Sermon: What we do when we hurt one another matters.

          Whenever we read the gospels it is important to remember that there are different points of emphasis in each one—different things the author thinks is important.

          And Matthew is said to be “The Church’s Gospel.” It talks about community and the church more than any other Gospel… and that is not to say everything it says about the Church is positive.

          In fact, it is from Matthew that St. Augustine gets his assessment of the Church—that we’re a Mixed Body. We’re filled with both saints and sinners, and it will be that way until the end of time.

          Christ abides in the church, and so does a fallen humanity.

          And we see this way of looking at the church—hopeful, but clear eyed—front and center in today’s Gospel.

          Matthew assumes that there will be times when members do wrong to one another, because that’s what happens when you are with other people.

That’s maybe even how you know you’re doing community right in a fallen world,

you care enough about one another that you’ll sometimes hurt one another.

          Now, a way to think about this—I’m an only child… my parents always bragged about how good I was as a kid… I wasn’t that good, I just didn’t have any siblings to annoy or be annoyed by.

          Well—if we’re doing it right, living together as a mixed community, there will be broken relationships… we’re just not that good, because in community we aren’t allowed to be that good.

         

          And that’s why WHAT we do with these breaks in relationship is important. What we do when we’ve hurt one another matters.

 Prayer

          As I said, we’re a mixed body—so yes, we sin against one another—but also yes Christ is there in that. How we live together in the brokenness can form us more fully into the image of Christ.

          In medieval Japan when a ruler would break a tea pot or bowl they would send it back to China for repairs… and the vessel would inevitably come back stapled together with ugly metal staples… so eventually the Japanese created their own form of repair—Kintsugi, in which broken vessels were repaired with gold or silver—so the broken place became the most beautiful portion of the piece.

          Likewise, how a Christian community, the Church, reacts when we sin against one another can end up vengeful and ugly.

          Or it can end up repairing the breach and shining forth the light of Christ, re-shaping us for the better.

          Think about parenting. If your daughter calls her brother a name you could allow him to call her a name back,

or you could get her to apologize and say something nice about him as restitution, you could repair the broken relationship.

          And so Jesus’ advice as found in Matthew steers us to the 2^nd way—the golden way, that repairs the breach and brings us toward being Christ in the world.

         Firstly, the initial step is one of discretion—the sin is brought up one-on-one.

Randomly embarrassing your sister or brother in Christ in front of a bunch of people isn’t the point,

but instead the point is getting them to repent, so you can forgive them.

          If that fails, the second step is to get a few people to help you confront them about the sin—and this is important—this 2 or 3 witnesses business is legal language that the Rabbis would understand, the question is, “do they have a case?”

After all, sometimes a trivial thing can be blown out of proportion and it takes a few faithful friends to say, “Hey, they didn’t mean that the way you took it.”

You are not trying to make your brother or sister in Christ walk on eggshells around you because you’re too sensitive,

you’re getting them to repent, so you can forgive them.

          If that too fails, then the whole church gets involved—this is to make sure those two or three you’ve gathered were not lackeys—that you weren’t trying to triangulate this accusation of sin

—you know what triangulation is like right? It’s the worst form of passive aggression—you remain passive while someone else does the aggression, keeping your hands clean.

          Well, if the whole church is involved that kind of deceit becomes much less likely, and that’s good,

because you aren’t trying to sabotage your sibling in the faith,

you are getting them to repent, so you can forgive them!

          Finally, if all else fails, the person who has sinned against you ought to be treated like a tax collector or Gentile

—that is to say, as outside the community, but still welcome—after all Jesus is constantly shamed for welcoming tax collectors and Gentiles into the fold.

This breaking of community, alongside welcoming back to community,

is done so the sinner might repent and receive forgiveness.

          In case you’re not getting the pattern here, the point of Matthew’s advice to the Church, found on Jesus’ lips, is that when someone hurts us we ought to let them know in a way that allows them to repent so we can forgive them.

          I added the last two verses today to make that point explicitly clear.

In Christian community calls to repentance are real,

but so is the constant urge to forgive—even 77 times.

