Emmanuel, God Finding Us

 12-26-21

Grace to you and peace to God our creator and from our Lord and savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen. 

Have you ever noticed that the rest of the world seems to forget about Christmas by about… 6 pm yesterday? How many of your neighbors are taking down their decorations today? How many trees have you already seen at the curb this morning? And depressingly, the Valentine’s day candy AND EASTER candy are already out in the stores! 

It’s December 26th, and we want to put Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the sheep, and even baby Jesus in the manger back in the box to wait for next year. The ironic thing is though, the wise men technically haven’t even arrived yet - THEY don’t show up until Epiphany - NEXT Sunday!

I mean, what IS time right now anyway? Jesus has gone from being a baby to 12 years old in a matter of hours! Not quite a child but not yet grown up – and definitely too young to be wandering off by himself (though definitely old enough to be vaccinated). 

Can you imagine what Mary and Joseph must have been feeling when they realized that they had left their son behind in Jerusalem? Jerusalem is a huge city to get lost in – Mary and Joseph spent three whole days searching for him, probably panicking the whole time. Remember, this is before text messaging, GPS, or the Amber Alert. To them, Jesus was truly lost, maybe even forever. 

When they found him in the temple, imagine the relief that flooded through them as they realized that he was safe. Joy - and some exasperation mixed together filled Mary as she admonished her son – “How dare you do that to us?!? We were so worried!” 

But Jesus’ answer blew them all away. No apology or guilt from him. Instead he asked “Why were you searching for me?” “Didn’t you know that I would be in my Father’s [house]?” Who would have thought that our tween Lord and Savior would sass off to his parents. 

And this is only a foretaste of the feast to come - at 12 he sneaks away from his parents. As an adult, he continues to cause trouble.  He evades being categorized. He talks in circles. He’s hard to pin down. It seems as though we constantly have to “find” him - like when impeccably dressed proselytizers knock on your door and ask you “Have you found Jesus?” as if Jesus is Waldo. 

This begs the question - Can Jesus be trusted when he wanders off, and always seems to be in need of being “found”? Even worse, it seems like when we need Jesus the most, when we desperately need comfort and hope, that’s when he seems the farthest away. Where WAS Jesus during a year like 2020 and 2021, especially when the turn of this year looks pretty dicy, not to mention during all the regular times our hearts get broken? Where IS Jesus when life gets tough? 

Jesus doesn’t alway do what we expect him to do, and stay where we expect him to stay. And that actually can be a good thing. He was born a king on Christmas, but he did not grow up to be the king that others expected him to be. Instead of wearing fine robes and dining in palaces, he broke bread with poor people and hung out with fishermen, tax collectors, and women. Instead of wielding a sword, he used his words to teach and to heal and bring peace. Instead of being venerated as king of his people, he was honored and recognized by wise men from another country. 

At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the hope arriving in our lives. He isn’t hiding, like in a game of hide-and-seek, behind the couch with the dust bunnies. He didn’t jump out the tomb that first Easter morning and ride into the sunset, never to be seen again. He WANTS us to find him. That is the exact reason why Jesus clothed himself in love so that we would recognize him, by becoming one of us. 

How better to show us God’s love than to become one of us and to tell us face to face? How better to show us that we are children of God than to FIND US where we are at, in all our smiles and tears, in our joys and sadness, in our hopes and fears. There was no better way to wrap us up in love than to come as a present, wrapped like one of us.  This love has been in front of us the whole time, wrapped in the form of a baby, almost completely unnoticed by everyone except for Mary, Joseph, some angels and some shepherds. 

This gift of love that he has given us, in coming as one of us, surprised humanity so much that we didn’t see it for what it was. God gave to us Jesus before we even knew that we needed him, and Jesus keeps showing up and surprising us, and not just at Christmas either. 

Last year during Vacation Bible School, do you remember that one of the songs was about Christmas? That’s right - in the middle of the heat and the onslaught of the cicadas (remember those?) all the kids were singing about Jesus as a little baby. They sang “It can feel like Christmas in the springtime or the fall. It can feel like Christmas through the hottest months of all…. Emmanuel, God is with us all year long.”  At the time, I though there was no way that these kids would be into this song in June… but I was wrong! They were really into it, and requested that song again and again. 

The second verse of that VBS song starts “I don’t need presents, I don’t even need a tree. Remembering that Jesus came is all it takes for me.” That’s easy to say in the heat of June, but it’s also true in December - While we are searching for hope amid the leftovers and the crumpled wrapping paper and the drying out tree  Jesus finds us and holds us tight. 

We are found, and become all wrapped up in the amazing and all-encompassing love of God, not just during the Christmas season, but on every day of our lives. Emmanuel, God is with us all year long, even on December 26th. Emmanuel, we don’t have to go looking for him. Emmanuel, who finds US when WE are lost. Thanks be to God. Amen. 

"Doing, Not Brooding"

12-12-21 

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.

I just love the “Advent meme season.” It seems that every year, social media jokes about Advent get funnier and more numerous. Like the classic John the Baptist picture from a few years ago that is the perfect ideal visual for today, captioned by: “Happy Advent, you brood of vipers!” How’s that for a festive holiday message? 

