10th Sunday after Pentecost

2 Kings 4:42-44
Psalm 145:10-18
Ephesians 3:14-21
John 6:1-21

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
from the one who is faithful in all words and loving in all works. Amen
 
We have a God whose love and works
surpass human understanding.
 
We can’t explain how Elisha
 was able to feed a hundred men
 with a little bit of bread and corn
let alone Jesus feeding five thousand
with five loaves of bread and two fish
 
Jesus’ walking across the top of the sea of Galilee in a storm
defies the laws of nature that God set in place,
and these are only the examples
we have from the readings for today,
 the Bible is filled with stories that we can’t explain,
 
 at least with head knowledge,
logic and reason
 
But with heart knowledge,
our ability to accept the reality of mysteries
 we know that these stories tell us the truth,
 the truth about God and what it means to be a child of God.
 
As a society,
we’ve come to depend almost entirely on head knowledge,
for something to be true it must be able to be proven.
 
Now I’m not discounting science and measurable outcomes,
 the ability to understand the world around us
is a gift from God and has done much good,
 
 but we limit our experience of life
 if we rely only on head knowledge
and dismiss the power and truth of heart knowledge,
 truth that defies explanation
and yet exists in the world.
  
So what do we who live in a world of logic do
with truth that defies explanation?
 
I think our best course
 is to follow the lead of the psalmists
who in the face of the inexplicable
takes the time to describe their experience,
 however contradictory.
 
Have you ever noticed that about the psalms?
Especially the psalms of lament,
 the psalmist goes on and on about how awful life is
 and then at very end they give praise to God,
 and it seems to go against everything that came before,
 
 but we recognize the truth in these psalms
 because that’s how people of faith live,
 with the ability to tell God everything that’s going wrong
and at the same time still praise and trust God.
 
Our psalm for today is a psalm of praise,
in praising God,
 the psalmist describes the actions of God,
who upholds all who fall and lifts those who are bowed down,
 who satisfies the desire of every living thing,
who is near to all who call,
 
and throughout this litany of what God does
there is a kind of refrain
 as the psalmist says: “You Lord, are faithful in all your words and loving in all your works.”
 and later again “you are righteous in all your ways and loving in all your works.”
 
Even if we don’t understand what God is doing with our head knowledge,
we know with our heart knowledge
that God is faithful to God’s promises
and God acts in love.
And so we live into that truth.
 
It’s why we baptize babies like Royce.
Yes she doesn’t understand what that splash of water was about,
 and if we’re honest we don’t always fully understand either,
 
 but she does understand love
and ultimately that’s what is at the root of what happens at the font,
 
God loved the world so much
that God sent Jesus,
and in his death and resurrection
 Jesus bridged the gap between God and humanity
 
 and God who is faithful in all words
claims us as children of God,
 
and God who is loving in all works
 gave us a sign of that promise
so that on the days when we have doubts
we have a moment in time to point to and can say
 I am baptized! I am a child of God! I am loved!
 
And though we only baptize once,
 the water and the word are just the beginning of the baptismal life,
a life where we live into the love and identity that God has given us,
 
which is why we all promised to continue to live in community with Royce
and we promised that as she grows
 to bring her to the table
and to teach her the creed and the ten commandments, and the lord’s prayer,
and when she can read we’ll place the scriptures in her hands,
all the while continuing to surround her with love,
as we strive to do with all God’s children.
 
And we pray with Paul
 that God work through this community
 to strengthen her inner being with the power of the spirit,
 
that Christ may dwell in her heart
as she is rooted and grounded in love,
 
and we pray that she grows into some understanding
 but most of all
that she knows with head and heart
the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.
 
 That is our prayer for Royce,
 and for all God’s children,
including those of us gathered here,
 
 that we may be filled with all the fullness of God
 and that secure in our beloved identity as children of God
we may overflow with praise for the one who is faithful in all words
and loving in all works. Amen



 
 

9th Sunday After Pentecost
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Psalm 23
Ephesians 2:11-22
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
​
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who is our unity and peace. Amen
 
We live in a world divided.
 I know, it’s an obvious statement,
 one so obvious that it hardly needs saying
everywhere we turn it seems like another division is appearing,
 another crack in the ground beneath our feet
separating us from our neighbor,
 it’s chaotic and tiring
 and frankly sometimes it’s hard to know what to believe
or if it will ever settle down.
 
into this division
Paul proclaims that our unity and peace come from Christ
 
And in the midst of the daily conflict
this sounds perhaps a bit hollow,
a nice sentiment to be sure, but idealistic,
out of touch with reality,
 we’ve become so tired by everything around us
that we even question the peace of Christ as hollow optimism.
 
yet, when we dig a little deeper,
 this unity and peace in Christ
 that Paul proclaims on behalf of God
 is based entirely on reality,
 
 it is a message of hope
 because it is unity and peace
 that have arisen from chaos,
 much like what swirls around us today
 
Chaos is nothing new to us humans
we heard God speaking through the prophet Jeremiah
in our first lesson,
“Woe to the shepherds who scatter the sheep of my pasture! Says the Lord.”
 
and God goes on to promise
 to gather the scattered together again
 and to raise up from David a righteous branch,
who shall lead and bring about justice and righteousness.
As Christians we believe that God fulfilled that promise in Jesus
 
Jesus,
who we see in our gospel
having compassion for the crowds
because they were like sheep without a shepherd,
 
pressing in on Jesus and his disciples
such that they couldn’t even eat,
 and when Jesus and the disciples get in a boat
 to go to the wilderness, to rest
and get back in touch with God
 the crowd anticipates where they are going and follow them,
 
wherever Jesus goes
 he creates an uproar
because the people,
the everyday people on the ground,
need so much,
 education, health care, food, hope.
And they find it in Jesus who is our unity and peace
 
Unity and peace that comes about
through the sacrificial actions of Jesus
 as Paul reminds the Ephesians: “For he [Jesus] is our peace, in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is the hostility between us… he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one spirit to the Father.”
 
