Sermon – Joel 2:21-27 – The Lord Has Done Great Things

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – Joel 2:21-27 – The Lord Has Done Great Things

Thanksgiving Sunday

November 18, 2012

This Thursday many of us will gather with family and friends to give thanks to God for all the blessings we have received. It is very easy to praise God when things are going well. When your health is good and all the bills are paid and your children all have good jobs then praising God thanking him for our blessings is easy. But what if you have not been blessed this year? What if you health if failing? What if your parent died or was put in a nursing home? What if your children are out of work and losing their homes? What if tree falls on your church? At times like these it is tempting to cancel Thanksgiving. After all some of us are asking: what do we have to be thankful for? We will get to this, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

This past week I met with the session of Beaver Dam church to discuss what to do about the flood in the sanctuary and the two trees which had fallen and opened holes in the floor and ceiling of our Sunday school room. I was concerned going into the meeting that the elders of the church would have difficulty dealing with all that had befallen us, and I wasn't quite sure what the pastor should do or say in a situation like that. I found though that I had nothing to fear. The elders had a plan for dealing with the problems, and they believed that even in the midst of these problems the church had been richly blessed. The trees could have fallen on our historic sanctuary. If so we might not have had enough money to rebuild and would have to worship elsewhere. But God had protected the sanctuary so worship continues. Damage was limited to the Sunday school room which could easily be repaired. The elders hoped that this disaster might actually be good for our church. It might wake us from our complacency and put us on a path to new growth and mission. All of this lifted my spirits and assured me that a couple of trees falling on a roof could not destroy a church of Jesus Christ. So we have much to be thankful for. Beaver Dam is worshiping in it historic sanctuary with a renewed spirit.

I was also lifted up by the Pitts Creek session and the presbytery of New Castle. Pitts Creek offered Beaver Dam the use of its building for meetings and worship. And New Castle Presbytery has showered us with prayers and offers of help. Even in the midst of a violent storm and flood we are richly blessed and thankful.

This scripture I have for you this Thanksgiving Sunday comes from the Book of Joel.

Joel 1:2-4 ² Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your forefathers? ³ Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. ⁴ What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten.

So we see that great hoards of locust have eaten the all crops in the field. Three times the fields where covered by these insects and now there is nothing left to harvest. This is truly a calamity of biblical proportions. Let's get back to Joel.

Joel 1:5 ⁵ Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips.

Oh no! The locust not only eaten the grain they have even eaten the grape vines and so there will be no wine this year. No grain! No wine! What will they do? Let's go back to Joel.

Joel 1:6-7 ⁶ A nation has invaded my land, powerful and without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness. ⁷ It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white.

The locusts have destroyed the fruit trees. There will be no figs this year. No grain, no wine, no figs, no olive oil, next year's seeds dried up, the hungry cattle, and no offerings for the Temple. People are facing starvation. Maybe they should cancel Thanksgiving. It the midst of this catastrophic failure what should they do? Let's go back to Joel.

Joel 1:13-15 ¹³ Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. ¹⁴ Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. ¹⁵ Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.

Joel has ordered the priests to put on sackcloth and fast. This will prepare them for what they have to do. They are also told to call a sacred assembly, blow the rams horn, and call all the people to worship God and pray. There only hope was that God would hear their prayers and respond. When everything seems to be going wrong and we have nothing to be thankful for we need to come to church for worship and prayer. This is where we come into contact with our creator and find our only hope of salvation. When the people of Joel's time came to worship this is what happened.

Joel 2:17 ¹⁷ Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, 'Spare your people, O LORD. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?''

So the priests offered up prayers reminding God that he had chosen these people who are suffering so much. And now other nations are watching as the people of God suffer. This hurts God's reputation. People will think the God is too weak to save his people, or maybe God does not even care for his own people. So what did God do? How did he respond to this prayer?

Joel 2:18-20 ¹⁸ Then the LORD will be jealous for his land and take pity on his people. ¹⁹ The LORD will reply to them: 'I am sending you grain, new wine and oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations. ²⁰ 'I will drive the northern army far from you, pushing it into a parched and barren land, with its front columns going into the eastern sea and those in the rear into the western sea. And its stench will go up; its smell will rise.' Surely he has done great things.

So the promise of scripture is that whenever we experience misfortune, death, illness, famine or flood if we turn to the Lord in worship and prayer, God, our loving father, will care for us and see us through to better times. This is a comforting thought. We can rest in the assurance that God is there no matter what happens so long as we turn to him and ask for help.

