November 8, 2009 Pentecost 23 Mark 12:38-44

The young couples’ Sunday School class was studying the story of Abraham and Sarah, who in their 90’s were blessed with their first child – Isaac.  “What lesson,” the teacher asked, “do we learn from this story?”  A young mother blurted out, “They waited until they could afford it before having kids!”

 

I like this little joke because it opens our eyes to the background of the poor widow woman we meet in our gospel reading.  On one hand we know almost nothing about her.  She gets all of five seconds of “air time” in Jesus’ ministry.  Jesus has sat down opposite the treasury in the temple in Jerusalem.  He’s watching people put money in.  Among the wealthy donors in steps this poor widow who puts in two small copper coins.  They’re basically worthless.  But Jesus calls his disciples and says to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.”  And then she’s gone from the scene.  That’s it.  The Bible never records whether Jesus actually spoke to her or anything else.

 

But she is far more than just a cameo appearance in the gospel about Jesus.  We actually know a great deal about her.  She was a widow and was poor.  That means that she had been married and her husband has died.  I immediately imagine her as being old, but that may not be the case.  She was just as likely young; and given life expectancies, maybe even in her twenties or thirties.  If this is the case, then for some reason none her husband’s brothers are interested in her.  Remember, if a brother died another brother was expected to marry her.  If he refused then she was out of luck.  Maybe her husband had no other brothers.

 

She’s out alone.  That means that if she is young she has had no children – or they have died.  Without children there will be no one to care for her when she is old.

 

Or perhaps she was elderly and her husband had died.  None of her children were caring for her, if she had children.  And if she didn’t she’s doubly looked down upon.  She is a woman without a man – so she has no status.  And, if she couldn’t have children even the other women around would look at her with disdain, for a woman’s value was measured by how many sons she bore.  No children at all meant that something was fundamentally wrong with a woman.

 

Whatever her case may be, she is living a hard life caused by circumstances that were probably out of her control.  She’s a victim of social and economic structures.  Yet, she takes the two pennies that she has and gives them to the temple treasury.  Why? I wonder.  Was she hoping for a miracle?  Did she think it would buy God’s favor?  She certainly didn’t think it would do anything of significance.  What are two cents compared to the annual budget of that temple?  Nothing.  What are two cents compared to the $200,000 budget of this church?  Nothing.

 

If you filled out your pledge card and said you’d give even two cents per week I think I’d take you aside and say, “Look, thanks for the offering.  The gesture is wonderful.  However, two cents per week at 52 weeks only comes out to $1.04.  Your offering envelops cost $2 in and of themselves plus there’s all the work to record, deposit and process that gift.  We’d be better off if you just kept it.”

 

It hasn’t happened for several years, but there have been times when we’ve gotten memorial gifts from people that were so small that it cost us more to send the thank you than we actually received.  It doesn’t happen with a single donation, but I remember a couple times getting checks for $10 and then a note attached, “In memory of [so and so], please send thank you’s to the following four families…”  I appreciate what they were trying to do, but letterhead, envelops, and postage alone cost the value of the gift; even forgetting the time involved to write the thank yous and prepare the mailings.

 

I don’t want to mock anyone’s giving, but I think we need to remember that; because from all measures of value, this widow’s offering… was a joke.

 

Jesus praises her.  It has nothing to do with the amount; obviously.  Why she gave it we don’t know.  But she did.  She, who had been caught in all the unfairness her world could throw at her; she who had no hope for a happy future; she who had nothing and no one to go home to; she gives both of her insignificant copper coins to the treasury.

 

Where was her supper going to come from?  Who knows?  That doesn’t matter really.  What would two cents buy you?  You’d have to run to 98 other stores with those little “Take a penny, leave a penny,” containers in order to buy something from the dollar menu at McDonalds.  No, worse, she’d have to come up with several cents more to pay the tax too.

 

Jesus points her out because she gave all she had to God and it still added up to nothing.  Have you ever felt like a nobody?  Have you ever felt worthless?  Have you ever felt that you had nothing worth giving?  I hope not.  But this widow certainly was a worthless nobody to anyone with a social measuring stick.

 

This woman’s action was praiseworthy because out of her poverty and without reservation she gave her whole living to God.  That’s real trust!  That’s real confidence!  But even more is meant here.

 

We are at the end of Mark 12.  Remember, Mark’s gospel is short.  It only has 16 chapters, and chapter 16 is so short it’s hardly worth counting.  So, we’re getting to the end of Jesus’ ministry.  In fact, this widow marks the end of Jesus’ public ministry.  Everything else in the gospel isn’t said in public.  It is private conversations with the disciples.  Her gift, the end of Jesus’ public ministry foreshadows what’s going to happen just a few days later – the crucifixion.  There the Son of God will be strung up, also helpless, without money, without friends, and with no status measurable by anyone who has a social measuring stick.  God does amazing things with nothing.

 

That brings me to conclude with an aside, but something very relevant.  The gospel of Mark puts the cross central.  Mark sees the crucifixion as the ultimate expression of the ultimate power in the universe – Love.  We need to remember that and keep that at the core of our faith.  I remind you of that because of our second reading from Hebrews.  There’s nothing in and of itself that stands out, but it does raise the idea of Christ’s second coming.

 

I’m sure you’re aware of many churches who build their entire belief system around preparing for Christ’s return.  They talk about it all the time.  I don’t want to minimize that at all, it’s just that churches like that tend to get a lot of press coverage, and in our culture which is subtly growing ever more anti-Christian every day these teachings become a real mocking point.  Christians are portrayed as ignorant simpletons with far fetched and fantastic beliefs.

 

Again, I don’t mean to minimize or belittle them, but the truth is, you don’t need elaborate teachings about “the second coming” for solid working Christian faith that will carry you every day and through every thing.  The truth is the Bible’s teaching about Christ’s return is thin.  There isn’t much of it; and that’s for good reason.  Because it isn’t all that important when compared to the message of the cross.  Proclaim Christ and him crucified.  Live Christ and him crucified.  Be Love as the ultimate power in the universe, expressed in its ultimate form on the cross and you will have faith to move mountains.  You will have faith for every situation.  Don’t worry about it.  Let God take care of the details.  You worry about what you are doing with God’s help today for people now.  That is certainly what the widow was doing.  And though she had nothing she had everything.  Amen

November 1, 2009 All Saints Day Revelation 21:1-6a

Sometimes people mistakenly think that because I’m a pastor I get to do whatever I want around here.  Not so, to be sure.  And by the time this sermon’s done you’ll probably think that’s a good thing, because you probably wouldn’t like it if I got to do things my way.

 

One thing I would love to change, but can’t, is the baptismal font.  It’s a fine little pedestal with its ceramic red bowl on top.  It was recently refurbished by Bill Kaiser, the man who made it in the first place, and it was refurbished in memory of this guy (hold up portrait) of Ernst Reissig, the founding pastor of St. John’s.  Now that makes for a nice symbol, that the baptismal font, where Christian life begins for a person, is in memory of the person who got this whole church started 110 years ago.  But that still doesn’t mean that I like it.  If I could have my way I’d have something very different.

 

No, I don’t want something bigger or fancier.  And no, I don’t want something with running water like Transfiguration Lutheran Church has.  And I don’t want a big pool where we could do full emersion baptisms, like Sacred Heart Cathedral has.

 

If I could have my way I wouldn’t have this baptismal font.  And I wouldn’t buy one from an ecclesiastical arts supplier.  If I could have my way I’d go down to Jeff Jarmusz of Jarmusz-Cotton Funeral Home and order a coffin to use as the baptismal font.  And I bring it up here, and move out the little pedestal we have, and I’d put it back there where you come in the door, and I’d open the lid, and I’d fill it with water.

