July 31st

The Power of Choice

1 Samuel 11:1-15



When was the last time you had one of those, “What was I thinking?” moments. You know the ones, right? You find a poor, helpless starving kitten in your yard, sweltering in the hot, Texas sun. Telling yourself that the situation is temporary, you take the little darling in to nurse it back to health. It is now several years later, the cat weighs about 20 pounds, and has you wrapped around its now-chubby paws.

What were you thinking?

And what about those home decorating and fix-it projects? After overdosing on HGTV remodeling programs, some of us run out to our nearest home improvement store convinced that we, too, can “redesign on a dime.” We buy the materials, and print out the project instructions from HGTV’s website. Then, several hours later, we step back, look at the mess we’ve made, and say to ourselves…

“What was I thinking?”

Now what I have just done, of course, is share some examples of the power of choice in our lives. We can choose to adopt stray kittens or take them to a no-kill—repeat no-kill—shelter. We can choose to do our own home design projects, or pay someone else to do them. But whatever choices we make, there are consequences that accompany each choice. Now some of those consequences can be good, some neutral or pretty harmless, and some consequences can be quite long-reaching and destructive to our lives.

No one knew more about the power of choice and its consequences than King David, a man the Bible calls, “a man after God’s own heart.” Now many of us here are probably pretty familiar with the story of David. David was the youngest son of Jesse, the shepherd boy who was secretly anointed by Samuel to be the eventual successor to King Saul.

David went on to become a great warrior who was very faithful to Saul—and especially to Saul’s son, Jonathan (but that’s another sermon altogether). Now David knew he was anointed to be king; but he chose to remain faithful to Saul even when Saul was trying to kill him. David chose to remain faithful to Saul even though at one point, David had the opportunity to kill Saul while he slept in a cave. So to this point in his life, David seems to be choosing fidelity and faithfulness even when he is given every reason to choose otherwise.

David continued to rise in power, authority, and popularity with the people. Eventually Saul died, and David is made king. By the time we get to the reading for today, David—probably a middle-aged man by now—pretty much has it all. He has power, wealth, the big house with the fabulous view of the city, wives, concubines, and most importantly, it seems David has found favor with God.

In fact, David has it so made that he doesn’t even have to go to war anymore! He can delegate his wars to other people—a concept I think we’re familiar with today. But, I digress.

So, one afternoon David gets up from a nap and takes a walk on his roof top terrace. Now the view is normally really good; but today that view has improved about 1,000% because—hello and look out—the beautiful and quite naked Bathsheba is taking a bath on a nearby roof. At this point, David could have simply chosen to think to himself, “Hey! Lookin’ good!” and moved on. But, noooooo! David is thinking with a part of his anatomy a bit farther south than his brain. So he sends someone to find out more about this bathing beauty.

It doesn’t take long for David to find out that the woman’s name is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam. But then he also gets the big red flag, the fax from God, the slap upside his head—Bathsheba is married to Uriah the Hittite. OK, David. Pick up the scroll—the one with the 10 Commandments on it—and read number 7. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” In other words, “Hands off. Not for you.”

But obviously David wasn’t in a reading mood. His thinking is still oriented to the southern regions of his body, and his choices follow the same route. David chooses to ignore the commandment against adultery, sends for Bathsheba, and satisfies his desires. David crossed the line—big time. Today some folks might say, “What’s the big deal? He’s a big boy—a consenting adult. It was his choice.”

But let’s just take a look at this power of choice, and where it can lead.

“Safer sex” obviously was not in the vocabulary of ancient Israel, and lo and behold, Bathsheba sends word to David that she is pregnant. Uh oh. Now what? David has another choice to make.

Does David come clean and confess his sin? Nope! David’s choices continue to spiral downward. He sends for Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, under the false pretense of finding out how the battle was going. David tells Uriah to go ahead and head home to spend a little “quality time” with Bathsheba in hopes of covering up his adulterous affair.

