Sermons at Salem

Blessed are the Cheese Makers

2008-11-02T10:53:00.000-08:00

All Saints Sunday Year A 2008

A sermon based on Matthew 5:1-12.

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Four years ago I preached on this text shortly after coming here to Salem. Truth is that I never liked preaching on the beatitudes, but I had a great idea. I found pieces of a script from the Monty Python Movie, the Life of Brian and read it to you.

In perfect sacrilegious Monty Python fashion, The Life of Brian is about a man whose life parallels Jesus. He’s born in the stable next door to Jesus, winds up at the same major events as Jesus, and is even crucified along side of him. In one scene Jesus climbs up onto the mountain and begins preaching what we now call the beatitudes, but the people in the back have a hard time hearing him and the message gets lost as they hear it.

“Blessed are the peacemakers.” Jesus says, but the folks at the back hear something else entirely. What they hear is: “Blessed are the cheese makers.”

After church, once I had greeted everyone at the door, I was making my way down the aisle to check on the Parish Life committee who had gathered in a pew to discuss plans for my installation.

They had two questions for me. The first was: who did I want to ask to pour the coffee? I remember saying, “I don’t know.” It took awhile for me to understand that pouring the coffee was a big deal. “Pastor, it’s considered an honor” I was told by one member of the committee, “maybe your mom would want to do it.”

Well, I was sure my mom wouldn’t want to do it, but in the end I asked my dad who was indeed honored.

The second question they wanted answered was what did I want written on my cake? Again I answered, “I don’t know” then irreverently added, “Blessed are the cheese makers.”

And sure enough, on the day of my installation as your pastor there was a cake with the words, “Blessed are the cheese makers.”

The point of that sermon 4 years ago was that we often mishear the words that Jesus says in this gospel. We read it as a directive or as a pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die text. Jesus’ sermon that day was meant to be gospel for those who were suffering and struggling. It was a sermon for those who endure the harsh realities of discipleship and wonder if it will ever get any better or if it will really be worth it in the end.

The point of this sermon today is a little different.

The point of the sermon today is, “Blessed are the cheese makers.”

My friends, you are cheese makers and you are blessed.

Let’s get the obvious pun out of the way first. I have spent a lot of time laughing here at Salem. Often times the laughter has come from cheesy jokes; some of you have even been brave enough to tell me some off-color jokes. Some of the laughter has come from irony and some has been the kind of laugh one makes when the only other alternative is tears. But we have laughed together.

Laughter is a blessing in and of itself. God laughs with us when we share joy with one another and when that feeling of joy erupts from our bellies out through our mouths.

And to prove the wonder of just how God made us research has shown health benefits of laughter ranging from strengthening the immune system to reducing food cravings to increasing one's threshold for pain.

Blessed are the cheese makers.

There is perhaps another obvious pun and that is that we have done a lot of eating while I’ve been here. We haven’t always had cheese at every meal, but we have eaten some wonderful food. From pancake breakfasts to Italian night dinners we have had pot lucks and bread and soup. Each meal is a blessing. Every coffee hour and sheet cake has connected us because families eat together.

Jesus fed thousands with five loaves and two fish and then every Sunday he has invited us to eat his very own body and blood. When the disciples encountered the resurrected Christ on the road to Emmaus they ate together. Each time the altar has been set, the good china taken out, the pancake mix poured onto the grill, or a box of Dunkin Donuts Munchkins has been put out for coffee hour Jesus has blessed that meal and that time.

Blessed are the cheese makers.

The abundance of food produced in this place has never been limited for our own consumption. 150 cans of green beans, countless Stop and Shop Cards bought with money from the Fund for the Needy, strawberries cut for the festival at the Lutheran Home, cookies for Glendale residents and shut-ins, and so much more has been collected in this place and sent out to feed others.

Together we have been a blessing to those who hunger and thirst, not just for righteousness, but for sustenance.

Blessed are the cheese makers for they shall know the joy of laughter and food; laughter shared with God and food eaten at Jesus’ own table.

Blessed are you, my brothers and sisters who have been food for me these four years. Even in lean times I have been fed here. Blessed are you, cheese makers because you have become a blessing.

I have tried as often as I can to remind you in my sermons that God loves you; loves you so much that through baptism you became children of God who share in Christ’s resurrection and glory.

But God doesn’t love you because you are cheese makers. It’s God’s desire that you make cheese; that you share laughter and love, food and fellowship, but it is not the reason why God loves you.

God loves you because God is our maker. God sculpted and crafted us, called us beloved, adopted us through baptism, and recreated us as saints. God loves us because we are God’s.

God will forget our sin, but God does not forget to love us.

Remember that; see it when you look at yourself in the mirror and when you look into the face of another. Remember that God loves you and keep making cheese.

Amen.

Truth

2008-10-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

Editor's note:

Next Sunday will be my last Sunday at Salem and therefore my last sermon posted here. I have truly enjoyed sharing these sermons with you and hope that they have been meaningful reading.
May God bless you with peace

Reformation Sunday Year A 2008.

A sermon based on Psalm 46 and John 8:31–36.

In the name of Jesus; amen.

“You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

But what is the truth?

Jesus says that the truth is continuing in his word and being his disciples. Jesus’ word is the message of grace and love, but it is also the message of being what God intended for us and that is to be disciples.

Discipleship is not an easy thing. Over and over again Jesus tells his disciples that they will encounter troubles for believing in and following him. Throughout time, disciples who have followed Jesus have been persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, disowned, and killed. But while discipleship comes with a cost it also makes us free.

The people who listened to Jesus that day refused to believe that they were enslaved in any way, they forgot their history of being slaves in Egypt, and they didn’t understand that sin held them captive.

The true definition of sin is separation from God. Sin keeps us from being in relationship with God. It makes us turn our backs to the one who made us, makes us believe that we don’t really need God in our lives, that we can be just fine without him.

Scripture reminds us that we all fall short, that in fact we do need God in our lives; in every moment and in every breath. We cannot live fully in this life or the next without God.

This is truth: the knowledge that we need God; God in our everyday and in our out of the ordinary. We need God in the mundane and in the miraculous.

The truth is that when we continue in Jesus’ word and do those things that God intended for us we most clearly see our need for God.

We don’t think about need as freeing. Dependence doesn’t sound liberating. But it is in our need that God is able to be in relationship with us and relationship with God frees us from the trappings of sin.

This isn’t bad news; it is good news. It is the power of grace and the outpouring of God’s love that unlocks the prisons we find ourselves in.

The truth is that God loves us, loves us with a love so great that nothing else in all of heaven, or earth, or hell is greater.

This is Reformation Sunday; it is a day that marks a great change in the Church. We gather in this place as Lutherans because a few hundred years ago a man named Martin Luther was bold enough to remind people that God’s love and grace have the final say.

I am assured of God’s love. I’ve felt it over and over again in my life. It is the thing I have held onto when nothing else can support my weight and it has lifted me up time and time again.

And God’s love is assured for you; God our refuge and strength is with you. I have felt it here, that love that knows no bounds is present in this community.

For some time now I have kept a distressing truth from you. The fact that I have not been well has been a terrible burden for me to keep from you and while my heart is filled with sorrow I can tell you that I have experienced a release by finally letting you know that I am leaving in order to find health and wholeness again.

That release has come in the outpouring of love and compassion I have felt from you. This is a gift from God and the response that disciples make. You are Jesus’ disciples in the way in which you have offered your support, not just to me, but to others as well.

I want to say, from this pulpit, that I am not leaving because I do not love you. I love you dearly, but as much as I love you know that God loves you far more and with a fierce intensity that no pastor could ever match.

This is the truth about God’s love; it frees us to love one another, it re-forms us into disciples, and it is greater than any other force known to you or me.

Live in that love, let it guide you, comfort you, and keep you.

Amen.

Reflections

2008-10-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

Pentecost 23 Year A 2008

A sermon based on Matthew 22:15-22

In the name of Jesus; amen.

How many of you have at least one mirror in your home? How often a day do you think that you look into it?

The first house I ever remember living in as a child had a large living room and one wall was completely covered with mirrors. I remember my mother having to wash that mirror with vinegar and water and newspapers, but what I really remember is that I used to look in it all the time. The couch was right in front of it and if I was talking to someone sitting on it and I was standing my mother would have to remind me to stop looking at myself and look at the person who I was talking to.

What do you see when you look into a mirror? Whose image does it reflect?

The Pharisees and the Herodians set out to trap Jesus. They were two groups of people who made strange bedfellows. The Pharisees were the religious leaders of the people and the Temple was their realm. The Herodians were those who followed King Herod, who was mostly a Roman puppet. In the Jewish world the Pharisees were the religious leaders and the Herodians were the secular leaders. They rarely if ever agreed on anything or worked together. But on this occasion they joined forces against Jesus.

He was becoming too popular with the people and they wanted to discredit him so they came up with a plan. They would ask him a question he couldn’t possibly answer without getting into trouble, like asking a man when he had stopped beating his wife.

If he answered that it was lawful to pay the tax the people would turn against him. Now we are supposed to pay our taxes joyfully no matter what the politicians say. Our taxes pave our roads; they educate our children, and ensure that when we call 911 someone comes to help us.

But paying taxes to the Roman Emperor was different. Those taxes financed an occupation by a foreign and ruthless government. The Romans may have built roads and kept order, but they did it with cruelty and with a swift iron hand.

When Matthew wrote his gospel, late in the first century his readers would have heard this story and thought back to the disastrous rebellion in 70 AD, that had been inspired by this tax. They would also have remembered that the Romans responded to the rebellion by destroying the Temple, the city of Jerusalem, and most of the city’s inhabitants.

On the other hand, if Jesus answered that it was unlawful to pay the tax that same vicious Roman government would have been all over him like white on rice. It would have been a treasonous statement and the Romans would have had him arrested and executed quickly.

It was a no win situation for Jesus, or so they thought. A colleague of mine pointed out the other day that if you are the Son of God you probably have a pretty high IQ.

The Pharisee’s disciples and the Herodians begin by trying to butter him up. They give him a compliment, then ask him the question they are sure will be his downfall, “Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”

The first clever thing that Jesus does is ask them to show him one of the coins used to pay the tax. Standing there in the Temple one wasn’t supposed to have such coins on their person. It was why the money changers set up shop outside the Temple, to change the Roman coins, with the image of Caesar, who called himself a god, into coins that were acceptable inside the Temple.

It’s clever because it showed that he didn’t have one, but they did. The very people who were supposed to trick him into either speaking against the government or God had the coin they weren’t supposed to have in the Temple.

The second clever thing that Jesus does is answer their question by asking a question: “Whose head is this (literally whose image) and whose title?” And when they answer that it is the emperor’s head he tells them to “give therefore to the emperor those things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Matthew tells us that when they heard what he said they went away amazed. It is an amazing story, but not because Jesus is more clever than the Pharisees or the Herodians, but because of the message that he gives.

We are responsible to give to the government that which holds its image. Now we could argue what things hold the government’s image, but I think it means that we are responsible for paying our taxes and obeying traffic laws. The government has put its seal on these things; its stamp.

But if we are to give to the government that which holds the government’s image then we are also responsible for giving to God that which holds God’s image.

I would bet that before you all came here today you looked into a mirror at least once. What you saw was a reflection of you, but it was the image of God that projected that reflection.

We were made in the image of God. The hair you brushed, the wrinkles, the scars, the blemishes, the eyes, lips, and nose; all those things hold the image of God.

Look around at one another. We are supposed to see Christ in our neighbor, but they are supposed to see Christ in us because we have God’s image.

So it stands to reason that what we are to give to God, literally render to God is us. We belong to God because God has imprinted his image on us.

Render yourselves to God. Do it through prayer, and service, and thanksgiving, and sacrifice, and love for one another. And when you look into the mirror remember that you are not alone; God is with you and in you turning sin into beauty and blemishes into grace.

Amen.

A New Lease

2008-10-05T17:05:00.000-07:00

Pentecost 21 Year A

A sermon based on Matthew 21:33-46

In the name of Jesus; amen.

People have been taking stock of what they have lately. This is a pun, perhaps a bad one, but if you have been paying attention to the news lately you know that things are not in the best shape.

I don’t understand economics. My husband pays our bills and manages our money. I know how to spend it and that’s about it. I honestly admit that I am a capitalist and that I have lived on credit just like most Americans do.

Capitalism in itself is not an evil thing, but neither is socialism or even communism. It’s all in how the system is used. We can use it well or we can use it poorly. We can use it to the advantage of ourselves and others or we can have happen what happened the other day when the stock market dropped almost 800 points.

In today’s gospel reading Jesus tells a parable about a vineyard. He tells it to the chief priests and the scribes who are angry at him because the day before he had entered the Temple in Jerusalem and turned over the money changers’ tables. The money changers were not in and of themselves evil, in fact they were considered necessary because their job was to exchange the money that the people used every day with the money that was used in the Temple to purchase animals for sacrifice.

I could preach a whole sermon on that, but it isn’t our story for the day. Our story for today is Jesus’ response to the people who were angry at him because Jesus didn’t like the system that was being used. He didn’t like that people believed that they had to buy sacrifices in order to be forgiven or made right with God.

So he tells this story about a landowner who puts his land in the hands of tenants to take care of it for him. When it’s time for the tenants to pay the rent they kill the rent collectors. They even kill his son.

Really Jesus is telling a story about God and the history of God’s people. God creates a world and puts tenants (that’s us) in it to take care of it. But the people (still us) are terrible tenants so God sends prophets and they get killed off. Then God sends more prophets who are also killed off until finally God sends his son, Jesus… and guess what happens to him.

Simply put, the world belongs to God; we are only tenants living in it. And what do tenants do? They pay rent to the one who owns their home.

This story that Jesus tells should make us a bit uncomfortable. We can be late in our payments, skip them, ignore them, feel entitled to live here for free, or decide that we don’t owe anybody anything because there is no one to owe anything to. And many times we all do just that.

When Jesus finishes his story he asks the people what they think will happen to the tenants when the owner of the vineyard comes. They have killed off his slaves and his only son and the people are certain that “he will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will produce at the harvest time.”

It makes sense. That’s what would happen in the movies. The owner would send in commandoes that would utterly destroy those murderous tenants, but Jesus doesn’t end the story like that.

Instead he randomly quotes Isaiah saying, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes.”

Today A.C.B. is going to be baptized. Today Christ Jesus will make A. his own. A. will become more than just a tenant in the eyes of God; he will become one of God’s own children; a part of the vineyard that God wants to produce fruit.

Baptism is not a free ride; God does have expectations of us to produce fruit.

We have hope that A. will do just that. We hope that A. will come to love God, worship God, trust in God, and do works that will glorify God throughout his life. But just like the rest of us who are tenants, but more than just tenants through baptism, he will probably do many things that displease God.

He will take stock of what he has and forget that it is only a loan from God because that is part of the nature of being human and he, like the rest of us, will deserve exactly what the people said the tenants deserved: a miserable death.

But Jesus doesn’t end the story that way. His parable about the vineyard owner doesn’t end with the death of the tenants, that’s the way the people ended it. Jesus ends the story by proclaiming himself the cornerstone on which salvation is based.

Jesus goes to the cross rejected and becomes the cornerstone of our faith through resurrection.

This story should make us all uncomfortable, but it should also produce hope in us. We have been given the vineyard because God loves us and baptism gives us a new lease on life because through baptism God promises to make us children of God who share in the inheritance of the vineyard.

God has given us the vineyard so that we might also enjoy the fruits that grow and so that we might also find forgiveness and renewal when our plants wither and our fruit begins to rot.

A., you are being called to live in the vineyard, to work the land and to let your light shine so that God might be glorified in the fruit that you produce. But you are also called to be loved by God, who is your Father in heaven.

May we all be blessed in our baptismal call to produce fruit worthy of the Father and may we experience the forgiveness and renewal that comes along with the work that we do.

Amen.

Cleaning House

2008-09-28T05:05:00.000-07:00

The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

A sermon based on Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32; Psalm 25:1-9; and Matthew 21:23-32

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Slowly, but surely I have begun the process of deep cleaning my house, what most people might refer to as “Spring Cleaning.” I actually prefer to do it now, right before the holiday season. Everything will get cleaned, or put away, or thrown out. I go through drawers and cabinets, behind furniture, under beds; every nook and cranny will get cleaned out.

I started this past Friday. The house is in desperate shape, but I have a plan of action: one room at a time. Usually I would begin with common areas like the play room or the kitchen or the dining / living room. But this Friday I cleaned my bedroom. Usually the bedroom, mine at least, is last on the list. It becomes the collector of things and never gets dusted because by the time I reach the bedroom all I want to do is sleep.

There is a peace that comes from cleaning. I slept so well on Friday night after I was done. It felt as though my soul had been washed and dried in a warm dryer or out on the line on a bright sunny spring day.

When I talked to my brother on Saturday I told him about cleaning my bedroom and how it made me feel. He reminded me that our external circumstances usually affect our internal circumstances and vice versa.

There is a theme to this week’s readings and that is the theme of repentance. Theologian Daniel Clendenin says that “repentance is central to life rather than peripheral. It’s essential rather than dispensable, obligatory and not optional. And contrary to modern misconceptions, when done well, repentance is entirely life-giving rather than death-dealing. Repentance is a movement toward health and wholeness rather than a descent into repression and self-recrimination.”

I have known for some time now that cleaning up my surroundings would make me feel better and repentance is like that too. Repentance, literally turning back to God, is like cleaning house. It can be a long and tiring task, but it puts us right with God.

The chief priests and the elders of the people were upset with Jesus when he told them that the tax collectors and the prostitutes were going to the kingdom of heaven ahead of them. They believed that their houses were clean and that they had less need for repenting.

But anyone who keeps house knows that there is always something that needs to be done. Dishes, laundry, the bed all have to be done on a regular basis or your house will start to look like mine.

As Christians there are just some things that we must do to keep right with God. God will always be right with us; loving us, caring for us, yearning for us, but we have to live lives of consistent prayer, and worship, and giving, and repentance.

Ezekiel’s message in our first reading warns the people that their transgressions will cause them to die. We can read into this literally because sometimes the wrong we do causes death, but living with our transgressions means living apart from God and that is a much worse kind of death.

As I swept under my bed on Friday the dust and pet fur began to make me cough and sneeze. The dirt literally hurt me. I was living with stuff that hurt me. Sweeping it up and throwing it out was actually good for my health physically and emotionally.

Repentance is our way of sweeping up the dirt from our spiritual lives. When we ask for forgiveness we are putting the trash out on the curb, trusting that God is going to come by and pick it up and get rid of it.

When the room was clean I put a brand new bed set on the bed. New pillows, new sheets, a new comforter now adorn my bed. When we repent and let God take away our sin we make room for something new to happen in our lives: something soft and warm; something comforting and beautiful.

Ezekiel puts it this way, speaking for God he says: “Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!”

Repentance renews us because it gives God a chance to enter into us and live through us. It’s why we confess our sins and hear the words of forgiveness every Sunday, so that we have a new heart and a new spirit before we enter into worship with God.

But it is not a once a week activity. If you save all the repentance for Sundays before church the work will pile up. Make it a constant in your lives, turning to God in all things.

The psalmist writes: “To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. My God I put my trust in you…Remember, O LORD, your compassion and love, for they are from everlasting. Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; remember me according to your steadfast love and for the sake of your goodness, O LORD.”

Lift up your souls daily, trusting in God. God will not forget you. Turn to God in every moment, God will always be there in goodness and steadfast love for you.

Amen.

Ridiculous Equality and Fair Trade

2008-09-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

The Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Editor's note: There are several links in this sermon that I would invite you to check out. Lutheran World Relief is an organization that continues to endeavor to do justice in this world. It is also a way for ordinary people to do something simple and easy to make a real change in the lives of people who suffer throughout the world.

A Sermon based on Matthew 20:1-16

In the name of Jesus; amen.

This past weekend several of us took turns at the Harvest Moon Festival selling Fair Trade crafts. I’ve explained it before as being the idea that people get paid a fair wage for the work that they do.

We also asked people to sign letters to all the grocery stores in Naugatuck asking that they offer more Fair Trade products in their stores. Some signed the letter and some didn’t.

I explained to one man what fair trade was all about using the example of coffee growers who get paid very little for their labor by big corporations. Before he was willing to sign the letter he wanted to know if it would drive up the cost of coffee to the consumer.

It seems ironic to me that the gospel for today is a story about fair wages when what we did this weekend was also about helping people receive fair wages for their work. People who get up at sunrise and work hard all day should be able to make enough money to feed, clothe, and house their families, but many of them do not. And I’m not just talking about people in 3rd world nations or some place far away. There are people who live right here in Naugatuck who know what living like that is. And more people are struggling with the current economy.

People deserve what’s fair; children shouldn’t starve, no one should go without decent clothes, and no one should have to decide between paying their rent or getting the medication they need.
But not only that, people should have the ability to live their lives with joy; to have time to enjoy the gifts of family, friends, and laughter without worrying about money.

Sarah Jessica Parker, who played Carrie on the show, Sex and the City, designed a clothing line where no one item costs more than $20. Her motto is “Fashion is not a luxury.” Her concept is that women should be able to feel good and look good in their clothes no matter what their income.

It isn’t always enough to have a roof over your head, food to eat, and something to wear.

But life, as I tell my 9 yr old, isn’t always fair.

Last week I told you all that God always gives us what we need. We don’t always understand the gift, or how to use it, or how to share it. People go without because, by nature, we are wasteful and hoard what we get.

Well, this week I want to tell you the God always does the right thing, even if we don’t always understand or agree.

In the parable that Jesus tells the workers who worked all day were upset when they received the same amount of pay as the workers who had only labored for a short time. One way to interpret their anger is that they were upset that those who had worked less time received the same amount as they did. They thought that was unfair.

