Monday I did something I had never ever done before. Monday I went into my office and I threw away 44 years worth of files. It felt really good. But, on the other hand, it was evidence of 44 years of effort. So, it felt really good but it also felt really different. I certainly didn't read all of those files as I threw them away. But, from time to time, just to remind myself what I was pitching I would read through them. Not all of them, but a few of them. I was reminded of some of the goals we met here at the church that had been accomplished. Some of the special events that have taken place throughout the years. Overcoming some obstacles. There were a lot of notes about kindnesses that were rendered, and occasionally, I came across notes from people who were really really angry. Some were angry because on a particular Sunday I didn't wear a robe. And, some were angry because on a particular Sunday I did wear a robe. Some hoped we would change to always using unleavened bread during the sacrament of communion. Some were angry about adding projection technology to our sanctuary. They hoped that we wouldn't do that. Others hoped that we would have what they deemed the proper prelude before every worship service. Some were chagrined that we took out the pews here in the sanctuary. They hoped we would never use chairs in the sanctuary. Some were angry about the possibility of allowing divorced people to remarry, or serve in leadership in the church, and they hoped to never see that happen. Some were angry, both pro and con, about Biblical teachings on sexuality or ordination standards, and they hoped that their perspective would prevail. Many were written by people who possibly don't still feel the same way today. Ten or fifteen, or twenty-five years later. Many were written by people who are now long dead, and the outcome they had hoped for has never come to pass. And, unfortunately, whether justified or not, some are written by people who are still angry today. Still hoping that they will get their way. Many people in our world carry around a lot of anger. Funny thing though, so many of the documents or complaints could be summarized in one of two ways, either: 1) Things have to change and they have to change now, or others say: 2) I want things to stay exactly as they are - stop changing everything. It gets confusing sometimes. That's why it was so nice...

So the question today is: What is faith? Perhaps one of the most disconcerting stories in all of the Bible is the story of God directing Abraham, to take his much beloved son Isaac, up on a mountain and offer him as a sacrifice. If you will recall the full story Isaac is not just Abraham's son. Abraham and Sarah have been childless for their entire lives. And, they have longed for a child with their every wish, but they have remained childless into their advanced old age. The very idea of this elderly couple, Abraham and Sarah, conceiving and Sarah bearing a child was absolutely laughable. Take the oldest person in this room right now...conceiving a child...at that age. Abraham was over one hundred and Sarah was not much younger. The Bible literally describes her as, "...dried up and barren."

Then, wonder of wonders, Sarah conceives, and their child Isaac is the result. Never was there a child more longed for by both parents. Never was there a child more cherished than Isaac. And now, in his even older age, Isaac is the center of Abraham's world...and now, after the promise of a child that would have more descendants more numerous than the sand of the sea or the stars of the sky...God has made Abraham this promise, flowing out through Isaac. And now, Abraham is being asked to sacrifice the one thing, the one child that he values above all else?

Yet, without a single word of resistance that's recorded in the Bible, Abraham proceeds to honor what God has called him to do. Abraham has such faith in God that he heads to the mountain with fire, and fuel, and his most cherished son.

The Bible marks it as an act of absolute faith. Let's be honest we generally think of it as...

