"Singing Our Faith: Here I Am Lord" - Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Singing Our Faith: Here I Am, Lord
Pentecost 14
August 20, 2015
Grace, Mankato, MN
1 Samuel 3.1-20

"I, the Lord of sea and sky… [1]

Most of us know these words to Daniel Schutte’s hymn, Here I Am, Lord if not by heart then by spiritual osmosis. Schutte is an accomplished American composer of Catholic liturgical music and a contemporary Christian music best known for this hymn but has composed others. Born in 1947, he was one of the founding members of the St. Louis Jesuits who popularized a contemporary style of church music set to sacred texts sung in English. Although his compositions are mostly for Catholic liturgical use, his works have found their way into Protestant worship. For us, Here I Am, Lord first appeared in the blue hymnal supplement, With One Voice and, of course, is in our newish cranberry hymnal, Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Not surprisingly, various polls among musicians cite Here I Am, Lord at or near the top as favorites. Schutte is presently Composer-in-Residence at the University of San Francisco.

Jill Helling, in nominating this hymn for our sermon series, “Singing Our Faith,” gives one reason why it is so meaningful:

I have been fortunate to have parents, grandparents, mother-in-law, relatives (etc.) that were examples of people who were strong faithful followers of their Christian faith.  From the time I can remember church/Sunday school was part of our daily life.  At many of the family funerals this hymn was sung reminding me and our family that if we listen and pray God is always there, even when we have lost someone we love.  

“Strong, faithful followers of their Christian faith”; indeed, if we aren’t already people such as this we certainly aspire to become such. Here I Am, Lord has long been a favorite of mine. We sung it at my ordination service and it is on my short list of songs I want at my own funeral.

It’s a powerful song from a powerful story of how the boy Samuel hears and responds to God’s call. What’s also important is how Samuel came to be in the service of God with Eli. Earlier in 1 Samuel we read how his mother Hannah was unable to conceive and how in a moment of fervent prayer at the temple at Shiloh, Eli thought her drunk. Hannah actually promised that if God would give her a son she would make him a Nazarite and give him back to God. Though he wasn’t aware of her promise, Eli told Hannah to go in peace, that God would grant her petition. Hannah did indeed conceive and give Samuel back to God.

"I, the Lord of snow and rain … [2]

As I thought about this story in 1 Samuel and the song, I couldn’t help also thinking about Kenneth’s baptism here today. I thought about how his mother trusted him to Marty and Amanda, and how all three of them have answered God’s calling in the night. I don’t think any of them think they are doing holy and heroic work, but they are. God calls to each of us in the midst of our lives, disrupting us to bring healing and wholeness.

This past week at a pastor’s gathering, a pastor read the following blog as a devotional. It’s from Glennon Doyle Melton’s blog “Momastery” and is a letter to her son, Chase in 2011 as he enters the third grade. It’s titled, “The One Letter to Read Before Sending Your Child to School.” [3]

Hey Baby.

Tomorrow is a big day. Third Grade – wow.

Chase – When I was in third grade, there was a little boy in my class named Adam.

Adam looked a little different and he wore funny clothes and sometimes he even smelled a little bit. Adam didn’t smile. He hung his head low and he never looked at anyone at all. Adam never did his homework. I don’t think his parents reminded him like yours do. The other kids teased Adam a lot. Whenever they did, his head hung lower and lower and lower. I never teased him, but I never told the other kids to stop, either.

And I never talked to Adam, not once. I never invited him to sit next to me at lunch, or to play with me at recess. Instead, he sat and played by himself. He must have been very lonely.

I still think about Adam every day. I wonder if Adam remembers me? Probably not. I bet if I’d asked him to play, just once, he’d still remember me.

I think that God puts people in our lives as gifts to us. The children in your class this year, they are some of God’s gifts to you.

So please treat each one like a gift from God. Every single one.

Baby, if you see a child being left out, or hurt, or teased, a little part of your heart will hurt a little. Your daddy and I want you to trust that heart- ache. Your whole life, we want you to notice and trust your heart-ache. That heart ache is called compassion, and it is God’s signal to you to do something. It is God saying, Chase! Wake up! One of my babies is hurting! Do something to help! Whenever you feel compassion – be thrilled! It means God is speaking to you, and that is magic. It means He trusts you and needs you.

