Supporting Cast Part 2 - First Sunday of Christmas - Narrative Lectionary 3

Supporting Cast Part 2

Christmas 1 – NL 3

December 29, 2024

Our Savior’s, Faribault, MN

Luke 2.21-38

Shirley lost her mom one year and it devastated her, even though her mother was on in years. The two were very close and, although her mom’s death was not unexpected, the sting of death is nevertheless potent. The Sunday following the funeral, Shirley went to church as normal, even though she didn’t feel much like it. She says she doesn’t remember the singing or sermon at all; she just went through the motions. What she does vividly remember was being surrounded by love from her church, her friends who by their presence held her and comforted her. She had gone to worship because that’s what she did and who she was, but she was surprised by God who met her in unexpected ways.

The Gospel writer Luke is very clear thus far in the story that Mary and Joseph are not only obedient citizens but also faithful Jews. As citizens they take part in the census ordered by Caesar Augustus. But they were also observant Jews who followed the law. Mary and Joseph

bring baby Jesus, just eight days old, to be circumcised. Circumcision is a sign of the covenant that was made between the patriarch Abraham and God as God commanded in Genesis 17. It was a sign that this child belonged to God. Then, 40 days after Jesus’ birth they go to the temple for Mary’s purification because of the birth she is ritually unclean. This time their obedience is in accord with Leviticus 12. (By the way, ritually unclean does not mean sinful. One could become ritually unclean and in need of purification any number of ways, including touching a dead body.)

This event has become known as the Presentation of Jesus and in our church world is celebrated as a lesser festival, given the right circumstances. Yet, for Mary andJoseph, who seem to be bit players in today’s events, the ordinary observance of the law becomes extraordinary. First Simeon, clearly a prophet, breaks out in a song that some of us know as the Nunc Dimittis. (In some of our ELW liturgies this is sung as the Post-Communion Canticle.) However, Mary and Joseph can only gape in amazement as Simeon then blessed them, and a mixed blessing at that. If that wasn’t enough, the prophetess Anna, an incredible 84 years old, praises God for the gift of Jesus. All of this is guided by the Holy Spirit, who has been very busy in these first two chapters of Luke’s Gospel and, as I noted last week, will continue to be through Volume 2 of Luke’s story, the Book of Acts.

As we frequently observe, God often shows up in the places we least expect God to be. And here we see that God can show up in extraordinary ways in the most ordinary routines. Mary and Joseph are faithful Jews who observe the law, trusting there were good reasons to do so. They are doing what all couples do after the birth of a son because it’s just what you did then. And although Simeon and Anna were doing their ordinary observances day in and day out, they are overwhelmed with the presence of the long-awaited Messiah in the presence of a poor couple who can only afford a pair of turtledoves.

This story of the Presentation of Jesus invites us to consider ways to present ourselves in ordinary circumstances. What if we went about our ordinary lives, doing our ordinary worship, and serving on our ordinary ministry teams expecting that it is precisely in the ordinary that God shows up? As we learned in our Wednesday book series on Martin  Luther, one of his key insights was that “the finite is capable of bearing the infinite.” This is true because we learn at Christmas in the Incarnation that an ordinary human being is capable of bearing the extraordinary Divine. And that’s also why we believe that ordinary bread and wine can carry the extraordinary body and blood of Jesus Christ and ordinary water can carry the Word of God. 

I want to close with a true story, though I can’t guarantee that it ever happened. A country preacher answered a knock at the door one cold evening to find a parishioner standing there. The preacher welcomed the man and bid him to sit by the warm fire. After the usual exchange of pleasantries, the visitor said, “You’ve probably noticed that I’ve not been in church lately. I don’t get anything out of it and I don’t see the point in being there. I’ll not be coming anymore.”

The preacher hadn’t said a word, only listened quietly. Presently, he got up, took a set of tongs from the hearth, and moved one of the glowing embers to the side and sat down. Presently, as the two of them quietly watched, the previously glowing ember went cold and dark. The preacher then got up, put the cold piece of coal back into the fire where it became hot again. After a moment, the parishioner got up and said, “I understand, Preacher, I’ll see you in church Sunday,” and left.

Merry Christmas, my siblings in Christ, as the extraordinary Christ-child comes to you in the ordinariness of everyday life, work, school, play, community center, and yes, even church. Amen.

My sermons don't always preach as they are written. For video of the sermon with the entire service, click here.

