Some Recent Sermons
Third Sunday after Pentecost, June 10
& 13, 2010 Immanuel.
Luke 7:36-8:3—Jesus forgives a woman who
was a prostitute and confronts a Pharisee for his failure to see his own
sin.
TITLE: “CAN WE SEE BEYOND
THE SIN?”
There is a strange and wonderful
tension in this reading from Luke which begins with an invitation to Jesus by a
Pharisee that reveals various perspectives on forgiveness. It is about
people who need forgiveness and know it. It is about people who receive
forgiveness and are grateful for it. It is about people who need forgiveness
and don’t know it. And it is about religious people who
absolutely, totally miss the point.
There seems to be a kind of built in
aspect of our humanity that wants to divide people into opposing camps: The
“good” people and the “bad” people. We want to make ourselves look better than
others. So we invent all kinds of ways to do it and then readily rationalize it
by focusing on their shortcomings instead of our own.
In our polarized nation when people are bent on demonizing others we need to hear and take to heart that our ways are not God’s ways and that Jesus is showing us a far better way.
When the wealthy hosted a dinner party in
the days of Jesus it was common to eat outdoors and for people to just drop by.
This woman was a well-known prostitute…who heard Jesus and realized she needed
the forgiveness that she had heard Jesus offered. No one had to preach
this woman into a conversion. No words of condemnation were needed. She needed
forgiveness and she knew it…
There is a strong message here about what
gets people close to God…It is the love of God as shown by Jesus that opens the
heart to spiritual need and, it is that same love that enables the woman to
truly experience forgiveness. Jesus saw her in a whole different way than
the Pharisee Simon did.
Simon was totally unaware of his own need
for forgiveness. Today we might call him a “self-righteous” individual. We may
know folks like Simon—They seek to build themselves up by putting others down
and they keep people at a distance with their judgemental attitudes. Underneath
their denial they are basically not comfortable with their own shortcomings so
they set themselves up as judge and jury over others with an air of moral
superiority.
To this kind of people in another
situation, Jesus said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first
stone!”
Simon the Pharisee saw this woman as an
“untouchable” because in his brand of religious piety, he believed that the
Pharisees were the true worshippers of God, therefore missing the point
by a wide margin. It is the same kind of self-justification that the apostle
Paul talks about in our reading from Galatians today.
Simon’s fear and false pride would not
allow him to see this woman with the same understanding and compassion that
Jesus did, as a child of God. Simon only saw a person that he could step on to
build himself up!
As we say in our confession during the
season of Lent: “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth
is not in us.”
My dad always put it this way,
“When you point your finger at someone always remember there are three
fingers pointing back at you!”
Many, many years ago now I realized that
I had done something that deeply hurt one of my best friends. I felt as if he
had every right to never forgive me. But I knew I needed to apologize to him so
I phoned him and invited him to lunch and apologized to him for hurting him so
deeply. I will never forget his response which was, “As a child of God
who has been baptized for the forgiveness of sin there is only one thing that I
can say, and that is, ‘I forgive you!’” Because he showed the true
meaning of God’s grace—unconditional love—I am here today!
So what does all of this mean for
us…for you…and for me?:
First, whether we want to admit it or
not, we are all both saint and
sinner…
Second, when people come to me
complaining about someone else, my own response is usually, “I have enough
to do taking my own inventory, to be able to take someone else’s!”
Third, Jesus sees us with eyes of
unconditional love and forgiveness…
So the question is, “Can see beyond
the sin in someone else or in our selves and see the person that Jesus
forgives?”
Amen!
Trinity Sunday, May 30, 2010, Immanuel
Memorial Day Weekend
John 16-12-15—Jesus tells the disciples
the spirit will come to guide them.
TITLE: “WHATS SO SPECIAL
ABOUT THE TRINITY?”
A young man who was home from college
was talking with his pastor about his religion class. The young man was rather
frustrated because the professor teaching the class was a rigid fundamentalist,
and if students questioned anything he said, the prof would tell them they were
“heathens”.
The pastor asked if he had some examples,
and the young man replied, “What about the Trinity?” “We talked about that last
week, and I can’t begin to figure it out!”
“Join the club,” replied the pastor, “I
haven’t heard of anybody who can!”
The student interrupted with, “But how
can I believe in something I can’t understand?”
