Third Sunday in Lent
Isaiah 55:1-9 Psalm 63:1-8 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 Luke 13:1-9 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from our God who is with us at all times. Amen Jesus is teaching, he’s surrounded by people who value what he says, he helps them make sense of the world around them so it’s only natural for them to run puzzling situations by Jesus to see what he thinks, in this case it’s about these Galileans who Pilate had murdered and then desecrated by mixing their blood with the blood of the sacrifices. And the people around him tell Jesus this story because they have a question: why? Why did that horrible thing happen to those people? And Jesus responds “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?” he asks because he knows that is at the back of their minds, it’s how our brains work, we try to find meaning so if something bad happened to these people then they must have done something to deserve it. But then Jesus answers his own question: “No, I tell you but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.” Now this seems like kind of a harsh response to a question about suffering but Jesus goes on to give another example, he tells those present about some people who were killed when a tower collapsed and asks “do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?” and again he answers his own question “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” What does Jesus mean with this response? And we’re all curious right? Because we have observed the suffering of others and asked: why did it happen to them? And right behind that question, why didn’t it happen to me? Or why did it happen to me and not them? These questions have been raised to the surface of our own lives in the past weeks as flood waters have risen and we’ve watched some people lose everything while others stayed dry. And we’ve wondered, why? It’s an age old question and frankly one without a good answer and that drives us nuts Desmond Tutu in his book God Has A Dream makes the observation “We humans can tolerate suffering but we cannot tolerate meaninglessness.” pg 75 We cannot tolerate meaninglessness, so when faced with situations of suffering we try to make sense of it, and often, the meaning we put on it is wrong, at least according to God. We heard this in Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts your thoughts.” There is often a disconnect between our thinking and God’s thinking, so when Jesus tells the questioning crowd “No, I tell you, repent” he is telling them, us, to align our thinking with God’s thinking, in a way, that’s Jesus’ whole mission, to bridge the gap of misunderstanding between people and God. In telling us to repent Jesus is not saying we should feel bad about our thinking, that’s often the feeling we associate with that word, but in the gospel of Luke, a call to repent is a call to turn away from the assumptions and norms of the world to live lives directed toward God, living God’s way as taught to us by Jesus. Jesus knows that this teaching is a bit of a stretch for his listeners so he tells them a parable to illustrate his point, a man with a vineyard plants a fig tree, and when he comes to the tree and finds no fruit on it he tells his gardener to cut it down, it’d been three years, clearly the tree was useless. But the gardener intercedes for the tree, asks for a year reprieve, time for the gardener to nurture it, dig around it, put manure on it and if the tree produces fruit next year, great, if not then the owner can cut it down. There is a gap of misunderstanding between the owner and the gardener about the fig tree, from the owner’s perspective a fig tree is supposed to produce figs and after three years without figs he determines that the tree is a waste of soil. What the gardener understands that the owner doesn’t is that it often takes fruit trees three or four years to grow before they produce fruit, and so he offers to nurture the tree for one more year, to get it to the point where it would be reasonable to expect fruit from it We are often the owner to God’s gardener, we know what is supposed to happen, or think we do anyway, and when it doesn’t happen when we expect we get impatient we render judgement and cut down perfectly good trees in our search to make meaning. We do this with ourselves as well as others, we expect things of ourselves and when we don’t live up to those expectations we cut ourselves down before we’re done growing, before we’re ready to produce fruit when God knows that all we need is some more time, and perhaps a little manure. And this brings us right back to the discussion of suffering because the manure in our lives, what seems like stinky waste is actually often what we need to grow into our full selves. Again, Archbishop Tutu observes: “In our universe suffering is often how we grow, especially how we grow emotionally, spiritually, and morally. That is, when we let the suffering ennoble us and not embitter us.” pg 72 His point is that when faced with suffering we have a choice in how we respond, we can tie ourselves in knots trying to figure out why it happened and whether we blame ourselves or others we end up feeling resentful, like we got a raw deal. Or, we can turn toward God, face the suffering head on, and work to lessen the suffering, finding the humanity in ourselves and those around us, growing in the love of God as we do so. I think it’s safe to say that most of Nebraska has made the second choice in responding to the suffering around us. People have already come together to lessen the suffering of others and we will continue to do so as what needs to be done to recover becomes clearer, it will be a long road but we will walk it together and we will grow together. Why is there suffering? We don’t really know, and that’s unsatisfying. But what we do know is that we have a God who has also experienced suffering, who chose to work through it to lessen the suffering of others, who promises to be with us in the midst of suffering, that we may even grow because of it and that it will not have the last say, the cross of Friday after all was only a stop along the way to the empty tomb on Sunday. Amen
