Luke 14:1,7-14 Many years ago I got talked into taking my nephew Erik to see a sporting event at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester. Let me tell you, I already knew with absolute certainty that I did not want to go. In fact, it would be one of the last places in the whole universe that I would want to go to. You may have heard me tell this story before, but it’s one of my favorites, and led to my most famous moment. So what was the sporting event? It was “world wrestling”. This kind of wrestling glorifies brutal violence, demeans women and gays, features ugly guys boosted on steroids, and, to top it all, the whole thing is completely fake. But with Erik in the house, world wrestling was on our TV, and all kinds of wrestling action figures were scattered on the floor of the living room, and against my will I somehow learned the names of all those wrestlers – I wish I could forget. But the tickets had been bought, and I was leaned on, lobbied heavily, and bribed generously to take Erik to the Blue Cross Arena for a night of wrestling. As the closest thing he had to a father figure I finally gave in and agreed to go! There are lots of things I have done wrong in my life, and I usually hope that God is too busy with worse people to notice me, but as I was standing in line to enter the wrestling arena I knew that Jesus noticed exactly what I was doing. He saw me getting in line to go directly to hell. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, some additional information was presented to me: because Erik’s aunt, my former wife, was so wonderful to him, she bought us front row seats. So not only would I have to tolerate the evening, I would be in the front row. In the front row, you become part of the show, and sure enough as these big sweating monsters were in the ring wresting, hitting each other with chairs, and jabbing and poking each other in the eye, you could feel drops of their sweat raining into the front row. One guy, who appeared to be dressed as a Viking, his body covered with hair and sweat, and apparently only able to speak in grunts, got thrown out of the ring by his opponent right onto my lap. Yuck! It was like a nightmare, only it was as real as the hairy Viking who looked me right in the eye and snarled before he climbed back into the ring to try to throw the other guy into my lap. Meanwhile, Erik couldn’t get enough of this spectacle, and it proved to be one of the great highlights of his life that his Uncle Jim had taken him to World Wresting, and even bought front row seats. So there you have it, two different seating preferences: Erik loved the front row because he could see all the action up close and personal, while I would have preferred one of the nosebleed seats way up in the back row if I had to be there at all. Yes, Erik and I had strong opinions about the best places to sit at the wrestling arena. I hope you’re wondering what in the world my sad story has to do with the scripture reading this morning. Stay with me, I’m getting there! Let’s leave the wrestling arena now, and look at the seating preferences here in our church. Where are the best places in this room to sit during worship? Up in the front row? All the way in the back? Under the fan or by the open windows on a hot day? By the heating vent on a cold day? Close to the choir, or far away from it? Over the years I’ve noticed that the front rows stay fairly empty. Maybe we could make the front row a little more attractive each Sunday. We could prmote these first two rows as “first class” and over free snacks and beverages. Or I could take a hint from professional wrestling and make a practice of throwing some of my props into the front row, from time to time I could toss a chair there, or even a sweaty teenager during the children’s message? Anyone want to move up to the front row now? Our ushers are ready to help you! Let’s get to the Bible story! If you think professional wrestling is another world, Jesus came from a time and place even more mysterious to us. In Jesus’ world choosing a seat was a big deal, a huge deal. There were clearly established rules. In his day you didn’t just come into a public gathering and pick your own seat. There were strict seating rules in effect. The most important people were given seats in the front, and the least important all the way in the back. (like here today?) Back then everyone knew those rules. Let’s explain: Thinking that you know your station in life, you take a seat in the fifth row, not too close to the front, but a little ahead of the middle section. But then the usher comes up to you, taps you on the shoulder, and with a cold, withering stare, moves you back several rows, because everyone knows that you are not as important as you think you are. So as you walk back to the 10th row all eyes are on you, and your face is red with humiliation. Now Jesus’ instructions begin to make more sense, always sit further back, so that if the usher comes to change your seat, it’s further to the front, not the rear. And then all eyes are on you as you are bestowed the greater privilege of sitting closer to the front with all of the other honored folk. The simple lesson here is plainly presented: “If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face”. In our contemporary culture celebrities are accorded attention that is absolutely mind-boggling. I get a daily news digest on my computer, and more of the stories have to do with the lives of celebrities than with the important news stories of the day. It drives me crazy! I want to read about events in Iraq or Afghanistan and instead I hear the latest news about which movie star is dating, marrying or leaving another movie star. I want to read about strategies for improving access to health care, and instead I hear about Donald Trump latest ego trip. So I really enjoy coming to a church where people are humble, gracious, generous and loving, who would give their seat to anyone who needed one. So be humble, put others before yourself. Think about what others need, not what you can grab for yourself. The final point that Jesus makes pushes us even further. And I’m hanging on every word of his at this point – because he’s leading me to a different kind of living in a different kind of world, and I want to live in THAT world. He’s not only teaching us to be humble, but he’s teaching us to go out of our way to fill the place with those who are usually never even invited, those who haven’t qualified for even the back row. And this is finally what makes Jesus such a radical, such a revolutionary, and what I like most about him: he challenges you to think of the worst misfits, the worst sinners, and to make room for them in our gathering. It’s almost frightening when we think through the implications of that kind of teaching. What, sinners in here? And we learn that our church, our community of faith, is not a sanctuary for the best people, but a refuge for sinners. And, yes, I’m a sinner glad to be here. Yes, I am a sinner, and it’s been caught on videotape for the whole world to see. It’s my most famous moment. It’s a matter of public record. I’ve been caught on videotape, associating with some of the worst people in the world. And you could go down to the store and buy that videotape. It’s the videotape of world wrestling highlights from the year that I went with Erik to the Blue Cross Arena. The videotape is filled with all the dramatic body-slamming, chair tossing moments of the previous year, with fans with painted faces screaming for blood, and then the camera shifts for a momentary close-up on this quiet, nicely-dressed man in the front row of the arena, as if to say “world wrestling is OK for kids, just look at this intelligent, mild-mannered guy who is enjoying the spectacle, too”. Caught! There I am, a sinner at the front of the line leading right to hell! Thank you, Jesus, for noticing me … and thank you for pulling me back!

