United Methodist Hymnal Songs from Revelation

This is a list of songs found in The United Methodist Hymnal (1989) based on passages from Revelation. I don't know that this list is complete as the list at the back does not include hymns like Marching to Zion or Battle Hymn of the Republic, which do refer to passages from Revelation. If you know others I have missed please let me know.

By Hymn Number:
64 – Holy, Holy, Holy (4:8-11)
181 – Ye Servants of God (7:9-12)
325 – Hail Thou Once Despised Jesus (4:2-11)
327 – Crown Him with Many Crowns (19:12)
350 – Come, All of You (22:17)
383 – This is a Day of New Beginnings (21:5)
428 – For the Healing of the Nations (21:1-22:5)
623 – Here, O My Lord, I See Thee (19:6-9)
626 – Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent (4 -- communion)
655 – Fix Me Jesus (6:11; 7:9-14)
674 – See the Morning Sun Ascending (5:11-14; 7:11-12)
638 – This is the Feast of Victory (5:12-13 – communion)
706 – Soon and Very Soon (21:3-4)
717 – Battle Hymn of the Republic (14:14-20; 19:1, 14-16; 20:11-12)
718 – Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending (1:7)
719 – My Lord What a Morning (6:12-17)
722 – I Want to be Ready (21:2, 16)
723 – Shall We Gather at the River (22:1-5)
726 – O Holy City, Seen of John (21:1-22:5)
732 – Come We that Love the Lord
733 – Marching to Zion
734 – Canticle of Hope (22:1-6, 23-24; 22:5, 12, 20

Alphabetical:
Battle Hymn of the Republic (14:14-20; 19:1, 14-16; 20:11-12) – 717
Canticle of Hope (22:1-6, 23-24; 22:5, 12, 20) – 734
Come, All of You (22:17) – 350
Come We that Love the Lord – 732
Crown Him with Many Crowns (19:12) – 327
Fix Me Jesus (6:11; 7:9-14) – 655
For the Healing of the Nations (21:1-22:5) – 428
Hail Thou Once Despised Jesus (4:2-11) – 325
Here, O My Lord, I See Thee (19:6-9) – 623
Holy, Holy, Holy (4:8-11) – 64
I Want to be Ready (21:2, 16) – 722
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent (4 -- communion) – 626
Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending (1:7) – 718
My Lord What a Morning (6:12-17) – 719
Marching to Zion – 733
O Holy City, Seen of John (21:1-22:5) – 726
See the Morning Sun Ascending (5:11-14; 7:11-12) – 674
Shall We Gather at the River (22:1-5) – 723
>Soon and Very Soon (21:3-4) – 706
This is a Day of New Beginnings (21:5) – 383
This is the Feast of Victory (5:12-13 – communion) – 638
Ye Servants of God (7:9-12) – 181

By Scripture Reference:
Come We that Love the Lord – 732
Marching to Zion – 733

Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending (1:7) – 718
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent (4 -- communion) – 626
Holy, Holy, Holy (4:8-11) – 64
Hail Thou Once Despised Jesus (4:2-11) – 325
See the Morning Sun Ascending (5:11-14; 7:11-12) – 674
This is the Feast of Victory (5:12-13 – communion) – 638
Fix Me Jesus (6:11; 7:9-14) – 655
My Lord What a Morning (6:12-17) – 719
Ye Servants of God (7:9-12) – 181
Battle Hymn of the Republic (14:14-20; 19:1, 14-16; 20:11-12) – 717
Crown Him with Many Crowns (19:12) – 327
Here, O My Lord, I See Thee (19:6-9) – 623
For the Healing of the Nations (21:1-22:5) – 428
I Want to be Ready (21:2, 16) – 722
O Holy City, Seen of John (21:1-22:5) – 726
Soon and Very Soon (21:3-4) – 706
This is a Day of New Beginnings (21:5) – 383
Canticle of Hope (22:1-6, 23-24; 22:5, 12, 20) – 734
Shall We Gather at the River (22:1-5) – 723
Come, All of You (22:17) – 350

How Do I Pray?

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Luke 11:1-13:

I remember sitting next to my mother one day during worship. I don’t remember how old I was, but I think I was pretty young, and everyone started saying the Lord’s Prayer and I asked her how she knew it, and she responded with something like “it’s just something you learn.” That memory stands out for me for a couple of reasons. One being that it taught me that there were things that happened in church and you just had to pick them up, through repetition I was guessing. And the second is that it is probably my earliest memory having anything to do with prayer, and in this case a prayer that everyone says together, which is not always what we think about when we talk about prayer. Of course, we do have communal prayers that we do in worship, and then there is the Lord’s Prayer, which we say together each week. But normally when we talk about prayer its about the personal kind, or of someone else saying a prayer that we are listening to. And in that, I’m sure that most of us have probably heard someone praying out loud, and we’ve said “I wish I could pray like that.”

And probably not surprisingly, Jesus was like that. In hearing him praying, which seems to indicate that he was praying out loud, not silently, the disciples come to ask Jesus to teach them to pray. That is, whatever Jesus is doing doesn’t match their own prayer lives, and so they hope to learn something in order to be better. And while we are told many times that Jesus is teaching people things, and he is even called teacher in numerous stories, this is the only time in the gospels in which Jesus is asked to give a specific teaching about how to do something, not just to answer a question. And so that seems to be one of the clues to us not only about the importance of prayer, but also that prayer can be taught, and perhaps that prayer should be taught. That while it may seem to come natural to some people, that if you are not good at praying, or don’t feel comfortable praying, that there is some good news for you, that help, through teaching is available. And because it’s a learned activity that means that you can try new things, question, experiment and even fail and all of that is okay. And so, as we continue in our series entitled How do I…? today that is the topic that we move on to, prayer.

