November 17, 2019 When Will the Mess End?

November 17 Luke 21.5-19 “When Will the Mess End?”  Banner- When Will It All Be Over? Pastor Jacqueline Hines

God designed us to enjoy beauty. Beauty is everywhere. There are beautiful flowers. The sun rise and sunset are beautiful. The work of human hands is beautiful. Children are beautiful. God’s people are beautiful. The bible speaks of the beauty of holiness. Holiness brings to mind pure hearts, Kindness and truth that make life beautiful!

In Jesus’ day, the disciples noticed how beautiful the temple was. The stones were magnificent. Great leaders and their family tribes had sacrificed and worked for 46 years by the sweat of their brow to create a structure that was glorious and reflective of a great God.

Building something beautiful takes time, energy, community, and consistency! It took 2000 years to build the Great Wall of China that provided protection from invaders,  14 years to build the Brooklyn bridge connecting communities, and 10 years to build the Panama Canal that made safer water travels.  Building is beautiful.

Jesus stood in front of the beautiful stone temple admiring it with the disciples. Those stones represented endurance. Endurance is a beautiful thing. Have you seen the wall of St. Vincent’s church on Route 23. Jeremiah Wright rebuilt it, and it is stunningly beautiful. If you have ever seen our United Methodist church that closed a few years ago in Spring City, you have noted that the stones are simply breathtaking. They are even larger than the beautiful stones that we have here at Bethel. There is a new church worshipping in there now called Regeneration.

Verse 6 tells us that suddenly Jesus launches into a very deep subject. He tells them that all “All good things must come to an end.” So it seems. Jesus, of all people knows, life comes to an end, then comes new life. Beauty fades and a new type of beauty is born. Nothing stays the same, whether things change naturally with time or whether they are destroyed before their time, nothing stays the same. Jesus tells them that this beautiful temple will be torn down.  They were anxious to know when such a terrible thing would happen, but Jesus spoke in generalities rather than specifics. Apparently, all they needed to know was that destruction was coming.

It turns out the temple was destroyed by the Romans 40 or so years later in A.D. 70, when Jewish folk revolted, growing tired of Roman rule. All they needed to know was that destruction was coming. The Romans came and destroyed the beautiful temple and just as Jesus said, not one stone was left on top of another.  By then, the disciples were all gone to glory.

Jesus was not saying that the Temple will deteriorate by nature or neglect. Jesus was talking about destruction of the Temple by human hands, wars, hatred, violence, and earthquakes, plagues and famines that speak out God’s wrath and warnings. Human destruction is constant somewhere in this world. When there are no wars, there are rumors of wars. Destruction is a part of the human condition. This week alone we heard of riots in Hong Kong, another high school shooting in California, unspeakable acts committed in the darkness of night.

As the disciples were trying to figure out why Jesus was focusing on destruction while they were enjoying the beautiful stones that had endured for their entire lifetime, Jesus declared in verse 18 that not a hair on their heads would be harmed. 

Of course, Jesus was not promising that they would not die or suffer like everybody else, though the Holy Spirit is greater than any of our burdens. Jesus was affirming that they would never perish because eternal life is greater than life in the flesh. Their acts of love and righteousness would last forever in this life and the next. New life and resurrected life are just as real as war and hatred and senseless violence.

Jesus also declared that they could save their souls if the endured.  If you are willing to manage all this trouble and still trust in God and pray about everything, if you can still seek God diligently, serve God faithfully, and obey God quickly, if you can endure, your souls will be saved according to verse 19. That is your relationship with God will be saved.

We spend our lives anxiously caring for our relationships or trying to save our relationships. This can be a good. Still, how easy it is to forget that the most important relationship is our relationship with God. When we hear that phrase, “They sold their soul to the devil” don’t we understand it to mean that someone has turned their back on God that they have made a deal with the devil for something that is definitely not good or godly?  They no longer possess their soul.

John Wesley, founder of Methodism started small groups in 1739. Nearly a dozen people came to him for spiritual direction when they felt convicted of their sins. He gathered them and instructed them  - as he put it so famously – to watch over one another in love .  (That was the name of a book our SPRC committee was given to read as a way of returning to our Methodist roots that emphasized loving one another and helping one another to stay close to God.)

