11-18-12 - Thanks Be To God! aka Don't harm your relatives.

1 Timothy 2:1-7

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, ²for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. ³This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁵For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, ⁶who gave himself a ransom for all—this was attested at the right time. ⁷For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. ⁸I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument;

                Thanks be to God!  Thanks be to God for all of the wonderful things that God has done for us, from the creation of this world and all the lives that are in it, the delicate ecosystems throughout it, the people that we have in our lives, for our live themselves, for the food that we eat each day and for our occupations and our schools and our leaders, thanks be to God!  So often we can forget to give thanks.    We forget to look at the good things and instead focus on the bad.

            For instance, look at where we are now after our elections.  Instead of giving thanks for having elections, for having leaders, for the freedoms that we have, for the country that we live in, people in twenty states signed petitions to secede from the US.  Not to mention all the commotion we still hear with people complaining about who won and the damage its going to do to the country, which we would have heard as well if Romney had won instead.  And so often I see all over the internet or hear from friends that we need to pray for the country, because now we are completely done for due to 4 more years of Obama.  Of course, I’m convinced that we live in a country that just loves to have something to complain about, because I’ve never seen people happier than when we get someone’s attention and get to destroy someone else or rant and rave about the way things are or the way they used to be or could you believe that so in so did that? 

            But instead of living in such a negative reality, we are called to a life of joy, we are called to live in the light of God, who sacrificed himself that we might live and that we might have peace.  Instead of complaining, we are called to pray for one another, that all lives may be filled with peace and dignity.  We are to pray for people, not just for countries, for God is focused on the people and desires that we have joy, that we have peace, and that we know the love that He has for us and that we should have for one another.  And in this we take great joy, that God loved us enough to take all the junk of this world onto His back and say “I Got this, don’t be afraid and don’t worry, I got this and I got you.”

            And that is the real message that we are called to give as Christians, it is the message that the writer of Timothy is exclaiming, that God desires all to be saved and gave himself as a ransom for all people, and acts as mediator in the person of Jesus Christ, God who took upon himself human weakness and understands our faults and bridges the divide between humanity and God.  We should be thankful, because God loves us and because God cares for us and provides for us.  Most of all we should be thankful, that God has sacrificed for us as well.

            And that is why we give thanks and that is why we sacrifice in order to show our appreciation to God, for His own sacrifice for us.  We give of ourselves, our time, and our resources in order to benefit God and God’s kingdom, which is present at this very hour here on earth.  We give of ourselves in order to serve the One who is the ultimate servant, our God.  Our God who stooped low in order to lift us up and who faced every betrayal and every insult and still forgives all who have insulted his name and betrayed his trust, and disobeyed his loving laws.  And so we are called to follow His example, we are called to live out our lives not filled with anger and argument, but instead we are called to live out our lives in forgiveness and healing and compassion. 

            This Thursday is Thanksgiving, and it is the perfect time to live out this healing and compassion as well.  As we gather with family, whom sometimes we know far too well and with whom open conversation can lead to arguments, whether over politics, religion, teams to root for, that time in 2^nd grade that you stole a cousins favorite toy, or who gets to break the wishbone, remember Christ.  For if he can take death of the cross and betrayal by a closest friend, than we can surely take losing the last drumstick and some disagreeable conversation and still let it all go and our love for one another flourish.

            So when Aunt Mildred asks you for the mashed potatoes on Thursday, and you are thinking that you would really like to toss at her face, please don’t.  Instead be kind and forgiving, do not let anger rule your hearts but instead give thanks, give thanks for your family and your friends, give thanks for all their quirks that make them who they are and that bind you together as family, give thanks for the people here who join with you each Sunday to hear the Word and to grow together as the family of God, and give thanks for our elected officials, that even when we don’t agree with them, we are glad to have them to help our country and our area run safely and efficiently. 

            May we give thanks, and not be troubled in heart and not filled with anger and argument, that we may also be ambassadors for or Lord and for the Love and Forgiveness that He brings, which we get to experience each day and give to others as well.

Amen.

11-11-12 - Do Not Be Afraid! -1 Kings 17:8-16 & Psalm 146

It is quite easy to fear.  It is also quite easy to lay down and die when the going gets tough, especially when hope has been eliminated.  That is what the woman in our 1^st reading was doing today. She was preparing to die, her and her son.  She speaks in the language of scarcity, a couple of sticks, a little oil, a handful of meal.  All she knows is squalor at this point, all that she knows is suffering and all that she knows is want.  Hope is gone. 

