|
|
|
Ninth Sunday of Pentecost, July 25th, 2010 It seems that Jesus’ disciples had a problem with prayer. I imagine they wanted to know what they had to do to ensure that their prayers were answered. Maybe there was a special way of speaking; or a special way of pleading your case. Maybe there was a special posture that helped get the right answer. And so they come to Jesus with the request, "Lord, teach us how to pray". It’s interesting to note that Jesus doesn’t teach the disciples any special “skills” in order to pray. If that were the case then the answer to our prayers would be a human achievement, and not something that comes from the gracious and loving hand of God. Prayer is not having any special skills, or saying the right words so that we can impress God to get His attention. As with so many facets of our relationship with God, we need to see ourselves as God’s children. The picture that then comes to mind here is one of a small child who wants to tell his or her parent something really important. What does a parent do? They bend down, lovingly putting their arm’s around the child and let the child whisper in their ear. In this sense then prayer is not so much us reaching up to God with special words or techniques, but it is God reaching down to us. We don’t even know where to find God. It is God who finds us, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, the good news about Jesus Christ hits home. Jesus comes into our lives through the Word of God and makes Himself known to us. Praying is being in the presence of God, who bends down like a loving parent, and makes his ear available. God hears the soft requests with love when the child is hurting. Prayer is only possible, because of God’s intense love for us. And the more helpless we feel, the more we learn this to be true. Prayer is for the down and out, who are at the end of their rope. Prayer is for those who can no longer rely on themselves, but can only be helped by God. Now most of us are guilty of failing to pray regularly. We can make many excuses, but I guess at the bottom of it all is that it takes effort to make time available every day to pray. It takes effort to be quiet and still, even for just a short while. It takes an effort to stop during a busy day and to spend time talking with God.
However, we do pray when sickness, death or despair strike, but for the rest of the time prayer is often seen as a burden. Sometimes we need the Spirit's help to drag us into the presence of God, but once there, it is not hard to talk to Him. Not many words are needed to respond to God's presence. The prayer Jesus teaches his disciples is very brief. The Lord’s Prayer takes 25 seconds to say. Prayer does not demand a lot of wearisome words. Jesus says, "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. "And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Jesus then models a prayer that is brief and yet contains everything that is important. Hallowed be your name. We pray that our Father's Name would be holy on our lips and in our lives, and that He would work faith in our hearts through the Word and the Holy Spirit. Your will be done. We pray that God’s will would guide and direct our lives, and make our faith in Jesus strong. Your kingdom come. We pray that God’s kingdom would come to us, that he would rule over us, that we may believe His Word and live as His people. Give us today our daily bread. We pray that God would give us everything that we need for our life, realizing with thanks that all good gifts come from God’s gracious hand. Forgive us our sins. We pray for forgiveness of our sins, and for the ability to forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. We pray for protection against every temptation to sin that would cause us to stumble and fall from faith. God listens to all prayers, but when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, brief as it is, every need that is important is covered. A sign in a textile mill reads, "When your thread becomes tangled, call the supervisor." A young woman was new on the job. Her thread became tangled and she thought, "I’ll just straighten this out myself." She tried, but the situation only worsened. Finally, she called the supervisor. "I did the best I could," she said. "No you didn’t", was the reply. "To do the best, you should have called me." That’s just what God wants us to do. Call on him when the threads of our life become tangled. Prayer is the way we bring our tangles lives to God, and let him deal with our situation with a divine solution. The first and most difficult step is to set time aside every day to speak with God. The key is to change how we view prayer. Prayer is not something we have to do, it is something we get to do. Prayer is a privilege of being a child of God. And what a privilege it is to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. We must always be willing to take it to the Lord in prayer, whatever the problem might be. Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you (Luke 11:9). Seventh Sunday of Pentecost, July 11th, 2010 Today a man who is well versed in Old Testament law asks Jesus a question. He asks, not because he doesn’t know the answer, but rather he wants to trick Jesus into saying something that would point out that Jesus was a false teacher. "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" is the first question that the lawyer asks Jesus. The answer is simple. It comes straight from the Old Testament. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind"; and "Love your neighbour as you love yourself." Jesus congratulates the lawyer for this answer, saying: "Do this and you will live." But the lawyer isn’t going to let Jesus get away with simply quoting the Old Testament command to "love God and love your neighbor", so he asks, "Tell me, who is my neighbor? I would guess that the lawyer didn’t really want to know what the answer was. Maybe he was hoping that Jesus would draw a line between those who were "neighbors" and those who we could ignore. In this way he could feel justified in ignoring certain types of people like lepers, or prostitutes, or tax collectors, or those that he considered less than himself. Whatever the lawyer’s motives were, Jesus took the opportunity to make this a teaching moment. Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan and ends with a reversal of the question of who my neighbor is. Jesus reframes the question as follows: Who among these people who passed by - the priest, Levite and Samaritan - had behaved as a neighbor should? Who was a neighbor to the man who had fallen into the hands of the robbers? Was it the priest – a man dedicated to serving God in the temple? Was it the Levite – a teacher of the Law – someone who surely knew right from wrong? Or was it the Samaritan – an outsider, not even considered part of God's family. A person who was looked down upon, and ignored by people like the priest and the Levite? In fact, this stranger would have had every excuse to just walk on by for this very reason, not one of them would have stopped to help him.
"Who acted like a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers", Jesus asked? I’m sure that there were whispers of concern among the listeners. "No, not the Samaritan, he can’t be the hero! This half-breed heathen can’t be the one who goes out of his way to care for his enemy! I can’t believe that Jesus is saying that if you want to be right with God, then be like the Samaritan". The teacher of the Law must have found it terribly hard to say out loud, "The person who had been a true neighbor to the dying man in the ditch was the one who had been kind to him – the Samaritan. This story about the Good Samaritan is one that I always stumble over. I stumble over it because in it I see just how many times I have crossed to the other side of the road and walked on pretending that I didn’t see the pain, the need, or the hurt. This parable hits us hard as it defines what kind of neighbors we ought to be. In the Kingdom of God, we are to be neighbors who ignore the boundaries and labels that separate us from others.
Neighbors who let nothing stand in the way of God’s compassion and love that exist in our hearts. Neighbors who are willing to give their love freely, even though we might think the other person doesn’t deserve it. Neighbors who are willing to reach out with understanding, compassion, forgiveness, and love. This kind of neighborliness isn’t just a once in a while thing when it suits us, it is the full-time work of the Christian. Jesus says to us, "You go, then, and do the same." That’s hard, really hard. We all know how hard it is to be the kind of Good Samaritan that Jesus is describing in this story. The key to this parable is, rather than identifying with one of the three main characters who pass by, maybe it’s better first of all to see ourselves lying there in the ditch half dead, bleeding and crying desperately for help. Jesus doesn’t pass us by, but rather He is filled with compassion. He stops to heal our wounds, and assures us that his care is ongoing – just like that of the Samaritan who booked the wounded man into a hotel until he recovered. The truth is, if our eternal life depended on the way we carry out Jesus’ command to "love God and to love others", then without a doubt we would be doomed. This command of Jesus to "go and do" reminds us just how much we first need Jesus to be our Good Samaritan. He is the one who gave himself over into the hands of his enemies and died on a cross, that we might be healed and saved. He is a true neighbor to us and soothes our wounds of sin and failure, especially our failure to really love others. He has paid the price for us to enter the bliss of eternal life. He is a true neighbor to us, and in an undeserved and unearned way, gives us His love and forgives us, even though we are His enemies. Jesus is truly our Good Samaritan. Having experienced this overwhelming love that knows no boundaries, the Holy Spirit stirs within us the will to be like Christ to others. We are stirred to take action right now as we hear again these words of Jesus, "Go, then, and do the same". People get caught up in all kinds of things that turn their lives upside down. Will that person have a neighbor? Will any person stop to soothe their wounds, and help them with an extravagant and lavish show of gracious love? Will the trouble in their lives be reversed by some caring person? Will that caring person be you or me? There are people all around us who are half dead and lying in a ditch. Some are half-dead physically, others emotionally, others spiritually. They are powerless to do anything about rescuing themselves. God grant us the will and the love to truly be their neighbors. And to share with them the good news that Jesus is Savior of all. Amen. Fifth Sunday of Pentecost, June, 27th, 2010 Today’s gospel reading is tough. In a nutshell Jesus is saying that if you want to "follow", then be ready for some tough decisions and demanding actions. A man comes up to Jesus and says, "I will follow you wherever you go." That’s quite a promise. The answer that Jesus gave throws a wet blanket on the enthusiasm of the would-be disciple when he says: "Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lie down and rest." We never hear of Jesus "going home" after a heavy day of miracles and teaching. He is always on the move, going from one place to the next. It is a basic human need to have a place to live. A place where we find refuge and support from those we love. A place of security and safety where we can rest and relax and be ourselves. Jesus isn’t denying the fact that we all need a place to call home, however, He is pointing out that being a follower is not always comfortable and easy. In fact, if we find our life of discipleship too cozy and easy, then we may need to re-evaluate our commitment to Christ. The main difficulty in following Jesus is this; there is nothing more important than following Him. When Peter, James and John left the security of their jobs as fishermen and the comfort of their homes, they risked everything to follow Jesus. They took him at His Word when they took the leap of faith, and trusted Jesus as they followed him into the ministry. They committed themselves to Jesus, and went throughout the known world, preaching the good news of forgiveness and salvation. Instead of warm homes, they spent a good deal of time in dark and damp jail cells. At the time Jesus called them, they had no idea of what was ahead of them. Their future, their security and their lives were in the hands of the one who called them. To carry out the work of Christ, we will be challenged to do things that we have never done before. To tell about the love of Jesus to people whom we have always been afraid to tell. To risk our reputation by sticking up for what is right. To befriend someone whom everyone else may think is a loser. The call to follow Jesus means taking a risk It is stepping out boldly for the sake of the love of Jesus. Jesus is saying that to follow him is the most important priority that we can have. Jesus told the would-be disciple "Let those who have no interest in following me bury the dead. You go and proclaim the Kingdom of God." Jesus is telling this person that nothing on earth, no matter how sacred it may seem to us, must be allowed to stand between Him and the person he calls to follow. Jesus is calling us to obedience right now. Don’t put off answering His call to serve him until another day, for we have no idea how many days we have left. He is calling us to do the work he has given us as members of the church right now. Discipleship is a matter of getting our priorities right. There is no place for conflicting loyalties when we follow our Lord Jesus Christ! Jesus isn't interested in half-hearted, conditional discipleship. Jesus is only interested in an unconditional acceptance of his call. It is important to note that Jesus isn’t saying that we should use our devotion to church activities as an excuse to neglect our families or our work. What Jesus is saying is that when you follow Him as the first priority in your life, then you will be a better father, mother, grandparent, son, daughter, or employee. What is tough about following Jesus is giving Jesus priority over the things and people that we love. The call to follow Jesus must be the priority over all other priorities, or it is nothing at all. When discipleship is the most important thing in our lives, then all the other things will fall into their right places. Do we get an uncomfortable feeling when Jesus is so blunt, and talks about total and complete and unconditional loyalty to him?
Perhaps we squirm a bit when we hear Jesus talking about following because the question that inevitably follows is– "How well have I been following Jesus?"
I have heard his call, and what has been my response?
How often have I offered all kinds of excuses, rather than obediently following my master when he says "follow me"? Our sinful nature gets in the way of following Jesus with all our heart, soul and mind. It is just for those times when we get our priorities all mixed up, that Jesus died on the cross. Daily we need to go to Jesus and own up to our failure when we offer so many excuses, and put the most important thing last. Daily we need to experience the cleansing that Jesus gives through our confession in the Lord’s Prayer and the forgiveness and reconciliation that come from praying this prayer. Daily we need a fresh realization of the never-ending love that Jesus has for us. And as we are forgiven we are again called to “follow him”. May we daily respond to his calling with confidence because of his faithfulness to help us in the tasks he calls us to carry out whether they be big or small. He can use us in all kinds of ways to call others to follow Jesus. He has given his Spirit to work in and through those who answer his calling. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling…follow me. Amen Fourth Sunday of Pentecost, June, 20th, 2010 Title: "Posessed, or repossesed?" How do we picture Satan? When we think of the devil, we often think of him with horns, a goatee beard, a devilish grin, a pointed tail and a pitch fork. I think that the devil would be very happy being portrayed this way. He would be easy to pick out in a crowd, and so easy to avoid. There would be no chance of the devil sneaking up and catching us unprepared. We would be able to see him coming a mile away. Unfortunately for us, the Bible doesn’t picture Satan as being like this at all. In Luke 22:3 we read; “Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve.” Satan is a cunning enemy. He is not some cute cartoon figure, he is real and he is dangerous, and the Bible urges us to take him seriously. Jesus took Satan seriously. In fact, he sees his whole ministry as a conflict between Himself and Satan, over the hearts souls of the entire world. He saw his death as the culmination of the supreme battle with the evil one. Logic would tell us that if Jesus takes Satan seriously, then we should also. Today’s Gospel reading tells us of one of the occasions when Jesus confronted Satan personally. It was a very scary scene. Jesus and the disciples had just put ashore, when suddenly a naked wild man came rushing toward them screaming and yelling. He was forced to live like an animal in the nearby burial caves in the cemetery. We are told demons had taken over his life. He became uncontrollable and dangerous. The townspeople had chained his arms and feet, but the wild man had super human strength and snapped the chains. When Jesus’ boat landed, the wild man rushed downhill from the tombs, eyes crazed, screaming at the top of his lungs. It must have been a very frightening sight for the disciples. But the man stops. The demons inside him recognize Jesus. They are afraid, for they knew that Jesus’ had the power to send them back to where they came from. Jesus demonstrates his power by simply asking, "What is your name?" The demons were in control of the man, but Jesus was in control of them. He commands them to come out of the man and enter a nearby herd of pigs, who then drowned themselves. When the local people from the town come out to see what was going on, they were shocked at what they saw. This man who was once wild and out of control was "sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind" (Luke 5:35). There is one clear message in this text - even though Satan is powerful; the power of Jesus is much stronger. He has the power to heal the incurable. In fact, he even has the power to raise the dead. He was, and is, more powerful than death itself. We can be especially glad that Jesus has all power and authority when it comes to Satan. We are glad, because Satan is far more powerful than we are. Satan holds this power by making us spiritually blind and deaf. St Paul says, "The god of this age (the devil) has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God". We may hear the same message from the Bible over and over, but Satan blinds us to seeing, and makes us deaf to understanding what God is trying to say to us. He can enter the hearts of people and cause so much harm. His tools are wrath, greed, pride, lust, envy, and lies. He is referred to as the “Father of all lies”. The power of Satan is nothing to mess around with. Sometimes we aren’t even aware that he is having such a powerful influence in our lives. So how can we stand up against someone or something so powerful? The answer is simple – we can’t. Peter couldn’t, Paul couldn’t, Judas couldn’t, Augustine couldn’t, Martin Luther couldn’t, Mother Teresa couldn’t. Only Jesus could, and did. Knowing that we cannot do it, we need a power that is far greater than any power we have in ourselves, a power greater than any other power in this world. We need the power of Jesus Christ. Satan constantly wants to draw us away from God’s kingdom into his own realm. But Jesus has broken Satan’s power. The whole life of Jesus is a battle with Satan for our souls, and the climax of the battle occurred on the cross of Calvary. On the cross, Jesus broke the stranglehold that Satan had on us. He won for us forgiveness for all the times we give into Satan. He has redeemed us with the price of his own blood. He has reclaimed us as his own and made us his dear children.
He has made us new, given us a fresh start, and given us His Holy Spirit to help us resist Satan’s power. The truth is that Satan will continue to tempt us and we will continue to give in to temptation. And even though we deserve God’s punishment for this; through the death and resurrection of His Son, we are forgiven and freed from Satan’s grasp. Our story from Luke’s Gospel concluded, "The man went through the town, telling what Jesus had done for him" (Luke 8:39). Just as Jesus told the former possessed man to "Go back home and tell what God has done for you", he has also commanded us to share the good news of freedom from Satan’s power to anyone who would listen. That is our job. So let’s get to it. Amen. Third Sunday of Pentecost, June, 13th, 2010 The gospel writer Luke tells us how two religious leaders sat down to dinner.
One a Pharisee, a very pious lay religious leader called Simon, who spent much of his day studying God’s Word,
the other a wandering teacher and healer named Jesus.
We aren’t told why Simon the Pharisee invited Jesus to dinner. We do learn that the welcome that Jesus got when he arrived at Simon’s place was an extremely cool one.
There was no customary welcoming kiss when Jesus arrived;
no ceremonial washing of his feet as he entered the house;
and no anointing with olive oil as was done when an honored guest came to dinner.
From this we might conclude that Simon the Pharisee was afraid of showing too much affection in front of his fellow colleagues when he invited Jesus home to dinner.
