The In Between Time

Acts 1:4-14
4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
6 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
7 He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.
11 "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city.
13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
(NIV)


Many years ago I was driving through this part of Georgia. I wasn’t familiar with a lot of the little communities around here, and I came upon a Church named, Between Baptist Church. Well, those of you who know this area will recognize the name as that of a community that is named Between.

I, however, had no clue why this church was named Between Baptist Church, so I assumed that it was between heaven and hell.

Seemed logical to me.

Well, we’ve all spent time in between – maybe not the town of Between, Georgia, but those times in life when you are waiting. You are between one stage of your life and the next.

Right now, I’m in between stages of life. I’m completing my service at Good Shepherd and waiting to move and start ministry elsewhere.

Our house looks sad without all of the family photos on the wall of the hall way. We’ve patched the holes and added a little paint, but I’d rather see the photographs.

There are boxes in our garage. And more are being packed every day.

Such is life when you are between one place and another.

We’ve all been there.

You’ve graduated from college. You have applied for a job. And you wait, and wait, and wait. Between college and work.

Or you have been hired, and the start date is still days away. Between being hired and being able to actually work.

You or someone in your family is expecting a baby. After the good news has settled in, and the months roll on, there is that impatience that begins to rise up. You are in that between stage!

You find yourself in the middle seat of a jet, having left Atlanta, you now wait to arrive at your destination. We call that being between comfort and discomfort.

Or the worst case scenario – there is a 6 year old in your home and it is Christmas Eve!!!!! Why do I have to go to bed and go to sleep. Can't Santa come NOW!

Right now, our world is waiting.

We are waiting for election day.

We are waiting for gas prices to stop rising.

We are waiting for the end of not one war, but two.

We are waiting for justice. And peace. And freedom.

We are waiting.

Today's scripture reading from the Book of Acts tells us how the disciples found themselves in this kind of situation.

Jesus has died and come back to life at the Resurrection. Forty days later he is about to ascend into heaven.

Now the waiting begins. They think they are waiting for the second coming. They ask Jesus how long it will be before he comes back to establish the Kingdom.

And they want to know, “How long do we have to wait?”

In response, Jesus tells them that it is not for them to know the times or periods established by God, but they are to go back to Jerusalem and wait – not for the Second Coming or the establishment of the Kingdom, but to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

They are to wait for the power they would need to witness to him there, and in Judea and all of Samaria, and ultimately in all the world.


For many, waiting is a dreadful thing. Just ask any child waiting for Christmas.

But it doesn't have to be like this.

Living between times, living between occasions can, in fact, be quite wonderful.

The prophet Isaiah says that
those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength,
they will mount up on wings like eagles,
the will run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Pam McClure is doing a great job as our Director of Children and Family ministries, and she has brought us a new curriculum into our Sunday School classes. Every month brings a different virtue and this month the virtue is PATIENCE. And every month the children AND the parents are encouraged to memorize a new Bible verse. This week, it is from Psalm 27:14: “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

In the Book of Acts, the church is between that time of Christ’s ascension into heaven, and the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes.

And today, this church of Good Shepherd is about to enter a period of being between one Senior Pastor and another.

And in your own life – well, we are all waiting for different things.

How should we live in the times between?

Waiting does not mean wasting.

And wasting time was the first way that the disciples started waiting in their in between time. They stood there like idiots staring at the clouds.

When Jesus ascended into heaven before the eyes of his disciples to take his place as Lord at the right hand of God the father two men dressed in white came up to them and asked them:

"Men of Israel - why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same manner as you saw him go into heaven."

You probably know the Russian psychologist by the name of Pavlov. He was the one who pioneered in the techniques of conditioning, which he did through experimenting with dogs.

He first rang a bell, and then a second later gave them some meat. After doing this a few times - he rang the bell - but did not give them the meat. Even though the dogs did not get the meat - they salivated - their whole system was geared to receiving meat when a bell rang.

The experiment proved what Pavlov wanted it to prove - that animals - and indeed people could be taught to automatically respond to key signals.

Then Pavlov decided to see if he could develop a sense of waiting. Instead of ringing the bell and then immediately giving the dogs food, he stretched out the time between the bell and the food.

Instead of salivating for the expected food as soon as the bell rang, the dogs actually began to salivate ten minutes after the bell, or 15 minutes, or whatever the length of time was that Pavlov had trained the dogs to wait.

But, there was a problem.

When Pavlov stretched the time out too long between ringing the bell and giving the food, the dogs would just immediately go to sleep – and not just a normal sleep, but a deep sleep of exhaustion.

The dog’s entire nervous system would begin to shut down.

They concentrated so much on what they were waiting for that they had no energy left to keep themselves awake with.

We are not dogs - our attention is not supposed to be focused so much on Christ's return - or on whatever the next thing that we want to have happen in our lives -- that we end up forgetting what else is going on, that we end up falling asleep on the job.

In the times between, our eyes are meant to be fixed on the present moment that God has given us and what it is God wants us to do with it and in it.

We are called to wait, but not to waste our time. We are called to live now in the way God intended us - rather to live in the future.

The disciples heeded the word of the two men dressed in white who asked them why they were looking up toward heaven -- and they returned to Jerusalem as they had been commanded and waited there for his promise to them to be fulfilled.

And while they waited - they waited in community, and they devoted themselves to prayer.

In verse 14 of our reading, it says, “They all joined together constantly in prayer.”

And you know what happens next. They are praying together and the Holy Spirit arrives.

Today is Pentecost Sunday and it is on this day that the church celebrates the fact that the Holy Spirit was given to the church, enabling them to have the power to be the church.

I’ve told some of you the story that my seminary professor shared with me. To supplement his income as a young professor in the seminary, he took the job as a pastor of a tiny little country church. There were only about 30 people in worship. They hadn’t had a confirmation class in years, so he agreed to teach the class.

Three girls signed up. A 17 year old, a 14 year old and a 9 year old.

One day, Tom was teaching about the church calendar. You know the church calendar? Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost – well the girls didn’t know about Pentecost. So Tom said, “That is the day the church gathered for prayer, and the Holy Spirit came in like a mighty wind and appeared like flames of fire sitting on everyone’s head.”

The 17 year old and the 14 year old took this calmly and in stride.

But the 9 year old’s eyes got as big as saucers and finally she said, “Gee Reverend Long, my family must have been out of church that day.”