How Do I Read the Bible

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was 2 Timothy 3:14-17:

I want you to think about the first Bible you ever received, or that you can remember having. Who gave it to you? How old where you when receive it? What did it look like? Was it a children’s Bible or a regular Bible? Did it have a special place in your house or room where it was kept? Was it treated like any other book or was it treated special? Did your family have other copies of the Bible? How where they treated and where were they kept? Do you still own that Bible? If not, do you know what happened to it? I want you to think about that Bible, and then turn to someone near you and tell each other about that Bible…. I knew that my first Bible was special in some way, although I don’t remember anyone telling me it was special, it was just sort of conveyed. It was different than other books. I knew the stories where special, although I couldn’t tell you why. I mean if nothing else it’s pretty rare to have a book read in public any more and yet this book is read from every week in worship, and we don’t hear from other books in that way. But no one ever said that we read it differently or treat it differently than other books, but we did, and no one ever said this is how to read the Bible. And I’m willing to guess that’s true for most of you as well. And I’m not talking about Sunday school classes that dealt with stories, because they might have actually made approaching scripture even more troubling or confusing. And so today in our series we are going to be looking at how to read scripture, and please note that I can’t get to everything and so some of this will be a 30,000 foot view of reading scripture.

But let’s start with some basics. The Bible is widely considered the best selling book of all time, and large numbers of people own a copy, besides for being found in hotel rooms, and also report believing what it says to be true. But it might be like Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. A book that everyone has, but few people actually read, and surveys show us this general sense of misinformation. So, for example, 10% of people say that Joan of Ark was Noah’s wife. Only 1/3 can identify that Jesus delivered the sermon on the mount, and more than that think that Billy Graham gave it. 40% believe that both the old and the new testament were written a few years after Jesus’ death, and a not insignificant percentage believe that it was all written in English. Or as a Texas woman was reported to have said, although it’s probably just apocryphal, “If English was good enough for Jesus, then it’s good enough for me.” It was not written in English, not a word, but instead it’s in Hebrew for the Hebrew Bible, or the Old testament, and Greek for the New Testament.

How do I Worship?

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 14:22-33:

In 1940, philosopher and educator Mortimer J. Adler wrote a book entitled How to Read a Book. Now how we read books seems to be sort of self-explanatory. Other then the mechanics of learning to read, and sentence structure, and looking for main themes, and things like that, I’m willing to bet that few, if any of us, where ever taught how to read a book. And yet if you’ve ever read Adler’s book then you will probably came to realize that perhaps you didn’t actually know how to read a book after all. And the purpose of that is to say that there are some things that we do just because we’ve always done them, and we may never have been formally taught how to do them. And this definitely includes some things that we do in the church. And so, for the next four weeks, our worship series is going to be addressing some of these ideas and asking the questions that perhaps you may have asked, or maybe even never even thought to ask, of how do I do x, and we start with the question How do I Worship?

Now just like with learning how to read a book, you might think you don’t need to know the mechanics of worshipping, after all you’ve been doing this worship thing for a very long time. But I’m again willing to guess that no one ever set you down and taught you how to worship, or talked about the mechanics of worship, or how to prepare for worship, or what to do after worship. Now, I’m sure there were some things you were taught when you were a child, like to be quiet and not to squirm in your seat. And other things you picked up, like when to sit and when to stand, and how to pretend like you’re singing when you’re not, things like that. But even though worship is this extremely important thing we do, few were taught what it takes to worship, or what we should do to worship. So, what are we called to do in worship, and are there things to help us give more to worship and get more out of worship? And the answer is a most definitive yes.

Rogue One, May The Force Be With You

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was John 15:9-17  and the movie was Rogue One.

Sports fans in Philadelphia are known to be particularly passionate about their teams, and their passion sometimes leads to downright hostility, and this is not just directed at visiting players and fans, but even to their own players. These are fans who might be best known for throwing snowballs at and booing Santa Clause. I mean, who boos Santa? People who want coal in their stockings is who. Now this hostility sort of stands in direct contrast for being known as the city of brotherly love, which of course has nothing whatsoever to do with the people who live there, and no offense to anyone here from Philly, I love your sandwiches. But their nickname comes from the meaning of the word Philadelphia, which literally means brotherly love in Greek. And some may remember that there are actually four words in Greek for love. One is the word eros, which is a passionate, physical love, and it never appears in the New Testament. Another, much rarer, is storge, which is the feeling that people in families have for each other, or we might familial love. Then there is Philia, which is brotherly love, with brother here being a much broader category linking with people not related by blood, and we could also certainly include sisters in this. Love for BFFs. Then there is agape, which is much more common. Iit is the word used to describe God’s love for us, but this is, again, not a feeling, but a doing a way of being. It’s also a sacrificial giving love, which is why this word is sometimes used to describe a parents love for a child. It’s giving of yourself for someone else, and so as we conclude our series on The Gospel in Star Wars by looking at the film Rogue One, I want you to keep those understandings of philia and agape in mind because they become important.

Rogue One was released in 2016 and was the first of the live action stand-alone Star Wars movies, also sometimes referred to as the unnumbered films. Rogue One takes place immediately before the original Star Wars film, by a few weeks, and thus brings us full circle back to where we started. The main story line tells us about Jyn Erso, the daughter of Galen Erso, the man who is forced to design the Death Star. As a young girl, Jyn watches her father get taken by the empire and her mother killed, and then she is rescued by Saw Gerrera, a militant rebel leader. Rather than resisting the empire and being killed, her father Galen, designs a flaw into the Death Star so that with one shot it might be destroyed, which explains the end of Star Wars. Galen gets an imperial shuttle pilot to defect with a message for Jyn, which he takes the city of Jedha, the home of a former Jedi temple and a mine for Kyber crystals which not only power lightsabers but is also what powers the death star’s weapon. Captured by the rebels to help them get the plans, Jyn travels with the rebel Cassian, who is shown to do whatever he thinks is necessary for the rebel cause, and K2SO a reprogrammed imperial droid. While on Jedha, they encounter the blind seer Chirrut Imwe, the coolest force user we’ve met in a while, whose personal mantra and breath prayer is “I am one with the force and the force is with me.” We are told that Chirrut is a guardian of the whills, which is an ode to Lucas’ original story idea before he came up with the force, and he is accompanied by Baze who helps protect Chirrut. Although Jyn thinks of herself as being totally independent, of not being able to trust anyone and making it on her own, we get an early indication of who she is when she and Cassian are caught in a street fight between the empire and Saw Gerrera’s followers. (Video)

You Were Right

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Luke 19:1-10 and the movie was Return of the Jedi.

