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Posted By: Owner - Monday, 11 August 2008 at 09:28 am Rock the Boat!
David Roquemore Camp Hill Presbyterian Church Genesis 37: 1-4,
12-36 Matthew 14: 22-33 Here we go again. What do we do
with this text? Last week Jesus fed
five thousand people with five loaves and two fish. Now he is walking on water.
This stuff is hard to believe, isn’t it?
We focus so much on how these things are possible, if they are possible.
Our minds run to the how question.
Matthew in his gospel account has a different question in mind. Matthew is
trying to help us see who this man
is, not how he does things. Matthew wants to show his readers
who Jesus is, that Jesus is God incarnate. The idea of walking on water is found
in Job, when God asks Job who can do these things, like being master of wind and
wave. Only God can do this. God
alone walks on the waters. Matthew is saying that Jesus is God. This is an
audacious claim, one that perhaps does not strike us in its full power because
we have heard it so often. Let’s read it carefully. Jesus
was trying to get away from the crowds in order to be alone and pray. He was
followed, so he taught the crowds and fed them. Now he sends them away, and
sends the disciples ahead of him in the boat. Get in the boat and go across the
lake; I will meet you there, he says. They leave. Jesus finally gets his time
alone. He goes up on the mountain alone, it says. This is the first of several
echoes we will hear in Matthew’s storytelling. What other mountains does Jesus
climb? He is alone on the mountain after the transfiguration. He is alone most
certainly as he dies on the cross. He is alone on the mountain here,
praying. The boat is many hundreds of
yards away, on the water. It is a windy, stormy night; storms come up quickly on
the Sea of Galilee. In a very few minutes the weather can change from peaceful
to frightening and stormy. This happens to the disciples that night. The wind
and waves batter the tiny boat. Another echo: the creation story, in which the
earth is without form and void, and darkness rules over the face of the primeval
waters. Chaos on the water, with the wind blowing. That is the opening verses of
Genesis, on page one of the Bible. The disciples must have been
frightened, even more so in the wee hours before dawn, when as they struggle to
get ashore they see a ghost, they see Jesus walking toward them on the water.
The disciples are terrified. They see this figure walking toward them, and they
are frightened. They think they see a ghost. Again, we are back to Genesis: the wind
blows over the waters; it is the Spirit brooding over the face of the waters.
God moves over the waters, controlling the chaos of the vast deep ocean. Jesus
who is God has no trouble with the ocean, or even this lake. He walks right out
there to them. They cry out in fear, and Jesus
says something very significant. He says, “take heart. It is I. do not be
afraid.” Only, in the original it
is not, “It is I” but literally, “I am.” Another echo! When Moses meets God in
the burning bush, and asks who God is, the answer is “I am.” “I am” is the name
of God. Jesus says, “I Am” just as God does. This is a significant claim. In
making this statement, Jesus is telling them, do not be afraid, I am with you,
and I am the Lord your God who controls wind and wave. Have no fear. Matthew
tells us here just precisely who Jesus is: he is God incarnate. Now what about Peter? Peter cries out, “if it is you, command
me come to you on the water.” And Jesus does. “Come,” he says. Come Peter, come out on the water. Leave
the safety of the boat, if you want to, and come here. Peter swings his legs out
over the edge of the boat, and steps out on the water. Do you remember the movie
“Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?” The explorers are trying to find the Holy
Grail. Deep in a cave, Indiana Jones must walk across a chasm. The ancient map
tells him to step out in faith, with no doubting. His eyes tell him he will fall
to his death. We the viewers agree with his eyes: there is no bridge. Finally he
closes his eyes and steps forward. Then we see the bridge; it is
camouflaged. It matches the surrounding rock so well that it is almost
invisible. But it is there. He steps onto it, and makes he way across the
chasm. In that moment before the bridge
is revealed, when Indiana Jones’s leg is stepping out in faith into thin air –
that is the same moment we have with Peter. He is stepping out of the boat into
the water. Peter steps out of the boat and
walks. “Hey look at me! I am doing
it.” He starts walking toward Jesus, filled with unbridled joy. Then the wind
hits him. A wave makes him stumble. I am sure he made a few steps, and then, --
then he realized where he was! Do you remember the cartoons like
the Roadrunner? The old coyote zooms off the edge of the cliff, pauses, realizes
where he is, and only then, falls down.
He walks on air until he sees where he is, then he falls. Peter is kind of like that; he is
walking on the water, until he realizes what he is doing. Then he panics and
sinks down. Like a stone. He cries out, Save me! Another
echo here: Psalm 69:1 “Save me Lord, for the waters are up to my neck!” You have
felt like that. I know I have. The waters are getting high, Lord. The flood
threatens to overwhelm me. The water is going to wash me away. I am drowning.
Save me Lord. We all know that feeling. I imagine Peter didn’t have time to
ponder which Psalm to quote, but later he must have taken special note of Psalm
69. Jesus saves him. Jesus grabs him by the arm and pulls him
out. Jesus the “right hand of the Father” grabs the hapless Peter and pulls him
out of the raging sea. Jesus saves
Peter. And of course, Jesus saves
us when we are sinking down. Even when, like Peter, our sinking results from our
own foolish attempts at glory. Then Jesus asks, “why did you
doubt?” What did Peter doubt?
