My grandpa and I went fishing a lot during my childhood. They lived in Redfield, Kansas and summers with them meant getting up early on the weekends. The air would still be moist from an early morning Kansas shower. Grandma would have already been up an hour or two by the time I came upstairs from my basement bedroom and no doubt had cinnamon rolls freshly baked or bacon and eggs ready. I’d sit and drink my orange juice while Grandpa would tell me briefly about where we were going and why he thought that’d be a good place to go fish and I’d nod and smile ignorantly just waiting to get on our way.
Then he’d lean back, toothpick stuck in his mouth and say, “Well, I’d be guessin’ it’s about time we got goin.” We’d head off to the garage where he’d pack up the pickup truck with all our fishin gear including extra poles, a couple of old tackle boxes, a fish cleaning kit and some kind of contraption to keep the fish we had caught from swimming back to freedom. Then, we’d head off to one of the various ponds in the area to start the day.
Fishing with grandpa was wonderful. We didn’t talk much because grandpa didn’t talk much, but he has kind eyes and a kind heart. Thinking back I wonder how he ever caught any fish between showing me the best spots to cast my line and then helping me pull off the mounds of “seaweed” as I called it or helping me get my hook out of the lone treebranch above my head. We mostly fished for bass, but every once in awhile we’d catch something else. Throughout all my years fishing with grandpa, I think the biggest fish he or I ever caught was a six pound bass which we took back home to his pond and tried to transplant unsuccessfully.
Grandma and grandpa always said that I was the grandkid who liked to fish and they were right, I did like it. I pretty much fished every day that I was living at their house in the summertime and tried all kinds of ways to catch them. I’d fish off the dock, wade into the weeds, hop into an inner tube and cast out from the middle of the pond. I’d fish in the rain, in the sweltering heat, in the early morning and as late as they’d let me stay up. Grandpa didn’t have any fancy fishing gear. No pontoon boat with electronic gadgets to see the fish beneath us on a screen. The fanciest lure I ever remember using was a “trips” hook. Mostly I just fished with various earthworms we collected, jelly worms, plastic bugs and corn for carp. I was a fisherman, at least in my own eyes and in the eyes of my grandparents, but as time went by I found that there was a lot more to do with my life than just fish.
In the gospel today, Jesus was passing along the Sea of Galilee and he saw a man named Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen and he said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” The old sexist way of saying this gets the nuance of the phrase better, Jesus tells the fishermen, “I will make you fishers of men.” Now, I have fished a lot in my life, though probably not for over ten years at this point, but this passage has never made any sense to me. Or, it’s not so much that it doesn’t make sense to me, I get the point, the irony and all that, but it doesn’t really DO anything for me. It doesn’t affect me. It doesn’t make sense to me why Simon, Andrew and then James and John follow Jesus instead of just continuing with their work. Was Jesus’ voice magical or something? Were they really hard up for something else to do? Why did Jesus’ words have such an affect on them and absolutely no effect on me?
Perhaps, because I am not much of a fisherman. I like to fish, but I certainly never considered it as a career. I like it, but I’m not really that good at it. It’s certainly not one of my gifts. If someone had told me to go to seminary so I could become a “fisher of men” I would’ve smiled politely and said, “No thanks!” and gone on with my life. But God didn’t call me to be a “fisher of men or of people or anything like that.” He knows that wouldn’t mean a hill of beans to me.
Martin Luther is known especially for his teachings on two subjects: justification and vocation. He taught that God forgives sinners because of their faith in Jesus alone and not because of their works. And, he taught that since you know how much God loves you, you can stop trying to earn his love and spend all THAT time serving your neighbor instead. Today we are talking about vocation. What has God called you to do? He doesn’t call you out of the world and away from your gifts; he calls you to Jesus and uses your gifts to serve others.
In Luther’s day, within the Roman Catholic church, there was a hierarchy of holiness so to speak. On the bottom rung of the ladder were people like you and me, then, above us, a little higher up on ladder, were priests and nuns. Above them was the pope and then Jesus at the top. This kind of attitude might not bother you, but it might change how you live your life.
I’d like to read to you something that Luther wrote from his essay on “The Estate of Marriage.” It’s certainly patriarchal in its language, but it reflects how a misunderstanding of God’s calling can change your viewpoint on life, “Now observe that when that clever harlot, our natural reason, takes a look at married life, she turns up her nose and says, “Alas, must I rock the baby, wash its diapers, make its bed, smell its stench, stay up nights with it, take care of it when it cries, heal its rashes and sores, and on top of that care for my wife, provide for her, labor at my trade, take care of this and take care of that, do this and do that, endure this and endure that, and whatever else of bitterness and drudgery married life involves? What, should I make such a prisoner of myself? O you poor, wretched fellow, have you taken a wife? Fie, fie upon such wretchedness and bitterness! It is better to remain free and lead a peaceful, carefree life; I will become a priest or a nun and compel my children to do likewise.”
In contrast, Luther argued that God’s call, your vocation, means becoming completely human with all the dirt and grime associated with it. Why? Because, as the Lutheran theologian Gustaf Wingren said, “In one’s vocation one is not reaching up to God, but rather bends oneself down to the world and the neighbor.” Loving people involves doing very unspiritual looking things like changing diapers, mowing the lawn and cooking dinner. God doesn’t call you out of the world but into the world to serve others.
There was and still is a propensity to believe that religious folk are in a so called “higher calling” than others. The problem is compounded today not only because we think our jobs aren’t “holy” enough but because we often don’t believe God is alive enough, active enough or authoritative enough to call us anymore. We don’t think he has a voice or a vote when it comes to what we do in our lives. We think he is outdated when we hear stories like today’s gospel reading about “fishing of people”. Maybe you don’t want to “fish for people”, maybe you don’t even like to fish!
