Friday, December 30, 2022

Books in 2022

Series:

This year was a year of reading multivolume works. I finally completed Robert Jordon’s 14 volume “Wheel of Time” series, a series I read in Junior High and High School but never finished (I gave up on the series after what seemed to be a blatant Deus Ex Machina).

I also read Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall” Trilogy, and Brandon Sanderson’s “Mistborn” Trilogy.

I made a valiant attempt to read both Douglas John Hall’s “The Faith” Systematic Theology trilogy and Andrew Root’s “Secular Age” trilogy (until I realized it is an ongoing series with at least five volumes, so far). I intend to finish reading the Douglas John Hall books in the new year, and will read the third Root book then too, but won’t be picking up the other 2 or 3.

Fiction:

There were two works of fiction that stuck out for me. One was Tendai Huchu’s The Library of the Dead, a young adult alternative history/horror book. The other was The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk, a granola hippie pagan classic I can’t believe I never ran into while at the U of O.

Non-Fiction:

I read The Warmth of Other Suns for the New Jersey Synod’s book club and was so taken by it I’m currently re-reading it in order to facilitate discussion at a local library’s book club. Additionally, Chernow’s Grant biography was both thick and good.

Saturday, December 24, 2022

Sermon: Holy Disruption


          Disruption seems to the be word of the week…

         The giant winter storm sweeping across the country has disrupted folk’s travel plans, disrupted power… disrupted… it would seem… Christmas.

 

         Here in the church, we had all five bulletins printed ahead of schedule, 
our secretary and her family had headed out for vacation.

         It seemed like we had things in order… 
I’d even had time to send a thank you note to the Synod for the Fund for Mission Grant that paid for three ministries here at Spruce Run…

         Then folk started to come down with Covid, 
this included both our Bell Choir Director and our Director of Music.
We had to do a sort of Musical Chairs with Ushers, 
Assisting Ministers, 
the whole works.

 

         These last minute audibles are one more example of how we’ve had to do things these days
—and I’m not just talking about the Church, 
but our lives in general:
“Hold all plans loosely, and be ready to pivot.”
An attitude that can be exhilarating in small bursts… 
but three years in… 
it’s getting heavy.

         So heavy that the basic Christmas message: 
“Jesus turns the world upside down! Disrupts the status quo.”
might feel like bad news
instead of good news

 

         We’ve been turned upside down enough… 
we’ve held our plans so loosely we’ve lost ‘em, 
and pivoting yet again feels like the spinning of a helicopter rotor.

         Whenever any new disruption erupts, all we can say is, “Oh no, not again.”

         

         And we’re not alone in this… 
the Holy family had their lives turned upside down because 
the powers that be decreed, 
and so everyone in the empire was tossed into turmoil, 
including pregnant Mary… 
traveling at an inopportune time, 
a dangerous time, 
her and Joseph’s feet slapping against pavement and sand 
in order to arrive in Bethlehem. 
Arrive like uninvited guests, 
their room mean and low, 
complete with a rough manger.

         So too the Shepherds have their world turned upside down, 
or perhaps inside-out or outside-in
—heaven piercing the cold night sky, 
a messenger of God among their lambs
what is this? 
Not “oh no, not again,” but a panicked and terrified, “Oh no!”

 

         But, this panic gives way, Thank God. 
The travails of travel are overwhelmed with the cries of a new baby born, 
the mean estate of the manger transformed into a crib of joy. 

         The shock of an Angel’s arrival is replaced with the words, 
Be not afraid!”  
The proclamation of Good News. 
“Savior, Messiah, Lord.”

 

         A figure unlike those you’ve experienced, 
the Augustuses and Quiriniuses of the world, 
they disrupt for disruption’s sake, 
dehumanizing for the sake of ego… 
“Not this one,” the Shepherds are told, “as His sigil, 
that is His sign of authority
—will be soft strips of cloth and a meager manger.”

         You see, the kind of turning Mary sings about in the Magnificat, 
the kind of upside down Kingdom Jesus brings
—it’s the Prophet Daniel’s promise of a Humane Kingdom, 
instead of a Monstrous one… 
-instead of force, coercion and cruelty, 
-creativity, wooing, and peace.

         That’s what this Kingdom of Heaven stuff we’ll be reading about this year in Matthew’s Gospel is all about
—when folk are close to Jesus they know what real authority is, 
they know what God’s Reign is like, 
they experience God making all things right.

