Sunday Worship 9:30 am

David Orendorff         Luke 8:26-39               June 9, 2013

For me, this is one of the funniest stories in the Bible. I have always loved it. The first thing that strikes me is how immediately afraid the demons are of Jesus. Jesus steps out the boat, the demons see him and, without introduction, knock the man down so that he is in the position of worshipping Jesus. They then speak in one voice, calling Jesus the “Son of the Most High God” (again worship) and want him to declare his intentions toward them. Note, it is the demons who speak in one voice and not the man speaking. This is total possession. All Jesus has done is step out of the boat and the demons recognize him as both God’s son and as a threat to them.

Luke feels compelled to explain why this happened by saying that Jesus had commanded the demon (note the singular) to come out of the man. Luke’s explanation is both out of sequence in the story and miscounts the demons so that I get the feeling Luke didn’t understand any better than me why the demons react so quickly to Jesus’ presence as a threat. In other stories we get similar recognitions from demons. It is as if the whole demon world has heard of Jesus and knows he is out to get them.

Like the demons, there have been times I feared Jesus because I heard how he changes lives, and a stubborn part of me doesn’t want the change.

A second funny thing to me is the conversation with the demons who call themselves Legion because there are so many of them. A Roman legion of soldiers is around 5,000 men. That is a lot of demons in one person. I have some mental illness (the equivalent of demon possession), but not 5,000. This is a very serious case as the description of the man’s behavior confirms.

So Jesus is patiently talking with around 5,000 demons. They are afraid Jesus is going to cast them into the abyss. The abyss must be a pretty bad place, where and whatever it is, if even demons don’t want to go there. Thinking they are clever and can save themselves, the demons ask Jesus if they can go into some nearby pigs. He agrees and they go into the pigs. In fear, the demons cast themselves out of the man and into the pigs.

Gone mad with 5,000 demons, the pigs drive themselves into the lake. Now, pay careful attention. Jesus didn’t drive the pigs into the lake; they drove themselves. So if you think about it, Jesus hasn’t done a miracle. He has not cast out demons. He has not driven the pigs into the lake. He has done nothing but show up, and the demons, in their fear of Jesus, heal the demoniac. How is that for an ironic reversal?

For a Jewish listener it is probably even funnier stuff. It is like saying, “Five thousand demons and a bunch of pigs walk into a lake. They drown.” It is demons, pigs and a lake, and of course they drown—and good riddance to the bunch.

Again, I have known myself to be like the demons, being afraid I devise my own clever salvation only for God to let me reap the consequences of my arrogance and self delusion.

The third funny thing is the reaction of the swineherds and the town’s folk. The swineherds are afraid and run to town, explaining to all who will listen how they didn’t drown the pigs, but that Jesus did it. Well, by now we know Jesus didn’t do it and that the swineherds are obviously trying to protect themselves from losing the pigs into the lake.

And I have been like the swineherds, shifting the blame because I wanted anyone else to take the fall and not me.

And the folks who rush down to the shore to see what happened also strike me as funny. They see a man who was dangerously crazy, sitting at Jesus’ feet (the position of a disciple), clothed and in his right mind. You think they would celebrate as a simple act of caring for one who had been suffering. You would think that, like the man who was again right in his head, these people might also want to sit down and learn from Jesus. But no, they “were seized by a great fear” because they were afraid of him. Respecting their desire, Jesus gets back into the boat to depart from them. They had wisdom before them but fear made them blind. Been there and done that.

And a final funny—well, two funny things: Before Jesus departs the man begs to come with him and be his follower. But Jesus sends him away, saying, “Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.” It seems strange that Jesus would refuse a disciple. And when the man does go home, he doesn’t quite get Jesus’ message right. Jesus says, “tell how much God has done for you,” but the man declares “how much Jesus has done for him,” though we just saw that Jesus did nothing but permit 5,000 demons to jump into a herd of pigs and drown themselves.

Here you are my witnesses, for I have tried to repeat the good news of God only to get the message slightly garbled.

There is one final place I have sometimes found myself identifying. This place is with Jesus. I have done nothing but listen to and love someone who suffers, and that simple act of presence, to my surprise and wonder, has permitted me to be the observer of what God does to heal. This is, of course, what Stephen Ministers are trained to do. Come to a place, get out of the boat, listen to the voices of demons in the suffering, give permission for the demons to leave, and watch the suffering turn to faith.

