Samuel Sermon

         Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli. Visions were not widespread then, and The word of the LORD was rare in those days…

         Those days, those days after Moses had died, after Joshua and the Israelites had entered the Land along with the Tabernacle in which God resided. They had conquered large swaths of the Land.

         The 12 tribes each set out and settled in a place, they become a decentralized tribal confederacy—and that tended to work… for a time.

         They would laze and lounge on their own, each tribe as their own entity, for a generation—and in that time they would fall into sin, creating Idols and oppressing the least and the lost—in those days.

         Then a threat would come along, and chaos would reign, each tribe picked off one by one—divided they fell, only when united they stood.

         And so, in those days, when things got rough, when enemies would come and swallow them up tribe by tribe, they would call on the LORD, and the LORD would send them a charismatic Shofet—a Judge, and that Judge would rally the tribes together, like twelve fingers coming together and making a fist—and together they would restore justice and righteousness to the Israelis. He or she—yes she… have you heard of the Great Prophet-Judge Deborah?—the Judge, would defeat the present threat—and for a while all would be calm, the 12 tribes could get back to doing their own thing, separated again from one another… until they committed apostasy, and an enemy rose up, and they cried to God and they were yet again delivered from their enemy by a Judge.

         But in those days, by the time of Samuel and Eli, this ongoing cycle, Apostasy, enemy, asking for divine assistance, and the arrival of a Judge, was wearing thin.

It was winding down,

it was unsustainable.

         At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room, the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was.

         Samuel—this little child, the apple of his mother’s eye… do you know his story?

         Samuel’s mother, Hannah, was teased and mistreated for being barren—and so badly did these barbs hurt, that she went out to the tent of God and prayed

—cried out to God in agony and ecstasy

—with so much sincerity and emotion, that Eli the Priest heard it and assumed it was the revelry of a drunk, and he tried to chase her out of his presence.

         But Hannah refused, and God did a new thing with her

—she became with child

—she bore little Samuel

—and she sang of that joyous birth a song that centuries later Mary would remember and sing as well, when she found out she too was pregnant with our Lord Jesus

—and out of thanksgiving to God Hannah gave Samuel to Eli, that very same priest who did not recognize her prayer.

         How special it must have been, for little Samuel, living there, next to the Ark

—next to the very footstool of God

—essentially a little kid camped out on God’s living room floor.

         Then the LORD called, "Samuel! Samuel!"

and he said, "Here I am!"

and ran to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me."

         But he said, "I did not call; lie down again."

         Eli, the Priest of God had a history of this—just as he misinterpreted the prayer of Samuel’s Mom, Hannah, as drunken ramblings, so too, even in the very tent of God, where God lived—he did not stop and say, “Perhaps God is speaking to this child.”

So Samuel went and lay down.

         The LORD called again, "Samuel!"

Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me."

But he said, "I did not call, my son; lie down again."

         I would imagine little Samuel is starting to wonder if old man Eli is getting a little funny—and I would also imagine Eli is starting to regret letting this child live there in the temple.

         Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.

         Visions were so rare in those days and the Word of the LORD was so infrequent that even there at the center of it all—as an apprentice to the Priest of all of Israel, little Samuel does not know the LORD!

         The LORD called Samuel again, a third time.

And he got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me."

         You can imagine, at this point Samuel is beside himself…

lucky for him, third time is the charm, because then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy.

Therefore, Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

         Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

         Then the LORD said to Samuel, "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.

         Would it ever

—a new thing with this special new boy… things no pious man would ever dream, not a righteous woman would ever utter.

         Yet, happen they would

—God, in his Ark that Samuel slept near, would be stolen by foreign pagans

—God was Arknapped.

This would cause a crisis that collapsed the ailing cycle of judges and topple the priesthood and change the prophethood for good—everything different after Samuel.

Judges and independent tribes replaced by King Saul and a consolidated monarchy. Saul in turn overthrown by King David

—his son Solomon tearing down the tent and building a temple for the Ark of the LORD, a grand house for God.

A new kind of stability and a national strength.

         These things that will make all ears tingle

—are strange fits and starts of change,

no easy thing,

not even a good thing necessarily

—yet it’s what happened

—the reality that little Samuel was to presided over.

         On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.

         Do you know the horror? These boys who intend to inherit the Priesthood there at Shiloh

—they take the finest meat of sacrifice, giving their least to God

—leaving even less for the poor

—not allowing the poor to take the leavings from that temple barbeque as is required of them…

         And not only that

—the women who serve at the temple—that tent of God

—these priests, these Eli’s sons, force themselves upon them…

 God have mercy.

