Living the Dream

Genesis 37:1-28 – "Living the Dream"

Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan.  This is the story of the family of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought a bad report about them to their father.  Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a long robe of many colors.  But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.  He said to them, "Listen to this dream I dreamed.  There we were, binding sheaves in the field.  Suddenly, my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it, and bowed down to my sheaf."  His brothers said to him, "Are you indeed to reign over us?  Are you indeed to have dominion over us?"  So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.

He had another dream, and told it to his brothers, saying, "Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me."  But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him, and said to him, "What kind of dream is this that you have had?  Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to the ground before you?"  So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem.  And Israel said to Joseph, "Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem?  Come, I will send you to them."  He answered, "Here I am."  So he said to him, "Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me."  So he sent him from the valley of Hebron.

He came to Shechem, and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, "What are you seeking?"  "I am seeking my brothers, he said; tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock."  The man said, "They have gone away, for I heard them say, 'Let us go to Dothan."  So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan.  They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to hill him.  They said to one another, "Here comes this dreamer.  Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what has become of his dreams."  But when Rueben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, "Let us not take his life."  Rueben said to them, "Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him" – that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to their father.  So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with many colors that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit.  The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

Then they sat down to eat, and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt.  Then .Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?  Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh."  And his brothers agreed.  When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.  And they took Joseph to Egypt.

When I am up here in front of the congregation, there is a little mental game I like to play sometimes.  I like to look across the congregation at heads bowed, and ask myself, "Who's Praying, Who's Sleeping?"

The next time the person next to you falls asleep in church, you'll be tempted to wake them up.  Before you do, you may want to think twice.  As it turns out, people used to go to the temple and intentionally fall asleep, hoping that God would speak to them through dreams.  So, when I look around the congregation and see people starting to nod off, I don't take offense; I simply assume they are participating in a great Biblical tradition.

Today is the second of three sermons you selected for me to preach.  You will recall that several weeks ago I  gave the congregation the opportunity to vote on their favorite Bible stories, and agreed that I would preach the three most popular choices.  Last week was Noah's Ark, July 20^th will be Jonah and the great fish, and this morning, we're looking together at Joseph's dreams.  May we pray.

I remember a recurring dream I had in the months before my graduation from Duke.  The dream was always, more or less, the same.  The divinity school holds its ceremony in Duke Chapel.  We would be lined up in alphabetical order, marching from the hallowed halls of the divinity school across the quad and into the chapel.  Of course, my parents and grandparents were inside somewhere, ready to watch me receive my degree.  Just before I passed through those great oak doors into the Chapel, a member of the administration – sometimes the registrar, sometimes the dean, once the president of the university – would pull me out of line.  It seemed there had been an oversight when they reviewed my academic file, and I had failed to register for one required class, but that oversight would keep me from receiving my degree that night.

When the actual night of graduation finally rolled around, I can't tell you how nervous I was.  I frantically walked across the quad, my eyes darting left and right, certain that, at any moment, Dean Jones was going to jump out from behind a bush and give me the horrible news that I was not graduating that night.....

This morning, our Biblical text introduces us to Joseph, a person who was no stranger to dreams.  You probably know him as the star of Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit Broadway musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  I'd like us to take a look at Joseph, his family, and his dreams.

Joseph comes from a long line of dreamers.  He is the great-grandson of Abraham, the father of many nations.  God made a covenant with Abraham.  "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing."  This covenant will mark the people of God, and God's people for all subsequent generations, including ours, are blessed in order to be a blessing to others.

Abraham's son was Isaac, Joseph's grandfather.  Isaac is the son promised to Abraham and Sarah in their old age, and he is often remembered as the child who was almost sacrificed by his father.

Isaac's son was Jacob, Joseph's father. Jacob is a pretty crafty member of the family – he tricks his elderly father into giving him the blessing intended for his older brother.  Jacob dreams of a ladder stretching into heaven, with angels descending and ascending on it, and God is revealed to Jacob through this dream.  God brings Jacob into the covenant he established with his grandfather Abraham, and it is clear that the two intend to walk together, or in the concept I shared in last week's sermon, that the two intend to dance together.

Now, Jacob the trickster gets one-upped himself when it comes to marriage.  He has his eyes set on Rachel, the younger of the daughters of a guy named Laban.  Laban agrees to let Jacob marry Rachel after 7 years of work.  However, Laban tricks Jacob into marrying his older, less attractive daughter, Leah.  I can only imagine how wild a wedding celebration it must have been when you don't realize until the morning after that you actually married the wrong girl!  So, Jacob works another 7 years in order to get Rachel, which I'm sure set up healthy family dynamics between the two sisters.  Jacob ends up with a total of four wives – Leah, Rachel, and their maids – Bilhah and Zilpah.