But now it is time for Uriah to choose. Uriah chose to honor the soldiers’ vow of abstinence during war. Nothing David tried—not even getting Uriah drunk at a palace party—swayed Uriah from honoring this vow. Obviously, David could have taken some lessons from Uriah when it came to honoring vows.

At this point, David could have chosen to confess his sin to God and to Uriah and hope for the best. But, nope! David’s choices get even worse. David sent Uriah back to the general, Joab, with a set of orders. What Uriah obviously did not know, however, was that these orders were for Joab to send him into the fiercest fighting, then have the army pull back from Uriah so he would be killed. Poor Uriah did not have a clue! This servant was faithful to his king—like David used to be to Saul. Uriah trusted in the power and integrity of David’s leadership. And he received the ultimate betrayal for his faithfulness.

From noticing a beautiful woman to lust, from lust to adultery, from adultery to deceit, and from deceit to murder. Many biblical scholars view this story as the turning point of David’s rule—the beginning of the end. After all, with great power comes great responsibility, and in this case, David was anything but responsible. And do you know what? It all started with the power of choice.

How does this story apply to us today? After all, we aren’t adulterers, murderers, deceivers, and the like, right? And while we may have a lot of royalty in our congregation today, we do not have the royal power of a King David.

But we do have power.

We all have the power of choice. We may not always be able to choose our circumstances, but we do have the power to choose our responses to those circumstances. And our responses can go a long way in determining our future reality.

We may not like the fact that most of us here today cannot legally marry the people with whom we have chosen to build our lives. But we can choose to work for positive change in our marriage laws. Some of us have been hurt and abused by friends, families, and churches. We may not have done anything to deserve such pain, but we can choose to forgive, work for reconciliation, and move on; or we can choose to remain bitter.

We can choose to admit our mistakes and confess our sins, and let the healing begin, or we can live in denial—and like David—experience a major downward spiral in our lives. Folks, we can choose to be victims, or we can choose to be victorious!

We have another kind of power available to us, as well. We have the power of Almighty God through the Holy Spirit available to us. And that is a power that surpasses the power of all our earthly leaders combined! It is a power that can lift us up when we are down. It is a power that can help us defeat the temptations of corruption and evil in the world. And when we fall—for none of us here is perfect—the Holy Spirit is the power that can help us confess our failures to God and to one another, then let it go and move on!

I think I’m going to take something back I said just a minute ago. I said we didn’t have the royal power of a King David. I don’t know about you; but I think with the Holy Spirit, we might have access to even more royal power than David himself! And as with King David, with great power comes great responsibility.

And what is that responsibility? Our responsibility is to make wise choices. We are to use the blessings of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to stand up and speak out for God’s justice and love for all people. We are to use that power to serve Christ by serving others. We are to use the power of God’s blessings not solely for our own benefit, but to bless those who may feel powerless; so that they, too, can taste and see how great God is!

The great news today is that even though we do not always have power over our life situations, there is a God at work in, among, and around us, calling us to trust in God’s grace and goodness. We may choose to accept or reject that offer of God’s grace and goodness, for God has given us, God’s creation, the power of choice.

My prayer for each of us today is that we choose wisely!

God bless you and amen.

July 27th

It Takes Every Kind of People

Ephesians 2:11-22



If you were at church last Sunday, you know it was my birthday—thanks to our illustrious Treasurer, Diane Creson—who, by the way, will be the subject of a sermon in the near future. If you were not at church, we’re glad you’re here this week, and if you are a member of the church and you weren’t here, please remember to double your giving this week to atone for your sin of last week.

I want you to know that I did appreciate the song. You see, when the phone rang, I was attempting to check us out of our room at conference by using the so-called “Express Checkout” via our room’s television. I am here to tell you that Express Checkout is a lie of the Devil! So, when the church called to sing “Happy Birthday,” I was in less than a pastoral mood. But your song and the thought behind it brought me back to what is really important—people—every kind of people.

