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| Title: | Discussions from a Christian Perspective |
| Notice: | Prostitutes and tax collectors welcome! |
| Moderator: | CSC32::J_CHRISTIE |
|
| Created: | Mon Sep 17 1990 |
| Last Modified: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1362 |
| Total number of notes: | 61362 |
423.0. "Sermon, comments welcomed (critique)" by OLDTMR::FRANCEY (USS SECG dtn 223-5427 pko3-1/d18) Fri Mar 20 1992 06:14
"Interpreting the Dream"
Exodus 3:1-15
I Corinthians 10:1-13
March 22, 1992
Ron Francey
Nothing scares people like change or like approaching the
unknown. The whole notion of change expresses itself in many
ways. One common way is through fear. We experience this fear
early in our lives and this fear seems to journey with us
throughout our lives, weaving in and out of our lives over the
years. Sometimes these moments of facing change can later on in
our lives be laughed at.
When was the last time you held up a baby, a young child in your
arms, held the child high above the waters that you were waste
deep in? This may have been in a pool, a lake or in the pounding
waves of the ocean. You were intent on teaching the child how to
swim. Let me ask, what was the child intent on doing?
If you don't remember the time when you were the adult, do you
remember the time you were the child? For me, I remember
squirming away, screeching as loud as my lungs could bare - alas,
it was to do no good for me - I was still let go into the depths
of the water below. I thought I was going to drown for sure.
Recently I wrote my ordination paper and part of the paper is my
faith journey. I had written the paper once many years ago and
then updated it a few years ago. My professors and colleagues
generally liked the paper but thought I should express more of
where God was in my life during a rather difficult journey. And
so it was a few months ago that I worked for a few weeks on the
paper, concentrating primarily on my faith journey.
What I discovered about myself and my relationship to God was
truly a work of art, that art being God's Grace. I am one that
learns a lot about God through symbols, through what I have
learned to call syncronicity. Syncronicity - things that seem to
happen randomly yet are somehow connected through the touch and
intention of God. Things that happen at such unbelievable odds;
yet, in fact, happen.
The symbol of the child being dropped into the water is for me a
living parable of God's love for us. For as I was dropped I had
forgotten that I had been held, that one who loved me deeply was
at my side to look over and care for me. So too is God at our
side yesterday, today and tomorrow.
There are many incidents, many challenges that come into our
lives over time that are more important and have more long
lasting affect on our lives and the lives of others than the
water episode illustrated. Most of these challenges confront us
through the medium of change, and we get petrified. I am sure
that there are many of you here today that are either now or
previously have faced some really difficult times, objects - and
have been petrified about the unknown, the future.
On "48 Hours" this past week a few segments focused on the family
strife which is a direct result of our recession. Good people,
hard working people, people who have worked all their lives to
work toward the good old American Dream are seeing all their
assets eaten up through this recession - a depression to those
who are caught up in it. Families are breaking up over the
stress, over the fear of the unknown and unpredictable - or maybe
it's really all too predictable - future.
Others of us might have been going along just fine in life,
things seemed to working out ok for ourselves and everyone in our
family - until suddenly our wife or mother or grandmother
suddenly are diagnosed with untreatable or mailignant cancer.
Suddenly we are forced to face change, a change that seems so
cruel, so devastating, so unmanageable.
And still others of us face what seems to be an impossible task
of being church, or of being churched, of being nourished and
cared for in these troubled times within which we live. At times
when in our church we face change, and change again, we feel
paralyzed, crippled, unable to bare the next moment. We ask God
how all this can be possible.
Where is God in all this?
And so we can turn to the bible, to the Word of God and open a
reservoir of wealth, of material which we can let permeate our
very being, to nourish ourselves both individually and
corporately. And how does today's scripture speak to you?
Well, I wonder how Moses must have felt the time he approached
that burning bush. We find Moses keeping the flock of his
father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock
beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Can you imagine looking at a bush that was blazing and not
consumed?
Such is the image of the richness of a God whose love lasts
forever. Such is the image of a God who defies natural laws.
Such is the image of the God of Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, of
our God.
Moses faced change, not because he was looking for it, not on his
calendar of time, not because he was better able to take change
than any of his friends or family - Moses faced change because
our loving God called him to the task.
God saw oppression, the lack of freedom, the lack of equality,
the lack of dignity and called Moses to lead the people out of
Egypt and to the promised land. Where Moses had earlier said,
"Here I am" to the voice of God coming out of the burning bush,
Moses now retreated, reconsidered just a little about his
eagerness to present himself before God. Moses said: "Who am I
that I should go to Pharoah, and bring the Israelites out of
Egypt?"
And God said to Moses that: "I will be with you." "I will be
with you."
And when I spent those weeks a few months ago, working on my
faith journey - it is that same message that came home to me as
it had to Moses as I dealt with that journey. And God said to
Moses that: "I will be with you." "I will be with you." As I
meditated on who I was, on whom I had become, on where God was in
my life - I found that God had been present in so many ways - and
I just hadn't known it. God's love is powerful, God's love is
unending.
Recall our responsive Psalm, Psalm 103:
"Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and do not forget all his benefits -
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the Pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good as long as you live
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The Lord works vindication
and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love
toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far he removes our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion for his children,
so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.
It is because God was with Moses that the people were able to be
led out of Egypt and into the promised land. It is because God
was with us that our heritage led us to build this church and the
churches around the world. It is because God will be with us
that we are able to work together toward the time when the
kingdom shall be on this earth as it is in heaven.
