All Saints Sunday: Six generations around the throne of God.

All Saints Sunday: Six generations around the throne of God.

I recently attended Bishop’s Convocation—it was a two day event around the topic, “Ministry Across the Generations: From Infancy through Elderhood.”

The thrust of the presentations were that for the first time in human history there are 6 generations all living together, and worshipping together…

and because of this we as Pastors, and as the Church, need to keep in mind the wide variety of experiences the people in the pews of different generations have.

At one point an Older Pastor suggested all the generations are pretty much the same, saying, “We all learned to read with Dick and Jane Books…”

And before he could finish his thought, the Associate Pastor of his Church—a Millennial, responded,

“I have no clue what a Dick and Jane Book is.”

And from somewhere in the room came a snide voice, “Our Sunday School Students don’t know what books are.”

A wide variety of experiences between the GI generation and the as yet un-named generation populated by our pre-teens, all of them in our pews.

And just to get an idea about these 6 generations all here together—

Who here is under 13? You’re that yet un-named generation who is more familiar with tablet computers than books.

Who here is between 14-33? We’re the generation the Media is going gaga about, we’re Millennials.

Who here is between 34-49, you’re the generation sandwiched between two giant generations and are sometimes ignored…

which may suit you just fine…

you’re GenX.

Who here is 50-68? You’re the generation currently in charge,

but you’re a generation consistently suspicious of those in charge, you’re Boomers.

Any 69-87 year olds? Like the GenXers you’re sandwiched between two powerful generations, but unlike them, you try to bridge the gap between the two of them, you’re the Silent Generation.

Finally, if you’re between the ages of 88-113, you’re the generation who put together the rules this world is playing by, you’re the GI Generation.

Six generations, all together… Six generations worshipping together.

And on this All Saint’s Sunday, I do want to celebrate

the saints around the throne who’ve been

and the saints before the Lamb who will be.

Those who’ve gone before and those yet to come.

And I also want to consider the six generations gathered in worship before the throne of God today.

Six generations around the throne of God.

Let us pray

Six generations around the throne of God.

One or probably two generations after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,

one John the Revelator was locked up on the Island of Patmos and wrote an astounding, visionary, Old Testament laced, letter to the churches of Asia Minor—modern day Turkey.

He wrote to a generation of Christians facing either explicit state sanctioned terror at the hands of the Emperor Nero, or local persecution

—you know the kind—peasants with pitchforks and bigots with nooses.

In addition to threats to their life, they also likely experienced threats to their livelihood

—economic discrimination, the inability to do so much as buy basic goods and services.

And to that generation, John writes, “You’ve been through a great ordeal… and God knows it, and cares!”

“Some of you’ve even died, for the sake of your faith! In heaven your death is redeemed and made into a great baptismal washing, joined to Christ’s death, and his resurrection too!”

“Your faithfulness in these trying times, is taken as worship before God in the heavenly temple.”

“And God promises to you that salvation from all of this is coming…

 God promises that your ongoing faithfulness is like Palm Sunday—you’re entering into the Temple with Jesus our Savior.

And not only that, those are the same Palm fronds used to build a Sukkah—the booth used at the festival of booths celebrating the end of the Exodus

—the end of Slavery in Egypt

—those Palm fronds are telling you just as Pharaoh’s power over God’s people came to an end, so too has the Emperor’s.”

“God promises that the economic discrimination you’ve experienced will end—you’ll be fed and your thirst quenched.”

“God promises you’ll be protected from those who threaten you.

Though your church leaders may have fallen, Christ the Good Shepherd has not stopped leading and guiding you.”

“Even as you mourn for your fellows, who’ve died, in the faith and for the faith, God promises to wipe away every tear.”

“You might be cut off—away on the Rock of Patmos like me, or in an isolated Church far from the majority of Christians

—but know that there are innumerable multitudes, from all places, and I dare sa,y from all times, here around the throne of God with you, being comforted by God too!”

That was John’s message to his Generation—and it should not be lost on ours—on all of us Six generations around the throne of God.

John says to the GI generation:

“I hear the sadness in your voice as you tell me of losing your friends and contemporaries

—of a funeral every week or so.

