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
 

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
 
 

Sixth Sunday in Easter
Acts 17:22-31
Psalm 66:8-20
1 Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21

Alleluia Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen Indeed Alleluia!
 
We are still in the season of Easter,
 celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead,
 but even as we celebrate
our texts are starting to turn us toward the ascension
 when Jesus returns to his Father
and the bodily resurrection appearances stop,
leaving the disciples wondering,
 where is God?
 
Where is God?
 I think this is a question that we’ve all asked
 at some point in our lives,
 whether in the depths of sorrow
or simply musing about the meaning of life,
 in fact, how we answer the question
is impacted by who we say God is.
 
In our reading from Acts,
 Paul is traveling,
telling all he meets of Jesus,
 
when he comes to Athens
 he encounters multiple ideas of gods,
each with their own places of worship,
images, and spheres of influence
and though he considers them all idols
 he recognizes that the Athenians are very religious
 
so religious
that they have covered all their bases
by even erecting an alter “to an unknown God”
 a God without image or idol,
 
and Paul grasps on to this imageless God,
I know who this God is
Paul tells the people,
 this God that you consider unknown,
possibly in part
 because you have not been able to come up with an image,
is the God who made the world and everything in it,
 
 God who rules the heavens and the earth
and who created all people
 doesn’t live in a shrine
 or need the sacrifices of humans,
 
God cannot be contained in precious metals
or even in the imagination of mortals
because God is so much bigger than all that,
 
 and though this makes it seem like God is far away
 and that we humans have to search for God
 in reality
God is never far from us
 “for in him we live and move and have our being”
 
we are offspring of God,
 Paul tells the crowds,
which means we are in relationship with God,
God the creator of heaven and earth is a relational God,
found in relationships rather than places.
 
Which is good news
 because it means that we are not tied to any particular place
 for the worship of God
 
 but it does mean that we need to maintain relationships,
 with God,
 with other people whom God works through,
 and maintaining these relationships
 leads to regular places of gathering.
 
God is not tied to these buildings and locations
 and yet it is undeniable
 that there are particular places
where we feel closer to God,
 sacred spaces
where the veil seems thinner somehow
 and we seem to more easily slip into the presence of the divine,
 
 and separation from these places is not to be taken lightly
because they play such a role
in maintaining our relationship with God.
 
I found one of those places in college,
 at Gustavus there is an arboretum attached to campus,
 with a variety of walking paths,
 
sometimes it seemed like the only place
 for an introvert to go
 to get away from all the people on a residential campus.
 
There was a particular stone I’d go to and sit on
 and talk to God,
 pour out the anxieties and troubles of my late teens and early twenties
and there I felt the presence of God.
 
 When I graduated and moved away,
 I was surprised by the ache I felt deep within
at being separated from that sacred space.
It made me think of the Native Americans,
whose spirituality is so closely tied to the land
and who were forcibly removed from their sacred spaces
 and the ache that they still feel generations later.
 
Even if we acknowledge that God is greater than a single space or image,
we humans still search for more solid connections to God,
 whether it is a place, a building, a community,
or something else,
and when we find one of these connections
 we hold on for dear life.
 
The disciples in our gospel
have found one of those connections in Jesus,
in fact Jesus has told the disciples
that in seeing him they have seen the father,
to see Jesus is to see God.
 
and yet now Jesus is telling them
 that he must go away,
that they will no longer see him.
  
And the disciples are understandably feeling some trepidation,
 if they can no longer see Jesus,
 they will no longer be able to see God
and then where will God be?
It’s hard not to feel like they’re being abandoned.
 
And Jesus knows this
and promises the disciples “I will not leave you orphaned”
 he’s using the language of relationship,
 
 Jesus’ going away is necessary
but he reassures the disciples
that  it doesn’t mean the end of a relationship with God
 it will just take another form:
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth.... You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”
 
The gift of the spirit,
 received at our baptisms
 means that God is always with us,
 is as close to us as the breath we take,
even when we feel separated from God,
 God is there residing in us,
advocating for us.
 
I don’t think we often think of God this way,
 even as we acknowledge the gift of the spirit
we still think of God as separate
 and far off
 
and it takes a moment where the spirit makes herself very clear
 before we feel the intimacy of God,
for the disciples this happened at Pentecost,
for the rest of us it happens at different times,
perhaps in a special place, through prayer
or in the course of everyday life,
 often it happens at times when life has changed in some way
and we are feeling separate from God
that’s when God, through the spirit,
reminds us that God is with us.
 
We are in a time of change right now,
whether it be anticipated
like the graduation from high school or other life events,
 or because of what is going on in the world around us,
 
we may be feeling separated from God,
 but Jesus is with us
sending the gift of the holy spirit,
keeping the promise that he made to the disciples
 “because I live, you also will live.”
 
Christ is alive, Alleluia
Where is God?
Right here with us. Amen
 

Fifth Sunday in Easter
Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
1 Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14

Easter 5
5/10/20
 
Alleluia Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen indeed, alleluia.
 
This week our psalm really caught me,
the image of the psalmist
who has taken refuge in God
seemed to speak to our time
when “shelter in place” and “stay at home”
 have become everyday phrases,
 
the psalmists’ crying out to God
“deliver me” in one breath
and “my times are in your hand” in the next
capturing the multiple emotions that envelope us.
 
As I mulled over the images,
 I wondered what images we might use today
and so as an exercise I paraphrased our psalm for today,
 seeking to use the images and emotions of 2020,
and here is what I came up with:
 
In you God I take refuge
Keep me from acting out of selfishness.
 
Listen to me!
Come quickly!
 
Be my home
That I may shelter in place in you.
For you are where I retreat to safety.
You hold me like the cushions of my couch.
 