Take a moment and, in your own mind, consider what you are good at. What excites you about life? If you could have an afternoon to do anything you wanted to do, what would it be? If you could be paid to take any job you wanted, what would you do? That just might be your calling, your vocation and, you might be upset, that you aren’t doing what you feel you were “meant” to do. Well, now that you’ve given voice to your inner calling, the next step is to pray to God for his voice to come as an external call. This is the part most people skip, but it is the most important part. Maybe it’s not that we think it is a silly exercise, but that we’re afraid God actually will talk back and take us away from something we love. But trust that while God might call you in a direction you don’t understand or agree with, he will always call you to Jesus Christ, into the world and USE your gifts. And he won’t make you rely on discerning whether that inner feeling you have is the Holy Spirit or an undigested piece of hamburger. He uses his external word, a voice from outside you, to call you into the world. He might use your uncle Larry or a homeless beggar off the street, but you can count on God calling you into service.
Most of the time when we talk about vocations, we are talking about how we are going to make money for ourselves, our families and our future. But a vocation, a calling from God, is not about serving yourself—it is about serving others. This is how God uses you as a tool in his hands, to protect, serve and love your neighbor. In fact, this is also how God is going to kill you eventually, by pouring you out for your family, for your friends, for the complete stranger in your midst. You can see how everything got mixed up in the monasteries. People would come out of the world and join a monastery to solidify their own personal salvation when God was calling them into the world to support the lives of others. Your personal salvation has already been promised to you by Jesus Christ himself. Now you’ve got the time to serve.
God calls you into your family, into your community and even into your church. This isn’t about the church “needing” you. This is about the church not really being a church without you. But God isn’t just going to call you all to fish! That’s how he called four disciples, but your call might be very different. He’ll use the gifts he has given you. Teachers may called to teach children or lead Bible Studies. Business owners may be called to lead projects or start new ministries. If you love to talk, you might find yourself inviting your friends to worship with you. If you like time by yourself, you might enjoy praying for the sick. If you are obsessively organized, maybe God is calling you to sort through my office! What is God calling you to do? The possibilities are endless and there’s a lot more to do than just fish. Amen.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Sermon for January 18th
In past sermons, I have mentioned, once or twice, that God intends to use your hands and your feet to serve your neighbors and to show them love. Today’s passage from 1st Corinthians reveals that God intends to use even more than just your hands and your feet. “The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” Yes, God is the God of everything . . . even the God of sex. Sexual activity can either benefit your neighbor or hurt them. Your spouse, your partner, or a complete stranger, can either be loved or hurt depending on your choices and how you use the body God has gifted you with.
Paul says, “The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord . . . .” But what is fornication? What is Paul talking about? What does fornication mean? Does it mean all sexual activity? No. Fornication is any sexual activity outside of the blessing and relationship of marriage.
In the first chapter of Genesis, God created a man and a woman in the image of God and then he gave them their first command, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Did God say, “Go take a cold shower?” Or, “Look, but don’t touch?” Or perhaps, “Now stay away from each other?” No. “God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’” Let me be very clear about this: God commanded the first man and woman he created to go have sex and have babies. This is not a God who hates passion! This is not a God who is unfamiliar with desire! This is not some prudish God who despises flesh! He made flesh! He designed all the parts involved! He created pleasure! He desired passion for those he created.
But he didn’t create sex and pleasure as simply some object to obtain like just another apple from a tree in the garden. In God’s creation, sex is placed within a specific context. God created sex within a particular kind of relationship. God created a man and then, for a partner, he created a woman. The text conveys that this difference in gender is part of the created order and is something good. Sexual relations are put in this context—into this relationship. Sex is a gift, but not just for the man and not just for the woman, but for and with one another.
In Genesis 2, God makes it clear that sex is even more than a gift though. It defines this relationship in a new and glorious way, “Therefore, a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Marriage is not defined by having children because we, as God’s creatures, are not able to have them apart from God’s creative work. Moreover, just having a child does not a marriage make. Sometimes, through scientific methods, a child can begin life apart from any relationship or marriage at all! Even within a marriage, sexual activity might cease “for a set time” as scripture says.
So what defines a married relationship? Marriage, in the Bible, is not defined as such but is described as being between men and women in a relationship where sexual activity is given boundaries. You don’t HAVE to have sex in order to be considered married, but you have to be married in order to consider having sex. Sex in any other manner, for whatever other reason outside of this special kind of relationship, is considered fornication, something God did not create human beings or their bodies to do. God created you to love and serve your neighbor, your spouse and complete strangers EVEN when it comes to your sex life.
As with any command from God, there are a several different ways we might respond to it. I’m not telling you three ways that you might WISH to respond, but I am describing three ways that sinners, like you and I, tend to respond. For instance, you may just disagree with God’s Word and seek some other words that seem to make more sense to you, be more tolerable or feel better. When you hear that you should “shun fornication”, you might decide that fornication is an outdated rule that shouldn’t apply to you for some reason or another. You are not changed and God’s Word is not changed, but life continues on more or less the same. On the other hand, you may agree completely with God’s Word and attempt to follow his rules perfectly while pointing out how others are not doing so well. But, if you are more interested in meeting God’s demands than loving your neighbor, this is called legalism. In this case, when you are told to “shun fornication”, you might believe that you aren’t fornicating with anyone that you can think of and thank God that you are so holy. Believe it or not, no one is changed in this scenario either, not you and not God’s Word.
But there is a third way to hear God’s command. The law still doesn’t change (I hope that you are getting the gist of that) but, in this case, you are changed. When you are told to “shun fornication”, you might realize that this Word from God is talking about you. You are the one being judged. God is pointing out your sins; you can’t escape them and you can’t blame someone else.
