From Where Does our Help Come Genesis 32:22-31, Psalm 121, 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5, Luke 18:1-8

Where Does Our Help Come From I have a habit that really annoys Heather, actually probably a couple… But the one that I am thinking about this morning is probably less of a habit and more of a mannerism, I have a tendency to ask a question but before anybody else answers it, I answer it myself. I do this enough that every time it happens it is pointed out to me. I can’t think of an example off the top of my head but often includes locating something. Much like the psalmist who wrote today’s psalm. I’m not sure that he is afflicted with what Heather has affectionately called refrigerator blindness but he is in a desperate need to locate something. And often times asking the question is part of finding the answer as we see in the first two verses of today’s psalm. I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come? 2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. You see often times people look inward for help and never find it. Sometimes we look to other just as flawed people for help and walk away let down and betrayed. Sometimes we look to imperfect and finite things for help and end up as empty as before, the latest fix just leaves as craving the next fix. But today’s psalmist found the help he needed by looking to the Lord. After asking the question the psalmist goes on to describe the nature of this help. There seems to three key words in his description of God’s help, keeping, watching, and preserving. These things all speak to me about God’s unfailing and everlasting presence in our lives. Those other places we go for help will run dry and run out. But God’s help, his protection, his comfort, and his blessings begin at conception and are eternal. Jacob also realized that ultimately he needed to depend on God. His whole life he schemed and worked for what he wanted, even if it belonged to others. He planned on how to steal his brother Esau’s birthright out from under him, he went 7 years working to earn the right to marry the love of his life. And in so doing he became a well-off influential man. But he knew something was missing. Today we meet him as he prepares to attempt reconciliation with his brother, his past misdeeds weighed on him and this was a difficult task. He needed strength and assurance from the well that doesn’t run dry. That is what leads us to today’s encounter with this holy angelic stranger. The encounter is what he needed but it wasn’t too pleasant. It is often described as a wrestling match and Jacob walked away with a limp. Asking for help isn’t always easy, and sometimes receiving help is downright hard. Sometimes help is good and necessary but not comfortable, it may call for a drastic change of perspective or lifestyle. Sometimes improvement of our circumstances or conditions call for pain and struggle, sometimes looking to the hills for help after looking elsewhere for so long comes with a brightness that can hurt our eyes. I am reminded of the quote from the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” You see the help that today’s psalmist talks about isn’t about being comfortable or even happy, we can find other things to make us happy or comfortable. God’s help however is about drawing us closer to Him, seeing the world in the way He wants us too, choosing right over wrong and good over evil more often than not, and it is about not letting guilt cripple us when we don’t. Those of you who are parents may understand this kind of help better than others. Sometimes the most helpful thing we can do for our children is say no and make them do homework or errands, those things we would never choose to do on our own yet will work to make us better people. Creating boundaries is a necessary job of any parent, especially our Father in heaven. Yes, this morning Jacob walked away with a limp. But what a blessed limp it was. For with that limp Jacob walked right into the open arms of his estranged brother. With that limp he walked right into a new identity, Jacob receives a new name, Israel, one who has wrestled with God, an identity that will be claimed by a whole nation of God’s people. People who know as our psalmist reminds us the undying and unsleeping hand and care of their Lord and God. That is another thing I really liked in the psalm. The author makes the connection between God being the keeper of Israel and your keeper. Your relationship with God isn’t some private matter exists because of some decision you made in a vacuum. We can look to the hills for our help because God has made us part of His family through the nurture of the church. We have spent some time over the last couple weeks in 2nd Timothy. And we learned that he became a disciple of Christ through the raising of his mother and grandmother, this is how faith happens from being part of a family. This morning we get to welcome Tyler into that family. Like Jacob he will receive a new name, beloved son of God. His parents and Godparents will make a promise to raise him up as best they can to know his help is in the Lord. This entire community will make a promise to prayerfully support this family as they answer that call. For have great news to share, as stewards of the Gospel we are called to constantly remind those people around us that we are sons and daughters of a God who doesn’t sleep or slumber, a God whose caring watch and empowering hands are never far off, no matter how far we may think we stray from Him. This is the God we turn to for help day and night as the parable reminds us. This God does not weary of our prayers and His blessings don’t run out.

St. Michael and all Angels

St. Michael and all Angels Daniel 10:10-14, 12:1-3, Psalm 103, Revelation 12:7-12, Luke 10:17-20 In my life as a churchgoer and now an ordained pastor in Christ’s church I could probably count on one hand the number of times I have heard angels discussed in a sermon. If I were to discount the few times I was at General Retreat for a weekday service commemorating St. Michael on this date and the Christmas sermons where angels are given their usual place at Christ’s birth the number quite possibly reaches zero. Why do you think that is? Why have these messengers and warriors of God that get extensive airtime throughout both the Old and New Testaments become so silent if not downright non-existent in our proclamation and faith practice? Perhaps it is because the deeper the church sinks and modernity, or even post modernity the more hesitant it is to linger on those parts of its legacy which carry a sense of the supernatural; you know those things that might put us at odds with a world that likes only what it can see and measure empirically. As things like miracles and angels are discarded by the modern Christian church we have ended up forfeiting a lot of what we have to offer the world. For what sets us apart from social service agencies, community groups, and political action groups is our worship of the God who created the world and our claims that this God loves the world so much that he came to it in the incarnation of Jesus the Christ His Son, that in His, birth, life, death, and resurrection he has defeated death and earned for all who trust in Him eternal life, and that this same God continues to care an make his will and his presence known on earth in the lives of all who call on his name, even through supernatural means. You see brothers and sisters, the efficacy of our faith and proclamation hinges on the truth that there is more to this life then what we can see or feel; that there is an unseeable and unknowable world. And that is a good thing because we see a lot of pain and suffering and often what we think we know is proven wrong. Brothers and sisters, Miracles and angels remain a part of how God interacts with this world. And I think this world is so hungry for that message. The irony that as the academy and the church become less likely to talk about the unseeable and unknowable pop culture has become a place where things like angels and demons thrive. And not just angels and demons but things like faeries, vampires, and werewolves. It seems like the seat that the church has vacated has been filled by movie producers and novelists and that is dangerous for the stories they tell are rarely about a compassionate God who loves unconditionally and they are never ever true. But the story that the church has to share is very true; angels still walk in our midst, defending us from Satan’s wiles, and ministering to us as God’s heavenly host. Throughout scripture we see angels ministering to God’s faithful in a variety of ways. They are healers, heralds of good news, protectors, and even warriors. Today we remember by name the mightiest of all warrior angels. Michael, in Daniel he is called a great prince. He is one of the might archangels who continues to fight by God’s side for our very souls. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Ephesians that our true enemies are never flesh and blood, but are what he calls principalities and powers, that unseen world we don’t talk enough about. And in ministry I have seen the effects of this battle in the lives of people I have ministered to, Heather and I have felt this battle being waged in our own lives as we face the trials of ministry, being so far from friends and family, and the struggles that come with trying to be faithful servants of God. And the hard part is the closer we get to God the harder His enemies fight. I have told people that seminary is the devil’s playground. I have never seen so many people in such close proximity struggle with things like divorce, depression, and doubt just to name a few. All these people trying profoundly to become the servants that God is calling them to be. I often wished that we were encouraged to talk about in terms of spiritual warfare. Perhaps we would have been more equipped, more willing to claim the victory that has been promised us. Because brothers and sisters, spiritual warfare is real. And the outcome has been decided and eternity has been won. Yes the closer you get to God the harder God’s enemies fight. But also the closer you get to God the more confident you become that being in God’s hands is the best place to be. And being the recipients of Angelic protection is truly a gift and a blessing. Today we rejoice that as Christians we can know the unknowable and catch glimpses of the unseeable. That we don’t have to turn to Hollywood to feed our hunger for things bigger and greater than ourselves. And we thank God for his everlasting and supernatural involvements in our lives. Please pray with me Gracious God continue to send your angels, that they may protect us in our comings and in our goings, that they may defend us from what threatens our faith in you, and as we breath our last that they may escort us to our eternal home. In Jesus’ name.