Now we can smile at that story, but that little girl was living in the expectation that in her little church, something amazing could happen.

That’s the way you wait with God – believing – knowing – that in these in between periods God can do amazing things.



Copyright 2008. All rights reserved by the author.

Table Manners

Psalm 97:1-12

1 The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.
2 Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side.
4 His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory.
7 All who worship images are put to shame, those who boast in idols-- worship him, all you gods!
8 Zion hears and rejoices and the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments, O LORD.
9 For you, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.
10 Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name.
(NIV)


Acts 10:1-48
We continue our study of the Book of Acts, and we now come to chapter 10. It opens with a Gentile soldier named Cornelius, who is told by God in a vision to send for Peter. Meanwhile, Peter is in another town and it’s late in the afternoon and he is tired and hungry. Someone starts preparing a meal for him, and while he waits, he falls asleep and dreams of food.

The description of Peter’s dream begins in verse 11…

11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.
12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air.
13 Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."
14 "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."
16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
17 While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate.
18 They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.
19 While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three men are looking for you.
20 So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them."
21 Peter went down and said to the men, "I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?"

What follows is that Peter accepts this invitation. And Peter and Cornelius have a conversation – two people of two cultures – and we pick up in verse 34.

34 Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism
35 but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.
36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.”

This passage continues with Peter preaching about Jesus and the Resurrection. Up until this time, Christianity was largely a Jewish religion. Jesus was a Jew. The first believers were Jews. Jesus came to fulfill Jewish prophecies about the coming of the Messiah. But now the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people begin to accept Christ as Savior, and this is a radical turn of events for those who may have thought that Jesus was only for the Jews.

We pick up in verse 45…
45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.
46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said,
47 "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have."
48 So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.
(NIV)

When I was growing up, my family got together for big dinners all the time.

We ate in different homes, and every one of them was different.

At my sister’s house, she was young and newly married, so we would sit at individual TV trays and eat frozen dinners. Well, maybe I should say, frozen dinners that had been heated up – at least partly heated up.

At my grandmother’s house, we always ate using her china and her silver.

But the one I loved most was Aunt Mattie’s house. It was great. She and Uncle Roy were farmers and lived in the country and their food was freshly grown.

Now, one thing about Aunt Mattie is that she could talk up a storm. And one day we all sat down at the table to eat, and Aunt Mattie is going on and on about something and not one of us was paying her one bit of attention.

We are all waiting for her to stop talking so we could have the blessing and start eating.

Uncle Roy finally had enough of it and started praying.

Aunt Mattie kept talking.

Uncle Roy’s prayer started with, “Dear God! Thank you for the food that is on this table. It gives me hope that my wife will start entin’ and stop talkin’.”

Aunt Mattie kept talking throughout the whole prayer.

We started eating. And the food was great, and we all grew silent. Even Aunt Mattie stopped talking.

And after dinner Aunt Mattie finally asked, “Did we remember to pray and give thanks?”

Christians give thanks at mealtime. It is a great tradition to pause for prayer and give thanks before eating.

In the Christian family, it is good table manners to pray before a meal.

In this morning’s New Testament lesson, I want to move us through the vision that Peter has and to think about some common table manners that can give us some spiritual insights.

And the first one comes straight from my Uncle Roy – WE SHOULD GIVE THANKS FOR WHAT WE RECEIVE FROM GOD.

Look at Peter in the New Testament Lesson. He has a vision in which he sees food, but the food is a symbol of something else. The vision is not really about food. It is about people – and the kinds of people that God wants in His family.

And God wants us to receive and give thanks for all of the different types of people in His family.

Peter was Jewish. In the beginning, all Christians were Jews. Jesus was a Jew. Jesus was the fulfillment of Jewish and Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah. Peter thought in terms of Christ coming only for the Jews. It was hard for him to think beyond that limited view and to think of something new – and that is what this vision is all about.

It is a lot like thinking of Christianity as being ONLY for Whites, or ONLY for African Americans, or ONLY for English speaking people.

Peter thought that Christ was for the Jewish people, maybe for a few Gentiles or non-Jews, but he really thought early on that Christ was primarily to be for the Jews.

God challenges that way of thinking and encourages Peter to change. And God does this in a vision in which Peter sees all these different kinds of food.

Peter, even as a Christian, retained his Jewish culture and law. And people of that culture were bound by dietary laws from the Old Testament that Christians today are not bound by. In the Old Testament, there was a long list of food that was considered unclean, and that should not be eaten.

In Leviticus 11, we can read about this list.

The camel, the rabbit, the pig – all unclean.

The vulture, the eagle, the owl, the hawk, the bat – all unclean.

All insects were unclean – except locus, crickets and grasshoppers!

The weasel, the rat and the lizard – all unclean.

And Peter wanted to be obedient to these religious rules.

In our New Testament Lesson, Peter is hungry, and he is waiting for the meal to be prepared, and he dreams about food.

In his dream, he sees something like a tablecloth being brought down from heaven, and on the cloth are all sorts of food, including some of the food that is on the list of unacceptable, unclean food.

Peter refuses to eat what is before him, insisting that he would never eat anything unclean. And then the Almighty reminds him that God makes the rules and he is to eat what’s on his plate! In his vision, Peter is told, “Don’t call anything unclean that God has made clean.”

Peter is trying to understand this vision when he receives an invitation to visit a Gentile named Cornelius. And he begins to understand his vision. The vision is not about food– it is about people.

In the same way that Peter tried to reject certain types of food in his Vision – Peter – and all of us – often reject certain types of people.

Are we ready and willing for anyone to come into this church?

Do we always give thanks to God for the people He sends to be with us in church?

Sometimes people feel uncomfortable with certain folks coming to church. It might be a matter of race. Or it might be economics – the uncomfortable feeling of being near someone who is too poor or too rich. It might be the differences of educational levels. Maybe they are too conservative or too liberal.

How many times do we make distinctions about the people God wants us to let into our lives.

The point of this Vision of Peter’s is that the first Christians, who were all Jews, should welcome EVERYONE into the fellowship of Christians – even the Gentiles. And thank God – because we are Gentiles.

And in the same way, we need to welcome everyone into the Kingdom of God and into this church.

We should give thanks to God for whomever He brings into this church.

It is good table manners to give thanks to God for whatever he puts on our plate at the table – it is good spiritual manners to give thanks to God for whomever he leads through those doors.


