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

4th Sunday in Lent
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107: 1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one who is responsible. Amen
 
Who is responsible?
This question is rarely asked
after something good happens.
 
A parent walks into a room
 to find children standing in the midst
of a disarray of couch cushions and a broken lamp,
“who is responsible?” They ask,
 as small eyes suddenly find something very interesting
 about that corner of the ceiling
 
“Who is responsible?”
A manager cries out
after getting off the phone with an unhappy client,
 gazes avert in this situation as well
 
“Who is responsible?”
The people cry
out after a storm leads to a flood,
“was it the poor construction of the barriers?
Was it government neglect?
Was it God?”
 
God tends to take a lot of the blame for things,
it used to be and maybe still is in some cases
that natural disasters were referred to as “Acts of God” on insurance forms.
 
As I said,
the question who is responsible?
Rarely follows something good
 
And the answer,
at least the answer provided by those asked
 is usually “someone else” 
 
We see this today in our first reading.
The Israelites are tired of wandering in the wilderness,
 they are getting impatient,
because they are impatient they think they are suffering
“why have you brought us out of Egypt into the wilderness where there is no food?
To die? Oh and we hate this miserable food” they whine,
 
 even though God gives them food each morning,
 and when they complained about the lack of variety in the manna
God added quails to the menu,
and when they complained that the water was bitter,
God made the water sweet,
 
now it seems like they are complaining about God’s saving actions in the Exodus
and it is too much,
and we are told that God sends poisonous serpents among the people
 and many people die. 
 
Who is responsible?
God for sending the serpents?
Or the people for all their complaining?
 
As it turns out,
The people realize
that the snakes are the consequence of their actions
 and they repent,
they come to Moses and confess:
 “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you,
pray to the Lord to take the serpents away from us.”
 
So Moses prays to the Lord
and God has a decision to make,
the snakes were the consequence
for the people’s actions,
does God remove the consequence like the people ask? 
 
In the end
God does not remove the serpents
from among the people,
 
 being sorry for an action
does not make the consequences of the action go away,
 but God does give the people a way out,
 
  God tells Moses to make a serpent out of bronze,
put it on a pole
and place it in the middle of the camp. 
 
When someone is bit by one of the serpents
all they have to do
is look at the bronze serpent
 and they will live
 
 God is gracious to the people
 and finds a way through the consequences of their sin
to give them life.
 
The gospel of John
understands God’s actions in Jesus
 through the story of the bronze serpent.
 
In the course of our lives
we do things that turn us away from God
and as a consequence
our relationship with God is broken,
 
when
like the Israelites
we realize what we have done,
we repent and confess our sin.
 
And like with the serpents in the wilderness,
God does not take away the consequences of our actions
 but works through them
 and gives us a way forward to new life,
 Jesus lifted on the cross.
 
This is the good news that we share with the world
 and often
we share it using the section of John
 that we read today.
 
John 3:16,
 how many times have you seen that verse
on signs at sporting events,
 scrawled as graffiti or on billboards by the road
 
and though it proclaims good news
John 3:16 has become shorthand
 for the idea that unless you believe in Jesus
you’re going to hell.
 
Frankly, I’ve never understood this evangelistic strategy
using God’s ultimate act of love
 to inspire fear that leads to someone “accepting Jesus as their personal savior”
 
According to this perspective
 the one who is responsible for your salvation
is you
 
and this is a choice
that you’re making
not for right now
but for the future,
your eternal future,
 
heaven or hell
the choice is yours,
you’re responsible, what are you going to do?
 
The trouble is as humans
we can’t seem to stop sinning
and separating ourselves from God.
Even when we try as hard as we can
 
In fact, God knows that it is impossible for us
 to do and say all the right things
 that would lead to being in the presence of God,
of bridging the gap between human and divine,
 so God takes care of it all for us.
 
God works through Christ to make us alive,
 and through Christ brings us into the presence of God as a gift,
A gift that is given right now, in this life.
 
