Chris Yaw

Years ago, when my daughter was itty bitty, we decided it was time for her to lose the training wheels and learn to ride a bike.

I took her down to an empty parking lot and watched her ride, then said, “Okay honey it's time to do it on your own." The very idea frightened her. But after some cajoling she let me remove the training wheels as long as I promised to hold on and stay with her.

So there we were, her on her bike, and me holding on to her seat and handlebar, jogging alongside as she rode on two wheels.

As she got the hang of it, I slowly removed my hands from the bike and let go.

My daughter declared, “Look Dad! I’m doing it!” I was smiling from ear to ear as I said, “You’re doing great! And don’t worry, I may have let go - but I’m still right here.”

On the 40th day after Easter, Christians celebrate Ascension Day - the day Jesus took off our training wheels - ascending to the heavens - and leaving his followers to carry on His work.

The very idea of Jesus letting us go on our own is as scary for us as it was for my daughter. But Christ trusts us to find our balance, choose our direction - and while he may have let go, he’s always here.

So we ask:

Where are the training wheels in our lives?

Are we stretching our minds?

Challenging our bodies?

Exercising our souls?

Ascension Day asks us to consider our maturity - and the ways we are losing the training wheels - and trusting in God’s faith in us to do the work.

My friend has a new puppy who loves pizza.

After many failed efforts to keep the dog from bothering family members during the dinner hour, especially when they have pizza, she downloaded a dog obedience class.

Apparently it's not that hard to keep your dog from stealing pizza, according to this class. And it's not by convincing the dog that pizza is bad, but by having the animal believe that there's something better.

In this case, it's a crunchy dog treat. Just the sound of the shaking box is enough to keep the puppy calm even when a steaming slice of pizza is waved in front of his nose.

Apparently dogs have amazing self control.

And so do we.

On Sunday we will hear a well-known piece of advice from Jesus, he bids his disciples, 'Do not let your hearts be troubled.'

Yes, we know that worry and anxiety have deep roots in us, much of which we have no control over as they are residual gifts from our evolved past.

However, this Bible passage hints at a sense of agency, Jesus tells us not to let this happen.

And, like my friend's puppy, we do well not to denigrate anxiety, but to set our sights on something better.

Do looming job cuts keep us up at night?

How about the medical challenges of a friend?

The stability of our closest relationship?

Or the desperate suffering of the hungry, homeless, and abused?

We are not to let these worries take center stage, but allow God's provision to. Jesus bids us to set our sites on the things above, not on the things below. He promises to take care of what we eat, what we wear, and where we live.

We have a choice.

Let us choose wisely.

“Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death,

and giving life to those in the tomb.'

One of our oldest Christian hymns talks about Christ conquering death.

But how are we to understand this?

What does that mean, if not that conquering death means conquering the things that cause death.

What causes death?

Stress! It’s a leading cause of heart attacks and cancer-

How about unforgiveness, despair, hopelessness, fatigue, worry, boredom, loneliness - these are the things that lead to death.

And how have they been conquered?

By offering us an alternative.

This is what Jesus did.

It's by suggesting that the world works best not through these things that cause death, but the things that cause life.

One of my earliest memories was asking my mom where babies came from.

My mother said when two people love each other new life comes into the world.

Now this may not be the most comprehensive explanation of human reproduction, but it does say something really profound about what makes us tick.

Jesus was the human image of God, that means he was love - walking around on earth - bringing life - by bringing love.

And when humans killed love, love could not stay dead.

Love conquers death.

What that means is that every single little thing we do in the name of love, sending an encouraging text message, visiting a lonely friend, sending a card or email to someone who needs hope, are ways we spread that news of victory over death.

What are other ways we can spread that love?

May we take our vocations seriously and celebrate the victory.

A friend of mine grew up with a collie.

She got Harry when she was 3 years old and her sister was five. And before long, Harry's vocation as a sheep dog made itself apparent.