         Lord Acton was right, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

         “Therefore, I swear to the house of Eli,” said the LORD, “that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever."

         Samuel lay there until morning

—a sleepless night to be sure. Blown away by a full-on experience of the Word of God,

but also, imagine his dilemma

—how to tell his mentor, this surrogate father, that the LORD was not pleased?

         When he could not put it off any long, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli, how could he not be?

         But Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son."

He said, "Here I am."

         Eli said, "What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you."

         So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him.

         Then he said, "It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to him."

         As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD.

         In all those changes, when the fabric of society was shifting.

With Judges and tribal loyalties evaporating into the ether of Kingship.

With foreign aggression and civil wars.

With God’s very presence shifting from place to place.

         It was good that they still knew where to find a trustworthy prophet of the LORD.

It was good they knew where they could hear the timeless truth of God.

It was good that amongst the changes that made their heads spin and their ears buzz, they knew that God was still faithful in all of that.

A+A

Sermon: Blessing and Baptism

Blessing and Baptism

         There is no way to miss the fact that we are now in Epiphany, the season where we celebrate the way in which Christ being with us, is continually made more fully known to the Church—the meaning of Jesus being with us, is an expanding realization, an ongoing surprise to us.

         We celebrate, on one hand, the Feast of Epiphany itself—the celebration of the Magi showing up at the Holy Family’s Home, seeing the infant Jesus and honoring him with those three gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh—

We celebrate this joyous day by bringing a blessing to our own homes through the traditional practice of a Home Blessing.

         On the other hand, we celebrate the Baptism of Our Lord, which too is a clear Epiphany celebration—Jesus’ Baptism reveals who he is—it’s spelled out plain “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

         So, to honor these two signs of this Epiphany Season, we will dwell on the two practices of Blessing and Baptism.

Prayer

         You might remember that my first few years here I was blessing the heck out of things and people. There was a back log of worship furnishings that we blessed, and on top of that we kept inviting in groups of people—Bankers, Teachers, Council Members, Mothers, Father, (Pets), Doctors, Construction Workers, Food Workers, and so on—to be blessed. For that matter, we passed out home blessing kits to the congregation, as we will do this year as well.

         And, upon reflection, I think I may have done that without a whole lot of groundwork, without laying out a theological—or even practical—explanation for why we bless things.

         And, since nature abhors a vacuum, folk filled in their own meanings to what we were doing.

         So, I want to, be clear about what I understand us to be doing when we bless things and people.

         It should be stated clearly that we are not spiritually up-armoring thing.

         What do I mean by that?

         You might remember during the early years of the Iraq war IEDs—Improvised Explosive Devices—were taking out American Humvees left right and center. The solution was to up-armor them. Early on that meant affixing cinder blocks or cement to the underside of the carriages and modifying the windows, later it was done in much more sophisticated ways with factory made kits.

         We’re not adding some sort of extra layer of protection to a person or thing when we bless them.

         If you need proof of that, look no further than the Bees Randy takes care of. He brought in a picture of the hives when we did a blessing of the Animals… and within weeks of that blessing a bear came along and ate the bees.

         Of course several people have suggested it was in fact a table blessing…

But, the point is, we’re not weaving some sort of magical circle of protection around the new carpet, or our Teachers, or any of that. It’s not spiritual scotch guard.

         What we’re doing is dedicating the thing, or person, or pet, to a particular purpose. We’re pointing to its proper use, to it’s created intent. We’re asking that it’s goodness—the goodness God proclaims of it in that poem that starts Scripture—in Genesis 1,

We ask that that goodness might be manifest,

might become obvious.

         We don’t bless Carpenters in order to keep them from falling off roofs—while I concede of course not falling off roofs or ladders is part of God’s intent for that vocation, I believe a stable ladder may be more important than a blessed ladder

—mainly we are praying that the goodness of carpentry might come out more fully—that those for whom the carpenter creates can see God’s intention in that object

—to paraphrase Luther’s explanation of “Thou Shall Not Steal” the construction is done fairly and with good material, so no one is cheated, but instead done well for the safety of those who will use the structure.

         Likewise—I’ll send you off to bless your dwellings—houses, apartments, rooms, etc, today, in order that they might become Homes—that they might be as God intended them.

         Think on that, what makes a house a home

—our homes are shelter from the elements.

         They’re a place for privacy and safety—they can foster a healthy sense of self and family.

         They can also be a guard against overwork—they can secure our Sabbaths, being a physical barrier between our place of leisure and a place of work. (This is why working from home calls for an extra diligence to keep the two spheres separate.)

