The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson - Sermons

Please Let Him Ask Someone Else

2012-01-22T11:00:00.005-05:00

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

January 22, 2012

Please Let Him Ask Someone Else

Selected Texts

It is easy for a pastor to turn any group

into a praying community,

a fervent feverish flock

furiously lifting up words,

every phrase tagged “urgent”,

every good soul pleading,

“God hear me, God answer me”.

All a pastor needs is 8 simple words,

8 short words spoken to any group,

small or large:

“Who would like to lead us in prayer?”

No sooner does a pastor let these words sail forth

than everyone in the group gets to work,

heads down, prayers lifted up,

“Please Lord don’t let him call on me.

Please Lord let him ask someone else.”

In the very act of asking the question

the pastor has created a perfect teaching moment

on the power of prayer,

how it connects us with God,

focuses us intently,

binds everyone together in the Spirit.

With the question the pastor also has shown

how easy it is to pray,

how simple.

No worries about language,

no need to add a “thou”, a “thee”, a “thine”,

no need to begin by calling on the Almighty,

the Eternal,

the Everlasting,

the Merciful God.

No, we just get to it:

short, straight, simple, succinct:

“Please Lord, don’t let him call on me.”

The universe God created in perfect balance,

remains in balance:

Eight words sent out,

“who would like to lead us in prayer.”

And Eight words back in response,

Please Lord, don’t let him call on me.”

Why is it that we struggle so with prayer?

In both the Wednesday and Thursday Bible Study groups

we spent six weeks in the Fall looking at prayer:

what it is,

how should we pray,

why do we find it so difficult,

and what should we expect when we do pray.

The dictionary defines the word prayer as a request.

The word comes from the Latin meaning to entreat,

to petition, to make a formal request.

And certainly we think of prayer as making a request,

asking God for something,

even if it is as simple as a blessing.

But of course there is more to prayer.

In the Oxford Book of Prayer,

one of the many prayer books I have in my library,

we can find this attempt to define prayer:

“It is a man standing before God in wonder,

awe and humility;

man, made in the image of God,

responding to his maker.”

(George Appleton)

More than 1600 years ago

the great preacher and leader of the church John Chrysostom

said of prayer,

that it is the “the longing for God”.

The longing for God,

the hunger we have within us that moves us

to want to be in conversation with God,

to want to talk to God,

and just as important,

to listen to what God has to say to us,

to hear God’s response as God leads and guides us.

To pray is to seek God,

to open ourselves to his presence;

It is to talk with God,

to talk with the Almighty,

the all-knowing God,

the all-powerful God

as though you were talking with a friend,

sitting across a table at Starbucks.

To offer a prayer is not to lift up an eloquent

mini-masterpiece of the spoken word,

a minor literary marvel.

What matters in prayer is not eloquence,

not erudition,

but sincerity.

If prayer is heart-centered,

heart-grounded,

it can be spoken in halting, stumbling words,

punctuated with “uh” and “um”

spoken in the simplest words and phrases.

If it is from the heart,

then it is a prayer that will delight God.

When I was a student at Princeton Theological Seminary

the course catalog went on for hundreds of pages,

but nowhere would you have found:

Prayer 101 – The Basics;

or Prayer 303, Advance Theory and Praxis;

or Prayer 425, Seminar on the Great Prayers

of the Reformation.

We all learn prayer the same way:

We learn prayer by doing it.

I once asked a friend how she became such a good tennis player;

“Practice” was her instant response.

Practice: spending hours and hours on the tennis court,

hitting ball after ball.

Yes, coaching helped;

so did having the right equipment;

and being part of a strong team.

But ultimately it came down to
swinging the racquet again and again,

hitting the ball time after time,

practicing,

doing it.

The apostles said to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray”

and then once Jesus taught them,

my guess is he didn’t say,

“Who’d like to lead us in prayer?”,

he just said, “John, you pray for us;

Peter, why don’t you take some time

and go off by yourself to pray;

James, fear not, just do it.”

Learning to pray begins with making time,

making time and space for God.

It is learning to be quiet, truly quiet,

shutting out every distraction

so you can concentrate on God.

Multitasking does not work with prayer.

Cellphone off, not even on vibrate;

Mind cleared,

radio silent, earbuds set aside.

Silence, quiet.

It isn’t easy, in a world filled with noise,

a world filled with distractions.

It will happen only if you make it happen,

make time, learn how to be silent.

Try it here and now:

Try being silent for one minute,

try stilling yourself to open the way for God.

(…..Go one full minute of silence)

That wasn’t that easy, was it?

You may have had a few seconds,

but a full minute of stillness,

of silence, quiet, that’s a stretch.

For me, what always comes crashing through

is the “to do” list,

that boisterous, jarring, trumpeting voice that says,

“Don’t just sit there, you have things to do!”

A prayer from the Rev. Ted Loder captures our challenge so well:

“Hear me quickly, Lord,

for my mind soon wanders to other things…

O Timeless God for whom I make so little time,

catch me with the sudden stab of beauty or pain or regret

that will catch me up short for a moment

and so be caught by you….”

And even when we do find that silent moment

and the words come pouring out,

out from the heart past the lips,

rising heavenward, on to God,

“Please God, hear my prayer,

please God answer my prayer”,

the response that comes back

sounds too much like silence,

a dreadful stillness,

as though your words never made the trip,

but just fell on the floor around you.

Page through the Bible

and we’ll find lots of company with that experience:

the prophet who lamented,

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,

and you will not listen?

(Habakkuk 1:1)

The psalmist who wailed,

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I bear pain in my soul

and have sorrow in my heart all day long?

…Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!

(Psalm 13)

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;

and by night, but find no rest.

(Psalm 22)

The psalms in particular are filled with the plaints

of the forlorn who wonder whether God is listening,

whether God cares,

whether God has stopped up his ears and turned away.

What should we expect when we pray?

Should we expect an immediate response?

Should we expect God to answer our prayer

in just the way we’ve put our request?

After all, don’t we hear our Lord teach us in the gospel of Mark

“So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer,

believe that you have received it,

and it will be yours.”

(Mark 11:24)

Doesn’t our Lord seem to reinforce this

in the gospel of John when he says,

If in my name you ask mefor anything, I will do it.”

…ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

(John 14:13; 15:7)

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it was that clear and easy.

But the fact is that our prayers

need to reflect our understanding,

that, just as we pray in the Lord’s prayer,

it is God’s will that is to be done,

even when God’s will seems to be the opposite of what

we would will, what we would want.

There is no more powerful example of this

than the prayer our Lord himself lifted up

in the Garden of Gesthemene:

“Abba,Father, for you all things are possible;

remove this cup from me;

yet, not what I want,

but what you want.”