Sermon from September 8th Counting the Cost

Count the Cost Luke 14:25-33 A few short weeks ago I got out of preaching one of the toughest passages in Luke’s gospel. The week of the Outdoor Worship Service I was able to preach on creation instead of Jesus saying that his coming will bring division. At text study that week I was able to take a sigh of relief as we discussed Jesus’ harsh words. This week it came back and the opportunity for me to preach on Jesus’ harsh words and for us to reflect on them is before us. And brothers and sisters I promise as your pastor to never ignore Jesus’ hard words as it is often his hardest words that we need to hear the most. And today’s Gospel lesson is a tough one. In one fell swoop Jesus tells us we must hate our families and get rid of our possessions. If the crowd was large at the beginning of today’s reading, I’m sure it thinned out by the end. We are told a couple times in the Bible that we must sell or renounce all our possessions. These are more about our tendency to turn things into idols then they are about a call to sell things for the sake of the poor and hungry. It is about ridding us of all things that keep us from fully embracing our new identities as sons and daughters of God. And there is always the reality that all we have is first and foremost God’s so even if we don’t get rid of all our possessions we do surrender our “ownership” of it. I am sure we can all think of something in our lives that we have placed more trust or value in then we have God and as hard as these words from Jesus are we can understand them and they are far from the hardest words Jesus spoke today. Now this bit about hating our families is hard. And it flies in the face of all the times Jesus talks about loving others. In our warm fuzzy world of political correctness and tolerance we hear the word hate and we are likely to shut down, turn inward, and refuse to hear what the speaker has to say, even if that speaker is God in the flesh. So I challenge you to stay alert, return your gaze on our Lord and savior and listen to him. I think that today he speaks of hatred because we are all called to Love God so much that our love and desire for anything or anybody else pales in comparison, even our love for mother and father, brother, and sister husband, and wife. My best friend Lewis and I were talking about this the other day; we both have many siblings and talk together a lot about the complexities that a big family can create. It was in this context that this week Gospel lesson came up. Lewis shared with me an awesome story and granted me permission to share with you all today. You see Jackie and Lewis have struggled to get to church on time. Over the last year or so Lewis has been entering a new phase in his faith life and this tendency to be late for church was really weighing heavy on his heart. One Sunday morning recently he and their 12 year old son were ready and Jackie was not. Lewis decided to drive himself and Michael to church and let Jackie take the second car. Lewis was feeling guilty and when Jackie arrived he apologized. Apparently Jackie’s response was to tell him he had nothing to apologize for and that she never wants him to put her before Jesus. In that story Jackie and Lewis both answer the call to love family less than they love God. You see Jackie’s affirmation that Lewis made the right choice by placing his relationship with Jesus before his relationship with herself was also putting Jesus first in her own life. This real life story may help us put Jesus’ difficult words in the proper light. Brothers and sisters, as strange as it seems the most loving things you can do for your families is love God more than you love them. For right relationship with God being made possible in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ makes possible right relationship to others. A distorted, worldly view of priorities only creates distorted and worldly relationships. And the incarnation of Jesus Christ does indeed shatter any human definitions and boundaries we may place around this concept of family. He creates faith families like ours and brings people together who need to be together, like he did in the lives of Kalyb, Kary, Keltyn, David, and Brenda, I am so thankful that they were all open to the new and radical things that God was up to. And I am honored to celebrate those things with you all today. I firmly believe that they were a result of you guys putting God first in your life. Whether or not Jesus is talking about letting go of possessions or loving family a little less they are both ultimately about attachment. You see when there are things that we place too much importance in or things in which we find our identity instead of finding our identity in our relationship with God we need to do some work. This is what Jesus means when counting the cost, and the cost can be steep. Has my relationship with God caused me to hate my atheist brother and sisters? No but it caused some added distance and moments of discomfort. CS Lewis did not receive a full professorship until 30 years after he joined the faculty at Oxford because the damage his conversion did to his reputation. And there are still places in the world today where the cost of discipleship can be persecution, imprisonment, or even death. So in perspective our costs may seem very payable. For our young people it may be the pains of standing up for what is right when they see another being bullied, even by their friends. The cost for some may be let a sure promotion fly by because their faith discouraged them from cutting corners that may have helped them on the climb to the top, or waiting until next year to take that dream vacation because we aren’t ready to cut the tithing line item and the family budget. As we discern what our cost of discipleship is, it is always helpful to remember that God counted his own cost. He paid for our eternal life with the life of his only Son our Lord. And I can’t think of anything or anyone I would rather call Lord than Jesus Christ, whatever the cost. So the question shouldn’t be can we afford to follow Christ. As we see the affects of sin and struggle in our lives and in the lives around us perhaps the real question is can we afford not to.

