Fairhaven UMC

United Methodist Church

2415 Saw Mill Run Blvd.
Pittsburgh, PA 15234
Sunday 9:30am Worship

    • Fairhaven Sermon 6-25-2023

      Summary

      In this weeks sermon, Pastor Dylan’s Parson talks about how Jesus didn’t promise peace but challenges. He compares how early Christian groups faced a lot of pushback, while modern churches are usually pretty comfortable and uncontroversial. Dylan notes that many younger folks aren’t finding a good reason to stick around in these unchallenging churches.

      Dylan encourages everyone to step out of their comfort zones. He wants the church to be a place for personal growth and even a bit of risk-taking, following Jesus’ teachings no matter what. Using examples of churches that faced criticism for their inclusivity, he shows that sometimes faith can lead to controversy. In the end, Dylan challenges us to live a life committed to Jesus, saying that’s how churches can really grow and make a difference.

      Excerpt

       Don’t think, Jesus says pretty ominously, that I’ve come to bring peace to the earth. I haven’t come to bring peace, but a sword. Yikes, huh? I don’t really like that very much. I’m not a sword kind of guy.

       Peace sounds a whole lot better than a sword. And the contemporary church is not really a sword kind of place in my experience, which works out pretty well for me and for you. Very rarely do we even have outright debate and disagreement in church council. I mean, it happens here usually in a pretty healthy way, but for the most part, it’s not particularly intense, violent.

       Our existence in this community is not for the most part controversial. It’s not polarizing. And that stands in contrast to Jesus and the disciples’ experience in Judea and Galilee, as well as the early churches’ experience under Roman domination. They were a disreputable, unwanted group.

       They were a challenge to the society around them, and people just wanted them to go away. Jesus’ words to the disciples proved to be right, and this was long before his crucifixion. He said, If they had called the head of the house Beelzebul, which is another word for Satan, it’s certain they will call the members of the household by even worse names. That is, if they’ve called me the devil, imagine what they’ll call you.

       It’s easy to forget in an era where Christianity is so incredibly mainstream how true this was for them for a long time. The Roman world knew, for example, that the church partook in communion, and since they already really didn’t like Christians to begin with, they were, Christians were widely accused of practicing cannibalism. Oh, they say they’re eating the body and blood of Christ. There’s something sketchy going on in there.

       A similar thing happened in the early years of Methodism. This is an often forgotten piece of our history. Methodists in America were known for their loud, mixed gender, interracial worship services that were closed. You could only go if you were a member of the Methodist movement.

       They were often held in barns. They were super loud and rowdy. And there was all kinds of gossip that would always go around about what sort of obscenities were happening in those barns. Christianity and eras of vibrancy has often existed at the same time in a state of controversy.

       And yet, we can be pretty sure, I think, that no one is walking or driving past us this morning suspiciously wondering what’s going on in here. Probably not. We don’t really tend to bother anyone or upset the outside world, Nor is that really even in our concept of what a church might do. We don’t really think that way anymore.

       The church in the US across denominations, it peaked in numbers the middle of the 20th century. And so for a time spanning roughly the 40s through 70s, which many of you will remember, it seemed like everyone went to church. You might remember those days. You probably remember those days.

       I don’t. I’ve talked to some older pastors and they really can’t even grasp this. I have never seen a full sanctuary on a Sunday morning. Those days are just outside my experience.

       Now in that time period, the church was the least controversial thing imaginable. Every decent person went to church. It was a pillar of the community. It was the social hub.

       You know, whether you’re an adult, whether you’re a kid, your whole world was in the church. That’s where the town rotated around. And there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with being the center of community life, there’s nothing wrong with being a close-knit body.

       We’re supposed to be. But that, as it turns out, wasn’t quite enough. The next generations found that there wasn’t really any compelling reason to stay. The church didn’t offer much that was particularly distinctive from the outside world besides an additional demand for time, effort, money.

       and people decided it really wasn’t worth it for what they were getting out of it. And so here we are. So consider the state of the United Methodist Church locally and nationally. It’s not just us, it’s everybody.

       Something has gone wrong. And frankly, we don’t get to blame it on the people who are out there for not wanting to come in here. It’s not their job to decide to come in here, is it? We have failed, as our traditional confession of sin says, to be an obedient church. And accordingly, give people a reason to stay or now even come to begin with.

       We don’t treat the church, generally speaking, as a place where life-changing growth in discipleship happens. Our life together has diverged a little bit from the one Jesus describes this morning in Matthew 10. That church was living on the edge. It was wholly committed to Jesus, regardless of what that would cost them, And it did cost them a lot.

       And it was a church that was taking up its cross. I’m currently reading a book right now by Will Willimon. If you’re familiar, he’s the somewhat harsh former United Methodist bishop. He spent decades in pastoral ministry in Alabama and in the Carolinas.

       And his most recent book that’s written in the wake of our church split is called Don’t Look Back, Methodist Hope for What Comes Next. so I’m about halfway through that book. And in it, he writes of his experience pastoring a church. It’s really funny.

       So he’s writing about this church that he was appointed to serve early in his career. And he’s so disappointed in this place. He’s like, I got there, their attendance is only 300 people. It was declining.

       I’m like, Okay, bud. I don’t relate, but I understand your point. He said the median age was 60. I’m like, Wow! But he writes about his experience pastoring this church that was declining and that had no interest in revival.

       And he wrote something that I had to go back and read a couple times. He says, We are a loving, caring congregation, they reassure one another as they peacefully pass away. Listen to that and see if it stings, right? We are a loving, caring congregation, they reassure one another as they peacefully pass away. Look, I got a couple notes in my pastoral reviews that some of you want to be challenged, so here we go here.

       Jesus tells us flat out that he comes not to bring peace, but a sword. The gospel should be a source of comfort. The gospel is a source of comfort. The congregation should be a place of love and inclusion.

