The First Word - Sermon for the Second Sunday of Christmas

The First Word
Christmas 2B
January 3, 2021
Grace, Waseca, MN
John 1.1-5, 9-14, 16-18

As an undergraduate at Gustavus Adolphus College, I belonged to a fraternity, Epsilon Pi Alpha, also known as the “Eppies.” Although I might have thought twice about it once I learned what the initiation involved. But, that’s another story for another day. Perhaps because of that and my refusal to be involved in the hazing, I wasn’t taken seriously by the leadership. Fast forward to my senior year when a discussion arose about our yearly picture. The day scheduled by the yearbook folk was going to leave a lot of members out and this caused no small amount of consternation.

After a while, I calmly raised my hand and when finally acknowledged simply said, “Why don’t we take two pictures, one for the yearbook and one for us?” The stunned silence spoke volumes of my place in the frat. Apparently, my unwillingness to go along with their brutality marked me as incompetent, but this simple but elegant solution opened their eyes to see me in a new way.

Apparently, Jesus had a similar problem, which the Gospel writer John takes pains to correct. “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.”  Here we have John’s version of the Christmas story, stripped of all the familiar elements. Yet what John’s Gospel lacks in shepherds, mangers, swaddling cloths, wisemen, and angels he makes up for in poetic majesty. Boiled down he wants us to know something important: “You think Christmas came with Jesus’ birth? Guess again; it was long before that.”

We tend to think that Jesus was God’s answer to the problem of sin; there is truth in that thought. Because of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection, we are reconciled to God and have life through him. But, as theologian Rob Bell reminds us, Jesus is so much more than a solution to sin. Jesus was the Logos that was present before creation and through whom God created everything there is. Another theologian, Richard Rohr, points out that all creation is infused with the divine presence.

My guess is most of you have packed up your Christmas things, not even waiting to the official end of the Christmas season, January 5, probably because you’ve had them up since Thanksgiving. I’m pretty sure you’re not alone; the stores have had Valentine’s Day stuff out since the day after. (By the way, did you know that the early church didn’t even start celebrating Christmas until 300 years after Jesus’ death, even though they celebrated the resurrection almost immediately?) (And why is it that Christmas gets just a lousy 12 days? Even Advent is longer.)

Both Bell and Rohr point to something John’s Gospel takes seriously: Christmas isn’t just about what happened 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem and even not just at the beginning of time. God takes an intimate relationship with us so seriously that God has baked relationships into creation. God is not the same as creation, but God is fully present to everything God has made. Richard Rohr again: “God loves things by becoming them” and “the problem [of sin] was solved from the beginning.” There arose a saying in the early church: “The finite is capable of bearing the infinite.” And so with Martin Luther, we know we can find God in the waters of baptism, the bread and wine of Holy Communion, the Word of Scripture, and Christ’s Body, the community of believers.

Yet there’s more, because God always gives more. Another, more recent poet, Elizabeth Barret Browning says it this way: “Earth is crammed with heaven, and every bush is aflame with the glory of God. But only those who see take off their shoes; the rest just pick the berries.” So, my brothers and sisters in Christ, can we daily take off our shoes and see God in, with and through all creation? Maybe, as a reminder, you can wake up each day and say, “Merry Christmas!” For the Word is in the world, full of grace and truth, bringing light and life to all, and creation sings the Father’s song. Amen.

For the worship service video, click here.

Can I Get a Witness? - Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent

Nothing Will Be Impossible with God: Can I Get a Witness?
Advent 3B
December 13, 2020
Grace, Waseca, MN
John 1.6-8, 19-28

One of the things I miss most about not gathering in-person for worship is singing together. What a joy to be surrounded by the various voices, praising God, and testifying to God’s love. I miss the beautiful harmonizing of the choir, Cornerstone, HHB and other gifted musicians at Grace. I even miss people like me who unabashedly “make a joyful noise to the Lord” and don’t flinch doing it. Whether we are in tune or out, whether on the beat or slightly off, we confess God’s faithfulness together with our voices.

