1st Sunday in Lent
Genesis 9:8-17 Psalm 25:1-10 1 Peter 3:18-22 Mark 1:9-15 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who has been through the wilderness Amen. Welcome to Lent, the season in the church year when we confront the truth that life is not always easy, that hardships, trials and death will come our way And we once again experience the presence of God throughout, God who goes with us and in the end has the last say, and the last word is “life”. Now the first part is not too difficult for us, we know very well the times of suffering life brings our way, but the second part, having faith in the resurrection work of God is more difficult, the good news is that it is something we can learn to do with the help of God and practice we see this in our psalm for this morning where the psalmist proclaims great trust in God and asks for forgiveness and teaching in the ways of the Lord: Show me your ways, O Lord and teach me your paths Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; in you have I trusted all the day long Remember, O Lord, your compassion and love, for they are from everlasting. Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; remember me according to your steadfast love and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord. You are gracious and upright, O Lord; therefore you teach sinners in your way. Faith, trust in God, can grow with practice, and our training ground is the church calendar, more than just a way of marking time it is also a training regime for life, designed to work out our faith in all situations, so that we are prepared when we face them in the course of our life. in Advent we practice waiting, in the time after epiphany we practice looking for God revealed, in Lent we practice wilderness times, in Easter we practice celebrating new life, at Pentecost we pause to notice what the Holy Spirit is doing and then spend a long time practicing living out the call of the spirit as disciples of Christ, and then the whole thing starts over. As we enter Lent we recognize that this year lent is not a drill, we are in the midst of a wilderness journey, one that started about a year ago with reports of a new virus, that soon drove us away from the comfort of familiarity on a long twisting journey through many hardships and unknowns, it’s path we’re tired of taking and one we have no choice but to follow through to the otherside, so more than ever this year we are ready to hear the good news of lent, we long for the wisdom for wilderness journeys lent has to offer, show us your ways O Lord and teach us your paths. Today the path takes us to the promises of God, promises that God makes and marks with a sign promises we are to hold on to because no matter what happens or what it may feel like, God keeps the promises God makes. Our promise for today is that we are beloved by God, and the sign is water, that most common and necessary of elements that has the power to give and destroy life, this promise and sign are combined together in baptism, a promise and sign that will carry us through wilderness times, which we see with Jesus in our gospel for today. Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan river and just as he comes up out of the water the heavens are torn open and he hears the voice of God say “You are my Son; the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” That’s quite an experience and proclamation, but it seems like Jesus doesn’t have much time to savor it because Mark tells us that “the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.” Mark is a writer of few words but there’s a lot packed into these two sentences. First the spirit drives Jesus out into the wilderness, Jesus did not decide that he could use a nice long spiritual retreat, no, forces beyond himself push him and he finds himself in the wilderness. In the Bible and in our lives most wilderness experiences start this way where one moment we’re loved and affirmed and in the very next the bottom seems to have dropped out and we find ourselves in strange, unfamiliar and unfriendly territory, whether it’s a global pandemic, the end of a relationship, facing illness or unemployment all of a sudden we look around and our world has changed and not for the better. Jesus has this experience And Mark tells us that “He was in the wilderness forty days” forty in the Bible is shorthand for a long time, a time so long that it seems that it will never end even through God promises that it will end, But there’s more, if it were just a long time it would be tiresome but perhaps not so bad, but not only is Jesus in the wilderness for forty days, during that time he is tempted by Satan; the accuser, the one whose job it is to call into question the promises of God. “So God called you Son, huh? Are you sure you heard that right? If you’re the Son of God, then how did you end up here? If God is so pleased with you, then what are you doing in the wilderness? Are you sure you’re beloved? Maybe you should test God just to make sure, just a little test, that way you’ll know for sure…” Sound familiar? The endless string of doubts and questions that run through your head in the midst of a wilderness time? That is the temptation of Satan Jesus is out in the wilderness for a long time, satan is tempting him, and there’s more, there are wild beasts out there too, more than the temptation of satan there is real danger in wilderness times A reality the must be dealt with in addition to everything else and if this seems like a whole lot, Maybe too much, it is, but Mark has one more detail to add, “and the angels waited on him” angels are in the wilderness as well, messengers of God’s love and care, even if we don’t notice them, there are always angels in our wilderness times God is always present, working through these times That have a way of defining us, in fact they almost seem necessary for growth, now to be clear I don’t think God desires extreme wilderness times for us, God doesn’t want to hurt us, but it also seems to be a fact of life that we will experience wilderness times and God doesn’t let those times go to waste, God uses them to shape and mold us into more of the beloved children that God has created us to be. Jesus makes it through the wilderness, he’s confronted Satan, and doubts, he’s affirmed his identity as beloved child of God and now he is ready to begin his ministry. When John is arrested sending his followers into their own wilderness, it is time for Jesus to step up and proclaim the good news of God and begin his next journey, the one to the cross, the journey through death into new life. In our baptisms, named by God as beloved, we are joined to Jesus’ journey through death to new life, and in this joining God promises that whatever we face in life we face with Jesus who has already traveled the path and that the last world will be God’s and it will always be life. This is the promise onto which we hold Proclaiming with the psalmist “To you O Lord I lift up my soul My God, I put my trust in you.” Amen Thanks to Debbie Thomas
0 Comments
8th Sunday after Pentecost
