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

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

13th Sunday after Pentecost
Jeremiah 15:15-21
Psalm 26:1-8
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
 from the one who does things the divine way. Amen
 
Perspective matters. 
 
How we look at things influences what we see.
 The view from the top of a mountain
 and the view from the bottom are very different,
 even though we’re looking at the same mountain.
 
 How I see the world without my glasses
is certainly a lot fuzzier
than when I put in my contacts
 and the world springs back into focus.
 
On a sunny day I change how I see the world
by putting on sunglasses
and the dark lenses allow me to focus
on more than just how bright it is outside.
 
 These are all physical examples of perspective
but perspective also comes into play
in how we understand the world
and like putting on sunglasses
 or climbing a mountain
we can influence to a certain degree
 how we understand and interpret the world around us.
 
Now some things,
our past experiences, our beliefs,
 our place in society
 all impact our perspective
whether we are aware of it or not
 
 and the things that are most deeply ingrained
are the ones we turn to in times of stress,
the ones we go to without thinking about
 and that can get us into trouble.
 
 That’s what happens to Peter
 in our gospel for today
Jesus tells the disciples that “he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ But [Jesus] turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’”
 
Peter,
when faced with a threat to his teacher and Lord
responds from the human perspective.
 The perspective that holds tightly onto life at all costs,
the perspective that says pain is to be avoided,
the perspective that is more concerned with ourselves and our loved ones
 than the whole world.
 
And Jesus scolds him. 
 
He puts him in his place,
 ‘get behind me’, Jesus says,
 ‘I am the teacher, you are the disciple,
 you’re getting ahead of yourself,
you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
 
And while it is true that Peter is human,
we know that he is capable of seeing from the divine perspective.
 
 Just last week in our gospel
at a retreat in Caesarea Philippi
Peter proclaimed the truth about Jesus,
 that he is the Messiah, the Son of the living God
and Jesus praised him
 for trusting the revelations of God.
 
There Peter had his mind set on divine things.
 
But it only lasts a moment,
 and in seemingly the next breath
Peter is back to human things.
 
Jesus puts Peter in his place
and turns to the disciples
 and spells it out for them
 “If any want to become my followers let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?”
 
To be a disciple of Jesus
 means looking at the world from the divine perspective,
 a way of looking at things
 that at times seems to be exactly the opposite
 of what our instincts tell us we should do
 what the world had taught us makes the most sense.
 
The worldly perspective teaches us to put our lives
 and those of our family
ahead of anyone else,
 
the divine perspective teaches
that a life well lived
is one that is lived in service to others,
even if that means sacrificing our own lives.
 
It’s what Jesus did,
 he lived everything he taught
 he lived the divine way,
 the way that fed people because they were hungry
 and healed people because they were sick
and forgave people because they were sinners.
 
His living the divine way in the world
so upset those in power
 (those who were supposed to be living and teaching the divine things)
that they got together
 to serve out the ultimate punishment of the world,
 death,
the thing there’s no coming back from,
 
 but Jesus did
rising on the third day,
and he promises that joined to him
 death is not the end
his followers are free to live in service of others
following the divine way.
 
But Jesus realizes
that living the divine way
 does not come naturally,
 
that like Peter when we hear something that frightens us
our instinct will be to go back to the way of the world,
 that we will need to be put in our places
 and reminded again and again
that God will take care of judgment
and that we are to view the world from the divine perspective.
 
And while this is difficult,
 Peter shows us that it is possible,
again and again Peter jumps at the chance to follow Jesus,
 and again and again he falls back on the human way of doing things,
 
and yet each time
Jesus puts him in his place,
 reminds him of the divine way,
 forgives him,
and gives him another chance.
 
This is what Jesus does for us,
as we seek to follow him
he calls us to set our mind on divine things
rather than human things
 
and sometimes,
 most times
 it flies in the face of worldly wisdom.
 
As Paul reminds the Romans “Let love be genuine...bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep...Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
 
It takes practice to live in the world
with our minds set on divine things,
 we will mess up,
 and when we do,
Jesus will put us in our place,
remind us of the divine way
 and give us another chance,
and the more we practice
 the easier it becomes
 to look at the world from God’s point of view
 but always Jesus calls us
to set our mind on divine things
 because he knows that when we are frightened or disrupted
we will see the world from the human perspective once again
 and once again we will need to be reminded to set our minds on divine things.
 
Dear people,
 right now as individuals and as a society
we are frightened and disrupted
and we are falling back on the human mindset,
the mindset that draws those with whom we agree closer
and villainizes those who are different from us,
whether the difference comes in the form of politics,
nationality, the color of our skin,
or even how we think we should live together.
 
To get through this we must set our mind on divine things,
before we react,
pause and look at the world through the eyes of Jesus,
 to see how we might live in service to others
 even though it may mean making sacrifices in our lives
 so that others may live.
 
We must overcome evil with good.
 
And yes,
we will make mistakes along the way,
and Jesus will put us in our places,
 
and then he will forgive us,
offering us his broken body and blood poured out,
with bread and wine join us once again to him,
 setting our mind on divine things
then sending us out to try again.
This is the divine way. Amen
 

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
 

7th Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 44:6-8
Psalm 86:11-17
Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 
grace and peace to you from the one who tells us to wait in hope. Amen
 
It’s hard to wait when we know what is possible.
 