Our society has condemned, oppressed and despised many people of the world and used the Bible, or other religious books, as justification for doing so. Prostitutes are treated like dirt by those who use them for their bodies as well as by those who disagree with their lifestyle. Homosexual people are victimized by hate crimes and mocked by stereotypes. People who have affairs are shunned by their closest friends and relatives for their poor judgment and mistakes. Child molesters are beaten and sometimes even killed in jails.
On the other hand, people living together before marriage is quite acceptable in our society today. Premarital sex is just fine . . . as long as you don’t get pregnant that is. That can sometimes be embarrassing. You can look at pornography from the comforts of your own home if you stay up late enough and have cable TV or a satellite dish. And, the cute blonde down the street? Well, you can imagine a late-night rendevouz with her without anybody ever even realizing you are thinking about it.
We view these things differently don’t we. No one would ever equate the seriousness of child molestation to a little fantasy about a movie star. However, in God’s eyes, according to his law, they are both sins. They both need to be stopped. Everything I just mentioned would be considered fornication, sex outside the boundaries of God’s blessing in marriage. God speaks the same way about it all: “Shun fornication! The body is not meant for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. For you were bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body.” You may not even have done anything, you may only be thinking it, unintentionally, or in your dreams! But throughout the Bible, God is no more lenient with men or women sleeping around with various partners than he is with people sleeping around with other gods, with other words or with other moralities. God wants us all to be perfect. And we all fail miserably. Not only in how we act in public, but even in the privacy of our own minds and bedrooms.
As I said before, God’s Word does not change, but there is a chance that you might and that is why he speaks at all. God’s law always condemns. God’s law is not compassionate. God’s law judges you and me and every single person on this earth. He tells you to shun fornication because he wants you to love and be loved without the risk of harming or being harmed. He gives his final word to all forms of sex outside of the relationship of marriage . . . and his word is “NO!” His word is final. It is difficult and sometimes gut wrenching for us to hear this. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t need a Savior.
But, in fact, we do need a Savior. You NEED a Savior. Jesus died not only for your sweet little sins that you can’t help but for the sins that you never wanted saving from. He saves you from yourself and he even died so that you might have a blessed sex life, believe it or not! So that sex in your life might be a gift, not just in the eyes of you and your partner, but in the eyes of God and your community as well.
God doesn’t tolerate your excuses. He doesn’t accept your arguments. Instead, he does something completely unexpected: he forgives you and promises that your sins, even your sexual sins, will never separate you from his love. He doesn’t just want you to feel bad, to feel guilty or to repent of your sins; he wants you to repent and then believe that he has forgiven you once and for all. So you can love and be loved freely and without fear even in your most intimate relationships. He tells you to flee fornication so that you might run into his open arms. He calls you out on your sins so that he might forgive you completely. No matter how far you have fallen, God is right there to pick you up.
Sex is a gift from God for his creatures. But it can only be considered a gift within the context of a relationship blessed by God where it is given its proper purpose. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But now, hear this: you are forgiven and I pray that God might help you glorify his name even with your body. Amen.
Paul says, “The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord . . . .” But what is fornication? What is Paul talking about? What does fornication mean? Does it mean all sexual activity? No. Fornication is any sexual activity outside of the blessing and relationship of marriage.
In the first chapter of Genesis, God created a man and a woman in the image of God and then he gave them their first command, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Did God say, “Go take a cold shower?” Or, “Look, but don’t touch?” Or perhaps, “Now stay away from each other?” No. “God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’” Let me be very clear about this: God commanded the first man and woman he created to go have sex and have babies. This is not a God who hates passion! This is not a God who is unfamiliar with desire! This is not some prudish God who despises flesh! He made flesh! He designed all the parts involved! He created pleasure! He desired passion for those he created.
But he didn’t create sex and pleasure as simply some object to obtain like just another apple from a tree in the garden. In God’s creation, sex is placed within a specific context. God created sex within a particular kind of relationship. God created a man and then, for a partner, he created a woman. The text conveys that this difference in gender is part of the created order and is something good. Sexual relations are put in this context—into this relationship. Sex is a gift, but not just for the man and not just for the woman, but for and with one another.
In Genesis 2, God makes it clear that sex is even more than a gift though. It defines this relationship in a new and glorious way, “Therefore, a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Marriage is not defined by having children because we, as God’s creatures, are not able to have them apart from God’s creative work. Moreover, just having a child does not a marriage make. Sometimes, through scientific methods, a child can begin life apart from any relationship or marriage at all! Even within a marriage, sexual activity might cease “for a set time” as scripture says.
So what defines a married relationship? Marriage, in the Bible, is not defined as such but is described as being between men and women in a relationship where sexual activity is given boundaries. You don’t HAVE to have sex in order to be considered married, but you have to be married in order to consider having sex. Sex in any other manner, for whatever other reason outside of this special kind of relationship, is considered fornication, something God did not create human beings or their bodies to do. God created you to love and serve your neighbor, your spouse and complete strangers EVEN when it comes to your sex life.
As with any command from God, there are a several different ways we might respond to it. I’m not telling you three ways that you might WISH to respond, but I am describing three ways that sinners, like you and I, tend to respond. For instance, you may just disagree with God’s Word and seek some other words that seem to make more sense to you, be more tolerable or feel better. When you hear that you should “shun fornication”, you might decide that fornication is an outdated rule that shouldn’t apply to you for some reason or another. You are not changed and God’s Word is not changed, but life continues on more or less the same. On the other hand, you may agree completely with God’s Word and attempt to follow his rules perfectly while pointing out how others are not doing so well. But, if you are more interested in meeting God’s demands than loving your neighbor, this is called legalism. In this case, when you are told to “shun fornication”, you might believe that you aren’t fornicating with anyone that you can think of and thank God that you are so holy. Believe it or not, no one is changed in this scenario either, not you and not God’s Word.