In a month where it kind of feels like nothing is festive and everything is on fire, so to speak, it feels like John the Baptist is so fired up that he just wants to let ‘er rip at everyone and everything. And after month like this, between things like another tragic school shooting and the continued onslaught on reproductive health care, rising cases of both Delta and now Omicron, and some parts of the country still refusing to get vaccinated and travel in flux for the upcoming Christmas holiday, I don’t blame John one bit. 

Honestly, at the moment, it feels like we, in the concluding weeks of 2021, might deserve John’s harsh words. Maybe John is right, in a world where not much has changed - and in many ways, we feel as though we are going BACKWARDS even. One example is these texts came up in 2012, the Sunday after the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre. And now, it’s only been a matter of days since the most recent deadly school shooting in Michigan. Maybe we are no better than children of snakes, as John says.

From this passage I imagine John as a gritty, towering man, thunderously pacing and preaching. He is dunking people left and right, admonishing the people in power for their selfish ways. Everything about this guy just seems larger than life, and his challenge to those with power and authority is exciting to the average person, powerless and under the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire. 

And so, they wonder - is this the one whom we have been waiting for? Is he the Messiah? Has he finally arrived to kick out their Roman oppressors? But John says to the people – you think what I’M doing is radical and life-changing? Just you wait! I’m only the messenger. Someone EVEN MORE potent is on his way!

John is laying the foundation and churning up the soil to make ready for the coming of Jesus and the beginning of his ministry. John is the warm-up act to Jesus the headliner; John is the trailer to the full-length film of the coming of God. He is the last of a very long line of prophets stretching back through the ages, and their messages were one and the same – the Lord WILL ARRIVE! And that can be both exciting and terrifying.

To us, John’s “good news” may not sound like “good news” … Or does it? At least the people listening to John weren’t completely turned off, because many were emboldened to ask in response “what then should we DO?” Two interesting groups are specifically mentioned to respond: Tax Collectors and Roman soldiers – not exactly the type of people we would expect to show up to John’s fiery preaching. 

The Roman soldiers were like the bouncers of the empire – to keep the oppressed populace in line. And yet, here they are – out there in the desert getting dunked and taking to heart all that John was saying. And similarly, the tax collectors did the Roman Empire’s dirty work, betraying their own people and skimming more than a little off the top for their own profit. Both these groups were moved, and asked “what shall WE do?” The empire should be very nervous at this point, and rightly so – their muscle and their money people are starting to show a change of heart. 

And if we’re doing Advent “right,” if we are asking questions and using this time to reflect and prepare for the arrival of Jesus amid the lure of free two-day shipping and the barrage of buy-one-get-one deals, the empires of power around us should be shaking in their boots, too. 

Because the answer to the question of what we do in response to John is shockingly easy, if we too listen to John. So, what CAN we do, as students, as accountants, as teachers and parents, as retirees, as homeowners, as teachers, CPAs, nurses, cashiers, business owners, real estate agents, siblings – what should WE DO in the face of the arrival of God’s kingdom here on earth?

Oh, nothing major – live within our resources, not to overstep, to minimize our footprint on creation, and not take advantage of the power and privilege that we do have. In fact, give away that power, and use the privilege for others. Don’t impose on the rights of other people, their right to not just to survive, but to thrive, because that is what we deserve too. 

This Advent season I’m going to try to do my small part in dismantling the empires of consumerism, white supremacy, apathy, the mirage of success, the cult of busyness. To help do this, I am going to make sure I reach out to the people I care about and make time to give them my presence over worrying about presents. I’m going to find joy in the small things, to focus on the important things, and remain open to the experiences and stories of others.

I’m going to remember to be kind to the strangers around me. I’m going to try to do small things to work for justice, like shopping fair trade when I can, and supporting small local businesses, or non-profits like ELCA Good Gifts, or other retailers that align with the justice issues I feel passionate about. I can get some coffee from the fair trade fair after worship today, or pick a star off the star tree. I can sign up to take part in serving the local Vienna unhoused community by signing up for Hypothermia week and attending today’s adult forum to get ready, or pay for a month of internet for our Afghan family. 

We do this, not because this is how get into heaven. Instead, this is a response to the gift of our baptisms in Jesus, that we are chosen to be God’s children, baptized into Jesus’ death, and raised up as new people to live in this new way. This is what John means by repent – not simply feeling sorry but showing that we are sorry by showing a different kind of behavior than before.  And what John here is saying, is taking responsibility for our actions and seeking to make it right when we can.

Jesus isn’t asking us for heroics. We don’t have to give up everything and go hang out in a desert on his behalf– John already did that. Jesus arrives to invite us to be more fully who we are – not children of snakes, not children of tradition, not children of the empire, but beloved children of God… children to get to see and participate in the arrival of the Kingdom of Jesus here on earth, in advent, and every single day. Thanks be to God. Amen. 

"Look Up, Look Busy!"

11-28-21

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen. 

“It’s the end of the world as we know it…and I feel fine!” Actually, no, I don’t feel fine! I feel stressed! There are too many cars on the road, too many people shopping at Giant, my packages are all delayed because of “supply chain issues,” covid cases are trending back up even though vaccinations among 5-11-year-olds are rolling out. I would much rather stay home and binge watch “The Great Christmas Bake off” on Hulu. 

