Pastor's Word - Bethany Baptist Church, Newark, NJ

"BEING In The Wilderness"

2012-02-27T19:23:00.004-05:00

The Power and the Majesty of God

2012-02-27T19:15:00.001-05:00

Isaiah 40:21-31
This lesson is a kind of doxology. Every Sunday, we sing “the doxology” (Praise God from whom all blessing flow, praise him all creatures here below, praise him all heavenly hosts.), but in truth this is only one doxology, the one chosen by the early church fathers to be sung in worship. And the Bible has numerous doxologies recorded. Even the Gloria Patri is a doxology, declaring the preeminent power and majesty of God: “Glory be to the father and to the son, and to the holy ghost. As it was in the beginning, now and ever shall be, world without end.”
Another familiar doxology, though not called that, per se, is the closing words to the Lord’s prayer: “For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever." This version of the Lord’s prayer had the doxology amended to the versions of the Lord’s prayer that appear in Matthew (6:9-13) and Luke (11:2-4). We can also find doxologies throughout the Psalms and in other parts of the scripture.
The message of all doxologies is that God is without peer. He has all power, he is sovereign, he is the very epitome of glory, honor and majesty. He stands alone as our creator and as the arbiter and finisher of our fate. If there is hope for us, it is by his hand and by his grace. When we find strength in life’s withering circumstances, and are able somehow to carry on, it is the Lord’s doing. And every now and then, in the midst of our petitions and wailings, and routine expressions of gratitude, we ought to pause and acknowledge, even to ourselves, what an awesome God he is; what an awesome father he is; what an awesome protector/defender he is; what an awesome friend and foundation of hope he is! Not for his sake, but ours. Every now and then we ought to declare with our loudest voice that without God, we are nothing; that our highest calling is to serve him; that our destiny is all wrapped up in his will for us.

Speaking to the Spirit

2012-02-27T19:12:00.001-05:00

Mark 1:21-28
God’s preference for you is that you are a healed, whole, self-actualized human being---growing to your fullest potential, to the glory of God. After all, as Psalm 100 aptly says, “it is He that has made us, and not we ourselves”. So it is only natural that one who is created by a God who makes no mistakes, should be freed in their spirit to become all they can become, using their God-supplied tools and energies. When a person excels, when they are beautiful inside, when they live redemptive lives with a self-giving purpose, they are the very evidence of the love and compassion of God. When we are healed; when we are joyful; when we are selfless and compassionate; when we are tolerant and patient and respectful of others, we are in the truest sense, evangelists.
Too often our efforts at bringing people, or inviting people, to accept Christ are impaired because such invitations are too often extended by people who are themselves bound by some variation of the same unclean spirit that caused the man in our lesson today to yell out to Jesus in the synagogue.
We cease to be agents of the gospel, the good news, when we ourselves are bound by the demons of resentment, bigotry, and a compulsion to judge others; by lust, by addictions of various kinds, by class prejudice, color prejudice; by ignorance, anger, envy, low self-esteem, fear, impatience, you name it. And sometimes, we can be miraculously rid of one demon, but rather than having our spirit freed, we trade in one demon for another. And what is more toxic and self-righteous than a reformed, intolerant anything? (ex-smoker, ex-philanderer, ex-overeater…) There are few things more overbearing and off-putting than a person who has only recently seen the light.
It is the Lord’s will, not that we trade or substitute demons, but that we are rid of them, that we are totally, completely, thoroughly unbound! His aim is not to condemn us, but to call out of us the spirits that contaminate our lives--- to free us of our bad attitudes, our negative outlooks, our feelings of victimization, our need to dominate and control. His will is that our lives be redeemed and set free to serve others.
God’s love for you is immeasurable. His perennial focus is your rescue from the shadows, to bring you into his marvelous light. His hatred is for the spirit that keeps you from channeling his love and grace in the world. You are not the enemy of godliness; instead, the unclean passions that direct your conduct are God’s enemies. That is why Jesus speaks not to the man in the synagogue, but to the spirit that is within him. “Be quiet! (He says) Come out of him! And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.”
By whatever name the unclean spirit goes, human beings are seldom without one or the other. They cause us to yield to the temptations of the world. They cause us to put ourselves first in all things. They cause us to fear acknowledging we are weak and in need of help.
But it really doesn’t matter what they are and how they manifest themselves, whether quietly or in open defiance, they need to come out, and the blood of Jesus is the vehicle for our purging. He can wrench them from us if we fall to his feet and avail ourselves of his mercy.