          As I preached about last week, the Power of the Keys,

the binding and loosing of sin in heaven and on earth—as we read in verse 18 today

The Power of the Keys is given to the whole Church by Jesus

—the command to repent and to forgive is really all about speaking the Word of God to terrified sinners, which we all are.

          That’s why the Church, this mixed body we are a part of, this group gather together glistening gold with our breaks and tears, is so amazing.

          It is amazing because being church together means that from among us sinners the Promises of God show up.

The encouragement and the renewal,

The hope and love,

The faith freely given,

The freedom and the peace,

The forgiveness through Christ,

The stillness of the Spirit,

The promise of Grace.

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Read, Reflect, Pray: A Lutheran Prayer Book is back!

As you may remember a while back I released Read, Reflect, Pray, and it actually sold moderately well… and then I found out I was using content without copyright.

Well, I am re-leasing a 500-book printing of RRP. It has a handsome new cover,

is organized in a clearer way, and is 100% legal!

RRP is in a sense an update of Doberstein’s A Lutheran Prayer Book with more voices of women, minorities, and ecumenical partners. It focuses thematically on the 7 central things of worship.

To purchase a copy via Amazon click here.

Sin and Forgiveness

          On this, our final sermon in the 10 week sermon series “20 questions in 10 weeks” our final group of questions are about Sin and Forgiveness.

          They are:

1.    Are mistakes “sins”? Are there degrees of sins? Is the sin in the intent or in the action or in the consequences? Ie. If you intend to do something good for someone and it turns out to hurt them?

2.    Explain “Keys to the Kingdom.” “Which you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven” etc.

         

          A very short answer to these questions would be

1. They are all Sin and effects of Sin.

2. For Lutherans the key to “the Keys of the Kingdom” is the Word of God comforting our consciences.

          Let us pray.

          One of the biggest misunderstandings about the faith is the way most people think of Sin.

          We assume it involves discrete acts, sins.

          Just from a visual perspective, we mess around with S’s when we think through Sin. We make the first S lowercase, when it should be upper-case, and we add a second s, making it plural.

          We go from Sin with a big S to sins with two small s’s.

          (Medieval Catholic doctrine/Aristotle)

          We worry about individual acts, things we can control. And in doing so, we shrivel up the Gospel and the Church, making the first a rule book and the second a social club or museum.

          Little sins can’t explain the bizarre brokenness of the world we live in.

          Maybe it can explain the shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that started World War One, but it can’t explain the mechanized destruction that followed that shot.

          Maybe it can explain an affair, but not all the broken pieces that led to that betrayal or the consequences thereafter.

          Maybe it can explain a child left to starve, but not the situations that led to such wretched poverty.

         

          We recognize that Sin is so much bigger than individual peccadilloes or immoderation or wrong action. We recognize that Sin permeates everything.

          It’s as if, each and every last one of us, is a card within a house of cards. We were all, theoretically, stacked carefully and precariously atop one another. Even the slightest breath, a slight jarring of the table, would cause the whole house to fall down.

          And that deck of cards is fallen, and we are constantly struggling fruitlessly toward our proper placement.

Every mistake is a card falling,

every intent, action, and consequence,

every one of the sins plural with a small s,

are cards knocking down the whole deck.

           This deck is in a constant flurry of motion, Jacks falling atop crazy eights, and twos upon Kings. Every time a wall of a house is reconstructed two more fall down. The interactions of these cards grow in intensity until they become a splashing, bubbling, sea of black, red, and white.

         

          Sin with a capital S is, to quote Paul, slavery. Human beings have sold ourselves, or perhaps been captured, by Sin and made to be its slave.

          Or to borrow another image, we’re addicts, we’re addicted to Sin and cannot free ourselves.

          Even if we were able to resist our addiction on our own, we’d still be a dry drunk—acting out as if drunk, while still sober—going along sinful pathways and experiencing the effects of Sin—even if we didn’t commit sins plural-lower-case.

         

          And so I proclaim this to you sisters and brothers, the good news of Jesus Christ’s actions for us, are not that he patched up our hang-nail.

Not that he knows you fudged your taxes and looked the other way.

