{"id":392,"date":"2020-09-13T18:49:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T01:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/?p=392"},"modified":"2020-10-12T18:51:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-13T01:51:49","slug":"sermon-september-13-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/weekly-sermon\/sermon-september-13-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon September 13, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Broken for You
Luke 22
September 13 2020

\u00a0It was only months afterward when\u00a0the disciples recognized the meaning of that\u00a0Passover meal they shared with Jesus.\u00a0 At the time it was just another Passover meal\u2013to be sure a meal fraught with the deepest possible significance for every Jew\u2013remembering each year how God had delivered their forbears from the trammels of Egypt.<\/strong>

But on this night they were completely clueless about this Passover meal. They had no way of knowing how in time they would come to understand the underlying\u00a0meaning of bread broken and wine poured.<\/strong>

\u00a0\u201cThis is my body broken for you.\u201d They could never think of these words again without envisioning\u00a0Jesus nailed to the cross, suffering the cruelest punishment the savage\u00a0Romans could devise.\u00a0 \u201cThis is my blood shed for you.\u201d They could never\u00a0 think of these words again without envisioning the blood seeping from Jesus\u2019 scalp where the crown of thorns had pierced his flesh and the blood oozing from his side where\u00a0 the Roman soldier had thrust his sword.<\/strong>

\u00a0This is my body, broken for you.\u00a0 All of us know something about brokenness, the brokenness of our lives, the brokenness of our relationships, the brokenness of our society. \u00a0<\/strong>

First, the brokenness of our lives:\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>

\u201cDear God,\u201d prays Marianne Williams.\u00a0 \u201cI feel that I have wasted my life, thrown away my resources, taken too much time to gather my strengths. Now, dear God, I feel it is too late for me.\u00a0 My age, my weaknesses, the lies and betrayals of times gone by, make me seem a lesser talent.\u00a0 You, dear God, know the love in my heart and how much I want to serve, how much I have to give.\u00a0 I need a miracle, a new beginning, which only you can give me.\u00a0 Please, dear God, I give my life to You.\u00a0 Please bring other my talents.\u00a0 Please increase my gifts and use them for Your purposes.\u00a0 I surrender my future.\u00a0 Make it unlike my past.\u00a0 Amen.\u201d \u00a0<\/strong>

We carry our brokenness from our past right into this very moment.\u00a0 All of us are marked by it, things we regret, things we are ashamed of, things we dare not\u00a0mention to anyone.\u00a0 Some of these painful memories ease up over time.\u00a0 Others never let up, always accusing us, like some furies from hell tormenting us day and night. And all we can do is to\u00a0fall on our knees with the cry: \u201cDear God help me.\u201d<\/strong>


Second, broken relationships.\u00a0 Believe it or not there is a Museum of Broken Relationships, located in Croatia.\u00a0 If you think I\u2019m making this up, well then\u00a0Google it. In the museum are objects which exemplify a broken relationship.\u00a0 Each object has a story attached to it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For example, there is a bicycle on display which a young wife gave to her husband on his 25th birthday.\u00a0 When the marriage broke up a few years later he had to sell it because it so painfully reminded him of a happier past.<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
From time to time all of us struggle with a broken relationship.\u00a0 The internet teems with formulas of how to restore broken relationships.\u00a0 But the one common factor as I read through many of them was this: It ain\u2019t easy. \u00a0<\/strong>

\u00a0It\u2019s not easy because even if we are willing to try to restore harmony, the other person may not be.\u00a0 It\u2019s not easy because the person with whom we want to be reconciled is now out of our life, perhaps dead.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t easy because\u2013let\u2019s face it\u2013we are just so bloomingly stubborn and we fold our arms in front of our chest and say, \u201cNo way, Jose.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>

And then, third, there is the brokenness of our society.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am worried sick about our country\u2013how we are constantly tearing asunder what God has joined together.\u00a0 The continuing violence against people of color, the looters, the white supremacists, the raw vitriol against those who do not share one\u2019s views.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/strong>
Whatever happened to that wonderful little song–<\/strong>

We work and play together<\/strong>
We hear our nation\u2019s call<\/strong>
No matter what our race or creed<\/strong>
we are Americans all. \u00a0<\/strong>

Do you know the names Kellyanne and George Conway?\u00a0\u00a0 Kellyanne Conway announced a few weeks ago that she would be leaving her post as White House counselor at the end of August.\u00a0 Her husband, George, said he was withdrawing from The Lincoln Project, which is a group of\u00a0Republicans working against President Trump\u2019s re-election. \u00a0<\/strong>

Kellyanne Conway said in a statement.<\/strong>

“We disagree about plenty, but we are united on what matters most: the kids. Our four children are teens and ‘tweens starting a new academic year, in middle school and high school, remotely from home for at least a few months. As millions of parents nationwide know, kids ‘doing school from home’ requires a level of attention and vigilance that is as unusual as these times.\u201d<\/strong>

As we have heard many times in recent months, the vote of November 3 is the most important in our life-time.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what criteria you use when you decide whom you will vote for.\u00a0\u00a0 But I think Kellyanne and George Conway\u2019s decision gives us all something to mull over as we go to the polls. \u00a0<\/strong>
–Which candidates offer the best promise for our children and grandchildren?\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>
–Which candidates will\u00a0lead us to care for this precious earth? \u00a0<\/strong>
–Which\u00a0candidates will help us honor all our fellow citizens, no matter what their race or creed? \u00a0<\/strong>
–Which candidates will inspire us to become a more decent and compassionate nation?\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>

This election is more consequential for our children than it is for us.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>

In 1929 Ernest Hemingway wrote \u201cA Farewell to Arms.\u201d\u00a0 In the book is this powerful line: \u201cThe world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.\u201d<\/strong>

Hemingway, who later won both the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes, knew first-hand about\u00a0brokenness.\u00a0\u00a0 Four marriages, riddled by alcoholism, perennially depressed, he took his life with a shotgun in July,1961. \u00a0<\/strong>

I\u00a0have to believe that Ernest Hemingway knew the story of that Passover Meal from Luke 22.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m certain\u00a0he knew about the crucifixion and having seen so much suffering as a war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War and World War II he must have been deeply affected by the suffering of Jesus. \u00a0<\/strong>

Sadly enough, Hemingway did not become strong in his broken places.\u00a0 His depression, exacerbated by alcoholism, sent him into a dark downward spiral from which he did not recover.<\/strong>

In just a moment we will observe communion for the first time since March.\u00a0 For the first time in many months we will hear those\u00a0momentous words: \u201cThis is my body, broken for you.\u00a0 This is my blood shed for you.\u201d<\/strong>

And although we do not harbor the awful affliction that led Ernest Hemingway to ultimate despair,\u00a0 we do hold in our hearts and minds the brokenness of our lives, the brokenness of our relationships, the brokenness of our society<\/strong>

And the promise of this meal is that as we\u00a0 partake of the bread and wine we will experience the healing of the God\u2019s Spirit and become strong in our broken places.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Broken for YouLuke 22September 13 2020 \u00a0It was only months afterward when\u00a0the disciples recognized the meaning of that\u00a0Passover meal they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-sermon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":393,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions\/393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}