I remember in my first year of fulltime pastoral ministry a family who called me to visit after their son of 18 inexplicably died in the field while haying. It was not a family I knew and not a family of the congregations I served. They were strangers and, on my way, I wondered what good my visiting them could possibly bring. But I went, listened, prayed and they found some release from their pain and moved away from their anger with God and toward God’s healing love.

What the wonderful story of the Gerasene demonic has to teach me is that I don’t have to have a totally fearless faith to be healed and to be a healer. I just have to love others as God loves me.

I hope you found yourself learning something of faith and love in the strange story of the Gerasene Demoniac.

Shalom and Amen.

David Orendorff         I Chronicles 29:1-22a              June 2, 2013

Today’s passage is one that Jim Morris found pivotal in the building campaign prior to our last push to put the mortgage to bed.  I went back to it because it seemed so right for the purpose and process Bearcreekians have experienced.

First we are reminded that King David says he builds the temple not for mortals, but for Yahweh Elohim, the Lord God.  It is good for us to remember that we, like David, built this building not for us, for mortals, but for God.  We tell children this is God’s house and so it is.

It is a tempting trap to think this is our building, but it is not ours, it was built for Yahweh and on September 15 will be officially dedicated to Yahweh.   With humility, we know that God has many homes, some more magnificent and others much more humble than this one, and most not made with hands.  And we know that God, like us, is not confined to this home or any of the homes built for him, but is a guest in our homes and hearts in all places at all times.

But it is good to remind ourselves as we celebrate paying off the mortgage, that this house is not ours, but Abba’s; that we built it not to serve us but to serve our divine Abba.  When we come here we enter not as the owners, but as the guests of our Abba, our daddy.  Whenever we come into Abba’s home we are entering into a building set aside as sacred space dedicated to the sole purpose of serving Abba.  We enter Abba’s home in gratitude for all the graces bestowed upon us; with acceptance of the forgiveness that welcomes us home when we have been prodigal; and seeking cooperation with the power of the Holy Spirit to live and love more like Jesus.  Any other use of Abba’s home insults our host and divine daddy.

I know Randy Garrett in a moment will lead us through remembering the work God has done in us, and name some of the servants who have made this possible.  But there are a couple of men I would also like to mention.  I hope I am not stealing Randy’s thunder.

When Jim Morris was guided by today’s scripture for the capital campaign he led, he followed King David’s example.  He was the first to give his gifts, and to the grace God gave him, he was as generous as King David.  After David gave he went to the people for their gifts.  And so Jim followed his gifts by going to Bearcreekians.  And you responded generously which is why with a little extra effort in March we were able to fully pay off the mortgage 6 and half years before the loan date.

The verse Jim often spoke upon was verse 9” “Then the people rejoiced because these had given willing, for with single mind they had offered freely to the Lord; King David also rejoiced.”   From the beginning of the dream to build a building for God to this day, there have been many cheerful contributors.  Many of you are among those.  But there are those who have moved and can’t be with us today who cheerfully gave to God’s building knowing they would not be here now.  And there are those who died, like King David, before the work was done.  I like to think of those, like Mel Charlton, John Simons and my mom, who party today with us for a work they helped us complete.

Since Jim can’t be here today, I gave him the opportunity to correct anything I might say and to send a message to the congregation.  He wrote, “Thank you for the nice words however, Jeannie is the one to thank.  She always said why not do it.  We are blessed.  Jim”

A second person I want to mention is Tom Litchford who is one of those who moved and now supports Bethel UMC, another house of God in Virginia.  In 2006 God put an idea into Tom’s head so it came from his lips that Bear Creek raise $700,000 to be invested with the PNW Conference Foundation.  Tom prepared and showed us the numbers on how this would work. He showed that our effective interest rate on the mortgages (yes, there were two) was lower than the income we would most likely earn with the Foundation.  He was, thank God, conservative in his numbers and projected that by the end of 2014 we would have sufficient funds to pay off the $1.5 million we owed.  No one saw 2008 coming, but with the extra push this past March and some major gifts inspired by God from an anonymous donor and the Pacific Northwest Conference we are even beating Tom’s timeline by a year and half.