Maybe that’s one of many reasons I love the Bible, for its various voices, some of which sound slightly off-key. Our lessons today are a chorus of such voices giving witness to God through Jesus Christ. The prophet Isaiah proclaims good news to a weary people, promising a “mantle of praise” for them to wear. In his letter to the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul encourages rejoicing, continual prayer, and unending gratitude for a similarly weary people who are discouraged because Jesus has not returned as they had hoped. And then the psalmist talks about mouths filled with laughter and joy because the Lord has delivered them from some danger.

Then, of course, we have John. I have to admit that, as I looked at this Gospel reading, I groaned, “Not John again!” Why is it that John the Baptizer gets two (half) of the four Sundays of Advent? That’s especially aggravating since we seem to have another version of Mark’s story from last week. But, as I worked with the text (and remembered that John is my favorite Gospel) I came to appreciate the different perspective John brings to us and to Jesus as the light.

This John whom we know as “The Baptizer,” is here instead declared as “The Witness.” The Gospel goes to great lengths to make sure we know that John is not the Messiah, the Light that shines in the darkness, but is a voice in the wilderness that points and testifies to the Light. The word, “witness” and its variations appear over 50 times in this Gospel. And though witness often relates to what Jesus has done, it more often describes who Jesus is and what he means to us.

It is tempting to be another voice that encourages you to confess, bear witness and testify to Jesus as the Light. Yet, during a time of year when we are especially overwhelmed with doing, or not doing as the case may be, I want to assure you that you are already a part of the earthly chorus giving voice to God’s love. There is no choir that will have me as a member, for good reason, but because of my baptism there is no church that can refuse the presence of my voice, however articulated. Nor will yours be refused, either.

I do want to invite you, as you revel in beautifully rendered songs, to listen for the voices that are singing just slightly differently, like John the Witness, who consider a different view of God than you might be used to. It is very often those who stretch our musical and theological imaginations that help us grow in understanding of God’s love through Jesus. Meanwhile, “Arise, Your Light Has Come,” as we witness together in song, the Light of the World. Amen.

To view the sermon in a video click here.

Nothing Will Be Impossible with God: When Things Get Revealed - Sermon for the 1st Sunday of Advent

Nothing Will Be Impossible with God: When Things Get Revealed
Advent 1B

November 29, 2020

Grace, Waseca, MN

Mark 13.24-37

Keep awake! Beware, keep alert! our Gospel reading from Mark warns, with menacing overtones. As I get older. whether it’s Advent or not, staying awake and being alert become harder and harder. In the midst of a pandemic, even without contracting the virus, circumstances seem to suck the very life out of me like an insatiable parasite. Getting through the day is a major accomplishment. I wish I were one of those who have done much with the down time, but it’s not been that way for me, not that I’ve had any real down time. Keep awake, indeed.

Jesus’ words in Mark don’t help much. After Jesus’ relentless end-time parables in Matthew’s Gospel with all the eternal punishment and weeping and gnashing teeth, a little, hopeful reprieve in Mark would be nice. Not today. Now, I understand that the task of the First Sunday of Advent is to remind us that the Jesus who came as a baby in Bethlehem will come again at the end of time. Even so, this doesn’t seem good news. It looks like Jesus is piling on in the midst of a weary world where we’re all simply trying to keep it together. Why keep awake for that?

Ironically, that’s the opposite effect Jesus intends with this apocalyptic imagery in Mark. The images of darkening sun, dimming moon, falling stars, and shaking heavens sound a lot like Revelation or parts of Daniel. But then we are reminded what apocalyptic texts are for. Though these weird texts seem to predict tumultuous end-times, they are really meant to function more about encouragement in the present times. The word apocalypse means to reveal. As such, the purpose of apocalyptic texts is to reveal who really is in control: God.

None of us are where we want to be this Advent. We aren’t with our loved ones celebrating the holidays. We aren’t in school or at work in the way we’re used to. We won’t be in church singing “Silent Night” surrounded by our friends and family as we do every year. The list goes on. We tend to hear the message of Advent as, “God is coming; look busy!” But I wonder if this Advent might be more about being than it is about doing.

