"Art Without a Frame"

Matthew 11:2-6

Rev. Everett L. Miller

Note: The illustration in this sermon is based upon the April 8, 2007 Washington Post article, "Pearls Before Breakfast" by Gene Weingarten

On Friday, January 12, 2007 there was a musician playing for tips in the L’Enfant Plaza of the Washington D.C. subway system. He began playing just before 8 o’clock in the morning, during the busy rush hour. Most of the people who were entering the plaza and heading to board the train were government employees. There was also a shoeshine stand, a magazine and newspaper stand, and a machine that sells lottery tickets all in the same area as the musician. At first glance there was nothing out of the ordinary about the situation; street musicians play their guitars or saxophones there all the time. But despite the appearances of there being just one more musician in a long line of musicians in public space amidst the busy-ness of modern life, there was something very extraordinary that was happening that morning. You see, it wasn’t just any street musician.

Joshua Bell is considered one of the most talented classical musicians in the world. He is a violinist who began as a child prodigy. He is now 39 years old. He has played for royalty in Europe. He has performed with the greatest orchestras around the world. He has been awarded the Avery Fisher Prize recognizing him as the greatest classical musician in America. He has played on the soundtracks of movies. The reason that he was in Washington D.C. in the first place was because he was playing at the Library of Congress. It has been said that “he plays like a god.” Interview Magazine said that his playing "does nothing less than tell human beings why they bother to live." He plays a violin that was handcrafted in the early 1700’s which cost him 3.5 million dollars but is perhaps one of the handful of violins in existence that would be worthy of such an artist. It has been said that at times when he is playing he is able to make his single violin sound like two instruments playing in harmony with one another. He is one of the greatest violinists who have ever walked this earth.

The article in the Washington Post, which I have to say is some of, if not the, best newspaper writing I have ever read, says that “Three days before he appeared at the Metro station, Bell had filled the house at Boston's stately Symphony Hall, where merely pretty good seats went for $100. Two weeks later, at the Music Center at Strathmore, in North Bethesda, he would play to a standing-room-only audience so respectful of his artistry that they stifled their coughs until the silence between movements. But on that Friday in January, Joshua Bell was just another mendicant, competing for the attention of busy people on their way to work.”

So why was he playing for tips in the Washington D.C. subway? Well, the Washington Post came up with an experiment and talked him into participating in it. He dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and a baseball cap, took a cab from his hotel to the subway station. And he began to play his 300 year old, 3.5 million dollar violin. He wasn’t just playing any old songs either; he played one of the most difficult pieces for any violinist to play from Bach’s Partita #2 in D Minor. They set up a hidden camera, planting a few Washington Post employees around the area and the experiment began.

The article offers the following as the reason for the experiment: “His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?” In other words, would people realize what their ears were hearing and their eyes were seeing? Would people allow the beauty right in front of them to intrude upon their busy lives?

The Washington Post was a little bit worried about how much trouble they might get in when the crowds would begin to form. What if so many people stop to listen and watch that rush hour traffic backs up and people start taking pictures and the crowds get so large in that tight space that tempers flare. There could be some sort of riot. Who knows what could happen?

It turns out that they didn’t need to be worried. In the 43 minutes during which he played the Bach piece twice, sandwiched in the middle with Ave Maria, 1,097 people walked by and almost every single one of them ignored the music altogether. One person even walked by and started to speak louder on her cell phone because of all the racket. A few people dropped some money in. Some people even put in just a penny or two. His total was $32.17. One man stopped and listened for three minutes. At one point in the video it appears that a woman has stopped for a moment to listen and when he finished the piece she immediately starts walking, drops a few coins in his case and says something that sounds like, “That was pretty good.” Repeatedly children would try to stop to listen and they would smile then their parents would grab their hands and hurry them off to wherever they were going. All races acted the same. Men and women acted the same. But the children always tried to stop. They knew something beautiful was happening.

Afterwards Joshua Bell said the most difficult part of the whole experience for him was when he would finish a piece and there would be dead silence. He was used to crowds exploding in applause in those moments. But there was only silence. He said, “When you play for ticket-holders you are already validated. I have no sense that I need to be accepted. I'm already accepted. Here, there was this thought: What if they don't like me? What if they resent my presence.”

The Post employees in the station stopped a few of the people, telling them they were doing a survey about commuting. Then the Post started calling people and asking them the question, “Was there anything unique about your commute this morning?” They called about 40 people. One man didn’t even realize there had been a musician there. One man could remember all the lottery numbers he picked that morning but could not remember much, if anything, about the violinist. There was one man who enjoys classical music, the one who stopped to listen for three minutes. He couldn’t explain it in technical musical terms but he said, “Whatever it was, it made me feel at peace."

The Washington Post talked to all kinds of experts to get their takes on the results of this experiment. They talked to a classical musician and critic. They spoke with a philosopher and even spoke to the senior curator at the National Gallery of Art. I find his explanation to be the most convincing and interesting. He said the problem was context. You would expect to hear the greatest violinist in the world playing on stage in a huge auditorium with hundreds or thousands of tuxedoed and evening-gowned cultural elites in the audience. You would not expect him to be in a subway station when you were on your way to work. People didn’t notice him there, the curator, said because people didn’t expect him to be there in blue jeans and a T-shirt in a subway station.

The curator gives this example: "Let's say I took one of our more abstract masterpieces, say an Ellsworth Kelly, and removed it from its frame, marched it down the 52 steps that people walk up to get to the National Gallery, past the giant columns, and brought it into a restaurant. It's a $5 million painting. And it's one of those restaurants where there are pieces of original art for sale, by some industrious kids from the Corcoran School, and I hang that Kelly on the wall with a price tag of $150. No one is going to notice it. An art curator might look up and say: 'Hey, that looks a little like an Ellsworth Kelly. Please pass the salt.'" He says that Joshua Bell playing the violin in the subway is like art without a frame. It doesn’t meet expectations so it is not appreciated and even just outright ignored.

It would have been difficult to ignore the voice of John the Baptist when early on in Matthew’s Gospel he did things like call some of the people who came to be baptized a “brood of vipers.” Last week I felt sorry for Lisa when she was liturgist because I got to read a passage about mutual love and hers included these words of John the Baptist: “Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” It would have also been difficult to ignore John when he said that one was coming after him who “will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” He knew that he was doing what Isaiah had prophesied, “preparing the way for the Lord.” Finally this coming one would bring judgment up John’s own people and separate the righteous from the unrighteous. That is perhaps the frame that he put Jesus in, a Messiah who has come to draw a line in the sand, to burn up the wicked. But after John has been arrested by Herod for both gathering too large of a following and speaking against Herod’s stealing of his brother’s wife, John has received news of what Jesus is doing and it doesn’t seem to fit the frame he had placed around Jesus.

So John's disciples find Jesus and they relay his question to him. “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” John Calvin thought that John the Baptist was only doing this for his disciples’ benefit because there is no way that he could doubt Jesus’ messiahship. But I can see how John might have been sitting in his jail cell, surely knowing that he is going to be killed sooner or later, and starting to wonder where all the unquenchable fire was. He was getting news that Jesus was healing people, hanging out with outcasts and sinners, feeding hungry people, teaching things like “blessed are the peacemakers.” Where is the unquenchable fire? Maybe Calvin is right, after all he was much smarter than I will ever be, but maybe John’s expectations and Jesus’ reported actions weren’t adding up. Jesus wasn’t meeting expectations.

Although John seems to have expected a spiritual messiah of a sort, most of the Jewish people were almost surely looking for a powerful, military Messiah. And who can blame them? They’d been slaves in Egypt, conquered by Assyria, exiled by Babylon, colonized by Greece, been briefly governed by some of their own people who ended up going corrupt, then they became subjects of the Roman Empire. When your people have been overtaxed, murdered, raped, and your holy temple defiled more than once, who can blame you for looking forward to God sending you someone to get you out of these terrible straights? So they put frames around who they expected to be their Messiah. And in the very century in which Jesus lived there were several pretenders who at least for a time seemed to fit the frame nicely and gained fame as Messiahs until they rose up against Herod or Rome and met their death just like every other freedom fighter against the empire, and really in the same manner that Jesus did, but they did not leave any effects behind, practical, spiritual or otherwise and they certainly didn’t rise from the tomb.

But Jesus’ response, although it is based on several passages from Isaiah, most notably chapters 35 and 61, does not fit within the frames that had been constructed for him. He says, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” To us Christians a couple thousand years later all that sounds like stuff the Messiah would be doing. But as one commentator I read this week wrote, “As far as we can tell from the surviving writings of the time, nobody in first-century Judaism expected the Messiah to appear as a healer.”