Jesus says a little later in the gospel of John
“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly”
And considering all the healing and teaching
feeding and forgiving Jesus did among his followers and the crowds
 it’s safe to say that Jesus meant abundant life now, as well as later.
This is the grace of God,
That God wants the same quality of life for all creation,
abundant life lived in the presence of God
and God offers this life to all, freely,
 
as Paul says in Ephesians:
“4But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—9not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Who is responsible?
 (here is one of those rare positive moments for this question)
 who is responsible for salvation?
 For life?
 God,
 
God is the one who is responsible,
God is the one who works through the brokenness and failings of humanity and the world
 to make abundant life possible,
 and not only possible but a reality. 
 
and it becomes a reality in our life
when we trust the promise
and begin to live in the presence of God
 and even this trust, this faith is a gift of God
who continually reaches out to us,
calling us,
turning us toward life.
 
Give thanks to the Lord, for the Lord is good,
  for God’s mercy endures forever. Amen
 
 

2nd Sunday in Lent
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Psalm 22:23-31
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you
from the one who makes all things possible, Amen.
 
Throughout our readings this week,
 God seems to be promising the impossible,
 and not only promising
 but expecting humans to both trust
and participate in bringing the promise to fruition. 
 
God gets some mixed results from the humans.
God promises Abraham and Sarah,
well past childbearing years,
that they will be ancestors to a multitude of nations
 
and they trust God,
well kind of,
 
Paul in Romans makes it sound like Abraham was perfect
and yes Abraham had great faith,
 he and Sarah also tried to take things into their own hands
 to make the promise of God happen on their own terms
 using and abusing Hagar along the way.
 
Jesus tells the disciples what is going to happen to him,
he promises that in the coming days
the Son of Man will undergo great suffering,
 and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
 and be killed, and after three days rise again,
 
Peter doesn’t even try to believe this,
 he goes straight to thinking a demon has possessed Jesus
 and tries an exorcism,
 
Peter means well
so imagine his shock
 at Jesus rebuking him right back
and then going on to lay out the requirements for following Jesus,
 
 denying oneself,
 taking up a cross,
losing life.
Sounds like an impossible list to me,
so why even try?
 
When I start thinking like that
I remember something a wise professor in college told me.
 Professor Freiert was at the end of a very long career in teaching and was revered by students, you did not want to disappoint Professor Freiert. I was headed toward seminary and wanted to get my Greek requirement done in undergrad but to get to biblical Greek, which is a much easier form of the language, you first had to take ancient Greek for two semesters, he had us translating Plato. I was also writing my senior religion thesis at the time so I was a bit stressed out and I failed a test in Greek and wound up in Professor Freiert’s office, there may have been some tears,
 
in the course of our conversation
 he told me this:
 “There is nothing worth doing that isn’t worth failing at.”
That was gospel to me in the moment,
 and obviously it made quite an impression.
 
His point to me
was that even seemingly impossible things
 are worth attempting,
 in fact it’s the most difficult challenges
that are often the most rewarding, most worth pursuing,
challenges like say,
 taking up a cross and following Jesus.
 
God is well aware of the frailties and failings of humans,
 they are why Jesus, as Paul says
 “was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification”
there is no way that we on our own
 can make ourselves perfect before God,
 
 so God stepped in
 and through Jesus made the impossible a reality
and gave it to us as a gift,
this is the grace of God.
 
Now it would be easy at this point to just say
‘great, God’s got it taken care of, I don’t have to do anything’
 and this too would be wrong, 
 
 God doesn’t expect us to be perfect
but God does expect us to try.
 
why?
because God in the wisdom of God
 is working with humans to bring about the Kingdom of God,
and God knows that this is going to be a process
 
Notice how Jesus doesn’t just tell the disciples what’s going to happen,
“he begins to teach them what must happen”
 the way that God is going to work through the messiah
is a lesson the disciples will have to learn,
 
it’s not something they know already
something that will come easily,
it is something they have to be taught,
 a lesson to be learned over and over again,
 
 in fact they will have to first unlearn
what they’ve been taught about the messiah
before they can comprehend Jesus’ teaching.
 
The disciples have grown up
 being taught that the messiah
will be a powerful political and military figure
who will gather up the downtrodden and dispersed Israelites
 and lead them in a military revolution
 to overthrow their Roman oppressors
and take back autonomy and sovereignty for the people. 
 
Which is just about the opposite
of what Jesus proposes will happen,
 that the messiah will be rejected by the people they’ve come to save
and be killed by the oppressors.
The rising on the third day thing just doesn’t make sense.
 