         Blessing brings forward the purpose of the thing so blessed—it calls it to be what it is—be Good as it is declared to be by God.

--

         And that’s a good place to start when pondering John’s Baptism as well—the Baptism of Repentance that we read about in Mark and in Acts

—It’s a call back to that original blessing

—calling on folk to crawl back to the good

—to the blessing of being human

—of being created in the image of the living God.

It’s a rededication of the person to the task at hand.

         Of course, it’s worth asking why was Jesus then Baptized?

Did he need to repent?

Did he need to be called back to the blessing of God?

         No

         Firstly, while it’s not recorded in Mark’s account of his Baptism, it is in Matthew’s—that the Baptism is done to fulfill all righteousness.

John’s job was to call all of Israel to Repentance—but even for a hard working guy like him, it would be all but impossible to chase down every one of his Kinspeople and Baptize them.

So, Jesus sort of stands in for his whole nation. Just as Paul sees Jesus as a second righteous Adam, in Baptism Jesus is a righteous Israel.

         Secondly, this Baptism is like a blessing—it’s dedicating him for a purpose—dedicating him as Messiah, just as Samuel dedicates—anoints king David in the Old Testament. Further more, he’s dedicated as the Beloved Son of God. He is revealed as Son of God. There’s certainly an Epiphany there…

         All that to say, John’s Baptism of Jesus is not the same as being Baptized into Jesus, the Baptism that Baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

         Our Baptism, the Christian Baptism, is different. It too points to creation, but not in a way that looks back—it’s more than a blessing. It’s a new creation—it’s looking forward.

         The voice of God is spoken through Scripture, the water is there, just as it was “In the Beginning” and in Baptism there the Spirit sweeps down and creates—enlightens us—declares us to be Children of God.

         And as we know from that start of Scripture, God speaks, and it is so, creation takes place.

Creation of a new Child of God, takes place in Baptism.

         The Spirit does more than just point back to the goodness, the blessing, of creation, but points forward and creates something new—creates a Christian.

         This is why we’re okay with Infant Baptism as Lutherans—we recognize that it’s not a matter of repentance, of some sort of blessing, it’s God’s action for us—it’s creating something new.

         Brothers and sisters, on this first Sunday of Epiphany, see as the Magi saw—the blessing of a child born to be King, who lives out the goodness of creation.

         But not only that, see a Child, Jesus the Christ, through whom we find ourselves to be part of the Family of God. A+A

Sermon: John’s Christmas Story

          On this, the 10^th day of Christmas and the second Sunday of Christmas

—As the secular world has already moved passed Christmas and moved on to New Years and Bowl Games,

I would like to hold us in the proper season, at least for two more days.

I’d like to tell you again the Christmas story.

Not the Shepherds and Angels of Luke, or the Holy Family meeting the Magi as in Matthew

—but instead, I’d like to tell you a story that will get to the center of the Christmas Story in the Gospel of John

—that will help us reflect on the Gospel, the Good News, according John, which is this, “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.”

          So today I would like to tell you the story of another man named John, in order to illuminate the Gospel Writer’s Christmas story…. I would like to tell you about John’s Christmas Story.

Prayer

          John had lived his life simple enough, worked hard, went to Church, loved his wife, raised his kids right—in many ways he was like a lot of you.

          Then, during the Christmas Season, tragedy struck, his youngest daughter died.

          A parent should never have to bury a child.

          Yet that’s what John had to do. Life no longer seemed so simple, especially his faith life.

          He wanted to know where God was—he demanded it of God. He needed to call God to account for his child’s death, …but also just needed to know God was there. For the sake of his sanity he needed the invisible God to be visible.

          He started off by going to Church—after all it’s the body of Christ, right? God should be there.

          And people were kind to John and his family there, they were very sorry for his loss

… but after a month or so they kinda stopped being there for him.

          For that matter, some people even said unintentionally dumb things about his deceased daughter.

          He realized he was as likely to find Judas in the Church as find God

—and this should NOT have surprised him, after all one of the signs of the True Church is that the False Church is found within it—that it’s filled with sinners (Augustine).

          Being a Good Lutheran, John remembered his Pastor going on one Sunday about Sola Scriptura, Word Alone, so he rushed to his Bible to find the Invisible God there

—of course he’d read it some, and listened to sermons for years—but when he dove deeply into it…. That was another story… wow.

          He’d once heard from an Evangelical friend that Bible stood for “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth,” so he thought maybe the rules in it would give him answers, point him to God

—but they were so strange, menstrual cycles and mold,

head coverings and instructions about things he’d never encountered.

