Sermon: St. John's, Beltsville

February 13, 2005

1^st Sunday of Lent, year A

Good morning. It is a pleasure to worship with you this morning and to celebrate the ministry you have with and for young people. I have the joy of visiting parishes all across our great diocese each year. I am sorry that it has taken me two and a half years to get to St. John’s, but unfortunately, I rarely make visits to parishes with healthy and vibrant youth ministries like yours. I am more often visiting those that really need my help. So, it is indeed a great pleasure and honor to be with you this morning. I am always comforted by the presence of young people from St. John’s at diocesan youth events. I have grown to trust the leadership abilities of folks like Lynn Abe and Natasha Ryals. If I gave out a volunteer youth leader award, Mary Abe would have gotten twice by now. Her dedication and willingness to help has made my job much easier. I know that you all know what a saint she is, but I wanted to tell you that other people believe that too.

Well, enough of the feel-good stuff. This is Lent, right? We have to talk about heavy things like Sin, Death, Penitence. It’s almost like we should talk about Lent in a Darth Vader voice. The deacon at my church growing up used to jokingly scold us as kids for laughing during Lent. “It’s Lent,” Jack would say. “You aren’t supposed to be happy!” And then he of course would break out into laughter.

But it really is Lent. Despite that we celebrated Christmas was only a few weeks ago, it is now time to turn our focus to those places in our lives where we miss the mark, where our relationship with Christ needs to be strengthened and renewed. We take this time seriously in the life of the Church because we take the resurrection of Christ seriously. The deeper we examine our own life and the more we work do to improve our relationship with God, the greater our joy will be on Easter when we celebrate Christ’s greatest triumph.

I sometimes think that the lessons on the first Sunday of Lent are really cruel, especially the Gospel. Every year on the first Sunday of Lent, the Gospel is about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. And every three years, we get to hear about Adam and Eve, the serpent and the forbidden fruit. I don’t have to tell you what happens next, right? We all know that part of the story. Stories about Sin and Temptation.

The story of Christ’s temptation in the wilderness is one that might seem hard for us to relate to, but when you get to its core, it is the story of each of us. The tempter, as today’s Gospel calls him, comes to Jesus and basically offers him three options: become a miracle worker, show himself as God, or liberate the Holy Land from the occupying Roman army.

Jesus, with more strength and fortitude than you or I will ever know, resists those things to become who he was meant to be: the Chosen One of God, sent to be the redemption of the world’s sins.

This, my friends, is the story of Jesus being tempted to become who he is NOT. Can relate to the story now?

Every day, we see advertisements and entertainment sending messages that who we are isn’t good enough. We have to eat this food, use this make-up, workout at this gym, drive this car, live in this neighborhood, drink this beverage, wear this line of clothing, switch to this wireless company—and your live will be complete. We will be happy and fulfilled people. We all know, or at least I hope we all know, that this is a great un-truth. Having all the “stuff” in the world will not fulfill us. I wish I had time rattle off the stories of how advertisers work to hook children as young as a year old into a cycle of brand-loyalty that they hope will last their entire life. Surprisingly, Nickelodeon Enterprises is probably the greatest offender in this category, followed closely by Sprite and the Coca-Cola family of beverages.

At some point in all of our lives, we have been tempted to be someone we are not. I would dare say that most of us have given in to that temptation at least once (probably more!) and have had to deal with those consequences. For the majority of young people, there is someone they know, maybe not necessarily in their circle of peers, though, who has the latest what-ever (clothes, car, watch, hair-style) that somehow makes them feel incomplete. It can be a major temptation, but one that most young people face on a weekly, if not daily, basis.

And you know what, I’m sure for a surprising number of adults, the same holds true with co-workers, friends or family members.

But as Christians, we are called to a better way.

Living your life for Christ, becoming who you were meant to become at your baptism, is where the fulfillment comes. It won’t come overnight, it might not even come by the end of Lent. But my hope and prayer for each of us today is that during this Lenten season, we will discover who we are in Christ and live the life that Christ intends us to live, and BE the people God has called each of us to be.

I want to leave you with this prayer. It is titled “A Modern Affirmation of Faith” and was written by the high school Sunday school class at my home parish in Knoxville, TN, in 1988:

In a world shadowed by fear and greed,

In a world where science would save our bodies and reduce our souls;

We nonetheless believe in all that resists the formula:

The bird’s celebration of morning light,

The summer landscape at dusk,

All the kept promises that are spring flowers,

The friends and family who love our best selves and our worst,

In baptism and all other affirmation of all life’s mysterious possibilities,

In all victories which defy mathematics,

In all rich lives given to enrich other lives,

In all selfless sacrifice.

