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
 

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.
 

Fourth 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 unpredictable
but always present and always faithful. Amen
 
John 3:16,
 probably the most well-known Bible verse in the world
and as such probably the most misused Bible verse in the world.
 
Seen on signs at sporting events,
 or at protests,
 sadly usually held by people advocating hate,
 scrawled as graffiti or on billboards by the road
 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”
so that the evangelist can add another tally mark
in the “souls saved” column
and all this happens because eternal life
has been come to be understood as the reward of the next life
after this life has been endured.
 
I don’t know about you
but that doesn’t sound like particularly good news to me.
 
So what are we to do with John 3:16
 and it’s offer of eternal life
 especially if that doesn’t mean going to heaven
while everyone else goes to hell?
 
We have to revise our understanding of what God’s love does
 and what is meant by salvation,
that big loaded church word that gets tossed about all the time.
 
When we take these questions to the Bible
and begin to look through scripture
we find this:
 that salvation is not seen as a future reward
but a present way of life,
to be saved is to live life in the presence of God.
 
 Each of our readings for this morning
illustrates this view
which can be summarized as:
 some ways lead to death,
 God’s way leads to life.
 
Take for example our first reading from Numbers,
 this is the time in the story of the people of Israel
where they are in between,
 
 God brought them out of Egypt
 but they are not yet at the promised land,
 they are wandering in the wilderness,
and in the wilderness they’ve quickly forgotten
just how hard life was in Egypt
 
and they find ways to complain about everything
 to God and Moses
culminating in this story  
where their complaints no longer make sense,
 
 there’s no food, there’s no water, and we hate this food that appears everyday they whine.
 And this seems to be the last straw for God,
 who sends poisonous serpents among the people
 who when they start dying from snake bites realize that they have sinned against God
with their complaining
so they go ask Moses to pray to God for them
to take away the serpents,
 they wish to be saved from the serpents.
 
And God delivers them,
but not in the way that they expect,
 God tells Moses to make a serpent and put it on a pole
 and when someone is bit, if they look at the bronze serpent they will live
and the thing that has been an instrument of judgment
is now the instrument of salvation.
 
God does not undo the snakes
that the Israelites let loose in the world with their complaining,
but God gives them a way to endure the consequences
 and now whether the snake means life or death
depends on the actions of Israel,
 turning away from God leads to death,
 turning toward God leads to life.
 
This still happens
when we indulge in self-involved complaints
 or speak ill of another person,
 we unleash the poisonous serpents of words into the world
 that come back to bite us
 
and when we realize our mistake
and we confess to God and ask for forgiveness
 God does not undo what we unleashed on the world
but God does forgives us and shows us a way to live
that leads to healing and life.
Some ways lead to death,
God’s way leads to life.
 
Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians
 approaches things a little differently,
 Paul defines alive and dead not based on whether our heart is beating
 but on our relationship to God.
 
Paul considers death being apart from God
 and life to be in the presence of God.
 
The trouble is as humans
we can’t seem to stop sinning
and separating ourselves from God.
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,
and that gift becomes a reality for us
when we trust that it is so
and begin to live in the presence of God.
We are saved by grace through faith.
 
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” adding John 3:17 makes a difference
 
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,
 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 is a gift of God
who continually reaches out to us,
 calling us,
turning us toward God.
 
But there’s still the talk of judgment in John
 and in this talk
the point that John is trying to make
 takes us back to the image of the bronze serpent,
 
remember how it became both an instrument of judgment and of salvation at the same time Depending on how the people related to the bronze serpent?
That’s how the judgment John is talking about works
 
Jesus lifted up on the cross an instrument of death
becomes the way to life lived in the presence of God
 and whether Jesus means life or death,
 salvation or judgment
 depends how people relate to Jesus,
 
turning to Jesus means life -life lived in the presence of God,
turning away from Jesus means death- life lived apart from God.
 
Salvation and judgment are present ongoing realities,
and God is always reaching out,
offering life abundant,
to us and all creation
 
and the way God reaches out is through us.
When we share the good news of life lived in the presence of God with others,
the loved God has for the world
and we share it because we have experienced the gift of life that God has given us,
we share it because we know that God offers that gift to everyone,
 no matter what snakes we’ve unleashed on the world,
we know God will find a way for us to live with them
and while that way is unpredictable,
God is always present and always faithful.
God’s way leads to life. Amen

Third Sunday in Lent
Exodus 20:1-17
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
John 2:13-22

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ
 grace and peace to you from the one who is found among us. Amen
 
Where do you go to find God?
 