Supporting Cast: Part 1 - Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent Narrative Lectionary 3

Supporting Cast: Part 1

Advent 4 – NL 3

December 22, 2024

Our Savior’s, Faribault, MN

Luke 1.26-56

“The Admirable Crichton” is a 1957 British film. It was released in the US as “Paradise Lagoon.” I don’t know why I saw it but there is a scene I’ll always remember near the end of the film. Crichton is a butler in the service of an earl’s family. Some of the family are marooned on a deserted island in the South Seas, including Crichton. In a reversal of roles Crichton becomes their leader and saves them from certain starvation. The royalty become dependent upon Crichton and he who gives the orders. Two years later, a ship is sighted and a landing party comes to rescue them. Crichton, understanding that the new order on the island would not work in Britain, goes off into the jungle and reappears in his butler’s outfit, much to the amusement of the rescuers.

Though I’ve not taken a film class, I’ve learned to look for a supporting cast member in a film, TV show, or book. This would be someone who exerts an outsized impact relative to their role in the work of art. In fact, the movement of the film often depends upon this somewhat minor character. Disney does this particularly well, although you can find these influential characters in any film. This might be like focusing on a lineman during a football game rather than the quarterback or whoever has the ball. Perhaps that’s why I was drawn to Elizabeth in today’s Scripture, one that focuses heavily on Mary.

Earlier in chapter 1, we learn that Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah are old and past the time of childbearing. As you know in biblical times, this was a shameful thing for a woman whose value consisted of being able to bear children, especially sons. Thankfully, that’s not true today. Her husband, Zechariah, is a temple priest who receives an angelic message. He and Elizabeth will indeed conceive a child that will become the forerunner of the long-awaited Messiah. Because Zechariah questions how this can happen, the angel strikes him mute. So much for being able to mansplain. As an aside, becoming mute is not something that happens when Mary questions the angel.

But Elizabeth is far more than a vessel containing the baby who becomes John the Baptist. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit who causes the baby to leap in her womb, Elizabeth becomes a prophetess, declaring the blessedness of God’s favor on Mary. She then confirms for Mary that the child she carries would fulfill God’s promises. In other words, Elizabeth helps Mary understand and see what God is doing in, with, and through her.

We need people like Elizabeth in our lives and maybe we need to be those people, too. There are times in our lives when things don’t go as planned. It is in those dark times when God is most often present and real, but we need the Elizabeths to help us see them. One blessing of the Advent season is that it invites us to be open and accept what God has in store for us, often what we aren’t expecting. The Elizabeths in our community help us to see God where we aren’t able to do so ourselves.

Yet, there’s another supporting character who is vital to this work: the Holy Spirit. It may be argued that the Holy Spirit is the main actor in Luke and especially Luke’s second volume, The Acts of the Apostles. The Holy Spirit is mentioned 20 times in Luke and more than twice that number in Acts. In fact, one person has noted that The Acts of the Apostles could more accurately be titled “The Acts of the Holy Spirit.” Truth be told, even Mary, who seems to be a central character, in the end gives voice to what the Gospel is about, the birth and ultimately death and resurrection of God’s Son. Mary also gives voice to the great reversal that the butler Crichton couldn’t see happening in his situation. Even so, Crichton will eventually seek that reversal elsewhere than the earl’s home. (You’ll have to watch the film to find out.) 

Elizabeth and Mary will share one more thing in common: the brutal deaths of their sons. It is unlikely Elizabeth will have to endure the agony of watching her son, John the Baptist being beheaded given her advanced age. Mary, of course, will endure seeing her son crucified. But she will also see the Greatest Reversal yet, the resurrection of her Son. It’s this message that shows us a God that we can believe in, who brings life from death. This Advent and Christmas, may you have an Elizabeth in your life who helps you see God present in the world and may you be an Elizabeth to someone else. Amen.

My sermons don't always preach as they are written. For video of the sermon with the entire service, click here.

Giving Thanks & Receiving Hope - Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent Narrative Lectionary 3

Giving Thanks & Receiving Hope

Advent 1 – NL 3

December 1, 2024

Our Savior’s, Faribault, MN

Daniel 6.6-27

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 

(1 Thessalonians 5.18)

At our weekly staff meetings, we take turns doing devotions followed by a time of prayers. This past Tuesday, Wendy was on deck and given the season, appropriately talked about giving thanks. In her devotion, she included the above scripture, “Give thanks in all circumstances.” As is typical of our staff devotional time, there ensued a lively and thoughtful conversation about what “all circumstances” meant. Both Pr. Drew and I reflected on the Community Thanksgiving service last Sunday evening at Christ Lutheran Church and the power of the reflections given by a lay person from each of the three congregations. Each reflection, though different, expressed gratitude in difficult circumstances.

