God's plan

In the name of Jesus; amen.

A sermon based on Matthew 2:13-23

There is no historical basis for this gospel story. Certainly it is possible that it was overlooked by the historians of the time, but there is no actual proof that it happened.

Does this make it any easier to hear?

If it did take place the death toll would have been small. Bethlehem was a little town, just like the Christmas carol claims. There would have only been a handful of boys under the age of 2 living there when this would have taken place.

Does this make it any easier to hear?

And only Matthew tells this story. Luke has the holy family returning home right after the birth so that Jesus could be circumcised when he was 8 days old as was custom, not fleeing to Egypt.

Does this make it any easier to hear?

Matthew may have made the whole thing up in order to connect Jesus with Moses who also escaped a massacre of baby boys when he was born. Matthew may have made it up in order to place Jesus in Egypt at some point in his life because Matthew was concerned with fulfilling the writings of the prophets.

But none of this makes this story any easier to hear.

The slaughter of the innocents inserts a dark cloud into the Christmas story.

“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

If we listen we can still hear her crying throughout the world: in Pakistan, Iraq, Dafur, Afghanistan, New Orleans, New York, and even here in Naugatuck.

It seems it is Rachel’s job to weep and mourn for those who are lost and for those who are no more. Her tears are reminders that pain and sorrow still exist in this world even at this time of year when we celebrate the joy of Jesus’ birth into our world.

As hard as it is to hear, this story, whether or not it actually happened needs to be told. Jesus’ birth did not provide a magical formula that protects us from evil events and evil people. In fact, Matthew wanted people to understand that a life of faith in Jesus would include persecution and suffering. Our faith and our baptism do not protect us from evil or protect us from it happening to us.

But there is good news in this story. Jesus fulfills God’s redemptive plan because he escapes Herod’s evil plan.

An angel warns Joseph in a dream to flee with Mary and the baby causing Joseph to wake and immediately run away with his family as Herod’s secret guard approaches the town with drawn swords. The good news is that Jesus escapes death as a young child so that he can face death as a man.

The good news is that even in the worst moments Jesus fulfills God’s purpose for us.

Rachel weeps, but we can rejoice even in the most tragic of times and circumstances because God’s plan is always accomplished.

That’s the good news. We may not always understand God’s plan and it might even seem at times as if God has no plan at all, but the truth is that God does have a plan and that plan is meant to truly save us because God truly loves us.

God works even in tragedy. God succeeds even in the horrific.

Evil people and evil events cannot stop God or hinder God. Jesus escapes the swords of Herod’s soldiers because God’s plan is that Jesus would make known God’s love for us and then willingly go to the cross and die to prove God’s love for us.

The sadness and sorrow of this story is wiped away by the victory of the resurrection and Rachel is comforted because her children are redeemed and renewed.

The Christmas story always includes the Cross and Resurrection stories otherwise it is incomplete and unfulfilled. And because of that we too are put into this story of a manger, and a massacre, and an escape. Except that it is no longer an escape from evil, but an escape to goodness and grace.

God’s plan is fulfilled and we are able to rejoice.

Amen.

Do not be afraid.

Christmas Eve Year A

A Sermon based on Luke 2:1-20.

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Do not be afraid.

If there is a message for this night it is this: Do not be afraid.

It is the message of the angels who prepared those whose lives would be changed with the birth of the Messiah.

There was Zechariah, the Temple Priest who angels visit at the start of Luke’s gospel. “Do not be afraid Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord.”

And Elizabeth who was barren, conceived.

When she was about 6 months pregnant the angel Gabriel visits her relative Mary with a similar message: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

And Mary who was unmarried and a virgin conceived,

Then tonight another angels appears with this message to the shepherds, “Do not be afraid; for see I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Do not be afraid.

I can only assume that angels were quite terrifying if the first thing they had to say when they appeared to mortals was, “Do not be afraid.”

It should challenge our notions of angels, but then everything about this story of the birth of Jesus should challenge our notions about the divine.

The birth of Jesus is a story of contradictions: Women incapable of conceiving bear children. God becomes human. A king is placed in a manger. Good news is proclaimed to the lowliest first.

Having our notions about the world and the divine challenged is a terrifying thing. And so tonight the message of the angels is a message for us as well:

Do not be afraid.

This story does something to me every time I read it. Last night I watched a special on the History Channel called, “Christmas Unwrapped the History of Christmas.” I love these shows that mix expert opinion, scripture, reenactments, and images of artwork to explain a biblical concept. Their point is not necessarily to debunk the story, but to give new insight and to entertain.

They questioned the history of the story, when it happened, where it happened, and how it happened. Was Jesus really born in Bethlehem? Was there really a star that shone bright over the place where he lay?

Questioning the accuracy of scripture and our traditions associated with it can cause fear for many.

Was it really a virgin birth? Did it happen in the dead of winter or in the middle of the springtime?

The details are not as important as the truth of this story: God was born into the world and we are told, ‘Do not be afraid.”

On this night we are reminded that God came into the darkness, as John writes: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

Another contradiction for our lives: there is no darkness that cannot be overcome by the light that is Christ.

Some will try to extinguish it. When the baby grows up he will have enemies who will try to trick him and discredit him. They will even have him arrested and put to death, but his light will live and shine brighter in the resurrection.

And Satan and the world will try to extinguish the light in our lives. We will doubt and have sorrow. We will question and we will cry out: “I am afraid!”

Hear the voice of the angel say, “Do not be afraid.”

It is a message for us to hear, to hold, and to ponder in our hearts this night and all nights.

Jesus Christ has been born to dispel the darkness, to still all our fears, and to bring the immeasurable love of God into the world.

May you live fearlessly in light of God made flesh.

Amen and Merry Christmas.

Expecting

Advent 3 Year A

A sermon based on Isaiah 35:1-10; Luke 1:46b-55; and Matthew 11:2-11

In the name of Jesus; amen.

What are you expecting?

John the Baptist was sitting in prison. He had put his life on the line; in fact he would be losing it soon, based on his expectations. He had preached repentance based on the expectation that he was preparing the way for the Messiah to come into the world. He expected the Messiah would bring with him a baptism of fire to that would burn away the weeds of the world so that the good wheat would grow. It was a baptism of fire that would save the righteous and destroy the unrighteous, but so far this fiery baptism was filled with forgiveness and beatitudes.

It was not what he was expecting.

He, like others, had expected the Messiah to be more like a warrior, someone who would overthrow the oppressive leaders who ruled over them. He believed the prophecies of Isaiah; that God would come with vengeance and save them.

John had expected the Messiah to change the world order, but the only things that had changed in his world were his surroundings and his life expectancy.

What are you expecting?
What do you expect of Jesus?

John looked around at the walls of his prison and began to doubt that his expectations of who Jesus was were correct. It makes sense, he was in jail waiting for the moment when the executioner would arrive and take his life. He wanted to know if he was right, if he was going to die for the cause he had signed up for or if he was going to lose his life with unfulfilled hopes and expectations.

“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”

Our Psalm for today is the Magnificat. In Luke’s Gospel when Mary discovers that she is pregnant with the son of God she goes to visit one of her relatives named Elizabeth. Elizabeth is also pregnant for the first time, but Luke tells us that she is beyond childbearing years and the fact that she is pregnant is a miracle. The moment that Elizabeth sees Mary the baby in her womb starts to dance and she exclaims, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord." (Luke 1:42-45.)

In response Mary sings this song we call the Magnificat, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

The child who leapt in his mother’s womb is John who becomes the Baptizer. From before the time he was born he expected that Jesus was the one and now he wasn’t sure.

John’s expectations of the Messiah were exactly what everyone else’s were: he was supposed to be the one who would come and set things right politically and from that everything else would fall into place. He was supposed to be the king on the throne who would rule with justice and righteousness. He was a fulfillment of prophecy they trusted in and waited for anxiously.

What do you expect of Jesus?

This is the season of expectation. We can expect presents, long lines at the mall, houses lit up with multi-colored lights, family and friends to visit… but what do we expect of Jesus?

