James and John we called by Jesus to follow him and fish for people leaving their father Zebedee.
All of us experience transitions in our lives where the major event affects a loved one begin called and you being left behind. This could be the birth of a child, children leaving home, spouse getting a new job or loosing a job, neighbors/friends moving away, or the death of a loved one.
Zebedee may have been left to continue the ministry of fishing, but he was not left alone. He still had those around him to continue to help him in ministry.
You always have a call upon your life, and you will never be left alone. Part of the companionship and God's presense with you is the church congregation that you worship with weekly.
Beginning a new year in the community of faith, the People of New Salem are invited to receive the blessing as received by Jesus in his baptism and as they have in their baptism.
“Now, Lord, you let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people: a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel. Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping that awake we may watch with Christ and asleep we may rest in peace.”
“Now, Lord, you let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people: a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel. Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping that awake we may watch with Christ and asleep we may rest in peace.”
It is in this wilderness of holy anticipation. John the Baptist tells us “Somethings coming”. Prepare. There is a miracle due. We do not know the time nor the hour. Maybe tonight?
Jesus, the Good Shephard is who gathers the sheep seeking the lost, binding up the wounded, and carries them close to his heart when hurting. But doesn't have time for the fat and strong. Why? The fat get strong by pushing the others around and taking more than what they need making them fat and taking from others who just want enough.
Jesus came to turn the world up side down. Leadership and power means serving and caring for the least, the lost, and the lonely. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall inherit the earth. Amen
"If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."John 8:31
Today, Reformation Sunday, thousands of young adults world-wide will confirm their faith in Jesus Christ through the renewing of their Baptismal promises. Those made by their parents and sponsors will be professed as their own as they become adults in the faith. Our Confirmation students are reading their Faith Statements as our sermon this morning.
Please pray that the Holy Spirit will speak to these find young people as they learn to follow the path that Jesus leads them. They are all missionaries among us. Martin Luther said a shoemaker who is a Christian that puts a cross on the shoes. A good Christian makes the best shoes possible.
May the peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding guard and guide your heart in Christ Jesus. Thank you, dear child of God, for your important ministry right where you are.
Today is a Healing Sunday at New Salem. The sermon is more a short assist to the time of laying on of hands and prayer during which time people also have the opportunity to light a candle as intention of their prayer.
I encourage the reader to read the Bible readings for this day paying close attention to the relationship that Moses has with God that gives Moses the courage to be frank with God and so changes God's mind.
Philippians 4:4-9 speaks of the ability to stand firm in the Lord that gives strength during difficult time.
Pray through the Philippians reading listening to how God is speaking to you.
God gives us commandments so we may live well in community with one another, and introduces a new world order; a world where God is the highest authority.
September 4, 2011 Ezekiel 33:7-11; Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm
119:33-40; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 18:15-20
When in our Music God is Glorified
On Sunday mornings around 9:05, if you walk into this worship space you will hear between 8 and 20 individuals looking down at their music singing the choir’s song for the day. Most often the piano is playing, the conductor is up front directing and it is the most awful cacophony of voices! It’s as if they have never been introduced to one another, let alone listen to the person singing next to them. The director is virtually being ignored! It is during this time that I usually am opening the worship book and marking pages for the service. I can’t help but smile to myself knowing the best is yet to come. It’s a whole different experience than when they come forward during worship for the purpose of praising God. It’s nothing short of a MIRACLE!
Being church with one another is very similar to this experience with our choir members. The secret to harmony is in listening to one another as we live and move and have your being keeping our eyes on our director and teacher, Jesus Christ. This is what visitors see most Sunday mornings. Often visitors will comment on how warm and welcoming New Salem is. Sure, like the choir during worship, they are with us when we are a worshipping community of faith, listening to our director, Jesus the Christ, when we are all singing the same song. When we have been well fed on the Word and Sacrament, and we have spent an hour or more listening, listening.
Today’s Gospel reading from Matthew has been used by many to reference when solving problems. A person is upset about something someone has done so they go and tell them exactly what it is they did that got them angry. Then if the person doesn’t listen, they go and get others who agree with them and really tell the other person like it is according to their point of view. As it is in some congregations, and how I have witnessed this working is that they will then call the person that offended them a sinner and kick them out of the church.
Think about it, a lot of division has happened as a result of people using Matthew 18 as a weapon to ‘get back’ at another brother or sister in Christ in the name of justice, getting even. It happens like this. Two people with opposing viewpoints believe and insist their understanding of a truth is the right one. One confronts the other. Neither really listen to the another, but talk at each other. That doesn’t work so they get others who agree with them and they take sides, ending up with divisions in the church sheep that are lost.
If the goal is to get everyone to agree, then you have sides. If the goal is to restore relationship, the goal is to listen, really listen to one another for understanding and to respect the needs that each person as valid and to be honored.
Sometimes, if we are honest with one another, family and community is a real pain. When we live amongst people, we are just asking for it! You can count on someone ruffling your feathers, stepping on your toes, getting your story wrong, disagreeing with you, someone not following through... Community is messy business. The Church is messy business. But, but... this is where Jesus promises to meet us, to be with us because Jesus says “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
We have this book “A Forgiving Heart, Prayers for Blessing and Reconciliation” in our church library. (page 90/91)
If we keep to ourselves about an infraction in a relationship, the silence is deafening. This silence is what fractures relationships. In a congregation, people can feel this silence when they walk into the building - at times it is palpable. Conversation’s goal isn’t to convince the other to believe what you believe, a right and a wrong and if it isn’t your way, then it is wrong. Conversation is about understanding what each person needs and to have compassion for each other’s need. Often the need is similar, it’s the way of having it met that causes the fracture in the relationship. What is most important is the relationship, connection between people.
Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. If you throw hate toward another, hold another in unforgiveness, build a wall in a relationship, then love is broken. This is sin. You are holding yourself and the other bound and living in brokenness. This is when we have hell here on earth.
It is when one person reaches out to the other to listen, really listen in fullness of attention to what the other is saying and needing that harmony can begin to happen. It is in an effort to understand the other that reconciliation can begin to take place. When you forgive one another, then you have a loosening of what has held each other bound. It is in this freedom of forgiveness that we experience the Kingdom of God among us.
When we read Matthew 18, we need to respect and read all of Matthew to get what is being taught to us as disciple of Jesus Christ. In Matthew we learn the beatitudes, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” In Matthew we learn about leaving the weeds to grow among the wheat and the let God do the judging of what is the weed and the wheat. In Matthew we learn about Jesus who is set in his ways about not helping the Gentiles until he hears the heart-cry of a Canaanite woman whose daughter is in need to the healing that Jesus can offer. Jesus listens to her, hears her and has compassion toward her, changes his mind and heals her daughter.
In Matthew we learn about forgiving seven times seventy, in Matthew we hear about “Truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
It seems that the responsibility lies with the person who has been harmed to open the conversation because the other person has no idea they have harmed another. Isn’t it Jesus, who on the cross as he was dying said “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
So, we are called to sing our part as we listen to one another following the director. This is how harmony is one. Listening to one another, really listening to one another in love. It is then that beautiful music can be made that draws people together in harmony where we live and move and have our being in Jesus Christ, and all are welcome.
As I prayed about what to bring you from the readings for today, I kept coming back to our Presiding Bishop, Mark Hanson’s report to the 2011 Churchwide Assembly. This is why:
Paul in his letter to the Romans describes what a Christian community is to strive to be. In the Gospel Jesus tells Peter to ‘get behind me’. I understand this as we are to follow Jesus; and when Jesus speaks of the kingdom of heaven coming, Jesus is speaking of the kingdom of heaven being in the now and the not yet. If we are to live our lives in love following Jesus, then we will experience the kingdom of God now - or at least get a glimpse of it. So here is Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson’s report.
Presiding bishop says ELCA is clear about identity, mission
11-112-MRC
ORLANDO, Fla., (ELCA) - In delivering his report to the 2011 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson said he is "more hopeful and grateful" for this church than he has ever been.
"The reason is simple," Hanson told the assembly Aug. 16. "We are a church with clarity about who we are and about our shared commitment to being engaged in God's mission for the life of the world."
"We are Lutherans. That means we are evangelical. At the heart of who we are is the good news that in Christ we are free," Hanson told the assembly. "In the words of our assembly theme, we are 'Freed in Christ to Serve.' This is who we are as the ELCA: We are freed to live as everyday evangelists, using our words and deeds to share the good news of Jesus Christ and claiming our daily work as God's calling."
"In a culture and world where lines are constantly being drawn in the sand … to 'live Lutheran' means to embody the message and ministry of reconciliation that God entrusts to us, particularly at this time when we are so preoccupied with economic indicators and political infighting," he said.
"Jesus crossed those lines, extending God's merciful embrace to encompass both those who pass judgment and those who receive it," he said. "ELCA members continue to give generously and join with people all over the world. Let the ELCA be known not only as a church that serves those in poverty, but works tirelessly to bring poverty to an end," Hanson told the assembly.
"The good news is that this is Christ's church. There is a place for you here. You are welcome here," he said.
In reference to "Genetics, Faith and Responsibility," the social statement on genetics that was approved by the assembly, Hanson noted, "As people freed in Christ to serve, we now engage together in a conversation - not telling farmers how to farm, not telling scientists how to go about genetic research - but together asking questions about complex issues that confront us every day and thanking God that people hear God's call to feed the world and make new discoveries that better this world," he said.
"Let us show the world that dialogue is both possible and expected in this church. There is room for voices that represent faith without rushing to judgment and closing down discussion," he said. Natural disasters both in the United States and overseas also were noted by Hanson in his report to the assembly.
"We are a church called to do God's work in the world, restoring and reconciling community. This is who we are as the ELCA. We are a church known for rolling up our sleeves, solving problems and getting to work in the world. We are people who know that together we can achieve things on a scale and scope we simply could never do as a single congregation or synod or even a denomination," Hanson said, adding that "together" is an important word. The ELCA has formed strong partnerships both in the United States and globally, as represented through the Lutheran World Federation.
