Some Recent Sermons
Second Sunday After Epiphany, January 15, 2012
2 Corinthians 8:1-15—Paul writes to the Corinthians and encourages them to give to those struggling in Jerusalem just as the people of the Macedonian churches did even though they too were struggling.
John 1:43-51—Jesus calls Philip and Nathaniel to be his disciples…Nathaniel is skeptical and at first reluctant, but when he does meet Jesus decides to walk with him.
In a church bulletin it read, “Sermon title this morning, “Jesus Walks on Water.” Next Sunday’s sermon, “Searching For Jesus’”
We laugh because we understand that humor is very much about the context…
Our scripture readings today are more fully understood if we have an understanding of the context—in other words—if we understand the rich background and backdrop of the readings,
so when Philip invites Nathaniel to “Come and see” for himself what Jesus is doing, Philip is really sharing his excitement about the prospect of following Jesus.
Now Nathaniel is skeptical. But we notice that Philip does not get defensive, or over-react, he just stays cool like Aaron Rodgers in the pocket facing an opponent’s blitz. And when Nathaniel does meet Jesus he is amazed at how Jesus was able to connect with him by telling him about where he was before Philip called him to come and see.
When Nathaniel meets Jesus he is shocked and awed, and decides to follow Jesus—to walk with Jesus, to enter into many a conversation with Jesus as Jesus was teaching all his disciples about God’s great love for them and how to live that love out in everyday life.
One of the primary things that the disciples learned in their time with Jesus was the joy of transforming lives. Whenever he encountered and individual, in the back of Jesus’ mind was, “What does this person have, and therefore, what do they need?” Or, “What do these people need right now to change the direction of their lives?”
So, these words speak to us today as we wrestle with the daily realities of our lives…
We often find ourselves over-scheduled, over-committed, and emotionally overdrawn.
In our reading from 2 Corinthians today the apostle Paul is holding up the Macedonian Christians whose lives had been totally transformed so that no matter their situation they sought to help others. Especially the early Christians in Jerusalem who had been persecuted.
In Jerusalem many of the men who became followers of Jesus had been crucified just as the Jewish leaders did to Jesus. This resulted in many widows and orphans becoming poor, and being cut off of the Jewish relief roles because of their faith.
So Paul gathered a collection for them among the Gentile (non Jewish) Christians in Galatia and northern Greece which at that time was called Macedonia, and in southern Greece where Corinth was located.
The Christians in Corinth eagerly began contributing, and had a desire to help but their problems prevented them from putting that desire into practice. Division tore the congregation, they took each other to court, and they openly boasted about their sin, the Lord’s Supper had degenerated into a selfish feast, so Paul addressed those problems in his first letter to them.
But in the meantime gathering the offering for those struggling in Jerusalem had fallen off. So in his second letter to the Corinthians in chapters 8 and 9 Paul urges them to turn their attention back to the offering for those widows and orphans in Jerusalem.. Paul talks about God’s unconditional love working in the hearts and minds of their fellow Christians in Macedonia.
What makes it so surprising that Paul lifts up the church in Macedonia as an example is that they gave despite their severe trials and extreme poverty. What was it that motivated them to give to help those suffering in Jerusalem? “They gave themselves first to the Lord.” and that my friends, is the key to our Christian giving also.
Those Christians in Macedonia could have focused on scarcity, which was genuine, not mythical as in the advertisements we are bombarded with. But because they considered themselves so blessed by God with the gift of God’s son restoring their relationship, they realized how truly rich they were. They were difference makers, and Paul lifted them up to the people of Corinth to remind them that they too could make a difference.
What does it mean to give yourself to the Lord? It means with grateful hearts to trust God in all things. When our son, Rolf III had his kidney and pancreas transplant he was given a new life. Totally overwhelmed, I kept thinking to myself, “I can’t believe it!...I can’t believe it!” And then Doctor Hans Salinger, the chief transplant surgeon, stepped into the room and told us the operation was a total success, the first words out of both Irene and me were, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” with tears of joy streaming down our faces.