Sometimes the magic of compassion will make you step into the middle of a bad situation right away.

Compassion might lead you to tell a teaser to stop it and then ask the teased kid to play. You might invite a left-out kid to sit next to you at lunch. You might choose a kid for your team first who usually gets chosen last. These things will be hard to do, but you can do hard things.

Sometimes you will feel compassion but you won’t step in right away. That’s okay, too. You might choose instead to tell your teacher and then tell us. We are on your team – we are on your whole class’ team. Asking for help for someone who is hurting is not tattling, it is doing the right thing. If someone in your class needs help, please tell me, baby. We will make a plan to help together.

When God speaks to you by making your heart hurt for another, by giving you compassion, just do something. Please do not ignore God whispering to you. I so wish I had not ignored God when He spoke to me about Adam. I remember Him trying, I remember feeling compassion, but I chose fear over compassion. I wish I hadn’t. Adam could have used a friend and I could have, too.

Chase – We do not care if you are the smartest or fastest or coolest or funniest. There will be lots of contests at school, and we don’t care if you win a single one of them. We don’t care if you get straight As. We don’t care if the girls think you’re cute or whether you’re picked first or last for kickball at recess. We don’t care if you are your teacher’s favorite or not. We don’t care if you have the best clothes or most Pokemon cards or coolest gadgets. We just don’t care.

We don’t send you to school to become the best at anything at all. We already love you as much as we possibly could. You do not have to earn our love or pride and you can’t lose it. That’s done.

We send you to school to practice being brave and kind.

Kind people are brave people. Because brave is not a feeling that you should wait for. It is a decision. It is a decision that compassion is more important than fear, than fitting in, than following the crowd.

Trust me, baby, it is. It is more important.

Don’t try to be the best this year, honey.

Just be grateful and kind and brave. That’s all you ever need to be.

Take care of those classmates of yours, and your teacher, too. You Belong to Each Other. You are one lucky boy . . . with all of these new gifts to unwrap this year.

I love you so much that my heart might explode.

Enjoy and cherish your gifts.

And thank you for being my favorite gift of all time.

Love,

Mama

Melton gives permission on her blog for anyone to use this by substituting your child’s name for hers. It also works if you peg the writer as God, our heavenly parent.

So, I end with an invitation for you to hear God’s voice calling to you. There is a call already out there asking you to step up in various ways, to help with Faith Night meals, worship and especially teaching. Please respond, not because John or I need you, but because God is calling and placing a burden on your heart for those that need you to be brave. Please don’t tell us that you are too old, because if 90 year old Jimmy Carter can teach Sunday School following a cancer treatment, you can do something here. Besides, just as there is no expiration date on Kenneth’s baptismal certificate I doubt there is one on yours, either. Yes, it’s scary, but the same God who answered the call, who took on human flesh, and who went to the cross and answered the call to die for us, gives us everything we need.

"I, the Lord of wind and flame … [4]

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Amen.
          

[1] Due to copyright limitations, reprinting of the lyrics to Here I Am, Lord is prohibited. Please see verse 1 in your favorite hymnal.

[2] Please see verse 2.

[3] See more at: http://momastery.com/blog/2014/08/21/the-one-letter-to-read/#sthash.iKyYp8iv.dpuf

[4] Please see verse 3 and refrain.

"Singing Our Faith: When Peace like a River" - Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Singing Our Faith: When Peace like a River
Pentecost 11 – Summer Series
August 9, 2015
Grace, Mankato, MN
1 Corinthians 15.51-58

Late in 1873, Chicago businessman Horatio G. Spafford was to take a vacation to England with his wife and four daughters. Delayed by business, Spafford sent them on ahead aboard the French liner, the Ville du Havre. While crossing the liner was hit by the English iron ship Lochearnon and sunk. Spafford’s wife survived, but all four daughters perished. Upon reaching Wales, his wife cable Spafford the message, “Survived alone.” Spafford immediately sailed to join his wife, crossing the very spot his family went down. As he did, he penned the words to the hymn, When Peace like a River.

