Category: News

Ezekiel 37:1-14
¹The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ²He led me all round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. ³He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” ⁴Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord. ⁷So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. ⁹Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” ¹⁰I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. ¹¹Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ ¹²Therefore prophesy, and say to them, thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. ¹⁴I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.”

My grass is starting to turn brown.  We are at that point, perhaps a little early in the season, where drought starts to happen and things that depend on the rain start to turn brown and dried up.  This is good news for having to mow grass, but perhaps not so good news for our water bills as we must daily water our gardens and fill our swimming pools.

This idea of being dried up and brown can also happen to us.  We can easily become dehydrated of our life and light, and even our fluids if the temperature is warm enough, through the difficulties and circumstances of our situations in life.  We can lose the passion for a full life.  We can lose the ambition to seize the day instead sitting in our easy chairs watching television.  We can lose our light and zest for the resurrected life by the increasing chaos of our society.  We can lose our faith for discipleship by the overwhelming changes to our life together.  The changes in our worship, the adjustments in our community, and the transitions in our families can easily dry us out and leave us without life, light, and love.

When this happens, we are exactly like Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dried bones, mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.  Our minds need no stretch of the imagination, to see ourselves like Israel as a people dried up from life, to perceive ourselves as a society where hope is lost, to identify ourselves as a people cut off completely from God and each other.  Perhaps the factor that consumes our motivations and energies is the pandemic, or perhaps the social upheaval, or even the poor economy, but we can relate to the valley of dry bones, because like them we are dried up and brown, hopeless, and despairing and isolated and insulated from those we love.  We are the dry bones.

Just as God spoke to them through Ezekiel so too it is with us.  Ezekiel spoke hope and life into their death, we could use some too.  I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.  When our Spirits are at their driest and life is scarce and light and hope nonexistent, this is when the God who creates out of nothing breathes life in again.  When we are and have nothing, God is at God’s greatest, by filling us with the Spirit of Christ and the dead come to life.  Bones to Bones with tendons connecting, tissue surrounding organs, skin covering muscles and ultimately breath indwelling us, the dried up and brown, is renewed and restored to life.  A valley of bones through God’s Spirit became a valley of living people; a church of tired and lifeless walking dead, through the same Spirit of God become a community of living and loving people. 

Like Israel we also are not left in the valley of defeat.  The purpose of resurrecting God’s people. was so that they might have the place God has chosen for them, and I will place you on your own soil.  For Israel that soil was the promised land of Canaan, which Babylon had conquered. For us it might not be literal soil, perhaps it will be, but the soil to which God has chosen for us is the Kingdom of God.  The entire creation is now God’s soil and all of ground and water and sky is once again returned into and under the Power and Reign of God; to give each of us a place and a purpose in this world.  As God’s stewards, we have been given life to be responsible and care for that life before God, to bring God glory. 

That Glory to which we are destined for is a knowledge that Yahweh is God, and we are merely his creatures, then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.  We are not self-created, self-determined, or self-ruled, we are creatures in the hands of a Loving and Almighty Creator.  When we are brought back to life by the Breath of the Creator, the only conclusion we may have is that God alone creates; we did not bring ourselves back to life.  When we are given purpose and hope by the Election of the Creator, the only knowledge we may have is that God alone determines and chooses; we did not determine and choose our places.  When we are given discipleship and community by the Love of the Creator, the only attitude we may have is that God alone rules and sustains; we do not rule or sustain God.  God is Creator and we are created.

My friends, we can all experience and relate to the valley of bones and perhaps that metaphor best describes us right now.  But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that God will put Jesus’ Spirit within us, and we will live and we will be given a place and position in God’s Kingdom.  Through Grace and Power God can turn us from a corpse pile to a living, and loving community.  God did it for Israel, God is doing and will continue to do it for his Church.  All for purpose that all might know that Yahweh is God and God is for us.  Let us begin our resurrection from dried up and hopeless bones, to living, and joyous disciples on their way to God’s Glory.  Amen.

Luke 12:22-31

²²He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. ²³For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. ²⁴Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! ²⁵And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁶If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? ²⁷Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ²⁸But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you — you of little faith! ²⁹And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. ³⁰For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. ³¹Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”

As a Cleveland Browns fan, I am super excited about the direction the team is going.  Both the General Manager and the outstanding additions through free agency and the Coaching Staff and the superior development of those players, leave me excited and anticipating the football season.  But with everything going so well, the cynic in me starts to become worried.  What about injury, what about a lack of chemistry, what about personality clashes, what about …?  I cannot help but have anxiety and/or fear that with everything going well, something bad or unpleasant will happen.

So too with us in the Church.  We do not worry about our sports teams, but we do have a multitude of things to worry about.  Things like the economy and inflation, things like the shortage of gas and chicken wings, things like escalating tensions with China and Russia.  We can find an enormous number of things to have anxiety and/or fear of, that something bad or unpleasant will happen and happen soon.

