Sermon:        Heaven: A Primer
Scripture:     1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Date:             February 24, 2019

Every church is like a child: each one has its own personality. The Corinthian church was Paul’s problem child who went out of her way to test the boundaries and limits of the faith and his patience. Paul, the ever-vigilant parent, wrote some five or more letters to this church which comprise what we have of First and Second Corinthians. For example, discrimination at the Lord’s Table took place as there were different tables set with different types of food based on social status. There was their promise to raise a financial offering to send to drought-stricken Palestine that Paul had to constantly remind them that they made as they weren’t making good on it. There was the rise of so-called Super Apostles who challenged and threatened Paul’s authority by teaching doctrine that was not orthodox Christianity.  One of those teachings is what our text is about today.

These super teachers who popped up when Paul was not there were Hellenists, i.e. Greek.  They were trained in Platonic philosophy and Aristotelian logic and saw reality split nicely into two forms:  The perfect, untainted and pure spiritual reality compared and contrasted to this imperfect, tainted, impure physical, fleshy world.  These super teachers were proscribing a Christianity that was denying the central tenant of the Christian faith and that was bodily resurrection.

On one hand, you had those who said Jesus was just a man who was a superior moral teacher and the proved to be the model for perfect humanity.  On the other hand, you had those who said God is too pure to become a real, fleshy man so Jesus appeared as an apparition, a ghost. The former denies Jesus’ humanity and the latter denies Jesus’ divinity.  Both of those views are heretical. Furthermore, they saw Jesus’ resurrection as a soulful, spiritual  resurrection in that he shows you and me how to morally and spiritually rise above the current fray and hardship of this life.   They were spiritually majoring in the minors and minoring in the majors. Well, Paul had had enough.  Our scripture this morning has Paul using a rhetorical device called a diatribe where a writer poses a series of questions to gain the attention of the readers or listeners only to fire back the real answers he or she wants them to learn.[1]I believe it is safe to say that you can easily imagine Paul grinding his teeth and is a little red-faced with veins popping out the side of his temple as he wrote this. Listen to the Word of the Lord!

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

³⁵ But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” ³⁶ Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. ³⁷ And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. ³⁸ But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

⁴² So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. ⁴³ It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. ⁴⁴ It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man isfrom heaven. ⁴⁸ As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. ⁴⁹ Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we willalso bear the image of the man of heaven.

⁵⁰ What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.[2]

To call someone a fool was not a good thing. It’s consummate to calling someone “You dumb, stupid moron!”  Why the harsh language?  Paul knew that if the Church didn’t get this point right about their faith, the Church lost the whole meaning of Christmas and Easter which sets the Christian tradition apart from other world faiths. Jesus bodily rose from the dead.

Jesus did not metaphorically rise from the dead whereby he achieved new enlightenment. No, Jesus took on bodily form; the Gospel accounts indicate Jesus had a body, a form, a substance just like before but it was different. Verse 44 can be best understood if we hear it as, “The physical body embodies the soul, the spiritual body embodies the spirit.”

As we look at this primer on heaven, let’s make note of some clarifying points.  First, bodily resurrection means that when we transcend this life, we will not be Casper-the-ghost like vapors floating around the clouds; on the contrary, as Richard Hayes writes, our spiritual body gives spirit its form and local habitation.[3]Heaven describes a place of relationship when the Christ-follower is in the presence of the Almighty God.

Second, whereas our earthly body is the habitation of our personal soul, our heavenly body is the habitation of God’s Spirit. Heaven is also the time, the moment we are, as Paul writes in Romans 8:29, conformed into the image of the Son. Heaven in this instance is not so much a place as it is a time when there is a transformation of our likeness into the image of Christ. It points to the time when all the redeemed will be united to the Christ in glory and joy.

When I moved from Georgia to Florida back in 1996, I was still a Georgian.  It was only when I went to the Osceola County Courthouse with my ID and two utility bills to show I lived in Kissimmee that I became a Floridian. There was that moment I was given my Driver’s License and Voter ID card and I knew I was bona fide.