Our Place in the Passion of Christ a Good Friday Message for the Pleasant Valley Ecumenical Network

Peace and Grace to you from our Crucified Lord Jesus the Christ, Brothers and sisters, I actually struggled a bit with what greeting I should begin this sermon. My usual peace and grace initially seemed a little out of place at a Good Friday service. Perhaps out of place in our entire Holy Week observance and rituals. For me anyway this whole week is so emotionally intense that the usual greeting may seem a little glib, a denial of the heart wrenching that goes on in the lives of the faithful this week. You see the reason this week is such an emotional roller coaster is because the church’s practices this week attempt not just to remember the events of Jesus’ last days, but we try to place ourselves in the midst of the Lord’s passion. It’s the kind of remembering that transcends an intellectual memory and incorporates our whole self, mind, heart, senses and body. Our week began with the blessing and waving of palms. With those palms we cheered on Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and again on Sunday morning we will place ourselves at the empty tomb cheering on his even more triumphal victory over death. Bu a lot happens between Sundays. We place ourselves around the Passover meal Jesus shares with his disciples, receiving the meal and being given the commandment to love one another, a commandment we struggle to keep for the rest of our lives. We place ourselves in the garden with the disciples failing to answer Jesus’ simple request to stay awake and keep watch. With Peter we find ourselves rebuking Jesus’ claim that we will deny him while knowing very well that a day doesn’t go by without making choices that deny Jesus is Lord of our lives. And then we place ourselves at the cross. With our sins we take our turn cracking the whip and driving those nails. With the rest of the mob we convince Pontius Pilate to release among us a fellow sinner Barabbas and to crucify the Son of God. We join many of the same Israelites who were waving palms yelling Hosannas a few short days ago in cheering on the death of our king. In a few short minutes we will be singing my favorite hymn. When we sing “were you there when they crucified my Lord”, I want you to remember you were there and they didn’t do anything it was us, we need to own our place at the cross. It’s not a proud place to be but it is where we belong because as Dr. Martin Luther wrote, You should believe, and never doubt, that you are in fact the one who killed Christ. Your sins did this to Him. When you look at the nails being driven through His hands, firmly believe that it is your work. Do you see His crown of thorns? Those thorns are your wicked thoughts. Brothers and sisters today isn’t Good Friday because of our place in Salvation history. It is Good Friday because although it was our sins that nailed him to the cross it was his love for us that kept him there. Those same sins that Jesus took to the cross have been forgiven and our debt paid. As good as this week is to remember that we are sinners through and through. It is also a good week to remember it was for sinners such as us that Christ won salvation.

Everybody Loves an Underdog Micah 5:2-5a and Gospel: Luke 1:39-45 (46-56) This week we were given a big bag of used DVDs and videotapes. The first one that drew Toby’s attention was the DVD Sky High. As many of you know super heroes hold a very special place in our house. So when Toby saw those spandex clad cape wearing teenagers on the front of the DVD case he knew what movie he wanted to watch again and again. However as the movie developed he realized it wasn’t a typical superhero movie. The typical superhero flick is about mighty and powerful individuals that can be depended on to save the day. But as Sky High’s story evolved it was evident that the heroes of this story were going to be a crew of weaker, less significant students known as the sidekicks or “hero support’ if you wanted to be politically correct. You see this movie went from being about the extraordinary to being about the ordinary. It became a quintessential underdog story. And I was ok with that; after all everybody loves an underdog. Believe me, I’m a lifelong Cubs fan…We love to hear and see stories of people who seem to defy all the odds and do great things; people who somehow transcend normalcy or even mediocrity in inspiring ways. Friends today I would like to recommend a book full of underdogs. This book if you will is an anthology of underdog stories (hold up bible). As much as we love underdogs, the entire biblical witness reminds us that God loves them even more. Moses wasn’t even supposed to make it out of infancy let alone be able to lead his people to the Promised Land. David, a little shepherd boy from the small town of Bethlehem watches his brothers go off to war and then slays the giant and becomes the king through whose line the savior of the world is promised. And then there is Mary. This poor and insignificant young girl from an isolated farming community would become the mother of the messiah. How cool is that. You see the story that we hang the eternal state of our souls on is a true life underdog story. Mary goes from being poor and insignificant to being an object of ridicule and shame. As an unmarried pregnant woman she could’ve been stoned to death but God uses another underdog to protect her and provide an upbringing for his son. Joseph, whose royal ancestry meant absolutely nothing to his friends and neighbors, lived the quiet and average life of a tradesman in that small community of Nazareth. This seemingly ordinary man was called to be Mary’s husband and protector and Jesus’ foster father. His decision to stand by Mary despite her supposed indiscretion wouldn’t have won him any steps up the social ladder either. Of course the miracle that these two were going to participate in couldn’t happen in a small and insignificant place like Nazareth. So God had to call Mary and Joseph out of Nazareth; but not to a place of more import to the comparable hamlet of Bethlehem. God calls His chosen parents from the boonies to the sticks. Today’s prophecy from Micah reminds us that this small forgotten town will see the birth of yet another king. Of all the underdog stories we love, this should be our favorite one by far. Why does God reveal himself in this way? Why doesn’t he offer salvation through a savior that would be easily recognizable and who would demand loyalty and dependence. I think that a God who is known only through the eyes and values of a fallen world would prove Himself to be nothing but an idol. For the incarnation of God to be truly well… incarnational God with us, Immanuel, would have to be born into the common and ordinary. A look around reminds us that the common and ordinary are full of things like poverty and pain, shame and struggle. And it is those things that are redeemed by the birth we remember this week. Part of my Christmas season devotions always include a Christmas sermon of Martin Luther’s. The sermon includes this quote. She starts out on the journey with Joseph, her husband… Then when they came to Bethlehem, they were the most insignificant, the most despised people, as the evangelist indicates. They were obliged to make room for everybody, until they were shown into a stable and had to be satisfied to share with the animals a common hostel… Thus God indicates that he pays no attention at all to what the world is or has or can do, and on the other hand the world proves that it knows nothing at all of, and pays no attention to what God is, has, or does. You see brothers and sisters our best and brightest will never cure what truly ails us. No eloquent head of state will legislate true justice into existence, no mighty military leader will force true peace on a people, and even the world’s brightest doctors can hold death off for only so long. But justice, peace, and eternal life are exactly what God brings forth in this baby’s birth. The hymn that Mary sings today, that the church has always sung with her in its daily prayer is as clear a summation of God’s good news as we’ll find in all of scripture. Listen again to Mary’s song. 49for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away. 54He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” God exalts the lowly and calls the mighty to place themselves in His hands so they too may be exalted. And the world may see its messiah trough those who trust in His care. This is what it means to gather around the manger this Christmas season, to humble ourselves before this child in the hay, to join with Mary in singing her song. So we may be blessed and God may be known. I pray that as the birth of the Christchild approaches we can all find ourselves as underdogs in humble estate so we may fully know God’s presence and participate in His marvelous work.

