Cyndy: Our first reading this morning is from the Hebrew Book of Exodus, Chapter 17, verses 1 through 7:

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Howard Payne
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1 SEASIDE United Church of Christ October 1, th Sunday After Pentecost, Year A / 26 th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 21) Our Faith Tested by Rev. Dr. Joseph Francis Cistone LECTIONARY TEXTS: (Call to Worship, adapted from Psalm 78 & read responsively) Cyndy: Our first reading this morning is from the Hebrew Book of Exodus, Chapter 17, verses 1 through 7: From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarrelled with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?" But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?" So Moses cried out to the Lord, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me." The Lord said to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink." Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarrelled and tested the Lord, saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?" Our Gospel Reading this morning is from Matthew, Chapter 21 verses 23 through 32 When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?" Jesus said to them, "I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?" And they argued with one another, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'Of human origin', we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet." So they answered Jesus, "We do not know."

2 And he said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. "What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' He answered, 'I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir'; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax-collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax-collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.": The Word of the Lord! 2

3 SERMON 17 th Sunday After Pentecost, Year A Our Faith Tested Please join with me in a moment of (silent) prayer Gracious God, we come before you this 17 th Sunday After Pentecost Saddened still by the devastation of this Hurricane Season, and particularly concerned by the crisis in Puerto Rico. Many of our fellow citizens there continue to lack electricity, food, even potable water just as thousands more do throughout the Caribbean. Their faith is surely being tested. Like the people in Exodus and the Two Sons in Matthew, we know that at such times our faith is also tested. Not only our faith in institutions and organizations created to respond in such crisis but also in ourselves and in you. We wish that we could be more like the Psalmist rejoicing in your deeds and marvels but more often then not, we are more like those Chief Priests and Israelites challenging Jesus and doubting your very role in our lives. Help us to trust to have faith and to demonstrate that faith with our hearts and hands when our brothers and sisters anywhere are feeling lost and alone. So may the meditations of our hearts and the words of our mouths be acceptable to you, our Creator, our Redeemer, our Sustainer. AMEN! FAITH Faith it s a tricky thing! Isn t it? I can see heads nodding and even if they are not I know somewhere inside each of us, doubt often remains. Faith is tricky. It s tricky, specifically because it is so hard to define and often even harder to live out. I can t tell you just how many times in my own life, I ve been like those 3

4 Israelites in Exodus that we ve been reflecting on these past few weeks. Doubting God doubting God s presence doubting my own faith and what it does for me. I was there just yesterday Ruminating about something in my work life that has been a real source of frustration for me despite my best, prayerful efforts Could I make it happen? My parents and our family travelled to Campo Bello the Roosevelt Summer Cottage just two hours from here that I m sure many of you have visited over the years. If you haven t we recommend it highly! Don t we mom & dad. Well, we travelled there yesterday after some 40+ years since our last visit! A lifetime, I know. And while there we heard the story of one of our nation s most significant and it s longest serving President, FDR. But we also learned about his remarkable spouse Eleanor. If possible, an even more imposing figure. A women way ahead of her time. A person whose passion for international cooperation and Human Rights has long stirred my soul. Someone who once said something very akin to what faith is all about when she commented: Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try. For one thing we know beyond all doubt: Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, it can t be done. 1 No, what Eleanor Roosevelt tells us is that whatever good (and for that matter bad) has been achieved in history is because someone believed even at the times of greatest doubt that it could be done. 1 From a plaque near the exit to Campo Bello, somewhat ironically placed, September 30,

5 Si puede, in Spanish, as our Puerto Rican brothers and sisters might tell us and one another this weekend. Yes it can! And it can be done SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE OF FAITH! When Jesus tells those Chief Priests and Elders in Matthew s Gospel that even the tax collectors and prostitutes got his message better than them it s specifically because they had faith. Faith in what Jesus was saying even when perhaps especially when like the first son in the vineyard we doubt at first but we are willing to believe and go where he leads us even if our faith is tested along the way. It was the same for the Israelites, even as utterly frustrating as it must have been for Moses and Aaron! Enslaved in Egypt for as long as they could remember Oppressed for being poor, different looking, of another faith Finally FINALLY freed by a Prophet they barely knew Led into no land of milk & honey But to a barren desert bereft of food Quails and Manna [not Mannom that s money in Jesus s story of one note being able to serve to masters] arrive to feed them BUT THERE IS NO WATER! When, Moses must have wondered much like the people of Puerto Rico, when will help arrive? Now it s one thing to wonder about the help that a government or a political leader might or might not provide. It s quite another to ask that help of God! We might so many of us I think still wonder if and when our specific prayers to God might be answered: When will our kids FINALLY listen to perfect, parental advice? 5