To which the pastor replied, “Well I
don’t understand gravity, but I believe in it” The pastor went on to encourage
the student to keep asking questions and probing even into the things we cannot
understand.
“And by the way, ask your professor
about the two creation stories.”
“Two replied the student? I thought
there was only one!”…
This story reminds us that when it
comes to our faith, not everything is intellectually understandable. And
that is particularly true of the doctrine of the Triune God…The way that we
understand the person of God. But it also reminds us of the tension we live
with when it comes to connecting our faith to our daily lives and the role of
our faith in the public arena…
Sometimes the arguments are framed in
debates over the constitution…“Does the law separate church and state,
and if so, how?” Those seeking freedom from religion will argue that
the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional, because the law says, no
government endorsement of a specific religion. Others will say the law allows a
national day of prayer as long as it does not endorse a specific
denomination.
But this is not the only polarization
in our country when it comes to faith. Pew Research has discovered that
today people who are church shopping often make their decision as to which
Christian congregation to join based on their political beliefs. There is some
evidence that the news media sees the polarities and makes them worse.
But what we quickly tend to forget
is that we are both saint and sinner.
Instead we would rather demonize those
who do not agree with us—unless of course, Christ lives in us…then we live our
lives for Jesus. Back to the Trinity.
Much is made lately of the “emerging
church.” No one seems to know why, but every 500 years there seems to be a
major shift made up of social, economic, environmental, intellectual, and
political and religions in the world.
Looking back this was what happened 500 years ago at the time of the Protestant Reformation. 500 years before that the great schism divided the catholic and orthodox churches. 500 years before that there was the decline of the Roman Empire,
and 500 years before that there was the
birth, death, and resurrection of Christ.
Today we are seeing all kinds of emerging
churches—some of them focused on the gospel of Jesus Christ, and some focused on
the Pharisees in actual practice. Some saying, “We have the whole truth!”… (and
everyone else is wrong!) Others saying, “We seek to discern what God is
calling us to do and be in the present and are open to the leading of the Holy
Spirit….
Despite the pontificating pious
proclamations God is at work seeking always to connect His church to his
world.
Alice had been one of the most important
members of Christ’s church in Dallas Texas. The pastor had been there nearly
five years before he even knew her name. That was because Alice was always in
the background pointing her finger of praise at some one else in the
congregation and never hogging the spotlight for herself. Alice had been a
member there since birth, she sang in the choir and when someone sought to thank
her for it she always replied with something like, “Oh, anything I do is because
of the director.”
Then one day the pastor asked Alice if
she would become the volunteer coordinator. The congregation needed volunteer
help to make things really go. Alice realized this task was a perfect fit for
her…she had to overcome her shyness to calling people on the phone and that
happened very soon. She could serve her congregation mostly from home, and in
the background where she wanted to be. So she would match the gifts of the
wonderful people of Christ’s church to the needs of the congregation and
community.
Alice always had the right people at the
right place at the right time. Shy Alice was like the Holy Spirit…making an
impact…the Holy Spirit never points to self, and always points to
Jesus…
God created this world and gave us
life…for his purposes…Jesus showed us the way to live and restored us to
a positive relationship with God And the Holy Spirit keeps calling us to faith
and empowering our ministries…
God the Trinity must increase, and
my self-will needs to be replaced by “Thy will!”…
Amen!
Sixth Sunday of Easter, Mother’s Day—May
9, 2010
2 Timothy 1:1-5—Paul writes to timothy
and in the opener tells him how he is thankful for his mother and grandmother
who passed the faith on to him.
TITLE: “A MOTHER’S MOST
PRECIOUS GIFT”
Introduction: One of my
favorite comics, Family Circus, had a classic this week when the little
girl comes home from school and as she walks in the door says to her mom,
“We’re makin’ mother’s day cards at school…but we’re not to tell a soul,
‘cause it’s a secret!”
So many children and men have been
seeking the most perfect gifts for mom or their wives this past week. Many of
those gifts are very precious and special and have great
meaning.
In another way to look at it the apostle
Paul, writing to Timothy, reminds Timothy of the precious gift his mother Eunice
and Grandmother Lois has given to him in bringing him up in the Christian
faith.
So there is more than one way to look at
a mother’s most precious gifts—those that mothers receive and those that they
give. Which is truly fitting on this day in which we honor
mothers.