Our expectations grow out of our hopes. John hoped for the Messiah to come and expected it to be Jesus. When Jesus didn’t quite fit the picture that John had painted in his mind he worried that he had been wrong, but Jesus was right. Jesus was exactly right.

Our expectations and even our hopes of Jesus are only a shadow of who and what Jesus actually is. No one expected a king to be born in a manger, but he was. No one expected the Messiah would rule with forgiveness instead of vengeance and terrible recompense, but he did. No one expected that he would eat with sinners and treat women as equals, but that’s what he did. No one expected that he would eventually die on a cross or that he would rise from the dead, but that is exactly what Jesus did. And if you don’t expect that he will really come again… well, guess what? He will!

Jesus came to do more than fulfill our expectations; he came to give us new expectations of God and our neighbor and ourselves.

We can expect forgiveness. We can expect to be fed at the Lord’s table. We can expect to be loved more than we deserve. We can expect to be made holy. We can expect to be lifted up. We can expect to be called to serve. We can expect to work for peace. We can expect that we will be judged. We can expect that our judgment will be pardon. And we can expect that God is with us… now and forever.

Amen.

Fruit Worthy of Repentance

Advent 2 Year A


A sermon based on Isaiah 11:1-10 and Matthew 3:1-12



In the name of Jesus; amen.

How close are you to being ready?

Do you have your decorations done? Is your tree up? Have you finished shopping? Have you baked your cookies? Have you repented?

Today’s gospel tells us the story of the appearance of John the Baptist in the wilderness. John was a strange fellow who lived out in the dessert and ate bugs and dressed in uncomfortable clothes. He was Jesus’ cousin and the whole purpose of his life was to prepare the world for the coming of the Messiah.

The way he did that was by preaching a baptism of repentance.

Now this is a bit different from the baptism that we undergo. John’s baptism was more like a Jewish ritual that was performed to purify a person. It wasn’t a one time deal like we undergo when we are baptized into the faith. It wasn’t a baptism which promised forgiveness; it was a baptism that called the baptized to repentance.

It makes a great deal of sense that we read this particular story during Advent as we prepare for Christ’s coming into the world. Remember, Advent is not just the time before Christmas when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, but it is also the time that we focus on remembering that just as Christ has come into the world Christ will come again and bring about a new thing. This thing will be like what Isaiah talks about in our first reading when peace will reign in our nations and in creation itself.

Nothing we do can bring about that new thing; only God does that, but we are called to prepare for it by making God a priority in our lives and by repenting.

I want to be clear about repentance because John is pretty clear about our need to repent.

Theologian Richard Jensen says this about repentance:

“Repentance is often understood as an ‘I can’ experience. ‘I am sorry for my sins. I can do better. I can please you, God.’ So often we interpret repentance as our way of turning to God. That cannot be. Christianity is not about an individual turning to God. Christianity is about God turning to us.

“In repenting, therefore, we ask the God who has turned towards us, buried us in baptism and raised us to new life, to continue his work of putting us to death. Repentance is an ‘I can’t’ experience. To repent is to volunteer for death. Repentance asks that the ‘death of self’ which God began to work in us in baptism continue to this day. The repentant person comes before God saying, ‘I can’t do it myself, God. Kill me and give me new life. You buried me in baptism. Bury me again today. Raise me to a new life.’ This is the language of repentance.”

In this season of emphasis on everything we need, from iphones to perfect light displays we are reminded that what we need is God. We might be able to accomplish all the decorating, cookie baking, and present purchasing, but we cannot accomplish salvation.

There is a freedom in that; a freedom in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire that we are promised with Christ’s coming. There is a freedom in knowing that this is one thing that we cannot do when there is so much else that is expected of us in this life.

We cannot possibly accomplish all that would be required of us if it were up to us to earn our salvation. True repentance acknowledges this one simple fact: we cannot be good enough nor do enough to make us worthy enough.

This repentance, this acknowledgement levels the path straight to our hearts; it clears the way for God to come in and do what is necessary for us. Repentance frees us because as Jensen says, it kills us and lets God renew us.

And we need this renewal, not just for our own sake, but for the sake of the world. Our “I can’ts” become God’s cans working through us. We become fruitful the moment that we see our need for God; we become the fruit on the new branch of Jesse’s tree. We become food for the world through God’s doing.

The baptism which calls us into the family of God is a one time deal, but this baptism of repentance is a constant need. It is the water that renews us and creates in us a place for God to work through us.

May this time be a reminder of your need for God and may your need for God make you into fruit worthy of repentance and new life.

Amen.

Business as Usual

Advent 1 Year A

A Sermon based on Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; and Matthew 24:36-44

In the name of Jesus; amen.

The holiday business as usual has begun: the shopping, the baking, the decorating, the partying and it is heaped on top of the usual business as usual: taking care of the kids, paying bills, going to work, watching the news, not getting enough sleep, grocery shopping, cleaning the house, and all the other things that are the day to day of our lives.

And so here is Advent, perhaps the most counter-cultural time of the church year, because it reminds us that God coming into the world is not business as usual.

It wasn’t business as usual for Isaiah who proclaimed God’s coming into the world would bring on a time when the world would disarm by beating their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Tools of war would become the tools of prosperity and harvest.

It wasn’t business as usual to Paul who wrote to the church at Rome saying the coming of the Lord was meant to be a time of awaking to a new way of life that was honorable and concerned itself not with gratifying our fleshy desires, but with putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it wasn’t business as usual for Matthew who believed that when Christ came it would interrupt our lives right in the middle of our everyday occurrences.

Advent becomes a time to prepare and plan, not for presents under the tree and figurines of babies in a manger, but preparation for Christ to come again, an annual reminder that it will happen though no one, not even Jesus knows when that day or hour will take place.

Advent is not just the four Sundays before Christmas when we anxiously await the time we can sing all those beloved Christmas carols while being bombarded during the rest of the week with Feliz Navidad, and Frosty the Snowman over the loudspeakers at malls and shopping centers.

Advent is the time when we remember that the hope of Christmas is tied into a hope for Christ to come again into a world filled with too many weapons and too much debauchery.

Advent is a time of focus on a day far more important to prepare for than Christmas morning.

We know that the baby was born and we know that the baby turned into a man who healed and loved the outcast, who preached a new message about God and who eventually hung on the cross to die for our sins. But to know that this child will come again to proclaim a new all encompassing peace; that this Son of God will reappear to judge between the nations… we might claim to understand the concept, but knowing it the same way we know about the birth of the baby and his death as a man is a whole other thing.

This Sunday begins a new cycle in our lectionary, those readings that we hear every Sunday. Today begins a cycle of gospel readings from Matthew, a writer concerned with the fulfillment of the law and the coming of the kingdom. Matthew wrote to a Jewish audience who would have understood the language of the law and proclaimed a message of the necessity of including non-Jews in God’s saving plan.

The Magi come from different nations and at the end of his gospel Jesus says that the disciples should go out and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We will hear a great deal about the law this coming year and with it stories of those who follow and those who are left behind just like in this morning’s gospel.

Biblical literalists have a lot to say about this text today. Their interpretation of this Matthean text is their basis for the rapture when suddenly righteous people disappear up into heaven and the rest are left behind to deal with the apocalypse.

But the word we translate from the Greek, paralambanomai, into taken does not mean “to go up,” but “to go along with.”

Then two will be in the field; one will go along with and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will go along with and one will be left.
Christ will come again in the middle of our everyday business as usual and invite us to go along with him. The sorrow of this text, according to Matthew, is the idea that there will be some who will not take the opportunity to go along with Christ, but will remain, left behind in their business as usual.

This time and these texts we hear throughout Advent serve as a reminder that God comes when we least expect and not necessarily at the most convenient time. And when God comes there will be a call to come along with, to drop what we are doing and follow. It’s a reminder of true priority, not just to squeeze in time for God in our busy schedules but to expect God at all times and in everything we do.