Early Methodist groups would start meetings with this one profound question – How is it with your soul? Not just how are you? But how is it with your soul? That question makes us ask ourselves – Am I chasing after God as if my life depended on God? What am I doing to stay in love with God? To grow spiritually? To be still long enough to realize I am loved with an everlasting love and that I was bought with a price when I was a hostage to my sinful nature?  Am I doing anything to hinder my relationship with God? What is your daily answer?

None of the beautiful things humans build stay the same forever. Everything always either naturally needs repair, restoration, regeneration or refurbishing at one point or another. But, when the grand ideas, institutions, and buildings we build are torn down by hate and greed, rather than naturally deteriorate, it is not the end of the world for Christians. Destruction is a signal, an alarm prompting us to draw closer to God until God directs us to build something good, create something beautiful, and heal something broken. Now is always the time to get closer to God for direction, for destruction is part of our past, our present, and our future. No matter what comes and no matter what goes, God is always in the business of building, restoring, creating and healing. And, of course, we too want to be about our creator’s business. May it be so today and every day! Amen.

November 3, 2019 Our Estate

November 23 2019 “Our Estate” Pastor Jacqueline Hines

When we consider the church around the globe, we know some are rich and some are poor. In our Eastern Pennsylvania Conference we have churches whose buildings have been in dire disrepair for decades and others, like our own, who are renovating. As our District Superintendent Dawn Taylor Storm reminded us, Bethel is so blessed. While we burned our mortgage early, other churches are closing because they cannot afford to pay their mortgage. EVERY church wonders what their future holds. EVERY church wants to live forever. Every church wants to see their children and youth be present in the worship service and become strong in the faith that we work so hard to hand over to them.  

God speaks to all churches, regardless of resources. So what’s going on with the church today? God provides all the power and the money and the talent that we need to fulfill the vision God gives us. Every one of us knows the plans God has for our church. God’s plan begins with the bible. Every one of us needs the bible. Our mission printed on every bulletin reflects the bible. Every week that mission is before us. Our Bethel Covenant affirms the bible. We have had copies of our covenant for months in the Banner, at committee meetings, and in the lobby on the table. You can get one today to remind you of where God is leading us. As you prayerfully read the covenant, you can also read the communion prayers that are in your bulletin today and remember with confidence that God will provide us with everything we need for the journey. It may not be everything we want as Elaine said last week, but we are confident that we will have everything we need.

Billionaire real estate giant Leona Helmsley dubbed by the news as the “Queen of Mean” was a Jewish sister.   She was not active in any synagogue according to the internet, nor did I find a record of her helping churches, but we are told that she helped poor people in New York and Israel. She gave millions to medical institutions for research on chronic diseases like diabetes and is still providing after her death through a trust fund. She was a saint in her own way.

We can’t really be mad at her for not helping churches, especially since Jesus reminds disciples that if someone is not against him, they are really for him. We should appreciate those who help the Christian mission even if we mourn that they are not a part of the church and do not call themselves Christian. They may be missing out on the deeper joys of being with Jesus that we want to share with them. I have no right to be upset that Leona had a will giving 5 million dollars to her two grandchildren, even though she left millions more to her pet Maltese . He had $100,000 a year - $8,000 per year for grooming, $1,200 for dog food. It is almost easy to understand why there were dozens of threats to kidnap and kill that dog. The estate had to hire a 24 hour security guard for the dog’s protection.

The typical church is not accustomed to such excess, though we often wish for more money and more of everything - as if more money and more of anything solves all problems. Truth is, money can create as many problems as it solves. Whatever we need, God can provide. We need to ask so that we can receive. We need to seek in order to find. We must knock so that the door will be opened for us. Without God, we can do nothing!

Paul reminds the first century church in Ephesus of God’s riches that all Christians have. God’s riches are just as important as money. In verse 13 he mentions truth.  Truth is worth gold. Paul also mentions in verse 17 God’s PRICELESS gifts of wisdom and revelation.  Wisdom tells us what to do and when to do it. When I was attending Eastern College, I was riding in the front seat of a station wagon with a staff member who regularly gave rides down Lancaster Avenue. On the way he stopped and picked up another rider and I was now in the middle. I began to chat in an effort to be friendly. I felt like the Holy Spirit was surrounding me like a cloud urging me over and over again to stop talking. I finally obeyed that strange sense and later found out the driver had picked up a stranger and I imagined that I was in a reckless situation and did not even know it. The wisdom of the Holy Spirit told me what to do and when to do it even when I did not quite understand why?