One thing I have learned as I have gotten ever so slightly older is that I tend to relate to a particular era of music better than others. That era spans the late 70’s through the early 90’s. Now there has been wonderful music made throughout history. But there is just something about Janet Jackson’s “Miss You Much,” Boy George’s “Miss Me Blind, “ and Jane Child’s “Don’t Wanna Fall in Love” that gets my body moving—which is a strange spectacle in itself that NOW takes place ONLY in the privacy of our home. This music takes me back in time, brings memories flooding back, and—most of the time—those memories make me smile.

There is a song from that era that does not have near the glitter, makeup, and nose ring appeal of Janet, George, and Jane; but it has a extremely powerful message nonetheless—a message that we need to hear today. That song is “Every Kinda People,” by A. Fraser, and adapted by Robert Palmer on his 1989 CD, “Addictions—Volume 1.” Listen to the words of the chorus:

“It takes every kinda people
To make what life’s about
Every kind of people
To make the world go round”

Those words sum up a large portion of today’s passage from Ephesians. You see, church unity—a major theme in Ephesians—was just as important in the first century as it is today. And while there was no major drama going on in the church at Ephesus—at least none that we know of—the question of who was “in,” and who was “out” was always a topic for discussion in the early church.

Some things never change, do they?

The challenge of who was “in” and who was “out” in the first century was based primarily along the lines of race and religious tradition. In the old tradition, there was a wall in the temple of Jerusalem that divided the court of Jewish women from the court of the Gentiles. Since God was thought to reside only in the innermost court, this wall reminded the Gentiles that they did not have access to God. It’s like being put in the “nosebleed section” of a stadium where you might be able to hear a little of what is going on; but you can’t see a thing, and if you try to move closer to the action, you risk being tossed out on your behind. Of course in the first century, they just killed you. No fuss, no muss, no appeals to the congregation or Regional Elder, no long, drawn out lawsuits.

Now the writer of Ephesians acknowledges this unfortunate situation as part of the past. But then he goes on to say that Jesus Christ broke down those dividing walls of hostility so these people could be united into one group.

And we’ve been doing our darndest to rebuild those walls ever since!

Some churches build walls that exclude the full participation of women, people of color, people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, people who aren’t members of particular denominations—and in some cases, even those people who aren’t members of particular congregations within those denominations. For example, growing up in my Pentecostal tradition, a person had to be a member of an apostolic, oneness, Pentecostal church in order to be a real Pentecostal.

And as members of the dominant religious and government structures of ancient times killed the prophets, the apostles, and Jesus Christ for tearing down their precious walls of cultural and religious exclusion, some churches today are still killing people who are trying to tear down these divisive walls of hostility! The only difference is the killing of the 21st century prophets of inclusion takes different form. For some churches today are killing the “Gentiles” in their midst spiritually through divisive church politics and more church bylaw red tape than any department in the United States government! This death is a slow, painful, process that has turned many people away from Christianity altogether.

Now, as MCC clergy, it is easy for me to rip on churches and governments that practice blatant exclusion. But even denominations like ours’ have walls, sometimes. Last week, 6 people from this church attended a wonderful conference at the Fairmont Princess Resort in Scottsdale, AZ. The place was amazing! But it was also a stark reminder of the walls that we sometimes build between the have’s and the have not’s.

Like the synagogues of the 1st century—and many of our sister denominations today— in MCC, we too, have different sections for “evangelicals” and “progressives;” Americans and non-Americans, clergy and laity; women and men. These walls may be invisible to the physical eye; but they are all too evident to the spiritual eye.

And do you know what I really find amazing? We actually build some of these walls using our versions of Jesus Christ! You know the Jesus I’m talking about, right? The Jesus who wouldn’t want women in leadership positions in the church because all the apostles were male. The blonde-haired blue-eyed Jesus who favors the United States because we are, of course, a Christian nation. Now how are these versions anything like the Jesus who tears down walls of hostility and brings peace?