Those first followers of Jesus knew that life is uncertain and chaotic. They were under the thumb of an oppressive government and will experience the destruction of the temple resulting in their scattering to the winds. We have certainly been reminded of how quickly and how much life can change. Yet, Jesus vividly reminds us that it is in precisely these chaotic times when God reveals God’s self in remarkable ways. I like the words of Adrienne Brown, “Things are not getting worse, they are getting uncovered. We must hold each other tight and pull back the veil.” During Advent we are to see where God is revealing God’s self to us.

Today we begin the sermon series, “Nothing Will Be Impossible with God,” echoing the angel’s words to Mary at the Annunciation that we’ll hear in a few weeks. The subtheme for today is, “When Things Get Revealed.” The theme poses a question for us: what at Grace is God revealing to us? I’m not going to answer it for you, at least not completely. I do want you to entertain the idea that God is revealing opportunities for ministry. You see, regardless of the pandemic or anything else that disrupts your life, we are still church and evidence to the contrary, God is still with us. A blessed Advent as you simply be God’s children for whom God is still very much present and reveals opportunities to join with God in loving and blessing this world. That’s worth staying awake for. Amen.

For the video version of today's sermon, click here.

"Buried Alive" - Sermon for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Buried Alive
Pentecost 24A – Stewardship Commitment Sunday
November 15, 2020
Grace, Waseca, MN
Matthew 25.14-30

Public theologian and pastor David Lose has likened the Bible to a scrapbook, something with a lot of different material and stories. As we look through scrapbooks of our lives, we may wonder why we keep things in there, what stories they tell, and why we keep retelling them. The same could be said about the stuff in the Bible: why did we keep some of these things and what are the stories behind them? That’s why we read the Bible in community, so that each of us can compare notes with others about what we think the meaning of a particular story is. This is certainly true for Jesus’ parables, which seem like crazy Uncle Charlie’s pointless ramblings that confound us more than they enlighten us.

“Crazy Uncle Jesus” doesn’t help us much with his “weeping and gnashing of teeth” rants in Matthew. Jesus uses this phrase almost exclusively. Though it seems to generate fear, I think it is meant to do the opposite. At the risk of mixing metaphors, I think that “weeping and gnashing of teeth” is Jesus’ 1st century version of texting in all caps: he’s telling us to PAY ATTENTION – THIS IS IMPORTANT! So, what’s so important that Jesus is trying to get our attention? My take is that, as we follow him, we aren’t to live in fear. Instead, Jesus wants us to take risks for the sake of God’s mission and ministry. Jesus doesn’t want us to do what the religious leaders did, bury God’s abundant gifts in the mistaken notion of protecting them.

It’s estimated that a talent was worth about 15 years’ wages for the average worker. Using the minimum wage today I calculated that to be about $500,000, but I’ve heard estimates as high as $1.5 million. (As an aside, in fact, our English word talent, meaning gift or ability, is from this Greek word for money.) So even with one talent and splitting the distance at $1 million, the third slave was given an enormous gift to manage. The gift was a reflection of the trust the master had in the slave. Even so, the third slave’s view of his master is arguably skewed. His depiction of his master as vengeful, which is not shared by the first two, probably says more about the slave than it does his master. It is this baseless fear that causes him to bury both the talent and himself.

As I get older, I look back and see what where God’s Spirit has led me to take faithful risks. For instance, I rededicated my life to Christ as a young man after many years spend outside the church. As a newlywed, I agreed with my wife to tithe (give 10%) of our income to God’s work through the church. Later, at 38 years old, with that same wife and now two young daughters we sold our house for me to answer God’s call to seminary to become a pastor. And 10 years after that to return to seminary to work on a doctorate. It’s true that I hope one day for God to say, “Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master,” but it’s more true that I trust God who entrusted me with so much that I felt compelled to give back. I’m not the hero in the story; God is the hero, the one who guided me.

