Noes for Sermon:Gratitude in a Culture of Complaint

I plan to complain about complaining.Complaints poison gratitude.

Outrage culture feeds complaint.Complaints emerge from anxiety often. Complaints often characterize marital communication.It certainlty applies to in-laws.

It seems to be a prized form of communication, one that is mistaken for being honest, candid, authentic. It blinds one to good points and options and presents a laser-like focus on issues. worse, these issues are usually about pmere preferences.I wish would we honor progress specifically instead of rotely saying the word. When I was born, parents were afraid of the polio summers. When I was born, racial segregation in public schools just went down. Few organizations suffer from this malady as much as congregations. Ungrateful is a nasty word. Telling someone to be grateful for all they have rarely works and may well increase complaints about what one lacks Having one’s cup runneth over does not seem to increase a sense of gratitude Ungrateful/Ungracious is a nasty word-good.

Grace and gratitude are core elements in the Reformed tradition. It is difficult for us to accept a gift without wanting reciprocity. Thanks does not come naturally. Remember the look on your child’s face when you tried to teach them to say thank you for something they were convinced they deserved and should be given in the first place.

one of two of you may be as old as me. Remember the fear of polio summers? Remember lying in a dark room because of measles? Psalms have plenty of laments but plenty of prayers of thanks, of gratitude-Jesus gave thanks and so do we at the Communion table.

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” ― Thích Nhất Hạnh, Peace Is Every Step

“In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” ― Meister Eckhart-

Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.” ― Thomas Merton

Spiritual practices-gottmann- healthy relationship has five positive interactions for every one complaint or criticism-Indeed one could define best friends as those to whom we complain about spouses-v. The Irish wedding blessing of no cross word ever being uttered about the spouse in public-example in CC piece-wrote a thank you note a day practice can create a pattern or even a feeling over time

the antural world breaqthes praise and thanks every wakign momebnt-we cna learn

A basic word for thanksgiving in the NT is eucharist Sometimes, it is the same word as grace itself. In Hebrew the word  In Hebrew it is often related to worship.  or to bless. A balanced prayer life that includes thanksgiving is a good start. The great theologian Bart simpson said we paid for this stuff ourselves,, so thanks for nothing. Jimmy Stewart in Shenandoah:Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvest it. We cook the harvest. It wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be eating it if we hadn't done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you Lord just the same for the food we're about to eat, amen. Mom experience with Protestant grace.

Sermon Notes Christ the King 11/22-Rev. 1:4-8, Jn 18, Jer.23

Nov. 22-Christ the King Rev. 1:4-8, John 18:33-37, 2 Sam . 23   

Christ is not the  the last name of Jesus. Christians hold  that it is an eternal aspect of God. to give  it focus,  a pope declared Christ the King Sunday until 1925. On the other hand, Calvin long ago emphasized three roles, office  of christ, as priest, prophet, and king.-kingship not of this world-truth and kingship God’s way in the world. The source of the power of Christ is god’s. this world is god’s own.

We used the notion to make an easy move: the Church should be allied with the exercise of power. sometimes it was state-imposed power, an established church, a state church. sometimes it was cultural power, respect, money, grandeur. the church made that mistake when it adopted  every fancier  clerical appoointments to mirror the excesses of princes.It is filled with irony, as older Protestant churches celebrate it, but now the older churches of the Protestant founding era are in decline in this new century.The newer sectors of the Chrsitan faith are almost unrecognizable to many as it seems to morph into a motivational exercise for success.Maybe that is not all bad. After all, the church lacked that sort of power in its early days.

called the ruler of kings of the earth in Revelation-kingdom of priest of Exodus in a new key

(In Jer 23;hopes for a messianic king of justice and righteousness)

In Christ we see still a reversal of kingly power-source is god not inheritance or revolution the Cross shifts the notion of kingship rather directly.That second miracle. What if the sign of Jesus walking on the water was about, as Douglas John Hall writes, Jesus’ presence and compassion enabling “ordinary, insecure and timid persons…to walk where they feared to walk before?” Torrance-if Christ rules, it is with the hands with the imprint of the nails-so the firstborn of the dead, the resurrected one, the living one.

