Creating a Palace in Time, Deuteronomy 5:12-15

Posted on June 3, 2024 by patrick h wrisley
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

A Sermon delivered on June 2, 2024 by Rev. Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley.

In preparing for my move to Glens Falls last August, I was going through some old things sorting out what I wanted to keep and take with me and what items I needed to toss out. Sitting at my wife’s desk and going through papers that were left there, I came across an envelope that simply said, “Wris.” I turned the envelope around as I had not seen it before, and it was still unopened. Curiosity got the best of me and so I opened it up. “Happy birthday, Wris. I love you.” It was dated April 1, 2021; she died 11 months later. I sat there holding the very last birthday card she ever left me but for whatever reason, forgot to give me.

I looked at her handwriting and re-read her few brief words and simply wept. “How had I not seen this before?” I wondered. “Why had she forgotten to give it to me?” I asked. The answers didn’t really matter; what did matter was that I was holding a gift of great price I didn’t know I had. It was though she was writing me a love note from the grave when I needed it the most in my life.

This morning, we are going to look at a gift that has been lovingly given to us that I will venture to say most of us have not yet opened. The gift I am speaking of is opening the gift of the Sabbath. Turn in your bible to Deuteronomy 5. As you turn there, let me give you a little background.

This is not the first time Moses has spoken about the Sabbath. In the book of Exodus, Moses climbs the mountain of God and God reveals to him the Ten Commandments where Moses and the Hebrew people were told, “Remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy” (Ex 20:8).  This edict was given to Moses at a time the people were escaping from their Egyptian slave owners as God led them through the wilderness. In our text today, though the words are similar to what is written in Exodus, there is a subtle difference. First, Moses is thought to be writing to people who were about to cross over into the Promised Land and lay claim to it. In other words, today’s text is reminding the people they are about to start a brand-new life transitioning from being nomads wandering in the wilderness to become settlers in a new land. Second, Moses alters his word choice in stating the commandment. Listen to the Word of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

12Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 14But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day. –NRSV

The first thing we notice from our reading this morning is that it is written subtlety different from the commandment in Exodus 20. In Exodus 20, Moses writes, “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.” In our text this morning, he tells us, “Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy.”  So, what’s the difference?

Well, one is a passive command whereas the other is direct and active. In the first instance, the people are to remember the sabbath, i.e. bring it to your mind, recollect it. In Deuteronomy 5, Moses tells the people to “observe” the Sabbath and keep it holy.  He uses a different word in the command. Moses is not just telling people to remember, to recollect, the Sabbath; he is telling them to actively observe it. The word he uses is the same word as “to set a guard around something,” “protect” and “watch over” the Sabbath. In our Deuteronomy passage, there is an intentional command given to us. It’s not enough to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, but you must set a guard around it, protect it, and watch over it.

The second item I want us to make note of is that the command to observe, protect, watch over, and attend to the Sabbath is not meant to be yet another “Gotta’ do” from God. We are being asked to see the Sabbath for what it is – a gracious gift from God to us.[1]

The great contemporary rabbi, the late Abraham Joshua Heschel, describes the Sabbath like this. He writes, “In the tempestuous ocean of time and toil there are islands of stillness where (a person) may enter a harbor and reclaim his (or her) dignity. The island is the seventh day, the Sabbath, a day of detachment from things, instruments and practical affairs as well as of attachment to the spirit.”[2]

Did Heschel just remind us to detach from attachment to spirit? He sure did. Let me tell you why. You see, the Sabbath is not only for the soul, but also for our bodies as well. Comfort, rest, and pleasure in the presence of God is paramount on the Sabbath. It is a day given to each of us where we can mine our spirit’s precious metal, as Heschel says, and construct a palace in time, to create “A dimension in which the human is at home with the divine: a dimension in which (men and women) aspire to approach the likeness of the divine.”[3]

The Sabbath is our way of putting stakes in the ground, creating a specific space, for giving rest to the world around us, for giving rest to those in whose lives we cohabit, and simply delight in the presence of the One Who is, Who was, and Who is yet to come. It’s a day of simply being with God. It’s about creating an atmosphere, a different climate in our lives that indeed something has changed. It’s a day we cease placing demands on our environment, on our neighbors, our family and friends, and enter into the rest that God enjoys. To actively participate in creating a palace in time means trusting the Lord enough that God’s got everything under control for one day so we don’t have to worry about it.