          For that matter, the more he read the more he found a very troubling world—brother killing brother, rape, incest, politics, war, deeds of sale, and nation building, … a world no more holy than the one John himself inhabited.

          So that’s where he looked next—in the natural world—he often heard people say they found God in nature.

So he had his friend Tom drop him off in the Pine Barrens for a week.

It all went to hell pretty quick, he didn’t bring enough water, he got ticks, a Black Bear drug off some of his food—he ended up hungrily coveting a Cougar’s catch when it killed and ate a Raccoon in front of him.

By the time Tom picked him back up, John had realized he wasn’t going to find God in Nature as it actually is (not some Disney movie, trail, or wildlife exhibit)—red tooth and claw, scarcity and cold—it was clear Creation and Creator were two different things.

          So, in desperation he sought a direct experience of God—he did so with Prayer, Fasting, and Extended Silence, and eventually he took that age-old short cut to the mystical, psychotropic substance abuse

—and by the end of that Spiritual Binge he found that Luther was right:

there was a reason Moses wore the veil,

a reason Jacob limped,

and a reason for Ezekiel’s mad visions

—the most you can directly experience of God is God’s backside, and that’s only if you get lucky.

          And with that he limped back to the Bible, just to look for God one more time. Just to see if there was some shred of good news

—and he fell upon the Gospel According to John.

          He fell upon that cosmic poem that begins the Good News in that gospel

—he was struck by the peculiar particularity proclaimed there.

This Child of God Jesus, clinging to the Father’s bosom—as close to God as a heartbeat or a thought,

this one who is God’s Word of Creation and God’s plan for Creation,

This one who is light in the darkness, this one who is truth and grace, this one who is life itself.

          This one who is the invisible God made visible, took flesh and lived among us

—lived for John, for John’s daughter, for each and every one of us.

          Jesus the Christ came among us—God made known to us, God’s intimacy with us

—the fact that we are adopted Children of God, is known to us in his only Son Jesus!

In that particular reality shared with us and told to us by John.

 That’s John’s Gospel,

that’s John’s Christmas Story.

          All of a sudden the Church, that poor vessel unable to hold John’s sorrow, is made whole with the particular words of God spoken by Jesus to the Church in John’s Gospel—“that you may be born from above” “that all may be one”—“that you love one another as I love you.”

          All of a sudden the Word of God found in scripture, becomes a witness to the Word of God who is Jesus Christ—no longer is it Rules, or a record of troubled times,

but instead a love letter by a God who is in the muck,

in the trenches,

at the bedside,

in the flesh, with us.

          All of a sudden nature hears the calling of Christ—the storm is stilled and Jesus walks upon it’s back as if on dry land, creation’s endemic scarcity—entropy—is sated by Christ’s feeding of the five thousand there on that green grass.

          All of a sudden the direct experience of God—the Invisible made Visible—was right there—in Cana Wedding Joy,

in Christ’s weeping for dear Lazarus,

in his washing of his disciple’s feet…

at that Last Supper in fact, Jesus sits intimately with the beloved disciple—“close to his heart” just as the Father is to the Son

—so to are we, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to God.

We are close to his heart, because the Invisible God is made Visible to us through Jesus Christ.

          “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.”

          That’s John’s Christmas Story—John’s Gospel—the Good News for us. A+A

My six top posts of 2014

So, the following six posts were the most viewed in the last year:
At number six, my 20 theses derived from Luther's Small Catechism. From what I've heard, a lot of people were confused with my use of the word awful, just a reminder it means "inspiring reverential wonder or fear."
At number five, The Gay Marriage Sermon.
Number four? The Gospel in Times Such as These, in which I called my congregation to their Baptismal Identity in the midst of the divisions between blue and black.
Similarly number three is the Statement by Bishop Eaton on Racial Justice that I based the above sermon on.
Number two, is my Formal Letter to the Federal Election Commission.
And finally, the number one most viewed post here at Luthermatrix in 2014 was a map of the 64 Synods of the ELCA I made in paint.
So, what does this tell me? People like pictures and tackling timely things.

Finally, if you would allow, here are a few posts I wish had got more play:
A brief Time Travel to the year 2034 to see what the ELCA looks like in 20 years time.
A sermon communicating the Gospel to the Millennial Generation.
And similarly, a sermon targeting the six generations currently living on this planet earth.
My sermon about how the Gospel relates to culture and context.
An answer to the question "What Old Testament Laws Do Christians have to follow?"
The announcement of my prayer book's re-release.
A few bits from my journal from Israel/Palestine.
And finally, a sermon about where the Church get's its authority from.
Happy New Year all!
Peace,
The Management (aka Chris Halverson)

Christmas Eve Sermon: Sing this night, Rejoice by candle light, He is bringing salvation to all

          As a child my favorite part of Christmas was putting the Noah’s Ark animals on the Christmas tree to celebrate the birth of Christ…

Let that sink in… Noah’s Ark / on Christmas.

