More Than A Big Whoop - Truth!

Reformation Sunday, October 26, 2014 (John 8:31-36; with Jeremiah 31:31-34 in b.g)

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, or who were believing in him (depends on interpretation), "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free."

 

Truth? ... Later Pontius Pilate asks Jesus at a critical time in their lives, "What is truth?" Yes, what is truth to us and for us?

 

Can we even "know" truth? Some post moderns say that there is no absolute or objective truth. Their claim is that our limited personal/cultural perspective prevents us from "knowing" larger truths, if there are any. They believe then that there are only little "truths". Our perspective of truth is determined by and large by where we live, our age and gender.

 

Truth then becomes an intellectual exercise, a philosophical quest. If such a perspective is accurate, well then truth is neither life-giving nor life altering.

But let me ask - if that is all "truth" is, do the deaths of Nathan Cirillo and Patrice Vincent matter only to their friends and families, to patriotic Canadians and perhaps thousands of others who have compassionate or sentimental hearts? Or, is there something more, much more here in the deaths of these two men? Is there an objective truth that matters to all of us – to how we will live and die? How will Nathan's five year old son live without his dad? Will he grow up to be mistrusting, bitter? How will Patrice's twin sister live without her brother? Will she be dominated by hatred?

 

And how will we as a country respond to such violence? Will we graffiti mosques, make judgment on Muslims, even though few of us know many if any of those people? How will we, how are we treating or responding to people who are lonely, estranged from their families, who start down a violent path when they are quite young?

 

I don't know about you but I found myself all over the map emotionally on Wednesday. The horror of a man doing his job, being shot point blank by one he didn't even know is ... tragic. I prayed that the person or person(s) shooting wouldn't kill anyone else. I also am ashamed to admit but there is a part of me, that wanted the police, the military, to not just capture the shooter but punish him. Those feelings came to the surface as I watched events unfold. 

 

What do we do with that part of us that so easily irrupts with fear and self-righteous anger, boiling over with hatred, blame? What do with feelings even an underlying belief that if we can just somehow eradicate a violent person, or an  group of people that "things" will somehow automatically be better or alright?

 

Can violence be redemptive? Will killing Michael Zehaf-Bibeau who killed Nathan Cirillo make us safe or even safer, or even somehow "free"? ... Or is there a profound truth here?

 

Today we Lutheran Christians celebrate the  Reformation. We remember that 498 years ago Martin Luther nailed 95 theses on the doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. So what? Some might say "big whoop". What does that have to do with me, with us? If all that the 95 theses pointed to were "problems, corruption of the Church in that time and place, well then I might agree. Big whoop! For sure, there were things that needed change then. And there was change.

 

But our problems, our struggles continue. Lutherans and Roman Catholics have at times hated each other. We Lutherans have often been convinced that we are right and that "they" are wrong. Roman Catholics have often been convinced that they are right and we are wrong. From such thinking, such conviction we have wounded, insulted, injured and even killed each other. None of this is appropriate behavior for Christians! We need attitude adjustments that arise from transformed hearts - the very center of our beings, individually and collectively. We need to be changed and changing in our relationships with each other. And there has been some change in this regard. Thanks be to God!

 

Which gets to the point. For such change to occur we need help beyond ourselves. It matters not  if it's the Hadfield and McCoys or blacks and whites, aboriginals and those of us who came to this land much later. We as human beings, creatures of the earth, need help beyond ourselves to change so that we do not hate, blame, do violence to ourselves, others and the very creation God gifts us with.  I am convinced that this reality is truth beyond my limited perspective.  Regardless of any historian's bias – the murdering, plundering, hatred and genocide has been going on for time immemorial. WE MUST SEE AND KNOW THIS, about ourselves.

 

But even that isn't' the whole truth!  There is another way for life. It is not a way of ease or pretense. It is a wonderful, miraculous way.

 

This is the way of God's Son, Jesus. This is the way of God's liberating love for all people. Please notice that I say people: not people who have been reduced to stereotypes which are betrayed by generalized names like tax collectors, or presently experts or bums or call girls or any number of ethnically pejorative names that we know too well. We need to remember that when we refer to people, that they are real, flesh and blood people. Every individual, and the whole world, the cosmos, is to embraced with the love of God. In Jesus calls us to reflect this love, to in particular ways flesh out this embrace. Jesus loved not in word alone or only when things were good for him. Jesus also loved during the most difficult times in his life, when the personal cost was the greatest.

 

Jesus loved not by denying reality or forgetting about the people who were intentionally doing him wrong. Jesus loved not by seeking vengeance but by affording these same people additional opportunities to try again. Even as Jesus hangs dying on a cross, he cries out to God to forgive those who are executing him.