Or even worse, it might be that Simon had invited Jesus to relax at his place, have a glass of wine with the purpose of catching Jesus saying something that would further condemn him. Maybe it was both. No doubt, the two men were talking about religion when "a woman who lived a sinful life" entered the room. Luke draws our attention to the fact that she led an extraordinarily sinful life, perhaps she was a prostitute. For a woman, let alone a woman with this kind of reputation, to enter the gathering of religious teachers was very scandalous. Before Simon the Pharisee can say anything, quietly she falls at Jesus’ feet weeping, drying the tears that fell on his feet with her hair, kissing his feet and pouring expensive oil on them. I think you can see the contrasting image that we have here of the way Simon the Pharisee and the "sinful woman" welcomed Jesus that day. The welcome this sinful woman gave was emotional, affectionate, and loving. In contrast to the woman, Simon’s heart was icy cold. Simon the Pharisee could not see a child of God washing and anointing Jesus feet, he could only see a dirty disgusting woman defiling Jesus with her tears and her touch. He could only think of what others will say when they hear that this sinful woman had been at his house. He can’t understand why Jesus is allowing this to happen. And Simon deliberately says out loud, "If this man really were a prophet, he would know who this woman is who is touching him; he would know what kind of sinful life she lives!" Jesus’ attitude to the sinful woman is so different. "What do you see?" Jesus asked Simon.
"Do you see before you a woman; a person with fears, loves, hopes, dreams and feelings?
Or do you see someone who is disgusting, and dirty; someone who offends you? Do you see a person who needs to be loved?
Or only a problem that needs to be tossed out into the street. Do you see a person who needs to be welcomed, loved and embraced?
Or do you only see the ugliness of her sin? We may think very poorly of Simon for his attitude and prejudice.
But Simon is only doing what we do so easily and without thinking. It’s so easy to prejudge people, and to show prejudice.
What do we see when we look at a homeless person, a drunk, an aids victim, an immigrant, someone of a different race?
What do we see when a person asks us for a dollar for a sandwich, or someone using food stamps? If anyone had the right to brush away the repulsive, it was Jesus. He was the sinless, perfect and pure Son of God. But he didn’t. Simon the Pharisee would have avoided her as if she had the plague. All Simon could see was her disgusting sin. Jesus on the other hand, could only see a woman who loved Him, and needed his help. And she got it. "Your sins are forgiven", he says. Jesus loved this woman even though she had no right to expect anything from him. Jesus forgave her all her sins. This is God’s grace at work. Grace sees more than our sin; it sees a child in need of love and forgiveness. In a scene from the movie "Ironweed" the characters played by Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep stumble across an old Eskimo woman lying in the snow, drunk. Not too sober themselves, the two debate what they should do about her.
"Is she drunk or a bum?" asks Nicholson.
"Just a bum. Been one all her life."
"And before that?"
"She was a whore in Alaska."
"She hasn’t been a whore all her life. Before that?"
"I dunno. Just a little kid, I guess."
"Well, a little kid’s something. It’s not a bum and it’s not a whore. It’s something. Let’s take her in." The two vagrants were seeing the woman through the lens of grace. Where society saw only a bum and a whore, grace saw "a little kid," a person made in the image of God no matter how defaced that image had become. In the Old Testament we read that "People judge others by what they look like, but I judge people by what is in their hearts" (1 Sam 16:7 CEV). Where Simon the Pharisee saw only a disgusting prostitute, Jesus could only see a child weeping at his feet, needing his help and love. He had the ability to see beyond the sin and degradation of her life. He had the ability to see the marvelous potential that lay within her. The challenge that confronts us this morning is: how well are we doing at seeing beyond the sin and loving the person. At our baptism, God came to us and through the water and his Word claimed us as his own people, promised to love us and forgive always, to guide us on our journey through this life. He continues to do this everyday of our lives. Even though we are sinners, because of his grace he can still see us as his dear children. Too often we are more like Simon the Pharisee. There seems to be something in our sinful nature that wants to wipe people off as hopeless and irresponsible and to have nothing more to do with them. We see someone down on their luck, we say, "That’s there own fault" and walk away. That may be true, but Jesus challenges us to see them as he sees them. In every case, Jesus sees them as God’s children, needing Love and acceptance. And more than that, He sees you as just the right person to share with them some of the grace and love and understanding and tolerance that Jesus has shown toward us. The unique aspect that we Lutherans find in the Christian Gospel is whole idea of Gace. It is the core and center of everything the Bible has to say about Jesus. God doesn’t love us because we are loveable. He loves us because of His Son, who hung beaten, bloodied, and battered from a cross. His son, who lifted His head, looked us straight in the eyes and said; “Forgive them, Father. For they know not what they do..” Amen. Sermon for Pentecost, May 23rd, 2010 From the Apostle John we read; “The wind blows where it wills and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with every person who is born of the Spirit.” Today is embodied in one word: Spirit. The focus of the sermon is on this one word which can be translated wind, spirit or breath. In Hebrew, it is the word, “ruach.” In Greek, it is the word, “pneumatos.” In English, it is the word “wind” which can be also translated “spirit” or “breath.” We can’t be alive without air. Our sanctuary is filled with air. It is invisible, but it is really present among us. Wind is air on the move. When the Jews thought of God, they thought of the wind. They thought this because the wind was like God: it was invisible, mysterious and very powerful. We cannot control the wind, and we can’t have life without wind. Wind gives life. And so it is with God: invisible, mysterious, powerful, One who gives life, and one whom no one can control. Where can we go to escape the wind? No where. God is forever with you, no matter where you go. In the book of Joel, God says, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Your young men will see visions and your old men will see dreams. Your men and women will be filled with the Spirit, and they shall prophecy.” EVERYONE will be filled with that invisible Spirit, not just the prophetic giants and a few chosen kings…EVERYONE. In the Book of Acts, chapter 2, and we hear the story of Pentecost for today. “Suddenly, a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind and it filled the house where they were sitting. And they were ALL filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Wind, and they ALL began to prophesy, to speak boldly about Jesus Christ in many different languages.” What does all this have to do with your life and mine? We all know, you cannot have life without air, without wind. The first purpose of the Spirit is to make God alive in you and me. As Christians, we believe that there is a God in this universe who is invisible, mysterious, powerful, whom we cannot control any more than we can control the wind. This God, this Wind, gives life, both physical, and spiritual. This God is all around you, in you, above you, below you, beside you, invisibly present. Some folks believe only in the material world that they can see, touch and feel. If you can’t see it, touch it, feel it, and prove it, it must not exist. Some believe that when you die, that is all there is. They cannot grasp the Invisible, Mysterious, Power of God around us, above us, below us, and in us. The beauty is that God is present with us, whether we feel him or not. When we are thinking of him or not. When we are good or bad, rich or poor, indifferent or concerned. When we are working, golfing, singing, sailing, hiking, dying or living, God is here...which is a statement of absolute Grace. God is mysteriously near us, not because we are good, not because we are kind, and not because we are religious...for indeed, none of us have those qualities by nature. But God is graciously present in our life because...God is God. I AM, THAT I AM. The purpose of the Spirit is to make Jesus Christ alive in us. His Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control, all these virtues are made alive in us by the Spirit. The most powerful force in the world is the love of Christ. The Spirit makes the teachings and words of Jesus alive in us. Young and old...Rich and poor…Men and women…Slave and free. God fills each one of us with his Spirit in a unique way. All of God’s children are filled with the Spirit, not just the religious big shots of the Old Testament, or the religious heroes of the New Testament, or the spiritual “superstars” of our day. The Spirit of God comes into our church, and makes the church alive. The Spirit of God blows us out of our pews, out of our safe communities and into the world. The church is the wind of the Spirit on the move. By moving out of our pews, and into the world around us, we become the wind of the Spirit on the move. The Spirit is given to us so that we would have power to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ to all peoples. In Pentecost, the Church was given the power to proclaim with authority the message of Jesus Christ. You have been given that power, for you are a Spirit-filled person. Power can be used in at least two ways: it can be unleashed, or it can be harnessed. The energy in ten gallons of gasoline, for instance, can be released explosively by dropping a lighted match into the can. Or it can be channeled through the engine of a car in a controlled burn and used to transport a person 300 miles. Explosions are spectacular, but controlled burns have lasting effect, staying power. The Holy Spirit works both ways. At Pentecost, the Spirit exploded onto the scene, with a presence like "tongues of fire" (Acts 2:3). Thousands were affected by one burst of God's power. But the Spirit also works through the church, which is you and I. The Church began to tap the Holy Spirit's power for the long haul. Through faithful worship, fellowship, and service, Christians are provided with the staying power needed for endurance, perseverance and the ultimate victory. Fill er up, Lord! Amen. Sermon for Ascension Sunday, May 16th, 2010: A husband and wife are getting ready for bed. The wife is standing in front of a full length mirror taking a hard look at herself. "You know" she says, "I look in the mirror and I see an old woman. My face is all wrinkled, I've got bags under my eyes, my hair has turned grey, and I've got more chins than a Chinese phonebook." Then she turns to her husband and says, "Tell me something positive to make me feel better about myself".
He thinks about it for a bit and then says in a soft voice, "Well....Honey......your eyesight is perfect". That wasn’t quite what the wife was expecting. On the day Jesus ascended into heaven the disciples were not expecting to see Jesus start rising from the ground and go upwards until he disappeared through the clouds. There was nothing wrong with their eyesight as they stood there with mouths open looking into the sky. For 40 days after Easter Sunday, Jesus showed to his followers that he was truly alive with a physical body. He had been killed, but now he was alive again. He gave his disciples opportunities to talk with him, touch his wounds and eat with him, in order to prove that he wasn’t just a ghost, an apparition or a figment of their imagination. And they need this time to learn how the cross and resurrection were all part of God’s great plan of salvation. After all, the disciples were the ones who were to take this message about the salvation through Christ to every corner of the earth. But Jesus’ appearances on earth could not go on forever. Now it was time for him to once again take up authority and power and to rule the whole universe. Paul tells us that; “God has put all things under Jesus’ feet, and has made Him the head over all things for the church, which is His body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” That’s a pretty good summary of what Jesus is doing at Christ Community Lutheran, right now. We are His body in this fallen world. In the letter to the Philippians Paul says this about the majesty of Jesus Christ; "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Probably the earliest creed consisted simply of 2 Greek words – Kyrios Iesous – Jesus is Lord. The title "Lord" is a symbol of his victory over all the forces of evil. Jesus is our Lord because he has saved us. Jesus is Lord. I have emphasized this point because it is easy to be so focused on Jesus as He walked this earth, that we can miss the true significance of who Jesus was and is. We know the gospel stories that describe to us his humanity, we see pictures of him in Bible story books, and we can forget that He was God long before he was born in Bethlehem and is still the God who will rule forever in eternity. Let me say it again - there is no power and authority greater than Jesus Christ. We are never beyond the reach of Jesus. He is Lord of all, and wherever we go on this earth, He is there with power. Just before Jesus ascended to heaven he said, "I will be with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matt 28:20). The power of Jesus touches our lives, as we give up our old selfish ways, and let the love of Christ direct the way we view ourselves, and the way we treat others. His victory over sin and death gives forgiveness for even our worst sins – and it gives us new life now, and eternal life forever. He gives us his body and blood in bread and wine. He gives us faith through the Holy Spirit, by reading and studying of the Bible. When we pray we are praying to the one who is the "Supreme Lord of all". We know that he has the power and the knowledge to answer our prayers in the ways that are the best for us. We are told in Hebrews, chapter four; "Whenever we are in need, we should come bravely before the throne of our merciful God. There we will be treated with undeserved kindness, and we will find help". And Jesus promised, "Whatever you ask in my name, I will give it to you". The ascended Jesus intercedes for us at God’s throne. He knows what it’s like to live through trouble and pain in this world. He answers our prayers in the best way possible for our blessing, not by providing for what we want, but rather, what we need. The ascension assures us that our future is secure in the hands of the Lord of all. Jesus doesn’t only minister to us – he ministers to others through us. Through us, he confronts the hearts of others when we grasp windows of opportunity that arise in our daily dealings with others to share the unmerited love of Jesus Christ. The Ascension reminds us that we have a Lord who came to this fallen world, and gave his life for us. He rose so that we can be free of fear. He rules heaven and earth assuring us that in the face of any evil force, he is Lord of all. "There is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 8:39). Sermon for the 6th Sunday of Easter, May 9th, 2010 Who are we? What binds us together? And what are we supposed to be doing? These are the three topics of my 3 part sermon series. A plane landed after a long flight. There was enough time for everyone to get off the aircraft and then reboard in 50 minutes. Everybody got off the plane except one gentleman. The pilot had noticed him as he walked by. He could tell that the man was blind because his guide dog lay quietly underneath the seat next to him. "Sir", the pilot said to the blind man, "we will be here for almost an hour. Would you like to get off and stretch your legs?" The blind man replied, "No thanks, but maybe my dog would like to stretch his legs." The pilot offered to take the dog off for a walk. He happened to be wearing his sunglasses, as he de-boarded the plane with a guide dog at his side. Fear took control of the passengers who were milling around the check-in area. People got visibly upset and lined up at the desk trying to change planes. Fear had gripped them, as they perceived that the one who was suppose to know where they were going, might actually be blind. So it is with a church. If people think that the leader is blind, or lost, they tend to panic and act our, or run blindly themselves. As Children of God, who we are is shaped by our efforts to keep the word of Jesus always before us, and by our willingness to accept the Holy Spirit's role in teaching us what our direction should be. Jesus tells his disciples that those who love him will keep his Word by following his commandments to love God, and to love one another. He goes on to let them know that God will send the Holy Spirit in His name, and the Holy Spirit will be the teacher, comforter and guide to all those who would follow. In a church, we live in relationship with others. Therefore, it is necessary that we give consideration to the rights of others to be who they are, as well as being who we are. We do not live in isolation, but we respect each others right to “be”. People of faith understand that a state of “being” will be developed and become evident as we follow Jesus commandm and love Him first, which enables us to love one another. We confront the teachings of God's Word, through the Holy Spirit that enlightens us. God's Holy Spirit is able to teach us in all areas of our private faith life, and our public church life. This is a core belief in our coming year of FOCUS at Christ Community Lutheran. When the Spirit is upon a congregation, things are done that are nothing short miraculous. God's Spirit can, does and will teach us in all areas of our lives. Who we are—is who God wants us to be--as we live by the Word of Jesus Christ, and as we depend upon the presence of God's Spirit within us, to bind us together in love. The first order of “being one in Christ” is engaging in regular worship with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Our Lutheran Tradition helps our worship stay focused on the Word of God, that is why, in our plan to FOCUS on Christ through worship and community building in the coming year, we will re-learn what it means to be a “Lutheran” Christian. We will accomplish this through the ELCA “Book of Faith” initiative, which I will be learning more about at our Synod Assembly this year. To continue to be followers of Christ, we must read and study His Word, and the Book of Faith initiative will help us do this through study of the Word in the coming year. In today’s text Jesus was challenging his disciples to such a responsibility. He was not going to be with them in the physical body soon, but the Holy Spirit was going to be sent to help bind them together and continue in ministry. He wanted them to be sensitive to God's Spirit, full of God’s peace, and not to be fearful as they do ministry. The Holy Spirit would be there as the source of help for them. These are the days, my friends, that we, as the church of Christ Community Lutheran—both as individuals and as a body--need to be intentional about who we are in ministry together. God has called us His own, sheep of His own fold. God has bound us together in His love, by the power of the Holy Spirit. God will continue to use us to build his Kingdom right here at 1742 Servant Way. Called, bound together in love, and set on a path of deeper spirituality and understanding will empower our ministry to the world. That is our FOCUS for the coming year at Christ Community Lutheran Church. God wants to continue using us to be instruments to seek a deeper relationship with Him, both for ourselves and for others. Are we willing to continue to be that Holy Spirit channel of the living God? Jesus came and taught us, and showed us how to be God's instrument’s in the world, and in the community where we presently find ourselves. I am challenging each of us to realize that the Spirit has been given to us to enable us to “be” all that God wants us to be. Who are we? Children of God, sheep of our Master’s fold. What is it that binds us together? God’s love, through the power of the Holy Spirit. The first two are obvious, it is the last one that causes us grief. There are many false notions about what a church is supposed to “do” in the world. I would suggest that the whole premise of a church “doing” is a false one. I would further suggest that the true question is; “Who is God calling us to “be” in the world? The first calling of God, is to “be” together as one body in the Spirit, one in the Lord. When we open ourselves up to the presence of the Spirit of the living God of the universe through worship, education and finally outreach, we become what we already are…children of God in mission with God. My friends, it is time for Christ Community Lutheran to embark on a year long adventure in defining and redefining who we are and why we are here. This will be our year long FOCUS of the church. Finding Our Calling Under the Spirit. Let us pray: O God, make your Spirit strong in us and among us. Give us the courage and humility to allow your Spirit to flow through our lives, and into our experiences, so that you might be all that you want to be in the world. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 5th Sunday of Easter, 2010 Title: What is it that binds us together? Real love forgets self. Real love knows no danger. Real love doesn't count the cost. In Song of Solomon in the Bible it says, "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it". The gospel text today is about this kind of love. Jesus’ words are aimed at the whole Christian family, at the whole Christian Church. Jesus says, "I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples." Take note that Jesus says, "I give you a new commandment” Not a suggestion, not a recommendation, not “a good idea”. A commandment! This is a command to love in the same way that Jesus loves us. Jesus said, "As I have loved you, so you must love one another." Notice the little word "must". “Must” tells us that there is no way around this command of Jesus, "You must love one another." Why does Jesus command us to love? When do we give “commands” to children? Perhaps when something is so important, that if it is not followed, we will die. Jesus gives this command, because if we fail to follow there will be a death, of sorts. Not an eternal death, but a death to the possibility of living in God’s Kingdom right here, and right now. To love others as Christ first loved us is to enter the Kingdom of God right now, not after we die. It is easy to love the people who love us first or love us back, but we draw a line and say, "These are the people I am prepared to love, and this is exactly how much I am prepared to love them.” In a nutshell, we are comfortable to love in a selective kind of way. You could say that we are comfortable with the kind of love that doesn’t make us feel uncomfortable. This is not what Jesus was talking about here when he said; "As I have loved you, so you must love one another". What Jesus says is quite plain. We should love others in the same way that Jesus loves us. His love is sacrificial and self-giving. He loved unconditionally. His love is genuine, honest, caring and compassionate. His love is not turned on and off by fleeting passions, or emotional highs and lows. He didn’t draw a line and say that going beyond that line was too much to ask. His love knew no limits. And that is how he commanded us to love – willingly and sacrificially. In fact, that’s why Jesus commands us to love, because he knew that we are happy with a love that is anything but unconditional and sacrificial. This is a far cry from the way that we actually show our love toward others. Do you know why it is that we find it so difficult to love as Jesus commanded? Because this kind of love goes against our human nature. It goes against all human reasoning and logic. To the human mind, it makes no sense to love people, who we feel do not deserve it. It seems humanly impossible to love as Jesus has loved us. The truth is, we, in and of ourselves, cannot do it. However, the Bible states that our ability to love comes not from us, but from our relationship with Jesus Christ. "We love because he first loved us", says the Apostle John. We are able to love because he first loves us. Understanding this is critical to our ability to live out the commandment of Jesus to love one another. The more the love of Jesus fills our lives, the more it overflows to those around us. A child who does not receive love, psychologists tell us, will not be able to give love. On the other hand, a child who has received the proper amount of love and nurturing as an infant, will have a sense of security and trust that will last them all their lives. The love that children show is dependent of the love they receive. In order to show Christ-like love, we need to receive that love first from Christ. Many people try to love with great fervor and self-sacrifice, but it only lasts a while, maybe an hour or a day. We can’t keep it up. Like beginning runners, we find ourselves down the road in pain, gasping and cramped, saying, "I’ll never do that again." Love, like running, must be aerobic. That is, our output must be matched by our intake. Running requires oxygen. A renewing, enduring love requires God’s word, God’s sacramental presence, God’s Holy Spirit, God’s love and forgiveness. As we love aerobically, we will love not in our own strength and ability, but the strength and ability that we receive from Jesus. We will love because he has first loved us. It is interesting to note that love is the Christian’s primary witness to the world. Jesus said; “If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples." Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? God’s Love is everything it's cracked up to be, and more. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more. People need loving the most when they deserve it the least, because love, real, unselfish, unconditional love, cures people. It cures both the ones who give it, and the ones who receive it. You see, love doesn't give a person what they deserve, but what they need, we deserve death, but in Christ, we are given life. I conclude with this message from John: “it is not that we loved God but that He first loved us, and sent His Son to be the payment for our sins. So, beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Amen. SERMON FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER, 2010 I don’t usually title my sermons, but today I begin a series of sermons, and the first one is entitled, “Who are we?” Today is the fourth Sunday of Easter, and is better known as Good Shepherd Sunday. The book of Isaiah says, “All we like sheep have gone astray..” In Matthew Jesus says: “I will have pity on them, for these people are harassed and helpless, like a sheep without a shepherd.” Being described as spiritual “sheep” can be very humbling. As spiritual “sheep” we human beings are vulnerable to being led astray. A person’s life direction can be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Elie Weisel wrote the book NIGHT, based on his experiences in the concentration camps during the holocaust. As he watched his little sister and mother marched to the gas chamber, Wiesel realized that life was even more fragile and vulnerable than he had ever imagined. Millions of people were being led like little lambs to the slaughtering houses of the Third Reich. They were led there because people, like sheep, blindly followed a false leader. Human beings are compared to sheep in scripture. Unfortunately, sheep are rather dumb animals. Sheep are dumb because they have such a strong herd instinct. When they are threatened, this instinct becomes stronger than their reasoning and intelligence. If one sheep goes over a cliff, the whole herd will go over the cliff as well. Their herd instinct is stronger than their intelligence. Likewise, we as human beings, often suffer when our herd instinct becomes stronger than our intelligence. We too, tend to blindly follow earthly leaders, and follow the crowd. We only need to think back to Nazi Germany, and how many intelligent people blindly followed the herd, and said nothing. It has happened many times in human history. The herd instinct is strong in us as human beings, and sometimes it overrules our intelligence and we can do rather dumb things. The fundamental principle is true: we human beings often act like sheep, and the herd instinct is so strong that it often overrules intelligence and rationality. Sheep also tend to wander away from their shepherd, and likewise we often wander away from God, and do not fully realize what we are doing. Most people don’t make a conscious decision to turn away from God, any more than a sheep decides to wander off. Instead, human beings drift away from God, ever so slowly, losing the closeness and deep faith that they once had. What I am suggesting is that we human beings are like sheep, and we tend to wander, or be led, away from God. Dogs are often used to herd sheep, because a dog has a very strong homing instinct. A sheep has absolutely no homing instinct at all. When a sheep is lost, it cannot find its way back home. So somebody has to go out and find that sheep and bring them back. Christians are those who know and confess, that they are sheep of a flock. And if we confess that we are like sheep, what do we need more than anything else in the world? A Good Shepherd, who will guide and direct our paths. God provided a Good Shepherd for us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. The shepherd knows the name of the sheep and Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, knows our name. And where does Jesus, our good shepherd, lead us? Scripture tells us that He leads us to green pastures and still water. The green pastures are the food that God provides for us; that is, the Bible, the Word, and the Sacraments. We are nourished by the spiritual sustenance of these gifts of God. Jesus also leads us to the still waters of our Baptism. So we Christians are led to the Word and the Waters, by the Good Shepherd who provides for our souls. The last place that the Good Shepherd leads us is to the cross. It is at the cross that the shepherd becomes the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God is sacrificed on our behalf. His blood cleanses us from all sin. He died for us, that we may we live for Him. You see, we are not only sheep, we are His sheep. Amen. SERMON FOR EASTER SUNDAY, 2010 Those who have experienced loss of a loved one know that, in the face of death, there is absolutely nothing to be done…it is a totally helpless feeling. Sometimes all you can do is embrace people as they sob. There is something so absolutely final about death. It leaves us all feeling so helpless in the face of it, as we try to come to terms with what the loss of our loved one means to us. Death is cruel, and it doesn't care who it takes, young and old alike. And we can't do anything about it. Doctors and scientists have been trying to do something about it for as long as there has been medical science. The one absolute certain thing we know that will happen to you and me is that we will die. I can’t imagine the sadness and helplessness the disciples must have felt as the news of Jesus’ death was reported to them. This man whom they loved so much was dead. When they placed Jesus’ lifeless body in the tomb, they realized that this was it - this was the end of Jesus. He was dead. They were in a state of emotional and spiritual paralysis. The women who went to visit the grave early on the Sunday morning expected to find the dead body of Jesus in the tomb. With heavy hearts they came to complete his burial by finishing what they had hurriedly started on the eve of the Sabbath. But the grave was empty. We have heard the resurrection story before, and so a lot of the excitement has been lost for us. But try to imagine what it was like for those women and the disciples when they heard that a dead person was now alive. They knew with absolute certainty that Jesus was dead, and had been buried in a tomb. The grave had been sealed tight with a huge rock. Finding the empty tomb, they heard the message of the angel, "He is not here; he has been raised". Jesus was alive. To hear this message and then over the next few weeks see Jesus "in the flesh", talking with them, eating with them, walking with them – that must have been an amazing time. The disciples and the women had forgotten that this was no ordinary man who died on the cross, and that the death they witnessed was no ordinary death. The cross killed Jesus, but with his death and resurrection, Jesus killed death itself. Death itself died when Jesus took upon himself all of our sin, and then rose again from the grave as the conqueror over the "last enemy" – death. His resurrection ensures that death no longer has the power to scare us. It ends any uncertainty that we might have about what lay beyond death and the grave. His resurrection gives comfort and reassurance when someone we love is suddenly taken from us. His resurrection calms our fears that life is passing away all too quickly, and we will soon face our own inevitable death.
Jesus’ resurrection gives us the assurance that not even death can separate us from the God who loves us. Death is the doorway that leads us into the beautiful life that waits for us beyond the grave. That is what the resurrection has done with death. It has turned it into a harmless pause on our journey home. As Jesus was resurrected from death, so the resurrection awaits us all. Those who are in Christ will be raised from death to live with him forever. The fear of what will happen to us when we breathe our last breath has gone. Can you see what changes happen because of Easter?
There’s hope that there is life beyond the grave. There is a newness, a freshness that fills our life knowing that Jesus is our living Lord who walks with us and strengthens us every day. We can face anything with the living Jesus comforting us when we are sad, and reassuring us when we are unsure. As we draw nearer to our own last day in this life, it’s perfectly natural to be anxious and afraid of what will happen. The living Jesus assures us that he will never forsake us and that we can be certain that he will hold our hands, carry us if necessary, through the difficulties that may lie ahead. The living Jesus gives us the confidence to face whatever tomorrow may bring. The living Jesus knows what we need, and is ready to use his power to answer our prayers. The living Jesus makes all the difference in our lives. When we leave Jesus in the tomb, we’ve got nothing. But to put faith in the resurrection gives us the newness and hope that we so desperately need in our lives. We live lives that are filled with so much stress and uncertainty. The living Jesus assures us that "nothing in all creation is able to separate us from the love of God." I’m glad our Easter celebrations don’t end with Good Friday. Yes, Jesus died – but he also rose again. That’s worth celebrating. Jesus has overcome the grave. He has given us the victory and declared that we shall be with Him in heaven forever. Celebrate the resurrection of our Lord today! Celebrate your resurrection today! Amen. SERMON FOR THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT, MARCH 21st, 2010 Today we are headed to a home in the Jerusalem suburb of Bethany, where Jesus stopped in to see his old friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus before he entered the city of Jerusalem for the last time. John tells us that Jesus loved them, although he does not tell us why. Maybe there is no "why" to love. They called him Lord, so they knew who he was, and yet they were not his disciples, they were his friends. They were the three people in whose presence he could be a man, as well as a Messiah. Just days before, Jesus had worked a miracle at their house. Lazarus was so dead that Jesus stood in front of his tomb and wept. Then he roared so loud at death that he scared death away. While the sisters stood in amazement, their brother Lazarus came stumbling from his tomb, trailing his death shroud behind him. Now Jesus has come back to Bethany with the pharisees hot on his trail. By raising Lazarus from the dead he has graduated from the category of a "manageable nuisance" to a "serious threat." News of the incident has sent his followers over the top with adoration. There is not a chance Pilate is going to be able to ignore them during the Passover festival. It is time for Jesus to be dealt with by the powers that be. So his days are numbered and he knows it. When he arrives at his friends' house in Bethany, they can see it on his face. So they take him in and care for him, shutting the world out for this one night at least. Lazarus is probably still clumsy from his four days in the tomb. He sits and stares while Martha makes a stew. Mary, meanwhile, has slipped away, gone to find something in her room. Martha is used to this. Mary is always disappearing, even when she is sitting right there with everyone else. She gets this look on her face, like she's listening to music no one else can hear. Martha knows there is nothing to be done but to work around her. Finally, supper is on the table and they all sit down to eat, saying what they hope and hiding what they fear. No one notices that Mary has gone again until she comes back holding a clay jar in her hands. The smell of fills the room—it is a sharp scent, halfway between mint and ginseng. Then, as everyone in the room watches her, she loosens her hair, and pours perfume on Jesus' feet. She then wipes the perfume off with her hair; the strange end to an all around bizarre act. He knows she loves him. She knows that He loves her too. So why this public demonstration in front of all their friends? It's extravagant and excessive. She's gone overboard, as Judas is quick to note. "Why wasn't this perfume sold for a whole lot of money and given to the poor?" That's what Judas wants to know, but Jesus brushes him aside. "Leave her alone," he says. "She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me". Leave her alone. Leave me alone. Just this once, let her look after me, because my time is running out. No matter what anyone else in the room thought about this act of kindness and love, Jesus took it as a message from God. Jesus saw it for what it truly was, the carefully performed act of a prophet. Everything around Mary smacked of significance--Judas, the betrayer, challenging her act. The flask of perfume, perhaps left over from Lazarus' funeral. And not far away, a freshly vacated tomb that still smelled of burial spices, waiting for a new occupant. The air was dense with death, and Mary's prophetic act revealed the truth of whose death it would be. She was anointing Jesus for his burial, and while her behavior may have seemed strange to those standing around, it was no more strange than that of the prophets who went before her. Prophets do things like that. They act out the truth that no one else can see, and those standing around either write them off as nuts, or fall silent before the disturbing news they bring from God. When Mary stood before Jesus with that perfume in her hand, she could have anointed his head and everyone there could have proclaimed him a king. But she did not do that. When she moved toward him, she dropped to her knees instead and poured the perfume on his feet, which could only mean one thing. The only man who got his feet anointed was a dead man, and Jesus knew it. "Leave her alone," he said to those who would have prevented her. Let her finish delivering the message. Mary rubbed his feet with perfume so precious, that its sale might have fed a poor family for a year. She carried out an act so lavish, that it suggests another layer to her prophecy. There will be nothing economical about this man's death, just as there has been nothing economical about his life. In him, the extravagance of God's love is made into flesh. In him, the excessiveness of God's mercy is made known. This bottle will not be held back to be kept and admired. This precious substance will not be saved. It will be opened and used, at great price. It will be raised up and poured out for the life of the world, emptied to the last drop. Before that happens, Jesus will gather his friends together one last time, at another banquet. With most of the same people present, Jesus will tie a towel around his waist, and wash his disciples' feet. Then he will give them a new commandment: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” They will watch him working on their feet and remember Mary bending over his feet like that--the prophet Mary. Mary who knew how to respond to Jesus without being told. Mary, the one who acted out his last, great commandment before he ever said it. At home in Bethany, the storm clouds are still piling up against the door when Mary gives the forecast: it will be bad, very bad, but that's no reason for Jesus' friends to lock their hearts and head to the cellar. Whatever they need, there will be enough to go around. Whatever they spend, there will be plenty left over. There is no reason to fear running out--of perfume or of life either. For where God is concerned, there is always more Grace and forgiveness than we can ask for, or even imagine. Amen. SERMON FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT, MARCH 7TH, 2010 Benjamin Larson, was a senior at the Lutheran Seminary, in Dubuque, Iowa. He was spending January in Haiti, teaching theology. Larson, and his wife Renee, were inside St. Joseph Home for Boys in Port-au-Prince, when the earthquake hit. While his wife was able to escape, Larson was buried as the building collapsed. She went back after the earthquake was over, and called for her husband. Renee said she heard him singing. "I told him I loved him, and that I was OK, and to keep singing," she said. But the singing stopped after he sang the words "God's peace to us we pray." A memorial service for Larson was held Jan. 22 at Luther College, Decorah, where he earned his bachelor's degree. Only one question remains…Why? At some point in most of our lives, we face the inexplicable and ask the question ‘why’. Things don’t go the way we want them to; we don’t get a job we apply for; we become sick; a relationship fails, someone we love dies. Even when we pray frequently and earnestly, still these things happen to us, and to our friends. Sometimes when we look ahead we see no light, as the question “why” blocks our path. In today’s lesson some people came to Jesus with two instances of suffering and ask him the question, ‘Why do good people suffer?’ The first instance is about the Galileans, whose throats were slit by Pilate’s soldiers in the holiest place of all - the temple of God. Why did they deserve such a fate? The second instance reported to Jesus concerns the eighteen people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them. This happens in so many disasters, just like it happened to Ben Larson in Haiti, and thousands of others. Why do bad things happen to good people? Back in Jesus’ time it was presumed that when this kind of thing happened, it meant that the individual was being punished by God, but Jesus responds by saying, ‘Do you suppose this proves that they were worse than all the other people living in Jerusalem? No indeed!’ Both bad and good things happen to all people. The apostle Paul says, “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing He will also provide the way out, so that you may be able to endure it.” God’s promise is that in every test that comes to us, he also provides a way through it. And wasn’t that the Apostle Paul’s own experience? Remember how he had a personal affliction, and he prayed many times that it would go away. He uses the word ‘torment’ to describe what he was experiencing, and he pleaded and begged God to take it away. But his problem did not go away. Instead he received this assurance from God; ‘My grace is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak.’ When Paul was at his lowest and weakest, that’s when he experienced again the love and the power of God. And what about Jesus? The Bible says that he was tested in every way. Satan came to Jesus and offered him the whole world, if Jesus would only worship him. And in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus was facing the most important moment in His life. If he stayed in the Garden He would have to go through the whole thing. He prayed, "Father, does it have to be this way? Isn’t there an easier way?” But in the end, he put it all into his Father’s hands and prayed, ‘Not what I want, but what you want!’ If you are going through a testing time, remember these words, ‘At the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it’. Your faith may be brought to a crossroads. It is at these crossroads of life that we must rely on God’s promise, and trust that he will see us through every problem. We must face every problem with the confidence that the Holy Spirit in us will help us to overcome it. No problem is too great or too small for God. As Paul said, ‘We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him. … If God is on our side, can anyone be against us?’ (Rom 8:28, 31). How can we possibly trust God when everything seems so terrible? Look at the cross. There on the cross God's love is demonstrated so clearly. Jesus gave His very life out of love for us. This gift of love can be trusted. God's promise is certain because it is based on his unshakeable promise for us that He made on the Cross, “I will never leave you, nor will I forsake you.” Hold on to that promise. Believe it with all your heart! Put it to work in your life and see how true it is. I am told that one of the best things that you can put on a plant to make it grow, is blood. Jesus gave his blood for us on the cross. His blood enables us to grow into being God’s children every day, and to bear the fruit of His love for others. His blood saves us. His blood redeems us from the grave. His blood calls us to repentance and faith in Jesus our Savior. His blood gives us new life, right here, right now. May the blood of Jesus Christ give you strength, courage and perseverance as you run the race before you this coming week. Amen. SERMON FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT, FEBRUARY 28, 2010 Besides loss of a loved one, rejected love is one of the greatest pains that we face in our earthly pilgrimage. The pain of rejected love is one of the worst feelings in the world, and the greater the love, the greater the pain of the rejection. In the reading from Luke’s gospel today, we witness the pain of God’s rejected love. Jesus is recalling the long history of God’s people rejecting the love of God. From the very first chapters of the Bible, we see the constant rejection of God’s love for the people he created. In love he sent messengers, prophets, and even angels to tell His people how much He loved them. Each had the same message, "Turn your hearts back to God." Again and again each messenger was rejected. And the rejection wasn’t just of the message or the messenger, but of the One who sent the messenger. And the more God spoke, the more people turned a deaf ear. Jesus expresses the heart of God as he says, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets, you stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times I wanted to put my arms around all your people,… but you would not let me". Like parents of an addict who constantly reach out and try to express how much they love their child, but still their love is constantly ignored or rejected. The parents grieve as their child ends up in all kinds of trouble simply because the guidance they have offered in love, has been ignored, over and over again. We rejected God’s love in the past, but that doesn't stop God from continuing to love His creation. And that leads God to do the unthinkable. He does the last thing that any one of us would do. God sends His only Son. God sends the ultimate gift of love, to show his rebellious children how much he loves them. But he too is rejected, ridiculed, beaten and nailed to a cross, and left to die. Jesus was left to die, even by those who were the closest to him. The greater the love, the greater the pain of the rejection. The Bible says that the greatest love a person can have is the kind that is willing to die for his friends (John 15:13). We are told in John 3:16 that God’s love for the world is so great that he sent his only Son to rescue his people from eternal death and instead give them eternal life.