God has given us new life in the death and resurrection of Jesus. God has provided for us an awesome abundance. So the question for each of us is, “Am I grateful enough for all God has done for me, and my family, that I am willing to trust God like those early Christians in Macedonia?” Am I willing to walk with Jesus as they did?
Just as those brothers and sisters in Christ in Macedonia made a difference for those hurting in Jerusalem, you and I can make a difference in the lives of those in our community and elsewhere with our offerings.
One of the privileges of being a pastor is that we have a front row seats to witness how god transforms people’s lives…
When a couple decides to stay together instead of splitting up you are making a difference.
When a teenage girl stops cutting herself you are making a difference.
When a group of young people learn how to connect their faith with everyday life and walk as Jesus’ disciples, you are making a difference.
When we are at the bedside of a critically ill person, you are making a difference….
When we help the poor through the food pantry, the community garden, the community meals, the brown bag lunch program, the salvation army campaign, and crop walk, you are making a difference.
You make a difference with relay for life.
When we provide spiritual and emotional support to a person whose loved one has become incapacitated you are making a difference.
When a person who has been abused, physically, sexually, or emotionally, is able to realize that they are not a bad person because of what happened to them, you are making a difference.
In all of these times and more your offerings transform people’s lives so they too can walk with Jesus.
I recently read the story of a seventeen year old boy named Chance Riley. His mother named him chance because he was the last of her five children and it was the last chance she had at having a girl instead of a boy.
Chance was a 17 year old senior in high school shearing sheep at a county fair in Ohio when he heard an explosion just 200 yards away. It was an antique steam engine, and the explosion killed and injured dozens and Chance quickly joined other 4-H kids with a water brigade to help cool the burns of the victims until emergency personell could arrive.
Chance Riley had come to the fair to show a pig he had raised with hopes that it would be the grand champion that year—he had fed that pig morning and night and walked it four times a day. Two days later he won, and the prize of $4,180, and he gave it all to the victims even though he did not know any of them.
He could have bought himself a car, a new computer, every cd he ever wanted, a new set of clothes. He could have covered some of his upcoming college expenses. But Chance Riley never gave it a second thought, because in his words, “It was the obvious thing to do because we are all part of God’s family.”
Chance Riley understands his call to walk with Jesus.
As you contemplate your 2012 financial commitment to God’s work through Immanuel I challenge you to walk with Jesus and transform people’s lives, trusting that God will provide you with the joy of giving. Amen.
Christmas 2011
Luke 2:1-20—The birth of Jesus.
Our pictures of the holy family are often softened with Mary in a blue robe gazing lovingly at her newborn child, Joseph standing close by, attentive to both Mary and the baby’s needs, and the little puff balls in the background representing the sheep.
We all may love that kind of picture—it is nice. But if you have ever worked on a farm you can probably imagine the stench associated with Jesus’ birth. and, if you have ever been near a labor and delivery room, you know that things are not always so meek and mild.
So I wonder, what is it that causes us to prefer a kind of a photoshopped picture of the nativity? Is it that we need a respite from reality so that when we attend worship we want something that is good, pure, and innocent?
Except that is not how Luke portrays the birth of Jesus. Luke knows something about wanting order in a chaotic world. Luke starts out naming the rulers of the world who were responsible for creating and enforcing peace in the world at that time. As part of this ordering process there is a census going on…not just to count people, but to be able to tax them also.
But that is not the main action to Luke. The real action takes place elsewhere in a little backwater town called Bethlehem where a scared young girl and her equally scared husband can’t even find a room for the night so they are forced to take refuge in a barn to birth their first child. Why does God chose to do it this way? Because God is really saying that the way things are is not good enough.
It is almost like God is whispering in our ear that which we already know, but are afraid to admit. That this world that we have created for ourselves which can be precious, and beautiful, and wonderful—but it is also fragile, vulnerable, and ultimately insufficient.
So, this story in Luke might be a bit scary…scary because Luke is telling us that God did not just come to make things a little better, but to turn things around. At the same time it is exciting, because there is something deep inside of us that wants something more. We desperately want a sense of meaning and purpose—because we know there has got to be more to life than meets the eye.