Second Table Manner: ACCEPT YOUR GUESTS AS THEY ARE.

The old classic book "To Kill A Mockingbird" a story is told through the eyes of a young girl named Scout. One evening, one of her classmates named Walter Cunningham joins her family at the table for a meal. Suddenly, Walter asks if there is any molasses in the house. The father of the house, Atticus Finch, asks the family’s servant to bring the syrup.

The book says, “Walter poured syrup on his vegetables and meat with a generous hand. He would probably have poured it into his milk glass had I not asked what the sam hill he was doing. Walter put his hands in his lap and ducked his head. Atticus shook his head at me and I said, ‘But he’s gone and drowned his dinner in syrup. He’s poured it all over everything.’

“It was then that Calpurnia, the family servant, requested my presence in the kitchen. She was furious, and when she was furious Calpurnia’s grammar became erratic. She squinted down at me and said, “There’s some folks who don’t eat like us, but you ain’t called on to contradict ‘em at the table. That boy’s yo’ comp’ny, and if he wants to eat up the tablecloth, you let him. You hear?”

That’s when the young girl protests and says, “He ain’t company. He’s just a Cunningham.” – which is to say, “He’s different.”

“Hush your mouth,” the woman says. “Don’t matter who they are, anybody sets foot in this house is yo’ company!”

When we have company at our dinner table, it is good table manners to accept them as they are.

It is good spiritual manners to accept guests in our church as they are.

We live in a nation that is becoming more and more multi-cultural, and our churches are becoming more and more multi-cultural. It will either happen quickly or slowly, but it will happen. And we will see people in our churches – including Good Shepherd – who do things differently. Sometimes they do things better – sometimes not. Mostly their ways are not better or worse – they are just different from us and we are different from them.

And we just need to respect and accept whoever comes to God’s Table, who comes to God’s fellowship.

Jesus did it properly. He went to the homes of publicans and sinners and ate with them. The whole time the "super-righteous" were scorning Him for keeping company with sinners. He replied, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." (Luke 5:31,32)

You can’t always choose the people God sends into your life with whom He wants you to share the Good News.

We can’t just choose folks who dress like us and talk like us and look like us and act like us. THE GOOD NEWS IS FOR EVERYBODY - WHETHER THEY’RE LIKE US OR NOT! And we need to accept them as the Almighty has already accepted them.

Third table manner: DON’T HOG THE FOOD!

We all have different experiences at family meals. My first roommate in college had terrible table manners, and I guess he realized that people had noticed his lack of manners. He explained that he had 11 brothers and sisters. He said, “If I didn’t act fast and grab a biscuit, there might not be one left for me. And if I didn’t yank my hand back quickly enough, somebody my grab my hand thinking it was a biscuit and take a bite out of it!”

Everybody is hungry for the Good News about Jesus! Some folks just don’t know that’s what they’re hungry for. They know they’re hungry. They try to satisfy their hunger with a million different ways. But only Christ satisfies.

Do you remember a time when you were hungry and searching for God? Do you remember wondering "where did I come from?"

"Why am I here?"

“What is my purpose in life?”

Don’t be like my old college roommate – don’t hog the food. There is plenty to go around! We need to be sharing the spiritual food that God gives us with those who out there, in the world, who are spiritually hungry.

Peter was called upon to feed Cornelius by not hogging the food – by not hogging the spiritual teachings

What amazes me most in all of this is that Peter was able to accept this change! He struggled with it, and later in Acts we see this struggle more clearly – but he knew it was the right thing to do.

What a dramatic change it was!

Now, what does that have to do with us at Good Shepherd?

We have spiritual food right here – and people out there are hungry. And we do so little to invite them in, and to welcome them to join us in the feast at the Lord’s Table, and to feed on His Word.

Why are we hogging all the food for ourselves?

Copyright 2008
Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved.
Ministers may use all or part of this sermon in their own ministries.

What’s Next

Matthew 28:1-20
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you." So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me." While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, "You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.' If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.""(NIV)

Well, it’s Easter.

Again.

We celebrate it every year, although not usually quite this early.

Year after year, decade after decade, century after century.

And after a while, this holiday we celebrate year after year may be at risk of losing its meaning for us.

I went to the Easter Egg Hunt yesterday, and Pam McClure and her team did a great job. Easter Egg Hunts are a lot like the Kentucky Derby. Lots of waiting, lots of anticipation, and then it finally starts and in two minutes it’s over! The kids have their eggs and they are ready to move on to something else.

But it was great and the kids loved it.

But while we were waiting one of the church members came up to me and we were chatting about Easter, and she told me this joke.

You may have heard it.

A minister asked three men “What is the true meaning of Easter?”

One man said, “Oh you know, that’s when we celebrate the birth of the Everyready Bunny that’s on the commercials.”

“NO!,” said the minister.

So the second man said, “Easter? Isn’t that when the Easter Bunny visits and leaves a basket of eggs and treats for children?”

“Well, that’s close,” said the minister. “All of that happens at Easter, but that’s not the real meaning of Easter.

So the third man said, “Isn’t Easter when we celebrate that Christ died on a cross, was buried and then came to life again? He came out of the tomb, then looked around and saw his shadow and declared there was going to be a few more weeks of winter?”

We celebrate Easter -- again. So what?

My wife is an elementary teacher in the public schools and the kids in her class were asking her why they didn’t have to go to school on Friday. So Ginny told them about Good Friday and Easter. One child said, “That makes sense. I think Mom said something about making us go to church this Sunday.”

We celebrate Easter -- again. So what?

You think about that first Easter, and there was not much celebrating happening.

The first people who encountered the Resurrection were not at all happy about it. They were the guards. They see the stone being rolled away, they see the angel pushing it aside, and then sitting on the stone to wait for the women.

I cannot imagine! I mean there you are in the cemetery and someone who is dead pops out of the grave and comes to life – that has to be an unnerving experience. It never happened to me! But it happens to these guards, and they are terrified.

More than afraid, they are paralyzed with fear.

The women have to get up at dawn to go to the cemetery and prepare the body of Christ for burial. They were unable to do this immediately after the death of Jesus because of Sabbath rules – Saturday being the Sabbath in the Jewish culture. They arrive and see these terrified guards, the angel and the open tomb.

