"Be Open" - Sermon for Pentecost Sunday A

Be Open
Pentecost Sunday A
May 31, 2020
Grace, Waseca, MN
Acts 2.1-21; John 20.19-23

A few months ago, before the pandemic closed everything, I got a call from a student at Gustavus Adolphus College, my alma mater. Now, usually I don’t answer the phone because I know they are calling asking for money. To be clear, I do donate regularly, but I prefer to do it online. However, for some reason that evening, I answered the call. The young man was very nice, thanked me for my past donations, and told me his plans upon graduating in May.

Then he surprised me by asking me what advice I’d give the graduating students. I couldn’t think of anything but I did know that I wanted to avoid the usual platitudes i.e., “follow your bliss.” So I told him I was having a hard time coming up with something. He persisted and said, “What would you tell your younger self?” Almost immediately I said, “Be open.” And then I added, “Be open to possibilities you haven’t considered. To put a theological spin on it, be open to where God is leading, however unexpected.”

Today is Pentecost Sunday when we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the commissioning of the church. In the gospel reading from John, Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit on his followers the evening of his resurrection, saying “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Then in our first reading from Acts, it appears Jesus didn’t get it right the first time. It’s now 50 days later and the Holy Spirit overwhelms the gathered followers, this time a lot more of them and with an audience. I think it’s helpful to realize this is the same Holy Spirit as in John but with a different manifestation. Yet, the invitation from Peter to the crowd is the same as the one from Jesus: be open to the Holy Spirit.

There are two aspects of being open to the Holy Spirit I want to talk about, the first is the work of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the active part of God working in the world, “blowing wherever and whenever” it wills.” As Luther says in the Small Catechism, the Holy Spirit calls us to faith; gathers us into the community; enlightens us with gifts; sets us apart to be God’s hands in the world; forgives us when we mess up; and keeps us together through all ups and downs. In the book of Acts, which should be called “The Acts of the Holy Spirit” rather than “The Acts of the Apostles,” the Holy Spirit is constantly with and through Jesus’ followers who are sent to love and bless the world.

That same Holy Spirit is present in us. And that’s the second, and scariest, part of the Holy Spirit: being open to the Holy Spirit in us. It’s scary because when the Holy Spirit is in us and we are open to it, change and transformation happens. As Acts progresses, Jesus’ followers will have their boundaries stretched and preconceived ideas challenged, most notably with the inclusion of non-Jews in God’s boundary-less kingdom. Personally, being open to the Holy Spirit has meant among other things that I needed to rethink my beliefs about what kind of love is acceptable to God. My theology hasn’t changed; I’m still an unabashed Lutheran. Yet, the Holy Spirit changed how I live out that theology.

As your interim senior pastor, I’m asking you to both be open to the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit. I’ve asked the Discovery Team to not bring preconceived ideas about your next pastor and I’m asking the same of you. Please ask God for the grace to open your hearts and minds to see where the Holy Spirit is working. Chances are, God is inviting you to join in doing some new things in the Waseca community.

More importantly, God is asking you to be open to transformation in your own hearts and minds. It’s a scary business, because you can’t see what it’s going to look like. But that’s okay because you’ve been through this before with other ventures and you’ll do it again with this one. Be comforted to know that the same Holy Spirit that blew through those first followers of Jesus now blows through you. Amen.

A video of this sermon can be viewed on the Facebook page of Grace Lutheran Church, Waseca, MN found here.

"Heaven: Person, Place or Thing?" - Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Heaven: Person, Place or Thing?
Easter 5AMay 10, 2020
Grace, Waseca, MN
John 14.1-14

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself so that where I am you may be also.”

When I was a young boy, I often wondered what heaven was like. Maybe you’ve wondered, too.
One day, it occurred to me that if I killed myself, I could find out. However, what didn’t occur to me is that I might not go to heaven.  Even so, it did occur to me—thankfully—that I’d be dead, albeit in heaven, and wouldn’t be alive anymore. So, I decided to wait to see what heaven was like, thinking that there was no big rush and I’d find out someday, but hopefully not too soon.

Certainly, the prospect of heaven is on the minds of those people who choose this text for the funerals of their loved ones. In fact, it is so meaningful that I’ve preached on this passage at over 100 funerals in my 24 years of ordained ministry. Yet, it seems like an odd choice for the Easter season as we consider the context in which Jesus speaks these words: The Last Supper. It’s the last meal with his followers before his arrest and execution. In what is called the Farewell Discourse (or the longest after-dinner speech in the Bible), Jesus knows that he’ll be tried and crucified and so he prepares his followers and friends for life without him.

During this speech he reminds them of their mission to spread the good news of God’s love for everyone. Later on, he tells them that they won’t be alone in this work, that the Holy Spirit will guide them. But Jesus also knows that they will feel lost and alone without him and so he speaks comforting words to them. He says that he has to go away to prepare a place for them but that he’ll come back for them.

I asked a few people what they thought heaven was like and all of them immediately described a place, in varying fashion. But almost immediately they shifted to talking about persons: loved ones who they missed and hope to be reunited with some day. In other words, what we really envision about the afterlife is being with the people who mean the most to us. The interesting thing is Jesus does the same thing in this passage: he shifts from talking about the place to talking about gathering his followers to himself. In fact, you can’t see it in English, but the Greek word for dwelling places is the noun form of an important word in John: meno. The word means to rest, abide, or remain. Hence, the dwelling places Jesus talks about are really “abiding places.” Heaven is relational more than situational.

As I have been working on this text, I’ve been thinking a lot about my mom, who died in June 37 years ago at age 57. Like all of us, she was a “mixed bag,” both saint and sinner in theological language. These remembrances evoke mixed feelings in me. On the one hand, I’m sad and angry that even with end stage emphysema she couldn’t quit smoking and, among other things, never knew her two, beautiful granddaughters. On the other hand, I’m grateful for the sacrifices she and Dad made for us and providing a place where all of our friends felt welcome and loved. She was a “second mom” to them all.

When she died, she was cremated and the ashes scattered somewhere. It wasn’t until my dad died six years later (also too young) and was interred at Ft. Snelling that there was a place to remember my mother, to visit her. Although I don’t visit often, I know the place is there, even if her ashes aren’t, and I can remember.

Furthermore, I know that she abides with Jesus, that Jesus abides with her, that she abides in my heart and in some mysterious way I abide in her. I know this to be true because of Jesus’ promises to provide that place as the way, truth and life. I also know that when we utter this great “I am” saying, to prevent people from God’s loving presence, we are doing so contrary to God’s purpose in Jesus Christ. Jesus did not intend to exclude people; otherwise it’s not good news.

There is much to trouble our hearts about these days, and with good reason; I don’t need to list them. It grieves me that people aren’t able to say goodbye to their loved ones properly. However, the assurance that we are loved and that God is saving a place for each of us brings great comfort. It also frees us up to admit our vulnerability to those fears while being able to respond whole-heartedly with love. As one of my colleagues said recently, we might be scattered but we’re not shattered. We may not know the what or the where of heaven, but we know the Who, the one who abides in us as we abide in his love. Thanks be to God. Peace and Amen.

For the video version of this service, please click here.