Not that he forgives you of your plural-little-s sins.

          The Gospel is that Jesus has contended with a maelstrom of Sin, and he has calmed the storm, he has stood atop Sin’s back in triumph, he has defeated it.

          That Jesus has bought us out of slavery because he’s our brother and that’s what brothers do for their siblings. That Jesus has stormed the slave house, snapped our chains, and smuggled us out of Sin’s grasp.

          That Jesus brings us through the detox which comes with addiction—as the Good Physician. That he stands out in the parking lot as we chain smoke with a bunch of other sinners struggling together, that Jesus travels with us the whole way, even though we are always in recovery, even though we “remain sinners to the grave.”

         

          Yes, Jesus is freeing us from Sin with a capital S.

          And it’s worth proclaiming this loudly and often, because that’s really what the Power of the Keys is about.

          It’s about speaking the gospel to people who have terrified consciences,

who see the swollen effects of Sin upon their lives and feel hopeless,

who need a word of grace in the midst of their guilt and loss and sorrow and struggle.

          And this isn’t just something for the Pastor to do alone. It’s what we all ought to do.

          Every day we hear confessions small and large—not in a formal way you understand—but naturally,

 A conversation between neighbors,

a son’s words of worry to his father,

a coffee mate’s confession.

          And to all these we can speak a word of truth about God being for us, not against us.

In all these we can be a beggar telling another beggar where we got some bread.

          In the midst of dealing with the effects of Sin, both small and large, it is so important for people to know that Sin, with a big S, with its death dealing ways, has been defeated by the free gift of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

          A+A.

From the Pastor’s Pen: A Summer Catechism (A summary of the 10 questions in 20 weeks sermon series)

From the Pastor’s Pen: A Summer Catechism

(A summary of the 10 questions in 20 weeks sermon series)

Do we Lutheransbelieve the bread and wine literally change into Jesus’ Body and blood?

            The Lutheran understanding of what happens in Communion threads the needle between a Medieval Catholic understanding focused on Aristotelian Logic and a Calvinist understanding focused on a chunkily literal reading of scripture.

            Our understanding focuses instead on Christ’s promise to be present in the meal. Rejoice, he will be there! Rejoice, because his words point us to the reality of his forgiveness—in the meal Jesus promises us forgiveness, life, and salvation. And Jesus doesn’t lie.

What is the significance and meaning of the procession and recession of the cross?

            We process the cross to remind ourselves we are a cross shaped baptized community, a people redeemed by Christ’s actions for us. Having been fed with the bread and the word of life, we recess with the cross to go find God on the cross, following Christ wherever he may lead.

What’s the deal withAngels? Do humans become angels when they die?

            Reflecting upon the nature of angels helps us to think about redemption as a passive reflection of the good light of Christ, and reminds us that redemption can involve the spirit of whole systems.

            We don’t become angels when we die, but we can trust that all the Saints of God—both living and dead—are one in Christ Jesus.

Is there a particular significance to Jesus casting the “Legion” of Evil Spirits from the Gerasene Demoniac into a herd of swine?

            Jesus found an unclean place for an unclean thing.

What Season was Jesusborn? Fall, Winter, Spring, or Summer?

            It is unclear, but the arguments people make to link a Winter celebration of Christ’s birth directly with Paganism is not as air tight as it might appear. They ignore weather, historical facts about emperors, and the testimony of Irenaeus, an early Church Father.

Why do people go to church on the Sabbath? What is the Sabbath for?

            Sabbath is about rest, liberation, and holiness.
            It’s about rest, a time that is “good… for nothing.” It is also about liberation, acts of kindness and justice are part of living into the holiness of God’s time. It, finally, is holy in and of itself, dragging us into the reality of God through our worship together in which we receive and cherish the promises of God.

Should we besponsoring same sex marriage? If, and does, the Bible Profess marriage asbetween a man and a woman?

            There is a wide variety of ways to understand marriage and be a faithful member of the ELCA.

            Any pointing to purity laws to justify discrimination or worse against gay folk, if followed through logically, would have such severe consequences for everyone in our society, that it could make the Salem witch trials or the reign of the Taliban, ISIS, and Boko Haram, look tame.