Rachel was the favored wife; after all, she's the only one he wanted in the first place.  These wives would produce a total of 12 sons for Jacob.  Rachel only had two sons, Joseph, the star of today's story, and Benjamin, during whose birth Rachel died.  Though Benjamin was the youngest, his father always associated his birth with Rachel's death.  And so, Jacob played favorites toward Joseph.

By the time we meet up with Joseph in this morning's text, he is seventeen years old.  Whatever else you know about Joseph, I want you to remember this:  Joseph was an obnoxious, spoiled, egotistical brat.  Only two verses into this morning's reading, he is giving a bad report to his father about his two wives.  In other words, Joseph was a tattletale.

The relationship among Joseph and his brothers was no ordinary sibling rivalry.  It was outright hatred, such to the point that they never even greet him with a daily "Shalom."  They wouldn't even give him the time of day.

And can you blame them?  They were always out working in the fields and tending after the flocks, while Joseph was sleeping in 'til ..noon.. and playing Guitar Hero all day.  Joseph always got the last piece of pizza, or an extra baked potato, or a second bowl of ice cream.  The other eleven brothers had to share a room, but Joseph had a room entirely to himself with its own private bathroom.  And  Joseph always got the fanciest designer clothes his father could get his hands on, while his brothers were left to fend for themselves.

This family seems to have taken the fun right out of dysfunctional.  There is plenty of blame to go around.  Jacobs favors one son over the others.  Joseph is an unwise tattletale and braggart.  His brothers are full of hate toward him, and even quarrel among themselves as to how they should treat him.

Now, Joseph should have known that his brothers hated him.  You would think that he would have been a little more cautious about how he acted around them, but not our Joseph.  He's either foolish or brash, or perhaps a little bit of both.  "Hey guys," he says.  "Let me tell you about this dream I had."  We were all out binding sheaves of corn in the field.  Suddenly, all on its own, mine stood straight up, and all of yours gathered around it and bowed down before it.  Isn't that a cool dream?"

I don't know what response Joseph expected to get from his brothers.  Did he think this dream was going to impress them?  Were they going to be awestruck?  Dismiss it some indigestion from whatever bedtime snack he had the night before?  Whatever Joseph expected, the text tells us that Joseph's brothers hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.

Not learning his lesson the first time, Joseph shares another dream with his brothers.  "The sun, moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me."  At this, even his doting father rebukes him.  Remember, his father was no stranger to dreams.  "Son, you've got to be careful running around talking like this.  Even if you're having these dreams and think they mean something, maybe you should just keep some things to yourself."

The story goes on as Joseph's brothers sell him into slavery and he is taken to Egypt, where, interestingly enough, he is still dreaming.  Only now, he is interpreting other people's dreams.  He meets two servants of the pharaoh in prison, and they tell him about dreams they've had, and he interprets their meanings.  He then interprets some dreams of the pharaoh himself that predict seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.  Joseph is put in charge of the affairs of the country because of this, and in an ironic twist, meets his brothers when they come to Egypt to purchase some of the excess grain that was prudently stored during the years of plenty.  His brothers bow before him in humility, fulfilling what was prefigured in Joseph's dream in today's text, the dream for which his brothers hated him even more.

We see clearly that Joseph's dreams meant something.  The dreams of those he encountered meant something.  Indeed, throughout the great Biblical tradition, dreams mean something.

My grandfather used to tell us about a recurring dream he had.  He would be walking around in a strange town, utterly lost.  He realized at some point that he wasn't wearing any clothes.  In conversation with other members of the family, he discovered that his brother-in-law was having a similar recurring dream.  They agreed that the next time either one had the dream, they'd look for each other instead of wandering around the town by themselves.

Many of you have participated in an on-going conversation with me throughout the week on the significance of dreams.  I sent out a mass email to hundreds of you and asked you to respond to two questions.  1. What recurring dreams are you having lately? and 2. Do you think dreams actually mean anything or not?

It will not surprise you to learn that the responses to these questions were as varied as each of us.  However, a couple things did surprise me in your responses.  One, I was surprised at the sheer number of responses.  I opened my email the morning after I asked for your responses, only to find that you had literally flooded my Inbox.  Two, I was surprised at the deeply personal nature of much of what you shared.

Some of you shared dreams with very little commentary as to their meaning.  Others offered half-hearted guesses at what these dreams might have meant.  Still others went into great detail about what some of these dreams did mean, and the profound connections these dreams made into your lives.

