Alpha-Omega

Resistance is Futile. Or Is It?

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Below is a sermon I preached at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church on October 9, 2022, and this is the eNewsletter article I wrote to set up the sermon:

The Jewish law is known as the Torah. When you think about the Jewish law, what comes to mind? What all do you understand as being the Jewish law or Torah?

Growing up, I would say that I equated the Torah as “bad.” Why? Because of that false dichotomy created by Protestant Christianity from an incomplete understanding of Paul, the apostle, comparing the “works of the law” to “grace” and “faith.” So, “Law bad. Grace and faith good,” was my ill-conceived mantra.

But beyond that, I also thought the Torah was simply a list of, “Do this. . . . Don’t do that. . . .” and, “Here’s what happens when you do what is commanded. . . . Here’s what happens when you break a rule. . . . ” At first, I thought the list of dos and don’ts was only ten. Later, I learned it was a list of 613, including the Ten Commandments and some of Jesus’ greatest hits like, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and “Love God with all your heart, soul, and strength.”

But as I studied more, I’ve learned that “law” isn’t really the best translation of Torah. Rather, “instruction” is the better translation. Take a moment to consider the different impressions you get from “instruction” as opposed to “law.”

For me, “instruction” connotes a process of learning. It also gives me some inclination of not simply “what” to do but also “how” to do it. Whereas “law” seems intimidating, “instruction” seems helpful. How do you react to these different words?

On top of all of that, though, it finally hit me one day that the Torah is the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Genesis is basically all narrative. A great deal of Exodus and Numbers is narrative with some commandments thrown in. Leviticus and Deuteronomy are mostly commands.

So, I began to ask myself. How is narrative “law” or “instruction?” With that, the stories of especially Genesis and Exodus began to take on a whole new meaning. Maybe the stories were giving me examples of how to live (and not to live). Maybe they were less about just being a story to remember and more about instruction or guidance on how to approach (and not approach) different situations.

With that backdrop, in this sermon we’ll focus on the stories found in Exodus 1:8-2:10 and consider what instruction and guidance it may give us about responding to the world around us.

Practice Transformed

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Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look! I’m making all things new.” He also said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Revelation 21:5 (CEB)

At the church I currently serve, I developed relationships with two members named Luke and Gerritt. One of the things I most enjoyed about them was that we’d play guitar and sing together. For a long spell, we got together almost weekly to jam. Sometimes, we simply played. Sometimes, we were prepping for opportunities to share our musical fun with others (i.e. a wedding; a fundraiser for Imagine No Malaria; sharing music in worship), but most of the time we were just playing music. This consistent practice of making music with others made me more consistent in playing on my own to learn parts of songs we were working on. To me, this was a real spiritual practice (even though we seldom did “Christian” music) that enlivened me, helped put me in a better place, and helped me to connect with our creative God.

First, Gerritt and and his wife, Melanie, accepted an opportunity to move to California. Then Luke and his wife, Abby, got the chance to move back to North Carolina. Then, I was at a loss. I just couldn’t find a reason to play guitar as I no longer had something to practice towards. So, I seldom picked up my guitar.

Then COVID hit. I had seen some friends and family doing virtual “concerts,” so I decided to do that. I did about three, and then Facebook declared, “Unless you have the rights to perform a song, don’t perform it on Facebook,” thus ending that. But something had changed. Suddenly just the music itself was reason enough to play. Don’t get me wrong, I still miss playing music with others; there is real creative joy in being able to feed off of other musicians’ licks and phrasings. But suddenly, I just wanted to play.

For years, I had wanted to try to play jazzy fills like Oscar Moore did in the Nat King Cole Trio, so I worked on that. I’m a big T-Bone Walker fan (many of Chuck Berry’s iconic licks find their genesis in Walker’s licks), so I started trying my hand at some of his takes on the Blues. I’ve long been enamored with the way session guitarist Reggie Young played (he played guitar on Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away” and Billy Swan’s “I Can Help” to name a few of the 150+ cross-genre hits he played on), which led to trying to learn some of his phrasings. I’m a long way from mastering their styles, but it has added to my repertoire and reinvigorated an important spiritual practice for me.

One of my seminary professors, M. Eugene Boring, brought home an important distinction about the above verse. It says, “Look! I’m making all things new.” It does not say, “I’m making all new things.” That’s the thing about resurrection. God doesn’t simply make new things. God transforms what is existing. And resurrection is more than something that happened to Jesus in the past or something we hope for in the future; it is a daily occurrence with God.

I do believe that there are times that spiritual practices have run their course, and it is perfectly fine to find something new. But on this day of celebrating resurrection, could it be that a spiritual practice that you’ve found meaningful in the past simply needs to be transformed or re-envisioned, not replaced? My hope is that you will take on or transform meaningful spiritual practices – or maybe realize you already have one.

Keep on practicing, because practice makes possible. Happy Easter!

A Dream of Messengers

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How beautiful upon the mountains
   are the feet of a messenger
   who proclaims peace,
   who brings good news,
   who proclaims salvation,
   who says to Zion, “Your God rules!”

Isaiah 52:7 (CEB)

I lay there in amazement for a few moments thinking, “Wow! I can fly! I can really fly! I want to do that again!” And suddenly sadness set in. I had been dreaming.