            We are truly at a different place than people in the 1st century were—Romantic love, especially between same gendered individuals, just wasn’t a thing, but it is now.

            Pastor Chris is wholeheartedly convinced marrying gay folk is not baptizing gay sex, but instead creating a healthy and holy space for legitimate yearnings for companionship, the protection of gay parents, and the strengthening of the institution of marriage.

Which Old Testament Lawsdo Christians have to follow?

            Between Paul and Luke’s interpretations of the 1st council of Jerusalem, we end up with rules that try to bridge relationships between Christians who are different from one another.

            The basic rules for us Christians are rules that bind us one to another. They bind us economically to one another, but they also bind us to a modicum of decency and consideration for the sensibilities of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

“Reward” in heaven ismentioned many times in scripture. Yet, it is not what we do, but what Christdoes that saves us. How does that work?

            When we read about rewards in heaven we are not talking about our salvation, or if we are, we’re talking about God rewarding us because of the promise found in Jesus Christ, and finally, the reason reward makes us feel squirmy, is that at face value it could make us trust in our own goodness, which often is lacking.

What does “greatest” and “least” in the Kingdom of Heaven mean? How does that square with “neither Greek nor Jew” etc,? Aren’t we all equal?

            It is part of Jesus’ inversion of values, Jesus taking the God’s eye view instead of the human view.
            Proclaiming that when God rules, the last are first and the first are last.

            In Baptism we are entering into that God’s eye view, we’re struggling—just as the Galatians and Paul himself struggled—to live into who we are together—live into our calling to be part of the Body of Christ—live into the vision of humanity set out by God through Jesus Christ—a vision that breaks down barriers between believers and allows for nothing to get in the way of life together resting in God’s grace.

Colossians 1:24states “Completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” What does thatmean?

            The Church Universal, in this in-between time, suffers while fulfilling the Great Commission, so that Christ may be all in all.

Explain, “Death has died.”

            The whole creation will find redemption. All of us will find ourselves in the fullness of the Body of Christ. Even that last enemy, death, will be destroyed. Through the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Christ, we can truly say Death has died.

Are mistakes “sins”? Are there degrees of sins? Is the sin in the intent or in the action or in the consequences? Ie. If you intend to do something good for someone and it turns out to hurt them?

            They are all Sin and the effects of Sin. Sin being a much more all encompassing thing that “sins.”

Explain, “Keys to the Kingdom.” “Which you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven” etc.
            For Lutherans the key to “the Keys of the Kingdom” is the Word of God comforting our consciences.

Sermon: Suffering and Death

          In this, our 2^nd to the last sermon in the series “20 Questions in 10 Weeks” today’s questions are about a Pauline view of suffering and death.

          More specifically the two questions are,

1.    “Colossians 1:24 states, “Completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” question mark.

2.    Explain, “Death has died.”

     While that second phrase is not explicitly found in scripture, I assume it to be a riff on Paul’s message in 1 Corinthians 15 and in Romans 6.

Both questions are about the meaning of scripture associated with the Apostle Paul. Therefore, today I’m going to try and do a little Paul to you all, in the hopes that it will answer these two questions.

Let us pray.

     “I am celebrating my suffering, which is for your benefit. I am filling my flesh with the afflictions of Christ that currently overflow from him. This is done for the sake of his body, which is all of us, the Church.” (HSV Colossians 1:24)

     So, what does it mean to complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions? What does it mean that Death has died?

     My short answer is this:

The Church Universal, in this in-between time, suffers while fulfilling the Great Commission, so that Christ may be all in all.

(Repeat)

Let me break that down for you.

The Church Universal:         A community that transcends all borders both of space and time, which is created in Baptism and is a part of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In this in-between time:                We live in the already/not yet. Christ has already completed the redemption of the world, but it is not yet so.        

We have been buried with Christ and we are suffering with him and we will be raised with him.

     The world itself is in labor, the new creation will be born, yet we are in the labor pains.

     We were wounded, and we will be healed, but right now that wound itches so very much.