Here are some of the things you're dreaming about.  Moving.  Making a hole-in-one.  Conversations with friends and loved ones who have passed into the next life.  Moments of awful pain and suffering.  Trying to get the attention of someone who had died.  Snakes.  Brake failure.  Missing or forgetting class, appointments, meetings and a whole host of other things.  Visions of children and grandchildren being born.  Things from our childhood that needed to be resolved.  Being trapped – under water, in elevators, in long hallways without doors and windows.  Appalachian football.  Getting lost in hotels, churches, schools, businesses, homes, or on remote roads.  A few of you even said you'd had dreams about me, but, that's all I have to say about that.

But, what does all this mean?  Are our dreams messages?  And if they are, who is sending the message?

Dreams can be one of the many ways that God speaks to us.  If you want to explore this subject in greater depth, ..Bobby Sharp.. recommended a book to me.  It's Dreams: God's Forgotten Language by John Sanders.  He develops the idea that rationalistic, enlightened people like ourselves have cut ourselves off from communicating with God through dreams and have chosen to ignore the spiritual and psychological elements of many of our dreams.

But it's not just dreams through which God speaks.  That's only one channel.  God speaks through worship.  God speaks through music.  God speaks through the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion.  God speaks through studying the Scriptures.  God speaks through prayer.  God speaks through our generosity of our time and resources.  God speaks through our life experiences.  God speaks through conversation with our friends and family.  The more channels of divine communication we tune into, the more likely we are to catch the message.  If we will simply pay attention to some of these things, I think we'll find God speaking all the time.

Sometimes, a dream is just a dream.  It might be just some random information that found itself together while you slept.  It could be anxiety working itself out.  It could be a pastrami sandwich you had right before bed.

But sometimes, a dream is a little message.  We find that, in our waking and in our sleeping, God continues to work.  God has placed a bit of himself within each of us – a dream of what we can become as individuals, but also a dream of what we can become as a community of faith.  Identify that dream, figure out what it is, and never let it go.  This morning, it is easy enough for me to say, "Never lose sight of your dream," but I want to go one better.  Whatever your dream is, whatever it is that God has placed inside of you to do, or to be, or to become, may it happen in accordance with the will of God.  The Lord was with Joseph in the midst of his dreams, may He be with you as well in the midst of yours.

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Noah’s Ark

Genesis 6:9-22, 7:24, 8:14-19 – "Noah's Ark"

These are the descendents of Noah.  Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God.  And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence.  And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth.  And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth.  Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.  This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits (450 feet), its width fifty cubits (75 feet), and its height 30 cubits (45 feet).  Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks.  For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.  But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.  And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.  Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive.  Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them."  Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days.

In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.  Then God said to Noah, "Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you.  Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh – birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth – so that they may about on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth."  So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives.  And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families.

This morning is the first of a series of sermons you've selected.  Two weeks ago, everyone in the congregation had an opportunity to vote on their favorite Bible stories, and I agreed to take the three most popular stories and preach on them.  Today, we're looking at Noah's Ark.  Next Sunday, we'll look at Joseph's dreams, and on July 20^th, we'll talk about Jonah and the great fish.  I'll admit that I haven't really thought of these stories since I was back in Vacation Bible School happily coloring rainbows and smiling fish.

I'd like you imagine this story taking place today. The Lord speaks to Noah and says: "In one year, I am going to make it rain and cover the whole Earth with water until all is destroyed. But I want you to save the righteous people and two of every kind of living thing on the Earth. Therefore, I am commanding you to build an Ark."

In a flash of lightning, God delivered the specifications for an Ark., and Noah agreed to build it.

"Remember," said the Lord, "You must complete the Ark and bring everything aboard in one year."

Exactly one year later, a fierce storm cloud formed and all the seas of the earth went into a tumult. The Lord saw Noah sitting in his front yard weeping.  "Noah." He shouted, "Where is the Ark?"

"Lord, please forgive me!" cried Noah. "I did my best but there were big problems. First, I had to get a permit for construction and your plans weren't up to code. I had to hire an engineering firm and redraw the plans.

Then I got into a fight with OSHA over a fire sprinkler system and floatation devices.

Then my neighbor objected, claiming I was violating zoning ordinances by building the Ark in my front yard, so I had to get a variance from the city planning commission.

I had problems getting enough wood, because there was a ban ..ting trees to protect the Spotted Owl. I finally convinced the U.S. Forest Service that I needed the wood to save the owls.

However, the Fish and Wildlife Service won't let me catch any owls. So, no owls.

The carpenters formed a union and went out on strike. I had to negotiate a settlement with the National Labor Union. Now I have 16 carpenters on the Ark, but still no owls.

