Prayer of St. Francis, Part Two

   Prayer of St. Francis, Part Two:  Hatred to Love & Injury to Pardon

   Do you think revenge feels good? Have you wanted to seek revenge because someone injured you in some way, or you felt the Hatred toward you for any reason?

   Maybe you felt that way because of the injury caused by a co-worker, a team mate, spouse, family, neighbor or acquaintance? Sometimes the hurt can be awful, sometimes it’s physical, but often in today’s world, It’s emotional or psychological in nature. Maybe you have been fortunate, give thanks to God for that escape. But there is so much evidence of hatred and injury around us, we can’t help but notice or identify with those who are going through this injury and hate.

   This week the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) sent out a fund raising letter and a map identifying by state 1,020 hate groups in our country. The hate groups are varied like Ku Klux Klan, or Neo-Nazi or White Nationalists. All identifying a group of people as the object of their hate. The reason could be skin color, country of origin and in some cases religious affiliation. Tweets that hurt are also in this group.

   But you can understand why we have an urge for revenge or retribution can’t you? A survey of recent very popular movies contain something about revenge. Whether it be a Liam Neeson movie because someone was Taken. A Jason Bourne movie, or even the comic book heroes of the Avengers. We are surrounded by the encouragement to seek revenge and the good feelings that revenge can bring to us.

   No wonder it is so hard to practice our faith against these odds. But Jesus says in the scripture read today from Matthew 5: 28-39  Turn the other cheek, Love your enemies, if they should sue you for your shirt, give them you coat as well. If they demand one mile, give them two. If they ask to borrow, lend to them. Forgive the one who has hurt you, remember God has forgiven you.

   This is so hard to do. We will need to work extremely hard to overcome the undertow that the world we live in has created.

   St. Francis can help us a little bit here. His desire was driven by his complete motivation to become like Jesus. He wanted to be filled with God’s love, and he felt he could see and hear God speak to him about that love in the whole world around him. Nature particularly reflected God’s care for us. That’s one of the reasons for starting our worship this morning with a visual invocation of pictures, to remind us of God as we worship, so that we may be filled with that love as well. We want to turn hatred into love, to turn injury into pardon.

   Have you ever tried turning the other cheek? How did that go? Have you offered forgiveness in a dramatic way for the injury or hatred you experience? Have you gone out of your way to pardon or help repair an injury? Even if it wasn’t your fault? One of the great things about this church is it’s mission commitment, and like this past week, the volunteers who served meals at the County Women’s Shelter, were offering a pardon blessing to help people work through some injury.

   We want to find ways to be Instruments of Peace. We want to develop our inner conscience to be able to offer Peace to those who desperately need it. We want to develop the power within us to share by our actions and words, the full benefit of the Instrument of Peace, all of it.

   This is going to be very hard to do. The majority of culture, seems to want to work against this very Christ like task. And for some who claim the name of Jesus, we can become a part of the injury, our negligence can be the very reason for the injury, or the feeling of hatred. And some who call themselves Christian have done the most damage.

   We need to ask for the help of the Holy Spirit so that we can develop the fortitude to show Christ like love and be the instruments of peace, our world so desperately needs. That comes with a deep commitment to grow in our faith, to become even more familiar with God’s help, the teachings of Jesus and the fruits of the Spirit, so that we can be the channel of healing and peace. One of the avenues to develop our strength for peace, is growing more intentional in our prayer life. That’s why we did the Presence Prayer idea, as a part of our worship this morning. We should look for ways to be present with God in prayer, and to stretch the time in praying to sense that help from the Spirit.

   St. Francis wanted to be so much like Jesus that he devoted time to hear from God. And what he heard led him to help others.

   There once was a feud between the Mayor of Assissi and the Bishop, the reason was never quite clear. You see even in the 1200 there were challenges between church and state. The mayor withdrew from the church and withdrew certain resources for the church. The Bishop responded by excommunicating the Mayor and praying against him. It was very public and very nasty.

   So St. Francis added a new verse to his Canticle for the Sun, that specifically addressed the feud and taught it to the friars in his order. He then persuaded or tricked, the Mayor and the Bishop to be in the same place. The friars then broke into song, and the feuding heard the voice of God and reason and peace in the song. They put aside their injury and offered pardon, restoring a much needed sense of peace to Assissi.