Jesus brings peace and unity by crossing boundaries,
often invisible and stronger than physical barriers.
He sees a crack in the ground as a place to build a bridge or take a bigger step,
he sees people on the other side as friends he hadn’t met yet,
 he sees all as beloved children of God
who need the loving direction of a good shepherd
who will see the sheep through the peaks and valleys of life
 whose sheep are unified through the shepherd.
 
And ironically
Jesus’ peace disrupts the world,
because it is true peace,
where all live in harmony with one another,
 
as opposed to the peace of the world
where one group finally dominates another group
 and there is an absence of open conflict.
 
Jesus’ peace
 is a peace that must be practiced,
 it starts small and begins to grow.
 
In our second reading
 Paul is giving the Ephesians a pep talk
 before they continue with the mission of Christ
and in the part we heard today
he reminds them
 that though they are one community
now they started out as two,
 
two communities that the world said would never get along,
and even in Christ,
 at the beginning
there were conflicts,
fights over what was required for a person to become part of the community,
 
and now people who started out as divided strangers
 “are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord…”  
 
Sometimes when a community is established
it’s hard to remember just what it took to get that way
 
Peace and unity,
even peace and unity in Christ
 is a state that is intentionally grown into
which means ultimately that there’s hope for us
and the world around us
because in Christ we are called be growers of peace and unity.
 
Peace and unity grow
when we take the time to listen and try to understand
 someone who holds a differing opinion than ours,
 
peace and unity grow
when we reach out instead of pushing away,
peace and unity grow
when we build bridges and cross boundaries
to reach the children of God on the other side,
 
peace and unity grow
when we know that we have enough
 and work to share the extra.
 
And yes this is hard work,
 so there are times
 when we need to go to the wilderness,
 to reconnect with God,
to regain hope for the large task still ahead of us
 
so that when the seemingly endless crowds
 push in around us
we can still look with compassion
rather than contempt
 
as we remember that we too
were once in that situation
 but like lost sheep
 Jesus found us,
brought us into the fold
and continues to care for us like the good shepherd that he is,
guiding us in unity and peace. Amen
 

8th Sunday after Pentecost

Amos 7:7-15
Psalm 85:8-13
Ephesians 1:3-14
Mark 6:14-29

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ
grace and peace to you
from the one who destined us for adoption as Children of God. Amen
 
Identity and purpose,
these are the threads that run through our scripture today,
 calling us to consider who we are
 and what that means for our lives.
 
 And who we are,
 Primarily
 are people chosen by God.
 
 Our reading from Ephesians
 hammers this home again and again,
 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ… He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will...In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance...you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit.”
 
God has acted decisively in regard to our identity,
there can be no question,
we are God’s
and while we use a variety of images
to try to explain this,
the end result is always the same,
 
God has chosen us,
not because of anything we have done or earned
 but because that’s who God is.
 
 We are God’s because of the grace of God.
 
And the appropriate response is to live for the praise of God’s glory.
 
When faced with such a gift,
what can we do but offer praise to God?
 
And how do we praise God?
In worship, prayer and song certainly
but also with how we live our lives,
consciously living out God’s vision for the redemption of the world,
a vision lived and taught by Jesus,
 
 one where all people have value
 and are treated accordingly,
value that is based on their God given identity
 and not on the many ways that the world has found
 to define and divide people,
 rich or poor,
 healthy or sick,
 by place of birth,
color of skin,
what value they’ll add to the economy, age,
the list goes on
 
And here’s the hard part,
 the world,
 those with power
don’t like when we live for the praise of God’s glory in this way,
 
 and sometimes we have to admit
that when we have power,
we aren’t always comfortable living for the praise of God’s glory either,
 because at times the blessings of the world
 seem to outweigh the blessings of God.
 
But that doesn’t change who we are
 and what we are supposed to do,
 and yes this is difficult,
 
our passage from Ephesians
 is a kind of pep talk to the community,
 building them back up before sending them out into the world again,
a world that is unreceptive to their message,
that will resist it in all ways possible.
 
The prophets are familiar with this resistance,
 two prophets join us today,
 in the Hebrew scriptures and in the gospel.
 
 Amos is called by God to pronounce judgement on Israel,
 and when he does he is confronted by the priest
 on behalf of the king,
who says ‘I know you have a message, just go someplace else and share it, the king and the land can’t take it, I won’t kill you, just go away.’
 
to which Amos responds (I paraphrase of course)
 ‘I feel you buddy, I was minding my own business tending my farm and my flock when God told me to go prophesy to the people. I don’t see myself as a professional prophet, just someone who is doing what God told them to do.’
 
In other words,
 this isn’t about earning a living as the priest suggests
 but a response to the call of God,
however inconvenient that may be.
God works through all of us,
 not just the professionals.
 
And then we have our friend John the Baptist
and the end of his story,
 
John who dared to tell the King what everyone knew,
 that it wasn’t lawful for him to marry his brother’s wife Herodias,
who hated John for pointing that out
because she had more power married to Herod than his brother Philip.
 
 So Herod puts John in prison
but protects him
because he has some respect for John as a holy man,
 
 but then comes the night where Herod hosts a banquet
and is pleased by his daughter’s dancing,
 and in front of everyone present,
all his officials
Herod promises to give her whatever she wants.
 
She consults her mother
and runs back to ask for the head of John on a platter
and Herod is presented with a choice:
 protect a man who he knows to be righteous and holy
 in front of all his officials
or maintain the facade of his benevolent power and do as requested.
 