When people are named to ask the best movie villain of all time, Darth Vader routinely makes that list. For quite a few years Vader was actually at the top of the list. He has now moved down to number three. But Vader seems a little different from Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates, who are number one and two, because as we have seen is that Vader does not seem to be mentally unstable, like those two. Now I am not arguing that he is hero. He is not, for example, Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, who is number one on the list of best movie heroes. He seems more like Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or Mr. Potter from It’s a Wonderful Life, number 5 and 6 on the list, in that  rather than having a mental illness, they are just mean and nasty, although perhaps that’s even worse. Because at least with those with mental issues we can give some reasoning for their behavior. And yet we are probably right to ask whether, as our metaphor, Vader’s behavior moves him beyond the grace of God? Does forgiveness apply to Vader, or has he, and others like him, moved beyond what we can forgive, or that God can forgive? Is redemption possible? And so that is the topic that we turn to as we look at what the was the conclusion to the original Star Wars trilogy Return of the Jedi, which happens to be my favorite film.

Return was released in 1983, and so this year is the 40th anniversary, and the reason we are doing this series now. Originally it was entitled Revenge of the Jedi. Does anyone know why they changed it to return? Because Jedi don’t seek revenge, revenge is something sought by those who follow the dark side, thus Revenge of the Sith. But, Return has the empire working on rebuilding a new death star. Han Solo is encased in carbonite and shipped off to Jabba the Hutt, who is Godfather like head of a crime syndicate, which leads Leia, Luke and Chewbacca on a rescue mission. Leia kills Jabba, before most of them fly off the moon of Endor, where they encounter a teddy-bear like group of inhabitants known as Ewoks, who will help the rebels battle the empire. Meanwhile, Luke goes back to receive more training with Yoda, who dies, but not before telling Luke that Leia is actually his sister and that to truly become a Jedi that he must confront Darth Vader. Luke eventually joins them all on Endor, voluntarily surrendering to the imperial troops so he can meet with Vader, who takes him to the emperor. Vader and Luke again engage in a lightsaber duel, but Luke puts his weapon away because he will not kill his father and so the emperor then seeks to kill Luke, but that’s jumping too far ahead.

I Hate You

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was 1 John 4:7-21 and the movie was Revenge of the Sith:

One of the big questions that gets posed around all of the Star Wars films, as there are now 11 feature films, is in what order you should view them. Probably the most recommended is to see them in the order that they were released. So, start, as we did, with Star Wars, watch the rest of the original trilogy, then what the prequels, which are episodes 1-3, then go to episodes 7-9, which are sometimes called the sequels, and then onto Rogue One and Solo. Without putting a lot of thought into them, that would be the order I would recommend. But, another recommendation is to watch them in chronological order, which would be to start with episode 1, adding in Rogue One and Solo at the end of the prequels, then move into the original trilogy and the sequels to complete it. I can see some logic in that, except that doing it in that order removes the reveal in Empire, which was the last movie we covered, that Darth Vader is actually Luke’s father, as well as the reveal that Leia is his sister as we learn all of those things at the end of Revenge of the Sith, which is the film we cover today. Now maybe since those reveals happened 43 and 40 years ago, respectively they don’t matter, but I still think cinematically that they do, which is also the reason that I started with the first two films and then jumped backward to episode three which then, in my reasoning, and I will argue that my reasoning is correct here, for where we end up next week in moving on to Return of the Jedi, which is my particular favorite of the films for many reasons.

Now I do have to admit that Revenge of the Sith is the only Star Wars film that I never saw originally in the theater. In fact, I had never seen it on the big screen until we showed it there on Monday. And the reason I didn’t see it was because I was in the midst of seminary and I was so disappointed in Episode 2, Attack of the Clones, that I actually wasn’t interested in seeing Lucas make the franchise even worse. I will admit that I was mistaken, and while it is not what the originals were, it’s not as bad as I originally imagined, and it’s grown on me and is usually ranked as the best of the prequels, and is even as high as number four on some lists of the best, with the original trilogy occupying the top three. But that’s more nerdy filler. Two weeks ago, when we talked about The Empire Strikes back, we talked about the choices that Luke is presented with and has to make to follow the way of the Jedi or to follow the pull to turn to the dark side like Vader. And I said those choices are presented to all of us and that what Luke comes to discover is that what separates him from his father is not that he father was evil and he is good, but the choices that his father made that led him there. And we’ll save whether those choices are permanent or not for where we move to next week. But Revenge of the Sith sets up how and why Anakin Skywalker, who becomes Darth Vader, makes those choices. And in seeing them you can have some sympathy for him and understand his reasoning. He is trying to do the best that he can and trying to protect the people and the things that he loves, and in doing so he ends up destroying those same things. But he is not evil, it’s as they say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and Anakin ends up fighting Obi-Wan Kenobi at the end of the film in what might be seen as a metaphor for hell, but that’s jumping ahead of the story.

Choose You Must

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Romans 7:15-25a  and the movie was The Empire Strikes Back.

On Thursday, Linda and I celebrated our 21st anniversary, and we had a very nice dinner together reminiscing about the favorite house we’ve lived in, as we’ve had 8 in the past 21 years, favorite job, favorite car, favorite child, you know all the usual. But it was sort of a reflection on the different ways that we might have imagined going differently, sometimes because of decisions that we had little say over and sometimes because of decisions that we make. While we often act as if our lives, and the lives of others, are direct lines of one point leading directly to the other, but we know that’s not really how it works. That while it might not exactly be a choose your own adventure novel, that there are definitely choices that we get to, or have to make, sometimes large, sometimes small, that end up making a huge difference in the direction that our lives take and that also affect the lives of others as well. And that’s where we turn today as we continue in our series on the gospel in Star Wars looking at the second movie in the series. Released in 1980,  The Empire Strikes Back is widely considered the greatest of all the films.

