Spiritual Makeover: Only the BEST Resources

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Believe it or not, I was a child who was on the receiving end of a good amount of discipline, if you've talked to my mother, I'm sure she’s mentioned it. Truth be told my claim to fame is throwing 3 hour temper tantrums, which was usually the result or cause of a good amount of discipline. The traditional timeouts, groundings, privileges being taken away and some more creative options such as cold showers and soap in the mouth. As a mother myself now, discipline is a tricky thing. We know it's necessary for all of us, but no one likes it and I don't know many people who feel like they do it well or without unintended harm. But like it or not we know that discipline makes us better people, we know that under the best circumstances it's done out of love and genuine concern for the other person in the long run. In the scripture for today Paul is telling the Hebrews that discipline is a part of life, they know it from their own lives, but he invites them to consider the hardships of life in a new way, not as something God is doing to punish them, but as a means of growing and becoming more like Christ.

Will you pray with me? God as we listen for your voice this morning, we pray that you open our hearts and our minds, that you help remove distractions and worries, that in this time you would teach us, comfort us, challenge us and give us your grace and peace. In Jesus name, Amen.

We're in the middle of a sermon series called Spiritual Makeover and we've been talking about this spiritual makeover and making a connection to the physical makeover that we hope to do with in the Friendship Room. A couple weeks ago we talked about the real goal of the Friendship Room makeover, which is to create a welcoming, inviting space for those not yet here. And so today I really want to be clear about the goal of our own spiritual makeovers.

Now when we think about what a spiritual makeover really is, we can think of lots of different things we can do differently: coming to church more, praying every day, being nicer to people we work with, giving more money to charity. All these kinds of things might be what a spiritual makeover might look like for you. But for our purposes today, as we try to understand this as a community, we really have to define the broader goal of a spiritual makeover.  And I'm here to tell you that this is nothing new, as Christians we are constantly in the process of a spiritual makeover with the goal being: be more like Christ! Seems pretty obvious right? If we were to be totally made over spiritually, we would be like Jesus.

Now I'm going to throw out a big word to make myself look smart, but my confirmation kids should know this one too. The word is sanctification. Sanctification is the fancy word for becoming holy, becoming more like Christ. John Wesley who's the founder of Methodism was a big fan of sanctification; he firmly believed that sanctification is God's plan for us, that sanctification is the way that God fulfills God's promises to us. And I think Wesley really understands sanctification in the very best way because he not only talks about it as a way to be holy or more like Christ, but the way for us to be whole, and I’d add it’s the way that we become fully human, the way God created us to be. Sanctification is the path to our holiness and our wholeness.

So, now that we have a pretty good idea of what we're trying to do with our own spiritual makeovers, how do we go about that? I'm betting you all could make a list of things you could do to be a better Christian, I thought about making a list this week for you all and frankly it was depressing so I didn't. It's depressing and overwhelming and not very encouraging, right? It’s like saying, “Here are all the ways you're failing at being a human being, congratulations, now fix it.” Now take comfort in the fact that we all could make a list like that, you're not alone. But God does not want to leave us there. Which is why God has given us resources, I want to talk about 3 of them today, the BEST resources for our spiritual makeover, the BEST resources for becoming more holy and whole. Now these resources come out of our tradition as Christians, these are things that those who have gone before us have practiced and trusted in their journey of faith.

As I've mentioned, I think John Wesley totally gets sanctification and one of the most helpful things that he emphasizes is the role of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the #1 best resource that God gives us to help us become more like Christ. The way that John Wesley talked about it is called sanctifying grace, the grace that God freely gives us that works in us to make us more like Christ. And this is the #1 resource because it's not about anything that we do. Remember that list we just talked about? It probably involved a bunch of things that you would have to DO something about. Get yourself out of bed and go to church more often, pray every day, give money to charity, say and do nice things to people at work. But sanctifying grace is not about you doing something to be more like Christ, it's about the Holy Spirit working in and through you so that your heart is more like Christ's. I'm here to tell you that you can force yourself to sit in a pew every Sunday or be nice to that person at work through clenched teeth, and I trust that through those God can work to change your heart, but it's still not about your actions. Your actions might be more Christ-like, but your heart won't be different, you won't be more whole. As Methodists we understand grace in 3 different ways, which is a whole other sermon series, but the definition I like to use for grace in these three ways is: “the Holy Spirit enabling us to believe, love and serve God.” The Holy Spirit enabling us to believe, love and serve God. The Holy Spirit does the work in us that enables us to be more like Christ, to trust God more and to take bigger risks. The Holy Spirit gives us the power, the strength, the heart to be more like Christ. One of my favorite things that I learned in seminary is the role of the Holy Spirit. So so many times I know people who are so concerned about how do we change people? How do we save people? (although I strongly dislike that terminology) How do we convince people that Jesus is the way? And what I learned that’s not my job. That’s not your job. THAT, my friend’s is the Holy Spirit’s job. Don’t go trying to do the Holy Spirit’s job. Our job is to love people, to care for people, to share our faith with people, to change our communities, SO THAT the Holy Spirit can do her job. The best resources we have as Christians to make ourselves over spiritually, or to be more like Christ, to be whole, is the Holy Spirit. We open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit, we invite the Holy Spirit into our hearts and lives and we tune ourselves in to what the Holy Spirit is doing around us.

But then of course, it’d be helpful to know how do we connect with the Holy Spirit? How do we best connect to what the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives and the lives of others and the life of our community? Well I’m glad you asked! This also could be an entire sermon series, but it’s worth getting the shortened version. The second best resource that we have for our spiritual makeover is the spiritual disciplines. Going back to the scripture for today, this isn’t the type of discipline that I think that Paul was talking about, but it has the same effect. These are ways that we grow in our faith, that we learn and practice how to be more like Christ and where we open ourselves up to what the Holy Spirit is doing. Towards the end of the passage, Paul says this about why all this discipline stuff: “in order that we might share in God’s holiness” and so that “no one fails to obtain the grace of God”. That’s the point of disciplines.  

