Sunday Morning Alarmination

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
First Presbyterian Church
Washingtonville, New York
May 21, 2006
The Sixth Sunday of Easter

Sunday Morning Alarmination
John 14:15-17
1 John 5:1-5

For some it is an insistent buzz,
for others a clanging bell.
Some people have soothing music
that starts out quietly and grows louder by the minute.
A few even have elaborate computer programs
that tie lights and sounds together.
Anything, but something to awaken us each morning;
everyone has that necessity: the alarm clock.

The alarm goes off, interrupting us in our deep sleep.
We often dream in the early morning hours.
You might be lying on a beach in the Bahamas,
or sinking a 40 foot putt,
or about to accept the Publishers Clearing House
ten million dollar grand prize.
But it is inevitable that just when the waiter asks,
“may I freshen your drink?”
Just when the ball is about to drop into the cup;
just when you are about to take the prize check,
the alarm goes off, reality intrudes.

There is something so luxurious about holidays –
to know that you don’t have to set an alarm:
you can sleep until you wake.
A week from tomorrow, Memorial Day, is one of those days.
Turn off the alarm,
no need to set it.
In fact, look at it right before you turn off the light at night,
and let the clock know that come morning
it will have no power over you.

Most alarms have snooze buttons.
Clock manufacturers are smart:
they make the buttons big
knowing that we grope for them in our grogginess.
They also make the buttons tough,
knowing that we have a tendency to smack them
as if to say, “Go away. Not yet; it can’t be time.”
You may not be aware of this,
but there is a verb for this action:
when you hit the snooze button you are "alarminating".
When you hit it a second or third or fourth time,
you are "re-alarminating".

When we have to set our alarm clocks Monday through Friday,
it doesn’t seem fair that we should also have to set them
for Saturdays, but most people do, to do all the activities
they try to pack into that day.
Sunday, then, should be a day free from alarms.
Sunday morning alarmination just doesn’t seem right.
After all, doesn’t God tell us to rest on Sunday?
Doesn’t God tell us to take a day off?
Why then do we have to get up early?
Take a shower?
Find clean clothes,?
Get in the car?
and then spend an hour sitting, standing, singing.

And if the hour wasn’t bad enough,
you have to be nice to people,
nice to people as they ask you to serve on a committee,
or help with an activity,
or give more money.

No one in this year’s Confirmation Class asked the question:
asked why should we go to church,
why we have to go to church,
why we have to get up on Sunday morning.
I think they were too polite.
But I think that question has been on the mind of
almost every student in every Confirmation Class I have taught.
I know I had it when I was their age:
Wouldn’t life be so much easier if we didn’t bother with church;
did away with alarm clocks on Sunday
and just went about life trying to live by Jesus’teachings
and God’s commandments?

The answer is, of course, yes.
It would be easier.
Imagine if everyone did just that:
lived every moment of their lives
by Jesus’ teachings and God’s commandments.
But the reality is that no one does.
No one, not here in this church,
not in any church.
No one.
The only one who ever did was Jesus himself.

We are all human and we all veer off the path
that God wants us on.
We all say things and do things that are not faithful
to the teachings and commandments Jesus calls us to follow.
We all say and do things that we know we should not say or do.
We all make bad choices.

The words “choose” and “choice” form a thread
that runs through every Confirmation Class --
that life is filled with choices.
We talk about how Adam and Eve had two choices
set before them.
They could follow what God told them,
or they could follow what the serpent told them.
They made their choice – a bad choice.
Every one of us here continues to follow their lead;
we all are confronted with choices.
Sometimes we choose well,
sometimes we choose poorly.

Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote in his famous book
“How Good Do We Have to Be?”
“Religion is not the carping voice of condemnation,
telling us that the normal is sinful and
the well-intentioned mistake is an unforgivable transgression....
Religion is a voice that says,
I will guide you through this minefield of difficult … choices,
sharing with you the insights and experiences
of the greatest souls of the past,
and I will offer you comfort and forgiveness
when you are troubled by the painful choices you made.”