       But the sword that Jesus describes must have an edge. The work of a faithful church requires making hard decisions to build the kingdom of God and make disciples of people who are both here already, we should be getting better, and people who aren’t here yet, they should be coming in, being welcome, being built up in Christ. It requires doing this, risking conflict and disagreement because it requires movement. It requires risk, period, which we’re really averse to.

       Are we willing to take risks in the name of Jesus’ ministry? Are we willing to accept the possibility that we might be controversial or in a position that makes us truly uncomfortable? And I hope so because Jesus says here in Matthew 10, Those who do not pick up their crosses and follow me are not worthy of me. Those who find their lives will lose them and those who lose their lives because of me will find them. We can be timid, we can maintain above all a concern with stability and comfort. We can hold on to our preoccupation with stability.

       We can be conservative with our resources out of worry of what the future holds. Or we can have faith that honest, striving to follow Jesus will be blessed. I have emphasized this before, but I think one of the boldest, most Christ-like ministries in the partnership. is Fairhaven’s welcoming prevention point.

       We know full well that most of our neighbors don’t like this. We know that many of them are actively opposed. There was a threat in the midst of our controversy last year that someone was going to call in KDKA, was going to stage a protest on a Thursday afternoon, and I was really nervous about that possibility at the time. But now I wonder if we might have welcomed the opportunity to witness to Christ’s grace, to our ministry in this place, to a group of people that plenty of people aren’t willing to have nearby.

       Similarly, I spoke to a colleague recently, he just finished grad school in Boston, he was getting a second master’s, and he went to a church in Boston that flies a rainbow flag every June to symbolize that all people are welcome there. And they know full well, he told me this, they know full well that every year they’ll face vandalism that month, Every year that flag is going to get burned on their front lawn, and they do it anyway, knowing that flag is going to get burnt up. The congregation has internalized the challenging message that Jesus offers his disciples. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, it’s certain that they will call the members of the household by even worse names.

       Now what taking up our cross looks like in our context might be different. Mission is different everywhere, but part of the work of discipleship is figuring out what our mission field is, what our call is, what we are supposed to reach out to that may or may not be a popular choice to make. But some aspects of discipleship are universal. One, we have to spend our money doing risky kinds of ministry.

       We have to come come up with plans that are new, that are different, that are focused on reaching new people. We have to open ourselves up to the world, including people that the wider world doesn’t like very much, and we have to put our comfort on the line for Jesus. And that’s scary. That’s scary for me.

       I want the peace, not the sword. But consider the sparrows whom God knows and loves. Are you not worth more than many sparrows, Jesus said, which is very generous, right? Why should we be scared to do the work that Jesus assigns to us? If he watches even the sparrows, if he numbers the hairs on our heads, there’s nothing that we can do seeking to follow Jesus that will bring us to harm. If you don’t internalize anything else today, I want you to think about this.

       Has any church in history spent itself to death ministering to its own community or the world? Or do churches die and dwindle when they decide that their own needs, their desires, their survival are the first thing that comes first? If you can find for me a church that died because it spent too much money on evangelism and outreach, or spent too much time in the community trying to reach new people, I will take that back. But I don’t think it’s happened. And I think that’s because Jesus’ promise here is crystal clear. Those who find their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives because of me will find them.

       The only way to survive, let alone grow and thrive, is to pour ourselves out for the sake of others. To risk losing what we have, money, security, comfort, whatever, to gain what Jesus promises us. living and proclaiming the good news of Jesus, inviting all people into grace and freedom, announcing it from the rooftops, Jesus says, is the single priority that we are given. The single priority above everything else, regardless of what the cost is, regardless of what our preferred plans may be.

       Above family, Jesus says, above loved ones, this is the thing. So this day, measure your life, the life of our church together, by whether or not we’re picking up our cross for the one who carried it for us. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.

    • Fairhaven Sermon 6-18-2023

      Summary

      In her sermon, Rev. Claire Megles shares her personal journey as a seminary graduate, recounting her experiences of undergoing Clinical Pastoral Education to transition from a teacher to a compassionate listener. Her narration encompasses her struggle to establish trust during hospice assessments amid COVID-19 protocols and a moving anecdote about a man named Jerry, who voiced his fear of not going to heaven due to his lack of baptism and church involvement. Megles uses this story as a lead into a discussion about fear, suggesting that open-ended questions can facilitate deep, meaningful conversations and help address these fears.

      She subsequently draws upon the teachings of Psalm 27 to discuss the nature of fear and its frequent mention in the Bible, ultimately offering three solutions to overcome fear: memorizing and meditating on Scripture, prayer, and praising God. Through various personal anecdotes and stories, she underscores the immediate and long-term effects of these practices. Reverend Megles concludes her sermon by recounting the story of William Cowper, an 18th-century English poet and hymn writer who battled fear and depression, yet produced profoundly influential religious songs.

      Transcript

      After graduation from seminary, those who plan to pursue ordination have to take at least one course of CPE, or Clinical Pastoral Education. It’s a group course designed to train prospective pastors, rabbis, priests, and chaplains in real-life situations. My first CPE was with Father Ed Pahanich, an Orthodox priest right here in Pittsburgh. He tried very hard to help me unlearn being a teacher-teller and become more of a compassionate listener.

       It was a hard series of lessons for me because I was used to being an instructor, having been a high school English teacher for many years. I wasn’t used to being the facilitator of a conversation. I was used to telling people things. So this was really tough for me.

       And in fact, I took four CPE courses in my post-seminary education, and I’m still learning how to be a better listener. Well, one of the tools of chaplaincy is to ask open-ended questions, ones that ideally cannot be answered with a yes or no, but require the person to give a thoughtful reply that leads to further conversation. About a year ago, I visited the home of a man in his early 70s who had a rare and aggressive form of cancer. Now, our initial hospice assessment takes about an hour to complete.