Our Psalm lesson for today is really long, and I'm going to combine it with some other things. Take out your bulletins, find the scripture in there and keep your finger where I am as I go along, because we're not going to start by reading it, I'm going to introduce it, and then we're going to work our way through it, because I want to make a few simple points. Keep that bulletin handy, please. To be honest, I had really different plans for today's service. I had in mind to celebrate all of the many blessings we have, and in particular, my personal gratitude for all of the years we've been together. But, the week got really busy. And, I found myself in the office late Friday confronted with a young woman in difficulty. She was having a hard time. Over many days, this past week and before, she had already received help from several of our partner churches in the community. Yet, she was no closer to a solution for getting her life back on track. Her life had a lot of challenges. As much as I would like to believe otherwise, you don't undo the crash at the end of a lifetime of difficulty, with one stop at the Pastor's office. It doesn't work that way. This young woman was kind of in and out all morning. When she was out of the office I had to try to focus really hard to get Kelley in the office the materials she needed for printing the bulletin. She was about to end her work week for the weekend and I had to get that stuff to her before she left. So, I would turn my attention back and forth from this woman's predicament, to the scripture and the bulletin, and then back to the woman's predicament, and back to the scripture. Before it was all done I thought I was going to have whiplash. I just couldn't focus. Then, in a brief moment of clarity...I saw a connection. The scripture is about her. And, about you. And, about me. It's about the redeemed. And, it's about those who have yet to experience redemption. The great illusion of our age is that we can do what we want, we can go our own way, we can define for ourselves what God's values are, and then we go about life doing whatever matches the definition we've come up with...as if no one, no entity greater than us, knows better for us what is right, or wrong, or right, or true. Today's passage Psalm 107 shows that belief to be a lie. I'm going to start reading Psalm 107, and I'm going to stop and break it down as we go. So, verse 1: "Thanks to the Lord for he is good; his love endures forever."

Of course we like that part! Don't you like that part? I like that part - "God is good his love endures forever." What is not to like? Then when we get to verse 2: "Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story. Those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south."

(Okay, get your finger our and put it there.) This is saying that what we are about to read is specifically the story of the redeemed. It is about the gratitude and obedience that come specifically as we are redeemed. So, the obvious first question we need to ask is what does it mean to be redeemed? It means something or someone is lost. Something or someone is not right. Or to throw out the really heavy theological terms now - something is out of whack. Something or someone is lost, or not right, or out of whack, and then they are redeemed. And, by either being found, or brought back, or returned, or restored, or set right - that is how they are redeemed. And, in this Psalm it is very clear, you're going to see this as we go along. The people (those who are lost or those who are out of whack) do not, can not redeem themselves.

The entire Psalm is about God redeeming the lost or the broken. God restoring them. God setting that which is out of whack - right. God redeeming them, or God redeeming us, from our various forms of lostness or brokenness.

The remainder of Psalm 107 is about God redeeming the lost (or the out of whack), God restoring them from a variety of situations. And, the gratitude and thanksgiving that spring from God's redemptive work.

We're going to start at verse 4. Get your finger out. "Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things."

Now, please note, there was a 4-point pattern there:

1) First, they are lost or out of whack most often because they are contrary, and insist on going their own way.

2) They cry out to the Lord.

3) The Lord steps in and finds them or restores them.

4) They respond with thanksgiving and faithfulness to God's ways.

So, we're going to try it again...

Last Sunday we talked about the Lord's prayer. And how that prayer is about yielding one's life and agenda to God's way, and to God's agenda. Today, I want the entire message today, to be one simple practical application of that.

If you will recall, after the death and resurrection and ascention of Jesus, early in the life of the church; there was a highly gifted young Jewish Pharisee named Saul. Who was very much into being technically correct. Saul was a Pharisee, but I kinda think he was an engineer too, he liked to have his facts in order. Saul was all about being technically, legally correct. He really felt that the teachings of Jesus were unfaithful to the Jewish faith as he knew it. And, he felt it ought to be stamped out. So, he became very focused on correcting people, who were misguided in his opinion, following around this fella named Jesus. He went to the High Priests, and he got permission to travel around and find people who he thought were wrong, and bring them back to the High Priest for judgement. Chapter nine of the Book of Acts, tells the story of this man Saul, travelling to Damascas. As he does this he is struck blind. He has a supernatural encounter with the risen and ascended Jesus Christ. Jesus comes to him on the road to Damascas, strikes him blind, and God says, 'Listen buster, you're barking up the wrong tree. You are wrong. And I am here to show you the right path.' And in this singular encounter Saul is convicted of the error of his ways. He becomes convicted that now instead of persecuting these Jews who have gone on to follow Jesus, he should now be telling them the story of Jesus and urging them to believe in Jesus and adopt his ways. In particular, Saul is convinced that he should carry the message of Jesus beyond the Jews; and that he should share the story of Jesus with people who aren't even Jewish. For Jew, and especially for a Pharisee, this is as radical as it comes. This is asking Saul to do a complete 180. It's unthinkable. To signify this radical change in direction for his own life Saul is given a new name, he is now referred to as Paul.