1 Kings 3:5-12 Psalm 119:129-136 Romans 8:26-39 Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who intercedes for us. Amen “Have you understood all this?” Jesus asks the disciples “Yes” They answer Really disciples? Do you really understand? You understand how the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, and yeast, like a treasure hidden in a field and a merchant in search of fine pearls, like a net cast into the sea that caught all kinds of fish that were then sorted. “Have you understood all this?” “Yes” Some how I doubt it, at text study this week the other pastors and I got a kick out of this yes, it reminded us of the “yes” we get at the end of a particularly confusing confirmation class where the kids are tired and just want to go home. So you understand the mystery of the sacraments? Yes Pastor. Or maybe it’s like one of those user agreements, where all this fine print legalese is presented and at the end it asks you to sign that you have read and understood the document, and you sign your name “yes” because otherwise you don’t get to use whatever service is on offer, yes I get it, just let me use your app. But then there are other times, the more serious times, like the time at the doctor’s office where you haven’t heard a word the doctor has said after “diagnosis” because your heart has dropped and your tongue gone numb “do you understand all of this?” they ask, and you nod your head “yes” There are a lot of things we agree to, to move life forward, that we simply do not understand. And of course a good confirmation teacher knows the mystery of the sacraments will never be taught in one session, or even understood in a lifetime, and a compassionate doctor knows that their patient didn’t hear anything after diagnosis and so will provide literature and other sessions for explanation. The user agreements, that one I think we’re just stuck with, but the point being that it seems like our automatic response to the question ‘do you understand?’ is ‘yes’ and it takes conscious effort and humility to answer ‘no’ to admit that we lack understanding, or that we’re in over our heads, but when we do, life opens up. We saw this with Solomon in our first reading. God comes to Solomon in a dream and offers him, anything, and Solomon who has just been made King after his father David, realizes that this offer is being made because David and God had such a good relationship, and that he’s only King because of that relationship and the goodness of God. So Solomon responds “O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen...Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern your people?” He’s already got the job, but he is brave enough to admit just how little he knows and so when he is offered literally anything by God, he asks for wisdom to better serve God in leading the people of God. And God is pleased by this selflessness, God realizes that Solomon could have easily asked for a long life or riches or victory in battle but instead he asks for wisdom to better serve God, so God gives him a wise and discerning mind. It struck me that this passage, where Solomon admits how little he knows and asks for understanding to be able to discern between good and evil, has been, I think is the prayer of anyone in leadership faced with making decisions these days. I know it’s been my prayer, and I suspect the prayer of those on school boards, superintendents and principles, elected officials and coaches. O God, give us understanding to discern good from evil, we need some help as we make our way through this unknown territory. the Israelites were in an unknown territory, both literally in their wandering and in their freedom after God led them out of Egypt. They didn’t know where they were and they didn’t understand how to live in freedom. So God provided for them, manna and quail for food, and the commandments to give them understanding for how to discern good from evil as free people. God gave the commandments as a gift for times when the unknown is greater than the known, which is why the psalmist cries out “your decrees are wonderful; therefore I obey them with all my heart… Let your face shine upon your servant and teach me your statutes.” and praises God for the understanding the laws of God bring and weeps for the people who do not follow God’s laws. The difficult part is that the laws of God do not address every specific problem we may face, the Bible is not a How To Manuel, or even a Self- Help Book, rather it is full of stories of people and God, stories of God guiding people and how people respond to that guidance, some like Abraham follow God, and others like Jonah run the other direction. But no matter what the people do, God is there, God doesn’t give up. At our most basic level, I think we all want to follow God, we want to understand, we look for guidance, ways to discern good from evil, we even pretend we understand, the old fake it ‘til you make it approach, and yet in our hearts we know that we don’t understand, we don’t even know how to pray. But thanks be to God who gives us the gift of the Spirit who intercedes with sighs too deep for words. The gift of the spirit who searches our heart, who knows us better than we know ourselves and brings it all to God. And thanks be to God, for the gift of the Son, Jesus who summed up all the law Love your God with all your heart and mind and might, and your neighbor as yourself, Jesus who God gave up for all of us, who God made the firstborn within a large family, so that joined to Christ we are all members of that large family and now Christ the firstborn sits at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. God has claimed us. We are God’s. Even in the midst of the uncertainty and chaos of the world, even when we don’t understand and struggle to discern good from evil, even when we don’t know how to pray, even when we are unsure how God is working or if God is even there. We are God’s. we don’t have to understand how this works for it to be true, nor do we have to do anything. God doesn’t need us, God has acted. And God has given us signs to remind us Water to remember our baptisms by Bread and wind, body and blood To be forgiven, nourished and strengthened Joined again to God. And so cleansed, fed and forgiven we proclaim with Paul “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It is with this conviction we are able to move forward through the wilderness times and when God comes to us and says, ‘you are my children, have you understood?’ We answer with a resounding. ‘Yes.’ 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 16th Sunday After Pentecost