So, I began reflecting about Daniel and wondering if he gave thanks in his circumstances. I think it’s easy to imagine Daniel giving thanks for the presence of the angel who stops up the mouths of the lions so they cannot eat him and then prevents them from pouncing on him. Yet, Paul’s encouragement to the Thessalonian church undergoing persecution says, “all circumstances.” That left me wondering whether Daniel gave thanks for everything.

For example, in his circumstances, did Daniel give thanks for his colleagues who wanted him out of the way? Did he give thanks that they went to extraordinary lengths to kill him, probably out of jealousy? He was a foreigner exiled in a foreign land who had risen to great influence and power. Did he not pay attention to relationships enough that they could accept him as an equal? Was his position, once a source of blessing now something hard to give thanks for? Did he wish for a less visible and risky occupation?

And while he was sitting in that den, did Daniel give thanks for King Darius? Though the king seemed to appreciate Daniel and his gifts, Darius also appears to be something of a clown. Darius also seems to be weak and easily manipulated by the other courtiers. And being a Mede, not a Persian, was he trying to impress everyone with his power? Did Daniel give thanks that he served someone who could be so unpredictable?

And what about the focus of the king’s wrath after he pulls Daniel from the lions’ den. Not only were the conspirators doomed to a horrific death, their wives and children suffered as well. Did Daniel give thanks in those circumstances? And what about the edict that King Darius makes regarding the religion of the Jews? A few hundred years after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection,  a different ruler, the Emperor Constantine, made Christianity the official religion of his Empire. Some people observe that he did Christianity no favors by doing so. Would that have been the case for Daniel and his people?

This is pretty heavy for a Sunday morning after Thanksgiving, but it points out that the story of Daniel in the lions’ den is deeper and more complicated than our Sunday School faith. Sunday School faith is important, but we know that we grow up seeing the world as more gray than black and white. Most scholars believe that Daniel was written during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, about 200 years before Jesus was born, crucified, died, and resurrected. Antiochus was a Syrian ruler who committed many atrocities including blaspheming the temple with abominable sacrifices. Using stories of a folk hero set during the Babylonian exile a few hundred years earlier, the author seeks to give encouragement and hope to the Jewish people experiencing great persecution and hardship. It’s like we tell the story of George Washington cutting down the cherry tree saying, “I cannot tell a lie.” The story of Daniel reminds us that even encouragement in hard times is complicated but also necessary.

Today is the First Sunday of Advent and the candle we light is the Hope Candle. As the days get darker, we light more candles to remind us that Jesus is the Light of the World that no darkness can overcome. Today, we are sustained by the hope that Jesus brings. Whatever lion’s den you find yourselves in today, know that there is nowhere that God cannot be. Giving thanks in all circumstances can be complicated, but the presence of God never is. Thanks be to God. Amen

My sermons don't always preach as they are written. For video of the sermon with the entire service, click here.

The Two Hands of God - Sermon for Christ the King Sunday, Narrative Lectionary 3

The Two Hands of God

Christ the King, NL 3

November 24, 2024

Our Savior’s, Faribault, MN

Jeremiah 36.1-8, 21-23, 27-28; 31.31-34

When I first thought about today’s sermon based on Jeremiah, I was thinking about the promise that God made to the people, to make a new covenant that would be different from the previous covenants that God made, covenants that were broken, not by God but by the people. God promised that this covenant would be written on their hearts, that all people would know God, and possibly the most important promise of all, that God would not only forgive their sins but forget them as well. I thought I’d make the point that before we promise anything to God, God makes promises to us, promises that allow us to respond with promises of our own. These would be our baptismal promises, affirmed at our Confirmation.

I think that could have been a fine sermon, but given last Wednesday’s session on “Making Sense of Martin Luther” and that today is Christ the King Sunday, my thoughts have been pulled in a different direction. Besides, we preachers are always implored by listeners to be relevant. Be careful what you wish for. 

In last Wednesday’s session on Luther, Pr. David Lose talked about Luther’s notion of two kingdoms, which he called two hands. The two kingdoms or hands describe the two different ways God operates in the world. The right hand is the theological realm where God institutes the church to proclaim God’s mercy and forgiveness. It does this by preaching Christ crucified and resurrected and by making disciples who help heal the brokenness in this world.