 

         They get to go and see this thing God is doing, 
this uncontainable story
—Christmas.

         And we do too…

         You see, the point of the “God conversations” we’ve been marking with marbles moved from container to container, is as much about listening as talking

         As Lutheran Theologian and Martyr to the Nazis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “We do God’s work for our brothers and sisters when we learn to listen to them. So often Christians, especially preachers, think that their only service is always to have to “offer” something when they are together with other people. They forget that listening can be a greater service than speaking.”

         It can be hard to do, 
but we get to ask our neighbors what God is already up to, 
because we know, like the Shepherds, that God has already arrived, 
we get to rush out and see the sight
—manger and cloth. 
We get to go and find out how we can be part of the Kingdom of God 
in our own back yards. 

         When done right, God conversations can be a kind of mutual proclamation of the Gospel.

 

         This good news, God’s gentle rule, the Kingdom of Heaven, 
can seem impossible
—it is after all so different from our ordinary experience of the world, 
it can be jarring, 
it can be like going directly from a battle field to a birthday party…

         For that reason, Mary ponders it
—picks apart the proclamation she has heard, 
and puts it back together again, 
hearing it afresh and making it digestible and meaningful to her.

         The shepherds too, 
they have to go and see Jesus for themselves, 
experience the good news the angel told them about.

 

         And, as the Pastor of this congregation, I am privileged to see how those connections get worked out in our community. 
-An all age Christmas pageant putting a fresh spark into an old story, 
-gentle music and silence making the Christmas promise relevant in the midst of mourning,
-receiving Holy Communion for the first time in a long time,
-nursing home residents remembered
-hungry folk fed…

         I could go on, 
but you see my point, 
the Kingdom of the Christ Child, the reign of God, 
is found in small mundane moments made holy by God
—the Son of God born among us, a vulnerable baby.

 

         And so, celebrating God’s holy disruption among us, 
Jesus Christ born in our world of tumult and turmoil…

like the shepherds let us praise, the Prince of Peace,

like the angelic hosts let us sing Glory to the Newborn King. 

Amen and Alleluia.

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Sermon: Jesus Wept

         Jesus Wept is a Christmas Verse, 

a central message of the Christmas story.

         Yes, these verses are placed at the moment of Mary and Martha’s grief for their dead brother, Lazarus… 
The miracle to come is Lazarus called out of the tomb, 
but the first miracle is already there, Jesus wept

         Jesus wept, he wasn’t there for the sisters, 

         Jesus wept, he is late to the public period of mourning, 

         Jesus wept, outside the tomb.

         It’s about Jesus being there, 
even in his absence
even when late
even face to face with death
Present in disappointment, sorrow, the grave…

 

         Jesus wept… a Christmas story… 
It is the story of a baby experiencing the chill air outside the womb, 
and wailing in response.

         The doctrinal statements of the Church, 
that Jesus is fully human, 
takes on a fleshy poignancy there in the manger.

         God enters into this beautiful/awful world, 
fitting into our space. 
Wailing with us.

 

         The Christmas story is about God’s presence, 
and solidarity, 
with humanity… 
it is an ongoing reminder that you’re not alone. 
We’re not alone. 
Not alone in our tears, fears, worries, or losses
—God enters into them all… Jesus wept.

 

Prayer

         Do you know what tears do? 
Firstly, they lubricate our eyes and remove grit. 
They also remove stress chemicals, and… 
weeping is a social signal of empathy.

Empathy
—having compassion for… 
suffering with… 
tears tell us the other person is suffering with us

         Jesus wept—signifies to us that God has empathy for us… 
God is com-passionate
—suffers with… 
God suffers with us. 

 

         Yes, the baby who wept at the manger was the man who wept along with Mary and Martha for Lazarus… 
but not only that.  

         -at the desolation of Jerusalem written of in Lamentations, 
a beloved city experiencing widowhood, abandonment, and exile.

         -With the Psalmist in the darkest valley and before the most frightening of enemies.

         -at the world’s groaning, joining us with sighs too deep for words

 

         Jesus wept… 
that reality is what makes Christmas so hard for those with tender hearts, 
and hearts tenderized by the weight of this world… 
God born among us, 
means among us as we are
as we live and as we die… 
but that doesn’t make for a good Christmas special
that doesn’t fit well on a Christmas card

That doesn’t feel like the stereotyped “reason for the season” 
but it is.