Today is Stewardship Commitment Sunday as we make our giving intentions for next year. Our theme has been “Together in Grace: What’s Your Sanctuary?” During the campaign, we’ve invited you to ponder where you have seen God at work in your life, especially in this time of pandemic. To do so, we’ve had three excellent temple talks: Brett Prescher, who found his sanctuary working with the Outreach Team; Larry Draheim, who talked about seeing God through his work with Grace’s Food Shelf; and Twylla Vetsch, who found sanctuary working with our young people in faith formation and who described the blessing of doing Simply Giving, ensuring that money for God’s mission and ministry would always be at Grace, even if she and Jeff couldn’t. Additionally, we’ve been comforted by the words of Jeremiah 29, assured of God’s promise of a “future with hope.” We trust that these words will strengthen you as you complete your Statement of Intent.

Meanwhile, as you ponder how God is inviting you to “risk faithfully, listen to the special Musical Offering by Robin Menk, “Before You I Kneel (A Workers Prayer)*,” especially the last verse: 

 

May we live the gospel of Your grace, 

Serve Your purpose in our fleeting days,

Then our lives will bring eternal praise

And all glory to Your great name. 

Amen.

*Words and Music by Keith and Kristyn Getty, Jeff Taylor, and Stuart Townend

To watch a video of the worship service including the sermon, click here.

"Blessed Are the Peacemakers" - Sermon for All Saints Sunday Year A

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

All Saints A

November 1, 2020

Grace, Waseca, MN

Matthew 5.1-12

The contentiousness following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reminded me of the previous death of another Justice in January 2016, Antonin Scalia. It wasn’t the contentiousness of the ensuing nomination process that jogged my memory. Rather, what I remembered was how devastated Bader Ginsburg was over Scalia’s death. Though the two were polar opposites in judicial philosophy and clashed often, they were also close friends and had been since the 1980s. Among other things, they shared a love of opera.

Judges are called upon to be peacemakers in a world that is increasingly litigious and contentious. Into this world, we hear Jesus’ voice: “Blessed are the peacemakers,” he says, “for they will be called children of God.” It’s helpful to know that when Jesus goes up on a mountain, the mountain was typically a place of revelation from God. And when he sits down, he assumes the position of an authoritative teacher, in this case one like Moses. Jesus is signaling that something important is about to happen. Indeed, what follows is the first of five large blocks of teaching in Matthew’s Gospel, what we have come to know as “Sermon on the Mount.” In this sermon, particularly what we call the Beatitudes, Jesus gives us a vision of God’s kingdom. It’s a vision not just for the future but also for today.

Now, it’s also important that when we hear Jesus say, “Blessed” we need to hear something else besides our modern American religious use of the term. We tend to think of blessings as good things that happen to us or of material possessions we have. Indeed, these may be blessings, but that’s not what Jesus means. Rather, God’s favor (of blessedness) is bestowed on people who we don’t think of as blessed: the humble, poor in spirit, mourners, sufferers of persecution and injustice, or slogging away for peace in the midst of violence. In these examples of blessedness, we get a glimpse of God’s “Core Values,” values that are different than those our world holds.

Clearly, one of those core values is to be a peacemaker or, if we aren’t able to make peace, to at least support those who are trying. It’s vital to know that Jesus is talking about the Jewish concept of shalom, which goes beyond our normal understanding of peace as the time between wars or the absence of conflict. Shalom has a deeper sense of well-being for all creation, to experience the fullness of God’s gifts. It’s the peace we experience when look at the sunset over a lake or connect with another person in a fulfilling way.

Make no mistake, we know all too well that peacemaking is hard, painstaking and often unsuccessful work. There is no how-to manual for doing it. Yet, to paraphrase Mother Teresa, we “…do it anyway” because we are children of God. This is exemplified by German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who wrote “The Cost of Discipleship,” based upon the Sermon on the Mount. In the section on the Beatitudes, specifically peacemaking, Bonhoeffer denounced violence, declared that we should choose suffering, and overcome evil with good. Yet in the face of Naziism, Bonhoeffer found himself caught up in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. He would face martyrdom for his faith and actions.

