The Politics of Jesus

In the book, "The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus’ Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted," Dr. Obery Henricks writes, “To say that Jesus was a political revolutionary is to say that the message he proclaimed not only called for change in individual hearts but also demanded sweeping and comprehensive change in the political, social, and economic structures in his setting in life..."

Hendricks is Professor of New Testament Intepretation at New York Theological Semianry and Scholar in Residence at Columbia University. He shares 7 Political Strategies of Jesus. The strategies are:

1. Treat people needs as holy.
2. Give a voice to the voiceless.
3. Expose the working of oppression.
4. Call the demon by name.
5. Save your anger for the mistreatment of others.
6. Take blows without returning them.
7. Don't just explain the alternative, show it.

GET READY - JESUS IS COMING!

(This is an abridged version of the preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 12/11/11.

Mark 13:32-37

I don’t know about you, but as I look around, I believe that God has to be up to something. With every act of violence, it is evident that God has to be up to something. With every war, and every rumor of war - it is very apparent that God has to be up to something. I sense that God is looking down on the disarray of our world, and God sees that there is a need to work in our midst.

I know that this might seem like “pie in the sky” optimism - but for people of faith – for those of us who are looking at the condition of our world through eyes of faithfulness - we know that God never leaves us hopeless. Even amidst the blues and the blahs of this world – we know that God never leaves us hopeless. For we know that where there is faith, there is always the possibility of life.

As is the case today, at the impending birth of Jesus – the world was likewise in turmoil. Rome had occupied Jerusalem – and had assumed control of the life of the persons who lived there. Persons were not free to worship their God.

The condition of the world at the Lord’s birth should remind us that suffering and oppression - the trials and tribulations of this present day – are not unique to today’s world.

Certainly, AIDS afflicts millions of children and adults across the globe. Violence of many types continues to afflict our communities. Drugs and addiction remains rampant among us. Corruption and scandal seems to pervade the corporate world, to permeate our government, and has even infected many parts of the church.

Many people find themselves in emotional and relational distress – looking for love and happiness in all the wrong places.

And yet - God sent Jesus. God’s divine love for the world was evident in that God broke into the human condition, and came to dwell with us in the person of God’s only begotten Son. In the midst of a broken world – Jesus (God incarnate – God ‘in-flesh’) came with a purpose. Jesus came to offer peace to the world.

And Jesus came with a promise. He promised that he would never leave us or forsake us – that whatever might trouble us – if we believe in him – he would be with us. (God Immanuel – God with us)

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus said, “Be on guard! Be alert! For you do not know when that time will come… what I say to you, I say to everyone, Watch, (keep awake) for I am coming.”

Jesus beckons us today to “Get Ready” for he is coming to be present with us.”

The season of Advent serves to remind us of the imminent coming – the imminent appearing - of Jesus.

Why do we need to be reminded of this today? Amidst the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it is easy for us to move – very quickly from Thanksgiving to Christmas – with no time of spiritual preparation in between. Indeed, it is distressing to witness how excessive commercialism and unhindered consumerism …. shopping malls and shopping frenzies …the media and the hype of the season have so many people hooked. Hooked to the point where too many persons have forgotten – if they ever really knew – the real meaning of Christmas – the true reason for the season.

Advent calls us to a time of anxious anticipation – a time of expectant waiting - for Jesus. During this Advent season, we should be expecting Jesus to enter into our lives in new and exciting ways.

Advent calls us to the discipline of waiting on God. If you know like I know, the discipline of waiting on the Lord is not easy. Waiting is always a test of our patience, and an act of ceding our need for control, to circumstances that are often out of our control.

If you’ve ever waited on a waitress… waited on a bus… waited on a plane, waited on a taxi-cab - you know of the difficulty of waiting and being patient. If you’ve ever waited for guests to arrive… waited for graduations to come… waited for diplomas to be earned…waited for a paycheck to show up…waited for a loved one to return – you know of the difficulty of waiting.

For those of us who have had to wait for a decision on a job application…or had to wait for a diagnosis in the midst of illness - we know that waiting is often filled with anxiety. Advent beckons us to the discipline of waiting on God.

And furthermore, Mark reminds us that as the Church – as persons of faith in Christ – as we wait on the Lord’s appearing, we are to prepare ourselves for his coming. We are reminded of our need to be spiritually prepared for Christmas.

Advent waiting is about doing those things necessary to prepare – to get ready – for the coming of the Lord Jesus into our lives.

As we prepare, spiritually, for Christ’s appearing:
• Let us commit ourselves during Advent to spending quality time with God – time in prayer, and study, and worship.
• Let us commit ourselves to spending quality time with family and friends.
• Let us commit ourselves to serving those less fortunate than us, and showing genuine concern for the least, and the lost, and the left out among us.

And as we prepare ourselves for the Lord’s appearing – as we ready ourselves for God’s advent in our lives - we can sing out loud with the confidence and assurance of the saints of God:

Come thou long-expectant Jesus,
Born to set the people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in thee…

WAIT ON THE LORD

This is an abridged version preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 12/4/11.

(Matthew 2:1-12)

In a phenomenal little book entitled "Addicted to Hurry," Dr. Kirk Byron Jones addresses a matter that is endemic and epidemic in our contemporary culture. Jones reminds us of our conspicuous propensity toward rushing – we are addicted to hurry. Indeed hurry is on of the marks of our society.

It is very apparent that too many people, are in too much of a hurry, to accomplish too many things, and see too many people, and go to too many places. We are mired in a compulsive, obsession with speed.

Yes we are a world that is in a hurry. We’re in a hurry to get to work, a hurry to get to school, a hurry to get to church, a hurry to get to the store.

We’re in a hurry. We’re in a hurry to vacation, and a hurry to retire. We’re in a hurry to order our food, a hurry to eat our food, and a hurry to pay for our food. We’re in a hurry to matriculate, a hurry to graduate, a hurry to marry, and some are even in a hurry to get divorced.

We’re in a hurry for medical care, a hurry for lawyer’s advice, a hurry to lose weight, and a hurry to look good. We’re in a hurry to make money, a hurry to spend money, and some of us may even be in a hurry to save some money. We’re in a hurry to buy the car, a hurry to buy the house, a hurry to buy the wide screen television set (with remote control).

It seems that in recent years, we as a nation have even been in hurry to engage in war – a hurry to shed blood, and hurry to bomb the homes, and schools, and mosques of persons in far off lands.

So often it seems that in the midst of our rush to get things done, and to go from place to place, we fail to see what is really going on around us. And it is in these moments during the Advent season, as we prepare for Christmas that our hurriedness becomes more pronounced and exacerbated. People push to the front of the line, cars speed ahead, and we all are left to wonder as to the true meaning and relevance of the season.

It seems that in many ways, we have lost a sense of connectedness and patience – a sense of common interest and genuine concern among persons. It seems that we’ve lost much of our capacity to pause and wait - and savor and relish the meaning of life and our common plight as the people of God.

It seems that at the birth of Jesus, the world was similarly hurried. There was a certain buzz afloat as to the significance of the birth of this child. The magi – the wise men from the East – had observed – they had seen the Lord’s star at its magnificent and glorious rising. In this star, the wise men were convinced that they had witnessed a marvelous sign of the birth of the Messiah – the Savior of the world - and they wanted to pay him homage.

And King Herod was obviously disturbed – troubled - by these events. he was disturbed at the uproar surrounding the birth of a child to parents who were not of royal state – but who was receiving so much attention. King Herod was concerned and disturbed (troubled) at the excitement for one born in the politically insignificant village of Bethlehem. And so King Herod was in a hurry to find out where Jesus was, and to have the wise men return the baby to him.

If we would take a moment and look at our world – I believe we would clearly see that what Advent helps is to see is the ways in which God has broken into history in the unlikely person of Jesus Christ. Jesus was born into poverty, uneducated, and unconnected to the established social and political order of his day. He was a nobody - an unlikely Savior he was.

I believe that this demonstrates God’s love for all humanity, and thus we see God’s call that we engage in the same kind of radical love for each other.

Indeed, God saw fit to send Jesus, God’s only begotten son into the world to save us from sin and destruction, and worry and hurry. Jesus – God incarnate (in-flesh) was God’s way of getting the world’s attention some two thousand years ago. The world then was beckoned to stop, and look, and consider how God was working in the world.

And so it is that we might take a few moments during the hustle and bustle – amidst the hurriedness of the season reflect upon the meaning of Advent. What do all the signs of the season mean to us? What do all of the candles, and lights, and gifts really mean? How have we stopped to pay homage to Jesus – who is the reason for the season? What hope does Christ bring to our fractured world today? Where do we see signs of the presence of the Messiah in our lives – in our world?

In the flight of time, in the hurriedness of our days, we are invited to note the actions of the Magi – the wise men – who would take time out of their busy-ness, their rush to get things done, to observe how God was acting in the world in the person of Jesus.

Indeed, what Advent is really about is waiting on the Lord. We are beckoned today to stop, and consider the ways in which we need God to work in our lives. What are we waiting for the Lord to do for us?

I don’t know about you - but I believe given the condition of our world, we need to learn how wait on the Lord.

