First Sunday of Advent 2009

Advent 1C 2009

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. AMEN

One of the things that most of the writers of the New Testament held in common was that they believed that Jesus was going to come back sooner rather than later.

After Jesus’ death and resurrection and ascension, he was going to come back, within a generation or two, for the final judgment, for the second coming, for the parousia. The world as we know it would end and the culmination of history and the new creation would be established by God.

Several of the gospels give signs and portents of what it will be like and how we can anticipate the second coming. In our gospel reading today, Luke’s Jesus says, “So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

So, it feels a bit odd to be reading about the expected second-coming, the anticipation of the end, the final judgment by Jesus when we’ve been waiting around for it for a couple of millennia rather than a couple of generations.

Now, there are those who would suggest our concept of time is different than the divine concept of time, so really two millennia are more like two days in the eyes of God. And while that may be true, we’re still here waiting and wondering.

And we’re waiting and wondering as we begin a new liturgical year. Today is the first Sunday of Advent. We are starting our yearly cycle of seasons and bible readings over again, for another year. Today marks the day of time of preparation for the advent, the coming, of Christmas, of the nativity of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

So, do you think this year will be the same? We’ll go through the liturgical motions- we’ll have advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost. And we’ll we come again to advent next year in the same frame of mind, wondering and waiting when things are really going to happen. Is this the year that Jesus will come back? Is this the year that everything will fall apart? Is this the year that things are really going to take off?

Regardless of what happens, there are expectations for us. We begin each liturgical year with Advent- and it makes sense- not just chronological sense as we go through Jesus’ life every year, but as we continue to prepare in our own lives for the coming of Jesus, or for our going to him. Luke warns that we ought to be prepared; we need to be ready for the coming of the Lord, for it comes on all of us, not just a select few, not just the chosen, but the whole creation will experience the coming of the Lord.

And Luke makes it sound a bit foreboding, doesn’t he? You need to be ready so you can avoid the bad things, so you don’t suffer when the Son of Man comes and so that you may stand before him, ready to go with him.

And so, in the wisdom of our ancestors, they created a way to mark time, a way to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord in the form of the liturgical calendar. For, Advent is not only the twenty-four days before Christmas, it’s not the countdown to gift exchange and snowy holidays of yore, it’s not only the time that we prepare our hearts for the baby Jesus to come and dwell in us. It is also the time that we remind ourselves, that we exhort one another to be prepared for the end, for the end of all time, for the culmination of history and for the final coming of Jesus Christ, to give a final accounting of what we have done in this life and a time to prepare our hearts to go with Christ into the new creation.

So, how are you doing?
Are you aware that the end is near?
Have you accounted for all your sins and deeds?
Will God find you acceptable, can you avoid the final wrath?

At one level the answer for all of us ought be “no.” Not one of us in this room is ready, for as human beings we have been condemned in our sin. The sin that we know that we do and the sin that we don’t know that we do. Not one of us should be able to stand before the Son of Man when he comes and say, “you ought to reward me because I have lead the perfect life- I have followed completely in your way.” We can’t do it.

And so, how do we respond?
Some of us beat ourselves up, and live in despair hoping that there is something we could do to merit our salvation.
Some of us disregard and say- well… it hasn’t happened yet, no need to worry now- and so we live according to the world. Who needs a time of preparation when the world is already celebrating Christmas? Why can’t we sing Christmas carols all December long? Christmas is coming earlier and earlier, isn’t it? It used to start the day after Thanksgiving, black Friday. And now it apparently starts right after Halloween.

But the world won’t give you a gift for Christmas. Christmas starts after Halloween so you will consume, so you will buy what they want you to buy because obviously you don’t have enough already. They don’t care about baby Jesus, and they certainly don’t care about the second coming.

And so, our Christian witness to the world is this:
The end is coming, Jesus will make his final appearance. We don’t know when- but we need to be ready. We practice a time of preparation, of readying ourselves for the nativity, for the advent of Jesus and for his final coming, the full realization that he is the Son of God and he will come again to judge the living and the end and we will gather into one great feast to worship him.

