Sunday, December 8, 2013

Coming....to Encourage Us

December 8   2nd Sunday of Advent Isaiah 11.1-10, *Matthew 3.1-12 “Coming to Encourage Us” Pastor Jacqueline Hines

Our gospel lesson from Matthew shakes us up with a lot of talk about changing our ways and judgment. Verse 11 brings some encouragement to balance the heaviness of the issues. It says “Jesus is coming to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” The promise of Jesus’ coming to baptize believers is something we can all look forward to.
Baptisms are happy occasions. Next week we will celebrate a baptism next Sunday.  We use water because it is a universal symbol of refreshing and cleansing. Everybody appreciates water.  (PowerPoint slide of refreshing waterfall). 
Water is so beautiful and necessary. For centuries water has been used to purify - in politics as well as in religion. You remember how Pilate took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd and said, "I am innocent of this man's blood…” (As we see in the slide)

Water is a powerful symbol. Its use in baptism makes for an absolutely perfect rite of passage into the spiritual life. After our initial baptism, whether through sprinkling, pouring, or dunking, there is the promise of Jesus’ coming to baptize all disciples with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Receiving Jesus’ baptism means our spiritual life can go to a whole other level.
In today’s religious circles, talk about fire baptism or being baptized with the Holy Spirit happens mostly among our Pentecostal and charismatic sisters and brothers. These holiness movements trace their roots to John Wesley the   founding father of Methodism. He and his classmates in Oxford University England formed Holy Clubs known for their very strict practices: fasting twice a week, meeting from 6-9 every day, and celebrating communion weekly. In later years, Methodists often expressed their faith with such electrifying emotion that they gained the reputation of being “shouting Methodists.”
Historians describe Methodist prayer meetings and worship services in the same way that the book of Acts describes Pentecost. Tongues of fire and loud praises to God made them look as if they were under the influence of too much wine.
There is no doubt that John Wesley was baptized by the Holy Spirit and with fire. That is an honorable part of our spiritual legacy. However, Wesley quickly came to understand that there was more to being a mature Christian than the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire and all the emotionalism that often accompanied it.
When Wesley sailed from England to Georgia, that settlement named after King George, he had high and holy hopes of fulfilling a mission to save souls. Instead, he got the shock of his young life. His health deteriorated, and he found more than a few unsettling conflicts to endure.  Baptism encouraged him to  keep his faith in spite of life’s challenges.  
Throughout the ages, the promise of Jesus to baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire has been fulfilled. Believers of all walks of life, religious persuasions, and nationalities have been immersed, dipped, influenced, guided, cleansed, and overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit. Of all these definitions of baptism, I appreciate the definition that baptism means being “overwhelmed.” Jesus’ baptism may mean that we are overwhelmed in the sense that a bear hug envelops us. (As this slide of father giving a child a bear hug shows)

Nineteenth century Revivalist Charles Finney described his baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire this way:
As I shut the door of the office after me, it seemed as if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It seemed to me that I saw Him as I would see any other man. He said nothing, but looked at me in such a manner as to break me right down at His feet. I fell down at His feet, wept aloud like a child, and made such confessions as I could with my choked utterance. It seemed to me that I bathed His feet in tears. I must have continued in this state for a good while. I returned to the front office, but as I turned and was about to take a seat by the fire, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost. Without any recollection that I had ever heard the subject mentioned by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to come in waves of liquid love; it seemed like the very breath of God. I wept aloud with joy and love.*
Being baptized by the Holy Spirit and fire is a heart-warming, personal, and memorable experience. It is promised to all who believe. It reminds us that we are deeply loved. It encourages us to keep our faith.
Our first thoughts about baptism may not include fire, but fire has a profound impact on our baptism. Fire gives light, defies gravity by always facing upward, and it defies the rules of nature by traveling faster uphill than downhill. We can see this when we light a match then turn it upside down. Wildfires cleanse the forest of disease and insects. Fire discourages wild beasts from approaching. Bishop Tutu declared that the prayers of God’s people were like a wall of fire protecting him from the enemy.
With Jesus’ fire baptism, we are able to fight fire with fire. Wildlife managers often purposely set fire to an area so that an oncoming fire will have nothing to feed on.  A duck hunter learned the value of fighting fire with fire. He was with a friend in the wide-open land of southeastern Georgia. Far away on the horizon he noticed a cloud of smoke. Soon he could hear crackling as the wind shifted. He realized the terrible truth; a brushfire was advancing, so fast they couldn't outrun it. Rifling through his pockets, he soon found what he was looking for, a book of matches. He lit a small fire around the two of them. Soon they were standing in a circle of blackened earth, waiting for the fire to come. They didn't have to wait long. They covered their mouths with handkerchiefs and braced themselves. The fire came near and swept over them. But they were completely unhurt, untouched. Fire would not pass where fire already had passed.*
So, like our founding father John Wesley, let us feast on God’s word, pray about everything, and serve with love for that is all we need to do to remember or to prepare for Jesus to encourage us by coming to baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Amen.