Third, we forget that heaven is not the annihilation of Earth and creation but that the earth and all creation are redeemed though the work of Jesus. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 1:10 that through Christ, God is working out a plan, in the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him in heaven and earth. All that God has created makes a difference and matters to the Lord. Our bodies matter to the Lord.  Our earth matters to the Lord.  Our health matters to the Lord. Our natural resources and how we care for them matters to the Lord. How we treat our physical bodies, our neighbors, our environment and resources now are acts of our personal and corporate discipleship for the care of God’s creation right this moment.

Friends, bodily resurrection affirms the moral significance of life in our physical bodies. What we begin here continues on into glory. It’s not that we live an earthly life and then a heavenly disembodied life; when we accept Jesus our life gains an eternal dimension that begins now and runs out into the future with God.  It’s not part A and then part B. Accepting Christ means a physical and spiritual reboot where we begin the process of transforming who we are into the image of Christ now. It’s only after we die that we put on the spiritual body. My body matters. Your body matters.  The homeless man’s body matters.  The sex-trafficked girls in Jupiter, Florida this week matter. Because bodies matter, Jesus demands that we love one another in willful, intentional, and inconvenient ways and missionally address the homeless and those held in bondage to sexual slavery. Because this world matters, Jesus demands that we care for it in willful, intentional and inconvenient ways and missionally care for creation and our natural resources.

Christianity affirms a bodily, material resurrection.  What that means and what it looks like, I have no clue. I sometimes wonder if my spiritual body might be another three inches taller and leaner. That would be nice. Yet, it really means that I am called to live in health right now.

Heaven is beyond our imagination. It’s both a place in the presence of God and a time when we put on our spiritual bodies with all the saints of God. My beloved Smoky Mountains will be untainted and clean and wild. You see, that’s my heaven in my mind.  It’s both a place and a time.

As a place, I am in a small cabin in the hills of Appalachia up along a mountain holler that has a robust creek running down it.  The cabin is just a few rooms and is nestled into the hillside. A wood fire is burning and it’s raining.  I am sitting on a large twelve-foot deep porch that looks down the holler rocking in an old rocking chair, puffing my favorite pipe while drinking a piping hot cup of my favorite coffee. I am dry and warm bundled in a fleece jacket gently rocking and listening to the rain hit the tin roof. After a while comes a person who I recognize as Jesus. He climbs onto the porch, removes his hat and raincoat and I motion inside with my coffee cup. Jesus goes inside and pours a long draught of coffee and then walks back onto the porch and sits in the neighboring rocking chair.  We don’t talk but simply sit in one another’s company listening to the rain, enjoying the coffee, and a good pipe. Time seems to stand still.  It’s safe. I feel unconditionally and passionately loved for who I am as opposed to what others expect me to be. I am in God’s very presence and God in Jesus just lets me soak him into my being.  That’s what heaven will be like for me.  What will it be like for you?  We can only imagine.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15^thAvenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

© 2019 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1]Hays, 270.

[2]New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[3]Hays, 272.

Sermon:        Preparing for Spiritual Climate Change
Scripture:     Jeremiah 17:5-10
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Pres Fort Lauderdale
Date:              February 17, 2019

Our text this morning comes from the Old Testament book and prophet, Jeremiah. Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet because his words were often laced with sadness or pain; he was not known for being the upbeat prophet you invite to parties; on the contrary, people saw Jeremiah come towards their village and they would get all anxious and squirrelly because they thought he was coming to go all wrath of God on them or something.

Our passage today comes from Jeremiah 17 where there are clusters of sayings that stand on their own. At first glance, they appear to be like psalms or pieces of wisdom literature. Today we will be focusing upon verses 5-10.  As you hear the text today, take a moment and note how its structured. First there is a curse. Second, there is a blessing. Third, there is a reminder about whose we really are to begin with.  Our text today has many similarities to Psalm 1 and I encourage you to read that later when you go home today.  Listen to the Word of the Lord.