Especially since this week even though it’s advent, and everyone around us has gone full-tilt Christmas with carols on the radio and Christmas trees up and decorated… here we are with nary a manger or angel or Mary or shepherd or even a scrap of hay … instead we have crabby Jesus and, “it’s the end of the world as we know it…” and nobody is feeling fine.

Have you ever seen the bumper sticker or memes that reads “Jesus is coming – look busy”? Like how dare Jesus find ou taking a nap or slacking off when he comes back. It reminds me of that Christmas song about Santa that is weirdly creepy… you know the one that goes  Santa “you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout...” you better look busy or Jesus may bring you something worse than coal. 

But I’m not sure how exactly I’m supposed to be “looking busy,” especially when it seems as though Jesus must be ready to come back any minute. Between the unpredictable acts of violence, refugee crisis stretching on, the effects of climate change getting really scary…. So much pain, fear, suffering has happened just the last few weeks.

It might cause us to question whether these are the very signs Jesus was talking about. Should we “look busy”? Or should we duck and cover? Stockpile our basements with Mac and Cheese and toilet paper (again)?

Well, Jesus has an opinion about what we should do to get ready for his impending arrival. Not look busy. Not squirrel away supplies like a doomsday-prepper. But also, not to be weighed down by fear. Jesus tells us to stand up and raise our heads, be alert, full of prayer and hope. Because another kind of future is on our way to us – not our future, but God’s future, where we will live as part of God’s Queendom/ kin-dom/ kingdom.

During another time of great upheaval in human history, the prophet Jeremiah shared similar words of encouragement to an overwhelmed people. The people of Israel were conquered by a foreign nation – one of many during the centuries - and they were forced to become unwelcomed refugees in a strange land, defeated, defenseless, and dejected, they might have given up on God and given up on hope.

We fast forward to the first followers of Jesus hearing these words written by Luke. At this time, Jerusalem had yet again been destroyed, this time by the Roman Empire. Their beloved place of worship was gone, their city devastated, countless people died, and their world had become unrecognizable. Which left the early followers of Jesus wondering, can God still show up, even after all this? Is God’s kingdom still near, will God be able to break into all the doom and gloom of this present moment?

If THIS kind of stuff is what we’re going to be getting during Advent, let’s do as the rest of the world does and skip over Advent completely, right to Christmas carols and peppermint lattes. But I will let you in on a little secret. In Advent, time refuses to behave properly. I dare say, it becomes downright wibbly-wobbly.

During the season of Advent, Jesus comes to us as a baby and as a grown man. He was born, he is here, and he will return…. but we don’t know just when and how until he shows up. His Queendom/kin-dom will come, and at the same time his kingdom IS ALREADY HERE among us. From the past we find hope for the future, and the future becomes the “now.”

From Bethlehem to Vienna, God has given God’s people a head’s up, to lift our heads and look up, that from the dead stump of tragedy, a branch is going to spring up, to show us that despite all the chaos and the fear and the pain, God is still going to SHOW UP. Even when all hell breaks loose. While the rest of the world is telling us to duck and cover, or look busy and hustle for our self-worth, Jesus says to stand up and see where he is showing up. Because otherwise we might miss where Jesus and the Queendom/ kingdom are breaking into our world RIGHT NOW.

And in most unlikely places, even in the full-on advent of the Christmas shopping season, there are still plenty of opportunities to witness Jesus. Today we recognized a historic moment of inclusivity for the Scouts in our first class of young women eagle scouts. Tomorrow night we will be a presence in the Vienna community during the annual church street stroll. We have been stepping up to help support our Afghan family, even though their arrival in our lives was a total surprise. I might even choose to be courteous of that slow car ahead of me, even if they have that bumper sticker that says, “Jesus is coming, look busy!”

Every Sunday when we pray in the Lord’s Prayer “Thy Kingdom Come,” we are looking toward a time where God’s justice and mercy will reign. We look forward to a time when there is no more racism, sexism, classism, ableism of any kind, where fear and war and violence and greed and death no longer rule us. And every time we pray for God’s kingdom/ Queendom/ Kin-dom to arrive, we are allowing ourselves to be open to being part of that arrival. And not just by “looking busy” and being distracted, but instead by being aware, alert, and ready to LOOK for what and who is bringing in God’s kingdom.

Until God’s kingdom comes in its fullness, and Jesus does come back, surfing on a cloud, we wait, and we hope. That is the heart and soul of the season of Advent. We don’t know what the world will bring to us around the next corner or in the next news cycle. But we can keep our heads raised knowing God is going to show up, both in the manger and in the mundane. Thanks be to God, AMEN.

The Queendom of God

 Grace to you and peace from the one who is and was and who is to come, and from Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior, by the power of the holy spirit, Amen. 

Today is known as Christ the King Sunday, or alternatively as Reign of Christ Sunday. In the liturgical calendar, today ends the church year, which does feel a little weird being right before Thanksgiving. It also feels strange, because we live in a world where a lot of countries are ruled by presidents and prime ministers… and so to speak of Christ as our king seems a bit out of touch.