Sort of a strange thing—putting figurines of penguins and lions and caribou on the Christmas tree, all hanging above the Nativity Set.

          Similarly, if you’ve seen the Christmas Movie “Love Actually” you’ll remember the surprising, non-traditional, manger scene in that film—with little British children dressed up as lobster, Spiderman, and an Octopus.

          Clearly there were no penguins surrounding the manger, no Octopi occupying the Shepherds’ field by night.

But, it does bring to mind a particular point—that all of creation celebrated the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, for he’s Savior of the Whole World.

          Think of Paul’s famous 8^th chapter to the Romans—all of creation groans for the revealing of the sons and daughters of the living God—so too, one can not help but imagine, all of creation sings out with joy at the birth of the Son of God.

          And so, tonight, I just want us to think a little bit about the songs beating in the heart of all of creation that night our Dear Savior was born.

Let us pray,

Holy Family Sing this night, Rejoice by candle light, He is bringing salvation to all!

          Dear Joseph, rejoice and sing! Your inheritance,

the promise to your family,

the promise to the house of David,

the promises of God,

is sure and true!

          In this little child is a ruler who is totally unlike any before or since

—one who in the weakness of the flesh is “Wonderful Counselor”

—An infant whom we may call “Everlasting Father.”

          Dearest Mary, sing again! Sing that beautiful song

—give us a tune with which we might ponder your son this season, and treasure him in our hearts.

          Tell us how his deeds will glorify God,

—how his justice, always unsettles and unseats us still

—how his mercy frees,

 unbinds,

 heals,

and brings life to the dead.

Shepherds and Angels Sing this night, Rejoice by candle light, He is bringing salvation to all!

          Sing shepherds, sing of the heavy, heavenly, wholeness

—the very presence of God, aflame in that field,

how it surrounded you

—God’s glory, God With Us

—Announced!

          Announce you angel—calm our terrified souls, bent before the awful power of Holiness.

“Fear not, here is the Gospel for everyone:

Born today

—for you a Savior,

for you the Messiah,

for you the Lord

—a sign, for you O’ people “A child is born.”

          Sing Honor Guard of Angels, sing of the strange new thing God is doing

—accent this moment

—how it honors God,

how it brings peace on earth.

*        Sing so softly, shepherd band

—a joyous gentle song to the Holy Family

—tell them what God is doing

—tell them God has invaded

— Invaded softly,

 kindly,

in this meager Manger baby.

You powerful, you powerless, Sing this night, Rejoice by candle light, He is bringing salvation to all!

          Sing with one last gasp of pomp, you emperors, you governors.

Call up your subjects and servants

—serenade them with registration

—registration for war,

registration for taxes,

for profit,

for control.

          Sing sorrow songs, you

—who passed by Christ in the womb of the tired mother

—who gave no room to the traveling weary family

—sing sorrow.

          Sing all you people, deep in darkness,

you are the beloved of God

—His light will make your darkness bright.

          Sing a freedom song, O’ people

—born is the King.

Born is the One Who Upholds Righteousness,

who holds your hurts to account and cares for you,

Born the one who sets you free.

All of Creation, Sing this night, Rejoice by candle light, He is bringing salvation to all!

          Sing out field where angels trod,

Cattle, lambs, sheep and goats, mice and all you creatures,

sing about the birth of the Son of God!

          O’ Trees clap your hands to keep the beat,

join in the song you predators and wild things,

howl and purr and stomp your paws!

          Sing a duet O’ Heavens O’ Earth,

may we say of the sky line it shows that

in him Mercy and Truth have met,

in him Righteousness and Peace kiss one another.

          Let the Wave’s rage and the Thunder’s burst tell to eternity the Savior’s Birth!

Dear Church, Sing this night Rejoice, by candle light, He is bringing salvation to all!

          Sing for God’s promises are true,

he’s born

—here among us,

Humble and unnoticed,

just and merciful!

          Sing that God’s overwhelming presence,

joyful,

good news,

honorable,

peaceful

… terrifying,

is with us,

worship Christ dear people!

          Sing confessions too,

confess where you missed him

—he’ll sing back,

leading the way,

that we might follow him.

          Sing with all of creation—praise the Savior of the World.

A+A