Baptism of Our Lord
Genesis 1:1-5 Psalm 29 Acts 19:1-7 Mark 1:4-11 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one with the most powerful voice. Amen From the very beginning words have been powerful as the first words of scripture testify: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” There in the presence of the spirit, God speaks the world into being. Words have power to create. Words also have power to destroy. We hear that in our Psalm for today: “The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice; the voice of the Lord is a voice of splendor. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedar trees; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon; bursts forth in lightning flashes. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the oak trees writhe and strips the forests bare.” Yet as alarming as all this might sound we are told that “in the temple of the Lord all are crying, “Glory!”” The power of the Lord is on display in the voice of the Lord and it brings the faithful to worship. The words of God move the people of God to action. Words are powerful. Especially the words of God Which sometimes God speaks directly more often God speaks through people like John the baptizer, who Mark tells us appeared in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and at his words Mark tells us that people from the WHOLE Judean countryside and ALL the people of Jerusalem were going out to him to be baptized. This might seem like an exaggeration of the size of the crowds but Mark makes sure that we know the people are drawn to John by his words rather than his way of life, he’s kind of an odd guy dressing in camel’s hair and dining on locusts and wild honey, and while this may add a kind of authenticity to his presence as a prophet the people are not looking to emulate him, but his message is spreading and making a difference in the lives of people John’s call to repentance is a call to live in a new way And people are responding but like any true messenger of God, John knows that all this fuss isn’t about him, it’s about the one to whom he is pointing “the one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” John knows that his role and words are preparatory, preparing the way for the one who is coming after him, And onto the scene walks Jesus, now in Mark this is the first time we meet Jesus, Mark has told us in the very first verse what his gospel is about: Jesus Christ the Son of God, but then goes straight to John in the wilderness, there are no angels or virgin birth or even stars in the sky to announce who Jesus is, that happens when Jesus travels from Nazareth of Galilee and is baptized by John in the Jordan “and just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘you are my Son the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.” The voice of God names Jesus God’s beloved Son, and it is so, that is who Jesus is God’s spoken blessing creating the future as it identifies Jesus. This is one of the reasons that I appreciate how Mark tells the story of Jesus, because family connections, and prophesy are all less important than this moment when once and for all God speaks, identifying Jesus as beloved child and filling him with the holy spirit, and Jesus listens to the voice of God and goes on to live into the identity God has created for him as we’ll see him start to do in the coming weeks of Epiphany. God does this for us as well. At our baptisms, God, speaking through the Pastor, claims us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and through the hands of the Pastor God marks the sign of the cross on our foreheads saying “child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.” and it is so, that is who we are, where we came from, what we’ve done, our family connections all less important than this moment where we have been identified as beloved children and filled with the Holy Spirit. And the question becomes, will we listen to the voice of God and live into the identity that God has created for us? Beloved, created for love. Or will we get distracted by other voices? less powerful but often louder, the ones that try to get us to define ourselves through power gained at the expense of others that the voices label less than and peddle the lie that their mere existence is a threat. Beloved of God, whose voice do you listen to? What words do you surround yourself with? It makes a difference because words have the power to create and destroy, power to lead people to praise God or to perpetrate violence. Whose words shape your life? God has spoken, now the choice is yours, In closing after this difficult week, I’d like to offer you the opportunity to make that choice again publicly affirm your baptisms, to once again commit to your God given identity, the blessing from God that shapes our future. Please rise as you are able, we will use the words of the apostle’s creed found on page 6 in your bulletins. Here in the presence of God and one another I ask you to profess your faith in Christ Jesus, reject sin, and confess the faith of the church. For the following questions the response is “I renounce them” Do you renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God? Response: I renounce them. Do you renounce the powers of this world that rebel against God? Response: I renounce them. Do you renounce the ways of sin that draw you from God? Response: I renounce them. Do you believe in God the Father? I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God? I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit? I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. You have made public profession of your faith. Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in holy baptism: to live among God’s faithful people, to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper, to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth? The assembly makes affirmation: I do, and I ask God to help and guide me. The minister addresses the assembly. People of God, do you promise to support and pray for one another in your life in Christ? We do, and we ask God to help and guide us. The presiding minister prays for God’s blessing. Let us pray. We give you thanks, O God, that through water and the Holy Spirit you give us new birth, cleanse us from sin, and raise us to eternal life. Stir up in your people the gift of your Holy Spirit: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in your presence both now and forever. Amen. May it be so
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1st Sunday of Christmas