Take me out of the net of fear
That has been woven around us,
For you are my truth.
 
Into your care I comment by body and spirit
That you created, called good, and redeemed.
 
 Time is in your hands
Save me from fear, anxiety,
Inadequacy, lethargy, numbness
And from the ones who want me to feel this way.
 
Shine on me like the springtime sun
That each year 
Coaxes bare branches back to life. 
 
Part of the power of the psalms
 and why we turn to them for comfort
is that they hold so true to life,
 
contained within many psalms
are both cries of lament
 where the psalmist feels abandoned by God,
 and in the next breath
 proclamations of trust in that same God,
 
in these seemingly contradictory emotions
 we see our own experience reflected,
the times in our lives
where many things are true
 even things that seem to be in opposition,
 
 and we see this in psalm 31 today,
the first part a cry of the heart
 and the second part reliance on God
 in the midst of the unknown,
 and both are true at the same time,
 
And that’s one thing that I think
will help us get through this time of laments and unknowns
 the realization that we don’t have to be on one end of the spectrum
 or the other,
we can both and, 
 
We can both want to see the whole way before us
and trust that God will guide us,
 
we can be concerned about the health of our community
and concerned about the health of the economy,
 
 we can both understand why it is important
that large gatherings not take place
 and grieve the loss of connection and communal observations,
 
high school seniors can be both excited to be graduating
 and sad that it won’t take place in the traditional way.
 
In times of turmoil,
we so desperately want to know what’s coming next
 that we often grab onto one image of the future
and that is all that we can see,
even though there may be many different options.
 
That’s the place that the disciples are in
in our gospel for today,
Jesus is on the way to the cross
 and is trying to prepare his disciples,
he has told them what is going to happen,
that he will be crucified, die and on the third day rise again
 
but they are holding on to their own image
 of what the messiah will do,
come in as a military leader and wipe out the Romans,
 
 Jesus knows that they will be sorely disappointed
and tries to give them another idea of what is to come..
 
 “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” he tells them
“believe in God, believe also in me”
 belief in God is the antidote to the troubled heart,
 
and he knows that their hearts are troubled
and they are wondering where do we go from here?
 And so he paints a picture for them,
of his father’s house,
a place with many rooms,
enough rooms for everyone,
 
and Jesus is going to prepare a place for all of them,
 he’ll go and come back
and go again
 but where ever he is,
the disciples know that there is a place for them.
And Thomas,
ever the practical one
says this all sounds great Jesus
but we don’t know the way,
 how will we get there?
 
 and Jesus responds,
“I am the way and the truth and the life”
which is not really what Thomas was looking for,
he wanted something along the lines of
 go north for five miles until you reach a tree, then turn left,
that kind of thing.
 
 But Jesus doesn’t give directions like that,
his answers to questions are not easy
but they are backed up by the promise of abundant life.
 
 In his I Am statements,
Jesus is proclaiming that he is one with the father,
 when the disciples see Jesus, they see God.
 
So where do we go from here?
 In this time where many things are true
and many things are unknown
 we cling to Jesus, the way,
who promises us abundant life
 
 and since, unlike the disciples,
we are hearing this teaching after the resurrection,
we know that Jesus keeps his promises,
 that he has been through our ultimate fear, death,
and come out the other side
and promises that we will do the same,
 guided by him, the way. 
 
This is not an easy answer,
it doesn’t lay out every single step that we will take,
 like we might wish,
but it does give us something to hold on to,
 Jesus the way, the truth and the life,
 
who promises to be with us
and guide us all along the way,
who holds us when we are afraid
and comforts us in the face of the unknown,
who brings us to life everlasting. Amen

Fourth Sunday in Easter
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
1 Peter 2:19-25
John 10:1-10

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen Indeed, Alleluia!
 
Today, the fourth Sunday in Easter,
has the unofficial title of Good Shepherd Sunday
as there are sheep and shepherds
 all over our readings for today.
 
God, Jesus,
as the Good Shepherd
is one of the most common images all throughout the scriptures
and has caught the imagination of many
particularly those who love Psalm 23.
 
 But what does it mean to call Jesus a good shepherd?
 Well, what does a shepherd do?
They take care of the sheep.
 
 At text study this week
 (done over zoom of course)
we were discussing sheep,
and how well
 they aren’t very bright
 
and if Jesus is the shepherd
that means we are the sheep,
 
 one colleague suggested
 that people might be offended
 by being associated with such dim creatures,
 
 while another pointed out
that when she looked at her life
 she identified with the sheep,
always getting into scrapes
 and needing to be rescued by the shepherd,
 
and her point is hard to deny,
 even at our smartest and best intentioned
 we humans have a way of getting into situations
where we at least need a little help to get out of,
 even if we insist that we don’t at the beginning,
 by the end we realize that we have need of a shepherd.
 
That same colleague mentioned the story of Shrek the Sheep
as an example of this.
 It’s been a few years since Shrek was in the news
 but Shrek was a sheep in New Zealand
who decided that he didn’t want to be sheared,
and so he escaped,
and hid from his shearers for six years,
 by hiding in caves,
which I think is one of the funnier parts of the story.
 
Now Shrek was a kind of sheep
 that was bred for the production of wool,
without a shave his wool kept growing and growing,
when they finally caught him
he looked like a giant cotton ball with a nose and feet.
 
 I’ll post a picture and a link to his story
along with the video of worship
and when they sheared him,
his fleece weighed 60 pounds
 and contained enough material to make suits for 20 large men. 
 
Now Shrek may have thought he was free
 and hiding would ensure that,
 but the longer he hid from the shepherds
 the more weight he had to carry around.
 Imagine the freedom he felt
when he finally had a haircut after six years!
 