Paul focused on God’s revelations because God REVEALS what we would not know unless GOD tells us. During my morning prayers, years ago, the Holy Spirit revealed to me that there would be trouble that day. I was forewarned. It was revealed to me, so I was prepared and braced for what came later that day.  

In his letter Paul especially makes a big deal of the importance of God’s power that is above all other powers, a power so great that he calls it immeasurable. We can have all kinds of political power and personal power, but when God gives us power, we are on the winning side. We can pay for power, give and take favors to get power - that can be very good. When God gives us power, we are SURE to be on the right side. The riches of God’s kingdom include money, though God’s truth, wisdom, revelation, and power are worth more than the billions provided by any saint. God’s riches help us to be a people who are holy and who have good character.

All Saints Day is our time to give thanks for those who have served our Lord, faithfully and sacrificially – whether others know their name, whether their works were great or small. Whether they were in the church or outside the church, whether they were weak or strong, rich or poor, we are God’s people and our lives contain God’s riches. Paul tells the Ephesians that our lives and our lips are made to pour out praise to God. Verse 11 says - “In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, …  so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.” . You have heard the saying, “When the praises go up, the blessings come down. Praise is a weapon that defeats our enemies. 

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, really loved this day called the festival of All Saint’s Day. He looked forward to celebrating the beautiful work and fellowship and testimonies of those who had gone on to glory. It is a good thing to remember some things. John Wesley did draw theological lines that have directed us and distinguished us from our Catholic sisters and brothers in regards to sainthood. Wesley discouraged two things in which our Catholic brothers and sisters find spiritual strength. He did not encourage Methodists to pray to saints. He saw no biblical basis for it. Nor did he teach purgatory - that place Catholics acknowledge Christians go after death to be purged of our sinful ways in order to get to be good enough for Heaven.

On his deathbed, holding tight to the hands of those who loved him, Wesley uttered these words “Best of all. God is with us.” He knew our estate is God, for the Christian who has enough faith to walk with Jesus is rich beyond measure and forever shares those riches with all who will receive them.  Amen. 

October 27, 2019 The Winner's Circle

October 27, 2019     2 Timothy 4.6-8, 16-18 “The Winner’s Circle”  Pastor Jacqueline Hines

The more we read about the apostle Paul, the more we see that he weathered many storms. We all have storms, some of us may, like Paul, have gone through lots of storms. What storms have you weathered lately?  Is it a medical storm as your body recovers from an injury? Is it the storm of hard work as you try to maintain whatever health you have? Are you undergoing those aggravating blood tests, scans, and grams while doctors give it their best shot to figure out what is going on in your body? Perhaps you are suffering a relationship that is just not working, or a child who is just not listening, or a job that is just not helping, or a blessing that is just not blossoming. What storms are you enduring today?

Paul’s life was stormy because his life was one of great sacrifice. He describes his life as being poured out as a libation. A libation is an offering to God. Libations are an ancient cultural gesture found around the world, more often in Asia, Greece, and Africa. When I participated in a healing ceremony among African Americans, there was a libation ceremony to acknowledge that we came from ancestors who, like all of humanity, depended upon water that God provides; water was poured back onto the earth as a gesture of gratitude.  for surviving many stormy seas and uncertain winds. Thai couples may give a libation offering in their Buddhist tradition.  ingratitude for the hope of a good future.

Some of us pour out our whole lives as an offering to our spouses, our children, or our job. Paul says in verse 6 that he gave his life as an offering to God  If we put God first, blessings will overflow onto everyone and everything else in our circle. 

In addition to describing his life as a sacrifice, Paul describes it in verse 7 as a battlefield.  as well as the race track. Battlefields, literal or figurative, can bring dust clouds from bombs and grenades. While running a race one often kicks up a storm of dust.   He fought the good fight that brings peace and justice. He was not talking about a bad fight – like those jailed recently for cock fighting and dog fighting or the teenagers who fought a fellow student by putting urine in a fellow students drinking water, or those high school students urinated on an 8^th grader while beating her down with hate speech. Paul says he fought the good fight.