In the exercise of Christ’s kingly office, Calvin says, “God mediately, so to speak, wills to rule and protect the church in Christ’s person” [emphasis mine] in order for “Christ [to stand] in our midst, to lead us little by little to a firm union with God.”... Union with Christ, in the person of the Mediator, who remains God-man permanently, will lead finally to visio Dei, when the saints will “see his [the Father’s] majesty face to face.”. (quodlibet?) Against what we see and experience daily, another power exists in heaven; it intersects with the earth but it is not the same as earthy powers-

To speak of Christ the king is the crucified one.Reversal of exaltation and power, not its extension. Cosmic Christ Not coercion but following by invitation. Not acquisition, but gift.this is the exaltation of service to others, even if it means handing down one’s life, not taking one.Christ the king is a point of entry into the world. As the Pope realized almost a century ago, that requires that the state give room, free space, for religion to exist  alongside of it. It is God working in the most surprising places.

time embraced in JC, past, present, and future. Alpha and the omega, the A to Z.Rohr-We’ve turned Christianity into that evacuation plan for the next world. The term “cosmic Christ” reminds us that everything and everyone belongs... We’re indeed the body of Christ. God’s hope for humanity is that one day we will all recognize that the divine dwelling place is all of creation. Christ comes again whenever we see that matter and spirit coexist. This truly deserves to be called good news.

Devotional Pts. week of Nov. 22

Sunday-Ps.132 is a psalm of a dream of restoration and an element of the messianic hope.With Jesus as Messiah, how do you see the crown gleaming (v. 18)? What is your hope in the Second Advent of Christ? Monday Daniel 12:1-3. We all have moments when being scared has the potential to bind us and hold it over us. The words of Daniel 12 come to us from a community in anguish and scared of the things happening around them. The great apocalyptic visions of heroic princes and names written in the book served to comfort the people in the midst of their being scared. God has not forsaken them; in fact, God continues to fight for them and on the final day, when the trumpet sounds, God will indeed raise them from the dead with their lights shining like the bright sky and shining stars. (God Pause)

Tuesday-Our culture is fascinated with things like the zombie apocalypse. Why do you think this is so? How does this relate, if at all, to the end times in Mark 13 and other biblical texts? (If you haven't read Brian Blount's book "Invasion of the Dead, Preaching Resurrection"

Wednesday-"You understand so little of what is around you because you do not use what is within you" Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), in Scivias.

Thursday-Thomas Merton-"we have now reached a stage of (long-overdue) religious maturity at which it may be possible for someone to remain perfectly faithful to a Christian and Western monastic commitment and yet to learn in depth from, say, a Buddhist or Hindu discipline and experience."

Friday-Pope Francis told a gathering of Italian bishops that the church can and must change. "We are not living in an era of change but a change of era....Before the problems of the church it is not useful to search for solutions in conservatism or fundamentalism, in the restoration of obsolete conduct and forms that no longer have the capacity of being significant culturally." We are a church "semper reformanda," always to be reformed. Note that is a Presbyterian watchword as well, please.

Saturday-Hebrews 10:11-14 Inscribed on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's makeshift prison altar-table was the Greek word 'eph'hapax' meaning "once-for-all." It testifies that Christ's death on the cross was a sacrifice made "once-for-all," and that "all" includes you, me, and the whole world. . We did not ask for it--we received it as a gift. Done. Finished. (God Pause)

Veterans Day Column

Veterans Day used to be called Armistice Day. It refers to the cessation of fighting for World War I on the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month, 1918. We’re in the the hundredth anniversary of that bloodshed.  Let’s quickly review the loss of life in that mechanized advent of 20^th century warfare. The marking of the day changed into Veterans Day in 1954 after the untold losses of WWII and the losses suffered in Korea by congressional amendment. From all causes over 100,00 Americans died in our limited involvement  WWI. This is dwarfed by the 17 million killed in the entire conflict.

As Sassoon wrote:

“They leave their trenches, going over the top, 
While time ticks blank and busy on their wrists, 
And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists, 
Flounders in mud. O Jesus, make it stop!”