Paul writes, "God has shown us how much he loves us—it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!" (Romans 5:8). The love that God has for us is greater than any love we could even possibly imagine, and we cannot wrap our minds around that kind of love. We can feel the frustration in God’s words, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem! … How many times I wanted to put my arms around all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me!" What does this statement tell us about the nature of God? We can know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the love and power of God are close by even in the middle of our most difficult times. We can know that we are always being called to come closer, to feel the warmth of God’s love, to be the people God intended us to be through the Word. Even when we are at our lowest, we know that we can endure all things through the strength that comes only from God. I am reminded of a story about a family whose twenty year old son filled his nights with drinking and drugs. One night in a drunken stupor, he came to his parent’s home and stumbled through the door, passing out on their kitchen floor. As the father was about to wake him and kick him out, the mother gently knelt down beside him, placed his head in her lap and gently stroked his hair. When the father began to speak, she said, "Shhhh! This is the only time I get to hold him. He’s still my son, and I want to hold him.’ The nature of the love this mother has for her son, is the same nature of the love that God has for you and me. No matter how bad or unfaithful we’ve been... God still loves. Even in our rebellion, we are still God’s children. We are now in the season of Lent, a time when we are urged to take a long look at our relationship with God. We take a fresh look at just how much God loves us, and keeps on loving us, even in the disappointment of falling away from our daily walk with Him. The problem is found in our inability to let go of our lives and let God in. We want to be in control. We want to work things out for ourselves. When we look at it from God’s perspective, can we imagine watching our own child struggle, knowing that if they simply listened to us, they would be alright? Because of our inability to let go and let God, we get things so out of focus that we no longer see that God’s love for us in Christ is the only thing that really matters. We forget that we are ‘citizens of heaven’, to use Paul’s words in Philippians. And like a caring mother hen, God keeps on calling us, gathering us, enlightening us under His protective care. God’s love for us in Jesus Christ is absolute, unconditional and eternal SERMON FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT, FEBRUARY 21, 2010 Every time we pray the Lord’s prayer, we ask God to keep us from falling victim to Satan’s tricks by saying, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
We know that all too easily and all too often, we have been led by Satan into all kinds of things that we know have nothing to do with God’s perfect will for our lives.
We may even get to the point where we feel that this is one petition of the Lord’s Prayer that we may have to give up on. Most of us can relate to giving in to temptation. Temptation of one kind or another forms a part of almost everyday for every human being. Today’s text tells us that Jesus wasn’t above temptation either. When we picture Jesus in our minds, we often forget that he was a man, a human being, a person who walked this earth, who did the kinds of things human beings do. As a human being He ate, he drank, he slept, he got dirty, he took baths, he prayed, he cried, he got angry, he gave thanks, he worshiped, he feared, and yes, he was tempted. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by the devil after he had fasted for forty days. What the Devil tried was to tempt Jesus to take the easy way out. Most of our temptations are just that – instead of taking the harder road, we are tempted to take the path of least resistance. The devil tries to tempt Jesus 3 times. Jesus ate nothing at all during those forty days, and when they were over, he was literally starving. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus is obviously very hungry and, as the Son of God, He does have the power to change the rocks into bread. But Jesus refuses to take the easy way out, so the devil leads him up and shows him all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you will worship me, it will all be yours.” Again, Jesus resists the temptation to take the easy path to power, glory and riches. Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Again, Jesus resists the temptation to come to earthly power by the easy route of showing off His power as the Son of God. In each case, Jesus refused to be tempted to take short cuts, to take the easy way out. God’s plan of salvation through His Son included hardship, suffering, pain, and even death. There was not going to be any easy way out. Satan was trying to sidetrack Jesus with easy options to dominate and rule, rather than to serve and save. Satan, the father of all lies, tempts us in exactly same way today. He is always putting in front of us easy options, and attractive alternative paths to power, riches and safety. Satan offers the path that that will satisfy our own desires, at the cost of our relationship to God, and our fellow human beings. The path that Jesus took was hard, as hard as it can possibly be. He was hungry, and the most natural thing to do would be to satisfy that hunger, but he didn’t. Being powerful is tempting, but Jesus didn’t fall for that either. Temptation is Satan’s way of leading us away from God’s mission and will for our lives. There is no one on this planet that is exempt from temptation. Temptation is found in anything that tries to lead us against God, and God’s Will for our lives. At our baptism, God adopted us into his family and made us his sons and daughters. When we give into Satan and his tricks, we forget to whom we belong. We belong to God and we belong in His kingdom. The Bible emphasizes this in Colossians: "You are the people of God; he loved you and chose you for his own. So clothe yourselves with qualities that demonstrate that you belong to God’s family.” In a word, remember who you are – a person for whom Jesus gave his life. Satan’s power to seduce is far greater than our power to resist. We need God’s forgiveness through our confession and prayer. Therefore, we need to remember that while we are on this earth, we will have to go to God and humbly admit that we have messed up, in order to be free to follow and to serve God and our sisters and brothers. Jesus came so that we could have forgiveness for the many times that Satan uses our weakness to get us into trouble. Jesus went to the extreme of dying on a cross, so that the guilt that comes from giving into temptation can be removed, and we can be made right again in the sight of God. Even when we might feel terribly disappointed in ourselves, and totally unworthy of God’s love, God still gives us His Love and forgiveness through His Son. Lent is a time of self-examination, repentance and renewal. During this time, we realize how weak we are when it comes to temptation. This realization leads us to ask God to forgive us, renew us and make a new start. Lent is a time when we rejoice that our God is a God of forgiveness and new beginnings. Our God is a God of second chances. Our comfort and strength in every temptation is that Christ has already triumphed over temptation and sin, on the cross. Christ has won the victory for all of us, forever, Amen. SERMON FOR TRANSFIGURATON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14TH, 2010 My mom tells the story of when my brother Todd came back from Ann Arbor after being given a fatal diagnosis of two inoperable brain tumors. Over a period of 12 years, he had fought and won two previous battles with brain tumors, having them removed and treated successfully, and had never once complained or given up. This time was different. He sat at my parents kitchen table, lowered his head, and for the first time since he was a child, he began to cry. Then he got up, took one of my mom’s kitchen bowls, and went out to start picking raspberries in the back yard. My mom still talks about the encouragement that this gave her. We all need encouragement.
We need it when we’re young; we need it when we’re old, and we need it in the years between. While we recognize the importance of encouragement, and really like it when someone encourages us, encouragement is one of those things that we don’t seem to do enough. Some times we need encouragement in the small things of daily life to help us get through the day. Maybe a phone call, an email, a note, or people telling us they’re praying for us. And there are those big moments in life, when we are at a crossroads in our career, our marriage, our job, or making major medical decisions. It is in those moments that encouragement means a lot. Now you might well be asking, “What has all this got to do with the gospel story about Jesus encounter with Elijah and Moses on the mountain, and the voice that came from heaven, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen—listen to him!" There are lots of angles with which we can view this gospel story – but today I want to consider this. Jesus was truly a human, just like you and me. He experienced the same joys, fears and temptations that we do. God the Father knew that Jesus needed encouragement, just as much as any of us. I believe that this at least part of what is behind the transfiguration event on the mountain today. Jesus had been busy in the villages and towns. He had healed many, calmed storms, fed thousands of people, even raised the dead, and now he was going to head for Jerusalem to fulfill His Father’s will. Just before today’s lesson, Jesus had told His disciples that it would not be long before he would suffer at the hands of his enemies, and be put to death. He knew what lay ahead of Him in Jerusalem. He knew that in Jerusalem he would face the power of the one who got us kicked out of the Garden of Eden, and had been twisting our thoughts, words and deeds ever since. He was completely innocent but he would be stripped, whipped, mocked, beaten, and nailed to a cross, while everyone simply watched as he struggled for every breath. Luke tells us that Elijah and Moses spent time talking with Jesus about God's plan to save humanity, and how this would be carried out through his dying in Jerusalem. Jesus needed every encouragement to keep his eyes on the goal. I am sure that seeing Jesus glow with dazzling brightness, and hearing Elijah and Moses talk about what was about to happen was also an occasion that encouraged the disciples. They needed to understand who Jesus was, and what was about to happen to Him, and to them. The words from heaven, ‘This is my Son, whom I have chosen—listen to him’ confirmed that Jesus was God's Son, chosen for a special task. Even with this foreknowledge, I think we can safely say that when Jesus was arrested and crucified, the disciples were confused and very troubled. Later when they reflected on the day Moses and Elijah talked with him, what took place in Jerusalem started to make sense. They could see that everything that happened was part of God's amazing plan to save humanity from eternal death and the Devil. It’s not easy being a faithful disciple. For any person who takes Jesus’ word seriously, there will be times when staying loyal is a difficult thing. And there are times that we need encouragement. God knows this. God knows this so much that one of the gifts of God’s Holy Sprit is the gift of encouragement. The word that Paul uses in Romans literally means to come alongside of another person, and to give them a lift. The word Paul uses here has the same origin as the name given for the Holy Spirit – the Paraclete – the counselor, the encourager, the one who comes alongside of others representing Christ to them. The Holy Spirit does this for us through others, and we are called to do this for others. It follows then to ask, "How can we be God’s servants who encourage others?” In the New Testament, there are lots of statements that include the words ‘one another’. Statements like love one another, pray for one another, care for one another. Alongside of these is ‘encourage one another’. How can we, through the power of the Holy Spirit, get alongside of others and give them a lift? First, we pray, and then we listen. When someone is down or discouraged, we stand beside them and lift them up with words of hope and encouragement. After my children’s sermon with the daycare kids on Thursday, one of the kids stayed behind while the others lined up to go back to their classrooms. She had a real sad look on her face. I asked what was wrong, and she simply said, “Pastor, can I have a blessing? I said sure, and put my hand on her head and said, “May the Lord bless you and keep you safe in His arms, now and forever”. She looked up with a big smile on her face, said “Thanks” and skipped back to her classroom. How many broken hearts are we walking past each day, not giving the simple encouragement of a smile or a kind word? Let us resolve to ask the Holy Spirit to allow us to be that word of encouragement for all who are weary and heavy burdened. You are the presence of Christ in this world. Amen. Sermon for the fifth Sunday after Epiphany, February 7th, 2010 In our first lesson, Isaiah witnesses God sitting on his throne in heaven. Seeing the glory of God, Isaiah said, "There is no hope for me! I am doomed because every word that passes my lips is sinful, and I live among a people whose every word is sinful." Then the gospel reading from Luke tells us about Peter’s reaction to Jesus and the miraculous haul of fish; "He fell on his knees before Jesus and said, "Go away from me, Lord! I am a sinful man!" It seems that to be given a vision of the living God, is also to see how far we have fallen short in our lives, under God. The readings today are in agreement on this point. They are not about joy in the presence of God; but instead they speak more of terror in the presence of God. The writer to the Hebrews had this in mind when he wrote, "It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!" Both Isaiah and Peter were terrified and were brought to their knees before God, and confessed their unworthiness. They realized that they were in the presence of the perfection of a God who is so totally opposite to what we are. They realized in that moment, that God has the power to look into our hearts, minds and souls. Just as Peter and Isaiah thought they were okay, there are still people who believe that their trust, their commitment, their sincerity, their prayers, their obedience, or their deeds, allow them to stand justified before God. It is believed that these “good works” ensure that God will be on their side, and make them acceptable before God. But we read this in the Book of Isaiah, "We are all infected and impure with sin. When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags". Hearing this, our reaction might be the same as that of Isaiah – "We are doomed!” When we come here to worship we come into the presence of a God who knows us from the inside out. Were we to realize this, we would say like Peter; "Go away from me, Lord! I am a sinful man!" Sin is not only what we do, but also what we are. When we speak of “human nature”, we mean that by nature humans are full of lust, greed, envy, wrath, pride and self-love.