Another way to interpret their ire is to imagine that they were upset because they didn’t get more.

They watched as those who had worked less time received what they were expecting and believed that since they had worked so many more hours that they should get even more pay.

But God, like the landowner, always does what is right. God has a ridiculous sense of equality when we measure by human standards. And by human standards this ridiculous sense of equality seems unfair.

Jesus tells this parable about the kingdom of heaven. And while it might be hard for some to believe that those who join the faith later in life deserve the same nice room in heaven as they, lifetime Christians will get, this parable is about more than the afterlife.

God’s ridiculous sense of equality means that each person has the same value no matter who or what they are. And while it isn’t always easy to translate that into the real world that we live in on a day to day basis, God’s truth, ridiculous as it may seem, calls us to be workers in the kingdom of this world as if it were the kingdom of the next.

Something else happened at the harvest Moon Fair. Our brothers and sisters at Immanuel took on the theme of world hunger. Part of their booth was dedicated to writing letters to our political representatives asking them to pass legislation that would put an end to hunger throughout the world.

It took me until the end of Saturday night to get my two letters written (and I wanted to write 3), but the fact of the matter is that we are not helpless or incapable of doing the things that God calls us to do. Our current president once said that he was the decider, but God is the true decider and it is God’s decisions that should fashion our lives. God’s fashion is not a luxury; it is a gift that we are called to put on and feel good and look good in.

It is time to get dressed in the baptismal garments that we have been given and wear them for the world to see.

Amen.

The Serpent and the Cross

2008-09-14T06:22:00.000-07:00

Holy Cross Year A 2008

A sermon based on Numbers 21:4b-9; 1 Corinthians 1:18-24; and John 3:13-17

In the name of Jesus; amen.

God always gives us what we need. Sometimes we get more than we bargain for; as Mother Teresa once said: “I know God won’t give me anymore than I can handle; I just wish he didn’t trust me so much.”

God always gives us what we need, but sometimes we can’t see it that way. People often like to explain the bad things that happen to others this way: “It’s all part of God’s plan.”

This doesn’t always bring comfort. It can be hard to believe or trust in a God who seems to plan for us to suffer.

Almost a year ago I asked you all to pray for one of my brother’s friends who was dying of breast cancer and then did die right between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

At the funeral, the preacher said that he knew that people were struggling with why Karen had to die. Was it really a part of God’s plan that she leave behind her devoted husband, 2 young daughters, and all her family and friends? Take comfort he said, in knowing that Karen now understood God’s greater plan even if we couldn’t understand it.

God always gives us what we need, but people do go without. People live in cardboard boxes, children starve in the streets, and people die because they can’t get the medical treatment they need or deserve.

But God ensures that there are enough resources in creation for everyone to have what they need. Sometimes, more often than not, we just don’t know how to share. And with this economy it is easy to want to hoard and not want to give more to those with less.

God always gives us what we need, but sometimes we grow impatient and tired of what we do have. The Israelites in the wilderness grew impatient with their seemingly endless wandering through the dessert and the manna that they had once been overly grateful for now seemed tasteless and boring.

And they began to complain. The second commandment tells us that cursing is taking the Lord’s name in vain. But complaining, well, that’s taking the Lord’s promise in vain.

And the complaining brought poisonous snakes out from their hiding places and they did just what God had cursed them to do when he caught the serpent in the garden with Adam and Eve. They struck at the heels of the people and the people died. (Genesis 3:15)

The people died from complaining; from taking the Lord’s promise in vain.

But God always gives us exactly what we need.
In this case God had Moses make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. Each time the people were bitten they had only to look at it and be healed.

God always gives us what we need, but sometimes understanding the big picture of God’s plan seems illogical, or crazy, or foolish. Sometimes it is hard to open our eyes to see the thing right in front of us and experience its healing power.

God always gives us what we need, but what do we look to for healing and satisfaction?

Today we read that verse from John, “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.”

God gave him to us and stuck him up on a pole with a cross bar so that we may look at him and live.

The bronze serpent became a symbol for medical workers, those who care for our physical selves, but the Son on the cross has become even more than a symbol of healing – he is healing – and life giving.

God turns instruments of death into the instruments that save us; not just in the after life, but in this life right now.

Look at the cross, beyond the symbol to the act of it – it puts everything back together again. It gives us everything that we need:

The strength to carry on even when there is too much to do
The promise that God’s plan does make sense even if we can’t understand it;
The will to share our resources with those who have none;
The bread from heaven, which is the body of Christ, his dear son, and our savior.

Look to the cross. Amen.

Community

2008-09-07T14:15:00.000-07:00

The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost Year A

A sermon based on Ezekiel 33:7-11; Romans 13:8-14; and Mathew 18:15-20

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Jesus was once asked what the greatest commandment was. His answer was “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22)

The two commandments are interconnected and intertwined. You cannot have one with out the other; you cannot love God and not love your neighbor. The man who asked the question then asked who his neighbor was and Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan. This is a story about 2 men; one man the crowd would have not cared for at all: a Samaritan. The other man was a person in great need.

Loving our neighbor means loving even those we don’t like or have the worst opinion of and loving those who are in the greatest of need.

You can’t show love for your neighbor without also loving God. When we love others we also love God. Atheists might disagree, but when we care for someone else we are also caring for God.

Not long ago letters that were written by Mother Teresa were published where she writes about a deep struggle she experienced with her faith. She often felt the absence of God in her life, but she knew that in loving the people of Calcutta, India she was also loving God and it kept her going in her work.

Commandments are not simple rules or guidelines that God wants us to follow to make us good people. And while the word commandment is often translated: law, the commandments are much more than laws we are supposed to follow.

We know that Jesus saved us through his death on the cross and that God’s grace was the reason Jesus would do this. We can never do enough on our own to earn our salvation, no matter how good we try to be, but the commandments are a gift of grace that help us to live the life that God intends and wants for us.

Our readings for today offer guidelines of the ways God would have us live our lives; not just for our own sakes, but for the sake of the whole community.

Ezekiel is appointed by God to remind the people to follow God’s word and turn from their wickedness. The Hebrew Scriptures are full of the stories of Israel’s wickedness and how they turned away from God’s desires for them. This turning away brought down punishment and disaster on the whole community.

Living apart from God and God’s word brought about physical suffering and death in these ancient stories.

As we approach another anniversary of 9/11 and remember the devastation of hurricane Katrina as other storms batter our coastlines we can fall into a terrible trap of believing that God was punishing us for our wickedness and sin, but to do that would be to uplift a theology that misses the point of God and our relationship with God.

How we love God and how we love our neighbor can either build up or destroy a community. How we care for one another, even if that requires tough love, can lift up or tear apart a community.

Paul tells us that “the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” Then he tells us to wake up and smell the coffee; recognizing what time it is: time to put aside the unimportant desires of the self and instead live wearing the armor of light.

We are to act as a public community, where the things we do are public. Where the things we do in private are as honorable as the things we do in public.

Jesus’ words are similar: we are to confront, with love, the things and the people who hurt us, not for our own sakes, but for the sake of the whole community.

God values each and every one of us as individuals. We are all precious and Jesus tells us that God has every hair on our heads counted. But we were made for community. It is why God didn’t just make one human but two in the beginning and it is why God gave us the gift of church… so that we could live in community.

Love God, love neighbor – the whole of scripture can be interpreted into these four words with only one addition:

God loves us and this is why we were sent the prophets, and the psalmists, and the evangelists, and Jesus, so that we would know just how deep that love goes. And these commandments- these gifts- offer us a way of experiencing that love the way God intended for us to experience it.

Love God, love neighbor- because God loves us.

Amen.

I thirst

2008-06-28T17:45:00.000-07:00

This week's sermon isn't being written down. It is based, however, on Matthew 10:40-42 and what Mother Theresa says here about satiating Jesus' thirst.

I hope to blog here about some of what I will say tomorrow.

God's Peace y'all... especially in Palestine and Israel.

Send us Forth

2008-06-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

The Fifth Sunday After Pentecost

A sermon based on Exodus 19:2-8a and Matthew 9:35-10:23

In the name of Jesus; amen.

We’ve been singing this song for a few weeks now: “The Lord now sends us forth with hands to serve and give, to make of all the earth a better place to live. The angels are not sent into our world of pain to do what we were meant to do in Jesus’ name; that falls to you and me and all who are made free. Help us, O Lord, we pray, to do your will today.” (Enviado soy de Dios)

It’s a song from Central America written by an anonymous author. Maybe it was a prayer at least it sounds like one when spoken out loud. I’ve been grooving on it though. We sung it a few times at the synod assembly a week ago and I found myself often playing auntie to Pastor K’s baby who was 6 ½ weeks old at the synod assembly. Like many babies he liked being sung to and I found myself humming this tune into his ear every time I had a chance to snuggle with him and hope that I could get him to fall asleep for his mom.

It’s the lullaby I want to sing to you. A lullaby that would make you dream and desire to make the world a better place. It’s liberation theology; theology that teaches that God desires a just world where people are freed from oppression. It is a theology that works through us as we hear the word of God and then go out and do something that realizes God’s purpose and plan.

The readings today speak about God’s purpose for us. In the Gospel Jesus sends out the disciples in order to bring in a harvest of those eager to hear the good news. It’s a purposeful harvest; you don’t just go out and collect wheat and let it sit… you do something with it.

In the psalm we are told to praise God; make a joyful noise and serve the Lord with gladness.

In Exodus God claims the people as a priestly kingdom and a holy nation and the people answer together as one: “Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do.”

And as soon as Moses hands them the law on stone tablets (all that the LORD has asked them to do) they make a golden calf and start worshipping it.

We fall short of doing just what God has asked us to do. We speak quite a few things as one in this congregation: We confess our sins as one; we sing and pray as one, we recite what we believe as one in the creed, we even come to the table as one in order to receive the one body and blood of Jesus, but we fall short when we are sent as one out into the world. It is part of our sinful nature to not always be the priestly people that God calls us to be.

Even the disciples, in the gospel we read today, fall short. After all Jesus says about sending them out – they don’t actually go anywhere. Well, at least not until the end of the Gospel of Matthew, but that is probably because they don’t understand the mission at the point where they are in chapters 9 and 10. Because in this reading, Jesus tells them to not go anywhere among the Gentiles or the Samaritans, only those of the house of Israel. But, at the end of the Gospel he tells them to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Called to be a priestly people to all people the disciples go out and do acts of wonder and miracle in the name of Jesus… called to be a priestly people we are meant to go out and do acts of wonder and miracle in the name of Jesus too.

And there is no excuse for any of us because we are all priests. That’s right; I am not the only one in the room right now. In baptism we were called into what Luther called the priesthood of all believers. Each one of us is called to minister out in the world and here in this place.

We are not meant to go and do our own thing, but to answer God’s call together as one: “Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do” because the angels are not sent to do what we were meant to do in Jesus’ name.

And here’s the thing. It isn’t meant to suck the life out of us or make us feel alone, or that we are carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders. It’s meant to be life-giving and life-enriching and life-affirming because what we do for God is good.

So I am giving you homework this week. I want you all to pray that God will make us one and that God will show us how to do the work of angels in the world. I want you all to pray that God would help us to do his will today and every day to send us out as laborers into his harvest.

Amen.

Hoping against Hope

2008-06-08T06:12:00.000-07:00

The Fourth Sunday After Pentecost

A sermon based on Romans 4:13-25 and Matthew 9-13, 18-26

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. (Genesis 12:1-5a)

Some 4,000 years ago a family of Semitic nomads left Ur of the Chaldeans, perhaps in southeastern Iraq, and settled in Haran, Turkey, on the Syrian border. In Haran the father Terah died and his son Abram received a divine command to continue his journey: "Leave your country, your people, and your father's household and go to the land I will show you."

It was a leap of faith. Abram left behind a familiar place and packing up his family and all those who he was responsible for set off into an unknown. He left behind the comfort of the familiar and opened his arms up in an embrace of the unknown and strange.

And he did it at 75 years of age! It might be hard for some of you to believe that I am set in my ways, but at 38 I really am not a fan of change. Sure I like new things, but once I get into a habit I’m happy and content with I don’t really see a need to do something else.

For example, these past few days I have been at the New England Synod Assembly in Worcester, MA. For the last 3 years I have gone to the same restaurant for either dinner the first night or lunch the second day and ordered the same exact thing because I like it and I don’t really see a need to try anything else that I might not like. And now that I am used to going to Worcester, MA and I know my way around the convention center and the hotel I found out that we are going to another place next year and I really don’t wanna.

In the book of Hebrews it says: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country" (Hebrews 11:8–9).

There is something counter-intuitive about what Abram/Abraham did. It’s worse than planning a trip to a place you’ve never been and not first looking up directions on Yahoo.com or going to AAA for a map or even knowing if you will have a place to stay when you get there.

But Abram does even more than simply allow God to make his travel plans for him. Abram lets God change his name and listens to and believes a promise that God makes saying: ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then God said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ 6And Abram believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Abram and his wife Sarai are 70-some years old when they make their move to the land that God promises. They are even older when God promises to make them the parents of un-countable descendants. In fact they are so far beyond the point when they can have children of their own that Paul later writes in his letter to the Romans that when Abraham considered his own body and the barrenness of Sarah’s womb he decided he might as well be dead.

This kind of faith is a journey all its own; a journey into an unknown, impractical, and counter-intuitive land where there is no other road map except hope.

Author and theologian, Daniel B. Clendenin says this of Abraham’s journey: “In his journey into the unknown, Abraham embraced his ignorance. He relinquished control. He chose to trust God's promise to bless him in a new and strange place. But this required a second choice on his part. He had to leave not only his geographic place. He had to leave behind his narrow-minded, small-minded, parochial vision, the tendency in all of us to exclude the strange and the stranger. God gave a staggering promise to this obscure, Semitic nomad: in response to his obedience God would make him the heir of all the world.”

But Abraham isn’t the only one to take a journey like this one. Approximately 2,000 years later a tax-collector named Matthew listened to and followed a man named Jesus on a journey of wonder and resurrection. A woman, outcast from society because of a horrible infirmity, journeyed from a place of illness and ritual impurity to wholeness and reunification with her community because she journeyed in faith with the tips of her fingers. And the grieving father of a dead daughter went on a journey of hoping against hope and once again held his child, alive and smiling in his arms.

We are invited on a similar journey on the nonsensical path of faith where hoping beyond hope is not just our map, but a righteous act. It is not an easy path because it takes us into an unknown world where we risk everything, but where we are reminded that there is nothing that God cannot do if we are willing to trust in the promises made to us.

Indeed God gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist all for our sake. This gift of grace given to us is a gift of purpose meant to take us out into the world to experience the wonder of God’s love. It doesn’t always make sense and certainly there are times when belief in God is counter-intuitive. But the gift of grace through faith is meant to justify us and make us right with God.

Abram went off into an unknown world and trusted that God would create new life out of his old life and God did. Matthew dared to follow Jesus and became a disciple. A sick woman believed that she could claim health in the tips of her fingers and a grieving father, hoped that his dead daughter would come to life again.

Imagine what God will do for you. Amen.

A Life-Giving Lesson in Faith

2008-06-02T17:13:00.000-07:00

Editor's Note: Without really meaning to I have neglected to post sermons for the last several weeks. This is somewhat due to the fact that the sermons for both Pentecost and Holy Trinity needed to be edited before being published because they contained the names of people in the congregation. All the sermons from the rest of May and this one from June 1 are now available and I hope you have a chance to read them and find meaning in them.

The Third Sunday after Pentecost

A sermon based on Romans 1:16-17; 3:2228 [29-31] and Matthew 7:21-29

In the name of Jesus; amen.

This gospel troubles me. Actually, the gospel of Matthew often has that affect on me. By the end of this liturgical year, which will end the Sunday before Advent begins, I will be grateful to no longer have to preach on it. By the end of Matthew we will hear all about the gnashing of teeth that takes place to those who fall outside the scope of salvation and wind up in the eternal fires of hell.

By the end of this cycle of Matthew we will be thoroughly challenged by the law and commandments that have been given to us by God and reinforced by Christ and I will be relieved.

This text is scary. It should frighten you. It frightens me. I like to think that heaven is an infinitely large place where all are welcome and this text tends to contradict that thought. This gospel does not suggest some universalistic, everybody goes to heaven theology, but rather that Jesus will actually turn people away, telling them literally to “Get out of my face; I don’t know you.”

Those that Jesus recognizes will be those who did the will of his Father. They will get a pass to enter into the kingdom of heaven. But not everybody who acts as though they know Jesus will make it through the pearly gates. There will be some who will say they know Jesus who will not enter.

It’s as if heaven was an exclusive night club and Jesus is a celebrity who gets to decide which of us standing behind the ropes will be let in by the bouncers.

Jesus will point out those cool enough to be let in and the rest will be left out trying to get his attention, “Jesus, Jesus, remember me?”

This text doesn’t just challenge my universalistic tendencies, but also my Lutheran tendencies as well. It’s not enough that I know Jesus; I also have to do stuff too. We believe as Paul writes that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. In other words, we aren’t saved by anything we do. We cannot earn our way into heaven. We can’t do anything that will get us into heaven. Following the law doesn’t get us saved. We are saved by grace alone.

Only God saves us and we trust that God saves us because of the work that Jesus did.

But this reading seems to say that what we do does matter to our salvation.

We live in what most consider a meritorious system; that is a system which operates on merits. We get things because we earn them. Most people work hard to get the things that they need and the things that they want. And we tend to want to punish those who get things by taking them. And we tend to want to despise those who get things just because they are lucky or born into the right family.

So the idea of getting into heaven based upon what we do makes a lot of sense. And actually from a preacher’s perspective it sounds like a helpful tool: want you parishioners to act differently, put more money in the plate, volunteer more hours of their week, come to church more often? Make sure they hear loud and clear that to do otherwise would be against the will of God and would send them to hell for certain.

But here’s the problem: can any of us ever do enough to be certain that we’ve done enough to get into heaven?

Entrance into heaven doesn’t work based on merits, except for the merits that Jesus earned for us. We are saved because Jesus did the work and gave us the credit. This means that even though we cannot do enough we are still welcomed into heaven.

And here is the trick: because we have been saved, not by our own works, but by the work of Jesus, we should do the will of the Father. We shouldn’t follow the law, or what we know God wants from us because we are afraid that we won’t make it into heaven if we don’t. We should follow the law and do what God wants from us because God has given us everything.

There are some people who claim that they know Jesus; they even use Jesus’ name, but they do not follow the will of God by loving God and loving their neighbor. And perhaps we can all agree that there are days and moments that we fall right into that category.

What Jesus wants from us is not to use his name to drive out demons, but to let his name use us to drive out demons: to follow the way of loving God and loving neighbor because God loves us.

What Jesus wants is for us to do more than say we are Christians, but to actually be Christians in the way we live our lives. Not so we will get into heaven, because we can’t ever do enough for that, but because it pleases God who has already made certain that we will go to heaven.

The funny thing is that in doing those things that please God we actually live better lives and help those around us live better lives too.

So take this wonderful gift that we have been given of God’s grace and let yourself be used by it by loving God and loving others. And suddenly you will discover that these words of Jesus aren’t scary, but life-giving.

Amen.

2008-06-02T17:07:00.000-07:00

The Second Sunday after Pentecost Year A

A sermon based on Matthew 6:24-34

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Here is a little song I wrote - You might want to sing it note for note - Don't worry be happy - In every life we have some trouble - When you worry you make it double - Don't worry, be happy......

Ain't got no place to lay your head - Somebody came and took your bed - Don't worry, be happy - The land lord say your rent is late - He may have to litigate - Don't worry, be happy

Ain't got no cash, ain't got no style - Ain't got not girl to make you smile - But don't worry be happy - Cause when you worry - Your face will frown - And that will bring everybody down - So don't worry, be happy (now).....

There is this little song I wrote - I hope you learn it note for note - Like good little children - Don't worry, be happy - Listen to what I say - In your life expect some trouble - But when you worry - You make it double - Don't worry, be happy......

In 1988 Bobby McFerrin wrote the song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” You might remember it because McFerrin used his own vocals for all the music; no instruments were used at all.

It was a happy song, with a ridiculous video that costarred comedian Robin Williams dancing around in silly, brightly colored clothes. It was incredibly popular and won several Grammy awards including Song of the Year.

McFerrin was actually inspired to write this song when he saw a postcard with an Indian Holy Man named Meher Baba who coined the phrase.

Today we are asked to be inspired by similar, but different words that we read in our gospel: “Do not worry about your life… can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

Certainly there are plenty of things to worry about. I’m worried about being able to afford the gas we will need to go on our annual family vacation. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not also worried about being able to afford the gas I need to put into my tank today. And I’m worried that people are going to start to choose to stay home on Sunday mornings rather than come to church in order to save money on gas. And I’m worried about whether or not the church will be able to afford heating costs next winter if no one comes to church this summer.

But I am also worried about all those people who now have to choose between buying food and buying gas in order to get to work.

Of course worrying about the cost of gas isn’t going to bring the price of gas down at all.

Jesus’ words come in the middle of his sermon on the mount shortly after the beatitudes. The people that he spoke to had plenty to worry about as well. The worried about their livelihoods, about their children, about their own health, and about the clothes they would wear and the food they would eat. Their worries weren’t much different from ours. And what Jesus wanted them to hear was that worry would never solve their problems, but that faith would bring them through every situation.

Jesus wanted them to know that God cared deeply for them and would not forget them, would in fact suckle them at his very breast until they were satisfied and quieted.

He knew that worry trivializes the significance of our lives. Isn’t life more than the clothes we wear or the food we eat? Yes! Those things are important to life, but they aren’t life. God is life.