Whether the two little girls were walking down the sidewalk, the path to the lake, or in the mall, they regularly noticed a cold nose at their elbow, gently nudging them towards the center of the path, keeping them away from danger and helping them take the shortest route possible to get where they needed to go. No dawdling or detours allowed, the sheep dog knows his job is to keep everyone on track.

The 4th Sunday in Easter is typically called Good Shepherd Sunday, it is on this day we contemplate Jesus's role as the Good Shepherd, and our role not only as sheep, but as shepherds - or even sheep dogs who do our Master's bidding.

This year we view this theme through the lens of Mother’s Day and we contemplate not only the ways our moms have served to keep us on track, nudging us away from danger and keeping us focused, but the ways you and I are called to be sheep dogs to those around us - keeping us all on the right track, pointed us to where we need to go.

So we ask, in what ways are we pointing our lives in the right direction?

What are the sheep dogs around us saying?

And how are we helping herd those in our care toward the things that matter?

When Jesus said ‘Follow me’ it was both a challenge and an invitation - to follow his example…

Follow Jesus' example of healing others:

Be aware and on the lookout for those around us who are hurting - who around us in pain?

Use our words and actions to make things better - how can we bring healing, peace, reconciliation to a situation?

Be the first to take action - whether it’s to say we’re sorry, take the blame, or put the situation back together.

Follow Jesus' example of sticking up for justice:

Call out injustice when you see it

Empower the less and the least

Befriend the vulnerable and poor

Follow Jesus' example of faithful living:

Pray often and sincerely

Give alms and attention to all who need it

Don’t acquire more than we need

Follow Jesus' example of faithful suffering:

Don’t try to get out of the difficult but necessary work

Don’t complain about it

Don’t brag about it.

Follow Jesus' example of trust:

Trust that God will care - God will see us to the mountaintop or care for us in the valley

Trust that God will provide - it may not be what we want but it’s what we need

Trust that God will guide - we may not see it, but God’s hand never leaves us

When you think about Jesus’ invitation to follow me - what comes to your

mind?

I grew up next door to a proud family of University of Michigan graduates.

In fact, the University had hosted three generations of this particular family. Some were doctors, some engineers, and some were business people. And while their professions differed, their love for the maize and blue united them, especially around big game days.

But when it was time for the youngest in that family to decide on college, he did not choose the University of Michigan, he did not choose Michigan State, he chose Ohio State University!

This was quite shocking at first, but over time, it grew into many gentle episodes of playful kidding and gentleman's wagers.

The thought that such a decision would have any long-term impact on the harmony of this family was simply unthinkable.

There are few ties stronger than those of a loving family.

This Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter, we always read that unforgettable tale of doubting Thomas.

We remember that Jesus appeared to his disciples, soon after the resurrection, and Thomas was not there. When he arrived home his fellow disciples told him that Jesus had risen. Thomas didn’t buy it - but their life as a community continued.

Back then, as is now, there’s still debate over belief in the resurrection -

But one thing is clear from this story: that even Thomas, who denied the resurrection, was still welcome in the community.

What if Christians today were able to model this kind of generosity? to understand that all of us are on spiritual journeys that ebb and flow and twist and turn, and the judgement about what we believe and how we believe it, always came second to the valuing of the individual?

Friends, Jesus made it clear that the best way to love God, was to love God's people. And when we choose to put someone's beliefs above their personhood, why that's called idolatry, that's putting something above God.

So let us be slow to judge, but quick to love those whose opinions differ than ours.

Few ties are stronger than those of a loving family, let's be one.

I’ve heard it said that we’re the sum of the five people closest to us.

These can be relatives and friends, but they can also be people whom we have never personally met, great writers, or saints, or celebrities - it all depends on how much of our lives we are willing to yield to them - how close to our hearts we keep them - how much of us we are willing to let them influence.

On Sunday, we will hear Jesus make a curious statement. Perhaps you've heard it before, Jesus will say, "The poor will always be with you."

Certainly, this may be understood as a damning reality of the intractable nature of living in a world with haves and have nots - or our utter inability to stem the tide of poverty.

