Don’t Just Wait for Those Mountaintop Moments

Rev. Debbie Cato
Exodus 34:29-35 and Luke 9:28-43
Fairfield Community Church
February 27, 2022

Let us Pray:  Lord, help us not only to hear your Word read and proclaimed today but listen to it that we may understand. May your Word challenge us and change us and change us.  Amen.

 

Don’t Just Wait for Those Mountaintop Moments

 

Today we have two pretty amazing stories.  Moses had a meeting with God on the top of Mt. Sinai.  He spent quite a bit of time on Mt. Sinai talking with God.  He took two stone tablets up with him as God requested and God made a covenant with the people that Moses wrote on the stone tablets as God requested.  After God was done saying all He had to say, Moses went back down the mountain to the people.  He didn’t know his face was glowing after spending time with God.  But Moses had changed from his mountaintop experience with God.  His face was shining, and the Israelite people were actually afraid to come near him.  The glory of God showed on Moses face from his mountaintop time alone with God.

Jesus has been spending time with his disciples and apostles and crowds of people teaching and healing.  He has been performing miracles of healing the sick and demon possessed and sitting among the ordinary, marginalized people teaching about the Kingdom of God to everyone willing to listen. 

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has just taught the crowd on the plain, he has fed the five thousand, and he has tried to explain to his disciples what his future looks like.  “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised,” Jesus told them.

Now, Jesus takes Peter, John, and James up on the top of the mountain to pray.  Jesus often goes up on the mountain to pray, but this time he takes three of his companions with him. As Jesus prays, his appearance changes.  His face changes and his clothes become dazzling white.  And then Elijah and Moses appear, and Jesus begins talking with them.

What an experience for Peter, John and James!  Imagine, the grandfather’s of their faith, there talking with Jesus! In front of them!  In fact, Peter is so overcome with the holiness and the sheer amazement of the presence of Elijah and Moses with Jesus in all his glory that he awakens from a stupor and is completely overwhelmed.  Peter wants to figure out a way to make the mountaintop experience last.  Who can blame him for not wanting it to end! He wants to build a permanent dwelling, a memorial for Jesus and Elijah and Moses so they can stay.

But, just as suddenly, Elijah and Moses are gone, and Jesus body returns to normal.  The mountaintop experience is over and the four of them trudge back down the mountain to the crowd below. 

Once they return to the crowd below, they are met by a man with a child who is possessed by a demon who casts him into terrible convulsions.  After begging Jesus to heal his son, Jesus casts the demon out of the child’s body and heals the child.

The disciples have been traveling with Jesus for three years.  They have seen all his miracles – for three years.  They have seen him heal paralytics.  They have seen him heal lepers.  They have seen him heal the demon possessed.  They participated in the feeding of five thousand people with a few small fish and barley loaves.  Yet somehow, they have failed to see God in the miraculous healings, in the teachings, in the “ordinary” stuff that Jesus has been doing and teaching and saying and just being for three years.  It takes a mountaintop experience for them to see God.  Granted it was spectacular.  As brief as it was, they experienced God through Jesus’ changed appearance and of course, the voice of God that came down from heaven.  “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”  God’s very voice! But then it was over.  Mountaintop experiences do not last.

We aren’t that different you know.  We look for those mountaintop experiences too. We want those mountaintop experiences. We think if we don’t have them, we aren’t spiritual enough.  We aren’t close enough to God. We aren’t holy enough.  Those things that “prove” to us that God is really here.  Those times that give us goosebumps.  Those times that take our breath away.  Times that feel incredibly holy.  Spiritual. 

We want proof that God is active in the world, in our community, in our lives.  Who can blame us.  We need those mountaintop experiences in a world that’s cruel and harsh.  Those assurances that God is really present, that he’s really here, that he’s really answering our prayers, really with us, really a part of our lives, part of the world.

Something happens when we wait for those extraordinary God moments.  Waiting for those unusual, once-in-a lifetime experiences often result in us missing the ordinary signs of God’s presence.  The phone call from a friend who says they were thinking about us just when we are feeling really alone.  Really lost.  The smile from a stranger in the grocery store.  The unexpected hug from a child.  A crocus popping up through the snow.  Positive test results back from the doctor.  We don’t often think of things like this as signs of God’s presence in our life, but I think they are.  God uses people – us, to be his love in the world.  To remind one another that we are not alone.  That he loves us.  He uses nature and all the beauty he created to say, hey!  All this beauty surrounding you?  It’s me.  Here I am.  Find joy all around you.  In the beauty that I created, the miracles that have happened all around you.  The rising sun in the morning and the setting sun at night.  It happens every day.  We take it for granted.  The way the tide controls the raging waves of the ocean.  It’s so amazing.  The patterns of nature remind us of the sovereignty of God that surrounds us each and every day. 