We humans are often like Shrek the sheep,
 there are times when despite the good care our shepherd is taking of us
that we feel like we could be freeer on our own,
 and off we go,
 we don’t need a shepherd we insist,
hey look a nice comfy cave we can hide out in,
 
and at first it may seem like fun and freedom,
but as time goes on
 we find that there are things we can’t do for ourselves
and these things begin to weigh us down
 gradually accumulating
 until we are hauling around a fleece of monumental proportions,
our sins and worries,
mistakes and vulnerabilities
all tangled around us
obstructing our movement
and only the shepherd can set us free.
 
And the whole time
 the good shepherd has been looking for us.
 God is not willing to remain at a distance from us
 and so is continually calling to us and searching us out. 
 
That’s what we see in our gospel for today,
the story actually starts a chapter back,
with Jesus healing the man born blind,
we read that together about a month and a half ago,
 
 Jesus sees a man blind from birth,
 heals him, and when the man goes to the Pharisees
they don’t believe his testimony about Jesus
and kick him out of the temple,
 
 hearing this
 Jesus goes and finds the man,
he seeks him out
and what we have today
is Jesus teaching the man born blind who he sought out
 and the pharisees that kicked him out. 
 
Be careful he tells the gathered crowd,
 it is perilous to follow the wrong shepherd,
 the implication being
that the pharisees are the wrong shepherds.
 But they don’t get it.
 
So Jesus tries another image
saying “I am the gate for the sheep”
 the gate open in the evening
 allows the sheep into the sheepfold
and closed keeps them safe from anyone not supposed to be there.
Open in the morning it allows the sheep to access food and water.
 
 And Jesus must have received more blank stares from his audience
because he summarizes it for them
whether he’s the shepherd or the gate
or any other number of images he says look
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly”
 
This is Jesus’ mission statement in the gospel of John.
The Word present at creation in the beginning
becomes flesh and lives among the people
 so that they may have abundant life.
 
Jesus is the way to life
because he himself is life.
 
And as all of Jesus’ varied imagery shows us,
what abundant life looks like
 depends on the time and place,
 
 at night abundant life for the sheep is being gathered together
behind a closed gate that keeps out all the things that go bump in the night
 that like to eat sheep.
 
During the day
abundant life looks like the ability to roam,
to find the tastiest bit of grass
 or most refreshing drink of water,
 but all the while the shepherd is there watching,
 calling to the sheep
keeping them close
 so that the shepherd can point them to abundant life
whatever that happens to look like in the moment,
 
 and if one sheep wanders off,
the shepherd goes looking for it,
brings it back to the fold
 and the care of the community.
 
We are like sheep,
to have full abundant life
we need the care of our good shepherd, Jesus,
who knows each of our names,
who calls and gathers us
 and leads us to abundant life
 
and yes, sometimes that may actually feel restrictive
we long to leave the fold
 and so we make a bid for freedom,
we strike out on our own
 
 and Jesus notices,
 calls out for us,
 goes out in search of us
 for as long as it takes
 and when he finds us,
only he will be able to set us free
 from the heavy load we are carrying,
the load that we created.
 
If you are a sheep who has wandered far and long
and now in this time of uncertainty
would like to return to the fold
 but fear that the load you are carrying is too heavy
 too much for even the good Shepherd,
know this,
it is not,
 
Jesus knows your name
and is calling you back
and there is no load so great
that Jesus can not set you free.
 
And if you are a sheep
who has remained close to the shepherd
 but is starting to chaff at staying within the pen at night,
remember the shepherd guides us to abundant life,
even if it’s not quite like we imagine
the good shepherd has our best interests at heart.
 
 Whatever kind of sheep we are
 Jesus knows us,
 and calls to us,
guiding us along
offering comfort and life abundant,
 he truly is the good shepherd. Amen
 

Second Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:14a, 22-32
Psalm 16
1 Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31

Alleluia Christ is Risen, Christ is Risen Indeed Alleluia!
 
Christ is risen
 and today we hear about the disciples
 starting to come to terms
with the news of Easter morning
 
 the news brought to them of course
by Mary Magdalene
whose early morning trip to the tomb
 was full of the unexpected,
 the tomb was empty
 and the gardener was the risen Jesus,
who sent her to tell the other disciples
which she did, announcing
 “ I have seen the Lord” 
 
Now John doesn’t tell us about the immediate reactions of the disciples,
whether they scoffed at Mary’s tale
or rejoiced with her,
 
by the time we see the disciples,
 in our gospel for today,
 the news that something has happened
 is starting to sink in
and the disciples are afraid.
 
 They have gathered together
and locked the doors out of fear,
they are wondering, what comes next?
 
And Jesus comes and stands in the midst of them
 and says “Peace be with you”
 
Jesus comes into the midst of their fear and uncertainty,
 despite the measures they’d taken
to keep everyone else out
 and offers them peace.
 
Then just so they know that it’s him
 (although who else could it have been?)
he shows them the marks on his hands
from the nails that fixed him to the cross
and his side where the soldier’s sword had pierced him,
 
 and the disciples rejoice.
Then “Jesus said to them again,
‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’” 
 
And with the gift of the Holy Spirit,
 the disciples are sent out to spread the good news.
 
And they make it as far as Thomas.
 One of their own
who was not with them
and they excitedly tell him “we have seen the Lord”
 
 and Thomas says
‘no’ I don’t believe you,
I need the same experience you had,
to see Jesus and the marks in his hand and side. 
 
