4th Sunday in Lent
Part of the sermon series on our mission statement: Serving Christ and Community

Genesis 18:1-8
Psalm 32
1 Corinthians 12:12-27
John 13:1-17

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
from the one who serves us and calls us to do the same. Amen
 
This Lent we have been examining our mission statement
 during our Sunday sermon time,
we’ve explored the grace that God has saved us by,
affirmed that we are rooted in Christ
and therefore called to flexibility and continual growth,
 and last week we renewed our commitment to nurturing faith,
that of ourselves and others.
 
 Today we reach the fourth and final piece of our statement:
 Serving Christ and Community,
 next week we’ll put it all together
and do some thinking about how we want to live out our mission statement
but before we get to that
we will consider what it means
when we say serving Christ and community.
 
Serving others is a hallmark of the Christian life,
Jesus’ whole life was lived in service to others
and he commanded his followers to do the same.
 
 We see this in our gospel,
where Jesus on his last night with the disciples
washes their feet and tells them that they should follow his example,
 
so what is his example?
It’s taking the place of a servant
 to perform a menial, undesirable task, yes,
 but it is much more than that,
it is an act of love
made without the expectation of gratitude or immediate understanding.
 
On this last night with the disciples,
 Jesus knows what is about to happen.
 By the end of the evening
 they will betray and abandon him
 and leave him to die on the cross.
 
 Jesus knows this
 and yet we are told that
 “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”
 
This service is an act of love
 made knowing that it will not be reciprocated.
 
All throughout his life this is what Jesus did
he took care of people because they needed care,
 not because they were going to thank him or love him.
 
Some people did have that response
 but others did not,
 and yet Jesus still served them
 
 because for Jesus,
 service is about the ones we serve,
 not ourselves and any benefits we might get from service.
 
 Because as altruistic as we may be about serving others,
as humans we are so used to transactional relationships,
 you do something for me - I do something for you,
 that it’s hard to turn that off,
 
 so we still approach acts of service with the perspective,
 what can I get out of this?
 Even if what we get out of it
is feeling good about ourselves,
 
 and if that is our motivation
 what we end up doing is serving ourselves rather than others.
 
It’s giving pimentos to a food drive.
 
The only reason to give pimentos,
or something equally obscure,
to a food drive,
is to be able to participate in giving,
 to feel good about contributing without actually making a sacrifice,
 
 
I can only think of two uses for pimentos,
 martini olives and that southern cheese spread.
 People who are food insecure don’t need pimentos,
 especially ones that have sat on a shelf for too long.
 
Serving like Jesus
 means actually filling a need,
taking the time to listen and understand
what is needed
 
or, sometimes the best way to understand how best to serve others
is to be served ourselves
have our needs filled by someone else
and that’s something we struggle with.
 
We see this when Jesus approaches Peter,
who asks “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
 then states “You will never wash my feet.”
 
Peter doesn’t want to be on the receiving end of service,
 especially from someone he wants respect from
 yet at the same time
Peter has been a willing participant in Jesus’ ministry of serving others.
 
We like to serve,
 but we hesitate to be served
this is a selfish approach to service
 because it is a position that never relinquishes power,
 and relinquishing power is the essence of Jesus’ life
 
at the beginning of his ministry
he refused to give into the temptations of the devil
who told him to use his power and relationship with God to fill his needs
and he carried this attitude all the way to the cross
where he gave up his life
for others, for us
 
Sometimes serving others
 means relinquishing our own power,
sometimes is means
 letting others serve us,
because serving others does feel good,
and builds self-esteem, and shouldn’t everyone have that experience?
I had this realization in college,
band would go on tour once a year
and we were hosted by churches,
we’d arrive set up, play a concert, take down,
 and then it would be time to meet our hosts for the night,
since members of the congregation housed us.
 
At first I felt very awkward about this,
like I was imposing on my hosts,
and I wondered why they were so interested
in a couple of college kids who they’d never see again
 
until I realized
that if the tables were turned,
 I’d be really excited to be the host
And so in accepting their hospitality
In addition to having a place to sleep for the night
 I was giving them a chance at this excitement
An opportunity to serve.
 
We can’t always be the ones to do everything for ourselves,
there are times we need to be served by others.
Paul reminds the Corinthians this
 when he uses the example of the body
 to describe a community,
 
not everyone has the leading role all the time
but we need every single part to make up a whole,
 the feet need to be directed by the eyes
at the same time the eyes need the feet to move other places
for more things to see. 
 