But we can also understand this statement as a commentary on the nature of Christian discipleship - meaning that those who follow Jesus will seek the company of the poor, hence, when we follow Jesus, the poor will always be with us.

Just think if that were true for those debating immigration policy, or federal funding for programs that benefit the poor. In other words, it's that old adage our mothers told us, “It's hard to speak badly of someone who's right in front of you."

To take Jesus' advice, what does it mean for you and me to allow someone who's vulnerable, living on the margins, who’s oppressed and suffering - to be one of the five people in our inner circle - who influences our choices and behaviors?

May Lent be a time that we decide to include the poor among those who are always with us.

Years ago it occurred to me that spending my life void of any sort of physical exercise may have a long-term health implications, So I decided to join a gym.

However, my fondness for keeping my money in my bank account and not Vic Tanny’s, led me to construct a home gym in the basement using second (or third) hand equipment purveyed from various suburban garage sales (the upside of living in a culture where fitness is more aspiration than practice, is that this sort of equipment is not hard to find nor afford).

But the trick of course is not joining a gym, but using it.

That’s when a friend imparted a very useful piece of advice. ‘Every other day,’ she said, ‘choose a 30 minute time slot and go down to your home gym and just sit there’ - the savvy reasoning being that anybody can do that - plus sitting in my empty gym for 30 minutes, surrounded by equipment, will lead to its use, and hence a regular workout pattern will emerge.

She was right, it did.

And both body and mind were aided - as it occurred to me that conversion isn’t something totally out of my hands - but often, something I can influence - and is well within reach.

On Sunday we’ll hear a conversion story like this - about a man who’d lost everything, and found himself in surroundings that motivated him to a dramatic conversion.

And isn’t that the point of Lent?

You and I want to be converted - we want to be more kind, more patient, more forgiving, more generous, more relaxed, more at ease and able to enjoy and more fully participate in the life we’ve been given?

And we can be ‘converted’ to that kind of person when we, too, pay attention to our surroundings.

To use the analogy about the gym, Lent is when we take time to sit in our chapels - be they at church or at home - with our Bibles or faith books or icons - to get in better spiritual shape - to do our exercises - to pray, to journal, to contemplate what God might be saying to us - and how we might respond.

And how we can start, is by taking my friend’s advice - choosing 30 minutes, a few days a week, and just going there - and sitting. Soon we’ll be doing more than just sitting.

Friends, conversion isn’t something we have to wait for - it’s often something we have to work for -

What is it we want to be converted to? What kind of project do we want to accomplish? What kind of person do we want to become?

Conversion is possible, we can play a role, Lord, show us the way.

If we lived 2,000 years ago we may have asked what those 50 New Zealand Muslims had done to get themselves killed.

How had they sinned? How had their parents sinned? It would have been the subject of endless debate.

Today we ask, what has our culture become, so that hateful ideologies can be so easily communicated? Why has our society failed to be properly infused with tolerance and mutual respect? And it is also the subject of no small amount of pontification.

While we’ve certainly evolved to a better informed and more compassionate understanding of how the world works, we can’t help but notice the way both of these responses fall short. For neither of them gets to the most critical question we can ask: what are we going to do about it?

All the endless chit chat, Monday morning quarterbacking and water cooler debating, does just as little 2,000 years ago as it does today. We’re all wired to take way more time talking than taking action.

And what this world needs is more action.

On Sunday, we will hear Jesus teach about this.

He knows the easy role of the critic and cynic - and the far more difficult job of the doer and mover.

And he urges us to be among those who get off the sidelines and get into the game.

What does this mean to you and me?

In what ways do we talk more than do?

Ultimately we need to ask, what are the stall tactics we use to avoid doing the work?

The story is told about a quaint little farming town that could only be reached by a narrow road with a bad curve in it.

This curve was the site of occasional accidents, and every decade or so, even a death.

Since the town was too small to have an E-M-S unit, members of the local Episcopal Church organized a volunteer medic service, and when word would come on the police scanner of an accident, these volunteers would be first on the scene to transport accident victims to the County Hospital.