Did he doubt that it was Jesus on the water? Did he hear the “I am” and doubt
that Jesus was God? Did he doubt his ability to walk as he went toward
Jesus? It is hard to make
distinctions here; Peter just doubted that Jesus had the power to help him. Even
though he could Jesus walking on the water, he couldn’t quite believe it. Even
though Jesus said, “I am” he couldn’t quite hear what that really meant. Even
though he was out there walking on the waves, he couldn’t quite accept that it
was happening, and he sank down. Too often, preachers make Peter
the bad guy. Bad Peter, he doubted. Bad Peter, didn’t have enough faith. Well,
it is those preachers who are bad, not Peter. I notice only one disciple had
anywhere near enough faith to get out of the boat! Peter wasn’t perfect, but he
wasn’t afraid to try. He wasn’t afraid to venture out of the relative safety of
the boat and try the waves. He wasn’t afraid to put Jesus’ word to the test. If
it is you, Lord, and if you are indeed God, then let me come with you. Peter
wants to come with Jesus, to be with him, to experience a whole new way of life,
out there on the waves. And that is why he goes out of the boat. When he took his eyes off of
Jesus, he fell. That is the important part. When cast on his own resources, he
was frightened by and overwhelmed by the storm. When Peter realizes what is
going on, that it is impossible, he forgets to watch Jesus, he forgets to
believe, and he falls. The command of Jesus to ‘come’ is
what gave Peter the ability to do the impossible. When he forgot to obey
command, when he focused on the impossible instead of the command, he fell. The third century theologian
Origen makes the point that it is the command of Jesus which puts them in the
storm in the first place. They are sent ahead of Jesus, sent out in the boat.
Jesus sends them so that he can be alone, but also so that they can learn that
they need him in order to make the journey. Origen understands this in good third
century allegory: that the “other side” refers to the life hereafter as much as
to the other side of the lake. Jesus teaches the disciples they cannot make it
through life’s journey and into heaven save with him. Any other method of travel
will be swamped by the wind and waves. Origen understands the boat to be the
temptations and difficulties we meet in life. Life’s troubles will beat us
about, like a little boat tossed by the wind, and we shall make no progress
unless Jesus travels with us. And I am reminded of the theme
song of that great classic of modern theater, Gilligan’s Island. Remember? It was “a three hour tour. The
tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew, the Minnow would be lost?” Foolish? But it goes well with Origen!
For this is how we tend to see our lives! Our tiny ships get tossed, and
fearless crews work bravely trying to prevent them from sinking. And at times we
find that our song changes, to the Wreck
of the Edmund Fitzgerald! Maybe
we build bigger ships, but then, even the Titanic sank. Or maybe we take
training, and become great Admirals in the study of life. If we are only brave
enough and work hard enough, we can keep our ships from the calamity of wind and
wave. And that is the great heresy of
humanity: to think that we can safely get across the sea with our own wit and
effort. We can’t. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus and see that he is with us,
walking to our aid in the midst of storms, coming to still the storm. More than that, perhaps like
Peter we need even be brave enough to step out of our boats, and throw ourselves
totally on Jesus’ leading and command. Do you want your boat rocked?
Probably not. You probably want things to stay calm, even get better. You
probably don’t want to be out in the storm, swimming! But Jesus said to Peter,
“come.” Peter asked for it, yes, but when he did, Jesus said, “come.” Come – out
of the boat, out of the safety, out of the usual, and into the only reality that
matters. Sometimes on this journey of
life, we have to rock the boat. We have to make changes. We have to see that we
get close to Jesus, even if means leaving behind who we have been and finding
new ways. Even when it means doing what seems supremely foolish, like getting
out of a perfectly good boat in the middle of the storm. But when we do, we find
that he will save us, he will preserve us, he will not let us down. Thanks be to God. Amen. Posted By: Owner - Monday, 11 August 2008 at 09:27 am Lonely Places
A Sermon by David A. Roquemore Camp Hill Presbyterian Church Genesis 32: 22-32 Matthew 14: 13-21 He’s pacing back and forth. He’s
fidgeting. If they had invented it, he’d be chain-smoking. He’s tense. He’s
scared. He’s Jacob, and tomorrow he has to meet his brother. It’s been years since their last
meeting. At that time, the brother, Esau, threatened to kill Jacob. Not without
some cause. Jacob is a rascal, a
con artist, out for whatever he can get. He stole his older brother’s
inheritance. He conned his father. He went to his mother’s home, and was tricked
by his uncle into marrying the wrong daughter; so he works years, marries the
other daughter as well, and then tricks his uncle out of a herd of sheep. He is
always out for whatever he can get. A man once said to me, “if God
can use a rascal like Jacob, maybe God does love me after all!” Does that
resonate with you? Do you wonder how God could use, or even approve of, a man
like Jacob? Jacob’s ethics are questionable, but Jacob is the one God has
chosen. Jacob is the one who carries on the covenant and the promise God made to
Abraham. Jacob is the one God uses in God's plan. And so, indeed, if God can use
Jacob, if God chooses Jacob, there is hope for all of us! And here he is, all these years
later, facing his past, his misdeeds, his sins. Here he is, facing life and
death. Facing God. Now, it is said that there are
some things you will never hear a true southerner say, and one of them is
“rasslin’s fake!” There was nothing fake about Jacob’s wrestling. The text says
he wrestled with God. We would immediately psychologize that, for we know that
experience, don’t we? We have lain awake, wrestling with God. But the text tell
us Jacob was injured; this was a physical wrestling match! Further, Jacob
doesn’t know with whom he struggles.
It is inconceivable to us in our time of electric lights that a man could
encounter someone in the dark and not know who it is.. Ah well, perhaps God doesn’t send
his messengers to fight with us on dark nights, but we have surely known those
dark nights of soul when we wrestled with our selves, our consciences, and God.