Debie Thomas says, “To me, it’s interesting — and sobering — to notice that the Transfiguration doesn’t grant Jesus’s disciples the faith or the strength to heal the suffering boy or comfort his heartbroken father.  What they experience during their spiritual high doesn’t magically translate into vibrant, transformative faith down below.  Which is to say, if we’re sitting around waiting for more mountaintop experiences to mature and deepen our faith before we love and serve God’s children in the valley, then we need to rethink our strategy immediately…  Finding God in the ordinary requires dwelling in the ordinary.  We learn mundane holiness only in the seconds, minutes, hours, and days of our “regular” lives.  There are no shortcuts.  God is not in the business of offering us permanent real estate on the mountaintops.” [1]

We will still want mountaintop experiences.  But God’s in control of them, not us.  We can’t make them happen! The hard part of our journey as followers of Christ is being content with being with Jesus on the plain.  Down in the valley.  Walking down the long road with him in the ordinariness of life.  In the good times and in deep sorrow.  In the midst of unanswered payers.  Discerning the presence of God in the spaces between the light and the darkness.  Knowing that He is there.  Knowing that the sacred is all around us.  

 

Today is the end of Epiphany.  We are entering into Lent, a season of darkness.  A season of reflection and repentance.  It’s always interesting what God does in my life during Lent.  The challenges He puts before me.  I never know how He will speak to me, but He always seems to through events or people during this season.  We don’t know what Lent will bring in our lives.  I’m certain the Lent study will grow our understanding and stretch our faith.  Whatever practice you decide to keep this season, God will be with you. 

 

So don’t be afraid to come down from the mountain. Keep looking and listening for the holy, keep looking for God, no matter where the journey takes you.  Because Jesus is present everywhere.  Both the mountain and the valley belong to him.  He is Lord of all.[2]   Amen.

---

[1] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay?id=3332. Debi Thomas.  Down From the Mountain.  February 27, 2022.
[2] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay?id=3332. Debi Thomas.  Down From the Mountain.  February 27, 2022.

Forgiveness

 Rev. Debbie Cato
Gen 45:3-11 and Luke 6:27-38
Fairfield Community Church
February 20, 2022

Let us Pray:  Gracious and Loving God, through your Holy Spirit open our hearts and minds to your transforming word in scripture that we may experience anew the height and depth and breadth of your love and be inspired to live as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

Forgiveness

 

If you are like me, today’s scripture passage caused you some discomfort.  In fact, when I saw what the gospel passages the lectionary was giving for this week, I cringed.  These passages are about forgiveness.  They are about looking the other way.  They are about treating people with kindness and grace regardless of how they treat us and that is hard.  Forgiveness is hard.

I cannot stand up here as your pastor and preach about forgiveness and not be honest.  It is hard to look the other way.  It is hard – for me, to keep my mouth shut and  not bite back.  Not to get the last word in. It is hard to not retaliate.  Not pay back. I don’t want you to think that I have forgiveness down pat. It is hard to forgive. I am preaching to myself today!

The very idea of forgiveness is radical and powerful.  It runs against our thinking, our inclinations, our desires, and our will.[1]  It sows generosity where nothing is expected to grow.[2]

In our Old Testament reading, we are brought into the story of Joseph and his brothers.  You remember the story.  Joseph’s father gave him this beautiful coat and Joseph does a lot of gloating.  His brothers are jealous.  They sort of go to an extreme and sell Joseph to travelers who take him to Egypt, and he becomes a slave to Pharoah. Eventually God sees to it that Pharoah takes favor with Joseph and he comes into tremendous power in Pharoah’s kingdom. 

Well, in our passage, it’s many years later. Joseph’s brothers have come to Egypt looking for food during the famine that has hit the land.  The did not expect to find their little brother.  And they certainly did not expect him to forgive them.  But Joseph forgives his older brothers for sending him into a lifetime of hardship: “Do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.”  Imagine the guilt his forgiveness relieved them of. Guilt they carried for many, many years.