Amos 6:1a, 4-7 Psalm 146 1 Timothey 6:6-19 Luke 16:19-31 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who calls us to eternal life. Amen Over and over our lessons for today emphasize the message that we are to place our hope in Go and anything else, particularly wealth, will let us down. This message is present in Jesus’ story about the rich man and Lazarus, often Jesus’ stories are confusing but this one is pretty clear. There are two characters, the rich man who has everything in life and a poor man named Lazarus who in life longed for even a crumb from the rich man’s table. Both men die, Lazarus is taken by angels to Abraham while the rich man is tormented in hades and as he’s being tormented he looks up and sees Abraham, his ancestor, the original ancestor and he calls to him “Father Abraham have mercy” he longs for even a drip of water to cool his tongue, “send Lazarus” he says. And Abraham replies, “that’s not going to happen, what you did in life determined your location for eternity and there’s no going back.” So the rich man says “well at least can you send a message to my brothers who are still living before it’s too late” and Abraham replies “they have Moses and the prophets for that”, but the rich man insists that they will really change their ways if they see someone from the dead and here’s the punch line, Abraham, in the voice of Jesus who is telling the story, says “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” I sense a little Jesus snark here, Jesus, who knows that he will rise from the dead, also knows that not everyone will believe him, especially those who are comfortable in this life “Alas for those who are at ease in Zion, and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria” the prophet Amos cries out in our first lesson those that lounge around eating and drinking, singing idle songs, anointing themselves with oil, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph, they will be the first ones taken into exile when the Assyrians come conquering. And while it seems at first that Amos is railing against the riches, the real reason the people he’s addressing will be taken into exile first is because they are neglecting the troubles of the nation, these are presumably the leaders and instead of taking care of all the people they focus on their own comforts and as long as they are comfortable, nothing else matters to the point where it will become their ruin. “Put not your trust in rulers” the psalmist proclaims “in mortals in whom there is no help. When they breathe their last, they return to earth, and in that day their thoughts perish.” and here we start getting to the crux of the matter, human rulers and rules will pass away, but then the psalmist sings “Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help, whose hope is in the Lord their God and goes on to explain all the reasons to trust God: God created the heavens and the earth God keeps promises forever God gives justice, food, freedom, healing to those who need it God cares for the stranger and the abandoned God is forever God is the one in whom we should place our hope, and when we do, the concerns of God become our concerns, justice, food, freedom, healing, care for the stranger and the abandoned, and that means that we will probably not be comfortable all the time, and this is the exact opposite message than the one that we receive from the world around us that more is better, we’re to look out just for ourselves because comfort even at the expense of others is the goal, and here we get caught in the in between nature of the kingdom of God, the one that has already begun but it not yet completed, we see the need for justice around us and we live within the systems of the world that are designed to maintain injustice We are caught in the middle, So what are we to do? Paul in his first letter to Timothy suggests this: “As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.” Paul has already acknowledged that the love of money leads people astray, it does so by promising security, a promise it cannot keep but there is another promise out there the promise of God of eternal life, a promise which Christ has already kept and calls us to accept, it is ours place your trust there Paul says, and if you do happen to have resources, share them, use the resources as tools to take hold of the life that really is life. And what is the life that really is life? I think Dan Erlander paints the picture, well draws it actually, at the end of his book “A Place For You: My Communion Book” it’s the book I use to teach the first communion class, it traces all the ways Jesus welcomed people, culminating with the Lord’s Supper, and the affect that the gift of the Lord’s supper had on the early church community and he ends speaking directly to us: With Jesus and your church family you will dream of a day when Jesus will gather all living beings together, creatures that fly in the air, swim in the water, walk on the earth, and crawl underground. This joyful gathering will include people of every kind, both happy people and crabby people (who will no longer be crabby). All will be safe; all will have food; all will have a home; all will worship God; and all will know that God loves everybody” That friends, is the life that really is life, the community of creation coming together in the love of God. That is what we seek when we come to church and participate in community, that is what Jesus sends us out to work toward with whatever resources we have, whether it is wealth by the standards of the world or simply ourselves. God has blessed us, we celebrate that today, we give praise and thanksgiving for this community coming together, for the resources to care for our common ministry, and now God sends us out, to use our resources, to work for justice, feed the hungry, free the captive, heal the sick, care for the stranger and the abandoned, to gather all in community joined together in the love of God, God sends us out to seek the life that really is life. Amen Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Exodus 32:7-14 Psalm 51:1-10 1 Timothy 1:12-17 Luke 15:1-10 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who is revealed as merciful. Amen The psalmist cries out to God today, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; in your great compassion blot out my offenses” then goes on to acknowledge that they know they’ve really messed up, they’ve sinned against God and they deserve whatever judgement God hands down and yet they are still bold to call on God to forgive them and end with the petition “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” a petition which frankly seems pretty bold given what the psalmist acknowledged earlier. Who is this person that would be so bold as to ask God to do these things, or perhaps the better question is, who is this God who would hear and consider these requests? Who is God? Yep we’re going there this morning, who is God? Paul in our reading from 1 Timothy describes God as “the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God.” and that is a good general description of what most monotheists would say about God, God is the only God, God is immortal-outside of time and God is invisible, we cannot see God, what we know of God is only what God has chosen to reveal to us. And the moments of revelation upon which we most depend are found in the scriptures, the stories of God and people and while that’s a start, even these revelations present a variety of pictures of who God is even in just our selections