Friday, March 18, 2011

This Weekend at BRPC! (March 20th)

Dear BRPC Family,
 
Join us this weekend at church as we mark the 2nd Sunday in Lent.  I'll be beginning a string of sermons based on memorable encounters that Jesus has with peopel in the gospel of John.   This Sunday, Jesus meets the Pharisee Nicodemus in the middle of the night (John 3:1-21).  Nicodemus is intrigued by the signs Jesus has done, but Jesus tells him he needs to be "born from above"/"born again" to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  And then it's total confusion (which has extended for 2,000 years)!  Join us as we probe what it means to start over, and how that is even possible in this Lenten season.
 
Before worship, the Adult Sunday School lenten series continues at 9:30.  It is led by Janet Thompson Jackson and focuses on the Lenten themes of suffering, sacrifice, confession and grace.  Larry Lunceford also continues his Bible Study on 1st Corinthians at the same time.  I would greatly encourage you to catch one of these Christian Education offerings.
 
After worship, there will be a special meeting after church for all teens and their parents  regarding this summer’s mission trip to Colorado.  Lunch will be served.  I'm going on the trip and am really jazzed about doing all that mountain biking, white water rafting and summer luge racing while the youth work away.   See you after church!
 
If you ordered any of the anniversary shirts or caps, they’re in!  See Mike or Marcia Taylor in the parlor to pick up your orders.  We thank Mike and Marcia and all others who have worked so hard to make this special part of our anniversary celebration happen.  
 
Have a wonderful Saturday and I'll look forward to seeing you on Sunday.
 
Peace and grace,
Pat

Friday, March 11, 2011

BRPC this Weekend! (March 12-13)

Dear BRPC Family,

As I sit here in the office, the aroma of fresh pies and other pastries are wafting through the church.  I'm going to have to get out of here if I'm going to get any work done.   Bob Lockwood, meanwhile, has been sighted carrying sausage and other fixin's into the church for when he and the other men of BRPC hit the grill tomorrow morning for our annual Pancake Breakfast (9:00 to noon) to benefit REAP!    Between the pancake breakfast and bake sale, helping others thru REAP has never tasted so good!!  Join us!!

On Sunday, we enter fully into the Season of Lent.   Janet Thompson Jackson begins a six-week Adult Lenten Study (9:30 a.m.) on A Contemplative Study of the Road to Jerusalem.   Join her for a prayerful approach to the suffeirng, sacrifice, confession and grace of Lent.  Larry Lunceford continues his valuable Bible study of 1st Corinthians at the same time. 
In worship, we plunge into the wilderness with Jesus as he encounters the temptations of the devil.  What wilderness do you find yourself in these days?  Join us as we begin this Lenten walk to the cross with our Lord.  My scripture will be Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-5 and Matthew 4:1-11. 

Following worship, we're having a meeting to prepare for our April 12th BLOWOUT!  I'm referring of course to the April 12th Presbytery meeting that we'll be hosting at BRPC.  This is a special honor as 175 - 200 members of the Presbytery will gather here for worship, a lunch and a day of business.   I'll greatly appreciate all the help that our members can offer.  We'll begin our planning this Sunday after church (lunch provided).

A note from CE:  Second Presbyterian Church (at 55th and Brookside) is hosting a Dave Ramsey financial management class.  The class begins Wednesday, March 16th 7:00 - 9:00 pm.   The number to call if you'd like to register is 363-1300 to register.  We understand that the first class is free and then there's a fee of $100 for materials and to continue the class.  Other classes can be found on his website DaveRamsey.com.  Several are starting next week. 

Finally, as many may have heard today, there was an 8.9 earthquake off the coast of Japan which triggered tsunamis around the Pacific.  Our prayers are with everyone caught in the range of this event -- for those who have lost their lives and those working feverishly to tend to the survivors and victims.    Dodie reports that her niece and her daughter who are teaching at a Christian school in Japan (and their husband/father) are safe.   Blessedly, the school had had an earthquake safety drill just the day before.   If you wish to follow what our denomination is doing to support relief efforts as they are organized, you can go to:
                                            http://gamc.pcusa.org/ministries/pda/

I look forward to seeing everyone this weekend!  Invite a friend to the pancake breakfast and worship this Sunday!!

