The Father -- A Message for May 26, 2024

 

Scripture Luke 11:2-4 

 

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 

 He said to them, “When you pray, say: 

“‘Father, 
hallowed be your name, 
your kingdom come. 
Give us each day our daily bread. 
Forgive us our sins, 
    for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. 
And lead us not into temptation.’” 

 

Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen. 

 

Let us pray:  

Dear Lord,  

May I not speak from myself or for myself, but from You and for Your glory. May I speak with Your wisdom and truth, and not that of the world’s wisdom and truth.  

I pray that You will open our eyes and hearts to what You want us to learn today. 

In Jesus’ Name,  

Amen. 

Message                                The Father 

 

Aida is right on the cusp of saying words...She has been practicing her consonants and trying out her voice...babababa, dadadada, mamama, papapa. We are looking forward to her coming up with names for us.... I expect to be Mama and Andy expects to be Papa. We are not sure what she is going to call her sisters and her niece, but I suspect we will learn soon.  

The names we give our parents are usually our first words.... We give the people closest to us in relationship the names we will call them for years to come. Eventually, Mama may morph into Mom, but Aida will probably not ever call me Amelie or Pastor Amelie or Mrs. Castillo. We have special, intimate names for the people who are closest to us.  

When Jesus taught his followers to pray, he did not refer to God in a formal, distanced manner.  Jesus called God “Abba” -- or Daddy in English. Jesus wanted his followers, wanted us, to relate to God in a loving, familiar way – God is Daddy.  

This morning, we begin to focus on the prayer Jesus taught us to pray: The Lord’s Prayer. Most Christians recite this prayer together during our worship services. The prayer is found in two of the Gospels of the New Testament: Matthew and Luke. The version of the prayer in Matthew is slightly longer. Biblical scholars do not know why the prayers are slightly different. In Matthew, the Lord’s prayer is said as part of the Sermon on the Mount. Scholars have suggested that Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount a year earlier than the incident recorded in Luke when the disciple asked Jesus how to pray. The questioner was possibly a newer disciple of Jesus, a disciple who did not become one of Jesus’ followers until after the Sermon on the Mount was delivered. So, this disciple wanted to know how Jesus taught his followers to pray, and he missed the teaching the first time Jesus explained.  

Jesus starts his prayer using an intimate, familiar name for God: Abba. Jesus wants his followers to have a close, comfortable relationship with God. God is not referred to as Adoni (Lord). In the first century, many Jewish people referred to God as Adoni.  Instead, Jesus called God “Abba” -- Daddy – Papa. 

Many churches, particularly those on the more liberal end of the spectrum, have modified how they say the Lord’s Prayer and no longer start it by saying “Our Father.” Instead, they may say “Blessed One, our Father and our Mother” or “Father and Mother of Us All.” Why the change? As we are aware, many people have difficult relationships with their biological parents, with their biological fathers. Many people have had absent fathers, or abusive fathers, or troubled fathers. And some people who have had troubled relationships with their fathers' bristle at calling God “Father.” The name Father has negative baggage for them.  

Jesus does not want us to have negative baggage we associate with God. He wants us to see God as the epitome of love – a loving parent, a loving Creator, who loves and nurtures us as an idealized parent loves their precious children.  

When Jesus described God to his followers, he described God as being attentive and responsive to God’s followers. God listens to our prayers and responds to them. God is good and faithful. Earthly parents may fail us, but God never fails us. God shares God’s Holy Spirit with us and is therefore constantly present with us. Our God forgives us and loves us with a mercy that is incomparable to the mercy humans extend to each other.  

Jesus shared parables with his followers to amplify his teachings. When Jesus described a loving father, he told the parable of the Prodigal Son. A son rudely requested his inheritance before his father died and then ran off and wasted it on frivolous activities. The son fell into poverty and was eating food worse than the food fed to pigs. So, he decided to return to his father’s home and ask to be a servant in the household. The son hoped his father would at least allow him to work in his household. But, when the father saw his son returning from a long way off – he rushed to meet him, showered him with food and gifts, and welcomed him home with open arms. 

We don’t always feel like we are doing the best job of following God. We don’t always honor God the way we are taught to honor God. We don’t pray as often as we think we should. We don’t consistently follow the Ten Commandments or the Greatest Commandment that tells us to love God and Love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. We don’t read the Bible as much as we think we should. Despite our failings, and despite our sins, God loves us. God forgives us. And God showers us with mercy and grace. 