"Why Jesus Recruited" Disciples (Excerpt)

2011-01-27T13:29:00.000-05:00

The ministry of Christ is a collective one, not one undertaken by individuals alone. Granted, there are times when you just want to leave all those people with excuses and idiosyncrasies and just go on to do what you think you are called to do. Or if you elect to work with a group, you want to hand pick the people you know, the people whom experience tells you will be dependable and get things done. You want people who speak your language, who approach problem solving the way you do. And if you can’t get them, you’d rather work alone. Fact is, no one is as good as you anyway. Well, the ministry is best when it is textured with debate, with different methodologies, when it is set in the midst of real human community, and when we have to contend with a little resistance and nay-saying---even opposition and betrayal and faithlessness. Jesus is showing us how it is done. He is showing us that life is comprised of radically diverse human beings, even if they are from the same biological family. And if we are to live productively in community, we will have to weather a few inconvenient setbacks and roadblocks.
Life must inevitably involve some suffering. None of us relish suffering. I sure don’t. But I know that it is a real part of this ‘ole journey. And Jesus doesn’t exempt us from it, but he gives us the best illustration of how you get through it, how you can be victorious over it, and how because of your faith in the midst of the mire, you can be a balm for healing wounded hearts and thwarted aspirations. Jesus makes us strong for suffering by never asking us to face it alone. And if he is by your side, suffering is no match! Working under uncertain circumstances; working with fragile people, people with undisclosed needs and yearning is a gymnasium that builds up the muscles of our endurance for the vicissitudes of this mortal existence.

Mark 4:12-23

From "Sharing 'Your' God With Others"

2011-01-17T11:57:00.003-05:00

So often out of fear that we may be trampled, rejected, disrespected or hurt by mortals, we create and cling to a brand of faith that is circumscribed by the limits of our own vision, but true faith binds our kinship with all who yearn to be free from the yoke of sin.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was willing to endure all manner of questioning from his own ranks in order to declare this universal message. When he spoke out against the Viet Nam War, his own accused him of overreaching his boundary, of focusing on things that were not his business. The principalities and powers accused him of abandoning his mission by focusing on economic rights rather than civil rights. And in these days when we "honor" him, we have recaptured him and re-domesticated him as a leader of Black people only.
The Apostle Paul still cries out from the grave, begging the church to affirm our universal calling, laity and clergy alike, Jew and Greek alike, male and female alike, black and white alike, gay and straight alike, citizen and immigrant alike. For all God's children belong to one another. He is their Lord and ours.
(Ref. 1 Corinthians 1:2)