 

When it is time for a baptism, infant or adult, I’d fully submerge the person in the water in the coffin.  Don’t think the idea is original to me.  Some churches, especially in South America, do use coffins for baptismal fonts!

 

I don’t think I have to explain the symbolism of using a coffin for baptism.  Baptism is being born again.  But before you can be born again you have to die.  Otherwise there’d be two of you running around.  Now I know it might seem morbid and sick to have a scene where an infant, dressed in a white robe (probably a family heirloom baptismal gown) is dunked into a casket full of water.  We like to think of baptism as a sweet cleansing sort of thing.  We chortle when an infant cries and screams in a baptism.  It’s cute.  There’s nothing cute about a coffin.

 

And how would you like it if word on the street about St. John’s was, “Oh, that’s the weird church that has a coffin in the back.  Did you know, they actually baptize people in it!?!  How sick!”  No, you wouldn’t want to have it my way here.

 

But here is why I want it.  Baptism is as much about dying as it is rising to new life.  And before your skin crawls because of the morbidity of the idea, consider this.  Baptism is as much about dying as it is rising to new life.  In baptism you die to the world and rise again in God’s kingdom.  There is a certain defiance to baptism.  We should rejoice at the death because we are cheating Death from the life of a person.

 

When you vividly realize how you die in baptism you do not fear death.  You can say, “Been there, done that.  Still here to talk about it.”  You also realize how you have died to the many pointless pursuits people commit their lives to.  How many things do people do that lead nowhere?  Lots of things.  But you have been freed from that.  You are freed from the pointless.  It is so gone from your life that you’ve died to it.  So don’t let it back into your life.  You are now truly alive in the life of Christ.  That life isn’t fully realized yet.  But it will be when your body does finally cease to function and it dies.

 

That is the great message of All Saints Sunday.  It is the great message of baptism.  That we are people of the future.  The future, God’s future, is drawing us forward.  We are being drawn forward into the new heaven and new earth that Revelation talks about.  It is a time when God’s home will be among mortals.  Death and dying will be no more.  Pain and crying will be no more.  Hurt, anguish, hatred, and destruction will be no more.  It is a wonderful future.  Live for it.  Look for it.  You are baptized into it.  Certainly do not fear it.

 

There’s a verse of a hymn, and I can’t remember what hymn it is, but it goes like this, “May I fear the grave as little as I fear my bed.”  That is the comforting truth baptism provides for you.  If baptism isn’t about death then it’s not about much at all.

 

There are countless connections between baptism and death.  We have the big paschal candle in the back of the sanctuary.  We light it at baptisms and at funerals – and on All Saints Day.   If your funeral takes place at this church your coffin will be rolled down the center aisle and it will stop at the candle, which will have been moved to the front.  The light of your baptism will be there to overshadow your physical death.

 

We will dedicate the Memorial Garden at the end of this service.  That dedication ends at the garden itself.  But it will begin in here – you guessed it – at the baptismal font.  It is important to connect baptism, life, light, hope, and even death all together.

 

You probably still think I’m totally nuts about a coffin for a baptismal font.  That’s okay.  I think old Ernst Reissig may actually have been okay with the idea.  I’ll have to ask him when I get a chance in the resurrection.  Maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe he’d reject the idea in horror.  But until then, I’ll believe I have at least one friend in the way a baptismal font should be.

October 25, 2009 Reformation Sunday Romans 3:19-28

Can you imagine what would be the results if God ever went for psychiatric therapy?  The conclusions would be pretty clear.  God would have an obsessive-compulsive savior complex.  That’s sounds silly, but it’s true.  And it’s a good way to give a background to our second reading from Romans.

Romans 3:19-28 is a densely packed theological teaching.  I’m barely going to scratch the surface of it in this sermon.  The two things I want to point out are faith and righteousness.  Notice in verse 21, “the righteousness of God has been disclosed…“  Verse 22, “the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ…“  Verse 25, “He did this to show his righteousness…“  And verse 26, “…he himself is righteous…“

What is righteousness?  That’s a theological word we throw around, but don’t easily understand.  Righteousness can refer to ethics – living rightly by the rules.  That’s the way we usually think of righteousness.  A righteous person is a law abiding citizen.  Criminals are unrighteous.  But that isn’t the type of righteousness Paul has in mind as he’s writing here.  He means righteousness as right-relationship between God and people.

It is kind of silly to say God is righteous in an ethical sense.  Of course he is!  God makes the rules and if he breaks them, then he just makes new rules to be righteous.  But God is righteous in a relationship sense is another thing entirely.

Paul uses some theological ideas we don’t really consider anymore.  It goes something like this.  Humanity broke from relationship with God in the fall with Adam.  God sought to restore that relationship in the covenant with Abraham.  That covenant was basically that Abraham’s offspring would be God’s chosen people for a relationship.  In Moses and the Law the ground rules of that relationship were laid out.  But people didn’t regard them or live by the love that was behind them.  So, through Jesus God brought about the fulfillment of that Law and opened the door of relationship with God to all people.

That’s Paul’s theology in a nut shell.  And do you see how you could say God is obsessive-compulsive with a savior complex?  God has tried and worked over and over again to restore the waywardness of our lives.  Finally in Jesus God brought about the ultimate act of reconciliation with us.  That is what the Romans text is all about.

But why all this in the first place?  Why would God create a creature that would need so much work to be in relationship with?  Perhaps that’s another question for a psychiatric session with God.  The conclusion of that one might be that God is just plain nuts!  But here’s the deal.  We’ll never know the answer to that one.  What we do know is that God has made us and given us freedom.  God gave us freedom so that love could be genuine.  We’ve talked before about how without freedom there cannot be true love.  Only when you have the option not to love can you truly love.  And so, if love is the ultimate power in the universe, freedom must have it’s place too.  But this freedom is a challenge to grasp.

Look at the Jews we meet in the gospel reading.  Jesus tells them that if they know the truth the truth will make them free.  And they reply that they are children of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone.  We should laugh at this, because of course they have been slaves to just about everyone:  the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and at that time they were effectively slaves of the Romans.  They are blind to their own history which was one of almost constant enslavement.  How could they be so blind to it?

Yet we who so greatly value our freedom can similarly overlook our enslavement.  In his book A Reasonable Faith Tony Campolo gives this example:
Every May I can count on some student coming into my office, sitting down, looking across the desk at me, and saying, “Doc, I don’t think I’ll be coming back to school next semester.”
Trying to act professional, I’ll rip off my glasses and intently ask, “Pray tell – why?”
He’ll bury his head in his hands and moan, “I need time, I need time.”
If I ask why he needs time, I can predict the answer.  He’ll say, “I need time… time to find myself.”  Sometimes it seems as though most of the young people in the Western world are trying to find themselves.
The student almost inevitably goes on to say, “Doc, I’m tired of playing all the roles that have been prescribed for me by society.  I’m tired of being the person my family expects me to be, the person the church expects me to be, the person the school expects me to be, the person my friends expect me to be.  I’ve got to peel away each of these socially prescribed identities.  I’ve got to peel away each of these socially dictated roles.  Then may be I can come to grips with the core of my personality, the real ground of my being.”
When confronted with such a passionate tirade, I usually respond with a retort provided by Paul Tournier and say, “Fella, suppose that after you peel away each of these socially prescribed identities, after you tear away each of these socially imposed selves, after you peel away each of these socially dicted roles – you discover you’re an onion!”
Now that’s a real possibility.  For just as an onion is nothing more than the sum total of its skins, so it may be that the human personality is nothing more than the sum total of all the roles that person has learned to play.  It just may be that after you strip away all of your socially prescribed identities and take the long journey into you inner self and get there – hi, ho, nobody’s home! (Pg. 73-74)

Campolo goes on to say, “If there was such a thing as a self waiting to be found, undoubtedly by now someone would have come along and found it!”