Isaiah 61:10-62:3 Psalm 148 Galatians 4:4-7 Luke 2:22-40 Christmas 1 12/27/2020 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who comes to those who show up. Amen Merry Christmas! Yes we’re still in the season of Christmas, we will be until January 6th when the magi show up revealing once and for all that Jesus is the messiah. We’ve heard the story of the baby in the manger and today we have another story of Jesus as an infant, the story of Mary and Joseph presenting Jesus at the temple, of Simeon and Anna’s hope being fulfilled, a story of the Holy Spirit coming to those who are faithful, those who show up. Now, this isn’t intended to either shame or overly congratulate anyone but the truth of the matter is that those who are faithful, who seek the presence of God have a better chance of encountering God and while God can and does work outside of religious rites and institutions, God also works through them but in still surprising ways, probably because the Holy Spirit is so unpredictable. For as much as we trust that God is with us, that Christ comes to us especially in the sacraments, there are times when we feel the presence of God more than others, times when the Holy Spirit comes to us when we need her, times when she jumps out and surprises us. I experienced this perhaps most vividly at least for the first time in college. Gustavus is a Lutheran school and this Lutheran identity and faith are still a strong part of the mission of the school such that in the daily schedule of classes every day at 10am time was blocked off for chapel and a service offered For most students it was an extra half hour to sleep or finish up homework, or get breakfast. Some people went to chapel a couple times a week or once a week for the sung morning prayer service but there were a few of us who went pretty much every day. I know I started going every day because I was still working out my call to ministry and daily chapel seemed like a good place to start. I kept going because I realized that I didn’t know when the Holy Spirit would show up and I wanted to be there when she did. Not all the services were winners or deeply meaningful, just like not all Sundays are winners or deeply meaningful, but every now and then the spirit would show up, like the time the dance major who was giving his senior sermon and had clearly not prepared made us all get close together and hold hands and form connection, or the time Chaplain Brian bent over in the pulpit before starting his homily and when he stood up he was wearing an accordion and proceeded to preach accompanying himself on the instrument, okay maybe those were just very memorable times but there were times when the message was exactly what I needed to hear that day or when the choirs filled the air with beauty and truth that transcended words. So each day at 10am in college, you could find me in chapel, waiting, hoping that the Holy Spirit would show up. I suspect that some of you may have had similar experiences with other faith practices, like daily devotions or prayers at mealtimes. Where sometimes you do it because that’s what you do, you show up, and sometimes in the midst of that the spirit flashes through leaving you wanting more, and coming back each day. Simeon and Anna have been showing up at the temple and waiting for a long time, their whole lives, which Luke makes sure to tell us have been long. They have been waiting for the spirit to come to them, hoping for an experience of the divine and yet when they enter the temple this day they have no indication that this day will be any different from the others. and into the temple walk Mary and Joseph with the baby Jesus, they too are not expecting anything out of the ordinary they are they too are simply being faithful, fulfilling the law and the tradition of their people dedicating their firstborn son to the temple and making the appropriate sacrifice. And now the stage is set, we have four faithful people who have come to the temple to live out their faith and one baby messiah and in sweeps the Holy Spirit, first she directs Simeon to Jesus, now we are told that Simeon has already had an encounter with the Holy Spirit, who told him he would not see death until he had seen the messiah, ‘here’s the messiah’ the Spirit tells Simeon, who proceeds to take the baby in his arms and sing a song of praise to God, thanking God for the gift of seeing the messiah who will be a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. In his song, Simeon, guided by the spirit expands Jesus’ mission beyond the people of Israel to the whole world. Mary and Joseph are amazed at Simeon’s words, you’d think that after several angelic visits they couldn’t be surprised any more but perhaps in the midst of caring for a newborn who needs the same care as any other newborn those experiences have faded, Simeon blesses the parents but closes with a warning to Mary, her Son will do great things but not without controversy and pain. Then Anna takes over, Luke tells us that she is a prophet and after being widowed early has spent the rest of her life in the temple she too praises God and tells about Jesus to all those present looking for the redemption of Jerusalem, and those others who showed up at the temple that day have their own unexpected experience with the divine. And then the moment is over, Mary and Joseph take Jesus home and go about the everyday task of raising their child and apparently nothing of note happens for another twelve years until that one passover where Jesus decides to stay behind in the temple debating scholars. This time in the temple was just a moment but one that everyone present would carry with them the rest of their lives. It’s moments like these that carry us forward in our faith, and it all starts with simply showing up, practicing faith in a regular way creating space for the Holy Spirit to enter into our lives. These practices don’t have to be as extreme as the prophet Anna who basically lived in the temple, or my college self at chapel every day, but something that regularity creates space within our lives, within ourselves for the Holy Spirit to show up for God to enter in Just as God entered into the world in Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. Merry Christmas. Christmas Eve
Isaiah 9:2-7 Psalm 96 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-20 Merry Christmas! In this year unlike any other we need Christmas more than ever, even as our celebrations look and feel different, we need Christmas to bring us the truth that God considers the world, however broken it may be, worthy of love and salvation, worthy enough for God to fully enter into the experience of the world pure infinite love taking on a fragile finite form. The extraordinary held within the ordinary. This year as I once again immersed myself in the most familiar story of the baby born and laid in a manger, I was struck by how closely the ordinary and the extraordinary are tied together, God’s entrance into the world turning the most common events into unique occurrences. Mary is pregnant, an ordinary experience in the scope of humanity but unique to Mary her pregnancy heralded by an angel of the Lord, brought about by the Holy Spirit and now she is carrying the Son of God within her, extraordinary. To add to that Mary is unmarried, which while putting her in a difficult spot is still rather ordinary, what’s extraordinary is that God chose to work through an unmarried girl and that her fiancé, Joseph has stuck with her, continued in his promise to marry her. When we join them this night they are traveling, in the midst of a once in a life-time event, a grand census of the whole world causing people to return to ancestral lands to be counted by the Roman empire, and there in the midst of this numerary chaos, in the city of Bethlehem is where an ordinary everyday occurrence happens, Mary goes into labor and a baby is born, not in a deluxe birthing suite but in borrowed space, in the midst of everyday life. This is how God enters the world, in a way so ordinary as to be unnoticeable except by those right around him for a miraculous as each individual baby is, they are born all the time. But for this