Why does Jacob wrestle? He has to
meet Esau in the morning! Jacob has a frightening, terrible task to face. As an
aside, reflect on situations you have faced like this: was the actual event
ever as bad as the wrestling beforehand? Most of the time, the task is
much easier than the preparation. What kind of God is this that
descends on a person in the middle of the night? What kind of God is this who
demands to be let go when the morning comes? Jacob refuses to let him go without
a blessing, without knowing his name. He never gets the wrestler’s name, but
better, he gets a new name for himself. No longer will he known as a cheat and
liar; now he will be
Jacob is forever changed. He has
a new name to reflect this, and he has a scar: he limps. His hip is out of
joint. He walks with a limp, reflecting his encounter with God. Wherever Jacob
walks from now on, God goes with him. Whenever anyway sees Jacob from now on,
they see the sign of his encounter with God. What sort of limping affects
us? We limp around on sore legs, sore
feet. We limp when we are hurt. When we face God, we find that we limp: no one
of us is perfect. We hurt others; we do things we are not proud of. We find that
we cannot cure the past nor take back the words we say. We limp around on the painful scars of
our own misdeeds. We limp around on the wounds
other inflict. We have been hurt in the past. We have disappointments. We nurse
grudges. We have been hurt when we tried to help another, or when we let our
true feelings be known. And now we have a protective shell over that tender
place, so that we will not be hurt again. We limp with the pebbles of bitterness
in our shoes. We tiptoe around the feelings of
others. We are scared to make another mad at us. We walk quietly past sleeping
dogs, lest they attack us. We dare not open some subjects, lest our wounds be
opened afresh. We limp. Not quite the same thing as
limping because we wrestled with God, but then, aren’t these the very things
that keep us awake? Aren’t these the things that God’s Spirit brings to our
attention, the things that need to be “fixed” in our lives? Yes, we limp, we
have scars, we have things in our lives that are “out of whack,” and God calls
us to be healed. Sometimes we wrestle because we
know God is calling us to do something, and we just don’t want to hear it. Maybe
God is calling you to make a change in your life. Maybe God is calling you to a
new kind of ministry. Maybe God is calling you to stop something or start
something. You know what God is calling you to do, but you’d rather not hear it.
Until those wrestling times in the night, when your excuses sound thin, and you
know that God is right. Wrestling is lonely work. We have all been to these lonely
places, places like the one Jacob visited. Places like the one Jesus went off
to. Look at the gospel lesson: Jesus hears that John the Baptist is dead. Herod
has killed him. That can only mean that time is short. Jesus goes off to a
“lonely place” to pray and think. He comes back, and feeds the crowd of five
thousand people. Jesus frequently goes off like this: most notably, in the
When we are faced with these
issues, we can do what Jesus did: go to a lonely place and pray. That after all
is what Jacob wanted to do, should have done. He stayed up all night, worrying,
thinking, wrestling, praying. God actually came to him, but for most of us, it
is not quite that literal. For most of us, the time alone to concentrate in
prayer is what is needed. This is how we prepare for the
things in life that are the most daunting. This is how we seek God's guidance in the heavy decisions we must
make. This is how we prepare for what is most frightening or most threatening.
This is how we draw close to God. Now, we don’t have to stay up all
night to pray: some of you just couldn’t do that. We do however need a place
where we can be alone and wrestle with God and our needs. Whatever time of day,
whatever location, whatever style, the main thing is to do it! And what happens? Jacob went the next day and met
Esau, who didn’t come to kill him but embraced him as long lost brother, with
open arms. They parted friends. Jesus went the next day to perform a significant
miracle, feeding all those people from one medium box lunch. In prayer of this
kind, in wrestling, we are strengthened and prepared for the challenges to come.
We find power, we find comfort, we find answers. We find God. What are you wrestling with? What
things won’t leave you alone? What things cause you to limp? As we come to the
table today, bring them with you. Bring them and offer them to God. Ask God to
meet you -- even in the midst of
the congregation, you can find a quiet place to wrestle with God. Ask God for
the help you need, with whatever it is that troubles you. Here you will find peace. Here
you will find comfort. Here you will find grace in Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God. Posted By: Owner - Monday, 11 August 2008 at 09:26 am Beach Music
A
sermon by David
Roquemore The
Camp Hill Presbyterian Church 2
Samuel 9: 1-13 1
John 3: 18-24 John
20: 24-29 This
was one fun-filled week. We had 190 children here for Vacation Bible School.
What were we thinking, you ask! We had music, which you have heard. We had games
and popsicles and hot dogs. We also had a good series of lessons and learning.
The
call to worship this morning is built from the themes and lessons of the week.
The verse, 1 John 3:18, Little
children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and
action,
was our theme. Each morning we looked at another way to act out and live this
theme, another way to love, not just in words but in actions.
And
so if you look at the Call to Worship, you see our lessons. Be obedient. Be
kind. Be Forgiving. Be Bold. Believe. Your response in each case is a paraphrase
of the memory verse for that day. For our sermon this morning, I want to look
for second at each of these. Be
obedient.
For this one we said, listen to the
lifeguard. When you go to the beach, the lifeguard tells you what to do in
order to be safe and stay alive. We all agree those are good things, and so
obeying the lifeguard is a good thing. Jesus Christ is our Lifeguard, the one
who keeps our life, who guards our going out and our coming in, as Psalm 121
says. Jesus is the one who gives us abundant life, and whom we should obey.
It
was hard for 190 children to obey the leaders and teachers, many of whom were
relative strangers. It is hard for children to obey their parents. It is hard
for all of us to obey, because we have a hard-headed tendency to go our own way
and think we know better than the lifeguards. The word for the day was, Be
obedient. Be
Kind.