       And we take all kinds of information about family and church and job, as well as how well the patient is coping with actually coming on to hospice care. And it’s very hard to ask deep emotional questions on the first visit, but it was especially hard then because of the COVID protocols being in place. And so I was trying to establish an atmosphere of trust and just being comfortable when I have this mask on my face. It was very challenging.

       I mean, I did that for two years and that was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to deal with. Well, Jerry, I’ll call him, was very matter of fact in most of his responses. And it showed the fact that he was getting overwhelmed all the commotion of several strangers coming into his home and asking probing questions. At the end of our interview, I felt the need to ask one of those open-ended questions, and I believe the Holy Spirit prompted me to do what I would normally say for a subsequent visit.

       Jerry, I said, you have been given this cancer diagnosis and are now coming on to hospice care. So there must be a lot going through your head. Tell me, how would you finish this sentence? I am most afraid of. Well, Jerry didn’t hesitate, but immediately he said, of not going to heaven.

       Well, to say the least, I wasn’t expecting that response. His wife, who was sitting on the sofa beside Jerry’s chair, looked at me and said, What did he say? You know, here, we’re all talking through masks. As if she couldn’t believe what she just heard. And I said, He said he’s afraid of not going to heaven.

       Well, much to his wife’s credit, she too asked an open-ended question. She didn’t respond for him by saying, Of course you’re going to heaven. But she wisely asked, Why would you say that? And he responded again without hesitation, Because I’ve never been baptized and I didn’t really go to church much. In fact, he told me later, he said, You know, I don’t really understand why my parents never took me to church.

       It’s like I just missed this whole portion of my life. Well, I could sense the importance of this confession, and immediately I replied, Do you want to be baptized? And his reply was a resounding yes. And so the next time I visited, I confirmed Jerry’s desire to be forgiven of his sins and follow the Lord. And I baptized him right in his living room with his wife there to support him.

       And later he told me that he went upstairs after our visit and he lay down on his bed to rest and he had this overwhelming sense of peace that enveloped him and he knew he didn’t have to fear anymore. Well this morning we’re going to talk about fear using Psalm 27 as our text. In preparing for today, my research turned up a lot of material about fear. I found articles listing seven main types of fear, as well as 10 major fears, 12 common.

       You’ve seen that when you Google something. I mean, some things, they just think there’s a number, there’s something magic, and you know, we get hooked. We click on it, you know? Plus there are more than 400 phobias, five major anxiety disorders, as well as various dreads and panics and horrors and frights. There can be a phobia for almost anything.

       But two that I found interesting are arachibutrophobia, which is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. (audience laughing) Or nomophobia, which is the fear of being without your mobile phone. And that’s a real fear that a lot of people have. To some degree, we all have experienced some sort of phobia or another.

       But generally, the fears that we experience are broader feelings– fear of abandonment, of loss of identity, of failure, of not measuring up. Fear can come on suddenly or be lifelong. We can spend our lives dreading the possibility of poverty or loss of love, of old age, and of death. And if I ask you to finish this sentence today, my biggest fear is, how would you answer? And how can we cope even if we recognize our fears? Well, Psalm 27 invites us to have a renewed faith in the God who will never desert us no matter what happens.

       Life without fear is not possible, but faith can enable us to live into God’s will for our lives, rather than to be confined and hampered by our fears and insecurities. And just as a sideline, I think we have a better understanding of fears having been through COVID. I think it has helped us maybe to at least recognize our vulnerability and our limitations. Well, Psalm 27, a Psalm of David, is what has been termed a composite Psalm because it naturally falls into two sections that seem to contradict each other.

       Verses one through six are bursting with confidence. And this section has been called by some commentators the triumph of a warrior’s faith. This section is altogether joyous and certain. He says, Though a host camp against me, my heart will not fear, and though war rise against me, in spite of this I shall be confident.

       But in the next section, the tone turns despondent and pleading. Do not abandon or forsake me. Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries. The contrast is so marked that some people feel that the two sections were joined by mistake.

       But this change is very characteristic of David’s style. And I would say that it’s also characteristic of our own lives. For are we not elated one day and dejected the next? Praising God for His goodness in the morning and then calling out for God’s intervention by nightfall? I mean, isn’t that how we are? That’s how I am. This psalm was written most likely during the rebellion of King David’s son, Absalom.

       Can you imagine the anguish of your own son trying to kill you? The dread of a younger and stronger man who is out to get you? David was the leader of a mighty army, the king with thousands at his bidding. And yet, here he is, fearful, wondering what’s going to happen next. David begins Psalm 27 with, The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? And just a few verses later, cries out, Do not hide your face from me, O Lord.

       Don’t leave me now. I mean, you can hear the pleading. Show me the right path. And I would have fainted unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord the land of the living.

       All expressions of great fear and anxiety. The Bible is full of references to fear. Angels appear and say what? Fear not. You know? Isaiah 41, Do not fear, I am with you.

       Jesus says, Oh you of little faith, why are you afraid? Paul says, Be anxious about nothing. John says, There is no fear in love. Fear is throughout the Bible referenced to it. And so if we’re afraid, we shouldn’t take that as something unusual.

       Well, so what can we learn from David’s experience of fear? How can we overcome fear in our own lives to wait upon the Lord, to be strong, and let our hearts take courage as David ends the psalm with. I would suggest three ways to combat fear that may appear simple on the surface, but I believe they are included in this psalm and give us the key to dealing with our deepest doubts and insecurities. First, we memorize and meditate on scripture. David says in verse four that he wants to be in God’s house where he can hear and meditate on God’s word.