Now I think this must have taken the wind out of the disciples’ sails,
 they were all excited to share the news just as Jesus had instructed
 and when they do,
with someone who knew Jesus,
who heard his passion predictions,
who has the best chance of anyone at believing them
 and Thomas says no,
 
they realize that this is a harder job than they thought,
and as the reality sets it
we find them once again,
 a week later,
gathered together in fear
behind locked doors
 
 only this time Thomas is with them.
 
And once again
Jesus comes into the midst of them saying
 “Peace be with you”
 and offers Thomas what he needs,
 showing him his hands and side
and Thomas not only believes that Jesus is risen
but he goes a step further and confesses
 “My Lord and my God”
understanding and proclaiming the full truth of who Jesus is.
 
Then with the truth proclaimed
 Jesus turns to the rest of us
those who have read the story of Thomas throughout the ages
 and looking right at us says
 “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
 
And yes We may not have seen Jesus
 in the same way as the disciples
 
but Jesus has come to us,
 in water and word, bread and wine,
the community of believers,
 in other ways that we only realize well after the fact.
 
Again and again,
 Jesus appears among us
 offering peace in the midst of fear and uncertainty,
 knowing that our moments of joy
 will be tempered by the reality of rejection
and the fear of the unknown future,
 
 again and again
Jesus appears among us offering peace
because unbelief in one moment
doesn’t prevent faith in another,
 
 indeed Jesus comes again and again
because faith is a gift from God,
 a gift that Jesus keeps offering
 even though we’re sometimes reluctant to accept the gift,
 even though at times we misplace it,
buried at the back of a closet
or lock it behind closed doors out of fear
 
 and then Jesus comes once again
 and stands in the midst of our fear
 and says ‘peace be with you’
 
We are in a time of fear and uncertainty,
and like the disciples
 the novelty of the situation is starting to wear off
and we’re left wondering,
what comes next?
 
 How will we continue to live out Jesus’ call to us
when we are physically separate?
And even when we try new things
 the reaction might take the wind out of our sails
and then what will we do? 
 
I don’t know the detailed answers to all of these questions,
we will uncover them as we go,
 what I do know,
is that God will be with us,
renewing our faith as we figure it out,
 
 because that’s what God does in these situations,
we are not the first Christians
to have our faith and way of being challenged
nor will we be the last
and all along the way
Jesus will come to us,
 offering peace and faith. 
 
We hear that promise
in our second reading for today,
the author of 1 Peter writing to communities
wondering what is next?
Hear those words again:
 
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith-being more precious than gold, that though perishable, is tested by fire-may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
 
God’s mercy has already been acted out for us
through Jesus’ resurrection.
 
God has already given us salvation
and is keeping it safe for us.
And the difference that makes in our lives?
 
It gives us a living hope,
 hope that is able to adapt to the changing circumstances around us,
 hope that takes disappointment in stride,
hope that continues on even as our faith is refined.
 
It's a romantic image,
the process of purifying gold,
 we tend to focus on the end result
 but what we forget in the romanticism
is that on the way to pure gold
 things are lost,
the unnecessary parts burned away.
 
And that’s the moment we are in right now,
the uncomfortable part of the process
where we are finding out what is gold
and what is just pretending,
what is faith and what is just pretending
 
and like the disciples on that first Easter evening,
 we will first gather around what is familiar,
 we will lock the doors against the outside world,
 
 and Jesus will appear among us
in the midst of our fear
and offer us peace
 
and with Thomas
once we have realized who is among us,
what is true
we will proclaim “My Lord and my God”
our hope as alive as the risen Christ. Amen
 

Fifth Sunday in Lent
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 130
Romans 8:6-11
John 11:1-45

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
from the one who goes through death into life. Amen
 
This lent we are telling stories of faith,
 we’ve heard from congregation members
 about their own stories
 
 and from our weekly readings,
we’ve considered how stories shape our identity,
our faith,
our understanding of what is necessary,
and how we interpret the unexpected.
 This week, our readings ask us to reflect
on how we tell the story of death. 
 
This is a crucial story to tell,
because how we tell the story of death
 directly impacts how we live our lives.
 
Lately, in our society,
we have chosen to avoid telling this story
 and that has had an impact on how we view life,
 
 part of it is that through advancements in medicine
and the continued separation of people
from the production of their food
 death is less of a daily reality than it once was,
 
we can go long periods in our lives
before directing experiencing death.
 
 I was in my early twenties
and on my rotation of clinical pastoral education in a hospital
 before I came into close contact with someone who had died,
 with a dead body,
 
going in I realized that I needed the experience
 and that I would probably get it,
 but I was also afraid.
Death scared me,
on many levels,
 some of which still admittedly exist,
 
but what was most scary was the unknown.
 I knew on an intellectual level that death was part of life,
 but I hadn’t experienced that reality in the flesh
 and I didn’t know how I would react. 
 
It’s the unknown that lies at the root of many human fears,
fears that turn into anxiety or anger
 or other emotions that tend to separate us from our neighbors
rather than bring us closer together
 and there is no greater unknown than death.
 
 Now the way we usually tell that story, as humans,
 is as a cautionary story,
 death is something to be avoided
as long as possible because it is The End,
 as far as we know it
 
and even if it isn’t The End
as many world religions suggest
we don’t know exactly what that looks like,
and so we hesitate to talk of it
 because no matter how we tell the story
 we just don’t know
 and we are frightened. 
 
Which is why we need so desperately
to listen to the story God tells about death
 because this story is very different from the human story
and we have two such readings appointed for today.
 