 

This is not what you or I would normally or naturally do. Not by a long shot! But this is Jesus' way. He refuses to pretend that everything is OK, even with himself. He also refuses to cast blame on others in order to get rid of them pretending that violence of any kind will "fix" things. 

 

Acting in obedience to God His Father, Jesus opens us to another way. Jesus allows hatred, violence and death to have their way with him, but refuses to return in kind. Somehow, as only God's work can be fleshed out, Jesus turns hatred, violence, blame and death into loving acceptance, peace, reconciliation and new life.

 

This is life with God. Such life is a gift that flows from the life, death and resurrection, the abiding love of Jesus, God's own Son. Such life involves a kind of dying and being reborn each day. There is dying to old attitudes, fear, hatred and blame. There is being reborn to new possibilities, hope in the midst of struggle and pain. There is the response of a joyful giving of oneself to God.  Without such "dying" and "rising" individually and collectively we remain stuck in ongoing cycles of violence, hatred, fear and blame.

 

So it is. We need to hear the stories of Jesus and ourselves again and again. We need to see Jesus' cross to behold truth, truth beyond ourselves but also truth that cuts to the heart. There are incredibly powerful forces that regularly seek to claim and bind our minds and hearts. We need to see the cross of Christ so that we do not live in denial of our own heart sickness. And we need to hear the words of Christ, the promises of Christ again and again, so that we are reclaimed and continually empowered to love and forgive, even as we are being loved and forgiven.

 

Make no mistake -the power of evil is real. But it's not just in Michael Zehaf- Bibeau or in the people of ISIS. This power of evil will not disappear should the efforts to execute or blame certain others whom we experience as doing evil.  

 

The power of evil is only now stayed and ultimately overcome as God puts it to death within and among ourselves and raises something new, something of God within and through us. This is the way of Jesus which can never be earned but is freely given to us and offered to all by God.  

 

This, dear people, is truth arising beyond us, begging to be lived with by us – wonderful, miraculous amazing. Isn't living in this way, incredible freedom – where fear, hatred and death die, where reconciliation, new life and love abound!  To such freedom – the freedom of God, where all can be free.              Amen.   

 

Sermon works - beyond buts!

Sermon works – beyond buts!  (Exodus 33:12-23 with Matthew 22:15-22) October 19, 2014

Maybe it's because I am getting older. Maybe it's because I'm frequently skeptical of simplistic answers, of people who claim to have "it", whatever "it" is, all figured out. This week, as often am, I found myself in the company of a young parent. That parent was agonizing with me, over the realities of giving their young child significant guidelines/boundaries, while at the same time gradually allowing that child more freedom. She wants her child to grow, physically, emotionally and spiritually. At the same time she wants her child to know that not everything is up to them.

 

While I was listening to this parent's struggles, another young adult jumped in, with all kinds of advice. I think that you may be familiar with this kind of advice. "You should do this. You should do that. And after you have done this or that, well then this and that will happen." Really? I looked carefully at the advice giver and wondered. Have you been awakened by your child shrieking because of their piercing ear ache? Have you held your child's hand while they are vomiting because of the flu? Have you rejoiced with them when they have run home with the news that they have made the team or held them as they cried because they didn't make the team. Have you suffered an insufferable pain with them when they weren't selected for the team, because some other child's parent or parents has a particular connection with that hockey, volleyball, football, basketball association. I wondered if the advice giver knew about any of that. If they did, perhaps they would realize that there is a lot more to this "parenting" thing than first meets the eye, from the "outside".

 

Maybe it's because I am getting older and I have had the privilege for 34 years of being a Pastor. Or, maybe it's because I am a slow learner. I think that I may have the beginnings of an appreciation of the complexities of communication between and among people at any time, but especially on Sunday mornings when the attempts of communication are around God and us. We hear the witness of people of God from hundreds, if not thousands of years ago. Then we audaciously but hopefully ask God to help us hear God's desire for us and among us right now.

 

This is an incredible undertaking.

 

So when I heard of a colleague resigning because the people in their parish said that the sermons they were hearing, just didn't "work for them", I could feel my blood beginning to boil. (Incidentally that's just an expression not intended to be taken literally).

           

As we hear the words of Scripture and I attempt to reflect with you upon them, there are amazing things happening. Firstly, we trust that God's Spirit is present. Yes, we trust  that God's spirit, God's breath, God's presence is actually here, blowing among us: sometimes gently as a cooling breeze off a lake on a warm summer's day; at other times like the wind on the prairies – howling in our faces, demanding that we go.

