Sermon for March 15th, 2020, The third Sunday of Lent

Grace and Peace to you, from the one who is, who was and who is to come, Jesus Christ our brother and Lord, Amen. 

This week’s gospel text is an incredible story. It is a story of Jesus, alone at the well with a woman, a foreigner whom Jesus as a Jew should have no contact with. A woman who has had an unfortunate history of romantic relationships. A woman at the well, in the middle of the day, a socially isolated person, for any number of possible reasons.  

This is an amazing story for any number of reasons. Jesus is breaking barriers and talks of a time to come when God will remove all the barriers between people and between God and humans. Jesus also for the first time in the Gospel of John reveals himself to be God. I think that it is important also that this happens when Jesus is speaking to a foreign woman of questionable social status. The Samaritan woman knows and is waiting for a messiah. Jesus responds, I am he, the one that you are waiting for. Ego Eimi, the Greek form of Yahweh. Jesus announces first to this woman that he is the messiah, but the language that he uses is also the name of God. These two things cannot be separated. To be the messiah, Jesus must also be God. 

There are so many amazing things about this text and our other readings this week. I don’t know if you remember this or not, but the first Sunday in November, we celebrated The WELCA Thank-offering, All Saint’s Sunday, and the anniversary of the ordination of women, this Gospel was the text we used and my sermon was based on. I could have had a rather nice and easy week for sermon preparation and just reworked that sermon, I understand that it is likely no one would have noticed, there might have been a slight sense of déjà vu. But, there is something a bit more pressing in our community, our nation, and the world that needs to be addressed.  

We are living in an unprecedented time. That isn’t to say that things like this haven’t happened before, we can actually look to a century ago to the Spanish Influenza Pandemic or the bubonic plague of the 15th and 16th centuries. But much has changed in the last 100 years. As a culture and as a global people we are much more mobile and interact with people daily who could have hours ago been on the other side of the globe. Today, many churches around the country and world are not meeting. Instead they have been forced to cancel worship services or move those services to digital, virtual livestreams. Communion and the passing of the peace is being suspended at many churches that remain open.  

We live in a time filled with fear. Fear of a virus, Fear of other people, fear of sickness and of death. Our cultural anxiety levels are finding new highs. The global health systems are struggling to cope with a contagion that is not localized but seems to be everywhere and spreading all at once. Resources are thin in places. In our individualistic culture, fear causes people to act ridiculously, hoarding toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and lysol like they will be the currency in some post-apocalyptic dystopian movie, like oil in Mad Max or sand and dirt in Water World. Sadly, here in Northwest Iowa at least one of the firearm dealers is using this fear to drum up additional sales of weapons and ammunition. 

So then, what are we as Christians to do in a time of fear and uncertainty? 

Martin Luther responded to a fellow pastor when the plague was once again hitting Wittenberg and all of Saxony. It is a long letter, but I will quote a section.  

“Use medicine; take potions which can help you; fumigate house, yard, and street; shun persons and places wherever your neighbor does not need your presence or has recovered, and act like a man who wants to help put out the burning city. What else is the epidemic but a fire which instead of consuming wood and straw devours life and body? You ought to think this way: ‘Very well, by God’s decree the enemy has sent us poison and deadly offal. Therefore I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely, as stated above. See, this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God.’” 

Seems like Luther might have had some good ideas in his time that we too should think about following. Use medicine, take potions, listen to scientists and Doctors, medical professionals. There are plenty of people who are spreading information, but when and where possible, listen to experts. I am sorry to say, but there are plenty of people right now who are in positions of power and authority who just don’t understand what is going on, or worse are using the Coronavirus for personal gain. If you hear something that is too good to be true, or that upsets you, seek out other sources, particularly if it supports your own thoughts, Look to the Center for Disease Control or the Iowa Department of Public Health for information, they are both updating information as much as they can possibly do so. If you do become ill or have contact with someone who is ill, follow the guidelines set forth by your doctors. 

It seems odd to say this, but, if you don’t need to do something in public, it might be a good time to practice some physical distancing. This does help slow the spread of any number of diseases that are spreading through the community. Right now, we are still planning on having worship services, but if you are uncomfortable attending due to the virus, or if you are among the more vulnerable populations, I understand that you might not come. That is okay. Get in touch with me or the office, email or phone call. I would be happy to talk to you about what you are feeling and experiencing, and to say some prayers with you.  

I like something Luther says, “If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me.” That is confidence, not fear. This is confidence in God, confidence in the promises of God and the reconciliation of Christ.  