May these weeks serve you in your preparation for Christ to come into your lives and may they strengthen you as you serve your call to follow him.

Amen.

A different kind of king

Christ the King Sunday Year C

A sermon based on Jeremiah 23:1-6 and Luke 23:33-43

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Rejoice, for Christ is king! Your Lord and king adore; rejoice, give thanks, and sing, and triumph evermore: Lift up your heart, lift up your voice; rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

Are you done being thankful yet? Now that the Thanksgiving holiday is over are you finished making your lists of all the things you are thankful for; are you done saying thank you?

I’m going to make an assumption and say no. I am going to assume that despite the fact that it is now past November 23rd and no longer Thanksgiving Day that we would all agree that the time to be thankful is not over. After all we are not just allowed to be grateful on one day of the year; it is simply that there is one day of the year that we specifically set aside to celebrate our thankfulness.

A similar thing can be said about this day, Christ the King Sunday when the church has specifically set aside a time to remember that Christ is King. Christ isn’t just king on this day, but on all days.

But, unlike Thanksgiving, Christ the King is a hard concept to really understand especially in a country where we don’t have kings or a concept of a monarchy. For us kings are found in fairy takes or in the history books of Europe. The closest we come to having a king in America is one who sells hamburgers and fries at Burger King.

The prophet Jeremiah describes the king as a shepherd, another hard concept to understand in our modern American world. For Jeremiah, the king as shepherd was a king who gathered the people together and ruled over them with justice unlike the kings he experienced in his lifetime. The king he waited for was a king who would bring the people together and care for them with justice and righteousness so that they would live in safety. For Jeremiah, the king was someone who served the people.

It is believed that in ancient European pagan cultures the king was required to give himself as a sacrifice for the people. When things were good the sacrifice of the king was sometimes a symbolic ritual, but when things were bad the ritual sacrifice of the king was not symbolic, but actual and the king was expected to go willingly to the slaughter for the sake of his people.

In our gospel today, Luke paints a picture of Jesus as king combining these two ideas of kingship; as the shepherd who gathers together in righteousness and justice and as the king who willingly gives himself as a sacrifice for the people.

This is supposed to challenge our notions of power and strength most often associated with kings and rulers.

The festival of Christ the King is a fairly young tradition. Pope Pius XI instituted The Feast of Christ the King in 1925. It was intended to proclaim God’s reign over a world wracked by one world war and facing another and to counter a rise of secularism. At the time, Pius XI witnessed the rise of dictatorships in Europe, and saw Christians being taken in by these earthly leaders.

Christ the King Sunday used to be celebrated on the last Sunday of October, but in 1969 the church calendar was reformed and now it is celebrated on the last Sunday of Ordinary Time, which is the Sunday before Advent, which is today.

It is an appropriate time to remember that Christ is king as we begin the journey into Advent and the Christmas seasons. Jesus isn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but rather he is placed in a manger in a dirty cave used to house animals during the cold nights. And Jesus doesn’t reign from a gilded throne, but rather from a cross used to execute criminals.

These seasons of the church year and its festivals and feast days are meant to remind us that God doesn’t operate the way that we expect people to operate. Shepherds were hired hands out to make a buck and earn the best living they could afford. And pagan kings that were meant to willingly go to sacrifice and appease the gods for the good of the people often dressed up slaves and criminals in royal robes to take their places.

But Jesus is king because he is the good shepherd who gathers the flock together and offers them safety. And Jesus is king because he willingly goes to the cross as a sacrifice for our sins.

Just as Pious XI instituted this special day in 1925 so that Christians could remember that Jesus was the true ruler of our lives we should remember that Christ is the ultimate ruler not because he received the most votes or because he staged a successful coup or because he inherited a crown, but because he is the one who gathers us in safety and judges us with righteousness, justice, and forgiveness.

And so we give thanks not just for turkey and family dinners or the presents under the trees that soon will be here, but for the gift of Christ who cares for us as the King of kings and lord of Lords. Amen.

The True Bread

Thanksgiving Eve

A sermon based on John 6:25-35

In the name of Jesus; amen.

My husband and I became friends while we were both at seminary after he invited me to come to his room to join him and several other students who had gathered there for a beer. He and his roommates had a suite on the first floor and that year it became the hang out for many of us.

As people started to go back to their own rooms and their apartments that night one of his roommates invited me to come back down to their room later on, “We watch M*A*S*H at midnight” he told me. “Come down and watch it with us if you’re awake.”

Sensing that these were great guys and that I needed friends I stayed up until midnight and went down to watch M*A*S*H with them and the rest is history.

Now the Hallmark Channel runs M*A*S*H reruns every night at the time when I am cooking dinner and so I watch it about every night while I am cooking dinner. About a week ago one of my favorite episodes was on and featured one of my favorite characters, Charles Emerson Winchester III.

For those of you unfamiliar with M*A*S*H it chronicles the stories of a Korean War M*A*S*H unit. It was supposed to be a comedy, but the reality was it took a serious look at war. In this one particular episode (entitled: "The Life You Save") Charles and another doctor, B.J. Hunnicut bring a soldier back from the dead while hiding under a jeep during a sniper attack. In the process Charles becomes obsessed with the idea of death and wants to know what happens after someone dies.

He questions the soldier whose life he saved, but the soldier can’t remember anything. Frustrated and desperate to know what happens when a person dies he takes a jeep and drives to an aid station on the front where the fighting is heavy and offers the medics there his help with another soldier who is mortally wounded.

Holding his hand while he dies, Charles begs the soldier to tell him what he is experiencing. “What do you see? What do you feel? Please, I must know.”

And the solider answers with a single word, “Bread” then dies.

Jesus has just fed the 5,000 using only enough food to feed a small family and has retreated to the other side of the sea. Many of those fed go looking for him and find him the next day and ask for more. They had experienced a miracle, what the gospel writer John calls signs in his gospel. They were hungry again and Jesus knows that this is why they have sought him out.

They wanted food; Jesus wanted to give them bread.

“It is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world… I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

At this time of year many of us become uniquely aware of hunger. Despite the fact that tomorrow is about giving thanks our day will revolve around a meal. Our congregations have been collecting food for those in need so that they can have a meal. At Salem we receive phone calls on a regular basis asking for help to buy food. People need to eat real bread or they die.

Had Jesus not just fed 5,000 people with real food his words in this gospel reading for tonight would be empty words. Jesus didn’t just fulfill spiritual needs he fulfilled real physical needs as well. He fed the people because they were hungry and without food they would not be able to listen to his proclamation that he was the true bread that does not perish.

Jesus as the bread of life provides for our souls, but he also drives us to meeting the real physical needs of others. Those who believe in him eat and drink their fill and are sent out to be bread for others… real physical bread.

We are bread just as we are the body of Christ; called to offer ourselves to others in thanksgiving for what God, through Christ has done for us.

There is another television show I like to watch. It’s called Inside the Actor’s Studio with James Lipton. Lipton interviews famous actors in front of a studio audience comprised of regular people and students from the drama department of Pace University.

His portion of the show ends with him asking a series of questions that range from what is your favorite curse word to what profession other than your own would you like to try. The very last question he asks before turning the interview over to the students is “If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?”

Would that God’s word be for all of us, “Bread.”

And may our answer ever and always be, Thanks be to God! Amen.

Joy to the World!

Pentecost 25 Year C

A sermon based on: Malachi 4:1-2a; Psalm 98; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; and Luke 21:5-19

In the name of Jesus; amen.

There are times I wish I could be an apocalyptic preacher. I would pull out the fire and brimstone; preach about hell and all the things that would take us there. If I was an apocalyptic preacher I could pound on the pulpit, raise my voice and shout about the end of the world and all the woes of Armageddon.

If I was an apocalyptic preacher I could get really worked up, my face might turn red and I’d need to wipe the sweat from my brow. Maybe some of you would start to swoon or shout out “Amen.”

If I was an apocalyptic preacher all the tragedies of this world would turn into signs of the end time: reports of war, famine, natural disasters, plagues would turn into “I told you so’s” and “Get your houses in order because Jesus is coming” speeches.