We come to church not to feel bad when we are
unmerciful, unkind, uncaring, unforgiving and unloving.
We come to church to open our eyes to our behavior
so that we see when we are unmerciful, unkind,
uncaring, unforgiving and unloving.
We come to church to learn when and where
we have made bad choices,
acted badly or spoken badly.
We come to church to help us learn how much richer life is
when we are merciful, kind, caring, forgiving, and loving,
and not just to people we like, people we think of as friends,
but to all, including those people we may disagree with,
those people we may not even like.

We come to church to renew and refresh ourselves
to learn, to grow.
Of course, sometimes that is hard even in church.
Churches are not filled with perfectly pious people,
Churches are filled with men and women who are
filled with flaws, foibles, faults and failures.
We come to church to learn to accept and love them
even with their flaws, foibles, faults, and failures.
We come to church to learn that we too
have our own flaws, foibles, faults and failures.

We come to church to learn why Paul calls this
the Body of Christ,
that the church is not a building,
not an institution;
The church is people
a rich mixture of different attitudes,
different ethnicities. different ages
different backgrounds,
different political persuasions,
even different languages.
God calls us to church to help us learn to accept diversity
in every sense of the word, including diversity of opinion.

We come to church to learn how to stop talking,
to stop talking and learn to listen,
listen to one another, that through one another
we might hear God’s voice.
We come to church to learn that God is more likely
to speak to you through the voice
of the person you are least likely to want to listen to,
than through someone you are close to, or think well of.
We come to church to learn why James, the brother of Jesus,
tells us that the thoughtless tongue, “stains the whole body.”
(James 3:6)

We are called to church by God through the Holy Spirit
to help us focus on what really matters.
And what really matters?
Does money really matter?
No, of course not. God will see to it
that we have what we need.
Do things and possessions matter?
No, everything eventually turns to rust, rot, and dust.
Clothes go out of fashion,
iPods break,
and what was yesterday’s “must have”
is tomorrow’s donation to the Goodwill.

What matters?
Only one thing: love.
God calls us to church to remind us that
nothing should ever get in the way of love.
Love that that is freely given,
even if it is not returned.

Not everyone who goes to church faithfully every Sunday
faithfully follows Jesus’ teachings.
And not everyone who faithfully follows Jesus’ teachings
goes to church every Sunday.
Frederick Buechner puts the two groups in two different circles.
The first group he calls the visible church.
The second he calls the invisible church.
Buechner tells us that the real church,
the church of Jesus Christ is where the two groups
become one.
And that happens only when we work at our faith
and take it seriously, working with one another
in humilty, kindness, and goodness.

Sunday is not just about “going to church,
it is about taking part in the activity
by which God is shaping a new creation.
It is a foretaste [of what awaits us in God’s heavenly kingdom].”
[Dorothy Bass]
Every Sunday is Easter, a joyful celebration of the resurrection,
a joyful acknowledgement of the love God gives us in Jesus Christ,
the love we know and feel through the Holy Spirit.
Sunday is a day for us to acknowledge, as John tells us,
that following Jesus’ commandments and teachings
is not a burden; it is liberating, filling us with a sense
of peace and purpose.
Next Sunday, and the Sunday after that,
and every Sunday, when the alarm goes off,
that awful alarm that rattles us
out of that wonderful world of sleep,
don’t alarminate, not even once.
Get up and embrace the day, the Lord’s Day,
the Sabbath, the day given you as a gift from God,
give you for rest, for refreshment, for nourishment
a day to be fed spiritually
Get up and feel yourself bathed in God’s love,
God’s everpresent love, God’s renewing love.

Sunday is a day to truly reflect on your blessings,
A day to feel joy and peace
a day to listen,
a day to respond to God’s goodness and mercy,
and yes, a day to reflect on the bad choices you made
in the past week, and work to make better choices.