Peace and grace,
Pat

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Lent -- It's to die for!

Lent – “It’s to die for!”
Usually I hear that phrase “It’s to die for!” in connection with obscenely delicious chocolate or some other mouth-watering culinary creation.  Sometimes, usually late at night, I forage around in the refrigerator for just such a bite.  But as we enter into this season of Lent on March 9th, we truly are entering into a season “to die for.”

To die for what?  you might wonder.  What’s all this death business about anyway? 

Traditionally, the period of Lent served as the time for people to prepare to be baptized.  After seven weeks of study and prayer, on Easter Sunday, they died to their old selves as they were immersed in the baptismal waters.  And then they were born anew through Christ’s resurrection as they emerged from the waters.  As our Book of Order puts it,

In Baptism, we participate in Jesus’ death and resurrection. In Baptism, we die to what separates us from God and are raised to newness of life in Christ.

Which leads me to the question – what do you need to die to in your life?  What aspects of your life do you need to shed, to lose so that you can more fully embrace the Christian life? 

This dying isn’t necessarily a one-time thing. As the Apostle Paul exclaimed, “I die everyday!” (1 Cor. 15:31).  

Thinking back to chocolate and my refrigerator, Lent is a time of special meals.  We will begin our Lenten observance somewhat differently this year as a congregation.  We will gather on Ash Wednesday, on March 9th at 6:00 p.m. for a simple (yet delicious!) meal of soup, salad and sandwiches in Fellowship Hall.  After we break bread together, we will head up into the sanctuary for our Ash Wednesday service – a service in which ashes will be etched on our foreheads as a reminder of our own mortality and our need to die to this world as we look forward to embracing the hope and new light of resurrection.

Six weeks later, we’ll come together on Maundy Thursday for another meal as we remember the Last Supper and our Lord’s washing of the disciples’ feet.  After that meal, we will again head upstairs for our Tenebrae service in which we witness to the death of our Lord on the cross.

And then on Easter Sunday, we will share in an Easter breakfast which will be followed by a service of joy as we celebrate the new life of Christ in resurrection – and our new life as well. 

All these meals will be tasty. The fellowship will be warm.   The services will be moving. But above all, I know that we have a Savior who is just to die for. 

 Peace and grace,
 Pastor Pat

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Sermon Series on the Lord's Prayer

Have you ever had the experience of driving down the same road so often that you get to a point where you don’t notice your surroundings?  I think this may be the case with the Lord’s Prayer.  We say it so often that we’re often on “auto pilot” as we go through the verses.   Zoom, we cruise past “thy kingdom come” and “give us this day our daily bread,” and we hardly take in the words that pass through our lips.  What did we just pray about?
From January 23rd thru March 6th

I will be sharing a sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer
during worship at BRPC.   I invite you to take part in this special series either in person or thru video (see links on our “worship” page).   Each Sunday we’ll also feature a special skit in which God makes an appearance!   Catch these videos as they catch us praying the Lord’s Prayer at home, over meals, behind the wheel, at work and at a party! 
 As we move thru these six weeks, I want to encourage you to spend time meditating on the Lord’s Prayer.   You may use it as a personal devotion, as your grace before meals, or any other way that is meaningful to you.   As you do, I pray that you will experience anew the depth, scope and richness of God’s grace which is conveyed thru the prayer.
Here is the schedule of the sermon series:
Jan. 30:     Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy Name
Feb. 6th:    Thy Kingdom Come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven
Feb. 13th:  Give us this day our daily bread
Feb. 20th:  Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
Feb. 27:    And Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
March 6th:  For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.   Amen
Peace and grace!
Pastor Pat

A Valentine's Day Question

Happy Valentine's Day! (+1!)   I've been doing a survey to find the most loved scripture about LOVE!  If you haven't had a chance to respond, click on the link below and make your choices.  You're limited to ONLY 5!  Peace and grace!  Pastor Pat

(Results to come in this space!)