Heschel reminds us, “The Sabbath is not an occasion for diversion or frivolity; not a day to shoot fireworks or to turn somersaults, but an opportunity to mend our tattered lives; to collect rather than dissipate time.”[4] Collecting time. I like that. The Sabbath is our intentional harvesting of time to restore our broken selves in the presence of God. It is a time to make and reclaim time in order to allow to focus on the crucial matters in our life.

Years ago, the demands of ministry wed to the workaholic tendencies I catered to caused marital drift in my marriage.  It led me to displace priorities and values I held so dear and become distracted to the point my marriage was in trouble. What became clear to me and Kelly was we both needed to work on recalibrating our orbit around what was important and life-giving to both of us in lieu of what my job and the culture was screaming at us. So, we made a pact. Together, we were going to honor the Sabbath with each other every week.

For us, Sunday was not the Sabbath because I worked, and she was busy with demands parishioners placed upon her being the pastor’s wife as soon as she stepped into the church building. We made the decision that for us, we would make Fridays our Sabbath. We created a palace in time on Fridays that belonged to God and to one another. In society’s eyes, we were lazy that day. We refused any Friday night invitations to go out to dinner with others as it was always reserved for just us. We had extended personal worship on those mornings and then slowly got ready for the day. Oftentimes, we would go out and have a late breakfast with each other. We would take walks in the woods. Take rides on my motorcycle. We would find a picnic table along A1A on the Atlantic Ocean and just sit watching and listening to the waves and seagulls. It was our way of intentionally creating space in our time for one another and for reveling in the goodness God showered us with each day.

My dear friends, my earnest prayer is that you will discover and unwrap this beautiful gift of Sabbath in whatever way works best for you. My prayer is that you will intentionally guard, watch over, and care for your own palace in time. Stake out, collect time, for you to simply be with God and with those you love for the simple and sole purpose of getting rest, discovering the peace and joy that God has within Godself, and discovering the tranquility that comes from realizing you are really not in control of things (and that quite honestly, that feels rather liberating!). Holy Spirit reveal Sabbath’s holy rhythms to you as you build your own palace in time.

Let us pray.

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, NY 12801. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, New York, and may not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] “The Sabbath is the most precious present mankind has received from the treasure house of God,” Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath (Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1979), p. 7.

[2] Ibid., p 20.

[3] Ibid., p 4. Words in parentheses were edited for rhetorical clarity.

[4] Ibid., 7.

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Tag! You’re It!, Isaiah 6:1-8

Posted on June 3, 2024 by patrick h wrisley

A Message for Trinity Sunday

Photo by Ahmed akacha on Pexels.com

Turn in your Bible to Isaiah 6:1-8. Our Story today is a call Story when God has a job to do and taps someone on the shoulder to go do it. Unlike Moses, who when he was tapped by God, made five different excuses for not doing what he was asked to do like, “What if they don’t believe me?”, “I don’t speak too good,” or my favorite, “Can’t you send someone else to do it?”[1] The same goes for the great prophet Jeremiah, who when God said, “I appointed you to be a prophet,” Jeremiah whined back, “But c’mon, God, I don’t know how to speak! I’m only a kid!”[2] Isaiah, when confronted with God’s call begged God, “Send me! Send me! Oh, oh, oh…Me! Send me!”

The book of Isaiah was more than likely written by at least three different writers based on the different writing styles scholars have noted. The early portions of the book were written most likely by the character we meet today whose name was Isaiah. He focuses on the impending collapse of the Judah’s empire. Another writer using Isaiah’s name and style speaks about the Jewish deportation and exile. And the final Isaiah who picks up at chapter 40 speaks of Israel’s restoration.

Our Story today mentions King Uzziah who ruled the throne for 50 plus years. His father was killed while escaping a coup attempt and Uzziah became king of the southern kingdom of Judah when he was 16 years old. He was an okay King as far as that goes. He started off well and made sure everyone was worshipping the Lord the way Moses proscribed but as he got older and entrenched with power, his pride seems to have gotten in the way of his faithfulness. He died roughly around 740 years before Jesus was born.  As you listen and read, see if you can determine why this text was chosen by the lectionary composers to be read on what the Church calls Trinity Sunday. Hear the Word of the Lord.

Isaiah 6:1- 8

6In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

5 And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” -NRSV

So, could you hear and figure out why this particular text was chosen to be read on Trinity Sunday? The most obvious reason is there in verse 8 when Isaiah hears God talking out loud saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Though the word Trinity is not used, and neither are there specific references to Jesus or the Holy Spirit, we get the sense of a unified community within God in the heavenly Temple setting. Also, we see the Trinity at work in the missional command of Isaiah to go and proclaim to the people. Let me show you.