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Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 Psalm 27 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Luke 13:31-35 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to you from the one who goes to great lengths to keep promises. Amen The theme running through our readings for today is that God keeps the promises God makes. We know this, we affirm it, but sometimes, especially in the middle of hardship it’s hard to trust this, it’s hard to see anything other than what is right in front of us and our prayers start to sound like our psalm for the day. In the face of forces working actively against the psalmist they pray, and their prayer alternates between statements of trust almost as if making those statements will help the psalmist believe that they are true and acknowledging the reality of the present. The psalmist starts off “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?” Who indeed, but behind these words we sense a reason to fear and sure enough in the very next verse the psalmist says “when evildoers close in against me” and goes on to describe bad things that happen in life. Back and forth the psalm goes, calling on the Lord’s promises and seeking reassurance in the midst of times of trouble I think we’ve all prayed something like this where we alternate between “I know you’re great God and have made these promises” and in the next breath crying out “help! Bad things are happening, right now!” and both are true at the same time. We need reassurance when the way gets tough, we need to vent our frustrations and fears after all of the emotions have been expressed the psalmist settles on the last two verses “This I believe--that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord and be strong. Take heart and wait for the Lord!” And it’s true, we do believe we will see the goodness of God, and we catch glimpses of it but that second part, the waiting is oh so hard, we’ve experienced that this past week as we’ve waited and watched the waters rise not knowing what the future will look like for communities and families around the state, and as much as we’ve wanted to do something, at a certain point all that’s left to do is wait we’re still waiting. And the longer the wait the more assurance we need. God keeps the promises God makes but our time line and God’s don’t always line up and so sometimes we question God, and God responds with reassurance. We see this in our first reading from Genesis in the conversation between God and Abram This scene is actually not the first conversation between the two earlier when God led Abram from his home God promised him land and descendants as numerous as grains of sand, Abram has been faithful in his following of God thus far but he’s getting older and he’s not seeing the fruit of those promises, So Abram questions God Essentially saying, yah you made those promises but what have you done for me lately? looking for more details in how this seemingly impossible promise will come true, and God reassures him pointing to the night sky and saying “look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them, so shall your descendants be.” And Abram, reassured, believes God. Then the pattern repeats itself. God repeats the promise of land to Abram and Abram questions God “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” and what follows is possibly one of the stranger passages that we hear on a regular basis, specific animals being cut in two, darkness, a smoking fire pot and flaming torch passing through the animal pieces… What are we to make of such a scene? We know from research scholars have done on the ancient middle-east that though it may have been terrifying for Abram the actual ritual would have been familiar to him for this was the ritual of covenant or contract making. Minus the presence of lawyers and paper and pen this was how contracts were made, the ritual of walking through the dismembered animals signified an important promise. essentially saying, “if I fail to keep my promise, may the same thing happen to me as to these animals.” God’s promise to Abram is so important that God “considers an experience of suffering and death” (NIB 449) in order to convey the seriousness of the promise. God keeps the promises God makes As Christians we have cause to know just how far God will go to keep a promise. In our gospel reading for today Jesus sets his face towards Jerusalem and immediately some Pharisees come and tell him that he shouldn’t go because it’s dangerous. Jesus already knows that, Jesus already knows what is going to happen and Jesus knows what lengths God is willing to go to keep promises all the way to death and back again. Jesus is the promised messiah the one the people have longed for, for so long but true to God’s form the fulfillment of the promise is beyond human conception of what it will look like. Jesus uses the image of a hen gathering her chicks under her wings, that is what he longs to do and in a way will do in his outstretched arms on the cross but the people, expecting a hawk or an eagle have not been willing to come under Jesus the mother hen’s wings, in fact like a hawk or eagle they will attack the mother hen as they have attacked previous prophets. Jerusalem, the city of God, is a risky place to go if you are a messenger from God but Jesus is willing to take those risks in order to keep the promises of God. God made a promise to Abram, Abram questioned God and God reassured Abram and Abram believed the Lord. Abram’s faith was possible because of God’s word and previous actions, which had all been true and faithful. At our baptisms God made a promise to us that we would always be God’s, that, as Paul said in our second reading, our citizenship would be in heaven. And some days we question that promise, we turn to God and say ‘you promised that your