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Confirmation Sunday

October 20, 2019

Ephesians 1:1-6; 13-14

“Choosing Christ”

 

Ephesians 1-6 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful^[a] in Christ Jesus: ² Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ just as he chose us in Christ^[b] before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. ⁵ He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

¹³ In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; ¹⁴ this^[d] is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

 

Friends- today is the last Sunday in our Acts series. Some of you may be happy about that. Its been a good run, sort to speak. Next week we begin a new series on the teachings of Jesus regarding money, spending, and sharing. We do so as we launch our Stewardship month.

But, today, I would like to recap a bit on what we learned from our sermon series on Acts. For those of you who have been here most of the summer and early Fall, what would you say you learned from these scripture verses we looked at together?

Some of the highlights which I learned were the following:

Christian community is important. Sharing generously among the community is most important. (Remember the scirptures that read about how they literally shared “all things in common; food, clothing, sold land to share the proceeds among one another?

Then, we also learned about having authentic relationships, didn’t we? The early church was not perfect. They had power dynamics and arguments among themselves. The leaders attempted to settle matters as best as they could. But there was growing pains for that early church. The good news is that although it was difficult, they survived. We know this because here WE are, after all!

Now, we also learned that some leaders never saw eye to eye and instead wen their own ways. The good news there is that the Gospel was able to go to various parts of the world because of that splitting off that occurred. This reminds me that when people want to serve, they do so, no matter what obstacles comes their way b/c God wants us to spread God’s good news of love and redemption.

Thirdly- we learned about the radical acceptance and love that the early Christians demonstrated. Remember some had a Jewish background, while others did not. Some knew and lived out their Jewish customs and laws to the T, while the other non-Jews weren’t even familiar with those laws. The good news was that they all decided to accept one another and not make distinctions among each other. What was most important through out Acts and the activities of the leaders was that the simple message of Jesus’ life and sacrifice was most central.

This brings us to today. Today, we read from one of Paul’s letter, to the Ephesians. Notice the love that we hear as he addresses this beloved community. Notice too the language about adoption and belonging. Then, notice that Paul highlights that they not only belong to one another but most importantly, they have been “marked with the seal of Christ.” Hear these last verses again. (From verse 13-14)  “In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; ¹⁴ this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.”

Thus, Paul is reminding his church in Ephesus that hearing and BELIEVING God’s truth through scripture and the Gospel of Christ will bring salvation. Not only that- they will be marked by a seal of the promise of the Holy Spirit.

What does all that mean? It means that at the center of our life and belief system as Christians is indeed the word of God. That we are indeed saved by Christ and that by accepting these truths we do belong to the Holy spirit and to on another.

Today, we will celebrate two baptisms and the confirmation of these young people. This scripture indeed reminds them and hopefully all of us that we do belong to God when we chose Christ. And as we choose Christ, we then belong to one another through the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the words of Paul remind us this morning that belonging to a COMMUNITY of FAITH through by believing in God’s holy Word and believing in Christ’s love for us is indeed what brings us salvation.

Today, these young people will choose to follow Christ. Some will live some of that out here. Others will move on to other churches and other cities.

Yet, it is this community in turn that says, back to them, you are indeed a part of this beloved community. You indeed matter to God and you indeed matter to us.

Last week when I met with these confirmands I said (after saying many things) that at the end of everything what exists in a community of faith is love. Christ loved us first so that we may then love one another.

Let us celebrate God’s love by continuing to be beloved community, a community that chooses Jesus over an over again. Amen.

Sermon for October 13, 2019

“A Good Good-bye”

Acts 20:17-25, 35- 38

 

Have you ever had to say a difficult good-bye to someone? Perhaps it is was a loved one, who was close to dying? Perhaps it was a boyfriend or a girlfriend? Perhaps it was a group of co-workers? Perhaps it was wonderful neighbors? Or classmates after graduation? Perhaps it was a church or other beloved community? How did you say good-bye, and did you feel like you said a good, good-bye?

