Sermon (June 25) by Rev. Robert McDowell "And God Heard"

    The story is told of a terrible two car accident which involved two men who were driving in one of the cars.  The one man died in the accident and the other man who was the passenger survived but ended up losing a leg.

     The two different families representing these two men who had been in the same car together, sued the other driver who had caused the accident.

    Both families went to court.  The family of the man who died because of the accident didn’t win their case.  But the family of the man who lost his leg from the same accident ended up winning over 3 million dollars.

    Now why did the family of the man who died not get a dime?  And yet the family of the man who lost a leg was able to win all of that money?  They had both been in the same car, the same accident, and yet two very different court decisions.

    It’s pretty simple.  Every day that the court met to discuss this case, the family would wheel in the man who had lost his leg in the accident.  And so every day, the jurors would be face to face with this man who had lost his leg.

    This had a huge psychological impact on the people in the courtroom.

     Was it fair?  We would probably say, ‘no.’  But isn’t it true that when we actually see suffering face to face, we are more likely to do something about it?

    I was thinking of this story as I read our scripture reading from the Book of Genesis.  I believe that this story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Ishmael teach us what it means to respond to the suffering in our world.

    Here we have Abraham, a man who responded to God’s call to be the father of a great nation back in Genesis chapter 12. 

     And just to show that anything is possible, God makes a way for Abraham’s wife, Sarah, who is past child bearing years to have a baby and they end up calling this baby “Isaac” which means “He laughs.”

     This was a fun little play on words to show what an incredible miracle Isaac’s birth was.  Everybody was laughing but God had the last laugh the day that Isaac was born.  Isaac was the miracle baby, if you will.  We are reminded in this story that with God, all things are possible.

     But before Isaac was born, Sarah, not thinking that this whole pregnancy thing was going to work out, gets the idea to have Abraham marry Hagar, who was her maid.  And Sarah encourages Abraham to have a child through the two of them.  And Hagar conceives.

     Let’s get real here. We all know that this isn’t going to end up being the happy Brady Bunch family.   This is going to be a recipe for disaster.

     When the news is out that Hagar passed the pregnancy test, she proceeds to flaunt her good news in front of Sarah who you remember is childless and Sarah doesn’t take too kindly to this as you might imagine.

     So she goes to Abraham and complains to him about it.  Then she says a few choice words to Hagar.  Notice that the Bible doesn’t get specific with what she said.   And for good reason.  Let your imagination fill in what was said during those exchanges between Sarah and Hagar.

     They must have been pretty dicey words because before you know it, Hagar is out of there.  She’s in the wilderness.  And the Lord reassures Hagar as she’s out there in the middle of nowhere and tells her that everything is going to be OK.  Don’t worry because when your son is born, he will begin a great nation himself.

     Thirteen years later, the Lord visits Abraham out of the blue and tells him, “Well it’s time.  It’s now Sarah’s turn to give birth – just like I promised would happen five chapter ago.”  Abraham has a good laugh over that one, but God wasn’t laughing.  God was serious. 

     And God says, “Since you think this is so funny and impossible, I already picked out a name for this child  - I want you to name this child ‘He laughs.’  I know that you wanted to name him ‘Abraham Jr.’ but this way, whenever you say the name, ‘Isaac,’ which means ‘He laughs’ you will remember that with me, nothing is impossible.’”

     So Sarah ends up giving birth and names her baby, “He Laughs” or “Isaac” and Sarah has this great line soon after Isaac was born.  She says, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.”

     Well, there was one person who quit laughing once Isaac was weaned – and that person was Hagar.  Remember her?  The mother of Ishmael who Sarah banished to the wilderness for a period of time several years before? 

     Remember, this dysfunctional family is living under one roof, and one day Sarah had it up to here when she noticed Ishmael playing with his younger step-brother Isaac.  On most days, Sarah could bite her tongue, clench her fists, and count slowly to ten.  But not on this day.

     On this day, when she got to the count of seven, she blew up and she looks for Abraham and finds him.  Abraham is in a no win situation.  Two children, two different wives, all living under the same roof.

     Sarah says, “This is the last time I’m going to tell you – Get her out of here.  Far away!  Like to a different zip-code.  Or better yet, to a different time-zone.  Just get her out of here, like right now!”

     Abraham’s heart just sinks right there on the spot.  He loves them both.  He loves the boys.  What to do.

     The Lord tells Abraham, “I feel your pain, but you’re going to have to let go.  You’re going to need to send Hagar and the boy away because this just isn’t working.  But, trust me, because I will take care of them both.”