(Mark 14:36)

Jesus’ mother Mary showed that she understood this lesson

even before Jesus was born,

when she responded to the angel Gabriel with her prayer,

“Here am I, the servant of the Lord;

let it be with me according to your word”.

(Luke 1:38)

In his wonderful book The Meaning of Prayer,

Harry Emerson Fosdick writes,

“Prayer should become not the endeavor to get God to do our will,

but the endeavor to open our lives to God

so that God can do in us what he wants to do.”

Through prayer we open ourselves to God’s will,

open ourselves to receive God’s response to our prayers,

our entreaties and petitions,

whatever that response might be,

even when the response is not what we want.

Soren Kierkegaard put it this way,

“A person thinks and imagines that when he prays,

the important thing is

that God should hear what he is praying for.

Yet in the true, eternal sense it is just the reverse:

the true relation in prayer

is not when God hears what is prayed for,

but when the person praying continues to pray

until he is the one who hears,

who hears what God wills.”

This is the very essence of prayer.

It is understanding that praying isn’t about moving God,

it is about aligning ourselves, our lives,

our spirits, our wills, with God.

It is understanding that

prayer should always be transformational .

As the Trappist Monk Thomas Merton wrote,

“Prayer is not only the lifting up of the mind and heart to God,

but it is also the response to God within us,

the discovery of God within us;

it leads ultimately to the discovery and fulfillment

of our own true being in God.”

So pray.

“Pray without ceasing”,

as Paul told the Thessalonians,

“Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication”

as we read in Ephesians.

The poet Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote

“More things are wrought by prayer

Than this world dreams of.

Wherefore, let thy voice

Rise like a fountain …night and day.”

Let your voice rise like a fountain

night and day

as you pray.

AMEN

Expectations

2012-01-15T11:00:00.006-05:00

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

January 15, 2012

Expectations

Matthew 9:9

Understanding what Deacons do is much easier

than trying to understand what Elders do.

Read through the minutes

of a meeting of our Board of Deacons

and you’ll read how they deliver flowers or grace meals,

send care packages to college students,

organize blood drives,

help with funerals.

As our Book of Order tells us,

their’s is a ministry of compassion, witness, and service.

(G-2.0201)

It is a ministry they do very well.

Read through the minutes of a typical Session meeting

and everything seems routine, ordinary,

perhaps even a little dull:

The meeting was called to order with prayer;

the clerk reported that this member died,

that member moved,

these people joined the church.

The pastor shared a few thoughts about worship,

the Early Learning Center,

and how well a recent activity went.

Two or three elders shared news of the work

of their ministry teams.

And then the meeting closed with prayer.

The minutes reflect such a small part

of what our Session does, though,

what our elected elders and I are called to do.

Read the minutes as we post them

on the bulletin board and

it looks like we are called to work as a board of managers,

administering the affairs of the church.

We do these things, there’s no question about it:

we prepare budgets,

we look after the buildings and grounds,

we hire and nurture staff;

they are among the many essential tasks required

to run an organization like ours.

But there is more we do,

much more we are called to do,

for we are called to take responsibility

for strengthening and nurturing

the faith and life of the people of our church.

Our Elders individually and collectively

have the responsibility

for the life of this congregation.

(G-2.0301)

All of our activities spring from this responsibility.

Elders are called to manage, to govern, and to administer.

But more than that,

our Elders are called to lead,

to be spiritual leaders of this Body of Christ;

spiritual leaders, not just organizational leaders.

That’s what they are called to do,

and that’s what we should expect them to do.

The six elders whom we just ordained and installed

join the ten continuing elders and me

to form the Session,

the governing council of our church.

The word Elder, you may recall,

comes from the Greek word, presbuteros.

We call ourselves Presbyterians to reflect

how we govern ourselves by elders

as we follow the head of our church Jesus Christ.

The origin of the word Session is far more prosaic;

it simply means a group of people who sit around a table

deliberating, discerning,

governing…. leading.

Our Session has 17 voting members:

the 15 Ruling Elders, one Youth Elder, and me;

I am referred to as the Teaching Elder.

I also serve as the Moderator,

the one who convenes and facilitates our meetings.

Our collective responsibility is great, for our Book of Order,

part of our Church Constitution,

tells us that we are “to guide this congregation

to witness to the sovereign activity of God,

so that [we] become a community of

faith, hope, love and witness.”

(G-3.0201)

Our Book of Order provides detailed information

on the responsibilities of Elders both as individuals

and collectively working as the Session.

But far and away the most compelling is this one:

“Elders are not simply to reflect the will of the people,

but rather to seek together to find and represent

the will of Christ.”

(F-3.0204)

“Find and represent the will of Christ.”

Find and seek it together,

working cooperatively,

in harmony,

discerning together, all of us,

remembering that each of us comes to the Session

with different gifts given us by the Spirit,

and even when we don’t find ourselves in agreement,

we need all those gifts working together

in order to discern faithfully God’s will.

Only when we work together, in harmony,

can we say with any confidence, “follow us”,

as together we the Body of Christ

pursue the grace-filled,

joyous, transformational,

yet always challenging will of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The will of Christ, the will of God,

where the Spirit is calling us,

isn’t going to be found in Robert’s Rules of Order.

We’ll discern it through the written word

that is the Bible,

through the living word

that is our Lord Jesus Christ,

and of course, through prayer.

We should expect our Elders to be men and women

who study Scripture,

who seek to grow in knowledge of Scripture,

and who readily pray for themselves,

this Body of Christ that is our church,

and for the world all around us.

Our Book of Order teaches us that

we are “the church reformed,

[yet] always to be reformed

according to the Word of God”

in the power of the Spirit.”

(F-2.02)

This means we cannot stand still,

for the Spirit is pulling us into tomorrow,

whether we are willing to go or not,

Christ always out front saying to us,

“Follow,

follow,

follow”.

We should expect our Elders

to be men and women of the Spirit,

open to the Spirit as spiritual leaders,

open to new ways of thinking and doing things,

open to having their minds changed,

changed even by those with whom they previously disagreed.

Two thousand years ago tax collectors worked for the Romans

and each was told to collect so much in taxes.

Anything over and above the minimum

they were assigned to collect,

they got to keep for themselves.

Not surprisingly tax collectors were greedy, corrupt,

always ready for the hustle,

men not known for their compassion, kindness,

their patience or their concern for others;

they were ruthless,

always ready to squeeze a few more coins

from even the poorest

just to line their own pockets.