If I was an apocalyptic preacher the day of the Lord would be a truly awful thing; it would scare the Jesus right into you.

Except that I’m not an apocalyptic preacher. I don’t believe that we can predict the end of the world or that floods and earthquakes are God’s way of reminding us that an even greater wrath is coming. I don’t have any trouble talking about trials and tribulations, I just don’t really believe that four horsemen are going to come and wreak havoc on us before a final judgment.

But I do believe in the judgment to come. It isn’t something that I take lightly or dismiss easily. I’ve never read the Left-Behind books or even seen the movie; I don’t subscribe to that type of thinking. I’m not a literalist about those things.

I know that the day of the Lord will come, that the sheep will be separated from the goats, and that Christ will rule over a new heaven and a new earth, but the how and when that will happen… none of us knows, only God.

The readings today are concerned with that time. Malachi prophesied about the day that was coming, “burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all the evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn then up… so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”

Paul chastises people from the Christian community in Thessalonica who are so certain that the Day of Judgment is about to happen, any second now, that they have stopped working and relying on others for their food.

Jesus tells his disciples that the Temple, God’s very own fortress on earth, will be destroyed and that they will be betrayed, arrested, and persecuted by those closest to them before the end occurs.

And even the Psalmist writes that God will judge the world.

All of which makes me wish I was an apocalyptic preacher. All of which makes me wish that I could subscribe, even if just once, to that kind of preaching, but I can’t.

Malachi’s prophesy, Paul’s criticism, Jesus’ warning, and the Psalmist’s song don’t scream of wrath and judgment, but hope in the judgment to come.

A tree of arrogance and evil that is burned away so that no root or branch might come from it, a day of righteousness that rises with healing in its wing…

An exhortation to do what is right at all times while trusting that Jesus is still coming…

A promise that we will endure without losing one hair on our heads…

A song of God’s victory, steadfast love and faithfulness…

These things are words of hope for the things to come, not words of condemnation and worry.

These are texts that we read today are supposed to propel us forward to an eternal hope of what is to come and to take us into a season when we prepare to remember that Jesus Christ was born for us. Our hymn version of Psalm 98 is none other than Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her king; let every heart prepare him room and heav’n nature sing.

If I was an apocalyptic preacher I could tell you about the day of wrath, but instead I can share with you the good news of the day of joy and thanksgiving to God; thanks be to God! Amen!

Resurrection

Pentecost 24 Year C

A sermon based on Luke 20:27-38

In the name of Jesus; amen.

In Seminary we often had small groups as classes. The idea was to get the information from the lectures in plenary and then have small groups with our professors so we could ask more in depth questions about the material we were learning about.

It was only natural that many of the questions we asked had to do with salvation and resurrection; after all that was the nature of what we studied in just about every class we had.

One professor, more than the others, typically found himself on the receiving end of questions about salvation. He was our Lutheran Confessions and Reformation History Professor and it was from him that I learned the most about Martin Luther.

And more often than not, when one of us would ask a question about salvation he would answer us in this way: “Why do you ask that question?”

It always frustrated us to no end, but we kept asking those questions and he kept answering us the same way, “Why do you ask that question?”

Well, I knew exactly why we asked those questions – because we wanted someone to tell us the answer! We wanted to know about heaven and life after death. We wanted to know what would happen to our loved ones and what would happen to us after we died.

When the Sadducees asked Jesus about the widow with the 7 husbands they were seeking a legitimate answer to what might seem like a ridiculous question. There was a law that said that if a man died and left his wife childless then his brother was to marry her and produce an heir for his dead brother.

The Sadducees, who didn’t believe in an afterlife, believed that immortality came through one’s offspring. Their descendants provided life after death for them. So, if a man died without children his life was truly over. At the same time, this law cared for women who had no status in society without a husband or children because it ensured that a childless widow was cared for.

It was a crazy scenario, but it was a possible scenario that one woman could marry 7 brothers and all of them die without one child being born. It’s also possible that while the Sadducees may have wanted to trick Jesus with their question that they too wanted to understand just what was going to happen after they died.

The first thing I like about Jesus’ answer is that he doesn’t respond by asking them, why they asked that question. The second thing I like about his response is that he doesn’t tell them it’s a stupid question.

Wanting to know what heaven is like and what happens to us and our loved ones after we die is not stupid.

What Jesus tells the Sadducees is that life after death is very different than life before death and can’t be measured by the things of life before death.

“Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.”

For some people, the idea that marriage is not a part of the kingdom of the after-life is heavenly, but for others this statement can bring about a great deal of sadness. I want to know my husband after death and I know there are others who feel the same way about their spouses.

At funerals we often hear that we will be reunited with those we love; I have said these words myself when I have preached at funerals and I believe it to be a promise. But resurrection is far more than simple reunion with those we know in this life.

Resurrection is a transformation and it transforms us and our relationships with others. It is not a perfection of what we are in the here and now, but a whole new thing because once resurrected we cannot die anymore and we become like angels, children of God and children of the resurrection. We won’t need marriage to love our spouse in the afterlife because even love will be transformed into something greater.

The question that the Sadducees asked was not a stupid question; they were just looking for the wrong answer.

We can question and hypothesize about heaven and death and resurrection all we want. What happens after death is unknown to all but those who have gone before us and God, but the answer we should seek in this life (or age as Jesus referred to it) is how much God loves us and wants us.

God desires us so greatly that there is a promise of something else, something greater and more wonderful than any of us can imagine. We have been promised resurrection because God is a God of the living, not of the dead, or of spirits, or bodiless souls, but of the living.

Whatever might happen to us, we have been promised new life, life we can’t even imagine because it is that wonderful and it is ours.

Amen.

Saints of God

All Saint's Sunday Year C

A Sermon based on Ephesians 1:11-23 and Luke 6 20-31

In the name of Jesus; amen.

This past Monday I had lunch with my mother, husband, and another pastor who happens to be my mother’s best friend. The three of us met my mom for lunch after attending a meeting together. As we read our menus we got to talking politics and complaining about the things in the world we felt were unjust.

Deep into our conversation the waitress approached and asked if we knew what we wanted. I popped my head up from behind the menu and said yes. “Ok, what would you like?” she asked and without thinking, I said, “A just world.”

From the confused look on her face I could tell that she wasn’t expecting that particular answer.

Today we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, a holy day to remember those who have gone before us into heaven. But the Feast of All Saints is also a day to remember, as Paul says, “that in Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will.”

Today we remember that we are baptized and as such we are inheritors of a great promise: that we are God’s children, redeemed, and marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit.

This is no small matter; in fact, it is a great thing, an awesome amazing thing. We have been given a gift: “the immeasurable greatness of God’s power.”

My brother is a geek. I say that with all love, affection, and pride. As a geek, my brother has an affinity for super heroes; one of his favorites is Spider Man. If you don’t know the story of Spider Man it goes something like this. One day a teenaged boy named Peter Parker was bit by a radioactive spider which gave him super powers that mimicked the abilities of spiders. He could crawl up walls, shoot webbing out of his wrists, and he even had a special “spider sense” that warned him of danger.

At first Peter used his abilities for his own gain until one day he had an opportunity to use his power to stop a crime and didn’t. Later that same criminal killed his beloved Uncle Ben. From that moment on Peter Parker took on a second identity: Spider Man. In everything he did he remembered something his Uncle Ben told him, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

We aren’t super heroes, but we are children of God. We have been given this awesome gift of God’s love. We have been made into saints and as such we, like Spiderman have been given great power and great responsibility.

But I wonder, do you feel powerful?

In today’s gospel Jesus gives us a new way of understanding blessing and curse. He tells his disciples that those who are poor, hungry, weeping, hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed are actually blessed.

It’s a reversal of fortune in the eyes of the people who were listening and perhaps in our eyes too. I do not feel powerful when I am hungry or in mourning. I feel weak and powerless at exactly those times when I have the least and yet Jesus tells us that those who undergo these sufferings are blessed.

