Romans Letter 1

Dear St. Stephen,

                  I, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, have heard that you wish to know more fully of the faith I have in my Lord, which has been passed onto you through these many ages.

                  I have sent to your Pastor, Christopher, the first two letters, that he may read them aloud to you, as it was done in ancient days. This letter will tell you of Sin and Death, Adam and Jesus, Justification and Grace.

1.              Friends, have you ever really thought about how the world ended up so messed up? What components go into such a sloppy machine; how the cake got baked this way?

                  Well, here is one way to think about it.

                  Sin entered in through human disobedience—SIN capitalized and singular, snuck in through a sin, small and multiple.

                  And along with SIN came Death.

                  And Death long reigned, though we couldn’t figure out why. I believe your Pastor has used the metaphor of diagnosis and symptom before… well, Death was the symptom of Sin’s hold upon the world. Yet we couldn’t see Sin, only it’s destructive partner Death.

                  We’d find dead bodies washing up on the shore, but not notice the horrific war across the sea that caused such destruction, creating corpses.

                  But then, God provided the Law—a lens with which we could see Sin.

                  A microscope to move from symptom to diagnosis, a pair of binoculars with which we could see what was going on, on the other side of the sea.

                  We could see Death, but were blinded to Sin—but with the Law we could see both Sin and Death… and it was horrifying—before we’d seen one monster under our bed, but now we know there are two of them.

                  The Law condemned us all—all have fallen short, all collude with Sin, and in so doing, build up
Death.

2.              We all are in the likeness of Adam. It was said Adam was given a garden to tend—this Garden, in fact, a way of life—only one rule from the lips of God. Yet, somehow that one rule was widened and condemned us all

—Did God say, do not eat of any tree?

Then widened still more if you touch it you will die…

                  And the fruit, like the Law, showed the nakedness of our sin, showed us how exposed we are to Death.

                  Adam, so accused, in turn accused Eve, and Eve the Snake—and the Snake had no arms to point away from itself and pass the buck on. And as they accused one another of Sin, Death spreads as well. Death culminating in Cain’s killing of his brother Abel, and all the horrors since.

                  We are Adam, Eve, Snake, Cain—this ongoing fall, Sin and Death tumbling and dancing together throughout our lives in continually new and nasty choreography.

3.              Who can help us? Thank God for Jesus Christ—who too is a type of Adam, in the likeness of Adam, as we all are. Jesus too entering into this dance.

                  Jesus, confronted with temptation—bread offered, if he would betray his vocation and the Spirit put upon him in Baptism.

                  Jesus, confronted with temptation—miracle offered, if he would test and see if he really is the Son of God.

                  Jesus, confronted with temptation—all power, all authority, death dealing power, death dealing authority, if only the Father of Sin, not his Father in Heaven, was worshipped.

                  Jesus, Adam as we all are, but Adam who dances with the Spirit, not the forces of Sin and Death—he dances with the one who brought him—the Lord our God.

4.              Just as Sin brought forth Death, and Sin only becomes obvious in light of the Law

—so too the redemption of all these things.

                  God is for us, not against us—that is God’s nature—God is gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. That’s the God we have…

                  And because God is gracious, he yearns to enter the dance and transform it—to justify us—to make us right, to redeem us.

                  But Sin and Death reign—we can not see, for so long and often still—the Grace of God, the redemption at hand.

                  We can not see it, aside from the second Adam

—Jesus Christ is God for us

—the invisible God full of Grace, made visible to us, and for us, through his Son—Jesus.

The best place to search for a loving God is Jesus.

—Just as the Law shows us our Sin, Jesus shows us God’s Grace.

                  God is gracious and makes us right, this reality only becomes obvious in the light of Christ.

Jesus Christ to whom be the glory forever.

Amen.

Ash Wednesday Sermon: The Motherly Love of God

The 51^st Psalm can get kinda intense: 

“Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.” 

“Let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.” 

“The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

          That’s why it is important to hear clearly its opening verse:

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.”