       Never underestimate the power of scripture. Perhaps many of you memorized verses as a child during Sunday school or vacation Bible school or church camp. I’m glad to hear you’re having a Bible school. And those kids, if you can have verses for them to memorize, they will stick with them.

       and that can have a powerful impact on them. God can and does use those verses to pop up in your thinking whenever you need comfort. Several years ago, my best friend and I went to Presque Isle up near Erie for the day. And we stayed on the beach to watch the beautiful sunset.

       Before we knew it, the sun had set and it got dark pretty quickly. We gathered up all our things and we’re headed to the car when this tall figure came toward us across the sand. Now it was dark, I mean, there was a tiny bit of light, but we couldn’t see anything. So we weren’t able to distinguish who this was, and so we just froze in our tracks, not knowing whether this tall figure meant us help or harm.

       And as we stood there, I think I was too scared to pray, but suddenly I had this sense of peace wash over me. And a verse I had probably learned as a little girl filled my mind, At what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as the man approached and said, Ladies, do you realize the beach is closed now? It was the beach patrol, wanting to clear the area. I can remember standing straight with my friend cringing behind me, holding onto my arm, and then hearing her breathe a sigh of relief.

       In this case, fear was real. But I had committed Psalm 56.3 to memory decades before, and it surfaced in my thinking and brought me comfort. I knew that Psalm 46.

      1 says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble; therefore we will not fear. That was an example of a one-time scary situation, but committing God’s Word to memory can help us through long-term fear as well. God’s Word shows us the character of a loving God who never leaves us, whose right hand holds us fast, to whom the night is as bright as the day—all phrases from Scripture. So first, fear can be overcome through knowing God’s Word.

       Secondly, we can overcome fear through prayer. Prayer can be something to address an immediate situation or as an ongoing request for God’s aid. Sometimes God chooses to answer our prayers instantly. Other times we can pray for years before we see the result we had hoped for.

       When COVID first began to be widespread in early 2020, I woke up one morning having a panic attack. Now, for me, this was really an unusual event. But I sat up in bed with my heart pounding and a sense of utter dread of having to visit nursing homes and hospitals where there were people who had contracted this virus. My mind was racing with all kinds of scenarios where I might get the infection.

       I had read an article about a priest in Italy who, with total disregard for his own safety, administered to hundreds of people with the coronavirus until he finally contracted the illness and died. His selfless actions had brought many unbelieving doctors to faith, but I wasn’t sure I wanted that to be my story too. And so I just desperately prayed out loud, and I said, Lord, you called me to be a hospice chaplain, But I do not want to go through each day with a feeling of panic, which I’m sure my patients would sense. Please, take this anxious feeling away from me.

       When David says in verse 7, Hear, O Lord, when I cry with a loud voice, he wanted an immediate response. And you know what? God answered me. Almost immediately I felt this sense of calm, and I never had a panic attack again, even when I got COVID myself a year later. Many times I had to don all my protective gear from head to toe and pray with COVID patients, but I never felt the dread that I did that morning.

       God can and does sometimes answer prayers immediately. But other times, God’s timing is in years, not minutes or days. Several years ago, I had the privilege of baptizing another hospice patient shortly before he died. His wife was crying, and I asked what caused the tears.

       She said, I’ve been praying for this day for 25 years. For her, Wait on the Lord meant almost all their married life. Remember Jerry at the beginning of the sermon? What is amazing about this story is that Jerry’s son went to Grove City College, where he came to faith in Christ. But his son died of cancer ten years before I met Jerry.

       He had his son’s Bible on the mantle of their home. As I suggested various passages for Jerry to read as a new believer, he would find that his son had marked some of those same verses. And now Jerry was reading with the eyes of faith, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Jerry Junior had prayed for his dad to accept Christ, and that even after the son’s death, God was faithful in reaching Jerry’s heart. Doesn’t that just give you chills? It does.

       We can memorize scripture, and we can pray, and we can praise God. David says in verse six, I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. In verse nine, he affirms, You have been my help.

       We can rehearse God’s blessings to remind us that we can always have confidence in the Lord. I wanna close by sharing a little of the story of William Cowper. He was an 18th century English poet and an Anglican hymn writer. I add his story to say that many who suffer from anxiety or fear or depression struggle with illness that is beyond their control.

       Famous preacher Charles Spurgeon suffered from depression. George Mueller, who established orphanages in 19th century Britain, struggled with constant anxiety but William Cowper whose songs we sing I don’t know if you know the song There is a fountain filled with blood do you know that one? Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins yeah he battled great fear in his life so much so that he had four major mental breakdowns and even tried to commit suicide. But he came under the influence of John Newton, pastor and writer of Amazing Grace. And even though his periods of depression, which he described as scrambling in the dark, even though they weren’t completely over, he came to faith and penned many stirring words of confidence in God.

       In that song, he says, Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die. A fitting epitaph for any Christian. We have fears. That’s a reality.

       We can either be controlled by them or walk with God through them. So how would you complete this sentence, I am most afraid of. Perhaps you’re like Jerry and fear that you won’t go to heaven. God is ready to forgive your sins and give you an eternal home if you desire to follow Him.

       Perhaps you fear that your children will never come to faith. Pray and wait on God’s timing. Maybe you fear old age and its accompanying loss of faculties. Memorize scripture.

       I watched a training video on Alzheimer’s disease, and the presenter said that even with dementia, we still connect to three things, songs, poetry, and prayer. It’s the rhythm of these forms of literature that create a different groove in our brains. So fill your life with hymns and psalms and the beautiful prayers that you read. I’m Anglican and we have the Book of Common Prayer and there are just beautiful prayers in there.

       They will serve you well when your mind just might not. Do you fear loss of purpose or meaning? Perhaps with today’s inflation you fear your pension check won’t cover your expenses or you fear that an old addiction might be too strong for you to resist. Praise God for his character and faithfulness, for his blessings over your life. When you arrive at the answer to what you fear most, trust that God will help you deal with your fears through his word, through prayer, and through praise.

