"God Gives Us Hope" Sermon for 7/11/10

Image by Forrest McDonald via Flickr

Text:  Genesis 40:1-23; Jeremiah 29:11


(Interestingly, we had VBS Sunday BEFORE VBS because of Scheduling Issues. I'd never done it this way before and I hope I don't do it that way again. You really lose some of the energy that comes from just having completed VBS)

Up until today, we've been preaching on the parables this summer.  And, every week, as the sermon begins, I've been saying that stories are an important part of how we learn as human beings, not just Christians.  And, since that is the case, it's no wonder that Jesus used so many stories when he was teaching those around him.  These parables, we've been saying, are “stories with a purpose.”  They have a point.

But, you know, when it comes down to it, all of the stories in the Bible are stories with a purpose.  All of these, from the very familiar to the very obscure were deemed important in the shaping of the people of God.  Therefore, it was important for the stories to be taught again and again and again.  It was important to tell it to your children and important to tell it to your children's children.

It's still that way today.  And, in our culture it's clear that one of the prime ways that children get introduced to the stories of the Bible is through Vacation Bible School.  They come and they sing the silly songs and they shout and run and they make their crafts and they play their games...but through this, through all of this, they hear about our God...they hear about Jesus and what he's done for us.  And for some kids, not just here but all around the US, the few days they spend at the the local Vacation Bible School may be the only days they hear how much God loves them and cares for them...all year.  It's important to tell the stories.

I'll admit to you that I struggle with some of the VBS themes out there these days.  They have all of the right packaging and they have all of the right music...but sometimes they seem to stretch the story in a way that just doesn't make sense to me. 

Cokesbury, the United Methodist Publishing House, has a space theme this year.  Their website says:  “At Cokesbury's Galactic Blast Vacation Bible School 2010, your cadets will voyage into outer space praising God.”  It gets into creation and caring for the earth, but it seems a little contrived.  I have good friends in ministry who have used this material and have loved it.

LifeWay Christian Stores, of the Southern Baptist Church, had one called “Arctic Edge” a few years back, “where daily excursions from Big Bear Lodge will have kids hiking across the tundra, exploring the seascape by kayak, and skimming the backcountry in a float plane.”

I'm sure these were FUN.  But, if we get one shot to tell kids that God loves them, what better way than using some of the already very good stories and themes we have in the Bible?  That's what we're doing at Girdwood Chapel this year as we look at Egypt and “Joseph's Journey From Prison to Palace.”  It's a great story.  And the fact that the theme is "Egypt" we have a build in coolness factor.

Anyone who's seen “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” has been let into the story.  But there are many of us who know the story well just because it's a great story of what God can do.  It's a great story about perseverance.  It's a great story about family and sibling rivalry.  It's a great story about grace and trusting God.  It's got all of that.  And it's pretty much about one guy...Joseph.

So, for those who aren't too clear about the story, let me get you up to speed here. 

This is a whole story found in the book of Genesis and is one of the larger stories in Scripture.  It begins with Jacob, one of the patriarchs, who had 12 sons.  But out of all of them, Joseph was the favorite...because he was the first son of his wife Rachel.   If there are 12 sons and just one of them is dad's favorite, it had to make for some uncomfortable dinner time conversations. 

These conversations were no doubt made all the more uncomfortable because of the dreams that Joseph had.   He went up to his brothers one day and said, paraphrasing, “Hey guys, guess what?  I had a strange dream last night that will blow your mind.  There were 12 ears of corn, one for each of us and, all of yours were bowing down before mine.  Isn't that just crazy?”  Or, again he came to them and said, “I had another dream.  I don't think you can read too much into this, but I dreamed I saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to me.  I think I need to go easy on the roast lamb before bedtime if you know what I mean.”

Well, he brothers thought they knew what he meant.  And they plotted to kill him, but thanks to Rueben, didn't go through with it.  “MUCH BETTER,” thanks to Judah, they made it look like he was killed so they could get some profit out of it.  They smeared blood on the “coat of many colors” that Jacob had specially made for him and sold Joseph to some Ishmaelites who then take him to Egypt.

But, we're still not to our place in the story yet.  When the Ishmaelites take Joseph to Egypt, they sell him to Potiphar, an Egyptian, one of Pharoah's officials and manager of the household.  And Joseph is a smart young man, and good with money and pretty much everything else.  Soon he was managing Potiphar's whole household.  Not bad for a kid whose brothers plotted to kill him, was sold into slavery, and whose father now thinks he's dead.

