​Lost & Found  (preached 06/19/22, the Second Sunday After Pentecost)
​
(1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21; Psalm 16; Galatians 5:1, 13-25; Luke 9:51-62)
 
On Wednesday evening this past week, Tula graduated from Cheshire High School.  All went well and was celebratory until she discovered she had lost her beloved sunglasses.  Brian, Kiran, Tula, Luke (her boyfriend), and I scoured the football field where the celebration took place, but we could not find the sunglasses.  Finally, Tula had to let go of the upset about losing her sunglasses and move on to continue the graduation celebrations at the All Night Grad Party at the high school.  She went off to the party and had a great time.  The next day, though, she continued her search for her lost sunglasses.  She called the school and was told that a pair of sunglasses had been spotted on the football field.  Tula, Brian, and I were all working, so Kiran headed to the football field to search for the sunglasses, but they were not to be found.  Later that evening, while Brian and I were taking a walk, we made a detour to the football field and searched again for the sunglasses.  There were some high school students tossing a football and we asked them if they’d seen a pair of sunglasses.  They hadn’t, but they had found a stem from a pair of broken sunglasses.  We sent a photo to Tula of the broken stem, but she confirmed it was not from her sunglasses.  We all figured the sunglasses were lost for good.  However, the next morning, Tula was woken up with a call from the high school.  Her sunglasses had been found!  She went off to get them and texted us a victory photo of her holding her sunglasses as she headed home.  Tula’s sunglasses had been lost and then found.
 
During the drama of the lost sunglasses, Tula and I had some conversations about how to handle losing something important to us.  We can get upset and frantically try to find the thing.  We can get upset and frantically try to find a replacement immediately.  We can let go and move on for the time being.  And, we can add God into the process and pray about it, do what we can, then let go and let God handle the rest.  Tula went through all of these in the space of about 12 hours!  The one that felt the best, though, was the last one:  pray about it, do what we can, then let go and let God handle the rest.  If the thing we’ve lost is meant to be found, it will be found and returned to us, but if the thing we’ve lost is meant to stay lost, then we can trust that God is in the picture and it’s okay we’ve lost that thing.  Something different will be found, something better for us at that time in our lives, something God will provide to move us forward in our development as human beings and disciples.
 
This process of doing what we can and then letting go and letting God handle the rest is explored in the passage from the Letter to the Galatians read today.  Paul contrasts life lived by the Spirit with life lived by the flesh, writing, “Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other . . .” (5:16-17).  Paul is contrasting a way of thinking or behaving that is confined to the human sphere (living by the flesh) with a way of thinking or behaving that is inspired and guided by the Spirit of God (living by the Spirit.[1]  Obviously, while we live on the earth, we are flesh and blood creatures doing flesh and blood things.  We can, however, do flesh and blood things while inspired and guided by the Spirit, and this is what Paul is advocating.  When we do so, we experience the fruit of the Spirit, which is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (22-23).  When we don’t do so, we experience the fruit of the flesh, which is “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these” (19-21).
 
The journey to the fruit of the Spirit, though, requires that we lose whatever it is that is in the way of living the life of the Spirit.  The things in the way that we are required to lose are different for every person.  For some, anger is in the way; for others, greed is in the way; for others, fear is in the way; for others, jealousy is in the way; for others, self-righteousness is in the way; for others, addiction is in the way; and so on.  For all of us, more than one thing is in the way.  Basically, living life by the Spirit is a process of sanctification.  Here is a definition to clarify what is meant by the word sanctification:  “’[S]anctification’ is a translation of the Greek word hagiasmos, meaning ‘holiness’ or ‘a separation.’  In the past, God granted us justification, a once-for-all, positional holiness in Christ.  Now, God guides us to maturity, a practical, progressive holiness.  In the future, God will give us glorification, a permanent, ultimate holiness. These three phases of sanctification separate the believer from the penalty of sin (justification), the power of sin (maturity), and the presence of sin (glorification).”[2]  A life lived by the Spirit is a life guided by God to spiritual maturity, a practical, progressive holiness.  So, one would move from the fruit of the flesh to the fruit of the Spirit:  from hate to love, from sorrow to joy, from upset to peace, from impatience to patience, from cruelty to kindness, from selfishness to generosity, from faithlessness to faithfulness, from harshness to gentleness, and from self-indulgence to self-control.
 
