Spin Cycle

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

January 30, 2011

Spin Cycle

Micah 6:1-8

Micah is one of those books in the Bible

we are none too keen to read from.

Micah sounds like a grumpy old man, a scold,

the kind of preacher who wears his reading glasses

well down his nose so he can glare with icy eyes,

at those he’s speaking to,

the index finger of his hand jabbing at the air

to make his point time and time again

as he speaks for God:

“Your wealthy are full of violence;

your people speak lies

with tongues of deceit in their mouths;

The faithful have disappeared;

There is no one left who is upright;

The powerful dictate what they desire and pervert justice;

The Lord God will be a witness against you.”

There must be a reason he’s lumped in with the “minor” prophets,

that he doesn’t have the standing of his contemporary Isaiah,

or Jeremiah or Ezekiel.

Read through the seven short chapters of the book

and it all sounds so terribly,… terribly,

well, so terribly Old Testament.

Much better to skip over a book like this,

and go right to the New Testament;

Or, better yet, look through the Bible

and find only those passages that promise us

riches and comfort as  sign of God’s blessing.

The prosperity gospel: that’s what we want to hear.

Who wants to hear from a curmudgeon?

Especially on a cold winter’s morning.

        

But the book of Micah is just as much the inspired Word of God

as every other book in the Bible,

and this Old Testament prophet has much to teach us in 2011.

Indeed, this book is so extraordinarily timely,

a wonderful reminder that the Bible is never dated,

but always a timeless book,

truly the inspired Word of God,

the fresh breeze of the Holy Spirit blowing through every page,

God speaking to us as though the words

had just been texted to us moments ago.

Let’s go back in time,

back more than 2700 years,

back to the land of Israel,

more than 700 years before the birth of our Lord,

more than 700 years before the first Christmas.

It’s been two hundred years since the end of Solomon’s reign,

when Solomon’s son Rehoboam succeeded his father,

and showed himself to be corrupt, cold,

brutal and ruthless.

The first words to his people as their King were:

“my father made your yoke heavy,

but I will add to your yoke;

my father disciplined you with whips,

but I will discipline you with scorpions.”

(1 Kings 12:14)

Each king who followed over the next two hundred years

seemed intent on showing the people

that he could be more ruthless, more corrupt,

more utterly faithless than the king before him.

After two centuries years of corruption

two centuries of faithlessness,

God slammed his fist down on the altar and said, “Enough!”

Speaking through the prophet Micah,

God confronted his children,

“Rise, plead your case before the mountains,

and let the hills hear your voice.

Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord,

and you enduring foundations of the earth;

for the Lord has a controversy with his people

and he will contend with Israel.” (6:1-2)

The response from the people was typical of humankind:

Words to the effect of, “Who? Us?

What have we done to upset you, O Lord?

Haven’t we made our sacrifices at the Temple?

Don’t our priests make you proud with their services?

They’ve developed such wonderful rites and rituals over the years,

elaborate, all designed to show you

that we’ll spare no expense to honor you.”

But God wasn’t the least bit impressed,

responding with such chilling words:

“I hate, I despise your festivals

and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

Even though you offer me your burnt offerings

and your grain offerings, I will not accept them…

Take away from me the noise of your songs.

I will not listen to the melody of your harps.”

(Amos 5:21ff)

Not surprisingly, the people reacted to these words with anger,

rage directed, of course, not at God,

and certainly not at themselves,

but at the prophets for daring to say such things to them.

The people were blind to their faults and their failures,

blind to their disobedience,

oblivious to how far they’d strayed from the will of God.

Had they responded,

their words would most likely have been glib:

“What’s got you so upset God?

We’re actually feeling pretty good about ourselves;

our businesses our prospering;

many of us are making a lot of money;

Our woman dress in exquisite fabrics

from the far corners of the world –

our nation is exceptional:

aren’t these all signs of your blessings?

Perhaps you can be specific about your concerns

exactly where you think we’ve gone wrong.”

And while the people didn’t say that,

God was specific, to the point,

straight to the heart of the matter

as he spoke through his prophets:

“You are so quick to lie,

your mouths flow with words of deceit;

You are dishonest and unethical at your businesses;

The rich and the powerful among you covet fields and seize them,

taking houses that don’t belong to them,

throwing the powerless and the poor on the street.”

(2:2; 2:9)

“You mock and disdain those who seek peace” (2:8)

Your children are corrupt; (Isaiah 1:4)

You mix water with your wine;

your leaders are faithless and companions of thieves;

everyone loves a bribe and runs after a gift.