 

Since God is present the preacher can preach. During that proclamation we may hear similar or different things. Remember it is God who is doing the "blowing". God, whom we cannot see. God, who is the source of all life. God, who continues to create the universe and we human beings. God, who becomes human in Jesus because God sees our need for God to be present, to love us, to forgive us, to bring us new life and direction.  How then can anyone say that the "sermon" isn't working for them? I can certainly understand how they may not like it, might feel uncomfortable or  even comforted. They may even become convinced that the sermon was directed "at" them.  But no, I can't begin to comprehend how the sermon isn't "working for them". Even if they fall asleep during that sermon – that may be what they need. God is working to bring them new life in that moment.

 

So, while boldly trusting God, let's put our ears and hearts to this morning's text. Do you see or hear Moses? He is ticked off. He's ticked at the people whom God has recently rescued from slavery, delivered from Egypt, fed with manna and quail and given a daily water supply. Now these same people at the very first sign of adversity, while Moses is up on the mountain conversing with God and receiving life-giving laws for them, TURN THEIR BACKS ON GOD. They want something easier, something they can see, someone they can manipulate.  Moses is so ticked he wants to kill the people himself. He destroys the golden calf they have made. He grinds up its pieces mixing them with water. Then he forces the people to drink that concoction. There are consequences to their rebellion against God.

 

God had originally promised to travel with them into that promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey. But now, in the face of their rebellion, God changes God's mind. Now God will send one of God's messengers on the trek. God will not go Him/Herself. However, Moses will not settle for this change in God's mind. Moses demands that God keeps God's promise of personal accompaniment. Eventually God relents. God will go on, with, and ahead of Israel.

 

Now Moses (you have to admire his hutzpah) presses God for even more. Moses asks for more intimacy, more personal contact with God. "Show me yourself, God". But God responds: you couldn't completely and fully see me, comprehend me and live. Instead I will draw near, but you will only see my backside. For Moses, this ultimately will be enough. Due to God's assurance of God's ongoing presence Moses can move forward with the arduous task of being God's instrument in leading this stiff-necked people. There will be more trials and tribulations, as they move to the cusp of that new land.

 

And here is truth for us. God is God! We are not God. We are numbered among God's creatures. We do not, cannot and will never be able to control God. Nor we can simply "pull God out of our back pocket at our convenience. Nevertheless, we are granted an intimate relationship with God. We, like Moses can argue with God, implore God, praise God, be touched by and directed by God. This is amazing!

 

Not that any of this is easy. Jesus' response to those religious and political leaders trying to trap him in the temple was brilliant. "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's". It's true on every level. But for those who are beginning to realize that the engraved image upon our heads and hearts is not a dollar bill, or a sport's team logo or even a Canadian Maple Leaf but the cross of Jesus – what does this mean? How can we know what is Caesar's? How do we know, live with, and joyfully give to God what is God's?

 

Is our money Caesar's – belonging to a different realm of influence than God? Or, marked with the cross of Christ are we called upon to consider how every financial transaction we make will impact the rest of God's creation – other things, other people including ourselves and those we love and cherish? Recently a colleague asked her congregation to mark a cross on their debit and credit cards so that they would be reminded every time they purchased something who their allegiance actually belongs to. Such living may be at least as complex as parenting!

 

Since God chooses to love us nothing and no one can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Wow!

 

And since God loves and chooses us we are also called to joyfully serve and obey God in and with all things. What this entails in terms of our giving and living may not always be clear. Truth be told, we can't always see Jesus. Often like Moses we may only get a fleeting glimpse of God's backside. But (pun intended) it's enough. For God is God. And so, we can live, moving forward. Amen.

           

           

           

 

20/20?

ThanksgivingA14 (Luke 17:11-19 with Deut. 8:7-18 in b.g) October 12, 2014

Have you ever had this experience? You meet someone. You make judgments about them, either because of the way they have spoken, or the way they are dressed, or what they have done in your presence. But, sometime later you realize that your first impression judgments were wrong.

 

I remember first meeting Larry. He seemed – aloof, stand offish, "Easterner" (note my western prejudice), stuffy. I met Larry in my very first class at Seminary. Because of my first "impressions/judgments" I preferred to keep my distance. I didn't "like" him. But over the next three years – we became friends. Larry and his wife invited me to their house every Monday night for the most amazing suppers. I watched them struggle desiring to have children but not being able to. I taught him about football. He schooled me about leading worship with a profound sense of reverence and awe. I saw how he worked nights to support his wife and eventually new born child. All this, while taking a full course load at graduate school. There was so much more to see in Larry than my first "impression". And eventually Larry asked me to be the godfather of their first born daughter.

 

Have you ever had that kind of experience – where you thought you saw, you understood but you really didn't?

