July 28 2013“WANTED : Love” Hosea 1.2-10 Pastor Jacqueline Hines

 “Love is a many splendored thing,” so goes the song from the 50’s. ‘It is like a touch that makes the heart sing, like a rose that blossoms early. Love is a reason to be alive.’ “It’s what the world needs now!” says another songwriter. God knows these songs are true! Love is the perfect and most pleasant solution to all our problems, the answer to all our questions. Love is the foundation upon which all good things are built. Love is bigger and better than we will ever know. God is love!

There is no doubt that we all want and need an abundance of love in our lives. We especially need to receive God’s love and to give God’s love to others. The book of Hosea which we have read this morning is about love. It’s about how to get all the love we need. It’s about how to give all the love that someone else needs.

Hosea was a spokesperson for God. He was a preacher, a teacher, a leader of spiritual things. God guided him in his marriage to Gomer, but the relationship required more love than he had to give. Hosea had to go deeper into divine treasures if he was going to give all the love that his woman needed. Hosea had to go deeper into divine treasures if he was going to get all the love that he needed. Love is a God thing.

True love comes from a relationship with God, being close enough so God can love us, strengthen us, guide us, heal us, and bless us so we can love one another, strengthen one another, guide, heal and bless one another. The world has its own brand of love, and if you have lived long enough, you have had the unfortunate experience of finding love in all the wrong and ungodly places. The world has fake love. It looks so real and shines so bright, sometimes we don’t even mind. God’s love is real, genuine, and worth a million. God’s love is worth the price we pay. It’s worth the effort, worth the worry, worth the sacrifice, and worth the struggle.

Part of our covenant with one another in the family of God is that we respect the fact that some days we have to struggle if we are going to be stronger. You have heard the story of a family that brought in two cocoons that were about to hatch. They watched expectantly as the first butterfly squeezed very slowly and painfully through a tiny hole that it chewed in one end of the cocoon. After it came out it was exhausted and lay flat for about ten minutes. Finally, it got up and flew out the open window on its beautiful new wings.

The family decided to help the second butterfly so that it would not have to go through such an excruciating ordeal. So, as it began to emerge, they carefully cut the cocoon open, but instead of sprouting wings and flying away like the first butterfly, in about ten minutes, it just quietly died. Our human struggle also makes US strong, beautiful and helps US to soar.

Hosea struggled in his family relationships. It was not easy. His wife was content to be far away from God’s love. She was not even trying to be a faithful wife. It is no wonder their first child was named after a historic, bloody battlefield called Jezreel. Their second child was named “unloved” and “unforgiving” in the Hebrew language, and the third child’s name was called “godless,” “no kin to God”

Each of us is known for something. We get a name, a reputation, a label for our activities and our attitudes – the great ones and the not so great ones. We can all relate to being called a spokesperson for God like Hosea. We have testified of the goodness of God in worship, coffee hour, or over the phone. We have shared the Good News with others. We have given a word of wisdom and comfort in due season.  We may also know what it is to be named the one who turned our back on God, who loves to fight, who has issues with a certain person and desperately needs to forgive in order to move on with their life. We may have even had a year or two when we were named the one who acted like everything but a child of God.

Whatever name we have been called, this life is not about our name, for there is a name above all names. His name is Jesus, savior, the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star, comforter, giver of life, matchmaker, mind fixer and heart regulator. This short journey we are on is about the perfect love God has available for us and for each and every one of our relationships. God’s love is in us and around us, always ready to blossom. With every breath we take, we know God’s Spirit is living in us. With every beat of our heart, we hear his love calling our name. God’s love is a forever love, a love that grows as we grow, struggles as we struggle.

We know God’s love best when we pray, when we serve, when we fast, when we read and study scriptures. Love grows when we do good deeds and follow the Ten Commandments, when we honor the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion where the Lord is present in special ways to heal, forgive, guide and strengthen us if we want to be healed, forgiven, guided, and strengthened for the journey.