That’s the reality of our lives right now
 and that is the reality that our lessons address today
 along with the promise that the waiting is worthwhile, necessary even.
 
Jesus starts us off with a parable, 
a farmer who has prepared their fields for planting
 sows good seed. 
 
From the preparations they have made
 they have every expectation 
that when the seeds sprout
 it will be a field full of the best wheat. 
 
But we are told,
 an enemy comes in the night 
and scatters weeds in the field. 
 
When the plants come up
 the workers realize that there are weeds among the wheat, 
they are confused,
 they say “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then did these weeds come from?” 
 
and the Master, the farmer, responds, 
it must have been an enemy who did this,
 and at this the workers are galvanized for action, 
they are ready to go out into the field 
and get those weeds out of there, 
defeat the enemy and return the field to the way it was intended 
full of only good wheat. 
 
But the Farmer stops them saying “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”

It goes against our instincts
 to leave the weeds in with the wheat.
 When we see something whether it is a field, a garden, or even a community
 that is not growing as we know it could be, 
or even as we think it should be, 
our first instinct is to go in and root out what is not supposed to be there 
 
but the hazard of that is there is often collateral damage, 
in our quest to get rid of the weeds 
we also rip up some of the wheat, 
we cause harm to members of our community. 
Weeding disturbs more than just the weeds.
 
I know in my own garden
 I’ve pulled up many a little carrot or beet 
that has just barely begun to form 
in the process of my weeding, 
and I’ve even accidentally stepped on other plants
 in my quest to rip out that hunk of crabgrass. 
 
These accidents are not ideal 
but I prepared for them,
 I planted more than enough seeds, 
knowing that some would not grow and some would be pulled with the weeds,
 I’m willing to take that risk with my garden.
 
Jesus is not willing to take that risk in his garden. 
Jesus’ grace means that he’d rather let the weeds grow with the wheat
 than to risk hurting any of the wheat in the process.
 
 Jesus is willing to settle for less than perfection 
to protect the wheat. 
But just because he’s willing to let the weeds grow for the sake of the wheat 
doesn’t mean that in the end 
the weeds will be treated the same as the wheat.
 
 When it’s time for the harvest, 
the whole point of growing the field in the first place,
 the weeds will be separated out from the wheat 
and while the wheat will become food for the world, 
the weeds will be burned
 but until that time he tells us to wait.
 
Waiting is hard,
 especially when we know what could be 
and especially if we think we know a way that we could act, 
but Jesus has cautioned us to wait 
and promised that at the right time, 
God’s time, it will end as it should. 
But it’s still frustrating.
 
That frustration is what Paul is speaking to 
when he writes: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” 
 
As children of God we know what God has promised, 
the vision for the future 
which means that we are even more aware 
of how this world falls short of that promise 
and in a way that adds to our frustration, our suffering,
 it’s almost enough to ask why God would even make us aware of the difference.
 
Why? Because we come to this awareness through the gift of grace, 
God’s love for us that is already transforming our lives. 
You see each of us are like the field in the parable, 
while God created us good,
 the evil one has sown weeds in us, 
weeds that tell us that it is okay to only care about ourselves, 
weeds that turn us away from God and in on ourselves, 
weeds that tell us the lie that we are supposed to be the judge of others. 
 
All these weeds are in us along with the wheat, the gifts of the spirit,
 and God refuses to reject us because of our weeds. 
 
This is grace, 
that even though we are less than perfect, 
less than we could be 
and even less than we should be, 
God loves us.
 
 and that love gives us hope. 
As Paul says “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” 
  
Grace leads to hope,
 hope leads to patience.
 
Now remember hope is not optimism, 
where optimism says I think things will just turn out okay, 
hope looks at the reality of the world, 
the despair and seemingly insurmountable obstacles,
 and says, nevertheless I believe that God will bring new life. 
 
We have hope because we have Jesus, 
who faced the most insurmountable obstacle, death, 
and three days later appeared to the disciples, 
proclaiming that death had been defeated.
 
And joined to Christ in our baptisms’
 we have been joined to his death and resurrection,
 assured that in the end where Christ is, there we will be,
 that nothing can separate us from the love of God,
 not even the weeds within and around us 
 
and when we have this, 
this grace,
 this new life that we get glimpses of along the way,
 we can wait.
 
As Paul says “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” 
We are well aware of the imperfections of the world, 
all the things that could be and should be, 
 
and Jesus has promised
 that in the end there will be new life, 
even if, especially if,
 it is nothing like we imagine
 and so we have hope,
 and in hope we wait. Amen
 

5th Sunday After Pentecost
Zecheriah 9:9-12
Psalm 145:8-14
Romans 7:15-25a
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 
grace and peace to you
 from the one who offers to teach us another way Amen.
 
Life is full of contradictions,
 some are as simple as the fact
 that chocolate cake tastes better than broccoli,
 but it is far healthier for us to eat broccoli
 than it is to eat chocolate cake. 
 
Other contradictions are more sinister
 like the fact that those who gain positions of power
In order to work on behalf of many people 
often use that power to work only for themselves.
 
whatever the example 
it seems that as humans, 
even if we are aware of the conflict 
and which is the better part, 
we almost always seem to choose to do more of the thing
 that is less beneficial to ourselves 
 
and even when we try to regulate our actions
 with outside rules and laws,
 we invariably seem to return to that chocolate cake 
even though we know we need to eat the broccoli.
 
