Saying Grace reminds us of Grace

Article printed in Durant Daily Democrat on Friday, July 29, 2011

Saying grace can go something like this: “God is great, God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. Amen.” I do suggest praying prior to every meal as it is a great way to remember what God has done to provide for us and our physical needs. In addition, we need to remember those that are struggling currently not only during our prayer but with our action of giving and volunteering. Not only does saying grace remind us that God has provided our meals, but that through Jesus the Christ we have been given salvation. We remember every time we break bread that Jesus gave His whole self for our wholeness. Saying grace is a wonderful practice and I encourage everyone to do it, and not only when company comes to dinner, and do note it does not need to be said aloud, for God hears every thought. And as I am on the subject, if you do want to get to eating before the food gets cold, you may want to start praying instead of asking the preacher, and some congregants of mine have figured that out over the years.

This may seem like a non sequitur, but I hope to tie it up in the next paragraph. More and more people are taking medicines. Some are prescribed for a specific duration, but many have been prescribed indefinitely. I have helped some congregants go to the doctor, and always the question comes up, “What medications are you taking?” The most organized patients will have a printed list with all the information printed, and from an experience a few years ago in my family I know that it is essential, not only for the doctor, but simply to know when and what medicines should be administered. Of course, like most people, I would want to avoid taking medicine; however, I know that many people have improved their quality of life as well as longevity. It is wonderful what the medical field can do with these assorted colorful pills, caplets, and injections we call medicine.

Back to saying grace, we say it when we are consuming meals that sustain us, but why do most of us not say grace when we take our medicine? Well I hope it is simply that you have not thought of it, for every time I suggest it to someone, they react with what a great idea it is. I will not take credit for this idea, but I want you to know why and how to say grace for your medicine. It is not the same prayer you would say at the dinner table, rather it would go something like this, “Jesus the Great Physician, help these medications to do the work as it is intended, protect me from any of the side effects. I thank You for my medical help that comes from you through my medical staff and caregivers. Most of all I thank You for making me whole through your death and resurrection.” Or something like that, as a preacher I may go on even longer myself. This additional grace over medications I believe helps the medication to work more fully, but more importantly it reminds us what really makes us whole is our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.

Saying grace at the meal table, or for a medication, reminds us of Grace. It is not what we do but what God does for us all that we are saved and made whole.

Sound the Trumpet

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

There are five parables in this scripture.  The last one about fish talks about the end of the age, and how there will be a judgment.  However, these parables are not about the Kingdom of Heaven coming only at the end of the age, rather that it has come near, now.  While it is true that it is all set with the knowledge of the escahton, that is not the key to the Kingdom.

The first two parables demonstrates the power of the Kingdom of God and how it only needs a little to create is large dominion.  The parable of the leaven that is put into three measures of flour (about 50 pounds), demonstrates the power of God.  The end result is bread, which is what sustains us here on earth.  According to this parable the Kingdom of Heaven is a large quantity of bread, created with a small amount of yeast.  It is a miracle that feeds.  The mustard seed is sowed in the field and grows into a tree that reflects the following Hebrew Scriptures:

The tree that you saw, which grew great and strong, so that its top reached to heaven and was visible to the end of the whole earth, whose foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant, and which provided food for all, under which animals of the field lived, and in whose branches the birds of the air had nests (Dan 4:20-21)

On the mountain height of Israel
   I will plant it,
in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,
   and become a noble cedar.
Under it every kind of bird will live;
   in the shade of its branches will nest
   winged creatures of every kind. (Ezekiel 17:23)
All the birds of the air
   made their nests in its boughs;
under its branches all the animals of the field
   gave birth to their young;
and in its shade
   all great nations lived. (Ezekiel 31:6)

The large tree that represents the Kingdom of Heaven is a home to many.  And even beyond the realm of Israel.  It is a home for everyone now.

The second two parables are about how one comes about experiencing this Kingdom of Heaven that has come near.  The first happens upon it in a field, the second is searching for the greatest pearl, either way, both give their whole financial selves to the field or pearl respectively.  One gives there whole selves when they either stumble on or find what they were searching. 

I have a wonderful story from my life about finding the Kingdom of Heaven, on earth.  This leavened bread, this tree, this treasure, this great pearl, but I don’t know if I was searching or if I stumbled upon it.  I will share the story with you.

I was talking to my dad on the phone when he told me that me nephew was interested in playing the trumpet.  Well I knew there was a trumpet of my dad’s in the attic of his house, I put it there.  See 30 plus years ago my dad brought the trumpet home from his childhood home when I was 7 or 8.  I was excited about it and learned how to blow it some.  Well as a young boy I also found that a marble could be kept rolling around the horn with centrifugal  force.  Often the marble would shot out across the room, but twice it went into the horn.  However, only once did it come out.  I tapped on the trumpet, blew on it, used a long stick, and put a lot of valve oil down all in an effort to free the little white marble from the trumpet.  I did not go to my parents, especially my dad, but I did know how to open the attic and I placed it in the attic.