After the rebel alliance had destroyed the death star at the battle of Yavin at the end of the first film, the empire strikes back, as the title says, and seeks out to find and destroy the rebels who are now hiding from the empire. After their base on the ice planet of Hoth is attacked, they retreat again, with Luke Skywalker going to the Dagobah system to receive instruction from Yoda, the last remaining Jedi Master, and put in a different order, his words are, therefore making him sound super smart. Meanwhile, Han, Chewie and Leia are being pursued by the evil Darth Vader when the hyperdrive on their ship won’t work and so they retreat to the cloud city of Bespin, controlled by an old friend of Han’s, Lando Calrissian. Calrissian betrays them to Vader who uses them as a trap to get Luke to come to their rescue, where he and Vader engage in a lightsaber battle, with Luke losing his hand, and where Vader reveals, and I hope this isn’t a surprise to anyone any longer, that Luke’s father was not killed by Vader as he had been told, but that Vader himself is his father, and along the way Luke learns somethings about the force and himself. But one of the things that gets bantied about in the films is this idea of choice, against questions of whether those decisions are predetermined or if we have freewill.

Faith and Fear

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was  Matthew 28:16-20 and the movie was Star Wars.

It’s said that there are two types of people in the world: Those who love Star Wars and those who are wrong. That’s a joke. I know that Star Wars is not for everyone, and that’s fine. But, someone told me they weren’t really into Star Wars, and when I asked if they had seen Star Wars on the big screen, and they said no, and I said “well there’s your problem” because the opening scene of the original movie, after the crawl explaining what’s happening, when the imperial star destroyer comes from the top of the screen into the scene is one of the greatest moments in cinema history and changed movies forever. Like what can be said of the most influential films, there is a pre-Star Wars and there is after Star Wars. Even if it had not been anywhere as close to as successful as it was, it still would have given us the special effects company of Industrial Light and Magic and Skywalker Sound, which are monumental. Pixar Animation also comes out of Lucas Films, although that’s a few years later. And while the movies are noted for their stilted language, it’s said that Alec Guinness, who plays Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi asked to be killed off early so that he wouldn’t have to keep saying more lines. But we also tend to forget that it was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, won six of them, and was given two additional awards for sound editing and for the creation of a new motion picture camera. What Lucas did was truly revolutionary which we forget form a distance because so much of what he did is now so common, and also noting that what we see as Star Wars now is not what was released in 1977, because Lucas upgraded then in the 90s, and the originals are no longer available, and apparently will never be released again as they originally were.

And so, with that long-winded introduction, we move onto our new series the gospel in Star Wars. And I say this every year in our movie series, but please note that it is not the gospel according to Star Wars, because we have four gospels, and George Lucas did not write any of them, but instead we will look for what we can see in the movies that can help us in our faith, and there is so much. And I will warn you that my Star Wars geek will come out and so some of you may think to yourselves, “I have a bad feeling about this, “ but let me just say that “this is the worship series you are looking for.” And if you don’t know Star Wars you have no idea what I just said.

State of the Church

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was 1 John 3:1-3:

It has been my practice for most of my years in ministry as the end of an appointment year comes to and end and a new one begins to take the time to look back at what we did in the past year and more importantly where we were going in the next year which I have called the state of the church message. Now I didn’t do that the first two years here, I think it was, because of what was happening it was too hard to plan for the next month, let alone the next year. But we did do it last year, and we do it again as I complete my fourth year serving this congregation, and I’ll be honest that sometimes it feels like it hasn’t been that long, and other times it feels like it’s been at least a decade here. But today we’re not looking back, even though we have some great things we have accomplished but I want to spend the looking at where we are going as a congregation, how we might get there and what all of us, as the body of Christ, need to do to do that work. But let me give just a little context for everything.

In 2008, Phyllis Tickle published a book entitled The Great Emergence, which we have a copy of in the church library, and the Los Alamos Library has a digital copy. But one of the arguments that she has in the book is that every five hundred years or so the church faces a great upheaval, that there are tectonic shifts that happen and, in her words, the church “cleans house” and holds a great rummage sale in which it decides what to keep, what to get rid of and what new things to introduce. And while I’m not going to go into all the details, and there is certainly room for debate in her argument, it think it’s largely correct. And the last time the church went through this major disruption was at the Protestant Reformation. Does anyone know what year the reformation is said to have begun? 1517, so basically 500 years ago. And of course, it didn’t actually begin that year and it didn’t end that year, it went on for a while, as did the other turmoil she cites.

Do Not Hold On

Here is my message for Sunday. The text was John 20:11-18 and it was also a recap of Annual Conference.

Bill Belichick, who is the head coach and general manager for the New England Patriots football team is widely regarded as one of, if not the best football coach of all time. What he is also known for is the ruthlessness in how he treats even his star players when it comes to the end of their careers. He has said that he would much rather cut a player a year too soon and still have them perform for another team, then to keep them a year too late and have them underperform for him. It’s like the disclaimer we hear on investment commercials that tells us that past performance is not indicative of future performance. But all too many people, us probably included, even if we also have a what have you done for me lately mentality, do look backward at what was and hold onto it for the present and want to forecast it into the future. Sometimes we do it because it’s what makes us feel comfortable, sometimes it’s because it’s all that we know and therefore cannot imagine something else, sometimes it’s because we are afraid of change and sometimes its because whatever it is worked for us and therefore it has to be the same for others and the same path forward.

So, for example, we had annual conference this past week, and we’ll talk more about that in a little bit, but in the opening message the Bishop talked about how important VBS was for him as a child in forming his faith that led him into the ministry and then to his current position. Now he did note that this was sixty years ago, but simultaneously seemed to emphasize how important doing that same thing now, because of how it might impact a young person today in the same way. Now I am not discounting the need to engage children and youth, although the number one indicator of whether a child will be engaged in faith as an adult has nothing to do with these things, but instead with the religiosity of their parents. But I do have an issue of saying that because something worked sixty years ago means that it is still going to work today, or should even be taking place. And that’s why I chose the passage I did for today as we think about the church and the events of Annual Conference while also concluding our series on the nots of Jesus by jumping back to the Easter story. We originally started this be looking at just a week after Easter when Jesus tells Thomas do not doubt, but today we go back to the original resurrection appearance.