And we know which he chooses
John is beheaded in prison
 and that is the end of that prophet.
Everything is at stake when we proclaim the message of God.
 John lost his head,
Jesus was crucified,
 but that was not the end.
 
God is bigger than the resistance the world puts up
bigger even than death,
in God life goes on,
and so does the message we are called to proclaim,
and more than proclaim we are called to live,
 
The message that God
 “set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
 
And when God says all, God means all.
Even the people we don’t think deserve it.
 
At the youth gathering
 Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber spoke about grace
and her struggle with the fact that God’s grace is
 “Both for me and my haters.”
 
 She confessed she struggles with the wideness of God’s grace,
Her struggle is not a particular to her
 we all do at times,
because it just doesn’t seem fair
 
 and yet the only way that God’s good news
 can be good news for us,
is if it is good news for the people we can’t stand,
even for the people who have hurt us,
 because when it comes down to it,
we don’t deserve God’s grace either.
 
And yet
God claims us as Children
Has included us in the inheritance of redemption
And marked us with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit
So how can we not live to the praise of God’s glory? Amen
 

2nd Sunday After Pentecost
Deuteronomy 5:12-15
Psalm 81:1-10
2 Corinthians 4:5-12
Mark 2:23-3:6

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
from the one who chooses abundant life over safety. Amen
 
Jesus right from the beginning of his ministry
 chooses abundant life over safety.
 
We have two prime examples in our gospel for today.
 In the first story
 Jesus’ disciples are hungry,
 and so as they walk through a field
they pluck heads of grain to eat.
 
Some Pharisees see this
and complain to Jesus.
 The grain was not the problem
 they were not stealing it,
Jewish law demands that farmers
 leave a certain portion of their crops in the fields
for the poor, widowed and orphaned to glean,
 and that is what the disciples were doing.
 
The problem was that the day happened to be the sabbath,
the seventh day of the week
 given by God to the people to rest,
 therefore, also in Jewish law
 work is forbidden on the Sabbath
 and that is what concerned the pharisees.
 
Jesus responds to this legal question
with a legal answer
- rabbis love to debate the law so this is not unusual,
 he gives them a precedent example
of when a law was broken
because someone was hungry, in need,
and there was a higher purpose at stake.
 
It was not legal for David to eat the bread of the presence,
 but doing so allowed him to fulfill his God given call
 to become King of Israel.
 
 According to biblical scholar Matt Skinner,
none of these arguments would have been new
or even unreasonable to the Pharisees
 
 and even though the story doesn’t tell it
I can just imagine a debate ensuing
about how hungry someone must be
to justify breaking the law.
 
 But we don’t get that,
the story ends when Jesus reminds the Pharisees
 that the sabbath was given as a gift to humans,
and claims power over the Sabbath
 “So the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath”
of course the pharisees don’t like that claim of authority but that’s a whole other sermon.
 
In entering into this debate,
in effect the pharisees are valuing the law over quality of life
 while Jesus is valuing quality of life over the law.
 
His point is
what good is keeping the law
if it takes away life rather than gives it?
 
Now I don’t want to portray the pharisees as the bad guys
 as so often happens,
they are deeply religious and sincere leaders
who want the best for their community,
 
 the problem is that they have gotten caught up
in following the letter of the law
rather than the spirit of the law.
 
And if we’re honest with ourselves
 we can probably think of a time
 when we were guilty of the same thing,
focusing so much on something supposed to give life
that it actually took life away.
 
But Jesus is clear,
 if it comes down to a decision between following the rules or abundant life,
 he will choose abundant life.
 
This choice is reinforced in the next story.
 Jesus enters the synagogue on the Sabbath
 where there is a man with a withered hand
 
and now the pharisees are on the lookout for Jesus
 and his sabbath breaking ways,
they’re waiting for him to break the Sabbath
 by healing the man so they can go tell on him.
 
And Jesus knows this,
 so he tries to enter into a legal debate with them again
 offering them the familiar argument
that it is lawful to save a life on the sabbath
 
but this time they refuse to respond,
 they have passed the point of reason
and this makes Jesus angry and sad at the hardness of their hearts,
 that they are so intent on catching him doing something wrong
 that they refuse to celebrate the life giving intent of the sabbath with giving life.
 
So Jesus heals the man,
restores his ability to work
and provide for his family
 and raises up the whole community along with the man.
 
At this the pharisees and the Herodians,
presumably people with the ear of King Herod,
 begin conspiring against Jesus,
working on a way to destroy him.
 
Already at the beginning of chapter 3 of the gospel of Mark
Jesus has begun walking toward the cross
by choosing abundant life,
putting his own safety at risk
 by defying the definition of how he is supposed to act
as defined by people with some measure of power.
 
Choosing life sets Jesus on a path to his death,
a death which leads to abundant life for all
because even in death
 Jesus defies what’s supposed to happen
 when God raises him from the dead to abundant life.
 
This abundant life Jesus offers to us,
freely as a gift.
 And out of joy we proclaim Jesus Christ to others
 and offer our lives in service following Jesus’ call
to live in the same way he did,
choosing abundant life over safety.
 
Paul, in our reading from 2 Corinthians
speaks to what happens when we live lives of service to Jesus.
 
Paul notes that we have a tendency
 to forget while doing ministry
that the power comes from God and not from ourselves-
 
like the pharisees we end up focusing on the wrong thing
forgetting that God is the creator of the universe
and that we are creation.
This, is why, Paul says,
we have the treasure of life in clay jars,
our bodies are impermanent
 prone to breaking,
 a reminder that only God is forever.
 
And with our fragile impermanent bodies
we are to follow Jesus
which means choosing abundant life over safety.
 
 Paul goes into great detail about just what this looks like
“We are afflicted in every way but not crushed perplexed but not driven to despair,
 persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.”
 
In contradiction to the ways of the world
 in Jesus death is followed by new life.
 