     Normandy was stormed on D-Day, but it isn’t VE-Day yet.

     We are at an in-between time.

Suffers:                   This is the crux of it, I guess.

     The Colossians are a Gentile group of Christians—that is non-Jews, presumably formerly Pagan. They were led astray, they decided to add on to their Christian faith. They added worship of angels and astrological adoration. Additionally, and more to the point, they likely practiced a severe form of asceticism—ritual suffering in order to have visions.

     To this Paul responds, “You don’t need to whip yourself or starve yourself to be a good Christian, if you try to consistently live in faith, hope, and love, you will surely have struggle enough without adding to it.”

     As for Paul, he knew plenty about suffering.

     He experienced the suffering that comes with conversion, losing his former life and religious certainties that day when he fell from his horse on the Road to Damascus.

     Suffering imprisonment, beatings, stoning, shipwreck, that famous and unnamed “thorn in his side” and all the dangers of the constant travel that accompanied his proclamation of the Gospel.

     Suffering the experience of planting community after community, but never staying there long enough to see through his vision—only able to hear of the controversies in his young communities and respond in letter form, suffering as well the sadness that comes with not completing his most cherished wish, to form a Christian community in Spain.

While fulfilling the Great Commission:      

     This suffering is suffering for a purpose, it is completing Christ’s body, by spreading the Gospel, or borrowing Paul’s language—“Making the word of God fully known” and making new Christians, through the act of Baptism.

     It is also completing Christ’s body, by sustaining and building up the Christian Community—“presenting everyone mature in Christ,” making sure we are following after Jesus, making sure we’re disciples.

     Or to put all that another way, when we follow the Great Commission found at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” it will take effort and time and treasure and yes suffering, but it is a suffering for the sake of the Body of Christ, completing that body of Christ.

So that Christ may be all in all:            

     That the whole creation will find redemption.

     That all of us will find ourselves in the fullness of the Body of Christ.

     That even that last enemy, death, will be destroyed.

     That through the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Christ, we can truly say Death has died.

The Church Universal, in this in-between time, suffers while fulfilling the Great Commission, so that Christ may be all in all. A+A

Race, Ethnicity and Culture: Pub Theology (or Table Talk, or whatever) Resource

Below is the outline from the Pub Theology St. Stephen did, after the shooting of Trayvon Martin, on the ELCA's Social Statement on Race, Ethnicity and Culture.

As we experience the events in #Ferguson surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown it is our duty as a church who considers moral deliberation to be part of our faith, to struggle with racism, white privilege, black oppression, and the "post-racial" dystopia we find ourselves in.

"Am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can?"—The President

ELCA Social Statement: “Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture”

One God, One Humanity

Babel/Pentecost

Simul Justus et Peccetor

Already/Not Yet

Scripture: Ephesians 2:11-20 (words that strike you?)

Lutheran experiences of Racism:

Benjamin Franklin

WW1

ELCA’s goal by 2003—Grow non-white membership of ELCA to 10%

Demographics (% don’t fit in So.Plf. because Latino is double categorized… also I’m bad a math)

	St. Stephen	National Church	South Plainfield
White	90%	94%	67%
African American	7%	1%	10%
Asian	0	1%	14%
Other	0	1%	5%
Multiracial	1%	1%	3%
Latino	2%	1%	13%

Does our congregation make up reflect the neighborhood or wider community in which we are located? Why or why not? (Same question—national church)

In what ways are the doors of St. Stephen closed to people who are racially or culturally different than the majority of our members?

Did you know the ELCA has cultural associations for African American, American Indian, Arab, Asian, European, and Latino Lutherans?

 “We expect our leadership to name the sin of racism and lead us in our repentance of it.”—pg 5

What is Racism?

Racism is a mixture of power, privilege, and prejudice. It is more than a matter of personal attitudes…it spreads like an infection through the whole social system.

Voices—ELCA (Are you struck by any of these? Why)

The Invisible Backpack—White Privilege (Are you stuck in particular by any of these?)

Have you thought of anything new tonight?

Sermon: Reward, Equality, Baptism

         As we near the end of our summer sermon series, 20 questions in 10 weeks, today’s questions are about Reward, Equality, and Baptism.