Well, believe it or not, this lengthy scripture portion of Acts which Chris just read for us, is a description of the Apostle Paul’s good, good-bye to one of his beloved churches- the church of Ephesus.

Now, we know from having read his letter to the Ephesians, that he indeed loved this community of believers. And in today’s portion of Acts, we are given a glimpse into Paul’s love and affection for them.

I am hoping that be reading this part of Acts we can learn something about the way we can and should say our own good, good-byes.

 

But, why? Why would a good, good-bye be important to do, to begin with? Aren’t we meant to be people who feel joy and show joy all the time? Aren’t we supposed to be “happy Christians?”

Yes, and no. Of course, I do believe that the source of great joy does come from God. The “joy of the Lord is our strength” after all, as the prophet Nehemiah stated in chapter 8, verse 10. However, we cannot be people who fake being happy when we are not. We know, too that just because you feel great sadness does not mean that you are not joyful in the Lord. You can still sense God’s joy in you, despite of, and, in the midst of, your pain of loss and grief.

I remember when I took my first class on loss. It was called, “recovery from bereavement.”  I had not experienced any great losses, yet, or so I thought. I heard my classmates speak about their losses of a parent, of a spouse or even a child.

It wasn’t until later that we learned from the books we read and the lectures that we heard that the most common experience that humans share is that of loss.

Think about it, (as my professor shared) all of us experience some kind of loss, at some point of our lives. Whether it is the move to another school, a new city, a new job, the letting go of a relationship you had formed at those places… The loss of a home you loved or a pet that you cared for so much. All of it are losses and the experience we feel about those losses are real and painful.

Although, we can be a society that tends to place most importance on “feeling great” and feeling good and finding value on what-ever or whomever is young and healthy… On those things that give us moments of happiness or escape. We are made to believe that the more material things we acquire, the happier we will be; the more power we gain or professional advancement we achieve, the happier we will be… The more we dispose of- whether it be friends or lovers, the happier we will be because if we do not form any real attachments then we will never have to feel loss or pain once they leave us.

But, let’s go back to the scripture reading of today. Now, we do know that Paul did in fact go about planting faith communities from city to city, from region to region. At this point in the book of Acts, the early Church was indeed growing in leaps and bounds. And, his message was clear: that there had been a man named Jesus of Nazareth and that he had died and had lived and had done so to forgive the sins of others. People had never heard of such a person. They may have heard of a promise of a Messiah (f their background was Jewish) but otherwise, they wouldn’t have heard of a person such as this selfless, leader and savior- Jesus the Christ.

But, think about it- Paul could have just formed a faith community and have stayed in one. He didn’t have to keep moving from place to place. Why? Because he was single. He wasn’t the typical man who would have had a wife and children. He could have found comfort and security in the faith community he had nurtured.

Instead, he moved from place to place and did so knowing the real risks of sharing his message and of being imprisoned and killed for it. But none of that stopped him. So then, in this portion of Acts we read about how he was saying good-bye to his beloved community in Ephesus. He is wishing them well. He is reminding them of what he had taught them. And in the end of his speech we read that, ‘there was much weeping among them all, they embraced Paul and kissed him, grieving especially because of what he had said, that they would not see him again.”

You see, Paul didn’t just plant churches and move on to the next one with out a good good-bye. Instead, he explained why he had to leave, what he had done with and for them and indeed showed true emotion and sadness at his departure. In other words, he didn’t ignore the difficulty of letting go but instead, addressed it and acknowledged it.

My own theory is that in doing so, that was really the only way he could go on to embrace a new community- minister among them, and plant yet other churches. He had to say a good, good-bye, in order to say a new hello.

This makes sense to me. As a person who has had to move from one city to the next; from one ministry to another, I understand the importance of saying good- bye so that I may say a good “hello” to a new place. As each new community of faith has indeed needed and has been deserving of my full attention.