Worry distracts us from eternal pursuits. "Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." We’re taught that getting good things is most important to life; having the right clothes and the right things are supposed to define us. But they don’t. Our beliefs and how we act them out define us.

(3) Worry denies the love of God for us and his providential care for us. If God cares about little birds wouldn’t God care even more about us because we are of more value than birds.

(4) Worry dethrones God in our lives. In the end we are to trust God. Sometimes we can’t help but worry, and God forgives us for that; but ultimately God wants us to trust that we are cared for.

There are a great deal many things we worry about; some things even warrant our worry, but Jesus’ words are for us today just as they were for his disciples so long ago: do not worry about what will happen tomorrow, about whether or not we will have enough, God will provide for us because God cares deeply for us.

As Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).

Amen.

In God's Image

2008-06-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

Holy Trinity Sunday and Confirmation

A sermon based on Genesis 1:1-2:4a and Matthew 28:16-20.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; Amen.

If there is one story that you: L, G, and I, should hear today it would be the story of creation. I think one of the reasons that it was chosen to be read on Trinity Sunday might be verse 26 when God says, “Let US make humankind in OUR image, according to OUR likeness.”

Some people say that God was referring to the Holy Trinity by speaking in the plural instead of the singular. When God said “us” God meant “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” But there are other reasons or options for why God would have used “we”.

The writer of Genesis could have been using what is called the “royal we” when God spoke these words. If you watch movies or read books about kings and queens sometimes you’ll notice that royalty refers to itself in the plural.

It’s also possible that God was talking to the other beings in heaven: the whole heavenly host of angels and archangels and cherubim and seraphim we sometimes hear about.

Yesterday my father called me and asked me if I was done writing my sermon for today. He told me to take it seriously… this was Trinity Sunday – Holy Trinity Sunday and I had to be careful not to be heretical because the salvation of your souls depended upon me delivering an orthodox and theologically correct sermon about the Trinity. If I wasn’t careful, he told me, I might damn you all to hell.

He wasn’t being serious, but the truth of the matter is I was somewhat relieved when we decided to hold confirmation on this day rather than on Pentecost. It gave me a good excuse to ignore the Trinity which always makes me worry that I will be heretical; that is… say something that isn’t true or in line with what the Church tells us is true about the Trinity.

We only talked about the Trinity once in class and some of the questions that you asked were near impossible to answer. “How could God be on earth and in heaven at the same time?” “Did this mean that Jesus prayed to himself?” and “If so, why would he do that?”

The truth is that people smarter than me have a hard time understanding or explaining the Trinity and so they will often give the same answer that I give: some things about our faith are just a mystery.

How the Trinity works is a mystery. How God is three people in one is a mystery. And just who God was referring to by using the plural “us” is a mystery.

Here’s what isn’t a mystery: God made us in God’s image, according to God’s likeness. God made us and when God was done God saw that what was made was good. We were made in the image and likeness of God, which of course means to some people that we look like God or that God looks like us. But in actuality what it really means is that God made us so that we could be in relationship with God.

We were made to be in relationship with God.

L, G, and I … you three were made to be in relationship with God. That relationship began when your parents brought you to the baptismal font and asked that you be drowned in the waters and reborn not just their child, but God’s child.

When they did this they made promises that they would teach you to pray, and encourage in you the study of scripture by giving you a Bible, and that they would teach you the creeds: those things that say what we believe about God, and that they would bring you to the table so that you could be fed by God’s own body and blood.

And then some pastor poured water over your heads in the name of the Trinity: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and you became a child of God.

Today, the church has deemed you old enough to make promises of your own; to say that you will continue in the lives that your parents gave you when they brought you to the waters of baptism.

These promises that you make are promises that you will continue to ask questions and strive to understand what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God. In other words, what it means to be in a relationship with God.

I ask that you honor these promises – God will always be there for you in your lives and so you should be present for God as well. Relationships require commitment and conversation; come to church and continue to pray.

God made you in such a way that you could receive the gift of grace and peace and so that you could share it with others. You were made to care for creation and for all those others who share creation with you.

Today is a gift for you, but it is also a gift for the rest of us because today we remember that we too were baptized and made into children of God. Today we too remember that God gifted us with grace and peace and called us to share our gifts with others.

Today we remember that, despite all the other mysteries of our faith, we know that God made us so that we could be in relationship with God.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Fire

2008-06-02T16:26:00.000-07:00

Pentecost Year A

A Sermon based on Acts 2:1-21

In the name of Jesus; amen.

This past weekend members of our congregation experienced the destructive powers of fire when they suffered the loss of their home from a grease fire that took several other condominiums at Lantern Park.

I had just gotten home from church last Sunday and realized that there was a voice mail on my phone from D telling me what had happened. I called him back and talked to him and A for some time about their ordeal. The fire had burned away just about everything they had with the exception of a pick-up truck worth of things.

I had barely gotten off the phone with them when another fire began burning. My phone started ringing over and over again as other members of this church began to call me, “Pastor, I just read about the M Family in the paper. Are they ok? What do they need? What are we going to do? How can we help them?”

It was a different kind of fire but it burned through quite a few people and by Monday people had offered me, for them, a sofa, love seat, ottoman, television, computer, set of dishes, pots and pans, bedroom furniture, and almost $400 worth of gift cards… and that’s just the list from Monday.

Today N, T, B, and R are going to become members of this congregation and there is something they should know about us. We are a small church, but we burn. Once the flames start it’s near impossible to put them out and this past week is not the first time I’ve seen and experienced the fire in this church. We are a small congregation, but I have seen us engulf a problem and burn it away until all that is left is a clear picture of God’s grace.

This fire will burn you too. At least I hope and pray that it will. This fire is a gift of the Holy Spirit and just like it was given to the disciples that very first Pentecost it has been given to us. The spark was lit in the waters of our baptism, the flames were fed by the food of the holy supper that we have been given, and it burns through us into those around us as we engage in the mission of this church: to Proclaim Christ through worship, fellowship, and caring for our neighbor.

This is a fire that does not destroy but that builds up and creates us into a community, a family. But let me be clear that while we care for the members of this church, for our brothers and sisters in this community we are also to care for and support our brothers and sisters who live outside the walls of this home.

The fire that was ignited in our baptism also united us with all those who are baptized and believe. And when we go to the table of grace we are fed with the same food that feeds our neighbors at Immanuel in Naugatuck and at a Baptist Church in Harlem, a Methodist Church in Iowa, an Episcopal Church in Honduras, a Pentecostal Church in Tanzania, at the Vatican in Rome, and in a little Lutheran church in Palestine. And that same baptismal fire calls us to reach out to others… even those who are not believers, to care for and support them whether they live next door to us or around the world from us.

We do not contain the fire of the Spirit here at Salem Lutheran Church; we are only a part of it with our gifts to share with each other and with the other. As Paul writes “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” Together we are the body of Christ and it is the breath of God that flows through us and kindles the fire in our hearts.

Breathe in the fire that burns but does not destroy. Breathe in the fire that brings peace and forgiveness of sins. Breathe in the breath of God, the power of the risen Christ, and the gift of giftedness for the whole world.

Amen.

Remembering

2008-05-03T20:36:00.000-07:00

The Ascension of Our Lord/ The Seventh Sunday of Easter

A Sermon based on Luke 24:44-53

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Today isn’t actually the Ascension of Our Lord. The Feast of the Ascension happened this past Thursday. It is the day when we remember that Jesus ascended into heaven after his resurrection. It is also the day when he makes a promise to his disciples that God will send the Holy Spirit which will baptize them with fire.

The gospel reading for today, which is actually the 7th Sunday of Easter is from John 17:1-11

“After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

But Thursday wasn’t just the day when we remember the Ascension of Jesus. Thursday was also Yom Hashoah or Holocaust Remembrance day. Since 1989, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, performs a ceremony called "Everyone Has a Name" in which the names of all of the Holocaust victims are read aloud. 6 million names of Jews, Poles, Gypsies, Homosexuals, Political Prisoners, French, Lithuanian, and Russian people are read aloud so that they are not forgotten.

My senior year of seminary there was a bus trip planned to go to the National Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. Everything about the museum is purposeful and symbolic. When you arrive you are given a passbook with the story of someone who was a victim of the Holocaust and at certain points along the way you were supposed to open up the book and read a piece of their story.

The name of my person was Dora, a 19 year old Jewish girl who escaped being taken away to a concentration camp and joined a group of resistance fighters. When the people she was with were caught by the Nazis they revealed that she was a Jew. The Nazis shot her in the head, tied a rock to her feet and threw her in a river.

At one point you go through this tunnel like bridge where the walls are covered with pictures taken of all the inhabitants of a little village in Lithuania. Hubby’s father had been a Lithuanian Jew and as we looked at the pictures of these people together he mentioned the fact that it was quite possible that he could be related to someone in one of those pictures.

At the end of that part of the exhibit we read that not one person in those photographs had survived a massacre inflicted by the Nazis.

These aren’t exactly pleasant memories and yet when things like this occur we have to remember. More than 10 years have passed since I went to the Holocaust museum, but I remember Dora’s name and I remember the rows and rows of photographs of people my children could be related to. Those memories connect us and bind us to one another.

Jesus ascended into heaven 40 days after he rose from the dead in order to make a place for the Holy Spirit. In John’s gospel Jesus prays that God would make us one. “And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

The Spirit comes because Jesus ascends and works to gather us together into one body… to make us one with each other.

The Spirit makes us one. The Spirit gathers us together and makes us sisters and brothers, not just in this community of faith, but out in the world too.

Dora was my sister; those people in those photographs were my sisters and brothers.

The Spirit offers us many, many gifts, but this is a gift that was given to the world. Too often we have forgotten to make use of it, to remember that Jesus prayed for us to be one and that God then sent the Spirit in order for that to happen.

But we have been given that gift all the same; the gift of connectedness is a gift for the whole world. It is a healing gift because helps us to see those things about others that make them just like us while at the same time it gives us the ability to honor and respect those things that make us different.

Listen to the words of the communion hymn we will sing today:
“Sing! Sing a new song! Sing of that great day when all will be one! God will reign, and we’ll walk with each other as sisters and brothers united in love.”

Remember that love. Amen.

Walking with the Paraklete

2008-04-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

The Sixth Sunday of Easter

A sermon based on John 14:15-21

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Last week I told you all about this crazy detox I am going through and how I have had to give up several food items I really and truly enjoy. In place of the things I’ve given up I’ve had to add some things and one of those things is exercise, specifically walking.

Now I have always enjoyed walking, but I have never really seemed to have the energy to do it and strangely enough eating fruits and vegetables instead of chips and cookies has given me some energy and I have started walking 2 miles almost daily.

Friday the Princess Kitty had to have her tonsils out, but her surgery wasn’t scheduled until 1pm which meant that I had time to go for my walk in the morning. I’ve started walking at Baumer’s pond across from Lantern Park Condominiums and the Princess Kitty knows it because the daycare often walks there in the summer time for field trips.

So Hubby had the crazy idea that he and the Princess Kitty should come along and after making it very clear that my walking was serious business they agreed that they wouldn’t interfere and that they would just hang out until I was done my 2 miles.

We got to the pond and I put on my headphones and cued up my walking music. I waved to them and was off to start my first lap. When I was about ¾ of the way around I ran into them. They both stopped and began to cheer me on. The next time around the Princess Kitty pretended to be holding a microphone and interviewing me. On another lap Hubby did the wave- all by himself.

On my 5th lap (it takes 6 laps to equal 2 miles) they stopped to cheer me on and another walker commented that she really liked my cheering section to which I responded, “”Yeah, I should bring them along every time.”

Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”

The word that John uses for Advocate is Paraklete.

The Greek word Paraklete has been translated as Comforter, Helper, Counselor, and Advocate but no single translation captures all the aspects of the Christian meaning of the word. Paraklete is composed of two root words that mean "one called to your side." It was used to describe a person who stood up with another who was on trial or under pressure. It was not a lawyer in the sense that we now think of lawyers or advocates; the paraklete didn't speak to the judge, s/he spoke with the person on trial encouraging and helping them through it.

Hubby and the Princess Kitty were my parakletes on Friday. As silly as it was it was really great to have them there as I started to feel the burn in my legs and the desire to stop and just sit down.

It felt good knowing that each time I passed them they were supporting me and cheering me on.

It felt so good in fact that when the other walker who had made the comment about them cheering me on was doing her last lap as we were leaving the 3 of us stopped and cheered for her.

“Whoo-Hoo! Way to Go! You Can Do It! Keep Up the Good Work! Don’t Stop Now!”

This is how the Holy Spirit works. The Paraklete gives us encouragement in our walk of faith. The Spirit resides in us, just as Jesus says, but the Spirit also stands at those pivotal moments in our lives and offers us encouragement, and comfort, and help, and counsel.

Sometimes the Spirit does this by cheering us on, “Whoo-Hoo! Way to Go! You Can Do It! Keep Up the Good Work! Don’t Stop Now!” Sometimes the Spirit does this by pushing us through that last lap. Sometimes the Spirit does it by showing us how much we are loved by God through the love of family and friends or through the kindness of strangers.

And the Paraklete is with us always; the one whom God sends us because Jesus asks that we not be left alone is there to keep us on the path of faith and to bring us back when we stray. And to push us towards others to share with them the same encouragement, and comfort, and help, and counsel we have been given.

May you feel the presence of the Paraklete in your life, cheering you on, Whoo-Hoo! Way to Go! You Can Do It! Keep Up the Good Work! Don’t Stop Now!”

Amen.

Yummy

2008-04-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

The Fifth Sunday of Easter.

A sermon based on Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:2-10, and John 14:1-14

In the name of Jesus; amen.

On Tuesday I started doing something radical: I went on a detoxification diet and I’ve been complaining about it ever since. For 3 weeks all I can eat is fruits, vegetables, simply cooked lean meat, organic eggs, brown rice, and these special shakes that are nice and grainy. My only saving grace is that I am also allowed to have sea salt and extra virgin olive oil (within reason). And since Tuesday I have been cranky because of the lack of all the wonderful things I usually eat like bread and chocolate and coffee.

So yesterday, while others were here at church doing the spring clean-up I was in Torrington at the first Mission Area Assembly for the southwest part of our synod. I got there right as worship began. It was an interesting service.

St Paul’s in Torrington has a puppet ministry and a youth group which does a contemporary kind of liturgical dance which they performed for us in place of a sermon. But my heart was only half into the service until we got to the beginning of communion and I realized that I could drink the wine. I was only slightly disappointed that they had wafers instead of a huge loaf of bread which might likely have made me start to speak in tongues right there in the pew in which I sat.

“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

There have been other times when I have yearned for communion; times when I’ve gone to church and needed to eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus Christ. I remember the Sunday before the funeral for the father of one of my dearest friends. Scott and I were on our way to Virginia to mourn his terrible loss and had spent the night with his mother and went to church with her before hitting the road.

I needed communion that day, but they only served it every other Sunday and this wasn’t one of the “on” Sundays. I felt starved for the spiritual food that is the holy supper as we headed for 95 South that afternoon.

There have been many, many times when I have needed that sustenance and perhaps, hopefully, you all can say the same. Sometimes the food of communion is the only thing that will satisfy what is missing inside, but never, never before have I cared so much about what it tasted like.

“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

These words of Peter may very well have been spoken to new Christians, those who had only just been baptized and joined the rest of the community at the table. They would have been like infants, newborn in the faith and the words of Peter would have been good advice to them: long for the pure, spiritual milk the way that newborn babes long for their mother’s breast. Long for the sustenance that helps you grow into salvation, because you know, if you have already tasted it, that the Lord is good.

The Lord tastes good and everything else follows after that. Tasting that the Lord is good helps us to hand over to God our very spirits as the psalmist writes: “Into your hands I commend my spirit, for you have redeemed me, O LORD, God of truth.”

Tasting that the Lord is good makes us living stones, building blocks that form a house, a dwelling place for God in this world.

Just as God, the Father, makes dwellings for us in the next world, we are created to be dwellings for God in this world.

Tasting that the Lord is good satisfies us and our need for mercy. The food that is God makes us a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that (we) may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called (us) out of darkness into (the) marvelous light.”

Yearn for it, this stuff that tastes like mercy. It is the stuff that nourishes our souls so that we may grow into the salvation that God so wants for us.

May it delight your senses; tantalize your taste buds, and fortify your will to serve God and neighbor.

Amen.

I shall not want

2008-04-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year A

A sermon based on the 23rd Psalm.

In the name of Jesus; amen.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Well, actually there are lots of things that I want. I want some new clothes. I want a nicer car or maybe to fix up the one I already have. I want new furniture for my house. I want a little more money. I want to go on vacation… well, you get the idea.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Whenever I go online the page I see on my computer has a word of the day. I usually don’t take much notice to the words, except when one catches my eye because it looks strange. Last night one of the words was “penury” and I decided to click on it to find out what it means.

penury: DEFINITION: (noun) Extreme want or poverty; destitution. SYNONYMS: indigence, pauperism, pauperization, beggary, need.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

This past week Rachel, Scott, and I watched American Idol Gives Back. They raised over 60 million dollars from people calling in and making donations or going on line and charging their credit cards. The money they raised is meant to go to people all over the world, especially children who live in a state of extreme want.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Growing up my parents spent a great deal of time trying to get me to understand the difference between the things that I needed and the things that I wanted. Needs were much more important than wants. I didn’t always get what I wanted, but I almost always had everything that I needed.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

It’s hard to understand the concept of shepherd. We don’t live in a society where there are a lot of shepherds. So it’s easy to romanticize the notions of shepherds tending their sheep. I think I mention this every time I preach on Good Shepherd Sunday perhaps because each year that I prepare for Good Shepherd Sunday I find the same information:

Shepherds were dirty, on the fringe of society; they were necessary, but not well thought of. Sheep are stupid animals. They have a tendency to stray. They have to be well guarded. They flock together for safety because it makes it harder for predators to pick them off.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

It’s a popular psalm for funerals. Maybe because of the 4th verse which says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

But the purpose of a real shepherd’s staff is meant to push the sheep along, sometimes fairly roughly or to beat off the wolves that prey on the flock.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

To identify with this psalm means that we have to identify with being sheep, and not just sheep happily grazing in the pasture, but sheep being lead out of the safety of our pens into a world where predators wait for us, where the valley of the shadow of death is a real pathway.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

But even more so, to identify with this psalm, this well beloved psalm means understanding that it is Jesus who is our shepherd. Jesus is the shepherd whose rod isn’t just a comfort, but a protection against the enemy. Jesus is the shepherd whose staff isn’t just a comfort, but a prod meant to lead us out into the world.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

This is the anti-penury psalm. (Remember that penury is extreme want.) It is the abundance psalm; the psalm of overflowing cups and restored souls. It is the anti-fear psalm; the psalm of comfort even in the valley of the shadow of death. It is the anti-loner psalm; the psalm of being lead to green pastures, still waters, and right pathways.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Lead by Jesus it’s not just our needs that are taken care of, but all of our wants. This is a psalm of grace because Jesus is our shepherd and Jesus does lead us.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Amen.

In the breaking of the bread

2008-04-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

Easter 3 Year A.

A Sermon based on

Luke 24:13-35

In the name of Jesus; amen.

I want you to think for a moment about a meal you remember. What made it so memorable? Was it part of a celebration? Was it with family or friends? Did something terrible happen? Was there a fight? Was the food so good that your mouth begins to water when you think about it?

I remember the meal after my best friend’s mother’s funeral. Her parents were divorced, but had remained friends and even lived down the street from one another. Her father’s new wife hated to go to funerals and instead stayed at her mother’s house the entire day cooking and setting out tables and tables of food; wonderful, delicious food that we ate and ate while we talked about Phyllis and what life would be like without her.

I remember the meal I ate one birthday at a restaurant called Zino’s. I was a little kid, but I wanted a double shrimp cocktail and a coke. For some reason my parents didn’t want me to have caffeine that night and instead I ate my shrimp with chocolate milk.

I remember the meal at my wedding, though the only thing I got to eat was a bite of corn before getting my dress bustled for my first dance with my new husband.

Growing up I remember eating meals with my family. Sitting at the dinner table together seemed like a sacred time. When we became a 2 television household the second TV was kept in the kitchen, but we were rarely ever allowed to watch it while we ate.

Despite the fact that most families today all eat together for dinner on a regular nightly basis, the idea of sharing a meal together has significance.

The two disciples on the road that Sunday were headed to a village called Emmaus. We know the name of one of them: Cleopas. It would make some sense that the other disciple with him was his wife and that they were headed home after what was an emotional weekend in Jerusalem.

They had been followers of Jesus and while they weren’t part of the twelve who had followed him most closely, they had followed closely enough to have been called disciples. As they traveled to their destination they were doing what many of us might do in a long car ride home from a funeral: they were processing the events that they had just been a part of.

While they walked another traveler fell into step with them and struck up a conversation. “Hey, what are you guys talking about?”

Luke says that they stood still, looking sad until Cleopas, somewhat astonished that this stranger would ask such a stupid question, tells him everything.

They begin to walk again and the man, who they don’t recognize, begins to talk to them about the scriptures and he does it in such a way that they seem opened up to them, revealed, understandable. What he says makes their hearts burn within them in a way that they had felt once before.

Time seems to go by quickly as they talk together and when they reach the place where they are going they ask this stranger to stay with them, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.”

What happened at the meal that you remembered?

Did any of you remember the meal that we share together?

The disciples prepared a meal, but it was the stranger who served it. He took the bread, blessed it then broke it open for them and their eyes were opened and they saw Jesus.

That simple act of breaking bread helped them to see the resurrected Christ.

The meal that we share with one another is many things: a sign of forgiveness, a thanksgiving for what Jesus did for us, and it is an eye opening remembering.
The wine we drink and the bread we share are Christ truly present with us just as he was with the two disciples that day in Emmaus.