The world around us tries to tell us differently,
playing on our need for safety and security
 to bring out fears
and pit us against one another.
 
But we have the antidote to those fears,
Jesus Christ
 
Because when we have Jesus
 we have all we need,
we have abundant life
 and nothing, not even death,
can separate us from the love of God. Amen
 

Festival of Pentecost
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 104:24-35
Acts 2:1-21
John 15:26-27, 16:4-15

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who sets loose the spirit. Amen
 
The spirit is on the loose.
 That’s what Pentecost is about,
 the unleashing of the spirit in the world
 
we have three readings today
that help us understand what this means
 who the spirit is,
 
and in each of these readings
we find that the spirit is the gift of God,
 it is unleashed by testimony
 and brings life where it is heard and received.
 
In Ezekiel we have the story of the dry bones,
 because we hear it in English
we miss some of the nuances of the story,
 
 Hebrew is a language
where a lot of words have double meanings
 and authors often play with those double meanings,
 in this story that word is ruach
which means both breath and spirit
pointing to the intimate connection between the two
 there cannot be life without breath
and when we think about it can there really be life without spirit?
 
God takes the prophet Ezekiel
and sets him in a valley of dry bones,
then asks the prophet if the bones can live?
 
 all indicators say
that these bones are dead with a capital D
but the prophet defers to the power of God saying
 “O Lord God, you know”
 
and God instructs the prophet to speak to the bones,
 to tell them of the promise of God,
that God will bring them back together into bodies
 and will cause breath to enter them so that they will live.
Instead of speaking to these bones directly
God gives the words to Ezekiel to tell to the bones,
and Ezekiel using his own breath prophesies to the bones
 
 and they come together and form bodies
but they are not alive
until the prophet speaks to the breath, to the spirit
to come into these bodies
that they come to life.
 
Then God explains the object lesson to the prophet,
the people of Israel feel like these dry bones,
dead with a capital D,
 but through the words and breath of the prophet
God promises to breathe life back into the people
 who thought there was no life left.
That is the power of the spirit
 
Perhaps you’ve experienced something like this,
you were in a dry valley of faith or life
and it seemed like there was no climbing out of it
and then someone spoke a few words to you
 and things didn’t seem so hopeless anymore.
That is the work of the spirit set loose in the world,
 the spirit that is as close to us as our own breath.
 
In our Gospel
we hear Jesus promise to send the disciples an advocate,
 the spirit of truth
and this advocate will testify,
will speak on behalf of Jesus
 so that the disciples may also testify,
tell others of Jesus and his love.
 
As he is saying good bye to his disciples
Jesus acknowledges that there’s a lot that’s been left unsaid
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”
 
the spirit is truth,
 that comes to advocate when the time is right.
 
We are abundantly aware of the things left unsaid,
there are a multitude of issues in life
that Jesus in the Bible does not directly address
 that we struggle with,
 
we have trouble bearing them
we disagree about what to do
when we are faced with them,
they divide communities,
 
and yet in the midst of it all
 is the spirit of truth
showing us the way,
speaking through a prophet or two or three the words of Jesus,
 “love one another as I have loved you”
 
the message spreads,
 slowly sometimes
and as it spreads Jesus is glorified
in the love of the community
that is growing and expanding
through those who tell what they have heard from the spirit of truth
 
The spirit is on the loose spreading the truth.
 
Finally we have our reading from Acts,
the account of the first Pentecost.
 
The risen Jesus has appeared to the disciples
and they have witnessed Jesus’ ascension into heaven.
They know they are on their own so to speak
and they are preparing to continue on as a community,
 
on the morning of Pentecost,
a festival observed fifty days after the Passover
 the community is gathered
 
they hear a sound like the rush of a violent wind,
 this sound fills the house where they are
 and the holy spirit appears
 like tongues of fire above their heads
and fills the disciples who begin to speak in different languages,
 
all of this causes such a racket
 that people are drawn to the house
and as a crowd forms and the disciples spill out of the house
still speaking in their given languages
the crowd is amazed
 because they can understand the disciples,
 they are hearing the message of Jesus in their own languages,
 
 of course there are some naysayers
who think the disciples are drunk,
but Peter interprets what is happening
 through the prophesy of the prophet Joel,
the prophesy that says in the last days
 the spirit will be poured out on all people
young, old, slave, free, male, female, everyone
 
all the distinctions that normally divide will fall
as the spirit is given out equally
 and all shall share the words of the spirit with the world
 and these words will spread like wild fire.
 
The spirit is fire,
by nature it spreads often unpredictably,
 and even we humans who have harnessed the power of fire
appreciate that it is a wild thing
 that we manage and contain but really have no control over
and we get into trouble when we forget that fact.
 
The spirit set loose in the world,
through the gift of God
 and the testimony of the disciples
is out of the disciples’ control
 
just like that the people who come from all corners of the earth
who hear the spirit filled message of the disciples
will take it home with them,
 and they will tell others
and Jesus’ word will have spread to the far corners of the earth
far away from the original disciples.
 
It’s quite a contrast
to the first part of Acts,
the measured preparation that the disciples take,
casting lots to choose the most worthy follower of Jesus
to join the in crowd
 
the spirit busts that all open
because it’s not about worthiness
it’s a gift of God to all people
regardless of how they are defined and divided by the world
 
 the spirit, breath, truth, fire
shows up especially when people are defined and divided
 and interrupts those divisions,
 that attempt at controlling who is in and who is out,
 who claims to have the truth
 
there the spirit interrupts
breathing new life into places we have caused death,
spreading the love of Jesus like a fire that cannot be contained
showing the truth found in love
all while working through us,
the words we speak
the love we share.
 
Life, truth, fire
Watch out,
the spirit is on the loose.
 
