Many times, the joke is, when the gospel text and the Epistle, the second reading, is too difficult to talk about, pastors will choose to preach on the psalm. Well, think what you will, but honestly, today’s psalm is just too wonderful to pass up. During the midweek Lenten services, we have been going through the Lord’s Prayer and learning what we can about how praying affect our lives and our relationship to God and one another. Today we’ll be learning from another prayer, from the prayer of King David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheeba.
Do you remember the story? King David is considered to be the best king in Israelite history. He was the youngest boy in his family when God called him to be king through the prophet Samuel though he wouldn’t actually take the throne until Isreal’s first king, Saul, had died. King David brought peace to his country and brought all of the tribes of Israel together through defeating the dreaded Philistines and making Jerusalem the capital and a symbol of national unity. God brought peace to his people through king David.
But David found a way to create a problem even in the midst of peace. Though he had been faithful to God’s word and followed in God’s ways, in a moment of weakness he happened to catch a glimpse of the bathing beauty Bathsheeba as she was naked upon a nearby rooftop. When he saw her, he had to have her, and so he called her to him and slept with her. He was the wonderful king David after all! But she became pregnant and, oh yes, I forgot to mention it, but she was already married. So, what did David do? Well, he killed her husband.
David was the best king Israel ever had! He was also an adulterer and a murderer. But God wouldn’t stand idly by while people were being killed and marriages defiled even if it was by his most beloved and righteous servant David. So, God sent the prophet Nathan to have a chat with the king. Nathan told David a story, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing but one little lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his food, and drink from his cup, and lie in his lap, and it was like a daughter to him. One day, the rich man was going to have a visitor, but he didn’t want to take one of his own flock of lambs to prepare for dinner. So, that rich man took the poor man’s lamb and made it for dinner instead.” After telling this story, Nathan asked King David, what should be done about all this? King David said to Nathan, “That rich man who has done this deserves to die!”
Nathan said to David. “You are the rich man! You had everything given to you from God. You’re the king for goodness sake! You had as many wives as you would ever need, you had money and you had peace in your kingdom. Whatever you wanted, God would have given it to you. But instead, you took matters into your own hands. Not only destroying the marriage of two good people, but killing a man just to get what you wanted.”
Sometime after this, maybe it was the very next second, maybe it was the next week, but sometime after Nathan called David out for his sin, it appears that David wrote down a prayer to God, our psalm for today, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” It’s interesting to note something about these lines. After all the things David did to get into this mess, he’s not listing off what he’s going to do to get out of it? God is the subject of all these verbs. YOU have mercy on me O God. YOU blot out my transgressions. YOU wash me and cleanse me from my sin. David teaches us something very important about asking for forgiveness: it’s not going to happen because you made everything better. Forgiveness comes from God alone.
“For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.”
David realizes that even if Bathsheeba forgives him, even if he does all the penance he can and makes it up as much as possible to the family of Uriah, he can’t make his sin and guilt go away. He has sinned against God and all his efforts, though important for reconciling himself to others, can’t reconcile him with God.
You can hear David’s despair, “my sin is ever before me.” He is standing face to face with his sin every time he looks at Bathsheeba, every time he looks in the mirror, every time someone tells him what a great king he is, every time he prays. His mistakes are either right on the front of his mind or lurking somewhere just beneath the surface.
In fact, his despair has become so palpable, that it has moved its way into his conscience. He realizes that not only did he sin against Bathsheeba and her husband Uriah, but he has sinned against God. He realies that not only did he sin against God this one time, but ever since he was born he has been sinning. He realizes that there was not a moment in his life when he was righteous, ever since his very conception, he’s been rebelling against God.
Maybe some of you recognize this pattern of thinking. When you do something wrong and start beating up on yourself, it starts seeping into every part of your life. Not only did you unintentionally yell at your child once, but you are a bad parent. Not only are you a bad parent, but you are a bad spouse. Not only are you a bad spouse, but you are a bad person. The sin stops being about a one time event, but starts defining every event in your life until it defines you. Not only did you sin, but you are a sinner.
Sometimes, even in the life of a Christian, sins can lead to unthinkable consequences. People who have driven a vehicle recklessly or under the influence of alcohol or drugs sometimes find themselves in accidents with fatalies that they were the cause of. They know that their relationship with God has been changed and they don’t know how to make it better. It doesn’t take long for the statement, “I am lucky to be alive” to change into, “I shouldn’t still be alive” and then finally become, “I don’t have a right to be alive.” Their sin is always before them and they can’t see anything else.
The next section of David’s prayer is a cry for help again from the depths of his despair, “You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.” David realizes what must be done. He cannot just justify his sin or learn to live with it. His sin must be erased. Blotted out. Hidden from his eyes and from God’s eyes in order for life to become livable again.
In the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner, there is a woman whose car breaks down when three men stop by the road to help her. The woman is talking and talking and talking and being very annoying saying how one of the men looks just like her son. The men aren’t really there to help her at all but are convicts as we find out. At the end of the story, we discover that the man she thinks looks like her son IS actually her son, but he is so annoyed with her that he shoots her in the head. When questioned about it by another one of the men he says, “She needed to be shot in the head every day of her life.”
Now, I know that this might be a very dark way of looking at things, but in much the same way, we need to be shot in the head every day of our lives. We need God to, “put us out of our misery” so to speak by forgiving us so that our sin is no longer right in front of our face. So that he can hide his face from our sin and wash us cleaner than snow. King David couldn’t see past his own sin and neither can we, so God must do something for us.
“Create in me a clean heart O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.”
If God shoots us in the head, then he’s got to give us a new one. If he crushes our bones he needs to raise us up to new life. Here, as at the beginning of the psalm, all the verbs again have God as their subject. David doesn’t ask God to “fix him” so that he’ll run better like a tuned up sportscar. He doesn’t ask God to help him live a better life. David asks to be made NEW. Give me a new me David says because the old me is a pile of junk. Create in me a clean heart and give me a new spirit.
When you are fighting with a friend, or a family member, or a spouse, the worst part is the estrangement. Sometimes it’s so difficult just to be patient and wait for everything to get back to normal. David knew what it was to be loved by God and faithful to God’s Word and here he prays that God would make that a reality again. Not by fixing the old King David that used to follow God’s laws, but by making a new creation, a new King David. That’s really the key; you see, we aren’t trying to change history here. Sin has happened. There’s no going back. God deals with sin by creating you new. You don’t have to go back in history and change it. In fact, you can’t. So God makes sin history and gives you a future through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Even Jesus had a history after his resurrection or else you wouldn’t know it was him. He shows up with the wounds still visible and touchable on his hands and feet. God knows that when he gives you a new heart and a new spirit that you’ll still have a history too. In fact, we pray that Jesus remembers every one of our sins so that he doesn’t forget to forgive a single one of them. But, we also pray that on the last day, he remembers that they are history. We pray, just as David did, that God hides his face from our past and only sees the new future he has in store for us.
Finally, God does more than listen to David’s prayer. He sends Nathan to forgive his sinful king. After David admits his sin, Nathan says this, “Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.” Nathan admits that yes David deserves to die, but that death is not the final word. There were consequences for King David as there will be for us from our sinning, but God’s forgiveness is the last word. God also has a last word for you. “You sins are forgiven. God has hidden his face from them. You are new in God’s eyes. God has separated you from your sins, calling you new and calling your sins ancient history. God restores you now to the joy of his salvation. Your sins are forgiven and your life is made new. Amen.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Sermon for March 25th
There are two problems most people have with forgiveness. Why God would forgive and why they would forgive. The first problem comes with trying to get a grasp on why God would forgive us. Either we don’t think we’ve done much in our lives that would necessitate needing forgiveness or else we don’t think we’ve done much in our lives that doesn’t need forgiven. Either way, we can’t figure out why God is so interested in forgiving us.
The second problem is that we don’t understand why we need to forgive others when they are usually much worse than us. In tonight’s reading, Jesus reminds us that these problems are somehow connected. “For if you forgive others their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray that God deals with both of our problems—with being forgiven and with forgiving.
Let’s get to the first problem first, why DOES God forgive you? Why do we start every service with a confession and an absolution when somebody new to Christianity might not even think they have sinned? They might be turned off by having to do such a countercultural thing. Isn’t having to confess sins and get them forgiven kind of a downer? The simplest answer is “because you need it.”
I am sure that having to confess sins is a downer and quite awkward especially to someone who is a new Christian; however, that doesn’t change the need. Despite the awkwardness and socially unacceptable character of forgiving sins, if the church stops proclaiming this, we are all in trouble. God forgives sins, pure and simple, and if we are a place to hear God’s word, then we’d better expect forgiveness to come up a lot. We pray in the Lord’s Prayer that God would somehow, someway get our churches, our pastors and our Christian brothers and sisters to find us and forgive us so that we can’t live a moment without knowing it.
Sometimes, however, as Martin Luther put it, we know that we need forgiveness, but we also know that “we deserve nothing but punishment” and can’t figure out why God would forgive us at all! In this case, we pray that God would stay true to his word despite our objections and continue being the crazy God he is. We pray that he would always hear our prayers despite our unworthiness and would not hold our awful flaws and failings against us or allow them to hinder our prayers. After we pray for faith and for things in our prayers, we pray that God might remember his promise of forgiveness. For, without forgiveness, we would only be God’s enemies instead of God’s children.
But the most difficult problem with forgiveness is that God demands that we must forgive others as we have been forgiven. Why must our ability to forgive have anything to do with the forgiveness we receive?
I used this example in the online Bible study this last week, but I’m going to refer to it again. When people are married, they must say some vows—make some promises to one another before witnesses. Must they say them? Well, yes, although these vows seldom seem like much of a demand on those who are head-over-heels in love. Will I love you till death do us part? Of course, I will snookems.
However, these promises, these vows made at a wedding, seem much more demanding when there are problems in a marriage leading one or both partners to look into divorce proceedings. Then that whole “for better or for worse” part seems a lot more difficult. Men and women going through a divorce often find themselves wondering if there should be an inherent limit to how much “worse” they should stand or how “poor” they should be. The loving promises made long ago seem like awful demands today.