       Verse 14 says, Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. Amen.

    • Fairhaven Sermon 6-11-2023

      Summary

      In Rev. Peg Bowman sermon, she uses Star Wars, specifically a scene from “The Empire Strikes Back,” as a metaphor to discuss the concept of faith in Christianity. She asserts that faith is not a force we control to change things, but rather it is about trusting God and believing that God will do as promised. She notes that faith is not about the success of our prayers or having things turn out as we hope, but instead, it is about trusting God’s wisdom and timing, even when prayers seem unanswered. Rev. Bowman emphasizes that faith, unlike the ‘force’ in Star Wars, is about acknowledging that God is the one with the power and ability, not us.

      She further illustrates the concept of faith through Biblical stories, particularly the stories of Abram (later renamed Abraham) and Matthew, the tax collector. Rev. Bowman emphasizes how Abram demonstrated great faith by following God’s call, despite the risks and challenges, and how that faith resulted in him becoming the father of a multitude. Similarly, she discusses Matthew’s transformation and faith in following Jesus, even though he was a despised tax collector. Rev. Bowman concludes the sermon by encouraging her audience to be audacious in faith, drawing attention to the transformative power of faith, and emphasizing the need to remove societal barriers, promote inclusivity, and spread Jesus’ mercy, forgiveness, and healing to all.

      Transcript

       So I have to confess to a guilty pleasure. Whenever possible, I eat dinner in front of Wheel of Fortune. Don’t ask why. I have no idea.

       Anyway, this past week on Wheel of Fortune, they were having a Star Wars week, and I am a huge Star Wars fan. Yeah, all right. And one of the puzzles, which I figured out before the contestants did, was you don’t know the power of the dark side. You can just hear Darth Vader saying it.

       You don’t know the power. Anyway. Our scripture readings on faith this week remind me of a scene from Star Wars. In the second Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back, where Yoda is teaching Luke Skywalker how to use the force.

       In the process of the training, Luke’s ship, his X-wing starfighter, sinks into the nearby swamp. And Luke tries to raise it using the force, and he fails. And Yoda, who’s only about half Luke’s size, quietly gets up and raises it, and directs it over to the dry land and sets it down. And Luke is astonished and he says, I don’t believe it.

       And Yoda says, That is why you fail. (laughs) This scene, this conversation between Luke and Yoda has become so much a part of our society on so many levels. Even if you’re not a Star Wars fan, It’s out there in the blogosphere and everything. Scenes like this from Star Wars have become somewhat parallel to faith, but the force is exactly not how Christian faith works.

       From time to time, I have heard people say that if something didn’t happen the way they thought it should or the way they prayed it would, like a job offer or a prayer for a friend, if these things don’t work out the way we prayed for them, then the people praying or the person praying didn’t have enough faith. This is exactly not what the Bible teaches. Faith is not a force that we can use to move things and change things. Faith is not a name it and claim it kind of deal.

       The Bible tells us that when we have faith, God does the work. Jesus said if we have faith just the size of a mustard seed, Y’all who garden, you know how big those, how small those things are. Size of mustard, that’s all we need to have. We do not need to work ourselves up into a state of emotion or a state of mind or work up the force or whatever.

       Faith, from our side of the equation, is simply listening to God and trusting God that God will do what God said God will do. God is the one who has the power and the ability. Now, quick side note, for those of us, probably most of us, who are still waiting for some answers to some of our prayers, God sometimes answers prayer by saying yes, sometimes no, sometimes not yet or wait for it, and sometimes we don’t seem to hear any answer at all and we only find out sometime 10 years later that a prayer got answered. We don’t know.

       God may do any number of things in response to prayer. for reasons that we don’t see, and God certainly knows things we don’t know. Our prayer, our part is to trust God and do the best we can in the moment right now. So all of that said is sort of a foundation.

       I wanted to take a look at the examples of faith from our scripture readings today. We basically have two scenarios today. The first in Genesis, where Abram talks to God, and the second in Matthew, where we see Jesus responding to varying levels of faith in the people around him. And I’ll take these in chronological order.

       So the story of Abram, the father of the nation of Israel, the Jewish people, begins in the 11th chapter of Genesis. And up until that point, the book of Genesis has basically been giving us the story of the beginnings of the human race, with highlights on creation, the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, the beginnings of formal religion, Noah and the Ark, and the Tower of Babel. And these stories all tell us, teach us lessons about the nature of God and creation. Now the attention shifts to Abram and his family and their relationship with God.

       And most of the rest of Genesis will be about Abram and his descendants. When Abram meets God, first off, his name is Abram, A-B-R-A-M, which means exalted father. Later on, when God gives Abram the sign of circumcision, Abram is renamed Abraham, with H-A-M at the end, which means father of a multitude. And I imagine that these names are probably very awkward for a man with no children, especially in a society where names had literal meanings.

       How would Abram explain that he has no kids? Even so, God comes to Abram, tells him to pack up and move to Canaan. Now, Abram, according to Jewish scholars, Abram lived in Mesopotamia, which is somewhere around near or in modern-day Iraq. And he traveled roughly 700 miles to the border of Iraq, and then another 700 miles to Syria, and then another 800 miles to Egypt, because when he got to the promised land, when he got there, there was already people there. And so he stopped, as you heard today, he built the altar and kept going.

       So Abram was following God’s lead all this way. Now imagine this, especially for those of you who have moved in your lifetime, maybe for college or for the military or for a job. You know what it’s like to pack up everything you own and all your family and move hundreds of miles away. And Abram did this with a wife and servants and herds of animals and all the tents and all this on the word of God.