Each time we go to the table we travel to Emmaus where Jesus blesses and breaks open bread for us to see him with us.

As soon as they see him he disappears. It’s the one supernatural thing that happens in this story. But he doesn’t leave them empty and wanting. In fact, the very opposite is true. They are filled with the knowledge of the scriptures and their hearts are burning within them.

And that very hour they return to Jerusalem to tell the others what happened to them. They go even though it is now dark. They go even though they just got home. They go even though their dinner is only half eaten.

Each time we go to the table we are fed with the bread that is Christ. We hear the word of God, we are fed with the body of Christ, and then we are sent back to Jerusalem to share the story of the meal where we remembered that Jesus is with us.

Amen.

Doubt

2008-03-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

The Second Sunday of Easter Year A

A sermon based on John 20:19-31

In the name of Jesus; Amen.

Thomas wasn’t the only one to doubt.

Friday night Hubby, the kids and I went to Atlantic City. The first church that Hubby served was St Andrew By-the-Sea in Atlantic City, NJ. It had once been a church that was right on the boardwalk set in between casinos, but they had dwindled in membership and needed money. After years of offers from Bally’s casino they finally agreed to sell their building and move to a different location.

When we arrived in Atlantic City the congregation was worshipping in a Moose Lodge. It was really something to have a bar in the make-shift sanctuary and a moose head hanging over the door which always wore a Santa hat at Christmas time.

Right out of seminary in 1998 my husband was called to literally build a church.

Now let me explain something to you about Atlantic City. If you are a casino you can do anything. The parking garage that Bally’s built over the spot that used to house the congregation of St Andrew By-the-Sea was up in no time. We used to drive down to the ocean and park in it for a flat fee of $2 a day. But build a church… that was a little harder of a task.

There were lawyers to deal with because of a special clause in the deed for the land the church was originally built on. Every effort had been made before we got there to find any descendants of the original owner because the church was always to use that land for the purpose of church and if they sold it they had to prove that the land was no longer suitable for having a church there.

Everything had been fine until a very distant relative came forward and sued the church for the money they had received from the sale of the land.

That was finally settled and an architect was hired when the city decided that it wanted the land that the church now owned to sell to McDonalds and threatened eminent domain and offered a trade which would have given the church marsh land to build on top of.

We lived with a full scale model of a church that we hoped and prayed would someday be built. It resided on the bed in our guest room or in the trunk of our car until Hubby negotiated space in an Episcopal church where we could worship and give him and the secretary office space.

In the meantime ministry had to go on and Hubby reminded them daily that a church was not a building, but the community that centered around faith in the risen Christ.

Hubby stayed at St Andrew’s for 4 years before he decided that he was burned out from the pressures of trying to fight what seemed like a battle which would never be won and needed to find another church to serve. When he left the congregation was still worshipping in the Episcopal Church and had formed a long-lasting bond with them. They had an interim for almost 2 years before calling another pastor who is serving them now.

Thomas wasn’t the only one who doubted.

In the upper room, probably the same room where they had eaten their last meal together, 11 men and some women tried to comfort one another behind locked doors. They had known the plan. Jesus was the Messiah, he had even told them that he was going to die and rise from the dead, but in the aftermath of the last few days they doubted that the hopes and dreams they once had would ever come true. Jesus was dead and now they knew his body was gone… disappeared from the grave; they feared that someone had taken it.

Even when Mary Magdalene had stood in front of them and told them that she had seen the Lord, they didn’t believe it. They were, all of them, filled with doubt.

Yesterday we stood in the church building that is now St Andrew-By-the-Sea as it was dedicated to God. It is a beautiful building and was filled by the community of people who had struggled for over 10 years to see it built. We worshipped together and at the end of the service one of the new stained glass windows was dedicated to the pastors who had served the congregation during its time in the wilderness. Hubby was one of them.

As we were driving home we talked about how Hubby had felt affirmed in all the work he had done there those years ago. He knew that he had worked hard and that he had helped build a foundation for ministry that eventually lead to the building of an actual church, but we both knew that he had to see it to believe it.

The disciples needed to see it too. They needed to see that all their work with Jesus had built a foundation for the building of the Church. They were burnt out and bone dry from the experience of Good Friday. They couldn’t move on beyond the locked doors of their room out into the open of the community they were called to serve.

Thomas wasn’t the only one who doubted; we all doubt.

We doubt our abilities, our callings, and even our faith. I used to believe that this story was told so that we knew that we were in good company when we had doubts. If the disciples doubted, then it’s ok if we doubt too. But I have a new notion now, that this story was told because Jesus loves us and wants us to see just how God works even when our hearts are broken, even when we are in the worst of grief, even when we are filled with doubt.

The introduction from the bulletin for this gospel reading says that Thomas’ “unbelief prompts another visit from the Lord.” I think that’s wrong. Jesus didn’t come back because Thomas doubted. Jesus came back because he loved Thomas.

Jesus came back because he loves us.

Yesterday was a gift. Seeing that church building and all the people in it was a gift of love from God. We were able to see with our own eyes and touch with our own hands the fruits of four years of labor. It was affirming; a “yes” to what God can do.

We don’t always get to see that kind of yes and many times we have to believe without seeing, to trust blindly that God does love us and that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead. Sometimes we have to rely solely on the witness of others and we are blessed when we can do that.

But sometimes we do get to see. Sometimes we get to put our hands in the wounds of Christ and touch the resurrection, this seemingly impossible, doubtful thing because Jesus loves us and does not want to leave us in a place of doubt, but new life and affirmation.

Do not doubt, but believe; Jesus came back because he loves us.

Amen.

This is the Day!

2008-03-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

The Resurrection of Our Lord Easter Year A

A sermon based on Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 and Matthew 28:1-10

In the name of Jesus; amen.

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Today is the day that God made. But then God made all the days. It began when God separated the light from the darkness and called the light day. It happened in the creation of the world before time began when there was nothing but chaos and God’s spirit floated over the waters and said: “Let me make something brand new.”

Like that first day, this is a day that God made. It is a day meant for rejoicing, because on this day, like the very first day, God made something brand new.

And like everything else that God made it was given to us.

This is the day that the Lord has made… for us!

There is no other day in our history as a people of faith more important than this one. You could argue the importance of Christmas. Jesus being born in a manger was a necessary moment. We needed God to become incarnate, to become human and to do it in the exact circumstances in which it happened.

You could argue the importance of the day Jesus was baptized. It was the catalyst to his ministry, the moment that it began. We needed to hear the message of God’s love and acceptance for all people. We needed to know that Jesus went down into the waters just as we go into the waters of baptism and that Jesus went out to share the good news just as we are called to go out and share the good news.

You could argue the importance of Good Friday. Jesus’ death on the cross was his final act of obedience to God in his life, but it was for our sake that he was willing to suffer. And we needed to know just how far God was willing to go for us; that God is willing to even go to the grave for us.

You could argue the importance of the Ascension. When Jesus is taken up into heaven to sit at the right hand of God we know that he is judging over us in love and grace.

You could argue the importance of Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit comes the Church is born, the place where we worship and find community, where we share all our sorrows and joys…

But Easter is the day. It is the day that God made like no other, when creation was begun again in resurrection. Without this day we would not be gathered here singing and shouting Alleluia, because the message would have been lost in a long forgotten cult.

Without Easter the disciples would have dispersed back to their families and their jobs. They would have spent the rest of their days fishing and reminiscing about the days they spent with Jesus.

Without Easter the women would have cried at the tomb, their hands pressed against the stone that sealed away his body. They too would have gone back to their families and their jobs of bearing children and cooking dinners. They would have spent the rest of their days wondering what might have been had it not been for that awful day outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Without Easter, the day that the Lord God made, there would have been no more of this radical message of love and welcome and acceptance and forgiveness as Jesus taught it.

But God made this day, the day when the stone was rolled away from the tomb and an angel proclaimed the good news that Jesus had been raised from the dead. God made this day when mournful women fell to the ground not from grief, but in worship. God made this day when the disciples were sent to Galilee, not to run from those who wanted to kill them but in order to see their friend Jesus raised from the dead.

God made this day for all our days. Because there was the first Easter the incarnation means that God is with us always. Because there was the first Easter our baptisms are not simple baths but rituals of adoption into God’s family. Because there was the first Easter the horrible day that Jesus died is called “good.” Because there was the first Easter Jesus didn’t just go up into heaven, but is seated at the right hand of the Father and will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end. Because there was the first Easter the Church is a place of community where we find forgiveness and new life.

Because there was the first Easter we know that each day is a day that we live with this incredible message that Jesus gave us. God made Easter for us so that the message of love would continue. Without Easter Jesus’ words of forgiving one another, turning the other cheek, welcoming children, caring for our neighbor, healing the sick, treating those different from us with value, feeding the hungry, visiting those in prison, helping the poor and honoring God would have been lost in the grief of those who followed him.

But there was Easter and God made it for us so that this amazing message of how God loves us does not die, but live.

Because Jesus rose from the dead the message of God’s love lives in each of us. We are the reason that God made this day to rejoice in. We are the reason why Jesus was born and lived and died and lived again.

We are the reason that God made this day. It was for those who first followed Jesus and it is for us and for those who follow him even after we are gone. God made this day so that the word would not be lost; the word alleluia, and the word grace, and the word love.

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Rejoice and be glad because Easter happened; that day happened so that we might experience resurrection not just after our deaths but in the right now of our lives.

The message that God cares for and accepts us and the message that we are to care for others and accept them is a message for every day because it is a resurrection message.

The message that God feeds us and the message that we are to feed others is a message for every day because it is a resurrection message.

The message that God is present with us and that we are to be there for others is a message for every day because it is a resurrection message.

The message that we are loved and that we are to love one another is a message for every day because it is a resurrection message.

The message that “Christ is risen” and that we too will arise is a message for every day because it is a resurrection message.

This is the day that the Lord has made; God made it just for us, a gift for the world, a message of love everlasting for each and every day. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Christ is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

Amen!

Pierced

2008-03-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

Good Friday Year A.

A sermon based on John 19:31-37

In the name of Jesus; amen.

They weren’t all dead. Some of the others who were crucified with Jesus still struggled to take their final breaths. And because it was a holy time for the Jews the religious leaders asked Pilate that the crucified men might be put out of their misery and taken down before the Sabbath began.

There are a lot of theories about how people were actual crucified: in what parts of the hands and feet the nails were driven, in what position they actually hung, and even what eventually killed them. But, when their legs were broken they died quickly.

There was a test for death. A Roman soldier would take his spear and stick it into the side of the body, sometimes far enough in to pierce the heart. I don’t know in which order this was done. Who came along first; the man with the instrument to bludgeon a man’s legs or the man with the instrument to skewer them in the side?

But they realized that Jesus already seemed dead and rather than expending energy to break his legs they stuck him in the side and at once blood and water came out.

There were at least two others who were crucified with Jesus, but they may not have been the only ones. There are stories that suggest that the roads around Jerusalem were often lined with old gnarled trees with bodies hanging from them. It was a purposeful act on the Roman’s part. It showed their power and their ability to keep Roman order in this occupied Jewish city.

And while Pilate, the Roman governor of the area, was not exactly sympathetic to the people he governed, he was savvy when it came to their religious rituals and how to maintain order during religious times. So, he gave the order for legs to be broken, for sides to be pierced, and dead bodies to be taken down.

If it seems cruel, it was. If it is seems brutal, it was. If is seems violent, it was.

And the last act of cruel, brutal, violence was done to satisfy a religious need for purity because dead bodies were unclean, because dead bodies on a cross were considered an abomination, and because no one wanted that in the middle of their holy and solemn time.

Jesus’ dead body was considered an abomination; something that needed to be taken away and hidden before sundown.

Death seems to be a thing best hidden away and avoided.

But on this day we face it in a unique and different way because this one death changes death. This abomination of cruel, brutal, violent death changes death.
Those gathered there on Golgotha couldn’t see it. For the soldiers it was their business. This was their job. For Jesus’ family it was tragedy. And in the reality of those gathered death was finalized in a gush of blood and water; a sign that now it was indeed finished. Jesus was dead and there was nothing left to do, but what ritual and custom and religion and business demanded.

But this one death changes death. It changes the ritual and the custom and the religion and the business that surrounds that moment, the moment when life is gone and only a body remains that needs to be dealt with.

Because we know the rest of the story we know that the spear is not the final word. Because we know the rest of the story we know that the business of putting away a lifeless body is not the final word.

Because we know the rest of the story we know that even death can not turn a person into an abomination. Because we know the rest of the story we know that even in the cruelest, most brutal and violent deaths God is present in holiness.

This dead, bloody, brutalized body is not the end and the need to remove what is considered unclean, to hide it away is replaced by a belief that even in that moment God was making things right again.

This solemn day of preparation becomes a day we call “good” because it prepares a place for us and for those we love.

Death is not the end; it is not final. There is a resurrection, not just for the man who died that day, but for all of us when our bodies are made whole even after the ravages of death.

This death changed death and because it changed death it also changed life and not just the life after death we believe in, but the life we live now.

Because this day invites us to look upon the one who was pierced we are invited into a life of looking at the one who loves us. The blood and water that flows out of Jesus’ wound flows into us. We have been drawn into the image of his death so that we are also a part of the image of his life.

We know the rest of this story so that we become a part of it. We know the rest of the story so that we can become a part of the healing, and the love, and the welcome, and acceptance that Jesus was in his life. Just as his death prepares us for our death his life prepares us for our own lives, lives meant for wholeness and service to God and to one another.

We know the rest of the story, because it is our story now. It is a story of holiness and goodness despite death. May you be blessed in your part of the story of this day. Amen.

Vulnerable

2008-03-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

Maundy Thursday Year A

A sermon based on John 13:1-17, 31b-35

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Coming to a Maundy Thursday service means stepping into a place of vulnerability.

It happens first in confession where we admit our sins and beg forgiveness.

Confession means that we open ourselves up and show God those things we would much rather keep secret. We recognize that we do things we know that God does not want us to do and that we don’t do things that God wants us to do. We proclaim our captivity to sin, not just to God, but to one another. We show ourselves as sinners, vulnerable to God’s wrath and judgment and reliant, not on our own abilities, but on God’s mercy alone.

It happens in the reading and hearing of scripture where we open our ears to God’s word.

To listen leaves us open to hearing things we might not want to hear. To listen means that we must put our own thoughts aside and welcome the words of someone else into our consciousness. And hearing God’s word leaves us particularly vulnerable to thoughts and ideas that, more often than not, are counter to what we live and what the world demands of us.

It happens in the new commandment to love one another.

Tonight we hear a new commandment from Jesus’ own lips: “Love one another.” To love another requires a giving of one’s self to that other. Loving another is risky even when we know that that love will be returned. Hearts can be broken even when love is deep. But when Jesus commands us to love one another, he is not just asking us to give our hearts to those who will love us back. Loving others, as Jesus commands means loving those who might return our love with hatred and rejection. Loving others as Jesus commands means loving those who we would rather not be involved with at all. Loving others leaves us vulnerable to rejection and frustration.

It happens when we take our shoes and socks off to have our feet washed.

Bearing our feet might not sound as challenging as bearing our soul, but having our feet washed tonight means that someone else is going to touch us, feel our calluses, notice our funny looking toes, perhaps even smell what our feet smell like. Just as there are emotional parts of us that we keep covered there are physical parts of us that we keep covered too. Our feet have been housed in shoes and socks for months now to keep them from the cold. Being invited to uncover them and have them touched leaves them and the rest of us vulnerable.

It happens when we are fed Christ’s own body and blood.

We come to the table with empty hands. We express our need in that one simple hand gesture, the same gesture used by beggars on street corners. Our empty hands at the table express our need. Being hungry is a vulnerability, especially if you are relying on someone else to feed you. Will you like what they are giving? Will it satisfy and nourish you? Will it be enough?

It happens when the altar, a place of holiness is stripped away and we hear those words of the Psalm that Jesus spoke from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

We have expectations of this place and its décor. The things that we place in this place aren’t minor symbols, but significant symbols of our faith. They help us to focus and understand what we are doing here. And they are about to be taken away, stored in another room, away from our sight. And while it is happening we are reminded that even Jesus cried out in the darkness that God had forsaken him. If Jesus was vulnerable to pain and death and the experience of feeling forsaken by God… where does that leave us?

Maundy Thursday is a time of acute vulnerability.

But, in our vulnerability we receive.

We are not left in the despair of our sin… God gives us forgiveness. God’s mercy overcomes the wrath and judgment we should receive. Our state of vulnerability is transformed into a state of grace.

We are not left with words too hard to bear… God gives us good news. God’s word overcomes the harsh words of the world. Our state of vulnerability is transformed into a state of grace.

We are not left unloved and rejected… God gives us love so that we can continue loving even when our hearts are shattered in pieces. God’s love overcomes hatred. Our state of vulnerability is transformed into a state of grace.

We are not left uncovered… God gives us a gentle touch, stoops to serve us and cover us with warmth and refreshment. God’s touch overcomes our harsh realities. Our state of vulnerability is transformed into a state of grace.

We are not left with empty hands… God gives us food and drink. Christ’s body and blood overcomes our hunger and fills us and nourishes us. Our state of vulnerability is transformed into a state of grace.

We are not left stripped bare… God gives us a new vision of our faith and redecorates our hearts with images of holiness that we are a part of. God’s décor overcomes forsakenness and surrounds us not with symbols of our faith, but with the reality of God’s own presence in our lives. Our state of vulnerability is transformed into a state of grace.

This is a night of vulnerability; be open to it and all that it means. God will enter into our vulnerability and fill us will grace, upon grace, upon grace. Amen.

Can these bones live?

2008-03-08T19:25:00.000-08:00

The Fifth Sunday in Lent. Year A

A sermon based on Ezekiel 37:1-14 and John 11:1-45.

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Can these bones live?

I have some good news that I have been meaning to share for awhile now, but keep forgetting to do it at appropriate times. A few weeks ago The Silent Prince (aka my son) had a blood test to check his lead levels and we got a phone call saying that his lead level was 10. A lead level of 10 is within the normal range. When he was first diagnosed with lead poisoning more than 2 years ago his lead level was in the high 60’s. At a lead level of 70 you risk brain damage and death. To hear the number 10… well, it’s hard to explain how good that feels.

Now he has another test scheduled for the end of the month and we expect what the doctors call a bounce back number, but it shouldn’t be too much and we are confident that we are finally in the home stretch.

Can these bones live?

Sometimes things happen, really terrible things. I’ve said it before. I will probably say it again. Sometimes bad things happen. And when you are standing smack dab in the middle of those terrible things it’s hard to imagine the day or the moment when there is actual good news. At best you can hope for that moment. At best you can trust that God will take you there at some point. At best you can say, “I’ll look back on this and laugh.” But when you are standing in the middle of it and living it… as a friend of mine once said to me, “You might understand that things will be ok, but you don’t know it yet.”

Can these bones live?

Ezekiel stood in the middle of a valley filled with dried up bones, the remnants of a terrible battle that had happened many years before. And God asks him, “Mortal, can these bones live?” And Ezekiel responds, “O Lord GOD, you know.”

And God, who did know, tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones; prophesy to them until they regain their lives and the very spirits within them.

Can these bones live?

Standing in that valley, it must have been a terrible sight; a hard-to-imagine-anything-good kind of sight. And Ezekiel, who understood that God could make something good happen speaks the word of God to the bones. He speaks it until the good does happen and the valley is filled not with death, but a living multitude.

Can these bones live?

When Lazarus becomes ill his sisters send word to Jesus. He has just opened the eyes of a man born blind. He is a miracle worker and a friend of the family. He loves them and they are certain that he will come and make things better. But Lazarus’ condition worsens and still no Jesus. Then Lazarus dies and still no Jesus. They burry him and perform all the rituals for the dead and still no Jesus. Three days go by after his death (and they come from a culture that believes that after three days dead a person’s spirit departs) and still no Jesus.

Can these bones live?

When Jesus arrives it is clear that Martha understands who he is. He is the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world. But she is living in that moment; that terrible moment when hope that one day the pain and sorrow will go away is the best you can do. And Mary understands who he is, kneeling at his feet she tells him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But she is living in that moment; that terrible moment when tears are the only reality that seem real.

Can these bones live?

Standing in the middle of that village, it must have been a terrible sight; a hard-to-imagine-anything-good kind of sight. All around were people weeping and mourning. It was a sight that made Jesus weep, but Jesus didn’t just understand God, Jesus knew God. He knew that even smack dab in the middle of the terrible God would do the glorious, the kind of good that is hard to express.

Can these bones live?
And so Jesus prophesied to the bones and the flesh that was beginning to rot. He prophesied to the tear stained faces and the broken hearts. He prophesied to the onlookers, with their hands clamped over their noses to avoid the stench. “Lazarus, come out!”

Can these bones live?

And the man bound in grave wrappings comes out of the tomb alive and needs to be unwrapped and let go.

Can these bones live?

Well, yes. Yes they can. Dried up bones, brittle and bleached by the sun can form sinews and flesh and skin and life can be breathed into them.

Can these bones live?

Well, yes. Yes they can. A man so dead that he has begun to smell can sit up from his grave and be unbound and let go back into life.

Can these bones live?

Sometimes bad things can happen. See, I said I would say it again and I did. And God knows that in the middle of the bad that pain and grief can cloud our knowing that all things will be made well again, but understand that in the end God wants us to know that our bones will live again. God wants us to know that death, no matter how dried up or smelly it may be is not the end. God wants us to know that resurrection is the ultimate answer to the question of sorrow and sadness and horrible hard-to-imagine-anything-good kind of sight.

Can these bones live?

Yes, yes they can and God makes it so for each of us.

Amen.