From this unique perspective the rigidly correct Jewish Pharisee, to being a champion of the ways of God for non-Jews; Paul goes on to travel further than any other character in the Bible. Paul goes on to write more content for the New Testament...

I'll be reading our scripture here in a bit, but I want to start by simply going into what I have to share with you today. Some of the things I'm going to say today may easily be misconstrued. So let's be very very clear. I have no desire to belittle or demean what other faith groups or religious traditions do; I truly don't. Different people of different groups do different things for different reasons, and I'm in no position to be in judgement of that. What I am speaking to today is simply reflecting some things that informed me, my observations, my understandings, and my experience. In my own private practice, specifically as it relates to what we call 'The Lord's Prayer,' nothing more. I grew up with some very, quite varied religious experiences and exposures. My home congregation was a solidly practical small rural Presbyterian congregation. My mother had a strong Baptist bent, and my extended family had a very strong Catholic connection in a predominantly Roman Catholic community. In my teens, one of my pastors, who was a Presbyterian, had a strong charismatic bent. Including taking me to attend the nations largest ever charismatic renewal conference at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City in 1977. I encourage you to Google that, by the way, it was the largest charismatic convention in the United States, ever. Over 50,000 people simultaneously speaking in tongues. Have you ever heard that? Probably not. You don't see that every day. And, of course you can't be my age and not remember all of the televangelists with slicked back hair and tears in their eyes, as they ask you to send in the last pennies of your egg money because they needed a new jet to continue their ministry. Did you never grow up hearing that? I grew up hearing that. One of my favorite memories (and if that picture came through Ole - this is when to put it up) was years ago we visited Jerusalem. During the day we had visited the wailing wall and saw the great variety of pilgrims who went there to pray in this place that is most sacred to Jews. We saw groups of wealthy young Jews. They were wealthy because you have to have some serious coin to rent a space with a canopy and a caterer at the wailing wall in the courtyard at Jerusalem. These large wealthy groups were...

In a world widely divided by different Christian or religious beliefs, perhaps the singular most agreed upon fundamental of the faith is found in the opening lines of the church's Brief Statement of Faith. A Brief Statement of Faith is a confession of the church and it opens with one very simple line. We believe pretty much everyone of the faith agreed upon. 'In life and in death we belong to God.' Sometimes I'm called to the hospital or called to a person's home and a tragedy has struck. Maybe at the hospital somebody has received the message that they have a terminal diagnosis, or maybe a parent has lost a child. Sometimes I'm called to a home and maybe without any warning a spouse is gone. Or a marriage is ending. Or a tragedy struck a business and a business person's career ends in scandal. There are all kinds of things that are life changing events in our lives, and we see no hope beyond them. So, I go to the hospital and I spend some time with them, they've lost their child, and we can pray with them, and we do. What do you tell them? What do you tell a person that feels that their world has just ended. I'll tell you exactly what you tell them. You look them in the eye and you say, 'In life and in death we belong to God.' Or if you lost your child, 'In life and in death your child belongs to God.' That is the hope we find in Baptism that buoys us up in the darkest times of life. And, that is the anchor we hold on to in beautiful times and in tragic times. That is the only sure hope we can find. You, as people of faith, need to know that for your own life and for the lives of those around you when they face tragedy. There are three things people need to know:

1) In life and in death they belong to God.
2) In life and in death those loved ones who have been baptized and welcomed into the faith belong to God.
3) We, the people of the church, will neither abandon nor forsake them, we will walk through this with them.

We don't have to provide all of the answers because we don't have them. We don't have to act like we know something we don't know. We can build a foundation upon that which we do know. In life and in death we belong to God.