The open tomb – it’s interesting to note here that the tomb that was opened was not opened for Jesus. Jesus never walks out of the grave. Jesus doesn’t have to wait for the tomb to be opened. The tomb is opened for our benefit, so we can look inside and see that Jesus is not there.

Elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus in his resurrected body is able to go in and out of locked rooms. He’s not a ghost. He is flesh and blood. His hands still have scars. But in his resurrected body he is able to move about with greater freedom that we can do.

So the stone is rolled away, not so that Jesus can come out, but so the disciples can go in and see that Christ is not there.

And everyone is reacting in much the same way – not with celebration, but with fear.

Fear, in part because a dead person coming to life is probably frightening.

But also in larger part because whenever we come close to God, there is a bit of fear.

We love God. God loves us. We trust God. But God is all powerful. And we are so unworthy to be in his presence that it can be a frightening thing.

So everyone is afraid at the first Easter.

But here’s the thing.

The guards are afraid, but nothing changes for them. They don’t become disciples. They don’t follow Christ. They are the first witnesses to the resurrection, but it makes no difference.

The women are just as afraid, but in their fear is a joy. And in their fear, or in spite of it, they follow Christ. They are obedient, and for them Easter makes a difference.


Imagine that the most important thing that could possibly happen in your life happens, but afterward, nothing changes.

It makes no difference.

You graduate from college, but instead of going out and getting a job, you just go home and continue to live with Mom and Dad, getting an allowance, and years later at the age of 40, still having a curfew.

Graduation day comes and goes – and nothing changes.You finally get that promotion. But instead of going to your new office with its corner window and beautiful view of the Atlanta skyline, you go to your same old cubical down in the basement.

Promotion day comes and goes – and nothing changes.

You get married, and after the wedding service, the bride goes home to her parents and the groom goes home to his parents.

It’s ridiculous to think that these things might actually happen, because these are events that change things.

Imagine Jesus being crucified.

He is put in a grave.

Buried.

But then he is resurrected.

He comes to life.

He lives again.

It would be ridiculous to think of living through Easter and then having nothing change.

What would have happened if after Christ’s resurrection, Peter had gone back to his fishing boat and lived out his life?

What would have happened if all of the disciples just went back to their old way of life?What would have happened if none of the Gospels had been written.

The resurrection of Christ was not the type of event that you celebrate once, but doesn’t change your life.It demands a change in your life.

The Resurrection of Christ validates everything that the Gospel claims about Christ, and it verifies everything that Christ requires of us.

You cannot come in here and celebrate Easter and then go out and not love God.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is asked which is the greatest commandment of the law, and the first answer is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:36-38)

You know, a man who died, was buried, and then comes back to life tells you to love God – you should do what he says!

Easter should make a difference in your life.

Nor can you come in here and celebrate Easter and then go out and not love your neighbor.

When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, he not only told us to love God, but he continued by telling us what the second greatest commandment was: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

A dead man who came back to life tells you to love your neighbor – you’d best do it!

The Apostle John said “If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” (I John 4:20)

Easter should make a difference in your life.

You cannot come in here and celebrate Easter and then go out and not show mercy, have compassion, work for peace, or live life that Christ calls us to live.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus talked about who would receive blessings: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy…. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5)

Has Easter made that kind of difference in your life that you feel the blessings Christ promised?

It is possible to come in here and celebrate Easter and then have nothing change.

But that is like graduating college, and then staying at home, getting the allowance, and living under Mom and Dad’s curfew.

It’s absurd, but it happens.

Easter makes a difference.

Let us make sure our lives reflect the difference Christ’s resurrection demands.

Copyright 2008, Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved.

The Resurrection of Hope

Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'" So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'" So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet-- a vast army. Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.'"



When I was in high school, our football team was the worst in the state. Game after game, year after year, we lost.

In my Freshman year, I would go to the football games and see signs that read, "Destroy Anderson High." And we would lose the game.

In my Sophomore year, I would go to the football games and I noticed the signs had softened just a bit so that I would see signs that read, "Hurt J.L.Mann High." And we would lose the game.

In my Junior year, I would go to the football games and I noticed the signs had softened up a little bit, and I would see signs that read, "Maintain Dignity Against Dixie High." And we would lose the game.

In my Senior year, I would go to the football games and I noticed the signs had softened up a little bit more, and I would see signs that read, "Welcome Greenwood High." And we would lose the game.

My high school seemed to be a school without hope. Then one day, when I was in college, I picked up the newspaper and there was a banner headline. "Woodmont High School Breaks 72 Game Losing Streak."

The reporter interviewed the coach and he was asked to explain how they finally won a game. All he could say was, "It's about time."

Amazingly enough, they won the next game.

And then, incredibly enough, they won the game after that.

This time when the reporter interviewed the coach, the coach explained their wins by saying, "All we needed was hope. Somewhere around the 20th or 30th loss, our school started accepting the fact that we always lose. We forgot that it is possible to win. I've been teaching tactics and strategies and working these boys out in practice, but that is not what helped us win. I should have been teaching about hope."

Several years ago, my son was playing on a baseball game, and like my high school football team, they simply couldn't find a way to win. They'd lost every game that year. Finally it was the day of their last game. The dug out was like a funeral home. Not a single kid was cheering the other kids as they went to bat. They were just waiting for the game to be over so they could go home.

I stuck my head in the dug out and told these 7 year olds, "Hey guys, you can win this game. After all, you're only 25 runs behind."

One of the kids heard me and said, "Hey, that's right. We are only 25 runs behind. We've never been this close to winning before."

It was as if there was an electric jolt that went through the dug out. When the next kid at bat hit the ball right so that it rolled through the legs of the first baseman, the entire dug out was celebrating and high fiving each other. The excitement and confidence of our team must have totally confused the other team.

In the bottom of the last inning, one of our players scored the winning run.

I remember thinking that if I had known all they needed was hope, I would have visited the dug out long before that last game.

We need hope in our lives.

But we all know what it is like to feel that all hope is gone.

In our Old and New Testament readings we encounter the experience of a loss of hope.

In the Old Testament, Ezekiel stands before a great battlefield. He sees before him a valley of dry bones. The battle is long over with. The vultures have been there and gone and all the flesh has disappeared. Even the armor has been stolen by the grave robbers. All that is left is a valley of dry bones.

God asks Ezekiel, "Can these dry bones live?"

And with despair in his voice, Ezekiel admits, "God only knows."

The loss of hope is a terrible experience.