1. Being a Presbyterian -- What's in a Denomination Anyway?

          
     You’re walking along in the supermarket.  You pass the aisles with pasta, soups, frozen foods, washing machine detergent and fabric softener – until you reach that section of personal care products, and toothpaste in particular.   You see Colgate, Crest, Arm & Hammer, Aquafresh and other brands.   My sense is that when it comes to toothpaste, most folks pick one brand and stick with it. 
            We often do the same thing when it comes to buying cars, shopping at a pharmacy or supermarket, or picking a sports team to follow.  And before the explosion of cable news and the internet, people usually had their own preference of network news anchors – you either watched Dan, Tom or Peter.

          And then we have religious denominations. In the latest edition of the Handbook of Denominations in the United States, there are 203 individual Christian denominations listed.  These include 31 types of Baptists, 12 groups of Methodists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Episcopalians, Catholics,  and 9 different Presbyterian denominations of which the Presbyterian Church U.S. A. is the largest.

            It used to be that once people picked a denomination, they stayed there.  But folks are increasingly mobile these days in terms of which church they attend.

            I don’t know if everyone in church here today considers themselves Presbyterian.  We may have some visitors who have another denominational background or have no particular church tie at this time and are exploring faith traditions.

            Those who consider themselves Presbyterian may have come to the denomination by a number of different routes.  For many of our youth, and adult members too, we may be Presbyterian simply because our parents were Presbyterian.  It’s what we grew up with.

            Some of us may be Presbyterian because we live close to the church.  It just makes sense to go to Blue Ridge because it’s just a few blocks away.

            Others may have joined our church and become Presbyterian because when they visited one day, they were so struck by the warmth and friendliness that they decided Blue Ridge would be their church home – and well, if that meant being Presbyterian, then that was just fine.

            Still others may be Presbyterian because they have a good friend, significant other or spouse who is Presbyterian.  So they have become Presbyterian because of that relationship.               

And finally, there are those who are Presbyterian because they embrace the beliefs and ways that Presbyterians do things.  They joined Blue Ridge because they were intentional about wanting to be a part of a Presbyterian community.

            We have just begun our year-long commemoration of Blue Ridge’s 60th anniversary in this place.   Celebrating this event made me wonder if we fully appreciate the meaning of being Presbyterian.  I also was drawn to this question because when I surveyed the congregation back in August about what you hoped to hear addressed in sermons, many raised questions about our Presbyterian heritage.  And so beginning this Sunday, we are embarking on a seven week sermon series on What it means to be Presbyterian.  

My first question, and the topic for us today is the very basic question of “What’s in a denomination anyway?”   

To get a handle on this, we need to take a look at how Presbyterians got started.  We’re going to address this much more next week, but I want to give you the cliff notes version this week.

            As Becky’s youth message pointed out, there were no denominations in the first thousand years of the church.   There was just one church.   It wasn’t until the year 1054 when there was the Great Schism – when the church split between the Greek speaking Eastern Orthodox and the Latin speaking west.  That split was triggered by a disagreement over the understanding of the Trinity and left us with a western church based in Rome and the Eastern church based in then Constantinople. 

            Our heritage as Presbyterians follows the western church.   Things ran along for another 500 years until Luther sparked the Reformation in 1517 by posting those 95 theses on the door of the church in Wittenbery Germany.    The rallying cry of the Reformation was “sola scriptura” – only scripture.
    
Luther and his followers were concerned with certain practices by the Catholic Church of the time.  Luther sought to eliminate any practices of the Catholic Church which the Bible condemned.  