-Your steadfast love… more literally your “womb-love” or if that kind of language makes you feel some way, your “motherly love.” That’s the foundation upon which we can come together and be truthful about who we are, God’s motherly love—does this.

          I had a strange coincidence happen to me around my birthday this last year. A friend and I were in Target, and he pointed to this soap, “Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Soap.” He asked, “You’re parents are hippies, I bet you use that right?” I said “no,” and was going to go about my day, but he had me smell it, and it was bizarre… I was transported to my grandma’s house. 

It turned out, this soap was the funny soap my grandma always used when I was a kid…

Smell is a powerful thing

—now each time I wash my hands with this soap, it’s like I’m a kid up in Thief River Falls, Minnesota in the summer: 

-long days of watching cartoons,

-walks in the park with Grandma’s poodle, Woofer,

-fighting ticks and mosquitoes and soothing the bites with Aloevera,

-putting together machines and robots with stuff from the junk drawer, 

-being tucked into bed safe and sound as she sang me to sleep, singing: “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”

…All that from smelling soap… an experience of Grandmotherly love.

Dear God, according to your motherly love, make me clean!

The Motherly love of God—that’s how we can do Ash Wednesday at all.

          Held fast by the Motherly love of God, we can confess

—yes, I’ve made mistakes, 

yes, I’ve hurt people I care about, 

yes I have sinned by what I do and by what I don’t do.

          For that matter, we can better face the reality of our mortality,

 that our bodies will fail us, 

that our minds will, as well, 

that we are creature, not Creator, no matter how much we’d like it to be otherwise.

          We do this, not to feel bad about things

—but because it’s true, 

and we can be real about things…

I know people don’t like to talk about it, but most folk walk around day to day with a lot of humiliation held inside… or on their shoulders… or wherever it is we keep those kinds of feelings. 

And, when we admit where we’re at in the scheme of things, we can be humble, and let me tell you, “humility can not be humiliated.”

          For that matter, when we look around the room this evening, 

seeing ash crosses on one another’s heads

—ashes to ashes, dust to dust—

we can see that we’re not alone in this.

          I think of an episode of “How I Met Your Mother” in which the main character, Ted, continually drags around his “baggage” –that he’d been left at the Altar—it made him isolated and alone.

Then, by the end of the episode, he realizes everyone has baggage

—the final scene of this episode is of the metaphorical baggage everyone has popping into reality as pieces of luggage

—what was invisible and shameful, becomes visible and an acknowledged part of life.

          So too, when you look around in a few minutes, look at those crosses

—recognize you are not alone in any of this

—we’re all dragging our luggage, we all have our own baggage. 

It’s not as if everyone else has it figured out and you’re just trying to get through

–everyone is adlibbing.

          This Lent, let us thank God for the Motherly Love God shows us, which allows us to

embrace humility and find a certain defense against humiliation.

          Motherly Love which hones our honesty about our failings and fallibility, and we find ourselves in good company, and not alone.

          This Ash Wednesday I am so thankful for the Motherly Love of God. Amen.

Transfiguration 2017 Sermon

Follow the Hills

              At this point a lot of you know that your Pastor is… geographically challenged… and some of that is a consequence of owning a GPS

…. But there is another factor—I grew up in Cheyenne Wyoming—if you ever got turned around there all you needed to do was look for the Rocky Mountains. If they were to your left you were heading North, if they were to your right you were heading South.

              The Rockies were a guide, a good way to know where I was.

              And, I think, the mountains in Matthew’s Gospel are a good guide for us as well, especially as we consider the transformation of the Transfiguration. Let’s let the mountains be our guide. The Mountains are our guide.

Prayer

              The Mountains are our guide.

              The first such mountain in Matthew’s Gospel, is the mount upon which Jesus was tempted. The Devil took him up a high mountain and he is offered an exchange

—all Authority on earth—power over every Kingdom, the ability to rule in a way that would make Caesar Augustus himself blush

—all that would be given for him, if he would worship the Devil.

Jesus rejects this form of authority—he’s not that kind of king, the consent of the world is not a gift to be given

—it isn’t a favor to be bestowed.

