Messages, Meditations, and Musings on the Life of Faith by Rev. Dr. Scott E. Olson, Interim Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church, Preston, MN

Sunday, October 27, 2019

"Fake News?" - Sermon for Reformation Sunday

Fake News?
Reformation Sunday
October 27, 2019
Grace, Waseca, MN
John 8.31-36

“…you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.”

A legend has it that five blind men approach an elephant and attempt to describe it. The first blind man, holding the trunk, says an elephant is like a hose. The second, grabbing an ear, says it’s a fan. The third blind man, wrapping his arms around a leg, says it is like a tree. The fourth touching the massive side, swears the elephant is like a wall. Whereas the fifth blind man, grabbing the tail, insists the elephant is like a snake. Each from his own perspective is absolutely sure he knows what an elephant is like.

We know all too well how truth can be a matter of perspective, but in our day and age it seems even more discouraging. It is said that we live in a post-truth society, where objective facts matter less than appealing to emotions or personal beliefs, that we don’t have a shared standard separating fact from opinion.

The situation seems more dire: not only can we not agree on what is true, there are people out there generating “fake news” to further their agenda. Just last Thursday it was revealed that a state senator in North Dakota knowingly circulated a false picture and story to attack a political opponent. His “apology” did not lessen his vitriol as he continued to attack his opponent. Furthermore, it has become commonplace to brand truth that you don’t like as fake news rather than arguing your position on its own merits. In such a climate, the Rotarians’ Four-Way Test seems a quaint relic: “Of the things we think, say and do: Is it the truth; is it fair to all concerned; will it build goodwill and better friendships; will it be beneficial to all concerned?”

Lest you think this a modern phenomenon, Jesus seeks to speak a word of truth to the crowds that have been following him. He says, “... you will know the truth and the truth will make you free,” a surprising word to them. You see, they come from a long line of “truth-spinners” going all the way back to Adam, who in one fell swoop pinned all the blame for his disobedience on both God and Eve. “This woman that you gave me” caused me to sin. The crowds erroneously claim they have never been slaves, yet who can forget the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians and now the Romans? Then Jesus tells a curious parable as only John’s Jesus can do about slaves and sons in households. Even so, the moral of the tale seems evident: freedom is found in relationship with Jesus as God’s incarnate truth.

It’s hard to believe, but some people don’t believe that Jesus ever existed, let alone represents truth. So, what does it mean in our post-truth, fake news culture for Jesus to claim to bring and be truth? First, we need to acknowledge there are different ways of knowing and that knowing Jesus is a relational term, much like we know those whom we are closest to. I know a lot about my wife; I can rattle off statistics and information, but that only scratches the surface of who she is as a person. It is my 40+ years of being in relationship that I begin to know her. It is similar with knowing Jesus. The word for continuing in Jesus means to rest, abide or remain; in modern speech, it means to hang together. We know Jesus when are with him.

Second, knowing Jesus as truth means that our lives are conformed to his and the truth he proclaims. Part of our transformation means rejecting the lie that we aren’t enough and have to be more, that lie that can do it all ourselves and have it all. Living Jesus’ truth means accepting the fact that we are accepted by God unconditionally and that each of us are worthy of love and belonging. Another part of living Jesus’ truth is allowing that love and acceptance to flow through us to others. And one more part means knowing we are forgiven when we fall short of living the truth.

Today is Reformation Sunday, a time when we remember, among other things, that God continues to move in, with and through the church in all its imperfections and shortcomings. We give thanks for such truth-abiders as Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, et al. It’s a time to proclaim, as one of my colleagues has said, that we have the truth in the Lutheran Church, but we don’t have all of it. Sometimes we might feel like those five blind men grasping at the elephant but we do know that Jesus is not fake news but rather good news. Jesus is the good news of God’s desire to love and bless the world, in us and through us. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

"From Duty to Delight" - Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

From Duty to Delight
Pentecost 18 – Lectionary 28
October 13, 2019
Grace, Waseca, MN
Luke 17.11-19

In last week’s Gospel reading, Jesus’s followers asked for more faith, something we agreed was a reasonable request given Jesus’ demands on us. Jesus answered with two parables, one about a mustard seed and another about doing one’s duty as servants. We hypothesized that Jesus was trying to help them imagine that they already had enough faith and that the issue was not about having more. In fact, we wondered if Jesus was telling them that they already had what they needed to live the kingdom life and that their believing would grow by doing what is expected as a follower of him. Though I didn’t use the term last week, as a Christian there’s a sense of duty we have that comes as a response to what God has already done for us.

However, I ended the sermon by saying that there is also room for joy and praise in the Christian life, but that we’d leave that for today. Here we have these in the story of Jesus’ healing of the 10 lepers. Before we explore joy and gratitude in the Christian life, It’s helpful to remember that lepers in Jesus’ time suffered any number of skin diseases, not all of which we’d classify as Hansen’s Disease. They could have had eczema, psoriasis or even mold or mildew. Regardless of the particulars, they were outcast from society and forced to live on the fringes of their communities. Ironically, they were also reliant on that same community to help them survive, usually through begging.

It’s also helpful to remember that the Samaritans and the Jews of Jesus’ time were mortal enemies. Jews considered Samaritans to be “half-breeds,”-pardon the term-not really Jewish. Even so, both groups looked down on the other as false worshipers of the One True God. So, for Jesus to be around a leper would make him ritually unclean and unable to worship in the temple. To be with a Samaritan would make him doubly so. To make matters worse, consorting with both would be considered scandalous.