You often hear that marriages are built on trust. Forgiveness is also based on trust. You can hear that your sins are forgiven day in and day out, but until you believe those words, until you trust that God means it, you won’t want to forgive anyone else. God’s forgiveness needs to become a reality for you before you’ll be willing to make it a reality for someone else. We pray, especially in the Lord’s prayer, that God puts faith in your heart, faith to believe that he is willing, loving, able and faithful to forgive your sins so that you will gladly want to share that joy with others. It is a matter of the heart and we ask in our prayers that God would give us all new hearts and new spirits, to trust him not only to forgive us but to help us forgive others.
When you hear that your sins are forgiven, you can trust that it happened. But, as Jesus says to his disciples, if upon hearing your forgiveness you remember a grudge you are holding, you will know in that moment where you have ACTUALLY placed your trust. When you realize the depth of sin and its hold on you, it’s easy to forgive another because of the mercy that has been poured out for you. You trust in God alone to handle it. On the other hand, when you cannot forgive, you’ve set your trust on yourself. You’ve placed yourself on the judgment seat. How can you believe that God can forgive you when YOU want to be in charge of who gets forgiven and who does not? If you are unwilling to forgive someone else, you’ll find that you trust your own forgiveness less and less because you want to be the one in control instead of God.
What will you do in that moment? Well, that’s why we do a confession and absolution each worship service, so that you might be given faith again and again to remind you who is God and who is not. When your heart is full of bitterness, anger, unforgiveness and even hatred, well, the best place to go is for another dose of absolution from God. Just pray that the Holy Spirit can get it through your thick skull and your hard heart that forgiveness is not just about you and your salvation but about the life and salvation of the world. Everyone needs it. You do too.
The second problem is that we don’t understand why we need to forgive others when they are usually much worse than us. In tonight’s reading, Jesus reminds us that these problems are somehow connected. “For if you forgive others their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray that God deals with both of our problems—with being forgiven and with forgiving.
Let’s get to the first problem first, why DOES God forgive you? Why do we start every service with a confession and an absolution when somebody new to Christianity might not even think they have sinned? They might be turned off by having to do such a countercultural thing. Isn’t having to confess sins and get them forgiven kind of a downer? The simplest answer is “because you need it.”
I am sure that having to confess sins is a downer and quite awkward especially to someone who is a new Christian; however, that doesn’t change the need. Despite the awkwardness and socially unacceptable character of forgiving sins, if the church stops proclaiming this, we are all in trouble. God forgives sins, pure and simple, and if we are a place to hear God’s word, then we’d better expect forgiveness to come up a lot. We pray in the Lord’s Prayer that God would somehow, someway get our churches, our pastors and our Christian brothers and sisters to find us and forgive us so that we can’t live a moment without knowing it.
Sometimes, however, as Martin Luther put it, we know that we need forgiveness, but we also know that “we deserve nothing but punishment” and can’t figure out why God would forgive us at all! In this case, we pray that God would stay true to his word despite our objections and continue being the crazy God he is. We pray that he would always hear our prayers despite our unworthiness and would not hold our awful flaws and failings against us or allow them to hinder our prayers. After we pray for faith and for things in our prayers, we pray that God might remember his promise of forgiveness. For, without forgiveness, we would only be God’s enemies instead of God’s children.
But the most difficult problem with forgiveness is that God demands that we must forgive others as we have been forgiven. Why must our ability to forgive have anything to do with the forgiveness we receive?
I used this example in the online Bible study this last week, but I’m going to refer to it again. When people are married, they must say some vows—make some promises to one another before witnesses. Must they say them? Well, yes, although these vows seldom seem like much of a demand on those who are head-over-heels in love. Will I love you till death do us part? Of course, I will snookems.
However, these promises, these vows made at a wedding, seem much more demanding when there are problems in a marriage leading one or both partners to look into divorce proceedings. Then that whole “for better or for worse” part seems a lot more difficult. Men and women going through a divorce often find themselves wondering if there should be an inherent limit to how much “worse” they should stand or how “poor” they should be. The loving promises made long ago seem like awful demands today.
You often hear that marriages are built on trust. Forgiveness is also based on trust. You can hear that your sins are forgiven day in and day out, but until you believe those words, until you trust that God means it, you won’t want to forgive anyone else. God’s forgiveness needs to become a reality for you before you’ll be willing to make it a reality for someone else. We pray, especially in the Lord’s prayer, that God puts faith in your heart, faith to believe that he is willing, loving, able and faithful to forgive your sins so that you will gladly want to share that joy with others. It is a matter of the heart and we ask in our prayers that God would give us all new hearts and new spirits, to trust him not only to forgive us but to help us forgive others.
When you hear that your sins are forgiven, you can trust that it happened. But, as Jesus says to his disciples, if upon hearing your forgiveness you remember a grudge you are holding, you will know in that moment where you have ACTUALLY placed your trust. When you realize the depth of sin and its hold on you, it’s easy to forgive another because of the mercy that has been poured out for you. You trust in God alone to handle it. On the other hand, when you cannot forgive, you’ve set your trust on yourself. You’ve placed yourself on the judgment seat. How can you believe that God can forgive you when YOU want to be in charge of who gets forgiven and who does not? If you are unwilling to forgive someone else, you’ll find that you trust your own forgiveness less and less because you want to be the one in control instead of God.
What will you do in that moment? Well, that’s why we do a confession and absolution each worship service, so that you might be given faith again and again to remind you who is God and who is not. When your heart is full of bitterness, anger, unforgiveness and even hatred, well, the best place to go is for another dose of absolution from God. Just pray that the Holy Spirit can get it through your thick skull and your hard heart that forgiveness is not just about you and your salvation but about the life and salvation of the world. Everyone needs it. You do too.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Sermon for March 22nd
The gospel reading today is the end of a conversation. The end of a conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus who came to ask Jesus some questions one night. Nicodemus came to Jesus and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the very presence of God.” Jesus answered him, Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” I hope that you are already getting a sense here that Nicodemus and Jesus are talking in two very different ways. Nicodemus is talking down here somewhere and Jesus answers him on an entirely different plane, going right over his head.
But Nidodemus tries to get the conversation back onto an understandable track by saying, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answers, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Once again, Jesus’ answers are anything but easy. Christians throughout the ages have spent many a ream of paper trying to decipher what exactly Jesus meant and so, you can imagine, how Nicodemus felt hearing it for the first time.
Nicodemus finally throws up his hands and says, “How can these things be?” Jesus answers, “Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” That’s the spot where our reading comes in today.
Now, why is this important? Because the first part of the conversation sets the stage for the second. Here is Nicodemus, a well-educated member of the elite class of theologians in Judaism and he is lost when it comes to understanding what Jesus is saying. Nicodemus is coming to Jesus for answers, maybe for a little homework to understand what he’s all about, but Jesus frustrates all these attempts and keeps talking about faith, trust and belief. It is clear that Nicodemus does not believe and THAT, much more than his lack of understanding, is the problem.
What does Nicodemus need to do? What does Nicodemus need to understand? What does Nicodemus have to believe in order to get on Jesus’ good side? These are the same questions that we are all driven to ask of ourselves. Nicodemus represents all of us and our attempts at belief. Even if we try to jump through all the hoops it is as difficult as a camel jumping through the eye of a needle, as Jesus puts it. No matter how smart we are, how diligent we are or how faithful we are Jesus puts it quite simply, “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” If you are confused about what to believe or who to believe or how to believe join the club that Nicodemus started that day in a conversation with Jesus. And, welcome to the human race. We are all lost.
But after listing how impossible it will be for Nicodemus, or any of us, to take heaven by storm, Jesus gives you a glimpse of your hope. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” To our ears this sounds so easy. Love. You can still hear Rodney King crying out, “Can’t we al just get along?” It should be so easy, but it’s not. When I hear talk about the world on NPR or in conversations with people, the world is a beautiful place worth saving. But the world, as the word is used in the gospel of John, is a place for of sin and death. It’s not a pretty place. It’s not a place that is easy to love. For God to love the world is a dramatic and radical step. So radical, that God’s only Son, Jesus has to DIE to save it.
If we simply start at John 3:16 and skip the first part of this conversation we miss the point. Jesus doesn’t just save a nice little pretty world of duckies and bunnies. He saved a world of sinners. He had to come because we were unable to be saved without him. We didn’t understand him. We couldn’t believe.
Verse 17, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” The Greek word for what is translated condemn is krino and it refers to a judgment, a final conclusion about something, especially a negative decision. But the text says that Jesus was NOT sent to judge the world or sent so that God could make his final conclusion on mankind. By the time Jesus was born, the conclusion had already been made.
Verse 18, “Those who believe in him are not condemned, but those who do not believe are condemned already,(they are condemned already) because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Jesus came to earth not to judge you or to express an opinion about you, but to save you. God’s judgment of you has already been made as far back as Genesis, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.” God’s judgment on humankind is clear, “Guilty.”
When God made that statement about the world in Genesis six, he decided to blot out every living thing from the Earth except for Noah and his family by means of a flood but, afterwards, God promised never to flood the earth again. So now, to deal with our guilt, God is doing something new in Jesus. Not killing the world because of the judgment against it, but saving it. The world isn’t in MORE trouble because Jesus died on the cross; the judgment has already been made. Jesus came to save.
Judgment Day, that event everyone is always worried about, shouldn’t really be that much of a mystery. That day will be great and terrible as the Bible tells us over and over again because we already know the judgment. We already know we are guilty. The Israelites rebelled against God and we still rebel against God. On the last day, God will tell you that judgment once again. You are rebellious. You are a sinner. As great and terrible as it is it is nothing you don’t know already. And, just like Nicodemus, nothing you can do will change this.
In other words, nothing new happened when we killed Jesus on the cross. Lots of people died before Jesus and lots of people died after Jesus. Death isn’t new. It is expected. We hear this expressed again and again in the gospels where Jesus knows he is heading for death, that he will suffer and die at our hands. The new thing, is what happens after we hide in the dark from his light. Jesus, the light of the world, finds us. Whether it is in the upper room where the disciples are hiding behind closed doors from the Jews or when Jesus finds Peter on a fishing boat. Jesus’ death is old, what happens after his death, however, is quite new. He is raised from the dead and comes after his betrayers. Not for vengeance like in some horror movie; instead, Jesus does something extraordinary. He forgives. He saves. Not only his disciples but all who believe in him.