   One of the words of wisdom in our section of the prayer today is the three letter word between hatred and love. The word is “sow”. This word will remind us that sometimes the outcome of love starts with a tiny seed, sown to begin to work toward resolving the injury and the hatred that exists. We want everything to be so instant and fast. We think delivery of our order by tomorrow, seems to take too long. We just want instant everything. I bought an Apple Mac Mini the other day, they upgraded that computer for the first time since 2012. I was in the middle of transferring the files when the screen said one hour and 48 minutes to completion of the transfer. Wow, I can’t wait that long…. But we must.

   To sow love where there is hatred, will also be tiny steps and take time. It will be up to us to find small seed like moments to help the love to grow. Prayers for others, words of kindness, efforts to help one another, can all be tiny seeds that will end up growing love and pardon, where there is hatred and injury.

   We need to commit to the large effort on our part to grow in faith like Christ. We need to commit to more prayer, more reading of scripture, especially the Gospels. We need to hang around others who have the same challenge and desire to sow love, like members of a congregation like ours. It will take determination to replace hatred and injury with love and pardon. But we are not alone in this.

Romans 8:31-39 The Message (MSG)

^31-39 So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

   So I invite you to be an Instrument of Peace. I invite you to live confidently with the Spirit of Christ so that you play a part in turning hatred into love and injury for pardon. You are not alone. We have the example of Christ to follow, we have the story of St. Francis who worked so hard to embody that spirit. We have the confidence of St. Paul that God will provide for us that strength. And we have the words of wisdom in the prayer from a hundred years ago, Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Blessings

Pastor Jeff

Needing an Instrument of Peace

Instrument of Thy Peace Prayer   A Summer Sermon Series 2019

   This summer I thought I would preach a series of sermons on the Prayer credited to St. Francis, known as the “Instrument of Peace” prayer. Listening to the news, reading the papers and the internet, it was quite obvious that we need peace. Even my own family and our church family has been hit by sudden deaths and so we are all deeply in need of peace.

   We have probably all felt a need for comfort and a desire to reduce the stress and noise that surrounds us. A prayer offering peace is much needed.

   St. Francis was only 44 when he died, but he left a huge legacy that has even grown with time. Both Catholic and Protestants admire his teaching and influence. We need the upside-down nature of this prayer, which reflects the upside down Kingdom that Jesus offered us in the sermon on the mount.

Matthew 5:1-12 The Message (MSG)  You’re Blessed

5 ^1-2 When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

³ “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

⁴ “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

⁵ “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

⁶ “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

⁷ “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

⁸ “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

⁹ “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

¹⁰ “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

^11-12 “Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.”

   Francis was born into a well to do family in Assisi, Italy in 1182/3, records weren’t kept the same way we do. His family had resources because his father was a merchant of cloth, and did pretty well at it, Francis was something of a rascal. He got into some trouble and was rescued with his father’s help. He even joined the army, hoping to become some kind of hero.

   In those days a lot of the battles were between cities, and Francis was captured by the enemy. One strategy at the time was to hold the prisoners for ransom. He was imprisoned for a year, before his father came to pay the ransom to get him out. Francis was becoming more familiar with the challenges of life and not having everything go his way.

   After a conversion experience of sorts, he felt compelled to help the poor around him. He did so by giving away his father’s resources. His father tried to stop that by taking him to a church court, run by the bishop. In the trial before the Bishop, Francis decided that he would disconnect from his family in order to be fully available to God, so he stripped down to nakedness, folded his clothes and gave them back to his father and declared his total dependency on God.

   He really began his ministry when he heard a voice from God saying to him, “Repair my church.”  He began to collect money to repair the building, which was in disrepair, but God spoke to him again about the need to repair his church, not the building. He soon realized that this was a spiritual dimension and began to truly focus on God. To hear from God he became open to the beauty of nature as a sign from God. He connected to all dimension of nature, and in many ways we know him for his love of animals and creation. Even we celebrate a blessing of the animals in early October, to coincide with his death date of Oct. 3 1226.

   We can see how his influence calls us to be mindful of all of Creation.

   This prayer is surely in the Spirit of Jesus, whom St. Francis wanted to emulate, and reflects much of St. Francis teaching. But, the prayer did not come from him. It first appeared in a local church newsletter in France in 1919, as Europe was recovering from World War I. It was much needed then, as it is needed now. The prayer caught the globe by storm and it was shared and spread around the world very quickly.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, I

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

   So, to find peace this summer we begin by looking at ways we need this gift from God. Have you ever felt the need to overcome hate? Has it been directed at you, or have you witnessed it?

   Remember when you were injured, either physically, or emotionally, or found out just how limited your resources are for fixing life’s challenges?