"While religious extremists use their convictions to divide and instill fear," Hanson said members of the ELCA "will be defined first by our relatedness to others, not by what sets us apart."
He cited the presence of Sayyid Syeed of the Islamic Society of North America at the 2011 Churchwide Assembly as an example of deepening relationships,
"I am so hopeful because we are a church whose unity is in Jesus who gathers us around word and water, wine and bread," said Hanson. "We are a church committed to vibrant congregations, both newly planted and long established."
He said the ELCA is also a church "called to multiply, not divide."
"I am absolutely convinced that there are people you know, with whom you work or go to school, or meet in your neighborhood who are ready to hear an invitation to share this 'living daring confidence in God's grace'," Hanson told the assembly.
As he concluded his report, Hanson said that in "a culture that offers so many competing and compelling answers to the questions, 'what is the good life?' and 'what is a life well- lived?' we have a story to tell, a story to live, a story that changes lives. It's the story you know well, it's the story of Jesus Christ."
Dear people of God, we are called together to be the Body of Christ, to love and care for one another and all of God’s creation. We are not called to judge, but to be the hands and feet of Christ serving in the freedom of living in Christ.
You have the capabilities to change your world. What you do this week will change the world. Do you believe this? Two women once made a decision, took a chance, and changed the world. It was both a small gesture and heroic act. They disobeyed. And because of their act of disobedience God was able to rescue Israel from oppression. Their names are Shiphrah and Puah.
The beginning of Exodus starts on a chilling note. A ruler, wishing to solidify his political base, identifies a common enemy, a scapegoat to blame for whatever current problems plague society. We've seen this before. In the thirties, especially in Germany, it was the Jews. More recently it's been, the illegal immigrants, the welfare moms, the gays, the "undeserving" poor, and the Muslims. One of the chief manifestations of sin is our defining ourselves over and against others and in the process denying others their essential humanity, their status as beloved children of God.
This time around, it's the ancient Israelites. They get fingered by a Pharaoh who has conveniently forgotten that for generations the Israelites he names as possible terrorists had been considered allies and honored guests. And so he first enslaves them and then turns to even darker means, telling the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to kill all the Hebrew baby boys that are delivered. (Ironically, it is the girls who are apparently of no account to Pharaoh that he should fear, as first these two women, and then three more – Moses' Hebrew mother and sister and Pharaoh's Egyptian daughter – who are his undoing.) But they refuse. They do not kill the boys. They lie to Pharaoh, telling them that the Hebrew women give birth too quickly, delivering the babies before the midwives arrive on the scene.
It's a courageous act of civil disobedience that changes history, for one of the boys that is spared will be called Moses and he will lead the Israelites out of Egyptian captivity. He will deliver God's law to the Israelites and bring them to the Promised Land. And it all starts here, with two women willing to say "no" to an act of injustice. I doubt very much they thought they were changing the world. But they were, just by being faithful, by following the dictates of their hearts, by heeding the call of conscience.
Andy Andrews wrote a little book called The Butterfly Effect in which he catalogues the extraordinary impact of simple and courageous efforts. Except when you go back, you can never really tell which efforts made the biggest difference. So, for instance, should Norman Borlaug, who developed high yield, disease resistant corn and wheat be credited with saving two billion lives from famine, or should Henry Wallace, the one-term U.S. Vice-President, who created an office in New Mexico to develop hybrid seed for arid climates and hired Borlaug to run it. Or should we credit George Washington Carver, who took a young Henry Wallace for long walks and instilled in him his love of plants. Or should it be Moses and Susan Carver, who adopted the orphaned George as their son. Or should it be... Well, you get the idea. Andrews points out how inter-connected our actions are, creating an unforeseen butterfly effect that can ripple across time and space to affect the lives of millions.
Paul in the Letter from the Romans, Chapter 12 says (as read fromThe Message Bible translated by Eugene Peterson) Tells us of the the source of our ability to make a difference.
Romans 12: 1-2”So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for God. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Stay connected to the Body of Christ. It is in being together for worship every week and spending time one with another that we remember who we are and to whom we belong. As the body of Christ, we each have different and important gifts. It is in living our lives, reaching out as the Body of Christ, as Paul says, working from the inside out within our culture that we reach out to change the world.
Who knows? Maybe the person you worked next to or sat next to last night at the Taste of Turtle River was inspired by your kind word. Maybe a friend needs to be connected to a compassionate person and your touch of the arm, soft tone, phone call, listening ear brings hope.
As we start a new school year, maybe you are a school teacher who will give a student encouragement who will see something in herself that she hadn't before and in turn befriend another who was thinking of giving up on life....
Or maybe a young person attends Turtle River Day because of your invitation, and hears Ronald McDonald on Saturday; and because of your invitation, will stand up to the bully this week and not only help the kids being bullied but also the bully, who never had anyone care enough to stand up to him before, and in turn he'll go on to be a police officer who protects the vulnerable....
Or maybe you will volunteer at churches united or the food shelf and encourage someone with the gift of hope who will go home and be kinder to their children because they will have their needs met, and the children will be encouraged to go to school or to the Boys and Girls Club and find themselves inspired to do well in school, and so will treat others well. That same child may finish high school and become the mechanic who keeps your car running well. Or maybe....
The things we do this week – our actions, decision, choices – will, in fact, ripple out with consequences foreseen and unforeseen, for good or for ill, for the health or damage of the world. That question isn't whether, but what...what will we do this week to make a difference in the world. Some of these actions may be big, bold, and courageous. Others may be small, hardly noticeable. And yet they all have the potential to ripple out, affecting countless lives.
In today's reading it's Shiphrah and Puah, quietly standing up to a bully and tyrant. Who knows whom it will be today, this week, this year. Only you can be where you are, in your place, at your time – so act from the inside out – respond from the deepest part of you that know you are part of the Body of Christ – and change the world.
Amen, Come Lord Jesus, Come
A Special Thank you to Professor David Lose of Luther Seminary for inspiring and providing words for this sermon.
Jesus, What did you say to her? What were you thinking?
I spent this last week at Luther Seminary in a class called “Non Violent Communication”. The central focus is about all humans having the same basic needs. If we recognize our own basic needs, we are more able to also empathize with other’s basic needs. In recognizing common basic needs we are able to see the person next to us as our brother or sister.
After a week of working on understanding the feelings that deep seeded needs create, I was moved yesterday morning when listening to the radio to hear that violent flash mobs are breaking out in major cities across the United States. One editor named the violent flash mobs as being racially motivated. Most often these violent flash mobs have occurred where there is great disparity between the have and have nots in a community where people of different races are highly segregated. They named communities of Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Milwaukee. Yesterday I was talking with a sheriff who worked WeFest in Detroit Lakes recently and he also talked of the greatest violence he has ever seen in all the years WeFest has existed.
You can imagine my reaction to this news after a week of learning non-violent communication.
Jesus’ interaction with the Canaanite woman is, simply, racist; according to Marilyn Salmon, Professor of New Testament, United Theological Seminary, St. Paul, MN.
“We know the gospel narrative is about Jesus and look to him for the meaning of this story. We would be amiss, however, if we did not pay close attention to the woman in this story. The Canaanite woman models the most admirable human behavior, not Jesus. She shows willingness to be vulnerable by seeking help from a longstanding foe whom she knows despises her because of national and racial divisions. She asks for help for her daughter, not for herself. She is persistent in the face of insults and rejection, for her daughter's sake. The Canaanite woman has the best lines in the story, especially her last one. "Call me dog," she says, "but even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the table." She is the clear underdog (pun intended) who wins the prize of highest value for any mother, Jew or despised Canaanite – her child's health and well-being.
Of course the story is about Jesus. We see a very human Jesus. We see ourselves mirrored in Jesus' attitude toward the Canaanite woman, but not our best selves. We know very well the tendency to define and fear an "other" on the basis of skin color, nationality, class, or creed, deeply ingrained stereotypes that go back generations or even centuries. We resent being bothered by the concerns of those people. We have our own children to care for. When they persist, insisting on equal treatment and justice for their children, we resort to racial slurs and insults. And we are very good at justifying our actions rather than admitting the prejudice that persist.
The story is about Jesus, and in Jesus we see the very best of human potential in relationships with others, even those we avoid and fear. We see in Jesus the possibility of perceiving common humanity where we could see only difference. And when we encounter the "other" as one who shares our humanity, we can never see them as "other" again.
The Canaanite woman has the best lines in this story, but Jesus has the last word: "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." Not "Canaanite woman" but simply "woman." She will never be defined by national or racial or religious prejudice again. She is now a mother like any other who desperately seeks help for her child. And for this mother's sake, Jesus heals her daughter. And perhaps Jesus heals us, too, from the temptation to hang on to old stereotypes and habits that prevent us from embracing our common humanity.”
Not only is this a pivotal point in the life of this woman and her daughter, this is a pivotal point in Matthew’s Gospel. It is the first place and time that Jesus’ words are expansive, his salvation is not only for the people of Israel, but for Gentiles, or non-Jewish people as well. This interaction between this woman and Jesus opens Jesus’ arms much wider than he thought his ministry to be. From here forward Jesus’ ministry gets wider and wider. The woman’s great faith has moved him. Faith causes Jesus to be including more and more people. As Barbara Brown Taylor states it, “Faith works like a lever on Jesus, opening his arms wider and wider until there is room for the whole world in them, until he allows them to be nailed open on the cross.”
Picture this: Jim and I are canoeing on Silver Lake. Little Mikka is 15 or 16 months old. She is sitting on the bottom of the boat wearing the cutes life jacket. It is royal blue with yellow, red, and white little flowers. It has red click closures on the front that securely wraps the two rows of royal navy ribbon around her, and this huge, over-sized collar with a ribbon loop that seems to flap behind her when she toddle saround. I didn’t quite know what that was for, until that particular day.