It is a new perspective on faith and God that God would bless us when we are at our weakest.

But this is exactly how God operates. We, who are sinners, are granted sainthood; a complete and total reversal of our status as men and women in this world. There is great power in that, power that is stronger than Superman’s ability to leap tall buildings with a single bound, stronger than Spiderman’s spider sense.

We are not superheroes, but we are children of God. We have been given the power of forgiveness and commanded to “do to others as you would have them do to you.”

We have power and that power is meant to be used for good, to work for justice, to care for our neighbor in need, to rejoice when we are blessed with good things by sharing with others. To speak out for those who have no voice and to speak out about our faith, faith that tells us that God redeems us and loves us and never leaves us.

I do want a just world, but I don’t need to be a superhero to work towards justice because I am a child of God. This is the Gospel message for today; the good news that is meant to give us power and strength… we have been gifted with it. God gave it to us; we have been marked with it, and filled with it to go out into the world to love our neighbor and to work for righteousness.

Amen.

Have Mercy

Reformation Sunday 2007

A sermon based on Luke 18:9–14

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Last week Jesus told us a parable about prayer. It was the story of a widow who repeatedly went before an unjust judge to plead her case. Eventually the judge granted her justice because he was tired of dealing with her.

At the end of the parable Jesus reminds us that God is not an unjust judge, but a just judge who listens to us and comes quickly to our aid.

I asked you all to finish my sermon last week by finding a partner and sharing your name and a prayer concern then praying for one another. This was not an easy task for all of you. One person I talked to afterwards said that while it was uncomfortable it was a good opportunity to meet other people in the congregation. Now, that wasn’t one of my goals last week, but it was a bonus.

I want you all to pray for one another and to do that it helps if you know the person you are praying for.

Last week I also asked you to pray for a woman I knew in college named Karen who is dying of breast cancer. She is a friend of my brother who called me yesterday to tell me that he had just been to the hospital to visit her. She is not doing well and, in his opinion, will probably not last much longer. She is the mother of two small children and the wife of a loving husband. So I ask you again this week to keep her and her family and friends in your prayers.

When we pray for the sake of others we are doing holy work. So, don’t stop.

But prayer does not need to be for others in order for it to be holy.

This week Jesus tells us another parable about prayer. In this parable we hear the prayers of two different men, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee’s prayer might seem shocking to us, but to the audience who heard it for the first time it was not a surprising prayer. In fact it sounded much like other prayers that Pharisees prayed daily.

Praised (be the Lord) that He did not make me a heathen, for all the heathen are as nothing before Him (Is 40:17); praised be He, that He did not make me a woman, for woman is not under obligation to fulfill the law; praised by He that He did not make me ... an uneducated man, for the uneducated man is not cautious to avoid sins. [t. Ber. 7.18] [p. 59]

The Pharisee’s job was to perform the religious duties of the people in the Temple. His prayer might sound self-righteous, but he had a duty to God and the people not to be like those people who were considered sinners or else he could not perform the religious duties in the Temple. His thanking God that he was not like the tax-collector also implied that he was grateful he could do his job.

The second man, the tax collector, prays a different prayer: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

It might sound like a more appropriate prayer, but the tax collector was perceived as a sinner. Tax-collectors, as a rule, were cheats and liars, and thieves. If anyone needed to say this prayer, it was the tax-collector.

So which prayer was the right prayer?

It’s not until Jesus finishes the parable that we know which man’s prayer was acceptable to God.

“I tell you,” Jesus says, “this man (the tax-collector) went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."

The Pharisee’s prayer might have seemed like a proper prayer for a Pharisee to pray, except that his prayer was spoken to exalt himself, not to exalt God.

Had the Pharisee thanked God for making him righteous so that he could fulfill his duties that would have been an acceptable prayer.

The tax-collector, on the other hand, recognized his need for God in his life. As a sinner, only God could grant him mercy.

When we go before God, how do we pray for ourselves?

We should always go before God with humility and gratitude, knowing that God is the one who makes us righteous, knowing that God is the one who grants us mercy.

So I want to have you all do another prayer exercise this week. I’m going to give you all pieces of paper and ask you to write either a prayer of gratitude for what God has done for you or a prayer asking for mercy for something in your life.

And again, when you say “amen” think about what Martin Luther said in his explanation of the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer.

“I should be certain that such petitions are acceptable to and heard by our Father in heaven, for he himself commanded us to pray like this and has promised to hear us. “Amen, amen” means “Yes, yes, it is going to come about just like this.

Amen, amen.

Pentecost 21 Year C

A sermon based on Luke 18:1–8 .

In the name of Jesus; amen.

For the past few weeks we have been praying for a woman named Karen who has been added to our prayer book. Karen was one of my brother’s friends in college. Because he and I went to the same school and graduated at the same time I knew Karen a little bit. She was a bubbly blonde who was in the service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, with one of my roommates and so we often hung out in the same circles.

Karen is only a year or two younger than I am and is married with two children ages 4 and 14 months. Two weeks ago she had a double mastectomy only to return to the hospital because she spiked a fever. While in the hospital her doctors gave her the news that the cancer had spread throughout her body.

You are between a rock and a hard place with very little wiggle room, her doctor told her.

My brother has been keeping me updated about Karen’s progress through emails. The subject line of his last email about Karen, when he shared the news of her cancer spreading, was “Get the prayer warriors out again.”

I mention this story for two reasons. The first reason is that October is breast cancer awareness month. Karen suffers from a form of breast cancer that is very hard to treat and was recently featured in an article on the ABC News Web-site. It is important that woman take care of their bodies and October is set aside specifically for us to remember to do that.

The second reason I want you to hear Karen’s story is so that you will pray for her and her family and friends who are scared, but haven’t yet lost hope.

In today’s gospel Jesus tells a parable about prayer. Luke tells us that he told the disciples this parable to explain their need to pray always and not lose heart. If an unjust judge will eventually listen to and grant the request of a bothersome widow, how much more will God come to the aid of the chosen ones who cry out to God day and night?

There are a great deal of rationales and imperatives for prayer. Martin Luther, who was the founder of Lutheranism, said that the 2nd Commandment, “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.” was a commandment for us to pray. “We are to fear and love God,” he wrote in his explanation of the commandments in his Small Catechism, “so that we do not curse, swear, practice magic, lie, or deceive using God’s name, but instead use that very name in every time of need to call on, pray to, praise, and give thanks to God.”

Jesus, himself, went off to pray often and even taught the disciples how to pray using words we still use today, “Our Father in heaven…”

But today Jesus teaches that we should pray so that we do not lose hope.

I do not know Karen’s odds as she fights the cancer that is seeking to destroy her body. I imagine they are pretty bad and yet she still has hope.

Hope and prayer are linked to one another. We pray because we have a certain hope that God listens to us and cares about what we need and prayer keeps our hopes from falling apart and dying in the face of certain disaster.

I don’t know if God will cure Karen of her cancer; I do know that God will be quick to be with her and those who love and care for her and that our prayers are not in vain.

As we prepare for the ritual of laying on of hands and anointing with oil I want to ask you all to do something. I’m going to ask that you turn to the person sitting behind you or in front of you or if need be to get up and find someone else to sit with.

Share your name with that person (even if you think they already know it) and then share something that you would like to have prayed for. And then I’m going to ask you to pray for one another. Just a simple prayer, like… Dear God, let your will be done for___ or Dear God, take care of ___, or whatever might come to you. Don’t be afraid you won’t be eloquent; God doesn’t care about eloquence and when you say “amen” think about what Martin Luther said in his explanation of the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer.

“I should be certain that such petitions are acceptable to and heard by our Father in heaven, for he himself commanded us to pray like this and has promised to hear us. “Amen, amen” means “Yes, yes, it is going to come about just like this.

Saying Thank You

Pentecost 20 Year C

A sermon based on Luke 17:11-19

In the name of Jesus; amen.

