tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60239265319844831272024-02-20T10:49:32.194-06:00Foolishness to the GreeksThe collected musings of a protestant lay theologian committed to the United Methodist tradition, with a strong streak of Lutheran theology.Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07257710607651868184noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023926531984483127.post-26658256788344426182012-01-31T23:47:00.000-06:002012-01-31T23:47:13.527-06:00Sermon Luther Seminary Chapel 12/2/2011<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Have you heard the news?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus is. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus is coming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus is coming back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In today’s scripture reading we are
asked if we are ready?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you
ready?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you have any idea what
it is to be ready? But Christmas is coming? Jesus is coming, right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A cute little baby, in a serne
manger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is all good yeah? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We can't avoid the truth that
Christmas is coming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems that
everything has become festooned with boughs of pine and holly, red ribbons
cover everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Giant trees have
been taken inside, pulled from the wilderness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alas, this time of waiting we are in the midst of is not
only in remembrance of that night roughly two thousand years ago but also for
the end times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whatever and
whenever they may be.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We live in the midst of a Christian
culture that seemingly talks constantly about the return of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not the birth of Christ that we
celebrate in a few weeks, but Jesus returning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Returning in such a way that we envision Jesus, swords
flailing, leaving arcs of flame and destruction in His wake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we are pushed, begged, coerced
even, to answer the questions, “are you good with God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you in or out?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cause we all know where we want to be
when the world ends right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
type of thinking can lead to cultural phenomnea such as the Left Behind
series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This type of thinking can
lead to an idea that we can, even must, earn our own salvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">By now all of you, highly
profiecent theologians to the last, are saying to yourselves, yeah, but that is
not right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">And, you are right, it is not
right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in the time of Advent
it is clear that we are waiting for Jesus to come again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not just in dirty manger, but in the
end times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This passage from 2nd
Peter is full of allusions to the Old Testament and the New.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The author is like some modern day DJ,
pulling threads of thought together to create a thing of beauty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Psalms and prophets are both
invoked, calling us to remember whom God is, how God has been working in
history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also hear echos of
other New Testament writings, the new revelation of God and how God continues
to work in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
thorughout all of these passages, there is a sense of God being present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A sense of God being near.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A sense of God coming to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that is the purpose of the reading
today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">God is coming, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">God has come, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">But God is coming again, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">If you are not ready, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Watch out.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We are called, called to prepare
for the day of the LORD.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A day,
who knows when, where the fullness of the promise will come to pass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And guess what, we have to prepare for
that day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t get to sit back
and wait for it to come as though we know we are good to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to live out our baptismal identities
and embrace a Christ like life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Surely we need God's help in this
right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, we, being the
humans that we are, are prone to goofing up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will never get it right, but by the grace of the Triune
God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A God, like some crazy
recruting poster, who wants you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>God wants you to repent, to live out the life that was shown us by Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is only with God's help that we
can do this.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Repent, Like Nineva after Jonah
showed up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Repent like that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Live the life you promised to in
your baptism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Live the life God promised you in
your baptism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Live, in other words like God is already
here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like John the Baptist is out
in the wilderness today, pointing to Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Live like Heaven has come already.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Live like the Holy Spirit has filled your breast, and you
have no choice, but to live this way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Furthermore, live in a way that every
act you do is full of love for the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Think of yourself second.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Every choice you make, every day of your life has an effect upon someone
else, somewhere in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
person picked the beans that made your morning cup of coffee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps that person who harvested the
raw materials for the computer you work on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps that person who raised or cleaned the food that is
your meal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps, just perhaps, that person
is Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Living a Christ like life, that we
are called to in our baptisms, is a great freedom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know that the ordinances of this world have no hold over
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are bound by the love of
Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That love prepares
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That love forms us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That love allows us to love in a way
that we cannot love alone, we need God and we need others in this love. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This love allows us to
prepare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This love allows us to
wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This love allows us to be
secure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This love allows us to speak
from our baptismal identities into the world and call out brokenness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This love does not allow us to sit idly
by, awaiting the end of days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
love requires an active waiting for the end of days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This love, our baptism, does not allow idleness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This love, our security, allows us to
push against the ordinances of this world and call them out for inherant
violence that they manifest.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Being prepared is not about making
sure that the Christmas decorations are up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being prepared is not about our coursework being completed
and in on time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being prepared is
not about making sure that we are doing things right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being prepared is all about remembering our baptismal
identities and that we live out that identity in the world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Being prepared is about the love
manifest in Jesus is coming back. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Being prepared is about the love
proclaimed in Jesus is coming. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Being prepared is about the love of
Jesus is.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Amen.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07257710607651868184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023926531984483127.post-47436158258495294932012-01-31T23:45:00.004-06:002012-01-31T23:45:54.939-06:00Lent 2012 Week 4 sermon<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here we are again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This week we find ourselves in the wild yet again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are in the wilderness as God sets
challenges upon the God’s people and saves them by having Moses set one upon a
staff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then we have the
conclusion of Nicodemus’ meeting with Jesus that happens in the wilderness of
the night, where it is made known to us who Jesus is, and what radical love God
has for all God’s creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what is the wilderness of the night?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the darkness that God set light
into in Genesis.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The darkness that was before God's
creating activity.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
darkness that God becomes a pillar of light for Israel as they are led through
the wilderness in Exodus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
the same darkness that is discussed in the beginning of the Gospel of John,
where a light is shone into the darkness and the darkness does not overcome
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a primeval darkness.
This is a darkness that seems to be before God came into and ordered the
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This wilderness is the
wilderness where we stop and ask God what the heck is up because God does not
appear to be present there.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This wilderness, unlike the others we have explored this
Lenten season, was not made by God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This wilderness was what the world was before God began creating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God pushed this wild-ness aside to
bring light to the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do
not have witness of God doing much work in this wilderness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or God being present in this
wilderness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not the desert
that the Israelites wander through in the Exodus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not the wilderness of the forest, where wild beasts wander.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bears, wolves, and tigers ready to
ravage unsuspecting prey at a moment’s notice, typically young people in tales
such as the Brothers Grimm collected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>God shows awesome power when God blows this wilderness away in the first
verses of John.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Genesis chapter
one this is the darkness that was extant when God said, ‘let there be
light.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then darkness and
light were seperated, ordered by God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And it is this darkness that we so very often find ourselves in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We recall that God led the people through the wilderness of
Sinai in the Exodus as a column of fire at night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God was the light that lead the Israelites, that is
those who struggled with God and survived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God led the Israelites through the darkness, God was there
in the darkness with the people of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Israelites followed the light of God to their salvation from the
Egyptians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, at some point,
while in the wilderness, the people stopped relying upon God for salvation and
instead looked other places for salvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At times they even looked to Moses as their savior, and
Moses got a big head about it, you have God do great works through your hands
and see if you don’t get a big head. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were soon wandering and not following the light of
God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But God was still there,
still in the wilderness of Sinai with the people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today's scripture tells of such a moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people began to complain that
indeed life was better back in Egypt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They were lost and scared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Imagine a time in your own life when you were leaving something bad for
something good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps it was