On Thursday evening, I snuck off to Roger’s Rock campground up near Ticonderoga. I hadn’t gone camping in fifteen years and felt the need to get back into the woods before the rush and heat of summer hit. I had the place to myself that first night and it was so very quiet. Gone were the screaming ambulances I heard every night from my apartment near the hospital. Many trees had fallen this winter and there was cut and stacked wood everywhere from the cleanup. A campfire was in order! I got one going in short order and sat up past midnight just listening to the wood snap while the flames lapped at the logs. Owls were talking back and forth. Time seemed to stop.

Campfires can’t just be lit and then left alone. Like a relationship you have to tend to them and make slight adjustments with the logs to keep them burning. Sometimes you have to add more fuel and kindling. Throughout the evening, it hit me. The Trinity is like a campfire tended with care.

If I took a single log and set it on fire, it would burn on its own for a while but would have the tendency to go out. If you add a second log, the first log can share and receive the energy and flame with another log next to it but will tend to burn out leaving two unconsumed logs. But what I noticed, is that when you add a third log to the first two, the fire gets roaring! When the combined energy of three burning logs comes together, the flames swirl, spark, and wrap themselves in and throughout all three at once.

Think of it like this: You have a single log and cut it up into three equal pieces. The first log will call God the Father. The second log is Jesus, the Son. But even Jesus said to us that God would send another Counselor and Advocate on our behalf who would show us and teach us what to do. The third log is the Holy Spirit. When the three logs are burning together, feeding off while at the same time enhancing the energy of the other two, lapping, dancing flames are created.  The flames of the three logs, i.e. the flame of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, create outwardly directed missional service in the world. Friends, this is a very imperfect example but hopefully, it paints an image for you.

When we think of the Trinity, we often think of a triangle. Go ahead and make one with your fingers! Culture has taught us that the top of the triangle represents the Father. The bottom right corner represents the Son and the bottom left corner represents Spirit. This is very hierarchical and some would say, patriarchal, way of understanding it. But let’s try something different. With your fingers in the shape of a triangle, lower them together so they’re parallel with the floor and adjust their shape so it becomes circular. You see, the hierarchy disappears! Father, Son, and Spirit are all on the same plane and like a campfire, share each of their energies this way and that, to and fro, like they’re dancing in a circle.  The energy this dance creates are flames of ministry and as a dance, the Trinity invites us into the circle to dance along with it. The fifty-cent word for this is perichoresis.[3]

The power of the Triune God is it creates energy and spins it outward in ever-enlarging circles of grace in which you, me, and Isaiah, are called to participate and share. When Isaiah had his vision, God asked him to join the heavenly dance and share in the labor of worship and service.  As we hold hands with God and with each other in this divine dance of worship, God looks at you and smiles, saying, “Who will go for us?” As you and I are whirling around in this perichoretic dance with Father, Son, and Spirit, how do we answer?

Think back to when you were in middle school. There’s a big dance in the gym that Friday night and you’re filled both with excitement and with a little fear.  You’re excited because you are going to be with your friends and if you’re lucky enough, or courageous enough, you might even get to dance with that favorite boy or girl from your class. But you’re in middle school. It’s the first dance you’ve ever been to and you’re not sure what to do. So, you and your buddies begin to make bets on who will go first. Finally, someone says, “Oh get on with it; tag, you’re it!” and they push you out on the dance floor and it’s awkward at first. But then you begin to feel the energy out on the floor and start to find your groove. The next thing you know you’re smiling, laughing, sweating, and having the time of your life.

Beloved, being in a church, being in worship is a holy gala and ball. Within the church, within our worship and missional service, our Lord God is reaching out and trying to get us to join in the movement.  “C’mon and join us. Tag! You’re it” the Lord God shouts. What do you do? Do you, are you, will you get out and dance, or shall you be a wallflower and miss all that exciting energy?

Our church’s purpose is for its members to be loving, learning, and making a difference through Christ. To fulfill this ministry, we gotta’ dance!

                  Let’s pray.

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, NY 12801. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, New York, and may not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] See Exodus 3 – 4.

[2] See Jeremiah 1:1-10.

[3] See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perichoresis

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What’s A Church Member’s Greatest Fear?, Romans 8:22-27

Posted on May 20, 2024 by patrick h wrisley
Photo by Helena Lopes on Pexels.com

It’s taken some time but after thirty-six years of ministry, I do believe I’ve narrowed down what for many members of the church is their greatest fear. In other words, what is the one thing you could be asked to do in church that would totally unnerve you?