So like Joshua Bell playing the violin in the Washington D.C. subway and the curator’s hypothetical $5 million dollar work of art hanging on the wall of a restaurant, Jesus was in a manner of speaking, “art without a frame.” And Jesus seems to have a pretty good grasp on this because he follows his list of actions with a beatitude. “And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me,” which sounds a little bit like confident version of Joshua Bell’s self-conscious question, “What if they resent my presence?” In other words, blessed is anyone who does not resent my presence as a work of art without a frame, or at least without the frame that people expected to see me in.

Jesus was almost constantly out of context. You would expect to meet the Messiah of the Jewish Nation perhaps on the back of a horse as he gathers men from the hills and farms to form an army to overthrow the Romans. You might expect to meet the Messiah of the Jewish Nation as a great high priest who could purify the religion and chase out the pagan Gentiles. That is how the prophecies had been interpreted for centuries. And like I said earlier, when your neck is under the boot of the Roman Empire that is who you want and in some cases need—a deliverer. You wouldn’t expect the Messiah of the Jewish Nation to be a homeless itinerant preacher and healer who wasn’t raising an army to kill Roman centurions but instead was healing their dying servants by his word alone. So John’s question is not out of place. “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”

Towards the end of Joshua Bell’s 43 minutes a man who had once aspired to be a classical violinist himself stopped way on the other side of the shoeshine stand to listen to him. The article gives his interview like this: “When he was called later in the day, like everyone else, he was first asked if anything unusual had happened to him on his trip into work. Of the more than 40 people contacted, Picarello was the only one who immediately mentioned the violinist. "There was a musician playing at the top of the escalator at L'Enfant Plaza." Haven't you seen musicians there before? "Not like this one." What do you mean? "This was a superb violinist. I've never heard anyone of that caliber. He was technically proficient, with very good phrasing. He had a good fiddle, too, with a big, lush sound. I walked a distance away, to hear him. I didn't want to be intrusive on his space." Really? "Really. It was that kind of experience. It was a treat, just a brilliant, incredible way to start the day."

And finally, at the very end of his 43 minutes a young woman stood in front of him and could not believe her eyes. Could he really be who I think he is? She had seen Joshua at the Library of Congress a few weeks earlier. When they called her she said, "Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! Quarters! I wouldn't do that to anybody. I was thinking, Omigosh, what kind of a city do I live in that this could happen?"

It’s bad enough for most of us when we go to an art museum and we stand there looking at this huge painting in the expensive frame by the artist who we remember from art history class and we still don’t get it. So it is kind of hard to totally blame the 1,070 people who didn’t even stop to listen to the greatest violinist in the world play for free. But it is still a kind of indictment on our modern lives. But still, some people got it.

That man who leaned against the wall for three minutes and said, “Whatever it was, it made me feel at peace.” He got it. Even though the adults wouldn’t let them stay to listen, the children who kept trying to stop as their parents tugged on them knew something beautiful was happening. They got it. The man who when he was asked, “Haven’t you seen musicians there before” responded, “Yes, but not like this one,” then went on to say, “It was that kind of experience. It was a treat, just a brilliant, incredible way to start the day.” He got it. And finally there is the young woman who had had the privilege of seeing him a few weeks before in context at the Library of Congress so she recognized him and confessed that to him. She got it. Blessed are they who were not offended by Joshua, who did not resent his presence. They were given the gift of the most beautiful music in the world for free. It was being played for all to hear and he was standing there for all to see, but only they had ears to hear and eyes to see what was truly happening right in front of their faces.

Well, even though Jesus seemed out of context, even though he didn’t fit the frame, some people got it. Blessed are they who are not offended by Jesus, who do not resent his presence. They are given the gift of the most beautiful message in the world for free. He spoke his words for all to hear and he performed miracles there for all to see, but only they that had ears to hear and eyes to see what was truly happening right in front of their faces got it. They are the ones who would go out into the world to say something not dissimilar to what that magazine had said about the violinist; he "does nothing less than tell human beings why they bother to live." Oh but he does so much more. They got it.

In closing let me adapt something said by the British author John Lane in his reaction to the Joshua Bell experiment by offering it also as a response to the gospel of Jesus. “If the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that -- then what else are we missing?

May we "get it" this Christmas.

"A Strangely Christian Thing to Do"

Christ the King Sunday

Luke 23:33-43

Rev. Everett L. Miller

It is a strangely Christian thing to do, declaring a day Christ the King Sunday, then celebrating that day by reading the story of his being crucified on a Roman cross. It is ridiculous really. The early Christians knew that much more thoroughly than we do as when Paul wrote, “We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” Here is a peasant from the backwoods of Galilee, rejected by the leaders of his own people, sentenced to death by the local representative of the real king of kings, the Roman emperor Tiberius, and now fastened to a cross between two dying criminals. What kind of king is this? Can you imagine having been among the first generation of Christians trying to explain that to people?
If you had been alive in the year 9 BC, about 40 years before Jesus’ death, and just a few years before his birth, you could have read a proclamation about the Roman emperor at the time, Caesar Augustus, that calls him Savior and god manifest. It also says “Caesar has fulfilled all the hopes of earlier times, and even the birthday of Caesar Augustus “has been for the whole word the beginning of the good news.” Sounds kind of familiar doesn’t it?

We could have also read an inscription on a statue of Augustus, which read, "The God Augustus, Son of God, Caesar, Absolute Ruler of land and sea, the Benefactor and Savior of the whole cosmos.”

In the ancient Roman world, it would have been quite common to hear the words, “Caesar is Lord” on the lips of most any citizen and many subjected peoples. It was a statement of allegiance to the empire, like a pledge of allegiance to Caesar and to Rome. So to say “Jesus is Lord” was ridiculous, offensive, and an affront to the government, because what you were supposed to say is “Caesar is Lord.” The implication within the confession of faith, “Jesus is Lord,” is that Caesar is not.

In Acts, which was also written by Luke, there is a report of a controversy in the city of Thessalonica. A crowd comes looking for Paul and Silas, but finds only Jason, a local man who had been working with them. Luke writes, “they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: ‘They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus’” (Acts 17:6-8). You can see why so often the early Christians were persecuted and executed at the hands of the government.

Luke was a Gentile living within the Roman Empire writing to people like him, Gentiles living in the Roman Empire. He states, himself, in the introduction to his gospel that he is writing not to convince people to become Christians but to encourage those people who already believed in Jesus so that they “may know the certainty of the things [they] have been taught.” Luke’s readers are people who have already taken the risk of saying, “Jesus is King” or “Jesus is Lord.” Yet, they look outside their windows and all they see is the influence of Caesar and his empire.

Towards the beginning of Luke, the angel of the LORD says to the shepherds outside of Bethlehem, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Luke is dangerously reminding his readers that it is not the birth of an emperor which is the beginning of the good news, but the birth of Jesus.

At the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which we celebrate on Palm Sunday, Matthew, Mark, and John all have the crowd yelling, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.” But Luke has them calling out, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” It is very important to Luke that the readers of his gospel, which includes those of us on the other side of the world 2,000 years later, get the point that no matter what it looks like outside our windows it is Jesus who is the real king.

So now we come back to Jesus on the cross. In addition to being executed, he is also being tempted one last time. If you recall when he was tempted by Satan in the desert, the last temptation was, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here.” Now they are saying things like, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen one.” They are saying, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” Then one of the other men being crucified with Jesus says, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” He is being tempted to prove that he is the King that his disciples claim him to be by saving himself instead of dying on the cross for the salvation of others. They are saying, “If you are the King, then show us some power. Kings don’t die on crosses. Criminals do. What kind of king is this?”

But Jesus is not a king like the kings of this world. He is not the king of the Jews that was expected, coming with violence to overthrow the Romans. He is not a King of Kings like Caesar in his palace in Rome with millions of soldiers at his command. He said it himself, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” and “I am among you as one who serves.” Jesus will not prove his Kingship by saving himself, for that is not the kind of king that he is. And it is a strangely Christian thing to say, but Jesus proves that he is king, by being up there on that cross. Jesus proves his strength through taking on weakness.

