On the Way to Wonder

First Reading: Isaiah 65:1-9

 ¹I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask,
  to be found by those who did not seek me.
 I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
  to a nation that did not call on my name.
 ²I held out my hands all day long
  to a rebellious people,
 who walk in a way that is not good,
  following their own devices;
 ³a people who provoke me
  to my face continually,
 sacrificing in gardens
  and offering incense on bricks;
 ⁴who sit inside tombs,
  and spend the night in secret places;
 who eat swine’s flesh,
  with broth of abominable things in their vessels;
 ⁵who say, “Keep to yourself,
  do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
 These are a smoke in my nostrils,
  a fire that burns all day long.
 ⁶See, it is written before me:
  I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
 I will indeed repay into their laps
  ⁷their iniquities and their ancestors’ iniquities together,
 says the Lord;
 because they offered incense on the mountains
  and reviled me on the hills,
 I will measure into their laps
  full payment for their actions.
 ⁸Thus says the Lord:
 As the wine is found in the cluster,
  and they say, “Do not destroy it,
  for there is a blessing in it,”
 so I will do for my servants’ sake,
  and not destroy them all.
 ⁹I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,
  and from Judah inheritors of my mountains;
 my chosen shall inherit it,
  and my servants shall settle there.

Psalm: Psalm 22:19-28

 ¹⁹But you, O Lord, be not far away;  O my help, hasten to my aid.
 ²⁰Deliver me from the sword, my life from the power ^| of the dog.
 ²¹Save me from the lion’s mouth!
  From the horns of wild bulls you have ^| rescued me.
 ²²I will declare your name to my people;
  in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.
 ²³You who fear the Lord, give praise! All you of Jacob’s line, give glory.
  Stand in awe of the Lord, all you offspring of Israel.
 ²⁴For the Lord does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty;    neither is the Lord’s face hidden from them;
  but when they cry out, the Lord hears them.
 ²⁵From you comes my praise in the great assembly;
  I will perform my vows in the sight of those who ^| fear the Lord.
 ²⁶The poor shall eat and be satisfied,
  Let those who seek the Lord give praise! May your hearts  live forever! 
 ²⁷All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
  all the families of nations shall bow before God.
 ²⁸For dominion belongs to the Lord,
  who rules over the nations.

Second Reading: Galatians 3:23-29

²³Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. ²⁴Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, ²⁶for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. ²⁷As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Gospel: Luke 8:26-39

²⁶Then [Jesus and his disciples] arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. ²⁷As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. ²⁸When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”—²⁹for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) ³⁰Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. ³¹They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.
 ³²Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. ³³Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
 ³⁴When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. ³⁵Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. ³⁶Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. ³⁷Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. ³⁸The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, ³⁹“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

CHILDREN’S SERMON:  Another look at Aesop’s “Lion and the Mouse” 

A Lion lay asleep in the forest. A timid little Mouse came upon him unexpectedly. In her fright to get away, she ran across the Lion’s nose. The Lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature to kill her.

“Spare me!” begged the poor Mouse. “Please let me go and some day I will surely repay you.” The Lion was much amused to think that a Mouse could ever help him. But he was generous and let the Mouse go.

Some days later, the Lion was caught in a hunter’s net. Unable to free himself, he filled the forest with his angry roaring. The Mouse knew the voice and quickly found the Lion struggling in the net. Running to one of the great ropes that bound him, she gnawed it until it parted, and soon the Lion was free.

“You laughed when I said I would repay you,” said the Mouse. “Now you see that even a Mouse can help a Lion.”

Turn to your neighbor.  What choice do you think the lion had to make?  What choice did the mouse have to make?

Let us pray:  Lord may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

Moments of Truth and Consequences

         Today we continue into the Pentecost season. Pentecost shifts our attention from who our God is, as seen in the life of Jesus, to challenging us to ponder who we are with Jesus in our lives. At Pentecost the Spirit touched 3,000 lives and the Christian church started to have birthing pains.  Peter stood and preached, people believed and somehow life was different.  We now return to earlier texts with a different perspective. An encounter with the Holy tells us about God but it also changes us.  We come to a fork in the road of our life.  The lion had a choice to make in our Aesop fable.  Would he eat the mouse or spare it’s life?  The mouse had a choice to make also.  Would she try to aide the lion or let him die?  The consequences of choices impacts the trajectory of lives. 