The second way God operates in the world is through the left hand where God ordains institutions such as governments to provide for the safety and well-being of its citizens. The left hand, or civil arena, also includes the family and non-profit institutions. Good citizens are to respect their governments because God has ordained them and is working through them. This was Martin Luther at his best, but it was also at his worst as he said and wrote some things that resulted in thousands of deaths. His writings were ultimately misused by Nazi Germany with devastating consequences.

Why am I spending time on this? First, because the text from Jeremiah displays the interplay between the two hands or kingdoms in a stark way. Jeremiah the prophet challenges King Jehoiakim in his handling of the political situation at the time. The Northern Kingdom of Israel had been conquered by the Assyrians 200 years ago and had also made the Southern Kingdom of Judah its vassal state. Jehoiakim is resisting their hold over them and thinks that Egypt will come to the rescue. Instead, the Babylonians are rising in power and contending with Assyrian for regional domination. Ultimately, the Babylonians will conquer Judah and move most of its inhabitants to exile.

As a prophet, Jeremiah’s job is to bring a word from God to the people and particularly the king. His message is not a popular one because he tells them not to rebel against the Assyrians or Babylonians, but rather go along with them. They are not to count on Egypt for help. The king ignores this word from Jeremiah, destroying the scroll Jeremiah dictates. Jehoikim prefers to listen to other so-called prophets who tell the king what he wants to hear, that the rebellion will succeed. It doesn’t, with devastating consequences for the people of the Southern Kingdom.

In Luther’s theology of the two hands, he reminds us that they are distinct but not separate. Government is not to be in the church business, but it can hold churches accountable when it strays from its God-given purpose. Similarly, the church does not proclaim the gospel through governments but holds them accountable to work for the well-being of all people, and not just for a select, powerful few. I think this is really important for us in today’s society. And if you are spending your time thinking I’m pushing for a particular party you are missing the point. As someone once noted, if your theology matches the platform of your political party then you need a new theology.

Today is Christ the King, or Reign of Christ, Sunday, the end of the Church Year. It’s a time to remember how Christ rules in the world, not through violence but rather through sacrificial love. It’s a love that promises that we are forgiven and freed no matter what we have done or not. Christ works through us as we respond to that promise with promises of our own: to love God and neighbor; to work for justice and peace in all the world; and to hold both church and state accountable.

I guess I preached that initial sermon after all. May the peace and love of Christ reign in your hearts, today and always. Amen.

My sermons don't always preach as they are written. For video of the sermon with the entire service, click here.

Hide and Seek - Sermon for the Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost Narrative Lectionary 3

Hide and Seek

Pentecost 25 – NL 3

November 10, 2024

Our Savior’s, Faribault, MN

Jonah 1.1-17; 3.1-10; 4.1-11

But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Jonah 1.3

Many of you have heard parts of my spiritual journey over the past year. Today I want to recall two such episodes. The first episode occurred post-Confirmation and mirrors the experience of many young people. I left the church, being disillusioned about the people. I became something of an agnostic if not a downright atheist who found it hard to believe anymore. The second chapter occurred when, now back in the church and at 30 years old, I sensed a call to pastoral ministry. But for various personal reasons, I ignored that call for eight years.

So it is that I feel a certain kinship with the prophet Jonah who flees from God’s presence, intending to go to Tarshish which would have been literally the ends of the known earth at the time. The story of Jonah is something of a morality tale and Jonah himself is something of an anti-hero. He does not come off very well. Most scholars believe that the story is set during the time of the Northern kingdom of Israel when it had bad kings and was constantly besieged and ultimately overthrown by the Assyrians to the north. However, they also believe it was compiled a few hundred years later when those who had been conquered and carried off into exile were able to return home.

There are features of the story that almost characterize it as satire and not just satire but satire with fantastical elements. As one way has noted, “The most believable part of the story is that Jonah was swallowed by a large fish.” Nineveh was indeed the largest city in Assyria but not nearly as big as the narrator states. And though the response of the people to Jonah’s reluctant and terse message was commendable, the vision of everyone, including animals, wearing sackcloth and ashes is comical.

What is not comical is the Ninevites’ proclivity for brutality, torture, and despicable acts. They were the original “Evil Empire,” feared by many. So one understands Jonah’s unwillingness to go there with God’s message. Even so, the Gentiles in the story come off looking better and more faithful than Jonah does. His shipmates on the boat are thoughtful and considerate, wanting to do the faithful thing. They ultimately acknowledge the God that Jonah is fleeing. And of course, the Ninevites from the king on down respond immediately to the call for repentance.