       Imagine what it was like for them on that journey of hundreds and hundreds of miles, passing through countries they’d never been in before and cities and towns they had never seen before and meeting people whose languages they didn’t speak. Imagine trying to do business in these places, buying food or selling animals to get money in places they knew nothing about, where they didn’t know the customs. It’s been said that refugees are people of great faith, and this is just one example of how and why that is. People who dare to take such risks know that they are being led by God out of the safety of the familiar and into something new and potentially dangerous.

       God tells Abram, He will be the father of a great nation, and that nation will be blessed. And Abram believes God. God tells Abram his name will be great and he will be a blessing to others. Now the Jewish scholars agree that Abram was not chosen by God because he was any better than any other people or more religious than anyone else.

       Abram was simply God’s choice. And Abram believed God and said yes. And because of that yes, today over 6,000 years later, all Jewish people, all Muslim people and all Christian people trace our physical and/or spiritual roots back to Abram. God’s word to Abram is still true today.

       So when Abram first arrived at Shechem, like I said, God repeated his promise that the land would belong to him and his descendants, and even though the Canaanites were there, Abram trusted God’s promise. He built an altar to the Lord right there and headed down to Egypt, and a few years Years later, at God’s leading, he returned and settled in the Promised Land. By faith, Abram then did become the father of a multitude, as God had promised. That’s another sermon for another day.

       The apostle Paul, when he was teaching the new Christian believers about Abram’s adventures, pointed out that Abram was over 90 years old when God made this promise, and Sarah was well past childbearing years. Paul says Sarah’s womb was technically dead, but God brought life from it. And he says Abram’s faith is a model for us all, something we can aim for in our own lives, to trust God this deeply with our lives. So moving on to the second reading for today from Matthew, we see faith happening all over the place in this one.

       First we meet Matthew, the tax collector. He was a very unpopular guy. I mean, not that anybody likes tax collectors to begin with. Back then it was worse because the tax collectors worked for the Roman government.

       So they were collaborators as well as tax collectors. And they overcharged people and kept the difference. So they were highway robbers of the worst kind. But Jesus chose to call Matthew and not only call him, but invite himself to Matthew’s house for dinner.

       So Matthew, like Abram, got up, left everything, and acted on faith. He gathers together his tax collector buddies and they throw Jesus a big banquet. And meanwhile, the crowd and the Pharisees are shocked and horrified. How could Jesus, a rabbi, and a local Jew, a loyal Jewish citizen, How could he hang out with sinners and traitors? The thing is, though, when Jesus comes into contact with sin or uncleanness, Jesus doesn’t get dirty.

       The dirt gets clean. Like Armorall, dirt doesn’t stick to Jesus. Jesus keeps company with sinners, not so he can look cool and hang out with the sinners, but in order to share his goodness with sinners, and all it takes on the sinner’s part is faith. Immediately after Jesus called Matthew, in fact, maybe even at the banquet, a synagogue leader comes in and asks Jesus to come and touch his daughter who just died.

       And on the way to the house, Jesus is touched by a woman in the crowd who had the flow of blood for 30, 12, sorry, 12 years, which is still unimaginably a long time. Under Jewish law, law of Moses, being involved in either of these events or both would make Jesus ritually unclean. Touch a dead body, unclean. Touch someone with a flow of blood, unclean.

       But when Jesus is involved, The unclean becomes clean, the woman with the flow of blood is healed, and the dead girl is made alive. In both cases, it’s faith that makes the difference, not the kind of faith that people work themselves up into. The woman with the flow of blood simply knew if she touched Jesus’ clothing, she would be well, and that’s exactly what happened. The synagogue ruler knew that if Jesus touched his daughter, she would live, and that’s exactly what happened.

       Not because he believed it would, but because Jesus said so. Jesus told the mourners the girl isn’t dead, and they laughed at him, ’cause they knew dead bodies. They’d seen dead bodies before they knew what dead was. But the girl’s father trusted Jesus rather than the crowd, and she was restored to life.

       Faith begins with God, not with us. Faith begins with God’s call, a call to leave behind what is familiar, to leave behind the ways of things that have always been, and venture into the unknown with God. God’s call always has a purpose, both for the person called and for others, some of whom that person might not ever meet. God’s word to Abram was, In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

       Abram could not have begun to imagine 6,000 years later when millions of people are his descendants, either physically or spiritually or both. There’s no way Abram saw that coming. But Abram sets an example that we can follow. He trusted God and God called that righteousness.

       The result of faith in both of our passages today is that God counts in many people whose society counts out. And Jesus calls us to do the same. To remove barriers, to take down walls, to erase the line between insiders and outsiders, between us and them, so that Jesus’ mercy and forgiveness and wholeness and healing can come to everyone. Real faith, real faith, has an element of audacity and daring about it.

       And I want to encourage us, each one of us, to be audacious for Jesus. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO].

    • Fairhaven Sermon 6-4-2023

      Summary

      In Pastor Peg Bowman’s sermon on Trinity Sunday, she explores the divine mystery of the Trinity and its significance in Christian belief. She suggests that understanding the Trinity is as unique and individual as we are, drawing from sources such as the Bible and nature, and using her personal lens as a musician to comprehend the concept of a creator. She highlights the challenging theological question of how God can be both one and three, but emphasizes that our finite human minds can’t fully grasp the infinite nature of God. Pastor Bowman believes that the more we understand about God, the more humbled we are by our lack of complete understanding. She suggests that God must reveal Himself to us, through creation, nature, the Bible, and Jesus.

      In the second part of her sermon, Pastor Bowman delves into the importance of understanding the Trinity. She proposes three key reasons: it helps to understand the Bible, informs how we approach and understand God, especially in prayer, and reveals God’s relational existence. She presents the Trinity as God the Creator, Jesus (God with us), and God the Holy Spirit, each playing a unique role in the divine manifestation. She utilizes a diagram to try and explain the distinct yet interconnected nature of the Trinity. Furthermore, Pastor Bowman emphasizes our creation in God’s image, pointing to our abilities to think, feel, create, and be in relationships as reflections of God. Finally, she acknowledges the challenge of understanding the Trinity but simplifies it as: God up there (Father), God down here (Son), and God everywhere (Holy Spirit). As a response to God’s care for us, she concludes by exhorting everyone to take good care of God’s creation.