Today is All Saints Sunday when we remember those who have died in the past year. It’s also a time to remember that to be a saint doesn’t just mean to be good, though it can. It doesn’t just mean being dead and it doesn’t mean dying for your faith like Bonhoeffer. It’s a time to remember that each of us has been set aside in our baptism for God’s purposes. We know that Jesus is not saying “be peacemakers so you can get heaven’s reward.” The grace of God’s acceptance is already ours and it is that grace which propels us to kingdom work.

Through the cross, Jesus has made peace with our brokenness and death so we can make peace. This congregation has experienced significant conflict and the Discovery Team has ample evidence that many of you desire unity and peace. That sounds like your next senior pastor would have some gifts for handling conflict. For now, please know that in our divisive and contentious world, Jesus invites you to follow the way of Scalia and Bader Ginsburg, not to mention Mother Teresa, Martin Luther Kind, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Bonhoeffer and many others to work for peace or support those who do, for you are the children of God. Amen.

To watch this sermon in the worship service click here.

"What Do I Owe You?" - Sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

What Do I Owe You?
Pentecost 20A
October 18, 2020
Grace Waseca, MN
Matthew 22.15-22

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson featured a segment called, “Stump the Band.” Johnny would go into the audience to ask someone to name a song they thought would do just that. Doc Severinsen, the leader, and Ed McMahon, Johnny’s sidekick would improvise if they didn’t know the song in question, often quite humorously. It was a great way for Johnny to interact with the audience while providing some laughs.

Many of the religious leaders of the day have trying to play “Stump the Messiah” with Jesus. This has been going on since Jesus entered Jerusalem and cleansed the temple of the sellers and moneychangers. First it was the chief priests and scribes, then the Pharisees, and in today’s text it is the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians who have tried to nail him. It’s an unlikely but probably politically expedient alliance, for the Pharisees chafed under Roman rule, but were quietists and went along to get along, while the Herodians were most like supporters of Herod, the Roman puppet governor, and thereby collaborators with Rome. Today the issue is whether to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor Caesar, a brutal and oppressive occupying force.

Yet, the issue goes deeper than agreeing to pay taxes to an occupying nation. Jews were forbidden to handle anything that had “graven images” on it. It was considered idolatrous and blasphemous to do so. This was especially true with Roman coins, which not only carried the image of Caesar Augustus, but also had an inscription of him claiming to be god. Jesus unmasks their hypocrisy when he asks for a coin and they are able to produce one quickly; someone had to be carrying one in his purse. But he not only unmasks their malice, he unmasks their inability to see God working in, with and through Jesus.

At first glance, it seems that Jesus deftly evades their trap and removes himself from the horns of the dilemma by distinguishing between church and state. Indeed, Martin Luther and Lutherans after him are known for their “two kingdoms” or “two realms” teaching. The relationship between church and state is an important conversation, but too much for here. Besides, I don’t think Jesus is doing that here. You see, some people believe that Jesus was somehow apolitical and that politics don’t belong in the pulpit. But Jesus was very political, questioning the corrupt powers in both empire and the religious system. They forget that it was the political system, threatened by him, that ended up “nailing him” every bit as much as the religious system.

In his object lesson with the coin, Jesus is reminding us that we are in this world but not of it. As Luther Seminary professor Rolf Jacobson notes, Jesus in his words “at once free us to live with the emperor but to live for God.” [Emphasis mine.] It seems that Jesus wants us to figure out what it means to give to God the things that are God’s so that we can figure out how live in this world with faithfulness and integrity as his disciples. This past week I’ve thought deeply about what this means. Two thoughts came to mind. First are Jesus’ answer to the question about the greatest commandment: “Love the lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and mind, and the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself.” Second, the well-known words of the prophet Micah: “What is required of you? Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God.” Maybe you have some other ideas.