Finally, I want to talk about Randy Garrett because he won’t talk much about himself though at every turning point he has been a hub.  He was the first building campaign chair when a handful of folks decided they could do this.  Actually, they didn’t think they could do it but God somehow made them vote yes (via Ellen Boyer’s voice) by convincing Randy and others that building a house for God was in fact possible only because God was going to make it happen.

Randy was key with Jim and Tom in the 2007 campaign, travelling to many Covenant Groups, hosting gatherings in his home and church to get an accurate word and challenge out.

Like King David, I have heard Randy praise God for how Bearcreekians have responded again and again to make this moment possible.  Randy and I have talked about how God has guided Bear Creek not only in it financial challenges, but in significant challenges of purpose, relationships and culture.  It is literally true that without God’s active involvement this place we don’t exist.  It is because Randy has been faithful from day one that we ask him to give us some history that we might fully appreciate what God has done.

The other person I would thank is Ellen Boyer who guided us to our last push in March.  But I think Randy wants thank her for us.  So at this point I just say thank you Ellen.

What you haven’t seen and maybe have never heard about is all the trips to various Conference committees and agencies that Randy, Tom, Jim, Ellen and others have made to work out strange and non-traditional strategies with our lenders.

None of those I mention have done this alone.  Along the way there have been many, many others and I am sorry that I don’t mention every name. You and God know who you are and by that knowledge, let me thank you.  The truth is the task has been over so many years, supported in visible and invisible ways by so many people that I don’t even know all the names. The people I have mentioned will be the first to say “I didn’t do it alone, but God in every one of us has done this.”  And it is true.  Great leaders are only great because of the effort and support they receive from those they serve.  King David knew that God in the people made the temple of God possible.  And the people knew the same and thanked God for King David, each other and God’s generosity that makes all things possible.

May this house we have built for God remind us of God’s great generous love for us whenever we come home to Abba.

Shalom and Amen.

David Orendorff         John 16:12-15             May 26, 2013

When my mother was dying of cancer I didn’t worry about her future on the other side of death. I worried about her suffering toward death.  And I worried about my future as I considered life without my mother.  There are many losses in our mortal and transient lives. I think of our friend in Colorado who is spending this week in the hospital with her critically ill mom.  I think of another friend whose engagement to be married dissolved.  I think of two folks I know who recently lost their jobs.  I think of those who struggle toward divorce, I think of those whose children have moved to other lives.  Just as life brings great and wonderful gifts, it also brings great losses.

When Jesus says, “I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” he is anticipating the disciples fear of losing him and of facing a future without him.  What he says to them is worth our overhearing. Jesus knows that the disciples don’t have to worry about losing him and that I don’t have to worry about losing my mother.  He knows that on the other side of every death is greater love.  This greater love for Jesus and my mother is their reunion with Abba.  But Jesus also promises greater love to those left behind.  He tells the disciples, both before and several times after these verses, that the father and he are sending the Spirit which will be to them a comforter, advocate, and counselor of the truth.  He tells them in verse 7 that it is to their advantage that he goes because only by his departure will they be able to receive the promised Spirit.

The implication of these words is not easy to hear.  That anything good can come from our excruciating losses seems absurd.  We want to quickly reject that our grief might be a way to a closer and richer love for God, neighbor and self.  It seems to debase the very idea that God is love to believe that our carrying the cross of grief could actually be a part of God’s plan for growing us in divine love.  How could a loving God not only permit, but even design pain and loss into the fundamental process of spiritual growth?

As much as we don’t want this truth, it is true that our greatest spiritual growth often comes in the loss and grief of our lives.  I am not advocating that we now go out and look for suffering.  As much as I want to grow in love and pray each of you grows in love, I don’t ever pray for us to experience the death of a beloved, a relationship, a job, health or any other loss.  We don’t have to go looking for our cross, it soon enough finds us.  What I do pray is that we will discover in our losses the coming of the Spirit and that every loss be the beginning of a greater love, a maturing as disciples.

Growing in love for God, neighbor and self is a maturing process.   When sharing his thoughts on love in I Corinthians 13 Paul acknowledges in himself the need to mature in love.  He wrote, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.  For now, we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.  Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.”  Paul’s life was full of wonderful moments of God’s great grace but it was also filled with the losses of debilitating illness, times in prison and arguments with other apostles and within the congregations he served.  It is both gratitude to God for the gifts of grace, and a turning to God in the times of loss that grew Paul in love.