Born blind and made to see

2008-03-01T21:08:00.000-08:00

The Fourth Sunday in Lent Year A

A sermon based on John 9:1-41

In the name of Jesus; amen.

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked…” (Genesis 3:6-7a)

And so sin enters into our world with the eating of a simple piece of fruit and with it comes a wide eyed knowledge of nakedness. Sin opened our eyes and ever since we have been trying to cover up and deflect our guilt and as my husband likes to call it… our nakedidity.

As Jesus was walking along he saw a man blind from birth and his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

It wasn’t a dumb or cruel question. People believed that illness, deformity, poverty, and handicap were punishment for sin. If the man was blind it was somebody’s fault. The disciples were asking a theological question about God based upon what they knew to be common belief. They wanted to know if God would punish a man for his parents’ sins or if God would punish a man from birth for sins he hadn’t even had a chance to commit.

Jesus could have easily said that it was his parents, after all Adam and Eve were the father and mother of all humanity. It was their fault that sin entered into our world; their fault that we don’t all live in paradise. Instead, Jesus tells them that the man was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him; not his parents’ fault, not his fault, not Adam and Eve’s fault.

It’s clever; really… that God would choose blindness and sight to reveal the natures of sin and grace. The eyes of Adam and Eve were opened to their own nakedness through sin, but they became closed to seeing God. This man, born blind, never having seen anything in his whole life, has his blindness blamed on sin and then has them opened to the wonder of God’s grace.

The people don’t see it that way though.

Jesus sees the blindness of the man and makes mud with dirt and spit and puts it on his eyes and tells him to wash it away in a pool called, “Sent.” As the mud comes off so does the man’s blindness, but those who see him can’t seem to believe their own eyes and they begin to question:

“Is this the same guy?”
“Who did this?”
“Were you really blind?”
“Who is this man, Jesus?”
“And what does he think he is doing healing on the Sabbath?”

The Sabbath day was the day that God rested after creating the world and because of that God commanded that people should labor for 6 days, but rest on the seventh. No work was allowed on that day and technically speaking Jesus had broken the commandment according to those who had been put in charge of making sure people followed the rules.

But the Sabbath wasn’t just about taking a break from work. It was meant to be a day when one prayed and devoted their time to resting with God. It wasn’t a day off, but a day for God.

It was on God’s day that Jesus made mud and smeared it on the blind man’s eyes and told him to wash in the pool called “Sent.” It was on God’s day that Jesus opened the man’s eyes so that he could see.

It was on God’s day that the man saw God and rested in God’s grace.

Sin opens our eyes and blinds us; a paradox, I know, but it is the nature of sin to make us think we see so clearly while all the while we totally miss seeing God. Jesus didn’t just open the man’s eyes so that he could see the sunset or the colors of the rainbow, but he opened the man’s eyes to see the grace of God.

While the Pharisees only saw sin, Jesus saw an opportunity and in the process a man’s eyes were opened to believe in the wonderful love of God.
We have been given this same love, love that is meant to clear our sight and see God through the person of Jesus Christ. And while Adam and Eve clothed their nakedness with fig leaves to cover up their sin, we have been clothed with new life so that sin does not leave us exposed to death and hell.

We have been shown love, made witnesses to it, and washed in waters that are meant to send us out to witness to that love.

Amen.

Thirsty

2008-02-23T19:52:00.000-08:00

The Third Sunday in Lent Year A

A Sermon based on John 4:5-42

In the name of Jesus; amen.

There are some things we know about this woman that Jesus encounters at the well in Sychar.

She came to the well at noon, not the most ideal time to draw water from a well. The sun was at its peak and it would have been hot out. Women typically drew their water in the mornings when it was still cool out and used that time for fellowship with one another. They talked then, exchanged information and stories with one another.

Maybe something had happened that morning that forced her to go to the well later in the day, but we find out that she has been married many times and that now she is living with a man who is not her husband. That would not exactly have been what one would call socially acceptable back then. It would have carried a huge stigma whether or not her 5 husbands had divorced her or died. And it would have been an even bigger stigma that she was living with a man who she wasn’t married to.

Chances are that this woman was at the well at noon to avoid everyone else. Chances are that this woman was not looked highly upon by the rest of the people in Sychar. Chances are this woman was dried up and beaten up by the life that she lived.

When she gets to the well she discovers that someone else is there and we know some things about the man she encounters. He is a Jew in a Samaritan city. Jews didn’t fraternize with Samaritans over religious differences. Samaritans and Jews were both descended from Jacob who God renames Israel, but Samaritans didn’t recognize the Temple in Jerusalem as being the place where God resided and so they lived separately from the Jews.

Jewish men did not talk to strange women in public, in fact many of them didn’t even talk to women they knew in public. There were even Jewish men who would close their eyes if they even saw a woman in public.

Everything we know about this woman and this man would lead us to believe that there would be no exchange of words between them at the well, but they do talk and have one of the longest conversations recorded in the New Testament. And it isn’t a conversation about the weather either; this man gets personal with this woman, tells her things that others didn’t know, tells her things she didn’t know herself.

And what’s more, when they are done she is so empowered by what he has done and said that she leaves her water jar and goes to tell the people she works so hard to avoid all about him.

A simple, but not so simple conversation and a whole city is transformed.
Last week I went to a training session for clergy lead by the Naugatuck Valley Project which is a community organizing organization. Their whole philosophy is based upon the idea of building relationships in one on one conversations. Two people meet with one another and get to know each other and what’s important to the other person. After enough people have met with one another they begin to organize themselves around an issue in an attempt to create change.

When Jesus met with this woman he was doing a one on one. He didn’t just talk, though what he said was incredibly important, but he listened too. They talked about a common need: the need to quench one’s thirst in physical and spiritual ways.

One conversation and a whole community was changed because the woman went and talked to others, told them about what she and Jesus had talked about and then they wanted to talk to him too.

One conversation and many came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

So I want us to have some conversations with one another. (Find someone you don't know all that well and discuss the topic for 3 minutes.)

Topic: What are you thirsty for in your life? Has God helped to quench that thirst?

Now go and talk to others… Amen.

Famished

2008-02-09T22:05:00.000-08:00

The First Sunday in Lent Year A

A sermon based on Romans 5:12-19 and Matthew 4:1-11

In the name of Jesus; amen.

The First Sunday in Lent always begins with the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil and this year is no exception. Jesus is baptized and the Holy Spirit leads him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan and in preparation for the challenge he is about to face he fasts for 40 days and 40 nights.

Matthew tells us that after his fast he is famished.

Statistics show that of the 6 ½ billion people in the world 854 million people suffer from hunger.

• In the U. S., 12.4 million children are hungry.

• In the developing world, 20 million low-birth-weight babies are born each year. They are at risk of dying in infancy or suffering lifelong physical or cognitive disabilities.

• 3/4 of all deaths in children under age 5 in the developing world are caused by malnutrition or related diseases.

• Each day in the developing world, 16,000 children die from hunger or preventable diseases such as diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, or malaria. Malnutrition is associated with over half of those deaths. That is equal to 1 child every 5.4 seconds.

The thing about hunger is that it will make a person do what they might not otherwise do.

A man will steal in order to feed himself and his family; a woman will turn to prostitution to make money to feed herself and her children when there is no other way to get food. Hunger places the best of people in precarious moral positions. The need to eat and be able to feed one’s self and one’s children will drive a person to do what they might not otherwise be tempted to do.

Jesus is lead out into the wilderness and fasts for 40 days and 40 nights. He is hungry, so hungry that he is famished from being deprived of food and this is just the moment when the devil appears to tempt him with bread and power.

Jesus resists. He doesn’t give in to the offers for bread and power and the tempter leaves and angels appear and wait on him.

We are not Jesus. The fact that Jesus does not give in to the temptations of the devil does not mean that we will always be able to resist the temptations that are put in our way.

Even though the temptation of Jesus happens at the beginning of his ministry we read about it on this First Sunday of Lent when we remember his journey to the cross at the end of his ministry. This is done for a purpose. The 40 days of Lent coincide with the 40 days and nights of his fast and we are reminded that even though Jesus is tempted by the devil he fulfills his purpose by going to the cross.

Jesus goes to the cross so that we might have forgiveness when we are tempted and succumb to sin. Jesus goes to the cross so that we might be made righteous. As Paul writes, death, and disobedience, and sin came into the world through Adam, but we are justified through Jesus’ righteousness and obedience to God.

This frees us, not to sin more, but to live new lives in service to God.

Because we are fed with bread that is the Word of God we are called to feed others.

The statistics of hunger in the world do not represent numbers, but people; human beings out in the wilderness who are literally famished who face the temptations and the torments of the devil each and every day.

They aren’t just people across the seas, but in our own neighborhoods.

Lent is typically a time when people choose to give something up to remember Christ’s fast for their personal piety. But we are not just called to care for our own selves, but for others. So I want to challenge us this season to give up hunger for Lent. I want to challenge us to look the devil in the face and tell him that we will not be tempted away from what God has called us to do: to feed others in the name of the one who is our bread.

Amen.

Our Faith Duty

2008-02-05T21:56:00.000-08:00

Ash Wednesday Year A

A sermon based on Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Did you remember to vote yesterday?

My husband and I had to take turns going to the polls because both our kids were sick at home, but we both made it. Besides the people who were working there I was the only one in the room when I went to vote. I asked how the turnout was at about 3:00 when I was there and they said it had been going pretty well for a primary, but they expected it to pick up later in the day once people were leaving work.

My daughter is excited because there is a “girl” running so I was asked quite a few questions about the political process yesterday. Explaining political parties, primaries, and the Electoral College to an 8 year old is a great deal of fun. Had she been feeling better I would have taken her along with me, which is something my parents always did with my brother and me when we were children.

She asked me if people “had” to vote. This was an easier question to answer. No, I told her, but voting was important because people had given their lives for me to be able to vote as an American and as a woman. It was a privilege and I took that seriously.

It seems to me that voting for our leaders is our civic duty, a responsibility we have as Americans to our community. It may not always seem as though our one vote counts, but when you add it with everyone else’s it does make a difference.

If yesterday was Super Tuesday then we might just say that today is Super Wednesday. Because if voting for our leaders is our civic duty to our community then repentance is our faith duty to our community.

The prophet Joel, speaking the word of God, calls the community to corporal repentance. The fasting, weeping, and rending is not of the individual, but of the whole assembly gathered together. What we do might look like individual repentance, private fasting, and personal marking, but what we do today is communal.

The signs of repentance that are about to be placed on our foreheads are meant to remind us of our baptisms when we are marked with the cross of Christ forever. Baptism is far from an individual rite of passage. Baptism is a community event where one becomes a member of the family of God.

I understand this is a hard concept. We Americans pride ourselves on our individuality, we live in a world that is focused on the “me” and the “I”, but the “me” and the “I” are only part of the whole. Baptism connects us to one another and to Christ purposely so that we become one body.

What we do today in our prayers and our marking is important to the whole body. Yes, repentance is good for the individual. When I turn to God and confess the wrongs that I have done and ask for forgiveness it is good for me, but it necessary to the whole community. My one vote does count, but it means nothing if I am the only one voting.

There is nothing wrong with having a personal faith or a personal relationship with God, but our faith is based in community.

Repentance is our faith duty to the community. Turning to God is a responsibility we cannot take lightly because of the one who died so that we might have forgiveness.

Repentance is our faith duty to the community. Turning to God is a responsibility we cannot take lightly because God’s forgiveness changes us; it reconnects us to God and to one another and to the world around us.

One voice can make a difference, but many voices crying out to God at once in unison builds up the whole body and the individuals in that one body and it speaks to a world that makes faith a byword and a mockery.

The ashen crosses we will wear as we leave this place become a sign that God is not absent, but present in the world to those who question, “Where is their God?”

There is a vast difference between our political process and our faith lives. We do not elect God, but God makes us the elect. Our political leaders will make promises that they either don’t actually intend to keep or become unable to keep, but God is faithful in every promise that has been made to us. Political leaders are elected for terms, but God is our God for eternity.

And who we vote for isn’t nearly as important as who we turn to in repentance.

Our political leaders will raise and lower our taxes, they will make laws that make sense and they will make laws that don’t, and they make good decisions and they will make bad decisions, but God…

… God will open wide merciful arms to hold us and love us with abounding love. God will listen to our cries and instead of bringing punishment will offer healing to the world.

So let us repent, not just as individuals, but as a whole body, the assembled gathering of the baptized. Amen.

Get Up and Do Not Be Afraid

2008-02-02T21:08:00.000-08:00

The Transfiguration of Our Lord Year A

A sermon based on Matthew 17:1-9

In the name of Jesus; amen.

“Get up and do not be afraid.”

Jesus is transfigured on the mountain and God tells the disciples, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with whom I am well pleased; listen to him!” And the very first thing Jesus tells them is, “Get up and do not be afraid.”

This is today’s message: “Get up and do not be afraid.”
So what are you afraid of?

I have an irrational fear of bridges. I say irrational because rationally I know that when I am driving over a bridge it will not collapse the moment I am in the middle of it sending me plummeting to my death or that I will not be struck by a car sending me careening over the side to my death, but that’s exactly what will happen.

Now living in South Jersey with an irrational fear of bridges, like I did for 6 years, is not the easiest thing in the world to do because everywhere you go you have to go across a bridge to get there. The first house we lived in was on a little island called Brigantine, just north of Atlantic City. The first time we looked at it I remember looking at the map and telling my husband with trepidation and fear that there were only two ways off the island: the bridge and swimming.

Later, I remember attending a luncheon after a funeral where I sat with the family and one man at the table who was an engineer who built bridges. He spent a good 10 minutes trying to explain to me how bridges were built and how they were structurally sound. It made perfect sense, it was rational, but my fear is irrational and it doesn’t help that there are bridges that have collapsed and that there are cars that have driven over the sides. I try to block those mental images whenever I am about to cross a bridge or else I know that I would become paralyzed with fear and be unable to cross.

The three disciples that Jesus takes with him up on the mountain are overcome with fear after hearing the voice from heaven. It causes them to fall to the ground and tremble until Jesus touches them and tells them to get up.

I think hearing the voice of God must seem irrational. Recently the confirmation class watched Evan Almighty. It’s a silly movie loosely based on the story of Noah’s ark. Evan has just been elected to congress and seems to have a promising future until God speaks and asks him to build an ark because there is going to be a flood. No one, including Evan believes that God speaking to him is rational and they see him as being a big joke.

There was a time when if God spoke to people it caused great fear, but now it seems that God speaking to anyone is a laughing matter. Rita Rudner, who was a comedian during the 80’s used to ask, “Why is it that when you speak to God they call it prayer, but if God speaks to you they call it schizophrenia?”

The disciples must have already been on edge when they saw Jesus transfigured and talking to Moses, who was dead and Elijah, who had been taken up into heaven. Peter tries to make what seems like a very irrational situation rational by suggesting that they build booths, movable altars, tents that can be taken with them and worshiped, but even he falls apart when God speaks.

What are you afraid of?

What might cause you to fall down paralyzed with fear?

In my sermons I often say that God is calling to us or that God is speaking to us or asking something of us, but I wonder if any of us ever hear that message with a sense of fear. I do believe that God speaks to us today, but I think we have lost a real sense of the gravity of it. Perhaps it is too hard to imagine the actuality of it and so we dismiss it. Perhaps it is so scary to imagine God speaking to us that we suppress the actuality of it in order to live the lives we live.

But God does speak to us; God’s voice cries down from heaven every day with the message that we are to listen to the Son, the Beloved and the gravity of that voice should weigh us down with a fear and desire to do just that.

We should listen to the Son, the one who preached repentance and acceptance. We should listen to the Beloved who cared for the other and lifted up the lowly. We should listen to Jesus who tells us to “Get up and do not be afraid”, because there are too many fears, rational and irrational that hold us back from doing what God desires of us.

Because listening to Jesus transfigures our lives. This story of Jesus being changed on the mountain foreshadows the resurrection. It points to the thing that is to come. When we listen to the words of Jesus it points us to what is to come for us: resurrection and everlasting life because listening to Jesus changes us, makes us new people. That is perhaps why there is a baptismal connection to this story.

God also speaks at Jesus’ baptism and says, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

Get up and do not be afraid. God’s voice might frighten us, but it directs us to the one who is meant to calm our fears and take us into new life.

Get up, do not be afraid, but listen to the one who transfigures us.

Amen.

Repentance

2008-01-26T18:44:00.000-08:00

The Third Sunday After the Epiphany

A Sermon based on Matthew 4:12-23

In the name of Jesus; amen.

John preached repentance and that is why he is arrested. King Herod had married his murdered brother’s wife, Herodias, and John had bee telling him that it was not lawful for him to have her. John wanted him to repent, but Herod wanted to keep his new wife.

Jesus hears of John’s arrest and takes over the message that John had been preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Repentance was the message Jesus chose to begin his preaching ministry.

Repentance comes first. It is the first step in following Jesus. It is the first step in living a life with God.

But do you really think you need to repent? And if so, for what and to whom?

There are some people out there who think they don’t need to repent just as there are probably some out there who believe there is something in your past that you don’t think you can be forgiven for. I’ve met both, people who don’t think they are all that bad and people who believe in their hearts that they are destined for hell. Perhaps there are even some right here in this room.

There are dangers in both ways of thinking.

To believe that God cannot forgive you is to believe that God is not all powerful; it makes your sins bigger than God and nothing is bigger than God.

We are supposed to trust in God and God’s promises and we have been promised forgiveness, so if there is something in your heart that is weighing you down it’s time to give it to God, to repent and trust that God forgives you and begin a new life as a forgiven person.

And if you are pretty sure that you have nothing to repent for it’s time to search your hearts as well because only God is perfect. Each one of us falls short each and every day and we rely on God’s grace to make us holy and forgiven.

Before we worship God we begin with confession and forgiveness (yes, sometimes we give thanks for our baptisms, but the point of that is not to skip over repentance, but to remember the promises of forgiveness in baptism.) Confession and forgiveness prepare us for singing the hymns, and saying the prayers, and hearing the word, and eating the meal.

Repentance prepares us to worship and forgiveness makes us worthy to come before God in worship.

But we don’t just repent in order to participate in this hour of so of our weeks. Repentance signals our need for God in our lives in each and every second of them. Repentance clears our hearts and allows light to glow in us and emanate from us. It is the light that we are given in baptism along with these words:

“Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

We don’t just repent for our own sakes, but for the sake of God being glorified.

God is glorified when we are forgiven and then live in that forgiveness. While God makes promises to us in our baptism, we are also called to make promises to God that we will live lives of mission and purpose.

This past Tuesday I attended something called a listening day with other clergy from the New England Synod. The first part of the day was spent listening to the Bishop as she reflected on the writings of an Old Testament theologian named Walter Brueggemann.

In the discussion that followed she talked about how the rituals of other religions were meant to daily remind the people that they were specifically Jewish or Muslim or whatever they were. The question was asked: What do we do daily, as Christians, to remember that we are Christians?

Each morning Martin Luther would wake up and wash his face and remember his baptism, in doing so I think he probably also remembered that he was a sinner who was forgiven.

What do you do each day that reminds you of your need for God? And does that need translate into the rest of your day?

The fishermen who followed Jesus gave up their regular lives of casting nets into the sea and in the process they lived lives which reminded them daily that they belonged to God. Their light became the light that shone throughout the centuries and witnessed to us.

We are Christians because they daily remembered their call to fish for people. We too have been called to be light, to remember daily that we are sinners in need of forgiveness that God grants us through our baptism into Christ Jesus.

May that light shine in all of us each and every day, not just for our own sake, but for the sake of others. Amen.

2008-01-19T19:11:00.000-08:00

The Second Sunday After the Epiphany Year A

A sermon based on 1 Corinthians 1:1-9

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus.”

So, Paul begins his letter to the church in Corinth by lifting up the people there: “I give thanks to my God always for you”, but Paul’s letter is not intended to be a happy-feely kind of correspondence. The people at Corinth had some real issues: they fought with one another, they didn’t know how to share, they constantly tried to one up each other on who was baptized by whom, they were surrounded by Roman temples, including one to Aphrodite where prostitution was prevalent, and the women wouldn’t stop talking in church.

It’s not surprising then that the very next verse of scripture after our reading today is Paul telling the people that they need to get along with one another:

“Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.”

It doesn’t always happen, but many times the assigned scripture for the day has perfect timing. This reading seems appropriate when we consider that following this worship we will head downstairs for lunch and our congregational meeting.

I want to take Paul’s words as a warning that despite our differences, our disagreements, and the dangers that surround us that we be of one mind when it comes to our purpose as a church. We are here to bring the good news of Christ Jesus or as our mission statement says, “To proclaim Christ through worship, fellowship, and caring for our neighbor.”

But Paul’s words also offer hope and assurance that we too have been enriched in Christ, in speech and knowledge of every kind… that we are not lacking in any spiritual gifts as we wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As we give our worship to God this morning we prepare for the decisions we need to make as a congregation in our meeting. This worship we give to God because worship is primarily a thing we do for God. While it might offer us strength and fellowship, and reassurance of God’s forgiveness it is an act we do to please God.

We worship God, not traditions, or music, or our time together, but God. This can be a difficult concept to understand: we are not here for us, but because God commands it and wants it from us. And strangely enough when we make worship about what we do for God this also becomes a time for us when we are renewed.

I’d like for us to take that same attitude and understanding to the meeting we have and to the time we have during our meal; that we make this time, time that we give to God and decisions we make as we choose our leaders and as we choose how to budget our money, decisions we give to God out of our love for God.

Later in 1 Corinthians 13 Paul writes about love, God’s love for us. He tells us that without love we have nothing.

“1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

We have God’s love, given to us through the grace of God in Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God, the Messiah. It is through God’s grace that we are a church and part of the family of God. It is because of God’s love and grace that we are given purpose and possibility.