So many of you are probably familiar with spiritual disciplines, these are those things that Christians who have gone before us have practice and come to believe that they work. Here’s a short list, there are plenty of others: prayer, meditation, fasting, study, simplicity, service, worship, Sabbath, spiritual friendship and I would add bearing hardships like the scripture talks about today. These are all things that we can actively do to become more like Christ and open ourselves up to the work of the Holy Spirit. While I don’t want you to forget that #1 resources, I want to be clear that there ARE things that you can DO and should do. But not for the sake of crossing them off your list or for impressing others, but for the sake of giving the Holy Spirit a chance to do her job.

The last couple of trimesters I’ve led a LifeGroup that tries different prayer practices. It’s not about becoming experts at any of them, or event liking all of them, but it is about trying new things, new ways to connect with God. And both times that I’ve led this group, every single week I’m honestly kind of surprised that God very clearly shows up, that people experience change and growth just because they’re opening themselves up to the possibility. The truth is that many of you probably have more spiritual practices than you realize. Fishing or running or gardening or cooking. These all can be spiritual disciplines when we use them to help open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit, not only so that we can be holy, but so that the Holy Spirit can bring healing and peace and direction so that we might be more whole. So I encourage you to find at least 1 spiritual discipline to practice. Try it for a month, see what happens, try another one. It is a dynamic process, one where we have to keep moving and growing and being changed.

And the last resource that I want to talk about is community, because we weren’t designed to do this alone. We’re a very individualistic society and so often we have this idea that our spirituality is really just between me and God, that we can become like Jesus on our own. The problem is that Jesus wasn’t on his own either. The Bible is based in community, it’s always been God’s people, not God’s individual persons. Jesus modeled the importance of community with the guys that he surrounded himself with, community is the way we do life together.

Community is important for us as Christians and as people who are undertaking a spiritual makeover because it tells us who we are, it helps us understand what we believe and why we believe it, it gives us a place to ask questions and express doubt, it provides care and comfort when life is inevitably difficult, it keeps us on the right track and it widens and deepens our understanding of God and the kingdom of God. We are more whole when we are in community. Just like the scripture that talks about the body of Christ like a human body, we are more complete when we are a part of a community, a body.

My prayer LifeGroup would have been a whole lot different if it had been a take-home course. If I had given out the instruction sheets to everyone and told them to go practice them, I imagine that maybe 2 of us would have actually done it. I wouldn’t have been one of them. But ask anyone in that group, the impact and the power of what God was already doing in our lives was amplified because we were doing it in community. Because we practiced together, because we shared our experiences, because we helped each other interpret and understand what God might be saying to us, because we prayed for each other. We needed each other, the experience would not have been the same if one of those people hadn’t been there.

We have LifeGroups at this church because we believe that community is important and that LifeGroups give us the opportunity to do life together. Not just Sunday morning, not just Bible studies, but running together, gardening together, even texting each other. These are all ways that God works through the Holy Spirit in and through and among us, to make us more holy and whole. Our summer LifeGroups are about to start so I again encourage you to find one, find a way to connect in a new way to this community and to God.

A spiritual makeover isn’t something that we undertake once, or only while we’re doing a sermon series on it. This is the journey of the followers of Jesus, so remember that God has already provided the best resources for you: the Holy Spirit, spiritual disciplines and community. But more than that, that God is in this with you and that God has been, is and will be in the process of making you more holy and more whole. Amen.

Pastor Jen Hibben

     

We Don't Build Alone

We don't Alone

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So I've been thinking a lot this week about what being a Christian community looks like, how it’s different than other kinds of community. I've been part of church my whole life, which is probably the Christian community we all claim, but I've also spent a considerable amount of time working at church camps, which if you've worked at one, you know it is most definitely a community as well. I started when I was 14 as a junior counselor and pretty much spent at least a week a summer, but usually more, working at camp until I finished college. And I was remembering this week a seminary student who camp to work at camp one summer because he wanted to be a part of an intentional Christian community. And that's pretty much code for some type of communal living situation, usually a lot like what we see talked about in our scripture for today. Now he's a really smart guy and he probably knew what he was getting into, but as I thought back on what I imagined that he experienced, I can't help but think that that community did NOT live up to his expectations of an intentional Christian community. As great as the people that we worked with are, we are all human and we really didn't look much like the community Luke is describing here in Acts. Now I have plenty of stories to back that up, but the miracle, if you will, is that regardless of our humanity, God still worked in and through us all to positively impact and changes the lives of children that summer.

Will you pray with me? God this morning we come to hear from you, we want to know what you have to say to us and to this community. Would you open our hearts and minds that we can hear you? Will you speak clearly to us? Will you show us how to build a community that makes a difference? Amen.

So our scripture for this morning comes from the book of Acts, which we believe was written by Luke, and tells us what happened after Jesus ascended into heaven, so sometimes we call it the Acts of the Apostles. So just to give you a bit of backstory here, right before the passage that we read today, the Holy Spirit came down, something we call Pentecost, a group of people in Jerusalem had a powerful experience of God, Peter preaches to them, tells them about Jesus and thousands of people respond. And as a result the BUILD a new type of community. And so what we're reading about today is what that Jerusalem Christian community looked like.