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, when we pray all the prayers we say, let us remember that we can speak to God as a close and intimate friend.... we can think of God as our loving parent. Let us take comfort in knowing God loves us and cherishes us as God’s beloved children. God is our Creator, our Comforter, and our Guide. 

Thanks be to God. Amen! 

Spirit for All -- A Message for Pentecost 2024

 

Scripture John 17:6-19 

 

⁶ “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.  

⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.  

⁸ For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.  

⁹ I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.  

¹⁰ All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.  

¹¹ I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.  

¹² While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 

¹³ “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.  

¹⁴ I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.  

¹⁵ My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.  

¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.  

¹⁷ Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.  

¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.  

¹⁹ For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. 

 

Message                     Guided in Prayer 

On this Mother’s Day morning, I am very aware of the effects of mothering.  I suspect that I am going to be perpetually tired, especially since Aida is not sleeping through the night. I remember my mother telling me that once you become a mom, you never sleep deeply in the same way again. Now I know the accuracy of her statement. 

In addition to waking up with Aida, I just wake up a lot in the night anyway. A few evenings ago, I woke up because I had a stressful dream, an “anxiety dream.” In my dream, I was supposed to lead a Bible study, at a church that was not Trinity, on a Sunday morning in the 45 minutes between our Wired Word Class and Trinity’s worship service. I had to rush to the other church and then rush back here. And, in my dream, as I was rushing, I remembered that I had not prepared anything to say at the Bible Study.  

I was panicking in my dream about not being prepared. Then I remembered that I could teach a lesson on prayer that I had used with elementary school aged children. In my dream, I then worried if it would be inappropriate to lead adults in prayer exercise that children could understand. 

I woke up from the dream at about 3 am, and then had a good hour or so to contemplate it before I fell back asleep.... When it comes to teaching people prayer techniques, is it inappropriate to instruct adults and children to use the same strategies? I do not think so, because God hears every prayer we say not matter how eloquent or how basic it is.  

Today’s reading is another portion of the lengthy sermon and teaching Jesus said to his disciples just before his crucifixion. We read a different portion of it in worship last Sunday. In today’s portion, Jesus prays...Jesus prays for himself. Jesus prays for the Disciples. Jesus prays for the church. And, then Jesus prays for all people. 

Although this pray of Jesus is not typically used as a model to base our prayers on, maybe it should be. Jesus was preparing for his crucifixion. He knew he was about to undergo a stressful arrest and trial. He knew he would die a terrible death. I think it is fair that Jesus prayed for himself. He prayed for strength and endurance. He prayed that he would be brave. He prayed that he could endure the pain. 

Many of us have also prayed similar prayers for ourselves. When we hear a frightening diagnosis or hear of the death of a loved one, we need to pray prayers for ourselves too. Asking God to be with us amid our time of trial is reassuring. We also need to feel free to ask God for strength and endurance. We also need to ask God to help us be brave and endure the pain. We need to be assured that God will walk with us during our time of fear and suffering.  

Jesus prayed for his Disciples. He wanted them to be comforted and strengthened by God’s Holy Spirit so they would be ok as Jesus underwent his own time of trial. And we do this too.... We pray for the people we are closest to in our lives.... We pray for our partners. We pray for our parents. We pray for our children. We pray for the people we love the most. I suspect our tendency is to pray more for the people we love than we pray for ourselves. We want them to be safe, comfortable, and reassured. Oftentimes, we are willing to suffer so that the people we love will not have to suffer. 

Jesus prayed for the church. We must pray for the people who make up the church. Here at Trinity, we are a small congregation. We know when the Christ’s are on vacation and when Andy has a cold. We notice when people are away. As members of this little body of Christ, we are called to pray on behalf of each other. We are called upon to bear each other’s burdens and share each other’s loads. When a member of our congregation suffers, we suffer alongside them. When a member of this congregation rejoices, we rejoice alongside them. We must pray for the people of this church, and for the people of the universal church, our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Jesus prayed for all of humanity. We are called to be like Jesus, to pray for people who are suffering and hurting throughout the world. We must pray for people who are hungry and thirsty and do not have access to nutritious food or clean drinking water. We must pray for people who have inadequate housing, the homeless people living in tents, in church fellowship halls, and their cars. We must pray for people who live in unsafe places—people who live in the war-torn cities of Ukraine and Palestine, people who live in countries led by dictators, people who live in neighborhoods with gang violence and turf wars. We must pray for refugees and undocumented immigrants and pray for the end of what caused them to become refugees or risk immigrating to a place they are not invited to live. We must pray for the victims of abuse, for the victims of natural disasters, and for the victims of human-made disasters. We must pray for people who are lonely and those who are depressed and those who are addicted. We must pray for the victims of bullies and for the people who become bullies. We must pray for those who are unjustly imprisoned and that people who are justly imprisoned will be reformed. We must pray for all of humanity. 