Losing whatever it is that is in the way of living the life of the Spirit is scary because it requires us to let go of those things that have made us feel safe or comfortable or in control.  It requires us to face our demons.  For example, underneath anger is grief or fear.  If we let go of our anger, then we must feel the grief or or fear that underlies it and work through those feelings in order to heal.  Underneath self-righteousness is a feeling of unworthiness.  If we let go of our self-righteousness, then we must feel unworthy and work through those feelings in order to heal.  Underneath impatience with others is impatience with ourselves, a lack of love for ourselves.  If we let go of our impatience with others, then we must feel the lack of love for ourselves and work through those feelings in order to heal.  Sanctification, then, is the process of letting go of all that ails us so that God can heal us and we can bear the fruit of the Spirit and work with God to create heaven on earth. 
 
Of course, it isn’t easy to lose the things that have made us feel safe or comfortable or in control.  We will, likely, go through the stages Tula went through when she lost her sunglasses.  We will get upset and frantically try to hold onto whatever it is we are losing.  We will get upset and frantically try to find a replacement immediately.  We will let go and move on for the time being.  Finally, we will add God into the process and pray about it, do what we can, then let go and let God handle the rest.  This final stage will deliver us into God’s hands and God will carry us from dis-ease to ease, from illness to health, from sinner to saint through the sanctification process.
 
Jesus said, “[W]hoever wants to save their life will lose it and whoever wants to lose their life for me will find it” (Mt 16:25).  The life of faith asks us to lose our lives in order to find them in Christ.  The quote from C. S. Lewis on the back page of the bulletin says it all:  “Give up yourself, and you will find your real self.  Lose your life and you will save it.  Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life.  Keep back nothing.  Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours.  Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead.  Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay.  But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”[3]  It is for this freedom that Christ has set us free.  May it be so.  Amen.
 
Sermon preached by the Rev. Amy Johnson, Canton Community Baptist Church, Canton, CT, Sunday, June 19, 2022, the Second Sunday After Pentecost (using the lectionary passages for the Third Sunday After Pentecost due to the change of date for Children & Youth Sunday).
 


[1] Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV – Year C, p. 407.

[2] https://www.gotquestions.org/sanctification.html
 

[3] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/100-quotes-from-you-on-sanctification

The Image of God  (preached 06/12/22, Trinity Sunday)

(Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Psalm 8; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15)
 
Today is Trinity Sunday, the day in the Christian year set aside to celebrate our Triune God:  Father and Creator, Son and Redeemer, Holy Spirit and Sanctifier.  In the centuries after Jesus ascended, his followers tried to make sense of their experience of God as they came to know God through Jesus.  There was God the Father and Creator, God the Son and Redeemer, and God the Holy Spirit and Sanctifier.  So, “Were there actually three Gods?”  That couldn’t be, because they firmly believed there is only one God.  “What if God the Father is the most important God, and the Son and the Holy Spirit are lesser gods?”  No, there’s only one God.  “Well, what if the one God takes on different personalities at different times, kind of like someone with multiple personalities:  the same God, but in different roles?”  But that would mean that while Jesus, God the Son, was on earth, God the Father wasn’t in heaven because he had morphed into God the Son and was on earth!  That wouldn’t work!  Jesus prayed to the Father while he was on earth, and the Spirit came to Jesus while he was on earth, so, clearly, they all exist at the same time. 
 
Every way early Christians tried to understand the phenomenon of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit violated one of their beliefs.  The only answer was that the one God consisted of three persons simultaneously.  God, the Creator, the one Jesus and we call Father; God the Redeemer, the one the Father calls Son and we call Jesus; and God the Sanctifier, the one Jesus called the Spirit of Truth and we call the Holy Spirit.  Each is unique, but each is also inextricably bound to the others in love.  They are unity in diversity, bound by love.
 
We have a word to describe this kind of relationship.  That word is “communion.”  The three persons of the Trinity exist together in communion, which means that they share completely with one another even while they remain uniquely themselves.  This is what we mean when we say that God is love (1 Jn 4:8).  One theologian put it this way:  “Divine Love is a fearless vulnerability to the other, a readiness to receive all things as well as to give all things (1 Cor. 13). . . .  [It is] a complete sharing, a mutual indwelling.”[1]  This describes the relationship of the three Persons of the Trinity.
 
