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Sunday’s Sermon – Purpose-Driven – Exodus 20:1-17, John 2:13-22

February 25, 2018 Leave a Comment

How would you define your purpose in life? Do you have a personal credo or mantra that defines how you approach the world? Some take on a particular verse in scripture, or favorite inspirational quote, in order to give themselves a sense of focus for both big life decisions and daily interactions with the world. At the beginning of January, many of you drew a “star word” on Epiphany, meant to inspire and lead you throughout this year (if you have lost yours, or did not get one, the basket is sitting in the Narthex today).

If you are a part of a group, you might see it written out in particular phrases or mission statements. Scouting is a wonderful example of this practice, some of which you heard shared this morning[i]. These core values and ideals promoted by Scouting provide a solid framework of what it means to be a compassionate, thoughtful participant in the world. They are strong words to live by.

As a community of faith here at Heritage Presbyterian Church, we proclaim words of purpose each week on the cover of our bulletin through our church’s mission statement: “called by God’s grace to make disciples, as we minister to the needs of a broken world.” Another is attached to the exterior of the M&M building up the hill: “love grows here.” These are markers for us as a church, and are meant to guide us into a faithful living out of our calling as Christ’s disciples in this time and place, so that all we do might be oriented in this direction.

In our first reading this morning from Exodus, we are reminded of another set of “words to live by” as Moses delivered to the Israelites an important list from God. 10 things, written on two stone tablets, that were meant to guide and shape how the people of God lived. Often, we view them as some sort of check-list to follow, or list of rules and regulations. And while certainly I would agree that following these is a good idea, I think this list is about more than just a bunch of “dos and don’ts.” It’s about what it means to be in relationship with God and others. As Barbara Brown Taylor Notes:

They express the purposeful will of God for God’s people. . . .
the teachings describe the way of life[ii].

In his famous book[iii], Rick Warren argued that the start to our understanding of ourselves and the world needed to begin with an understanding of God’s purposes for us. He outlines 5 purposes he believes, based on Scripture, that God has for us. The first is that:

We were planned for God’s pleasure, so your first purpose is to offer real worship[iv].

It seems Dr. Warren might have been reading along in Exodus. The first four commandments describe a way of life that is centered around God. They offer a focal point for all of our worship, and indeed our very rhythm of life, with God at the center of it all.

Let me add here, we’re not just talking about an hour block of time on a Sunday morning. Worship in this sense is meant to embody the essence of our approach to life as a whole. It happens when we gather for a worship service, or study, or service as a faith community, when we share laughter and break bread around a dinner table, and when we comfort each other during tough times. Worship is an awareness, acknowledgement, or even longing for God’s presence to be with us. It is a declaration that there is an inextricable bond between us and the divine; that God is our purpose.

When we are centered in a love of God, we naturally become drawn to love each other. Lives grounded in worship lead us into faithful community. Conveniently, Rick Warren’s second identified purpose is that:

We were formed for God’s family, so your second purpose is to enjoy real fellowship[v].

Like worship, fellowship is meant here to be broadly understood. It’s not just about our relationship with our nuclear family or the people sitting next to us in the pews. It’s about our engagement with all of God’s children, near and far. Craig Kocher reminds us that:

Proper praise of God shapes our social responsibility; good theology is good ethics[vi].

Our lives of worship compel us to engage in the world in a different way, with actions that flow from our sense of God’s purpose for the world. In the Jewish tradition, the giving of the Torah is marked each spring (this year May 19-21) with the festival of Shavuot, a pilgrimage festival, where the tradition on the first night is to

[stay]up all night to study Torah, Talmud, and other sacred writings together. They offer this annual all-night gathering, known as a tikkun, for the mending of the world[vii].

For centuries, the practice of God’s people around these commandments involves celebration, study, and worship, which leads to real action in the world.

The final six commandments outline how we are to engage in relationship with each other so that true fellowship might come to life. The ways of life described in these somewhat detailed commandments highlight many of the guiding ethos that contribute to a community marked by honesty, respect, integrity, and truthfulness.