 In Jesus’ day
 if you wanted to go spend time with God,
 you went to the temple in Jerusalem
and the way you communicated with God
 was by offering a sacrifice,
 certain animals depending on what you wanted to say
or if you were poor
you could substitute some doves.
That was it. Very clear.
 
It all started back at Mt. Sinai
 when God claimed the Israelites
 as the people of God.
 
This was particularly unusual at the time,
People chose which God to pray to,
 usually the one thought to be most helpful in that moment,
 
having troubles with your crops?
Pray to the fertility goddess,
 
 need some help winning a battle?
 pray to the God of war
 and so on
 
but God tells the people of Israel
that from this point on God,
I am who I am who appeared to Moses in a burning bush
will be the God of the people
and outlined how the relationship would work in the ten commandments.
 
Fresh out of slavery from Egypt
God gave the Israelites structure and direction
 for the newly freed life,
 life that had meaning
because it was a life claimed by God
 
and directed by laws written on stone tablets
by the hand of God
and brought down off the mountain by Moses.
 
And these tablets came to signify not just the covenant
 between God and the people
but also the place to find God.
 
The tablets were placed in the ark of the covenant,
 (yes the one Indiana Jones was looking for)
 it was the home of God
 
and because the Israelites were a nomadic people
 they carried the ark with them, wherever they went,
even into battle,
because it meant that God was present
and if the ark was there, if God was present
the Israelites would win,
even against much larger armies.
 
Eventually, 40 years later,
the Israelites enter and settle into the promised land
 and once the question of leadership was settled
 
 King Solomon built a more permanent home for God,
the temple in Jerusalem,
 which by all accounts would put the most baroque palace to shame,
 covered in gold and silver,
the finest linens and most expensive decorations
and that was where God lived,
 that was where God could be found.
 
When the Babylonians came and conquered Israel
and sent them into exile
 they destroyed the temple,
 
but the tragedy of the Babylonian exile
was not only that the people had lost the promised land
 but that the Israelites were physically separated from their God.
 
Eventually the Israelites were allowed to return home,
 they were reunited with their God
and they began rebuilding the temple, the home of God.
All this to put in perspective
what Jesus does in the temple today in our gospel lesson,
he brings the whole system to a screeching halt,
 calls into question everything the temple stands for,
 interrupts people’s communication with God
and when confronted makes the outrageous claim
that if the temple were destroyed he could raise it in three days.
 
That’s it, centuries, generations of tradition
Wiped out with the crashing of a few tables
And a wild claim to some priests.
 
but in this claim
 Jesus shifts the location of God
from the temple to himself.
 
Jesus is the new temple,
 the new home of God.
 
If you want to find God,
 know what God thinks,
 go to Jesus,
 
if you want to talk to God,
 talk to Jesus
 because Jesus is where divine and human meet.
 
 This is the claim that John has been making since he started his gospel
 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
 
God has gone from residing in the temple
to residing in Jesus,
 as a human, with humans,
experiencing all the joys and sorrows
of what it means to be human
even the experience of death,
 death on a cross,
 
 utter foolishness
as our reading from 1 Corinthians puts it,
 and yet that foolishness is how God
brought us back into a healed relationship between divine and human.
 
It’s as simple as that,
 and of course more complex.
 
 Our relationship with God
has been healed
 but as we have daily proof
the perfection of the world has not yet come into fullness,
those original covenant laws are broken daily.
 
So where do we go to find God?
 Especially post ascension
 Some days it seems like God is both everywhere and nowhere
at the same time.
 
We go to Jesus
 
who meets us at the font in the waters of baptism,
 
who comes to us in the bread and wine of communion,
 his body and blood forgiving and strengthening us.
 
Who speaks to us through the words of scripture and preaching.
 
who makes himself available for us to serve
in the bodies of the least of these,
the hungry, poor, sick, imprisoned.
 
And while it may not make sense according to our human wisdom
this is how God has chosen to work in the world
always present in and through us.
 
Some days we may wish that it were as simple
 as offering a sacrifice at a temple,
 and other days we get distracted by life swirling around us
and we fail to see Jesus right in front of us
 
that is why our yearly calendar includes the season of Lent,
 the season that invites us to return to God,
to become aware once again
of the places God comes to us in our lives,
to renew that covenant relationship
and bask in the foolish love of God that makes us whole.
To find Jesus among us. Amen

7th Sunday After Easter
Acts 1:6-14
Psalm 68:1-10
1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11
John 17:1-11

​Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who prays for us. Amen
 
Here’s the scene:
you know you’re going to die soon.
What do you say to the loved ones you’re leaving behind?
What do you want them to know? To feel?
To carry with them the rest of their lives?
 And how do you tell them this once you’ve got it all figured out?
 