I note early on you came through a depression and a war,

and you’ve loyally soldiered on ever since./

God has seen and noted your loyalty,

God was and continues to be with you through the great ordeals

and God holds you in your mourning, wiping away your tears.” 

He says to the Silent Generation:

“You tamed the systems your predecessors put in place, making them more humane. I see you consciously leaving space for those who come after you—so much so that your generation never had a president in the oval office. They call you Silent—your war was said to be the ‘forgotten’ war./

Know this.

God hears you O’ Silent ones.

God also sees your gentleness and your peace-making and your meekness, for what it is, a blessing.

Follow after the Good Shepherd O’ Sheep, He will make you to lie down in green pastures and restore your soul.”

He says to the Boomers:

“You peered into your father’s world and saw no soul—and so you broke it apart and then looked inward to make sure you yourself had a soul, and your intensity is here to stay. You are the wealthiest, most well fed generation in existence, you took leisure and fitness to stratospheric heights, and yet you hunger and are restless./

God offers you living water and a true meal, for in God you will never hunger nor thirst.

“We are restless until we rest in God”—and that rest is offered to you, with joy—for the Lamb has built a booth for you.”

He says to GenX:

“I see the scars of your latch-key childhood. I smell the sizzling cynicism roiling inside you, that comes from a super-saturation of self-sufficiency.

I’ve heard the soulful wrath of your Punk, Metal, and Hip-Hop./

God hears your rage for what it is, an angelic chorus calling to God in a time of need.

God promises to protect you unconditionally, and to never abandon you.

He says to the Millennials:

“A 50% divorce rate, your don’t trust relationships. The 2000 election debacle, you don’t trust politics. 9/11 and the Roman Catholic sexual abuse revelations, you don’t trust religion. The Iraq war, you don’t trust your country. The Great Recession just as you went out into the work world, you don’t trust your own industry. Trust…/

God will lead you by your hand, and I can assure you He is someone, finally, worthy of your trust.”

           

He says to the youngest among us:

“I’ve heard of your screens, your helicopter parents, being on the go no matter where you go. I gather that your older brothers and sisters are overshadowing you—you may be a new Silent Generation—with your fondness of electronics, perhaps The Muted Generation?/

I do not know where you are headed, but I do know God will be faithful to you

—God is your shelter and food,

will quench your thirst and wipe away your tears.

God is your guard and your guide.

God will see your loyalty even when you despair,

God will redeem your deaths,

And God will transform your lives into the holiest of worship.”

The six generations around the throne of God, as well as those who came before and those who will come after, can all attest that:

God has been faithful,

 God is faithful,

and God will continue to be faithful.

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My formal letter to the Office of General Counsel-Federal Election Commission

Dear Office of General Counsel,

          Greetings, this is Chris Halverson, Pastor of St. Stephen Lutheran in South Plainfield, NJ. On October 22^nd I received a letter from Steven Baer (see triplicates included) offering between $1,000-10,000 dollars in “donation” to St. Stephen if I pass out a voters guide to my congregation before Tuesday, November 4^th. From the clergy chatter on facebook we were not the only congregation to receive a letter like this.

          This seems dodgy to the extreme.

          It suggests religious officials can be bribed, which undermines the authority of the clergy, as well as the message of the Gospel we proclaim—which ultimately is the Good News about what God has done for us through Jesus Christ, not some political agenda.

          Additionally, Mr. Baer’s letter is a temptation to forsake my ordination vows, in which I promised to “live a life above reproach”… which I would imagine includes not taking bribes.

          Not only that, this kind of injection of politics, and ultimately the State, into the Church and vice versa, goes against the division between church and state found both in my faith tradition (Luther’s “Two Kingdoms Theory”) and my country’s tradition (Jefferson’s “Separation of Church and State”).

          Finally, and likely more importantly for you all, I can’t imagine this kind of thing is kosher from an election law standpoint.

          So, that’s my formal complaint. Steve Baer’s attempt to buy church backing of a political agenda: undermines my authority and stifles the Gospel, threatens my ordination vows, goes against the traditions of my faith and country, and probably violates some campaign finance/election laws.