One way God shows love to us is by putting prayers in our hearts that help us grow. Years ago, the Holy Spirit gave me this prayer to pray and help the body of Christ to grow. “Lord, deliver us from crying, craving, and criticism.” I have reflected on that prayer over the years. “Lord, deliver us from crying, craving, and criticism.

Love delivers us from crying. There are times when we feel sorry for ourselves and we cry and complain when love is urging us to step up our game and seek God with all our heart until we hear with our spiritual ears a plan of action. Love delivers us from crying when it’s time to act on God’s plan.

Love delivers us from cravings. The world is full of temptations and alternatives to God. It is very easy to be deceived, to get caught up in Satan’s traps and tricks. Jesus says his way is easy, and it is. The way of the world is shiny and shallow. Jesus’ ways are holy, powerful, full of richness and depth. If we take one step in the right direction, God will take two to help us. It’s a matter of choice. As we trust God, day by day, love delivers us from craving the world’s temptations that have no power to bless us but are bound to steal, kill, and destroy.

Love delivers us from criticism. Most of us know what it is to be criticized, to be doused in someone’s contempt and rejection. Criticism can be an easy art to learn and a bear to unlearn. Just as we are created for water, food, and family every day, we are created to give and receive affirmation and acceptance, care, comfort, consideration and kindness every day. Holy things happen when love delivers us from criticism, when we overflow with affirmation to others and from others, when we overflow with acceptance to others and from others, when we overflow with care, comfort, consideration, and kindness to others and from others.

Whatever the struggles in our relationships, God still has a purpose and a plan. Whatever our need, whatever our situation, God’s plan begins and ends with a covenant that Hosea had with God and his family, to love those who may not be 100% faithful, to love children of God who are just as prone to fuss and fight as to exercise their faith, who hold grudges though they want to humble themselves and forgive, who have cause others to suffer during their seasons of rebellion against the will and way of God.

So, the lessons Hosea learned about love are the same lessons we are learning. The prayers we pray for love are the same prayers Hosea prayed, “Lord, deliver us from crying, craving, and criticism” that your love can flow from heart to heart and mind to mind, so that we can step up our game, grow deeper into a love that is Holy, overflow with comfort and care for ourselves and for others all day long, and we will forever be called children of the living God.   Amen.

WANTED = More Mercy

July 7 “WANTED:  Partners “  *Luke 10.1-11, 16-20; 2 Kings 5.1-14 [Jesus sends us in pairs to do divine work] Rev. Jacqueline Hines

Luke tells us that Jesus appointed ministers for a mission. Verse 10 of chapter 10 says “ After this…. the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.

The question is after what? The answer is in the chapters just before the Luke scripture we are visiting this morning. There we find records of how Jesus’ ministry was financed, some parables he told and a very bad storm they went through in the area. In the chapters before the verse we are looking at today there is also a record of a very sick child, a desperate and perhaps depressed woman,  demons that were cast out, the feeding of the 5000, Jesus’ rejection, persecution and predictions of an early death in spite of all the good he did.

“After all this,” Luke tells us, Jesus appoints 70 disciples to go out into this tumultuous world – not in pursuit of fame and fortune or even comfort and happiness, but on a mission to help those in need. 70 of them were sent out.

Our US Congress has 100 senators and 435 representatives. The ancient religious council had 71 or 73 voting members. Perhaps Jesus’ choosing 70 is a symbol of a new and different authority. The even number implies no tied votes could happen, rather consensus and harmony had the upper hand. He sent them out as partners, just as we are sent. We are all ministers sent two by two like those on the ark, to create and produce new life, to save souls, to offer a helping hand.