When it comes to gifts one of the most
precious gifts a mother can be given is the full support of a loving caring
spouse. Charlie Shedd said it best in his book titled, The Best Dad Is A
Great Lover. In other words every mother needs the love and support of her
husband.
I remember a part of a phone conversation
shortly after our youngest son and his wife had a baby boy. I asked him if he
had changed a diaper yet…and there was this long silence. To which my reply
was, “In this family all the men change diapers!” It is one thing for
husbands to say they love their wives. But love is more than
words, which means one of the most precious gifts we can give our wives as men
are to show our love in a servant ministry kind of way. When a mother feels
she is fully supported by her spouse she is better able to give love to her
children.
The love she can give begins with the precious gift of unconditional love for the child that God has given her. No, parents cannot accept certain behaviors that hurt self and/or others.
Kids get security from structure, but
at the same time they need to know that their personhood is respected. That is
why the scripture says, “Train up a child in the way they should go, and when
they are old they will not depart from it.”
So how do we do that? God made us
with the ability to feel emotions and to express them. Our children will
experience unconditional love when we tune into his or her feelings and validate
them. it is the greatest gift a mother or father can give, because it says that
you care enough about the children to respect their
individuality…
What a precious gift!
Frequently when I was doing family
therapy in the clinic families would come in with adolescents who were in some
way acting out. Often times the parents were afraid to let the young people
make their own mistakes. So my favorite question to them was, “What kind of
a person do you want your child to be when they become adults? And then we
would list the traits on a white board. Then my next question was, “How will
this young person learn to be that kind of person?”
One of the most precious gifts a mother
and father can give their children is “responsible freedom.” In other words the
freedom to fail. This does not mean totally abandoning the child to do as they
please. In fact it means that as parents we are willing to teach our children
how to make decisions and process the learnings from the times when they
fail.
My dad did that in a kind of way I still
remember today—He would peer over his glasses which were perched on the end
of his nose and ask, “Well, what did you learn from that?” He understood
the value of a teachable moment. One of the most precious gifts we can give
our children is to help them learn from their experiences.
So what is the gift by which this can
happen? If we go back to Paul’s letter to Timothy which we read earlier we find
a clue. Timothy received a most precious gift of faith from his mother and
grandmother. Not by their “teaching” it, but more by their witness in modeling
their faith. Faith is not so much taught as it is
caught!
The great British preacher, G. Campbell Morgan who’s four sons all became pastors influenced millions with his preaching, teaching, and writing. One day when the youngest son Howard was done preaching, he was asked by a reporter, ”
Who is the greatest preacher in your
family?”— expecting that the young man would give the honor to his father.
But the young man surprised the reporter when he said, “My
mother!”
Often we do not realize that a mother’s
love, concern, and teaching are the most precious gift that they can give to
their children…
And the same is true for dads…And the
same is true for grandparents….and anyone who work with youth.
May you receive and give the most
precious gift of all—faith active in love…
faith that shows itself in loving
ways…
Amen!
Third Sunday of Easter, April 18, 2010 Immanuel
Genesis 1:1, 25-28—The creation story and
God creating man and woman.
John 21: 1-19—Jesus confronts Simon Peter
to get him to focus on what is most important.
Title: “THE CHALLENGE OF
NURTURING YOUR MARRIAGE”
Sometimes when we look at life through
the eyes of children we can wonderfully surprised. Listen as we look at kid’s
perception of marriage and the role of the partners:
When asked how people decided who to
marry a ten year old girl said, “No person really decides before they grow up
whom they are going to marry…God decides, and you just get to find out who you
are stuck with!”…
Young Bobby said this: “You got to
find somebody who likes the same stuff. like, if you like sports, she likes
sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.”
In answering the age-old question about
whether to be single or married, Anita, age 9, answered with this insight,
“It is better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to
clean up after them!”
And, when asked how best to make marriage
work, 10-year-old Ricky perceptively replied: “Tell your wife she looks
pretty even if she looks like a truck.”
We laugh, but kids are not the only
ones that seem to have strange ideas when it comes to marriage. One of the most
misunderstood, and most misused stories in the bible are in our reading from
Genesis today whether it is concerning our care and respect for the earth or the
relationship between husband and wife.
Because of the tendency of folks to use
the creation story as a pretext for abuse martin Luther said, “Let the wife
make the husband glad to come home; and let him make her sorry to see him
leave!”