         In our text today we have three sets of people or beings who stand on holy ground and must make a decision about what they are going to do.  The man, the demons, and the towns’ people all encounter Jesus and decide how to respond.  We are here today watching as the disciples did, the unseen audience standing on holy ground, and we must decide if we are going to snooze or apply the truth God brings to our hearts today!

A Man Obsessed or Possessed

         We don’t much like to talk about demon possession today as evil is for cartoons or for those people of the other party or the other country or just plain different from us.  Our text has a man who has been possessed by demons that controls his life.  Before we dismiss this, perhaps we know people who struggle with alcohol, with pornography, with anger, with eating, with shopping and dast we mention gossip!  Uvalde and how many other mass shootings testify that this Biblical story is real today.  To be human is to be susceptible to the influences of evil.

      To be tempted is not the problem.  Jesus was tempted.  The problem comes when we are driven by the tempter.  The man “had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs.”  Ouch.  When we are out of control, we are no longer able to clothe ourselves socially.  The addiction identifies us and labels us and we loose our unique identity as child of God.  We use words like drunk, addict, gossip, or loose to describe people who are not in control of their lives.  The man lived in the tombs, in hiding, out of touch with those who might help him.  Death is the companion.  We have suicide prevention lines and depression counselors and support groups for people caught in the grips of evil.  Let us not deceive ourselves, we are this person or at least we could be.  This is not a story.  This is real. It is us.

         This man has a choice.  He chooses to draw near to Jesus but please note, Jesus is not afraid of him and is willing to engage.  Jesus orders evil to leave as the man falls down before him. 

         “²⁸When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the    top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”” 

Our man, as well as the demons, as well as the towns’ people, as well as the swine, and maybe even us, are all gripped with fear at the thought of interacting with Jesus.  Perhaps here we have a big clue for spiritual growth and peace.  When we are in the grips of fear, it probably is not God speaking but evil.  In the presence of that fear the man must decide to approach Jesus or flee to the tombs.  He approaches and Jesus restores him.  Jesus is not afraid of the man or the evil within him.  Jesus is more powerful than evil. And Jesus reaches out to the man in his helplessness.  The man realizes he is in the wrong and is afraid of torment.  I suspect when we know we are in the wrong, we too, become afraid of God and we are afraid of torment or afraid of the cost of repentance. 

         I have quoted Robert Frost’s poem before and do again:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

We choose Jesus and he heals.  We choose to run with fear and we suffer.  We all today have choices to make.  Jesus calls us to life!

Demons possessed or possessor

Our second group of beings that deal with Jesus are the demons possessing the man.  They know they are in the presence of the Holy, of the Son of God, and they bargain.  They beg not to be sent back to the abyss but into a herd of pigs.  Jesus grants their request.

         Yup, we know bargaining too.  Have we ever bargained with God and asked him to rescue us from a perceived trauma and promised to ….  At least we promise to be better, to return to church, to not eat sweets again, to not turn on pornography… if only he would deliver us this time.  I think this is the stuff of New Year’s resolutions and we all know we are lucky if we finish January before we slide into old habits again.  I catch myself with mouth in motion and shoot a prayer to heaven for help so I won’t be snarky again, but I am.

         Bargaining post pones the consequences.  The demons are allowed to go into the pigs but the pigs run down the steep bank to the lake and are drown.  The outcome is death so where are the demons now?  Getting the human dreams of our hearts is often not a solution and only leads to more pain.  I think of all those young adult dreams when I was sure I had found the right guy but that ended in pain.  It was only as I started listening to God and seeking his will that my life turned around.  The lion could have eaten the mouse but it would not have satisfied his hunger.  The mouse could have ignored the roars of the lion but she could not quiet her conscience that would remind her of his kindness and her promise.  Bargaining works for a while but it is not a good, long-term solution.