In Christ’s Peace,

Pastor Chris Halverson

If your church would like to lodge a similar complaint send Mr. Baer's letter in triplicates along with a notarized letter of complaint to:

The Office of General Counsel

Federal Election Commission

999 E Street, NW

Washington, DC 20463

All I really need to know about the Reformation I learned in Luther’s Small Catechism

         As we remember our Spiritual Father, Martin Luther, and his bold actions for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

—his standing up to Popes and Emperors. He and his fellow Reformers putting their lives on the line for the sake of conscience.

         As we remember all these things, it would be easy to bring it all to “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” crescendo or a clamorous “Here I stand, I can do no other.”

         But, I would like to take it down a notch this Reformation Sunday—to look at the Reformation from another perspective—after all, a song and a speech can start a Reformation, but it can’t sustain one for nearly 500 years.

         Back in 1986, there was a hit book with an interesting premise and title, Robert Fulghum’s “All I really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”

         The title kinda says it all… much of the basic bits of life—wonder and connection—are already found in the simple stuff of childhood,

 in crayons and “hide-and-go-seek”/ Dick and Jane Books and the earliest of science projects.

         In a similar vein, I would propose a Lutheran equivalent this Reformation Sunday.

“All I really need to know about the Reformation I learned in Luther’s Small Catechism.”

         Luther wrote the Small Catechism in order to pass on the faith to his son Hans, and to make plain the total package of his Reforms to peasant and prince alike. And for generations of Lutherans is has served as our primer, our Kindergarten ABC’s if you will,

teaching confirmation students, informing Pastor’s sermons, and speaking the faith clearly to millions of souls.

         And even today, nearly 500 years later, it serves as a rock of the Lutheran tradition

—like Washington Rock not that many miles away, it is a place on which we can climb up, and from which we look and see everything else. We can get a panoramic view of the Spiritual landscape.

We can be ecumenical, and even engage in interfaith dialogue, because we know where we stand, so we are not lost even when we’re far afield.

We can change and grow in a variety of ways, because the Small Catechism is a landmark for us.

“All I really need to know about the Reformation I learned in Luther’s Small Catechism.”

Prayer

 “All I really need to know about the Reformation I learned in Luther’s Small Catechism.”

I learned that the Triune God is awful… that is, God fills me with awe

… God’s holiness is so frighteningly beyond us to speak of it is to defile it, is to come up short, is to fail as a witness

…and yet we try.

         God fills me with Awe like the Grand Canyon, on a donkey, on a switch-back, while the poorly packed gravel gives way under the beast’s feet, and the donkey may or may not gain its grip.

         Awe like swelling with pious feelings on pilgrimage on the Mount of Olives where Jesus wept over Jerusalem, just as the first plumes of smoke and pops of gun fire and clashes between Jews and Muslims started across the Kidron Valley at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Triune God is awful, He fills me with awe.

I learned that the Triune God is worthy of my love and my trust… for God did not simply create and leave, but instead sustains every motion and every breath.

         All good things that are necessary and nourishing for my good health, and that of creation, are from God.

         And not only that, but in every time of despair, every moment of doubt or hurt, in all the depths of human life, the pits that are part of my existence,

God is there with me, for God never abandons, but is there for me in every trial and temptation, comforting and delivering me.

I learned that in the Old and New Testament God gives commands and promises to me, and that they inform and shape my faith life.

         For example, Christ commands baptism and communion.

Christ also promises my re-birth… my resurrection with him, in Baptism

And he promises that he’ll show up and sustain me, in the Holy Meal.

         The commands of God, especially those 10 commandments of Moses, are to be read in a strenuously positive way. I’m not to ask only “what shouldn’t I do,” but also add the question, “If that’s true what should I do for the sake of my neighbor?”

         For example, I should not steal… instead I’m going to improve and protect my neighbor’s property and income.

I learned that as a human being, I am a radically dependent creature.

         I’m always trying to sell out to someone.

         In fact, by my very nature I’ve happily sold myself out to Sin, Death, and the Devil.

         And I thank God that while yet a sinner Christ forgave me.

         That Christ my brother saw me sold—a miserable self-made slave, and bought me back, paying the highest of price for my life.

I learned that as a human I’m still inclined to sell-out.

Sell-out like an aging rocker becoming a Vegas Act,

or Troy McClure and Crusty the Clown on the Simpsons—Selling out is always an option.