In my memory, the village where I was raised did not mark the day very much. Sometimes a small gathering was held at the memorial on the hill toward the Catholic church. When I went into bars for lunch, sometimes the men would mutter some words about the war, meaning WWII. Vietnam did not seem to enter their notion of war. I do recall that when I served Mass on Veterans Day, we prayed for Gold Star mothers and widows, and I still see the pain etched in the bowed faces of women in the church. I grasp the meaning of the red flowers for vets, and the reference to ‘Flanders Field. I am pleased that veterans are offered tokens of appreciation today: the free food, the oil changes, etc.  At the same time, it feels a bit tinny to me, as the token does not match  the tasks they undertook.

This would be a good time to try to collect and collate memories of veterans. One of my regrets is that  I have no access to my father’s tour in the Merchant Marine during WWII. That generation and those that follow are often reluctant to speak of their experiences, but maybe they do have some stories to share, as in the veteran projects that try to hold that living history before the elderly vets pass on.

I find Veterans Day difficult in Christian churches that live for the Prince of Peace. Granted, many churches hold to just war positions. Others maintain a more pacifist stance. In our time, we are threatened by the church standing utterly with a martial culture. We cannot celebrate warriors in wars won or lost, even as we honor their martial virtues and the deep example of sacrifice, indeed of laying down one’s life for a friend.” In churches, wars are a cause for mourning and work for peace to return.

the church could do well in remembering not only those who fought in the armed services but also the casualties of war, military and civilian. As a prayer from the Episcopal church reads we pray for veterans of all wars, including those who “live with injured bodies and traumatized spirits to receive your solace and healing.

We ask that those who are unable to pray for themselves will receive the blessings of our prayers offered on their behalf. Bring peace to those places where our women and men have fought. Bless those who served in non-combatant roles. May their service continue in their lives and may that service be positive for all of us.

Give us the vision to see a world in which all grow weary with war and fighting, and turn their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. These things we ask in the name of the Prince of Peace. Amen.” 

Sermon Notes Nov. 15-I Samuel, 1,2

Nov. 15, I Sam. 1, 2 Heb. 10:11-14

I will skip over the apocalyptic imagery of the gospel. We have time to return to it as Advent approaches. Also, I am still embarrassed that another Christian group thought that the world was going to end a few Wednesdays ago.Still, Hannah’s story is one of endings and new beginnings, part of  the apocalyptic framework.

Hannah’s name means grace. this is a picture of God’s vision for the world too. In her trouble, Hannhah prays.It comes at a cost due to her vow. See ps. 18, 113, and Mary’s song. Representative of national need. Infertility seems to be on the increase in our time.Few things create such a yearning, yawning void in a life. the males are of little help elkanah like many men thinks it is about himself. He does try to comfort her, but what can he say?  He does try to be of some comfort, as he tries to assure her of his love.then she has to deal with Peninah (Jewel). One senses that she sees real rivalry here, as Hannah is favored but the second wife has the offspring, so it is reminiscent of the Jacob story.she is not the favorite, but she knows she should be.(Elkanah-God created))

Let’s spend some time speculating about Elkanah and Penninah. I assume he could afford two wives. He is caught in a bit of an emotional  tangle. I can just imagine him busting his buttons at the birth of Samuel and the five other children-I still got it..

.It must be a tough  issue to be a less loved wife. She has done everything right, but her husband does not  hold her in the same regard as Hannah. She is then insecure about her position in the family.So she lashes out in resentment and frustration-what about me? she makes an enemy of Hannah.(I hear more than a bit of Cinderella’s stepmother and sisters in her opponent). Her great prayer ends with not by might  does one prevail.”