when you left middleschool and entered highschool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps it was getting clean from an additiction, or leaving
an abusive relationship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe you
are fortunate and have never had a bad situation to leave, I ask you now, for a
moment, for your empathy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You leave those situations because of a hope you have for
something new.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You know that there
is something better and you leave the darkness of the past, hoping to get away
from where there was pain and fear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You know that there is something inside of you that calls you out of
that situation, tells you life will be better if this change happens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perahps a friend tells you what they
are seeing in your life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An
intervention is staged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you
know you have the support of your friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Together you and your friends venture forth into this new
life together, confident that you will be better off in a new life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How often then did you want, even do you want, to return to
those hard places because they were familiar?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your hope in the future, in the choices you had made in the
past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But sometimes in reaching
for that future we think that the past was indeed better, even with all it's
pain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even with being enslaved,
there was certianty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We knew that
even if we did not have enough to eat, there was still food to eat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We knew that there would be a warm
house, or perhaps even something akin to friends who were there with us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Serpents came upon the Israelites when they were in such a
moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And these serpents injured
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But God gave Moses a way for
the people of Israel to heal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
is, a lifted up bronze serpent upon a rod.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today's scripture tells of such a moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
John reading today includes, what I like to call, the football verse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many times when watching football
in the eighties did we see someone holding up a sign that read '3:16'?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don't know that this pattern ever
stopped, just less visible on TV now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This reading, God is again giving us something to follow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are surrounded by people calling us,
begging us even, to belive in other Gods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And it is easy for us to get sucked in, after all, we are in control of
our own destinies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when we are
free of those enslaving voices we are often in the dissonance of peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A peace that we know not what to do
with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This peace again is
frightening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We become scared and
begin to long for the certianty of the past when we were hurting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nicodemus
recognized that perhaps things were not as they seemed, and in the wilderness
of the night came to Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
dark of night, the wilderness that is beyond all understanding of wilderness,
Nicodemus realizes that indeed something is not right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What specifically Nicodemus is running
from we do not know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we do
know from clues in the Gospel of John that there is something awry in the
leadership of the people of God at this time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have stopped listening to God, and are surrounding
themselves with beliefs that are put above God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are finding other gods and putting their trust in
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nicodemus has perhaps had
enough of this and inquires to this new leader, Jesus, what his thoughts are on
the subject.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just prior to the reading in John, Jesus tells Nicodemus
that in order to see the Kingdom one must be born from above, and that no one
has ascended into Heaven except the one who descended from Heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is to say, Jesus, the Son of Man,
the Human one, the Christ, has to be lifted up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Has to be the saving thing that people look to when they
have been attacked by serpents in the wilderness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even attacked by things that go bump in the night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we are fretting from attacks that
come from the wilderness of the darkest, soupiest night we are not to count
upon ourselves to fix things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
are not to curl up into little mimics of Rodin’s thinker and create our own
gods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are to look up to the
serpent, to the Human One, The Christ, The Son of Man, and remember what it is
that saves.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This rod that the serpent was lifted upon then, what is
it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it the cross that Christ
was on?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reading from John
today may make you think that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These two readings are together intentionally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I am not so sure that we should make such a quick leap
to the Gospel of John from this story in Numbers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps though this rod, with serpent upon it, is a reminder
of the column of smoke and flame that initially led the Israelites out Egypt
and through the desert?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is a
reminder that indeed God is present, still leading the people through the work
of Moses, even though God may not be as visible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then in Christ being lifted up, what of that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lifted up on the cross right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is not the conclusion to be made here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here Christ is lifted up as God
incarnate, the real presence of God among us, who we look to when we are
scared, when we are in pain, when we want to return to where we have been freed
from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not a Christ of
agony, but a Christ of love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
World is at stake here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God has
come to Earth in order to save it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not just the people Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not just the Christians, not just humanity, but the whole wide world,
everything that God created in the beginning is saved by Christ, who loves the
whole world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jesus is lifted up in a few short weeks, but not by God, by
human hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Humans who have made
their own gods, who are very scared of losing the power they have built up for
themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Humans want to lift up
Christ because we are afraid of life on God's terms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are comfortable in hardship, where we know what is going
on, where we have built up our own little gods that give us life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today's scripture tells of such a
moment, where we are given a chance to look upon the work of God elevated above<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> us, to be freed from our inward focused
selves and instead focused toward God's work in our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this wilderness of the night do you
look down at your feet for guidance?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Do you look around you for the next quick fix that will give you
security? Or are you looking up at the saving power of God, shining into the
murky darkness so brightly that in order not to see this light, you must be
hiding in shadow?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Look up, be blinded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is scary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will tear you away
from your old self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do it alone,
do it with a group, just do it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07257710607651868184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023926531984483127.post-17182224021111033282011-03-27T15:23:00.002-05:002011-03-27T15:23:18.886-05:00Faith UMC Sunday March 27, 2011Greetings and Peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ our LORD. It is an honor to be with you today. <br />
Pastor Debra has shared with me the joys of working here with you. I have known her for nearly a decade now. We first met when I was an Americorps ViSTA and she was a pastor in the Twin Cities. When I started to think about seminary, she helped to recruit me to come to Luther. And she was there when I started in 2008. She has been with me through the ups and downs of the discernment process, and supported me when I made the choice to no longer pursue ordained ministry.<br />
I grew up just down the road to the west in North Mankato. My father grew up just outside of Madison Lake and his sister still lives in Elysian, and I have other relation in Janesville and even here in Waseca. I am a life long United Methodist in the tradition of my mother’s family. This entire introduction is to say hello, and express my appreciation for being here today.<br />
In looking at the texts for today I am reminded of the entirety of the journey in the wilderness. This story in Exodus happens shortly after the people Israel have escaped Egypt. A quick note on usage here, I utilize the name Israel to include all the children of God who have been freed from hardship and are moving into the Kingdom of God, the people in this story, and us here now who believe in God. Just prior to today’s passage the people were hungry. They were in a new place; they had been taken out of their comfort zone. They were without their homes to sleep in. They didn’t have the food they were used to. Hungry, lost and confused, they needed to rely upon the God. In relying upon God they are led by God. You know this image, a pillar of flame and cloud, visible day and night. God leads them, but where to? We know that they are being led to the Promised Land, but apparently not quick enough for the people. And then we ask today, “quick enough for us?” No!<br />
Like the people coming out of Egypt we understand the Promised Land, except we call it as Jesus did, the Kingdom of God. And we too have been waiting for a long time to get there. And dang if it aint taking us too long to get there.<br />
Israel though, they were in the wilderness for 40 years before they were able to enter the Promised Land. It is important to remember that this is not the wilderness that we are familiar with here in southern Minnesota. This is not a verdant land of trees, grasses, game, rivers and lakes. No this wilderness is dry soil, scrub bushes, no large animals to be seen, and no water.<br />
God had led the people here. God knows why, but the people do not. Nor do we. And this is something that troubles us isn’t it? We profess that God has called us out of bondage, out of Egypt, and God is leading us to the Promised Land, and we want the journey to be over quickly right? God has freed u from our sins and now we want to live life in the kingdom of God before we sin again. This journey though is not quick. We know that the assurance of God is good. Especially present in the Hymn, “Blessed Assurance” And Israel knew this too, for Israel saw God’s activity while they were still in Egypt.<br />
Indeed, the works God preformed in Egypt to work toward Israel’s liberation was something to inspire faith. And it did, and it does. So I ask today, what has God done in your lives to inspire faith? Where has God called you out of places destructive to you such as relationships, depression, addiction and so much more that I cannot begin to name? Your bondage to the above is similar to the people who were slaves in Egypt. <br />
And where is God calling this community out? How is God active here at Faith UMC? In Waseca? In Minnesota? And when we have discerned God’s activity in our lives, we embrace it, recall it over and over again as assurance, proof that God loves us. We rely upon this memory, it informs our understanding of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit in such a way that no amount of “Well Trained” preaching can. This visceral experience of God is powerful, and well known, John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, included experience of God in how he discerned the messages of scripture.<br />
Again our experiences of God’s saving work in our lives clarifies for us and allows us to enter into the story of God. Indeed we know what it is to be here where the Israelites are in today’s reading. After all, were we not in that place with them? Living between clear activity of God in our lives and the Promised Land? That memory of God’s activity slowly fading from our minds, fear begins to set in. When this starts to happen we question God.<br />
God, you were there before, where are you now?<br />
Or we ask our leaders to explain this predicament to us. “Where is God now, Tell us!” We need Water!<br />
And we begin to believe that where we were in pain and bondage, we were in a better place than we are now. And we wonder if this journey we are on isn’t just too much, perhaps where we were before God showed up isn’t really that bad. In short, we give up faith in God and want to return to where we were in bondage.<br />
