The Best Advent Ever?

12-11-22

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.

How is your Advent going? Are you going to finish strong, or did everything go off the rails starting the afternoon of the first Sunday in Advent? Are you behind on your Aldi Chocolate Advent Calendar? These texts for this 3rd week in Advent aren’t exactly helping foster any Christmas spirit- There is still no sign of Mary, Joseph, angels, shepherds, manger, or anything resembling the Christmas story. Instead, here’s John the Baptist, again!

This week, though, he is no longer “the preacher on fire” in the desert. Instead, John has been thrown in prison for his bold words. Last week John described righteous judging and fiery smiting… which by this point in Matthew’s gospel Jesus is NOT doing. So it’s no wonder that John sends people to ask Jesus, “are YOU the one who is to come? … or is it someone else?”  I wonder if John was just a little bit disappointed in the kind of savior Jesus is turning out to be. 

Disappointment is just par for the course around Christmas time, though, right? Though we DO get disappointed all the time, this is the time of year we may feel it most. This so-called “most wonderful time of the year” is instead full of family being difficult, friends letting us down, opportunities not panning out, the weather being iffy at best…not to mention the wreck that the world seems to be in at the moment, with the Triple Pandemic, violence on the rise, inflation is still a thing… Maybe we should just forget any hope of Christmas 2022 being anywhere close to “normal.”

And last, but not least, we can’t let God off the hook for being a disappointment. Think about all the “if-onlys” and “what-ifs,” even of just the past year – where you had wished that God would have acted more like a savior, both in your own lives and in the world in general. 

And so, we wonder along with John - is THIS the savior we’ve been waiting for?

The savior we WERE given came as a helpless baby, born to a teenage mother far away from home. He grew up to become a homeless healer and preacher and got on the wrong side of the people in power. Jesus disappointed John the Baptist, Jesus disappointed his family, he disappointed his own followers, and he died, disappointing the hopes of a nation waiting for God to act.

And in dying, Jesus was again a disappointment… This time, disappointing death itself. Because dead people are supposed to stay dead, after all. And - spoiler alert - Jesus did NOT stay dead. 

Today, though, Jesus asked the crowds what they had expected to see when they went out to the desert to see John the Baptist. What they got was the opposite of a man in soft robes – they got a man who lived his convictions with every ounce of his being – even down to his diet and wardrobe. 

Today we could also ask ourselves: What do WE expect this Advent season? Are we expecting a Christmas to arrive that is as lovely as sort of pre-2020 ideal, as pristine as most of our nativity sets? As lovely as they are, most of them depict the holy family well-rested, composed, and ironically enough, draped in soft robes.

But that is dead wrong. God is not just found in the perfect glittery Christmas cards and the Hallmark family channel movies. God is not just found among palaces with soft robes. Instead, here is our God, who sticks by us, no matter what, every year, through all the good and bad Christmases alike.  Here is our God, born to us as a tiny helpless infant, who probably had plenty of blow outs and days where he refused to nap. Here is our God, who died and rose again for you, even when you disappoint yourself and others. 

As we continue our march toward Christmas, we can remember some wise words shared by Pastor Sarah Scherschligt, Pastor of Peace Lutheran in Alexandria, who wrote a facebook post nearly every day for a year and a half during the height of Covid. She actually compiled her work into a book called “God Holds You.” Now available on Amazon! Makes a great Christmas gift! On December 23rd, 2020, Pastor Sarah wrote this: 

I always imagine on Christmas Eve, after everyone has gone to sleep, there's a …  moment…  in which God does something small and powerful and unstoppable. And it doesn't depend on us at all.

We can’t know exactly where the next year will take us. But we can know where God is in all the happenings in our lives. God is right here, in the beginnings and the endings, in the disappointments, and the busy-ness, in the starting strong and in the fizzling out, in the dying and in the rising. Our God is right here: in the arrival of our savior Jesus, in the manger, on the cross, at the table. In the bread and wine. And in the face of one another. Things that are small, but powerful, and unstoppable. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Bent Into Shape

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

 

Every three years in early August, almost a thousand delegates from across the country attend the Church Wide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran church in America, or just Churchwide assembly for short. Nearly every year, I watch the livestream with rapt attention, like the big church nerd that I am, and I was lucky enough to be a delegate in person in 2019 when it was held in Milwaukee, back in my home state.  This year though, I was on maternity leave…. But I admit I still watched a lot of it! And it turned out that our brand new daughter liked to watch Churchwide too, even though parts of it were like watching paint dry. Roberts rules, voting machine problems, amendments to amendments, and seemingly endless amounts of confusing rules for discussion. 

 

I know that in theory there is a good reason behind using Robert’s Rules of order, especially with such a large group of diverse opinions, and with  so many important topics to be discussed. But often it felt like these rules got in the way of this necessary discussion, like when it took 30 minutes to talk about adding 30 minutes of discussion time to the agenda. I wish I were kidding. It was at times like this where, as one pastor friend so wisely put it, “the institutional patterns are set up to be more important than individual need.”