This is what Paul is struggling with in our second reading 
remarking that even though he logically knows
 what he should do, and he wants to do it
when it comes time to do it, 
he invariably does the opposite, 
 
he says “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not what is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.” 
 
Here he names the greatest contradiction we experience, 
that even as we have free will to act,
 there is another force working against us, 
sin, 
that embeds itself in the fabric of life 
so even as we try to do what is right, 
we are led astray. 
 
The buzz word for this right now is “systemic”
 we talk about systemic racism, 
where racism is so embedded in how we live 
that as individuals we are unable to extract ourselves
 because the everyday options available to us
 within the established way of life have sin woven into the fabric 
such that it is impossible to separate out the individual threads.
 
 Jesus, teaching the disciples
 points out another contradiction with humans, 
the inability to make everyone happy, 
he observes that when John the Baptist came 
fasting as part of his religious experience
 people claimed he had a demon 
 
and when Jesus himself came eating and drinking 
and interacting with normal everyday people
 the people say ‘look a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 
These are the two main options for a messianic figure 
and yet people have rejected them both.
 
 Lately, the best example of this has to do with face masks, 
on the one hand there are people who refuse to go anywhere
 they are not required, 
on the other hand there are people who refuse to go anywhere 
they are required. 
 
Confronted with the contradictions within ourselves and humanity, 
it’s enough to drive us mad, 
so what are we to do? 
 
Paul himself throws up his hands and cries
 “Wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death?” 
and there is the key,
 to acknowledge that we need help,
 
 and Paul immediately follows with
 “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” 
Jesus is God’s answer to the contradictions of life.
 
Jesus himself is a living contradiction, 
God and human,
 who lived among and experienced first hand 
the contradictions of humanity
 the reality that it’s impossible to please everyone. 
 
Observing the contradictions in the gospel
 he concludes ‘yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds’ 
he knows that time will tell 
who was wise and made the better choice 
and which was the wrong decision 
 
and then he offers to help in making those choices
 “He says all things have been handed over to me by my father” 
Jesus has the inside scoop 
and he offers to share that with everyone, 
but unlike those get rich quick scheme infomercials 
Jesus offers this for free:
 
He says “come to me all, you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon, you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
 
What Jesus is offering is not a quick fix scheme, 
a magic wand that with a flick of the wrist makes all trouble disappear,
 what he offers is an invitation to self-reflection and the pursuit of wisdom,
 he offers to teach us another way 
to deal with the contradictions of life.
 
 The yoke, was a common image in rabbinic literature 
that referred to obeying the Torah (working preacher), 
the law that God gave as a gift
 to help humans live with one another. 
 
Jesus is a teacher of the law, 
and he has said that he’s not come to abolish the law, 
but he has seen how the pharisees and sadducees 
have taken to following the law for the sake of following the rules
 and not for the original intent of the gift of the law, 
for abundant life of the people. 
 
Following the letter of the law
 has gotten in the way with the spirit of the law 
and so Jesus offers another way, 
one that is lighter, that can be summed up as
 “love the lord your God with all your heart and soul and might, and your neighbor as yourself.” 
 
Jesus offers a gentler way, 
and even then 
he sees how impossible it is
 for humans to do the right thing, 
 
which is why Jesus goes to the cross for us, 
to make us right with God, 
to offer us forgiveness 
for when despite our best efforts we mess up, 
when we continually choose the chocolate cake instead of the broccoli.
 
 “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Paul has named it, 
we can’t dig ourselves out of the hole we’ve created, 
we need help, 
and Jesus is that help. 
 
Now that doesn’t mean that we should keep intentionally digging holes 
for Jesus to get us out of, 
but when we invariably do 
Jesus is gentle with us, 
and again and again helps us out of the pit 
and shows us another way, 
one where burdens are shared and wisdom is revealed.
 
This doesn’t mean that life will be easy 
or without contradictions,
 Jesus did after all instruct his disciples
 to take up the cross and follow him, 
 
but what it does mean 
is that we have a way to navigate the contradictions of life, 
One where we share one another’s burdens, 
where we strive to live lives turned toward God and neighbor, 
 
where we know that because we live in Christ 
we are not condemned by our failures 
no matter how deeply entwined they are.
 
We have been set free, 
free to live the lighter path of gentleness and humility,
 of wisdom that carries on 
through the midst of the contradictions of life. Amen
 

3rd Sunday After Pentecost
Jeremiah 20:7-13
Psalm 69:7-10, 16-18
Romans 6:1-11
Matthew 10:24-39

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 
grace and peace to you
 from the one who calls us
 to take up the cross and follow him. Amen
 
Jesus does not hold back in our gospel for today 
as he teaches about discipleship,
 what it truly means to follow him.
 
 to be a disciple says Jesus
 means uncovering the things
 that society would rather keep secret, 
it means that some will want to do bodily harm to you,
 that families will be divided, 
That you will lose your life.
 
Jesus clearly wasn’t working with a PR firm
 on his marketing for recruiting disciples.
 It is not an attractive picture he paints
 and I’ll admit in the past I’ve struggled with this passage.
 