         Just as there are no Recovered Addicts, only Recovering Addicts, so too there are no Recovered Sinners, only Recovering Sinners.

         I’ve been bought back by Christ, yet I constantly check the smart-phone ap. Zillow to know my re-sale value.

I learned that this is the case for the whole Church, we’re a Sinners Anonymous meeting.

We’re always, daily, in need of forgiveness

—of a forgiving word

and a reminder to give forgiving words, as well.

         We are called to ongoing repentance, confessing together this need

… and when my conscience pricks or provokes me I ought to confess that which troubles me to a Pastor or a trusted Christian friend, knowing their forgiving words are from God.

They remind me that Christ came for me, and forgives me, and bought me out of slavery.

I learned that despite myself and despite the Church being forever filled with recovering sinners, the Spirit will not leave us,

the Spirit’s work in me, and in the whole Church, is irresistible.

         The Spirit alone,

not building programs,

bible studies,

lay education,

New Bishops,

Old Bishops,

Young Pastors,

Old Pastors,

Tattooed Pastors,

Altar Guild,

or Food Pantry

will sustain us.

         The Spirit alone sustains us and allows us to continue on our journey of repentance and forgiveness.

 “All I really need to know about the Reformation I learned in Luther’s Small Catechism.”

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20 Theses Derived from the Small Catechism

1.God is awful. (inspiring reverential wonder or fear.)

2.God is worthy of my love and my trust.

3.All nourishing things come from God.

4.God never abandons me.

5.God’s commands and promises are found in the Old and New Testament.

6.They inform and shape my faith life.

7.The sacraments are an example of this.

8.God’s commands are to be read in a strenuously positive way.

9.Humans are radically dependent creatures.

10.Humans are sellouts.

11.We sold out to Sin, Death, and the Devil.

12.Thank God Christ forgives us.

13.Christ my brother bought me back.

14.Humans are still sellouts

15.We’re recovering sinners.

16.The Church is a Sinners Anonymous meeting.

17.We confess together, and when particularly troubled to one another.

18.The Spirit will not leave us.

19.The Spirit’s work is irresistible.

20.The Spirit sustains our journey of repentance and forgiveness.

A few journal entries of my trip to the Holy Land, with commentary

October 8^th

            “The North American Church is Cromwell's child.”—One of the things that immediately struck me was how colorful and statue-laden all the churches were. It made me reflect upon the roots of our own church aesthetic. We Americans come out of a tradition shaped by Oliver Cromwell who destroyed much of the church imagery in England.

            “I see the full moon over the sea of Galilee, clouds streaking, lightening flashing… lights on the “other side.” Amazing!... It’s humid air… Jesus among humid air crossing the sea to the other side… the other side.”— Just being there was amazing, and the Galilee especially so. I think about all those boat stories about Jesus, it was right there! Those storm stories, well, I got to see a storm on the Sea of Galilee!

October 9^th

            “Magdala has a restaurant and a gas station in it. How banal… no, how real.”—So, the village from which Mary Magdalene got her name was not very pretty… but that too was important to remember, that these are real places, with real hurt and mud and dust and needs. Jesus didn’t show up in a fairy story, but in real life, and dealt with real life!

            “The fifth loaf is in Jesus’ hand… the hand of the priest.”—At the Church of the Multiplication there was a giant fresco of two fish and four loaves… but as we know from our Bibles there were five loaves… and it was explained to us that the fifth loaf was in the hand of Jesus by way of the Presider at Communion… that piece of art was done in such a way as to remind us of our continuity with the earliest followers of Jesus, that we are still fed by Christ, just as the multitudes were then fed.

            “At the Mount of Beatitudes you can be caught up in the blessing, caught up in the calling to be blessed.”—The Mount of the Beatitudes and the Church there were so comforting. It was green, calm, a beautiful view, a deep focus on the famous and powerful words of Jesus found in Matthew 5.

October 10^th

            “The Israelis told Bishop Chacour he could return home to Bir’im after 2 weeks, and his Bishop told him he would only serve as Pastor of Ibilin for 2 months… he’s still in Ibilin.”—Bishop Elias Chacour was forced from his home village of Bir’im as a child in 1948. Instead of responding with violence, Elias has worked for peace between Israelis and Palestinians as a Melkite Catholic Priest, as an Archbishop, and as the Headmaster of Mar Elias Educational Institutions, a school in Ibilin where Christian, Muslim, and Jewish children study together.