for today In Exodus we have the all-powerful God meeting with Moses on the mountain top and who is acting kind of like a sullen teenager. God has rescued the Israelites, the people God chose, from Egypt, has led them into the desert and has given them the 10 commandments, God even let the people approach the mountain to see the glory of God, but it was too much for them, they were content to let Moses do all the talking with God, so now Moses has been up on the mountain getting the particulars of the law, and he’s been gone a long time, so long that the people think, well he’s probably dead by now what with all that glory of the Lord, it’s time to take matters into our own hands, so they go to Aaron and say give us a god to worship, and Aaron seemingly without questioning the request takes all their gold and makes the image of a calf and says here, go worship this. Which gets us to our reading for today where God notices what the people have done, how quickly they’ve forgotten the covenant they made with God and “The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.” The people messed up and God is ready to give up, change plans, focus on the one who has stayed loyal, maybe pout a bit but unlike a teenager, God’s wrath could actually consume all the people. But here Moses intercedes for the people, Moses reminds God of all the promises God has made over the generations, all the trouble God went to with the plagues, and on top of that, what will the Egyptians think of you if you do this? Moses asks, that you just brought them out to kill them in the mountains. “And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.” God can change God’s mind, God is merciful. Which is good for us, because it also seems like God gets really unhappy when people break the rules and God has the power to do something about it. So that’s one picture of God, one who gets angry but is merciful. Then we have Jesus in our gospel for today, we confess that Jesus is God, and so what Jesus does reveals who God is and here he is, teaching a wide variety of people, the usual suspects the scribes and Pharisees who can always be found around a good lecture but also the unlikely suspects the tax collectors and sinners, those whose lives don’t seem to reflect much time spent with God and this is annoying to the pharisees, the professional church goers, who grumble “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” the subtext is that he must not be a very good scholar of the law if he ignores what it says about associating with sinners. And here Jesus, God, turns to them and tells two parables, two teaching stories about first a shepherd who had lost a sheep and then a woman who had lost a coin both go to great lengths to find what they had lost and upon finding the sheep and the coin gather their neighbors together to celebrate. Often interpretations of these stories make the shepherd and the woman the characters who represent God who here is relentless, stubborn, insistent and tireless in pursuit of what was lost, but God here is also foolish because the one who searches in the story is also the one who loses the sheep and the coin in the first place, and they are foolish for spending so much time on one sheep when they had 99 others or on one coin of moderate value when they had 9 others, surely the expense of the party thrown when the lost was found far outweighed that one sheep or that one coin. But this is God’s foolishness, foolishness that shows insistent mercy to the lost, who others have calculated to be not worth the trouble, God here, goes to the trouble in defiance of common sense. “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” foolish mercy And the foolishness of God continues on, for who but a fool would use someone who is trying to kill a cause to further it. That’s what Paul was doing, trying to kill the Jesus movement through actually killing those involved, and it’s this person on the way to expand their terror that Jesus comes to and calls, and whose life is changed to where his travels are then to spread the news of Jesus and his letters go to various communities around the world to strengthen their faith in Jesus. Paul says “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners- of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.” Much like the psalmist Paul is fully aware that he deserves whatever judgement God decides to hand down for his actions as a blasphemer, a persecutor and a man of violence. And he wonders at the grace and mercy of God, who sought him out was patient with him, who changed his life drastically so that now he lives as an example to others of life in Christ. In Paul God is revealed as one who not only uses but seeks out the unlikely, and is patient and persistent with them as grace and mercy turns their lives upside down. Who would do something like that? God, creator of the universe, that’s who, God who gets angry, and then changes their mind, God who is relentless, stubborn, insistent, tireless, foolish, patient, confusing, God, who time after time is revealed as merciful choosing to forgive rather than judge, choosing to set aside anger or what would make the most sense in favor of life and a fresh start no matter how angry God is like with the Israelites, or how little the person is valued by the world like the lost sheep and coin, or even how hopeless a case it seems to be like Paul, God can and will forgive and will create clean hearts and renew right spirits, and God has promised us, through Jesus that God will treat us in the same way When we confess our sins knowing we deserve to be judged, God responds with forgiveness, when we feel lost and insignificant God goes great lengths to find us when we intentionally turn from God, God pursues us with grace and mercy, and when God finally finds us, stuck in a ravine or under the couch covered in dust, God rejoices, because that’s who God is. Amen Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 9:36-43 Psalm 23 Revelation 7:9-17 John 10:22-30 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the Good Shepherd. Amen Sheep, well shepherds appear all over our readings for today, it’s why this Sunday has the nickname, Good Shepherd Sunday. I don’t claim to know much of anything about shepherding other than it is the shepherd’s job to take care of sheep which generally means leading them to food and water, finding them when they wander off and protecting them from things that want eat them, like wolves. At least this is the portrait of the shepherd that is painted in the Bible, a theme that Jesus takes up when he proclaims in John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” which in this Easter season we are well aware that he does. Jesus is the good shepherd, he promises to take care of us and that is comforting, no matter how independent or tough we are or pretend we are, we all long to be cared for, to be assured that everything will be okay, that there is someone looking out for us. And Jesus does, but he also has expectations for us as we follow him and that leads to the truth that lies behind