         Take a moment and sweep through your memory.  Are there areas in your life where you are bargaining with God and compromising?  Perhaps it is only avoiding saying “sorry” and healing a relationship.  The fear of humiliation, blocks the joy of restoration.  We need to put down those loads of anger and resentment and jealousy we carry.  Violence does not resolve anger.  Alcohol does not resolve grief.  The demons stand in the presence of Jesus but cannot say that four lettered word, “help.”

Town People Refuse

The demoniac pleads for help.  The demons bargain for compromise.  The town people just plain refuse Jesus and ask him to leave.  God does not force us to believe and be good and choose his way.  Jesus has cured the demoniac and returned him to his right mind.  Living proof of his power.  Jesus has sent the demons into the swine and into the lake.  Living proof of his authority.  God’s power and authority are used to help the demoniac and, I would contend are living demonstrations of Jesus’ loving commitment to help us.  In the presence of God’s love, people do refuse and send Jesus away.  The lion had no guarantee the mouse would ever help and the mouse had no guarantee that she could help the lion.  Both chose mercy. 

         The town’s people were seized with great fear.  Fear can paralyze us.  I think we say that the known enemy is better than the potential problems of the new.  I keep my old clunker because I know it’s quirks rather than buy a new-to-me used car.  Trust is scary.  People walk away and often we blame ourselves.

         The demoniac, now healed, is sent back to work with those people.  I think of those people we deeply love who seem to have hardened their hearts to God.  Like the demoniac, we have been healed and we have a story to tell of how God worked in our lives.  Perhaps we can remember when we felt out of control as if we were running around unclothed.  Perhaps we remember living in the tombs when we were so depressed and death felt like such a real option.  Perhaps we remember those failed bargains with God because our choice was not the best choice and we paid the consequences.  And perhaps we remember times when we hardened our hearts and insisted on doing it our own way and turned our back on God for a while.  So often the problem or challenge facing us is as big as a lion and we see ourselves quivering in fear like a mouse.  But I think that the beauty of the story is that Jesus crossed the lake and found the demoniac, was not afraid of the demoniac and had the power and authority to heal the demoniac.  What crossroad are you standing at today?  The best choice is the Jesus road.  He’s there and will bless.  Don’t be afraid.

The people of God said, “AMEN!”

First Reading: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

 ¹Does not wisdom call,   and does not understanding raise her voice?
 ²On the heights, beside the way,
  at the crossroads she takes her stand;
 ³beside the gates in front of the town,
  at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
 ⁴“To you, O people, I call,
  and my cry is to all that live.

 ²²The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,
  the first of his acts of long ago.
 ²³Ages ago I was set up,
  at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
 ²⁴When there were no depths I was brought forth,
  when there were no springs abounding with water.
 ²⁵Before the mountains had been shaped,
  before the hills, I was brought forth—
 ²⁶when he had not yet made earth and fields,
  or the world’s first bits of soil.
 ²⁷When he established the heavens, I was there,
  when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
 ²⁸when he made firm the skies above,
  when he established the fountains of the deep,
 ²⁹when he assigned to the sea its limit,
  so that the waters might not transgress his command,
 when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
  ³⁰then I was beside him, like a master worker;
 and I was daily his delight,
  rejoicing before him always,
 ³¹rejoicing in his inhabited world
  and delighting in the human race.”

Psalm: Psalm 8

 ¹O Lord our Lord,
  how majestic is your name in all the earth!—
 ²you whose glory is chanted above the heavens out of the   mouths of infants and children;
  you have set up a fortress against your enemies, to silence the foe and avenger.
 ³When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
  the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,
 ⁴what are mere mortals that you should be mindful of them,
  human beings that you should  care for them? 
 ⁵Yet you have made them little less than divine;
  with glory and honor you crown them.
 ⁶You have made them rule over the works of your hands;
  you have put all things under their feet:
 ⁷all flocks and cattle,
  even the wild beasts of the field,
 ⁸the birds of the air, the fish of the sea,
  and whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
 ⁹O Lord our Lord,
  how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Second Reading: Romans 5:1-5

¹Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Gospel: John 16:12-15

 [Jesus said,] ¹²“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON

One of the dynamics that grabs the imagination of people, young and not so young, are super heroes.  Marvel Comics has created a whole “universe” of these people in recent years and movies to go with them!  Turn to your neighbor and share who was your favorite super hero when you were a child?  Mine was the Lone Ranger.