The love that is within God is expressed in creation.  God created the world and its inhabitants out of love.  We’re created in the image of God, which means that we’re created to be in communion with God, with each other, and with all of creation.  We’re each uniquely ourselves, but at the same time we’re inextricably bound to God, to each other, and to all of creation.  Therefore, Jesus could say, “Just as you did it to one of the least of these . . .  you did it to me” (Mt 25:40).  When you gave food to someone who was hungry, you gave me food.  When you gave water to someone who was thirsty, you gave me water.  When you welcomed the stranger, you welcomed me.  And so on.  This is the reality of our nature.  When we deny that reality, we sin.  When we don’t honor our interconnectedness, we sin.  We become separated from God, one another, and the rest of creation and that is sin.  As Paul the apostle said, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23).  When we don’t honor our interconnectedness, we either kill someone or something else, or we die ourselves.  Even if we don’t die physically, we die spiritually.  But when we honor our interconnectedness, God’s creation – both human and non-human – thrives.
 
We have Jesus’ words stating that when we do something for or to someone else, we are doing it to Jesus, so we can easily understand the interconnectedness of God, ourselves, and other humans, but we have a harder time understanding the interconnectedness of God, ourselves, and non-human creation.  Psalm 8 explores this relationship. 
 
Psalm 8 states, “You have given them [humans] dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas (6-8).  In order to understand the relationship between humans and non-human creation put forth in Psalm 8, it is important to look at the word “dominion,” especially its meaning in the original Hebrew in which it was spoken and written.  Jeff A. Brenner of the Ancient Hebrew Research Center, whose goal is to teach “proper Biblical interpretation through the study of the Ancient Hebrew alphabet, language, culture and philosophy,”[2] provides a definition of the word “dominion” in Genesis 1:28, where it is first found in the Bible:  “And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”  We can hear that Psalm 8 echoes Genesis 1:28.  Here is what Brenner says about the words “subdue” and “have dominion”: 
 
“The word subdue in Genesis 1:28 is the Hebrew verb kavash meaning to subdue but, it is important to have the ‘full’ picture of a Hebrew word as ‘subdue’ is very limited in its ability to describe the Hebrew.  The noun form of this word is kevesh and means ‘a footstool,’ a place where one places the foot.  The verb kavash literally means to place your foot on the neck of your conquered enemy signifying a submission of the enemy to his defeater. Figuratively this verb means to bring a people or nation into submission (Num 32:29).  This word can also mean to bring into control (Mic 7:19).  Incidentally, this is the same word we use today such as in ‘put the kavash on it’ meaning to make an end of something or to ‘subdue’ it.

While the word kavash means to subdue, there is another word with a similar meaning.  The words ‘have dominion’ are the Hebrew verb radah.  Our normal understanding of ‘having dominion’ over another is to rule over them but this idea is found in the Hebrew verb malak.  The Hebrew verb radah is related to other words which have the meanings of descend, go down, wander and spread.  This verb literally means to rule by going down and walking among the subjects as an equal. [emphasis added]

The use of the two Hebrew verbs [kavash] and radah imply that that man is to rule over the animals as his subjects, not as a dictator, but a benevolent leader.  Man is also to walk among and have a relationship with his subjects so that they can provide for man and that man can ‘learn’ from them.[3] [emphasis added]
 
Hearing or reading the Hebrew words kavash and radah in their English translations has led to misunderstandings about how humans are to relate to non-human creation.  The English words have led humans to relate to non-human creation as dictators, whereas the Hebrew words enable humans to understand that we are to relate to non-human creation as benevolent leaders.  We are to live with non-human creation as equals and even learn from non-human creation.
 
As science advances, we learn more and more about the natural world.  In 1997, Suzanne Simard’s PhD thesis made an impact with its report of her research on “the wood wide web,” as she calls it.  (Simard is now a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia.) “She had discovered that forest trees share and trade food via fungal networks that connect their roots.”  In addition, her research shows that “the wood wide web is like a brain and can communicate information throughout the entire forest, that trees recognize their offspring and nurture them, and that lessons learned from past experiences can be transmitted from old trees to young ones.”[4]  It turns out that we humans really do have something to learn from non-human creation; in this case, trees.  Trees form communities and watch out for each other so that all have the food and care they need.  And, because trees are not vulnerable to sin, they probably do this better than we humans do!
 