We are part of a community,
and that means at different times
 we have different roles to play,
 sometimes that means serving
and sometimes that means being served,
even Jesus needed the hospitality of others
 and he graciously allowed them to serve him.
 
In fact Jesus calls us to serve him
We serve Jesus when we take care of those in need.
 
 In Matthew chapter 25 Jesus describes the final judgment
where people are sorted based on who served him during their lives or who didn’t
 and both types of people wonder
 when did we serve you? or when did we ignore?
 and Jesus tells them,
‘whatever you did to the least of these you did to me.’
 
 We serve Christ when we serve others,
we serve the community when we serve Christ,
we serve like Christ,
 when we put our own needs and desires aside
and focus on the ones in need of service.
 
And we can put aside our own needs and desires,
we can serve selflessly
because of what God has done for us,
 
 because we are saved by God’s grace,
because we have been given the gift of Christ
and nurtured in our faith,
when we serve it is out of thanksgiving for what God has done for us,
not because we’re trying to earn points toward salvation,
 Jesus has taken care of that,
 
and so having been so comprehensively served by Jesus,
we in turn set out to serve Christ and community. Amen
 

3rd Sunday in Lent
Sermon series on mission statement: Nurtured in Faith

Readings
Isaiah 55:1-9
Psalm 63:1-8
1 Peter 2:2-5
Luke 13:1-9

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one who nurtures our faith. Amen
 
This lent we are spending our Sunday sermon time
revisiting our congregational mission statement
and thinking about what it means for us and the ministry that we do.
 Two weeks ago we explored the first statement:
Saved by God’s grace, through which
 
We acknowledge that we are gathered together,
not because we are better than everyone else,
or because we are trying to be
 
but because God has gathered us together,
as unworthy as we are,
 to proclaim to us that we are loved by God
And that salvation comes from God, as a gift.
 
Last week we explored the second statement: Rooted in Christ 
 
Because of Christ we know who we are,
whose we are, and our purpose,
 we are children of God,
 
Rooted in Christ,
through whom we are anchored and nourished,
who through this grounding and nourishing
calls us to flexibility and continual growth.
 
Which leads us to this week
 and the third part of our mission statement: nurtured in faith,
Where we acknowledge that if we are to continually grow in our faith
that faith needs to be cared for
in much the same way as our bodies,
 
We hear this in the words of the psalm this morning
As the psalmist cries out: 
O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you;
  my soul thirsts for you,
 
 my flesh faints for you,
 as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 
 
The needs of our soul, our faith,
 are as real as our need for water and food,
but it is so easy to get distracted,
or to try and fill that need with something else
 
In Isaiah we hear God calling out to the people
 to attend their relationship with God,
asking “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
  and your labor for that which does not satisfy?”
 
‘Why are you working hard to try and fulfill your needs
 with things that won’t satisfy you,
when I am offering that which will fill you up for free?’
God asks the people
 
and it is so easy to do,
 to think we can slake our soul thirst
with something other than God,
 
we try to satisfy our need by working hard and building careers,
or through appearing to be perfect,
and when those don’t work
we turn to shallow relationships,
or shopping, or entertainment,
 
things that will distract us for a moment
but will never satisfy the hunger in our souls,
because they do not nourish us
the way time spent in prayer and worship do,
or the way being part of a community of faith
strengthens us because there are others around us
 to encourage and uplift us
 when the way becomes difficult.
 
 Sometimes we’re like the fig tree in the gospel,
 we need someone to advocate for us
when others want to cut us down,
 
 we need someone to see our potential,
 see our value in who we are right now
as well as who we might become.
 
 Just before telling this parable
Jesus is responding to some people
 who have asked about the cause of some local tragedies,
and he rejects the notion
that the people killed tragically died because they were sinners
whom God had arbitrarily decided to punish.
 
 God doesn’t work like that, Jesus says,
but at the same time
life is uncertain and death is a reality we all must face,
even with the mercy of God.
 
So where does this all leave us?
 We are saved by God
who gives us faith
but how we act is still important,
 but we still can’t control all of our lives through our actions
…this is getting confusing,
 
it is confusing,
which is why we have so many letters in the Bible,
 to communities who are confused.
 
Today we heard the author of 1 Peter
write to a community who is confused over just this contradiction,
that they are saved and yet are still experiencing suffering,
and to them the author writes: “Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
 
“So that you may grow into salvation”
 
This line really caught me this week,
as we’re thinking about nurturing faith,
even as we have been saved by grace
there is still room to grow.
 