Hearing the news, family friend Dwight L. Moody (founder of the Moody Bible Institute) traveled to England to comfort them. He reported that Spafford said about the tragedy, “It is well; the will of God be done.” Philip Bliss, another family friend, wrote the tune that accompanies the lyrics and named the tune after the liner, Ville du Havre. We also know the song as It Is Well with My Soul. Jason Glaser, who nominated the song, echoes many of our thoughts about why he chose the hymn: “The background to the lyrics, and the depth of faith shown against such catastrophic loss. Could I do it? Doubtful, but I do sing the song to myself on darker days.”

The heart of the message and the basis for Spafford’s (and ours) assurance is the promise of the resurrection. For many of us, the promise of the resurrection to eternal life has various implications. For example, some of us are assured that there is more than this life. Others take comfort in knowing that whatever pain or suffering we are enduring will not last. Still others are heartened at the anticipation of being reunited with loved ones. If fact, we almost take the resurrection for granted because we have celebrated the promise so long. However, that was not true for the earliest Christians, especially at Corinth.

For the Corinthian Christians, the resurrection seemed to be at best open-ended and at worst in question. To understand why this is the case, we need to remember that there was no single Jewish viewpoint about resurrection in the first century and there were contrary ideas in Greek philosophy as well. Some people denied any kind of resurrection. Some thought the achieved immortality through their descendents. Some believed in the immortality of the soul while others believed in a bodily glorification. There were even some various combinations of these. Though we don’t know for sure, some of the Corinthians appeared to believe that resurrection already happened to them, that they had already arrived into some sort of spiritual being and that there was nothing else to do.

The question of an afterlife is not just something from 2,000 years ago. I have begun watching a new TV show on TNT called Proof. The story line is that dying genius billionaire wants to find definitive evidence of whether or not there is an afterlife. He essentially bribes a hard-science cardio-thoracic surgeon with donations to her favorite charity to explore various phenomena and report back to him. This is not just some intellectual exercise for the doctor, who though skeptical about the afterlife, has not only had an NDE (Near Death Experience) herself, but has recently lost her teenage son in a car accident.

For Paul, this is no academic exercise or philosophical question; the question of the resurrection goes to the heart of Christian faith. It’s so important that he spends an entire chapter, 58 verses, to hammer home the point. Christ’s resurrection, and by extension ours, is the core of the gospel, the good news of Jesus. If we deny Christ’s resurrection, and ours, then Paul says, our faith is in vain and we are to be pitied. But for Paul, the resurrection isn’t just some future promise; it makes a difference in our lives today. So the Corinthians were partially correct; we have new life available to us right now, but as is always true with God, there is more.

Spafford knew this, too. So here’s the rest of the story: Spafford and his wife went on to have three more children, a son and two daughters. At the age of four, the son died of scarlet fever. Their Chicago church, seeing all of their tragedy, accused them of some secret sin. They believed that God must be punishing them. (Apparently, they were unfamiliar with John 9.) This ostracism caused Spafford and his family to leave and start their own group. Spafford, who had developed an interest in biblical archeology, took the group to Jerusalem in 1881, establishing the American Colony.

Joined by Swedish Christians, the colony engaged in philanthropic work among all peoples, including Christians, Jews and Muslims. Although Spafford had died in 1888, the colony lived on and was instrumental in supporting these communities through the great suffering and deprivations both during and after WWI by running soup kitchens, hospitals, orphanages, etc.

My brothers and sisters, may you, like Spafford, be sustained by the promises of the resurrection. May it not only be “well with your souls,” but enable you to “excel in the work of the Lord” knowing that your labor is not in vain. Amen.

"Singing Our Faith: Psalm 119" - Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Singing Our Faith: Psalm 119
Pentecost 10
August 2, 2015
Grace, Mankato, MN
Psalm 119.1-16

Each synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has a candidacy committee, a team responsible for the approval of ministry candidates, lay or ordained. Candidates meet with the committee regularly and go through several approval levels. Many candidates call this process “jumping through hoops.” So, it’s no surprise that ministry candidates often see candidacy committees as gate keepers whose job is keep them out. Unfortunately, that’s the way many committees operate; you have to prove you are worthy. Fortunately for me, my committee over 20 years ago provided more shepherding than gate-keeping. Although I still had to meet the requirements for ordination, I felt they wanted to do whatever it took to help me.