And I say,
come Holy Spirit. Amen
 

Seventh Sunday of Easter
 Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Psalm 1
1 John 5:9-13
John 17:6-19

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one who prays for us. Amen
 
Today Jesus prays for us.
 
In our gospel,
 Jesus is gathered together
with his disciples in the upper room
 on the last night of his life,
 
they are about to go out to the garden
 where he will be betrayed,
handed over to the authorities,
 put on trial and executed on the cross
 
Jesus knows that all this is coming,
and he goes to it willingly
laying his life down for his friends,
 
but first he prays for them.
 In their last moments
 Jesus turns from teaching to prayer,
 talking with God his intimate parent,
 
 and the disciples there overhear his prayer,
 they overhear Jesus praying for them,
 just as we overhear Jesus praying for us this day,
 because Jesus’ prayer is not restricted to those first disciples in that moment
but it is a prayer for the community
that gathers in his name throughout time and space.
 
Take a moment and let that sink in,
Jesus prays for us, and we get to hear his prayer.
 
In the last couple of weeks,
I’ve been reminded in a variety of ways
 of the power and importance of being prayed for by someone else,
particularly when you hear what the other person says to God on your behalf.
 
  Even if you have been using the same words
 somehow they sound different coming from another person
and going to God,
sometimes they sound more true.
 
To offer prayer for someone is a sacred thing.
 To receive a prayer from someone is a sacred thing,
and I think it’s a gift we give and receive too little,
 
some Christian traditions
have much more vibrant and vocal traditions of prayer
but generally speaking
and yes there are always exceptions to the rule,
 we Lutherans tend to be more quiet with our prayers,
 
whether that is the result of a largely German and Scandinavian heritage
or something else I’m not sure
but praying a loud for others is something that we don’t practice very often
 
I think we get intimidated about having the right words
 but the Holy Spirit helps God and the other person
 hear the intent of our prayer
even if the words are a little clumsy,
and the good news is that prayer like anything else
gets easier with practice.
I encourage you to give it a try,
even if you feel a bit foolish at first it is a special gift to offer.
 
And Jesus gives us that gift
Jesus prays for our community,
 
The language of John can get kind of loopy and confusing,
but when it’s all boiled down,
 essentially Jesus prays for three things:
The safety of the community,
 the future of the community
and for the work of the community.
 
Jesus acknowledges
 that the community is based on the love
 that Jesus and God share,
 
  and as Jesus has been with the community
he has been able to protect them
now that Jesus is returning to God
 he prays that God protect the community
and that the life of the community
continues to rest on loving relationships with God.
 
Significantly,
Jesus doesn’t want God to take the community out of the world,
but for the community to remain
and for God to protect them from the evil that they will encounter.
 
In praying for the safety of the community
 Jesus places the future of the community in God’s hands.
 
The future of the community
 that gathers in Jesus’ name and love
depends on God.
 
We tend to forget this.
We feel that the future of the community is up to us,
and the way we envision that future
 is often very similar to the present
 
and we forget that often what we want,
is not what God wants,
is not how God envisions the future of the community.
 
We have a role to play, yes,
but the future depends on God,
which means that one way or another
 the community that gathers in love
will continue
 
even if we try some new things and make some mistakes
and even if we never try anything new and make some mistakes,
somewhere there will always be a community that gathers in Jesus’ name
 
by placing the future of the community in God’s hands
 Jesus frees us to focus on the present task at hand,
 the work of the community
 
 
which is sharing the love of God with others,
loving our neighbors as ourselves,
with love that Jesus has defined as laying down one’s life for one’s friends,
 
This is the work of the community,
 to love,
 and Jesus prays that God sanctify the community for this purpose,
 
 to sanctify is to make holy,
which essentially means to set apart for the work of God,
 Jesus has set us apart,
has authorized us, commanded us
 to live in love under the protection and future of God
just as he set himself apart and lived out his love on the cross.
 
The way we live out our love
might not be that dramatic,
 often our love is shown in the small and regular parts of life,
 
in the caring for our families
the putting aside of our own desires
 so that those we love are fed and clothed,
 
or it appears in the way we treat those we encounter in life
with dignity and respect,
perhaps it means contributing to the life of the community
or working on behalf of the marginalized and those without a voice.
 
 However we do the work of the community
who gathers in Jesus’ name,
we are able to do it because of the love of God
that Jesus has shared with us
and the future that Jesus placed in God’s hands on behalf of us
all by praying for us,
a prayer we overhead
 speaking the truth in love. Amen
 

Sixth Sunday of Easter
Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one in whose love we abide. Amen
 
In our gospel today
Jesus is saying good bye.
 
We overhear
 part of his last teaching
 to his disciples before his death,
 
his parting words,
 what he most wants the disciples
to take with them as they move into the new and strange territory
of life without Jesus in the way they’ve come to know him.
 
As he’s saying good bye
Jesus emphasizes his love,
what he’s taught the disciples
 and he acknowledges a change in their relationship
 and his hopes for their future.
 
 
Today we are recognizing our graduates,
all graduations mark a time of transition,
from a known way of life
 to new relationships, expectations from those around us
and often a physical geographical move
 
 and while these are exciting changes
they also mark a season of good-byes to the way life was
and so today we honor the excitement and the good-byes
 
and as we bless and send our graduates
we emphasize our love,
what we’ve taught them,
and we acknowledge a change in the relationship
 and our hopes for their future.
 
 
Jesus has already been speaking for a while
before the start of our gospel reading,
this morning as we start to listen in on his farewell speech
 we hear Jesus’ instruction for the disciples’
to abide in his love.
 
 This week I was struck by the word ‘abide’.
 Abide means to continue, to remain,
both in the physical sense of where one lives or dwells
 but also in the sense of an attitude or relationship
 that is not bound by a particular place,
it is something we live in wherever we go.
 