On this second Sunday of Lent, hearing these commandments again can help renew our commitments to living a life marked by God’s purpose. During these 40 days, we are called to closely examine how well or not our lives match up against the lives God has intended for us to live. In some ways, it’s a predictable answer – they have fallen short. Even our moments of triumph and success are mixed with faltering and missteps, or times when we have completely fallen on our face. In Lent we confess the ways in which we have either lost track of or intentionally abandoned our sense of purpose for living as children of God, and as a result the whole fabric of our relationship with God and one another is torn apart.

And Jesus enters the temple, on what should have been a holy time of preparation for the Passover meal, when many would have been traveling to Jerusalem, with:

Hearts and minds are focused on the exodus event and expectations of deliverance[viii]

One would expect some sellers of sacrificial animals and money changers with such a crowd, enabling pilgrims to participate in the rituals of worship and sacrifice; this activity may have even been seen as in service to the temple. But, as we see from Jesus’ reaction, all is not as it should be.

While the place appeared to fulfill its function, closer inspection revealed that it had forgotten its purpose[ix].

With all of the holy rage and force of the prophets of old[x], Jesus quite literally cracks the whip and turns over tables. He calls out the people of God with signs that cannot be ignored. It’s a startling first impression to make, as the gospel of John sequences this as Jesus’ first public appearance.

It’s a hard image to swallow. Most of us would prefer the docile, sweet-expression Jesus holding a lamb, or playing with children, or just staring off into the distance. But the gospels are rich with illustrations of a confrontational Jesus, one who speaks truth even when it is uncomfortable to hear; one who challenges our complacency and lack of purpose in direct and forceful ways. One who isn’t afraid to make a bit of a scene to accomplish his purpose in reorienting us to our own. Commentator Paul Shupe names it for us, that we:

feel queasy in the pit of the stomach when Jesus takes up his whip and drives the money changers from the temple. Queasy because along with the surge of righteous adrenaline that is produced when Jesus shifts into his prophetic mode comes the sneaking fear that we might have more in common with the targets of his judgment than with the righteousness of his cause . . . The text pushes us to imagine Jesus entering our own sanctuaries, overturning our own cherished rationalizations and driving us out in the name of God[xi].

That queasiness is the work of Lent, I think. It’s also the work of discipleship.

Rick Warren’s final 3 purposes are all related to this:

We were created to become like Christ, so your third purpose is to learn real discipleship . . . We were shaped for serving God, so your fourth purpose is to practice real ministry. . . . We were made for a mission, so your fifth purpose is to live out real evangelism[xii].

In order to live out these purposes, we have to be willing to let Jesus turn over the tables in our lives and in our society. Those things that we cling to; that have become like idols to us; those things that are keeping us from living the purpose-driven lives God intends for us – lives marked by a spirit of worship and a deepening of community.

This the purpose we are called to, as individuals and as communities of people in various configurations. It begins with a focus on God, and leads to the intentional and faithful building of relationships. That’s the summation of those commandments, underlined by Jesus – love God, and love others. That is our purpose. It is that easy. It is that hard. It is our work to do. May our tables be overturned, that we might be startled into a different way of being. Amen.

~Rev. Elizabeth Lovell Milford
February 25, 2018

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[i] The Boy Scout Oath promises: “to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout law,” which is “to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.” Similarly, the Girl Scout Promise: “On my honor, I will try, to serve God and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout law.”
[ii] Barbara Brown Taylor, “Homiletical Perspective: Exodus 20:1-17,” Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 2, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008).
[iii] Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, (Zondervan, 2013).
[iv] Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, (Zondervan, 2013). http://purposedriven.com/books/pdlbook/
[v] Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, (Zondervan, 2013). http://purposedriven.com/books/pdlbook/
[vi] Craig Kocher, “Pastoral Perspective: Exodus 20:1-17,”,” Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 2, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008).
[vii] Barbara Brown Taylor, “Homiletical Perspective: Exodus 20:1-17,” Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 2, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008).
[viii] W. Hulitt Gloer, “Homiletical Perspective: John 2:13-22,” Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 2, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008).
[ix] W. Hulitt Gloer, “Homiletical Perspective: John 2:13-22,” Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 2, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008).
[x] See Jeremiah 7:1-11 for additional background on Jesus’ language here. Also consider the relationship between worship and justice outlined in Amos 5:21-24, Hosea 6:6, Micah 6:6-8.
[xi] Paul C. Shupe, “Pastoral Perspective: John 2:13-22,” Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 2, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008).
[xii] Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, (Zondervan, 2013). http://purposedriven.com/books/pdlbook/