kingdom would come on earth as in heaven, Jesus said the kingdom of God has come near and yet there are still people who are hungry and countries at war, And terrorists who shoot people in their place of worship and loved ones who die, And rising flood waters how can your promise come true God?’ and God comes to us, at the table Jesus comes to us reassuring us with his own body and blood the new covenant shed for us for the forgiveness of sins Any time we gather together, break the bread, drink the wine Jesus is present, renewing the promise of abundant life everlasting, strengthening us in the midst of the waiting Reminding us that God has kept all of God’s promises even to the point of dying on a cross and rising on the third day. The life of faith is risky. Risky because though the promises are always kept we don’t know the particulars, risky because people expect hawks instead of mother hens to change the world. Yet The life of faith is secure because it is founded in the one who keeps their promises and no matter how often we question No matter what life throws at us, God is reaching out gathering us in like a mother hen gathers her chicks To safely in the shadow of her wings. Amen First Sunday in Lent
Deuteronomy 26:1-11 Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 Romans 10:8b-13 Luke 4:1-13 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one at the center of the story. Amen The season of Lent is a time of storytelling. During this 40 day period we tell the stories of Jesus’ last days leading up to the greatest story of Easter morning. We tell these stories every year during this season, we tell them because they are important to us, we tell them so that new people might hear them, we tell them to remember who we are and whose we are because stories form our identities. We start with our reading from Deuteronomy, I love this passage because it combines the power of storytelling with worship. In this passage Moses is instructing the Israelites before they enter the promised land on how to worship God who is giving them the land. It is clear that Moses is concerned that once the people settle in and start working the land and providing for themselves through farming that they will forget God. Moses says some variation of “the land that the Lord your God is giving you” six times in this short passage, he has a right to be worried it’s a very human temptation to forget God when it appears that we can take care of ourselves through our own work even though God made it possible for us to work in the first place. So Moses prescribes a ritual for worship designed to both praise God and remind the worshipper of God. When the land, a gift from God, starts to produce the Israelites are to take the first harvest, put it in a basket, bring it to the temple and give it to the priest who will put it before the altar of God. Seems simple enough, but there is more, in addition to bringing the first fruits the worshiper is to retell the story of the people and God "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me." Deuteronomy 26:5-10 The story puts the act of offering in context, the ability to offer these first fruits is only possible because of God’s saving actions and gracious gifts. Telling the story this way makes sure that God stays at the center of the story. Worship is designed to keep God as the main character in the story of life, and let’s be honest we need all the help we can get we humans love to think that it is all about us, and when we start to make ourselves the center of the universe we get into trouble very quickly. It is this human inclination that the Devil plays on as he tempts Jesus in our gospel for today and Jesus resists by keeping God at the center of the story In his first attempt the Devil plays on Jesus’ pride and hunger by saying “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Now imagine if Jesus were living with the perspective that he was the center of the universe- he would be insulted at the Devil’s questioning of his identity and authority as Son of God, and being hungry it would make sense to prove the devil wrong by creating some bread, seems like killing two birds with one stone. But keeping God at the center Jesus, even though he is the Son of God and is very hungry answers: “It is written, ‘one does not live by bread alone.’” So the devil tries another common weak spot for humans, he offers power, all the kingdoms of the world. In exchange for allegiance that is. We only have to look through history at the various dictators to know how this temptation might have played out. But again Jesus keeping God at the center answers: “It is written, ‘worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” And now the Devil knows he’s working with a really tough case and so in his last attempt he combines a question of Jesus’ identity with quoting scripture, playing Jesus’ own game saying “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.’ there you have it, the word of God straight out of Psalm 91, how can you argue with that? The Devil implies this tactic has worked really well for the Devil over the years playing on the pride of people who then pressure other people saying: “If you are a Christian, you will go and do____ something very un Christ like” and by backing up their claim with scripture people fall prey to the desire to prove that they are Christian rather than to act like Christ. but yet again Jesus sees through the devil’s ploy and keeping God at the center of the story responds “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” At this the devil departs- but not for good, just until another time when Jesus is ripe for temptation, a time like this one where his defenses are down. That’s when the devil likes to tempt us, not when we’re at our strongest, but when we’re at our weakest, those times of struggle where we desperately desire a certain outcome because we are so overcome with the events in our lives that we’ve started telling our story with ourselves at the center we are so focused on ourselves