Sermons.com*

Monday, December 2, 2013

Thanksgiving for All Others November 10, 2014

November 10 Thanksgiving – *2 Thessalonians 2.1-5, 13-17, Luke 20.27-38 “Thanksgiving - For All Others” Pastor Jacqueline Hines

During  All Saint’s Day which we celebrated last week, the question often emerges, “Do United Methodists believe in Saints?” The answer of course is “yes.” As Christians, the Holy Spirit lives in us!  Marvelous work is being done in us and through us to fulfill the awesome plan of God. “Yes,” we are saints.
A saint is simply someone who is “set apart” just as we are today in this sanctuary. We have separated from other people and places, in order to keep this appointment with God and with one another. It’s not because we are more important or more valuable. We want to spend some quality time with the Sacred One. We have heard the invitation in that book of the bible called Song of Songs. It is an invitation from one who loves us, saying “Come away with me…” So we have come. We have come to “con sacred“ “consecrate” ourselves, to purge and purify our hearts, minds, and souls. We are saints, indeed – always willing to receive God’s lavish love for us. Always ready to share that bountiful love with others.
Not all of us will be famous saints like those talked about among our brothers and sisters in the Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church, and the Lutheran Church. They acknowledge saints known as patron saints whose lives are marked by some extraordinary or miraculous event. Such saints are said to protect and defend others in various circumstances. For example, St. Paul who wrote most of the New Testament is the patron saint of writers. We have heard of St. Patrick the patron saint of Ireland, St. Francis who loved animals, St. Nicholas the patron saint of money, St. Joseph carpenter and patron saint of the home, St. Mary patron saint of mothers, St. Valentine patron saint of love, St. Joan of Arc patron saint of soldiers, St. Jude patron saint of things that cause despair and heartache, and St. Elizabeth patron saint of expectant mothers.
Jesus assures us that those saints who have left this life as we know it are very much alive. However, it is not included in our Methodist teaching or doctrine to ask them to say special prayers for us.
We have not gone so far as to create beautiful prayer cards with pictures of saints. We may enjoy baseball cards of stars and little blurbs about their famous plays and statistics, but it is not our Methodist tradition to possess cards that tell of the mission and miracles of the saints.
Ecumenical gatherings and family socials can be very enjoyable because of the many different and delightful religious traditions we share among denominations. There are also those times when we wonder about other traditions or we frown at their doctrine. Arguing about religion can be like taking a juicy steak away from a pit bull.
We may all have ideas that we hold on with a dogged determination. Holding on too tightly puts us at risk of generating dogma instead of doctrine. Church doctrine guides us in the most peaceful and powerful relationship with God and one another that we can possibly have at a particular time.
Church dogma separates us from each other. Church dogma would always rather fight than switch, or shift, or change, or adapt, or detour, compromise, or continue as if our Covenant matters. Dogma is what Jesus confronted when he said the Pharisees “worship me in vain; their teachings are mere rules taught by men.“ 
After hearing the sound doctrine of Jesus, the Pharisees took up arms. They fought to the death. Experts today, in the church and outside the church, are fighting tooth and nail, like the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, not for God’s sake, but for profit and self-importance.
This very week there have been discussions about keeping trans fats or hydrogenated oils in foods, though some consider them unsafe because they lower good cholesterol and increase bad cholesterol.
The bible teaches us how to fight for what we believe, but in a different way than the world fights. The biblical pattern for fighting for what we believe is to fight to protect and defend the abused and the neglected, not to fight one another. The biblical pattern for fighting is not to fight when you want to fight. It is to fight when God directs you to fight. God is the General in charge, and we do well to wait for our orders.