So God becomes real and brings us real love.
A housewife was washing dishes one day when she looked at a plate and asked herself, “how many times have I washed this plate?” With that she left the dishes in the sink, packed a few of her belongings and left home.
That night she called home to tell her husband she was safe, but that she just could not come home again!
When she would call home to check on the children her husband would tell her how much he loved her and ask her to come home…but each time she refused.
So in desperation the husband hired a private detective to find out where she was, and the detective found her living in a second rate hotel in a city quite a distance from home. The husband went to that city and found the hotel and, with fear and trembling because he was not sure what kind of reception he would get, knocked on the door of her room.
His wife opened the door, stood there in stunned silence, and then, fell into his arms sobbing.
Later he asked her, “When you would call before and I would tell you I love you, why didn’t you come home?”
To which she replied, “Before, your love was just words. Now I know how much you love me because you came for me!”
God’s love is so real that he came to us because he really cares about us!
When we open our eyes and ears and are honest with ourselves we realize that our lives are not always neat and tidy. One way to say that is our lives are messy at times because we all have problems, and we all have our shortcomings. We may try to hide the mess in our lives, deny it, hope they will just evaporate, but that’s a bit like watching the news and saying that wars, and poverty and evil do not exist.
The messes in our lives may be things that are not quite right,
Things that we wished we had never done, relationships that are broken and need to be repaired, or ways in which we have failed to love god and others.
But remember this, that despite the messes we may have made, Jesus came to live among us, because he loves us and in fact is the one who can help us clean up the messes in our lives.
The greatest gift of Christmas for us is that God gives us what we need instead of what we want. In the gift of the Christ child, the baby born in the manger, we have the promise that God will always be with us.
Now this is not a political promise to provide for a balanced budget for the next decade—Lord knows we hear enough of those with our seemingly endless election cycle.
This is God with us now! In the best of times and the worst of times.
God is with those in poverty, the forgotten, and oppressed… calling us to care for them, as he works through us.
God is with us in our struggles and joys and we may be waiting for God to suddenly transform us instantaneously, but that is not how God normally works.
Most often the gift of Christmas sort of sneaks up on us. I call these “Christmas moments.” But they are a year around, 24/7, lifelong gift that is always with us.
In the book, “Children’s Letters To God: The New Collection” a little girl named, Nan, writes this letter:
“Dear God, I bet it is very hard for you to love everybody in the whole world. There are only four people in or family and I have trouble loving them!”
In the baby Jesus we have the promise that God will never stop loving us no matter how hard we make it, and God will never stop pursuing us. Love became real, love is real, and we can celebrate it best when we give it to those who need it the most!
Lord, make us each a child of love, God’s love for us in the baby Jesus!
Amen!
First Sunday in advent, November 27, 2011
Mark 13:24-37—Jesus tells his followers not to give up hope because God’s power will come to them after He has left to go to the
father.
Hopelessness is such a dreadfully destructive thing! And since the crash of the stock market in 2008 it seems like every month one more thing would happen like earthquakes, tsunamies, and other natural disasters. Or man-made financial disasters that would add to A kind of cumulative effect of what some are calling “The Great Disruption.”
In reflecting on al of this, Thomas Friedman raised the question about the meaning of all of this when he wrote, “What if this crisis represents something fundamentally more than a deep recession? What if it is telling us that the whole growth model we have sustained for the last fifty years is simply unsustainable—ecologically and economically? What if, the meaning of all of this is that Mother Nature and the stock market were both saying, ‘no more!’”
We are living through such humongous changes that our minds and hearts can barely keep pace. So, it is easy to fear that the world is coming apart, and then, to hear our reading from Mark today we can easily want to tune it out. So we may wonder what on earth are God’s purposes, is there any hope at all????
Which was very similar to what the early Christians were longing and hoping for under the constant threat of persecution by a hyper-anxious Roman Emperor. For the earliest hearers of Mark’s gospel, listening to the news of God’s power coming to set things right in the world, to heal the world and throw out the oppressors, these words were not heard as impending doom, but as a hope filled promise. They were words of hope, something that we all need today.
