First Presbyterian Church

Neal Presa, Moderator of the 220th General Assembly (2012), Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, and Linda Valentine, Executive Director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, today issued a call to prayer for all those affected by the Oklahoma tornado, and share the following prayer and hymn written by Laurie Kraus, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) coordinator:

A Prayer in the wake of the May 20 tornado in Moore-Oklahoma City
O God of love, whose Spirit in creation moved over the face of chaos, bringing life: hear our prayers, as we bear witness this day to the awful power of wind, whose might raged over your people in Moore, Oklahoma, changing lives and landscapes in an instant . Even now, as first responders still labor to seek those who are lost and succor those who are bereaved and bereft, even as stories of terror and hurt are still unfolding,
WE TOUCH YOUR HAND OF MERCY
In teachers who sheltered with their bodies the children entrusted to their care, as you, O God, like a mother hen spread her wings over her people Israel:
WE SEE YOUR FACE, AND FEEL YOUR TENDER EMBRACE.
In neighbors who rallied to one another’s need, in houses of worship which opened their doors to give shelter, in volunteers who set their personal needs aside to assist those in grave danger and those awaiting a hand of compassion
WE FEEL THE HEART OF YOUR COMPASSION.
In the courageous resolve of first responders, who listen for cries in the dark, dig through the rubble, tenderly bind up wounds and comfort the bereaved,
WE EXPERIENCE THE STEADFASTNESS OF YOUR LOVE.
We are grateful for the signs of your presence in responders, neighbors, strangers and families of faith, who come together as one common body to save, support, and salve the wounds of those who suffer.
FOR ALL THESE VISIBLE SIGNS OF YOUR INVISIBLE GRACE, WE BLESS YOUR NAME
Our Rock and Redeemer, who from the bonds of death rose to resurrection life for the sake of Love, be a strong presence among those who, having survived this chaos, now face grief, uncertainty and weary days:
BE IN US AND THROUGH OUR PRAYERS AND ACTIONS A SOURCE OF HOLY COMFORT AND A CHANNEL OF HEALING GRACE.
MAY THE PEACE OF GOD MOVE THROUGH US, THE REST OF GOD ABIDE WITH THOSE WHO HAVE ENDURED TERRORS AND SORROW, AND, IN THE SEASON OF REBUILDING, MAY THE LIFE OF GOD BRING OUT OF FORMLESS CHAOS, A NEW CREATION. AMEN.
—the Rev. Dr. Laurie A. Kraus, Coordinator, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance

Through Cloud and Out of Chaos: A Hymn for a Hard Season
O, God of Hosts, restore us.
Turn toward us in your grace.
Stir up your might and save us,
Teach us to seek your face.
Your people cry in pain.
Bereft, adrift, and longing:
God, make us whole again.
Come, God of present danger,
Return, and guide us home.
Speak to us, Friend and Stranger:
We trust in you alone.
We watch and work and pray,
The Spirit’s Life revealing
To wait the Coming Day.
Through cloud and out of chaos
Your people speak Your Name
In darkness, God will stay us,
In Christ, the winds are tamed
Toward hope our hearts are drawn
Your healing Life abounding,
Your Love, our steadfast song.

“Singing For Your Life” (sermon from April 14, 2013)
Psalm 30
Revelation 5:11-14

When I first heard that the choir was to sing about singing, I thought it was:
Sing Sing a song. Sing out loud, sing out strong. Sing of good things, not bad. Sing of happy, not sad. Sing. Sing a song. Make it simple to last your whole life long. Don´t worry that it´s not good enough for anyone else to hear. Just sing. Sing a song. La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La Sing. Sing a song. Let the world. Sing out loud. Sing of love there, could be. Sing for you and for me.

No, today’s choir special “How Can I Keep From Singing?” By Tomlin, Cash and Redman goes:

There is an endless song, echoes in my soul I hear the music ring
And though the storms may come,

I am holding on to the rock I cling
How can I keep from singing Your praise

I will lift my eyes in the darkest night
For I know my Savior lives

I can sing in the troubled times, sing when I win
I can sing when I lose my step and I fall down again

I can sing ’cause You pick me up, sing ’cause You’re there
I can sing ’cause You hear me, Lord, when I call to You in prayer
I can sing with my last breath, sing for I know
That I’ll sing with the Angels and the Saints around the throne
How can I keep from singing Your praise.