(Isaiah 1:22)

You live lives of comfort and leisure

and show no concern for the poor or the oppressed.”

(Amos 6)

“Shall I continue?

Are you listening to me, the Lord your God?

or have you stopped your ears?

If you have any decency within you,

stand and hear my words:

You know nothing of justice.

You know nothing of compassion.

You know nothing of humility.

You know nothing of righteousness.”

“I didn’t bring you out of the land of Egypt,

out of slavery,

I didn’t make you my children

so you could live easy, comfortable lives.

I made you my children

so you would bring glory to me by your lives,

by your words,

everything you do.

“I said it this way through my prophet Amos:

‘Let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’.”

(Amos 5:24)

“I said through my prophet Isaiah:

‘Cease to do evil,

learn to do good;

Seek justice,

rescue the orphan,

plead for the widow’.”

(Isaiah 1:16)

“Do you understand now?

Do you understand what I expect from you,

my children?

Do Justice;

Love kindness;

Walk humbly with me your God.”

“My children, you seem confused

by what I mean by the term ‘justice’.

I mean the term in the broadest sense;

not just legal justice, what happens in a courtroom

I want you to seek moral justice,

economic justice;

health justice,

environmental justice,

social justice.

Why do so many mock those who even speak the words,

‘social justice’?

They mock me!”

“Have you heard how often I speak of the orphan?

The widow?

The oppressed?

Those who don’t have enough food,

those who lack housing?

My expectation is that you will seek justice

for every one of those individuals

until there is no more injustice.”

“Someone who cannot find work;

someone who is in danger of losing a home

someone who may be working but earning such a low wage

that he or she cannot feed their family

or provide adequate shelter:

that’s injustice,

and I expect you to correct it.

Charity is good, but charity alone doesn’t root out injustice,

and that’s what I want from you:

an end to all injustice.”

                                            

“Justice begins with your leaders,

and when Solomon took the throne,

I spoke through the Psalmist of my expectations for him

and all leaders with these words:

Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to a king’s son.

May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice.
…May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the needy,
and crush the oppressor.

… In his days may righteousness flourish
and peace abound….

For he delivers the needy when they call,
the poor and those who have no helper.

He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and saves the lives of the needy.

From oppression and violence he redeems their life;

and precious is their blood in his sight.

…Long may he live!”

(Psalm 72)

“You business people and merchants:

can’t you run your businesses honestly,

or is it that you are either that corrupt or that incapable

that you have to keep your finger on the scale

for even the smallest sale?

You property owners who foreclose to seize homes and land:

Do you think I consider it just that you put a person

on the street, in the cold and damp

to protect your investment?”

                                                                       

“I hear your voices, but I hear almost no one speaking of justice;

Who is talking of compassion for the needy;

Who is talking of feeding the hungry?

Who is talking of healing the sick?

If that’s not what you are talking about

then you are not talking of justice;

you are not talking of eliminating injustice.

Your excuses are only so much spin

and your constant cycle of spin is of no interest to me.”

“Remember, I the Lord your God have the last word.

I can punish you and,

and if you push me to the limit,

I will punish you,

so hear my words of what could happen to you:

You shall eat but not be satisfied,

and there shall be a gnawing hunger within you;

You shall put away but not save;

You shall sow but not reap

You shall tread grapes but not drink wine.

…you shall bear the scorn of my people.”

(Micah 6:14)

“This is the future that awaits you

if you fail to live up to my expectations.

Beware, ‘All you who are wise in your own eyes,

and shrewd in your own sight.’

(Isaiah 5:21).

“My children, it is time to start seeking justice,

time to start doing justice,

time to start rooting out injustice

everywhere, anywhere.

It is time for you to work for kindness and compassion,

It is time for you to walk a little more humbly.”

These are not the words of a cranky, angry prophet

who lived 2700 years ago.

These are the timeless words of the Lord our God,

who speaks them to you and me even today.

As our Lord Jesus reminds us,

“Not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord”

will enter the Kingdom of Heaven,

but only the one who does the will of my Father in Heaven.”

(Matthew 7:21)

Let anyone with ears to hear listen,

for as difficult as these words might be to hear,

they are the Word of the Lord.

AMEN

The Heeling Spirit

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

January 16, 2011

The Heeling Spirit

Galatians 5:22-25

You sit there on the edge of the boat,

hand on the tiller, looking up at the sails

hanging limp in the calm,

not even a whisper of a breeze to move them.

