Sermons

 

 

 

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June 15, 2025  Trinity Sunday  Father’s Day

Psalm 8

John 16: 12-15

In Good Company

Elk Grove Presbyterian Church

Dexter McNamara

Father’s Day and Trinity Sunday:

–A day to honor and think about and be thankful for fathers…our own fathers, as well as other “fathers” who have been important to us in our life journeys.

–And a day to worship and think about and be thankful for that Holy Other whom we refer to as our Heavenly Father, one part of what we call the Holy Trinity.

As I often do, I’m going to ramble about some in this sermon, try to tie together a number of different pieces around several key words: Father, Trinity, Unity, Truth, Remember, Command.

That’s right, six key words.  Presbyterians preachers are taught to never have more than three points in a sermon. But, I did tell you I was going to do some rambling.

Father can refer to a person or a set of values, along with that Holy Being. How we think about each of those depends upon what we have experienced and what we have been taught. We can have positive thoughts and feeling about “father” as a person or that Holy Being if our experience and what we have been taught can be characterized as loving and nurturing and forgiving and welcoming. Not so positive, perhaps even deeply damaging, if our experience and what we have been taught is otherwise… “father” as rather distant or cold or disinterested, or stern and demanding and judgmental and punishing, even abusive.  

Through the ages, that Holy Being — God — has been characterized in any and all of those ways.

But it’s clear to me that by his words and his actions, Jesus presented God as a loving father, yearning to bring each of us and humanity itself back into fellowship with God and with one another, like that father waiting for the return of the prodigal son.

That’s the Good News of the Gospel, and we have the choice of how we will respond to that Good News…a choice that can lead to hope and love and compassion and service, or a choice that can lead to fear and animosity and alienation.

It is the image of a loving father that is central to the concept of the Trinity, a Holy Unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, different aspects or personalities of the One True God. The doctrine or dogma of the Trinity can be debated endlessly. Christian faith depends upon being open to and trusting a mystery that debating will never resolve.

I want us to look at two scriptures that mention the Trinity.

In the New Revised Standard Version translation of the Bible, the Gospel according to Matthew ends with these words: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.  And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” “Baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Those are the words that have been used in the Sacrament of baptism for 2,000 years. Those were the words used when Claudia was baptized last week on Pentecost Sunday. Baptism is a sign of the power and presence of the Trinity. Being baptized represents a person’s openness to that Trinity. Then Matthew’s Gospel concluded with the words…and remember I am with you always.

In this morning’s reading in John, Jesus was speaking about the Unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and our relationship to that Unity. We are drawn into that Unity, joining that relationship. That’s why I titled this sermon “In Good Company” — good company with that Trinity, good company with other people of faith. And in that speech, Jesus said “When the Spirit comes, he will guide you into all truth.” “Guide you.” That means those disciples and we still have more to learn about truth, that discovering truth is a life-long journey. This text is saying that through the Spirit, God can lead us to greater and deeper understandings as we go through the years.

I like what Richard Rohr wrote about how to approach the Bible. “How can we look at the Bible in a manner that will convert or change us? I am going to define the Bible in a new way for some of you.

The Bible is an honest conversation about where power really is. All spiritual texts, including the Bible, are books whose primary focus lies outside of themselves, in the Holy Mystery.”

The idea of the Bible pointing to a Holy Mystery beyond itself should lead us to always ask 

whether the goal of Bible study and “Chrisitan education” is to create people who have quick and easy answers to often deep and painful questions, or to help us and other people become humble searchers for God and truth. 

Now, about those words Truth and Remember that we encountered in Matthew and John. Jesus had earlier said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” He had also said “You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.” And today, these words about the Spirit leading you to all Truth.

I learned that in each of those instances, the Greek word for Truth was aletheia. Here’s what I found interesting: the word letheia, without the “a” at the front, means “to forget.” The “a” at the front negates letheia. So aletheia means “not forgetting.” The same is true in English: the word “moral” is negated by putting an “a” at the front — “amoral,” “not moral.” So, in the Greek, “truth” –“aletheia” — involves “not forgetting.” Jesus said “Remember, I am with you always.”

Knowing the truth means to not forget our past. I think that’s true for us as individuals, as a church, as a nation. We don’t live in the past, but we need to learn from the past, not to forget the past. 

Case in point. As one historian noted, “in the years after the Cicil War, Southern states created the story of the ‘Lost Cause,’ which romanticized the ‘Old South’ and the Confederate war effort, often distorting history in the process.” (Thank you, “Gone With the Wind.”) “That is an important example of public memory, one in which nostalgia for the Confederate past was accompanied by a collective forgetting of the horrors of slavery.” Frederick Douglass worked to counter that attempt, often, as that historian said, “telling the nation a history it did not wish to hear.”  Douglass said: “Memory was given to man for some wise purpose. The past is the mirror in which we may discern the dim outline of the future.” When some said don’t talk about the past, he said, “Remember (truly) that all the present rests on all the past.”

That’s a challenge for our nation right now, as many seem determined to forget or try to erase the past.

 As Christians, I believe the Gospel calls us to learn from the past, even as we move forward into God’s future. Prof. Gilberto Ruiz asked “Can we, like John, trust the Spirit to guide us in discerning what it means to live out Christian faith today? The question we are left with is whether we will listen to the Spirit and be open to newer and deeper understandings of our faith and to the implications of Jesus’s revelation for us today.”

Truth…Remember

Then there’s that sixth word for today — Command. Simply put, Jesus commands us to share love and hope and reconciliation and justice, and to seek to right the wrongs imposed on people and creation itself by people and systems whose overwhelming goal is the acquisition of power and wealth.

So, I will finish with a little challenge for me and you related to that command: To ponder how we allow the Holy Trinity to impact and transform our minds, our hearts, and our feet and hands.

That is: 

–are we becoming more conscious?

–are we becoming more compassionate?

–with our feet and hands, are we comporting ourselves more like Jesus (behaving more like Jesus)?

The Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us, commands us, to become more conscious, to become more compassionate, to behave more like Jesus.

The Trinity is a theological formula. Thank God for that.

Behaving more like Jesus is where the Spirit wants to lead us.

Thanks be to God.  Amen.

 

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June 8, 2025  Pentecost Sunday

 

Psalm 104: 24-34

Acts 2: 1-21

Inspired for Action

Elk Grove Presbyterian Church

Dexter McNamara

In the 21 verses in Acts that I will read in a couple of moments, I see a rather simple warning for us:

“Beware…for God’s Spirit may just take you places you could never even imagine that you might go.”

But before I read those 21 verses, I want to put them in context of the two books written by Luke: the Gospel of Luke and Acts.

After the crucifixion, the book of Luke told of disciples discovering the empty tomb early that Sunday morning. That afternoon, two disciples were walking to Emmaus when they encountered Jesus, but did not recognize him until he broke bread for them. They rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the others about that and were told that Jesus had appeared to Simon Peter. Then Jesus was right there with them. He asked for and ate some food, then explained the scriptures to them. Finally, Jesus said: “I am going to send you what my Father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” The book of Luke concludes with Jesus leading those followers out to near Bethany, where he was taken up into heaven, apparently on that same night. They went back to Jerusalem “with great joy…” and were continually praising God in the Temple. End of the Book of Luke.

The book of Acts begins by giving a different account of Jesus post-resurrection appearances, saying he appeared to his followers over a period of 40 days before being taken into heaven, but also telling them to stay in Jerusalem until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. The still confused or slow to learn disciples then asked him: “is it now that you’re going to restore the kingdom of Israel?” Jesus basically responded: “Don’t worry about that. But when the Holy Spirit comes to you, you will become my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Then he was taken into heaven.

That’s the context. Why is that important? Well, as one commentator noted: “A text…taken out of context…is most likely a pretext…” a pretext being used to simply prove some point the speaker has previously decided she or he wanted to make. I’m trying not to do that with scripture, but trying to see the text for what it is, even if the text is sometimes confusing.

Okay…today’s reading, verses 1-21 of the second chapter on Acts. Read Acts2:1-21

 I’ll start by characterizing Pentecost this way: 2000 years ago, the Holy Spirit brought Holy Chaos. 

To those 120 frightened and uncertain people quietly gathered in that room in Jerusalem, that holy wind and those tongues of fire that touched all of them, men and women alike, utterly transformed them into people boldly proclaiming the wonder and glory of God, and forever changed their relationships with one another, with their extended families, with their Jewish religion and culture, and with their Roman overlords.

Holy Chaos 

Prof. Brian Peterson wrote: “The community that had gathered in Jesus’ name is now made into something that they were not before:  prophets of God’s word, messengers of the good news of Jesus. That transforming Spirit was given to all of them, apparently not just the eleven plus Matthias, but the larger community of 120 which was described in Acts 1:15.”

Holy Chaos

And that’s what the Holy Spirit can bring into our own lives in our own times. Prof.  Peterson continued: “The portrayal of the Spirit in Acts is disturbing. Who knows where such a Spirit might blow? Being a disciple of Jesus in this windstorm will bring the church, and us along with it, 

to unexpected places, and unexpected grace. “

I want use two pairs of words to briefly talk about Pentecost and the power and work of the Spirit, both 2000 years ago and today. Two pairs of words: Ecstasy and Service; Unity and Uniformity (which I had also talked about last week).

First: Ecstasy and Service

The word ecstasy can be used to describe great happiness: “I’m ecstatic about winning the lottery!”

But the word itself combines two ideas:

–ec or extra…meaning “outside” or “beyond,” like an “extraterrestrial” …ET.

–and “stasis” or “static”…as in unmoving or stable. “Homeostasis” refers to stable health conditions (which is something many of us struggle with, but that’s an entirely different story). So, ecstasy can refer to that which is outside the normal or usual or static. And the coming of the spirit to those 120 disciples was certainly that. It was beyond anything they had ever experienced before. They had an “ecstatic” encounter with the Holy.

You and I may have had such an encounter, or encounters. Perhaps as noisy and dramatic as what happened in that room in Jerusalem, or perhaps as quiet and seemingly undramatic as experiencing God’s loving presence in some profound way. Either way, we can feel we have been touched by God’s Spirit moving us beyond the ordinary, the usual, beyond “stasis.”