6 When will that addicted member of our family conquer their addiction? When will Northeast Harbor feel like a vibrant year-round community once again? When will God finally do what I want? Answer MY PRAYERS? As I ve said before I don t think God, God s Spirit, or even Jesus acts exactly that way. For if God heard and responded to all prayers than: Why, as we ve asked for a few weeks now, would such terrible things happen to good people? Why does a child in Africa die every six seconds from hunger or a treatable disease? Why does that addict keep going back our children keep stumbling? No, God acts in history and in our lives WHEN WE HAVE THE FAITH TO TRUST WHAT GOD DESIRES OF US to act justly, to love kindly, and to walk humbly even when life itself seems like just a long lesson in humility! 2 So when a Mayor begs for help, how might we humbly respond? When an addict comes begging at our door, how might we justly respond? When our children ignore our advice and go down a path we might have never chosen for them, how can we kindly and mercifully continue to love them? And When a Congregation like this adopts a Pastoral Plan not to just file it on a shelf somewhere but to re-read and wrestle 2 J.M. Barrie, The Little Minister, as quoted in Kate Huey s Sermon Seeds, October 1,

7 with it as we did last week and we will in the coming years because it like a Neighbors in Need Campaign and a monthly Food Pantry collection reminds us all we need to know about how we demonstrate publically, time and again, that this faith community can humbly, kindly, and justly live up to the ways our faith is continually tested in the world. Having seen what I ve seen around the world having made some horrible, personal mistakes in my life I can t claim that I ve always believed that God was there to answer my prayers. My faith has been shaken to its core more than once!.. But I ve also seen faith bring peace and justice and hope to places that from the outside seemed forlorn and forsaken. We can t give God ultimatums! Well, actually I suppose we can and do! Those truth tests when we utter in voice or more likely to ourselves. God do this or why should I continue believing in you. Make this better or I ll stop believing going to church. God Damn it why is this happening to me? We can and do do that! But we should also be willing to look back at ourselves in the mirror. Why is what is happening, happening to us and what can I, what can WE do about it?! Even, when all we can do is pray. Praying for patience not to shout out and stir quietly over why God allowing this to happen, but rather asking what it is that God has gifted us with to make a difference in the life of that addict, child, this Congregation, or even an island nation? What has God gifted us with to respond? In her wonderful weekly reflection on today s Scripture, my friends Kate Huey reminds us that: in a sense even complaining to God in 7

8 frustration and fear expresses some kind of faith, a kind of hope grounded in what one trusts to be true about God, even if we STILL feel a need to REMIND God about it. 3 So we can remind God that we don t like it when our faith is tested or we can pretend that our faith isn t being tested: but at the end of the day all we have is faith. And, the action born of that faith is how we prove that we are up to the test! It s about how God s call is at work in our lives! I don t know about you but I m not waiting for manna from Heaven I m not expecting God to stop all these hurricanes or to bring peace overnight to our nation and world. Rather, I m trying and I fail often to stay true to how that son ultimately responded to his father in the vineyard! To shudder or be angry some times when I feel that my faith is being tested, but to move beyond this easy and quick NO, to a place of ACTION GROUNDED IN THE FAITH that God in Jesus provided and the sense of purposeful Spirit I more often define as God s divine Sophia Spirit of wisdom at work in our lives. That still speaking voice as the UCC calls it is faith at work in our lives and in the lives of those we love and those we may never know. To quote one of the favorite Saint s of my mother, the one for whom both my daughters are named Catherine of Sienna Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring. Enduring in Trust! Enduring the times when our faith is tested is never easy. Having faith is not simply about the times of prosperity; but about the faith we uncover, anew, when God seems to have abandoned us. And it s that faith that deep personal sense of a peace that passes 3 Sermon Seeds, October 1,

9 all understanding that reminds me what the God of Moses the God of Jesus our God is all about! Amen! 9

Scripture and Sermon for Sunday, March 26, Exodus 17: 1-7

Scripture and Sermon for Sunday, March 26, 2017 Exodus 17: 1-7 From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but