In our gospel reading, on this Christ the King Sunday we sort of HAVE time traveled – all the way to Good Friday, where we overhear the conversation between Pilate and Jesus after Jesus’ arrest. As the Roman ruler of Jesus’s occupied homeland, Pilate had probably seen it all - rebellions, uprisings, messiahs, unrest, violence…. 

But even he had to be surprised when confronted by this defenseless man who claimed to be a king. Jesus had no throne, no mansion, no wealth, no political influence, no generals, and no crown. The night before this conversation, on Maundy Thursday, all his “loyal” followers had all fled (or at least all the men had). And today, Jesus is alone, arrested and beaten up and looking the worse for wear… yet calmly having a repartee with Pilate about kingship and kingdoms.

Pilate is clearly flabbergasted… and we should be too. We all recognize, as Pilate did, that traditional power - I should specify as male patriarchal power - looks a particular way. And Jesus DOES NOT fit the bill. He never fought a single battle; he didn’t flaunt wealth or command influence: he wasn’t angry or loud or violent or “macho.”

Jesus refuses to fit into the toxicity masculine ruler narrative - Jesus’s birth was witnessed by lowly shepherds and his first crib was an animal feeding trough full of hay and cow drool. His conquering campaign involved wandering around teaching and feeding, hanging out with homeless and sick people. He was crowned with thorns and his coronation was his torture and death, and his throne is a cross.

THIS is why it IS important that Jesus was a man… NOT because God has imbued cis men with something special that women, transgender, and nonbinary people do not have. It’s because giving up power is EXPECTED by women in the patriarchy… but it is an aberration, even an abomination for men to do the same. Men don’t DO that in a regular kingdom. But apparently, GOD DOES. 

We don’t need another kingdom of violence. We don’t need any more Kingdoms, period. What else should we call God’s reign, then? A “Queendom” perhaps?

This idea comes from a fabulous book I just read called “Thy Queendom Come” by Kyndall Rae Rothaus. She’s a Baptist preacher and author who co-founded an ecumenical preaching conference designed to elevate those on the margins. She called it “Nevertheless, She Preached.” This event was created out of the recognition that most preaching conferences are dominated by white male preachers, and she knew that we, the church, can do better than that. 

In her book, Kyndall Rothaus wonders if Christ’s reign is better understood as a “queendom” rather than as a kingdom. Are our ideas we associate with the word kingdom too tainted by hierarchy and patriarchy to be useful in understanding the true upside-down reality that Christ ushers in? Rothhaus asserts that yes, the word “Kingdom” IS too compromised to be useful. Which is why she uses the word “Queendom” instead. This is not a realm where women dominate instead of men – that still falls into the old hierarchical way of thinking. But instead, in a Queendom, power is shared and decentralized. There is no head of the table in God’s Queendom. God’s table is round.

If the word “Queendom” is still a bit too potent a word for you, some have used the word KIN-dom, K-I-N, to better describe this reign, emphasizing that we are all family. No matter what we call it, Jesus did not organize a coup, storm the castle, and replace himself as the new, though much kinder, king. He instead got to work on leveling the playing field, giving up all the power and privilege that was due to him as the Son of God, in order to model for us, his followers, how we are to live. 

This does feel like a scary reversal if you happen to be in the group that previously enjoyed the byproducts of power and privilege. Centering other voices in this kingdom, queendom,  or KIN-dom - feels like suppression to those who are used to having the floor ALL the time. But that’s not silencing, but instead sharing - it’s what justice looks like in God’s reality.  Liberation is not a pie, where giving out one piece means less for others. It’s more like the number Pi - it never runs ends.

Pilate is clearly confused and uncomfortable coming face to face with this idea… as were Jesus’ own male disciples the night before, on Maundy Thursday. Jesus demonstrated the meaning of sharing power by literally stripping down, making himself vulnerable, taking the lowest social position and doing the most demeaning job imaginable - washing the disciples feet. Jesus still washed all the feet… the feet of those who would later run away, deny him, abandon him, and betray him, as had played out by the time Jesus and Pilate had this conversation about kings, kingdoms, power, and truth. 

As a friend of mine reminded me, “[God] is The very Truth of existence and The Reality Upon Whom all reality stands.” Our reality does not stand upon able-ism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, tribalism, white supremacy, discrimination or structural inequities. 

THOSE realties stand directly against GOD’s reality - justice, mercy, abundance, acceptance, forgiveness, sacrifice, welcome… LOVE. And so, as citizens of God’s Queendom/ Kin-dom, we cannot and do not STAND FOR them when they rear their ugly head in our midst, in our laws, in our courtrooms, in our classrooms, and in our congregations. We call out and we speak out the truth - the ways of Pilate, of intimidation and violence and reliance on weapons and taking another’s life at will is never sanctioned by God. 

Today we may be disheartened that this Queendom feels farther from us than ever, as the Bishop of the Greater Milwaukee Synod wrote in a statement released yesterday: “God’s vision for our world, one in which love conquers evil and peace triumphs over fear, may seem more distant today, but ... it still has the power to shape and guide us all.” 

