Father

"I have taught the way to cross over the flood by going from one support to the next, the noble liberation." This was taught by a great teacher Siddhartha Gautama.  You may have heard him called Buddha. Legendary biographies tell the story of how Gautama left his palace to see the outside world for the first time and how he was shocked by his encounter with human suffering.  Gautama's father was shielding him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering, so that he would become a great king instead of a great religious leader.

Father's often do what they think is best for their children.  They often fail, but this is all part of a greater process.  Imagine that Siddhartha's father had succeeded.  We would not know his name I think.

But it is this the way to cross over the flood that comes to me this Father's Day.  Going from one support to the next.  Well this was something I learned while in an unexpected swamp with my Dad.  We weren't supposed to go in we found out later, but he had wounded a deer and there was a blood trail so we were going to go in anyway.  Even if we knew that we shouldn't we probably would.  My Dad didn't have to tell me that.

He had purchased himself a new gun giving me his old one he bought when I was born.  His new one was pump action and had raised sights as a bonus feature.  My Dad did things his own way.  He fell in some mud with that gun once and to his mind the best way to clean the gun was to shoot it.  Do not try this at home.  There is a reason people clean their guns.

We survived but he knocked the scope out of line we later realized.  How did we realize?  Well he shot at that deer we were chasing into the woods twelve times.  That never happens.  Hunters don't get twelve shots ever, but he was on top of a ridge shooting down on the deer.  The animal had no idea which direction danger was coming from so he perceived them all as dangerous and just stood there.

I was on the other side of the ridge counting the shots thinking, hmm must be cleaning gun again.  There is no reason to shoot twelve times in the woods.  That is what I was thinking.  With the twelfth shot he gut shot him.  On that last shot he remembered his raised sights allowed him to use the iron sights on the barrel.  

I climbed over the ridge once the shooting finally stopped.  He would need to tell me a story.  We gathered and followed the blood trail to the wire of the protected area.  He wasn't going to leave it to suffer we were going and I didn't have a vote.  We actually got to him pretty quick and he was down.  I remember this day like it was yesterday.

Was rather magical.  My dad remembered we had come to do something.  I had a habit in the woods of forgetting why I was there.  Hunted ten years and never killed a thing.  There was gonna be death here soon and the deer was quiet and saw us approach. They get tired out pretty fast even when they are not shot.  Why you can't hunt with dogs they would just run them down.

That was our first hunting strategy you might not know.  We just kept going and eventually the animals would lay down tired just like this deer had.  Looked at us.  My dad shot it and dressed it.  We were ready to go in moments.  Then the fateful decision.  I was just a kid, but to me there was this clear blood trail back to where we had been.  My Dad however thought he could hear the road.  You could not see twelve feet where we were in the thick.  I mean I wasn't ever not gonna follow, but I watched that blood trail as we walked the other way.

I knew why we had come in.  We had a responsibility.  Was not a good time for short cuts.  We spent four hours crossing a swamp going from one support to the next.  It was an unseasonably warm year for hunting but it was still cold that day.  It was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life.  We went from tuft of land to tuft of land.  We were soaked to the bone.  We didn't stop because we couldn't.  I didn't think my dad would make it.  I was one hundred yards ahead trail blazing heading to the sound of the road.

He was dragging that deer.  I though none of this is necessary.  He actually used the deer as a bridge at times.  Maybe why he kept pulling it.  We came to the road finally about a mile down the road from the car.  My dad walked that as I waited with the deer.  When we got it back to the house my grandfather asked my dad if he had shot it or drowned it.

We weren't lost.

Forever for the first time in your life

Along for the longer

The first thing of any importance

Here something that can not be ignored

Each moment of sleep now borrowed

Ready

Father

Is Anything Too Wonderful?  This the question our national church is asking today.  Each week they offer themes and those of us who give messages talked about connecting our themes more.  David mentioned Romans 4 last week and this week we find ourselves in Romans 5.  But to that question.

Is Anything Too Wonderful?   This question leads us to think of the most amazing things we have accomplished as a congregation.  There are really too many to count.  Yet it is the most mundane that can be really the most wonderful when we stop and remind ourselves.

That is really what father's day is about I think.  Not that we needed another day to celebrate men, but an institution that really transcends gender.  People don't like to hear it because mostly they use gender words as weapons.  Two things can be true.  People who called God Father often did to oppress people.  When we say God the father we are talking about something greater than gender.