Doctrine unites us. Dogma divides us. Every society has ideas by which they are indoctrinated. Every church and denomination has its written doctrine, legally binding teachings. Our United Methodist doctrine is found in the Book of Discipline.
Our biblically based doctrine needs to be prayerfully studied, carefully reviewed, and diligently pondered with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. That’s why Christian education is so important. Sunday School and bible study provide a solid foundation that keeps dogma from undermining the integrity of the House of God.  
Bethel members talk often about building a house well. Some know of homes built so well that while every house on the block has water in the basement, they don’t. We’ve smiled about one home where every door frame is perfectly level, and not even a mouse can get into the house.  Sound doctrine helps us to build our spiritual house well. Our children deserve an excellent house of God to grow up in spiritually as do we all.
Paul taught sound doctrine. It was often controversial, and dogmatic opposition would come out of the woodwork. In Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica, he taught the controversial issue of Jesus’ second coming. Some call it the Rapture.  In verse 1 of chapter 2  he says – “As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, 2not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here.”
There were some who were teaching that Jesus has already returned. It was very upsetting to think that Jesus had returned and left them behind. It was very upsetting and it shook them up quite a bit. In his letter to the church in Thessalonica, he set the record straight. Paul puts on his pastor’s hat and tells the church not to be shaken up by the dogma, which were mere human ideas.
It is almost impossible to talk about religious issues without being emotionally shaken up and confused sometime. How do we avoid being confused and shaken up as Paul suggested? The Holy Spirit working in us helps us. While considering whether something is sin or not, right or wrong, good or evil – the Holy Spirit helps us keep that conversation going with God and with one another.
When we wrestle with the rightness or wrongness of teachings such as infant baptism versus being old enough to choose; gender issues such as women wearing pants; or same sex marriage, the Holy Spirit helps us to be grounded instead of flying off the handle. The Holy Spirit helps us to be more clear than confused. The Holy Spirit helps us to be more devoted than divided. Without the Holy Spirit, we can’t do what Paul directs the church to do – stop being shaken up, stop being deceived.
There is no way to wake up one day with the guarantee that we will never be shaken or mistaken, but if we are bent and determined to stay on the journey toward peace, the Holy Spirit is just as determined to help us.
Along with counseling the church to not be shaken up, Paul gives thanks for the people of the church. He understood that our attitude of gratitude for one another creates an atmosphere for good things to happen. It defeats any dogma that we have created when we hold tighter to our ideas than we hold on to God.
Our gratitude creates an atmosphere for sharing until all are satisfied, until we loosen our grip on what is ours long enough to let go and let God. Our gratitude creates an atmosphere where Jesus helps us to check our dogma at the door, saying ‘the one without sin should cast the first stone, or go and sin no more.’ Our attitude of gratitude creates an atmosphere where much fruit is produced – much love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness (generosity), faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
As long as we humbly teach the soundest doctrine we know and fight, not for profit or self-importance, but to protect and defend each other, especially the least the last and the lost, our chances of being shaken and thrown of course will give way to gratitude for each other, and wherever we go there will be an atmosphere ripe for something more delicious and nutritious than we can ever imagine. May the spirit reveal the truth to each of our hearts today.  Amen.