A woman walks out of a doctor's office after hearing that she has cancer. What hope is there?

A father hangs up the telephone after receiving a telephone call from the police and learning that his rebellious son has been arrested. What hope is there?

A husband or wife can't speak to each other because of the depth of their anger toward one another. What hope is there?

Where does one go when there is no hope?

To the grave.

When there is no hope, all is finished.

People need hope for the future. That woman walking out of that doctor's office after hearing her diagnosis needs hope for the facing of her cancer.

The father receiving that phone call from the police needs hope for his son's future.

We need hope.



Where does one find hope? An ancient story from the Middle East is told of a man who had been sentenced to die. The man obtained a reprieve by assuring the king he would teach his majesty's horse to fly within the year--on the condition that if he didn't succeed, he would be put to death at the end of the year. "Within a year," the man explained later, "the king may die, or I may die, or the horse may die. Furthermore, in a year, who knows? Maybe the horse will learn to fly." (Bernard M. Baruch)

That is a form of grasping at straws!

It's better than nothing, but not by much.

Where do we find our hope? Not hope that is fleeting or "pie in the sky" kind of hope, but a lasting hope that endures and survives all of our trials and difficulties?

How do we resurrect hopes when things seem so utterly hopeless?

First, we need to know that God is present in our lives. If we want more than a grasping at straws kind of hope, if we want true lasting hope, we need to know that God is present in our lives.

In the Old Testament, Ezekiel looks over the battle field. He feels the hopelessness of a battle that has been lost, and a war that has failed. But God is with him. In Ezekiel we read, (Ezek 37:1-2), "The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry."

In Ephesians (2:12-13), the author writes, "remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ."

Without God in our lives, we do not have a complete and sturdy hope for the facing of our lives.

The second thing we need is the Word of God spoken in our lives.

In the Old Testament, Ezekiel looks out at the hopeless valley of dry bones. Can they live again? Of course not. But God commands Ezekiel to preach to the dead. As we read a few moments ago, (Ezek 37:4-10) "Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'" So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'" So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet-- a vast army."

Without the Word of God being spoken to the dry bones, the dry bones would have remained lifeless.

The Psalmist wrote, (Ps 130:5), "I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope."

Without the Word of God, we have only the Words of Humanity on which to lean for our understanding and hope, and that will always be insufficient.

Thirdly, we need to trust in God above all else.

Hope as the world knows it is in thinking, "Give me what I want, give me what I want, give me what I want."

Hope as the Christian knows it is in praying, "Not my will, but your will be done."

In Ezekiel, the prophet is asked by God, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know." And there is a trust in God. Not a bitterness, but a leaning onto the Lord and trusting in God.

Real hope is found in God.

Lasting hope is found in trusting Him.

In Proverbs, we read, (Prov 3:5-6) "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."



Copyright 2008, The Rev. Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved.
Sermons are available online and can be found by visiting www.Pittendreigh.com

Come and Worship

Psalm 95
Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
as you did that day at Massah in the desert,
where your fathers tested and tried me,
though they had seen what I did.
For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways."
So I declared on oath in my anger,
"They shall never enter my rest." NIV

Two young boys were walking down the street in downtown Atlanta when out from an alley a Pit Bull suddenly appeared and attacked one of the boys. The other boy grabbed a 2x4 lying near the alley and beat the dog to death and saved his friend’s life.

A reporter from the Atlanta Journal and Constitution got wind of the story and requested an interview from the first boy. He ran the story on the front page and the headline read: “Braves Fan Bravely Saves Friend’s Life From A Rabid Dog.”

The boy called the reporter and said, “I’m not a Braves fan.” The reporter said, “Well, I just thought that since you are from Atlanta that you would be a Braves fan. I’ll correct the mistake in tomorrow’s paper.”

The next day the front page read: “Falcon Fan Rescues Friend’s Life From Rabid Dog.”

The boy again called the reporter and said, “I’m not a Falcon fan either!”

The reporter asked, “Are you a fan of sports at all?”

The boy said, “Yes. In fact, I am a die-hard fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.”

The reporter agreed to note the change in the next day’s newspaper. The next day the front page read: “Beloved Family Pet Killed By Yankee Idiot!”

Well, obviously, that was the reporter’s viewpoint. And it was, without question, a rather biased viewpoint – even though throughout the country there are certainly many people who might be sympathetic to it.


Well, everyone has his or her opinion.

How do you feel about President Bush? Who you voting for? What’s you favorite food? Which is the best school? And just where is the northern border of Georgia?

Get into any of these discussions, and there are all sorts of opinions.

Worship is no different.

Ask a Pentecostal and the answer may well be given with the same wonderful emotional passion in which a Pentecostal experiences worship.

Ask an Episcopalian, and you may listen to how moved he or she is by the inspired literature of the Book of Common Prayer.

Ask two people, and one will answer about the music of Handel or the organ or the strings and brass. Ask another, and that person will answer with comments of how wonderful it was to have the guitar and the drums.

“Come, and worship,” Psalm 95 teaches us.

But how?

With joy!

“Come, let us sing for joy,” says our Old Testament lesson.

We do a lot of things, just for the fun of it.

For example, earlier this week, my son was visiting for a couple of nights and he came into my bedroom and asked, “Have you seen the front yard lately?”

“Noooo. Why?”

“Oh it’s bad,” he said. “It’s really bad.”

So I went outside and found my lawn covered with plastic spoons and knives and forks. Not a few of them, but hundreds of them. All of them were sticking up out of my lawn. On the drive way and the sidewalk there was a substance of some sort. I’m not familiar with it, but I’m told it was something called, “Shaving cream.” It spelled out words and phrases, like, “Manny Rocks.”

My son asked, “Do you think the youth group from the church did this?

And I said, “NO! Our youth group is led by an awesome lady. Katie Gomola Arnold would never, ever let the youth group do something like that to MY lawn.”

But there on the drive way was a vital clue. Written in Shaving Cream were the initials “GSPC.”
GSPC? GSPC? Ah – Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church!

Katie and the youth group!

So later that week, the Associate Pastor and I stole the door from Katie’s office and hid it in the Music Director’s office.

Of course, all of this was done in fun. Just for the joy of it.

We do a lot of things for the sake of joy.

Have you ever been on a picnic? Who in his or her right mind would want to sit on a hard ground with ants and bugs crawling around and eat cold fried chicken in an open field that has no heating or air conditioning? But we do it, because there is something about it that is a joy.