Sin is our radical break with God from the fall of humankind. Sin is our separation from God, and it is humanly impossible for us to do anything about it. There are times when we experience this separation from God, when we have done something that we know is offensive to God. At that moment we feel the deep divide between God and us. However, those realizations are few and far between. In day to day life, few realize that we are unworthy of being called children of God. Even though we are not worthy to be called children of God, nevertheless we are not worthless in God's eyes. I have spoken about our slavery to sin, our helplessness to do anything about it, and our lack of freedom to accept Jesus. It is only when we can grasp just how helpless we are, that we can grasp something of the wonderful release and freedom that the cross of Jesus Christ gives to us. We are sinners, this is most certainly true; and yet we are accepted by God right where we are, because of what Jesus did for us on the Cross. God runs out to greet the totally helpless, those who have surrendered their false piety and attempts at holiness, and welcomes us home. It is not that we have taken the step toward God, but rather that God has come to us, and declares that we are accepted and forgiven through the blood of His Son. Take Isaiah as an example. He knows that his sin will bring about his complete destruction. Then at God's command an angel takes a burning coal from the altar and touches his lips, saying, "Now your guilt is gone, and your sins are forgiven." God does the impossible; he accepts the ungodly. He says to us, as he said to Isaiah, "Your guilt is gone, and your sins are forgiven." The blood of Jesus Christ has set you free. Jesus has closed the gap in our relationship with God and has declared, "Your sin is taken away". The message of the Gospel is this and anything less than this is no longer the gospel. Jesus, the Son of God, took on to the cross all of our guilt and sin and paid for all of it with His life. It is only through him and him alone that we receive forgiveness and are saved eternally, and not by our choice, but by the Grace of God alone. Even though we let God down over an over, we know that through Jesus we are forgiven and accepted. And through His Holy Spirit, God gives us the faith to grasp and rely on His Grace. The beginning of faith is the realization of how empty we are, and how much we need God's help. We are able to believe in God and trust God because God has first accepted us. And even when our faith gives way to doubt, that doesn’t change our status with God one bit. God loves you, Jesus died for you, God has accepted you without reservations, and that is all that counts. That’s the beauty of the gospel in all its simplicity. It is grace; it is free; and it is a gift. But oh how it goes against the basic human belief that tells us that you only get what you pay for. By instinct we feel as if we must do something in order to be accepted, loved and saved. Peter and Isaiah experienced the judgment of God on their sin, and realized to an even greater degree that God has a never-ending love for them. Like Peter and Isaiah, we realize that we are sinful, but also that we are forgiven and put right with God through Christ. And we answer the call of God by saying, “here am I, send me”. And we take up the challenge to catch people - comforting them with Christian love, and encouraging and supporting them through troubles, and when our friendship is strong enough, telling them what Jesus means to us, by inviting them to worship. May the Holy Spirit create in us a new heart of openness, love and acceptance of our brothers and sisters. With our sins forgiven and God's grace in abundance, let our response to the Love of God also be, “Here am I Lord, send me! Sermon for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany, January 31st, 2010 All pastors can relate to Jesus experience in His hometown. I remember the times I have preached in my home church in my hometown; I didn’t have much spiritual authority either. One time was my Brother Steve’s funeral. At the funeral I said “Steve asked me to do this, and I suppose it was because he couldn’t stand the idea of a bunch of people saying nice things about him, when he couldn’t stand up to defend himself.” People chuckled, I think because of the truth of the statement. The remark didn’t add my authority as a preacher, but it broke the ice at a very tense time. At every class reunion that I attend, there is that awkward moment when the emcee asks; “And who are you most surprised as to what they grew up to be?” “Paul Strom!” is always the resounding answer from 120 voices in unison. I don’t have much spiritual authority with my old friends. All my brothers knew me too well as their kid brother to have much spiritual authority in their lives. It is with these images that I approached the Gospel story for today where Jesus said, “A prophet is not accepted in his own home country.” Now the situation that day was this: Jesus was on a roll. When you do three big miracles in three days, you are on a roll. Two days before, Jesus had miraculously stopped the storm on Lake Galilee. The next day, Jesus healed the lady who had hemorrhaged for more than twelve years. And then on the very next morning, Jesus raised the dead daughter of a man and woman who were grieving. So Jesus was on a roll, a big spiritual roll. So now we come to the scene of Friday night, and Jesus was coming into his home town and home church. The service that night was jammed; they probably ran out of bulletins. They put extra benches up in the center of the aisles. It was crowded, because the “local kid who made good” was coming back to town. Jesus came to the crowded service that night, and as the guest of honor, he was able to choose from any passage in the Old Testament prophets. He chose the following passage out of Isaiah which would then became the basis of his sermon that night. Jesus read: “The Lord God has appointed me to preach good news to poor people, to heal the blind and sick, to set free those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus then closed the book. There was a long silence, and he said: “These words are fulfilled in your hearing.” Then he preached a sermon on that text, and afterwards, the Gospel of Luke says that “everyone spoke well of him and wondered at his gracious words.” But there were others who murmured and grumbled, “Isn’t this the son of Mary, who is sitting right over there? And aren’t those his brothers and sisters? He is just a common kid from Nazareth. There is nothing special about him.” And pretty soon, according to the passage, “they took offense at him.” They were mad at him. They were so offended by Jesus, that they ran him out of the church and out of the town, right up to the edge of a high cliff and were going to kill him. The congregational members had come in with such high expectations. Jesus was on a huge spiritual roll; the church was jammed; but by the end of the night, they were ready to kill Him. What was it that he said that was an offense for them? The townspeople were open to believing that Jesus might be a healer, perhaps even a prophet, but Jesus was suggesting that he was even more than a prophet. He was claiming that he was the long awaited Messiah, the Son of God. “Little Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah?” “How could God come in such a common and ordinary way? “Jesus certainly doesn’t measure up to our expectations of what it means to be a messiah.” The people there that day were offended by the idea that God would actually became a human being. That was the stumbling block. O yes, they could believe in the God that created the universe, but to believe that God chose to come to earth as a snot-nosed, little kid who was a carpenter, a gofer for carpenters, a man who would swing a hammer for a living? There are many things in the world that make it hard for us to believe in the carpenter’s son. It upset the townspeople that God would come to them in such a common way. And God continues to come to us and to speak to us through human beings, through family, through friends, sometimes even through strangers, but we are just as resistant to God’s presence. What I am trying to suggest to you is that God consistently comes to all of us, and walks with us and talks to us in common and ordinary ways, so ordinary, that we often don’t even hear the voice of God. Instead, we are looking to the stars for a divine revelation, when it might be sitting right next to us, right now. It is hard to believe that Christ is really present and really speaks to our lives through those around us. But that is the way God comes to us, in very common and ordinary ways. God seems so clear when are looking at the stars of the universe, but when God comes to us through the common meeting of another human being, we are often disappointed that the meeting seems so unspectacular. Jesus comes to us through the hearts and souls of those in our midst. God also comes to us through the Word and Sacrament, through the Bible, and sermons, through baptism and Holy Communion. It usually doesn’t seem like anything fancy. But when we have the eyes of faith, we see God, and hear God through the common hearing of God’s Word and partaking of the Sacraments, and through the witness of God’s people. What we need to do is the most difficult thing for human beings to accomplish. Namely, shut up and listen. Amen. Sermon for the third sunday in Epiphany, January 24, 2010 One of my favorite Vince Lombardi quotes is this: “Teamwork is what the Green Bay Packers were all about. They didn't do it for individual glory, They did it because they loved one another.” The reading from first Corinthians today makes some strong points about teamwork. First of all, it says that we are Christ’s body. Note that it doesn’t say like Christ’s body, but we are Christ’s body. We are a group of people joined together in Christ: that’s what we have in common. Through His death and resurrection Jesus has joined us together in our baptism as one body in Christ. We have been called together into God's family as brothers and sisters in Christ; together we are God's own people. Peter writes: “But you are God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9) And the Apostle Paul says this; “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.” (Col 3:15). True Christianity can break down barriers between us, and in doing so, turns the world on its head. The reality is that the body of Christ breaks down the barriers which individuals and societies create and embrace. The body of Christ sets a different standard, because it is faithful to what it means to be joined together, to be linked together in Christ as one body. Today’s second lesson emphasizes that while each of us has individual gifts, together we make up what we call the body of Christ. Paul uses the picture of the body. The point of Paul’s picture of Christianity as a body is that we are a part of God, and each other, and we all have a part to play in God’s master plan. Just as a hand can’t decide to live in isolation from the rest of the body, we cannot live in isolation from each other. To be a member of the body of Christ, means that we exist in relation to others. Paul explained this new oneness that people shared when he said; "Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it." He is speaking to the church at Corinth, which is in great strife. Yet in spite of all of this Paul opens his letter by calling them "the saints at Corinth". He then says "Each one of you is part of the body of Christ. He doesn’t say to them, "Now listen here, you guys, this is what it should be like…Instead he deliberately and firmly says, "You are the body of Christ”, i.e. this is how it is. It’s not like life in the world. When it comes to the body of Christ we can’t use worldly ways. In the world, people use one another, criticize one other, and run others down to promote themselves. In the world people get angry and abusive if they don’t get their own way.
In the body of Christ things are different. Here our function and purpose is for the good of each other. If one is sad, then we share that sadness. If one is disadvantaged, we feel that disadvantage. If one is sick then we long for them to be well. If one is separated, we want to help reconcile them. If a young person is struggling to cope, we sense that struggle, and reach out to lend a hand. We encourage each other to use our gifts to the fullest. In the body of Christ, there’s a different set of values. This set of values is based on Grace, not law, and this doesn’t happen naturally. It only happens when individuals are linked to Christ, as members of His body. And then it follows that the stronger the link to Christ the more that kind of interaction and togetherness becomes a reality. It is through hearing the word through song and speech, it is studying the scriptures, it is receiving Holy Communion, it is asking Jesus in prayer for guidance and help, that we know Christ, and see our place within his body. Without this knowledge, we will wander aimlessly, just as the church in Corinth did. We are called into the church to be one with Christ and with those whom Christ has saved through His death and resurrection. We are motivated by the love of Jesus to be like Christ to others – welcoming the outcast, accepting the sinner, encouraging the depressed, providing for the homeless, comforting the least, the lost and the lonely. In doing so, we become the body of Christ, and the living presence of Jesus Christ in the world. What we do here on Sunday mornings is to get focused on Jesus Christ, as we get a sense of what it means to be part of a bigger family, which is the body of Christ throughout the entire world. Paul says to us, "Together you are the body of Christ". It is the love of God that has called us together – as different as we might all be – to be his body at Christ Community. Sermon for the second sunday in Epiphany, January 17, 2010 When travelling in unfamiliar territory, signs are very important. They tell us which way to go, how to get to the next destination, which train to catch, or what road to take. Signs can also give a deeper meaning to something we are looking at. A lack of signs can cause a lot of problems. We become frustrated when we cannot find out what street we are travelling on, or where to turn off, or in what direction a particular town is located. The gospel reading today is about a sign. Jesus had just saved a wedding, by turning 180 gallons of water into wine. John finished saying, "Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee". Without a doubt this first miracle of Jesus seems like a strange one to start His ministry with. There is no life and death situation here. The danger here was that a host would end up looking foolish for his poor planning of his daughter’s wedding feast. The host had planned the wedding down to the last detail so that everything would go as smoothly as humanly possible. Everyone was having a good time at a wedding. But even the best laid plans can go wrong. For some reason there wasn’t enough wine. This was a crisis, for the host. Jesus’ mom seems to be a lot more concerned about this than her Son. But being a dutiful Son, Jesus saves the day. He orders the water jars to be filled with water. When the water jars were poured out into the glasses of the guest, it came out as fine red wine. This was not just another round of drinks, Jesus turned 180 gallons of water into wine. That’s a lot of wine even for a Wisconsin wedding celebration! And it’s especially a lot of wine seeing that Jesus provides it only after the original supply of wine has run out! So what’s this all about? We might even ask why John bothered to record this miracle. None of the other gospel writers did. When John records a miracle he doesn’t use the word miracle – instead he calls them "signs". For John, Jesus’ miracles are signs which pointed to something else, something bigger than the signs themselves. The miracle is a sign pointing out something special about Jesus. This sign reveals to us, something about Jesus’ divine nature as well as the unique relationship between him and his earthly mother and His heavenly Father. Jesus is the one John talks about when says in chapter one,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him…In him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” Jesus is the "Word made flesh". He is God who has comes to earth to become a human. John writes about these signs in his Gospel so that we might believe and have faith. After the miracle at the wedding, we are told that "his disciples put their faith in him". Near the end of his Gospel, John wrote this; "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30,31). In other words, he has written down these miracles with the specific purpose it being a sign, pointing us to Jesus as our Savior. That we might believe Jesus is truly God, and that through Him, and only through Him, is there the possibility that we might have forgiveness and eternal life. For John the miracles are signs of the new reality and the new kingdom that Jesus is bringing. The old is being replaced by the new. He comes offering new wine, new water, new life and more than enough for everyone! He comes to fill up the cup of Grace and to overflow it, in order to fill the “God-shaped” hole in our hearts. He comes to break down the walls which separate us. He comes to repair what has broken down, to make new what has grown old. Look around this world and you will see tired faces, fear filled eyes, an emptiness inside, when dreams centered on material things have suddenly blown away like a morning mist. This wedding at Cana story is a good sign, because it is pointing us in the right direction. It points us to Jesus, and when our hearts are overwhelmed with the sadness and troubles of this world, he offers us the new wine that gives peace and joy; - the peace and joy that comes from a renewed commitment to God; - the peace and joy that comes from knowing that our sins are forgiven and that there is life beyond the grave; - the peace and joy that comes from knowing that God is ready and willing to be our refuge and strength in every time of trouble. When the emptiness returns, we can drink of the new wine that he offers us in Holy Communion. He will keep on offering it as long as we need it – until that day we enter the eternal wedding feast in heaven. The miracle at Cana is a sign, and for a sign to be of any value it must be read, understood and acted upon. The sign John gives us in his gospel reveals the glory of Jesus. The sign calls us to faith and trust in the one who can deal with even the most mundane of human problems, like the amount of wine at a wedding, like the day to day problems in our lives. Our lives are signs of God’s presence. May God grant that others may see our lives as signposts pointing to Jesus, and that through our witness, they may have new life in his name. Amen. Sermon for the Birth of Christ, January 10, 2010 As a Lutheran pastor, I am sometimes asked why we baptize babies. My answer is because babies cannot argue about it. I am also asked why we sprinkle water on their heads, rather than submersing them completely in a pool, like the Baptists. I used to wonder about this myself, until I came across the following story reported on CBS news in 2005: “The Rev. Kyle Lake, 33, pastor of University Baptist Church in Waco Texas, was stepping into the baptismal tub on Sunday, and when he reached out to adjust a nearby microphone, it produced a shock that electrocuted him.” This is enough justification to sprinkle, at least for me. Today we are going to focus on Jesus’ baptism as a means of understanding our own baptism. Jesus came to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. John felt unworthy to baptize Jesus, but Jesus insisted. Jesus was immersed in the Jordan River. As he came up out of the river, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son with you I am well pleased.” Immediately, the Spirit of God came upon Jesus, and then led Him out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The Holy Spirit was and is, the very presence of God. This was the same Spirit that was present, when God created the world. In the book of Genesis, it says, “The Spirit of God was hovering above the waters.” The Spirit was above the waters, ready to create life in those waters. Then, that same creative Spirit came upon the prophets. The prophets were filled with God’s Spirit, and they spoke with boldness and authority. Then, that same Spirit came on Jesus at his baptism. By this power of the Spirit, Jesus turned water into wine, controlled the wind and waves of the sea, cured the lepers, healed the deaf and the blind, and raised the dead. Jesus had power over the demons, and the strength to fight the temptations of the devil himself. By His death, Jesus demonstrated that God’s power to forgive was stronger than the devil’s power to condemn, teaching us an important lesson in our battle with evil. In order for evil to spread and grow, we have to hit back. In your baptism, the same Spirit that was moving over the waters at creation, that same Spirit that filled the prophets with courage, wisdom and truth, that same Spirit that came down upon Jesus at His baptism, is the same Spirit that has come into your life in your baptism. In your baptism, the Spirit of God came down to you and you became a member of the community of the Holy Spirit. In this community of the Spirit, Christ’s community, we are to grow into our true identity as children of God, just as Jesus grew into His identity as the Son of God. We are the community of Christ in this place. This community of the Holy Spirit gives us the strength to cope…with divorce, with kids, with sickness, with parents aging, with their death, with our aging and with our own death, with all the injustices in the world that surround us. When the Spirit is inside of us, there is power, true spiritual power, and that power is the power to forgive, and to love. The demons of hatred, and prejudice and separation, tremble at the sound of His name in this place. In his baptism, Jesus was declared to be the Son of God. The voice out of heaven declared, “You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” I have always appreciated those words. I was thinking about these words, last night. I had opened the door to let Marky in from playing in the snow. It was cold and his nose was running, so he grabbed both my arms, and wiped it on my shirt, then he looked up at me and said; “Bless you dad!” The words came to me from Isaiah; “This is my beloved son, in whom my soul delights.” As Jesus was being baptized, we can visualize God up in heaven, looking down at Jesus, his child, and saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom my soul delights.” And so it is when we are baptized. God looks down at us and says, “This is my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter in whom my soul delights.” That is the way that God feels about us, whether we are eight days old, or a hundred and eight years old. When you were baptized, you were declared to be a child of God, and brothers and sisters of Christ. The purpose of Christ coming to earth was to take upon himself the sin of the entire world, from Adam to the trumpet sound on the last day. When Christ carried the cross to Golgotha, he carried the sins of the whole world. The power of Baptism is the power of the Cross, to cleanse, heal, and save. You and I were baptized in order to get rid of our sins, to drown them in the waters of baptism. Jesus was baptized not to get rid of his sins, he had none. Jesus was baptized in order to carry our sins to the cross. So it is with our baptism: when we are baptized into Christ Jesus, we are baptized into his death, so that, just as Jesus was raised from the dead by the will of the Father, so we to shall inherit eternal life. In Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit of God came upon Him. He was declared to be the Son of God in whom God delighted. He was anointed to be the Suffering Servant to carry the sins of the entire world. In your baptism, the Spirit of God came upon you. You were declared to be a child of God, and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven. You are a child of God in whom God is delighted. And that is enough. Amen. SERMON FOR EPIPHANY, JANUARY 3, 2010 Matthew tells us the birth of Jesus took place ‘during the time when Herod was king’. History tells us that Herod was a ruthless and evil king. He was appointed "king of Judea" by the Romans. The Jews didn't think much of him because he was only partly Jewish. The Romans, on the other hand, were suspicious of him because he was partly Jewish. And Herod, well, he was suspicious of everyone. The wise men from the East who went to Jerusalem and consulted Herod about where they might find the newborn king, must not have known his reputation. If they did, they would realize that Herod wouldn’t greet this kind of news with any joy. He was extremely jealous and always fearful that he would lose his authority over Judea, and would allow no-one to challenge his position. Especially not a newborn full-blood Jewish prince whose kingship was foretold in ancient Scripture. When the wise men didn’t return to Jerusalem Herod sent his soldiers to Bethlehem and the surrounding district and had every baby boy 2 years of age and under killed. This is such a contrast to the story that Luke tells when there is such obvious joy, hope, and praise of God for the exciting news that a Savior has been born. Matthew’s story instead is set against the hatred and violence of Herod. Why would Matthew want to highlight so much evil on the occasion when so much good was coming into the world? In his telling, Matthew shares with us something about the world into which Jesus was born. He wasn’t born at a time of peace and good will on earth. Even at this early point in his life he was under threat of death, and had to escape under the cover of night before Herod’s soldiers arrived in Bethlehem. The same theme is foretold in the ancient Scriptures – that the world was a dark place and that a light was coming into it. John’s Gospel picks up this theme of light and darkness when he says, ‘The true light that gives light to everyone, was coming into the world’ (1:9). This theme of light driving out darkness is heralded by the star that shone brightly in the dark night sky, as it led the wise men to the place where Mary & Joseph and Jesus were staying. This bright light in the night sky heralded the birth of the Light of the world. Jesus said this about himself, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness" (John 8:12). Jesus was born into our world to drive out the darkness of hopelessness and fear that shrouds so many lives. There is darkness in each and every life - but for each the darkness is different. Only you can say in what way the darkness of sin and evil affect your life. The darkness may be the wrong that you have done, and you cannot accept that God has forgiven you, or maybe you aren’t able to forgive yourself. The darkness may be the coldness and the uncomfortable feeling that a breakdown in a relationship brings. The darkness in our life may be fear of illness, the loss of someone close, or our own dying.