Sunday, December 1, 2013

Coming to Prepare Us

December 1    1st Sunday of Advent   Isaiah 2.1-5, *Matthew 24.36-44 “Coming to Prepare Us” Pastor Jacqueline Hines

How beautiful it is to gather in this sacred place, to enjoy the peace and quiet, to enjoy the joy of the blessings of kindness and love that we pour out on one another’s lives. Nowhere in this world would the Lord find a kinder, gentler people than those of us that the Lord has blessed right here. The Holy Spirit has brought us together for such a time as this. Surely the Holy Spirit has plans to bless us to be a blessing to many, just as Bethel fore parents have been a blessing generation after generation.

We are so blessed that it is good we have gathered here to celebrate the Eucharist. Eucharist is from the Greek word for thanksgiving, for Jesus gave thanks before he broke the bread and shared it with the disciples gathered just as we are this morning. It is a good thing to remember how blessed we are and to offer God our thanks that it is as well with us as it is. Thanksgiving is not only due our Creator, thanksgiving primes the pump for good and great things to spring forth from our hearts and our hands, from our lips and from the light of our lives.

On this first Sunday of Advent, we remember what we, and all royalty, around the globe, all children of the King of Kings refuse to forget. We remember that an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “… do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

We repeat this story year after year to nurture the deep roots of our faith. We prepare again and again for the birth of Jesus in our lives, for we know for sure he is coming! We know all about the three points I want to share this morning - predictions, the preparation, and the provision of Christmas. The Church has been celebrating Christ’s Mass, Christ’s birthday on December 25th for the last 1500 years.

By the Third Century A.D., church fathers had no birth records for Jesus. So, people came up with spiritual reasons that his birth was probably born in March or April, or May, or November. The Roman Empire was big on celebrating birthdays – though not every Christian thought it was a holy idea back then. The Roman Empire also had big celebrations of their sun God’s around the winter solstice in late December. It did not take long before Christians under the rule of the Roman Empire felt comfortable celebrating the birthday of God’s Son around December 25th. The deal was sealed when Emperor Constantine decided Christianity would be the national religion and December 25th would be the day the birth of Christ was to be celebrated.

More important than the actual date are the predictions of Christmas. Seven hundred years before Jesus’ birth. Isaiah 7.14 told us, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

Every one of us is reminded in Mathew’s scriptures this morning of the predictions of Christ coming. He was born in a manger, died on a cross, was buried in a tomb, and he is coming again. No one knows the day or the hour except God the Father in Heaven. We can expect the unexpected at Christmas. Just as the floods that covered the earth were unexpected in Noah’s day, just as the thief comes at an unexpected time to steal, just as it is unexpected for anyone to be left behind, Christmas is a time for the unexpected.

Within the last few weeks Bethel Trustees have been patching up the roof and putting buckets of ice melt at each of the church entrances. They are responding to the signs that winter is on its way, and in order to avoid unnecessary inconvenience and expense, they are preparing for the unexpected. 
There is nothing routine about Christmas. It has been predicted. We know it is on its way. We cannot expect it to be anything but good and holy, but whatever happens will be unexpected. We won’t be able to put it in a box, wrap it up, hide it, hoard it, or ever lose it. Though it is clearly predicted, Christmas will always defy our expectations.

It takes a real family to prepare for Christmas, for Christmas is first about bonding before it is about buying. There will be no Christmas without the freshness of forgiveness and the freedom to receive kindness and to give it. The ultimate celebration of Christmas happens as we delight in the Lord every hour and repent every day. Christmas is more about blessing the least, the last, the lost, and the grieving among us and in us. It is less about burdening our days with manic consumerism and fizzy festivals.

Christmas is all about kings who understand there is one to whom even they must bow. Christmas is about young couples beginning a new life together that is sure to change the world for the better. It is about senior citizens with wise and wonderful words so prophetic they cause the young to sprout wings and fly. It is about courageous fathers in the frontline, who know how to build a home with wife who says “yes” to God, a home where protection and peace are plentiful. It is about those whose negative words are muted and whose faith is growing.

Christmas brings the unexpected, that is why Christmas is always predicted, prepared for, and provides all we will ever need to do God’s will. The Harvard Business School Press published a book by Max H. Bazerman and Michael D. Watkins called Predictable Surprises. They say that even though there are many signs that can help us see the unexpected situations in our lives, most of us focus on only one sign. We are on the alert for a sign of one thing to fix, one gift to have, or some one to blame. It’s him, or her, or them, or this or that.

There is never one sign for the unexpected events in life, much less for Christmas.
God provides many signs that will lead us to Christmas. Bazerman and Watkins advise us that the more we respond to all the signs and strengthen each other to respond, the more we “decrease the potential for an ugly, bad surprise to escalate exponentially.”  

The signs that lead us to Christmas are everywhere. They are incessantly persisting and insisting on the direction that we should go. They are often the subtle and fleeting micro communications: the twinkle in the eye or the tear in the sigh of someone near and dear to us. There are unspoken signs in that call to care or to celebrate with others across America or across the world.


God provides many signs for us to follow. If you do not see them, seek them with all your heart, and you will find them. They light our way and make our burdens light. If we would but follow, they would lead us to a glorious place. They would lead us under the protective shadow of God’s wing. They would lead us beyond the troubles and temptations of this world. They would lead us to Christmas blessings beyond which we could ever imagine. Prediction, preparation, provision – they will lead us all to the best Christmas ever. Amen.