Things are not going right and we begin to test God. “God if you really cared, you wouldn’t be doing this to me.” Your work in my life, it is not what I want.<br />
Yet that is what we have. We are here now, between our understanding of God’s redeeming work in our lives freeing us from bondage, and the full realization of God’s work in the world, that is, the Kingdom of Heaven. So we ask our leaders what is going on, why are we here? We are thirsty; you gave us food, now we need water!<br />
And we demand of God proof of existence. An act to remind us of who God is. We, the lowly, make a demand upon the LORD. If we are going to trust in this God we need water to live. And God gives us that life giving water when we ask for it. It is not Moses or our leaders who does this for us, but God.<br />
So here then is the particularity of this story. The people Israel have gathered in the wilderness, led there by God. The leadership goes off further into the wilderness per God’s request. This is a place of rocks, scrubland at the best. There is no flowing water, no chance of finding flowing water, the substance that gives life.<br />
Now we do not know where exactly the people were in Sinai, this place has never been found. Though we can visit Sinai and see the terrain and see how unlikely it is to find water, especially living water. If you have ever been to the South West USA and see the desert there you too know what this wilderness looks like. If you don’t bring water with you, you will not last very long. The lack of water is well known. And here is the amazing thing, in this lack of water, lack of the life-giving substance, God stands there with us. We have no hope, and there is God. Is your life so hard that you are not sure you can go on? There is God.<br />
And what does God do? Wisk Israel away to safety? No, God tells Moses to strike the rock with his staff. Surely God does not need Moses to do this? Certainly not! God can do what God will when God will. But God wants/desires our participation in this act of bringing life. That is why we were asked to name the animals in the second creation story. And why Jesus asks the Samaritan woman at the well for a drink. <br />
God and Moses, working together, bring forth life giving water from where there had been none. God leads Israel into the wilderness, into the space between liberation and life in the Kingdom of God and in this scary place, this discomforting place God is standing there, waiting for us to call out to God, waiting for us to remember the promise of God. Embrace then being in this space, God is there with you, never forget. Where you see nothing, God is there ready to bring life.<br />
Amen.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023926531984483127.post-51005897434136139262011-02-12T16:20:00.001-06:002011-02-12T16:20:13.363-06:00Living the Kingdom <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"></div><div style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">You know, when Pastor Donna called me and asked if I would preach this week she neglected to tell me what passages were up in the lectionary, she just gave me the chapter and verses, no explanation of what going on here. When I looked at Deuteronomy I though hey, this, this could be rough, God sure is asking a lot here. How about the Psalm? Oh yeah, this, I see how this can connect to the Deuteronomy reading, walking in the ways of the LORD, makes it a bit easier to understand the Deuteronomy reading. We should still be in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, lets see what is up next there, how will I be able to tie that in? Whoa! What on earth am I supposed to do with this? Anger is Murder? Looking at someone lustfully is adultery? Divorce is adultery? And making an oath appears to be an affront to God? I have to admit; I almost called Donna back and said, “Oh heck no! I can’t do this.”</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span><br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Then I sat back and thought for some time I wrestled with the text, turned it over in my head, looked at it as many ways as I possibly could. This is a passage that talks about what life looks like with God, not a life that any of us can live alone, but a life lived with God.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 200%;"><div style="text-align: left;">Looking at these texts there is a common question to ask, “How can this be done?” In asking this question we begin a discussion with God. God has told us how to live. God told us as we were about to enter the Promised Land in Deuteronomy. God asked us to choose life as we entered the Promised Land. God asked us to stay in relationship with God and the question became for the people Israel, whom we are a part of, “how do we do this?” See, it is not just each of us individually who ask, “How can I do this?” We all ask this question with God’s support. God has our back so to speak. So this is relational, whenever we say “I”, “How can I do this?” we must remember that we are not alone and that God is there with us to. So it is always, “How do we do this?” Or, “How is this done?”</div></span><span style="color: black; line-height: 200%;"><div style="text-align: left;">Looking to the Deuteronomy text, Israel was able to be in this relationship because there was a total trust in the LORD God that stemmed from a time of wandering in the wilderness that lasted famously for 40 years. To make the journey from Egypt into the Promised Land, they wandered with God for 40 years. This forty year time period led to this passage of scripture today. Stay in relationship with God, love God, follow the commandments, and you will prosper in the land that the LORD your God has promised you. And it took the people Israel 40 years of wandering to understand the implications of this. They could have crossed the Sinai Wilderness in less than a year, but God held them there, in the wilderness, teaching them constantly to rely upon God instead of themselves. Teaching the people Israel that indeed God loves them and cherishes them, but God is jealous and if the people Israel bow down to other gods, that the people Israel will perish in the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Land-Revised-Overtures-Biblical-Theology/dp/0800634624?ie=UTF8&tag=foolishness05-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">promised land</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=foolishness05-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0800634624" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />. Yes, indeed the choice was given, even in the land that is the Reign and Realm of God we have a choice to follow or not follow God, and in not following God, there is a promise of perishing. And none of us would want to choose death over life now would we?</div></span><span style="color: black; line-height: 200%;"><div style="text-align: left;">So, I have to do this, err, we have to do this, God has commanded me, us, the entire people Israel, all those who make the radical proclamation that God is the LORD. This steps outside of national affiliations, which is why we who are here now in the United States of America in 2011, can claim the LORDship of God. And when we walk blamelessly in the way of the LORD, that is when we live in the Reign and Realm of God, which is not defined by any human realm, we are walking in pure joy. Pure happiness. But as we know from wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, this is hard to do. What appears to be a short trip from the land of hardship into God’s promised land is in actuality a journey that takes our whole lives. We beg in the psalm for time to learn all the statues of the LORD God so that we may praise God with an upright heart and in so doing also be among those who are blameless and happily walk in the light of God. Later in the same Psalm, the longest in the bible, we continue to lament for our lack of understanding and beg for clarity in understanding the precepts of God. And at the end we ask God, to “seek out your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.”</div></span><span style="color: black; line-height: 200%;"><div style="text-align: left;">This Psalm was utilized as a teaching Psalm. It is broken up into 22 sections, each section correlates to a letter in the Hebrew Aelph-Bet. And each line in each section starts with the same letter. It is a very long psalm, but was apparently very often memorized by those learning the ways of God. That is, a God who was relational and loved them and wanted the best for them. This God did not want to forget Israel. This God, the LORD God could not forget God’s chosen people. They had struggled with God for generations. And everyone imagined themselves in the land of hardship, that is, Egypt. And today, we remember, each and every time we come together, the journey we as a people have been on with God from our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to the people as they fled Egypt into the wilderness where God formed them into the people Israel. God’s chosen and anointed.</div></span><span style="color: black; line-height: 200%;"><div style="text-align: left;">In Gospel reading the people of God had been living in the land promised them by God for generations. The people were living in God’s realm, God’s Kingdom, under God’s reign. But they thought it was a territorial issue. They thought that the land they inhabited was the Promised Land. The land though was not the Promised Land because they inhabited it. It was the Promised Land, the Reign and Realm of God because God had said it was. And generations later, in the time of Jesus, the people had ventured far away from this understanding. They had been corroborating with the Greek and Roman authorities, trying to hold onto temporal power over the land they lived in.</div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 200%;">This is the situation Jesus comes into. Three weeks ago we heard Jesus say, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!" These were the first words of his own in his public ministry. Jesus reminds us right away that the Kingdom of God, the Reign and Realm of God is here, it is now. We know this to be the case because we have seen what the Kingdom of God looks like. We have had the glimpses of what is going on in the Kingdom. We have seen the response to natural disasters such as the </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Earthquake-Haiti-Essential-Events/dp/1616136820?ie=UTF8&tag=foolishness05-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" style="color: black; line-height: 200%;" target="_blank">Earthquake in Haiti</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-color: initial !important; border-width: initial !important; line-height: 200%;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=foolishness05-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1616136820" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 200%;">, we have seen the love of a congressional staffer as he staunched the bleeding of his boss after she had been shot in </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;">Tucson</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 200%;">, and we have seen what can happen when the people of God work together to throw off oppressive governments such as modern Egypt on Friday. And here, in this very building, we have seen the Kingdom of God when we join together to take communion, when we hosted Project Home, when the scouts are outside in the parking lot roasting marshmallows on a bitterly cold Monday night in February, and when our gifts leave this building and support those around us who are hurting, who are hungry, who are sick, who are poor, that, brothers and sisters, this is truly the Kingdom of God. We have seen it, we know its power to change lives, we know its power in our lives, our hopes, and our dreams.</span></div><span style="color: black; line-height: 200%;"><div style="text-align: left;">The first time we heard of the Kingdom of God was when the people Israel left Egypt. The people left the land of hardship, not knowing where they would end up, following some guy Moses, who’s identity was confusing in the least, and set out for the land promised them by God to their fathers Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac. We see in the Ten Commandments we know what the Kingdom looks like. I am the LORD your God. Do not make idols and bow down to them. Do not take the LORD’s name in vain. Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. Honor your father and mother. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife. Do not covet your neighbor’s property. These all speak of what life is like in the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of God that is at hand. And these are the same things that Jesus is speaking of in the Gospel text today. Jesus speaks of what the Kingdom of God looks like. Jesus reminds the people that they live in God’s Kingdom, not their own kingdom, or Rome’s kingdom, or even America’s Kingdom.</div><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 200%;">Jesus knows that we, as fallen humanity, cannot possibly fulfill all of these rules. And yet Jesus tells us that these rules need to be fulfilled, and that in living in the Kingdom of God, they will be. This is the tension of living in this world and in the Kingdom of God at the same time. On one hand, I know that every person is a beloved child of God. On the other though, I am human and I will be angry with people, and I will not be able to resolve that anger. In the Kingdom of God, we love as God loves, we heal as God heals, we live as God lives. And we are called to live this way every day of our lives. We have been adopted as children into the family of God. We are expected to live like it. Now, go, live your life with God, go forth, you can do it. This community forms you, God forms you, and you form yourself. Live into the Kingdom of God; make it a reality upon the Earth, not just something to look forward upon death.</span><span style="color: black; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023926531984483127.post-68642562607958258722011-02-02T21:59:00.000-06:002011-02-02T21:59:08.601-06:00Sermon, The Lakes Lutheran Church Las Vegas NV 1.23.11<div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.5632285207975656" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Did you hear the story of Jesus? These past two weeks I have been with you here at the Lakes Church we have heard of the baptism of Jesus and the claim that Jesus is the lamb that takes away the sins of the world. Today’s Gospel reading looks at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just prior to today’s reading we have Jesus in the wilderness being tempted. Jesus was baptized by John in the wilderness and then went off into the desert. Jesus had been led there by the Spirit, the Breath of God. This is the same Spirit that led the Jews out of Egypt and into the wilderness. Jesus now also travels into the wilderness and much like the ancient Israelites he is tempted in the wilderness. The devil was there, asking Jesus to do things that would prove that Jesus was the Son of God. These three things included</span><ul><li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make bread from a stone</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jump from atop the Temple, you will be safe</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And worship the devil and gain all the kingdoms of the world</span></li>