A lot of this doesn't seem like such a big deal right? We do a lot of these things: teaching, fellowship, praying, eating together, taking communion, these are built into the way that we operate as a community. I'd even argue that we too are doing signs and wonders in our community. Feeding the hungry through Meals from the Heartland, Child and Family Urban Movement and The Eddie Davis Center, by creating a safe place for children in our preschool programs and Children's ministries. Those are modern-day signs and wonders and they really help define what Christian community is about. But let's be honest this gets real tricky when we get to v. 44 and 45 when Luke starts talking about holding all things in common and selling possessions and distributing the proceeds. Because frankly what they’re doing is re-distributing wealth, generally we as humans are not big fans of that, especially if we are the ones with the wealth. If we were to advertise this type of community, I think many of us would buy in up to that point, it all sounds good until Jesus tells you to sell your stuff right? Truthfully I can help you out, I can offer you a few outs, a few ways around that being some type of requirement for a faithful Christian community.

But I want us to pretend, I was us to suspend our fears about what that would mean and consider why this community was like that and how things would look different if that type of community existed today. Just for the next 10-12 minutes, don't fight it. Actively try not to find a way out, not to discredit this, not to start listing the ways that this is impractical and just imagine what it might have been like. When we’re done today, you all have the option to go right back to the way things were before. Although I don’t think that’s why you’re here today.

First off we have to understand how this seemingly crazy concept of community came about. The reason I gave you a quick summary of the back story here is because I want to emphasize that all of this is a direct result of a powerful experience of God. This happened because this group, this community had a powerful experience of God. This is a response to experiencing God in a new and powerful way. Got that? OK. I don't believe that this group of people got together, sat down and analyzed the best way to form an authentic Christian community. I think as a result of this experience they were actively aware of their need for community and a new way of living as a community. They NEEDED a community in order to live faithfully, because they could not go back to their old way of living after having this experience of God.

And that experience shaped the values and the culture of this community. So the things we read about, the teaching, fellowship, praying, eating together, communion, the sharing, the selling of possessions, the redistribution of wealth, were the things that that community felt convicted to do. That experience of the Holy Spirit lead them to believe that this was how they should live together. If you've heard me preach before you know that I like to talk about the kingdom of God, and how we are supposed to be making the world around us look more and more like the kingdom of God. That’s exactly what I think these early Christians were doing. For them this set up of community was a huge step towards living out the kingdom of God, this community that they created looked more like the kingdom of God to them than the communities they had been a part of before.

          Can you imagine? Having an experience that changed you that much? Totally turning your life upside down? Feeling so strongly about something that you dive in head first into a new and totally countercultural way of life?

          Many of you know that we’re just starting this sermon series about spiritual makeover to go alongside the makeover we hope to do the friendship room. And no matter where you consider yourself on your spiritual journey, we could all use a little making over. So we look at this scripture today, and we have to wonder how this might affect our spiritual makeover, what might this tell us about our spiritual makeover. And I think one of the main things we can learn is that we don’t do this alone. Just like these early Christians, we don’t do this alone because it all starts with an experience of God. We don’t do any of this without God working in our lives. Now we’re probably not going to have the same experience as these early Christians in Jerusalem, in fact nobody else had that experience after them. Since that time, throughout the rest of the history we have in the Bible, we see that God began to work in less dramatic ways we could say. The truth is that just being here this morning is proof that God is working in your life. We try every Sunday to create an atmosphere where people can come and experience God, an environment where we’re safe to open ourselves up to whatever God would want to say or do in our hearts and lives. We can’t make that happen, we don’t create an experience of God, but we can be open to it. So what’s a meaningful, powerful experience of God that you’ve had. It doesn’t have to be a miracle, but it can be. It doesn’t have to be a dramatic emotional experience, but it can be. It doesn’t have to be a drastic turning point in your life, but it can be. It can also be a moment when you felt deeply loved, or when a piece of scripture felt so true to you, or when you realized that a lie you’d believed about yourself wasn’t true, or when a song really resonated with you, or it could be when you became a parent, when you realized that we don’t have all the answers and that maybe there’s something bigger than all of us at work. God works in lots and lots of ways. I wish that over the years I’d kept better track of those times in my life, that I had a book where I could look back and remind myself of all the ways that God has spoken to me. And I wish even more that I’d been more aware of all the times I missed those things too. One of the most memorable experiences for me was when I felt called into ministry and I know I’ve shared that story before, but in that moment I was just overwhelmed by the truth that God had a specific plan for me and that regardless of my faults and failures and serious doubts that God wanted to use me for good. I think that experience is so memorable because it was one of the first times that I could say, without a doubt that God was speaking to me. Because Lord knows I would not have concocted that plan for myself. We see today that that’s where the beginning of the church started, with a clear experience of God, not alone.

          One of the major dangers of Christianity is that we have these experiences of God and we think that’s the goal. That having an experience of God is the point of being a Christian. But it’s not. Those experiences of God, while they may make us feel great, while they may have value in and of themselves are meant to launch us into action. We are supposed to DO something about those experiences. Sometimes it’s specific things like, become a pastor, or stop a destructive behavior, or call up a friend or family member. But sometimes it’s not. Sometimes, and I think most of the time, what we’re supposed to do, what we want to do, is to help others experience God. Experience God’s love, experience God’s grace, experience God’s acceptance, experience God’s forgiveness, experience God’s healing. We want people to experience those things because we know what that’s like. We come together as the church to create an atmosphere where people can have those types of experiences. We pray for each other so that more people might have those experiences, we teach so that more people might have those experiences, we share Holy Communion so that more people might have those experiences, we spend time together so that more people might have those experiences, and friends we share our resources so that more people might have those experiences. That’s what we read about in this chapter of Acts, a group of people who had an experience of God and who shaped their community around that experience and those who were not yet there. And the last verse we read today says: “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved” More people did have an experience of God and this community grew.