Hebrews 11:1-11 How much faith do you have? Not a lot? Just enough? Too much? Let’s be honest! On a scale of 1 to ten where is your faith? Is anyone here willing to claim a ten? Maybe you’re right there in the middle, a five, which might represent some faith, but not enough. “I don't have any faith”, an alcoholic woman confessed to me one time. She was in utter despair. She wished she had faith, but couldn’t find enough faith to fill a thimble, and she felt powerless to stop filling her glass with vodka over and over again. She measured her faith lower than 5, maybe not even a 1. “I wish I had more faith”, said someone in a hospital waiting room, someone who had been praying for days on end with a husband dying, no matter how much faith she had it didn’t seem to be enough. This great woman of faith, in the hospital waiting room, also put her faith low on the scale, less than 5, barely even 1. “I don’t have any faith”, or “I wish I had more faith” … I hear variations on these statements all of the time, and not just from desperate people. I hear these words all of the time from all kinds of people. I have to tell you that in 24 years of being a Presbyterian pastor I have never heard even one person say, “I have enough faith”, or “I have more faith than I need.” So the first step in understanding these words from the Letter to the Hebrews is to be honest that most of us admit to a deficient faith, a faith that is lacking, a faith that is not enough to help us face the serious challenges of this world. Let’s see what we can do to help you move from deficiency to sufficiency in matters of faith. And not just sufficiency, but abundance! After all, Jesus once said, “I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly”. How can we experience abundance of faith, when most of the time we admit that it’s lacking? Did you know that we frequently underestimate our faith? We have more faith then we realize. If we had no faith, do you know what our lives would be like? Whenever we thought to sit down, we'd have to turn around first to make sure the chair was still there. We'd be scared to shake hands with anyone, for fear that they would punch us instead. We would starve, because we'd believe that any food we bought in the grocery store might be poisoned. We couldn't go to the hospital because we wouldn't trust the doctors. We couldn't drive our car, because we wouldn't be able to trust stop signs, red lights, yellow lines. We couldn't go to school, because the teachers might be teaching lies rather than truth. If we had no faith at all, we would have to lock ourselves in our room and never go out ... and we would die either of hunger or loneliness, or boredom. I’m right there with you in admitting a deficiency of faith, but I hope you’re right here with me when I admit to underestimating the faith that I have. I know that we have a great deal of faith, for we sit in chairs without turning around to check to see if the chair is still there, we eat food from the grocery store without having it tested for poison, we drive through green lights, trusting that no one will run the red light. And we go to school because we believe that we will learn there. And we live out our lives with hope and purpose, not hidden away, but out in the world for all to see! And we have faith to build upon even if it’s only a thimbleful, even if it’s tested beyond our capacity by a terrible accident, a meaningless war, or the bedside of a dying friend. Do you have faith? If you say YES, I'm glad. If you say NO, then I think you're mistaken. You have at least some faith in yourself and the people around you; and that's a start. Our purpose as a church is not to give you faith. Our purpose is to nurture the faith that you have, our task is to deepen the faith that you have, our challenge is to broaden the faith that you have. Our ministry as a church of Jesus Christ is to teach that God is the foundation of your faith in the world, of your faith in people, of our faith in ourselves. Our task is to help you learn that God is present even when you feel your faith is weak or inadequate. That God's promises are no less real than the chair you sit upon. That though the evidence is sometimes scarce, the promises of God count for a great deal. When you feel your faith as lacking, God more than makes up the difference. In the Letter to the Hebrews we find one of the most remarkable statements about faith: FAITH is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Faith is the belief that the promises of God are being fulfilled, even when there is little evidence available, even though the wait seems unbearably long. One nice thing about the Bible is that it doesn't simply say DO THIS or DON'T DO THAT; believe this or believe that. It tells stories about people who struggled with the very same things that we struggle with. If you wonder about the adequacy of your faith, think of the story of Abraham and Sarah. Mistakes, failures, problems, difficulties marked their lives, and sometimes their faith was less than a thimbleful. Even so, God made a promise to them, a promise of a wonderful future, with descendants more numerous than the stars in the sky. So the story is not really about their faith in God, but in God’s faith in them. We may hesitate to think our faith is adequate for the challenges that we face, but know that God has immeasurable faith in us. The abundance of God’s faith is traced in all the verses of chapter 11 in the Letter to the Hebrews, as the stories of all those people like Abraham and Sarah and all the others are remembered: “I will not abandon you, even in the face of death, even when it all seems like a lost cause, even under the shadow of the cross. I will not leave you when your health fails, when your money runs out, when you get lonely or discouraged, when your family faces almost insurmountable difficulties. You may leave me, for a time, but I will never leave you. For in time you will be the channel by which my blessings will come to many peoples far and wide.” Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. May your faith carry you and enable you be a blessing to many others. May your faith be as certain as the chair you sit upon without ever looking behind.