But there is a third way to hear God’s command. The law still doesn’t change (I hope that you are getting the gist of that) but, in this case, you are changed. When you are told to “shun fornication”, you might realize that this Word from God is talking about you. You are the one being judged. God is pointing out your sins; you can’t escape them and you can’t blame someone else.
Our society has condemned, oppressed and despised many people of the world and used the Bible, or other religious books, as justification for doing so. Prostitutes are treated like dirt by those who use them for their bodies as well as by those who disagree with their lifestyle. Homosexual people are victimized by hate crimes and mocked by stereotypes. People who have affairs are shunned by their closest friends and relatives for their poor judgment and mistakes. Child molesters are beaten and sometimes even killed in jails.
On the other hand, people living together before marriage is quite acceptable in our society today. Premarital sex is just fine . . . as long as you don’t get pregnant that is. That can sometimes be embarrassing. You can look at pornography from the comforts of your own home if you stay up late enough and have cable TV or a satellite dish. And, the cute blonde down the street? Well, you can imagine a late-night rendevouz with her without anybody ever even realizing you are thinking about it.
We view these things differently don’t we. No one would ever equate the seriousness of child molestation to a little fantasy about a movie star. However, in God’s eyes, according to his law, they are both sins. They both need to be stopped. Everything I just mentioned would be considered fornication, sex outside the boundaries of God’s blessing in marriage. God speaks the same way about it all: “Shun fornication! The body is not meant for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. For you were bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body.” You may not even have done anything, you may only be thinking it, unintentionally, or in your dreams! But throughout the Bible, God is no more lenient with men or women sleeping around with various partners than he is with people sleeping around with other gods, with other words or with other moralities. God wants us all to be perfect. And we all fail miserably. Not only in how we act in public, but even in the privacy of our own minds and bedrooms.
As I said before, God’s Word does not change, but there is a chance that you might and that is why he speaks at all. God’s law always condemns. God’s law is not compassionate. God’s law judges you and me and every single person on this earth. He tells you to shun fornication because he wants you to love and be loved without the risk of harming or being harmed. He gives his final word to all forms of sex outside of the relationship of marriage . . . and his word is “NO!” His word is final. It is difficult and sometimes gut wrenching for us to hear this. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t need a Savior.
But, in fact, we do need a Savior. You NEED a Savior. Jesus died not only for your sweet little sins that you can’t help but for the sins that you never wanted saving from. He saves you from yourself and he even died so that you might have a blessed sex life, believe it or not! So that sex in your life might be a gift, not just in the eyes of you and your partner, but in the eyes of God and your community as well.
God doesn’t tolerate your excuses. He doesn’t accept your arguments. Instead, he does something completely unexpected: he forgives you and promises that your sins, even your sexual sins, will never separate you from his love. He doesn’t just want you to feel bad, to feel guilty or to repent of your sins; he wants you to repent and then believe that he has forgiven you once and for all. So you can love and be loved freely and without fear even in your most intimate relationships. He tells you to flee fornication so that you might run into his open arms. He calls you out on your sins so that he might forgive you completely. No matter how far you have fallen, God is right there to pick you up.
Sex is a gift from God for his creatures. But it can only be considered a gift within the context of a relationship blessed by God where it is given its proper purpose. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But now, hear this: you are forgiven and I pray that God might help you glorify his name even with your body. Amen.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Sermon for January 11th
In today’s gospel reading Jesus gets baptized. But why did he have to get baptized? It seems so, less than divine-like doesn’t it? Perhaps baptism looks more religious, but it is really no more good looking than being born, getting crucified or dying. Those are things we do, you and I, humans. Not God. But, I guess since God did became truly human in Jesus, he would have needed to eat, drink, take baths, be born and die, but baptism just seems a little, well, I don’t know, excessive? A little too religious maybe? Baptism just doesn’t seem necessary for Jesus. Why does HE need THAT?
And if it isn’t necessary for Jesus, why do you and I do it? Romans says, “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.” End of story. What’s the baptism for then? To look good? To go to church? To cover your bases (just in case)? To make grandma happy? What do you think?
Several years ago I remember reading about how traditional marriage vows are changing. Instead of putting in the final, “till death do us part” section, they stick in something like, “As long as our love shall last”. The article said this was more realistic. But the problem is that sometimes people who are married don’t “feel” in love anymore. Does that mean your marriage is over? What if one partner isn’t happy anymore but the other is still head over heels? Is the marriage still “game on”? “Till death do us part” is an unconditional promise for a person who is going to die someday. “Till our love ends” is a conditional promise because everyone’s emotions change eventually. Words and promises seem to float around in space until we internalize them, until we make them our own, until we believe them and “feel” that they are true. Sometimes words are just hard to believe.
Throughout high school, my dad usually took me to a good Lutheran church where the rest of our family went. We sang with the choir and sometimes went to the adult Bible Study. I attended the youth group seldom, but we were almost always at church. When I began college, I attended about three different churches, once by myself and twice with a friend. But none of them really seemed right. It didn’t “feel” right. They didn’t inspire me. I didn’t like them.
So what do you think happened? Well, I stopped going. I attended what my pastor would later call, “Saint Mattress by the Springs” and, while I was the only attendee, I was a faithful worshipper for three months. I told people that I didn’t go to any church, but that I read my Bible at home—and that was true. I “felt” faithful. I loved God. And I knew God loved me too. I just knew it. I could “feel” it.