Sunday is never a day to alarminate.
It is day truly to rise and shine.
Sunday is the day to say,
“This is the day that the Lord has made
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Psalm 118:24

AMEN

Two Hundred Teachers for Myles

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
First Presbyterian Church
Washingtonville, New York
May 14, 2006
The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Two Hundred Teachers for Myles
John 15:1-8
1 John 4:7-21

Do you realize what you all did a few minutes ago?
You all became godparents.
Everyone here became a godparent for Myles.

You heard the question Deborah asked you:
“Do you as members of the church of Jesus Christ,
promise to guide and nurture Myles by word and deed,
with love and prayer,
encouraging him to know and follow Christ
and to be a faithful member of his church?”

You said, yes, you will do that.
The response was “we do”,
but you were each saying that you do;
each of you agreed to take on that responsibility.

Every time I have baptized a child,
you have agreed to help him or her to know Jesus Christ.
Every time I have baptized anyone of any age,
you have agreed to help him to know Jesus Christ.

In the Presbyterian Church, we do not consider baptism
a sign of salvation;
rather it is the mark that someone has become a member
of Christ’s holy catholic church, the church universal,
the church of Jesus Christ.
We think of it as the sign and seal of Christ.
Our Worship Directory puts it this way:
“In Baptism, we participate in Jesus’ death and resurrection.
In Baptism, we die to what separates us from God and
are raised to newness of life in Christ.
Baptism points us back to the grace of God
expressed in Jesus Christ,
who died for us and who was raised for us.”
W-2.3002

We do not baptize into a denomination:
so Myles was not baptized Presbyterian.
Myles was baptized as a Christian.
We believe baptism should be done once in one’s lifetime.
If you were to leave this church and join a Methodist Church,
then leave there and join a Lutheran Church,
and then leave there for a Roman Catholic Church,
your baptism would go with you,
just as it came with you
if you were baptized somewhere else
before you came to this church.

In the Presbyterian Church we baptize at any age.
For the first thousand years of the church,
baptism accompanied a public profession of faith.
You were not baptized until you were old enough
to be able to stand before a congregation
and profess your faith in Jesus Christ.
Infant baptism is something that we began doing
not long before the Reformation.
Some Protestant denominations still do not baptize infants;
they practice what is called believers baptism:
they wait until the believer is old enough
to profess his or her faith.

We split the two activities:
We baptize to mark the entry into the church universal,
Christ’s holy catholic church - catholic with a small “c”.
Public profession of faith comes when a person becomes
a member of the church.
We will be witnesses to that next Sunday
when the students in our Confirmation Class
publicly profess their faith and become members of this church.

Baptism is a sacrament for us,
one of the two we observe in the Presbyterian Church.
We treat Baptism with the seriousness it merits
as we baptize in the name of the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.

Over the past six years I have averaged
a telephone call every other month
from someone with no connection to the church
looking for someone to baptize a newborn child.
I always have a nice conversation with the person,
but the conversation usually ends
when I tell them that our Presbyterian constitution
requires that they be a part of this congregation
before we can think about baptizing a child.
A common dilemma ministers face is when
proud grandparents who are members of the church
announce that their daughter and son-in-law
will be visiting next month with their brand new baby
and wouldn’t it be wonderful
if we could baptize their new grandchild.
They explain that their daughter and her husband are
busy with work and just have not had time to find a church home,
in the community where they live,
and besides, the daughter grew up in this church.
The minister get portrayed as the bad guy when he says
that the parents of the child should first find
a church home for themselves and the child
and then think about baptism.

The family of the child should be participating regularly
in the life of this church before we baptize.
They do not have to be members,
but they need to be here, part of the life of this congregation.
It is the only way we all can keep our covenant as godparents,
and it is the only way we can take seriously
the parents’ commitment
that they will help the child know Jesus Christ.
and help their child to learn.

So how do we help Myles know Jesus Christ?
How do we honor the commitment we all just made?

The most obvious way is, of course, through Christian Education.
Through the church we provide Sunday School for all our children.
Our Christian Education program is something
everyone in the church should be involved with at some point.
Everyone should help in the classroom,
even just to sit in and be a helper for teacher.
It is a way for you to honor your commitment to every child
to help them know Jesus Christ.
It’s also a way for you to get to know our children.
And you might be surprised by
how much you learn in the classroom.