It is this confidence that the Psalmist writes in the 46 Psalm 

God is our refuge and strength,     a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,     though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam,     though the mountains tremble with its tumult... 

God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;     God will help it when the morning dawns. The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;     he utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us;     the God of Jacob is our refuge. 

We also heard this earlier in our reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans: 

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 

Or later in Romans, 

 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, 

 “For your sake we are being killed all day long;     we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” 

 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

 So, this then is what we are called to do. Place our trust in God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Christ has promised to be with us now until the ending of the age. God continues to support us, and the Holy Spirit continues to pray and minister to us.  

 But, don’t put God to the test. Don’t take foolish or unnecessary risks. Don’t risk other peoples’ safety either because, God loves me, I won’t get sick. The reality is God love you, and some of us might get sick. But God promises to be with us while we are sick, have doubt, anxiety, or fear.  

 I want us to be reminded in this time of social distancing, to be physically distant, but not socially disconnected. Love your neighbor. Pray for one another. Call, text, e-mail, snapchat, whatever you do to stay connected, to show your love and stay in community with each other. If your neighbor needs a roll of toilet paper and you have enough to soak up Lake Okoboji, give some to them. If you know of someone effected by coronavirus and are quarantined, make an effort to keep them in community, through any safe means. Love one another because Christ loved us.  

 In this time of COVID-19, we are called ever more ardently to trust God, love our neighbors, and to use our hearts, our minds, our bodies in service to God and each other. While some of us might be physically absent, remain together spiritually, for we are the Church, the body of Christ. Remember all who are affected. Pray for the sick, those who are mourning. Pray for first responders and medical professionals. Pray for leaders and scientists. Pray for the vulnerable and pray for one another.  

 And. Wash your hands. 

Let us Pray, 

 God, our peace and our strength, we pray for our nation and the world as we face new uncertainties around coronavirus. Protect the most vulnerable among us, especially all who are currently sick or in isolation. Grant wisdom, patience, and clarity to health care workers, especially as their work caring for others puts them at great risk. Guide us as we consider how best to prepare and respond in our families, congregations, workplaces, and communities. Give us courage to face these days not with fear but with compassion, concern, and acts of service, trusting that you abide with us always, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Sermon for March 8th, 2020, The second Sunday of Lent

Grace and Peace to you, From the One who is, who was, and who is to come, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. 

The texts this week are rich with sermon material. They are incredible discussions of God and our relationship with God. In one text we hear God’s promise to Abram. In another we have this little conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee, at night. The conversation has sparked a great deal of thought and debate over a small Greek word...anothen...Is Christ calling us to be Born again, or to be Born from above? What does that mean? What difference does it make? Does how we translate anothen make any difference in what God calls us to do and be. 

 And ends with probably the best-known verse of the New Testament. John 3:16. A verse so ubiquitous that people just write 3:16 on signs to display at sporting events.  

Think about that, just 3:16 and we know that they mean "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” and not any of the other 3:16’s in the Bible, which could be interesting, and I think that it is my duty to share some of the other 3:16’s particularly the ones that I think would be hilarious to prooftext and put on signs to display at sporting events...from Genesis To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." I am sure that isn’t a message we want to be reminded of when we are watching baseball. Or from Job Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child, like an infant that never sees the light? That got dark...In that vein we have Romans, ruin and misery are in their paths. Or Revelations, So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 

While we like to quote John 3:16, in many ways the following verse and the final verse of our Gospel text is just as important, and really even more of a consolation, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” 

Then, in Romans this week, we hear that God’s promise, God’s blessings, God’s Grace, is not the result of what we might do. We are not made righteous by the works we do, but by our faith and faithfulness to God we are reckoned Righteous.  

Any and all of these things could make for great starts and messages in a sermon, But it isn’t the message that I needed this past week or to start this new week with as I transition to being only a student and your pastor. If I need to hear it, I trust that some of you are also needing to hear it. 

I want to focus on Genesis 12:2, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” That’s God speaking to Abram. What I want to focus on is “I will bless you...so that you will be a blessing.”  

It is that profound reality that we sometimes forget. We are blessed by God, to be a blessing to others and to all of creation. The gifts and talents that we have been given have been provided to us that we can bless others with those gifts.  

We see that here in the congregation. Brenda Pedersen is an incredible organizer, she has an eye for the details and can keep the boat afloat, she is efficient and can identify waste. She is an excellent Church secretary. She is very capable in what she does in the day to day to wrangle and keep things running (there are plenty of days that she probably wonders how and why this is the task set before her, keeping everything going here has to feel like herding cats somedays).  