Or you’re on the other end of the good bye,
wondering how you will move forward in life,
who you will be in the absence of your loved one,
wondering what you are supposed to do without them.
 
This is the scene we find in our gospel for today,
Jesus knows he’s going to die soon
and this is his farewell address to the disciples,
 
it reveals what is most important to him,
 what he wants the disciples to carry with them
even as he answers their as yet unspoken questions
of identity and purpose.
 
Jesus starts by saying once and for all
the purpose of his life,
 what he wants the disciples to remember
- that God sent him, his son-
 to bring eternal life to all-
 
that is why Jesus has been among them,
 and in the event that they are unclear on it
 he defines eternal life:
 
being in relationship with the true God
who is revealed in his Son Jesus Christ.
 
Jesus’ purpose has been fulfilled
in his relationships with the disciples,
relationships where he has communicated who God is,
 through his presence among them
 
 and this has not been a general presence
but a personal intimate presence,
one built on relationships,
 
it is a presence that participated in the whole range
of the human experience from life to death,
 
a presence who felt the pain of the mourning
and raised the dead,
 
a presence who felt the hunger of the crowds
and provided bread and hope,
 
a presence who became the life of the party
when the wine ran out,
who got to know the people he encountered
and who loved them faults and all,
 
Peter the blockhead,
 Thomas the questioner,
 Martha the overworker
and yes even Judas the betrayer,
 
 Jesus loved them all
 and saw them as a gift from God,
 was honored by the relationships,
the people that God had placed in his care
 
 and in the end,
 in his farewell address
 he gives thanks to God for them
 
And it is in this thanksgiving
for the gift of his disciples
that Jesus begins to lay the foundation
 for the disciples’ future life,
 
a life without his physical presence
 yet where they are still in relationship with God
because they are God’s,
 
he paints the picture a future
where they will be the presence of Christ in the world,
where their purpose will be to live the eternal life
given them by Jesus
 
and to share that eternal life with others
by being the presence of Jesus in the world,
in the same way Jesus shared it with them,
by building personal relationships
 that reveal God as one who is intimately concerned
 with the lives of God’s children.
 
Jesus knows that this will not be an easy identity and purpose to live out,
 especially in the sadness and confusion,
the joy and wonder
 at his death and resurrection
so he closes his prayer for the disciples
with a prayer for protection and unity.
 
 He closes his prayer,
 that’s how Jesus has chosen to give his parting message to the disciples,
through a prayer for them that they overhear.
 
It is a beautiful and intimate thing to be prayed for
and it is reflective of the intimacy Jesus has with both God and his disciples,
 
it also creates new life in the people who pray and hear the prayer.
 Prayer is not just communication with God,
 a checklist of requested items
but a time of relationship building
 where hopes and dream are exchanged
and those involved are empowered to live into the new life
envisioned in the prayer.
 
Even as Jesus says good bye to his disciples
 he creates new life for them,
just as he creates new life for us
 for we are overhearers of the prayer too,
 we are disciples,
Jesus prays for us
knowing what we need in his seeming absence.
 
Today we mark the ascension of Jesus to heaven
 as we heard in our reading from Acts,
 and we remember the promise that Jesus will return,
 it has been many generations of waiting
 for Jesus to return
 and though Jesus has left us with our identity and purpose,
comes to us in the bread and wine at the table
 and is present in the spirit
sometimes we can’t help but feel his physical absence,
 and we wonder why,
 
 just as when we lose a loved one,
 we still miss them
and wonder what the future will bring
even as we live out that future.
 
These are the moments when we go back to the farewell,
we take time to remember and be renewed
in the memories of our loved ones who have gone before us,
who we are because of them
 and our purpose in life after them,
and we are renewed in our convictions.
 
In the same way
we take time to remember Jesus,
 to hear his prayer for us,
to be renewed in our identity as children of God
 and Christ’s presence in the world
 and our purpose of living and sharing the eternal life
of relationship with God
that has been given to us.
 
