You don’t need a weatherman

Sermon 8/18

Ready to sing

I take the time to drop every slowly through the town of Oakdale. Past The Diner, truly classic, with its Twist and Shake ice cream counter we’d stop by after summer music nights. I stop at Sils to get a coffee and a news paper. Where the owner greeted me with a shot of vodka New Year’s Day 1995. Whose original owner legend has it, face down the  ku klux klan and cooked a potato on the burning cross. And what used to be the other Presbyterian church, now called the Rock  and part of the post division community left in the wake of fall out from the pcusa’s move to embrace full lgbtq inclusion. I arrive at church. Terry the organist has been here since she was a teenager. Dan and I rehearse our two songs. We’re ready for church to begin....

After the gospel is read, Dan and I sing the old spiritual, We shall not be moved...and we’re ready for reflection....

gospel Luke 12:49-56

49"I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

54He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, 'It is going to rain'; and so it happens. 55And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat'; and it happens. 56You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

It’s good to be back here again. A lot has happened since the last time I was here last August. Perhaps the biggest is that I am a grandfather for a second time! Just back from visiting my grandson Roko and granddaughter Karla in Berlin. Can I say grandchildren give you perspective? Help keep you grounded? And I understand what Jesus meant when he talked about coming to the kin(g)dom as a child. And I’m not over romanticizing children. But the way they look at the world, with intensity, with awe...maybe that’s what we need to see the kin(g)dom.

I’ll say this: it’s not easy following Jesus. We have to struggle with what he says. Like today...fire? Not peace, but division? 3 vs 2? Parents vschildren? What’s going on? It’s hard for a peace and reconciliation Christian like me to figure out. 

We are the most divided, as a nation, now as I can remember in my lifetime....(worse than the early  Vietnam years maybe? Not sure..)When my clergy  colleagues get together, we spend a lot of time trying to figure out what to do about this. We talked about how the ordination; of lgbtq people had passed at the ga level and been defeated at least twice at the presbytery...local..level. The last time it passed at ga, the supporters said, this time we won’t debate...we will pledge ourselves to having 1000 conversations. And it passed by a 2-1 margin. Once you stop a binary debate, there’s room to discover what we really share. 

We need to find those places to meet,. BUT here’s the rub.....sometimes things ARE either /or. Our friends in the German confessing church made it clear...Jesus or Hitler.

I read an interesting  articles last week about our Presbyterian church and slavery. One of our leading journals, The Presbyterian Outlook, for years sought to find a “middle ground”....between hard core slavers and “radical abolitionists”.   Argued that the slave owner only owned the labor and had the responsibility to respond to thec slaves physical and spiritual needs. A kinder gentler, slavery you might say. When the moment finally came the middle road folks sided with slavery and our Presbyterian church church divided and stayed divided for over 100 years. 

There’s this tension between “common ground” and “which side are you on” as the old union hymn put it. I don’t have to remind your own painful history here in Oakdale. 

Evangelicals like James Dobson see our President as chosen by God. Jim Baker says of he’s not re-elected we will descend Into 

to spiritual darkness. And Christians will be murdered. 

We’ve got a guy who will drive 10 hours and start shooting- 9 dead in 9 seconds- because  he believes we’re undergoing an invasion by Mexicans. 

And Christians in my pew think we’re in apocalyptic times as well.

It’s very hard. I mean just watching the Pirates lose 20 out of 26 is apocalyptic enough for me!

Jesus final question quote is pretty much Bob Dylan....you don’t need a weather man to know which way the wind blows...

So the question becomes, how do we know what to do? 

Here’s a few ideas.....

One ...read your bible....pick a gospel....read it all the way through....the Bible is stories, not random quotes and edicts. Don’t jump around looking for random quotes to  connect. Shakespeare said even the devil can quote scripture for his purpose. Allow the Bible to speak to you on its  own terms. 

Two...get to know Jesus an really get to know him. Read all his stories where he interacts with people, tells stories. Watch for patterns. Enter into his spirit. Walk down the road with him. Talk to him. It might sound corny, but WWJD is the bottom line. 

Meet with others. Study with others. Pray with others. Sing with others. Eat with others. Christianity is not about just you alone. It’s a team sport. It’s about being together the body of Christ. 

And even then.....you may have to make a decision that breaks a relationship.. it with your eyes on the prize, you will walk on and he will be beside you.

Let those with ears to hear, hear....

Amen

Dan and I sing my Rest Awhile before I deliver the Benediction. No time to linger today...work on m to family home awaits along the road...