We called this one, share your toys.
That is hard too. It is difficult for children, but maybe for us as well. Our
toys are a little different, but we still struggle to share them.
We
read the story of David and Mephibosheth that day. I put it in the readings for
today because I suspect you haven’t heard it before. Mephibosheth is Jonathan’s
son. Jonathan you remember was Saul’s son and David’s best friend. When it
became clear that David was to be the next king, most of Saul’s sons were angry
and went to war. Jonathan accepted the situation, and was faithful to David.
Eventually Saul and his sons were killed, including Jonathan. David became king.
Mephibosheth had survived because he was lame. A nurse had dropped him when he
was a baby. He broke his feet, which did not heal correctly. He was not a
warrior. David invites him to come and live in the royal household. Perhaps he
just wants to keep a potential rival close by and under control. But he also
remembers his love for his friend Jonathan, and welcomes Mephibosheth to come
and share his life. King David shares his toys. We should too. Like David we can
look for opportunities to be kind, even when most people would not expect it.
Be
forgiving.
We established Wednesday morning that everyone at Bible School had a brother or
a sister or a friend who sometimes got angry with us, sometimes hitting us. We
agreed that this one means don’t hit
back. The verse was to forgive others because Jesus has forgiven us. That
really says it all: we have been forgiven our sins and lifted from death to
life. There is therefore no excuse not to forgive others, though I know how
difficult it is. I just don’t want to do that, but I must.
You
may remember the parable Jesus told, about a man who owed the king a lot of
money, more than he could ever pay. The king forgave the debt and let the man
go. No sooner was the man outside, than he ran into another fellow who owed him
some money. He began to hound and punish the man who owed him. The king heard
about this, and threw the man in prison! I forgave you millions, said the king,
and you mistreat your fellow who owes you a little. It is just like that with God, says
Jesus. We who have been forgiven must forgive others. Saying that is easy; doing
it requires the grace of God and the help of the Holy Spirit.
Be
Bold.
Don’t be scared, we said. I asked the
assembly who had ever been scared of a thunderstorm. Every hand went up. I asked
who was scared of bugs. Every hand went up. I asked what do you do when it
thunders, and a voice said “hide under the bed.” I asked, what if there is a bug
under the bed? No answers to that one! The
point of the scripture for this day was to be bold when approaching God. We need
not cower before God; God loves us and yearns to hold us in his arms. God runs
down the road like the father of the prodigal son, welcoming us when we finally
come home. Now, there is the matter of sin. God hates sin. God doesn’t excuse
our sin, and it is our sin that makes us afraid to face God. We say each week
that we can confess our sins with confidence because we are baptized, because we
are united with Christ. We need not be afraid, even as we struggle with sin in
our lives. Believe.
This one focused on the story of doubting Thomas. Like Thomas, we haven’t seen
the Risen Lord, not directly, with our eyes. We have seen Jesus in the love that
is shared in the community of faith. We have seen Jesus among us in prayer and
worship. We have seen his presence in our lives, converting and changing us,
little by little, as we trust and believe in him. Listen
to the Lifeguard Share
Your Toys Don’t
Hit Back Don’t
be Scared Believe
in Jesus Or,
to be a bit more scriptural about it, let’s read the call to worship again.
Be
Obedient! We
will obey your voice, O Lord, and be your people.
Be
Kind! We
will clothe ourselves with compassion and kindness.
Be
Forgiving! We
forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us. Be
Bold! We
have boldness to ask God’s blessing with confidence. Believe!
We
believe in Jesus Christ our Lord!
Thanks
be to God! Amen. Posted By: Owner - Monday, 11 August 2008 at 09:25 am All Good Gifts!
A sermon by
David
Roquemore The Camp Hill
Presbyterian Church Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23 The sower went out to sow. Have you heard that one
before? The seeds fall all over the place; the sower just tosses them around.
Some fall in good places, some in bad. Some grow, some don’t. We should become
good fertile soil, somehow, so that the seeds can grow in us. Ahh, we have heard
that sermon before. You may even hear it today. But let’s take another look. The sower went out to
sow. The seeds are thrown around everywhere. Remember that Jesus once said, “the
rain falls on the just and the unjust,” meaning that bad things happen to
everyone. Well, you might also say the corollary: the sun shines on the just and
the unjust. Seeds fall on the just and the unjust. Blessings fall
indiscriminately from the sky, like the seeds the sower throws. Posted By: Owner - Monday, 30 June 2008 at 09:43 am Passion Play
A sermon by David A.
Roquemore The Camp Hill Presbyterian
Church Romans 6: 12-23 Let's talk about passion. About what are you
passionate? Some people are passionate about golf. Or music. Or baseball. Maybe
you are passionate about an issue, a cause, a candidate. Maybe a hobby or
something. Whatever it may be, those kinds of passions let's call “avid
interests.” Now Let's look at the passage. Paul begins verse 12
with “therefore.” This is always a key word in Paul's writing. Therefore means
that what he is about to say follows from what is said before. He just finished
telling us, as we repeat so often at the baptismal font in various ways in our
prayers of confession, that we are united with Christ in our baptism, united
with him in his death. If we are united with him in his death, we shall surely
be united with him in a resurrection like his. Paul says in effect that we are
united with Christ, we are saved, and so now, “therefore,” -- what? Read it:
do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey
their passions. In short, we
are united with Christ, and so we should act like it. There is grace, and there
is the response to grace, the faithful obedient life of the Christian believer.
