
In fact I have two.
One is the result of age, stress and probably too much coffee.
I can control that fire pretty easily, however.

The other fire is one I don’t want to control.
On the contrary, I am at my best when it is stirred up.
It is a fire that moves me, pushes me, drives me;
it calls me, it shakes me.
Even when I try to ignore it, I cannot.
This fire comes from God.
It is the Spirit of God that I have within me.
We all have the same fire in our bellies,
because we all have the same Spirit of God within us,
the Spirit we believe God graces us with at our baptism.

This is the Spirit that Jesus promised us.
This Spirit is our Advocate –
that’s the word that Jesus uses in the gospel of John.
An Advocate to teach us what we need to know,
and just as important
to “remind [us] of all that [Jesus has] said to [us].”
(John 14:26)
We are all pretty good at learning,
it is the remembering, retaining the lesson,
where we get into trouble.

This Spirit is that gnawing feeling we get when we read or hear
a story of something that is clearly wrong,
and feel that we have to do something.
Without the Spirit, without that fire,
we could hear about even the most horrific story
and yawn and turn to the sports section.

It is truly a fire in our belly.
When I read the second lesson, you heard Jesus say,
“As the scripture has said, ‘out of the believers heart
shall flow rivers of living water.’”,
the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ.
But if we check the text in the original Greek,
we find that that scholars who translated that sentence into English
made a little change:
the sentence does not use the word “heart”.
No, in the original translation, Jesus says:
“out of the believers belly shall flow living water.”
The word is…belly;
not stomach, not abdomen,
not insides, not midsection
just that wonderful basic word: belly!

I think that is a much better translation
because it reminds us that we have a fire in the belly;
Fire fueled by the Spirit within us,
a fire that will not allow us to rest, to be complacent,
to sit still, to say, “let’s let someone else do it.”
No the Spirit empowers us, energizes us,
teaches us, calls us…..and reminds us.
The Brief Statement of Faith we all said at the beginning of the service
reminds us that the Spirit “gives us courage to pray without ceasing,
to hear the voices of peoples long silenced,
and to work for justice, freedom, and peace.”
The Spirit does something else: The Spirit challenges us.
It challenges us so that just when we feel like we are doing
all we can do
just when we feel like we want to take a time out,
when we want to rest, to take a break from discipleship
we find that gnawing in our belly that hunger,
that feeling that we are called to do more.

That feeling has been burning within me for some months now
as I have thought about the future of our church
and the direction God is calling us to take.
The past five years have been filled with activity.
We have grown in size: we have twice as many adult members
and three times as many children as we had in the year 2000.
As a result of our growth, we have taken some significant steps:
The Session of our church took an enormous leap of faith three years ago
when they made the decision not to renew our lease agreement
with English Rose, the daycare center.
English Rose had grown to the point where they had taken over
every inch of available space in our Sunday School building,
including the kitchens and the bathroom.
Their size and presence limited our Sunday School and other activities.
But, we collected more than $20,000 year in rent from them.
Just a few years ago, the rent we collected from English Rose
accounted for more than a twenty-five percent of our budget,
….a quarter of our budget….
The rent covered 80% of my salary.
But our Session was unanimous in its decision to end the arrangement,
to have the church get out of the real estate business,
to free up our facilities for God’s work:
for ministry and mission.
The Session was confident that given time,
we could make up the rent gap
with increased giving from the congregation,
and we have done just that.
Every Elder on the Session three years ago felt that fire in the belly,
felt the call of the Spirit, and took a leap of faith.

And then just one year later, after a great deal of hard work
on the part of the Planning Committee,
the Session took another leap of faith
and voted unanimously to approve the committee’s
recommendation that we launch our own nursery school,
a decision that required us to invest almost $30,000
in salaries and equipment.
Had we looked at things through the lens of fiscal prudence,
we would not have done either, not taken either step,
but our Session responded to the call of the Spirit,
the fire in the belly calling us to serve Christ
in new ways, better ways.

We now have more room for our own programs,
especially our Sunday School.
And Stepping Stones is doing beautifully –
with Baby Steps, and Step Up joining the regular program.
I learned this past week that our 3-year-old class
is almost completely filled for next year!

For the bold steps we have taken over the past few years,
now we have to ask, where is God calling us next?
What is God challenging us to do next?
Our tendency might be to say “let’s take a breather”,
but God won’t allow that.

Based on the fire that has been in my belly for quite some time,
I think God is calling us, challenging us in three areas.