Jeremiah 17:5-10

⁵ Thus says the Lord:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from the Lord.
⁶ They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.

⁷ Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
⁸ They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.

⁹ The heart is devious above all else;
it is perverse—
who can understand it?
¹⁰ I the Lord test the mind
and search the heart,
to give to all according to their ways,
according to the fruit of their doings^[1]

Climate change. Some people scoff at the idea while others are raising alarm as to consequences. This Friday there was an article posted whose headline read,Florida is drowning. Condos are still being built. Can’t humans see the writing on the wall?^[2]In an article in the Miami Heraldthis past summer, it posted a study conducted by NOAA and others that predicts a 6 1/2 feet of sea rise by the end of the century for the Sunshine State.^[3]  I’m no scientist but these type of articles make me sit up and reflect a bit. Even if you are a climate change denier, you have to admit that weather patterns across our country and the world are different. The hot seems to get hotter, the wet gets wetter, the cold gets colder and storms get nastier. Like our nation’s politics, even the weather has lost its ability for moderation! What scientists are trying to convey is that each of us has a personal stake and responsibility on how our environmental future pans out.

Our text today is talking about climate change, spiritual climate change. It juxtaposes two environmental conditions and the types of fruit that is produced with each one. The prophet is trying to convey that each of us has a personal stake and responsibility on how our own spiritual environmental future pans out. On one hand, we can choose to be scrub bush in the desert.  On the other hand, we can choose to transplant ourselves next to living streams of water nourished by God.

If you have ever driven out west in the Dakotas and Montana, you have seen tumbleweeds that roll along the arid land. Some of them are small softball-sized pieces that float across the road while others have been rolling and gathering up girth and are the size of beach balls! You go and hit one of those doing 75 mph in your car and you feel it! This is what Jeremiah is describing in today’s text. Jeremiah is telling the people Israel that if you continue to place your trust and confidence in man-made things and contrivances, you are going to end up like a rootless scrub bush in salt-laden barren land that gets blown about the place like a tumbleweed that moves hither and yon based on the winds.

You see, the problem the Jews were facing is that they took their eyes and loyalty off God and committed their gaze and allegiance to kings instead. Whereas at one time God was their sole leader, the people of Israel complained that they wanted a king like all the other nations and so they got one. Eventually, the unified nation was split into two nations with two sets of disagreeable kings and God was sidelined. When the kings were not working out for them, the people began making idols of gods that they thought would deliver them from the messes the kings got the nations into; it all spiraled from bad to worse.

This is a good spot to simply ask ourselves what the idols we have personally constructed in our lives to get us through the days?Maybe it’s the pursuit of a title or a job. Perhaps it’s the address of our home.  Then again, are we so in love and worship our money that we are tightfisted towards God? What’s your idol?  Addiction to alcohol, sex, power or even just plain old laziness and apathy?  Our text today invites you and me to assess our spiritual environment.  Are we rootless tumbleweeds driven about by our own whims that dry up when drought comes? Or, are we aware of spiritual climate change and choose to do something about it?

Jeremiah tells us that we can either be a dry scrub bush or we can be what? A tree transplanted by streams of water. What are the obvious differences between a tree and a tumbleweed? First, there are roots and there is a sense of groundedness. Second, there is longevity and a chance for maturity to develop.  Third, there is strength and resiliency.

 Why would anyone choose to be a tumbleweed-type of Christian?Tumbleweed Christ-followers are ones who flit from one fellowship to the next without making a commitment to become part of sustaining community. Tumbleweed Christ-followers don’t put their spiritual roots down and as a result, they are not able to mature.  They are too busy soaking up what they think they want and confuse it with what they really need.  They want a spiritual sugar-rush to feel good but what they need is to drink from the draught of pure spiritual milk.  Tumbleweed Christ-followers, because they are rootless, are easily blown about to the next spiritual fad or personality.  Their trust in God crumbles when faced with suffering, doubt, and life’s hard realities.