I just saw a little article in TIME about how being open to wonder and awe —  looking at a starry night sky, marveling at a perfect snowflake,  looking at the veins of a leaf — can have an impact on feelings of depression. Study leader Maria Monroy said: “Awe can be found anywhere and everywhere.”

Awe takes us beyond ourselves…a little ecstatic experience.

Those first disciples had an ecstatic experience.

But where did that experience move those disciples, and where might it move us?

 

Toward service…whatever form that may take. The immediate result for those disciples was in moving them to witness to that crowd about Jesus Christ. The long-term result was that they were moved out into the world: witnessing and healing and teaching; drawing people together into worshipping communities; and lifting up a vision of a world reflecting God’s grace, not humanity’s greed for power and wealth.

 

That’s where the Spirit has been moving Jesus’ followers for 2000 years. That’s where the Spirit will always be moving each one of us, whatever form that takes for you and me. That’s where the Spirit will always be moving Elk Grove Presbyterian Church. That’s where the Spirit will always be moving our denomination (that’s the purpose of this morning’s special offering).

God given ecstasy leads to service. World religions scholar Karen Armstrong says it this way:

“No spirituality is valid unless it results in practical compassion.” 

Spirituality and practical compassion. Ecstasy and service. We see that in this Pentecost event in Jerusalem. And that is and will continue to be part of our own journey with Christ.

Then there’s Unity and Uniformity. Actually, unity without uniformity. Each person in that crowd heard Peter’s words in their own language. The Spirit recognized and honored diversity, the amazing range of differences in God’s children. In essence, a great unity was experienced without uniformity.

And that would continue to be how the Spirit worked in the early church, and in the church today.

And not just regarding language, but culture and ethnicity and nationality. You’ve heard me say “God meets us where we are.” The Gospel calls us to meet people where they are. That means being willing to listen more than we talk, (which can be quite hard for us preacher types). We are to truly hear who that person is, rather than simply telling them what we know or believe. And we need to be willing to trust that God’s Spirit will touch lives in ways we do not control and may never understand.

Prof. Gilberto Ruiz wrote: “Does Acts’ famous Pentecost scene call us to imagine a unity that is monolingual and univocal, a church with only one language and one voice? Or, can we strive for unity without erasing difference, but rather affirming it? Is the Spirit found in a church where all members look, think, and act alike, or in a church that works together and takes difference as a starting point for manifesting the Spirit?”

Pentecost is about INSPIRATION …the coming into us of the Holy Spirit.

And Pentecost is about SERVICE…the Spirit sending us out to love and listen and be with and pray with.

And who knows where that Spirit will lead us? That’s part of the glory and the wonder of God’s grace.

Thanks be to God. 

Amen. 

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June 1, 2025  7^th Sunday of Easter     Communion

Psalm97

John 17: 20-26

The Challenge and Hope of Unity

Elk Grove Presbyterian Church

Dexter McNamara

“In particularity there is universality.” That’s from Nicholas Wolterstorff’s book LAMENT FOR A SON, a very personal account of the deep pain he experienced when his 25-year-old son died in a mountain climbing accident. As he received letters of appreciation telling him how much his sharing about his pain resonated with others’ own experiences of loss, whether another’s loss also involved the death of a child, of whatever age, or a parent or sibling or spouse, even a beloved pet, maybe a divorce or a fire that destroyed a family home — Wolterstorff realized that as different as the “particulars” of other peoples’ loss may be, there is a “universality” in the hurt and pain and anguish that people experience, a “universality” that can allow people to feel a deep bond with others, a deep sense of our common humanity, even when the specifics of our loss may be very different. 

“In particularity there is universality.”

That came to mind as I thought about this rather difficult passage in John and how it applies to us in Elk Grove Presbyterian Church, to the Presbyterian Church (USA), and to the worldwide Christian Church.

Let’s start with some thoughts about this passage itself.

This “Prayer for all Believers” comes at the very end of what’s known as the “Farewell Discourse” in chapters 13-17 of John. What immediately followed was Jesus and his disciples leaving Jerusalem, walking about half a mile across the Kidron Valley and up to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus’ arrest would take place.  

So, what we read was John’s account of the final instructions Jesus had for his disciples before the crucifixion. Thus, we might think of these words as what John wanted them — and us — to most remember about Jesus’ message about himself and God and them and others.

I see two central themes in these verses. First, a rather complex theological theme about the relationship between the Father and the Son and the relationship of the Father and the Son with Jesus’ followers. There are  Jesus’ words about “you are in me and I am in you,” “I am in them and you are in me,” “you sent me and have loved them even as you loved me.” Hours could be and have been spent on those important theological ideas.

 But, this morning, I simply want to focus on the second theme: Unity. “I pray that they may be one as we are one,” “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”  

How is the world going to know about God’s unique love in Jesus Christ? Through the unity of believers. That’s the hope and the challenge of the Gospel.

And John knew about that challenge. John knew that unity had not been easy among Jesus earliest followers — those 12 men Jesus pulled together to be his Apostles: a few fishermen, a tax collector, maybe a couple of revolutionaries. Add to that a group of women who had been accepted by Jesus and then followed and supported him in a time when women had virtually no status in that religion and culture. For those followers of Jesus, as different as they may have been, their unity would depend upon their shared relationship with Christ. 

And John also knew that unity had been difficult in the church of the first century. There had been great joy and hope among Christians as Paul and others went out preaching and healing and founding churches around the Mediterranean world. What an exciting movement they were a part of. But there had also been the disillusionment so many felt when the return of Jesus had not happened. And so many of the early leaders and other followers had died or been executed. Add to that the anguish and disappointment over the divisions and conflicts that arose both within individual churches and in wider church. 

John recounted Jesus’ prayer that there would be unity among his followers. Unfortunately, seeking unity in the declaration that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior far too often lost out to divisions because of different groups or churches demanding uniformity under one leader or another, or adherence to a particular set of doctrines, creeds, or rituals. “This is what it means to be a Christian…” or…  “This is how Christians are to behave.” All to often, a sense of unity in Christ was sacrificed in the name of particular faith experiences and demands. 

And so it went through the centuries, not so much UNITY IN CHRIST as one group or another’s demand to follow their particular definition about Christ and faith. 

I appreciate Richard Rohr’s perspective on what happened when unity under the Lordship of Jesus Christ is replaced by a demand for uniformity under a particular set of beliefs. He wrote: “Since the Reformation in the sixteenth century, much Chistian infighting and misunderstanding has occurred over the Catholic and Orthodox emphasis on Tradition (which usually got confused with small cultural traditions) versus the new Protestant emphasis on scripture, even ‘Scripture alone’ (which gradually devolved into each group choosing among the Scriptures it would emphasize and the ones it would ignore.”) All too true.

 John knew that in a wonderfully diverse church in an amazingly diverse world, uniformity did not exist and should not be the goal. But he hoped the church would seek the kind of unity that Christ prayed for, a unity based on God’s love and acceptance of all people.

I believe that needs to be our goal at Elk Grove Presbyterian Church, that we would know and express a unity based on God’s love and acceptance of each of us, our love and acceptance of each other, and our work to share that love and acceptance with others and the world.

We are a church in the Presbyterian Church (USA). And I affirm and have been committed to how we as a denomination seek to go about serving Christ. But, first and foremost, we affirm Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and I pray we as a congregation and we as a denomination would seek unity

with all churches and all denominations that affirm Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, no matter how differently – how particularly – those different parts of Christ’s body may define exactly what that means.

In a few moments we will share Holy Communion. As a denomination, we basically affirm that any and all who are open to God’s presence in their lives are welcome at this table, because this is God’s table, not a Presbyterian table. Other denominations have different understandings about who may come to the table. They certainly have the right to do that, whether we agree with that position or not.

But different understandings should not get in the way of our common unity in Christ.

Ultimately, a hurting world, divided in so many ways, needs the hope of unity and caring and compassion that should be possible among all God’s children.

By the grace of God, may we be willing to pray for that unity. And may we be willing to work for that unity.

Thanks be to God.

Amen. 

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May 18, 2025  5^th Sunday of Easter

Psalm 148

John 13: 31-35

What It Comes Down To

Elk Grove Presbyterian Church

Dexter McNamara

I want to start by setting the immediate context of this reading in John. This took place on the Thursday night before Jesus’ arrest and subsequent crucifixion on Friday. Jesus was in a room with his disciples. John did not recount the Last Supper. Instead, he reported that after they’d had a meal, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. But Peter said he would not allow Jesus to wash his feet because washing of feet was to be done by a servant, and Jesus was his master. But Jesus was demonstrating that he was a servant, and he did wash Peter’s feet, and he would later tell his disciples that they should also see themselves as servants, not masters.

Jesus then told them what was going to happen, including that one of them would betray him.

Jesus then handed Judas a piece of bread and told him: “What you are about to do, do quickly.”

Judas left immediately and, as John reported: “It was night” …the time of darkness and danger.

Then we get today’s reading. Jesus said those words about the Son of Man and God being glorified…

which I don’t find easy to understand. And then his words about him going where they cannot follow…again, rather cryptic. Finally, his words about a new commandment — that they are to love one another, even as he has loved them.

That’s my summary of our reading and its context.

I see three key parts in this scripture to consider:  Judas’ act of betrayal, the two-part theological statement about glorification and going where they could not go, the command to love.

Keeping in mind what happened in the room on that Thursday night, I want to jump to what I’ll call the key take-away from this sermon: “What it comes down to,” as I named this sermon.

Key take-away: Ideology determines praxis. That is to say: our ideology — what our world view is, what we believe it means to be human, how we understand ourselves in relationship to ourselves, to other people, to creation, to God — our ideology determines our praxis. That’s a word I was introduced to several years ago.  It’s really just a fancy schmansy word for what we practice — how we behave, how we treat ourselves and other people and creation and God.

And I believe that the basic message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of today’s readings in Psalm 148 and John 13 is that good ideology and good biblical theology  leads to good behavior, leads to treating ourselves and other people and creation and God with respect and appreciation and thankfulness and humility. While bad ideology and bad Biblical theology leads to being disrespectful and demeaning of ourselves and others and creation and God and can lead to prejudice and hatred and abuse and violence, even to genocide.

