We All Belong
I remember one Sunday in Chicago Heather and I decided to visit a church where our friend’s mother was the pastor. It was a little bit of a drive being in the far southern suburbs, an area of Chicagoland we never spent a lot of time in. After finally arriving at the church we were a little late, we found some mostly empty pews. As we approached the place in the service where the choir was going to sing we noticed that everybody sitting around us was giving each other sheet music. They than proceeded to stand up while the rest of the congregation remained seated, some turned to look at the group of standing choir members that we happened to be seating in the midst of. That is right we somehow managed to show up late to this church where nobody knew us and sit ourselves right down with the Choir. I wanted to disappear I felt so foolish, like an outsider who just ruined any chance of welcome I may have had. The congregation was friendly and welcoming but that did little to subdue my feeling of non-belonging.
The woman Jesus confronted in today’s Gospel had every right to feel that way. She was a gentile woman asking Jesus for help, being a gentile she had no right aprproaching a Jewish rabbi, being a woman in that world she had even less right. I am sure as well that having a demonized daughter made sure she was even marginalized in her own community. This is a woman who was an outsider by every possible definition, yet she crossed all those boundaries and brought her need to Jesus Christ. Even when Jesus Christ challenged her she didn’t shy away but offered a confession of faith that any disciple would be proud of. This outsider knew who Jesus was and came to him in faith despite it being against the rules of society.
Just a week removed from Jesus’ challenge to the Pharisees where we are faced with the dark truth that insiders often create stumbling blocks for themselves and others we are confronted with the flip side of the same coin. In Jesus’ words and the woman’s words we are reminded that in God’s eyes there are no such things as insiders and outsiders, haves and have nots, and us and them. Yes the life and work of Jesus Christ was initially for those labeled as God’s chosen people, which ironically included those Pharisees he is always rebuking. But the grace and glory of God as we have come to know in the incarnation is to great to be lavished on one small group of people. The grace that is offered in Jesus Christ is made available to all people regardless of whatever side of whatever line they may be on.
As a matter of fact Jesus came because throughout the history of humankind we have proven ourselves again to need that life-changing grace of God. Perhaps it is safe to say that in God’s eyes we were all outsiders and have-nots. Between the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus we have become insiders and the haves. We have been welcomed fully into God’s presence and been given the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. The healing that we see in today’s Gospel lesson, both the exorcism of the daughter and the healing of the deaf man was more than a healing of individuals, but communities that have been destroyed by divisions created out of sin are restored and made whole.
In the 2nd reading James the brother of Jesus speaks to what happens when a community of disciples let human partiality take root. Not only are we sinning but we are actively damaging the Gospel. When the church shows the partiality that the world shows, creating groups and cliques the church isn’t acting as the Body of Christ. As Gentiles we need to be grateful that the promises of God were and are for everyone. As baptized Christians we should feel compelled to take pause and think about ways that we have indeed participated in a system of brokenness and partiality, and thank God that Jesus came to fix what was broken and draw us all to God.
In such an individualistic and polarized society I think we need to really reflect on how radical God’s word is. Sin is not only separation from God but also isolation from one another, distortion and brokenness of community. Last week at Immanuel we baptized a baby boy Iver Neal Ellingson, this week at Zion we witnessed Cathy Larsen and Adam Roethler reaffirm their baptisms, claiming God’s promises for themselves and officially joining our fellowship. Brothers and sisters today readings about the impartiality of God’s grace and the universality of his love made incarnate in Jesus Christ give us an amazing opportunity to reflect on what membership in our local congregation and in the Holy catholic church mean, remembering that when Lutheran say catholic it is always a lower-case c and means universal. We are doing more than officially acknowledging their presence on the pew beside us. We are welcoming them as blessed Brothers and sisters in the Glorious Presence of God. We are receiving them as fellow sojourners on this journey to which God has called us all in baptism. We are being blessed by the gifts that they are in our community a faith. A community torn and broken by sin and yet restored and transformed by Jesus Christ. I want to leave you today with not an answer but a question, in a world full of us and thems, haves and have nots, insiders and outsiders, how do we live in that world while living for a God who shows no partiality?
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Pentecost
Reclaiming the Holy Spirit
Pastor and theologian Wilhelm Leohe once compared the church to a river flowing through time. He emphasized that the church wasn’t a territorial or local establishment but all of God’s people in all times and all places. He went on to talk about mission as simply the movement of the church through time. Wherever the church was being the church in the communities and places it was called to mission was being done.