birth we’d expect that there at least be a little fanfare to mark this extraordinary occasion and our expectations are not disappointed, but what is surprising is who this news is announced to, some shepherds doing what they do, watching their sheep out in the fields away from everyone else, to these laborers on the margins of society angels appear! They tell them of a special baby and where to find him and end the message with a serenade by the heavenly host. ‘Well you don’t see that everyday’ the shepherds say to themselves and so they follow the directions and find everything just as the angels had told them. Understandably the people gathered around the new little family are surprised by the shepherd’s visit, most babies aren’t visited in the night by field hands, and they are even more surprised by the message they bring, that this child is the Son of God, the shepherds have it on the authority of angels and everyone there, probably Joseph’s extended family was amazed at this pronouncement, except Mary who treasures the message she’d already heard confirmed by another angelic visit. The shepherds leave praising God, and that’s it, that’s the story of God’s entry into the world, extraordinary for its relative ordinariness. At each turn in the story the ordinary is paired with the extraordinary. It’s a pairing that we are all too familiar with, we too are in the midst of God willing, a once in a life-time event, though rather than everyone being on the move, we’ve all been staying at home, and so the ordinary, home has become extraordinary, in how focused our lives have been on our homes, which have also becomes places of work, schools and even sanctuaries. And when we’ve ventured out of our homes, the world around us has changed, what was ordinary now is different. This Christmas we’re celebrating the advent of the Christ child as we do every year, and yet we’re doing so in different ways, we’re worshiping online with our families, we’re driving to church parking lots and waving glow sticks, and gathering in smaller groups. And as different and unique and even ordinary as all these experiences may be, Christ still comes. Because that’s how God, Immanuel, God with us, comes among us, in the midst of both the ordinary and the extraordinary. God is with us in all the everyday places where we might not think to look, the daily routine, the endless dishes, the meals at home, and God is with us in the novel, the new, the unexpected, all the zoom calls, the caring for those in quarantine, the exhausted staff at hospitals. As what once seemed extraordinary begins to become ordinary God is with us in the midst of this too helping us to navigate the world around us, coming to us in friends and community, the help of a stranger, resting with us as we struggle to reconcile the ordinary and the extraordinary. The miracle of Christmas reminds us that this is precisely how God works, extraordinary love taking on ordinary form, coming among us in the midst of brokenness and upheaval bringing healing and redemption for the beloved creation of God. May you on this ordinary yet extraordinary night be filled with the love of God with us. Amen 3rd Sunday in Advent
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 Psalm 126 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 John 1:6-8, 19-28 Advent 3 12/13/20 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who sows joy. Amen Today we lit the third candle on our Advent wreath, the candle that traditionally represents joy. It might seem a bit odd during this season of reflection and preparation that joy be included, but in fact, preparation and joy go hand in hand, we prepare in anticipation of joy and sometimes we need joy to continue with preparations. But what do we mean by ‘joy’? Often in world around us, especially at this time of year joy is sold as the result of a big build up to Christmas morning and so preparation sounds a little like this: He’s making a list, Checking it twice, Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice Santa Claus is coming to Town Only those children who are nice will rejoice on Christmas morning with a big pile of presents under the tree so we are encouraged to prepare by writing lists to Santa to get our shopping done and make everything just so for the coming celebration. This understanding of joy is fleeting, as the months of build up are uncovered in half an hour and toys lie discarded by the end of the day. Now to be fair there can be great pleasure in exchanging gifts as signs of love and appreciation, and in some ways the preparation is as fun if not more than the actual moment. But if that’s all there is to the day If what we are left with is an empty feeling when all is said and done what we experienced wasn’t joy. Because joy, true joy, goes deeper than the ecstasy of a moment, joy follows anticipation yes, but joy also follows hardship and disappointment, which mean acknowledging the hardship and disappointment and the longing that comes from knowing that things are not as they ought to be. Joy is the response to the saving promises of God in the midst of the brokenness of the world. Which means our preparations sound less like Santa Claus is coming to town and more like: Comfort, comfort now my people; Tell of peace! So says our God. Comfort those who sit in darkness Mourning under sorrow’s load. To God’s people now proclaim That God’s pardon waits for them! Tell them that their war is over; God will reign in peace forever. Our preparation includes acknowledgment of the reality of the world around us but like the candles on the Advent wreath, our preparations also include hope, the promise of peace and yes even joy, because the preparations for the saving promises of God also include the hard work of clearing away the rubble of the past to create space for the new thing that God is doing and without hope, the promise of peace and joy it is easy to become discouraged. We see this first in our reading from Isaiah. The prophet is speaking to a group of people who are discouraged, disappointed by life around them and humiliated that they cannot do the work that God has called them to do. They are the people who returned to the promised land from exile in Babylon. For years and years and years they dreamed of going home and how great it was going to be, so much better than their current circumstances and now they are faced with reality, the reality of a destroyed temple and cities, the reality that there’s a lot of work to do to restore the temple and land to its former glory and since there’s not a lot left to work with, it’s starting to seem like an impossible task. Into their discouragement God sends the prophet “to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor…” this year of the Lord’s favor refers to a jubilee year, In the jubilee year, all debts were forgiven, all land reverted back to the original owners, and slaves were freed, society was basically supposed to reset to the beginning of the time in the promised land when the gifts of God were equally divided. The jubilee year was a chance to return to the manna way of life and God understood that would only be possible with a fresh start, a level playing field for everyone. Because it seems that the unfortunate fact of human society is that some will prosper and some will, for whatever reason find themselves in debt, and once in