Blessed are the Cheese Makers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.