The love that Jesus has shared with his father
 has been shared with the disciples by Jesus
 and his hope is that this love continues to influence their lives.
 
Jesus telling the disciples to abide in his love
is reminding them
that though he may be physically absent from them
his love continues
 
and will even grow
 as they share the love with one another
as Jesus has commanded them.
 
Jesus’ love is the foundation for all that has led up to this point
 and will go with them into the future.
 
 
Graduates
love is the foundation for all that has led up to this point.
 If you remember nothing else from this day
 or even your time in this community
remember this: we love you.
 
And our love goes with you into the future.
 This is why we give our high school graduates blankets,
 a physical piece of our love
that continues for you even if we are physically separated.
 
We’re following the lead of Jesus
who gave the disciples the Lord’s Supper,
 a physical piece of Jesus’ love
 in a swallow of bread and a sip of wine,
Jesus’ love continuing with us.
Jesus reminds the disciples of his love for them
and his hope that it continues
and then he reminds them of what he has taught them
to love one another as he has loved them.
 
This is the key to abiding in his love,
 the putting into practice Jesus’ teaching,
and Jesus is a teacher who teaches by example as well as words,
 even the part about loving so much that one lays down one’s life for one’s friends.
 
 
Graduates
we have taught you what is important to us
now it is up to you to live out what we taught you,
we acknowledge that we have not been perfect examples
but we hope you will forgive us for that
 and do your best to live in a way that makes us
 and more importantly yourself
 proud.
 
 
Jesus,
 having reminded the disciples of his love for them
and what he has taught them,
then acknowledges that in this good-bye,
 this transition
their relationship is changing,
he moves from calling his disciples servants
to calling them friends.
 
Jesus has shared everything that he’s heard from his father,
 they know all that he knows
 and that changes the dynamic of their relationship,
they are friends now.
 
But lest the disciples let this go to their heads
Jesus reminds them that he chose them,
they did not choose him.
 
He chose them
and now it’s time for them to go bear fruit,
 to live out Jesus’ love in the world,
to share it and expand it,
and they are able to do this because of Jesus’ love for them.
 
 
Graduates
we love you,
we’ve taught you,
 and now we recognize that our relationship is changing,
 particularly those of you graduating from high school.
 You are now young adults,
 and it is time for you to go bear fruit.
 
God has given each of you
 particular gifts, talents and skills,
 some you know about already
and some you have yet to discover.
 
God gave you these gifts, talents and skills
 so that you in your own particular way
 could share the love of God in which you abide,
 with all those around you.
 
This might take the form of a job or occupation,
or the way you treat those you encounter.
 
Sometimes you will struggle,
and it might seem like an impossible task to bear fruit,
to love all you encounter
and these are the times when you remember
that regardless of how life unfolds,
 God loves you,
 and so do we. Amen
 

Second Sunday of Easter
Acts 4:32-35
Psalm 133
1 John 1:1-2:2
John 20:19-31

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
from the one who comes to us in community. Amen
 
Today we hear reinforced in our readings
that for better or worse,
 the way Jesus has decided to come to us,
 to continue the relationship post resurrection
 is through community,
 
 namely the community of disciples
that gathers in Jesus’ name,
or as we sometimes call it ‘the Church’ with a capital ‘C’
 
Thomas was absent
the first time Jesus appeared to the community of the disciples,
 and while his demands
 have been played up as doubt vs the disciples’ belief,
 all Thomas wanted
is what the other disciples first received,
 to see Jesus,
 
and when he is with the community the next week
Jesus comes again
and Thomas has his chance
and exclaims “My Lord and my God.’
 
 Out of Thomas’ questioning
comes deep faith,
 facilitated by the community gathered.
 
Then the gospel writer
takes the opportunity to offer a blessing
for all of us who have believed
without placing our hands on the resurrected Jesus
 as Thomas had opportunity to.
 
We may not have placed our finger
 in the spot on Jesus’ hands
where the nails when in,
 nor have we place our hand in his side
 where the soldier’s sword pierced him
 but we have all encountered the body of Christ on earth,
 
we would not be here today
had we not come into contact at some point with that body
 and members who make up that body,
who brought Jesus to us and into our lives,
 
 because that is how the gospel message is spread,
 through the community.
 
We heard in Acts,
the history book of the early church,
how the church formed and spread
 after the ascension of Jesus,
 
 how the believers were of one heart and soul,
how they gathered together to hear the testimony of the apostles
and how each member of the community was as valued as the next,
as lived out in the distribution of communal property
such that poverty in the community was wiped out.
 
 Other places in Acts
tell how this community attracted more and more believers every day.
 
Now I don’t know about you,
but to me that sounds like a pretty good community to be a part of.
 
In confirmation this week our lesson,
serendipitously
was on The Church,
 
each lesson starts out with a Bible passage
 and questions to get us into the lesson
and this week the passage was a very similar passage in Acts
as our first reading,
 
 and the writers of the curriculum remarked
that the description of the early church
sounded like a party that anyone would want to join,
then asked the confirmands to consider
how the actions of the church members
 helped or hindered how Christ’s message first spread.
 
In talking about it
we agreed that the character of the community
had a lot to do with the success of the early church,
 and then we agreed that it is still the case,
 
 how church members and communities act
make or break how the message of Christ is spread,
whether or not people want to take part in the community,
the primary place in which God chooses to be revealed in the world.
 
And if the community is like the one described in Acts,
 that’s great,
 
but we don’t have to think very hard
to find an example of when a community
did not live in a way that made people want to take part in the community
 
in fact I think it might almost be easier
 to think of negative examples,
 the times of exclusion, hate,
petty bickering and power dynamics
 
 and all of a sudden
what sounded like gospel
the proclamation that Jesus comes to us in community,
starts to sound like law,
 
 because we are intimately aware of the fact
that the church is not perfect,
nor are the people that make up the church perfect
 
 and yet we’re the primary way
 that Jesus uses to build relationships with people?
 That’s a lot of pressure,
there is a lot riding on our imperfect selves
and the imperfect community we make up.
 