It has been many generations
 since the first disciples
witnessed Jesus’ ascension to heaven
and yet here we are,
 children of God,
living the gift of eternal life in relationship with the God
who Jesus revealed to us by the community of disciples,
 Jesus’ presence on earth.
 
We remember with thanksgiving
 those who passed the faith along to us
 and the prayer that Jesus prays for us,
 
 
 and so renewed in our identity as beloved children of God
 and our purpose of sharing that relationship with others
 we live into our eternal life in Christ. Amen

5th Sunday of Easter
Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 31
1 Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the way the truth and the life. Amen
 
Today it’s all about Jesus.
 I mean we talk about Jesus a lot in church
 but today’s gospel lesson is extra Jesusy.
 
 John takes a lot of words and some confusing sentence structures to do it
but in this passage he is reemphasizing
 the heart of his very simple message:
that Jesus is the revelation of God,
 
It’s all about Jesus,
When we want to know who God is we look to Jesus
When we want to know what God thinks we ask Jesus
When we want to know how God relates to the world we look to Jesus
When we want to be in relationship with God we relate to Jesus.
 
It’s so simple,
and yet it’s an incredible difficult thing
 to get our minds around,
 perhaps because of its simplicity.
 
The disciples certainly had trouble with the concept
 they were used to relating to God through the temple,
 in their Judaism, that’s where God lived,
 
if you wanted to communicate with God
you had to go to the temple and make an offering,
to get into the temple you had to be ritually pure
according to the laws,
 
to make an offering
you had to have the resources to procure the bird or lamb or cow
to give to the priests who make the offering on your behalf.
 
God is revealed in the laws that set this all up
and in the covenant promise to the ancestors
to be with the people
 and in the teachers that know more than you
 because they spend time studying the law.
 
And then the disciples meet Jesus
who they can tell is something special,
a really good teacher
who puts up with their nonsense and continuous questions,
who knows them
and who as they get to know him is revealed as more and more special,
 
he keeps doing these miraculous signs,
he turns water into wine, feeds thousands,
raises a man from the dead,
could he be the messiah?
The one sent by God to save the people?
 
That is still within the realm of possibility,
where they get stuck is Jesus’ claim of intimacy with God,
who Jesus calls daddy
 who now Jesus says that he is the way to get to God,
 
 echoing the name God gives Moses at the burning bush
Jesus says “I am”
 “I am the way the truth and the life.
I am in the Father and the father is in me.”
 
So how does that work?
It seems simple enough and yet the disciples are incredibly confused.
 
Witnessing the resurrection helps,
And though the disciples still had their moments
 they followed Jesus’ command
 to tell others the simple beautiful message,
 
 that in Jesus God is revealed to us,
that the way to relate to God
is to be in relationship with Jesus
who continues his work of revelation through his followers
 
and the good news spread
and communities gathered together
 to live with the revelation of God in Jesus,
communities like the one the gospel of John was written for,
 
They were the next generation of believers
 who accepted and proclaimed that Jesus is the revelation of God
 Their struggle with this simple yet difficult message
 seems to have been with their families and communities
 who were divided over Jesus,
 
 in the gospel
 the “jews”
are blamed for a lot of things
 which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense
because Jesus and his disciples were Jews.
 
Scholars think that this language
 is a reflection of the hurt the community experienced
 when they were kicked out of their synagogues and communities
 for proclaiming Jesus,
 
 in our lesson for today their faith in Jesus is proclaimed
when Jesus says
“No one comes to the Father except through me.
 If you know me, you will know my father also.”
 
The community is making a very specific statement about God,
 God is not a generic deity
but is particularly known through the incarnation of Jesus.
 
Jesus makes the truth about God available to the world
and this community celebrates their faith
that it’s all about Jesus.
 
It’s a simple yet difficult message.
We struggle with it too,
 particularly in a world
where people proclaim
that God has been revealed in a variety of ways
 from the Torah, to Jesus to the qu’ran,
 
where the joyful proclamation by John’s community
 of what they have discovered
- that Jesus is the way to know God-
 has been taken and used as a way categorically state
 that particular people or groups will be excluded from heaven,
 
 
an attempt at spreading what we consider good life giving news
 through scare tactics and the threat of exclusion
 essentially the taking away of life-
 
 but that is not the God I find revealed in Jesus,
 the God I find revealed in Jesus
 is one who continually works to widen the circle,
 one who lovingly gets to know each member of creation,
 who provides a way to be in relationship with God
even though I continually mess up, I turn away,
 
I find a God who names and claims me in the waters of baptism,
who meets me at the table forgiving me again in again,
I find a God who continually surprises me
by bringing new life out of death.
 