When I started rounding up the other animals, I got sued by an animal rights group for confining the animals.

Just when I got the suit dismissed, the EPA notified me that I could not complete the Ark without filing an environmental impact statement on your proposed flood. They didn't take very kindly to the idea that they had no jurisdiction over the conduct of the Creator of the universe.

Then the Army Corps of Engineer demanded a map of the proposed new flood plain. I sent them a globe.

Right now, I am trying to resolve a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that I am practicing discrimination by not taking godless, unbelieving people aboard!

The IRS has seized all my assets, claiming that I'm about to flee the country to avoid paying taxes.

I got a notice from the State that I owe some user tax and failed to register the Ark as a 'recreational water craft.'

Finally the ACLU got the courts to issue an injunction against further construction of the Ark, saying that since God is flooding the earth, it is a religious event and therefore unconstitutional.

I really don't think I can finish the Ark for another 5 or 6 years!" Noah wailed.

The sky began to clear, the sun began to shine and the seas began to calm. A rainbow arched across the sky.

Noah looked up hopefully. "You mean you are not going to destroy the Earth, Lord?"

"No," said the Lord sadly. "The government already has!"  May we pray.

Let's look at some of the background before we proceed any further.  The legend of an epic flood is common to all ancient cultures.  Anthropologists have identified 25 distinct flood accounts in the traditions of various cultures, and if we allow for all the variations upon those accounts, we end up with around 2500 identifiable flood stories from ancient cultures.

Take a look at the ark itself.  God gives very specific instructions for its construction, including where to put the door and window.  I'll get to this window in a minute.  If we convert the measurements for the ark into modern figures, it's about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall.  If you take the square footage produced by those dimensions, and place those onto three decks, you end up with a vessel with 101,250 square feet.  Keep in mind that the square footage of this entire building is right around 67,000 square feet.  The ark is of colossal proportions – is it any wonder that it captured our imaginations as children?

For many people of faith, we grow up hearing the Noah story in Sunday school and at Vacation Bible School and we sing songs about it.  "The Lord told Noah, build me an arky, arky…"  We learn the story as if it is just a cute little story about a boat and animals and a rainbow in the sky.  We decorate nurseries and children's classrooms with Noah's Ark murals and put it on the front of children's bibles.  Smiling and happy Noah, surrounded by smiling and happy animals, merrily floating along under a bright and colorful rainbow.  Whenever I drew this story in Sunday School, that's how it always looked.

Then we get older and we re-read the story of Noah, and we'll stop and think, "Wait!  We teach this to children?"  We are surprised by the utter destruction depicted, by God's anger and wrath and God's desire to destroy all life on the earth, images that clash with our childhood memories of sheep and cows getting on a nice boat built by the nice, long-bearded man.

Too often, however, I think we focus on the wrong aspect of the flood narrative.  Too often we hone in on humanity's corruption and God's wrathful judgment, either reveling in or being repulsed by it.  In that regard, we are often like we are when we pass a bad car wreck on the highway, not being able to look away, either because of our horror at what has happened or our fascination to know just a little bit more about what had taken place.  Either way, our eyes are glued to the scene.

But, this story really isn't about God's judgment.  Some have used this text to prop up their own agendas and to dole out their own versions of justice, oppressing anyone they perceive to be inferior.  Christians have used this argument to validate anti-semitism, saying the Jews somehow missed the boat.  Modern-day Israel has used this argument to oppress Palestinians.  Some strains of the Christian tradition have used this argument to delight in anything they perceive as God's judgment upon the ungodly, infidels, and persons of moral inferiority.

However, nowhere on the sacred page of Scripture are the details of the disaster described.  The text is not concerned with, nor does it delight in, the plight of the victims.  There are no portholes on the ark, so that righteous Noah and his righteous family can watch all humanity suffer.  There is only a window in the top, an opening toward God, that will let God's light in.  God is not depicted as having a good laugh while throwing down lightning bolts to smite the wicked.  Genesis 6:6 says that when God saw the wickedness of the earth, "it grieved him to his heart."  God appears as a grieving and pained parent, not as an angry executioner.  So, this story really isn't about God's judgment.

This story really isn't about Noah and his family, either.  It's hard to say why God chose Noah.  We know he was a righteous man, a man of integrity in his generation; and we know he walked with God.  But the text doesn't claim that he was the only one who did.  It never says that Noah was the last righteous man on earth, or that good behavior is the reason God chose him in the first place.  It's not because Noah was perfect.  Only a few verses after Noah's family comes out of the ark, that much is already clear – take a look at Genesis chapter 9 for this part of the story.  After being cooped up on the ark for over a year and probably coming very close to losing his sanity – not to mention his breakfast – Noah, a man of the soil, planted a vineyard.  Of course he drank some of the wine from that vineyard.  Of course he drank a little too much – there was much to celebrate.  And we find Noah, the character most likely to be featured on nursery wallpaper, passed out naked in the living room.  No, he certainly wasn't perfect.

