Easter Sunday Sermon

I little late with this.

Blessed Easter!

+INI+

Alleluia! Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

This morning we proclaim the end of one story and the beginning of another. Christ is risen, come back to us – but that is the end of one story and the beginning of another.

Think of Mary Magdalene, there in the garden. Think of her progress through the three stages of Resurrection.

First – she is blinded by grief

Three days ago her beloved friend and teacher was torn from her life by mob violence and corrupt authority. She stood on Calvary and watched him die a hideous and shameful death. She had loved him in great measure because of the way he’d loved her.

And that morning – as she walked through the awakening city. Everything seemed as if nothing had happened. Why did the world insist on going around? The finality of the thud of the rock rolling in place to close the tomb was still echoing in her mind as she came to the garden that morning.

Because if there is anything you can count on is that the dead stay dead.

Mary is blinded by her grief

·      Even after she finds the tomb empty and even as she confesses her confusion to the angels, her grief blinds her.

·      Even as Jesus appears, her grief blinds her, and she can’t recognize him.

·      It is only when Jesus calls her by name that she understands that he’s done what he promised.

Stage 2: Hope fanned to flame.

We are told that Jesus had driven 7 demons from Mary. That is a lot of demons! This is a woman with a story!

But in Jesus she had found hope. Hope that her life could be different, hope that in this community of Jesus’ Followers she was not an outcast.

When she came to the garden that morning that fiery hope was a small dying ember, but at the sound of her name, what had been smoldering burst back into flame.

What joy in that moment! Life seemed to have suddenly returned to normal in that moment.

But it had not; for the next thing Jesus says to her tells her that something new was happen.

“Do not hold on to me,” he says. “I cannot stay here with you, but I will still be with you.”

There is a new future in store! And Mary is the start of it.

Mary’s risen lord says to her, “Go and tell the others.”

And this is the 3^rd Stage of Resurrection – “Go and tell others.”

Mary is the first apostle, the apostles to the Apostles – the first in a long line of relay runners with the news that death itself has died.

She takes the news back to the Jesus’s followers, blinded by grief, hiding in fear

She tells them the News – the Good News! And lives began to change.

This is the Third Stage of resurrection – to go out and tell all around us of life that not even death can defeat us.

Paul says something along these lines:

“So since you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”

What Paul is saying is this. Resurrection – Jesus, yours and mine  – is not something that happened once years ago as a one-off exception. And it is not something that will happen only on some future day.

No –resurrection life is ours - today.

It is revealed in this – we trust the promise that our ultimate destiny is eternal life in Christ.

In faith our sinful nature is replaced with Jesus’ nature as the beloved Son of God.

Here is what this means.

These “stages” are not a straight path. We go ‘round and ‘round touching these bases.

Because there is plenty of death in the world, plenty that grieves us and would break our hearts and destroy our hope.

And yet...

If you can’t see the power of the resurrection alive in the world today, don’t believe it! And if you look with the eyes of faith you will see it.

·      The husband who comes to himself and returns home to the wife he has wronged – and is forgiven.

·      The addict to drug or drink or violence who – with the help of many friends – takes the first step away from death, who turns around to life. 

·      The person who decides to forgive some wrong, instead of clinging to their right of retribution.

·      The community grief stricken in the aftermath of violence that commits to making a better future for its children.

·      And much more.

  Easter is the day to wake up from grief and loss.

            Wake up to God’s future!

Today is the day to be defined by our future, not by our past, but by God’s preferred and promised future.

That is the reality of our post Easter “Already and not yet” world. Resurrection goes on all around us. Can we be free from our grief to see it?

Like Mary we sent out to tell the world that death does not get the last word over us.

For new life abound! And Jesus has the future under control.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

Good Friday Sermon

More or less as preached at Our Savior's Lutheran Church, Albany, MN

+INI+

I can remember a time when everything stopped on Good Friday. Some of you may remember it that way, too.

Maybe it was really wasn’t quite so much this way as we remember it. Maybe not EVERYONE was in church from noon to 3. But it seems that way. That is how I remember it.

Shops were closed. Dad had the day off.  Three hours of thinking about death and Jesus. It made in impression on a child.

It is not that way now, and I am not sure how I feel about it. For one thing I wonder how many people were in church more out of social conformity than deep devotion. But – really – I think it gave us a false impression about the nature of Good Friday – the nature of the Cross-and about the nature of the God who died on that cross.

