Hopeful, Not Happy - Sermon for Holy Trinity Sunday Year C

Hopeful, Not Happy

Holy Trinity Sunday C

June 12, 2022

Good Shepherd, Wells, MN

Romans 5.1-5; John 16.12-15

Today, I’m going to speak directly to our high school graduates.

Graduates, congratulations on completing this part of your faith journey. I’m glad we could honor you today. I have to be honest, though, that this time of year, with all the graduations and speeches that follow, brings out the cynic in me. I hope you’ve heard some good, helpful, and uplifting words lately, but chances are you heard more “empty phrases” than helpful ones. And the reality is that most of those phrases are empty platitudes bearing no relation to reality. As theologian Kate Bowler notes, 

“Our culture loves to tell us to look on the bright side. ‘Think positively! Good vibes only! Mindset is everything!’ But in my research, I have found that there are significant limitations of this ‘positive thinking’ approach. We often bulldoze over real feelings and real problems. We end up with less compassion for one another and fewer opportunities to be honest.”

The Apostle Paul is the epitome of honesty in our reading from Romans as he addresses a difficult situation in the church in Rome. It was a church that he didn’t start, but longed to visit some day (and does). The church was started with Jewish converts to the way of Jesus as it had been in other places. But all Jews were expelled from Rome because of unrest and the church became largely Gentile. When the Jews were allowed to return, there was conflict between the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians on who was in charge and how things were to be run. (I know that this is surprising to find out that people in churches fight with each other.) Paul writes to them and has just explained how all of us need God’s unmerited saving grace.

And in verses 1-2, Paul drives home the point that we all are made right with God and each other through our trust in Jesus Christ and are now able to boast in our hope of sharing God’s glory. Then, like cold water thrown in our faces, Paul says we can now also boast in our sufferings. Is this a graduation type motivational speech gone off the rails? Shouldn’t he be encouraging them? Doesn’t Paul know how this is supposed to work? In fact, Paul knows all too well, for Paul isn’t sitting in some ivory tower tossing words he thinks people want to hear. Paul is someone who speaks from experience, of one who has endured great suffering but who has also experienced the overwhelming grace of God.

Graduates, if you were to ask anyone here who has lived more than a few years if their lives went exactly as they planned after high school and if it was all rainbows and unicorns, I’m betting all of them would say, “No.” The reality is that life doesn’t go as we planned and there are sufferings for most of us. Now, I need to be clear that God doesn’t give us suffering. Rather, God works in, with, and through suffering. Though it sounds harsh, we aren’t promised that we’d be happy, rather we are told to be hopeful. Happiness is fleeting and notoriously hard to pin down. Hopefulness, on the other hand, is enduring and much better.

Graduates, I hope your lives go like you want them to go and that all will be well. But if they don’t, I’m not going to give you platitudes today; rather I’m going to give you promises. I’m going to promise you that God is with you through all things. No matter where you go, no matter what happens to you, there will always be a community of faith like Good Shepherd that not only has to take you in, but will welcome you and love you. They will rejoice with you in the good times, lament with you in the bad times, and walk with you through everything in between.

Today is Holy Trinity Sunday, the mystery of one-in-three and three-in-one. All you need to know about that today is that it simply means that as God is interdependent within God’s self and that God is interdependent with us as well. So, as you move on from here, may you be strengthened by the God whose love is shown in Jesus Christ and has been poured into your hearts through the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My written sermons often preach differently "live." To watch the video, click here.

Unity, Not Uniformity - Sermon for Pentecost Sunday Year C

Unity, Not Uniformity

Pentecost Sunday Year C

June 5, 2022

Good Shepherd, Wells, MN

Acts 2.1-21

Antonin Scalia was an associate justice of the US Supreme Court until he died in 2016. He is described by Wikipedia as the “intellectual anchor for the originalist and textualist position in Court's conservative wing.” Ruth Bader Ginsburg, another associate justice who served on the court at the same time as Scalia, represented the opposite position from him and they often had heated debates. Yet, she was devastated at Scalia’s sudden death in 2016. Why was she so upset? Because they were good friends who were united in a shared love for opera.

I think that unity in the midst of diversity is a major theme in our text from Acts chapter 2. Today is Pentecost Sunday, when we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the early believers. It’s the 50th day since Jesus’ resurrection, hence the term “Pentecost,” which was also a Jewish festival. The followers of Jesus have remained in Jerusalem awaiting the Holy Spirit as instructed by Jesus. What an outpouring it is, with a mighty wind that fills the house, tongues of fire alighting on each of them, and people hearing what is being said in their own language. Pentecost has been described as the birth of the church, but that’s not quite accurate. It’s really the inauguration of God’s mission to love and bless the world post-Jesus. We remember that God has a mission and for that mission God has a church.

Pentecost has also been labeled as a reversal of the Babel event where God scattered the people and confused their languages because they were getting too big for their britches. But I think that’s inaccurate, mostly because there is no return to a universal language in this story. The diversity of languages remains. Rather, I think that the Babel narrative has been completed by the Spirit’s outpouring in Acts. Through the Holy Spirit and the witness to all nations, God is including all nations, each in their glorious diversity.

Holding a diversity of people together is hard work, especially in a time of the divisiveness and polarization we are experiencing today. We not only have two political parties who seem to think their job is to sabotage and demonize the other, who also have “bases” within those parties that exacerbate the situation. But those aren’t the only antagonistic groups. In the church we suffer from denominationalism, which should be a sign of the blessing of diversity. Yet we have denominations that are fragmenting and engaging in similar behaviors as our political parties.

As you well know, this phenomenon occurs within congregations, where political battles can get played out as well as fights about contemporary vs. traditional worship and what color the carpet should be. But, wouldn’t it be great if we could figure out a healthy way to listen to one another and to have heated discussions about our mission and ministry rather than denouncing what others believe? As Christians, who find our unity in Christ, we should be able to do that. And because we stand at the foot of the cross, we can even engage with other religions.

Sociologist Brené Brown studies vulnerability, shame, and belonging. In her book, Braving the Wilderness, she echoes poet Maya Angelou who says, “The work is hard. The rewards are great.” The work is hard, but as people of the Holy Spirit, we can do this. As we’ve seen throughout the Easter season, the Holy Spirit continues to blow, guiding us as we continue to figure out what God is calling us to do. I can think of no greater work than unity. It’s a unity that preserves diversity, not uniformity, and it is God’s desire. Let it be ours as well. Amen.

My written sermons often preach differently "live." To watch the video, click here.