Calvin followed Luther and he and others went a step further.  They sought to reform the church by eliminating all practices that the Bible didn’t require.   So if it wasn’t in the Bible, it shouldn’t be a practice of the church.   Queen Elizabeth of England referred to the churches under Calvin and others as “The churches more reformed.”  And so Calvin and the followers were dubbed “Reformed.”   

As Calvin sought to organize the church on Biblical witness, he looked to passages such as Acts 14, where we read “After they -- the Apostles -- had appointed the elders for them in each church, with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe.”   

Rather than creating a hierarchical system of church government as in the Catholic church – which Calvin didn’t see in scripture – he based the church structure on a representative form of government in which the people of the church elected elders – teaching elders, which are ministers of the Word and Sacrament, and ruling elders, which are the elders that comprise our session.  The Greek word for elder is “presbuteros” from which we derive the word Presbyter.  So while Calvin is known for being Reformed in his theology, the system of  church government that he developed became know as Presbyterian.

As the reformation spread to Britain, there was a conflict between England and Scotland.  The Church of England decided to keep an episcopal form of government with bishops, but the Church of Scotland, following the reformers, adopted this new “Presbyterian” form of government.   When members of the Church of Scotland emigrated to the United States, they were just referred to as Presbyterians.

So what’s in a denomination anyway?  For us as Presbyterians, it’s two key things:

            First, our denomination guides us in our beliefs as Christians.  As Presbyterians, we worship the Triune God and celebrate the Lordship of Jesus Christ as we read in Colossians. 

“He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”

We rely first on the Bible and second on our Book of Confessions.  And as Presbyterians, we place special emphasis on the following:

·        The sovereignty of God
·        The authority of Scripture
·        The grace of God
·        The fact that we are elected, or chosen by God
·        The Priesthood of all Believers
·        The reality of sin in our lives
·        The call for obedience to God

We will explore all of these beliefs in the weeks to come and see how they shape our faith.

The second thing our denomination does is guide us in how we operate – how we make decisions and otherwise live together.   We follow a representative form of government in which we trust groups of people to make decisions instead of single individuals.  This is represented by the session in the local church, then the Presbytery at the next level, then the synod, and then the General Assembly at the national level of our church.
 One way to think of our denomination is as if it’s a tour bus company.  Our faith is like a journey that we take.  We all have the same goal, the same destination.  We could try to get there on our own, but we’re called to live in community and to travel together.  As we go, we have a guide, but we are also guided by one another.  And along the way, we’ll learn and share with each other, comfort and encourage each other,  as together we follow Jesus Christ. 

Over the next six weeks, our bus will make several stops.  Next Sunday, week 2, we’ll travel further into the Reformation.  We’ll find that what really ignited Martin Luther wasn’t just the corruption in the Catholic church, but something far more serious which we still confront today.

In week 3, we’ll delve into what the Bible means to Presbyterians.  How do we undersatnd the Bible and interpret it – especially when it seems to say conflicting things?

 As your bus driver, I’ll update you on our route as we continue along.  My prayer is that whether you’ve been a Presbyterian for a month or a lifetime, this journey over the next six weeks will strengthen your faith and give you a greater undersatnding of what we do in worship and in all other aspects of our life together.  

“Have you not know, have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.”    Through this gift of our denomination, let us discover anew our gracious, almighty God.
    

2. Being Presbyterian -- Reformation Roots

          It’s 2 o’clock in the morning sometime in the year 1517 and Martin Luther’s stomach was eating him alive.    He had just gotten up – at 2 a.m. -- to BEGIN his prayer regimen for the day, and he was gripped with intense anxiety because he didn’t know if he was going to heaven or hell.  

