Prayer at Grandma's 90th Birthday Party

I spent this past week in Martinsville Virginia visiting my parents and celebrating my Grandma's 90th birthday. Since I'm the minister in the family, I was asked to pray before the party began. Since I do not have a sermon to post this week, I wanted to post my prayer for Grandma instead. The first picture was taken this weekend with my son. The second picture was taken in 1942.


10/25/08
Grandma Jacob’s 90th Birthday Party

Dear Lord,

We come before you as gather together to celebrate Ruth Jacobs 90th birthday.

We thank you for who Ruth is, a woman of grace, a person of character, and someone who reflects your light and love.

We thank you that we are able to experience you, through our participation of life with her- for when you are hugged by someone like Ruth Jacobs (someone who acts like Christ’s arms to the world), it is as if we are being hugged by you.

So together, today, Ruth’s family (her biological family, her church family, and our extended family of friends), gather together to celebrate who she is- because of who you are- a God of the grace we see in her.

Thank you for this time to spend with her today. May you bless these moments-- so they would be moments we remember forever with a smile.

Be present in our conversations, our fellowship, our laughter, our reminiscing, and our making of new memories.

Thank you for this food, prepared by hands who love Ruth Jacobs. Bless this food to enable your work to be done through us.

We love you Lord, Amen.

"Without God, There is no Power," Isaiah 45:1-7

I am posting my sermon early this week, since I am headed on vacation Monday (when I usually post the previous Sunday's sermon)! My Grandmother is turning 90 and I will be going back east to celebrate her birthday with her and see my parents. It will be fun!

This week's sermon is about power and I am using the story (and movie) "Ever After" to do the "Leppert Weave" (patent pending) between the illustration and scripture. :)

The movie and story, "Ever After" was on this week, on Wednesday evening. I caught the tail end of the story (after church and hanging out with our teens) and was quickly captivated by the story. I've seen this movie several times but for whatever reason, the fact that it is the remake of a timeles story, Cinderella, makes it quite facinating.

I watched as the mean step mother, the barones; exert her power all over Danielle (the Cinderella character played by Drew Barrymore). This woman burns Danielle's late father's book, steals her deceased mother's wedding gown and slippers, and forces her to work as a slave... instead of the noble status she should have from her father.

The baroness and her daughter, Marguerite, are horrible and exert their power in the most evil ways.

The second sister, Jacqueline, seems powerless throughout the whole film and yet tends to Danielle's wounds that were inflicted on the poor girl, by being whipped at the hand of her powerful stepmother.

Danielle and Jacqueline appear to be the most powerLESS in the story. And the baroness and Marguerite seem to be the most powerful.

But the ending of the story forces us to ask the question: Who holds the power? In the end, power is messed with and the people we thought were the weakest were actually the most powerful. And the people we thought were the most powerful, are actually the weakest.

This story causes us to ask: Who holds the power?

Much like our scripture passage today forces us to ask, who holds the power?

In Isaiah 45:1-7, God is depicted as quite powerful, unattainable, and amazing. God is indescribable, incomparable, amazing, and extremly powerful.

But there is another guy mentioned in this passage... if you didn't read it or didn't happen to catch it. His name is Cyrus. No, not Billy Ray Cyrus. Or Mylie Cyrus. But Cyrus of Persia.

Cyrus is known as "Cyrus the Great" and was born around 576 BC. He conquered land and created an empire bigger than even Rome (some say). He was King of Persia, Babylon, and others. Many historians consider him an equal (if not greater) than even Alexander the Great.

But the Jews (or the people of Israel) thought really highly of this guy, Cyrus. Because he gave an edict of restoration, allowing the exiles of Israel (who were in Babylon) to return home. The people of Israel had been exiled-- or sent away into a land known at the time as Babylon, and it was Cyrus who gave them an edict for them to return to their homeland (the Promised Land).

Cyrus was a powerful, powerful king. Who exerted his power to claim more land and do a whole lot. He (and others in his kingdom) thought he was amazing, indescribable, all powerful, untamable, incomparable... a god among men.

He thought he was all that and a bag of Ruffles Rippled Potato Chips. Have you ever had those? They are fantastic. And Cyrus thinks he's as great as those thick, rippled chips.