</ul><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Each time he is tempted, he quotes the Hebrew scriptures illustrating understanding of the scripture and relationship with God. Jesus, as we know survives these temptations and this is where we pick up the story for this week. John the Baptist has been arrested. The work that John was doing to further the Kingdom of God was interrupted by the powers that be.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Re-read the scripture</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Message</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">12-17</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When Jesus got word that John had been arrested, he returned to Galilee. He moved from his hometown, Nazareth, to the lakeside village Capernaum, nestled at the base of the Zebulun and Naphtali hills. This move completed Isaiah's sermon: <br class="kix-line-break" /><br class="kix-line-break" /> Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, <br class="kix-line-break" /> road to the sea, over Jordan, <br class="kix-line-break" /> Galilee, crossroads for the nations. <br class="kix-line-break" /> People sitting out their lives in the dark <br class="kix-line-break" /> saw a huge light; <br class="kix-line-break" /> Sitting in that dark, dark country of death, <br class="kix-line-break" /> they watched the sun come up. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> This Isaiah-prophesied sermon came to life in Galilee the moment Jesus started preaching. He picked up where John left off: "Change your life. God's kingdom is here." </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">18-20</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, "Come with me. I'll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I'll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass." They didn't ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">21-22</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A short distance down the beach they came upon another pair of brothers, James and John, Zebedee's sons. These two were sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, mending their fishnets. Jesus made the same offer to them, and they were just as quick to follow, abandoning boat and father. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">23-25</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From there he went all over Galilee. He used synagogues for meeting places and taught people the truth of God. God's kingdom was his theme—that beginning right now they were under God's government, a good government! He also healed people of their diseases and of the bad effects of their bad lives. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jesus is tempted again. He heads to Galilee, thirty miles from Jerusalem. That distance would be the equivalent to driving in a car to Reno today. Not a quick trip. This distance from the seat of power allows for Jesus to hide. Quite the temptation eh? But we know that more was meant here. The prophesies of Isaiah are fulfilled by this movement.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And it is it is declared by Jesus to repent, change your life, for the Reign and Realm of God are at Hand.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The temptations of the world and of the devil no longer have hold over us. Not that they ever did. Jesus has called for us to remember the promise of the Exodus. The promise within the first commandment, have no other gods before God, the laws of God, not desiring the world, but living in relationship with God and one another. Repent your reliance and desire for the things of the world. The Reign and Realm of God is at hand. We can reach out and touch it. And shortly we will be doing just that. The passing of the peace during communion is a sign of reconciliation between us and God and between each other. It is key that we do this so that we come to the table without grievance, for there are no grievances between people within the Reign and Realm of God.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Kingdom of God is doing what you do and following God. Simon-Peter, Andrew, James and John all were fishing and Jesus called them to do it for God. In following Jesus they leave the old world of self reliance behind. Just after Jesus declares the Reign and Realm of God is at hand, God, in Jesus, calls his first followers into relationship with Him.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A good part of the rest of the Gospel of Matthew is a collection of parables that Jesus uses to illustrate what the Reign and Realm of God looks like. One of my favorites is the Pearl Merchant in Matthew 13:45:46</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">45-46</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"God's kingdom is like a jewel merchant on the hunt for excellent pearls. Finding one that is flawless, he immediately sells everything and buys it. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These stories teach us what the Reign and Realm of Heaven looks like. Just hearing the phrase Reign and Realm does not make clear what it is and neither does hearing each parable alone. We must take the Gospel of Matthew in toto and have the parables interact with the Sermon on the Mount and with the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The contemporary Irish Theologian Peter Rollins has written a collection of parables called “The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales.” This collection of stories is great and all of them have begged me to reconsider the Reign and Realm of God. One of my favorites is his retelling of the Pearl Merchant.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Read Parable here</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Did you hear it? The Reign and Realm of God is this pearl! If you let go of all worldly desires of, profit, security, power, and embrace the Reign and Realm of God you will know the value of the pearl. Put your faith entirely into God as God puts God’s faith into you.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In obtaining the pearl the merchant gave up all that is dear to him. And in finding the Reign and Realm of God you give up all that you hold dear, most importantly the Gods of your own creation. We all know what these gods are, Pride, money, status, none of that brings us closer to understanding the Reign and Realm of God. Only when we loose everything and follow Jesus as the disciples do in the reading today do we understand what is meant by the Reign and Realm of God in Matthew.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is not a life after death type of Kingdom. This Reign and Realm is hear and now! You can touch it. It is at Hand! You can live in this Reign and Realm as you live here in Las Vegas Nevada. In this place, the cars driving by outside, down on the Strip, we are being asked by Jesus to recognize the Reign and Realm. Let what you do be an example to others and follow Jesus. Jesus is asking for you to do what you do, and do it the best that you can for the Reign and Realm of God. Do not focus on the desires and the goals of this world, but look at what you do as contributing to the building up of the Reign and Realm of God, and do it the best you can. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amen</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023926531984483127.post-54429201167471875372010-09-27T08:23:00.000-05:002010-09-27T08:23:38.066-05:00Prayer of the People<div class="MsoNormal">The following is a prayer that I wrote for daily chapel at Luther Seminary on Friday the 24th of September. It is based on Amos 8:4-7.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We have forgotten you Lord</div><div class="MsoNormal">We attempt to rule over our own lives, allowing our creations to rule us.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We have forgotten you Christ</div><div class="MsoNormal">We do not see you in others, and we sacrifice ourselves for ourselves.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We have forgotten you Holy Spirit</div><div class="MsoNormal">We hear you, we see you, and we ignore you.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Yet Lord you have not forgotten us whom you created.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Be with us and those who we name now as we remember your rule in our lives.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Yet Christ you have not forgotten us in modeling life</div><div class="MsoNormal">Be with us and those we name now as we struggle to live as you have called us. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Yet Holy Spirit you have not forgotten us, filling us with life</div><div class="MsoNormal">Be with us and those we name now as you fill us and call us again to life.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">And gather us together as we pray as The Son taught us:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Our Father who art in Heaven, </div><div class="MsoNormal">Hallowed be thy name,</div><div class="MsoNormal">Thy Kingdom Come</div><div class="MsoNormal">Thy Will be done</div><div class="MsoNormal">On Earth as it is in Heaven</div><div class="MsoNormal">Give us this day our daily bread</div><div class="MsoNormal">Forgive us our sins </div><div class="MsoNormal">As we forgive those who sin against us</div><div class="MsoNormal">Lead us not into temptation </div><div class="MsoNormal">But deliver us from evil</div><div class="MsoNormal">For thine is the Kingdom, The Power and the Glory</div><div class="MsoNormal">Αμεν (Amen)</div><!--EndFragment--><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023926531984483127.post-63708450577281155802010-06-15T10:12:00.000-05:002010-06-15T10:12:00.512-05:00Genesis 32<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Have you ever had the feeling that you were being chased?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Running through dirty, crowded alleys like in some action movie?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or perhaps you dreaded a coming confrontation so much tat you did all you could to prevent it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Could you imagine both happening at the same time?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is where we find our hero Jacob today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had just been running from his father-in-law Laban.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was running toward Canan, the land promised to his grandfather Abraham, the land and blessing that he stole from his elder brother Esau, who he knew he would surely meet soon.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Why is he doing this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking previously in Genesis we see that Jacob had been dreaming, again, and was told by God to head back home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God has also explained to Jacob how all of Jacob’s wealth had been gained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God told Jacob where his blessings had come from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of Jacob’s good fortune had come from God and it was not Jacob’s work that gained him these blessings, but a gift from God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God’s love allowed for Jacob to prosper, even when those around him did not want Jacob to prosper!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes in the face of adversity, Jacob was able to prosper thanks to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jacob was able to prosper even though he was not the most upstanding of individuals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God still loved him.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Jacob then knew of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God had come to Jacob in dreams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps Jacob had heard stories of this God when he was younger, from his parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But like many, still today, here, now, he had just heard the stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was not able to internalize God’s love for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even when God stood next to him in a dream as angles moved up and down between heaven and earth, Jacob still did not know God.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Knowing of and knowing someone are two different things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An elevator ride does not make on intimately familiar with another, especially if you are just watching the action on the elevator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Making up stories of the person standing next to you does not make you friends with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And making up stories of people who are standing next to you in the elevator definitely does not make you friends with them.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">God wanted Jacob to know God, to respond to the loving nature of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God wanted Jacob to know, to understand, that life was “clinging to God.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">What then is “clinging to God?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is knowing that God’s nature and name is love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See, clinging to God is a two way street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God clings to you. And you cling to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure, we have various images of God “lifting” us up, or “setting” us apart, or “redeeming” us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of these images illustrates God holding us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this is not just holding like you do when you pick up a bag of flour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This holding is a clinging, a total wrapping of us in God’s-self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like a parent holding a child close, shielding them from the downpour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This shows God’s nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God’s nature and name, which is love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the words of Charles Wesley:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Pure universal love thou art:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">To me, to all, they mercies move-</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">Thy nature, and thy name is Love.