You see, somehow we imagine that – 2,000 years ago – the whole great city of Jerusalem fell silent. But surely that was not the case. Crucifixions were common. They were a key act of state terror by which the Romans reminded their subjects that the Peace of Roman would be enforced with ruthless efficiency. People avoid the site of executions if they could.

Of course, there are reports of earthquakes on that day, of strange darkness. But there was nothing to drew a connection between these signs and one more dead Jew on a cross.

Jesus wasn’t the first victim of state terror. And he wouldn’t be the last.

+++

The simple fact is that nobody much noticed what was happening on that Friday.

This tells us about the God who died on that Cross.

It gives us a clue – if we have eyes to see it! – about where we will meet God.

I have no doubt that God is sometimes found in moments of the great glory. I have met God in such moments.

But – if you want to find the God who died for you on the Cross – don’t look big. Look small. Look where no one would think to look.

In the Cross we see that God will always be found in the dark places, on the moments of emptiness, when no one else much notices.

Most of all we find him where none of us would like to look. In the silence of nothingness; in the grave. Our grave.

When teaching out the Creed in Confirmation class We got to the phrase about how Jesus “descended to the place of the Dead.” What could THAT mean?

We looked at 1 Peter 3, about how Jesus “proclaimed the Gospel to the spirits in place of the dead.”

Then – slowly – little lights went on in our darkness. We are all going to be in the grave –sooner or later.

Then it hit 'em – In the grave, when we have nothing left – THAT is where we meet God! That is where we will hear Jesus – the God who hung from the cross.

“Come on!” we will hear him say. “Follow me! I know the way out.”

Rob Bell Easter Video

If you have never seen one of Rob Bells Nooma Videos before- hang on to your hats!

Rob Bell Nooma - Easter

Christ is risen, Alleluia

Risen indeed! Alleluia!

Video Pick of the Week Easter Greetings from ELCA Bishop Elizabeth Eaton

Easter Message from ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton.

Maundy Thursday Sermon

Preached at Our Savior's Lutheran Church, Albany MN.

Have a blessed Easter!

+I+N+I+

Have you watched Downtown Abby? It is this British soap opera set in early 20th Century England. It centers on the Earl of Grantham and his family – the Crawly family - and the servants who make their life possible. It is a HUGE hit for PBS.

If you watch the show you will have noticed how careful distinction exist between who serves whom. And it is not just “upstairs.” For instance, different ranks of servants are addressed in different ways. Senior staff by their last name – Carson, the butler or Bates, His Lordships valet. The Cook is Mrs. Patmore (although she has never married all cooks and housekeepers are addressed as “Mrs.) but the Assistant Cook is Daisy.

One of the supporting characters is Joseph Molesley. He was valet to Matthew Crawly, the heir who died tragically. He had a hard time getting established with an equivalent position and comes back = this time as a footman, several steps down the ladder. But what should he be called? As a footman he would be addressed as Joseph, but the “family upstairs” address him as they did when he as Valet, as Molesley. Carson, the butler, is not amused.

So imagine what a shock it would be for Lord Grantham to come downstairs and wash the feet of all the servants, and invite them to dinner? The servants would be confused and uncomfortable. It would be a huge disruption to the settled order of things.

So I have sympathy for Peter in this moment. His moving target of a response tells of us of his confusion. Where to put the emphasis?

YOU shall not wash my feet.
You shall not WASH my feet.
You shall not wash MY feet
 You shall not wash my FEET
 

+++

“You are to love each other as I have loved you.”

This may be the hardest thing Jesus ever told us to do!

It is not hard to THINK about. It is hard to DO!

To love each other as Jesus loves us is to ignore the barriers that exist between us. It takes us out of our comfort zone. It requires us to back our words of love with loving actions.

And I don’t think it is really any easier to accept that kind of love. I think that is the other source of Peter’s reluctance.

To be served in such an intimate way requires some distance. That is why, for instance, doctors don’t want to take care of their own loved ones. It changes the relationship.

I don’t know what was in Peter’s heart – but I know what is in my heart and the heart of those around me. We believe – really believe it as a matter of identity – that we need to be self-sufficient, self-secure & self-made.

But what if someone comes to us and says –

Can I help you? You need help!Can I serve you? You need to be served!Can I heal you, comfort you, forgive you…?

We might be uncomfortable, confused, put off, even angry.

This is why Jesus asked us not to THINK about loving each other but to engage in the physical action of doing it. Love is a behavior. Like any behavior it takes practice.