Much better than Sing, Sing A Song by the Carpenters. One of today’s scriptures describes a massive choir and their music. Now we know from the beauty produced by our own choir each week that it doesn’t take a massive voice choir to produce beautiful music – they do that with only a few voices but I wish we had time for some of you to describe the times you have heard large choirs before and how angelic the sounds they produced. Linda and I met at a Conference Ctr in the North Carolina mountains in which 100’s of people each week would come from all over the country to take seminars/classes for Christian/church growth helps. Frequently they would merge those voices into a choir that could number in the 100’s. They sounded angelic especially when they would sing the great hymns of the church “God of Grace and God Of Glory”, “O God, Our Help In Ages Past”, “The Church’s One Foundation” and “Amazing Grace.” Now the secret for me was to stay as far from those who could make that music as possible so as not to corrupt their ability with my inability! You heard it here first. I can’t sing a lick. Whenever I wear headphones and sing, my daughter likes to ask regarding whatever I am singing “Who sings that?” Thinking that she is taking an interest in my music, I gladly explain, “Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Journey.” And her reply is always, “Let’s keep it that way.” In other words “Don’t sing, because you can’t.”
This scripture describes a gigantic choir of angels singing praise to God. Remember that it comes near the beginning of Revelation (normally thought of as only dealing with end times) but a reminder that it was written during a time of intense persecution of the church by the Roman government. It’s author had been banished to the Siberia of Bible Times, the Alcatraz of the first century – the Island of Patmos. So John writes using a lot of code language and he writes for his audience so they could be read and translated centuries later. But make no mistake, these words were those of praise and thanksgiving. What? During persecution? A massive choir of angels is formed to praise God. And then that choir was joined by all the voices in heaven and they sang praise. Why? Easter had just happened for them just like it has for us. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Meaning? Jesus was crucified and risen and deserves you to get up and be happy.
Scripture 2 does the same and it was written to be sung in worship. It’s tone is a bit different. If you were looking for the particular genre of this song, it might be a cross between a ballad, the blues and a stadium song. A ballad – I called out to God for help and he spared me from the worst. After all you know God’s anger. But it only last’s a little while, but then, in the morning, here comes the sun! But, then comes the Blues. Oh Lord, you hid from me! What good will it do if I’m destroyed? Will my grave be able to tell how good you are God? Be good to ME, God. Be MY help! Then comes the stadium song, (Those they sing in big arenas like YMCA). He turned my crying into dancing!!! DANCE! He removed my burial shroud and put joy clothes on me! JOY! Now I can sing his praises. I just can’t be quiet! I will praise Him forever! PRAISE! What is the connection between these two scriptures? What do they at all have to do with us?

They started by talking about a choir and ended talking about moving from grief to celebration and from pain to the mountaintop. (Normal life experiences for all of us – sometimes all in a week, often all in a day and occasionally all in even an hour! And the basic question I find here is WHAT SONG ARE YOU SINGING WITH YOUR LIFE?
Revelation is really about us and the trust we place in God when the chips are down. These folks were being persecuted but Jesus had still risen from the dead. John was still imprisoned on an island but the angels were still singing songs of celebration on his behalf to keep his spirits lifted up. The Psalmist went from sorrow to joy and from agony to fear to deep trust – but in the end, God was always faithful. Still their lives communicated messages of belief that God could still be victorious – not just out there by and by – but in their lives one by one. How do we communicate that? We communicate our trust by our words, by our actions and by our attitudes. Perhaps you, like me, can’t sing a lick. In fact you open the shower curtain and look out to make sure no one has come into the bathroom before you really belt out your off-key tune. But what you say, what you think and how you act reveals the particular song that your life is singing. It says “In whom do you trust?” It underscores “Who do you believe provides for you, rescues you, guides you around the danger zones and protects you while you’re in the foxholes and in the valley of the shadow of death?” “What actions does your life take to communicate “I will never be shaken (even though I’ve been in the depths). I have been cut off from God (almost like God was hiding from me) but he threw a party in my honor with singing, and dancing and celebration.” So, as a result, I will praise him forever. Forever and ever I will send his way, praise and honor and power forever and ever. WHAT SONG ARE YOU SINGING WITH YOUR LIFE? I don’t know. I don’t pay attention. Ask someone to be honest with you. Ask them for their honest feedback. If my actions had words attached, what would those words be? If my attitude was a banner, what would be written across it? What have you heard me say lately that I might not have paid attention to or even remember that might indicate “This is who I trust and I don’t like the answer.” The composite of what you said last week sure doesn’t say much about believing and knowing that God has your back. In fact, God not only has your back but your front and sides as well. God not only can be trusted with your past, but with today, tomorrow and next week as well.
The central focus of these two scriptures – from the hidden mystery of Revelation to the sometimes painful agony of the Psalmist – is worship. “What song are you singing with your life” really is about how and where you worship and I don’t just mean Sunday mornings at 10:30. We may never be able to carry a tune even if we had an American Tourister beside us to carry the notes, but it’s more important what comes from our hearts than what escapes our lips. Two things they did in these scriptures seem vitally important to our own worship and they had to do with praying and praising. They kept praying even when it seemed as if prayer was doing absolutely no good and they kept praising even when their outside surroundings would have indicated otherwise. First the prayer. Look back at the Psalm. In 12 verses he talks about being in the dumps, enemies gloating over him, needing help, being in a dire/critical situation, God being angry at him and hiding from him, crying like a banshee, and dressing in sackcloth to resemble death. The cards were stacked. Life was caving in but still he prayed. I called for help. I cried for mercy. I expressed confidence that I will never be shaken. He didn’t quit praying when it seemed as if it was doing no good. What happens when it doesn’t seem as if our prayers are going beyond the ceiling? Often we quit and give up. But the song we sing with our lives and the worship that comes from our heart tells us to keep praying. God hears and will answer…maybe not in your timeline but in His. Keep praying even when it seems as if the prayer is doing no good. Next they kept praising even when it made no sense. I remind you that Revelation was written in time of intense persecution. Rome was persecuting Christians. John was banished to Siberia. Still praise was the order of the day and the priority of their lives. The Psalmist told of insurmountable odds but he recommends, “Sing God’s praises. This will only last a short time (almost like a long, dark night but the sunrise is coming). God hid his face but my crying turned into dancing. My heart will sing God’s praises. It cannot be silent. No reason to praise but that was the order of the day.
Why keep at it? Why keep praying and praising – even when it seems that prayer is doing no good and when praise seems like the LEAST logical thing to do? A Military general retired and came to work for the GA of the Presbyterian Church. He implemented some of the methods that had won him acclaim in a long, distinguished career in the military – namely repetition. Why do we conduct drills over and over? Because no one is ever brave in crisis. But when crisis comes, it has been proven that you will default to your basic pattern. We drill over and over so that what we do will become an ingrained pattern even in crisis. Thus it is when we pray and praise – even when it appears that our prayers are doing no good and when it seems that praise is the least logical response. We do it so that it will become the default message expressed by our lives – one of faith and of trust. What song are you singing? Is it one of worship or one of doubt and despair?
Rev. Mitchell J. Coggin