 

How do you "see" your life right now? Take a moment. Identify the amazing realities in your life and the lives of others. Name them. Thank God for them. Identify the incredible realities surrounding you in the world – near and afar. How are  you celebrating these? What could we do with all of these?

           

I share a second story. John was 49 years old. John was a man of deep and abiding Christian faith. He was very aware of God's presence – at the high school where he taught, with his wife and three sons, in his church, at the businesses they ran. John attempted to respect and honor God with all of his life. The first ten percent of his income went to the work of the church, missions and charity work in their community and the world. He worshiped God every Sunday. He rested on Sunday. He prayed and read Scripture daily. He was scrupulously honest with others. He was also compassionate. His life wasn't easy. John wasn't perfect but he did attempt to live his life with both joy and obedience to God.

 

When John was 47 he was diagnosed with bone cancer. The doctors did everything they could. He, with the support of his family and church, tried alternative treatments. They even travelled to Texas. Friends had referred him.

 

But now John was critically ill. He had lost a ton of weight. Some of his nurses just popped in and out. A few of his doctors came less frequently. One night the elders of John's church came by to pray for John, to lay hands on his head and anoint him with oil. John's family desperately hoped for a cure. They believed it would happen. They took the promises of Scripture very seriously.

 

Later that night, John died.

 

After his death John's family continued to be gathered around his bedside. His wife and three sons – 21, 18 and 12 were devastated. Being people of faith, they struggled to understand. The oldest, sobbing uncontrollably, said, " I really thought God would cure Dad." A long, difficult silence followed. Then the middle son, holding his older brother, said, " I think, God did cure Dad"...

 

At the city gate ten people stood. They remained at a distance from Jesus. Suffering from a variety of diseases they were compelled to separate themselves from all others who were "well". This meant forced separation from their own families and friends. They could not live inside the city gate.  As Jesus approaches they cry out to him for mercy. Maybe they are expecting a hand out. He gives them so much more. Jesus tells them, "Go, show yourselves to the priest".

 

At that time when one was separated from the community because of their ailment, but was then somehow cured, they had to first go to the priest to be declared "OK" or "clean" before they could return home. Amazingly, these ill ones start out to the priest just as Jesus has commanded. On the way they are cured!

 

Can you imagine what that would be like for them? Jesus gives them an entirely new lease on life. Now they can return home. Now they will be reunited with their husband, wife, mother, father, children. You bet they are on their way to the priest. That's just what Jesus told them to do.

 

But one of them, when he sees that he is cured returns to Jesus. This one is so overcome with joy that he literally throws himself at Jesus' feet. This one is beginning to realize that somehow Jesus is OF GOD. This man, a Samaritan, one who wouldn't even be welcomed in the temple of that day, now is at the feet of the Son of God. Jesus speaks to him, "Your faith has made you well (or we would say, "whole"). Your faith has saved you!" 

 

Wholeness involves a LOT MORE than being cured. This man is now not only cured but in being moved to thank Jesus is filled with joy and gratitude. 

 

Oh, dear people, this Thanksgiving Sunday what do we see? To be sure, there is inequity around us and sometimes within us. There is violence, suffering, injustice. Yet, do we also see more than that? Might we see that the people acting violently are also children of God who have somehow lost their way? Do we see that the victims of violence are also children of God who need help, both from God and then also through us? All of us daily need to receive the love, the support, the forgiveness of God. Each one of us, all of us need new life, insight, joy and healing. 

 

Taking stock of our own lives – do we see that the source of everything we have and are, of all that we will have and be, is God? God knows us, even before we were in our mother's wombs. God accompanies us through all of life. God promises to usher us through death to new life in Jesus. Do we actually see and realize this?

 

Or is the reality of the grace, mercy and deep love of God for us and all people, all creation, merely words, or sometime thoughts? Are we like the nine, being cured but not really whole?  Do we disregard or forget the One who wills to birth us to new, joyful, generous life each and every day?

 

Oh people – do we see or are we blind?

 

By God's grace, we can actually see beyond first impressions, even through our joy and pain. WE can experience God's loving hand of mercy. Then with joy we can regularly throw ourselves at Jesus' feet unapologetically saying, singing, whispering, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU: for new life, for new opportunities to live, to love, to forgive, to hope.

 

Oh Lord, Jesus, help us to see, to run, to live restored and whole. Thank you! Amen.