I know that it might not always be easy to wait, but I’m glad to tell that some folk came along before us to teach us how to wait.
1. The children waited on the Lord for 40 years in the wilderness.
2. Job in his trouble said I’m going to wait on the Lord until my change comes.
3. David encouraged us to wait on the Lord, and be of good courage.
4. And Isaiah came along and gave us a song to remind us what would happen when we wait on the Lord. Isaiah told us:

They that wait on the Lord
Will renew their strength
They will mount up with wings as eagles
They will run and not be weary
They will walk and not faint!

KEEP HOPE ALIVE!

(This is an adapted version of the sermon preahced at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 11/27/11)

"For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given. (Isaiah 9:6)


Keep hope alive! This statement was once a popular mantra of hope and possibility for many. In the context of the Advent season, in the context of our Christ faith, the statement takes on bold new meaning. It is the message of Advent, the message of promise – the message that help is on the way.

In this season, we remember the hope of the prophet Isaiah who proclaimed:
“For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called wonderful, counselor,
the mighty God, the everlasting father,
the prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6).

Here, Isaiah begins to speak hope and possibility and promise into the apparently hopeless predicament of the people of Israel. Here they were mired in a condition of centuries of complacency before God, centuries of wandering and disobedience. Now lost, and wondering about their future. The Israelites had nowhere to turn, and nobody to depend upon – they were seemingly hopeless in their despair.

And in many ways, our days seem to be filled with similar doom and gloom. Just open the newspaper - political unrest, social dysfunction, economic uncertainty, natural disasters, and community violence, not to mention spiritual demise, abounds.

Philosopher Cornel West calls the conditions in which we live the “Nihilism” of our communities - where a certain nothingness, meaninglessness, lovelessness, and hopelessness seems to have pervaded and permeated our reality.

In the midst of these recent realities, disasters, unrest, and uncertainty about the days ahead, the Advent season reminds us that we have to KEEP HOPE ALIVE. Why? Because help is on the way.

Isaiah spoke possibility and promise into the community of faith by declaring to them that “unto us a child is born.”

Now notice here that it would take over 700 years for this prophetic promise to come to fruition (“for unto us a child IS born”), but still Isaiah spoke promise into their present reality. Note here that Isaiah did not say that a child would be born, but that “Unto is a child IS born.”

In other words, the Israelites needed to see the promise of the Messiah – the promise of salvation, the promise of wholeness, and the promise of healing as a part of their present reality.

“For unto us a child is born.” It’s interesting, as we look with hope and expectancy at the coming of the Lord, that at the birth of Jesus, God used everything that was wrong with this world to make us right. Jesus was born in a manger, not in a hospital – he was born to an unwed, teenaged mother – he was born without a biological father – he was raised by homeless parents – he was not of an elite class, but born into poverty and struggle. In Jesus, God used everything that is wrong with our world to make us right.

Keep hope alive! What are we really talking about when we talk about hope? Hope is not something that is static, and may not be even be material, but hope is living and helps us to see how God will be at work in our lives in the future.

• Hope helps us to experience disappointment, and see victory.
• Hope helps us to look at need, and see provision.
• Hope helps us to experience death, and know that life is still possible.
• Hope helps us to look at the darkness, and know that daybreak is on the horizon.

We are encouraged today to KEEP HOPE ALIVE! For help is not only on the way, but help has already come in the person of Jesus Christ.
Keep hope alive! For, indeed God is a God who has come to help us rise in this day, to help is to hold on, to help is stay strong and keep looking up.

Hope would lead Isaiah - amidst the dismal despair – the tumultuous turmoil of his day to later write another song:
Even youths faint and grow weary,
And young men stumble and fall
But they that wait on the Lord (those who hope in the
Lord)
Will renew their strength,
They will mount up with wings as eagles,
They will run and not get weary,
They will walk and not faint.

KEEP HOPE ALIVE !

Thank You!

(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 11/20/11)

"Praise the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good, for God’s steadfast love endures forever. Who can utter the mighty doings of the Lord, or declare all God’s praise?" (Psalm 106:1-2)


It has been suggested that there is an infectious disease that is permeating our land. It is the disease of ingratitude. We live in an age where many people have forgotten how to say “thank you.” Ingratitude has overtaken us.

If you know like I know, there is a certain irony that can be found here, in that we are more blessed than we have ever been in the history of civilization. We are blessed with technological advances, and material things that our foreparents could have only dreamt about.

Many of us are blessed to have finer homes, and larger cars, and more expensive clothing than ever thought we should or could possess. Many of us are blessed to be more educated and to have better jobs, and some of us even have a few more dollars in the bank. We’re blessed.

But still many people today are infected with this disease of ingratitude. For some reason many people are ungrateful, and seem not to know how to say “thank you.”

I remember growing up, and being taught as one of the first lessons of life how to say “please” and “thank you.” It was engrained into our very being as young people that if you wanted somebody to do something for you… you’d first say “please.” And once somebody was kind enough to do something for you, however small or large it was, the appropriate response was to say “thank you.”

Now it seems that many people think that it is their right that somebody would do something for them. They have the audacity – the nerve – the unmitigated gall – to ask without saying “please,” and to receive without saying “thank you.” Ingratitude is in our midst.

In Psalm 106, we find the psalmist reminding those who would hear with these words, “O give thanks to the Lord for God is good; God’s steadfast love endures forever.

This is a word of reminder to the faithful. In order that their faith might be well-founded and properly grounded, in order that their hope and perspective might be sustained, the psalmist sent them a lesson in thanksgiving. In order to improve their aptitude for praise, and enhance their attitude of gratitude, the psalmist here offers words of instruction as to the conditions in which the believers of this day were to render their appreciation, and say “thank you” to the Lord.

In similar words of encouragement, the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica and said, “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you.” (1 Thess. 5:18)

What Paul was saying to the congregation is that the zenith of Christian conduct is to be able to say “thank you.” In everything give thanks, Paul says.

Here, in Thessalonians we find that the apostle Paul was en-route to Rome with a layover in Corinth when he wrote his first letter to the young church at Thessalonica. Paul was aware that the church there would have its ups and downs, its risings and fallings. It is apparent above all else, that the people in the midst of whatever they were going through, had forgotten how to say “Thank You” to the Lord.

And so Paul says that we are to give thanks in all things. Herein lays the real challenge of faith and life. If we are to follow Paul’s instruction, we will develop the capacity to give thanks for the good and the bad of life. We will be able to give thanks in ups as well as in downs, in the sunshine and the rain, in life and in death, in triumph and in trial.

The psalmist encourages us to give thanks - in other words, to say "Thank You!" If we affirm what the psalmist wrote, we can affirm that God is good. This speaks to the very nature of who God is. The Lord is good. This is the acknowledgement of the omni-benevolence of that Lord, that the Lord is God in all God’s ways.
• From the rising of the sun, to the going down of the same, God is good.
• In ups and downs, God is good.
• In joy and even in sadness, the Lord is good.
• In times of prosperity and even in times of need, the Lord is good.

O, give thanks to the Lord, for God is good. God’s steadfast love endures forever. Oh that people of faith will find a reason to be grateful in the days that are before us.

When I think of the goodness of Jesus
And all that he’s done for me
My soul cries out, Hallelujah,
I thank God for blessing me!

Teaching our Children

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." (Frederick Douglass) Let us coninue to pray and advocate for the proper education of our children.

The Continuing Need for Societal Change

"White America is seeking to keep the walls of segregation substantially intact while the evolution of society and the Negro's desperation is causing them to crumble. The white majority, unprepared and unwilling to accept radical structural change, is resisting and producing chaos while complaining that if there were no chaos orderly change would come."

(Dr. Martin Luuher King, Jr. in a September 1967 speech to the American Psychological Association, entitled "A Challenge to Social Scientists")

LESSONS IN A LAD'S LUNCH

(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 11/6/11)

John 6:1-13

Over the ages, a large part of the human predicament has seemed to relate to economy, and whether we as humans have all that we need to survive. The perennial concern here is really whether or not God will provide for our needs. Note here, that this matter of economy relates not simply to the things that we want, but the things that we need.

History shows that God is a God of provision. God is in the business of providing for our needs. Some have declared that God is an on-time God. Others have framed it with words of affirmation that God will make ways out of no way. Others have declared time and again that God is good all the time. And still others have spoken of the great faithfulness of the Lord – the song-writer declared, “All I have needed, thy hand has provided.” Indeed God specializes in providing for our needs.

The challenge comes in the fact that many people are apt to forget about all the ways that God provides. Many fail to acknowledge that God is actually in the business of providing for all our needs – whether spiritual, physical or social. This forgetfulness – this form of spiritual amnesia - is often couched in doubt about the presence and power of God, or in complaining about the things that we don’t have, the ways that have not yet been made for us, and the things that we have not yet achieved.

Instead of looking with eyes of faith, trust and appreciation at the many blessings that are already present in our lives, many are like the Israelites who despite how God blesses, will complain and fuss – even about the things that God has blessed us with.

And we should be concerned not only with our own provision, but with the needs of our sisters and brothers. In Africa today, famine and malnutrition threaten the lives of over 11 million people from Kenya to Somalia. Many people in cities like Baltimore and Washington, DC – mostly women and children – will go to bed tonight without adequate nutrition, housing and healthcare. In the “Occupy” movement that has spread from Wall Street to cities across our nation, our awareness has been raised to the fact that 1% of our nation’s population holds about 50% of the nation’s accumulated wealth. That leaves 99% of us to make due on the other 50% of our collective resources. Indeed, the rich seem to be getting richer among us.