debt, it is extremely hard to get out from under that burden, no matter how hard one works and that burden even gets passed down the generations Lately there’s been a movement among some churches and nonprofit organizations to put jubilee into practice by raising money to forgive medical debt. The most recent example I saw was from a church that a friend goes to in Iowa, they were able to forgive $5 million in medical debt. Which seems like an impossible amount, even for one well off congregation. I was curious so I did a little research, it seems that there is a whole industry that profits off of people being in debt, when someone can’t pay their debt to the hospital, the hospital can sell the debt, at a reduced price to a debt collector who is allowed to try to collect interest and the full amount owed and the difference between the discounted price they got from the hospital and the full amount is their profit and these companies often take a much more aggressive approach in trying to collect the debt than the hospitals So this is where nonprofits and churches come in, they buy that reduced price debt, and instead of trying to collect it, they forgive it. Instead of debt collecting bills, the people receive a notice that their debt has been forgiven, they have been set free. Imagine the relief and yes, joy, the weight lifted of receiving such a notice, especially since the groups target people whose debt is 5% or more of their income. And guess how much that $5 million in medical debt cost? $8,000. 0.16% of the original This is salvation proclaimed and made tangible, the clearing away the rubble of the past leading to the freedom to serve God rather than debt. This is what God proclaims to the Israelites through the prophet, and the change is immediate, from a humiliated people they now become “oaks of righteousness” and are able to rebuild the cities and the temple, they will rejoice in God and sow their joy among the nations so that it spreads around the world, even the prophet can’t hold back at this good news, after sharing the message of God the prophet shares from their own perspective “I will greatly rejoice in the lord, my whole being shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation…” and likens the results to a garden where the seeds sown spring up, creating more life. God promises salvation, real tangible here and now salvation, and God calls us to share our joy and bring God’s salvation to others, which means preparing the way, taking an honest look at the world around us, clearing out the rubble to make way for the new thing that God is doing, Jesus, God’s real tangible salvation sent to bring forgiveness, jubilee into the midst of our suffering. This is the one for whom we wait, and prepare, and greet with: Joy to the world The Lord is come! Let earth receive her king’ Let every heart prepare him room And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and nature sing, And heaven, and heaven and nature sing. Amen https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/health/2020/12/11/des-moines-church-buys-more-than-5-million-iowa-medical-debt-forgives-the-debt/3869165001/?fbclid=IwAR3-Sm9c9oqLiwQ3jCd3ZbPeaYXaDG5frgNiejvCKgdNGpGg-PdRbjSXF2o 1st Sunday in Advent
Isaiah 64:1-9 Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 Mark 13:24-37 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who calls us to stay awake and to hope. Amen Welcome to the season of Advent! Our decorations have changed to blue, we’re at the beginning of a new liturgical year where we will get to spend time in the gospel of Mark, and of course our advent wreath reminds us that Christmas is coming, the more candles we light the closer we are to the festival celebrating Immanuel, God with us, God among us, God one of us. It’s exciting the newness and anticipation of the season, it’s like the advent calendars with a little chocolate for each day before Christmas mirroring the sweetness of anticipation. And yet there’s more to advent than lighting a few candles and eating a chocolate a day, there’s more to wait for than the birthday celebrations for Jesus, if we go a little deeper into advent the scriptures remind us that we are also waiting for the return of Christ, and in this reminder we are recalled to the painful reality that even as Christ is with us, God still has work to do, God’s beautiful creation is still broken and waiting for its healer to come restore it to the perfection of the garden, to the promised time when weeping and crying and pain and death are no more, a promise we are still waiting on God to fulfill. This side of advent is a striking contrast to the first, and yet both are true. It’s a paradox (two seemingly contradictory things that turn out to be true) and the season of advent is full of them. The season of advent holds space to acknowledge the tensions in life, especially the life of faith. The tension between the fact that we are both saint and sinner, the tension between the fact that Christ has come and we are still waiting on Christ, the tension between the reality that Christ saved the whole world and the world is still broken. There are so many paradoxes, both ands, as we sometimes call them in Lutheran circles, but that is one of the things that I really appreciate about the Lutheran tradition, the acceptance of the both and, because we know the deeply lived truth of the seemingly contradictory and while the unresolved tension can be frustrating sometimes it is an authentic reflection of life. So I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised when our theme for this first Sunday in advent is a paradox: “those who dream, keep awake” When we hear dream we tend to first think of the sleeping kind, you know the ones where upon falling asleep you find yourself in an alternate world where you’re back in your childhood home but your mom is now a panda baking you bamboo cookies, and what’s your third grade teacher doing there in the background? Anybody? Just me? Those dreams are impossible to have while awake. But of course there’s another way dream is used, the way Martin Luther King Jr. did when he proclaimed “I have a dream” his dream, a vision for the future where the wounds of the present are healed. God too has a dream, a vision for creation, that all be intimately connected with their creator, that all, people, animals, nature, live in harmony with one another and God, a harmony where everyone has what they need, no one has too much or too little. And God has promised that in partnership with people this dream will become reality. And the thing about these kinds of dreams, is that to dream them, one must be awake, aware of all the ways that the present world around us is less than perfect. Awake to the promises of God and how they have yet to be fulfilled. In our gospel Jesus tells his disciples to keep awake, to wait for the fulfillment of the promises of God, to watch for the signs that they are coming since no one knows the exact timing. As we wait, it is tempting to fall asleep, to fall asleep to the pain and imperfections around us, to take a break from the harsh reality of life and yet, Jesus tells us to keep awake. To be awake is to acknowledge the broken places of life, to be awake is to reject the narrative that it will 'always be this way', to be awake is to hope. And here seems to be another paradox, that to have hope we must be awake to all the realities that argue against hope, the situations that make the dream for the future look impossible, this is the essence of hope, to look at the seemingly insurmountable obstacles and say ‘nevertheless, I believe that God will work through this, that good will come out of this mess.’ But it’s a process to get from pain to hope, and we see that process in our first reading from Isaiah: It starts with lament, ‘O that you would tear open the heavens and come down’ cries out the prophet, it’s frustrating when the world is so far from the dream of God and it seems like God isn’t doing anything. We wonder, why if God is so powerful, doesn’t God just come down and fix everything, because we do believe that God is powerful, the prophet says as much in the next part extolling the awesome deeds of God but in affirming the power of God the prophet on behalf of the people, realizes that the people have not kept up their end of the covenant, and the lament turns into confession “we sinned… we have all become like one who is unclean and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth” have you ever tried to clean a table with a dirty dishrag? It doesn’t work right? As good as your intentions are if the cloth is dirty it just spreads the dirt around. That’s where the people are at, just spreading their own dirt around, and while it might seem that this confession, this awakening to reality might be cause for despair, what it does is lead to hope. As the prophet acknowledges that the people are living with the consequences of their actions what could easily return to anger or lament becomes hope, hope based on the trust that God keeps the promises God makes, trust that comes out of the established relationship with God “yet, O Lord, you are our Father, we are the cay and you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.” In the end God has promised that no matter what happens, no matter what others label us, or we think of ourselves our primary identity is that of children of God, God kept that promise with Jesus, God made that promise individually to each of us at our baptisms, that we are children of God and nothing can separate us from the love of God this relationship is the root of our hope. This Advent there are many reasons we might despair, things in the world that make us want to detach from reality, to fall asleep and in our dreams pretend that nothing is happening. But God calls us to stay awake, awake to the messiness and imperfections of life yes, and awake to the promises of God and in this wakefulness join in dreaming with God of the day when all live in harmony with God and one another, and so awake and dreaming, we hope. Amen 23rd Sunday After Pentecost
Amos 5:18-24 Psalm 70 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Matthew 25:1-13 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who flows through our lives. Amen Have you ever set hope for the future on a particular day or moment only to be disappointed? You find yourself in the midst of something no so pleasant and so to get through you find a time in the future that seems like it will mark the end of your waiting or your suffering, and you find yourself thinking ‘if I can just make it to this day, everything will be okay or then I will have some answers’ and so you wait. But when that day finally arrives, the day for which you have hoped and longed, you end up disappointed when the world, just by reaching this date, is not magically better, or clearer or what you expected or hoped for. This is what the prophet Amos is warning against at the beginning of our first lesson for today. Those originally hearing Amos’ words, the Israelites in the North were living under the Assyrians, a bigger, stronger nation who was threatening to come in and destroy them, the Israelites have latched on to the idea of the day of the Lord. The day when the Lord will come and they imagine, sweep out the threat of the Assyrians, vindicating the Israelites, handing them a victory over their foes. ‘If we can just make it to this day’ they think ‘everything will be okay’ and more than just hoping that the day of the Lord will come they set about trying to make it happen, telling themselves, ‘if we say the right prayers and offer the right offerings, and sing the right songs, then surely we can help bring about the day of the Lord’ so that’s what they set about doing, concentrating their efforts on making sure the worship and festivals are just so. and then along comes Amos the prophet who asks them: “Why do you want the day of the Lord?” and suggests that what they’ve imagined is inaccurate and describes what it will be like with vivid imagery. “It is darkness, not light as if someone fled from a lion and was met by a bear” Amos is saying that the day of the Lord for the Israelites would be like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, oh and all that work they’ve been doing to try to bring it about, well here’s what God thinks about all that: God says “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon.” God hates all the things that they’ve been doing to make God happy, ‘maybe that’s how those false gods pretend to work’ God says, ‘but not me. I don’t want your worship if it’s intended to manipulate me.’ God is tired of being treated like a cosmic vending machine where if you put the right prayers and rituals in what you want comes out. So what does God want? “Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.” God says “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Justice and righteousness, that’s what it’s always been about. Justice, the attention to the needs of all, and righteousness, healthy relationships that root the interactions of the human community. Justice and righteousness have been the goal behind all of God’s interactions with people throughout history in confirmation this year we are studying the Bible so far we have heard the story of how God created everything and called it good, but after a while things on earth among people weren’t so good, so God came to Abraham and Sarah and promised to make them a great nation, a nation of people in relationship with God and that went fairly well for several generations until the descendants of Abraham end up in Egypt, and when we next hear about them they have been enslaved by the Egyptians, God, hearing their cries raises up Moses who leads the people to freedom, in dramatic fashion they make it away from the Egyptians and into the desert and there God sets about teaching them to live in a community governed by Justice and righteousness, where the needs of all are met and healthy relationships are the root of the community. We see this focus in the commandments that God gives to the people, all of them have to do with maintaining healthy just relationships, the first three focus on the relationship with God, number four on relationships within the immediate family, and the rest on relationships within the community, breaking any of these commandments will break relationships and lead to injustice. God gives the people the gift of the law and teaches them how to live in a community governed by justice and righteousness with the intent that they be an example to all the nations of the world who would see that this was the best way to live and be drawn to God and the way of justice and righteousness. And when the people