One of the reasons I love this scripture text is because it’s brutally honest. It affirms that trees planted by the water of life in Christ will endure heat waves that will come with cultural and spiritual climate change because their roots snake deeply into the soil of God’s rich goodness and their leaves will stay green. It affirms that even though we are planted next to the fountain of life, the events of our world will make us feel as though we are going through a drought at times; and yet the promise is that in the midst of our drought as a result of our rootedness in God, we will still bear fruit that in turn nourishes others.

Have you ever wondered if you’re going through a spiritual heatwave or drought?  Here are some signs you might be. You don’t want to be around a community of the faithful who are there to support you and pull away from those who can help you the most. You do not want to join and make a commitment to become a part of a community which is akin to saying, “I do not want to put down spiritual roots and would rather be a tumbleweed.” You are critical with and of others in the church and present and point out only problems instead of winsome solutions. You develop a judgmental spirit towards those who see and interpret ideas different from you because you know that you are indeed right! You might be in a spiritual drought when you become overwhelmed with a sense of hopelessness that nothing you do makes a difference.

So beloved, how do you and I prepare for spiritual climate change where the drought and heat are more intense and the storms are becoming more intense? Jeremiah gives us the answer.

First, we choose to quit being tumbleweeds and transplant ourselves to a spot of spiritual soil that is fed by the verdant springs of the Living God. Second, we intentionally, willfully shoot our roots down searching for spiritual nourishment and nurture, growth and maturity. Finally, produce fruit of the Spirit from your tree to nourish those around you.

Transplant ourselves to good soil.

Intentionally shoot our roots down looking for nourishment.

Produce fruit of the Spirit for other’s behalf in God’s name. This is how we prepare for spiritual climate change, beloved.  Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Pres Fort Lauderdale
401 SE 15^thAvenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
Wrisley@outlook.com

© 2019 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

^[1]The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

^[2]Florida is drowning. Condos are still being built. Can’t humans see the writing on the wall?People tend to respond to immediate threats and financial consequences – and Florida’s coastal real estate may be on the cusp of delivering that harsh wake-up call, by Megan Mayhew Bergman, Fri 15 Feb 2019, accessed at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/15/florida-climate-change-coastal-real-estate-rising-seas.

^[3]Florida has more to lose with sea rise than anywhere else in the U.S., new study says, by Alex Harris, June 18, 2018, updated, October 3, 2018, The Miami Herald, accessed at https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article213092454.html.

Sermon:           What are we going to do now that we are out of the wilderness?
Scripture:        Luke 4.14-21
Preacher:         Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:         First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale
Date:                 January 27, 2019, Third Sunday of Epiphany

Last week, we took some time to unpack our text from Isaiah 62 whereupon the Jews who have come back to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon were getting hit hard with the reality that although they were back home again, everything was different. In their despondency, God declared to them he was replacing their name Forsaken and Desolate and giving them a new name: You are My Glory and We are Married. Do you remember why God gave them new names?  Because in the giving of a new name, the people of God were given a new identity and in that new identity is God’s promise of faithfulness.

You see, as a church we can relate to the whole being in exile thing with the crazy events of the last dozen years with the turnover in pastoral and lay leadership; people who live wandering in the wilderness or on exile learn to rely on a different skill sets and resources than do people who are rooted settlers where everything is going smoothly. You are the faithful remnant who stayed focused on the goal and fought the good fight during those wilderness years and I left you to ponder last week, “What is the new name God is giving this congregation as we move forward in ministry in Broward County and abroad?”

This morning we are picking up in Luke’s Story where Jesus has just gone through his own wilderness experience. He was baptized with the Holy Spirit which then drove him into the Judean wilderness to be tempted and tried whereupon his character was fashioned as the Son of God. Now the same Spirit overwhelms him as he begins his ministry. Jesus has gone through the tough test and his spiritual character has been shaped.  Now it’s his time to come back from the Spirit-induced exile and return home again to resume being a settler and pick up where he left off before he left!

