E Pluribus Unum - Sermon for Pentecost Sunday Year A

E Pluribus Unum

Pentecost Sunday A

May 28, 2023

Christ, Preston, MN

1 Corinthians 12.3b-13

Susan related a story from her days as the young wife of an equally young Army officer, Lloyd. To understand this story, you need to know that it was before the Army became an equal opportunity employer with women serving alongside men. The Base Commander’s wife invited the wives of the newly arrived officers to a reception at her home. After they’d arrived, the Commander’s wife instructed them to sort themselves by rank. Susan, a bit flustered, knew her husband was a lowly Lieutenant and let the others move themselves around, figuring she’d be at the end of the line. After they sorted themselves out, the Commander’s wife sternly admonished, “Ladies, you have no rank! It’s your husbands who have rank, not you.” With that, the Commander’s wife informed them that they had no special status because of that of their husbands.

The Apostle Paul may have been expressing the same sentiment to the church at Corinth. This was a church that Paul founded and with whom had a deep relationship. This intimate relationship was maintained through letters back and forth. Most scholars agree that 1st and 2nd Corinthians contain a mashup of several letters Paul has sent, as many as five. We have none of the letters that the Corinthians wrote, but we have some of Paul’s. They would ask Paul questions and he would respond and we have to guess at the issues by how Paul responded. It’s like listening to one side of a phone conversation. Like many communities of faith, the Corinthians were trying to figure out what it meant to be followers of Jesus. Remembering that this was a scant 20 years following Jesus’ ascension, to a large extent Paul was doing the same thing.

The situation of the Corinthians made this question important. Corinth was located on a busy trade route in Greece and the city contained a diversity of peoples. The church at Corinth likewise mirrored that diversity: there were old and young, rich and poor, slave and free, Jew and Gentile etc. None of these groups was used to gathering with the other. In addition, all had previously worshiped various gods. Prior to today’s text, Paul answered questions about worship. In particular, it appears that the rich and privileged were able to gather early for the weekly meal, which has come down to us as the Lord’s Supper. Not waiting for the working people, they ate and drank to excess, leaving nothing for the others. Paul admonished those who were privileged  that they must wait for the others and eat together. (That’s the issue in 1 Corinthians 11, not how old you need to be to take Communion.)

That’s not the only divisive issue as Paul addresses the idea the Corinthians had that some spiritual gifts were better than others. In fact, as we can see in chapters 13 and 14, the gift that caused the uproar was speaking in tongues. Those who spoke in other tongues deemed their gifts superior, giving them a higher rank. However, Paul makes two points and then a metaphor to explain how wrong this is. First, Paul insists that there is only one Spirit, Lord, and God, not three (or more as the Corinthians were used to). Second, Paul tells them that all of the gifts are to be used for the common good, not their own personal aggrandizement. He then illustrates his points with the metaphor of body. They are all like many members of one body. Later, he’ll tell them they are the body of Christ, who is the head. Thus, in addressing the issue of spiritual gifts, Paul is also speaking to the larger issue of unity in the midst of diversity.

As Rabbi Ed Friedman has noted, this is the same phenomenon that is baked into the fabric of creation and being worked out since. Millions of years ago, single-celled organisms gained the ability to join with others and as time passed, cells would specialize and become the diverse multi-celled creatures we see today. Even so, this diversity is always in the service of the larger whole. The whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. This process of giving up some independence in service of the larger whole, Friedman notes, was used by the original 13 colonies to form the United States, most eloquently stated by James Madison in The Federalist Papers. This led to the unofficial motto, E Pluribus Unum, “out of many, one.” Diversity serves the greater good.

As I counsel couples preparing for marriage I always tell them that, “If my wife and I were the same, one of us would be unnecessary." There is diversity of opinion here at Christ Lutheran about what the next pastor should be like and if there should be shared ministry with Union Prairie Lutheran. That’s good and healthy as long as some of the cells don’t become cancerous and insist everyone else be the same or, to shift the analogy, thumbs don’t dictate to the rest of the body, The unifying principle of America is found in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, but of course, our unifying principle is Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and ascended. This is neatly summarized in your mission statement: Love God – Love People – Follow Jesus. To do so we are blown by the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life. Thanks be to God. Amen.

My sermons often preach a little differently than written and you can find the video here.

Jesus 2.0 - Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A

Jesus 2.0

Easter 6A

May 14, 2023

Christ, Preston, MN

John 14.15-21

My wife and I have been married almost 43 years and of course, been together longer than that. An early lesson I learned still sticks with me all these years later. I learned that most of the time when she gets upset about something she doesn’t want it fixed. Rather, what she really wants is for me to just sit with her, commiserate with her, and maybe hold her hand. That was (and still is) hard for me because I dislike seeing her in pain and I want to fix it. But it’s not about what I need; it’s about what she needs. That’s a lesson that’s carried over as a pastor, to know when someone just wants a presence, someone to listen.

“Jesus said, ‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.’” These verses follow last week’s well-known text about Jesus preparing a place for his followers and us and the well-known “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” It’s the Last Supper, just before Jesus is arrested, tried, beaten, and crucified. He knows his followers will feel lost and alone without him, so he does three things in this long, final speech to them. First, he reminds them of his mission from God, which is now their mission from God, to love and bless the world.