And in the event that we need more evidence of how God blesses us, and what we can learn within the context of our blessing, we can turn again to Scripture. In the Gospel of John, we find lessons for how to recognize and appreciate our blessings. Here, we find Jesus trying to get some rest having been busy ministering to the masses. But everywhere Jesus went, large crowds of people followed him. And so, Jesus and his disciples decided to get in a boat to get away from the crowds, but when the boat docked, Jesus found that people had rushed to the other side of the river and were waiting there for him.

The Lord knew that the people who had followed him had needs and wanted to be blessed. He knew that they were in need of physical and spiritual healing, in need of being taught about the ways of God, and also in need of physical nourishment (they were hungry). And so Jesus decided not only to heal and teach the people, but he knew that needed to feed those who had come, as well.

In this story of the feeding of 5000, Jesus took the lunch of a boy in the crowd - 5 loaves and 2 fish - and lifted them up toward heaven and asked God to bless the lad’s lunch. The Lord then began breaking the fish and bread into pieces and the disciples passed it out to all the people who had gathered.

The word says that everyone had all they wanted to eat, and everybody was satisfied. When they had finished eating the disciples picked up the leftover food. They collected 12 baskets of leftovers.

There are several lessons that we can glean from this story.

First, we have evidence again that God will provide for all of our needs. Even when things look the most dire and desperate– even when it seems that we are in the most need, even when our money resources seem the scarcest - God is about the business of working on behalf of God’s people, and providing for our needs. The word says that all of the people were satisfied after having eaten the meal provided for them.

Second, we find that our blessings will often come to us in unexpected ways, through unexpected people. Of all the people in the crowd (5000 men, plus women and children), it was a lad who had the blessing in his hands. So often we look for our blessings in what seem to be the obvious places, among the people who we think are most able and likely to be a blessing to us. But God used a lad and his lunch to bless the people. Maybe God is trying to tell us to look around us and see God’s blessings in all the people around us.

Third, we learn that God will not only provide what we need, but God is in the business of providing more than enough. The word says that Jesus took the lad’s two fish and five loaves of bread and he fed all of the people there. But it’s good that the story doesn’t stop there. It says that there was more than enough - there were leftovers. God not only provides for our needs, but God offers us blessings in abundance.

The good news is that God provides for all of our needs, and God provides more than enough!

Great is thy faithfulness,
Lord God our father…
Great is thy faithfulness
Great is thy faithfulness,
Morning by morning
New mercies I see.
All I have needed
Thy hand has provided
Great I they faithfulness
Lord unto me.

The Faith Factor

(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 10/9/11)

"(Jesus) replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”" (Matthew 17:19-21)

It is clear that the primary purpose of the life and ministry of Jesus was to help people see and know the face of God, and to help people come to belief in God. The nature of faith is belief in God – belief that God is the creator of all that is – the belief that God is at work in Christ seeking to save humanity from sinfulness and brokenness, and the belief that the Holy Spirit continues to be at work bringing forth transformation through the work of the church today.

The matter of faith was centermost in the mind of Jesus here in Matthew 17. It’s clear that the problem for Jesus here was the “smallness” of the faith of the people of his day. Maybe the people of the Lord’s day were a lot like many people today - even many religious people – people in the church. It seems that one of the critical dilemmas facing us today is the paucity of faith among people, even among many people of faith.

Jesus begins by reminding those who had gathered they had “so little faith.” The context of the Lord’s comment here is questioning among the disciples as to why they were unable to perform miracles, as Jesus had done, and as Jesus said they would be able to do. And Jesus explicitly attributes the inability of his disciples to perform miracles to the “smallness” – the “littleness” – the “pettiness” - of their faith. And he points out that even a mustard seed's worth of faith would be sufficient to not only cast out demons, but to move mountains.

Jesus speaks of the mustard seed within the context of faith and moving mountains. His encouragement for those who would hear was to understand the power of faith in their lives. And what are we really talking about when we talk about faith?

Too many people in the Lord’s day, and today, seem to have put their faith in too many things that are not God, and too many which are not of God. We tend to put our faith in the stock market and stock portfolios, politicians, celebrities, athletes, and even our jobs.

In Baltimore over the past few years, there has been a preponderance of signs that simply say “Believe.” We see the word “Believe” across the city in virtually every neighborhood on school buildings, on billboards, on buses, and at bus stops. But the signs often beg the question for me, “Believe what”, and “Believe in what?”

As Christians, we are called not simply to believe, but we are called to believe in God. We are called to have faith that God in Christ can change our lives and make a difference in our life and in the world. And what Jesus was pointing those of his day is that with a mustard seed’s worth of faith, they could (we can) move mountains.

What mountains was the Lord talking about? Certainly, we will all encounter the proverbial mountains of life. Situations will confront all of us that will seem insurmountable. Circumstances will enter into our lives to challenge our faith. Mountains in life – sickness and death, disappointments and discouragement, trials and tribulations will show up in our lives. Mountains in life – trouble in our homes, trouble on our jobs, trouble in our communities, even trouble in the church from time-to-time. And the question is ultimately, how do we deal with the mountains that confront us?

The point that the Lord was trying to make was that it took just a modicum of faith for God to begin to move in their lives. It took just a little faith, a mustard seed’s worth of faith, for the Lord to begin to manifest himself in their lives and begin to work on their behalf. And not only that – with a modicum of faith – a mustard seed’s worth of faith – we can move mountains. This is the “faith factor.”

Jesus concludes his teaching on faith here with a declaration that nothing will be impossible for you. Nothing is impossible. This is the faith factor.

The Lord says," nothing is impossible." What a bold declaration, that if we have faith – even as small as a mustard seed - we can move the proverbial mountains in our lives. If we have faith the even as small as a mustard seed, nothing will be impossible for us.

The good news is that with faith in God, nothing is really impossible for us. The faith factor in our lives means that through our belief in God, through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the mountains can (and will) be removed from our lives, and nothing is impossible for us.

We’ve come this far by faith
Leaning on the Lord
Trusting in his holy word
He’s never failed me yet.
Oh, Oh, Oh, can’t turn around
We’ve come this far by faith.

Fred Shuttlesworth

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) issued the following statement on the death of civil rights leader Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth who passed on October 6, 2011.



“America lost one of its most courageous and tenacious civil rights leaders in the passing of the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. As a pastor, civil rights organizer and one of the four founding ministers of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Rev. Shuttlesworth was a unifying force who brought together his own congregation and others from across the South to stand against segregation and Jim Crow laws that oppressed an entire people.



“In spite of countless arrests, beatings and threats to his life, the Rev. Shuttlesworth never abandoned his fight for civil rights and social justice. Nothing intimidated him. On Christmas night 1956, six sticks of dynamite exploded outside his bedroom as he slept and he did not give in to fear. Instead, he moved forward with determination to put an end to what was then the status quo of separate but inherently unequal. When a court injunction shut down the Alabama chapter of the NAACP, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth led the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights to carry on the work of the shuttered chapter.



“He worked closely with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., helping to win passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. These hallmark civil rights laws are Rev. Shuttlesworth’s legacy to a nation forever indebted to him. The United States still has a long way to go in realizing its goals of equal rights for all, but I am pleased that Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was able to live to see so many positive changes, especially the election of President Barack Obama.”

Commissioned to Go!

(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Blatimore on 10/2/11 on the occasion of World Communion Sunday, and our "Change the World Mission Commissioning Day)

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations (teaching all nations), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

I believe that most – if not all of us – can affirm that Christian ministry is not easy in this contemporary age. Churches face many challenges to minister prophetically and holistically to a world that - in many ways - seems to be at odds with what the church is all about. Still it is our collective task – our shared commitment and calling - to faithfully offer Christ to the world.

Ours often seems to be a mission impossible – and yet we are called to faithfully persevere and share the love of Christ with those among us who are in need of hope and healing in their lives… hope and healing that only the church can offer.. the least, the lost and the left out among us.

When thinking on the task of the church and its leaders, I’m reminded of the 1960’s and 70’s television show – Mission Impossible. Some of us might be old enough to remember the show where – at the beginning of every episode - a secret agent was given a mission that seemed to be impossible and insurmountable. So difficult and complex (and often dangerous) was the mission that the secret agent was given – that he was offered the choice of whether or not to accept the mission.

If he chose to accept the mission, he would somehow find a way to overcome great odds and obstacles, and find a way to accomplish what seemed to be the impossible task he had been given.

Well, the mission that Christ has given us seems to be impossible at times. It often seems that God has given the church and its people more than we can bear. Too often now it seems that we face the task of making ways out of no way. In these fast-changing, often apathetic times, it seems that ours is often a mission impossible.

I believe Christ had a sense of the difficulty of the mission that was before the church when he offered his disciples what has come to be known as the Great Commission. He said:

“Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations (teaching all nations), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

This indeed seems to be a tremendous, humongous, huge, impossible, audacious, incredible, insurmountable task that we have been given. The Lord says that we are to go and make disciples of all nations, and baptize everybody, and teach everybody to obey the commandments of the Lord.