At the close of this liturgical year and as Advent is set to begin, we wait for the arrival of this vision; and we act to participate in this arrival by stepping up  - or stepping out of the way - for others as necessary. As Kyndall Rothhaus concludes in her book “They Queendom Come,” she reminds us that “this is [God’s] queendom, where the power and the glory are shared.” (137) Thanks be to God, amen. 

"Be Careful What you Wish For..."

 Sermon 10-17-21

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

“Be careful what you wish for.” We all know stories that have this as it’s lesson - once wished for, having what we desire seems awesome at the start, but we find out that there tends to be pesky, unforeseen consequences. While most of these stories include a magical element - a creature or item that grants these wishes, occasionally we find that this can still happen to us out in the real world - we finally receive something that we had been coveting for a long time… only to find out that it’s not quite as amazing as we had hoped.

In a way, James and John may have felt as though they had stumbled into something too good to be true. They had been following a man who so far had been doing AMAZING things – healing people from their illnesses, casting out unclean spirits, walking on water, feeding thousands of people with very little, and flouting the authority of those in power to turn the world upside down. And THESE two, James and John – just two sons of a fisherman – got to be a part of the inner circle! This was THEIR ticket to be SOMEBODY when the world told them they were NOBODIES. They finally had ARRIVED!

Well… not quite. Jesus and his disciples were on their way to Jerusalem, where they thought Jesus was going there to be crowned a king. Because that’s what usually happens – a king goes to Jerusalem to be anointed and recognized to rule. But actually, Jesus was going to Jerusalem to die… and actually, he has been pretty upfront about this the whole time. In the verses prior to this, Jesus said, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.” Seems pretty straightforward.

 

But all John and James heard must have been something like “Bla Bla going to Jerusalem … bla bla after 3 days, rise again.

They must have thought “OOOOH yes, king time!” And THIS was their chance to ask for prime spots in the new regime. The left hand and right hand were reserved for only the next most powerful people, like joint chiefs of staff. It wasn’t enough for them, apparently, for the privilege to follow him and hear his most exclusive teachings. They wanted more. They wished to be able to do what Jesus did… and they missed the fact that Jesus was going to suffer and die.

 

But Jesus DOES grant them their wish… sort of. James and John DID get PART of what they wanted… after Jesus’s death and resurrection, they went on to proclaim the coming of his kingdom, and they DID give their lives for it – meaning they drank the same cup and were baptized with the same baptism as Jesus. It wasn’t what they THOUGHT they were going to get… but likely, by the end of their lives, they realized that what they GOT was infinitely better that what they had WISHED for.

If you remember the last time you went to a baptism, you might have heard the pastor talking about how we have died with Christ in his death, and we are raised with Christ in his resurrection. When Jesus refers to his baptism, he is not talking about the day he was baptized in the river with John the Baptist. He’s talking about his upcoming death. In Luther’s Small Catechism, Luther writes that baptism “signifies that the old person with all sins and evil desires is … die daily…. And … that daily a new person is to rise up to live before God…”

 

Likewise, in the garden of Gethsemane, alone in the darkness before his passion began, Jesus prays that the cup might pass from him…  not a cup of fine wine decorated in gold befitting a king, but the cup that Jesus is to drink from is his suffering and death. Jesus DID drink from this cup, handed himself over to the power of death, was tortured and mocked, and finally hung on a cross.  And two people WERE on Jesus’ right and left hands…. But not James and John, but instead criminals condemned to a shameful death, as Jesus was.

In the world’s eye, this Jesus was a failure – he hung out with the people nobody else wanted to be around. No fancy buildings were named after him. He didn't write a best-selliing book. Instead, he was murdered by the state as an enemy… but that was not the end of the story. As Jesus himself said, on the third day, he would rise. And we who follow Jesus, who are baptized into the death AND resurrection of Jesus, ALSO receive this abundant and eternal life.

The last thing the world needs is another kingdom built in the image of James and John, built in the image of the powers of this world. What we need, Jesus proves, is a Kin-dom – of K-I-N, where we are all remember and act like are kin, we are family to one another, instead of lord it over one another as the powers of the world do.

Following Jesus means that we take up our cross. Following Jesus means that whoever will be first must be last. Following Jesus means prioritizing the least likely to reciprocate. Following Jesus means success often looks like failure.

Be careful what you wish for, because with Jesus, you just might get it. And more than you ever expected. More discomfort, but more growth, more love, and more joy, more life. Thanks be to God, Amen.

Eldad, Medad, and You-dad

 9-26-21

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our lord and savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

This past Tuesday night, 5 members and staff from this congregation were recognized at the annual Vienna Mayor’s Volunteer Reception, for their tireless work during this summer’s Liberty Amendment’s month. Though it made for a very long night - about one hundred and fifty people were recognized that night - I was so impressed with many of the other volunteers and the community efforts they were being recognized for. Dozens of volunteers raised money for food and supplies for people in need during this pandemic, and I lost track of how much money they raised to help.

I did notice something interesting. Very few congregations were overtly recognized. That could mean a couple things - that congregations in our area are not helping the community (which I don’t think is true). It could mean that the people in the pews are going outside their congregations and finding opportunities to help, which could be very true.