Jesus wept

 

         Jesus wept
         With and for a young local poet I know who took his life this year.
         With folk who’ve lost their job, folk suffering from hunger.

 

         Jesus wept

-Alongside people abusing substances and those struggling to escape addiction.

-With people in physical and mental decline.

-Standing between abuser and survivor.

 

         Jesus wept

In the midst of changed lives
—even good change, that’s the weird thing about being embodied human beings

—even good change causes us to experience grief… 
that’s why I’m so glad God is embodied and experiences those tears too
—God can fully be with us in our griefs, 
even if they seem irrational, embarrassing, or even goofy…

         Jesus weeps with us in the darkness of the Longest Night, 
as a not insignificant subset of human beings experience a sort of collective sun downingthis time of year…
In fact, cultures around the world respond with blow out festivals and lights galore, to keep back the night.

 

         Jesus wept

While holding our isolation, uncomfortable memories, overscheduled lives, 
and excessive expectations.

At every disappointment and all the comparisons that we make with other people, 
because we’ve not internalized the truth that comparison can be a type of self-injury.

 

Jesus wept

Cries, 
compassion, 
suffering with, 
empathy, 
God in the flesh, crying

 

         Jesus wept

A child born in this world of ours.

A world that weeps.

A world that groans.

A world whose groans are labor pains, like Mary’s… birthing a new world.

With us.

 

         Jesus wept… weeps, 
with us.

Right here and right now.

Candle light in the night.

Community gathered, 
lifting up names, 
naming experiences, 
holding out hope.

 

With us

In the complexity of our grief

Out of our unsaid or weakly spoken words

Hidden in the small things we often miss 
or disregard as unimportant

In our impulses to reach out 
and as kindness to one another.

 

Jesus wept is a Christmas message. 
It takes seriously that God comes to dwell with us. 
Takes seriously too all our experiences of this world. 
I pray God meets us in this long night. 
Amen.

Saturday, December 03, 2022

Advent 2: Repent at The Vegan Lion Café



         Sometimes I dream of leaving ministry behind, and starting up a Christian Animal Café.

It would embody clearly the promises of God we find today in Isaiah, 
it would so baffle anyone who caught sight of our awning, 
or took a look at our menu, 
or came in to order a meal and saw our customers, 

In their confusion at what they saw there, they might actually hear the good news of God.

         The name of the Café would be “The Vegan Lion Café.”

Eating at The Vegan Lion would be a unique dining experience

The focus would be serving meals to carnivores, and their guests.

 

         My day would consist of serving wolves salads and Leopard lattes. 
-Lions would eat cheerios and so would little boys 
-and bears would eat bushels of hay with their cow friends.
-Snakes and children would play in the ball-pit together, 
and Little Miss Muffet would have no reason to scream when the spider sat down beside her.

         There would be no hurt or destruction in that place…    

         A guy can dream, right? 
Just as Isaiah dreamt, 
Just as John prepared…

Just as Jesus promises…

Let us pray

 

Repent!

         Change the direction from which you look for happiness.

         Beginning again.

Repent!

         The act of turning around.

         The GPS saying, “Recalculating!” “Recalculating!”

Repent!

         Luther writes that is the whole of the Christian life.

         He writes: Our whole life is returning to the font of our baptism.

         Sluff off the old skin! 

You are something new now!

         The old creature is drowned, 
You are a new creation!

 

Repent!

         Go off into the wilderness like Moses and the people, 
subsist and persist, and in so doing 
find what is needed, what is necessary. 
“Lord I am an empty vessel, fill it.”

Repent!

          So that when God is active in the world, 
you will be someone who can see it

         So that that you will be part of it, 
that your light will shine, 
that you’ll meet God at banquet, not the ash heap, 
that when God asks other people about you, they say you’re the forgiving type,
that you will have cared for God without even realizing it.

Repent!

         You so often think you’ve arrived
but we’re still in exile, 
still Exodus, 
still in need of being led through the Red Sea, 
across the desert, 
into the Jordon, 
down into Baptismal Waters!

Repent!

         Hear the words of the prophets, 
salvation as from old is arriving in the one John baptizes.

Repent!

         You are among a whole host of people returning, 
coming around.

 

Repent!

Matthew’s gospel makes a clear distinction between bad religion and good religion
—one is narcissistic and the other is humble. 
One is fixated on spiritual window dressing
the other 
cuts to the heart.

Repent!

         Not to beat yourself up and look sad, 
but that good may grow!