 And yet this year, 
in the midst of all that is going on in our society and world,
 I found this passage oddly comforting.
perhaps because the world is so uncomfortable now
 and at its heart the gospel is meant to comfort the distressed 
and to disturb the comfortable
And my life is generally speaking, comfortable.
 
But Jesus knows
 that in the way of the world 
comfort of one individual or group is achieved 
at the expense of another individual or group
 and the systems that are comfortable
 will fight to the death to preserve their comfort.
 
Jesus has come to bring abundant life for all
And that means dismantling the systems that oppress people.
And the first step in that 
is to bring out into the open 
the things those in power would rather cover up. 
“For nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered proclaim from the housetops”
 
We are in a time of uncovering right now, 
what was remarkable about George Flyod’s death 
was sadly not the way he was treated
 but that it was recorded for all to see. 
 
The holiday Juneteenth 
has been observed since 1866 
and yet many people are only learning about it this year
Scholars and epidemiologists have studied for years
 in preparation for a global pandemic 
and now after the proverbial horse has escaped the barn 
the results of their studies are being widely disseminated. 
 
And while it may be uncomfortable
 for those of us hearing about these things for the first time,
 imagine the relief of those who have known all along 
who have been reduced to whispering in the past 
that now are able to proclaim from the housetops. 
 
Jesus lets us know 
that no matter how hard we try to avoid certain topics of conversation, 
they will eventually be brought out into the open,
 and that is liberating, for everyone. 
What we are experiencing is the next step on the arc toward the liberation of all. 
And Jesus knows that this will divide people.
 
That’s what Jesus means when he says
 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth, I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” 
 
The sword, 
The liberating message of Jesus
has two edges, law and gospel, 
the law to show us how we have fallen short 
and the gospel to comfort, 
 
and actually these two are often the same message, 
how it is understood depends on who hears them, 
for those who have been comfortable at the expense of others 
Jesus’ message of liberation will sound like law,
 for those who have been oppressed
 the message will sound like gospel, good news. 
 
Jesus says that to be a disciple 
we must take the side of the oppressed, 
This is what the call to take up the cross means
 
the cross, was an instrument of state terror 
designed to make a horrifically painful example
 of anyone who tried to defy the empire,
Those who were crucified were killed
Because they were seen as a threat to the status quo
A threat to the comfort of those in power.
 
This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus
To openly talk about the secrets of society
To take the side of the oppressed
To take on the powers of the world.
Why would we want to be a disciple?
 
Because to be a disciple
Also means that we are known and valued by God
Jesus knows his message is difficult,
 three times in this passage he says do not be afraid 
and in the end affirms the value of each individual disciples,
 “even the hairs of your head are all counted, so do not be afraid.” 
 
to be a part of the Jesus movement 
is to be a part of something much larger than yourself 
and at the same time be known and valued for your own individual gifts and talents,
 and it is because we are so valued 
that we are able to take risks for others.
 
Paul picks up a variation on this theme in his letter to the Romans.
Writing looking back through the lens of the crucifixion and resurrection
He says “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life...The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
 
Christ died and rose for us
To set us free from sin
being turned in on ourselves, 
taking care of our own comfort at the expense of others.
 In relation to God
 the matter of sin has been taken care of by Jesus
 
 but just because God forgives us 
does not mean that we keep sinning 
rather it means that we try to live without sin 
and this is a daily struggle. 
 
This is the essence of the baptismal life
The daily dying to sin
And rising to new life in Christ
All because God has unequivocally claimed us.
 
Today happens to be my baptism birthday, 
33 years ago my parents brought me to the font
And God claimed me.
 
 While it’s hard to believe 
that that baby needed to be forgiven for anything, 
what that moment did was start a lifelong journey
to live a life bigger than myself
 
 and sometimes that means 
setting aside my own comfort and security for the sake of others
 just as Jesus set aside his own comfort and security 
as he went to the cross for the sake of the whole world. 
 
This is Jesus’ call to all of us, 
to face discomfort, division and fear, 
not because it might save us, 
but that it might save someone else.
 
 Jesus expects this of us 
because it is exactly what Jesus himself did 
but we do this 
secure in the fact that we are known by God, 
who values us and knows every last detail about us, 
down to the number of hairs on our head.
 
We are in a moment in time 
where we are being called to set aside our own comfort
 and act for the sake of others
 whether it is wearing a mask in public,
 or taking the time to learn about 
how the sin of racism infects the ways of the world, 
challenging the powers that say some are more valuable than others. 
 
And we are up for the challenge
Not because we are particularly brave
But because we are so thoroughly loved by God. Amen
 

2nd Sunday After Pentecost
Exodus 19:2-8a
Psalm 100
Romans 5:1-8
Matthew 9:35-10:8

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 
grace and peace to you from the one who dared to die for us. Amen
 
Welcome to the time after pentecost, 
often called ordinary time, 
symbolized by the color green. 
 
In this green season 
our scriptures and prayers
 will point us in the direction of growth, 
growth in faith, in discipleship, in understanding, 
in what it takes to build the kingdom of God.
 
 And this season will stretch on and on, 
for the next few months,
 it will be fall before we see a color on the altar 
other than green 
and that too holds true to the theme of the season 
because growth takes time. 
 
And growth is difficult at times,
 do you remember growing up,
 when you hit a growth spurt 
and literally felt growing pains, 
aches in your bones as they stretched toward your full height?
 