Sometimes when I reflect on the trials and tribulations of Moses,
I think that as tough as his task was and it certainly was
difficult, our way might be just a little tougher. Moses, after
all, called out to God on many, many occasions and God always
answered him. God instructed Moses on how and what and when.
God stopped the murmuring of the people against Moses, Aaron, and
against God.
When is the last time you heard God's voice to direct you in the
way to solve your problems, your families problems, the problems
within the different visions of the church or the problems of the
world? Where is the cloud, the glory of the Lord, which
surrounded Moses - in your lives, in mine? If there is a cloud
leading you through the desert of your life, is it the same cloud
that surounds your neighbors?
We are in the middle of Lent, a time for us to examine ourselves,
a time for us to repent for the wrongs that we have done, for the
things that we have left undone, to give God thanks for the
knowledge imparted to us of the things that are within our
ability and calling to do, to ask for God to give us the
knowledge of things which we are to leave alone.
We are in the middle of Lent, a time that reflects the wilderness
period of our Lord and Master, yet Jesus the Christ. Jesus
undoubtably spent many moments examining his call, searching out
the expression of God's love, manifested in his earthly life as
the Christ.
God has a vision, a dream, for each of us, for us together. It
is our lifelong task, our lifelong call to seek out and to
interpret that dream. We each have been given different and
complementary gifts, created out of love, each of us made in the
images of God. As we interpret and reinterpret God's dream for
us, we are called to action, to make that dream real.
The good news is that Jesus came out of the wilderness.
The good news is that Moses came out of the wilderness and saw,
from the mountaintop, a great land below, a land flowing of milk
and honey, the promised land.
The good news is that this church and her people will also come
out of the wilderness. God has been with you in ways not always
observed, is with you today and promises to be on the journey
with you now and forever more. Praise be to God!
| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 423.1 | thanks | TFH::KIRK | a simple song | Fri Mar 20 1992 09:09 | 4 |
| Powerful, moving, it meant a lot to me. Thanks for sharing that, Ron.
Jim (recalling when my father held me up to get a better look at Niagra Falls
and I knew I would die)
|
| 423.2 | | CSC32::J_CHRISTIE | Peace: the Final Frontier | Thu Mar 26 1992 20:08 | 6 |
| When will you be delivering this message, Ron?
I get the feeling you are addressing a particular situation in the
church. Is this true?
Richard
|
| 423.3 | on the delivery | OLDTMR::FRANCEY | USS SECG dtn 223-5427 pko3-1/d18 | Fri Mar 27 1992 11:51 | 42 |
| Richard,
The sermon was delivered last Sunday in Shrewsbury, Vt. My spouse and
I shared the pulpit as we hope to do on a regular basis in the near
future. The church has had several difficult years and has seen four
pastors over the past four years attempt a healing ministry.
My sermon delivered primarily extemporaneously with manuscript as
backup focused on the always present but often unknown presence of God
in all that we do, in all whom we are. "Interpreting the dream" is a
lifelong task God asks of us to interpret God's dream or vision for us
both individually and corporately.
The church and her people are under the "cloud", the glory of God -
just as the Israelites were during their venture through the
wilderness. Moses and Jesus did not go around the wilderness but went
through it; God's presence and love are with us today as in the days of
yesterday and will be with us forever.
The church attendence was 42 people, up from 5 and 16 from the previous
two weeks. A reading of the sermon took about 13 minutes, the delivery
was just under 25. The chair of the Deaconnate put us up in her
bed-and-breakfast home and we spent Saturday afternoon and well into
the evening talking around the coffee table on the church and her
people.
On Sunday afternoon, we visited in the small town of Grafton, Vt with a
pastor friend of ours with whom we have had many classes at seminary -
a small town of 600 people where in the last year two successful
suicides occured, one unsuccessful suicide happened and two weeks ago a
fifteen year old boy shot and killed his father. And so we spent hours
talking with him about ministry, about the need for nurturing and being
nurtured.
We drove back Sunday evening through snow covered mountain roads, a
white blanket hugging the forest, feeding and sustaining that which it
was protecting.
Shalom,
Ron
|
| 423.4 | | CSC32::J_CHRISTIE | Peace: the Final Frontier | Fri Mar 27 1992 18:33 | 4 |
| I suspect your sermon was an effective one. Any feedback from the
congregation?
Richard
|
| 423.5 | on some comments made | OLDTMR::FRANCEY | USS SECG dtn 223-5427 pko3-1/d18 | Sat Mar 28 1992 16:52 | 34 |
| Many people spoke to us during the coffee hour after service. The
comment made most often was that they had missed sermons that brought
such a sense of hope. Others remarked that this was the first time
they had experienced a shared ministry and they thought it was really
excellent; they liked the idea.
People thought my spouse and I worked well together and that it showed
how well prepared we were for the service. A few people remarked that
we must have a perfect marrriage in order to do as well as we did.
(And as I heard that comment, I thought of the images portrayed by
so many people who were having the "perfect" marriage - only to
shortly thereafter break up - or worse to not break up but to
live chained to the "respectful" relationship - sigh)
And I also wonder how the people might feel if we had become their
pastors and heard on some hot summer day, angry cries floating out
from our open bedroom window. Sometimes people think pastors aren't
people but are the refined products of perfection.
It was also interesting that during the coffee hour, the head of the
trustees approached me (not my wife) and asked what we "needed" for
the worship service. When I said we would be happy to take whatever
was customary for them to give and he remarked $50, he then asked
how I wanted the check to be made out. I responded to "Dot Francey."
He said, "What???" I mentioned that we were in shared ministry so
that a check in her name would be fine. A few minutes later he
came over where we were standing with the check. You finish the
story.
Shalom,
Ron
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