 

Turns out this is a problem humans have always had - as long as there have been institutions, there have been rules established to ignore the needs of marginalized individuals within those systems. Of course this was the same in Jesus’ time, as he was preaching and teaching, as is so often described in the Gospel of Luke, where he often goes head to head with institutions on behalf of the needs of these individuals. 

 

You may remember Jesus’s controversial first sermon at the beginning of the gospel of Luke, where Jesus proclaimed that through him, God would release the captives, give sight to the blind, and let the oppressed go free. That one was not exactly well received, but here Jesus is again, teaching in the synagogue… where now he stops, mid sermon, for someone in immediate need of that freedom and release.

 

That woman was literally invisible. Bent over double for as many years as it takes a newborn child to graduate from high school. She was unable to stand up straight, unable to see and participate in the world around her, in a world where she was already mostly invisible for being a woman.

 

When Jesus sees this woman, he stops everything. Her healing cannot even wait until the end of the sabbath day, or even till the end of his sermon! He has to heal her RIGHT NOW….and in doing so, Jesus broke the 3rd commandment. Or at least according to how some were choosing to interpret it. 

 

“Remember the …. Sabbath day, and keep it holy.” That is the 3rd commandment …. But What does THAT mean? Martin Luther explains in his Small Catechism, “We are to fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching or God’s word, but instead keep that word holy and gladly learn from it.” 

 

Just as God rested on the 7th day of creation, we as God’s people need a day of rest. All in God’s creation were commanded to embrace our limitations and be reminded that God created us for life, not for exhaustion. But, what do we humans too often do with things that are free gifts from God? We try to control them, regulate them, and create a lot of rules. 

 

To their credit, these religious leaders were doing their very best to preserve expressions of their faith in a world that worked against them at every turn. They tried to be faithful to their ancestral ways of worshiping God while heavily oppressed. They tried to save the shape of a tradition and, in turn, forgot that God is the creator and maintainor of these traditions, and they were created for OUR sake.

 

So when the bent over woman became UN-bent, this leader became BENT out of SHAPE. He could not see the true shape of what sabbath is … the shape of care over rules, life over order. Sabbath was created in the shape of justice and mercy, for freedom of those marginalized and oppressed. These leaders could not see that when one of us is in need of freedom, we all are. 

 

With Jesus there is no more waiting. According to Jesus, Now is the time. This is the day to be set free – that YOU are set free - from bondage. WE are set free... so we can free others. 

 

While some of the work discussed at the ELCA churchwide gathering earlier this month WILL take time to implement, some of these very sabbath-oriented tasks have begun, or can be started immediately: For example, we elected a new ELCA vice president Imran Siddiqui, the first person with Middle Eastern roots elected to this position in the ELCA. We adopted resolutions to seek justice with our Indigenous and native partners, including land acknowledgements and funding ELCA indigenous ministries. We as a denomination committed our churchwide office to reduce their carbon footprint by 50% by 2030 and and be net zero by 2050, and we can follow their example, 

 

And this is just a fraction of what was discussed - because of, or perhaps in spite of, all the rules and regulations. Necessary changes were passed and honest conversations happened and justice was at least begun, if painfully and imperfectly.

 

We as ELCA Lutherans have inherited a legacy of always reforming ourselves and our church, of always being made new by God’s grace. It’s messy and imperfect and sometimes awkward and painful, because being part of a community is messy. But this work, hard as it is, is necessary and life-giving. And getting to be part of it and watch this new shape of freedom unfold is humbling. And sometimes parameters and and keeping to a particular shape is needed … but we must never let them get in the way of the needs of ourselves and our neighbors, NOW,  for rest, for restoration, and for justice. Thanks be to God. Amen. 

"Welcome Sunday" Message

 5-1-22

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

How are you enjoying our little “Welcome Sunday” experiment? Are you learning anything so far? As we mentioned earlier, there are treats and bags of goodies for our visitors under the big orange tent in the open space we call the Centrum - you can’t miss it! You are also welcome to join any of the small groups that are active here, and we have a cadre of extra friendly greeters who are ready to point you in the right direction. And if none of your friends or neighbors could make it today, feel free to bring a bag home with you to deliver to them! 

We’re so glad for EVERYONE that is here, both in person and online, and it’s my hope that all of us can benefit from learning more about why we do what we do on Sunday morning. This pattern of worship we use every Sunday is an ancient one, and many parts date back to thousands of years. In fact, the idea of special seasons that guide our lives is as old as humanity itself. 

Most of us pay at least a little bit of attention to the calendar year - days, months, holidays, the change in weather and seasons. Some of us are ruled by the school year - vacations, breaks, quarters, semesters, sports, band concerts, homecoming, prom season, graduation…. 