The first part of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus is old. It’s about the law and how impossible it is for us to follow God’s demands. But the second art, from today’s reading, well, that is a promise: what God is going to do for you because he loves you.
The world is condemned already, Jesus comes to save it. Apart from Jesus there is only judgment and, since we can’t meet God’s demands, condemnation. But NOT believing in Jesus doesn’t CAUSE condemnation, do you see that? Sometimes you’ll hear people talk about belief in Jesus as a choice that if it is not made right now means you are suddenly condemned. But we are all condemned already. We have caused our condemnation based on our own sins. We are all condemned when Jesus shows up on the scene. We are all in the same boat that is capsizing, only jumping out of that boat and into the arms of Jesus can give us salvation.
You’re no worse off than you were before if you don’t believe in Jesus Christ. You’re JUST as worse off as you have always been. Living in an old world of sin and death with no hope. But Jesus is new. He comes into your system of sin, death, and judgment, breaking it all to pieces. He doesn’t put on extra demands that were not there before, but says, “Believe in me and everything is done already.” That’s why it always seems like Jesus’ words are gong over our heads just like Nicodemus. We want to understand the right way to pray, or to talk, or what the correct church is to go to, but the only reason any of that is important is because we want the old things of this world to focus our attention to the only new thing that can truly save us, “Trusting in Jesus Christ alone.”
During this Lenten season, it’s time to look not at this old world, but at the new promise you have in Jesus Christ, the promise that we will celebrate on Easter. That Jesus has not come to condemn you, but to save you from the condemnation you already experience on a daily basis. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
But Nidodemus tries to get the conversation back onto an understandable track by saying, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answers, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Once again, Jesus’ answers are anything but easy. Christians throughout the ages have spent many a ream of paper trying to decipher what exactly Jesus meant and so, you can imagine, how Nicodemus felt hearing it for the first time.
Nicodemus finally throws up his hands and says, “How can these things be?” Jesus answers, “Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” That’s the spot where our reading comes in today.
Now, why is this important? Because the first part of the conversation sets the stage for the second. Here is Nicodemus, a well-educated member of the elite class of theologians in Judaism and he is lost when it comes to understanding what Jesus is saying. Nicodemus is coming to Jesus for answers, maybe for a little homework to understand what he’s all about, but Jesus frustrates all these attempts and keeps talking about faith, trust and belief. It is clear that Nicodemus does not believe and THAT, much more than his lack of understanding, is the problem.
What does Nicodemus need to do? What does Nicodemus need to understand? What does Nicodemus have to believe in order to get on Jesus’ good side? These are the same questions that we are all driven to ask of ourselves. Nicodemus represents all of us and our attempts at belief. Even if we try to jump through all the hoops it is as difficult as a camel jumping through the eye of a needle, as Jesus puts it. No matter how smart we are, how diligent we are or how faithful we are Jesus puts it quite simply, “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” If you are confused about what to believe or who to believe or how to believe join the club that Nicodemus started that day in a conversation with Jesus. And, welcome to the human race. We are all lost.
But after listing how impossible it will be for Nicodemus, or any of us, to take heaven by storm, Jesus gives you a glimpse of your hope. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” To our ears this sounds so easy. Love. You can still hear Rodney King crying out, “Can’t we al just get along?” It should be so easy, but it’s not. When I hear talk about the world on NPR or in conversations with people, the world is a beautiful place worth saving. But the world, as the word is used in the gospel of John, is a place for of sin and death. It’s not a pretty place. It’s not a place that is easy to love. For God to love the world is a dramatic and radical step. So radical, that God’s only Son, Jesus has to DIE to save it.
If we simply start at John 3:16 and skip the first part of this conversation we miss the point. Jesus doesn’t just save a nice little pretty world of duckies and bunnies. He saved a world of sinners. He had to come because we were unable to be saved without him. We didn’t understand him. We couldn’t believe.
Verse 17, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” The Greek word for what is translated condemn is krino and it refers to a judgment, a final conclusion about something, especially a negative decision. But the text says that Jesus was NOT sent to judge the world or sent so that God could make his final conclusion on mankind. By the time Jesus was born, the conclusion had already been made.
Verse 18, “Those who believe in him are not condemned, but those who do not believe are condemned already,(they are condemned already) because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Jesus came to earth not to judge you or to express an opinion about you, but to save you. God’s judgment of you has already been made as far back as Genesis, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.” God’s judgment on humankind is clear, “Guilty.”
When God made that statement about the world in Genesis six, he decided to blot out every living thing from the Earth except for Noah and his family by means of a flood but, afterwards, God promised never to flood the earth again. So now, to deal with our guilt, God is doing something new in Jesus. Not killing the world because of the judgment against it, but saving it. The world isn’t in MORE trouble because Jesus died on the cross; the judgment has already been made. Jesus came to save.
Judgment Day, that event everyone is always worried about, shouldn’t really be that much of a mystery. That day will be great and terrible as the Bible tells us over and over again because we already know the judgment. We already know we are guilty. The Israelites rebelled against God and we still rebel against God. On the last day, God will tell you that judgment once again. You are rebellious. You are a sinner. As great and terrible as it is it is nothing you don’t know already. And, just like Nicodemus, nothing you can do will change this.
In other words, nothing new happened when we killed Jesus on the cross. Lots of people died before Jesus and lots of people died after Jesus. Death isn’t new. It is expected. We hear this expressed again and again in the gospels where Jesus knows he is heading for death, that he will suffer and die at our hands. The new thing, is what happens after we hide in the dark from his light. Jesus, the light of the world, finds us. Whether it is in the upper room where the disciples are hiding behind closed doors from the Jews or when Jesus finds Peter on a fishing boat. Jesus’ death is old, what happens after his death, however, is quite new. He is raised from the dead and comes after his betrayers. Not for vengeance like in some horror movie; instead, Jesus does something extraordinary. He forgives. He saves. Not only his disciples but all who believe in him.
The first part of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus is old. It’s about the law and how impossible it is for us to follow God’s demands. But the second art, from today’s reading, well, that is a promise: what God is going to do for you because he loves you.
The world is condemned already, Jesus comes to save it. Apart from Jesus there is only judgment and, since we can’t meet God’s demands, condemnation. But NOT believing in Jesus doesn’t CAUSE condemnation, do you see that? Sometimes you’ll hear people talk about belief in Jesus as a choice that if it is not made right now means you are suddenly condemned. But we are all condemned already. We have caused our condemnation based on our own sins. We are all condemned when Jesus shows up on the scene. We are all in the same boat that is capsizing, only jumping out of that boat and into the arms of Jesus can give us salvation.
You’re no worse off than you were before if you don’t believe in Jesus Christ. You’re JUST as worse off as you have always been. Living in an old world of sin and death with no hope. But Jesus is new. He comes into your system of sin, death, and judgment, breaking it all to pieces. He doesn’t put on extra demands that were not there before, but says, “Believe in me and everything is done already.” That’s why it always seems like Jesus’ words are gong over our heads just like Nicodemus. We want to understand the right way to pray, or to talk, or what the correct church is to go to, but the only reason any of that is important is because we want the old things of this world to focus our attention to the only new thing that can truly save us, “Trusting in Jesus Christ alone.”
During this Lenten season, it’s time to look not at this old world, but at the new promise you have in Jesus Christ, the promise that we will celebrate on Easter. That Jesus has not come to condemn you, but to save you from the condemnation you already experience on a daily basis. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Sermon for March 18th
This last summer, Kristy, Sophia, Malachi and I went to the Rennaisance Faire with my dad in Kenosha Wisconsin. If you’ve never been to a Rennaisance Faire, they are really pretty cheap to get into, but that’s because they want you to spend money once you are inside the gates. Food costs a lot. There are a lot of really neat things to buy, but everything costs a decent amount for the most part. Even the entertainers, though they don’t charge, have a hat on the ground and it is courtesy to tip them if you like their music. My dad plays the lute and sings love songs to couples. While the faire pays him to perform, he needs the tips he gets to make the Renn. Faire life work out for him.
But for me, I cannot imagine putting my hard earned money into the hat of people even when I LOVE their songs or their music. Even when they make me laugh hysterically. I just can’t part with it! I’ve never understood how my dad ever got tips because as much as I like his music, I couldn’t imagine putting a one, five, ten or twenty dollar bill in his hat. It has always been beyond me how that happens.
But this last summer was different. Now, Kristy and I didn’t suddenly come into a load of money, though it was nice to actually be employed when we went, but last summer when Kristy and I went to the Rennaisance Fair, something changed. My dad gave me fifty of those little gold dollar coins with the Presidents’ faces on them and told me to tip well since so many of the entertainers were hitting hard times with the economy doing so badly. And do you know what? I did tip well. Very well. I loved it! It was fun! I’d throw in several coins when I liked a groups’ songs. I threw a couple in just because I didn’t think there was enough money in one lady’s hat. I was more than generous! And do you know why? Because it wasn’t my money that I was throwing in those hats. It wasn’t my money.
Tonight, as we continue to study the Lord’s Prayer during Lent, we are going to focus on the third petition, “Give us today our daily bread”. So far, we have learned to call on our heavenly Father and ask him to be God for us, to be holy and powerful in our lives. We have learned to ask for faith. Now, we ask for things. “Give us today our daily bread.”
When you pray, ask for things, everything if you’d like. Everything you need, want, desire, think about, worry about or fear. Do you need to tell him? No. But praying isn’t about what you should do. You are free to pray about anything because everything comes from God. If even your bread comes from God, ask for a little butter and jelly on the side to go with it. Ask for anything and everything in your prayers so that you can remember where everything is coming from.
When writing about this petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Martin Luther wrote down a list of things we get from God, our “daily bread” so to speak: “food and clothing, home and property, work and income, a devoted family, an orderly community, good government, favorable weather, peace and health, a good name and true friends and neighbors.” He said that while God gives us all these things, whether we are good or evil, we pray that we might actually realize this and give thanks for all of it.