Think of it like this:
salvation is like a big pair of pajamas
(Joy has been outgrowing her pajamas lately so I’ve got pjs on the brain,
especially cute footed ones with dino toes)
anyway, God gives us the pajamas as a gift,
that’s the grace part
 but these pajamas don’t do us much good
unless we put them on,
 
that’s what faith in Christ does,
dresses us in these pajamas,
sometimes we help put them on
other times we struggle with it a bit
 but however it happens we end up with our jammies on
 
and we find that like all practical parents
 God has given us this gift with room to grow into it.
The sleeves are flapping over our hands
and the neck hole is sliding to the side a bit,
 
these pajamas still surround us and keep us warm
 but they’re so big that sometime we trip on the feet,
or we push the arms out of the way
or we find ourselves all tangled up,
but as we grow, we find ourselves tripping less,
and getting less tangled up.
 
That’s what nurturing faith does,
 help us grow into the gift
that God has already given us through Christ.
 
As a congregation we are committed to nurturing faith,
for all ages,
and this goes beyond Sunday or Wednesday School or even confirmation
 
faith is nurtured when we worship together,
in joining our voices as one in the hymns
in passing the peace, the prayers,
in the sharing the Lord’s supper,
 
and nurturing faith goes beyond worshipping together
faith is nurtured through reading and discussing the Bible,
through working to understand the world around us
  
and faith is nurtured when we build relationships,
and uphold those who are struggling
and let others care for us when we struggle,
 
faith is nurtured when we pray for those who are different from us
and then we go seek to understand them.
 
Faith is nurtured
when we follow Jesus’ call to bring the kingdom of God near
and love one another as Jesus has loved us.
 
Here we are saved by God’s grace
 rooted in Christ
and nurtured in faith. Amen
 

2nd Sunday in Lent
Sermon Series on our mission statement: Rooted in Christ

Readings
Genesis 15:2-12, 17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians 2:3-11
Luke 13:31-35

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one in whom we are rooted. Amen
 
This lent we are spending our Sunday sermon time
 revisiting our congregational mission statement
 and thinking about what it means for us and the ministry that we do.
Last week we explored the first part of the statement:
Saved by God’s grace, through which
 
We acknowledge that we are gathered together,
not because we are better than everyone else,
or because we are trying to be
 
but because God has gathered us together,
as unworthy as we are,
 to proclaim to us that we are loved by God
And that salvation comes from God, as a gift.
 
Today we move on to the next part of our mission statement.
Rooted in Christ.
 
And yes there is some tree imagery here,
 the roots of a tree are what anchor it to the ground
 and allow for flexibility higher up,
 rigid trees or those with shallow root systems
 are the ones that are blown over first in storms.
 
And of course the roots provide nourishment for the tree
 to continually grow taller and wider
 for as long as their roots and ecosystem support them.
Did you know that?
Trees never stop growing!
 
We are rooted in Christ,
through whom we are anchored and nourished,
who through this grounding and nourishing
calls us to flexibility and continual growth.
 
So how do we answer this call?
As Christians we are urged to live like Jesus.
 
Paul makes this argument many times,
 in writing to the Philippians he says:
 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus”
 
Then he goes on to explain what that means by quoting an ancient hymn:
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
 who though he was in the form of God
did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,
and being found in human form,
he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name that is above every name.”
 
 Jesus is human,
 Jesus is God,
ultimately, out of love for the world,
he died on a cross,
and God raised him on the third day,
defeating death.
 
He did this after being born in a stable,
 growing up,
gathering followers and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God,
and teaching how to live the kingdom life on earth
principally through love and service of others.
 
We are to be like Jesus.
 
While this seems like an admirable goal,
I don’t know about you but it also seems like a tall order,
so tall as to be impossible,
 
 in fact, anyone saying ‘be like Jesus’
risks setting expectations for themselves and others
 that will only be disappointed.
 
 Don’t get me wrong,
we should still try to be like Jesus,
but how many times have we been disappointed in ourselves
in others, in the Church,
for not living up to the standards of Jesus,
the Jesus who eats with sinners and washes disciples’ feet,
who forgives those who seek to harm him,
who includes those on the margins.
 
It is so easy to become disillusioned by our failures
and wonder why even try?
 
 but that is when we need to take a step back
 and realize that the most fundamental thing about Jesus
 is that he shows up.
 