Then there is the “Church Calendar” of special  seasons and holidays too.  Sometimes all of our calendars line up or overlap like Christmas and Easter day… and sometimes they aren’t quite in sync, like with Pentecost or Reformation Sunday or the season of Lent. 

As we mentioned earlier, in the Church Year today is the third Sunday after Easter. That means Easter Sunday was 3 weeks ago, and we have 4 more to go, because Easter is not just one day, but a season that is 7 weeks long!

Perhaps by now the Alleluias are starting to get a little stale, and the lilies  you brought home are looking kind of sad… and life outside these walls have definitely gone back to “normal.” Our other calendars are WAY past Easter and telling us to gear up for graduation season and summer. So really, did it matter that a few weeks ago we celebrated Jesus’ victory over death? Do we go back to “business as usual” after we have encountered the life-changing reality of the Resurrected Jesus? 

From what we heard in our reading from John just now, according to Peter’s reaction … His answer to the second question seems like yes - time to go back to fishing as usual. Peter and the other disciples have by now experienced the Risen Jesus… not once but MULTIPLE times… but Peter still apparently longs for the familiar. But as we just heard, Peter and the other disciples are soon off the boats and eating breakfast with Jesus. After brunch, though, Jesus keeps Peter on task. Peter needs a little reminder that following Jesus means taking care of the people that Jesus loves - the hungry, the vulnerable, the oppressed, people in need of hearing the good news. 

But Jesus also alludes that life following him would not be lattes and bubble baths. They were in for a hard time, often caused by none other than Saul from our first reading. (By the way, time can sometimes be a little wibbly-wobbly here in worship!)

From the book of Acts, which is short for The Acts of the Apostles, we heard how the followers of Jesus were hunted down and prevented from talking about Jesus. One of the most notorious of these enemies of the early church was Saul. And, spoiler alert - he probably has the best redemption arc in all of history. First, he is Christianity’s worst enemy… and then he becomes Christianity’s best PR person EVER. 

How did this happen? Well, his villain story begins in another part of the book of Acts. At the stoning of the first Christian martyr Stephen, a young Saul held the cloaks of the others who did the actual deed. From that moment on, Saul became infamous for his relentless harassment of the early church, arresting both men and women for believing and preaching about Jesus. 

But persecuting Christians in Jerusalem wasn’t enough for Saul. He wanted to stamp out these heretical followers of Jesus everywhere. But on his way to a neighboring city, he had an encounter he didn’t expect - with the very last person on earth he expected to meet - Jesus himself! A bright light flashed from heaven and Saul was made completely blind in an instant. 

Now, to switch gears for a moment, imagine you are Ananias. One night, the Lord speaks to you, and tells you not only that the one and only SAUL is in your town, but that you should GO VISIT him… and to top it all off, to HEAL HIM! 

Well, we heard how Ananias responded. Even after all that Saul had done, Ananias did heal and welcome him, and even called Saul his “brother.” That, I think, might just be the true miracle of the story. Saul was then baptized and began to preach about his encounter with Jesus. He changes his name to Paul, and becomes the author of most of the New Testament. All because he encountered Jesus and was welcomed into the community of faith with open arms. 

It's not surprising then that Paul also became a champion of including outsiders into this community of faith - and is the reason all of us are here today, as part of the Christian fold belonging to God’s flock. Because Paul was welcomed, Paul became a champion of God’s radical welcome for all. 

Nothing will get in the way of God’s radical welcome - not Ananias’s reluctance, not Paul’s past, or Peter’s obliviousness…. And nothing will get in the way of God welcoming us: not our past deeds or misdeeds, not our past inability to see Jesus, not by our desire to go back to the way things were - not even sin, human brokenness, and death can stand in the way. And so, We simply do what Jesus modeled for us and commanded us to: invite.  Jesus welcomes. And so we welcome too. Whether this is your first time year or your one millionth time here, there is a place for you among us. 

Now, this is the part in the sermon where the pastor usually wraps up… but also it’s supposed to be where you insert yourself into the story. As soon as this sermon is over…. as soon as this worship is over… as soon as Sunday is over, our Monday lives will creep back in. Now is the perfect time to ask yourself - how have I felt welcomed today? What can I do to keep the welcome going Monday through Saturday in the coming week? What can our family talk about on the way home from worship today? How can I talk about this at the water cooler or at the lunch table on Monday? How do these stories of Peter, Paul, and Ananias speak to me this week? 

That’s the fun and exciting part that YOU get to explore - how God is at work with this week’s word inside your heart and your minds. Good luck, and know that you are not alone in wondering, learning, welcoming. Because next week, guess what? We get another chance to do it ALL OVER AGAIN. Thanks be to God. Amen.