Let us pray.  May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart by acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

Today is the first Sunday after Pentecost and is always dedicated to talking about the mystery of our God, the Triune God, who is three in one.  It’s hard to get our mind and our language around the Trinity.  In fact we are always living into a deeper and deeper understanding of who our God is and who we are to God.  But let’s give it a try.

         Last Sunday we heard about the Holy Spirit who descended like a giant wind, appeared like tongues of fire on heads, enabled people to speak foreign languages and touched hearts of 3,000 people from all over the world who then wanted to become followers of Jesus.  WOW!  I wondered how people today hear this text and internalize its truth.  Is the Holy Spirit added to our list of Super Heroes that we follow or is there something entirely unique that sets the Holy Spirit apart and adds texture to our understanding of the Trinity? 

         We have a whole host of tales about beings we call “super heroes” today and that we have made movies about.  Christians make movies like “The Jesus Film” or “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “The Passion” that competes for attention.  I would claim that the Holy Spirit is not just another super hero to add to our list of tales about the past.  Christians have the Trinity while secular society enjoys the Fantastic Four.  I looked up the definition of “super hero” on the Internet and a super hero is a character that does feats that a normal human cannot, i.e. has super power.  The hero uses that power to help humanity battle with evil.  Actually there are evil beings like Lex Luther or the Joker that oppose them, somewhat like Satan.

         I first thought of the Lone Ranger from my childhood.  He charged across the Wild West rescuing people from evil’s grip, righting wrong.  He wore a mask so his identity was no clearer than the Holy Spirit.  “Who was that masked man?” was always a closing comment to an episode as he rode off on his white horse.  The Lone Ranger was also known by his silver bullet, a symbol of purity.  The Holy Spirit is often identified with speaking in tongues, glossolalia (your own personal worship language for prayer) or foreign languages (as in Pentecost).  The Holy Spirit comes to do good, help the needy, and has a pure heart.  Perhaps the Lone Ranger is known because of his faithful friend Tonto who always comes with him to do the good deed.  The Holy Spirit is not a stand-alone act either.  The Spirit is part of the Godhead.  Where the Spirit goes, God is present.  So far our super heroes are competing well with the Holy Spirit for our affection.

         We love Superman who disguises himself as Clark Kent and then runs in a closet to reappear in his outfit and flies off, jumping buildings in a single bound, to help the needy people of Metropolis.  Is the Holy Spirit just a new expression of Jesus? My sister, who is 73 years old, shared about a new Marvel Comics character in the film Fantastic Four.  The character’s name is Susan Storm.  Susan is a human who was affected by radiation and mutated into a super hero who has the ability to become invisible to come to the aid of helpless humans in the grips of evil.  Susan can become invisible and has super power to help humanity.  Sounds a lot like the Holy Spirit.  OK, so let us now go back to our texts today and try to clarify super heroes whom we dress up like at Halloween or pay to see at the movies, from the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity whom we worship.

First:  “he will guide you into all the truth”

         I note that the Holy Spirit is first described as a “guide,” not as a savior or the creator.  His first role mentioned in the Trinity is guide.  Super Heroes jump into action to rescue endangered people and use their super powers to defeat evil.  Houston we have a problem!  How do we see God?  Is God a being to make my life safe, comfortable, and happy-ever-after or rather do I see myself as partnering with God?  Guide calls us to evaluate how we understand God.  I suspect often “God” by definition has power that I pray, hope, will be mobilized for my serious situation.  When I am not rescued from my plight I may well blame God for not caring or blame myself for being not worth caring about.  Suffering challenges faith in ways that confirmation never did.  Suffering differentiates the Trinity from Super Heroes.  Wayward children, suicide, bankruptcy, health crises, marriage problems all drive us to our knees and the Evil one loves to whisper in our ears that God does not see, does not care, and chooses not to act. Our text tells us that the Spirit is a guide into truth, not health, wealth and prosperity.  He leads and we follow.  Super heroes resolve situations and are applauded and famous.  The Holy Spirit is often like the wind of Pentecost, blowing but unseen, guiding us through the events of our life.