This describes Matthew,

called by our Lord to be among the first apostles,

among the twelve who gathered around the Lord’s Table,

among those called to sit at our Lord’s feet and learn.

Obviously, he had much to learn:

he had to learn to pray,

learn to listen,

learn to accept the gifts,

the strengths and the weaknesses of others.

A man who had always worked on his own

who had thought only of himself,

had to learn to work with the others,

learn to get along with the others,

A man whose training to that point

had been to hone his skills as a financial hustler

had to learn to think of others.

Matthew had to learn to think and act with his heart.

In time, he was transformed,

transformed by the power of the Spirit,

transformed by the grace and love of God given him in Christ.

This is the same path our Elders are called to walk:

to learn, to be transformed by the power of the Spirit.

Of course, we assume that none of our Elders have

quite as steep a learning curve as Matthew’s!

It takes time to learn to be a good Elder.

It takes hard work, too.

Elders have to learn patience,

grace,

kindness,

gentleness,

even as they are also learning courage,

boldness.

Serving as a faithful elder can be frustrating.

Over the more than twenty years

that I have been part of Sessions,

including service as a Ruling Elder,

I’ve seen tempers flare and heard angry words blurted out.

What I’ve found over the years,

is that most of the time

angry words, impatient words, reflect ignorance,

reflect a lack of understanding on the speaker’s part,

more often than they reflect righteous outrage.

So we should expect our Elders to do their homework,

to be prepared.

And we should also expect them

to remember the words of our Lord’s brother

who said the tongue is a fire,

that it can stain the whole body

for it can be full of deadly poison.

Thinking before speaking assures

that we will work with gentleness born of wisdom.

(James 3:6ff)

In the congregational response to

the ordination and installation service,

you were asked two questions,

asked to make two promises to our elders and deacons:

First you were asked,

“Do we, the members of the church

accept these our brothers and sisters

as ruling elders or deacons,

chosen by God through the voice of the congregation

to lead us in the way of Jesus Christ?”

We should expect our Elders to lead us in the way of Christ,

to lead us by their example,

inspiring us by their efforts

to grow in wisdom, faith, and holiness.

The second question you were asked,

the second promise you made was this:

“Do we agree to pray for them, to encourage them,

to respect their decisions,

and to follow them as they guide us,

serving Jesus Christ,

who alone is Head of the Church.”

(W-4.4004)

We should encourage our Deacons and our Elders.

They will work hard for us,
and this church,
and for God.

Respect their decisions,

even when you don’t agree with them,

always remembering that they will have tried their best

to discern the will of God.

And you should follow as they lead us and guide us.

But most important, you should pray for them.

Pray for them as they pray for you.

Pray for them to lead us wisely, gently,

patiently, gracefully,

boldly,

joyfully,

lovingly

as they lead us into the future,

God’s future,

the future that is unfolding before us even now,

all of us walking forward together

every one of us responding to the same words,

that same invitation
from our Lord Jesus Christ:

Follow me.

AMEN

A Text for the New Year

2012-01-01T11:00:00.014-05:00

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
January 1, 2012

Romans 12:9-17, (NRSV)

Let love be genuine;

hate what is evil,

hold fast to what is good;

love one another with mutual affection;

outdo one another in showing honor.

Do not lag in zeal,

be ardent in spirit,

serve the Lord.

Rejoice in hope,

be patient in suffering,

persevere in prayer.

Contribute to the needs of the saints;

extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you;

bless and do not curse them.

Rejoice with those who rejoice,

weep with those who weep.

Live in harmony with one another;

do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly;

do not claim to be wiser than you are.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil,

but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.

Romans 12:9-17 (The Message)

Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it.

Run for dear life from evil;

hold on for dear life to good.

Be good friends who love deeply;

practice playing second fiddle.

Don't burn out;

keep yourselves fueled and aflame.

Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant.

Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder.

Help needy Christians;

be inventive in hospitality.

Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath.

Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy;

share tears when they're down.

Get along with each other;

don't be stuck-up.

Make friends with nobodies;

don't be the great somebody.

Don't hit back;
discover beauty in everyone.

AMEN

Christmas Day

2011-12-25T11:00:00.011-05:00

Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
December 25, 2011

John 1:1-14
In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through him,

and without him not one thing came into being.

What has come into being in him was life,

and the life was the light of all people.

The light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

He came as a witness to testify to the light,

so that all might believe through him.

He himself was not the light,

but he came to testify to the light.

The true light, which enlightens everyone,

was coming into the world.

He was in the world,

and the world came into being through him;

yet the world did not know him.

He came to what was his own,

and his own people did not accept him.

But to all who received him,

who believed in his name,

he gave power to become children of God,

who were born, not of blood

or of the will of the flesh

or of the will of man,

but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us,

and we have seen his glory,

the glory as of a father’s only son,

full of grace and truth.

Keep Christmas in your heart always

that you might live always in its hope.

Amen

Of All People, Why Them?

2011-12-18T11:00:00.003-05:00

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

December 18, 2011

Fourth Sunday in Advent

Of All People, Why Them?

Luke 2:8-20

We have such a gauzy, pastoral image of shepherds:

gentle souls watching over their flocks in the heat of the day

and the chill of the night,

bravely protecting their sheep from predators,

leading them to pastures where grass is plentiful

and water abundant,

wiling away the hours playing their flutes and harps,

as adorable lambs gambol and frolic.

The Bible is filled with references to shepherds,

well over one hundred,

and almost all glow with praise.

What was Moses before he led the children of Israel

out of bondage?

When the Lord called to him from the burning bush,

he was tending his flock.

What was David before he became a mighty warrior

and then King of Israel and Judah?

A young man who learned how effective

a rock and sling could be

against any animal intent on picking off

a stray lamb for supper.

David himself sang of God as watchful shepherd

when he wrote those words we know so well:

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want

he makes me to lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside still waters.”

Speaking through the prophet Jeremiah,

God said to his children:

“I will give you shepherds after my own heart,

who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”

(Jeremiah 3:15)

In his recounting of Jesus’ birth,

Matthew reminds us of the prophecy that

came from God through Micah:

“And from you Bethlehem shall come a ruler,

who is to shepherd my people Israel.”

(Matthew 2:6)

“He shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord.”

(Micah 5:4)

Shepherd strong and proud,

crook solidly in hand,

leading, guiding,

tending, protecting.

And yet, back when Joseph and Mary

sought in vain a room for the night

shepherds were looked upon as filthy, ignorant men;

men who were dishonest

as they led their flocks to graze

wherever they could find grass and water,

even if was someone else’s private property.

A shepherd’s life was hardly romantic,

hardly the stuff of poetry.