So, how do we put this all together? As a morality tale the moral of the story is to invite us to think deeply about what it means that God is a gracious God. And we are to contemplate that God’s graciousness does not extend just to the “insiders,” but also the “outsiders.” For me, as I pondered this question I did so as it intersected another question: in what ways do we flee from and what might we learn from the story of Jonah?

For me post-Confirmation, I fled from God when I rejected my baptismal promises and failed to live among God’s faithful people. I fled from God when I failed to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper. I certainly wasn’t proclaiming the good news of God in Christ through word and deed nor was I serving all people following the example of Jesus. Striving for justice and peace in all the earth, not happening. And I fled from God when I lost focus on what God has called me to do as a pastor. I think we can flee God when we fail to do this as a church as well.

But that’s not where the story ends because even Jonah knows that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, the sacrificial love that God has shown in his Son, Jesus Christ. God never gave up on me, putting people into my life to love me back to him. God never, ever gives up on us no matter how far we flee and loves us back into relationship with him and each other, dusting us off, inviting us to try again.

Some of you may be on your way to Tarshish, some of you in the bottom of the boat, some of you under that dead broom tree in the blazing sun, and even some walking through Nineveh. Wherever you find yourself today, know that God loves you and is with you, no matter what, even arriving at the place before you. Thanks be to God. Amen.

My sermons don't always preach as they are written. For video of the sermon with the entire service, click here.

For All the Saints - All Saints Sunday - Narrative Lectionary 3

For All the Saints

All Saints Sunday – NL 3

November 3, 2024

Our Savior’s, Faribault, MN

1 Kings 17.1-24

In addition to the Sidonian widow, there’s a second woman in our reading, hovering off-stage but exerting oversized influence nonetheless. Since Solomon’s dedication of the temple last week, his son Rehoboam has managed to undo what his father and grandfather, King David, had done in unifying the country, thus plunging it into civil war. Rehoboam takes bad advice from those who don’t know any better and the result is two kingdoms instead of one. The Northern kingdom of Israel now has its own set of kings separate from the Davidic kings of the Southern kingdom of Judah. More to the point, virtually all the nearly 40 kings (and one queen) with the exception of two are “bad kings,” doing “what was evil in the sight of God.”

What was the evil they were doing? They were marrying foreign women and forsaking the Lord for the gods of their wives. In this case, King Ahab’s wife is the infamous Sidonian princess Jezebel (yes, that Jezebel!) and the god he begins to worship is Baal. Ironically, in the midst of drought it is helpful to know that Baal is the god of vegetation and rain. Today, the prophet Elijah arrives on the scene and after being fed by ravens in Gilead travels deep into enemy territory of Sidon where he encounters the famine-stricken widow.

We tend to think that prophets predict the future, but a prophet’s job is to bring a word from God to God’s people. Many times it is a word of exhortation and sometimes it’s a word of comfort. So, more often than not, the prophet does more forth-telling than fore-telling. Even so, being prophet means using both words and deeds, also known as prophetic acts. This is the case today as we see with Elijah. Immediately after today’s reading, Elijah will chastise King Ahab again and he will enrage Jezebel by mocking Baal and destroying the prophets of Baal, fleeing for his life. But today Elijah demonstrates God’s power over life and death.

It is tempting in this election year to rant against leaders whose policies and positions negatively impact the most vulnerable and marginalized like King Ahab and the widow. Unfortunately, it is not the powerful who suffer for their misdeeds but the vulnerable such as the widow and her son. But given today, I’d rather focus on our dependence upon God in uncertain times. I admit that it is troubling to think about a God who causes a famine to punish the apostasy of the powerful and to use death to bring about life. We’ll see that next week in our story of Jonah. For today, we’ll trust that God is ultimately on the side of life.

That’s the message God sent in his Son Jesus, that no matter what life throws at us, God is continually working in, with, and through the world to bring new life. Death does not have the last word nor is it the most important word we hear. In providing for the widow, empowering Elijah’s resuscitation of her son, and the uncertainty of Jesus’ death on the cross, God speaks clearly that nothing is beyond God’s power.

Today is All Saints when we confess like the widow does to God’s life-giving power. As I mentioned in my newsletter article this month, I’ll be remembering my Uncle Vern who died a few months ago. I particularly remember his amazing memory, that even at the age of 98 he could remember every single car he bought, the year he bought it, and how much he paid for it. He was also a fantastic gardener with numerous hostas. I asked him once how many he had and without hesitation he responded, 220. But more so I’ll remember his assurance of heaven, the resurrection to eternal life, and his conviction that he will be together again with his wife, my aunt Elaine. 