It was a rare Sunday afternoon that I got to take a nap – an actual, intentional nap on our bed, not the dose off in the chair nap where I wake up with a neck ache. It was not more than an hour and a half, but it was enough to experience what is probably the most vivid dream I have ever had with an exhilarating sense of flying. Actually it was more like skating through the air as that was the motion I was making to fly high above and around the hospital where Micah had been born with a birds-eye view. But I awoke grounded.

Today we continue a celebration that started last night, a celebration: of angels appearing, speaking, and directing lowly shepherds to witness a child’s birth; of shepherds finding their voice and joyfully telling of this birth; of a bright star in the sky directing foreigners to find that child when so many of his own people failed to notice.

But we wake up and wonder, “Was it all a dream?” Though we are told that the world has changed, the world really doesn’t seem all that different than before. There is still meanness, hatred, fighting, ignoring, obscuring, greed – just to name a few of our ills. It’s all so short lived. Even an Elvis Christmas song asks, “Oh, why can’t every day be like Christmas?” Things seem so cheery and perfect for a fleeting moment, and then it’s back to normal. Where is the good news?

   “How beautiful . . . are the feet of a messenger. . . .”

On this day, we tend to focus on the birth of a child. We focus on God’s gift to us. But how often do we focus on the gift of invitation to us that comes from this birth, this gift? Do we realize we are invited to be messengers as the angels, shepherds, and magi were? Do we see that Jesus came not simply do to things for us but to invite us to into a way of life in which we follow him with our cross (Luke 9:23), doing the same works that he did (John 14:12)? Jesus offers us the Cup of the Covenant, and covenants always place obligations on all parties.

One of my favorite songs by blues singer Lowell Fulson (sometimes credited as Fulsom) is “Sleeper.” “Nothing comes to a sleeper but a dream,” he sings. It’s time to wake up and get to work. It’s time to live into God’s dream for the world. God invites us into the work of making God’s dream come to fruition, working with God so we all become the people – as individuals and communities – that God created us to be. I believe that it is in this beautiful work that we find our joy, joy that can last all year long.

Merry Christmas!

Don’t Worry?! Yeah Right! – A Sermon

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This is the sermon preached at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church on Sunday, November 15, 2020 as a part of a larger sermon series entitled The Provoking Promises of Christ: A Study of the Sermon on the Mount. This one focuses on Matthew 6:24-34.

Right-mouse-click to download the audio.

Matthew 6:24-34
24“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

25“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? 26Look 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? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the 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? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (NRSV)

The Grinchy Way of Salvation – A Sermon

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This is the sermon preached for Capitol Hill United Methodist Church on July 12, 2020. It is part of a larger series entitled, The Importance of Imagination, which uses children’s books to help us think imaginatively about God, faith, and our relationship to both. This one focuses on How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Listen to it here:

Right-mouse-click to download the audio.

This sermon was inspired by:

Ephesians 2:1-10
1You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 4But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (NRSV)

Matthew 14:22-33
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25And early in the morning he came walking towards them on the lake. 26But when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. 27But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’

28Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ 29He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. 30But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ 31Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ 32When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’ (NRSV)

Reconciling Prayer

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This is a prayer I shared at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church on June 14, 2020 as we celebrated becoming a Reconciling Congregation in 2005. 

O God of grace and God of glory,
on Your people pour Your power.
We need Your power to navigate these challenging times.
Even when it is time to celebrate,
we find it hard to find Your peace and joy.

Lord, in Your love – HEAR OUR PRAYER.

As we look to our biblical ancestors, O God
I’m reminded of how You invited the Israelites
into a covenant to be a light to the nations.
And yet, throughout history we see how
they have been persecuted
simply for being born Jewish.
To this day many still experience discrimination.
And so today, we join the voices of so many
who have gone on before when we ask, “How long?!”
How long must Your people endure pain at the hands of the world?

Lord, in Your love – HEAR OUR PRAYER.

And Lord, we look to the unrest here in the United States
as our black and brown siblings have for centuries
been abused by the insidious power of racism,
simply for the color of their skin.
Though they are created in Your image, O God,
many still treat these, Your children, as somehow “less than.”
And so today, we join the voices of so many
who have gone on before when we ask, “How long?!”
How long must Your people endure pain at the hands of the world?

Lord, in Your love – HEAR OUR PRAYER.

And loving God, on this day when we celebrate
this church’s step to openly welcome and empower our LGBTQ+ siblings
for ministry in the church and out into the community
we are reminded that these Your children, created in Your image
have also been seen as somehow “less than” or even “wrong”
for being who You created them to be.
And these beloved siblings have experienced discrimination,
oppression, and persecution through the centuries.
And so today, we join the voices of so many
who have gone on before when we ask, “How long?!”
How long must Your people endure pain at the hands of the world?

Lord, in Your love – HEAR OUR PRAYER.

And even as we cry out, “How long?!”
we believe what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr said,
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
We trust that through Your love, the example of Christ,
and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit
that change is possible
and that You invite us into a covenant
to help bend that arc towards the end that You are drawing all of us to.
So, to our crying ask of “How long?!” we add
“Here we are, send us to be Your light to the nations”
but particularly to our black and brown and LGBTQ+ siblings.

Lord, in Your love – HEAR OUR PRAYER.

O Lord, we join all these prayers we have shared today with the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray saying:

Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
and thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil
for Thine is the kingdom
and the power
and the glory forever.
Amen.