Second, he tells them they will be together again, that he goes to prepare a place for them. And third, in the meantime, as they focus on the mission, they will not be doing it alone. In a foreshadowing of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Jesus tells them that another Advocate is coming, this one also sent by God the Father just as he has been. In other words, the Holy Spirit is going to be Jesus 2.0, only they won’t physically see him.

The Greek word that the NRSV translates as “Advocate” is paraclete. (No, this is not the bird parakeet. The Holy Spirit is depicted by a different bird, the dove.) If you were to look at 10 different Bible translations, you will probably see 10 different words, such as Counselor, Guide, Helper, etc. I’ve even seen “Coach” used. If you literally translate paraclete, it becomes something like, “One who has been called to walk alongside.” Or, as it sometimes happens, one who comes to sit with another and perhaps holds her hand. We know that living our life is up to us, but the presence of another makes that living easier. That’s why community is so important to us.

This is all well and good, but according to the text, it seems this presence depends upon whether we love Jesus or not. It’s almost a “chicken or the egg” conundrum. Which comes first, God’s love or our love? First of all, we remember that elsewhere in the Bible it says that “God is love,” and that “We love because he first loved us,” both in 1 John 4. But I think it’s also helpful to know that the Greek word for ‘if” can be also translated “since,” or “when.” In other words, “Since you love me you will keep my commandments” or “When you love me you will keep my commandments.” Jesus is trying to express in words what is almost inexpressible, the mutually abiding love relationship between God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and us.

Now, Jesus is not talking about romantic love here, though there can be feelings involved. Rather, Jesus is talking about agape, sacrificial love. Even so, it’s still true that when you love someone, when you are in a mutually abiding and intimate relationship, you want to do the right thing. So, we don’t beat someone else up because we don’t think they are following Jesus properly. That’s not our job. Instead, we become Jesus 3.0, Christ to others, walking alongside in both difficulty and delight. May you know the abiding love of the Holy Spirit and share that love with others always. Amen.

My sermons often preach a little differently than written and you can find the video here.

The Way of Jesus - Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost Year A

 The Way of Jesus

Easter 5A

May 7, 2023

Christ, Preston, MN

John 14.1-14

One of the spinoff TV shows from“Star Wars” pantheon is called “The Mandalorian.”, The title character is a bounty hunter, something of a loner from a group of displaced peoples. Mandalorians wear special armor called Beskar, virtually indestructible. Their armor includes a helmet that hides their face and they never take off because, as they say, “This is ‘The Way.’” The Mandalorians also cite a Creed that guides their behavior and way of life as they seek to follow “The Way.” Furthermore, whenever there’s a debate about what to do and a decision is made, after agreement they all chime in by saying, “This is ‘The Way.’”

Interestingly, the early followers of Jesus called themselves The Way long before being called Christians. The book of Acts tells us that they were given the name “Christian” by outsiders, but that they were known amongst themselves as “The Way.” This designation no doubt derives in part from Jesus’ words about himself from today’s Gospel in John 14. He  says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” words we hear quite often at funeral services, for good reason. So, here we have another “I am” saying we often encounter in John. Last week it was, “I am the Gate,” and by inference, “I am the Good Shepherd.” We remember that Jesus uses the “I am” sayings to denote a special relationship with God.  “I am” is the name God uses with Moses in the desert when Moses asks God whom shall he say sent him when the people ask.

We may feel whiplash as we find ourselves back in John where we spent four weeks in Lent. Yet, there we looked at the texts as we prepared for Jesus’ crucifixion, but here we look at the texts through the lens of the resurrection. Perhaps this is a flashback that helps us to recall what he said to his followers before his crucifixion. On the night of his betrayal at the Last Supper, Jesus is preparing them for his absence. He assures them that he is not abandoning them as well as reminding them of the mission to love and bless the world.

We often think about Jesus’ statement in exclusive tones, that no one can get to heaven if they don’t confess that Jesus is their Lord and Savior. But as important as that is, I don’t think that’s what Jesus is saying here. First, though Jesus does talk about eternal life, he wants that assurance to give us life right now. Second, when Jesus says “I am the way” I think he is saying, “Walk the way that I walk.”

So, what does it mean to walk the way of Jesus? Well, he has given us some guidance earlier in chapter 13. This whole conversation, Jesus’ last words and marching orders to his followers takes 5 chapters in John’s Gospel. It is often called the Farewell Discourse. At the very beginning of this last night together, before they do anything else, Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. And as he does so, he gives them a “new” commandment, to love one another as he has loved them. In other words, the way of Jesus is the way of service.

As we think about this, we remember more "Ways of Jesus." We remember how he eats with the outcasts of society, “tax collectors and sinners.” We remember that he stands with the poor and marginalized who are oppressed by the powerful of the world. The way of Jesus welcomes little children, the least of these, into his arms as he treats them with respect. The way of Jesus tells us that true life is found by giving ourselves away for others, that we gain our lives when we lose them.

The Mandalorian people have broken into factions that interpret “The Way” differently. Part of the storyline involves understanding those differences and finding ways to be The Way together in spite of them. That’s part of the work of walking The Way of Jesus, so important during this transition time. There’s no better start than your own mission statement: “Love God, Love People, Follow Jesus.” This is the Way. Amen.

My sermons often preach a little differently than written and you can find the video here.