Eli misunderstands her fervent prayer.Hannah. She is the one who drives the action. It is her voice we hear more than any other. She is the subject of the key verbs. Knowing the book of Judges we freeze and Hannah offers her son to god, as we fear that he will be a child sacrifice, not devoted to service in the shrine of sacrifice and pilgrimage. Hannah  prays in the face of wrongful  rebuke about being drunk , and ultimately conceives, bears, and even names her son.  Hannah’s song is politically explosive. We tend to try to keep a wall of separation between religious practice  and the world of politics and economics. Hannah sees a personal gift as a signal to a society.Mary will follow its structure for her own surprise birth about one thousand years later. Hannah’s son Samuel will anoint David as a new king, and the New Testament has Jesus to be known as a son of David.

Some of us resemble Elkanah or Penninah more than Hannah. God’s grace extends to them all. I hope that the two women could find common ground,. common cause and that elkanah became less self-focused. God works with material at hand with infinite patience. Christ as sacrifice and priest, as the entryway to the presence-move beyond the religious rites to a person and through a person. Jesus is not confused priest such as Eli.New life seems ot be a fundamental purpose for God. It is a fundamental spiritual drive from emptiness to fullness as well, from lifeless to lively and promoting life itself.

Devotional Pts for week of Nov. 15

Sunday-Psalm for the day is replaced with Hannah’s song in I Sam. 2:1-10. I tis a precursor to Mary;s great hymn, the Magnificat. Notice how seamlessly they both move from personal experience to being representatives of a new social order. When do you notice such an appeal to justice in your own prayer life? Monday-Mark 12:38-44 What owns you? What do you own? There are many things in our lives to which this aphorism might apply: "_____ is a great servant but a bad master." I might frequently fill in the blank with things like money, habits, food, etc. What is there in your life or ministry which presently needs to be reoriented to the place of a servant rather than a master? Are we aware of our capacity to let go, and then allow what we release and commend to God to truly usher in God's Kingdom? God of all provision, help us see our intentions as sacred possibilities that we may abide in the fullness of contributing to your work in this world through the labors of our hands. Amen. Russell Britton

Tuesday-Romans 3:19-28In a world where we are constantly evaluated, for us to          continually hear the gospel message of grace as in today's reading from Romans is a must. From a very early age we are measured and evaluated; it doesn't take long before we are able to offer those words of critique to ourselves, almost without being prompted. In so many ways, often times without even being aware of it, we are met with messages that seek to assess our worth through grades, relationships, body image, fashion, or even others' opinions. In this world, it is vital to hear a word of grace. Even as adults, we may have become so calloused that, if we do not hear a word of grace, soon even our self-talk becomes tainted with how we measure up. It is at times like this that I need to hear, "[we] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." The final word for us is not all those other messages that seek to critique, but we our God's Word of grace in Christ Jesus. We are enough because Jesus declares it to be so. From God Pause Wednesday-Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.” — Karl A. Menninger Thursday-"True detachment means that I don’t over-identify with any emotion that flows through me. I allow myself to experience it, but I recognize that the emotion does not define who I am."--- Christine Valters Paintner, Friday-"O hard heart ... why do you rejoice and laugh like a madman in the midst of such misery while the Wisdom of the Father weeps over you?"Miroslav Volf Saturday-Psalm 146 What verbs would describe the ways you experience God at   work in your life of faith at the present time? Verses seven and eight suggests some words to capture God's engagement in our world--God sets, opens, lifts, loves and watches. Today in the United States elections are taking place which will simultaneously excite and disappoint people of good mind, heart and conviction. How will God show forth through what is enacted this day? R. Britton

Column on Christ the King

The church year and the calendar year do not coincide very often.. The church year comes to a close with Christ the King Sunday, and then we start a new church year with Advent. Pope Pius XI announced it only in 1925. As fascism was starting to take hold in Europe, the Pope wished to assert that governments should not seek to claim the role or status of the church in some sort of unholy union.  Religious people like to play around with the very notion of time, so that we may often say that a closing opens into something new.

For Americans, our democratic heritage makes it difficult to use the words king and kingdom easily. In my Reformed (Calvinist) tradition, Calvin divided the roles of Christ as priest, prophet, and king to fit the Biblical sense of anointing where we get the word messiah or Christ in Hebrew and Greek respectively. In our church this Sunday, we may read from the Barmen Declaration where the German church saw itself being absorbed into Hitler’s ideology, so it both asserted free space for the Church and  to the state. ”We reject...as though there were areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ, but to other lords...we reject that the church could appropriate the characteristics of the state.”

