Jesus and the Widow

Look at it,

it’s like a battle scene out of a sword and sandal epic,

or maybe this years crop of super-hero versus super-hero movies.

          They’re lined up there, a whole crowd of them coming out of Nain, and a second crowd of them entering in.

One group mourning, wailing at the woe of it all

—mourning the death of this only son.

One group overjoyed, smiling and stunned by this savior they follow

—overjoyed by the life of this only son of God.

          There, at that gate, they stand, recognizing one another the way you recognize yourself in the mirror

—hair parted on the opposite side, ring on the wrong finger

—so similar, yet not the same.

          There they stand, facing one another

—like some chemical equation, their mixing changes things

—a reaction that reveals something about God!

It reveals the depths with which our God cares for us.

It reveals the length to which God goes to save us.

It reveals the breadth of Jesus’ prophetic actions.

Let us pray

          The two crowds begin to intermingle, becoming one, and immediately Jesus steps through it all and looks, and sees…

This woman, This widow.

This woman, This mother of an only child.

          And he is moved.

          Moved in the belly.

          Moved with that compassion that rises up in a person.

          Moved with a godly passion that identifies with the other person so much that you can actually call it suffering with them!

         

          He feels that widow-hood. A woman without her husband in a world where women are so devalued…

A woman who has lost the love of her life on top of it all.

          He feels that only-child-mother-ness. A woman without not only her husband, but also without her son, her only son, a woman with no male.

A woman who has lost her very heart, this son of hers.

          Think of the position she is in

—alone in the world in a unique and troubling way.

Alone with the weight of the world pressing against her.

          My God!

          That’s one of the great things about the incarnation—God with us in human flesh

—God is moved by this…

the heart of God breaks for her…

God feels for those in need in the gut!

         

          And Jesus enters into this woman’s life, and orders her to do an impossible thing:

“Don’t cry.”

          What kind of order is that?!?

          I think I’d be offended by it, if I was her…

except…

except that it’s Jesus,

it’s God incarnate,

who can fulfill the words of Isaiah, “I will wipe away the tears from every eye.”

He performs this prophecy right there.

He demonstrates how deeply God cares for us, right there!

          And then, he turns from her to this body,

this only son,

on a coffin cart.

And he touches it!

          Touches the body.

          Jesus, touches the body.

          In a world of purity laws, a world in which the forces of death and the forces of life are so distinctly segregated,

he touches this body.

          He’s defiled himself with this action…

          Imagine that,

God contaminated by Death,

the Creator of Life, allowing Death to pollute him…

That’s how much God loves us!

          And, if that wasn’t enough, Jesus defeats Death itself…

for this man,

this only son,

sat up,

and spoke,

and was returned to his mother.

          The spigot of her sad tears is turned off,

switched the other way,

switched to tears of joy!

God will go through death itself, to save us!

          And the Crowd—together, those who came with Jesus and those who were leaving with the Widow,

together witness all of this, and respond by declaring “Oh, my, this one is a prophet!”

          “This one is a prophet like Elijah!”

          Elijah, who we read about in the first reading.

          Elijah, who was known for the wonders God worked through him.

          Elijah, giving life to a widow’s child.

         

          But there is a second prophet lurking in their mind as well, the prophet par excellence Moses.

“This one is a prophet like Moses!”

          Moses, the great suffering prophet.

          Moses who intercedes on behalf of his people.

          Moses who stood in the breach, for his people.

          Moses who doesn’t enter the promised land, so that God’s people may do so.

          Yes, Jesus acts for us with prophetic, life giving acts. Jesus also acts for us by prophetically giving his life for us!

          For those who are so down and out that they’ve been turned inside out

          For those defiled by death.

          For all of us who, at one point or another, find ourselves in that line of mourners…

          Trust that God, in Christ Jesus, has entered into the mix, crossed the line

—every barrier!

          He has become enfleshed,

become human,

that his heart could break for this woman,

comfort her,

bring her boy back through the very muck of death.

          That,

through Jesus,

God crosses into our life,

 is so moved,

is so compassionate,

that every tear will be wiped away

—that resurrection and new life are on offer here.

Yes, when the joy of Jesus is mixed with the many movements of the human heart

—God’s care, salvation, and prophetic will are won for us. A+A

Sermon: Confession and Wrap-Up

Sermon: Confession and Wrap-Up

          As we arrive at the end of our 6 week sermon series on Luther’s Small Catechism, we arrive at one of the best kept secrets of the Lutheran Church—Confession.