that we give into temptation and start testing God saying things like: “God, if you’re really there I’ll know because you’ll make the one I love all better.” or “God, if you’re really compassionate make all this pain go away, right now.” Of course that way lies madness, because God doesn’t work like that, God is not a cosmic vending machine where if we insert our prayers like dollars our desired outcome will be dispensed. And how do we know God doesn’t work like that? Through all the stories of how God has acted in the past, the stories where again and again God chose to work through death to bring new life. So how do we make it through the tough times and resist temptation? Through stories, the stories of how God has acted in the past and promised to act in the future. In worship we hear the stories, and we give to God in recognition that in the great story of life God is the main character to our supporting role, and we celebrate the life God has given us. And fortified by the story, gratitude and communal celebration God sends us back out into the world, to live through death into new life. Amen Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 Psalm 51:1-17 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. In a few moments we will each hear those words as ash, the dust of a once living plant, is smeared on our foreheads. As we enter into the season of Lent where we journey with Jesus to the cross and the grave we take time to consider our mortality Generally when we think of THE END, that is death, we tend to lean more in the direction of Joel: “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near— a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.” THE END is scary, and while Joel ultimately offers hope in the form of the mercy of God we’ve gotten stuck on the scary part, and we’ve become so scared as a culture we’ve taken to denying death, we hide it, we try to pretend it won’t happen to us, we try to make it look less like death, and the result is that we’ve become so afraid of death that it gets in the way of life we’ve forgotten the fundamental truth that out of death comes new life. We see this truth in nature after a wildfire when flowers cover a newly opened meadow, as a bear catches a fish and feeds it to her young, we’ve experienced this when the death of one relationship has paved the way for one more life giving and most of all we have Easter morning and the empty tomb, a miracle because the tomb was full on Good Friday. Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. In a few moments we will each hear those words as ash is smeared on our foreheads in the sign of the cross. A symbol of death turned into a symbol of salvation. Where Joel calls for repentance saying who knows, God in mercy might relent? Paul says we know how it will go for us because: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” God knew that no matter how much we repented, or fasted or offered sacrifices or did any of the other things that humans do to try to get right with God that we would never be able to get there, we would never be able to make ourselves right with God. So God took care of it, through Jesus and joined to Christ in baptism God counts us as righteous Which means, we don’t have to wait until THE END to find out what is going to happen, the scary unknown of Joel is resolved we know where we stand with God, we have been saved past tense continuing action. Salvation in now and stretches into the future God says “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you." See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! “ Now is the day of salvation. Right now. We don’t have to wait. In fact God is working through us as ambassadors for Christ so that others may be relieved of fear and the unknown by the salvation available now, no waiting required. But in this world where there is always a catch it sounds too good to be true and there are times when we doubt even as we call ourselves Christian, the Corinthians doubted so Paul wrote to them saying “As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.” And that brings us right back to Ash Wednesday because accepting the grace of God in vain looks like saying we have the grace of God but not living like we have the grace of God. It looks like a fear of death so great that it gets in the way of life, it looks like storing up treasures on earth, placing trust in ourselves in our own hands rather than entrusting our lives to God who has already saved us by grace. The repentance of Ash Wednesday and Lent is about living into the grace of God that is ours, now. Any fasting we do or spiritual practices we may add in this time are about quieting the distractions that call us away from living in the present grace of God. And yes this is difficult, we live in a world that profits from fear and seeks to quiet those who say otherwise and so we start this season by marking our opposition on our foreheads, embracing without fear that which the world fears most, and in doing so turning as best we are able to live in the grace of God that is ours, now. Amen Transfiguration of Our Lord
Exodus 34:29-35 Psalm 99 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Luke 9:28-36 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who speaks to us. Amen Speaking and listening These two actions lie at the heart of the transfiguration story. Speaking and listening are the transfiguration story. Jesus has been teaching he’s been speaking to crowds, imparting wisdom and now he needs some time with God. So he takes with him three disciples, Peter, John and James and goes up a mountain to pray. Jesus likes to go to deserted places to pray, less distraction that way but going up a mountain signals that this is a special occasion, God is often met on mountain tops, And sure enough while Jesus is praying something happens, Jesus’ face changes and his clothes become dazzling white and suddenly he is joined by Moses and Elijah they’re having a conversation about Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and