The water is flat,

the boat not moving on the surface.

You’ve been sailing long enough to know

that all you can do is wait;

every sailor knows the importance of patience.

There’s nothing you can do about the wind.

And then, sure enough,

you feel a tickle on the back of your neck

and then the herald of a new wind washes over you.

You know just by its feel that a good breeze is coming.

Moments later the sails snap and crack with life

filling out with the wind coming from the west.

You trim the mainsail and the jib

and the boat begins to move through the water.

Your hand is steady on the tiller as you adjust your course

to capture the wind;

The breeze grows stronger by the minute,

and you think to yourself,

“This will be a good run” as the boat picks up speed,

cutting smoothly and silently through the waters.

What started as a breeze is now a steady wind

and the boat’s windward side,

the side you are sitting on,

rises out of the water as the boat heels on its side.

This is the best part of sailing,

the exhilaration as the boat heels,

the mast pitching away from the wind,

dipping down toward the surface of the water,

the boat racing on its very edge

sails tight to the wind,

the leeward gunwale inches above the water,

the bow knifing through the seas.

You secure your feet under the hiking straps

and lean backward into the wind,

out over the water,

the boat, you, and the wind in perfect balance,

as you skim the water’s surface.

                                   

A motorboat might get you there faster.

A rowboat is never at the mercy of the wind.

But there is nothing to compare with the exuberance,

the sheer joy of sailing.

Getting to the destination is not the point;

living in each moment of the journey –

that’s what sailing is all about.

Last weekend as our officers gathered

for our annual retreat at Meadowkirk,

Lois Stovall, our facilitator,

led us through a wonderful exercise

asking us whether we considered ourselves to be

a “Rowboat Church” or a “Sailboat Church”.

The metaphor came from a book written by Joan Gray,

a Presbyterian pastor

who served as Moderator of the PCUSA’s

General Assembly a few years back.

(Spiritual Leadership for Church Officers)

Gray defines a Rowboat Church

as a place focused on doing:

leaders set agendas,

develop plans

and then everyone gets to work:

“The boat is here, but our destination is there;

everyone into the boat;

everyone pull on the oars.

With strength and determination,

we will reach our destination.”

In a Sailboat Church, leaders discuss goals,

and set agendas as leaders in the Rowboat Church do.

But leaders in a Sailboat Church know

they will not reach their goal, their destination

just by strength and determination,

just by pulling at the oars.

Leaders in a Sailboat Church know

that the wind will determine

when they will arrive at their goal;

the wind will determine even if they will arrive there;

the wind will determine whether they might find themselves

sailing to a different destination.                                    

A Sailboat Church is powered by the Holy Spirit.

In a Rowboat Church questions that shape the agenda include:

What can we do?

What is possible for us to take on?

Do we have the resources to make this happen?

the money, the people, the wherewithal

If we do, then let’s get to work.

if we don’t, then we cannot do it.

In a Sailboat Church, the leaders begin with the conviction

that “God can do more than we can ask or imagine.”

The leaders in a Sailboat Church see themselves

as part of a continuing adventure with God

who leads them,

empowering them to do more than they ever could imagine.

Leaders of a Sailboat Church understand

that the strength of arms, backs, and lungs has limits,

but the power of God through the Holy Spirit

knows no limits, knows no bounds.

Gray writes,

“Leaders of a Sailboat Church begin their work with the question,

‘What is God leading us to be:

What is God leading us to do now?’

They operate firm in their faith

that that the God who calls

is also the God who provides.”

(Spiritual Leadership, 19)

It is not a perfect metaphor, Rowboat or Sailboat,

but it does capture well

the struggle the leaders of every church face.

It is so easy to go about the business of the church

in the same way we go about our business

in every other setting,

confident that hard work and determination,

pulling hard on the oars,

will make us successful.

We don’t overlook God in our work, of course,

but we make God “a tame confederate,”

as the poet Robert Browning put it:

We ask for a blessing

before we shove the rowboat in the water,

and offer a prayer of thanksgiving

when we reach our destination,

but otherwise don't think of God as a partner in our journey.

It is much easier to be a Rowboat Church;

It is more comfortable to be a Rowboat Church:

In a rowboat we’re in control;

we provide the power,

we set the bow toward the destination

and head straight for it.

In a Sailboat Church we may find the breeze is stilled

and our boat calm in the water.

We may find the wind gusting,

pushing us at breakneck speed,

the boat heeling at a frightening angle.