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We know that God is love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know this from a young age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We learn that even in the junk of life, as it pours down on us, that God is there, loving us, holding us tight, doing the best God can to shield us from the downpour love life in this broken world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then, we unlearn it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We think that we can do better for ourselves than God can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We turn from God, relying on ourselves.</div><div class="MsoNormal">God’s nature is Love, God loves Jacob, and God loves you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God loves Jacob to the point that God, in many understandings of the text, God came to Jacob as a human to bless him in person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God limited God’s-self to meet Jacob in person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jacob had been claimed by God prior to this story of wrestling at the Jabbok.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jacob had already seen God in dreams, had heard God’s call to fulfill the call of his family, his place as heir to Isaac, heir to Abraham, to be a part of God’s Redemptive work in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just like God has already claimed you.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Part of the continuation of this claiming is the renaming of Jacob as Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not God just claiming Jacob; this is God claiming all of God’s people, including you!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jacob is no hero in the Biblical story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He makes a lot of poor decisions to say the least.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He constantly deceives people, he outright steals from his elder brother Esau, and just after the reading today he is ranking his family so that the most important are in the rear in case Esau is still angry with him!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For all the awesome things that God is doing in Jacob’s life he is still susceptible to human nature and putting his needs over the needs of others, and his own needs over the needs of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we, who are here now, each of us, struggles with this same issue every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have a ton of great things and all we do is complain about what we don’t have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, just like Jacob, we are claimed by God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We make poor decisions, but God still claims us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God still clings to us hoping that we will return the favor and cling to God.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">God will show up in your life when you least expect God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God will chase you through the alleys in your dreams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God will hunt you down so that God can embrace you, to hold on to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we don’t make this easy for God do we?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We happily run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes, we would rather die of exhaustion than relent and let God hold us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We would run off a cliff to avoid God’s activity in our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then while plummeting, we ask, “God where are you?”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So, instead of running away, ask what it is you are running from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The most perfect love?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jacob was surprised by God at the Jabbok, yet he did not run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He grabbed on. He would not let go!</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Tis all in vain to hold thy tongue</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Or touch the hollow of my thigh;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Though every sinew be unstrung,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Out of my arms thou shall not fly;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Wrestling I will not let thee go</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">Till I thy name thy nature know.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Grab on to God!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not because you should, but because you can!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have the ability to turn to God, confront God, hold on to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look into God, enquire “who are you God?”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Stop pursuing the shadow of God that is cast before you as God chases you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Turn to God, grab on to </div><div class="MsoNormal">God, hold God tight, ask God all your questions till you know God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t settle for easy answers from God, probe God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By yourself in prayer and with others in group study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As God hems in the chaos, work to hem in God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is impossible to do but in doing this, you will see how far God loves, who and where God loves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is in asking these questions that Jacob is blessed, that Jacob, and you, are named Israel, for you have struggled with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God chases you down, God clings to you, God’s love is, so that you too can confess:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Lame as I am, I take the prey, </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Hell, earth, and sin with ease overcome;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">I leap for joy, pursue my way,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">And as a bounding hart fly home, </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Through all eternity to prove </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">Thy nature, and thy name is Love.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Amen</div><!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023926531984483127.post-27959355144660507762010-06-10T10:09:00.000-05:002010-06-10T10:09:00.776-05:00Who do you follow?<div style="background-color: white; color: black; counter-reset: __goog_page__ 0; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-top: 6px; min-height: 1100px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Sermon Romans 8:12-25<br />
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Debtors to the flesh. What is this? If we live life so that our choices are all determined by our wants then we will merely die, not at the end of our lives but now. If we live by the Spirit though, the desires of our bodies will be put to death and we will live! We cannot live a full life just living to our wants and needs. We need for those wants and needs to be put to death so that we are no longer indebted to them.<br />
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Put yourself in a place where you experienced great joy. For me this was a trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA). At the age of 13 this was my first camping trip and this was where I first encountered loons. These marvelous birds which I had never seen before, would call to each other every night we were there. In the moonlight I could see them swimming by on the lake. Sitting on the shore, Looking out over the Lake, up to big dipper, the full moon, the sounds of wave lapping at my feet, the call of the loons and the fresh air. I saw here for the first time at the young age of thirteen the grandeur of creation.<br />
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Upon returning to Mankato, the city where I grew up, I could hear creation groaning. I had not noticed it before, but I saw where things had changed from how they were intended by God. Were it not for the Spirit instilled in me, Dwelling in me, I could not have seen the wonder of creation in the BWCA. I could not have heard it breathe there. This was the first time in my life that I was able to step outside of myself. I saw creation in all its glory. The Spirit changed my world.<br />
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I was not in the BWCA because it made sense, my warm bed, my Nintendo, my friends, all back home. These were the things important to a thirteen year old boy. Summer vacation had just started and I was in the Boundary Waters sleeping on the ground in a tent, cooking meals over a campfire, all without my friends. The spirit allowed me to move away from such things for a spot of time. I did not have my favorite things from home with me. Much like the column of flame and smoke that lead the Israelites through the wilderness. The Spirit leads still today. Though it may not be so visible. I don't know that I have ever seen a person much less a group of people following a pillar of flame around the wilderness, except perhaps at the Burning Man Festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.<br />
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The Spirit is there though, leading us. Much like on Pentecost she is here today. The Spirit leads us out of slavery to the flesh, we are no longer debtors to the flesh. She leads us away from a world dominated by nationalist agendas. For such devotion is ultimately a devotion to an idol. Not devotion to the LORD our God. The Spirit leads us into adoption by The LORD. An adoption that makes us heirs along with Christ. Yes we are adopted into the Holy Trinity, along side the LORD, His son Jesus, and the Spirit. We are heirs with with Christ. But being an Heir with Christ involves a life like Christ's. And as we all know, there was a bit of suffering in his life.<br />
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Thus when we look out over our place that brings us joy, we start to see fraying at the edges. The edges of that place, the edges of reality. Ultimately we cannot stay there in that joyful place. For if we stay there we do not live the life we are called to in Christ. The Spirit changes our world.<br />
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When we stay in that joyful place and ignore the spirit calling us to move on, we become slaves to that place. The spirit calls us away from our comforts. Into joy, but then also away from that joy so that we have a taste of what is to come and are able to witness to others of the Glory that we know in Christ, in God and in the Spirit. The Spirit, she changes the world.<br />
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Jesus knew this Glory. As Jesus is the Word and was there when God spoke the world into existance. Jesus was there when God, as a pillar of fire and cloud, led the Israelites through the wilderness. Jesus knew the glory of God and came to Earth, became one of us, to live with us in this world, in this creation that groans with labor pains.<br />
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So then, I had to go back to Mankato. I had to leave the BWCA. I did not return the same person though. For I saw the Trinity in the BWCA. But that revelation changed me and I could not hold the change in. I had to change my outlook on life. I saw the Glory of creation and it changed me. This change caused great suffering in my life. I poured out love. You can imagine how well that went over in Jr. High.<br />
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One who claims Christ as LORD defies the temporal power structures. As you cannot have allegiance both to the LORD God and your nation. you cannot have allegiance both to the LORD God and Nike. you cannot have allegiance both to the LORD God and The Vikings. you cannot have allegiance both to the LORD God and The Twins. you cannot have allegiance both to the LORD God and the republicans. you cannot have allegiance both to the LORD God and the democrats. you cannot have allegiance both to the LORD God and the green party. The Spirit frees you from the debts of the flesh. She changes your world.<br />
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The Spirit then makes life uncomfortable. We have a vision of what life truly is. We know and have seen love poured out. The spirit gives us that. Yet we are here, now. With creation groaning all around us. We hear the groaning in the halting of flights due to a groaning volcano. People dying in earthquakes in Haiti and China. Teenagers dying in horrible traffic accidents while driving late at night.<br />
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We see all this suffering and hope for change. We as fellow humans, as Christ's followers, Spirit followers, suffer when others suffer. It is normal and right for us to suffer in these circumstances. This hope that we hope for is not a political promise by a presidental canidate, This hope is for the inbreaking of God, for the redemption of our bodies and the world. The Spirit calls us forth, leads us out of or comfortable places where we think that we know God. The Spirit leads us into places where God is present and working, places of pain. We see and feel God's suffering in the suffering of others. We know that this is not the world that is to come. We suffer here now with this knowledge, with Christ. The only thing this brings us is to a place of hope. Hope for what could be. Hope for God's perfect love.<br />
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If the desires of our bodies are put to death by the Spirit working within us, then we are no longer debtors to the flesh. Once we see the Spirit active, we then have a choice, and we must respond to the action of the Spirit in our lives. We can either let it go, ignoring it, watching move about on the horizon. Or we can embrace it and follow it wherever it takes us. Truly once you have seen the Spirit active in your life you want nothing more than to follow it as it leads you. Even if you have settled down into your place of joy, and you are covered in moss as you have not been moving, you can still see the Spirit moving on the horizon. Get up, the world is new, the world has changed, embrace and follow the spirit.<br />
