What? Something! When? Now!

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

April 29, 2012

What? Something! When? Now!

Matthew 25:14-18

The white cloth covering the Lord’s Table,

the white pulpit-hanging in front of me,

the white stoles the choir and I wear --

all serve to remind us that we are still in Easter,

that Easter is not just a Sunday that rolls around once a year,

a joy-filled day that comes and goes,

but a season in the church.

Where Advent lasts four weeks,

and we walk through Lent over 40 days,

the Easter season runs for fifty days.

It will end this year on May 27: Pentecost Sunday,

Pentecost,

when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples,

releasing them from bondage to fear,

filling them with courage,

empowering them,

enabling them to go out into the world boldly

to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We are still a month away from Pentecost, though,

still in the in-between time,

the time when the disciples were still frozen with fear,

still filled with uncertainty.

What the disciples did during those fifty days isn’t clear.

Matthew tells us that the 11 went to Galilee

to wait for Jesus to come to them,

to appear to them following his resurrection.

(Matthew 28:16)

Mark tells us nothing of what happened to the disciples

following the death of Jesus.

(I do not include either the “Shorter or Longer Ending”)

Luke tells us that Jesus appeared to the disciples

that first Easter night,

while they were still hiding behind locked doors in Jerusalem,

and that they then remained in Jerusalem,

to await the coming of the Spirit.

In John’s gospel Jesus first appears to the disciples

in Jerusalem,

and then again on the shore of

the Sea of Galilee as they fished.

The stories may differ but the end result is the same:

The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples,

the original 11 and Matthias as Judas’ replacement.

The Spirit breathed new life into the men,

and they were then sent out into the world

to spread the good news,

and to serve in the name of Jesus Christ.

This is not just the disciples’s story;

it is our story, too,

for we too have been graced

with the power of the Holy Spirit,

every one of us,

given the Spirit in exactly the same way

it was given to the 12:

to free us from fear and hesitancy,

to empower us,

to grace us with courage and wisdom,

to enable us to do, just as the disciples did,

to go out and share the good news

of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

to share the love God gives us through Christ,

to live as Jesus calls us to live:

with mercy and forgiveness,

as we work to build the Kingdom.

“Feed my lambs;

Tend my sheep;

Feed my sheep;”

That’s what the Risen Christ said to an utterly confused Peter

as they ate fish together in the early morning light

by a smoky fire burning on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

“As the Father has sent me,

so I now send you”

(John 20 & 21)

Jesus says these words to us, too.

It is not enough that we gather on Sunday morning

to worship and praise God.

We gather here to be renewed and refreshed for service,

to spend an hour preparing ourselves to serve

all the other hours that will fill our week,

to prepare ourselves to serve in our vocations,

at school,

in our neighborhoods and communities,

through our involvement in our larger society,

and of course, through our activities

here within our church.

The Spirit has given us each gifts, every one of us,

And, as Paul teaches us in his letter to the Corinthians:

“… there are varieties of gifts,

…and there are varieties of services,

…and there are varieties of activities,

but it is the same God who activates all of them

in everyone.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit

for the common good.”

(1 Corinthians 12:4-7)

We are given the manifestation of the Spirit

for the common good.

We are to use our gifts and talents

to build the Body of Christ,

to build the Kingdom of God.

In our lesson, the master summons his servants

and gives them talents: five to the first,

two to the second, one to the third.

In Jesus’ day, a talent was money,

in fact, it was an enormous sum of money:

One talent was the equivalent of 15 years’ pay

for an average laborer.

Giving five talents to the first servant

was like giving any of us millions of dollars.

It isn’t the dollar value that matters, though.

What Jesus wants us to learn is that

the master gave each servant talent in abundance;

that the master graced each servant

with extraordinary generosity.

Now, we’d think that after doling out all those talents,

the master would then tell each servant,

“Here’s what I want you to do with the talents

I’ve just given you.

Use them just as I tell you.”

But he doesn’t do that;

the master leaves it to each servant

to decide for himself

what he will do with the talents given him.