The first area I think God is calling us, challenging us,
is to do more for Mission.
We presently allocate $4,000 for Mission support.
That’s support for Habit for Humanity, Safe Homes,
Presbytery Mission work, a Christian seminary in Cairo, Egypt
and emergencies like Darfur, Sudan and tsunami relief.
Earlier this year our Session voted to allocate money
we collect from special services, like Christmas Eve
to Mission work.
But even with that additional money,
we rank near the bottom of all churches
in our Presbytery for Mission giving.
We give about 3-4% of our budget to Mission giving;
we should aim for 10%
and that is what I propose we make as our goal:
that within three years,
we allocate not less than 10% of
our budget to Mission giving.
That means we would be looking to triple our
Mission giving to $12,000 over the next 3 years.

The second area where I feel God is calling us,
challenging us, to do more is Christian Education.
Would you like to guess how much money we as a church spend
per child on our Sunday School?
Go ahead, guess $40, $50, $60?
If you had guessed $20, you’d be right.
Yes, $20 per child, per year.
and that number is up from about
$15 per child five years ago.
Guess how much money we allocate per child
for our high school students.
I will give you a hint – it is the same amount we allocate
for Christian education for each adult member of our congregation.
Zero, zip, nothing.
Those figures aren’t something we should be proud of.
I finally realized a few weeks back why we are not having any success
in recruiting a Sunday School superintendent.
Clearly, if God wanted us to have a Sunday School Superintendent,
God would have called someone,
so I took a step back and looked at other churches like ours,
and what I realized is that churches like ours,
churches with 200 or more members .
have a staff person who focuses on Christian Education,
Christian Education for children, for Confirmation classes,
for high school students, and for adults.
This staff person is called in most churches,
the Director of Christian Education.
This Director of Christian education is an advocate,
a resource person, a teacher, and a trainer,
someone to work with me, the Sunday School teachers,
the leaders of Vacation Bible School –
all areas where we should be doing more
with Christian Education.
We don’t need a full-time staff person, at least not now.
But my challenge to us is to have a part-time
Director of Christian Education
working with us and for us by the fall of next year,
in about 15-18 months.

Now doing these things takes money.
Everything in a church takes money,
and I have yet to find a church that has more money than it needs.
We will always have needs that exceed our resources,
if we pay attention to the fire in the belly.
Our church is blessed by the fact that over the years
we have been left many generous gifts and bequests.
We have an endowment that is valued at more than $100,000.
Over the past five years I have heard lots of people say
we take too much money from our endowment.
But in those five years I have never heard anyone talk about
the flip side: how we can add more money to the endowment.
We can do that two ways.
One is to encourage everyone in this church to remember the church
in their wills, as Ruth Overfield, Bruce Felter, and others have,
most generously.
But the other way is for us to have a capital campaign.
A capital campaign is separate and apart
from our annual giving campaign.
A capital campaign raises money for capital improvements,
big things like the new roof at the manse we know we need
or the organ we will have to buy within the next few years.

Churches are encouraged to have capital campaigns every 10-12 years.
I believe the last capital campaign we had was 55 years ago,
so I would say we are more than a little overdue!
Our brothers and sisters in Christ up in Montgomery,
a church quite similar to ours, ran two capital campaigns
in less than 10 years,
and each was successful in raising more than $150,000….each
Pat and I worshiped at a Presbyterian Church
when were in Bermuda.
The church has about 300 members and the day we were there
they were launching a capital campaign
to build a new classroom building.
Their goal was $1 million.
Back in 1950, the members of this church realized
that they needed more space,
especially classroom space.
So they prepared plans to build the Sunday School building.
It was only a few years after the war,
the economy was plodding along,
this area was principally a dairy farming community.
And yet this community felt the fire in their bellies,
and raised $30,000 to build the building.
In today’s dollars, that would be about $250,000.
Could we raise that much?
Why not, if we have enough fire in our bellies?
That is my third challenge, to lay the groundwork to launch a capital
campaign within the next 18 months, and complete it within 5 years.

There are my three challenges:
three challenges that the fire in my belly tells me
God is calling us to:
Triple our Mission giving
Hire a Director of Christian Education
and launch a Capital Campaign.
All within the next three years.
These are the things the fire in my belly is telling me
we need to address
These are the challenges I believe the Spirit is calling us to.

If you are thinking, we can’t do any of these things,
much less all of them, then you have your answer.
We won’t be able to do them.
But with fire in our bellies, there is nothing we cannot do.
With God, all things are possible.
Doesn’t our Lord Jesus tell us just that?
If it is mission and ministry,
God will see to it that we have the resources that we need,
just as God has these past five years.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit
we are called and we are given everything we need
to be faithful disciples.
All we need to do is pay attention…..
pay attention to the fire in our bellies.
Amen.