But lest our despair at our imperfections
cause us to give up on the community
, as so many have done,
there is a word of grace,
forgiveness,
that when we sin we have an advocate in Jesus Christ.
John, in our second reading
 addresses the reality of the Christian community,
both the good and the bad,
 
his description of how the community works is beautiful,
 how the older community members share their experiences
 and build relationships with new community members
so that in these relationships,
relationship with God is built,
 
 and then John acknowledges the reality
 that communities don’t always practice what they preach,
 just saying we have fellowship with God is not enough,
 we must also live out that fellowship.
 
oddly enough
John doesn’t seem too concerned
about the particulars of the sin
 present in the community,
 
 he acknowledges that it’s better not to sin
but if anyone does
there is forgiveness in Christ Jesus,
 
what John seems more concerned about
is the failure to acknowledge our sin,
our imperfections,
 
from this passage
we get the line that is used in confession and forgiveness
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, if we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
 
The key then to the Christian community
 is authenticity rather than perfection,
 
I mean which community would you rather belong to?
 one that pretends it’s perfect
 and points out others’ imperfections
 
or one that acknowledges its faults,
 asks for forgiveness
and moves forward with the intent of not repeating those past mistakes or harmful actions.
 I know which one I choose,
and strive to create.
 
 and perhaps that’s the genius
 of God working through an imperfect community
 and imperfect people,
 
 it’s the way to connect with others
 who are not perfect
and to share with them the grace
 that has transformed our lives.
 
One person who has lived this out in a very public way
that comes to mind
 is Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber,
she’s a Lutheran pastor and public theologian and author
and has been quite open about her struggles in life with addiction,
 
and through her openness about her imperfections
and her experience of grace
 God has used her to gather a community of people,
many of whom who have felt excluded by other Christian communities in the past
because of their imperfections.
 
 I’ve heard her speak several times
and a couple times she’s mentioned
that some people at her church  
have told her they feel less intimidated coming and confessing to her
 because they know that she’s done way worse things
 and that God has forgiven her.
 
When we’re in a less than ideal situation,
 it’s comforting to know
 that there is someone else who has been through it
and survived and thrived,
 
 and that is the essence of Jesus,
 Immanuel, God with us,
 who has experienced everything we do,
 even death
and who live and loves us still,
 
  in fact on Maundy Thursday we heard Jesus command the disciples
 “to love one another as I have loved you, by this everyone will know that you are my followers, if you have love for one another.”
 
The mark of the community gathered around Jesus
 is love,
 Jesus love,
that he first shared in a community,
 that he continues to share in community.
 
Jesus comes to us in community,
 Jesus comes to us in community
 so that as a community
we can live and share the gospel message of Jesus’ love.
 
That is why we are all here,
imperfections and all,
to experience the love of God
through one another,
and to share that experience with the whole world
 so that like Thomas
 all may exclaim “My Lord and my God.” Amen
 

Easter Sunday

Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Mark 16:1-8

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
 
“So they went out and fled from the tomb
 for terror and amazement had seized them;
and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.”
 
I love how Mark ends his Gospel,
it is so honest,
 
I mean imagine if you were at the tomb on that morning,
expecting to care for the body of your teacher and friend
who you had seen crucified the other night,
publicly executed,
and then placed in the tomb
by other followers with a big stone covering the opening
there would be no reason to think
that Jesus would be any place other than where you left him.
 
And yet
 when the women arrive,
 the tomb is open,
 the stone is rolled away
the first sign something is up
 
and when they go into the tomb
 they find not Jesus
 but a young man dressed in white
the traditional color of garments of messengers of God,
 
a startling occurrence on several levels
and even crazier than not finding Jesus’ body
 is the message from the young man,
 that Jesus has been raised from the dead,
 that he’s alive and moving about the world
and going ahead to Galilee
 and that they and the disciples should go meet him there.
 
“So they went out and fled from the tomb for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.”
 
God has just changed the rules
on what is supposed to be permanent.
 No wonder they are afraid,
 it’s a lot to take in,
they probably wondered if someone was playing a joke on them,
and who would believe them if they told anyone anyway,
so they didn’t say anything.
 
But here we are.
 Word obviously got out,
 that seems very human to me too,
 whatever it is, everyone seems to find out in the end.
 
 Even the first hearers of Mark’s story
 knew what happened,
 and that’s another reason why I love this end
because it’s not an ending,
it’s a beginning,
 
it’s the beginning of life
 where death no longer has the last say
 and it’s an invitation to all of us
to experience that life,
 
 and if we want more than an empty tomb,
 if we want to see the risen Christ
 we must go to Galilee where he has promised to meet us.
 
Why Galilee?
Jesus brings his disciples back to Galilee
because that is where Jesus did his ministry,
 a ministry that lived out resurrection in in daily life,
 
commentator Philip Ruge-Jones remarks that
 “Sown throughout Mark’s gospel
 are stories that explain
what baptismal resurrection looks like in daily life.”
 
Jesus’ ministry is all about raising people up,
and this started long before the empty tomb.
 
So what does resurrection look like in daily life?
 It looks like Jesus
lifting up Simon’s mother in law
 
from the bed where she lay with a fever,
 healing her and restoring her ability to serve (1:29)
 returning her to her place of honor.
 
It looks like Jesus calling out to Levi son of Alphaeus
who was sitting in a tax booth
certainly collecting more than prescribed for his own benefit,
 
and Levi getting up and following him.
And later Jesus eating dinner with the tax collectors and sinners
because they needed him more than the righteous people
 that the scribes would rather have Jesus associate with (2:13)
 
Resurrection in daily life
 looks like God bringing growth to seeds scattered on the ground
 while people go on with their daily lives
oblivious to the seeds
until it is time to collect the grain from the plants that have grown up (4:26).
 