This is what we are thankful for on Thanksgiving. We are thankful not just for the blessings we have received, the blessings of health and family and prosperity and church. But we are also thankful when times are tough because God is there, with us, to lead us to a better day. The prophet Joel shows us how to thank God even in bad times with these words.

Joel 2:21-27 ²¹ Be not afraid, O land; be glad and rejoice. Surely the LORD has done great things. ²² Be not afraid, O wild animals, for the open pastures are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their riches. ²³ Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. ²⁴ The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. ²⁵ 'I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten-- the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm--my great army that I sent among you. ²⁶ You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. ²⁷ Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the LORD your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.

The Word of God.

Let us pray. Father in Heaven we turn to you in this sacred assembly. We thank you for protecting us and the church during Hurricane Sandy. Thank you for giving us the strength and resources we need to rebuild the Sunday school room. Thank you for preserving us as your church. Thank you for comforting the bereaved and healing the sick. Thank you for this opportunity to worship and pray in your presence. This we pray in our savior's name, Jesus. Amen.

Sermon – Mark 12:38-44 – Two Small Coins

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – Mark 12:38-44 – Two Small Coins

Stewardship Sunday

November 11, 2012

Today is Stewardship Sunday. This is the day each year when we remember all the blessings we have received from God. We realize that everything we have comes to us from God. And we are under the responsibility to use these gifts as God intends. To do this we discern God's will in worship, Bible study and prayer. Then we use our gifts the way we are directed to by God.

In the first reading this morning God's gifts were being misused. The teachers of the law, those who best understand what God wants, are using Temple resources for fancy robes and extensive banquets. All of this makes Jesus angry and he predicts that Temple will be destroyed because it does not do what God wants. We will get to this, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Here is the scripture I have for you today.

Mark 12:41-44 ⁴¹ Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. ⁴² But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. ⁴³ Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. ⁴⁴ They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything-- all she had to live on."

This has to be the saddest, most tragic story I have ever read in scripture. We were told in the first lesson that teachers of the law were devouring widow's homes and now we see a widow, with just two small coins left, and she has thrown them into the Temple treasury. Why did she do this? Was this a way of giving up? The Temple had already taken her home and all that she had and so she threw in her last penny. Or was this a form of protest. Take that you teachers of the law you can't hurt me any more. Whatever it was our hearts have to go out to this woman, who is now penniless, has no means of support, and distrust God because God's own people had violated the trust she put in them.

Widows in ancient times did not work and could not own businesses and property. They were totally dependent on their fathers, husbands and sons for financial support. And when their husbands died they had to be supported by a brother in law or son. If a woman had neither she was destitute, and had no way to support herself.

We don't know what the teachers of the law were doing by devouring widow's houses. These teachers were responsible for reading and understanding the Word of God, our Old Testament. They should have known that God wants us to care for widows. God insists throughout scripture that widows must be taken care of. But the teachers of the law have twisted scripture in some way. And now widows are losing their homes.

Jesus is telling us this story within the context of his prediction that the Temple in Jerusalem will be destroyed. Is Jesus saying that the reason the Temple will be destroyed is because that have prioritized spending on fancy robes and banquets while neglecting and sometimes abusing widows? I think that you could reach this conclusion. It certainly seems that Jesus has a preference for the caring of widows over the purchase of robes and banquets. And so it seems that since the temple is not doing what God wants by caring for the widows it is no longer functioning according to God's will and must be destroyed. This is a sober warning for the American church today. We have to ask ourselves if we are caring for the most vulnerable among us. Are we caring for our widows?

On Stewardship Sunday I am to remind you to use the gifts God has given you to serve God's kingdom on Earth. Most of the time I talk about your giving and the importance of giving to the church. Certainly you need to give to the church. But in our scripture today we are reminded that the church needs to be a good steward of what it has been given. Like the Temple in Jesus' day the church has a responsibility to use its resources to further what God is doing in our community. I don't think that Jesus would be impressed with our robes or coffee hours. Jesus would be looking at how we care for the poor, the widows, and the victims of the recent storm. And the churches that respond to what God wants done will thrive while the ones that focus on themselves will die just as the Temple did.

I know it is difficult for the church to respond to the needs of the people in their community given falling membership and income. I know that our old buildings require more and more maintenance every year. Our budgets are squeezed. But somehow we must care for our widows and those in our area desperately in need if we are to be church.

