23. April 2010 by Rose Southwell.

Here we go again.

Posted in School | Print | No Comments »

18. April 2010 by Rose Southwell.

This was my second sermon preached in the begianing preaching class on Psalm 25 on march 25, 2010.

A Real friendship God.          Wow, that psalm has a lot doesn’t it? Man, I mean can you even remember any parts of what I just read? That Psalm 25 is filled with so much. I Guess I should start out by explaining a little about this Psalm. Its one of 9 acrostic psalms in the book and is given credit to David as the another, although that is debated… To me this Psalm covers almost all that one would need it to, the psalm that has it all, well. I must say I’m a little bias. I love this psalm. This is actually my favorite psalm. When I was trying to decide that I was going to preach on I thought… Rose Don’t preach on your favorite psalm… that’s a treacherous game. But if just kept coming back and coming back to it… so here we are Psalm 25. Here is the Clift notes version of this psalm. God you are the only one for me. Show me the paths of your ways. Remember me! Oh God remember me! I’m bad at this.. God… I sin and have tones of gilt… God is good with those who fear him. Ya! See these folks that don’t like me… Go get them. Help me to have your integrity and uprightness preserve me. And oh by the way redeem Israel. That’s basically it… But there is SO much in this psalm, its rich with metaphor and imagery, I couldn’t possibly talk to you about all of it. So I am going to focus on the one thing that I think is most important, at least at this time, about this psalm. Relationship. This Psalm is written as if the palmist assumes their favor. Lack of dought. Without fail, throughout this psalm the writer has no dought of God’ s presence.  The psalmist knows the character of God and list’s the qualities of God as; Mercy, steadfast love, integrity, goodness, upright, faithfulness, and friendship. Friendship? Can God be our friend? Exactly what do they mean by friendship? Verse 14 reads. The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him ,and he makes known to them his covenant. Well, that’s a bold statement. There is a lot wrapped up in that little verse. We have friendship, we have fear of the lord and we have covenant. Relationship, respect, and recognition.A friendship God. What do you think about that? Is that a pleasant thought? Is that an irreverent thought? Is that comfortable thought? Is that an uncomfortable thought? (silence) When I first came to the point where god was my friend, that was a liberating shift for me, life-giving, faithful, wonderful gift…. But I’m told this is not a new concept. I am a friend of God contemporary song that’s popular right now? … But I wonder if we really, I mean REALLY think of God as our friend, our best friend? … or is that just cute to say? ……oh yea! God and I , we’re buddies. . .Really?  In this psalm we have to come face to face with The Friendship God…. Now you may be thinking. The friendship God, rose? What are you talking about? What dose that even look like?  But I think that is exactly what is wrong. I think that why we have such a hard time! We don’t know what a friendship God looks like. We have a hard time breaking free of the parent images we have of the Lord.  Trust me, I struggle with it too. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We know those.  Creator, Redeemer, sustainer. We know those. We have those images. But why not give friend a REAL test drive with me?? 
Friends seems to be all that I have been able to talk about lately. I started asking people out of curiosity, to tell me about their best friends. Sometimes I would ask for word definitions, sometimes I would ask for stories, asked people to describe WHY they were friends with, whoever it was, that is their closest friend. I want you to listen to these statements that people both on and off this campus have told me about their friends. But I want you to think about these fraises, not about their friend, but about their relationship with God.  Giving. Loyal. Unconditional Acceptance. Fearless, patient- I cannot believe that he put up with all my shit. She notices me. Confidential… Affectionate.. She balances out my qualities, good and bad she balances me. trustworthy.. Dependable.. Deeply Loving… She knows my pain …kindness, fun-loving. Real.. Honest.. Relentless, weather its relentlessly loving me or relentlessly telling me I’m wrong… I respect him…we have no trouble overlooking personality differences. There was always some kind of real connection that was there, even when we were young.  He will stick with you not matter what …They are always there for you when you need someone. A Good listener. “why? Because she’s  awesome!” non-judgmental. She knows my soul. We have known each other for a long time, our relationship changes and yet, stays the same. Really?!? These are beautiful and specific relationships… I saw a change in people. When we would talk about their best friend. They would first give me there usual discussion, they are a lawyer, we have know each other for 35 years… and I would say yes. But Why? What qualities do they posses that would make you want to be friends with them? And their whole demeanor would change… you could see that this relationship deeply affected them. It was beautiful. I cant help but wonder, if someone was to ask me, why I chose God to be your friend? … what qualities dose God Posses, that would make you want to be friends with him? … would my demeanor change? What qualities would I list? I feel like I should tell you the story of when God really became one of my close friends and no longer as I saw him before. … I was in a very dark time, faith left in God to fix it. These were my card I had been dealt, I had to solder on. I hated it. I was so angry, and mad, and sad, and lonely… I just need someone to listen to me complain and bitch and scream and yell , and just get it all out. I needed SOME ONE, anyone. I called my best friend, no answer, I called my, mom, no answer. My brother, my other friends from college, my classmates, my dad. NO ANCWER! I begin to call my dad every 10 mins on the dot for two hours. And finally at about 3AM I gave in. I had to call the ONE person who I did not want to talk to. GOD. I called and God picked up.  And I went off. I complained and bitched and screamed and yelled , and just get it all out. And then God let me curl up and cry on his shoulder. And just held me. ……I didn’t need an answer… I didn’t need a father.. I needed a friend. I needed God!!!  I needed god to be my friend… and he was. The friendship of the Lord, the secret council of the Lord… Its private, Its personal. It’s a deep deep friendship. It’s a friendship that comes from respect, it’s a friendship that comes from Obeisance. It’s a friendship that is two ways. The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him ,and he makes known to them his covenant.Fear of the Lord is not that shaking in your boots about to cry scared out of your mind peeing your paints ‘fear not’ thing?!? Its deeper than that. Its Loving, is respecting, Its obeying. One description of ‘fear of the lord’ is that it is both an experience of awe and the iristibul attraction to the graciousness of God… reverence and obedience. Friendship is two ways, people are your friends because you listen, you care for them, you respect them. God is AWSOME. AWSOME not like how we use the word today… How was your burger? Awesome… what! NO!! it’s that burger was awesome you would… you wouldn’t be able to eat it! But God is AWSOME. And you Fear and are Friends with God because GOD is Awesome. We are all here for a reason. We are in seminary because we had a moment. Or a “thing” were we KNEW God’s greatness. We are Obedient, and we are friends with God, we fulfill our half of the friendship so that we can have those experiences. Friends….This is a God who wants to make a covenant with us. A two way relationship. The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him ,and he makes known to them his covenant.WOW. That is Awesome. That is a God of relationship. That is a God to get passionate about. I mean right?!? God can be those other things.  A parent. A redeemer. A sustainer. A BIG God. But a friendship God….that’s a god that. (hands to heart) is here. That’s a God that Knows you. Through the Good the bad and the ugly. And still picks up the phone when you call. …… Let God Be your friend……..Amen