Lucky for me, that feeling really never changed while I was not attending church. But others are not so lucky. I remember an old movie called, “Legends of the Fall” where the character Brad Pitt was playing, named Tristan, screamed hateful things at God when his younger brother, Samuel, died during a war. Suffering seemed to follow Tristan and his family ever since. Toward the end of the movie, Tristan confided to his father than when he had gotten angry at God, he believed that God must have gotten angry right back at him. Tristan’s father argued that this was not true, but Tristan FELT that way. So who could argue, right? There was nothing his father could say. No way to prove God’s love. No way to argue that Tristan wasn’t perfectly correct. The suffering was there for everyone to see. How could Tristan have believed any differently when he felt the way he did?
You see, for many Christians, baptism is an outward sign of an inward feeling. It shows, in a physical way, something that has already happened on the inside. The baptism is just an old, traditional ritual. The inside feeling is the most important. In America, we shudder to think of marrying someone we do not already love; therefore, the concept of being loved and baptized by a God we aren’t madly in love with sounds impossible! Marriage seems to be a ceremony to reflect what has already happened—they’ve both fallen head over heels. In the same way, many people argue that baptism is a way to show others, and God, that you are serious in your relationship and are willing to go all the way with God, so to speak. That’s why, for instance, so many denominations don’t baptize infants or do so only as a preliminary dedication to be completed at confirmation. Why? Because you must be at an age to actually prove your love and confess your intentions before making promises to God—so the argument goes.
I have an overactive imagination and, throughout my life, I have often daydreamed about how I would act if confronted with various situations. You know, like saving puppies from danger and winning fights with my wife. One of these recurring daydreams involves me talking to someone over lunch about baptism. As I said before, many people maintain that in order for a baptism to “stick” or really take, a strong faithful feeling must be present beforehand. Well, at my imaginary lunch table, I always do the same thing when my conversation partner says that baptism is based primarily on a person’s feelings for God. In one fell swoop I pick up my water glass and toss it directly in the face of my conversation partner saying, “Jesus loves you.” And then, as they sit there shocked, cold and wet I smile and say, “How do you feel about that! Just TRY to give it back!”
That’s why we use water at a baptism instead of just telling people that they are washed clean of their sins in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When I tell you that God forgives your sins even if you don’t get wet, it’s still true. But when you come back from hearing God’s promise with water behind your ears, it’s harder to wiggle out of it? Especially when your mother, father and a congregation full of witnesses can vouch that it really did happen. A question that comes up all the time is, “What if I don’t feel forgiven?” Well, what do you expect to feel? Feel the water. Or, if that’s already happened, eat the bread, drink the wine. God puts himself and his promises in THINGS so that you and I will have something to hold onto when our religious feelings are floating away out of our reach.
Why did Jesus have to be baptized? In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says, “It is proper . . . to fulfill all righteousness”. What if Jesus had not been baptized? Well, then we would have had to trust that, indeed, he was one with God without hearing it from God’s mouth himself. Without hearing God’s pronouncement, “This is my Son, the Beloved, Listen to Him.” Without Jesus’ baptism, without seeing with their own eyes, without hearing it with their own ears, who could have believed that it was true? It would have been an internal matter. Was Jesus telling the truth? That would be up to you. But when God says it himself, it is much harder to argue about it. The same is true with your baptism. Do you feel very religious today? No? Well, God said that you are his and it’s hard to argue with that. Even if you don’t “feel” saved or forgiven or even loved.
I recently read about a scene from the television series “All in the Family” if you remember that one. When the character Michael protests at Archie’s conniving to have the baby baptized, Archie retorts, “What’s the matter, you were baptized weren’t you? Yes. Michael replies. “But I renounced my baptism.” You can’t do that, Archie says, “You can renounce your belly button, but it won’t go away!”
When Sophia was a little baby, we had to wait six weeks before she was baptized. We were going to make a seven hour trip with her to Nebraska so that our family could attend the service. I remember being really worried about what might happen if we got in a car wreck or something before we ever made it to the church. A professor of mine told me not to worry, because God’s promises are redundant. I had been singing each day that Jesus loved her when I put her to sleep. She heard the forgiveness of sins every week in church. Baptism would not be the first time she heard of God’s love and so, if anything tragic did happen, I could trust that she knew Jesus and God knew her and loved her dearly. But, he added, “Steven, go down there to Nebraska hear God’s promise and see her get all wet, and then, you won’t have to wonder ever again about God’s intentions.
That’s why you were baptized. Not to prove your faith. Not to show off your feelings. But to give you faith. To give you faith. So that you could truly believe that he is your Savior, God’s beloved Son. And, so that you could trust that he has washed you clean once and for all. No matter how you feel today. God’s love for you is forever. Amen.
And if it isn’t necessary for Jesus, why do you and I do it? Romans says, “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.” End of story. What’s the baptism for then? To look good? To go to church? To cover your bases (just in case)? To make grandma happy? What do you think?
Several years ago I remember reading about how traditional marriage vows are changing. Instead of putting in the final, “till death do us part” section, they stick in something like, “As long as our love shall last”. The article said this was more realistic. But the problem is that sometimes people who are married don’t “feel” in love anymore. Does that mean your marriage is over? What if one partner isn’t happy anymore but the other is still head over heels? Is the marriage still “game on”? “Till death do us part” is an unconditional promise for a person who is going to die someday. “Till our love ends” is a conditional promise because everyone’s emotions change eventually. Words and promises seem to float around in space until we internalize them, until we make them our own, until we believe them and “feel” that they are true. Sometimes words are just hard to believe.
Throughout high school, my dad usually took me to a good Lutheran church where the rest of our family went. We sang with the choir and sometimes went to the adult Bible Study. I attended the youth group seldom, but we were almost always at church. When I began college, I attended about three different churches, once by myself and twice with a friend. But none of them really seemed right. It didn’t “feel” right. They didn’t inspire me. I didn’t like them.