         Unlike the Super Heroes, the Holy Spirit was able to be with 3,000 people at Pentecost, guiding each into truth in his own heart language. 

         So let us sit back for a moment and ponder where we need the Holy Spirit to guide us into truth today.  For certain, when we go out into the parking lot and burn the mortgage, we can claim that the Holy Spirit has not just been active at Pentecost but is also active today guiding Bethany into its future.  We still need the Spirit to guide us.  But perhaps there is a situation or a question you personally need to bow your head and commit to the Holy Spirit to guide you today.  

Second:  “he will declare to you the things that are to come”

The Holy Spirit as part of the Trinity guides us into truth. The text continues to say that the Holy Spirit not only guides but also declares.  The Holy Spirit is not a Super Hero that deals just with the challenges of evil in the present. The Holy Spirit declares what is to come. We often think of ‘future talk” and the Bible as the arena of prophecy, the unfolding of historical events, perhaps end times.  Certainly historical prophecy is Biblical but let me broaden our thinking today to how truth declares our future. 

         If we kill, for sure we are murderers and sinners. and we will face trial if only in the court of our own conscience.  God’s word guides but also declares the benefits and pitfalls of disobedience and how disobedience unfolds and impacts our future lives.  When we choose violence and hate as a solution to disagreement, we take a fork in the road and our life changes forever.  Jealousy is building our house on the sand and when the storms come, our life dissolves. Seeking vengeance, not turning our other cheek or offering forgiveness will spiral into unending conflict.  God’s Word as applied in our hearts by the Spirit does talk to the present but also gives us a window into the future.

         Perhaps this is also the basis for the Holy Spirit interceding for us when we don’t know how to pray.  Certainly we are invited to pray about the problems we see our loved ones facing, prayers of intercession that speak into the future even as God holds our futures.

         The Lone Ranger rides off into the sunset.  The Super Hero is in our life for a time but not forever.  The Holy Spirit appeared at Pentecost, at Christ’s baptism, and at creation. The Holy Spirit did not just appear at Pentecost but as part of the Godhead, has been present in our past, our present, and guides us into our future declaring and revealing the best path.  That journey may involve suffering but the Holy Spirit is with us even as the air we breathe is in our lungs.

         So again let’s take a moment.  We need the Holy Spirit’s guidance but perhaps we need the Holy Spirit to declare, to clarify something for us.  Commit it to him.

Third:  “He will glorify me”

The Holy Spirit guides and walks beside me through the challenges of today.  The Holy Spirit declares things that are to come.  Thirdly, though, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Godhead.  The text now talks about the unity of purpose and identity of the Godhead.  The Spirit glorifies Jesus who is one with the Father – a Trinity.

         Theologians have struggled with this reality and what it means.  In confirmation the pastor talked about a banana peel coming off in three pieces but one piece of fruit.  Perhaps that was a picture that worked for a while.  I have come to think of electricity as an example.  Electricity flows through my house but I cannot see it.  It powers the lights in the room that sometimes I see and sometimes I don’t..  It powers the television that brings pictures and news from afar.  It powers the radio and sound.  It also somehow creates heat in the stove.  All those things are powered by electricity, unique in their expression, but unified also.

As we burn the mortgage today, we will not wave our giving statements to say “Look what we did!”  I have confidence you will bow your heads in prayer and say “Thank you, Lord.”  You guided us through this process.  When we doubted our strength, you declared you were with us leading us to this day and into the future.  We give the Triune God the glory.  The Holy Spirit is somehow like the Super Heroes of the movies but so much more.  The Holy Spirit is God and we bow in worship. 

Thank you for guidance.

Thank you for declaring the outcome of things to come.

May God be glorifies.

The people of God said, “AMEN!”