+++

Tonight we are going to have the opportunity to take Jesus at his word and see what happens.We had thought about having basins of water all over the place and invite everyone to come and wash feet. But that might have taken a while and been a bit messy. It would have been a big step.

So, we are going to try something smaller. Member how I explained to the children that, in addition to washing you feet the slave would have massaged healing ointment into your feet.

So, today we are all going to give each other hand massages. You’ll find non-scented hand lotion here and there in the pews. We’ll need to work together so that no one gets left out…

Don’t be scared. It will be fine…

+++

Following this, the closing…

Jesus called that a “New Commandment.” But the Commandment to Love God and Love Neighbor is not a new command – Jesus was just quoting the scriptures.

That makes this commandment NEW is who it is who gives it, and where we are all at when we hear it, and what is going to happen now.

Jesus will go and show us just what REAL love is; what it looks like; how far it will go.

He will get up and go to the cross, freely offering himself that the World might live.   

+AMEN+

Sermon for Passion Sunday

Sermon for Palm sunday at Our Savior's Lutheran Church, Albany MN

Texts:
Matthew 21:1-11
Philippians 2:5-11
Matthew 27:11-54

+INI+

Jerusalem is not a big place, even today. In Jesus’ time it was about 1/3 mile square surrounded by walls. (City of Albany = 2.25 sq miles!) And it was PACKED with people, there for the Passover Feast.

And in the center of it all was the Great Temple. The Temple was where God had promised to dwell, a place where all people of all nations could find goodness and mercy, hope and life.

So, the city was filled with excitement and tension. The religious authorities were keeping an eye on the crowd. The Romans were watching, too.

Into this scene comes this – Parade? Demonstration? Bit of street theater? We need to read this right.

To proclaim someone as “the Son of David who comes in the name of the Lord!” means the Messiah has come. Jesus is proclaimed as the One who has shown up in the Capital City to establish the Kingdom of God’s Servant David once again, once and for all!

Hosanna in the highest heaven!” is a call of salvation – save us from our enemies!

Cutting down palm branches was done when an insurgency under Judas Maccabaeus had driven off the last pagan occupation army 170 years before.

Centuries before they had laid coats before victorious King Josiah.

Even the donkey – far from being the sign of humility we might see – was a sign of kingly office. David had ridden to his coronation on a donkey.

+++

“So, who is this,” a bystander asks? “Jesus, the Prophet from Nazareth.”

“A prophet, yes, but more then a prophet.” Not just any prophet!

Wandering, wonder-working, messiahs were a dime a dozen!

But the Messiah had a job to do – throw off the oppression of Rome and reestablish the Kingdom of David.

Roman took exception. If David’s kingdom was coming back that means the Roman kingdom was leaving and that was not going to happen.

So all these messiah candidates died and their followers went home. The powers that control this world as it is saw to that.

Yet we, 2000 years later, are going to spend this week in church reading ourselves back into the scene – standing on the street corner, as it were, as the bystander who asks, “Who is this?”

We will be in the Upper Room to see Jesus wash the feet of reluctant, enthusiastic, brave, fearful Peter.

We will see him take the ancient ritual of Seder – the Passover Meal – and open it up as meal for the world.

We will see the crowd that this day shouted, “Hosanna! Save us!” now shout, “Give us Barabbas!”

We will see Pilate loss control of the situation and cave in to public pressure.

We will see Jesus crucified as a danger to the established order of Church and State – “One man dying to save the Nation” as Caiaphas and the Council had planned.

We will see him mocked and humiliated. We will hear him cry out in the voice of great psalm of Lament – “My God! Why have you forsaken me?”

And we will hear the officer in charge of the execution detail give his judgment – this was righteous man. Just one more innocent victim of power.

+++

“Who is this?” Well, that is the question, isn’t it? And it is a question that no one can answer for another.

Mathew, Mark, Luke and John wrote their Gospels to share with us the answer they had come to. I can share the answer I have come to. But my answer can never be your answer.

This is what I believe – what I am persuaded of.

Jesus is the hope of the world – the one who has brought peace between God and creation, opening up the possibility of peace among all people of the world.

I believe, with Paul, that the name of Jesus has the power to gather all nations and tribes to him.

If you were to ask me “Who is this?” that is what I would answer.

So, I ask again – Who is this, to you? Who is this Prophet from Nazareth called Jesus?

