Let’s Go! … Oozing Love - Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Let’s Go! … Oozing Love

Pentecost 12B (Lectionary 20)

August 15, 2021

Grace, Waseca, MN

John 6.51-58

“… and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (Jesus, in John 6.51b)

“You are what you eat.” (Popularized by Victor Lindlahr)

On a recent episode of Science Friday, host Ira Plato talked to Sarah Everts, researcher and author of The Joy of Sweat. She talked about what makes sweat useful, it’s chemistry, and why it’s our evolutionary superpower. Then Everts told a story of a woman whose sweat was red and, if that was not disconcerting enough, it was ruining her clothing. The doctors ran many tests, but couldn’t figure out why her sweat was red until one day they noticed her brownish-red fingers, like a roll-your-own smoker. Except she didn’t use tobacco in any form. To make a long story short, the woman was consuming 45 bags of tomato snack chips per week and that’s why her sweat was red. I hope they were small bags. Can you imagine?

If we are what we eat, then what does it mean that Jesus’ flesh is for the life of the world? Today’s Gospel is the fourth of five texts reflecting on Jesus as the Bread of Life in John 6. Three weeks ago, in the story of the feeding of the 5,000, we discovered that the shape of Holy Communion was hinted at there, summed by the letters BBBS: Bring, Bless, Break, and Share. Last week we reflected on how Jesus as the Bread of Life gives us what we need for our wilderness times and, because we are the Body of Christ, enables us to be the Bread of Life for others going through difficult times as well.

In today’s text, what was hinted at about Holy Communion comes full bore as Jesus becomes more explicit and, dare I say, graphic. The Word who became flesh in John 1.14 now shockingly gives his flesh and blood to eat. It’s easier to see in the Greek, but this is no ordinary eating; this is chewing or munching. As we’ll see more pointedly next week, this is “tough to swallow” (as Eugene Peterson says in The Message). And, if you like puns, Jesus is trying to get a rise out of the Jewish authorities, but they can’t stomach this and are getting fed up, if not sick.

There has been a lot of ink spilled over what happens in Holy Communion, what kind of presence Jesus talks about. As Lutheran Christians, we insist that we consume Jesus, just as he claimed, without explaining it. When Jesus says “This is my body, this is my blood,” we believe that “is” means is. Bottom line: that means that Jesus goes to every part of our body, every molecule and atom. And at the risk of being just as graphic as Jesus, comes out through our very pores. In all that we think, say, or do we ooze the love of God through Jesus for the sake of the world.

Today is my last Sunday as your Interim Senior Pastor and besides thanking you for the opportunity to walk with you these past two years, I want to share with you some of my observations about God’s call on you. First, God has gifted you with tremendous staff and lay leadership; a beautiful worship space and physical plant; an endowment fund to meet community and individual needs; a childcare center, Grace Garden, that is respected throughout the community; and dedicated volunteers such as Ward Ask and Randy Bennet who guide the mission to Pine Ridge and the quilters who send more than 300 quilts each year all over the world. Even more so, God has given you a desire for reaching out into the Waseca community in a meaningful way, as yet discovered, and you are looking for a leader to guide you.

I’ve learned that both this congregation and the Waseca community is resilient and continually comes together to meet difficulties and traumatic events, and that Grace is often at the forefront. I’m confident that you will weather the storm of the pandemic with the same resiliency and become stronger for it. Furthermore, I suspect that because the school system is such a central component in Waseca you will build upon your long standing relationship with them and find new ways to be partners. Even so, I hope you will discern a way to address the significant mental health needs that are arising because of the pandemic.

Finally, I would like you to remember that the hard work of the Discovery Team, Call Committee and Church Council to call your next senior pastor is not the end, but rather a new chapter in God’s mission and ministry through Grace. So, please look deeply at the new mission statement, vision statement, and core values and then live them out while living into them. And remember that you are beloved children of God because you are what you eat, the very flesh and blood of the One who gives himself for you, for the sake of the world. So, Go!, oozing love. Amen.

For the video version and entire worship service click here.

Let’s Go! … In the Strength of This Food - Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Let’s Go! … In the Strength of This Food

Pentecost 11B (Lect. 18)

August 8, 2021

Grace, Waseca, MN

John 6.35, 41-51; 1 Kings 19.4-8

One Sunday after worship, Terri approached me and said, “I just want you to know how much my son, George, appreciates your sermons.” Her son, a high school teen, had been serving on the AV team the past several Sundays and, I might add, had been held captive to my sermonizing. I don’t know what I said that day, probably mumbling words of gratitude. But what I do remember is that I was going through a rough patch in my ministry at that time, which Terri couldn’t possibly have known. And I distinctly remember thinking that I would go “in the strength of that food 40 days and nights into the wilderness.”

Now, I’m not presumptuous to compare myself to the prophet Elijah in our reading from 1 Kings 19 today. This snippet doesn’t do this wonderful story justice, of a prophet who, with the power of God, does some amazing work only to run in fear of his life from the wicked Queen Jezebel. Yes, that Queen Jezebel. (This is a perfect example of the old adage, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Exhausted and out of gas in the wilderness, he collapses under a broom tree wanting to die. (By the way, it was pointed out by Dr. Rolf Jacobson, professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary, that those in the Old Testament who askGod to die aren’t allowed. I might add that God always has more for them to do, perhaps giving pause to those who claim they’ve done enough in the church and that it’s someone else’s turn.) Well, an angel appears to Elijah twice to give him bread to eat, strengthening him for God’s mission ahead. I encourage you to read the whole story, beginning in 1 Kings 17 and ending in chapter 20.

Being in the wilderness is typically not a choice for us; we find it disorienting and uncertain. We have been in one of the most disorienting wildernesses of our lives for the past year and a half caused by the pandemic. In the midst of this awful time there are added personal and social wildernesses: job changes; the death of loved ones to whom we have not said adequate goodbyes; political upheavals; and even increased divorces and addictions. None of these are of our choosing. And if that weren’t enough, here at Grace, we’ve had the wilderness of transitioning from one senior pastor to another.

Without diminishing the seriousness of these wildernesses, our texts today suggest these can be places of possibility. On the one hand, we can acknowledge that we don’t know what’s next and that is disorienting. Yet, on the other hand, we know that these are places where God shows up and meets us in the midst of our need. This is hard, because we aren’t comfortable in the wilderness and we want to rush through to the other side. But what if we were to sit for a bit, rest for a while, take a breath and look for where God’s angels come?

If that sounds simplistic, Jesus’ declaration and promise bolster us. He says, “I am the Bread of Life.” In those words, Jesus focuses the story of Elijah’s strengthening for 40 days and nights as well as that of the Israelites who were provided manna every day for 40 years on the way to the Promised Land. In the giving of himself as the Bread of Life, Jesus establishes a relationship with us, one that promises he will sustain us so that we can go “in the strength of that food” into our wildernesses of daily life.

Yet, there’s more, because there’s always more with God. We not only get strengthened for our journeys in the wilderness, we also help strengthen others in their journeys. You see, Jesus as the Bread of Life feeds and then we, as the Body of Christ, feed others with ourselves. Although Terri didn’t know it, she was the Bread of Life to me that Sunday. Wherever you are today, know that Jesus as the Bread of Life meets you and feeds you, not only to sustain you on your journey but also to sustain others in our hungry, thirsty world. So, let’s go in the strength of that food! Amen.

For the video version of the sermon click here.