 Even when he knows that trouble lies ahead he is present.
 
We see this in our gospel for today
where Jesus,
 aware of what awaits him there,
still heads for Jerusalem.
 
Some Pharisees come and warn Jesus
 that Herod, the ruler of the area,
wants to kill him.
 
Usually Pharisees are portrayed as being against Jesus,
 but these Pharisees are looking to help him out,
 these are good guys,
and yet Jesus dismisses their warning
and even sends them back to Herod
 to tell him right where he’ll be until he heads for Jerusalem
 
and it’s not as if the warning is misplaced
or Jesus fails to understand the danger,
he knows exactly what awaits him,
 and it grieves him, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” 
 
Jesus knows what awaits him,
 and he goes anyway.
  
Jesus shows up where he is needed to offer care, offer himself,
 even if that care, even if he, is rejected.
 
 And Jesus grieves this rejection,
we could substitute so many things for the Jerusalem of his lament,
 places that are supposed to be holy,
 people who you would think would be open to the messages of prophets
who in turn reject them.
 
 Even when we’re trying our hardest
we still struggle,
 
 the pharisees test Jesus,
 they get it wrong,
the Pharisees try to warn Jesus,
 they get it wrong,
 
sometimes it feels like no matter what we do,
 we get it wrong,
 
and yet Jesus still comes to us.
 
He shows up at celebrations and in the good times yes,
 but also and especially
 in the places of suffering and rejection,
and he works through those times to bring about new life.
 
Jesus is present on the cross,
and Jesus is present three days later outside the tomb. 
 
And Jesus continues to show up for us,
 he is there when two or three are gathered in his name,
and he is there when we feel all alone
 
he is present at the font in the waters of baptism,
he is there with those who are excluded
 
Jesus offers himself to us at the table
his body and blood in with and under the bread and the wine,
He is there when the hungry are fed.
 
Jesus forgives us our failures
And send us out to try again.
This is the one in whom we are rooted,
 the one from whom we draw strength and nourishment,
the one who holds us steady
 even as he calls us to flexibility
 in the midst of the storms of life.
 
Because of Christ we know who we are, whose we are, and our purpose,
 
 we are children of God,
saved by grace through faith in Christ,
 who calls us to bring the kingdom of God near
 first and foremost, by simply showing up
 rooted in the love of God. Amen
 
https://www.npr.org/2014/01/16/262479807/old-trees-grow-faster-with-every-year#:~:text=Like%20other%20animals%20and%20many,they%20do%20stop%20getting%20taller. 
 

1st Sunday in Lent
Sermon Series on our mission statement: Saved by God's Grace

Readings
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Romans 5:1-10
​Luke 4:1-13
 
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who saves us by grace. Amen
 
We hear in our gospel for today
 that after he is baptized
the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness
 where for forty days he is tempted by the devil.
 
 This seems like an odd thing for the Holy Spirit to do,
but in a way it is a particularly human experience for Jesus,
 I’m not aware of any other creature
that intentionally goes to live in a way
where it is harder for them to survive,
 
 but humans have a long history of this,
of going away from the safety of other humans
and fasting from the very things that we need the most,
 food and water,
and doing this just to test ourselves or seek a spiritual experience.
 
Lately I’ve been watching a lot of this tv show called “Alone”
it’s a reality show where ten people are taken to a remote place with only a few tools
 and they have to survive for as long as possible
 and when they’re done or they’ve reached their limit
 they can pull themselves out,
or they can be removed by the show for medical reasons,
and the last person left, the one who goes the longest wins $500,000
and of course since it’s a tv show, they have to document their experience with cameras,
 
 and it’s fascinating to watch,
 because the people come in with all kinds of motivations,
 for some it’s about the money,
 others want to test their survival skills,
 others want time to connect with the land,
 
and everyone has a different breaking point or reason for pulling out,
I think the shortest time was only a few hours,
 a guy was all excited and then when he was dropped off
he hiked around a bit, saw a bear, and was like “I’ve made a mistake, come get me”
 other people are drawn back by family, or injury,
and some last a really long time,
 and that long time is always marked by hunger
 and when they’re hungry,
food is all they can think about,
 they talk about dreaming about food.
 