So it’s no wonder Peter initially rejects Jesus’ teaching
we react the same way
when someone tries to teach us something
 contrary to what we’ve been taught our whole lives,
our immediate impulse is the reject both the message
and the messenger as crazy
 
But if what we have been taught our whole lives
 is contrary to the way of God,
 God will keep sending messengers,
keep teaching until the message is understood and lived out,
 
 sometimes that takes a long time in human years,
 an example in the United States
is our history with slavery,
 
 people were taught that they had a right to buy and sell people from Africa
 and their descendants,
 a teaching contrary to the way of God,
even though God and the Bible were at times used to justify slavery,
 
and when the message of God
had spread enough that some people were ready to stop enslaving people
there were others who fought a war to maintain that teaching,
 
and even after the war was lost
the teaching that the former slaves
 marked by the color of their skin
were still less than
persisted,
 
and though it has become less prevalent
it still persists today,
and God is still sending messengers,
 God will continue to teach until the lesson is learned.
 
Peter rejects Jesus’ initial lesson,
 rebukes Jesus for his teaching
and in return Jesus rebukes Peter
 “Get behind me Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
 
It seems like a harsh response
 but what Peter is proposing is tempting,
 from the human perspective
 it makes sense to avoid suffering at all cost,
 
but that is not the divine way,
 the divine way is to go through suffering
to the new life on the other side,
 
 the divine way is the way followers of Jesus go,
confronting the pain of the world
and the teachings that have created it,
facing the violent rejection of the world
for the sake of new life,
 
 new life that seems impossible
except that God has promised it.
 
This is what we are called to as followers of Jesus,
and it is so impossible
 that we will fail at it,
 
we will try
but then the pain will be too much
 or our mind will slip back to human things
 and God will rebuke us,
 show us where we’ve gone wrong,
 
and then God will forgive us,
 teach us the lesson once again
 promising us the impossible
and invite us to try again
 at the worthy task of living the divine way
and the new life that follows.
 
We experience how this works in the season of Lent,
we are invited into a season of fasting and spiritual disciplines,
 perhaps we give something up,
 or propose to pray more
 or go to church every Wednesday
 
and despite our best intentions,
we sleep in instead of praying,
 we eat that chocolate we said we wouldn’t
or the reason we don’t drink that soda
 has more to do with wanting to lose those five pounds than Jesus,
 
 in short we fail,
 
 and Easter comes anyway,
God makes it possible
and invites us to share in the joy and new life.
If new life seems impossible right now,
 keep trying,
keep trusting,
it’s coming,
God promised. Amen
 

1st Sunday in Lent
Genesis 9:8-17
Psalm 25:1-10
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:9-15

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 
grace and peace to you 
from the one who has been through the wilderness Amen.
 
Welcome to Lent,
 the season in the church year 
when we confront the truth 
that life is not always easy,
 that hardships, trials and death will come our way 
 
And
 we once again experience the presence of God throughout, 
God who goes with us 
and in the end has the last say, 
and the last word is “life”.
 
Now the first part is not too difficult for us,
 we know very well the times of suffering life brings our way, 
but the second part,
 having faith in the resurrection work of God
 is more difficult, 
 
the good news is that it is something we can learn to do 
with the help of God and practice 
we see this in our psalm for this morning 
where the psalmist proclaims great trust in God 
and asks for forgiveness and teaching in the ways of the Lord:
 
Show me your ways, O Lord and teach me your paths
Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; 
in you have I trusted all the day long
Remember, O Lord, your compassion and love, for they are from everlasting.
Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; 
remember me according to your steadfast love and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.
You are gracious and upright, O Lord; therefore you teach sinners in your way.
 
Faith, trust in God, can grow with practice, 
and our training ground is the church calendar,
 more than just a way of marking time 
it is also a training regime for life, 
designed to work out our faith in all situations,
so that we are prepared when we face them in the course of our life.
 
 in Advent we practice waiting,
 in the time after epiphany we practice looking for God revealed, 
in Lent we practice wilderness times, 
in Easter we practice celebrating new life, 
at Pentecost we pause to notice what the Holy Spirit is doing 
and then spend a long time practicing living out the call of the spirit as disciples of Christ, 
and then the whole thing starts over. 
 