We go to sporting events, because it is a joy.

We go to the movies, because it is a joy.

We visit friends and family, because it is a joy.

And that is one reason why we worship – it is a joy.

Worship should have a sense of joy.

Why are we here? For the joy of it.

Come and worship!

Come and sing with joy.

And worship should also have a sense of awe and wonder.

I know, I know – my sermons are not always full of awe and wonder and inspiration.

But – come and worship. Come into the presence of God. And you will be filled with awe. There will be wonder. There will be inspiration. And if there is not, then you have somehow closed your spiritual eyes to the presence of God.

For the Lord is a great God. Our Old Testament tells us this, but we forget how great He is.

He is above all gods – which is not to say that there are other gods in the universe. There is only one God. But in our heart, we worship so many gods. We worship our baseball team. We worship celebrities. We worship cars, IPhones and the latest fads.

But the Lord is a great God. He is above all our other gods. The Psalmist says that in the hands of God are the depths of the earth.

We live in an age of amazing things. In 1960, two explorers entered a vessel launched from a Navy ship. They spent almost 5 hours diving down to the deepest part of the ocean, where they spent 20 minutes. No one has ever been back, and now, 48 years later, no vessel exists that can repeat the trip. We’ve been to the moon. We’ve sent robotic vehicles to Mars. We’ve sent orbiters to Saturn. Through the Hubble Space Telescope, we have seen the edges of the universe.

We have seen amazing things, and God created all these things. God maintains all these things. And more – because the things we see now are nothing to what our children and grandchildren will see in this universe.

Can you really see the wonders of this universe and not be filled with awe?

Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon? Have you ever experienced one of those Fall afternoons when every tree is still full of leaves and every leaf is full of color and the sky is clear and sun is shining? Have you ever walked on a beach and listened to the waves hitting the shore and smelled the salt air? Have you ever held in your arms a child who is so young that his or her age is not counted in years or even days, but hours or minutes?

We are invited to come and worship, and to experience the wonder and awe of God almighty who has made us and who has made this universe.

We come in here, not so much to satisfy our hunger for God, but rather to deepen that hunger. Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, said, “Worship does not satisfy our hunger for God – it whets our appetite.” [1]

Come and worship in such a way that you are not satisfied, but in such a way that you experience the awesomeness of God that leaves you wanting more and more and more of God.
Worship needs to be filled with joy, it should give us a sense of awe and inspiration, and it should motivate us.

Psalm 95 begins with this wonderful section, “Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and praise him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God.”

However, the Psalm then moves to an ending that we would prefer not to read…

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” And then, the Psalmist reminds the listeners that their ancestors were disobedient in such a way that they were forced by God to wander in the desert for 40 years before being allowed to enter the Promised Land. The Psalmist ends with, “For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways." So I declared on oath in my anger, "They shall never enter my rest."

I don’t want God to be angry with me. Some translations are even more harsh – “I loathed that generation,” says one version. Another says, “I was tired of that generation.”

None of those appeal to me. I prefer, “God was happy with me.” But, by Psalm 95, God is not always happy, and he sent the people who had been freed from slavery in Egypt into a period of wandering in the desert for 40 years.

If you walk straight there, from Egypt to the Promised Land, do you know how much time it takes?

Eleven days.

Me? I might take 15 days.

With all of that luggage and supplies, the children and elderly being slow to catch up – let’s double it, and it still takes less than a month.

But it took 40 years.

So we have a choice. Follow God’s leadership, and get where God wants you to be in quick order. Or follow your own desires, and wander aimlessly.

Worship ought to motivate us and direct us.

Leonard Sweet, in his book “Aquachurch,” writes: “Our pews are occupied by people who want to be moved, but who don’t want to move.” In other words, our pews are occupied by people who want to be moved emotionally, but who don’t want to move obediently. [2]

Someone once said, “Worship always leads to action.” True worship must always lead to the implementation of God’s plan and purpose for our lives. So come – come and worship, not simply wanting to be moved emotionally, but with a commitment to move forward obediently. [3]

Stephen Dow, a pastor of a Wesleyan Church, tells a parable about a community of ducks waddling off to duck church one Sunday to hear their duck preacher. [4] After they waddled into the duck sanctuary, the service began and the duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly.

He pounded the pulpit with his duck beak and said, “With these wings, there is nowhere we ducks can not go! There is no God-given task we ducks cannot accomplish! With these wings we no longer need walk through life. We can soar high in the sky!”

Shouts of “Amen!” were quacked throughout the duck congregation.

The duck preacher concluded his message by boldly saying, “With our wings we can fly through life! WE … CAN … FLY!!!” More ducks quacked out loud AMENS in response.

Every duck loved the service. In fact all the ducks that were present commented on what a wonderful, powerful message they had heard from their duck preacher … and then they left the church and waddled all the way home.

How often do we waddle to church, waddle through our worship and then waddle back out the same way we waddled in? And we are not moved. We are not changed.
Come, and worship. Our God is a great God. A God above all other things in life! Come into His presence, and let His Spirit lead you.



Copyright 2008, Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved.
For copies of other sermons, visit www.Pittendreigh.com

[1] Eugene Peterson (quoted in Leadership magazine, Winter 1995.
[2] Leonard I. Sweet, “Aquachurch: Essential Leadership Arts for Piloting Your Church in Today's Fluid Culture.” Group Publishing 1999.
[3] Brian Bill, “Invitation to Worship” Sermon on Psalm 95. Pontiac Bible Church
[4] Steven Dow, pastor of the Westside Wesleyan Church, Bristol, South Dakota. Quoted in Sermon Central “Loving God Through Worship.”

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor (Discussion Notes for Wednesday's Hot Topics)

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Emma Lazarus made this statement in a poem, Colossus, and these words are inscribed on our Statue of Liberty’s base.

We are a nation of immigrants.

My earliest immigrant ancestor was John Rolfe, who arrived in Jamestown Virginia in 1610. All he had to do was to sail from England, get ship wrecked in Bermuda, eventually make it to Virginia, and then steal the land from the Indians.

My most recent immigrant ancestor was William Pittendreigh, who arrived in Maine in 1872. He had to fill out a three page form, be deloused, and give evidence that he had a job waiting for him. He worked in this country during the height of immigration to the US – a level that is just now being surpassed.

