"Like the Bold Women: Do the Next Right Thing"

Sermon 8-23-20

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.

One of the curious side effects of being under lockdown this spring is having a little extra time to try new things….. in my case, I downloaded TikTok. I was surprised and pleased to find a substantial subset of TikTok dedicated to … retelling stories in the Old Testament in 90 second snippets. Just grab a bathrobe and put a towel over your head, and boom – you too can be a TikTok star while playing Abraham, Sarah, Moses, David, and others! Who knew so many of the Gen Z generation was so biblical literate and creative!

(This TikTok by fellow ELCA pastor is probably the best one for today!)

We can’t help ourselves – no matter what the new technology came along, be it written word, the codex, the printing press, radio, television, the internet, email, youtube, facebook, TikTok…. We retell these ancient stories in these new mediums, because if we don’t know our stories, then we don’t know who we are.

If you, like me, are making your way through the 90 Day Bible Challenge, you notice that most of the Old Testament – yes, even most of the New Testament too – is a remix or retelling of a few important moments in the history of God’s people. Arguably, the most important one is the Exodus – the liberation of God’s people from slavery to freedom. Moses – later the hero and liberator of God’s people – when he first shows up here, he is nothing more than a tiny, helpless baby in need of the actions of some strong, bold, defiant women.

This story almost begins like our familiar and favorite fairy tales –Once Upon a Time, in the faraway Kingdom of Egypt, King Evil McBad-Guy came to power. He oppressed and enslaved God’s favored people in an almost Cinderella-like way. They were forced into slavery, making bricks and building monuments to honor the power of the evil king, for hundreds of year, with no end in sight. Who will come to save them? A super human super hero? As it turns out, it was the women who got salvation and liberation started.

These brave and bold women didn’t leave to go on an epic quest, fight a dragon, or win a great battle against a powerful army. These women did small things – small acts of great defiance. And by these small acts, they began the work of interrupting great power run amok and toppling an oppressive regime in order to pave the way of the salvation and liberation of their people.

The work of deliverance began… with two women who delivered babies. Shiphrah and Puah may not be considered with in “the same league” as other “Disney Princess / Bible Heroines” like Sarah, Rebekah, Mary, but I think they should be. The same goes for Moses’ mom. And Moses’s sister. And for Pharaoh’s daughter, even though only some of these women are given names in the story.

Individually, their act might not have added up to much, at a moment in history that must have felt like there was no way forward. But, in the face of these difficult times, Shiphrah and Puah let the baby boys live, and used Pharaoh’s already racist believe against him to get away with it. They refused to do the dirty work of this evil king.

Next, a woman got married, had a baby boy, and hid him. Not a huge deal, right – what’s one kid saved out of the rest of the boy children of her fellow moms? And when she couldn’t hide him any longer, this fierce mamma didn’t give up fighting to give her son his best chance, even when everything seemed hopeless.

When Pharaoh’s daughter – an actual princess - found the basket floating in the river, her heart had compassion for this one tiny baby born of slaves, and used what little power she had at her disposal to save this one slave child.

In a brilliant twist, the baby’s sister saw her chance, and spoke up at just the right moment. She had been watching everything, and she was ready. And so, her mother was given back her son for a brief time, assured that he would survive and thrive. Together, each woman took her part to do the next thing necessary. Through all these tiny actions, these women midwifed the birth of the deliverance of God’s people.

We know the end of THIS story – Moses grows up, leads God’s people out of slavery, parts the Red Sea, delivers the 10 Commandments, and ushers the people into the Promised Land after 40 years in the wilderness. 

But, we don’t know the end of our own stories, and we know that life is not a fairy tale, especially now, when we are facing some dark times, and anticipating things to get harder before they get better. But sometimes we forget that there are plenty of moments in fairy tales themselves when the way forward seems impossible.

Early during the first Coronavirus lockdown, Disney Plus released the movie Frozen 2 to be available for streaming earlier than anticipated. So we watched it one night, and some parts definitely exceeded our expectations. In a particularly dark and frightening moment, Princess Anna of Arendelle literally finds herself at rock bottom – laying on the floor of a cave, having just experienced  heartbreaking loss. “I've seen dark before, But not like this,” she sings as she slowly picks herself up off the ground, puts her bag over her shoulder, and makes her way out of the cave, continuing to sing: “This grief has a gravity, it pulls me down. But a tiny voice whispers in my mind: "You are lost, hope is gone, but you must go on. And do the next right thing"

Remember, this is “just a children’s movie,” populated with magical characters including a talking snowman and a fire gecko. But it’s also more than that. I would hope that our children – and their parents - who watch this movie might realize that life can be tough even for a Disney Princess… but this Disney princess can also show us the way through – that to be strong is accepting and working through our grief. We too can take the next step and the next breath even though we don’t yet know where it is leading us, and to take a stand where it is necessary, even when you feel powerless. To do the Next Right thing. And then do the NEXT right thing. And the next.

Sometimes we will get it Really Right – as Simon Peter did – for once! - When Jesus asked the twelve disciples “Who do you say the Son of Man is?” Simon Peter even gets a new name – Peter, Petros, literally meaning Rock. He got the answer right this time, even though he often – along with the other male disciples – tend to bumble around pretty cluelessly. Which is more like how I feel most days, especially right now.

We are in good company as we figure this out. We are not alone in trying to live in the tough stuff. We have Shiphrah and Puah to be our models, we have Moses’ mom and sister, we have Pharaoh’s daughter.