Reflect back to elementary school and the teacher says out loud, “Ok Patrick, a train is moving 60 mph going north and leaves Saratoga Station at 12:13. A southbound train left Montreal at 9:47 moving at 48 mph. The track is 346 miles long. At what mile marker will the trains pass each other?” How’d you feel? Well, this is the kind of feeling I’m talking about when you’re asked to serve or do something in church that is scary to you.

There’s the fear the preacher knows how much your pledge is for the year. I’ve always loved that fear; I can hear the most salacious, lurid details of someone’s relationship, but God forbid I know anything about how much you give to the church (and for the record, I don’t).  My former boss, Frank Harrington of Peachtree Presbyterian in Atlanta used to take high-power executives or attorneys to the Peachtree Driving Club for lunch.  People knew that when Frank asked you out for lunch, you better leave your checkbook at home!  You would sit down, and Frank would say, “So Chuck, how is the family?  Are the kids well? Hey, I saw you just bought a new third home up on Lake Lanier. I think that’s great. But, Chuck, I was looking at your pledge for this year and it really doesn’t show the same value you have for all your properties and club memberships.” Bless him, I guess that’s why Peachtree was at that time the largest Presbyterian Church in the United States with 12,000 members with a multimillion-dollar budget.

The second and third fears are tied. One is to serve as chair on the Evangelism Committee and the other is to be one of two adult chaperons for a co-ed camping trip with twenty middle school kids. But I have to say, the one thing that strikes more fear into people’s hearts is when I ask them this simple question: Will you open us with prayer? This simple request causes many people to get clammy hands, squirm, smile nervously, and mutter, “Oh no, I can’t do that I don’t know how.” It seems we have lost touch with prayer and “the how to do it” part. The funny thing is that we actually don’t have anything to do or need to know about “how” to do it.

Today is Pentecost, the birthday of the larger church. We remember it as the day the Holy Spirit of God is sent like fire and anoints members of the church enabling them to speak different languages with just the right dialects of the many visitors flowing into Jerusalem for the Jewish celebration of Pentecost. For our Jewish neighbors, Pentecost is referred to as Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, and is the celebration of the first harvest of the year and a time to remember when God gave the Law to Moses. What we have forgotten is that it’s the Holy Spirit who is the one who teaches us how to pray and in fact prays on our behalf.

Most Pentecost Sunday sermons are read and based on Acts 2 and remind us of the Spirit’s power and glory. Remember the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the Nazis remove the ark’s lid and exploding out of it were terrifying flames of fire that split and landed on people? We love the drama of the roaring sound of how Spirit came like a rushing wind and tongues of fire rested on those first disciples! But there is more to the Holy Spirit than that. Turn in your Bible to Romans 8:22-27.

Romans 8:22-27

22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.[1]

This Pentecost, I want us to look at “the softer, more gentle side” of the Spirit.  Thus far in Romans, Paul has painted the picture of humankind’s chosen self-exile from God and the consequences of that decision. He reminds his readers that the Law, as wonderful as it is, cannot help us bridge the gap in our broken relationship with God; this is where Jesus comes into play. Yet, it wasn’t enough for Jesus just to come and reconnect a healthy relationship between us and God. God sent God’s very Spirit to us to help us on our way in this life until we are reunited with God and with all those we love at the fulfillment of time. This is why communion is dear to us; we get a foretaste of the fulfilled moment in time when we are in communion with Jesus and all the saints of God. 

All of us are given spiritual gifts for service to the church and to others out in the community. It is the Spirit who gives us the grace we need to love others who are particularly annoying or just hard to love. Spirit is the core generator in each of our hearts that caressingly shapes our souls, gives us wisdom and understanding, and is the spark that keeps our hope burning when all seems hopeless. The Spirit gives us courage and boldness. The Spirit is the conduit of God’s loving grace in Jesus given to us today. Spirit is the very essence of God that was with Jesus when Jesus walked among us. Spirit is the very essence of both the Father and Son walking with and within us at this very moment.

How can I best describe this? In quantum physics, there is that which is known as “spooky science” which says that when two individual molecules touch just once, regardless of the distance between the two molecules, when one moves the other reacts. They have proven this scientifically. Whether the molecules are just inches or feet from one another or are as far apart as New York is to Seattle, when one moves, the other one will react. They are molecularly interconnected.[2] So it is with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God, I would say, is molecularly, spiritually a part of us.

One of the more important aspects of our faith is we tend to forget the Spirit prays in us and for us.  Listen to verse 26 once more:

Likewise, the Spirit helps us with our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with us with groaning and sighs too deep for words.