Despite what our sign says out front this week, ours is not a God who forces us to do things, forces himself on us, ours is a God who woos us, who is infinitely patient, no short cuts or dirty deals.

Jesus will bring about the Kingdom of Heaven and show us his authority as Son of God, in a way that reflects what the true meaning of Kingdom of Heaven and Son of God

–the ends and the means will be the same.

From there, we find Jesus up a mountain preaching perfection

… preaching blessings upon those who hunger and thirst,

the peacemakers, persecuted, poor, and pure,

the mourning, merciful and meek.

Jesus making his rejection of the Devil a reality for all those seated at the base of the mountain, hearing his words and experiencing their truth.

The beatitudes and sermon on the mount is a consequence of the kind of king Jesus is.

Then on two separate mountains, Jesus feeds 5,000 and 4,000—bread for all, just as Caesar would promise,

but for free!

—in fact, in one account of this feeding the people try to crown Jesus and he flees

—no authoritarian manipulating people with their bellies, this Jesus…

no, simply a man pointing to the abundance that is found in God.

            Then we get to today’s mountain—the mount of Transfiguration—where Jesus is transformed, changed, before his disciples eyes.

            And let me tell you a little something about transformation

—I had the privilege last week of peering out into the assembly and seeing all of you, all of you along with all of the Cross of Life-folk, and I don’t know quite what to say about it, other than that the first thing I thought was, “This is an image of the Kingdom of Heaven, right here!”

We were filled!

And there were people of all shapes, sizes, and shades.

People from Plainfield, South Plainfield, outside New Jersey, outside America

—and we were all gathered together in worship of Jesus Christ!

On Sunday we looked a little like the Kingdom of Heaven! We were together transformed, I got to peek for a moment at something

—maybe it is what St. Stephen will look like in our best possible future

—maybe it was our present as presented to the eyes of God

—I don’t know exactly what I saw here—but I saw it.

Maybe ol’ Peter felt that way too, wanting to bottle and capture the moment, to let these end of the world figures, Moses and Elijah, who joined Jesus have a spot to stay…

I don’t know what he saw, but I do know what he heard! He heard the voice of God defining who Jesus is, insisting that we listen to him

—there, in Jesus’ relationship to the Father

—that’s where Jesus authority comes from

—not from any gold plated gimmick given by the devil, but by his faithful connection to our Creator.

And this amazing revelation is to be held in those three disciple’s hearts as they hike in parallel to these holy hills in Matthew’s Gospel—being guided by the mountains of Matthew.

From the terrifying heights of Transfiguration the disciples are empowered by Jesus. They are told, again, on two different mountains, that by their faith they might move mountains, in fact, they could toss mount Zion itself into the sea with their faith.

Then, from yet another mountain, they are warned, a great cataclysm is coming—fear the end of the age, flee to the mountains, they are told that there shall be trials and temptations

—and then they sing songs together as they head toward the mount of olives where their world, their age, comes to an end with Jesus’ arrest there and crucifixion.

But, there is a mountain on the other end as well

—they meet Jesus again on a mountain in Galilee.

They meet their risen Lord at the end and beyond the end, and he gives them there the great commission

—All authority on heaven and earth has been given to Jesus, and so the disciples are called to make disciples of All people and baptize and teach them, trusting that Jesus is with us until the end of the age.

         Follow the mountains brothers and sisters, they’ll show us what the transfiguration is all about. It is telling us what kind of King rules the Kingdom of Heaven… it is telling us by what authority Jesus does what he does, and in so doing it shows us our own authority as his disciples.

         Jesus’ rule comes from his father in heaven, not any deal, or trick, or blustering show of force or power.

         It comes from right preaching and open generous hands.

         It is powerful, it can move mountains.

         Yes, holding onto this faith revealed in Jesus will come with many trial, but Jesus promises he will be with us until the end of the Age.

-Relationship with God

-truthful words and generosity

-a growing faith even in the face of opposition

-Jesus’ promised presence with us.

These are the mountain peaks we can follow if it feels like we’re getting lost. They are what is revealed on the mount of transfiguration.