We are skimming across the calm glass lake paddling along when I hear a “ploop!” I look to my right and there was Mikka, head held high above the water by that collar, her big eyes so full of trust and surprise fixed on my eyes. Quicker than my mind could register what was going on I reached down and grabbed Mikka by that navy ribbon loop and up she came back into the boat.
Did I stop and think, hmmmm, was Mikka a good girl that day or not? Did she obey our family rules? Is she good enough to bring back into the boat? No, I just reached down and pulled our beautiful little daughter back into the boat, and she just laughed and giggled, seeming to enjoy her little dip in the lake. It wasn’t until all were safe that Jim and I realized the gift of the little navy life jacket. Just as quickly as she slipped into the water and was bobbing up and down, she could have just slipped into the depths of the water. These things happen so quickly.
(PAUSE)
I wonder what it was like for Peter that day seeing Jesus walk on the water. I don’t think he was full of doubt. It took a lot of faith for him to step out of that boat and onto that water called the Sea of Galilee. I wonder what the water felt like – was it hard? Water can be very hard, many of us have taken a dive into the water and, splat! Ouch! A belly flop hurts! Did Peter experience the water as hard as he walked across the water? When he was walking were his feet ankle deep? I wonder what it was like. It took confidence for Peter to step out in faith upon that water.
When Peter noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Down he went! What did Jesus think when Peter started to go down? Did Jesus stop and say, hmmmm, if Peter had more faith he wouldn’t be sinking right now? Did Jesus say, hmmmm, when is Peter ever going to get it??? Peter must not be following the law like a good Jewish man should otherwise he wouldn’t be sinking? NO!
Jesus reached out his hand and caught Peter! Jesus caught Peter! Jesus didn’t reach for Peter’s outstretched hand. Jesus didn’t extend his hand for Peter to take. Jesus reached out his hand and caught Peter. It wasn’t up to Peter to save himself. Jesus grabbed him by the arm and they got into the boat, when they did so the wind ceased.
(PAUSE)
I found myself stewing again when I was with other pastors this week. There were saying how people in the congregation come on Sunday morning to be entertained. People come for what they can ‘get’ out of church according to their standards, their expectations when they should really come ready to give to God, to worship God. The emphasis in the discussion was that there was almost a rating system of expectation placed upon the worship time on Sunday morning by the people who sit in the pew.
I was steaming and had finally my tea kettle started to whistle and I piped up with “That’s not our experience at New Salem!” We come together for the sake of coming together. We come together caring the marks of folks who have a difficult week. Our hearts are breaking for what we have heard in the news; deaths of our soldiers, government shut-down, unbalanced budgets in our homes let alone our government, family members unemployed, fights in our homes behind closed doors (you don’t have to tell me, I just know these things happen in the best of families, which you all are, of course). We struggle with addictions, either our own or with our loved ones. We come together to celebrate the joys of life as well.
At New Salem, we gather on Sunday morning because we are hungry. We are hungry to be reminded that we do not walk through life alone. We gather for the purpose of gathering, of hearing a word of forgiveness, to be reminded of God’s love for us, for creation, for all of humanity.
We come together knowing that we have totally messed up and don’t want to mess up. Sometimes we ourselves are messed up. Yes, we know we sin – we come together to hear the word of forgiveness. We come together because we are hungry to hear the word of the Lord. We come together hungry, as beggars with our hands outstretched wanting that crumb, that bread of life, the lifeblood of God, to feast on the body of Christ and to become each Sunday more fully the Body of Christ to turn around and be sent out again for another week of being the Body of Christ in the world to do it all over again.
We come together because we need the Body of Christ. We don’t come to be entertained, we come to sing in one voice to God who loves us, who is with us, who forgives our sins and works miracles in our hearts and in our lives, showering us with grace and mercy. Am I right? Am I right???
We believe and so we take a step out in faith knowing that Christ is with us, and sometimes the storm around us causes us to sink down, and Jesus reaches out and grabs our arm and helps us climb right back in the boat again.
Let us Pray… (BLANKET OF BAPTISM THAT COVERS OUR LIVES)
Nothing Can Separate Us From the Love of God When I was a child I had this recurring nightmare of walking home from school and our house is gone. Gone. It is no longer on the block where I live. The block is there, the playground across the street from my home is there. 51st Boulevard is on the backside of our block where I live on 52nd Street. There is Mrs. Steffen’s house on the corner, the alleyway, then the Derlers house, the Skasa’s which is suppose to be right next door to my home, and then the Shriner’s house that is suppose to be on the other side of our house. But the Shriner’s home is next to the Skasa’s. Our house isn’t there. It wasn’t there! Where is mom, where is dad, my brothers? My family??? My home??? I would wake up in a panic; covers all kicked off in a fit of fear.
This is a typical primal dream of fear; you may have had a similar nightmare yourself. It is a fear of being abandoned, deprived of the ones who love us. We all have that basic need to be joined and accepted by someone who loves us and knows and shares our story.
Romans 8:35 – 39 speaks of the truth granted to us in Emery’s, Kolby’s and all of our Baptism. We are all born of a fallen humanity. We can’t help but be both sinner and saint at the same time.
BUT, HOWEVER, THE GOOD NEWS IS: In Baptism, our heavenly Father frees us from sin and death and joins us to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through the waters of Baptism and the Holy Spirit we are reborn children of God and members of the Body of Christ.
SO! Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the blanket of unconditional love that enfolds us.
Let me tell you about Dana: Dana’s wife is a contractor and as is common, business is slow. Their family home was foreclosed upon because the payments were more than they could handle. The family is dependent on Dana’s job for insurance and his steady income is consumed by the cost of utilities and paying the rent for their humble studio apartment. Dana’s boss leans over the top of his cubical. “Dana”, he says, “Come to my office”. When both are seated across from one another with the boss’s expansive desk as a chasm between the two; his boss speaks the words Dana fears. “Dana, the company is holding you accountable for the error that was found in your books. Pack your belongings and leave. You are fired”.
His head bowed he exits his boss’s office, grabs his atache’ from his desk, runs down the hall; out the employee’s entrance. As Dana climbs in his car his body slouches over the steering wheel releasing a painful groan filled with guilt for his error and fear for the future of his family.
Sick to his stomach, he doesn’t know how to pray. “My God, my God; Why have you forsaken me.” Runs thru his mind. How will his family live now? Through tears he hears himself say “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”.
Romans 8:34 “Who is to condemn? We are BAPTIZED! It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. We are baptized into this death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is our identity. Jesus does not condemn us. Jesus intercedes for us. So… Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Nothing and no one can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As Dana calls out to God not knowing how to pray he lives in the promise that the “The Spirit intercedes for us with sighs to deep for words to express.
WE are Baptized into the kingdom of God, NOTHING can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
This is what it is like to be human – when stressed, this is what life looks like and this is what God does – when stressed, not hopeful, beset by doubt, when you can’t escape past decisions - things you have done or had done to you. Isn’t this the way it is? You don’t know what to pray or what you want in a situation … and the Spirit intercedes and helps with things beyond our articulation. Who can lay a charge against God’s elect? If God is for us who can be against us. Nothing can separate us from God’s love.
Baptism is the ready remedy to grab hold of – this is hope for us. Remind Satan who wants to steal from you all hope and faith in God’s love. NAME and CLAIM your truth! “I am one of God’s elect. I AM BAPTIZED” AND I BELONG TO GOD! NOTHING CAN SEPARATE ME FROM THE LOVE OF GOD! (pause)
When I would rouse from my nightmare, having kicked off all the covers in a fit of panic, and fear, experiencing abandonment in the depth of my being; I would open my eyes and be back home again, but that wasn’t enough.
I would then go and pad over in the dark lit only by the lights on the street shining thru the window to my parent’s bedroom, say ‘mom?’, she would quietly lift up the covers saying “You want to jump in with us?” and I would climb in with mom and dad and fall safely asleep right where I belonged, under mom’s arm nestled between mom and dad.
Most every spring I ask the same question: “Who makes the rule about what is a weed and what is a legitimate flower or plant?” as I am holding in my hand the first flower of summer, the dandelion.
Who makes the rules about what is a weed and what is a wanted plant? I read this week that the Dept. of Agriculture calls a weed a plant that does more harm than good.” Now who makes that decision?
In Bible Study Monday morning we were talking about the blessing of Creeping Charlie use for lawn seed. It is one lawn covering that doesn’t beg weekly mowing. Here is a quote from a blogger I found on the internet. “I love creeping charlie and think it's a wonderful groundcover here in Minnesota. We have a difficult, steep slope and after trying many other ground covers, we went with the natural and obvious default plant, which is creeping charlie. The purple flowers are really lovely and we've actually been receiving compliments from passers-by, some who actually used to hate creeping charlie but now see it as a free, natural and pretty groundcover. We also planted dogwood and sumac on that hill, and after years of fighting the hill, we finally have something to show off!”
Another web site asks “Where can I buy Creeping Charlie seeds?” “Yes I know Creeping Charlie is technically a weed, but I want it to use in shady, bare areas of my lawn. I have dogs and they trample the backyard. The only part of the yard that has stood up to their running & playing is a shady area covered thickly in creeping charlie. I want to spread it around other areas in my backyard eliminating the muddy mess the dogs track into the house with them after they're done playing outside. Does anyone know where online I can buy seeds?”
I will personally attest that creeping Charlie has a beautiful small purple flower and grows in deeply shaded areas where the choice for ground cover is either moss or . . . creeping Charlie and creeping Charlie withstands Frisbee games much better as a lawn than moss.
But there are many other websites that talk about creeping Charlie with repeated asterisks (If you don’t know what that means, it means swearing that is not aloud on the internet). All for the very same reasons people appreciate creeping Charlie. It grows voraciously, taking over all other plants in its way. I have know people to go to great extents, even killing the complete lawn to start over again with sod so they could get rid of creeping Charlie. . . I still like the purple blue flowers.