The distinction between shepherding and gate-keeping is important as we think about Psalm 119. Psalm 119 extols the virtues of the Torah—or law—in the life of Israel in almost ecstatic terms. So much so, that it makes we who are 20th century Lutheran Christians almost break out in hives. We have had “we are saved by grace and not by works of the law” so pounded into us we that we squirm at this kind of rhetoric. And then there is the almost over-the-top gushiness of the language that makes us blush. Appreciating the place of the law in our lives is one thing, but getting mushy about it is quite another.

We need to step back a bit and see what is going on otherwise we are in danger of dismissing the psalmist’s message altogether. John’s scripture introduction is a good place to start. As we have done with other songs in this summer’s sermon series, “Singing Our Faith,” we look at who wrote it and why. Although a lot of the Psalms are credited to King David, we really don’t know who wrote it. We also don’t know when it was written, but the psalms are at least 3,000 years old. We also want to remember that the psalms were not only the songs of the Jewish people, they were also the songs of the early church. Neither the psalms nor the rest of the Old Testament is to be dismissed out of hand.

What we do know about Psalm 119 gives us a hint about how it functioned in the life of the Jewish people. The psalm consists of 22 groups of 8 stanzas each, each group beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order, forming an acrostic. For example, verses 1-8 each begin with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, aleph. Each line of verses 9-16 begin with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, bet, and so on. It seems as if the structure is teaching device that helps the people learn something about God’s law.

Furthermore, each set of eight stanzas contain different phrases for Torah: ordinances, statutes, law, commandments, decrees, precepts, word, and promises, with some variations. For example, the words ways and paths are used frequently as well. Yet, even though the NRSV translates Torah as law, it should really be “instruction.” And that gives even more insight into the place of Torah in Israel: learning as a way of life. Psalm 119 reminds us that Torah, or God’s instruction, was never meant to be an arbitrary set of rules set by an arbitrary God who tells us to “shut up and do it.” Rather, Torah teaches us to how to live.

In other words, Torah was and is God’s gift to humanity. It was not meant as a burden to bear but a help to us live our lives. Unfortunately, we are the ones who turn it into a burden (and the Bible as a whole, for that matter) by making it our Lord and Master in a way it wasn’t intended. Torah points us to God. Here’s where we remember that God’s initiative, grace and mercy always come first. Just as God chose the Jewish people first and then gave them the Torah to help them live into that identity as his people, we who are saved by grace are given an outline of kingdom living.

One of my first confirmation students was Raymond, who almost weekly would ask me, “Why do I have to do this?” and “What happens if I flunk Confirmation.” Each week I would respond the same way, “You don’t have to, you get to” and “You don’t pass or fail Confirmation, you either do it or you don’t. After nearly two years of this, just as was being tempted to say, “Because I said so!” Raymond approached me one day and said, “I get it now.” Somehow, Raymond no longer saw me as a gate-keeper to being confirmed but a shepherd who truly wanted to help him grow in faith as a child of God.

This is one reason why Jesus made a big deal of saying he came to fulfill the law, not abolish the law. It’s why he said the greatest commandment was to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. And it’s why he says loving neighbor is pretty much the same thing. Just as the cross points to God’s love for us, draws us closer to him and outside ourselves, Torah points us to the one who gives us life and invites us to live that life he set aside for us more fully. We haven’t chanted the psalms much lately, but as we do so today I hope you’ll be reminded these are the songs of the early church and that even Lutheran Christians can sing them passionately. Amen.

"Singing Our Faith: The Power of the Cross" - Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Singing Our Faith: The Power of the Cross
Pentecost 8
July 19, 2015
Grace, Mankato, MN
1 Corinthians 1.18-31

In 1867, US Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia. Some people supported the purchase, thinking it weakened both British and Russian as rivals to American commercial expansion. Many others, however, thought the $7 million price tag too steep. The purchase became known as Seward’s Folly. That is, until 1896 when gold was discovered in the Klondike region. The rest, as they say, is history.