So what do you think happened? Well, I stopped going. I attended what my pastor would later call, “Saint Mattress by the Springs” and, while I was the only attendee, I was a faithful worshipper for three months. I told people that I didn’t go to any church, but that I read my Bible at home—and that was true. I “felt” faithful. I loved God. And I knew God loved me too. I just knew it. I could “feel” it.
Lucky for me, that feeling really never changed while I was not attending church. But others are not so lucky. I remember an old movie called, “Legends of the Fall” where the character Brad Pitt was playing, named Tristan, screamed hateful things at God when his younger brother, Samuel, died during a war. Suffering seemed to follow Tristan and his family ever since. Toward the end of the movie, Tristan confided to his father than when he had gotten angry at God, he believed that God must have gotten angry right back at him. Tristan’s father argued that this was not true, but Tristan FELT that way. So who could argue, right? There was nothing his father could say. No way to prove God’s love. No way to argue that Tristan wasn’t perfectly correct. The suffering was there for everyone to see. How could Tristan have believed any differently when he felt the way he did?
You see, for many Christians, baptism is an outward sign of an inward feeling. It shows, in a physical way, something that has already happened on the inside. The baptism is just an old, traditional ritual. The inside feeling is the most important. In America, we shudder to think of marrying someone we do not already love; therefore, the concept of being loved and baptized by a God we aren’t madly in love with sounds impossible! Marriage seems to be a ceremony to reflect what has already happened—they’ve both fallen head over heels. In the same way, many people argue that baptism is a way to show others, and God, that you are serious in your relationship and are willing to go all the way with God, so to speak. That’s why, for instance, so many denominations don’t baptize infants or do so only as a preliminary dedication to be completed at confirmation. Why? Because you must be at an age to actually prove your love and confess your intentions before making promises to God—so the argument goes.
I have an overactive imagination and, throughout my life, I have often daydreamed about how I would act if confronted with various situations. You know, like saving puppies from danger and winning fights with my wife. One of these recurring daydreams involves me talking to someone over lunch about baptism. As I said before, many people maintain that in order for a baptism to “stick” or really take, a strong faithful feeling must be present beforehand. Well, at my imaginary lunch table, I always do the same thing when my conversation partner says that baptism is based primarily on a person’s feelings for God. In one fell swoop I pick up my water glass and toss it directly in the face of my conversation partner saying, “Jesus loves you.” And then, as they sit there shocked, cold and wet I smile and say, “How do you feel about that! Just TRY to give it back!”
That’s why we use water at a baptism instead of just telling people that they are washed clean of their sins in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When I tell you that God forgives your sins even if you don’t get wet, it’s still true. But when you come back from hearing God’s promise with water behind your ears, it’s harder to wiggle out of it? Especially when your mother, father and a congregation full of witnesses can vouch that it really did happen. A question that comes up all the time is, “What if I don’t feel forgiven?” Well, what do you expect to feel? Feel the water. Or, if that’s already happened, eat the bread, drink the wine. God puts himself and his promises in THINGS so that you and I will have something to hold onto when our religious feelings are floating away out of our reach.
Why did Jesus have to be baptized? In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says, “It is proper . . . to fulfill all righteousness”. What if Jesus had not been baptized? Well, then we would have had to trust that, indeed, he was one with God without hearing it from God’s mouth himself. Without hearing God’s pronouncement, “This is my Son, the Beloved, Listen to Him.” Without Jesus’ baptism, without seeing with their own eyes, without hearing it with their own ears, who could have believed that it was true? It would have been an internal matter. Was Jesus telling the truth? That would be up to you. But when God says it himself, it is much harder to argue about it. The same is true with your baptism. Do you feel very religious today? No? Well, God said that you are his and it’s hard to argue with that. Even if you don’t “feel” saved or forgiven or even loved.
I recently read about a scene from the television series “All in the Family” if you remember that one. When the character Michael protests at Archie’s conniving to have the baby baptized, Archie retorts, “What’s the matter, you were baptized weren’t you? Yes. Michael replies. “But I renounced my baptism.” You can’t do that, Archie says, “You can renounce your belly button, but it won’t go away!”
When Sophia was a little baby, we had to wait six weeks before she was baptized. We were going to make a seven hour trip with her to Nebraska so that our family could attend the service. I remember being really worried about what might happen if we got in a car wreck or something before we ever made it to the church. A professor of mine told me not to worry, because God’s promises are redundant. I had been singing each day that Jesus loved her when I put her to sleep. She heard the forgiveness of sins every week in church. Baptism would not be the first time she heard of God’s love and so, if anything tragic did happen, I could trust that she knew Jesus and God knew her and loved her dearly. But, he added, “Steven, go down there to Nebraska hear God’s promise and see her get all wet, and then, you won’t have to wonder ever again about God’s intentions.
That’s why you were baptized. Not to prove your faith. Not to show off your feelings. But to give you faith. To give you faith. So that you could truly believe that he is your Savior, God’s beloved Son. And, so that you could trust that he has washed you clean once and for all. No matter how you feel today. God’s love for you is forever. Amen.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Sermon for January 4th
On my family’s recent trip to Nebraska, we listened to an audio recording of the book, The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini, an Afghan immigrant. He mentions in the book that one of the cultural differences between Afghani people and Americans is that Afghans love to hear how a story ends, even if they’ve never read the book, but Americans despise being told the ending of a story before they’re done the reading it themselves. Well, in this one instance, at least, God is much more like an Afghan than an American: He enjoys telling you the end of the story, how all the suffering, drama and conflict is resolved. And so, in keeping with this attitude, I have decided to tell you how this sermon is going to end even before I get there. I’m telling you the last page of the book, so to speak, the final scene of the movie, the last episode. Before you were born, before the foundation of the earth, God chose to love you completely in Jesus Christ. He promises that after all the suffering, drama and conflict in your life, you will live with him in heaven forever as a forgiven sinner, as his beloved child. End of story.