            Todays question is: “Reward” in heaven is mentioned many times in scripture. Yet, it is not what we do, but what Christ does, that saves us. What does “greatest” and “least” in the Kingdom of Heaven mean? How does that square with “neither Greek nor Jew” etc,? Aren’t we all equal?”

            Yipes.

Let us pray.

            I must begin by stating that I set up this sermon series with the easier questions, one’s I’d already reflected upon in one way or another and felt confident in answering at the start, which was great… until… we’re no longer at the start.

            This particular question might have to be thrown in again next summer if we do another sermon series like this. That said here’s what I know.

            Reward—a word that causes Lutherans everywhere to sneer, or at least one that only crosses our lips with great trepidation

—after all, reward suggests there is something to reward

—specifically a work, an action, that we can just do something.

Reward has the danger of nullifying grace, making God’s works into a mock movement of man.

            Yet, as the question says, reward language pops up frequently, it flows freely from Jesus’ lips—proof that Jesus wasn’t a Lutheran I guess.

            And it’s not like Lutherans don’t know this, that we don’t read our Bible or something, we’ve struggled with reward language since Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the wall.

            According to Article 4 of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, one of the documents we as Lutherans affirm to be a right interpretation of scripture, there are several things that can be said about reward.

1.         At our most bold “we concede that works are truly meritorious” and can receive a reward, but not “the forgiveness of sins or justification.” As a rule, when we hear reward language we recognize that such rewards only come in light of being made right by Jesus, that faith is implied whenever there is any talk of fruits of good works.

            Essentially, the indignities suffered because of living our Christian faith, led by the Spirit, will find a parallel reward. If the Islamic State chops off your head like John the Baptist, your head will be held high in Heaven—that kind of thing.

Honestly as North American Christians I fear very few of us will have to worry about such rewards.

2.         Additionally, when we read of rewards, we ought to remember Augustine’s maxim, “God crowns his own gifts in us.” That is, eternal life can be called a reward because it is owed to the Justified on account of a promise, that promise being the unconditional one made to us in Jesus Christ.

3.         When talking of heavenly reward the question you ought to ask yourself is “does such talk assuage your conscience?”

We know the promise that God is merciful and passes over, and frees us from, our trespasses, faults, sins, and mistakes, brings us peace. We don’t know if talk of reward does the same, in fact, from experience, we know it does not. At our death bed we want to hear about the loving actions of God for us, not about our own actions.

            So, when we read about rewards in heaven we are not talking about our salvation, or if we are, we’re talking about God rewarding us because of the promise found in Jesus Christ, and finally, the reason reward makes us feel squirmy, is that at face value it could make us trust in our own goodness, which often is lacking.

            As for Jesus’ talk about the least and the greatest in heaven, it is preached in the same breath as the beatitudes “blessed are the poor, the hungry, and the weeping.”

It is part of Jesus’ inversion of values, Jesus taking the God’s eye view instead of the human view.

Proclaiming that when God rules, the last are first and the first are last.

That as people of God it is important to look at the world through the cross, to look at our world and remember where we find Jesus—outside the city walls, among oppressed, suffering with them, killed with them.

            This is very similar to that first way of talking about rewards in heaven—on earth you are tear gassed, depressed, and besieged, but in heaven you are enthroned, joyous, and protected. The God’s eye view of the world is so very different. Those who appear least are greatest and greatest least.

            Finally, how does this square with Paul’s baptismal affirmation that in Christ there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female?

            In Baptism we are entering into that God’s eye view, we’re struggling—just as the Galatians and Paul himself struggled—to live into who we are together

—live into our calling to be part of the Body of Christ

—live into the vision of humanity set out by God through Jesus Christ.

            A vision that breaks down barriers between believers and allows for nothing to get in the way of life together resting in God’s grace.

            And Taylor, today,

Today you will enter into this vision.

Today you will become a part of the body of Christ.

Today that promise of God will be made concretely to you in the waters of Baptism.

Today you will be baptized with Christ Jesus. Baptized into his death and raised to a brand new life—united with Christ.

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