Sunday’s Sermon – A Star to Follow – Matthew 2:1-12

January 7, 2018 Leave a Comment

The skies are an amazing thing. Do you remember last August when many of us donned special glasses to experience the solar eclipse, with some traveling a short distance north to experience nearly two minutes of totality? People were enraptured and amazed at the sudden and dramatic changes brought from above. It was labeled as an event of a lifetime, or at least of a decade. Recently, there’s been other activity worth noting, too. Did you happen to look up at night this past week? As the new year began, we experienced the first full moon right away and it was spectacular. It was huge, so much so that even on Wednesday night, I felt like after driving over the crest of the hill near Etowah High School I would be able to just reach out and touch it, or like it was sitting on top of Kroger.

As it turns out, it wasn’t quite that close. According to EarthSky.org is was about 221,559 miles from us, but I did learn that it was a supermoon, which means that at the same time it becomes full it reaches its perigree, the point in the moon’s elliptical orbit when it is closest to the earth[i]. (Perigree simply means “near earth”). The average distance of the moon is around 238,000 miles, and this week we observed just how big of a difference 17,000 miles can make[ii]. This makes the moon appear up to 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than usual[iii]. If you missed it, there’s more activity to come. On January 31 we will experience a blue moon, a second full moon within the same calendar month, and on that night there will be a total lunar eclipse as well. All of this makes me wish I knew way more about astronomy, because of the power and majesty of what we see overhead. The stars tell a powerful story.

A star seems to be a central character of our biblical story today as we celebrate the Epiphany, that moment of divine manifestation of God on earth through Jesus Christ as related by Matthew’s gospel. This story completes our nativity scenes with the arrival of travelers from the east. They are called magi, wise men, magicians, or even kings, and the traditions that have spun off of them resulted in much speculation about their mysterious identities. In an attempt to nail down the story, legend ventured that there must have been 3, one for each of the named gifts, and some even went so far as to give them names and cultural identities. But whether they were practitioners of magic, priests of royal courts, or astrologer and scholars, it is their actions that give them their role in the story. They were willing to follow a star.

Many have tried to identify the nature of the star mentioned in Matthew. Some say it was Halley’s Comet, which could have been seen around 12 BCE, others propose that it actually was a cluster of multiple stars that shone brightly. It may have been a supernova explosion or even a planet. In The Divine Comedy, Dante describes God as “the love that moves the stars[iv],” which inspired James C. Howell to offer that this was some sort of supernatural phenomenon meant to demonstrate that:

God is determined to be found, and will use any and all measures . . . to reach out to people who are open[v].

On Epiphany, we celebrate this moment when the stars quite literally aligned, and identify it as revelatory for Christ’s entrance into the world, which we celebrated 13 days ago. Like the angels singing on the hillside, the star is meant to point us to God’s incarnation.

Augustine wrote, “Christ was not born because the star shone forth, but it shone forth because Christ was born; we should say not that the star was fate for Christ, but that Christ was fate for the star.” (Benson Bobrick, The Fated Sky: Astrology in History (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 79).

The star tells the story of light coming into the world in a powerful way, one that fulfilled the promises of the prophets and caught the attention of the magi, who had the eyes to see what others, including Herod and his scribes, did not, and provided them with a direction to go.

Finding one’s way can be hard, particularly when stars are involved. In the Disney movie Moana, the title character is attempting to restore the heart of the ocean and employs the help of the demigod Maui. After a series of events they finally begin to make their way, it becomes apparent that she does not know the basics of sailing, or how to use the stars above as a guide. She begs Maui, “teach me to sail,” to which he replies, “it’s called wayfinding, Princess.” He’s referring to an ancient Polynesian practice which dates back at least 3,000 years of navigating the ocean using deep knowledge and intense observation of the stars in the sky and the swells of the water[vi]. But when he continues, it’s clear he means more than just a geographical orientation and nautical skill. Maui says to Moana,

“It’s not just sails and knots. It’s seeing where you’re going in your mind. And knowing where you are, by knowing where you’ve been[vii].”