For all those who worry they don’t know how to pray, God’s got you covered! The Spirit of God is within you and prays for you in ways you don’t understand or even in ways you didn’t know you needed. In prayer, all we have to do is to show up.

Writer/professor/contemplative, the late Henri Nouwen says, “Prayer is our being empty and useless in the presence of God.”  He says our prayers are proclaiming our basic belief that prayer is all about grace and is not the result of hard work or prayer methods. Nouwen writes, “It is indeed a hard discipline to be useless in God’s presence and to let him speak in the silence of my heart. But whenever I become a little useless,” he says, “I know that God is calling me to a new life beyond the boundaries of my usefulness.”[3]

The Spirit of God – she is gentle and loving. She whispers wisdom in our hearts if we but just listen. She directs our steps if we would just trust and follow. She emboldens us when we are challenged and reminds us of Whose we are. She convicts us when we stray from the paths of love and grace, of forgiveness and reconciliation. She fills us with the love of Jesus because love is her very essence. And my beloved, she prays for us.

Ok, some of you may never be able to pray “out loud” or publicly and that’s okay. And there will be those times when the tidal waters in your lives will get so rough, scary, and overwhelming that you will look up to heaven with tears streaking down your face because you don’t know what to feel, what to do, or even what to say. And when that happens, you are to take heart because those very tears mean the Holy Spirit is praying for you during times like that – times when death visits your home, when you get a dire diagnosis, when your relationship rips up in divorce – during all these times of crisis when you just don’t have the words.  Your tears, your sighs, your groans are the Spirit praying for you at that moment.

The night Jesus was betrayed, he went to the Garden with his friends and he prayed, and the Spirit was crying and praying with Jesus through his tears that night.  This Pentecost, leave today remembering you are never, ever alone, and the precious Holy Spirit of God is\ within you, a part of you, and is praying on your behalf even if you don’t know what to say or are even aware. This, my friends, is gospel – good, winsome news!  In the Name of the One who is, who was, and is to come. Amen.

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801, and may not be reproduced or repurposed without permission from the author. All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org.

[2] Patchen Barss of The Perimeter Institute, The World is Non-Local All the Way Down, June 18, 2021.See https://insidetheperimeter.ca/the-world-is-non-local-all-the-way-down/.

[3] Henri J.M. Nouwen, You Are the Beloved. 365 Daily Readings and Meditations for Spiritual Living. A Devotional, ed. By Gabrielle Earnshaw (New York: Image Books, 20170, 149. Words in parentheses were added by me for rhetorical clarity.

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On Full Display, John 17:6-19

Posted on May 13, 2024 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon delivered by Patrick H. Wrisley, May 12, 2024.

Photo by Daniel Reche on Pexels.com

Years and years ago, what feels like a lifetime ago, I was a martial arts instructor. I just loved to fight! Every year, there was a karate tournament held in Atlanta called The Battle of Atlanta where several thousand martial artists came from all over the county and competed. I had made it to the quarter-finals in my age group – mid-high school – and was simply having a great time. My match got called up and my opponent and I bowed to the referee and then towards each other and we each took an on-guard stance.

Things were going well, and we began the second round. Crowds of people were around the mat watching what was going on when it happened. A martial arts uniform is called a gi. It has a loose top for ease of movement and baggy pants secured by a cord that goes around your hips. No sooner had the ref said, “Fight!” than my pants came untied! Now, both of my hands were in gloves which prohibited me from reaching down and grabbing them. Every inch I moved to the left or the right, I could feel my gi pants slip a bit further until they just hit the floor. Just try to imagine what a sophomore in high school would be feeling and thinking at that point. Surrounded by people with my opponent on the floor laughing, I was on full display to everyone with my bright blue boxer shorts with my pants around my ankles and I couldn’t do a thing! Finally, the ref came over chuckling, bent over pulled my pants back up, retied them, smirked at me, and said, “Fight.”

Yeah, about that. It didn’t go so well.  I didn’t do well that afternoon. I just wanted to quietly disappear into the crowd and hide.

Our text this morning is one where Jesus is on full display with those who mattered the most to him. He’s fully revealing himself and his purpose to them. No longer were there parables for the disciples to figure out. No longer were the crowds of followers jostling to see Jesus and his miracles or to hear his teaching. It was just Jesus and his closest disciples gathered together for the Passover. It was intimate, emotional, and a brutally frank gathering on what was about to happen.