I have to tell you, I am with Bishop Yvette Flunder on this one. Last week at the Clergy Conference she told us that maybe it is time we forgot about designing “Jesus Saves” campaigns, and come up with a “Save Jesus” campaign! We could go door to door. Better yet, we could go to church doors! “Hi! We’re with MCC of Corpus Christi. We’ve heard you’re trying to hold Jesus hostage in an exclusive, narrow-minded, racist, sexist, homophobic theology. So, we’re here to roll away the stone from that tomb, because it’s resurrection time!

Of course, Jesus doesn’t need our help. But, boy do we need his! Amen?

You see, folks, in the church of Jesus Christ, there should be no wall between the rich and the poor! In the church of Jesus Christ, there should be no wall between the races! In the church of Jesus Christ, there should be no wall between the gay and straight! In the church of Jesus Christ, there is only one humanity, one body, and one peace.

Easier said than done, right? I mean, how do we even attempt such radical unity in our communities without killing each other in the process? Well, like anything else we attempt in life, we have to focus if we hope to have any measure of success at all. We need a cornerstone on which to build our community of inclusion.

We need the cornerstone that is Jesus Christ.

Scripture tells us that it is in Jesus Christ that the whole structure, that is, the church, is joined together and grows into the holy temple of God. Please note that the scripture says, “grows into the holy temple of God.” What that means is we aren’t there yet, folks. It’s a process. So when things go wrong, as they definitely will in this growth process, remember these words: It is through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we can have peace with one another. That is, if we choose to have peace with one another.

Now, I want everyone to stand as you are comfortable and take the hand of the person next to you. If you can, reach across the aisle, too! Now, repeat after me:

“It takes every kinda people
To make what life’s about
Every kind of people
To make the world go round”

Let’s try to remember that the next time we start building walls. Amen?

God bless you and amen.

July 7th

Freakonomics

2 Corinthians 8: 7-15


How many people here today remember taking Economics in either high school or college? Now I was a business major; but to be perfectly blunt with you, all I remember about Economics is that it bored me to tears and confused me to no end.

Give me accounting any day of the week! You have debits in one column, and you have credits in another column. You add up the columns. If they don’t balance, you find out why, make any legal—repeat legal--adjustments that are necessary, and begin making other business decisions from that point.

But if you have watched the financial news very much, you know that economics is a world all unto itself. There are unemployment rates for various labor sectors to consider, foreign trade deficits and surpluses, that drama we call “world politics”, which apparently affects stock markets all over the world, which somehow ties into interest rates and inflation. Then there is the second full moon in the third quarter in the house of Aquarius to consider. You get my point, right? All I know is this: oil companies are making record profits, and gas still went up 20 cents a gallon overnight this past week! What is up with that?

Well, economist Steven Levitt and partner Stephen Dubner might have something to say about this phenomenon. The premise of their recent book is “if morality represents how we’d like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually works.” So, while we’d like to think that record setting profits would result in a price break at the gas pump, the reality of the situation is gas went up 20 cents a gallon overnight this past week.

Levitt further proposes that “economics is, at root, the study of incentives: how people get what they want or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing…an incentive is an often tiny object with astonishing power to change a situation.” If the incentive is great enough, folks will do some pretty freaky stuff for good or evil purposes. So, if economics is based on incentives, “Freakonomics is the hidden side of these incentives really work. Here’s an example from Levitt’s book:

In 1987, 7 million children in the United States disappeared on April 15th! Was it the rapture, and we were all left behind? Nope! Before 1987, people were only required to put the names of their dependents on their tax forms. Beginning in 1987, however, both names and social security numbers were required for each dependent listed. Overnight, 7 million children who never existed in the first place, disappeared. The risk of getting caught outweighed the incentive of the tax break.

So, what I would like to propose this morning is that, while there are usually many factors that influence all our decisions, basic, core incentives are the main factors that cause us to make the decisions we make. Not only that, those core incentives can determine whether or not our decisions will stand up to the test of time.

I think the church at Corinth is an excellent case in point here. The issue at the heart of today’s passage in 2 Corinthians appears to be a faltering fund raising campaign meant to alleviate the suffering of Christians in Jerusalem. This campaign apparently started out with a bang a year earlier. But now it appears to have all but stopped. What happened?