The kingly role is seen in Jesus as the opposite of what we expect in a king. Jesus did not exercise power over others. Jesus sought and seeks to empower others. Tradition sees it as rule over the church-protection from enemies-in guidance and in the push to a future where god’s way at long last finally takes command in human life but the life of the cosmos , the universe. Jesus frequently spoke of a kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven. Years ago, the Who sang Love Reign O’er Me, and that captures a bit of the sense of what we mean by the kingdom of God.

Christ the King looks forward because it is so difficult to detect the growth of God’s vision for us in a world so marred by injustice and violence. If we speak of Christ the king, we cannot speak of a reign over such a sorry mess.

It is a useful addition to our image of Jesus to celebrate Christ the king as future judge of all, a judicial function with the executive function, if you will. Take a look on Google images for Christ pantocrator, ruler of all. This is not an image of Jesus meek and mild. This is a stern visage, one of ill-concealed despair at what we do to each other, at times, in the name of religion.

In our ecological age, the kingly role of Jesus does extend to the cosmos. Most notably, we get a glimpse of it in Colossians 1 and Rev. 1 and 21. Jesus Christ holds all things together. In a world seeming to be caught in a whirl of centrifugal forces, this is good news indeed. In Jesus Christ cohesion occurs for our inner life and the glue that hold creation together. There the one who will be seen a slain little lamb is indeed the Alpha and Omega, the A and Z, the first and last, and the living one, there in God’s own abode..

A group of gentlemen gather in our church every Monday. they struggle with  holding the kingdom to heaven after death. Perhaps, we look at Christ the king less as a ruler of a location but the presence of God inside of us and engaged in the human and environment every second. To regard Christ as king is to see the world, a bit, through the eyes of God.

sermon Notes ruth 3,4 Mk.12:38-44

“What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life - to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?”

― John Irving, A Widow for One Year-Naomi and her family went to foreign Moab in a desperate attempt for food. In their exile, Naomi’s sons marry foreign women, usually a bad sign for Israelite culture. They are widowed. Desperate Naomi trudges back home as she hear that life has improved. One daughter-in-law will not stay home but pledges loyalty to Naomi. They are back home in Bethlehem (house of bread), the poorest of the poor. Ruth knows only Naomi and gathers bits of what is left during a harvest of barley.I love this story as Naomi regains her name and her youth. Ruth finds a new family.We have another book in the Bible named for a woman.

Without Social Security, widows were often in desperate plights in ancient times. Hebrew ethics placed them at the top of the list of care for the needy.Life appears  into another generation as she and Boaz have a son, even though she had no children in her first marriage., even though Boaz calls himself old.My favorite rotary meeting is our monthly student of the month award. their child will have David as a descendant, so that means Jesus is counted in the lineage of Ruth and Boaz. The great have their source in the desperate struggle of a pair of widows.Boaz get rejuvenated as well. Ruth was married for some years and widowed. He notes that she has not  gone with younger men, so let’s assume he is on the mature side. They have a child together.Every child is a signal of hope for a new future. They name their child Obed, servant or worshipper.Earlier Ruth has promised her all to stay with Naomi. Jesus gets the same sense of the poor widow..

They were supposed to be taken care of by family members, but apparently they were often left to struggle on their own. I sometimes suspect that Mary was widowed, and that Jesus’s concern for widows was accentuated even from the adherence to basic social mores Jesus has a good sense of marginal utility, something we seem to have lost of late. A dollar to someone rich is nothing but it can be all that a poor person has. The widow’s contribution will not get her a brick on a walkway or a on the wall of the stewardship campaign.Langknecht- "What's the point of my small acts of faithfulness? Why bother? Even if I liquidate all my assets and give them to the poor, I might provide enough for one small soup kitchen to feed one hundred homeless for a week. But if I don't liquidate my assets, I fail to demonstrate my total trust in the provision of God.