May that purpose and possibility be in everything we do, not just in our worship, or in our meeting, or in our fellowship with one another, but in every aspect of our lives so that the love and grace of God might be proclaimed throughout the world.

Amen.

The Voice of God

2008-01-12T21:09:00.000-08:00

The Baptism of Our Lord Year A

A sermon based on Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-43, and Matthew 3:13-17

In the name of Jesus; amen.

At the beginning of time God spoke and when God spoke the world and all that was in it was created.

God only needed to speak and everything humanity needed was made: night and day; things that swim and things that fly; trees and plants; animals and people.

God spoke and we were given everything.

The Psalmist writes: “The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice; the voice of the Lord is a voice of splendor.”

It might make sense then to believe that listening to the voice of God is important.

Scripture, which we call the word of God, teaches us that God walked and talked with the first people in the garden, but when sin entered the world the voice of God became harder to hear.

It became a whisper, a mumble except to some that God chose to speak clearly to: the patriarchs and matriarchs who listened and followed what God’s voice told them, Moses who brought God’s law to the people, and then the prophets who spoke God’s word of righteousness to kings and to paupers.

God’s voice has spoken throughout our faith history, sometimes clearer than others. It has been heard and it has misheard. It has been welcomed and it has been rejected, but God’s voice continues to speak.

In today’s gospel, God speaks clearly and openly as Jesus comes up out of the waters of the Jordan River: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

God speaks and claims Jesus as the Beloved, the one who pleases.

God spoke and everything we needed was created. God speaks and everything that God wants us to know is proclaimed in the person of Jesus Christ whom the gospel writer John tells us is the Word.

God speaks creation into being and then God speaks love and grace into our lives through the person of Jesus, the Beloved, the one who pleases.

Jesus, the one who spoke God’s presence into our world through the cries and coos of a baby; Jesus, the one who spoke God’s justice into our world through the proclamation of God’s impartial grace; Jesus, the one who spoke God’s healing into the world through the laying on of hands of the sick; Jesus, the one who spoke God’s forgiveness into the world from the cross; Jesus, the one who spoke God’s love into the world through the empty tomb, this is the one who pleases God.

God’s pleasure is that we might hear the voice of power and splendor through the person of Jesus who preached peace and wholeness and lived and died so that we might know God.

Do you hear the voice of God because the Word of God, Jesus Christ, lives on through us in our baptism. We are baptized into Christ so that Christ is in us.

It is a strange and wonderful thing that it is the Word of God that changes ordinary water into the waters of baptism that wash us and unite us with Christ and one another. And being united with Christ means that God’s voice speaks to us from heaven as well, “These are my sons and daughters, Beloved, and pleasing to me.”

God speaks and we are recreated into beloved children. The powerful voice of splendor speaks to us that we are loved. This is the word that God wants us to know. Hear it clearly: we are the beloved of God. Jesus came into the world and went down into the waters and was hung up on a cross and rose up from the dead so that we might hear the voice of God in our lives each and every day.

God loves us, we belong to God. Amen.

Gifts

2008-01-05T21:06:00.000-08:00

The Feast of the Epiphany

A Sermon based on Matthew 2:1-12

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Typically we think of the season of Christmas as the season of giving, but it is on this day of the Feast of the Epiphany when we remember the gifts that were given to Christ child.

There is quite a bit of tradition concerned with this time. Tradition leads us to believe that three kings named, Casper, Melchior, and Balthazar visited the stable on the night that Jesus was born and presented three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But the truth is that we don’t know the actual names of the magi who visited Jesus. They were not kings, but astrological advisors to royalty. They arrived about two years after the birth of Jesus and visited them in a home, not the stable. And while there could have been three of them there could have been more.

I really like this story though; I even like the traditions that the church has assigned to it. I like that these magi come from other nations and that they typically look, in art, like they have come from other nations. And while I love that in Luke’s gospel it is shepherds who are the first to receive the good news of great joy there is something really cool about the fact that Matthew has gentile astrologers as the first worshippers of the King of the Jews.

The gifts that they bring him as tribute add to the story. They had value to the magi who might also have used the spices in divination which was part of their job. The gold, frankincense and myrrh had symbolic significance: gold was a precious metal and used to represent kings, frankincense which was used by priests in worship because when it burned the smoke from the incense rose to the heaven like prayer and myrrh which was used to anoint the dead. The gifts also had a practical use. When the holy family flees to Egypt they most likely used these gifts for money for their trip and to live for those years before it was safe to return home.

But there are even more subtle meanings to this story that make it one of my favorites.

Magi understood stars. Magi looked for and understood signs in the sky. A special star or other astrological event made sense to them. Matthew tells us that the Magi came from the east and that they saw the star in the east. The sign came to them where they were. God got their attention in a way that they understood and in the place where they were at.

Then there is the fact that the Magi first go to Herod. Why do they do that? Why didn't the star lead them directly to Jesus? It doesn't say that the star led them to Herod. My guess is that the star "told" them that a new king had been born. Then they assumed that if a new king had been born, he must come from the royal family. He would probably be born in the capital city. They assumed wrong. The star got their attention. The star gave them some information, but it led them to false assumptions.

The king they were looking for didn’t live in a palace, but in a little home in a little town and they found that place by talking to Herod’s religious scholars who told them about the prophet Micah who wrote, “But you, O Bethlehem, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.”

Then there is the fact that Magi in Jesus' day were not actually "wise men". They were not models of religious piety. They were magicians, astronomers, star-gazers, pseudo-scientists, fortune-tellers, horoscope fanatics; but Matthew makes them the heroes in his first story following Jesus’ birth. They are heretics who most likely came from the area which is now modern-day Iraq and which was once Babylon, a nation which had been an enemy to Israel.

The first worshippers of Christ descended from his people’s enemies.

There is nothing simple about this story about the men who visit the toddler Jesus and bring him gifts that would have suprised and awed his parents. There is nothing usual or ordinary or expected about the epiphany just as there is nothing usual or ordinary or expected about God or the gifts that God gives to us.

These stories of the birth and life and death and resurrection are unexpected.
We might think we know the stories of a birth in a stable and a visit by wise men teach us over and over that God comes in ways that we need most. That God comes in humble conditions, or in signs and stars, or on a cross should surprise and excite us.

As old as these stories are, as familiar as they are they come to us new each time as gifts meant to sustain us where we are, but they are also meant to take us out of the places where we are stuck. The magi saw the star and got up and travelled far away to find the one they would worship and then went home by another road.

This too has another meaning. Yes, they went a different way to avoid Herod, but what they saw and experienced changed them. The road home was not just a physically different road, but a different path through their lives.

In this season of Epiphany and God’s revelation my hope and prayer is that we all find God in unexpected and wonderous ways. I hope and pray that those ways are illumined by the light of Christ and that we aren’t just the recepients of the gift of God’s grace, but that we also are blessed with moments of sharing and giving that grace to others.

Amen.

God's plan

2007-12-29T19:25:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-12-24T11:43:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-15T20:34:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-08T20:36:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-01T19:12:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-24T21:24:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-21T12:34:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-11-17T20:14:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-10T19:22:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-03T19:05:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-10-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-08T20:04:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

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.

Sent

2007-07-08T08:30:00.000-07:00

A sermon for the sixth Sunday after Pentecost based on Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

In the name of Jesus; Amen.

In college the chaplain often let those of us on the seminary tract preach in chapel on Sunday mornings. It was great experience and gave those of us who took the opportunity to have a head start for later on.

The first Sunday that I was to preach I was very nervous and so I called my mom and asked her if she would drive the 1 ½ hours up to Muhlenberg to see me. She told me that I shouldn’t get my hopes up but that she would try. Which meant I shouldn’t expect her.

That year I lived in a house on campus right on the border of the neighborhood and the campus. Except for the red call box at the door it looked like every other house on the block. The morning I was supposed to preach I woke up and was on my way to get into the shower when the doorbell of the house rang.

I was very excited because I thought, “My mom did come.” So I rushed to the door in my nightgown, swung it open and there they were. Not my mom, the Jehovah Witnesses.

I don’t remember what they said when they saw me. I do remember sending them on their way by telling that that while I would happily take one of their magazines I couldn’t talk because I needed to get ready to go preach in church.

The Mormons showed up the next year. Two incredibly good looking young men; they were invited in by three of my female housemates: a Jew, a Muslim, and an atheist. They didn’t seem to mind hearing about the church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints because these guys were just that cute.

I don’t know if any of you have ever answered the door to have the person on the other side try to sell you Jesus but most people don’t seem to enjoy the experience.

And if I was to suggest to you all today that we were going to start going door to door telling people about Jesus my guess is I wouldn’t get too many takers.

In today’s gospel Jesus has just set his face towards Jerusalem. Everything he does now he does with the purpose of getting closer to this holy city where he knows he will die. Surrounded by his twelve disciples he appoints 70 more and sends them ahead of him into the towns and places he knows he will pass through on his way to Jerusalem.

He puts them into pairs and tells them to go knock on doors. 3”Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!' 6And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9cure the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.'”

Say what you will about the Mormon Church or the Jehovah Witnesses, they take this story seriously; they go out in pairs and spread a message that the kingdom of God is near.

I think we should take this story seriously too. The kingdom of God is near and while some people take this to mean that the end of the world is near, the reality is that God is near us every time we tell another person about Jesus. And while Jesus died a long time ago we proclaim that Jesus will come again. Every time we invite someone to church or offer to pray with them or enact a kindness we are preparing for Jesus’ salvation to come into this world.

One of the first things I learned about writing a sermon was that it should include two things. The first thing is the law. This is the thing that is supposed to point out our inability and our need for God. It’s supposed to show us our failings our faults and our sin. The second thing is the gospel. The gospel is supposed to show us God’s grace and love. It is supposed to remind us of the forgiveness that God has for us and the desire that God has for us.

And in this reading from Luke today the law can be summed up in one little phrase that Jesus speaks, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”

There are so many who don’t know what the love of Jesus really is. Too many people are coming to believe that the message the church speaks is one of judgment and hypocrisy. Too many people are coming to believe that Jesus only loves you if you have money, if you’re straight, if you’re conservative, if you vote a certain way.

Too many people are coming to believe that the church teaches ignorance and discrimination. Too many people believe that the message of Jesus is one of intolerance.

And yet, the message that Jesus tells the 70 to take out ahead of him is “Peace.” That’s the gospel. The message that Jesus wants his followers to spread ahead of him, while he is on his way to die in Jerusalem is peace.

The Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses might corner the market on going door to door, but we know the message that Jesus wants the world to hear is peace and as Lutherans we have a unique understanding of peace.

We know that peace is not something we earn, but something that God gives us freely and solely on the merit of what Jesus did for us in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago.

Sometimes there is a third part to a sermon, something that comes after the law and gospel. This is what you call the response.

The response is what happens after the law has driven you to see your need for God and the gospel has given you what you need from God. The response is what you do to say thank you. Usually it is an unwritten part of the sermon because it is what happens after the amen and everyone leaves the church.

The response is what happens after we are sent.

Amen.

The Spirit of God

2007-05-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

A sermon based on the readings for Pentecost: Acts 2:1-21 and Romans 8:14-17

In the name of Jesus; amen.

For several years now I have belonged to an on-line discussion board of other pastors from many different denominations from all over North America. I’ve never met any of these people in person, but despite that fact there have been some friendships formed and I have come to care very much for the people I have met on-line. And despite the fact that we are from different places, different denominations, different political backgrounds and climates we have become a community. It’s the wonder of the internet that such a thing could take place.

Well, yesterday as I sat down to write this sermon, I stopped first at this discussion site. I wanted to get some information about Pentecost and I knew I could find it there when I saw a post entitled: “Sad news. Death of AWG.” AWG was the screen name for a Methodist pastor who serves the church in Maine.

Someone else on the site had noticed that he hadn’t been around for awhile and did some searching for him. AWG, or Allan, had a web-site that he ran for congregations that had been wounded by clergy misconduct and had just finished a book on the topic. He and his wife also kept a small cabin as a retreat center for pastors and their families who needed time away to refresh and renew themselves. When our son was diagnosed with lead poisoning Allan offered it to Scott and me, but we never took him up on the offer.

Allan suffered from diabetes and a bad heart. His health had started to fail and according to his web-site he died on March 27th.

This might sound like a strange way to being a sermon for Pentecost. Pentecost is, after all, a festival day, a day of celebration and rejoicing. Today we remember the Holy Spirit coming with wind and fire. We sang, “Every time I feel the Spirit” one of the most joyful spirituals I know as our canticle of praise.

It seems a strange time to talk about someone dying, except that my heart is heavy from this news about this man I never met who I know prayed for me and offered me encouragement and sound advice when I asked for his support. And that isn’t because of the wonder of the internet, but because of the grace of God and the wonder of God’s Holy Spirit.

AWG had been my friend through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit might have worked through the computer, but the Spirit worked none-the-less because the Spirit works through relationships. Certainly the Spirit works in us as individuals, but the true purpose of the Spirit is to draw us together as a community and to bring us as individuals in community closer to God.

Those that gathered that first Pentecost shared a history with us as a people of faith. It began in a garden where life was perfect. It was a garden called into being by God’s own breath which in Hebrew is the same word as “spirit.” Ruah.

There we walked and talked with God, lived in relationship with God, until we decided perfection wasn’t perfect enough unless we could be like God and so we ate the fruit that the snake promised would make us know everything that God knew.

And out of the garden we were sent and as time passed we decided we wanted to be able to go where God was and so we built a tower. It was so tall that we were certain that soon enough it would reach heaven until God confused us by making us look different and talk different from one another.

The story of Adam and Eve being thrown out of the garden and the story of the tower of Babel were meant to explain how our relationships with God and our relationships with one another are broken relationships. But the story of Pentecost is a story of God putting the pieces of our relationships back together.

On Pentecost, the Spirit, the breath of God, breathes on us forming a new creation. It’s the same Spirit that is present in baptism where we are made children of God. And the Spirit works in us, pulling us together as God’s adopted children.

That pull happens in all sorts of strange ways and it binds us together with God and with people we haven’t even seen but are connected to by God’s love.

We are meant to be in relationship with God. God formed us in God’s own image so that we could be with God. The creator created us for the purpose of relationship. Not as playthings, or toys, or as a hobby, but as beloved children who love the one who made them.

We are also meant to be in relationship with one another. God saw that Adam was lonely and knew it wasn’t right. We were created to honor and care for one another. God sees that we struggle to understand and listen to one another and knows it isn’t right because we were created to honor and care for one another.

And the wonder of God making things right is that God decided to come and be with us. Jesus came as a real human being, lived with us, laughed and cried with us, and died for us. Then, when it was time for Jesus to return to God, God came to us again in the Spirit. No more trying to know everything God knows… no more trying to climb up to heaven… God came to us, to live in relationship with us.

My heart is weighed down by the death of a really wonderful person who I hardly knew, but I am filled with joy that God gave me such a relationship in the first place. And because of the Spirit my heavy heart soars with the knowledge that God is making all things right in the promise of the resurrection and in the promise of a tomorrow where even death cannot break relationships that God has called into being.

God’s purpose in us cannot be thwarted. Death, hell, and the devil have been defeated. The Spirit of God dwells with us and gathers us together in grief and in celebration.

Amen.

For AWG, rest in the peace of God.

Just Sing

2007-05-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

A sermon based on Acts 16:16-34

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Last week our sending hymn was “When Peace Like a River.” Now I don’t know about the rest of you who were here, but that hymn for me was the highlight of my Sunday last week. Y’all sang that song like you meant it.

When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blest assurance control, that Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and has shed his own blood for my soul.

He lives--oh, the bliss of this glorious thought; my sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to his cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Lord, hasten the day when our faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll, the trumpet shall sound and the Lord shall descend; even so it is well with my soul.

Now this was a hymn that was written in the 1800’s, but I imagine that the hymn that Paul and Silas sang in that first century prison that night after their arrest would have sounded just like “When Peace Like a River” especially the way we sang last week.

It’s one of my favorites by the way, as is the last hymn we will sing today, “Thine the Amen”. If you are at all like me then the words of many hymns are as sacred to you as scripture. In fact what Paul and Silas sang may very well have been scripture because the Psalms were used as hymns and were written with the intention of being sung.

Whatever it was that they were singing; those prisoners with them, in that jail, listened as they sang and prayed. They were so captivated by the words and music that even when there was a great earthquake so violent that it shook the foundations of the prison, they did not move. They were so captivated by the singing and praying that when the doors flew open and their chains were unfastened all of them remained.

And because of it the jailer and his whole family believed on the Lord Jesus and were baptized. The jailer, their captor, took them into his own home, cared for their wounds and fed them and he with his whole family was baptized without delay.

It’s a remarkable story. Paul and Silas are arrested, beaten with rods, thrown into the innermost cell in jail, their feet are fastened into stocks, and yet… they sing and pray and because of this a whole family comes to know Jesus.

Well, really it was God who did it, God who gave Paul and Silas the peace that let them sing so sweetly that this thing happened. It was God who caused the earthquake to happen, God who opened their prison doors and unlatched their chains. It was also God who worked in the hearts of the other prisoners, keeping them there to continue listening. And it was God who worked in the heart of the jailer as he washed the wounds Paul and Silas had received from their punishment, the horrible flogging they endured before being shackled; it was God who worked in the water of baptism.

God did it all.

God turned Paul and Silas’ captivity into something else. God recreated that moment in time so that the jailer might become captive to Christ’s love and Paul and Silas might become free of their prison.

It might seem as though the miracle would be that God caused an earthquake that shook open the prison, but the miracle was that God worked in the hearts of the characters in our story. God worked miracles in prayer and in singing.

God worked miracles in prayer and singing.

We aren’t told what Paul and Silas prayed and we aren’t told what hymns they sang, we are only told that they were praying and singing when God made the earthquake happen.

We don’t know if they were giving thanks or singing lament. We don’t know if they were asking to be rescued or singing about peaceful rivers. And I don’t much think it matters what prayers they were praying or what hymns they were singing. What matters is that in their captivity they prayed and they sang hymns and that God was listening.

God listens when we pray. The earth might not always shake after we say “amen”, but God listens. And God listens when we sing, even when we sing off key.

But God doesn’t just listen when we pray and when we sing. God frees us when we pray and God loosens the chains that bind us when we sing. And God connects us to others in our prayers and in our singing.

Paul and Silas did not pray secret prayers or sing silent hymns. Their words and music drew others in and caused them to listen and become a part of their experience of God.

God frees us only to connect us to others… to bind us in a new way to one another. It’s why we gather together to pray and to sing hymns out loud, because in doing so we become one with another.

So pray out loud and sing, even if it’s off key. God is listening to our voices and drawing them together.

Amen.

Our Mother, Christ

2007-05-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

A sermon based on John 14:23-29

Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, “I am going away, and I am coming to you.” If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.

In the name of Jesus; amen.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid.”

When my brother and I were little the prospect of my parents going out for the night meant that we would have a sitter. Now, I was a momma’s girl and I never liked the idea of my mother going out and leaving us to be cared for by someone else. But the worst part for me was going to bed at night when my mother wasn’t home and the person taking care of us wasn’t my father.

Home took on a new meaning without my mom in it especially at night. There were nights with sitters where I would lie in bed trying to fall asleep with a feeling that could only be described as homesickness. For a little girl it was an odd concept; to be at home and still feel homesick and yet, that is exactly how I felt without my mother to tuck me in and kiss me goodnight.

I never wanted my mom to go away even for a night because that feeling was awful.

Except there was one sitter who didn’t make me feel that way. Whenever she would come I knew we were in for a good time. Doris would play with us, let us watch our TV shows, make us cool fun food, let us stay up past our bedtime and tuck my brother and me in bed just like my mom did. If Doris was our sitter, I could handle the fact that my mom wasn’t there.

In today’s gospel Jesus tells the disciples that he is leaving. It continues a theme from last week’s gospel where Jesus says this:

“Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.’”

Maybe some of you will have a hard time with the concept of Jesus being like a mother, but the idea is not so far off. Jesus referred to himself as a mother hen wanting to gather her brood under her wings and at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries mystic Julian of Norwich wrote a series of visions in which she described Christ as mother.

She wrote:
“The Second Person of the Trinity is our mother in nature, in our substantial making. In him we are grounded and rooted, and he is our mother by mercy in our sensuality, by taking flesh.

“Thus our mother, Christ, in whom our parts are kept unseparated, works in us in various ways. For in our mother, Christ, we profit and increase, and in mercy he reforms and restores us, and by virtue of his passion, death, and resurrection joins us to our substance. This is how our mother, Christ, works in mercy in all his beloved children who are submissive and obedient to him….”

And of course it seems apropos for today to consider the idea.

Jesus is a mother about to leave her children in the care of another.

At this point in John’s gospel Jesus has told the disciples what is going to happen to him. They must be in a state of denial and despair; denial of the possibility that Jesus was really going to die and despair of the possibility that they would be without him.

I never wanted to believe that my parents would actually go out without me and my brother and I almost always worried that I would be ok without them.

Jesus promises that when he leaves his disciples someone else will come to take care of them. Our translation of this reading calls this other caretaker the Advocate, but the original word Jesus uses is Paraklete which I always find a funny sounding word. Is it a bird? Is it a pair of those shoes with spikes on the bottom that you wear to play sports?

Advocate is a good translation, but not perfect. It’s one of those words that loses the nuance when translated from the original. Other translations use, comforter, counselor, friend, and helper.

When we think of having an advocate we think of having a person who will speak on our behalf. It’s true, that’s what an advocate does, but the Advocate that the Father sends is meant to speak on behalf of Jesus.