Share stories of your immigrant ancestors…

Now becoming a legal immigrant to the US is a complicated matter.

Wolfe marriage – It was easier for one of our members to move to Germany and become a citizen in his wife's homeland, than for her to become an American after she married.

Iraq – 2.7 million refugees (one of the most significant refugee and displacement of persons in history). The US has had a great part to play in this, but we have allowed only 7,000 to enter the US.

Criss’ file -- One of our elders has done a great work with our immigrant ministry in terms of helping our Hispanic Pastor be allowed to work in this country. His file is 3 inches thick. He has had to work constantly. If Criss gives it up, there is no one who will be able to continue this work.

We have a large number of illegal immigrants coming into the US now. It is easier than being a legal alien.

There are some advantages.

We can take advantage (exploit) illegal immigrants with low wages.

Only 2% use welfare or Social Security, only 3% use food stamps, yet 84% of illegals pay income taxes. So the US makes money on them. Because they pay into Social Security they do not use, more than $50 billion per year is added to SS. Illegal immigrants contribute $80,000 during his or her lifetime more to the federal government than he or she will consume. However, the illegal immigrant does cost state and local governments, especially in the area of education.

There are concerns about crime brought in by illegal aliens – although MOST are law abiding citizens to the extreme. They want to work and make money, so they do everything they can to obey the law and stay out of trouble.

We are also concerned about how immigration will effect our culture. Will it change our country?

We think about building a fence. My generation thinks of a wall like this and remembers the Berlin Wall, which is not a good thing. Historians will remember the Great Wall of China. Walls are not effective. But I heard on NPR radio the other day – this man in Texas has a home near the border and he has contributed his land to the building of this fence, because his crops are trampled, his house is being robbed frequently, his trucks have been stolen several times – all by illegals crossing the border.

This is a hot topic, and it divides our nation.

For every positive, there is a negative, for every negative there is a positive.

How many of you have witnessed illegal immigrants entering this nation? What was it like?

The Bible is all about immigration.

Welcoming the stranger is the central theme of biblical hospitality. It is an inclusive hospitality that always makes room for the stranger. It also shows that no person is to be excluded.

1. Seeking asylum.

The first example of inclusive hospitality is seen when Adam and Eve’s son Cain kills his brother, Abel (Genesis 4:8-16). As punishment, God makes him a wanderer on the earth. He becomes an immigrant. But before sending him away, God puts a mark of protection on Cain – so that no one will kill him. The criminal migrant was protected so he would not be harmed in his wanderings.

(Today very few migrants [criminals or not] are protected. If they are undocumented, they are arrested and deported. Asylum seekers, who have been persecuted in their homelands, are routinely placed in immigration detention and must defend themselves or seek legal help from behind bars.)

Moses grew up to witness the oppressive treatment of the Hebrews by the Egyptians. In responding to this injustice, he killed an Egyptian, and became a criminal alien, who fled for his life to a strange land. He was taken in and given sanctuary in Midian.

(Today, in the U.S., he would be put in prison, serve his sentence, and eventually be deported back to Egypt, to be imprisoned there if that country would accept him. If it would not, he would spend the rest of his life in prison in the United States.)

2. Refugees from Disasters

Noah and his family became migrants without a known destination. Eventually their ark landed and the inhabitants were blessed by God and told, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1b). Later, scripture tells us that from the three sons of Noah – Shem, Ham, and Japheth – and their wives, the whole earth was populated (Genesis 9:19).

(It is important to note that, in today’s world, victims of a natural disaster are not considered eligible for refugee resettlement. Many of them spend the rest of their lives stranded in a strange country or displaced in their homelands. This happened to thousands of displaced persons from the Gulf Coast of the United States and to the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005.)

3. Faith-based migrations

The generations continued on the earth, and the biblical story picked up with Terah (the father of Abram), Abram, his wife Sarai, and his brother’s son Lot settling in Haran. It is there that God spoke to Abram and said, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). Abram, Sarai, and Lot became migrants going into and out of Canaan, to the hill country on the east of Bethel. They then journeyed toward the Negreb and because of famine went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien – a stranger (Genesis 12:10). They came out of Egypt and eventually separated, with Lot settling near Sodom on the plain of the Jordan and Abram settling by the oaks of Mamre in Hebron (Genesis 13).

(The God of Abram instructed him to migrate just as today, the voice of God continues to direct people to paths of migration and immigration. Within any faith-based group, many people can be found who have embarked on a faith journey taking them to strange lands because they heard God calling them to migrate to a new job or specific ministry.)

4. Children as migrants

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, to which his parents had traveled because of the taxation decree. Tradition say the Christ Child was born in a manger, a stable, a shed like the children of many of today’s migrants, who are born along the road as their parents seek work and a place to call home. The news of his birth was given first to the shepherds, the group of people lowest on the social scale at that time. They were also a group of migrants, who moved and lived with their flocks doing seasonal work.

Jesus was not only a refugee and a migrant. He was also undocumented both as a child and at the end of his life. We know that Jesus was crucified “outside the gates” of the city because he was not a citizen (Hebrews 13:12).

5. Immigration based on economy

Gen 12:10
10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
(NIV)

How To Treat The Immigrant In Your Midst

Handout

Exodus 2:22
Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have become an alien in a foreign land."

Exodus 22:21
"Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.

Exodus 23:9
“Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.

Deuteronomy 10:17-19
For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.

Deuteronomy 24:14
Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns.

Deuteronomy 24:17
Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.

Psalms 146:9
The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

Matthew 25:44-45
“They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

Hebrews 13:2
Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

Galatians 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

“The Magi’s Gift To Us”

Matthew 2:1-3:16

1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem
2 and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
4 When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
5 "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:
6 "'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'"
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.
8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.
10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.




January 6th is Epiphany – which is today!

Epiphany is that day of the Christian calendar when we remember the events of our New Testament lesson – the visit of the Wise Men or the Magi to the Christ Child.

The images we have of this visitation are often clouded by misinformation and mythology.

We like to imagine three wise men riding alone on camels across the desert, and then visiting the Christ child at the manger hours after the birth of Jesus.

But take a look closely at Matthew, in chapter 2, verse 11, you will see that the Magi do not visit the family in a stable.

We all know the Christmas story of how Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem, and when they arrived there was no room for them in the inn. So Mary had to give birth to the child in a stable – perhaps even a cave where animals were kept.

