Scribbles, Scriptures, and the Spirit: Altars in the World Sermon and Service 9.22.19

SERMON

ALTARS IN THE WORLD

based on the book by Barbara Brown Taylor

Prayer of Illumination

Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the Scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed both orally and visually, we may hear and see with joy what you say to us today. Amen.

Sermon Scripture: Joshua 22:26-28 MSG

26 “So we said to ourselves, ‘Let’s do something. Let’s build an altar—but not for Whole-Burnt-Offerings, not for sacrifices.’

27 “We built this altar as a witness between us and you and our children coming after us, a witness to the Altar where we worship God in his Sacred Dwelling with our Whole-Burnt-Offerings and our sacrifices and our Peace-Offerings.This way, your children won't be able to say to our children in the future, 'You have no part in God.'

28 “We said to ourselves, ‘If anyone speaks disparagingly to us or to our children in the future, we’ll say: Look at this model of God’s Altar which our ancestors made. It’s not for Whole-Burnt-Offerings, not for sacrifices. It’s a witness connecting us with you.’

Altars. The Bible has some 235 references to the subject, depending on which translation you use. References that speak of building altars and tearing them down, altars to the one God Almighty and altars to the many false gods of early Palestine. In Hebrew, altar is mizbeah, a place of slaughter or sacrifice. The altars of the Hebrew people were flat stones or tables dedicated to God and often used for the sacrifice of lambs and doves. But altars were also built to remember acts of God, to mark a place of visible connection to God, such as stones for remembrance in today’s scripture from Joshua. Altars are considered to be holy places, often reserved for the inner sanctums of churches and synagogues. But should they be or are they limited in such a way?

Last Christmas Luke gave Rick a book by Barbara Brown Taylor titled “Altars in the World”. I picked it up last June to use for my daily devotion and prayer time. Taylor intended the book as a resource for helping us in our spiritual journey to explore the myriad of altars that exist everywhere – holy places that connect us to God on a daily basis. The book was divided into 12 chapters and I have touched or will touch on 5 of those chapters in other parts of today’s service. Which leaves us with 7 more to explore. Brown-Taylor speaks of each altar as a Spiritual Practice. In my daily prayer drawing you’ll find a quote from the book, a short haiku poem summarizing the quote, and my prayers around the border. The drawings blend my photographs and my scribble figures.

Chapter 4 is on the Practice of Walking the Earth

Yes, just plain simple walking. We all can do it. Rick often tells me he is off for a “Closer Walk with Thee” - he uses his walks as a time to talk with God and listen to God. But do we walk with awareness, do we take the time to look around, to listen to the birds singing, the hum of life around us, the gurgling of the Powder River as it winds through town. Or are we making lists in our mind, talking on the phone, or listening to our music with earplugs blocking out the greetings of those we pass by? Walk with purpose! Walk with awareness. Walk with God!

When Moses encounters God on Mount Sinai he is told to remove his shoes for he was walking on holy ground. All the earth is holy! Take off your shoes! Is there nothing more blessed than the feel of damp thick grass on bare feet? What about the joy of walking barefoot at the edges of the waves with the cold sand under our toes. We are more in touch with all creation when we can feel both the comfortable and the rough. Besides, barefoot walking forces us to walk with awareness, lest we step on something painful!

The Practice of Getting Lost - Wilderness

Most of us do not considerable getting lost a spiritual exercise! But think about it! God had the Israelites wander in the wilderness for 40 years! There is something to be learned, a sense of faith and trust developed when we have to rely on others to help us find our way.

We can’t learn some lessons by taking the easy path. We all need time in the wilderness. Time and again, people find their faith grows in the difficult LOST times of life, not during the smooth 'freeway' sections. Adversity develops a strength of character and faith we might not otherwise attain.

Try deliberately going a different route home, noticing something you’ve never seen before. What holy altar might be around an unexplored corner? What experiences do we miss, opportunities to encounter God, when we take the routine, the safe path? Consider the altar of ‘Getting Lost’!

The Practice of Encountering Others – Community

Building community is one of the major focuses for the Young Adult Volunteer program Luke coordinates in Albuquerque. Have you ever considered such an activity as a spiritual practice? Brown-Taylor writes, “The hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the self – to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself...if you will allow it.” Community frees us from selfishness. Community puts others first.