I’d love to hear your answers. They will be different as you grow through life. That answer that made sense to me as a 8^th Grade confirmation student we not adequate as a new father in my 20’s, and those answers are not adequate now.

And it is a more urgent question then it might seem. Here is why…

When Jesus dies, Mathew tells us, the curtain in the Great Temple was turn apart from top to bottom.

This huge woven fabric was decorated with the stars of the night sky.

Only the High Priest went beyond it, once a year, into the presence of God, with the blood of the sacrifice for the people’s sins on his hands, to plead for forgiveness.

They would tie a rope round his ankle so that, if he should be struck dead by the Presence, they could safely drag his body out.

And now that temple curtain was torn apart. What do you think that means?

That we can now get to God? Well yes. But it that is all there is to it God is still safely hidden away.

Let me suggest a more wonderful and frightening possibility.

Now God’s Presence is loss in the world. The God of Goodness and Mercy chasing us down!

I invite you, this week, especially, to make yourself an easy target.

Video Pick of the Week

Enjoy...

A 4-year old tells the story of Palm Sunday

Getting ready for Wednesday Lenten Prayer - Psalm 23

The Lord is my Shepherd

One of the highlights of my life and ministry to date has been knowing the South Sudanese Community at Bethlehem in St Cloud.  In 2009 I traveled with two leaders of the Bethlehem Community to visit relatives in the “old country. ” At that time they were living just across the border from Sudan in SW Ethiopia. 

They have a powerful story. These are of the Nuer ethnic group who lived as herders and farmers in the upper Nile Basin until 2007 when - very literally - all hell broke lose. James Puotyual, who services as a Lay Minister, on the Bethlehem Staff tells the story of how as a teenage father with a young child being awoken in the night by the shouts of warning. “The army is coming. Run!” He and his wife Nyandit picked up their son Jul, and with their neighbors made there way to the Ethiopian border. It the journey took 5-6 days, James recalls. They had no food and little water. Many people – particularly the young and the old.

The whole community prayed Psalm 23, over and over and over again.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil
for you are with me. Your rod and your staff they comfort me.”

James is on the left with (R to L) - James' mother in law, friend and mother 

Children's Sermon at Sunday Worship. I am holding a picture of the Assembly
Bethlehem taken the Sunday before.

The congregation at Kargum, Ethiopia for Sunday Worship

Sermon for April 6 2014 - the raising of Lazarus

Sermon for April 6 2014 - the raising of Lazarus - John 11:1-54

As always the sermon "as preached" is a little different than the text.

Peace and joy in the Resurrection Life.

Pastor Steve

+INI+

“Unbind him, and let him go!” 

Mary and Martha are facing probably their worst loss ever in the death of their brother Lazarus. And it is made worse by Jesus! Instead of coming when called he stayed away until Lazarus was good and dead.

Mary says to him, “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died.” When Jesus sees Mary and the neighbors weeping, he is greatly moved, troubled in spirit (maybe even angry) and Jesus, too, begins to weep.

And then Jesus begins to act.

One by one Jesus removes the impediments to his final action: He calls for the removal of the stone. Jesus calls “Lazarus! Come out!” And the dead man comes out, bound in strips of cloth.

 Jesus then says, “Unbind him and let him go.”

The stone, the stench, the decay, the strips of cloth, the death of Lazarus itself –none of these barriers gets in the way of Jesus’ purpose. Now Mary, Martha and Lazarus find themselves in a much bigger world than they could have imagined.

The faith that has drawn them to Jesus, leads them on to a life of freedom, full of twists and turns they could not foresee; it leads them into participating in Jesus’ mission. As they put their trust in him, he shows them infinitely more than they can ask or imagine. 

+++

The resurrection of Lazarus points to a great truth - that to follow Jesus is to accept a new kind of life. Eternal life.

Don’t think of this Resurrection Life as this life we know going on forever. Frankly, that would be dreadful! All that hurt, brokenness, suffering going on and on? No, Thank-you!

Resurrection is a WHOLE NEW LIFE, unlike life as we know it, as unlike life as we know it now as life after birth is different from life in the womb.

And it begins now!  That has been at the center of all these stories we’ve heard – Nicodemus, The Woman at the Well, the man born blind all point to this. New life begins now!

Indeed an eternal life that is ONLY starting some week from some Tuesday is of little help to us.

God is at work in the world about us, making all things new, helping us move from darkness and death to light and life. He wants us to live life unbound by fear and death HERE AND NOW.