But that changes with Elijah.  Not at first, at first she is tired and has no desire to help him.  After all, she has so little already, so she figures “keep it for myself and my son, so that we may have a last meal together.”  But Elijah makes her a promise. He promises that if he would give him but a little cake, God will ensure that the meal and the oil will not run out until the rains come again and the famine lifts.  He promises them that if they can give out of their little, then God will treat them with abundance.

And we are asked to do the same thing here at Jerusalem.  So often I hear from members about fear.  We fear for our resources, we fear that we are going to run out and that this congregation will not survive.  And I will tell you this, if we focus on fear and if we put all of our focus on money and property, then yes will shall surely die.  If we try to hoard what little we have for ourselves, we will just whittle away and we shall die.  If we keep focusing on those things that fall into dust, our human rulers, our money, our property, then we shall surely die.  Instead we are called to act in hope, because we have a God who has made us promises, just as he made promises to the widow that fed Elijah, and we have example after example of God keeping God’s promises  And we have examples time after time of God’s power in the world and the healing that happens in God’s presence.

When we fear and when we sink into modes of survival or just plain giving up, we fall apart, we fragment, we suffer, and everything just gets worse.  When we focus on fear we become overly anxious and we shut down.  But when we focus on the power of God we are indeed filled with power and when we are focused on the possibilities of God then we will begin to grow and we will cease to set up roadblocks in front of ourselves.

            The most common statement in the Bible from one of God’s messengers is this – “Don’t be afraid!”  It is what Elijah tells the widow and it is what God tells us now, “Don’t be afraid!”  Act like you have been empowered and you shall be empowered.  Keep your eyes on God and God’s promises and you will be fine.  For when we focus on the will of God, when we earnestly seek it out and we strive to please God instead of ourselves and instead of seeking control, then we begin to focus on ministry and we begin to live in the light of Christ, which makes us jubilant and have abundant life.

            After all, wouldn’t it be far better to have the joy that fills our Psalm today than to live in a life that we view with the eyes of scarcity?  For then we worship the God who makes the blind see and the lame walk, who lifts up the oppressed, who created the world, and sets the prisoner free.  Praise the Lord!  Praise the Lord, oh my Soul!  For while we may view ourselves with scarcity, we are in fact filled with abundance.  For we are not scarce in love.  Look around this room.  In this room are many people whose hearts combine as one, whose hearts long to serve God and to serve on another.  We are blessed with experience from our senior members who have lived their lives in service and are inspirations to each and every one of us.  We are blessed with a lack of a mortgage, which is no small feat in today’s world with churches, so our funds are not being sucked down that drain.  And this frees us up to be an offering to others as well.

            Each year we give support to a variety of charities, such as World Hunger and Camp Frederick and United Social Action, which helps people to pay for their bills and rent in this area.  Each year we also give to the synod, so that they can help coordinate mission in our region, train pastors, aid congregations, and help to start new congregations.  And they in turn give to the churchwide ELCA, which supports those in need around the world and helps to unify us as Lutherans and brings us closer to other denominations as well.  Each of our gifts outside of ourselves helps to bring about God’s will in the world, helps to create justice, helps to make the blind see and the lame walk and the oppressed to receive justice and the hungry to eat.    Out of our abundance, we are able to serve others.

            So be not afraid, but instead focus on the power that we have from God, focus on the promises of God, for we are not alone and we do not have to settle for finding a few twigs and baking a small cake for ourselves and dying as a congregation.  We shall not fear, for we are united as one Body, the Body of Christ, and we do not see only scarcity, but we can see the abundance that we have, the abundance that we have to offer this community of Columbiana and the world.  We are a haven for those who suffer addiction and a place of safety for young men to gather together and learn how to be better men.  We are a place that welcomes those who have fallen on hard times and are in need.  We are a place of welcoming to all, a place of support for those of us who have trouble in our lives, which is admittedly all of us.  And we are a beacon of light that shines the love of God, the love that defies all logic and all explanation and is ever-present. 

            We are called into a life of abundance, of giving that which we have in order to be a blessing to others, with the promise of God that we shall not starve or suffer when we give away.  Will you not join me in this life, that we may not live in fear, but instead hear the words of God that tell us “Do Not Fear!” and to do His will, and spread his word, in joyous celebration!  May we always remember to scream with joy, “Praise the Lord!  Praise the Lord, O my soul!”

11-4-12 - How much of All is All?

11-4-2012

⁶On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. ⁷And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. ⁸Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

⁹It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

                All.  It is such a simple, yet powerful word.  It fills our reading from Isaiah today.  Make for All peoples a feast, destroy the shroud that is cast over all people, the sheet over all nations, wipe away the tears from all faces, take away the disgrace of his people from all the earth.  All, All, All.  I had a professor in seminary who made a point every tie we came upon this word in the  Bible and he asked the question, “how much of all is all?”  ALL! 