In the first, the prophet Ezekiel is speaking with God,
 the spirit of the Lord takes Ezekiel and places him in the midst of a valley strewn with bones,
there’s a lot of them and they are dry,
they’ve been there for awhile,
 
and God asks “Mortal, can these bones live?”
 which seems like a trick question,
 these bones are very dead,
but since it’s God who is asking the question
the prophet chooses the wise response
“O Lord God, you know” 
 and God instructs the prophet to prophesy to the bones
 to say “O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord”
 
 and at the word of the Lord,
the bones come together
and bodies become covered in flesh,
but they are not alive until the prophet prophesies to the breath,
to the spirit of God
and then these bodies become living beings.
 
Then God explains the vision to Ezekiel,
 the dry bones are the people to whom Ezekiel is sent to speak,
they are exiles in a foreign country
who witnessed their city destroyed
 and their civilization stamped out,
it seems like THE END
from which there is no coming back,
 
and yet God says no “O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live”
 this is not THE END God tells them.
 
Now we might wonder why God,
 who has the power to breathe spirit into dry bones
would allow the bones to become dry at all,
 
 just as we wonder why,
Jesus in our second story,
when he hears that his friend Lazarus is sick,
waits two days before going to him.
 
Martha and Mary both voice this wonderment
 when they say to Jesus
 ‘Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died.’
Yes we say, wouldn’t it make more sense to just prevent Lazarus’ death?
And we think this way
 because we’re still telling the story of death from the human perspective,
 where the best thing to do is to avoid it in the first place. 
 
But the way God tells the story,
death is not something to avoid,
death is something to go through.
As commentator Melinda Quivik notes in her commentary on working preacher this week (https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4411)
 “Jesus does not do the easy thing (keep bad things from happening),
Jesus does the hard thing, which is to reverse destruction.”
 
The easy thing is to keep bad things from happening,
 the hard thing is to reverse destruction,
 and Jesus has chosen the hard path.
 
Now, if we can set the question of why aside,
 this is the choice I’d rather God make
 because the reality of the world that we live in
 is that no matter how hard we may try to avoid it,
destruction happens
 
 and rather than a god who could have chosen to avoid it,
we have a God who weeps with us,
 and then through God’s own power,
brings about new life.
 
Did you notice that in the story of Lazarus?
That the bystanders were just that, bystanders
Jesus goes to the tomb and sees the weeping of the mourners
and he weeps with them,
then he orders the stone in front of the tomb to be removed.
 
 Martha ever the practical one protests
“Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days”
 or as the King James Version puts it “Lord, he stinketh”
 
 but Jesus insists,
the stone is rolled away, 
Jesus publicly thanks his Father for hearing him,
and then he commands Lazarus to come out.
 And he does,
still wrapped in the grave clothes,
and Jesus commands the crowd “unbind him and let him go”
 
And those who witness this
 believe in Jesus.
Belief comes after witnessing the power of God,
 power that does not depend on prior belief or petition from humans,
God takes action because that is who God is,
 one who
confronting the stench of destruction
brings about new life. 
 
But I want us to notice one last thing about this story,
Jesus’ last command to the crowd,
“unbind him and let him go”
 
Jesus has faced the stench and reversed destruction,
 but he leaves it up to those gathered witnesses
who now believe in him,
to clean it up.
 
 In order for Lazarus’ new life to be fully lived,
those around him must also face the stench of destruction,
peel away the layers of soiled cloth
to free the man beneath.
 
 Even as God goes through death to reverse destruction,
God expects us to follow that path as well,
there is no other way to get to the new life on the other side
than through death.
 
And that’s hard for us who tell the story of avoidance
to stomach.
 
We’d much rather prevent the stink in the first place,
 and on our own, that’s a good strategy,
 that’s why we’re staying apart from each other right now,
to avoid sickness and death,
 and sure there is some fear involved in that
but also love and common sense.
 
But if that is the only story well tell of death and adversity
we end up missing out on the new life God creates
 when we are faced with death and destruction,
 new life that must be reached by going through, not around. 
 
And that’s the difference listening to how God tells the story of death makes
The promise and experience of new life on the other side of death
allows us to face the unknown with hope
 
and when we have hope
we are released enough from our fear to look for opportunity,
 opportunities to face the stench,
to unbind and let free the Lazarus’s of the world,
and in this way we too are unbound and set free.
Set free to move through death
To new life in God. Amen
 

th Sunday in Lent
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Psalm 23
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one
 who walks with us through unexpected times. Amen
 
This lent we are hearing and telling stories of faith,
 we’ve heard from fellow members of Christ Lutheran
and from our ancestors in the Bible,
we’ve heard how stories shape our identity,
our faith and our understanding of what is necessary.
Today our stories tell of God working through unexpected servants.
 
Unexpected.
That’s a word I think we’re all too familiar with these days,
if you’d asked me last week
what I expected to be doing this week
 it was certainly not leading worship via youtube.
 
 But I had already looked at our texts for this morning,
 I try to go through a season at a time,
go through the readings to see what’s coming
 and make a few notes on what I might focus on
when I get to the day,
 and when I opened the page in my sermon prep notebook
 at the beginning of the week
 I found a note I had made,
That says “Things are not going as people expect.”
 
 now when I made that note I was referring to our scripture readings
but it equally applies to all of our lives right now
 and I think it’s comforting to know
that at least God is familiar with this territory of the unexpected,
 in fact we find that God often seems to prefer to work through the unexpected.
 
Take our first reading for today,
Samuel the prophet,
expected that he would serve King Saul until his death
but God removed favor from Saul
 and instructed Samuel to go anoint a new king,
 one from the family of Jesse of Bethlehem,
  
Jesse has a lot of sons
and all God has told Samuel is that God will show Samuel which son it will be.
Now when Samuel sees Jesse’s sons for the first time
he sees the eldest and thinks,
 ‘this has to be the new king, he’s the oldest, he’s tall and he already looks like a king should look.”
 
and the Lord tells Samuel
 “nope, it’s not him, don’t look at his appearance, the Lord is choosing a king based on what’s in the heart.”
 and so it goes with all of Jesse’s other sons
until it seems like there are none left,
‘do you have anymore?’ Samuel asks,
and is told there is one, the baby of the family who is out with the sheep.
 