Luke 11:1-13 - Outdoor Worship Okay, what three ice cream flavors would you choose if I gave you the chance to order a triple scoop ice cream cone right now? Although I’m not supposed to eat ice cream in such large quantities anymore, I happen to have lots of knowledge and experience about the subject because I once worked in one of those thirty one flavor ice cream stores. In those days, when I was sixteen in my first job with a weekly paycheck, a single scoop cost 39 cents, a double 59 cents, and a triple scoop 79 cents. Now anyone can make a cone with one scoop, but it takes special skill to construct a triple scoop cone that balances just right, especially on a hot day! The reason I am mentioning triple scoop ice cream cones this morning is not to tempt you beyond your power to resist, but because we have a “triple scoop” scripture reading this morning. The suggested reading from chapter eleven of Luke’s gospel includes three significant teachings of Jesus. The first scoop, let’s call it the ________ (flavor) scoop, is Luke’s version of the Lord’s prayer, and we could spend some good time this morning exploring the similarities and differences between Matthew’s version (the one we usually use on a Sunday morning) and Luke’s version. We could also profit from a careful consideration of each of the words in Jesus’ prayer – because we say the words all of the time, but are we really paying attention to their meaning? One time I led a church retreat as a student New York City in which we divided our participants into small groups so that each group would generate questions, answers, insights, problems, focusing their entire attention on just one phrase in the prayer. We spent the whole morning on the Lord’s prayer. It was great! The Lord’s Prayer ... it’s a very interesting subject to explore, but not today, because I want to move onto the second scoop, which we’ll call the __________ (flavor) scoop. This is a short parable about a visitor to your house, and you are caught without enough food, so you go to your neighbor’s house to borrow some bread. The neighbor refuses, but because you keep pounding on his door, the neighbor finally gives you the bread you need to feed your guest. It’s a wonderful illustration about being persistent in our faith. Just because things have gone wrong all day for you is no reason for you to give up your hopes and dreams. Just because you have a great idea that gets shot down by your boss or co-workers, is no reason to give up on it. Just because governments refuse to negotiate peace is no reason for us to stop insisting that they do. One day, Fanchon Davis, only seven years old, wanted to be a worship leader at her church in Rochester. “You’re too young”, the older kids told her (and what they really meant was that Fanchon’s speech problems should clearly disqualify her). But she kept asking, week after week, and she got her chance, finally. She was so proud that day, standing on tip-toes so she could be seen behind the pulpit, as she read the Bible story for the day. She was so proud that she told her speech therapist about it the next day in school. Persistence ... we could all use more of it! But I really want to move right onto the third scoop. After all, that’s the first scoop you’ll taste when your triple scoop cone is handed to you by the ice cream clerk. It’s the third scoop that gives you the first burst of flavor on a hot summer day. So we’ll call our third scoop the ___________ (flavor) scoop. And it happens to be one of my favorite verses, where Jesus tells us: “Ask, and you shall receive; seek and you shall find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” It’s something that I need to hear often, that no matter what has gone wrong, there’s always a new day, a new chance, a new opportunity ... and that God is eagerly waiting for you to ask, to seek, to knock. And when you do, God opens the door wide. Jesus goes on to make this point. If you, sinners that you are, are able to give good things to children, just imagine how much more God will give to those who ask, seek and knock. How much more is God able to give you? God’s love, healing, peace, and forgiveness are always in abundance. This third scoop is for you if you’ve ever felt that you wasted your only chance, if you’ve made an unforgivable mistake, if you’ve been a victim, if the odds are seriously against you, if you’re tired, if you’re lost. We need to be the kind of Christian community that is able to convincingly express and visibly demonstrate the availability of this third scoop, of how much more God has to offer. This day is your opportunity to discover how much more God has to give. In Jesus Christ, we learn that God has no reason to hold back, and every reason to give. It’s Sunday, a day to honor the hard work that people do to earn a living and contribute to the wider world. So today or tomorrow, give yourself a treat, how about that triple scoop ice cream cone, and as you dream up your three flavors, as you take your first taste, let it remind you that God has so much more to give, and all you have to do is ask!