   Remember moments of doubt? Was it doubting your friendship, or doubting your family? Was it even related to doubting that God could help you, or doubting your level of faith to handle the crisis?

   Remember your last moment of despair or sadness? We who have been close to those who suddenly died recently can certainly give a witness to that pain.

   Have you had moments in darkness? Was it not knowing where you were going or because you could not figure out the right choices to make? That depth of darkness can be from a variety of sources. Out of that darkness, you probably began to wish for someone to console you, or needing to be understood, or needing to be loved?

   So you can identify with the need for the Instrument of Peace. You can recognize the desire to have the Spirit of Jesus provide a way to overcome, or reverse or flip right side up what seems so upside down.

   One of the gifts of peace is the work of Jesus to reconcile us to God. As we share in Holy Communion this morning, we remember that Christ is offering us the peace which passes all understanding. In this Bread and Cup, his Body and Blood, we receive the very nature of Christ to find Peace. We taste and swallow and welcome into our being, the Spirit and the presence of the one who is an Instrument Peace.

   I hope you feel this gift today. And come back this summer as we explore more deeply the benefits of each of the phrases in this great prayer. Amen.

Blessings,  Pastor Jeff

Quit Preaching & Now Meddling

   I don't know where to begin on this issue of my blog. Usually it's about church stuff, but today and maybe the next few will be about our current situation in Washington DC.

  Briefly I'm upset with many components of our Government. For one thing, I think our President has stepped over the line toward Treason, especially in blaming his own country, which he stood up in front of a "huge" crowd and promised to defend, and to obey the Constitution of the United States.

  I'm also upset with our checks and balances system that is supposed to protect us from such threat to our security. Can't our elected leaders do anything about the damage the President is doing to our international reputation, our relationship to our allies, and those who look up to the US for some kind of democratic and moral example. To trash the NATO connection, to insult our neighbor to the north, to place tariffs on products is only going to hurt our own economy. I'm sure really heavily invested folks have found a way to make a lot of money as more and more people lose their jobs.

  I'm also upset with those who report their support for this President from a religious perspective. Poll after poll, show his support and yet he seems to violate some of the very basic tenants of our Christian faith. The standard of comparison should be Jesus. Jesus has given us a great deal of guidance in the Gospels that could be used to decide what is right and wrong. The Bible, which many of his supporters hold dear, has not influenced their beliefs enough to know that what is being recommended and supported goes directly against what the Bible teaches. How can you claim to be a follower of Jesus and make such poor connections to what Jesus would claim as a direction for us to follow. To me that's the essence of a hypocrite. That goes for the religious leaders who are misleading the flock to be supportive of the policies of our President.

  I'm also upset with us who claim patriotism and haven't a clue what our country stands for and what guidance our Constitution gives us for moving forward. Our country is not perfect, that's for sure. The way we treated native Americans, the way we treated slaves, the way we treated those of Japanese descent during the WWII, the way we treated the Chinese in settling the West, all give us reason to ask for forgiveness and to be extra careful in what we say and do now. But those very lessons should help us not misguide us.

  It's too bad that fear is holding us back from doing the right thing. I know a lot about that, not wanting to upset the apple cart etc. But at some point somebody has to say enough is enough.

  Enough of this right now, I'm coming back later for more.

Pastor Jeff
 

Hurt Beyond Belief

   "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they are doing." Jesus said to the Roman soldiers who were crucifying him, to the Sanhedrin (establishment Religious Leaders) who decided he should die, and to those of us who fail to be followers in the ways of the Kingdom of God. It needs to be said loudly and clearly, that those who profess spiritual authority, and yet support the President of the United States after all that he has said and done about Charlottesville and other racist remarks, should know that Jesus forgives them.

   But Jesus also said, "As for whoever causes these little ones who believe in me to trip and fall into sin, it would be better for them to have a huge stone hung around their necks and be drowned in the bottom of the lake. How terrible it is for the world because of the things that cause people to trip and fall into sin! Such things have to happen, but how terrible it is for the person who causes those things to happen! If your hand or your foot causes you to fall into sin, chop it off and throw it away. It's better to enter into life crippled or lame than to be thrown into the eternal fire with two hands or two feet. If your eye causes you to fall into sin, tear it out and throw it away. It's better to enter into life with one eye than to be cast into a burning hell with two eyes." (Matthew 18:6-9 CEB)

   As a pastor I am finding that many people are withdrawing from the church because they believe that all pastors are like those who support Trump in spite of his being so "un Christ like." It is damaging to the young in faith or little faith, that those who know better, who know Scripture, who walk with Jesus, and pray to God, seem to have such little regard for the witness they are making. Jesus would never support the ideas and attitudes of this President that are so well documented. It's not hearsay, but we have proof of his lack of respect for women, people of color, immigrants, and the list goes on and on. "Many Sides" indeed. I have more respect for the business leaders who withdrew their support of the President over his remarks and attitude who show more of a moral compass, than the pastors who gather around him, lay hands on him, pray and support him and deliver permission to take out the leader of another country. I hope that the stone around their necks will lead to repentance and renewal. Please!