Our Story today is from the Gospel of John. John takes five biblical chapters to cover one entire scene of his Story the night before Jesus dies. He wants his readers and listeners to pay attention, so he slows the action down by spreading the scene out. The essence of John’s gospel is wrapped up in these five chapters and it’s in our portion for today that many feel is a concise summary of who Jesus is, what he came to do, where he is now going, and what the disciples are to do next.[1] Jesus’ identity, purpose, and plans are on full display.

I am going to be reading from The Message Bible, written by the late Presbyterian pastor/scholar/author Eugene Peterson. He wrote this translation and paraphrase when he was a new church development pastor in Maryland, so his members might better understand the Bible and its meaning. I encourage you to go ahead and open your Bible for reference, but feel free to close your eyes and listen to the Story from John 17:6-19. We are picking up in the Story when Jesus is praying out loud. It’s often been called “The Great Priestly Prayer.” Jesus is having this intimate conversation with his Father and allows his disciples to overhear what he is saying. It’s almost like a parent praying over his or her children while they listen in. It’s a wonderful rhetorical technique John is using in this instance because we are invited to listen to Jesus, in effect, pray for us. Listen to the Word of the Lord.

John 17:8-19

6-12 I spelled out your character in detail
          to the men and women you gave me.
They were yours in the first place;
          then you gave them to me, and they have now done what you said.
They know now, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that everything you gave me is firsthand from you,
For the message you gave me, I gave them;
          and they took it, and were convinced
                        that I came from you.
They believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I’m not praying for the God-rejecting world
          but for those you gave me,
                        for they are yours by right.
Everything mine is yours, and yours mine,
          and my life is on display in them.
For I’m no longer going to be visible in the world;
          they’ll continue in the world
                        while I return to you.
Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life
          that you conferred as a gift through me,
                        so they can be one heart and mind
                                      as we are one heart and mind.
As long as I was with them, I guarded them
          in the pursuit of the life you gave through me;
I even posted a lookout.
          and not one of them got away,
                        except for the rebel bent on destruction
                                      (the exception that proved the rule of Scripture).

13-19 Now I’m returning to you.
I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing
          so my people can experience
                        my joy completed in them.
I gave them your word;
          the godless world hated them because of it,
                        because they didn’t join the world’s ways,
                                      just as I didn’t join the world’s ways.
I’m not asking that you take them out of the world
          but that you guard them from the Evil One.
They are no more defined by the world
          than I am defined by the world.
Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth;
Your word is consecrating truth.
In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world,
          I give them a mission in the world.
I’m consecrating myself for their sakes
          so they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission. [2]

If you listened closely, you heard four critical truths.

Jesus reveals with utter clarity that he is the living, tangible expression of the inexpressible infinite God whom he calls Father. It’s the great “scandal of the Gospel” that causes so many to squirm and struggle with regarding our Christian faith. As Christ-Followers, we believe the laws of physics, as we currently understand them, are broken and that what makes Jesus different from other religious figures is that in their very essence, Jesus and the Father are one. Jesus is more than just a prophet like Moses or Jeremiah; Jesus and God are wired together. There is this dynamic, flowing, interconnected, fly-wheeling reciprocity between Jesus and the Father. Jesus is the very essence of God who has been living, laughing, crying, arguing, and loving among the people. “Everything of mine is yours, and yours mine,” Jesus prays. The Gospel of John has been hammering home that Jesus is both 100% divine and 100% human being. To be less of either throws all the calculus off.

Second, Jesus reveals it is time for him to pass on the baton of gospel declaration – his ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing – to the women and men gathered as his disciples. In his prayer, he tells the disciples he is going home to be with his Daddy. I have a colleague in ministry named Simeon Rogers who, when he prays, he prays to Papa. Jesus is letting his closest followers know he is going home to Papa and that they will continue his work in the world on his behalf, on his Papa’s behalf, too.

Next, Jesus reveals that as his disciples, we will be exposed. In other words, we are going to be vulnerable to the powers of evil and will be hated by people in the world. It’s interesting to notice that Jesus in his prayer speaks reflectively, “The godless world hated them” because they followed the humble way of the Cross and lived counter-culturally to the world’s ways. It’s not that the world will hate them, future tense, but it’s that the world has already hated them, past tense. The world hates us still! Why?

I believe the world hates, dislikes, disrespects Christians and the Church because we are a mirror that reflects back to the world what life together is supposed to be like. It’s a community that is to love one another, get along with one another, helping one another. Christians should be countercultural and different. Christians should be iconoclastic in tearing down the values of injustice, war, and prejudice.