Repent!

         Too often you hold onto who you once were… 
self-justify based on who you are, 
not whose you are.

Repent!

         Time draws short and the Lord draws near, 
be fruitful, 
be on the right track.

Repent!

         The one who is coming, 
Jesus Christ, 
is near, 
is here!

Repent!

         His reign is like a winnowing.

         Have you seen it?
The grain tossed up into the air,

again, and again, 
landing with a rhythmic beat, 
in the air all that is unfruitful, 
the chaff and dirt and any other thing, 
is blown away, 
like the Spirit in her fierce gentleness, making us holy
—only the fruit remains, gathered!

 

Do you know the words that come next in Matthew’s Gospel? 

Then came Jesus!

 

         Repentance is preparation for the Kingdom of Heaven,
for a New Age where all is made right,
for the New World, that, 
for we Christians, 
is already here and not yet complete
—that’s the strangeness of Advent, 
it’s the season when we are given permission to consider God’s time, 
as we prepare, 
as we actively wait, 
for Christ’s coming, 
even as we prepare to celebrate on Christmas that he has already arrived.

 

         In our ongoing life of repentance, we prepare for a world, not unlike the “Vegan Lion Café.”

         A world without the predatory instinct, 
a world that doesn’t feed off of death.

         A world where there is neither prey nor predator.

         

         Have you ever seen a cat react to a cucumber?

They throw themselves into the air, crazy-like, 
sometimes this response even gives them a heart attack 

and kills them. 
They are reacting by instinct, 
they don’t want to be preyed upon by a snake.

         Think of all these instinctive flinches caused by instinct
—fear of predation,
caused by the food chain.
Mice react to cats, cats to snakes, 
snakes… 
in the eyes of most biblical writers
react to humans…
         And humans, we flinch when confronted by our gods… right? 
For most religion in the ancient world, humans were to hide from the gods, 
make themselves small
—like a terrified mouse.
the best-case scenario is that the gods walk on by… 
we find this way of thinking even in Genesis in the garden
—hide… 
be careful or be consumed. 
Flinch if the eyes of the Fates fall upon you.
Feed them sacrifices, 
so they do not consume you.

 

         Then came Jesus!

         Then came God into the mix… 
a god who is killed, 
a god who is consumed... 
A god who rises from the dead and says: 
“Enough!” 
“The new world is not filled with predators and prey … 
the Kingdom of Heaven is not like this!”

         A God who takes the food chain and transforms it into a feast for all!

         

         Even today, those things we fear, love, and trust
—all our little gods

Money and more than my neighbor,

The newest and best, 
the past and what once was, 
a future I can control,

Free time or obligation,

Self-sufficiency, success, and safety,

Wisdom and winning…

         

they make us flinch

we act crazy in order to keep the little gods happy,
we try to grow small for them, 
we press ourselves up under the radiator until these predators pass us by, 
we gladly sacrifice to them, 
so they don’t eat us alive.

 

         But then came Jesus.

         Like “The Vegan Lion Café” the food chain is flipped on its head and redeemed, 
no one need flinch, 
for there is no hurt or destruction in that place. 
Thanks be to God. 
Amen.

Saturday, November 26, 2022

Advent One: The Son of Man’s Great Heist


 Advent One: The Son of Man’s Great Heist

 



         Today, with this talk in Matthew’s Gospel about Jesus being thief-like
we ought to wrap our imaginations and minds around The Son of Man as a thief in the night
—the mastermind of The Great Heist
his ministry is clandestine, 
hidden from the powers that be, 
investigated but not undone, 
a trick and a trap to undermine, restrain, and redeem sin, death, and the devil…

Jesus is robbing authority from worldly empires,

Stealing the sting from death, 

and pilfering the powers of the evil one… it’s a heist!

         And you know what, every good Heist movie
—be it Oceans 11 or Kelly’s Heroes, The Inside Man or Antman, The Italian Job or The Great Muppet Caper, 
they all have a formula
-There is a Plan
-the Execution of the plan, 
-and the Aftermath.

         The Plan
—who is this Son of Man and what is expected of him?

         The Execution of the plan
—how Jesus actually lives out his identity as the Son of Man.

         The Aftermath
—There are ongoing consequences to Jesus being the Son of Man, 
the Church is living out the aftermath of Jesus’ Great Heist.

The Son of Man’s Great Heist.