As we enter Lent 
we recognize that this year lent is not a drill,
 we are in the midst of a wilderness journey,
 one that started about a year ago with reports of a new virus, 
that soon drove us away from the comfort of familiarity
 on a long twisting journey through many hardships and unknowns,
 
 it’s path we’re tired of taking 
and one we have no choice but to follow through to the otherside,
 
 so more than ever this year 
we are ready to hear the good news of lent, 
we long for the wisdom for wilderness journeys lent has to offer, 
 
show us your ways O Lord and teach us your paths.
 
Today the path takes us to the promises of God, 
promises that God makes and marks with a sign
promises we are to hold on to 
because no matter what happens or what it may feel like, 
God keeps the promises God makes.
 
Our promise for today 
is that we are beloved by God, 
and the sign is water, 
that most common and necessary of elements
 that has the power to give and destroy life, 
 
this promise and sign are combined together in baptism, 
a promise and sign that will carry us through wilderness times, 
which we see with Jesus in our gospel for today.
 
Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan river 
and just as he comes up out of the water 
the heavens are torn open 
and he hears the voice of God say 
“You are my Son; the beloved, with you I am well pleased.”  
 
That’s quite an experience and proclamation, 
but it seems like Jesus doesn’t have much time to savor it 
because Mark tells us that “the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.”
 
Mark is a writer of few words 
but there’s a lot  packed into these two sentences. 
 
First the spirit drives Jesus out into the wilderness, 
Jesus did not decide that he could use a nice long spiritual retreat, 
no, forces beyond himself push him 
and he finds himself in the wilderness. 
 
In the Bible and in our lives 
most wilderness experiences start this way 
where one moment we’re loved and affirmed 
and in the very next the bottom seems to have dropped out
 and we find ourselves in strange, unfamiliar and unfriendly territory,
 whether it’s a global pandemic, 
the end of a relationship, facing illness or unemployment 
all of a sudden we look around and our world has changed and not for the better. 
Jesus has this experience
 
And Mark tells us that “He was in the wilderness forty days” 
forty in the Bible is shorthand for a long time,
 a time so long that it seems that it will never end 
even through God promises that it will end, 
 
But there’s more,
 if it were just a long time it would be tiresome but perhaps not so bad, 
but not only is Jesus in the wilderness for forty days,
 during that time he is tempted by Satan; the accuser,
 the one whose job it is to call into question the promises of God. 
 
“So God called you Son, huh? 
Are you sure you heard that right?
 If you’re the Son of God, then how did you end up here?
 If God is so pleased with you, then what are you doing in the wilderness? 
Are you sure you’re beloved? Maybe you should test God just to make sure, just a little test, that way you’ll know for sure…” 
 
Sound familiar?
 The endless string of doubts and questions 
that run through your head in the midst of a wilderness time? 
That is the temptation of Satan
 
Jesus is out in the wilderness for a long time, 
satan is tempting him, 
and there’s more,
there are wild beasts out there too, 
more than the temptation of satan there is real danger in wilderness times 
A reality the must be dealt with in addition to everything else
 
and if this seems like a whole lot,
Maybe too much,
 it is, but Mark has one more detail to add,
 “and the angels waited on him” 
 
angels are in the wilderness as well, 
messengers of God’s love and care, 
even if we don’t notice them, 
there are always angels in our wilderness times
 
God is always present, 
working through these times
That have a way of defining us, 
in fact they almost seem necessary for growth, 
 
now to be clear I don’t think God desires extreme wilderness times for us, 
God doesn’t want to hurt us, 
but it also seems to be a fact of life 
that we will experience wilderness times 
and God doesn’t let those times go to waste, 
God uses them to shape and mold us into more of the beloved children
 that God has created us to be.
 
Jesus makes it through the wilderness, 
he’s confronted Satan, and doubts, 
he’s affirmed his identity as beloved child of God 
and now he is ready to begin his ministry. 
 
When John is arrested 
sending his followers into their own wilderness, 
it is time for Jesus to step up and proclaim the good news of God
and begin his next journey, 
the one to the cross, 
the journey through death into new life. 
 
In our baptisms, 
named by God as beloved, 
we are joined to Jesus’ journey through death to new life, 
and in this joining 
God promises that whatever we face in life
 we face with Jesus who has already traveled the path 
and that the last world will be God’s 
and it will always be life. 
 