What the text does tell us is that Noah walked with God.  Let's dwell there for a minute.

It may not surprise you to learn that this phrase, "walked with God," means something much deeper and richer in the original language than our translations can capture.  Walking with God suggests an intimacy, an interdependence, even.  Early Christian theologians used similar terms when they tried to articulate the bond among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The terms they used suggested a dance. 

In a dance, there is movement.  There is give and take between partners.  There is flow.  There is intertwining to the point that it sometimes becomes difficult to view one partner apart from the other.

Our translations might serve us better if they said, "Noah danced with God."

Noah moved with God.  Life flowed between them.  Noah dwelt in the full radiance of God's presence.

It's sort of like asking an unborn child if it has a relationship with its mother.  Assuming the child is available for interview, understands English, and can respond back, the child might say, "Well, I guess you could say that I have a relationship with my mother.  But, well, it's so much deeper than that.  I am dependent on her.  I go everywhere with her.  Whenever she moves, I move.  My heartbeat happens because of her.  Yes, we have a relationship, but I live inside of her.  Do you get that?"

That's what Noah had with God.  It went beyond a relationship.  It went beyond walking together.  It was a situation in which Noah relied upon God for his very life.  In turn, God chose to use Noah, knowing full well that Noah was not perfect, knowing that Noah was fragile, knowing that Noah was just as likely to fail as succeed.

And by that, we have stumbled onto the meaning of this story.  The story isn't about God's wrath and judgment.  It's not about the animals.  It's not about Noah and his family.  The story of Noah's ark is about God and God's commitment to the world.  It's a story about God who commits to the future of a less than perfect world.

God realizes that we humans are resistant to God's will for creation, yet God continues to live with and work through such resistant creatures.  God continues to work through a father who has too much to drink and passes out naked in the living room.  God continues to work through a son who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and sees something he shouldn't.  God continues to work through two other sons who cover up the elephant in the room and never want to address it again.

God will continue to grieve the wrongdoing of his children, but through grace, will open up new avenues of interaction between the human and the divine.  God proves trustworthy in this dance with humanity, and though we often forget the steps, or miss the rhythm, or fall on our faces, or leave the dance floor, God continues to invite us back.  God remains committed to us, despite our sometimes glaring lack of commitment to God.

And so, despite all the things we'd like to make this story of Noah and the ark about, it's about God – God's commitment and God's promises.  It's about God who provides salvation in the midst of chaos and who willingly enters into the uncertainty of a less-than-perfect world.

Through all of it, Noah continued to dance with God.  Through the hard work, through the chaos, through cleaning up the mess the animals left behind in the bottom of the ark, Noah continued to dance with God.  May it be so with each of us.

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Your Life’s Purpose

Matthew 6:25-34 – "Your Life's Purpose"

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?  And why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, 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.  But if God so clothes grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith?  There do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we wear?'  For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

"So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.  Today's trouble is enough for today.

Last May, one of our students graduated from ASU's Walker College of Business.  She called me a few weeks later to tell me about a job interview she had been on.  She answered an ad for a small company looking for an accountant.  The interview was conducted by the owner and founder of the company, a nervous, squirrelly, little man.

"I need someone with an accounting degree," he said.  "But mostly, I need someone to do my worrying for me."

"Excuse me?" our bright, young accountant said.

"I worry about a lot of things," the man explained.  "But I don't want to worry about money.  Your job will be to take all the money worries off my back."

"I see.  And how much does the job pay?"

"I'll start you at eighty thousand dollars."

"Eighty thousand dollars!" she exclaimed.  "How can such a small business afford such a large sum?"

"That," the owner said, "is your first worry."

I meet a lot of people who are worried about an awful lot of things.  Worry seems to have become a national pastime.  We worry about more things, and we worry about them at younger and younger ages.  Because of my ministry among college students and young adults, and because of my many friends who are constantly going through major life transition, I meet a lot of people who are worried about their purpose in life.  "What am I supposed to do with the rest of my life?"  "What is my meaning in life?"  "What has God put me on the planet to do?"

What is your life's purpose?  Pay close attention, because within the next 20 minutes, I hope God will tell us.