Posted in Preaching | Print | No Comments »

18. April 2010 by Rose Southwell.

Preached at Trinity Preasby Church, McKinney on Dec 27, 2009.

Colossians 3:12-17 and Psalm 148

Wearing Our Sunday Best

Colossians 3:12-17 and Psalm 148

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.

Well, here we are. I have one year of seminary done, and you have changed. Look at this Great Hall! Nicely Done. When we first started at this church it was one hallway and  the sanctuary and it has been a pleaser to watch this church blossom. And now we have one Christmas Season under our belts. I want everyone to just take a moment and breathe. Ahhhh we made it through the holiday madness. Congratulations! Some of you travelled (I know I did), some had the in-laws over, some went to others houses, there was the Christmas parties, then there was the kids Christmas, and the wrapping and hiding gifts, and then there was the cooking, and the singing, and the worship services and the servis projects and the giving, then the clean up. All for what?  A gift? God’s gift. On Friday we celebrated the greatest gift the world was ever given, God incarnate arriving on the earth. That’s pretty cool. What a great gift “aww thanks God, … “

            Today I want to talk a little about Christmas Gifts. You know, the tangible ones that were under the tree on Friday.  Christmas gifts come in all shapes and sizes. Some are awesome, some not so awesome. Some gifts we treasure for a long long time (jewelry or that perfect tool ), some are things that we will use every day ( a new phone, or laptop, or if you’re my friends the Xbox), some our gifts that we only will ever pull out and dust off when a certain someone is coming over for a visit (Ugh that lamp, or that statue). Some things will be used only once (maybe a toy, or a gift card). Yet all of these things are gifts, something that someone else was willing to take the time to give us, simply because they like us.