          Now, of course we regularly confess collectively on a Sunday morning, but we in fact can go beyond that, we also have a tradition of individual confession.

          So, today, I’ll briefly consider confession:

·       Why we ought to do it,

·       what sins we ought to confess,

·       and how we ought to confess them.

          Then I’ll conclude with a brief wrap-up of these last six weeks in Luther’s Small Catechism.

Prayer

          Why should we confess?

          One of the things many of the ex-Roman Catholics among you muse about,

like to tell stories about,

is confession.

          I’ve heard on several occasions about going to Private Confession to Confess sins week in…

and week out…

and pretty quickly the well runs dry—you don’t have any particular sin to confess, so, in order to satisfy the priest, you’d make things us.

          “Oh, sure, 6 lustful thoughts since breakfast… I was wroth at the crossing guard… I envied my brother his backpack”—things like that.

          This is not unique to our time, Luther too dealt with this bad practice of, essentially forced, confession. He responds to this abuse by insisting that confession ought to be voluntary. You ought to go to individual confession, when a particular sin troubles you.

          We confess in order to ease our conscience,

to escape those things that are eating away at us.

Those things pushing us away from a faithful abundant life.

We confess because something keeps us up at night, because a sin has become like a rock in our shoe and needs to be removed so we can again walk well.

         

          What sins should we confess?

          On one hand, we ought to regularly confess in a general sense that we are sinners…“we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves,” right?

          But, we ought to confess particulars too.

          Firstly, as I said before, we ought to confess those sins we can’t shake, those things which are troubling us and we feel compelled to cast off.

          Secondly, we can swing back to the beginning of this sermon series, the 10 commandments—and use them to reflect upon our lives and find places where we’ve fallen short.

          In fact, as on the first Sunday of this series, the ushers will be passing out Examines at the end of the service to help you reflect upon your life in light of the 10 commandments.

          Finally, we can reflect upon our particular roles, and how they may expose us to particular sins. For example, Pastors, counselors, and the like take various oaths of confidentiality, so the 8^th commandment is often a harder one for us.

Likewise, a job like soldier or policeman, where adrenaline and split second decisions are necessary, might make you more susceptible to breaking the 5^th commandment.

For that matter, imagine all the stresses being a parent puts upon the soul!

          All that to say, there are particular places we fall short as human beings, and we ought to acknowledge them.

          How should we confess?

          One of the greatest parts of being a protestant pastor is that the spiritual life of the congregation isn’t all about me

—lay folk have an equal inheritance and responsibility. This goes for many aspects of our life together

—including confession.

          While we do have a particular order of individual confession and forgiveness (Page 243 in the Cranberry Book)

—and I as the pastor would happily hear any of your confessions,

While that is all true, I’m not the only person you can turn to. Look around you, all these people you are with are people you can also take the weight of your sins to, people who can help you bear your burden well.

          Because, there are two parts to confession. One is your naming of the thing which troubles you

—you can do that with fumbling lips and halting voice, that matters not.

          What does matter is the second part

—that you are forgiven!

Our actions may be imperfect, but God’s response

—the declaration of your forgiveness

—that’s perfect,

 that’s God’s actions for us.

God is gracious,

does hear your confession,

and does forgive you.

God’s grace breaks though whether it is declared by me, the Pastor, or any of your sisters and brothers in Christ.

          Confess because you are moved to,

confess those things most troubling to your soul,

confess knowing God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and will forgive you all your sins!

         

In conclusion, we’ve now spent six weeks at the root of our Lutheran Faith—at the heart of it all.

          We’ve look at the 10 commandments, where we are reminded of our need, and our desires for false gods.

          We’ve looked at the creed, where we are told who the True God is, who meets those needs.

          We’ve looked at the Lord’s Prayer, where we find out how to address this God of ours.

          We’ve looked at Baptism, where we hear how we are adopted by God.

          We’ve looked at Holy Communion, where we receive ongoing grace from God.

          And finally, today, in Confession, we learn to live in light of God—as sinners being made holy.

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Holy Communion Sermon

Holy Communion, the 2^nd of the two sacraments of the Lutheran Church.

          Holy Communion, where we recall the saving acts of God through Word, Bread, and Wine.

          Holy Communion, which connects us with Christ and with Christians from every time and place.

          Holy Communion, where we are fed with the Body and Blood of Christ.

         

          It seems like such a simple thing, eating together every week, yet it is worth pondering for a moment or two, asking the questions:

What is Holy Communion?

What are its benefits?

How does it happen?

And how should we prepare?

          Let us pray

What is Holy Communion?

