4th Sunday After Epiphany
Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Psalm 111 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Mark 1:21-28 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who knows us. Amen “We know that all of us possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him.” There’s a lot of knowledge flying around our world today, through the internet, radio, tv, social media we know more than ever what is going on around the world in real time and in many cases this is helpful as in natural disasters or other events where people are saved from harm by quickly relayed current information. We also know helpful things like how disease is spread, and how to perform surgery and how economies rise and fall and all sorts of other things, and then we form opinions about what we know, The shadow side is that often we form our opinions first and then find justification for them among all the knowledge that is floating around out there and once justified we hold tightly to our opinions that are justified by knowledge refusing to relent when faced with other opinions also justified with knowledge. Sound familiar? Now don’t get me wrong, the more we learn about our world and those around us the better but in this flood of knowledge we’ve forgotten about the reality of relationships, how they are not always rational how there is more to the way people work together than the combination of facts and opinions. As Paul says ‘Knowledge puffs up but love builds up.’ If you glazed over during the second reading when Paul started talking about meat sacrificed to idols, I don’t blame you, it sounds like something that no longer applies to us, we get our meat from the grocery store or the farm yard not the leftovers from the sacrifices to the gods at the temple. But Paul’s main point in this discussion is more relevant than ever, he’s ultimately posing the question: what good is knowledge if it hurts our neighbor? Knowledge puffs up but love builds up. Most members of the community to which Paul is writing know that there is only one God and so eating meat sacrificed to idols is not an act of worship because those idols don’t exist. They have been set free by their belief in Christ and so they can eat the meat without hurting their conscience, meat is meat, and that’s great Paul says and all true. But there are still some people in the community who haven’t quite gotten to that point, they believe in Christ but they still associate eating the meat in the temples with the worship of other gods and if they see other members of the community eating in the temples their weaker belief might be shaken to the point of breaking, causing them to sin. This is why Paul warns those with knowledge: “take care that this liberty of yours does not become a stumbling block to the weak.” ultimately, if given a choice between acting on knowledge or with holding from acting on knowledge for the sake of the neighbor Paul says he’ll choose not to act any time. We have been freed in Christ so that we may love our neighbor as ourselves, as Paul says elsewhere in the letter “all things are lawful but not all things are beneficial” we have been set free so that the love of God may overflow from our lives into the lives of those around us, this is freedom with responsibility and this freedom comes from our relationship with God and with God all relationships begin with love. That’s why Paul says “anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him.” And this starts to sound confusing, just using the word knowledge over and over again but I think what we have going on here are two different kinds of knowledge, head knowledge and heart knowledge. Even though there is only one word we understand the difference. Head knowledge is the facts and figures, heart knowledge is the emotional reality of those facts and figures. For example, it is one thing to know with head knowledge that 15-20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, it is an entirely other thing to know with heart knowledge the experience of a miscarriage whether yourself or alongside family and friends. It is one thing to know with head knowledge that poverty exists and have ideas about how people in poverty could get out of it. It is quite another thing to know with heart knowledge those who live in poverty to walk alongside people as they struggle with the reality of never having enough. It is one thing to know someone with head knowledge, their name and occupation, where they live and a few other facts about them, it is quite another thing to know someone with heart knowledge, talking with them, learning their sense of humor, their hopes, fears and motivations. As humans, we long to be known with heart knowledge and God knows us. God knows you, not the face you put on for other people or even yourself, the real you, your hopes and fears, your strengths and failings God knows all this and God loves you and nothing will ever change that. To be loved in this way is powerful, it builds us up and it frees us to take risks, risks like getting to know our neighbor with heart knowledge, sharing the love of God with them so that they too are built up and set free. And if we don’t have the direct heart knowledge, God calls us to act from a place of love that builds up the other. This year my hope for our community is that we grow in heart knowledge building up our community through deepening our relationship with God, our relationships with one another in this congregation and our relationship with the community around us And I know, with both head knowledge and heart knowledge that we are able to do this because God knows and loves us first. Amen