Like art we know it when we see it.  Mothers mother.  Fathers father.  Neither one describes a gender role.  One person can be both when they need to be.  The things people will do when they need to be.  The real strength people can harvest from themselves

The Path of the Disciple: The Weight of the Call

this THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

What incredible, almost impossible-to-believe event has happened in your community? What stretched your understanding of God at work in the world? What blew your mind with wonder and joy? Grab hold of that today and celebrate the goodness of God at work in your midst. 

I am reminded of Mathew 9:36-38 again from the Amplified Bible:

9:36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

What is most amazing is that Jesus is here to help.  What makes people so angry is it takes so long.  It all takes so long because:

9:37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;

9:38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

From Romans 4 briefly

“Abraham believed in (trusted, relied on) God, and it was credited to his account as righteousness (right living, right standing with God).” 4 Now to a laborer, his wages are not credited as a favor or a gift, but as an obligation [something owed to him]. 5 But to the one who does not work [that is, the one who does not try to earn his salvation by doing good], but believes and completely trusts in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited to him as righteousness (right standing with God). 

So we come to our scripture today Romans 5:1-8 which I read from the Amplified Bible:

Results of Justification

5 Therefore, since we have been justified [that is, acquitted of sin, declared blameless before God] by faith, [let us grasp the fact that] we have peace with God [and the joy of reconciliation with Him] through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed). 2 Through Him we also have access by faith into this [remarkable state of] grace in which we [firmly and safely and securely] stand.

Deep in the swamp.  Going from one support to the next.  We [firmly and safely and securely] stand.  I wouldn't say I was afraid, but I knew that I could not stop.  In each position we come we find security, but we can't stay there.  There have to be results.

Let us rejoice in our hope and the confident assurance of [experiencing and enjoying] the glory of [our great] God [the manifestation of His excellence and power]. 3 And not only this, but [with joy] let us exult in our sufferings and rejoice in our hardships, knowing that hardship (distress, pressure, trouble) produces patient endurance; 4 and endurance, proven character (spiritual maturity); and proven character, hope and confident assurance [of eternal salvation]. 

Could we have died in that swamp?  I was fifteen maybe.  He was forty-five so much older than me even now.  We were going to survive.

5 Such hope [in God’s promises] never disappoints us, because God’s love has been abundantly poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Should we have followed the blood trail out?  I am sure that we should have.  Two paths diverged in the woods. and I—

I took the one less traveled by, with my Dad

And that has made all the difference.

6 While we were still helpless [powerless to provide for our salvation], at the right time Christ died [as a substitute] for the ungodly. 7 Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to willingly give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a good man [one who is noble and selfless and worthy] someone might even dare to die. 8 But God clearly shows and proves His own love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

At the heart of the swamp and the heart of our religion.  We award our highest medals for people who save people who are supposed to be saved.  People who complain about religion are not complaining about this heart.  Saving people who don't want to be saved is what they do not like.  It is what takes so much time.

The worst offenders just needs to find faith.  It almost doesn't seem fair.  I think this is why people like to weaponize Christianity.  They just ignore the heart.  It is easy to do.

Fred Rogers or you may know him better as Mr Rogers summed it up this way.  "We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say "It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem." Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes."

I consider them Fathers in the best possible meaning of that word.  It bothers me that pain is so wound up in that word.  Best I can do is say not what I mean.  We need to listen to each other closer.

And if you are enduring something.  I want you to know you are doing more than you know.  You are building endurance.  Know: that hardship (distress, pressure, trouble) produces patient endurance; 4 and endurance, proven character (spiritual maturity); and proven character, hope and confident assurance [of eternal salvation]. 

Let Us Pray

Heavenly Father

Give us this day once again 

Let your word be ours

We need your support

Help us find our way

Let our hearts be our ambassadors

Let the love of our savior rule

Let this worship be a time of prayer for deeper trust,

for opened eyes, for willing hearts and hands. 

Let this time be a time of stirring us up to go and proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

In the name of your son our every support Jesus

Amen

Benediction

The way to cross over the flood is by going from one support to the next

Father, Son, Holy Spirit

If words are weapons

Yours don't have to be

Go be community

Nottingham UMC 6-18-2023