Additionally, we know that there are no short cuts to grief. We know it will take the time that it needs to, that it will shape us and change us. That the pain will be real and will be great. And so we fear it and put it off as much as possible, mistakenly believing that if we do not look at the grief that it will not exist.   

At times, we may even not allow God to enter into the pain of letting go because we fear the pain, itself. And yet, God can be trusted of course, with our most intimate kind of pain. The famous theologian, whom I often quote from, Henri Nouwen, wrote this- “Our inclination is to show our Lord only what we feel comfortable with. But the more we dare to reveal our whole trembling self to him, the more we will be able to sense that his love, which is perfect love, casts out all fears.”

So, here is the thing- loss is real and is indeed common. Although we do not talk about it as a society, it is there, nevertheless; shaping and molding us. However, even though it is a common experience we do not need to experience it alone. We do not have to fear it or ignore it but walk into it. Live in it, in order to move past it.

Does it ever go away? No. I miss my dad every day. And now I will miss my grandmother, too. I miss every community of faith I have left behind. I miss some relationships that were so significant to me that once they were no longer there, I wondered how I could live with out them. The pain, of loss, is indeed real and lasting. And yet, as we grieve them, their memory stays with us and their love for us and ours for them, never dies. That is the beauty of our losses. That person or community may no longer be physically with us but their love has a lasting affect on us all of our lives that never truly dies.

As we experience loss, we can also give thanks that we are not alone. Why, because we have the love and support of a faith community to help us journey through our grief. Not only that, we have the love of God that shows itself in the form of flowers, cards, hugs, mutual tears, loving gestures of others who reach out to us in our time of grief- all reminding us that we are not alone. Loss is a part of life. However, we can and should give our best good, good-byes, as possible. Amen.

 

CHIMES September 2019-1

Sermon for July 21, 2019

“Getting It Done”

Acts 6:1-7

Community Congregational Church of Chula Vista, UCC

Rev. Elizabeth Aguilar

 

Church conflict. It happens; to the best, to the worst, in the smallest and in the largest of congregations. As we continue our sermon series, on the Book of Acts, we realize that the early Church was no exception. On the one hand, the fact that more leaders were needed to carry out the ministry of the church was a good thing. On the other hand, how it came about was not. I believe we can learn from what happened at this time in the life of the early church and how the Apostles handled this conflict.

          So what was the issue? The issue was that a certain group of people from within the church believed that their own widows of their same back ground, were being neglected from the ministry of the Apostles. We read that there was “murmuring” (meaning, “complaining.”) You might recall where else this word was used in the Bible, specifically the Hebrew scriptures? Yes, the Israelites when they are wandering in the desert with Moses, with no end in sight… So here we are several centuries later and we have another group, followers of Jesus’s teachings now doing the same thing.

But, unlike the Israelites who dared to murmur after it was their own fault that they were stuck wandering for so long, this group of people (the Hellenists/the Greek speaking Jews who have now returned from having left to other areas of the country) seem to have a legitimate concern. The widows were not being cared for properly.

This would have been important as it was instructed to the Jews way back in the time of Moses, in fact, that caring for the widows, the orphans, was paramount. It was a part of the Jewish law. Therefore, a understood as a mandate by God.

In order to remedy the situation, the Apostles call a meeting together, of all of them, so that they may find a solution. The solution was to add numbers to their group of leaders so that the Apostles can focus on one area of the ministry while the new apostles can focus on the other areas. The “waiting of tables” is not about being waiters. By the way, these tables are about the tables that would have been used for administrative purposes, money chargers and the like.

I like that the Apostles were practical. They saw the problem and they went to find a solution. 

They did not however, focus on the misconception that the widows were being discriminated upon because they were of a different background than the Apostles. Instead, they focused on the solution.

Their solution was indeed to find more leaders. And these leaders, you will notice, all had Greek names. Meaning, they were wise to appoint new leaders among those that would have been feeling discriminated against.