     So Abraham provides them with some provisions and sends them into the wilderness – not a good place to be sent.  The wilderness. That sounds like it’s a place with lots of wildlife and vegetation, but in Israel, the wilderness refers to rocks, desert, and hot sun.

     The wilderness is code for a place of suffering and lostness.  You don’t want to be in the wilderness.  But this is where Hagar and Ishmael are sent. 

     And now I want to really slow the story down and I want you to place yourself there with Hagar out there in the wilderness and just watch what happens.   Even if you want to turn away and tune me out – hang in there and hear our scripture reading this morning.

     Picture Hagar emptying the last drops of water into young Ishmael’s mouth.  It’s been several days now.  It’s hot.  The sun is beating down.  There’s no place to turn.  There’s nobody to call on who can refill that water skin.  That’s it.  She’s at the end of her rope. 

     Watch this mother do really the only thing that she can do.  Just watch her carry the limp body of Ishmael over to some bushes where there is a little shade because she knows that he isn’t going to live too much longer, not in that beastly heat and without anymore provisions.  At least he'll die in the shade.

     What would you do if you were the mother?  Would you stay by your son waiting for the inevitable to happen? Or would that be just too much to bear? 

     We are told that she goes a good way off, about a bowshot away, and there she weeps.

     She weeps.  And she talks to God.

     Wow!  Can the Bible be any more gripping, heart wrenching, and real?  By the way, I’m always amazed at people who like to boil the Bible down to four easy points or turn it into a set of abstract principles especially when you read stories like this. 

     The Bible is not meant to be reduced to a set of formulas that somehow convey spiritual truths.  No.  The Bible invites you and me to live at the heart of what it means to be truly human.  We are left with a mother watching her child die.

     Is there anyone else watching this child die?  Do we dare watch?  Or is this too real?

     But if you remember, Hagar did something critically important on behalf of her son.  She prayed for him.

     And this is what we read beginning at verse 17 - "God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.”

     Take note of that all important phrase in the middle of that verse – “And God heard.”

     This is an important story to remind us that God really does hear our prayers even though we might wonder if there is anyone listening on the other end of those prayers.

     Earlier this year, I prayed for someone who was going through a difficult time in his life. I was really worried about him because he was shutting his family out and they were concerned that he wasn’t making good decisions for his life.

     There were so many things that I could have asked God to do for him during my prayer time that morning, but when it came right down to it, the main thing I wanted to know was that he was OK. So one morning during my prayer time, I asked God to just give me a sign that this person was OK. I could have prayed for a number of things, but really, that was the most important thing I needed to know, just to know that he was OK.

     By the way, prayer has a way of helping us to sort through all of our confusing feelings so that we can focus on what is most important on our heart in any given moment. In that moment, all I really cared about was that this person was OK.

     So I go through my day and went to sleep that night. At around 10:30, about a half hour after I went to sleep, I got a call on my cell phone. It was someone who knew this person who I was praying about earlier that morning.

     This is someone who also was concerned about this person. He told me that he happened to be in the same town visiting family where this person lived that evening, and he decided to go see him. He told me all of this, and then said, “I just thought you would like to know that he’s doing OK.”

     Alright, this person who called me knew nothing about my prayer for this person earlier that day. How incredible that on the same day as my prayer, this person who called me that night would have been in the same town as the person I was concerned about, and then, felt led to see how he was doing, and then to go the extra step and give me a call to say that he had seen him, and that he was OK.

     After I hung up the phone, I said, “Thank you God, for answering my prayer.”

     Friends, I have no doubt that God hears our prayers. Now, we might not always get an answer like I did before the end of the day, but God does answer our prayers.

     Here’s another example of God answering prayer. This past February, our church held a special dedication worship service for our new building improvements. The theme of that Sunday was for our church to be a haven of blessing and peace.

     During that worship service, we offered this prayer of dedication. Here is that prayer, word for word from that special Sunday:

“O God, we pray that people who walk by our church building on any given day will see our church as a haven of blessing and peace. We pray that the light of Christ will shine through these windows and be a blessing to all. O God, we dedicate this new entrance to your glory. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen.”

     The very next day, following that special dedication worship service, a college student was walking by our church and felt led to come into our building. She just wanted to talk to someone about some questions she had about her faith.

     Rick happened to be here at the time and provided a listening ear, and at the end of their conversation, he offered a prayer for this college student.

