"Happy Father's Day", Sermon of Rev. Mary Lee Bergeron, 6/20/10
God of hope before us, God of healing within us, God of mercy above us, Come be with us. Amen
Ps.42, 1 kings 19:1-15a, Galatians 3:23-39 and Luke 8:26-39
Happy Father’s Day. Our three sons always enjoyed preparing gifts for their Dad on Father’s Day. Often when they were young the gifts were home made – the kind one treasures – pictures drawn by them of their Dad at playing ball with them or helping them in some way or sometimes they wrote stories and poems.
Fathers are important to their own children and to those other children who need their attention; such as Boy Scouts or church youth groups or helping young people go on mission trips. I like a prayer I saw recently concerning Father’s Day. God bless all the fathers in the world. Guide them to be good role models and loving to all their children. Help them to be a father like You are. Give them grace and patience to handle situations in a loving way.
My father was an important example for me. He was a Baptist minister. I learned a lot of pastoral care skills from him just by tagging along with him as he visited the church members and people in the community. Another gift from him was learning to love all denominations and all faiths and really to be open to all people regardless of their circumstances.
I watched Dad as he lived through a difficult time when my mother had cancer which finally caused her death and later I watched and loved him as he dealt with Alzheimer’s Disease. Yes, in the beginning of the disease he was frightened and knew something was wrong. As the disease progressed he started living in a care facility and he became very comfortable. He lived in an imaginary world in his mind. When I would visit he would tell me of a trip he had made to England and give in detail his visit with the Queen who he said was going to visit him that year.
Once he told me he had been in Rome. While there he had visited the Pope who had agreed to come to preach at First Baptist Church when he came to the United States. As he shared these stories his eyes would sparkle and the story would grow. Now of course he had not ever traveled to England or Rome except in his mind. I was glad he had those escapes from the present.
Our fathers with their strengths and their weaknesses are part of who we are and who we celebrate on this day. Their past and the experiences they shared or share with us guide us on our journeys.
We learn new ways to deal with life from those we love and from those we read and study about in our scripture. Today our lesson from 1st Kings gives us several ways to respond to fear. In this passage Elijah, the prophet, appears in Gilead clothed in a garment of hair, wearing a leather girdle and impressing all with his strength. However, he gets in trouble with Ahab the King of Israel and the husband of Jezebel, both who worship Baal as Lord of the Earth. Elijah does the unforgivable; he denounces Baal, condemns, mocks and later kills the prophets of Baal. In other words he silences them. This does not go over well with King Ahab or Jezebel. She sends a message to Elijah saying that he will be killed. He runs for his life into the wilderness.. Finally exhausted Elijah falls under a broom tree asking God just to let him die.
Yet, there he encounters an angel who touches and feeds him, gives him water and sends him on his way. After 40 days and nights of wandering lost in the wilderness Elijah comes to the mount of God and to a cave where he finds shelter.
In the cave Elijah hears the words of the Lord and shares his fears of the Israelite Jezebel who seeks to kill him. The Lord tells Elijah, “Go forth and stand up on the mount before the Lord so you can see the Lord pass by. Now Elijah has to look for and to seek God. He looks for God in the wind, in the earthquake and in fire…but God is not there.
: Have you ever, when confused and scared looked and searched for God and felt that you could not connect. Then you understand how frightened Elijah is. Elijah grows more fearful and is about ready to give up. But wait, something happens
. For Elijah what happens next is that all noise ceases even the voice of fear.. There is total silence. In the midst of that silence Elijah is able to hear a still small voice; God’s voice and to talk with God about his fears and confusion. God then sends Elijah back through the wilderness to his life with a job to do and Elijah goes.
Sitting here in the Church of the Ascension in 2010 this biblical story may seem very removed from your life. Yet think of the turmoil’s we encounter daily. We hear of international crises and our own recent calamity, the oil spill in the Gulf. That saddens us as we reflect on the pain of the people, the loss and injury to the sea animals and the damage to the beautiful marshes and shores.
Then we all have or know others we love who have personal crises. Most of us are extremely busy and get probably will get busier. we are in constant contact with others, through email, text messaging, blogs, cell phone and land phone calls, pagers., meetings and information from meetings, newspapers, computer, T.V. and radio. And yes, then there are those lists that we have of things to do.
So it is hard for us in our time to find a moment,a time or a space or place to be quiet; to talk with God and most also to in silence listen and be comforted and like Elijah, be led by God.
Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury in his book, Where God Happens, examines the ancient wisdom of the Desert Fathers and points out the relevance of their teaching for Christian spirituality today. In the early monastics search for the experience of God he finds new and deeper faith for our postmodern world. That means us.
There are many ways for us to find those times. We can go to the mountains, retreats, spend time in monasteries in prayer, attend meditation classes or the meditations here on Wednesdays. I find sitting, watching the birds to be a time of quietness and listening. A time of letting go of fears and troubles. I also find that reflecting and meditating in silence on dreams are ways to hear God’s guidance.
Our Gospel reading tells us of Jesus healing a man who has demons or perhaps in our day we would say a mental illness. He was afraid like Elijah and like Elijah he seeks help. Jesus heals him of all the voices inside – calms him for you see when these voices are silenced in him he finally hears Jesus - who gives him direction of how to live his life. Jesus says, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And the man goes his way, proclaiming how much Jesus has done for him.
The real good news today in 2010 is that when we seek and encounter God we will receive help and with help guidance for our present life. The call that Elijah received to go back into the wilderness and that the healed man received to go back to your home and share is also our call. When we encounter God in our wilderness experiences, sometimes in silence, we will
also receive blessings. Then we like Elijah and the man with mental illness are called to share our experience with others here at Ascension and in our communities.