            “25 conquests of Megiddo.”—The fortress of Har-Megiddo (The Hill of Megiddo… or Armageddon in the Greek) was constantly overrun by one army or another for literally thousands of years… so it should be no surprise that John places preparations for the ultimate cosmic struggle there…where else would someone fight?

October 11^th

            “What is Theology in the desert?”—I’ve mentioned before in sermons that deserts are a place where you are stripped bare and end up alone with God… and, even with a bus and water bottles and such, that rang true in the desert around Qumran.

            “Do people make it holy or the place make the people holy?”— In Celtic Christianity they talk about thin places, places where the wall separating the Spirit world and the world of humans is less pronounced. I thought about this idea a lot, as one thing you start to notice at these archeological sites is that Temples, Churches, and Mosques are continually built one atop the other. It makes me wonder if it’s just convenient, or is there something holy about particular places?

October 12^th

            “Going up to Jerusalem your ears pop.”—In the Bible it always says people “go up” to Jerusalem… well, you really do.

            “We were lost in Bethlehem and couldn’t find the Inn.”—On our first night in Bethlehem we were dropped off not too far from the Lutheran Center, but managed to get lost. I was kind of freaked out, lost in the West Bank, but Jill, the Pastor of Nativity East Brunswick, reminded me how Biblical it was to not find the Inn in Bethlehem, and that made it better!

October 13^th

            “The rocks that would cry out is the resurrection of the dead, a Zombie Choir.”—While on Mt. Zion we saw all these tombs with rocks on them, a common burial practice there going back to a time when you put rocks on tombs so critters wouldn’t get in. Our guide told us this was what Jesus meant when he said the rocks themselves would sing—post-Lazarus, the point was if the Palm Sunday crowd hadn’t sung to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem the dead on mount Zion would have!

            “The explosions? They’re just welcoming you to Jerusalem.”—While we were across from Jerusalem a scuffle broke out between Jewish settlers and Muslim worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque. The exchange there escalated from taunts to home made explosives and gun fire to the Israeli Police stepping in, definitely an eye-opening experience.

Tuesday October 14^th

            “I met a woman who can't leave the confines of Bethlehem because she voted in a student election in College!”—I met Angie a Lutheran who works with both the Lutheran center its social ministry arm, Diyar. She voted for the wrong political party her freshman year of college and the Israeli government blacklisted her and she can no longer get permission to leave that little town of Bethlehem (she’s now 29). The amazing thing about her, was the ongoing joy she had in the face of exile in her own home town.

“Christmas Lutheran is the 3rd largest employer in Bethlehem.”—Just a cool Lutheran fact to know! Christmas Lutheran’s outreach is amazing. They serve over 2,000 people in Bethlehem!

            “Remember, the Gospel was first proclaimed in Arabic on Pentecost.” Mitri Raheb—Pastor Raheb is the Pastor of Christmas Lutheran. Sometimes people suggest the Lutheranism there is a second hand because they worship in Arabic… the above is his response.

            “Raheb studied in Germany and showed up in Bethlehem as a first call Pastor the week the 1st Intifada started.”—If I ever talk about my first call as overwhelming remind me of Pastor Raheb.

Sermon: How do we exchange Graven Images for the Image of God?

         A week ago Thursday I was in Capernaum, at the house of Simon Peter’s Mother-in-Law (the doorway from which Jesus healed many). A few doors down from that house is a Synagogue from the 3^rd or 4^th century.

         Now, when you go up the steps into the entrance of this Synagogues there is an interesting feature—you’ll miss it if you’re not looking for it.

         You look down and see two holes, both filled in with modern concrete… well, they’re the place where money was exchanged.

         You see, by then the 2^nd Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, so the Synagogue had become the center of worship for Jewish people. And much like churches today, that meant money needed to be collected for the maintenance and ministry of the community… but much like the Temple, that money couldn’t be Roman coins—because those often had images of emperors as gods, so the money was traded in for Jewish coins without those graven images on them.

         In other words, you’d put your roman coin in one hole and exchange it for a Jewish coin from the other hole when you entered the Synagogue.