But God says something different in this passage. God talks about how God was in control of all the things Cyrus did. God says Cyrus is nothing but a mere gnat that goes where God's divine hand swats him towards and wants him to go.

So the question is, who is God? Yahweh (the God of the people of Israel)? Or Cyrus, the powerful king?

Or as our original story asks, who holds the power? The hand... or the gnat?

In our story, "Ever After," we think our poor Cinderella character, Danielle, does not hold the power. We think the ones who speak the loudest throughout the land, the baroness and Marguerite, hold the power.

Much like we think Cyrus, who speaks the loudest throughout the known world at that time, the people may have been tempted to think he held the power. He was king of almost the whole known world at that point... that's pretty powerful.

And in our story, "Ever After," it turns out Danielle, is really the future Queen. She holds all the power, and in the end, saves her horrible powerless stepmother (the baroness) from being shipped to the Americas, far from home. Danielle, in the end of hte story (the one we thought was completely powerLESS) has so much power, she determines the fate of the person we THOUGHT held all the power.

This is much like God is saying in this passage of Isaiah. It is God who holds the power, not Cyrus. God alone, is the only God. God is the one who flattens mountains, cuts through iron bars, strips kings of power, and is the almighty, most powerful, amazing, indescribable, uncontainable, untamable God. Not Cyrus.

How often are we, the church people of 2008, like Cyrus the Great?

How often do we think we are all that and a bag of Ruffles Rippled Potato Chips? We build great church empires? We build great, outreaching compassion programs. We construct beautiful sanctuaries. We design indescriable Sunday School lessons. We create amazing material and programs...

But who is God? Who holds the power? Who did all these great things?

Who is the almighty, most powerful, amazing, indescribable, uncontainable one? God? Or us, the creators and designers of this beautiful church and the phenomenal programs we see around us?

Who holds the power? Who gets the credit? Us or God?

God is calling us, in this passage, along with Cyrus to recognize who is God. Who holds the power.

Yes, we do great things in Church. We do great things in Sunday School. We have a lot of good things going on... but who holds the power? Who is God?

In our story, "Ever After," we were shocked by who actually held the power. The one we thought was the weakest turned out to hold enough power to determine the fate of the person we THOUGHT was the most powerful.

Danielle's power came not from herself, but by virtue of her office-- as the new Queen. She was powerful because of something outside of herself, becoming Queen. She had no power apart from being Queen.

And in the same way, we have no power apart from God. Cyrus had no power apart from God (according to Isaiah).

There is no power, apart from God's power.

We must listen to Isaiah's call to recognize who hold the power in all the good things we do- in all the programs we have- in all the ministries we do. It is God. There is only one God. We do all these great things through the ministry and power of God.

Then, on Sunday, I plan on playing a song by Chris Tomlin (that I have hinted at through this sermon), called "Indescribable," a beautiful song about God's indescribable power.

As this song plays, I will give them a piece of paper that has the prayer of St. Nicholas of Flue at the top: "My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you. My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you. My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you."

And on that piece of paper I will ask them to write down all the great things they are doing in the church, all the wonderful things they are doing for God and God's Kingdom. And then I will ask: Who did this? Who holds the power? Me or God?

For we must be reminded... of who is doing all the good things in Church. Humans? No. Pastor Christy, definately not. It is God.

God is the most powerful, indescribable, amazing one. All power comes from God.

"Embody Christ, in giving up Idols for Peace," Philippians 4:1-9 and Exodus 32:1-14

The sermon for Sunday, October 12, was about trading in idols for peace. This picture comes from http://www.scripturepics.org/ (another incredible resource for pictures according to the lectionary). :)

The people of Israel were once dirty, slaves... building for the Egyptions, with no 15 minute breaks. They had to work hard under the hot sun, sweating, and begging for rest. But God heard their cries in slavery, and the people were taken out of slavery. They had been liberated, set free by Yahewh, their God.

You would think, after experiencing that kind of divine intervention towards peace and unity, the people of Israel would start exhibiting the peace of God. But no, they do not. They put aside God's peace and choose themselves instead.