all the talk of the tender care of the good shepherd, the truth there is no guarantee that life lived in and with God will be free from dangers or hardships, in fact Jesus is quite clear that those who follow him should expect danger and hardship, what Jesus does guarantee, promise, is to be with us, alongside us, in the midst of these times. Take our beloved Psalm 23 even as the psalmist describes the green pastures and still waters provided by the shepherd, what sounds like a pretty cushy life for a sheep, the psalmist acknowledges walking through the valley of the shadow of death and the presence of enemies, what makes the difference for the psalmist is the presence of God in the midst of these experiences. The danger is there but the psalmist does not fear because of the comfort of the Lord. These themes are present as well in our reading from Revelation, Revelation or the Apocalypse of John is an odd book but rather than being a prediction of the future to come as so many have thought, it falls more into the category of resistance fiction. A story written to convey truths to an oppressed group of people in a way that will not bring down the wrath of the empire upon their heads. The Christians to whom John wrote in Revelation were living under the Roman Empire, their proclaimed belief that Jesus is Lord rather than the Caesar placed them at the margins of society at best and subject to death for treason at worst and frankly things were going to get worse before they got better this is the setting for our reading from Revelation, where John in his vision sees a great multitude around the throne of God in heaven, from every nation and language praising God John finds out that this crowd are the people who have come through the “great ordeal” they have suffered on behalf of Jesus so now they get to spend all their time worshiping God “and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat, for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” These are images are familiar, they are the words of the prophet Isaiah to the Israelites in exile, God promised to bring them out of exile and God did, now God promises to bring the people out of the tribulation to shelter, but God will do this as a shepherd, walking with the people, through the danger to the promised land of safety and security. Once again God does not promise that there will be no suffering or hardships, what God does promise is to be there with the people through the hardships. It’s the way God works, Jesus is the good shepherd And we follow him because he knows us. “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.” Jesus says today in our gospel reading, and that is the key to the good of the shepherd, the knowing of the sheep. This knowing is a heart knowing rather than a head knowing, the kind of knowing that means the shepherd can pick individual sheep out of what looks to the rest of us like an undifferentiated mass. It’s the kind of knowing that anticipates that some sheep like this kind of grass, while others favor another so the shepherd makes sure to frequent both pastures, it’s a knowing that heads off that one sheep that always wanders away from the rest, it’s loving. And the sheep, knowing they are loved and cared for follow the voice of the one who loves and cares for them. Even if it means going through some dangerous spots, they follow because they know the shepherd will go with them and take care of them. Jesus is the good shepherd, he knows us with the knowledge of love, a knowing so deep we cannot help but respond in the good times and in the times of trouble, and when we wander away Jesus comes to find us and bring us back into the fold. And now some of you are sitting there thinking ‘that’s a pretty message pastor but how’s that going to work out?” In this Easter season we’ve been spending time with the disciples who have been saying pretty much the same thing, Jesus has appeared to them post resurrection and given them the good news and they wonder ‘how’s that going to work if you’re ascending to your father Jesus?’ and Jesus has told them, you’re going to do it, I will be present in you. Last week we heard the final conversation between Jesus and Peter where Jesus told Peter to feed his sheep and tend his flock and in that instance the lamb became the shepherd. Just like in Revelation where the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, we lambs are to be shepherds to one another. It sounds kind of funny but again that’s how God works, so here we are, lambs that are cared for and shepherds that care for others, we have both roles to play. Sometimes we’re more lamb and sometimes we’re more shepherd but we are always bound by love. We’ve been lambs this morning, we have heard we are loved and known, and now it’s time to put on our shepherd hats, I want you to look around and notice who is missing this morning, think about who you haven’t seen for a while, this isn’t a rhetorical point I want you to take a moment and pick one person or family you haven’t seen here for a while. Everyone got someone in mind? Okay, now it’s your turn to be the shepherd this week I want you to reach out to that person, write them a note, give them a call. It doesn’t have to be complicated just a simple I noticed you were gone, I missed you And in this way they will know they are cared for, that they are known, that Jesus is with them wherever they are in life, just like he promised. Amen Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 Psalm 27 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Luke 13:31-35 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to you from the one who goes to great lengths to keep promises. Amen The theme running through our readings for today is that God keeps the promises God makes. We know this, we affirm it, but sometimes, especially in the middle of hardship it’s hard to trust this, it’s hard to see anything other than what is right in front of us and our prayers start to sound like our psalm for the day. In the face of forces working actively against the psalmist they pray, and their prayer alternates between statements of trust almost as if making those statements will help the psalmist believe that they are true and acknowledging the reality of the present. The psalmist starts off “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?” Who indeed, but behind these words we sense a reason to fear and sure enough in the very next verse the psalmist says “when evildoers close in against me” and goes on to describe bad things that happen in life. Back and forth the psalm goes, calling on the Lord’s promises and seeking reassurance in the midst of times of trouble I think we’ve all prayed something like this where we alternate between “I know you’re great God and have made these promises” and in the next breath crying out “help! Bad things are happening, right now!” and both are true at the same time. We need reassurance when the way gets tough, we need to vent our frustrations and fears after all of the emotions have been expressed the psalmist settles on the last two verses “This I believe--that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord and be strong. Take heart and wait for the Lord!” And it’s true, we do believe we will see the goodness of God, and we catch glimpses of it but that second part, the waiting is oh so hard, we’ve experienced that this past week as we’ve waited and watched the waters rise not knowing what the future will look like for communities and families around the state, and as much as we’ve wanted to do something, at a certain point all that’s left to do is wait we’re still waiting. And the longer the wait the more assurance we need. God keeps the promises God makes but our time line and God’s don’t always line up and so sometimes we question God, and God responds with reassurance. We see this in our first reading from Genesis in the conversation between God and Abram This scene is actually not the first conversation between the two earlier when God led Abram from his home God promised him land and descendants as numerous as grains of sand, Abram has been faithful in his following of God thus far but he’s getting older and he’s not seeing the fruit of those promises, So Abram questions God Essentially saying, yah you made those promises but what have you done for me lately? looking for more details in how this seemingly impossible promise will come true, and God reassures him pointing to the night sky and saying “look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them, so shall your descendants be.” And Abram, reassured, believes God. Then the pattern repeats itself. God repeats the promise of land to Abram and Abram questions God “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” and what follows is possibly one of the stranger passages that we hear on a regular basis, specific animals being cut in two, darkness, a smoking fire pot and flaming torch passing through the animal pieces… What are we to make of such a scene? We know from research scholars have done on the ancient middle-east that though it may have been terrifying for Abram the actual ritual would have been familiar to him for this was the ritual of covenant or contract making. Minus the presence of lawyers and paper and pen this was how contracts were made, the ritual of walking through the dismembered animals signified an important promise. essentially saying, “if I fail to keep my promise, may the same thing happen to me as to these animals.” God’s promise to Abram is so important that God “considers an experience of suffering and death” (NIB 449) in order to convey the seriousness of the promise. God keeps the promises God makes As Christians we have cause to know just how far God will go to keep a promise. In our gospel reading for today Jesus sets his face towards Jerusalem and immediately some Pharisees come and tell him that he shouldn’t go because it’s dangerous. Jesus already knows that, Jesus already knows what is going to happen and Jesus knows what lengths God is willing to go to keep promises all the way to death and back again. Jesus is the promised messiah the one the people have longed for, for so long but true to God’s form the fulfillment of the promise is beyond human conception of what it will look like. Jesus uses the image of a hen gathering her chicks under her wings, that is what he longs to do and in a way will do in his outstretched arms on the cross but the people, expecting a hawk or an eagle have not been willing to come under Jesus the mother hen’s wings, in fact like a hawk or eagle they will attack the mother hen as they have attacked previous prophets. Jerusalem, the city of God, is a risky place to go if you are a messenger from God but Jesus is willing to take those risks in order to keep the promises of God. God made a promise to Abram, Abram questioned God and God reassured Abram and Abram believed the Lord. Abram’s faith was possible because of God’s word and previous actions, which had all been true and faithful. At our baptisms God made a promise to us that we would always be God’s, that, as Paul said in our second reading, our citizenship would be in heaven. And some days we question that promise, we turn to God and say ‘you promised that your kingdom would come on earth as in heaven, Jesus said the kingdom of God has come near and yet there are still people who are hungry and countries at war, And terrorists who shoot people in their place of worship and loved ones who die, And rising flood waters how can your promise come true God?’ and God comes to us, at the table Jesus comes to us reassuring us with his own body and blood the new covenant shed for us for the forgiveness of sins Any time we gather together, break the bread, drink the wine Jesus is present, renewing the promise of abundant life everlasting, strengthening us in the midst of the waiting Reminding us that God has kept all of God’s promises even to the point of dying on a cross and rising on the third day. The life of faith is risky. Risky because though the promises are always kept we don’t know the particulars, risky because people expect hawks instead of mother hens to change the world. Yet The life of faith is secure because it is founded in the one who keeps their promises and no matter how often we question No matter what life throws at us, God is reaching out gathering us in like a mother hen gathers her chicks To safely in the shadow of her wings. Amen 26th Sunday After Pentecost
Daniel 12:1-3 Psalm 16 Hebrews 10:11-25 Mark 13:1-8 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who shows us the path of life. Amen This is one of those Sundays where it seems like there should be a question mark after the gospel response. Thanks be to God? How is it good news that stone shall not be left on stone and that people will come and pretend to be God and there will be wars and rumors of wars before the final end will come? It sure doesn’t seem good, And today we have this gospel paired with our first reading, another passage predicting a time of anguish. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of good news in these apocalyptic passages. As a side note, apocalyptic refers to a genre of writing that deals with a prophetic revelation, not necessarily but often including descriptions of disasters to come, and only secondarily but more commonly has the term come to be used as a description of an end of the world type scenario. So we have these apocalyptic texts, these prophetic passages predicting disasters, and the question is: what do they have to do with us? On the face of it, it seems like not much. A group of Pastors and I meet at the beginning of each week to read and discuss the texts for the week, and this week we pretty much agreed that our best chance of finding a sermon, finding good news lay in the other readings assigned for the week, we weren’t going to mess with these texts. And then the other day I was driving to a meeting and I was listening to NPR, and they did a story, an update really on the wildfires in California, particularly the Camp Fire that wiped out the town of Paradise 10,000 homes destroyed, and the reporter on the ground interviewed a resident, who’d seen her former house and the woman said something to the effect of ‘it looks like there’s been an apocalypse.’ I don’t remember the exact quote but she used the word apocalypse. And it hit me, the people of Paradise are in the midst of a catastrophe, life as they know it is over, in a sense that world ended and they are faced with the question: now what? And as I thought about the people in the midst of world altering catastrophes, the disasters of our readings began to fade and the hope began to shine through, yes Daniel begins “There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence” but then he continues “But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.” and sure Jesus says “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines.” but then he pauses and goes on “This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.” the birth pangs of what? Of the new world, The new way of life that Jesus has promised he will bring about, Jesus is saying that the turmoil he is describing, that the disciples will experience is not the last say God will work through it, and there lies the good news. For those of us who are relatively safe and secure, apocalyptic passages sound scary, we focus on the pain and suffering that we’d really rather avoid, but for those in the midst of pain and suffering they bring hope, because they describe reality and a life on the other side of the suffering, a life brought about by God who goes through the suffering with us because we have a God who promises never to leave us. Our God is realistic, not making promises that won’t come true. That’s one way you can tell you’re dealing with a false god, they promise that if you follow them, give them $9.95 a month then everything will be okay, your problems will be solved. Our God does not sugar coat things, part of life is experiencing pain and suffering and instead of making false impossible claims our God promises never to leave our side throughout all of life. We see this in our psalm, the psalmist describes different phases of life and in each God is there. For those in danger God is described by the psalmist as a refuge. This is a familiar image for us, we turn to God when we’re in trouble. But the psalmist also assures us that God is present with those who are content, at one point the psalmist says “My boundaries enclose a pleasant land; indeed, I have a rich inheritance.” God is with us in the times when life is going well, these are often times we bless God as a way of giving thanks for the good in our lives. God is with us in the bad times, God is with us in the good times, and God is with us when we are in between, in need of direction, The psalmist sings “I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel;” and speaks with assurance that because God goes before the psalmist they will not be shaken by whatever comes their way. “My heart therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; my body also shall rest in hope. For you will not abandon me to the grave, nor let your holy one see the pit. You will show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of you, and in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Whether it seems like the world has ended or life could never get better or somewhere in between God is with us God shows us the path of life, God travels the path with us. Whatever comes our way, God is there, and we are never alone. Amen Reformation Sunday
Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 46 Romans 3:19-28 John 8:31-36 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who is our refuge and strength. Amen As humans we are familiar with chaos. Sometimes it is an individual chaos that surrounds us, the breaking of relationships, the losing of a job, health problems or just a really busy time in life. Sometimes the chaos is experienced as part of a community, as in times of natural disasters, political transitions, or acts of violence perpetrated on a community due to their identity whether with words or actions. We’ve experienced this chaos as a country as recently as yesterday and even if we try to detach, even if we don’t pay attention to the news, we all feel the effects of the chaos because we are part of the community of creation. Teenagers -confirmands I’m looking at you. have their own particular brand of chaos, that delightful blend of hormones, forming identities, social struggles and obligations to activities all with the future hanging over your heads in addition to everything else going on around you. It’s a lot to handle sometimes, it’s chaos. And into this chaos the Psalmist speaks a word of hope, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved… the nations rage and the kingdoms shake; God speaks and the earth melts away. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold. God is with us, a steady constant among the shifting sands of change all around us, a place of peace like the eye of a storm calm at the center of swirling winds, an anchor holding us steady. Whatever chaos threatens, God is there offering shelter and hope for the future. Today is reformation Sunday, a day when we as Lutherans take time to remember Martin Luther and the reformers of our heritage, reformers who, with their simple questioning of how the church cared for its people unleashed the chaos that had been bubbling below the surface. Much of what went on during the reformation was not pretty nor was all of it helpful, Luther himself became embittered and anti-semetic and his writings against the Jewish people have been used to justify acts of violence against the Jewish community much like what happened at Tree of Life Synagogue outside of Pittsburg yesterday as heirs of the reformer we as Lutherans have had to confront our role in the spread of chaos and have renounced as a church the writings and the ideas that form the root of anti-semitism, the Jewish people are our brothers and sisters children of the same God, the God who has promised all of us to be a refuge and strength. Taking shelter in God is an act of resistance To the chaos around us but Chaos is nothing if not persistent so we cling to the gifts of God brought forward by the reformers, the emphasis on the fact that we are saved by grace through faith apart from works. For preaching this Luther was excommunicated from the church he loved and only wanted to reform and a price was put on his head, and in the midst of it all Luther wrote the hymn A Mighty Fortress, a paraphrase of Psalm 46, a reminder that sometimes it is darkest before the dawn and that God will see us through whatever comes our way. Professing our faith in God can unleash unexpected consequences because our faith runs counter to the ways of the world but in the midst of it all God will be there with us because our faith is a gift from God, God knows we can’t calm the chaos on our own any more than we can save ourselves, the world is just too broken by sin for that, as Paul says in Romans “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” but thanks be to God for the gift of the