 

Then we come to Luke’s Gospel as Jesus continues his “Sermon on the Plain.”  “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.”  And wait!  He isn’t finished! “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.  Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.  Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

 

These readings don’t leave us much wiggle room, do they?  His teachings were countercultural two thousand years ago when He first taught them to the crowd gathered around him and they are certainly countercultural today.  No matter what we think of it, our call as followers of Christ is to walk in love.  To practice mercy.  To refuse revenge, recrimination, and rage.  To give our

offenders second, third, fourth, and even hundredth chances.[3]

 

Whenever I talk about forgiveness, I always want to stop and talk about what forgiveness is not.  It’s important.

 

First, forgiveness is not denial. Forgiveness is not pretending that an offense doesn't matter, or that a wound doesn't hurt. Forgiveness is not acting as if things don't have to change.  Forgiveness is not allowing ourselves to be abused and mistreated, or assuming that God has no interest in justice.  Saying we need to forgive is not saying we need to stay in an abusive relationship whether it’s physical, emotional or mental.  Forgiveness is not synonymous with healing or reconciliation.  Healing has its own timetable, and sometimes reconciliation isn't possible.  In fact, sometimes our lives depend on us severing ties with our offenders, even if we have forgiven them.[4]  

Secondly, forgiveness is not a detour or a shortcut.  Yes, Christianity insists on forgiveness.  But it calls us first to mourn, to lament, to burn with passion, and to hunger and thirst for justice.  There is nothing godly about responding to systemic evil with passive acceptance or unexamined complicity.[5]

 

Thirdly, and this is important - forgiveness is not instantaneous.  Not if we’re honest.  Forgiveness is a process — a messy, roller-coaster process that might leave us feeling healed and liberated one minute, and bleeding out of every pore the next.  In my experience, no one who says the words, "I forgive you" gets a pass from this messy process, and no one who struggles extra hard to forgive for reasons of circumstance or trauma should feel that they're less godly or spiritual than those who don't.  Before Joseph forgives his brothers, he wrestles with a strong desire to scare and shame them.  In fact, he does scare and shame them.  Read the whole story of Joseph to find out!  Forgiveness is something Joseph arrived at, slowly and painfully.[6] 

 

Anne Lamott is an American novelist and non-fiction author.  Her most famous book is a short book called “Help, Thanks, Wow.” Anne says all our prayers fall into one of those three categories.  Either Help! God, Thanks! God, or Wow! God.  She also wrote a book called “Traveling Mercies.”  It’s very good.  I recommend it – I love her books.  Anne compares withholding forgiveness to drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rats to die.  If we are so consumed with our pain, our resentment, our injury; if we insist on weaponizing our very well-intentioned anger over every interaction we have with people who hurt us, then we are drinking poison.  Poison that will kill us long before it kills the people that hurt us.  Our pain does not hurt the person that hurt us.  It is hurting us.  They don’t know how hurt we are.  How upset we are.  How angry we are.  But it is eating us up inside.

 

Forgiveness frees us of that pain, of that bitterness, of that resentment.  It removes a burden from us.  It does not say what happened was O.K.  It simply says I am not going to let it hurt me anymore. 

My husband was very abusive – to me and to my beautiful daughters, when
they were little girls.  We went through a number of very difficult years after he left as he continued to cause havoc in our lives until the courts finally cut all his parental rights due to his behavior.  It was much easier for me to forgive his abuse of me.  After several years I was able to see how what I went through, made me stronger, helped me know what was truly important to me, and helped strengthen my faith. I wasn’t glad it happened!  Don’t mis-understand me. But I was able to forgive him for how he treated me.  I could not forgive him for how he treated my daughters.  I knew I was supposed to, but I could not. I held onto my anger and bitterness for a long time. I could actually feel myself clinching that resentment.  Holding on to it as tightly as I could.  It took me until they became adults to finally let it go.  They were beautiful young women.  I finally let go and forgave him, but it was that difficult for me. 

It was a resentment, a bitterness that ate me up inside.  I knew it.  I was aware of it on a regular basis.  But I just could not forgive him for hurting my beautiful children.  When I finally did, it felt like I was free of a pain I had carried in my body for a long, long time.  I honestly felt lighter, almost like a new person.  But it took me many years.  It was a huge trauma.  It was worse than my own abuse.  I felt guilty that I couldn’t forgive him; but I just couldn’t. 