In tonight’s reading from Matthew, Jesus says, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family you did it to me.” It’s always bothered me that I can never be sure if I’ve ever done anything right according to this verse. The next group, those Jesus says are the accursed, seem to remember doing a few good things, but it doesn’t seem like it was enough. What is the difference between the two groups?
There’s a famous anecdote about a Lutheran pastor who on his death bed said that he couldn’t remember doing a single good work in his life. Some have criticized this statement, but I think that there is something very profound there. After throwing all kinds of golden dollar coins to people at the Rennaisance Faire I can honestly say that I didn’t give any money away at all! Just like the good work that this pastor did in his life wasn’t because of his goodness, but because of God’s, the money I gave away was because my dad gave me his money and I used it. Left to my own devices, I would have hoarded it, but it wasn’t my money so I could be generous. Perhaps the difference between the two groups in the reading tonight was that one group used their own resources—something we would expect that they would remember—while the other group only used what they had been given from God and couldn’t remember having given a single penny, a single moment of their time, a single loaf of bread of their own.
In the Lord’s Prayer and in all of our prayers, we ask God to help us to realize that the daily bread we get is not actually ours. So, when the neighborhood kids come over for the umpteenth time and eat you out of house and home, well, it wasn’t your food really anyway was it. You’ve no doubt known or heard of people who, after a brush with death, because very purposeful in their lives and generous with their time because, as they say, “They might not have had this time to give if it were not for God.” Well, all the time, money, food, good weather and life you have has been given to you from God. It is not your own. You don’t have to wait for a crisis to realize it. Instead, pray that you might be so generous with God’s good gifts that on the last day, when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels are with him, you won’t remember a single possession you gave away, because you never gave away anything that was your own. You received everything from God and shared generously with all of HIS good gifts. Amen.
But for me, I cannot imagine putting my hard earned money into the hat of people even when I LOVE their songs or their music. Even when they make me laugh hysterically. I just can’t part with it! I’ve never understood how my dad ever got tips because as much as I like his music, I couldn’t imagine putting a one, five, ten or twenty dollar bill in his hat. It has always been beyond me how that happens.
But this last summer was different. Now, Kristy and I didn’t suddenly come into a load of money, though it was nice to actually be employed when we went, but last summer when Kristy and I went to the Rennaisance Fair, something changed. My dad gave me fifty of those little gold dollar coins with the Presidents’ faces on them and told me to tip well since so many of the entertainers were hitting hard times with the economy doing so badly. And do you know what? I did tip well. Very well. I loved it! It was fun! I’d throw in several coins when I liked a groups’ songs. I threw a couple in just because I didn’t think there was enough money in one lady’s hat. I was more than generous! And do you know why? Because it wasn’t my money that I was throwing in those hats. It wasn’t my money.
Tonight, as we continue to study the Lord’s Prayer during Lent, we are going to focus on the third petition, “Give us today our daily bread”. So far, we have learned to call on our heavenly Father and ask him to be God for us, to be holy and powerful in our lives. We have learned to ask for faith. Now, we ask for things. “Give us today our daily bread.”
When you pray, ask for things, everything if you’d like. Everything you need, want, desire, think about, worry about or fear. Do you need to tell him? No. But praying isn’t about what you should do. You are free to pray about anything because everything comes from God. If even your bread comes from God, ask for a little butter and jelly on the side to go with it. Ask for anything and everything in your prayers so that you can remember where everything is coming from.
When writing about this petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Martin Luther wrote down a list of things we get from God, our “daily bread” so to speak: “food and clothing, home and property, work and income, a devoted family, an orderly community, good government, favorable weather, peace and health, a good name and true friends and neighbors.” He said that while God gives us all these things, whether we are good or evil, we pray that we might actually realize this and give thanks for all of it.
In tonight’s reading from Matthew, Jesus says, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family you did it to me.” It’s always bothered me that I can never be sure if I’ve ever done anything right according to this verse. The next group, those Jesus says are the accursed, seem to remember doing a few good things, but it doesn’t seem like it was enough. What is the difference between the two groups?
There’s a famous anecdote about a Lutheran pastor who on his death bed said that he couldn’t remember doing a single good work in his life. Some have criticized this statement, but I think that there is something very profound there. After throwing all kinds of golden dollar coins to people at the Rennaisance Faire I can honestly say that I didn’t give any money away at all! Just like the good work that this pastor did in his life wasn’t because of his goodness, but because of God’s, the money I gave away was because my dad gave me his money and I used it. Left to my own devices, I would have hoarded it, but it wasn’t my money so I could be generous. Perhaps the difference between the two groups in the reading tonight was that one group used their own resources—something we would expect that they would remember—while the other group only used what they had been given from God and couldn’t remember having given a single penny, a single moment of their time, a single loaf of bread of their own.
In the Lord’s Prayer and in all of our prayers, we ask God to help us to realize that the daily bread we get is not actually ours. So, when the neighborhood kids come over for the umpteenth time and eat you out of house and home, well, it wasn’t your food really anyway was it. You’ve no doubt known or heard of people who, after a brush with death, because very purposeful in their lives and generous with their time because, as they say, “They might not have had this time to give if it were not for God.” Well, all the time, money, food, good weather and life you have has been given to you from God. It is not your own. You don’t have to wait for a crisis to realize it. Instead, pray that you might be so generous with God’s good gifts that on the last day, when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels are with him, you won’t remember a single possession you gave away, because you never gave away anything that was your own. You received everything from God and shared generously with all of HIS good gifts. Amen.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Sermon for March 15th
A professor of mine in seminary told me a story about when he was in college working. I don’t remember exactly where he worked, but I think it was in a restaurant kitchen somewhere. He said that he worked alongside many different people, but among them were three Muslim men. One day, one of the men took him aside and said, “You are a Christian correct?” My professor answered, “Yes, yes. I am a Christian.” The man speaking to him nodded and shot a glance over to his friends to make sure they were listening, then he continued, “And, being a Christian, is it correct to say that you worship Jesus—you believe he is God?” “Yes. I believe Jesus Christ is God,” this professor answered. The man questioning continued once again, “So, when Jesus died on the cross, you believe that God . . . died?” My professor thought for a moment before answering but then responded, “Yes.” The man he was talking to doubled over and fell down on the ground . . . laughing. He found this statement to be the most hilarious thing he had ever heard.
Foolishness. The apostle Paul calls the message of the cross foolishness. People I know would probably just call it “stupid”. And you would either be labeled stupid as well or, at least, misguided, ignorant or brainwashed if they discovered that you believed in such a thing.
I have had many discussions with people about the history of religions. I have done some reading on the subject as well. Often, as it is pointed out to me, different religions throughout the ages have stolen or, shall we say “borrowed” stories or concepts from each other. Sometimes the similarities are profound. For instance, in Babylonian mythology, there is a flood that wipes out all humankind, except for those in a big boat . . . very reminiscent of the story about Noah and the ark that we read about in Genesis. Questions abound about where various moral codes came from. For instance, around the time when much of the Old Testament was first written, a lot of different cultures had some kind of understanding of sin. Who came up with it first? Who borrowed what from whom? And does any of this make sin any less true?
Some older cultures, in their search for ways to get the crops to grow, would sacrifice their King in order to make it rain or to satisfy various fertility gods. The thing was, the King himself was often worshipped as a god so, sometimes the King’s son who was sacrificed instead. In other words, the Son of a god was sacrificed. The god Odin, from Norse mythology, once sacrificed himself to himself by hanging himself on a tree. Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the cruse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” The problem is often presented to me this way, “How can you still believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that his crucifixion means anything really when so many stories talk about the same thing throughout the history of religion?”
Foolishness. Even the apostle Paul calls the message of the cross foolishness. The popular author and atheist Richard Dawkins calls those who believe that Jesus is God, “deluded.” And, as he puts it so clearly in his book, “The God Delusion,” parents who teach their children such things should be charged with child abuse.
Most people will accept that some guy named Jesus did die on a cross in the early first century because there are historical records that say as much. However, since he died, he couldn’t have been God and, since he’s not God, he can’t be raised from the dead. But even if you accept that it happened, many pagans, for instance, will argue that this is nothing new. Chiseled in stone 2000 years before Jesus, there are stories about the Egyptian god Osiris dying and being resurrected as well. Maybe Jesus is just a new version of an old god. Jesus’ death and resurrection are thought to be two sides of the same coin—two sides of a very stupid
and unbelievable coin to be more specific.
At the end of Matthew’s gospel, after Jesus had died on the cross, the religious leaders are said to have gone in front of Pontius Pilate saying this, “Sir, we remember what that imposter (speaking of Jesus) said while he was still alive.” ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Therefore, command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.” Many a biblical reader has questioned how they might continue to believe that Jesus died and was raised from the dead when this gospel so blatantly points out that the disciples MIGHT have just made the whole thing up?
When I was a child I had a parakeet named “Chippy.” I also had a cat named Benjamin who I liked to invite into the house to look at Chippy’s cage. I thought that I was helping them to be good friends until one day Benjamin found his way into the house and up into my room where he knew Chippy resided. Coming home from school one day, I frantically followed the trail of little white and green feathers which brought me to a very alarmed and terrorized Chippy (and a very excited and hungry little Benjamin). Chippy survived that afternoon but died that night from his wounds.
My dad, mom and I held a brief ceremony for my dearly departed feathered friend, laid him in a little white box and, since it was winter, set him in the garage. My dad told me he would bury the box later. Who knows how long it was until I found that box with NO CHIPPY INSIDE! I would find out that my dad just tossed him into the trees a little while later! I thought Chippy had been buried in that box! But his body was missing. I had been bamboozled! I felt betrayed! Many people wonder if the same thing is happening to them in the story of Jesus’ resurrection.