In his letters 
Paul writes to a church experiencing growing pains,
 to many he writes of specific difficulties,
 the Thessalonians were afraid of church members dying 
before the return of Christ, 
the Corinthians had all sorts of conflict
 and it seems like he just missed the Philippians,
 
in his letter to the Romans, 
Paul is writing to a church 
that he has never met
 but whom he wishes to visit,
 and because he’s never met them, 
and realizes that he might never meet them 
he presents his rationale for the gospel in a more measured tone, 
Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham
 and his main point
 is that God does the work,
 all Abraham did was trust in the promise, had faith. 
 
For us, Jesus does all the work 
and our role is to trust the promise, have faith.
 
That’s what is leading up to our reading for today
 where Paul concludes: “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.”
 
We have peace with God! Paul proclaims,
given our sinful and broken relationship with God
 it would be reasonable (using human logic) 
for God to want to even the score, 
punish us, make us hurt in the same way we made God hurt 
 
“But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” 
God settled the score or however you want to put it,
 and the end result 
is that God has promised that through Christ 
we will share in the glory of God. 
 
We have been set free in our relationship with God 
but that freedom does not absolve us of responsibilities,
 rather it allows us to turn our attention 
to the broken relationships of the world, 
relationships that will insist that they are fine the way they are, 
relationships that will resent and push back
 against even the suggestion that they need to be examined, 
 
which is why Paul says 
that even as we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God “we also boast in our sufferings”
 
So, what
 (asking our pentecost question) 
what does this mean? 
What does this mean for us today? 
 
What it means is that we have work to do, 
examining the broken relationships in this world, 
to acknowledge them, understand them
 and work toward healing them. 
 
Sadly there are many candidates for this work,
 but at the forefront right now 
is the relationship between the white community
 and the black community within this country.
 
 It is a relationship that is broken 
and has been broken for hundreds of years, 
and it is also one that some will insist is fine
 and will resent even the call to examine the relationship.
 
 But this is exactly what Jesus has set us free to do, 
it is what he did and calls us to do, 
to go to the places that are hurting and in need of good news.
 
We heard in our gospel 
that as Jesus went around all the cities and villages
 proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God 
he encountered whole crowds of people
that needed healing and hope
 
 and “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few”  
 
One person teaching and healing is not enough, 
so Jesus sends the disciples out to do the same things 
that he has just been doing, 
and he knows it’s not going to be easy 
or that everyone will receive their message
 but that it is important work to be done
 
 and he promises that whatever happens 
they are loved and cared for by God, 
they are free to take risks because God is their safety net.
 
We are free to take risks 
since we are justified by faith, 
we have peace with God, 
which means that nothing can separate us from the love of God, 
even if the work we do 
in working on human relationships is difficult 
and produces suffering, 
but we know that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
 
Hope does not disappoint us.
 It may be hard to look around the world right now and have hope.
 But that’s only if we confuse hope with optimism. 
 
Optimism looks at all the hard and difficult things of the world 
and says, ‘I don’t know how but it will all turn out okay.’ 
 
Hope takes a hard look at the realities, 
the seemingly insurmountable obstacles, 
and says ‘nevertheless I trust that there will be new life.’
 
This week in my reading 
I came across a passage which speaks directly to this kind of hope, 
I have returned to a book I read in seminary 
“The Cross and the Lynching Tree” by James H. Cone, 
a prominent black theologian, 
reading it is part of my own work 
examining the broken relationships in this world 
and working to acknowledge them,
 understand them and work toward healing them. 
I invite you to join me in this work 
and will in the near future be offering some ideas for how you can join me.
 
In one part Dr.Cone describes hope in the black experience 
as expressed through the spiritual “Nobody Knows”
 
He says “The first three lines accent despair;
 
Nobody knows de trouble I’ve seen, 
Nobody knows my sorrow.
Nobody knows de trouble I’ve seen,
But the last line accents hope with an exclamation:
 
Glory Hallelujah
 
“Nobody Knows” reaches the peak of despair in its repetition of the first line in the third.
            African Americans did not doubt that their lives were filled with trouble...Trouble followed them everywhere, like a shadow they could not shake. But the ‘Glory Hallelujah’ in the last line speaks of  hope that trouble would not sink them down into permanent despair...In another version of ‘Nobody Know,’ the dialectic of doubt and faith is expressed with a focus on Jesus’ solidarity with the one in trouble.
 
“Nobody knows the trouble I see,
Nobody knows but Jesus,
Nobody knows the trouble I see,
Glory Hallelujah.”
 
...In the second version of “Nobody Know,” the source of the hope is Jesus, for he is a friend who knows about the trouble of the little ones, and he is the reason for their ‘Hallelujah.’ His divine presence is the most important message about black existence.” (pg 20-21)
 
Hope is the belief
 that the future will triumph over 
the often seemingly insurmountable hardships of the present. 
 
Jesus is the source of hope. 
He had compassion on the crowds, 
he pointed out and preached against a broken system 
and for his trouble he was crucified on a cross 
 
and nevertheless 
he rose from the dead on the third day, 
he is new life in spite of death.
 
And he did it all for us, 
his life and death and life again, 
so that we too could have new life, 
peace with God. 
 