Well actually that’s not true. Jesus came back from his wilderness experience but he didn’t settle back into the comfortable rhythms of small-town Galilean life; no, his experience in personal forty-day exile and wilderness instilled in him a Spirit-driven life that had a specific passion and purpose. Jesus was no settler; he was a social, political, and spiritual instigator, agitator and catalyst for transformation and change. With respectful apologies to California brother, Rick Warren, Jesus did not live a purpose-driven life so much as Jesus embodied a Spirit-driven life with a purpose and passion to change and turn over the tables of the religious, political, and cultural status quo.

So this leads us to our text today. Turn in your Bible to Luke 4.14-21. Our tendency is to want to read past verse 21 but the authors of our lectionary felt it was incumbent to break up the action and let today’s words hang in the air for contemplation. Hear the words which is Luke’s overture for his entire Gospel and raise the threads of Jesus’ ministry that run throughout the entire Lukan Good-News Story. Listen to the Word of the Lord!

Luke 4:14-21

¹⁴Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. ¹⁵He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. ¹⁶When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read,¹⁷and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” ²⁰And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.[1]

Carol Hess from Emory notes that in today’s passage, “We learn what Jesus came to do; insofar as we measure our lives against this (text), we are following Jesus’ ministry…if we are going to study, interpret, and follow the gospel, we should keep coming back to this text to measure our work.”[2]  I suppose the question before us as Church is: Are we as individual Christ-followers, Am I?

The Church is to proclaim good news.  The Church is to help the blind recover their site. The Church is to set captive peoples free. The Church is to declare a Jubilee. But are we?

What is the Good News the Church is proclaiming? For many the news that is heard today out of churches is bad news. The news people hear is that if you don’t act/vote/do/behave in a certain way, you’re not a bona fide follower of Christ. The Good News people buy into today is that if you walk the aisle, you get your spot reserved in heaven and then the Good News becomes all about me. Jesus challenges us to ask How is the Good News we are proclaiming making a difference for a man living under visqueen plastic this weekend in the rain? What is the Good News for the single mother who works two jobs and never sees her kids or who has time to experience the touch of another loving human being?

Furthermore, how is our American church doing with letting people who are blind to the Truth of the Gospel know what the Gospel really is? Church in America suffers from a vast form of macular degeneration where we are no longer able to see peripherally around us but can only get hazy glimpses of what’s directly in front of us.

How is today’s Church liberating people who are held by the bonds of poverty, substance abuse, or the human trafficking which is taking place right along the I-95 corridor?

How is Church today demonstrating that there is a way to break free from the bonds of prejudice, greed, abusive power and the accumulation of ‘stuff’ or do we instead proffer a culturally driven Christian-life that supports that broken system?

How is Church today declaring and demonstrating that this is the Year of the Lord’s favor when we subdivide ourselves into opposing camps of ‘us’ and ‘them’?

How do we proclaim the Year of the Lord’s favor when we spend more on restaurant meals and entertainment than we do in the offering plate which in itself indicates our thankfulness to God? Beloved, there are people in Church who load more onto their Starbucks card per week or year than they ever give back to God in gifts of thanksgiving!  Never mind we have a church app to give your offerings which is easier to use than a Starbucks app!

Beloved, the words of Jesus today are prophetic words he quoted from Isaiah 58 and 61. They are words from the Prophet that were spoken to a people who have just come back from exile and wandering in their spiritual wilderness. They are words not meant to evoke a sense of guilt or shame; on the contrary, Jesus says that starting this very day, God is doing a new thing that is going to frustrate the status quo as you and I know it. Jesus is declaring today that God is doing a new thing and he, Jesus, is the match who will set the whole thing on fire!

Today, Jesus tells us the Good News is that we may disagree politically but we can agree ethically and morally about the well-being of our neighbor. The Good News is that Jesus-type-love is beyond politics; the bad news is we don’t believe or act like it.

Today, Jesus tells us the Good News is that you and I, the Church, First Presbyterian Church, are the mouthpieces for sharing this Good News to our world right here in Fort Lauderdale and Broward County; the bad news is we are still trapped in the nostalgic past or are too fearful to utter, much less declare, the newsflash of grace from God.