Well, scripture doesn’t tell us exactly what happened. So, let’s dig a little deeper. The city of Corinth was a thriving cosmopolitan culture where economy, status and religion were all based on competition between individuals and groups. So, we can safely assume there was a lot of “one upmanship” going on in such a city. And since the church at Corinth was made up of people from the surrounding culture, it is reasonable to expect that some of that same behavior found its way into the church. In fact, both 1 and 2 Corinthians address some of the “less than Christian” behavior going on in the church at Corinth.

I can almost hear some of those discussions now.

“We have this request from Paul to take up a collection to help the church in Jerusalem. What do we do?”

“Well, is anyone else taking up a collection?”

“I heard he’s asking those little Macedonian churches to do what they can. But you know they’re not nearly as wealthy as we are; not to mention our superior spiritual gifts.”

“I think it’s important that we lead the way. After all, we are “First Church Corinth. Who knows? Maybe a little money will keep Paul quiet about some of the stuff that goes on around here. Hey! If the collection is big enough, maybe Paul will ask us to host the next General Conference, and we’ll be honored for all our contributions to the Movement!”

Now it’s a year later, and what started out as a great idea is deader than the Dead Sea itself. Not only that, but those “poor little Macedonian churches” have given sacrificially and enthusiastically while facing their own economic challenges. And on top of that, it seems they are actually begging for the privilege to do more! What is up with that?

Could it be that while “First Church Corinth” was practicing “freakonomics,” that the Macedonian churches were practicing what has been called “graceonomics?” In other words, could it be that the Corinthians were giving based on what they thought might be in it for them, while the Macedonians were giving based on what had already been done for them through Jesus Christ? Could it be that they realized it wasn’t important how much money they had, or how much property they owned, but rather the important thing was how much they could serve others? See, the Macedonian churches may have been economically poor, but they realized how rich they really were because of God’s grace toward them.

What about us? Why do we give? Why do we give ourselves to another person in a relationship? Is it because that person has a good job and can provide us with financial security? Is it because that person is really hot, and therefore makes us look good? Is it simply because we are lonely, and a warm body is better than no body at all? If those are the core incentives for a relationship, folks, that relationship will not last—at least not as a healthy, loving, growing, relationship. Healthy, loving relationships require both giving and taking—not just taking.

Here’s a touchy question: “Why do we give our time, talent, and financial resources to any community of faith?” You see, some folks participate and give for what they can get out of it. If it is “behind the scenes” service, these folks want no part of it because it is “not their gift.” In other words, it is a power trip they are seeking. Others practice what I call “Carrot on a stick Christianity.” That is, they are working for that extra star in their crowns—or maybe in the case of MCC, we are working for that extra rhinestone in our tiaras’. That is spiritual “freakonomics,” folks—and it won’t stand the test of time.

Now I am not saying that it is wrong for us to feel good about ourselves for giving—that is a perfectly logical and normal feeling. Giving of our time, talent, and financial resources in God’s service can result personal growth and a freedom from dependence on material things for happiness. If we call ourselves “Christians,” however, we give because God has already given us so much. We may not have a penny to our name; but we are already rich because of God’s gift of grace through Jesus Christ. We give because we have received. We love because God Almighty loves us.

The same “graceonomics” applies to us as a community of faith, too. We are not here to make a name for ourselves in Corpus Christi, or even in our denomination. We are not here to amass wealth for our own benefit, either. We are here to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ to a broken world. We are here to worship God, build community, and offer hope! We are here to serve—nothing more and nothing less, and nothing else will do! Amen?

We give all that we have and all that we are because God has already given us so much. We do our best to love all people because God loves us unconditionally. That, my sisters and brothers, is “graceonomics,” and that is what will enable us to stand the trials and tribulations that come our way—both as individuals and as a community of faith.

When I pray over meals, I often use the following words. They seem to be especially appropriate today. “Let us share of our abundance with others so that they may be blessed and that God may be glorified in all that we say and do.”

Amen?

God bless you and amen.