Do Not Store Up Treasure

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 6:19-21:

I was having a conversation with a member of a United Methodist Church that was going through the disaffiliation process, which means they were talking about leaving the United Methodist Church, and he supported that movement. And he said that he was doing so because he took the Bible seriously and followed every injunction. And since he was then trying to imply that I therefore didn’t take the Bible seriously and didn’t know what I was talking about, I decided to challenge him a little bit. And so, I asked if he gave to everyone who asked for him for money, to which he said no, and then wanted to make a statement about “those” people.  But I told him that Jesus explicitly says that we are to give to anyone who begs of us (Luke 6:30) And then I asked him if he wore clothing that had mixed fibers, which he did. He also had a tattoo, which is forbidden in Leviticus. He also had fruit trees, and he didn’t leave some of the fruit for people to glean from his trees. And I, of course, could have gone on and one about the things that he apparently didn’t take very seriously, largely I think because they applied directly to him, rather than only applying to others, and as conversation was deteriorating, I decided to leave it there. And yes, I will totally admit to my culpability in this, especially since we just talked about last week that we should put away anger and malice and that our words should build up and convey God’s grace. But all of that leads us up to what is Rev. Adam Hamilton, who is the pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in the country, often counters this same issue by asking the other person, often to clergy, if they have a retirement plan and are contributing to it. And when they invariably say yes. He then says, to quote today’s passage, “so what part of do not store up treasure’s in heaven do you not understand?”

And so that’s where we find ourselves today in our series on the nots of Jesus, the things that Jesus tells us not to do. So far, we have looked at the injunctions not to doubt, fear, judge, worry, sin, stop children from coming, and complain, and now do not store up for yourself treasure here on earth. And just a funny aside, Julie pointed out that in the preparation for this service that I had written do not store up for yourselves treasurers, which we actually want to do, and to thank Kim for her service as our treasurer, and this has nothing to do with her. So, there are several things here. First is that this isn’t all about treasure being bad. There is a place where Jesus specifically says that we are to store up treasure, and where is that? In heaven, where, we are told, moth and rust and thieves won’t be able to get to it. But the problem is, Jesus does not tell us here how to do that, although in my research those who wanted to try and tackle this seemingly were arguing for a sense of works righteousness. that is do good things in the world in order to build up this treasure in your account for when the judgment comes. I don’t know that those who were arguing would necessarily see it that way, but that’s how I interpreted what they were saying. And so, this is a reminder that we are saved by faith alone, and one of the reasons, as Paul tells us, is because otherwise we would brag about it and what we had done, and there is definitely some of that that plays in role as we think about our treasurers. And so, when it comes to that, I have some good news and some bad news.

Do Not Complain

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was John 6:35-48:

I’ve mentioned it before, I can be a little vocal towards others when driving. Not like rolling down the window and yelling at them, but yelling at them in the car. A little while back I was driving with Lizzie, and I yelled “come on you idiot” to someone in front of me, and so Lizzie asked what was wrong, and I said that this driver doesn’t know what they are doing. And she responded, “so that’s why they’re an idiot?” Proud parental moment right there, and that’s sarcasm by the way. As every parent knows our children are much more likely to do as we do, rather than do what we say, especially if they don’t correspond. But how we act also says much more about who we are then anything that we say we believe. And so, with that, we definitely have to think about the power of our words, and how they not only affect the world but also how the affect us, and so we move onto the not that I have been worried about the most, even though one of the things we are not supposed to do is to worry, but today we tackle the injunction not to complain.

Now while I think this not is a generally good idea, while noting there are times when complaints are important, and we’ll get back to that idea, there is a very specific context in which this injunction, and the complaining he is pointing out are made. As Cathy said in the introduction, before this interchange, Jesus has just fed the 5000 on a mountain, and this is a section of John which is known as book of signs as Jesus does things that to John prove he is the Messiah, or that John wants to give than meaning. Then while Jesus walks on the sea of Galilee, a little more impressive than simply parting waters, the people also go around the sea to the other side, and there they ask Jesus what sign it is that he will do so they will believe, after all God gave their ancestors manna, or bread, in the wilderness. Hopefully then you are seeing the clear illusions to the Exodus taking place here, and then Jesus says that he is the bread of life, which is one of his I am statements, and remembering that the name of God given to Moses is I am. But this causes the religious leaders to begin to complain as we heard this morning, or to grumble as the NIV translates it. So, two important points here.

Do Not Stop Them

Here is my sermon from Sunday. The text was Matthew 19:13-15:

As I’ve mentioned before, in our staff meeting each week, we read and talk about the scripture passage that is being preached on for that week. As we looked at this week, someone wondered if we were sort of getting a mention of an ordinary activity that has totally lost its context for us. I mean we’re certainly used to people coming to Jesus to seek healings, or to question him, or sometimes to challenge him, but in today’s passage we have something unique. We have people, presumably parents, bringing children to him so that, as it says “he might lay his hands on them and pray.” It seems like perhaps this is as an act of blessing, although that is not specifically stated. Now the laying on of hands is found throughout scripture, and there is a special meaning and purpose, and the person who does the laying on of hands is a person of significance. But it’s not done with children, but here it is. So, was there a tradition of bringing children to teachers or rabbis to receive special blessings? Perhaps. And again, that might be what we’re seeing and it was just sort of so ordinary that it’s not explained as to what’s happening, and so we’re not sure exactly what’s taking place. But, it is clear that the disciples seem to understand what’s going on, because they try to stop it, and speak “sternly” to those who are bringing the children.

I always imagine the disciples that Jesus doesn’t have the time to be wasting to do these blessings, he’s way too important for something so mundane, so please go away and leave him alone to focus on the critical things that occupy his time. And one more piece of information may be helpful to thinking about what’s taking place here, and that is the involvement of children in ancient Judaism, and that is there wasn’t much, if any. Our knowledge about what happened in first century synagogues is extremely limited, much more so than you might think. While we do know that there was some involvement of adult women in worship, boys did not participate in synagogue until after age 12 and girls and young women didn’t participate at all. And so,  with that in mind, perhaps the disciple’s response isn’t all that surprising, but Jesus’ response definitely is.