The first Apostles must have understood then that it was important that no one felt they were being favored upon or left out in any way.   As we all know it is never a good thing when a group of people feel they are being discriminated against or marginalized in any way. Now is it a good thing if a misinterpretation is allowed to grow and fester among a church.

Fortunately, in this case the leaders of this church were able to name the problem, find a solution, act on the solution and were allowed to do all of the above.

          I taught confirmation class for about 10 years straight. The students were always a mixture of those who were raised in the church and others who were new to it all. The other teachers and I always tried to show no impartiality amongst them and to allow them to ask any question that they might have. It was an opportunity for them to share their reservations about the Christian faith, about the local church itself, and about the Bible as well. Inevitably, we would receive comments inferring things like “it must have been easier to be a Christian back then” or that to be a Christian meant you “had to be perfect” and not “have any fun.” Later, as time went on and we exposed them to very imperfect people in the Bible, to conflicts within the church or amongst the disciples as well; along with the attempts and actions of the United Church of Christ to make public statements and create ministry focus that showed its commitment toward inclusion of ALL people- all of that helped them to realize that there was a place for them too in the local church and in the Church itself.

          But going back to our scripture reading- notice that the Apostles chose new leaders based on certain criteria and laid hands on them. This meant that they wanted to confer the power of the Holy Spirit upon them and allow this act to be a symbol of authority being placed on them as new leaders.  It also meant that they weren’t going to chose just anyone. They had to have demonstrated good character and devotion.

          Why is this important to note? Because it tells us that the Apostles did not allow this to be a popularity contest. They entrusted the work of the new disciples, to God. They understood that church leadership and church work is holy work. 

          Some learnings for us modern day disciples/ followers of Christ, members of this church, in this location, and at this time in history is that-  we must realize that conflict will occur in the church but we must not shy away from it but find solutions to those conflicts. We must also continue to trust God with the work of our Church- with whom we call to carry out the work of the church, to place it ALL in God’s holy hands. We cannot therefore, treat ministry as we would treat a secular business or social club.

My hope and prayer is that we continue to carry out the work of THIS church as best as we can- by putting ALL of it into God’s hands. By entrusting and praying for our church leaders, by naming the conflict and finding solutions to them. By trusting one another and more importantly, trusting God.

We are living in a time of this country where there are too many examples of poor leadership, of distrust, of division and conflict. As Christians we have an opportunity to model good behavior, cooperation, partnership, trust in leadership, striving to find good solutions. We can do all of this as we continue to trust God in all of the circles we are a part of- here, home, work, etc. We can be agents of God’s peace, therefore by being disciples that chose to follow God by loving one another as best as we can.  Amen.

  

 

Sermon for July 14, 2019

“Can Anything Stop God’s Plan?”

Acts 5:12-42

Community Congregational Church of Chula Vista, UCC

Rev. Liz Aguilar

 

This is a long portion of Acts that we will be covering today. It might be the longest portion of scripture I have preached about, ever. But as we continue to study the book of Acts, its important that we keep moving forward and also that we keep the portions of the over-all story together, in sections that make sense to the entire story.

          Here we are in the story where we see that the Apostle’s population as leaders and teachers has not waned. In fact, it has increased. They are healing more people and so more people are beginning to follow them. Not only that, they have continued to defy the religious authorities but they have not ceased to proclaim Jesus as the Savior but have increased their message.

We heard that the result of their increase in ministry is that they are arrested, yet, again. However, once again, God intervenes and miraculously through an angel they are released from prison.

Of course, the authorities don’t give up, however and so after they notice that the apostles are gone. They have them re-arrested for questioning, (but without violence), for fear of a revolt by the people… They want to question the apostles and probably want to intimidate them.

          However, their questioning only serves to make Peter speak up again about the person of work of Jesus Christ. He basically sys that because they were witnesses of His ministry they can not keep silent.