Prayer

 

The Plan:

         In scholarly circles, there is much discussion about the term “The Son of Man.” In Jesus’ day, it could be used three different ways: 

-It can be a polite way not to refer to yourself, 
“The Son of Man would like you pass him the cranberry sauce.”

-It can a way to name one’s mortality, 
“Hold the Ladder steady, I’m a Son of Man after all, this fall would kill me.”

-It can be refer to a figure in the book of Daniel who will overthrow monstrous kingdoms and replace them with a humane, kind, and gentle, one. The Kingdom of God…

This third usage, I believe, is the identity Jesus is claiming.

         Many sects of Judaism had built upon and expanded out the slim words in Daniel about The Son of Man, interpreted him 
as:
-A military or political figure—like King David, 
-A High Priest. re-instituting right worship of God,
-A Prophet, like Moses or Elijah,

         The idea of Messiah (God’s chosen and anointed one) and this Daniel Figure became fused
—God active in the world, 
performing a great deed that will make all things right, 
fulfilling all the promises about the Day of the Lord
—The Son of Man a figure to wait for, with longing and awe.

         That was the plan….

 

The Execution of the plan:

         One of my favorite parts of a heist story is how things aren’t as they appear
—the bombshell at the roulette table is actually watching the safe, 
the plan doesn’t go as practiced, 
but that too is part of the plan within the plan...

         So too, Jesus gathers a very unlikely crew, with unexpected gifts, everyone from: 
fishermen, revolutionaries, tax collectors, women, the possessed, the ill, and those in need… 
yet somehow this B team, gathers a crowd and brings Jesus into the Holy City in an astonishing way that makes waves.

         But then the plan goes south, 
or so it appears… 
one of the team betrays him, 
another denies him, 
all the men folk run away.

 

         Well… 
the plan was more than any heart could hold, right?
An impossible dream
—the world being made right, 
a non-corrosive Kingdom without end…
A Priest, Prophet, King who embodied the promises of God…

         To do all those things that the plan requires, 
it would have required an imagination beyond what we could hope for… 
we were naïve for hoping…
         Look how the plan went wrong… 
every proof positive that he’s failed is up in our face. 
-All is wrong not right, 
-King is killed, 
-Priest is sacrificed, 
-the Prophet was wrong about God’s will… 

         If you wanna talk about Noah’s flood… 
Jesus is taken, 
the Son of Man swept away, 
left alone abandoned by those who love him… 

 

         But… 
but you need to keep watching to the end, 
there is a plan within the plan, 
things aren’t as they appear….

if you keep awake with him, 
the grand and awful midnight hour will be transformed into daybreak, 
the unexpected hour of his resurrection will arrive! 

         The Great Heist happened while we all looked away in grief!

 

The Aftermath:

         And what now? The heist worked, the plan was a success… 
The criminals can get out of the business (Hell itself has been harrowed)
—it was one last job as the cliché goes,
the happy rendezvous with the crew in some tropical locale 
(or in Matthew’s case on the height of a mountain)… 
things are different on the other side of the capper.

 

         For we Christians, living in the already not yet
—the Great Heist is done, 
we are still trying to comprehend the riches of it all
—the Resurrection and the Spirit… 

         Ours is a time of active waiting. 
Staying morally and spiritually awake, 
living lives that trust the promises of God to be true
—from Genesis and Isaiah to Romans and Revelation… 
even the words spoken at our baptism 
and the words “for you” spoken at the altar... 
trust God’s promises…

         The Church participating in Jesus making all things new, all things right, 
even as we recognize it is not our doing, but his…


         Staying awake as we:
-walk wise paths, 
-discern God’s judgement and justice, 
-seek the promised peace: 
swords will be plowshares, 
spears pruning hooks, 

nation shall not lift up sword against nation, 
neither shall they learn war any more.


         Even as we look at our world today, 
both over in Ukraine and right here at home 
and pray an echo of Isaiah:
May Night clubs be sanctuaries, 
Department stores safe,
Missiles unneeded,
Water and electricity restored...
may it be so… 

Stay awake

Be ready
The Son of Man is coming 
at an unexpected hour.

         The Great Heist happens, while we all look away. 

Amen.

Sunday, October 30, 2022

Why Lutheran?


 Lutheranism is a kind of confession.

A confession about what the Holy Spirit did within the Church those 505 years ago. 
A confession of God’s amazing acts in the lives of the Lutheran Reformers.