            What is it about the gift that makes us decide whether or not we like it? Is it our expectation of how the gift should work? Is the gift useable? Is the gift making us feel beautiful or empowered? Or better yet do we even know HOW to use the gift that was given to us, what if the gift didn’t have a users manual?

            I would like to tell you a little story about Xmas last year. My dad had seen this really cool little helicopter. Man he thought it was so awesome. And SO my mom and I got it for him. What a better way than to make this little boy at harts Xmas than a toy plane? When he opened it up his face just lit up, like he was five. The rest of the gifts didn’t matter, he was ready to put it together and get to flying. The second the giving was over he had the batteries in that thing and was about to set off on his fist flight mission with this new helicopter. So he called us all around and placed in on the launching pad, and Zoooom, Smack! Right into the wall. The helicopter hit the wall and came spiraling down to the floor. Not but 15 seconds into its first flight it was broken, never to go Zoooming through the air again. Despite the tragic irony of this situation, daddy not seeing the humor in it as much as we did, he promptly picked up the helicopter judged the damage and said. “Well that’s stupid! Why was it designed in this way?!?” the automatic response was to blame the design and the fact that the user manual didn’t actually explain the flight patterns very well. This gift that he was so excited about didn’t behave the way he thought it should, the expectations were all wrong.

            So what do we expect out of our gifts?

            Do we have some grand idea of how our gift should work, and don’t really take the time to try and understand the fight patterns?

            What if we don’t understand the instruction manual? That thing is confusing and dosent give me clean cut answers to my question!

            The Apostle Paul tell us in our passage today :¹² Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. ¹³ Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. ¹⁴ Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. ¹⁵ And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.  ¹⁶ Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom God gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.            Ok Rose, I hear you. God gave up a pretty good explanation of how to use our gift here. ‘Clothe Yourselves in Love’, I hear it, I see it, but honestly what does that mean?! Is Jesus the love we should clothe ourselves with? Is it God’s love that we should clothe ourselves with? What dose clothing yourself with love look like? Do you get dressed in the morning and say. I have pants, and have on a shirt, and now I need to put on my love and start my day?             I am not here to tell you what it looks like? Because nobody wears the same clothes as another person? But I am here to help you ask the questions.  How do you put on tenderhearted mercy? How do you wear kindness? How do you bind yourself in humility, gentleness and patience? And above all, how do you clothe yourself with love? Love which binds us all together in perfect harmony?

            Earlier in chapter three of Colossians we are told to take off the old, get rid of those old dirty, tattered clothes and put on these new ones. Take off the stuff you were wearing before. The anger, the pride, the lack of reverence, and replace it.  In verses 9-10 it says “…for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. ¹⁰ Put on your new nature, and be renewed…”  Renewed… God gave us a gift card on Christmas for a new set of clothes; the olds weren’t looking to good, so we now go the store and get ourselves new clothes. Off with the old on with the new.  In a commentary about this passage by Eric Jones entitled “Please, Clothe Yourself!” he simplify these passages in this way “So the progression is (1) take off the old rags of the world and then (2) put on the new garments of the Kingdom. To simplify it: take off - put on. To really simplify it: off /on.” The oversimplification here by Mr. Jones is humorous but effective.  The important fist step in this passage is the taking off the old part. One cannot just put on new clothes over the old, the dirt will get on the new ones and might make them smell.

            So what I really want us to look at today is how are we going to clothe ourselves with love? What is it about this gift that we have been given? How will we treat this gift? Will we treasure this gift for a long long time? Like the Jewelry or like a perfect tool the tool that can fix anything? Will we use this gift of Love every day? Like a phone, to communicate and build relationships with those around us? Will we use this gift only once? Like the toy who manual we don’t know how to use or the gift card that redeem but never take the tags off our new garments, because old ones fit better and are more comfortable. Or is this the gift that we will only pull out and dust off when a certain someone comes into town?

            How are we going to use the ultimate charismas gift? Can we decide to take off those ratty, dirty clothes? And accept that because we are God’s chose people we should clothe ourselves in mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and most of all LOVE.  Can we begin to wear our Sunday best, everyday? Always wearing our love?

God so LOVED the world that he gave you his only son… now what are you gona do with that Gift?  

Posted in Preaching | Print | No Comments »