Do Not Sin

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 5:38-48:

As are making our way through the nots of Jesus, or the things Jesus told us not to do, and so far, we have looked at the injunction do not doubt, do not fear, do not judge and do not worry, I’m guessing, or really hoping, that as you are hearing the gospel passage that you’re listening for the not that we might be covered today. But while there are a lot of instructions on things we should do, like turn the other cheek and love our enemy and to pray for those who persecute us. But there is only one do not, which is do not resist an evildoer. And perhaps I should have addressed that as a not, and maybe in reconsidering this series for the future I might add that in. But that is not the do not we’re looking at today. Instead the injunction is do not sin. It’s an injunction that’s in there, but not directly, and that is Jesus telling us to be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect, and we’ll come back to why that’s the passage I chose in just a few moments.

And so, it’s not that Jesus never says do not sin, because he does, and some of you I know where that is. But it’s the story of the woman found caught in adultery in the 7th chapter of John. If you remember the story,  Jesus is in the Temple teaching when a woman who has been caught in adultery is brought before him. now the first question you should ask is where is the man who was also caught? But they don’t ask it, and he is not there. Instead the ask Jesus what should be done with her, and it’s Jesus response that makes this such a famous story because he says “let those without sin cast the first stone.” And with that statement, all those who brought her, and were expecting a stoning, go away leaving just the woman.  Jesus then tells her that, just as those who have left have not condemned her, neither will he condemn her, and then says “Go your way, and, from now on, do not sin again.” And so, we do have an injunction not to sin and for us as Methodists that injunction in inherently tied up with the injunction to be perfect as God is perfect.

Do Not Worry

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 6:25-34:

I want everyone to close their eyes, and don’t worry, nothings going to happen. And I want everyone, as we recently sang, to take a deep breath and relax your shoulders and neck, let the tension start to flow out, and I want you to picture a calm nature scene. It could be the beach, or the mountains, or a rain forest, or a desert, or the ocean. Picture something peaceful. Got that in your mind? Now, don’t think of an elephant. And now of course what just happened? And you can open your eyes. Most of you instantly thought of an elephant. And the same thing might happen, and does for some people, if you start a statement with “now, I have to tell you something, but don’t worry…” what do we instantly do? We start to worry, and so as we have been making our way through the things Jesus tells us not to do, today we move onto the injunction do not worry. Now my beautiful wife, the mother of our wonderful three daughters, asked me what I was going to be preaching on after Easter and I told her that we were going to be looking at things Jesus told us not to do. She then asked what I was going to do for Mother’s Day, and when I told her she said “you can’t do that. Worrying is what mothers do. It’s who we are and what we’re known for. Do you think that’s a good idea to tell mothers not to worry?” and I told her I did, and I’ve been worried about it ever since. And so, if you think that I have made a terrible mistake with this injunction for this morning, please tell Linda that she was right and you will have given her the best Mother’s Day gift she could receive.

Now when we think about this command so not worry, it’s just like we talked about last week when we looked at the injunction not to judge, we treat that as if there’s a period that follows it. But that’s not the case here. There’s not even a comma, like there was after do not judge, but instead the thought simply continues strait on. Three times the phrase do not worry is used in this passage and none of the times does it stand by itself. And, just like with the other nots we have looked at, Jesus is not actually saying not to worry about anything. There are some things we should probably worry about, as Jesus says in the last line, “today’s trouble is enough for today.” so, moms, please know that some worrying, or some anxiety is okay. Those things are not sins, as some preachers might lead you to believe. It’s a matter of what we are worrying about and why. I had a mother at one of the churches I serve whose son was an army officer who was trained in defusing bombs who told me that when he was sent to Afghanistan that she finally understood the Apostle Paul’s injunction to pray without ceasing. And so, she worried about him, a lot, which is completely understandable, and that is related to today because there is a strong anti-war background to the creation of Mother’s Day as a holiday.

Do Not Judge

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 7:1-5:

Of all of the injunctions of things that Jesus tells us not to do, which is what we are currently spending our time doing, today’s injunction “do not judge,” is probably the most famous. And it’s well known not just amongst Christians, and we’re going to get to some more obscure injunctions in a few weeks, but it’s also well known amongst non-Christians as well. They might not know who said it, or where it’s found in the Bible, but the definitely know that Christians are not supposed to judge. and so, as rebuttals go, it might be one of the most popular to get thrown back to the church, or at Christians, and often, in my opinion, quite rightfully so. And we deserve it much of the time, and what often makes it worse then is how some respond to that accusation. I remember one public scandal in which that accusation was made, and a prominent religious leader of the time said, and I roughly quote, “What Jesus was saying was that we all judge, and we will all be judged, and so it’s okay to judge.” and I hope that your jaw hits the floor hearing that, as mine did when it was said, because that is not at all what Jesus was saying. And so, the way that Christians and non-Christians alike tend to use this passage shows that people don’t really understand what Jesus was saying here, or in Luke where it also appears as part of what is known there as the Sermon on the plain. So, what does Jesus mean when he tells us “Do not judge.”

Now as I have said many times before, the entirety of the New Testament is written in Greek, while the Hebrew Bible is written in Hebrew. But in the Greek not only do all the words run together, and thus translators have to make decisions about what words are actually there. but there is also no punctuation and so they also have to make decisions about what punctuation to put in, and that matters here. Because we here this statement as do not judge period. Or even we could say exclamation point. And we could take that as the absolute, as we have done with do not be afraid or do not doubt. But that’s not what we actually have here. Instead, it says, do not doubt comma, which symbolizes a break or a pause, really, it’s where we take a breath when we are saying it out loud, and then it continues with some qualifiers. Do not judge, comma, so that you may not be judged. Now we could argue whether that comma is appropriate or not, although every translation I looked up had a comma so there seems to be consensus on it, and it makes sense within the context of what comes next. Because Jesus continues, “for with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”  That means if you judge, which really is when you judge since we all do it to some degree, and we’ll come back to that, then God will use that same standard against you. And others can to as well. And so, just for a wild example, a hypothetical if you will, if you were to say make fun of the Boston Red Sox for being in last place in your division, but then your team starts playing terribly and they end up in last place, then what’s going to happen? Then they are going to make fun of you, and that’s only fair. Or we might say what goes around comes around, or that the chickens will come home to roost. So how we judge others is how others will then judge us, or could judge or, perhaps, should judge us. But even more importantly it’s how we will be judged by God as well.