But, it gets worse.  Potiphar thinks Joseph is a great young man.  But, so does his wife.   When Joseph won't return her advances, she lies about him making advances at her, and that's the end of his rise in Potiphar's house and he's sent off to jail.

So, in just a few chapters of Genesis we have favoritism, dreaming, jealousy, violence, slave trading, lies, and prison.  We're a long way from those bowing ears of corn at this point, aren't we Joseph?

That's where we are at this point…prison.  It's rough.  In the broadway play, it's here that Joseph sings (I sang all of this in my most melodramatic voice):

Close every door to me


Hide all the world from me


Bar all the windows


And shut out the light


Do what you want with me


Hate me and laugh at me


Darken my daytime


And torture my night


If my life were important I

Would ask will I live or die


But I know the answers lie


Far from this world


A tad melodramatic?  Yes.  But you get the point that it's rough for poor, poor Joseph.

However, in prison, that gift of interpreting dreams comes in handy for the kid.  In prison with him are the king's cupbearer and the king's baker.  Each had had dreams they couldn't interpret and they go to Joseph to see what he could do with them.  For one, the cupbearer, it was good news.  In three days he was going to be back at work.  For the other, the baker, it was not good news.  In short, it involved beheading, and impaling, and birds.

And, three days later, it all came to pass just as Joseph had said.

It's interesting that we're talking about hope, here as we sit with Joseph in prison, singing, “Close every door to me...”  It's a situation that seems pretty hopeless to probably anyone but Joseph in the story.

And I think part of our problem with understanding this to be hopeful is our our understanding of the word HOPE in the first place.  We often treat HOPE like a birthday wish.  “I HOPE I GET A BIKE!”  Or, “I HOPE I DO WELL ON THAT TEST.”  Or, “I HOPE we don't have pork roast for dinner again tonight.”  Those aren't necessarily bad wishes to have (the pork roast really wasn't all that good.  It was cooked fine but wasn't a very good piece of meat).  However they're a pretty shallow understanding of HOPE.

Hope goes deeper than this.  Hope is the thing that gives you strength when you're feeling bad and when things aren't going your way.

If you're a kid, then perhaps HOPE is the encouragement that you get from your parents when your best friend doesn't act like they like you anymore.  Perhaps it's the friend who comes to be by your side when you break a bone at the beginning of summer and you think you'll manage to make it through...even just barely (more melodrama).

If you're a grownup, then perhaps hope is your spouse who tells you that they are sure you're going to find a job.  Perhaps it's that look you get from your kid that tells you, you've done a good job raising them, but it's time to let them head out on their own.  Perhaps it's that prayer which is offered even in this place when it seems like the whole world is crashing in around you.  It lets you know that it's all in God's hand.  It lets you know YOU'RE in God's hands.

There's a picture by George Frederick Watts from a century ago which is called "HOPE."  You can see it on my blog.  The picture is interesting because it's a lady sitting on top of the world, playing a harp.  And, at first glance, one might think, “Well, it's easy to be hopeful when you're sitting on top of the world playing a harp, with everyone listening to your music.”  When I'm on top of the world, when things are going my way, when the kids are behaving, when I know where all of my money is going, when my sermon is not just mediocre but is OUTSTANDING, well, I am very HOPEFUL..that it's going to continue that way.  It's good being on top of the world!

However, upon closer examination of that young lady, sitting there on top of the world, you will notice that the world is not bright and sunny.  It's dark.  It's worn.  Probably more like our world really is.  We have hunger in Africa.  We have war in the Middle East.  We have totalitarian governments in Asia.  We have homeless people sleeping in parks in Anchorage tonight.  Our world, too, has problems.

And that lady is in tattered rags.  She is blindfolded.

And that harp of hers?  It's just got one string.  Can it even play music anymore?

According to London's Tate Museum, perhaps the piece is more appropriately entitled “DESPAIR.”

But, isn't that the precise moment that hope comes?  Isn't there some fine line, some boundary that we get to in our troubles, when we could very easily turn to despair and regret and resignation, but our God comes to us and tell us that there is more, there is better, there is God?