We are told not to obey our passions. There is in Romans a long complicated argument
against the Jewish understanding of the Law in its relationship to sin. Part of
that is here, and it seems hard to follow. Basically though he is saying in this
passage that we are slaves, who must obey our master. We can be enslaved to God
in Christ, which has all kinds of benefits, or we can be enslaved to our
passions, in which case we are judged by the Law and our only future is death.
With God our future is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. To which future do
we aspire? To which master would we be enslaved? When we are obeying our passions, what are we
doing? We are allowing normal desires and appetites to get out of control. We
are allowing a kind of spiritual cancer to run wild within us, and take over our
souls. We are out of balance, spiritually, and we fall away from God.
So what are these passions? In the history of the
Church there are many descriptions of them and what they do to us. The desert monks of the early centuries
left us clear descriptions of what these passions are. Isaac the Syrian described them this
way, “The passions are the following: love of riches, desire for possessions,
bodily pleasure from which comes sexual passion, love of honor which gives rise
to envy, lust for power, arrogance and pride of position, the craving to adorn
oneself with luxurious clothes and vain ornaments, the itch for human glory
which is a source of rancor and resentment, and physical fear.
“ Did you notice the verbs in that list? Not riches,
but love of riches. Not possessions but the desire for
possessions. Pleasure seeking that leads to sexual passion. The love
of honor, the craving to adorn oneself, the itch for glory – in
all of these we see a yearning, a desire, we could even say an addiction,
that focuses on and takes pleasure and meaning from something which is otherwise
normal and acceptable within limits. John Climacus wrote manual for the spiritual life
in which he categorized them in an order that moves from the physical to the
spiritual. The early stages of serving the passions involves the materialistic
ones: gluttony (greediness in
eating), lust (uncontrolled and unlawful sexual desire) and avarice (greed for
money). Then the passions turn inward:
dejection and anger. By
dejection he means lowness of spirit. This prevents us from praying willingly,
from reading Holy Scripture with any benefit, from being gentle and
compassionate to others The
soul is filled with bitterness, listlessness, and despairing thoughts. The advanced stage is recognized by
vices of vanity and pride. Now what frightens me about these things is this:
these are the things that the Scripture and the spiritual masters before us tell
us lead to spiritual death. But these are the very same things that we are
surrounded with at every turn. Look at what we might call the “advertising
culture” that we live in. In human history it is a very new thing to have
advertising at all; with our new technologies the ways that we are exposed to
them has increased tremendously in our lifetimes. If you watch television or listen to the radio for
fifteen minutes you will see very attractive ads selling you every one of these
passions: go ahead, eat all you want! Go ahead, lust after that attractive
person. Go ahead, let the love of money rule you. Don't think about others, fend
for yourself and treat yourself well. You deserve a break today. Be all you can
be. Just do it. I don't think the marketers consciously said, let's
take the prime diseases of the soul and use their power of temptation to sell
things. I hope they didn't do that. But that is what happens. Now, most of us
recognize the power of marketing and have some resistance to it. But the trend
is like a flood that overwhelms us; no matter how we try, the flood is just too
much, too widespread. It is everywhere. Think about something very simple. Think about the
size of the drinks we buy at the convenience store. Not so very long ago – when
I was a kid, and I am still young – a seven ounce bottle was all you needed. A
twelve ounce drink was standard, and a sixteen ounce was rare – it was too much.
Now we buy gallon-sized Super Gulps or whatever they are. We have been
conditioned to believe we need more. It is that way with everything. The level of
acceptable public behavior and decency is declining rapidly. Look at how much
skin is seen in magazines and broadcast television; not so very long ago it
wasn't that way. We are being taught that it is fine – and so our lusts are
stirred up and we are tempted. Pope John Paul II said we live in a culture of
death: he was right. Our culture leads us to spiritual death by slowly leading
us ever deeper into the abyss. And so we accept as normal for ourselves things
that we know were not accepted a generation ago, or even a few years ago. As the standards get lower, we accept
less from ourselves, even when we are trying to be obedient to Christ!
So what can we do, short of joining a monastery or
moving to The Church has some tools. The first is prayer.
Prayer is the way out of temptation. Prayer is our prime weapon against these
desires. When we see them coming, when we find our passions playing with us,
leading us astray, we should deliberately and intentionally stop, turn, and
pray. Stop, drop, and roll – we teach our children that about fire safety. Stop,
drop and pray – that is the way out of spiritual fire. Prayer is work, by the
way. It is not the easy sweet talking to God you may think of. This kind of
prayer is the prayer of a desperate man, the prayer that says “help me not to
succumb to this temptation.” Another tool is fasting, which is pretty foreign to
Protestants. We call it “self-denial” and we don't really mean it. But the
ancients understood that the way out of the basic passions was to train their
bodies; Paul uses athletic terms to talk about the way he trains himself. Just as you can't stop smoking except by
denying your body that cigarette, so it is with these passions. Do you need to deny yourself something,
to help get your spirit under control? Maybe it is television, or the Internet,
or whatever. Replace those things
with prayer and reading the scripture. Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal
bodies, to make you obey their passions. That is hard advice. This is a tough choice, for it
means giving up things that the world around us tells us are acceptable,
desirable, and fine. Just like the apple was to Adam and Eve! I don't know what
things you need to give up, or change, or run away from. I do know that all of
us need this, and that we can't do it alone. We need God's help, God's grace,
God's strength. The good new is, we have just that. Remember, these
are the actions of people who are already united to Christ. And so our prayer is
that Christ will help us. Christ rose, and gives life: healing from these
passions is a part of that life he gives. It has been said that giving in to our
passions is idolatry; we can either worship Christ, or our own desires!