But how can we live that out when we
seem to be on the endless treadmill of meetings, chauffeuring kids, activities,
and perhaps caring for elderly parents? How can we nurture love in our
marriages?
When Jesus talked about marriage he
talked about the two leaving their families behind and “cleaving” together. In
other words that the two become one, which from my personal experience in my
first marriage does not happen because we might have a big fancy wedding and a
marriage ceremony…
So what I am sharing today I am sharing
from personal experience, and please note, I am not saying I am perfect
at it.
But one thing I have learned is that
marriage equals commitment on the part of two individuals, and commitment means
that I am willing to make my marriage to Irene the number one priority in my
life next to my relationship to God. Because as Jesus said and as Jesus
reminded peter in today’s reading from john, we need to leave some things behind
in order to focus on what is most important in my life…
There are of course many ways to be
unfaithful in a marriage despite what the media tells us with their
sensationalizing of celebrities extramarital affairs. In the words of the
Jewish theologian, Martin Buber, “We are not friends until we have
deliberately wasted time together!”
Be it the end of a long day or a long
week, or on vacations, every couple that is committed to nurturing their
marriage finds ways to spend regular, quality, time
together.
A couple on their
50th wedding anniversary was asked to sum up their long
and happy marriage. The husband said, “I have tried to never be selfish…after
all there is no “I” in marriage.” To which his wife responded, “And for my
part, I have never corrected my husband’s spelling!” This couple enjoyed
respect for one another.
One of the most vital ongoing ways to nurture a marriage is to offer respect to your partner.
Respect listens and weeps with those who weep and rejoices with those who rejoice.
Respect gives each other a safe place to
share their struggles and joys. Most women simply need to know we men care
enough to really listen—and guys, our wives don’t want us to be Mr. fixit
when it comes to their sharing.
At the same time when we men do come out
of our caves and share the burdens of our hearts we too need the caring ear from
our wives, without the “woulda, shoulda, coulda,” guilt
trip.
When we can provide that kind of
respect for one another then we can also claim what we need and live together
with a cooperative spirit, a joyful spirit.
Ole and Lena were married for many years
and it seemed that Lena became quite depressed, wasn’t enjoying life and just
seemed very sad all the time, so Ole, being the sophisticated man that he was,
suggested that they get some counseling. To oleo’s surprise once Lena was in
the counselor’s office she let loose a whole lot of disappointment with Ole on
back to the first day they were married.
The counselor didn’t say a word, instead he had Lena stand up, and he gave her a big hug,
and soon she was calmed down and you could immediately see the change come over her…
she was relaxed and her whole face
glowed, her eyes were lit up.
Stepping back, the counselor turned to Ole and said, “See Ole, that’s what Lena needs!”
To which Ole replied, “Vell, I can bring her on Mondays and Wednesdays, but I play golf on Fridays!”
To nurture our marriages we need to
practice what I call “rituals of affection, affirmation and
celebration.” Let me give you a couple of
examples:
Before meals Irene and I pray, and a part
of that prayer is to give thanks for the other person and for the love we
share. That is a ritual of affection and affirmation.
Another ritual we share is that on the
24th of each month we celebrate our anniversary since the date of our
marriage was on June 24th. On the 24th of each month I
bring Irene a pink rose, which is the color of the roses she had in her bridal
bouquet. There is only once in 21 years that I failed to remember the rose, and
somehow God must have known because we were at the cabin in Minnesota, and we
had invited the Judge and his wife for dinner, and the Judge brought Irene a
rose.
That rose ritual and celebrating our anniversary each month is a ritual of celebration and affection. Each of you may have your own special rituals of affirmation, of affection, of celebration, but whatever they are they nurture your marriage, and they do something else…
they teach your children and
grandchildren how to nurture a marriage…
So these are some tangible things
we can do to nurture our marriages. The bottom line is that success in
marriage does not depend on finding the right person so much as it does
on being the right person.
Are you that kind of person, the kind of
partner God intended for you to be?
Amen!
Easter Sunday, April 4,
2010
John 20:1-18—in her grief marry Magdalene
does not recognize Jesus…but when she does Jesus commissions her to go and tell
the others.
Can you imagine what it must have been
like for the disciples and Mary Magdalene when they discover that the tomb was
empty? Shock, disbelief, like a punch in the gut…feeling blindsided and
confused. So overwhelming that it was difficult to comprehend what had taken
place. Their first instinct was to think that someone had stolen the body…Not
too surprising after the violent events of that week.