This is the decisive turning point in the story.

The authorities turn from generally anxiety to a quite specific fear – “If this keeps up our society will be upset and the wrath of Rome will fall on us hard.” They turn away from the prospect of resurrection because they are afraid to die – afraid that the nation will die.

And Caiaphas – always the pragmatist – says the truest thing he ever said. “It is better for one man to save the nation.”

This is true on so many levels – Resurrection only works on the dead. As long as we hang on to this life as we know it we will never know the joy of living in the Resurrection now!

Life unbound

So how can you live a life unbound and live into the individual God has called you to be? What is binding you and restricting your growth? It might be fear, fear of death or fear of failing; you might be bound by social norms, a need for control. Anything that keeps us from growing closer to God, anything that restricts us from the freedom God intends for us are winding sheets that keep bound in death.

And how as a church can we be “Our Savior’s, unbound?” A body of people called to make God’s love known in the world?

Here is a start:

Our Savior’s Lutheran Church is on people united in Christ, empowered by God’s Grace through Worship and the study of God’s word to glorify God by serving and witnessing in the community and the world.

The mission statement of our congregation is the declaration of people set free from the power of the resurrection to live in New Life that begins on.

The raising of Lazarus is an invitation for us to come out of the tomb and to enter the fullness of life that is made possible by the risen Christ himself, the Jesus that is with us here and now. There This is just what will happen. That is what a life unbound by a present tense resurrection looks like!

The beginning of the end

The man said, “I am a product of my past.” He said this as an explanation to why he is hanging unto a great wrong done him 40 years ago.

We are all products of our past – the highs and low of our life to date.

We are now called to be products of our future resurrection – to live into God’s Life that lasts which begins in Baptism and leads beyond the limits of time and space.  

We are the resurrection people. We are the life from death people. We are the people called in THIS time and THIS place to unbind the broken bleeding world.

We are all these things because we have nothing left to loss!

We have been buried with Christ into his death and rising with him into New Resurrected Life.

Each day we are called to die to sin and fear and be raised up to new life in him – this day and every day.

Jesus is always calling us out of the tomb and inviting us into the life of faith that we might face death, knowing we are in God’s care at all times, that we might live life more fully without fear and with perfect freedom.

AMEN

Video Pick of the week - The Skit Guys take on Lazarus

The Skit Guys are genius!

Enjoy the video!

Pastor Steve

Practice Resurrection

Good friends...

As I've been thinking about the story of Lazarus - not just the day he was called forth from his grave but the whole back story of what his relationship with Jesus might have been like and especially the scene in John 12 when Mary, Martha and Lazarus throw a dinner party for Jesus ("Hi! Welcome to our home. I'm Lazarus. I was dead, but I got better")...

Anyway, as I was thinking about all these things this poem by Wendel Berry came to mind.

What does it mean for you to practice resurrection? 


MANIFESTO: THE MAD FARMER LIBERATION FRONT by Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay.

Want more of everything made.

Be afraid to know you neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.

Not even your future will be a mystery any more.

Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something they will call you.

When they want you to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something that won't compute.

Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace the flag.

Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannot understand.

Praise ignorance,

for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.

Invest in the millennium.

Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant,

that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested when they have rotted into the mold.

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus that will build under the trees

every thousand years.

Listen to carrion--put your ear close,

and hear the faint chattering of the songs that are to come.

Expect the end of the world.

Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable.

Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.

So long as women do not go cheap for power,

please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy a woman satisfied to bear a child?

Will this disturb the sleep of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.

Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head in her lap.

Swear allegiance to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and politicos can predict the motions

of your mind, lose it.

Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn't go.

Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary,

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.

First thoughts on the Sermon for April 6 Lent 5 A - The Resurrection of Lazarus

Lent 5 A - John 11:1-45 

First thought #1

20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him." 23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." 24 Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." 25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" 27 She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."

In John's Gospel the promise of resurrection is not JUST about something off in some distance future. The promise is of a resurrected life HERE AND NOW.

Where do you experience new life in the midst of death in your world today?

First thought #2

43 When Jesus had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

Lazarus comes walking out of the grave at the sound of the Lord saying his name. But he still needs his family and friends to "unbind him and let him go."

Where are you and the Church called to "unbind people and let them go" so that they can experience the life that God wants for them today? How do we actually do that?

Join in the conversation!

Peace and joy...

Steve