Our ideology determines our praxis. Our theology determines how we behave.

Judas is an example of bad ideology and bad Biblical theology leading to his bad praxis. Biblical scholars suggest that Judas was a complex person with complex motives. The name Judas Iscariot suggests that he was part of the zealots, those seeking to violently overthrow the Romans and re-establish an independent Israel. We’ve talked about how that’s what the Jewish scriptures seemed to be pointing to and that many followers of Jesus hoped he would be the one to make that happen.

If that’s what Judas believed and betrayed Jesus to force Jesus’ hand, Judas obviously didn’t pay attention to or refused to accept what Jesus had been saying. Jesus spoke about God’s kingdom being near. But it was to be a kingdom of grace and acceptance and community, not a political kingdom. And that’s the kind of kingdom Jesus interpreted the Jewish scriptures as pointing to.

Judas had a bad ideology, based around violence and power and exclusion. Judas had a bad biblical theology, based on a misunderstanding of scripture. His bad ideology and bad Biblical theology led Judas to tragic behavior.

For 2,000 years, bad ideology and bad Biblical theology has led to tragic behavior.

How many of you are familiar with the Doctrine of Discovery?  I’ve learned about it in just the last couple of years. Here’s my short summary. Basically, it refers to  15^th century declarations by a succession of Popes that white, “Christian,” European nations had the God-given right to take over and colonize new lands they “discovered,” and to enslave or kill the heathen populations they found there since, not being Christians, they were not truly humans. That first applied to “discovered” parts of Africa and then to the Americas.

Power and Wealth (which is “greed” by more sophisticated sounding words) were what counted. That’s bad ideology.

Further, God wants “Christians” to subjugate and convert heathens and to take possession of heathen lands…and freely use the sword as needed to do so. That was bad Biblical theology.

And if that seems like long ago and far away history, our nation’s “Manifest Destiny” of the 19^th century came from the same bad ideology and bad theology, with devastating impacts of indigenous people and on the land. 

Another example:  the 2019 movie Dark Waters was about the revered American chemical company DuPont, founded in 1802. Knowing in the 1960s that a chemical they used in creating that wonderful product Teflon…you know, that non-stick material used in so many products, like cookware…DuPont knew that a chemical caused cancer. But Teflon was a billion-dollar-a-year money maker, so DuPont lied about that problem. Many people died as a result of that chemical, and you and I have that chemical in our bodies. Greed –Power and Wealth — were the gods DuPont worshiped. That was bad ideology and bad theology, and led to evil and tragic praxis.

In our own nation and in the world, there is so much current worship of Power and Wealth, 

rather than of the holy and loving God that Jesus spoke about and demonstrated by how he lived.

Back to this morning’s scripture. Judas went out into the darkness because of his bad ideology and bad theology. 

Then Jesus spoke those rather cryptic words about the Son of Man and God being gloried, then those words about going where his disciples could not go. Exactly how are we to understand that? I don’t know. But I’ll take it to mean that our ideology and our theology needs to be oriented to the mysterious and gracious God of the universe, that Holy One beyond time and space as we know it, that one who mourns that the worship of Power and Wealth have led to such tragedy for humanity and such devastation to creation, that Holy One who mocks those who consider themselves gods.

Jesus said “Get your ideology and your theology right, and that will lead you to proper behavior, will lead you to love and care for one another, will lead you to reach out in love to needy and hurting people and to a needy and hurting world.” 

At our Presbytery’s Justice Conference at Zephyr Point that I was at Monday evening through Wednesday morning, our keynote speaker focused on creating coalitions among diverse groups concerned about the well-being of people and communities and our nation. He spoke about the need to build bridges between groups that may be quite different from each other, but can find they have each experienced disappointment and hope, have each experienced success and failure…and how sharing about those different experiences can allow people and groups to find common ground for working together.

Then at our closing communion service, our Executive Presbyter, Karen Sapio, reminded us that just three nights after that meal and foot washing, the resurrected Jesus would come to those frightened followers in perhaps that same room and do two things: he would say to them “Peace” and then he would show them his scars. 

By God’s grace, the Gospel frees us to acknowledge our own scars. The Gospel invites us into a fellowship of the wounded, of those who have suffered and still carry scars, visible or not.

Then the Gospel calls us to be at one with all people who have been wounded, who have scars, and who long to be accepted and loved and know they belong.                             

That’s what Christians are to do. That’s what the church is to be.

May we be committed to good ideology and good theology. And may we be committed to good praxis…to loving one another and to loving and caring for all God’s people and for God’s creation.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

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May 11, 2025   4^th Sunday of Easter    Mother’s Day

Psalm 23

John 10:22-30

Willing to Listen, Willing to Follow

Elk Grove Presbyterian Church

Dexter McNamara

I want to start this sermon with a bit of brainstorming…

(pull out easel with GOD written on large paper)

Okay…brainstorming time: Tell me about this (point at the word). What images or words come to mind?

“–loving…forgiving …creator of all…all powerful…eternal…Heavenly Father…”

But what is this (pointing to the word)? It’s three letters, with no inherent meaning in those letters or that word, as such. Rather, pointing to or referring to a reality and a mystery far greater than the word itself. And the descriptions you mentioned could be characterized as either adjectives or adverbs, making us think of either a noun or a verb.

Thank you. Good job.

(put away easel)

So, we were talking about the word “God” being a verb as much as a noun, about not a just name, but about action. I want to relate that to today’s two readings and then to two words about us today.

“The Lord is my shepherd…” and then the 23^rd Psalm describes the actions of that shepherd: makes me lie down in green pastures, restores my soul, guides me, prepares a table for me, anoints me.

This is not the description of a distant, passive, benign deity, but of a Holy God active in the lives of people and the world. And that, my friends, is a pretty radical and pretty hopeful idea. The God we are here to worship today is an active God.

Then in John, the religious leaders were pretty blunt: 

“How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” They were saying: “If you are the anointed one…the one who will throw out the Romans and re-establish David’s throne in Jerusalem…let us know. After all, that’s the promise. That’s what we’ve been waiting for…for a thousand years. If you’re the one to do that, let’s get on with it.

“But, quite frankly, that seems very unlikely. Haven’t seen you doing much to lead a revolution. Look…healing people is nice, casting our demons is impressive, feeding people is kind. But the Christ –the Messiah, the anointed one — is supposed to create a new political empire, not throw a kum-ba-yah party.”

For those religious leaders, as well as the Jewish people at the time (even Jesus’ followers),

that’s what the word “Christ” meant — one to overthrow the current order. And here they all were in Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication – Hanukkah –celebrating how just 190 years earlier, the Maccabees had thrown out the Syrians and cleansed the Temple after the Syrian ruler had desecrated the Temple by setting up an idol dedicated to Zeus right in that Temple. That “throwing-out-the-enemy” was the kind of action the “Christ” was supposed to do.

But Jesus knew that God’s intention for the “Christ” was very different: to bring about healing, not more pain; peace, not fighting; reconciliation, not division; inclusion, not exclusion. That’s how Jesus lived and that’s what Jesus taught. He called himself the good shepherd, not the mighty warrior. He said he was the door to God’s love, not the gateway to earthly power. The religious leaders had the correct word: “Christ.” But they had the wrong understanding of the work that Christ would do.

Having the right word is important. And understanding the work or actions that go with that word is essential. Jesus said that it is those who listen to his voice, and understand his actions as showing what God’s kin-dom is to be, and follow him…those are the ones who will live in and shine forth God’s grace. 

What did it mean to be called Christ? What did it mean to do God’s work? Words and work. Name and actions.

  I want to relate that to two words connected with today’s worship.

First word: Mother.

This is Mother’s Day, and we want to honor and remember and give thanks for mothers — our own biological mothers and those here who are biological mothers. After all, without mothers, none of us would be here. And, best as I understand it, being a biological mother is not an easy task. Maybe you’ve heard it said that if it were men who went through pregnancy and childbirth, there would be a whole lot more one-child families.

And while giving birth is an event, mothering is long-term process of nurturing and caring and encouraging and correcting and laughing with and crying with…and…and…and…add your own descriptions of the work of mothering. And while almost all biological mothers do that long process of mothering very well, there are biological mothers who unfortunately seem incapable of mothering, for whatever reason.  And that’s too bad — too bad for them, too bad for their biological children.

On the other hand, there are women who may not be biological mothers–for whatever reason– but have an amazing capability of mothering. Most of us could probably tell of a woman who was not our biological mother but from whom we received wonderful mothering.

What does it mean to be a mother? Not just a word, but a whole lot of work. Today we honor and are thankful for mothers, biological or otherwise. Thanks, moms.

Second word:  CHRISTIAN

What does it mean to be a Christian? For one thing, it means being willing to take on that name, to declare oneself to be a follower of Jesus Christ, to, as Jesus said in today’s reading, listen to his voice.

But that’s not all, of course, because Jesus also said they follow him. And that can become challenging, can’t it? It means living and acting as he lived and acted: being kind and accepting, being open to and welcoming the stranger and the outcast, being involved in feeding people and healing people. It means loving and forgiving. It means not going along with the status quo, not accepting things as they are. It means not allowing showy but shallow piety to substitute for the Spirit’s deep excavation of our hearts and souls. It means accepting a word: Christian. And it means doing the work. 

Prof. Frank L. Crouch of Moravian Theological Seminary wrote this about our reading in John:

“Jesus’ argument means that our preaching and our worship — our words — are not enough to persuade skeptics of the truth of the gospel. Even Jesus did not place maximum confidence in his words, but depended more on the persuasive power of his works. Lest we be tempted to say, ‘Yes, but he is Jesus and we are just us,’ Jesus later asserts, ‘the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these.’ As crucial as preaching and worship are, even more crucial is our total ministry. If those around us do not believe the gospel on the basis of what happens on Sunday morning, perhaps they will believe–or not believe–based on what we do the rest of the week.^” Then he quotes these words widely attributed to Alice Walker, “Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.”

We’re here this morning to honor mothers.