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam churches have a large number of widows and widowers who need our care. Many are in nursing homes or cared for by their families. Unlike widows in the first century our widow and widowers are cared for financially. What they need are relationships. They need people like you and me to visit them. The are hungry to hear about what we are doing in church. And they want someone to read the Bible with them and pray with them. Right now Nancy Holdren and Luella Tatum are in the Atria Nursing Home in Salisbury. David Stevens is in Manokin Manor. Emily Schlining and Ed House are in Hartley Hall. Doris Glass is with her niece. Gladys Holland and Dot Lankford have recently lost husband and now live alone at home. What could we do for these widows and widowers that would please God ? This is the key question I want you to think about this Stewardship Sunday. The answer is not money, rather it is another precious commodity we have in limited quantity, time. I think God wants us to adjust our schedules and spent more time visiting these widows and widowers, praying with them and telling them what is happening in our church.

So when you come to church it doesn't matter what you wear or where you sit. It doesn't matter if you are powerful elder or an anonymous person in the back. And it doesn't matter how much you put in the plate. What does matter is what you do when you leave this building. Are you serving the kingdom of God by caring for those in need.

The coins that the widow thew in the plate represent two important aspects of giving. One coin represents the money you give to the church, other charities and to those in need. The Bible gives us a guideline for this, a tithe, ten per cent. The other coin represents our time and how we use it for God's service. Do we care for children, the poor in our community, the victims of the recent storm, and the widows and widowers in our church? Just as we tithe our money maybe we should tithe our time. What percentage of our time should be devote to God's work? I suggest that one hour a week to show off your best clothes and sit in you family pew is not enough. What if we pledged an hour a day for service, six hours a week resting on the Sabbath, six hours a week visiting widows and widowers in nursing homes and hospitals, and caring for people in need? Just think what we could accomplish if the whole church tithed six hours a week. What if all the Christians in Pocomoke tithed six hours every week, what would our community be like? I think that if we tithed our time for service in God's kingdom our church would be blessed with rising membership and expanding budgets because God loves churches like that serves others.

Finally, I would like to tell you that spending your time with the widows and widowers in the church is not some kind of harsh duty. It is actually fun. I wish that I could spend less time in meetings and sermon preparation and spent more time with these wonderful people. Every one of them that I have talked about today loves this church. If they were physically able they would be here to worship with us. They would love to meet you. They are filled with stories about this church. And they have lots of questions about what we are doing here right now. You will have a great time with them. And you will find that the more you visit the more you want to. One hour a day may not be enough. So I urge you to visit our widows and widowers. Have a good time. Share scripture and pray. Talk about our church. And enjoy serving in the kingdom of God.

Lord in Heaven we pray this day for our widows and widowers. Bless them with your Spirit. Ease their pain and loneliness. Bless their families with prosperity and health. And fill us with your Spirit as we visit them. This we pray in your son's name. Amen.

Sermon – Mark 10:35-45 – Drink From The Cup

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – Mark 10:35-45 – Drink From The Cup

28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

October 21, 2012

We are continuing to listen to the conversations between Jesus and his disciples. I have been thinking this week that what we are doing is a little like listening on the old telephone party lines. Years ago I remember picking up a phone and hearing not the dial tone, but a conversation. My mother told me that we had a party line and I should hang up if I heard someone speaking. But sometimes I would listen in to hear what the neighbors were talking about. This is a little like that. We are listening in, with Mark's help, to a conversation that originally was just between Jesus and his disciples.

In the first reading today we heard Jesus with James and John discussing where they will sit when they are all gathered together in God's glory. Jesus has a little more on his mind than seating arrangements. We will get to this, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

In the American church today we are preoccupied with numbers. We measure attendance numbers in worship and Sunday school. We measure giving and expenses. And we try to measure spiritual growth in the congregation by recording who attends prayer sessions, worship and Bible study on a regular basis. Numbers are important.

All churches want to increase their numbers. They want more people in their pews. They want more kids, youth and adults in Sunday School. They want greater tithing so that the expenses of the church can be paid and greater funds are available for local and worldwide mission. All churches want to be growing churches. We want our numbers to get bigger and bigger.