Forgiving is hard, let’s be honest.  It’s one thing if someone is just rude or is having a bad day.  Little things are easy to forgive.  But big things, things that traumatize us are hard.  To really let go, to really forgive take healing.  It takes time.  Forgiving is more than just saying the words.

We know what scripture tells us.  As Jesus’ followers, we should not reciprocate, we should not retaliate, and we should not draw our behavior patterns from those who victimize us.[7]  As Jesus followers we are supposed to act using kingdom principles of love, forgiveness, and generosity.[8]

Our lifestyle should not be determined by our enemies or by our friends.  Our lifestyle should be determined by the God we worship who reacts in love and grace toward all.  This is what is means to be children of God.[9]  It’s the radical grace of God, found in God and not in the merits of its recipients. [10]  The inbreaking of God into human history makes all the difference in the way we respond to other people.[11]

Jesus knows full well that we will never love our enemies without an amazing grace that transforms us and makes us different than we are.  Like the musician, the academic, or the athlete, who train body, mind, and spirit and become what they need to be to practice their craft, we too can become more than the sum of our parts. Yet the hard truth is that practice may make us better, but it still will not make us perfect.  Perfectly able to forgive in all circumstances  What changes us and allows us to love is a grace greater than our sin, our best intentions, or even our hard work.[12]  To answer hurt with forgiveness is plausible only because Christ is our strength.[13]  God’s mercy is the norm.[14] 

The work of forgiveness is some of the hardest work we can do in this world.  It is also some of the most important work we can do.  But, we must stop drinking the poison of incivility and bitterness.  We need to see the “better selves” that live within the people who do us harm.  May we have the courage and strength to rise above.  And may we taste the full measure of the freedom that awaits us when we choose to forgive.[15]

 

Let us pray:  God of abundant mercy,  Teach us your way of grace; to meet hatred with kindness, to answer curses with blessing, to love without holding back, to give without thought of return, all in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

---

[1] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 1.  Seventh Sunday After Epiphany.  Homiletical Perspective.  Vaughn Crowe-Tipton.  P383.
[2] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 1.  Seventh Sunday After Epiphany.  Theological Perspective.  Susan Hylen  P380.
[3] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay?id=3327.  The Work of Forgiveness.  February 20 2022.  Debi Thomas.
[4] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay?id=3327.  The Work of Forgiveness.  February 20 2022.  Debi Thomas.
[5] Ibid.
[6] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay?id=3327.  The Work of Forgiveness.  February 20 2022.  Debi Thomas.
[7] Luke.  Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.  Fred. B. Craddock.  P89.
[8]Luke.  Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.  Fred. B. Craddock.  P90.
[9] Luke.  Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.  Fred. B. Craddock.  P90.
[10]Luke.  Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.  Fred. B. Craddock.  P90.
[11] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 1.  Seventh Sunday After Epiphany. Pastoral Perspective.  Charles Bugg.  P380.
[12] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol
ume 1.  Seventh Sunday After Epiphany.  Homiletical Perspective.  Vaughn Crowe-Tipton.  P385.
[13] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 1.  Seventh Sunday After Epiphany.  Pastoral Perspective.  Charles Bugg.  P384.
[14] Luke.  Sharon H. Ringe.  P96
.[15] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay?id=3327.  The Work of Forgiveness.  February 20 2022.  Debi Thomas.

 

God's Upside Down Kingdom

 

Rev. Debbie Cato
Jeremiah  17:5-10 and Luke 6:17-26
Fairfield Community Church
February 13, 2022

Let us Pray:  Almighty God, by your Holy Spirit, illumine the sacred page, we pray, that our minds may be open to receive your Word, our hearts taught to love it, and our wills strengthened to obey it; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

God’s Upside-Down Kingdom

Whew!  This is hard to hear. Jesus does not mince words.  David L. Ostendorf, a United Church of Christ minister, says, “This is the raw, unvarnished, faith-rattling declaration of the realm of God.”[1] That’s a good description. The raw, unvarnished, faith-rattling declaration of the realm of God.