Maturing in love is a process initiated in us by coming to know and then following Jesus and grown in us by our cooperation with the Holy Spirit.  John Wesley was talking about this process in himself when in a letter he at the age of 71 he wrote “When I was young I was sure of everything. In a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before. At present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to me.”

At age 32 John Wesley was sure of pretty much everything.  He was a respected scholar, ordained priest, already a noted preacher and speaker, the leader of the Oxford holiness club, active in prison ministry, and on his way to Savannah Georgia to save the colonists and the Native Americans living nearby.

But two years later, at age 34 he was a monumental failure and sure of nothing.  His losses began on the journey from England to Georgia when a great storm threatened to sink the ship.  During the storm he noticed some German Christians praying and singing psalms.  After the storm he wrote in his journal: “In the midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the main-sail in pieces, covered the ship and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans calmly sung on. I asked one of them afterwards: ‘Were you not afraid?’ He answered, ‘I thank God, no.’ I asked: ‘But were not your women and children afraid?’ He replied mildly: ‘No, our women and children are not afraid to die.”

John Wesley was afraid for his life and recognized he did not have in him the same assurance of God’s love.  In Savannah the people came to hate him and brought charges against him so that a grand jury was convened and he was put under house arrest.  The Native Americans mocked him.  The woman he sought to marry spurned him and chose another.  Having failed in every way possible he fled Savannah in the middle of the night, stealing aboard a ship bound home to England.  All his smarts and diligence in the faith practices had gained him nothing, not even an assurance that God loved him.

Back in London Wesley taught himself German and sought out those who fearlessly faced death.  On May 24, 1738 he famously writes in his journal of a turning point: “In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while the leader was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

The tragic and cumulative losses of Georgia broke John Wesley’s pride and self will.  Desperate and grieving he was now prepared to receive the fullness of God’s love.  He recognized that all his efforts were for naught without the grace of God that awakens faith.  The losses of Georgia and the coming of the promised Spirit turned John Wesley from someone who knew a lot about the Bible and Jesus, to a man who lived and loved like Jesus; from a man who could describe the faithful life into a man who lived faith as a way of life that was without fear and steeped in trust for God’s love.

Our losses, as grievous as they can be, are opportunities for God to enter our lives and create deeper, richer loves.  But if we are to grow in love through our losses then we must set aside what we think we know, set aside our pride and self will, give up our anger with God because it didn’t go our way, and though as unwilling as John Wesley, go to God and with the very core of our being to discover God’s untiring gracious love. To gain maximum growth in love we can do our part as well, and cooperate with the Spirit by showing up in worship, study and prayer.  But if we are doing our part, our practices as if they gain us heaven, then we fail.  Our faith practices are not to be a checklist of activity, but to be a way of living in all we do that divine love might dwell and grow ever more powerful in and among us.

As most of you know my mom did die.  The pain of her loss to me in this life remains with me but the sharp edges of grief have been dulled by the joy I knew in caring for her during her last months; by the gift of being the trustee of her estate which led me into a much closer and ongoing relationship with my nieces and nephews; by the gift of a deepening gratitude for having had her and for still having those I have not yet lost; for a better understanding and appreciation of how fragile yet resilient and wonderful is this life.  And for the incredible experience of knowing that mom is still with me and all I have to do is think of her and she is present.  While I lost my mother from this life, I gained a greater love in God, with my mother and others, and for myself.

I know some of you have suffered great losses in your life.  I know some of you are suffering now.  And I know all of us will suffer loss in our futures.  But I also know that our crosses, when we are willing, lead us to the heart of God and into living and loving like Jesus.  May all of us be willing to open ourselves to God’s love now.  May we always be ready to receive the Spirit’s healing, comfort, guidance and wisdom so our lives are transformed from glory into glory.

Let us pray.  Yahweh, you are our Abba, Savior and Holy Spirit.  You are always coming to us with the comfort, healing and transformation through your love.  Take away our fear.  Open our hearts, minds and hands to your mercy and hope.  Make us to be faithful in living and loving like Jesus that we might follow as a way of life for all life and forever.

Shalom and Amen