This is the promise onto which we hold
Proclaiming with the psalmist
“To you O Lord I lift up my soul
My God, I put my trust in you.”
Amen
 
Thanks to Debbie Thomas 
 

5th Sunday After Epiphany
Isaiah 40:21-31
Psalm 147:1-11
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Mark 1:29-39
 
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the most important one. Amen
 
What’s the point?
 
This question kept popping into my head this week
 as I spent time with our readings, 
it’s a question that changes ever so slightly 
based on context and inflection.
 
 In the mouths of a teenager arguing with authority
 it’s a rebellious question: “what’s the point?”
 
 coming from one who is overworked and underappreciated 
it’s a question the spells defeat: “what’s the point?” 
 
Asked by a teacher it’s a test: “what’s the point?” 
 
now you’re all thinking okay pastor, 
what   
is the reason for fixating on this question? 
 
It’s because what this flexible question indicates 
is that while we know some things in life are more important than others 
we also know it’s easy to get distracted 
by the many important but not most important things in life 
and often we need to be reminded both of what the point is, 
and to ask the question 
and we find this in all of our readings for today.
 
In Isaiah
 the people have begun to ask the question using the defeated tone, 
they are in exile separated from the promised land, 
under the control of their enemies 
 
the prophet is reminding them that God is everlasting,
 creator of the ends of the earth 
and everything pales in comparison to that fact,
 their suffering, 
the people momentarily in power, 
even the wonders of creation all are less than God, 
 
God who never tires or gets defeated,
 God who has promised to renew those who wait for the Lord, 
to be with the people through their suffering, 
to raise them up again. 
 
God is the point the prophet reminds the people 
and sure we as people may not understand
 what is going on in the world at this exact moment, 
but God does
 and God will help us through,
 stay focused on the most important thing, God.
 
But it’s so easy to get distracted, 
the new disciples discover this in our gospel for today, 
 
remember Jesus is at the very beginning of his ministry,
 he has been baptized and revealed as God’s beloved,
 he has been tempted in the wilderness by the devil 
and now he has begun his public ministry 
by announcing the good news that the Kingdom of God has come near 
and enlisted disciples to help him spread that good news. 
 
The disciples and the congregation at the synagogue in Capernaum
 just heard him preach with authority and rebuke unclean spirits, 
and we are told that his fame starts to spread around the region. 
 
As we join them today 
Jesus and the disciples leave the synagogue
 and go to Simon and Andrew’s house to spend the night,
 
 when they get there they find Simon’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever, 
Jesus heals her
and word obviously spreads 
because by the end of the evening 
the whole town is gathered around the front door 
and they’ve brought everyone who needs any kind of healing to Jesus, 
who cures and casts out demons from many of them.
 
It would be really easy for Jesus to get distracted at this point,
 his teaching has been praised, 
he’s gathered crowds and people are excited to have this healer in their midst. 
It seems like Jesus could really make a name and career for himself in this town
 if he spent some time there continuing to do good, important work.
 
The temptation to remain is strong 
but early the next morning 
before even his disciples can begin to make demands of him 
Jesus goes to a deserted place to pray,
 to wait for the Lord, to be renewed, 
to be reminded of what the point is 
 
and so he is ready when the disciples find him, 
“everyone is searching for you!” they exclaim 
ready to take him back to Capernaum 
to pick up where he left off the night before, 
 
but Jesus responds “Let us go on to the neighboring towns; so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” 
Jesus will not be distracted from his mission, 
nor will he allow his disciples to be distracted 
even if it means leaving a place of success.
 
Now it doesn’t mean leaving these places abandoned, 
all along the way Jesus will call followers
 each to their own mission, 
some will continue to proclaim the good news,
 some will pick up with the healing, 
some will serve the last and the least
 and in this way the kingdom of God will continue to come near.
 
But Jesus knows what the point of his time on earth is, 
and he will remain faithful to his mission,
 all the way to the cross, his ultimate point, 
his death for the sake of the whole broken and distracted creation of God,
 his resurrection affirming once and for all that God has the last say. 
This is Jesus’ mission, his purpose, his point 
and in fulfilling it he gave us new life and purpose. 
 