Do Not Fear

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 14:22-33:

One of my earliest memories comes from when I was probably around 4. I was spending the day with my grandmother and we had gone to the store, and one the way back home we decided to stop at a tasty-freeze for some ice cream. I was sitting in the backseat of my grandparents 1966 Ford Galaxy 500, which was an aircraft carrier, especially when the top was down, but we had placed our order and I looked down and on my left arm was a tarantula. Now in my memory it was huge, although I don’t know if that is because I was small or because of the trauma, but I screamed and my grandmother turned around, saw it and swatted it off my arm. And this I definitely remember, but it then jumped onto the front seat, ran down it, then jumped onto the dashboard and squeezed into one of the air conditioning vents and disappeared. My grandmother used to comment that she never saw it again. And we drove off before we got our order. I happened to be wearing a bright yellow shirt that day, which had a puffy lion on the front, and at the top of the grocery bag was a bunch of bananas, and so best guess is it came out of the bananas saw more yellow and was coming over to check it out. But the moral of this story is that FDR was wrong in his first inaugural address when he said that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, but that we should fear fear itself and also spiders. We should fear spiders, although while I still can’t deal with tarantulas or any big spiders, I have gotten much better about regular spiders as I’ve aged.

And so, with that we move on in our series on the nots of Jesus, or the things that Jesus tells us not to do, by moving onto the injunction: “Do not be afraid.” Of the things we are not to do, and the things that cause us to get ourselves all into knots, this may be one of the harder ones because fear is hardwired into us. And living entirely without fear is not only unhealthy it can be downright dangerous. There is a reason why we have fear of snakes and spiders and tigers, because they can be life threatening. Fear is a primal urge that comes to us from the most primitive part of the brain known as the amygdala, and located close to the base of the brain at the spine. It’s what trigger the fight, flight or freeze response when we sense danger. And it’s played an important role in keeping us alive and uninjured over time, both as people and as a species. Fear in proper doses, or natural occurrences is healthy and productive. It teaches us to not touch hot stoves, to not play in traffic and to avoid spiders. And so fearing things is not a sin, and in fact not fearing, or living without fear, could just be plain and simple stupidity. And so, we start with that reality because I don’t think that’s what Jesus is talking about when he tells us not to be afraid. But it’s about the what and the why.

Do Not Doubt

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was John 20:19:29:

Nicknames are interesting things. Sometimes they seem strange, sometimes they hit the mark, and sometimes we might not even know what they mean or where they came from. And as nicknames go, sports stars often end up with some great nicknames, especially those who are the best of their craft. There is Walter Payton, known as Sweetness, and Wayne Gretzky, the Great One, and Jack Nicholas, the Golden Bear.  But of course, the best nicknames come from baseball.  There is Stan the Man, and Cool Papa Bell  and Double Duty Radcliff. Some nicknames become so famous, like Babe Ruth, Pee Wee Reese and Dizzy Dean that we forget their real first names.  But for every great nickname like Mr. October or Hammerin’ Hank there are also those nicknames that are a little less glorious, a little more likely that people probably wish they would have gone away, like Luke Old Aches and Pains Appling, or Ernie the Schnozz Lombardi, but perhaps the worst nickname belongs to Hugh Mulcahy who, because he never had a winning record in any complete season in which he pitched, was known as Losing Pitcher Mulcahy.  I am sure that if you were to have met Mr. Mulcahy he would not have appreciated you calling him by his nickname and just wished it would all go away.  But just like those nicknames are a little unfair, so too is the nickname that has been forever appended to Thomas, who, for some reason, for 2000 years has been the poster boy for doubt, an idea that is not really fair either to Thomas or to the concept of doubt.

Today we begin a new worship series entitled the nots of Jesus, which has nothing to do with ropes, but instead with the things that Jesus tells us not to do. Normally we talk about the things we’re supposed to do like forgive or feed the hungry or be peacemakers, but there are actually quite a few things Jesus tells us not to do, and so we’re going to spend the next nine weeks, which seems like a lot, but doesn’t cover all of the nots, looking at, interpreting and trying to figure out how we should not be doing certain things. And that’s sort of the point because often the things Jesus says not to do are things that also often cause us to tie ourselves in knots. And so, we’re going to find ways to free ourselves through Christ. And today we start with the injunction that gets read every year after Easter and that is Jesus telling Thomas “do not doubt,” form which Thomas gets his terrible nickname, and so I’d like to take just a moment to give a defense of Thomas, which I think will also help us to get at the subject of doubt and what it means for us.

Do Caterpillars Dream of Butterflies?

Here is my message for Easter Sunday. The text was Matthew 28:1-10:

The imagery we used for the season of Lent, which are the Sundays leading up to Easter, where those surrounding caterpillars and cocoons as a prelude to using butterflies for Easter, which is a traditional symbol for this day of celebration. And that got me thinking about that transition from caterpillar to butterfly. First, it’s pretty amazing, because it’s not like these things really look alike. It’s not just that the caterpillar grows wings, there is a change in shape and size. Imagine if alligators turned into rhinoceroses, or cats turned into birds. We might be a little amazed at that, rather than sort of taking it for granted, like we seem to do with caterpillars turning into butterflies because that’s just what they do; we’re used to it and expect it. But perhaps we should be a little more astonished by the whole thing. But the other thing I was wondering was whether caterpillars know that’s what’s going to happen? Do caterpillars dream of butterflies? Or do they see a butterfly flying around and recognize them for who they used to be? Like, “hey, it’s Amy! I remember her when she was just a caterpillar.” Or do they just go into their chrysalis because that’s what’s encoded in what they do, not having any idea of what’s on the other side? I don’t know that we can ever know the answer to that because last I checked we haven’t been able to interview any caterpillars or butterflies, but there is something spectacular about them anyways, and of course they have obvious comparisons to the Easter story which is why they have become a symbol. New life. New beginnings. Transition and change. And all the other things that come with Jesus’ resurrection and the empty tomb and the reasons we are gathering here this day to shout our alleluias and proclaim that Christ is risen.