And, if I may be so bold to stretch your wonderment a little bit, I’ll also entertain the provocative thought that even King Ahab and Queen Jezebel are not beyond God’s love and reach, because God holds all things in God’s hands. After all, every one of us is a “mixed bag,” both saint and sinner. Maybe they’ll even be gathered around the Table with us because nobody is beyond God’s love and the Table is “For All the Saints.” Thanks be to God! Amen.

My sermons don't always preach as they are written. For video of the sermon with the entire service, click here.

Cunning or Compassionate? - Sermon for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost Narrative Lectionary 3

Cunning or Considerate?

Pentecost 22 – NL 3

October 20, 2024

Our Savior’s, Faribault, MN

2 Samuel 7.1-17; Luke 1.30-33

What do you think? Is King David faithful and considerate or politically cunning?

Much has happened since last week’s story of Hannah’s prayer for the birth of a son. Hannah’s prayer is granted and in gratitude Hannah dedicates her son, Samuel, to service of the Lord. Samuel will grow up under the tutelage of his mentor, the prophet and priest Eli, eventually replacing him.  Samuel will be God’s instrument to anoint Saul, the first king of Israel. Of course, at this time Israel is more a collection of tribes than a kingdom. God allowed the Israelites to have a king in spite of God’s warnings. Israel persists because “everyone else has a king.” God’s admonition to the people that they won’t like a king is borne out with the displacement of Saul by the shepherd-turned warrior David after a bloody civil war.

David is anointed king over all Israel and decides to make Jerusalem the capital city, a city he conquered over the Jebusites. Hiram the king of Tyre, a small kingdom on the Mediterranean Sea, sends material and labor to build David a house. It is a house fit for a king. Then David brings the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem as well, the ark being the seat of God’s presence and the box that contains the two stone tables with the Ten Commandments. The Ark has been residing amidst the elaborate and highly mobile tent that has been moving from place to place since its construction in Egypt. 

In today’s text, David asks his advisor, the prophet Nathan, about building a house for God. One strain of commentators believe that David is being considerate of God and is demonstrating appropriate piety towards God. After all, he is described as a “man after God’s own heart” and there he is sitting in a beautiful house while God is in a makeshift and impermanent tent. It seems it’s the least David can do. Besides, that’s what conquering kings do, they build a temple for their god. It’s the done thing. That’s precisely what other commentators use as proof that this is a cunning strategy that David uses to consolidate his power, both politically and religiously.

But God is having none of it. Whatever David’s motivations are, and they are probably mixed, Go says, “No.” In essence, God indicates that he will not be used for whatever purposes David has, noble or otherwise. As one commentator notes, “God cannot be bought off, controlled, or domesticated.” To make the point and reverse the tables, God recites all God has done for David to bring him to this point, all of it unmerited, undeserving, and pure grace.

And God isn’t done as God promises to make David a house, one that will last. Of course, this isn’t a house of cedar or stone, it’s a house full of descendants. This is a promise that is utterly fantastical, that the Davidic monarchy will rule forever. Think for a moment how many “kingdoms” have come and gone since David’s time: Assyrians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Persians, Romans, Greeks, Phoenicians, the list goes on. None of them has lasted more than a few hundred years.

We are pretty sure that David and his descendants didn’t think of Jesus Messiah when they read this text. However, as the followers of Jesus looked back into the Jewish scriptures to make sense of his incarnation, life, death, crucifixion and resurrection, they saw Jesus in it. The snippet from Luke’s Gospel, part of the Annunciation to Mary by the angel, expresses the assurance that God’s promise to David has been fulfilled in God’s Son Jesus.

Here’s where we need to be careful and take 2 Samuel 7 to heart: neither God the Father nor Jesus the Son will be co-opted for personal or political purposes. In the Sixteenth Century, Martin Luther got into an argument about the real, physical presence of Jesus in the bread and wine of Holy Communion. His opponents claimed that Jesus can’t really be there because he had ascended to heaven and sits at God’s right hand. Luther countered with an elegant argument that says not only can Jesus be wherever he wants to be, he declared that the right hand of God is wherever Jesus is. Furthermore, although Jesus can be wherever he wishes, he promises to be in the waters of baptism, the bread and wine of Holy Communion, the preached word, and among God’s faithful people.