“STILL EASTER?” (sermon preached April 7, 2013)
Psalm 118:14-29
Revelation 1:4-8

Over the past 32 years since I was ordained, I’ve either preached or taught from most books in the bible. That is except from Song of Solomon and from Revelation. I did teach through Revelation once about 10 years ago, but I can’t—for the life of me, remember much about it – except that TJ Grizzard was in that study and TJ was one of the best Bible teachers that church had ever known. He knew a great deal about the Bible and here I was leading a study on the most difficult book in the NT and he was to be present. But he was gracious and kind and added helpful tidbits all the way through. But most of all we learned that it isn’t just a book about end times.
A teaching on the Book of Revelation taught by Dan Erlander, a pastor offers this word of caution. He said, “Never let anyone tell you that they have Revelation figured out. Beware of anyone who tells you that.”
Revelation is a perplexing, intriguing, challenging book. One of my favorite authors, John Ortberg writes, “When it comes to the book of Revelation, people in the church tend to have two primary responses. Sadly, both of these responses are unhealthy. There are those who become obsessed with the book. They treat it like a prophetic jigsaw puzzle that will give them insider information if only they can put all the pieces together. They write up intricate time lines and diagrams that impressively chart out the last days and appear to offer answers to all of our questions.” A second response people may have to the book of Revelation is to avoid it all altogether, either out of frustration or confusion. They say, “I can’t make heads or tails of this book. It has bizarre images of strange creatures, beasts, blood, bowls of sulfur, people eating scrolls, bottomless pits, dragons, the four horses of the Apocalypse, war, pestilence, famine, and death! Sadly, since it is part of the Bible, it makes me want to ask, “What is God saying to us through Revelation? Is it just about end times? When I saw that small sections were included in the lectionary readings over the next 4 weeks, I decided to take the challenge. Usually these weeks are given to all the appearances Jesus made to the disciples and others after the resurrection. To the disciples in the upper room, then to doubting Thomas, then to the disciples on the shore when they had gone fishing and not caught anything. But why not look at what Revelation has to say to us – now?