Brenda Renkie, bring her skills and talents to manage the congregation’s finances and figure out my insurance. Generally amazing talent with numbers. I am not great at math, or all the things that go into treasurer. But, Brenda, you are doing a great job and give so much of your time to the task.  

Our youth bring so many gifts to us, in their singing, their reading, their excitement and joy. They push us older folk in new ways that we might always be comfortable with, but they continue to remind us that there are other ways of doing things. The push to make changes to how we worship is good and healthy, finding new ways to follow the traditions without becoming traditionalists. One of my professors said tradition is the living faith of a healthy people, traditionalism is the dead faith of a dying Church. Traditions grow and adapt as the world changes, but hold on to what is most essential, what is always been done, in new ways, Traditionalism, does the old things despite all the changes that we experience, it is a comfortable refuge, but the flight away from the world is exactly the opposite direction God calls us. God calls us to run into the world, to live and struggle with the world, to be transformed, to be made new, and to make things new.  

I could keep going on what gifts we all bring. I think that would be a healthy thing for us to do, but I also doubt that you all want to sit here all day listening to me speak. 

This idea that we are blessed to be a blessing is actually an important part of one of our traditions, Worship. It is the reason we gather. We gather to be sent back to the world.  

The shape of our service is a tradition. We might change the words and the hymns, we might make changes to the order here and there, but the general shape of worship follows a millennia old structure. 

First, we are gathered together and welcomed by God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. We repent of our sins and hear the good news that we have been forgiven, that God will help us to become the people God intends us to be. Or we remember that in baptism God has made us God’s own children, in the waters of baptism we are freed to be the children of God, servants of God’s creation. We sing songs of praise and thanksgiving to Our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. 

Next, we hear the word of God proclaimed, in readings from scripture, in the preaching of the sermon or the sharing of testimony, the singing of songs, in creeds. Then our service shifts. We hear the word of God; we hear the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection for our sin. We hear the blessing of God. We receive and are recipients, but starting with the prayer of the people, the prayer of intercession, we begin our work as a sent blessing to the world. We pray that God will accomplish healing, support, encouragement to all of God’s creation. 

The service continues with the collection of an offering, yes to fund the church, and also to give to those in need, the benevolence. If the church is healthy, if the church is doing what it is called to do, in time that offering becomes focused more on the work in the world, and less on just keeping the lights on.  

After the offering we share the meal, communion, where we receive God’s abundant grace through the word and the bread, Christ’s body and blood given for our forgiveness. We remember God’s love displayed through Christ’s willingness to suffer and die as a human for our sake. We eat, we hear, we take into ourselves God’s blessing for us. 

With communion completed there is only one part of worship to remain. We are sent. The benediction and blessing are proclaimed again, and we are sent, “Go in Peace, serve the Lord.”  

A church, a congregation is a worshiping assembly, gathered by the Holy Spirit, blessed and nourished with the Word of God and the sacraments, in order that we might be sent into creation to be the blessing God intends. 

When we leave this building, our worship hasn’t ended. The weekly worship service is just the beginning. How we go about our daily lives, having been sent with a blessing, to be a blessing, is our truest worship. All of us here have been called to a vocation, whether it be a medical lab technician, a farmer, a mother, father, Grandparent, teacher, accountant, city employee, administrator, pilot, driver, janitor/custodian, pastor, student, child, we are all blessed by God in those endeavors to bring the blessing we have received to bless others.  

One of my professors this week stated, the church has been struggling since it forgot that being a church isn’t about having this or that program to entertain the members or contribute to their social lives. The Church is ultimately a gathering of people who are equipped and empowered to go out into the world, to be the church, the kingdom of God, and to embody the love of Christ to the world.  

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: 

where there is hatred, let me sow love; 

where there is injury, pardon; 

where there is doubt, faith; 

where there is despair, hope; 

where there is darkness, light; 

where there is sadness, joy. 

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek 

to be consoled as to console, 

to be understood as to understand, 

to be loved as to love. 

For it is in giving that we receive, 

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, 

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. 

Amen. 

Sermon for March 1st, 2020, the first Sunday of Lent

This sermon was proclaimed at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Rock Valley, IA on March 1st, 2020.

Grace and Peace to you from the one who is, who was, and who is to come, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. 

Our texts this week call on us to live in these two stories of temptation.  