But according to Luke (he is the only one who reports this) one of the criminals comes to Jesus’ defense. Luke tells us that one of the criminals had “hurled insults” at Jesus. But the word in Greek actually means “blaspheme,” as in breaking the third commandment, “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God.” Luke is saying that to say something against Jesus is to say something against God. So the other suffering criminal, groans out in agony to the other man, “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

Then the man speaks to Jesus, saying something we should all pray every day. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” By saying this to Jesus, this man is professing his faith in Jesus as King and showing that he realizes that Jesus is not the usual kind of king and that the Kingdom Jesus announced is not the usual kind of kingdom. Despite what the leaders of the people, and the Roman soldiers, and the other criminal say, this peasant from the backwoods of Galilee, who is fastened to a cross in between two dying criminals is, in fact, the real king of kings. And Jesus’ last interaction with another person in Luke’s gospel before he dies is to turn to the man and say, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” His last act of ministry is to welcome a criminal into his heavenly kingdom. That is the kind of King that Jesus is, not the kind who will prove his kingship by saving himself, but by saving a man who has been lost every day of his life but this one. This criminal, by losing his life, is gaining it. That is another strangely Christian thing to say.

Claiming that Christ is our king does have implications for eternal life, but it also has implications for the way we live our lives right now. We have to make decisions everyday as to how we will live in culture and with other people. We have to keep reminding ourselves that Christ is King. Culture is not. Christ is King. Addiction is not. Christ is King. My desires are not. Christ is King. Wealth is not. Christ is King. I am not.

Sometimes our affirmation of Christ as King has to do with big, public issues. I recently saw the movie Amazing Grace, which is about the efforts of William Wilberforce to abolish slavery in the British Empire, something he did because he knew that on that issue he could not support the king’s policies on slavery and claim that Christ is King. In Germany during the 1930’s and 40’s Christians like Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were adamant that Christ was their King, Hitler was not. Also, it is no accident that the civil rights movement in the American South grew out of churches and was led by a Baptist pastor, people who claim Christ as King. Living in culture and having Christ as king is often difficult. Sometimes we have to make difficult, even dangerous decisions when there is a conflict between what culture tells us to do and what Christ would have us do.

There has been an instance of this quite recently for thousands of Christians here in Oklahoma. Oklahoma House Bill 1804, the new law that cracks down on undocumented immigrants in Oklahoma has caused many Christian churches and individual Christians to ask themselves if they can both follow Christ as King and follow this law. Adding to the fire is the fact that it has also been announced that in the next legislative session there will be an additional bill proposed that would “essentially make it illegal for anyone to help an undocumented person.” Many churches have decided that the answer is that they cannot completely follow this new law and at the same time be able to say in truth that Christ is their King.

Many Christians have signed what is called a “pledge of resistance,” which has been sent to Governor Henry. Interestingly enough, resistance to this law has united Christians from many different denominations in a way that I have never seen in my lifetime. The pledge itself was written by a Quaker and a Nazarene. The Oklahoma Conference of Churches, which is made up of the sixteen Christian denominations including the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and Episcopalians has come out in resistance to the law.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City declared in a document sent to the state government: “We stand together, in solidarity, in defiance of this law because of our allegiance to a higher law; the law of love of God and humanity.” The Southern Baptist Convention said: “As Christians, that should be our No. 1 focus -- God first, government second. While we will obey the law to the best of our ability, when people come to our church to worship with us, we are not going to ask for proof of citizenship."

I have never heard of anything uniting Southern Baptists, Catholics, Nazarenes, Presbyterians and many other parts of the body of Christ the way that support for immigrants, documented or undocumented, has united us. And here is why so many churches have come together on this: We all answer the question, “Who is the ultimate authority in your lives?” the same way. The answer is Jesus Christ. We are united because Jesus is Lord, Christ is King, which means that we do everything we can to obey the laws of our land, but if that law would cause us to break the laws of God, we have a decision to make.

Here is why there is a decision to make with this particular issue. Throughout the Old Testament, God said things like this to the people of Israel: “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19: 33-34). In addition to this we read in the New Testament Scriptures of Joseph, Mary, and an infant Jesus having to flee Judea, to become immigrants in Egypt. We read of our Lord Jesus reaching out to the Samaritans, who the Jews did not want around. We read of our Lord saying, “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.” We read of our Lord saying, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared from the creation of the world…I was a stranger and you invited me in…Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you did for me.”

A question that many Christians have been asking themselves and others lately is this: If a family of undocumented immigrants came to Jesus’ door asking for help, would he help them? Well, he healed people on the Sabbath even though the Law said he couldn’t. He reached out to people who were declared unclean, even though the Law said he couldn’t. He reached out to the Samaritans, although the leaders of his people said he couldn’t. Of course he would help them because that is what he came to do, “To preach good news to the poor.” And because that is what he would do, those who have faith in him are to do likewise, because Christ is King. So whether or not you personally agree with the stand all these churches and individual Christians have made, you at least have to admit that they mad this stand because of their belief in Christ as King.

As I said, it is a strangely Christian thing to do, declaring a day to be Christ the King Sunday, then celebrating that day by reading the story of his being crucified on a Roman cross. But, ironically, Luke’s telling of Jesus’ death on the cross helps to answer the question, “What kind of king is this?” He is the king who refuses to save himself to show his authority, but instead he gives his own life for the salvation of others to show his authority. He is the king who refuses to fit the expectations of culture, but instead fits the expectations of God, forgiving his executioners and turning to a dying criminal and assuring him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” So may we be willing to face the same accusations faced by Jason and others in Thessalonica. May there be enough evidence to convict us if we are accused of “saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.’” We can’t expect everybody to understand this. After all, “We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”

May Christ reign as the King of our lives. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

"Enter God's Gates with Thanksgiving"

Psalm 100, Luke 17:11-19

Rev. Everett L. Miller

This past Wednesday, when the wind was fierce and the air was cold I decided to venture out to the church sign to change the message. Since Thanksgiving is this Thursday I wanted to put up a message that has to do with giving thanks to God. So I put on my sweater and grabbed the two boxes of plastic letters and headed out the door. I set the boxes on top of the stone sign and bent down to unlock the sign cover. As I was turning the lock a great gust of wind came up and picked up both boxes and spread hundreds of little white plastic letters all over the sidewalk and throughout the churchyard. As I reached out for them to no avail I’m sure that some very unthankful words came to mind. Then I looked around to make sure no one had witnessed my embarrassing moment and I had to make a decision. Would I pick up all of the letters first, then put the message on the sign, or would I search through the grass for the letters I needed for the message, put it up, then pick up the other letters.

I got down on my hands and knees. For some reason or other I decided to look for the specific letters I needed first. I looked for E’s, G’s, N’s, T’s, and so on, finding some in the grass, some in a pile of leaves, one or two over by the bushes. As I did it I asked the question, “Why did I bring two boxes of plastic letters out here on a windy day?” And feeling somewhat unthankful for the time I was wasting hunting letters like an alphabet Easter egg hunt, I spelled out the message that I had planned to put up in the first place, Psalm 100:4. “Enter God’s Gates with Thanksgiving.”

I locked the sign door back but before I began to pick up the scattered letters I thought about how the choice to spell out the message of thanksgiving first made it possible for me to pick up the pieces in a thankful way. By stopping what I was doing to offer a message of thanksgiving my whole attitude changed. “ENTER GOD’S GATES WITH THANKSGIVING.” How could I spend twenty minutes searching for the letters to spell that out, then turn around and in the next moment not live it out? How beautiful are those words: "Enter God's Gates with Thanksgiving."

In today's gospel passage, Jesus has come across ten men who wanted to pick up the pieces of their lives and who probably felt they had no reason to offer thanksgiving. In fact according to Jewish law they could not even enter God’s gates (meaning the temple gates). They were suffering from skin diseases. In those days, if you had almost any skin disease you were considered a leper and unclean until it healed. What it meant to be unclean is that you had to live outside of the camp or town where everybody else lived. You couldn’t touch other people and they couldn’t touch you. Can you imagine the solitude? Can you imagine not being able to touch your husband or wife, your children or grandchildren?

I remember patients when I was a student hospital chaplain who everybody who came into their rooms had to wear a plastic gown, a thick mask, and rubber gloves. It really affected people when they couldn’t touch the skin of their loved one, when they couldn’t kiss each other, when we held hands to pray it wasn’t skin touching skin but rubber glove on rubber glove. Being in that situation made people feel like lepers. And lepers like these ten men who Jesus met that day were even supposed to call out to people if they approached them, “Unclean, Unclean!” so they would know to avoid them. So these unclean outcasts would form colonies and they would call out from far away for people who traveled by to show mercy on them by giving them alms or charity.

But this is no ordinary man that is passing by today. They have heard of him and what he has done for others. So they yell out to him, “Jesus, master, have pity on us!” Anybody else may have given them a few coins, or maybe as in the parable of the Good Samaritan, they may have seen them, then moved to the other side of the road and kept walking. Surely we have all done that at one time or another when a homeless person is on the sidewalk. But Luke tells us that when Jesus saw them he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” He didn’t even say that they were healed, he simply told the ten men to do what the Law said they must do to be declared clean again. So they started heading off to present themselves to the priests. That was a huge act of faith in itself. Their skin still looks the same, yet they believe in Jesus’ power enough that they believe they will be made clean. These ten men with cracking, pimpled, discolored, infected skin, had been cast out from society, could not be close to their families or friends, could not enter the temple in their unclean condition. But today Jesus had come into their lives and he was going to bring them back into the community.