 

Easter Sunday Message

 Easter Sunday, April 17th, 2022

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

Every Easter, and any large family gathering when I was a kid, we gathered at my dad’s parent’s house. And no meal was complete without the special prayer we dubbed “The Posselt Prayer.” It has 3 parts - first is the very familiar “Come lord Jesus” prayer.  The second and third parts are from Psalm 118 - “Oh give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endures forever” followed by “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” To this day, whenever there are 2 or more Posselts gathered for a meal, no matter WHERE we are, we look at one another and ask “are we praying the Posselt Prayer?”

But eventually the family meals became smaller and more sporadic. Both my dad’s parents died years ago. But this special prayer lives on, appropriately today on Easter Sunday- “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it” was my grandpa’s favorite verse. 

This is the day that the Lord has made, but do we really feel like rejoicing? Today, this Easter morning 2022, what were you expecting to find or to feel? 

Were you expecting that, after wandering around in the wilderness of Lent, you would come out on the other side, to rise this Easter morning completely refreshed, restored, and renewed and in an ”Easter Mood”?  But life doesn’t exactly work out in the way we expect it to, does it?  If anything, the year 2020 taught us that.

Like many of you, and like the women followers of Jesus, I woke up in the darkness of this morning to the very real, very present realities of pain, brokenness, and suffering in our world and in our lives. Our lives are still in the same mess that they were in yesterday. We’re still two years into a pandemic that really won’t actually end, there is still violence around the world and in Ukraine, our weather has been off kilter around the country all week. We still find ourselves buried in all sorts of dark tombs - illness, broken relationships, loss, mental health struggles, and an unknown future.

And yet…. here we are, on Easter morning,.....  I’m here. You’re here. Life is poking out of the ground all around us here. And Easter morning has arrived here, and it DOES change things - just not in the ways we expect. 

Really, this whole week tells the story of the unexpected: How Jesus was welcomed into town with a parade on Sunday, and being nailed to cross on Frida. 

How on Thursday Jesus washed his disciples feet, even Judas’s feet, and shared his last meal with all his disciples, the very ones who would betray him, deny him, and stand silently by as Jesus was arrested, tried, mocked, and beaten before being nailed to a cross.

These women had seen him be buried that day, so naturally they expected to find death that morning as well. They expected to find the body of their beloved Jesus, so that they could care for him one last time by anointing his body with spices. They expected to find death in a place OF death, as we all would.

Instead, the women found the stone covering his tomb had been rolled away, and the shock of an empty tomb with no body. The women found two dazzling dudes, with a laser pointer question for them: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” 

These women expected to find death in a place of death, but instead became the first witnesses to the resurrection of our Lord. They were the first to share the GOOD WORD, that death no longer has the LAST WORD. 

All this past week, we followed in the disciples footsteps by remembering too. We remembered Jesus’ welcome into Jerusalem, we remember the night Jesus was betrayed, and how he washed the feet of ALL of his disciples, even Judas. We remembered Jesus’ command to love one another, and to be sustained by his body and blood in the Eucharist in remembrance of him. Then we remembered his death and burial on Good Friday. But that is not the end of the story. 

We who have been buried in the darkness of tombs for - buried under things such as, divorce, fear, depression, numbness, stress - for one season, or maybe for years…. we have also been buried with Jesus in our baptisms, as Paul wrote and we profess in our baptism liturgy.

And so, being baptized, we will be united with Jesus in his resurrection. New life sprouts up out of death. As my favorite Easter hymn reminds us: “Now, the green blade rises from the buried grain, wheat that in dark earth many days has lain; Love lives again, that with the dead has been. Love is come again like wheat arising green.”

Like when I visit the cemetery where my grandparents are buried, and I see their gravestone etched with a gorgeous picture of the family farm, I know it lives on in my dad, my brother, and will hopefully continue for future generations of Posselts, just as the “Posselt Family Prayer” lives on.

Why do we look for the living among the dead? Because we may have forgotten what we already knew. We expect to find death in a place of death, but Jesus has done the unexpected. He has risen from the dead. He IS NOT HERE. He WAS here, but he is not here any longer. 

Instead, Jesus has vacated the tomb and allowed some women to be his spokespeople. And, unexpectedly, he is actually nowhere to be found - at least by the women and later by Peter. Instead, today we rely on remembering what we have been told by Jesus and by the followers of Jesus - that Jesus WILL show up… even in the throes of a ham and chocolate bunny hangover, when we have to go back to work or school or our regularly scheduled lives. 

In fact, Jesus has already gone on ahead of us, to meet up with us out there on the roads we travel. On this day, which the Lord has made, and tomorrow too. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. 

Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen Indeed, Alleluia! Amen. 

Oldest Sibling Syndrom

3-27-22 

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

If I had to guess… there are probably far more “older siblings” present here with us today, both worshiping in person and online. I don’t mean Older Sibling by physical age in your family of origin, but more like sharing the characteristics of the older brother in this parable. To be involved with this congregation, volunteering faithfully despite the “family issues” that all churches have, rather than leaving to join another church, shows some of the common “Older Sibling" traits of faithfulness, steadfastness, and commitment.