On July 3rd at the same time you were appreciating Almina Beyer leading worship here with you, I was deemed a weed. I worshipped with my mother in a Catholic Basilica. The inside cover of the hymnal said that if you do not ascribe to the teachings of the Roman Catholic church, you are not aloud to come for Holy Communion. I also know from the news that if you believe women are to be ordained, you are excommunicated for life. I am a weed that the Catholic church has plucked up out of their soil. So it is. What one Church calls a weed another ordains and calls a mission developer to plant seeds of the word of God. How do we know the weeds from the plants?
What I believe to be true that I have learned from today’s readings about weeds are three things.
1. Every family has weeds. Jacob was running away from a fight with his brother Esau when he finally took to rest with a rock as a pillow. Even in that, God was with him. All families from Adam and Eve’s kids, Cain and Able; to Isaac and Rebecca’s kids, Esau and Jacob, to your and my families to our children’s children have fights.
If you follow through, which we will, in the upcoming Sundays, in story of Jacob and Esau, you will find that even though there is weediness in their relationship in the great wrong done in their relationship, God is with them. God is able to bring about forgiveness and reconciliation between these two brothers - and uses them to fulfill the promise that God has made to make of these men a great nation. This gives us hope in our relationships.
2. We are all adopted children of God with Jesus as our brother, which means we are deeply loved by our creator. Jesus loves the weeds and the plants as well. Which leads directly into our parable with God as a reckless farmer scattering the seeds on all kinds of soil, good and bad with utter abandon, just throwing it to the wind. It seems as if Jesus is telling us to take the abundant seed of the Word of God that I give to you and fling it far and wide and don’t worry about the soil.
As adopted children of God we are both weeds and plants. I use the example of how I am a weed that has been plucked up and thrown out in the Catholic church to demonstrate how the ELCA’s understanding of how God works in the world to be expansive and inclusive. Our Bishop, Larry Wohlrabe states that “in North America you will find “now more than ever it seems clear that there are two dominant ways of being Lutheran in North America. There is the way of “enclave Lutheranism”—marked by tight-knit circles of the like-minded—straight as an arrow, neat as a pin, all the rough edges rounded off, pure doctrine producing a regardedly pure community.
And then there is the messy alternative, the expansive, experimental, ecumenical, Lutheranism of our ELCA. We who are the ELCA look an awful lot like that farmer’s field must have looked—with weeds and wheat all over the place—a source of head-wagging and tongue-clucking by our neighbors, no doubt. A mess—but what a glorious mess…..and if the farmer in the parable is the God-figure, well then it’s the kind of mess that only God could love.”
New Salem has usually had a high tolerance for such messiness; perhaps that is one of our “gifts.” When other churches are working hard at being the “good old church,” trying to circle the wagons and batten down the hatches…. We have a new building; change our name, call ourself a mission outpost and are brazen in visioning a new vision as being the Cross of Christ shining through the community.
We are known as the church who seriously takes the words “All are welcome” and that is messy business. No wonder we walk around acknowledging we are saints and sinners weeds and plants all at the same time. We are an odd little church who knows who we are and what we are doing, only as far as God has told us - so far.
This we know to be true: when we gather around the communion table it is Jesus’ banquet and not our own. It belongs to all of Jesus’ brother and sisters. All are welcome. All of us, our whole selves are welcome to come. Yes we know that none of us has it all together. Each one of us has our difficult situations, difficult relationships. but just like little Kolby. We are all forgiven and washed clean through the waters of baptism, our sins are forgiven. We come to the table together, brothers and sisters, adopted children of God, not because we think we are good enough but because Jesus said so. Jesus tell us that his body is broken for you. His blood is shed for you AND FOR ALL PEOPLE for the forgiveness of sin. Forgive one another because you are forgiven.
Wonder about the harvest and what is going to happen witht he weeds and the plants? This is what I think; the farmer will harvest the wheat and gather the weeds for the fire. The wheat is gathered, ground and kneaded into bread to be baked. The weeds are gathered and dried and used as kindling to make the fire that is needed to bake the bread of life.
God, seeds of life, carry the Good News of Jesus Christ with utter abandon knowing that some will be weeds and others plants and both are allowed to grow one with the other.
Most every spring I ask the same question: “Who makes the rule about what is a weed and what is a legitimate flower or plant?” as I am holding in my hand the first flower of summer, the dandelion.
Who makes the rules about what is a weed and what is a wanted plant? I read this week that the Dept. of Agriculture calls a weed a plant that does more harm than good.” Now who makes that decision?
In Bible Study Monday morning we were talking about the blessing of Creeping Charlie use for lawn seed. It is one lawn covering that doesn’t beg weekly mowing. Here is a quote from a blogger I found on the internet. “I love creeping charlie and think it's a wonderful groundcover here in Minnesota. We have a difficult, steep slope and after trying many other ground covers, we went with the natural and obvious default plant, which is creeping charlie. The purple flowers are really lovely and we've actually been receiving compliments from passers-by, some who actually used to hate creeping charlie but now see it as a free, natural and pretty groundcover. We also planted dogwood and sumac on that hill, and after years of fighting the hill, we finally have something to show off!”
Another web site asks “Where can I buy Creeping Charlie seeds?” “Yes I know Creeping Charlie is technically a weed, but I want it to use in shady, bare areas of my lawn. I have dogs and they trample the backyard. The only part of the yard that has stood up to their running & playing is a shady area covered thickly in creeping Charlie . . . Does anyone know where online I can buy seeds?”
I will personally attest that creeping Charlie has a beautiful small purple flower and grows in deeply shaded areas where the choice for ground cover is either moss or . . . creeping Charlie and creeping Charlie withstands Frisbee games much better as a lawn than moss.
But there are many other websites that talk about creeping Charlie with repeated asterisks (If you don’t know what that means, it means swearing that is not aloud on the internet). All for the very same reasons people appreciate creeping Charlie. It grows voraciously, taking over all other plants in its way. I have known people to go to great extents, even killing the complete lawn to start over again with sod so they could get rid of creeping Charlie. . . I still like the purple blue flowers.
On July 3rd at the same time you were appreciating Almina Beyer leading worship here with you, I was deemed a weed. I worshipped with my mother in a Catholic Basilica. The inside cover of the hymnal said that if you do not ascribe to the teachings of the Roman Catholic church and that the Eucharist stands for complete unity, you are not aloud to come for Holy Communion. I also know from what has been in the news this past year that if you believe women are to be ordained, you are excommunicated for life. I am a weed that the Catholic Church has plucked up out of their soil. So it is. What one Church calls a weed another ordains and calls a mission developer to plant seeds of the Word of God. How do we know the weeds from the plants?
What I believe to be true that I have learned from today’s readings about weeds are three things.
1. Every family has weeds. Jacob was running away from a fight with his brother Esau when he finally took to rest with a rock as a pillow. Even in that, God was with him. All families from Adam and Eve’s kids, Cain and Able; to Isaac and Rebecca’s kids, Esau and Jacob, to your and my families to our children’s children have disagreements that break relationships.
If you follow through, which we will, in the upcoming Sundays, the story of Jacob and Esau, you will find that even though there is weediness in their relationship by the great wrong one has done to the other, God is with them. God is able to bring about forgiveness and reconciliation between these two brothers - and uses them to fulfill the promise that God has made to make of these men a great nation. This gives us hope in our relationships, doesn’t it?
2. We are all adopted children of God with Jesus as our brother. This means we are deeply loved by our creator. Jesus loves the weeds and the plants as well. This leads directly into our parable with God as a reckless farmer scattering the seeds upon all kinds of soil, good and bad, with utter abandon, just throwing it to the wind. Jesus is telling us to take the abundant seed of the Word of God and fling it far and wide. Don’t worry about the results.
As adopted children of God we are both weeds and plants. I use the example of how I am a weed that has been plucked up and thrown out in the Catholic church to demonstrate how the ELCA’s understanding of how God works in the world to be expansive and inclusive. Our Bishop, Larry Wohlrabe states that “in North America you will find “there are two dominant ways of being Lutheran in North America. There is the way of “enclave Lutheranism”—marked by tight-knit circles of the like-minded—straight as an arrow, neat as a pin, all the rough edges rounded off, pure doctrine producing a regardedly pure community.
And then there is the messy alternative, the expansive, ecumenical, Lutheranism of our ELCA. We who are the ELCA look an awful lot like that farmer’s field must have looked—with weeds and wheat all over the place—a source of head-wagging and tongue-clucking by our neighbors, no doubt. A mess—but what a glorious mess…..and if the farmer in the parable is the God-figure, well then it’s the kind of mess that only God could love.”
New Salem has usually had a high tolerance for such messiness; perhaps that is one of our “gifts.” When other churches are working hard at being the “good old church,” trying to circle the wagons and batten down the hatches…. We have a new building; change our name, call ourselves a mission outpost and are brazen in visioning a new vision as being “the Cross of Christ shining through the community”.
We are known as the church who seriously takes the words “All are welcome” and that is messy business. No wonder we walk around acknowledging we are saints and sinners, weeds and plants all at the same time. We are an odd little church who knows who we are and what we are doing, only as far as God has told us - so far.
So when one church defines itself by who is not welcome at the Communion Table; we define ourselves by who is invited to gather around the communion table. It is Jesus’ banquet and not our own. It belongs to all of Jesus’ brother and sisters. All are welcome. Come as you are.
All of us, our whole selves, the weediness and the plantness are welcome to come. Yes we know that none of us has it all together. Each one of us has our difficult situations, difficult relationships. but just like little Kolby. We are all forgiven and washed clean through the waters of baptism, our sins are forgiven. We come to the table together, brothers and sisters, adopted children of God, not because we think we are good enough but because Jesus said so. Jesus tells us that his body is broken for you. His blood is shed for you AND FOR ALL PEOPLE for the forgiveness of sin. Forgive one another because you are forgiven.