The Advocate that the Father sends is meant to care for us on behalf of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is our babysitter, the one that takes care of us in Jesus’ absence. But the Spirit isn’t just any old babysitter. The Spirit is the one that teaches us everything we need to know about Jesus and reminds us what he told us. The Holy Spirit is the one who comforts us and takes away that feeling of homesickness when Jesus, our mother is not with us.

The Spirit is the one who gives us the peace of Christ in Christ’s absence.

Mothers are meant to love their children; not all do and not all do it well, but Jesus, our mother, loves us enough, more than enough so that even in this time when we wait for his return we are provided for out of that love.

It is the Paraklete who tucks us into bed at night and kisses us on the forehead, reminds us to say our prayers and tells us that we are deeply loved.

It is the Paraklete who tells us not to worry… mom will be home again soon and we don’t need to be afraid.

It is the Paraklete who holds us until Christ comes again to gather us up in his arms and hold us close.

We are cared for and loved by our mother Jesus and our Father in Heaven and the Paraklete, the Holy Spirit, Christ’s advocate and our caretaker.

Amen.

All you need is love

2007-05-05T21:55:00.000-07:00

A sermon based on John 13:31-35
When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, "Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

In the name of Jesus; amen.

There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game.
It's easy.

Nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time.
It's easy.

Nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.

All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

On the night that Jesus was betrayed he stood up from his meal and washed his disciples’ feet. He told them that he was going to be betrayed and as they questioned which one of them it might be Judas gets up and leaves. It is at this point that our gospel begins with events that put into motion Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion.

Judas goes out to alert the authorities of Jesus’ wherabouts and Jesus turns to his friends and tells them that the Son of Man and God have been glorified, are glorified, and will be glorified. Then he tells them where he is going, they cannot come, however, he gives them a new commandment:

Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

It wasn’t a small matter that night and it isn’t a small matter today. Throughout scripture, when asked what the most important commandment is, Jesus always responds with a command to love; love God, love your neighbor.

And this time Jesus puts a new emphasis on the command… to love as he loved.

Reading this gospel now, knowing that Jesus is about to show his love by going to the cross, might make some of us a little uncomfortable. Are we supposed to love by dying like Jesus did? No, and Jesus says this: “Where I am going you can not come.” But, Jesus is clear that we are to love others the way that he loved. Jesus who ate with tax collectors, welcomed children into his arms, and sat down with prostitutes wants us to love the way he loved.

In 1967 The Beatles performed “All you need is Love” in front of a world-wide audience via satellite. It was the first ever live global television link. Broadcast to 26 countries and watched by 350 million people (perhaps you were one of them) John and Paul, backed by Ringo and George, proclaimed a new slogan for the time: “All you need is love.”

With love, they asserted, all things could be accomplished. There was nothing you could do that couldn’t be done, all you needed was love to sing the song, learn the game, make the thing, save those in need of being saved, and be you, it was easy!

I don’t think they were entirely wrong. Love is a powerful thing. There is strength in love that cannot be matched in any other way. Knowing that we are loved can give us a whole new view of ourselves and our lives, but loving changes us and it makes the world different.

Jesus’ love changed the world, it undid death, it saved us. But it was the first part of the act. Jesus’ love wasn’t meant to end at his crucifixion or at his resurrection. It didn’t end with his ascension or with the coming of the Spirit. It was the first part of a continuous action. God was glorified, is being glorified, and will be glorified in the act of our being loved by Jesus and then loving others because of it.

But we are supposed to love the way Jesus did, in an unconditional way, in a way that is active and free of judgement. It’s not meant for just one group or kind of people. It isn’t meant for just the people we know and like.

This love that Jesus wants us to act out is love for one another. It’s love for those we like and dislike. It’s love for those we agree with and disagree with. It’s love for those we live with and those who live lives we will never experience.

And it’s an active love. It’s a love that spoke truth and kindness. It’s a love that embraced the sick and cuddled children. It’s a love that washed feet. It’s a love that valued the other regardless of race, gender, and social class and it’s meant to be a love that keeps on valuing the other regardless of politics, religion, and even sexual orientation.

When the Beatles did that broadcast it was a significant event in the age of technology. It was meant to make the world smaller, to bring people closer together. We live in a time not unlike that first century world where we are exposed to all kinds of people. But the world seems bigger despite the technology that was meant to make it smaller and we have found new ways of despising one another and acting out of that spite.

But love is meant to connect us and the love that Jesus gives us freely can do that and does that. It brings us together in our faith as brothers and sisters through baptism and then calls us to live out our faith in the world, not separate from those who are not like us, but with them in love.

If all we really need is love, then we have it. We have everything because Jesus loved us, loves us, will always love us and gives us enough to share with one another.

Amen.

The Lord is my shepherd

2007-04-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

A sermon based upon John 10:22-30

In the name of Jesus; amen.

In the name of Jesus; amen.

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

The Lord is my shepherd; it’s a strange notion for a modern day people. Shepherds aren’t real prevalent here in CT and in the 2 ½ years that I’ve lived here I have yet to see any sheep.

In college, my senior year, I had friends whose dorm room was in a house half way between the freshmen dorm and the fraternity houses on campus. Their room had a deck and so during the first few weeks of classes we would sit out on the balcony and watch as the freshmen, who weren’t supposed to be going to frat parties yet, march in herds down the path that would lead to them to the kegs of beer that waited for them. As they passed we would bah at them.

They were sheep without a shepherd going toward a drunken doom.

The Lord is my shepherd. There are still shepherds today; after all there are still sheep. But to say that the Lord is my shepherd seems an odd thing when you live in a city or a small town where there are no such things; where it isn’t common place.

Shepherds weren’t thought very highly of in Jesus’ day. They were dirty, menial workers. They weren’t highly educated, if they were educated at all… and yet Jesus chooses this image to describe himself.

It might have reminded the people of King David. He started as a lowly shepherd boy who slew a giant with a small stone and a slingshot, but most would have thought of dirty workers who spent their time out in the fields tending animals.

The Lord is my shepherd. The people gathered around him wanted to know who Jesus thought he was. Our translation has them asking “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” But the actual Greek is more like, “How long will you take away our life?” Or perhaps more accurately, “How long are you going to keep annoying us? Just say it, will you?”

Jesus’ reaction is to talk about his sheep, those who hear his voice and who follow him. Jesus did not need to come out and say that he was the Messiah, his teachings and actions had already said plainly who he was.

The Lord is my shepherd. Sheep and their shepherds have a unique relationship. I read a story once about a man who had gone to the Holy Land to meet and work with actual shepherds. He studied how they cared for the sheep, learned the words they used to call them, watched how they interacted with the sheep. Then he asked if he could try and the shepherd said go ahead. So the man called the sheep and they wouldn’t come. He tried over and over again, but he couldn’t get the sheep to listen to him. Finally he asked the shepherd what he was doing wrong and the shepherd told him. The sheep know my voice; they will only answer my voice.

When we proclaim the words of the 23rd Psalm we are claiming a similar relationship. If Jesus is our shepherd then we hear his voice and follow him. If Jesus is our shepherd then Jesus knows us, he can pick us out of the fold, call us by name and we will answer.

I joked about the freshmen at college. We really did bah at them because it seemed clear that without a shepherd guarding their every move they made their way straight into the den of wolves along fraternity row. But the fact of the matter is that even when we stray from our shepherd Jesus still knows us and calls out to us until we hear him again.

This is the promise of this gospel story. The Father has given us to Jesus the Shepherd and this is more important to Jesus than all else. It is so important that we are given eternal life so that Jesus can be our shepherd for all time.

Jesus is our shepherd in our times of want, when our souls are depleted, when death casts its shadow over us, and when we are surrounded by our enemies.

We are Jesus’ sheep and Jesus is our shepherd. This isn’t a casual relationship. Jesus knows us and in knowing us Jesus cares for us and protects us so that no one or thing can snatch us away from him.

The Lord is my shepherd is an assurance of being gathered and fed, protected and loved no matter what. Not even death can claim us because the shepherd places us in the hands of the Father.

In light of the events 2 weeks ago, I should mention other college students; students who with their teachers seemed snatched away by another angry college student. Jesus called to them too and led them through the valley of the shadow of death into the safety of God’s fields of life. They were not snatched away from the shepherd.

The Lord is our shepherd, who loves us, and shelters us from all evil. His voice calls to us. He knows each one of us. Listen for his voice and follow. Amen.

Hopeful Thomas

2007-04-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

A sermon based on John 20:19-31

In the name of Jesus; amen.

The famous preacher, Franklin Fry, once said, “I am 49% atheist.” (Or so I’ve heard.)

I find it a remarkable thing to only be 49% atheist because there are days that all I can do is cling to the one percent of me that still wants to believe. Those moments of doubt strike at weird times and at sensible times; they strike when I least expect them and when I am fully prepared for them, but they strike none the less.

Today’s gospel reading is an important story for the life of every Christian believer. It comes in 3rd right behind Christmas and Easter and in 4th place if you want to add Good Friday to the list. It’s an important story because it talks about disbelief, doubt and uncertainty and most Christians, even the most firm believers, struggle with those things from time to time.

John tells us that at least 10 of his followers were huddled together in a room and they were afraid. The events of two days before haunted them despite what Mary Magdalene had said, despite the fact that Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved had witnessed the empty tomb that very morning. Their lives were in danger and they had seen first hand what the consequences of capture and arrest would be.

Then Jesus comes, stands there in the room with them and says, “Peace be with you” and everything changes. They forget their fear, start to rejoice, Jesus fills them with the Holy Spirit and disappears.

Then Thomas shows up.

Now it was reasonable for Thomas to doubt. All the other disciples had doubted until Jesus showed up in that room that night. They had not believed when they had been told by Mary that she had seen the resurrected Jesus. Even Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved were skeptical when they had seen the empty tomb, all they knew for certain was that his body was now gone.

It was reasonable for Thomas to want some proof. Mary had gotten proof and so had Peter and the others. Jesus had appeared to Mary called her by name and then she believed. Jesus had come and stood in the room where the disciples were hiding and had shown them his hands and feet and the wounds that were there.

It was reasonable for Thomas to react just the way he did. It’s a crazy story and even if Thomas weren’t the most practical or the most skeptical of the disciples it would have been hard to believe. Even if he had been the most open-minded, the most faithful of the disciples it would have been hard not to doubt.

And for a week he must have struggled as his friends told and retold the story of what happened when he wasn’t there. It must have burned. It must have eaten him up inside. Either they were all crazy or he had missed it. Either they were playing a sick joke on him or Jesus hadn’t thought he was important enough for a personal appearance.

All week he continued to live in Good Friday’s shadow. Whether he wanted to believe what the others said or not he hadn’t been a part of what had taken place that night in that room; he hadn’t seen what they had seen.

Ever wonder why Jesus chose then to appear? Wouldn’t he have known the Thomas wasn’t in the room? Do you think he did it on purpose? Because I think he did. I think Jesus purposefully waited until Thomas wasn’t in the room that night. I think he timed it until he knew that Thomas wouldn’t be there because at best all of us are 49% atheists.

At best all of us doubt sometimes. At best we live in the shadow of Good Friday and there are days that shadow lets in very little light.

The story of Thomas is our story. We weren’t in the room that night and there are plenty of reasons to doubt the validity of the claim the others made. There are a million and one reasons to not believe 2,000 years later to add to the greatest reason Thomas had: he had seen Jesus dead!

And yet, Thomas finds himself back in that room. A week goes by and he is there with the others, the same ones who told him this crazy story of seeing his friend resurrected.

And that’s the key. As easy as it might be to doubt it’s just as easy to give up and walk away, but Thomas didn’t. He was still there a week later.

When you doubt, and you will… don’t walk away… don’t give up. We call him doubting Thomas, but we should call him hopeful Thomas because even in his doubt and unbelief he continued to hope that the story he had been told was true.

And it is true. Believe it or not. Jesus died and then was raised. And Jesus will come to you, even if you have locked the doors, even if you doubt. Jesus will offer you peace that shines light into our Good Friday world. It happens.

Do not let go of hope when you doubt, but continue to gather with the community of faith, continue to pray, continue to question, the peace of Christ will come to you.

It did for hopeful Thomas.

Amen.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

2007-04-07T20:05:00.000-07:00

A sermon for Easter 2007 based upon

Luke 24:1-12

In the name of Jesus; amen.

What were they remembering as they made their way to the tomb?

Were they remembering the way to go? Which turns to make, what landmarks to pass? Were they remembering the ritual that they were about to perform? Did it remind them of other times they had done it?

Were they remembering the list of spices that they carried? Had they remembered to bring everything? Was something missing?

What were these women remembering as they watched the sun come up on their way to his grave?

Joanna had been a financial supporter, the wife of Herod’s steward she had supplied money for his ministry. Was she remembering putting the coins in his hand, the look in his eye as he thanked her?

And Mary, the mother of James, one of his disciples; what was she remembering? Was it the first time her son told her about this man he was going to follow? Did she remember worrying back then what might happen when she let him go?

What about Mary Magdalene? Was she remembering that moment when he had freed her from the demons that haunted her? Was that the moment stuck in her memory… or was it the moment when she had watched him lifted up on the cross? Was it the moment that she saw that he was dead?

What were they remembering as they went to the place they were sure he would be?

Memory is a funny thing. Sometimes it can sneak up on us unawares and make us giggle or bring a tear to our eye. It can bring on feelings of guilt once thought quelled or make us crave food we haven’t tasted in years.

There are memories I wish that I could retain and memories I wish I could forget. There is an incompleteness to memory. It only shares with us bits and pieces of what really happened. I always find it interesting to reminisce with old friends because I am amazed at the things that my mind has retained and the things it has forgotten.

Our memories as much as our past shape us; they create who we are and help us process who we want to be.

As they walked to the tomb these women’s memories were changing them. This is what happens when someone dies especially someone we hold dear, someone we have supported, spent time with, laughed and cried with. Because when someone dies you become uniquely aware that your connection to them is now only through memory.

They believed all they had left was yesterday and the time before that.

Whatever they were remembering, they had forgotten something.

When they came to the tomb they found that the stone had been rolled away. They had remembered that it had been put there. Certainly they remembered the size and shape of it; they must have remembered the sound of it grinding against the rock behind it as it was moved to seal the tomb. It must have been a noise etched into their memory, one that made them cringe when they thought of it.

They remembered that his body had been wrapped and placed in the cave. They had watched it happen… every agonizing moment, but when they went inside he wasn’t there and they were perplexed.

It wasn’t like they remembered? Had they gotten it wrong? Taken a wrong turn? Entered the wrong tomb?

“This is the place, isn’t it?”

And then suddenly two men in dazzling white appear and they are terrified… “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

Where were their memories then? Because they remembered him dead… dead and gone. That was their last memory of him. He had been taken down from the cross, wrapped in a shroud and put in a tomb… there were no other memories.

“Remember… remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”

Then they remembered… they remembered his words, the thing that he had told them and suddenly memory turned into hope and hope turned into joy. And it didn’t matter that the others found it an idle tale… their memories had been transformed into a vision of the future.

See, Easter isn’t about memories, but how our memories are healed and made new. Easter heals our memories.

It heals our memories of guilt and sin… because Jesus died and was resurrected so that we have forgiveness.

It heals our memories of sorrow and loss… because Jesus died and was resurrected so that we have the surety of newness and reunion.

It heals our memories of brokenness and pain… because Jesus died and was resurrected so that we might have joy in our lives with him.

Good Friday is a memory, but Easter is a present reality. He is not dead, but is risen!

Do not forget.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! Amen!

Good Friday

2007-04-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

READING John 19:16b-25a
16b So they took Jesus; 17and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. 18There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. 19Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." 20Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. 21Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews,' but, 'This man said, I am King of the Jews.'" 22Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written." 23When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. 24So they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it." This was to fulfill what the scripture says,
"They divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots."
25aAnd that is what the soldiers did.

The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all:
for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

In the name of Jesus; amen.

We had a phrase in high school, when we would see people being intimate with one another out in public. You know what I’m talking about when I say being intimate with one another out in public… making out at the mall or touching that went beyond holding hands out on the street. The phrase we would use was: “PDA” or “public displays of affection.”

It wasn’t something we needed to see except maybe in an R rated movie or on a soap opera. Sometimes one of us would be brave enough to say out loud, “Get a room” and hope the couple would get the hint that their behavior was inappropriate.

There are some things that aren’t meant for public consumption. There are some things that should be kept behind closed doors. There are some things that should not be publicized for the world to see.

“16b So they took Jesus; 17and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. 18There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. 19Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." 20Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.”
There were a lot of Jews in Jerusalem; it was around the time of the festival and Jews from all over the known world passed by the place where Jesus hung. They would have been people who spoke: Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. And there weren’t just Jews using that road. Other people, gentiles, would have found occasion to travel outside the city as well.

They would have seen the spectacle. Mothers would have shielded their children’s eyes as they passed, Fathers would have hurried their families along so that the image would have been blurred. Some would have stopped or slowed down, the way we do when we pass an accident on the road.

They would have read the sign, seen the blood, smelled the smell of death and sweat. Some would have taunted, others would have cried, and still others would have been indifferent. But they would have been witnesses and they would have known that the charge against this dying man was that he was the King of the Jews.

It was a public claim and a public death. It didn’t happen in a secluded room or in a cell deep within prison walls. It didn’t happen in an R rated movie or on daytime television when the kids are in school.

This was a PDA, a public display of affection.

Last week, I found myself explaining Salem’s Palm Sunday service to my almost 8 year old daughter. Our service is a little different than others. We focus, not on the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, but on Jesus’ passion and death. The service begins on a happy note; we wave our Palm branches and process around the church singing, “All Glory Laud and Honor to you redeemer King!” But soon enough the story of Jesus’ betrayal and death becomes more and more evident. We finish the service in silence and reflection after singing, “Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?”

“Why do we have to have services about bad things? She asked.

There is a reason why we don’t like PDA’s. They are personal moments, intimate things and we especially don’t want our children to see them, because it exposes them to stuff they aren’t meant to understand quite yet.

Except for this… except for this PDA of Jesus’ death.

“Well,” I said. “We want to remember this thing that Jesus did for us. We want to remember that Jesus loved us so much that he was willing to let bad things happen to him so that we would know that when bad things happen to us that he understands and that he is with us no matter what we go through.”

But there is more to it than just that. Jesus’ death was a public event because it was meant to be witnessed. We are meant to be witnesses to his suffering, to be pulled in and gawk at it, to experience it. It wasn’t meant to be a secret event that is whispered about or buried on the back page of the papers. We aren’t supposed to hurry past it or shield our eyes and try to forget.

This PDA is supposed to be public; this intimate act is supposed to be seen.

And it’s not just so that we get the idea that Jesus suffered for us. Hanging on the cross with Christ were all our sins and we are to be witnesses of that too.

Jesus aired out our dirty laundry on the cross and then washed it clean with sweat and blood. Publicly, Jesus took our sins, our failures, our guilt and claimed them on the cross. He let them be nailed up there with him for all the world to see and then changed them with each drop of blood and every agonizing breath.

Publicly, God recreated us in love. God threw arms around us and kissed us for all the world to see; God touched us intimately and proclaimed, “This is my love.”

It couldn’t be hidden, locked up in some room, shown only in secret when no one else was around. Jesus’ death was a public display of affection for the whole world.

Be a witness to it, let it pull you in, experience it, and live it publicly.

Amen.

Maundy Thursday

2007-04-06T07:44:00.000-07:00

a sermon based upon

John 13:1-16; 31-35

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Last week my father called and asked when I was going to do his feet. It has become a tradition since coming to CT that I set aside some time to give my dad a pedicure each year before Maundy Thursday.

Now I love getting pedicures; it is an indulgence and when I have the ability to go and have my feet done I jump at the chance. So I try very hard to give my dad a nice pedicure when he asks because I know that he won’t indulge in going to a salon to have a professional do it for him.

There are some people who don’t like to have their feet touched. Feet are a funny thing. Maybe they don’t like how their feet look and so they are embarrassed to have someone else see them or maybe they are ticklish and so they can’t stand to have someone else touch them without breaking into laughter.

And so, this night is an odd night when we pull out a basin and invite everyone to come forward with bare feet and have someone else pour water over them and then take a towel to dry them off. It’s not quite a pedicure… but it is still a strange ritual inserted right in the middle of the service where we remember Jesus’ last meal with his friends.

If you are uncomfortable with the idea of coming forward, that’s ok. Like I said, there are people who just don’t like to have their feet touched and no one should worry about what others will think if they come forward, sit in the chair, and get their feet wet or not.

It was a strange thing that Jesus did. Right in the middle of supper he gets up, takes off his robe, ties a towel around his waste, gets a basin, and going from disciple to disciple begins to wash their feet.

But it wasn’t that their feet were dirty and Jesus just couldn’t stand it anymore so he decided to wash them himself. Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. And having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end…

Their feet were already clean. Feet were washed upon entering a home to take off the dirt and sand that they had walked through outside. Their hands would also have been washed… it was part of the meal-time ritual to wash one’s hands before eating.

This wasn’t something that Jesus had to do for them… it was something he did because he loved them. He was their teacher, their master, the one who they followed and suddenly there he was touching their feet, washing them, and drying them right in the middle of supper.

I’m sure they were all perplexed and a bit surprised, but it is Peter who speaks up… who brings up the weirdness of it. “Are you going to wash my feet?”

His feet were clean, they didn’t need to be washed and certainly he didn’t want Jesus to wash his feet. He should be washing Jesus’ feet if there was going to be any foot washing… but Jesus insists.

And something happens… Jesus is no longer master, but servant and friend. A new relationship begins for those gathered that night. They might not understand it at first, but later they will when they discover that the tomb is empty and Jesus stands, resurrected, in front of them. Later, they will understand why their feet were washed when Christ gives them a new mission to preach the gospel to the world.