The darkness in Herod’s life was jealousy, and it had completely overwhelmed him. He could not see Jesus as the wise men saw Him. In fact he was so filled with jealousy, that he feared the light, in fact, saw the light as darkness – as a threat to his security and comfort. John comments on this when he says, ‘People who do evil hate the light and won't come to the light, because it clearly shows what they have done’ (3:20). What a contrast this is to the wise men. They followed a star and found the baby, the son of a carpenter and a peasant girl. But they knelt before him, gave him precious gifts, and worshipped this little child, this light for all of God’s people in the world. The challenge for us in this New Year is to look for the light of Christ shining in our world, recognize it, and just like the Wise Men, allow ourselves to be guided by it. At the end of a particular Christmas play, the speakers reflected on what kind of gifts they can give to the Christ-child. The first speaker reflecting on the gift of gold says: ‘What can I give to celebrate my Savior’s birthday? I’ll give him first-place, I will give Him the gold. The one Wiseman brought a gift of gold – this is the gold I bring’. The second speaker says: ‘I can make a difference. I can be like a sweet-smelling aroma, I can be the perfume that refreshes and brings pleasantness to those around me: to my family, my friends, those with whom I work or whom I see and interact with each day. The one Wiseman brought the gift of frankincense, symbolic of the pureness and sweetness of God, the love that he shows to each of us’. And the third speaker says: The third Wiseman brought myrrh: a gift signaling this child’s destiny – myrrh was used for embalming. This child will die will die for sake of the entire world. As the star acted as a guide to the Wise men, so I can offer myself as a guide for others who are looking for Jesus. And I can remind others that one day Jesus will come again, and it too will be a day of celebration. On that day everyone will know that he is the King of all kings, the Lord of lords. He is the light that has come to drive out the darkness. Wherever there is darkness in our family, in our friendships, in our community, Christ has commanded us to let our light shine before others, to relieve the suffering of others and drive out the darkness that shrouds the lives of so many. As followers of Christ we are to let the light of Christ shine through us, so that the darkness of evil might be dispelled. There is only one cure for the darkness of sin and unhappiness in this world, and that is the Light of Jesus Christ. Let him be our guiding light in 2010. Amen. SERMON FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY OF CHRISTMAS DECEMBER 27, 2009 Today’s lesson may have been the inspiration for the “Home Alone” movies. It tells us that when Jesus was 12 years old, He was missing for three days, and His parents found him in the temple debating with the teachers of the Law. This is the only story about Jesus from the time he was 6 weeks old, until he began his ministry at 30 years old. I assume that if St. Luke had anything more important to tell us about Jesus' early years, he would have told us. I suspect the reason that we have not been told anything further about Jesus early years indicates that Jesus grew up like any other boy in Nazareth. Luke summarizes the silent years of Jesus' life this way: “Jesus grew both in body and in wisdom, gaining favour with God and people.” Given this scripture , I think we can assume that Jesus was smart, had good manners, and was usually well-behaved. Except for that one time when his parents couldn't find him for three days. So what are we to make of this one story that is set between the time Jesus was six weeks, and 30 years old? Luke is keen to point out that Jesus was a true Israelite and that he was raised in the Jewish tradition. Mary and Joseph travelled the ninety miles to Jerusalem for the Passover feast every year, in a convoy of friends and relatives from Nazareth. As is always true, there was greater safety in large numbers. So it isn't surprising that when this large group headed north back to Nazareth, no one noticed that a twelve year old was missing. 3. Everyone probably assumed Jesus was with someone else, probably off playing with His cousins. It wasn't until they had travelled a full day that they realized Jesus was not with them. If you have ever lost a child, even for a minute, you will know what fears must have gone through the minds of Mary and Joseph, as they searched for their son amongst all the travellers. One by one every person they asked shook their heads indicating that they hadn’t seen the boy and with every negative reply their fears grew. Was he safe? What could have happened to him? The worst is always imagined. Where could he have gone? We should have kept a better eye on him. We should have been more careful. Why didn’t we look for him sooner? They spent three days looking for him, going to places they had visited in Jerusalem, asking people in the streets if they had seen him. Luke doesn’t give us any details here, but leaves it up to our imagination. He is sure all of us know what it is like to be lost, or to lose someone. Losing a child for a few seconds is terrifying enough, we can only imagine what Mary and Joseph must have been going through as they searched for 3 days. Finally they find him in the temple, sitting among the religious teachers, amazing them with his intelligent questions and understanding of the answers they gave. There was a time when artists painted Jesus as the teacher in this story. Luke in actual fact says that Jesus was listening to the teachers and asking them questions. He was inquisitive and wanting to learn. This is possibly one of the greatest miracles of the bible, a 12 year old who wanted to go to confirmation. When Mary and Joseph finally find their son you can understand their reaction – they don’t know whether to be happy or angry. “What a relief that you are safe. Don’t you realise how worried we have been? Why have you put us through all this?” And then for the first time in His life, we hear from Jesus himself. He gently reminds them Whose Son He really is. He indicates that His true Father is God almighty. Respectfully he answers his mother, "Why did you have to look for me? Didn't you know that I had to be in my Father's house?" It seems that the twelve-year-old Jesus already has an understanding of God that would go beyond that of any other twelve year old.
He is growing in his awareness of the special role that he will play in God’s plan of salvation. He recognises that He is not only the son of Mary, but also God’s Son.
We see here a growing realisation of His divinity. At his baptism some 18 years later, we see the ultimate confirmation of this fact when a voice calls from heaven, "This is my beloved Son. With whom I am well pleased." It was God’s plan that his Son would take on himself our sin and the sin of the entire world. He was obedient to His heavenly Father to the point of sacrificing his own life to save us all. At his birth, he was named Jesus which means “Savior of the people”, and in an act of absolute obedience, he was exactly that – our Savior from sin and eternal death. He was obedient unto death for our disobedience. Our greatest disobedience is failing to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, by refusing His call to be faithful disciples. Our second disobedience is to the command of Jesus to love one another, and to work together as his people in the world. We are God’s rebellious children, but we are blessed that Jesus was obedient to the point of dying for us, so that we might be forgiven and rise to new life in Him. Our text today gives us a glimpse into Jesus growing and maturing as the Son of God. Even here, at the age of twelve he is the obedient Son of his heavenly Father, staying in His Father’s house to learn more about his purpose on this earth. His obedience took him to His death on a cross, so that we who are disobedient, might also become God’s perfect daughters and sons. His obedience, even unto death, gave us hope for all time. On 17 December, 1927, while surfacing from a submerged run off Cape Cod near Provincetown, Massachusetts, The U. S. submarine SS-4 was accidentally rammed and sunk by the Coast Guard destroyer Paulding. Heroic efforts were made to rescue six known survivors trapped in the forward torpedo room, who had exchanged a series of signals with divers, by tapping on the hull. As the hours dragged on the power for the internal equipment of the submarine was exhausted. The last recorded message from the doomed men on the submarine was this question, "Is there any hope?" There is hope, and it is found in the person and presence of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who was born, lived, suffered and died, for you. Christmas is the season of hope in the church. Though His death and resurrection, Jesus has prepared a place for us forever. He tells us this in John, Chapter 14 when he says: “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” Amen. SERMON FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT, DECEMBER 13, 2009 All over the world people are getting ready for the joy of the lights, the gifts, the carols, and the cheery glow of Christmas. But in the middle of the joy of our Christmas preparations, comes John the Baptist out of the wilderness, in his camel hair coat, a wild man who lives alone in the woods, eating locusts and wild honey. Like a bull in a china shop, he interrupts our perfectly planned events, and worship services with his fiery brand of preaching. If we really want to see what's in Bethlehem's manger, we must first confront this crazy man out in the wilderness, whose sermons seem as bitter and wild as the terrain he lives in. If we want to get to the joy of Bethlehem, we must get past John the Baptist, otherwise Bethlehem means nothing at all. What a contrast John is to everything else that is happening at this time of the year. John the Baptist seems so out of place at Christmas. And yet, all the gospels have him there, as if to say that you cannot meet Jesus until you have dealt with John. It's as if the Gospel writers are saying to us that we cannot truly understand the purpose of the coming of Jesus, until John tells us why we so desperately need Him in the first place. And so we come to our Advent worship services, and John the Baptist intrudes into our joyous celebrations and makes us feel like it is Lent, rather than Advent. "Repent!" says John. The Greek meaning of this word is best understood as “changing one's mind”, in the sense of embracing thoughts and ways that are beyond our minds present limitations or thought patterns. This definition is different than the old testament meaning of feeling sorry and sorrowful. This definition focuses on the enlightened state being that is approached, rather than the inferior state being that is left behind. “Repent, open your minds to a new reality of love, hope and peace.” Set those newly opened minds towards Bethlehem, towards the Savior of the world. Here we are in the midst of our Christmas celebrations and John throws cold water from the Jordan River in our face and calls us to repent, to change our outlook, our state of mind. This is no time to be proud and self righteous. As long as we remain in our old patterns of thought, focusing on our sins, rather than on God’s Grace, we will not be able to see who is lying in the manger, and more importantly, what He has done for us, and is doing for us today. As long as we focus only on our sin, we will fail to comprehend the love of God that sent His only Son to die for our sake. If we desire the real joy of Christmas then we must first recognize our Savior. That baby born in Bethlehem was the one who died on the cross outside the city walls of Jerusalem for our salvation. We were submerged into that cleansing at our baptism; we were made righteous in the sight of God by His blood. But how hard it is for us to live as people who are children of God. And how cunning are the forces of evil that turn us away from our baptismal identity as Christ's own people, to focus only on our mistakes. Just as the people of John's day had to get ready to meet Jesus, so too John encourages us to get ready to meet him again, both this Christmas, and at his Second Coming. John tells us that we need to be honest with God, and with ourselves. We must evaluate our lives, not by what we think, but by what God Almighty commands. And what does God command? That we love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and our neighbors as ourselves. This is a cold sobering burst of Jordan water in the face of our love affair with our own sin. Joy, real gospel-evoked joy, comes only by way of the truth – the truth that states that only God gives salvation, and God gives it as a complete, unmerited, undeserved gift. This joy comes when we realize that God's love sent to us a Savior, who cancelled our debt of sin completely, and promised that His love would follow us all the days of our lives. There in the manger is a child, a very ordinary looking child, the infant son of Mary, who saves us from the punishment we deserve, by dying on a cross for our forgiveness and our salvation. But to see who that child really is, and understand the value he has for us, we must hear what the Baptist has to say. Let’s listen carefully to John the Baptist and his call to look at the world through new eyes, to hear with new ears, to speak with a new tongue. Let’s look at our lives and honestly own up to the way we have kept our God at arms length, living in the fear that God does not forgive. In repentance we surrender those painful, misguided perceptions of ourselves to God. Repentance is an act of surrender to the God who removes those heavy burdens in order to lift us high in his gracious arms. At this time of the year when the world is working so hard to be happy, the people of Christ surrender to God - to receive God's peace, in the full knowledge that we are forgiven, redeemed and loved. Repentance is letting go of our fear of retribution, and letting God fill us with his Grace and Peace. Then we can come to Christmas, able to see the gift God has given us in the manger, and on the cross of Calvary. We see the love, the sacrifice, commitment, and grace of our Lord and Savior, all wrapped up in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. We breathe a sigh of relief that God has dealt with the disharmony and pain in our lives with the gift of his Son. And in His love, we realize, through minds changed and eyes opened, that we are free at last. Praise God Almighty, we are free at last. Amen. SERMON FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT, DECEMBER 6, 2009 John the Baptist was a messenger sent by God to prepare people for the coming of Christ. He said: Prepare your hearts for the coming of Christ; cleanse yourself from the sin that is deep within; and be washed in the waters of baptism. The Bible is concerned about cleanliness. Both the Old Testament and New Testament have laws concerning clean and unclean. Jesus said, “Unless you are clean, you cannot be my disciple.” The Old Testament focused mostly on the cleanliness of the skin, while the New Testament focuses on the cleanliness of the inner heart; not on the cleanliness of the flesh but the cleanliness of the inner spirit; not on the cleanliness of the body but of the inner soul; not on the outer shell, but on the inner person. Jesus was enormously concerned about cleanliness, but his focus was on the “inside” of the cup and not the “outside. And John the Baptist, echoing the same theme, said: “Prepare for the coming of Christ to the earth”... Prepare for the coming of Christ into your heart by being cleansed of your sin which is deep within in order to prepare for God to enter in. The Bible is very concerned about inner cleanliness. John the Baptist lived at a time when the culture around him was corrupted, corroded, callous, and contaminated, by pride and love of self, instead of humility and love of God. John the Baptist shouted: “Come out to the wilderness; come into the desert; and cleanse yourself of the sin which is deep within. Let your inner heart be purified, in order to prepare for the Christ to come and live inside of you. Prepare. May your heart be prepared to receive the Christ.” In order to understand John the Baptist more clearly, we will use the Old Testament prophecy from Malachi for today which compares the Baptist to “launders soap.” Launders soap is an anemic translation. In the Revised Standard Version, it is called “fuller’s soap” which was used to wash the filthy hands of blacksmiths. In the Jerusalem Bible, it is called “fuller’s alkaline.” Not merely soap but alkaline, super strong stuff. It is the kind of soap which really digs in and gets the dirt out. When I was growing up, I used to work on cars with my older brother Todd. My hands were permeated with grime, filthy grime that I couldn’t get out. I still have vivid memories of using this strong granular soap with which I used to wash my hands over and over again. I tried to get the grease that was deep within all my pores. I scrubbed and scrubbed, even with a stiff brush to get my hands clean. Soft soap wouldn’t cut it. And that’s what John the Baptist is all about. John the Baptist reminds us that we have this sin, which is deep within that needs to be washed clean in order to prepare our hearts to receive Jesus Christ, John does not “soft soap” our sin. For John, baptism was like fuller’s soap, to get at the sin that is deep within us. The second image or word picture that is used by Malachi to describe John the Baptist is that he is like a “refiner’s fire.” And so it is with God’s word from the Baptist. His word was to be like a refiner’s fire; his word from God was to burn off the impurities in people’s lives; to burn off the impurities in our lives. That’s what John the Baptist is all about: he knows that for the energy and electricity of God to flow into our life there needs to be a cleaning, a refining, a baptism of repentance. There is no Christmas morning, without the night before Christmas, when we gather to confess our sins and receive forgiveness and new life through Holy Communion. It is only as we are freed from that sin which is deep within, that we can experience the joy of Christmas morning. God always sends us messengers like John the Baptist to be like “fuller’s soap” or “refiner’s fire” to confront us with our sin that is deep within. There is a God-shaped hole in the heart of every human being, that only Jesus can fill, and he does this though baptism and Holy Communion. As Lutherans, we hold that Baptism is the saving work of God, mandated, instituted, and participated in, by Jesus Christ. Baptism, along with Holy Communion are "means of grace" through which God creates and strengthens our saving faith. Baptism is the washing of regeneration in which infants and adults are reborn as children of God. Since the creation of faith is exclusively God's work, it does not depend on the actions of the one baptized, whether infant or adult. Even though baptized infants cannot articulate that faith, we believe that it is present all the same, because it is faith alone that receives these divine gifts. Lutherans confess that baptism "works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare." Luther