      Excerpt

      Well, as you know, today is Trinity Sunday, or as one writer put it, The week the mystery of the Trinity takes center stage. Today is also the last of the holy days that follow the Easter season, so next week all the church linens and decor go back to green, and we will enter into what is called ordinary time which lasts up until the beginning of Advent. It gives us time to let that large ordinary time gives us time to learn more about what Jesus taught and what he did while he was here on earth. Trinity is also the only holy day in the church year that does not have a person or an event connected to it.
      It is simply a day set aside to appreciate God in all of God’s Godness. Now if someone were to ask, Who is God? Where do we begin? I mean, these days you might be more likely to be asked, How do you even know there is a God? Which is a different question altogether, but it’s good to have an answer ready just in case. How do we know that God is really out there? What is it that convinces us of that? And I think the answer to that question in a way is as individual as each one of us is individual. Many of us look to the Bible as a source of knowledge about God, and I think that’s a good place to start.
      Many of us look to nature to see what God has done, to see God’s handiwork, and I think that’s a good place to start. For me personally, I begin to understand God from a musical point of view, as a musician. I know that a symphony can’t exist without a composer, that a song cannot exist without a songwriter, and in the same way a creation can’t exist without a creator. With that foundation, I then turn to the Bible to hear what the creator has to say.
      The Bible tells us about a God who is both one and three, three persons, the book says, yet the word Trinity is not in the Bible. So how can someone be both one and three at the same time? And the best scholarly minds in human history have wrestled with this question for hundreds of years, and they still have a hard time explaining it. As one Bible scholar said, Trying to describe the Trinity is not rocket science, it’s worse. And then there’s the question of how finite human minds can comprehend the infinite.
      How can we, who are bound to this earth, begin to describe the creator of all the universe? It really is impossible, because God is too big and too wise. And the more we think about God, the more we become overwhelmed by what little we know. And the more we understand about God, the more it humbles us, because there is so much we still don’t understand. God’s mysterious nature requires brains much bigger than mine, for sure.
      And if we’re going to know God, therefore God must reveal God’s self to us. God must make God’s self known. And that’s what creation and nature and the Bible and Jesus are all about. So when we talk about God as a Trinity, what are we saying? And a person might also ask, Why do the powers that be in our churches think it’s important for people in the pew to tackle this concept that has mystified the best theologians for centuries.
      Why do they bring it to us? Well, I’ll answer that question first with three possible answers. First off, understanding the Trinity helps us to understand the Bible as we read it. Secondly, understanding the Trinity helps us to understand God and how we can approach God in prayer and how God listens to prayer and how God answers prayer. And third, Trinity shows us that God exists in relationship.
      And so when God created human beings in God’s image, included in that image was and is the fact that we are created to be in relationship with each other, with God, and with the rest of creation. So the Bible describes God with many different words. God the Creator, God the Father, God the Sustainer, God who is Spirit moving in and through all things. The Bible says that in Him we live and move and have our being.
      God created all that is. And I am not arguing against evolution when I say all this. God has many tools to work with in his woodshed out there. And some of us, some of these we know and some we don’t know about yet.
      We’re still learning how God did the job. We also have Jesus, who is God with us, God in the flesh, who came to show us and teach us what God is like, and who came to live the perfect life that we are not able to live, and to give himself in love on the cross to heal and restore and redeem God’s broken people. We also have God the Holy Spirit, who we talked about last week at Pentecost, that part of God that lives in us when and if we invite the Spirit to come in. The Holy Spirit is that part of God who guides us and gives us gifts and keeps us and maintains us in God’s kingdom.
      So with all that as sort of foundational, are we any closer to understanding the Trinity? Just in case not, which ’cause I’ve known this stuff in my head for years, but it still doesn’t quite become clear, if you would put that illustration up, please, there we go. I first saw this, I was walking around in a large church, and I walked into a Christian ed classroom, and I saw this on the blackboard, and I thought, actually I stared at it for about 20 minutes, right? If this helps, take a look at this, okay, God is in the center. God is the Father, God is the Holy Spirit, God is the Son, but the Father is not the Son, the Father is not the Holy Spirit, the Son is not the Holy Spirit. Does that help? I haven’t got 20 minutes to let you stare at all this, I will put this up on the web if you’re interested.
      This helped me actually a little bit, it just kind of give it some organization, you know, some place to start. If it helps, great, if not, don’t worry about it. The thing is, is that God is just too much for us to get our minds around, God is way beyond us. At the same time, the Bible does tell us that we were made in God’s image.
      And how can this be if God is a spirit? The good book must be talking about who we are in here. Our ability to think, our ability to feel, our ability to share, our ability to be in relationship, our ability to create, all of these things and more. Reflect who God is. It’s God’s reflection in us.
      Having said all this, let me just try approaching this a different direction altogether. When I was a kid, I always felt closest to God when I was lying on my back at the top of our tree house on a summer night. When the stars were clear and it felt like you could see forever. And there is something about the awesomeness of God, I think, that can only be grasped when you’re staring into the stars on a summer night.
      And of course, the first thought that comes to mind is, wow. And this overwhelming feeling of how tiny I am in all of creation. I felt like I’d get lost amongst all those stars, and I felt like it would take a thousand lifetimes just to find out if there’s any life out there on those planets that were circling the stars, all those suns, and yes, even at the age of seven or eight, I knew that those stars were other suns, I watched Star Trek. And of course, the other question that comes to mind at a time like this is, God, are you really out there? How can I reach you? I’m so small, and I’m down here, and you’re out there.
      It’s a holy question. And I think it’s a question which I think that has best been answered in Psalm 8, which we read just a few moments ago. Listen to this again, the words of David, Oh Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Describes perfectly the feeling of being out under the stars.
      And reading this verse again in Hebrew, the original language, the translation is actually more like, Oh, Yahweh, our Adonai, how majestic is your name. Yahweh is the name that means I am, or I will be who I will be. And then Adonai, which means our Lord. God’s name is I am.
      That’s the name that he gave to Moses when Moses said, Who shall I tell them sent me? Tell them I am sent you. My first reaction to that was, You are what? You are holy, you are gracious, you are kind, you are good, what? And then the understanding came, not any of this, just I am. Not I was, not I will be, just I am forever. God is the foundation of reality.
      Without God, nothing is. Nothing is. Which is why I love that verse in Genesis which we heard a moment ago where God says, Let there be light, and there was light. The original English translation, which was published back in like the 1500s, translates the verse this way.
      God said, Light be made, and light was made. Just like that. The God who is speaks and things are. God is, I am, blight be made.
      Historical side note on that. The translator of that first English Bible back in the 1500s was William Tyndale. He paid for that translation with his life. In those days, it was illegal in any Catholic country, and there were no Protestant countries yet, to have a Bible in any language other than Latin.
      Tyndale was convinced that people should hear God’s Word in their own language, and he was martyred so that we could have God’s Word in our language. Something to think about the Sunday after Memorial Day. One other thing to point out from the story of creation in Genesis, in verse 26 of Genesis The text says, Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image.’ And the translation, that translation is correct.
      Let us make humankind in our image. The words are plural. The Bible says that God is one, and this is true. But God also has within God’s self, as we have mentioned today, three persons, for lack of a better term.
      When God talks to God’s self, God can answer God’s self and not be going crazy. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can discuss things amongst oneself. And we see this happening in the first book of Genesis. As for us mortals, relationships make up our lives because they make up God’s life.
      We are created in God’s image. We are relational because God is relational. And this is an important word to hear, I think, in a world where loneliness and racism and xenophobia and other forms of division are epidemic. And this is also why COVID was so hard to bear, because it isolated us.
      Restoring our world begins with restoring relationships. One other side note, in some religious circles, people like to emphasize the divisions between male and female roles in the church. When we’re looking at the Old Testament, which we are today, it’s wise to listen to what the Jewish scholars say because they’ve been wrestling with these texts for thousands of years more than we have. Jewish scholars have always personified wisdom as female.
      So in this passage in Genesis, Jewish scholars read the Holy Spirit as being somewhat feminine, And they are not alone in that interpretation. Christian Bible scholars also believe that the Holy Trinity includes what we would call both feminine and masculine attributes. End of side note. So getting back to the Trinity, if this helps any, one theologian I read described the Trinity this way, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he said, God up there, God down here, and God everywhere.
      Right? God up there, Son, God down here, Spirit, God everywhere. That, I think, clears it up a little bit. The triune God, this Trinity, is our King, our Protector, our Provider, our Lord, and our Friend. God does all this for God’s people everywhere all around the world.
      And in response, God calls all of us to take good care of God’s creation, what God has given us, everything that God gives us here on this earth. Popping back for a moment to David’s words in the psalm, I think back to that starry summer night. In my opinion, the very best words to describe that moment are these. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established, what are human beings that you are mindful of them, and mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.
      Glory and honor, that’s what you and I share. It’s a reflection of God’s character and goodness. Knowing that God has given us all this in God’s self. Today on Trinity Sunday, we give glory and honor to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
      Amen.