Today, Jesus tells us the Good News that Church, quit being so focused on how big you are, how successful you appear and start working on polishing the patina of how well you’re loving others like I do, how you’re willing to be unpopular in the eyes of the world because you are doing God’s will and not your own like I am, how you’re sacrificially, inconveniently and intentionally serving others as my hands and feet in this broken, weary world as I am.

Friends, the Good News of the Gospel for First Presbyterian Church is that today, Jesus is giving you and me, this church a fresh, blank canvass upon which we are to paint a beautiful new tapestry of ministry for this time and age. The Good News is that we are not shackled to yesterday, but as a church, today we are the living embodiment of the invisible God in a world that desperately needs the love of Jesus.

Years ago I worked as an associate pastor at a church who received more than 140 new members on just one Sunday and I was told by the Senior Pastor that it was a failure of a day. This, in spite of the fact that the average Protestant church in America is only 100-110 members on the roles at a given time. Being told it was a failure was a huge gift for me because I learned as a young pastor, that a church is driven by the Spirit, it’s not just about church size and prestige. No, I learned that it was a church’s ability to proclaim the winsome Good News of Jesus to world that is spiritually blind, culturally bound, and grossly self-absorbed. I learned that a successful spiritually-driven church is one where her people are worshipping in community and at home daily. I learned that a successful spiritually-driven church is one whose members are developing their spiritual formation through study of the faith and taking what we learn about the faith and serving  in the world. I learned that a successful spiritually-driven church is one whose members care for the least of these in it own congregation and in the local area. I learned that a successful spiritually-driven church is one whose members display gratitude to God by giving of their time and resources to the work of Jesus.

Beloved, this is the type of church Jesus is describing in our Story today. Is it a church, you beloved, wish to be? Amen! Then let’s get on with it!

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
patrickw@firstpres.cc

© 2019 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1]The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2]David L. Bartlett; Barbara Brown Taylor. Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 1: Advent through Transfiguration (Kindle Locations 9379-9381). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

Sermon:           What’s in a name?
Scripture:        Isaiah 62.1-5
Preacher:         Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:         First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale
Date:                 January 20, 2019, Second Sunday After Epiphany, Year C

One of the highlights of our Advent celebrations was to hear our incredible Choir at our Christmas Concert.  Some 1,100 people were in here with their jaws on the floor from the sound coming from our friends behind me. I am not a musician so one of the highlights for me was to hear Robbin describe each of the musical pieces’ background and why the composer wrote it the way they did. When Robbin placed the music in its proper context, I was able to glean the subtleties from the music I would not have normally.

This is what I want to do with our text today.  It’s beneficial to understand this piece of scripture in it larger historical context so that it makes more sense to us today.  The long book of Isaiah is really a compilation of several different authors and stories. It is divided up into three major sections. Chapters 1-39 are words of judgement against the people of Israel for their lack of true adoration of God.  These words are declared to let them know they will be taken into exile, mostly to Babylon but to all four corners of the compass as well. Chapters 40-55 comprise the second section of the book and the tenor changes from judgement to reconciliation. This voice in the Isaiah narrative is a loving, reassuring voice where God promises to bring the people back home to Jerusalem and Palestine. Chapters 56 – 66 are spoken to the people who have come home from exile.  They have returned from Babylon and have reoccupied the holy city with all its destruction of the Temple and other buildings.  This is written to a people who have been repatriated to their home once more but who now look around and see how much things have changed.  There is so much work to do.  The place is a mess. Where does one even start?  The fields are overgrown, buildings are demolished, and the fabric of community has to be rebuilt.

I suppose they were feeling like the people returning home after a hurricane or a tornado has hammered through their town.  Once visible landmarks are gone.  Vegetation is uprooted.  Water systems are destroyed, and communications systems are wiped out. The survivor rummages through a debris pile where their home once stood, and they pick up little pieces of photographs or mementos that remind them of what life used to look like.  Yes, they’re home again but it’s very different from when they left. Their homecoming is laced with tears of memories long past and the good old days. They feel overwhelmed with all that must be done and the weight of it presses down upon them. It’s easy for them to feel depressed and despondent and perhaps are thinking to themselves, “This doesn’t feel like my home anymore. Do I still have what it takes to do this?”