Now that might sound like very wonderful news . . . and it is. But as soon as you get to thinking about it, about the consequences of this statement, about what it all means, you might in fact decide that it doesn’t sound very wonderful at all! In fact, I can honestly say that this little statement didn’t sound all that great to me for a long time and, truly, I hate this statement a great deal of the time. In fact, it was people’s hatred, anger and defiance against this wonderful promise of God’s that created the entire narrative written down in the Bible. But before I become any more confusing or cryptic, let me give you one word that can describe what it is that we all hate about this wonderful promise from God; that word is predestination.
Predestination. It is a word that we hate, despise and will argue against forever. Predestination is one of the longest four letter words in the dictionary. Why? Well, because it appears to fly in the face of everything we believe in as people and, especially, as Americans. Because if there is such as a thing as predestination, then where is our FREEDOM!?
I’m looking at the reading from Ephesians today. Let me read for you just a few of the verses again, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” Don’t be misled by the English translation that reads “he destined us” rather than calling it predestination because it is the same Greek verb used in Romans 8 where Paul argues that, “Those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the imagine of his Son.” It’s the same verb and it means the same thing. God has had plans for you for a long time.
But now that you have heard the final chapter, the last lines in the story of God’s love, let’s get right down to the arguments against it. Ephesians says, “God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” But is that fair, that God can just choose me? No, it’s not fair. But don’t I get a choice? Yes, you do. Can’t I choose God myself? The truth is that you won’t. But don’t I get a say? No. Can’t I use my free will? No. Just a little bit? No, not even a little bit. But can’t I choose to say no? Yes, you can. Won’t that make all the difference then? No, not at all. But God can’t just choose me without asking for my opinion can he? Well, yes, he already has. But doesn’t that just make us puppets? Well, no, there are no strings attached.
Predestination is a very scary word but, simply put, God has decided where your destination is before you get there. But even more importantly than that, he is telling you where that destination is. Ephesians 1:9, “He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” Romans 8 says this in another wonderful way, “Those whom God predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
Sometimes certain theologians have argued for something called “double predestination”; that is, some people are destined for heaven and some people are destined to hell. Of course, what I have always found puzzling is that not only can those people tell with certainty who is in heaven because of Christ (without telling them), but they can often point out who is going to hell, apart from Christ. The Lutheran Reformers argued against this understanding citing scripture as the reason why. They maintained that no one was to discuss foreknowledge or predestination apart from the preaching of Jesus Christ. “Predestination, sometimes called election, is not to be probed in the secret counsel of God but rather is to be sought in the Word, where it has also been revealed.” “It is an article of comfort when properly treated,” they said. They argued that, “we are not to make judgments regarding our election [or someone else’s] on the basis of reason nor on the basis of God’s law. Instead, the true meaning of election must be learned from the holy gospel of Christ. It clearly states, God imprisoned all in unbelief that he may be merciful to all’ and that he wants no one to be lost but rather that everyone repent and believe on the Lord Christ.”
In other words, it is not our job to tell people that they are destined to hell because of something that they have done or have not done. As the gospel of John states, “those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” We are called to give them the good news of their true destination, “Your sins are forgiven. Repent and believe in the good news! You are Jesus’ destination and you will live with him forever”
But no matter how comforting predestination might be, it is often argued against most vehemently by those of us who want to keep our supposed freedom intact. Doesn’t God expect us to follow his laws? Yes, he does. Doesn’t God say that we must repent and believe? Yes, indeed. Doesn’t God want us to accept Jesus as our Savior. Yes, of course. But the real question comes from God’s point of view. What must he do when you don’t follow his laws? When you neither repent nor believe? When you don’t accept Jesus as your Savior? When you start doubting him? When you reject him or become lukewarm in your faith? What must God do then?
Well, as I have said before, he has already done it in Jesus Christ. Romans chapter three explains that “no human being will be justified in the sight of God by deeds prescribed by the law. “There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding; there is no one who seeks God. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Martin Luther pointed out in his Heidelburg Disputation, “Free will, after the fall, exists in name only, and as long as it does what it is able to do it commits a mortal sin. It has the power to do good only in a passive capacity, though it can always do evil in an active capacity.” When we argue for our freedom, we end up arguing against God’s gift of grace and arguing for our right to do evil things. For it is only in God’s promise that you are given the Holy Spirit that gives you a new heart and a new spirit created for good works.
Then does predestination mean that you and I are just puppets? No. There are no strings, remember? In fact, even if you decided, philosophically, that everything were determined by God beforehand and that you had no freedom even to decide to eat Wheaties or Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast, once you were finished deciding that, wouldn’t you go and eat a donut anyway? Determinism is an interesting idea, but it doesn’t really change anything. Just like believing that everyone is saved is a nice idea, but if they haven’t heard, how are they to believe? Predestination, however, is not determinism. Again, it is best described in Romans chapter 8, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” God knows his destination for you. He promises to give you Jesus Christ. He promises to give you forgiveness. He promises to give you heaven. In between now and then, you might get cancer. You might win the lottery. You might have ten children or have five miscarriages. You might go to church every Sunday or come not so often for awhile. You will, one day, die. But throughout all this suffering, all that drama and conflict, God promises that he will be at work for you and lead you to the destination he has created for you—to live with him forever. Predestination is not an idea, but a promise for you from God.
You see, as I said at the beginning of this sermon, God has already written the last page for you and then told you all about it. Before you were born, before the foundation of the earth, God chose to love you completely in Jesus Christ. He promises that after all the suffering, drama and conflict in your life, you will live with him in heaven forever as a forgiven sinner, as his beloved child. That’s God’s last word for you. Amen.