takes this even further. Baptism “ordains” the baptized into a new position, giving the baptized new responsibilities and privileges, as a member of the of the body of Christ, and the “priesthood of all believers”. We recognize only one mediator between us and God the Father, and that is God the Son, Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5). The book of Hebrews calls Jesus the supreme "high priest," who offered himself as a perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 7:23-28). We believe that through Christ we have been given direct access to God, just like a priest; thus the doctrine is called the priesthood of all believers. God is equally accessible to all the faithful, and every Christian has equal potential to be a minister for God. This Lutheran doctrine stands in opposition to the concept of a spiritual aristocracy or hierarchy within Christianity. I did not fully understand this doctrine until an incident occurred while I was serving as a chaplain in my seminary training. SERMON FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT, NOVEMBER 29, 2009 Today is the first Sunday of Advent. I believe that the words, "advent," and "adventure" always belong together. An advent always has a sense of adventure to it. The Advent season, when truly lived, is an adventure. The word Advent simply means “to come”. There is an excitement, a sense of adventure as we wait, as the celebration of the first coming of Christ approaches. Advent means something is coming...something frighteningly wonderful off in the distance, is coming into view, coming into clarity, coming closer and closer, until we can finally see it plainly. We cannot control what is coming at us, and that is part of the excitement of our Advent adventure. We don’t know exactly what is going to happen. It is in this spirit that we approach the gospel word for today, the word, "Advent." Advent is a Latin word meaning "to come." For Christians, the word “advent”, refers to the coming of God into our lives. The greatest story every told is of God’s coming to earth as a baby. The coming of God from the far distances of heaven. God finally is “really present” in the Christ child. Jesus grew up to be a man, and taught us something that we had never heard before. "You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul and mind, AND love your neighbor as yourself." The neighbor may be a person who we previously hated. We are invited by the Love of Christ, to love that person. At the end of his life, when Jesus was being crucified on a cross, he called out to his Father: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." We realize that Jesus gives gracious forgiveness towards people who don't even have the sense to ask for it. And Jesus, by doing this, draws us all into His very heart. Advent is the coming of God to earth as a baby, for you and me. There is an excitement, an anticipation, an adventure to it all. We are not quite sure what to expect. And Jesus promised that He will come to earth at the end of history, in the second coming. We are told that this will not be quietly in a manger, but rather with trumpet sounds on clouds of glory. There will be a time when we will all meet Christ face to face, when He will come to judge all human beings. Jesus tells us that only God the Father knows when that moment will be. And in between the coming of God as the baby Jesus, and the coming of God in all His glory at the end of history, is where you and I live. The problem is, we need God to come to us now, also. And so we ask God to come. In our prayers at mealtime. “Come Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let these gifts to us be blessed.” We join hands with our loved ones around the table and we ask God to come and be our guest with us at our meal. And when a loved one dies, we ask for God’s chariot to come and take our loved one home to heaven. The last prayer in the Bible is the second to the last line of the book of Revelation. “Amen. Come Lord Jesus. That is our insistent, persistent, and consistent prayer. “Amen. Come Lord Jesus. Come with your love; come with your compassion. Come with your wisdom and strength. Come with your forgiveness. Lord Jesus, we need you to come here today. We invite God to come to that place in our lives that we need God the most, to convert our warring swords into plowshares, into peace, into the possibility of walking in the light of Jesus Christ. This way of living is a great adventure. It is the advent of God into our lives, right here and right now. It is an adventure to pray and talk with God every day and give our life to the Lord in prayer. It is an adventure to read God’s Word, and find out what God’s Word really says and means. It is an adventure to focus on helping someone else, rather than dwelling only on our own problems. We never know who God will bring to us today to love, and to take care of, and that is an advent also. Our prayer is always the same. Come, Lord Jesus. What advents await us in this simple prayer, what wondrous adventures. What possibilities to love and be loved. Come, Lord Jesus, come into our hearts today. Amen. SERMON FOR SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2009 St. Mark’s Gospel today locates us in Jerusalem, near the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus and his disciples were leaving one of the most magnificent structures ever built, the Temple in Jerusalem. The disciples were obviously impressed at the sight of this remarkable building. "Look Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!" What Jesus said next almost amounted sacrilege. "You see these great buildings?" he said. "Not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one of them will be thrown down." What a thing to say! This magnificent house of God would be destroyed. This was completely unimaginable to the disciples. If that isn’t bad enough, Jesus goes on to talk about the end of the world. He warns the disciples, "When you hear about wars and threats of wars, don't be afraid. These things will have to happen first, but that isn't the end. Nations and kingdoms will go to war against each other. There will be earthquakes in many places, and people will starve to death. But this is just the beginning of troubles" (Mark 13:7,8). Jesus gives all kinds of signs when the end will come near, but at what precise moment these things will happen, He says that only God the Father knows. It would seem that every thing that we thought would go on forever, will all be suddenly wiped away when the end of the world finally comes. The disciples thought that the temple would stand forever, but it would be just a few short years and the Romans would strip the temple of all its precious metals and tear it down stone by stone, never to be rebuilt again. We realize through this text, that things that we think are so permanent in our lives, in actual fact, are only temporary. We discover that the things that we thought were so solid and important, are not the things that we can really rely on. I have been told by many people in hospital beds that they had come to the conclusion that all the things that they once thought important, were not important at all. None of those things could prevent their disease, or prolong their life even one second. All the things that were so important to them before their illness, are of no use in their current situation. It is then that faith in Jesus and the comfort that it brings is all that matters, all that is left. The promises of Jesus that we have heard so many times before, suddenly take on new meaning and importance, as all the other things that we once thought important disappear. God’s promise of love, forgiveness, strength to endure, and the joy of eternal life, are all that we need. This is what Jesus is really getting at when he says, "Not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one of them will be thrown down." As wonderful as some of the things of this life are, they are not permanent. We are led to the confession that we are following a lie; that the things of this world are so important, that we could not exist without them. The Apostle Paul talked about being content and satisfied at all times; "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as garbage, in order that I may gain Christ”. When Jesus talks about what will happen in the future, I don’t believe for one minute that he is telling us horror stories to terrify us, like kids huddled around a campfire listening to scary ghost stories. He is simply pointing out what we so easily forget. We are travelers passing through this world, and that our true home is in heaven, and our true wealth is knowing Jesus’ love and care for each and every one of us. To put it in other words, “We are spiritual beings on a earthly journey.” And in the end, what is important is not so much what is coming but who is coming. Jesus says, "Then the Son of Man will appear, coming in the clouds with great power and glory. He will send the angels out to the four corners of the earth to gather God's chosen people from one end of the world to the other." This fulfils the promise that Jesus made in John chapter 14, verse three; " And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. " (John 14:3). When the last day finally arrives Jesus will return. Those who trust in him, have nothing to fear during these last days of chaos and uncertainty, for we have been told of these times, and we are prepared through our confession and faith. Not even the Last Judgment can fill us with fear, because we know that all the sins that could possibly condemn us have been washed away with the blood of Jesus. St Paul puts it like this, "There will be the shout of command, the archangel's voice, the sound of God's trumpet, and the Lord himself will come down from heaven. Those who have died believing in Christ will rise to life first; then we who are living at that time will be gathered up along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. So then, encourage one another with these words" (1 Thess 4:16-18). Note those words – "we will always be with the Lord." In spite of earthquakes, wars, famines, persecutions, suffering, and betrayals, and as terrifying as all this can be, "we will always be with the Lord". Nothing, absolutely nothing will separate us from the love of God found in Christ Jesus our Lord. For every knee shall bow and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen. For All Saints Sunday, November 1st, 2009 Today is All Saint’s Day. Today is the day in which we remember loved ones who have died and gone to be with Jesus. We remember them in a special way today. In reality, we think of them as they really are; alive with Jesus Christ, alive in paradise with God for all eternity. As Lutherans, we understand that the word “saints” refers to all of God’s people, both the living and the dead. To commemorate this All Saint’s Day, we read a “funeral story” from the New Testament; it is the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Martha, Mary and Lazarus were good friends of Jesus; the Bible says that he “loved” them. Martha is the busy, perfectionist sister who works hard and expects others to do as much. Then there is sensitive Mary, whom the bible says anointed Jesus’ feet with oil, and then dries them with her long hair with loving and gentle kindness, preparing him for his crucifixion. Lazarus was really sick, and the two sisters sent word to Jesus that their brother Lazarus might soon die. Jesus got the message, and waited two days. Why did Jesus wait two days? The Bible says simply so that the will of God may be done. So after two days, Jesus makes his way to the home of Lazarus, knowing that his friend had died. On the way, Martha came out to meet Jesus and gave him an earful; “Jesus, if you would have been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus said: “He will rise again.” And Martha responded: “I know he will rise again at the resurrection of the dead, but what good does that do us now?” Then Jesus gave a word that has become one of the greatest teachings of Jesus, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die!” Then he asked one of the most important questions found in the Bible, “Do you believe this, Martha?” What a question. Do you believe this? Do YOU believe this, that whoever lives and believes in Jesus will never die? Martha answered, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.” Mary approached Jesus with the same statement, “Jesus, if you would have been here, my brother would not have died.” But before Jesus can say anything, Mary burst into tears. What was Jesus’ response to her tears? The Bible says that he was “deeply troubled,” but the Greek word underlying this says that Jesus “shuddered with sadness,” that his body shook with emotion. I have experienced this in my pastoral life, when a person is so overcome with grief that their whole body shakes with sorrow. Then, along comes the shortest verse in the Bible. “Jesus wept.” So in this meeting with Mary, unlike His meeting with Martha, there is no eloquent teaching about eternal life. In fact, there are no words at all, but simply strong emotions that shake his entire body, and bring him to tears. The story continues. Jesus approaches the burial vault of his friend Lazarus. The Bible says that he was again “deeply moved” as he approached the grave. He said, “Remove the stone.” And of course, practical Martha says, “Why? The body has been in the grave for four days already, and it smells.” Jesus ignored her and the gravestone was rolled away. Then Jesus said a beautiful prayer: “My Father, you hear my prayers. You always hear my prayers. Grant my request so that these people may know that you have sent me.” Jesus then cried out with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come out.” Because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, Lazarus came out of the grave. Jesus knows of the comfort that awaited Lazarus in His Father’s heavenly mansion, but he also knows the sadness we feel at the loss of a friend. In other words, Jesus was not only the Son of God, but also the son of man, fully human, sharing our grief and our sorrow. Jesus revealed his humanity through compassion for Mary and Martha, and a genuine display of emotion. As Christians, we are blessed with a resurrection every single morning. Every time we kneel and pray, we die and are resurrected to a new life in Christ. Every time we take Holy Communion, we are born anew through the body and blood of the one who raised Lazarus. Just as Lazarus was bound by his burial cloth, at times we may feel bound to our sinful ways. To this Jesus says; “Unbind him, and let him go”. And so in God’s forgiveness through Christ, we are unbound from our sins, and let go to live a life that is free in service to Christ. Amen. For Reformation Sunday, Ocotber 25th, 2009 Most human beings look at any law, rule or guideline as an attempt to curb or deny their freedom. The human desire for freedom, and the right to choose our own destiny, can be traced all the way back to the Garden of Eden. God told Adam and Eve; “I have only one rule for you, do not eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. So what was the first thing they did? You guessed it. Humans are even prepared to put their own lives in danger in order to find freedom from the law. This isn’t freedom. It’s just another form of slavery. Today we hear Jesus talking about freedom. First, he says, "the truth will make you free". Those who were listening didn’t understand what he was talking about. They didn’t need to be made free; they weren’t slaves to anyone or anything. The average American would respond in much the same way. We are free; we don’t need to be made free. Then Jesus reminds his listeners, "I am telling you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin." To be called a slave of sin is serious stuff.
A slave cannot free himself; he is bound to be a slave all his life. And Jesus tells us that; "Everyone who sins is a slave of sin". Martin Luther tells us that there is not a moment in our lives that sin doesn’t dictate to us what we should do. Luther’s ultimate realization was that no sinner can free himself or herself from the grip that sin has on their lives. We can go to self-improvement classes, attend counseling, read self-help books and try and improve our behavior. This may work for a while. But a slave is always a slave. And slaves cannot free themselves. In spite of our firm resolve to be better people, our bondage to sin is never broken. In fact, denying that we are slaves of sin is just further proof that we are hopelessly trapped, and we can do nothing to free ourselves. Some think that by avoiding the big and obvious sins, God won’t hold the little transgressions against us. In other words, "I’m not really a bad sinner”. I might do a few little wrong things, but hey, everyone does that. And that’s just the point. Everyone is a sinner, and as far as God is concerned sin is sin. God demands perfection, because that’s the way he intended humans to be from the very beginning of time. Before their disobedience, Adam and Eve were perfect, created in God’s image holy, perfect, and sinless. Heaven is a holy, perfect and sinless place, and sinners, without Jesus, have no chance of getting there. No matter how many excuses we make for our sin, the Bible says, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God". In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther found himself in a church that had an elaborate “system” for offering people personal freedom that was based at least partly on a person’s good works. The church of that time had made forgiveness a number of hoops that people had to jump through. But you could never be sure if you had jumped through enough hoops to satisfy God’s wrath. Then Luther stumbles upon a passage in the book of Ephesians that states; “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.” Luther puts this together with Jesus saying, "If the Son sets you free, then you will be free indeed". He realizes that there is only one way we can be released from our slavery to sin. Jesus, the Son of God, declares you released from your sin through His cross and resurrection. We can’t free ourselves. Only the one who has the true authority and power can set us free. Only the Son of God can set us free, and He does. We are saved by Grace through faith. Luther said this so well in the Small Catechism, “Jesus rescued me when I was lost and sentenced to death. He set me free from all my sins, from death and from the power of the devil. It cost him more than gold or silver; it cost him his life. Even though he was holy and innocent, he suffered and died for me". This is at the very core and centre of what the Bible has to say. This is God's message to all people. It is the central message of the Lutheran church. Jesus has rescued us from slavery to sin. God sent Jesus to give his life for us on the cross; to free us from the power that sin and Satan hold over us. He didn’t send Jesus because he could see a spark of good in us. No, he sent Jesus because he could see that we are hopelessly enslaved and that our only hope is for him to intervene and to set us free.
Through the death and resurrection of His Son, God declares us righteous and forgiven.
God forgives us even though we don’t deserve it.
God's loves the unlovable; he forgives the unforgivable.