Confession that usually includes 95 Theses, Heidelberg Disputation, A Mighty Fortress, Luther’s Death Mask, and the Book of Concord…

            But today I’d like to give you all a bit different confession of the faith… 
Today I will answer, 
for myself at least, 
Why Lutheran?…

Why, when I look at this tradition that is over five centuries old, do I feel it echo in my soul?
Why can I affirm, “yeah, that’s it… that’s a faithful description of what I know God to be doing”?
Why Lutheran?

 

Prayer

            Why Lutheran? Because I was welcomed into the Faith through Baptism
Three days old, a life-threatening heart condition, 
they brought in a chain smoking Chaplain who happened to be Lutheran. 
She baptized me in the triune name, and that was that
—the start of being Lutheran.

 

            Why Lutheran? Because I encounter God in scripture. 

I lived in a very religious community out in Wyoming, 
and my father, God bless him, 
gave me a used Red Letter King James Bible
so I could read it and see if it said what preachers and other proselytizers said it did. 
Inside the Bible, I didn’t find the End of the World, or a list of people to hate
—but instead I experienced its words as Law and Gospel…

In the Gospels, when you read about people first encountering Jesus, almost inevitably it leads to moments of rejecting Jesus, or repentance that leads to life
—Law or Gospel, as we Lutherans might say, 
and I found that in spades, in the Bible
—an encounter with the profoundly strange, yet compelling God, 
who reveals himself to us in the Word.

 

            Why Lutheran? Because of Grace.

            Once bitten by this God bug, I rushed to find the Church, 
a community connected to the Bible, 
and more importantly, connected to the God that the Bible bears witnesses to, points to. 

Soon enough, I had “accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior” at a summer VBS, and was overjoyed… 
but one summer later… that joy was taken from me…
we same kids who had said the sinner’s prayer and accepted Christ, 
were asked to do it again, 
as a way to peer pressure the younger kids into doing the same… 
they’d engineered a religious experience
—I’d built my understanding of salvation on being MANIPUTED… 

If I wasn’t a Lutheran before
that experience was a “Here I Stand, I can do no other” moment, if I’ve ever had one… 
my salvation, 
the state of my eternal soul, 
my very self in its fullness,
I knew then, was God’s alone
—God’s choice, 
not my emotional state, 
or pedigree, 
or anything else... 
God’s grace alone holds me fast.

 

            Why Lutheran? Because faith is more than cognitive ascent, 
but a matter of the heart, 
trusting God. 

My parents didn’t exactly know what was wrong in my childhood church-search
but on a hunch my mom took me to the faith of her childhood
—a Lutheran Church, 
Christ Lutheran in Cheyenne Wyoming
—and there Pastor Sarah preached grace, grace, 
always grace
and it was only in such an environment that I could trust it to be true, 
to have the sure confidence that God is for me, not against me.

 

            Why Lutheran?  Because we are the hub of the Ecumenical wheel
—the Lutheran definition of “Church” is radically simple 
“a gathering where the gospel is taught purely and the sacraments are administered rightly,” 
everything else, 
from worship style to church governance, 
is considered an indifferent thing

This opens us up to all kinds of partnerships and relationships and re-interpretations of the faith
—it lets us be Church in whatever culture or time in which we find ourselves… 
And in my time in college and then over in England, 
I was able to join with Christians from all over, all types, 
hearing their traditions’ particular duet with God
—be it in haunting plainsong, reworked French monastic chanting, booming charismatic Gospel, or Scottish brogue, 
each different, and yet each beautiful and faithful.

 

            Why Lutheran? Because all roles and relationships can be a holy calling. 

I’ll never forget that funeral at Tabernacle Lutheran in West Philly, it was the first one I’d done as any sort of official in the Church
—a Field Education Student
—and I arrived 45 minutes early for the viewing
—and couldn’t find a parking spot, 
and wheeled around block after block, 
only to realize there was a line going all the way from Malcolm X Park to that little Lutheran Church there (13 blocks). 
You see, the man they all honored was a bus driver
one who’d stop for you!
One who treated every passenger as he would Jesus Christ himself. 
He was a Lutheran, so he had known that everyone has a vocation, 
be you a bus driver or the pope, 
teacher or parent, you have a calling!

 

            Why Lutheran? Because the incarnation matters, 
the physicality of the sacraments matter… God showing up in the world as it is, matters!