Because the story continues like this... Moses (the people of Israel's human leader who helped with God's plan to take them out of slavery under the Egyptions) goes up on a mountain for awhile and suddenly the people of Israel get bored. He's been gone awhile so they say to Aaron, "make us gods who will lead us" (NCV). In other words, they ask Aaron to build them an idol.

An idol. They think a pile of gold fashioned in the shape of a COW can lead them.

I researched idols at some point... and learned that idols are things we fashion after ourselves. An idol is something we fashion in our own image and allow that image (of ourselves) to be our god. An idol is often a physical manifestation of us choosing ourselves over God. An idol is a physical object that represents sin, chosing ourselves.

In the Old Testament, idols were often made out of gold, like this calf for the people of Israel. Today people in foreign lands still have idols, made out of all sorts of elements from gold to sliver. In fact, recently I read about a child born with a deformity of having two heads and one body... and this child was being worshipped as an idol.

Idols are a manifestation of our own desires, what we want, and are often physical images fashioned in the image of the people who make them.

And the people of Israel, the people who SHOULD be remembering the peace of God that enabled their liberation... and SHOULD be acting out the peace of God... instead decide they want to build one of these idols.

They think the peace of the CREATOR can come from a slab of golden CREATION. They thought the creation could save them... and so they replaced the Creator with creation.

And the same sort of thing (believe it or not) is happening in Philippians. Besides last Sunday (Oct 5, when we celebrated the centenial of the Church of the Nazarene) we have been working through the book of Philippians and talking about embodying Christ.

And our main passage today comes from Philippians chapter 4. Apparently, two women who were influential and important in starting the work of hte early church, alongside Paul, are fighting... and it is affecting the Philippians.

These two women, Euodia and Syntyche, with names that require a PhD to pronounce, are fighting. And apparently their disagreement was escalated to a serious point since it made it into Paul's letter to help these women. Chances are each woman had chosen what they wanted and had most likely had people taking their side.

In these women's fighting, in their disagreement with each other, they are no better than the people of Israel fashioning a gold cow in their own image. For what is an idol? An idol is an object we fashion in our own image and is a symbol of us chosing ourselves over God.

And these women... who were a part of what God was doing through the early Church, who had experienced the divine intervention of God becomming human, SHOULD be exhibiting this same peace of Christ. But these women, too, seem to be serving the idols of themselves... even if it is not a physical idol they can hold in their hands. And Paul deals with this as he closes his letter.

All too often we think... I don't serve an idol. I don't have a physical object. I don't have a gold idol sitting around in my house anywhere! I don't need these scripture passages about idols because I am a good, pure, holy, devote Christian who does NOT under ANY circumstances participate in idolatry!

But perhaps we should look a little closer.

Too many times we are just like Aaron, good Christians (and sometimes even leaders) who get caught up in idolatry. We must look closer at our lives, because idolatry rages throughout the Church of Jesus Christ.

Idolatry is not necessarily a physical golden calf like Israel had. Idolatry can manifest itself in not so tangible (or not so physical) ways today. Like in our fights (as it did in the Church in Philippi). In our disagreements. In our disunity. In our forgetfulness of being a Church family. In our lack of community. In our inpure thoughts. In our getting caught up in having a bad attitude. In our talking about people behind their backs. In our lack of enacting God's peace on earth. In our choosing ourselves. In our choosing of anyTHING over GOd... we participate in idolatry.

In Philippians 4, Paul says we must have the peace of God above all else. We need to embody Christ, above everyTHING (physical... or not). We cannot be choosing ourselves, or an idol, or fighting, or our opinions, or our beliefs, over God. When we do we are participating in idolatry.

I don't say much from the pulpit about politics... but I did say, we must choose God and what God wants EVEN over what we think is right. Because all to often I'm afraid we choose what we believe, what we hold true, what we think is right... at the EXPENSE of God. And when we do, we're no different than countries with physical idols in their hands... just like the people we look down on in Israel and think they were stupid for fashioning a golden calf to be their idol to lead them.

Often we are just like the Israelites. We are just like the Church in Philippi. We participate in idolatry too... when we choose anyTHING over God.

And I'm afraid it happens far more often than any of us good Christian people care to admit. I'm afraid all too often, those of us who consider ouselves good, pure, holy Christian people... choose someTHING over God. And we must look closely at our lives and examine them... to see what our golden calf might be.