Later they will understand that Jesus was sent to care for them so that they might care for others… that he loved them so that they might love others just as he loved them.

It was an odd thing to wash their feet right in the middle of supper. But Jesus did it so that they might understand their need to feel loved by him and to not resist that need or his love. We need the love of Jesus… love that is poured out in the water of washing and in the bread and cup of his supper. It is love meant to give us a part of him and to make us a part of his love.

It is love that makes us friends: friends of Christ and also friends to others, to those Christ has called us to serve.

Jesus’ love changes us. It makes us bare our feet and extend our hand. It makes us stop resisting our need for mercy, forgiveness, and love. And it fills us with a desire to serve, not because we are servants or less than others, but because it transforms our relationships with others.

This night, filled with odd traditions and a meal of ordinary stuff that becomes Jesus’ own body and blood is a night of transforming love, love that gets into us and wants us to share it with others.

Let it transform you, even if you don’t get your feet wet. Let it transform you as you come to the table. Let it transform you into a friend. Amen.

Lent 5

2007-03-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

A sermon based upon John 12:1–8

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Maybe it was purchased for Lazarus when he was sick and dying, or it was the family’s stash for use when one of them died. It was a good spice to use for the dead, because it was so strong and fragrant and covered the smell. Perhaps it was money in the bank. Expensive and pricey it could have been sold in the event of an emergency or turned into cash for other investments. Or it could have been used for retirement or as a dowry for marriage.

Whatever reason this family had it, it was of great value to them. It might have even been the single most valuable thing this family owned… and there she was, at his feet, pouring it over them… every last drop.

Good God, what was she doing? The oil, worth a year’s salary, dripped from his toes, his ankles, the soles of his feet and she was wiping them with her hair.

A stunned silence permeated the air alongside the smell of it; it filled the whole house and their sinuses. It got into their clothes, in their hair, and on their skin. It was the smell of death and love mixed together.

Have you ever been hit by a strong, unmistakable smell? One that filled your nose and took over your senses? One that pulled you so deeply into the moment in which you were in that it stopped you cold?
They say that the sense of smell is perhaps the strongest of our senses. We taste almost as much with our nose as we do with our tongue. The sense of smell has the ability to weaken our stomachs, elate us, and pull us into memories of things we have long forgotten. And this smell would have filled their very souls.

It was a sensual, intimate, extravagant act that Mary performed; done right in the middle of dinner, in front of all the company. As a custom, people ate while reclining; everyone would have seen what she was doing and if their view was obscured so that they missed seeing it then they would have smelled it, put down their food, stopped talking in the middle of what they were saying and watched as Jesus looked at Mary wiping his feet with her hair.

What happened in that moment between them was deep and emotion-filled… it was a holy and personal moment… and then Judas opened his mouth.

John, the gospel-writer/story teller tells us his motives: Judas is a thief who steals from the common purse which has been entrusted to his care by Jesus and the other disciples.

Judas saw Mary wasting what could have fetched a large amount of money, at least 300 denarii, what might be equivalent to about $2,000 today. It was money he could have used to line his own pockets and so he spoke out against her actions. “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” Maybe he was a thief, but it’s quite possible that he wasn’t the only one in the room with that or a similar thought.

Jesus talked a lot about the poor. He often told people that they should give all they had to the poor. Jesus criticized greed and waste. And there he was… letting this woman pour out her family’s most valued asset onto his feet. There he was, letting her wipe it away with her unbound hair.

John does not share Mary’s reason for doing what she did that night at dinner, but Jesus does, “Leave her alone.” He tells Judas and the rest. “She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Maybe she knew. Mary was a listener so maybe she had heard him talk about what was about to happen when he reached Jerusalem. What she did know was that not long before he had arrived at her home and called her brother out of his grave and so maybe this was her way of saying thank you, or I love you, or I know you are going to die and I have to do something for you that matters, really matters.

Whatever her intentions, she poured out for him her thing of greatest value and it filled the room with its scent and lingered.

The extravagance of love lingers. It lingered with Jesus, who on the night he was betrayed stooped down and washed the feet of his friends. It lingered with Jesus and mixed with his sweat as he carried the cross to the place of his death. It lingered with Jesus in his dying breath. It lingered with him in the tomb where the extravagance of God’s love did something that lingers with us today.

Can you smell it? The smell of God’s grace filling the house, entering our nasal passages, seeping into our pores?

Can you smell what extravagant love can do; extravagant love for God, love that unbinds our hair, and our senses, and brings us to the feet of Jesus?

Love that says, thank you, and I love you, and I know that you died out of love for me.

Be extravagant with your love; do not hold it back. Jesus says that Mary bought the perfume for the day of his burial, but she doesn’t wait until he is dead to use it. Be extravagant with your love; pour it out for others to smell and taste and see and hear and feel.

For God is extravagant with love for us, love that lingers and lasts for all time.

Amen.

Lent 4

2007-03-25T11:53:00.000-07:00

This week's sermon was preached without a manuscript.

Here are two versions of the story that Jesus told:

Eugene Peterson's The Message:
Gospel Luke 15:1–3, 11b–32
1 By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. 2 The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends." 3 Their grumbling triggered this story.

11 Then he said, "There was once a man who had two sons. 12 The younger said to his father, 'Father, I want right now what's coming to me.' 13 It wasn't long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. 14 After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. 15 He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. 16 He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. 17 "That brought him to his senses. He said, 'All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. 18 I'm going back to my father. I'll say to him, Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; 19 I don't deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.' 20 He got right up and went home to his father. When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 The son started his speech: 'Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son ever again.' 22 "But the father wasn't listening. He was calling to the servants, 'Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We're going to feast! We're going to have a wonderful time! 24 My son is here - given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!' And they began to have a wonderful time. 25 "All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day's work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. 26 Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. 27 He told him, 'Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast - barbecued beef! - because he has him home safe and sound.' 28 "The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen. 29 The son said, 'Look how many years I've stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? 30 Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!' 31 "His father said, 'Son, you don't understand. You're with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours - 32 but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he's alive! He was lost, and he's found!'"

New Revised Standard Version:
Gospel Luke 15:1–3, 11b–32
1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."
3 So he told them this parable: 11 There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands." ' 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22 But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe — the best one — and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate.
25 Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' 28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' 31 Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'"

Lent 3

2007-03-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

A sermon based upon Isaiah 55:1–9 and Luke 13:1–9

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Jesus was surrounded by a large crowd and preaching to his disciples about how one should live their life. It was a sermon filled with warnings about being prepared and being faithful and as he was preaching some in the group spoke up and mentioned an incident in which Pilate had squashed an uprising in Galilee and blood had been spilled.

We aren’t told exactly what they said to Jesus, but by his response we might imagine something like this was said: “They must have been really awful sinners to have something like that happen. Wasn’t that terrible? They really must have deserved it; don’t you think so, Jesus?”

There was no question that what had happened was a terrible thing and when terrible things happen it’s a natural thing to want to justify why it happened, but listen to what Jesus says:

“Do you think,” he asks, “that because these Galileans suffered in this way that they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them – do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.”

In the recent past there have been some great large-scale tragedies. Who can forget the towers that fell on 9/11? Or the tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004? Or hurricane Katrina that destroyed the gulf coast? Or the killing of Amish girls in a one-room school house?

Each time great tragedies occur in the world or in our personal lives we wonder why.

The people who mention the Galilean tragedy have a theory on the why: they were sinners and deserved it.

We shouldn’t be surprised; we’ve heard similar theories associated with recent tragedies. For instance did anyone hear the theory that New Orleans was wiped out because it was a city of sin and God wanted to punish those living there so he sent Katrina?

The people who approach Jesus wanted to point fingers, to have a good excuse for why such an awful thing would have happened, but they also wanted something else. They wanted some sort of assurance that they weren’t like those who had been killed.

What Jesus tells them is that tragedies happen and they happen without reason sometimes and they happen to people no matter what kind of sinner they are. Sometimes bad things happen to good people and sometimes bad things happen to bad people and so we can’t judge a person’s sinfulness based upon the blessings or curses they receive.

That is the first part. Here’s the second: life is short and we can’t assume that everything will be great for us just because.

Jesus tells a parable about a fig tree. For three years the owner of the fig tree comes looking for fruit on it and finds none, so he tells the gardener to cut it down. But the gardener pleads for it and offers to take special care of it in hopes that it will produce for its owner.

The people wanted Jesus to talk bad about those whom Pilate killed, but instead of Jesus getting pulled into their finger-pointing talk he pointed the finger back at them. Those who suffered tragedy were not worse sinners than others who deserved to be punished but we are all sinners for whom tragedy may very well occur.

Jesus tells them to repent. Jesus tells us to repent because our time is limited. Do it now, because there may not be a later. But don’t be confused, repentance is not a one time act and then everything is ok. Jesus isn’t suggesting we just say that we are sorry and ask for forgiveness. Instead Jesus wants us to live repentant-ly; he wants us to live fruitfully.

Isaiah says it this way: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen so that you may live.”

Living a repentant life, a fruitful life is living a life of constant desire for God. It isn’t esoteric or metaphoric, it is physical and real. It is purposeful life lived not in judgment of others but in service to God through our relationships and care of others.

In other words… we aren’t meant to do good in order to be saved or avoid tragedy, but in order to be fruitful. If God has given us more time it is for the purpose of fruitfulness.

Jesus wants us to be fruitful which means constantly turning to God for good things rather than wasting our money and labor for that which does not satisfy.

And we have been given another year to do this. That’s grace… unbelievable grace. God so desires our fruitfulness that we are given more time to produce, but time isn’t the only thing we are given. Jesus, the gardener makes a promise to fertilize the ground in which we are planted… to give us that which we need to be fruitful in the time we have been granted.

And why does God want us to be fruitful? Because a fruitful life is a full life. It is a life of rich things that satisfy instead of things that leave us thirsty and hungry. It is a life where tragedy and sin do not have the final word in our lives and this is the desire that God has for us. God desires our lives to be full and filled with good things. God wants to provide the thirsty with water and those with nothing enough to buy wine and milk… drinks of celebration and goodness.

And so we have been given another year and fertilizer; the things that help us to grow. Be fruitful and repentant and may the grace of God bless you with fullness and new life. Amen.

Lent 2

2007-03-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

A sermon based upon Luke 13:31–35

In the name of Jesus; amen.

At that very same hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.”

Jesus was causing trouble and he was doing it on the Sabbath. He was preaching about God and had just healed a woman who had a physical ailment which had bent her over for 18 years. He had called the leader of the synagogue a hypocrite and the people were eating him up when suddenly some Pharisees come and tell him to run away.

At first it might seem as though they were trying to help Jesus by warning him of impending danger. This was the same Herod who had beheaded Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist and his father was the one who had slaughtered innocent children in hopes of killing the baby Jesus. Herod might very well have been after him and would have had the means necessary to kill him.

It sounds as though they were trying to help.

Listen again to what Jesus tells them upon hearing his life is in danger: “Go and tell that fox or me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’”

Jesus doesn’t sound too afraid, does he? In fact he sounds remarkably unafraid. We know why. Herod is not a threat; Jesus is on a mission that will take him to Jerusalem where he knows death is not going to come from Herod, but from the people who hand him over to be crucified.

He calls Herod a fox; an animal not considered the most cunning or ferocious in Jesus’ day. Herod is more of a nuisance than a threat to Jesus.

Maybe those Pharisees who come to warn Jesus were worried about him, but more likely they were worried about the trouble that Jesus was causing. If Herod was out to get him then the Pharisees didn’t want the trouble that would come with Herod’s desire to hurt him. Not that Jesus wasn’t already causing trouble, because he was; and if they got him to leave well… that might be better for them in every respect, or so they thought.

After calling Herod a fox Jesus makes it clear that he is headed for Jerusalem and he is going there because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” he laments, “the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

The Pharisees want Jesus to move along or change his message. They were happy with the status quo and Jesus was messing it up for them.

Jesus calls Herod a fox, but he likens himself to a mother hen wanting to gather her chicks under her wings. It’s a beautiful metaphor… Jesus as mother.

Hens gather their brood under their wings when there is danger from a predator. They call out to them and make their wings into a protective dome with an opening large enough for all of them to gather under.

This is Jesus, a stark contrast to the fox Herod who wants to kill him and the Pharisees who want him to abandon them. Jesus’ desire is to offer shelter and protection to unwilling chicks.

Herod was the king of the Jewish people, but he was not a religious man. He was too concerned with his own well-being and status to give much credence to God. He was king at the pleasure of Rome and he served them… not the people. And the Pharisees, while religious, did not want to upset the boat. They liked their rules and their notions about holiness.

The message that Jesus preached upset their world… it was an upsetting message not because it was exclusive, but because it was too inclusive. It let too many people in under its wings and called them to reconsider too closely what made a person blessed.

Jesus’ message was for all; his motherly wings large enough to gather the whole world to his breast, but it meant a different life and that scared people.

It still scares people… this idea of being gathered under Jesus’ motherly wings. It’s why there are churches out there growing by leaps and bounds who do not display a cross anywhere or anytime in their worship. It’s why there are churches out there growing by leaps and bounds that preach that Jesus wants us to be rich and drive expensive cars. It’s why there are churches out there growing by leaps and bounds that tell its members that only they will be saved while the rest of humanity will be left behind to suffer eternal torment.

And yet, Jesus wants to gather us in and shelter us… all of us under the message of God’s love and grace like a mother hen gathers her chicks together under her wings.

This is why he made his way to Jerusalem even though he knew that Jerusalem meant his death; because the cross is meant to gather us and shelter us. The cross is meant to embrace us, not in death, but in new life. The cross is meant to hold us and cover us with all the blessings of God.

These wings of Jesus, this cross of Christ, is for all… be willing and be sheltered. Amen.

Lent 1

2007-03-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

A sermon based upon Deuteronomy 26:1–11

In the name of Jesus; amen.

From our bulletin’s introduction today:

The Lenten discipline is a spiritual struggle. In the confession of sins we acknowledge that we struggle and seek God’s strength. Jesus struggles with us, and so we are sustained. Help is as close as a prayer and a confession that we cannot do it on our own. God gives life and its fruit, and so all we offer in worship is giving back what was first given us by grace.

The Lenten discipline is a spiritual struggle. We begin with Ash Wednesday where we are reminded of our death and sin and as the week begins anew we hear about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.

Lent always begins this way as if the readings are trying to discipline us into the season. We are mortal, sinners, and we are tempted they tell us.

Lent can feel like it is a real drag and the traditions that go along with this season are an equal drag. Traditionally Lent is a time of purging. We give things up for Lent; we stop eating meat and chocolate and we pack up the “A” word in a box to be opened at Easter. Our spiritual struggle takes on physical attributes.

Lent is a time of giving things up and depriving ourselves of those things we really enjoy… at least that’s what people say.

To be honest I’ve never been fond of the idea of giving something up for Lent. After the noon worship service on Wednesday I walked through the hall downstairs, ashes all over my forehead, and was bombarded by questions from some of the day care children. “Why do you have marker all over your face?” I was asked. Edwin, one of the teachers explained that I had ashes on my face, not marker. “Why do you do that? What’s Ash Wednesday?”

“It’s the first day of Lent,” I told them. “And we put ashes on our face to remind us how much we need God.”

Edwin then joked with me that he was giving up work for Lent. “Can’t do that,” I told him. “Ok,” he said, “then I’ll give up school.” (Edwin is studying to become a teacher.) “Instead of not doing something,” I suggested. “Why not do something positive and good for Lent?” He smiled and went back to playing with the kids in the hall.

The Lenten discipline is a spiritual struggle, but it has tangible consequences. It doesn’t matter if you struggle with giving something up or adding a new discipline; the practices of Lent are meant to test us until we understand that without God we can do nothing.

In our first reading this morning from Deuteronomy I am struck by the amount of times that the reader is reminded of what God has given. Six times some form of the word “give” is used in the eleven verses we read. And each time it refers to what God has given the people.

It is an interesting coincidence that this is our first reading because throughout this Lenten season we will be talking about stewardship and stewardship begins with the understanding that all we have comes from God.

The ancient people, including those Hebrews who celebrated the rituals explained in Deuteronomy, would take a portion of their first crops and sacrifice them to the gods, or in the case of the Hebrews… to God.

If you’ve ever heard the term: “First Fruits” this is where it came from. It was the practice of giving to God the first of their abundance. Even more ancient cultures would take this practice so far as to sacrifice their first born son. (Do you remember the story of Abraham almost sacrificing Isaac?)

It was an act of pure, unadulterated faith to do something like this. To sacrifice your first crop, even a portion of it meant that there was that much less for the rest of the year. What if there was a famine? What if some natural disaster took place and destroyed all the rest that they counted on?

And yet, they did it. They did it because ultimately they knew that the land they lived on had come from God. It was God’s and all they received from it was from God.

In grade school I had a teacher who told us a story about how her daughter wanted to run away from home. She told her that if she wanted to run away that she could go right ahead, but that she couldn’t take anything with her… no toys, no clothes, no nothing, because everything that her daughter had belonged to her. Yes, she had given those things to her daughter, but ultimately they belonged to her because she had been the one to go shopping and to pay for them.

Yes, those crops were the peoples’ but ultimately they belonged to God because God had been the one to give them to the people.

When we talk about stewardship, we are following the model of first fruits; understanding that all we have really ultimately belongs to God and so we give God the first of our gifts, trusting that God will provide us with all that we need.

I want to read to you again that little introduction from your bulletin:
The Lenten discipline is a spiritual struggle. In the confession of sins we acknowledge that we struggle and seek God’s strength. Jesus struggles with us, and so we are sustained. Help is as close as a prayer and a confession that we cannot do it on our own. God gives life and its fruit, and so all we offer in worship is giving back what was first given us by grace.

Stewardship is also a spiritual struggle and it’s easy to mistake stewardship as similar to the practice of giving something up for Lent. It can be a real drag when we think of it that way. But stewardship is not about giving-up something or depriving ourselves. Rather it is a struggle to understand that God has given us so much, but that ultimately it still belongs to God.

After the people sacrificed their first fruits to God they celebrated. Verse 11 says, “Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.”

The practice of stewardship resulted in celebration.

Lent, for as somber as it is, is not a season of mourning, but a process that takes us to a celebration of the gifts that God has given us.

All we have comes from God, all we have is God’s. As we struggle with this, may we also find reason upon reason to celebrate it.

Amen.

Ash Wednesday

2007-03-25T11:15:00.000-07:00

A sermon based upon Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21

In the name of Jesus; amen.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

This season of Lent will be following a theme of stewardship. Now stewardship is considered the practice of caring for the gifts that God has given us. And we will be using a tagline throughout these 40 days: “Walking with Jesus.”

It sounds like a nice fit, we often refer to Lent as a journey; a journey towards the cross and Easter. And who better to walk this journey with than Jesus while we self-examine, repent, pray and fast, give sacrificially, and do works of love, the disciplines of Lent.

And there is something about this season, when we focus on the sacrifice that Jesus made, that should call us to reflect on our stewardship. Often we associate this word, stewardship, with how much money we give to the church, but I want us to reconsider that notion.

Stewardship is not just about money and good stewardship is not just about what we put in the offering plate. Stewardship is walking with Jesus in every aspect of our lives.
Ash Wednesday focuses on two things: our mortality and our sinfulness. Today is meant to take us through a process of recognizing our need for God. We are mortal, we are going to die and we are sinful by nature. There is little we can do to avoid either thing. We can eat right, exercise, be in the best of health and still we die. We can try our best to be good, to not hurt others, to follow the law and yet we are bound to sin in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.

Sin and death are unavoidable, but God recreates our mortality into a promise of resurrection and God recreates our sinful selves into forgiven saints.

This is our treasure; this gift of forgiveness and resurrection are the vessel out of which all our blessings flow. This gift from God is our well-spring from which come all the good things we are given.

It is the gift of forgiveness and resurrection that we are called to be stewards of. We are meant to care for this gift and use it to the best of our abilities. We are meant to share it with others. We are meant to give some of it away, save some of it, and use the rest for daily living. This gift of forgiveness and resurrection is meant to be cared for wisely.

It is a gift that provides for our greatest needs and God gives it to us without a second’s hesitation. We are forgiven and we are resurrected; Jesus made this a certainty in his death on the cross.

It might sound like a strange thing. How do we become stewards of forgiveness and resurrection? How do we give it away, save it, and use it for daily life? I think we do it the same way in which we are stewards of any gift from God by trusting that we will not run out, by trusting that God will continue to provide for our needs. We do it by recognizing that forgiveness and resurrection are resources that cannot be kept in a box up on a shelf, but need to be taken out and used.

We become good stewards of this resource when we realize that God intended it for all of creation. That means that it was not just meant for you or me, but for everyone. God gave us all we need in abundance so that there would be enough for all.

You and I are sinners and we are going to die, but God gives us this grace-thing which provides for a different way of us living life. We become good stewards of all the other stuff… our time, our talents, and our treasures by first caring for the forgiveness we receive and the resurrection we are promised.

This is the first thing, this grace-thing that wipes away the ashes of sin and death and it has been given to us. It is a treasure for our hearts to store and give away.

I’m not saying it is an easy thing; in fact it isn’t easy, but this is why Jesus walks with us. It is why Jesus is a constant presence in our lives so that in the moments when we doubt or despair that there isn’t enough Jesus is there to say, “God’s grace is sufficient.”

We do not need to hoard or store up, but to live knowing that Jesus is walking with us and that every gift comes from God for a purpose.

We have been forgiven for a purpose and we have been promised a resurrection for a purpose. God has given us purposeful gifts, gifts that are necessary, and needful, gifts that are meant to be shared and used.

In these days ahead, as we walk with Jesus, may we continue to find new purpose for the gift of God’s grace.

Amen.