Jesus’ is a role-model for us in how he showed compassion for the people he loved and for how he showed compassion for himself. When he prayed his prayer that we reflect on this morning, he wanted everyone to feel God’s love and support as they lived through trials and tribulations. Jesus prayed for us. Let us pray for each other and for the people of our world who need support. 

Amen.    

Guided in Prayer -- A Message for May 12, 2024

 

Scripture John 17:6-19 

 

⁶ “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.  

⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.  

⁸ For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.  

⁹ I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.  

¹⁰ All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.  

¹¹ I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.  

¹² While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 

¹³ “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.  

¹⁴ I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.  

¹⁵ My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.  

¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.  

¹⁷ Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.  

¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.  

¹⁹ For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. 

 

Message                     Guided in Prayer 

On this Mother’s Day morning, I am very aware of the effects of mothering.  I suspect that I am going to be perpetually tired, especially since Aida is not sleeping through the night. I remember my mother telling me that once you become a mom, you never sleep deeply in the same way again. Now I know the accuracy of her statement. 

In addition to waking up with Aida, I just wake up a lot in the night anyway. A few evenings ago, I woke up because I had a stressful dream, an “anxiety dream.” In my dream, I was supposed to lead a Bible study, at a church that was not Trinity, on a Sunday morning in the 45 minutes between our Wired Word Class and Trinity’s worship service. I had to rush to the other church and then rush back here. And, in my dream, as I was rushing, I remembered that I had not prepared anything to say at the Bible Study.  

I was panicking in my dream about not being prepared. Then I remembered that I could teach a lesson on prayer that I had used with elementary school aged children. In my dream, I then worried if it would be inappropriate to lead adults in prayer exercise that children could understand. 

I woke up from the dream at about 3 am, and then had a good hour or so to contemplate it before I fell back asleep.... When it comes to teaching people prayer techniques, is it inappropriate to instruct adults and children to use the same strategies? I do not think so, because God hears every prayer we say not matter how eloquent or how basic it is.  

Today’s reading is another portion of the lengthy sermon and teaching Jesus said to his disciples just before his crucifixion. We read a different portion of it in worship last Sunday. In today’s portion, Jesus prays...Jesus prays for himself. Jesus prays for the Disciples. Jesus prays for the church. And, then Jesus prays for all people. 

Although this pray of Jesus is not typically used as a model to base our prayers on, maybe it should be. Jesus was preparing for his crucifixion. He knew he was about to undergo a stressful arrest and trial. He knew he would die a terrible death. I think it is fair that Jesus prayed for himself. He prayed for strength and endurance. He prayed that he would be brave. He prayed that he could endure the pain. 

Many of us have also prayed similar prayers for ourselves. When we hear a frightening diagnosis or hear of the death of a loved one, we need to pray prayers for ourselves too. Asking God to be with us amid our time of trial is reassuring. We also need to feel free to ask God for strength and endurance. We also need to ask God to help us be brave and endure the pain. We need to be assured that God will walk with us during our time of fear and suffering.  

Jesus prayed for his Disciples. He wanted them to be comforted and strengthened by God’s Holy Spirit so they would be ok as Jesus underwent his own time of trial. And we do this too.... We pray for the people we are closest to in our lives.... We pray for our partners. We pray for our parents. We pray for our children. We pray for the people we love the most. I suspect our tendency is to pray more for the people we love than we pray for ourselves. We want them to be safe, comfortable, and reassured. Oftentimes, we are willing to suffer so that the people we love will not have to suffer. 

Jesus prayed for the church. We must pray for the people who make up the church. Here at Trinity, we are a small congregation. We know when the Christ’s are on vacation and when Andy has a cold. We notice when people are away. As members of this little body of Christ, we are called to pray on behalf of each other. We are called upon to bear each other’s burdens and share each other’s loads. When a member of our congregation suffers, we suffer alongside them. When a member of this congregation rejoices, we rejoice alongside them. We must pray for the people of this church, and for the people of the universal church, our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Jesus prayed for all of humanity. We are called to be like Jesus, to pray for people who are suffering and hurting throughout the world. We must pray for people who are hungry and thirsty and do not have access to nutritious food or clean drinking water. We must pray for people who have inadequate housing, the homeless people living in tents, in church fellowship halls, and their cars. We must pray for people who live in unsafe places—people who live in the war-torn cities of Ukraine and Palestine, people who live in countries led by dictators, people who live in neighborhoods with gang violence and turf wars. We must pray for refugees and undocumented immigrants and pray for the end of what caused them to become refugees or risk immigrating to a place they are not invited to live. We must pray for the victims of abuse, for the victims of natural disasters, and for the victims of human-made disasters. We must pray for people who are lonely and those who are depressed and those who are addicted. We must pray for the victims of bullies and for the people who become bullies. We must pray for those who are unjustly imprisoned and that people who are justly imprisoned will be reformed. We must pray for all of humanity. 