A few years later I was in fifth grade and all the students were encouraged to be part of the band.  They had older students come and demonstrate the different instruments and we were to write down the three we were interested in.  I put down trumpet, for it what I wanted to play, but I was scared.  I did write down drums as well for I was interested in percussion as well.  The third I put down was sousaphone, because the school provided the instrument, and I could keep the attic door shut.   Well the next week the band leader called me in and asked if I was serious about the sousaphone, apparently it is not popular.  He got me excited about playing that large horn, and I could keep the attic closed. 

Back to the phone conversation with my dad.  He told me he got the trumpet down from the attic and it did not seem to work.  So I said to him, look inside you should find a white marble.  He said “white marble” with me as he must have turned the horn around and then asked, how did you know it was white?  I then shared the story I have shared and we laughed and laughed.  See I was scared of my father when I was young.  I was not abused but I was scared.  He was not always around and I projected his judgment and he certainly provided some.  It was even how I thought of God, for a while.  My relationship with my dad matured greatly, from work we both did. 

Finding that great marble was stumbling on something I knew, that the Kingdom of God is found in the relationships, not our wealth and success.  During the week I was preparing this sermon, a congregant sent me this link:  http://churchwhisperer.com/2011/04/19/41911/

The writer, Blake Coffee, uses the metaphor of the church as a quilt.  A wonderful metaphor that seems to emphasize Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12:12 “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”  I have used that metaphor as well but what Blake adds is about the stitching.  For a quilt is not simply many pieces laid out in as an image, they are connected by thread.  Those represent our relationships.  What I really enjoyed was the analysis that when an issue hits the church we worry more about the weight of the issue rather than the strength of our relationships.  I should have had confidence in my relationship with my father when I was young, apologized and asked for forgiveness.  I am sure I would have been sounding the trumpet. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is found in those relationships.  We search and stumble upon those relationships and give our whole selves.  Forgiving and being forgiven or in a work Love.  For it is not simply about the end time, or a future time, it is now.  Even if you lost 30 years you can still find the Great Pearl (Marble) in your attic.

Tell It!

Luke 10:1-24

This scripture reminds me of my wonderful hiking boots I had as a teen.  They went over many miles of terrain, mostly in Maine when I was a teen.  I was reminded of these boots and backpacking because Jesus sends out the seventy packing light.  If you know anything about backpackers, they are always trying to pack light, not as light as Jesus orders the seventy, but that is because they will stop in each town for provisions, and the backpacker with have everything packed on their back.  The similarities do not end there.  Backpackers need to look forward.  This is not just because they are walking, but with a pack on back one must be looking forward and up not just at their feet, as to keep their airways open and to be open for new experiences, not just each step.  Nor can the backpacker obsess on the comforts they left at home.  Eventually it is great to get back home eating fresh food, showering in a hot shower, and slipping between clean cool sheets, but during the trip you will miss the point of backpacking.  You have to eat what is in front of you, and be flexible.  I remember a time where we had a raccoon eat some of our fruit and we planned to walk along the shore of a large lake, which seemed very easy until we realized that the spring rain, brought the water level up to the tree line in most places.  We had to bush-wack and walk a greater distance to cross the overflowing streams.  However, staying flexible we simply kept on enjoying the experience,  seeing where black bears had eaten berries, and realizing we could push ourselves further.  The greatest part of a backpacking trip is how it made each of us feel more whole and this was most obvious around the campfire.  We shared about how close we had come to the divine and celebrated that, not that we conquered the miles and hard work.  We celebrated how we had become more whole and looked forward to bringing that feeling to our lives out of the woods.

Brian McLaren shared at General Assembly that we need to be a Luke 10 church, and that is what Disciples strive for.  Jesus sends us out where He intended to go.  We are followers of Jesus, but it is clear that Jesus sees us also as pioneers and agents of His work.  We are to go out, and go out looking forward.  Thus we must be flexible and “pack light” for we do not know what the future entails.  We are to heal, that is make people whole, wherever we go and we tell people, not that Heaven is a future promise, but that the Kingdom of God has come near.  A peaceable kingdom, for we say that peace upon this house, this town.  And if they are not ready we move on, but we still mention the proximity of the kingdom.  And we celebrate, but not over the powers we conquered but over the wonderment of our success despite being flawed small group.  This is what we must tell.  We are a flexible, future oriented church that sees the peaceable kingdom now and celebrates that. 

Freedom Time

Esther 4:11-16

 

I retold the story of Esther and then told the story of Margaret Gage.  Two women that lived with a great lifestyle and risked it for their people.  All of us need to realize that are privilege is not worth it if others will suffer.  If you want more contact me, but my birthday present to myself was to simply note (and not fully write) what I preached on, for it was simply sharing the two stories and then compare the two and apply it to us today.

Blessings and Happy Fourth!!!