We’re here this morning because the Gospel calls us to celebrate God’s presence in worship.

And we’re here this morning because the Gospel calls us to express and share God’s presence by how we live. The words we say are important. The work we do is essential. 

May we allow the Spirit to help us live what we say we believe.

Thanks be to God. 

Amen.  

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May 4, 2025  Third Sunday of Easter   Communion

Psalm 30: 1-5

John 21: 1-19

Fed and Challenged

Elk Grove Presbyterian Church

Dexter McNamara

Two things I want us to consider in our reading in John:

First: messages from within the reading itself

Second: messages from about the reading.

First: message from within the reading itself.

As we’ve previously read in the 20^th chapter of John, Easter had happened: Mary at the tomb that Sunday morning; the other disciples (except Thomas) that Sunday evening; the other disciples and Thomas a week later. The disciples had been overjoyed when they saw the Lord. All that had happened near Jerusalem.

And what would happen next? His followers may have thought great things were going to happen:

maybe they’d all march right into Pilate’s offices; or maybe Jesus and all of them would go back to the Temple, Jesus basically declaring: “You thought you could get rid of me? WRONG!!” It would have been a great time to prove beyond any doubt that God’s might had defeated the world’s power.

But that didn’t happen, and that 20^th chapter of John simply ended with words about Jesus doing many other things, with the hope that people would believe. And those final verses in chapter 20 seemed to be a proper conclusion to his Gospel. Amen.

Except that there was then this 21^st chapter, about his appearance sometime “afterwards” by the Sea of Tiberias (Lake Galilee).

“Afterwards”…

How much longer afterwards? We don’t know. But apparently long enough for Peter and the others to decide that it was time to leave Jerusalem, time to sneak back to Galilee. Long enough for Peter to say: “Time to get back to work. Let’s get back to fishing.”

That’s what they did, of course. And I have to wonder what they must have thought and talked about as they unsuccessfully cast their nets again and again on that long night. “We had hoped…it had seemed possible. But…didn’t happen. Here we are, back where it all began. This is how it is. This is reality.” That’s what they must have thought and felt.

That’s what we may often think and feel, isn’t it? We had hoped for the best for our own lives, for the church, for our country, for the world. But…well…“ain’t necessarily  so.” Far too often, quite the opposite, right?  But…that is how it is.  That is reality. That’s the reality in our own lives. That’s the reality in the world.

Now…four messages for us to consider from that incident on the lake.

Message #1: they didn’t recognize that stranger on the shore. They didn’t recognize him when they saw him, they didn’t recognize him when they heard him.

Whatever may be going on in our own hectic and often troubled lives, we may not recognize that stranger on the shore, either, whatever form that stranger may take for us. Because though God may have a message for us that we need to hear, that message may come from an unrecognized source: maybe from a religious leader or from a trusted friend; maybe even from someone we think of as an enemy; or in a dream; perhaps even from a moment of utter silence in the beauty of nature; or like that hummingbird that reminded me of God’s presence in all of life. It may be a message about how we seem to think about ourselves or how we treat others or about how certain we are about what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

We need to remain open to God’s messages, however they come to us, whether we initially recognize the messenger or not.

Message #2:  they were willing to take that stranger’s advice about trying fishing on the other side of the boat. Knowing what had not worked, they were willing to try something different.

That can be hard for us, can’t it? “I already know what’s best for me. And I also know what’s best for you.”  We can be certain we know best, even if our best isn’t working.

They trusted that stranger…with amazing results.

Of course, we aren’t to simply believe just any old stranger with just any old message. But we do need to be open to change, to let go of our certainty, and to seek the Spirit’s council about what to do. Like those disciples, we need to – as that old hymn says –”trust and obey.”

Message #3: Jesus fed them…physically and spiritually.

They must have been exhausted. Jesus knew they needed nourishment.

True for us, of course. We need to take time to properly nourish our bodies and souls. You remember those “Got Milk?” ads. How about “Got FITT?”…Fuel In The Tank?.

Jesus saw that they got FITT, with fish and bread, and with his loving presence.

Then message #4: the challenge.

Through that interaction with Peter, Jesus told those disciples, as he tells you and me:

tend to needy people…tend to their physical needs, tend to their spiritual and emotional needs.

Be Christ’s loving and healing presence to others and to this world.

4 messages I see for us from within this reading itself:  we may not  always recognize God’s messenger, but be open to change, get FITT, lovingly serve others.

Then, briefly, a message from about this reading.

Scholars overwhelmingly agree that chapter 21 was a kind of add-on. Chapter 20 ended by saying that Jesus did many other things, as well, but what’s written here will hopefully lead you to follow Christ.

But then this added chapter. Why? Because there was more to be said. Because the story of God’s work in the world through Christ is never finished…just like the story of God’s work in our own lives is never finished. It’s easy to see how Jesus asking Peter three times if Peter loved him and Peter three times saying “yes” released Peter from the guilt of having previously denied Jesus three times.

But now it was time for Peter to move forward…to feed the sheep, to take care of the flock.

Which is what the Gospel always calls us to do. Like Peter, it’s important for us to look back and reflect on what we have and haven’t done as Christ’s disciples. But the work of God’s kingdom also  lies ahead of us, the story is never over. Prof. Joy More wrote:

“Another chapter indicates we have not arrived at the end of the story. Resurrection appearances confirmed and Jesus’ Lordship confessed is an invitation, not a conclusion. Having heard the Easter events, what is there for the community to do now?” 

What are we to do? We are to be fed…to get FITT…as we will in a few minutes. Then we are to tend to God’s people for the rest of our lives. Both of those — being open to God and caring for others —

are the opposites of what is being advocated for in so much of the world right now. Frederick Buechner wrote about those very different views:

“If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Lord’s Supper is the Mad Tea Party. 

The world says, Mind your own business, and Jesus says, there is no such thing as your own business.

The world says, Follow the wisest course and be a success,  and Jesus says, Follow me and be crucified.  The world says, Drive carefully – the life you save may be your own – and Jesus says, Whoever would save their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

The world says, Law and order, and Jesus says, Love. The world says, Get, and Jesus says Give.

In terms of the world’s sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot, and anyone who thinks they can follow him  without being a bit crazy too is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion.”

May we be willing to follow Christ and serve others, as crazy as that may be by the world’s standards. And by following him, we can find our true sanity…and perhaps help others and the world become more truly sane.     

Thanks be to God. Amen.

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April 27, 2025  2^nd Sunday of Easter

Psalm 150

John 20:19-31

Paths to Faith

Elk Grove Presbyterian Church

Dexter McNamara

We’ve heard John’s account of the resurrection appearances many times:

–About that early Sunday morning, Mary crying outside the tomb, and finally recognizing Jesus when he addressed her by name

–About Peter and another Apostle running and finding the tomb empty

–About that Sunday evening, Jesus suddenly being with those disciples (except Thomas) in that tightly locked, anxiety-filled room, speaking “Peace” to them, as well as those hard to understand words about the disciples forgiving or not forgiving a person of their sins

–About him again appearing to the disciples, including Thomas, a week later in that same locked room, which led Thomas to utter those very personal words “My Lord and my God.” 

Easter is the amazing mystery we celebrated last Sunday. It’s the amazing mystery that we celebrate each Sunday when we gather here in worship. It’s the amazing mystery that allows us to proclaim that God’s grace and acceptance and love given to us in Jesus Christ is what can bring our own often scattered lives and the chaotic life of this world back into alignment with life as God intends it to be lived.

 

That’s the great mystery that we proclaimed last Sunday. That will be the great mystery that we will explore over the next 6 weeks between now and Pentecost. That is the great mystery that you and I will live with, and discover new depths about, our entire lives.

Thank God for the mystery and the wonder and the hope of the resurrection.  Amen

I titled this sermon Paths To Faith. And based upon last week’s and this week’s readings in John,

 I want us to consider that in relation to three aspects in those readings: 

–the PEOPLE involved

–the PLACES involved

–the PERIODS involved…meaning times of the day involved…

And I want us to consider how what happened 2,000 years ago can help us on our own Paths to Faith.

PEOPLE

First, there was Mary of Magdala. Magdala was a major city on the west shore of Lake Galilee. 

Whether that’s where she encountered Jesus, we don’t know. Luke simply recounted that Jesus healed her from demon possession. Later traditions claimed she had been a prostitute. But that claim wasn’t given much credence until Pope Gregory the First in the year 591. And as one seminary professor said about similar later claims: “A little late.”

All the Gospels mention her as having become one of Jesus followers, supporting him in his work.

With other women and John, she watched him die on the cross. Only John reported that she came to the tomb alone — Matthew, Mark, and Luke mentioning other women, as well. 

Mary saw the stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb, ran and told the others.  Peter and “the other disciple” ran to the tomb, saw it was empty, but did not see Jesus, and went back to their homes, unsure of what was happening. It was after they had left that Mary encountered Jesus when he called her by name.

I think it’s important to note that John didn’t report that Jesus first appeared to his Apostles or to key leaders like Peter, James, or John, but to a woman, indicating the high esteem Jesus and John had for women. Such respect for women was unusual in that time. We see that in Luke’s recounting that when the other women who had gone to the tomb reported to the others what angels had told them, they were not believed, others thinking it was just nonsense. After all, “you know how women are.” In last week’s reading, when Mary went back to the others and told them she had seen the Lord, John didn’t write anything about their reaction. Maybe similar disbelief??

PEOPLE…Mary, Peter & John, the many disciples: many different personal backgrounds, many different experiences with Jesus, many different wonderings what to make of what was going on. 

Then, that Sunday evening, all those disciples were together, except Thomas, when Jesus came among them and showed them his scars. 

So, there was Mary’s a one-on-one encounter with Jesus and there was that corporate encounter. 

 Both of those are important for us now, of course. We need that personal connection with God and Christ, whatever form that may take. We need, as Thomas finally proclaimed, to be able to say “My Lord and my God” because each of us is unique, each of us has been on our own journey through life with our own joys and hurts, highs and lows, successes and failures. We need our own encounter with God and Christ. And we also need to be a part of that great fellowship of people from many different backgrounds and experiences and perspectives who together proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Our readings were about those PEOPLE, individuals and the body of believers. Our own faith is about us as individuals, and about being part of the body of believers.