That’s the way it’s supposed to be at least. Instead, people are leaving the Church in droves because many churches in America are not reflecting the character of God back into the world; they are bringing the world’s character into the church! On the contrary, article after article reveal people are leaving the church, criticize and mock the Church because we Christians are perceived as hypocritical, intolerant, patriarchal, discriminatory, non-accepting, closed-minded, or politically too far right or too far left.[3]

Finally, Jesus clearly reveals that his disciples, i.e. you and me, are to put him on full display in how we live our lives. In the Bibles we typically use, verse 10 has Jesus say, “I am glorified in them.” Peterson translates that to say, “And my life is on display in them.”  Think about that for a moment: My life, your life, this church’s life puts Jesus on display for all to see. And this is what I want to leave you with today.

Next week we will gather for communion. The Apostle Paul reminds us that we are to examine our spiritual walk and take the temperature and blood pressure of the depth and quality of our walk in God.[4] To help us do that, I invite you to join me in a spiritual exercise called The Examen – an intentional reflection on the state of things spiritual. And this is the question I want us all to use in our reflections: How does my life put Jesus on display? Does it?

In the Name of the One who is, was, and is to come. Amen.

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, NY 12801. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, New York and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] Lance Pape, Connections: Year B, Volume 2: Lent through Pentecost (Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship) by Joel B Green. See https://a.co/j1DCSMq.

[2]  All Scripture quotations are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

[3] See, for example, The New York Times article, America Is Losing Religious Faith, Aug. 23, 2023, By Nicholas Kristof. A version of this article appears in print on, Section A, Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: Americans Are Losing Their Religious Faith. See https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/23/opinion/christianity-america-religion-secular.html

[4] See 1Corinthians 11:17-29.

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Peter’s Conversion, Acts 10:44-48

Posted on May 7, 2024 by patrick h wrisley

Actually, It’s the Story of Three Conversions

A Sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley on May 5, 2024

Have you ever walked up to a group of people and all you hear is the punchline of a joke? Everyone around you begins cracking up and you stand there thinking, “I don’t get it.” This describes what the lectionary organizers did this morning with our text from Acts. We pick up in the story at the punchline which makes absolutely no sense because we didn’t hear the rest of the story.

Turn in your Bible to Acts chapter 10. Acts 10 is like a play with 5 acts and we’re walking in on Act 5, Scene 2. So, let’s briefly catch up.

Act 1 begins in verse 1. We are introduced to a Roman commander named Cornelius. He is wealthy, powerful, has servants, is a leader of soldiers, and is also known as a God-fearer. A God-fearer was a person who worshiped the Jewish God and who supported the synagogue, but who had not taken the final step to be Jewish with circumcision. We meet Cornelius who is startled because he had a vision from God to go find this guy named Peter. Cornelius immediately sends servants and a devout soldier to go find him.

Act 2 finds Peter in the seacoast town of Joppa. It was about noontime, and he was on the rooftop patio feeling a bit peckish. While waiting for lunch, he had a strange dream of a large sheet descending from heaven with all types of animals in it and he heard God say, “Kill and eat.” Peter refuses and tells God, “I’m not going to eat any unclean animals that are forbidden to eat by our Jewish Law!” God then tells Peter, “Don’t call things unclean or impure that God has made clean.” This happens three times. It seems God remembers Peter is a little slow on the uptake and has to make sure he got it!

Acts 3 and 4 describe Cornelius’ men finding Peter and imploring him to travel to Caesarea some 30 miles away and meet their master. He does. Peter meets Cornelius who immediately falls on the ground to worship Peter and Peter tells him to get up, “I’m just a regular guy like you,” and he listens to Cornelius’ vision about being told to bring him to Caesarea.

Act 5, Scene 1 has Peter beginning to preach and share the Story of Jesus with Cornelius and all his household and we pick up in Act 5, Scene 2 which begins with verse 44. Hear the Word of the Lord.

Acts 10:44-48

44While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. 45The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, 46for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, 47“Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days. [1]

At first blush, we are struck by the events and think this story is about Cornelius’ conversion and it is, sort of. Yet, as I zoom out from the text and see it from a different vantage point, I realize this is just as much about Peter’s conversion as it is about Cornelius’. Cornelius converted from being a pre-Christian on the fringes to become the host of the first Gentile Christian church in Caesarea. Peter was converted from being a Jewish/Christian isolationist who had all the answers to a man who was humbled by the Holy Spirit to be accepting and loving of others. And it’s then I saw the third major conversion in our Story. The very Church itself underwent a conversion.  We read in verse 44 that all who heard the Word were filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke didn’t say, “Cornelius and his family” but all who heard the Word, and that includes Peter’s Jewish companions who came up from Joppa. The church walls were shattered by the Holy Spirit’s power and the church in the first century had to make room for the “other” in the world. No longer was it going to be a secret enclave of Jewish worshippers who embraced Jesus as Messiah; from now on, the Church was transformed to be a living community of and for all people with Jesus in the center.