In the same way, there is more to the story of the magi finding the baby Jesus than just a simple delivery of gifts with the star as some sort of GPS. This is a story of journey and discovery that teaches us a lot about what it means to search for God in the midst of our own life experiences. Commentator William Arnold lays it out in this way:

First, these wise people had been studying. They knew their history. They hadn’t merely stumbled onto this momentous event. They had searched their own past and their sacred texts, and the result of their study was a readiness, or at least a willingness, to recognize the sign when it appeared.

Second, these scholarly folk did not keep their noses in the books all the time. They also were keen observers of the world around them. . . .

Third, they were willing to seek confirmation of what they had learned and seen. They moved, put their feet . . . in motion to follow this sign. They took a chance on being proven wrong – or right!

Fourth, they were willing to ask for directions along the way, even if they were wrong in their choice of resources (Herod).

Fifth, having found the confirmation of their convictions . . . they responded with all the gratitude they could muster.

Sixth . . . they still remained vigilant and attentive – open to further visions and insight – and thus they were responsive to their dream-delivered warning to go home by another road[viii].

The magi provide a powerful illustration of what the journey of faith, and the journey of life, can look like when we focus our intentions and attention in the right places. Willingness, observing, action, seeking guidance, responding with gratitude, and continued openness; these sound almost like a list of new year’s resolutions of ways to be more faithful. The magi help give us tools that can help us find our own stars to follow towards the epiphanies God has in store for us in the coming year.

There is a tradition that is becoming popular among churches around the country at this time of year, marking this day of Epiphany with the receiving of “star words[ix].” They are simple verbs or adjectives meant to give a point of focus or inspiration for the coming year, through which we can experience God in an epiphany-type way; unexpected, challenging, refreshing and renewing. This morning, you will have the opportunity to receive one of these words in worship. Although there is no “star words police,” you are encouraged to simply pick one from the basket, receiving it as a gift, rather than trying to select a word that you particularly like or think you need. One of my clergy friends described it this week as “the word picking you.” The stories of these are pretty amazing, as they become woven into the life of the one who carries it. You don’t have to figure out its meaning to you right away; simply let it rest with you. You are encouraged to put them in a place you will see them often, and ours even have a sticky-back to them for a secure placement. There should be enough for everyone, and there are also some smaller stars available that you can try to write a word on, or simply take to put in a second spot in your world to remind you of your drawn star. May these stars be one way to help guide you, as that star did for the magi long ago, to a place where you discover God breaking into the world in powerful and personal ways, as we hear the carol’s refrain:

O Star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright,
westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light.

Let our next journey begin. Amen.

~Rev. Elizabeth Lovell Milford
January 7, 2018

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[i] Bruce McClure and Deborah Byrd, “2018’s closest supermoon January 1,” January 1, 2018, EarthSky.org, January 1, 2018, http://earthsky.org/space/what-is-a-supermoon.
[ii] Jesse Emspak and Tariq Malik, “Supermoon 2018: When and How to See January’s Two Full Moons,” www.space.com, January 1, 2018, https://www.space.com/34515-supermoon-guide.html, accessed 1/6/2018.
[iii] Emspak and Malik.
[iv] Dante, The Divine Comedy: Paradise xxxiii, l. 145, as quoted by James C. Howell.
[v] James C. Howell, “Theological Perspective: Matthew 2:1-12,” Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 1, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008).
[vi] Kayleigh Hughes, “What is Wayfinding? Disney’s ‘Moana’ Introduces Viewers To The Art Of Navigation,” November 23, 2016, Bustle.com. https://www.bustle.com/articles/195766-what-is-wayfinding-disneys-moana-introduces-viewers-to-the-art-of-navigation, accessed 1/4/18.
[vii] Moana, directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, (Walt Disney, 2016).
[viii] William V. Arnold, “Pastoral Perspective: Matthew 2:1-12,” Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 1, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008).
[ix] Many attribute this idea to Rev. Marci Auld Glass, https://marciglass.com/category/starward/

Sunday’s Sermon – Purpose-Driven – Exodus 20:1-17, John 2:13-22

Sunday’s Sermon – A Star to Follow – Matthew 2:1-12

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