I call that real slavery.  You may think you’re free, but how much of you is nothing more than bondage to conventions and expectations?

Want to be free from that?  Do you want to be free to know who you truly are?  Some introspection can be helpful, but I will guarantee that if you push it too far you’ll discover that you are nothing but an onion.  And it’s awfully lonely if you manage to find yourself, only to discover that, “hi, ho, nobody’s home!”

In the righteousness of God Jesus will free you from that.  How?  He says, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  What will make you free?  The truth.  And what is the truth?  The truth is all about Jesus.  And what is Jesus statement really about – commitment.

If you want to find yourself don’t look at all the socially prescribed roles that enslave you.  Look at your commitments.  What you believe to be of ultimate significance is what you will be committed to.  And as a Christian the thing of ultimate significance should be that Jesus Christ is, “the way, the truth, and the life.”  Live that and you will find yourself.

Now that may be a bit of a nebulous thing.  Many people will think, “I’m trying to figure out God’s will for my life.  When I’ve got it figured out then I’ll be happy.”  But that presumes that God has created some preset path for you, and your life is a riddle to find that path.  Not so.  Where did we begin this sermon?  With righteousness – right relationship with God.

What is truth?  What is the meaning of life?  What is the purpose of your life?  I’ll argue that living by faith is being willing to work out, in fellowship with Jesus, a plan of action for today.  I have to give Tony Campolo credit for this idea too.  To be a follower of Jesus is not about having a grand plan for the rest of your life.  It is about committing to walk with Jesus day by day, hour by hour.  It is about being open to new possibilities all the time – not preset courses of life.
That is righteousness with God.  That is relationship with God.  Go all the way back to the Adam and Eve story.  Did God give them a blueprint for the Garden of Eden and say, “Okay, here we’ll put the roller coaster.  And over here we’ll put a formal garden.  And the concession stand will go here.  Let’s put a kiddie swing over there…”  No!  The garden wasn’t an amusement park to entertain people.  It was a place where God and humans could walk together, be together, live together side by side every day.
That is God’s will for you.  That is God’s obsessive-compulsive ‘savior complex’ desire for you.  To walk, talk, be together, and live together every day.
That almost sounds sweet and romantic.  I suppose it can be.  But if the Reformation has taught us anything it is also a life of high adventure, new possibilities and endless wonder.  Who knows where God will take you.  Wherever it is, it is sure to be a great journey.  Amen

October 18, 2009 St. Luke, Evangelist Luke 1:1-4; 24:44-53

You have in your bulletins an insert which has the title, “Redistributive Economics of Exploitation” on one side and “Divine Economy of Promised Compassion” on the other side.  If you’ve been a member of St. John’s for more than a couple years this may look familiar to you.  I passed this out almost three years ago in order to help understand Luke.

Since today is the holiday to commemorate St. Luke, and since his gospel will be the gospel we focus upon the most in the next church year, which begins on November 29^th, plus it gives us a great way to understand money in light of our current stewardship drive for 2010, I decided to review it.

As it says at the bottom, this was developed by the Rev. Dr. Richard Carlson, Professor of New Testament at Gettysburg Seminary.  This is the key to understanding much of what is going on in Luke’s gospel, and its companion volume, Acts.  I encourage you to keep it and put it in your Bibles.

I think Luke and Acts give current American Christians a theological framework to understand their money.  Last week we read from Mark’s gospel about the rich young man who came to Jesus and asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus replies, “Sell all you have, give the money to the poor, then come, follow me.”  And we all either cringe or try to wiggle out of it.  I do not in any way shape or form intend to reduce or dismiss this teaching, but I do not think it is Jesus words to all Christians for all time.  It was intended for that man at that time.  God very well may ask you to do the same thing, so don’t dismiss it totally.  But I do not think Jesus intended it to be a universal teaching.  What we have in Luke’s gospel is.

How to use your money.  Let’s look at that insert.  We start with the side that says, “Redistributive Economics of Exploitation.”  This is the way the Roman economy worked in the first century.  You know well how the economy was like a pyramid.  There were the elite few on top.  Beneath them were as this sheet labels them, “Clients of the Elite.”  Beneath them at the bottom of the heap were the exploited or exploitable.  It says in the fine print beneath the graphic, “There is an elite ruling class.  Below them are the “clients”.  These clients depend upon the elite for their power and privilege.  In return they do favors for the elite…”  A good example of this happens in our country today.  Who are the elite?  The politicians.  If you are a business owner or interest group how do you get legislation to favor your needs?  You give contributions to the politicians election campaigns.  Politicians in turn are more likely to favor those who helped them get elected.  And back and forth the cycle goes.

In our culture we do not generally have a large exploited or exploitable class.  Some would say that immigrants are, but they are not the majority like in Roman times.  One of the greatest things about our country is that there are not legal limitations on someone’s social mobility.  There are social limitations but not legal ones.  Anyone who is willing to work hard, be a bit creative, and have a little luck, can get ahead and move up the ladder.  Not so in Jesus’ day.

That point goes on, “The exploitables are the vast majority of the population.  Their lives are ones of subsistence living.  Nearly all the food or goods they produce is taken by the elite through taxes, fees, or the military.”  While it is fortunate that this is not the case in American culture today, it is very much the way the world operates.  Where do many of our goods come from?  China.  Are people paid fair wages and allowed economic freedom?  No.  In many ways we participate in this system.  Let’s use a more concrete example.  Almost all electronic goods from cell phones to computers to iPods require a specific metal that is found only in the Congo and a small amount is in Australia.  I don’t remember the name of the metal.  Anyway, the Congo is a real mess.  The metal is mined and sold and ultimately ends up in electronic goods.  It would be a great system except the money made by mining the metallic ore is used by the government to continue to exploit the population.  Slavery, murder, rape, and all sorts of things are normal business.  We all benefit from this exploitation.  I don’t say this to make us feel guilty.  I say it to remind ourselves that this system was the Roman system and it still is the system today.  Talk to the Rev. Jordan Long from Sudan if you’d like to learn more.

The next point on the sheet is that, “This system is believed to be divinely established (i.e. the rich are rich because God likes them.  The poor are poor because God doesn’t like them.)  We’ve talked about this before.  This is why in last week’s gospel when Jesus says it is so impossible for a rich person to be saved the disciples exclaim, “Who then can be saved!?”  If the rich, who are already in God’s favor, can’t be saved then who can?  Certainly not the poor.

This may seem quaintly old fashioned but realize it is also the truth of today.  You probably know that I have many issues with Darwin’s theory of evolution.  No, I don’t have a problem with the “origin of man” or suggest biblical creationism.  My problem with the theory is that it is not so much an objectively verifiable proof, as it is the new religion of western culture, called “science” excuse for superiority.  Maybe we don’t have “God” but the Laws of Physics certainly rule.  You must pay them homage or you will suffer.

Herbert Spencer gave us the phrase, “survival of the fittest”.  Those who by natural random selection are most capable of adapting to the environment will grow to be superior.  Gee, change a couple words from our sheet and you have, “This system is believed to be ‘established by the natural order’ .  The week are week because the natural order doesn’t favor them.  The strong are strong because the natural order favors them.”

Martin Luther gets a lot of blame for the Holocaust in WWII.  He wrote numerous nasty things about Jews.  But as for the idea of a superior race, blame Darwin, not Luther for where Hitler got his ideas.

My point is this, though we don’t use religious words to describe it, the current economic order is believed to be a reflection of a greater order.