Beloved, this is exactly how the people felt who first heard these words from our text this morning.  They are set free and sent home but once they got home, nothing was the same anymore. It was home but everything had changed. They were overwhelmed. They were depressed.  They were despondent. And to respond to their situation and feeling, we have our text from Isaiah 62.1-5.  Hear the Good News of the Lord!

Isaiah 62:1-5

^62.1For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch. ²The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. ³You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. ⁴You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. ⁵For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.[1]

Beloved, reflect a moment to a time you have felt let down, forgotten, or neglected. When have there been times in your life you felt overwhelmed or despondent based on your circumstances? Have there been times in your life you have been forsaken or instances when you have felt emotionally, spiritually, and physically desolate?

Now let’s open the aperture a little wider. What about this spiritual community of First Pres? Do you still cling to the memories of “remember when?” Have you ever felt as though you were forsaken and desolate? If you’re honest, you will admit there have been those times.

The Jews that returned to Israel from Babylon were no doubt thrilled to be back home, but the hard realities of life slapped them in the face.  There was work to do! There were projects to complete! There was a community to reestablish! They were faced with a choice: They could wallow in the mess of what the previous years provided, or they could come together and do something about cleaning things up and reestablish God’s rightful place in the Holy City.

Personally, it would mean they would have to learn new skills and habits. What worked for a generation in Babylon may not necessarily work for a new generation now back in the liberated city of God, Jerusalem. They would have to establish new relationships with new neighbors. They would have to learn to trust one another and their leaders. They would be required to establish new alliances with other nations and kings around them. Everything had changed while they were away for an entire generation. You see, there was only one thing, one constant from their past they could count on: God’s steadfastness. And how does prophet Isaiah remind the people of this? God has Isaiah remind the people of the power of a name.

Our text today has God declare to the remnant that’s left, “You are no longer going to be called Forsaken and Desolate; no, today, you and I are getting married and you get to take on my name: You are My Delight and Your Land is Married to me!

Isaiah speaks a promise God spoke to a former generation and declares it to a new one:  You are My Delight and We are Married Now! The people returning from exile needed to hear those words again.  They needed to hear their new God-given names.  This was a new day for both them and for the Lord God!

When my youngest daughter Katie got married, she changed her name. The new relationship, the new phase of her life demanded a change and it needed to be different. So, she changed her name from Kate Wrisley to Kate Wrisley Shelby, no-hyphen. I love it!  When she got married, she took her husband’s family name but only after adding it to hers. She’s a Wrisley and will always be a Wrisley. But she’s also a Shelby.  She has a name that reminds her of the best from both families. This is what God is telling the Jews that have come home: You get a new name to remind you both who you are and Whose you are: You are my delight and now we’re married!

Last Sunday, your now completed pastoral team stood before you at the 11:00 a.m. service. I want to make sure everyone understands the significance of what happened. As one of you told me, “This is the first time in many, many years when our pastors don’t have any hyphenated titles like “interim pastor.” It’s a new day here at First Pres, Preacher!”  I smiled and said, “Yes it is.”

This church has gone through a time when members felt forsaken and desolate. As a congregation, you have been in an exile of sorts.  But you the remnant, hung tight and kept the faith.  You did not give up on your faith, in this spiritual community or in our God. For years we have been grieving the generation that was once here before but have since left. We miss them and love them. But now it’s time to rebuild Jerusalem.  Now it’s up to us, you, Nic, Pam and me to carry on the ministry of Christ in this place. Beloved, we as a church cannot afford to live into the future facing backwards.  The time of exile is over! We are back in Jerusalem and have work to do.  There are sacrifices to be made. There are attitudes towards giving back to God that cannot continue to be embraced…attitudes like, ‘someone else will support the ministry’ or ‘I’ve given my fair share; it’s someone else’s turn to do it.’