            So often we may try to limit this.  We try to make enemies not fit into the equation of all.  We try to set our own guidelines.  But instead we should be celebrating, celebrating that God does love the world so much, and loves all of His children so much that He will use everything His power to bring about peace and to take away sorrow.  We should celebrate that God is so full of love that He will remove the Sin from our very beings and will take away all of our disgrace.  Instead of serving out justifiable wrath against all of us, God holds all of us in His arms and loves us and names us as saints.

            Are we worthy of this?  Absolutely not, and yet it is so.  Today we celebrate the lives of those who have come before us, of those whom we have lost over the past year.  Each of them a saint, even though each of them is also a sinner.  Each of them, and each of us, promised life past this existence, life eternal with our redeeming lord.  Each of us made pure in the waters of baptism, each of us made new out of those life giving waters, through the power of God.  With those waters, the shroud of death that covers us is torn to pieces, never to cover us again.  We are free, free indeed, for there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God.  This is why today we will also say and ring a bell for those who were baptized this year, those who have received this wonderful free gift from God and been formed into new beings.  Their Sin is removed and each day are made anew, each day washed clean.

            All of us are united with all the rest of the people of this world.  Each and every person is part of a universal “us,” because God wills it to be so.  Remember, that Isaiah is pre-Jesus, when all the other nations were seen as outsiders, if not enemies.  Israel was constantly at war with other peoples, and had been taken as slaves a few times.  And yet there is hope and there is redemption for all peoples, all people are made into saints and are loved by God.  Whether we like them or not. Through God, we are united with all peoples, all nations become one and all peoples become one.  We are united with people in Canada, Mexico, Ethiopia, France, Israel, Afghanistan, China, Australia, and every other nation of this world.  Even though a person may not know it, they are still a creation of God and still beloved by Him.  In our text for the day, the nations might know have known who God was or could have been actively persecuting His people, but in the end God still takes each of them and wipes away their tears and their dishonor and destroys the shroud of death that hangs over them.  Because God is the embodiment of love and loves each part of His creation as a mother cares for their unborn child, as scripture repeatedly tells us.  We don’t get to judge, but instead God does.

            And we should rejoice in this.  After all, if salvation was given by humans, we would be too clouded by jealousy and self-righteousness.  We would become too embroiled with our political thoughts, with our cliques and our grudges, finding it too hard to forgive.  No, instead we are judged by God, who instead of falling into these pits of judging and making it into a popularity contest, God frees us all from the bindings of Sin and removes our dishonor and shame, and lifts us up and wipes away our tears.

            Which is also why when we hear the names of those that we have lost today, we do not mourn as those who do not have hope.  No, instead we celebrate.  We celebrate the time that we had with them.  We celebrate their faith and their service and their examples that they set for us.  And we celebrate that they are now in the loving arms of God.  And we celebrate that we shall join them again when our day finally comes.

            For we know that we are saved, we know that God will care for us even beyond death.  So let us rejoice!  Let us sing with joy in our hearts and let us not see worship as a chore that we have to get checked off a list, but se it for what it truly is – A celebration of the life that God has given us, of the mercy that he has shown us, and the unification with all of God’s children into one family.   And it is not just in worship services here in this space that we are to celebrate, but each and every day.  When we are getting baked goods from Hogan’s we can celebrate that God has unified us with these bakers and that God has given them the gifts to make delicious donuts and we can celebrate that God has removed the shroud of death that may cause us to live lives full of fear, allowing us to enjoy the gifts of others.  We can celebrate each day that we get to see our spouses or our children or parents, and thank God for bringing them into our lives.   Celebration is when Lutheran World Relief rushes to the aid of the hurricane victims and are on the ground the day after it happened, bringing aid to those who are in need, giving of themselves to help God wipe away peoples tears and dishonor.  Each moment of our days can be a celebration of the things that God has done and the promises that God has made us.  Each day we can see the gifts that God has given us, from the trees, to our pets and families and friends, and jobs and everything else, and we can remember our Baptisms each morning in the shower or bath as we are covered in water again, and each time we eat a meal we can remember the meal that we gather to eat, and Christ’s sacrifice and love for us.  So let us rejoice and let us celebrate that God is with us and forgives us and unites us!

Amen

10-28-12 - Re Form!

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. ²⁰For “no human being will be justified in his sight” by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. ²¹But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, ²²the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, ²³since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; ²⁴they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed;²⁶it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus. ²⁷Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.