As we look around our world 
and see the brokenness and suffering, 
Jesus, who has set us free,
 calls out to us, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” 
and sends us out to work for new life
 grounded in the hope of the resurrection, 
the hope of Jesus. 
 
Hope that does not disappoint. Amen
 

Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 122
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:36-44

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who draws us to God. Amen
 
Welcome to the beginning of a new church year,
 as always we start off with Advent and waiting.
 For what do we wait?
 We wait for the day of the Lord,
 Jesus’ return that will fulfill God’s will on earth as in heaven.
 
 When will this come?
 We don’t know,
 
not even Jesus knows
 he tells the disciples in our gospel from Matthew today,
the time is unexpected
be prepared.
 
 Jesus uses the example of the homeowner
who, if he knew his house was going to be broken into
 would have stayed up all night
 to prevent the thief from breaking in,
 
 which while true
 is an unrealistic way of preparing
for an event occurring at an unknown time.
 
This is the way we usually think of preparation,
that last minute house cleaning
for the guests arriving in the next few days,
the bustle of preparations made
when we know that the time of the special occasion is at hand. 
 
But that kind of preparation
 is not possible when we don’t know when it’s going to happen.
Yet Jesus still tells the disciples
 to be ready for the coming of the Lord,
 
 and the readiness he is talking about
 is more a way of life
than a last minute shoving of things into closets.
 It’s living as if the Lord were coming tomorrow
all the time.
 
Paul in Romans
 uses the image of clothing,
 “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”
 he tells the waiting community,
 
clothing is something separate from us
 that becomes a part of who we are
 since we generally speaking wear clothing all the time.
and it impacts how we live our lives
choosing to put on sweatpants
leads to something very different
 than donning a three piece suit. 
 
And sure sometimes a new pair of pants feel uncomfortable
but the more we wear them
the more comfortable they become
and soon we don’t even notice them.
 
 Putting on Christ is similar,
at first it may seem strange and uncomfortable
 but like with many things,
 the more we do it
the easier or more natural it becomes
 like putting on a comfortable sweater. 
 
Much like the sweater Mr. Rogers puts on
 at the beginning of his show.
Fred Rogers, is someone who lived a life
prepared to meet Jesus in everyone he met.
 
There’s a movie based on his life out now
 so there’s been a lot of talk about him again,
 how he genuinely loved people
 in a way that people didn’t expect,
 
that love was the love of Christ,
an ordained Presbyterian minister
Fred Rogers clothed himself in Christ,
and lived the love of neighbor taught by Jesus.
 
He didn’t advertise his show as ministry
 (though for him it was)
 and people weren’t drawn to him
 because of a title of position,
 
 they were drawn to him
because of his love for people,
and his love changed the lives of the children who watched his show
and the people with whom he came in contact. 
 
It’s that kind of love and lifestyle
that we are to put on,
to live in a way that draws people to God
because they want to experience the life we have in God.
 
 This is the image in Isaiah,
 the purpose for the chosen people,
 they are to live with God
and it will change their lives in such a way
 that the rest of the nations will say:
“we want to live like that! Let’s go to the house of the Lord,
 let’s learn what the secret to that life is”
 
 and the result will be peace,
not just the absence of war
but harmony that erases even the need for the tools of war. 
 
And yes that may sound too good to be true,
 in the same way many people thought that Mr. Rogers
 was too good to be true,
 that he was playing a character
 
when in reality the gentle, curious, brave, loving man seen on tv
was the same one that people met in real life,
and they were transformed by knowing him.
 Even now after his passing
 people are still drawn to him and his message of love.
 
Put on Christ,
This is how we are to wait and be ready
 and in the process spread the good news of God,
 something we are also called by Jesus to do.
 
And the best way is not by focusing on the church
or advertising or having the hippest music
or the coolest pastor
 
but by living lives oriented toward God,
 lives that have been transformed by God
and transform the lives of those around us. 
 
We have all have these people in our lives
 whether we’ve been aware of them or not,
 who have shared their faith with us
 by way that they lived out their faith,
 
 and when they invited us deeper into faith
 we were glad,
as the psalm says “I was glad when they said to me let us go to the house of the Lord”
 
 at text study this week
we there were talking about how hesitant Lutheran Christians are
 to invite someone to church,
 mostly because we don’t anticipate
that invitation being me with joy.
 
But if we are glad to go to the house of the Lord,
 to be in relationship with God
why wouldn’t others?
 
they need the peace that a relationship with God brings
and they might just realize it by watching us,
 we might be the one
whose life the holy spirit uses
to draw them to God
 
and when we live like this,
we are prepared for the day of the Lord
whenever that comes,
 we won’t need to hide things in closets
 because we have nothing to hide.
 
Now this lifestyle of advent preparedness
is not perfected overnight
 but over the course of a lifetime,
 
washed in the waters of baptism
we are called to daily put on Christ,
 
and sure sometimes it will feel like a new pair of pants
that need breaking in,
 or like that coat that we are really tired of wearing come April,
 
 but Christ keeps reaching out to us,
through the holy spirit and those around us
with love and forgiveness,
 drawing us to himself,
sustaining us with his body and blood at the table
 
and every advent
calling us to wake up,
to renew the practice of preparation,
 to be ready by being clothed in Christ. 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 sees us through the eyes of Christ. Amen
 
This month my bookclub
read one of the best books I’ve read in awhile,
 Wonder by R.J. Palacio,
yes there was a movie made of it with Julia Roberts
 a couple of years ago.
 