There are attitudes and ways we ran as a community back during the time of our exile that will no longer work today as we come back and rebuild Jerusalem…we are a new generation and our “Jerusalem,” our context has changed. As we settle back into a new course together, it will mean we either adapt to our changing contextual conditions and environment or we will die. Ministries that worked a decade ago may not be relevant today. Are we willing to trust God to show us new ministries?

Beloved, what it’s in a name?  Everything! The best days of this church are ahead of her because God calls us by a new name; and what is that name First Pres is called?  We are His Delight and Are Married to the Lord! And all of God’s people said, “Amen.”

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
patrickw@firstpres.cc

© 2019 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1]The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

i met with a few colleagues today who are faithfully slaving away in the salt mines of the parish. i handed one a copy of a book i am about to read entitled Quit Going to Church. he slowly shook his head and mumbled something to himself.  i asked him what he just said and he replied with a sigh, “you have no idea how many times i’ve wanted to do just this!”  gently pushing him, i asked him to clarify his comment.  “i mean,” he says, “you have no idea how many times i’ve just wanted to walk away from all this (referring to his call as a pastor).  i think i would have done it years ago if only i was only more creative.”

“more creative?”

“yeah.  more creative.  i honestly don’t know what else i would do if i left the ministry and the church although, i’ve fantasized about it many times.”

here’s a guy who loves being a pastor to his flock.  he, like many others, have invested thousands of dollars in a quality seminary education.  he wants to serve Jesus and he loves the poor and wants to work for justice to “the least of these” of our world.  he wants to hold the hands of those who are dying in the hospital and talk with a young adult about her faith in God.  what he and scores of other pastors are wearied and beat down by are the constant lapping waves of criticism, negativity, grumpiness and apathy of many members of their church.  they invest hours upon hours away from their homes and families trying to make a difference but are more often than not repaid with lack of participation or commitment in ministries and projects the people say they want but don’t take advantage of after the pastor has poured her soul into trying to develop a ministry she heard the people tell her to develop.

i’m one of those pastors.  i’ve been a parish pastor for 26 years.  like my colleagues, i entered into the ministry to try to make a difference in the world for the cause of Light. i have worked hard and diligently and have done the best i could do in the parishes i served.

and i thank God for those opportunities.  i thank God for trusting me, and those laboring in the same vocation, with the privilege of serving the Holy in a way we have been allowed.

but i’m tired.

we’re tired.

i am feeling mentally, physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually tapped out. i want to live my faith out in the world – sharing my winsome feelings and passion for Jesus Christ – but i am worn out by petty church administrative bullshit.  there are people who need help, lives who need to be touched, hands to be held in the midst of grief.  there are people living in the woods out back of the local WalMart and people are grumpy over the length of the sermon, the particular hymn that was sung, or the fact their name was misspelled in the section that describes who gave the flowers for the day.

and people huddle together just past the incandescent lights from the strip mall’s parking lot wondering how cold it’s going to get tonight.

like pooh bear, i can simply sigh, “oh bother.”

hence – this blog.  i need an anonymous place to vent what it’s like to serve in the trenches of the local parish. i want fellow pastors to know they are not alone in their angst, pain, and fatigue.  i want parishioners in the pews to get outside of themselves and try to understand what their local priest, pastor, imam, or rabbi is dealing with day in and day out. Perhaps, just maybe, they will learn something more deep about their faith or lack thereof.

i will admit.  this first post sounds whiney.  i’ll claim that and will say, ‘sorry ’bout that’ if that helps.  just understand it’s coming from a person who is tired and on the verge of burn out.  it’s coming from a point of view that i’ve staked my family, my gifts and graces, and my entire life and after a quarter of a century am tired of being made to feel like crap from parishioners because I “only work an hour a week” or “i don’t know what it’s like to live in the real world.”

again, Pooh sighs.

i promise, future posts will be more multi flavored in their approach.  i just had to start somewhere and that somewhere is right here:  maranatha

pax et bonum