Foolishness. The apostle Paul calls the message of the cross foolishness. Deceptive is what the religious authorities called it according to the gospel of Matthew. And the questions continue today as well. Wasn’t it just a few years ago when scientists argued that they had disproven the resurrection by finding a bone box with the name Jeshua (otherwise known as Jesus) alongside ones with the names “Joseph” and “Mary”? While this discovery was eventually shown to be false, the fear of trickery is still very much alive. You might not be stupid or deluded because you believe that Jesus, that God himself, died, but many people fear that they just might be the victims of a very cruel religious trick.
There seem to be no end to plots explaining away the miracle of Jesus’ death and resurrection by focusing on the sins of the church, namely, the Roman Catholic church throughout history. Dan Brown’s “The DaVinci Code” argues that Jesus wasn’t God at all, the church just covered up his marriage to the prostitute Mary Magdalene so that we would all THINK he was God! Many an author has pointed out that the church, throughout history, has been filled with politics and scheming and, so the argument goes, those who believed that Jesus was God gained power over those who didn’t and forced their opinion on everyone since then. In other words, the only reason it’s so hard to believe that Jesus, God himself, died and was raised from the dead is because some politician in church robes forced us to BELIEVE God really died on the cross instead of telling us the truth, which would make a lot more sense.
If you still believe that Jesus truly was God and died on that cross. Well, that is foolishness. Even the apostle Paul calls the message of the cross foolishness. Others call it stupid. Deceiving. Delusion. Doctrine created by a corrupt church. Or simply, “nothing new.”
So here’s the part of the sermon where I’m supposed to bowl you over with my wit and wisdom proving to you all beyond a doubt how yes Jesus is God, yes he died, yes he has been resurrected. You don’t have to worry about it anymore. It’s not stupid to believe it. It’s not foolish to have faith. You aren’t being deceived. You aren’t being deluded by a power hungry church. But, that’s not what the text says. That’s not what the Bible says.
Here are a few lines from what Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians, “The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
Jesus, God himself, was born, suffered, died, was buried and was raised from the dead. I know it’s stupid and foolish to say such a thing. It might be trick, it might be borrowed, we might be deluded and maybe we’ve just been indoctrinated. But there’s an important part that I haven’t said yet. The truth is, this statement isn’t a fact that can be proved or disproven. It can’t be a trick, or a delusion or simply a doctrine because there is much more to it than that. It’s a confession; it’s a promise: Jesus, God himself, was born, suffered, died, was buried and was raised from the dead FOR YOU, for your salvation—to be your Lord and Savior. This doesn’t mean that you should leave your mind, your reason, your intelligence and your skepticism at the door, but it does mean that, perhaps, Jesus’ promise is not meant to satisfy your need for proof, or your need for a god, but your need for a Savior. The message is about the power of God.
There are many arguments used to support the message of the cross through historical documents, theological arguments and scientific reasoning, but, finally, Jesus is not after being proved according to the wisdom of this world. He is out to give you faith. Faith that despite the fact—the FACT!—that you will die, a scientific necessity, God’s promise is that you will live with forever with Jesus. I know, it would be foolish to believe it. But God is out to give you faith anyway. Faith that despite the fact that you will hurt yourself and others, another axiom of life, God’s promise is that you will be saved. Not based on your list of good deeds, as in the case of good ol’ Osiris that I mentioned before, but because Jesus Christ forgives you. Salvation is not based on your power, but on the power of God.
I know that itt sounds very stupid and foolish, for God to forgive you. But while you know all the facts, and they are all against you, God says believe in the foolishness of my death and my resurrection, the foolishness of my forgiveness, and I will be foolish enough to save you from all the facts of this world, from sin, death and the devil himself. Not through proofs, but through power, the power of God.
What will you do when you are face to face with the arguments and doubts that the world throws at you?. While it might seem very weak in our eyes, God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. Is Jesus truly divine? Did God die on a cross? The way so many cultures have written about? Even without perfect scientific evidence? Even when confessed by such a sinful church? The best answer is the foolish one. Yes, Jesus, God himself, was born, suffered, died, and was raised from the dead . . . for me, because I need a Savior. And do you know something even more foolish than that? Jesus loves you so much that he died on the cross for you too. Because you need a Savior too. Amen.
Foolishness. The apostle Paul calls the message of the cross foolishness. People I know would probably just call it “stupid”. And you would either be labeled stupid as well or, at least, misguided, ignorant or brainwashed if they discovered that you believed in such a thing.
I have had many discussions with people about the history of religions. I have done some reading on the subject as well. Often, as it is pointed out to me, different religions throughout the ages have stolen or, shall we say “borrowed” stories or concepts from each other. Sometimes the similarities are profound. For instance, in Babylonian mythology, there is a flood that wipes out all humankind, except for those in a big boat . . . very reminiscent of the story about Noah and the ark that we read about in Genesis. Questions abound about where various moral codes came from. For instance, around the time when much of the Old Testament was first written, a lot of different cultures had some kind of understanding of sin. Who came up with it first? Who borrowed what from whom? And does any of this make sin any less true?
Some older cultures, in their search for ways to get the crops to grow, would sacrifice their King in order to make it rain or to satisfy various fertility gods. The thing was, the King himself was often worshipped as a god so, sometimes the King’s son who was sacrificed instead. In other words, the Son of a god was sacrificed. The god Odin, from Norse mythology, once sacrificed himself to himself by hanging himself on a tree. Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the cruse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” The problem is often presented to me this way, “How can you still believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that his crucifixion means anything really when so many stories talk about the same thing throughout the history of religion?”
Foolishness. Even the apostle Paul calls the message of the cross foolishness. The popular author and atheist Richard Dawkins calls those who believe that Jesus is God, “deluded.” And, as he puts it so clearly in his book, “The God Delusion,” parents who teach their children such things should be charged with child abuse.
Most people will accept that some guy named Jesus did die on a cross in the early first century because there are historical records that say as much. However, since he died, he couldn’t have been God and, since he’s not God, he can’t be raised from the dead. But even if you accept that it happened, many pagans, for instance, will argue that this is nothing new. Chiseled in stone 2000 years before Jesus, there are stories about the Egyptian god Osiris dying and being resurrected as well. Maybe Jesus is just a new version of an old god. Jesus’ death and resurrection are thought to be two sides of the same coin—two sides of a very stupid
and unbelievable coin to be more specific.
At the end of Matthew’s gospel, after Jesus had died on the cross, the religious leaders are said to have gone in front of Pontius Pilate saying this, “Sir, we remember what that imposter (speaking of Jesus) said while he was still alive.” ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Therefore, command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.” Many a biblical reader has questioned how they might continue to believe that Jesus died and was raised from the dead when this gospel so blatantly points out that the disciples MIGHT have just made the whole thing up?
When I was a child I had a parakeet named “Chippy.” I also had a cat named Benjamin who I liked to invite into the house to look at Chippy’s cage. I thought that I was helping them to be good friends until one day Benjamin found his way into the house and up into my room where he knew Chippy resided. Coming home from school one day, I frantically followed the trail of little white and green feathers which brought me to a very alarmed and terrorized Chippy (and a very excited and hungry little Benjamin). Chippy survived that afternoon but died that night from his wounds.
My dad, mom and I held a brief ceremony for my dearly departed feathered friend, laid him in a little white box and, since it was winter, set him in the garage. My dad told me he would bury the box later. Who knows how long it was until I found that box with NO CHIPPY INSIDE! I would find out that my dad just tossed him into the trees a little while later! I thought Chippy had been buried in that box! But his body was missing. I had been bamboozled! I felt betrayed! Many people wonder if the same thing is happening to them in the story of Jesus’ resurrection.
Foolishness. The apostle Paul calls the message of the cross foolishness. Deceptive is what the religious authorities called it according to the gospel of Matthew. And the questions continue today as well. Wasn’t it just a few years ago when scientists argued that they had disproven the resurrection by finding a bone box with the name Jeshua (otherwise known as Jesus) alongside ones with the names “Joseph” and “Mary”? While this discovery was eventually shown to be false, the fear of trickery is still very much alive. You might not be stupid or deluded because you believe that Jesus, that God himself, died, but many people fear that they just might be the victims of a very cruel religious trick.
There seem to be no end to plots explaining away the miracle of Jesus’ death and resurrection by focusing on the sins of the church, namely, the Roman Catholic church throughout history. Dan Brown’s “The DaVinci Code” argues that Jesus wasn’t God at all, the church just covered up his marriage to the prostitute Mary Magdalene so that we would all THINK he was God! Many an author has pointed out that the church, throughout history, has been filled with politics and scheming and, so the argument goes, those who believed that Jesus was God gained power over those who didn’t and forced their opinion on everyone since then. In other words, the only reason it’s so hard to believe that Jesus, God himself, died and was raised from the dead is because some politician in church robes forced us to BELIEVE God really died on the cross instead of telling us the truth, which would make a lot more sense.
If you still believe that Jesus truly was God and died on that cross. Well, that is foolishness. Even the apostle Paul calls the message of the cross foolishness. Others call it stupid. Deceiving. Delusion. Doctrine created by a corrupt church. Or simply, “nothing new.”
So here’s the part of the sermon where I’m supposed to bowl you over with my wit and wisdom proving to you all beyond a doubt how yes Jesus is God, yes he died, yes he has been resurrected. You don’t have to worry about it anymore. It’s not stupid to believe it. It’s not foolish to have faith. You aren’t being deceived. You aren’t being deluded by a power hungry church. But, that’s not what the text says. That’s not what the Bible says.
Here are a few lines from what Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians, “The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
Jesus, God himself, was born, suffered, died, was buried and was raised from the dead. I know it’s stupid and foolish to say such a thing. It might be trick, it might be borrowed, we might be deluded and maybe we’ve just been indoctrinated. But there’s an important part that I haven’t said yet. The truth is, this statement isn’t a fact that can be proved or disproven. It can’t be a trick, or a delusion or simply a doctrine because there is much more to it than that. It’s a confession; it’s a promise: Jesus, God himself, was born, suffered, died, was buried and was raised from the dead FOR YOU, for your salvation—to be your Lord and Savior. This doesn’t mean that you should leave your mind, your reason, your intelligence and your skepticism at the door, but it does mean that, perhaps, Jesus’ promise is not meant to satisfy your need for proof, or your need for a god, but your need for a Savior. The message is about the power of God.