the cross and Peter, John and James witnessing the glory of God want to hold on to the moment Peter offers to build permanent structures so the moment never has to end and at this God overshadows them and speaks to them, telling them to listen to Jesus and terrified they keep silent. Speaking and listening That’s where it all starts with Jesus going up the mountain to pray, prayer is a combination of speaking and listening, we’re more familiar with the speaking side of prayer but prayer also happens in listening, listening for what God is saying to us. Jesus goes up the mountain to pray and is visibly transformed by encountering God. This is keeping with tradition, we heard how Moses’ face was transformed as he spoke to God. Being in the presence of God changes us. Listening to God visibly changes us. And that frightens us. Moses took to wearing a veil around the people because when they could see the glory of the Lord shining in his face, they were afraid to come near him. Yet they still listened to Moses speak, when others are transformed by being in the presence of God we are afraid yes, but we’re also intrigued, part of us wants to see more, but we can only take so much. We’re like little kids experiencing something new, at first it startles us and we run and hide our face in our parents leg, but soon enough we’re ready to take another peak, and a peak turns into a longer look and eventually, step by step we move toward a full encounter. It’s a different story when we’re the ones who are changed. Peter, dear impulsive, enthusiastic Peter witnesses Jesus’ transformation along with Moses and Elijah and determines that this is a good place, he wants to see more so he suggests building houses for the trio. He wants to make this brief moment permanent even though that is impossible, we are told that Peter didn’t know what he was saying, that this was a moment for just a moment. To be fair to Peter it’s a very human thing to suggest what he did. We humans love to embark on building projects around sites of significance. In seminary I got to go to Israel and Palestine as part of a class on the Holy Land which included visiting sites of significance to Jesus’ ministry. To be fair we were a bit skeptical that we were visiting the exact place where Jesus appeared to the disciples after the resurrection and made them a breakfast of fish, or the exact place where Jesus was baptized but our tour guide a wonderfully faithful Palestinian Catholic named Johnny had an explanation, ‘we know this is the place because the early Christians built a church here’ and there were a lot of churches dedicated to specific events in Jesus’ life. It’s what we humans do, we try to capture significant moments in permanent buildings. But back on the mountain God has other things in mind, the moment is too significant to get caught up in a building project and so even as Peter is offering his suggestion a cloud comes and overshadows the disciples, this is the presence of God, when God appears to people in the Bible it is often in the form of a cloud, For example God led the people of Israel out of Egypt appearing as a pillar of cloud by day. And the disciples are terrified as they enter the cloud. Then God speaks “This is my Son, my chosen; listen to him!” And when the cloud lifts, all that’s left is Jesus. And this time, their reaction is to keep silent, and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen. They obviously eventually told someone otherwise we wouldn’t know the story but it took them awhile to be able to tell the story, my guess is that it was only after the resurrection did they feel comfortable enough to tells others of their encounter with God and what God said to them. And this too is a perfectly human response. Because as much as we long for God to work in us and in our community - we pray for that every Sunday, when the time comes, like the disciples we are terrified to enter the cloud of God. Covered in clouds we can’t see where we’re going, even on top of a mountain and we don’t like that feeling, we like to be able to look out and see where we’re going anticipate what’s coming next, it’s less scary that way, and yet, God most often speaks when we’re covered in clouds. Those times in life when we can’t see what the future holds, we can barely see our hand in front of our face. A diagnosis, a broken relationship, a job loss, any kind of loss, we don’t know what the future will bring and it terrifies us and that is when God speaks, and when the clouds lift, in that first moment of clarity what do we see? Jesus alone, before us who was there all along. “Listen to him” God says, so we do, as we move forward we listen to Jesus, we save the speaking for later. The Church, with a capital C is in a time of clouds, things that worked for decades are no longer effective and frankly, we’re afraid, this comes out in all kinds of anxieties, I’m not going to list them but I’m sure you can think of something that worries you about the Church, we’re afraid because we can’t see the path in front of us and yet, when we pause, take a deep breath, and a moment to collect ourselves, we find that we do know what to do. Listen. Listen to God who speaks in the midst of clouds, who tells us to listen to Jesus. I’ve been listening for awhile now, And you know what? I’m not afraid of the clouds surrounding the Church anymore. Why? Because I know that when the clouds lift what we’ll find is Jesus, who has been there all along and who will lead us down off the mountain who will show us the way. Realizing this has made Paul’s words from 2 Corinthians so much more meaningful, listen to them again: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.” In Christ we have freedom, freedom from fear, in Christ we see the glory of the Lord, In Christ we are being transformed, In Christ we are engaged in ministry. In Christ we do not lose heart. “This is my son, My chosen; listen to him!” 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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