          It is the true body of Christ and blood of Christ attached to the bread and wine with God’s Word.

          It is an action commanded by Christ—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Paul all are aware that this is something Jesus tells us to do.

If Christ commands it of us, who are we to disobey?

          Communion is a gift God give to us Christians. Some people, for one reason or another, abstain from communion.

Why shun a gift from God?

          Perhaps you do not feel good enough to receive communion?

Not Holy Enough?

Well, John records that Judas ate from Jesus’ very hand… you’re at least as good as ol’ Judas right?

After all, just as Churches are hospitals for sinners, not museums for saints,

isn’t communion medicine for the sin sick soul?

What are its benefits?

          Communion is no small thing

within this meal we share together,

within this weak sign of bread and wine,

 razor thin crackers and thimbles just filled

—we are told of our salvation—told about that night, in which he was handed over.

—we receive the very bread of life, the flesh of Jesus Christ, within which there is eternal life!

—we physically ingest God’s forgiveness.

How does this happen?

Now, when Luther was explaining Holy Communion, he was doing so while faced with two different understandings of the Lord’s Supper which both rely on Logic instead of Faith.

          In the first case, Luther is standing against a Medieval Roman Catholic understandings of the Lord’s Supper, which rely on the science of the time, Aristotelian Logic, in order to explain what happens during communion.

          Jesus is in Holy Communion because logic dictates he is. Luther responds, “No, Jesus is there, because he promises to be there.”

          In the second case, Luther is standing against other protestant reformers like the French John Calvin and Swiss Huldrich Zwingli. They too, he felt, clung to logic instead of faith.

          When they debated with Luther about the Lord’s Supper they clung to a literal understanding of scripture—specifically that Jesus is at the Right Hand of the Father… which to them meant Jesus clearly couldn’t show up in bread and wine here on earth, because he was up in heaven.

          Luther countered that The Right Hand is a Hebrew way of saying strength or power, and so the Traditional understanding of that power involves the ubiquity of Christ

—at essence, ubiquity means Jesus isn’t bound to any one place.

          For example, if you read the end of several of the Gospels, Jesus walks through walls, shows up on the road to Emmaus, and so on. So clearly he’s not stuck on a cloud somewhere, clearly he can show up in bread and wine if he promises he is going to show up there… here.

          So convinced was Luther of the real presence that he met with Zwingli in Malburg and they went round after round for days and days about the real presence and Luther began to etch into the table they sat at “Est ist est.” That is “Is means Is.”

          As we read in the 1^st letter to the Corinthians today “this IS my body” and “this IS my blood.”

         

          To be clear, we receive Christ’s body and blood through faith.

We trust his words to be true. We trust that when Jesus promises to be somewhere he’ll be there, because he doesn’t lie. When he RSVPs to this meal, he shows up.

His words, his promise, echo forth from 1^st century Jerusalem to 21^st century Jersey.

          The words “for you,” are not an abstract you.

Not a disinterested you.

But you, in that very moment! Jesus for you!

 For you today.

For you in all your peculiarities. For you at this very moment, just as you are!

How should we prepare?

          There are many spiritual calisthenics people practice surrounding Communion.

Some refrain from eating until they’ve partaken in communion.

Some break wafers on their tongues to remind themselves they are complicit in Jesus’ crucifixion.

Some refrain from chewing on the wafer out of respect for the body of Christ.

Some read the passion story on Sunday morning before going to Church.

Some go out and feed the hungry on Saturday night.

What matters in all of these things is that the spiritual practices you do surrounding Holy Communion help you to trust more fully Jesus’ promise to meet you in the Meal.

Siblings of the faith,

Jesus commands us to come to communion,

where he promises to meet and feed us,

forgive us and save us,

Jesus is trustworthy and his words are true!

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Sermon: Baptism

  Megan, Tyler, Hunter, Shaun and Justin, today you will affirm your Baptism.

          You will confirm that trust in the promises of God found in your Baptism,

that you want to continue to walk the walk of faith

—following after Jesus our Lord as a disciple.

          Before we get there, it’s worth remembering what this whole baptism thing is and is about.

          And so, we’ll continue on in our sermon series here, our review of the Small Catechism, continuing to consider the basics of our faith, consider

“What is Baptism,

Why is it important,

How does it work,

and So what?

Prayer

What is Baptism?

          Baptism is one of our two sacraments in the Lutheran tradition. A sacrament being a physical thing

commanded by Christ,

that conveys God’s promise.

          Think of that,

a thing Jesus tells us to do!

“Baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Wow! We ought to do it!