But beware the shadow side of the Older Sibling. Here in this parable we witness his resentment, anger, and stubbornness, and rigidity. This is what keeps the older brother in this story on the outside of the party, and on the outside of the joy of his father, and estranged from reunion with his family. 

I myself am an actual older sibling, but moreover I am a lifelong Lutheran and a lifelong church-goer, so I “get” the older brother and the twinge of resentment he may feel. So often in the church world, pastors are asked our “call stories.” Now, I don’t have an “amazing” story to tell that gets me invited to be interviewed by Krista Tippet or invited to speak at the ELCA National Youth Gathering. But that’s ok. My story is my story, and the important thing is that I see where God has been present in it. 

However... at the moment, it feels as if a significant number of pastors who are also in their thirties are all publishing books.  Not everyone, but enough to notice. Like, it’s what all the “cool kids” are doing - if you aren’t having a baby, you’re getting a book deal.

But I’ve also noticed something about most of these books coming out … they are from perspectives that have traditionally been thrust to the margins, or at least, they are voices from the “outside.”

These authors have something in common – they have all experienced being on the outside or have felt lost within the church in some way. I wonder if any of them would trade their book deals to have the position of being on the “inside,” to have a story that is more like mine, one that seems boring, but less fraught and stressful in many ways.

One example of a book I read very recently is “All Who Are Weary, Easing the Burden on the Walk with Mental Illness,” the second book published by Pastor Emmy Kegler. You may recognize her name from another book  many of you read a few years ago, called “One Coin Found.” In that first book, she shares her perspective on being lost and found by the church, and by God, relying heavily on another of Jesus’ “lost” parables - the lost coin.

In her second book, “All Who Are Weary,” she examines how mental illness has been stigmatized and mishandled by Christians both in the past and in the present. In addition to being treated as an outsider because of her gender and sexual orientation, in this book Kegler dives deep into the ways that her experience with depression throughout her life has caused her to feel like an outsider too.  

Jesus did not name his parable “The prodigal son” or even “The lost son.” That came much later. Perhaps we could also call this parable “The TWO Lost Son.” Or even, “The Prodigal Father” – because of the prodigal, wasteful, and extravagant use of resources on BOTH of his lost sons. After all, the word prodigal just means “extravagantly wasteful” or “uses resources freely.” The father in the story IS very much like God – God loves us lavishly and extravagantly, throwing us the ultimate victory feast over death, every… single… Sunday… and then, coming outside, to where we are, to give us a personal invitation.

With Jesus, the “church insiders” find themselves on the outside, and the outsiders get first dibs. That is how Jesus operates…. And it's so maddening! Or at least, it can feel that way... to us “older siblings.” The truth is, though, that with Jesus, there is no inside OR outside. There cannot be anyone on the outside if all are truly embraced in the family of God. There is enough Jesus to go around. The love and grace of God is not going to run out.

The older son in this story forgot that. He forgot that he is the OLDEST son in the family and is therefore entitled to the lion’s share of his father’s inheritance already. But his father has to remind him – everything that belongs to the father also belongs to the son.

Jesus was speaking with the “Older Siblings” of his faith community when he told this story. The Pharisees and the scribes are often cast as “the bad guys,” when really they are trying their best to preserve some semblance of Jewish identity in a world that is very, very hostile to them. They might sound grumpy and judgy of Jesus for hanging out with the lost people on the margins, when from their perspective, Jesus looks as though he is diluting his faith. But these “older siblings” of their time forgot that rules and boundaries may have a place, but they never take the place of Jesus. 

We all belong to God, and our inheritance has always been evident in our baptisms: claimed as beloved children and given abundant life in Jesus’ victory over the grave. But sometimes we have our heads down, eyes to the plow, dedicated to the work - so much so that we completely miss the music and dancing and celebrating happening in God’s house. And God is at the doorstep, holding out a hand and an invitation to the party… into relationship with people that we might have judged wrongly in the past, or looked down on. This invitation summons us to a future that makes us realize that we have been unnecessarily spending our energy in unhelpful ways, and that is why we have missed out on this party all along… and makes our hard work feel like a waste. But hard work is never wasteful as long as we learn something along the way.

So, what are we going to do? We can stay outside the celebration and choose to remain just as lost as the younger brother was. After all, a sibling turning his back on another sibling is not all that different from a son that up and leaving his father with his half of the inheritance.

Our other choice is to take the hand of the prodigal father and go into the party, to take a risk that might make us feel uncomfortable or scare us a little bit. To welcome our siblings face to face, and to realize that you both have been lost, but now are found… you both were dead and now are come back to life, through the same love of Jesus Christ, and joined together in one family – older and younger, parent and child, dedicated and prodigal, you and them and me. Thanks be to God. Amen.