Moving on, “This system believed there are limited resources.”  That’s not hard to explain.  Look at your checkbook.  And if you don’t get the point, let me swap bank accounts with you.  The point is this – there’s a limited amount of stuff.  In order for you to have more someone else has to have less.  You don’t want someone else to take away what you have so you protect it.

Why do we have insurance policies?  To protect us so that if either someone acts out against us or the forces of nature (which are beyond our control) we are still safe.

Next, “Luke’s gospel attacks this.  Luke is trying to subvert this economy.  The central conflict in Luke is between the Redistributive Economics of Exploitation and the Divine Economy of Promised Compassion.

“This system is the economic model of Satan.”  And there you have today’s gospel reading.  “In Luke’s gospel wealth is not seen as neutral.  It is inherently bad.

“Ultimately Jesus is crucified because he will not live by this economic model.”

Now lets look at the other side. “The Divine Economy of Promised Compassion.”  Here we have God on top and God’s chosen agents below.  Beneath that is humanity in need.  “Humanity in need” is not the poor or the needy.  It is the whole of humanity which is in need of God’s grace.

“God seeks to save all humans who are in need.

“Jesus is the greatest agent.  All Christians are also agents.

“There are unlimited goods – no scarcity for those who trust.

“There is no limit to God’s love and mercy; more than enough for everyone to have in abundance.

“In the hands of God’s chosen agents wealth is a tool to serve humanity in need.

“The central conflict in Luke is between the Redistrubutive Economics of Exploitation and the Divine Economy of Promised Compassion.

“Jesus is crucified because he lives by this economy.  This economy threatens the elite in the Redistrutive Economics of Exploitation.

“The arrival of this economy is unavoidable.  No matter how much the Redistributive Economics of Exploitation resists it will ultimately fail in the face of God’s love.”

This is the economic news for Christians today and every day.  This is the way God is calling you to live your life.  When you consider your financial giving to this congregation in 2010 realize that you are living in this model – not the other one.  Realize that the Divine Economy of Promised Compassion will come about.  It’s arrival is unavoidable.  You just are lucky enough to have an early “in”.

Your wealth – that is a tool for you to use as you serve as an agent of God.  You do not hoard it.  You do not waste it.  You don’t maliciously manipulate other people with it.  You don’t throw it away at every bleeding heart cause that comes along.  You are an agent of God.

Remember that line from The Empire Strikes Back – Yoda is telling Luke Skywalker about Darth Vader.  And he says that has become, “An agent of evil.”  Well, you are an agent of grace.  An agent works on behalf of someone else representing them in some business or political transaction.  You are God’s agent.  Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, you are God’s agent in that place.  You invest your money, your thoughts, your talents, the whole of your very being in a way that bears God’s will.

God has invested in you.  God trusts you.  Live in a way that honors his trust.  Amen

October 11, 2009 19th Sunday After Pentecost Mark 10:17-31

If you’re like most people the first thought that runs through you mind when we read the gospel reading and hear Jesus say, “You lack one thing; go , sell what you own, and give the money to the poor…” is, “I don’t want to give up my stuff!”  But let’s not start looking there.  Let’s back up a little bit – just a little bit, eleven words to be precise.  “Jesus, looking at him, loved him…”  We start there.

Jesus looked at this man loved him.  He knew this man was sincere and Jesus wanted to have him accompany him in his ministry.  I think it is important to remember that Jesus didn’t blow this guy off.  He didn’t respond in anger.  He didn’t do or say or intend anything mean.  He gave him the time of day, he looked at him and he loved him.

Jesus looks at you and loves you too.  What do you think Jesus sees when he looks at you?  Remember, he can see everything – everything both good and bad – including that thought you just had of what you most want to hide!  Nothing escapes God’s notice.

What do you think Jesus sees when he looks at you?  What would he be happy about when he sees you?  What would he not like?  I suggest sometime you actually sit down and physically write out a list of the things you think God sees when he looks at you.  Make a column of all the things you think God likes about you, and make a column of all the things you think God doesn’t like about you.  Don’t just make a mental list.  Your mind will deceive you.  You may wrongfully think one list is much longer or much shorter than it actually is.  Then you’ll either feel too good or too bad about yourself.  Write out the list.  That will also keep you to task and keep your mind from wandering.  I’ll warn you, the lists might get long; especially if you think about it a lot.  Don’t worry a whole lot about whether your lists are accurate or not.  Just, in your opinion, what do you think God likes about you when he looks at you and what doesn’t he like when he looks at you?

And when you’ve gotten a good deal on those two lists – written out – then it’s time to start a third list.  What are the excuses you give to God for things – either excuses for the things you do or the excuses for the things you don’t do?  You shouldn’t have to feel guilty about such a list.  Some excuses will be very valid:

-I can’t give more to charities right now because I have to have money to pay medical bills – or support my kids in college – or support my parents – or whatever the case may be.

-I can’t give more time to something because I’m a parent and need to spend time rearing my children.

-(I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard these one from a woman.)  I’d like to get reconnected with church but my husband forbids it – or – he doesn’t support me.  I want to bring the kids to Sunday School but its not worth the fight with my husband.  I’d like to give more to church but my husband refuses.

Are these valid excuses?  I think so.  Sure, some will be not so valid:

I’m just too lazy.

I’m ashamed.

I’m afraid of what other people will think of me.

I don’t want to make the sacrifice.

I’ve worked hard for what I have.  I’ve earned it and I deserve to keep it.

Make a list of them all –good and bad.  Be brutally honest.  And they don’t have to just be excuses for why you don’t do things.  There are also excuses for why you do do things.

-I’m a business owner and I have to keep a membership in the country club so I can make the connections I need to get new contracts.

-I run a business and a lot of people depend on me for their jobs.  It’s really stressful and so sometimes I just need a break.  I need a nice vacation from the stress.  I need some good entertainment and that’s expensive.  And so I can’t give it all.

There are bad excuses for our indulgences too of course.  But list them out, both good and bad.  When you write them out you can look them over all at once and be ready to answer the next question.  What is holding you back from being able to more fully serve God?  A list will help to give you perspective.  Some things you cannot change.  Some things you can and should, even if they are difficult.

In our gospel reading the rich man has many things holding him back.  When I first realized this was the gospel reading for today it was like a pastor’s dream come true.  We’re getting into our 2010 stewardship drive in earnest.  Time to ask for money.  And this text is the perfect excuse for a pastor to turn up the guilt and fear knobs to the max.  Who can argue with text?  Sell all you have.  Give the money to the poor.  You can’t get to heaven if you keep it.  It’s biblical.  It’s right out of Jesus’ own mouth!

But this man’s problem isn’t that his bank account is above the maximum threshold allowable to get into heaven.  His problem is what’s holding him back.  What is it?  His money – his possessions – his reputation in the community – his status – and his security.   My guess is that if he were to make the lists that I’ve encouraged you to make and if he was brutally honest with himself those would be his excuses.

Go back two weeks in our gospel readings.  We Jesus giving the graphic teaching that if you eye or arm or leg causes you to stumble cut it off.  His meaning: even if it hurts a lot it’s worth it in the long run.  This rich man needs to separate himself from that which is holding him back.

What is keeping you back?  What is on that list of excuses that is making you stumble?  That is where you should focus.  Don’t start by thinking you have to sell all your stuff.  You’ll won’t do it.  Oh, you’ll feel guilty for a while.  But after this afternoon’s game on the flat-screen TV you’ll forget all about it.

A man went to his doctor.  He had been, well let’s say “misbehaving” in all sorts of ways.  He said to the doctor, “Will you prescribe something that will help?”  The doctor said, “Well, I don’t know what I can give you to stop your bad behavior.”  The man said, “I don’t want something to stop my behavior.  I want something to weaken my conscience!”