And because God knows that we will get distracted along the way
 God gave us the gift of baptism,
 a moment in time we can point to 
when we look at our lives and wonder what’s the point? 
 
What’s the point? God says,
 the point is that in the words spoken at your baptism 
I claimed you once and for all as a child of God
 and gave you the gift of the Holy Spirit 
to help you along the way 
 
in the water I washed you clean 
to give you a fresh start to live out your purpose, 
helping to bring about the kingdom of God 
using the particular gifts I have given you.
 
This is who we are, children of God, 
this is the answer to the question what’s the point? 
 
And yes, along the way we will get distracted 
whether it is by despair like the Israelites in exile,
 success like the disciples at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry 
or a debate over who can join in
 and how they should act once they do, 
 
that’s what Paul is dealing with in our second reading,
 the early church that Paul was a part of 
got distracted by debating who could become a member of their new community, 
 
could gentiles join in? 
And if they can, do they have to act like Jews? 
 
Can poor people become a part of the community? 
And if they can, will they be expected to contribute the same amount as the rich? 
 
What about the weak in faith, if so how weak is too weak? 
Do the strong in faith have to accommodate their weakness? 
 
This is what Paul is speaking to,
 even as he seems to be bragging about his abilities as a disciple
 and setting the impossible standard of being all things to all people,
 his point is that the message of Christ and the kingdom are what matters, 
not who hears it or how they hear it, 
in fact different groups of people will hear it better 
when communicated in different ways
and Paul is willing to do that in service of the good news of God 
he is willing to set aside good and important things in service of the gospel.
 
It’s so easy to get distracted from the most important one, God 
and yet God keeps reaching out to us, 
through prophets and apostles
 who remind us that spending time with God will renew us and keep us focused, 
 
through water and word 
that remind us who we are and whose we are, 
 
through communities that gather together to praise God,
and at the table where through words of promise
 bread and wine become body and blood 
And Jesus joins us to himself once again, 
forgiving and renewing us 
then sending us out once more to proclaim the good news
 “the kingdom of God has come near” 
 
this is the point beloved children of God,
 may we alway keep it before us, 
and when we get distracted may we always be brought back to it. Amen
 

3rd Sunday After Epiphany
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Psalm 62:5-12
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
from the one who makes us into disciples. Amen
 
Today we have the familiar story
 of Jesus calling his first disciples,
 it’s a story I think we usually approach
with both extreme familiarity
 as well as suspended disbelief.
 
 On the one hand
 we know where this is going before it even starts,
 Jesus is walking along
 and sees some guys fishing
 and when he tells them to follow him,
 they drop everything,
 their whole lives and livelihoods even family
and follow him.
 
on the other hand
while we’re amazed at their response
we are also a bit disheartened
because we think if that’s what it looks like to become a disciple of Jesus
then we probably don’t have what it takes,
 
the contemplation of that much sacrifice is too much for us,
 good for you Simon and Andrew, James and John
 but our lives are too complicated
to just up and leave like that,
we must not be disciple material,
we’re tempted to give up before we’ve even begun.
 
 And if we look at the story this way
 through the actions of the disciples,
sure it seems highly unlikely
 that many of us could live up to that level of action and dedication,
 
but here’s the thing,
 when we focus so much on what the disciples do,
we miss what God is doing.
 
God is the one whose action matters.
 As our psalm for today reminds us: 
“Put your trust in God always, O people,
  pour out your hearts before the one who is our refuge. 
 Those of high degree are but a fleeting breath; those of low estate cannot be trusted.
  Placed on the scales together they weigh even less than a breath.”
 
God is the one who is of consequence,
the strong rock and refuge full of steadfast love,
 
 God is the one
on whom our focus should be,
not the disciples or other humans,
 who if they were weighed on a scale with God would barely register.
 
Now when we return to this story,
looking for what God is doing,
we notice that Jesus’ call is less of a command
and more of a promise
“Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”
 
I will make you
Jesus is the one who promises to transform these fishermen into disciples
 and will do so in a way
 that will draw on the skills and gifts they already have.
 