And Paul teaches us what to do, once we realize we cannot participate in the sin of choosing anything over God. Once we realized we must open our lives to God and see if we have any idols, Paul's words can help us. Paul teaches us how we are supposed to act in Philippians 4, how we are supposed to BE.

We must stand strong in the Lord, Paul says. We must pray to receive God's peace. We need to allow God to reorient our minds through these prayers. To change how we think-- so we think about a peace of God that goes beyond what we understand now. We need to reorient our minds to believe peace is possible.

Paul says, focus on what is true, right, good, noble, on what is beautiful and respected... and THIS is a call to focus on God! Not on idolatry-- not on anyTHING else we might put before God.

We must examine our lives, see what idols we might have in our lives-- what we might be putting before God... and instead, pray... and allow these prayers to reorient the way we think. We need to redirect our minds to think of God, the Creator... above all else, above any piece of creation. We must... trade in our idols for peace.

For as Paul says, the peace of God comes from prayer. And what is peace? Peace is not just a lack of fighting. Peace is not just some hippies waving two fingers in the air. Peace is not just a lack of war. Peace is not just simply hugging and being friends. Peace goes BEYOND our undesrtanding.

Peace extends to all of creation. It is about loving all of creation in the way God loves creation and working towards the good as the Creator intended for creation. Peace is about valuing all of life, it is about wholeness.

Peace is so fundamental to our Christian understanding it is one of the main focuses at Christmas time. Our cards read, "Peace on earth, goodwill to man." We've heard it a million times. But I'm willing to guess... many of us do not have a clue what this peace of God REALLY is.

And I'm thinking... that God wants to teach even me, your pastor, more of what God's peace looks like.

And right now, in this moment, it is okay that we do not understand God's peace as fully as God desires for us to understand it. But we need to be willing to admit our weakness on understanding God's peace. And in our weakness, we need to focus on God, and allow God to redirect our minds... to teach us what God's idea of peace is, which, according to Paul is "so great we cannot understand it."

I don't often tell my congregation or my blog readers what my prayer is for you as you listen or read this sermon. But this week, I'm going to tell you what my prayer is for you.

First, I pray that you will look closely at your life. That even if you are a good, pure, holy Christian who would NEVER have an idol in your house, that no matter how holy you know you are, that you would be willing to look at your life and examine it... to see if there is anyTHING you are putting before God. For this is idolatry.

IT IS OFTEN THE PERSON WHO REFUSES TO EXAMINE THEIR LIFE, WHO IS THE MOST IDOLATROUS.

And so it is my prayer that you would be willing to open your life up before God... to see if there is anything or anyone (or any part of creation) you are putting before your Creator.

Second, I pray you will trade in your idol for the peace of God. That you will look to God for what is pure, what is true, what is noble, what is beautiful, what is respected... for when we focus on God, true peace comes.

Once you are willing to open your life before God to see if there is an idol, I pray you would trade in creation for the Creator. For is is through focus on the Creator, the peace of God comes.

And third, I pray that this Sunday will be a foundation for this chruch to REALLY begin to understand this peace of God. For Advent is rapidly approaching. We are 7 weeks away from hanging the greens and decorating for Chrsitmas. So I pray, thirdly, that this Sunday will be a foundation and basis to thinking about peace during the upcoming holidays.

And then on Sunday, I did something I had never done before. I opened the altars to pray about the peace of God. We had sung about peace. We had a responsive reading about peace. I preached about peace... but we needed to do what Paul said... to "pray and ask God for everything you need."

I invited people to come to the altar and pray about giving up a piece of creation for the Creator. And I invited AS MANY as were able, to join me at the altar to pray aobut peace. To pray that as Advent rapidly approaches, we would learn about God's peace in a new way. I asked board members and Sunday School teachers to join me, their pastor, up at the front and say: "God, is there anything in my heart and life that would keep me from your peace?" And then I challenged all of us to be willing to see whatever God shows us and act on it. I asked them to join me in being willing to give God permission to examine our lives to see if there is anything keeping us from BEING all God wants us to be. I encouraged my people to allow this altar to be a place where God's holy, pure, good people could come together and pray about God's transforming and incomprehensible peace.