A grandmother sat on the beach watching her grandson play in the surf. Suddenly a huge wave came up and covered the boy then dragged him out to sea. The grandmother panicked and cried out to God, “Help me Lord! He is my daughter’s only son! I love him and can’t lose him! Please bring him back!”

Suddenly another wave washes on shore and leaves the boy dripping wet, but alive and well, at her feet. She raises her hands up in the sky and cries out, “He had a hat.”

On his way to Jerusalem Jesus passes between Samaria and Galilee. As he enters a village he is stopped by the cries for mercy that he hears.

The cries come from people living outside of the village. As soon as he sees them he knows why; they are lepers.

Because of their disease they live separately from the rest of the community. By law they have to. By law they have to always keep their distance and if anyone who is clean comes near them they are required to shout out “Unclean! Unclean!” as a warning.

Because they were in a region between Samaria and Galilee the leper community they lived in was mixed. Samaritans and Jews found a commonality in their condition, though we don’t know how well it made them get along with one another.

As Jesus passed through, these ten lepers cried out in one voice for mercy. It was the voice of people ostracized and hurting and Jesus heard them and responds with a simple command, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”

They all obey and as they are on their way to show themselves to the priests, the ones within the community who can legally allow them reentrance, they are made clean.

The miracle could have ended there, but for at least one of the lepers it doesn’t because this one stops and says thank you.

As soon as he sees that his leprosy is gone he begins to praise God and running back to Jesus falls to his knees and thanks him.

Jesus has two reactions to the Samaritan at his feet. The first is to wonder where the other 9 are. “Weren’t there 10 of you?” he asks. “Where are the others?” “Weren’t they made clean too?”

The second reaction Jesus has is to offer this one man an extra blessing. “Get up and go on your way” he tells the man. “Your faith has made you well.”

In the world that Jesus lived in one did not say thank you to those who were socially equal. Thanking someone who was considered socially superior was honorable, but it signified that the socially inferior person was unable to adequately repay the socially superior person for what they had done.

When the Samaritan stopped and returned to thank Jesus he was doing the only thing in his power he could do to repay Jesus for the mercy he had shown.

Saying thank you is a humbling experience. To say thank you to another person for a kindness they have done signifies that what they did was important to us and needed by us.

There are things we cannot do for ourselves. Try as he might, this Samaritan leper could not cure himself of the disease he had. He could not reconnect with the people he loved or be a part of a community on his own volition. And while his leprosy connected him to the other 9 he most likely was an outcast even in that group by virtue of his nationality. He was a Samaritan, a foreigner, and that made him an outsider no matter how much he had in common with the others.

If he had been the richest man in the world he would not have been able to repay Jesus for what he had done. He, perhaps more than the rest needed this healing that Jesus offered.

The others needed it too; they had begged for mercy just like the Samaritan had and they might’ve even been grateful, but they didn’t recognize their need to humble.

Saying thank you changes a person. All ten men were healed of their skin infirmities, but the Samaritan, because he gave thanks to Jesus, received another blessing: a relationship with Jesus and a new faith.

All this takes place as Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. It’s a remarkable coincidence really because Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to answer our calls for mercy by dying on the cross.

Mercy for our sins and sorrows and sufferings, mercy we cannot achieve on our own, no matter how hard we may try. Mercy we can only receive from him. Mercy we have been granted.

So say thank you. Say it in everything you do. Say that you are grateful for the new life and community that Jesus has given each one of us in that transforming act of dying and being resurrected.

Say thank you. Say it in the way you care for others and in the way you care for yourself. Let is humble and transform you as a person of faith and faithfulness.

Say thank you and be blessed with healing and joy.

Amen.

Patience and Faith

Pentecost 19 Year C

A sermon based on Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Psalm 37:1-9; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; and Luke 17:5-10

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Habakkuk From Eugene Peterson’s “The Message”

1:1 The problem as God gave Habakkuk to see it: 2 God, how long do I have to cry out for help before you listen? How many times do I have to yell, "Help! Murder! Police!" before you come to the rescue? 3 Why do you force me to look at evil, stare trouble in the face day after day? Anarchy and violence break out, quarrels and fights all over the place. 4 Law and order fall to pieces. Justice is a joke. The wicked have the righteous hamstrung and stand justice on its head. God Says, "Look!"

2:1 What's God going to say to my questions? I'm braced for the worst. I'll climb to the lookout tower and scan the horizon. I'll wait to see what God says, how he'll answer my complaint. Full of Self, but Soul-Empty 2 And then God answered: "Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. 3 This vision-message is a witness pointing to what's coming. It aches for the coming - it can hardly wait! And it doesn't lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It's on its way. It will come right on time. 4 "Look at that man, bloated by self-importance - full of himself but soul-empty. But the person in right standing before God through loyal and steady believing is fully alive, really alive.

This past week, 3 teenagers from Wolcott were driving home. They had just come from breakfast with friends because school had been canceled. As they were driving their car clipped the back of a boat being towed by another car. It was sent out of control and crashed killing all three of the teens and injuring the driver of the other car.

This was a tragedy and tragedies often make us question the goodness of God.

The prophet Habakkuk questioned. “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help and you will not listen? Or cry to you ‘Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble?”

The world around Habakkuk was filled with destruction. The Judean King who sat on the throne was immoral and unjust and the Judean enemy, Babylon was gaining power. It was only a matter of time before they attacked and drove them into exile.

Habakkuk had every right to question where God was, to wonder if justice would ever be done, to know if tragedy would ever be overcome. I imagine there is a whole community of people wondering similar things in Wolcott this week.

As the introduction in our bulletin asks: How can a good and all-powerful God see evil in the world and seemingly remain indifferent?

It was a question our ancestors asked and it is a question that people still ask today.

The readings today, all of them in fact, seem to have a common theme… and that is the theme of faith.

God tells Habakkuk: “the righteous live by their faith.” The Psalmist advises us to “commit your way to the LORD; put your trust in the LORD, and see what God will do.” Paul reminds Timothy that he should “rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of hands” and when the apostles beg Jesus to “increase our faith” Jesus replies: “If you had faith the size of a mustard see, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

Faith seems to be the answer to the question of tragedy. Stay faithful, even in the middle of bad things. Wait and you’ll see that God really is good and that God makes all things right in the end. Even if your faith is small, hang on and commit to that faith, then watch and see what God will do.

There is a lesson here: God’s time is different from ours and healing happens in God’s time, but it does happen for us. “For there is still a vision for the appointed time;’’ God tells Habakkuk “it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.”

Do not mistake our need for patience with God’s indifference. God is far from indifferent from our sufferings and our sorrows.

God is not indifferent about those things that hurt us or anger us. God is far from indifferent, but God is not far from us. God instead is very close, so close in fact that God resides in the very places that threaten to strip our faith.

God resides right next to us the moment we hear about car crashes, or illness, or job loss, or threats against us. God lives next to us in tragedy and reminds us to stand firm, we will not be abandoned, or forgotten, or neglected.

Instead we will be loved until our sorrows are destroyed.

This is the promise, trust in it and be patient.

Amen.

The Blessings of 120 Years

A sermon based on Amos 6:1a, 4-7;

1 Timothy 6:6-19

and Luke 16:19-31

On the 120th Anniversary of the Church

In the name of Jesus; amen.

They might seem like a terrible choice in texts to have as we celebrate our 120 years in ministry at Salem, but these readings from the prophet Amos, 1st Timothy, and Luke have been given to us today and so here they are…fraught with warnings of hell and the evils of loving money. They’ve been read here before, in this sanctuary, by pastors and people who served this church.
They are the words of Moses, and the prophets, and the one who does rise from the dead – Jesus Christ.

And the question is: Are we listening? Are we listening to these words as we remember and celebrate the past 120 years and look to the future of the next 120 years?

If we are listening then these stories are less damning than they might seem. If we are listening then we see underneath the message of hell and see the message of salvation and rest in Abraham’s bosom. If we are listening then these words of the prophets and Jesus points us not toward damnation, but to blessing.