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3rd Sunday after Epiphany
Jonah 3:1-5, 10 Psalm 62:5-12 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 Mark 1:14-20 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who interrupts our lives. Amen This past week I had the chance to do some continuing education, I went to a series of talks by the author Mark Tranvik on Luther and Vocation. Vocation is the big church word that means a call from God to do something oriented toward God we often associate vocations with work and more specifically with careers within the church. In fact, at the time of the reformation the only people considered to have vocations were monks, nuns and priests. Tranvik’s point was that the gift of Luther’s thinking and the reformation is that because of our baptisms we all have vocations, calls from God and not just with our jobs but all areas of our lives are places and opportunities to love and serve God and neighbor, vocation in the broadest sense of the word is God’s call to us to let God’s love overflow from our lives into the lives of those around us. Now, figuring out what God wants us to do is easier said than done, it’s been many years since the skies parted and the voice of God boomed out with specific instructions. These days God speaks in very subtle ways which sometimes we only understand well after the fact. But Mark Tranvik pointed out that one place that God seems to particularly like to work in and through are the interruptions in life. In our texts for today We have stories of God calling people And there are interruptions all over the place, interruptions that lead to those who are interrupted serving God and neighbor. Simon and Andrew are fishing when Jesus comes upon them and interrupts their lives, we are told they are fishermen, so they are engaged in an activity that they have done before, that they use to support themselves and their families and which they expect that they will do the rest of their lives. But something in the invitation to follow Jesus and fish for people catches their attention they set down their nets and the trajectory of their lives changes dramatically. The same goes for James and John who are helping their father with the family business which their father anticipates that they will take over some day but when Jesus interrupts their net mending to call them to follow they leave their nets and their father in the boat along with the plan for the rest of their lives all because they paid attention to an interruption. Jonah’s life was interrupted by God, several times in fact. Jonah’s first instinct was to do the exact opposite of what God wanted. Instead of going to Nineveh like God asked Jonah got on a ship headed for Tarshish, a journey which God interrupted with a big storm and Jonah, gets thrown overboard and swallowed by a big fish before getting back on track and when he goes to Nineveh like God asks he interrupts the lives of the Ninevites with the message “forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” and the people listen to this interruption! They call a fast, clean up their ways, repent before God and when God sees this, that they’ve listened to the interruption God changes plans and does not destroy their city. All of our lives have been interrupted as some point Sometimes the interruptions are as simple as meeting a new friend, often the obvious interruptions involve loss whether it’s loss of a job or a loved one or some other kind, and the resulting call may also be more subtle, a call to increased compassion for those who have experienced the same thing you have. Many times it is only well after the fact that we see where God was in the interruption and how it changed the way we love and serve our neighbors. Often when we look at the story of Jesus calling his disciples, I think we get stuck on the dramatic way in which the disciples give up everything - Jesus says ‘come fish for people’ whatever that means- and immediately they set down their nets and go with him. This seems like an impossible example to follow- we think ‘well that’s great for them but I can’t do that, I’ve got responsibilities or other reasons why dropping everything would not work, and if we think of the life of discipleship only in this one way it seems out of reach for most of us. But not everyone is called to drop everything and live an itinerant lifestyle, there are other ways to live as a disciple of Jesus, and that’s why talking about vocation is so important, because vocation- that call from God to let the love of God overflow from our lives into the lives of others- is lived out in all areas of life. Luther once said that perhaps the most spiritual thing one can do is wash out dirty diapers and hang them on the line- He caught some flack from his academic colleagues when they saw him out in the backyard helping his wife Katie with the household chores but for Luther, his sense of vocation meant that he understood that in the realm of family life the way he could be a disciple, to let the love of God flow from his life into the life of his family was to serve his wife and children by washing dirty diapers. Discipleship doesn’t have to be dramatic or complicated we are all called to be disciples, this call came to us at the biggest interruption in our lives, our baptism. The point in our life when God claimed us made sure that we knew that we are no one’s but God’s, and in the water and the word joined us to the death and resurrection of Jesus, saying ‘death no longer has any claim on this person, whatever hardships come their way the end result will be life with God.’ In our baptisms we have been set free and our lives filled to overflowing with the love of God and we are given the purpose of sharing that love with others in many and various ways, and so we do resting secure in the knowledge that whatever interruptions we encounter in life God is there with us, loving us and working for good. Amen for more on vocation and the ideas referenced in this sermon see the book: Martin Luther and the Called Life by Mark D. Tranvik Baptism of Our Lord