To achieve these goals the church tries to make its product as pleasing as possible to attract the maximum number of people. So we erect beautiful buildings with ample parking and comfortable seats. We make sure that the heating and air conditioning works. We check the lighting and sound systems to make sure that everything can be seen and heard. We design quality programs for children and youth. We have music programs with choirs, organs, pianos and bands. And we hire expertly trained pastors who preach biblical sermons and make all of this happen. Our hope is that after doing all this people will come and our pews will be filled. The focus of our endeavors is on the people who come to worship, and those we want to come to worship. We want them to feel good about our worship. We want them to have a good time. We want them to tell others how good it all is.

In the 1980s the church experienced the church growth movement. The idea was simple. Sell your old building with little parking, uncomfortable seats, bad furnace, no air conditioning, and a poor sound system. Build a palace on the highway with everything state of the art. Hire a band and sing the soft rock Christian music Baby Boomers love. And you will have a mega-church.

But our experience with this was that the mega-churches did not produce new Christians. They simply took Christians away from existing churches. The result was that neighborhood churches experienced decline. And mega-churches could only grow as long and neighborhood churches had members to lose. Eventually that stopped and the mega-churches stop growing. We found through this process the important role that neighborhood churches play in the community. It the neighborhood church that takes care of the poor and widows in that community. The mega-church could never fulfill this role. And with the decline of the neighborhood church God's mission in the neighborhoods was being neglected. So we are now starting new neighborhood churches designed not for maximum attendance, but to care for the those in its community.

Our focus as church should not be on the people in the pews giving them what they want. Our focus should be on God and the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us and the mission of God to care for the needy in our community.

James and John, the sons of Zebedee were focused on themselves when they came to talk with Jesus. They were looking forward to the coming Kingdom of God. They knew it would be glorious. They had witnessed Jesus' miracles. They had heard his teaching. They had even seen Jesus transfigured on the mountain. And they were ready for Jesus' coronation as king. They wanted to be right there at his right and left participating in the glorious event.

And that is how most Christians approach worship. We have experienced miracles in our lives. We have heard Jesus' teachings. And we are ready for the coming glory. So we come to a church with plenty of parking, comfortable seats, good lighting and sound, great music, programs for kids, youth and adults, and scholarly preaching. We are all ready to sit at Jesus right and left and participate in his glory. But where we sit is not up to us. It is not even Jesus' decision. Our place in heavenly worship is God's decision. And before God decides we all have to drink from the cup and be baptized just as Jesus was. This seems pretty easy. Most of us have passed though the baptismal waters, and we have drunk from the communion cup. But we have to remember the after the cup comes a cross.

When the other disciples heard James and John asking for the best seats when they all got to the Kingdom of God they became angry with them. A fight resulted and Jesus settled the dispute. Let's pick up the party line again and listen into the conversation between Jesus and his disciples.

Mark 13:

41 When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. 42 So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 43 But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

The disturbing news from Jesus is that the purpose of church is not to make you happy any more than it was to make James and John happy. They expected, as followers of Jesus, to experience the great joy of sitting at his right and left in glory. But according Jesus this honor goes not to those who just experience miracles and hear his teaching. Jesus says that to experience the joy of being a Christian you must serve others.

I am not saying that we should get rid of our building or programs. There is nothing inherently wrong with the thing we do so long as they are used for the right purpose. If we do things as church just to make ourselves happy then when are not doing what God wants. Rather if what we do brings glory to God then we hit the mark. So we need to align ourselves with God mission in the world. Church should be the assembly of God's people doing what God wants done.

So church is not about making its members happy. Rather the church's purpose is the equip its members to humbly serve others. Just as Jesus' life was sacrificed on the cross so to should we sacrifice to serve other people. We don't really need the best parking lot, the most comfortable seats, or the highest quality sound, heating and air conditioning systems. We don't need the biggest choir, or the best Sunday school program. The numbers we measure should not be our primary focus. What matters is that we serve others, the neediest in our community because if we do this the promise of scripture is that we will experience our greatest joy sitting at Jesus' right and left in God's glory.

In our baptisms we are baptized with Jesus into a life of service to others. In the communion cup we are filled with the Spirit who empowers and strengthens us to fulfill God plan on earth. So I urge you to look for ways to serve others. Be concerned with the plight of the poor, widows, orphans, shut ins, those in nursing homes and hospitals. Visit them. Care for them. Love them as much as you love yourselves. Do this and you will be richly blessed.

Lord Jesus we love to follow you and drink from your cup. Like James and John we hope to sit at your right and left in glory. We know that church is not here to satisfy our needs. Rather church is here to organize us as groups who satisfy the needs of others. Help us to maintain this focus. This we pray in your glorious name. Amen.