Waiting with the Prophets Dec 4th 2011 Isaiah 40:1-11, 2 Peter 3:8-15, Mark 1:1-8

Waiting with the Prophets

Peace and Grace to you all from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ,

In my exploration on this week’s texts one fellow pastor found it interesting that we began Advent with a Gospel lesson from Mark’s 13th chapter, and this week we hear a reading from the beginning of that same gospel. In his exact words, he told his hearers that it was not a step backward, but rather a move forward—forward to the beginning. I had to chuckle at Reverend Fisk’s treatment of time. In some strange way the more I thought about it, it made sense. It seems to me that during Advent, time does something really funny. Christians all over the world are preparing for a birth that happened just over 2000 years ago. That is exactly what is happening; Advent is not merely a time to get ready for the holiday, but it is a time to prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of the Messiah. During Advent, the story of Jesus’ first coming and the promise of his second coming become intertwined in a way that denies all we think we know about time.
This divine compression of time shows up in today’s readings. Our lesson from Mark’s gospel begins with, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” It seems like a good place for Mark to begin his gospel. However as we read on, we realize that where he places his beginning is not with the birth of Jesus like Matthew and Luke. Mark actually begins his Gospel by bringing his hearers all the way back to the prophets.
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; [3] the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,' "
John the Baptist is then introduced to us as the messenger who was sent ahead. John’s message calling God’s people to repentance is nothing new. It sounded much like the messengers who prophesied about coming Messiah centuries before the birth of John the Baptist. Even his seemingly unique wardrobe and dietary choices are important—only because they connect him to all of Israel’s prophets, people for whom living in the wilderness as hermits was often a part of the task. The job of “prophet” is by far the only position when dressing in camel hair and eating insects actually lends credibility. This connection would have been made by most—if not all—of the people who wandered to the Judean countryside to hear him.
It is a connection we should make as well. This morning we are reminded that we are waiting for the same Messiah on whom the prophets and their hearers waited. When we realize that the prophet Isaiah lived and ministered 750 years before Jesus was born, this seems astounding. How is it that we are waiting with prophets who walked the earth almost 3000 years ago for a Messiah who was born 2000 years ago? Perhaps today Peter had a word for us in this regard:
That with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. [9] The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
Whenever I hear this passage from Peter, I am reminded of a line by Gandalf in Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring. When Frodo accuses him of being late, his response is “A wizard is never late, nor is he early; he arrives precisely when he means to.” Peter’s letter today reminds us of two things. First, the thousands of years between the prophet Isaiah and us is merely a blink of the eyes to the God of Eternity. Secondly, this is important: as we wait and prepare for the Lord, He never stops waiting on us and preparing our hearts and minds. As a matter of fact, the acts of repentance that John the Baptizer (and the prophets who went before him) are never something we can do on our own. The very act of acknowledging our need for God’s righteousness depends on God’s guiding presence.
You see, brothers and sisters, God’s will is more perfect and holy than anything we could ever come up with. And as easy as it is to be impatient with what we perceive as God’s slowness (or even absence), we must remember that God keeps His promises. He has promised to be with us yesterday, today, and tomorrow. As we prepare to know God in yet another way, we remember all the ways He has been present for His people.
He was present for Isaiah’s original hearers in the midst of exile—in the words of comfort and hope spoken by His prophets. Also many who came to be baptized by John in the wilderness experienced God’s presence by experiencing firsthand the birth, earthly ministry, death, and resurrection of His son Jesus the Christ.
He continues to be present for us as well. In the words of scripture, we come to know the God of all Creation who humbles Himself so we may be in relationship with Him. As we gather as a faith family to worship, we encounter God in the words of the liturgy and songs—and in the mutual love and support of each other. Moreover, in Holy Communion, we get to taste and see God as He offers Himself as bread and wine for our eternal sustenance.
So in typical Advent fashion, we prepare for the coming of God’s Messiah with all of God’s people that went before by acknowledging the ways that God is already present for us—or rather (recalling Rev. Fisk’s query about the opening lines of Mark’s gospel), we prepare ourselves for God’s future by remembering God’s beginning. May the coming of the Christ-child be a source of great joy and hope this Advent season

Sermon August 14th

Unmerited Membership

Peace and Grace to you all from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ,