Wonder about the harvest and what is going to happen with the weeds and the plants? This is what I think; the farmer will harvest the wheat and gather the weeds for the fire. The wheat is gathered, ground and kneaded into bread to be baked. The weeds are gathered and dried and used as kindling to make the fire that is needed to bake the bread of life.
Go, seeds of life, carry the Good News of Jesus Christ with utter abandon knowing that some will be weeds and others plants and both are allowed to grow one with the other.
Paul really says it when he is writing his letter to the Christian Community in Rome. It’s about the year 55 and he is in Corinth, Greece at the home of a person named Gaius. Can you imagine him with his writing implement in hand carefully choosing words to communicate his thoughts on the scroll? I wonder what the energy of the Holy Spirit flowing through him felt like as he was writing this letter that we actually read a snippet from today.
Paul is writing about the same eternal uncreated life force that raised these shriveled-up potatoes we placed in this planter from in this black dirt into the new life of these green leafy branches reaching for the sun; this same eternal life force that raised Jesus from the dead, this same incredible powerful restorative, healing, transforming energy dwells in us! This same Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you and me.
What emotion was Paul feeling when he sat down to express this – to get this across to the Roman people? What if Paul would have done the most human thing of second guessing the energy force within him with thoughts like . . . thoughts like “Maybe it’s just me thinking I should write this letter and I won’t use the right words and they will just toss it aside and laugh at what I am trying to say.” “What if I write the wrong thing and they take it the wrong way?” “What if I hurt their feelings?” “They won’t listen to what I have to say.” “Because I was once a Jewish Pharisee, they won’t take me seriously and won’t trust me.” “What if I can’t get anyone to take the letter there in the first place?” or . . .“It won’t get there anyway, I am in Corinth and they are in Rome, what are the chances it will get into the right hands?” or . . . “What if a Roman soldier gets his hands on it and I get the Christians in Rome in more trouble than they already are.”
But Paul didn’t do that. Paul allowed the Holy Spirit to cast him as a seed into the wind with holy abandon. He used the technology that was available to him in his day, writing down his thoughts.
Paul then put the letter into the hands of Phoebe, who was a deacon of the church that was at the port of Corinth. Phoebe delivered this letter into the hands of the Christians who lived in Rome and into the hands of the future.
Because of Paul acting upon the Holy Spirit’s energy within him that particular day more than 2,000 years ago, we, today, July 10th, 2011, are able to read these words at New Salem Lutheran Church in Turtle River, MN, and be transformed.
Paul talks about the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. While you are physically alive you experience eternal life or spiritual death. When Paul talks about sin and death he means the spiritual death caused by sin that promises happiness, but in reality steals the life right out of you down to your very soul.
The Spirit of Life that Paul talks about is the uncreated life , the eternal life force that created the heavens and earth.
The Spirit of Life, the Holy Spirit dwells within us. It is the very Holy Spirit that we are sealed with in Baptism and marked with the Cross of Christ FOREVER! It is the very eternal life that restores broken relationships, the same Spirit that creates harmony out of discord, restores trust where there was betrayal. The very same Holy Spirit that dwells in you is the very same resurrection Spirit that brought Jesus to life. This very same resurrection Spirit that dwells is you resurrects healing in your broken and ailing body. The very same Spirit creates forgiveness and reconciliation where there has been racism, creates love where there has been hate, creates justice where they was systemic prejudice. The very same life force that creates plants out of dirt and water and sun and seeds is the uncreated life force you received in Baptism and dwells within YOU!
So, Baptized seed, you know the spiritual death caused by sin and you experience daily the uncreated regenerative power of the lifeforce of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. How are you, dear seed, experiencing that same call upon your life to spread this life in Christ with utter abandon as Paul did when he trusted the nudging of the Holy Spirit and used the technology available to him where he was at in the home of Gaius in Corinth?
The very God who created the heaven and the earth sows seeds totally with utter abandon, indiscriminately, non-judgmentally on the good soil and the bad soil, not waiting for conditions to be perfect. So, how is the Holy Spirit, the Lifeforce within you calling you to use the technology you have available to you right where you are to share the Great News. Everywhere people are experiencing Spiritual death. God is able to use the uncreated energy of the Holy Spirit to create new life, to resurrect from death to life!
When our family was in South Korea a kind loving man told our Korean born children to be like a dandelion and let the wind blow their seed throughout the world. This is how God sends you and I to spread the healing power of the love of God. Go, change the world, sow seeds with utter abandon, you who bear the Holy Spirit within you. Go, be among the people and share the love of Christ.
You who bear the Spirit of Life within you, go where you ae called to be and do what you are called to do. Don’t think about it. Anything worth doing, like the example in today’s parable, is worth doing wrong, just go, you bear the love of Christ, you bear the healing power of the Holy Spirit.
Go, transform the world. Your soil could be your cousin at a family gathering. You soil could be your friends on facebook. Your soil could be Twitter on the internet. Your soil could be your department at work. Your soil could be a patient in the hospital. Your soil could be you mom or your dad, your son or your daughter. Your soil could be the mechanic who changes fixes the breaks on your car or packs your groceries at the store. Your soil could be your neighbor who lives down the hall or down the road.
Share the love of God with utter abandon, you who are the seeds that God is sowing. Be that seed and let the Holy Spirit blow upon you like wind upon the seeds of a dandelion and be planted wherever you can spread the life and love of God.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in us the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit, and we shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Next week, for our 90th anniversary, we will be using the prayers from the Concordia Hymnal published in 1933 by Augsburg Publishing Co in Mpls. It is the first known hymnal used by Salem Lutheran Church. Prayers invoking the Holy Trinity that we say today as “THE Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” are said in the 1933 hymnal “OUR Maker, Redeemer, and Comforter.
In today’s hymnal the use of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are nouns as relationship words, the three in one in relationship with one another, the father of the son and the spirit who makes them one. In 1933 God is referred to by the action that God has in relationship with us, OUR God who makes us, OUR God who redeems us, OUR God who comforts us.
Today is a day of celebrating the awe and majesty of God. When I reflect upon the trinity I hear of a God who is in relationship, a God who is defined in relationship and longs for relationship, who creates because of relationship, creates out of the need to pour forth ever generating and regenerating love.
So journey with me in my ponderings. . .
. . . God calls creation GOOD when all is working within harmony, one within another, working together creating health, creating life, all within relationship, only possible in relationship.
So let us go forth . . .
There was a time in each of our lives when . . .
. . .when you were just an egg deep within your mom and just a seed within your dad.
. . . even before that you were somehow a part held within the egg of your grandmother. Which grandmother you ask? Somehow both of your grandmothers, of course; and both of your grandfathers seeds as well. Your grandma and grandpa came together just as your mom and dad came together, and you; yes you, somehow . . . somehow . . . happened! God creates in relationship.
So here you are, the self made man – the self made woman.
You are water – the very water God created and said it was good on the day of creation . . .this very water has evolved into the water that held you before you were born. . . This water created on that . . .- no – we don’t know the day water was created do we? Hmmm. We don’t know this. . . . The water was there before day 1, that’s what it says right there in Genesis 1:2“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”
The wind from God, the Greek word is ruah, meaning breath of God, the breath of God spread over the waters, the spirit of God moved over the waters. Your breath that gives you life, God’s breath that gives your pet dog life. I remember Buster, I would know his nearness when I awoke from an afternoon nap on the couch by his breath, upon my ankles, the breath of life, the breath of God. I knew his nearness by the bump of Buster’s wet nose upon my ankle, the water of life that was there in the beginning of God creating. The holiness of God right there gifted to me by dear Buster’s closeness. The holiness of God present in the breath of life, in the water of life in all living beings created through God.
The water of life that when it is cold we call snow that we play in and work with, the water when it is cold that brings refreshment as we slide it from our hand into a glass of – water, or the cold water that we soak a carefully folded handkerchief in and wrap around our neck to cool us down on a hot day. That same water of life. Baptismal water!
The holiness of that water of creation that God gathered together to reveal the earth, the rich dark holiness of the earth that, just like our mothers, receives seed that grows. Joined with the water and the light that God created, all working together . . . the earth, the light, the water, together in relationship to bring forth this green blade of grass that reaches toward the sky and produces the grain of wheat that . . . both falls to the ground to bring forth . . . more wheat . . . and somehow is enough to be gathered to become . . . bread . . . the bread that, when we eat it, becomes our body . . . that holy water, that holy light formed in creation becomes . . .our body.
The holiness of that water of creation gathered together to reveal the earth that receives the seed that grows when joined with the water and the light that God created all working together . . . to bring forth . . . the food we call grapes when picked and crushed adding yeast and time becomes the good refreshment that we call wine, that gives us joy, that, when we drink it, becomes our body . . . holy water, holy light, holy earth.
Food born from relationship of God’s creating, bears life that creates us . . .
And God uses this bread and this wine born through our creating God to bring us together through the redeeming God named Jesus who uses that same wonderful majestic creations to make of our many bodies one body, his body, THE Body of Christ . . .
And Jesus, one with the creating God, breathes on us the breath of God, the Spirit of God. The Greek word that Jesus uses is parakaleo, paraclete, the Holy Spirit
Para that means one who comes to lead beside:
The Holy Spirit is your
Para sol who covers you,
Para trooper who goes ahead of you
Para chute who cushions your fall
Para ble who is our earthly story with heaven meaning
Para dymn who is your model of what you want to be in life
Para medic who tells you to call on Jesus when you are in trouble and who teaches you to trust in God who will takes us to Para dise.