As it might turn out, people of faith don’t have the corner market on caring for our neighbors. Now, we COULD find this as reason to be dismayed, and wonder why so few of these honorees seemed part of organized congregations. Like Joshua, when he saw that Eldad and Medad were prophesying in the camp, even though they were outside of the tent when the spirit of the Lord rested on the other seventy sent to give Moses a hand. 

Instead of being miffed, Moses seems relieved! The more the merrier! He seems very glad for help with this group of people who were SO caught up in nostalgia that they only remembered the food of Egypt, and selectively forgot the fact that they had been ENSLAVED. I wonder how many years, months, or even weeks it took for them to overlook that critical memory in favor of all the cucumbers, leeks, and garlic.  

It’s been over 18 months of our own type of wilderness experience. We’re wandering in this uncharted pandemic maze, hoping that something good will eventually come out of it on the other side, but also longing for what was before. But was everything about the “before times” really “working”? DO we only remember the “cucumbers, melons, and leeks” part, while having selective amnesia about being trapped by endless busy schedules, constant programming, long commutes and bad traffic? 

In the brief moment of normalcy that was the month of July, I heard more than one person lamenting that they no longer knew how they kept up with the pace of life that was in the “before times.” But at the same time, we still long for what used to be familiar, even if it was not life-giving. 

I wonder what Eldad and Medad were saying to the hangry people complaining to Moses in the wilderness. We know that they were prophesying, which does not mean they were telling the future. The job of Both First Testament and modern prophets is point to where God is at work, to say hard truths, and to stand up to where we are actively working against God’s kingdom, whether that means refusing what God provides (like Manna) or by keeping control on who can and who cannot be a prophet of God. 

Every week when we say the Lord’s Prayer, we pray “your kingdom come,” that God’s kingdom would arrive on earth in its fullness. Martin Luther explains the meaning in this way: “in fact, God’s kingdom comes on its own without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may also come to us.” When we pray this, we must ask ourselves, am I hindering or helping the coming of God’s kingdom? 

We say “God’s work, our hands” but still use those hands to harm. Same with feet that cause us to wander us away from the path of the Gospel. The same with eyes that too often look backward to the past, or fixate on a future with only certain people given access to God’s love… Well, Jesus has some harsh and very uncomfortable words to say about these wayward body parts, didn’t he? 

Well… the Body of Christ might in fact BE MORE WHOLE… if we are a little more intolerant of the intolerant, willing to cut them off for the sake of the rest of the body… especially for the sake of those who are vulnerable, for children, for those who are not believed when they seek justice, and those who are disempowered. 

This is a huge task, and not one that one person can do on their own, even if they are Moses. We need as much help as we can get. We need every Moses, Miriam, Joshua, Eldad, and Medad, to renounce and call out everything that tries to pull us away from God’s kingdom. 

As a congregation participating in a baptism, before we get to the Apostle’s creed, we do some “renouncing” together. We renounce the powers that defy God and the ways of the world that draw us from God. Then, we witness where God IS and work - calling a new child of God into the family, and claiming them as both beloved and called to the work of God’s kingdom. Through anointing of oil and the sign of the cross on the baptized child’s forehead. Through a lit candle, to remind us of the light of Christ. And, in one old Catholic tradition, a piece of salt was placed on the lips of the baptized child - the child was to be seasoned with the word of God, to join the ranks of the other prophets in the past and present.

With this salty taste on our lips, we the baptized go out as fellow prophets, to do what salt does - draw out the flavor that is already there. Salt doesn’t stay in the shaker; salt is meant to be shared. It means pouring yourself out for the sake of others. It means telling people about what God has done for us in our lives. 

And while being salt doesn’t make us perfect people, God will work through each and every one of us. In fact, God will even work through people that we wouldn’t have ever dreamed that God would use, those who might be “outside” of our group. It may make us mad, like it did for Joshua and later for the disciples. But whoever is not against Jesus’s message of love and inclusion for all of God’s children, is FOR Jesus and is contributing to the arrival of God’s kingdom.

I like to think that Eldad and Medad were a bit salty in the name of God, to remind the people that God brought them out of bondage in Egypt into freedom. God WAS providing them with food - manna - and leading them to a life that would be full of abundance. I hope you have some Eldads and Medads in your life, who are prophetically pointing out for you where God is at work. I also hope that you can be Eldad and Medad for others, to help bring out the flavor of hope and love. Today, God says: “I’ve called you ALL to be my salty, prophetic people! I’ve called you to be like Eldad and Medad. YOU and YOU and YOU and YOU!” (dad!) Thanks be to God. Amen.

"God's Work, Our Lives"

 Sermon from 9-12-21 “God’s Work, Our lives”

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our lord and savior Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

It’s been cute seeing all the “first day of school” pictures on Facebook for the last few weeks! Everyone is wearing new clothes, new masks, new backpacks. We’re coming into a new season, there are new classes and schools to attend, new initiatives at work, new routines at home… but also still navigating a lot of uncertainty: Is my child safe at school? When will my child be eligible for the vaccine? Will there be a new Covid variant later this year? 