We believe in God the Father Almighty and His Son, Himself, Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

And we pray for the perpetual triumph of light, wonder and love by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

AMEN.

Sermon: Church of the Redeemer, Bethesda, MD

September 26, 2004

Proper 21, Year C

So, what did you think of the lessons today? They don’t particularly beat around the bush do they? There’s not a whole lot of wondering what they mean, no matter what generation of God’s people are hearing them. Quite clearly, these passages convey a hard message about stewardship. Yes, the other “S” word.

Now wait, relax! I’m not going to talk about money this morning. I’m a youth minister. I don’t talk about money. I just know I don’t have any. So let’s hang on to this message of stewardship, put it on a shelf. We’ll come back to it in just a minute.

First: I want to tell you why I’m a youth minister. You know, it’s a question I get asked rather frequently. And I have a simple answer. “Paula, Jack, & Jonathan.” That is why I’m a youth minister. Three people who at three very important periods in my adolescence mentored and guided me, who were willing to listen, brave enough to task tough questions, and loved my awkward-self with no strings attached. They gave of themselves to the young people of our parish asking very little in return.
When I was in high school, I had a lot of questions, especially about this Jesus character. I spent hours and hours with Jonathan asking him questions about how Jesus could be full human and fully divine. At 16, it just didn’t make sense. Finally, during one of our conversations, I said, “Jonathan, I just need to know that Jesus knew what it was like to be 16.”
“Yeah,” Jonathan said, “Jesus did know what it was like. And still does. He probably didn’t always get along with his parents, had friends who changed, had a girlfriend. All that stuff.”

Suddenly Jesus made sense, and I could allow my relationship with Him to grow. All because someone took the time to listen to my questions and help me sort out the answers.

There’s another reason I’m a youth minister. The communities that developed under Paula’s, Jack’s and Jonathan’s direction provided my peers and I the opportunities to laugh & cry, to celebrate & mourn, to doubt & to believe. The funny thing is, of the 15 or 20 different people I was in youth groups with, most of us are still a part of the church. Some of us actually work for the church, but almost all of us are still connected to Christ and to the church.

Paula, Jack & Jonathan took seriously the promise made at every Baptism. It’s right there on page 303 in the Book of Common Prayer: “Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ?” And we answer, “We will.” We don’t say, “He will,” or “she will” or “somebody will.” WE will. The answer is as clear as today’s Gospel message.
Speaking of today’s Gospel message, let’s take that whole stewardship thing off the shelf we put it on a few minutes ago. All of the lessons this morning are about what we do with what we’ve been given. Stewardship.

God has blessed Church of the Redeemer with some amazing young people. And God has blessed Redeemer with some bright and talented adults, too. You’ve been given a lot of gifts. What are you going to do with those gifts?

Young people need adults in their lives who aren’t their parents, fellow Christians who have had doubts, found faith, seen miracles. Adults who will be wild-crazy about them. Adults who will listen to their stories, listen to their hopes & fears, highs & lows. Adults who will listen without prejudice, without thinking that it’s the same as it was when they were 15 or 16. Because it’s not. A 15-year old today faces a far different world than I faced when I was 15 and an even different world that someone who was 15 thirty years ago. Young people need adults in their life who recognize their prophetic voice, who value the honesty and truth with which they speak.
Yes, adolescents can be scary. They speak a different language; they dress in a style that’s not like any other age demographic. Emotions are like a roller-coaster and most adults don’t understand their music. But that’s OK; you’re not really supposed to understand their music. That’s what makes it “their music.”

But young people are a gift. They are a resource that cannot be replaced. They have a well of wisdom and knowledge that is waiting to be tapped. Stewardship is about sharing the gifts God has given you. It’s also about how you grow from the gifts other people share with you. I’ve worked with thousands of young people over the past 10 years, and I’m certain that I’ve learned more from them than they could have collectively learned from me.

Stewardship is what we do with what we’ve been given and how we do that in a community of faith. As St. Paul said to St. Timothy, “They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future.”
AMEN

Sermon: St. John's, Georgetown

July 25, 2004
8th Sunday after Pentecost: Luke 11:1-13

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be ever pleasing to you, O Lord our God. Amen.