But as we worship Christ, as we choose God's
way, as we seek to love God and not
ourselves, the Spirit gives us grace and leads us home. God's love drives out
the passions. And so we love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.
That is the way of life. Thanks be to God. Posted By: Owner - Friday, 13 June 2008 at 11:22 am Dear Josie
A Sermon by David
Roquemore The Camp Hill Presbyterian
Church Genesis 12: 1-9
Romans 4: 13-25
Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26 Dear Josie, Welcome to the congregation. Today we celebrate
your baptism and membership in the Church of Jesus Christ. We hear your parents make promises about
their lives and yours. We make our own promises for your future. Your whole
family is here today, and we are reminded of the passage of time and
generations, and how we are stewards of a faith and message that transcends
time. It is quite a day! We want you to know something about what we do
today and why, so that when you look back and read it you will understand how
much you are loved. This sermon is one link you have to all who are here this
morning, who received you into Christ's Church. They promise today to surround
you with love and care. It is always rash to make promises about the future, not
knowing what may come, but we do it anyway. It is as if each one of us says to
you, “even if I cannot be here for you, the Church of Jesus Christ will be.”
Perhaps when you read this you won’t think your
baptism was very important in your life. Let me tell you why it is. I was here
today to preach and baptize you, because of the commitments some people made
years ago in a little church in rural When we baptize, we
baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We show that our
connection comes because we are all connected to Christ in baptism. We are each
connected to Christ, and so through him to one another. That is what the Church
is: people connected through communion with Christ. Today in baptism you come
into the Church, and are brought into communion with Christ. This is more than a symbol of our
tradition and a link to the past and future. It is a mystery of grace, for in
baptism we claim that the Holy Spirit enters your life, claims it, and begins to
work in you according to God's plan. We don’t know that plan. We don’t know how
well we or you will cooperate with God in it. We don’t know what will happen.
What we do know is that God has something in mind for us all, and has called you
to be a part of it. Our reading from Romans today is part of a
complicated argument that What if these blessings rested on our efforts at
obeying the Law? What if they rested on our ability to be good or faithful?
Where would we be then, for we all know, deep in our hearts, that we are not
good or faithful. The Law functions quite well to teach us that we sin.
And yet, we strive so hard to base our salvation on
our own work rather than trust in the promises of God. Think, for example, of a
time when you promised to do something for someone. Does your fulfilling that
promise depend on their behavior? If they let you down, do you renege on the
promise? Think of those who say, in
word or deed, I love you if you do these things for me. What kind of
relationship do we call that, where one’s love for another is dependent on the
other’s performance? We call it dysfunctional, unhealthy! And yet that is the
way we act with God. We assume that for God to love us, we have to meet certain
performance expectations, and act a certain way. Now, God indeed does
demand holiness, but doesn’t love us any less if we aren’t. The promise rests on
grace. God’s promises do not rest on our achievement, on
any expectation of progress, or anything we do. God’s promise rests on God’s own
grace. The promise is trustworthy because it rests on God's intentions. It rests
on God's gracious decision in Jesus Christ to redeem the world and reconcile it
to himself. It rests on God's having made it, rather than anything we do. Trust
that promise, Josie. I had a professor who liked to shock his students
by saying that Christianity is absurd. Now he was a weird fellow, even by the
standards of philosophy professors, and did this on purpose. He meant precisely
that what he said, Christianity is absurd; that is, it asks us to believe
impossible things, and hold to them for our hope and salvation. This is just
what Abraham did. It was absurd for him to put any faith in the promise of a
child, except that this promise came from God. God’s promises have an alarming
habit of coming true, you know! And we hope, just as Abraham did. We hope that
there is a life after death. We believe that Jesus told the truth when he said
we would gather in a house of many rooms, united with all the saints around a
table in the Living with these promises, he gave God glory, and
it strengthened him. The act of worship makes our faith stronger. That is how
our hope in these promises is put to use. That is where the rubber meets the
road. Give God glory, Josie, in all
the circumstances of your life. Give God glory, worship, even when it seems
impossible to hope. Soren Kierkegaard wrote a parable, that worship
looks like players on a stage
in front of an audience, where the preacher is the actor and the congregation,
the audience. Really, he says, we are all, all who gather, actors, and
God is the audience.
As we pray, we are touched by God's Spirit. As we
worship, we focus on God's goodness, God’s grace, God's promises, God's Word,
God’s intentions, not ours, and when we do that we are humbled, we are filled
with hope and joy, and our faith is made strong. That is the absurd, unlikely
dynamic of worship, and that is what kept Abraham’s faith in the promises going
through the long days of waiting. That is what kept Abraham’s faith alive as he
wondered if God really were going to do what he said. That is what keeps our
faith alive, as we seek to live in a world that in so many ways runs counter to
the gospel. As we give God glory, we are strengthened. Josie, on your journey you will see many things
that disturb you, that threaten you, perhaps even causing you to question your
faith. You will find things that make you want to turn from this path and strike
out on your own. You will wonder if the promises of God are true. You will
wonder if God is good. You will wonder if God can be trusted. Remember your
baptism, Josie, for it is our
testimony to you that God is good, and trustworthy and true.
Live your life in the confidence of baptism. Live
your life, and as you go from day to day, may Christ be in you, and may
everything you do and say bring Christ honor and glory. Thanks be to God. Amen. Posted By: Owner - Friday, 13 June 2008 at 11:20 am Swimming Lessons
A sermon by David Roquemore The Camp Hill Presbyterian Church Matthew 7: 21-29 Everybody knows the story of Noah
and the Great Flood. There are all kinds of interpretations and explanations of
the event – was this a universal flood, a local flood, an ancient event like the
So God warns Noah of a coming
flood and commands him to build an ark so that he and his family may be saved.