Three years ago for Easter Matthew was also the gospel reading for for the day, and I was planning on talking about earthquakes, and the things that happen that shake our lives and change them forever. But then we ended up being online only for Easter, speaking of things that shake up our lives, and because of that we did not get to do the baptism we had planned for that day, which we will finally do today, along with Jesse’s brother who was born in the interim. But what I ended up talking about that Easter was liminal space and times. Liminality is the in-between times in which transition is happening. That it is no longer one thing, but it’s not yet the other thing either. A good example of this is the threshold of a door. When we cross through a door there is a space there where we are no longer in one room but not yet in the other either. We are not yet outdoors, but we’re no longer indoors. We are in that in-between space, and not only was that time with COVID like that, but the gap between Good Friday and Easter is like that. The tomb is a liminal space. And even post Easter can be seen as liminal, because no one yet knew what was going to happen.

Without Blemish

This was my message for Maundy Thursday. The text was Psalm 91:

Jesus came into Jerusalem for the last time in order to celebrate Passover. It is one of the great pilgrimage holidays that brought people to Jerusalem, and while Holy Week and Passover don’t always coincide this year they did with Passover ending at sunset today. And so, every year as the assigned readings for Maundy Thursday it includes the reading for Exodus about the Passover. And yet surprisingly, or at least to me, in sixteen years in ministry I have never actually preached on the story as it relates to this week or this day, until tonight. And then it’s not really to explore the story of Passover itself, and I’m working on the possibility of a series on the book of Exodus, so perhaps we’ll get to that message sometime in the near future, but there was one line that stood out to me as I was working on this service. For those who did the prayer series as part of programming night and doing Lectio Divina, this is part of that process of letting the Spirit speak to us and having things pop up in importance. Although then it’s the work of trying to figure out why this thing seemed important. But the phrase that stood out to me, amongst all of the readings this year, and it was that phrase “without blemish.”

Vision

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was John 15:1-17:

Whenever I get on a plane and sitting and getting settled, as I watch everyone else get to their seats and put stuff away, I think to myself, this is how every plan crash movie begins. Anyone else ever think that? No, I’m the only weirdo? And then, of course, once everyone is in their seats and getting ready the flight attendants come out to give their spiel about safety and emergency preparation, but few people actually pay any attention, right? Perhaps if it was your first flight, or maybe on a plane type you’ve never flown before, you might pay a little more attention but for the most part we ignore the information because one we’re largely familiar, and second, we don’t think it really applies to us. Afterall, all of us expect to make it to our destination, unless you know that you’re starring in a movie about a plane crash. But, as Seth Godin pointed out, if during the flight the pilot came on and said they were having some “technical problems” or something else that seems to downplay a serious issue, and then said the flight attendants were going to be giving instructions of what to do, I’m willing to bet that everyone on the plane would then be paying really close attention to what the flight attendants were about to tell us. And so, what’s the difference? The immediacy and the need to know what’s happening because our lives may depend on it. But, the airlines couldn’t do that often because if they did we’d blank them all out again because the pressing would then become routine. And so today as we conclude our series on seeking God’s visions and dreams for us as a congregation, I don’t want to say this is the middle of the flight and pay attention to what’s about to happen, because that would be overkill, but I do want to make sure we’re all paying attention because today, when we talk about our legacy, or how we want to be known, is really important.

In fact, this might have been where we could have started and built from because as with all goals, if you don’t know where you want to end up, then you’ll just wander everywhere and nowhere in particular. And so, thinking about who we want to be gives us the end point from which we can work backwards to create the steps of how we are going to get there. And one of the things that I think is important is that for the most part the things that people stated for what they wanted to be known for where largely ideas rather than concrete things, and I’ll come back to why I think that’s important in a moment. But even the more concrete things can be seen as aspirational with multiple ways of getting there. So, for example, one person said we should be known for having environmentally sustainable landscaping, and my thought was to expand that out and say we want to be known for environmental sustainability altogether, or of having a zero carbon footprint. And that would be a great goal, and great thing to be known for, and also allowing for multiple ways of getting there. Or another had that we would have a cool youth group; again, multiple ways of getting there, and multiple interpretations of what it means to be cool, and admitting that I am not the best arbiter of coolness for teenagers these days, let alone in 10 years, when shockingly we will still have a teenager in the house. But the bigger piece is about the leeway of allowing ourselves room to grow and to change.

It's About Loss, But Fear Not

Here is my message for Sunday. The text was Joshua 1:1-9:

There are some stories that I would love to have been a fly on the wall to observe them, and this story we heard this morning from Joshua would certainly be one of them as the Israelites prepare to cross the Jordan into the promised land, and I would love to be there for several reasons. I would really love to know what Joshua is thinking in this moment and how he responds to God, especially to God’s instruction for him to “be strong and courageous.” Which Joshua gets told not just once, but three times, just so that he is very clear on God’s message, if only God would sometimes be as direct with us, and then to add to it God tells Joshua “do not be frightened or dismayed.” But then I really, really want to know how Joshua deals with the Israelites, because very quick recap, as they are wandering in the wilderness the people turn on Moses and tell him to take them back to Egypt. That they would be better off as slaves then to die in the desert. And then they have to end up traveling for 40 years because they refuse to trust that God will deliver the land to them, and so the first generation have to die off before the land is delivered. But, I can’t imagine that things had actually changed all that much.

I can imagine that the people now, because they’ve been wandering so long, are worried and scared about crossing over. They don’t want to settle down, they don’t want to cross the river because everything looks just fine where they are, why do they have to do anything any different? I can’t believe that there weren’t calls for committees to study it, and to take a vote, and who gets to vote is it just the leaders or should everyone have a say? And who elevated Joshua leader anyways? Why do we have to change, Joshua? Why can’t we just keep doing the same thing we’ve been doing for 40 years? Why can’t we just keep on keeping on? Everything seems to be fine as it is, and besides, we’re not strong, we’re not courageous, and quite honestly, we are frightened and dismayed. So, let’s just stay here. You cross over if you are so interested, but we’ll just stay right where we are and just keep on wandering. Or at least that’s what I imagine them saying if I was that fly on the wall to hear it.