Have Mercy

Reformation Sunday 2007

A sermon based on Luke 18:9–14

In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So which prayer was the right prayer?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen, amen.

Pentecost 21 Year C

A sermon based on Luke 18:1–8 .

In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saying Thank You

Pentecost 20 Year C

A sermon based on Luke 17:11-19

In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Say thank you and be blessed with healing and joy.

Amen.

Patience and Faith

Pentecost 19 Year C

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

In the name of Jesus; amen.

Habakkuk From Eugene Peterson’s “The Message”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Instead we will be loved until our sorrows are destroyed.

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

Amen.

The Blessings of 120 Years

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

1 Timothy 6:6-19

and Luke 16:19-31

On the 120th Anniversary of the Church

In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are we listening?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen and thanks be to God!

Creative Accounting

A sermon based on Luke 16:1-13

In the name of Jesus; Amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen.

The Cost of Discipleship

Pentecost 15 Year C

A sermon based on Luke 14:25-33

In the name of Jesus; amen…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is a cost to being a disciple.

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

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

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

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

Amen.

Division

Pentecost 12 Year C

A sermon based on Luke 12:49–56.

In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But this isn’t all bad news.

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

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

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

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

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

Amen.

Sent

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.