    • The Spring Shower Pantry Challenge

      Updated 6-4-2023

      Week The Fairhaven Trustees Choir, Musicians, Pastors United Women in Faith
      April 30 12 10 37
      May 7 29 64 53
      May 14 9 18 62
      May 21 13 4 106
      May 28 38 137 37
      Total 101 233 258
      Winners
      The Spring Shower Pantry Challenge brought in a total of 592 items.

      Are you looking for a fun and impactful way to support your community this spring? Look no further than the Spring Shower the Pantry Challenge! This challenge encourages individuals to donate food items to support three different teams:

      • The Fairhaven Trustees (TFT)
      • Choir, Musicians, Pastors (CMP – Winter winners!)
      • United Women in Faith (UFW – Formerly UMW)

      How to Participate

      To participate in the Spring Shower the Pantry Challenge, simply choose which team you would like to support and bring in food items to place in the designated bin in the first-floor hallway. You can switch up the team you support each week, making it a fun and engaging challenge for everyone involved. After church each week, the items will be counted to determine which team is in the lead for the fabulous PANTRY TROPHY.

      What to Donate

      Each week, there will be a suggested list of items to donate.

      • April 30th, the focus will be on canned proteins, boxed meals, or soups.
      • May 7th, the focus will be on breakfast foods or canned fruits or vegetables.
      • May 14th is the perfect time to donate peanut butter and jelly or puddings that do not require refrigeration.
      • May 21st, consider donating pasta sauce, pasta, or canned pasta meals.
      • May 28th, the focus will be on household essentials such as toilet paper, paper towels, kleenex, and wipes.

      Right now, we have plenty of crackers, candy, and other snack items. Please pick from the list above.

      Please no glass items.

      Support Your Community Through Food Donations

      Participating in the Spring Shower the Pantry Challenge is a great way to support your community and those in need. Food insecurity is a growing problem in many areas, and donating even a few items can make a big difference. Plus, the challenge is a fun and engaging way to bring people together and support a great cause.

      In conclusion, if you’re looking for a fun and impactful way to support your community this spring, consider participating in the Spring Shower the Pantry Challenge. With three different teams to support and a variety of items to donate, everyone can get involved and make a difference. Together, we can help alleviate food insecurity and support those in need.