We may find that we have to tack back and forth,

back and forth,

sailing twice as many miles to reach our destination.

We may find ourselves pushed to a completely different place

than where we thought we were headed.

But we are called to be a Sailboat Church,

opening ourselves to the the Spirit to guide us

and provide us with direction and the power.

A Sailboat Church is place filled with people

attuned to the Holy Spirit,

people working at discernment,

where God is calling us,

leading us,

guiding us.

The very essence of what our officers do,

especially our Elders, is discernment.

It is easy to overlook that responsibility, though.

Read through our Book of Order

and it sounds like Elders are charged

with a long list of managerial and supervisory tasks:

prepare the budget, manage the property,

oversee the Christian Education program,

and so on.

Elders do have those responsibilities, and more.

But even before we get to those responsibilities,

Elders are called,

“to seek together to find and represent the will of Christ...”

(G-4.0301-d)

In other words, the first and most important responsibility

is discernment.

The Book of Order tells us that Elders are

“to lead the congregation continually

 to discover what God is doing in the world

and plan for change,

renewal,

and reformation under the Word of God.”

Each of our Elders is called to be like the sailor

who watches the sky constantly,

checking the telltales up in the stays,

vigilant to the ever-changing nature of the wind.

Our Elders need to be pentecostal,

men and women filled with the power of the same Holy Spirit

who came upon the apostles so long ago

in that famous story we find in Acts.

Each time we ordain Elders and Deacons

with the “laying on of hands,”

as we just did a few moment ago,

we witness a ritual that goes all the way back

to the original apostles.

It is a thread that ties our newest officers

with those we read about in the New Testament

who found themselves strengthened and energized

by God’s Holy Spirit,

followers of Jesus Christ “ablaze with the glory of God.”

(Charles Raven)

Our officers, Elders and Deacons alike

should be pentecostal just like the first apostles,

“ablaze with the glory of God.”

In fact we are all called to be pentecostal.

We should all be living by the Spirit,

guided by the Spirit,

as Paul reminds us.

Even Peter understood telling followers

“let yourselves be built into a spiritual house”

(1 Peter 2:4-5)

Each of us a spiritual house,

and together we are called to build this church

as a spiritual house,

a Sailboat Church,

with Jesus at the helm,

the Spirit gracing us with power,

every one of us on deck,

each of us doing whatever task

the Spirit equips us and calls us to do

to keep the boat trim and sailing smoothly

in fair weather or foul.

The Heeling Spirit –

that’s “heeling” with two “es” -

has called men and women from among us

to serve as our officers, our leaders:

our Elders and Deacons.

Now the Heeling Spirit is calling all of us

to work together to build this church

as a spiritual house,

as a “Sailboat Church.”

Can you feel the wind as it fills our sails?

Can you hear the Spirit calling each of us:

“All hands on deck.”

AMEN

A Tarnished Rule

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

January 2, 2011

A Tarnished Rule

Matthew 7:12

“In everything do to others

as you would have them do to you;

for this is the law the prophets.”

There they were, Jesus and the twelve

gathered in that Upper Room,

gathered to eat the Passover meal together,

to do as Scripture had taught them,

to remember that night more than a thousand years earlier

when their ancestors in faith

had been released from bondage in Egypt,

to remember that night

when God had freed them from slavery.

Jesus looked around the table at his disciples,

the twelve he had chosen –

they were a motley crew,

each man in the dim light of that room

looking more like an unmade bed,

than a leader of the children of God.

Peter, whom Jesus may have called his rock,

but who also tried Jesus’ patience constantly,

and who would shortly deny even knowing him.

Matthew the tax collector,

a job whose chief qualification was a larcenous heart,

a willingness to put the squeeze on anyone

no matter what their circumstances.

 

James and John:

could either of them walk past a mirror

without looking at themselves?

Their immaturity and insecurity

so obvious in their concern for themselves,

how they were perceived,

their image.

Around the table, one flawed man after another

in that stuffy room

heavy with the smoke from the olive-oil lamps.

Who could possibly love such a group?

And yet Jesus did;

he loved them, every one of them.

He loved them even though

he knew that one would betray him

and the rest would flee from him within a matter of hours.

And so he took a loaf of bread,

and blessed it, and broke it

and gave it to them saying,

“This is my body given for you.”

And then he offered them the cup saying,

“This cup that is poured out for you

is the new covenant in my blood.”

(Luke 22:19)

“Take,

eat, drink:        

my brothers,

my friends.”