 

Not "Our Way", Thank God

Pentecost 17a14 – Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 with Matthew 21:33-46 in b.g. October 5, 2014

How many of you like being told what to do? (come on now – be honest)

 

Why not? (listen for responses)

 

I have to confess, not deny – me too. I don't like being told what to do! I don't like being told how to do something, unless I ask for help. And, there is this little thing of my "maleness". I am a man. I RARELY like to ask for help.  Instead, I like to do my own thing: from driving my dad's car the very first time at a speed I thought I could handle on snow and ice – to eating whatever I want, when I want it, to delusionally thinking that I can control a lot of things myself. Can you identify?

 

But where does "doing our own thing" get us?

 

Where does doing our own thing get us in our relationships with other people? When we do what we want when we want – do we actually hear each other, actively care about the other? When we do what we want when we want – are we listening for God?

 

Let me tell you – it's very important to hear God, to respect God, to obey God.

 

You might ask, why?

Well, today's first lesson underlines why.

 

The primary message of the first lesson is the overarching message of the Bible. This is a word from God to each and every person that will ever live. That includes you and me. This message is a living word because it echoes throughout history not merely as a sentimental memory – but as a direct word from God to us. As we begin to hear God, well, everything within and around us begins to change.

 

At first God is speaking to the people of "Israel", those people who regularly strove with or even against God. That's what the word, Israel, means. But then aren't we all in some way Israel? Don't we regularly strive with God – questioning, discounting, wondering – where, why, how....?

 

Once again in the midst of such human striving God initiates the conversation. God is speaking with a people who were actively dying in the trap of slavery in Egypt. Caught in this trap, they cry out to God. God hears and delivers them.  They are being freed from that slavery – set on a trek to a new land, a new life filled with  incredible possibilities.

 

But early on in this journey they are already beginning to forget God. They groan. They complain. Such action betrays a reality. Even though they are no longer in Egypt they are still ensnared in a form of slavery: to blindness. They have forgotten whose they are, whom they can trust, who has guided and will guide them, who alone can deliver them to new life and hope. They are forgetting God.

 

So God speaks to them - to us. "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of slavery!" God is the One who loves them so much that God acts to save them. It is God who can and does that. They must never, ever forget this.

 

Do we know this? Do we know, listen and speak with this God?

 

Let me ask you, who has known and formed us in our mother's wombs? Who has gifted us with incredible talents - personally and corporately? Who is the One who wills to continue to lead us through all of life – joy and pain, successes and failures, even through all of the death that is part of what we call "life", to new life?

 

Is it our investors or our personal accomplishments? Is it our parents or our children, our families? Each of these may have their place in our lives. But they are not nor can they ever be God.  They cannot free us from the places where we are stuck, trapped, leading us forth to new life. Only God has this power, that capacity.

 

So God, out of love for us, speaks. "I am the LORD your God."

 

I emphasize the possessive pronoun, your. God is not God in some abstract, ideological way. Instead God is our God, not possessed by us, but choosing us personally and collectively, to be God's people.  You see, God loves us.

 

How then shall we respond, to God loving and choosing us? ...

 

I remember holding each of our daughters moments after they were born. You need to know - I am incapable of hammering a nail straightly. I frequently miss four foot putts.  I often open my mouth and then insert my foot. Sometimes I deeply hurt the people I love with careless words or actions. But I have been blessed to hold each one of our children as new born babes. There was and is so much more than just Martha and myself in them.  How humbled I was, how humbled I am to think about how inadequate I am to be the father they so desperately need. But then I also remember God. These girls are each God's daughters. God will help and direct them. I am called to listen for God's direction in my attempts to be their earthly father. 

 

This is a microcosm of life. God says to us , "I  am the Lord your God.  Our response can be one of incredible gratitude. 

 

God is the source of that is good, of all that is filled with wonder. Our gratitude can be shown with words and deeds, the giving of "our" time and talents. In that there are further blessings, for us and for the world.

 

So it is, God gives us the commandments. God loves the world and God loves us. Therefore God desires that we live in ways which continually respect and honor God. How can we hurt others when we are aware that they too are God's children, our brother, our sister? How can we act thinking only thinking of our wants or needs, when we are aware that we all belong to God?  

 

So, we are called to treat God's name respectfully. God's name stands for God. This may seem like a small thing but remember, God alone is God.

 

God knows we need rest regularly every week. If we don't regularly rest we become ill in a variety of ways. Time is not "ours" but is God's. God entrusts us with time.  

 

God knows – parents are important. After all, God is our parent. So God commands that we listen to, obey and respect our parents. 

 

It is God who decrees that all of life has value. Economic status, mental capacity, age, gender, sexual preference – nothing can diminish the value of all life to God. As our Lutheran youth were reminded this summer, we all are all worth it. So, God wills us to treat each other and ourselves as most precious beings.

           

Obedience to this God who brings us life matters because God is the one and only God and God loves us. Disregarding God's commandments results in brokenness, even death to ourselves, to others, to this world. 