The first two don’t hesitate;

they take the initiative

and put the talents  to use immediately,

making more in the process,

making more not to benefit themselves,

but to benefit their master,

the one who’d given them the talents in the first place.

Their focus was not on their own enrichment,

but on taking what their master had given them,

and using them in a way

that would honor and benefit their master,

doing so to the best of their ability,

each of them.

The third servant doesn’t seize the initiative,

doesn’t put the talent given him to work.

In fairness to him, he doesn’t squander it either.

The servant simply puts the talent aside in a safe place,

to be returned unused to the Master.

The servant chooses to do nothing with the talent

so freely and generously given him.

Now, what do you suppose

Jesus wants us to learn from this parable?

Certainly one lesson is that

God the Master graces us with talents in abundance.

And another lesson is that God calls us to use our talents,

to put our talents to work,

to take initiative and use our talents

for the benefit of our Master,

to the glory of the Lord our God.

In her book “Christianity After Religion”,

Diana Butler Bass reminds us that believing,

having faith, proclaiming faith;

this is only the beginning,

that having been graced with faith by the Holy Spirit,

we are to act on our faith as we live out our faith.

We are to do that in the world all around us, of course,

as we put our talents to work in the world.

But we also are to put our talents to work

here in our church,

each of us helping to do the work Jesus,

the Head of our Church,

calls us to do.

This is why we are updating our Time and Talent database,

and asking everyone to fill out a new Time & Talent form.

There is an old aphorism that says that in most churches

20% of the people do 80% of the work.

It is very easy to become a church like that,

but that’s not what the Head of our Church wants.

Jesus wants everyone to be involved –

after all, it is his church.

He wants each of us to put the talents our Father in Heaven

has given us to work for the glory of God.

To work for God in our vocations,

in our family lives,

and here in this Body of Christ.

If you are one of those folks who filled out

a Time & Talent form the last time we did this

and then found that no one contacted you,

fear not,

and complain not!

We know that happened,

but that was also five years ago,

and the Session and the Stewardship Ministry Team

are committed to seeing to it

that if you fill out a form and return it,

someone will call you,

someone will follow up

and invite you to put your talents to work

for this Church,

for our Lord.  

What should you do within this church?

That depends upon the abilities and talents

God has given you through the Holy Spirit.

You should do something;

Jesus expects that of you;

The Holy Spirit will help you to discern just what it is

you are called to do.

Butler Bass calls on us to look on what we do

here at the church not as work, not as a task,

but as ministry in the name of Christ.

She provides a wonderful example in the person

who sets up the Lord’s Table for worship.

That’s a job that seems to combine equally tedious parts of

kitchen work, serving, and washing up.

Not very interesting, not very inviting.

No wonder we struggle to find volunteers

for our Chancel Guild.

But Butler Bass encourages the person called to the task

to approach it as though he or she

were standing in the sandals of Peter,

asked by Christ himself to prepare his table

for the meal to which all the world is invited,

friend and stranger alike,

to which all who come will find refreshment, renewal,

community and acceptance,

hope and peace,

grace, and love.

Looked at this way,

what seemed like a tedious task

glows brightly as ministry with and for Jesus himself.

Everything we do here is ministry:

ministry with Jesus,

ministry through Jesus,

ministry for Jesus,

our Lord, our leader.

The parable in our lesson, like all Jesus’ parables,

isn’t just a winsome story for us to hear.

Parables call us to action,

to move us to respond.

What will you do here in this church

this Body of Christ

to serve our Lord more faithfully with the talents given you

so generously by God?

Take your form,

and spend a few minutes first in prayer,

and then fill it out, and then return it.

And even if,

in fact especially if,

no one calls,

find me,

find Lois Roy, chair of our Stewardship Team,

find the chair of the team

you feel called to be part of

and say simply and boldly,

“I am ready to put my talents to work for Christ.”

AMEN

Selective Interpretation

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

April 15, 2012

Selective Interpretation

Isaiah 55:12

Four million.