 

Now, about PLACES:

–There was half mile or so between where the disciples were gathered and where the tomb was.

That’s not a great physical distance, but likely a long emotional and spiritual distance.

I’ve experienced those kind of distances.  Have you?

–The place of the tomb — a place of sorrow, a place to grieve, a place to feel the utter loss of all that had been hoped for. I’ve experienced that kind of place, as well. 

–Then there was that locked room, a place to try to be safe from “the enemy.” But also a place to try to escape from their own fears and disappointments, to hide from their sense of failure for having deserted Jesus. Maybe we’ve all been in those kind of places, too.

–Finally, there was the unknown place Thomas was that Sunday evening, probably out by himself, fearfully walking those darkening streets, not wanting to be with the other, but also afraid that “the enemy” might recognize him. A very lonely place. I’ve certainly known those places.

PEOPLE…PLACES…

Lastly…PERIODS…the different times of the day and what those represented in John’s Gospel.

For John, the dark represented the opposite of God’s light. Dark or night was a time of not knowing, a time of being lost. In his prolog, John wrote that the Word was the Light of the world, that the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Nicodemus, not knowing what to make of him, had come to Jesus at night. When Judas left to go and betray Jesus, John wrote: “it was night.” Mary, in her bewilderment, came to the tomb in the dark.

Darkness…however you or I may experience it, is a reality…where we may feel utterly lost.

With John, we need to be honest about the darkness in our lives and in the world. 

Then John wrote that it was evening when Jesus came to those disciples. Evening is an in-between time – no longer the full light of day, not yet the utter darkness of night. Perhaps John was saying that those disciples were in a kind of “evening” state of mind, an in-between period. They knew strange things had happened early that morning. Was that enough reason to hope? But that had been hours ago, and nothing since. Must have been a long Sunday between early morning and evening.

 

That reminded me of something Frederick Douglass said in 1860 about whether slavery would be ended or compromise after compromise would allow it to continue and even expand. He said his feelings were “continually oscillating between the dim light of hope and the gloomy shadow of despair.”

“between the dim light of hope and the gloomy shadow of despair.”

It was into those “evening” emotions, somewhere between hope and despair, that Jesus came to be with his disciple that evening, as he would come to be with Thomas a week later.

The Gospel promises us that God’s loving Spirit will come to us as individuals and to as a body of believers, whether in times of daylight or evening or even darkness.

Prof. Elizabeth Johnson summarized:

“Jesus comes to us as he came to the first disciples…right in the midst of our fear, pain, doubt, and confusion. He comes speaking peace, breathing into our anxious lives the breath of the Holy Spirit.

What is more, he keeps showing up. As he came back a week later for Thomas, Jesus keeps coming back week after week among his gathered disciples — in the word, the water, the bread, and the wine — not wanting any to miss out on the life and peace he gives.  And he keeps sending us out of our safe, locked rooms into a world that, like us, so desperately needs his gifts of life and peace.”

“Gifts of life and peace.”

That’s what we are given.

That’s what we are to share.

Thanks be to God.  Amen.

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April 13, 2025  Palm Sunday                                                                                                                             Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29                                                                       Luke 19: 28-41                                                           Not What Was Expected                                                                         Elk Grove Presbyterian Church                       Dexter McNamara

What I’m going to read in a couple of minutes is Luke’s account of Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem.               But before I read our text, I have little Bible memory quiz for you.

Here we go.

First: What is the subtitle given to this story?                                   Triumphal Entry…that’s what it’s called in all four Gospels in both the NIV and NRSV translations…perhaps other terms in other versions.

 

Second: What happened on that Triumphal Entry? What went on? Each person, please just mention  one thing that happened.

—

Alright…good.

Now, as I read Luke’s account, I want you to make a mental note of anything that surprises you, or maybe didn’t know that was there, or that is different than those things we talked about, or what you see as missing, or that you have a question about. Okay? Then we’ll share about those things that stuck out to you about Luke’s account.

Okay, here we go: Luke 19: 28-41

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

So…what caught your attention in this reading?

—

Good…thank you!

Okay.

Now, I want us to consider several things:

1. EXPECTATIONS or ANTICIPATIONS about Jesus

2.  Where those EXPECTATIONS or ANTICIPATIONS come from

3.  How those EXPECTATIONS or ANTICIPATIONS…

…compare to the message in the Gospels…

…and how they compare to real life in the world.

And I want us to consider those issues as they relate to the people around Jesus on that Palm Sunday, how they relate to what Luke wrote, and how they relate to us.

Sound like a lot? Not to worry! We’ll go through this fairly quickly.

Luke wrote that people shouted: “Blessed is THE KING who comes in the name of the Lord.” That spoke of the expectation, the anticipation, the hope, that this Jesus was to become the new king of Israel…throwing out the Romans, re-establishing the throne of David, bringing back power and honor to the Jewish people. 

That’s what John the Baptist declared about that one who was coming after him, the one who was greater than he was. That’s what Peter expected and anticipated when he declared that Jesus was the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah. That’s what James and John anticipated and expected when they rather shamelessly asked for special seats of power in Jesus’ administration. That’s what many in the growing crowds that were following him were expecting and anticipating and hoping for. 

“Blessed is the KING who comes in the name of the Lord!”   

Where did that idea come from? 

Well, it came from the prophets of old who spoke that the Messiah, the Anointed One, who would appear. It came from the Psalms that spoke of redemption for Israel. It came from what was discussed and debated about in synagogues. It came from what all the sacrificial rituals were related to.  A “Son of David” would fulfill that promise

And if that was the expectation and anticipation of many of Jesus’ followers, it was seen by the religious hierarchy as an error and a threat. An error because this Jesus character wasn’t behaving the way the Messiah was supposed to act: he was hanging out the riff-raff of Jewish society, he was violating so many Jewish  laws – like not to work on the sabbath. And he was a threat not only because he was challenging their authority, but because he might so stir up the people toward rebellion against Roman rule, that Pilate might bring down the hammer of military power.

As for Pilate himself, he didn’t care much what those Jews squabbled about his Jesus. But he knew that if rebellion was in the air, he would have to squash it with whatever force was needed. That’s what had happened some years before when a man named Judas of Galilee had started a protest against paying taxes to Rome. Judas of Galilee had been eliminated by the Romans. That’s what had happened when a man named Theudas had gathered about 400 followers to lead a resistance movement against Roman rule. Theudas had been eliminated by the Romans.  

Was Pilate concerned about this Messiah talk? Only if it required military intervention.

 “Blessed is the KING who comes in the name of the Lord!”

But Jesus, as presented in the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, was not to be that kind of king. Jesus would speak and act about the power of love, not political power. He would teach about compassion, not about simply following the rules. He would advocate for God’s inclusiveness, not religious or cultural correctness and exclusivity.

For all those people around Jesus on that Palm Sunday, he would not seek to be the kind of king many of them expected and anticipated and hoped for. He would not seek to be the kind of king the religious hierarchy saw as a threat. He would not seek to be the kind of king Pilate thought he might have to worry about.

So, what kind of king would Jesus be?

That’s what Luke would write about perhaps 40 or so years after that ride into Jerusalem. Luke  had read Mark’s Gospel, he had read Matthew’s Gospel, he had read a number of other accounts about what Jesus had done and said. He knew about Jesus having been executed by the Romans and then made alive again by God’s power. Luke knew about the power given to Jesus’ followers by the Spirit that allowed them to boldly proclaim Jesus as Lord and perform miracles of healing through that power.  And Luke knew that the initial followers’ anticipation that Jesus would come back within a very short time had not occurred as they had expected. And he knew that the church had faced severe persecution from without and troubles from within.

And after carefully pondering all that — all the teaching and all the miracles, all that was so positive and all that was so painful — Luke would ultimately boldly declare in the Gospel he wrote that Jesus Christ is Lord.

How about us on this Palm Sunday, 2025? What do we finally do with all the different messages we have heard and all the different images we’ve seen about who this Jesus is?  We’ve heard about Beatific words he spoke from a gentle hillside, and the final, difficult words he spoke from a brutal cross. We’ve learned about how he lovingly embraced children, and how he angrily overturned the tables of the money changers that he threw out of the temple. We’ve seen images of him as a rather small, dark-skinned, dark-haired, dark-eyed Palestinian Jew of the first century, and we’ve seen images of him as a rather athletic, light-skinned, blue eyed, almost blond European type… a guy who would have fit right in with other blue-eyed, blond-haired athletes at UCLA.

He’s been appropriated by narrow-minded, only-we-know Christians who declare that he is solely about personal salvation, about just the individual’s soul. And he’s been appropriated by narrow-minded, only-we-know Christians who declare that he is solely about righting social injustice, about changing the corrupt system.

So, to what kind of king will we declare our loyalty on this Palm Sunday? Perhaps best to recall the words God spoke to Moses from that burning bush when Moses asked by what name that God should be called. From that bush came the term translated as “I am who I am,” also translated as        “I will be who I will be.” 

On this Palm Sunday, whatever expectations or anticipations we have had about Jesus and God, with the help of the Spirit may we also ultimately be willing to declare that we will commit ourselves to follow the Christ who “Is who He Is” and “Will be who He Will be.”

To God be the Glory.

Thanks be to God.  

Amen!

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April 6, 2025  Fifth Sunday in Lent     Communion                                                                                                     Psalm 126                                                                  John 12: 1-11                 Private Blessings, Public Expectations                                                 Elk Grove Presbyterian Church       Dexter McNamara

INTRO TO GOSPEL READING

Today, I want to do something similar to what we did last week: I’m going to read our text in John and then open the floor to what jumped out to you or to a key thought or idea or question that caught your attention. And if you read my not-finished version of this sermon that I mistakenly sent out yesterday instead of the bulletin, don’t steal any of my comments, please.

So: John 12: 1-11

Open mic time.  Comments included:

–Judas as a thief, not just the betrayer

–Religious leaders want to kill Lazarus as well as Jesus 

Good comments. Thank you.