Most of us may not recognize the name, Ashlynn Conner, but, Ashlynn Conner, from east central Illinois, took her own life after intense bullying at school. After enduring years of teasing and being called a slut, fat pig, and ugly, among other insults, she asked her mother to be home-schooled. Because she did not feel qualified, her mother denied her request and the very next day ashlynn was found hanging in her closet.
We keep hearing many stories of children and adolescents taking their own lives because of the lack of treating people by the command of our Lord to love one another. I have even heard of people saying it is okay to bully if it is based on moral or religious beliefs, which is bizarre.
But it is not just young people in our society who lose hope. I have worked with many Vietnam veterans who felt there was no hope for them because of what happened in combat.
Life without hope is literally hell on earth!
Which then rises the question, “Where can I find hope? If we look in the dictionary we discover that hope is about a feeling that something expected will happen. Like the feeling that our football team will have a good year. We all know that the feeling is an emotion and the feeling cannot make it happen.
But if we turn to the Bible we discover that God’s hope is not based on feelings, desire, or positive thoughts, but on a promise from God.
Which raises another question, and that is, “Where is your hope?” Is it in a relationship?—sooner or later that person we put on such a mythical pedestal will disappoint us. Is your hope in money?—we all know how quickly that can change based on the unbridled greed of the 1%. Is your hope in your job, or your health insurance---those to can suddenly change. Is your hope in your religious practices?—merely reciting a rote prayer or attending church does not give us hope.
When Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (v. 31) he is warning us to loosen our grip on those things, people, attitudes, and practices that we claim make us happy because God always has bigger things in mind.
Real authentic hope, hope that lasts forever, is found in the person of Jesus Christ—Why is Jesus Christ the fulfillment of hope? He is the one who fulfilled the promises God made in the Old Testament. All of God’s earthly activity is centered in Jesus. All of history, as far as we are concerned, is built around Jesus, and divided by Jesus.
God did not bring us this far to leave us on our own. God did not teach us to swim and then let us drown. God did not build his home in us and then move away. God does not lift us up to let us crash down again. The hope that God gives us will not disappoint or disappear.
But it comes with a command—A command to share it with those who are hopeless like Ashlynn and those Vietnam and other veterans.
I could have been Ashlynn…but the difference was, I had loving grandparents who had a living faith…a faith connected with everyday life. And they shared the same with each of us, and made the extra effort to see that we were in Sunday school and confirmation every week, driving from the western side of St. Paul to the east side of St. Paul. So I could learn of the promises of hope from a God who really loved me unconditionally.
It was there, at Christ Lutheran on Capitol Hill, that I learned the prayer of hope and
surrender: “Lord, show me what you had in mind when you placed me in this situation!”
For me, that prayer is a reminder that I am utterly dependent on God in all things, and that my hope lies in God in Jesus Christ.
How many times have you felt like you were drifting aimlessly and getting nowhere?
But now if we look at that word “nowhere,” from a different perspective it really means, “now, here!”
God is with you, with all of you now and here!
And even in the darkest of times God will show us the way if we can swallow our false pride and turn our lives over to God.
As our journey through the season of Advent ends in Christmas we will sing, “Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem…Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light…The hopes and fears of all they years are met in thee tonight!”
Ponder that every day in Advent!
Amen!
Reformation Sunday October 30, 2011
Immanuel
Romans 3:19-28—Works of the law do not put us right with God, which only God’s grace through Christ’s deathly and resurrection can do and which is given freely to all people, liberating us from sin and death.
Title: “THE ON-GOING REFORMATION”
One night last year my son Rolf III called to share with me that when he picked up his son, our grandson, Nate after confirmation class he was really excited. Nate said, “Dad, guess what? We are going to make a video of martin Luther, and I get to play Martin Luther, and I get to nail the ‘95 feces’ to the front door of the church”
Of course we had a good laugh.