are ready God leads them to the promised land where they settle down and get to work For awhile things are good, but then the people get distracted by the shiny idols of their neighbors and they enter a cycle where they turn away from God and the way of justice and righteousness, and that gets them into trouble, finding themselves in trouble they cry out to God for help, and God who loves them raises up a judge, a temporary leader to show them the way back to God and they return to the way of justice and righteousness and life is good, for awhile, until the next shiny distraction comes along eventually however, the people get so distracted that they want to live more like their neighbors, they say to God ‘give us a king, a king will keep us safe’ but God knows that societies with kings are the opposite of societies of justice and righteousness, a king has too much power for all relationships to be healthy, but the people persist and to stay in relationship with them God relents and gives them a king. First God tries to find kings that are faithful to God and the way of justice and righteousness but even the best, David, has his struggles and soon it all goes downhill and the Israelites are living lives where attention is only paid to the needs of the few and relationships suffer as a result, and that is when God starts raising up prophets to keep speaking to the people the way of justice and righteousness. Conveniently, that’s the part of the story that we just got to in confirmation last week and it puts the prophet Amos’ message into context. The people have gotten distracted and focused on the wrong thing, the day of the Lord, Amos is to bring them back to the way of justice and righteousness. And so we have Amos reminding the people that what God desires of them is to “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” and this proclamation is as much a promise as it is a reminder because with or without the people, God’s justice and righteousness will prevail like the water that they are likened to. And it’s an apt image because Justice and righteousness like water because water always prevail. Think about it, the hardest materials are no match for water, rocks which seem so permanent are carved and worn away by water, Dams or other attempts to control the flow of water are only ever temporary, eventually the water will find a way to go where it wants, sometimes that looks like a great flood that bursts through barriers wiping away what once stood in its path, and sometimes it looks like the continual flow nourishing life around it even as it gradually carves a path through. The same goes for God’s justice and righteousness, it always prevails, it is always there working on even the seemingly most permanent of institutions, if it has been dammed up, it will eventually break forth it is always flowing easy to overlook by those who only see it as part of the scenery, but a source of life for those who drink from it. Water always prevails, and the water of God is justice and righteousness, and we have been washed in this water by God who loves us. At our baptisms the waters of God’s justice wiped away our sins and the waters of righteousness forged an unbreakable relationship between us and God promising that nothing can separate us from the love of God as Paul put it “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor thing to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation.” Washed in the waters of God, God promises us that it will prevail and continue to flow through us and our lives, calling us to live the way of justice and righteousness reminding us that whatever decisions we make or institutions that seem permanent, it will find away, and justice and righteousness shall flow. On this we set our hope. Amen Reformation Sunday
Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 Psalm 1 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Matthew 22:34-46 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who brings us back to love. Amen Today the Pharisees set out to test Jesus, and one asks him “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Now this story comes at the end of several stories of various groups trying to trick Jesus into blasphemy or treason, and this time they specifically use the law as their trap. Remember, the law was a gift from God to the Israelites, God freed them from slavery in Egypt and brought them out into the wilderness and to teach them how to live in harmony with one another as free people God gave them the gift of the law. It was a gift given in love, intended to help build and maintain relationships, and now the Pharisees propose to do the opposite they set out to use the law to test, to trick, to divide, even to harm. they ask, which law is the greatest? and Jesus responds: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment and a second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Jesus brings them back to love. This is what Jesus does every time humans take a gift from God, given in love, intended for love and use it to test, trick, divide or harm, Jesus brings us back to love. Love of God, love of neighbor, love of self. We see this in the gospels Jesus continually points those he meets back to love, love that mends relationships and brings people together, and often this takes a very physical form, when Jesus meets people whose relationships are broken because of sickness, he heals them, when the disciples want to send the crowds away to get something to eat, Jesus says you feed them, and helps them feed the masses with a little bit of bread and fish, when Jesus knows that the people despair he sends the disciples out to spread the good news that the kingdom of God has come near. Again and again Jesus points those he meets back to love, until he makes the biggest point of all, his death on the cross, an act of love so great that it defeats death, when Jesus, love incarnate, rises on the third day. Jesus, a gift given to us in love by God always brings us back to love, because of Jesus we know that God loves us, and nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even ourselves and our failure to perfectly love God, neighbor and self. God makes this promise to us at our baptisms and makes us part of the community called to always return to love. This is what our young people are affirming today, their commitment to living in the love of God, sharing it and returning to it when they go astray remembering the gift they have been given. Baptism is a gift from God given to us in love, at the font God claims us once and for all so that we may never doubt who we are and whose we are, and this is all God’s doing, we are saved by grace through faith, not by our own works and this gift of God is so great we want to share it with everyone, we want to partner with Jesus to live in a world where the sick are healed, the hungry are fed and all have a home and a place not because of what they have done or earned but because they are beloved children of God. This is the kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed, the kingdom that breaks in every time love reaches across divisions. As we look around we are well aware that the fullness of the kingdom of God has not yet arrived, we face the imperfections of the world each day, and so we still need the gift of the law to guide us in communal living and