So it is that some observers of the early Christian movement may have used a similar epithet for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ: “God’s Folly.” It would be one that the Apostle Paul appears to wear gladly. Today we are “singing our faith” with The Power of the Cross, a song written by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend in 2005 and sung by Getty’s wife, Kristyn. There is a couple of firsts today. This is the first time we’ve repeated authors of a song this summer and it will also be the first time we sing this song here. The song was suggested by Marlene Roede, who says: “There is so much "power" in this song that it reminds us of all Jesus gave for us so we may have eternal life with Him. Yes - this is the power of the cross!”

Indeed, Keith Getty thinks the heart of the Christian message is in the second verse: “bearing the awesome weight of human sin.” The song reaches its climax with the Easter message in verse four. (By the way, the song originally had 19 verses; thankfully, Getty and Townend cut it back to a manageable four.) From our previous exploration of their work, we know that the Getty/Townend crew cares deeply about songs that have biblical integrity and are sing-able for congregations. They often use English and Irish folk tunes to do so. In The Power of the Cross that means knowing that you have to go through Good Friday to get to Easter. For us, it’s important to admit that, 2000 years later, we either romanticize the cross such when we make cute jewelry, or we ignore the cross altogether by focusing on the resurrection. In other words, there is no resurrection without the crucifixion

In fact, Paul, the writer of the letter to the Corinthians, says the cross is the whole point. The crucifixion is not just some human mistake that God has to do an end-around to fix. The cross is the way God has chosen to both embarrass humanity and embrace it at once. It is the cross where God foolishly allowed himself to be hung, where his love and mercy are shown. It is the cross where God turns an instrument of shame and humiliation into one of forgiveness. It is through the cross where we learn once for all that we don’t ever come to God. Rather, God always comes to us.

The cross is where we definitively see that God turns human wisdom on its head as folly. Think about it: we actually believe that what I and every pastor do each week changes lives. Preaching the cross is not a career booster nor does it win friends and influence people. The cross says the things the world values, such as power, authority, and money are not the important things to value. The cross says that the people Jesus really cares about are those who get shoved to the edge of society. The cross says God’s power is made perfect in weakness and that we are to lose our lives to same them. If anyone wants to follow Jesus, she must deny herself and take up her cross.

What’s even more foolish is that you all come back each week to hear it and you dare to believe it. Who would be so foolish as to buy a couple of lots and turn them into community gardens to feed the hungry instead of making more parking spots? Who would be so foolish to give up Sundays to feed the hungry at Salvation Army? Who would be so foolish by giving five Wednesdays and countless hours so children could learn the same? Who else would say that our reason for getting together is to live and work to serve others? The mystery of the cross isn’t the question of why there aren’t more Christians. Perhaps it’s why there are so many. But, that’s God’s wisdom for you and that’s the power of the cross. Amen.

"Singing Our Faith: Lead Me, Guide Me" - Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Singing Our Faith: Lead Me, Guide Me
Pentecost 7
July 12, 2015
Grace Mankato, MN
Luke 4.1-13

When the devil saw a seeker enter the house of the Master, he was determined to turn him from his quest for Truth. The devil subjected the poor man to every temptation, but the seeker was far too experienced in matters of spirituality to succumb. When the seeker got into the Master’s presence he was shocked to see him sitting in a comfortable chair with his followers at his feet, the clothes he was wearing, and that he paid no attention to him. The seeker became disillusioned and left. The Master, who had seen the devil sitting in the corner, said to him, “You need not have worried, Tempter. He was yours from the very first, you know.”

This fable from Anthony de Mello’s book, Taking Flight, illustrates some of the difficulties we encounter when we seek God’s guidance, not the least of which is our very selves. Our focus hymn for today, Lead Me, Guide Me, was suggested by Judy Rotering and Karen Zingmark, who notes the theme of guidance. The song “is an earnest plea for an intimate walk with God,” who we ask to lead, guide and protect us. It emphasizes our spiritual weakness, blindness and the work of the devil.