Pastor and Professor Alan Roxburgh describes conversion as involving three profound shifts in a person or community. First, there is a shift in how we see people and the world around us. Second, there is a shift in how we speak about the world and others. Because we see the world and others differently, we speak and behave differently than we did before. Finally, Roxburgh says there is a shift in our relationships and community. As a result of seeing and relating to others and the world differently, we form different relationships with others who see and speak of and into the world as we do.[2]   As we look at our biblical Story, we see these shifts in Cornelius, in Peter, but also in the community at large called the Church. Remember, Peter did not go alone to see Cornelius. Our text reminds us that many Jewish, circumcised brothers went with him and were astounded by what they witnessed there. I encourage you to go home later and read Acts 11 because it describes what happened when Peter went back to Jerusalem and told the Jewish Christians there what happened with Cornelius; the Christian Jewish brothers and sisters were literally speechless.[3]

My friends, the Church has forgotten its own conversion Story! It has developed amnesia with regard to this easily overlooked demonstration of the Holy Spirit’s power in tearing down walls of segregation. For the last 2,000 years, the Christian Church has appeared hell-bent on creating rules and structures, guidelines and dogmas that define who is authentically Christian and who is not. We Christians tend to demonstrate we have forgotten the whole great commandment to love one another as Christ loved us through our excluding others who are different from us theologically, denominationally, ethnically, politically, socially, or sexually. Distorted evangelicalism of the last 60 years in our country has promoted a Christianity of exclusion more than inclusion. As the song written some 30 years ago says, the church needs to –

Draw the circle wide, draw it wider still.
Let this be our song: no one stands alone.
Standing side by side, draw the circle, draw the circle wide.[4]

UCC Pastor Rochelle Stackhouse writes that love is the most important charism and gift from God to us. It’s an identity marker of a genuine Christian community. She says, “As an identity marker, love defines the attitude, behavior, and norm by which the Christian community takes account of its life.”[5] She goes on to say that our loving God and our neighbor is the practice by which our churches undergo testing to determine whether or not they have remained as isolated communities defined by Law or have they become living, dynamic communities driven by the Spirit centered on Christ in love. As a Presbyterian, I am grateful that as a church, we are a community that is marked by love and inclusion and has dared to draw the circle wider and wider still. Our identity markers are not that we are pro-white or black, straight or gay, rich or poor, American or immigrant – our DNA is we are loving each other!

The love that Jesus talks about in John’s gospel lesson for this morning, what today’s epistle reading in 1 John is all about, is agape love. Agape love is inconvenient, willful, difficult, costly, sacrificial, and demanding. It’s a love that arises from the very heart of God, channeled through the Holy Spirit, and dynamically directed to all those Corneliuses, “those other people,” out in the world.  If it’s not, we cease being the Church.

Beloved, who are the Corneliuses of our world today? Who are the Corneliuses to you in your life? In our country’s history, it used to be Indigenous and African Americans. Then it became the Communists and Socialists. Then it was those people who contracted AIDs. Then it was those who were gay or Trans. And today, in our own country we view with suspicion those who are Republicans and those who are Democrats. Church, Jesus needs the Church to do better than that. The Church is a microcosm of the larger world and culture. If the Church can’t figure this out and get it right, there is not much hope the world or larger culture will.

If Peter can acknowledge the salvific work of Jesus is vital to a gentile Roman Centurion, in effect the enemy of the people, a gentile of all gentiles, and, if Cornelius, a Roman Soldier who pledged fidelity to Lord Caesar but now risks it all and pledges fealty to Lord Jesus, then maybe the Church in America can make room in the pew for people who are different from us. As your pastor, I am grateful that as a congregation, you have! All to the glory of God! Let’s not stop. In the name of the One who is, was, and is to come. Amen.

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801, and may not be reproduced or repurposed without permission from the author. All rights reserved.

[1]New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org.

[2] These are from notes taken during my doctoral work at Drew University in the late 1990’s.

[3] Acts 11:17-18.

[4] By Gordon Light, Music by Mark Miller. See https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/articles/history-of-hymns-draw-the-circle-wide.

[5] Rochelle Stackhouse, Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 4: Season after Pentecost 2 (Propers 17-Reign of Christ) (Feasting on the Word: Year A volume) by David L. Bartlett,  Barbara Brown Taylor

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