They are walking together, an act of both communal and individual faith, but surely they had questions in their minds. “Am I being a fool?” “What if I show up at the priest and I’m not clean? They’ll throw me out of town again.” “What if the others are made clean but I am not?” Then Luke tells us “as they went, they were cleansed.” They had reached out to Jesus. They had been obedient. They had taken steps of faith. And now they are clean and are included in the community once again. How happy must they have been? They probably took off running toward the temple, with eyes filled with tears and screaming for the first time in years, “Clean! Clean!”

But one of them “when saw he was healed” turned around and started walking the other way, back to where he had met Jesus. The others must have called out, “What are you doing? Do as the master said. Go to your priests and be declared clean.” But he just kept walking, praising God in a loud voice so anybody out there, so the trees and the rocks and the animals could all hear him blessing the name of the LORD. And when he made it back to Jesus “He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.” Jesus had told him to go to the priests but he was so filled with joy and praise and the urge to thank Jesus that he had to stop what he was doing, even though it was what he had been told to do by Jesus himself, because his gratitude to God was boiling over. So he fell down at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.

Luke likes to tell stories about people placing themselves at Jesus’ feet, which is a sign of faith and humility and honor. The Gerasene man who had been tormented for years and was living naked in the tombs from whom Jesus cast out demons had clothed himself and sat at Jesus’ feet. Jairus, whose daughter was dying fell at Jesus’ feet and asked for help. When Martha was so busy in the kitchen that day in Bethany, her sister Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet.

And there is the story of the "sinful" woman who placed herself at Jesus' feet while he was reclining at the table of Simon the Pharisee. She began to weep and the tears fell onto his feet, so she wiped them off with her hair then pour perfume on them. Simon can't believe that Jesus is letting this happen. Jesus responds by telling Simon, "Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon agreed that it would be the one who had the greater debt. "He who has been forgiven little loves little," Jesus says. Then he turns to the woman, blessing her, "Your sins are forgiven...Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

“He who has been forgiven little loves little.” The leper in today’s passage has no need to be forgiven. He is not a leper because he has sinned, although surely people believed there to be a connection. He was not a “sinner” per se, but he might as well have been. And it gets even worse for him because the next thing we learn about the leper who had been made clean is that he is a Samaritan. Most Jews did not like Samaritans. Actually, they despised them. They saw the Samaritans as mixed-blood, perverters of religion, who were unclean for reasons that I don’t have time to get into now. Jews didn’t even travel through the area of Samaria. It’s a little bit like Israelites and Palestinians these days. But Jesus wasn’t willing to go along with his people and how they viewed the people of Samaria. He only cared how his Father in Heaven viewed them.

Throughout the New Testament we read that “Jesus rebuked his disciples for their hostility to the Samaritans, healed this Samaritan leper, honored a Samaritan for his neighborliness, praised a Samaritan for his gratitude, asked a drink of a Samaritan woman, and preached to the Samaritans. He even challenged his disciples to witness in Samaria.” The Leper was a double outcast, but Jesus did not ask for credentials before he offered him mercy. It was the way of society to hate the Samaritans. But it was the way of Jesus to include them in the Kingdom of God, to treat them as brothers and sisters, and to offer them healing and salvation. And that was most certainly worth going back to give thanks for, so as the other nine lepers continued to walk the other way to do their duty, this man who was an outcast two times over lies at the feet of the Lord.

By the way, have you ever met someone who is duty-bound, but is not joyful or thankful? I can recall muttering under my breath as I raked leaves as a kid. I was performing the duty I had been given by my parents but I don’t remember ever being thankful that I was outside in the cool autumn air, doing my part for our family. I’ve had teachers in my years as a student that I wondered why in the world they ever became a teacher, because it seemed all they were willing to do was to perform their duties by showing up and giving assignments and tests. And I never really noticed how bad it was until I had a poetry professor in college who overflowed with joy and excitement every class and every time I stopped by his office. He loved what he was doing and he was thankful that he got to spend his days opening up the minds of young people to the beauty of language. I’ve met farmers who did it out of duty. “This is what my father did, and his father, and so on so I had to do it.” But then I’ve met farmers who gave thanks and praise to God that they’re days aren’t spent in a cubicle but under the endless blue sky working the land God created.

But an attitude of thanksgiving doesn’t only need to be there in what we do for a living but in everything in our lives. This Samaritan man shows us that the Christian life is more than simply doing what Jesus tells us to do, although that is incredibly important. After all, Jesus does say in John’s gospel, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, that is the one who loves me.” But Jesus certainly didn’t mean that his disciples should just robotically do whatever he tells them. Life in Christ is not a list of rules; it is so much more than that. It is about being so transformed by Jesus’ offer of salvation and God’s grace that we look at life, the good and the bad, the duty and the sacrifice, the sorrowful and the fun, in a totally new way. Being thankful isn’t about being happy all the time, but it is about being grateful to God all the time.

With the healed man at his feet, Jesus looks down and asks, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” Actually, something interesting about what Jesus is saying here is that in the Greek the word translated as “made you well” can also be translated as “saved you.” It is the exact same word that is used when Jesus tells the "sinful" woman, "Go, your faith has saved you." It is a word with multiple meanings and it is a different word from that which is used by Luke when he says the ten lepers were cleansed. In the English all we get is “made you well,” but that one Greek word can mean save (as in Christian salvation), save as in rescue, deliver, keep safe, preserve, cure, and finally make well.” Jesus is blessing this man in a different way than the other nine have been blessed. The great preacher Fred Craddock writes of this, “What we have, then, is a story of ten being healed and one being saved.” This man has been made anew and he has gone past that initial act of faith, and just dutiful obedience, to the realization of what James 1:17 says; “Every good and perfect gift is from above.” So he has returned to give thanks to the Lord.

Like almost everyone else in the Bible, we don’t know whatever came of that Samaritan man. But I’d like to think that he went on living his life with that moment at Jesus’ feet in the forefront of his mind and heart. I’d like to think that his choice to spell out the message of thanksgiving first made it possible for him to pick up the pieces of his life in a thankful way. I’d like to think that he lived a life of praise, gratitude, and joy and translated his personal experience with Jesus and his gratitude for God’s grace into years of bettering other people’s lives, while giving thanks to Jesus all the way. I’d like to think that every doorway he walked through and even every tree’s branches he ever passed under were like God’s gates to him and that he entered them with thanksgiving.

So this week, as we pause for a few hours from our busy lives filled with duty, let us keep the story of this healed Samaritan man in the forefront of our minds and hearts. Let us give thanks for this man who stopped just long enough, even while he was finally picking up the pieces of his life, to offer thanks to the Lord. And let us give thanks to our Lord who has offered us the same salvation, the same new life, the same opportunity to live in gratitude and thanksgiving. And may every door we pass through and even every tree’s branches we pass under be as God’s gates to us and may we enter them with thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving. Amen.

"What is Zacchaeus Seeking?"

Luke 19:1-10

Rev. Everett L. Miller

You may have heard of the book title, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Well, we could probably write a book called Everything I Know about Zacchaeus I Learned in Kindergarten because what most of us know about the man probably comes from the children’s song that starts out, “Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see.” That song gives us the gist of the story. Zacchaeus was short so he climbed up a sycamore tree so that he could see Jesus as he passed through Jericho. When Jesus came to the tree he told Zacchaeus to come down from the tree because Jesus was going to visit his house. The song really does hit the highlights, but if all that we know about this encounter between Zacchaeus and Jesus comes from that great little song, we miss out on the power of this story and it becomes for us just a cute little tale about Jesus being nice to a short guy.

The story of Zacchaeus only takes up 10 verses in Luke’s Gospel and does not appear in any of the other gospels. But we can actually learn quite a bit about the man and the situation he finds himself in from these few verses. The first thing we learn is his name—Zacchaeus. It actually means “innocent,” which is ironic because the next bit of information we get about him is that he is a chief tax collector. If you think the regular tax collectors like Matthew were hated, then imagine how people felt about their bosses, the chief tax collectors. These men would contract directly with the Roman government to collect a certain amount of taxes from their own people. Usually the chief tax collector would pay that year’s full amount to the government before he ever started collecting the taxes. He would then higher underlings, like Matthew for example, to collect the money from the people, but he wouldn’t just recoup the amount that he had paid the Romans. He would hike up the taxes he collected from his own people so he could make a huge profit. If you think the IRS is stealing from you, just be happy we don’t use the Roman system. Chief tax collectors were extremely rich men and they were considered thieves and traitors to their own people. Zacchaeus would also have probably been considered unclean by Jewish law most of the time because of how often he worked directly with the Gentile Romans. Zacchaeus was anything but innocent and he was probably ostracized within his community. His wealth had come with a price.