Luther’s father had wanted his son to study law but Luther was so obsessed with this feeling of spiritual limbo that he decided to enter the monastery and become a monk.   Maybe this would ease his mind.
Luther’s predicament wasn’t unusual in the early 1500s.  This anxiety about one’s fate was widespread in Europe.   And the key source of this anxiety was the  Roman Catholic Church which had embraced the message in Ecclesiastes 9:1:  “No one knows whether he is worthy of God’s love or hate.”   So the church taught that people needed to “do their best” to become holy, but the question was, who knew if their best was enough?
Dietrich Kolde wrote Mirror of a Christian Man  in 1470.  It was the most popular Catholic catechism of the day.    Kolde wrote about the people’s lack of certitude about salvation.  “There are three things I know to be true that frequently make my heart heavy.  The first troubles my spirit, because I will have to die.  The second troubles my heart more, because I do not know when.  The third troubles me above all.  I do not know where I will go.” 
The church began selling “indulgences” – payments which supposedly helped people account for their sins and become more holy and worthy of salvation.  One Catholic Priest named Tetzel was particularly prominent in carrying this out.   He preached in town squares and cathedrals, regularly saying “Do you not hear the voices of your dead parents and other people, screaming and saying ‘Have pity on me . . . We are suffering severe punishments and pain, from which you could rescue us with a few alms, if only you would.”   And he used a jingle:   “As soon as the coin into the box rings, a soul from purgatory to heaven springs.” 
So people would purchase these indulgences, or another option was to buy relics.  Frederick the Wise of Wittenberg amassed and displayed a collection of 19,000 relics including:
·        A piece of the burning bush
·        Milk from Mary
·        Piece of Jesus’ crib – all acquired at great cost.
·        The relics were worth 1,900,000 days of indulgences.   
Before I continue, I want to pause to say a word about our Catholic friends.  There’s no question that the Catholic church was mired in deep corruption in the 16th century.  And there remain significant differences in our theology and practice today.  But I want to just note that when we speak of the Reformation, we really need to speak of reformations,  plural.  Because while the protestants sought renewal – so too did Catholics.  And those Catholic movements had a great impact on refocusing the church away from the abuses of the 16th century.
That said, the days of corruption was the environment in which Luther began his study of theology.   But Luther was not driven per se by the corruption of the Catholic Church.  He was not a part of some Consumer Protection Agency or citizen watchdog group against ecclesial abuse.

No, Luther was gripped by this basic theological question:  How can I know, if my salvation depends significantly on what I do,  whether I’m saved or damned?  And that is the question that triggered the Reformation.   As Luther wrote, “I tortured myself with prayers, fasting,  vigils, and freezing;  the frost alone might have killed me.” 

And then, Luther read Romans 1:17.      For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”  

This verse, for Luther, was a revelation as to the nature of God and God’s approach to salvation.  Salvation didn’t rest in what we did, but rather in God’s grace.

For me a more straight forward rendering of this point is found in Paul’s letter Ephesians 2:8  “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”

In the words the Reformation historian Carl Lindberg, “Luther’s conversion experience set medieval piety on its head.  He came to see that salvation is no longer the goal of life but rather its foundation.”

            Now Jesus told a number of parables that highlight the grace of God.  One is the prodigal son in which God unconditionally welcomes home the one who had gone and spent the family inheritance.   

In a second parable, Jesus tells the story of a landowner who hires people to work in his fields.  It’s as if someone in Blue Springs drove their pick up to the old Shell station on 63rd street in Raytown where folks looking for day labor would congregate.  And the owner says:  Look, if you go work in my fields for the day, I’ll give you $100.  And the laborers agree to go.    

At noon the landowner needed more laborers and went and hired them.  Then at 3:00 p.m. he needed yet more and so hired more.  And finally at 5:00 p.m. he needed more and hired still more.  Then it came time to pay the workers.   The landowner paid those who started at 5 p.m. the SAME  $100 and then he paid the workers who started at 3 and noon.  When it came the turn for those who started at 8 a.m., they were full of anticipation, thinking they would certainly receive more than the originally agreed $100.   But when they received $100 also, they were enraged.  How is it that those who started at 5 p.m. were paid the same as us?  It wasn’t fair. 

WE wouldn’t operate that way.  But God’s ways are not our ways.  God doesn’t dispense grace according to what WE do.  It’s not based upon our merit.   It is only granted by God in God’s loving freedom.