So, we keep Advent. Not to thumb our nose at the world’s celebration of Christmas, but to say, look- do you know what has happened? Jesus Christ came to the world as a baby, as a little infant, helpless and in poverty, and he is the son of God, he is the true lord and giver of life, and it is only through him that we will have true life and joy and salvation.

Make yourselves ready- because he is coming. And although none of us can stand before him and say, yes, I did everything you asked me and I didn’t sin at all. We still have the ability to stand before him with confidence.
Martin Luther wrote in his sermon on this passage in Luke:

"Could he admonish, comfort, and strengthen you in a more delicate and loving manner? In the first place he says, You will hear of wars, but you should have no fears. And when he tells you to have no fears, what else does he mean than that he commands you to be of good cheer and to discern the signs with joy? Secondly, he tells you to look up; thirdly, to lift up your heads; and fourthly, he speaks of your redemption. What can comfort and strengthen you if such a word does not? Do you think he would deceive you and try to lead you into a false confidence? My dear hearer, let such a word not have been said in vain: thank God and trust in it -- there is no other comfort or advice if you cast this to the winds.

"It is not your condemnation but your redemption of which Christ speaks. Will you turn his words around and say, It is not your redemption but your condemnation? Will you flee from your own salvation? Will you not greet and thank your God who comes out to meet and to greet you?"

Jesus comes to us, he comes for us, he comes to save us- both as a baby born into a feed trough and as the son of man coming in all his glory with his saints.
So, we prepare our hearts and our minds to meet him, fully confident that we will enter into his embrace and that we may go forth with joy to proclaim this reality to our brother and sisters in the world.
Come Lord Jesus. AMEN

A Sermon for the 12th Sunday after Pentecost

John 6.56-69

Pentecost 12

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Lord, to whom can we go, you have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the holy one of God.

There isn’t much more that we can say is there? Peter got it right this time.

In light of all that’s been happening at the Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis and the questions that have been raised about the future of our denomination, they are the words we must confess.

In light of our very human selves, our human nature that would rather turn away from the truth of Jesus Christ who meets us here, they are the only words we can confess.

The people of Jesus’ time found his teachings difficult. They found them scandalous. They couldn’t understand where he got his authority and how he could apparently go against the tradition that preceded him.

His followers deserted him, betrayed him, denied him, and ultimately crucified him.

We’re good at doing that.

We’re good at ignoring or twisting the word and promises and expectations that God has given to us.

Being a Christ follower is no easy task.

It is true, we do not need to worry about our salvation, we do not need to worry about God’s unconditional love for us.

But, we do need to worry about our sin. We do need to worry that what we do hurts other people, causes them to stumble in their own faith.

I saw such anguish this past week while I was in Minnesota. People are very worried about the future of our church. Folks are worried about the integrity and authority of scripture with the decisions that have been made.

I want to be clear. All people are welcome into this church regardless of who they are. There is no distinction, Christ died for all and Christ loves all. We make no exceptions to that rule.

But, the church also has to function in the world. And we screw that up a lot. Pastors have affairs. Pastors get divorced. Church members embezzle money. Children have been abused.

In some cases these sins have destroyed the faith of Christians.

In some cases people must be held accountable, and if they do these practices they are not allowed to be church leaders or pastors. It is for the sake of good order, it is so that the institution may continue to function and so that within that institution the gospel may continue to be preached and the sacraments may continue to be administered.

This past week, the institution of the church, the order of the church if you will, changed. They have expanded their rules to allow more people to be ordained and part of the institution.

There is no question that all have already been a part of the body of Christ.

But now there is specific room for gay and lesbian people in committed relationships within the institution.

This is and already has hurt people’s faith.

It has made me question the authority of scripture within the institution.

I am afraid of a division and I don’t want the body of Christ to suffer at the hands of the institution.

We are in a hard place.