You and I might have been thinking the
same thing. They did not go there with the hope that Jesus would be alive.
Instead they went seeking to prepare his body for burial as was the custom in
those days.
So Mary stands weeping, in her mind
probably saying, “What more can happen? This is absolutely crazy!” She
is totally overwhelmed in her grief—and totally alone. Through her tear-soaked
eyes she did not recognize Jesus. But then, those of us who have suffered major
unexpected losses to death can understand.
The whole thing was deeply troubling for
Mary because Jesus had given her a new lease on life free of the demons that
once possessed her. And now it seemed like it was still
Good Friday.
Life can be like that sometimes when
our good Fridays seem to never end.
Sixteen years ago on Easter Sunday I
worshipped at Bethel Lutheran church in Madison because I was in Madison
spending Easter weekend with my son, Rolf III who had just had a kidney and
pancreas transplant at UW Hospital.
He was still not allowed to leave the
hospital and prior to receiving his transplants it was six months of Good
Friday-like hell for us. His physical condition was deteriorating fast and he
would slip into insulin shock while asleep alone in his apartment. If he didn’t
show up for work his employer would alert 911. Dialysis three times a week, and
living on a very strict diet did not seem to be helping him. On one occasion
the police stopped him going the wrong way across the Allouez-Ashwaubenon
Bridge, again in insulin shock.
At an age when most young adults are
making their way emancipating from their parents, I was finding it harder and
harder to let go. Every time the phone rang I began to dread what the call
might be about.
So that Easter Sunday worshipping at
bethel Lutheran it struck me just how long we had been living this particular
good Friday in our lives. Suddenly I was overwhelmed with tears…tears of joy,
tears of relief. Our son, who was on a sure path to a very early grave had been
given a new life!
Our own personal good Fridays may
seem as if they last forever, but in the resurrection of his own Son, God tells
us that no matter what, Good Friday does not last for ever. And in fact there
is hope!
Given the recent events the disciples
were overcome by fear instead of hope. Until Mary Magdalene sees Jesus and he
sends her to tell the others that he has risen. With that there is a flicker of
hope in the disciples. As they realize that Jesus’ death was not the final
answer, they also began to realize that death does not have the last
word.
There is no tradition in Judaism that
promised a risen messiah. So it was a total surprise not just to Mary
Magdalene, but to all of the disciples. The realization gradually dawns on them
that out of the worst times in their lives there has come a whole new way of
being. They had stood at the foot of the cross on Good Friday and seen their
hope for the future die at that place. How could they go on? And then,
surprisingly, a word of hope sent with Mary to the disciples by
Jesus.
A young school teacher was hired to
teach children in a large city hospital. One day she received a routine call
requesting she visit a middle school boy in the hospital and was told by the
lad’s teacher that his class was studying nouns and adverbs and that she would
be grateful if the hospital teacher could help him with his
homework.
It wasn’t until the visiting teacher got
outside the boy’s room that she realized it was located in the hospital burn
unit. No one had prepared her to find the young many horribly burned and in
great pain. The teacher felt she just could not turn around and walk out. So
she stammered awkwardly and said, “I am the hospital teacher, and your regular
teacher asked me to help you within nouns and adverbs.”
The boy seemed to be in so much pain he
barely responded. The teacher stumbled through the English lesson ashamed at
putting the boy through such a senseless exercise.
The next morning a nurse on the burn unit asked the teacher, “What did you do to that boy?”
Before the teacher could finish her
apologies, the nurse interrupted her, “You don’t understand. We’ve been very
worried about him, but ever since you came here yesterday, his whole attitude
has changed . He’s fighting back, he is responding to treatment. It’s as if he
has decided to live!”
The boy later explained that he had completely given up hope until he saw the teacher.
With joyful tears the boy said, “They
wouldn’t send a teach to work on nouns and adverbs with a boy who was dying
would they?”
Even when all we seem to see around us is
pain, and disappointment, and brokenness on the other side there is
resurrection. And, we are called to bring resurrection to those around us even
if we don’t fully understand it ourselves.
We all need a sign of hope in the
midst of the chaos of our lives. We need the assurance that God is with us
always, no matter what. That is the promise we have received because of that
first Easter.
In the resurrection we have hope
now and for eternity.