One Sunday while we were still living in Chicago Heather and I wanted to attend a church where our friend’s mother was the pastor. This congregation was in the south suburbs; an area that we didn’t frequent and know our way around to well. We thought we gave ourselves enough time but lo and behold we got lost and showed up a little late for worship. Heather and I tried to inconspicuously find a seat in the back of the sanctuary, so we picked an uncrowded section of pews and sat down. At one point in the service there was activity around us and we looked and noticed that the worshippers that surrounded us were passing out sheet music. They then stood up while the rest of the congregation remained seated, except for Heather and me. What we did was kind of shrink in our chair trying to be as little as possible, which is always a feat for me. That is right brothers and sisters we managed to show up late to a church we’ve never been and sit ourselves in the middle of the choir. Any chance we had to feel like we belonged or were even welcome worshipping with this community of faith flew the window that morning. Truth be told the people were extremely gracious and hospitable after the service but the damage had been done. It was obvious that we were lacking the knowledge and the experience to be a part of what had been created.
Brothers and sisters, the truth is that much of what humans do by their very nature creates boundaries and walls. Whether or not we it is done intentionally by creating rules, traditions, expectations, and stories or memories we define who is in and who is outside the boundaries and walls we create. I don’t think this is inherently a bad or sinful thing. The gift of community and/or family can and should be a blessing to us all.
However one thing I have learned in life is that our gifts or blessings and our sins and weaknesses are often the two sides of the same course. For instance my outgoing and extroverted nature is often seen as a gift, however I have had to work much harder on the more introverted aspects of the Christian life.
The gift of community is the same way. When we try to apply the boundaries and walls we create to our understanding of God our gift becomes a burden and our blessing becomes a curse. When we get so caught up by our limited perspective that we fail to see that God’s grace and majesty transcend our human categories we fail to see that our faith should bind us and not separate us.
This is kind of what happened to the Pharisees throughout the New Testament. They weren’t inherently evil or sinful; any more than you or I at any rate. We actually share a common intent, they wanted to learn more about God. The Pharisees were religious leaders who desired to teach people about God. In order to do that they arranged rituals and rules to help people encounter God. By the time Jesus was in the picture many Pharisees forgot the original intent and the rituals and rules had attained a kind of primacy in the views of the Pharisees. Right before Jesus’ teaching today the Pharisees approached him upset that his disciples wouldn’t wash their hands before they ate. The catch was they didn’t talk about washing hands as a matter of health or cleanliness but us a matter of tradition, a matter of ritual. Jesus responds as he does not against the act of washing hands but against thinking that any human act will make anybody clean enough to be worthy of God’s promises. According to Jesus failure to conform to a specific group’s practices and requirements will not inhibit one’s faith but what will are the ways we live and the thoughts of our hearts. Brothers and sisters let me say this one more time and another way, what defiles us is our words and actions, and they will. We will wish harm on others, we will speak with a barbed tongue, struggle with the desires of the flash, and we will create divisions and not just communities and those things that create distance between us and others will also drive us from farther from God. On the flipside there is nothing we can do, no group we can attach ourselves to that will make us clean enough, good enough to be worthy of all that God promises.
But God can. In the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ he draws all people to Himself, all we need to do is trust that God’s incarnation has accomplished all that has been promised. Hear again God’s words though the prophet Isaiah,
for soon my salvation will come,
and my deliverance be revealed.
[6] And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it,
and hold fast my covenant--
[7] these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.
Brothers and sisters as the Canaanite woman that Jesus encounters today reminds us, the gifts of God are for all who call him Lord. Her confession of faith began with an acknowledgement that she wasn’t worthy, it is that which Jesus names as faith and then offers her daughter salvation forever claiming them both as children as God.
Brothers and sisters, you and I are no more worthy than that woman to be children of God. And that is truly good news because those are the people that are claimed as God’s sons and daughters. The amazing thing about grace is that it tears down all the fences that we build to keep ourselves in and others out and the fences that are built to keep us out and others in and creates a family of faith that transcends time and our own shortcomings, in the kingdom of God there are no haves and have-nots only forgiven sinners who have been claimed as God’s children and inheritors of eternity.
Today (at the 10:00 service)we get to celebrate this amazing grace in a special way. In the sacrament of holy baptism God will be claiming Charley Sage Dipasquale as a part of His special family. Baptisms always offer us a unique opportunity to be reminded that the Body of Christ is a group where the only criteria for membership is met by a God who hangs from a cross and defeats death for our sake.
Please pray with me,
Lord God,
Thank you for claiming us all as your children. Help us remember that just as nothing we say or do can stop your love for us we also can’t say or do anything to earn that love. It comes unmerited from you because of who you are.
In jesus’ name we pray.

Pentecost/Confirmation Sermon

The Gift of the Holy Spirit

Grace and Peace from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ,

One of my good friends from my early 20’s grew up in the Lutheran tradition but found himself in one of the more charismatic and evangelical communities in American Christianity, his name was Mike. I like to think that our friendship provided each other with some balance and accountability. It definitely provided us with some great conversations about some things like salvation, infant baptism, the power of sin, and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Because you see Mike held the all too common perception that the mainline churches including those who claim the name Lutheran are no longer able to talk in any significant way about the Holy Spirit or worse yet, the Holy Spirit is no longer even at work in our churches. I remember at one time saying to Mike, we can talk about the Holy Spirit we even have a day devoted to the Spirit its called Pentecost. He looked me square in the eye and said yeah but Matt where is he the rest of the year. Now if I was as clever then as I am now I would’ve said in the creed. Mike’s thoughts of the Church’s inability to perceive the work of the Holy Spirit should serve as a wake-up call and not simply a zinger to be ignored. We should ask ourselves what we are doing or not doing to lead people like Mike and author Anne Dilliard to ponder the spiritual poverty in our churches. Anne Dilliard’s quote is a favorite of mine.
On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of the conditions. Does any-one have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake some day and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.
The truth is brothers and sisters we as American Lutheran Christians would do well to remember the importance of Pentecost, not as a day in our church calendars or a day that took place millennia ago but as an ongoing event, and a gift from God. Because as Paul reminds us in the letter to the Corinthians as our ability to talk about the Holy Spirit goes so goes our ability to call Jesus Christ Lord.
God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to the church manifested itself in such a miraculous way on the first Pentecost we heard all about it today. That same Holy Spirit continues to manifest itself in an equally miraculous way; by creating and recreating faith in the hearts and minds of us sinners.
The creation of faith is a miracle because it allows Christ’s disciples to get out of bed and face dire pain and suffering day in and day out. It is a miracle because it empowers us to set aside our will and desires in order to pursue God’s will. It’s a miracle because it has called, gathered, and enlightened 17 of our young people today and enabled them to call Jesus Lord. Appropriately on Confirmation Sunday I want to offer two quotes by Martin Luther. The first is one we who have gone through confirmation in the Lutheran tradition should be familiar with. In his explanation to the third article of the Creed in the Small catechism he writes.
I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has calls me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one common, true faith, Daily in this Christian church the Holy Spirit abundantly forgives all sins - mine and those of all believers. On the last day the Holy Spirit will raise me and all the dead and will give to me and all believers in Christ eternal life. This is most certainly true.
And again he writes in the large catechism he writes.
Neither you nor I could ever know anything about Christ, or believe on Him, or have Him for our Lord, unless it were offered to us and granted to our hearts by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel.
You see brothers and sisters, being able to receive God’s gifts and acknowledge God as the giver of all good gifts are in themselves a result of God’s greatest gift. It is this gift of the Holy Spirit we celebrate today and we rejoice to see it especially today as our confirmation students are blessed with the ability to say yes to their baptisms. Brothers and sisters the Holy Spirit is alive and well at Christ Hamilton, it is evident in those confirmands, it is evident in those friends and family members who gather around them in love and support, it is evident in the many ways we have reached out to the wider community.