The next thing we learn is that Zacchaeus wanted to see who Jesus was but there was a crowd gathering in the city of Jericho and he was short so he wasn’t going to be able to see anything when Jesus walked through town. Then we often picture him climbing up a tree. But he did something else first. He took off running. He ran out ahead of the crowd and climbed a sycamore-fig tree, which was extremely common in the Holy Land, with low limbs that produced inferior figs that would only have been eaten by the poor.

That’s not so important, however. But here are a few facts that are: in the extremely formal society of ancient Middle Eastern Judaism it was considered shameful for a man, especially a man of social standing, to run. Kids ran. Men didn’t. Secondly, but in the same vein, it would be shameful for a rich man to climb a tree. Only poor people looking for food would climb a tree. Poor people and kids climbed trees. Grown, rich men didn’t. It may seem cute or goofy to us what Zacchaeus is doing but in his own society he was throwing his inhibitions away, making a fool of himself, and bringing shame on himself and his family. What could have been worth that?

Why did Zacchaeus want to see Jesus? Was he just curious what he looked like? Well, the Greek word for what Zacchaeus was doing was “to seek.” He was seeking to see who Jesus was. But why? It doesn’t make any sense. Zacchaeus, the man who has become rich by exploiting others, is seeking to see the Jesus who earlier in Luke’s Gospel said, “Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.” Zacchaeus is seeking to see Jesus who once told the parable of the rich fool who wound up dead and in trouble with God, saying, “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” Zacchaeus is seeking to see Jesus who told the parable of the rich man who goes to hell and the poor man who goes to heaven. Zacchaeus is seeking to see the same Jesus who just a chapter earlier told a rich man to sell everything he owned and give the money to the poor, then when the man refused told his disciples that “it will be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.” It seems that Jesus is the last person who Zacchaeus should be seeking. So something must be going on within Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus must have also heard that Jesus had been called a friend of tax collectors and “sinners”. He must have heard what chapter 15 tells us, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” He must have heard that Jesus had told a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector, in which the Pharisee brags to God and the tax collector says, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” then Jesus says it is the tax collector who went home justified instead of the Pharisee. And he must have also heard that after Jesus said what he did about how difficult it would be for a rich man to enter heaven, his disciples asked him, “Who can be saved?” And Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”

It must have seemed impossible to Zacchaeus that he could ever be saved from his life of dishonest wealth and his being ostracized from his community. He was surely left out of society, looked down upon. People talked behind his back. His kids probably got beat up because he was their dad. He was branded a sinner and everybody loved to grumble against him. It seems that his own people didn’t even consider him a Jew anymore. He wasn’t a son of Abraham to them. Everybody loved to hate him. Everybody offered him advice about what he could do to make life better for everybody else, like take a long hike off a short pier. But I think it is a pretty safe bet that nobody ever offered Zacchaeus what he really needed: FORGIVENESS--an OPPORTUNITY TO CHANGE--and SALVATION, which is always wrapped up with forgiveness and the opportunity to change.

Zacchaeus must have heard that Jesus once said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” So he is seeking to see the one who said, “everyone who seeks finds.” Zacchaeus is seeking forgiveness. Zacchaeus “sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, because he was small of stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way.” He was willing to lose any tiny little bit of respect that other people might have had for him in order to gain what he truly needed. He was willing to let it all go just for a glimpse of the one who proclaimed God’s love and forgiveness, even for chief tax collectors, especially for chief tax collectors.

He must have been terribly surprised when Jesus and his group of followers approached his tree and Jesus looked up at him and calling him by name although they had never met, said, “Zaccheus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” Then the NIV tells us “he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.” But “welcomed him gladly” doesn’t really give us the power of the word in the Greek. It means “rejoice.” Here in Luke’s gospel it is the word that Gabriel uses when he tells Mary how she should react to the news that she will bear the Savior of the world in her womb. This is the word that is used to describe the reaction of the shepherd who finds his one lost sheep. And this word is the reaction of the father who receives his prodigal son back after he thought he’d lost him forever.

This isn’t just saying, “Sure, Jesus, come on over. I’m glad you’re here.” This is rejoicing because what you have found is so much more magnificent than what you were seeking. This is rejoicing because you are an outcast and you are alone and you are in need of forgiveness and you are in need of an opportunity to change and you need to be saved from all kinds of things and you’ve made a fool out of yourself hiking up your tunic and running down the road and climbing a tree and Jesus, who you were hoping to catch a glimpse of, knows you and wants to come break bread with you. This is rejoicing. So Zacchaeus hopped out of the tree and rejoiced because Jesus is coming to his house for lunch!

So the crowd sees Jesus walk off with Zacchaeus and rolls their eyes and sticks their noses up and huffs and puffs, “[Jesus] has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” Of course Zacchaeus would have expected that, but who cares, Jesus isn’t sitting down to sandwiches at anybody else’s house. And Jesus was surely used to it by now. He’d been hanging out with tax collectors and prostitutes and sinners of all kinds for quite some time. And all this that is going on, the seeking and the finding, the fact that Jesus knew his name and was giving Zacchaeus the opportunities he so sorely needed causes such a change in Zacchaeus that he stands up and tells Jesus, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

What a change! John the Baptist had once talked about bearing fruits worthy of repentance. James would later write, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” Jesus talked a lot about repenting, which means changing the way you think and live. Jesus’ acceptance of Zacchaeus has inspired such a change in Zacchaeus that he is standing up, possibly in the middle of dinner, and repenting. The Zacchaeus who cheated people and who didn’t give to help the poor, that man is dead. From now on he doesn’t want to hold on to money for himself but to give as freely as he has received. Zacchaeus wants to change his life but no one would give him the chance. It was like he had been on an island surrounded by burned bridges, and Jesus was the only one willing make the swim. Jesus had once said, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” Zacchaeus had gained a lot, but he had forfeited his very self. But even if the whole city of Jericho had given up on Zacchaeus, Jesus hadn’t.

So Jesus replies, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.” Jesus has given Zacchaeus his identity back and re-included him in God’s covenant community of faith. It doesn’t matter if everybody else in town looks down on Zacchaeus and says he’s such a traitor, that he’s not even a Jew, not even a son of Abraham, because Jesus says he is and that is what matters. We don’t know exactly what Jesus means by salvation here. We are not told if Zacchaeus has made a profession of faith in Jesus. We are not told if he wants to join up with the disciples. But what we do know is that whatever happened in Zacchaeus was so powerful that Jesus sensed that and that Jesus proclaimed that salvation had come to Zacchaeus and his family because of what had happened that day with all the running and tree climbing and rejoicing and repenting.

And here it gets even more interesting. Jesus says, “For the Son of Man (by which he is referring to himself) came to seek and to save what was lost.” I thought it was Zacchaeus who was seeking to see Jesus, not the other way around. And Zacchaeus was certainly seeking Jesus because Zacchaeus was lost and he thought Jesus might be the one in whom he would be found. But Zacchaeus wasn’t the only one who was seeking someone that day. Jesus was seeking for him as well. In fact, Jesus says that is why he came to earth, to Israel, to Jericho, to Zacchaeus, a grown man in a tree. He came to seek and to save the lost. So Zacchaeus may have been a wee little man and a wee little man was he, but he was also lost and he knew it, but so did Jesus. The world wouldn’t give Zacchaeus another chance but Jesus would, because Jesus is the seeker and the savior of the lost.

And here is the best news of it all: that is just as true today as it was then. If you are lost, if the world has given up on you, if you have gained much but forfeited your very self, if what you seek is forgiveness, if what you seek is the opportunity to change, if what you seek is salvation, seek Jesus. He has promised that if you seek him, you will find him, because although you might think you are the only one who is seeking for something, for someone, he is seeking for you too. Like a miraculous birth, like a lost sheep found, like a long lost child returned, that is worth rejoicing over. Rejoice, for Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost. Praise God.

"We are All Beggars"

Luke 18:9-14, 2 Timothy 4:1-8

Rev. Everett L. Miller

The end is near for Paul. It seems that he has been sentenced to death or he expects to be soon, so he is writing to the one he has called his spiritual son, Timothy. Some scholars say that Paul did not write this letter, for one reason because it does not make the same type of theological points that his letters usually do. Those who say he did write it make the point that he was near death when he wrote it so he was not so much concerned with writing a theological treatise as he was with encouraging Timothy and coming to terms with his own impending death.