          Think of that, as well

—a physical thing.

A physical thing in a world filled with physical things that threaten us, demean us, demand from us

—in the face of all that, a physical thing that calls you God’s child! Cooling water that washes away all those physical things that distress!

          You’re heard me describe my no good rotten really bad week before (Bullet, Knife, crowbar)—that’s why we need the physicality of the sacraments!

          Yes, physical grace ordered and guaranteed by Christ.

Why is Baptism important?

          In it we die with Christ and rise with him.

We are born again.

We become adopted into God’s family.

          When parents come to me and ask me if I’ll “do” their kid

—Baptize them… they say it like it’s a casual thing

—I want to reply:

—You are asking me to ritually kill your kid, and bring them back to life

—take them through the blood and guts of birth again

—connect them with a new family!

Man, that’s intense!

That’s baptism!

How does Baptism work?

          Don’t be fooled for even a minute that the water is what does all of this. As Luther says in his Large Catechism “Water is just water, my dog could drink it.”

          Similarly, it’s not the holiness or sanctity of the person doing the baptism, thank God.

        

         In fact, one early church father, a Desert Monk, went so far as to say Baptism works even if it is done by a Pagan, who uses sand.

          Because

—because Baptism is God’s act, not mine.

God’s washing, not the water’s.

Luther’s theological imagination takes him back to the very first chapter of the book of Genesis, and notes that God creates out of nothing

—there is simply the Breath of God and God speaks, which creates something from the depths of Chaos

—the Tohu vaBohu in the Hebrew!

         So too, in Baptism the Breath of God, the Spirit,

         and God speaking, the Word of God,

create something new,

creates a new creature out of the old.

Creates a Christian.

So what?

          Well, confirmands, what does this mean for you all? What are you affirming today?

         

          We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to follow after Jesus, wherever he may go.

          To be his disciple,

          We are Baptized, to quote Paul, “so we too might walk in newness of life.”

This is not an easy task,

not an easy identity.

          The baptized life, “walking wet,” is tough.

          A daily way of life.

          An ongoing struggle.

         

Living among God’s faithful people,

          partaking in the sacraments,

          proclaiming God’s good news in word and deed,

          serving all people,

          striving for justice and peace in all the world.

That’s the calling you are confirming, affirming, saying yes to!

          This Baptismal calling isn’t done in a day, it is the work of a lifetime.

          This Baptismal life isn’t done alone, the five of you are doing this together,

          You have adults who have generously walking with you through this whole two-year process of confirmation.

          You are full members of this community here, St. Stephen, who are here for you.

          You are accompanied by the Triune God, in whose name you were baptized. The Spirit, who makes you holy, the Son, who has redeemed you, and the Father, who created you.

          Megan, Tyler, Hunter, Shaun, and Justin, may God bless you on this your Confirmation day and throughout the joyous struggle of your baptismal life.

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The Creed Sermon

         It’s interesting, you know you’ve preached a law based sermon when people squirm around in their seats as you preach and spouses give one another knowing looks from the pews, and then as you interact with congregants throughout the week and they wonder aloud at the fact that they are sinners.

         And this is as it should be. We’ve been chastened by the Ten Commandments.

We’ve recognized that our thoughts, words, and deeds are not innocent. That, in fact, all is not well with the world or with our soul.

         But, neither the Small Catechism nor I is going to leave you stranded there. We’ve seen that our actions are for not… and now we get to see what God’s actions are.

We get to hear what God does for us, and gives to us!

Upon that empty space the Commandments have cleared, we can place the works of the Triune God.

         At the most basic level, if for example, your child asked you “who is this God of ours”, or “what does our God do?” You would respond:

God the Father is my Creator. God the Son is my Redeemer. God the Holy Spirit is making me Holy.

Prayer

         When we talk about God the Father as Creator, it is so easy to give ourselves whiplash. To look back, into the past, to some idealized moment of creation…

in fact, that’s one of those fruitless fights Christians have waged ostensibly against science, for hundreds of years and for no particularly good reason.

In fact, in so doing we’re answering the wrong question and looking in the wrong place.

We’re answering the wrong question

—God’s creative nature is not bound up in the question of how. How God acted

—not wedded to a pre-modern flat plate shaped earth with windows that let in water and pillars upon which this plate sits… that’s a pre-modern science, a common ancient answer to the question how, not particularly unique to the bible, but unique to the time when the bible was written!

         Instead, the proper questions for us to ask about God the creator are who and why?        Who has created us

and why, for what reason are we created?