We are a society who loves to worry.  This worrying and the accompanying planning starts earlier and earlier.  If you want to get a good job, you have to get into the right graduate program, which means you first have to choose the right college and graduate with the appropriate degree.  But to get into that college, you need to have good grades from the right high school and the accompanying array of extracurricular activities.  But, even before that, children need to be in the right elementary schools and preschools and daycare centers, where they will learn valuable life skills, make important social contacts, and learn how to live in harmony with their fellow human beings.  But before that, you had better make sure your children see the right pediatricians and psychologists, but those are dependent upon references from the right obstetrician.  In short, if you plan to have children within the next 15 years and have not already made sufficient plans, you may have already ruined your children's future.  This will affect you negatively because your children will choose your retirement home.

In our text this morning, Jesus tells us not be people consumed by worry.  "Consider the birds of the air," he says.  They don't sow and reap.  They don't gather into barns.  Yet, your heavenly father takes care of them.  "Consider the lilies of the field."  They don't toil or spin.  Yet, your heavenly father takes care of them.  The lilies, the birds do not plan and worry.  Yet, your heavenly father takes care of them.  So then, why do we worry?  Will not our heavenly father take care of us as well?

We may be tempted to dismiss Jesus' words here as a quaint teaching for a simpler time.  Life wasn't as competitive, we say.  They weren't faced with the same threats we are.  But consider the context in which Jesus spoke this teaching.  The unemployment rate of first century Palestine was probably approaching 50%.  People literally did not know where their next meal was coming from.  They were occupied and taxed heavily by a Roman government.  Traveling from town to town or finding yourself outside the gates of the city after dark was literally taking your life in your own hands.  Certainly, there were plenty of things to worry about.  In the midst of that, Jesus says, "Quit worrying.  Quit worrying about tomorrow.  Today's trouble is enough."

One of the greatest philosophers and social critics of all time summarizes this teaching for us nicely.  I appeal to his great wisdom as something from which we can all learn.  I appeal, of course, to the noble, the venerable, the enlightened teaching of Charlie Brown.  "I've developed a new philosophy . . . I only dread one day at a time."

One day at a time – friends, that's how we're called to live!

God's will for your life is not some path stretching off into the horizon.  In fact, God's will for your life is much more immediate.  Getting your life in line with God's will forces you to ask one very simple, direct question.  What are you doing with your life right now?

Don't worry about what to do with the rest of your life.  God doesn't want you to be worried that far ahead.  I'm convinced that what Jesus calls us to do is solve this problem: How should I be living today?  Is God being glorified, is Christ being shown in how I'm living today?  This hour?  Right here at this very moment?

Mike Yaconelli tells the story of a lay leader in his church who didn't lead.  You know, who didn't live up to his responsibilities.  There was a group of young people who conducted a monthly worship service at a local old folks' home, and Mike finally convinced that lay leader to at least drive them every month.

He was there at the home, standing in the back with his arms crossed as the kids set up.  Suddenly, there was a tug on his sleeve.  He looked down at an old man in a wheelchair.  He took hold of the old man's hand, and the old man didn't let go all through the service.  This was repeated the next month, and the next month, and the next month.  Then one month, the old man wasn't there.  The lay leader asked about him and was told he could find him down the hall, third door on the right.  "He's dying.  He's unconscious, but if you want to go pray over his body, that would be all right."

The lay leader went and there were tubes and wires all over the place.  He took the man's hand, and prayed that God would receive him graciously from this life into the next.  When he finished, the man squeezed his hand, and he knew his prayer had been heard.  He was so moved that tears began to roll down his cheeks.  He stumbled out of the room and ran into a woman.  She said, "He's been waiting for you.  He said that he didn't want to die until he had the chance to hold the hand of Jesus just one more time."

The lay leader was amazed at this.  "What do you mean?"

She said, "My father would say that once a month Jesus came to this place.  'He would take my hand and he would hold my hand for a whole hour.  I don't want to die until I have the chance to hold the hand of Jesus one more time.'"

Friends, I don't know what you think God's will for your life is, but I'll tell you it is this: God's will for your life is to do what Jesus would do in your place.  It's to be Jesus for people who are in need.  It's to be Jesus for people who are hurt.  It's to be Jesus for people who are lonely.

If you're going to be Jesus to people, you have to treat them like Jesus would have treated them.

First, you have to believe in people.  Jesus seemed to be drawn to people the world had given up on.  Many of them had long given up on God!  It had been years since they believed in God.  But yet, as Jesus shows us, God never stopped believing in them.  While the world believes in a God who helps those who help themselves, Jesus reveals a God who helps those who cannot help themselves.