Fred Rodgers knew about community and neighbors. He wrote, “Appreciation is a holy thing – that when we look for what’s best in the person we happen to be with at the moment, we’re doing what God does all the time. So in loving and appreciating our neighbor, we are doing something sacred.” When was the last time you paid a visit to a neighbor just because? Making those connections with our neighbors creates holy altars throughout a village.

Practice of Living with Purpose – Vocation

What in the world is sacred about my job, you say. I’m just a blue collar worker, nothing important! But no work is too small to play a part! Everyone is needed in the job of Creation love! God doesn’t separate us into a caste system based on our means of support. And in every job there are opportunities to find altars – holy and sacred situations where God is at work alongside you!

And yet, sometimes it isn’t our PAID job that feeds our soul. Paul was a tentmaker by trade – it’s what he did for a living, to put food on the table. But the ministry of spreading the gospel fed Paul’s soul. Many a volunteer for service organizations will tell you their volunteer service is a far more sacred altar in their life. It is a blessed individual who finds the vocation that not only feeds the soul but also the family!

The Practice of Saying NO! - Sabbath

And on the 7^th day of Creation, God rested. Sabbath means taking time, perhaps just an hour for a start, to spend with God and God alone. It doesn’t have to be a Sunday, it doesn’t have to be for 24 hours, it just has to be! This is probably one of the hardest altars for us to find! There are so many other things on our lists, surely God can wait. But can we?

We are somewhat cursed with this idea of a ‘Protestant Work Ethic’. We must produce! We must be busy! I am so guilty of this. My list is sometimes all consuming. Will people think me lazy if I take a day to do nothing but focus on God or to search for holy altars? Will I think I am lazy? I am much better at reminding friends and family to “Repeat after me...say NO!” than I am to say it to myself.

The Practice of Carrying Water – Labor

Physical work is spiritual work? Holy work? It sure can be!! It is all a matter of approach and attitude. Author TB told of digging potatoes for the first time and the apprehension of physical work. But she discovered the joy and outright fun of the experience. I can relate. Digging potatoes IS like a treasure hunt!

Labor is not punishment. Labor is not degrading. Labor done with grace and awareness can be blessed beyond measure. Sweat can be sacred! Hydrosis is holy! Take the opportunity to seek God in the altar of physical chores. Talk to God while cleaning house. Say a prayer while mowing the lawn. Give thanks for the strength to do the work.

The Practice of Feeling Pain

Our last altar is the practice of feeling pain. This is a hard one. It is difficult to see the holy in one’s own or another’s pain. We so often quickly resort to the why’s and how long’s? We want to deny the pain. We want to fight it. But if we engage the pain and give it our full attention, it is possible to find the altar hidden in the hurt.

The author writes, “Pain is one of the fastest routes to a no-frills encounter with the Holy, yet we do everything we can to avoid it.” Job did not avoid it – his complaints against God-Almighty are eloquent in the Bible. If you need a script, you can find it there. For those willing to stay awake, pain remains a reliable altar in the world, a place to discover that a life can be as full of meaning as it is of hurt. Hope through pain is holy.

Some of these practices may seem like strange altars. Some are more an attitude than a pillar of stones. But hopefully they will awaken in you an awareness to look around and see the possibilities, to seek the holy in a variety of ways and places. I want to close with a country song that I just discovered that reminds us all that we don’t have to wait until church on Sunday morning to find the Altars in the World.

Sing “You Don’t Have to Wait ‘Til Sunday”

CHILDREN'S MESSAGE

"Paying Attention -

How many times have you heard your parents or teachers tell you, “Pay Attention!” Lots? Did you ever think that maybe God is telling us to pay attention also? That to stop and really look at the world around us is one way to pray?

Have you watched a caterpillar creep across a sidewalk? Or a hawk soar in circle high overhead? But we have to look at the tiny details, both near and far. We have to REALLY pay attention! .

What do you see in this picture?

When we stop and pay attention to everything around us, we see God at work. We see the holy in every creature and plant.
And then, we say thanks to God!

CALL TO WORSHIP - Waking Up to God