My first week as Vicar of St. John’s Pimlico in Baltimore, 
someone jimmied open my mail and stole it all, 
I witnessed a shooting, 
and I got mugged by knife point. 
And then, that Sunday when I knelt down and received Holy Communion
—I realized that bread and wine, body and blood
—were as real as crowbar, a bullet, and a knife, 
a physical promise from God 
“for you.”

 

            Why Lutheran? Because when I married Lisa that thing I’d seen in Philly
—that vocations matter to God, became more concrete
—God doesn’t just care what kind of Pastor I am, 
but what kind of Husband I am, what kind of Uncle
—those roles too are holy.

 

            Why Lutheran? because, I came for the Grace, 
but I stay for the Theology of the Cross
God in the last place you would think to look
—God enthroned on a cross, 
God in weakness and poverty and pain, God with us when we really need him… 
And as a Pastor it is one of the greatest privileges, 
to see the life of a congregation through cross shaped glasses. 
Christ showing up in the mundane and transforming them into the profound, 
God hidden in plain sight. 

Seeing God acting, not in triumph or glory, 
but at hospital bed tables turned into altars, 
those quiet friendships that help folk get through hell, 
the protection and care of children, 
the steady plodding that is rarely recognized, 
painful choices that are faithful… always the cross.

 

Why Lutheran? Because, from Baptism to Vocation, Cross to the centrality of the Word, it’s the truest thing I’ve ever known.

Adele… all of you, 
I pray our way of being faithful to God
—this way that trusts only in God’s faithfulness,
will serve you well your whole life long. A+A

Saturday, October 29, 2022

40 Negative Propositions about Lutheranism



 Lutheranism is not…

1.    About what we do, but what God does.

2.    Morality or ethics, but grace and response, grace and response

3.    Bound, but is freed in Christ

4.    About being upright, but being made right by Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection

5.    About self-reliance, but relying on God as a mighty fortress

 

Lutheranism is not…

1.    The Way, the Truth, and the Life, but witnessing to the one who is all those things

2.    Private, but Evangelical—the impulse to share the good news of Jesus!

3.    Ashamed of the Gospel, but embrace a living daring confidence in God’s grace

4.    Spiritual, but instead embodied in the profoundly common

5.    Triumphant, but students of the God found on a cross

6.    Fundamentalist, but the experience of God’s Word as a two-edge sword

7.    An ‘ism, but a relationship with Jesus

 

Lutheranism is not…

1.    All Casseroles and Coffee, but receiving the Bread of Life, for you!

2.    Monolithic, but a great variety of people found by God’s grace

3.    An ethnicity, culture, or nation, but a people gathered by God.

4.    Theology, but continual failures to fully name the Divine

5.    A Style of Worship, but whatever actions will make Christ known

 

Lutheranism is not…

1.    The Only Church, but a spoke of the ecumenical wheel affirming the historical creeds, the Word expressed as Law and Gospel, and sacraments administered rightly

2.    A denomination, but a mustard seed planted for all to find rest within

3.    The point, but compost & leaven to enliven the whole church

4.    Parochial, but Catholic, Global, Universal

5.    Perfect, but always reforming

6.    Limited to Luther, but encompasses all who take his writings and insights to heart

7.    A form of Church Government, but whatever form that allows us to be faithful

8.    Independent, but interdependent with the whole body of Christ

 

Lutheranism is not…

1.    Having our own way, but respecting one another as God’s Children

2.    A museum of saints, but a hospital for sinners

3.    Putting our heads in the sand, but engaging with the world around us, thinking through faithful engagement with our world with social messages and statements on everything from peace and policing, to education and the economy

4.    Words without actions, but 2% of people in North America are assisted by some sort of Lutheran Social Ministry each year

5.    Exclusionary, but inviting and listening and trying to understand each other

6.    Afraid of questions, but begin our faith life asking, “What does this mean?”

7.    Self-righteous, but trust that God is for us

8.    Anti-Semitic, but repenting and repairing the breach between us and our Jewish friends

9.    Politics, but vocation, roles and relationships lived faithfully

10. Afraid of change, but it is one of our core values

 

Lutheranism is not…

1.    The purview of our great great great grandparents, but springs from their faith and faithfulness

2.    Old, but always being made new

3.    Frozen, but passionate about matters of life and death, and life again

4.    Dying, but more alive than ever, thriving around the world!

5.    The Past, but for you, right now in this moment, and for everyone who chases after the Holy Spirit into God’s future