We are standing beside those twelve disciples, who although perhaps not grasping the teaching of Jesus and preferring to leave, stood beside Peter and confessed.

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.

That confession is also the promise and good news for us today.

However you view the events of this week.

Whatever your hopes and fears for the church.

Whatever your sins and transgressions against your selves and your neighbors.

One thing remains true and unchanging.

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Jesus Christ is the one who came down to dwell among us.

Jesus Christ is the one who became human, who took our fleshly bodies onto his own and loved us to the point of death.

Jesus Christ is the one who touched the untouchable, who ate and drank with sinners, who healed the sick and dying.

Jesus Christ is the one who dipped his bread into the same bowl as the one who would betray him.

Jesus Christ is the one who forgives and embraces the ones who desert and deny him.

It is Jesus Christ and no other who has done all these things.

He has done them for our sake.

For us who are doing our best to be faithful, for us who hurt each other, who worry about things that will not last, who fear the life of the institution.

In reality, in true reality, the body of Christ will never die.

Christ himself made sure of that when he was lifted up in glory upon the cross.

He made sure that we would never taste death because we have been raised with him, raised upon the cross and raised up into new life.

Jesus Christ is the bread of life.

We eat his bread and we drink his blood. He is in us and we are in him.

There is no separation.

The world cannot remove his love or his life from his body assembled- try as they may.

We cannot remove his love or his life from us.

You have eaten his body and his blood. You have tasted the bread and the wine. You dwell in him, you live in him, solely because of that.

No matter what we do or don’t do.

No matter what institutional decisions happen, no matter the fate of our denomination or the institutional body, Jesus Christ is here- yesterday, today, tomorrow.

Jesus Christ is the body.

We are his body only through him and that will never be destroyed.

We are his body in the world, we are his body for the world.

The teachings are difficult.

Loving each other fully and completely is not easy.

And yet, because we are fed and nourished by Christ’s body and blood we are empowered to do it.

And so we can go out, strengthened and ensured that no matter what may befall us. No matter what we may or may not do, the body of Christ remains alive and active in the world.

It is in and through Christ’s body that we can confess to the world the promise given to us.

Lord, to whom can we go? Who else can the world turn to? You have the words of eternal life. You are the holy one of God, you are our Lord and Savior.

Thanks be to God.

AMEN

We are beggars

Mark 5.21-43

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost B

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. AMEN

Mark has a penchant for sandwich stories. He’ll start to tell a story, but he’ll interrupt it by telling another story, and then at the end of that he’ll conclude the initial story.

Most of the time the stories are connected somehow, or they are intertwined because they’re meant to interpret each other.

The stories of Jarius and his daughter and the woman with the flow are the bread and butter of a Markan sandwich story.

The two stories have some elements in common:

There are issues of fear and faith.

The crowd plays a large role in both stories.

The little girl is twelve years old when she dies.

The woman has had her hemorrhages for twelve years.

And yet- they have some differences also:

The little girl’s father, Jairus is a religious leader in the community, probably with pretty high standing whereas the woman with the flow of blood is ritually unclean, and essentially an outcast.

Jairus makes a formal request of Jesus while the woman sneaks up to Jesus and steals a touch.

Like last week, these stories display the power of Jesus. They demonstrate that Jesus has power over illness and death. The first half of the gospel of Mark is full of the healing power of Jesus, his popularity and his reputation as a great teacher. The gospel of Mark follows Jesus and the disciples throughout the region of Galilee as he teaches and preaches and brings healing to folks who have mostly been forgotten.

But today there is an interesting juxtaposition- we have the plight of Jairus and his dead little girl. Jairus, a man of high standing, a man well respected in the community- probably one who would have had many resources available to him- and he sees fit to seek out Jesus and to ask him for his help.

And then we have the plight of the woman- a woman who has exhausted all her resources, who is not really a part of society due to the nature of her illness, but who has heard of this preacher Jesus, and so she seeks him out, believing that merely touching his garment will heal her.