Noah is righteous, you see, and so God determines to preserve humanity through
Noah’s family. Together with pairs
of animals, they will be saved from drowning. The neighbors mock him. They all
laugh. They do not believe in this God of Noah’s. They do not believe in this
promised flood. They think Noah is a crazy man. Perhaps Noah himself had doubts.
You will remember the interpretation of this story offered by Bill Cosby, ‘way
back before he was on television, when he did comedy on vinyl record albums.
After a lot of back and forth, Noah gets clear on what God is telling him, and
in Cosby’s version, politely refuses. To which God replies, “Noah, how long can
you tread water?” The righteous are those who live
by God’s commands, who do what God tells them. They are with Noah in the ark.
Everyone else has to tread water. Until they tire of it. Then, there is nothing
left for them. They drown; here in the story this is God’s punishment to them
for their sins. But look: they are reaping the fruit of their own choices. They
lived unrighteously, depending on their own skills and strength and cleverness –
that’s treading water – and it not depending on God. Never a good idea! This is a significant day in the
life of this congregation. Robin is installed today as our Associate Pastor. The
pipe organ is played for the first time in worship. Most important of all,
though we take it for granted: we come to the Lord’s Table and worship the Lord
God. So I thought today, as Robin will
be installed this afternoon, I would offer some reflections on this text geared
for this day. These are addressed to her, but applicable to all of us. The
ministry is the ministry of the church, of the congregation, of all of us. Each
of us has a particular role to play as God has called us. It took Noah a very long time to
build the ark. One hundred years he worked. During that time, he met with a lot
of disbelievers. He was ridiculed for this unending project that seemed to have
no purpose. Note this: his work took a long time, and he got plenty of
criticism. The life of the congregation is played out not in weeks but in years.
Changes come slowly, and real changes in the climate of a congregation take a
long time to root and bear fruit. Along the way you will encounter all manner of
critics. There will be those who think change should be instantaneous: I
remember my friend Paul, a single man in his 40’s who sometimes attended a
contemporary evening service in another denomination. In those days that kind of
service was rare, but this congregation had one that was full of life, with
large attendance. He could not understand why our Presbyterian congregation
would not just “start one up.” When we did an evening service with singing and
Bible study, only a few came, and the singing was timid. He could not understand
why we could simply make the change in a moment. Some of these will say that
change should be mandated from the top: just tell people this is the way it is.
With rare exceptions that is the quick route to finding a new job. There are those who will tell you the
church may be the church, but it must be run as a business. Well, there is a
certain limited truth to that, but the church is much more than and very
different from business, with different goals and ends. Do not let those people
impose their framework on the congregation’s vision; it is too limited. The scripture doesn’t say that
Noah ignored his critics, nor give us any details of his discussions or
arguments with them. I suspect, though, that he went to bed at night hurt and
grieving over the way he was treated, and more importantly, over the way that
his neighbors misunderstood what God had proclaimed. Sometimes you just have to take it,
absorb the blows, pray for the people and move on, when it would be much more
satisfying to let people have it. Enough about critics – the happy
thing is that while you have to deal with negative situations, most people are
with you, support you, and are willingly part of the church. Most people are not
critics. But we are talking about change: Noah told the people God was going to
change everything, and people wish God would not do that. When you lead people
in the church, you are leading them toward change – most basically, toward
changing their lives and their heats to be more like Christ Jesus. And they
balk, they stumble, they move slowly, because it is difficult and threatening. I
leave you with the advice given to me by the interim pastor who served this
congregation a few years ago, Jim Nash, who said, “don’t get too far ahead of
the short-legged sheep.” (You will be happy to know he did not try to identify
those sheep! I don’t think he had anyone in particular in mind.) Let’s bring in the gospel
reading. As we know, Noah and his family went into the
So, what does that mean for you?
I don’t know how much whitewater
you have there in the That is good advice for life.
When things threaten to overwhelm you, float down to a calmer place. Trust that
God will see you through the storm. Isaiah 43 tells us that God will be with us
when the rivers overwhelm us. Yet Jesus says those on the rock
will stand; standing is not like floating away. So we are mixing our metaphors a
bit. But standing on the truth of God’s promises is what he really means: and
God promises to be with us in all the flooding storms of life. Even if standing
sometimes involves swimming a bit. But here – just how much
swimming? Noah’s neighbors are still out there treading water, remember? How
long can you tread water? Eventually you fail, you sink. You can’t swim on your
own power forever. You can’t tread water forever. You need the grace of God to
strengthen your faith and give you new power. Which is a long way around to say
that you need that strength and grace every day. You can’t swim in the currents
of congregational life very long without renewing your energy. You can’t fight
those currents without becoming exhausted. You can’t do everything every day all
the time for everyone. Though you’d like to. Even Jesus didn’t do that! The currents of the
congregation’s life sometimes will take you into backwater eddies, as you worry
about things that, frankly, aren’t worth the effort to discuss. Everybody here
can think of examples. The thing to remember is, when these discussions take
place, they happen because the people involved are committed to doing the best
for the Church in the service of God. And so, we must remember to value and
respect the people, even if discussing which brand of lemonade to buy does seem
to be taking over long to decide. (We haven’t had that one here, have we?) It isn’t the lemonade – or whatever –
that matters. It is the faith of the people that matters. Your task is to
strengthen that whenever possible. So just as Noah was a model for
his neighbors, you are a model for the people. Show them how to survive the
current by depending on God. Lift their vision above the mundane and ridiculous
whenever possible. Teach them how to live the faith and live with the faith.