There are many arguments used to support the message of the cross through historical documents, theological arguments and scientific reasoning, but, finally, Jesus is not after being proved according to the wisdom of this world. He is out to give you faith. Faith that despite the fact—the FACT!—that you will die, a scientific necessity, God’s promise is that you will live with forever with Jesus. I know, it would be foolish to believe it. But God is out to give you faith anyway. Faith that despite the fact that you will hurt yourself and others, another axiom of life, God’s promise is that you will be saved. Not based on your list of good deeds, as in the case of good ol’ Osiris that I mentioned before, but because Jesus Christ forgives you. Salvation is not based on your power, but on the power of God.
I know that itt sounds very stupid and foolish, for God to forgive you. But while you know all the facts, and they are all against you, God says believe in the foolishness of my death and my resurrection, the foolishness of my forgiveness, and I will be foolish enough to save you from all the facts of this world, from sin, death and the devil himself. Not through proofs, but through power, the power of God.
What will you do when you are face to face with the arguments and doubts that the world throws at you?. While it might seem very weak in our eyes, God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. Is Jesus truly divine? Did God die on a cross? The way so many cultures have written about? Even without perfect scientific evidence? Even when confessed by such a sinful church? The best answer is the foolish one. Yes, Jesus, God himself, was born, suffered, died, and was raised from the dead . . . for me, because I need a Savior. And do you know something even more foolish than that? Jesus loves you so much that he died on the cross for you too. Because you need a Savior too. Amen.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Sermon for March 11th
It’s one thing to have faith, to believe in God. It’s quite another thing to believe that this God you believe in actually cares for you and died for you. It’s one thing to pray that God’s will is done. It’s quite another thing to pray that God’s will is done through you—using you, your gifts and your life.
There was a magazine article I was told about in seminary that said that most young people today think of God as being far off, looking at the Earth from a distance, deciding on right and wrong up in heaven, up in space somewhere, and then rewarding or punishing us at the end of life. But this is NOT the God that the scriptures witness to. The God who loves you says this, through his Son Jesus Christ, “I will not leave you orphaned I am coming to you.” He is not a far off God. He is an up-close God.
And we pray that God always stays close. This is why we often sing, on Sunday mornings, “Create in me a clean heart oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” This presumes a couple of things: first that you are in God’s presence already or else you could not be cast out of it. And second, that God has given you his Holy Spirit or else it could not be taken from you.
Throughout the next several weeks, we are going to go through the Lord’s prayer and try to understand what kind of a God you have and what praying to him means for your life. In the Lord’s Prayer, you pray that God always stays close. But not only that, you pray that he stays close to you . . . and, that you might realize it and believe it. You pray that God is not just some noun, a person, place or thing, up in heaven, far off, like a star. You pray that God is a verb in your life, that he is active and working, and you pray that he creates faith in your heart not just today but every day after that as well. You pray not only that his Will is done in the world, but that he comes close and gets his will done through you, in your life.
When you pray, you call on God’s name, your Daddy in heaven, and ask him to be God for you, to be holy, to be a powerful creator for you, his creature. Next, you ask for faith. “Thy kingdom come.” When the time comes for prayer, it’s time to ask for the faith to finish the prayer--to believe that your words are being whispered right into God’s ears and not just floating off into outer space. You pray for the Holy Spirit to give you the strength to believe that your prayers are listened to and heard and answered. Not by some far away God, but by an up-close and personal God.
Martin Luther wrote that God’s kingdom would come whether we liked it or not, but in our prayers, we pray that God’s kingdom would come to us. God is still God whether we pray to him or not. But we pray that God would give us the faith to believe that we are his beloved children. That he’s working with us in mind. Jesus promised, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
I’ve been told by several people that all they pray is, “Thy Will be done.” They argue that to say anything more would be pushing their will onto God and that would not be right. Well, to be honest, God’s will is done with or without your prayers. In the Lord’s Prayer, you are asking that just as God gives you faith in your heart, you pray that this faith becomes a living and active faith, overflowing with God’s good works done through you: your body, your mind, your mouth and your heart.
When you pray, “Thy will be done”. You are praying that once you are given faith, that you do not compromise that faith in your life, but that God’s will is done here on Earth through you. Remember when Jesus prayed in the garden of Gesthemane? He prayed that God might take away the path of suffering he was destined for. But then Jesus said, “But not my will, but thy will be done.” This wasn’t a fatalistic statement saying, “But oh well, you’ll do whatever you want anyway.” This was a radical statement. Jesus wasn’t just telling his Father to “Do his thing.” But to “Do your thing, dear father, through me.” Or, as Saint Augustine put it later in his famous prayer to God, “Let me be an instrument of thy peace.”
Your God is an up close and personal God. He comes to make a home with you. He comes to place faith within your heart. And when you pray this Lent, especially when you pray the Lord’s Prayer, understand that you are not just praying to some heavenly being somewhere out there, but to your heavenly Father who has made your heart his kingdom and intends on working HIS will on this Earth through you. Amen.
There was a magazine article I was told about in seminary that said that most young people today think of God as being far off, looking at the Earth from a distance, deciding on right and wrong up in heaven, up in space somewhere, and then rewarding or punishing us at the end of life. But this is NOT the God that the scriptures witness to. The God who loves you says this, through his Son Jesus Christ, “I will not leave you orphaned I am coming to you.” He is not a far off God. He is an up-close God.
And we pray that God always stays close. This is why we often sing, on Sunday mornings, “Create in me a clean heart oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” This presumes a couple of things: first that you are in God’s presence already or else you could not be cast out of it. And second, that God has given you his Holy Spirit or else it could not be taken from you.
Throughout the next several weeks, we are going to go through the Lord’s prayer and try to understand what kind of a God you have and what praying to him means for your life. In the Lord’s Prayer, you pray that God always stays close. But not only that, you pray that he stays close to you . . . and, that you might realize it and believe it. You pray that God is not just some noun, a person, place or thing, up in heaven, far off, like a star. You pray that God is a verb in your life, that he is active and working, and you pray that he creates faith in your heart not just today but every day after that as well. You pray not only that his Will is done in the world, but that he comes close and gets his will done through you, in your life.
When you pray, you call on God’s name, your Daddy in heaven, and ask him to be God for you, to be holy, to be a powerful creator for you, his creature. Next, you ask for faith. “Thy kingdom come.” When the time comes for prayer, it’s time to ask for the faith to finish the prayer--to believe that your words are being whispered right into God’s ears and not just floating off into outer space. You pray for the Holy Spirit to give you the strength to believe that your prayers are listened to and heard and answered. Not by some far away God, but by an up-close and personal God.
Martin Luther wrote that God’s kingdom would come whether we liked it or not, but in our prayers, we pray that God’s kingdom would come to us. God is still God whether we pray to him or not. But we pray that God would give us the faith to believe that we are his beloved children. That he’s working with us in mind. Jesus promised, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
I’ve been told by several people that all they pray is, “Thy Will be done.” They argue that to say anything more would be pushing their will onto God and that would not be right. Well, to be honest, God’s will is done with or without your prayers. In the Lord’s Prayer, you are asking that just as God gives you faith in your heart, you pray that this faith becomes a living and active faith, overflowing with God’s good works done through you: your body, your mind, your mouth and your heart.
When you pray, “Thy will be done”. You are praying that once you are given faith, that you do not compromise that faith in your life, but that God’s will is done here on Earth through you. Remember when Jesus prayed in the garden of Gesthemane? He prayed that God might take away the path of suffering he was destined for. But then Jesus said, “But not my will, but thy will be done.” This wasn’t a fatalistic statement saying, “But oh well, you’ll do whatever you want anyway.” This was a radical statement. Jesus wasn’t just telling his Father to “Do his thing.” But to “Do your thing, dear father, through me.” Or, as Saint Augustine put it later in his famous prayer to God, “Let me be an instrument of thy peace.”
Your God is an up close and personal God. He comes to make a home with you. He comes to place faith within your heart. And when you pray this Lent, especially when you pray the Lord’s Prayer, understand that you are not just praying to some heavenly being somewhere out there, but to your heavenly Father who has made your heart his kingdom and intends on working HIS will on this Earth through you. Amen.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Sermon for March 8th
Jesus sets two difficult demands upon those who believe in him in today’s gospel. First, the Son of Man must (MUST!) undergo great suffering, be rejected, be killed and after three days rise again. Second, if any want to be his followers, they are called to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him. Follow him to suffering and death.
The disciples can’t imagine losing their friend, their teacher, their leader, their Messiah—Peter expresses that pretty clearly when he rebukes Jesus. But while this demand is hard, the next demand is even harder. Jesus says, “If any want to be my followers, let them deny themselves and follow me.” Today, I intend on equipping you to deal with the cross and suffering you will be called on to bear when the time comes. Some will suffer shortly and some will suffer long. We will all die one day, we don’t have to seek it out. Death will find us. In the same way, we shall all suffer, the question is, how will you deal with that suffering? Where will you turn when there is no escaping from it.
We like the idea that we could “escape” death rather than go through it. In the movie Star Wars Episode Three, the evil chancellor tells Anakin Skywalker that the Jedi would have him believe that death is natural. Yoda had said previously that death should be simply accepted and that any feelings of grief at the loss were signs of jealousy and greed. The chancellor says that there is another way to deal with death . . . to escape it.
Jesus said that he would actually have to die, not a beautifully natural thing and not something he could escape. It had to happen and the disciples didn’t like that idea too much. That didn’t seem like much of a goal. There’s nothing I could do or would want to do to convince you that dying for the sake of Jesus and your faith is a positive thing. We should all do our best NOT to aim for THAT as our goal. Why? Because death is not the new goal for a Christian.
But you, yourself, are not the new goal either. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I am always affected when I read the Voice of the Martyrs magazine about people who are being killed for their faith in Jesus Christ. However, even these people don’t normally just die for their belief in Jesus. They die for what they have done for others. Sharing the love of Jesus, teaching, being a pastor, standing up to civil injustices and that sort of thing. When Jesus says to take up your cross, the new goal is not you, nor is it your death, the goal is to serve. And when the time comes for your cross to be laid upon your shoulders, when you are called into service,I want you to be equipped to handle it. Whether you are called to take care of your spouse as they are dying, called to protect a young child from an abusive parent, called to drive someone to church or called to teach English in a country where Christianity is outlawed.