Good morning! It is a true honor to be able to worship with you today and to share the Gospel message.

I want to tell you a story about me. I love riding my bike. I often go biking in the middle of the day, as a sort of re-charging time. My favorite route is to leave Church House and come down Wisconsin, catch the Crescent Trail around to River Road, take River back to Wisconsin and back to my office. It’s a fantastic workout. The only thing that makes cycling even more rewarding is being able to work on my bike myself. And while it’s rewarding to get the job done and to feel the bike ride a little better when you’re done, it is often an exercise in frustration.

One weekend while my wife was out of town, I decided that I would spend Friday evening replacing the brake pads on my bike. I had done this once before several years ago and remembered it not being that difficult of a task. I set up my work area in the living room (Lots of newspaper on the floor) and put Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark in the DVD player for a little background noise and entertainment. I took the tires off my bike (easy enough) and released the cables from the brake arms. I put the allen wrench into the socket to loosen screw that held the brake pads and turned with every ounce of strength I had. Nothing worked. They were in their so tight I didn’t think a hydraulic screw driver would have done any good. I began to think that I didn’t know my own strength since I had put them in a few years ago. I tried all four of the screws, and only one of them turned. So, I took a rest. My bike is in several pieces on the floor, and I’m sitting on the sofa watching Harrison Ford take on the Nazis in the Middle East.

After about 30 minutes, I decided to look for some grease or oil or something that might help loosen the screws. I found some WD-40 under the kitchen sink and lucky for me, it was a full can. I sprayed it on the three screws that were being stubborn and started to work them loose. Two of them came out relatively easy, but that third one… it was the most stubborn of all. So, I sprayed a little more WD-40 on it and kept fighting with the allan wrench. By this point, Harrison Ford is in a bad mood because after all he did to save the Arc of the Covenant from the hands of the Nazis, it’s going to be locked up in some U.S. Government warehouse. And I’m starting to feel his level of frustration. I glanced at the can of WD-40 and noticed that it had an important word on the instructions: “Wait.”

Do I think that the can of WD-40 was really going to work instantly? Well, no, but I wanted it to. I had sprayed it on the screws so it should work right away. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long for that last screw to come loose. I put a little more WD-40 on there, waited about a few minutes (long enough for me to put in the next Indiana Jones movie) and sure enough, still with a lot of muscle on my part, that con-founded screw came loose and I could replace my brakes.
In our fast-paced, I-want-it-now society, we expect things to happen on our terms and in our time frame. Today’s gospel would lead us to believe that Jesus was of the same mindset, but in reality, he is saying something different. Jesus says, ask and it shall be given, search and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you. And, my friends, Jesus is right. But before he gives that lesson, he talks about the persistence of the neighbor, who receives what he is asking for not because of his friendship, but because he doesn’t let up in asking for it.

Going to God with a request one time is a lot like going on a diet for one day and quitting because that 15 pounds you were trying to lose didn’t evaporate. Searching for a truth about God for one day or one moment is like lifting weights for an hour and being disappointed you aren’t suddenly toned and firm. It takes patience and persistence. Jesus tells us right here in today’s gospel that if we continue to turn to God, our persistence and dedication will be rewarded.

There are some important things that we need to recognize in Jesus’ teaching about Prayer. First, he teaches his disciples that before they ask for anything, they need to honor God’s name and recognize that God is the one who is in control. Then, when we do take our supplications to God, we shouldn’t ask for anything more than we need. The alterative Lord’s Prayer in the New Zealand Prayer Book says, “With the bread we need for today, feed us.” Jesus doesn’t teach his disciples to ask for bread for today and tomorrow; just today. There is also an amazing piece about forgiveness, which I think tells us more about God’s nature than any other part of scripture. It’s about forgiveness. It’s about the fact that each time we pray, we are to forgive those who have done something wrong to us. It’s a tall order, but one we are not required to master the first time.

While Jesus is teaching his disciples about prayer, he is also teaching them that prayer is an ongoing thing. As Christian music artist Steven Curtis Chapman says, “Our prayer doesn’t end just because we say the word ‘Amen’”. We are called by God and taught by Jesus that our prayers must come to him in all ways and at all times and more than once. It is large and daunting task. But it is a task that we can share with others who follow Christ, as we walk with him and grow in his grace.