But it also made me wonder how many of us really have a clear picture of what took place 494 years ago? We may know that it has something to do with the birth of the Lutheran church that we celebrate each year the Sunday before Halloween, but for many of us it is something in the distant past. In our minds we may ask ourselves, “So what’s the big deal? Why is it important?”
First the good news from the reformation. What happened 494 years ago when Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to door of the church was really a culmination of a long, personal struggle that had been fermenting within Luther’s should and spirit for several years. Martin Luther grew up on a day and age when the church pictured God as an angry, vindictive God, a God of wrath and punishment who watched over us, just waiting for us to make a mistake so that god could punish us with eternal suffering in hell.
The church taught people to fear God in the worst sense of the word…not respect, but fear of punishment, and then the church used that fear to amass tremendous wealth and power for the Pope in Rome and for the Roman Catholic Church. Remember, this was the only church in Europe at that time.
Let me make it clear that this is not the Roman Catholic Church of today. We now agree on the understanding that we are saved by God’s grace…(unconditional love).
But, back to our story…As a young man Luther decided he did not want to spend all of eternity in hell and suffering, so he tried everything he could think of to make himself right with God. Much to the consternation of his father he left law school, became an Augustinian monk, continued his schooling was ordained a priest, and earned his PhD. in Bible and Theology, eventually becoming a professor at the University of Wittenberg, one of the schools of the church.
But through it all Luther did not find the peace with God that he longed for. A peace and assurance that would heal his troubled spirit. No matter what he did he still knew he was a sinner and God was going to punish him…he just could not win God’s love and forgiveness.
One day Luther was preparing a series of lectures on Paul’s letter to the Romans, reading chapter three, which he had read many times before and all of a sudden, as he describes it, “It was as though the gates of heaven were opened to me!” “Since all have sinned and fallen short of the presence of God; they are now put right with God by God’s grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Suddenly Luther knew the truth of the gospel. He was set free from trying to make himself worthy and right with God!
Maybe this story sounds hokey or far fetched and irrelevant today, but I stand before you as one who was raised in an abusive alcoholic fear-based environment, and if it had not been for the words of Romans 8, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…”
To me, over and over again, those words told me I was not the horrible person who was being scapegoated, and that God still loved me. For me, it was Good News…good news that I clung to over and over again! I have heard similar stories from many others.
The good news is no matter how unacceptable we may seem to ourselves God still loves us!
Signed, sealed and delivered in Jesus Christ!
Slightly before Luther’s time a Dominican priest named Savonarola noticed a woman who came to the cathedral every day and would kneel before the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary to pray for an hour. When Savonarola mentioned her devoutness to an old priest who had served the Cathedral for decades, the old priest smiled and said, “Things are not always as they seem. Years ago, this woman was the model for the statue of the Virgin Mary. She is not worshiping God, she is worshiping who she used to be.”
One of the greatest dangers we Lutherans and all Christians face is worshiping who we used to be! We can become so enamored with how things were in the past, that we can be blinded to our own need for forgiveness of our own human sinfulness, forgetting about the fact that God is at work amongst us at all times--Loving us, forgiving us, and calling us to celebrate those gifts at his table.
But there is more great news. At the heart of the Reformation was the affirmation, “The church is always reformed, and reforming.” Even though we want to hang onto the past, preferring the stability of our human ideas and rituals Instead of the stirring of God’s presence through the Holy Spirit.
Faithfulness to the Reformation is a matter of being open to God’s work in our lives and churches today—Constantly re-forming us and calling us to share our faith in new and creative ways. A living Reformation Faith is forward-looking instead of backward-looking. Jesus said, “One does not put his hand to the plow and look back.”
Are we evolving, rather than stuck, at home in this world doing God’s work in the here and now instead of a seeking to escape in the past? God’s grace sets us free from our exclusionary games to be his people in the here and now.
What will never change is God’s love for us in Jesus!
So, if you get anything from this message this morning, I hope it is this:
That God loves you, and that by grace through Jesus Christ you and all people are forgiven and made a child of God.
And that God is still re-forming you and His Church!
Amen!