 At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus stood up in a synagogue in Nazareth, and read from the prophet Isaiah, announcing that he had been sent by God to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, and bring sight to the blind.  Here, Jesus lays out what the fulfillment of that prophecy means in a tone that is direct and terse, pointed and searing. The God of the prophets is speaking and creating a new, unsettling, upsetting order.[2] 

Luke’s sermon is given on a level place, not on a mountain like Matthew’s Sermon on a Mount. In fact, Luke’s sermon is referred to the Sermon on the Plain. Jesus moves to a plain below to be with the people, with whom He identifies.  The crowd on the plain is  made up of three groups:  the apostles, the disciples, and the people.  By saying that the people came from as far as Jerusalem and Judea to the south and Tyre and Sidon to the north, Luke is implying that Jesus’ ministry and message is for all.  In fact, the mention of Tyre and Sidon implies a Gentile as well as a Jewish audience.  Certainly, the audience includes the sick and the distressed, persons of special concern to Luke’s Jesus.[3]

 In Luke’s version of the famous Beatitudes story, Jesus has just spent the night on a mountainside praying before he choose his twelve apostles. As morning dawns, he and the newly called twelve descend from the mountain to find a crowd waiting.  People in need of help have come from everywhere, and Jesus — in his element, with power literally pouring off of his garments — heals them all.

 

Then, standing “on a level place” with the crowd, he tells his would-be followers what life in God’s upside-down kingdom looks like.  Those who are destitute, unfed, grieving, and marginalized can “leap for joy,” because they have God’s ear and God’s blessing.  But those who are wealthy, full-bellied, carefree, and well-liked should watch out, because their condition is precarious.  The material “blessings” they cherish most, the very possessions and attributes they consider signs of God’s favor, are in fact liabilities that might do them spiritual harm.

 

Unlike Matthew, who softens the Beatitudes with phrases like “poor in spirit,” instead of “poor,” and “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” instead of plain old “hungry,” Luke keeps Jesus’s “Sermon on the Plain” raw and close to the bone. There’s no way around it; as far as Luke’s Jesus is concerned, God’s preferential option for the poor is crystal clear.  God’s blessing rests on those who have absolutely nothing to fall back on in this world. If we want to know where God’s heart is, we must look to the world’s most reviled, wretched, shamed, and desperate people. They are the fortunate ones.

So, what should we do with this Gospel?  Wallow in guilt? Romanticize poverty? Avoid happiness? I don’t think so. The very fact that Jesus prefaces this hard teaching by alleviating suffering in every way possible suggests that he doesn’t value misery for its own sake. Pain in and of itself is neither holy nor redemptive in the Christian story, and in fact, Jesus’s ministry is all about healing, abundance, liberation, and joy.

Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain is not prescriptive. Nowhere in his litany of blessings and woes does Jesus tell his listeners how to behave. As Barbara Brown Taylor puts it, the sermon “is not advice at all. It is not even judgment. It is simply the truth about the way things work.”

Blogger Debi Thomas says, “Notice also that Jesus doesn’t offer four blessings to one audience, and four woes to another.  His sermon is not a sorting exercise between the good folks and the bad folks; he addresses every blessing and every woe to every person.  As if to say: this is the human pattern.  This is where all of us live.  We move from blessing to woe over and over again in the course of our lives.  We invite blessing every time we find ourselves empty and yearning for God, and we invite woe every time we retreat into smug and thoughtless self-satisfaction.  When I am “full” of anything but God, God “empties” me.  Not as punishment, but as grace.  Not as condemnation, but as loving reorientation.  When I am bereft, vulnerable, and empty in the world’s eyes, God blesses me with the fullness of divine mercy and kindness. In other words, our God is a God of both comfort and challenge, and in the divine economy, we are, all of us, on one level.  Blessed and woeful. Saint and sinner.  We occupy “the plain” of this beautiful and broken world together.”[4]

 

So, what should we do?  Well, we should probably start by admitting that Jesus is right.  We should probably admit that most of the time, we are not desperate for God. I for one, am not keenly aware of God’s active, daily intervention in my life. I am not on my knees with need, either in deep longing, incredible gratitude, or overwhelming love on a daily basis.  After all, why would I be? I have plenty to eat. I live in a comfortable home.  My family is safe.  I'm not in desperate need of anything.