May God’s healing power touch you today in this Holy Place and give you strength to Go forth and use the gifts given to you. Amen.
Ps.42, 1 kings 19:1-15a, Galatians 3:23-39 and Luke 8:26-39
Happy Father’s Day. Our three sons always enjoyed preparing gifts for their Dad on Father’s Day. Often when they were young the gifts were home made – the kind one treasures – pictures drawn by them of their Dad at playing ball with them or helping them in some way or sometimes they wrote stories and poems.
Fathers are important to their own children and to those other children who need their attention; such as Boy Scouts or church youth groups or helping young people go on mission trips. I like a prayer I saw recently concerning Father’s Day. God bless all the fathers in the world. Guide them to be good role models and loving to all their children. Help them to be a father like You are. Give them grace and patience to handle situations in a loving way.
My father was an important example for me. He was a Baptist minister. I learned a lot of pastoral care skills from him just by tagging along with him as he visited the church members and people in the community. Another gift from him was learning to love all denominations and all faiths and really to be open to all people regardless of their circumstances.
I watched Dad as he lived through a difficult time when my mother had cancer which finally caused her death and later I watched and loved him as he dealt with Alzheimer’s Disease. Yes, in the beginning of the disease he was frightened and knew something was wrong. As the disease progressed he started living in a care facility and he became very comfortable. He lived in an imaginary world in his mind. When I would visit he would tell me of a trip he had made to England and give in detail his visit with the Queen who he said was going to visit him that year.
Once he told me he had been in Rome. While there he had visited the Pope who had agreed to come to preach at First Baptist Church when he came to the United States. As he shared these stories his eyes would sparkle and the story would grow. Now of course he had not ever traveled to England or Rome except in his mind. I was glad he had those escapes from the present.
Our fathers with their strengths and their weaknesses are part of who we are and who we celebrate on this day. Their past and the experiences they shared or share with us guide us on our journeys.
We learn new ways to deal with life from those we love and from those we read and study about in our scripture. Today our lesson from 1st Kings gives us several ways to respond to fear. In this passage Elijah, the prophet, appears in Gilead clothed in a garment of hair, wearing a leather girdle and impressing all with his strength. However, he gets in trouble with Ahab the King of Israel and the husband of Jezebel, both who worship Baal as Lord of the Earth. Elijah does the unforgivable; he denounces Baal, condemns, mocks and later kills the prophets of Baal. In other words he silences them. This does not go over well with King Ahab or Jezebel. She sends a message to Elijah saying that he will be killed. He runs for his life into the wilderness.. Finally exhausted Elijah falls under a broom tree asking God just to let him die.
Yet, there he encounters an angel who touches and feeds him, gives him water and sends him on his way. After 40 days and nights of wandering lost in the wilderness Elijah comes to the mount of God and to a cave where he finds shelter.
In the cave Elijah hears the words of the Lord and shares his fears of the Israelite Jezebel who seeks to kill him. The Lord tells Elijah, “Go forth and stand up on the mount before the Lord so you can see the Lord pass by. Now Elijah has to look for and to seek God. He looks for God in the wind, in the earthquake and in fire…but God is not there.
: Have you ever, when confused and scared looked and searched for God and felt that you could not connect. Then you understand how frightened Elijah is. Elijah grows more fearful and is about ready to give up. But wait, something happens
. For Elijah what happens next is that all noise ceases even the voice of fear.. There is total silence. In the midst of that silence Elijah is able to hear a still small voice; God’s voice and to talk with God about his fears and confusion. God then sends Elijah back through the wilderness to his life with a job to do and Elijah goes.
Sitting here in the Church of the Ascension in 2010 this biblical story may seem very removed from your life. Yet think of the turmoil’s we encounter daily. We hear of international crises and our own recent calamity, the oil spill in the Gulf. That saddens us as we reflect on the pain of the people, the loss and injury to the sea animals and the damage to the beautiful marshes and shores.
Then we all have or know others we love who have personal crises. Most of us are extremely busy and get probably will get busier. we are in constant contact with others, through email, text messaging, blogs, cell phone and land phone calls, pagers., meetings and information from meetings, newspapers, computer, T.V. and radio. And yes, then there are those lists that we have of things to do.
So it is hard for us in our time to find a moment,a time or a space or place to be quiet; to talk with God and most also to in silence listen and be comforted and like Elijah, be led by God.
Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury in his book, Where God Happens, examines the ancient wisdom of the Desert Fathers and points out the relevance of their teaching for Christian spirituality today. In the early monastics search for the experience of God he finds new and deeper faith for our postmodern world. That means us.
There are many ways for us to find those times. We can go to the mountains, retreats, spend time in monasteries in prayer, attend meditation classes or the meditations here on Wednesdays. I find sitting, watching the birds to be a time of quietness and listening. A time of letting go of fears and troubles. I also find that reflecting and meditating in silence on dreams are ways to hear God’s guidance.
Our Gospel reading tells us of Jesus healing a man who has demons or perhaps in our day we would say a mental illness. He was afraid like Elijah and like Elijah he seeks help. Jesus heals him of all the voices inside – calms him for you see when these voices are silenced in him he finally hears Jesus - who gives him direction of how to live his life. Jesus says, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And the man goes his way, proclaiming how much Jesus has done for him.
The real good news today in 2010 is that when we seek and encounter God we will receive help and with help guidance for our present life. The call that Elijah received to go back into the wilderness and that the healed man received to go back to your home and share is also our call. When we encounter God in our wilderness experiences, sometimes in silence, we will
also receive blessings. Then we like Elijah and the man with mental illness are called to share our experience with others here at Ascension and in our communities.
May God’s healing power touch you today in this Holy Place and give you strength to Go forth and use the gifts given to you. Amen.
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