   Not just Scripture but political leaders whom we respect show us how to treat and care for one another. George Washington wrote in 1790 to a Jewish congregation as the new nation was being formed. "The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy, a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For, happily, the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."

   Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of the chaos of a Civil War, trying to move forward and offer a vision of a better future said in his second inaugural address, "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." We need this kind of leadership now more than ever. We had for a while a political party that developed to support and sustain the Lincoln wisdom. I so wish it were still true. Perhaps it's time for a new political evolution, that will both look back to that wisdom and toward a future that is hopeful and optimistic. I would like to be a part of something like that.

   Jumping ahead one hundred years from Lincoln to John Kennedy, still trying to get our great nation moving toward even greater things. Kennedy in his book A Nation of Immigrants declares that "Immigration is on our blood. It's a part of our founding story. In the early 1600's, courageous men and women sailed in search of freedom and a better life. Arriving in Jamestown and Plymouth, they founded a great nation. For centuries ever since, countless other brave men and women have made the difficult decision to leave their homes and seek better lives in this promised land. In New York harbor, there stands a statue that represents the enduring ideal of what has made this nation great - a beacon on a hill. At her feet, on the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty stands, are inscribed the eloquent words of poet Emma Lazarus: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shores. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift up my lamp beside the golden door!" We have moments of great inspiration and we need positive influence, not a suggestion that we be rougher on each other.

   Some may not read down this far, and I accept that. But I am committed to seeing our nation under the influence of God, be better than it has been, not worse. I ran for Congress the last time, as a Republican candidate in; Maryland's 8th District, because I believe in the power of the great examples, and the wisdom and influence of Jesus, to help us solve our problems and build a better future. Under Lincoln's influence, I tried to make a difference, and I hope others will strive to make a difference as well.

John Wesley put it so well when he said we should "Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can." I want that to be a part of what drives me.,

   Will you join with me in doing all the good we can?

Pastor Jeff

It's a New Year

   Hello Blogger followers, it's a new year, this is my 100th blog, imagine that, and I'm just thinking out loud here on my first day back to the church in this new year 2017.

   First of all I would want to recommend a commitment to grow in your faith this 2017. It will take some decisions on your part to keep finding something new you did not know about  in your walk with God each day. Some days are overwhelmed with other stuff.Thanks be to God, there is Grace and Mercy on God's part. Think how someone at home would feel if some days you didn't come home? And no one knew where you were? Skipping our time with God could be like not coming home, weird, hunh?

   Having been a pastor for 40 years, it's hard to find new things too. I keep looking though, because I don't want to be the pastor that spends his last few years just coasting on what has been my spiritual life up to now. I have this hunger and thirst for something new with God, I always have.

   So I want to recommend something I found today that is available on Kindle, which is easy, or available on Amazon as a hard cover or paperback book. The 52 Greatest Stories of the Bible by Kenneth Boa & John Alan Turner.

   They have tried to cover the 52 most important stories in the Bible so that it might make sense in helping us live our lives as followers of Jesus. They chose 26 from the Old Testament and 26 from the New Testament and make it a five day devotional, Monday through Friday. It's about looking at the story and then kicking it around a little, to see what it could mean, how it might help us now, what part does it play in the whole story of God with us?

   I like the illustration they gave about a clothes line. I remember those. They were outside and you hung wet clothes on them to dry. You still see them in movies sometimes when they want to make you think back. My grandmother had the line on a spindle with four sides so the line was not too far away, and it could be reached by turning the line holder.

   The reason I bring that up, is that in the book, they realize that when we study the Bible we tend to hang up the thought on our clothes line. But fewer of us have a clothes line to hang them on. We don't get the story or the connection or even see how that has anything to do with me. Hence the book.

   Let me urge you to get the book, use it for your devotions, and write me and let me know what you think or how the reading for the day, stirred something within you for improving your spiritual journey. Or if it was confusing, let me know about that too.

   Happy New Year. Please pray for one another and for our country a lot. May the Peace of God be with you.

Pastor Jeff
macpastor@gmail.com