May god give you hope for a new life
no matter what is going on in your life…
Amen!
Palm Sunday March 28,
2010—Immanuel
Luke 19:28-40—Jesus enters Jerusalem in a
triumphant manner.
Our story in Luke today has some
images that are rather strange to us. Actually it is Passover time in
Jerusalem…the biggest religious observance of the year. It was the goal
of devout Jew to be in Jerusalem for Passover.
Recall that the celebration of Passover
had its historical roots in the time when the people of Israel were slaves in
Egypt. The Passover, when those who did not mark their door frames with the
blood of a lamb, discovered that their firstborn had died, was the one single
event that convinced the pharaoh to let the Jewish people go, and leave
Egypt.
But now Israel was occupied by the Romans
and they were longing to be rid of the oppressors.
Into all of this comes Jesus, who
rumor had it, was to liberate the Jewish people from the hated
Romans. The news about Jesus who had recently raised Lazarus from the dead
spread quickly. Which made Jesus the main topic of discussion in Jerusalem and
the surrounding region. Was this Jesus the Messiah who had been promised?
Would he rid them of the Roman occupation army?
Many thought Jesus fit the bill, and so,
excitement and expectations were high, and when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a
donkey many treated Jesus like they would treat a king at the time of King
David, singing the song from psalm 118 which served as a song announcing
royalty’s entrance, and, as was the custom, spreading their clothes at his
feet.
The frenzied fans believed the rumors
while at the same time the Pharisees are filled with rage and fear at the
popularity of Jesus. All of which is background to this strange
parade.
But as those of you who have ever been to
a parade with different things in it from bands, to floats, to drill teams know,
the reality is that you never know what is coming next. But then, life it self
is like a parade—we never quite know what is coming next.
But one thing we do know is that
this reading and the rest of Holy Week challenges us to decide who we identify
with in the story:
Are we the fans who seem to be jumping
on the bandwagon because Jesus appears to be a winner and everybody loves
a winner? Are we like those fans who saw the Jesus Express
rolling through the Judean countryside for weeks doing all kinds of miracles we
want to be a part of the action. This Jesus has got it, and we want to be a
part of it!
Little did they know that they were
caught up in what we now call the “tyranny of expectations. In any
relationship when our unspoken expectations don’t match reality, we can soon
become disillusioned and may even turn on those who we perceive are not
fulfilling our expectations. Which by the way is
something that has destroyed many a marriage.
Are we fair weather fans, who as long
as things are going the way we think they should we follow
Jesus?
Or maybe we realize that we are really
like the negative, nay saying, hypercritical Pharisees. Are we, like the
Pharisees, so threatened by those who have different ideas and see things
differently that we just refuse to tolerate any other
perspectives?
If I am honest with myself, I know that I
can easily slip into the Pharisees behavior of judging others while refusing to
look at myself. The Pharisees had a preconceived notion of what God would be
doing if he ever came, and to them, Jesus just did not fit it their
expectation. The fact that instead of falling all over them he confronted their
hypocrisy threatened the daylights out of them. So they too, were trapped in
the “tyranny of their own expectations”…
By now you may be saying to yourself,
“This sounds pretty grim!...” But there is a person or persons in this
story who we often overlook, but who we might want to risk modeling our lives
after. And that person happens to be the unnamed owner of the colt on which
Jesus rode.
When the disciples came to the colt and
untied it…the owners asked, “Why are you untying the colt?” And the disciples
replied as Jesus had directed, “The Lord needs it…”
The owner might have asked several questions, like—“Who is this lord who needs my colt?”
Or, “Is he a Roman, or some sort of
royalty?” Or, “Will I get it back and how soon?”
But, amazingly the colt’s owners
ask none of these questions! Instead the owners responded in trust at the
expressed need of another: “I have, and he needs, let mine be
his!”
Just as it is today, this kind of
generosity and faithfulness were rare in first-century Palestine. But God used
the trust of the unknown owners of the colt to create an image of what it is
like to trust God and trust what God was, and is, doing in
Jesus.
I know from my own journey that at any
given time I may find myself in one of the characters in this story, at times
jumping on the bandwagon, only to sour when my expectations are not met. Or, at
other times grousing because the person or persons are not doing things the way
I would.
But then when I pray, “thy
will be done,”…I am reminded I have to let go of tyrannical expectations and
trust that God knows what He is doing.