One thing is for certain in our gospel, Jesus clearly loves the poor. In all of his parables, he doesn’t name not one other character except this poor man, covered in sores that only dogs take pity upon. The name Lazarus even means, “God helps.”

But this doesn’t mean that Jesus did not also love the rich. The sin of this rich man was not that he had money, but that he loved it and in loving it he forgot about the one who did not have, who remained sitting at his gate, hoping for scraps from his table.

Over the last 120 years Salem has been blessed. Yes, we have had our fair share of troubles, but we are blessed! We have been blessed by God and the blessings we have received from God have had purpose. We have been blessed in order to do ministry in this community and in the world; to see the financially and spiritually poor at our door and to minister to them.

Jurgen Moltmann, a well-known theologian said this: “The opposite of poverty is not property. Rather, the opposite of both is community.”

This story of the rich man and Lazarus might not seem to be a story of community, but it is. The fact is that they lived at the same address, they shared a house number. The rich man even knew Lazarus by name, but their community was broken by the fine linens and sumptuous foods that the rich man had and loved but didn’t share.

The rich man had blessings upon blessings, but he missed out on the greatest blessing any of us can receive and that is the blessing of sharing what we have with others.

Right now, downstairs in our fellowship hall is a rich feast. There are lace covers on all the tables on top of which is the good china. It is waiting down there for us all to share and enjoy. What a blessing!

And right here, in this very room, filled with beautiful flowers and our finest things, is a feast that Jesus himself prepared for us. What a blessing!

But out those doors is a community of which we are blessed to be a part. God has put the very world at our door, poor, covered in sores, longing to be satisfied by the gifts that we have in this place. We share an address with Lazarus.

We can celebrate all that God has given us over the last 120 years, but our true blessing is in what God wants from us today and tomorrow.

We have been blessed so that we might be a blessing, a perpetual and continuous blessing to those who do not have. And not because we fear the hell we might inherit if we don’t; Jesus created a new inheritance for us in the cross. He laid down his very life so that the divide between heaven and hell could be crossed and was raised from the dead so that we might rest in the assurance of grace and God’s deepest love.

Are we listening?

Are we listening to the Law of Moses, to the prophecies of the prophets, and to the life-giving, hell defeating Word of God, Jesus Christ?

Listen, because God is still speaking that same law, that same prophetic word, and that same grace-filled gospel in this place and God is doing it for a purpose. The law and the prophets and the word of Jesus has been professed, proclaimed, and enacted in this place for 120 years to the glory of God. For 120 years this congregation has been entrusted with the blessings of God so that we might be a blessing to others. And God will continue to bless us as we do the work of ministry to the world.

This anniversary is not a small thing; it is a reminder that God has been with us all these years and it is a reminder that God will continue to be with us in all that we do.

Are we listening? God is with us! And that is why we celebrate today. We celebrate because God has called us into this blessing of church and community and that God continues to call us in the blessing of church and community.

We celebrate because God has blessed us with the work of church and community. This holy, sacred work of caring for our neighbor at our door is a rich and wonderful blessing, finer than the linens on our tables downstairs, more sumptuous than the food we will eat.

We have been blessed with a church to cherish and a community to care for. We have been blessed by the Word of God proclaimed and preached in this place for over a century. We have been blessed by the meal that has been served at this table and at the tables downstairs. We have been blessed by the visitors at our doors, by the needy who have sought our help, by the sinner who has begged repentance at this altar, by the waters of this font that have drowned us and brought us into new life.

We have been blessed by the offerings we have received and the offerings we have passed on to others. We have been blessed by the cans of food we have collected and the children who have laughed in our classrooms. We have been blessed by the lights that have been lit here and by the tears that have been shed here.

We have been blessed by the friends that we have made in this place and the loved ones we have buried here.

We have been blessed and with God’s grace we will continue to be a blessing.

Amen and thanks be to God!

Creative Accounting

A sermon based on Luke 16:1-13

In the name of Jesus; Amen.

“For the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of the light.”

I have been struggling with this text all week. It’s one of those readings that I wish wasn’t in our lectionary and I could avoid it. I take comfort in the fact that I am not alone. Another preacher I know was bemoaning the fact that she had a guest preacher in her church last week, “Why couldn’t I have asked him to preach this week?”

It just seems an odd story for Jesus to tell and not one of the commentaries or web-sites, or exegetical texts or any of the other things I use to research a text before writing my sermon seemed to have one conclusive thing to say about this parable Jesus tells of this less than scrupulous manager.

Sometimes I talk to my husband about the readings to get his take. He says it’s all about hedging your bet if you are a child of this age. Perhaps it is a parable about non-believers and their ability to save themselves. This manager was squandering the money of the rich man and to save himself he made friends with those who owed money to the rich man.

Our second home in New Jersey was a rental house in Atlantic City. Our landlord started talking to us about buying a home soon after I gave birth to our first child. The house was a dump that should have been torn down and rebuilt and he knew it. Our landlord also did mortgages and when we told him we were ready to start looking for a house to buy Scott and I were convinced he pulled some strings for us that weren’t exactly on the level. This was made even more apparent when the realtor he found for us called him “Thumbs” when we were alone with him.

Why had “Thumbs” gone to some troubles perhaps he shouldn’t have? My husband believes it was because he knew we were both pastors and he hoped that in helping us it would help him get into heaven.

This manager seemed to know how to cover himself. Who knows how long he might have been doing funny financing before his boss caught on? The strange thing about this text is that the boss actually compliments his manager when he discovers how shrewdly he acted. But then Jesus tends to like to surprise people when he tells parables by adding a story element no one expects.

I actually wish today’s reading would have ended with verse 9. That last paragraph of the reading seems to be added on; a moral to explain a difficult text that really doesn’t explain anything about the reading.

If the text is about non-believers or believers on the fringe who act shrewdly to gain for themselves some sort of salvation then it says something about us who claim to be believers living as children of the light.

“For the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of the light.”

My first thought on this text was that it was about forgiveness. When the manager discovers that his head is on the chopping block he forgives some of the debt of those that owe his boss. In the process the man who is firing him commends him for his work and is perhaps forgiven as well.

But the language that Luke uses (or has Jesus use) is all about finances. Either way there is some creative accounting going on.

I want this text to be simple. It ends on a simple yet deep idea: “You cannot serve God and wealth.” And so the trouble I might be having is that the characters that Jesus places in his parable all seem to be about serving wealth.

So here it is (at least what I think it is): People who serve wealth seem to be pretty savvy about it. You know, the children of this age. But, we who serve God, we children of the light, if we read into what Jesus is saying, aren’t nearly as savvy.

There was a man at a congregation I served who was the head of the social ministry that took place there. He discovered this program that sold fair trade goods through a catalog. This program insured that the people who made the goods sold in the catalog were paid a fair wage for the work they did.

The congregation was given a customer number and if any of us ordered an item from the catalog and used the customer number the church was given a credit. After a time the credit added up and we were issued a check for the credit. It was never loads of money, but it was enough money to order a case of fair trade coffee which he then donated to one of the homeless shelters in the area.

That was savvy and he didn’t even go through a committee to do it!

We place a lot of energy into money management. How often have you driven a different way home to pass the gas station that has the cheaper gas? How many of us clip coupons or wait for something to go on sale? How many of us invest? Or ask for several bids before hiring someone to do something?

If the dishonest manager is shrewd in how he handles his impending firing should we not also be shrewd in how we do our ministry? Should we not also be shrewd in how we share the story of Jesus? Should we not also be shrewd in how we care for others?

We children of the light are called to serve God with savvy and smarts; to be creative accountants of the love of God.

Amen.

The Cost of Discipleship

Pentecost 15 Year C

A sermon based on Luke 14:25-33

In the name of Jesus; amen…

Flipping channels on the TV the other day I passed some home remodeling show and caught about 15 seconds of it. Something had gone wrong with the project they were televising and there wasn’t enough of whatever it was they needed to finish the extravagant pool for which a huge hole had been dug. The owner commented to the camera that his kids would be disappointed when they came home from vacation and there was no pool for them to swim in.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.”