We do well in our country to think seriously about facing becoming widowed. Not only do we suffer the loss of a life partner, but it has what some call secondary losses too. Friends may not invite you to couples parties any more, or a bridge game. You lose a doubles partner for pickleball.It is a big switch to go to a concert by yourself.children and grandchildren are wonders but they are not a spouse.I hea rthe word commu nity get thrown around lately, when people mean neighborhood. Community (SSP)  treat us as companions in common cause. We can and should do better than consigning people to being alone.May widows find community.

Pts. to Ponder for week of Nov. 8

Sunday-Ps.127-speaks of eating the bread of anxious toil. Few of us eat bread of toil without anxiety. further it goes on to offer the gift of sleep to God’;s beloved., or that God provides for the beloved during sleep. Sleep is a mini-sabbath. somehow the world rotates and revolves without us being awake.

Monday-“To suppose that a direct road leads from art, or morals, or science or even from religion to God is sentimental liberal self-deception.” K. Barth Epistle to the Romans p. 337.

Tuesday-As is well known, the most persistent heresy battled by the early church was one or another form of gnosticism, the belief that the physical world is evil and deficient and that salvation (for the soul alone) can be achieved by grasping the right gnosis or knowledge. The late modern fetishism of information (i.e., knowledge), along with imaginings of the consciousness escaping into virtual reality or a sophisticated computer, is a contemporary form of gnosticism. For gnosticism, sin is a “fall” of the soul or consciousness into the imprisoning body. In this view the body is a cage of mere “meat” that might be jettisoned to great advantage. The body and soul are not integral: the body is not essential to personhood....Rodney Clapp, Tortured Wonders,

Wednesday-"Let all creation help you to praise God. Give yourself the rest you need. When you are walking alone, listen to the sermon preached to you by the flowers, the trees, the shrubs, the sky, the sun and the whole world. Notice how they preach to you a sermon full of love, of praise of God, and how they invite you to proclaim the greatness of the one who has given them being."

— St. Paul of the Cross

Thursday-...the heart is like a castle that we must keep and that, in spite of all its splendor, is “drafty with lonely.” Left on our own, “this heart is too hard to heat.”You can seal up the pain, build walls in the hallways,Close off a small room to live in.But those walls will remain, and keep you there always And you’ll never know why you were given the lonely. David Wilcox

Friday-When you discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life."---Jean Shinoda Bolen-During this beautiful season of autumn, do you think maybe we should make room for a tree or two? Macrina Wiederkehr

Saturday-“The sacred scriptures offer wisdom across time and space, meeting us in each moment of our lives.”--- Christine Valters Paintner,

Draft of column on Servant Leadership

I heard Jeb Bush use a phrase I had not heard in a while, servant leadership. At a pastor’s retreat, we had a focus on the same theme. The church in America has been hit with a flurry of business materials under the rubric of leadership. Lately, the leadership materials emphasize a charismatic leadership who has vision more than goals, who values change as a good in and of itself: the leader as agent of change. One hears the phrase transformation a good deal in church circles, against the mere model of management that could be termed transactions.

The very phrase is to induce a sense of paradox. Do not servants serve leaders?  In the model of servant leadership, the leader is not after self-aggrandizement prestige or personal power. Power is a tool to help the group and the members of the group find space and permission to discover their best skills, indeed, their best self. Both means and ends are important within this framework. People are not ever to be seen as mere pawns, mere tools of power, but as ends in themselves, intrinsically valuable. Quite simply, one wants to be their best for others.

Servile leadership is not the same as servant leadership. The servant leader does not consider oneself as nothing, nor does the servant leader throw all ego strength to the ruler(s). Some minority groups and those who have suffered under top-down leadership approaches back away from this understanding, with good reason. It is the contention of this model that it can seek to lift everyone up, not only the leader. Surely strides for equality are not served by the fear of the old rock group The Who; “meet the new boss/same as the old boss.”

Servant leadership at the church level seeks to have the pastor follow the lessons of leadership in the New Testament. Jesus repeatedly warns against power over others, coercive means, and instead invites people to an emerging movement, perhaps better put, to develop living within a vision of god’s way in the world, the kingdom of heaven. For instance, in Mark 10:35-45 Jesus speaks against being a tyrant, but to serve all. In John 13 Jesus reverses expectation and washes the feet of his disciples.