19th Sunday in Pentecost, October 23, 2011 Immanuel
Matthew 22:34-46—Jesus’ answer to the question about the greatest commandment is to “Love God, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Title: “WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY ALL ALL ABOUT?”
If you Google the words, “love songs” you will quickly discover that there are thousands of songs about love. Not all of them are bad, but the variety of focuses makes them confusing. Whether it is the Beatles, Kenny Chesney, Huey Lewis and the News, or Reba Macintyre, every vocalist that sings of love has a different take.
One song about love that has always stuck with me is, the song we learned in Sunday School: Love, love, love, that’s what it is all about, God loves us, we love each other, that’s what it is all about.
In today’s reading from Matthew Jesus lifts up what life and Christianity are all about.
And the context of the time of Jesus is strikingly similar to the context in which we as a nation find ourselves.. “How so?” you might say. The Pharisees had turned the Ten Commandments into some 613 laws that people had to obey in order to be considered “in”…”pure”, “holy.” It was a way for them to elevate themselves above others in their self-righteous pious proclamations…a way to be number one. At the time there was a debate going on about which of these was most important.
We see a similar kind of thing happening in our culture today. I am talking about the various voices of the Christian church in this country: There are those who claim that if we follow God’s plan we will be rich financially (not to mention that they also ask you to send money to them so they can fly in their own private jets and live in mansions).
There are people who call themselves Christians who use the Old Testament selectively to bully those who they have decided are not measuring up to God’s law. How they can ever claim to call themselves by the name of Jesus, and yet verbally and emotionally abuse those who are different than themselves is a mystery to me.
There are presidential candidates who claim to be Christians, yet have no concern for the needs of others who they decide are “not worthy” or who do not have enough wealth to feed their lust for more power.
With all of these messages is it any wonder that those who are 18 to 34 years old are confused and wary of the church and becoming part of a congregation? That also goes for the behavior that they see in congregations where people are bad-mouthing one another, or their leaders. Or where, when they visit, no one talks to them? Is it any wonder that we have a generation of folks who are leery of Christianity?...
It is easy to say, “I love God,” and then treat others abusively, or ignore those who are in need, thinking that God will forgive us.
But listen to the words of Jesus…
”How can you say you love God and not be concerned about your brother or sister in need?”
“Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone!”
“Why do you worry about the speck in your brother’s eye and ignore the log in your own eye?”
Do you get the message?...The Kingdom of God is about right relationships!
Oh, it is so easy to justify ourselves like the Pharisees, but “if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” At the foot of the cross we are all broken people.
To truly be loving we need to commit our whole beings to allowing God to transform us day in and day out into those who love one another with words and actions, learning to ask ourselves in every situation and relationship we are in, in every encounter we have with others, “What is the most loving thing God wants me to do at this time?”
Will you commit to doing in all situations that which is loving and life-changing?
How can we move forward beyond being stuck in our “What’s in it for me?” attitudes? A youth group went on a mission trip where bored adolescents used paint brushes and hammers to help improve people’s homes. One teenager who had been on that trip told me that he had a religious experience during a week like that. When it suddenly dawned on him that the world does not revolve around him, or his friends as he committed his time and strength to repairing the home of some strangers, and he began to take an interest in them, learned their names, and ate at their table.
As he tells it, when they asked him to do the prayer at the dinner table one evening he suddenly had a deeply moving sense that God cared about them all, and “I realized that if I had stayed home to play WII, I would have never known that!”
Faith and love are both matters of being a positive part of a Christian community and acting with compassion to all people and situations instead of merely professing compassion.
There is just one question which we will all be asked on that last day—“Did you love as you have been loved?”
How will you be able to answer that? Amen!
17th Sunday of Pentecost, October 9, 2011
Matthew 22:1-14—Jesus tells a parable of the kingdom of God which upsets the worldview of the religious leaders of his day.
Title: “GOD INVITES EVERYONE, BUT THERE ARE EXPECTATIONS”
When first looking at this text I was reminded of the husband and wife who went to a wedding with their five year old daughter. Because the little girl had never seen a wedding before she had lots of questions. One of them was, “why did the bride have a white dress when the bridesmaids have colored dresses?”