That’s a big number

4,000,000

We are a congregation of four hundred.

Four million would be

10,000 Manassas Presbyterian Churches.

Four million.

That’s the number of plastic bottles

we’ll go through in this country…

in the next hour.

Four million plastic bottles per hour:

water bottles,

Coke bottles,

Pepsi bottles,

Iced-tea bottles -

Four million bottles

every hour,

more than 30 billion in a year,

just in this country.

Plastic bottles–

made from petroleum,

the same oil we turn into gasoline

and heat our homes with.

Thirty billion plastic bottles,

and most of them will end up in landfill,

garbage dumps,

buried in the ground,

adding to the small mountains like the one

just south of my home out 234 –

the Prince William County Landfill.

Some things break down and decompose quickly in landfills

but not plastic.

Dig up the landfill one hundred years from now,

and you’d still find that bottle of Coke, Pepsi,

or Poland Spring you had last week.

Plastic bottles are easy to recycle,

but we are a throw-away culture;

when we are done with something

we toss it in the garbage.

Only about a quarter of the 30 billion plastic bottles

we will use this year will be recycled.

Check the garbage cans around our church

from time to time and you’ll see that even here,

even with recycling containers

too much plastic ends up in the garbage can.

For decades the very word “environmentalism”

has been tainted,

branded as something that lures only radicals,

leftists, socialists,

“tree-huggers;”

something that gets in the way of progress,

jobs,

a growing economy,

something that is vaguely un-American.

Up until a few years ago among the groups

most resistant to embracing environmentalism,

most vocal in condemning it,

were church groups:

men and women of faith,

children of God,

followers of Jesus Christ.

For decades we stood firmly,

resolutely, behind the language we find

at the very beginning of the Bible,

in the very first chapter of Genesis,

in the first of the two creation stories –

when God said to the man and woman he created,

“fill the earth and subdue it;

and have dominion over the fish of the sea

and over the birds of the air

and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

(Genesis 1:28)

“Subdue the earth”;

“Have dominion” over all living creatures.

We’ve read these passages as God giving us power,

God giving us license to do with this earth as we pleased,

to do with every creature as we pleased.

We may use the earth for our benefit

and without regard to consequences.

It has only been in the past few years that we’ve realized

that we’ve been guilty of selective reading,

selective interpretation of God’s word to us

as it comes to us through Scripture.

We now understand that God did not give us license

to do whatever we want to the earth.

We now understand that this earth is God’s,

God’s creation,

and that God has entrusted its care to us,

that we have been called by God

to look after this earth for God,

for ourselves,

for all creatures,

and for all those who will come long after us.

        

The Hebrew word we translate as “dominion”

doesn’t mean power;

it means “responsibility”.

In giving us dominion, God has given us responsibility

for all living creatures:

the birds in the air,

the fish in the sea,

everything in God’s creation.

It has only been in the past few years

that a growing number of men and women,

boys and girls in churches of all different denominations

have begun to understand our call as children of God

to creation care,

creation stewardship.

We understand that not to care for God’s creation

is to live the sin of self-indulgence,

the sin of irresponsibility,

the sin of faithlessness.

The Psalmist helps us to understand with his words,

“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,
the world, and those who live in it;”

(Psalm 24)

“The earth is the Lord’s,

and all that is in it.”

The oceans, the mountains,

the rivers, the trees, the animals,

everything:

it is all the Lord’s.

God the Creator,

God the Author,

God the Owner.

God himself tells us that we are but tenants

and that the very land on which we walk

belongs to God.

(Leviticus 25:23)

The Psalmist teaches us the song we should all be singing:

“May the glory of the Lord endure for ever;

may the Lord rejoice in his works—

The glory of God—let it last forever!

Let God enjoy his creation!”

(Psalm 104:31)

But how can God enjoy his creation,

when we fill the earth with our garbage,

our four million plastic bottles each hour?

How can God enjoy his creation when we rip apart mountains

and leave behind toxic debris

all so we can get at a seam of coal?