          Now if you’ve been a part of this church for a while, this story should sound familiar. People having an experience of God, coming together as a community to build something incredible for those who had not yet come. That’s us, that is what we’re celebrating, remembering and claiming as we renovate the friendship room. That over 60 years ago, a community of faith that had an experience of God came together, for teaching and prayer and fellowship and eating together, but they were also convicted to share their resources, to put them together and to build not only a building, but a community for those who had not yet come, space and community to have a life-changing experience of God. If you haven’t heard the story before, the way I understand it is that West Des Moines United Methodist Church had outgrown its current building in Valley Junction and so the congregation had gotten together to talk about what to do next and how they would raise the money for a new and bigger building. And I think one of the best parts of the story as it’s been told to me is that Peg Lavere stood up, told the pastor to sit down and shut up, and went on to tell the congregation just how they were going to build this community, this building. The next day the pastor got a call from the bank wondering why all of his members were there taking out loans. Their experience of God, their desire for others to experience God and their strength as a community of faith prompted them to do something incredible. And this year we celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the day that members of that congregation walked from one church in Valley Junction, to where we are today. And you know what day by day, month by month and year by year the Lord has added to their number those who have been saved.

                                     

          This is our legacy, church, this is a part of our DNA. But those who have gone before us didn’t do it alone and we don’t either. We know that God is the originator of all of this, that this all starts with our experience of God, as individuals and as a community, God builds with us. And as a community, we know that we don’t do any of this in isolation. I’d dare to say that our community is not just those who are members today, those who are sitting here today or any Sunday, but that we are also accompanied by a great cloud of witnesses, those who have gone before us, and those who have not yet come. The most important thing about this makeover of the Friendship Room is that it is creating a space for those who have not yet come. A welcoming space, a safe space, a space where we give God free-reign. We are undertaking the renovation of the Friendship Room so that others might have a powerful experience of God. God has moved in our hearts and lives so that we can impact the lives of others. We don’t walk on this spiritual journey alone, friends. We don’t undertake our spiritual makeover alone. We don’t undertake this project alone. We don’t build alone, friends. We do all this with the companionship of each other, those who are with us now and those who have gone before, but more importantly with the companionship of God. Amen. 
Pastor Jen
(c) Jen Hibben 2014

An Easter Prayer

Risen Lord, we come today to celebrate

to lift up our praises for what you did for us,
for the love that you've shown us and for the hope that it gives us for the future.

God we might not all feel like celebrating this morning,
we might not all be to that resurrection in our own lives, 
but regardless, we join together today because we believe. 
We believe that you lived, you suffered and died and that your rose again and that your story, the story of resurrection and redemption and restoration will be our story too.

This morning as we stand in awe of the ways that you redeem us, we remember the journey that we took to get here. 
We remember how you came to us, 
you came and you were like us, 
you met us where we were, 
on our own terms. 
You lived and walked among us and taught us about God's desire for this world, 
what it looks like for God to be among us, 
how things would be different.
We remember our excitement just last Sunday that you were with us, Hosanna!
that God did indeed have a plan to save us. 
We remember the confusion, the sin that separated us from you on Good Friday, 
the hopelessness and shame and heaviness that we felt in that day. 
The waiting, the suspense the uncertainty of Saturday, 
the fear that maybe, just maybe you had abandoned us.
All of that, all of those parts of your story that we live out in our lives too, 
all of that to find ourselves here in this place today.
God we fall before you with relief, with joy that Friday was not the end, that Saturday didn't last too long and that all along, your plans was better than we could have imagined. 
We bask in the light of Jesus resurrected, 
we bask in the hope that evil, that sin, that pain and death do not have the last word, 
that there is more for us. 
Thank you God, thank you for this time to remember all of those things, to open ourselves up once again to the mystery and the power and the awe of Easter.

We claim this story this morning, 
we say that yes, we believe, evil does not have the last word. 
We claim that promise for us here today, we claim it for those in our lives who are experiencing suffering, pain, addiction, loneliness, hopelessness, death. 
We pray for all those who need to know that those things are not the end, 
we pray that you send your Holy Spirit to remind them of that today, that they would feel your presence and know that this is true.

We pray for our church, for our community that we will remember that we are an Easter people, that evil does not win here and that we are a part of your redemption. 
Show us the way to be your church, 
a church that lives in hope,
 that gives others hope, 
that makes the world around us look more like your kingdom. 
God we want others to know that joy of Easter too, we want to be part of the work that you're doing in and through and around us.

This morning God we know that you meet us where we are, 
whether we're still on Friday or fully present to your resurrection today. 
Meet us where we are God and continue to guide us, 
to be a part of our story,
 to weave the resurrection through our lives.
 And as we claim your promises of hope and new life and resurrection we remember those disciples that went before us, 
the ones that got to ask Jesus face to face, "how are we supposed to pray?" So we join together as God's family in that prayer saying:

Our Father
Who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom 
And the power
And the glory forever
Amen. 

Pastor Jen Hibben

Good Friday Stations of the Cross

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​The name “Good Friday” really seems like a misnomer, the name doesn’t match what it is. Because on Good Friday we come together as a community to remember Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion, suffering, death and burial. The purpose of Holy Week is to experience the story of Jesus; about putting ourselves in the place of his disciples, of the people in Jerusalem, the people who witnessed the end of his life. The Journey of Holy week is a journey of preparing ourselves for Easter, of remembering Jesus’ final days, of feeling the joy, the pain, the suffering, that knot in the pit of our stomachs, those things that we imagine those who were there might have felt.Notusually things we associate with the word “good”. But I’m here to tell you today that this is good news for us, that Good Friday is good because it makes Easter Sunday possible. That through Jesus’ death, God set in motion all that we would ever need for our sins to be forgiven and for our relationship with God to be restored. But we’re all aware that we still sin, that we’re still in need of God’s forgiveness so tonight we’re going to take our sin on a journey to the cross. Tonight I want to invite you to think of something in your life that’s separating you from God, because that’s what sin is, it’s something that separates us from God. That thing could be a habit or a behavior or an attitude that keeps distance between you and God, it could be a hurt or a fear or a distrust of God, it might be just plain not knowing what’s between you and God. You’ll find in your bulletin a piece of paper; we want you to take a moment to write down that thing that’s separating you from God right now. Write it down and fold it up, this is for you and God we’re not sharing these. I want you to hold that thing, that sin in your hand as we take this walk together tonight.