We have incommensurate demands for the leaders we desire, politically or religiously. I cannot even imagine one person who possesses the gifts we desire in one package: speaking gifts, powerful skill with people in small groups and one on one, and attention to detail and specific policies and outcomes. Even if a leader has those qualities, if one preference of ours is violated we want to throw the bums out. The reaction of sports radio: to fire the coach and start anew has infiltrated the domain of political and organizational approaches. We may see a powerful leader as optimal at a time of crisis, but not during ordinary times. Too many times, I have seen churches say that want a little Napoleon in church only to discover quickly that they want more dispersal of powers.

We also tend to define leadership with a few attributes such as strength, courage. Servant leadership sees leadership as being able to use a whole variety of attributes and qualities and to seek out one’s weak spots in others. For instance, President Reagan was a consummate public speak but poor on detail. President Carter was detail-oriented, but he was not a magnetic public spe3aker. Few pastors are good in the pulpit, in a hospital room, in a teaching setting, and as administrators. Different situations call for different sets of gifts. As we mature, we discover that we do not need parental figures, but we are able of shouldering the adult responsibilities of leadership as they may arise.

All Saints Sermon Notes-Rev. 21, John 11, Is. 25, Ps. 24

All Saints Day 2015-Is. 25:6-9, Rev. 21:1-6, John 11:32-44, Ps. 24-

A perfect day to talk about death, and heaven- All Christians talk a good game about death being defeated at Easter, but the old Halloween Grim Reaper scares us most of the time.. -Isaiah’s section here imagines an end to the power of death the shroud that lies on the earth. It imagines not a wake but a banquet of celebration closer to a wedding, with rich food, fat foods. Death was pictured as a ravening beast that swallowed up life. Now it s being pictured as a victim of being swallowed by life itself.. God will dwell/tent with us here. God says no more, enough is enough. CS Lewis wrote of a new Narnia, a deeper Narnia where no good thing is destroyed.Tears will be dried, and the cause for tears of lament  will be gone. Martha’s tears turned to tears of joy at the resurrection of Lazarus.It seems that the God of life cannot let death be the end.Pictures a city as a banquet hall.

Koester-The first heaven and earth that pass away (21:1) constitute the world in which death was operative. To take death out of the picture is to bring about a new world.-Peterson-God will wipe away every tear .  The promise is not only that God will wipe away any tears that might happen to linger on our cheeks after that Last Day, but that God will reach back through time to wipe away all the pained tears ever shed.

God will not just comfort us and help us to forget the bad things, but God will redeem the whole sorry story of human history. .. The tears that God must wipe away are not only the tears we shed, but also the tears we cause. Yet, "our eyes are fixed on a distant horizon" (Long Accompanying: 40).Our readings this morning look forward to that distant horizon when Death will be banished from the kingdom of God. As Moltmann said one day Death will die and Hell can go to hell."  At long last, the last enemy will be cast into the outer darkness. The cause of so much pain and misery will be removed. In heaven, eternal life and worship life will be mingled together, in a seamless garment of life. 

With God bringing us into a new world, our lives will count  for something more than the discrete sum of events and experiences. they will be connected to the life of God and the countless other lives on this planet. In heaven the resurrected will live with the Living Resurrected One.God has all the time in the world for us.Revelation says that God's dwelling place will be with us.,in God, united in the peace and restoration of God. Those afflicted with dementia will have their memories and their best selves restored. those who wake up in the morning with pain could run and dance again. In heaven, we will have all the time in the world to come to know God and each other, face to face,  I love the phrase I first heard in process theology, "in God nothing worth saving is ever lost.". I do believe in the life of the world to come. We yearn for a place where are dreams for peace, justice, fulfillment will meet in salvation's halls. In the end, heaven is all about life with God, so the images we draw of all the good we associate with God gets imagined in heaven. Heaven will be what we need, how we need it, as we live together in what our souls crave, for all the time in the world.