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Amen</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023926531984483127.post-31332755063224436602010-06-02T05:00:00.001-05:002010-06-02T05:00:08.733-05:00I Am<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">John 4:3-43</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Imagine if you will the formless void, Chaos, total and complete darkness. Not the darkness of the city at night with its ambient, artificial light. Not the countryside on a cloudy evening where you can eventually see when your eyes become used to the darkness.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Imagine being deep in a cave, without life. Darkness surrounds you; you are not able to see your hand in front of your face. Darkness grabs onto you, forces itself into you. Into your eyes, into your throat, into your nostrils, darkness is crushing you.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">In this darkness there is no hope. Nothing is there but you. And soon enough, you are not even sure if you are there anymore. You have become a part of the darkness.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Then, far away, or not so far, as distance has no meaning in this darkness, then you hear something (light match). The scraping of a match as it is lit. Then the entirety of the cavern is illuminated. The darkness is pushed back, into the crevasses. You are blinded by the light of this match. You reach up to shield your eyes from this brilliant light. The sudden illumination frightens you, it hurts you. You cannot stand it. If you bring your hand down the blinding light fills the cavern. You want to see the wonders inside this cave. What is in this place beside you? Your eyes become accustomed to the light, and the glory of the cave is revealed to you.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">In the lighting of the match everything of the darkness, the crushing, invading, darkness is forgotten and all you see is glory. A glory that fills the cavern, pushing darkness into the crevasses. Freeing you to experience the beauty of the creation, the rock formations, the life that is there in the darkness.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">In the gospel reading today it is noted that it is about noon. Jesus was tired from his travels. He rests at Jacob’s Well while his disciples go into the city to find food.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Jesus was alone at Jacob’s Well. This well brings to mind the stories in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. These are the stories of Jacob meeting Rachel at the well, Moses meeting Zipporah, and Isaac meeting Rebecca. Like these men Jesus was alone. Like these men, Jesus meets an outsider woman. Unlike these men, Jesus meets this woman alone. There is no one there besides the two.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This woman that Jesus meets is a Samaritan. She would have known well the stories of the three men; Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. The Samaritans read the Torah too, they called it their own. The Samaritans had separated from the Jews over a disagreement regarding worship space. They thought as this unnamed woman states, that God was to be worshiped on the mountain. Whereas the Jews thought God was to be worshipped in the Temple in Jerusalem. </div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This Samaritan woman came alone to the well, in the heat of the day, to get water. This is an important detail as the original hearers of this story would have been shocked at the woman coming alone at noon for water. This work was usually done by many and early in the day so as to avoid the heat. The well was also a place for the community to gather. This woman though appears to be an outsider within the city. Still she was part of the City, she had not been kicked out of the city. But for whatever reason she appears to have been ostracized from the community. </div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">In her relationships there is only Darkness, not because she did anything wrong. We do not know the conditions of how she came to where she was that day. We know only through empathy with one who hurts, who lives in the darkness, that there is great pain in her life. As only there can be with one who has had five husbands. This is such a series of broken relationships that we can only feel empathy for her. </div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">So, with the sun high in the sky, this woman finds herself heading to the well. She is heading there to get water, so that she may live. And there sits a Jew, who seemingly without a second thought, asks her for a drink. This is an impossibility. She was a woman, and a Samaritan. She was doubly elect to be despised by a male Jew.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Yet she was less than nothing was being asked a favor by someone who apparently held worldly privilege over her. And in all this confusion Jesus speaks of Living Water that will quench all thirst (match). And she would love some of this water, as it would ease her burden.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Jesus tells her to call her husband and when she says she cannot (pull out match) Jesus tells her why. She now knows Jesus to be a prophet. She asks him a question about worship. Not to change the subject, but as a dialogue partner. Jesus says in effect, “Don’t box God in” (Strike Match) either on the mountain or in the temple. </div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">She knows of the anointed one, the messiah, the Christ, who is to come. She knows that a light will come into the world and all the darkness will be pushed away. And Jesus says, as the LORD God did to Moses, “I AM” (light match).</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Now the disciples have returned to Jesus. And the woman rushed off to tell everyone in the city what she now knows (gesture to the candles). The disciples, despite having travelled with Jesus do not know this. (hold hand in front of eyes) They don’t understand Christ until after they see his wounds as they cower inside locked rooms after he is crucified. Then they let down their hands (drop hand) and see the Glory.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This woman though, she goes off to tell the people of the city about the light of the world, which was revealed to her at high noon. In seeing the odd behavior of this woman, the people of the city head to the well and ask Jesus to stay. When they had seen the light themselves (gesture to candle), as individuals, as community, they too believed. The darkness of the world receeded for them and they were able to see, to celelbrate the light. And they too, outsider Samaritians, confess Jesus to be “I Am, to be Christ, Savior of the world.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The woman was not hold to go and share this news. She was not even sure of the plausibility of it. But she was changed by it. She had seen the light and wanted to reflect it so that others could see too. </div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This double outsider Samaritan woman is the first evangelist in John’s Gospel. The first besides Jesus to speak of the presence of God with us. This woman who’s life situation had totally surrounded her, was suffocating her with Darkness. Saw the promise of the light in Christ. She saw, at the height of the sun, the brightest time of day, she saw, the great I Am. The one who spoke light into existence and she was changed. The only thing she could do, the only thing she was driven to do, was to share the good news.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">When your own life is only Darkness, when you are in the cave, in the total, complete, suffocating darkness, and when Christ comes and you see the light will you block it out? OR will you embrace it and drop everything to share with others so that they too can come to see the light and the life for themselves? So that they can know the Savior? So that they can know the I Am? </div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023926531984483127.post-88705276602110534982010-05-30T09:01:00.001-05:002010-05-30T09:01:00.674-05:00Parables on the Kingdom of God<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is the second sermon preached for my Foundations in Biblical Preaching course this past spring at Luther Seminary.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, leaven, treasure in a field, a merchant searching for fine </span>pearls and a dragnet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know about you, but my understanding of what a Kingdom is involves knights on horses, princesses in towers, armies massed upon field of battle and sometimes, even King Arthur and Camelot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often in the west we have problems understanding these Kingdom metaphors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kingdom spoken against in the Gospel of Matthew was Rome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rome had spread itself out, as all previous kingdoms had, like an anti-God infection upon the Earth.</div><div class="MsoNormal">We, in the west, have moved past this form of governance, and have achieved the modern dream of Democracy and freedom for all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And by golly, those nations that disagree with these freedoms are obviously backward and we should help them in any and all ways possible to become better countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, to become more like us.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Kingdom of God is not under the auspice of the Kingdom of Rome or the Democracy of the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is in the mustard seed that amazingly grows into a tree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is in the leaven hidden in the flour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a treasure in a field where a laborer toils.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is in the merchant searching for fine pearls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is in the dragnet.</div><div class="MsoNormal">As much as we would like, we will never be able to identify any kingdom of this world with the Kingdom of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Kingdom of Heaven is not found within the expansion of temporal authority, expanding its territory with armies, treaties or massive land purchases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">The Kingdom of God is not even within the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do great work around the world such as the effort to rid the world of malaria or homelessness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are a part of the Kingdom vision, but our work toward these ends does not bring the kingdom.</div><div class="MsoNormal">What then are we to do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just sit back and await the Kingdom of God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alas, no.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Quietism is not an option.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These parables and others within the gospels show what life in the Kingdom of Heaven is like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They illustrate how a righteous person acts, so that when the final judgment comes we are saved, or we are cast into the furnace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have been given the grace of Christ and thus are saved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But with this gift of Grace comes great responsibility to be righteous within the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, we, here and now, living in the temporal kingdom must also live into the Kingdom of God.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Thus our church bodies work to end homelessness in Minnesota by working with the state legislature, we work to end malaria related deaths in Africa with simple, effective, and cheap mosquito nets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have the chance on a regular basis to donate our funds to these causes and others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this truly is a response to the grace of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However the government works on these causes too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So to think that these activities bring the Kingdom is folly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">We as followers of Christ are always called to do more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can never do enough though to bring the Kingdom but we are called to do something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we must be a living witness to others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let our lives show how the Grace of Christ affects us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not advocating for taking these parables literally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do not start up a mustard plantation, do not go about the land searching for treasure, et cetera to live the Kingdom life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead live into the Kingdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine that the work you do is a response to the Grace given you in Christ Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This lifestyle then becomes an example to others as to what it is to live a Kingdom life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You must search your hearts and discern amongst yourselves how God is calling you to live into the Kingdom.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Where then is the Kingdom?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kingdom is like Leaven in bread.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is everywhere, and as it is mixed in, hidden within the dough we cannot point to a place here or there where the Kingdom of God is or is not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is hidden, but is everywhere and in plain sight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The treasure of the Kingdom is discerned from life with others and relationship with God, Christ and the Holy Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We spy this treasure in our lives and will do anything to keep it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are willing to give up everything we have so as to pursue it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Lest we think that just the proper actions get us into heaven, the final parable in this section states that the Kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything in the sea is gathered up within this net.