@EUCC Sermons

Whether the Ten Commandments are familiar to you or not, and whether one version is more familiar to you than the other likely depends on whether you were raised in the Christian faith and, if so, which tradition you were raised in.

Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Lutheran and Calvinist Protestant traditions each have their own respective catechisms, which all list the 10 Commandments, but they don’t all list them in the same order, and they definitely don’t interpret them in the same way.

Students of Western history understand that much blood was shed and many European boundaries were altered on account of differences in the faith values expressed in these catechisms.

So even if you could care less about the order, content, or different interpretations of the 10 Commandments, you might just pause for a moment today and appreciate that the Commandments and their differing interpretation have mattered--not just to the ancient world, but the Renaissance period in Western Europe.

According to the book of Exodus, our Hebrew ancestors regularly put this wilderness wisdom to the test during their 40-year sojourn in the wilderness of Sinai. Our ancestors were on a journey without a map, headed to a place where they had never been, and along the way, they encountered numerous obstacles, not the least of which was the lack of shelter, food, and water. And this lack of life-sustaining essentials caused them to frequently ask the question, “Is God with us?

Consider for a moment the question, “What can we learn from Jacob’s family reunion described in Genesis 45?”

One lesson that we can learn is the importance of looking at “the big picture.” In the big picture, Joseph realized that his family was starving and that his father was still alive, and that while he had a million legitimate reasons to hold a grudge against his brothers, and to pay them back for what they had done to him, Joseph gave his brothers what they needed. He granted them grace, and he gave them food and shelter. He was reunited with his family and the familiar things from his home culture again.

A second lesson that we can learn from Joseph is to focus on the future, rather than dwell on the past. In particular, we can learn how to focus on the future that God envisions for us, rather than the past which cannot be changed. Focusing on the future does not mean that we forget the past. It does not mean that we forgive without being asked for forgiveness, or without our treaspasors exhibiting amendment of life. Instead, focusing on the future means keeping our eyes on the prize, keeping our eyes on the upward call of Christ (Phil. 3:4). Focusing on the future reminds us that we have been called to a life of repentance and reconciliation, rather than rage and revenge.

Focusing on the big picture, and focusing on the future, means that Joseph (and all of us) can create a new dynamic, rather than repeating an old one. I am reminded by Joseph’s story of a declaration that my mother often made to my sister and me on the occasions when we would really get into it with each other. Both of us would try to explain that the other was at fault for starting the fight. Mom didn’t even listen to our arguments. She simply said, “I don’t care who started this fight. I only want to know who’s going to end it.”

Hughes’ opening question, “What happens to a dream deferred?” has been echoing in my head daily since the Shelter In Place Order was announced:

What happens to a dream deferred? What happens to a child who doesn’t have a digital tablet at home, a WIFI connection, and sufficient bandwidth to participate in distance learning classes, or who doesn’t have their own study space to focus on their studies?

What happens to a dream deferred? What happens to a child who misses meals because his school is closed or her parents don’t have a car or gas money to drive to a food pantry?

What happens to a dream deferred? What happens to a child who is confined to a bedroom for days on end, because someone in the house is in isolation? What happens to children who are left without adult supervision, because their parents have to choose between work and homelessness?

What happens to a dream deferred? What happens to a high school graduate who is admitted to a selective university, but whose family has to choose between rent and tuition? What happens to a cosmetology school graduate who can’t open a shop because of COVID-19, and what happens to a university graduate who got all A’s but can’t find a job in the down economy?

What happens to a dream deferred? What happens to a DACA student--a “Dreamer”--who is repeatedly subjected to the bully talk and the bully walk of our nation’s president, who scapegoats them in an effort to rally his base for the general election? What happens to asylum seekers whose cases are frozen in court, who can’t get public benefits or apply for a job because they don’t have a Social Security number?

This past Friday morning, a reporter on NPR interviewed a panel of educators, doctors, and child welfare specialists exploring what they thought would be the impact of the pandemic and economic losses on the children who are growing up in the midst of this pandemic.

The responses ranged from mixed--depending on a variety of social factors--to very grim. One educator in particular expressed the concern that those who are children now might one day be labeled “the lost generation,” as a result of suffering the downside of social disparities related to their race, class, nation of origin, health status, and special needs.

It doesn’t take any effort to feel discouraged or to worry in these times, even if we are not among the “extremely vulnerable” groups in this pandemic.

“While it isn’t pleasant to think about God as an opponent, if each of us is truthful about our spiritual journeys, we can probably think of a time when we at least wondered whether God was for us, or against us, in a particular struggle.

Modern psychologists add a further layer of interpretation to Jacob’s story by exploring several psycho-social possibilities for understanding what this wrestling match was all about. Perhaps you can relate. Maybe Jacob was wrestling with his feelings about Laban who had tricked him, sort of like how Jacob had tricked his twin brother, Esau.

A further possibility is that Jacob was wrestling with unresolved guilt about cheating his brother, and harboring all of those icky feelings in his heart for the past 20 years.

No matter which interpretive lens we peer through, or how many lenses we employ, in the end, perhaps we agree that Jacob not only survived his twenty-year ordeal, but he was changed by it.“

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done for love?

My oldest and dearest friends won’t even blink. They’ll tell you without hesitation that the craziest thing I ever did for love was to fall for someone who was about to leave for Indonesia for two years--and I told her that I’d wait for her.

So that the GenZs in the congregation can better appreciate how crazy this move was, I will explain that I made this decision before modern technology had come to rural East Java where Stephanie lived. That’s right: there were no phones, no TVs, no Internet, no Facebook, no Snapchat, and no Zoom. Imagine that!

Stephanie and I wrote letters to each other using real paper and ink pens, not texts or emails. I bought aerograms in packets of 30. Aerograms are pre-stamped, self-mailing letters made of light blue paper with dark blue and red trim.

I made sure that I always had enough in stock to write at least one letter every day. Nowadays, I can’t even think of when the last time was that I wrote a letter. (Neither can my mother.)

Twenty-eight years ago, by comparison, I wrote Stephanie as many as seven aerograms a day. She kept everyone of them, including the aerograms that she sent to me. I called them “love letters.” She calls them “field notes.” (She’s a cultural anthropologist.)

My favorite Chinese proverb goes like this: “If you want to hear God laugh, make a plan.”

I’m a big fan of planning, and I have the resume to prove it. I discovered the merits of planning at a young age, when planning proved to be helpful in keeping me on track as I was striving to overcome some personal hardships and better myself and my family's situation.

In high school, college, and especially in graduate school, I received formal instruction in planning, and experienced first-hand that sound planning was critical to success.

In the early days of my career, I was fortunate to staff planning committees in two different congregations and work with experts in the field of organizational design.

I have applied these habits and skills in the practice of ministry over the years, and have helped every organization that I’ve served to develop and implement strategic plans. In some cases, I have been an architect of more than one strategic plan.