This walk we’re taking is traditionally called the stations of the cross of the via dolorosa which means “the painful way.” Christians throughout history have taken time to stop at these 14 stations to remember these parts of Jesus’ story, to give them a chance to feel what it might have been like, to prepare themselves for Easter. Tonight we’ll be projecting on the screen artistic representations of each of the stations, take your sin to each of these stations tonight, spend a moment reflection on the image and responding to Jesus.

(Please click on the individual pictures for source information)

Mount of Olives (Luke 22):  “When he reached the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.” Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.”"

Jesus betrayed by Judas (Luke 22): While he was still speaking, suddenly a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him; but Jesus said to him, “Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?”

Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin (Luke 22:66-71): All of them asked, “Are you, then, the Son of God?” He said to them, “You say that I am.” Then they said, “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips!”

Peter denies Jesus (Luke 22:54-62): Then a servant-girl, seeing him in the firelight, stared at him and said, “This man also was with him.” But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” A little later someone else, on seeing him, said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not!” Then about an hour later still another kept insisting, “Surely this man also was with him; for he is a Galilean.” But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about!”

Jesus judged by Pilate (Luke 23:13-15): Then they all shouted out together, “Away with this fellow! Release Barabbas for us!” (This was a man who had been put in prison for an insurrection that had taken place in the city, and for murder.) Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again; but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” A third time he said to them, “Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him.” But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed. So Pilate gave his verdict that their demand should be granted.

Jesus crowned with thorns (Luke 22:63-65): And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face.

Jesus takes up the cross (Mark 15:20): After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus (Luke 23:26): As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus.

Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem (Luke 23: 27-31): A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are surely coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ 

Jesus is crucified (Luke 23:33-4; 47): When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing.

Jesus promises his kingdom to the good thief (Luke 23:39-43): One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”  But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?  And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.”  Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Jesus on the cross, his mother and his disciple (John 19:25-27): When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.”  Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

Jesus dies on the cross (Luke 23:44-47): It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon,  while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two.  Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last.

Jesus in placed in the tomb (Luke 23:50-54, Mark 16:1-4): Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph…He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God.  This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning.

Friends, Jesus went on this journey for our sins, for that very sin that you wrote down, so that you don’t have to live with it anymore. During this time, you’re invited to come forward with that piece of paper and nail it to the cross, and leave it there. You’re welcome to spend some time at the kneelers if you’d like and I’ll be available over here to anoint you as you leave, but only if you want. In the United Methodist Church we believe that anointing is an act of invoking God’s healing love, it’s an act of asking for God’s love to make us whole: body, mind and spirit. This is an outward sign of a spiritual grace through Christ.

Pastor Jen

(c) Jen Hibben 2014

Mary and Martha

Listen to the full sermon here:

Well I don't know about you, but I've had a very Martha-y week. I started the week with leftover to-dos from last week, a full schedule and as you can see, I'm preaching this week. And you all know what happens when you have that kind of week don't you? Meetings get changed, you realize you have meetings you forgot about, people come visit, people want to chat, nothing gets done, you kid doesn't sleep and somehow the sermon you typed up gets deleted, twice. Now I'm not complaining per se, let’s just say that it was a very to-do heavy week, and I wasn’t getting stuff done. By Friday I realized that I was embodying Martha in this story, I was distracted, anxious, pulled in a bunch of different directions. That’s not to say that the things I had to do weren’t important, that they were part of living out God’s call for my life, that they weren’t good things to be doing, they just got me all worked up. And let me tell you friends that it took me until Friday to finally hear Jesus' words. Friday! I've been working on this sermon since Monday at least! All the time I was trying to prepare this sermon, reading about these two sisters, one who was so busy and distracted, and I continued to let myself do what Martha did, to continue to let those to dos become really important things and then even drag me away from the most important things. Let me tell you I was literally near tears when I lost my sermon for the second time on Friday, but I also really got the sense that God was still trying to get my attention, very dramatically I might add and I didn’t exactly appreciate it. And let me tell you I can empathize with Martha today, because unfortunately I didn’t find away to let it go, I typed this sermon 3 times instead of taking a big step back and listening to what God was saying. So I’m up here today to talk to you about this from the position of someone who didn’t get it right this week. Who knows very well how Martha must have felt and who despite this week and despite my failures, still heard God speaking. 

Now I'm sure many of you are familiar with the story from the scripture today. So just a quick show of hands, there's no right answer here, if you had to choose, how many of you would say you're more of a Martha? How many would say you're more of a Mary? Like I said, no right answer here. Unfortunately I think the church has encouraged us to pick sides here, to value Mary over Martha, to take what Jesus said as universally applicable.  I was stuck in that rut this week, I think I made things worse by beating myself up for not being more Mary. That's a no-win and that's not what Jesus wants us to do, I don’t think that mentality empowers us to be true disciples.