Of course that will get you nowhere.  Look at those excuses.  Some you cannot change.  Some you can, although it will be very very difficult.  The rich man had some difficult things to change.  You should set your life toward overcoming those excuses.  Though scary, those are the things that are keeping you from the fullness of joy that God wants for your life.

Maybe you have few excuses.  Maybe you have many.  Maybe you already feel close to the path Jesus needs you to be on.  Maybe you are far from it.  Whatever the case, seek to be able to serve our God as fully and completely as possible.

The gospel reading ends with a promise.  No, it isn’t riches in this lifetime.  It is fullness of life with your brothers and sisters in Christ and with God.  And ultimately eternal life with God.  Amen

October 4, 2009 18th Sunday After Pentecost Mark 10:1-16

When preaching it is sometimes quite a challenge to cross the divide between biblical times and the present.  But not so today.  Jesus’ teachings on divorce not only connect to a present reality for many people today, they also give us a practical way to illustrate how our understanding of justification by grace through faith helps reach ethical conclusions.  Justification by faith is a really great thought on one hand, but the results are also really messy.

Let’s start with the trap.  The religious leaders were trying to trap Jesus by asking him his opinions on divorce.  There were two schools of thought at the time.  Some Pharisees said it was fine for a man to divorce his wife for almost any reason, even including if she was a bad cook!  Others said it was only lawful to divorce on the grounds of adultery.  They’re forcing Jesus to show which of the two groups Jesus fit himself into.  Just like a person taking a poll of public opinion asking you which side of an issue you are on.

What does Jesus do?  Does he take sides?  Nope.  He says – you are all wrong!  And citing the Genesis text that we had from our first reading, he reminds them of the foundation of marriage.  “…the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”  And then teaching the disciples privately later on he says, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

In our generally permissive society of today many see this as an excessively conservative teaching.  In reality it is simultaneously very conservative and very liberal.  And this is where our ethical deliberation by justification by grace through faith begins.

Jesus doesn’t mince words.  He doesn’t worry about politically correct language.  He doesn’t try to sugar coat anything.  He calls it what it is.  Divorce and remarriage – its adultery, a sin.  Period.  No exceptions, no exclusions, no excuses.  Like the Pharisees, it is our human nature to want to make excuses.  We want to justify things.  We want to hear that this (or pick the sin) is okay.  That way we can go to bed at night feeling good about ourselves; felling that we are okay.  But Jesus won’t let us do that.  Sin is sin.

But if we aren’t willing to admit that, we miss the first and most important part of the process to forgiveness.  Recognizing our brokenness.  Lutheran theology has often held to what we call the two uses of the Law – the religious Law, that is.  The first use of the Law is to keep good order.  Without laws there would be chaos and no way to enforce anything.  That’s the first use of the law.

The second use of the law is to point out sin and make us aware of our brokenness from God.
At first we don’t want to think that we are broken or done anything wrong.  But if we always justify our every action to ourselves we are missing the opportunity for God’s grace.  It is when you own up to your brokenness and that by your own ability you cannot be perfect that you are in a position to know grace.

And lets take this in a practical direction by using divorce as an example.  If there ever was any love in the marriage in the first place there will be hurt when it ends.  Love is lost.  Commitments are broken.  Trust is gone.  It hurts.  That hurt is being caught in the brokenness.  It is proof that in some way sin is woven into the situation.  If you slough it off and say, “It’s all okay,” then you’re not giving any reason for the hurt.  Or said differently, if it’s all okay then why does it hurt?

Now notice something in Jesus’ teaching on divorce.  Does he condemn it?  Look carefully, very carefully.  Does he condemn it?  Is this an infraction that irreparably damages a person’s relationship with God?  No.  Jesus’ teachings are blunt yes – call the sin what it is – but they also open the door for grace.  Can you be forgiven of it?  Yes.

That still doesn’t erase the reality of the sin or the pain.  What it does is put a person in a position to receive God’s gracious message that: Yes, you are broken.  Yes, you have failed.  Yes, you fall short of the perfection needed.  But you are fully and totally loved and accepted in spite of all that.  That’s real grace!

Do you see how you can never get to the state of grace without first recognizing the sin?  You can’t get there by saying of divorce, or any of the multitudes of sins that we all commit each and every day, “It’s okay.”  No it’s not.   If you think your sins are somehow okay then you’ve made your life a manipulative game with God.  You’re always thinking you’re okay.

This is exactly what always got Jesus in trouble with the religious leaders.  Pious and pure, they looked down on the sinners of the world – whether they were are fault or not.  And lets face it.  No matter how perfect you try to be, there are always times when no matter what, you can’t always do what’s righteous.  Sin creates traps for you.

Well these pious and pure people couldn’t admit to themselves that they too had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  And since they wouldn’t recognize their sin, they could never recognize God’s grace.  And so they rejected Jesus.  The only way to know grace is to experience it.

Grace is unmerited favor.  The only way to know what unmerited favor is, is to experience it.  The only way to know what it feels like to be given a gift you totally don’t deserve is to get a gift that you don’t deserve.  That is why the poor sinner outcasts of Jesus’ day actually lived more righteously before God than the Pharisees, Sadducees, Levites, scribes, and every other pious religious faction.

Call a sin a sin.  Recognize you are irreparably broken by it, and receive God’s unmerited favor which says, “I take you anyway.  You are restored to me even as you are perpetually broken.”

That is how the ethics of justification by grace through faith works.  It is messy.  It isn’t easy.  But it is what Jesus taught.

You probably know well that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has a number of social statements on the issues that face us today.  Sometimes people complain that our church always sits on the fence – too afraid to offend anyone.  But I challenge you to see what those social statements really say.

In our gospel reading some people tried to trap Jesus.  They wanted him to take sides in their definition of the argument over divorce.  Did Jesus take sides?  No.  He said the whole conversation about the issue misses the real point.  And that is what I find our social statements often doing.  They refuse to let the outcome be defined by the parameters that our culture puts on the issue.  Instead we redefine the issue according to our parameters – the parameters of faith.  The conclusion isn’t pretty enough to make a splashy news headline.  Any it doesn’t let anyone come away from the argument pretty and perfect.  But it is faithful.  It is grace-filled.

We all live in a state of brokenness and forgiveness.  Luther called it simil ustis et pecatur – simultaneously saint and sinner.  It is a state of sin.  It is a state of grace.  It is a way of life that depends on God and knows that all of existence is really in God’s hands.  Amen

September 27, 2009 17th Sunday After Pentecost Mark 9:38-50

Perhaps a good way to get at what Jesus is teaching in our gospel reading for today is to ask ourselves this question:  Is God a part of your life?  Is God a part of your life?  Before you quickly nod your head or think ‘yes’, you need to know that this is a bit of a trick question.  Is God a part of your life, or is God your life?  You see the obvious answer.  Is God a part of your life?  No.  God is your life.  I think that is the perspective we need to understand Jesus’ words.

If God is a part of your life then these words of Jesus scare you or offend you.  Cut off my arm!?!  Cut off my leg!?!  Pluck out my eye!?!  Even if these are hyperbolic exaggerations the concept is still absurd.  How can you talk about a loving God who would makes such ridiculous demands, and cause such hardships.  Is God really that jealous?

If God is your life then these words are strong and stern, but perhaps actually words of life.  They are God’s invitation to have fullness of life in him, and nothing else.  Don’t go looking for other things.  God has it all.  Don’t compromise God’s certainty for the insecurity of things in this life.  There is no one you can depend upon as much as God.  There is no thing you can depend upon as much as God.  So if any one or any thing gets in the way of that fullness of life that is from God, get rid of it.  It is only hurting you; and compromising your salvation.