 John Calvin was another giant from the Reformation – and is particularly embraced by the Presbyterian tradition.  He was only 8 years old when Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg – so Calvin was a 2nd generation reformer.   
Calvin, generally speaking, made two big marks on the Reformation.  While he didn’t do the original thinking like Luther, Calvin took all the main strands of reformed theology and organized them in what remains arguably  the most significant writing of the Reformation --  “The Institutes of Christian Religion.”  He first published the Institutes when he was 26, but he would rework and expand them across his lifetime.  Calvin’s second main contribution was to implement many of the Reformation ideas in the city of Geneva Switzerland.

In his “Institutes of Christian Religion,” Calvin affirmed justification by grace through faith.   Related to this, Calvin went on to write about another doctrine which if you’re Presbyterian, people will often ask you about.   And that is . . . , right, Predestination.  

In writing about Predestination Calvin was addressing that theological uncertainty and anxiety that Luther faced.   And depending on where you lived, people who followed Reformed ideas faced persecution.    So Calvin meant to assure people by this doctrine of predestination. 

At its basic level, Predestination, which is also known as “election,”  means that before we do anything,  God knows us, God saves us, and God calls us to service.    The Bible is full of stories of God choosing people, from Abraham to the people of Israel.  And in John 15:16,  Jesus says:  “You did not choose me, I chose you.”  At a time when people had doubts about their salvation, or they were suffering persecution, this doctrine was meant to be an assurance of God’s love and role in their lives. 

Now Calvin took this doctrine one step further in what is referred to as “double Predestination.”  This is the idea that God knows, saves and calls SOME people – but then God eternally damns other people before they are born.   Scholars believe Calvin took this added step because he believed in an all-powerful God and he couldn’t otherwise fathom why some people would reject God in their lives. 

This is one of the reasons I’m a Presbyterian.  Not because of double-Predestination, but because of the Presbyterian motto that we are “Reformed and always reforming.”  That is to say, we are always seeking to respond to the living God and to live a living faith.    There may those who still embrace double Predestination.  But as a denomination, we rejected this idea officially in 1903 when we made an amendment to the Westminster Confession of Faith in our Book of Confessions.   This Confession from the 1640s upholds Calvin’s view on double Predestination.  But in 1903 a section was added that affirms “In the Gospel God declares his love for the world and his desire that all men are saved.” 

 There have been many reformed theologians, since the start of the Reformation itself, who have rejected double Predestination.    Probably the most significant reformed theologian of the 20th Century, Karl Barth, rejected Calvin’s stance, saying that while he agrees that there are “yeses and nos” to be sorted out, God embraces all people through Jesus Christ as is written in Ephesians 1:3-4:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.

Where Luther and Calvin stand firmly together is on our original question:  what is the source of our salvation – and the answer to that remains that we are only justified -- made right with God -- by God’s grace.  Our own strivings, as much as the idea may bug us, has nothing to do with it.

Does this mean there’s no place for good works?   No, doing good works is as important as ever.   But rather than doing good works IN ORDER THAT we can saved,  we instead do good works BECAUSE we are already saved in Jesus Christ.    This can be a HUGE shift in how we think about our life and how we live our life.

In Calvin’s day, his adopted city of Geneva became a center point in Europe for those who were poor and in need.    Janet, Elyse and I were in Geneva last summer before Janet was teaching in the Netherlands.  There I saw this engraving on a side of building that chronicled Geneva’s response to the poor.  Then, in a walking tour, a guide told us about this building.  Notice the top story that’s a bit recessed.   People in Geneva routinely build an extra story on top in order to house the poor and the homeless.

We have many opportunities through this congregation to serve the needy in our community.  And we will soon be embarking on our stewardship campaign in which we’ll be asking for the congregation’s financial support for all of the ministries of the church.   This is not a chance for you to buy a ticket to heaven or to otherwise score points with God.   Instead, it’s an opportunity for you to respond to the almighty God who already knew you, already saved you, and now calls you to serve.