It was dirty work,… lonely, dangerous.

A shepherd worked under the baking sun

and through the cold of night.

He worked far from others;

the foul smell of the fold

deep in clothes, hair,

even the skin.

Shepherds were outcasts;

they were unwelcome;

they were despised.

So this leads to the question,

if shepherds were thought of with such contempt,

then why did the angel choose them,

of all people,

choose them to visit on that first Christmas?

Choose them to hear the glorious message,

“I am bringing you good news of great joy

for all the people:

to you is born this day

in the city of David a Savior,

who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

(Luke 2:10)

Why did the angel say to the shepherds,

“to you is born this day … a Savior…”?

To you, in all your dirt, your smell,

your feet caked in muck and mud,

the Savior is born this day – to you,

for you.

Surely the angels could have found better company

had they simply roused the people of that inn

where there had been no room for Joseph and Mary.

Surely there the angels could have found men and women

who at the very least didn’t smell rank and foul.

And how much easier for all involved:

The men and women could have walked out the back door,

taken a few steps and found the stable

where the baby lay in the manger.

No need to run the long distance from the countryside.

Why didn’t the angels bring their news to

the merchants, the businessmen,

the teachers, the rabbis,

the respected, the educated,

the prominent,

the important people of Bethlehem?

Why the shepherds,

men who lived literally and figuratively

on the very edge of society?

But of course,

the very fact that they were outcasts

is at the heart of the message

given us by God in the birth of Christ,

the message Mary herself anticipated

as she sang her praise to God

after she learned she would bear the Son of God:

“God will lift up the lowly

and send the rich away empty”

(Luke 1:51)

In bringing the good news to the shepherds,

God made clear that what we value,

what we consider important,

and what God values and considers important

are often not the same.

The prophet Isaiah reminds us how much like sheep we are,

for “all we like sheep have gone astray,

we have all turned to our own way.”

(Isaiah 53:6)

You and I need a shepherd to lead us, to guide us,

to help us find our way back to the fold

when headstrong and so sure of ourselves

we wander off,

filled with determination to do our own will

rather than God’s will.

It fits the message of the gospel

that the angels would say:

to you the shepherd,

to you the outcast,

to you the lowly,

is born a Savior, a Messiah,

the Lord Jesus Christ.

For surely,

made as you are in God’s image,

you are worthy,

worthy of God’s love, of God’s goodness,

of God’s boundless grace.

Time and time again,

one example after another,

God shows his love for all humanity

through the outcast,

through the lowly,

through even the scoundrel.

In Matthew’s gospel the birth narrative begins in chapter one,

but not till we get to verse 18.

We tend to skip over the first 17 verses

as unimportant, not essential to the story.

Those seventeen verses are a genealogy of Jesus,

showing how he descended from King David,

who descended from Abraham.

They are seventeen verses filled with names

many of which are difficult to pronounce,

and in older versions of the Bible,

the names are strung together by that word that makes

even the most serious person laugh:

“begat”.

We’d expect such a list to be a record of saints,

holy men, pious and pure,

models of how to live faithfully as children of God.

But if we look carefully,

what we will find are men –

and some women –

who have more in common with shepherds

than they do with cloistered saints.

The list is heavy with the flawed, the failed,

the fumbling, and the foolish:

Jacob the liar and thief;

Judah, who sold his brother Joseph into slavery;

Jesse, who failed to see any potential in his youngest son David;

David, an adulterer, a murderer;

Rehoboam, faithless and cruel.

And on goes the list.

It is a list that reminds us

of the wideness of God’s grace,

of God’s goodness,

of God’s mercy and kindness given to shepherds,

to rogues and cheats and liars,

given to you and me,

the love of God given us all

by the grace of God.

This is the glorious news of Christmas!

On a cold’s winter’s night long ago in Bethlehem,

the sky spangled with the lights from a billion stars,

as shepherds watched over their flocks.

Suddenly the sky was ablaze with light and sound

as the heavens erupted in music of the heavenly host:

“Glory to God in the highest!

Glory to God in highest heaven!”

For to you is born this night a Savior

to you, shepherd, baker, carpenter,

teacher, banker, merchant, doctor,

student, mother, father, sister, brother

for to you all the world is born the Savior.

And “He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

or decide by what his ears hear;

but with righteousness he shall judge the poor

and decide with equity for the meek;…

righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,

and faithfulness the belt around his loins.”

(Isaiah 11)

This is the glorious news the shepherds heard that night

and this is the glorious news we hear:

a Savior born for you and me,

love come down from heaven,

given us by the grace of God.

How can our response be any different

than the shepherds’,

any less enthusiastic,

any less excited for what we’ve been given?

Our voices joining those of the shepherds,

those of the angels,

all singing in joyful praise:

“Glory to God!

Glory to God in the highest!

Glory to God in highest heaven!”

AMEN

Easy to Answer, Hard to Do

2011-12-04T11:00:00.003-05:00

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

December 4, 2011

Second Sunday in Advent

Easy to Answer, Hard to Do

2 Peter 3:8-15

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved,

that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years,

and a thousand years are like one day.

The Lord is not slow about his promise,

as some think of slowness,

but is patient with you,

not wanting any to perish,

but all to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,

and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise,

and the elements will be dissolved with fire,

and the earth and everything that is done on it

will be disclosed.

Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way,

what sort of persons ought you to be

in leading lives of holiness and godliness,

waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,

because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved,

and the elements will melt with fire?

But, in accordance with his promise,

we wait for new heavens and a new earth,

where righteousness is at home.

Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things,

strive to be found by him at peace,

without spot or blemish;

and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.

So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you

according to the wisdom given him

Well, there it is, the question.

Did you hear it?

It’s there, buried in the text,

buried in the midst of blazing heavens and melting earth:

“what sort of person ought you to be”

as you wait for the coming of our Lord?

What sort of persons ought we each to be

as await the advent of our Lord?

It’s an odd question since the author of the letter

assumes we are living lives of holiness and godliness;

he seems to answer the question even as he asks it.

we cannot just take the words on face value.

We have to look at context.

This letter we attribute to Peter

was most likely written by someone other than Simon Peter,

the fisherman, the rock.

In fact, it was probably written after Peter had died.

The letter is thought to have been written

after the entire first generation

of followers of Jesus had died,

as the second generation,

those who had not walked with Jesus,

those who had not known Peter or Paul,

Thomas or Matthew,

struggled to define discipleship,

struggled to come to a fuller understanding of

what it meant to be a “Christian”,

a follower of Jesus Christ,

a follower of the Savior whose return

they eagerly awaited.