In Jesus’ day to lose an arm or a leg was to lose your ability to survive on your own.  Most people survived by hard physical labor.  There weren’t too many desk jobs.  And there were hardly any research jobs.  Generally you labored all day to make enough money to buy food for you and your family to eat to survive until tomorrow when you went out again to work to make enough money to buy enough food to make it through that day, and on and on it went.  To lose an arm or leg meant losing your earthly ability to provide for yourself.  Yet Jesus teaches, if something in your life causes you to stumble and lose faith, even if it costs and arm or a leg, get rid of it.  Faith is far more important.

The key here is more than just dismemberment.  It is about control.  If God is a part of your life then you are still in control.  If God is your life, then you aren’t in control any more; a scary thing.

The disciple John says an interesting thing, “Teacher, we say someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he wasn’t following us.”  This is really silly because we’re in Chapter 9 verse 38.  Only nine verses earlier we were in an account of the disciples failure to do an exorcism.   They couldn’t do it.  But this unnamed exorcist is able to do it.  The disciples are embarrassed.  How can this nobody do what they, the insiders can’t?

John and the other disciples try to stop him.  Their argument is basically this – this guy is guilty of trademark violation.  The name, “Jesus of Nazareth,” is property of their master.  This other guy has no right to do thing in that name.  With a mix of embarrassment at their own failure, and an attempt at control, they want it stopped.

We think we should have the right to determine how our name or our trademark is used.  We don’t want it used wrongly.  I fulfilled my clinical requirement for seminary education at the University of Tennessee Hospital in Knoxville.  Whenever I reference that experience and say, “The University of Tennessee” in a sermon it is included in the sermon manuscript which is posted on our website.  And, more often then not, the day after that manuscript hit’s the website I get an email from the University of Tennessee saying, ‘Hey, we noticed you used our name.’  It isn’t a threat, but they are letting me know that they know I’ve used their name.  We’ll see if it is true this time.

Or closer to home, I noticed several years ago with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Arena, that if something good happens, like say the Amerks win a big game, the news reporters call it the, “Blue Cross Blue Shield Arena.”  But if something bad happens, like a stabbing or shooting, the reporters call it, “The War Memorial Auditorium.”  Maybe it’s just my imagination, I don’t know.  But it seems like the type of news determines the name used.

What does Jesus tell his disciples, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.”  This is a good message, but it is also Jesus giving up exclusive control of his name.

I think if there is anything in our lives we do not want to give up – to cut off – it is control.  If you’re like me you like to feel in control and you don’t like feeling out of control.  I tend to take whatever situation is before me and I analyze it from every angle I can, making contingency plans in case if thing don’t go the way I want so I can be prepared for every eventuality.  So even if I can’t have control over what happens, at no point will I be totally out of control.  I think we all do this to some extent.  But is this keeping us from the kingdom of God?  Perhaps.

When God is a part of your life you aren’t giving up control.  You are keeping God under control in a limited part of your life.  When God is your life you can feel really out of control.  God may take you into some pretty scary places.

But don’t be afraid.  The guys of Lost and Found, who wrote the extremely sad song we had a couple weeks ago – Rachel Racinda – wrote many others of course.  Some of them just as much of tear jerker.  One of those is a baptismal song that brings plenty of tears, especially the line which goes something like this, “When the pastor said the words and poured the water over your head God looked down at you, and behold, you were dead.”

Don’t ever minimize what happens at baptism.  You can’t rise to newness of life until you’ve died from the old.  And if you’ve died from the old then there is nothing to fear from it.  Because as the song goes on, God reaches down and raises you to new life – true life.

Is God a part of your life or is God your life?  You have died to this world.  Never let it slip back into your life and cut away everything that would try to ensnare you away from God.  Remember, you have died with Jesus so that Jesus can take you where he and the kingdom need you to be.

Is God a part of your life or is God your life?  If you ever pay attention when you are praying the Lord’s Prayer, do you know what you are saying when you pray, “Thy kingdom come?”  It is offering yourself over and over again to go wherever and do whatever Jesus and the kingdom need.

God is your life.  There’s no doubt about it.  So then, live forward to what God promises.  Heaven is your home.  Heaven is where you’re headed.  Let heaven guide you.  Let it give you all the life and answers you need for the present.  Amen

September 20, 2009 16th Sunday After Pentecost James 3:12-4:8

A pastor was asked to speak for a certain charitable organization.  After the meeting the program chairman handed the pastor a check.  “Oh, I couldn’t take this,” the pastor replied with some embarrassment.  “I appreciate the honor of being asked to speak.  You have better uses for this money.  Apply it to one of those uses.”  The program chairman asked, “Well, do you mind if we put it in our special fund?”  The pastor replied, “Of course not.  What is the special fund for?”  The chairman answered, “It’s so we can get a better speaker next year.”

Life is full of humbling experiences.  Sometimes they come when you least expect them.  The second reading from James and the gospel reading teach us about humility – true humility, that is.  I think we’ve all met people who are very proud of being humble – but are they really?  No!  They’re just annoying.  True humility is not something you can work for.  In fact, if you’re working hard to be humble you’re sure to not succeed!  If you do succeed in working to be humble you’ll be too proud of the work you’ve done.

The gospel reading is funny.  Jesus has been teaching the disciples about what is going to be happening to him – his arrest, crucifixion, and death.  And what are the disciples talking about amongst themselves?  Who is the greatest!  When Jesus asks them: so guys, what’ve you been talking about?  You can see the sheepish looks on their faces: ‘Oh, nothing Jesus.  Nothing important.’

Jesus knew.  And so he teaches them about selflessness and humility.  And not a manipulative humility.  God hasn’t turned things upside down in this regard.  You can’t consciously work to be at the bottom to manipulate God into putting you at the top.  It has to be true humility.

True humility is based on love.  That is what sets Christian morality apart from others.  All of the world’s major religions value humility.  Pride, arrogance, and haughtiness are shunned.  Buddhism and Hinduism both value a growing selflessness in a person.  They both recognize that such selflessness is difficult to achieve.  Again, it isn’t something you can work for.  It is something that has to happen naturally.  But neither one’s quest for humility is based on love.  A Christian doesn’t deliberately seek humility, all he or she wants to do is reflect the love of God as witnessed on the cross.  When you do that true humility comes naturally.

The second reading from James has a few important things to teach us about humility, and life in general.  First, the passage as a whole recognizes the ongoing struggles of Christian life.  4:1 notes that much bad conduct comes from cravings that are at war within you.  When you are a Christian it doesn’t mean that life becomes black and white; or that right and wrong suddenly become crystal clear in all cases.  Some Christians speak of a moment when they were “saved” and act as if everything after that is all clear and fine and perfect.  No so, James would say.  There is always double-mindedness, even among those who truly want to be friends of God.

In the same way anyone who is recovering from addiction would tell you that they are never fully cured from it, you are never fully cured from sin.  “The way of the world” as James would say is inscribed all over our culture – clothing, advertisements, social cliques, and even our very own hearts.  Luke Timothy Johnson in his commentary on James notes, “Complete consistency in life is not given by a first commitment.  It is slowly and painfully won through many conversions.  This realization gives us deeper insight into what James means by faith’s being tested through many trials (1:2-3), and why it should be counted as all joy when such trials occur.  Each such test is a possibility for growth and for a new conversion from the measure of the world to the measure of God.”

Or in my less theologically sophisticated words – a life of faith is one of ongoing growth including many successes and many failures.  Don’t beat yourself up when you fail God.  Let the guilt be inspiration to do better next time, and get up again and keep trying.  I like the account of the elderly man who was commended for his love of skydiving.  When asked, “Your sky-diving hobby!  How in the world did you ever get started in that?”  “WWII… The engine on my P-51 Mustang died.”