We live a transactional existence, meaning we do things to get things. We often say to someone, “What do I owe you?” But when we ask that question in our relationship with God, the answer is both “nothing” and “everything.” God gives us everything with no strings while at the same time we owe everything we have because of God. We love because God first loved us and we give our all because God has given us his all. Jesus is not an auditor for God’s “Spiritual IRS,” but rather one who invites us to give as he gave on the cross. In this charged political climate, God’s blessings as you navigate what it means to follow Jesus. That may stump you from time to time, but that’s okay; we’re called to be faithful, not perfect. Thanks be to God. Amen.

To watch the sermon on the worship video click here.

"Letting Go[d]" - Sermon for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost

 Letting Go[d]
Pentecost 18A
October 4, 2020
Grace, Waseca, MN
Matthew 21.33-46; Philippians 3.4b-14

When I was a boy, my Aunt Elaine and Uncle Vern had a dog. His official name was “Fritzie von Grensing,” but we call him Fritz or Fritzie. A Weimaraner, Fritzie was a big dog that we got to “dog-sit” occasionally, much to my delight. Whenever he came, Fritz always brought a beat-up rug with which he loved to play Tug-of-War with us (and we with him). Of course, Fritz could hang on to that rug, never letting go, until we got tired and gave up. That often happened when he’d work his way up the rug coming perilously close to our hands. When we gave up, then he’d drop the rug, look at us, and beg us to play again. But, as soon as we reached for it, he would snatch it up again, holding on for dear life.

In our Gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus tells a parable about tenants in a vineyard who couldn’t let go, of produce and of their position as temporary renters. Now, as a reminder of the story’s context, Jesus is in Jerusalem and has cleansed the temple. The tension between him and the religious leaders is palpable. Clearly, Jesus is not happy. He indicates that they’ve abused their God-given responsibilities. On their end, they’re not happy with him either and they are even afraid of his popularity with the crowds. Last week we heard how they’ve failed the pop quiz about John the Baptist and Jesus’ authority. They also got zinged by a parable about two sons: one son said he was going to work in the vineyard and didn’t; and the other son said he wouldn’t go but did. In today’s follow-up parable about the wicked tenants, they get snookered into condemning their own behavior.

I’ve been amazed at the various responses to this parable and its aftermath. Some readers wonder if the tenants revolted because of the landowner’s oppression. Some are appalled at the violence that seems to be promoted in the text. Other readers thought the landowner naïve, believing the wicked tenants could change their minds by sending his son. Still others want us to be cautious about being anti-Semitic, to remember Jesus is talking to the elites of the day and not all Jewish people. Of course, the religious leaders are furious, especially since they’re hooked by their own words.

Clearly the text operates on us differently and multiple levels as Bible stories often do. But (ironically), I have not been able to let go of the issue of letting go, like the monkey whose hand is trapped in a coconut. (Some hunters put bait in a hollowed-out coconut attached to a stake. The coconut has a hole just large enough for a monkey to put its hand through. When it grabs the bait, the monkey cannot remove its hand, not even to save its life.) The religious leaders have not been able let go of their favored position and status. More importantly, they’ve not been able to let go of their ideas about how God is working in the world through Jesus. For us, the text holds up what may be an uncomfortable mirror: it asks, “What are we holding onto, not letting go?”

This is an important question for us, both as individuals and as a community of faith. We need to acknowledge that there are things that we cling to that get in the way of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. In the Second Reading from Philippians, the Apostle Paul tells how has had to let go of key pieces of his former identity. He reminds us that we are on a journey of faith that opens us up to what God is doing in us and there are things we cling to that may be holding us back. That’s also true for Grace Lutheran in discerning God’s mission and ministry as you seek a new senior pastor. What are you hanging onto that you need to let go?

Yet, even as we contemplate about letting go, we are always reminded that God never lets go of us. We need to acknowledge that the violent response offered by the religious leaders is not God’s response. For God keeps coming to us, inviting us into a life-giving relationship. We may be like monkeys with our hands trapped in a coconut, but God is like Fritz with his rug, never letting go. As the Apostle Paul notes, we press on in the journey because God has made us, his beloved, his own. In Jesus Christ, God wants us to know that he will never give up on us, no matter what. Thanks be to God! Amen.

To watch a video version of this sermon, click on here.