The Bible's Best Love Story

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
The First Presbyterian Church
Washingtonville, New York
May 8, 2005

The Bible’s Best Love Story
Ruth 1:1-18
Luke 8:1-3

Later this month the Confirmation Class will gather at the Manse
for their final retreat
We will do a number of things when we gather,
but we will begin our time together
by asking each student to draw a picture of his or her image of God.
We began our year together with this exercise
and we want to end our year together with the same exercise
to see if the image of God each student has in mind
has changed during the year.
Our hope is that it has, even just a little;
hopefully for the better – that each student
has a more personal image of God
in his or her mind.

If I were to ask each of you now to draw a picture of God
I am guessing that most folks would draw a picture similar to
the well-known image of God that Michelangelo
created on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
at the Vatican 500 years ago.
You recall that picture: God is portrayed as a older male,
with long white hair and a beard;
he wears long flowing robes.
His eyes radiate strength, wisdom, and power.
This is God the father,
the one Jesus refers to as Abba, father.
God the wise older man.
A God of power and strength.
God our King.

We put a human face on God because it helps us to understand God,
to draw closer to God.
We put a human face on God because we read in Genesis that
we were created in the image of God,
and so God must look something like you and me.
The problem is that when we put a human face on God
we limit God, for God is not human.
Think about it: if we all bear the image of God,
God looks like Paul Newman and Rodney Dangerfield,
and like Nicole Kidman and Phyllis Diller,
all at the same time!

God is far more than human, for Jesus tells us God is Spirit.
So if we are going think of God as a male, as our father,
we also need to think of God as a female, as our mother.
God is both.
God says as much in Isaiah,
Speaking through the prophet, God says with great tenderness and warmth
to his children in exile in Babylon,
“as a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.”
More than 500 years before the birth of Jesus
the Children of Israel had been routed from their land
and were living in captivity in Babylon.
They were feeling abandoned by God,
no hope that they would ever be restored to their land:
In chapter 49 of Isaiah, we read,
“Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.’

But God had not abandoned them
and God replied to their prayers
with such tenderness, such love,
“Can a woman forget her nursing child?
or show no compassion for the child of her womb?”
Isaiah 49:14-15

God is as much a mother to us as God is a father.
The fact that we pray to our Father in Heaven
that fact that I may use male pronouns when I refer to God,
calling God “him” or “he” isn’t because God is male.
We use those terms because it simply
makes things easier for us.

We have to remember that the various books of the Bible
were written in very patriarchal times.
Men were very much in charge, and
women were second-class citizens.
As we read through the Bible we find very few women
who stand out, who play a leading role in God’s story
of his relationship with his children.
Read the last chapter of the book of Ruth,
a story set more than a thousand years before the birth of Jesus
and you will understand what life was like for women:
Read carefully how Ruth becomes Boaz’s wife.
No dinners at romantic restaurants,
No flowers,
No moonlit walks hand-in-hand.
No Ruth goes with the property left her when her first husband died.
When Boaz bought the property,
he acquired Ruth as his wife in the bargain.

That’s how things were done 3,000 years ago.

The role of women in the Bible is underreported and underplayed.
You have heard me say many times, that had it not been for the women
who followed Jesus and then subsequently walked with Paul,
the church would not have developed as quickly as it did.
We hear as much in the passage from Luke,
one of those transitional passages that we generally tend to
skim over quickly as we move on to what we consider to be
more important readings.
But there it is, the truth:
the women provided for Jesus and his disciples
from their own resources;
…from their own resources; their own possessions,
….from what they had.
They made sure that Jesus and his disciples had food, clothing,
and other necessities as they journeyed
and took their ministry through the land of Judea.

Reading through the letters of Paul,
we find brief references to various women who were important contributors
to the foundation of the church.
Lydia is perhaps the best known.
The church in Philippi grew as a result of her support,
her faith, and her generosity.
There is a brief reference to a woman named Phoebe
at the very end of Paul’s letter to the Romans.
She apparently played an important role in the development
of the Church of Christ in a town just south of Corinth.
Paul writes, “I commend to you our sister Phoebe,
a deacon of the church in Cenchreae
so that you may welcome her in the Lord
as is fitting for the saints,
and help her in whatever she may require from you,
for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself as well.”
(Romans 16:1-2)
That’s all we know about Phoebe.
We don’t know what she did to deserve Paul’s praise.
We don’t know what she did to build the church in Cenchreae
We don’t know why she might have been traveling from there to Rome.
A fleeting reference and that is all.
But we sense that had there been no Phoebe
the church in Cenchreae might not have blossomed
as it did.