In one, humans are created and given a purpose. Humans are created to till and keep the land, a bit more of a literal translation would be to serve and protect the creation. Humans were given immense freedom, but the freedom was not boundless. We are told not to eat of one tree. Everything else is in our care, and everything else that is fit for eating is given to us.  

We were created not to laze about doing nothing to be nothing but pretty things for God to look at and admire. Or to give God pleasure, like in many other ancient faiths. Humans were given purpose for their lives and a great deal of freedom to live into that purpose. There was just one caveat. 

Then something happened, we were no longer happy with the freedom we were given. We wanted more than what had been given to us. In a human, a couple, sin came into the world when we ceased to follow God’s purpose and plan. Sin came when we couldn’t even follow a single limit on the otherwise boundless freedom we had been given. 

But, even in the story of the fall, the story of human temptation and failure, even when sin entered the world, there is a hint at the gospel. God had promised humans death if they disobeyed God’s commandment. But, instead, God showed mercy. Adam and Eve were not killed, life though became much more difficult. The joy and the plenty of the garden was replaced by toil and pain. That is what separation from God is, toil and pain. Fulfilling our first command to serve and protect creation in the land of plenty would start to come into conflict with the need to work and to survive. The further we have gone from serving and protecting creation, the harder it gets to live lives of plenty, where we have enough, without worrying what we will have for tomorrow. 

The other story of temptation, Jesus enters a land of want. A wilderness where meeting one’s most basic of needs is impossible. The tempter comes, offering easy ways. But Jesus knows his purpose. The tempter points out that at any time, Jesus could end his hunger. Jesus could command the angels to serve him. And Jesus could claim for himself rule and power over all the earth, but Jesus declines. It is also interesting to see in the three temptations how things change. First Christ is told to save himself. Command that these rocks turn to bread. But Christ will not do that. Then Christ is tempted to have God’s servants to save him. Christ again denies that. Finally, the tempter offers that Jesus need not even lift a finger, all Jesus needs to do is collapse at the tempter’s feet, the easiest thing to do, and the tempter will give Jesus all power and all authority, and Jesus refuses.  

That is incredible to me, how hard is it to refuse someone telling you, don’t worry, I will do all the work and you will get all the credit. 

We have two similar stories this week, but two vastly different results. Humans fail and fall to a simple temptation despite having all humanly needs met. Jesus resists temptation, even though he is completely lacking any comfort. 

Then we have our good friend Paul, in his letter to the Romans, trying to explain the immensity and the incredible nature of what God accomplished through Christ. Paul tells us the whole of the Bible’s message in this brief, and somewhat convoluted text.  

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned... But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. 16 And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. 17 If, because of the one man's trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. 19 For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.” 

Just as the actions of one condemned all of us, and made it impossible for us to live according to God’s plan for us, in one person, Jesus, all are saved, all are redeemed, all are reconciled, even though we all continue to sin. In one-person death entered the world, and from one person we are given the gift of eternal life. 

God presents us with another amazing image in the stories of human failure and Christ’s redeeming death. 

The story of sin and salvation, begins and ends with a tree. 

In the garden we have a beautiful tree, living, and bearing fruit that appears to be good to eat. Yet we are told do not eat the fruit of that tree. Yet, from that beautiful, living tree, sin and death enter the world. 

On the hill outside of Jerusalem we have another tree, the cross. It is a dead thing, it is a tool of torture and death, but the fruit that it bears, Jesus’ body, gives us eternal life and redemption of sin. It bears fruit that Jesus himself told us to take and eat, a command we continue to remember and follow every time we participate in the sacrament of communion.   

For several weeks during epiphany we kept hearing in our readings from the New Testament that God’s wisdom appears foolish to the world. Similarly, we heard that God’s strength is revealed in weakness.  

We see God’s strength and power through God freely choosing to empty God’s self in the person of Jesus Christ, to become human, to live as a human, to suffer as a human and to die a humiliating death on a cross.  At any time, God and Jesus could have decided, no, God does not need to do this. God does not need creation or humans. God does not need us. God could have saved God’s self from suffering and started fresh.  

But instead, in choosing to become human and weak, to suffer and die for our sin, our transgressions, God affirmed God’s power by saying not that God must do this, but that God will do this for the creation that God loves. That is the good news that we must continue to remember and to hear. That God choose to suffer and die, because God loves all of creation. God gave up the benefits of being God, so that creation could truly love God and truly live into God’s plan and purpose for all created things.  

Gracious God, we thank you for your Son, who was tempted, but did not give into temptation, who was free to save himself, but chose instead to give his own life, that we might have forgiveness of sin and life eternal with you, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.