But it’s good to know that the Lord did not stop there. For he says, “Remember, I am with you always, even until the end of the age.” It’s good to know that ours is not simply a mission to go, but we have received a commission to go. In other word, we don’t go alone. The Lord said, “I am with you always.” We are commissioned to go.

And as we go, we take our faith in God and the fortification of the Lord with us. We need to know that our faith in God makes us a holy people. Our faith makes us God’s people, called by God to serve God’s people. For Methodists – our faith – our holiness is expressed in both personal holiness and social holiness. John Wesley said that we are to be about the purpose of “reforming the nation and spreading scriptural holiness.”

And furthermore, we know that as we are commissioned to go, we are made strong – fortified in the in the Lord. In the Book of Acts, Jesus expressed the Great Commission another way when he said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) We go to serve the present age with and in the power of God.

Thanks be to God that we are commissioned to go… to help somebody… to love somebody… to serve the world age. And as we are called to go, God goes with us.

Living Lives Seasoned with Salt

(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 9/18/11)

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (Matthew 5:13)

In what has come to be known as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus offers his followers a series of lessons for how they are to live their lives. It is very apparent that those who gathered to hear the Lord were searching for meaning in their lives, and seeking alternatives to the status quo that had become the way of life for their day. These followers of the Lord were hungering and thirsting for something more, yearning for something different in their lives.

Perhaps many of these followers of Christ had been regular attendees in the synagogue, religious people in some way, but now realized that they were in need of a real relationship with God. Maybe, some of them were leaders in their communities, having attained some level of success and notoriety, but now they needed a word that would add new perspective for the living of their day.

Whatever the reasons, the crowd flocked to Jesus. And so, over the course of three chapters, from Matthew chapters 5-7, Jesus gathers the people on the Mount of Olives and he offers them lessons for the living of their lives. Interestingly, throughout the sermon, Jesus uses several everyday, common examples to get his point across as to how the people are to live. Here, he says that you are the salt of the earth, and later he declares that "you are the light of the world."

Even in the Lord’s day, as it is today, salt was an element of the earth that was commonly known to the people. So Jesus uses as his talking point here, salt – something that all the people who had gathered could relate to. He says, “You are the salt of the earth.” What was the Lord really trying to convey?

If we were to evaporate a ton of water from the Pacific Ocean, we would get approximately seventy-nine pounds of salt. A ton of Atlantic Ocean water would yield eighty-one pounds of salt. And from the Dead Sea we would get almost five hundred pounds.

As the statistics demonstrate, the earth’s bodies of water vary greatly in their degree of saltiness. And so do we as Christians have varying degrees of saltiness. Jesus reminded us that we are “the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). But we all have different levels of “salt content.”

In light of this, each of us in beckoned from time-to-time to check our salt content. What is your salt content? How salty are you? Are you the kind of person who adds flavor to the lives of those around you? Is your conversation pure? Do you keep promises? Is your life characterized by goodness?

Having described earlier in the Sermon on the Mount the appropriate lifestyle of disciples, Jesus now explains that true disciples are those who live salty lives. And the Lord warns us against being saltless and tasteless in our walk. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

We are reminded that – similar to the Lord’s day - an unbelieving and needy world is watching and listening to us as Christians, and even though they might not know it, others are depending on you and me to make a difference in their lives. There are even those who come to church who might be depending you and me to add some flavor – to enhance their lives. We who are Christians are to be the salt of the earth. It is written in Colossians 4:6 that we are to live “lives seasoned with salt.”

One of the saltiest people I’ve encountered in my reading and study is Mohandas k. Gandhi. Gandhi by birth was an East Indian and Hindu. But he sought throughout his life to live out – and help others live out - the principles and teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Gandhi led the nonviolent struggle of the people of India for freedom against British imperialism and oppression. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote that although Gandhi wasn’t a Christian, Gandhi was perhaps the most Christ-like person he had ever read about. Mohandas Gandhi lived a "salty life."

And Gandhi encouraged those of his day, and inspires us today, to be the change that you want to see in the world. Gandhi was encouraging folks to live salty lives.

Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth." May God grant each of us the faith, strength and wisdom to live "salty lives" (lives seasoned salt) in this present age.

Make a Comeback!

(This is an abridged version of the Homecoming sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 9/11/11)

Luke 15:11-24

In Luke 15, we find the story of a family – a household - that found itself in distress and dysfunction. These two sons and their father found themselves mired in conflict and contempt – unable to resolve their controversy, unable to cope with one another in light of their different visions and hopes for life. One son, older, loyal in his own estimation, and content to stay home and care for family affairs. His younger brother, seemingly less loyal, more impulsive, and selfish. Wanting something different for his life – wanting to step out from behind his brother’s and father’s shadow, and explore the world for himself.

And a father – who had labored and toiled for all that he had. A father who had sweated, scrimped, scraped, sacrificed, saved, and pinched - and now had a modicum of wealth that he could call his own. A father who had hope for the future, plans for his sons, glad that he had put enough money in the bank that one day, his sons would inherit his wealth, and be set for life.

But here comes the youngest son, wanting his piece of his father’s inheritance, and wanting it now. Wanting to strike out on his own. Wanting to see and to know the world. And so this young man takes what his father gives him, and goes to another land.

And here this young man finds himself new to this unknown world. Money in his pocket, and all the temptations of the world in his midst. People and situations more savvy than him, lurking to take what is his, and leave him with nothing.

That’s the way of the world, isn’t it? There is always enough temptation to consume us if we move too far away from home – too far away from our roots too – and far away from God.

And so this young man finds himself at the point of utter despair, desolation, despondency. He finds himself disappointed, discouraged and depressed. He discovers that he is down to his last penny, broke – no hope and no joy.

And then, this young man – comes to his senses - and decides that it’s time to make a comeback and go back home.

The reality is that families today face severe difficulties. It would not be an overstatement to declare that we are living in very trying times. Times when there are wars and rumors of wars. Times when there are plagues and threats of plagues. Times when there is criminal activity the likes of which we have never experienced. Times when there is violence against babies too young to have done any harm. Times when those who have been elected, selected, and appointed to protect us from evil doers have been found doing evil themselves.

These are times when budgets are sufficient to support killing, but somehow insufficient to support literacy, health care, and drug rehabilitation. Times when there is talk of slot machines that will too often take the money of those with the least means - the desperate, the downtrodden and the disinherited. Times when our pulpits are too populated by prosperity preaching.

These are times when many of our children are afraid to go to school. Times when people are living in terror, never knowing when one or more of our growing number of enemies will launch another surprise attack. Times when we are afraid to travel, and afraid to stay home. Yes, we live in times of political unrest, economic instability, and spiritual bankruptcy. It would indeed not be an overstatement to declare that we are living in trying times.

And it is at some point that we are like the prodigal son. At some point, we must come to our senses, and realize that it is time to make a comeback and go back home. It’s time to reconsider our priorities as families, as churches and communities. It’s time to count the costs of living for the world and not for God. It’s time to thank and praise God for the little things of life – the things that we might have take for granted in our strivings for the joys and ways of the world.

This young man made up his mind and said “I’m going to make a comeback and go back home.”

When we think on this parable in Luke, we discover that the story is really not only about a son who squandered all that he once possessed. Nor is this parable only about a father who welcomed his wayward son back home. It’s not really only about loyalty or disloyalty. It’s not even only about sibling rivalry; nor is this story really only about wealth or poverty.

On careful analysis, we discover that what Jesus was really trying to let people know in his day, and let us know today is something about the grace of God. The Grace of God helps us to see that God will supply all of our needs according to his riches in glory. The grace of God helps us to realize that God’s love and mercy is sufficient to cover all of our faults and failures. The Grace of God lets us know that God will look beyond our faults and see our needs.

Just as this young man was welcome home by his father, God will welcome us back. Thank God for grace that is available to each of us who seeks to return to God.

Thank God for Storms!

(The following is an excerpt of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel UMC on 9/4/11.)

Mark 4:35-41

This past week Maryland experienced storms in the form of an earthquake and a hurricane that passed through our state. Storms have a way of wreaking havoc and causing devastation in the areas where they happen to land. Whatever the type and severity of the storm - whether it is a hurricane, or a tornado, or a tropical storm, or an earthquake - storms by their very nature have a way of disrupting lives, and uprooting communities.

Indeed, storms can be destructive and dangerous. That is why, when a meteorological storm is on the horizon, there will often be a news-flash that scrolls across the television set warning us that a storm is on the way.

For those of us who have the occasion to fly on airplanes, we know that when the plane is going through a storm, it’s very apparent. The pilot will usually come on the loud-speaker and let the passengers know that we are in the midst of a storm, and everyone needs to get back to your seats, and put on your seat-belts. But if the truth is told, the pilot really doesn’t have to say anything. You know when you are in a storm, because the turbulence will make the airplane begin to sway from side-to-side, and the ride will become rocky.

The storms of life - the trials and tribulations that we go through - are much like meteorological storms. Storms have a way of entering into our lives, and disrupting our sense of calm and tranquility. Yes, the storms of life have a way of disturbing our lives and wreaking havoc.