 

Chicks of Mama Hen Jesus

 3-13-22

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

By now in Jesus’ ministry, Jesus has gone through “one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem” (Luke 13: 22) causing all kinds of “trouble.” He’s been healing on the Sabbath. He’s been casting out demons. He has fed the hungry. He has been spending time with all the wrong people, teaching radical ideas like “the first shall be last and the last shall be first” … all the while boldly making his way closer and closer to Jerusalem, into the very den of the foxes like Herod and the religious authorities. No “circling around the city tooting his own horn” for Jesus…. He has the guts to dive right in, head first, clearly not afraid of what Herod might have planned for him. 

Too often we vilify the Pharisees as the enemies of Jesus , but really it’s Herod and what he represents - the puppet king of the powerful Roman Empire. And Herod now has it out for Jesus, just as he did for John the Baptist. Remember John’s head on a platter? That’s what John got for speaking up fearlessly against Herod, and he paid for it with his life. And, like John, this Jesus too is ruffling too many feathers. 

Here in this text, and out there in the world, we seem to be caught between the fox and the hen. If you listen to the wily and manipulating foxes - the Herods of the world - you might believe that only certain types of people have value, and some have more worth than others, based on skin color, physical and mental capabilities, age, gender identity, who they love, where they live, and how they present themselves to the world.

But Jesus the Mama hen tells us that a different world is possible. After all, a hen is a mom who would lay down her life for her chicks. And if you haven’t noticed, Moms can be fierce. And when they get together in the name of God and children and justice, they beat the fox at his own game.

I want to tell you about an amazing Lutheran by the name of Leymah Gbowee (No relation to singer David Bowie, hers is spelled with a G) She is a single mom who won the Nobel Peace Prize just over 10 year ago and spoke at the 2012 ELCA youth gathering in New Orleans (see more about her documentary HERE). She is a Liberian citizen who almost single-handedly brought an end to fourteen years of civil war in Liberia. Though she had a LOT of help - she gathered together both Christian and Muslim women to protest for peace along the commute of Liberia’s president. She did that every day. FOR YEARS, rain OR shine.

 When peace talks finally started between opposition leaders, they soon stalled when the men got distracted enjoying the fancy hotel rather than negotiating peace.  Gbowee and a few hundred women marched into the hotel and actually trapped the men inside the peace talks conference room – literally laying down their own bodies to barricade them in, blocking the door and sitting in the hallways. The women stayed there for days, singing  and praying and demanding that the peace talks resume. 

Because of their efforts, the war ended a few weeks later. All this came about because one woman loved her three children too much to give them a future filled with violence and death. So, she put her body on the line in order to fight for a better future, for herself and for them. She and her fierce “mom posse” got it done.

We don’t hear as much about the Love of God being like a mothers love as often we should, and it’s a real shame. In the Old Testament, God’s love is in some places compared to a nursing mother for her baby, a mother bear protecting her cubs at all costs, a mother hen extending her wings of safety over her wayward young chicks, as Jesus chooses to describe himself and his love for his people.  

We are under the mothering and comforting protection of Jesus, who, through the giving up and laying down of HIS body, we are saved, healed, and given a future with hope. The foxes of the world make a serious miscalculation when they choose to mess with God’s children. The fox Herod did not know the lengths to which our mother hen would go to get us back – all the way to death, even death on a cross. 

When Jesus is talking about “you will not see me until the time comes when you say ‘blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’,” he’s talking about when he will ride into Jerusalem on a humble donkey at the end of Lent, on Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. That is where Jesus is headed – to put himself on the line for his beloved children, even if it leads to death on a cross later in that week. But that’s not where that week will end. Holy Week doesn’t end in Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Holy Week will end in Easter. Holy Week will end in Resurrection and an empty grave. 

In our own journeys through the season of Lent, we remember that we too are on our way to die –  to die to the ways of the Fox and all the lies that he tells us. But because we follow the crucified and risen Jesus, we can find hope in the face of Jesus’s suffering; we see life in a tool used for death. And we can fight with the same fierceness and loyalty as Mama Hen Jesus for ALL her beloved children. 

We’re seeing it all over the world - parents fleeing from Ukraine with their young children to keep them safe. Parents and allies gathering in state capitals to protest against legislation that harms children by making it illegal to acknowledge their belovedness or give them the medical interventions to help them become who they were born to be. 

Places like the Lamb Center are gearing up to be the protective wings over an expected influx of people in need, as the federal government ends emergency housing programs for the unhoused and the annual Hypothermia season comes to an end. A lot of “God’s beloved chicks” are going to need some protective wings in the coming days and weeks and months. 

And so, as followers of Jesus we too are called to protect the vulnerable, because we are lost chicks ourselves too. We are called to put our bodies on the line for the sake of others. It may not feel like we have skin in the game, but we all do. We are all children of God - when one of us chicks suffers, we all do. And everything we do for these “chicks of God” we do under the protective wings of our mothering God, lead on by the fierce love of Mama Jesus. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Transformed by Love

 2-27-22, Transfiguration Sunday

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.