There are only two books of the Bible that go by women’s names
and ironically, they are among the oldest books in the Bible,
both found early in the Old Testament:
The book we know as Ruth
and the book we call Esther.

Ruth is referred to by one commentator
as “the most beautiful book in the Bible” and it is.
We find in it no stories of war, no violence,
no armies, no struggles of man against man
or nation against nation.
It is a love story pure and simple.

Ruth lives in the land known as Moab,
the land to the east of the great Salt Sea,
the body of water we now call the Dead Sea.
The time is more than a thousand years before the birth of Christ.
and there is famine in the land to the west,
the land of the Israelites.
An Israelite named Elimelech and his wife Naomi,
and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion
travel east to find land where they can grow their crops,
and they settle in Moab, a land where the people
do not believe in the Lord God.
Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, dies not long after they settled there.
Naomi and her sons remain on the land trying their best to survive.
Then in time-honored fashion, boy meets girl
and Ruth marries Naomi’s son Mahlon.
But after only 10 years of marriage, tragedy strikes twice,
and both Naomi’s sons die, leaving her with her two daughters-in-law.
Naomi tells the two young women both to go back
to live with their parents.
They are still relatively young – perhaps they will marry again.
Naomi’s daughter-in-law Orpah agrees to return to her family
and leaves.
But Naomi’s other daughter-in-law Ruth will not go.
she will not leave Naomi.
She knows Naomi has no one,
and an elderly widow with no family in those days
was likely to starve to death.
Ruth knows that if she doesn’t look after Naomi, no one will.

And so we find those beautiful words that are so often
used as readings in weddings,
“Where you go, I will go;
where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people;
and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die,
there will I be buried.” (Ruth 1:16-17)

Ruth’s love for her mother-in-law is so powerful,
her devotion to her mother-in-law so touching –
there is no other story like it in the Bible.
It is no wonder it is called the Bible’s best love story.
It is not about the love between a man and woman,
romantic love;
rather, it is simply the caring, nurturing love of one person for another.
the deep, selfless love that God wants for us,
the deep, self-giving love that Jesus tries to teach us.

Ruth stayed with Naomi, and they returned to Judah
to Bethlehem, where Naomi was from
and they did what women had to do 3000 years ago in order to survive:
they went to farmlands that were being harvested,
and they waited until the harvest was over
and then they picked the remnants on the edges of the field.
God commanded his children in Leviticus:
“When you reap the harvest of your land,
you shall not reap to the very edges of your field,
or gather the gleanings of your harvest.
You shall not strip your vineyard bare,
or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard;
you shall leave them their for the poor, the stranger, and the alien.”
(Lev. 19:9-10)
God created the first Food Pantry in that way.
And that’s how Ruth and Naomi survived.

The story does have a happy ending
as Ruth meets Boaz, who was a distant cousin of Naomi;
He also happened to be the wealthy owner of the field.
And Ruth became Boaz’ wife, and gave birth to Obed
the man who would become the grandfather of King David.
And Naomi looked after Ruth’s child.
The two of them, Ruth and Naomi inseparable,
their love for each other so strong.
Love between two women, children of God,
sisters as much as they were mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

But that is the love we should all have,
for it is the love of Christ.
Mother to daughter,
father to son,
sister to sister,
brother to brother,
child of God to child of God.

The story of Ruth is a love story
a story of grace, a story that I have to believe
puts a smile on God’s face every time God re-reads it
a story that has to be one of God’s favorites,
a story that our loving Father in Heaven,
and yes, our loving Mother in Heaven,
would have for all of us.
Amen

For Better or Worse

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
The First Presbyterian Church
Washingtonville, New York
May 1, 2005

For Better or Worse
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
John 3:1-12

In May my mind turns to marriage, for both personal
and professional reasons.
Pat and I were married in May,
and next week we will mark our anniversary.
Many of you joined us here in this Sanctuary five years ago
as we made our vows to each other.
I think about marriage for professional reasons, too:
I tend to preside at more weddings in May than in other months.
I got a head start last Sunday when I officiated at the wedding of
Kim Bucknor and Bill Hooper,
and I have two more weddings on the calendar coming up this month.

I love presiding at weddings – there is so much joy.
I can understand why Jesus was so willing to help his host
continue the party at the wedding in Cana.