The first generation expected Jesus

to return in their lifetime;

Even as Jesus was telling his followers

to keep alert, keep awake,

for that day when he would come like a thief in the night,

he was also telling them,

“there are some standing here

who will not taste death

until they see that the kingdom of God has come…”

(Mark 9:1)

Indeed, “this generation will not pass away

until all these things have taken place.”

(Mark 13:30)

Paul reinforced this idea of Jesus’ imminent return

in his letters as well:

keep alert, stay awake, he said,

for the advent of Christ will surely happen in our lifetime.

But days of waiting turned to weeks,

and weeks into months,

and months into years,

and years into decades;

and Jesus did not return.

And as the years passed,

life became more difficult and more dangerous,

for followers of Christ.

By the end of the first century,

about the time this letter was written,

persecution of Christians had become

the accepted practice throughout the Roman Empire.

False prophets seemed to be everywhere;

What to believe; whom to believe,

how to keep hope alive,

how to keep faith alive -

how even to stay alive became –

these were greater concerns to Christians

than making oneself ready for Christ’s return.

In stepping into Peter’s sandals,

the author of our letter resorted to a bit of sleight of hand

in his effort to address these very real concerns.

We may raise an eyebrow at what seems to be

a bit of disingenuousness,

but the result is a timeless letter,

a letter with words that can help us

to stand in holy hope

even as we await the return of our Lord.

It is, after all, so easy for us

to say in faith that we believe

that Christ will come again,

even as we think to ourselves

that it isn’t going to happen anytime soon,

that we have plenty of time to sort out our lives.

At the very least, we can probably push things off

until after the holidays,

because certainly God knows how busy we all are, right?

This is the dilemma we have,

that we live in the in-between time,

the time between Christ’s birth,

and Christ’s coming again,

and neither we nor anyone else

has any idea how long this in-between time will last.

But the longer the time lasts,

the easier it is to lose focus,

even to lose heart.

So, the letter writer calls us back,

back to where he knows we need to be:

to lives of holiness,

lives of godliness,

back to striving so that when Christ does come,

we will be found “at peace, without spot or blemish.”

God’s time is not our time

and the reason for God’s patience

is known only to God,

but it isn’t so we can grow complacent.

To presume we’re fine,

that our ticket is in order,

is to presume too much;

we have work to do while we wait.

Work to do in the world,

work to do with ourselves.

John the Baptizer reminds us that our daily task

is to make straight the way of the Lord,

to work to make the uneven ground level

and the rough places a plain

as we build the foundation for the Kingdom here and now,

working for righteousness,

working for justice,

all as we “bear fruit worthy of repentance.”

If John the Baptizer were to confront us here and now,

what do you suppose he would say to you and me?

Would he compliment us on our holy and godly lives?

I fear he would be even more outraged with us

than he was with those who came to him two thousand years ago,

outraged at the ever-increasing numbers of men, women and children

living in poverty, who struggle to feed themselves,

house themselves, keep themselves warm;

outraged that we just shrug and say,

that’s how the free market works,

outraged at the growing inequality in our country,

in the world,

outraged at our ready willingness to sacrifice God’s creation

for our own comfort,

for the sake of business,

outraged that we are not working more faithfully

to create a world of righteousness,

of justice,

of grace and love.

God’s patience is built, our lesson tells us,

on God’s hope in us and for us,

that we will embrace more fully,

more completely the life God wants for us,

the life God created us to live.

John the Baptizer, the author of second Peter,

our Lord himself all teach us

that God wants nothing less than our transformation

as we give ourselves more and more completely

to the one given us,

the one who gave himself for us.

As Methodist Bishop and author William Willimon put it,

“God [wants] to transform us into the people

we hadn’t really thought about being.”

This is our Advent gift,

our Advent opportunity:

to embrace afresh the life to which we have been called,

to embrace afresh the call to transformational discipleship

that can lift us to a new level of holiness,

a new level of godliness.

So come to this Table and embrace this gift;

come to this table and embrace this call,

this life.

And then, when you go from this Table,

fed, nourished,

transformed,

make Paul’s words to the Galatians your own:

“It is not I who live,

but Christ who lives in me,”

as you let Christ live more fully in and through you,

as you live a more holy, godly life.

Then, as you walk through the days of Advent,

the days of Christmas,

and all the days after into the new year,

you will be able to sing with confidence,

with hope,

with deeper faith:

O Come O Come Emmanuel.

AMEN

Tis The Season

2011-11-27T11:00:00.004-05:00

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

November 27, 2011

First Sunday in Advent

Tis the Season

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Grace to you and peace

from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I give thanks to my God always for you

because of the grace of God

that has been given you in Christ Jesus,

for in every way you have been enriched in him,

in speech and knowledge of every kind—

just as the testimony of Christ

has been strengthened among you—

so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift

as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He will also strengthen you to the end,

so that you may be blameless

on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful;

by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son,

Jesus Christ our Lord.

The season of Advent begins today.

Advent, the season of preparation,

the season of anticipation,

the season of watching,

of waiting.

But preparation – for what?

anticipation of what?

watching – for what?

Waiting – for what?

Christmas Day?

Presents under the tree?

The sound of Santa Claus gliding his sleigh across the roof?

A few days off from work and school for the holidays?

The weeks ahead will be filled with a hurricane of activities

for every one of us: shopping for presents,

sending out cards,

visiting with family and friends,

traveling.

We’ll decorate homes indoors and out.

We’ll go to parties, we’ll sing carols,

all as part of the festive Christmas season

that we all love so much,

even as we grumble about the obvious excesses

that are part of the season.

The weeks that lead from Thanksgiving to Christmas

are hectic;

they are noisy,

they are tinseled, sparkling,

exhausting.

For most of us they are anything but weeks of anticipation,

weeks of watching,

weeks of waiting.

Advent calls us to walk a different path through the month;

A path that still leads us to Christmas,

to the joy of celebrating the birth of our Lord,

but a path that calls us to walk quietly,

a path that calls us to contemplative watching and waiting,

to prayerful stillness,

to silent nights more than Jingle Bells.

Advent calls us to begin the journey

by remembering what the word advent means:

it means, “coming”.

It is word that reminds us that the Christ who came,

our Savior born so long ago in that stable in Bethlehem,

is the Christ who will come again in glory,

come again to make all things new,

come again to usher in the Kingdom of God.

The silent moments Advent calls us to create,

the watchfulness,

the waiting,

all help us to remember that Jesus will come again,

and, as Jesus reminds us,

when he comes, he will come “like a thief in the night.”

And if Jesus comes like a thief in the night

then that means we will either be ready for that day

or we won’t.