Paul endured the storm of sacrificing his life to God, fighting the good fight, and running the race of right living – making it to the finish line and receiving a crown. It does not get better than having one’s place in the winner’s circle. In spite of all he went through, he was greatly rewarded. He went through each storm and he made it to the other side. He fought the battle bruised and broken but he defeated the enemy. He ran the race and could barely keep up but he made it to the finish line without being disqualified and he won the crown of victory. All his life, he offered himself as a sacrifice. He said in his heart like the elders of old would say. “I think I will run on and see what the end is going to be.” He said in his heart like the songwriter said “Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.”

Offerings are a very, very important part of our Judeo-Christian heritage. In this holiday season of Thanksgiving and Christmas, culturally and communally and congregationally we have already begun preparing to make special sacrifices, to give to those in need, to offer corporate words of thanksgiving and praise to our God that prompt us to share our bounty. We know that we are blessed so that we can be a blessing to others.

Interestingly enough, research* suggests that those more apt to make sacrifices that are beneficial for others are also those who have the most self-control.  One of the core values and spiritual fruit of the Holy Spirit is self-control.

Those with less ability to self-regulate often simply revert to keeping the limited habits that they learned at a young age. Instead of cultivating a mind open to fresh thinking or a mind open to the thoughts of God that come through prayer, humans often do the only thing we know to do, which is the easy way and the lazy way out, rather than changing for the better.

Nevertheless, as Christians, we long to give of ourselves like Paul did and like the song reminds us: “All to Jesus, I surrender. All to him I freely give. I will ever love and trust him. In his presence daily live.”  

A few weeks ago our Jewish brothers and sisters around the world submitted themselves to a 25 hour time of fasting and prayers of repentance for the forgiveness of their sins. The time was called Yom Kippur. “Yom” means “day.”  “Kippur” means “atonement.”  Yom Kippur is a day of atonement. A day of atonement is a day to reflect on the idea that we make mistakes on a regular basis. It is a day to think about ways God is calling us to make reparations for damages, injuries, and harm we have done to individual persons or to communities.

Getting off track and wrongdoing is a part of being human. We are especially aware of this as Christians. We set aside songs and prayers and services to remember our need to come to God and be cleansed from our unrighteousness, to get back on track, to repent, to make good what has gone awry and to make whole those we have wronged.

Atoning for our sins shows our compassionate care for others. Repentance keeps us humble. Repentance inspires us to pour our lives out for whatever purpose God has in mind, to move at the impulse of God’s love. 

God knows that we are not so quick to embarrass ourselves by confessing our sins individually, so the there are plenty of biblical and historical models to hide under each other’s protective and loving wings as re repent corporately as a one congregation rather than individual sinners.  After all, whatever we are in, we are in it together.  

When we sacrifice, we do so in community such as working together on community Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas baskets for families. When we say prayers of confession or songs of repentance, we often do so with one voice together in unison rather than singled out in embarrassment. Together we offer an acceptable offering to our kind God who is sensitive to our needs.

One of my daily prayers is that we would praise God every hour and repent every day. As individuals there is plenty of room to privately repent, to change our minds, to put our lives in order with God’s perspective. We can do so every day; at the very least, we can do so every time we have communion together.

Corporate confession and seeking God’s will for acts of atonement are what we do during communion to keep us from thinking too highly of ourselves or seeing our leaders as equal to or as higher than God. Including confession and atonement as we worship on a daily basis keeps us from seeing our leaders as equal to or higher than God. Confession and atonement give us enough light to see the truth, and truth builds trust. Trust brings unity and justice for all. May it be so today and each time we come to the table and commune together with Jesus.   Amen. 

 *Psychology Today posted -July 23, 2013

October 13, 2019 Ten Amazing Men

October 13 2019 Luke 17.11-19 “Ten Amazing Men” Pastor Jacqueline Hines

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Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem. Luke the physician and gospel writer tells us exactly where Jesus was geographically. Do you ever get those notices on your phone that say, “Will you allow this app to know your location?” Sometime it is alright. At other times, it is kind of creepy that a computer knows where you are, what you are doing, what you are buying. There is even evidence that you phone can listen to what you are saying, even whispering. One lady says she was talking to a friend about wanting to take a trip to Austria and the next thing she knew advertisements were popping up on her phone for trips to Austria.

Luke tells us that Jesus’ location was between Samaria and Galilee. The Samaritans were refugees. They were forced to leave the Holy Land after being captured by the Babylonians. As they settled in Samaria, they may have grown a little lacks in their prayer time and temple time. It could have been that the things of the world had so captured their imagination, that they had become so self-absorbed that the world could not tell that they were Godly by their love, by their love. The Samaritan woman with her five husbands fit a stereotype for some while the idea of a Good Samaritan was a surprising oxymoron to others.