‘Go get him’ Samuel instructs, and sure enough when he sees David
God says ‘that’s the one’ (I paraphrase of course).
 None of this went as Samuel expected
but God chose to work through David
 who would go on to become the greatest King of Israel,
so important that the messiah was supposed to be a descendant.
 
We see this again and again in scripture,
God choosing to work through the least likely in any situation.
 
We see that in our gospel,
 the story of the man born blind.
 
Jesus and his disciples are walking along
and they see a man who was blind from birth.
The disciples ask a theological question
 “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
they are following the prevailing wisdom of the day,
 that illness was a result of sin
 and are curious because it is hard to imagine a baby sinning before birth,
so perhaps it was the parents.
 
Implicit in this question is the thought:
how do we avoid this?
And Jesus responds,
 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”
 
then Jesus heals the man
who becomes an unexpected witness to Jesus,
 one who testifies on his behalf.
 
First it’s the neighbors who are confused
but hear of Jesus through the man,
 then it is the Pharisees,
 
 now the Pharisees really grill the man,
 ‘were you really blind?’ they ask
 and even go as far as making the man’s parents
 come and tell them if he really was born blind.
 
At the root of this investigation is the question: how did this happen?
Again and again they ask the man
who has no explanation other than Jesus
 
the pharisees are confused
because to them Jesus fits the definition of a sinner,
 he broke the law by healing on the sabbath,
 but how could he be a sinner if he has the power to heal?
 
So “they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, ‘Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.’ He answered, ‘I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” and the Pharisees drive the man out of the temple.
 
The way the pharisees told the story
of who could be a servant of God,
Jesus didn’t qualify.
 
 He acted in unexpected ways
and yet God worked through him
 and this threw them for a loop
 so much so that they took it out on the man who had been born blind
and healed by Jesus,
who did the only thing he could,
 testify to what had happened to him. 
 
But the story doesn’t end there,
 Jesus, hearing that the man had been driven out,
goes and finds him
and reveals to him that he is the messiah,
 he makes sure that the man is a member of Jesus’ community.
God works through unexpected servants,
 again and again God chooses the least likely,
 the youngest sons,
the ones labeled as sinners,
those at the margins of society.
 
And it makes us uncomfortable
because we can’t explain it
 using the stories we usually tell,
the stories that say good things happen to good people
 and bad things happen to bad people
and then define who is good and who is bad.
 
because along comes God
who tells us “do not look on appearance... For the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 
 
the Lord looks on the heart
and calls into service
whoever God needs
in whatever way God needs
and often the who and the how are unexpected.
 
In this time
we have all been called to serve in an unexpected way,
 by refraining from gathering together.
 
 Loving God and neighbor
suddenly looks like empty pews and houses of worship,
as we now worship from couches in our own houses,
 
 it looks like turning handshakes into phone calls,
hugs into emails,
finding ways of staying connected
without physically being together.
 
And all the while,
even as we long to gather in one place
 and shake the rafters with our hymns,
we know that God is with us,
 leading us to sources of nourishment we wouldn’t have found on our own,
guiding us through the valley overshadowed by death,
promising goodness and mercy
and to always be with us,
even,
especially
 in the unexpected. Amen

Third Sunday in Lent
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who gives us what we need. Amen
 
This Lent we are exploring stories of faith,
on Wednesdays we have congregation members sharing their stories
and on Sundays our readings are also stories of faith,
 
 so far we have had stories of identity
where we have explored how the stories we tell
shape our understanding of our identity
 
 and stories of how faith is lived out,
by holding on to the promises of God
 even as we question and grow.
 
This week we have stories of necessity,
 how we tell the stories of what we need
affects our relationship with God.
 
We have two examples from our readings today,
 the Israelites in the wilderness
and the Samaritan woman at the well with Jesus.
 
Our first example
of how stories of necessity are told and sometimes differ,
 is the Israelites in the wilderness.
 
 The Israelites are in a time of major transition as a people,
 so far in the relationship between God and the Israelites
God has:
appeared to Moses out of a burning bush,
sent Moses to pharaoh to plead for the Israelites’ freedom,
 sent ten plagues of increasing intensity on the Egyptians
when the pharaoh refused to let them leave,
 saved the Israelites from the final plague
 giving them the opportunity to flee,
parted the sea standing in the way of their escape,
 traveled with the people as a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night,
and provided food by raining bread in the morning and quails at night.
 
 It’s been a lot
their identity has shifted,
 they’ve moved from being settled in a place
where they had a long history
and though they were enslaved
 they knew who they were and how they fit in,
 
 now they are free
 but they are also homeless
 and they wander the desert led by a God they cannot see
looking for a promised land that is just that,
 promised
 
so we have to excuse, or at least understand
when the Israelites don’t always come off looking the best,
we as people don’t always make the best decisions
 when we’re stressed and in times of transition
 and these are a people who haven’t had to make decisions at all,
 
 which is why the time wandering is so important
 God is using that time to teach the Israelites
how to live as free people
 
and the first step is teaching the Israelites
to trust that God will keep the promises that God has made
and as they wander the desert
God has promised to provide for them with manna and quails,
 and part of learning to trust
 is the instruction to only take the amount of food that is necessary for one day,
 the exception being the day before the sabbath.
 If they take more than they need
it will spoil because they have not trusted God
 to provide for them the next day. 
 