When we don’t have it food it’s all we humans think about,
so it’s no surprise that that’s the temptation the devil starts with
when Jesus is famished at the end of his extended stay in the wilderness,
 
 and yet Jesus resists,
 so the devil moves on to another strong desire of humans,
power,
 
we all need to have at least a little power in our lives,
usually the ability to make a least a few decisions for ourselves fills this need
we see this in toddlers starting to assert their independence
 in determining what they will wear (or not)
or the foods they will eat,
usually even a little autonomy satisfies the need,
 
 but lack of power in one area
 can quickly turn into an abuse of power in others,
 we’ve all met people who let even a little power go to their heads,
 and left unchecked the desire for power has catastrophic consequences,
 abuse, oppression, war.
 
We talk about people making deals with the devil for power,
 and that’s what the devil offers Jesus,
authority over all the kingdoms of the earth,
 if he will bow down and worship him.
 
 Jesus, resists this temptation
and so the devil moves on to the last classic weakness of humans,
 the desire to put God to the test,
 
 sometimes it’s as simple as saying
God if you’re there then fill in the blank will happen,
for some it’s to try and see if God will keep the promises God makes,
which is why the devil cites scripture
 as he tells Jesus to put God to the test.
 
 
 But Jesus cites scripture right back
and finding himself beaten
 the devil leaves, but only for a moment. 
 
And Jesus leaves the wilderness
 and only then does his public ministry begin.
 
 Sometimes we have to go through some things,
whether it’s something we choose
or something imposed on us
before we can become fully who we were meant to be,
 
as Paul observes in Romans, “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us”
 
this is particularly and especially true
for those of us joined to Christ
 “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”
 
because of Christ’s actions
 “we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.”
 
Jesus, who resisted temptation all the way to the cross,
did so for us,
so that we who give into temptation all the time
might still be in full relationship with God,
 
 and this justification,
 this salvation,
 is given to us freely as a gift,
and our only role is to have faith,
 trust in the promise of God.
 
This is grace.
We are saved by grace through faith,
we are saved not because of what we have done
but because of what God has done.
 
 
saved by God’s grace.
This is the beginning of our mission statement,
 
this Lent we will be practicing the discipline of self-examination
 during our sermon time on Sundays
 by revisiting our mission statement,
 
and we start with the grace of God
because this belief is at the very core of who we
are as a church and a community.
 
We acknowledge that we are gathered together,
not because we are better than everyone else,
or because we are trying to be
 
but because God has gathered us together,
as unworthy as we are,
 to proclaim to us that we are loved by God.
 
This is good news,
good news we need to hear over and over again,
good news we need to share with others
 because they need to hear it,
particularly since we live in a world
that tells us to measure our worth by what we do,
a message that has even seeped into some forms of Christianity.
 
At the weekly text study I attend
 one person shared a recent experience he’d had with the rest of us,
he is serving a congregation at the same time he is going to school to become a pastor
 and he is currently doing CPE,
the intensive time of chaplaincy and reflection,
 
 and he talked about meeting with a man near the end of their life
who was having a really difficult time
 and when asked what he was worried about- he was Christian-
he said he was worried that he was not worthy enough to go to heaven.
 Again and again this man he repeated that he wasn’t worthy.
 
Along the way he’d been taught
or gotten the impression
 that his entrance into heaven
 depended on how good he was
and now at the end of his life
 he was facing the consequences of not being good enough,
 and it scared him.
 
 Now my colleague said his instinct was to assure this man
 that he was worthy,
and indeed it sounds like others in the room said something to this effect,
 but a moment like this
is precisely a moment for proclaiming the gift of God’s grace,
 because the truth of the matter is,
none of us are worthy.
 
 If our salvation depended on our own works
 we would be lost
 because we’re just not good enough,
no matter how hard we try,
 
 and so instead of reassuring the man that he was worthy
my colleague looked at him and said
‘you’re right, you’re not worthy,
 on your own, but you’re not on your own,
 you are joined to Christ in the waters of baptism,
and for the sake of Christ,
God loves you and promises that life everlasting with God is yours.’
 
We can’t do anything to save ourselves,
some upon hearing this might feel powerless,
you mean there’s nothing we can do?
 
  but it’s not powerlessness,
 it’s freedom
and that is something very different
 
 because if there’s nothing to do for ourselves,
if we no longer need to worry about being perfect
we are freed to turn our attention and efforts to others
 and out of thankfulness for this gift
try to live lives that are in turn good and grace filled,
 
returning again and again to the grace of God when tempted
offering forgiveness to ourselves and others when we fall short,
because that is what God has first done for us.
Saved us by grace. Amen