God calls each and every one of us to let
go of the expectations that tyrannize us and trust in him at all
times.
Amen!
Third Sunday in Lent—March 7, 2010
Philippians 3:12-14—“I press on toward
the goal to win the prize for which God has called me.”
Luke 13:1-9—Jesus tells the people to
repent of judging others and instead of living sterile lives get involved in
fruitful productiveness.
Title: “WHAT IS YOUR
LIFE’S GOAL?”.
In our reading from Luke today, Jesus
gets perturbed with those who were raising judgmental questions about the
level of sin of those who had been victims of two very different tragedies. The
one was a result of the violent dictator Pilate. The other was about the
victims of a tower collapsing…might have even been an earthquake. So to drive
his point home, Jesus tells them a parable about a fig tree that was not bearing
fruit.
What Jesus is saying here is that those
putting themselves above the one’s who had lost their lives were really living
very sterile and unfruitful lives. In other words, their lives had no direction
except to literally take other people’s inventories and somehow make them selves
feel and look superior. So in effect Jesus is saying to this group of folks,
“You need to get a life!”
Jesus also reminds them that it is time
to bear fruit with their lives.
Because we live in a culture that is big
on criticism without offering suggestions we know it is very easy to sit back
and watch others and not be involved in real everyday life.
This is exactly why God gave us the tool
we call goals. A tool that can help us focus and bear fruit as Jesus
suggests.
Over the years I have set many goals:
As a teen-ager my goal was to survive in the midst of constant violence.
And, in surviving, I began to realize that I had another goal and that would be
to have a better life and family than what I saw at home.
Later my main goal was to get my college
diploma and then to graduate from seminary and become a parish pastor.
And even later my goal was to raise the
boys in a happy healthy violence free home. But even a positive goal can be
overdone as I discovered (thanks to two friends) that I was being too protective
and had to find a balance between caring and teaching them to take
responsibility for their own lives.
And of course, along the way I had the
goal of being successful--but it was not very well defined, and I soon learned
that a better measure of success is to empower others to find peace and hope and
to be what God intended.
One weekend while doing a Phase II Christian Ministry of Hope retreat I realized that the goal that God was calling me to had to do with the Great Commandment to “Love God, love my neighbor, and love myself.” For me that meant to treat others as I would like to be treated.
And to treat myself with love also, and
in doing those two things, I would also be loving God.
But also soon realized that while I had this large overarching goal, I had to have smaller, more realistic goals to live the larger goal out. So I sat down with paper and pencil one day and set specific goals based on the six facets of the Hebrew concept of the whole person—
physical, emotional, intellectual,
social, sexual, and spiritual.
Out of all of this I have learned some
things along the way that I think are helpful when it comes to determining what
our life’s goal is.
First, I have learned that if our
goals are not God’s goals they will sooner or later fail. There is a kind of
two-fold test: Does the goal honor God and his commands? And, is the goal
realistic?
Second, our goals may change over the years, particularly the ones that support our main goal that has to do with living in relationship to God’s call upon our lives. I think of the five year goals that Irene and I set periodically. As we achieve those goals, then new ones are added.
This is also true as
individuals…sometimes we find that God has a better idea in
mind.
Something I have discovered in my own
journey is that to set goals and begin to act on them has meant that I need to
turn my life completely over to God and God’s will for my life. Not once, but
over and over again.
Am I perfect at it? Of course not (I am
Norwegian you know)! But the good news is that God does not expect perfection,
just progress. And often that may mean two steps forward and one back. God
just wants an honest effort, even if its just baby steps.
Someone once said that a person
without a life’s goal is like a ship that leaves the harbor with no
destination. I guarantee you won’t have that problem if your goal in
life is somehow to become more like Jesus. In order to remember that I have
adopted as my motto the words of John the Baptizer in regard to Jesus, “He
must increase, and I must decrease.”
Amen!
First Sunday in Lent—February 21,
2010
Title: “WHO ARE WE LIVING
OUR LIVES FOR?”
Temptation is a part of all of our
lives even if we are tempted to say we are never tempted. Someone
once said, “I wouldn’t be tempted if temptation wasn’t so
tempting!”
Flip Wilson said, “The devil made me do
it the first time, but ever since then I’ve been doing it on my
own.”
