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.

I thirst

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

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

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

Send us Forth

The Fifth Sunday After Pentecost

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

In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen.

Hoping against Hope

The Fourth Sunday After Pentecost

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

In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Imagine what God will do for you. Amen.

A Life-Giving Lesson in Faith

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


The Third Sunday after Pentecost


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

In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen.

The Second Sunday after Pentecost Year A

A sermon based on Matthew 6:24-34

In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen.

In God's Image

Holy Trinity Sunday and Confirmation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We were made to be in relationship with God.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Fire

Pentecost Year A

A Sermon based on Acts 2:1-21

In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen.

Remembering

The Ascension of Our Lord/ The Seventh Sunday of Easter

A Sermon based on Luke 24:44-53

In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remember that love. Amen.

Walking with the Paraklete

The Sixth Sunday of Easter

A sermon based on John 14:15-21

In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The word that John uses for Advocate is Paraklete.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen.

Yummy

The Fifth Sunday of Easter.

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

In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen.

I shall not want

The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year A

A sermon based on the 23rd Psalm.

In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

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

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

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

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

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

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

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

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

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

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

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

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

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

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

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

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

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

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

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

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

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

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

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

Amen.

In the breaking of the bread

Easter 3 Year A.

A Sermon based on

Luke 24:13-35

In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What happened at the meal that you remembered?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen.

Doubt

The Second Sunday of Easter Year A

A sermon based on John 20:19-31

In the name of Jesus; Amen.

Thomas wasn’t the only one to doubt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thomas wasn’t the only one who doubted.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus came back because he loves us.

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

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

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

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

Amen.

This is the Day!

The Resurrection of Our Lord Easter Year A

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



In the name of Jesus; amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Christ is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

Amen!