And yet even in the midst of the joy and laughter
there is also a sense of seriousness, of purpose,
as both the couple and those gathered to witness the vows
reflect on the fact that God called the couple together
called them to their marriage.
The reality shows – Bachelor and Bachelorette,
along with computer dating,
all overlook God,
all leave God’s Holy Spirit out of the picture.
When I meet with couples to discuss their plans,
I want to feel comfortable that they both feel truly called
to their marriage.

In our reformed tradition we believe that marriage is a gift
given us by God
blessed by our Lord Jesus Christ,
and sustained by the Holy Spirit,
a union in which a man and woman become one.

I have found it more than a little paradoxical that
if we were to search through the Bible
for examples of good, solid marriages, we’d have a tough time:
Adam and Eve get into trouble right away,
as they blame one another for their disobedience
and try to lie their way out their situation.
Moses’ wife would have had a legitimate complaint
if she had said to her husband,
“all you think about is your work!”.
The prophet Jeremiah complained to God
that he was so busy doing all the work
that God called him to do that
he had no time for marriage or a family.
God forced Hosea into a marriage with a woman
of questionable morals.
Jesus of course did not marry,
unless you want to believe Dan Brown.
And some of Paul’s writings suggest that he did not
think marriage an especially wise step.

But we can never read the Bible in a superficial way,
and of course we can never read the Bible without the help
of God’s Holy Spirit to illumine and enlighten us;
So if we do a little digging we can find
insight and wisdom that can help us
not only with marriages, but in all our relationships.

And one of the best places to start is Paul’s letter
to the Corinthians.
Most of us have heard those words so many times
that they’ve begun to sound like a noisy gong or crashing cymbal.
Yet there is so much wisdom in Paul’s words:
Paul reminds us that love is far more than romance,
flowers, soft music, and candlelight.
Love is patience.
Love is kindness.
Love is not marked by boasting,
or envy,
or arrogance.

Love does not insist on its own way;
love does not insist on its own way.
In marriages, in fact in all relationships
this can be particularly troublesome.
we always want our own way.
The essence of love is thinking about the other person,
what matters to him or to her.
Men, it means more than just giving up the remote.
Women it means more than telling your husband he
doesn’t have to dance at your cousin’s wedding.

Love is listening,
hearing,
trying to understand what the other person is saying.
Men and women do often speak in entirely different languages.
John Gray’s notion that men are from Mars
and women are from Venus was based
on work done in the 1980s by a linguistics expert
named Deborah Tannen,
who showed that men and women speak in very different ways.

Love is marked by forgiveness;
Love is marked by mercy.
Love that is strong can truly bear all things,
including the inevitable ups and downs
that are part of any relationship
but especially marriage.

What Paul doesn’t say, though, is that love needs work;
love can only grow and blossom if it is tended, nurtured, and fed.
Neither marriages nor any relationship will ever be built on solid ground
if both parties don’t work at it.
Work at learning about the other person,
what is it that makes the person happy, brings the person joy
what is the other person’s dreams,
what do they want
what do they fear?
When was the last time you asked those questions
of your spouse and, listened, really listened,
your focus solely on your spouse
and what she or he was telling you?

The text I always share with a couple on their wedding day
comes from Paul as well, from his letter to the Colossians.
I find it fascinating that a man who could be at times
so strident and boastful, could write so eloquently about love!
He wrote, “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility,
meekness, and patience.
Bear with one another,
and if one has a complaint about another,
let it go, and forgive the person.
For just as the Lord has forgiven you,
so you also must forgive.
Above all, clothe yourselves with love,
which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Do not let the sun go down on your anger,
but let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
and whatever you do in word or deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus
giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
(Colossians 3:12)

Rich and wise words for a couple to hear
as they begin their lives together
Rich and wise words for a couple to hear
as they celebrate an anniversary,
whether it is a fifth or a fiftieth.
Rich and wise words for a couple
that may be struggling in a marriage.
Rich and wise words for all of us to hear as disciples of Jesus Christ,
for through Jesus Christ don’t we all cleave to one another
as parts of the Body of Christ,
working with one another in good times and in bad,
in sickness and in health?

As you come to this table to refresh yourself and your spirit,
think about how you can tend all the loving relationships in your life:
your spouse, your children, your parents,
your extended family, your friends,
Think how you can tend your loving relationship
with your brothers and sisters in Christ
here and throughout the world.
If your actions and your words are not grounded in love,
you are little more than a noisy gong, a clattering cymbal.
But if your actions are grounded in love,
your words rooted in love,
you will have put away childish things,
childish thoughts,
and put on the robe of Christ:
the grace and love of God.
Amen