Luke 24:13-25

Emmaus Road
I remember reading a news story in 1991 about a professional athlete named Hugh Millen. If you never heard of him, don’t fret; most people probably have never heard of him. You see, that was kind of the point of this news story. He was the New England Patriots starting quarterback, and he was able to walk around Boston’s Hot Spots and even attend a Sox game with other Boston Sports fans without being recognized. Keep in mind that a NFL team’s QB is generally the most high profile player on the team, and here was a starting quarterback who was able to walk around without any harassment, precisely because people had no idea it was him. This was even more amazing given the fact that they were in the midst of a 6 game upswing. The Patriots who were 1-15 the previous season finished at 7-9 during Hugh Millen’s first season as a starter. Yet they were still so steeped in mediocrity that fans couldn’t see their quarterback even when he was right there in a seat in front of them.
I know that Hugh Millen is not the savior of the world and a 7-9 record is far from a resurrection from the dead. However I was reminded of this as I struggled with the road to Emmaus story this week. Cleopas and his fellow sojourner were walking the road to Emmaus when they encountered Jesus and mistook him for some ignorant out-of-towner. We don’t know why we they were going to Emmaus, but as I hear Cleopas’ testimony I wonder if they’re moving on to find the next best thing, the new prophet and miracle worker to put their hope in, because he and his friend were obviously without hope. Listen again to his own words.
Luke 24:19-24 Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 22 Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 23 and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see."
These are not the words of a man who found hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The tone that I hear when I picture this scene is a solemn mixture of sadness and disappointment. I actually think “disappointment” may not be strong enough word. It’s the kind of ultimate disappointment that comes with lost or unfulfilled hope. I am sure that you can all remember times in which God answered prayer in ways different than we had hoped; we all know the despair of unfulfilled hope. It is precisely this kind of grief which blinded the two travelers to the fact that their resurrected Lord and Savior still walked with them in spite of their grief and in the midst of it as well.
Sadly this isn’t the only emotion that can hinder our ability to acknowledge God’s presence. Anger, sadness, loneliness, shame, even pride and ambition can all hide God’s presence in our lives. Pride and ambition can do it by hiding God behind ourselves, we become bigger than God. The others do it using our problems; they become bigger than God.
Brothers and sisters, praise God that His presence on the road to Emmaus did not depend on Cleopas’ ability to see him, and the truth of the resurrection is not dependent on his or even our capacity to understand it or believe it. We live in a world where we are often told that truth is only a matter of perception. Thankfully this was not the case in Emmaus and it’s not the case today either.
Ultimately, brothers and sisters, our perceptions fail us. They cloud our minds and our hearts and we are at a loss with nothing to grasp onto for hope and assurance. However, brothers and sisters, where our perceptions and emotions fail us, God does not. He journeys with us in our denial, disregard, disbelief and reveals himself in many ways; in the prayers and lives of other Christians, through our time with scripture, the music and liturgy of our church service, and the sacraments. That is right; much like those in Emmaus we meet God in the breaking of the bread and passing of the cup. This week I encourage you to think about where your Emmaus Road is, the place in your life where your perceptions fail and God is hidden. But also think about how God opens your closed eyes, minds, and hearts and thank God for those moments. Please pray with me.
Great God, We don’t always see you and appreciate you as we should. Sometimes we put our hope into other things or give up hope entirely. But you are an amazing God who continues to walk with us, and you persistently show yourselves. Thank you for not quitting on us; help us not quit on you.
In Jesus’ name.

Reflections on 4 of the 7 last words for Good Friday

Reflection 1 Father Forgive them, they know not what the do.
In a reflection about Good Friday Martin Luther wrote that we are viewing Christ’s suffering rightly when “we deeply believe and never doubt the least, that we are the ones who thus martyred Christ. For our sins most surely did it. Thus St. Peter struck and terrified the Jews as with a thunderbolt in Acts 2:36-37, when he spoke to them all in common: "Him have ye crucified," so that three thousand were terror-stricken the same day and tremblingly cried to the apostles: "O beloved brethren what shall we do?" Therefore, when you view the nails piercing through his hands, firmly believe it is your work. Do you behold his crown of thorns; believe the thorns are your wicked thoughts”
Oftentimes when I hear of the suffering of Jesus my first instinct is to blame others for that suffering. Whether it be the high priests, the Jewish crowd that greeted him with palms one minute and called for his crucifixion the next, the Roman officials, or even my neighbor with his blatant denial of Christ and corresponding lifestyle. After all I am a good Christian and am nice to others; I never would’ve participated in the ugly beating and execution we remember today.
Brothers and sisters, that kind of spiritual arrogance doesn’t do ourselves any favor. Without his blood on our hands we are not redeemed by that blood. Failure to properly place ourselves among those who crucified God’s son is a failure to claim for ourselves the forgiveness that Jesus offers at the cross. .And that forgiveness is for us brothers and sisters, when we find ourselves incapable of living the life that God hopes for us, we can be forgiven. When we refuse to acknowledge God as the giver of all good gifts, we can be forgiven, when we are utterly unable to throw ourselves at God’s feet and call him Lord, we can be forgiven. Perhaps this is why today is Good Friday because in the midst of our sin we see God’s goodness, despite our role in Jesus’ death and persecution we can hear him say, Father forgive them they know not what they are doing.
Please pray with me,
God we come to you as sinners. We don’t treat you or others as we should, we fail to thank you for all your blessings in our lives, and we stand with the mob this Good Friday that mocked you and spat on you as you were crucified for our sakes. Yet your beloved son stands in the face of it all and speaks your forgiveness. Thank you for making this day and our futures good with your holy forgiveness.
Reflection 3 Woman Behold Your Son, Behold Your Mother
Hopefully our confirmation students can tell you that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. On the way to the cross we see both the divine Jesus and human Jesus in many ways. I think we encounter the human Jesus in all his despair the moment he looks upon his mother from the cross. He sees this woman who gave birth and raised him, this woman he called mother. We can’t even begin to imagine the grief that took place in Jesus Christ when he looked out and saw this woman’s tears. He was able to heal his own heartache at least a little by assuring that Mary would be taken care of after his departure, after all that’s what people who call themselves Christ’s disciples do they take care of the sick and lonely. Mary and the beloved disciple were called in their grief to open up their lives and their homes to each other.
Something else may be happening here as well, something beyond a man making sure his already widowed mother will be in good hands after he departs this life. What happened on that cross that Friday night radically alters our relationship with God. Altering our relationship with God can’t help but change our relationships with the people all around us.
At the cross any boundaries that we may use to group or divide us are blown out of the water, for example things like biology and ethnicity. At the cross of Christ we gather and are joined together by God’s Holy Spirit into one community called the church. We are called to love and serve each other, and doing so we are loving and serving Jesus Christ whose death we remember today. You see brothers and sisters the bonds that are forged at the cross of Christ will create a new intimacy with all we worship and serve with, so in our hours of great need we are blessed by one another.
Please pray with me,
Suffering God, you know our pain and struggles. And you have blessed us with your words and comfort in our relationships with each other. May you continue to work in our lives so we may be touched by you in our relationships with others.





Reflection 5 I Thirst

Due to the crucifixion and the days that preceded it Jesus would’ve lost many bodily fluids between blood, sweat, and tears, thus he would’ve been extremely thirsty. However John tells us that its inclusion here is about so much more than a statement about mere dehydration. John tells us that Jesus said this to fulfill scripture. In the 69th psalm the suffering servant is seeking solace and comfort and is instead given poisonous food and sour wine.
You see all that happened on the fateful night of the crucifixion was fulfilling scripture, and God’s will. That was ultimately what Christ thirsted for, to do God’s will. The very cup that he tried to rid himself of the previous night was the same cup that would quench his thirst in a way that bitter wine never could. As disciples of Christ we should also hunger and thirst for God’s will in our lives, or as the beatitudes call it hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Brothers and sisters there’ll be times in our lives that God’s will tastes like bitter wine, but that God who used death on a cross to offer us life eternal will turn our burdens to blessings. Just as God has blessed each and every one of us through this awful burden that Jesus Christ took upon himself for our sakes. Please pray with me,
Lord God, we so often try to quench our thirst with things that leave a bitter taste in our mouths and leave us thirstier than we were before. Only you can quench our thirst nourish our troubled spirits. May we boldly receive the cup you offered us as Jesus did. In Jesus’ name we pray.










Reflection 7 Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit,.
Once more the only words that Jesus has to express himself in his dark hour come directly from the psalms. Here Jesus invokes the 31st psalm when he commits his Spirit to his Father.
The 31st psalm begins as a desperate cry for divine help, it evolves into a committal of the psalmist’s very life into God’s hands, this is the verse that Jesus speaks from cross. This statement is a radical act of trust and faith, Jesus knows that our most precious and personal things belong entirely in the hands of God the Father, even things as precious as our very lives and as personal as our own deaths.
In God’s hands this death that we remember tonight destroys death and transforms life. In God’s hands the death of His only Son offers us life as God’s children. In the hands of God we who gather around the cross of Jesus are made into a holy people, people who are called to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and commit our very lives to God, as broken and imperfect as those lives may be.
One of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther replayed in my mind as I thought about Jesus’ words.
I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess”
Brothers and sisters, by committing his spirit to his Father in heaven Jesus Christ shows forth both the love and Power of God. Let us gather around Jesus and with him place our lives in God’s hands, after all there is no safer place.
Please pray with me,
Lord God,
Your son Jesus Christ trusted in your Holy will, and doing so trusted you with his life, even as he hung from a cross. May be we granted with faith so fixed on Jesus that our lives can be placed in your hands.

Gaudete Sunday

Isaiah 35:1-10;
Psalm 146:5-10;
Luke 1:46b-55 (alternate);
James 5:7-10;
Matthew 11:2-11 (Blue)

Many of you may remember Pastor Brett mentioning last week that the 3rd Sunday of Advent is sometimes known as Gaudete Sunday. This comes from the Latin word meaning rejoice. The first two Sundays of Advent have given us readings that were anything but joyful. week 1 of Advent we dealt with some pretty intense end time readings. Last week we heard John the Baptist’s exhortation to repent and turn away from our sinful ways. This week however we experience a little shift from the stark and uncomfortable to the exciting and joyous. After two weeks of being reminded that the world we know is perishing and we ourselves are far from perfect we get to focus on God’s coming and what that’ll do for the world. Our reading from Isaiah provides us with two images that have stayed with me this week, a crocus blossoming in the desert, a beautiful vibrant flower breaking through the parched desert ground gives us quite an image of what God’s presence brings us. The second image in our first reading that struck me was that of a highway in the wilderness, a path where there was no way before.
One thing that I think is important and seen in today’s readings is that Christian joy isn’t an escape from things like shame, suffering, or mortality but it happens in the midst of those things. Similarly Gaudete Sunday doesn’t happen at the end of the repentant season of advent as if its an end to our need of repentance or a false acknowledgement that everything will magically be better now, no brothers and seasons joy happens in the midst of all those things, and our repentance is a necessary part of that joy. As if to drive that point home today’s readings speak of joy in the midst of some pretty scary tings. The reading from Isaiah 35 is sandwiched by Isaiah’s oracles against the nations and the sacking of Judah by King Sannechrib and the Assyrians. And John the Baptist recognizes the fulfillment of God’s promises from where? Prison nonetheless. Even the prayer that gives Gaudete Sunday its name comes from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, a letter written from where? Prison. Rejoice in the lord always again I say rejoice.
I think that is why both Isaiah’s images rang so true for me. They both point to the truth that God’s coming doesn’t mean that at the drop of a hat, or the snap of the fingers sin and earthly problems dissipate. I think sometimes we Christians assume that is what it means to be God’s children. And then when we realize that we as Christians will face things like struggle and illness we assume that we’re just not faithful enough and our troubles are compounded by self hate and despair. Or perhaps even worse we decide since discipleship doesn’t really eliminate our problems it may not be worth the effort so we walk away from the faith or replace it with a pseudo faith that doesn’t go any deeper than the surface. When faith in God doesn’t lead us to an escape from this world’s problems we all too often assume it isn’t doing anything. This fails to acknowledge that the promise of God isn’t that we’ll never hurt again but that God knows our hurts and hurts with us. I am reminded of a quote by British theologian John Stott.
He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering. ”The cross of Christ . . . is God’s only self-justification in such a world” The other gods were strong; but thou wast weak; they rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne; But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak.”