The understanding that we are to live with non-human creation as equals and even learn from nature and its creatures is in line with having been created in the image of God, which is communion.  Remember that one theologian described the communion between the three persons of the Trinity as a “fearless vulnerability to the other, a readiness to receive all things as well as to give all things (1 Cor. 13). . . .  a complete sharing, a mutual indwelling.”  We mutually indwell not only with God and with other humans, but also with non-human creation.  In fact, if non-human creation would cease to exist, so would we.  Without the sun, the water, the trees, the bees, and so on, we wouldn’t survive.  God created us dependent upon non-human creation.  It is in our best interest to relate to non-human creation in the way that kavash and radah ask us to, as benevolent leaders who live as equals and even learn from Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brothers Wind and Air, Sister Water, Brother Fire, and Sister, Mother Earth, as St. Francis of Assisi called the elements of non-human creation in his Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon.
 
In today’s world in the United States of America, the way humans relate to non-human creation has been politicized, with disagreement between the two political parties.  But the truth is it is a theological issue.  It has to do with our Triune God and what it means for us to be made in our Triune God’s image, which is communion.  While we, of course, need to use natural resources to survive – the earth is literally our mother who sustains us – we can do so with reverence and an acknowledgment that all of creation was made by God.  As John 1 states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (1-2).  Through him all things were made, both human and non-human.  We can treat the natural world with the reverence it deserves, thanking God for the life it enables us to live.  We are to be not only benevolent leaders, but we are also good stewards.  The earth is God’s creation just as we are, and we are to treat it with the reverence it deserves.
 
Last Sunday, during Bible Study, we had an intense discussion of our use of our Sister, Mother Earth’s (as St. Francis calls our planet) resources and creatures.  It’s not surprising that the discussion was intense, because there are Bible verses that lead us to think we are to subdue the earth and have dominion over its creatures in the English sense of these words.  The Bible Study discussion led me to do some reading on Sunday and Monday about all of this.  Imagine my surprise when on Tuesday I reviewed the lectionary scripture passages for today and read Psalm 8, which echoes Genesis 1:28!  Just last Sunday, I had talked about how coincidences are not really coincidences and are, instead, signs of the presence of the Holy Spirit.  I felt the Holy Spirit was guiding me to explore the meaning of Psalm 8 (and its counterpart, Gen 1:28) in today’s sermon, especially since those verses in their English translations have led to misunderstanding and misuse of the earth and her resources.  And so, here I am, doing so. 
 
Isaiah’s had a vision of the peaceable kingdom that would come eventually from the shoot that came from the stump of Jesse, which we Christians understand to be Jesus:
 
“The wolf shall live with the lamb;
    the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the lion will feed together,
    and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
    their young shall lie down together;
    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
    and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
 They will not hurt or destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.  (Is 11:6-9)
 
While we have not yet arrived at the peaceable kingdom Isaiah envisioned – we still kill mosquitoes when they come to bite us, mice when they come into our homes, and moths when they invade our pantries, among other things – we can be the image of God we were created to be and relate to the natural world with reverence, knowing that all things were created through the Word out of God’s love.  May it be so.  Amen.
 
Sermon preached by the Rev. Amy Johnson, Canton Community Baptist Church, Canton, CT, Sunday, June 12, 2022, Trinity Sunday.
 

[1] Dorothy and Gabriel Fackre.  Christian Basics:  A Primer for Pilgrims.  Grand Rapids:  William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991, 143.

[2] https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/index.html

[3] https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/definition/subdue.htm

[4] https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25033320-900-suzanne-simard-interview-how-i-uncovered-the-hidden-language-of-trees/#ixzz7Vq8Eexmt

From Disconnected to Connected  (preached 06/05/22, Pentecost Sunday)
​
(Genesis 11:1-9; Psalm 104:24-34, 35b; Acts 2:1-21; John 14:8-17, 25-27)
 
Psalm 104:29-30 reminds us that when God hides his face from us, we are dismayed.  But when God sends forth his Spirit, we are created; the face of the ground is renewed.  The Genesis and Acts reading for today, Pentecost Sunday, illustrate the truth of this statement.  The Tower of Babel story from Genesis illustrates our disconnection from God and the consequences of that disconnection, while the story of the arrival of the Holy Spirit illustrates our connection to God and the consequences of that connection.
 