The advocate, the comforter, the one who is sent forth who pleads our case, the one who influences our lives, the one who sends us forth, the one who uses us in the influence of others . . .this water, this light, this earth, this breath, this bread, this wine, by our creating God creates this body, our body, the body of Christ born here today in you and me.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God , and the communion of the Holy Spirit, the three in one the one in three, be with you all. Amen, Come Lord Jesus, Come
Easter 5: Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14
During this last week I have heard many stories of how God is working in the world that God loves so very much.
The winds of change are blowing through the church. This was evident in the decisions made by the assembly. We are a church moving forward on the breath of the Holy Spirit. Our definition is in Jesus Christ to whom we belong, whom we love. Because we love Jesus Christ we also invest ourselves in loving our neighbor. We are no longer just an inclusive church, but an expansive church. We are defined by how wide our arms reach to embrace all of God’s children. As said in today’s Gospel, Jesus goes to prepare a place for us, all of God’s children.
This assembly, and I believe the churchwide assembly in August will put to rest conversations about sexuality and move us to doing what we, as God’s church, are called to do. Move forward in mission into the world that so desperately needs us to be the healing presence of Christ. Jesus tells us to love God and to love our neighbor. Yes, this is what we are called to do.
The last five days I was in Minneapolis with 2000 other preachers at the Festival of Homiletics. There were people there from, if I remember correctly 11 countries and all 50 states. Representatives of each of the Lutheran church bodies, the Catholics, Presbyterians, Assembly of God, Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, Mennonite - you get the idea.
This was an important prophetic event in our church naming that we are in a time of great upheaval in the world. Now is the time to be the church, the world needs us to be Christ right where we are. It is evident by many that we are in the time of a great Awakening. This is the good news.
The reality of this good news is the first part of an awakening is Cultural Distress. Wouldn’t you agree that is where we are, and we are moving toward and possibly in the second phase which is Cultural Breakdown. The breakdown is seen statistically. In 1960 98% of Americans said they believed in God. In 2011 70%. This is staggering. Among people 30 and under, only 44% believe there is a God. All denominations, yes all denominations are in a free fall. Reportedly, loosing members most quickly are the Missouri Synod, Southern Baptist and the Presbyterian Church of American. These were noted as the more conservative of the denominations.
However, following such a cultural breakdown is a New Vision that shows up among us. This New Vision begins to take root in little pockets here and there, then like minds begin to gather and find similar things happening in different places. This vision begins to take root in many places and order resumes in a different way than it had been before. I will teach more on this in the future. Know that New Salem is one such pocket where God is doing something new. When other churches are in a freefall both financially and in people gathering for worship, our story is quite different.
A trademark that is seen among healthy congregations are those where they are more concerned with serving their community than they are maintaining their budget and their building. PAUSE
John 14:1-14 I go to prepare a place for you. Often we read this Gospel at funerals and hear these words as a promise for the here after. This is true. Also true is that God goes ahead of you to prepare a place for you even now.
Little Giuliana has been given a place in the priest hood of all believers this very day. She has been washed in the waters of baptism and lives in the resurrected life of Jesus Christ. She is anointed and filled with the Holy Spirit as a worker in the kingdom of God, not any less than St. Stephen was in the reading from the book of Acts.
Stephen was anointed to be a server of tables. Did you know that? He was a waiter among the people serving food and cleaning tables. This was the place that Jesus prepared for him. Stephen knew this. He also knew that in the position of waiter of tables he was living in the resurrection. Jesus has commissioned each of his baptized disciples to be a worker with Jesus. Each one of us has a place.
Jesus told his disciples and tells you that we are to be Christ among the people within our community. “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these.”
We are to be Christ to our neighbor reaching out to them with a healing touch or word or casserole, or changing a flat tire. We are to be Christ to our colleague who is stuck in a work situation that is frustrating to them. You want to surprise someone? When you are in a competitive environment, offer to help them to further their situation.
Here is an example. Some of you are going to school. If you see someone being bullied, take their side. Or if you think it may be dangerous, get the hall monitor or teacher to help the situation. Your place that God has prepared for you is to love your neighbor as yourself. This is what God calls us to do - to be a loving presence in this very difficult world we live in.
Jesus’ way is to accompany our neighbor right where we are, to love them, to listen to them, to walk with them, to cry with them, to rejoice with them. Yes. Jesus has prepared a place for you, and that place is right where you are.
This is a call to ministry, as Stephen was called to ministry. Stephen was persecuted because of his love of Jesus, just as the reading from Acts told us this morning. Stephen was living in a time when Christians were persecuted and killed for following the teachings of Jesus.
A Christian life is not a promised life of wealth and total bliss. We are normal folks living in our culture. We are living in a time of great turbulence. We are not sheltered from the difficulties that we hear in the news.
Psalm 31 says it well, “In you, O Lord, I seek refuge; do not let me ever be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me. 3 You are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your name's sake lead me and guide me, 5 Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God...
Each of our readings belie the reality of this world that God loves so much. We can relate to the psalmist when we are faced with hard news; when we see an enemy coming our way, when temptation seems so very strong, when a dreaded phone call comes. You are in the place that Jesus has prepared for you. You are in the place where you are in Jesus and Jesus is in you. You are in Jesus; your refuge and your strength.
This is the place that Jesus has prepared for you. Remember, you, yes you, baptized Child of God, are living your life with God. God is with you, know, God is with you, and yes, “Very truly, Jesus says to you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do even greater works.”
On the road to Emmaus is a much beloved story. However, Reading of this situation has me I coming away with questions that peak my curiousity and gets me wondering, even pondering the story. Here are two questions - you know me, that is why I am so drawn into the Bible; why I research it so much. I have questions. This week my questions are two fold:
I. Who was Cleopas companion? Luke names Cleopas, he names the apostles, Mary Magdalene and the other Marys , but not Cleopas companion. Who is she?
II. When they sat down with Jesus did they eat that bread that Jesus broke before they raced on their way the seven miles back to Jerusalem to tell the others? It doesn’t say. Might have they wrapped it in a napkin and put it in a special place in their home? Might they have wrapped it in a hanky and placed in their pocket to show to the other disciples when they got to Jerusalem? “See, here is the bread he broke for us. Just like at his last supper with us. He truly is risen. We know it is him, he is revealed in this bread!” I want to know. What do you think? Did they eat it?
For me this Gospel is so very special because the experience is so familiar. They have come from what they believe to be dashed hopes and expectations. Just like us along our life’s journey. I know many of us are experiencing dashed hopes now. Hope of financial stability. Hope of a good job after graduation. Hope for jobs for our children, ourselves. Plans made that are brought up short by a diagnosis of cancer. Rich longstanding relationships broken. Hope destroyed. The drive home from such experiences seems so very long as you ride along in a daze.
It says that the two of them were plodding along on that 7 mile walk to Emmaus the third day after Jesus died, the day they were told he would arise from the dead. Cleopas and his companion had lost all hope of seeing Jesus the way they had known him, experienced him. Jesus was so amazing in what he taught, oh my, the healings they witnessed. It all seemed so perfect then. How could life have turned. Now what were Cleopas and his companion to do? What was next in their lives now that Jesus, whom they followed, no longer was there to follow?
They are discussing their experiences, mulling over what had gone down over the weekend after spending the Sabbath with other students of their much beloved teacher, Jesus.
As Cleopas and his companion are talking of the plight they are living, someone comes and walks along side them, someone they don’t recognize. This person does what any caring person does. He prompts them to tell him their story. He listens to them talk about all that had happened, the reasons for their deep sadness.
Isn’t that the way it is with us, too, when we have such bad news, when we seem to be living in a dark cloud? It is difficult for us to see where God is in a situation. We have lost hope, we are in shock. If asked, we would be stretched to see God in the situation.
Notice that Jesus comes and walks along side the two of them. Jesus does was he always does. He doesn’t wait for us to come to him. Jesus comes to us. But even in this, Cleopas and his companion couldn’t recognize Jesus. Then Jesus reminds them of the story of their ancestors, how God has been with their people from the time of Moses and through the prophets, never leaving, always keeping God’s promises.
Jesus reminds them of how his life and death are foretold in the Holy Scriptures; bringing clarity to what they are discussing, credence to what they hope for. They listen closely hanging on his every word.
When they finally arrive at Emmaus, Jesus appears to be going on ahead. Stay with us, stay with us they beacon Jesus. Eat a meal with us, Cleopas and his companion insist.
Jesus does continue with them to their home. He sits with them at their table. Jesus picks up bread and breaks it. It is in this breaking of the bread they recognize Jesus. Their eyes are opened to who Jesus is in the breaking of the bread.
pause
Many wonder, as I, who is Cleopas’ companion on this journey. More recent scholars say it is his wife, and that makes sense because often women go unnamed in the Bible. They also seem to be living together where they are having the meal.
You know who I think this is? I believe it is you, yes you,. You are invited companion with Cleopas’ sitting at that table. You and I are invited into this story to share in the breaking of the bread.
As we are on the more difficult part on our journey of life, often we are unable to see that Jesus comes and walks alongside us. We need to come together on Sunday mornings to hear our story as God’s people once again. We need to be reminded that God keeps God’s promise to be our God and that we are God’s people, the work of God’s hands.
We need to hear the Holy Word of our story. The part where we are reminded that God loves us, cares for us, has a plan for us that is good; and indeed that Jesus is our savior. We need to be told through the Word that we are God’s beloved, called by name and held in the palm of God’s hand and that God is with us.
We need to be together on Sunday morning to come to the table as companions with Cleopas and witness as the bread is broken and our eyes opened and Jesus is revealed and Jesus is present.
Here we listen to the Body of Christ speaking the Holy Word to us. Here we are, but it is not Cleopas beckoning Jesus to come to the table. It is Jesus himself inviting you to watch as the bread is broken. The promise is for you. You will experience Jesus. Jesus is revealed in the bread broken for you.