You all know that my Granny died a little over two years ago. Well, because she had donated her body for medical research, we just received her ashes about two weeks ago. Last Saturday a bunch of us met outside of Hunter, Oklahoma, on the old farm place and spread her ashes in an old orchard where she used to bird-watch. This got me to thinking about how much I miss her and how my Granny was one of the smartest and most philosophical people I’ve ever known. She was also never short of advice. But the last few times I saw her before she died, and I am convinced she sensed the end was coming a couple of months before it happened, she gave me a generous gift of money for Danielle and me, she insisted that I borrow an incredibly ugly and feminine fleece jacket because it was a cold morning, she told me she was proud of me, and she stood at the door and waved as I pulled out of the parking spot. She did not get philosophical. She simply did what had been most important to her; she did her best to use her meager resources to provide for her grandkids, to protect me from the cold even though I was 26 years old, and she encouraged me. This memory gives me perspective on what really matters in life.

Today is Reformation Sunday, celebrating the fact that on October 31, 1517, a German Catholic monk by the name of Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to a church door. That was only the beginning, however. Martin Luther wrote volume after volume of theological works. He was one of the bravest and most talented thinkers in history. He is a giant among the framers of modern Christianity and Western Civilization as a whole, but the night he died he took a piece of paper and scribbled some words on it, the last words being: “We are all beggars, this is true.” They found it on his nightstand after he had died. With all of that important theology and doctrine within him, what was most important to him at the end was the fact that we are all beggars of God’s mercy and forgiveness, as well as the mercy and forgiveness of others. We are all, ultimately dependent on grace. Luther’s final words also help to put life in proper perspective.

Today's lectionary passage from Luke’s gospel tells us that one day Jesus was talking to some people who were too confident of themselves and looked down on others. He told them a parable of 2 men who went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, who everyone would assume was righteous; the other was a tax collector who everyone would have assumed was a scoundrel and sinner. But the Pharisee prayed these words: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a 10th of all I get.” Then the tax collector bows his head, beats his chest and says—“God, have mercy on me—a sinner.”

Here is how Jesus sums it up. “I tell you this man, rather than the other went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Jesus does not say that the Pharisee would have been better off as a robber, evildoer, or adulterer or that he shouldn’t fast or give his ten percent tithe of his income. But this parable is about proper perspective, which Jesus’ story shows is similar to Luther’s last words. “We are all beggars. This is true.” The Tax Collector understands that; the Pharisee does not.

So when Paul senses that his fight is almost over, that his race is nearly finished, it is not more doctrine that is needed, as important as it is, but proper perspective that he offers Timothy. And his proper perspective is this: don’t let what other people are doing deter you from doing what God has called you to do. Other people may drift away to versions of the gospel that are really just what is easy and what they want to hear. But as for you, Timothy, continue preaching the Word, keep your head, be willing to endure hardship, and keep bringing others to faith in Christ.

There is no great treatise on justification and sanctification, no long meditations on the end times. Paul simply lays things out for Timothy. Paul only has time for what really matters; death is near. He is “already being poured out like a drink offering.” He says this to allude to the fact that Jewish priests, when they are performing a sacrifice at the temple, would pour out a cup of wine on the altar to complete the sacrifice. Paul says he is like that wine being poured on the altar signifying the completion of the sacrifice that has been his life since the risen Jesus appeared to him some 30 years earlier.

In 2 Corinthians he says, “I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.”

He’d traveled all over the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the Mediterranean, and he may have even been as far west as Spain. All of those sacrifices in his life for the gospel and as he nears the end it comes down to this: encouragement for Timothy and this statement, “There is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award me on that day—and not only me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” There is no bragging about where he had been and what he had done. He doesn’t even call himself righteous; it is the Lord who is righteous and who can award the crown of righteousness. Paul even makes the point of saying that this isn’t something special for him but for everyone who has faith in Jesus.

We are all ultimately dependent on God’s grace, on God’s mercy and forgiveness. We are all beggars, each and every one of us. This is proper perspective. Isn’t that so much of what faith in God and living as a disciple of Jesus Christ is about: having proper perspective, knowing that we need God and we need others, knowing that we are in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness, and in turn others are in need of our mercy and forgiveness. Isn’t so much of faith knowing that we are all beggars before God, like that tax collector beating his breast and beseeching, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” like Martin Luther on his death bed, like Paul who looks forward to his crown of righteousness not because he is righteous but because he has faith in Jesus and it is Jesus who is righteous.

It has been said that sharing your faith in Christ with others is really just one beggar telling another beggar where to get bread. We are all beggars and it is Jesus who is the bread of mercy and forgiveness, for which we all hunger. That is why the Lord’s Supper is so extremely important to Sunday worship, because it acts out this truth. To know that you are reliant upon God’s grace and to put your faith in the one who embodies that grace, our Lord Jesus Christ, and to re-orient everything in your life in light of that, now that is proper perspective.

Preached @ Southwestern College, Winfield, KS

"Sweeter than Honey to My Mouth"

Psalm 119:97-104

Rev. Everett L. Miller

When I was in the fourth or fifth grade, I discovered a book that made something magical happen between the words on the page and the imagination within me. It was the book that unlocked my imagination. I assume that I bought it at the much anticipated Scholastic Book Fair. Do you remember the Scholastic Book Fairs in elementary school? They would wheel all of those shiny metal bookshelves into the library and form them into a semi-circle and they’d set out the racks of bookmarks with tassels and pictures of kittens or racecars on them. Then each class would get a turn to walk through to look at the books about sports, exotic animals and kid detectives like Encyclopedia Brown. This was before there were Barnes and Nobles and Borders everywhere and before you could just get on the Internet and have a book over-nighted to you from Amazon.Com.

This particular time I picked out a book called A Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop. On the cover was an illustration of a young boy the same age as me in front of a miniature castle and holding a little figure of a knight as though it was alive. I made the purchase with my hard earned allowance money and began to read it that night. When I would have usually been outside playing basketball or football with other neighborhood kids I was sitting on the top bunk in my room reading this amazing book in which a little boy named William receives an old play castle from his British nanny who is getting ready to move away. The castle comes with only one figure, a knight. At first he is disappointed with only having one figure but then he opens the box holding it and finds that the little knight is alive. It was kind of The Indian in the Cupboard meets The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

I don’t have time to tell you any more of the plot but this book convinced me that two worlds, the world of William and the world of the castle and the knight, can overlap. It opened my mind to think that just maybe there is something more magical and alive to those things which we might otherwise look at as being inconsequential. As I stay up late, under my covers reading that book with a flashlight, arguing with my stepbrother on the bottom bunk who kept telling me to shut it off and go to sleep, the relationship between words and imagination was born for me. Words came to life.

Later in life I discovered another book that did much the same thing for me, but on a grander scale, a life-transforming scale. I bought my first very own Bible when I was sixteen. Well, after I made that purchase I sat for what seemed like hours but may have only been minutes reading the Scriptures, reading the stories of Jesus, reading of the children of Israel, and the beautiful poetry of the Psalms, and even the strange visions of Revelation. And I remember it like it was the beginning of a relationship. I didn’t know if I liked it or not. Sometimes I wanted to sleep with it in my arms and at other times I wanted to throw it out the back door. I didn’t understand it but at the same time I wanted to learn everything there was to know about it. And at first maybe it was just words on a page but thirteen years later I can look back on it and see that one of the things that was happening in me that I couldn’t understand was that the relationship between holy words and a holy imagination was being born within me. Words were coming to life and this book started to convince me that two worlds, the world of my everyday existence and the world of God’s dream for creation can overlap. It opened my mind to think that just maybe there is something more mysterious, delightful and alive to those things which we might otherwise look at as being inconsequential. I was, in a manner of speaking, falling in love.

In Psalm 119, the poet declares, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.” This isn’t like, “I love pepperoni pizza” or “I love watching My Name is Earl on Thursdays.” The Hebrew word used here for love is the same word that is used over and over again in the Song of Solomon, as in “Have you seen the one my heart loves?” This is true love, not just finding it interesting, not just memorizing it so you can regurgitate it later, this is being in love with the law of God, being in love with the Scriptures in a similar way to the way you love another person. “Oh, how I love your law.” How can this be?