This is the first day's lesson of Vacation Bible School.  As opposed to most Vacation Bible School Sundays, we're having this BEFORE VBS because of scheduling.  And the Bible Verse the kids (and adults) are learning today is the verse from Jeremiah 29:11 as God tells the exiles in Babylon that he will release them after seventy long years in captivity:  “For I know the plan I have for you...to give you a future and a hope.”

Last Sunday we had Shane Claiborne here in the evening, and it was AWESOME.  We had over 140 folks show up...most of them young people.  There were great stories.  That was at 6 o'clock.  Earlier that day, at 4 o'clock I married off two folks up at Raven Glacier Lodge...discovering that the brides's father is _____________, with whom I was in Lions Club a few years ago.  But, before that, a little after 2 o'clock I was holding onto and praying with an elderly woman who had just watched her husband die.

I think, maybe I bring that up because I was there for a while, and it was kind of traumatic for me.  But, mores, I bring it up because, in the midst of that trauma...perched on a broken world in tattered clothes with a one-stringed harp...in prison, as a sold slave, dead a family...in those times, I do believe that God enters in and will pull us out.  And I have hope that God will do so, not just in the “Sweet By and By” when we all get to heaven, but will do so in the world, in your life, in my life today.

God gives us hope.  God gave hope to Joseph.  In that prison cell, he knew it.  He had hope that God had something better in store for him.  And, over the next several chapters of Genesis, the kids this week will see just how God blessed that prisoner Joseph all the way to the palace.

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

Indiana is Flat

I understand that there are "rolling hills" in the southern part of the state...and it's really quite pretty.  However, the northern half is flat.   Now, there are some benefits to the flatness of the land:

1. You can see for great stretches in all direction.

2. Many of the roads are straight as there are fewer (none) mountains to go around.

3. I imagine it's easier to ride a bike (although you don't have the benefit of going downhill.

4. "Sunrise" is when the sun actually rises and not when it gets over the mountains.

5. Better cell phone reception

6. No pesky mountains around for those who feel claustrophobic when surrounded by glorious hills.

This "flatness" does not come as a surprise to me, since I lived in Indiana for nine years, graduating high school here and going to college here and serving a my first church here.  However, I've now lived in Alaska for 13 years and I've grown very accustomed to the mountains around me.  I find that they are good for the soul and I think I'd have a hard time adjusting to life without them again.

I can't verify this, and I don't feel like looking it up, but I think there was once a study about persons living among the mountains.  If I remember correctly, it showed that living among the mountains was good for the psyche.  Regardless of whether this has been scientifically prove, I can attest that it's good for my psyche.

Now, don't get me wrong.  There is definitely a beauty to Indiana.  It's very green. It's nice seeing the corn growing in the fields.  You can see a whole lot of sky.  There are some great lawns.  There are a lot of people here who love me and whom I love as well.

But I might have mentioned, Indiana is flat.

Della Wagyihi

It's almost two weeks ago now, on July 4th, when Della Waghiyi passed away.  She was the Alaska United Methodist Conference's lone ordained native Alaskan pastor.  I had known Della for 20 years, from when I first went to Nome back in 1990.  And over the years I got to hear more and more of her stories.  I remember her sharing about her childhood among the Siberian Yupic.  I remember her stories of going with my friend Rev. Jim Campbell to meetings in New York and Nashville and other large cities.  One of the things she said that I've used in sermons at Advent time is the following:

White people wonder what we do all winter. They wonder if we're just waiting around for the sun to come out. No! In the winter we are fixing our boats and mending our nets and making our clothes so that we can be ready when the sun comes.

That's the waiting we have at Advent -- waiting, actively, so we're ready when the "son" comes.


Della was a spiritual giant for Alaskan Methodists.  She lived out her faith in so many remarkable ways and was a great interpreter for us between the United Methodist Conference and, indeed, Native Alaskans.  One of the things I remember is how everyone stopped and listened when Della spoke.  She spoke softly and somewhat haltingly after a stroke from a few years ago.   But when she spoke you could hear a pin drop.  She didn't command respect.  She had earned it through her faith and life.  And, what's so awesome is that I think even those who were meeting her for the first time understood it.

I have known some of these great saints throughout my life.  Each of them were people I've learned from.  And, as I type this I know that I learned a lot about strength from this small, unassuming, and humble servant.  She was a strong person.  She is, and will continue to be, missed.