At one level these two are worlds apart. But as Mark intertwines their stories, we see they are in the very same place. They are in desperate situations: Jairus has lost his little girl. The woman with the flow of blood has no social standing and a lifetime of illness. Their only hope is left in the healing power of Jesus.

There’s a story about Martin Luther. It is believed that the last words Luther ever wrote before he died were these: “We are all beggars, this is true.”

Though it is so simple, it is so very profound.

You see, Luther struggled his whole life to understand the nature of God as it is revealed through Jesus Christ.

He came to the conclusion that God comes down to his human creatures as Jesus in order to show his love and mercy for us, not his wrath or vengeance.

However, Luther was taught as a young man that salvation was wrought through our repentance and penance. If we, as human beings did certain things or behaved in certain ways, then we would be able to merit our own salvation.

But this is not true.

We did not ascend to heaven to have God send Jesus to us, try as we might- we cannot be God. It didn’t work in the garden of Eden and it isn’t working for us now (we think we know what’s best for us and for our world and for our societies, don’t we?). But the economy continues to stink, people are still dying, and I’m still freaking out about money.

We can’t build a ladder and get to heaven. It’s not possible.

But God built a ladder and came down to us.

He comes to us and we turn to him, like beggars- with our arms outstretched and our hands open to receive his mercy, to receive his love, to receive his life.

Just like Jairus.

Just like the woman with the flow of blood.

They had nothing in the face of death and illness.

What could they do?

Where could they go?

The answer is the answer that is always right in Sunday School.

Jesus.

Jesus was walking among them.

With nothing to lose, the woman reaches out and she is able to touch Jesus’ garment.

And in that moment a great power went out and she was healed of her illness.

With nothing to lose, Jairus seeks Jesus and he goes into his house and he touches the sleeping dead girl and tells her to wake up. Talitha cum. She is restored to life.

They are beggars seeking the mercy of God.

They cannot save themselves, it is only Jesus who is able to restore them back to life.

Now, there’s the danger that as I speak of human beings as beggars before God that this somehow degrades our humanity.

Beggars that we are, primarily by our own doing, by our sin and brokenness, because we are unable to be who it is that God created us to be.

I cannot on my own believe that God will make everything right. I cannot on my own believe that all of our troubles will be solved by the grace and mercy of God.

And so, we stand here before God as beggars.

We stand with the woman with the flow of blood. We stand with Jairus mourning for his little girl.

We stand, we kneel, helpless, worn out, tired folks with nowhere else to turn.

And although we will always be beggars in this world.

Although you come to this table and you will kneel before the very presence of God and you will seek his mercy and love with your arms outstretched and your hands open.

Jesus pulls us into his embrace and reminds us that he is always in relationship with us. He is our brother. He is our savior. He is one with us.

You will leave this table standing tall. You will have been given the very presence of God to nourish you and to strengthen you. You will receive the living God and he will make you whole. He will send you out restored as he sent the woman who was healed from her twelve year flow of blood.

Your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Be healed.

And though it may seem that death is all around. Like Jairus, we may be at the end of our rope and we have lost everything as he lost the life of his little girl.

But it’s not true.

Jesus tells Jairus and the people, “Why are you weeping? She is not dead. She is only sleeping!”

It’s not what you think.

This world will pass away but the word of the Lord stands forever.

I cannot on my own believe that what God did in Christ Jesus has conquered all the evil in the world. And yet, it is true.

I cannot on my own believe that Jesus Christ prevailed over death by dying on a cross and rising on the third day.

And yet, that is what happened.

He is alive.

We are alive.

There is no death any more.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

His mercy never comes to an end.

They are new every morning.

You come as beggars but you go out, standing tall, called to be Christ to the world, called to go out and to proclaim that it is not death, it is not illness that will consume this world, it is the love of God for his creation, it is the love of one who came to live among us, who came to die and to rise again so that we would know, that we would see the love of God come down to us, to lift us up, to send us out.

Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.

Thanks be to God.

AMEN

Ash Wednesday

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Ash Wednesday B
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. AMEN

It’s an interesting time in the world to be beginning our Lenten fast again. Or perhaps it is an appropriate time to start our forty day journey together. Things seem pretty bad don’t they? The economy is in shambles, Wall Street keeps tanking. I know some folks who have lost their jobs. Other peoples’ retirement savings, their hard-earned money seems to have disappeared into thin air. You know that I am a bit worried about our own finances here at the church.

We’re six years into the war in Iraq, with a slight glimmer of hope that we’ll leave sooner rather than later- only with another plan to send more troops into Afghanistan.

And this isn’t to mention the heartache in the rest of the world- continual conflict in the Holy Land, disease and famine, poverty and death.

And who do you suppose is responsible?Some might say that this is God’s punishment for our sin. And perhaps it’s simply the consequences of our actions over time- with or without theological implications.

It may not be unlike whatever turmoil it was that the prophet Joel and his people were facing. Joel “describes the land as falling under the shadow of an invasion of a "locust" army in chapter one, which devastated Judah's crops, leaving land, animals, and populace groaning in travail. But others suggest locust is better understood as a metaphor for a hostile human army.” [Rolf Jacobson]

Whichever it is- ecological or military devastation, it is not good.
And Joel sees God at work in this disaster. He clearly understands the events as God’s punishment- in fact, as a sign of the day of the Lord- the day of the Lord, originally understood as a day to look forward to, a day that would be anticipated with joy and gladness, now becomes a day to fear, a day of foreboding. If this is how we are punished by God, how much more will that great Day of Judgment be.

Joel proclaims: 1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near— 2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.

If we think things are bad now- how much worse can they get?
How do we make sense of this? What are we to do? How do we respond to this?
First of all, I don’t think we can make sense of things. Life is really hard. In an agrarian society or in a free market trade economy such as ours- we have good days and we have bad days. And sometimes we have really bad days.

How do we escape the worst aspects of our humanity? It is greed and selfishness; it is the quest for power and disregard for other human life that has brought us to where we are. We are in bondage to sin and we cannot free ourselves.

It is a very appropriate time to be entering into our Lenten fast, to plead for God’s presence to come among us, to turn our hearts and our minds upon the one thing that we know can save us, as much as we might fear that we could be destroyed.

And this is the appropriate response. Joel doesn’t call for the people to get to work by re-tilling the fields and trying again. He doesn’t tell Judah to raise up an army to fight the adversary.

No, he calls the people to turn toward the one thing that he knows can save them. 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; 16 gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.

What is Joel’s answer? What is our answer in a time of uncertainty- in a world that knows only sin and brokenness.
Worship.
Gather together and turn toward God. Turn, repent, count on the only one who knows us and knows how to save us.

12 Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. 14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord, your God?

Who knows?
We have come this day to acknowledge our dire need for God in our lives. We have come to be reminded that we are mere human begins. We are mere dust of the earth- only brought to life by the power and grace of God who molded us and breathed into us the breath of life. We are nothing without God.
And so my call to you during these forty days is to call you to worship. To call you to turn your hearts and your minds toward God, toward Jesus Christ his son, who walks with us these forty days, who walks with us as we all journey to the cross. The cross that crucifies the Son of God, the cross that crucifies us so that we would have eternal life. So that we would be freed from the worry, from the anxiety, from the terribleness of the world, so that we would know that the world does not have the final answer. Whether we say that the state of the world is the consequence of our actions or the judgment of God due to our broken and sinful humanity- there is only one answer.
Turn your heart, turn your mind. Focus upon the one- who should judge us because we are guilty- but instead pours out his life giving blood for you and for me.

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful. Slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love.
Join in the fast, join in the worship, gather around the one who offers salvation. It is he alone who will save us from these terrible days, from our very selves.

Thanks be to God for his grace and mercy, for his faithfulness and steadfast love. AMEN