When I was a senior at Oklahoma State University, I started to hang around with a cute freshman girl. We sort of dated and sort of didn’t. We were friends, then we were dating, then we hated each other, then we were friends, then we were dating, and so on. Maybe you can relate. I was about to graduate from college and she was just getting started so there was no way in the world that I was going to let this get serious and to fall in love with her. But then after I had done some really stupid stuff and almost lost her then something started to change. I stopped imagining what life might be like if I was to graduate and move off by myself to some big city and pursue a career in writing and I started to imagine what life might be like with both of us in the picture. When I began to fall in love with this girl who became my wife I knew that things had changed from interest or even infatuation to true love when I started to imagine our life together and I thought about it what seemed like all day long and it hurt when I wasn’t with her. In fact it still does. This is the kind of imagination that doesn’t just take place in your mind, but also takes place in your heart, your soul, that deep down core of who you are. This is where imagination and love intertwine. And the poet proclaims, “Oh, how I love your law!”

Do you think of love and imagination when you think of the Bible? Is it just words on the page like an encyclopedia? Is it just a bunch of hard names to pronounce and terrible stories of violence and silly stories of miracles and lists of things you can’t do because life might be too fun if you did them? If that is the case for you, I ask you to pray to God that your imagination might be opened.

In fact, I want us to pray for that right now. Repeat after me:

Loving God, explode my imagination with your love.

Explode my imagination with your Spirit.

Explode my imagination with your Word.

Amen.

When you are open to the working of God in your life, the Scriptures can begin to open up your imagination and an entirely new reality breaks in on you.

You begin to imagine an existence in which there is a creator God who not only formed everything in creation but also loves you and everybody else. You begin to imagine an existence in which in some strange, mysterious, and holy way God came to walk among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. You begin to imagine an existence in which a Holy Spirit from God begins to tear down walls between people. You begin to imagine an existence that is in turmoil but is not hopeless, instead it is on its way to being made whole again and that you get to participate in it by loving others and the world through acts of justice, kindness, and mercy. You begin to imagine an existence, your personal existence, that matters in the cosmic scheme of things.

And you know what happens when you start to really imagine these things? You start to notice that something has changed from interest or even infatuation to true love when you start to imagine a life together with God and you think about it what seems like all day long and it hurts when you are not walking with God. This is the kind of imagination that doesn’t just take place in your mind, but also takes place in your heart, your soul, that deep down core of who you are. This is where imagination and love intertwine. And you find that you are falling in love with God through falling in love with the Scriptures and you just might burst out with some ridiculous words like, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.”

And as you fall in love with God through falling in love with God’s Word you begin to see that the world of your everyday existence and the world of God’s dream for creation begin to overlap.

And you find that you begin to become what Paul tells Timothy is being “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

And you see that the Bible isn’t there to simply answer your questions, but instead it questions you. It might ask you:

Are you willing to imagine the way that God wants things to be and are you willing to bring that imagination into being with the help of God’s Spirit?

Are you willing to stop loving stuff and start loving your God and the people God created and the creation God formed as an artist?

Are you willing to be “thoroughly equipped for every good work?”

Are you willing to have your imagination explode, to live beyond your imagination, and to have your life transformed?

Are you willing to fall in love with God?

And you thought it was just words on a page!

And the poet declares, “O how I love your law… Your words are sweet to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” Amen.

"Set an Example: A Confirmation Sermon"

1 Timothy 4:12

Rev. Everett L. Miller

When I was sixteen I used money from my summer job at the grain elevators in Enid to go to Ruth’s Christian Bookstore in the Oakwood Mall to buy my first very own Bible. And one of the first verses that I highlighted was 1 Timothy 4:12—“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.” That was a very important bit of encouragement for a sixteen year old who had just made a profession of faith. It is also a wonderful bit of encouragement for the two thirteen year olds who are making their profession of faith today. And it is still very important to me at the age of twenty-nine because although our confirmands may think that I am old as dirt, in the vocation I have chosen, I feel that sometimes I am looked down on because I am young (relatively speaking). I would imagine, though, that we could replace the word “young” with a lot of other adjectives and this verse would still make sense. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are “older,” because you are “different in some other way,” "because you can't afford expensive clothes," just go about your business of being a faithful example for others.

But today we are going to talk specifically about young people, and I think if we were all honest with ourselves we would admit that at least from time to time we make the mistake of looking down on people simply because they are young. "Oh, that’s just what teenagers are like. That’s just a typical teenage point of view." We may assume the only subjects they care about are clothes, sports, video games, and the opposite sex. "Someday they’ll grow up," we say. We are sometimes too hard on them (and sometimes too easy on them). But the truth of the matter is that it is often difficult to be a teenager and it is just as often difficult to raise a teenager. And I don’t know if you have thought about this at all but it can also be difficult to be a church family to teenagers, trying to keep them interested in their spirituality, trying to relate to them when we live in a different world than they do.

Being young in 2007 is not the same as it was for many of you who grew up in different eras, not even in this little town. I was thirteen in 1991 and it may not seem that long ago to us but think about this: I had never heard of the Internet and only millionaires had wireless phones. The world of the teenager is much different now than it was even for me. It is probably more difficult to be young these days even though life may seem easier with the Internet, satellite TV, video games, etc.

Often both parents work. All that Internet, TV, and video games comes with all kinds of images of sex, and much worse than that—violence. Girls are pressured to be dangerously thin and willing to do whatever will get a boy to like them. Boys are pressured to be tough, maybe even violent, and taught to treat girls as conquests. You have to wear certain clothes or play a certain sport. You’re pressured to drink and smoke and try drugs at younger ages. Reality television teaches you to succeed no matter who you have to deceive or hurt. I would venture to say that never has it been as important and at the same time as difficult to be a teenager who cares about faith and lives a life of faithfulness. Also, it has probably never been as difficult for a teenager to enjoy spending time with their family and to actually enjoy participating in the life of a faith community.

There are so many obstacles standing between today’s teenagers and having a living, strong faith in Jesus Christ. For the most part it is our very own American culture that erects the biggest wall between a young person’s heart and God. When I was in seminary I took a class in youth ministry in which we did a great deal of research into the motives behind much of our modern American way of life. This is what we found in a huge number of sources: The companies that make TV shows, clothes and music for young people want to separate teenagers from their families, from their church families, and from their local community. They want teenagers to only hang out with kids their own age and they want them to all want to look alike and act alike. They want thirteen year olds in Newkirk to be just like thirteen year olds in New York and Seattle and Des Moines, Iowa and Naples, Florida. They want our confirmands to be just like everybody else because if they can get all the thirteen year olds to want to be just like each other then they can sell them what they need to achieve that and they make tons of money. Who cares if the teenageers lose any sense of uniqueness? Who cares if they start to think of their parents and family as simply getting in the way? Who cares if they don’t have any sort of faith and hope? The companies don’t care. But God cares. And those of us in this congregation better care.

Today our confirmands are professing their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and in doing that they are telling everyone here that they are Christians. In days past that may not have been that big of a deal, but these days for a young person to say that, mean it, and to live it out is an extraordinarily counter-cultural thing to do. When we become professing Christians, if we take it seriously, we often find that we are at odds with our own culture. We find that we have to fight the temptation to buy more and more stuff, because now that we are Christians we know that our value lies with God not in how much fun junk we can accumulate. We find that now that we are Christians we can’t put up with racism or sexism because we now know that we are all created in God’s image and loved equally by God. We find that now that we are Christians that it does matter how we treat the people that nobody else seems to like because we now know that Jesus came to the poor, the weak, and the outcast and sends us to those same people. We find that now that we are Christians we cannot give into the idea that what we really need to do with our lives is to make a bunch of money and get famous because we now know that God calls us to a ministry of some sort. And we find that now that we are Christians we cannot allow ourselves to give into our culture that says that Sunday is just like any other day, because we now know that Christ was resurrected on Sunday and it is a day of worship, of devotion, and rest and that is all.

When we are Christians, younger or older, because of our faith in Jesus Christ we have to stand up to the destructive parts of our own culture. And Paul’s words to Timothy speak to this fact. Although Paul knew nothing of MTV, Myspace, XBOX 360, or I-phones, his advice to Timothy rings true with young people (and all of us) today. He begins, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young.” Youth and the energy and creativity that come with it are gifts. But on the other side of this, you can’t use your youth as an excuse either. As of today our confirmands are full members of this congregation, which means that they now have as much responsibility and the same vote as a member who is 40 or 60 or 80 years old.

Paul’s words could also be addressed to the rest of us—Don’t look down our confirmands because they are young. Just don’t do it. They can do just as much wonderful work for God’s kingdom as anyone else in this room or anyone else in the worldwide church. They are beginning the journey of faith and that is holy business. We cannot look at them and think they are just silly teenagers and what could they know. God just might work through these young people to inspire the rest of us to have a more vital and joyous faith. God just might choose to challenge the rest of us through their examples.