When the 10 lepers cry out for mercy, they may have just been begging for money; we don’t know what they were asking. Yet, Jesus gives them more. He tells them to go show themselves to the priests, which was a necessary requirement for reintegration into society, including worshiping in the temple . Dutifully, they do exactly what Jesus orders them to do and are healed on their way, no doubt anxious to get back to their normal lives. Yet, suddenly one of them turns around and comes back to Jesus, loudly praising God in the process. Why does he do so? I think it’s because he sees God’s healing presence in the midst of the awfulness of his life. In doing so, the Samaritan leper moves from duty to delight in his relationship with Jesus.

There is much about the Christian life that involves duty: we love others because God first loved us. We forgive others because we have been forgiven. We pray because God tells us to ask him for what we need. We give of ourselves, our energy and our money because we are committed to being a member of a particular community of faith. But we also experience deep joy and delight in these things when we see God working in, with, and through us. Even when our personal and communal lives don’t go as we plan, we look for those places where God meets us in the messiness of life and see how God works in ways that astonish and surprise us.

One of the reasons we gather together is to help each other see God’s working and share the delight we experience. You see, as important as it was to the lepers to return home to their family, friends and livelihood it was just as important to the community who were anxious to welcome them back. As the poet John Donne as noted, no one is an island; what happens to one of us affects us all. That’s one of the many reasons why what we do here—what God does here—is so important. This week I invite you to find where God is working and delight in his presence. Amen.

Sunday, October 6, 2019

"Doing is Believing" - Sermon for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Doing is Believing
Pentecost 17 – Lectionary 27
October 6, 2019
Grace, Waseca, MN
Luke 17.5-10

This past Wednesday night one of the Confirmation students asked me about my favorite sport to watch. I responded, “golf,” mostly because I try to learn something about the sport I play regularly. I also told him that I follow the Twins and Vikings though they have crushed my heart in the past. But I think that another reason I said I liked to watch golf is that, although I love to watch many sports, I don’t like to see “showboating” or excessive celebration. In golf the most you see will be a hand clutch. Maybe it’s my stoic Scandinavian nature, but I think it’s because I don’t think you should make such a big deal out of something you get paid to do. One should act like, “I do this all the time; it’s no biggie.” Yet, our culture is so much into rewards and “look at me,” as evidenced by this Kwik Trip Rewards card in my wallet. It’s not the only one I have.

In our Gospel reading today from Luke, Jesus’ closest followers ask for something that sounds reasonable: more faith. Who wouldn’t want more faith, especially in light of the cautions and demands he has laid upon them a few verses earlier. Jesus has just warned them about stumbling along the Christian life, to rebuke those who do, and to forgive those who repent. That sounds like an overwhelming demand on the lives of those who follow Jesus and so they ask for faith. Who can blame them? Jesus’ response is curious, if not off the wall: he looks around, spies a mulberry tree and tells them the tiniest amount of faith could do wonders beyond imagination. He then tells a parable about servants who should not make a big deal of doing what they are supposed to do.

When approaching a text like this, especially with parables, we want to ask some questions. For example, why did Jesus give this teaching to his followers and why did Luke think it important enough to include in his Gospel? After all, we don’t have everything that Jesus said and did, so why this? And Luke had to make choices about what he collected, so why did he included these sayings. Furthermore, as we explore these questions with Jesus’ parables, we also want to remember that Jesus’ parables are not puzzles to be solved but mysteries to be entered; they are designed to open us up more than be opened. So, here’s one hypothesis: I think Jesus tells them (and us) that asking for more faith is not the right request in response to his call on their lives. Rather, he invites them to imagine a Christian life in a more ordinary, yet more life-giving kind of way.

We moderns tend to think of faith as those things we believe to be true about God, Jesus, etc. Now, the things we believe are an important part of faith, but they are a smaller part than some people want to admit. The biblical story in general and Luke in particular are more concerned about faith as trust, a trust that gets expressed in how we live our lives and then grows through exercise. In other words, “Doing is believing.” Faith is more about a relationship with Jesus than it is about a list of propositions we have to subscribe to. Faith as trust in God grows as it is exercised, in response to what God has already done in us.

Jesus tells his followers that he has already given them what they need to live the life of faith. He tells them that faith doesn’t have to be heroic. Most often faith is just doing what needs to be done, what is right in front of you, what may seem ordinary and even mundane, without thought of a reward. As Lutheran followers of Jesus, we are reminded that we don’t do these things to earn our salvation or to get rewards (we don’t swipe our cards). Jesus has taken care of that already. Because Jesus has healed the breach between us and God, we can grow into that relationship right now.

These past few days I’ve been learning some of the ways the people of Grace “believe by doing.” I’ve heard how the quilters send tangible expressions of love to high school seniors and the needy. I’ve heard about Pine Ridge, mission trips and the food shelf ministry. I’m sure there are many more I’ll be hearing about in the time ahead. Through our baptisms, God has called us all to lives of meaning and purpose. With the gift of the Holy Spirit, God gives us what we need to live out our baptisms in our work, play, school and families. And if that isn’t enough, God gives us his very self, body and blood, in Holy Communion to remind us and strengthen us.

So, does this mean that there is no place for joy or gratitude or thanksgiving in the life of faith? Of course, there is, but that’s the sermon for next week, so you’ll just have to come back. Meanwhile, look for the ways that God is doing God’s work in the world in, with and through you, however ordinary they may seem to be. We are an ordinary people but with an extraordinary God. Amen.