In short, there isn’t much in my circumstances that leads me to a sense of urgency. If I’m not careful, I can go for days without talking to God.  It’s easy for all things deep and divine to become afterthoughts in my life, not because I’m callous, but because — as Jesus puts it so wisely in his sermon — I am already “full.” I have already “received my consolation.”

 

I laugh more than I cry. Because of all the comforts in my life, I’m able to live in the shallows, unaware of the treasures that wait in the depths. Most of the time, it just plain doesn’t occur to me that I would be lost — utterly and wholly lost — without the grace that sustains me.

 

You see, I think what Jesus is saying in this Gospel is that I have something to learn about discipleship that my life circumstances will not teach me. Something to grasp about the beauty, glory, and freedom of the Christian life that I will never grasp until God becomes my everything, my all, my starting place, and my ending place. Something to humbly admit about the limitations of my privilege. Something to recognize about the radical counter-intuitiveness of God’s priorities and promises.  Something to notice about the confusing power of plenty to blind me to my own emptiness.  Something to gain from the humility that says, "Those people I think I'm superior to?  They have everything to teach me.  Maybe it's time to pay attention.[5]

 

Blessed are you who are poor, hungry, sad, and expendable. Why? Because they have everything to look forward to. Because the Kingdom of God is theirs.  Because Jesus came, and comes still, to fill the empty-handed with good things.

 

May the God who gives and takes away, offers comfort and challenge, grant us the grace to sit with woe, and learn the meaning of blessing. Amen.

---

[1] Fasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 1.Sixth Sunday After Epiphany. Theological Perspective. David L. Ostendorf.  P.356.
[2] Ibid. 
[3] Luke.  Interpretation.  A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.  Fred B. Craddock.  P.86
[4] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay?id=3319.  Leveled.  February 6 2022.  Debi Thomas.
[5] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay?id=3319.  Leveled.  February 6 2022.  Debi Thomas.

 

 

Following the Spirit

 

Rev. Debbie Cato
Acts 16:6-16
Fairfield Community Church
February 6, 2022

Let us Pray:  Holy God.  You call us through your Word read and proclaimed. May our eyes be opened and our hearts willing to follow where your Spirit leads. Amen.

Following the Spirit

 

Every 1^st and 3^rd Thursday from 9:30 – 11:00. I spend time with other ELCA pastors sharing what’s happening in our churches and ministries and offering support to one another.  But then we spend anywhere from 30 – 45 minutes “dwelling in the word” together.  This is rich, spiritual time.  For 3 months we have been reading this passage together, one person reads it and then a few minutes later another person reads it.  After a few moments of silence, we share what we hear the Spirit saying to us through this passage. 

During the five weeks that I’ve participated in this practice with my colleagues, I’ve felt the Spirit highlight how the Holy Spirit actually forbid Paul and his followers from entering and doing mission in Asia.  I was fascinated with the idea that the Holy Spirit would prevent ministry from happening.  It’s an odd idea that the Holy Spirit would actually prevent you from doing ministry, isn’t it?!

Another week, I noticed how Paul immediately left for Macedonia after he had the vision, because they were convinced that God had called them to proclaim the good news to the Macedonians.  They didn’t verify Paul’s vision.  They didn’t do any planning.  They didn’t wait for a better time or for funding.  They immediately set off for Macedonia.  They went because they were convinced that the Holy Spirit had given Paul the vision and that God was calling them to Macedonia.  It wasn’t what they planned, but they trusted the Holy Spirit.  And they went without hesitation. 

I also noticed that Paul and his friends went to where they expected to find people.   “On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer”.  They didn’t stay where they were and hoped people would come to them, they went where there would be people that they could share the good news with. 

But then I noticed something that really interested me.  Paul would have expected to find men at the place of prayer.  That would have been the common practice in Paul’s day.  Men gathered to prayer.  But instead, Paul and his companions found women who had gathered there on the sabbath.  And so, they sat down and spoke to the women and shared the gospel with them.  Paul and his followers were truly open to wherever God led them!  To a different destination than they planned.  To a place where people would be.  But they were also open to whoever the Spirit led them to;  a group of women rather than a group of men.  Because of this, a gentile woman named Lydia became a wonderful convert and founder of the first house church!

I’ve found that sometimes the Holy Spirit will put a passage on my mind and heart for a reason.  So, imagine my surprise when a week ago, during the ReBoot Workshop that KayDee, Marci and I are attending, the opening devotion used – you guessed it – Acts 16:6-16!  O.K., Holy Spirit!  I’m paying attention!