to show us when we fall short, when we need to be brought back to love and this is a continual process, one that works in our individual lives and in the communal life. Today we observe Reformation Sunday, a moment in history when a monk named Martin Luther realized that the gift of God was being used to test, trick, divide and harm, and so he asked some questions and started a movement of people looking anew at the gifts of God and how they were being used and calling the community back to acting out of love and care for all, a way of sharing and living the gospel. This way of looking at the world is part of our heritage, But the work is not complete We are called to continue reforming, to continually look into the mirror of the law and when the gifts of God are being misused we are called to point it out, to bring it back to love, and of course we do not do this on our own, Jesus is with us, recalling us to the promises made at the font and bringing us to the table where with his body and blood he forgives us and brings us back to love, love that looks like a community gathered where there is enough for all, food enough for all, love enough for all, love that then gets sent out into the world. Confirmands, today you are publicly saying yes to the way of love, a way that the world desperately needs right now. As you continue to live your faith in the world there will be those who will question you, not because they seek knowledge but to test you, and you will encounter times when the way forward is less than clear in those moments, remember your baptism, remember that you are a beloved child of God, nothing can change that, and in remembering you will realize that the answer is clear, love. Because Jesus always brings us back to love. Amen 19th Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 25:1-9 Psalm 23 Philippians 4:1-9 Matthew 22:1-14 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who invites us to the banquet. Amen So, I always get a little uncomfortable when gospel readings include people being thrown into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. To be fair, it’s supposed to make people uncomfortable, the threat of being cast out is used to motivate those on the receiving end of the message to act in a way that avoids this action. However, I’m more uncomfortable with it because it doesn’t square with my understanding of God, who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, who sent Jesus to save the world. And yet this was a teaching common in the early church which Matthew deliberately included in his gospel, the teaching where Jesus tells the story of a King hosting a wedding banquet on the day of the banquet he sends servants to remind everyone who has rsvp’d yes that the banquet is that day, and the servants are ignored. So the King sends more servants, who describe this great feast that has been prepared, surely free food will bring them in, but those invited go on about their business or stay behind to kill the servants. So the king, enraged, takes a moment before dinner, to wreak vengeance on them, and destroy their city and after that he feels a bit better but he still has no one to eat his banquet, so he sends his servants back out to gather anyone available, it doesn’t matter who they are whether they are good or bad, the King wants those seats in the banquet hall filled and so the servants do this and they fill the hall, and the king comes to look at his full banquet hal l and he sees someone, just dragged off the street, not wearing a wedding robe, and the king confronts the guy and asks why aren’t you wearing a robe?! And when the guy has no answer he is thrown out of the banquet hall into the outer darkness. The good news of the Lord? Why does Matthew include this story? I think he includes it because once we get past the hyperbole and ridiculousness of the narrative, it points to a central and uncomfortable truth: the truth that most humans will reject the invitation of God to participate in the abundant life of God. The abundant life of God that starts in this life. As Jesus travels around, teaching, preaching and healing, he spreads the news of the kingdom or God’s reign on earth, God’s reign is in direct contrast to the way the world works, think of the beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the peacemakers, these are the attributes valued in the kingdom of God, rather than the powerful, the violent, the rich, and the manipulative that seem to be blessed in this life. Jesus’ message preached primarily to the powerless, the victims, the poor and the manipulated is that life doesn’t have to be this way, in fact God desires pretty much the opposite and you can start living that way now, you don’t have to wait. With Jesus, God come to earth, kingdom living starts now! And it looks like a banquet where everyone is invited and the best food and drink is served, shelter is provided and God lifts the burdens from every shoulder and all this is freely given, offered to everyone both the good and the bad. It sounds so good it’s hard to imagine that anyone would turn down the invitation. And yet it happens, the grace of God is offered and is ignored or actively, violently rejected. Why? because the invitation is for more than a banquet, it is for a way of life which means giving up the way of life where wealth leads to power and power leads to the illusion of independence. Think about it, why would those initially invited go to the banquet when their businesses will allow them to provide their own banquet? We think, why would we go through the pomp and circumstance and trouble to go to someone else’s dinner when we can come up with something just as good, better even because we can avoid social obligations And in our quest for independence, we turn down the grace of God. We pass up our seat at the banquet because we think we can do just as well for ourselves if not better. We don’t talk about this very often but the truth is that we humans are free to resist and reject the grace of God, and we do. Why? Because we are addicted to independence. We are addicted to doing things for ourselves so much that we even turn down invitations from God. Because to accept grace means admitting that we need help, that, we can’t do it on our own, because accepting grace means we are then responsible to others, living in community. But God made humans to live in community, life is better when lived together even though a small amount of independence must be surrendered to be a part of community. The other Pastors and I were talking about this at our weekly text study and you know what this reminded us of? All of the older folks we’ve walked alongside who have been adamant about staying in their own homes, maintaining their independence, even though it often means increasing isolation. And invariably when something happens where they can not avoid it any longer and they move into a community, and when we go and visit we hear some variation of the exclamation “this was the best move I ever made, I should have done this years ago!” Because now, even if they are still doing most things for themselves they are living in community. We gain so much more than we lose when we accept the grace of God and yet again and again we resist and if we’re confronted, like the man without a robe, we often have no good answer for why, why when we have been