When you compare the accounts of creation in Genesis to those of its contemporaries while asking the who and why questions the point of this bit of poetry becomes poignant!

Who? This Creator is one who creates with the powerful, yet gentle, word, not through volatile acts of violence.

Why? This Creator creates for companionship and for good, not to enslave for service or to enmesh us in an icky and innately evil - creation.

         We also look in the wrong place for God the Creator—we look over our shoulder or in our rear-view mirror for the miracle of creation.

Yet, here we are

—God’s creation is here and is ongoing! Our atmosphere doesn’t spontaneously light on fire, gravity continues to work, solids don’t suddenly turn into a gaseous state. Tomorrow will follow today, and yesterday won’t sneak up on us and show up next week!

         For that matter, just as God’s creation is declared good it is worth remembering that all good things in creation

—this soup of life in which we live and move and have our being

—are from God.

All good things in creation are from God.

Luther, being Luther, goes to his most basic thing—shoes.

Every time our

feet

hit

a sole

instead of

the ground

should be a reminder to us that God has provided generously for us!

         Both the possibilities

 Of: being deprived of shoes, or the world winking out of existence

—and any reality between these two,

should remind us on a basic level that we’re limited. That we’re critters and God is Creator.

         Yet, I’d imagine no one here,

myself included,

really believes this, at least not consistently.

After all,

would not this reality terrify us to the point of humility?

Would not this reality astonish us so greatly that we would constantly be thankful!

         When we talk about God the Son as Redeemer it is important to recognize that one of the great gifts that the Early Church gave us was their choice to not define too dogmatically the Atonement.

Atonement, being an English word created purely to describe how God makes us At-One with Him through Jesus Christ.

There are different descriptions that often fit different experiences of Christians at different eras.

We’re slaves to Satan / God pays that debt with Jesus.

We’re occupied by Sin, Death, and the Devil / Jesus defeats them and liberates us.

We’ve insulted God, the King of the Universe / Jesus’ death is a perfect sacrifice that repairs that insult.

We don’t know what a good human life would look like / Jesus lives such a life that we may do the same.

The punishment for sin is death / Jesus substitutes himself for us.

         In Luther’s case, he reminds us that Jesus is our redeemer. We’ve lost our way and been condemned for it. More than that we’ve been captured as if in a battle, by sin, death, and the devil.

         Jesus crosses into enemy territory and buys us out of that captivity at the price of his precious life.

What he has done for us frees us from the deathly Kingdom and joins us to the Kingdom of God. We are now citizens of the Kingdom of God; adopted into the family of Jesus Christ.

Living in that family,

living in that Kingdom.

         While we were yet sinners, God chose to redeem us through Christ. We are saved by this gracious act.

         As for the Spirit, who makes us Holy,

She does it to us through faith.       We’ve already been redeemed/

the Spirit makes us believe it! God is already for us/

The Spirit let’s us trust it to be true!

The Spirit creates faith.

         The Spirit uses particular things to create belief and make us Holy.

         The Spirit uses the Word of God: scripture and preaching.

         The Spirit uses the Sacraments: Baptism and Holy Communion.

         The Spirit uses forgiveness: Declared in the service and experienced in our life together.

         The Spirit gathers all these Holy Making things together in communities of grace—by that I mean “The Church.”

But let’s be clear, the Spirit doesn’t use a building

—the Spirit uses a people!!!

A people cultivating graciousness with Word, Sacrament, and Forgiveness.

The Spirit working to make plain the grace of God.

Community struggling to make this real in each other’s lives. Living into this already offered redemption by Jesus Christ!

        

         Here me well though, I purposely use the word struggling!

         ‘Cause we ain’t saints yet!

We’ll never be rid of the tension of becoming holy, as long as our flesh hangs upon us

—never Holy this side of the Jordon.

         Individually, we’re Justified by Christ’s works, yet still Sinners.

         Collectively, in these Communities of Grace, we’re a mixed body, saints and sinners stumbling forward, held aloft, and together, by the Spirit alone!

         That’s why the work of the Spirit found in God’s community, the Church, is ongoing.

         Daily renewal of our minds, bodies, and hearts by the Spirit, is found among us.

         Daily receiving of that Grace already freely given.

         Daily remembering full redemption through:

Community,

Forgiveness,

Sacrament,

and Word.

         You will find on the back of the yellow prayer cards Luther’s morning prayer. As we wake each morning this week, let’s pray it, marking ourselves with a sign of our God

 Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit.

God the Father is my Creator. God the Son is my Redeemer. God the Holy Spirit is making me Holy.

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