The following is a poem written by Rev. Jim Campbell.  He's a friend who, as he worked with Della on native issues and looking out for the Siberian Yupiks in the Russian Far East, got to spend precious time with her.  Only once do I recall seeing Della create a doll from her cuspuk as she told her stories.  But I do remember it.  You can read on to see what it meant to Jim:  (I first saw this poem on the blog of our Superientendent Dave Beckett.)

"The Cuspuk Doll"

by Jim Campbell

Her hands cast wonder
folding, transforming her cuspuk.
A yard of string
twisting, binding the cloth
until from her garment,
this identity that wrapped her body,
there emerged the likeness of a doll
faces transfixed by the weave of her hands
now melting to a Christmas morning smile.

Over and over it happened.
All across the land it happened.
Each town,
each stop on the agenda of places to be by five o’clock,
each plead for her people that were starving in Chukotka,
each feast attended for those who had no bread,
there came the hope moment,
that transforming moment,
that gospel moment of all things made new,
that moment of the parable of the doll.

Della made other dolls,
hands of an artist given to beading, sewing, carving…..
dolls of the Anchorage museum,
life like dolls of her people,
dolls of worth and beauty and display.
Della bore the standard of craftsman.
She distilled the beautiful,
the colors and foods of the changing seasons,
the rhythm of the beat of the drum,
the telling of stories,
especially stories to the children,
who gathered with her on the floor,
as she made her cuspuk doll
and told of times when that was all she had.

Hands, stilled….. folded,
her blessings complete.
So many lives yet sway in the wake of her Sunday prayers,
heart prayers in this sanctuary,
to the Creator,
to whom, in this moment
We lift up our dear friend…….
daring to notice in the hand of God,
a yard of string,
waiting
waiting to make,

one more new creation.

The picture above is from mcavOy's photostream on Flickr.

Stanley Hauerwas, Greed, And Me

Image by TW Collins via Flickr

Anyone who has been reading any of this stuff knows that, with Shane Claiborne, and thinking missionionally, and talks of immigration and politics, a lot of my own personal conviction has centered on how we are called to be faithful with our finances.  We live in a world that tells us that we can't have enough and I'm still very moved by Compassion International's comment that the opposite of poor is not rich but enough.

I can't say I've come up with a lot of answers or what this all means for my life, but I'm asking the questions.  I was very happy to find the following comments from Stanley Hauerwas, Christian ethicist, over on Richard Hall's blog, Connexions.  The comments are from Hauerwas' article, "Can Greed Be Good?" at the ABC Religion and Ethics Site -- a site I'll have to look around a bit more.

Greed presumes and perpetuates a world of scarcity and want - a world in which there is never “enough.” But a world shaped by scarcity is a world that cannot trust that God has given all that we need.

Greed, in other words, prohibits faith. But the inverse is also true. For it is in the Christian celebration of the Eucharist that we have the prismatic act that makes possible our recognition that God has given us everything we need.

The Eucharist not only is the proclamation of abundance, but it is the enactment of abundance. In the Eucharist we discover that we cannot use Christ up. In the Eucharist we discover that the more the body and blood of Christ is shared, the more there is to be shared.

The Eucharist, therefore, is the way the Christian Church learns to understand why generosity rather than greed can and must shape our economic relations.

As I've talked of the Eucharist, I have always said that it has bearings on economic justice...and how it is that we can share, intimately, in the body and blood of Jesus and then not share when it comes to things as "trivial" as money and goods.   I like Hauerwas' notion that "Greed...prohibits faith."  If one believes that we operate from a position of "scarcity" can one ever really believe that we have a God that gives us all that we need?

My problem with all of this is that I see myself operating from a perspective of "scarcity" in my own life...with my money, my goods, my belongings.  Then how can I fully trust in our God to provide for me.

If I Got an iPad, I Could Play Keyboards For the Band "Squeeze"

To All My Loyal Readers (both of you)

Image via Wikipedia

To All My Loyal Readers (both of you):

It's going to be a little "hit and miss" over the next three weeks or so.  I'll try to keep up with some of the usual drivel every couple of days so you have something to read between "Law & Order" and Leno...or between innings of the Cubs games.  If nothing else, it will remind us all that I'm alive.

Peace,

Jim

Being Made into A Mummy At Vacation Bible School

We did a "Joseph" theme -- with lots of Egypt imagery. The kids had so much fun "mummy-making" on Day 1 that we let them do it all over again on Day 4 (our last day).  That's me under there.