Jesus’ is a role-model for us in how he showed compassion for the people he loved and for how he showed compassion for himself. When he prayed his prayer that we reflect on this morning, he wanted everyone to feel God’s love and support as they lived through trials and tribulations. Jesus prayed for us. Let us pray for each other and for the people of our world who need support. 

Amen.    

Friends Together -- A Message for May 5, 2024

Scripture  John 15:9-17 

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  

¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.  

¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  

¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  

¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  

¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command.  

¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  

¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.  

¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other. 

Message          Friends Together  

This morning, we read a portion of a lengthy passage of Jesus’ words found in the book of John. This teaching was given by Jesus just before his crucifixion. Jesus was working to prepare his disciples for life without him.  

Before Jesus departed for the next stage in his journey as our savior, he wanted his friends to be prepared to continue his ministry. Jesus understood group-dynamics – when [n established group’s leader suddenly departs, the group can suddenly implode. In recent history, when John Lennon told the other Beatles he was leaving the group, the other members of the band did not continue together for long. When there is a power vacuum or a power imbalance, many groups falter and die. Jesus did not want this to happen to his followers. So, he gave them a new commandment – they should first and foremost love one another.  

Love for our peers can cut through tricky relationship dynamics.  Jesus understood it would take a while before his friends would be ok after his departure – he knew they would struggle after the events surrounding his death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven. After Jesus ascended to heaven, his friends were terrified and sad. When people are grieving, they can be emotionally brittle. Little nuisances they would have previously ignored could become major points of contention. Annoyances they would have overlooked when they felt safe and secure with Jesus could have led to the group falling apart. Jesus wanted them to love each other. When we love other people, we can overlook and forgive them even when they hurt our feelings or make us angry. 

In today’s passage, another thing Jesus did was change the power structure of his relationship with his disciples. Before this moment, he was their Rabbi – their teacher and spiritual leader. The disciples were his followers and servants....” top-down.” Jesus neutralizes the power-dynamic in their group by saying that he would no longer see the disciples as his servants; instead, they were all going to be friends. The disciples and Jesus were peers. 

As followers of Jesus, we are all part of the body of Christ. We each have a unique role to play as part of that body. We are not all the same.... God does not call us to be carbon copies of each other. Some of us are called to be Sunday school teachers. Some of us are called to be Food Pantry volunteers. Some of us are called to sing in the choir. Some of us are called to be prayer warriors. Each of us has a role to play to support the congregation and the body of Christ. 

While we are fulfilling our unique role in the body of Christ, we must remember we are called to love and support each other. We need to work together to build God’s kingdom here on earth. Love will help us overcome the obstacles we face as individuals and as the community of faith. Love will also help us to overlook each other’s faults.  

Throughout our lives, we will come upon situations that will be difficult for us to accomplish on our own. Harry, alone, will not be able to cook and serve one-hundred and fifty chicken barbecue meals on May 18. But, working together, we will successfully cook and serve our meals in a few weeks. Melissa, alone, will not be able to run Vacation Bible School for forty children.... she will not be able to teach the Bible lessons, lead the games, instruct the crafters, cook the snacks, and make the banner with the kids. But, working together, we will make a successful and fun Vacation Bible School for the kids. If you came to church next Sunday, and i tried to play the piano, and sing the hymns as solos, and sing the choir anthem, and collect the offering, and pass out the bulletins, your ears would bleed, and you would probably fall asleep. But working together, singing together, praying together, we beautifully worship and praise God. 

Jesus told his friends he no longer related to them as master to servants. We are also friends with Jesus. Like the old song says, “Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?” and “In his arms he’ll take and shield you, you will find a solace there.” Jesus is kind of friend we need and is the kind of friend we should be to each other: loving, supportive, comforting, and kind. Let us work to love like Jesus and be friends like Jesus. Amen.