Read through gospels and count the number of times

Jesus calls us to Advent lives,

telling us to be watchful,

to be ready,

to be waiting,

not to be complacent,

not to let our attention drift:

“Be aware”, our Lord tells us;

“Keep alert,

for we do not know when the time will come.”

(Mark 13:32ff)

“Be dressed for action”, Jesus says.

“have your lamps lit,

say to all: keep awake, keep alert;…

[for] blessed are those whom the master finds alert

when he comes.”

(Luke 12:35ff)

Blessed are those whom the master finds alert

when he comes.

Blessed are those dressed for action,

Blessed are those whose lamps are filled with oil,

lit,

the light chasing away every shadow of darkness.

Blessed are those who live Advent lives:

waiting, watchful,

aware, alert.

And yet, how hard it is to live Advent lives

during the month of December,

a month in which we find it hard to be alert to much more

than where the best bargains are to be had,

a month in which we are all so eager to sing,

to decorate,

to let the joyfulness that comes with

planning for a birthday party carry us away.

If there was any month in the year that calls for

a symphony of joyful sounds to fill each day of the week,

it is December.

But Advent living isn’t dour or joyless;

it doesn’t call us to put away the tinsel,

or stop singing Jingle Bell Rock.

What Advent does is helps us to know the true joy

that is found only in Christ,

through Christ,

and with Christ.

To live in Advent is to live in Christ;

We can still look forward to shiny packages

under twinkling, sparkling Christmas trees,

but our minds, our hearts, our focus

all will be firmly, fully on Christ:

on the Christ who came,

and on the Christ who will come again.

It isn’t as hard as we might think,

to turn from the cacophony that fills the month,

to make space for Advent in our hearts and minds.

Did you hear what Paul said?

We are “not lacking in any spiritual gift

as [we] wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We are not lacking in any spiritual gift

because the grace of God has been given us in Christ Jesus,

[and] in every way [we] have been enriched in him,

in speech and knowledge of every kind—

This is the Advent gift God has given us,

to help us live Advent lives.

But we do need one additional gift;

without it, God’s gift is incomplete.

It is a gift that allows us to live fully in God’s gift.

It’s a gift we each give to ourselves.

A gift we need not shop for,

a gift that is readily available,

yet maddeningly elusive;

a gift that is free,

yet precious beyond price.

It is the gift of time

The gift of time:

time for quiet,

time for reflection,

time for prayer.

Quiet time each day as you walk through Advent,

quiet time you give yourself

no matter how busy your day is;

Indeed, the busier the day,

the greater your need for this gift.

Quiet time to remind yourself that it is Advent,

Quiet time to help you remember that

the Christ whose birth you and I will joyfully celebrate

in four short, packed weeks

is the Christ who will come again.

Quiet time to remember that when he comes again

he will come like a thief in the night

and so calls us to be ready,

to be alert, dressed for action,

lamps full and lit.

Give yourself the gift of quiet time each day

over the next few weeks.

A good place to start, to help you make time for quiet,

is Psalm 46.

Let your eyes, your mind,

your being focus on the word of God

we find in verse 10:

“Be still”,

“Be still and know that I am”.

“Be still and know that I am God.”

Be still and know that I am Emmanuel,

God with you, in you.

Start there

and then work on quieting your mind,

stilling the voices that are reminding you

of all that needs to be done

if you hope to be ready for Christmas,

all the voices that call you from the Advent path.

Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, wrote,

“The purest faith has to be tested by silence

in which we listen for the unexpected,

in which we are open to what we do not yet know,

and in which we slowly and gradually prepare for

…a new level of being with God.”

Advent silence gives God’s Spirit space to work within us

to realign us,

to re-tune us,

to correct our focus.

to help us move to a whole “new level of being with God.”

Realigned,

tuned,

focused,

we realize the magnificence of the gift of Emmanuel,

God with us in Jesus Christ,

God with us through Jesus Christ.

“The essence of Advent is expectancy,

it is watchfulness,

it is readiness.”

It is to join our voices with the psalmist who sang,

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits

and in his word I hope.”

(Psalm 130:5)

Tis the Season of waiting

the season of watchfulness,

the season of anticipation

we begin today,

today as we take our first step down Advent’s path.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel!

AMEN

We Are His People

2011-11-20T11:00:00.004-05:00

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

November 20, 2011

We Are His People

Psalm 95

O come, let us sing to the Lord;
   let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
   let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
   and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
   the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
   and the dry land, which his hands have formed.

O come, let us worship and bow down,
   let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
   and we are the people of his pasture,
         and the sheep of his hand.

That’s Psalm 95 as we find it in the

New Revised Standard Version of the Bible,

a familiar psalm,

one we often use as a Call to Worship.

Eugene Peterson has paraphrased these words

in a wonderfully lively way in The Message:

“Come, let's shout praises to God

raise the roof for the Rock who saved us!

…for we [are his]:

the people he pastures,

the flock he feeds.”

“Come, let’s shout praises,

let’s raise the roof!”???

It’s hard to believe Peterson wrote those words

as the pastor of a Presbyterian Church;

We Presbyterians are not exactly shout-out,

raise-the-roof people, are we?

But that’s the point of the psalm;

We should react with passion and enthusiasm

as we acknowledge:

YES, We are God’s people;

YES: God is our Creator, our Maker;

YES: we are God’s precious flock;

YES, we are the people he pastures,

the people he tends,

the people he blesses as he watches over us.

Shout it out: We are God’s beloved flock!

Shout it out and raise the roof with songs of praise and joy,

shouts of thanksgiving,

shouts even of Amen and Hallelujah!

Why shouldn’t we be filled with passion and enthusiasm?

We’ve been given the Holy Spirit.

We’ve been called to follow Christ.

And we’ve been called to this wonderful church,

called to take our place in the community of saints

that stretches back almost 150 years.

We’ve been called to participate actively

everyone of us, as we go about God’s work

following Jesus.

And we do our work in so many wonderful ways:

Joy-filled worship;

faithful nurturing of children and young people;

selflessly reaching out to those in need;

lovingly ministering to one another.

It is Thanksgiving and

we have so much to be thankful for

as we celebrate all the wonderful ministries of this church,

as we welcome new members,
as we look with confidence to our 145^th year.

I’ve proposed to our Session that next year

we work with Ed White,

a former Executive Presbyter of our Presbytery

and now a consultant with the Alban Institute,

to have him work with us throughout the year

not just one weekend Retreat –

to help us plan for our next five years,

to help us look confidently, joyfully for the path

Christ will lead us down as we look to our 150^th anniversary.