The book centers around the character of August Pullman
who is starting 5th grade at a new school,
 actually it’s his first school,
he’s been homeschooled up to this point
because he was born with some genetic mutations
 that wreaked havoc with his face,
 
from how it’s described in the book,
 nothing is quite where it should be
and is quite startling
to people who have never seen him before
 
 he’s come to expect that people will stare and react
 but even the expected isn’t easy
when he is the center of attention for looking so different,
 when really he is just another smart, funny kid.
 
Which is why August’s favorite holiday is Halloween.
 He gets to dress up and put a mask on
 and when he does
 he becomes just another kid celebrating Halloween,
there is no longer any distinction between him and everyone else
he is free to just be a kid.
 
It’s this kind of freedom Jesus proclaims to us today.
The freedom to be what we truly are.
 
 all of us want this freedom
And when we think of it from our human perspective
 Sometimes it looks like being like everyone else.
 
Because there are so many ways to be divided and categorized,
 and while not all of them are bad,
 it seems like we humans are obsessed
 with figuring out just which box everyone including ourselves fits into,
 
 and if we’ve been placed in a box
 we’re not happy with
we go to great lengths
 to try and change how people see and categorize us,
 
 we go into credit card debt to get those things that will make us fit in,
we exclude certain other groups of people to fit in,
 we constantly try to figure out where people fit in and where we fit in,
 and in our quest for freedom
we become bound to these things
 and it’s exhausting.
 
But of course we don’t stop there,
we take this logic and apply it to God.
 We want to know just where we fit in with God
and we think we can determine that
 based on our own actions,
 
 which is why people are attracted to interpretations of religion
 with a lot of rules or strict codes of ethics
 so they know where they stand,
 
 if they do everything right then they are clearly on God’s good side
and as an added bonus
feel justified pointing out to others
 when they break the rules
 and therefore logically are on God’s bad side.
 
And this too is an exhausting way to live
 because no matter how many rules we follow
or things we do right
 the law will always end up showing us
just how short we fall of perfection.
 
This is what Paul is talking about in Romans
when he says “through the law comes knowledge of sin”
 
  the law shows us that if it is up to us,
 we will never be good enough
and that quickly leads to despair.
 
So it’s a good thing it’s not up to us,
Paul continues: “But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”
 
There is no distinction,
 just like August Pullman on Halloween,
 we are all the same,
 according to the law we’re sinners,
according to Christ we’re saints.
 
God knows that the system of the law only takes us so far,
it gives us structure for living with one another,
 and it shows us how much we need God
but that’s about it,
 
humans need more than the law
 and God loves humans
 so God sent Jesus to do whatever needed to be done
to bring God and humans together,
 and that’s what Jesus did on the cross
a free gift given in love
so that now there is no distinction
 when God sees us, God sees us through the eyes of Christ
 and Christ sees us each as we are,
 fearfully and wonderfully made by God.
 
Thinking about this reminds me of an experience
that I had the summer after my first year in college.
 I taught swim lessons as part of my summer job
 and in one class that I had,
I had a very energetic little boy,
he loved swim lessons and the water,
though he struggled with holding on to the wall
and waiting his turn while the other kids had their turns
but I could see that he really wanted to be there
 and I was happy to teach him
 
but the other kids rejected him,
 they didn’t want to be near him on the wall
and were impatient with his struggles to hold on,
 
and I was struck by the contrast,
his peers saw him as annoying,
 someone to be avoided,
who they wished weren’t there,
 
and I saw him as an energetic little kid
who wanted to learn how to swim,
who was worthy of being there. 
 
When God looks at us through the eyes of Christ,
 God sees that little kid in all of us,
 the one who is excited to participate in life,
 who is worthy of being here in our own way.
 
In Christ we are set free from distinctions
 and allowed to be fully ourselves,
 not because of anything we have done but as a gift
and we accept that gift by trusting that it is so,
by having faith that God keeps the promises God makes.
 
Jesus tells his disciples
 “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 word of Jesus
 is that nothing can separate us from the love of God
we have been set free,
free from the distinctions that others place on us,
free from the distinctions that we place on ourselves,
and Christ invites us to continue living in this freedom through faith.
 
Confirmands, this is the faith you publicly proclaim today
the faith that you are freed from sin
to love and serve your neighbors,
 not because of anything you’ve done
but because of Christ
 
and as you stand before us, you are saying
 you intend to continue in this faith,
to continue in the gift of freedom
 living as Christ sees you, with no distinctions.
 
And it’s true,
there will be times when you feel different,
when you feel bound by the distinctions the world places on you,
 
but that’s why we gather as a community
where we hear the proclamation that there is no distinction,
and Jesus brings us to the table,
 feeds us with his body and blood,
 forgives us and reminds us of the gift that is already ours,
 and strengthened we go out to live in freedom once again. 
 
So dear confirmands,
 dear people of Christ,
in whom there is no distinction,
continue in the word of God,
 you know the truth and the truth has set you free. Amen
 

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

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you
from the one who gives life to the dead
and brings into existence the things that do not exist. Amen
 
Let’s talk about suffering.
 Not a cheerful topic I know
and something we like to avoid,
sometimes at all costs.
 