The song was written and composed by Doris Akers, an African American who was a prodigious writer in the Southern Gospel tradition.  Born in 1922 in Brookfield, MO, Akers was also something of a prodigy. She learned to play the piano by ear at age 6 and wrote her first song at 10. Since then she has composed more than 300 gospel songs and hymns. Her fresh, modern arrangements of traditional Negro spirituals drew large crowds and she had an active career as a singer, choir director and songwriter. Believe it or not, Lead Me, Guide Me was recorded by Elvis Presley and sung in his last movie, “Elvis on Tour” in 1972. Akers died in Minneapolis from spinal cancer in 1995. She was posthumously inducted into both the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

I’ve put Lead Me, Guide Me in conversation with the temptation of Jesus story in Luke 4. Though a full-blown exposition of the devil isn’t possible, we need to acknowledge our ambivalence toward him. On the one hand, some people blame Satan for everything that goes wrong in the world and find the devil’s work everywhere. On the other, we tame the devil or dismiss him as antiquated. We do this by dressing him in funny costumes and joke about him. Flip Wilson’s “the devil made me do it” is a good example. Either way, we distance the devil from our lives. However you fall, I think it’s important to recognize there are forces in this world that are standing against God and God’s purposes.

As last week, rather than tell you how we should seek God’s guidance, I have a few propositions to offer. First, I think the real work of the devil is to disrupt relationships between us and God and between us and other people. As we see in Luke 4, Satan often does that by offering us good things for the wrong reasons. Money, responsibility, sports, family, technology, etc. are all good things that can go wrong if we put them first in our lives.

Second, as the fable implies, very often it is our own preconceived ideas that get in the way of receiving God’s guidance. As the cartoon character Pogo has said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” I think that we have a hard time receiving guidance from God because we’ve decided the answer we want and just ask God to bless it. So, as the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness so sometimes God leads us there, too. Now, the wilderness is not always a scary, wild place; it can also be a place of renewal where we can hear God’s voice more clearly. When we ask for God’s guidance, it would help for us to be open to what God has to say to us. The wilderness is often that place. For, it’s in the wilderness places and times that our faith often takes shape.

Third, as Luke 4 intimates, the Bible is neither an answer book nor is God a cosmic dispenser of goodies. Rather, the reading of scripture is designed to open us up to trusting God and his provision for us. I think it’s here that we get particularly stuck because the battle with the tempter is against insecurity and mistrust. The devil’s work is in the breakdown of relationships and these are fueled by insecurity and mistrust.

Now, I know that it is not particularly helpful for me to say, “All you have to do is trust God!” That’s just what we often have a hard time doing. David Lose, former Luther Seminary professor of preaching and now President of our seminary in Philadelphia has suggested a little exercise to help. Take out the slip of paper and write the word trust on one side. Then write down something important that you totally trust God with. This should not be a “given,” but something you really do trust God with. On the other side, write “mistrust” and something you are having a hard time giving over to God. These can be something to do with work, family, school, church or anything else.

Now, compare the two things. Why is it easier to trust God for one and not the other? Are they different in some way? Last, I’d invite you to do one of two things. You can either put them in the offering plate and I promise to pray for these this next week or you can take them home with you. If you take them home, give thanks for what you trust God for and pray over what is hard to trust God.

Trust is at the heart of our relationship with God and it’s not always easy. But if we want God to “lead us and guide us along life’s way” we need the support of one another. We need to be reminded that we are not to live in an atmosphere of fear and scarcity but rather of courage and abundance. Indeed, “lead us and guide us along the way,” O Lord. Amen.

"Singing Our Faith: This Is My Song" - Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Singing Our Faith: This Is My Song
Pentecost 6
July 5, 2015
Grace, Mankato, MN
Psalm 65.9-13; Matthew 6.9-13

May 1978 began an odyssey starting in my native Twin Cities MN that would involve sojourns in Chicago, IL, Louisville, KY, Alexandria, VA, Gettysburg, PA, and then back to Central IL. In 2000 I accepted a call to a congregation in Winona, MN, returning at last to “God’s Country,” where we all know that talking to God is a local phone call. As much as each of these various places I lived had something to commend itself, there was always the pull of Minnesota on me. Not surprisingly, there were many “natives” of other areas who felt the same passion and attraction in their place. They believed that theirs was an exceptional place to live every much as I believed about Minnesota.