When Jesus met a tax collector, or a prostitute, or a paralytic, or someone demon-possessed, he didn't see a tax collector, or a prostitute, or a paralytic, or someone demon-possessed.  No, Jesus saw someone created in the image of God, one of God's precious children, a person of inestimable and sacred worth.

When we meet the modern-day equivalents of these people, we are called to believe in them just as Jesus would.  We are called to believe that God is not finished with them, and that every life is an arena for the glory of God to be revealed.  If you're going to be Jesus for people, you've got to forgive them.

Second, you have to forgive people.  Chuck Colson tells a story about a prison ministry his church was involved with.  After the service, they were leaving, and discovered one member of the group was missing.  They found him in a cell on his knees praying with one of the prisoners.  Chuck said, "I scolded the man and said, 'You're ruining our good graces here! Please come out of there. What's going on?'" The man rose to his feet and said, "I'm Judge Brewer. This is a man that I condemned to death. We need some time to forgive each other."

Who in our lives stands in need of forgiveness?  We are called to forgive them, just as Christ has forgiven us.  We are called to offer the hope of new beginnings to anyone and everyone, regardless of what they may have done.  If you're going to be Jesus for people, you've got to believe in them.

The last thing I hold before you is this: you have to love people unconditionally.  Jesus calls us to exercise unrestrained love.  It is easy for us to love that which is lovely, or desirable, or pleasing to our own sensibilities.  It is much more difficult to love that which, from our perspective, is ugly, or undesirable, or disturbing to our own sensibilities.

How often, when something appears outside of our own self-determined realm of acceptability, do we ignore or reject it?  How often, when someone appears outside of our own self-determined realm of acceptability, do we reject them?  Mother Teresa said, "If you judge people, you have no time to love them."

It is not our job to determine who gets into God's kingdom.  It is not our job to determine who is and who is not the worthy recipient of God's love.  We are not the judge, the jury, nor the executioner.  We are called to be witnesses of God's great love in Jesus Christ.  If you're going to be Jesus for people, you've got to love them unconditionally.

God's will for your life is to be Jesus for people whenever and wherever you meet them.  Over the long run, if you continue to be faithful day by day, moment by moment, you will find your life to be the perfect reflection of God's will.  We are called to show people a God who loves them unconditionally, who forgives them, who believes in them.

In so doing, we will find the grace of God rich in our lives and in the lives of others.  We will find ourselves gathered as one family, as brothers and sisters in Christ, as children of a heavenly Father, who invites us in our unity to a table lovingly spread with bread and wine – a place where we commune with God and with one another.  Christ has already invited you that table – come, let us join there now.

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Seeing is Believing?

John 20:19-31 – "Seeing is Believing?"

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."  After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.  Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you."  As the father has sent me, so I send you.  When he had said this, he breathed on them again and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord."  But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them.  Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."  Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side.  Do not doubt, but believe."  Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"  Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.  But these are written so that that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Christ is risen!  (Wait for response).  Today is Easter.  It may surprise you, but today is Easter.  Last week, we pulled out all the stops.  The choir was full, the church was full of flowers, we had brass and strings at the 11 o’clock service, and we all went home filled with the joy of the resurrection.

Today, the choir is off, the lilies are wilting, and the preaching duty falls to your associate pastor, lowly and humble is he.

And yet, you’re still here.  Why are you here?  Because, today is still Easter.  In fact, every day is Easter for Christians, because every day we remember that Christ died and rose on our behalf, and we remember that he has conquered the powers of sin and death.  Easter isn’t just a day on a church’s calendar to be celebrated only once a year.  Easter is a way of life which unlocks all doors, and most especially, the door of death.  May we pray.

Doubting Thomas

In our text this morning, we encounter the disciples of Jesus on the evening on the first Easter Sunday.  Perhaps only 12 hours earlier, Jesus has appeared to the women in the garden, and the resurrection is now a reality rather than something hoped for.  Yet, the picture we get of the disciples in our text this evening doesn’t exactly fill us with the hope of the resurrection.  This text tended to focus on Thomas, and the moral of the story was that Thomas was a dull, doubting follower of Jesus whose example we shouldn’t imitate.  Don’t be like Thomas!  Believe!  Don’t doubt!

I have to admit I always thought this treatment of Thomas was a little bit unfair.  After all, we Thomases tend to stick together!  Thomases are practical, down-to-earth, rational people.  Thomases are concrete.  Thomases are the ones you want on the team, because they usually assign lists of the work to be done to various team members, and help pull those silly daydreamers down out of the sky.  Someone with the name Thomas simply wants all the available evidence placed in front of them before they make their mind up on something.