Why do we need to talk about the storms of life today? We need to talk about storms because somebody is going through a storm right now. And if you’re not going through a storm, you may have just come out of one…or you may be getting ready to go through.

We need to talk about storms today, because we realize that the storms of life are real - and they are inevitable. It is not a matter of if we will experience the trials and tribulations of life - it’s just a matter of when. And so we need to be ready to deal with the storms that will come into our lives.

Indeed, somebody may be going through a storm in a relationship - whether it’s a storm with a spouse, or a girlfriend or a boyfriend. Somebody may be experiencing a storm with a sibling…and somebody else may be going through something with a parent, or a child.

We need to talk about the storms of life today because somebody may be in the midst of a personal storm - you may be dealing with personal failure or disappointment in your life. As hard as you’ve tried, and as much time and effort as you‘ve invested, you may not be as successful as you think you ought to be in a particular area of your life. We’ve got to talk about storms today because somebody might be dealing with a difficult situation at work - with a co-worker or a boss.

Somebody might be in the midst of a financial storm. You looked at your checkbook, and you realize that you have more month than money. And somebody might be facing a medical storm. You went to the doctor, and the diagnosis and prognosis the doctor has given you does not look good.

I’m glad that Jesus helps us to deal with the storms that will come our way. In scripture we find that the disciples found themselves in a storm one day. They were just out in a boat on the sea, trying to get from one place to another, and all of a sudden, the winds began to blow and a storm came into their lives.

Now one of the interesting things about the storm that the disciples encountered is that there were several experienced fishermen on the boat, and they were obviously familiar with being around water. But they were all still afraid of the storm that came into their midst on that day.

Something that we need to know about storms is that there will be some storms that we can’t handle by ourselves. No matter how much experience we have, or how many times we’ve been through a situation, there will be some storms that we can’t handle on our own.

But the important thing about this episode of the disciples and the storm that they were experiencing is that as they stayed in the boat, and tried to figure out what they were going to do, Jesus came into their situation, and the Lord spoke peace into their turbulent circumstance. Jesus said “Peace be still.”

It’s good to know that if we stay in the boat…if we hang in there with the Lord, Jesus will give step into any of our storms. Whatever we may go through, regardless of how tumultuous and turbulent the situation, Jesus will step in.

Indeed, if we have faith, God is already working in the midst of our storms. While we are often like the disciples - trying to figure things out, the Lord has already worked things out for us.

I’m glad that whatever your storm (and whatever my storm), the Lord will step in. Jesus spoke to this particular storm… and said “peace be still.” And when Jesus spoke, the word declares, that the “winds and the seas obeyed him.”

And so we can even thank God for storms of life. For we know in the midst of our storms, as God brings us out – God won’t bring us to anything that God won’t bring us through. Even in our storms, we come to realize that whatever our test, God is present with us.

Indeed, we can thank God (even) for storms.

One day, a Methodist preacher was going through a storm. We don’t know exactly what his storm was - he didn’t name his storm - but we do know that he was going through… because he wrote a song and talked about his storm. The preacher’s name was Charles Albert Tinley. And in the midst of his storm, Rev. Charles Tinley wrote these words:
When the storms of life are raging, stand by me
When the storms of life are raging, stand by me
When the world is tossing me
Like a ship upon the sea
Thou (you) who rulest wind and water
Stand by me…

Changing futures, saving lives

(This article appeared in The Aegis newspaper today and was written by my daughter, Kristen Hunt. As a product of the Lamond-Riggs Boys Club in Washington, DC, I am very thankful and proud of Kristen's advocacy of Boys & Girls Clubs)

Editor:
Seat belts. Safety vests. The Clubs. What do these things all have in common? They are proven to save lives. While the third life-saving measure may seem like an unlikely counterpart, Boys & Girls Clubs of Harford County continue to prove that an investment in a child’s future can be life changing, and in certain instances, even life saving.

It is a pivotal time for American children. With high school graduation rates plummeting, drug use on the rise, and teen pregnancy skyrocketing, teaching our youth strong life skills from the beginning is crucial to their success. The support and encouragement we provide to our kids is a direct investment in our nation’s future.

Every year, Boys & Girls Clubs keep hundreds of Harford County youth on the right track. Having a safe place to develop academically, artistically and socially has given countless children a chance to beat the odds. By pairing innovative programming with compassionate staff, Clubs have been able to instill strong values in each of its members.

While households all over the county prepare their children for the return to school, Boys & Girls Clubs have programs designed to help youth achieve academic success. After-school tutoring, designated homework time and career counseling are only a few of the activities that the organization employs to advance its mission of helping youth reach their full potential.

You can make a difference in the life of a Harford County child. Our Clubs prosper thanks to partnerships with neighboring organizations and local companies, as well as donations from dedicated community members. For more information on becoming involved with Boys & Girls Clubs of Harford County, please visit www.bgcharfordco.org.

Kristen Hunt
Intern, Harford County Boys & Girls Clubs
(Submitted for Ms. Hunt by Tim Wills, associate executive director, Boys and Girls Clubs of Harford County.)

This article also can be found at wwww.baltimoresun.com/explore/harford/opinion-talk.

ROAD RULES - LESSONS FROM THE JERICHO ROAD

(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on Sunday, 8/21/11.)

"But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29)

We note (in Luke 10:25-37) that Jesus is being asked to address the matter of neighborliness against the backdrop of his teaching persons to love God and to love each other. Neighborliness is to be understood within the context of love – ultimately the love that God has for each of us.

Jesus uses the story of what has come to be known as the Good Samaritan to teach those of his day and those who would hear this story even today, some “road rules.” The Jericho road was known to be a dangerous road – a winding and dark road - where it was not unusual for people to experience the type of violence that Jesus points to in the story of the Good Samaritan. Thus, we need to be reminded of road rules.

It seems that the times of Jesus were not much unlike ours. We are reminded of the arduous nature of the proverbial “roads of life” today.

It seems that we live in a time when “road etiquette” among us continues to deteriorate. Let’s take a look at the highways around us. For those of us who have the occasion to travel the roads of today, we know that roads can be dangerous and mean places. People seem to drive with a sense of heightened rage and angst, where it’s not unusual today, to turn on the news, and hear of another case of “road rage,” and violence on our highways.

Perhaps this type of rage is emblematic of our society in general, where a certain sense of meanness, and anger, and angst seems to have permeated much of our life together. I read in the newspaper not long ago, where violent crime in America is increasing for the second consecutive year. I also read where new prisons are being built in this region, and the prisons are at capacity even before construction on them is completed.

In the city of Baltimore, several communities have come to be known as “Blue Light” neighborhoods. These are some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city, and at night one can see the constant blinking of blue lights overhead. These lights are a reminder of the crime and violence that has affected and often afflicted many of these communities, and the people who live in them and travel through them. These blue light neighborhoods are not unlike the Jericho road that Jesus was speaking about in scripture.

In talking about road rules, and what it means to be neighborly, Jesus offers the example of this certain unnamed man who was beaten, stripped and robbed, and left on the road to die. We are told that a priest and a Levite chose to pass this beaten man by on the road. We don’t know for sure, but perhaps they were late for important religious gatherings, and knew that to stop and care for this man would have made them late for their church gatherings.

And lest you and I hold these religious leaders of the Lord’s day in too much disdain, let us remind ourselves of the way people in need today are passed by in our churches and society. Racism and classism (and other “isms”) continue to afflict the church and society. AIDS and Malaria are killing many in the two thirds world. Crime and violence continues to permeate our streets. Poverty, hunger and the lack of adequate health-care continue to afflict many among us (despite "healthcare reform," over 40 million persons remain uninsured in America). If the truth is told, people are too often passed by on the roadsides of life today.

And so what are the road rules that we need to attend to today?

Martin Luther King helped us in a sermon preached at Riverside Church in New York in April 1967 (40 years ago):

"On the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s road side; but that is only the initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

Philosopher Michael Eric Dyson points out that King believed that charity was a poor substitute for justice. Charity is a hit-or- miss proposition; people who tire of giving stop doing so when they think they’ve done enough. Justice seeks to take the distracting and fleeting emotions out of giving. Justice does not depend on felling to do the right thing. It depends on right action and sound thinking about the most helpful route to the best and most virtuous outcome. King understood, and embodied, this noble distinction. People who give money to the poor deserve praise; people who give their lives to the poor deserve honor.

For Christians, our road rules must be rooted in true compassion. True compassion is always coupled with justice, and challenges each of us in the church and society towards what Martin Luther King called forms of “creative altruism.” This is altruism that makes concern for others the first law of life.

King indicated that Jesus revealed the meaning of this altruism in his parable here about the Good Samaritan who was moved by compassion to care for “a certain man” who had been robbed and beaten on the Jericho road.

King asserted that the altruism of the Samaritan was universal, dangerous and excessive. His altruism was universal since he did not seek to inquire into the nationality of the wounded man to determine whether he was a Samaritan or a Jew. He saw that he was “a certain man” in need, and that was sufficient for him to intervene.

The Samaritan was a good neighbor who demonstrated dangerous and excessive altruism because, unlike the priest and the Levite who passed by the wounded man, the Samaritan was willing to help any person in distress under any conditions, and he was able to look beyond external accidents to regard the stranger in need as his brother.