2Jesus said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers…    He wanted them to understand as he wants us to understand that even though we are not always aware of it, and even though we do not want to hear it, there is plenty of work to do, plenty of souls that need to be saved, and plenty of sins from which they need to be saved. He wanted them to understand as he wants us to understand that there isn’t an overflow of help, so we should pray God will send help for all the labor that has to be done. We should join our voices with the heavenly chorus of saints and angels, praying and praising in waves of energy that bring power and influence. We should pray fervently until our hearts are filled to overflowing with urgency and our prayers burst forth, refreshing and healing those who need it most. We should prayerfully speak up and speak out loud the good news, energizing the atmosphere, stirring up holy moments so that help will come for God’s sake! That’s what our prayers do. They prime the spiritual pumps, calling forth deep reservoirs of holy conversation with God and with all who want truth and peace. Our prayers create good, seen and unseen, regardless of the presence of what is not so good, regardless of storms that come and wolves who devour the little lambs!  Jesus told them like he tells us; pray – pray that God will send help for all that has to be done to meet the needs that God is directing us to meet.

Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals. Everyone wants to be needed. Let them love you.  Greet no one on the road. You have a mission, and it is important to put first things first. Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!”  If they reject God’s peace, keep it for yourself. God will deal with those who reject God. Our mission is to those who are listening. Those who accept Jesus will accept you. Who is listening to the message you have in your heart, Bethel? Who accepts the Jesus in you?

At times we think that younger people are not listening. Experts say they are listening. They especially want to hear from imperfect Christians, and in their spiritual maturity, they are not just looking for a friendly church. They are looking for friends - of all ages.

After we are baptized and the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in our hearts, we all hear the call to go into the world and spread the Good News of Jesus’ love and power to transform lives, young and old. Our lives are transformed with all the grace, love, justice, and mercy we can hold. Our life is the best sermon many will ever hear. It speaks volumes.

Who’s listening? Whom do we want to hear?  Is not our message for  ‘…the  mother with two jobs to support her children, the one who can’t stop a bad habit, the young person who struggles with self-esteem, the young couple who longs to learn the best way to build a home? Isn’t our message perfect for the worker who finds it a challenge to respect the boss, who steals from the company and from his coworkers, the partner who searches for love in dark places, for the hurting who is ready to admit he or she needs help.'

"As we work together, we naturally want to be heard by people who “have it altogether, not those who are falling apart…the up-and-ins, not the down-and-outs….we want to be heard by saints not sinners." (Jeremy Hauck)

The message we have to share on this journey brings life in places where all humans need to be revived at one time or another. There are many who long to hear our good news. We want to share it. Statistics show that most of those who come to church come because they have an invitation. They are ready to hear the stories and to see the results of God working in our lives. Like all of us, they are ready to do like the 70 that Jesus sent  -  ready to stomp on the heads of the slimy snakes and the stinging scorpions that are often a part of our journey in this life. They are ready to get their lives in order for an eternal heaven.

God wants us and needs us to go forth, working together as partners and sharing our share of Good News. We may be sent to partner with family, friends or neighbors, or we may find opportunities to share with them the good news. Whatever way the Holy Spirit reveals to us, may we return again and again with joy. Amen.

Biblical Characters - Elisha - in the Footsteps of Greatness

June 30 2013 Youth Sunday *II Kings 2.1-2,6-14; Galatians 5.1, 13-25 "Biblical Characters - Elisha - in the Footsteps of Greatness" Rev. Jacqueline Hines

The story of Elisha and his mentor Elijah is one of the most powerful in the bible. Elijah is the greatest prophet of all the prophets. He is known as great within the traditions of the Muslim, the Jewish and the Christian. He is mentioned in Muslim’s commentary to the Quran, and when our Jewish neighbors celebrate their annual Seder meal, they set a cup on the table for Elijah, because he is so great he could appear any day.

During Ahab’s reign as king in the 9^th century BC, Elijah would speak and the power of God would become evident. Fire came down from heaven to show the prophets of Baal who’s in charge. A widow’s son was raised to new life, the wicked Queen Jezebel was put in her place, he prayed for rain and a drought came to an end. Sixteen miracles occur during Elijah’s ministry, and there are many young prophets who want to be just like him. Wouldn’t you?