At the beginning of his ministry
Jesus is looking to gather people together,
these first disciples
have lifetimes of practice gathering fish together,
 
 from long observation and wisdom passed down the generations
 they have learned what kind of fish to seek out,
where in the lake those fish like to stay,
 in what weather, at which time of day it is best to catch them
 all these skills can be applied to people with help from Jesus
 
he will teach them
what people to seek out
where they can be found
what message to share that will bring them to Jesus.
 
 
Most importantly perhaps,
these first disciples
 have also learned the hard lesson
 that even if you do everything right,
some days you won’t catch anything
 and the best thing to do is to try again the next day.
That's what being a fisherman is about,
 that’s what being a disciple will take. 
 
Jesus promises to take the fishermen as they are
and make them into disciples,
 just as Jesus promises to make each of us disciples
using who we are,
which means our journeys probably won’t look exactly like those first disciples. 
 
“Follow me” Jesus calls out to us, “come and see,” 
it’s the simplest part of this whole disciple business
 that is up to us,
and yet we still get hung up
 on that simple task,
the act of following,
of getting moving,
sometimes we even go in the opposite direction
 and yet, God doesn’t give up on us.
 
Our first reading was from the book of Jonah
who is the poster child for struggling to follow God,
in fact he runs the other way at the call of God,
yet God still manages to work through Jonah,
 
 the sailors on the ship Jonah boards to flee the Lord,
believe in the God of Israel
by the time Jonah leaves them,
 
albeit over the rail of the ship
and into the belly of the whale
where Jonah, humbled by the grace of God
 gets back on track.
 
When the big fish belches Jonah up onto the beach
he goes to Ninevah as God has asked
but as Author Eugene Peterson observes
“Jonah obedient turns out to be as much in violation of the word of God as Jonah disobedient.” (Under the Unpredictable Plant, 29).
 
 Jonah does what God calls him to do
but very reluctantly,
hoping that it won’t work,
 
Jonah wants to see the city of Nineveh,
 enemy of his people
destroyed by his God,
 
he even goes out and sets up in prime view
 to watch the fireworks,
but amazingly,
the people listen to Jonah’s message and repent
and God decides not to destroy the city
 much to the displeasure of Jonah.
 
God worked through Jonah running the other way,
 God worked through Jonah obeying the letter of God’s command
 if not the spirit,
 
 imagine what God can do with willing partners,
 people who upon hearing the call of God
 agree to try their best,
people like you and me.  
 
 sure our path to discipleship
may not be as dramatic as Simon and Andrew, James and John
up and leaving everything,
but God already has Simon and Andrew, James and John
 
God needs something different from us
 and even if we don’t have exactly what God needs right now,
it’s okay
because God will make us into the disciples God needs,
our job is to listen for God’s call
and follow where God leads.
 
And yes we will not be perfect,
we will make mistakes,
we will be reluctant at times,
we may even run the other direction
 and there’s grace for that.
 
Grace that God can work through our reluctance and mistakes,
 grace in the offer of forgiveness
 and growth in our repentance,
grace in the renewal of the call to discipleship,
 
 God still wants us
and God promises to make us into the disciples God needs.
 
This goes for communities as well as individuals,
today after church is our annual meeting,
it’s a time to reflect on how we as a community
 have answered God’s call to discipleship this past year
 
and to consider
how God might be calling us to be disciples
in the coming year
 
we make these considerations
all while trusting that God will work through our imperfections
 and make us into the disciples God needs in this time and place.
 
“Put your trust in God always O people”
God is the one of consequence,
the strong rock full of steadfast love.
 Come, let us follow. Amen

Baptism of Our Lord
Genesis 1:1-5
Psalm 29
Acts 19:1-7
Mark 1:4-11

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one with the most powerful voice. Amen
 
From the very beginning words have been powerful 
as the first words of scripture testify:
“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.”
 
There in the presence of the spirit, 
God speaks the world into being. 
Words have power to create.
 
Words also have power to destroy.
We hear that in our Psalm for today:  
“The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice;
  the voice of the Lord is a voice of splendor. 
 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedar trees;
  the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon;
 bursts forth in lightning flashes.
 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
  the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 
 The voice of the Lord makes the oak trees writhe and strips the forests bare.”
 
Yet as alarming as all this might sound
we are told that “in the temple of the Lord all are crying, “Glory!””
The power of the Lord is on display in the voice of the Lord
and it brings the faithful to worship.
 
The words of God move the people of God to action. 
Words are powerful.
 