We try to put our best foot forward… But a few weeks from now, those clothes won’t be AS new… crayons will break… the pens will leak... the notebooks get lost, or messy with juice spills and dog drool… piles of dishes, laundry, and homework threaten to overwhelm. 

We have the best plans and make the best preparations… but usually life throws us a curveball – or two – and things don’t always turn out as nice as we imagined. Life can feel like a pop quiz that we haven’t studied for. 

This particular passage we just heard is smack dab in the middle of the Gospel of Mark, where the luster of following Jesus is perhaps wearing off for the disciples. Jesus decided to check their progress with a little surprise midterm exam, with JUST TWO QUESTIONS. Question 1 is: “who do other people say that I am?” Peter nails it - THE MESSIAH! Ding, ding! Gold star,  Peter!

But there is a SECOND question to this exam, and this one is an ESSAY - “who do YOU say that I am?”

But then… Peter doesn’t quit when he’s ahead. Peter says: “Now look here, Jesus. You’ve got this Messiah thing all wrong.” To which Jesus responds, “Get behind me, Satan.” Oops. 

We tend to be so hard on poor Peter, probably because Peter is us. We would all prefer to live at the beginning of the story where everything is still shiny and new; or to skip all the way to the end, where everything is nicely wrapped up. 

But we don’t live our daily lives there, at the beginning… or even at the end of the story. We live in the middle, that awkward place where we don’t know what’s going on, but the novelty has long worn off, and we’re just tired. In fact, I have heard our feelings right now described as “languishing” and I think that’s accurate. All our preparations and good intentions are out the window, and honestly we have no idea if this whole mess is going to turn out OK or not, and we are exhausted by the wondering. 

The good news is that to be a follower of Jesus, we don’t have to have it “all together.” We don’t have to wait until our lives look like the perfect dorm room in that slick and new IKEA catalog.

But… the flip side is that following Jesus is not a path OUT of the awkward middle part of the story, either, as Peter thought. Peter saw Jesus as a ticket right INTO power and prestige, to rival the Roman Caesars in authority and might. But that’s not what Jesus is about. Jesus calls us to a path that he himself followed: living his whole life for the sake of others, even to the detriment of himself.  

This very weekend – known in the ELCA as “God’s Work, Our Hands Day,” but also as the 20th anniversary of 9/11, is kind of an accurate mish mash that is perfect for the middle of our story. So many of you came out this weekend, sporting your Emmanuel shirts, ready to give some time to care for our little corner of the planet here in Vienna. And today, also acknowledge how worn out and in need of healing we and the community are...  plus we recognize the world-shaking, life altering tragedy that occurred not all that far from here twenty years ago yesterday. 

We remember all the people who lost their lives that day, and also admire the special type of courage and sacrifice it takes for so many people to put the lives of so many others ahead of their own. For some, it meant the end of their lives, like for those on Flight 93 and many first responders in New York. For some, it meant opening up hearts and homes to seven thousand stranded strangers from all over the world, as it did for the people of the tiny town of Gander, Newfoundland. 

Serving, healing, remembering - this is the work that God is up to, and the work that God is calling us to do in this still very awkward middle time. Who would have thought that we would be entering a third program year of navigating hybrid and online learning as our youth get sent off into something we haven’t gotten a handle on yet? Who would have thought, 20 years after 9/11, we rightly wonder how the last 20 years could have gone differently.  

I saw an unattributed quote floating around Facebook - “Grief is a journey with three stages - the beginning, the middle, and the rest of your life.” Our world has shifted around us so often in our lifetimes, and there is no roadmap for what we have yet to face. We’re going to make mistakes, prioritize the wrong things, and fall flat on our faces, epically and often, not unlike Peter. 

But Jesus did not reject Peter. When Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan,” he’s telling Peter to get behind him IN ORDER TO BETTER FOLLOW HIM. Like, stay in your lane, Peter, and let me lead. 

Letting Jesus lead will feel awkward sometimes, and some of the things we hold dear might end up looking a little different… or have died away only to be resurrected into something new. If we’re ready to do this, we better buckle up because the way is going to be anything but boring. 

You may lose the sure ground under you, but you will gain your life. You may win a cross, but death will lose its sting. You may lose your life as you know it, but Jesus has won the victory over the grave. Because it is our hands and our lives, but it is God’s work to do. Thanks be to God, amen. 

Hand Washing, Schmigadoon, and the 8th Commandment

 Grace to you and peace from God our Creator and from our Lord and savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Bye-bye, Summer of Bread! It’s time to get back to Mark. And what a doozie it is to get back to - on the surface it may seem like the Pharisees have a legitimate complaint to bring against Jesus and his followers – it IS kind of gross not to wash your hands before you eat. Especially now, after 18 months of a pandemic where, at least at the beginning, we obsessed about disinfecting EVERYTHING - hands, packages and mail, food from the store, hymnals, library books…. maybe we all went overboard, but at least it’s better safe than sorry, and in the end, no real harm done, really. 

But… Palestine 2000 years ago had never heard of germ theory, disinfectant, or vaccines. What, then, is it about this behavior that has gotten the Pharisees bent out of shape? At the risk of oversimplifying, they took issue, not with the lack of cleanliness, but the disregard of long-respected traditions. 