And yet, we live in a world
 where most of what is worthwhile
 is accomplished through some suffering.
 
 I mean think of all the Olympic athletes
and the amount of pain that they have endured
while building up their muscles and minds
 to bring them to the point
where they are able to compete,
 
 and all the injuries that we hear about,
 I was watching the other night
and they brought up a diagram of Lindsey Vonn
the downhill skier
and they pointed to all the things she’d injured over the past few years,
there was a broken arm, a torn acl, a concussion,
 a sliced tendon and several other things,
 all that she’d had to heal from and rehabilitate
 before going to the Olympics.
 
Or there’s childbirth,
 the great deal of suffering
 that goes into bringing new life into the world.
 
And then there is the suffering that we don’t seek out,
The suffering from being in the wrong place at the wrong time
or when the brokenness of the world breaks into our lives
but out of which, strangely
comes something good,
maybe a healed relationship,
or a new purpose in life,
 motivation for finding a cure.
But because we are human
even as we can logically lay out an argument
 for the necessity of some suffering
our instinct rejects the premise,
 our heart tells us that it should not be necessary
 and our gut tells us to distrust anyone who says otherwise.
 In other words, we react like Peter.
 
In our gospel for today Jesus is with his disciples,
Peter has just blurted out that Jesus is the messiah
 “then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priest, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.”
 
Peter rejects Jesus’ teaching,
 he thinks Jesus has gone crazy,
 actually he thinks that Jesus has been possessed by a demon
 so he takes him aside and tries to exorcise the demon
that is clearly making Jesus say these things.
 
The messiah is not supposed to suffer.
 
And how does Jesus respond?
 
“But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said ‘Get behind me Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
 
The human way is self-centered,
Peter is thinking about himself
when he tries to rebuke Jesus,
he’s found the messiah,
 he doesn’t want to lose him,
 he doesn’t want that suffering.
 
The divine way is other-centered,
 what is done,
anything that is suffered
 is for the sake of others.
 
What Jesus does on the cross
is done for the sake of the world,
 for us.
 
And here’s the irony of Christianity,
 in a world where things are accomplished through suffering,
we do not have to suffer to be saved.
 
 We are saved by grace through faith,
 faith in the God,
who, as Paul says in our second reading
 “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.”
 
And this makes no sense by our human logic,
 in this instance we could understand
 how repairing our broken relationship with God
 could involve some suffering on our part,
 
in fact we often feel like we need to do something
 to make amends
 but there is nothing that we can do,
 there is no way we can contribute
because Jesus has done it all,
 for us.
 
And having taken care of the most important part
 Jesus extends an invitation,
an invitation to set our mind on divine things,
to be other-centered.
“He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘if any want to become my followers let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’”
 
Here’s the key, crosses are picked up for other people.
 
We often misuse this statement,
for instance “oh my bum knee, that’s my cross to bear”
or “oh she has a wild child, that’s her cross to bear”
 
but crosses are not imposed suffering,
they are picked up for the sake of others
 in the same way that Jesus picked up the cross for us.
 
Jesus, in teaching his disciples how to follow him
 is preparing them for the fact
that when they testify to the gospel
they can expect to suffer.
 
Because the gospel message
 is contrary to what society says we should want and do,
 it is a challenge to the way of the world
which is self-centered
 
and when self-centered people,
 especially self-centered people in power
are challenged
they respond swiftly and harshly.
 
 To follow Jesus,
to not be ashamed of him,
 for his disciples is a life and death decision.
And we know that many of Jesus’ disciples
 ended up martyred, killed in various gruesome and public ways
to deter the message they were sharing.
 
In some parts of the world today,
to be openly unashamed of Christ
is still a life and death decision
but for those of us who live in relative safety
 in places where Christianity is the rule rather than the exception
 remaining faithful and unashamed of Christ
tends to happen in the smaller moments of life.
 
I like the analogy used by preaching professor of blessed memory Fred Craddock- he said:
“We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,00 bill and laying it on the table—‘Here’s my life, lord. I’m giving it all.’
But the reality for most of us is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1,000 for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there… Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time.” (New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VIII, 629).
 
Those are those little moments,
 where you find the strength to disagree with someone
 who says if you pray enough or in the right way
 Jesus will make you rich,
 no, that’s the world talking using Jesus as a front.
 
Or the times when you refuse to believe it
when someone says Jesus hates_fill in the blank
and even more importantly
when you refuse to act on it.
 It’s the times when you set your mind on divine things,
 not on human things,
 the times when you put aside your own self-interests
 for the sake of others,
 for the sake of loving your neighbor
 
We live in a time of fear mongering,
the messages of the world
 tell us to avoid suffering,
our own suffering,
 at all costs
regardless of the effects it has on others,
 even those closest to us.
 
Fear makes us turn in on ourselves,
 the definition of sin.
 
Today Jesus calls us to set our minds on divine things,
To turn toward others
embracing the reality
that to accomplish something worthwhile
we will go through some suffering
 
and we are able to do this,
 to set aside our own self-interests
because of our faith,
faith that is grounded in the God who gives life to the dead
 and calls into existence the things that do not exist,
 
the God who finds a way out of no way,
the God who has already saved you,
who has set you free to live for others
and who promises that death is always followed by new life. Amen