Genesis 1:1-5 Psalm 29 Acts 19:1-7 Mark 1:4-11 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who gifts us with the Holy Spirit. Amen And just like that the season of Christmas is over. It concluded yesterday with the festival of Epiphany observed on January 6th, marking the visit of the magi from the east and the revelation of Jesus as messiah to the gentiles. Epiphany means manifestation, and our task in this time after Epiphany is to explore the many ways that God is made manifest in Jesus, the many ways that Jesus is the revelation of God to us. today we start with Jesus’ baptism. As Mark tells it Jesus goes out into the wilderness to be baptized by John who is clear that he is only preparing the way for the one that will bring the Holy Spirit, John baptizes Jesus, dunks him in the river Jordan, and as Jesus comes up out of the water Mark says that the heavens are torn open and from them the spirit descends on Jesus and the voice of God rings out proclaiming to Jesus “You are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” Now if that is not an epiphany I don’t know what is, and in Mark’s brief telling several things are revealed, first the heavens are torn open, in the ancient concept of the universe the heavens were where God lived, separate from the people on earth, at Jesus’ baptism, that which has separated the people from God is opened in a way that cannot be closed again Mark uses this tiny detail The tearing of the heavens as foreshadowing for what will happen at the end of this story, where when Jesus dies the curtain in the temple that separates the holy of holies from everything else, is torn from top to bottom and that which has separated the people from God is opened in a way that cannot be closed again. At his baptism Jesus is revealed as the one who removes barriers between people and God. Next the spirit descends on Jesus, this signals that Jesus is the one for whom John has been preparing the way. Now the spirit is the most elusive member of the trinity I think we often have a hard time with it, even Mark uses similie to describe the spirit, descending like a dove, but what is the spirit? I think the best definition of the spirit is the living and active presence of God. With the spirits’ descent it is revealed that Jesus carries the living and active presence of God into the world. Finally, the voice of God is heard claiming Jesus as son, saying “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” We heard in our first reading, How in the beginning God’s spirit moved over the chaotic waters like a wind as God began creating the world as we know it speaking the world into being. With these words from heaven there can be no doubt about who Jesus is, the Son of God. And just like that, God’s presence on Earth in Jesus is made manifest, both revealing and putting into action the scope and direction of Jesus’ life from this point on. Jesus, God’s Son will bring the living and active presence of God to people who have been separated from God and he will do so by breaking down the barriers that have stood in the way. In our own baptisms we are joined to this identity and mission. Our baptisms are epiphanies too, God speaks words claiming us as beloved children, gifts us with the Holy Spirit and promises that nothing will ever separate us from the love of God and this happens because in our baptisms we are joined to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Through baptism we have life in God, through baptism Christ lives in us through baptism the spirit lives in us and we are charged with sharing that spirit with others, we are called to be an epiphany to others, to bring the living and active presence of God into the world, tearing apart boundaries that previously separated people from God, speaking words of love and adoption to those we encounter. And yes, this isn’t always easy, it is scary to tear apart boundaries, crossing paths and walls and taboos that society says we shouldn’t, and it’s scary to offer love to someone unsure if they will return it but we are able to do it because it is the spirit of God working through us, directing and guiding us. This guiding by the spirit is often subtle, a nudging in the gut that we should do this or that, we have to practice listening for the spirit both as individuals and as communities, and when we hear what the spirit is saying to us the direction it takes us is often surprising but always life giving. Now that the season of Christmas is over, after we pack away all the decorations and celebrations we are left with a gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit who reveals to us who we are and whose we are and who calls us out into the world to make manifest the living and active presence of God. Amen |
AboutPastor Emily Johnson preaches weekly at Christ Lutheran. These are manuscripts of her sermons given at Christ Lutheran. Feel free to engage with them in the comments section of the blog. Archives
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