So that’s the set up as the Israelites wander the desert,
God provides for them,
 but this is a lesson that is hard to learn for the Israelites
 as we see in our story for today.
 
In their wandering
they come to a place where there is no water,
or at least not enough water
 
and rather than trusting God to provide
 they start complaining to Moses,
now the thing I always enjoy about the Israelites’ complaints in the desert
 is that they get very dramatic very fast,
 in this case they say
“Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” 
 
You’d think that by now the Israelites
would have known that God would provide for them
 but the way they tell the story of what is necessary,
 when it’s necessary
is different from the story God tells
 and it strains the relationship,
 
Moses names the place “test and quarrel”
because the Israelites tested and quarreled with God
wondering if God was even with them,
 
 and even though they lack trust in God,
God provides water,
 showing Moses where to go to find water among the rocks of the desert,
one of the commentaries I read
 mentioned that water does flow through some rock formations,
 the water was already there,
it was just a matter of finding it.
That’s another thing about God,
God provides but it’s not always obvious to us humans.
 
Another thing we humans do
 is that we like to make things more complicated than they need to be,
relationships for instance,
 we all have a need to belong
 and yet we tell all kinds of stories as reasons
why this person or that person shouldn’t be a part of the group
 
 and that’s what’s going on with our second story
 of the Samaritan woman at the well,
her community has told her that she needs to be different
and until then
she will not be fully one of them, 
 
It all starts with a need Jesus has to rest,
he’s been traveling,
it’s the middle of the day,
the hottest time of the day
 he’s tired, and thirsty and hungry,
 
 so he sits down next to a well,
a source of water
and the disciples go to buy something to eat
and Jesus waits for them,
 
 as he’s waiting
 a woman comes to the well to draw water,
 now this in and of itself is not unusual
what is odd is the time of day,
 
 carrying water is a heavy hard task
which means that it’s best done
in the mornings and evenings when it’s cooler,
 
 but here this woman comes at the hottest part of the day,
 now it may be that she just needed water
 but the more likely explanation
is that she came at a time when she was sure to avoid all the other people
 who come to get water.
 
Jesus, sitting by the well,
asks her for a drink of water,
 and she’s surprised,
because the story of society is that it is necessary
 for men and women to stay separate
and for Jews and Samaritans to avoid each other,
 
but if there’s one thing we know about Jesus
 it’s that he doesn’t pay attention to what society says is necessary
 but what God says is,
 
and so he starts a conversation with this woman
and even though she’s surprised she is curious,
and after they’ve covered why they shouldn’t be talking
Jesus tells her “if you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘give me a drink’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
 
the woman is thrown by practical considerations,
 she points out that Jesus doesn’t have a bucket
and he responds “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
 
 Now the woman is really excited about this,
she might never have to come to the well ever again!
 And Jesus knows that this excitement
is not about the work of carrying water
 but about avoiding all the other people that come to the well,
 
 he reveals to her that he knows about her history,
she’s had really bad luck with relationships
she’s had five husbands and is now living with someone
 who she isn’t even married to
 
and perhaps to change the topic
the woman observes “Sir, I see that you are a prophet”
and they get into a theological discussion
that ends with Jesus revealing to her
that he is the messiah!
 
This is the first time he has told anyone this,
and this revelation changes the woman’s life,
 she runs back to the city,
 to all those people she was avoiding
 and she tells them “come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah can he?”
 
and amazingly enough they listen to her!
And we are told that “Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.”
 
  the woman who comes to the well alone
 at the beginning of the story
is back with the community by the end,
Jesus has given her living water,
 that is, a relationship with Jesus,
 and a relationship with Jesus is one that restores other relationships. 
 
God tells the story of necessity through relationships,
what we need is a relationship with God
 and a relationship with our neighbors,
isn’t that what Jesus says when pressed about the greatest commandment?
 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and might
and love your neighbor as yourself.
 If we attend to these relationships God says,
 everything else will fall into place.
 
And yet,
so often the stories of necessity we tell
 focus on other things,
 we’ve seen this first hand as COVID19 spreads around the world
as we’ve heard many conflicting stories of necessity,
 
the story that says we need lots of toilet paper
and the story that says it’s not so bad,
 
the story that says carry on with life
and the story that says the best way to care for your neighbor
might just be to avoid them.
 
As we go through this time
we are having to navigate the path
through the many stories of necessity we hear
and the ones we tell ourselves
and it’s not easy,
 
but I think it is made easier
when we first listen to God’s story,
the one where God loves us and our neighbors
 and promises to be with us whatever comes our way,
and secure in that love
we are then able to consider
 how we might best live that love out.
 
I’ve kept this in mind this last week
 as each day I’ve prayerfully considered
 how we as a community will live out our trust in God,
 stay in relationships
and care for our neighbors,
even as this might mean changing the way
 we physically live some of this out.
 
I don’t know what the future will hold
 but I do know that however it happens
we as a community,
saved by God’s grace and rooted in Christ,
 will continue to be nourished by worship
 and serve Christ and community.
 
As we go out into a world today,
where there are so many stories of what is necessary,
we go having drunk from the living water of Jesus,
 
we have been fed and forgiven,
 our relationships with God and others have been strengthened
 and so we go out trusting that God will provide for us,
 show us the best way to love our neighbor
and care for the most vulnerable among us,
and we go knowing that God goes with us. Amen

Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who keeps promises. Amen
 
This Lent we are telling stories of faith,
 last week we explored how what stories we listen to
 impact our understanding of our identity,
this week our stories explore what it means to have faith,
what having faith looks like.
 