How can God enjoy his creation

when we pump hundreds of millions of tons of poison

into the atmosphere

from our cars, our trucks, our factories?

We tell God we do these things in the name of progress,

that what we are doing provides jobs and opportunity.

But God sees through our rationalization,

our greed,

our self-indulgence;

We cannot hide our faithlessness from God

as we foul his creation.

Do you suppose that God is proud of us

that we  are the #1 trash-producing country in the world,

that we are 5% of the world’s population

yet we generate 40% of the world’s waste?

Do you suppose God is proud of us

that we have had to fight for every major effort

to clean up the environment over the past 40 years?

Do suppose God is proud of us

that our default position is to deny we need to do anything

that we put our own needs, wants and desires first,

and God’s creation, second.

“Use the resources I have given you,

the oil, the coal, the timber,

the air, the water,”

God surely says to us.

“But use them wisely,

use them responsibly, carefully;

In taking them from my Creation,

do no harm,

and remember your responsibility

to me,

to all living creatures,

and to the generations to come.”

There was a wonderful article in yesterday’s paper

(New York Times, April 14, 2012)

about the partnership Wal-Mart has forged with

the Environmental Defense Fund

to reduce the amount of waste Wal-Mart generates as a company,

and to find other ways for the company

to be responsible stewards of God’s earth.

For years the company has had a dismal reputation

within the environmental community,

as an organization that focused only on profit,

and never cared about its impact on the environment.

The company’s senior executives admit

their motivation isn’t altruistic:

but they have learned,

with help from the folks at the Environmental Defense Fund,

that reducing waste and working to be “green”

is good for the company’s bottom line.

The Environmental Defense Fund

is one of the oldest and largest

environmental advocacy organizations in this country

and it has been out in the forefront building partnerships

with a growing number of companies

to help the companies find ways to reduce waste,

to learn to be better stewards of our earth,

all in ways that can benefit the company

even as they benefit earth:

a win:win situation.

(for more information see

http://www.edf.org/approach/partnerships)

Jesus teaches us,

“From everyone to whom much has been given,

much will be required;

and from one to whom much has been entrusted,

even more will be demanded.

(Luke 12:48)

You and I have been given much in this magnificent earth,

and much is required of us in return:

to care for this creation that feeds us,

shelters us, nourishes us,

protects us:

God’s creation.

God has entrusted this earth to us,

and in turn expects us to care for his creation.

We are to care for it not just to satisfy ourselves,

our own needs,

but in such a way

that, as our lesson teaches us,

the mountains and hills burst into song,

the trees of the field clap their hands

as they join in the music that we hear only in part,

the great chorus of praise

that all creation sings to the glory of God,

to the glory of our Creator.

Our ears may not hear the mountains sing

or the trees clapping;

we may even laugh at the idea that Isaiah writes of,

but let’s ask ourselves:

why wouldn’t God create everything on this earth

with the capability to sing its praises to its Creator?

                                   

And if God can hear the song his creation sings,

then surely God can also hear the cries of agony and anguish

coming from his creation

as we poison God’s oceans, lakes and rivers,

as we bury our garbage under God’s hills,

as we foul God’s air. 

A recent article in the Christian Century,

calls on us to look at creation

with our first thought always,

“How can I honor God in my use of this place,

this part of creation for which I have responsibility?”

If I am to cut down trees,

or mine for minerals,

or drill for gas and oil,

how can I do so in a way

that minimizes my impact on God’s creation?

How can I live my life in a way

that preserves the beauty and majesty of God’s creation

for the generations that will come?

The article sets before us the very harsh reality

that we are the only creature who has the ability

 to “destroy our own kind,

other kinds,

and even the creation itself.”

(“Behold The Hippo”, by Calvin DeWitt, April 18, 2012)

Four million plastic bottles every hour.

What are we as faithful stewards of God’s earth to do?

The first step is to embrace our call to creation care;

to realize that environmental stewardship

is not a political matter,

it is how we are called to live our faith.

It is to live our lives remembering that

the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.