The Church took this ministry so seriously, they even bought a used ambulance to help them in their work.

One day a town councilman suggested a wider road be built, one that would eliminate the bad curve. However, the mayor owned a profitable fruit market right in the middle of that curve - and was against the measure.

This councilman asked the rector of the Episcopal Church to talk to the mayor, as he was a parish member. But the minister, and most of the people, thought it best for the church to stay out of politics. So the following Sunday, the rector preached on The Good Samaritan and encouraged his members to continue their fine work of tending to accident victims, which they did.

It can be so hard for us church-folk to rock the boat.

It’s much more comfortable and safer to keep things the way they are - and even find some Bible passage to back it up.

The problem is that these injustices go on all the time - often untended by us.

We know foster kids need our help - but we pay more attention to Oscar winners.

We know our neighbors are lonely - but we know our favorite sports stars better.

And no one is even surprised about the news this week that rich kids get into elite colleges easier than poor kids.

In Sunday’s Gospel we see that Jesus' work of healing the world was something from which he could not be distracted.

So in Lent, we ask ourselves: how distracted are we from the work God has called us to do?

How have we lost the script?

And how are we getting back on track?

May our attention be captured by on the problems - and solutions - that captured Jesus’ attention.

One guy said it was busier than the McDonald’s drive-thru.

That’s right - more than 500 people came through the St David’s Drive Thru Ashes this year, our 5th and most attended to date - nearly twice as many as last year. Here’s what we heard:

‘I was just diagnosed with a brain tumor, can you pray for me?’

’Will you pray my sciatic nerve can be healed?'

‘Please, please pray we can have a baby.’

We are hungry for God’s touch in our lives.

We want to know that God cares for us.

We want to draw closer to the One who can heal, comfort, and forgive - and we see Ash Wednesday as a particularly fitting time to do so.

So as we begin this season of Lent, let’s learn from our neighbors that this indeed is a terrific time of year to reach out to God.

What does God want from us?

What does God have for us?

What do we have for God?

What can we do to draw closer to that One who heals, comforts, and forgives?

It was the fall of 1993 when I sat on a friend's sofa and knew in my heart that God had called me to a certain job in a certain place to do something important.

And I needed to experience that, because the job I was being called to would be fraught with difficulties, challenges, and complexities that would seriously test my decision.

You might call that moment on the couch a mountaintop experience, a time in which I felt particularly close to to God and how God was directing me.

Can you name a time in your life in which you felt the same thing? Tuned in to the transcendent, particularly close to the one whose voice echoes most deepest in your soul?

We call it a mountaintop experience because we see something similar in Sunday's gospel, when Jesus and his closest disciples ascend a mountain and Jesus is transfigured, his face changed, his clothes a dazzling white, and he finds himself in conversation with Moses and Elijah, before the audible voice of God speaks from the heavens.

God gives us the these moments of affirmation, because God knows there will be moments of doubt.

God gives us these moments of unforgettable bliss because God knows there will be moments of unendurable pain.

God gives us these moments of clarity and insight because God knows there will be moments of confusion and occlusion.

Mountain top experiences are as rare as they are impactful.

That's why it's so important for you and me to remember; remember that we do not go through this drama alone, that the world is made up of much more than the things we can see, feel, and touch.

That there is more going on than we will ever know.

That there are saints conspiring on our behalf, loved ones in a different realm plotting our advance, unseen allies who work day and night for our goodness and wholeness.

So friends let us remember our transfigurations - our mountain top experiences - they are reminders that God is near - and that the darkness in the valley that can surround us - will not last.

Chris Yaw

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Taking Off the Training Wheels

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Where Do Babies Come From?

Are You a Sheep Dog?

Follow Me

Ties That Bind

The Poor Will Always Be With You

When It's Time to Change...

Stall Tactics

Let's Speak Up

Lessons from the Drive Thru

Why Does God Talk to Me?

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