When we have true compassion we not only offer a handout, but we ask why people need a handout in the first place. True compassion not only offers help to the beggar, to the stripped and robbed among us, but questions the conditions that lead to poverty and violence on our streets.

Jesus here gave the command to love one’s neighbor, and through this parable Jesus disclosed his definition of neighbor. A neighbor is neither Jew nor Gentile; he is neither Russian nor American; he is neither black nor white nor Hispanic nor Asian. He or she is “a certain man or woman” – any needy person – on any of the numerous Jericho roads of life.

Perhaps, we can learn something from the Good Samaritan. Perhaps as he lent a helping hand, he sang as Mahalia Jackson once sang:

If I can help somebody as a travel along
If I can cheer somebody with a word or a song.
If I can help somebody as they’re living wrong
Then my living will not be in vain…

MLK Memorial

August, 28, 2011 marks the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and will also mark the unveiling of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The tribute to Dr. King will be the first African-American monument on the mall, and perhaps it is fitting that the unveiling will occur during the administration of the first African-American president of the country. This is also an opportunity for us to reflect on Dr. King’s life as an advocate for nonviolence, anti-racism, economic justice and global peace, especially at a time when our county is currently involved in several wars and is in significant debate as to the course that the economy should take. Indeed, this is time of great pride for those of us who advocate peace with justice. Hopefully, the King Memorial will serve as a perpetual reminder of Dr. King’s dream for our nation and world, and as a reminder of our call to recommit ourselves to living the dream for which he died. For more information on the unveiling, go to www.MLKmemorial.org.

Do Something for Others

"I choose to identify with the underptivileged. I choose to identify with the poor. I choose to give my life for the hungry. I choose to give my life for those who have been left out of the sunlight of opportunity... This is the way I'm going. If it means suffering a little bit, I'm going that way. If it means sacrificing, I'm going that way. If it means dying for them, I'm going that way, because I heard a voice saying, "Do something for others."" (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Obey Your Thirst!

(This is an abridged version of my sermon preached on Sunday, 8/7/11 at Epworth Chapel in Baltimore)

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? (Psalm 42:2)

In the Scripture text, we find that the writer in the Psalm is one who is obviously yearning for a closer relationship with God. He is seeking and searching for something more, something deeper in his spiritual walk. And so he begins abruptly with the metaphor of a thirsty, panting deer. The deer is frantically searching the desert for a stream of water.

With the same intensity as the deer seeks water, the psalmist seeks after God. He is speaking to a need that is common among all of us. An integral part of the human plight is a need to know God and to experience God. This is what St. Augustine spoke of in his prayer, “Lord you have created us for yourself, and our souls are restless until they find their rest in thee.” All of us in some way have souls that are restless.

Here, the psalmist offers the image of a deer that is thirsty. Though the psalmist points to the deer’s longing in the midst of physical thirst and danger, this metaphor offers a profound spiritual image- our relationship with God is as essential to our spiritual well-being as water is to our physical well-being.

I would venture to suggest that all of us have found ourselves at the point of being thirsty. Being thirsty places us at the point of needing to address one of the basic needs of life. The fact is that we can’t survive without water. Without water we would die. To be thirsty is to experience the most basic and profound of human needs. It has been suggested that thirst is such a powerful longing that it displaces all other human desires.

This image of being thirsty may be lost on some of us in a day when there is so much that substitutes for the basic elements of life. Even knowing what we thirst for – what we need most essentially in our lives - is often lost amidst the things that grasp our attention.

Growing up, my paternal grandparents lived across the road from a well. I can remember playing outside in the hot summer sun, and there would come a point when we knew that it was time to stop playing, for we were thirsty.

We knew that it was time to go to the well, and pump it until water came out. We’d pump and pump, and there was nothing like the sight of seeing water begin to flow out of the well, and knowing that our thirst would then be quenched.

We reflect upon this matter of being thirsty today because in this day and age, we thirst for many things. Some of us have schedules that are so full that it leaves us thirsty for time with God. Some of us have religion in our lives, and yet our relationship with the Lord yearns for intimacy.

Some of us thirst for recognition from others as a way of masking our deeper need for self-esteem. Some of us thirst for relationships – only to find ourselves being exploited and abused and unable to deal with our profound loneliness. We thirst for material things and find ourselves mired in a form of “affluenza” which Marion Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund defines as our possessing too much that is worth too little. We thirst.

What are you thirsty for? What are the things that you most desire in life? What are your heart’s desires? What are the things that you seek after?

Over the course of history, there have been persons who have thirsted after the things that would make our world better, the things of God:
• Martin Luther King, Jr. thirsted for racial equality.
• Mohandas Gandhi thirsted for peace and justice.
• Mother Theresa thirsted for truth and fairness.
• Dietrich Bonheoffer thirsted for true discipleship.
• Rosa Parks thirsted for her dignity.

Christ beckons each of us to obey our thirst. This should be good news for us today. In the midst of failing economies, political disappointment, violence and wars, broken homes, lost jobs, and diminished stock portfolios – Jesus is the living water. In the midst of fears, doubts, despair, dread, disillusionment, disappointment – Jesus is the living water.

What are you thirsty for? Are you thirsting after God? Our response to the presence and power of God should be to obey our thirst, and seek God where he can be found.

Break the Mold!

(This is an abridged version of the sermon preeched at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 7/31/11.)

"In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River." (Matthew 3:1-6)


In the Gospel of Matthew, we are introduced to the life of John the Baptist. Some of us might remember John the Baptist. He was born into a world of religious and social conformity. He was born to Jewish parents – Elizabeth and Zechariah who were devout in their faith. In fact, John’s father – Zechariah was not only religious - but he was a priest. So by all rights, John the Baptist had it made.

All John had to do is behave himself, not rock the boat, stay out of trouble, watch his mouth, fit in, and he would not have a care in the world.

It was supposed to be John’s lot in life to fit the mold, to dress right, and act right (he was a preachers kid), and all he had to do was fit into the mold. All he had to do was behave himself, conform to his orderly, elite religious roots, and he would be a priest in the line of his father. This was his birthright.

And yet, John the Baptist just couldn’t act like he was supposed to act. Here, we find John the Baptist, not in the synagogue, but in the wilderness. He’s not dressed in the fine garbs of the priesthood, but in camel’s hair. He’s not trying to maintain religious order but preaching a radical, prophetic word - a word of preparation for the coming of the Lord - a word that God was ready to shake things up, and make straight the crooked places and things in our midst.

As we look around, we can clearly see that conformity is the order of our day. People like to appear as though they fit in. It seems that we have this inherent need to conform. If the truth is told, none of us wants to be too far outside of the mainstream, too far outside what is considered to be normal. We want to fit in.

Conformity insinuates that we find ourselves in alignment with the status quo. To conform means that we are fitting in with what already exists, and that we are in accord with that which has already been formed. Thus, to conform is to find ourselves in the same shape as that which has already been shaped.

I’m always amazed at how much we seem to be in conformity, and often don’t seem to realize it. People seem to be attracted to those things and places which are most like how we perceive ourselves. We seek to live in the places, purchase the things, and even wear the clothes of those who we perceive as being the most successful and beautiful.

A few years ago, it seemed that every young boy sought to imitate Michael Jordan. Every young boy wanted to “be like Mike.” Well, the Nike Corporation capitalized on this yearning to conform, and created the Air Jordan Shoe. It appears that there was this notion among many young people that if they were just able to buy a pair of Air Jordans they would somehow find themselves being able to fly through the air and dunk a basketball like Mike. (If the truth is told, even some of us who are older thought that we could “be like Mike.”)

And so why is it that we seek to conform? Perhaps our propensity towards conformity is rooted in our fear of what would happen to us if we chose to stand alone. Maybe we tend to conform because of jealousy and covetousness. We want too much of what others have. We want to keep up with the “Jones.” Maybe we conform because our imagination - or lack thereof – does not allow us to see beyond what presently is in our lives – to what God wants us to become.

I believe that this matter of conformity has serious implications and applications for the church today. It was the Apostle Paul who warned us in Scripture against this proclivity. Paul cautioned the Roman Church and cautions us to “Be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” (Romans 12:2)

Still many Christians and many churches find themselves moving towards the tendency to conform. Many churches find themselves mired and trapped in the rut of "same-old-ness." We find ourselves doing the same-old-thing…the same-old-way... and getting the same old results. We’re too often mired in “same-old-ness.”

We sing the same-old-song. We pray the same-old-prayer. We preach the same-old-sermon. And we get the same-old results. We’re stuck in a rut…stuck in a mold.

I believe that John the Baptist, in mant ways, serves as the anti-type for today’s Christian, and can teach us a few things about what it means for us to be holy and bold for Jesus. John broke the mold.

And it is incumbent on the church today to break the mold - to move out of our comfort zones - to move our message outside the walls of the church – into the (proverbial) wilderness (out into the streets). If we’re like John the Baptist, we might have to change our appearance and methods to reach some folk who may be very unfamiliar with the songs we sing and the sermons we preach. We need to break the mold.

This week, it was reported that 11 religious leaders were arrested in Washington, DC for refusing to move while praying on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. The group included at least two United Methodists – Jim Winkler and Bob Edgar – and was praying that the U.S. congress would act morally and justly in light of decisions around the current budget crisis and economic upheaval – especially in light of the millions of poor and moderate income people that will be affected by these decisions.