Her mother explained to her that white was the color of joy. A few minutes later the little girl tugged at her mom’s sleeve and asked, “Then why is the groom wearing black?”
We laugh, but as we unpack this reading from Matthew there is a whole lot more here than meets the eye. In fact in our confusion we may legitimately ask, “Is this the Jesus who commands us to love?” And, “Who, really, are the chosen ones????” And, does this text really fit us?
Obviously this reading raises some rather uncomfortable questions…
A recent article on CNN Belief Blog titled, “A Rough Decade For American Congregations” reported that a survey of over 11,000 congregations and 120 denominations by Faith Communities Today discovered that in the past ten years church attendance has significantly dropped. Which raises the uncomfortable question, “What kinds of excuses are people making today for not attending worship?’
Many use the excuse that church attendance is not necessary since private prayer and bible study can be done without others—a real indication of being influenced by the culture of “me!” if there ever was one.
Many also point to so many more choices...which have to do with youth sports events and practices and the fruitless search for the mythical college sports scholarship which only one in 10,000 will get. But also there are coaches who say, “If you miss one practice or game you will not play the rest of the season!”
Uncomfortable as it may feel we need to ask ourselves “Have we created a false idol out of youth sports?”
Now this a nationwide picture which raises the question, “What keeps us from confronting these mind-sets and situations directly with the sponsoring organizations?” Have we lost the courage to stand up for what is important? Or, do we have the same attitude as the man who refused to put on the wedding garment the king provided? (“No big deal!”)
As broken people we can focus on money and numbers—but it is not about them as Steve Grams and I were reminded on Monday at a stewardship event in Beaver Dam led by Clif Christopher. In fact it is all about our relationship and commitment to Christ…whether it is lip service or dedicated commitment…
The garment that the one man refused to wear even though the king provided it represents the attitudes, values, and behaviors of the kingdom that we are called to put on if we are to seriously follow Jesus. All of which is done with the support of other disciples in this community we call Immanuel.
Recently an unnamed political person called for somebody to “man-up!” I did not know exactly what was meant by that until I came across an article titled, “Why Are Men In Trouble?” In the article William Bennet lifts up the fact that in 1950 only 5% of men were out of work, but today it is 20%, many of whom have not gotten an education beyond high school.
Today men are more likely to have a kind of perpetual adolescence, so there is a definite maturity deficit among men. They are more distant from family and their children than ever before. Today 27% of the children n the u.s. live apart from their fathers….not because of divorce, but outright abandonment. Movies are filled with men who refuse to grow up, refuse to take responsibility in relationships, obsessed with using women for sex and discarding them when things get complicated..
Today 18 to 34 year olds men spend five hours per day playing video games—that is more time than 12-17 year old boys. Increasingly the message in our culture about what it takes to be a man is confusing...video games and street gangs offer dubious lessons about what it is to be a man.
And it takes more than a coach screaming, “be a man!” without explaining what it means.
In order for boys to become men they need to be guided through habit, advice, instruction, example, correction—modeled by mature adult men.
Now this confronts us, the people of Immanuel, with a choice: We can act like the religious leaders who Jesus told this story to that were so comfortable and smug about their relationship with God that they thought the had it made with God, and thought they knew it all--yet they were refusing to accept God in their midst in the here and now.
If there is any one disease that many American congregations struggle with it is the disease I call “Stuck in the past dis-ease” Longing for the way things used to be, instead of seeing God’s challenges in the present.
One challenge before us is to get you men out there who have lived life and learned to become involved in a new men’s ministry here at Immanuel.
Saturday November 5th here will be a workshop in Sun Prairie on how to start a men’s ministry in our congregation. So far Steve grams and Dick Steinbach have committed to attending. But to make this work we need at least 6 more men with an eagerness to learn and make a difference in the lives of the other men in this community .