Let me mention several basic ideas or themes that came to me about this passage and how those might relate to our own times and our own lives.

First, the words Place, People, and Purpose as related to that dinner.

The Place was in the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus in the town of Bethany. Luke had told of an earlier dinner at their house when Martha had been busy preparing and serving the meal while Mary sat listening to Jesus, which had not pleased Martha. But that’s a story for another time.

The town of Bethany was not far from Jerusalem. The name Bethany means “House of Figs,” figs symbolizing security and well-being. It had been near Bethany that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. Again, another story. 

So, this dinner happened in a welcoming setting in a pleasant town that had significant meaning to Jesus and his followers, and was also on the way to Jerusalem and the cross.

The Place in this story was important.

Place can be important for us, of course. A warm and welcoming setting can create a sense of comfort, a place where we can feel relaxed. I think that’s what we felt at our potluck yesterday. This is a comfortable space, and people coming here for other meetings often comment at how comfortable they feel coming here. Many of you were involved in renovating is space, and Joann and Jim do such a great job helping make this a welcoming place.

Place is important. And I’m sure each of us could recount how place or places have been important in our own lives. I’ve mentioned how important Yosemite has been in my life. That home in Bethany was an important part of this story.

Then the People.

The people at that dinner were those three siblings, Jesus, his 12 Apostles, and perhaps others.  Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were special friends of Jesus. His Apostles were an interesting mix, to say the least, as Judas makes clear. But this dinner gathering was of people closely connected to Jesus and his ministry,  by and large a compatible group.

That was different from the other people who showed up later to get a look at Lazarus. And certainly different from the religious leaders who wanted to kill not only Jesus, but Lazarus, as well,  because Jesus and Lazarus were threats to those leaders. 

Place…People…and then the Purpose of that dinner, which was, as John wrote, to honor Jesus.

Why? Not only because those people appreciated how special Jesus was, but also because they knew dramatic, perhaps tragic things lay ahead for Jesus. Remember that somewhat earlier Jesus had left Jerusalem to get away from the religious leaders when they had tried to stone him to death. When he subsequently heard that Lazarus had died and he decided go back close to Jerusalem and that threat, good old Thomas had said: “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

That dinner in Bethany was not just a nice stop along the way, but an opportunity for his closest followers to show their great love and appreciation to him for the vision and hope he had brought to them.

This is where the theme of TIME comes in. That dinner took place in very stressful and scary times. They all knew of the threat facing Jesus. They may have heard of the threat to Lazarus. And, as Thomas understood, all of them associated with Jesus might also be in danger. 

So, in light of the potential danger they all faced, perhaps the purpose of that dinner was also a kind of resistance in the face of the threat posed by the religious leaders and the military might of Rome. It was  dangerous to side with this one the establishment was out to get. But they held that dinner party, anyway. 

Resistance is always dangerous, of course, whatever form resistance may take and at whatever   level– national, local, or personal. It can be difficult to know how to respond to people who strongly express racist or anti-Semitic comments, hard to know how to stand for love and truth and hope and justice when confronted with hatred and lies and the threat of violence.  

I have never found that easy to do. In challenging, difficult times,  I know I’ve stayed silent far too often.

That dinner took place during difficult times. Jesus knew what lay ahead. The next day he would ride into Jerusalem on what is rather ironically called his Triumphant Entrance, an entrance that would lead to the cross.

The final theme  I want to mention is what I’ll call the interplay between the spiritual and the physical, between the theological and the human.

The Gospel of John is the most theological of the Gospels. It starts with that glorious Prolog: “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” There are such flights of theological thinking throughout his Gospel, often very difficult to follow. But there’s also a very human, physical side to John, as when he wrote in the Prolog: “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us for a while.” There’s the very heavenly, and the very earthly.

We can see that in what Mary did at that dinner: she performed an act of deep devotion and worship by spreading that very expensive ointment of Jesus’ feet and wiping them with her hair — a profound spirituality expressed in a very physical and sensuous act, which filled the whole house with a beautiful fragrance. Perhaps she sensed that death would soon claim him, so she anointed him in preparation for that death.

But that act elicited a biting criticism from Judas. Was he really concerned about the poor or, as John stated, just wanting to get his hands on a potential financial windfall? Or maybe something else was going on with him. Could it be that such a prodigal outward show of love and devotion may have created such a sense of discomfort and embarrassment not only in Judas, but others, as well, that he needed to change the subject, to say something about…oh…true discipleship. Mary’s very emotional show of affection and devotion may have been very hard for Judas to take. 

Maybe most of us can identify with being uneasy with strong showings of  emotions. And, of course, we Presbyterians are known for being rather emotionally reticent, shall we say. But being emotionally reticent is okay, that may be how we were built. But, as disciples of Christ, it’s not okay to be reticent in sharing God’s love.

And that may be the key message for us is in Jesus’ reply to Judas: “Let her be. Let her do what she can do now.” That’s what the Gospel calls to each of us: To do what we can in our place and time, whatever public that may be. We are to show our devotion to Christ by loving and caring for others, in whatever ways each of us is capable of doing that. And each one of us has unique talents and gifts, and it is through you and me that God can touch others with love and peace and hope. It is through you and me, empowered by the Holy Spirit, that God’s will can be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Thanks be to God. Amen   ===========================================================================================================================

 

March 30, 2025  4^th Sunday of Lent                                                                                                                          Psalm 32: 1-5, 11                                                                                                                                                                 Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32                                              Coming to Our Senses                         Elk Grove Presbyterian Church                 Dexter McNamara

I want to start this sermon as a class seminar. So put on your thinking caps as we will do some give and take about what was the longest of all Jesus’ parables, which is also probably the most sliced & diced & written about of  his parables, as well as being one of the most often depicted in religious art…paintings, stained glass, pottery& ceramics.

This is a very familiar parable. And as one commentator said: “One of the main struggles in reading this parable is that once we hear the words ‘A man had two sons,’ we quit listening, even as preachers. The challenge of this parable is to keep listening, to listen to it again, and to be open to the possibility it may say something new to us, however many times we may have read or heard about it.”

OK, class — several questions. One word responses are fine, no response more than 38 second, please.

First: What is the sub-title by which this parable is probably best known? “The parable of……(the prodigal son).

Second: What are some other sub-titles given to this parable? Lost son… NIV. Prodigal and his brother…NRSV. Others include Two Sons, Loving Father. German theologian Helmut Thielicke called it “The Waiting Father.”

Third: What are some of the key points often made about this parable? Derelict son, forgiving father, angry older brother, repentance.

Fourth: What does the term “prodigal son” imply about that son? Irresponsible, sinful, ungrateful.

Final question: What does the word “prodigal” mean? I needed to look that up:                                                                “wastefully extravagant”, “spending money or resources freely and recklessly”, “giving on a lavish scale.” Basically…beyond the norm or accepted or usual. One example was that was given: “a dessert with a prodigal amount of whipped cream.”

Well done. Class not dismissed. 

Let’s remember the context in which Jesus tells this parable. He had been teaching and healing, healings often happening on the Sabbath. He had been relating to “religiously impure” Jews, and also to Gentiles. That’s the context for this parable.

This 15^th chapter opens by saying that “tax collectors and sinners were all gathered around to hear him.” Then says: “But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” Those “religious” ones saw Jesus as not abiding by the rules and regulations, not abiding by the acceptable norms. Jesus was being rather “prodigal” in his care for God’s people.

Our reading goes on: “Then Jesus told them this parable (actually, “these parables”):  the parable of the lost sheep, another of his most beloved parables; then the parable of the lost coin. Both those concluded with great celebrations when what was lost was found. And that, of course, becomes the final point of this parable of the prodigal son — that the one who was lost was now found.   

Jesus was not against Jewish laws and not against social norms as such. He was against those being used to separate and divide people into different categories and castes: clean and unclean, acceptable and unacceptable, holy and unholy, part of family or alien.

Obviously, there is lots to consider in this parable. But I just want to focus on two phrases.

The first is about the son: “when he came to his senses…” In essence: “Woe. What am I doing here?” So, he decided to go back home. He rehearsed what he’d say to his father, a nice sounding speech. Was he truly repentant, or just hoping it would sound good to his father? We don’t know.

What does it mean for us to come to our senses, given the complexity of our own personal lives and the pressures we can feel from so many different sources — expectations of others, social norms, religious messages about what’s right and what’s wrong, political loyalties. We all have a mixture of motives and emotions, don’t we? And even our best intentions can come with deeper needs that we may not even be aware of.  

The Gospel doesn’t say God is going to help us gain perfect understanding about ourselves and perfectly pure hearts. The Gospel does say God’s Spirit can help us become more honest with ourselves, more aware our needs and motives, more conscious of and concerned about what’s going on around us, more ready to struggle with tough questions rather than to simply accept easy answers.

Whatever that son’s mixed motives were after he came to his senses, whatever our mixed motives are when we come to our senses in different ways and at different times, the important thing for that son was to head for home, just like the important thing for us is to head for God’s love and God’s truth.

Phrase #1 was about the son…and us.

Phrase # 2 was about the father…and us.

The story says that when the father saw his son, he defied the social norm of being dignified, of waiting for that son to get to him, or perhaps to slowly walk towards him. Instead ran out to meet him, threw his arms around him, didn’t even wait for the son to complete his well rehearsed speech. That father did something prodigal when he saw that son.

That’s what the Gospel says God does with us: ready to greet us with open arms long before we have fully sorted out our needs and motives, long before we fully know what repentance means. We might say that God is prodigal with God’s grace.

And once we experience that Amazing Grace, that’s how we are to seek to relate to others, whoever they may be, whatever their relationship to God may be. 

In his work with hardened gang members in Los Angeles, Father Gregory Boyle says he has learned “The power of EXTRAVAGANT TENDERNESS” (a subtitle to one of his books), the power of a prodigal loving and accepting of those gang members who, as they were willing, became open to being loved by other people and became open to the mystery of God’s love.

Prof. Arlen Hultgren comments about this parable: “Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God. His message was about a God whose love surpasses all typical expressions known to humanity. That love is celebrated by those who apprehend it in the gospel of Jesus, as illustrated in the scene of celebration after the homecoming of the younger son. There really is no point in going beyond the story as given to wonder whether the father finally prevailed upon the elder brother to join the party (or what would happen to the relationship between those brothers). The parable is open ended, and it is best not to try to rescue it to fulfill our own wishes for resolution.”