On the one hand, we trust in God’s promises that God dwells among God’s people, but on the other hand, God will not be manipulated, controlled, exploited, or put in a box. The kingdom of Jesus is one where sin, death, and evil are broken through his sacrificial love not through a muscle-bound, six-pack abs Jesus with an AK47 in his hand.

Next week we will hear that God’s temple will be built, on God’s own time and through God’s purposes and not by someone with blood on their hands. Today we have a good reminder that, like David, we can be both cunning and considerate. But also, like David, we are blessed with God’s abundant grace through Jesus Christ and are forgiven wherever and whenever we fall short. Thanks be to God. Amen.

My sermons don't always preach as they are written. For video of the sermon with the entire service, click here.

The One True God - Sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost Narrative Lectionary 3

The One True God

Pentecost 20 NL3

October 6, 2024

Our Savior’s, Faribault, MN

Exodus 32.1-14

God is angry and the word angry doesn’t begin to cover it. God is ticked off, mad, and decency prohibits other words that could express God’s anger. It hasn’t been long since God has liberated his chosen people from slavery in Egypt and parted the Red Sea so they could cross safely, preventing the Egyptians from following. Along the way, God has provided for their every need. The people have just agreed to a covenant, essentially what we now call the Ten Commandments plus other guidelines for living together. Then in just a few days the people replace Moses and God with a false image of that very God.

However, we need to understand that God’s people are scared. They’ve left the familiarity of the only life they’ve known, albeit an excruciating one. Now they number in the tens of thousands wandering in the wilderness. They are eating unfamiliar and rather uninspiring food (manna) on a day-to-day basis. There are enemies and wild animals all around, waiting to attack. Furthermore, their leader Moses has been gone 40 days, ostensibly chatting with God. They don’t know this God very well, and they’re not so sure about Moses either. They’re scared, and can we really blame them?

When you’re scared you do stupid stuff, and sometimes when you’re mad you say stupid stuff. The people are not yet a cohesive nation, more a collection of tribes. And though God is the God of their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they’re just getting acquainted with this God after a long absence and haven’t caught the vision that God has for them yet. So, they don’t exactly throw out God and Moses. Rather, they make an image, one that they can see and touch and bow down to. Unfortunately, Moses’ brother and right-hand man Aaron doesn’t have the backbone to deny them.

In hindsight and with 3,000 years of wisdom behind us, it is easy to judge the Israelites for their apostasy. But our story today invites us to consider those ways we do the same, if not as blatantly as the Israelites. We need to ask, how does our fear cause us to put faith in poor substitutes of the One True God? We know that possessions and leaders are not our saviors, but how do we do stupid things, trusting in things that don’t deserve our trust. 

One example that concerns me and other pastors deeply is a growing movement called Christian Nationalism. Christian Nationalism is a complex phenomenon in our country, but essentially it is understood as conflating what it means to be a follower of Christ with being a citizen of this country. This sermon doesn’t have the wherewithal to go deeper than to express concern and invite you into exploring this. Pr. Drew and I would be willing to discuss this further.

Back to the text. I think that the reason God is so mad is that God is deeply hurt by the peoples’ rebellion. When we love deeply, as God does us, it hurts deeply when we’ve been betrayed. God’s declaration to Moses that he will “consume them” shows just how hurt God is. But, as some theologians point out, God’s command to Moses to “let me alone” also shows an openness for more conversation. And Moses shows us just how open and vulnerable God is, to love, to talk, and to risk being hurt over and over again.

Those of us who are a certain age have had the experience of riding in a car with our siblings and fighting in such confined spaces, especially on long drives. After a while, one of our parents would say, “Don’t make me come back there!” I’ve seen billboards that ascribe a similar sentiment to God as it says, “Don’t make me come down there!” Yet, we as Christians believe that God ultimately does just that in his Son, Jesus Christ. We believe God so loved the world that God has come down, not to condemn us and the world but to save it.

If you are in a scary place right now, know that God is with you, all evidence to the contrary. And if you wonder if God is mad at you, know that God’s heart is broken because of all the brokenness in this world, and that he sent Jesus to love us and show us the way to wholeness and healing. In a few minutes, we will have concrete experience of that love as Jesus again comes down to us in the bread and wine of Holy Communion. This is not an image of God but the One True God made present for us. Thanks be to God. Amen.

My sermons don't always preach as they are written. For video of the sermon with the entire service, click here.