So here’s what I do know: John is the writer of the book. He’s been banished by the Roman government to the Island of Patmos most likely for his involvement in this little first-century experiment called the Christian faith, perhaps for his preaching, his teaching if not certainly for his connection to Jesus Christ. When you think of Patmos, think Alcatraz, and you’re close. Patmos is a small barren rocky island 37 miles off the coast of Asia Minor. It is ten miles long and six miles wide, and was the perfect place for Roman emperors to send prisoners into exile. It most certainly was not a comfortable place. Historians tell us that the trip to Patmos was generally preceded by a severe beating. Life on The Rock was marked by constant confinement in shackles. Prisoners on Patmos had little or no light other than the sun—if and when they got to see that. John’s clothing—what little he had was inadequate, as was his food. He most likely slept on the cold, hard ground and he worked under constant guard. If ever there was the idea that John had a little writing shack near the beach somewhere and wrote down his amazing revelation, nothing could be further from the truth. The Book of Revelation is of a style of writing called “apocalyptic.”—a Greek word meaning “uncovering”. The word revelation literally means “unveiling”. It’s a book that unveils meaning about the past, the present and the future. And if we were to uncover, unveil or reveal the central nugget and message of this book it would be that Christ is the victorious Lord of all, from the beginning of time into eternity, the reign of Jesus Christ in the world and in the lives of believers. .

We can be tempted to come to this season after Easter and say, “Well it’s all over.” The lilies have begun to wilt. The tremendous crowd that showed up in their Easter best have gone back to their regular lives and most you will not see again until Christmas. Monday, we awakened to a world that looked like it had the week before and the week before that. If you read the newspaper and watch TV news and decide how you will feel that day on the basis of the top 3 stories, then there is cause for concern. John wrote Revelation to Christians like that. They were being persecuted by the Romans, the Temple had been destroyed (again) and even though Easter had happened, it looked for all practical purposes that God was on the ropes and down for the count. His book is like a drama designed to be read aloud in worship. He spoke in symbols and codes because it would have been dangerous and brought even more persecution to the church to come out and directly say, “Hey folks, the worship of the Emperor is in direct opposition to your faith but it you just remain faithful to the end, God has this emperor thing covered.

Life is a huge challenge at times isn’t it? We can too easily adopt the notion that following Christ will be this easy, stress and even pain-free adventure. Paul wrote about his hardships in life. He said, for the sake of Jesus Christ, I’ve experienced “imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death. Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked…” and it goes on.
Horatio Spafford, a businessman in Chicago, sent his wife and three daughters to Europe by ship while he remained back in the States, intending to join them later. En route there was a terrible storm and a shipwreck during which their three daughters drowned. Mrs. Spafford made it to safety and wired back saying, “All of our daughters have been lost. Only I have been saved.” He took the next vessel. As they came near the place where his daughters drowned, the skipper of the ship pointed to the place where the other ship had gone down. It was there on the deck of the ship he wrote these stirring words:
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
“It is well, it is well with my soul.”
Paul greeted every Christ-follower in every church he ever wrote to with the greeting we hear echoing in John’s writing: Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and from our LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ. Do you need grace in your life today? Do you need peace in your life today? In the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John, he writes to remind any Christian, anywhere in any time that in Jesus Christ there is “Grace and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come.” Jesus Christ is the Beginning and The End…the one who was then, is now and will be in the future. It isn’t finished yet.
I’m the beginning and the end. I’m still in the business of redeeming the world. How can we participate in that redeeming as well? (Made to be a kingdom of priests. Psalms says, “I will tell what the Lord has done. I will give thanks to God. I will praise Him. I will rejoice and be glad. Same thing? No joy is an attitude of the heart. Being glad in an activity of the mind. Joy he gives. We decide to be glad and to spread it.

Microsoft launched a revision of its Windows operating system for PCs called Windows “Me”—short for Windows Millennial Edition.
One feature of Windows Me that caused a stir was the “system restore” feature. How does it work? Suppose you suffer a system crash on your computer. You’re not a computer expert, and you don’t know how to recover the last two weeks of financial information you entered the day before, your granddaughter’s history report she started writing Monday, or your favorite game. All you have to do is select “system restore” and specify the date to which you want your machine reset. Voila! Problem solved. All the things you somehow messed up are put back in their configuration as of that earlier day. Wouldn’t you like to market that feature for human lives? Do you think you could supply it fast enough to keep up with the demand? Bob would “system restore” to the day before he began the affair. Sue would go back to the day before she tampered with payroll data. Ivan would choose the day before the big fight that caused his son to run away from home. Maybe you can remember the day when things crashed for you—and you’d give anything you own to restore things to the way they were.
God won’t erase all the consequences of our actions, but he promises things far better: to forgive us, to work for the highest good even through what is bad, and one day to make all things new.
What Windows Me calls “system restore” God calls redemption.
God is still in that business and calls on us to be as well. To be/become a kingdom of priests, blessing people, helping bring them back from despair and death, helping them not to give up.
Rev. Mitchell J. Coggin