Help With Passing The Test

2010-12-27T13:35:00.002-05:00

Hebrews 2:10-18
This is how the high drama of salvation began: With the birth of a child to a peasant family, a family not especially connected with the powers that be---a family so marginalized economically and otherwise that they had to flee across the border into Egypt to avoid having their infant killed by King Herod.
The fact that Jesus was born in a stable, that there was no room for his mother to give birth inside the Inn, is meant to illustrate how unlikely, by the standards of worldly power, it was that he would grow up to become the King of the Jews and the savior of the world.
The pure genius of God, who gave his only son to the world to save us from the fear of death, and the power of death, was meant to let ordinary people---people that are subject to abuse and exploitation---know that no matter their station or situation in life, they too would have a right to the tree of life. They too would know in no uncertain terms that God’s salvation through Christ was for the lowliest and the meekest.
People were accustomed to certain elements having special privileges. Class distinctions and the advantages that are reserved for the well connected is not a new thing, familiar only to those of us who live in a post-modern world. Such distinctions and preferential treatment are as old as human beings. But Jesus came to rescue, not the few, not the elite, but rather he wanted to be a liberator to the people living at the lowest rung of the social ladder. The forgotten people, the apparently powerless people were his aim. Because if he could reach them with the good news of new life, each and every person would be a candidate for his salvation.
And by being so totally identified with the people that he wanted to offer hope, he had a good chance of opening their eyes, opening their hearts, inspiring them to risk having faith in the new possibilities for their own, real lives.
The scripture says God elected to make perfect the pioneer, the forerunner, the exemplar of human salvation through suffering. Untold suffering. Brutal suffering. Suffering born of innocence. Yet, willing suffering.
And his suffering was a test. Suffering is always a test. When we suffer, our true nature is being tested; the limits of what we can tolerate and withstand are being tested---how much we can endure. When we suffer, and are pressed down to the very bottom, we learn (about ourselves) where we are inclined to turn for help. Jesus’ suffering was an illustration of how determined he was to hang on and to trust his fate to God.
Your suffering is a test, designed to perfect your faith too. When times are really, really difficult, when it appears there is no way out, will you be discouraged and lose all hope, or will you hold on to the unchanging hand to strengthen you and help you ride out the storm?
The popular question, “What Would Jesus Do?” is relevant here. For He is our guide in all matters of life and faith. He becomes Christ our Lord and Savior, because he was first Jesus, our friend and brother. Because we able to share in his suffering, we are able to share in his victory.
So when the hour is dark, and life trials put you to the test, you can turn to him and to his example to help you to past the test. Without him, it is likely that the test will wear you down, that it will break you up. That it will grip you with fear and leave you bitter. But if you place your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee, even though you may be tempted to buckle, he will give you wings and you will soar.
Who is holding up that wounded bird? Jesus! Who is healing that broken heart? Jesus! Who helps me to say yes, when the world says no? Jesus!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-21T22:16:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving is a major family holiday in America. I mean major! Christmas, Mother’s Day and Easter are undoubtedly right up there, but I remember really hearing and having it sink in for the first time, on Thanksgiving eve in1984 on WCBS radio, as Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker and I were traveling back from JFK Airport, that “the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the most heavily traveled day of the year.” I think it still is.

Wherever we are in the world, most of us are doing what we can to make our way back to mother’s or grandmother’s kitchen. There, with family, we for just a day reconnect with what makes us human, over the most delectable comfort food we will ever eat. Not that we like turkey and the trimmings all that much, but there is something about its familiarity that anchors our spirits and allows us to enjoy the simple pleasures of fellowship and unvarnished conversation. Man, if every day could be like that. But that Friday, or certainly by Sunday afternoon, we go rushing back to our daily grind, having been refreshed for a minute as if retooled to dive back into the wilderness of our daily lives. But thank God for Thanksgiving Day, when our ordinary cares felt as if they had taken a back seat to the things that really matter.

The whole Pilgrim thing doesn’t really enter the picture very much any more, if it ever did. The day has been hijacked for equally noble purposes. And yes, some ignoble purposes too, like becoming Black Friday eve! (I read that some stores over my way will open at 5:00 a.m.!). For me, it opens the door to Advent, a sense of new beginning---a time of harvest, of reflection on what the year, now ending, has wrought.

Yet, like most special days, days that test the bonds of family, or maybe leave us exposed for not having the close-knit family the season seems to require, Thanksgiving for some can be a stressful day, a day of regret, a day of reminiscing about missed opportunities and losses. At our church, we often say as a customary farewell to folk we won’t see again until after the holiday, “Don’t eat too much,” Perhaps without remembering there will be those among us, our neighbors, who will hardly eat at all.