     Just one day earlier, we as a congregation had prayed for our church to be a haven of blessing and peace for people who walk by our front entrance, and in that short amount of time, God used our church to be a blessing to that person.

     God hears our prayers. And God answers our prayers.

     Throughout these summer Sundays, we will continue to focus on stories from the Book of Genesis like this one today about Hagar, Sarah, and Abraham. These are stories about a dysfunctional step-family, a blind date, a brother who cheats his brother out of a birthright, and a brother sold into slavery. These are crazy, crazy stories, and yet, the dysfunctional people of these stories are considered the matriarchs and patriarchs of our faith.

     I think these strange and all too familiar stories are included in the bible just to show us that God is bound and determined to hear and answer our prayers even in spite of ourselves. God is determined to use ordinary and flawed people like you and me to live out God’s purpose and to be a blessing to the people around us.

    If anything, these stories show us that if you’re worried if you are holy enough to pray, don’t be. God is accustomed to hearing the prayers of dysfunctional, broken, flawed, shortsighted folks like you and me. That’s nothing new for God. We have these stories from the Book of Genesis to prove it.

     I think you’re going to enjoy these stories in church this summer. They are quite entertaining. But more importantly, these old stories are important to hear because we can see ourselves somewhere in these stories. In varying ways, we can identify with these characters, because we’re all human.

    For today, know that when you feel like you’re at the end of your rope and you have nowhere else to turn, you do have this going for you. You can pray and see how God will guide you through any situation, problem, or adversity you may be facing.

     Just remember, we are always just a bowshot away from God hearing our prayers.

     Amen.

And God Heard

Small Group Questions

Genesis 21:8-21

June 25, 2017

This summer, the sermons are focusing on stories from the Book of Genesis. We begin with this story from Genesis 21:8-21. It's a story about the tension between Abraham's wives, Sarah and Hagar. The story concludes with Hagar and her son, Ishmael being banished to the wilderness, where Ishmael almost dies of thirst. God heard the prayers of Hagar and Ishmael survived.

Share a time when you felt that God heard and answered your prayer.

The story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac, and Ishmael is a story of many miracles including Sarah becoming pregnant at a very old age and young Ishmael surviving the brutal heat of the wilderness. Stories like this remind us that God is present in our everyday lives more than we may think. We've been calling these, "thin place moments" where there is a razor thin space between heaven and earth.

Share a "thin place moment" when you experienced God's presence in a very real way.

Like many of the stories in the Book of Genesis, we read about flawed, dysfunctional, and sinful people who ended up becoming the matriarchs and patriarchs of our faith. These stories remind us that God can use anyone to accomplish his purposes.

Share a time when God called you to respond in faith even though you felt inadequate for the task.

Pastoral Prayer (June 4/Pentecost) - Athens First UMC

[We celebrated Pentecost Sunday, a day when God poured out the Holy Spirit upon the church, and a day that concludes the Great Fifty Days of the Easter season. Even though the Easter Season on our church calendar has ended, the good news of our faith is that we are an Easter people everyday of the year and every Sunday is like a "little Easter." The red paraments on the altar, pulpit, and lectern on this Sunday remind us of the fire of God's Spirit that empowers the church share the good news of the Risen Christ in all that we say and do. Happy Pentecost!]

God of Easter and the empty tomb, thank you for the pouring out of your Holy Spirit upon your church and upon each and every one of us.

Thank you for the fire of your Spirit that opens our eyes to the fires of injustice that are all around us.

We also thank you for the fire of your Spirit that always reminds us of the good news of our faith because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. May the fire of your spirit continue to fill our hearts with joy.

And we thank you for the fire of your Spirit that prompts us to make a difference in our community and world, like the students from St. Joseph’s University who traveled from Philadelphia to stay at our church this past week to work with Habitat for Humanity. Thank you for blessing our community through them.

We pray that the fire of your Holy Spirit will be ablaze during our West Ohio Annual Conference this week. Bless Bishop Gregory Palmer as he presides at these meetings and bless the laity and clergy of the many churches of our conference as we gather to renew our connection and be renewed by your Spirit. Perhaps it is no coincidence that our conference this year begins on Pentecost Sunday!

On this Holy Communion Sunday, may the receiving of the bread and the cup lead us to live out our faith through the power of your Holy Spirit.  Remind us that it only takes a spark to get a fire going.