Jesus was in a region between Samaria and Galilee – his home. Though he was born in Bethlehem of Judea (about 5 miles from Jerusalem), Joseph and Mary fled Herod’s massacre of children and took Jesus as a refugee in Egypt where he stayed for a couple years until an angel told him it was safe to leave. Joseph was still a bit nervous about returning to Judea, so he took his family to Galilee and raised Jesus in Nazareth of Galilee.

Jesus’ story reminds us that God can guide us to safe places. Whether we are between a rock and a hard pace or on a journey from sin to salvation, God can guide us to a safe place, even if that safe place is only in our hearts, where it matters the most.

On his journey, ten lepers approached Jesus.  We can all relate to being a leper. As humans we have all been isolated or rejected for one reason or another. We are all equal in that we all have bodies that get sick and wear out, keeping us home bound or in the hospital. We all have been felt alone after someone has lied on us cheated us or hurt us for reasons known or imagined.

What is so amazing about the ten men that Jesus saw on his way to Jerusalem was that they approached Jesus. That is just the best thing – to approach Jesus!!

Who comes to Jesus today? Just this week we were talking about how many societies and cultures find more interesting and entertaining people to go to besides Jesus. When the lepers came to Jesus, they were healed. Have you come to Jesus? Have you been healed?

I was told this week of Korean United Methodist who migrated from South Korea to North Korea and he lived in a leper colony in South Korea. He had some type of skin disorder that was thought to be leprosy – maybe it was. Many skin disorders tend to be grouped into the category of leprosy. Missionaries would come to make sure the lepers had food and other necessities. He said he remembers feeling so amazed when people would bother to come and help them when they were so alienated from the rest of the world. Somehow he got well and came to the US and told his story a few years ago in his United Methodist Church.

Surely we have all been healed to one degree or another. None of us live on this earth 100% healed. We do well to give thanks for ANY healing we have by God’s grace and we trust in the blessed assurance that we are not forgotten or forsaken when we do get sick. Our God knows and cares for each and every one of us, in sickness and in health.

Rev. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, lived from 1703-1791 was a man of fervent prayer and he believed in the power of God to heal and deliver.  One source tells us:

In his journal for December 15, 1742, John Wesley reports that he and a Mr. Meyrick both fell sick. But while Wesley recovered, Meyrick declined. On Christmas Day, Meyrick appeared to be dead. However, as Wesley and others cried out to God, Meyrick regained consciousness and then began to regain strength.

This incident was not isolated in early Methodism. Charles Wesley was healed from a severe condition when a woman commanded him to be healed “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” Methodist preacher John Valton reported healings, revelatory dreams, and even rainfall through prayer. The blind eye of early Methodist Ann Brookes was healed after Jesus touched it in a dream. Many people in Wesley’s meetings fell to the ground under conviction from God’s Spirit; one skeptical physician was converted when one of his patients was cured from her sickness.

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Early Methodists, like the early church, were amazing. They chased after God, they followed Jesus. They hungered and thirsted for the Holy Spirit to guide their lives. That is how they harnessed the power of God like a windmill harnesses the wind for electricity. 

We need the miracles, the visions, the still small voice, signs and wonders, the flood of goodness, fiery wall of protection, the breathtaking breakthroughs, wind blowing the storms back, the truth that sets us free and we need to be delivered. Such blessings come from God. They cannot be bought or sold or taken.

I went to a Pentecostal conference with my Presbyterian seminary colleagues the week of Labor Day. I had a dancing good time and received a prophetic revelation: Over and over again it came to my mind, my heart and my lungs - God is able. God is able. God is able. I understood deeply that night that God is able to do what seems impossible, to break strongholds of attitudes and mischief, to help men get out of the man box of muzzling women as well as all kinds of people getting along with all kinds of people regardless of their need for help and healing. I came away refreshed and revived and filled with hope for the future of the church.

We cannot survive as a church unless we chase after God, follow Jesus, and hunger and thirst for the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our lives. And in these days and times, it is an amazing thing to approach Jesus like those ten lepers did, for not many in this world seem to have an appetite for praise and worship and building faith. May we all go forth and make the church Amazing Again! Amen.