Other things we learn from James help us to keep trying.  4:4 says, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?  Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”   We often think of the world as somehow neutral; like it is an in between space between God’s goodness and the devil’s evil.  We forget that over and over again the Bible says, “No”.  The world is not neutral.  It is evil’s realm.  Consider this: Our contemporary culture, which we are likely to call neutral is based almost totally on envy.  To have stuff is to have status – “stuff” being the list I usually give: possessions, looks, charisma, money, power, intelligence.”

To have more of this stuff is to be more.  To have less is to be less.  That’s the way the world works.  That’s the way it always has worked, and only by God’s grace will it ever cease to work this way.

What happens if you give your life over to envying those who have more than you, and thus are more than you – at least by the wisdom of our world?  That’s not a new question.  Way back to Socrates he answered that envy was an, “ulcer of the soul,” a vivid description that nicely captures what happens.

When you’re facing temptation I think it is important to remember that most of the “wisdom” of the world (which is leading you into temptation) is based on a diseased human idea of freedom that has unwittingly enslaved itself to a short-sighted and shallow understanding of life.  True wisdom, God’s wisdom – which will lead you right – is based on the inherent value God created in you and others around you.

Isn’t is interested how love and true humility go hand in hand with peace, contentment, and joy?  Meanwhile, the world’s wisdom, which leads to desire, promising all sorts of happiness leads to fighting, discontent, envy, and ultimately ‘ulcers of the soul’.

Sometimes we get scared by the message, “Take up your cross and follow me.”  It goes to strongly against the grain of the wisdom of the world.  And yet, it is not a message of pain and suffering at all.  It is a path to life and contentment – not just in the age to come, but in this life also.

Jesus’ disciples were on the wrong track if they were trying to get ahead by trying to be the greatest.  Such quests are foolishness.  They should have listened and been patient.  So it is with God’s call to us.  God doesn’t call us to hurt us or test us.  God calls us to true life; to abandon all that would keep us from that fullness, and move totally toward fullness in him.

Be wise by being loving.  Be loving so you may know humility.  Know humility so you can joyfully receive the grace God has in store for you.  Amen

September 13, 2009 15th Sunday After Pentecost Isaiah 50:4-9a

We begin today with the song Rachel Racinda by the group Lost and Found.  This song is about a girl named Melindus who is too afraid of love and so she stays safely in her house.  A boy asks her out over and over again.  She refuses repeatedly.  I don’t think I’m giving too much away to say that this song is an allegory for a person’s faith.

Rachel Racinda by Lost and Found, Copyright 1990 LIMB records/Lost and Found, Box 305, Lewistown, NY 14092
1. Rachel Racinda’s small sister Melindas
had come to the end of her rope.
Trying and vying and sighing and crying and dieing
to meet the boy, Hope.
But Melindus stayed firmly and tightly secure
Inside her house where her life could be sure.
Her windows were bolted and doors they were locked
And every day Hope came to visit and knocked.
But Rachel Racinda’s small sister Melindus
Made certain the entrance was blocked.

2. He couldn’t come in and she couldn’t come out,
No matter how loudly she’d scream and he’d shout.
The walls were too thick and the glass was too strong.
And even though both of them knew it was wrong,
Rachel Racinda’s small sister Melindus
had been in her house for too long.

3. She saw herself ugly and called herself dumb.
But Hope had seen beauty and brilliance and fun.
The world was too scary and love was uncertain.
And Rachel Racinda’s small sister Melindus
Knew all she had known was at stake.

4. No matter how Hope begged her please to come out,
She valued her fears and she trusted her doubt.
And soon even she couldn’t open the lock,
Or break out the window or turn back the clock,
Or let Hope come inside and shoe her his care.
Her house was too solid, her house was Despair.
And Rachel Racinda’s small sister Melindus
Was used to her life and stayed there.

5. She talked of adventure but dreamed from inside.
And most of the days well she slept or she cried.
And even though Hope and the others had tried,
Rachel Racinda’s small sister Melindus
Learned early and well how to hide.

This is certainly a depressing song.  I’m glad it is because as an allegory for a person’s faith the depression speaks powerfully to our situation.  How many of us are like Melindus; afraid of our faith, afraid of God’s love, afraid of the risks and the potential for failure?  So, we build ourselves fortresses to protect ourselves from God’s calling, sometimes making them so strong that we can’t ever get out of them.

Let’s face it.  To love is to risk.  It is easy to understand how loving someone romantically involves a lot of risk.  Many a boy has had a broken heart because of the “no” from a girl he’s formed a crush on.  And to love someone as a brother or sister in Christ – as a being created in the image of God – involves a lot of risk too.  When you love someone you are giving something of yourself to that person.  What if he or she rejects it?  What if you sacrifice hard but the recipient of your love dismisses your giving or takes advantage of you?

Faith is a dangerous thing in our world.  No, it won’t get you killed or jailed, but it will cost you socially.  Times change, but I don’t think the situation has changed much since I grew up.  As a kid it was a perfectly acceptable social situation to go to church and Sunday school every week.  If you told your friends no one would think twice about it.

But then the farther into adolescence you moved the more pressure there was to leave faith behind.  Most kids make it through confirmation and then immediately leave.  A few stay on.  As a youth it is okay to be involved in church after confirmation, but it better become a lesser priority in your life to other things.  If faith is the center of life you will be seen by many of your peers as an oddball.  This is when most people begin to become like Melindus.  Many forsake their faith outright.  Some start to hide it.  They start locking the door to God.  Youth like this are grateful for parents who force them to come to church.  It gives them an excuse for their friends.   If it was up to them they wouldn’t go – but they have to.

Still, the pressure to keep faith hidden builds.  As college begins there is full social pressure to leave childish things like faith behind completely.  The song says in verse 3, “She saw herself ugly and called herself dumb.”  The world calls faith these very things.  A person with faith may begin to build those walls thicker and thicker.  They put bars on the windows and multiple locks on their doors.  God finds it harder and harder to come in.

And yet, a person like this is actually retreating ever more and more from true life – true joy – true love.  As I said before, loving is risky.  You might get hurt.  But, again, as the song says, “The walls were too thick and the glass was too strong.  And even though both of them knew it was wrong, Rachel Racinda’s small sister Melindus had been in her house for too long.”

Adulthood does and interesting thing to faith.  When you have kids it’s suddenly time to get back to church.  They need to be baptized, after all.  And part of raising a well rounded kid is bringing them up in Sunday School.  Society says the church provides a good moral foundation for a person.  But what has happened.  Faith may be socially acceptable again, and more visible in a person’s life, but is it really?

Look at verse 4 again, “read verse”

Social pressure to be a well balanced, well rounded, good family is intense.  That means faith is a part of a well rounded life, but only a part.  Not the core.  If God called you to suddenly do something well outside the norm what would your friends think of you?  “They’re nuts.”  “They’re religious freaks.”  What was the movie, Evan Almighty, when the guy is called by God to build an ark.  What do the neighbors think of him?

Without knowing it, I think many people build fortresses to keep faith in a socially acceptable place in their lives.  God is knocking outside over and over again, every day, begging to come in and bring light, and life, and love, and joy and hope and freedom, but the walls have become too thick.  People don’t hear.  All they hear is a muffled pleading.  It’s just too dangerous to love.  And as the song ends, “Rachel Radinda’s small sister Melindus learned early and well how to hide.”

Let’s look at a different song now – the servant song from our first reading in Isaiah.  This is an amazing statement of faith.  And I invite you to pull out your bulletins and reread it as I talk.  This is remarkable.  As Christians we often interpret it to refer to Jesus, but it is really for anyone.  The servant has suffered for his faith but continues onward.