Like that parable, our lives are also open ended, wherever we are on our journey. And God is with us on that journey as we seek to “come to our senses” each day, as we seek share grace and truth and hope each day.

That’s the hope and the challenge of the Gospel.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

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March 23, 2025   3^rd Sunday of Lent

Psalm 63: 1-8

Luke 13: 1-9

God’s Foolish Patience

Elk Grove Presbyterian Church

Dexter McNamara

Three things about this sermon:

1. It may be a little shorter than most. No promises, of course…but…
2. Right off I’ll state the main message I see in this reading in Luke and the main thing I hope you will take away from this sermon. Those are summarized in the sermon title: –“God’s Foolish Patience.” By which I mean God keeps on loving us, keeps on knocking on the doors of our hearts, keeps on calling us back…even as we may resist that love, ignore that knocking, and be deaf to that call.
3. I hope you’ll stay for the Sermon Shoot Around after the service (and after

a time for goodies, of course) to talk about the text & sermon, ask questions…whatever else.

Okay?  Okay.

Two disasters and an unfruitful fig tree. I find this to be one of the more interesting and challenging lectionary Gospel texts…interesting because of the text itself and challenging because of how relevant it is to our times. And as I thought about this text, a rather straightforward perspective about this scripture and about our faith journeys formed in my mind:

“Be uncertain about your certainties.”

Or, said another way: 

“Be willing to question those things you think you already know for sure.”

Now, some interesting things about our text.

First:

It was only Luke who included this story about the Galileans’ blood and the Siloam tower and it was only Luke who included this parable about that unfruitful fig tree. Scholars remind us that though much of what we find in Matthew and Luke is almost exactly the same as what we find in Mark, there are also almost exact same things we find in Matthew and Luke that we do not find in Mark, and then there are some things we find only in Matthew and some things we find only in Luke.

Which means what? Different sources, different perspectives and, therefore, sometimes apparent contradictions.

And some people may understandably say that because of those differences and contradictions in the Gospels, they can’t really believe since the Gospels are rather unreliable sources of information.

But what I believe those differences and sometimes confusing stuff really means is that in the creation of those Gospels, God was working through very human channels, people writing from their own backgrounds and experiences and relationships and memories, but all pointing at a loving God who is present in the middle of life.

And I find that to be very good news, because I believe it means that God can continue to work through very human channels…like you and me, with all our different backgrounds and experiences and relationships and memories, with all our strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures, moments of great faith and moments of deep doubt, moments of amazing joy and moments of almost unbearable pain and loss and grief.

The basic message of the Gospel is that we can trust God to be present with us now, just like God was present 2000 years ago.

Second…about the killing of those Galileans.

We don’t know anything more about that. There are no known Roman or other records about it.

We do know that Galilee was a center of civil unrest about Roman rule. And we know that Pilate could be a brutal suppressor of any threats to Roman rule. So, this may refer to his action against Galileans who were stirring up trouble in Jerusalem during a Jewish sacrificial rite. And we  know that several years later Pilate would be removed from his rule in Palestine and sent back to Rome after the merciless killing in Samaria of participants in an uprising against Roman rule. But the question remains: why were those Galileans killed? 

Similarly, no other information about the tower that collapsed and killed people, though, apparently, many people knew about it. Again, why were they killed?

In both those cases the real issue Jesus seemed to address was whether those deaths were due to some sin those people had done, some failure for which God was punishing them. That may have been the prevalent thinking among the people. To that kind of thinking, Jesus emphatically said “NO.” Bad things do happen to good people…that’s a reality of life…but not because God is punishing them or trying to teach them a lesson.

And being faithful disciples of Christ doesn’t mean God will protect people from all danger, though we heard a lot of that foolishness during Covid, and a lot of faithful unvaccinated people died.

And God must have sadly thought: “What were they thinking? I gave them brains. I expected them to use their brains.” 

Jesus wanted to dissuade those people from the idea of a “transactional god,” a tit-for-tat god who says “treat me right and I’ll treat you right, but treat me wrong and I’ll treat you wrong.” Too much of that in our world right now. Too often, too much of that in our own hearts and actions. Jesus was saying that God is a god of grace and compassion, not a god of retribution. Lord, help our thoughts to become more like your thoughts, our ways to become more like your ways.

Third: that parable about the fig tree.

The owner was upset because it wasn’t bearing any fruit…for three years in a row after planting it.

However, thanks to Wikipedia, I learned that if you plant a fig tree, it’s going to be 3-5 years before it begins bearing fruit. Was that the problem with that fig tree, that it was just doing what fig trees need to do, but the owner didn’t know that? His problem may have been that he was sure he knew all about fig trees. But, as Mark Twain said: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure, that just ain’t so.” That gardener knew better. The gardener said, “Let’s be patient.”

We’ve probably all been sure of things about God that “just ain’t so.” Thankfully, God is patient with us, like that gardener was with that fig tree. That’s why we need to remain open to whatever new things God’s Spirit wants us to learn, whatever new ways God’s Spirit wants us love — to love other children of God, to love and care for God’s creation.

I like how Prof. Matt Skinner pulls together the pieces of today’s text on this third Sunday of Lent: “Jesus’ words about judgment and repentance are scary, yet they depict human life as a gift, albeit a fragile one. Vulnerable creatures that we are, we can presume little and do little to preserve ourselves. Too many Lenten observances assume that taking our humanity seriously requires morose expressions of piety. But the Christian outlook on repentance arcs toward joy. And it finds grace experienced within the awful precariousness and strange beauty of our fleeting existence.”

Quite a thought, isn’t it: “grace experienced within the awful precariousness and strange beauty of our fleeting existence.” 

And it is in “our fleeting existence” that, as Skinner says, “God transforms us through grace, a grace that calls us to be generous toward those still trapped under the weight of poverty, want, and devastation of all kinds.”

With the help of the Spirit, may we allow ourselves to be in the continual process of being transformed by God’s grace and becoming more generous towards those in need and more responsible stewards of God’s magnificent creation.

Thanks be to God. Amen. 

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16, 2025 2^nd Sunday of Lent

Psalm 27: 1-6, 13-14

Luke: 13: 31-35

The Wrong Side of God’s Will

Elk Grove Presbyterian Church

Dexter McNamara

Conflict…Compassion…Acceptance…and Action

Those words came to me as I thought about this morning’s readings in Psalm 27 

and Luke 13, as well as what we’re experiencing in our own country and in the world right now, 

what we may experience in the church and our own lives, and how we are to live as followers of Christ.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ invites us to experience the wonder of God’s grace that assures us that way beyond whatever uncertainties and difficulties we encounter in life, God’s surrounding love is here with us, a love that allows us to take a deep breath of God’s healing Spirit any time we feel the constricting power of life’s challenges. The Gospel is Good News.

And  the Gospel of Jesus Christ also invites us to be brutally honest about ourselves, about the church, about this world in which we live – a world filled with conflict, a world needing compassion and understanding, a world in which we need to be able to accept the reality of the world as it is, even as we are called to work to bring God’s kin-dom into this world.

Conflict…Compassion…Acceptance…Action

Conflict is immediately introduced in today’s reading in Luke: “Some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, ‘Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.’” Pharisees warning Jesus about Herod? Time out here. Aren’t Pharisees always bad guys? Mark tells us that some Pharisees got together with “the Herodians” – Herod’s toadies – to figure out how to kill Jesus. They are bad guys.

But maybe not all of them. Nicodemus, a leader in the Jewish community and a Pharisee, came to talk privately with Jesus and would later defend him at Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin. In the verses following today’s reading, Jesus went to the house of a Pharisee for a meal. So there were some Pharisees sympathetic to Jesus, and the book of Acts tells us that some Pharisees became followers of Christ.

So, those Pharisees who came to Jesus may have been genuinely concerned for his safety.

But there is another possibility.  The Pharisees hated Herod, the Roman installed king of Galilee.

I’m going to take us on a little excursion to look at the backstory of  why the Pharisees hated Herod. 

This Herod was Herod Antipas,  the son of Herod the Great, whom the Romans had named King of the Jews. But these Herods, though called Jewish Kings, were not ethnically pure Jews, because they were not descended through Jacob’s line. You remember that story. Way back when, Isaac, the son of Abraham, had twin sons, Esau & Jacob, Esau having been born first. But Jacob, at his mother’s urging, cheated his older brother out of their father Isaac’s blessing. That led to conflict between those brothers. Jacob got away from that conflict by heading for the land of Rebeka’s brother, Laban, and ended up marrying two of Laban’s daughters. There was some interesting conflict and deception involved with that. But, it was Jacob’s descendants who became the Jewish people, and it was through Jacob’s descendants that Jesus came. Got that so far? 

The Herods were not descendants of Jacob’s line, but of Esau’s. Esau first married outside the family bloodline, two Hittite woman. That had displeased his parents, Isaac and Rebekah. To get back in their good graces, Esau later also married a woman descended from Abraham, a woman who was the daughter of Ishmael, that actual first-born son of Abraham.

Clear about all that? Me neither. But, listen, if you want to read about family intrigue and conflict and trickery, you’ll find lots of that in the book of Genesis and throughout the Old Testament.

Back to today’s reading. Suffice it to say that pure-blood Pharisees hated those half-breed Herods.

Maybe even hated Herod more than they hated Jesus, who was, after all,  at least a “pure” Jew, even a descendant of that ultimate Jew, David.

You probably know the saying: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Those Pharisees may have thought: “We consider Jesus an enemy. But we consider Herod an even bigger enemy. Therefore, if Herod is an enemy of Jesus, for now we’ll consider Jesus our friend.” Tangled relationships, right?

Maybe similar to what I might say if someone asked me who my two favorite college basketball teams are, and I said:  “UCLA…and whoever is playing SC.”

So, whatever we make of the motives of those Pharisees who warned Jesus about Herod, we know that Jesus was often in conflict with Pharisees, who were actually very religious Jews. They were not part of the formal religious hierarchy of priests and scribes. They were not clergy, as it were, but strict, go-by-the Torah layman. 