 

Today is a very special day - we will be welcoming many of our young people to the Lord’s table. It’s a bright spot of celebration in what definitely felt like a dark week - especially how we’ve been hearing how children in other parts of this country and world are suffering - through the anti-trans legislation and rhetoric happening in both Texas and Florida, and the children hiding in the subways of Kyiv or boarding buses out of town with only one parent while the other parent stays behind. So much has changed in the last weeks and months.

 

Both inside the church year and outside in our lives, Transfiguration Sunday feels like a transition point, a time of transformation like a chrysalis. We are no longer what we were - in Epiphany the season of light, but we are not quite at the season of Lent yet. Our young people are transitioning through a milestone in their faith. We’ve reached another threshold in the pandemic and we (yet again) don’t know what the figure will hold. Our world has also crossed a threshold of violence that we have not seen for nearly a century. It would be so nice if we could just stay at brunch eating burritos after worship forever, and not have to face whatever Monday brings.

 

I think Peter may have felt something similar up on that mountain with Jesus, when he suggested setting up shop up on that mountain. After all, what a LITERAL mountain top experience! It’s not every day you get to see Jesus transform, hanging out with some of your biggest heroes, and hearing God’s voice!

 

However, Peter may have forgotten that the rest of the disciples were waiting for them down the mountain, and had no idea any of this was going on. They were back in the valley, down in the trenches of ministry, struggling and failing to help this suffering boy and his worried father. 

 

Contrary to Peter’s wishes, Jesus DID come down the mountain, and just in time too. As Jesus approached, the illness cast the poor kid down to the ground yet again. But Jesus got closer, and so his pristine, dazzling white clothes became covered in the dust that got kicked up. And, both still covered in that dust, Jesus healed the child and gave him back to his father, who I’m sure was too overjoyed to notice all the dirt.

 

I’m sure that father was glad Jesus came down the mountain, even though Peter had clearly resisted the idea. Perhaps Peter was afraid that Jesus’s shiny special-ness might wear off if he went down the mountain and hung out with all the “common people” again. But what Peter didn’t know yet is that Jesus is not just for special occasions and for special people, Jesus is for everyday use.  He didn’t know yet that Jesus was serious about getting involved with the messiness of being human, and that meant getting a little dusty, tear stained, even bloodstained. But this is how we know that the love of God is real. Real love will stop and nothing will transform us into who we truly are - beloved children of God. Even if it means getting dirty and used up in the process. 

 

You know the story of the Velveteen rabbit? That stuffed rabbit toy got all threadbare from how much he was loved by the little boy, especially as a comfort during a time this boy was very ill. 

 

But when the boy was better, all his “contaminated” things were packed up to be thrown away, including the rabbit. As the rabbit sat out with the rest of the garbage that night, The Nursery-Magic fairy came to visit him. The rabbit’s scruffy and shabby appearance proved that the boy had loved him very much. The rabbit did not yet realize that Love had already made him real, so the fairy simply completed the process by transforming him into a living, breathing rabbit.

 

Earlier in this story, his friend the Skin Horse says to the velveteen rabbit: “Real isn't how you are made… It's a thing that happens to you…You become.” And that rocking horse is right. Being real is being a little rough around the edges, a little dusty and ordinary. Because that is where we live MOST of the moments of our lives – not up the mountaintops, but down in the valley where we are transformed by our experiences and transformed by God’s love more and more into who we have been created to be. And that can be a very messy process, and takes a lot of time. 

 

A wise friend once said to me, “Jesus is not birthday cake… Jesus is our daily bread.” Jesus is not special and doesn’t have to be put away up on a mountain to be kept safe, only to be used on special occasions. Jesus chooses very “ordinary” things for his work and transforms them: Water and a promise become the way we are called beloved Children of God in our baptisms. Ordinary bread and wine become the way we are welcomed and strengthened by Jesus’s presence. 

 

Jesus is with us every moment, in the breaking of bread, in the dust and in our tears, in our sweat as we work for justice. And when we follow Jesus’ example, WE are likely going to be transformed: becoming dusty, smudged, faded, or even broken, but no less beloved. We won’t have all the answers, and we won’t always know if we’re getting it right. But we will always have Jesus. 

 

We are about to embark on the season of Lent, which begins on Wednesday with a smudge of ash on our foreheads and a reminder that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. Next week he’ll be spending 40 days in the dust of a barren wilderness. For now, though, Jesus is both up on the mountain, shiny and savoring the glory of his identity of the Beloved of his Father, before descending into the dust that makes up our daily realities. He is down here where real love gets a bit messy while being revealed in ordinary things, hidden in plain sight - in water, wine, and bread. So whether this is the first time you are experiencing Holy Communion… the fiftieth time… or the five-hundredth time… you are welcome to receive strength for your week in these ordinary things. There is a place for you here, at the Lord’s table. 