 

Many Jewish people have this declaration and resulting commandment fixed over the entrances to their homes. "Hear O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might."

 

I suspect that they do this because they are aware of the danger. We are human beings, creatures of the earth. Nevertheless we can easily gravitate to thinking that we are independent, self made, that we can live this life on our own, on our terms, our "way".

 

But in this, we are wrong. When we attempt to live "our way", we continually damage and kill ourselves, each other and the habitat that God blesses us with.

 

Still, God doesn't give up on us. God wills to steer us, to place us on a different path, trajectory. Even now, God's Spirit moves within and among us, creating humility, generosity and joy. God begs us to be still and know God. New, amazing beginnings are possible because of God.

 

Dare we listen, rejoice, obey and live?   Amen

Grace

Texts – Ezekiel 2:8-3:11; Ephesians 2:4-10; Matthew 9:9-13 (Festival of St. Matthew, September 21, 2014)

 

What is the nature/essence of the Christian life? Nothing like a light question to start with.

 

I am now 60 years old. (I know, I know I don't look nearly that old). One of the benefits of being 60, at least when I can remember something, is that I am privileged to look back over my life. As a Pastor I am privileged to look back at the interaction of the lives of many different people. Not only am I allowed to look back. But in that reflection I can question the nature of Christian life – and particularly my Christian life, such as it is.

 

As I do so, I remember one of my seminary professors saying to our class about a week before our final exams, "When I think that you will soon be Pastors, I am caused to pray fervently". Thank God for his prayers. I pray that they continue.

 

As Pastors we are called to preach and preside every week – no matter what. No matter how we feel – physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. We are continually called to preach, preside, visit and offer counsel in the light of Gospel. Honestly, there are days and nights when we don't feel like doing any of that. There are times when my own state has been so fragile, so frazzled that I may not even know if I actually believe what I am called to proclaim. There are days and nights when we walk or limp into emergency rooms where people are dying or have died, people of all ages. There are times when we are called to sit, even mediate with couples who have vowed to love one another but who can no longer live together. There have been evenings I have headed into my 90^th meeting of the year, to debate that all encompassing question as to what kind of carpet should be laid in the narthex. Underneath that debate is what "Mary" might think about that. In those times we may want to throw our hands up in the air and say, "to hell with it". But then after one of those awful meetings, one or more of our council members invite us out or over for a beer. In those moments they give us a window into their hearts – their joy, their pain, their dream for something that will make a difference at least for some. Then we no longer want to throw our hands in the air in exasperation. Perhaps we utter a deep and heart-felt thank you..., even a thank you God!

 

I remember my worst sermon. To the best of my recollection that sermon was preached on my internship. I was 23. I had done incredible textual studies, considered the variants, the parallels. I had fashioned stories that painted what I knew was the main thought of the text. My sermon would be grand. But two minutes in, even I could tell – I wasn't connecting. So, with great bravado, actually desperation, I abandoned my manuscript. Then in a halting and repetitive manner I went on for another 5 minutes before gracefully uttering an Amen. Even my mother upon greeting me at the door said, "You'll do better next time son." That was even more deflating.

 

Five weeks later an older woman of the congregation knocked on my office door. I had known her since being a babe in arms. This woman asked, "Pastor, do you remember the sermon that you gave 5 weeks ago?" I nodded, groaning inwardly. I had hoped everyone had forgotten. "Well", she said, "Before I came to church that morning my 18 year old granddaughter told me that she was pregnant"... Now the older woman looked at her feet, tears cascading over her face, falling upon the floor."I love my granddaughter Pastor. I had such hopes for her. She is smart. She would be educated. She will have opportunities that no one else in our family has had. And now, this... I told her right then 'I am so disappointed in you'. I told her that I don't want to talk to her anymore. Then I came to church. You said in your sermon that God loves us, just as we are. You said we see how much God loves us in Jesus' life, suffering, death and resurrection. You said that in Jesus God forgives us everything. You said that because we are being forgiven, with God's help we can let go of other's wrongs – whatever they are. I knew right then, that GOD WAS TALKING TO ME. I need my granddaughter's forgiveness for what I said to her.  So today, I told her I was so sorry for hurting her. I promised to support her in whatever she decides to do with her baby." Then this older woman said, "I just wanted you to know". She hugged me and left.

 

What a humbling and a joyful experience for me. I definitely fumbled the ball that morning in my preaching. But somehow God uses our efforts making something out of them.

 

Grace – mercy. It doesn't depend on us – really! This is our hope as we walk into the many rooms of our lives, with different people and different circumstances. We don't have the answers. Yet we are called to somehow bear within us and around us the creative and redeeming Word of God, Christ Himself. We don't know how. Sometimes we aren't even sure why. But here we are.