For those who are grieving the loss of a loved one, may the fire of your Spirit warm their hearts. For those who are facing medical tests or struggling with addictions, or are feeling weak, may the fire of your Spirit warm their hearts. For those who are in need of physical, emotional, relational, or spiritual healing in their lives, may the fire of your Spirit warm their hearts. For those who are feeling lonely or discouraged, may the fire of your Spirit warm their hearts. For a world grieving at yet another terrorist attack, may the fire of your Spirit warm our hearts

On this Pentecost Sunday, warm all of our hearts O God, as we pray the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples and now teaches us to pray together… “Our Father, who art in heaven…”

Sermon (June 4/Pentecost Sunday) by Rev. Robert McDowell "Where's the Fire?"

      A young pastor served his community as a chaplain to the local fire companies. One night, his first call came, and he jumped into his car and sped off into the night.   A police cruiser, lights flashing, pulled him over, and the police officer sauntered up to the driver’s side window, leaned in, and asked, “Well, sir? Where’s the fire?”

     Without hesitation, the young pastor replied, “216 Sherman Ridge Road!” Caught off guard, the police officer stammered, “Oh, well, OK then, follow me!”

     “Where’s the fire?” is a common euphemism used in three different ways. In the case of the police officer, it meant, “What’s the big hurry?” Others us the phrase to ask, “What’s all the excitement about?” Another approach uses the saying to inquire, “Where’s the passion and energy?”

     Any of these three questions is appropriate for us to ask on this Pentecost Sunday. “Where’s the fire?”

     The story of Pentecost in the second chapter of the Book of Acts has been known as the birthday of the church. This story challenges us with the “Where’s the fire?” questions in all three different uses.

Where's the Fire? Or What's the Big Hurry?

     For the first use of that question where the police officer is challenging the motorist to explain why he was going too fast, today is a good day to address that question. Like the police officer, we too may assume that there really isn’t a fire when there actually is one.

     The reason that God sent the Holy Spirit upon the disciples after Jesus had ascended into heaven was because God’s mission on this earth still needed to be fulfilled. More work needed to be done.

     Even though Jesus won the victory over sin and death through the cross and the empty tomb, God’s overall plan didn’t change. God still wants to work in and through ordinary people like you and me to do extraordinary things to make a difference in our world.

     As the saying goes, sometimes we can be so heavenly minded that we end up being no earthly good. When Jesus left his disciples, he didn’t tell them that it was nice knowing them and to take it easy because there was nothing left for them to do. No, he told them to go into the world to baptize, to teach, and to serve.

     Jesus was telling them that there was more work to be done. The difference would be that they would have the Holy Spirit to empower them to make a difference in the world.

     In 1963, civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was in a Birmingham, Alabama jail because he had led a non-violent protest against social injustice in that city.  While he was in jail, eight clergymen in Birmingham had placed a statement in the local newspaper criticizing him for coming to their city to speak out against racial equality.

     While in jail, Dr. King responded to their criticism and here is a portion of his letter in response to their criticism of his work:

     Dr. King writes, “Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here, I am here because I have organizational ties here. But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.

     Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town.

     Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid. Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

     Nobody was going to convince Dr. King that there was no fire of racial equality. Dr. King dedicated his ministry to paving the way to a more just nation where all people regardless of skin color enjoy freedom and equality.

     The fact that Dr. King wrote this letter makes me very sad because his letter was not in response to people outside the church. His letter was in response to religious leaders who had chosen to not support him in his important work.

     They were more like the policeman who sarcastically told the speeding motorist, “Where’s the fire?”

     Whenever we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are reminded of God’s call on each of our lives to make a difference in our community and world. “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

     Our job as a Pentecost people is to sprinkle a little of heaven on earth. Check that. To spread a lot of heaven on earth.

     We are on fire with the Holy Spirit so that we can put out the fire of social injustice.

     In addition to assuming that there is no fire when in reality there are many fires in our community and world that are in need of God’s justice and love, Pentecost Sunday also helps us to share with others why we do what we do.

Where's the Fire? Or What's All the Excitement About?

     Sometimes when people ask, “Where’s the fire?” they are asking, “What’s all the excitement about? What’s the commotion?”

     Well, the reason the disciples were speaking in tongues and causing such a commotion in downtown Jerusalem is all related to the good news of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

     We have a good news faith! We have a faith that turns heads and leads people to wonder why those people in church are filled with so much joy and hope in a world that is filled with so much bad news.

     No wonder that Pentecost Sunday is often associated with the joy of a birthday party. It’s a time for us to celebrate and open the gift of the Holy Spirit who wants to be active and at work in our daily lives.