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the clean, that is righteous, are saved and the unclean are tossed aside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These fish are clean because God said so back in book of Leviticus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the unclean are thus for the same reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The clean fish live the life God intended of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For countless generations they have been living this life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the people God has chosen for the sake of the world.</div><div class="MsoNormal">God intended for us to live life in a righteous manner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are to live life in relationship with God and others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have many examples of how to live this life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People here today are such examples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are people here who have given up everything to follow Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are those who have yet to give up everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are still holding onto idols of Empire and the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">It is important to note that we can learn something of the kingdom life from each and everyone here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We learn of the Kingdom when we are in conversation with one another like the disciples were with Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we learn what the Kingdom is like when we are in conversation with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we engage each other and God in conversation we learn and perform what life in the Kingdom looks like.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Every time then that you speak with one another, there is the Kingdom of Heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you are in prayer, there is the Kingdom of Heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you are at work, there is the Kingdom of Heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you share a meal, there is the Kingdom of Heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you come together in fellowship with others, there is the Kingdom of Heaven.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Every time someone is killed, there is the kingdom of men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every time you refuse to speak out against injustice, there is the kingdom of men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every time you place a worldly want above relationship with God, there is the kingdom of man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every time you rely upon only yourself, there is the Kingdom of man.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, leaven, treasure in a field, a merchant seeking fine pearls and a dragnet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are no human kings or queens in the Kingdom of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is just a small seed that grows, quite unexpectedly, into a great tree instead of a shrub.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a woman who hides leaven within enough flour to feed 100-150 people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a worker in the field who gives up everything to purchase the treasure found within.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a merchant who has found the finest pearl and gives everything up so as to gain that one pearl.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the Kingdom of God is like a net, drug across the sea, picking up everything to be sorted at the final judgment.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Kingdom of Heaven is all this and more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you are a part of it!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Claim your citizenship and live into the Kingdom!</div><div class="MsoNormal">Amen.</div><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="ALL" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" /> </span> <div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the unclean. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment--> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023926531984483127.post-54498715118523294082010-05-26T09:00:00.001-05:002010-05-29T10:55:40.662-05:00Whither Tradition?When you hear the word Tradition what do you think of? Do you think of Fourth of July celebrations? Summer Barbeques? Christmas Morning? New Years? Church on Sunday Morning? Each of us has various traditions that we remember fondly and desire to reacquaint ourselves with on a regular basis.<br />
Tradition is a wonderful thing. It helps us remember the past. Recall those who are no longer with us. Remember significant events of the past. Tradition is a gift from God that helps us remember where God is active in the world.<br />
Many Families have traditions to celebrate their arrival in the USA. This was most certainly a way to celebrate God’s gift of bringing them to the USA where they could prosper. They were very thankful of God’s work in bringing them here.<br />
Even communities would have these celebrations. Especially around here where we are not that far removed from the time of their arrival. Many small towns have celebrations that recall the ethnic heritage of the founders. Many churches do the same. How many times have we heard of the Lutheran Church in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lake-Wobegon-Days-Garrison-Keillor/dp/0140131612?ie=UTF8&tag=foolishness05-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Lake Woebegon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=foolishness05-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0140131612" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> hosting a Lutefisk dinner?<br />
We here at Saint Anthony Park UMC also have various traditions around Easter, Christmas, Pentecost, Advent, et cetera. Each of these traditions can be traced to a foundation in the Early Church. The community of Christians that wrote the Gospel of John celebrated these holidays too. Palm Sunday, which we celebrate next week, has been celebrated for nearly 2000 years. Paul, who wrote the Letter to the Philippians, would also have celebrated Palm Sunday and Easter.<br />
The beginning of this tradition, of the lager tradition of The Way, later called Christianity, changed every thing for those who participated in it. The followers of Jesus understood this shift. They could no longer live with the old traditions, steeped in rigidly doing things as their predecessors had. Just as in the Isaiah reading we are to no longer expect God to so what God had done formerly. God was radically present, that is incarnate, in Jesus the Christ. God had anointed Jesus, calling him his own.<br />
Paul sees this too. Paul knows that every claim he had to righteousness in nothing without relationship with God/Christ. For the sake of Christ, Paul has suffered the loss of all these claims. That is, all these things that make Paul a Hebrew of Hebrews had previously kept him separate from relationship with God. Paul had to suffer the loss of this status in order that he could be in relationship with Christ as Lord. Paul could no longer have a nationalistic pride. Paul like many others who were followers of Christ can no longer indentify with the ways of the world.<br />
In fact, Both Mary and Paul know that God is not the same God of old. God has become incarnate, fully present in the world, in Jesus Christ. As we heard earlier from Isaiah, God is about to do new things. We should not look for God to do things the way God did in the past. Instead, we should see where God is moving now. <br />
Today were are not in the same social-political situation that we were in when any of us were younger, much less when this church was founded. It is always a new and different world. Why would we expect God to act today the same way God acted in the past?<br />
This is one of the core themes of the Old Testament. God is constantly interacting with the world in new and unique ways. This interaction did not stop with the recordings in the New Testament. We know that the Holy Spirit is with us still today, interacting with us. <br />
The church though, heck, even humanity in general, gets hung up on tradition. We are afraid of change for fear of becoming more like the world. This is a valid concern, if we view ourselves are the agent of change. However if we allow for God to work within us as a community and to change us, we are bound to change from our old ways and traditions that do not give us life. We turn instead to God and the witness of God in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit and see where they are working in the world and work with them there. We must never allow tradition to be more about sustaining the institution of church than about the freeing love of God.<br />
All three of the scriptures today clarify this. And this radical understanding of the scriptures has been the foundation of every reformation within the church. Especially our own in John and Charles Wesley. <br />
We have been discussing during Lent the Wesley Quadrilateral. That is, Tradition, Experience, Reason and Scripture. The highest of these would be scripture. The other three are used to help us read scripture and understand how God is active in the World today.<br />
Reason, Tradition and Scripture are all malleable, They can change. These changes allow for us to have different understandings of scripture in every age. As we say at Luther Seminary, they allow for the Gospel to contextualize itself wherever and whenever it is in the world.<br />
An example, your ability to reason as an adult is very different than your ability as a child. Likewise our experiences today are different than our parents when they were our age. Many of our parents never had the education that many of us here have. Many of our parents lived through the Second World War. Many people my age and younger have no memory of the Vietnam War, and don’t truly know the significance of the Berlin Wall falling. Wesley did not experience any of these world events, much less Paul or the Gospel writers. But their work and understanding of how God works in the world influences how we see God today.<br />
Experiences such as various historical events inform how we see God active in the world. They inform how we come together to worship God. Our experiences in worshiping God, in honoring God, change from age to age too. Suffice it to say that we no longer worship in cathedrals in England, or with the high liturgy of the Anglican Church. <br />
Truly God is still speaking into our world. We are no longer in the past, but we are here, now. We must ask ourselves how does tradition bring us into relationship with God. What is it that needs to change so that we can better relate to one another and to God?<br />
What traditions do we still need within our congregation, within the church at large? And what traditions are we ready to let go of?<br />
Amen.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023926531984483127.post-69612832141789710132010-05-24T09:00:00.000-05:002010-05-24T09:00:41.124-05:00Fasting and JonahMarch 14, 2009.<br />
It is the fourth of six Sundays in Lent. How is that fasting going?<br />
I come here as an outsider to your congregation and I ask you, Why have you been fasting? Because scripture told you fast? Did you reason that you should fast? Does your family traditionally fast? Has your experience of fasting in the past lead you to continue to fast? All of these are valid reasons for fasting. Though there is a bit more to fasting than not eating food.<br />
Traditionally Christians fast during Lent so that we may suffer. Suffer? Really? We live in the United States of America. No one suffers here! Unless of course they are not able to pull themselves up. And that, as Americans, is the point of suffering. Comparatively few in the United States have to suffer or lack for anything. Our understanding of what suffering is massively different from classical suffering in the Bible. Suffering, traditionally, is tied to the passion after Palm Sunday. Though we typically understand only the pain of suffering. In suffering there is also hope. Without hope, suffering is despair. That is unhealthy. Hope in the knowledge that God is with you in your suffering.<br />
Fasting does not bring you closer to God. God is already closer to you than you could ever imagine. This suffering for God instead allows you to experience life without the comforts you are used to. It gives you the chance to reflect, in loss, upon life. When you go without, you can see God in the cracks that open up. This is the purpose of fasting, to see where God is active in your life.<br />
Fasting traditionally is giving something up. That is, something that you like. Such as: meat, sugar, chocolate, coffee, smoking, etc. While fasting during let can allow you to make life changes for a healthier life, this is not traditionally the point of fasting. Fasting brings suffering which allows one to see where hope is and how hope is active in their relationship with God. Thus fasting could be better done I think by giving up a meal a week or going without food for a whole day. Fasting also can mean taking on something else. In this taking on, you are cutting away time that is not productive in your life. In taking on something else one must be mindful that you still need to be with God. Filling your life with things to do is the opposite of fasting.<br />
It is important to remember that spiritual disciplines, which fasting is one of many, are not for you. We do these things for our relationship with God. God calls us to disciplines so that we may know God better. Thus spiritual discipline must include prayer. In prayer we are open to hearing and understanding God. So when fasting, don’t just fast, but when you fast, pray in lieu of what you have given up. Do not work through lunch. Get away from the workspace and spend the time in prayer. Hearing your own suffering, latent to the suffering of others and understand better the suffering of God. If you take something on, do it prayerfully. If you are knitting prayer-shawls, pray as you knit.<br />
Again, this is important, fasting does not bring you closer to God. It allows for you to see God, active, in your life. And in your suffering you see a little of what God suffers when God is not in relationship with you!<br />