 

This – the love and mercy of God, in and with Jesus is at the root of any and all Christian life.

 

I remember visiting an older Norwegian woman in a hospital. The very next week one of her grandsons was to be ordained as a Lutheran Pastor. I said, "Beda you must be very proud of Bruce." She smiled. Then she said something I will never forget. " One thing I pray for him, Pastor."  "What is that?" I asked.  Smiling, she said, "Humility. I pray that he always remembers that God is the One who is doing all that is good and wonderful."

 

Humility – not self effacement but humility. Remembering all the places we have been privileged to be, the people we have been called to love – some so easy, gracious and kind;  others more irascible, ornery, difficult to love. Humility – the source of our care, our concern, our ability to keep on keeping on is not in ourselves. Humility: we need to keep availing ourselves of the love of God in intentional ways so that we do not forget. Beda was on to something.

 

Maybe that's what God is saying in urging Ezekiel to eat the scroll. We also are to hear, to be opened to God's word to us: a word of love, encouragement, direction in any and all circumstances. Sometimes the word is difficult. Sometimes it is sweet. But it is ever intended for good.

 

Many of the realities that are good, that come from God the source of all goodness, will lead us into joy. Sometimes such joy results in toe tapping, hand clapping, back slapping hugs touching the essence of whose we are. Presiding at a baptism with a parishioner who wasn't sure that he believed but then one day told his wife, "Yes, I do believe. I do want our daughter to be baptized". The joy of being with people who have just decided that they will travel together on life's journey and they want to tell you first.  Joy -when someone comes to peaceful terms with their approaching death. They can genuinely say, "It's OK. I know whose I am.  I trust that God will help me and guide me." Such joy is beyond euphoria or happiness. 

 

Such joy and humility emanate from the grace of God.

 

Lastly, part of the essence of the Christian life is what the writer to the Ephesians says in the final verse of today's pericope: For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life."

 

We could debate ad infinitum the meaning of good works. I am not for a minute attempting to say that good works have anything to do with God being gracious to us. What I am attempting to say is this: since God gifts us with so much, since God delivers us from so much, FOR SO MUCH – let's boldly live the so much.

 

We can boldly be who we are. We can speak and write, dance and paint, love and forgive, dream and advocate uniquely, personally and collectively. We do not need to be ashamed or hesitant. It is God who opens the doors – in hospitals, homes, council chambers, schools, at work – maybe even synod offices and church buildings. We are called to follow the One who loves first, this Jesus the Christ, however we feel. Somehow, some way God provides even through us. It is miraculous, humbling, joyful, difficult – all grace. Amen.

 

Seeing: Ourselves and God

Holy Cross Day, September 14, 2014

I Cors. 1:18-4 with Numbers 21:4b-9 & John 3:13-17 in b.g.)

A lot of what we do as Christians seems pretty crazy, illogical, even foolish. Do you know what I mean? This morning you could have chosen to stay in bed, go, play some golf, watch football or head off with someone you cherish to IHOP for some pancakes. But instead you have come here to worship God, and to give an offering to the mission of the church. Of course you could have also stayed home and watched "church" or chosen to view a movie that's escapist or outrageously funny. But instead you have come here to hear of God and the reality of our human condition.

 

But fewer and fewer people (in North America) are doing what you have chosen to do today. We live in such a beautiful place that has so many opportunities. Why be part of a Christian community? Why come to hear a middle aged preacher speak on ancient texts? Why come to break bread and share wine with others, others whom you may otherwise not associate with? Why make the sign of the cross upon yourself?

 

Why indeed?

 

We live in one of the wealthiest nations in the world. For most of us here, life is good. We can travel. We have beautiful homes. We have an abundance of material goods – opportunities and privileges that even our parents and grandparents never dreamed of. We have credit cards, credit lines. In many ways the world is our oyster. We are tempted: to believe that we are self-sufficient, even independent. Who needs God?

 

But are we, self sufficient? What if the one we love the most betrays us? What if one or more of our friends deserts or betrays us? What if we are involved in an accident and suddenly can no longer work, walk, think or remember? What if illness strikes us or those we love?

 

Honestly facing our own thoughts, feelings, perceptions and privileges, can we seriously say that we are self-sufficient?

 

As a pastor and specifically your pastor, I often am confronted with the inescapable reality that none of us are self sufficient. Globally we are just beginning to come to terms with this. There are consequences to our repeatedly taking from this earth and others without restoring, giving and sharing. There are consequences to arrogantly believing that we are self sufficient without considering where all of this is leading us. Are we concerned for those who will come "after us"?