Happy Reformation day!  Hard to believe that is has been nearly 500 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on that door in Wittenberg.  Nearly 500 years since there was a firestorm in the Christian world, where a person was successful in leading a large break from the Catholic faith, and managed to live to talk about it.  It was a perfect storm, with the arrival of the printing press and a ruler who was willing to protect the reformer.  Nearly 500 years since Luther had the strength to take a stand for what He believed in.  And Luther did a great many things and helped us to return to our scriptural roots and freed the laity to read the Bible for themselves and to worship in the people’s tongue instead of in Latin. 

            And we have inherited from him not only our name, but many of our core beliefs and we owe Luther a great deal of gratitude.  And yet we are not still in 1500s Germany.  Things change, because God is always doing a new thing, always reforming us.  Each day, even though we fall short, God reforms us into saints, reforms us into His beloved children instead of the flawed, sinful human beings that we are.  Each day we are cleansed by the waters of Baptism and made new.  So often we can see god as only being in the past, in the creation of the world, in the saving works of Christ, and in the reformation of Luther.  But the reality is that God is active each and every day of our lives.  Every day God is active with us and calls us to reformation.

            And we are reformed when we have faith, true faith.  For faith is not just some intellectual exercise in saying “Jesus died on the cross for my sins and therefore I am saved” but instead is an active part of our lives, for faith is putting our trust into someone or something.  And having faith in God is difficult.  It is hard to trust, hard to let go of control, hard to live our lives as God desires instead of our own will.  It is hard to be reformed, especially because we cling onto our pasts so often and want to try to recreate them, instead of allowing God to do new things with us.  We forget our Baptisms and our Communion and so often see them as empty ritual or a cultural obligation.  We forget that God was able to use a simple German monk to change the world, and instead focus on our perceived powerlessness.  We forget that God has been active here, that this congregation has served people and the community for nearly 200 years and that we have the power to serve far more than we can possibly begin to imagine.  And we forget that the reformation has never truly ended, that God continues to create things new each and every day, including us.

            For we are not the same congregation that we used to be.  We no longer worship in the same building as our reformed brothers and sisters.  We no longer speak German throughout our worship services.  We no longer have to guard our building at night in fear of our neighbors burning it down.  We no longer have communion only once a week and we no longer use solely wafers.   Each congregation changes as the people change.  And that is not a bad thing.  Instead, to change is to live, to be static and stagnant is to die.  So instead we grow, we try new things and new ideas, and we seek to find where it is that God is calling us to.  We continue to be reformed by God.  Because while our beloved, drunk german monk was a genius and was inspired by God, he was by no means perfect and the world has changed drastically since then, and God has done wonderful things since then as well.

            And we are called to live in this reality and in this world, that we may be a benefit to it, that we may help to reform it.  There was another man who was named after Martin Luther, Martin Luther King Jr.  He helped to reform these United States.  Through non-violent means, he was able to bring an inkling of God’s justice into this world, creating closer harmony between the God’s children of various races.  One man was able to help make this world a better place because of his faith in Christ, a faith that directed his actions and brought around peace.  Even though he was unable to see the fruition of his work, one man had the power given to him by God to reform, to bring justice.  And we are called to the same.   We are each given power to do the will of God and to help people see the kingdom of God. 

            This power is enacted through faith, through trusting our God and living out that trust.  Too often we are stopped by fear.  Fear of rejection, fear of resources failing us, fear of failure.  Yet when we act out of fear, we become powerless.  When we act expecting to fail, we shall fail.  But when we act in faith, when we act in trust, and when we act in order to boast of God and not ourselves, then we shall be alive and then we shall succeed.  Now this is not prosperity gospel, that tells us that if we believe enough and pray enough that good things will happen to us.  No, there will be suffering and there will be pain, and things do not always look like they are the best.  After all, Luther had to hide in a castle while he worked on the translation of the Bible into German and Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, but in both the glorification of God was done.  In both people were able to see God breaking out into the world and bringing hope and love and compassion, instead of judgment and wrath.  And we get to experience this all the time in our lives as Christians, which is the greatest gift that God gives us.  God gives us freedom, freedom for fear and freedom from chasing after false idols and freedom from rejection.

            Rejoice in your Baptism, where you died to Sin and were raised again with Christ and are daily washed anew and made clean and pure.  Rejoice in the meal that we gather to eat today, which reminds us of God’s sacrifice and is indeed God present with us and filling us.  Rejoice in one another, as you are the body of Christ.  And be reformed, that the righteousness of God may shine through you and God’s grace and peace may be a beacon of light to those who cannot find their way and a warming fire to those who are cold and lost. 

Amen.