In a world full of trauma, violence, and regular upheaval, at their core Pharisees are a group within Judaism making sense of their Jewish identity in a situation that is hostile to them. They are rightly concerned with questions of identity, and they choose to live out their faith through a clear - though very lengthy - list of purity codes. And really, we can’t fault them for this. Who wouldn’t want specific answers to the question - how in the world do I live out my faith in this “bananas” world?

One way to do this IS to follow a specific code of morality. This reminds me of the ridiculous but awesome miniseries/musical that just came out called Shmigadoon on Apple TV. If you are a fan of big bombastic mid century musicals, this is right up your alley. Schmigadoon is a magical small town that regularly bursts into song, and is pretty much run by the pastor’s wife, played by none other than Kristin Chenoweth. Two newcomers from the outside world cause delightfully predictable chaos, and the pastor’s wife is not happy.  In a big epic musical number, she calls out all the bad things that would happen with the coming changes brought by the new people. By the end of the song, she is running for mayor, to set things right again - back to the way they were. 

To the Pharisees, this newcomer Jesus person might be trying to break down a social order that SEEMED to work well enough. Jesus was causing change, upsetting the delicate balance they had worked so hard to establish, which really was a matter of life or death. They are extremely concerned at the breaking down of the identity they had worked hard to maintain as a people, and rightly so. 

But Jesus is concerned too - concerned that rules for rules sake - even good rules, might do more harm than good. What was once meant to help now harms. What was once meant to include has been used to exclude, that means missing the point of what it means to be God’s people. 

Rules are good… until they are not. Rules are helpful, until they harm. This most recent Afghan refugee crisis is a very relevant example. 

A few years ago, I read a book from Spark house called “Dialogues on the Refugee Crisis,” and learned a thing or two about the many RULES that exist for refugees. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates it takes 2 years from initial screening to resettlement – 3 years or more to unite families. All refugees here are expected to repay the resettlement cost within 4 years, and the first bill comes six months after their arrival. 

Recently in a webinar from Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, I learned that now, the refugees who land here from Afghanistan are on “Humanitarian Parole,” and will not have access to normal safety nets that are available to others in the pre-citizen ship process. They get 90 days of help from the government… then that’s it. That’s three months…. three months to learn to navigate a language and culture, three months to get a job, three months to get through a horrendous, life changing trauma, and figure out how to achieve what we claim as the American Dream.

On the flip side, one one of the many non-profit organizations that are helping resettle Afghan refugees are reporting that over forty thousand people have signed up to help. Churches are filling up with donations before they even advertise. I heard on NPR an Afghan restaurant in DC has already filled up its basement with donations. 

We also have to remember that we’ve been here before. Where I grew up and around other parts of the Midwest is the home of a large Hmong population, brought to the United States for their help in the Vietnam War. Before they settled here, they were landless people who didn’t have any physical acreage to call home. Unfortunately, unless you’re an Olympian like Suni Lee, the Hmong people are still treated with suspicion and distrust, rather than gratitude for how they helped our country, their new home. 

In our own lives, we are guided by that something you may have heard of - the Ten Commandments? Believe it or not, they were not given to us to make us into super holy people. Instead, they are to strengthen relationships and community. God gave us the Ten Commandments in order to minimize the damage we could do against our neighbors. 

Some of the Ten Commandments appear pretty “easy” to follow - killing, stealing… but others are sneaky. Like the 8th commandment, the one I argue might actually be the hardest.  “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Seems simple enough on the surface, right? Until we read Luther’s explanation, which goes: “We do not tell lies … or slander our neighbor…. Instead, we are to come to their defense… and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.”

My thoughts, words, and actions don't always reflect this, especially based around behaviors that I deem to be impolite, unhealthy, or peculiar.  Perhaps the Pharisees, like us, were not interpreting the actions of Jesus’ disciples in the best possible light, and THAT is what was upsetting to Jesus. They focused on the rule not being followed as the most important thing. Jesus focused on feeding hungry people as the most important thing. 

The Pastor’s wife in the magical singing town of Schmigadoon condemned the newcomers in her town with damnation, but these newcomers ended up giving her a chance at salvation. When she was overcome with the changes happening around her, they didn’t drive her out with a closed first, but instead extended an opened hand. And she and all the Schmidadoonians join in singing the final number, saying: “This is how we change, reimagine, rearrange. See ourselves through others eyes…  This is how we grow.”

This is how we grow - with Jesus. We reimagine what a new future might hold, even though that thought might be frightening. We may not feel prepared at the rearranging and reordering of our priorities, but we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, to keep pushing the boundaries of compassion, especially for those who have been pushed to the outside. Jesus shows us the way of compassion with constant self examination and reassessment - seeing ourselves through others eyes, and seeing others stories through our own eyes. 

Our journey with Jesus does not end when the final note of the closing number fades and the curtain falls. But we can take the advice of the fictitious singing nondescript midwest town, as the last line in their musical - “What the future holds, we just don’t know, but there’s hope for all, and we call it, Schmigadoon!”

What the future holds, we just don’t know, but there’s hope for all…. and we call it…. YOU, body of Christ. Thanks be to God. Amen.