          The courage of the Apostles only serves to anger the Sadducees even further and they are about to be thrown in jail again, when a certain religious leader advises them to leave the Apostles alone and instead wait it out. His council is that if the apostle’s teaching is the real thing, they will succeed. If not, they will fail.

          The Apostles’ aren’t kept in prison this time but instead they are beaten up. The response of the Apostles is to praise God and “rejoice” that they were “considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name (of Jesus).” Their numbers continued to increase and they continue to teach.

That is basically the re-cap of today’s scripture. What are we to make of it? How are we to understand what was happening then and what God might be inviting us to take away from this story? Three things come to mind:

• It certainly shows us that the Apostles were determined, despite continued persecution, to spread the message of Jesus to others and to continue carrying out their ministry of healing and teaching.
• It showed us that the religious authorities were indeed threatened and were going to try their best to put the apostles in their place and further intimidate and punish them.
• It showed us that God, however, had other plans. An Angel releases them and later someone that the authorities respect advises them to leave the Apostles alone as a test of their worth.

          My over-all take away about this portion of this scripture are two-fold. Firstly, that nothing was going to stop the Apostles from doing what they needed to do. They had a mission and they stuck to it. I admire their perseverance and their total focus on their mission. They do not let any opposition, threat, danger or even physical harm stop them. I am not I can be that brave but I certainly admire their work and their reaction to the opposition they encountered.

          At the same time, it is also clear to me that the reason they were able to keep on course was because of three things.

          -They new who and what they were about

          -They relied on the power and presence of God in their midst

          -They relied on one another

This story also encourages me to hold fast to my own mission no matter what ever opposition I may encounter along the way. One recent commentator I read stated that if there was a central message to the Book of Acts it is that “God’s plan is unstoppable.”

Think about it- nothing and no one can stop us from doing what God wants us to do. There is nothing human that can stop us. Do you believe that? Do you believe that on a micro and a macro level? Do you believe, for example that the mission you have as an individual or for your family is a) the right one; b) the one God wants for you and c) will come to fruition?

I see today’s story as a reminder that indeed we must stick to whatever mission God has placed on our lives. Be it as individuals, as families or as a church.

But back to their success- The second take away is that they relied on God and each other. To this point, I have a question for us to consider:

My question is this: do you rely on God? Do your really believe that God will provide for your needs, protect you when needed and therefore, show you the way out of no way?

What is your mission? Do you have one? Have you asked God if that is the mission God has for you?

What is our mission as a church? Is it to just worship God on Sundays? To feed the poor and the homeless? To feed those who are spiritually hungry? To be a center of transformation and change? To be a beacon of hope in a dark world? To be a place where people feel safe – safe enough to agree to disagree, safe enough to be respected and treated kindly, safe enough to know that here people demonstrate the love of God with one another and with strangers? To be a place where we not only respect each other’s differences but also embrace the, celebrate them, and therefore continue to welcome others? What is our mission?

          What about their reliance on one another? We get the sense that they didn’t carry out this ministry on their own, did they? They relied on one another. They were never alone in their work or witness to God’s purpose.

          One of the hardest things I have encountered at every place of ministry and new place I have lived is to find my network of people whom I will journey and work along side with. I have had to re-build that team over and over and yet one thing has remained constant- God always provided.

          Therefore, just as they relied on each other they mostly relied on God’s provision. They never lost sight of their faith in God not because they were necessarily holy but because they knew God would not fail them. Do you know that? Do you believe that?

          Yesterday my niece and I were speaking about the ways God has shown God’s love and provision in our lives. It was exciting and even encouraging to hear how God has shown God’s mercy and plan for my niece throughout her three years away at college. We shared our stories freely and I would dare say that it helped us both as we continue to move forward.

My prayer is that we can continue to trust God as we begin to define our mission as individuals, as families, and as a church. Let us do so, expectantly and joyfully!