Once again, a Christian’s goal is not death, the goal is Jesus. The goal is the gospel. The goal is to inform and serve your neighbors—to share forgiveness with those who have not heard. But Jesus knew very well what the reaction would be to this proclamation. Jesus understood that while death was not the goal, it was the inevitable consequence of the message. Even today, in America. People tolerate Jesus, but they do not tolerate Christians. Christian beliefs are pummeled with words in the name of free speech. People are looked down on if they are too much of a Jesus freak. Have you ever been criticized, harassed or beaten for speaking about Jesus and the stories about him? Probably not. But are there times you haven’t talked about Jesus before you were afraid something bad might happen?
For me, personally, the biggest obstacle to sharing my faith is that I am afraid that I will look less socially attractive to the person I am talking to. I am a social person, and I like people to think that I am not only smart, but funny, tolerant, loving, thoughtful and, of course, humble. If I bring up even so simple a fact that I am the pastor of the Lutheran church in Cornwall, often conversations change. People probably figure that I might invite them to church or something. And nobody would want that! And what if I did? Invite them to church I mean. Well, that would just make things more uncomfortable wouldn’t it. Nobody wants to hang out with some Jesus freak. So do I always talk to people about Jesus when I’d like to? No. Why? Because there are many times when I treasure my possible friendship or ego or good name more than my relationship with Jesus. I often hesitate just long enough to miss my opportunity because I am worried that I’ll be seen in a poor light by those I am in contact with.
That’s what setting your mind on human things rather than divine things looks like in my life. So let’s talk about how you might journey through this same experience as well without compromising your faith. You will always need a loving community, friendship and a good name, but you are also called to follow Jesus, tell his story and proclaim the message about the forgiveness of sins. And following Jesus is bound to lead to some suffering.
First, this church, Saint Peters must be a place where people can find a home, find support and hear the message of Jesus. We come here to bed fed with God’s Word so that we know the stories and hear God’s forgiveness so that we can go back out to places where God’s Word is unknown and his stories untold. This community is called to be a place where people can share their joys, sorrows and sins openly and find support even if they can find no support anywhere else. A strong faith community like Saint Peters is essential in the midst of suffering.
Second, we must pray for one another. We can’t just see each other at church and hope that we’ll see each other again. When we get home, we’ve gotta connect with one another. If you notice that someone is gone, find out their name and be proactive about seeking them out; find out where they were. Someone close to me stopped going to one church because she didn’t show up for five weeks in a row and nobody called to see how she was. She didn’t feel cared for by those who were supposed to be her brothers and sisters in Christ. A strong faith community is a community that prayers for one another even in the midst of suffering.
Third, immerse yourself in God’s Word. Bible studies, attending worship, listening to Christian radio, reading your Bible, praying, conversations with other believers. When I go to the doctor, I expect her to know a good deal about my health problem. I want her to know different procedures to help me and to be read up on the latest medical information. If someone finds out that you are a Christian, it’s important that you have a basic knowledge of the Bible so you can answer some basic questions. It’s important that you can say something about your faith. You won’t know everything and people don’t want you to, but if you don’t know much of anything, it betrays a lack of interest.
And being immersed in God’s Word, both hearing it and reading it yourself, does something even more important, it gives you the words to speak. Prayer gives you a way to handle the difficult times in your life and provides a way to calm yourself before speaking to someone about faith topics. If you think that it is important to share the message of Jesus with others, but you don’t know how or when you would do it, focus first on your personal relationship with God and soon you’ll find yourself sharing the message without even really trying. It will come naturally. Scripture tells us that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. When your heart is full of love for the Lord, it will come up naturally in conversations without feeling forced.
A strong community of faith. Prayer. And a closer relationship to God’s Word. These are three things that might help you feel equipped when you are called on to confess your faith, to serve others, to suffer—to bear a cross. However, it is important to remember where all this will lead you. Jesus says that to follow him, means following him to suffering and finally death. So don’t be surprised when you get a funny look. People who need love and support will often not be interested and find it offensive that you even brought it up! You might risk a friendship even though you love someone very dearly because they don’t want Jesus. Three’s a crowd you know. I know that this is frustrating and not what you’d like to hear, but it is the truth.
You are loved and cared for by the people in this place, I pray that you might realize that even if everyone disowned you, you would be supported here. While you are crying and hurting or nervous, know that you are being prayed for by the people in this place. Trust that you are in God’s loving hands throughout all of it. And finally, when you would rather not say anything at all, read the stories in the Bible, about God’s faithful servants, and come to church again to hear the words of forgiveness spoken for you. Once you realize how much you need to hear that you are forgiven, you might think of others who’d like to hear it too. Your friends, your family and your neighbors need to hear this message as much as you or me. I can’t motivate you to tell someone about how much God loves them, but God, through his Holy Spirit, can and will.
Jesus began to teach his disciples that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priest and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said , “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Some of you will suffer shortly and some will suffer long. But Jesus has suffered for you so that no matter when or how you suffer in your life for his sake and for the sake of sharing the gospel message, you can be assured that embarrassment, criticism, rejection and even death is not the last word for you. “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Amen.
The disciples can’t imagine losing their friend, their teacher, their leader, their Messiah—Peter expresses that pretty clearly when he rebukes Jesus. But while this demand is hard, the next demand is even harder. Jesus says, “If any want to be my followers, let them deny themselves and follow me.” Today, I intend on equipping you to deal with the cross and suffering you will be called on to bear when the time comes. Some will suffer shortly and some will suffer long. We will all die one day, we don’t have to seek it out. Death will find us. In the same way, we shall all suffer, the question is, how will you deal with that suffering? Where will you turn when there is no escaping from it.
We like the idea that we could “escape” death rather than go through it. In the movie Star Wars Episode Three, the evil chancellor tells Anakin Skywalker that the Jedi would have him believe that death is natural. Yoda had said previously that death should be simply accepted and that any feelings of grief at the loss were signs of jealousy and greed. The chancellor says that there is another way to deal with death . . . to escape it.
Jesus said that he would actually have to die, not a beautifully natural thing and not something he could escape. It had to happen and the disciples didn’t like that idea too much. That didn’t seem like much of a goal. There’s nothing I could do or would want to do to convince you that dying for the sake of Jesus and your faith is a positive thing. We should all do our best NOT to aim for THAT as our goal. Why? Because death is not the new goal for a Christian.
But you, yourself, are not the new goal either. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I am always affected when I read the Voice of the Martyrs magazine about people who are being killed for their faith in Jesus Christ. However, even these people don’t normally just die for their belief in Jesus. They die for what they have done for others. Sharing the love of Jesus, teaching, being a pastor, standing up to civil injustices and that sort of thing. When Jesus says to take up your cross, the new goal is not you, nor is it your death, the goal is to serve. And when the time comes for your cross to be laid upon your shoulders, when you are called into service,I want you to be equipped to handle it. Whether you are called to take care of your spouse as they are dying, called to protect a young child from an abusive parent, called to drive someone to church or called to teach English in a country where Christianity is outlawed.
Once again, a Christian’s goal is not death, the goal is Jesus. The goal is the gospel. The goal is to inform and serve your neighbors—to share forgiveness with those who have not heard. But Jesus knew very well what the reaction would be to this proclamation. Jesus understood that while death was not the goal, it was the inevitable consequence of the message. Even today, in America. People tolerate Jesus, but they do not tolerate Christians. Christian beliefs are pummeled with words in the name of free speech. People are looked down on if they are too much of a Jesus freak. Have you ever been criticized, harassed or beaten for speaking about Jesus and the stories about him? Probably not. But are there times you haven’t talked about Jesus before you were afraid something bad might happen?
For me, personally, the biggest obstacle to sharing my faith is that I am afraid that I will look less socially attractive to the person I am talking to. I am a social person, and I like people to think that I am not only smart, but funny, tolerant, loving, thoughtful and, of course, humble. If I bring up even so simple a fact that I am the pastor of the Lutheran church in Cornwall, often conversations change. People probably figure that I might invite them to church or something. And nobody would want that! And what if I did? Invite them to church I mean. Well, that would just make things more uncomfortable wouldn’t it. Nobody wants to hang out with some Jesus freak. So do I always talk to people about Jesus when I’d like to? No. Why? Because there are many times when I treasure my possible friendship or ego or good name more than my relationship with Jesus. I often hesitate just long enough to miss my opportunity because I am worried that I’ll be seen in a poor light by those I am in contact with.
That’s what setting your mind on human things rather than divine things looks like in my life. So let’s talk about how you might journey through this same experience as well without compromising your faith. You will always need a loving community, friendship and a good name, but you are also called to follow Jesus, tell his story and proclaim the message about the forgiveness of sins. And following Jesus is bound to lead to some suffering.
First, this church, Saint Peters must be a place where people can find a home, find support and hear the message of Jesus. We come here to bed fed with God’s Word so that we know the stories and hear God’s forgiveness so that we can go back out to places where God’s Word is unknown and his stories untold. This community is called to be a place where people can share their joys, sorrows and sins openly and find support even if they can find no support anywhere else. A strong faith community like Saint Peters is essential in the midst of suffering.
Second, we must pray for one another. We can’t just see each other at church and hope that we’ll see each other again. When we get home, we’ve gotta connect with one another. If you notice that someone is gone, find out their name and be proactive about seeking them out; find out where they were. Someone close to me stopped going to one church because she didn’t show up for five weeks in a row and nobody called to see how she was. She didn’t feel cared for by those who were supposed to be her brothers and sisters in Christ. A strong faith community is a community that prayers for one another even in the midst of suffering.