In John the Baptist, we find one who in his day broke the mold. John broke from religious and societal conformity. He dared to be different. He chose to move outside his comfort zone – outside the comfortable confines of religious establishment. John the Baptist was filled with faith in God which allowed him to prophetically and boldly proclaim the coming of the Lord and call people to repentance.

It’s time for us to break the mold! In what places in your life is God calling you to break the mold? How is God calling us as a church to break out of the molds that we may find ourselves in? The good news is that if we allow God in Christ to lead us, God will guide us every step of the way. “I want Jesus to walk with me…”

Faith and America's Budget Crisis

Dr. Michael Chistensen, National Director of Communities of Shalom at Drew University, reports on his blog that representatives of 11 religious groups and denominations have held daily vigils at the United Methodist Building near the Capitol for three weeks, praying for a moral resolution to the debt ceiling crisis. Finally, yesterday, they felt lead to take more drastic action—praying at the U.S. CapitOl and got arrested for not dispersing when warned to stop what they were doing.

According to a news release from the Nathional Council of Churches: “The religious leaders sang "Spirit of the Living God" and "We shall overcome" as they knelt and prayed in the Capitol rotunda. Capitol Hill police asked them to clear the rotunda but the religious leaders continued praying.

Recent events have catalyzed an eighteen-month public policy campaign led by faith leaders representing the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths to promote a message of the common good in the current economic debate. Members of the campaign are calling for Congress and the Administration to exempt programs from budget cuts that assist the most at-risk families and children in the U.S. and abroad.

One of those arrested was Jim Winkler, the General Secretary of Church and Society—a peace with justice agency of the United Methodist Church. Jim has been a prophetic leader on social issues for a number of years.

Another faith leader arrested yesterday is Bob Edgar, President of Common Cause--an organization that advocates for the poor and holds power accountable. Common Cause was one of the prime organizers of yesterday's prayerful protest.

Dr. Christensen shares that inspired by a prophetic vision of the beloved community of peace and justice for all, motivated by a common spiritual conviction that God has called on all citizens to protect the vulnerable and promote human dignity, many of us believe that the budget crisis should be resolved morally and prayerfully, and not just pragmatically and politically.

I urge all persons to pray for our nation and our elected leaders in this critical time in history.

Food for Thought

“Congress is paralyzed by toxic partisan politics while people suffer. Our elected officials are protecting corporations and wealthy individuals while shredding the safety net for millions of the most vulnerable people in our nation and abroad. Our faith won't allow us to passively watch this travesty unfold.” --Rev. Michael Livingston, past president of the National Council of the Churches of Christ (USA), arrested yesterday praying and protesting at the US Capital.

An Extreme Makeover

(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached on 7/24/11 at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore)

"If any person is in Christ Jesus, he/she is a new creation…" (2 Cor. 5:17)

This is the age of the extreme makeover. The images are clear – we’ve all seen them - where those who may be deemed to be physically unattractive, by society’s standards of beauty, are taken away, only to re-emerge a few short weeks later looking as though they are not the same person.

Yes, this is the age of Botox, lypo-suction, tummy tucks, tanning salons and face lifts. And we now see that the extreme makeover has been expanded to include the makeover of homes that may have at a time seemed to be virtually uninhabitable, and cars that may have appeared to be on their way to the junk heap. And thus we witness the burgeoning popularity of television networks like Home and Garden Television (HGTV) and television shows like “America’s Extreme Home Makeover” and “The Biggest Loser.”

This indeed is the age of the extreme makeover. Perhaps this fascination with makeovers speaks to our need to experience that which appears to move us toward the illusion of perfection. Perhaps it speaks to the vast materiality and exteriority of our culture, where the focus has been placed more upon style than substance – more upon outer appearance than inner depth. Whatever it is, the makeover has overtaken us.

And what we discover is that these makeovers that seem to be so extreme are not actually extreme at all. Regardless of how gifted the makeup artist, or how expensive the makeup, or how radical the diet plan, the makeovers that the world offers will eventually wear away. They will not last. Indeed, over time the makeover will disappear, and the old appearances will return.

Throughout the course of human history, it has been the case that we have needed to be made over by God. The nature of human sinfulness and brokenness in our world helps us to see our need to be made over. If sin is the condition of our separation from God, then there is a need for us to be renewed – made over - in the Lord.

• We recall that this was the case with David, who in his fallenness, prayed to God to “create (him) a clean heart, and renew in (him) a right spirit.” David was praying for a makeover.

• We remember St. Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, who prayed to God regarding our state of separation from the Lord, “Lord you have created us for yourself, and our souls are restless until they find their rest in you.” Augustine was praying about our need for a makeover.

• And the song-writer offered an affirmation of faith and praise to God when he declared: “Lord I know I’ve been changed, the angels in heaven done signed my name.” He was declaring that a makeover had occurred in his life.

And here in our text in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian Church, we are reminded of the new life - the makeover - that becomes a reality when we are in Christ. Paul says that “if any person is in Christ Jesus, she or he is a new creation…old things have passed away, and behold all things have become new.”

It appears that Christians in Corinth were dealing with a need to be made over. They had come to know about Christ, but it seems that many of them may not have known Christ.

You see there is a difference in knowing about someone, and knowing someone. I can know about you without really knowing you. It takes a personal encounter for me to really know you, and for you to really know me. Many Corinthians knew about Jesus, but they didn’t know Jesus.

How do we know? We know because their lives had not really changed. Although many in Corinth were now in the church, the church was not in all of them. Many of their behaviors and their attitudes, and the way many of them treated one another had not really changed. Although they knew about Christ, they really didn’t know Christ.

And so, Paul wanted to remind the Christians at Corinth that just knowing Christ was not enough. Paul wanted to encourage them, and let them know that they needed to be in Christ. They needed not only to know about Christ, but they also needed to be in Christ. They needed not only to be a Christian, but they needed to be in Christ. They needed not only to sing in the choir, serve as an usher, be on the board, but they needed to be in Christ.

They needed an extreme makeover. It’s good to know that God, in Christ, offers us a makeover that is really extreme. The makeover that the Lord offers us will last a lifetime. The very purpose of God sending Christ into the world was for the redemption, transformation, renewal and regeneration of humanity.

Indeed, God sent his son into the world to redeem us. In the gospel of John, we find words that speak to this redemption, “For God so loved the world, God sent his only son so that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) We recall that it was Paul in the Book of Romans who said, “We’ve been bought with a price.”

In other words, through his suffering and death on the cross – Christ has bought our freedom from sin and spiritual death. He’s paid the price for us.

Paul said, “If any person is in Christ Jesus, she/he is a new creation…”
Paul was talking about an extreme makeover, but unlike the makeovers we see on television this makeover is one will last for an eternity!

A Praise Break

(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 7/17/11).

“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed." (Acts 16:25-26)

All of us will face the midnight hours of life. The existential “Midnight” is what the poet, John of the Cross referred to as the “Dark Night of the Soul.” The midnight hour is the time and place when trouble comes into our lives, the time and place of darkness, the time and place of confusion, the time and place of wondering and questioning, as to “why” things are the way they are in our lives.

All of us will face the midnight hours of life. In the midnight, we learn of the inevitability of adversity and pain. Indeed trouble will come into our lives, sometimes like mighty winds – spiritual tsunamis, tornados and hurricanes - blowing to knock us down, and to destroy us. And it is our attitude in the midst of troubles and trials that will make the difference between victory and defeat. How we look at troubles and trials, how we respond to storms, how we face the midnight hours, and deal with them, makes the difference in how we come out.

• We remember David, who experienced a midnight hour, and declared, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”

• We remember Job in the midst of his midnight hour who declared, “Though he slay me, yet will I praise (the Lord).”

• We recall that Jeremiah, declared in the midst of his despair, “God’s mercies are new every morning… great is the Lord’s faithfulness.”

In Acts chapter 16 we find that Paul and Silas were facing a similar midnight hour. They had been placed in maximum-security prison. They had been put in a Philippian jail for trying to lift up Jesus. There were several other prisoners with Paul and Silas. We can imagine that many of them had also been beaten, and were in great pain. For some reason all of the prisoners were awake, and it was midnight.

As they lay awake, Paul and Silas began to do something unusual. They began to pray and sing praises to God. You see, Paul and Silas were able to put the suffering they endured into perspective, because they realized that their suffering was for a purpose. These two apostles realized that they had been placed in this Philippian prison for a reason.

• We remember that it was Paul who had written while in prison that, “if any person suffers as a Christian, let that person not be ashamed.”
• It was Paul who would remind the Roman Church that “the suffering of this present time is not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us.”
• And later Paul would write in the same 8th chapter of Romans, “For we know that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord, and are called according to God’s purpose."

No, Paul and Silas were not ashamed or afraid to lift up the Lord even in prison. They had made up their minds to praise the Lord even in the midst of their adversity.

In reflecting on the predicament of Paul and Silas, we recall Dr. Martin Luther King and others who were put in jail in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. They were imprisoned for their struggle for voting rights and civil rights. It was in the Birmingham Jail that Dr. King wrote one of his most eloquent letters – the Letter from Birmingham Jail- encouraging persons - particularly Christians - to stand up for righteousness and justice.