Hear this Word of the Lord, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear….  While 1^st Century churches did not have to worry about the stock market, or nuclear war, or the price of gasoline, they did have daily struggles that could consume them and their attentions.  Will we have enough food, will we have basic clothing, and will I be devoured by the local wildlife?  These struggles which thankfully we have phased out of our society still leads to anxiety and that we have plenty of.  While the stresses and triggers are quite different, something resides in our nature that wants to worry and fret about something bad happening today or tomorrow.

But we are told not to worry because life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.  These basic amenities of life were quite able to demand the attention of the ensouled bodies of the first Christians, but they needed reminded that life is more than the basic amenities of life.  While dreadfully important, these things are outranked by the more important elements, in which humans alone are capable.  Jesus uses the analogy to make his point, consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! While important, the basic amenities of life are outranked by things of higher value like virtue, righteousness, and justice.  God knows we need the basics but also has given us the urge for higher desires, the desires of virtue.

We are also told not to worry because, can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest?  As creatures we cannot give ourselves a single hour, only our Creator can do that.  Time is allotted by the free and generous hand of God alone.  If we cannot give ourselves time, then why should we worry about all the other things that God alone can give?  As creatures we must learn to be content in and under the Providence of God to care and minister to God’s creatures, instead of replacing God with ourselves and try to give ourselves more time and more life.

Perhaps this speaks deeply of our fallen human nature to trust only in ourselves and not have to put anything on God.  But that is what Jesus describes as you of little faith! We do not and perhaps even cannot put ourselves under the care of God instead we put ourselves only on own shoulders.  To steal more time, to prevent the catastrophe from occurring, to solicit enough resources for our families, to purchase the food, clothing, and medicine in self-reliance.  But self-reliance is of little faith in God because you put your faith in yourself.  And when you put your faith in yourself, the end is only worry, anxiety and apprehension, because you must play God, with the Real and Living God has been excluded from our worlds.

But what real faith in God and not in us looks like is to strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.  Seek the higher things of God’s Kingdom and the worldly conveniences of daily life will be added unto you.  To search, to desire, to obtain the Kingdom of God first and then our daily resources will be added unto us.  This just begs the question, what do we seek first and then the other things second?  The Kingdom of God and then worldly goods, or worldly goods first and then the Kingdom of God afterward.  This is still the path of worry and anxiety because God is not first and then our goods second, but we worry about our kingdoms and never have time or concern for God.  God is excluded and you are still playing God.

My brothers and sisters, through the Spirit of Jesus Christ we can learn to seek the Kingdom of God first and our daily bread will be added unto us.  To seek the higher concerns instead of the basic pieces of life.  God knows we need them, but God wants us to worry about virtue before food, righteousness before clothing, and justice before our bodies.  This is who God has made us through the work of the Word and the Spirit.  Will we become this people, who seek God’s Kingdom first and then our basic conveniences second? 

Matthew 4: 18-25

¹⁸ As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” ²⁰ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹ As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²² Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.  ²³ Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. ²⁴ So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. ²⁵ And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

One of my favorite activities to do while on vacation was to go fishing.  We used to rent a cabin at Lake Hope in southern Ohio for a week.  We would spend our time fishing in the lake for whatever we could catch.  Often over the course of the entire week we would have to walk the entire length of the lake.  We would not keep fishing where the fish were not, we would keep moving until we found the fish and when we did, we would stay there until they stopped biting.  We would not stay where there was no fish, we would move around to where the fish were and where the fish were biting.

So too is it when it comes to fishing for people.  In our text from Matthew, Jesus goes fishing for disciples, and to catch them, he must move to where they are.  So, Jesus leaves Nazareth and travels to the Sea of Galilee to fish for people.  The people he wants to catch are not in Nazareth, they are in Capernaum and to catch them, the fish do not move to the fisherman, but the fisherman move to the fish.  Instead of using bait to catch fish, Jesus uses his Word of Summons to call his prospective disciples.  “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” So also with us, Jesus issues his Word of Summons to the entire world, through the Word of the Spirit, summoning us all to the sacred space of following Christ.

But a summons requires an answer and Jesus’ summons is no different.  The invitation into His sacred space must be responded to and the first disciple’s answer.  Immediately they left their nets and followed him.  They transitioned from being catchers of fish to catchers of people.  They entered the sacred space of following and learning and encountering Jesus.  So also with us, Jesus issues us His Word of Summons and that Word requires an answer from us.  If we are summoned to discipleship, we must answer with discipleship and that mean trust in the Master and obedience to his Word.  To Follow Jesus as the first disciples did is to trust and obey. 

But to obey Jesus is become fishers for people; and here is where our resistance enters this picture.  The difficult problem for us is we do not want to leave our closed, safe circles of family and friends and go fishing for strangers.  But if you fish only where there are no fish, you will never catch anything.  To truly catch something, the fisher must move to where the fish is.  Can we fish for people if we never leave the safety of our living rooms and easy chairs?  Can we fish for people if we never leave our sanctuaries and go out into our neighborhoods?  Can we fish for people if we never are around sick people, or jailed people, or unconverted people, or poor people, or people different from us?  How can we catch anyone, if we never leave our safe spaces and enter the spaces where the people are?