It was C. S. Lewis who wrote,

“Christ says, ‘Give me All.

I don’t want [part] of your time

and [part] of your money

and [part] of your work.

I want you…I want all of you.

[in return] I will give you myself.”

(Mere Christianity, 196)

When you put your Pledge Card in the basket

you’ll be doing more than just offering

your pledge of financial support

for the work we will do next year

in the name of Jesus Christ.

When you put your card in the basket

you’ll be offering yourself anew to God;

consecrating yourself anew,

pledge anew your all,

acknowledging that all you have has come from God,

your Shepherd, your Maker, your Keeper.

“Who then will offer willingly,

consecrating themselves today to the Lord?”

asked King David of the people of Israel,

the people of God.

“Then the leaders of ancestral houses made their freewill-offerings,

as did also the leaders of the tribes,

the commanders of the thousands and of the hundreds,

and the officers over the king’s work.

They gave for the service of the house of God …

Then the people rejoiced

because [they had all] given willingly,

for with single mind

they had offered freely to the Lord”

(1 Chronicles 29:5)

Come, willingly, joyfully,

enthusiastically, passionately:

coming singing Amen and Hallelujah;

Come consecrate yourself anew to the Lord our God,

the Rock of our salvation,

and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow.

AMEN

Selective Seeing

2011-11-06T11:00:00.003-05:00

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

November 6, 2011

Selective Seeing

Amos 6:4-8

Ruffling feathers,

stirring pots,

poking, prodding:

the very job of a prophet is to be in our faces,

to jab at us with words,

to point out to us in the highest of high definition

where we’ve gone wrong,

where we’ve failed,

how we’ve not lived up to God’s commandments

and God’s expectations.

No one was better at poking with a sharp stick than Amos.

Read through the nine chapters of his book

and you come away almost glad that you didn’t live

almost 800 years before the birth of our Lord,

back when Amos prophesied,

glad that you weren’t on the receiving end of his

outrage, his venom, his barbs.

His words came fast and furious,

abrasive as he jabbed away.

But then stop for a moment to remember

that all Amos was doing,

all every prophet has ever done

was speak God’s words,

to be the messenger for God’s words to his people.

If we listen to Amos’ words

remembering that it is in fact God speaking,

the words take on even more power.

How angry God was with his children!

“I hate, I despise your festivals,

and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies…

Take away from me the noise of your songs;

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

What could possibly have been the cause

of God’s great anger?

What had the children of Israel done

that so filled God with outrage?

Were they guilty of idolatry?

Had they slipped back to worshiping golden calves?

No, it was simpler than that.

The people of Israel were guilty of injustice.

The people of Israel had failed to seek justice,

they had failed to create justice –

social justice, economic justice.

They had failed to live righteously,

to live in right relationship with one another

every one in society, the young and the old,

the rich and the poor,

the weak and the strong – all together,

one community.

They had failed to live as God wanted them to live

and so God addressed his children through Amos

addressed them with contempt:

“you who oppress the poor,

you who crush the needy.”

You paid no attention to what I’ve taught you,

how I’ve told you to live your lives.

You’ve failed to make your community,

your society, your nation,

just and equitable.

“Let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

But no, you live for yourselves,

more concerned with living pampered, easy lives,

lives rich in goods.’

but lives without justice, without righteousness.

The people of Israel did live well;

they were affluent, comfortable,

a little too comfortable.

If they knew the Proverb,

“Give me neither poverty nor riches;

[but] feed me with the food that I need,”

They were not the least bit interested.

(Proverbs 30:8)

And in their affluence they had become complacent,

blind to the growing gap between rich

and poor all around them,

the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory,

and lounge on their couches,
and eat lambs from the flock,
and calves from the stall; ….,
but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!

Pride-filled men and women

blind to the injustices all around them.

Prideful men and women

who may well have worshiped with great pomp,

who may have made their sacrifices

and offered their tithes,

but who were doing nothing

to stop the spread of social injustices,

to right wrongs,

men and women failing to live

as God commanded them.

More than twenty-seven hundred years separate us

and the people to whom Amos was talking,

but read through all of Amos

and it is all but impossible not to read it as painfully timely,

painfully reflective of our own times,

as the gap between rich and poor grows in our own society,

where the wealthy see themselves as privileged,

content to live apart,

rather than responsible for strengthening community.

A recent study compared the 31
most economically developed nations

for a variety of social justice metrics.

The nations in the study included the US, Britain, Canada,

Germany, Australia and other peer countries.

The study measured things like child poverty rates,

income inequality,

public expenditure on childhood education,

and availability of and accessibility to health care.

The US ranked 27^th out of 31,

right near the bottom,

across the board.

The US fared poorly in all measurements

but its measurements for poverty were particularly abysmal.

(The New York Times, October 29, 2011, p. A17/

http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de)

Now of course it’s easy to dismiss a study like this;

Cigarette manufacturers taught us well over the years

how to deny, belittle, shift the focus, spin results;

They taught us how to see selectively,

to see what we want to see,

and turn a blind eye to what we don’t want to see.

But as Amos pointed out to the children of Israel so long ago,

denial, scoffing and spin don’t make the truth go away,

the truth that lies before our very eyes.

If it makes us uncomfortable,

well don’t you see: that’s just God’s point,

that’s just what God wants:

to poke us awake,

to prod us to live as God calls us to live.

Do you remember the story of what happened to Jesus

when he came back to his hometown of Nazareth

to teach and preach?

He so outraged the people who listened to him

that they tried to run him out of town;

in fact, they were so furious,

they tried to push him over a cliff.

Now, do you remember what he’d said

that outraged the people so?

God’s words as they had been spoken

by the prophet Isaiah:

“God has sent me to bring good news

to the oppressed,

to bind up the broken hearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captive

and release to the prisoners,…

to comfort all those who mourn.”

(Luke 4:16ff/Isaiah 61)

The words Jesus spoke that so infuriated people

were words of justice,

words of righteousness.

This is the life we are called to, you and I,

just as our ancestors in faith in Amos’ time.

A life working for justice, creating justice,

and righteousness.

Beware of the golden idols that surround us

that draw us away from that life:

money, materialism,

affluence, rugged individualism.

We are to model our lives on Christ,

model them on the one who cared more about

the poor, the hungry, the struggling

than he did about the wealthy,

the comfortable,

the affluent.

You and I don’t have to occupy Wall

or any other street.

We simply have to let Christ occupy our hearts fully,

let Christ occupy our minds completely,

follow Christ,

modeling our lives on his,

seeing the world through Jesus’ eyes,

seeing the world through God’s eyes,

and where we see injustice, rooting it out,

where we see that righteousness is absent,

working to restore it,

guided always by the words of our Lord

when he said,

“just as you did it to the least of these

who are members of my family,

you did it to me.”