Paul tells Timothy that instead of letting other people look down on him because he is young, he should actually set an example for everyone else by how he lives his life. “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.” People should be able to listen to Timothy speak and know that he believes in Jesus Christ. Can people listen to us talking and know that we have faith and peace and joy from God? People should be able to watch Timothy live his life and know that he is a disciple of Jesus. What do our lifestyles tell about us? Are we generous? Do we refrain from judging others? Do we worship and study and pray? Then Paul tells Timothy that people should be able to see him loving other people and God. People should look at the way he interacts with other people and know that there is something different about him, that he is more loving than he would be if he wasn’t a Christian. Paul tells Timothy that his faith should shine through in all that he does. And finally, Paul tells Timothy to stay pure—meaning sexual purity. Don’t give into that temptation, Paul tells Timothy.

We should all strive to live into this level of faith and character, but on this Confirmation Sunday I especially challenge our confirmands to consider this form of lifestyle which they are putting on today. May everyone at school listen to you speak and know that you believe in Jesus Christ. May everyone watch your lifestyle and know that you believe in Jesus Christ. May everyone see how you love other people, especially those who are rejected by others, and know that you believe in Jesus Christ. May everyone be able to tell that although your faith may be new to you that you are serious about your faith in Jesus Christ and that it makes a difference in your life and gives you joy and hope. And may everyone be able to tell by how you show respect for the opposite sex and by how you respect your own body and the bodies of others that you believe in Jesus Christ.

Let me say this just to our confirmands (although it goes for all of us): both of you are made in the image of God. I know that you don’t really know exactly what that means. That’s okay because none of us really knows exactly what that means. But it means at least these things—you are beautiful inside and out, you are loved by God more than you can ever imagine, you have the capacity for wonderful imagination and creativity, and you have the urge to love other people. You are not just future adults. You are God’s beloved children right now at the age of 13. And that is who you are supposed to be—a 13 year old boy and a 13 year old girl. You are two 13 year old disciples of Jesus Christ. You are not just called to do something great someday. You are called to do great things now.

Don’t just be consumers. Change the world by embodying Christ’s love. Change the world by being peacemakers. Change the world by helping others to come to relationship with God. Change the world. Going to church on Sundays will not cut it by itself. Confirmation is not a graduation or an ending. Confirmation is just the very beginning of your journey of faith. Sunday School and worship attendance is extremely important, however. When you are confirmed, you promise that you will be an active part of this congregation. If you decide in a year or two that you are too busy or too cool to come to church any more you will have broken that promise and as long as I’m here, I will call you on that because we as disciples of Jesus Christ are to be people who keep our promises to God and to each other.

Set an example for the rest of us in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity. Set an example for the rest of us by inviting people to come to Sunday school and worship with you. Set an example for the rest of us by having new and creative ideas for worship and ministry and acting upon them. Set an example for the rest of us by falling in love with God through falling in love with the Scriptures. Set an example for the rest of us by rejecting racism and sexism, by living in a manner that reminds all of us that we belong to God.

Today is a joyous day in heaven and on earth. Two young people will declare their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Two young people will take on more responsibility in this community of faith. Two young people who were baptized as young children are taking the faith of their parents and of this congregation and making it their own. Two young people are beginning the journey of walking the way with Jesus. And to our confirmands: as you walk this way with the rest of us, “Don’t let [any of us] look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.”

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

"The Best Christian Education in the World"

2 Timothy 1:1-7

Rev. Everett L. Miller

I’ve told you before that for many years of my childhood my family attended a great church called Yeaman’s Park Presbyterian Church in Hanahan, South Carolina. When all of us kids were at home my parents were very adamant about the family attending Sunday School and worship. I am glad that my parents made a point of doing that, as I later looked back on that congregation and remembered that the pastor had tried to help our family through some very difficult times. The memory of his witness helped me make my decision to become a pastor. But there was quite a disconnect between what we did on Sunday mornings and what we did as a family the rest of the week. We may have said grace; I don’t remember. But never did we discuss what we learned on Sunday morning. Never did we talk about faith. Never did we crack open a Bible. As a child growing up in the church I don’t think that I ever actually owned a Bible. If I did, I certainly didn’t keep it in my room. I cannot venture to say what was really taking place in my parents' hearts in those years but looking back on it I think we probably went to church on Sunday because that’s what respectable families do on Sunday in South Carolina. But faith never really came home with us.

One of my professors in seminary once told our class that everyone wants for the church to be like a big family, but Christians often forget that the family should also be like a little church. The best Christian Education in the world, he said, takes place not in Sunday School but at home. Faith has to come home with us, he said.

A long time ago, a very important prophet by the name of Moses had a habit of saying similar things:

"Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them." (Deut. 4:9)

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." (Deut. 6:4)

The great Apostle Peter, on the very day that the Holy Spirit came down as though it was tongues of fire, also said something similar:

Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call. (Acts 2:38-39)

And finally, in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul commands, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Faith has to come home with us. After all, as we will see from Paul’s words to Timothy, our faith does not live at 201 South Walnut; it lives within us.

Paul begins his letter to the young pastor Timothy by building him up. He calls him “my beloved child,” which must be a wonderful thing to hear from your spiritual teacher. Paul recalls a time when Timothy broke down in tears, maybe when Paul and Timothy parted ways. He tells Timothy that when he sees him again he will be filled with joy. Then he talks about Timothy’s faith. Paul could have said, “I am reminded of your sincere faith that lives in you.” But he didn’t; he chose to trace that faith back through the channels through which it came, like tracing a river back to its tributaries. “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.” This faith came from grandma, from mom, and now lives within Timothy. Who knows why it doesn’t mention dad and grandpa? Maybe they weren’t around. Maybe they never became believers. Who knows? But what we do know is that if it wasn’t for the fact that Lois and Eunice wouldn’t let their faith stay on Sunday mornings or where they met for worship, if it wasn’t for the fact that Lois and Eunice brought their faith home with them and shared it with little Timmy, then that faith may have never come to live within Timothy. It appears that the home, which Lois and Eunice provided for the family, was like a little church.

Lois and Eunice must have known that if we do not raise our children to love the Lord, to study the scriptures, to spend time in prayer, then we should not be surprised if when they grow up they want nothing to do with faith or the church, because it will have no value for them. Granny Lois and Momma Eunice must have known this and they did the holy work of passing on the faith. Paul later had even more compliments for Timothy's family: "But as for you [Timothy], continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have know the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation thorugh faith in Christ Jesus." Faith came home with them and the results are wonderful.

You might want to say, “Well Everett, your parents didn’t bring faith home for you and look, you ended up as a pastor. So it’s not that important.” Although now is not the time for my full testimony about what brought me to my knees and what brought me to the realization that I just can’t go on living without Jesus Christ in my life, but I will tell you enough so you can get the point that it does matter if faith comes home.

During my four years of high school I lived with a different family each year. Before entering my senior year in high school I was once again looking for a place to live. I didn’t feel like I could go back to my parents’ house. My grandfather was in the final stages of lung cancer so I couldn’t move back in with them. So the family of one of my good friends set up a trundle bed in his room and although I was never officially adopted I became one of their children. They were the youth pastors at the Baptist Church and they brought their faith home with them. They talked about what God was doing in their lives. They prayed a lot. They studied the scriptures at home. Faith mattered to them. My new family loved Jesus and I got to see it in action. As my professor said, the best Christian Education in the world takes place not in Sunday School but at home. Faith has to come home with us, as it did in Timothy’s family with his grandma Lois and his mom Eunice.

Life is busy, too busy for many of us. We do and do and do. We don’t see our families as much as we’d like. There’s always noise from the TV or the radio. Even though I’m a pastor, don’t for a second think that I live some sort of monastic existence where all I have to do is pray and read the Bible. I live in the same world you do. Phone calls. Paperwork. Deadlines. Meetings.

But if our faith is truly going to live within us, as Paul says of Timothy’s faith, then we must talk about what God is doing in lives at home, we must pray as a family and for our families, we must spend time in God’s Word, we must live in a way that our children and grandchildren can look at us and have no doubt in their minds that we do believe in Jesus Christ, that faith does matter.

Our faith cannot only live at 201 South Walnut, because if it does only live here then what happens when we are not at 201 South Walnut? It is as I quoted this past Wednesday night, “Sometimes you have to see somebody love Jesus before you can love him yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way.” Who better to show the way than mom and dad, than grandma and grandpa, than husband or wife?

I say, "Thank God for Lois and Eunice."

I say, "Thank God for my best friend’s family."

I say, "Thank God for all who take their faith home with them."

And finally I say, "Thank God for a faith that lives within us instead of in this building."

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.