So one of the things I do every time I preach is comb through the scripture in hopes of finding something interesting, so I think it’s of value for us to go back over what’s happening in the scripture lesson for today. Jesus and his disciples show up and Mary and Martha's place on their way to Jerusalem, obviously no phone ahead here, this was probably a little unexpected. And when they show up, the text says that Martha welcomed them into her home to them, other translations say that she opened her home to them or welcomed them as guests; she made them feel at home. She’s doing the hospitality thing, which was an extremely important part of this culture. So Martha is busying herself making these 13 people feel at home she was doing exactly what she was supposed to be doing and we can't forget that Jesus was her guest, he's basically the most important house guest ever. So she's doing what a host should do and at some point realizes she's doing it by herself, her sister isn't doing her share, in fact, Mary is sitting on the floor listening to Jesus. Now we need to take a brief pause to give Mary a high five because she took the position reserved for men during that time, for her to sit on the floor wasn't just making her sister mad, it was challenging the gender hierarchy of the time. Many scholars would argue that the important thing that Mary did was challenge the status quo for women and made more room for women at Jesus' feet. But that's lost on Martha, she is really upset that her sister has left all the work to her and that no one seems to care. Really, I think she’s jealous, she wishes she could be right there too, but she’s doing her darndest to take care of her guests. So while she was doing a great job as the hostess, she kind of loses her cool her and asks Jesus to intervene, not really a good hostess move. I can imagine that she’s been seething in the kitchen, cursing her sister under her breath until she can’t take it any more! She says to Jesus: "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work?" and if that wasn’t enough then she tries to tell Jesus what to do: "Tell her to help me!" Can you sense her frustration, her anger, the sense of injustice? I'm not sure I blame her really. But I'm guessing she wasn't anticipating Jesus' answer to her: "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her." Jesus calls her out, he corrects her, he tells her she's wrong, probably not what she was looking for, not the justice she was hoping for. 

So often though we get to the end of the story and we conclude Mary is right, Martha is wrong, we should be like Mary, we should try not to be like Martha. But I'm not convinced that’s the point of the story. I don't think it's that black and white. I'm afraid that if we end with that conclusion we either feel smug because we're "right" like Mary or we feel like we're never good enough because we're like Martha. The truth is that if we praise Mary too much, she'll never get up off the floor and if we criticize Martha too much, she'll just quit serving; I don't think that's what God wants to say to us this morning. 

And I'll tell you why. One of the most interesting things I read this week about this passage is that we really shouldn't read it without connecting it to the story before it. Anyone know what story is right before this one? The story of the Good Samaritan. If you think back about that story Jesus is helping a young lawyer understand how to live the life that God wants us to live, and uses the story of the Good Samaritan. If we look back at that story, there is nothing about sitting at Jesus' feet. This is not a story about being contemplative. The words Jesus uses are action words, take care of him, go, do! So when we consider that these two stories are placed together, we can see that both of these are required for us, that Jesus says that the most important things are to love God and to love others, to spend time in devotion AND action. With Mary and Martha, we see Mary, loving God, and Martha, loving others; Mary in a time of devotion and Martha in a time of action. Now the problem here isn’t the fact that Martha is doing things, it’s the focus of her heart, she’s distracted and worried and pulled in too many directions. That’s why Jesus does say that one thing is needful, but he doesn't say that the one needful thing is sitting at his feet. He says that Mary has chosen the better part, not the only part, not the better thing, the better part. Jesus calls us to more than sitting on our rears. I wonder if what's needful is different at different parts of our day, different parts of our week, even different parts of our life. Ecclessiates 3 says: "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven" A time for prayer and a time for serving, a time for meditating and a time for marching, a time for resting and a time for wearing ourselves out. Our lives are not so one dimensional that we can say clearly that there is only important thing, God didn't create us that way. So I think what the real question is this week, what God is asking us through this story is "what is the one needful thing in your life right now? Can you hear me calling you to get off your rear, or stop doing things and sit down with me?" Are you doing good things, but you’re distracted and worried? Are you spending lots of time with me, but failing to hear my call to DO something about it? There are times in our life when what is needful is sitting down with Jesus and there are times in our lives when we need to take action, we need to put into action the teachings of Jesus. 

You know this Sunday is UMW Sunday and when I chose this scripture for this Sunday, I was reminded of how the United Methodist Women's organization embodies this lesson. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the UMW organization, but one thing that they do is meet in circles, or small groups, where they study together, they share with each other, the eat together, the grow closer to each other and to God. But they don't just sit around in circles, that time in those circles empowers them to go out and take action. You might be familiar with the Annual Cookie Festival where they bake a ton of cookies and sell them to raise money for the mission and ministries of this church, and organizations in our community. They support and share the values and mission of the United Methodist Women organization as well, UMW promotes the empowerment of women, children and youth, anti-racism and multiculturalism,  inclusion and equity, fair labor practices, economic and environmental stewardship and sustainability. They’re not just sitting around, they take action to make our world look more like the kingdom of God, they fight for the needs of those less fortunate locally and around the world. They encourage all of us to think about what's needful in our lives, in our community and around the world, to spend time with God, to be connected to God's purposes and to do something about it. So today I encourage you to take some time, figure out where you might be right now, is the one needful thing right now for you sitting at Jesus’ feet? If so we have LifeGroups that are meeting to study both the Bible and other topics, we have a 24 hour prayer chapel that you can access from the parking lot, we have ways to help you be Mary. But maybe you’ve got that stuff down, maybe you’ve been spending lots of time just soaking up Jesus’ presence. That’s great, but what’s he telling you to do? We have plenty of ways that you can put into action your faith, by helping with things here at the church, by getting involved with mission projects here as easy as buying plants, and there are plenty of local organizations that would love for you to live out your faith in service. Today the good news is that God is calling us to do both these things, to love God and to love others, to worship God and to serve others. Amen. 

Rethink Lent: What Are the Needs of Our Community?

This year Rethink Church has put together this guide for Lent. There are so many things that we could do for Lent and this one is a great option for those social media lovers out there. I talked about some other thoughts in my Pathways article this month, and honestly hadn't planned on participating in this one this Lent. 

But on my home from our Ash Wednesday service last night I was shocked to realized that I remembered what the question was for this first week of Rethink church's guide. And as I pulled my baby out of his carseat, with ashes on his adorable little forehead I started to think about repentance. If you didn't or don't participate in Ash Wednesdays services, a concise summary might be: repent. That symbol of ashes on our foreheads, on my 1 year old's forehead, are a symbol of repentance. Throughout the Bible Jews and Christians alike have used the outward symbol of ashes to represent the inward repentance. Ash Wednesday is the start of the Lenten journey, the beginning of getting our hearts and minds ready for one of the most significant days in the Christian tradition. These thoughts aren't what I'd call "fully formed" so this is really up for discussion, but man, I really felt pulled to this today. 