I was reminded of Leohe’s work as I prepared for Pentecost this week. Pentecost is a funny day. We often refer to it as the birthday of the church but it never quite garners the hoopla of Christmas or Easter, it hasn’t made the mark on secular calendars like the other two. Even liturgically it is often seen as simply a transition between the season of Easter and the lull we call ordinary time or time after Pentecost. I have heard Lutherans refer to Pentecost as the one day we talk about the Holy Spirit; as if we need to shift our focus of Jesus Christ to be able to talk about the 3rd person of the trinity. In the contemporary church it often seems like talk of the Holy Spirit is reserved for those communities who participate in seemingly supernatural faith practices such as faith healing and speaking in tongues, things that are usually alien to mainline liturgical communities like ourselves.
Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit shouldn’t be alien or foreign in a Lutheran Church. Some of you may remember Martin Luther’s explanation of the 3rd Article of the Creed from your years of confirmation. Let me refesh your memories.
“A. I believe that I cannot come to my Lord Jesus Christ by my own intellegence or power. But the Holy Spirit call me by the Gospel,
enlightened me with His gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true
faith, just as He calls, gathers together, enlightens and makes holy
the whole Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus in the one, true
faith. In this Church, He generously forgives each day every sin
committed by me and by every believer. On the last day, He will raise
me and all the dead from the grave. He will give eternal life to me
and to all who believe in Christ. Yes, this is true!
I strongly believe that that the church must reclaim the importance of Pentecost and give it back it’s rightful place alongside Christmas and Easter as a major festival of the Church. Because as goes our connection to the Holy Spirit so goes our ability to call Jesus Lord, and as goes our sense of being called so goes the mission of the church. The Holy Spirit isn’t about speaking in tongues although that may be edifying for some Christians. But first and foremost God gifting us with the Holy Spirit is about calling and empowering us to be the Body of Christ. This is why the third article of the Creed groups the church and the Holy Spirit together, this is why Pentecost is both the day God first gifted his children with the Holy Spirit and the birthday of the Church; and I would go so far as to say this is why in large parts of the American Church an inability to talk about and sense the leading of the Holy Spirit has led to disastrous failure in focusing on mission. I believe that actively remembering that God has gifted the whole church with the Holy Spirit would lead to much renewal in many congregations.
Brothers and sisters the Pentecost story that we read an Acts isn’t a one-time event that happened to people a long time ago in a faraway place. It’s a story we relive at baptisms when the Spirit calls a new believer and every time we gather to do the work that God has called us to do. My friend David Barnes graduated from Seminary a few weeks back, he has been called as a Mission Developer in the Baltimore area, his first call will be funded entirely from the Synod and he is called to build and develop a congregation entirely from scratch. Heather and I are among David’s prayer partners and through the call of the Holy Spirit are connected to this congregation to be. A few years ago this community had the awesome opportunity to invest in and/or pray for a new mission start in this Synod New Hope in Farley, this serves as a reminder that we are not an isolated community whose story begins with immigrants to the American Shores in the mid to late 1800’s. But our story begins the same place that all Christian communities of the past preset and future. That is with a God who made us, loves us, and calls us to be the church flowing like that river that Wilhelm Leohe speaks about from the source, God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit until we reach the river’s mouth and spill into the Glory of God.
Brothers and sisters the Holy Spirit is nothing less than the God of Life living and moving in us. Empowering us to do amazing and wonderful things as ________ Lutheran Church a part of the Body of Christ. It’s easy as a congregation to get wrapped up in our own needs and struggles that we forget we are a part of something so much grander. Only when the Holy Spirit is reclaimed can we remember who we are. How do we reclaim the Holy Spirit? It begins by talking about it more than once a year; I challenge all of us to spend some time in intentional prayer asking for the leading of the Holy Spirit in the lives of these churches. And I want to challenge us as a congregation to spend more time in communal prayer, when WELCA meets every meeting should begin an end in prayer, when I meet with bible study groups I am going to try harder to cultivate deep prayer, in the near future I will provide opportunities for us to gather for the sole purpose of prayer. Because brothers and sisters a praying congregation is a living congregation, a Spirit filled congregation is a congregation doing mission and part of something great. Please pray with me.
Lord God,
Send again your Holy Spirit to your disciples in this place. Breathe in us so we may be a breath of fresh air to the world around us. Convict us and lead us out of our comfort zones into the future you have called us to boldly and faithfully. And give us life Lord so we may live for you and you alone. In Jesus’ precious and Holy Name.
Pastor and theologian Wilhelm Leohe once compared the church to a river flowing through time. He emphasized that the church wasn’t a territorial or local establishment but all of God’s people in all times and all places. He went on to talk about mission as simply the movement of the church through time. Wherever the church was being the church in the communities and places it was called to mission was being done.
I was reminded of Leohe’s work as I prepared for Pentecost this week. Pentecost is a funny day. We often refer to it as the birthday of the church but it never quite garners the hoopla of Christmas or Easter, it hasn’t made the mark on secular calendars like the other two. Even liturgically it is often seen as simply a transition between the season of Easter and the lull we call ordinary time or time after Pentecost. I have heard Lutherans refer to Pentecost as the one day we talk about the Holy Spirit; as if we need to shift our focus of Jesus Christ to be able to talk about the 3rd person of the trinity. In the contemporary church it often seems like talk of the Holy Spirit is reserved for those communities who participate in seemingly supernatural faith practices such as faith healing and speaking in tongues, things that are usually alien to mainline liturgical communities like ourselves.
Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit shouldn’t be alien or foreign in a Lutheran Church. Some of you may remember Martin Luther’s explanation of the 3rd Article of the Creed from your years of confirmation. Let me refesh your memories.
“A. I believe that I cannot come to my Lord Jesus Christ by my own intellegence or power. But the Holy Spirit call me by the Gospel,
enlightened me with His gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true
faith, just as He calls, gathers together, enlightens and makes holy
the whole Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus in the one, true
faith. In this Church, He generously forgives each day every sin
committed by me and by every believer. On the last day, He will raise
me and all the dead from the grave. He will give eternal life to me
and to all who believe in Christ. Yes, this is true!
I strongly believe that that the church must reclaim the importance of Pentecost and give it back it’s rightful place alongside Christmas and Easter as a major festival of the Church. Because as goes our connection to the Holy Spirit so goes our ability to call Jesus Lord, and as goes our sense of being called so goes the mission of the church. The Holy Spirit isn’t about speaking in tongues although that may be edifying for some Christians. But first and foremost God gifting us with the Holy Spirit is about calling and empowering us to be the Body of Christ. This is why the third article of the Creed groups the church and the Holy Spirit together, this is why Pentecost is both the day God first gifted his children with the Holy Spirit and the birthday of the Church; and I would go so far as to say this is why in large parts of the American Church an inability to talk about and sense the leading of the Holy Spirit has led to disastrous failure in focusing on mission. I believe that actively remembering that God has gifted the whole church with the Holy Spirit would lead to much renewal in many congregations.
Brothers and sisters the Pentecost story that we read an Acts isn’t a one-time event that happened to people a long time ago in a faraway place. It’s a story we relive at baptisms when the Spirit calls a new believer and every time we gather to do the work that God has called us to do. My friend David Barnes graduated from Seminary a few weeks back, he has been called as a Mission Developer in the Baltimore area, his first call will be funded entirely from the Synod and he is called to build and develop a congregation entirely from scratch. Heather and I are among David’s prayer partners and through the call of the Holy Spirit are connected to this congregation to be. A few years ago this community had the awesome opportunity to invest in and/or pray for a new mission start in this Synod New Hope in Farley, this serves as a reminder that we are not an isolated community whose story begins with immigrants to the American Shores in the mid to late 1800’s. But our story begins the same place that all Christian communities of the past preset and future. That is with a God who made us, loves us, and calls us to be the church flowing like that river that Wilhelm Leohe speaks about from the source, God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit until we reach the river’s mouth and spill into the Glory of God.
Brothers and sisters the Holy Spirit is nothing less than the God of Life living and moving in us. Empowering us to do amazing and wonderful things as ________ Lutheran Church a part of the Body of Christ. It’s easy as a congregation to get wrapped up in our own needs and struggles that we forget we are a part of something so much grander. Only when the Holy Spirit is reclaimed can we remember who we are. How do we reclaim the Holy Spirit? It begins by talking about it more than once a year; I challenge all of us to spend some time in intentional prayer asking for the leading of the Holy Spirit in the lives of these churches. And I want to challenge us as a congregation to spend more time in communal prayer, when WELCA meets every meeting should begin an end in prayer, when I meet with bible study groups I am going to try harder to cultivate deep prayer, in the near future I will provide opportunities for us to gather for the sole purpose of prayer. Because brothers and sisters a praying congregation is a living congregation, a Spirit filled congregation is a congregation doing mission and part of something great. Please pray with me.
Lord God,
Send again your Holy Spirit to your disciples in this place. Breathe in us so we may be a breath of fresh air to the world around us. Convict us and lead us out of our comfort zones into the future you have called us to boldly and faithfully. And give us life Lord so we may live for you and you alone. In Jesus’ precious and Holy Name.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
A sermon on prayer
The Prayer of the Disciples
The image is a familiar one, often used as a punch line of a joke but the discouragement is real. Children against the wall during recess waiting to be picked by one of the kickball captains. Finally we get down to two, one of them will be picked and the other one we be relieved begrudgingly by the other team as the unwanted consolation prize. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine today’s scene from acts in this light. The disciples have one spot to fill and two candidates. Matthias and Joseph are standing against the wall both with beads of sweat dripping from their brow. Knowing that at the rolling of a die one will be given glory and the other will be forced back to anonymity. The truth is friends that even though Matthias won this coin flip we do not hear of him again. This leads me to believe that this is included in the history of the early church not to draw attention to the people but to the process by which they were chosen. And I am not referring to the casting of lots. We need not be impressed by the rolling of the dice or flipping of a coin do decide such an important thing this may seem at best archaic and at worst foolish to a community that holds to democratic values where we enjoy having a voice and a vote.
However I think we’d be foolish if we thought we couldn’t learn anything from these dice throwing disciples. I think the effectiveness in their method was less in the wrists and more in the prayer.
Then they prayed and said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen 25to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.”
I think these two simple verses are the key to understanding the significance of what happened in this room. This room of disciples and the apostles called to lead them were so prayerful that even an act as random as a game of chance became something through which God acted and spoke through. The absence of any further information may lead us to assume that the right choice was made, and I believe that shows us that God answered the prayer of this community. A community as we read through Acts that was prayer-saturated. A characteristic that all communities of those who call themselves Christ’s disciples should strive for. Perhaps this can be where our democratic values hinder more than help. In the midst of everybody’s voice and vote we may forget to listen to the one voice that should drown all of the others out, the voice of God. Not that God never speaks through us but I think that it takes much intentionality on our part do be a people who welcome God’s voice to the conversation and seek to align God’s will with our own.
Prayer has been on my heart recently as I prepare to lead a study of the psalms and worked through the Lord’s Prayer in the last few weeks of confirmation. In these past weeks I have become more convicted that one of the ailments in many American churches is an absence of authentic prayer. Christian prayer is so much more than words spoken to God either memorized or extemporaneous. It’s not simply a conversation where we empty our hearts and hope that God is listening. Prayer begins as a conversation but in reality it is so much more.
What is it then you may ask?
Catherine Marshall wrote that
“A demanding spirit, with self-will as its rudder, blocks prayer…. Prayer is people cooperating with God in bringing from heaven to earth His wondrously good plans for us”
Likewise Augustine often prayed
Grant that we might seek never, never to bend the straight to the crooked. That is, your will to ours. But help us to bend the crooked to the straight. That is, our will to yours.
Brothers and sisters the prayer saturation that is modeled by the community in the Book of Acts and is greatly needed in churches today is a deep desire that God’s will is done in our lives in and the work of our congregations. It doesn’t begin with an invocation and end with an Amen. It begins at baptism and never ends. In the life of a disciple Thy will be done isn’t just a prayer petition but the driving force behind every prayer.
How blessed we are that we worship a God who has made himself so accessible; A God who longs to be in conversation with us and calls us to not just worship him but be a part of his saving activity on earth.
Brothers and sisters the last few Sundays we have heard a lot about things we do as Christians. We have heard encouragement to produce fruit for God’s kingdom. Today we are reminded that a lifestyle of prayer, the desire to see God’s will be done is the only thing differentiating our fruit from the work of the world. God’s voice turns the well intentioned deeds of people to the life giving work of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Please pray with me.
Lord God,
Lead us and guide us as we attempt to discern your will in the life of _____ Lutheran Church. Keep still our babbling hearts and human desires so they may be touched by your hand and inspired by your voice. We pray this in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
The image is a familiar one, often used as a punch line of a joke but the discouragement is real. Children against the wall during recess waiting to be picked by one of the kickball captains. Finally we get down to two, one of them will be picked and the other one we be relieved begrudgingly by the other team as the unwanted consolation prize. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine today’s scene from acts in this light. The disciples have one spot to fill and two candidates. Matthias and Joseph are standing against the wall both with beads of sweat dripping from their brow. Knowing that at the rolling of a die one will be given glory and the other will be forced back to anonymity. The truth is friends that even though Matthias won this coin flip we do not hear of him again. This leads me to believe that this is included in the history of the early church not to draw attention to the people but to the process by which they were chosen. And I am not referring to the casting of lots. We need not be impressed by the rolling of the dice or flipping of a coin do decide such an important thing this may seem at best archaic and at worst foolish to a community that holds to democratic values where we enjoy having a voice and a vote.
However I think we’d be foolish if we thought we couldn’t learn anything from these dice throwing disciples. I think the effectiveness in their method was less in the wrists and more in the prayer.
Then they prayed and said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen 25to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.”
I think these two simple verses are the key to understanding the significance of what happened in this room. This room of disciples and the apostles called to lead them were so prayerful that even an act as random as a game of chance became something through which God acted and spoke through. The absence of any further information may lead us to assume that the right choice was made, and I believe that shows us that God answered the prayer of this community. A community as we read through Acts that was prayer-saturated. A characteristic that all communities of those who call themselves Christ’s disciples should strive for. Perhaps this can be where our democratic values hinder more than help. In the midst of everybody’s voice and vote we may forget to listen to the one voice that should drown all of the others out, the voice of God. Not that God never speaks through us but I think that it takes much intentionality on our part do be a people who welcome God’s voice to the conversation and seek to align God’s will with our own.
Prayer has been on my heart recently as I prepare to lead a study of the psalms and worked through the Lord’s Prayer in the last few weeks of confirmation. In these past weeks I have become more convicted that one of the ailments in many American churches is an absence of authentic prayer. Christian prayer is so much more than words spoken to God either memorized or extemporaneous. It’s not simply a conversation where we empty our hearts and hope that God is listening. Prayer begins as a conversation but in reality it is so much more.
What is it then you may ask?
Catherine Marshall wrote that
“A demanding spirit, with self-will as its rudder, blocks prayer…. Prayer is people cooperating with God in bringing from heaven to earth His wondrously good plans for us”
Likewise Augustine often prayed
Grant that we might seek never, never to bend the straight to the crooked. That is, your will to ours. But help us to bend the crooked to the straight. That is, our will to yours.
Brothers and sisters the prayer saturation that is modeled by the community in the Book of Acts and is greatly needed in churches today is a deep desire that God’s will is done in our lives in and the work of our congregations. It doesn’t begin with an invocation and end with an Amen. It begins at baptism and never ends. In the life of a disciple Thy will be done isn’t just a prayer petition but the driving force behind every prayer.
How blessed we are that we worship a God who has made himself so accessible; A God who longs to be in conversation with us and calls us to not just worship him but be a part of his saving activity on earth.
Brothers and sisters the last few Sundays we have heard a lot about things we do as Christians. We have heard encouragement to produce fruit for God’s kingdom. Today we are reminded that a lifestyle of prayer, the desire to see God’s will be done is the only thing differentiating our fruit from the work of the world. God’s voice turns the well intentioned deeds of people to the life giving work of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Please pray with me.
Lord God,
Lead us and guide us as we attempt to discern your will in the life of _____ Lutheran Church. Keep still our babbling hearts and human desires so they may be touched by your hand and inspired by your voice. We pray this in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Sermon Advent 2B
Repentance as Memory
One of my favorite subjects in school was English. I loved the reading and the writing. Yes I even enjoyed grammar. Today’s readings struck me as something that could be used to teach grammar, specifically how to understand tenses. Especially in Isaiah and the psalm we moved from past tense to present tense and future tense and back and forth very fluidly the ways that these tense changes happened almost denied the linear nature of time. I found myself wondering what this tense potpourri had to do with our advent experiences.
During advent we focus on the future coming of God in his world. We surround ourselves with biblical readings about the future, many of which are often connected to the end times, and connect them to our experience of the incarnation of God, God becoming a person and living among us. The focus is on the future, however in anticipation of God’s future we are also called to remember God’s past and live as God’s children in our todays. Last week I talked a little about forgetting what we know about God’s work in Jesus Christ and I do believe that we need to let God surprise and amaze us. But perhaps this doesn’t mean that memory can’t play a role in our preparations also.
I am reminded of the years that my family held the Rand family reunion for a few years at our place on the island. One of the things at least that us children would do is to watch the video from the previous year’s reunion, yes for a while we were one of those families who videotaped everything.
Watching the videotape did a few things for us, not the least of them was to remind us of those jokes that Uncle Lenny and Uncle Ed told year after year, we could impress them by knowing the punch lines of the jokes that seemed to never get old to those two.
In all seriousness watching the video reminded us of how fun and exciting these reunions were. We were than motivated to help my mother and father with the cleaning, cooking, and moving of furniture that it took to hold a Rand family Reunion. Without a reminder of how special the coming guests are we would never want to do the housework that these guests deserved and warranted. We were willing to invest ourselves when we were reminded how wonderful this day was going to be.
In today’s OT reading Isaiah reminds us what God has done while telling us of God’s coming. We are reminded that the God who is coming has already made himself known to the world. If we look at the lessons the things that are past are things like redemption and sin. God tells the prophet to remind Israel that she has served her term and the penalty ahs been paid. The author of today’s psalm writes of God “You have forgiven the iniquity of your people and blotted out all their sins”. We are called to remember our sins and that God has forgiven them. Waiting for God’s arrival in no way negate God’s past grace. But remembering that past grace can help us prepare for whatever God has in store now.
John the Baptist called for repentance as preparation. I believe that repentance is a kind of remembering, the same kind of remembering that was found in Isaiah and the Psalmist’s proclamation. I believe that John’s call to repentance was also the call of the Prophet’s and it the call we hear during Advent season; a call to confess our sins and remember them before God.
It is not fun or easy to remember our sinfulness. But I don’t think this the primary purpose of repentance. The end result of repentance isn’t us saying to God and others “look at me a poor miserable sinner I deserve nothing”. The end result of repentance is God saying to us and others “Look, you are my children and I have forgiven your sins and I will give you everything”. Brothers and sisters repentance, the memory that is called for during advent, is less about our sinfulness and more about the goodness of God.
John the Baptist’s call to repent doesn’t end with the confession or the absolution of sins; but the announcement of the one who is coming. Our confession of sins and words of absolution that recall the graciousness of God are bound up in the announcement of the coming of God’s anointed one. They are means of which the coming of the messiah is known and felt.
The amazing thing about repentance brothers and sisters is it is a kind of remembering that leads to a kind of forgetting. In our remembering our sins God decides to forget them, blot them out, like they never existed. In this holy forgetting we are called and empowered to live as Children of God, disciples of the coming Messiah.
One of my favorite subjects in school was English. I loved the reading and the writing. Yes I even enjoyed grammar. Today’s readings struck me as something that could be used to teach grammar, specifically how to understand tenses. Especially in Isaiah and the psalm we moved from past tense to present tense and future tense and back and forth very fluidly the ways that these tense changes happened almost denied the linear nature of time. I found myself wondering what this tense potpourri had to do with our advent experiences.
During advent we focus on the future coming of God in his world. We surround ourselves with biblical readings about the future, many of which are often connected to the end times, and connect them to our experience of the incarnation of God, God becoming a person and living among us. The focus is on the future, however in anticipation of God’s future we are also called to remember God’s past and live as God’s children in our todays. Last week I talked a little about forgetting what we know about God’s work in Jesus Christ and I do believe that we need to let God surprise and amaze us. But perhaps this doesn’t mean that memory can’t play a role in our preparations also.
I am reminded of the years that my family held the Rand family reunion for a few years at our place on the island. One of the things at least that us children would do is to watch the video from the previous year’s reunion, yes for a while we were one of those families who videotaped everything.
Watching the videotape did a few things for us, not the least of them was to remind us of those jokes that Uncle Lenny and Uncle Ed told year after year, we could impress them by knowing the punch lines of the jokes that seemed to never get old to those two.
In all seriousness watching the video reminded us of how fun and exciting these reunions were. We were than motivated to help my mother and father with the cleaning, cooking, and moving of furniture that it took to hold a Rand family Reunion. Without a reminder of how special the coming guests are we would never want to do the housework that these guests deserved and warranted. We were willing to invest ourselves when we were reminded how wonderful this day was going to be.
In today’s OT reading Isaiah reminds us what God has done while telling us of God’s coming. We are reminded that the God who is coming has already made himself known to the world. If we look at the lessons the things that are past are things like redemption and sin. God tells the prophet to remind Israel that she has served her term and the penalty ahs been paid. The author of today’s psalm writes of God “You have forgiven the iniquity of your people and blotted out all their sins”. We are called to remember our sins and that God has forgiven them. Waiting for God’s arrival in no way negate God’s past grace. But remembering that past grace can help us prepare for whatever God has in store now.
John the Baptist called for repentance as preparation. I believe that repentance is a kind of remembering, the same kind of remembering that was found in Isaiah and the Psalmist’s proclamation. I believe that John’s call to repentance was also the call of the Prophet’s and it the call we hear during Advent season; a call to confess our sins and remember them before God.
It is not fun or easy to remember our sinfulness. But I don’t think this the primary purpose of repentance. The end result of repentance isn’t us saying to God and others “look at me a poor miserable sinner I deserve nothing”. The end result of repentance is God saying to us and others “Look, you are my children and I have forgiven your sins and I will give you everything”. Brothers and sisters repentance, the memory that is called for during advent, is less about our sinfulness and more about the goodness of God.
John the Baptist’s call to repent doesn’t end with the confession or the absolution of sins; but the announcement of the one who is coming. Our confession of sins and words of absolution that recall the graciousness of God are bound up in the announcement of the coming of God’s anointed one. They are means of which the coming of the messiah is known and felt.
The amazing thing about repentance brothers and sisters is it is a kind of remembering that leads to a kind of forgetting. In our remembering our sins God decides to forget them, blot them out, like they never existed. In this holy forgetting we are called and empowered to live as Children of God, disciples of the coming Messiah.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Sermon
Today’s lessons seemed to me like a slap in the face. Especially after last week’s emphasis on standing in the grace of God and de-emphasis on doing as a way to find self worth I had to think long and hard about what to do with Jesus’ story of the two sons. But isn’t that what scripture is supposed to do; to challenge us and force us to reflect on our lives of faith.
Jesus responded to the Pharisee’s question with a story and a few questions of his own. The story was relatively easy to follow, there are two sons one tells their father that he will go work in the field and never gets there the other one verbally refuses but later on decides he should and works in the field anyway.
However Jesus’ question and its implication is what I found myself thinking about throughout the week. He ends his latest parable with a question which one is doing the will of the father? Like his stories this question is more than it seems at first. He takes the answer that the Pharisees gave him and turns it right back on them. “Truly I tell you the tax collectors and prostitutes will enter the
Throughout scripture the Pharisees as seen as Jesus’ opponents and we may be led to look at them in disdain. But in actuality they aren’t much different than many Christians today. They have made their life’s pursuit the pursuit of religion. By adhering to a strict set of laws and practices they chase after holiness. This chase after holiness they hope will ultimately end in becoming closer to God. When Jesus comes and challenges all they hold dear they hide behind manmade laws and traditions. In the end their way to holiness becomes a trap of self-righteousness. Sometimes as Christians we fall in the same trap, the religion we practice as a means to worship the God who has given us life eternal becomes a citadel, a fortress shielding us from the world that God loves. We become like the son who vows to the father to do the work the father calls him to do. But we don’t ever leave the comfort zone we have made for ourselves and do it.
German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes about a religionless Christianity; A Christianity in which disciples lived a life of worship. A Christianity in which disciples served the Gospel of Jesus Christ and word in deed out in the world; A Christianity in which a special set of rituals and language was not reserved for a compartmentalized faith. Faith isn’t supposed to be safe it calls us to grow and leave our comfort zones. It challenges us to serve God by loving what God loves. And it brings us to authentic repentance.
I believe that this is the will of the Father that Jesus calls talks about today. Through the preaching and baptism of John and the teachings of Jesus many people, including some tax collectors and others of disrepute, have come to realization that they are sinners loved by God who need the forgiveness and grace that god offers freely. This is where they differ from the Pharisees who hide behind their religion of self-righteousness and fail to see their need. The repentance that should characterize all of those who have heard the call of Christ is marked by an utter dependence on God in who we find our source of life. It is also marked by a love for life and the world that springs out of our trust in God. The religion of repentant disciples isn’t about hiding away in a citadel of rituals and norms; instead it is about being strengthened and nurtured to live out our faith in a sinful and fallen world.
Kathleen Norris writes about a little boy who wrote a poem called "The Monster Who Was Sorry." In the poem the boy explodes about how he hated it when his father yelled at him. In anger he threw his sister down the stairs, wrecked his room, and then destroyed an entire town. His poem concludes: "Then I sit in my messy house and say to myself, 'I shouldn't have done all that.'"
The boy was indeed the Monster who was Sorry. He serves us as a model of repentance. Repentance begins with a liberating awareness that the mess is ours. This is liberating because once we realize the mess is ours we can turn to a God who has come to live in the midst of our mess. This makes possible finding our way amidst the mess cleaning up the shards of shameful memories and broken relationships on the way. Let’s leave church today not self-righteous Pharisees but sinners utterly dependent on the Grace of God to enter God’s kingdom.
Please pray with me.
Gracious God we come before you bearing our sins and our faults. We know we can’t live as we should without the gift of your son Jesus Christ. Thank you for the amazing gift of grace that makes a new day possible. As you cleanse Chloe in the waters of baptism cleanse us all in your love and grace.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sermon on Matthew 20 and Jonah
To Do or to Be That is the Question
One of the greatest spiritual theologians of the twentieth century Thomas Merton commented that “We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have - for their usefulness.”
I was reminded of this quote as I read today’s lessons. I think the church often falls in this trap; looking at increased attendance as both a sign of faithfulness and assurance that we’re doing it right. And decreased attendance as an indication of unworthiness and lack of faith. . Never mind the fact that half of the churches in the ELCA worship fewer than a hundred and that small churches typically give more per member than bigger churches We talk about the churches that have embraced the moniker of “program church” as being vital because there is always something happening. Even though the father of mega churches Willow Creek has admitted to doing things wrong after a study showed their members do not maturie in their faith as disciples should. All these symptoms point to an institutional form of the human tendency to keep score. Today’s lessons remind us that we worship a God who does not keep score. A God who offers the same gift to all of us regardless to what we have done or what we have not done.
In the parable of the vineyard there is more in common between those who worked all day and those who were hired then we usually realize. But the big similarity that I want to bring your attention to is they all started out the day unemployed. The owner of the Vineyard offers them all a job. If we are to compare God with the Vineyard owner and ourselves with the workers; which is what Jesus does in his parables the first thing I want you to notice is that everybody needs what God offers; grace and relationship with him. There is no one who can be right with God without those things. There is nothing in today’s parable about the owner needing more workers but he hires them anyway.
This brings me to a second related point. We worship a God of abundance. The Vineyard owner hires the laborers even though they’re not needed because he has plenty of what they need. We live in a world that has a hard time understanding this reality. In a world where CEOs make so much more than those that work under them we fail to see the generosity that the Vineyard owner is showing the laborers by hiring them. In a world of limited resources we fail to see the hiring of workers at the end of a day and paying them a full days wage as generosity instead we see it as foolishness. But as we learned last week from Paul much of what God does looks foolish from our human perspective. And I don’t know about you but after looking around our world I am thankful that we belong to a God who doesn’t see things from a Human perspective.
Jesus when he is telling this parable finds it significant that the first group to be hired agrees to a daily wage. I think this is significant because it tells us that the issue isn’t about anybody being shorted what they had coming to them. In the end it isn’t at all about them but it’s about the generosity the landowner shows others. Occasionally we hear about professional athletes restructuring contracts to make room for their teammates. That isn’t what happened here. The landowner gave his workers what they had coming to them, and from what we know about this landlord it is safe to surmise that it wasn’t peanuts; but was probably way more than they earned or deserved.
This I think is important because the anger that we see from the workers isn’t even about them. Rather it is ultimately anger at the Landowner’s generosity towards others. I find this situation very similar to Jonah’s disdain that God would save even the Ninevites. I have a theory on this that I want you all to think about, for the full day workers or Jonah to see and acknowledge the generosity of the landowner or God for Jonah; they would have to acknowledge theat generosity toward themselves. In this is where Thomas Merton’s quote comes in.
We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have - for their usefulness.”
This describes not only how we value others but how we value ourselves. If the workers admit that the Landowner hiring them and paying them so they can provide for the family is a gift then in their own eyes they become less worthy. For Jonah to appreciate God’s gift to the Ninevites his own righteousness becomes unclear and his position as a fellow sinner comes into focus. “If even those Ninevites are worthy of God’s grace how am I so different?” Somehow if others become more worthy we become less worthy.
Worth from a human perspective is wrapped up in doing and having. Thank God that God doesn’t have a human perspective. In God’s eyes our worth isn’t about what we do or what we have. It is about who we are as children of God.God claims us in baptism not because of what we have done, or even what our parents have done. But because what God has done in Jesus Christ.
As hard as we try this is not easy to understand. Centuries of preachers and theologians telling the church “you are justified by grace! It is a gift from God, you don’t have to earn it, you can’t earn it” and we still need to keep score. We still need to find ways to be more righteous than the other guys. We still find worth in denying the value of others. God’s words to Jonah are God’s word to us.
Then the LORD said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night.
11 And should I not be concerned about
Or the landowner to the laborer
Take what belongs to you, and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you.
15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?'
16 So the last will be first, and the first last."
The good news is this, the God of abundance and generosity that we worship doesn’t ever stand over us keeping score. We don’t always have to be as righteous as Jonah thought he was or as deserving as the laborers thought they were but in our 11th hour moments and our Ninevite days we’re found worthy by God; worthy enough to be recipients of this amazing gift of grace. Please pray with me
Lord God, we thank you for not keeping score. May we remember that our worth doesn’t come in any tangible ways but only because who we are in you. In Jesus’ name.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