God has been in the pattern of sending messengers to the people of God for millennia. First there was Abraham, then Moses, Joshua, Jonah, Daniel, John the Baptizer, Jesus, Paul John Chrysostom, Francis of Assisi, Luther, John Wesley and Mother Theresa. <br />
Typically we call these people prophets, apostles, or re-newers of the church. Through their lives and preaching we are reminded of who God is. This is the Hessed, that is, the Loving Kindness of God. Often we hear of a God who is angry with the people. The people have forgotten God. This is why God sends prophets. To remind us of who it is we are in relationship with. <br />
Imagine if you will that your partner has forgotten about you. He or she does not spend time with you any more. They just go through the rituals, eating, living in the same house, tending the yard, etc. But something else is taking their attention away from the partnership the two of you have. School, work, friends, etc. take unhealthy amounts of time away from the relationship. They become false idols within your relationship. This leads you to become angry with your partner. You begin to resent his or her relationships outside of the one the two of you have.<br />
This is similar to God’s anger with the people and why God sends these prophets. The prophets are sent to the people to remind them of their relationship with God. This is the suffering of God. God is suffering because the people have forgotten their relationship with God. God does not want to be without you.<br />
Suffering then is not something you can control. It comes from outside of you. From loss. You do not choose to suffer. Instead you can choose to give something up. In this suffering we can understand God better. In suffering we repent and make right our relationship with God. In the suffering of the passion Christ reconciled us, you, me, your parents, your children, your neighbors, strangers and yes, your enemies, all of these reconciled to God! We are all in relationship with God; we are still guilty of forgetting this.<br />
Enter fasting. The forty days of Lent are reminiscent of the forty hours between the death of Christ and his resurrection. This is a time when we are without God. Christ is dead. God has died. We suffer this death, this separation from God. God was with us in Immanuel. Now that Christ, Immanuel, is dead, this seems to no longer be the case.<br />
Our fasting reminds us of this time when God was gone. When the God, who suffered for us, for relationship with us, died. Remember, suffering is from loss of relationship God was with us. God showed signs of mercy and healing to us when Jesus walked upon the earth. In Jesus we finally understand who God is. We understand what God does for us. We know the pure love of God. God’s Loving Kindness, Hessed, is made known.<br />
The prophet Jonah knows this God too. God loves the people. Not just Israel, but all the people of the world. God wants to be in relationship with all of them. God does not want to just love them from afar. God loves the people of Nineveh, the enemies and oppressors of God’s chosen people Israel. God is angry with the Ninevites though. What Nineveh has done or not done is not known. We know just that they do not follow the tenants of the LORD God. We can sense though that Nineveh does not know God.<br />
Jonah would like nothing more than for Nineveh to be destroyed. And when he finally gets to Nineveh, after running to the other end of the Mediterranean, he calls out just for this, for Nineveh to be destroyed.<br />
Read pg. 1267 in Message now.<br />
Something happened that surprises Jonah, and surprises us. Nineveh repents! The people proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth. Everyone did, even the king! The king came down from his throne, did you get that? He came down from his throne and sat in the dirt. Then he commanded that the fast should continue and that they should not drink any water either. And in this decree he includes the animals! Everyone must ‘cry for help’ to God, that is everyone must pray to God, hoping that perhaps with their change in life that God will change God’s mind.<br />
God, long in suffering for Nineveh saw how Nineveh was now suffering for God. God saw that the people loved God and that the people knew that they had done wrong. God loving the people of Nineveh repents and does not do what God had planned to do. Yes, God repents! God changed God’s mind because of what the people of Nineveh did.<br />
With the act of fasting Nineveh gains an understanding of suffering. They, as a community, begin to understand their relationship with God. As we fast during Lent, as we go without, we understand better the suffering of God and our relationship with God grows stronger.<br />
The Lenten discipline of fasting is not only for lent. It is also for whole of the year. After all, God does not stop suffering for us after Easter. Why should we suffer for God only during Lent? Why should we in our warm homes, with our full stomachs, fast only during Lent? There are people throughout the world, throughout the country, throughout the state, throughout the city who fast, not because they can, but because they must. Fasting helps us to understand these people, these neighbors of ours. Suffering for God and for others is one of the things we are called to in Christ. <br />
Remember in suffering is hope. Hope that the world will be reconciled to the reign of God. The people of Nineveh were reconciled to God. And the king of Nineveh was reconciled to God when he came down from his throne. Again I ask, how is the fast going?<br />
Amen.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023926531984483127.post-13054524651353775122010-05-19T10:14:00.002-05:002010-05-19T11:04:25.283-05:00Emaus and the Fellowship.<meta content="" name="Keywords"></meta> <meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></meta> <meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"></meta> <meta content="Microsoft Word 2008" name="Generator"></meta> <meta content="Microsoft Word 2008" name="Originator"></meta> <link href="file://localhost/Users/fett/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">This is the first sermon I preached for my Foundations of Biblical Preaching course at Luther Seminary this past year. It is rough and a little shoddy, but hey, we all start from somewhere eh? </div><div class="MsoNormal">Luke 24:13-35</div><meta content="" name="Title"></meta> <meta content="" name="Keywords"></meta> <meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></meta> <meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"></meta> <meta content="Microsoft Word 2008" name="Generator"></meta> <meta content="Microsoft Word 2008" name="Originator"></meta> <link href="file://localhost/Users/fett/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0/clip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Two weeks ago Christ rose triumphantly from the dead. Prior to that Christ entered “triumphantly” into Jerusalem.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">We have explored this triumphal entry, journey even, and explored what it is to be Christ-like. We have seen what it is to journey with Christ. That is, what it is we are called to, what a life of faith looks like. We then suffered with Christ during Holy Week, questioning like the disciples what has happened to this one who we thought, we hoped, was the LORD.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Then despair came upon us on Good Friday, The one we thought to be the messiah was hung upon the cross and died, along with our hopes of the return of the Davidic kingship. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Then Sunday, Easter, the women had gone to the tomb to prepare the body of Jesus. When they arrived they found the stone rolled away, the body was gone. Mary then saw Jesus there in our reading on Easter. Last week in our reading, Jesus appeared to the disciples.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">This text though is different than that. The sightings we read about the last two weeks were in Matthew, not recorded in Luke. This reading is still Easter Sunday, and these two disciples are confused. What has happened to the body? Why had the tomb been opened and the body taken away? How could the body be prepared properly?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">This is where we meet the two disciples today. These two are not part of the twelve who were sent out earlier in Luke’s gospel. These two are disciples of Jesus, who would have seen him on a regular basis, perhaps even having journeying with him into Jerusalem.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">The prophet they had chosen to follow was dead. He had been entrapped by their religious leaders and given over to the Roman authorities to be killed.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">These two had journeyed to Jerusalem full of hope for the Passover feast. Things would be different now they thought. All the hope was gone, and also the body in the grave. This was not the different they thought it would be. They are leaving the city dejected, journeying to Emmaus. Questioning their faith, and the faith of the people, I am sure.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Then they meet this stranger on the road and they need to explain everything to him. The death of Jesus must have been one heck of an event in Jerusalem for them to assume that this stranger knew of it. I find it very curious that they were unable to identify Jesus when they saw him. They were actually prevented from it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">In another story we have a similar situation. The book “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fellowship-Ring-Being-First-Rings/dp/0618574948?ie=UTF8&tag=foolishness05-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Fellowship of the Ring</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=foolishness05-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0618574948" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" />” by JRR Tolkien is part of a grand story. It tells of the joining of many peoples together into a fellowship which is tasked with bringing the One Ring to Mordor, the heart of evil in the world and to destroy this ring there, in the fires of the Crack of Doom where it was forged. In this group are humans, hobbits, an elf, a dwarf, and a wizard. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">This fellowship is formed at the council of Elrond in Rivendell. Our intrepid Hobbits, Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry have brought the One Ring from their home in the Shire to Rivendell. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">They were to journey to Bree and meet the wizard Gandalf there. He had been delayed and instead sent the ranger Strider to follow and keep watch over them, keep them safe, and lead them on the journey to Rivendell.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Strider is a special type of person. He is a ranger from the North. A mysterious lot who keep to themselves and don’t mix well with others according to the bar keep at the Prancing Pony in Bree where the Hobbits end up.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">The Hobbits know to trust Gandalf. But Strider is an unknown to them. They think he is a misfit of a human. And when he steals Frodo away after Frodo puts on the One Ring, the other three Hobbits, typically a shy unassuming lot, charge into Striders room ready to die for their friend Frodo.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Strider tells them that he will lead them to Rivendell to meet Gandalf. And he does just that. Along this journey he leads them through swamps, protects them from the vile ring wraiths and prevents Frodo from dying when he was stabbed by the sword of one of the ring wraiths.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Frodo ends up being rushed to Rivendell where elvish medicine is able to heal his wound. Upon recovery he is reacquainted with Gandalf and his uncle Bilbo whom he has not seen for over three decades. Rivendell is truly a place of peace upon the earth. It is a bulwark against the evil that is encroaching upon the world.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Frodo thinks that this is the end of his journey. He brought the One Ring to Rivendell and had done what Gandalf had asked of him. This was it; everything was going to be well now. His friends could go back to the Shire to live out the rest of their lives. He could do the same or journey with his uncle Bilbo, as both of them had a bit of the Wanderlust. His final task is to present the One Ring at the council of Elrond.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Elrond the leader of the elves of Rivendell has called a council to decide the fate of the heinous evil, the One Ring. Humans, Dwarves, Elves are there along with Gandalf the Wizard, Strider, Frodo and Sam. At this council it is finally revealed who this dirty ranger Strider truly is. He is the Heir of Elindil, the one who was prophesied to sit again upon the throne at Gondor. He is the One King.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Strider is the one people have been waiting for. He is the one who can bring unity to the human people of the West, though some see his appearance as a threat to their way of life. They benefit from the status quo and do not desire to allow strider to claim his rightful place upon the throne in Gondor.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">The Hobbits had no idea who they were journeying with! The One King, Aragorn, had lead them though swamps, protected them from wraiths, and delivered them mostly safe to Rivendell, to peace on Earth.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Our travelers have Jesus beside them, along the road to Emmaus. They tell him all of what happened to Jesus, not knowing to whom they spoke.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Jesus tells them of all the prophecies for the messiah. How he had to suffer to enter into glory. And he opened the history of the people of Israel and their journey with God to them. And in all of this the two travelers were kept from seeing that it truly was Jesus whom they journeyed with.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">So a final question for you. How often in your journey do you not allow yourself to see the Redeemer, that is Christ, active? Are you like Frodo and the Hobbits in The Lord of the Rings? Totally unaware of whom this person is you journey with? Jesus is there beside you on your journey. We may not always recognize his presence, and we may be kept from recognizing it. As you journey through this next week, keep your eyes open for God presence. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0