Someone commented to me that they felt depressed after the service last night, that it wasn't uplifting. To which I replied that Ash Wednesday isn't really a "feel-good" service. But it's necessary.  I guess feeling crappy on Ash Wednesday is kind of necessary in way. 

So what is a basic need of our community? Repentance, I guess. But no, that doesn't quite feel right and I realize it's because the kind of repentance that God talks about has been hijacked. I started to wonder why there's a resistance to repent, why it's so hard for me to repent of some things. I can definitely repent for eating an extra cupcake, or even for being more sassy than I'd like to my husband. But what about these things we really NEED to repent for in order to move forward, for us to be closer to God on Easter than we were on Ash Wednesday? You know, like, manipulating others (and God) for your own purposes, or hoarding resources, or believing and acting like you know better than God or conspiring to do harm to any part of God's creation. You know, those bigger ones. The ones that would really rock our worlds and set us on a completely different Lenten journey than we've been on before. What's holding us back, when what we really need is repentance?

My guess is shame. I learned a few years ago that guilt needs forgiveness, but shame needs healing. guilt:forgiveness. shame:healing. No doubt that there is and should be some guilt that goes with repentance, that's how we know we need to repent, right. But does shame have to be a part of this? Can we liberate repentance from shame? I think that's key for me because I get the sense that the reason that we don't repent of the big things, the things we NEED to repent for, is because we'd feel ashamed. That by admitting that we need to repent of our selfishness/anger/fear/fill-in-the-blank means admitting that we don't have it all together, that we may have a character flaw or two and that maybe our actions and motives haven't been lining up with God's (despite what we've told ourselves). And with that goes not guilt, but shame. Shame that deep down we might terrible people, that deep down we're fakes, that deep down we wouldn't be loved or accepted. See how those things might need some healing, not just forgiveness?

But God calls us to repent to set us free, not to shame us. God calls us to repent because it's part of the journey toward wholeness and life to the fullest. God calls us to repent on Ash Wednesday because God loves us. The basic need is repentance free of shame, the basic need is a way to move towards God, the basic need is freedom from those big things that taint our lives. 

What's your big thing? Can you imagine what it would be like to repent for it? Can you imagine doing that without shame, without the judgments? Can you see the path forward without it in the way? Beautiful, huh? 

praying for peace and wholeness this Lent,

Pastor Jen

(c) Jen Hibben 2014

Bright and Salty: A Bacon Sermon

Read today's scripture

Who loves bacon? It's very trendy to love bacon right now, most of you are probably aware of this because of things like BaconFest and the overabundance of bacon-studded options at grocery stores and restaurants. 

And do you know why bacon is so popular? Because it's delicious. Now I realize I might be alienating the vegetarians right now, but I'm not really sure what the bacon-equivalent is for vegetarians, so bear with me. Bacon is delicious, and so this week I was researching what it takes to make bacon. I'm one of those people that always wonders how I can make something that we're used to buying better or cheaper. So it turns out that bacon isn't that difficult to make. You start with a pork belly. A pork belly, the stomach of a pig. Now I know this is also trendy in foodie circles, but I am not going to eat pork belly by itself, that is not appealing to me at all. There are no redeeming qualities about pork belly except that it makes bacon. And do you know what makes pork belly bacon?  Salt. 4 cups of salt for about 4 pounds of pork belly. That’s a lot of salt. But you know what? Salt makes things taste better. Salt makes things better.

          Our scripture for the day is the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which sometimes we call it the beatitudes.  A few months ago we talked about this because the first part of this sermon talks about those who are blessed and Jesus says over and over, blessed are… so Jesus has just finished turning our idea of what being blessed means upside down and then goes on to this bit about salt and light that we read today.  

We probably don’t think too much about the importance of salt in our day to day lives, but in Jesus’ time, salt was essential. It wasn’t just a seasoning, it was used as a purifier, a disinfectant, a preservative, part of religious sacrifices, and even a symbol of friendship. We now know that salt is absolutely essential for the human body to function, even on the cellular level. Now they may not have known that at the time that Jesus was giving this sermon, but they did know that salt was really important. Just like with bacon, salt makes things better; in Jesus’ time it purified things, it disinfected things, it preserved things. Obviously this is symbolic so I like the way that the Message puts it: “You’re here to besalt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.” The God-flavors, the good, the pure, the clean, the righteous, the peaceful, the hopeful, the redemptive flavors of the world. We are here to make things taste better; to make things around us better.

Now Jesus also says we are the light of the world. And some of the same can be said for light. Light was also essential in Jesus’ time as well. When it was night in Jesus’ time, it was DARK, really dark. Can’t see your hand in front of your face dark. Light was necessary for people to be able to function after sundown. It also had strong religious connotations. What was the first thing that God created in Genesis? Light, God created the light first. Light is always connected symbolically to God, representing goodness and truth and hope. The message has a good way of saying this too: “You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.” The God colors, illuminating the work that God is doing in and through and among us. Highlighting the good news that God is alive and active in our world.

Now I really like the Message’s paraphrase of these verses, because I think it awakens our imagination to what it means to be salt and light in the world. We’re supposed to be salt: making things better, and light: highlighting God’s work here. But there’s a problem with this translation, with the way this is paraphrased, and I think I’ve made the same mistake every time I’ve read these verses too. The Message says: “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth… Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.” I always got the sense that this was a command, Jesus saying, “hey, you’re supposed to be salt and light!” You should be doing this, you should be doing that. But when I took a look at some of the other translations, and did some more research, I found out that this isn’t a command. The way that Matthew wrote this has no hints of command, this is actually a blessing, Jesus is giving those who heard him, and us today, a blessing.