But in verse 11, the family is now in a house.

What brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem caused them to stay there for a while. At least long enough to have left the stable and to have found a house. In fact, the visit of the Magi was probably a year or two after the birth of Christ.

We know this because in verse 16 of chapter 2, Matthew says, “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.”

Even the number of the Wise Men is questionable. With all respect to the hymn that we just sang, “We Three Kings,” there is no concrete evidence in Scripture that there were only three wise men. We get the impression that there were three because there were three gifts. But in the early years of the church, when Christians were hiding for fear of persecution by the Roman Emperor, they drew pictures of this event of the visitation of the wise men, and in the pictures, they often drew 12 wise men.

But one thing does ring clear from this event. Regardless of the muddled images we may have, the confusion, the lack of detail given by Scripture, this visitation of the wise men is an important part of Bible’s story because it proclaims one very clear truth.

Scholars of the Bible can argue about how many wise men there were, where they came from, when they visited Christ – and even what a wise man was (king, magician, astrologer). One thing that cannot be argued is the clear message presented here – the visit of the wise men establishes that all are welcome to worship Christ.

The Magi were immigrants visiting the country temporarily – aliens coming from across the border from another country. Without their presence in the Gospels, then Christ’s birth is a local event. With the Magi’s visit, Christ’s birth is understood from the very beginning of Matthew’s Gospel as an international event. It doesn’t matter what language you speak. It doesn’t matter what color your skin is. It doesn’t matter what kind of cultural outfit you wear. All people are welcome to come to worship the Christ.

The Magi were Gentiles – non Jews. With the Magi’s visit, Christ’s birth is understood from the very beginning of Matthew’s Gospel as an event that crosses all religious and philosophic boundaries. It doesn’t matter what faith you were born into. What matters is the faith you embrace.

The Magi represented a people of different educational background. These were not shepherds watching their flocks by night, who in that time and place were the illiterate. These were well educated men. They were the earliest astronomers who studied the stars. They were mathematicians. The shepherds who visit the Christ child tell us that Christ is for the simplest person among us. The Magi who visit the Christ tell us that Christianity is a faith that even the most intellectual among us can embrace.

The Magi represented a people of a different financial background. The Magi probably did not travel alone. They came as a caravan. There were probably many servants and lots of supplies. Crossing the desert is not a simple task. And the gifts they gave were not cheap “blue light specials” bought from the Persian Kmart. Gold, frankincense and myrrh.

In the early years of the church, the shepherds were not an important and meaningful part of the Gospels. When artists painted scenes from the Bible, no one painted pictures of the shepherds visiting the Christ child for a few centuries. It didn’t move or inspire people. But from the earliest years, painting pictures of the Magi was a common project for artists because the Magi’s visit to Christ touched people deeply and profoundly.[i]

Because the truth proclaimed by this biblical account is clear – everyone is welcomed into the presence of Christ.

This is the gift that the Magi give to us.

That one truth basically means two things for us at Good Shepherd.

First, it means that no one can ever tell us that we are not welcome in this church.

The Magi spoke a different language, lived a different lifestyle, dressed in different clothing. It would have been logical for them not to be welcomed. But they were welcome.

Because the message proclaimed by this story is true. Everyone is welcomed into the presence of Christ.

No one can ever tell us we do not belong here.

But, this brings us to the second part of this message – the flip side of this truth. WE can’t tell anyone ELSE that THEY are not welcomed here.

Because the Magi are welcomed into the presence of Christ, it becomes our responsibility to make sure that everyone gets the message that they are welcomed into this church.

Any time we stop welcoming people into the church, we stop being the church.
Fred Craddock is a well known preacher who has taught in the seminary in Atlanta for a number of years. He remembers the first little church he served was in the eastern Tennessee hills, not too far from Oak Ridge. When Oak Ridge became the location of one of the early nuclear energy development centers, the town began to grow, booming almost overnight. “Every hill and every valley and every shady grove had recreational vehicles, trucks and things like that. People came in from everywhere and pitched tents, lived in wagons. Hard hats from everywhere, with their families and children paddling around in the mud in those trailer parks, lived in everything temporarily to work.” Craddock’s church was not far from all of this activity. They had a beautiful little church – white frame building, one hundred and twelve years old. The church had an organ in the corner, which one of the young fellows had to pump while the organist played it. The church was beautifully decorated chimneys, kerosene lamps all around the walls, and every pew in the little church was hand made from giant poplar trees of the area.

After church one Sunday morning, the minister Fred Craddock asked the leaders to stay. He said, “We need to launch a calling campaign and an invitational campaign in all those trailer parks to invite those people to church.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” one of the elders said. “I don’t think they fit in. They’re just here temporarily, just construction people. They’ll be leaving pretty soon.”

“Well, we ought to invite them, make feel at home.”

They argued about it for a while, and then someone suggested that since it was late, they should just go home and finish the discussion the next week.

So they went home, had lunch, and a week later they were back together again. As soon as they got together the second time, the meeting began with one of the leaders saying, “I move that in order to be a member of this church, you must own property in the county.”

Someone else said, “I second that.” It passed. The minister was the only one to vote against the motion.

Years passed.

And one day Fred Craddock had the opportunity to travel back to that part of Tennessee with his wife. He told his wife the painful story as he prepared to visit this church for the first time in many years.

The countryside had changed.

The roads were different. The interstate had been built in the area. It was a bit difficult, but Craddock finally found the state road. Then the county road. Then the gravel road. Then it was there! The little white building with the steeple and the stained glass windows.

But the church was different.
The parking lot was full.
There were cars of all sorts.
And trucks.
And motorcycles.
And in front of the church was a new sign.
“Barbeque. All you can eat.”
It’s a restaurant now.

The church had closed

Inside there are tables rather than pews.

There is a cashier’s desk where the pulpit used to be.

Instead of the organ there’s a juke box.

And around the tables were gathered every sort of person. Rich and poor. High school drop out and college professor. There were even a few construction workers there. Everyone was welcomed in the restaurant.

But it wasn’t a church anymore.[ii]

When the church stops welcoming everyone – it stops being a church.

Copyright 2008
The Rev. Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh, Jr.
All rights reserved

[i] Raymond Brown, The Birth of the Messiah. Garden City New York: Image Books. 1977. pages 197ff
[ii]Fred Craddock. Craddock Stories, St Louis: Chalice Press, page 28-29