Now that might sound like very wonderful news . . . and it is. But as soon as you get to thinking about it, about the consequences of this statement, about what it all means, you might in fact decide that it doesn’t sound very wonderful at all! In fact, I can honestly say that this little statement didn’t sound all that great to me for a long time and, truly, I hate this statement a great deal of the time. In fact, it was people’s hatred, anger and defiance against this wonderful promise of God’s that created the entire narrative written down in the Bible. But before I become any more confusing or cryptic, let me give you one word that can describe what it is that we all hate about this wonderful promise from God; that word is predestination.
Predestination. It is a word that we hate, despise and will argue against forever. Predestination is one of the longest four letter words in the dictionary. Why? Well, because it appears to fly in the face of everything we believe in as people and, especially, as Americans. Because if there is such as a thing as predestination, then where is our FREEDOM!?
I’m looking at the reading from Ephesians today. Let me read for you just a few of the verses again, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” Don’t be misled by the English translation that reads “he destined us” rather than calling it predestination because it is the same Greek verb used in Romans 8 where Paul argues that, “Those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the imagine of his Son.” It’s the same verb and it means the same thing. God has had plans for you for a long time.
But now that you have heard the final chapter, the last lines in the story of God’s love, let’s get right down to the arguments against it. Ephesians says, “God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” But is that fair, that God can just choose me? No, it’s not fair. But don’t I get a choice? Yes, you do. Can’t I choose God myself? The truth is that you won’t. But don’t I get a say? No. Can’t I use my free will? No. Just a little bit? No, not even a little bit. But can’t I choose to say no? Yes, you can. Won’t that make all the difference then? No, not at all. But God can’t just choose me without asking for my opinion can he? Well, yes, he already has. But doesn’t that just make us puppets? Well, no, there are no strings attached.
Predestination is a very scary word but, simply put, God has decided where your destination is before you get there. But even more importantly than that, he is telling you where that destination is. Ephesians 1:9, “He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” Romans 8 says this in another wonderful way, “Those whom God predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
Sometimes certain theologians have argued for something called “double predestination”; that is, some people are destined for heaven and some people are destined to hell. Of course, what I have always found puzzling is that not only can those people tell with certainty who is in heaven because of Christ (without telling them), but they can often point out who is going to hell, apart from Christ. The Lutheran Reformers argued against this understanding citing scripture as the reason why. They maintained that no one was to discuss foreknowledge or predestination apart from the preaching of Jesus Christ. “Predestination, sometimes called election, is not to be probed in the secret counsel of God but rather is to be sought in the Word, where it has also been revealed.” “It is an article of comfort when properly treated,” they said. They argued that, “we are not to make judgments regarding our election [or someone else’s] on the basis of reason nor on the basis of God’s law. Instead, the true meaning of election must be learned from the holy gospel of Christ. It clearly states, God imprisoned all in unbelief that he may be merciful to all’ and that he wants no one to be lost but rather that everyone repent and believe on the Lord Christ.”
In other words, it is not our job to tell people that they are destined to hell because of something that they have done or have not done. As the gospel of John states, “those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” We are called to give them the good news of their true destination, “Your sins are forgiven. Repent and believe in the good news! You are Jesus’ destination and you will live with him forever”
But no matter how comforting predestination might be, it is often argued against most vehemently by those of us who want to keep our supposed freedom intact. Doesn’t God expect us to follow his laws? Yes, he does. Doesn’t God say that we must repent and believe? Yes, indeed. Doesn’t God want us to accept Jesus as our Savior. Yes, of course. But the real question comes from God’s point of view. What must he do when you don’t follow his laws? When you neither repent nor believe? When you don’t accept Jesus as your Savior? When you start doubting him? When you reject him or become lukewarm in your faith? What must God do then?
Well, as I have said before, he has already done it in Jesus Christ. Romans chapter three explains that “no human being will be justified in the sight of God by deeds prescribed by the law. “There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding; there is no one who seeks God. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Martin Luther pointed out in his Heidelburg Disputation, “Free will, after the fall, exists in name only, and as long as it does what it is able to do it commits a mortal sin. It has the power to do good only in a passive capacity, though it can always do evil in an active capacity.” When we argue for our freedom, we end up arguing against God’s gift of grace and arguing for our right to do evil things. For it is only in God’s promise that you are given the Holy Spirit that gives you a new heart and a new spirit created for good works.
Then does predestination mean that you and I are just puppets? No. There are no strings, remember? In fact, even if you decided, philosophically, that everything were determined by God beforehand and that you had no freedom even to decide to eat Wheaties or Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast, once you were finished deciding that, wouldn’t you go and eat a donut anyway? Determinism is an interesting idea, but it doesn’t really change anything. Just like believing that everyone is saved is a nice idea, but if they haven’t heard, how are they to believe? Predestination, however, is not determinism. Again, it is best described in Romans chapter 8, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” God knows his destination for you. He promises to give you Jesus Christ. He promises to give you forgiveness. He promises to give you heaven. In between now and then, you might get cancer. You might win the lottery. You might have ten children or have five miscarriages. You might go to church every Sunday or come not so often for awhile. You will, one day, die. But throughout all this suffering, all that drama and conflict, God promises that he will be at work for you and lead you to the destination he has created for you—to live with him forever. Predestination is not an idea, but a promise for you from God.
You see, as I said at the beginning of this sermon, God has already written the last page for you and then told you all about it. Before you were born, before the foundation of the earth, God chose to love you completely in Jesus Christ. He promises that after all the suffering, drama and conflict in your life, you will live with him in heaven forever as a forgiven sinner, as his beloved child. That’s God’s last word for you. Amen.
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