The tone of the song is quite striking in that it is not a lament.  The servant suffers – but with confidence – and suggests a willingness to suffer even more.   The servant suffers without complaint.  There are no statements of doubt or regret.  Unlike Jeremiah there is no bitterness or anger.  Unlike Job there is nothing like, “Why God why?” or, “It’s not fair!”  Neither is their smugness or superiority from the servant for enduring the suffering.

Yahweh, the unspoken Hebrew name for “Lord God” plays a prominent role.  The divine name appears in four of the six verses.  (vs. 4,5,7,9)  The servant is emphatic that Yahweh has taught him, prepared him, and helped him.  The servant hears God’s knock and quickly opens the door.

Would that all Christians had such confidence in God; to be able to suffer without complaint, to give without questioning, and to boldly witness without doubt.

In the gospel Jesus says, “Take up your cross and follow me.”  Our minds may immediately go to the situation of Melindus – I don’t want to take the risk of the cross.  But Jesus, as a suffering servant, has confidence in Yahweh.  He invites you to have the same bold confidence.

The boy Hope wants to give Melindus fullness of life.  She is too scared.  Fullness of life brings with it risks, yes.  But it also brings with it a confident joy that nothing can crush.  As the song Rachel Racinda says of God when he sees you – God sees beauty and brilliance and fun.  That is God’s real opinion of you.

You can hear God’s voice.  You can do what God calls you to do.  You do have the confidence to do it, and to do it well.  With God’s help nothing can stop you.

One more song – but this time you have to sing.  It is a song of bold confidence, though I doubt you’ve ever noticed it in the words before.  This isn’t a typical arrangement – The Church‘s One Foundation – head-banger style.  The guys from Lost and Found, who wrote the Rachel Racinda song, also sing this one and inspired our arrangement.  Pay special – there are a lot of parallels between The Church’s One Foundation and Rachel Racinda.

September 6, 2009 14th Sunday After Pentecost James 2

I like the Dennis the Menace comic strip where Dennis has just stepped away from the cookie jar with his mouth full of cookies and cookies in his hand and says to his mother, “When I grow up I’m going to have a television in every room.  And a cookie jar too!”  I think that’s great idea – setting aside the whole problem of obesity – but I always wonder whose going to keep all those cookie jars full?  It’s a good thing Dennis the Menace is a perpetual little boy.  Can’t you see him grown up and getting married.  His wife’s marriage vows would have to be, “And I promise to love and honor you and keep all the cookie jars filled.”

Dennis naively believes that the mere existence of a cookie jar will somehow bring about cookies everywhere he goes.  He forgets the deeper issue that someone has to actually make all the cookies and keep the cookie jars filled.

This naïve belief is similar to what our second reading from James 2 is talking about.  He says in verse 15, “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm, and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?”  Good point.  Just telling somebody to be warm and eat doesn’t actually do anything for them.  Someone has to fill their “cookie jar” with food and warm clothes.

And yet, there are many people who say something basically like this, “If you have enough faith God will take care of all your needs.”  As if somehow, God will relieve all your needs because you simply believe hard enough.  If that were the case we’d have no need for any charitable work at all.  Just believe hard enough and everything will come out okay.

Faith and good works go hand in hand.  We say that while we are saved by God’s grace through faith, and that even our faith is God’s gift to us as well, the natural response of faith is good works.

I think we make a mistake if we consider faith to be some sort of an object in and of itself.  Of course it’s not an object, but you get the idea; as if it is something some people have and some people don’t.  The disciples asked Jesus, “Increase our faith.” as if it was a commodity that would be traded on Wall Street.  Jesus replies, “If you have the faith of a mustard seed,” basically an immeasurably small amount, “…you’d be able to move a mountain.”  Or in other words, it’s not about quantity.

Faith is like the Lutheran display in the Gathering Area says – it is a relationship of trust with God.  And this makes sense for us to understand the James passage when it says that faith without works is dead.  God has invited you into relationship with him.  It is a relationship that gives true life to you.  And how does a relationship work?  All parties give and take from the relationship.

Look at your own friends and relatives as examples.  Those people who you live closest to and talk to the most are the people likely to be closest to you.  And those people who are far away and you don’t talk to often aren’t as close in relationship.  And then I’m sure you have those people who you only exchange Christmas cards with.  They aren’t close at all.  If you’re like me you review your Christmas card list from time to time.  Some people you just plain drop.  Perhaps they haven’t sent a card for years.  Maybe it’s been so long and you are so distant that there’s really no point in staying connected.  The relationship is ended.  It is that – to use James’s ideas – a relationship without connections is dead.

In your faith relationship with God a big part of the connections is your works of faith.  Those things you do to build your faith, like: worship and prayer and ongoing Christian education.  And there are those things you do for others – gifts of your time, talents, and finances to help others.

Do you notice what I’ve left out of this discussion until now?  Beliefs.  Faith and belief and trust all go together, but I sometimes think “beliefs” get confused with unquestioning acceptance of church doctrines.  But that is not so.  I don’t think that if you focus all your conscious thoughts, willing yourself to unquestioningly believe some church teaching about God, that you will actually grow much in faith.

Here’s a silly example:  Did you ever hear someone say, “Because I firmly believe in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity as described in the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds I am going to give money to support this homeless shelter and I‘m going to go and volunteer there.”  No!  What someone is more likely to say is, “Those folks down at the homeless shelter do good work and they really help a lot of people.  I think they’re worth supporting.”

Was there a statement of belief there?  No, other than, “I think they’re worth supporting.”  But that is a statement of trust.  A lot of unconscious things happen in a person’s mind before they say something like that.  First, they have somehow recognized that they have something of value in their lives that they can share – their time, their money, and their abilities.  Second they know that they can afford to give of their time, their money and their abilities.  That is actually a thought of faith – it is a thought of trust.  If they didn’t trust they wouldn’t be willing to give at all.  If you don’t have trust you hoard everything for yourself.  Who knows when you might need it?  It is like being a pack-rat of your abilities.  Only when you trust are you willing to give.  Only when you think, even subconsciously, “I don’t need this.  I’ll be okay without it,” whether it be money or luxuries or the approval of other people or anything – will you be open to giving.

As Christians we trust God with our lives, our souls, and our salvation.  That trust is the root of our faith and it is the root of our giving.  When we live that trust we can be generous in giving of our abilities and time and resources.  I think this is what James means when he writes, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.”  Notice again, there is nothing about beliefs there.  In fact, speaking of beliefs, he goes on to say, “You believe that God is one; you do well.  Even the demons believe – and shudder.”

If you have a hard time believing, don’t worry about it excessively.  Sure, beliefs can go a long way to having an enjoyable faith, but don’t equate holding fast to intellectual facts with faith.  Which person has deeper faith – the one who shouts intellectual facts about God and does nothing, or the one struggles to believe but gives generously anyway.   Is not this second one the one who shows true trust?

Jesus had an interesting saying, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  You might think the reverse would be true, “Where your heart is, there your treasure will be too.”  But not so.  He said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  That is really a statement about trust.

I say if you are struggling with your beliefs then go and do good works.  Your drive to do good works is your true faith at work.  And those works will probably strengthen your beliefs.

James says, “Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”  Or in the spirit of Dennis the Menace, “Cookie jars in every room, if they have not cookies, are mere dust collectors.”

In this way I think works of charity are actually deep statement of a person’s trust in God.  This is what James is getting at.  If you trust you give.  If you don’t, then you won’t.

May God always build your relationship with Him, so that your faith may truly be alive and fill you with all joy and hope and confidence and trust; now and into eternal life.  Amen