The Tower of Babel story begins by stating that the whole world had one language (Gn 11:1).  Humans had settled in Shinar, which was the name for the southern region of Mesopotamia.[1] They had become disconnected from God.  Instead of discerning the direction of their lives by connecting to the Spirit of God, they had begun to rely only on themselves.  Relying only on their own vision for their future, they decided to build a city, with a tower reaching to the heavens, so that they could make a name for themselves and not be scattered over the face of the earth.  Instead of relying on God for their “daily bread,” they decided to rely on their own ingenuity and industry, and they began to build what we now know as the Tower of Babel. 
 
What we see happening here is the beginning of humans becoming disconnected from God due to insecurity, fear, and anxiety about the future.  This insecurity, fear, and anxiety led them to build a city with a tower in the center that would represent their accomplishment.  They didn’t want to be “scattered over the face of the whole earth.”  But, if they were scattered over the face of the whole earth, they would be using the resources of the earth provided by God in a sustainable manner.  Just like non-human creatures migrate in order to naturally receive what they need to survive in terms of food, water, and shelter, humans used to do the same.  Rather than having permanent settlements, they migrated with the seasons and thus didn’t overuse or misuse natural resources.  Permanent settlements usually lead to the overuse or misuse of natural resources.  An example of this is what we see today with industrial farming (and other things in modern life). 
 
The Tower of Babel story is an illustration of what happens when humans don’t rely on God to lead us to fulfill our need for food, water, shelter, clothing, and community and, instead, rely on ourselves.  We disconnect from God, which leads to the sin of pride, and the other seven deadly sins follow:  gluttony, lust, greed, envy, wrath, and sloth.  Had the humans in Shinar turned to God when they felt insecure, fearful, and anxious about the future, God would not have needed to “confuse their language” – in other words, make them speak many languages and thus not be able to communicate effectively – and scatter them over the face of the earth (7-8).  Instead, God would have led them in whatever ways were necessary in order for them to have their needs fulfilled.
 
Let us remember that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt 6:19-21).  And, “[D]o not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. . . .  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they” (Mt 6:25-26)?  And, in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray for our “daily bread,” not our weekly bread, or our monthly bread, or our yearly bread (Mt. 6:11).
 
God confused the language of humans and scattered them over the face of the earth, but God also provided a way for us to connect to him and each other again.  God did so first through Jesus, and then, after Jesus had ascended, through the gift of the Holy Spirit to the disciples gathered for prayer and worship.  The story of the arrival of the Holy Spirit makes this abundantly clear.  The Holy Spirit arrives with a sound like the rush of a violent wind that fills the entire house where the disciples are sitting, and tongues of fire rest on each disciple (Acts 2:2-3).  They are filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to speak in other languages as the Spirit gives them ability (4).  A crowd hears what is going on and gathers (6).  Each person in the crowd hears the disciples speaking the native language of each (6, 8).  All of the sudden, at Pentecost, the language confused in the Tower of Babel story is no longer confused, and everyone can understand what everyone is saying about God’s deeds of power.  So, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the disconnection from God that humans had fallen into – which led to disconnection from each other – was transformed into connection to God – and thus to each other.  Pentecost reversed what had happened with the Tower of Babel.
 
When we feel insecure, afraid, and anxious, let us remember to remain connected to God and turn to him for guidance rather than relying on ourselves.  When we turn to God and are open, the Holy Spirit will inspire and guide us in ways that are in alignment with God’s will for us and our world.  We can do this as individuals and as a church.  Remaining connected to God enables us to be connected to others.  It also enables us to interact with God’s creation in ways that are respectful and sustainable.  It enables us to be faithful stewards of the glorious home God has given us on earth.  Lest we think that non-human creation is not important, Psalm 104 reminds us it is, when it sings, “O Lord, how manifold are your works!  In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures” (24).  So, let us praise and thank our God for the glorious earth that sustains us with food, water, air, shelter, and clothing, and let us thank our God for his Holy Spirit, which inspires and guides us into the future God desires for us.  Amen.
 
Sermon preached by the Rev. Amy Johnson, Canton Community Baptist Church, Canton, CT, Sunday, June 5, 2022, Pentecost Sunday.
 
*Image by Holger Schué from Pixabay.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinar