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| Rev.
Arthur Sharot
Jr. Urland Lutheran Church 6940 Cty 9 Blvd Cannon Falls, MN 55009 Office: 507 263-5544 cell: 507 384-1818 |
| Most recent 1-17-10 / 1Corinthians 12:1-10 You’ve all heard about this horrible earthquake in Haiti. A terrible, terrible thing. Friends and family digging through the rubble of crumbled buildings trying to find someone, anyone alive. It brought back memories of 911. Boy, we were all paralyzed by the deaths of a couple of thousand people – don’t get me wrong that awful but in Haiti we are talking about tens of thousands maybe hundreds of thousands. Wow! Still it only hit me in the head, it didn’t seem real. I remembered that FMSC do a lot work, send a lot of food to Haiti. My brother Rob he went with people in his church on a servant trip to Haiti this summer. Still that earthquake stuff and all the deaths still wasn’t real to me. Then my daughter Kali texted me. Did you know that Bishop April Larson’s son was killed in an earthquake? At that moment it moved from my head to my heart. Bishop Larson was my Bishop for about 11 years. She ate at my table, she prayed for me and with me for my church and my ministry. I knew who her son was. Then it hit me. In this age of communication, we hear about so much, we know about some much tragedy that we get kind of numb and it doesn’t seem real, it just seems like something we see on tv. When you hear of the death of a loved one, a part of you dies with them or with their family. But, we can’t die with every person we hear about dying. I don’t mean to be cold and uncaring, it’s just too much, we get burned out. It’s hard enough during this time of the year here in our community. We’ve been going to too many visitations and funerals. Poor God, think of what he goes through because he loves us all. We can take a few off, we kind of have to, but God as the psalmist says never slumbers or sleeps. I guess it’s not always good to be God. I thought about this while I was studying Paul’s letter to the Corinthians believe it or not; not that they had an earthquake or many people dying. But they had their own problems. Corinth has been described as the Las Vegas of the first century. It was a rich seaport. One historian writes: It's easy to see why Paul chose Corinth as headquarters for his mission to the west. The city was young, dynamic, not hidebound by tradition, a mix of dislocated individuals without strong ethnic identities seeking to shed their former low status by achieving social honor and material success. Paul planted the church in Corinth and lived with them for a year. Then he corresponded with them through letters. The letters we have, are concerned with trouble in the church. In chapter 12 Paul is addressing the fact that some Corinthians were trying to achieve high social status and power through their faith and their spiritual gifts. Do you think God likes it when people try to use him and his gifts to gain status and power? From Paul’s side of the letter, we can deduce that people were fighting over who was the greatest – just like the disciples James and John did with Jesus. It comes down to a power struggle. Paul is trying to get them to see that gifts of the spirit, like all the gifts we receive all the things we have, are from God. No one is any better than anyone else because they are gifted, because it is all from God. Some were probably claiming higher status because they could speak in tongues or they could heal and on and on. Paul is telling them you are not any better than anyone else because it’s not you doing it. It’s God that’s doing it. You didn’t earn the gift, deserve the gift, it is a gift, not what you are owed but a gift. There are some Christian churches today that struggle with this problem. Not many Lutheran churches struggle with people who because of their spiritual gifts, feel that they are better than other people. Although, some claim to have the ability to eat more lutefisk than anyone else. There has been problems with the spiritual gift of tongues. Which for those of you who don’t know: speaking in tongues is when God speaks through someone in a language no one else can understand sometimes not even the person speaking. At those times, God provides a person who has the gift of interpretation to translate what the person speaking in tongues said. Now speaking in tongues is not always a problem. But you can see where the problem can be. People who have this gift or claim to have this gift might start thinking that they have the inside track with God. That they are better than the other people who don’t have the gift. Boy it’s taking a long time to get to Haiti isn’t it? Don’t worry we’re getting there. We all know situations where someone has a gift, an ability, a talent whether it is “Spiritual” or not and they think they are better than others. Paul tells them that you’re not special because you have gifts because it is God who gives the gifts. He also tells them that the gifts are not for them but for the common good. The gifts, talents, abilities are given for a purpose. The purpose is not to make some people feel better than other people. It’s all for the common good. But is that hard or what? Isn’t it hard not to think you’re better than someone else when you can do something other people can’t? Isn’t it hard not to think that the gift belongs to you, for your own purposes. Former Beatle, John Lennon wrote that song, Imagine. “Imagine no possessions”; he says, “I wonder if you can”. I wonder if we can too. So God gives us gifts and abilities and talents and what are we suppose to do with them and everything God gives us? Well think about this. Jesus only gives us two commandments right. If you just concentration on the two, you pretty much don’t have to worry about anything else. What are those two commandments? Love God, love other people. So, do you think it is possible that God might want us to use our gifts and abilities and talents, to love and serve God and other people? Speaking of for the common good, I went to this church seminar once called, “Church’s alive”. Anyone heard of it? They said that every congregation has all the gifts and talents and resources they need to be what God wants them to be. That God has provided what every congregation needs to succeed in God’s mission. And it is IN the members of the congregation. Within the members of each church God has given what that congregation needs. It reminds me of a preacher I heard on vacation this summer. He said, “Our church has all the money we need to meet the budget and beyond. We have all the money we need to do all of the things we have dreamed of for Christ. The only problem, that money is still in your pockets.” So we have people who think they are better than others because they have special gifts, talents, abilities. We also have people who say, I have nothing to offer, I have no gifts, I can’t do anything. Or we have people who acknowledge that they have something to offer but say, “I’ve done my part, I’m done.” When I’ve hear people say they can’t do anything or they have already done their part it, or when I see people who appear to think they are better than someone else it frustrates me. It makes me want to somehow shake up their thinking. God didn’t bless people so that they could look down on others and I don’t think any of us would be here, alive in this world if we couldn’t do anything, if we didn’t serve some purpose, play some kind of a role in God’s world. Maybe you can’t do what you could when you were younger but there are other things you can do. For example: We can all be a friend to someone who needs one. Whether we are at school, at work, at church even at the nursing home we can be a friend. How many people remember Touched by an Angel? This beautiful female Angel would touch their lives and save their lives. Well do you remember the other angel? The good-looking male angel? Do you remember what kind of angel was he? He was the angel of death. He would come when it was their time and lead them to their death. I wondered what it would be like, if you had someone who couldn’t see any purpose for their life, who couldn’t see any contribution they could make for the common good or someone who didn’t want to. What would happen if the Angel of death went to visit them and said. “Well since you can’t see any purpose for your life, since you can’t see any abilities, talents you might have and can contribute to the common good, well then it’s time to go. It’s time to go, it’s time to die.” Would that wake us up? Would that open our eyes? Would we be able to see even a very little thing that we could do? On the show the touch of an Angel changed lives. I suppose a brush with death could too. On November 4th 2007 David Fischbach was killed in a drunk driving accident. That event changed his mother’s life. His mother, Jamie Shulz started an organization called David’s Heart. The organization says:
Today we read the story of Jesus’ first sign. The sign turning water into wine points to who Jesus is, and what he can do. Jesus had the ability, the talent, the gift to be able to turn water into wine. Wine better than the Italians, French and even those Americans on the West Coast. He used that sign to point to who he was and to reveal God’s glory. What we do with what we have will witness to the world who we are and what God can do through us. When there is a need in this world of Gods, weather it’s something as huge and dramatic like the earthquake in Haiti or a tragedy like losing a loved one to drunk driving or something almost as subtle as someone who needs a friend. God will touch our hearts and we can use what we have been blessed with to be a witness to the world to who we are and what God can do through us. If you can’t see any gifts, talents abilities that God has given you – I’ll just send that Angel of Death over Can you see any gifts, talents or abilities? Pray for them, pray that God would reveal them to you. Pray that he would use you, to do his work. Pray that you might not only be able to see the big spectacular things you could do for him but also the little things. Because we know that God can do great things with even the little things like mustard seeds. 1/10/10 / Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) One of the challenging things in life is the why question. When we are little we begin with the “what” question. What’s that? A bird. What’s that? A tree. What’s that? Something you shouldn’t be looking at. Then we progress to the why questions? Why? Why? Shouldn’t I be looking at that? Because you’re too young. Why? When kids ask this we try to find a way to divert them from asking that why question. One thing I have tried is, asking them a question. The child says Why? And I say, why do you ask? The only question I have is does anyone have another idea? Cause that isn’t working so good. As we get older we get focused on other things like why do men act the way they do? Why do women act the way they do? Ok that’s still asking the why question. But we do get interested or involved in other things and we stop asking questions. We just live. We live with what we know and what we don’t know. As far as questions of faith we stop asking questions fast maybe faster than in anything else. We start asking questions as soon as we can talk. Then we hit our peak about 4 or 5 yrs old. Young children are the great theologians. Theology – the study of God. Think you know much about God? Try to answer the questions these young theologians ask. How old it God? A child of five would understand this – send someone to fetch a child of five. — Groucho Marx Then after 6 or 7, you know when you are really old, you stop thinking about these things or at least most people stop asking those why question about God. Was Mary married to God? We don’t start asking those why questions again until things happen: An accident happens, a relationship breaks or comes to an end, someone dies, we realize we are going to die, we become aware of our own limitations, we feel threatened. Then we start asking the why questions again. Why did this happen? Why is this going to happen? Why am I like this? Why is the world like this? Generally we don’t like asking the why questions. One reason is that we are embarrassed and shy, what if I ask a dumb question? Or we don’t ask the why question because is that it hurts our brains. Honestly it hurts or it get tired. We have to work hard to think about these things. Another reason we don’t like the why questions is that we might get an answer and that answer might change our life or might inform us that we should change our life. We don’t usually like change unless we have no choice, or the change will be really really be good. And even then we might not change unless someone makes us. Let’s just believe that and just go on living. There is a great temptation to do this in our faith. I would like someone to just tell me what the answer is, how I should live my life, so I can accept it, believe it and not have to think about it anymore. I was talking with one of the high school teachers who some of the best students were complaining about. The students were claiming that the teacher wasn’t teaching them anything. The teacher told me he has the toughest time with the really good students. They are good at memorizing he says. I tell them something, how to do something, they’ve got it. But they want me to tell them the answers to spoon feed them so they can know it. The teacher told me he wants them to figure out the answers for themselves. That’s a lot harder then just memorizing it, you have to think. We tend to want to read the bible that way. The bible said it, I believe it. Yes but what does it mean? Why is it like this? Is that the right answer to the right question? Pastor just tell us the answer to our why question. There are some things we can be told, memorize, get it down and not have to think about it too much, probably, maybe. Here are some freebees. Is there a god? Yes. Does God love me? Yes. Does God just love me? No. Does God love the whole world? Yes. Even those people who write in the paper who don’t believe or say they don’t believe in God? Yes. Do I have to love the whole world? Yes. Including that person? Yes. The problem with a lot of these answers is that they just lead to more questions. There are questions we may never be able to answer. Important questions like, can God create a rock so big that God can’t pick it up? Or why did Jesus come to live with us as a human being? You might say, So he would know what it is like to be a human like us. So we would know he knows what it’s like to be a human like us. You might take it further and say so that he could die for us on a cross to restore our relationship with God. I like all those answers. Those answers are the foundation of my life. However, it still doesn’t answer the why question. Why did God do it this way? The answer because I said so, or because that’s the way it is, doesn’t do it for me. But there are some questions in life we have to leave up in the air and go on. One of the contemporary phrases that I think really helps us to go on with life is, “It is what it is.” I really like that phrase. “It is what it is.” I don’t understand it all but it is what it is. It is what it is and the implications are …. Jesus, God was born of Mary, I don’t know all the answers to the why questions that, that brings up but “it is what it is.” God walked on this earth as one of us. Here one of the big why questions we find in our reading today. Jesus is baptized right? Why was he baptized? Why? Baptism forgives sin, restores our relationship with God, gives the Holy Spirit, commissions us to a new life in Christ. So why was Jesus baptized? None of that stuff was necessary for Jesus. Didn’t need to be forgiven, didn’t need his relationship to be restored with himself, didn’t need the Holy Spirit, so why was he baptized? Why? I have to tell you I don’t know the answer to that question. In Matthew we hear that John the Baptist wants to stop Jesus from being baptized. He says you should baptize me. Jesus say to John “… it is necessary to fulfill all righteousness.” Great. What’s that mean? That is not a very satisfying answer. But it is what it is. Jesus was baptized. The heavens opened, The Holy Spirit descended upon him, a voice from heaven said, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." Why? Well, it is what it is. The implications are that because Jesus was baptized we not only know that Jesus knows what it’s like to be baptized but it also helps US, to know what it’s like to be baptized. Through baptism we are tied to Jesus’ baptism and Jesus’ death and resurrection. I don’t know if you have realized this or not because I have kept it pretty much a secret but I think Baptism is huge. Baptism is great. It is the key to our life. Baptism is the key, it is essential so that we can live life, as God intended. We are baptized in Jesus name, In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Spirit we are linked, we are tied, we are connected to Jesus. Which means we are connected to God. The affirmation Jesus received, you are my child in you I am well pleased – that is how God feels about you now through Jesus. Why is that important? I like that question. I can answer that question. We need to be loved, affirmed. We need to know that someone cares about us. We need that foundation in order to live the life God gave us to live because it frees us. If you don’t know you are loved you go looking for it, as the song says, “….in all the wrong places”. If you don’t know God loves you thinks you’re great you spend your time and efforts trying to get it else where. What do we do to make ourselves feel important, loved, cared for, that our lives serve a purpose? Well we try to get people to give it to us. We do things for others so that they will like us, love us, think we are special. We try to make ourselves look good in other people’s eyes. We try to be popular, make a lot of money, we try get power. What God does in baptism is give us the love and support and affirmation we need. God says, You are my child, I created you and I think your great. If God thinks you are great we don’t need spend all our time and energy and effort trying to prove to the world we are great, lovable, important. I think we miss one of the great insights of Lutheranism. Since we are children of God, loved and cared for and important in God’s eyes. We can use our life to serve God and our neighbor. I would like you to think back to your baptism. Ok most of us don’t remember our baptism so I am going to take you through what happened. If the way I describe it is a little different just make the adjustments in your mind. Please close your eyes and think back in time. It is years ago, you are a little baby. It is a warm spring day. If we are imagining why should it be winter, right? It is early on a Sunday morning. These big people have you all bundled up and in something like a basket. Everyone is leaning over you, smiling at you, even more than usual. They put you into a car and drive you to the church. You fall asleep and wake up as someone is picking you up and handing you to this man in a dress. He is putting water on your head and on your face and he is saying I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. You blink away the water from your eyes. You are sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever. You blink the water from your eyes. You are about to cry when looking up you see the roof of the church is gone. The clouds in the sky are parting. There is kind of a light. And you hear your name. Whisper your name to yourself. The voice from heaven says you are my child, I think your great. I love you. Then the man in the dress is wiping your head and face with a cloth and handing you back to the big people who brought you. You hear a whole bunch of people speaking at the same time saying the same thing. “We welcome you into the body of Christ and into the mission we share: join us in giving thanks and praise to God and bearing god’s creative and redeeming word to all the world. Open your eyes. Why were you baptized? Why were you chosen to be loved, to be equipped and enpowered to do God’s work in the world? We might not know why we have been choosen but it is what it is. Welcome to the mission we share. And all God’s people said. Amen. Gail O'Day (John, New Interpreter's Bible) suggests, "the story of Jesus is not ultimately a story about Jesus; it is, in fact, the story of God" [p. 524] Perhaps we misuse Jesus and scriptures (especially John) when they are used as something other than the revelation of God's self to us. Perhaps we need to take more seriously the liturgical comment: "The word of the Lord." It is Someone speaking to us. So at the end of the Gospel when we say “The word of the Lord”, We are not saying this is what is written in the bible, we are saying, This is Jesus speaking to us. Maybe that is why the Gospel response is “Praise to you, O Christ” 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. Sandy came across the book entitled Ink Heart you might have heard of it. It was made into a movie. The book is about a man who writes this book called “Ink Heart”. This turns out to be some kind of magical book. Little did the author know that when he was writing this book the words that he wrote, created a new world. The world he created was filled with the characters and the stories from the Ink Heart book. If that isn’t unbelievable enough how about this. There is a character called Silver tongue. When Silver tongue reads out loud from this book Ink Heart, people from the real world are sent into the Ink Heart world and people from the Ink Heart world go to our world. After the author finds out about this he has himself transported into the world of Ink Heart. Imagine that writing a story and having it come to life. How about writing a story that comes to life and you are in it? The most frustrating thing for the author was that no one in the world he created knew who he was or believed him when he told them the truth. Many thought he was just crazy. Imagine that. Wouldn’t that be so frustrating? You create a world and the people you created who live in the world you created don’t believe you. God actually did make a world with his word. He made this world of ours, the really real world with the Word. The word of course is Jesus. God made the world with Jesus. Jesus created the world and everything in it yet the world did not know him. When he came to walk on the earth and live with us no one knew him. God is our creator, making us his creatures because along with the moon the sky and the stars and everything else God created us. Most of the time when we think of creatures they are not a pleasant things. Sometimes we think of little crawly creeping things. And if we are honest, or I should say if I am honest, I think of these little creepy, crawly things are of no consequence except when they get in my sleeping bag, then they are pests. I really would prefer a world without them. But, if we think about it in all humility, we are some of the creepy, crawly things God created. Maybe not creepy or crawly but we are the things God created. There must be a difference between creatures of God and children of God. Children of God as John tells us are not those born of human parents, that probably puts us in the creature department. Children of God are not those born of the will of the flesh. You won't become children of God because you try real hard or because you really want it. Children of God are those who are destined to be adopted into God's family. Children of God are those who are born of God, those who receive Jesus, who believe in his name, those are the ones who are given the power to become children of God. God created the whole world. God created everything we see and all that we can't see, everything that is. God created us, you and me, we are God's creatures, but we, you and me, we are destined to be more than creepy crawly things, more than creatures. You are destined to be children of God. You are chosen to be holy and blameless before God in love. Do you think of yourself as a creature of this world kind of like all the animals or are you a child of God. Television Christian encourager Joel Osteen ends each one of his services with the question “Do you receive it today?” How about “Do you receive Jesus today?”That’s not a bad question to ask yourself today and everyday. “Do you receive Jesus today?” To those who receive him he gives the power to become the children of God. Now don’t ask yourself this to make yourself feel guilty. Ask yourself this to remind yourself who and what you are. So on the 3rd day of 2010 The 3rd day of this new decade I ask you. “Do you receive Jesus today?” May the eyes of your heart be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope to which you have been called, the riches of his glorious inheritance. May you receive Jesus today and every day. Amen. December 13, 2009 / Phil 4: 4-7 As I was studying for this advent season I found an article by this catholic historian FR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS concerning The History of the Advent Wreath “…The actual origins are uncertain. There is evidence of pre-Christian Germanic peoples using wreathes with lit candles during the cold and dark December days (Good thing we don’t have those) They do it as a sign of hope in the future warm and extended-sunlight days of Spring. In Scandinavia during Winter, lighted candles were placed around a wheel, and prayers were offered to the god of light to turn “the wheel of the earth” back toward the sun to lengthen the days and restore warmth. By the Middle Ages, the Christians adapted this tradition and used Advent wreathes as part of their spiritual preparation for Christmas. After all, Christ is “the Light that came into the world” to dispel the darkness of sin and to radiate the truth and love of God (cf. John 3:19-21). Some churches have a rose colored candle for the third week or advent. The third Sunday is called Gaudete Sunday, or Joy Sunday. It is the Sunday of rejoicing, because the faithful (That’s us) have arrived at the midpoint of Advent. The preparation is now half over and we are close to Christmas. The progressive lighting of the candles symbolizes the expectation and hope surrounding our Lord’s first coming into the world and the anticipation of His second coming. Why do we have these traditions, these symbols? Why do we celebrate Christmas? Why do we have to go through advent to get to Christmas? Isn’t it because the progressive light culminating with the lights of Christmas and the celebration of the Christ Child gives us strength to face all the situations of this life? The apostle Paul writes to the Philippians Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Why does he say that? Why does Paul say rejoice “always”? Is it to say, things are going so well give thanks to God? We ought to give God thanks and praise for all the blessing of the world, of our life, but I do not think that’s why he is writing, Rejoice in the Lord always. Isn’t the word “always” the key? Rejoice always because things are not always going well. Paul says Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Again, is it because everything is going well that Paul is encouraging them not to worry? Of course, not; we make requests to God because all is not well. We make requests to God because we are concerned about our loved ones, their health, their relationships, their situations and we are concerned about ourselves. Then Paul promises a reason for rejoicing, for hope, for confidence. Paul says let your requests be known to God, And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. We can rejoice, we can have hope because of the peace of God, we have in Christ. Christ whose birthday we will celebrate and whose return we look forward to. Paul also calls us in the midst of the trials and tribulations of our life to be gentle. Gentleness is often misinterpreted as weakness. Gentleness and meekness are not weakness. Only the strong and confident are able or maybe I should say, only the strong and confident can afford to be gentle. When we are gentle we let our guard down, we leave ourselves vulnerable. The only way to be able to be gentle as Paul calls us to be is through the peace of God. The only way is to give it up to Jesus. Confess that we can’t handle being the Lord of our life and turn ourselves over to Christ (which works out real well because he is the Lord of our life, the king of kings, the savior of the world) Turn it over to Christ and trust him no matter, no matter; let me say that as clearly as I can, trust Jesus no matter what happens. Those who do not turn it over to Christ cannot be gentle unless they are in denial. If your strength is not in Christ it is in yourself and as they say a good offence is a great defense. You are not able to be gentle, you cannot afford to be. John the Baptist calls on the people who came out to be baptize in the wilderness to bare fruits worthy of repentance. They ask what should we do? John does not give them any super spiritual things to do. He gives them very ordinary, easy to understand things to do. Share what you have. Be fair and honest in dealing with other people. Don’t take advantage of your position. You see only those who hope and trust in the Lord can do this, only those who trust and hope in the Lord can afford to do this. It’s just like the gentleness. As you continue to prepare for Christmas we can rejoice and have joy in the midst of our problems not because we denying the truth but because the light of Christ gives us hope and peace even in dark times. When people see your peace, your gentleness you will be preparing the way and making the Lord’s path straight. let your requests be known to God, And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. December 6, 2009 / Luke 3:1-6
Today's reading reminds me of Christ the King sunday. Christ is
our King, like it or not, realize it or not. John the baptized comes quoting the prophet Isaiah. Now that is a command. Make his path straight is an order. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.' " This is a prediction or prophecy about the future but it's more accurate to say this is what will be. Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made low, and the crooked will be made straight, and the rough ways wiil be made smooth; all flesh shall see the salvation of God.' " The command goes out make straight the Lord's path but really it's going to happen. Whether we make Christ's path straight or not it will be made straight. This is an invitation to be part of it. This is what God is up to. Do you want to be part of it? It's like legal insider trading. You know insider trading is when people who work for a company or due to their relationship with a company or people who work within a company know that something is going to happen to the company, like the value of the stock in that company. If you know a company's stock is going to go up or down that gives you a great advantage if you buy or sell that stock. It's like knowing the future. That's why it's illegal. It's not fair if you know what is going to happen. My mom always told us. You should only bet on a sure thing. And if it is a sure thing you should be betting on it. It's not fair to the people your dealing with. Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made low, and the crooked will be made straight, and the rough ways wiil be made smooth; all flesh shall see the salvation of God.' " t's going to happen. Well maybe not literally all. The valley's might not fill in, mountains might not get knocked down but all flesh shall see the salvation God. So you want in? Traditionally when we read this story about John the Baptists ministry we see the need to make the path straight in our own lives. We see the need to get the things that are getting in the way of our relationship with Jesus out of the way. he low valleys, high mountains the crooked roads. In other words things like our busy schedules, our concentration on ourselves, our desire for things that are no good for us what ever gets in the way. Like Jesus said in his sermon last week in the sermon on the mount. If your eye causes you to sin pluck it out, hand causes you to sin cut it off. Aren't you glad we are not complete literalists. While that interpretation of this message is certainly true there is more to it. These letters to the editor from the self proclaiming atheists is really working on me or probably it is God working on me and I hope he's working on you about this. While I personally do not believe in atheists, I acknowledge that they believe they don't believe in God. However we do know that God believes in them. These people are among the “all flesh” that shall see the salvation of God. So we want in on this too don't we? When the word of the Lord that first came to the prophet Isaiah came to John he realized his job. He worked to prepare the way of the Lord. He worked to make God's way straight. He worked to get the things in peoples lives that were getting in God's way out of the way so God would have a straight shot at them. When the Word of the Lord came to John he didn't think it was all about him. He straightening out his act and working on his relationship with God. That was probably part of what he took away from it. He also saw an opportunity to be in on the action. Don't you think God is giving us an invitation an opportunity to get in on this? John challenge was how to do it with the people and the situation of his time. Our challenge is the people and situation of our time. We are living in unique time. We live in time and a place where everybody doesn't think or believe the way we do. We have people believing in other religions than Christianity, we have people who don't even think they believe in a god. How do we work to make the path straight? I personally don't think arguing especially through letters to the editor is going to work real well. We need to find ways to approach them that won't put them on the defensive causing them to shut the door of opportunity. What things can we rethink. Are their things we have put unintentionally in place that is getting in God's way. We need to think about this both personally and as a church. God has a plan here. And I'm pretty sure we want in. Thanksgiving Eve / November 25, 2009 / Luke 17’11-37.09 Some of you may have read a devotional book entitled “The way of the Wolf”. It has little parables and stories, one is the Barington Bunny. Some people may have heard of that or The Rag Tag Army. I just learned of one entitled, Where are the Nine? It’s about our gospel story today with the ten lepers who come to Jesus. Keeping there distance, they call out, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! What do you think they wanted. Forget for a minute that they were healed of lepracy. Just from what you know so far in the story what do you think they want from Jesus? Keeping there distance, they call out, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! Our first thought because we really can’t forget that he heals them but could they be just looking for some food or some money? Listen. Keeping there distance, they call out ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ Jesus says, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ Does that sound like Jesus is going to help them? Does it sound like Jesus is blowing them off? Does it really sound like Jesus is going to heal them? I know it’s hard to not remember that Jesus does heal them but just try and block that out of your mind. I think that helps us to better understand these other 9. I want to read to you what Martin Bell theorized. 1st was scared didn’t know what happened – scared of Jesus – he just hid. 2nd was offended – didn’t get to work for it, suffer for it, didn’t get to take the time to be righteous. He believed you get what you pay for what you earn. He didn’t earn this so he was mad, he was offended. 3rd realized too late that he really didn’t want to be healed everything He had often begged to be healed but he never really thought about actually being healed. He only knew what it was to be a leper. That was what he was who he was. Now he didn’t know anything. 4th was the one who was so excited to be healed that he just forgot. He forgot. He was so happy that he simply forgot. 5th was unable to say thank you anymore. He had been a leper so long, had to beg for so long from family and friends and strangers just to get enough food to live on, scraps a couple of coins. And he was expected to say thank you even for the scrapes. And he did until he just couldn’t anymore. He just couldn’t say thank you anymore to anyone not even Jesus. 6th was a woman who was a mother separated from her family for 11 years. She didn’t return to give thanks because she was hurrying home to her family. She was like an animal that was released by Jesus. She couldn’t return, like a hungry animal she was hurrying home. 7th Just didn’t believe Jesus had anything to do with his cleansing. He knew he was cleansed but he didn’t know why or how it happened. He certainly didn’t believe in any hocus pocus magic or miracles. There was a perfectly logical explanation for this but it didn’t have anything to do with Jesus. He didn’t return thanks because Jesus didn’t have anything to do with it. 8th did not return thanks because he did believe Jesus healed him either. He believed the kingdom of God was here, the messiah had arrived. So he couldn’t return to give thanks he had to publish the news. 9th don’t know why he didn’t return thanks. He showed himself to the priest and was instantly healed. He stood in front of the priest and said, so. And then ah yes!! Smiled and walked away. The 10th came back and returned thanks. That must have been nice to do. I have recently since two woman giving thanks in church and crying as they do. Karen Barnes stood before us, full of joy at the success of the FMSC event and cried so happy to be a part of this community. Mrs. Nygaard stood before us at the CCIC thanksgiving service last Sunday. she told her story of being picked for the Habitate for Humanity house in Cannon Falls. She said she didn’t even think she could dream of owning a house as a single mother. She cried tears of joy, thanking God and the people of our community that put in the hundreds of hours to build her house. Isn’t that a wonderful opportunity to be filled with joy to the point of tears and be able to give thanks? That’s being doubly blessed. Being blessed to receive the gift that’s one. Being able to give thanks that’s two. We often read this story and concentrate on who came back to return thanks and who didn’t. But isn’t the story about Jesus healing 10 people of that horrible disease Leperacy? Are you thankful? Last Sunday, Christ the King Sunday I talked about Christ being our King, our savior our Lord whether we like it or not. We have all been blessed by God in many ways. That’s one. Do you know your blessed? That would be two. Instead of us looking down on or judging those who don’t return the blessing maybe we should be thankful that we are able to be thankful. One more thankful story. On a snowy night just before supper a man headed out to his car. We are going to eat supper in about an hour his wife said. Ok. You’re not going out into the snow they say it’s suppose to get bad. There is something important I have to do but it won’t take long. As he drown into town from the country the snow seem to come down thicker and thicker. It got harder and harder to see where the road was. Finally he arrived. He got out of the car and went into the bar. Give me a pack of cigaretts Mac. You drove out in this weather just for cigaretts? No, no I was in town I’m just heading home. He looked out the window and in that short amount of time there was a small drift on his windshield. He went out scaped it off, with no gloves, hadn’t brought them, or a coat. He thought he’d just be in and out of the car. As he drove back toward home he really didn’t know where the road was and could see his headlights too well. As he went around the first curve he didn’t go around the curve he went over the curve. He went into the ditch and hit a tree. He didn’t hit the tree too bad but when the airbad opened up it smashed and scrapped his face up pretty bad. He got out of the car. His leg hurt too. Without a coat, gloves or a hat he walked home. When he walked in the door his wife said, You’re late where were you? You didn’t go out into the storm? As he said the kids sitting around the table and realized he had left the cigaretts on the bar, he realized something else. He was thankful. Not for what he received but thankful for what he already had. Are you thankful tonight? Do you want to give thanks? Good for you? The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. We Americans have a really difficult time understanding what it is like to live under a King or Monarchy. remember a Canadian friend of mine thought it was so important that he see the queen when she came to visit Canada. It was important to him and Canada isn’t even under a Monarchy anymore. The movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail has a part in it that though this is a British film it captures our feeling on having a King. This a comedy about King Arthur in search of the Holy Grail. In this scene King Arthur comes upon a peasant and starts to ask her about this castle. The peasant says “you treat me like an inferior”. King Arthur says, I am your King, King of the Britons. King of the Britons very nice, Well how did you get that? The peasant asks. They argue a little bit when a woman peasant comes on the scene. She says how do you do. King Arthur says, I am Arthur, King of the Britons. Who are the Britons she asks. Arthur says well we all are. We are all Britons and I am your King. She says, I didn’t know we had a King. The other peasant goes on about them living in a Dictatorship. Arthur asks, Who lives in that castle? The woman says no one. Arthur asks then who is your Lord. We don’t have a Lord, she says. The peasant man goes on and on argueing when King Arthur says “Be quiet I order you to be quiet”. The woman says to the man, who does he think he is? Arthur says, I am King Arthur your king. She says, Well I didn’t vote for you. Isn’t that how we want our Leaders to be, someone we vote for? We don’t want anyone to rule over us that we haven’t chosen. And a lot of the time we don’t want to be ruled by the people we vote for. Today’s reading is about Jesus on trial before Pilate. Pilate is asking him if he is a King, what kind of King, whose King. We start off with Pilate asking him if he is King of the Jews. Then he asks him why has own nation and the chief priests handed him over to him. Jesus answers Pilate, my kingdom is not from this world. In other words this world did not make him King. They tried to, remember? John tells us how Jesus fed 5000 people with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. 13So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’ 15 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. It wasn’t just because the people wanted to use Jesus as a magic Jeannie to get what they wanted. It wasn’t just because they wanted to make him King by force. Jesus didn’t want them to make him their King. Jesus doesn’t want us to make him our King. Jesus already is our King. It’s not up to us. Whether we want to have a King or not he is. It’s kind of like a parent telling their child to take out the garbage. The child says I don’t want to take out the garbage. The parent says that’s too bad. It would be easier if you did because you’re taking out the garbage. In Luther’s small catechism he gives an explanation to the petition in the Lord’s prayer that has to do with God’s kingdom. The Second Petition “Thy kingdom come.” 7 What does this mean? To be sure, the kingdom of God comes of itself, without our prayer, (Repeat) but we pray in this petition that it may also come to us. 8 How is this done? Luther asks, and then he answers Answer: When the heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit so that by his grace we may believe his holy Word and live a godly life, both here in time and hereafter forever. [1]Jesus told Nicodemus, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’* Today is of course Christ the King Sunday. I served a congregation in Wisconsin called, Christ Lutheran Church. I always thought it would be great to make a big deal about Christ the King Sunday, since that was the name of the church. But of course we couldn’t do it because it was in conflict with one of the high holy days in Wisconsin – no not Packer / Viking Sunday. No I’m talking about the holy days whose color is blaze orange. I’m not going to ask you to make Christ your King, your savior, your Lord. He already is. Life would go a lot better if we always remembered that wouldn’t it. Since this is Sewardship Sunday and our Theme this year is “Accept the Challenge”, I want to Challenge you to do everything remembering that Christ is your King. Not just when you fill out your pledge but when you sing in church, when you go to work or school, to the grocery, the post office. Let it even effect how you treat your family. It also means remembering he is your king when things are going good and when they are not. Jesus loves you died for you, he is your light and life and truth, like it or not. Amen. Go to top November 15, 2009 / Hebrews 10:11-14, [15-18], 19-25 “If Jesus dying on the cross was not enough what could you possibly do.” The author of Hebrew’s says the same thing, in a little different way. Vs. 11 every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. …. Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins I like the way the New Living Bible puts it: Hebrews 10:11-14 11 Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. 12 But our High Priest{That’s Jesus } offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time As we baptized this is the promise that is tied to Baptism, this is the promise baptism is tied to. Jesus offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time This is why we say baptism, affirmation of Baptism, Confirmation isn’t the end but the beginning. In faith we hold on to this promise. Now hold on to that, pardon the pun. Don’t forget about what Jesus has done for you and promises to do for you and let us talk about some current events. Well I guess it’s questionable as to whether or not it’s current. Have you seen the advertisements for the new movie 2012. The movie is about the world coming to an end in 2012. According to the ancient civilization called the Mayans the world is going to come to an end in 2012. Having lived through a number of end of world predictions, I was interested to see when some of the other predictions took place. I know everytime we get to another century some people are just sure that the world is coming to an end. I was just amazed. I found this source call “History of the Apocalypse”. It is a list of all the end of the world predictions. Here is the first entry: "Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common." This is one of the earliest examples of the perception of moral decay in society being interpreted as a sign of the imminent end. This is one of the earliest examples of the perception of moral decay in society being interpreted as a sign of the imminent end. This was found on an unearthed Assyrian clay tablet dating to approximately 2800 BC. I knew there were a lot of predictions of the end of the world but it amazing. According to this history, the predictions of the end of the world began at least from 2800 B.C. 2800 years before Christ. This source sites so many that they have them listed into different time slots. 2800 BC – 1700, 1701 – 1970, 171 – 1997, 1998 – 1999, 2000 – present. 46 pages of different predictions. For example: Early in Rome’s history they believed the world would come to an end in 634 bc.
100 AD: There are many stories of apocalyptic paranoia around the year 1000. For example, legend has it that a "panic terror" gripped Europe in the years and months before this date. Pope Innocent III expected the Second Coming to take place in 1284, 666 years after the rise of Islam. Martin Luther believed that the End would occur no later than 1600. Some dooms day prophets had more than one end of the world predictions like Cotton Mather who had at least 3. The end of the world according to the Shakers was 1792. Charles Wesley, brother of Methodist Church founder John Wesley, predicted Doomsday would be in 1794.
Many of us remember Y2K. That in the year 2000 the world would come to an end and none of the computers would work creating a world wide panick. Regardless of failures of some many people to predict the end of the world we do know that it will come. But it will come as Jesus says like a theif in the night. No one will know when. Why do people want to predict the end? Maybe they want to predict the end or want to believe the predictions for security. We are afraid of death so we deny it will happen. We are afraid of the end of the world so we try to figure out when it will be so we won’t feel so powerless. One thing that amazes me about all of this even more than all the predictions is how people especially Christians get freaked out about this. When we talk about Judgement day, the end of the world, the antichrist, rapture, do we just forget all about where our strength and hope is? Do we just forget about Jesus? Day after day people try to make themselves right with God, try to make themselves worthy of love, worthy of peoples care and respect. The priests couldn’t do it. You can’t do it. Jesus has done it. Just hold on to Jesus. I know it’s easier said than done but what are you going to do? If Jesus isn’t enough, if he isn’t enough for our forgiveness, for our protection against who knows what, if Jesus isn’t enough we are in deep, deep …….trouble. But Jesus is more than enough. Remember he died and rose again destroying the power of sin, death and the devil. He said my grace is sufficient for you.Let’s take him at his word. It looks like 2012 will be a good movie in you like that kind of movie. But I’m not convinced it’s a reliable prediction of the apocalypse. How ever no matter what let just hold on to Jesus. s in Christ Jesus.
[1]Tappert,
T. G. (2000, c1959). The book of concord : The confessions of the
evangelical Lutheran church (The Small Catechism: III, 5-8). Philadelphia:
Fortress Press.
Go to top November 8, 2009 / Mark 12:38-44 At the theological conference Pastor Dean and I attended we heard a story about our speaker the former bishop of the Ny metro synod Steven Bouman and a Maderdee at the rainbow room The Rainbow Room is an upscale restaurant and nightclub on the sixty-fifth floor of the GE Building in Rockefeller Center, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Steve Bouman and his wife, who recently arrived in Ny as a pastor decided to go all out. He made reservations at the Rainbow room. They put on their Sunday best he had his blazer and a new tie for the occasion. and took the subway across town. When they arrived it was among limos, tuxedos and fancy gowns. When they arrived at the entrance in front of the Maderdee they were all excited looking around. The Maderdee looked at them as though they had brought live stock. With a distasteful look on his face he asked if he could help them. Pastor Bouman said yes we have reservations for 2, I made the reservations myself. The Maderdee shuffled through the papers, hardly looking at them and said. I don’t find the name you have given me. Bouman started to argue. Then the Maderdee said, Perhaps you would be more comfortable elsewhere. In our reading for today Jesus is watching people. The rich and the poor. Jesus is very critical even of the Religious people who were dishonest, boastful, demanding, and showed off their faith for the sake of appearences. Jesus watches people giving their offering in the temple, the Rich and the poor. The rich putting in large sums of money. This one poor widow put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Hubert H. Humphrey is quoted saying: In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears. Things are not only what they are. They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be. Jesus says that names and looks can be deceiving. It looks like the people who were showing off their faith with long prayers have great faith. It looks like the people who put large amounts into the offering gave more that the poor widow gave but Jesus says it’s just the opposite. Jesus doesn’t expect us to be anything more than who we are. Anything more than he created us to be. Jesus doesn’t expect us to give, to love, to help anymore than he has given us. The Maderdee has the eyes of the world. He thinks it’s more important to be rich and famous, but maybe that because he thinks having the rich and famous in his restaurant is to his advantage. And he’s probably right. It is to his advantage to have rich and famous people in his restaurant. We are often tempted to look with the eyes of the Maderdee. To look at rich, famous, powerful as more important than others. We are often tempted to look to what we feel is in our own best interests. Jesus is asking us to look at things differently. Isn’t Jesus asking us to look things, people, the world with his eyes? The way Jesus does? Jesus sees you as you really are and thinks your great. Don’t argue with him about this. God sees the mistakes you make but he also sees the good you do even when it gets you into trouble. He sees the sacrifices you make even when other don’t, like the pledges you make with your time, talents and treasures. We pledge with a self sealed envelope. No one sees it but God. God sees the love in your heart even when you have trouble expressing it. I thought of a better Maderdee story. The poor widow amongst the limos, tuxes and fancy gowns walks up to the Maderdee and states her name claiming to have a reservation. This must be the same Maderdee because he looks at her again like she’s brought life stock. Actually he looks at her as if she is live stock. Doesn’t even look for her name. Shaking his head with an ugly snear on his face he is about to send her on her way when a voice comes from behind her. Why don’t you look under J? J for Jesus. The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Go to toip A young pastor right out of seminary preaches his first sermon before his first congregation. The people are amazed at what a fine sermon it is. The people can’t wait for the next Sunday. The next Sunday, he preaches the same sermon. The people think well, he’s a new pastor maybe he’s nervous or something. The next Sunday it’s the same sermon. The council meets and decides the council president should talk with the new pastor. The president stops into the pastor’s office. Can I have a word with you pastor? Sure come on in. Pastor that was a fine sermon you preached Sunday. Thank you. Yes said the president, it was fine today, last Sunday and the Sunday before that. Do you think you could come up with another sermon besides this one? I will, said the young pastor when I see some change. Today is Reformation Sunday. Today the paraments are red. Red is the color we use to celebrate the work of the Holy Spirit. Today we remember the history of the origins of the Lutheran church. I like the Lutheran church, of course it’s my church, our church but the paraments aren’t red because we remember the origins of the Lutheran church. Martin Luther believed that the church, the Catholic Church, which was the only church. Actually there was the Eastern Orthodox church but the Roman Catholic Church was the only Christian church in the West. Luther believed the church needed reform. But of course reform isn’t a one and done deal. The church is always in need of reform and will always be in need of reform because it’s filled with people. The church is the people, the people of God. Unlike God, we are imperfect so we will always need reform. In 1517 Martin Luther nailed 95 theses which is often mispronouced, 95 topics of discussion that he felt needed to be addressed to reform the church and get it back on track. The cornerstone of the argument was the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. Luther felt that the Church was inhibiting the gospel. The good news of the gospel is the fact that it is Jesus’ righteousness, Jesus’ goodness that makes us right with God not our goodness. Jesus suffered and died on the cross, in righteousness, in obedience, in love for us, for you and me. It wasn’t up to the pope, the bishop, the pastor the priest to decide whether we are good with God, Jesus took care of that. It wasn’t anything we’ve done, haven’t done, can do, or should do, its Jesus. It’s interesting that the church never really debated the issues Luther brought forth. They didn’t think they had to. It was like the arguments you have with your parents when you’re young. Why can’t I do this or why do I have to do this? The argument ends with ‘because I said so’. To the church at that time it was an authority thing a power issue. The church didn’t think it had to answer to Luther because they thought, he had no right to question the church. One of the ways Luther thought the church was inhibiting the gospel was the indulgence stewardship program. In an effort to raise funds for this building project, they came up with this idea of indulgences. An indulgence was a piece of paper that you could purchase to have your sins forgiven and be right with God. Come to think of it this is a great idea. People want to have their sins forgiven so if we sell forgiveness we could raise a lot of money. We could finish off the basement no sweat. People are always sinning, so it should be a steady flow of cash. I’m just kidding of course. If you give the church back then, the benefit of the doubt, if you say that the purpose of the sheet of paper is to calm people’s fears and help them realize their forgiveness it doesn’t sound so bad. I mean it doesn’t sound as bad. The problem of course is making people believe they could buy forgiveness. We don’t need a piece of paper to hold on to, in order to help us realize, God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ. That’s what baptism is for. Baptism is an actual event, a date, a time, water and God’s promise that our faith can hold on to. And its free. The Lutheran church is often criticized, some say we are just a one trick pony. Forgiven through Christ’s righteousness no our own. It’s nothing you have done, can do to earn God’s love. God gives us this love through Jesus Christ. We are made right with God through Jesus. Maybe its like the young pastor, I’ll preach a new one when I see some change. I think we understand that we can’t buy God’s love, forgiveness or our own righteousness. I think we get that. At least I think we get that we can’t buy it with money. We are made right with God through the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross. We are made people of God through God’s choosing not our’s. Do you think we’ve got that down? Well as Dr. Phil says, How’s that working for you? How are you felling about yourself? Do you feel good about yourself? If you do is it because you know you are God’s child? If you don’t feel good about yourself, why do you not feel good about yourself? Is it because of something you’ve done, haven’t done, can’t do? God sent Moses to pharaoh to tell him to let his people go. To set them free from slavery, from bondage. God sent Jesus to set you free. To set you free from slavery, from bondage, from sin, death and the devil. When I ask How’s that going for you, it’s not to make you feel bad because you don’t feel good about yourself or the world. I’m telling you if the Son makes you free you are free indeed. Amen? Go to top Christ does not call us to a care free life. There are many things to be concerned about in this world in our lives but we need to keep the main thing, the main thing. Amen? October 11, 2009 / Hebrews 4’12-16 There’s the old joke where this guy is hanging off a cliff praying Lord save me. Then he hears a voice from heaven say, don’t worry I’ll save you, just let go. The man ponders this and says, is there anyone else up there? The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Therefore before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account. All too soon it will be winter with the snow flying. And all too soon there will be a light fluffy layer of snow covering the ground. Sometimes unbeknowenst to us underneath that fluffy layer of snow will be a layer of ice. And all too soon we might take one of those falls slipping on the ice. Not the type of fall that breaks anything, not one where we get hurt but one where we just look stupid. And when that happens we hope no one is around to see it. We get to our feet as fast as possible and pretend it never happened. If you fall in a parking lot and no one is there to see it did it really happen. If a husband speaks in a Forrest and no one is there to hear him is he still wrong? If a tree falls in the Forrest and no one is there to hear it did it make a sound. As the author of Hebrews points out in our reading for today that this is how we are before God. God sees what ever we do or don’t do. God not knows what we look like bare-naked without the sheet but he knows us inside and out, literally. Inside and out. He knows everything we ever did and everything we’ve ever thought. The author of Hebrews also point out that not only does God know everything we’ve ever done or thought, not only knows us inside and out; he also knows what its like to be like us. He’s been there done that. He’s done the “human thing”. Faced the challenges and temptations. God knows us and knows what its like to be us. The writer uses the imagegry of the High Priest. The priests were to approach God on behalf of the people. He was to pray for them, sacrifice for them. The High Priest was the Priest above all the priests. The boss of them all. Jesus is our great High Priest. Jesus is a High Priest, the boss of all the priests, the ones who approaches God for the people. Most importantly he is our High Priest. We are encouraged to approach Jesus with boldness because he knows us inside and out, knows what it’s like to be like us. We are to approach Jesus and as we approach Jesus we are naked and bare with nothing and no one to trust but him. We are totally at his mercy. The rich man came to Jesus and asked how he could inherit eternal life. Jesus says, you know the commandments: The rich man says, I’ve kept those from my youth. In Jesus’ day they thought that the reason someone was rich was because they were blessed by God, favored by God. That’s why Peter says if the rich can’t get into heaven who can? Jesus is saying, Mr. Good Guy and Ms. Helpeverybody ain’t getting in. Nobody is it’s impossible, but with God. But with God what? All things are possible. I’m not going to get on the rich man because he couldn’t give up his possessions. Everytime I have fantasized about getting millions of dollars I’ve never given it all away. I’ve given millions away and I feel pretty good about that but I’ve never given away all of it. I do have to keep my eye on Sandy though. She’d give it all away. We will stand before Christ unable to hide or hold on to anything. We are hanging on that cliff crying to God to save us. Doesn’t Jesus say Let go, I’ll save you? The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in God’s grace. Go top On the website “Stuff Christians Like” I found this one blog entry by this guy who calls himself Prodical Jon it’s entitled #486. Finding God in nature. A few months ago, while driving up to Nashville I crossed over a lake in the middle of a majestic mountain range and the sun was setting and the water was shimmering like a thousand diamonds in a rapper's grill and I didn't even care that the whole experience would one day be captured in an impossibly long run on sentence because I felt like God had created that scene just for me. I love finding God in nature like that. That is fun and special and something I look forward to when I go to beautiful places. Most pastors don’t like to tell stories like this because it encourages those golfers, fisher people, bikers and a like to say, “We don’t need to go to church to worship God we can do it in God’s beautiful creation”. We pastor’s prefer stories like. The one about Old Uncle Gene. Old Uncle Gene was on the golf course one beautiful summer day with his best friend Eric. The sun was shining but it wasn’t too hot yet and there was a gentle breeze. Looking out at the beautiful view with his arms spread out to greet it all, Old Uncle Gene chuckled to himself. “My wife thinks I should be in church this morning”. She said, “you need to be in church and hear God’s word to experience God and worship God”. But just look around Eric good buddy look at all this. Who couldn’t experience God and praise him for his glorious creation out here on the golf course. You can just taste it.With that a little bird flew overhead sending a amazingly large experience of God’s creation down into Old Uncle Gene’s mouth. God of course can be experienced and worshiped in many places and in many ways, out in creation, in his word and more. But we shouldn’t set one against the other, it’s all good, plus there is more. You may have noticed that we did not sing the whole psalm this morning. The people who put together the lectionary, the list of readings we read every week only gave us part of the psalm. The reason for this is probably due to the distinction between experiencing God in Creation and experiencing God in the word. In this case the written word found in the Law, like the ten commandments. I’m going to read the psalm. You may want to follow along in the hymnal. Psalm 19 God’s Glory in Creation and the Law The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and nothing is hidden from its heat. Now this is the part we sang The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring for ever; the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from the insolent; do not let them have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. So you can see there are two themes here, at least two. God experienced in creation and God experienced in the Law. For years scholars have believed that these were originally two separate psalms but that somewhere along the line they were combined to form one psalm. So this is perhaps at least one of the reasons we only have part of this psalm for our readings this week. Maybe this was originally one psalm or maybe it was two psalms together. Yet, even if these were two psalms put together they were put together for a reason. It is very interesting that we have this psalm today when we are talking about our 2nd Stewardship Principle “Obey Responsibly”. As we “obey responsibly” we see another opportunity for experiencing God. You. You and me, us. As we experience God in his glorious creation we obey God responsibly. We see how God has put things together as best we can. And so, in response we obey God, working to preserve this wonderful creation for God and for the good of all creation. That is what God had in mind when he gave Adam and Eve dominion over his creation. Not to dominate but to care for. On the cross God saved us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In response we strive to follow God’s law which he only gave us for our good anyway. When we strive to follow God’s law in helps us in our relationship with God and with other people. When we obey responsibly there is a wonderful side effect. When we obey responsibly we become another way for people to experience God. When we obey responsibly God works through us for his creation, the hills and valleys, the mountains and streams, and on and on including the people he created and loves. God can be experienced and worshiped in many places and in many ways. He can be experienced and worshiped out in creation, in his word and among his faithful people who obey him responsibly. Let the words of our mouth, the work of our hands and the meditation of our hearts be obedient and acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. The peace of God… Amen? go to top Sunday, September 20, 2009 / Mark 9:30-37His name was Moses. Unlike his name sake who was pulled out of the Nile to live as a prince in Egypt this Moses was pulled out of the garbage. His mother died in childbirth his father disappeared. A old childless widow pulled him out of the garbage where he was looking for his meal. She promised if he went home with her that he would eat a little better than out of the garbage. And she held to her promise. They lived and ate a little better than in the garbage.This week however there wasn’t much for food. His adopted mother was sick with fever. Moses did what he usually did when food was scares, he didn’t go in the garbage he promised old “em” Hebrew for mother. He went begging and stealing if the begging didn’t go well. After all he was six well almost six and he was the man of the house. He saw this group men sitting in a circle talking with each other. So he crept up on them and listened. He’s the messiah he’s not going to die. I don’t think he is cause for the second time he started talking about death. Betrayal then death. What’s that suppose to mean? I hate it when he talks about death. Betrayal, Suffering, death. But then he talks about rising what’s that about? Well if he is going to talk about dying all the time maybe we should prepare for when he’s gone. I told you I hate talking about death. What are you saying? I’m saying whose going to be in charge? Well not you Oh great one. Yeah that’s a joke. I’m greater than you. Then Moses heard someone else coming. The men stopped talking. Did they leave he wondered. Then another voice. What are you talking about? Then silence again. Then that voice again. Whoever would be first must be last. This was too weird. He didn’t think he was getting anything from these weird people. He started to sneak around to go back toward town. But he tripped and rolled. He rolled down hill and right into this guys lap. He was sitting with these other men. The man held him in his arms and said. "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me." Greatness through service. Service to the homeless, the sick, the helpless. The ones society says aren’t worth anything are welcomed in the kingdom of God, welcomed and helped by the kids of the kingdom. The disciples don’t get it. The way Mark tells the story they never get. Last week when Jesus tells them he must die – Peter takes him aside and the scripture says he rebukes Jesus. Peter rebukes Jesus. Jesus says as messiah he is to die. Jesus says if any want to be his followers they must also deny themselves. This week another passion prediction. Messiah must die. Disciples still don’t get it. Instead of realizing that life in Christ, Greatness in Christ is through humility they look for Greatness, well the same way we look for Greatness today. Greatness through power, by gaining authority, by stepping on the weaker on the way to the top. Jesus says you know those who people usually step on in the search for Greatness – I know lord don’t step on them. Jesus says that’s right serve them and you serve me. Serve the little helpless ones and you serve me. Instead of looking for those who can help us, let us look for the helpless just like Jesus did. Amen. Go to top September 13, 2009 / James 3:1-12 I would imagine that some teachers felt a bit of relief and confusion when today’s reading from James said, “Not many of you should become teachers”. I don’t think it was James’ intension to limit the number of possible Sunday School teachers. He does, I believe, help us to understand what a great privilege and responsibility teaching is, what a great privilege and responsibility being a Christian is. We have all heard “sticks and stone may break my bones but names will never harm me”. We all know that it is either wishful thinking or a lie. Words have hurt people more than any physical assault can. James says we bless the lord with the same tongue, we curse one of those who were created in his image. When I was growing up, we used to say, You kiss your mother with that mouth? Someone would use a four letter word, not love, care or hope but one of those words we are not suppose to say and we would ask, You kiss your mother with that mouth?. Do you kiss your mother with your trash mouth? If someone hears you singing or praising God one minute and then they hear you cuzing like a sailor how does that effect how they heard the praising? How does that reflect on the God you are praising? Speaking of the importance of what we say, today we have Jesus playing the game “What’s my line?” What’s my line was a game show from tv, years ago. There were three contestants who tried to guess who the secret special guest was for the week. Jesus had been going around preaching and teaching and healing. You could say that he was giving hints as to who he was. Then he asked Who do people say that I am? The disciples answered, some say you’re Elijah, some say John the baptist come back to life, others say you are one of the prophets of old. Jesus asks the Disciples, who do you say that I am? And Peter says, what? You are the messiah. But what does that mean? Does Peter know what that means? This week I was at the open house at the H.S.. I went and talked with the Chemistry teacher, Mr. Bennett. For some reason he started telling me about how he grades tests. He probably wanted to be in my sermon. He said that if the students get the right answer they only get 1 point. What he wants to see is the work. He wants to see, how they go about getting the answer. That way they know what the answer means. If I told you the answer is 42, which it is. It’s really useless unless you know what 42 means. Peter had the right answer but he didn’t understand what it meant. In fact he had the wrong idea about what it meant. Now what does this have to do with being a SS teacher and the importance of what you say? It has everything to do with it. This past week I heard this speaker talk about his project teaching kids in Harlem. He said that all the science tells us that the parents have the most important influence on their kids. And what the science tells us, is that parents need to do is two things to help their student be successful. I told this to the confirmation students’ parents this week. A student’s success depends on two things that they get from their parents, warmth and high expectations. Warmth means that the students need to know that whatever happens the parents love them and as my grandma would say give them lovin. Love them and give them lovin. But this lovin needs to be together with high expectations. You can’t just love them and say I don’t care what you do. And you can’t just crack the whip having high expectations without the warmth, without the love. This is what we need from our SS teachers. Help them to know they are loved. I think this is one of the strengths of our SS program here at Urland. Our kids know they are loved. And kids if you don’t know that yet, let me be clear, crystal clear, you are loved, we love you. And more important God loves you no matter what. But we also need high expectations. We love you and we expect great things from you. And if they don’t reach those expectations: Valborg honey we love you we’ll always love you. God always loves you and will be there for you but you can do better than this. This is why baptism is so important to us. Jesus says in baptism, I love you always, not matter what. You are my child. And you know what I’ve got some plans for you. Great plans. Notice baptism isn’t the end but the beginning. The commissioning. We work to make sure the foundation of love is secure. When the foundation is secure when the core is solid we can withstand attacks on the perimeter. With a secure core of God’s unconditional love. Jesus died on the cross to prove his unconditional love for us. With that firm foundation, with that solid core the that in our bag we can go on this journey of life. When James talks about the importance and danger of the tongue it’s related to who we say Jesus is. Do we speak to others or even to ourselves of the hope, love and possibilities we have in Jesus? Or do we speak of a world without hope, of a world dominated by evil? I’m not talking about a life of denial of the bad things in this world, denial of struggle and sin and pain. We don’t deny that but we know there is hope. We speak of this hope. Do we speak of hope for ourselves and for others. Or are we always looking and speaking of what is negative, of fear of hate? No, we are Christians. We speak to ourselves and to others of this hope we have in Jesus Christ. The way you live, what you say, what you do, speaks to the question Jesus asks: Who do you say that I am? Who do you say that Jesus is? Jesus is the messiah who came to earth as both God and human, who died on the cross for us and was raised from the dead. Jesus, is our life and salvation. What does that mean? Let me tell you, Jesus love you unconditionally. Oh, pastor you don’t know me. Maybe not but Jesus does. And Jesus loves you anyway. Let me tell you though. I have seen and heard good things from you. But not everything has been good. You can do better. I have great hopes for you. God has great plans for you. You do not have to live in fear. God’s love is your firm foundation. Rely on that foundation on that core on that hope with confidence and be who he wants you to be. Amen? Back to top September 6, 2009 / James 2:1-10, 14-17 As I took a break from, doing the things I was doing to avoid writing my sermon, I was read Craig Koester's comentary on James – He was talking about how James believes that you do according to what you believe. Or to quote that great theologian Momma Gump: "Stupid is as stupid does". Seems like I preached against this idea a while ago. This was Anthony DeMello’s contention as well. DeMello said, this not an exact quote but said something like: You might say stuff but you do what you really believe For example you have a smoker who says, “I know I should quit but” But he doesn’t. What is it that is motivating his behavior? Does he really believe he should quit? The should, that he somehow realizes does not have any authority in his life. There is another authority in force that determines what he will do. Is it the Devil, the world, is it just his own desires? We could ask where did those desires come from but the point is, whatever it is, it is ruling. That which is ruling, James would say, is what he believes in. According to Koester faith cannot be reduce to a series of statements that have no effect on your life. Koester says: People may want to reduce faith to a series of statements that people profess to believe, but for James, faith is what is operative in a person's life. People act on the basis of what they believe to be true. So if people say one thing but do something else, James would say their actual faith is the faith that underlies their actions. People must believe in something if they are to act at all. The question is whether the faith that actually shapes their lives is faith in Jesus Christ or something else. I remember having a discussion with this teenager from a previous congregation. I asked her something like, do you believe in what the bible teaches. She said, so honestly, so innocently, I believe in what the bible says unless it goes against what I believe. I believe in what the bible says unless it goes against what I believe. Notice she is not talking about debating interpretation of scripture or what church tradition says. Debating interpretation and tradition is what went on at the Churchwide assembly. She is talking about how what she believes trumps scripture. Now I should have asked her, if the bible, the Christian faith tradition was not informing her opinions what was? James relates this to how we treat other people of different classes. Do we treat the rich better than the poor? If we had a person who you could tell had money – all dressed up in church and we had someone else who obviously didn’t have much money would we treat them the same? My Dad sent me this email entitled: “Shoes in Church” let me read a little bit of it to you. I showered and shaved.............. I adjusted my tie. I got there and sat............. In a pew just in time. Bowing my head in prayer......... As I closed my eyes.. I saw the shoe of the man next to me..... Touching my own. I sighed. With plenty of room on either side...... I thought, "Why must our soles touch?" It bothered me, his shoe touching mine... But it didn't bother him much. A prayer began: "Our Father"..... ........ I thought, "This man with the shoes... has no pride. They're dusty, worn, and scratched. Even worse, there are holes on the side!" "Thank You for blessings," the prayer went on. The shoe man said......... a quiet "Amen." I tried to focus on the prayer....... But my thoughts were on his shoes again. Aren't we supposed to look our best.. When walking through that door? "Well, this certainly isn't it," I thought, Glancing toward the floor. She went on to say that the bible doesn’t just talk about treating our fellow believers, family, friends as we want them to treat us but as God told Moses, we are to treat the stranger, the sojourner well for remember you were once a sojourner. Jesus spreads it out even more. He says love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might and love your neighbor as yourself. He also goes on to say, Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. We are not talking about gushy emotional love. We are talking about a more legalist way with or without emotion. In other words if you want to or not. If James is right – you do what you believe. Or as Momma Gump said, Stupid is as stupid does. If that is true it is very important to remember, it is essential to remember, that we should use this tool only to judge our selves not others. This is not a tool to be used against the neighbor. We should look at the things we do or don’t do as we did in confession this morning. I was thinking of a comedy routine where a congregation is gathered. The pastor asks to examine ourselves, what we have done and what we have left undone. And in this skit you can hear what people are saying, you go around the church and all you hear is “and you know what else he did”, “lord I can’t believe she acts that way”. “There’s a commandment concerning what these people are doing isn’t there?” We are not to look at what they do and judge, we are to look at our selves. We look at the things we do and if they show us what belief system we are operating under, if its not the gospel of Jesus Christ then it will serve to drive us back to Christ. If we use it to see what is wrong with our neighbor, family member, friend or enemy it will do nothing but harm. We would be placing ourselves not only above the law but above Christ, whose job it is to judge not ours. Lutheran theology says that the body of Christ is hidden and that you can't judge another person's faith by what they do. - How can you judge another’s faith and righteousness then? Well maybe we should leave it up to God. We have enough in dealing with in our own relationship with Christ. When I was on a Lutheran Youth Encounter Team we used to sing this song we called the Catholic song because it’s called Father Grant. It’s not Catholic it’s a prayer song. It goes like this. Father Grant that what we sing with our lips we may believe in our hearts. And what we believe in our hearts, we would show forth in our lives, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen Amen. Back to top
August 30,
2009 / James 1:17-27
As a good Lutheran, I do not have quite the experience in dealing with the epistle of James as with other books of scripture. Luther called the Book of James “the epistle of straw”. At the risk of I committing some kind of Lutheran heresy, let me suggest that while the book of James does not overtly stress the gospel of Jesus Christ as much as we would like, perhaps James’ situation was different from Luther’s. Perhaps James was not dealing with the problem of the abuses of the church and the heresy of works righteousness that Luther was. Maybe it depends on how you look at James. In the beginning of our reading, James refers to God as the “father of lights” He is referring to the fact that we credit God the father as the creator of all things. One of the greatest of all things God created was light, the sun, S, U, N that sheds the light we need to live in this world. As good as the light of creation is, it cannot compare with the “Father of all lights”. As James says, the father of lights is without variation giving light with no shade. Back then people believed that the Sun revolved around the Earth, so as the day went on and the Sun moved, so they thought, the angle of the Sun would create a shadow. Big things would block out the light and cast a shadow on smaller things preventing access to the light. When James refers to the Father of all lights, he says that God’s light shines on all and has no shadow. It is the perfect light. James is using this light analogy to help his readers understand that “generous acts of giving”, “perfect gifts are from above, that is from the “father of all lights”. If you are like me, you are looking up in the sky at least in our mind’s eye, picturing God’s generous gifts floating down to earth, to us. That is the problem with analogies and stories. They are powerful tools but sometimes or quite often, we get lost in the analogy or in the story and can’t find our way out. Remember Nicodemus after hearing Jesus say you must be born again, Nicodemus was picturing going back into his mother’s womb and he missed the whole point of what Jesus was saying. James uses another analogy to help us understand about the perfect generous gift from God. He says, In fulfillment he gave us birth, new life through the good news of Jesus Christ to be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. The first fruits are the first of the fruit to be ripened, predicting a good harvest. Or the first animal born, the first profit of your labors. These first fruits were to be given to God. God we are so thankful that you, O Lord, have blessed us with this harvest, we give this first fruit to you. It belongs to you. I’m imagining way back when a father sends his son with their first lamb of the season. He says go show it to the rabbi. The boy joyfully takes the lamb to the synagogue, skipping. He was a young boy. He goes into the synagogue and the rabbi was there. Rabbi look at our lamb, it is our first and finest. Very good said the Rabbi. The boy says ok, good-bye and takes the lamb back home. The rabbi a wise and gracious man says nothing. When the father sees the boy returning, with the lamb he asks his son what the problem was. No problem the boy says. Was the rabbi not there? O, yes he was there I even showed him our lamb. He was impressed. Why didn’t you leave our first fruits there? Leave them there, why? Because they belong to God. No said the boy, Papa I saw it being born is ours. Son the Lord gives us all we have. In response we give him the first fruits. To keep? Asked the boy. To keep, said his father. But what does God need a lamb for? He will use it to feed the rabbi or feed the poor. Why should they get it? Because, it belongs to God for God to use as he wishes. When James said 18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of
truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So James is saying that we need to remember who or whose we are. That many times we are like those who look in the mirror at themselves then after turning away forget what we look like. We who have our life as a blessing from God, so quickly and easily forget. It’s not take my life and let it be, it’s God’s life. You have been chosen as God’s draft pick. A great honor to be picked by God to be on his team. But remember we are not free agents to go and do what we wish or what someone else wishes. We are at God’s beckon call.
Sunday, August 23, 2009 / Psalm 34:15-22 Let us pray, Gracious God, send your spirit upon me so that when I
speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of
the gospel, for which I am an ambassador. Be with me that I may declare
it boldly, as I speak. In Jesus’ name. Bad things happen. The psalmist reminds us that bad things also happen to the righteous. It would be nice if being righteous created a protective shield around us protecting us from danger, evil and sunburn, mosquitoes but it doesn’t. Yet even though the righteous suffer, they have the Lord to turn to. We have the Lord to turn to – the Lord, who is faithful. When bad things happen who would you rather be? When something terrible happens and you are left asking why me? When you ask, What did I do to deserve this? Who would you rather be? Isn’t it better at that time not to have to worry about your faults, your mistakes your sins? What is evil? It is that which opposes God. That which opposes God is the definition of Satan. Evil tells us not to trust in the Lord. Evil says don’t trust the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul. Evil says God cannot be trusted. Evil says, “Besides you are not worthy of such a god”. Evil laughs at the ones who trust in the Lord. Evil laughs at the righteous. I was fortunate enough to go up to the Boundary Waters with the youth again this year. Since I didn’t have to concentrate on hooks in my fingers, I noticed some other things. I noticed the crystal clear water, the beautiful trees, majestic lakes, especially Rose lake. What a beautiful lake. I also noticed how strong the wind can be. It doesn’t take a very powerful wind to blow you off course. When the wind blows you off course, you have to pull extra hard on the paddle to get back on course. You feel you have to pull extra hard because your regular stroke will not be enough. Continue with your regular stroke and you will go where the wind wants you to go. Pulling extra hard to get back on track might be true for canoeing but in our relationship with God, it is not the way of the righteous. What is it that God regards as righteousness? It is
faith, trust, hope, and reliance on God’s love and care and power. Not on our
own power. The way of the righteous is not pulling yourself up by your
bootstraps. It is not getting your act together. The way of the righteous is doing
something very simple, yet very hard, trusting life to Jesus. It sounds so easy
but its so hard.
When I was a pastor in Wisconsin, I knew these two
sisters who belonged to my church. One sister was on a committee with me and I
asked her about her sister because I hadn’t seen her in a while.
She said her sister told her that she had almost got
her act together so that she could come back to church. Got her act together so
that she could come back to church.
Many people feel that because of the things they
have done in there life or haven’t done, because their act was not together
they are unworthy to come to church. One reason they feel this way is that they
don’t feel worthy to be in God’s presence. As if, you could hide from his
presence by not coming to church. God is a great hunter, he’ll find you where
ever you go.
The other reason people feel unworthy to come to
church is because of God’s people, us. They are afraid that they would be
embarrassed in front of us. We might try to live perfect lives, we might try to
project that we’ve got our act together that we are without sin. Because that’s
what we are striving for, that’s how we want not only God but other people to
see us. But if we are honest we are not perfect, we are not without sin. We do
not always have our act together. We all make mistakes. We might not all make
the same mistakes and society sometimes looks at some sins worse than others,
but we are all sinners.
But being a Christian is not about being without
sin. Being a Christian is not about having you act together. Being a Christian
is about striving to be righteous. Does it sound like I just contradicted
myself? Christianity isn’t about striving to be without sin but striving to be
righteous. That’s because we don’t see righteousness the way God sees
righteousness.
God saw the faith of Abraham and regarded it as
righteousness. When God sees our faith, we are regarded as righteous.
I’m not saying we should try not to sin. I’m not
saying that Jesus doesn’t want us to try to not sin. It’s just not the way to
righteousness. Maybe it’s the way of the righteous.
Have you ever noticed that heaven jokes probably a
lot of religious jokes have bad theology?
For example: This is a joke I told recently. 3 women
die and go to pearly gates and St. Peter says why should I let you into heaven.
Notice the problem right off the bat? In this joke it’s all about what these
women did or didn’t do. It’s not about what Jesus Christ did on the cross dying
for our sins.
Well the first women a catholic says in her defense
that she pray so much her rosary beads fell apart. The second woman a Baptist
says in her defense that she read her bible so much that the bible was falling
apart.
Then the third woman, the Lutheran, the third is
always the brunt of the joke. The Lutheran woman said in her defense that she
brought a hot dish.
Now most jokes are not religiously correct, hardly
any are politically correct and that’s ok because there job is to be true. The
jokes job is to be funny. I’m not advocating cruel jokes that hurt people but
the jokes job is to be funny.
The reason I bring this up is that jokes among other
things perpetuate the misunderstanding of righteousness.
Sherman Hommedahl told me a joke that I think is
most truthful. Perhaps you’ve heard this.
A man goes up to heaven and is met at the pearly
gates by St. Peter. The man says how do I get into heaven? St. Peter says well
in your lifetime you had to have accumulated 1000 points. Well asked the man
how do you get points? By doing good things. The man said well, I never missed
a Sunday at church. St. Peter said, well that would be 10 points. 10 points?
Well I was never unfaithful to my wife. 5 points St. Peter said. Oh the man
said I’ve cut my neighbors lawn ever since her husband died. 2 points.
2 points, the only way I’ll get to heaven is by the
grace of God. Bingo.
It is very difficult to live a righteous life. We
either want to rely on our strengths. We
try to make up for our faults by working harder trying to cover up or to try
and make up for our mistakes. The righteous are those who trust in the Lord.
And we do it for good reason.
Listen to parts of the 34th psalm again.
15 The eyes of
the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.17 When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles. 18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord rescues them from them all. 22 The Lord redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. the Lord hears, and rescues those who trust in him. us be righteous. Amen.
We lost one of our own, Howie Bannitt who will be sorely missed. But as I said at the funeral, we are not people without hope. We trust and hope in the “bread of life” Jesus Christ. Have you ever heard people at a funeral or at a visitation say, “Boy I don’t know what people do without faith” or “I don’t know how people handle a loss like this without faith.”? I’ve heard it a lot. The readings for today have a lot to say about that. I’m also glad we are having Holy Communion today because Holy Communion has a lot to say about that too. Today’s reading from Kings is between one of my favorite bible stories and a very famous one. At first, Elijah is the superhero with God’s help of course. Elijah calls fire down from heaven, defeating the evil priests of Baal and Jezebel in a contest and then he kills them all, it says “By the sword”. I know it’s gruesome but it was war and Elijah is one of the good guys. Well our reading for today is between that story and the story where God tells Elijah who is very worried, God says, “be still and know that I am God.” Well after Elijah defeats Queen Jezebel’s priests she is a little miffed. All right she is outraged, she swears that the same fate will come upon Elijah as did her priests, death. Consequently, even though Elijah just had this huge victory, he is scared to death. He wants to die and cannot continue. As we read God sends an angel who wakes Elijah up and says eat. He eats and then lies back down. Again ,the angel of God wakes him up and tells him to eat or he won’t have enough strength for the journey. I’m thinking this is a grandmother angel. Eat, eat you need your strength. Eat or he won’t have enough strength for the journey. There is the story of Mother Teresa the nun that did such great work with the people with leprosy in Calcutta. She was going into this country to do some relief work. I can’t remember where but it was not a Christian country. Wherever Mother Teresa went, she went with a priest. The country’s officials said that she could come into the country but the priest couldn’t. Mother Teresa said then I can’t go in. I won’t have the strength. She said she needed to have the priest with her so that she could receive Holy Communion. That was where she got her strength. She got her strength to do these great things through the power of Christ. Isn’t this what Jesus is talking about in our gospel, saying that he, Jesus, is the bread of life. Not bread like the bread that fed the 5,000 people or the 4,000 people but the bread that leads to eternal life. Not just the ticket to heaven, but the relationship with God that begins now and goes on forever. Jesus is our food for life, life everlasting. Elijah needed the food from God to have the strength for his journey. Mother Teresa needed the food from God, the bread and wine of Holy Communion to have the strength for her journey. The people at the funerals and visitations are pointing out that we need our bread for the journey. Jesus is the bread of life that gives us the strength for our journey. Jesus the bread of life gives us strength for our journey that include joys and sorrows, sickness and death, love and hate, good times and bad. How do people survive without the bread of life, our Lord Jesus Christ? We survive in faith through the bread of life. How can you survive without it? You can’t. Today we have the privilege to receive the bread of life. In Holy Communion we receive the bread of life. We receive Jesus’ forgiveness, we are assured that his walks with us. Without the bread of life we won’t have strength for the journey. Not even to through the boundary waters. Jesus is the bread of life, eat or you won’t have the strength for the journey. Amen. Back to topGod’s purposes are hard to see so we walk by faith 1. Chess One of the games children are taught is Chess. Chess is not only a fun game but it helps us to learn how to think in different ways. The first thing you have to learn is how to move the pieces. Each piece has a different value and moves in different ways. For example, a pawn the piece with the lowest value can only move forward one space at a time except on its first move when it can move 1 or 2 spaces ahead or when it is attacking another piece when it moves diagonally one space. The bishop can move only move diagonally but can move as many spaces as it wants as long as nothing is in its way. There are six different kinds of pieces. After you learn how to move all the pieces, you learn how to capture the other persons king, while protecting your king. If you have never learned how to play chess this might sound hard but most people catch on quickly. The hard part about chess is that once you learn how to move the pieces you need to learn how to think ahead. Most beginning players think about what they are going to do one move at a time. To get better you have to learn how to think 3 or 4 moves ahead. You think, I want to attack their king so I will move here and then there and then there. You also have to keep in mind what the other person might do and plan accordingly. I’ll move my pawn near his horse unless she moves there. If she moves there I’ll have to move over there. So if you are playing a game of chess you have to think. Ok she moved the pawn out attacking my bishop, what is it she is trying to do? It’s only one move but what is she trying to do in the future? Some people get so good at chess that if you move a piece or two they know exactly what you are trying to do. The great chess players have a lot of the possibilities memorized. In the really big chess tournaments after a number of moves one player might conceed the loss because they know what the other person is going to do, they know all of the possible defenses and realize there is no escape. This can come many moves before the game would be over if it were actually played. If only we had that kind of insight when it came to God and what God does in the world and what God is doing in the world. God can do something and we might not have a clue as to what its leading to, as to what the big plan is. This happened to Jesus when he walked upon this earth. 2. Signs pointing to Jesus and beyond The gospel of John is sometimes called the book of signs. Jesus does some miraculous things. He heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, raises the dead, turns water into wine and more. Today Jesus in our reading is out in the wilderness teaching 5,000 men plus the women and children. Jesus says to the disciples give them something to eat. Philip makes that famous statement that people will quote in the church for centuries – “We don’t have the money”. Andrew says, and we don’t know how serious he was, he says, this boy has 5 barley loaves and 2 fish but what is that among so many? Jesus takes the bread and the fish blesses them, sounds like Holy Communion, and gives it to the people. In the end from the 5 loaves of bread they collect 12 baskets full of bread left over. Miracles, Signs, point to Jesus and beyond. Beyond to what Jesus has planned. So what does Jesus have planned? We know the people were fed. 2.1. Make him King Well one thing it wasn’t about was becoming a king. The people were fed. They thought it was all about them they thought it was all about the food. They wanted to force Jesus to be their king. Not to rule over them but to feed them. They thought the sign, the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 was about them, was about food. But the fact is it pointed beyond that, to who Jesus was or is. What Jesus was or is up to. 3. What would Jesus do? We went up to see our daughter Kali in the musical she and the other counselors put on for their bible camp. It was a good show, not that I’m prejudice. I think it was called “living on the edge”. It was the story of these 5 HS kids who commit themselves to living for a week doing what Jesus would do. There was one boy who was being bullied into doing homework and book reports for this guy. This group, his friends were trying to solve this problem as Jesus would. He was trying to do what Jesus would do without getting killed. In the end he found these bible verses with says from Jesus like, turn the other cheek, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. And that helped him a lot. On the way home we were talking about how hard it is to even figure out what Jesus would do. There are many things we face that Jesus never faced and it’s also hard because Jesus is Jesus. We don’t have the power and authority Jesus has. How do we remain faithful? We see things happen, we experience things happening in our lives. Sometimes it is difficult to understand why something happened. Sometimes we feel like we’ve got a good idea what God has done. But what’s the big picture? We need to remember two things that may seem to contradict themselves: 1. Jesus loves you and came to die for you. 2. It’s not about you. We tend to forget one or the other. Especially the second one. It’s not about you. Maybe we’ll never figure out God’s plan. The world, God’s world is much bigger than a chessboard. Lots more options. Sometimes God is moving us a long like his pieces in a chess game. Sometimes we are playing for the other side. Maybe we won’t see the plan, the big picture until we see God face to face. He’ll explain things to us and we’ll say, “That’s what I thought.” Until then we walk by faith following his commands to Love God and love other people as we love ourselves. Amen. The Lord is your shepherd Last Saturday as I was coming out of Best Buy, I heard this man say, “I don’t believe in God.” He said, “I don’t believe in God.” I kind of chuckled to myself. I think it’s silly to say you don’t believe in God. You could say I don’t believe in a god. But to say I don’t believe in God is like saying you don’t believe in your friend Joe. By saying, you don’t believe in God you are acknowledging God’s existence, and then saying you don’t believe in him. An interesting thing to say if someone says something like that could be: What god is it that you don’t believe in? I would bet, that the god they don’t believe in is not a god you believe in either. During the council meeting devotions, I talked about this guy we also talked about the 23rd psalm. We talked about how the 23rd psalm is a favorite of many people. It brings them comfort and strength in good times and bad. We quite often read it at funerals. It is helpful when you are dying or suffering or when your loved one is dying or suffering. It’s also a good reminder for life. The 23rd psalm brings us comfort because of what the Lord our Shepherd does for us. One commentator I read said that in biblical times when someone used the term “shepherd”, people would automatically think of a king. This puts an interesting slant on the 23rd psalm. Don’t you think? The Lord is my King. The Lord is my King I shall not want. I will not be in want because I have a great king. The Lord is my King; he makes me lie down in green pastures. This is a good thing if I am a sheep to be able to lie down and rest with lots of good green grass to eat. That would be a good thing. The Lord is my King; he leads me beside still waters. Again the king, my king will make sure I have water and food, rest and on and on. You can look at this psalm another way. This is not only a psalm that brings comfort; it is also a psalm singing the praises of our leader, of our shepherd, of our king. This is all in contrast to that guy outside of Best Buy. He says he doesn’t believe in God. He has no leader, no shepherd, no king or he doesn’t think he does. He is on his own. I have this quote from John Bright - "He is a self-made man and worships his creator." This guy outside of Best Buy must have been the type of person Jesus was talking about in our reading. Remember his disciples were coming back from their mission. He told them to come off to a deserted place to rest. When they arrived at the place, there was a great crowd. Jesus looked at them and had compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Recently every time we have a bible reading with sheep in it, Pastors Nick and Cindy Fisher – Broin of Spring Garden get very defensive. Lately they have been defending the sheep. I think it’s because they have sheep and really like them. However, Pastor Nick made a good point the other day. He said people say that sheep are dumb. They are not. They are not smart he said. But they are not dumb they are just sheep. They are just being what they were created to be, sheep. Sheep may not be as smart as we are, or as smart as most of us are, but one thing they do well, they are good at being sheep. We are not so good at being what we were created to be Children of God. Someone once said that our problem is that ‘we are so busy being “Human doings” that we don’t take time to be human beings’. We often refer to the sin in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve as the fall. Professor Gerhart Forde use to say it was not a downward fall but an upward fall. We were not satisfied being what God created us to be, human beings, god’s creators. We want to be gods. We want to be in control. We are sheep with a shepherd. Jesus is your shepherd. There are times for doing. There is work to be done in this world. Jesus sent the apostles out to work. He also took them to rest. Because you have a shepherd, because you have a king, there is also opportunity to rest. However, it is hard because resting requires faith. Isn’t that interesting? We are use to thinking that resting is not being faithful but only the faithful can rest. This can be good news to you or it can be a word of judgment. Do you have the faith to rest? It is a hard thing. I do not know if we have the faith to rest, to let God run the world, run our lives while we rest. I’m not talking about laziness, I’m talking about resting in the Lord your God, your shepherd. I don’t know if you have the faith to rest. I am here to tell you that you have the shepherd that makes rest possible. Because you have a shepherd, you can rest. We need to get the word out to those guys outside of Best Buy who don’t believe. Remember the psalm. Lord is my shepherd or king however, you want to look at it. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. The Lord is your shepherd, you don’t have to be the shepherd, you don’t have to be the king, you don’t have to be the god. You are not the god. You and I have enough to do and be, what God created us to be, God’s children. Amen. July 12, 2009 / Eph 1:3-14. Go to top When I grew up on Long Island we didn’t tell Norwegian jokes. We didn’t have as many Norwegians as we have around here. We had a lot of Italian, Irish, Puerto Ricans and Jewish people among others. So we told jokes about the people we had around us. For example, Do you know how a Jewish mother changes a light bulb? She says, So I’ll sit in the dark. The joke implies that guilt is a great motivator among Jewish people. The mother uses the power of guilt to get her son to change the light bulb. The good implication is that the mother has faith in the love of son for her. She knows her son loves her and won’t let her sit in the dark. If he knows what’s good for him. In our gospel reading for today we have an example of a lack of faith. The Disciples don’t know that Jesus loves them. Jesus and the Disciples go out on the water when a storm comes up quickly. The storm was pretty bad. The boat was getting swamped and Jesus is sleeping in the rear of the boat. The disciples are scared to death by the storm. They think they are going down. The Jewish people didn’t care for the water. They were really scared of the unknown element of the sea. Their boat was quickly becoming the sea. They wake Jesus and say Don’t you care that we are perishing? You know the story Jesus gets up and rebukes the wind, tells the sea to be still. The wind ceases the sea calms. Jesus then rebukes the disciples, why are you afraid, do you still have no faith? At first glance this seems strange; not Jesus calming the storm. We’re Christians we believe in Jesus’ power over demons, turns water into wine, feeds 500 people with a little lutefisk, not to mention the power over death in the resurrection. We say calming the storm sure, why not? What seems strange is Jesus’ telling them not to be afraid of a storm swamping their boat and don’t cry out to him when he’s sleeping. Crying out to Jesus is basically what we are doing in prayer. It seem that he is saying that because they are crying out to him they have no faith. You could look at this story and say that they shouldn’t have been afraid of the storm and they shouldn’t have cried out to Jesus for help. It seems like Jesus didn’t want them to worry about the storm or cry out to him for help, which is basically what we do in prayer. So is Jesus saying don’t pray? Is Jesus anti prayer? That is not what is bothering Jesus. What’s bothering Jesus is the question they ask. Don’t you care that we are perishing? They are questioning Jesus’ love for them. Jesus prefers the faith the Jewish mother had in her son. “So, I’ll sit in the dark.” She has no intention of sitting in the dark. She knows her son loves her and will change the light bulb. There is a difference between saying, “help us we’re drowning” and “don’t you care that we are perishing?” How does a Christian get saved from a storm at sea? So I’ll drown in the sea. Well maybe not. Tony Campolo tells the story about how he was driving to this church to preach when he picked up a young man who was hitchhiking. He starts talking with him and finds out he is running away from home, running away from his wife and three kids. When Campolo gets to the church before the service the elders of this church get together in the sacristy to pray for him. He tells them about the young man. They know who he is and decide to pray for him and his situation. They pray, Something like, And we ask for your help for John Smith, you know the one Lord, the one who lives on Maple street, in the trailer park, who lives in the double wide trailer at the end of the street, the yellow one, the one with the dog tied up in from, you know the one Lord, John the one who is leaving his wife and three kids. Campolo says he can just imagine Jesus saying “wait, wait, which one is that again”. Of course God knows who John Smith is. He doesn’t need all the explanation about where he lives and what his problems are. But he does want us to tell him about it. He does want us to ask him to help John or whoever we are concerned about, even if it’s us. God wants us to call on him in prayer. But when we pray let us pray with the faith of the Jewish mother. Maybe sarcasm isn’t always the best technique. We’ll discuss sarcasm another time. The point is ask for help. Lift up your concerns. Jesus loves that. But lift them up in faith and trust. Lift them up in faith believing that Christ loves you, trust that he can help you and be with you. Don’t you care Jesus that people are losing their jobs? Don’t you care that I am sick, that I am hurting, that I am scared, that I have problems? Yes he does care. Jesus loves you and cares for you and is listening to your prayer and concerns. He died for you remember. So, call out to him but do it in faith and trust. Here are some exerts from one of our fellow believers in psalm 107 Psalm 107 Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Many Troubles O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures for ever. Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to an inhabited town; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress; he led them by a straight way, until they reached an inhabited town.  Some sat in darkness and in gloom, prisoners in misery and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High. Their hearts were bowed down with hard labour; they fell down, with no one to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress; he brought them out of darkness and gloom, and broke their bonds asunder. Some were sick through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities endured affliction; they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress; he sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from destruction. Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the mighty waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep. For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their calamity; they reeled and staggered like drunkards, and were at their wits’ end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out from their distress; he made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they had quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven. The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. June 14, 2009 / Mk 4’26-34.09 We are entering in the season of parables. The kingdom of God is like, Basileia tou Theo. Some scholars believe that we should not look at the kingdom of God so much as a place but as power and authority. Basileia can mean kingdom, power and authority to rule. Think about that next time you read a parable that starts out the Kingdom of God is like. Instead of thinking of an area, try thinking of it as “the power of God is like”. So our first parable, earthly story with a heavenly meaning”, is The power of God is like a man who goes out to plant seed then he goes home goes to sleep and the seed grow. He doesnt know how this happens. This reminds me of an experience I recently had. Someone tells me they have some seedlings I can have. So I go over he gives me the seedlings, then, I don’t want to mention his name, Walter Barnes, He tells me to do it like the DNR told him, stick a spade shovel in the ground, just work it back and forth, stick the seedling in there, push the ground back together and walk away. That’s what I did. I must confess though I think this guy, I don’t want to mention his name, Walter Barnes is a smart guy, definitely smart at planting trees than me, I was not so sure it would work. I ‘ve read a lot of different things about our second parable the parable of the mustard seed. So I did a little research on mustard. You know how in those movies about mad scientists or witches they are mixing their potions? They would have things like twigs and dragons tongue and it always seemed like they had eye of newt. I always envisioned eye of newt as being something really gross. But you know what’s commonly called eye of newt? That’s right mustard. Of course now I’ll never get my kids to use it on hot dogs as God had originally intended. A man when out and sowed mustard seed the smallest of all seeds and when it grew it turned into the largest of all bushes, where birds can nest and get shade from it’s branches. The mustard seed for example is not the smallest of all seeds, it’s small but there are smaller, but that doesn’t matter. Mustard seed is not something people would plant. It’s more like a weed, like crabgrass. Ever think of planting crab grass, and then that grab grass growing into something that God would use to be useful and life giving to the rest of creation. I don’t want to limit your thinking about these parables because parables are more like art than like science and there is a wide variety of things to learn. But with that said. Isn’t interesting that power of God is involves using things we want to get rid of. Isn’t it also interesting that most of the time the power of God makes things happen in ways and for reasons we don’t understand? This week in VBS we talked about being on God’s team. That we are on God’s team not because we chose God but that God chose us. Isn’t it good to be on God’s team? We may not know what God’s up to, we might get nervous because the world is out of OUR control but it’s good to be on God’s team. Basilea tou Theo. God’s creative powers are beyond our imagination. God uses just about anything and anyone to do what he wants to do in this world we live in. It’s good to be a part of that? Amen? In our first reading, We hear about Isaiah’s vision. Isaiah sees God in all his glory. The Lutheran Study Bible notes that in Exodus, many years before, God says to Moses that no one can see me face to face and live. Some say Isaiah didn’t completely see God, that he just saw his robe. Whatever of God he saw it troubles him. He believes he is going to die. In this vision, there are Heavenly beings call seraphs. They are calling to one another praising God, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord of Host; the whole earth is full of your glory. In the presence of God’s glory Isaiah realizes how unworthy he is. In the light of God’s glory Isaiah sees how sinful he is. He says to himself "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" He figures he’s a goner. Then one of those seraphs, which the Lutheran Study Bible says are winged serpents, winged snakes, one of the six winged serpent starts to fly toward him with a live hot coal. With two wings it’s flying, with two wings it’s covering it’s feet and with the other two it is covering it’s eyes. It’s covering it’s eyes because even the seraphs fear looking directly at God. I think a flying serpent coming at me would be scarey enough, not to mention a flying serpent carrying a live coal. But a flying serpent with a live coal with it’s eyes covered? The seraph comes at him with the coal. Maybe he’s thinking, is this how I will die, burned to death by a seraph with a live coal? But the seraph doesn’t kill him instead it touches his lips with the coal. I wonder how he knows where his lips are with his eyes covered. The seraph touches his unclean lips and says you are cleansed. What a vision. I bet Isaiah will never eat one of those pepperoni pizzas with anchovies again. There is a theory, a theory that many people subscribe to, maybe many of you, I know I have, this theory says that the only way that people will change is if they hit bottom. They will only change if they are forced to. You know, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. A child will not change their behavior if what they are doing is working. Why would a child learn to talk if they can get what they want by grunting and pointing? Why grow up and learn to express yourself and compromise if screaming gets you what you want. This is not limited to children. I know I didn’t stop pouting until people started ignoring me. Why submit to authority if there are no consequences? Why follow the law even the police if your parents are going to bail you out ever time. Why get a job when you can live in your parent’s home with all the amenities free. It goes on and on. Why eat right and exercise if you feel no ill effects. We say that an alcoholic won’t stop drinking until they hit bottom. I mentioned before that I used to listen to the radio show “Unshakeled”. It was story after story about people whose life had gone wrong but wouldn’t or couldn’t change until they hit bottom. They told of the success stories of many of the men who hit bottom and were helped by this Christian Mission. You could say that this is what is happening to Isaiah. He hits bottom and God raises him up. This might be what happened but there is an important ingredient we need to see. How is it that Isaiah sees his sinfulness? Did he wake up in the gutter one day and say I need to turn my life over to God? No, he didn’t realize that he really was a sinner, he didn’t or couldn’t see what was wrong with him until he saw the glory of God. When the light of the glory of God shone on him he realized, he was unworthy. I’m a sinful man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips. This reminds us of the beginning of the Gospel of John. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. God asks, who will I send who will go for us? Now, what is God asking for? Is he asking who will carry my light into the world, who will go to proclaim forgiveness and cleansing? God asks, who will I send who will go for us? And Isaiah says send me. The one who in the glory of God saw that he was a sinner, the one who was cleanses of his sin responds by saying send me. I’m not sure he actually knew exactly what he was signing up for. We do know that after he agrees to go for God, that God tells him that he won’t be very successful. You will speak but they won’t listen. You will show them but they won’t see. When I was on a Lutheran Youth Encounter team, our team was one of 6. One of the teams had a lot of musical talent. They were not only musicians but song writers. One of the songs they wrote was entitled, Shine the Light. It said, “Shine the light on me why don’t you shine the light, shine the light”. I think the assumption was that having the light of Christ shine on them would be a pleasant experience. I’m just assuming, which is always dangerous, but I assuming they thought that it would be an affirming experience. But would it really? Maybe yes, maybe no. I’m not saying we shouldn’t ask for God’s light, the light of Christ upon us. It’s just that I’m not sure we would be so pleased with ourselves. That wouldn’t necessarily be good news. In the presence of Christ, in the light of his glory we would see ourselves as we are, as we really are warts and all. It’s not that it isn’t good, or good for us to see ourselves as we really are without the ways we try to package ourselves to look good. It is good for us but it isn’t always pleasant. I know people who as crazy as it sounds don’t go to the doctor because they don’t want to know if somethings wrong with them. Next to really white clothes you can see how clean your clothes are. In the light of God’s glory we can see how unworthy we are. In the wonders of nature we can see the revealing light of God’s glory. In the awesomeness of God’s creation we can appreciate the Glory of God. I think this is why people will say I don’t have to be in church among God’s faithful people to worship God. But when through the nature we see God’s glory and through God’s glory we see how insignificant we are, how imperfect we are God’s creation the mountains and valleys, oceans and rivers and canyons and on and on, as glorious as they are they don’t offer God’s grace, God’s acceptance. To receive God’s grace we need the word, God’s word, Christ’s promise of love and forgiveness. God’s love and forgiveness is found among God’s faithful people in the proclaimed word and sacrament. The proclaimed word and sacrament carry God’s love, forgiveness and grace revealed through Jesus Christ. The good news is that we see ourselves as we are so does Christ. He see us as we are, warts and all and still loves us and cleanses us. Isn’t this what happens to us as we come to the altar to be in Christ’s presences? We see our sinfulness, emptiness and weakness and ask for his forgiveness, fullness and strength. And we receive it as promised even when we don’t feel it. We receive God’s grace. Then what? After being with Christ and being cleansed, lets keep our eyes and ears open. As we go about our days, where is Christ asking, who can I send who will go for us? It’s not the same for everyone. He is asking each one of us to go to different places in different ways to carry his glory, his light, his love. Let us pray, Oh Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Let your light shine on us, give us what we are lacking and send us on your way. Amen. Go to top May 31, 2009/Acts 2:1-21
Who can name the 3 major festivals of the church year?They are Easter, Christmas and Pentecost. In the early centuries of the Church, Pentecost was second in importance only to Easter. Pentecost is 50 days after the first Easter. Some people refer to Pentecost as the Birthday of the Church because on this day we celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit. The disciples received the Spirit and proclaimed the good news of Jesus throughout the world. Luther in his explanation of the 3rd article of the Apostles’ creed, the part about the Holy Spirit explains: ‘I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him. (Can’t even believe in Jesus, on my own) But the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel…’ Sometime in the first century, Jews saw the day of Pentecost as the giving of the Ten Commandments on mount Sinai. The Law engraved on stone. We see the Day of Pentecost as the engraving of the gospel on our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts as the acts of the Apostles lead by the Holy Spirit. It was Pentecost Sunday not unlike today. The congregation was gathered at Last Lutheran Church. The Rev. George Urlandson was preaching on the power of the Spirit. He started talking about how in the book of Acts the people were gathered in one place when there was the sound of a violent wind. And just as he said that, there in the sanctuary of Last Lutheran Church was the sound of a violent wind, because there was a violent wind. This was hard to understand because they had stained glass windows, like we have here. And as we have here today those stained glass windows were closed but there was the wind. This was a very strange wind. They could feel it but nobody’s hair was blown, nobody’s hymnal pages were blown, the bulletins weren’t even blown. For some reason Rev. Urland, right in the middle of his sermon, said, let’s all share God’s peace with one another. When he was later asked why he decided to share the peace in the middle of his sermon he said he didn’t know he just felt like that’s what he should do. As the people shared the peace they didn’t say, Peace be with you, good morning or even nice outfit. They said, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' And it was weird because everyone spoke in their own native language. Some spoke in Norwegian, some in Swedish, others in Polish and Check, still others in Cannonian, Randolfian, Kenyon, others in Wanamingan. But each heard everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' in their own language. Still more amazing no one asked, but what if someone doesn’t call on the Lord’s name? No one asked, What if they never get the chance to hear the goodnews that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'? Everyone was just happy that they could call on the Lord’s name and be saved. It brought them comfort, and joy and the desire to tell others. They didn’t worry about what to say or how people would respond. Someone commented that they were just studying the story in the bible about the tower of Babel. How people used to be able to understand each other because they all had one language. That they had wanted to build a tower and try and reach up to the heavens and make a name for themselves. But God confused their language and scattered them throughout the land. But now, God though the power of the Holy Spirit brought them all together in one place and has brought the languages back together again. His friend said yes but this is different. This time the languages are coming together to raise Jesus up instead of raising people up. Have you ever have something come over you that made you want to do something or feel something? We see negative examples of this in a negative way, baseball players enraged at an umpires call, taking a bat to a water cooler. But what about positive examples? Would someone like to share something? I experienced something like this when watching to the FMSC video and listening to the representative talk about the people who have been helped. May you thought the power of the Holy Spirit be filled with joy today knowing that you can, call on the Lord’s name and be saved. May it bring you comfort, and joy and the desire to tell others. That you won’t worry about what to say or how people would respond but that you may call on Jesus’ name and encourage others to do the same. The peace…. A woman on the 1st day
of our diet driving past the bakery notice a sign saying today only free
cinnamon rolls. Cinnamon rolls her favorite. She wondered was this a sign from
God telling her to put her diet off until tomorrow. There was only one way to discern
God’s will in this situation, if there was a parking spot in the front of the
shop, it was God’s will if there wasn’t it wasn’t God’s will. It turned out to be God’s will
because on the 31st time driving around the shop there was the spot
right in front. Today’s first reading gives us a fool proof way to discern God’s will for our lives and for the world. An easy way to figure out what God wants so we can eliminate all the problems from our lives. Let’s see how it’s done by looking at what the Disciples did when facing a problem. First, the Disciples now apostles, decided that they needed to fill Judas’ position as disciple / apostle. How many disciples did Jesus choose to be his inner circle? There were 12. We also read that there were 12 sons of Jacob, 12 tribes of Israel and there are 12 days of Christmas so they, the apostles thought they should restore the 12th position. For obvious reasons Judas was unable to continue. Judas had betrayed Jesus to his enemies resulting in Jesus’ crucifixion and death, plus Judas was dead so he couldn’t continue. How to replace Judas? They decided it should be someone who has been with them for a while. It should be someone who was there when Jesus was baptized, someone who was with them from Jesus’ baptism by John through to his resurrection. The 11 remaining apostles narrowed the choice down to two men, Justus and Matthias. We don’t know what that process entailed, Bible quizzes, ACT tests, or arm wrestling but it came down to the two. They prayed for God to show them who was the right one for the job. They asked God to look into these men’s hearts. Then they cast lots and the lot fell on Matthias. Casting lots means they did something like drawing straws, throwing dice or flipping a coin. So here is precedence for doing that to decide on our next Senator. You might say that’s just gambling. It’s just leaving the decision it up to chance. However, remember when Jonah was running away from God? Remember how God, sent a storm upon the ship? The sailors were trying to find out whose fault it was that it was storming. The sailors cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah, so they knew he was responsible. This sounds so primitive to us but what are they really doing? What they are actually doing is relying on God. They are saying we did the best we could now you God, let us know what is right. You could argue that this is what the woman who is denying her child chemotherapy is doing. According to her understanding of faith she needs to leave it up to God. She is relying on God to act. As she sees it, God will heal her son or not and that is what God wants. Now many of us might say that she is not using all of the resources God has put at our disposal. Most Christians aren’t anti science and medicine. There might be some ethical question about the use of science and medicine we disagree on, I’ll give you that. However most Christians believe that most of science is the investigation and discovery of God’s good creation and how it works. Many Christians would say that we need to trust in God and we need use the brain God has given us. It is not always easy to figure out what fully trusting God entails. Christians all agree that we need to trust in God. We disagree as to how we do that. My internship supervisor told me about a woman in his first congregation. She told him that she would not believe he was preaching the word of God unless he got into the pulpit without notes and fully relied on the Holy Spirit. I know there are many students who use this method on tests. They don’t do any of the work, they don’t study, they just show up at the test and pray for divine intervention. Is that being a faithful Christian? There are times when God steps in and does everything. There are times when people including preachers are determined to go in one direction and God pushes them in another direction or enlightens them. However, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit doesn’t only come devoid of any efforts on our part. Many times our decisions and actions are all part of the mix. God no doubt gives inspiration and revelation. We also have to remember that the abilities, talents and resources we have are also gifts from God. I heard this scientist recently say that it would be unethical, you and I might say, unfaithful or even a sin. She said it would be wrong for her not to use all of resources available to her help heal people. There is the joke about the man who was really upset with God because of all the evil and injustice in the world. When he died he was still angry. He boldly went up to God and said, What did you do to stop the evil and injustice in the world? What did you do to help the poor, the hungry and oppressed? God replied, What did you do? Ok so it isn’t always easy or even possible to figure out beyond a shadow of a doubt what God wants. So what should we do? This probably sounds too simple but it’s true. We should do the best we can, to the best of our ability. Sometimes we’ll mess up. Some people say the disciples messed up with Matthias. They only gave the Spirit two choices and it wasn’t the right one. They say the Disciples picked Matthias to continue the ministry but God picked Paul. That may or may not be true. Who knows what Matthias did for the good of the kingdom. Just because his name didn’t make it into the book doesn’t mean he wasn’t the right one. It doesn’t mean God didn’t use him in some important way. Do you know anybody who has done great things for the world? Know anyone who was instrumental in you believing in Jesus? Are they in the book, in the bible? Even if they did choose the wrong person, it doesn’t mean that God can’t use that mistake and do great things with it. Ever hear of turning lemons into lemonade? We are called by God to do the best we can with what he has blessed us with but our faith and trust doesn’t depend on whether we mess up or not. Our faith and trust is based on the one who can work with our best and our worst. At one time I worked for Roy Rogers Restaurant. Most of you probably didn’t know there was such a thing. In the late 80’s, for you young people in the late 1980’s Roy Rogers restaurants came up with the idea of a salad bar. Wooo! One day a regional supervisor visited our store. She was one of the perky, glass half-full kinds of people. She thought the salad bar was just a wonderful idea. She was all excited about it but not necessarily for the profit side of it although I’m sure that was part of it. She was excited about the creativity of the whole salad bar thing. She was amazed at how people put together their salads, the endless possibilities, the beauty of their creations. I think if you made your salad and showed her what you did, however you put it together she would think it was great. Imagine if you will, that God is like that. The God has provided us with such a wonderful salad bar with so many possibilities. Could you think about approaching life in that way? Approaching life, approaching every opportunity, every challenge with the best intentions using all the ingredients at our disposal, knowing that God has your back, and is waiting expectantly for what you might do. Sure there is the study, the mediation the prayer, the evaluation of everything involved but imagine a God that isn’t looking for how you might mess up but looking at what you will do with what he’s given you. Back to top
The good shepherd does this, not that. I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, - my sheep know me. I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep. - I must bring them also. The Father loves me. No one takes my life, - I lay it down. I have power to lay it down- I have power to take it up. I received this commandment from my father. When we read this we often start talking about sheep and shepherd’s. Sheep are dumb, Shepherds are sometimes gross, sometimes low lives, but sometimes brave and heroic. Now that is all well and good. But when Jesus says, I am the Good Shepherd, isn’t Jesus trying to tell us who and what he is? I’ve been reading commentaries about listening to the shepherd’s voice, following the shepherd, trusting the shepherd. How sheep only seem to follow the shepherd’s voice. I was thinking about that. Sheep only follow their shepherd’s voice. They don’t listen or follow a stranger. If sheep are supposed be dumb, what does that make us? We have a hard time listening. We have a hard time following the right voice or voices. This too is all well and good. But when Jesus says, I am the Good Shepherd, isn’t Jesus trying to tell us who and what he is? Who and what is Jesus? What should we believe? Wednesday I had this idea for our last confirmation class of the year. Have you ever heard of the book, “This I believe”? It is a collection of essays from famous people and what they say they believe. It was done many years ago, a best seller, and then it was again more recently. It is amazing what some people believe. Some people you say wow what insight! What wisdom. Then you listen to some other people and you say, wow what load of! And they’re a successful person or considered a successful person? How did they become successful? It must have been a mistake. Must have stepped in it, so to speak. But back to Confirmation class. I thought this would be a good exercise of self-discovery for the students. First, I showed them a couple of videos on Youtube of people expressing what they believe.
People
believe in all kinds of things. These persons said things like.
I believe in 1st impressions. I believe All sentences should begin with a captal. I believe in Lucky #7 I believe in purple pens - Not black - Not blue - Never red. I believe in kindness. I believe my words have power. I believe dirt bikes should remain dirty because of their name. I told the students to put the title “This I believe” on the top of their paper. Then I gave them some topics to help them think about what they believe. They showed such amazing insight – Actually it was a private exercise. I never knew what they wrote. I wanted them to be totally honest with themselves so I told them they weren’t going to show anybody. The early Christian church got together to say what they believed. The Apostles creed for example is a belief statement of the church. It goes back maybe to 250AD. If anyone ever asked you what Christians believe you could summarize the Apostles’ creed. Something like: I believe God created everything. I believe that God came to earth as Jesus. I believe Jesus was born, crucified and rose from the dead. I believe he forgives our sins. I believe that God’s spirit gives me faith, gathers all Christians together and guides them along God’s way. Reading what Jesus has to say in our reading for today helps us think about what we believe because Jesus is telling us who and what he is. He at least gives us a good analogy. I’m going to make some belief statements based on this Good Shepherd teaching. If you believe any of the I believe statements I make repeat them aloud. Ok ready? I believe Spongebob square pants is a real person. Just checking if you’re listening. I believe that Jesus is my Shepherd. I believe Jesus is good. I believe Jesus gave his life for me. I believe Jesus game his life for us. I believe in Chocolate I believe there are people who try to hurt us. I believe there are people who don’t care about us. I believe there are people who only care about themselves. I believe there are little blue men who move things from one moment to the next. I believe Jesus knows me. - I believe I know Jesus. I believe Jesus laid down his life for his sheep. I believe I am one of his sheep. - I believe you are one of his sheep. I believe Jesus laid down his life for me. I believe Jesus laid down his life for you. I believe Jesus laid down his life - so he could take it back up. I believe Jesus has the power to lay it down. I believe Jesus has the power to take it back up. I believe in Jesus. I believe Jesus believes in me. - I believe Jesus believes in you.
4/26/2009 Healing Service Once upon a time in a land far, far away were these two friends. What were there names do you think? Paul and Tyler. Paul and Tyler were the best of friends they did everything together. What do you think they would do together? They played Baseball and Basketball, video games and did facebook. Well one hot summer day they went for a walk exploring down by the river. They ran from home all the way to the river. How far do you think it was? 5 miles they ran and they came upon a tire swing. Do you know what a tire swing is? It’s an old car tire tied to a rope that’s tied to a tree. And when you swing it went out over the river. Paul said let’s swing out over the river and jump into the water. Tyler said, but we don’t know how deep the water is it could be dangerous. You are never supposed to jump or dive into water if you don’t know how deep it is. Oh come on Paul said you’re such a chicken. Come on, Paul said, it’s so hot. I’ll go first. Paul swung out and jumped into the water. His head popped up. See it’s great. Little did they know that the water was indeed too shallow. Paul had landed perfectly in a deep hole. Tyler swung out over the water, let go and hit the water and hit the ground two feet under the water. The way he landed did something to his neck. From that point on he couldn’t move his arms or his legs. Paul carried the guilt of that day for ten years. But he never gave up on his best friend Tyler. They were together every minute. One day Paul heard about this special guy who was suppose to be the Son of God, the messiah. He was supposed to have special powers, healing powers. Who do you think that was? Jesus. Paul talked three of his friends into helping him carry Tyler out to see this Jesus guy. They traveled carrying Tyler. How many miles to you think they carried him? 20 miles they carried Tyler. It took a long, long time. How long do you think it took? They finally arrived and there was a huge crowd, so many people that they could get close to Jesus. How many people were there? 200 people were there many of them sick, injured or with evil spirits. They got close enough to see that the crowd was surrounding a small house. Jesus was inside the house. Paul and his friends carried Tyler around the back of the house. Climbed up on top of the house carrying Tyler. They busted a hole in the roof. It wasn’t a strong roof like our houses have. The roof was made of. What was it made of? They busted through the sticks and lowered Tyler down. Jesus saw them lowering Tyler down. Jesus smiled seeing what lengths they had gone to for their friend. Jesus also saw their faith. They believed that he could help Tyler so Jesus healed his neck. Tyler stood up. He could walk again. Part of that story is made up about Paul and Tyler but part of it is true. Four men carried there friend who couldn’t move his arms or legs to Jesus. Jesus did see their faith and did heal him. Jesus is still healing people today. Many times he heals people through doctors and nurses and other medical people. Some times he heals people through theorapists sometimes through the helping hand of a friend. And sometimes God works big miracles that we just can’t understand. When I was a pastor in Wisconsin I had a healing service like the one we are having today. The day after the service this Mom came to my office. She said that after the service her daughter said did you feel that. The Mom said feel what? She said the electricity. The Mom said yes. They both felt something. I didn’t feel anything. For some reason they knew that it meant that their family was going to be put back together. The had been separated, the father, the mother and the daughter. Somehow Jesus healed their relationship. But however people are healed Jesus is behind it. So we come to Jesus today to be anointed for healing, the healing of our body, mind and spirit, for forgiveness or for just the assurance of his presence with us. Jesus is the healer. Amen. 4/19/09 / Jn 20:19-31 Fr. Andrew Greeley tells the story of a man who counted carefully all his grudges. He remembered all the cruelties of the school yard, the taunts from his class when he did something well, the feather-brained irresponsibilities (as he saw them) of the young women he had dated, the dishonesty of his business associates, the ins 4/19/09 / Jn 20:19-31 Fr. Andrew Greeley tells the story of a man who counted carefully all his grudges. He remembered all the cruelties of the school yard, the taunts from his class when he did something well, the feather-brained irresponsibilities (as he saw them) of the young women he had dated, the dishonesty of his business associates, the insensitivity of his wife, the ingratitude of his children. So many people had done such terrible things to him that he figured that there had to be a conspiracy. Who could have organized such a massive conspiracy? Only God. For some reason, maybe it was his face, God did not like him. This was unfair, but what could he do. If God had a grudge against him, that was God’s privilege. But then he had the right to hold a grudge against God. So he died lonely and isolated, hated (he thought) by everyone who ought to have loved him. I have a grudge against You, he told God on first meeting. So what, God replied. I don’t have a grudge against you, so forget about it! Then God showed him the people at his funeral Mass. All the people who had injured him were sobbing in church. [I thought they all hated me. I wasted so much of my life, the man said. God said, That's because you're an idiot! But I won't hold that against you either. Amended] There is a person in my house who thought the word idiot was a little strong, it is strong but I think it makes the point. We’ll say he wasn’t being very smart. This story relates well to the gospel reading for today. John 20:19-31 When it was evear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." But Thomas We hear this story every year on the Sunday after Easter. And every year Thomas takes over. Should we call him Doubting Thomas? Was he really any different from the other disciples? Was he any different from us. You see how Thomas tries to take over this story? While Thomas is important there is more, much more that Jesus is telling us here. Jesus comes in and says peace be with you. Some scholars debate should it be translated Peace be with you as the Nrsv translate it or should it be more literally translated "Peace is to you" = "Peace is yours" . Which ever it is, we are pretty certain that Jesus used the word Shalome. Now Shalom can mean anything from Hi to Peace. Shalom is not just the absence of war or a tranquil life but even more it is completeness, wholeness. You know how holistic medicine strives to treat the complete person the whole person. Shalom is to be one with God and one with other people. To have good in our relationships. Two people have a disagreement. They reconcile but one of them isn’t sure so he says, Are we good? The other says, We’re good. Jesus comes to the disciples. The same ones who have denied him and when the going got tough they got going. They ran away. Jesus comes and says Shalom. Do you think we could translate that as, We’re good? hen he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, ey Jesus gives them Shalom, gives them peace, says we’re good, then he commissions them. Forgive and they are forgiven, Retain the sins, they are retained. And we know this is the way God created the world. Let my assistants demonstrate. Person 1 sins against another. – One little kid jumps on Person 1. Person 2 forgives them. – kid jumps off. Sometimes we have bigger sins. Person 1 sins against Person 2 – Big kid jumps on Person 1. But that’s not all that is happening Big kid jumps on Person 2. Person 2 retains Person 1’s sin. Both are carrying the sin around. Sometimes what happens is Person 1 hurts Person 2 but person 1 doesn’t know it. But person 2 retains the sin and carries it around. Person 2 forgives Person 1. – kids jump off. Person 1 says, are we good? Person 2 we’re good. Jesus gave Shalom to his disciples. Shalom to all of you. May the spirit of Jesus be with you and lead you. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven, if you retain the sins of any the are retained. Amen? Amen.ensitivity of his wife, the ingratitude of his children. So many people had done such terrible things to him that he figured that there had to be a conspiracy. Who could have organized such a massive conspiracy? Only God. For some reason, maybe it was his face, God did not like him. This was unfair, but what could he do. If God had a grudge against him, that was God’s privilege. But then he had the right to hold a grudge against God. So he died lonely and isolated, hated (he thought) by everyone who ought to have loved him. I have a grudge against You, he told God on first meeting. So what, God replied. I don’t have a grudge against you, so forget about it! Then God showed him the people at his funeral Mass. All the people who had injured him were sobbing in church. [I thought they all hated me. I wasted so much of my life, the man said. God said, That's because you're an idiot! But I won't hold that against you either. Amended] There is a person in my house who thought the word idiot was a little strong, it is strong but I think it makes the point. We’ll say he wasn’t being very smart. This story relates well to the gospel reading for today. John 20:19-31 When it was evear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." But Thomas We hear this story every year on the Sunday after Easter. And every year Thomas takes over. Should we call him Doubting Thomas? Was he really any different from the other disciples? Was he any different from us. You see how Thomas tries to take over this story? While Thomas is important there is more, much more that Jesus is telling us here. Jesus comes in and says peace be with you. Some scholars debate should it be translated Peace be with you as the Nrsv translate it or should it be more literally translated "Peace is to you" = "Peace is yours" . Which ever it is, we are pretty certain that Jesus used the word Shalome. Now Shalom can mean anything from Hi to Peace. Shalom is not just the absence of war or a tranquil life but even more it is completeness, wholeness. You know how holistic medicine strives to treat the complete person the whole person. Shalom is to be one with God and one with other people. To have good in our relationships. Two people have a disagreement. They reconcile but one of them isn’t sure so he says, Are we good? The other says, We’re good. Jesus comes to the disciples. The same ones who have denied him and when the going got tough they got going. They ran away. Jesus comes and says Shalom. Do you think we could translate that as, We’re good? hen he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, ey Jesus gives them Shalom, gives them peace, says we’re good, then he commissions them. Forgive and they are forgiven, Retain the sins, they are retained. And we know this is the way God created the world. Let my assistants demonstrate. Person 1 sins against another. – One little kid jumps on Person 1. Person 2 forgives them. – kid jumps off. Sometimes we have bigger sins. Person 1 sins against Person 2 – Big kid jumps on Person 1. But that’s not all that is happening Big kid jumps on Person 2. Person 2 retains Person 1’s sin. Both are carrying the sin around. Sometimes what happens is Person 1 hurts Person 2 but person 1 doesn’t know it. But person 2 retains the sin and carries it around. Person 2 forgives Person 1. – kids jump off. Person 1 says, are we good? Person 2 we’re good. Jesus gave Shalom to his disciples. Shalom to all of you. May the spirit of Jesus be with you and lead you. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven, if you retain the sins of any the are retained. Amen? Amen. 4/12/09 / Mark16:1-8 A DONUT by Bill Boggan of Stone
Mountain, Georgia Steve was told that he could not be late, so he arrived just seconds before the bell rang and he would sit in the very back of the room. He would also be the first to leave after the class was over. One day, Brother Christianson asked Steve to stay after class so he could talk with him. After class, Bro. Christianson pulled Steve aside and said, "You think you're pretty tough, don't you?" Steve's answer was, "Yeah, I do." Then Brother Christianson asked, "How many push-ups can you do?" Steve said, "I do about 200 every night." "200? That's pretty good, Steve," Brother Christianson said. "Do you think you could do 300?" Steve replied, "I don't know... I've never done 300 at a time." "Do you think you could?" Again asked Brother Christianson. "Well, I can try," said Steve. "Can you do 300 in sets of 10? I need you to do 300 in sets of ten for this to work. Can you do it? I need you to tell me you can do it," Brother Christianson said. Steve said, "Well... I think I can... yeah, I can do it." Brother Christianson said, "Good! I need you to do this on Friday." Friday came and Steve got to class early and sat in the front of the room. When class started, Brother Christianson pulled out a big box of donuts. Now these weren't the normal kinds of donuts, they were the extra fancy BIG kind, with cream centers and frosting swirls. Everyone was pretty excited-it was Friday, the last class of the day, and they were going to get an early start on the weekend. Bro. Christianson went to the first girl in the first row and asked, "Cynthia, do you want a donut?" Cynthia said, "Yes." Bro. Christianson then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Cynthia can have a donut?" Steve said, "Sure," and jumped down from his desk to do a quick ten. Then Steve again sat in his desk. Bro. Christianson put a donut on Cynthia's desk. Bro. Christianson then went to Joe, the next person, and asked, "Joe do you want a donut?" Joe said, "Yes." Bro. Christianson asked, "Steve would you do ten push-ups so Joe can have a donut?" Steve did ten push-ups, Joe got a donut. And so it went, down the first aisle, Steve did ten pushups for every person before they got their donut. And down the second aisle, till Bro. Christianson came to Scott. Scott was captain of the football team and center of the basketball team. He was very popular and never lacking for female companionship. When Bro. Christianson asked, "Scott do you want a donut?" Scott's reply was, "Well, can I do my own pushups?" Bro. Christianson said, "No, Steve has to do them." Then Scott said, "Well, I don't want one then." Bro. Christianson then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten pushups so Scott can have a donut he doesn't want?" Steve started to do ten pushups. Scott said, "HEY! I said I didn't want one!" Bro. Christianson said, "Look, this is my classroom, my class, my desks, and my donuts. Just leave it on the desk if you don't want it." And he put a donut on Scott's desk. Now by this time, Steve had begun to slow down a little. He just stayed on the floor between sets because it took too much effort to be getting up and down. You could start to see a little perspiration coming out around his brow. Bro. Christianson started down the third row. Now the students were beginning to get a little angry. Bro. Christianson asked Jenny, "Jenny, do you want a donut?" Jenny said, "No." Then Bro. Christianson asked Steve, "Steve, would you do ten pushups so Jenny can have a donut that she doesn't want?" Steve did ten, Jenny got a donut. By now, the students were beginning to say "No" and there were all these uneaten donuts on the desks. Steve was also having to really put forth a lot of effort to get these pushups done for each donut. There began to be a small pool of sweat on the floor beneath his face, his arms and brow were beginning to get red because of the physical effort involved. Bro. Christianson asked Robert to watch Steve to make sure he did ten pushups in a set because he couldn't bear to watch all of Steve's work for all of those uneaten donuts. So Robert began to watch Steve closely. Bro. Christianson started down the fourth row. During his class, however, some students had wandered in and sat along the heaters along the sides of the room. When Bro. Christianson realized this; he did a quick count and saw 34 students in the room. He started to worry if Steve would be able to make it. Bro. Christianson went on to the next person and the next and the next. Near the end of that row, Steve was really having a rough time. He was taking a lot more time to complete each set. Steve asked Bro. Christianson, "Do I have to make my nose touch on each one?" Bro. Christianson thought for a moment, "Well, they're your pushups. You can do them any way that you want." And Bro. Christianson went on. A few moments later, Jason came to the room and was about to come in when all the students yelled, "NO! Don't come in! Stay out!" Jason didn't know what was going on. Steve picked up his head and said, "No, let him come." Bro. Christianson said, "You realize that if Jason comes in you will have to do ten pushups for him." Steve said, "Yes, let him come in." Bro. Christianson said, "Okay, I'll let you get Jason's out of the way right now. Jason, do you want a donut?" "Yes." "Steve, will you do ten pushups so that Jason can have a donut?" Steve did ten pushups very slowly and with great effort. Jason, bewildered, was handed a donut and sat down. Bro. Christianson finished the fourth row, then started on those seated on the heaters. Steve's arms were now shaking with each pushup in a struggle to lift himself against the force of gravity. Sweat was dropping off of his face and, by this time, there was not a dry eye in the room. The very last two girls in the room were cheerleaders and very popular. Bro. Christianson went to Linda, the second to last, and asked, "Linda, do you want a doughnut? Linda said, very sadly, "No, thank you." Bro. Christianson asked Steve, "Steve, would you do ten pushups so that Linda can have a donut she doesn't want?" Grunting from the effort, Steve did ten very slow pushups for Linda. Then Bro. Christianson turned to the last girl, Susan. "Susan, do you want a donut?" Susan, with tears flowing down her face, asked, "Bro. Christianson , can I help him?" Bro. Christianson, with tears of his own, said, "No, he has to do it alone, Steve, would you do ten pushups so Susan can have a donut?" As Steve very slowly finished his last pushup, with the understanding that he had accomplished all that was required of him, having done 350 pushups, his arms buckled beneath him and he fell to the floor. Brother Christianson turned to the room and said. "And so it was, that our Savior, Jesus Christ, plead to the Father, "Into thy hands I commend my spirit." With the understanding that He had done everything that was required of Him, he collapsed on the cross and died. And like some of those in this room, many of us leave the gift on the desk, uneaten." 5As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. 6But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you." 8So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.a The end. That's the end of the gospel according to Mark. The young man dressed in a white robe told the women not to be alarmed, tell his disciples and Peter that he Jesus has gone ahead of them to Galilee. But they were seized by terror and amazement so they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. We have a difficult time getting into these women's shoes because we already read the book, we have already seen the movie. Shouldn't they have know that Jesus was going to raise from the dead? He said it over and over again. Think about it they must have been in shock. They go to anoint Jesus' dead body. The body is gone and there is this young man in a white robe who says something. I doubt if they even heard what he said. It probably didn't register for a while. When I go to a visitation for a family member, friend, congregation member, someone I know, it has become my practice to touch their arm. I am a firm believer of visitations with the body there. Nothing against cremation, it's just that seeing the body, touching the body gives me a sense of closure. I have some personal reasons for this. But I have to tell you that many times as I reach to touch the person, I have imagined them sitting up. And I have imagined dying myself from a heart attack at that moment. Those scary movies where the evil villain is killed only to get up again is very disturbing. Of course Jesus is a hero not a villain or a monster and he didn't sit up during his visitation but the body wasn't there and we can understand the women freaking out. Let’s not be too hard on the women. After all one of Jesus' own disciples, one of his handpicked men betrayed him. Another denied even knowing him three separate times. The rest when the going got tough, they got going, they left. Religious and Political officials missed judged him. They really got angry and mean. People gave false testimony against him. Jesus was falsely convicted and tragically beaten, crucified and killed. And while that's a terrible, terrible thing, that was not the end. But Jesus rose from the dead. We are here to celebrate. He has risen... He has risen indeed. The women finally told the story because witnesses have told us that Jesus met with the Disciples. The Disciples spread the word and the message of the good news of Jesus Christ is spreading to this day. There was an article in Newsweek about the fall of Christianity in the United States.
There may be times when we have been seized by fear, maybe we have been afraid of identifying ourselves with him. Maybe we have been caught up in anger and made bad choices. But Jesus rose from the dead. We are here to celebrate. He has risen... He has risen indeed. I had a little God incidence while I was working on my sermon for today. Pastor Dean had volunteered to preach during holy week to help me out. After I told him thank you but I would be ok for Easter, right after that, I had had a mental block. I even had a dream about not being able to think of what to say. So I sent a college an email saying blanking Easter, what are you doing. For some reason later in the day I looked back at that email and what I had really said instead of saying Blanking on Easter, I wrote, I’m Banking on Easter, what are you doing? We can't always get it right. And we are in good company with everyone in the bible, even the great leaders of the church. We don’t always take our donut, we sometimes look at the opportunities of life as just a box of dirt. But that's not what we are banking on. That's what we are banking on. We are banking on Jesus. Jesus rose from the dead. We are here to celebrate. He has risen... He has risen indeed. The other day a curious
thing happened. I came into my office and I noticed an envelope had been pushed
under the door from the little chapel. It didn’t have any writing
on it. I was curious and cautious. My years in the ministry have taught me to
beware of envelopes with no names on them. They are usually not words of
encouragement. They are usually complaints about me or someone else. They are comments
which the writer doesn’t have the courage to put their name to. It is my
practice to throw anonymous letters away without reading them. They can cause
great harm and have no credibility. Something about this letter seemed different.
The envelope was slightly crumpled. The person seemed to have trouble getting
the letter into the envelope. It looked like it had teeth marks on it as if the
person had carried the letter in their mouth. It also looked a little wet. I carefully opened it
making sure I didn’t get anything wet on my hand. As it turned out it wasn’t a
complaint and it wasn’t anonymous. You will find his picture on the front of
the bulletin. His name is donkey but he
didn’t play that part in the movie Shrek, he play the part of the colt who
carried Jesus during a parade. Maybe you have heard of the time when Jesus was
in a parade. Apparently, Donkey wants to
tell his side of the story. He says, “I hope Mel Gibson hears about my
adventure with Jesus and does a movie with me.” He even has a title, The
passion of an (pause) uh, a donkey. I have to warn you as I
read Donkey’s account of this event, as with anything you have to consider the
source and the author’s intension. Donkey says “One
day I was standing along side the market. My master hadn’t worked that day,
which meant I didn’t work. So it was like a holiday for me. But then a couple
of strangers came and stood next to me. They were looking at me as if they were
interested in me. I am a very interesting creature but humans don’t usually
appreciate me.” “
They were muttering to themselves. One of them said,” “The Rabbi said,
you will find a colt, untie it and bring it to me.” The other said, “But what if someone sees us. We will
be whipped as thieves.” The first one said, “Didn’t you here what he said? He said
just tell them the master has need of it.” The second said, “And what if they say what Master and
grab us anyway?” “Don’t you trust Jesus? Do you think
he would give us a job that was impossible? Said the first. The second said, “Maybe it’s just impossible for us.” “If Jesus trusts us we’re ok.” Said the first. The second said, “I guess, I hope he isn’t over
estimating us.” “Then they start untying me. I say, hey what do you think you’re
doing? You’re not my master. I’m on vacation. Well I don’t actually say
that you see I write better than I talk, but I was thinking it real loud. Then I hear my master’s
voice. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing with my colt. Thank God, for master. He’ll
save me. But the men say, “The Master has need of it.” Yeah right and I’m Black
Beauty! Then the weirdest thing happened. Master said, “Ok.” Ok? Are you crazy. You’re
buying this, the Master needs it stuff. Who is the dumb, uh, donkey anyway? So as you can imagine I am
in the dumps and pretty scared. Master wasn’t the best but I knew what I had
with him. Now what? They’ll probably work me to death or eat me, or probably
both. This is the worse time in my life or so I thought. They brought me to this
group of men. There were about 12 or 13 of them. They all surrounded this
one guy in the middle. The group was surrounded by a crowd of others. The guy
in the center was talking with the two who stole me. I heard them laughing and
saying, he just said, ok. ‘How did you know that Jesus?’ They called him Jesus.
Then they pointed to me. This Jesus walked over to me. He looked at me strange.
He looked at me like he wanted to get on my back. Nobody gets on my back. No
one ever has, no one ever will. What do I look like a camel? But He looked into my eyes. He didn’t say anything. You won’t
believe this but these words came into my mind. (Matthew
11:28-30) "Come to me, all you that are
weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will
find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." I looked at him and said
in my mind, I know this sounds crazy, I said, please get on. It’s my privilege.
I know it sounds crazy a donkey and a man speaking to each other in their
minds, but it is the gospel truth. Pardon the pun. They throw some blankets
on my back and he gets on but I can hardly feel him. We start going into this
big city. It was really strange. These people were throwing their cloaks and
palm branches on the ground in front of us. As we headed to the Mount of Olives,
others joined these followers. They started praising him for healing, working
miracles, raising someone from the dead. I don’t know why they were praising
this guy, Jesus for all this stuff. Why thank him for God’s work? They started a chant. Blessed
is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Was Jesus suppose to be a
king. I liked him but was this what a king was like? I never saw a king. (Luke 19:38) saying, "Blessed is the king
who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest
heaven!" But not everybody was
happy. There was whole range of emotions in this crowd; I could feel it. Some
happy, some sad, some curious and some mad. Boy, this one group was mad. They
were yelling at Jesus too. But they were yelling at him to silence the crowd. They scared me but Jesus
seemed un-phased. He simply said if these were quiet, even the rocks would cry
out. Talking rocks sounds strange to me but I’m just a donkey. I tell you, I
don’t know why but Jesus made me want to cry out for him. Cry I did. I didn’t cry
out as I said before, I write better. But I cried when, well you know what
pastor. That day you call Palm Sunday can be very misleading. Well that’s my story. If
you would pass this on to Mel I would appreciate it. Oh, by the way. Tell your
people not to miss coming to church, Thursday and Friday. If they just come on
Palm Sunday and then next Sunday, Easter Sunday, they won’t fully understand
the whole thing like you and I do. Ok, I don’t understand everything but I know
pretty good for an uh a donkey. Back to top March 29, 2009 / John 12:20-33 Here are some church quotes that were sent to me. 1 People are funny;
they want the front of the bus, Middle of the road, Here is one I
particularly like 3 If a church wants
a better pastor, When I read this
gospel text I was drawn to vs 32. “…..And
I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
I think there is a pun there somewhere. The Greek word here
for draw is not what we would call a gentile coxing, or persuasion. It is a
drag. They dragged the adulterous women out to be stoned, they dragged Paul out
of the synagogue for preaching about Jesus. So Jesus is saying
when I am lifted up, I will drag all people to myself. Some of us would
describe our road to faith or our road of faith as being gently drawn. Some
can’t remember being on any other road. Not that we are perfect but there
wasn’t any conversion experience to point to. As far as we remember we have
always been a Christian. Yet some are dragged. Thinking about Jesus’
pull on peoples lives reminds me of one of my professors who said and I think I have said it before is,
“one of the best things you can do in
preaching is to not get in the way of the Holy Spirit.” We
could probably say the same thing in about living the Christian life. The best
thing you can do is not get in God’s way. As Jesus says in vs.
26. Whoever serves me must follow me. As that quote I used in the
beginning, Many
folks want to serve God, But only as advisers. If God is your Co-pilot, swap seats! Jesus
says Mark 9.42:
‘If any of you put
a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me,* it
would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your
neck and you were thrown into the sea. Jesus uses some pretty
strong language here to get his point across so how do we get out of the way?
How do we get out of the way for the sake of the kingdom? How do we get out of
the way for the sake of those Jesus is drawing, dragging to himself? This past weekend our
council got together for our annual retreat, again we were hosted by the
Lundgren’s in their beautiful cabin. One of the things we talked about was what
are some of the things we are doing well at Urland. What kinds of things have
excited you in your faith during your time here. We asked ourselves
these questions:
We had some great
responses. There were a lot of good things people expressed about Urland. We
are going to publish the comments in the Mission Seeds. The most often
mentioned thing was the sense of community. People welcomed and people cared
for. It is wonderful that people of Urland feel that way about their church.
Well it’s God’s church but you know what I mean. But maybe we need to think
about that and remind ourselves about that. Urland is our church
we belong to Urland and Urland also belongs to Jesus. The purpose of the
study we did on the retreat was to identify our strengths, the gifts God has
given us, what is working and build on that, build on our strengths. It is a positive approach to growing as God
is calling. We need to ask what is
working, what is good, what are the blessings. We also need to ask are we
putting up road blocks? One of the dangers in a church our size where everybody
knows everybody is that when a stranger comes in they may be not think they are
welcome because of how friendly everyone is to one another. Their perceptions
may not be true but that is a possible perception they might get. People might
be so friendly with other members, which is good, don’t get me wrong. But if
you are spending your time visiting with your friends are you seeing the
visitor? There is this kids
song about friendship where some one is going around looking for a friend. He
goes up to one person and asks, “Will you be my friend?” The person responds,
“No indeed, I have all the friends I need.” We don’t need to be
everybody’s best friend, but good hospitality is one of the ways we keep the
door open for people Jesus is drawing, dragging to himself. We need to look at
what we do as a congregation and what we do as individuals. Are there things we
do or don’t do that gets in the way of God’s call to them. Let me tell you one
way I got in the way. I started up this social website for people to study and
discuss the bible during lent. I wanted people to feel comfortable to express
themselves. So I set it up so that it was Urland members only. I still think it
was a good idea but there was someone who is not a Christian who was a seeker.
They asked if they could get in on the discussion group. I said I couldn’t
because I promised people it would be Urland only. Good intentions but I got in
the way. Just as an aside when
Lent is over we are going to a different group “Urland and friends” were anyone
can join in on the discussion. We have been drawn to
follow Jesus, Jesus is drawing all people to himself. Let’s do our best to let that
happen. Let us serve Jesus by following him. If God is your Co-pilot, swap seats! Let us not get in the
way. Let’s be part of the solution. Amen? Back to top March 22, 2009 / Numbers
21'4-9.09
I have some
women friends who have children who have told me that they do not like the
Disney movies. They say that more times than not the women or girl in the story
needs to be rescued by a man. And in most of these movies they live happily
ever after. These women
told me that they don’t want their daughters to think that the only way for a
woman to succeed or the only way to get out of trouble is for a man to save
them. I am not
bashing Disney I don’t think that is their philosophy, I don’t think that this is
the message they are trying to get out. There are some movies where there is a
woman hero. But as a parent with a daughter it is something to think about. As for the “happy
endings”. Some people like happy endings and some don’t. Some people are not
going to the movies or watching DVDs to see reality. Quite often, we are trying
to escape from reality. I think you will find that more and more in the challenging
times we are living in, the movies coming out of Hollywood may not be realistic
but will be intended to be uplifting. We find quite a
different type of story in our first lesson. Moses has the people, or should I
say God has the people out in the wilderness. They were freed from slavery in
Egypt that was great. God parted the Red Sea and they were saved from the
Egyptian Army that had changed their mind and wanted their slaves back. They
had that mountain experience with the Ten Commandments that was pretty awesome.
But every time, even experiencing these amazing things, they found themselves still in the desert. They needed
food so God sent Manna, a kind of grain. So they had manna, but they had manna
day after day after day. Manna, Manna, manna, where is the milk and honey we
were promised. All they could see was wind and sand. And it’s been 40 years.
What were you doing 40 years ago? How would you feel if you were in a bad
situation for 4o years? So, they complained. It says that when
God heard them complaining he sent poisonous snakes, that’s hard to understand,
but he sent poisonous snakes they bit the people and they died. I remember my
father telling me if I didn’t stop complaining he was going to give me
something to complain about. But to send Poisonous snakes. The people cried
out to God and said they were sorry. They cried out to Moses, tell God we are
sorry. God tells Moses
make a snake and put it on a stick and lift it up. If the people get bit and
look up at the snake they will not die. So, Moses makes a bronze snake and puts
it on a pole. The people get bit and look at the snake on the pole and live. I don’t know if
you remember but last year when this lesson came up I talked to the kids about
all the things on a stick they have at the State Fair. And someone, I won’t
mention his name, but his initials are Arnie Otterness drew me a picture of a
dove on a stick. One of the big
things I learned about this lesson and this is one of the great stories in the
bible isn’t it? I don’t know if we understand it all but it is a great story. One
of the big things in this lesson I found in a commentary by Prof. Terry
Frietheim, that name might sound familiar to some of you his father was pastor
in Dennison. His said very
simply, Through the bronze snake God saved them, in the wilderness. Two things
there. God did not take the snakes away. Don’t we
usually want God to take away our problems? Our health condition, our financial
situation, that pain in the neck pastor, I mean person? Sometimes God does. But
sometimes God doesn’t. And not only
are the snakes still there, but sometimes we are still are still there.
Sometimes we are still in the wilderness. I am not saying
this to be depressing Just the opposite. Our problems, our situation might last
a long time but God is there. God is there, God is here, to walk with you in
the desert, protect you from the fatality of the deadly snakes. God is here
with you and helping you all the way. It takes great
faith to realize that God can be walking with you and helping you even when all
you see is wind and sand. But you are up to it, because God is up with you. Go to toip March 15, 2009 / Ex
20, Jn 2
Today we need to
talk about the Decalog. Anybody know what the Decalog is? Dec = 10 Ten
Commandments. We will talk about the Ten Commandments and then move to the
temple. Everyone please
turn to Exodus 20 verse one. Let’s read verse one together. Exodus 20:1-17 1 Then God spoke all
these words: Let’s stop there for a moment. Who is
speaking here? God. Good lets remember that. Now let’s read the next verse,
verse 2 up to the first comma. 2 I am the Lord your
God, So who is speaking? God. Who does he say he is? I
am the lord. And whose lord is he? And whose God? Your God. To see who, who is speaking again? God Let’s start again at the beginning of verse 2 and go up to the
second comma to see who God is talking to. 2 I am the Lord your
God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, Who is this
speaking? God. Which God? What has
he done? Who is he speaking to? The ones
who were brought out of Egypt. What has he done for them? What were they
doing in Egypt? Now lets start again and read the whole verse. 2 I am the Lord your
God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery So God is
speaking, the lord the God of the ones who were brought out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It’s pretty
obvious why these people would read this and why it is important to them but
why are we reading this? Because this god is your god. This God through Jesus
Christ brought us out of slavery to sin and death and brought us to eternal
life. So we have this
relationship set, actually this God was already their God. Their first formal
agreement was with Abraham. This is Exodus chapter 20. Abraham’s covenant was
set Genesis 17 over 400 years earlier. But anyway God
tells them I am the lord your God and this is how it’s going to work. No other
gods. I’m your god, period. I want you to respect me. For example don’t use my
name disrespectfully. Use my name to pray to me, to praise me and thank me.
That’s it. God says to them
one of the benefits I’m going to give you is you get a day off. Trust me, you
don’t have to work every day, every minute, trust me I’m the God, I’ll keep the
world spinning. Now by the middle
of the 10th verse the whole emphasis changes in a way. Let’s look at
verse 10: 10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your
God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or
female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. We usually think
about the ten commandments as God’s teaching about how to live with him and how
to live with other people. We usually think the first three commandments are
about God and then 4 – 10 relate to other people but the shift to other people
starts here. You get a day off
and your sons and daughters give all your workers, all your slaves and all your
animals a day off too. Actually if you
think about it the big shifts comes after that first comma of the 2nd
verse. The Isrealites get good news in that first part of the second verse. God
tells them who and what he is and who and what they are. He says, I am the Lord
your God, your God. It doesn’t get
any better than that. At least not in Exodus. After that first
comma it’s all about God, then its all about our neighbor. When I say neighbor
I don’t just mean people that live next to us. When God says neighbor he means
other people and not just family and friends, everybody else. This reminds me of
this World Women’s conference the topic was abuse, physical, verbal, emotional
abuse. One of the women stood up and said, “If we want men to stop abusing
women we have to teach our sons to treat women with respect. In the Ten
commandments God is trying to create a just and peaceful world for all people
by teaching them to love and respect other people. God freed these
people who had been living in slavery for 400 years. They didn’t know how to
live on their own. He had to teach them is how to live with each other with out
a slave master. Luther talked
about God’s use of the law, the ten commandments are part of what is called the
law. Luther said that God uses the law in two ways, civil and spiritual. The
first use is the civil use, it keeps people from killing each other. It protects our
parents and people in authority. It protects our neighbors from getting hurt or
killed. It protects them sexually. It helps our neighbors from losing their
possessions and spouse from being stolen or fanangled away from them. It
protects their reputations. Simply put it sets up a structure that enables all
people to live in community, to live with other people in peace. That’s the
civil use, the first use. And its not just the commandments, God uses the laws
our society determines necessary for us to live together. No prizes are
given for following these rules commandments, or laws. But there are penalties
for breaking them. We have a stop
sign by our house. If you are one of the few people who actually stop at the
stop sign you will not get an award. However I am thinking about giving some
out maybe that would help. But if you go through the stop sign without stopping
you might get a ticket. Why? Because people are walking and playing and driving
around there and we don’t want people to get him. Luther said the
second use of the law is spiritual. When we break these commandments or laws it
shows us our mistakes our sinfulness; that we are not living the way God wants
us to. We are not respecting God, or looking out for our neighbor. When we
realize this it drives us back to God for forgiveness and repentance. Why should we care
about God and our neighbor? Because as it says in verse 2, he is our God. So how did the
Israelites receive forgiveness. God set up a system, a sacrifice system. Take
your goat or lamb or dove to the priest, your best one and God will see your
remorse and forgive you. By Jesus time the
sacrifices took place in the temple. People would bring their animals or if
they had to travel a distance they bought suitable animals at the temple. So when John tells
about how Jesus kicking the money changers and the animals out of the temple it
is strange. When Matthew, Mark and Luke tell the story they talk about
corruption, about a den of theives. But not John. As John tells it Jesus
doesn’t say you have made my father’s house a den of thieves. He says something
even more radical. He says, “stop making my father’s house a marketplace.” He’s not talking
about fundraisers for the national youth gathering or raising money for the
poor. He’s being really radical. This story is often called the Cleansing of
the temple but he’s not cleasing the temple, he’s closing it. At least closing
it for sacrificial forgiveness. No animals no money changers no sacrifice = no
forgiveness. No more will they
be able to bring their sacrifices to God in the temple to receive forgiveness.
So what can they do? Where will they find forgiveness? How will they reconcile
with God? Jesus is breaking the rules, changing everything. A good thing to think about on our journey to the cross. Go to topMarch
1, 2009 / 1 Peter 3:18-22
Does anyone
remember
the Lutheran Book of Worship, you know the green one? Remember way back
then? Those
were the days weren’t they? Does this sound familiar? In the
waters of the
flood God destroyed the wicked and saved Noah and his family. Anyone
know where
that is from? It’s Luther’s water prayer from the order of
Holy Baptism in the
green hymnal.Noah and the flood, that brings to mind a couple of interesting things. First of all, pictures of Noah and the God sent a flood that practically wipes out the whole world and we have children’s pictures of the event. Of course we don’t celebrate the flood, we celebrate the rescue. We celebrate the bow in the sky, the rainbow, God’s sign to us, God gave us the rainbow as a sign for his promise to us, that he will never again destroy the world with all of the people, plants and animals and other creatures. Well at least not with a flood. But the water prayer at baptism talks about the flood in another way. By the waters of the flood God condemned the wicked and saved those whom he had chosen, Noah and his family. With a pillar of cloud and fire God led the people out of slavery into the freedom of the promised land. In the waters of Jordan Jesus was baptized by John and anointed by the spirit. The waters of the flood destroyed all of life. Noah and his family were saved by God in the This is something we Christians are good at. We see something bad that has happened, and we acknowledge it, we don’t call bad good and good back. But we also look and see how God can and does use bad things, even horrible things for his purposes. The prayer goes on to say that by the death and resurrection of his own son, God freed us from sin and death and opened the way to the joy and freedom of eternal life. In our reading for today Peter talks about baptism and the flood in a similar way to Luther and his prayer. Just as God saved Noah and his family through the flood, God saves us by Baptism. Not Just to wash us clean from sin, at least that’s not what Peter is emphasizing. Baptism saves us by appealing to God for a good conscience. In this season of Lent some of us dare to stop and be introspective. We often find that we are not without fault. We often remember things other people never knew about us. Imagine if there was a video camera following you around, watching every thing you do, even in the bathroom. Imagine if someone could read your mind. It seems sometimes that the only place we can be completely private is in our mind. But what if people knew what we were thinking? People might think we are so sweet and loving because they don’t know what’s going on in our mind. One comedian was comparing the way people treat other people in NY and down south. He said, in NY people come right out and tell you they hate you. The comedian said down south it’s different. He said, down south it’s “Darlin”, “Sweet heart” and “you’ll come back now. But in their mind they’re saying “I hate you”. I have lived around here to know “ Another comedian was talking about God knowing everything we done and said and thought and getting up to heaven where there is a list. This was a Christian comedian so he said, Now I know that Jesus forgives us and forgets our sins. But he said, I’m just worried if his wife gets up there first. She hasn’t forgotten anything. And she would remind him. But Peter isn’t really talking about God forgiving and forgetting. Peter is talking about appealing to God and having a good relationship with God on Jesus’ account. It’s like Jesus has this membership to a country club and he is allowed to bring his guests in. Jesus must have the platinum membership. Jesus who was innocent yet died for the guilty once and for all. Try as we might and as we should, we can’t help but failing. But thanks be to God for his son who died and rose again, we don’t come to God on our own rite. We appeal to God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Baptism now saves you, not to wash aways dirt but as an appeal to God, through Jesus Christ. Amen? February 25, 2009 / Luke 18:9-14 Ash WednesdayWe have spirit yes we do. We have spirit how about you? When I was on Crossfire my Lutheran Youth Encounter team to East Africa one of the women on my team was of Norwegian American decent, she was an Everson. Everywhere we went, when she introduced herself, she would say, “I’m 100% Norwegian”. Over and over again “I’m 100% Norwegian”. Until one time by mistake she said, “and I’m 100% Swedish” We never let her forget that. I am a mutt. I like to say breaded to perfection. I cannot lay claim to any nationality besides being an American. I can’t trace my heritage to the old country. So I guess you have to take my following statement with a grain of salt. I have had problems with Polish pride, Italian, German, Irish and yes even Swedish and Norwegian pride. The problem I have with it is that it always seems to be presented like this: “we are better than you.” I understand being proud of what ever you are. That’s good there’s nothing wrong with that. But does it have to be at another’s expense? Maybe that is part of Western culture. There always has to be a good and a bad, a positive and a negative. Why is it that when people have low self-esteem they think that the only way to build themselves up is by putting other people down? We think we have a good team and the way we judge if we are a good team is to see how we measure up to other teams. Is there anyway out of this in the world we live in? The more I study the New Testament and the Pharisees the more I think I have been misjudging them all my life. I’ve always thought of the pharisees as the “bad” guys. I’m sure there are good pharisees and bad Pharisees. There I go again. But for the most part it seems that a good Pharisee, a faithful one that is, a good Pharisee is a very religious person like the one in our parable. What do we know about this pharisee? He is thankful to God. That’s good right? Nothing wrong with giving thanks to God, is there? He fasts, that is he goes without food so that he can concentrate on his prayers and mediations to God. This is good. And he tithes. He gives one tenth of his income to the church, also not a bad thing. He is a spiritual man going above and beyond the responsibilities of the law. Yet for some reason he finds it necessary to look down on the tax collector. He says, At least I’m not like those bad people, like this tax collector. Before we get all self-righteous and build ourselves up comparing ourselves to this Pharisee who is comparing himself to someone else, let’s not build ourselves up by comparing ourselves to someone else, who is comparing their selves to someone else. Did you get that? On the other hand we often fall into the other trap in this parable. One trap is making the pharisee a bad person, the other trap is making the tax collector a good person. The tax collector would have been seen by the people of Jesus’ time as a rich evil person who made their money by cheating people out of theirs. The main point of this parable is not viewing the pharisee as a bad person because he looked down on other people, nor is it to view the tax collector as a good person because he humbled himself. What God is reminding us today is that pharisee or tax collector, pastor or pimp, or whatever, God created us from dust and to dust we shall return. God doesn’t love us because of what we do or what we say. We throw ourselves on the mercy of God through our lord and savior Jesus Christ. It is good to be a spiritual person giving thanks and praise to God. It is good to be a person of prayer and to share what God has blessed us with. It is good to be humble. But not good to do these kinds of things inorder to earn anything from God. In the end we are at God’s mercy. Psalm 118:8&9 say 8It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in mortals. 9It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. Let us all say it is better to take refuge in the Lord than anything else. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Mark
9’2-9.09 /
February 22, 2009
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January
2007 7th Luke3:15-22 21st Luke 5:1-11 |
February
2007 21t Ash Wednesday 18th Transfig Sunday 4th Luke 5:1-11 |
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2007 25th John 12'1-8 18th Lk15'1-3,11b-32. 7th Lent Faith Story 4th Luke 13'31-25 |
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2007 15th Palm Sunday 29th Confirmation |
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2007 6th John 13'31-34 20th Acts 16'16-34 |
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2007 3rd Trinity Sunday 17th Galations 2'15- |
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2007 15 Luke 10:25-37 29 Genesis18:22-33 |
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2007 7th Luke17:1-10.07 28th John 8:31-36.07 |
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07 4th Luke 6:31-38 11th Luke20:27-38 18th Walk with Jesus |
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2007 2nd Matthew 24:36-44 9th Matthew 3:1-11 16th Matthew 11:2-11 23rd Matthew 1:18-25 |
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