Especially the words of God
Which sometimes God speaks directly
more often
 God speaks through people like John the baptizer,
 
 who Mark tells us appeared in the wilderness
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
and at his words
Mark tells us that people from the WHOLE Judean countryside
 and ALL the people of Jerusalem
were going out to him to be baptized.
This might seem like an exaggeration of the size of the crowds
but Mark makes sure that we know
 the people are drawn to John by his words
 rather than his way of life,
 
 he’s kind of an odd guy dressing in camel’s hair
 and dining on locusts and wild honey,
 and while this may add a kind of authenticity
 to his presence as a prophet
 
the people are not looking to emulate him,
 but his message is spreading
and making a difference in the lives of people
John’s call to repentance is a call to live in a new way
And people are responding
 
but like any true messenger of God,
John knows that all this fuss isn’t about him,
it’s about the one to whom he is pointing
 “the one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit”
 
John knows that his role and words are preparatory,
preparing the way for the one who is coming after him,
 
And onto the scene walks Jesus,
now in Mark this is the first time we meet Jesus,
Mark has told us in the very first verse
 what his gospel is about: Jesus Christ the Son of God,
but then goes straight to John in the wilderness,
 
there are no angels or virgin birth
or even stars in the sky to announce who Jesus is,
that happens when Jesus travels from Nazareth of Galilee
 and is baptized by John in the Jordan
“and just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘you are my Son the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”
 
The voice of God names Jesus God’s beloved Son,
 and it is so,
that is who Jesus is
 God’s spoken blessing creating the future as it identifies Jesus.
 
 This is one of the reasons that I appreciate how Mark tells the story of Jesus,
 because family connections, and prophesy
are all less important than this moment
when once and for all God speaks,
identifying Jesus as beloved child
and filling him with the holy spirit,
 
and Jesus listens to the voice of God
 and goes on to live into the identity God has created for him
 as we’ll see him start to do in the coming weeks of Epiphany.
 
God does this for us as well.
 At our baptisms,
God, speaking through the Pastor,
claims us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
 and through the hands of the Pastor
God marks the sign of the cross on our foreheads saying
 “child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.”
 
and it is so,
that is who we are,
 
where we came from,
what we’ve done, our family connections
 all less important than this moment
where we have been identified as beloved children
 and filled with the Holy Spirit.
 
And the question becomes,
will we listen to the voice of God
and live into the identity that God has created for us?
 Beloved, created for love.
 
Or will we get distracted by other voices?
 less powerful but often louder,
 the ones that try to get us to define ourselves through power
gained at the expense of others that the voices label less than
and peddle the lie that their mere existence is a threat.
 
Beloved of God, whose voice do you listen to?
 What words do you surround yourself with?
It makes a difference
 because words have the power to create and destroy,
power to lead people to praise God or to perpetrate violence.
 
Whose words shape your life?
God has spoken, now the choice is yours,
In closing after this difficult week,
 I’d like to offer you the opportunity to make that choice again
publicly affirm your baptisms,
 to once again commit to your God given identity, 
the blessing from God that shapes our future.
 
Please rise as you are able,
we will use the words of the apostle’s creed found on page 6 in your bulletins.
 
Here in the presence of God and one another I ask you to profess your faith in Christ Jesus, reject sin, and confess the faith of the church.
 
For the following questions the response is “I renounce them”
 
Do you renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God?
Response:
I renounce them.
Do you renounce the powers of this world that rebel against God?
Response:
I renounce them.
Do you renounce the ways of sin that draw you from God?
Response:
I renounce them.
Do you believe in God the Father?
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
You have made public profession of your faith. Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in holy baptism:
to live among God’s faithful people,
to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper,
to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed,
to serve all people, following the example of Jesus,
and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?
The assembly makes affirmation:
I do, and I ask God to help and guide me.
The minister addresses the assembly.
People of God, do you promise to support and pray for one another in your life in Christ?
We do, and we ask God to help and guide us.
The presiding minister prays for God’s blessing.
Let us pray.
We give you thanks, O God, that through water and the Holy Spirit you give us new birth, cleanse us from sin, and raise us to eternal life. Stir up in your people the gift of your Holy Spirit: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in your presence both now and forever.
Amen.

May it be so