It was Dr. King who would write that “the true measure of a person is not how one acts in times of comfort and convenience, but how one acts in times of challenge and controversy.”

Paul and Silas found themselves locked in a Philippian jail for the sake of their faith. But they decided not to sit there complaining and crying. They decided not to wallow in sorrow and lament as to why God would allow them to be placed in this terrible situation. The Bible says that in the midst of their midnight hour, Paul and Silas began to pray and sing praises to God.

And it’s good to know that as they praised the Lord, God responded to their praise. The Bible says,
“and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison shook. And immediately all the doors to the prison were opened, and every prisoner’s bonds and shackles were loosed.”

Paul and Silas took a Praise Break! In their story, we find help and encouragement for our journey of faith. We find strength for our times of testing. We find hope for our times of pain. We find promise for the times when the storms of life threaten to consume us and sweep us away.

Indeed, the various dungeons and imprisoned places of life have a way of weighing us down and keeping us from praising God. The dungeons of war and violence, capital punishment, widespread malnutrition caused by poverty, and high unemployment rates can weigh us down. The dungeons of educational achievement gaps and high drop-out rates among many of our young can weigh us down. But we must never let our circumstances keep us from praying and singing praises to God.

In the midst of struggles, it’s good to take a praise break!

As Paul and Silas sat in prison, waiting on their breakthrough maybe they sang something like we are apt to sing from time-to-time:

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine,
O what a foretaste of glory divine.
Heir of salvation,
Purchased of God…
This is our story, this is our song
Praising our savior, all the day long!

When the Church Prays

(This is an abridged version of the sermon I preached at Epworth Chapel UMC, Baltimore on 7/10/11)

"While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him." (Acts 12:5)

The most powerful weapon of the church is prayer. Prayer has the capacity to change things, and to change people. Prayer can break down barriers and heal relationships. Prayer can heal bodies and open the doors where God can make ways out of no way.

God desires that the church be about the business of prayer.
• That’s why the Lord said, “If my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray, I will hear from them, and heal the land.”
• That’s why Paul encouraged people of faith to, “Pray without ceasing.”
• That’s why Jesus reminded us that “the fervent prayers of the righteous (the church) availed much.”

We are called to be about the business of prayer - praying for ourselves, for our families, for our children, for our communities, for our church, for the person sitting next to us on Sunday, for our nation.

Indeed, God is calling the church to prayer today - for our sisters and brothers around the world, for the church universal, for the disinherited and dispossessed, for the abused and alienated, and for those who may not yet know God.

The truth is that prayer is the most powerful weapon that we have at our disposal to make a difference the world. That’s why we are reminded that there is no weapon that is formed against us that will prosper. The weapon of prayer – the tool of prayer - is more powerful than the weapons of hatred, and destruction, and negativity that are so incumbent in our world – and even in many of our churches today.

The scripture reminds us of what happens when the church prays. In the book of Acts, we find that Peter was in jail. King Harod, also known as Agrippa II, had Peter locked up because Peter had been going about doing the work of the Lord. People’s lives were being changed by the power of God as Peter went about preaching the word of God, and healing people in the name of Jesus.

King Harod had Peter locked up, and Harod wanted to be certain that Peter wouldn’t escape, so Harod had four soldiers guarding Peter at all times. The guards put chains on Peter’s wrists, and each of the chains was locked to a guard. Outside the jail cell stood two more guards.

The church, God’s people knew that Peter was locked in jail. And so while Peter was imprisoned, the people of God gathered at a house and they started to pray. That night, while Peter was sleeping, and the people were praying, an angel showed up and stood next to him. The angel tapped Peter, woke him up and said, “Get up quickly!” And suddenly, the chains fell off of Peter’s hands, and he was set free!

In 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from a prison in South Africa after having been incarcerated for over 26 years. While in prison, Mandela and others were subjected to humiliation and brutality at the hands of their white, pro-Apartheid captors. But something within Mandela allowed him not to strike back with the same violence of those who imprisoned him.

What was it that helped Mandela hold his peace amidst the adversity that he faced in jail? Maybe it was that Mandela knew that people on the outside were praying for him. Maybe Mandela knew that pastors and people of faith like Bishop Desmond Tutu were praying for him. Maybe he knew that there were people in churches even across the world – even here in America - who were praying that Apartheid, with all of its atrocities and oppressive features would be stamped out.

Maybe Mandela knew that truth stamped to the ground and crushed will always rise again. Maybe he knew that through the power of prayer, God would intervene on his behalf, and one day set him free. Maybe Mandela knew that God answers prayer, and that the Lord might not always come when we want him, but he’s always on time.

And so the power that was extant and alive in Mandela and others, was portrayed in a popular movie from a few years ago that took its title from short Victorian a poem entitled “Invictus” where English poet William Ernest Henley wrote:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul...
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Invictus is the Latin word of unconquerable, and William Henley here is speaking to the unconquerable nature of the soul. We know that we are only unconquerable in and through the power of God.

And so, what happens when the church prays? First, when the church prays, we realize that we must focus not on our own power, but on the power of God – who is omnipotent. The earliest followers of Christ of Peter’s day knew that they couldn’t overcome King Harod and his army by themselves, but they knew that with God all things are possible.

Second, when the church prays, we become more united. Prayer unites the church. Prayer helps us to see God at work through the body of Christ. Prayer helps us to unite even in the midst of our differences. In the case of the Acts church, they were praying together and were on the same accord, and that’s when the Lord showed up and set Peter free.

Third, when we pray we realize that God will change the things that need to be changed in our lives and the lives of others. And we know that through prayer that God is changing us so that we can deal with all of the things of this world with the power of God working within us.

The good news is that God answers the prayers of God’s people.

We pray because we know that God is a prayer answering God, and that the Lord is with us in every situation. We're not alone!

The song-writer put it best:

"I’ve seen the lightning flashing, and heard the thunder rolling.
I’ve felt sins breakers dashing, trying to conquer my soul.
I heard the voice of my savior, he bidst me still to fight on.
He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.
Never alone, no never alone,
He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone."

We Can!

(This is an abridged version of a sermon preached at Epworth Chapel UMC, Baltimore, MD on July 3, 2011)

"I can do all things through him who strengthens me…" (Philippians 4:13)

A reflection on the work of God throughout history indicates that God has remained active and evident in creating all that is the world today. God is a God not only of being, but of doing. In the beginning of time God was busy doing - creating the heavens and the earth, creating the moon and the stars, creating the sea and all living things. It is clear that God has been busy over the course of history doing that which is necessary to get us to this place in time.

This should give all of us hope and promise for the living of these days and for the future. For if God has been so active and busy in creation in the past, it begs us to believe that the same God will work on our behalf in the days that are ahead of us in order that we might accomplish the things that God has set before us.

The fact of the matter is that when God created us, God created us fearfully and wonderfully with the expectation that each of us could and would accomplish extraordinary things in this life. Each of us is more brilliant and beautiful than we tend to think. We are more creative and caring than we know. We are far more gifted and gracious that we realize.

We are more powerful and prophetic, more insightful and intuitive, more capable and courageous, more helpful and hopeful that we realize.

This is the essence of what Paul was affirming here in writing to the church at Philippi. Paul said, “I can do all things through him - Christ - who strengthens me.”

Paul here makes this bold declaration within the context of his own background and experience. Paul was Jewish – and a part of the sect of the Pharisees. He was also a Roman citizen. And he was one who had become a follower of Christ as the Lord had touched him and turned his life around. Now as Paul writes, he finds himself locked in a Philippian jail – imprisoned for his efforts in bringing persons to belief in Christ.

Through all that Paul had gone through, he knew that he had not arrived at the place where he was in life alone. He declares that I’ve had much and I’ve had little – I’ve had good days and bad days, but through it all – Paul knew that there were those in the community of faith who were praying for him and working on his behalf. Paul says, “I can do all things through him – Christ – who strengthens me.”

What Paul really knew is that his affirmation of faith here was really not just about what he could do alone in Christ, but what he could do within the context of the community of faith. What Paul was really saying is that I can, because we can!

We should be encouraged today, to know that we can. We can reach out to the impoverished, both locally and around the world. We can feed the hungry, house the homeless, comfort victims of disaster, soothe the sick, walk along-side the lonely and the sorrowful, visit those in prison, and minister to even more children. We can!

And so how can we? First, the fact of the matter is that we can because we are stronger together than we are as individuals. That’s the nature of the church - the body of Christ. It is like the difference between a single chord rope and a triple chord rope. The single chord can be very easily broken with a relatively light amount of force. While the triple chord is woven – knit together and designed in a way that in order to break the triple chord rope you need more than three times the force that it would take to break the ropes if we sought to break them individually.

African theologian, John Mbiti, put the communal nature and power of our faith and life into perspective when he said, “I am because we are, and because we are, therefore I am.”

An African proverb says that “a finger can’t pick up a grain – it takes all the fingers of the hand.”

We can, because we are better, stronger, and more powerful together than we are as individuals.

And ultimately, we can, because God can!
• We can because God walks with us and talks with us.
• We can, because greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world.
• We can, because with God all things are possible.
• We can because God can do anything but fail!

We can because we are in this together, and because God is in it with us!