     After a worship service one Sunday morning, a church member said to me at the door, “What a great day to be here at church! I felt so much happiness and joy in this place!” That one comment made my heart sing that entire week. Who said that church should be something we have to endure rather than something we celebrate?  We have a good news faith! Every Sunday is a celebration of what God has done and is doing in our lives.

     What’s all the excitement about over there at Athens First? We are on fire because we are celebrating the greatest news the world has ever heard – the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Where's the Fire? Or Where's the Passion & Energy?

     And this leads us to the third meaning of the phrase, “Where’s the fire?” Sometimes when people ask that question, they are asking, “Where’s the passion and energy?”

     I was in a coffee shop working on church work when these two chatty teenagers were sitting near me talking passionately about the problem of human trafficking in Ohio. They were talking really fast and getting a little loud so I couldn’t help but to hear what they were discussing.

     When there was finally a brief pause in their conversation, I leaned over toward them and I think I surprised them when I said, “I’ve been listening to a little of your conversation and I just wanted you both to know that you’re awesome.”  I explained to them that I was a pastor and that there are many people in our church who care about issues like they were discussing.

     Their eyes lit up and they were so glad to hear that people in the church also have passion about these kinds of problems in our world. When I heard what these two young people in the coffee shop were discussing, it gives me great hope for the future.

     When I think of those disciples on that first Pentecost Sunday, we are told that a tongue of fire appeared over top each of those disciples. They were on fire for their faith.

     We need Pentecost. We need Pentecost because it helps us answer the question, “Where’s the Fire?”

     First of all, it reminds us that there are fires of injustice in our community and world where we are called to offer God’s healing love. It also answers the question as to why we can be filled with joy in a world of so much negativity and pain. We have a good news faith!

     And Pentecost is also what gives us such energy and passion that lead us to act like teenagers who are naïve enough to believe that they can change the world. No matter our age or how long we have been part of the church, Pentecost Sunday reminds us to allow God’s Spirit to burn within us so that we can change the world.

     Where’s the fire?

     This past January, I was invited back to my former church in Lancaster for a mortgage burning ceremony. We were celebrating the final payment of a mortgage that we had on a 4 million dollar facility that the church built back in 2005. It took a several years, but that congregation finally paid it off the mortgage this past January.

     The placed was packed because the congregation was so excited that they had finally paid it off. The present pastor was gracious to invite me to come and share a few words of congratulations.

     Then came the time for the mortgage burning ceremony. They had a little fire pit set up on the stage. Several church leaders joined the current pastor and me for that special moment. This was what we had all been waiting for, to burn those bank papers once and for all!

     We asked the Finance chairperson to do the honors. He flicked on that lighter and bent down toward those mortgage papers, but try as he might, he couldn’t get any kind of flame to catch. After a couple awkward minutes, another member of the Finance Committee went over to help him but to no avail.

     Nervous laughter could be heard throughout the large room. I turned to the person standing next to me and just couldn’t resist asking him the question, “How many Methodists does it take to light a fire?”

     Evidently it takes at least two Methodists to start a fire because that’s how many it took that day, but when it started, it didn’t take long at all to burn those papers and the entire congregation erupted in applause.

     Where’s the fire?

     It’s wherever we see injustice and brokenness. It’s in our hearts because we have a good news faith. And it’s when we dare to believe that we can make a difference in our community and world.

     That’s where the fire is. Happy Pentecost!

Where's the Fire?

Small Group Questions

Acts 2:1-21

June 4, 2017

In his sermon, Pastor Robert that there are three possible meanings of the phrase, "Where's the fire?" It can mean, "What's the big hurry?" It can mean, "What's all the excitement about?" It can also mean, "Where's the passion and energy?"

First Meaning: "What's the big hurry?" Name some reasons why you think the church should be in a hurry to share God's healing love in our community and world? List some social injustices that are community and world are facing today.

Second Meaning: "What's all the excitement about?" Why should Christians be filled with joy in how they worship and live out their faith? Do you think people in our community notice our excitement in how we live out our faith?

Third Meaning: "Where's the passion and energy?" What causes you to be passionate in your faith? 

Join together in praying the Pentecost prayer that was part of our worship service this past Sunday:

O Lord, send your Holy Spirit as you once did in the city of Jerusalem so long ago. Join us in this place and time and give us the fire that transforms and renews. Burn away all our complacency. Consume the cords that bind us to anything that would keep us from a relationship with you. Give us the life that lives in your praise and service. We pray this in the name of the Risen Christ. Amen.