Christian joy isn’t a statement of the condition of the world around us, nor is it even a result of some superior personality trait. It is acknowledging God’s presence in all our struggles and despite our failings. This is why we rejoice on this 3rd Sunday of Advent because we remember that God is coming as he promised and that his coming is truly a great thing for a fallen world, a world in desperate need of a God who suffers.
Whether we are talking about God’s presence being made real in the birth of a baby to a virgin girl, Jesus’ second coming to make the world new, or in the bread and wine of the Eucharist the result is the same. Before the world is transformed our perspective is transformed. The desert looks a little more welcoming because of one beautiful flower; our thirst all of a sudden isn’t so unquenchable. Brothers and sisters yes we will hurt, and we will hurt others we will crave things that bring nothing but death and decay, but rejoice for the God who loves us enough to become flesh and blood, to live and die for our sakes, to defeat the power of death is here in our midst; lifting us up, holding us tight, and calling us his. Please pray with me.
Dear God, you know that our hearts long for the joy and gladness promised by life with you. Help us to remember that you are with us always, and that our hearts will rest only when they rest with you.

Luke 16:1-13

I would like to start this morning’s sermon with somewhat of a confession. As many of you may know, before seminary I coached basketball at the junior high level. I was a pretty good coach; I worked well with my players and fielded a competitive team year after year. I garnered enough of a reputation to be approached by a well-known AAU basketball club in Southern Maine about coaching one of their younger teams. AAU stands for Amateur Athletic Union; they offer opportunities for sports teams to play at regional and national levels. AAU by its nature is more competitive than playing for your school or at your local Y, and thus a higher pressure environment. There are certain practices you would see teams employ at this level that may not be employed at other levels of youth sports. One of these practices that I found myself taking part in is akin to what we call in the church as “sheep stealing” or “steeple chasing.”
We would start the tournament season with a small roster of 8 through 10 players knowing that after the state tournament when we’d be preparing for regional and even national tournaments, some of the more localized teams would be wrapping up and we could cherry-pick their better players. Yes, arrogance was often the mark of some of these bigger basketball clubs, and play beyond the state tourney was often assumed. So this cherry-picking was easily justifiable. I mean after all there were worse things that we could be doing, and many teams did. Besides, we were giving these kids more opportunity to play.
We didn’t talk about the damage it did. And it did some damage. Firstly it altered the relationships on our team, relationships that we have been working on developing for at least two months. It also put these players in a situation where they would have to choose the following season between playing with a bigger basketball club or the more local travel team—their friends and neighbors who they have been playing with for years. This decision was also sure to alter relationships. Not to mention the distortion of a child’s self image and his sense of priorities that often happened in these situations. After three seasons of involvement, two of which ended with trips to Florida to compete in the Nationals, I decided that this scene wasn’t for me and stuck to coaching for the school season.
You guys may be asking why am I telling you this. Well much like the dishonest manager, I was often commended for my shrewd behavior even if it wasn’t entirely righteous and something to be proud of. This is a parable that the church often has a hard time with for this very reason. People often are confused and wonder if Jesus is really commending the dishonest behavior of this questionable character—and if not what, exactly is he trying to teach?
Brothers and sisters, Jesus doesn’t commend him for his dishonesty—neither does the fictitious rich man in Jesus’ parable. What he is commended for is his shrewdness. A quick survey of the word “shrewd” likens it to such words as “astute,” “sharp,” “perceptive,” “keen,” and “intelligent.” None of these adjectives mean “dishonest” in their own right; rather shrewdness I think speaks to knowing how to succeed and being able to make it happen.
Unfortunately, brothers and sisters, shrewdness in a system characterized by sin will sometimes lead to questionable ethics. Knowing how to succeed and having the ability in a fallen world, where the very definition of success is subject to the whims of the human condition, will sometimes put us at odds with God’s divine will. This is why Jesus tells us this morning we can’t serve God and money. We will come to hate one and love the other. As Christians we have a decision to make: will we serve the will of the world or the will of God? Will we answer the world’s call—to look out for Numero Uno, becoming the kind of people that Amos prophesies against this morning—or God’s call to live as God’s children loving and nurturing the world he made, while swearing allegiance to God’s kingdom?
You see, brothers and sisters, choosing to serve God is the right choice but not the easy one. For in making this decision we are not swept away to another world that is subject to another set of rules. No indeed, we still live in the fallen world, but our rules and perspective change. Sometimes it seems like we’re playing a board game with friends and family, and we are all playing by different rules. But, brothers and sisters, I’m not talking about a game—I am talking about your faith, your relationship with the God who created and redeemed you. And the question that today’s parable dares to ask is how do we live as Christ’s disciples in the world that crucified him? Called to be shrewd children of God, what does it mean to be successful in living a Godly life?
I think it begins by realizing that our very definition of “success” is altered. Worldly success is based on results: making money, growing a company and receiving accolades, for example. Success in God’s kingdom however has nothing to do with results. That’s because the results lie not in our hands but in God’s. You see, perceptions of eternal salvation that emphasize human choice or behavior are applying the world’s rules to God’s kingdom and getting stuck on result as a measure of success. I think that success in the Godly life can be seen in two ways: relationship and faithfulness—two things that do not often line up with a secular view of success and can actually, directly contradict it.
You see God became incarnate in Jesus Christ to empower us to be in relationship with him in a way that was never possible before. And I promise that as our relationship with God deepens, the relationships around us will be deepened as well. In contrast to worldly success which often includes exploitation of others to move up the social ladder—a la today’s reading from Amos, the relationships formed by living Godly lives help make God’s kingdom manifest and as a result are life-giving.
Faithfulness to God and God’s vision of the world is another mark of success in Godly lives. Faithfulness leads disciples to trust and obey things that don’t come easy in a world where trust often leads to pain and where obedience is often seen as weakness. However by acknowledging that God’s plan for the world is what ought to be and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through us to be a part of that divine plan, obedience and trust become second nature.
You see, brothers and sisters, it is easier to oppress and exploit others than to love them. It is easier to pursue our own desires than it is to discern the will of God and to do our part to fulfill it. But easy isn’t better and it sure isn’t right. And we serve a God whose love for us has transcended any rules. He became human to bring us closer to the divine and he died so we may live. The problem with the rich man in Jesus’ parables was that he was subject to the same limits and laws as his manager—so he had to fire him. God, on the other hand, is free from the shackles that bind humankind and in Jesus, has freed us from those shackles us well. So we in turn can live in this world by God’s rules—not ours.
Please pray with me:
Lord God,
We thank you that in Jesus Christ, you have chosen us—claiming us as your children and offering us life without end. Lord, I pray that you in turn can give us the courage to choose life as your disciples, not as the world’s slaves. In Christ’s name we pray. AMEN