Between Dreams and Disclosure - Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost NL3

Between Dream & Disclosure

Pentecost 18 Narrative Lectionary 3

September 22, 2024

Our Savior’s, Faribault, MN

Genesis 37.3-8, 17b-22, 26-34; 50.15-21

In April 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, TN. In 1991 a museum opened on the site with an expansion following a few years later. A wreath hangs on the balcony railing of Room 306 where Dr. King was standing when he was assassinated. On the ground below the wreath there is a historic marker explaining the events of the day. The marker quotes Genesis 57.19-20 in part: “They said to one another, ‘Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him … and we shall see what will become of his dreams.’”

In today’s scripture reading, that sentence was uttered by Joseph’s brothers who had no idea of its significance thousands of years ago. The story of Joseph is monumental. It occupies 14 chapters in the book of Genesis, almost 30% of the total. Much has happened in Genesis since last week’s promise that God made to Abraham and Sarah, to be the ancestors of a numerous people. They indeed had a son Isaac, who in turn had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob, also known as Israel, has 12 sons through two wives and two mistresses. In part, the Joseph story is a bridge between the promise God made to Abraham and Sarah and its fulfillment in Exodus. There is much left out of today’s reading so I encourage you to read the entire story. It’s fascinating reading.

Though there is enough drama and dysfunction to make a latter-day soap opera, the real question the story asks and answers is, “Where is God in the midst of this messy family?” On the one hand, the brothers could not see how Joseph’s dream was tied to God’s promise of a numerous people, assuming they remembered the promise at all. Although Joseph’s dream signals a new possibility to God’s people, albeit unclearly, nevertheless it’s a threat to the brothers. At the same time, it was difficult for Joseph to see God’s presence in the suffering he endured at the hands of the slave traders and the Egyptian leaders.

Whether we realize it or not, we live in a similar place as Joseph and his brothers, between dream and disclosure. Another way to say this is that we try to be realistic about our current circumstances but need to do so without falling into despair and hopelessness. On the other hand, we try to be certain that God is present in our world and that God will be faithful to God’s promises. What the Joseph story tells us is that God’s presence and purposes may be hidden to us but they’re reliable nonetheless. But just as important, the brothers’ concern shows us that the new circumstances of their father’s death require new assurances of God’s care and concern.

We know that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream, that all people would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin, echoed in the Constitution that all people are created equal, didn’t die with the death of the dreamer. But we also know that the dream hasn’t been fully realized either and that it continues to unfold, albeit slowly. 55 years ago, First English Lutheran Church here in Faribault had a dream for a new congregation in the southwest corner of this community, one that continues to unfold in unpredictable ways. The life of this congregation hasn’t been easy, but it has always been with the presence of God. It is in the unfolding of this dream that we continue to respond to the call on us, one that we dare not miss.

Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann admits this tension between dream and disclosure in his poem Dreams and Nightmares. It comes from his book Prayers for a Privileged People (Nashville: Abingdon, 2008):

Last night as I lay sleeping,
    I had a dream so fair . . .
    I dreamed of the Holy City, well ordered and just.
    I dreamed of a garden of paradise, well-being all around and a good water supply.
    I dreamed of disarmament and forgiveness, and caring embrace for all those in need.
    I dreamed of a coming time when death is no more.

Last night as I lay sleeping . . .
    I had a nightmare of sins unforgiven.
    I had a nightmare of land mines still exploding and maimed children.
    I had a nightmare of the poor left unloved,
      of the homeless left unnoticed,
      of the dead left ungrieved.
    I had a nightmare of quarrels and rages and wars great and small.

When I awoke, I found you still to be God,
    presiding over the day and night
    with serene sovereignty,
    for dark and light are both alike to you.

At the break of day we submit to you
    our best dreams
    and our worst nightmares,
    asking that your healing mercy should override threats,
    that your goodness will make our
      nightmares less toxic
      and our dreams more real.

Thank you for visiting us with newness
    that overrides what is old and deathly among us.
Come among us this day; dream us toward
    health and peace,
we pray in the real name of Jesus
    who exposes our fantasies.

God has a dream to love and bless the world and God sent his Son Jesus to fulfill it. There were those who attempted to silence the Dream by killing the Dreamer. Instead, they accomplished the opposite. God also calls us to see where that dream is unfolding, wherever we are, and to join in the work, reminding us that whatever stands in the way will not prevent its realization. Thanks be to God. Amen.

My sermons don't always preach as they are written. For video of the sermon with the entire service, click here.