Third, immerse yourself in God’s Word. Bible studies, attending worship, listening to Christian radio, reading your Bible, praying, conversations with other believers. When I go to the doctor, I expect her to know a good deal about my health problem. I want her to know different procedures to help me and to be read up on the latest medical information. If someone finds out that you are a Christian, it’s important that you have a basic knowledge of the Bible so you can answer some basic questions. It’s important that you can say something about your faith. You won’t know everything and people don’t want you to, but if you don’t know much of anything, it betrays a lack of interest.
And being immersed in God’s Word, both hearing it and reading it yourself, does something even more important, it gives you the words to speak. Prayer gives you a way to handle the difficult times in your life and provides a way to calm yourself before speaking to someone about faith topics. If you think that it is important to share the message of Jesus with others, but you don’t know how or when you would do it, focus first on your personal relationship with God and soon you’ll find yourself sharing the message without even really trying. It will come naturally. Scripture tells us that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. When your heart is full of love for the Lord, it will come up naturally in conversations without feeling forced.
A strong community of faith. Prayer. And a closer relationship to God’s Word. These are three things that might help you feel equipped when you are called on to confess your faith, to serve others, to suffer—to bear a cross. However, it is important to remember where all this will lead you. Jesus says that to follow him, means following him to suffering and finally death. So don’t be surprised when you get a funny look. People who need love and support will often not be interested and find it offensive that you even brought it up! You might risk a friendship even though you love someone very dearly because they don’t want Jesus. Three’s a crowd you know. I know that this is frustrating and not what you’d like to hear, but it is the truth.
You are loved and cared for by the people in this place, I pray that you might realize that even if everyone disowned you, you would be supported here. While you are crying and hurting or nervous, know that you are being prayed for by the people in this place. Trust that you are in God’s loving hands throughout all of it. And finally, when you would rather not say anything at all, read the stories in the Bible, about God’s faithful servants, and come to church again to hear the words of forgiveness spoken for you. Once you realize how much you need to hear that you are forgiven, you might think of others who’d like to hear it too. Your friends, your family and your neighbors need to hear this message as much as you or me. I can’t motivate you to tell someone about how much God loves them, but God, through his Holy Spirit, can and will.
Jesus began to teach his disciples that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priest and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said , “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Some of you will suffer shortly and some will suffer long. But Jesus has suffered for you so that no matter when or how you suffer in your life for his sake and for the sake of sharing the gospel message, you can be assured that embarrassment, criticism, rejection and even death is not the last word for you. “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Amen.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Sermon for Wednesday March 4th
Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely from now on, all generations will call me blessed. For the mighty one has done great things for me and holy is his name.” Holy is HIS name. Isn’t THAT a surprise? Holy is HIS name?
To be holy, means to be set apart. To be distinct from the everyday, worldly things of this earth. To be holy means to be special. And here is Mary, a small-town girl, of humble means, who has just been given an amazing piece of news. She’s pregnant. That’s pretty special. But, there’s more. She was just told she was pregnant by none other than an angel. That’s pretty otherworldly. But there’s more. The angel told her that she was going to have a baby and Mary . . . well, Mary was a virgin . . . having a baby is pretty different and distinct from most any other virgin. But there is even more. This virgin, Mary, is told by an angel that she is pregnant with, get this, God’s baby. GOD’s baby! THAT makes her set apart from, well, anybody else in history.
So, why does Mary say, “Holy is HIS name?” instead of holy is MY name, or something like that? This song of hers doesn’t seem to mention all these odd and interesting facts about how special she is. Instead, she says that, while she has been undeservedly blessed, God is the one who should be honored. The mighty one has done great things for me, she says, and holy is HIS name. Holy is his name.
The disciples asked Jesus, how should we pray, and he told them, pray like this, “Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name.” Hallowed be thy name. Holy is your name. There is a connection here.
When you pray, what do you pray for? If you are anything like me, your prayer life is often filled with, to put it quite frankly, special favors. Special requests on your behalf or for the sake of others. You don’t want to just be one of the normal people who have things happen to them. You want to be one of the select few who are set apart for greatness. Set apart for healing. Set apart for blessings.
And the thing is, God loves it when you bring to him every little thing you want and need. All the way from praying for a baby to praying for a late start at school to praying for a parking space. Sure, it might be selfish. Sure these requests might be meaningless in the scheme of things, but, as Luther says, we should speak to God just as children speak to their loving father, only this is our heavenly Father. I never refrained from asking my dad to get me toaster strudels at the grocery store and you shouldn’t refrain from asking God for whatever your heart desires either.
But it’s important to remember, right off the bat, who is truly set apart, truly distinct and special, truly holy and it’s not you. It’s God. He is holy. All you are asking, is that he be God for you. To do things for you that he is in the business of doing. You don’t have to ask him to be someone different, or do something different, or even to make you into something different. You call on him to “just be himself” as parents often say. To be holy. And not just holy as an idea, but to be holy for you. To be God for you. Because when God is God for you, wonderful and impossible things happen.
In tonight’s scripture passage, Mary is the one being blessed, but God is the one being honored. Mary is the one being blessed, but God is hallowed. One would think that when God made Mary the mother of God, she would have been the one who was made holy. But no, God is made holy by blessing her. He shows himself to be powerful. He shows himself to be wonderful. He shows himself to be kind and generous and mighty. When we pray , we pray that God increases in his glory, not that we increase in ours. We pray that he is honored by what he does in, through and for us, not that we are honored.
God is always holy even when your prayers aren’t answered the way you want them to be. God is always holy even when your prayers are answered in amazing ways you couldn’t have even dreamed. God is holy when your best friend dies tragically in a car accident and God is holy when your dog miraculously escapes a near brush with death. At the beginning of a prayer, we need to remind ourselves of this. We pray that no matter what we are about to ask, that God stays the same. That God is holy. We want to realize that he is the same today, yesterday and will be that way tomorrow no matter what has happened or will happen. He will not deserve your praise more if he answers your prayer in the affirmative than if you feel the weight of suffering crashing down upon you despite your most faithful prayer. He is holy, distinct, perfect and you are not.
Prayer isn’t about you, it is about the faith you are placing that God can not only hear you, but he loves you and cares for you. Praying doesn’t make you holy. Prayer doesn’t make God better or worse than he began. Prayer helps you realize that God indeed does great things for you, some look better and some look worse, but he is always holy. He deserves glory no matter how things turn out in the next moment. When you pray, pray to your heavenly Father for your blessings, but give God the glory. No matter how mightily he works in your life, holy is HIS name. Always HIS name. Amen
To be holy, means to be set apart. To be distinct from the everyday, worldly things of this earth. To be holy means to be special. And here is Mary, a small-town girl, of humble means, who has just been given an amazing piece of news. She’s pregnant. That’s pretty special. But, there’s more. She was just told she was pregnant by none other than an angel. That’s pretty otherworldly. But there’s more. The angel told her that she was going to have a baby and Mary . . . well, Mary was a virgin . . . having a baby is pretty different and distinct from most any other virgin. But there is even more. This virgin, Mary, is told by an angel that she is pregnant with, get this, God’s baby. GOD’s baby! THAT makes her set apart from, well, anybody else in history.
So, why does Mary say, “Holy is HIS name?” instead of holy is MY name, or something like that? This song of hers doesn’t seem to mention all these odd and interesting facts about how special she is. Instead, she says that, while she has been undeservedly blessed, God is the one who should be honored. The mighty one has done great things for me, she says, and holy is HIS name. Holy is his name.
The disciples asked Jesus, how should we pray, and he told them, pray like this, “Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name.” Hallowed be thy name. Holy is your name. There is a connection here.
When you pray, what do you pray for? If you are anything like me, your prayer life is often filled with, to put it quite frankly, special favors. Special requests on your behalf or for the sake of others. You don’t want to just be one of the normal people who have things happen to them. You want to be one of the select few who are set apart for greatness. Set apart for healing. Set apart for blessings.
And the thing is, God loves it when you bring to him every little thing you want and need. All the way from praying for a baby to praying for a late start at school to praying for a parking space. Sure, it might be selfish. Sure these requests might be meaningless in the scheme of things, but, as Luther says, we should speak to God just as children speak to their loving father, only this is our heavenly Father. I never refrained from asking my dad to get me toaster strudels at the grocery store and you shouldn’t refrain from asking God for whatever your heart desires either.
But it’s important to remember, right off the bat, who is truly set apart, truly distinct and special, truly holy and it’s not you. It’s God. He is holy. All you are asking, is that he be God for you. To do things for you that he is in the business of doing. You don’t have to ask him to be someone different, or do something different, or even to make you into something different. You call on him to “just be himself” as parents often say. To be holy. And not just holy as an idea, but to be holy for you. To be God for you. Because when God is God for you, wonderful and impossible things happen.
In tonight’s scripture passage, Mary is the one being blessed, but God is the one being honored. Mary is the one being blessed, but God is hallowed. One would think that when God made Mary the mother of God, she would have been the one who was made holy. But no, God is made holy by blessing her. He shows himself to be powerful. He shows himself to be wonderful. He shows himself to be kind and generous and mighty. When we pray , we pray that God increases in his glory, not that we increase in ours. We pray that he is honored by what he does in, through and for us, not that we are honored.
God is always holy even when your prayers aren’t answered the way you want them to be. God is always holy even when your prayers are answered in amazing ways you couldn’t have even dreamed. God is holy when your best friend dies tragically in a car accident and God is holy when your dog miraculously escapes a near brush with death. At the beginning of a prayer, we need to remind ourselves of this. We pray that no matter what we are about to ask, that God stays the same. That God is holy. We want to realize that he is the same today, yesterday and will be that way tomorrow no matter what has happened or will happen. He will not deserve your praise more if he answers your prayer in the affirmative than if you feel the weight of suffering crashing down upon you despite your most faithful prayer. He is holy, distinct, perfect and you are not.
Prayer isn’t about you, it is about the faith you are placing that God can not only hear you, but he loves you and cares for you. Praying doesn’t make you holy. Prayer doesn’t make God better or worse than he began. Prayer helps you realize that God indeed does great things for you, some look better and some look worse, but he is always holy. He deserves glory no matter how things turn out in the next moment. When you pray, pray to your heavenly Father for your blessings, but give God the glory. No matter how mightily he works in your life, holy is HIS name. Always HIS name. Amen
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