offered the chance to live in the kingdom of God, right now, we would turn down that invitation. Now you might be wondering, with all this talk of resisting God, is there any hope? And if it were just up to us, I’d say no. But it’s not just up to us, God, knowing that left to our own devices we would never be able to fully live into the kingdom of God, no matter how hard we tried, sent Jesus. Jesus who died on the cross to save all of us stubbornly independent humans who will only be right through our association with Jesus. At our baptisms, we are joined to Jesus and God promises that we are God’s, forever. And we know that God keeps the promises God makes. Even as we go about our lives turning down the many invitations God sends to participate in kingdom living, even if we turn our backs on God exiling ourselves from the presence of God, God still loves us, sets out a banquet offering life and forgiveness and invites us to come to the table because no matter what we do, God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Now, the banquet is ready, come and eat, there is a place for you. Amen 16th Sunday After Pentecost
Jonah 3:10-4:11 Psalm 145:1-9 Philippians 1:21-30 Matthew 20:1-6 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Amen If you are ever between books and need a story that will make you laugh I suggest you pull your Bible off the shelf and read the book of Jonah. It’s short, only five chapters and is satire of the other prophetic books. Jonah upon receiving the call of God does what most of the other prophets frankly wanted to do, he runs away. But as he finds out he can run but he can’t escape God, and after a lesson in humility learned in the stomach of a big fish he goes and gives the message from God to the Ninevehites, that in 40 days Nineveh will be overthrown. Now usually people ignore the prophets, Ezekiel and his brothers busted their buns trying to get God’s message out and nothing... and in a way Jonah is counting on this response because he really doesn’t like Nineveh, they conquered his own people, he’d actually like to see them be destroyed by God, but wouldn’t you know it, Jonah’s reluctant prophesy works, the whole city repents and God decides not to destroy them and as we heard in our first reading today this displeases Jonah and he throws a temper tantrum “He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’’” He’s so dramatic, it makes me laugh every time and the thing I find most funny is Jonah’s ability to make God’s virtues sound like a bad thing. Jonah, for all his faults knows his scripture, where God is described as gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and Jonah knows that God really is gracious and merciful slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love which is why he didn’t want to go to Nineveh, because he knew that God would be this way with the Ninevites, and Jonah didn’t want them to be on the receiving end of God’s grace. God’s grace makes Jonah angry. Well it makes him angry when it’s directed at people he doesn’t think deserve it. This happens in the parable in our gospel for today as well with the landowner who keeps hiring people throughout the day, now in a sense his continual hiring of people is an act of grace, each time he goes out into the marketplace he sees people who want to work, need to work, but for some reason have been overlooked for jobs. Think of it like picking teams on the playground, the strongest most noticeable are chosen first and the rest are left on the sidelines to watch, no matter how much they want to take part. So it is a matter of grace that these leftover people are hired to work for even part of a day, and he promises to pay them whatever is right, this of course is determined by the landowner and I’m guessing that none of those hired later expected a full days wage, and yet when it comes time to settle up for the day the landowner tells the manager of the vineyard to pay those hired last first, and to their great surprise they receive a full daily wage, more than they expected but surely much needed. And so it goes on down the line until those who were hired first are paid, and they receive, the usual daily wage. And they grumble at this, having seen those hired later get paid they expected more. It’s not fair they grumble, those others don’t deserve to be paid the same as we do, we did all the work. And the landowner reminds them that they are getting exactly what they agreed to at the beginning of the day, had the landowner never hired the others the outcome would still be the same, and the landowner asks them “are you envious because I am generous?” The short answer is ‘yes’ they are. The longer answer is that we humans tend to live our lives from the perspective of scarcity. Where whether it is true or not, we think there is only so much to go around before it runs out and so we hoard what we have and seek to acquire more and come up with all sorts of ways to judge who is worthy to use the resources, who we think should get a piece of the pie and from this we get our sense of what we think is fair and this transfers to our idea of justice where we think people should get what they deserve and what they deserve is an eye for an eye, it’s Jonah wanting God to destroy the city of Nineveh in return for what they had done to his people. But God views the world differently. God looks at the world from the perspective of abundance where resources are shared with everyone and justice looks like people getting what they need which they deserve because they are beloved creation of God and this perspective is in such contrast with the way of the world that when it is applied in the world, it upsets people, though not I should note, the people on the receiving end of the grace of God. Which makes it odd that anyone should get upset, because we are all on the receiving end of the grace of God. If we got what we deserve, according to our own understanding of justice, it would be us up on the cross rather than Jesus and yet on Good Friday, there Jesus was, for us, living and dying the truth that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and that truth continued on through to Sunday morning and the empty tomb, and when Jesus appears to his disciples, alive, he claims them, and all of us who have come after, for the perspective of God. Having been claimed by the risen Christ we are to see the world from the perspective of abundance where justice is everyone getting what they need. And not only are we to look from this perspective We are to make it a way of life We are to live lives that work to make sure That people get what they need Whether the world judges them as worthy or not And yes, this is difficult because we live in the world and sometimes the generosity of God upsets people, us included and we get angry and dramatic like Jonah and that’s when Jesus comes to us once again and gathers us at the table where all are welcome and there is enough for everybody and breaking his body, pouring out his blood, Jesus gives us not what we deserve but what we need, forgiveness, and then he sends us back out into the world to live from God’s point of view, God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 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 |
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
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