So, conflict #1 was what I’ll call conflict between “ordinary” Jews…Jesus and Pharisees

Conflict #2 was with Herod. That conflict was with the political and military establishment, Rome and Rome’s appointed underling, Herod. Both Herod and Rome were threatened by Jesus calling for a change from that current power structure to God’s kingdom of mercy and justice and compassion and community. That would have been a threat to Herod, so that’s why he might be seeking to kill Jesus, which would eventually happen, of course, at the order given by the Roman Pontius Pilate.

We move on to conflict #3…with the religious establishment centered around the Temple in Jerusalem, an establishment, as Jesus noted in our text, that had always opposed and often killed God’s prophets, who had consistently called for justice and mercy and humility, rather than just the performance of sacrificial rituals and rites, along with denouncing all the financial shenanigans that went with that system. This conflict is captured in the simple words of Jesus’ lament:  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem.”  

Three areas of conflict for Jesus 2,000 years ago: with other religious people, with the ruling governmental structure of society…Herod & Rome,  and with the religious hierarchy. All those I characterize as being on “The Wrong Side of God’s Will.”

Why did I decide to go into that rather lengthy look backwards? Because those conflicts were very much like our conflicts in 2025.  

Today, we certainly know of conflicts and disputes and divisions between people within the Christian family, to say nothing of the animosity and hatred and sometimes violence that exists between people of different religious traditions. 

Today, we certainly know that governmental structures and powers can be much more concerned with maintaining their structures and powers than seeking the well-being of their citizens.

Today, we certainly know that religious hierarchies and denominations can get so wrapped up in maintaining their doctrines and authority and survival that care for people and stewardship of God’s creation can get ignored.

I think conflict is a reality for us in our times, as it was for Jesus in his time. The Gospel calls us to be aware of and concerned about those conflicts.

 

But our reading also included Jesus’ words of compassion about God’s longing to make things right:

“how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” Even as the Gospel calls us to be honest about the conflicts we may face, the Gospel also calls us to a similar level of compassion – to long for people and institutions to open themselves to God’s redeeming and transforming grace. Lord, help us to have compassion.

Then there needs to be acceptance, the recognition that what is, is…that people and institutions are very likely not to change, not to give up their old, destructive ways. We don’t have to like that, but we do need to recognize and accept that as reality.

Which might finally lead us where?  

A grudging acceptance might lead to despair and anger.

But that’s not the way of the Gospel. The Gospel also calls us to continue to hope and trust in God, and, with the help of the Spirit, to continue to act and serve. And I think we can only do that if we are willing to trust and hope. We’re not called to be naive. We are called to have faith that God can work in ways we may never understand. And we are called to love and support and care for each other in the church, and share love and hope with a needy world.

Thanks be to God. 

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March 9, 2025  1^st Sunday of Lent

Psalm 91: 1-2, 9-16

Luke 4: 1-14

Sticking to Our Values

Elk Grove Presbyterian Church

Dexter McNamara

Two spiritual highs followed by two spiritual challenges –  that’s what last week’s and this week’s readings in Luke gave us. Last Sunday was the conclusion of the season of Epiphany, with the account of the spiritual high of the transfiguration,  followed by the challenge of a boy with epilepsy. Today is the first Sunday in the season of Lent, and this morning’s reading started immediately after the spiritual high of Jesus’ baptism, that included the voice saying  “You are my son, whom I love. With you I am well pleased.” Luke then recounted Jesus going into the wilderness for those forty challenging days of fasting and temptations.

Here’s what Frederick Buechner wrote about Lent: “After being baptized by John in the river Jordan, Jesus went off into the wilderness where he spent forty days asking himself what it meant to be Jesus. During Lent, Christians are supposed to spend a similar period of time asking themselves what it means to be themselves.”

Asking ourselves what it means to be ourselves: to be fully human and  to be faithful followers of Christ. 

Those three temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness were issues he would face again and again during his ministry, just like there are challenges we face again and again in our faith journeys. 

Three temptations: turning stone into bread, gaining earthly power, doing something spectacular. 

I see three things we might consider about Jesus’ wilderness experience:

1.  What was the significance of that experience for Jesus, for his disciples and Apostles who were with him, and for each one of us

2.  Then let’s consider the source of those values: the source of Jesus’ values that he affirmed in that wilderness, and the source of our own values.

3.  Finally, let’s consider where Matthew, Mark, and Luke got their information about what happened in that wilderness, and why that’s important.

First, the significance of those temptations: turn stone into bread, gain earthly power, do something spectacular. There are two ways to look at those temptations.

One is to see those as self-centered temptations: meet your own physical needs, gain personal power, do something that will amaze people about how amazing you are. Of course, in that wilderness, Jesus rejected those self-centered, something less than subtle temptations. 

But, as some commentaries point out, there can be another way to look at those temptations: not about meeting self-centered needs or desires, but about doing something for the greater good of God’s kingdom and for all of God’s people.

While Luke’s account had the devil saying “Turn THIS STONE (singular) into bread,”  Matthew’s account said “Turn THESE STONES (plural) into bread”…enough to meet the physical needs of all God’s people, perhaps the devil saying “Now, wouldn’t that be a truly godly thing to do?”  A rather intriguing temptation.

Similarly, perhaps the devil was saying “I’m not suggesting you gain earthly power for your own sake, but to be able to institute that realm of God you want to see happen. Be effective, Jesus.  For God’s sake, be efficient. Power would do that.”

“And about throwing yourself off from the top of the temple, I’m not suggesting you do that to build yourself up in the eyes of the people. How crass that would be. No, no, no. But, when those angels save you, as promised in the 91^st Psalm, wouldn’t that make people believe in the power of a loving God? Hey, Jesus…I’m just here to help you quickly get done what God wants you to do.”

    

To those temptations, Jesus basically said: “No thanks. No shortcuts.”

But,  just as Luke concluded this scene with the words “the devil left him until an opportune time,” those temptations would be dangled in front of Jesus throughout his ministry at “opportune times.”

And Jesus would continue to say “No shortcuts, no effective/efficient, quick ways to bring about redemption and transformation. Not a throne, but a cross and then an empty tomb.”

In one form or another, those were temptations his followers and Apostles would struggle with while Jesus was with them. Those Apostles would help feed more than 5,000 people with a couple of fish and a few loaves, but there was more to the God’s realm than just that. The Apostles would jockey for positions of power in the political kingdom they thought Jesus was going to bring about. Wrong idea about God’s kingdom. They and others would confuse Jesus’ compassionate healings with mere magical marvels.

Such temptations have continued for 2,000 years, of course, in many different forms: from conflicts within the early church about power and the importance of miracles, to Constantine raising Christianity into legitimacy and power and wealth, to the church creating her own place of political influence and power, down to modern examples of the church and Christians pursuing power and prestige and privilege and possessions, even if claiming to be faithful followers of Christ. 

It’s easy to lose perspective. It’s easy to be seduced away from following in Jesus’ steps.

Lent is a time to take a good look at ourselves in the mirror and to consider our own values and commitments, and to think about how we respond to the temptations and challenges we encounter,

just as Jesus responded to those wilderness temptations by sticking to his values and commitments.

Values and commitments. Where did those come from for Jesus, and for you and me?

The Bible doesn’t tell us much about Jesus’ growing up, about what led him to his understanding of himself and the direction his ministry would take. Growing up with Mary and Joseph, he certainly heard them tell about the miracles surrounding his birth and early childhood. He had a pious and loving and strong mother. And he had an understanding, caring, and strong step-father, from whom he learned the patience-and-precision requiring skills of carpentry. He studied the Torah at the local synagogue, and participated in the interactive Jewish tradition of debate and questioning. He played and interacted with other boys and young men. Perhaps he long conversations with his much more spiritually and ascetically-oriented cousin John. He grew up within the political reality of Roman power, and saw the religious establishment’s acquiescence to that power

Through it all, he must have had a growing awareness of a holy and mysterious God. Through it all, he developed a set of values much more focused on the kindness and grace and compassion of God than on the need for sacrifice and the strict following of laws and rules.  It was those values, that sense of what God was like and who he was in relationship to that God, that allowed him to stick to those values and commitments during that wilderness experience.

Lent is a good time for each of us to think back on and reflect about the various factors that went into the formation of our values and commitments: our parents, extended family, our social setting… what were the values we picked up from those influences; if we grew up connected to a church or religious group, did we hear about a God who loved and cared for all people or about a God who said “obey the rules…or else;” what did we learn in school…not just the subject matters, but about who matters and what justice means, about how to get along, and about being good neighbors and good citizens.

And, like Jesus, what have we done with that whole range of impacts and ideas and influences?

Have we been able to re-think and let go of negative values and prejudices? Have we allowed ourselves to be open to God’s Spirit calling us in new directions? It can be good to consider the sources of our values and commitments. 

      

Final thought – a little question about the Bible: How did Luke know what happened in that wilderness? No one was there recording Jesus thoughts or his conversations with the devil.

Mark was the first Gospel written,  based mostly on Peter’s preaching and teaching, and Mark simply said that Jesus spent forty days in the desert being tempted by the devil, that there were wild animals with him, and that angels attended him. Mark was the text both Matthew and Luke used in writing their Gospels. So, how did Matthew and Luke learn about the temptations? Most likely because they had an account that someone else had written about what Jesus must have shared with his Apostles about that experience, perhaps as they were sitting around a campfire. Why would he have done that? I think because Jesus wanted those Apostles to know about his own journey of faith, about the struggles and challenges he faced. That campfire conversation got passed on, someone wrote it down, that got passed on to Matthew and Luke, who included it their Gospels, and it has been passed on to us.

And why are those stories of the temptations important for us to hear? Because though we affirm that Jesus was fully God, we also affirm that Jesus was fully human. Which means that the hope and promise of the Gospel is that God can also become present in and through each one of us; that even with our own struggles and challenges, we can stick to our values of understanding and love and compassion and peace and justice, no matter what we may face. 

And that is good and much needed news.

Thanks be to God. Amen