Each time we gather at the Lord’s Table

we remember that Last Supper

as we gather as Jesus did with his disciples.

Jesus is still at the head of the Table,

and we disciples fill in around the Table

each of us coming to this Table

in the same way that rumpled twelve did so long ago.

We come to this Table with all our strengths,

and we come to this Table with all our weaknesses,

all our flaws:

the obvious ones,

and the ones we try to keep well hidden.

Yet our flaws don’t matter to the One who invites us,

for we come to this Table loved by our Lord Jesus Christ,

loved without question, without condition.

Jesus, who knows us better than we know ourselves,

who sees us for what and who we really are,

stretches out his arms in welcome,

calling us to this Table:

“Come my sister;

Come my brother;

Come my friend.”

“Welcome”, he says to you and me.

“Welcome. Take a seat at my table.

Yes, I know your sins, your shortcomings,

even those things you try so hard to hide from me.

But nothing about you diminishes my love for you.

So come: take your seat.”

And we do, you and I,

take our seats,

and eat our meal together,

all of us together in community.

We gather to eat the bread of life,

and drink from the cup of salvation.

This spiritual meal nourishes us,

refreshes us,

renews us for service in the name of Jesus Christ,

readies us to go back out into the world,

out into the world,

taking Jesus out of the manger,

out of Christmas pageants,

out of sanctuaries and steepled buildings,

taking him out and through our actions and words,

“letting Jesus show,”

(Buechner)

show in all his glory to all the world.

You and I show Jesus to the world,

let Jesus show,

by following our text,

that simple sentence which we call the Golden Rule,

that rule many, perhaps most, of us learned in kindergarten:

if you want someone to be nice to you,

you’d better be nice to them;

if you want someone to share their toys with you,

you’d better learn to share your toys with them.

It is a Rule we call the Golden Rule

but which probably should be called the Tarnished Rule;

tarnished because we don’t live it,

tarnished because we don’t let Jesus show

as Jesus wants us to.

We followers of Christ,

we can be so judgmental,

so self-centered,

so self-righteous,

so determined to define Christ in ways that suit us

that fit us,

transforming Christ to our needs,

rather than letting Christ transform us.

We fail to live by the Golden Rule,

when we fail to treat others as we want to be treated:

when we fail to treat others with kindness,

with dignity, with respect.

with goodness, with empathy;

when we fail to treat others with compassion.

Compassion is the foundation of the Golden Rule,

compassion – putting ourselves in the shoes of another,

making an effort to understand how they live,

what they think,

why they think and act as they do.

The writer Karen Armstrong has developed a

 “Charter for Compassion”

(http://charterforcompassion.org/)

as a way to transcend denominations, faith practices,

languages, cultures, national borders

with a call to live by the Golden Rule.

The Golden Rule is not unique to Christians, of course;

we can find variations on the same theme

in almost every faith, every culture

going back even before the birth of Christ.

To live a compassionate life is not just being nice,

putting a smiley face on our actions,

telling everyone to “have a nice day”.

To live a compassionate life is to live a life of action,

of outreach.

The Charter puts it this way:

“Compassion impels us to work tirelessly

to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures,

to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world

and put another there,

and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being,

treating everybody,

without exception, with absolute justice,

equity and respect.”

                                            

To live by the brightly burnished gold of Jesus’ teaching,

to live a truly compassionate life is not easy. 

We find the Golden Rule in Matthew’s Gospel

near the very end of the Sermon on the Mount,

spoken by Jesus not as one last rule to write down,

but more as a summary of the almost two thousand words

he had spoken of how he calls us to live.

In Luke’s version of the Sermon,

his Sermon on the Plain,

we find the Rule at the end of an almost

impossible charge to us from Jesus:

“But I say to you that listen,

Love your enemies,

do good to those who hate you,

bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also;

and from anyone who takes away your coat

do not withhold even your shirt.

Give to everyone who begs from you;

and if anyone takes away your goods,

do not ask for them again.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?

For even sinners love those who love them.”

(Luke 6:27ff))

As we begin our New Year together,

our 144^th year as Manassas Presbyterian Church,

let’s polish the Golden Rule,

burnish it brightly as we recommit ourselves

to lives of compassion in the name of Jesus Christ.

Lives of compassion

letting Jesus show in our every act,

our every word.

Our host invites us to his Table

but before we eat,

he would teach us:

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Love one another as I have loved you.”

This is more than the Law and the Prophets;

This is the Word of the Lord

from the Word who is Lord.

AMEN