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Sermon--Symptom: Murder

          I don’t know if you remember the show Diagnosis: Murder, it starred Dick Van Dyke, ran for 8 seasons… well, I don’t so much want to talk to you about the show, as talk to you about the title.

Diagnosis: Murder.

If Jesus is right, and I think he is, then…

Murder isn’t the diagnosis—only a symptom,

Adultery isn’t a diagnosis—only a symptom,

False oaths aren’t a diagnosis—only a symptom.

          Today we’re going to go beyond symptom to diagnosis.

Prayer

          Going beyond symptom to diagnosis is an important thing, one is descriptive, the other prescriptive…

I think about all the obituaries in this sad little town in Texas I once lived in—the cause of death in every case was “Heart stopped.” While not untrue… maybe unhelpful.

          And so too, Jesus looks at the commandments—you know, the ones that he fulfills—and suggests that the thou shall nots, unmoored from their deeper cause, become about as useful as the diagnosis, “heart stopped.”

          So, let’s think about these a bit.

Symptom—Murder…

Diagnosis—Anger.

          Murder, as a rule, doesn’t come out of a vacuum, it is the ratcheted up result of growing resentment, choosing not to reconcile.

Every insult and jape and jest and accusation

—a step along the road to snuffing out the life of a Child of God.

          Yes, anger is a sickness, left untreated we hold hate toward another human being; not reconciling with our neighbors, becomes natural… small murders and steps toward murder, multiply.

          As for us, we are to fear and love God, so that we neither endanger nor harm the lives of our neighbors, but instead help and support them in all of life’s needs.

Symptom—Adultery

Diagnosis—Lust.

          Affairs rarely start, or end for that matter, in the bedroom, and when we lead with lust we rarely have the best interest of the other person at heart.

-And, to be clear—because some of you out there right now are squirming,

Squirming on account of your own divorce or for those of family members—there are times when divorce is the greater good, sometimes the only option even, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that broken relationship is a tragedy, and has lasting consequences for the soul, body, and community.

          Yes, lust is a sickness, left untreated it makes marriages brittle; it transforms people we are in relationship with, people we love, into things, which we lust after.

          As for us, we are to fear and love God, so that we lead pure and decent lives in word and deed, and each of us loves and honors his or her spouse.

Symptom—False Oaths

Diagnosis—Falsehood

          Isn’t it strange that in court we swear on a bible that we’re telling the truth, we often say things like, “I swear to God,” to indicate something is true, even if it is far fetched? We do so because the danger of spreading falsehood is every-present… if we told the truth, and were known as being trustworthy, we’d have no need of oaths.

          Yes, falsehood is a sickness, left untreated it allows for lies and truth to be interchangeable, for the two to be interspersed in such a way that oaths and swearing and threat of perjury are the only way to discern if someone is lying—no one can trust anyone else, and all the words in the world are nothing more than babble.

          As for us, we are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.

          All these diseases dehumanize.

-You aren’t worth the time and humility it takes to reconcile with.

-You are nothing more than a sex object to me.

-You can’t handle the truth.

          In the Kingdom of Heaven, we are called to really take other people seriously.

Would you really do that to him if you saw him as created in the image of God?

Would you really treat her like that if she’s a beloved Child of God?

          Think of the word disease

—dis, ease…

un-ease…

doing kingdom work, is hard and it is uncomfortable.

Reconciling with someone is hard. There are after all plenty of people out there who will gladly help you nurse a grudge…

Working on marriage and seeing your relationship with a person as it is, can take a toll.

Speaking clear truth, even taking the time to know what the contours of the truth are, is exhausting.

Finally, this kingdom work is ongoing. There are no quick fixes

—while Jesus admonishes us to go and reconcile with someone quickly, he does not say reconciliation itself is a quick process.

We need to hold close to our hearts the reality that these diseases are out there, and in here… and that we’re always stumbling, we’re always susceptible to them.

I say this, not to frighten us into paralysis, but to prepare us for temptation, and ready us to serve our neighbor in their times of trial.

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