Bethany will restock its Food Pantry for Thanksgiving Week, where last week 377 persons were supplied with food. Those who contribute non-perishable items to the needy will receive the reward of having been of help to someone other than themselves, while the people who are hungry will experience the love of a caring community. Because of the way our society is constructed, too few people ever know the joy of selfless service, but are forced to witness instead the endless quest for self-gratification.

Food Pantry volunteers experience weekly the perennial quandary over the persistence of hunger in this land of plenty. Why are there so many hungry people? Is it because, as some simplistic ideologues would have us believe, they are lazy or without marketable skills? Or is the reason more unnerving and more rooted in structural inequities than we would like to admit?

As Fugitive Safe Surrender taught us just a year ago, many people in the line for food this holiday will be people who struggle to do the right thing, but no matter how hard they try, it is never enough.

The Meaning of Fugitive Safe Surrender

2009-11-11T20:04:00.014-05:00

On November 4-7, Bethany experienced an uncommon encounter when Fugitive Safe Surrender (FSS), a program sponsored nationally by the U.S. Marshall Service, with the support of Rutgers University and virtually every law enforcement and judicial entity in Essex and Union Counties and the State of NJ, came to Newark to provide persons with warrants for non-violent, criminal offenses an opportunity to voluntarily surrender and receive special consideration by the courts. Today, because of FSS, some 4,197 people, many of whom had been on the run for years and unable to participate in society with any degree of normalcy, have suddenly obtained a "new lease on life".

This is remarkable in itself, but during the four days of FSS, something even more remarkable happened. Over 200 volunteers from churches throughout Essex and Union counties came together to assist in the smooth operation of what was at times a very demanding challenge of encouraging, supporting, counseling, feeding, and directing a very large group of anxious, uncertain people that were eager to obtain what FSS seemed to promise, but who were conditioned by their circumstances not to be very trusting. Not only did these volunteers serve during the four days the program was active, but they came week after week for training and preparation for what they were eager to believe, but had no way to be sure, would be a dramatic a new beginning for those who would have the courage to come.

The bravest fugitives were the ones who came on the first day. They dared to step out and test whether this much-advertised appeal to "come in from the cold" was for real or just a sting. Presumably, its location in a church with a reputation for its acts of solidarity with people living on the margins, helped them to take the risk. And when they found that FSS was all they hoped it would be, word began to spread throughout the community, so by day 4, the line was longer than anyone could have imagined, with each person who came rejoicing with disbelief that something they thought would never happen hd become a reality.

By the close of the day on Saturday, November 7th, those who worked as volunteers and those who were paid professionals could hardly be distinguished from one another. Everyone had melded into a team with a shared, and redemptive mission. Those with badges and those with the tee shirts of volunteers! Hearts were opened. Attitudes were altered, if only for a short while. Suddenly all were human beings, with an undeniable, shared humanity---all helping to solve a problem that in many ways impacts each one of us.

This breakthrough to a genuine sense of community was never more evident than on the Monday afterwards, when all the parties forming the coalition that produced FSS held a press conference to announce the results of these remarkable days. There, the gleam in the eyes and the bounce in the gait of erstwhile somber people gave evidence that something that was unfamiliar to them in their often lengthy work lives as sheriffs, prosecutors, parole and probation officers, had indeed occurred. And they were completely without caution in heralding the days they had spent together for their life changing insights.

As for Bethany, what an opportunity to engage in service that is at the center of its calling!

Despite this magnificent contribution to so many people, it is important to note that fewer than half the people in Essex and Union Counties turned themselves in. The rest remain in the dark corners, living with the fear of being stopped at random, or having the places where they sleep invaded before dawn. The last image of the week that will be remembered for some time to come, was the group of people running up the hill on Warren Street trying to get to the place of renewal, only to learn that the program had ended promptly at 4:00 p.m. as advertised. But they kept coming. Even as late as Monday morning, they were still coming, looking for a new way to live.

After FSS, we now know a way must be found; we must find a way to open a new door, allowing them to come in, and stay in.