(Matthew 25)

Let justice roll like a river,

and righteousness

like a never-failing stream.

AMEN

The Promise is Sure

2011-10-30T11:00:00.004-04:00

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

October 30, 2011

The Promise is Sure

Selected Texts

Music from Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem

All Saints Day is one of those days

that comes round each year on the liturgical calendar,

but it is a day we often overlook,

a day we let slide by.

Part of the problem is that

All Saints Day always falls on the first of November,

which means it typically does not fall on a Sunday.

This year it is on an otherwise ordinary Tuesday.

But the greater struggle we have

is that the very word “saint” confuses us Protestants.

We don’t have saints as other traditions do,

men and men we have set apart,

put up on pedestals as particularly holy.

We have no Saint Patrick,

no Saint Christopher,

not even a Saint Nicholaus.

In the Reformed tradition all are saints.

You and I: we are saints,

we are the community of saints.

And all those who have gone before us,

all those on whose shoulders we stand,

they too are saints,

part of the communion of saints.

All Saints Day has become for Presbyterians a time to remember:

a time to remember those saints

who have completed their journey on this earth

and now live with Christ in God’s Heavenly Kingdom.

Death has been an all too frequent visitor

to this congregation over the past year:

members of this congregation both young and old;

members of our extended church family:

mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles,

grandmothers, grandfathers, dear friends.

With the death of each saint comes grief,

sadness,

a deep sense of loss,

a profound awareness of the presence of their absence.

We reflexively dial a telephone number

before we remember that the familiar voice,

that beloved saint,

is no longer on the other end of the line.

And yet, with the passing of every saint

even in our grief we are reminded of the promise

that is given us by God in Jesus Christ,

in Christ’s resurrection,

that each beloved saint now knows the promise of eternal life,

the very same promise each of us will know… in time.

The passing of every saint fills us with grief,

and yet also fills us with hope

as we remember that in Jesus’ resurrection,

God vanquished death,

as Paul said to the Corinthians,

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

(1 Cor. 15:26)

The 16^th century English poet John Donne

captured this promise in his famous Sonnet,

“Death be not proud,

though some have called thee mighty and dreadful,

for, thou art not so

for, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,

die not, ….…poor death,

nor yet canst thou kill me.

… why swell’st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

and death shall be no more,

death thou shalt die.”

Introit et Kyrie

“Grant eternal rest to them, Lord,
and let perpetual light shine on them.
A hymn befits you, God in Zion,
and a vow to you shall be fulfilled in Jerusalem.
Hear my prayer,
for unto you all flesh shall come.

Lord, have mercy upon us.

Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.”

The theologian Jürgen Moltmann has written,

“We die a natural death,

just as everything that is born someday dies.

But we die in solidarity…

with the community of all…

[with the communion of saints].

…Our natural death brings us into the earth,

and together with this earth

we [look with all the saints to] the resurrection

and the springtime of eternal life….

(The Coming of God, 90ff)

“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord

for they rest from their Labors”

(Revelation 14:13)

Pie Jesu

“Merciful Lord Jesus,
grant them rest,
eternal rest”

In his poem “Go Down Death”,

written in 1927, James Weldon Johnson,

an African-American lawyer, educator, and poet,

captured so picturesquely the hope that is ours,

even in grief:

“Weep not, weep not,
She is not dead;
She's resting in the bosom of Jesus.
Heart-broken husband--weep no more;
Grief-stricken son--weep no more;
Left-lonesome daughter --weep no more;
She’s only just gone home.
Day before yesterday morning,
God was looking down from his great, high heaven,
Looking down on all his children,
And his eye fell on Sister Caroline,
Tossing on her bed of pain.
And God's big heart was touched with pity,
With the everlasting pity.

And God sat back on his throne,
And he commanded that tall, bright angel standing at his right hand:
Call me Death!
And that tall, bright angel cried in a voice
That broke like a clap of thunder:
Call Death!--Call Death!
And the echo sounded down the streets of heaven
Till it reached away back to that shadowy place,
Where Death waits with his pale, white horses.

And Death heard the summons,
And he leaped on his fastest horse,
Pale as a sheet in the moonlight.
Up the golden street Death galloped,
And the hooves of his horse struck fire from the gold,
But they didn't make no sound.
Up Death rode to the Great White Throne,
And waited for God's command.

And God said: Go down, Death, go down,
…and find Sister Caroline.
She's borne the burden and heat of the day,
She's labored long in my vineyard,
And she's tired--
She's weary--
Go down, Death, and bring her to me.

And Death didn't say a word,
But he loosed the reins on his pale, white horse,
And he clamped the spurs to his bloodless sides,
And out and down he rode,
Through heaven's pearly gates,
Past suns and moons and stars;
on Death rode,

and the foam from his horse was like a comet in the sky;
Leaving the lightning's flash behind;
Straight on down he came.

While we were watching round her bed,
She turned her eyes and looked away,
She saw what we couldn't see;
She saw Old Death.

She saw Old Death coming like a falling star.
But Death didn't frighten Sister Caroline;
He looked to her like a welcome friend.
And she whispered to us: I'm going home,
And she smiled and closed her eyes.

And Death took her up like a baby,
And she lay in his icy arms,
But she didn't feel no chill.
And Death began to ride again--
Up beyond the evening star,

Out beyond the morning star,
Into the glittering light of glory,
On to the Great White Throne.
And there he laid Sister Caroline
On the loving breast of Jesus.

And Jesus took his own hand and wiped away her tears,
And he smoothed the furrows from her face,
And the angels sang a little song,
And Jesus rocked her in his arms,
And kept a-saying: Take your rest,
Take your rest.

Weep not--weep not,
She is not dead;
She's resting in the bosom of Jesus.”

(from God’s Trombones)

In Paradisum

“May angels lead you into Paradise.
At your coming
may martyrs receive you,
and may they lead you
into the Holy City, Jerusalem.
May the chorus of angels receive you,
and with Lazarus, who once was a pauper,
may you have eternal rest.”

In his letter to the Romans Paul wrote,

We do not live to ourselves,

and we do not die to ourselves.

If we live, we live to the Lord,

and if we die, we die to the Lord;

so then, whether we live or whether we die,

we are the Lord’s.

(Romans 14:7-9)

For Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and Life.

And all the saints who believed in Christ live

even though they died.

And all we saints who live and believe,

we will never die.

(John 11:25)

This promise is sure,

for it is the Word of the Lord.

AMEN