God doesn't excuse sin; God nails it to a cross. This is God's way of dealing with sin. The freedom that Christ gives fills us with hope. The freedom that Christ gives enables you to see that God still dearly loves you and still regards you as his special child. You are forgiven. You are free to live happy and guilt free lives. You are free to be what God intended you to be - to love, serve and forgive others as God has loved, served and forgiven us. There are no gimmicks or catches. God's gives forgiveness and eternal life as a free gift to you. What an awesome gift. What an awesome God we have. These words are music to our ears, "If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free." For The 20th Sunday of Pentecost, Ocotber 18th, 2009 The Gospel today puts forth an interesting question. Among the followers of Jesus, who is the greatest? First off, we must understand that it is one thing to be the greatest, and it is quite another thing to have a need to be seen as the greatest. When the boxer Muhammad Ali was told by a stewardess to buckle his seatbelt before takeoff, he replied, “Superman don’t need no seatbelt.” The stewardess replied, “Ya, and Superman don’t need no plane, either.” Being the greatest and needing to be seen as the greatest are two very different things. That is what the gospel lesson is all about today. Two disciples needed to be number one, better than other disciples. In a previous lesson, these two disciples, James and John, along with Peter, had been asked by Jesus to go up on a mountain. While on that mountain, the three disciples experienced the transfiguration of Jesus into the Christ of glory. “Jesus’ face shined like the sun.” Moses and Elijah were there. Peter and James and John were on top of the world. They had the greatest religious experience that any human being ever had. After coming down from the mountain, rather than being humbled by such an experience, it seems that James and John became arrogant. And so we come to the story for today. James and John approached Jesus and say, “Jesus, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” What an arrogant, selfish and self centered statement. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked. James and John revealed their self centered and self serving hearts by saying, “Grant us to sit at your right hand and at your left when you come again in glory.” These two disciples wanted to be the number one and two guys on the judgment day when Jesus Christ came again in glory. James and John wanted glory, power, status, and authority. James and John had visions of themselves in the future: one at the right hand of Jesus in glory; one at the left hand of Jesus in glory. James and John wanted to be seen as the “greatest”. Jesus said, “Do you know what you are asking? Are you able to be baptized as I am going to be baptized?” “Yes,” they replied, not understanding that Jesus was going to be baptized into His suffering and death on the cross. So Jesus tries to teach them, by saying; “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant. Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Eventually, through His death and resurrection, they learned the lesson that Jesus was trying to teach them. The lesson is this: The greatest person in God’s sight is a person who has a heart of humble service towards God and others. I knew a man like that. My brother Steve was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor 8 years ago, and he died from it 4 years ago. Steve was a “servant” kind of Christian. One of Steve’s favorite things to do was to serve in the kitchen at the Marygrove Retreat Center in Garden Michigan during their spiritual retreats. He also loved to serve on the retreat team at Marquette State Prison. The job that he liked to do there was a very humble one. In the basement of the chapel, there would be a group of 5 or 6 fellows whose task was to pray constantly for the prisoners who were meeting upstairs. After his diagnosis, we all wondered if Steve would cut back on his effort to serve. To no one’s surprise, he redoubled his enthusiasm. To meet him in that kitchen, or the basement of that prison chapel, you would never guess that he was serving under a death sentence. He hugged, and cheered and uplifted every single person that he met. Steve had the heart and hands of a servant. Servants always have loving and generous hearts, but they also have hands to do the dirty work. Hands that make the meals. Hands that clean up the tables. Hands that do the dishes. Hands that actually reach out and help people in their time of need. In the gospel text for today, Jesus said that whoever is great among you, MUST be a servant. In effect, you cannot be a disciple of Jesus without having the heart and hands of a servant. Being a Christian means being a servant. Servant hood and Christianity are one and the same, like water being wet and fire being hot. So a follower of Christ MUST be a servant. If fire is not hot, it is not fire. If water is not wet, it its not water. If a follower of Christ is not a servant, he or she is not a disciple. Jesus said, “Whoever follows me, MUST be servant of all.” Being a servant has to do with our attitude and actions, our heart and hands. Finally, notice in the gospel text for today, that Jesus invites us to be servants of all. And so lastly, we focus on the two most important words, of all. Jesus invites us to be servants OF ALL. Jesus’ words, “You MUST be servants OF ALL” includes the whole human race. Through this serving we discover that it is in giving that we receive, that it is in dying to self that we find ourselves. The words that Jesus gives to us today are the best advice that anyone could ever give: Whoever would be great among you MUST be a servant of all. For The 19th Sunday of Pentecost, Ocotber 11th, 2009 “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” This is the big question. Sooner or later, we all ask The Big Question. What must we do to inherit eternal life? What are the rules? Who is getting in on the final day? It is interesting that the identical question was asked of Jesus previously by a lawyer who asked “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” That question became the occasion for Jesus telling the story about the Good Samaritan and showing mercy to your enemy, which the questioner could not do. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” asks our wealthy young man. Jesus replies: “You know the commandments. Do not kill. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness or lie, Honor your mother and father.” Teacher, he declared, I have done these from my youth. He has obeyed the basic Jewish moral law, and has lived a respectable, honorable and upright life. It says that Jesus looked at the young man and loved him, so much so, that he tells him the truth. “There is one thing you lack”…oh-oh. “Sell everything you have, and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” To the wealthy, greedy young man, Jesus says: “Sell everything.” Jesus point is this: we cannot make it by our own good works, or obedience to the law. The gift of heaven, the inheritance of heaven is found only in the Cross of Jesus Christ. Only Jesus can, and will, do this for you, for me and for the rich young man. Jesus knew this young man’s sin was greed. To make it clear that Jesus was the only way to heaven, Jesus tells him to sell all he has, give it to the poor, and follow Him. This the rich young man could not do. Jesus is not asking us today to sell all we have and give it to the poor. This would be a misunderstanding of Jesus, and the text. Jesus was putting the rich young ruler to a test to see whether he loved God and his neighbor more than money. And he fails, as we all fail when confronted with that which is our thing that we love more than God. That is what the story is about. We are constantly being tested to see if we love something more than God. Jesus’ said: “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The rich young man’s heart was in his treasures. And so we come to the point of the sermon; Where are our hearts today? Today in this sanctuary, right now, Jesus is inviting us to come and follow Him, that we would be his disciples. That Christ would be our master and we would be His servants, that Christ would own and rule our hearts. He doesn’t need our money, He wants our hearts. When he didn’t like what Jesus said, the rich young man went away from Jesus sad. That often happens to us when we hear things from Jesus we don’t want to hear like; Love your neighbor, forgive your enemy, humble yourself. We simply leave the presence of Jesus, so we will not hear his teachings. Jesus had read the young man’s heart correctly, his heart was in his money. Jesus goes on to tell the disciples that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. The disciples were amazed at his words. Jesus was turning the Old Testament on its head. The old testament told them that wealth was a blessing from God, and now Jesus was now telling them that it is the poor and those who help them that are the truly blessed. Jesus wants us to enter the kingdom right here and right now, but it is impossible if our faith is in anything besides Him. We enter God’s kingdom only when we love God more than , family, power, wealth, or anything else in this world. And this is impossible for us, because we are human. Then who can be saved? The answer? No one. Nobody. So where does that leave us? Jesus said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God.” This statement is pure grace. Salvation is a pure, gracious gift from God. We are saved solely by God’s pure grace, and not anything that we have done or ever will do. We cannot save ourselves, but God can, and does. All things are possible with God; that is, God’s intent in Jesus is to save all of us. We find this in John, chapter 3, verse 17, “For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” Jesus teaches us to give our heart to Him and His Love to our neighbors. St. Francis said it well when he wrote: “for it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born again to Eternal Life.” Amen. For The 18th Sunday of Pentecost, Ocotber 4th, 2009 Text: Mark chapter 10:2-16 I suspect that everyone here today has been affected by divorce in one way or another, as a child, a spouse, a parent, a brother or sister, or at the very least, as a friend. And you know, I have never talked to a person who has gone through a divorce who told me that they felt that it was God’s intent for their lives. The Pharisees, in “testing” Jesus, have essentially asked the question, “What is allowed concerning marriage and divorce?” Jesus’ response turns the question into “What is intended by God in establishing marriage?” In doing this Jesus makes clear that God’s intention in marriage is to establish a solid base for life in community. The Pharisees are asking what allowances are there for getting out of the marriage? It is a subtle switch that Jesus makes, but a very significant one. Especially for our time, when the individual is understood to be the supreme concern, and the interests of the community are secondary. Marriage, to Jesus, is not simply a case of a husband and wife living their own private lives together under one roof. Marriage is a gift from God serving a variety of purposes, beginning with intimate companionship, and extending all the way to the welfare of the entire human community. Therein lies the problem of divorce, a problem that the Pharisees missed entirely by reducing the question to a purely legal, contractual inquiry; “is it okay for a man to write a certificate of divorce, and end the marriage?” Jesus responds with an assertion that their question is misguided, for they have failed to see the point of marriage in the first place. They have not asked a primary, but a secondary question. He proposes to put the question another way: “What is the point of a marriage to begin with?” God knows why he created man and woman and put them together. He told you in clear language. Why do you question his intention – or why would you wish to break it? At this point in the conversation, there is a surprising “interruption”. Some parents are bringing their children to Jesus “that he might touch them.” The disciples are irritated. We are told; “the disciples rebuked them,” which makes Jesus “indignant”. Jesus answers, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.” “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it,” Jesus says as he takes them up in his arms to bless them. The original Greek leaves some leeway in just how to translate this phrase, but let us say simply that children are dependent on those who care for them. How independent children seem when they head off to do their own thing at the store, but when suddenly, for whatever reason, mommy disappears from sight, they realize they are not as independent as they thought. This momentary “divorce” from their mom makes a child realize how very important their relationship to the parent really is, and the cries and the tears start to flow. Jesus takes up the children and sets them before those who have been confused the harsh “requirements” that have been set before them concerning marriage. He reminds us that there is only one way to live: By exercising our dependence on God alone. Jesus will make this very plain in next weeks text, when He responds to the disciples’ question, “Then who can be saved?” by saying, “With man it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.” It is only when we become child-like, that we can see our way out of this very complex difficulty of how best to live, not as God’s equal, but as God’s children. So this is not really an interruption at all. It is, in fact, something of a “key” to this whole section of Mark. Jesus is even now moving rapidly toward the cross. It is perhaps a month away, and probably less. But no one can either understand what he is talking about, nor would they believe that what he said was true. His glory is to be His cross, as He makes plain at the last supper. In him, and through him, and by him, the sins of the world are gathered up, placed upon him, that sinners might be reconciled to God; and with each other. That those who were at enemies of God might be called his friends; that those whose lives were set on the way of death might have life in his name. He is the one who takes the children in his arms and blesses them, and He calls us to place ourselves entirely into His care and keeping as children who need protection, care, and security. In our baptism he enfolds us in his arms, and in the bread and cup he feeds and nourishes us. “Let the children come to me,” He says, and we rejoice with great joy. For He who holds us, calling us his children, is the one who speaks the Word of today’s Gospel. Through it, He breaks us with all its divine severity, in order that he might speak a saving word of blessing to us. He enfolds us as children who are entirely dependent on him, taking us in his arms and blessing us, assuring us that we need fear no evil so long as we are in His loving embrace. He has taken up the guilt that is rightfully ours, pleads our case before the Father, and then urges us along in the ways of the Lord, to hear again the eternal word that leads and guides us in the path of life. And we toddle along like infants taking tentative step after step, falling and rising, stumbling along as best we can. We try to follow after him who leads us, knowing always that He turns again and again to pick us up, to hold us in his arms, laying his hands on us and blessing us. It is this confidence that enables us to continue the journey. We do not walk alone. He who walks before us and with us as our Comforter, our Counselor, our Strength, gathers a whole family to walk together with us on the journey. To divorce ourselves one from another in this family of God is disastrous. God commands that we forgive each other, strengthen one another, comfort one another, and support each other in our mutual pursuit of the kingdom of God. This is the vision which draws us always onward and upward to nothing less than the marriage feast of the Lamb.
For The 17th Sunday of Pentecost, September 27th, 2009 Text: Mark, chapter 9, verses 38-50: When Jesus referred to His followers as the “Salt of the earth” he was using salt as a very important illustration of how influential a Christian life in the world can be. In this text, Jesus speaks about the importance of fire in the process of becoming salt. Jesus says; “Everyone will be salted with fire”. Salt is a type of element that dissolves in water. When it dissolves, it grows weaker depending on the amount of water used. Eventually as more water is used, that salt will grow weaker in its identity and loses its saltiness. Having an identity of a Christ-likeness and maintaining that identity requires our commitment and dedication to stay within the scope of God's burning flames of fire. In Luke, chapter 12, verse 49, Jesus says; "I have come to bring fire on earth, and how I wish it were already kindled." Why is Jesus describing his mission in this account as mission of dropping fire on earth? Is the world in need of fire as a solution to all of its problems and commotions? When Jesus came into this world, human life was fallen from its original glory and honor granted by the creator God to enjoy the abundance of life in the Garden of Eden with the privilege of direct access to God. Sin was the prime energy driving the whole species in its own pace towards its own goals, objectives, and directions. By the virtue of its innate makeup and essence, sin can produce nothing other than death. For the wages of sin is death. Death has been extending its agonizing and threatening influence overshadowing the human race. Powers, principalities, authorities and rulers of this present darkness, which are spiritual forces of the evil nature, were also ruling over the human species in their own magnitude and intensity of destructive power. Therefore, the entire human species was in need of restoration. This was a restoring humanity as a whole into the original status granted by God to us in the Garden. That is exactly why Christ declared on John, chapter 10, verse 10: “I came to that they might have life and have it abundantly.” This is an overt act of restoration. He came to restore our life and to restore it very graciously and very generously. The greatest action of Jesus on this earth is restoring our soul. Soul is the essence of human life. When soul is restored, the essence of humanity is restored into regaining, faith, value, wisdom, character, dignity and hope.
Secondly, humanity was in need of renewal. The old has to pass away and the new has to come. God's intent of renewing his covenant had been echoing all the way from the days of the prophet Isaiah until the days of John the Baptist. The new life brought into the world through Christ's plan of restoration can never be put into an old container. Jesus used the metaphor of putting a new wine into an old wineskin, which will eventually end up producing a disastrous end result both for the wine and for the wineskin. Renewal is at the heart of Christ's mission. He renewed humanity by killing the old self and rising up with a newly resurrected identity of hope and future. Finally, humanity was in need of transformation. This transformation happens through the transforming agent, which is the third person of the triune God called the Holy Spirit. Jesus displayed the Holy Spirit as a teacher, guide, counselor and comforter. It was this person of the Holy Trinity that Jesus was referring to when he was talking about the fire that transforms. As restored, renewed, and transformed children of God, we get our new identity from Christ, hrough the Holy Spirit. When Jesus spoke about this, he said, "Everyone will be salted with fire." What this means is that all of those factors that caused the loss of our dignity as creatures of God in His image, shall be separated from us by the fire of the Holy Spirit. It is this fire that burns away everything that is not of God. The renewed Christian life, which was granted a salty identity to be a source of change in this world, was made into what it currently is through the agent of God known as the fire of the Holy Spirit. Becoming salty means bringing the flavor and taste of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the entire world. As God’s children, you are the salt of the earth. You can see, in the natural as well as in the spiritual, salt plays a significant role to human existence and purpose. Salt is representative of Christian discipleship to those who have allegiance to Jesus and the Gospel of Our Lord. When we have God's salt in us, we see God's purpose fulfilled in us and through us. Let the Word of Christ, (the Salt) dwell in us richly, in all wisdom and let our speech be seasoned with the salt of God’s Grace, that we may give witness to the hope that dwells in our hearts through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. For The 16th Sunday of Pentecost, September 20th, 2009
Mark records an occasion when the disciples were talking amongst themselves and in fact, there was quite an argument. What they were they discussing with so much passion and heat was which one of them was the greatest. What criteria can be used to determine what person is greater than another? Many people want to determine who is the most important, the greatest, the strongest and so on. The disciples got into this kind of argument, thinking that Jesus was far enough away and couldn’t hear them. They were wrong. When Jesus asked them what they had been talking about they were embarrassed. They suddenly fell silent, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. They realized that Jesus had caught them in their infantile argument. So Jesus sits them down, and says, “Whoever wants to be first must place himself last of all, and be the servant of all.” Jesus turns everything they believe upside down. The world measures greatness by prestige, power, and money. The world wants to know how many people serve you, not how many people that you serve. In the Jewish culture of Jesus’ day, a great deal of time was spent in deciding where people fell in the pecking order. It was important to know where people were ranked. Status, authority, and titles were all important. But Jesus said that if someone wants to be first in the Kingdom of God, that person must become servant of everyone else. This was, and still is, a revolutionary idea. The person who wants to be great in God’s eyes must be the servant of everyone else. But there is more. We read, “Jesus took a child and had him stand in front of them. He put his arms around him and said to them, "Whoever welcomes in my name one of these children, welcomes me”. Why does Jesus associate the act of receiving a little child in his name with being first in God's eyes? After all, it would seem easy to love a child. The point Jesus is making is this. Children were at the bottom of the pecking order in Jesus’ day, considered equal to slaves, and they were very vulnerable. The infant mortality rate in Jesus time was near 60 percent. At times when there was war, famine or disease it was the children who suffered first and most of all. And children without loving parents are the most vulnerable of all. Most importantly, little children are not in the position to give great rewards for what is done for them. There is no prize, no reward, no prestige to stooping down and helping a child. You see, children have always, and will always, represent the helpless, the poor, the needy, and the downtrodden of our world. And in today’s lesson, Jesus embraces a small child and tells us that if we welcome this child into our lives, we have welcomed Jesus also. Being number one in God's kingdom is about putting others first. It's about the love of an almighty God who stoops to enter a sinful world to be beaten, mocked and killed so that lost and sinful children like you and me could be saved, and saved for a purpose. Greatness in the eyes of Jesus is found in the willingness of His disciples to welcome the outcast and accept the unacceptable. Greatness in the Kingdom of God means to welcome others as a child does, that is before we were taught to discriminate between whom we should be friends with, and who we should not. When Jesus wrapped his arms around that child, he demonstrated his love for the least, the lost, and the lowly. What Jesus is teaching us here is not just kindness, but kindness that is directed to those who have never experienced the kindness of the world. Not just tenderness but tenderness toward those who have never felt a loving touch. Not just hospitality, but a wide, open-armed welcome toward those for whom all other doors are shut. Jesus is calling all His disciples to a radical new vision of what the Kingdom of God is all about - a radical new vision of how life can actually be. “Whoever wants to be first must place himself last of all and be the servant of all.” The Bible is telling us today that service to others is a natural outflow from being a disciple of Jesus. To follow Jesus means we will serve those who need and crave His love, and by doing so, we will become His Love. This is the kind of servant hood that Jesus has called this, and every congregation. This is a tough kind of ministry. It is not always understood by the rest of the world who wonder why we bother with “those kinds of people”. It is a tough ministry because it takes faith that what we are doing is what God wants us to do. This is called discernment. Discernment is to uncover our core values, and put those values to work in the Kingdom of God. We need God's constant guidance through the Holy Spirit to discover, or perhaps rediscover this mission. This is our task. Amen. | |
|