 

As a pastor and your pastor, I do hear confessions: both my own and others. I am privileged to hear people as they trust me with their joys and struggles, hopes and dreams, greatest disappointments, personal brokenness and reconciliation. We are anything but self-sufficient! Our hearts are often restless – even when, perhaps especially when we "have" so much.

 

Augustine was right centuries ago when he said (paraphrasing here) that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.

 

We have a built in need to walk in harmony, closeness with God, the creator of the universe, our Creator. Until and unless we do so walk, we frequently run around like chickens with their heads cut off, or like rats in a maze. Then we live with delusion. We make attempts at pretense: that we are someone, something else than what and who we actually are.  

 

How can we walk closer, in harmony with God? Can we human beings, creatures of the earth, do anything to "make" this happen?

 

Many say YES – pray this way; fast; give at least ten per cent of everything you make to charities; go off on a retreat; seek out a spiritual advisor; get away for awhile. Others say study, read, learn different languages. Still others decide to ingest chemicals. All of these "ways" suggest their proponents, will lead us beyond ourselves to "discover" God.

 

But, can a worm "know" me, have a mutual relationship with me, even if it crawls up my leg? Can we who are finite, broken, know the infinite holy God because of things we do or undertake?

 

The Scriptures repeatedly tell us that God miraculously, steadfastly reaches out to us! Yes, God seeks us! So, St. Paul says, "We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

 

Christ crucified: executed by being hung on a cross even as he is spat upon, stripped, publicly ridiculed by the powers that be. The Jewish people saw such an execution as a curse in the same way we would view one who is executed in an electric chair, through lethal injection or by hanging as being "cursed". Aren't they getting what they deserve? Moreover, how could such execution bring new life with God and others to anyone?

 

No wonder that Jesus' own people had problems believing that his going to the cross would make any difference for them in their relationship with God. No wonder that the learned of that day saw Jesus' cross as nonsense. Surely, if God dare become a human being God wouldn't be born in a backwoods town. Surely God wouldn't allow God's own self to be spat upon, shamed, stripped and murdered by mere mortals. God wouldn't do that. God couldn't do that!

 

But here's the miracle. God takes all the powers of evil, death and human rebellion into and on God's own self in the cross of Jesus. This is so contrary to human "ways" that many reject this as being impossible or the ruminations of the "religiously naive".

 

Yet, we desperately need God. We need to God to enter into our "stuff": the crap we get ourselves into, the sometimes horrific thoughts we direct towards others, the hurtful things that others do to us. How we can hurt those whom we love, including creation. How we are hurting! Can you hear the groaning right now? From floods and droughts, to wars and betrayal.

 

Many ask, "Where is God?" They either believe that there is not any God. Or, they are convinced that is there is a god, that god must function in their image: to reward those whom they approve, to hate those whom they hate, to deliver them from any and all serious suffering. They think that they are pretty "good" people. Can we identify with such thinking?

 

But such a "god" is no God. Such a "god" is some creation of their or our minds, desires, ill conceived dreams.

 

Instead, the one and only God, the Creator of the universe becomes a human being, born of a young girl in a backwoods place. As He grows this Jesus reaches out to everyone – to honestly care. He reaches out to all because He loves. Loving so much he empties himself of his power. The powers that be cannot stand the truth, the reality that they are not god, nor in control. So, they nail this God in the flesh to a tree. On that cross we see both God in the flesh and ourselves. Our hatred, our fear, our apathy, our belief that the power of death is what wins – all can be seen right there. His words both affirm and confound us. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" ... "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." ... "It is finished."  

 

In our darker moments we think, "That's it, that's 'life'. Death is the end. Violence is often the means. If we are lucky, we can avoid both for as long as possible."

 

But such thinking is a lie. Death is not the end. Death: to ourselves – our selfishness, fear, hatred, apathy, consuming anger and drives to get 'more' – is God's means to God's end. God's purpose, God's end, is new life with God, with each other, with creation.

 

The cross of Jesus shows us all that, points us to all that and draws us to God. We cannot escape the truth of ourselves as we see the cross. But there, at the cross, we also are encountered by the love of God – our hope!

 

For the cross is God's wisdom. God knows how to draw us in. God shows us ourselves and then lovingly moves us beyond ourselves to God. On the third day. Yes, on the third day, Jesus is raised from death, hatred and violence. He speaks to us, "Don't be afraid. See my wounds. Go and tell!"

 

Could God loves us? Could God forgive us? Could God enable even us, as broken as we are to both experience and share new life? Yes, oh yes, my people. See the cross of Christ. Live from that One. For as crazy as this seems to us, it is God's way, to new life for us and the world. Amen.