I thought about this local brand of nationalism as I pondered patriotism and what it means to be a Christian who is also a citizen. Yesterday was Independence Day and today we are celebrating by focusing on the hymn This Is My Song. Bob and Donna Mertesdorf suggested today’s hymn, saying, “This hymn is a wonderful National song. We appreciate the prayer for our country and all the countries of the world.”

This Is My Song was written by two people: Lloyd Stone (vv. 1-2) and Georgia Harkness (vs. 3).
Stone was born in California in 1912 and planned to attend the University of Southern California as a music major with the intent of teaching. Instead, he joined a circus bound for Hawaii and remained there the rest of his life. He wrote his stanzas in 1934 as a 22 year old. Stone also wrote many other poems and even a musical based on Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees.” He died in 1993.

Harkness, born in 1891, was fortunate to be born into a family that was both upper middle class and progressive, giving her many opportunities for education denied most women of her generation. Though she was denied entry to theological schools, she found a way around it earning a PhD in the philosophy of religion in 1923. She became the first woman to teach theology in an American seminary and taught in several prominent theological schools. She was ordained in the United Methodist Church in 1926 but because she wasn’t admitted to a conference, she could not function as a minister until she was accepted in 1956. In addition to writing 30+ books, she was a force to be reckoned with on the world theological stage, even standing toe-to-toe with the equally formidable Karl Barth. You can see the theologians touch in verse three of This Is My Song.

The poems of Stone and Harkness are most often set to Finlandia, a hymn based on the seventh movement from Opus 26 by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). Ironically, the symphony was a covert protest against increasing censorship in Finland from the Russian Empire. It was accompanied by a tableau depicting scenes from Finnish history. To avoid censorship, Opus 26 had to be performed under less nationalistic names. Most of the piece is turbulent reflecting Finland’s own national struggle, until the end when the serenely melodic Finlandia Hymn is heard. With Finnish lyrics, is one of Finland’s most beloved national songs. Of course, Finlandia is also used with other Christian hymns.

Today, we are putting This Is My Song in conversation with Psalm 65, Matthew 6 and July 4. Psalm 65 extols the beauty and blessing of creation and how God provides richly and abundantly in so many ways. Matthew 6 is from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the greatest block of Jesus’ teaching of the way of the kingdom for his followers. A key verse in what we know as “The Lord’s Prayer” for us today is, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.” As for Independence Day, there are a lot of themes to choose from, but perhaps the one most pertinent for today is the notion of America’s exceptionalism, that we are more special than other countries.

This is a massive undertaking well beyond the scope of a Sunday sermon, so here are some thoughts about kingdom living and citizenship in today’s world. First, I do believe that America is exceptional, but not in the way some people mean it. God has gifted our country with wonderful resources and the opportunity live in amazing ways. But, I think that it’s helpful to recognize that most citizens of other countries love theirs as much we do or even more. Imagine my experience with living in different states on a global level and you get an idea of what I’m talking about. Yes, there are countries that have significant problems, but we have to admit that we do, too. Second, I also believe that God has gifted and is present among every other country in unique ways. If we believe that God is present in, with and under everything in creation, then God is present in every people of every land. There is no such thing as a godless country.

Third, when we talk about God’s kingdom coming on earth, we need to realize that it is God who will bring about the kingdom, not us, and that it will be a kingdom of peace, justice and mercy. Furthermore, we realize that cannot legislate kingdom living, but as good Christian citizens we can be signs of the kingdom. We can do that by affirming the diversity of our nation as blessing and gift. We can do it by affirming the interdependence we share with all peoples of the world. We can do it by praying for our leaders and elected officials, like them or not, that they will work for justice and peace. Fred Buechner says that what it means to be a patriot in our world today is to realize that we need find ways to live interdependently with all the peoples of the world. I think he’s right.

And, of course, we can do this by giving thanks, to God for blessings received and for those who have shaped our national life, often at great personal cost as we carry on this tradition. This, indeed, is our song, a song of gratitude, peace and prayer for God’s kingdom to shine through us. Amen.