And these are only a few of the examples,
small daily occurrences,
 moments of new life
in the midst of a world that deals mainly in death,
 
 moments that affirm
 that death does not have the last say.
 
The resurrected Jesus
 has promised to meet us in Galilee,
 and while Galilee is a place you can still visit,
it is not necessary to buy a plane ticket to see Jesus
 
because the Galilee where we can meet Jesus
is right next door to us.
 
The Galilee that Jesus goes to ahead of us today
 is anywhere there are people who are hungry, cold,
abused, without power,
 
Galilee is on the margins
where ‘nice’ people don’t go,
 Galilee is where people are dying,
 
Galilee is where Jesus is needed the most,
where resurrection is needed the most.
 
If we go there,
we will see Jesus,
who knows what it means to suffer and die,
who answers death with resurrection.
 
If we go to Galilee we will see the life
that comes after the death of a relationship,
when after what seems like a long time love is found.
 
If we go to Galilee
we will see nurses and CNAs and other caregivers
taking care of their elderly charges
even though they haven’t been paid in three weeks
 and other communities giving funds
to make sure there is food and medicine for the most vulnerable.
 
If we go to Galilee,
we will see things that we thought were permanent,
sickness, addiction, loneliness,
 joblessness, meaninglessness,
 we will see all these things redeemed
 and brought to new life
in ways that right now we cannot even imagine
 
 all because even though Jesus died on Friday,
 he rose on Sunday,
overcoming the ultimate power of death.
 
Today Christ is risen!
 
And it’s only the beginning,
 
The story continues tomorrow,
 and the next day
and the next...Amen
 
Many thanks to Philip Ruge-Jones’ commentary on workingpreacher.org for shaping this sermon
 

Fifth Sunday in Lent
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:1-12
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one who draws us to himself. Amen
 
“We wish to see Jesus”
 
the request the Greeks make to Philip seems so simple
 
We identify with these strangers
who have heard great things about this teacher
 and even though they are on the outside
 
-they’re not Israelites,
nor any close connection to the people that Jesus has been living and working among-
 
 they want to be included,
they want to see Jesus,
 they want to believe that Jesus could be something for them
 as well as the disciples gathered around him,
the ones who have seen the miracles and traveled with him.
 
We want that too.
 
We wish to see Jesus
 
We never actually find out if their request is granted,
 Philip goes and tells Andrew
 and Andrew and Philip go and tell Jesus
 and Jesus starts teaching right away.
 
But I’d like to think the Greeks were there
 to hear the teaching that their request set off,
 that they were part of the crowd.
 
Philip goes and tells Andrew
and Andrew and Philip go together to tell Jesus,
 and upon hearing the request of the Greeks
 Jesus says
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”
 
All throughout the gospel
Jesus has been saying “it’s not time yet.”
 
Now the time has come,
people from other nationalities are starting to seek him out,
 and in response to the Greeks,
whose simple open ended request is not attached to preconceived visions of a messiah
 or anything else,
Jesus gives the unvarnished truth
 that what he means by glorified
is to die for the sake of the world.
 
And he does this because of who he is,
 the Word made flesh
 dwelling among the people,
 
 Jesus is the unmediated presence of God,
 all along Jesus has been teaching
that to see him is to see his Father,
to know Jesus is to know God,
 to serve Jesus is to serve God,
 
the God who chose to become human,
 embracing the entire experience,
 even suffering and death.
The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
 
We wish to see Jesus
But are we prepared to see Jesus as he is
 rather than as we want him to be?
 
The Jesus who says that death is a necessary reality
 
The Jesus who says the way to eternal life is to reject the life of the world
 
The Jesus who washes the disciples’ feet
and says that those who serve him
will do the same to those they encounter
 
Whether it is what we want or not
this is Jesus
 
As Jesus teaches the crowd
who has come to see him
 the voice of God comes from heaven,
 
and even though the voice speaks for the sake of the crowd
they are unable to understand what the voice says,
 
to some it sounds like thunder,
others interpret it as an angel speaking.
They don’t understand the unmediated voice of God
 just as they don’t understand that Jesus is the unmediated presence of God.
 
Many times we are like the crowd,
 we seek Jesus,
 we even follow him,
but we miss the message when the voice of God speaks
and we fail to see Jesus right in front of us.
 
And Jesus know this,
and he prays for and dies for
those who wish to see,
those who are unable to see
and those who do not yet know what it is they seek.
 
Jesus prays for all,
dies for all,
 for the whole world
 
 “and I when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself”
he tells the crowds
knowing that they have already felt his pull
even if they are missing exactly what is going on,
 
even if they will only understand
 what he was telling them after his crucifixion
when he was lifted up from the earth on the cross,
and after his resurrection when he was lifted up from the earth by God
 and after his ascension
 when he was lifted up from the earth to be seated at the right hand of God.
 
We wish to see Jesus
We are drawn to him
Like paperclips are drawn to a big magnate
We feel the pull of one stronger than ourselves
 
and Jesus calls us to himself,
even if we are not prepared to see him as he truly is,
even if we struggle to resist the temptations of the world,
 even if we balk at washing one another’s feet,
 even if we’re not sure of who Jesus is,
 
Jesus draws us to himself
offering life in the presence of God,
 eternal life,
 to all
 no questions asked,
a gift of grace.
 
We wish to see Jesus
And Jesus prays for us and draws us to him
In the waters of baptism,
in the bread and wine at the table,
 in the words of scripture and the hymns,
 in our neighbors near and far
 
Jesus is present
 
So Come,
come and see Jesus.