justification by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, because of Christ we are set free, we are freed from the requirements that chaos places on us, the need to be perfect, the need to take care of it all on our own, to be better than the next person, to attempt to secure ourselves against whatever might come our way, we are set free, even from things we didn’t think we were bound to. In our gospel Jesus is speaking to some disciples who believe in him. Jesus tells them “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” the disciples are confused by this insisting that they’d never been slaves, forgetting it seems the history of their people in Egypt as slaves, and the time when Babylon conquered Israel and took the people into exile as slaves, and then is was the Persians and then the Romans. As people we’re good at self-deception, we insist that we are free even as we are enslaved by debt or social expectations or the systems of the world that we must rely on for the basic necessities of life. “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” Jesus tells the disciples, continuing in the word of God we learn the truth, The truth that we need a savoir, and we learn the truth that we have a savior, had one even before we knew we needed it, Jesus, who on the cross died for all, so that we might be free from the demands of chaos. We were given this freedom at our baptism The moment when God named and claimed us Took us under the shadow of God’s wing Into the refuge of our God Confirmands, when you publicly profess your faith in a few minutes, what you are doing is acknowledging the freedom you have in Christ, you along with the rest of the congregation will renounce the devil, the chaos, and embrace the freedom that has been yours since your baptism, the freedom of being loved so deeply that nothing can separate you from God. And having been set free you are able to live your lives focused on God rather than on yourselves. How this will play out is yet to be seen, each of you has been given gifts by God, gifts that will help you share the love of God with others, you will find them as you continue in your faith and explore your freedom in Christ but all the while, whatever comes your way you will be anchored by God who is our refuge and strength. Amen 10th Sunday after Pentecost
2 Kings 4:42-44 Psalm 145:10-18 Ephesians 3:14-21 John 6:1-21 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who is faithful in all words and loving in all works. Amen We have a God whose love and works surpass human understanding. We can’t explain how Elisha was able to feed a hundred men with a little bit of bread and corn let alone Jesus feeding five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish Jesus’ walking across the top of the sea of Galilee in a storm defies the laws of nature that God set in place, and these are only the examples we have from the readings for today, the Bible is filled with stories that we can’t explain, at least with head knowledge, logic and reason But with heart knowledge, our ability to accept the reality of mysteries we know that these stories tell us the truth, the truth about God and what it means to be a child of God. As a society, we’ve come to depend almost entirely on head knowledge, for something to be true it must be able to be proven. Now I’m not discounting science and measurable outcomes, the ability to understand the world around us is a gift from God and has done much good, but we limit our experience of life if we rely only on head knowledge and dismiss the power and truth of heart knowledge, truth that defies explanation and yet exists in the world. So what do we who live in a world of logic do with truth that defies explanation? I think our best course is to follow the lead of the psalmists who in the face of the inexplicable takes the time to describe their experience, however contradictory. Have you ever noticed that about the psalms? Especially the psalms of lament, the psalmist goes on and on about how awful life is and then at very end they give praise to God, and it seems to go against everything that came before, but we recognize the truth in these psalms because that’s how people of faith live, with the ability to tell God everything that’s going wrong and at the same time still praise and trust God. Our psalm for today is a psalm of praise, in praising God, the psalmist describes the actions of God, who upholds all who fall and lifts those who are bowed down, who satisfies the desire of every living thing, who is near to all who call, and throughout this litany of what God does there is a kind of refrain as the psalmist says: “You Lord, are faithful in all your words and loving in all your works.” and later again “you are righteous in all your ways and loving in all your works.” Even if we don’t understand what God is doing with our head knowledge, we know with our heart knowledge that God is faithful to God’s promises and God acts in love. And so we live into that truth. It’s why we baptize babies like Royce. Yes she doesn’t understand what that splash of water was about, and if we’re honest we don’t always fully understand either, but she does understand love and ultimately that’s what is at the root of what happens at the font, God loved the world so much that God sent Jesus, and in his death and resurrection Jesus bridged the gap between God and humanity and God who is faithful in all words claims us as children of God, and God who is loving in all works gave us a sign of that promise so that on the days when we have doubts we have a moment in time to point to and can say I am baptized! I am a child of God! I am loved! And though we only baptize once, the water and the word are just the beginning of the baptismal life, a life where we live into the love and identity that God has given us, which is why we all promised to continue to live in community with Royce and we promised that as she grows to bring her to the table and to teach her the creed and the ten commandments, and the lord’s prayer, and when she can read we’ll place the scriptures in her hands, all the while continuing to surround her with love, as we strive to do with all God’s children. And we pray with Paul that God work through this community to strengthen her inner being with the power of the spirit, that Christ may dwell in her heart as she is rooted and grounded in love, and we pray that she grows into some understanding but most of all that she knows with head and heart the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. That is our prayer for Royce, and for all God’s children, including those of us gathered here, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God and that secure in our beloved identity as children of God we may overflow with praise for the one who is faithful in all words and loving in all works. Amen |
AboutPastor Emily Johnson preaches weekly at Christ Lutheran. These are manuscripts of her sermons given at Christ Lutheran. Feel free to engage with them in the comments section of the blog. Archives
March 2022
Categories
All
|