I don’t think Thomas’ request is all that unreasonable.  In fact, I think it’s a shame that all we know him for is his doubt, when there’s really so much more to him.  Thomases, you see, are complex people.  Whenever this lesson was taught in Sunday School, the teacher would tell us not to be like Thomas because he doubted.  Perhaps what was most troubling to me, however, was not the fact that we shared a name, but that I, like this other Thomas, had my doubts.

What is the relationship between doubt and faith?  The point of so much popular Christian teaching gets boiled down to an oversimplified formula.  Faith is good.  Doubt is bad.  Faith conquers all.  Doubt calls too many things into question.  In many places, the admission of doubt would cause others around us to question the sincerity of our spiritual commitments.  Is that person really a Christian?  Will they really inherit eternal life?

In the world of certain faith, where doubt is cast as an enemy, it’s difficult to proceed.  We can too easily force people to deal with their doubts and questions in secret and dark places. I’ve watched people struggling alone with deep questions because they were afraid of how others might react to their doubts.  Doubts and uncertainty frighten us.  I think that’s why we tend to reject Thomas, because Thomas dares to bring doubt into our lives of faith.

But friends, doubt and faith are not opposites.  James Fowler, in Stages of Faith, tells us that doubt often comes as a catalyst to deeper faith.  The great reformer, Martin Luther, talks about working through his own doubts, and how those doubts became part of the process of faith and of being a Christian.  John Wesley frequently spoke of "degrees of faith," in which a person’s faith may be present to varying degrees.  In my own life, periods of the greatest questioning and doubting have led to some of my most profound experiences of faith.

And yet, we single out Thomas.  For 2000 years, we’ve known him simply as "Doubting Thomas."  But, take a look at what the other disciples were up to.  The disciples of Jesus were gathered together.  Remember, Thomas was absent from this gathering.  Those disciples, gathered on the evening of that first Easter Sunday, are a picture of the most miserable little conglomeration of people to ever assemble and take upon themselves the name "church."  They were supposed to be out in the street, proclaiming the Easter Shout that Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed!  Yet, there they were, like frightened rabbits behind a set of locked doors.

They were hunkered down, frightened, cowering, hoping no one would discover them there.  As Tom Long says, this is the church at its worst: "scarred, disheartened, defensive."  How would such a church advertise itself in the community?  The church where all are welcome?  Locked doors are not a sign of hospitality.  This church doesn’t have a warm heart and a bold mission.  All it has, from our perspective, is shaky knees and sweaty palms.

And yet, we single out Thomas.  But give the man some credit.  Because, when he is finally able to touch the place pierced by the nails, he comes out with the boldest assertion imaginable.  He falls to his knees as Jesus’ feet, and he says "My Lord and my God."  Do you get the significance of this?  Thomas is the first one to get it.  Thomas makes the connection that God has been among them the whole time.

Out of doubt was born Christianity’s most profound confession to date.  As Thomas has shown us, there is a place for doubt, and profound faith can be born out of it.  Jesus doesn’t rebuke Thomas because of his doubt.  Far from it, Jesus meets Thomas where he is.

What the church had (and has)

Thankfully, Jesus is in the habit of meeting people where they are.  Amen?  I know the disciples must have been thankful for this fact on the evening of that first Easter.  There they were, with locked doors, defeated members, and fear.  They were a church with absolutely nothing.  No sanctuary, no pulpit, no choir, no adorable preacher.  No plan, no mission, no conviction.  Nothing going for it – except that when it gathered, the risen Christ pushed through the locked door, threw back the bolt, and stood among them.  And for any of us, when that happens, that’s as close as we get to being called "Church."

Churches sometimes will try to define themselves based on a whole host of other things.  Why are insignificant things are allowed to become more important than the presence of the risen Christ?  We can put up all sorts of things that will block and lock Christ out of our lives, both as individuals, but also as a congregation. Are those things perhaps simply a form of those disciples locked doors?

We all know these things.   We all know churches that define themselves primarily in terms of these things, and to whom the presence of the risen Christ is noticeably absent.  Some churches are built around the personality of their pastors.  Now, John Fitzgerald and I both have no shortage of personality, but we’d rather not be the center of attention here.  To some churches, the clothing of those leading worship is more important than Christ.  For some, the architecture or the bricks and mortar of the building themselves are more important.  Some churches are proud of their formality of their informality.  Others place their trust in their denominational identity, or the fact that they have no denominational identity.  The list goes on and on – a liberal or conservative identity, political agendas, or even what type of coffee is served.  And then, of course, worship style, time of worship, type of music that are more important to some than whether or not the risen Christ is ac