And of course there is the woman who
bought an expensive dress and her husband looking at the price tag asked her,
“Did you have to buy such an expensive dress? Why didn’t you say, ‘Get behind
me Satan?’” To which his wife replied, “I did, and he said it looked ‘as good
in the back as it did in the front,’ so I bought it!”
Every first Sunday in Lent the
Christian lectionary takes us into the wilderness and narrates the story of
Jesus being tempted by Satan. The same story appears in Matthew and Mark,
as well as Luke, and this year we focus on the story from Luke.
Jesus is overflowing with the Holy Spirit
from his baptism, and in the original Greek, we see him literally hurled into
the desert. The Spirit of God is throwing Jesus into the physical wilderness,
and the wilderness of his own soul, his own call by God, and his own identity.
After his baptism it remains for Jesus fully to embrace his status and mission
as the Son of God, and in so doing, Jesus both gives us a model to resist
temptation and challenges us to continue in the mission God has called us
to.
How many of you played Superman when you
were small children? Or, maybe some other super-hero like Batman, or Ninja
Turtles?
One of the things I remember about
playing Superman was that I soon learned I wasn’t when jumping off a dresser as
the dresser toppled over on me. Later, in jumping off the garage roof when I
ended up a painful ankle strain I learned again that I really was not
Superman!
Maybe it is that we Norwegians are slow
learners, at least this Norwegian. Sooner or later we learn that we are
physically vulnerable, but that does not mean that we learn, or even believe,
that we are spiritually vulnerable.
Since Adam and Eve we have had the
tendency to trivialize and deny the existence of evil as being a part of our
lives or motivations. But the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness by Satan,
tells us that no matter what we want to call it, evil exists, and lurks within
our hearts and minds as well as in the world around
us…
Satan…evil…can attack us in at
least three main ways as we see in Luke today—
The first temptation is to not
trust god to provide for our needs. Jesus has just finished a fast, he
is undoubtedly hungry…and Satan says, “If you are the Son of God turn this
stone into a loaf of bread.” To which Jesus replies, “One does not live
by bread alone.’”
Satan is using the circumstances of the
moment, Jesus’ hunger, to see if Jesus really does trust God. The reality is,
we are all tempted each day, and especially today to find out if
we really trust God to meet our needs.
Do you trust God to meet your
needs?
The second temptation is to give up
our identity as children of God and the Body of Christ for a relationship with
Satan who we discover thinks he rules the world of humanity. What is
Satan really saying here? He is saying to Jesus, “Forget about God and living
God’s way, I have a better way! Live for me and I will convince you that you
are right and everyone else is wrong! I will give you power over
everyone else, and give you the illusion that you have the right to live as if
you are God!”
My alcoholic stepfather who was abusive
and extremely controlling, demanded that everything be his way, and if it wasn’t
there was more abuse and violence. Oh, he went to church, (Peace United Church
of Christ) but he had no clue that he was worshipping Satan and not
God.
Are we tempted to live “Our way,
rather than God’s way? The scary part is that we may not even see it in
ourselves because Satan is so good at masking his presence in
us.
The third temptation is the most
subtle with Satan twisting scripture to tempt Jesus into using scripture for his
own purpose rather than for God’s purpose. But Jesus is not buying it,
and knows that is not God’s purpose.
I believe this temptation lives in us
too, when we take one verse from scripture to beat people into submission and
fail to understand or know God’s real purpose for our lives.
Grandpa and his grandson are running through the pasture, chased by an enraged bull.
“Grandpa,” shouted the boy, “Shouldn’t
we stop and pray?” To which the wise old sage answered, “Run like the dickens,
sonny, I keep prayed up ahead for times like this!
In all three temptations we see that
Jesus does not allow himself to be distracted from His mission and His call. He
relies on the resources of his faith, and his commitment to doing God’s will.
How can we do it? The apostle Paul, writing to the early Christians at Corinth tells us:
“God is faithful, and God will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may endure it.”
(I Cor. 10:13)
What Paul is saying, is that God is
present and preparing the way for us even when we are tempted to live only for
ourselves--and God will help us to resist that temptation and any others that
come our way, if we are willing to live out His mission.
A recent survey of Christian
congregations in the United States reveals that congregations that are
spiritually alive have a clear sense of mission and purpose--they practice God’s
love in all they do, and they connect people with God’s love.
We are not alone…God’s Holy Spirit is
with us and if you choose God’s mission and call for your life you will be
blessed!
Amen!