"Singing Our Faith: In Christ Alone" - Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Singing Our Faith: In Christ Alone
Pentecost 4 – Summer Series
June 21, 2015
Grace, Mankato, MN
Acts 2.14a, 22-36

We continue our summer sermon series, "Singing Our Faith," as we put the beloved songs of faith, both old and new, in conversation with scripture and our daily lives. Today’s focus song is In Christ Alone, suggested by Alice Wu who says,

[T]he Bible list[s] lots of saints, but only Jesus Christ is my best friend, my savior, my Lord and my God. Because Christ die for me on the cross, through His resurrection bring new life unto me. Christ alone is my solid rock, my foundation, my strength, and my all in all.

In Christ Alone was written by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend in 2001, their first collaboration. Getty says that although there was no personal connection at first, they thought they’d try to do something together and see what happened. Getty’s idea was to tell the whole life of Christ and what it meant using Irish melodies. Not only does Getty have an Irish background, he wanted and could imagine a large group singing the song. In other words, it was to be for congregations. So, he composed several tunes and sent them to Townend and Townend chose this one. After Townend spent three months writing lyrics, they got together for editing, developing and rewriting. The rest, as they say, is history.

Getty and Townend are storytellers, which with compelling music makes In Christ Alone so powerful. They are committed to songs that are deep in meaning and yet simplicity in their sing-ability. They understand our need of the gospel story to sustain us throughout the week and write songs to do just that.

In our Acts text today, Peter also understands the need to tell the Christ story to his audience. The occasion is his so-called Pentecost speech, the oration he makes following the outpouring of the Holy Spirit onto the gathered believers. In answer to the accusation that they are drunk because they are speaking in other languages, Peter makes this response. He tells us that Jesus’ arrival was not discontinuous with the past but was predicted by his ancestor, King David. Jesus was chosen as God’s anointed, the Christ or Messiah, who died for us, was raised from the dead and now reigns at God’s right hand.

As I thought about this song, the Acts text and the claims they make I wondered what Christ alone means for us today. During the Reformation 500 years ago the “solas” as they were called (“alones”) were a response to those who had added more to the basic gospel message. Thus the Reformers insisted upon grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone and scripture alone. We are saved by grace through faith and not by anything we can do. This happened through the unique Christ event and is fully explicated in scripture. Other writings may help us understand this event, but cannot add to it.

But what does Christ alone mean in our culture today where world religions and atheists are not only near but also our neighbors? Indeed, Keith Getty tells of his struggle at university to understand and embrace the faith of his upbringing amid an “unbelieving, universalist and multi-religious culture.” He says, “It was a journey to believe in the uniqueness of Christ, the Scriptures and the gospel story.”

There have been two classic approaches to the questions of how Christians talk with other religions. The first, universalism, says that Christianity is just one path among many that leads to “God.” Although this position seemingly makes for less conflict, it guts our understanding of Jesus’ uniqueness. The opposite position, the so-called confessional stance, argues that Jesus is the only way to God and pushes conversion of all people to Christianity. Although this position maintains the uniqueness of Jesus, it seems more coercive than Jesus was in his relationship with others.

In his book, The Open Secret, Leslie Newbigin argues for a third way that preserves Christianity’s confessional claims to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ but also allows for conversation with people of other faiths. Newbigin suggests we enter into dialogue by being vulnerable just as Christ was vulnerable. We empty ourselves, not of our convictions about God and Jesus but of our pride and arrogance that somehow we know God fully and have nothing to learn. We recognize the other we are talking with as God’s child, too. We humbly acknowledge that it is the Holy Spirit that does the converting and that through conversation with the other we might be converted ourselves, not to another religion but to a deeper understanding of who Jesus is.

In Christian Dogmatics, Carl Braaten and Robert Jenson make the observation that “Christ’s uniqueness lies in his universality” and by that I think they remind us that Jesus has something to say to everyone in every situation. Jesus is not the exclusive property of the church. In other words, through the story of Jesus the Christ, we have the assurance that, all evidence to the contrary, God is working in the world today.

As I have been thinking about the Charleston shootings, I wonder if such an approach of humility and vulnerability might be what is needed today. I don’t think an approach of “all people need is Jesus” would be helpful. That might lead to another crusade or inquisition. Instead, what if we admitted that intended or not, we are a part of the problem of racism in this country and must be part of the solution. I don’t know what that means, but we need to figure out a way to address this problem or we will be continually lighting candles.

Meanwhile, we do confess that, “In Christ alone our hope is found.” Amen.