    

It is to remember that much has been given to us,

and so much is expected of us.

                      

It is to live our lives assuring that all God’s creation

sings its song of praise to its Creator,

a chorus we are only a part of,

that our Lord may always rejoice in his works,

that the glory of God will shine brightly

forever and ever.

AMEN

Beginning, Belonging, Being

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

April 8, 2012

Easter Sunday

Beginning, Belonging, Being

Luke 24:1-12

Jesus betrayed,

arrested,

brought before Pilate,

handed over as the crowds shouted,

“Crucify! Crucify!”

                                   

Jesus beaten,

nailed to a cross,

left to die in agony as a common criminal

on that notorious hill called Golgotha.

Jesus alone,

the disciples hiding behind locked doors,

fearing for their own lives,

even Peter so afraid that he denied knowing Jesus,

not just once, but three times.

Jesus dead,

his limp body hanging from the ropes and nails.

It was left to a man named Joseph from Arimathea

to take Jesus’ body down from the cross,

to wrap it gently in linen and place it in a tomb,

a tomb Joseph had prepared for himself.

The day after Jesus’ crucifixion and death was the Sabbath,

but could any of Jesus’ followers even think of worship

when all of them were overwhelmed with despair and fear?

On the third day, Sunday morning,

even before the sun rose over the horizon,

Mary Magdalene set out for the tomb

intent on completing the job Joseph had begun.

The disciples may have felt compelled to hide

but she was determined to anoint Jesus’ body properly,

to prepare the body as Jewish ritual demanded.

In John’s gospel she is alone,

but Luke tells us that she has the company of

Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others.

They find the tomb empty,

horrified to find the great stone

 that had covered the entrance,

rolled away,

the body of their beloved Lord gone.

But then the women see

“two men in dazzling clothes”.

It is curious that Luke doesn’t call them angels.

The men speak to the women:

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?

He is not here, but has risen.

Remember how he told you,

while he was still in Galilee,

that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners,

and be crucified,

and on the third day rise again?”

The women look at each other.

Yes! Of course we remember!

We can hear our Lord’s words even now,

“See, we are going up to Jerusalem,

and everything that is written

about the Son of Man by the prophets

will be accomplished.

For he will be handed over to the Gentiles;

and he will be mocked,

and insulted and spat upon.

After they have flogged him,

they will kill him;

and on the third day he will rise again.”

(Luke 18:31)

Their despair vanishes with dawn’s darkness,

the rising sun warming them,

hope mending their broken hearts.

They run to find the disciples to tell them

what they had found,

what they had heard,

 what they had seen.

“Our Lord is alive!!”

But when the men hear what the women have to say,

their “words seemed to [them] an idle tale

and they did not believe [the women].”

A bucket of cold water thrown on them;

the chill and dark of the dawn

cover them once again.

Hope dashed,

excitement gone,

hearts broken into even more pieces.

The women could see it in the men’s eyes:

the story was over, Jesus was dead.

The only thing that needed to be done

was to figure out the best way

for them to slip out of the room where they were hiding,

and blend in with the crowds

who would soon leave the city

following the end of the Passover festival.

They could hear in their voices

that that was the only hope the men held onto,

the hope of escaping with their lives,

escaping back to anonymity, obscurity.

The disciples had agreed that they would

make good their flight from Jerusalem

and each would return to the life he’d lived

before Jesus had called,  

before Jesus had gathered them together,

before Jesus taught them

to be a fishers of men and women.

The adventure, the hope,

the life,

the story – it was over.

All over.

But we know, of course,

this was not the end of the story.

that what the women told the men was no idle tale,

but the truth:

that God had raised Jesus from the dead,

that that Sunday was the first Easter.

This was something the disciples would shortly learn

when the resurrected Lord appeared to them,

showing himself to them to help them

overcome their fear, their doubt;

the men hearing the voice they knew so well ask them,

“Why are you frightened,

and why do doubts arise in your hearts?”

