Happy Veterans Day to our veterans, and thank you for your service. Church is open this week at 11 am Sunday for a worship service. The next food pantry is just before Thanksgiving, Tuesday 11/24. And here’s a recording and copy of this week’s sermon. Have a blessed week!
15 Nov. 20 Sunday Message; “Reasoning Together”
Call to Worship; 1 John 1:5-9
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Invitation, Offering, and Prayer Concerns; Father in Heaven, thank you for your grace upon our land and people. We have truly been blessed by your love and kindness, and ask that you lead us toward a more servant attitude in our own lives as we offer up our very selves to serve in your Kingdom.
Amen!
Message Reading; Isaiah 1:13-18
Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals
I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I hide my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers,
I am not listening.
Your hands are full of blood!
16 Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
stop doing wrong.
17 Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,”
says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
Or the Revised Standard Version for verse 18:
18 “Come now, let us reason together,
says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
Message; “Reasoning Together”
November is always a special time for us in our Church life. It fits right in between the colors of late summer and the anticipation of Advent and Christmas. Fall is vanishing to winter if it hasn’t turned in force already. There is no time like it for reflection and giving thanks for all that God has provided.
Today I am humbled to have the honor to talk with you as Pastors have now in our land for 157 years about the special solemnity or holiness of this time of the year. In our country as we prepare for the beginning of Advent there is a brief period of thanksgiving, between Veterans Day and our National Thanksgiving Holiday when we attempt to put into focus all that is important to us religiously or faith-wise, and secularly or street-wise.
November provides the crossroads between both our worldly and church calendars. In America it melds football, election time, veteran’s remembrance, and a national thanksgiving that we have those institutions when many across the planet struggle for just an inkling of either one.
It is important to note that we as a people have endured many trials to reach the point where we now reside in the unfolding of our story. We are the inheritors of a land that has been refined through a myriad of challenges of social, economic, legislative, and even war. Conflicts both outside and withing the boarders of our land to determine who and what we as a people would be in the future. As a people, the secular and faithful of us have worked, hoped, prayed, and even written about our aspirations for our common future.
Perhaps no other secular passage in literature transcends our Faithwalks with our National aspirations like Lincoln’s words throughout his service in office. Today I am especially reminded of his simple eloquence at Gettysburg on 19 November 1863. Although it wasn’t apparent at the time, this battle and its sister battle for Vicksburg on the Mississippi would be the turning point of our National crisis. And yet no one was gloating over the enormous cost of the Butcher’s Bill.
There were two primary speakers for the dedication of the new National Cemetery at Gettysburg that day. Professor Edward Everett the nationally renowned speaker of the time from Harvard who spoke for two hours, and President Abraham Lincoln who in two minutes reaffirmed the Declaration of Independence, supported the Constitution, and humbly captured who and what we as a people have been striving towards ever since.
Normally, we stick to scripture in our services, but today with the challenges we are enduring together as a people, with elections, social tension, and our observance of the servant class in our society, namely our veterans, it is right and appropriate to blend Lincoln’s words to today’s message of; Reasoning Together.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
These words perfectly encapsulate what happens when a nation battles with itself, struggles beyond the normal boundaries of dialogue, good will, and reasoning. They also project a yearning for a future that is enveloped with a new birth of freedom, reasserting the words from our founding as a nation, that state:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…
…So how do we as members of God’s family in the Church support ideals from the secular side of our society? Standards that are so noble, and in fact validate a common gift endowed by God? I feel like I am speaking as Lincoln would when I reflect that I can’t force my will on others. In fact we:
“in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground”; …
… or other people, or institutions, or even ideals by force of will.
What tools do I have to employ as I seek to be a tool of the Lord? For the good of my society, in the best interest of my neighbor, and not of my own, I have God’s word for reflection, serving as my day to day road map. An Atlas guiding us towards humble reflection on the here and now.
From today’s Call to Worship reading we have the Lord through John instructing us to be true to our calling in the Lord.
1 John 1:5-9
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
What John so decisively tells us is that God and God only is free from darkness or sin, but that our goal is to walk in His light and not in the darkness. That Jesus purifies us from all sin! Let me repeat that; purifies us from all sin! There is nothing that you, me or we as a people could have cooked up in our past that the Lord is not capable of forgiving, and walking with us to fix!
This statement is followed by the humbling reality that none of us can say we are without sin in the present. The here and now is rife with our profanity, debauchery, and apathy as a people. In other words, too often we are nasty, self-serving, and indifferent to other people’s hopes, needs, and reasoning. That too many times we as a people are so wrapped up in our petty little grievances, fears, and desires; that I totally tune out those around me.
What I believe the passage in First John is instructing us is that even though we have decided to follow Christ, we still find ourselves enmeshed in sin. And; 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But; 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Meaning salvation is a full time Christian occupation. Full of lessons learned, confession, forgiveness, and then on to the next big thing. In which we hopefully apply lessons learned to meet the next big challenge to grow from in life. Not static, not locked in purity, or perfidy, but humbly with God, venturing into the unknown of our future.
If we rest on out laurels and start to believe that we are without error, and cease to reason with others outside our own orbit, we can easily become sleepwalkers lost in our own group-think. Totally alien to a Faithwalk that is breathing, maturing, and robust in the Lord.
A faith not stuck, but vibrant, alive, and in flux as we individually try to make a difference in our lives on a larger level outside ourselves as a community. Which means as the Call to Worship implies between the lines, there is no room for self-righteousness, or an air of superiority. Since I am so burdened with my own shortcomings, I don’t have time to diagnose yours or others. But I do have time to walk with you as we together search and define that “new birth of Freedom” under God.
This must be a genuine dedication for humbly serving God by serving others and not just the platitudes of politics. That’s the difference in the kind of service we will produce, based on what is really going on, on the inside. In our hearts. As the Lord instructs us in Luke 6:43-45;
43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
Some days I am producing good fruit based on following the promptings of the Lord. And some days, not so much. The idea is that we keep on working at it together in community, through cooperation, grace, and yes reasoning with each other. At our level in the Church, and community, and then in the greater society, our willingness to work and serve others keeps us humble and in focus.
Otherwise we risk falling into the same old traps of self-edification, self-affirming, and self-righteousness that Israel experienced before it’s fall, destruction, and exile, as stated by today’s Message Reading in Isaiah 1:13,16-18.
13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your worthless assemblies…
…16 Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
stop doing wrong.
17 Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.[a]
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,”
says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
Israel was sleep walking and paying lip service to God’s many gifts to them as a people, and God has had just about enough of the nonsense of self-edification, self-affirming, and self-righteousness that Israel has been shoveling out of the Barn by the ton.
And in the midst of all of Israel’s mistakes, like us today, God throws these words out for our consideration. This time in verse 18 I want to usemy favorite way of reading this passage from the Revised Standard Version:
18 “Come now, let us reason together,
says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
When all is said and done, your creator wishes to reason with you, so that when you decide to commit yourself to Him, it is your free will that is saying, I surrender all, to gain all. And in that same way, we must reason with those who we differ with and lead our lives humbly by example. So that when the day is done, we are one people and not a Balkanized, splintered, and stigmatized people at war with itself.
During this time of Veteran’s day, elections, and pandemic, may we all reason together as we seek to grow in our Lord. And as we reflect on all that we have to be grateful for from those who have given the last full measure, may we find peace, solitude, grace, and love from Him who created us, and those we serve in His name.
Amen!
Benediction: based on; Colossians 3:12-15
12Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.