Years ago I was trying to convince the husband of one of the members of my former congregation that he should also join the church. He attended regularly and had done so for many years. After a long conversation and a nice dinner he asked me point blank, “Why, what are some of the reasons that I should join?”

I was stunned by the question and struggled to come up with a list of answers as to what the church could do for him. It wasn’t until later on, driving home that I realized my mistake. I had tried to come up with a laundry list of all the wonderful perks membership would provide for him. The real reason he should have joined the church was that we needed him to be a member of the congregation. We needed his talents and his willingness to serve and commit to the community that he was often a part of.

I wonder now if his hesitancy was about the cost that he believed he might pay if he officially became a member. There were committees and projects and offerings that would have been expected of him had he become a member. Of course as I remember it he had dated his wife for 9 years before he finally agreed to marry her.

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus; he had quite a following at this point in his ministry. They were wowed by his miracles and awed by his ability to stand up to the religious leaders and make them look like hypocrites. Surrounded by so many people, Jesus must have known that most of them where in it for the effects… the way some of us go to bad movies to see the unbelievable yet realistic car crashes and computer animation that looks like the real thing.

Knowing this he turns to them and says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sister, yes, even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

It’s a difficult saying of Jesus to swallow. I love my parents, my spouse, my children, my brother, and the rest of my family dearly. I would venture a guess that most of you feel the same way about at least one member of your family. And quite frankly I would consider myself a bad preacher if I even suggested that you should hate anyone, but there is a subtlety in what Jesus says that we miss in our English translations of the language of the Bible.

"Hate" is a Semitic expression meaning "to turn away from, to detach oneself from," rather than our animosity-laden understanding. In Genesis, we read in one verse that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah (29:30), but in the next verse, it literally says that Leah was hated ("unloved" in the NRSV).

But Leah was not hated like we usually use the word; Jacob simply loved her less than he loved Rachel. Jacob didn't have an intense dislike for Leah. In fact, he had seven children with her after these verses so there must have been something he liked about her!

It isn’t that we are supposed to hate those who we naturally love. What Jesus says is that we are to love him more, more even than our spouse or our children or those closest to us in our families.

And then there is this business about bearing one’s cross. We often talk about the burdens we bear as being the crosses we bear. We get sick; it’s the cross we bear. We have a boss we don’t like; it’s the cross we bear. We have a difficult family relationship; it’s the cross we bear.

The language of cross bearing has been corrupted by the way it has been used. Bearing a cross has nothing to do with chronic illness, less than pleasant working conditions, or a trying family relationship. Instead, it is what we do voluntarily as a consequence of our commitment to Jesus.

Jesus knew that for many people the commitment they had to him was surfaced at best. They wanted to see the miracles and hear the stories, but the vast majority of them would disappear the moment he was arrested in Jerusalem. Even those who loved him best would vanish when that happened.

There is a cost to being a disciple.

I just read an article about Christianity in China. It is illegal to evangelize in China and while there are some state sanctioned Christian Churches there these are forced to use edited versions of the Bible and they cannot have crosses in their buildings. Public worship is, for the most part, entirely banned so that worshippers gather in private homes. And yet, 10,000 Chinese people convert to Christianity every day, EVERY DAY!

It is estimated that in the next 50 years China will be home to 200 million Christians. 200 million Christians in a place where sharing your faith is illegal and could land you in prison.

Grace is free, but discipleship costs. Following Jesus comes with a price that we pay by praying daily, worshipping regularly, studying scripture diligently, serving for the sake of others, giving generously, inviting others often, and passing on our faith before everything else in our lives.

Making the commitment to pick up a cross and carry it is to choose a different kind of life, but it is choosing a life lived with Christ… the one who chose us and continues to choose us over and over again.

Amen.

Division

Pentecost 12 Year C

A sermon based on Luke 12:49–56.

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Several years ago I remember sitting in church with my soon-to-be mother-in-law. She was visiting my soon-to-be husband and we were attending church where hubby was doing his field education.

There are two things I remember from this particular worship service although most of it has melted away from my memory. The first is that we sang the hymn, “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus” which is my mother-in-law’s least favorite hymn (in fact, she detests it.) The second thing I remember from this Sunday is that this was the gospel reading for that day too.

“They will be divided… mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

I don’t remember the sermon or the other hymns we sang that Sunday. I can’t remember if my husband was the preacher, though he says he was, and I don’t have any clue why he was at his field education church and I wasn’t. What I do remember is the uncomfortable look she and I exchanged and the ironic chuckle we shared when we realized what was being read. I’m happy to say that while my mother-in-law and I have had our differences there have been no divisions and our relationship has grown in deep love for one another.

Still, I remember that Sunday with a bit of trepidation as if it is a yet unfulfilled prophecy waiting to happen.

This gospel is not exactly what one might call a “feel-good” text. We don’t have our children memorize these verses the way we would Mark 10:14 “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.” Or John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” We don’t read these verses at weddings and we don’t stitch them into decorative pillows.

Jesus didn’t seem to be in a feel good mood when these words escaped his lips. It seems like an out of place story for a gospel that begins with angels and shepherds heralding the birth of Immanuel, God with us. Jesus’ very words seem out of character for the one we call, “The Prince of Peace.”

But then, this text falls in the middle of warnings and admonitions to repent. Jesus wasn’t taking it easy on his listeners; he was telling them the unabashed cold hard truth about discipleship and life as believers. And he was on his way to Jerusalem where a very unpleasant death awaited him. He was a spark waiting to ignite a fire. This is a discomforting text, but this is often what the truth does to us. Jesus’ words were the truth and the truth can be hard to swallow.

It would be nice to overlook these verses, to put them aside and dismiss them as Jesus having an off day, but to do so would be to dismiss the truth: sometimes our beliefs divide us. Sometimes the very thing which should draw us together can pull us apart.

At the beginning of this month approximately 2,000 representatives from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America gathered for our church’s National Assembly in Chicago. Of all of the decisions that were made the most divisive one had do to with sexuality, specifically the sexuality of its clergy and other rostered leaders which stems from a case of a pastor who was removed from the clergy rolls after admitting to his bishop that he was in a committed relationship with another man.

According to the ELCA News Service: “By a vote of 538 to 431, the assembly asked its synods and bishops to "refrain from or demonstrate restraint in disciplining" people and congregations that call otherwise-qualified candidates in mutual, chaste and faithful committed same-gender relationships, and it called for restraint in disciplining rostered leaders in committed same-gender relationships.”

538 to 431 is a divisive figure. Clearly the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is divided on the issue of homosexuality. In fact, I can’t think of one church body of any denomination that isn’t divided over this particular issue to some degree or other.

Jesus said: “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”

On the issue of homosexuality and the church I wish there was more unity (of course I want us to be unified in the way I think we should be on this issue), but I am also keenly aware that our lives of faith put us in precarious positions. As followers of Jesus Christ we will encounter division even with other followers of Jesus Christ.

But this isn’t all bad news.

Jesus speaks these words on the way to the cross. The fire that he brings is not meant to burn away possibilities of peace, but rather to clear away those things that keep us from true peace. If the fire brings conflict then it is a fire to burn away that which keeps us from speaking the truth and then living the truth in a way which brings real serenity.

The even better news is this: Jesus made it to the cross and afterwards to resurrection. There are many purposes Jesus fulfilled in this including the purpose of experiencing conflict, of knowing what it was like to struggle for one’s faith.

On the issue of sexuality and the Church I expect we will struggle for many, many years to come. There will be divisions; there are already divisions, but Christ burns in the center of them with a passionate truth and a passionate love for us.

This truth and this love is meant to spark a fire in us that burns down barriers and pulls us together, not just on this one issue, but on all the issues that divide us as people of faith and as people in general.

This truth and this love is meant to strengthen us as people of faith and to pull us closer to God and God’s will for us because in that place we will find unity and peace.

Amen.