And I think this is something that we all wonder about,
 at least at some point in our lives,
what does it mean to have faith?
 Do I have enough faith?
 How do I get more faith?
Why do some people seem to have an easier time than others?
 
Any of these questions sound familiar?
 
It’s pretty easy to go down a rabbit hole of questions
when it comes to faith
which is why it is helpful to have some examples
 of what is meant by having faith
and we have two good examples in our readings for today,
Abraham and Nicodemus.
 
Abraham is often held up as the model of a faithful person,
Paul points to Abraham in our second reading,
 and Abraham’s story of faith is quite simple,
 
God comes to Abraham and says “go to the land that I will show you”
then promises to make a great nation of Abraham
with many descendants and through Abraham bless the world
 “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him”
simple right?
 
Almost too simple,
so simple as to be impossible to live up to,
I know I take a lot more convincing than a single command
Even from God
 
 But really when we think about it
 why wouldn’t Abraham go?
God has made all these promises
 seemingly based on the one command to go.
 
And actually
On the face of it,
 it kind of looks like one of those transactions
 that Paul attributes to the law,
 
until we remember that God says ‘go’
 but does not give a destination,
 and God says ‘I will make you a great nation’
and at this point Abraham is very old and very childless
 
 and then it is easier to see Abraham's going as a great act of faith,
 because what God proposes to do seems impossible,
 when Abraham goes,
he goes into the unknown,
 holding on to the promise of God
and trusting that God will keep that promise.
 
And yes this is remarkable and an ideal
but I don’t know about you
but I’ve found faith- the act of trusting God-
much more complicated than that.
 
Which is why I love the story of Nicodemus.
Nicodemus is a religious leader,
people know who he is,
they go to him for answers to religious questions
he’s supposed to have it all,
 okay well, mostly
figured out
 
but when Jesus comes onto the scene,
Nicodemus is intrigued,
 he wants to know more,
but here’s the catch,
he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s interested in Jesus,
 
so when he goes to see Jesus
 he goes at night covered by the darkness
and he comes with an attitude that says
‘I’m going to figure you out Jesus’,
 
 he begins “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”
 
 and the way Jesus responds
it’s almost as if he’s saying
‘oh you know do you?’
and goes on to utterly confuse Nicodemus
 by speaking of being born again and born of the spirit
 and when Nicodemus asks him
“‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?’”
 
 I hear Jesus saying this in a rather sarcastic false shocked tone of voice,
undertones of ‘what, you don’t know everything?’
 
 I don’t think that Jesus is judging Nicodemus
as much as making a point
that the mechanics of God’s work in the world
 are confusing boarding on impossible to understand,
 
 because then Jesus gets serious and says
 look “we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony if I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things.”
 
 Seeing Jesus perform signs has only gotten Nicodemus so far along the path to faith,
 he struggles with hearing what others have experienced of God,
 
 at some point understanding will fail
and that’s where faith has to take over,
 the trust that however it happens
what God promises will come to pass.
 
 And that’s when Jesus tells Nicodemus what God is going to do
- out of love send God’s son to be lifted up for the sake of the world-
now remember this conversation is taking place
 long before the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday
Nicodemus has no idea that Jesus is referring to the cross,
and even if he did,
he’d be stumped as to how anything good could come of Jesus dying by crucifixion,
 
but at the end
Jesus gives Nicodemus a promise he can hold on to:
 “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.”
Jesus promises that however incomprehensibly God chooses to act,
God intends salvation.
 
 Nicodemus doesn’t have to understand the how,
 his role is to trust that God is acting for good.
 
And that it seems Nicodemus can do,
 we get no indication that when the conversation ends
Nicodemus understands the particulars of who Jesus is
 or how God is acting
any better than when he started
 
 but throughout the gospel of John,
Nicodemus keeps showing up
in ways that show his faith in Jesus is increasing.
 
 The next time Nicodemus pops up
is when Jesus has been in Jerusalem for the festival of Booths,
 Jesus has been publicly teaching
and people are starting to wonder if he is the Messiah
 and all this is making the leadership anxious,
they want to arrest Jesus
 
and it’s at this point that Nicodemus speaks up
 and says “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” (7:51)
and the other Pharisees
because remember Nicodemus is one of them,
 mock him,
but also they do not arrest Jesus.
 
Speaking up for Jesus in front of his peers
 Nicodemus has come a long way
from sneaking out to see Jesus under the cover of darkness.
 
The last time we meet Nicodemus
 is at the foot of the cross,
 he comes with Joseph of Arimathea
 to prepare Jesus’ body for burial
and he brings with him 100 pounds of spices and ointments,
an amount so excessively lavish
 that it could only represent the grace of God,
and here at Jesus’ seeming defeat
does Nicodemus make public his faith in him.
 
Nicodemus gives me hope,
 because it means that faith doesn’t have to be an instantaneous ascent
like Abraham,
 nor does it mean we have to believe everything as true right away,
 
 faith, trust,
 can start as a small seed,
 as curiosity paired with a lot of questions,
and that seed can be nurtured to grow
 
and God offers a promise to hold on to
while faith grows,
the promise that God loves us
 and nothing can change that.
 
 God lives out that promise
by continually coming to us in love,
 in the water and word of the font,
 in the eating and drinking of bread and wine
blessed, broken and poured out for us,
 in the stories of faith shared with us
 where we get to see how God comes to others
 
and as we live
both questioning and holding on to the promise of God,
 we may find our faith growing,
we still have questions
but we no longer need the cover of darkness to ask them,
we also might have times where growth stalls
but through it all God keeps coming to us
keeping the promises God has made,
and we find that ultimately what it means to have faith
 to is to hold on to the promises of God,
to trust that God is acting for good. Amen