Six men with the courage to man-up and be a part of the solution to young men who are in need of healthy mentors…
God is calling us to put on the robe of his love and grace that empowers us to fully commit to doing his will 24/7. God is calling us to use the gifts and experience we have to have a major impact on the lives of young men and women, and it starts with each and every one of you here today!
Will you do it or will you walk away?
I climbed the highest steeple to touch the face of God, when a booming voice from heaven said, “Go down among the people, you will find me there!’
Amen!
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, August 18 & 21, 2011
Matthew 16:13-20—who do people say the son of man is? Who do you say that I am? Peter
confesses, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.”
TITLE: “PUBLIC OPINION POLLS OR FAITH?”
It seems like there are public opinion polls everywhere. In newspapers, on websites, on
newscasts, and even in the mail. And with the deep political divisions we witness we are
told weekly what the governor’s or president’s rating is.
Politicians pay attention to the polls and more often than not adjust their stance on an issue to
suite the majority of their constituents.
But public opinion polls are not new—In today’s reading from Matthew we find Jesus
conducting a public opinion poll as a teaching tool to help his disciples discern who Jesus is,
and what his purpose is.
Now we know that polls have their limits, that is why the disclaimer is always on the end that
says something like “Plus or minus 3 or 4 percentages.” For one thing they can lead to vague
generalizations…a kind of dumming down which is what we see when the disciples at first
answer, “a teacher, a prophet, like John the Baptizer or Jeremiah.
But then Jesus puts them in a rather uncomfortable position when he asks the question
slightly different.
Put yourself in the disciple’s sandals for a moment. Do you remember those embarrassing
moments in your high school classrooms when a teacher would call on a member of the class
with a question?
I often would sit there trying to not stand out, like a statue blending into the background or
trying to look busy as if I was really paying attention. And then the teacher would call on
one of us for an answer that if we were paying attention or had read the assignment we would
know. I remember sweating it out and when the teacher did call on me if I was unprepared
I would usually say something off the wall that did not remotely come close to answering
the teacher’s question, and of course the class would laugh and I would be beet red with
embarrassment.
So we can imagine how it was for the disciples when Jesus starts to question them on
a more personal level with, “But who do you say that I am?” Silence! Dead silence!
Trying to blend into the landscape, hoping that Jesus will not notice them or maybe
acting as if they are deep in thought. The disciples were very human like us.
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, August 11, 14, 2011—Immanuel
Matthew 15:20-28—the Canaanite woman does not give up despite all the apparent barriers to
having Jesus heal her daughter.
Title: “DON’T GIVE UP ON GOD!”
The wheels from the car screeched…The mother’s heart stopped…The child screamed.
The mother ran to the street out in front of the house as fast as she could scared to
death—where she saw the mangled tricycle and her daughter lying in a heap on the
pavement.
That is the way mothers and fathers are anytime your child is injured or very sick, we become
very upset, and most of us remember the details like it was yesterday. that is the way god
wired us as mothers and fathers.
Those of us who have had an experience like that can easily identify with the desperation of
the Canaanite woman as she pleads with Jesus to heal her daughter. The daughter’s disease
is so overwhelming that she is willing to break all the cultural norms of her day to have her
daughter healed:
She is a woman approaching a group of men, something that was forbidden.
She is a Gentile (outcast) approaching a Jew.
She was part of a race and nation that the Jews regarded as their bitterest enemies, a nation
who had many gods instead of worshipping the God of Israel…
And yet she boldly enters the house where Jesus is with his disciples and pleads with him
to heal her daughter.
Much to the disciples irritation she is not to be denied because she has heard of the miracles
of Jesus and believes he has the power to heal her daughter, so she is willing to take the risk
of finding him and pleading with him. When she heard of the miraculous power of Jesus to
transform people’s live she got a glimmer of hope and she was not about to be denied.
So when Jesus sees her great faith in him he is not only astounded, he also sees a teachable
moment and uses it to teach his disciples. Sometimes when we want God to do things on our
timetable we need to remember that God may be using our desperation to teach us and/or
others--but even though Jesus at first ignores her the woman did not give up!
She has a persistent sense of urgency, something that we have been conditioned in also by our
instant everything.