Have you ever heard the term “self-fulfilling prophecy”? The idea is that if you tell a child, or an adult for that matter, that he or she is good or bad or naughty or smart or any number of things, regardless of whether that label is true, if we hear it enough, we live into it. We become what we’re called. We become what we’re called, whether it’s true to begin with or not. And that’s what Jesus is doing here with us. He’s not saying, you better be salt and light, or you’re supposed to be salt and light, or “good Jews” or “good Christians” are salt and light. He says YOU ARE the salt of the earth, YOU ARE the light of the world. You already are, it is a part of who you are so live it out, don’t be shy! Friends, this isn’t a command, Jesus is not giving us directions, he’s giving us a blessing, an affirmation, he is commissioning us to live into our identities as Christians, to make the world a better, brighter place. The good news is that this is not another expectation or list of rules, this is confirmation that we already have what we need, that it’s a part of who we are, it’s built into our DNA we just have to live it out.

Now I hear some of you saying, to yourself of course “but Jen, you don’t know me, the ways that I’ve hurt people, the ways I’ve hurt myself, the messes I’ve gotten into. I’m not really good, I’m not the salt and light Jesus is talking about. Best case scenario, I just keep myself out of trouble.” Point taken, I think the things that we do and that are done to us work against the truth that we are good. But do you think Jesus thought he was talking to a bunch of saints? Do you think God doesn’t know what you’ve gone through and what you’ve done? God knows us better than we know ourselves, Jesus wasn’t fooled by pretenses or big shows of piety, Jesus came for the outcast, the marginalized, the downtrodden, those who are not perfect. And still he says, “You ARE the salt of the earth, you ARE the light of the world, now live like it!”

But this salt and light bit isn’t the end of our scripture today either, and I think now that we understand this first part, maybe in a new way, now that we know that this is an affirmation not a command, we can read this second part in a new light as well. This is the part where Jesus is saying that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Part of this is a reaction to those who were saying that Jesus wasn’t respecting or following the law, and teaching others not to follow it either. And while I’d be one of the first people to claim that Jesus was not into legalism and rule-following as the key to the kingdom of God, he’s very clear that he’s not opposed to it and he’s not here to make it go away. He came so that we would understand the law better, that we might see what the law looks like when it’s not distorted by legalism and competition and one-upmanship.  Just like Jesus reinterpreted our understanding of being blessed in the first part of this sermon, just like Jesus helps us reinterpret how we understand ourselves as salt and light, Jesus helps us reinterpret the law. God didn’t create laws that were flawed and God didn’t create the laws so that people could be legalistic about it. God gave the law to the people of that time to help them know what it would be like to live in the kingdom of God. God gave the law to God’s people so they would have some guidelines, some sense of how God would want things to be. Like with most things though, we’ve gone and messed up the original intent with our sin. Jesus came not to abolish the law, not to declare it null and void, but to fulfill it, to reclaim it.

          And I couldn’t help struggle a little bit with putting these two parts of scripture together at first. Jesus is giving this blessing and affirmation and then seems to throw in this “And hey, don’t let people say I’m trying to mess with the law because I’m not, don’t forget the law!” It seems kind of defensive to me at first. But as I began to think about some of the questions we have, some of those voices that come into play when we hear Jesus of all people telling us that we already are salt and light, that making things better and shining light on God’s work is a part of who we, I realize that maybe Jesus isn’t leaving us hanging. That like God, Jesus offers us some more guidance a clue to figuring out how to be more salty and bright. While we might doubt Jesus’ blessing and affirmation to us, while we might want to leave salt and light as nice symbols that don’t require much of us, Jesus’ clue to us is to look to the law. If you’re not sure what being salt and light looks like, look to the law. Not the law that the Pharisees and concocted or interpreted, but the real laws that God has given us, the keys to the kingdom of God. If you’re wondering what it really means to bring out the God-flavors and the God-colors in the world, look to the law, but look at it through my eyes. And we know how Jesus understood the law, we find later on in Matthew chapter 22 where a Pharisee, a so-called expert in the law, asks him which is the greatest commandment. And do you know what he says? He says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the greatest and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. The law is summed up this way: love God and love others. You are salt and light when you love God and love others. It is a part of who you are, it’s in your DNA. You are salt and light, and you know what salt and light do? Love, love God and love others.

No matter what drama we’re going through, no matter the challenges we have, we here at West Des Moines UMC are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We do make the world a better place and we do shine light on the ways that God is working in the world; we do love God and we love others. Just last week we had the Costa Rica Mission team leading us in worship, reflecting on ways that they worked with God to make the world a better place and the places where they saw God working for good in the world. If you remember at Christmas time, LifeTree Café attendees had the opportunity to make stars out of dollar bills, with the intent to give them to someone who was working on Christmas. And on Christmas day, Paul Gesell was at Caseys a gave one of those stars to a woman who was working. She was so appreciative; she hunted down our facebook page to thanks us. We have the prayer shawl ministry LifeGroup, that makes hospital and hospice rooms a little brighter with the reminder that person is loved and cared for. The money that we all collectively gave to Habitat for Humanity both here and in El Salvador so that other lives and communities might be better. The people who cook meals here every Wednesday so that we can come together and share a meal as a community so that we can shine a light of the ways God is working around us. There are so many more examples, I know that each of you could name one. All of you who give of your time and money and talents so that this faith community can make the world a better place and so we can continue to point out and shine a light on the fact that God is alive and that God is at work in and through and among us. All of you who love God and love others, we are already the salt of the earth, we are already the light of the world. Our call now is to live that out more deeply, more passionately, more tangibly wherever we are and where ever we go. Amen.

You are the salt of the earth; You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Go into the world now and be salt and light, be the church. Amen. 

(c) Pastor Jen Hibben