But Jesus is not just our Example, but also our Redeemer and this means that he did not come to cure our ignorance, as if that were enough to just tell us the truth.  But Jesus also came to deliver us and to recreate us.  So, Jesus did not just teach his disciples about catching people, but he actually went and did so.  Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.  He did not just teach about reaching people, he went and reached people.

Who better to help us reach and connect with people than the one who not only revealed what being human truly is, but also the one who redeemed us from our inhumanity to remake us as humans?  Who better to help us become fishers of people than the one who is himself the great Fisher of people?  So, we not only are told what our true humanity is – in loving encounter with each other, but through Christ we become truly human – in loving encounter with each other.  In Christ and through Christ we become truly human again.

But my friends at some point if we are to be truly human, we need to leave the safe spaces of your own making and enter the spaces where people are.  We will not encounter them if we do not.  They will never be in our living room; we must move to them.  They will never come into our sanctuary; we must move to them.  They will never come to us; we must move to them.  The fish do not move to the fisher, the fisher moves to the fish.  Jesus fished for people, and to that end he moved towards the people.  Now is the time to go fishing, will you?

Acts 8:26-40

²⁶ Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) ²⁷ So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” ³⁰ So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. ³² Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

      “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
                         and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
             so he does not open his mouth.
        ³³ In his humiliation justice was denied him.
                        Who can describe his generation?
            For his life is taken away from the earth.”

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. ³⁶ As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” ³⁸ He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Devotion
As a young boy, I enjoyed assembling models, whether made of plastic or wood.  I always had a profound sense of joy after opening the packaging and pulling out the sheets of plastic or wooden parts, and the painting and gluing together of the various pieces and seeing it come together.  But anyone who assembles models will tell you, the model at step 1 looks almost nothing like the finished piece.  The first piece of the engine does not bear any resemblance to the finished and painted car.  Step 1 must be followed by step 2 until all the steps are completed and then the finished model looks like the image on the box.  All the steps must be completed and completed for the masterpiece to be finished.

In our journeys of discipleship, we also walk in time and space by steps.  In our following of the Holy Spirit’s lead, we are led in stages of the one whole journey.  Our moments in the “present” time always take place after our “past” events and always take place before our “future” moments.  Our entire existence as the Covenant Community of Christ, is one long journey of discipleship towards the Shepherd, lived in stages or steps, 1, 2, 3, etc., until we reach the end or goal, the Kingdom of God.

In the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch, Philip clearly displays “discipleship by steps.” Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.)   Here is step 1 of his journey for the moment but notice that the angel neither tells him the next step or even where and why he is going down this wilderness road.  He is only led and guided in a particular space and time, and the reason why and where the journey finishes is hidden from Philip.  Philip is just commanded to follow the Spirit’s lead and Philip does not bicker or complain about the command, he only obeys gladly the Spirit’s lead.

Here is where our discipleship not only differs from Philip’s but also becomes increasingly difficult.  We want to not only know the result of the Spirit’s leading but also what that trip is going to cost us.  As people who have survived the Enlightenment and Modernity, before we make many choices, we must calculate the risks and the costs of such a trip down our wilderness roads.  Where are we going, and do I want to go there?  Who will I meet, and do I want to meet them?  What is the point of going, and what will happen to me there?  Will I be mugged on that road or meet a new friend?  In essence we are not prepared to follow the Spirit’s lead and trusting in the greater purpose of God for that moment.  We want to know, like God knows, why, when, what, and will happen to me down that wilderness road.

We simply want to know what has been deliberately hidden from us by the Spirit.  Tell me the whole journey and the results and I will tell you if I want to go or not.  Is this discipleship towards the Spirit of Jesus Christ, or is this yet another attempt by us to play God and control our own lives?  Are we being the Church of Jesus Christ trusting in God even when the future is hidden, or are we being fallen humans, desiring to know as God knows, which really means we want to be God?  Can we handle being just humans that cannot and should not see the whole picture, traveling by stages trusting and obeying the lead of God, or must be calculate and lead ourselves through life’s stages?  Can we handle being a creature of God, or must we be our own God also?

Perhaps the only hope for us fearful and self-reliant creatures is the Word become Flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Not only is he God who leads and sustains, but because he is also human, and a perfect one at that, he also follows and trusts.  Who better to help us follow the will of God as a human being, than the one who perfectly followed and discipled the Spirit of God?  And if Christ lives in us, then we can at long last, through Christ, begin to disciple God by stages.  And more importantly when we find ourselves in stage 1 of a new journey, and it seems like an absurd step 1 like an afternoon trip down the wilderness road, we can like Philip trust in the plan and sight of the Holy Spirit and obey accordingly. 

My brothers and sisters in Christ, I have no doubt that we all in our discipleship travels, have received at the time some absurd orders, and before we will comply with them, we often want to know the end of the journey with all the corresponding consequences before we begin.  But this is not faith. Faith is trusting the destination and the journey to the Spirit, even when steps 2 through 20 have been hidden from you and step 1 sounds and looks weird.  Through Christ and with Christ, let us follow God’s lead with faith and trust.  Amen.