You know, as I said earlier, I wonder; did Cleopas and his companion eat the bread that Jesus breaks for them to eat. They recognize Jesus. They would have been there at the last supper. Jesus breaking the bread was familiar to them. At the last supper they were told to take and eat. “This is my body broken for you.” They must have eaten the bread before they raced out the door back to Jerusalem.
As you and I eat the broken bread of Jesus body, we are strengthened having our eyes opened now seeing Jesus in our story. Here we are reminded who we are. Here we have our eyes opened to see Jesus walking along side us. Here we go out full of joy to share the story of how our lives are different because of Jesus, and others lives can be different also. Go, when you leave this place and tell them.
May 1st Easter 2: Acts 2:14a, 22-32; Psalm 16 (11)
1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31
In what do you believe? I have a book entitled “This I Believe”. It is a compilation of significant people of our time who were asked to answer this question and a number of them have been read on the radio. If you were asked to write This I believe” What would you right? Why do you believe what you believe? Is it because you have been told? Because you have seen? Because you have experienced?
Jesus said “Peace be with you, as the Father sent me, so I send you.” The he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
The Gospel of John is about personal encounters with Jesus that gives signs that Jesus truly is the Son of God.
Remember the four conversations we overheard during the Sundays during Lent? Nicodemus comes by night to talk with Jesus, the woman at the well is met by Jesus, she believes because she has see and then her townspeople go to meet Jesus and they come to believe; the man born blind receives his sight and believes and others believe because of his witness. Then, the fourth conversation with Mary and Martha Jesus wept and raised Lazarus from the dead. All these are personal encounters with the living Lord who specializes in truth and transformation.
OK, I know you all are wondering, here it is. Yes, I did get up at 3:45 on Friday morning to text message our son “Happy Birthday”. Oh, and then I tuned in the TV to watch the Royal Wedding.
Jesus said “Peace be with you, as the Father sent me, so I send you.” The he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Moving in the transformative power of the Holy Spirit; Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London grasped the moment.
An estimated 3 billion people throughout the world became part of the worship service that took place in Westminster Abbey at 11:00 a.m.
Amidst familiar hymns of our own ELW 618 Guide Me Every Great Redeemer and 631 Love Divine All Love Excelling there were prayers and the reading of the Holy Bible that boldly proclaimed from Romans 12 the transformation of the power of God. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Before the eyes of the world, within the Christian Church, reading the words of St. Paul speaking of the power of the Holy Spirit, Rt. Rev. Bishop Richard Chartres spoke the words of truth of St. Catherine of Siena “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”
This was Bishop Chartres, just an ordinary man, who grabbed the moment to set the world on fire. He called for the transformation available to us through the Holy Spirit with these words “We stand looking forward to a century which is full of promise and full of peril. Human beings are confronting the question of how to use wisely a power that has been given to us through the discoveries of the last century. We shall not be converted to the promise of the future by more knowledge, but rather by an increase of loving wisdom and reverence, for life, for the earth and for one another.”
God sends you! What is your sphere of influence. Few of us are given the opportunity to witness to the power of God before 3 billion people from the pulpit of Westminster Abbey. You must believe he could not have done that without the power of the Holy Spirit fueling his words . . . and his nerves. He had the faith to believe. It is not on one’s own accord that one is able to believe.
Thomas, he had to see for himself. Thomas wanted the assurance of seeing that Jesus truly has conquered death. Thomas needed to see for himself the very proof of Jesus’ body and the scars of his terrible death. He needed to know for sure. Thomas did receive the assurance he needed. Thomas could not believe upon another’s faith. He had to believe by his own experience.
Jesus gives all of us who believe in him who have not seen his resurrected fleshly body the blessing when Thomas came to believe with the words”Blessed are those who believe in me without seeing.” This is OUR blessing!
This is my prayer for each one of us, that our faith will be there for us in a way that we encounter Christ’s life-giving presence. This life-giving power of the Holy Spirit breathes as it may and goes where it may as Jesus told Nicodemus when he came to him at night. This is the blessing of Jesus upon us “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. and then he breathes upon us and says to us “Receive the Holy Spirit”.
Our God is the God who specializes in death and resurrection. Our God specializes in bringing life where there is death. Our God is about changing that which is dark and shining forth light. Our God is a God who brings change; who brings transformation.
These are God’s promises to us who have experienced Christ’s transformative power through our Baptisms.
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”
Do you believe this? You don’t have to work had at it, actually, faith is not something we work at, faith is a gift. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit
Receive the gift, receive the gift.
Amen, Come Lord Jesus, Come
The Bishop of London, Rt. Rev. Richard Chartres
Royal Wedding Sermon Prince William and Kate Middleton
29th April 2011
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” So said St Catherine of Siena whose festival day it is today. Marriage is intended to be a way in which man and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, their deepest and truest selves.
Many are full of fear for the future of the prospects of our world but the message of the celebrations in this country and far beyond its shores is the right one – this is a joyful day! It is good that people in every continent are able to share in these celebrations because this is, as every wedding day should be, a day of hope.
In a sense every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and the groom as king and queen of creation, making a new life together so that life can flow through them into the future.
William and Catherine, you have chosen to be married in the sight of a generous God who so loved the world that he gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
And in the Spirit of this generous God, husband and wife are to give themselves to each another.
A spiritual life grows as love finds its centre beyond ourselves. Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover this; the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life.
It is of course very hard to wean ourselves away from self-centredness. And people can dream of doing such a thing but the hope should be fulfilled it is necessary a solemn decision that, whatever the difficulties, we are committed to the way of generous love.
You have both made your decision today – “I will” – and by making this new relationship, you have aligned yourselves with what we believe is the way in which life is spiritually evolving, and which will lead to a creative future for the human race.
We stand looking forward to a century which is full of promise and full of peril. Human beings are confronting the question of how to use wisely a power that has been given to us through the discoveries of the last century. We shall not be converted to the promise of the future by more knowledge, but rather by an increase of loving wisdom and reverence, for life, for the earth and for one another.
Marriage should transform, as husband and wife make one another their work of art. It is possible to transform as long as we do not harbour ambitions to reform our partner. There must be no coercion if the Spirit is to flow; each must give the other space and freedom. Chaucer, the London poet, sums it up in a pithy phrase:
“Whan maistrie [mastery] comth, the God of Love anon,
Beteth his wynges, and farewell, he is gon.”
As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the West, there has been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life. This is to load our partner with too great a burden. We are all incomplete: we all need the love which is secure, rather than oppressive, we need mutual forgiveness, to thrive.
As we move towards our partner in love, following the example of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is quickened within us and can increasingly fill our lives with light. This leads to a family life which offers the best conditions in which the next generation can practise and exchange those gifts which can overcome fear and division and incubate the coming world of the Spirit, whose fruits are love and joy and peace.
I pray that all of us present and the many millions watching this ceremony and sharing in your joy today, will do everything in our power to support and uphold you in your new life. And I pray that God will bless you in the way of life that you have chosen, that way which is expressed in the prayer that you have composed together in preparation for this day:
God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage.
In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy.
Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen.
How many people throughout the world are singing this morning with us “Jesus Christ is Risen to day, alleluia”. Every Christian church worldwide is centers its life around the foundation of our faith that we celebrate today.
However, the joy of Easter morning would not exit if we had not walked through Maundy Thursday and heard the story of the Passover meal Jesus held with his disciples. As Jesus celebrated the Passover meal, we are reminded of God’s saving action of leading of people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt into the promised land. This meal shared with Jesus foretold his disciples of the same God about to lead God’s people from the slavery of sin and death into the freedom of life and light. On Good Friday we stood with Jesus at the foot the cross on Good Friday as we remember how Jesus chose stand by the truth and go to his death, the death that would bring us the freedom we have in the resurrection of Easter morning.
However, what Jesus has taught us is that death does not have the final word. We worship a God who specializes in death and resurrection. As we know this to be true, we have a faith that gives us hope in knowing that the power of the darkness of evil will never overcome power of life-giving light.
When I hear the Easter story each year it is as if I hear this old, old story for the first time. There are words of new life as each year brings a different need for Jesus resurrection power in our world.
This year, as I read the story, I heard as if for the first time that the earth quaked and the angels clothing were as bright as lightning.
I am sure it is because of the earthquakes experienced in Japan so recently. Through the earthquake, Matthew signals that Christ's death and resurrection make a difference, both in the lives of his immediate disciples as well as to the whole world and, indeed, the whole cosmos. What difference does Jesus death and resurrection make in your life?
Let me share with you a real happening in Liberia. Death and resurrection happened in the life of the woman Lehmah Gbowee. I heard of Leymah Gbowee in a documentary called “Pray the Devil Back to Hell”. It didn’t sound like the kind of movie I would like to see, however, it is a real story about ordinary people who had seen enough of their children being taken off to fight in the civil war, their daughters being raped, their 8 and 10 year old sons bribed and taken and forced to fight with military weapons and sabers.
The documentary starts with Gbowee standing up before her Lutheran congregation asking women to meet for prayer. I believe it was the power of the resurrection that called forth the hope in these women to believe that God would answer their fervent prayers. It started with just three women praying and seeking God’s intervention to stopped this death happening in their streets with their very own children loosing their lives before them. These three women believed that God had picked Gbowee to lead them.
Then Leymah Gbowee and Comfort Freeman, presidents of two different Lutheran churches, organized the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET), and issued a statement of intent to the President Charles Taylor: "In the past we were silent, but after being killed, raped, dehumanized, and infected with diseases, and watching our children and families destroyed, war has taught us that the future lies in saying NO to violence and YES to peace! We will not relent until peace prevails."
Dressed in white t-shirts to symbolize peace, and numbering in the thousands, the women became a political force against violence and against their government. Under Leymah Gbowee's leadership, the women managed to force a meeting with President Charles Taylor and extract a promise from him to attend peace talks in Ghana.
Gbowee then led a delegation of Liberian women to Ghana to continue to apply pressure on the warring factions during the peace process. They staged a silent protest outside the Presidential Palace, Accra, bringing about an agreement during the stalled peace talks.