         And today, that’s my question: How do we exchange Graven images for the Image of God?

Prayer

         The Pharisees show up in the temple

—the Pharisees are a group who go out of their way to keep their people separated from non-Jews

—They want to make sure Jews are different.

         The Herodians show up in the temple

—The Herodians are fierce Hellenizers

—they want Judaism to shed it’s differences with other cultures and become just like Rome or Greece.

         They agree on nothing.

It’s like Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rand Paul of Kentucky

… or the University of Oregon Ducks and the OSU Beavers,

Whatever analogy you prefer—it’s like these two polar opposite groups ended up in the same room together.

We expect a conflict to erupt… but there appears to be one thing the Herodians and Pharisees can agree on…

Jesus is disruptive.

Jesus is dangerous.

Jesus isn’t playing the game

and Jesus definitely isn’t playing it by their rules.

         So they come at him, each from a different direction.

         They butter him up and then ask, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor?”

         If Jesus says yes

the Pharisees can say he sides with the Herodians and dismiss him as such. The crowds will see him as a stooge of the empire, someone unwilling to stand up to those who occupy their land.

         Likewise, if he says no

 the Herodians can tattle on him to Herod and do away with him as a rabble rouser who preaches insurrection.

         So Jesus makes sure the crowd knows he’s not really in on this fight between the Herodians and the Pharisees.

He begins “Let me see one of those coins.”

After all, he doesn’t have such a coin in the temple—that’s a no-no, just as you don’t bring graven images into the Synagogue you surely don’t bring them into the Temple…

maybe even Jesus has never owned such a coin—After all, I don’t think Jesus was known for his hording of money.

         He answers in a way that satisfies the Herodians, and goes beyond the Pharisees…

sure coins belong to the image they have on them…

 but the image on us—the image of God—belongs to God.

         Human beings do not belong to Caesar… or his Empire… or to the coins themselves… no, from the beginning we’ve belonged to God. We’re made in the image of God.

         And that brings me back to my question—How do we exchange Graven Images for the Image of God?

         How do we take the broken, or at least incomplete, images we’ve made,

of ourselves,

of our neighbor,

of our highest ideals,

         How do we drop them into that hole and exchange them for the Image of God?

        

         My answer in short is this, we see images for what they are and we become who we are.

We see images for what they         In Isaiah we read that Cyrus the Great of Persia has just broken the power of Babylon and freed all the people from there—including the Jews who were in exile.

         Now one response to this would be to deify Cyrus, to make him a god—to turn him into a graven image…

Instead Isaiah makes an amazing theological move—he recognizes God’s actions behind the scenes

—that Cyrus rather than being a god, is called by God—anointed by God for his particular task in history.

         Isaiah exchanges the coin of Cyrus’ conquest by recognizing that he is just a man—by making a distinction between creature and creator.

         Or if you want to think in more Lutheran terms think of Luther’s explanation of the 10 commandments—we ought to Love, be in awe of, and trust God above all things—the creator alone is creator, all else is counterfeit coin.

We become who we are.                  In 1^st Thessalonians Paul praises the Thessalonians as imitators of both Paul and of the Lord, that is imitators of Christ. They are made in that image because of their joy in the face of persecution and their faithfulness…

these two things point people to the Holy Spirit from whom their Joy comes, and the Lord who is always faithful.

         This is, in fact, the meaning of the earliest place where we find the image of God—Genesis 1, where we hear that God “created humankind in His image, in the image of God he created them, males and females he created them.”

         This isn’t about us looking like God or God looking like us—that God stands upright, has 10 fingers and toes and no prehensile tail.

         No, the point of the Image of God—the Tsella of God—the point of humans, is that we are the marker on the earth pointing out who takes care of the earth—pointing not to ourselves, but instead to God.

We are images of God that point all of creation to God.

         The Thessalonians exchanged graven images for the Image of God when their being

—their faith and their joy—pointed to God.

How do we exchange Graven Images for the Image of God?

We look at the images of Caesars of all sorts and see them for who they are,

just another part of creation.

We strive to be glass, so we ourselves are not seen, but instead God is seen through us,

knowing even that is a gift from God.

We see images for what they are

and we become who we are.

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