But even more important than our Sunday School
is the example you provide for our children.
In her book Real Kids, Real Faith:
Practices for Nurturing Children’s Spiritual Lives
Karen Marie Yust, tells us that we teach by modeling.
We help our children know Jesus Christ
by modeling the life of Christ in everything we say and do,
in how we live our lives.

Children, especially our youngest children, are so perceptive.
They pick up on body language, tones in voices,
They pick up on subtle changes in behavior.
Our children pick up on everything we do and say
as Disciples of Christ.
Our children pick up on everything we do
as individuals and as a congregation.
They know when we are sincere,
and they have extremely sensitive radar for hypocrisy.

It is why Jesus teaches us that it is by “our love for one another”
that we are known as his disciples.
Words go only so far,
Jesus wants action – all the time, 24/7.
Jesus does not teach us it is by our love for one another
on Sunday morning for an hour
that we are known as his disciples.
No: Jesus makes it absolute.

John re-emphasizes this point in his letter.
His letter is all about love.
Such a simple concept, yet one we make a hash of
with such gusto.
John writes,
“Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is from God;
whoever does not love,
does not know God.”

How clear is that?
How concise, to the point:
whoever does not love, does not know God.
There is nothing conditional about this.
No escape clauses,
no exceptions, no, “whoever does not love,
does not know God,
except on Friday evenings in rush hour traffic;
or while you are standing in the
express line at the grocery store;
or after church is over
or when money is involved.
or when you are angry,
or when feel you have been mistreated.”

It is simple:
act selfishly,
talk maliciously,
gossip about someone,
make unfounded statements,
act in anger,
act in pettiness,
act alone,
act with others,
and if you are not acting in love,
you have stopped knowing God,
you are no longer recognizable as a disciple of Christ.

You are no longer one of Myles’ teachers,
no longer living up to your part of the covenant
you just made with him;
no longer living up to the covenant
you have made with all the children in this church.

You can rationalize your actions and your words,
you can paint yourself as the victim,
but you cannot fool God,
and you cannot fool a child.
They will know when you are not acting in love,
they will know when you are not acting faithfully.

Here’s a quick test to see how well you are doing:
If you find yourself in a conversation with someone
and you are talking about another person,
think about how you might respond
if you suddenly realized that Jesus was standing
right behind you listening to your every word.
Would he approve of your words?
Your sentiments?
Would he approve of your actions?
Your motivations?
Would he say to you,
“well done, good and faithful servant”
Or would he say, “how is what you just said,
what you just did, a display of love?
How?
Show me. I am confused.
Explain to me.”
Jesus sets the bar high for each of us,
for all us.
And I don’t think he is fond of excuses.

Remember John’s words, “those who say, ‘I love God’
and hate their brothers and sisters are liars.”
For Jesus, hate is not so much an active act,
as it is the absence of love.
So, all it takes is for you not to love one person
and John would call you a liar.
All it takes is for you not to love one person
and Myles and every other child in this church
would lose a teacher.

The months ahead will provide you with an opportunity:
an opportunity to do some introspection,
to look deep within yourself and take stock.
That’s hard to do;
it is so much easier to look outward
and take stock of someone else;
but of course, our Lord would call that judging,
and he’s clear as can be on that one:
Do not judge, lest you be judged.

What we are called to do is look within ourselves;
what you are called to do is look within yourself.
look within yourself: take a hard look
see where you have fallen short,
taken the wrong path,
made your model for brotherhood Cain and Abel.

Then lift up a prayer to God
and ask him to do a little pruning,
ask him to clear away the weeds
that have begun to choke the vine
that connects you with God’s love in Christ.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another
as I have loved you. (John 15:12)
“We love, because God first loved us.”

Share that love;
show that love
with family, with friends,
with everyone here – yes everyone.
When you do that –
and ONLY when you do that
will you be modeling the love you have been given,
we have been given,
by God through Jesus Christ.
When you do that,
and ONLY when you that,
will you be a faithful teacher for Myles.
AMEN