Rev. Miguel Gomez-Acosta, the Director of Evangelical Mission of the Grand Canyon Synod led the devotion. He told us about a church in Flag Staff, AZ. Living Christ Lutheran Church.  They are a small church that went through a denominational redevelopment process between 2016 – 2019.  They were located outside of Flagstaff just outside of the Navajo reservation.  They kept trying to be a traditional church, but they just weren’t.  But they wanted to be and they thought they should be.  Covid came and it brought a gift to this congregation.  Like every other church, they closed and went online and Facebook.  After a time, they realized they were reaching more than 500 people each week!  Even their finances improved!

You see, they were a church that attracted young people and non-traditional people.  LGBTQ individuals felt comfortable at their church and when they went online, individuals worshipped with them online from all parts of the country.  And they supported them financially. 

As Rev. Gomez-Acosta worked with this congregation, they realized that the Holy Spirit was preventing them from becoming a traditional church because that was not what God was calling them to be.  Through Covid, they heard God calling them to sell their property and move downtown where they could reach more people and be where other organizations that serve the people God was calling them to minister to were also located.  This was a bold move.  But they saw a vision, felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit, and followed the call.  This was their Macedonia.  They had found their Lydia.

Rev Gomez-Acosta told us we needed to have “constant curiosity” so that we were aware of the Holy Spirit.  What is the Spirit preventing you from doing, he asked.  Where is your Macedonia?  Who is your Lydia?  Who is God calling you to engage?  Who have we not noticed?

Those are really good questions for us as we move forward into 2022.  What is the Spirit preventing us from doing?  Where is our Macedonia?  Who is our Lydia?  Who is God calling us to engage?  Who have we not noticed?

Another pastor, John from Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Indiana said their congregation started asking “I noticed, I wonder…” as they started to explore where God was leading them.  What do we notice about our community?  What do we wonder about our community?   Perhaps things we notice or things we wonder about are things that the Holy Spirit is putting on our minds or putting on our hearts.  Perhaps those are the nudges we need to be watching for, paying attention to. 

At my first council meeting in November, I asked for goals for my first six weeks and my first 3 months.  One of the goals was youth.  A nudge.  A wonder.  Would there be interest in a youth group?  January 9^th, seven youth; middle and high schoolers, gathered in my home for pizza and brain storming.  They were excited to have a youth group.  A number of them kept thanking me for doing this.  They decided they wanted to meet twice a month.  On Sundays from 4-6.  In the church.  We are going to spend half our time on Bible study and half our time on games/having fun.  They think a bunch of other kids would love to come.  They’ll invite them.

I sense youth are our Lydia.  I believe God is calling us to engage with Middle and high schoolers. The Holy Spirit seems to have opened the door!  But, I can’t do it alone.  I need helpers.  I reached out to our young adults.  Would they help with the games; the fun, and I will do the Bible study? 

 When the Holy Spirit is at work, things come together.  The young adults said  yes!  They would like to be a part of youth group!  Hanna and Derek Green.  Kyle DeGon and his friend, Jordan!  They will be part of the leadership team for our youth group.  We will be meeting to plan how we will work together to lead our  youth!  Pray for us!  Pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to guide us as we lead the youth in our community in Bible study and relationship building and fun!  Pray for us as we build a program that will support the needs of the youth and attract middle and high schoolers to come and be a part of what’s happening here.  This is exciting!  We need your support.

But I don’t think this is all God is calling us to do.  We need to have “constant curiosity” as Rev. Gomez-Acosta says, so that we are aware of the Holy Spirit.  We each need to be asking ourselves “I noticed, I wonder…” as we start to explore where God is leading us.  What do you notice about our community?  What do you wonder about our community?   Perhaps things you notice or things you wonder about are things that the Holy Spirit is putting on your mind or putting on your heart.  Perhaps those are the nudges we need to be watching for, paying attention to. 

Where is our Macedonia?  Who is our Lydia?  Who is God calling us to engage?  Who have we not noticed?  These are the questions we need to keep asking ourselves as we move forward into 2022.  These are the questions I’m asking you to pray about moving forward.  God where are you calling us to serve?  Who are you calling us to engage?  Who have we not noticed?  Amen.