(Luke 24:38)

The death that had seemed like the end,

became a new beginning

as the resurrected Jesus, the living Jesus,

gathered his stunned followers around him

and commissioned them,

“As the Father has sent me,

so I send you.”

(John 20:21)

Our Lord’s resurrection

became the disciples commencement,

their graduation from student to teacher,

from follower to leader,

from unsure, unsteady,

even a little unconvinced,

to confident,

rock-steady,

convicted, committed,

the disciples empowered by the breath of God filling them,

and graced with assurance in Jesus’ promise,

“And remember that I am with you always,

to the end of the age.”

(Matthew 28:20)

Out they went, fearlessly,

without hesitation,

out to spread the good news of the gospel

out to spread the news

that God had raised Jesus from the dead,

that in Christ’s resurrection

the power of death had been defeated,

death vanquished.

Christ’s resurrection brought a new promise

of a new beginning,

of new life:

life in Christ,

life through Christ,

and life with Christ;

the resurrected Christ,

the living Christ.

Life now,

and life in the era to come:

“Those who believe in me

even though they die, will live,

and everyone who lives and believes in me

will never die.”

(John 11:25)

There could no longer be any misunderstanding,

any confusion,

any doubt that this was and is truly

the Word of the Lord.

In Jesus’ resurrection the old ways were gone;

a new life had begun for the disciples.

In Jesus’ resurrection the old ways are gone for us,

you and me,

and a life of endless beginnings is ours in the living Christ.

It is a very different life:

It is a life of patience and tolerance;

of acceptance and forgiveness;

compassion and concern;

It is a life of selflessness,

as we follow the one who came not to be served,

but to serve.

It is a life modeled on the life

of our resurrected Lord.

It is a life of belonging,

for we are called to community,

the community of men and women of different cultures,

different languages,

different skin colors,

all of us created equally in God’s image,

all of us followers of Jesus Christ.

We are called to community to build community:

build community through hospitality,

through the warmth of our welcome,

by embracing all,

by working to tear down barriers and

removing obstacles to any

who come to be part of the community.

Conversion is God’s work;

ours is make a place at the table for all.

In this community of followers of Christ

we recognize that even as God defeated death,

in Jesus’ resurrection,

death in other forms still lurks all around us

and we are called to defeat the power of death

as it wreaks its havoc:

There is the destructive power of economic death

among the poor who struggle

to feed themselves,

clothe themselves,

shelter themselves.

There is the debilitating power of social death

of the outcast, the different,

the alien

the bullied,

the mocked,

the lonely,

the differently-abled,

anyone who doesn’t feel he or she belongs to community.

When we see a person dying for lack of hope,

lack of compassion,

lack of love;

when we see a world that is dying for

justice,

righteousness,

for peace,

we are to work to bring death to death

and in the process restore hope,

restore compassion,

bring peace,

assure justice

create a world in which righteousness flourishes.

This is a radical call from our resurrected Lord,

for it is a call to a completely new life,

a completely new way of living,

a new way of being.

We can turn from it.

We can embrace it tepidly, with mild enthusiasm.

Or we can take on this life all the way,

embracing it fully.

In this new way of living,

this new way of being,

we can live a life of joy,

of riches – spiritual, not material –

of grace and love.

It is a life in which we can put to death fear,

that lurking shadow that hovers everywhere.

We can put fear to death,

for our trust is in the Lord,

our hope is the Lord,

our lives are in the Lord.

“I shall not die,

but I shall live,

and recount the deeds of the Lord.”

(Psalm 118:17)

These are words spoken by one who did not fear

for he stood on the solid, unmoving foundation

that was the Lord his God.

And you and I stand on the very same foundation

in our living Lord, Jesus Christ.

This is the promise of Easter,

the promise of the Resurrection,

that you and I will know life,

have life,

live life in its fullest,

its most joy-filled

for it is life in Christ.

It is Easter!

It is a day of belonging,

a day of new beginnings,

a day that calls us to a new way of being,

to new life in our living Lord.

For Christ is risen,

Christ is risen.

He is risen indeed!

Alleluia!

AMEN