Noah was a model, and they
laughed at him. Don’t be discouraged, don’t give up, don’t take it personally.
Trust in God, and live your life on the rock, which is Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Posted By: Owner - Monday, 19 May 2008 at 12:57 pm Commissioned to Service
A sermon by
David
Roquemore The Camp Hill
Presbyterian Church The first word we encounter in this text is Go. Jesus tells the disciples to go, and
we usually think this means us, too. But in a real sense, for us, the word is went. The disciples did go. They left
And so we are here, because they went. So while
there is an imperative to Go, from here, and obey Christ in other places, there
is at the same time an imperative to continue the mission of the early church in
our place: the mission field is here. Lesslie Newbigin was an Anglican missionary to
Now, the word translated “nations,” as in, go into
all the nations, is ethnos, which meant, to the Greeks, peoples. The
Others. What the Hebrews mean by goyim. Go to those who are outside our
community, outside our group, and convert them. What I want to make clear is that, for
us, those outsiders aren’t necessarily far away. They might be right next door.
And so I propose to you that when Jesus says to
us, Go, we don’t have to travel very
far. The workplace, the schoolyard, the coffee shop – these are the places where
the gospel needs to be proclaimed.
The people who are outside the faith are not very far removed from us,
and so we go to the places where they are. The second word we read is disciple or make disciples. Lead these people to
become followers of Jesus. Show them the way to obey. This isn’t about getting
them to ascribe to some particular creed: it is about getting them to live the
life that Jesus taught. We are to
bring them into the community where they may be formed and nurtured into greater
faith and a life of greater obedience. How that is done is found in the next two words,
baptizing and teaching. We are to baptize them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is the ancient Trinitarian formula
for baptism, about which I have said a lot on other occasions. My position is
that while we may look for other ways to describe the Trinity, we do not abandon
the language that the Church has always used, and indeed, here, that Jesus
himself taught. We are to baptize –
exactly how to do that, at what age to do that, and what knowledge is required
for it have been questions that have started debates, even wars. The point here is that making disciples requires
two things: connecting and teaching people. We convert them, or properly, we act to
share the gospel and the Holy Spirit in and through and in spite of our efforts,
converts them. They are converted,
and baptized. Baptism is understood as the way one is connected to Jesus. We are
baptized into his death, or grafted into his body, to use two metaphors
How are they drawn closer to Christ? As we “teach
them to obey all that I have commanded you,” as Jesus says. When we teach them,
with an eye not so much toward learning, though learning is very good, but
acting. We learn, but what we learn
is primarily how to obey. When we learn that, and put it into practice, we have
become disciples. Learning, for
instance, all the kings of
Go and make disciples, baptizing and teaching.
This the Church has always done. Because the Church has done this, we are here
today. This is our commission. In
fact, this passage is called the Great Commission. Jesus commissioned his followers to
spread the good news in this way.
He has the authority, and so commissions, so sends us forth on this
mission, so that we can act in obedience. In our calling as Christians, all of us are called
to serve in this way. Some are called to serve in special ways, and today we set
them apart as elders and deacons.
They are commissioned to serve us, and to lead us as we serve Jesus
together. It is their job to make sure we go, make disciples, baptize, and teach
faithfully and well. Their role as
officers in the Church is not just management, not just making policy decisions,
but leading – with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love – as we turn to our neighbors in
obedience to Jesus. Elders and Deacons do this in different ways; each
office has a different function, but all work together with all of us, so that
Jesus is obeyed. How precisely that obedience looks, what we do, may vary with
time and place, but it is always a matter of obeying this Great Commission to
service. And so the challenge before our officers, and
before each of us, is how we will obey. What do we do to bring people into the
congregation and see them converted, to help them be connected in a meaningful
way to Christ Jesus, to teach them all that he said and did, to lead them in
learning how to pray and praise, to guide them as they become disciples? That is
our challenge, and that is our commission. Live in Jesus’ love, and serve him,
for he is with us always. Thanks be to God. Amen. Posted By: Owner - Friday, 16 May 2008 at 01:45 pm Be Patient!
A sermon by
David
Roquemore The Camp Hill
Presbyterian Church 1 Peter 3: 13-22 We have talked about being faithful, holy, and
steadfast. Today the theme is patience. Once upon a time there was a young man who
finished school and went to work for a company running a large piece of
equipment. Over the years, various parts of the machine fell into disrepair, but
the young man kept the machine going. As he gained experience he was able to use
the equipment in ways that amazed those who knew how outmoded it was. Finally,
after many years, that young man, now less young, was able to convince
management to replace the aging equipment. Mr. Binkley is a very patient man.
There are different kinds of patience. The first kind is when we have to keep
ourselves from shoving to the front of the line at the drugstore. This is being
patient when we are not getting our way, when we are having to wait, when we are
being inconvenienced. This is the patience without which we commit road
rage. Keeping our unbridled selfish
desires in check is patience, though just barely. This kind of patience really isn’t much of a
virtue. True, we managed to hold our tongue, not push the other person out of
the way, not tell the store clerk how stupid he is, not scream at the person on
the other end of the customer service line. We managed, that but did we keep
from thinking all manner of evil things, and telling other later how bad it was?
We had to wait ten minutes on hold for the Comcast people to answer!
The fact that we think this is
patience shows us just how impatient we are! The other kind of patience comes when we endure
waiting because we have no choice. This usually involves some manner of
suffering. Toothaches only occur on Saturday nigh |