Have you ever been in the presence of someone great? Of course, you have. God is great and God is good. We are made in the image of the almighty, therefore, in some measure, we too are great and we are good. Our lives are full of great moments, great ideas, great beauty, great love, great wonders, great gifts, and great people. Greatness may be appreciated for a day --- or a lifetime. Some great things and people are known throughout the entire world and throughout the ages. Our greatness can lead to fame and fortune. It can also cost more than we bargain for, but this one thing is certain, God has called each of us to greatness.

As we walk where Jesus walked, as we follow in his footsteps there are three things we things we need to remember about being great. First of all, being great  means we eat the breakfast of champions. We have to do all we can to be strong in the Lord and nurture our spirits because being great means doing the hard work of fasting, praying, studying, and all sorts of laboring in love.

Elisha followed his mentor Elijah around and around in circles, tirelessly from one place to another – from Bethel to Gilgal to the Jordan and back again. Elijah was trying to get the young Elisha to go away and go home, but he stuck right by him.

Elisha and Elijah lived in the 9^th century BC, but the two of them remind me of Saint Benedict in the 6^th century AD. Benedict had such great spiritual discipline and a powerful presence of God that a group of monks begged him to let them hang out with him so they could learn everything they could from him.  They had spiritual goals and they were willing to do extraordinary work.  At first Benedict refused to be their mentor because he believed his Rules would be too strict for them and they would grow resentful. Sure enough, when they put themselves under his tutelage they became frustrated and tried to poison him, but the Lord revealed their plans to Benedict and saved his life.

Being great is not always easy. Not everyone can stay there. Not everyone has a heart to sing in the choir week after week, teach Sunday School, come to worship, tithe, spend a Saturday morning cleaning the church, shopping for coffee hour, and spending hours in prayer and fasting. Being great can often mean hard work.

Secondly, being great means we get a double portion. When Elijah realized how persistent Elisha was, he asked him if there was one last thing he could do for him. The young man Elisha asked for a double portion of the great Elijah’s spirit. In those days, a double portion was a reference to firstborn sons who legally received a double portion of their family’s inheritance.   [How many firstborns are here today? Has it been a privilege]  

Being a firstborn in the Old Testament was a place of honor. Most of all it was a place of great responsibility. Firstborns were the legally designated leaders of the family, responsible for the family’s material possessions, and consecrated to God as a model of moral and spiritual behavior. To whom much is given, much is required.

When Elisha asked for a double portion he had to mean that he was willing to double the love he would give, whenever it was needed. Out of our greatness, we too can manage life’s responsibilities by doubling our love. When times are tough, things can work out great if we double our love – for God, for each other, for someone in need. Are you ready for a double portion of God’s Spirit? Are you ready to give double the love in barren places? Troubling moments?  Are you ready to double the kind words, sacrificial gifts, positive attitudes, hours in worship, and acts of gratitude? Greatness is all about a double portion. Are you ready to ask God where and when you need to double the love this year?

Finally, being great can mean some drama.  Suddenly, a chariot of fire came down from heaven and separated Elisha from the great Elijah. If that wasn’t exciting enough, Elijah was then sucked up into a whirlwind. You may have heard the story of a man driving a pick-up truck when a tornado swept through. He said the wind just picked the truck up off the ground and turned him around and around in circles. He told about seeing debris spinning. He knew that he was smack in the middle of the whirlwind. He told about the fear he felt until he landed back on the ground – a few blocks away from where he started.

We can expect a bit of drama in greatness. Just like the day of Pentecost, we never know when the Spirit will get a hold of us and do something spectacular, take us to higher heights and deeper depths of love, understanding, and care. God may heal our hearts, minds or bodies, challenge us, enlighten us, deliver us, or delight us. You may not even know what will happen next.

God is good and God is great. As children of God, we are too. We can be sure that our greatness will lead us    #1to persevere and dedicate ourselves with strength for the long haul,     #2 to have a double portion so we can double our love when necessary, and     #3 to experience some drama that we cannot begin to imagine. Ready or not, God’s children will continue to be great! Amen.