This is an example of the hope we have in God answering our prayer. Jesus death and resurrection give us reason to believe that our God is the God who specializes in Death and resurrection. We must believe this to be true. This is what we base our faith on.
What difference does Jesus death and resurrection make in your life?
I am an eye-witness to death and resurrection in people’s lives. I witness people who have faced the most difficult hours with a faith that no matter how bleak a situation, God is with them and will see them to the other side. That even though right now feels like Good Friday, Easter Sunday will come.
Easter is a day of celebration. A day when we exclaim ALLELUIA!!! The Lord is Risen, he is risen indeed! Evil has no power over us. We have reason to hope. God answers prayers. This is true. This is true!
What difference does Jesus death and resurrection make in your life?
This is the fourth in the series of conversation that we hear in the Gospel of John. First we listened in on Nicodemus coming to Jesus in the night, then Jesus meets the woman at the well, then as the man born blind receives his sight, and now this morning we listen in on the conversation of Jesus raising a man who has been dead for four days.
We learn four things about Jesus from the verbs that are used to describe the action in this Gospel
Tarried
Weep
Come Out
Unbind Him!
Tarried
Jesus Tarried when he heard that Lazarus had died. Jesus deliberately took his time to go to be with his beloved Mary and Martha, and Lazarus. Jesus took his time because he intentionally was working toward the Glory of God. In the Jewish culture a deceased person’s spirit stayed with the body until the 4th day. So waiting to the 4th day Lazarus was obviously dead. By waiting there would be no doubt that Lazarus would be dead.
Whatever the holy purpose of his tarrying however, the pain it caused comes out in the half-lament, half-accusation that crosses the lips of both Mary and Martha, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Who has not felt a similar pang during times of grief or tragedy: "God, where are you?" "God, couldn't you have done something to prevent this?" "God, why did this happen?"
It was Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead that pushed the Jews to the place of decision that Jesus needed to die. This was it. Jesus has gone too far. He has the power of God to raise people from the dead. They are so determined to prove that Jesus is not the Messiah that they want to kill Lazarus as well and get ride of the evidence.
Weep
We have our savior who has come to live with us. Jesus has not spared himself from the earthly emotional pain that we experience in the death of a loved one. Lazarus indeed is Jesus’ good friend, one of his closest. Jesus joins in Mary and Martha’s pain; and the pain of those he witnesses grieving over the death of Lazarus. He felt their sorrow and joins them in their pain. When he came to the place where Lazarus was laid, he saw the grief of Lazarus’ sisters Martha and Mary and Jesus wept.
Come Out
Lazarus was laid in a grave with a stone in front. Jesus commanded them to remove the stone. In a voice that paralleled the power of calling forth life in creation; Jesus commanded Lazarus to life. “Come Out” Jesus called forth. Come Out!
We are to study God’s word, gather for worship and be fed by word and sacrament, nourished and fed we are called out. Jesus says “Come Out” We say “come out of the darkness and into the light of life.” But first we, ourselves, must hear the voice of Jesus saying “come out.
Jesus weeps with us, in the midst of our sorrow, Jesus goes with us to the depth of our pain and walks with us,witnessing our loss, our shame, our brokenness is real and cuts to the core of our being.
Yet Jesus says to you “Come Out”! Come Out. Do not stay in the dark pit of your pain, but listen to the voice of Jesus calling you Come Out!
Unbind Him!
Finally we get to the powerful words “Unbind Him”! Jesus does the calling forth of life, yet we, as God’s holy creation co-create with God by being agent, help mate in bringing forth the life that releases Lazarus from the rags of death. Unbind him.
New Salem Lutheran Church is the Cross of Christ shining through the community. We are co-creators with God. Agents of God’s power. God’s work our hands.
We go to those who are bound and we gently take the cloth from their eyes that blind them. Their mouths that keep them in silence, their arms that keep them from embracing the fullness of life, their legs that keep them stuck in the pain of their lives. This is our ministry at it’s fullest, unbinding people from the shrouds that bind them in shame, hold them paralyzed in mental illness or addiction or depression, or guilt.
We who are baptized and washed free from our sin, who walk in the full knowledge that in every death there is resurrection. In every depression that binds their is light and fullness of joy. In every addiction their is freedom. UNBIND HIM. UNBIND HER.
What death has you entombed, what fear, that Jesus would say to you COME OUT
What oppression holds you bound, be it societal, cultural, or guilt that Jesus would want you unbound but you are not able to do so yourself. You do know that none of us are self sufficient. Each of us needs to be able to confess to another what holds us bound. In speaking of our inner demons that keep us bound to another person, they are able to help you by uncovering the newness of life that God calls forth in you. Each of us needs someone to confess to, a doctor to go to, a counselor to unburden your life to. UNBIND HER, UNBIND HIM.
Jesus want to give us eternal life. Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." 24 Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." 25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life.” This life that Jesus speaks of does not begin after our earthly life ends, but beings now. Those who are baptized and believe in Jesus will have life eternal - the resurrection and the life.
Come out! Unbind him. Jesus says these words to you today.
Lent 3: Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11, John 4:3-42
Today we listened in on the 2nd of 4 conversations people have with Jesus. Last week we listened in on Nicodemus’ conversation with Jesus where we learned that the Holy Spirit blows as the wind blows and we cannot control upon whom the Spirit lands and that Jesus came into the world not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him. At the point of the end of the conversation we were left not knowing what Nicodemus really understood about Jesus.
Nicodemus and the Samaritan women are polar opposites. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. Jesus comes to the woman at bright sunlight. Nicodemus was the leader of the Jews, a man of power, education, and authority. This was a lowly woman of no social standing, and a Samaritan. According to the Jews Samaritan women were ritually unclean at the moment of their birth and throughout their lives. Nicodemus keeps his encounter with Jesus to himself. This woman is changed by Jesus and goes running into the city to tell everyone.
Let’s revisit this conversation. First of all, why are these two people at a well during the height of the noon day sun? Jesus chose to walk through Samaria to go to Jerusalem. Samaria was a place where Jews did not go. It was the land of the half-breeds. Hundreds of years ago their ancestors married non-Jewish people and they began worshipping idols. But it says that Jesus needed to go through Samaria. The author of this Gospel does not spend words without great meaning. Could it be that Jesus needed to go through Samaria to meet this woman?
None the less, the sun was hot, Jesus was tired from walking, his disciples had gone off for food, and Jesus came to the well with no means to draw water. He was thirsty.
What was this woman doing at the well during the heat of the noon day sun? Other women come to the well either in the morning before the sun got hot or in the evening when the day cools off. What would bring this woman to come at a difficult time? We find out as we listen in on the conversation.
Jesus asks her for water. For a Jewish person to talk to a Samaritan would make them unclean let alone drink from the same cup. Besides that a Jewish man was not to talk with a woman in public. Jesus is not honoring Jewish law.
The woman asks Jesus good questions, pointing out the obvious. Who is this man who comes to a well without means of reaching into the well for water? Jesus begins to talk about this living water, life-giving water - flowing up from inside. She is interested in this water Jesus speaks of.
Then Jesus changes the subject and asks her where her husband is. How peculiar a question. Yet she answers him honestly; “I have no husband”. Then Jesus speaks of his knowledge of her life. She has had 5 husbands, and the one she is living with is not her husband.
How can this be? How can this man know of her difficult life? She comes to the well at noon so she may be alone and not face the scrutiny of the other women. It doesn’t say why it is that she came upon the misfortune of having five husbands. However, we do know that it is customary for a man to marry his brother’s wife when the brother dies. It could be that she has had 5 brothers die, widowed 5 times and her sadness prevented her from wanting to enter into conversation with the other women. And now, she is forced to live with a man who will not marry her, and she has no other way to be cared for than to live with this man.
Jesus doesn’t accuse her or berate her. He just states the truth. With this statement the Samaritan woman comes to believe that Jesus is a prophet. Since he is a man of God she asks him a question about religion. Where does God live? What is the real temple that holds the presence of God?
The Samaritans worshipped at Mount Gerizim where Rachel and Jacob, their ancestors, buried idols at the base of the mountain hundreds of years before. The Jews worshipped in the temple of Jerusalem.
Jesus answers her questions by saying the Jews, in fact worshipped the one true God. However, things have now changed. As of now, the time is here. Real worship happens not in a place, but in spirit and truth. Just like Jesus told Nicodemus, the wind blows where it may. The Holy Spirit is not to be contained. The woman says that she knows the Messiah is coming. With this Jesus makes the first proclamation of who he is. Jesus says “I AM.” (pause)
With this she drops her water jug and takes off running into city witnessing to her encounter with Jesus; while leaving her jug that can only hold stagnant water behind. This woman who had been avoiding others is visibly transformed. She runs to where the people are telling them about Jesus. She asks them “This can’t be the Messiah, can he?”
With this the town’s people take off to see for themselves. Many Samaritans from that city believed in Jesus because of the her testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
Jesus broke down many barriers by going to where the people of Samaria are. They are the social outcasts. They need to receive the lifegiving water that flows up from inside that can only come from an encounter with Jesus the Messiah, the savior of the world.
Something else . Jesus is rejuvenated by this encounter with this woman. He starts the conversation tired and thirsty. When the disciples come back, he is no longer hungry and he has a new vision for ministry. He proclaims the area of Samaria to be a mission field ready for the harvest. These people are ready to believe and drink deeply of the life-giving water.
The woman left behind her old jug that could only hold a limited amount of stagnant water. Aware that God has been with her through all of her life, she receives the lifegiving water flowing up from inside. She doesn’t wait for the others to come, but she goes to where they are to tell the others, no longer holding on to what held her bound, but proclaiming the Good News. What old jug do you could you leave behind and receive the lifegiving water gushing up from inside? What do we learn about Jesus from listening in on the conversation between the Samaritan woman and Jesus?