And yes it can be difficult
 because we are part of those who have not seen Jesus like the disciples
 and yet have come to believe.
 
 and yet here we are,
because whether we can explain it or not,
usually not
we know we have found the way the truth and the life.
 
Jesus is the way to God
 because Jesus is the revelation of God!
The truth
 because he is truly God
 and the life
because in him who created the universe life is abundant.
 
All we need is Jesus. Amen
 
 

Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 2: 42-47
Psalm 23
1 Peter 2:19-25
John 10:1-10
​
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you
from the one whose voice we know,
who calls us by name. Amen
 
The lectionary gives us a lot of sheep today,
 sheep and shepherds.
It’s an image found all throughout the Bible,
the Israelites were people who cared for sheep,
 Jacob spent many years looking after his father in law’s flock,
 David was only anointed king
after he was called in from the fields where he was watching the sheep,
shepherd was a common image used for kings and God.
Caring for sheep lay at the foundation of society.
 
Jesus, a good son of Israel
 continues in the tradition
 as he teaches his disciples
about what kind of messiah he is
using the images of the Shepherd and the gate.
 
As the Shepherd
Jesus spends time with his sheep
knowing each of them by name,
 
they learn the sound of his voice
and will follow him
 because he has earned their trust through their time together,
leading them out of the sheepfold,
watching over them
 showing them where there is food and water.
 
As messiah,
Jesus comes and spends time with his people,
 he gets to know them each by name,
they follow him because he has earned their trust.
 
As the gate Jesus protects the sheep.
 A gate is most effective both open and closed
depending on the time of day.
 At night
a closed gate is an important part of keeping the sheep safe,
a closed gate gathers the sheep together
and prevents wild animals from coming in.
 
 During the day the gate is opened
 to allow the sheep out to seek nourishment
guided by the shepherd.
 
As messiah
Jesus both gathers in his people for their protection
 as well as sends them out
depending on the what is most needed at the time.
 
 There are times when we need to be gathered together as Jesus’ flock
and there are times when we need to go out,
guided by the shepherd into the world.
 
The disciples are confused by Jesus’ teaching
but in the end he says it all boils down to this:
 “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly”
 
We get a glimpse of this with the shepherd and the gate,
the protection at night,
 the guidance to nourishment during the day
the right thing for the right time
 
But what does Jesus mean by “abundant life”?
 
While we might be tempted
to think about abundance as something quantifiable,
a long life, health, or many possessions
with Jesus affluence does not equal abundance,
 
 over and over Jesus has preached
that his followers must give up their possessions,
 he has spent more time with those who have nothing
over those who have everything,
stuff is not what Jesus is talking about
when he proclaims that he has come to bring abundant life,
 
but rather abundant life
is life lived in the presence of God, w
ho knows our name
whose voice we recognize.
Nowhere do we get a better picture of this abundant life
than in the images of the beloved Psalm 23.
 
 Whether it is in green pastures, beside still waters,
 the shadow of the valley of death or the presence of enemies,
 God is present alongside the psalmist
 who wants for nothing
because God is there with the right thing at the right time
 providing safe places to rest, guidance in unsure times,
 comfort when things could get scary, blessing in the presence of enemies,
 through whatever life brings.
 
The Bible never promises that life will be easy,
 in fact most of its pages bear witness
to the difficult times of the people throughout the ages
but God is always there with the right thing at the right time.
 
Jesus continues in the tradition of his Father,
he never promises that life will be easy,
in fact there are times he tells the disciples
 that there are difficult roads ahead,
but he promises to be with them,
send them an advocate to guide and comfort during those times,
to know their name,
 so that life will be abundant.
 
Abundant life is what we want for everyone
but especially our graduates
as they enter a new phase of life
 so far we have walked alongside them,
 been there to guide them and cheer them on,
care for them when they get sick,
 
now we are opening the gate of the sheepfold
and letting them out on their own,
 trusting that they have learned to distinguish the voice of the shepherd
over the voices of others who would lead them astray,
 
 knowing that wherever they go
God will be with them,
guiding, comforting and calling them by name.
 
 
Abundant life
 is life lived in the presence of God,
 
with the Lord as our Shepherd
we shall not be in want,
God knows our name
and goes with us on the journey of life,
 guiding, restoring, comforting, blessing
whether we are in green pastures or the valley of the shadow of death,
 life with God is abundant. Amen