 

When you receive, whether you are accompanied by your own immediate family, or you come alone, know that you are NEVER alone … you are surrounded by your family here, and beyond these walls. After we have received this gift – for the first, fiftieth, or five-thousandth time – we are sent back down the mountain, down into the ordinary, where we find Jesus there yet again. And we are forever transformed by the experience. Thanks be to God, amen.

On the Beach and on the Couch

 Sermon 2-6-22

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.

Imagine, at that lakeshore, Peter and his fellow fishermen, exhausted, as they ended a long and unproductive night of fishing. Along comes Jesus, who tells them to go into the deep waters and try again. They do, somewhat reluctantly, but then are shocked at the size of their catch – so big, their boat starts to sink from the weight of all that fish!

At this miracle before their very eyes, Peter makes a correct assumption – this man must be from God. When Jesus commands, stuff happens. But this realization terrifies Peter. Peter falls to his knees in awe and blurts out that he is a sinful man. It makes me wonder if that is Peter’s way of expressing his confusion - how is it that this holy person, this man clearly blessed by God, would deign to be among these ordinary people in this ordinary place? More specifically, in an ordinary fishing boat, in the middle of some sweaty men and stinky fish. 

Peter grew up in a religious tradition where there is clear separation between sacred and profane, between holy and ordinary, where God is and where God is not expected to show up. The holy is set apart and protected… and not always necessarily FROM us, but FOR us too. The sacred can be dangerous and unpredictable, and so, for everyone's safety, the boundary between holy and ordinary is crossed only at one’s own risk, as we heard in our Isaiah reading. 

Though we are thousands of miles and thousands of years removed from the worldview of Peter and his people, we still BEHAVE as if this is true. That God can only be found in some places rather than others, and only at certain times, or in certain circumstances. And sometimes this idea gets picked up and amplified by none other than the New York Times.  

Of course I am talking about a recent opinion article shared by the New York Times.  In this article, already limited in its accessibility behind a paywall, a pastor from a small fundamentalist denomination claims to know where God does and does not show up. She writes that with the pandemic being “managed” with masks, distancing, and a milder variant, all churches should cease any and all online options, in order to focus back on physical gatherings and get people “back in the pews.” 

You may have noticed all through the pandemic, social media posts have been passed around the internet with a similar theme: “You can’t REALLY worship from your couch” - as if everyone who has chosen to participate in worship online is by default lazily sipping coffee in their pajamas on their couch, rather than being bothered to get dressed and get in their car to “show up” for worship. 

On this day, however, when we are resuming in-person worship in the hope that the cases of Omicron continue to fall, it’s still important to remember why community is important in ALL the ways that you and your family are able to connect.

Yes, even community from your couch. 

You may not be able to leave your couch if you struggle with a chronic illness… but you can sing and pray while worship is streaming. You CAN experience the power of God’s presence, even if you aren’t able to be with everyone every Sunday … maybe your children are throwing up all over the couch, or your anxiety or depression are keeping you to your couch, or your autistic child is having a hard time and the couch is a safe place for them today. We see you, those of you who are on the other side of the camera, and we value you, and we love you. 

Christians need community, and community comes in many forms. We can contribute cards and share Facebook posts and prayer requests and email encouragement and tithe from literally ANYWHERE now. We can serve, sacrifice, encourage, pray, and do life together both online and in person. And actually, many of us have been doing it for years already. Online options are here to stay, and this is a blessing from God.

We can’t be all things to all people. But our call as communities of faith is to do what Jesus did – meet and love people where they are at, in all the miraculous ways we can be embodied together, however that may look like. 

Isaiah met God in the temple - and God could barely fit  and then God sent him out. 

Jesus met the crowds by the lake on a workday, and not in the synagogue on the sabbath, as he has already done previously. Jesus met Peter and called him to discipleship in the middle of a precarious boat among smelly fish and smellier guys. 

Jesus showed up for the crowds, for Peter, and for us to show us that the holy CAN be found in the ordinary. That God is not ONLY found in the church building - no matter how beautiful the newly redone pews look. The church is not active for only one hour per week. The church is a body of people all the time - it’s on the internet, on your couch, and sometimes even in pajamas, at all hours of the day and night. 

This article that I’ve mentioned is not the only reason that the New York Times currently is making people irate. It also recently acquired the now infamous online word game called “Wordle” - perhaps you’ve heard of it? May I be so bold as to suggest some future answers to the Wordle game.... Words that the New York Times, that pastor who wrote this article, and all of us can benefit from being reminded of, such as: world, agape, boost, links, pivot, and unite.

And maybe you can think of a few words to add as well … but just remember, the word CHURCH - C-H-U-R-C-H - does NOT fit. The Church cannot be contained by those 5 green boxes…  nor can it be contained by the limited imagination of pastors and other church leaders… nor can it be contained within boundaries, temples, boats, expectations, and limitations… nor can it be contained by death itself. Jesus always breaks nets and boxes, and we as the church are called to do the same. Thanks be to God. Amen.