If you have been reading along as we wrap up our 90 Day Bible Challenge, I hope that you have found LOTS of people to be models on our way along the journey – Abraham and Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael, Rebekah, Tamar, Abigail, Rahab, Elijah, Peter, Paul, Mary Magdalene, and many, many more. No one was perfect. But they all did their part, in taking the next step, in doing their part in the “next right thing,” in continuing God’s Great Story.

We aren’t perfect either, and we can’t guarantee every step we take will be perfect. But we take our cue especially from these bold women, and take our place next to them as fellow midwives, witnessing the contractions of our liberation in the process of being born, as we speak. We do what we can, as we wait to take the next step, to write the next chapter, to do the Next Right Thing for our neighbors…. In continuing God’s Great Story.

Thanks be to God, amen.

Christmas Selfies

Christmas Day 2016

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and savior born to us this day, Jesus the Christ, amen.

A light shines in the darkness
(of the mall...) 

At the beginning of December, five youth and three adults, including myself, descended on the unsuspecting Quaker bridge mall to hunt for signs of the season of Advent. We were successful, and had fun taking selfies of ourselves looking for Advent when the rest of the world was already in Full-On Christmas Mode.

These were some of the selfies we took together: following a star like the wise men. Finding things, like trees and shoes, that were the color of advent, which was …. (Blue). Wearing a fur coat and giving our best impressions of John the Baptist. And my personal favorite, riding the down escalator, pretending to be the heavenly host.

But now Advent is over, and Christmas has actually, for real, finally here. But with it comes all the accompanying trimmings, including food, presents, stress, lights, carols, travel, family, traffic, and Christmas cards with pictures of happy family members with smiling, well-groomed children.

We of course want to share ourselves with family and friends at the holiday season, especially ones we can’t be with or haven’t seen in a while. But we never send out the picture where little Bobby is pulling Susie’s hair, when the baby won’t stop crying, or where Uncle Tim is arguing with cousin Billy, or the dog is chewing Grandma’s shoes. Instead, we send that one perfectly prepared moment when everyone is sitting still and looking great in their Christmas best.  

And similarly, the rest of the year, for those of us who post pictures and selfies on social media, we try to find the best angle or the best light, and we use filters and Photoshop. We curate and control how the world sees us - enhance the good, minimize the bad – so that we show the world, not our actual faces,  but our best faces, prepared for your viewing pleasure.

And at Christmas time, we go into overdrive. Weeks ago I started seeing so many pictures of Christmas trees and advent wreaths and churches being decorated for Advent. And as the weeks progressed, I saw pictures of people decorating Christmas cookies, posts complaining about traffic or lamenting about finding the “it” gift of the year – and also many, many people sharing how they couldn’t believe Christmas was almost here, and how woefully unprepared they felt for it to arrive.

Every year we strive to make Real Life look like what we send out in our annual Christmas cards. We’ve been prepping for months now, but still there hasn’t been enough time. What if we couldn’t find the almond bark or find time to bake and decorate cookies this year? What if the tree never made it up or decorated, or if you didn’t get as many gifts for the family as you usually do?

What if we’re not ready for Christmas to arrive? Will it still feel like Christmas? Will Christmas still come?

A friend of mine shared with me that she was looking back on past photos she shared on Facebook around Christmas time in past years. She remembers feeling surprised to see that five years ago, she and her husband had put up almost no Christmas decorations. That happened to be the year that her daughter was born (on Christmas Eve, no less!). Five years ago, though they had prepped for their daughter and NOT for God’s Son, Christmas still arrived.

Poor Mary and Joseph were certainly NOT READY for Christmas to come. They weren’t even in the comfort of their own home when Jesus was ready to be born. Instead, they were far from home on a road trip not of their own choosing, in a strange town with no room for them. Can you imagine Mary’s dismay when she realized that her contractions has started and she was going to deliver the promised Son of God RIGHT THERE, among these animals? And can you image Joseph fighting his panic when he realized how unprepared he was to act the midwife at Mary’s delivery? As NOT ready as these two were, they did the best they could with what they had, bands of cloths and manger and all. And Jesus still arrived.

The shepherds were not ready at all to receive the news about Jesus’s arrival either, during that night as they watched over their flocks on the night shift. And nothing on earth could have prepared them for witnessing the heavenly host arrayed in the sky, singing and praising God for the birth of a savior who is the Messiah, the Lord. The only response they could think of to this amazing announcement was to go see him for themselves. So they high-tailed it out of there and descended on the poor, unsuspecting Mary and Joseph, who with these visitors, got their second surprise of the night.

Many of Jesus’ own people weren’t ready for him when Jesus arrived on the scene, especially when he began preaching about the kingdom of God and healing people and hanging out with the wrong crowd. John the Baptist did his best to try to get people ready for his coming, and we certainly had our fair share of hearing this from John the Baptist during this Advent. But many people didn’t recognize Jesus as who he was, as the reflection of the image of God, and others chose NOT to see. After all, Jesus disturbed their picture of God, one of a  God loves some more than others, a God who cares more about following rules than about justice and peace. And so, some rejected him, because Jesus was a threat to the image of God they preferred to see instead.  

But ready or not, Christmas still came. Ready or not, Jesus still arrived. Ready or not, the light still shines in the darkness.

Jesus came to us as the image of God, the picture of who God is and how God wants to be seen. This picture is not filtered or “cleaned up” to look nicer in with filters or Photo shop. Jesus came to be with us in the grittiness of life, born into existence with dirt and animals. Jesus pitched his tent and moved into the neighborhood, became flesh and blood and lived among us, so that he could be present with us in the NOT so “picture perfect” times.

Jesus came into this word to experience those not so “picture perfect” times too. He experienced loss and rejection, grief and pain, suffering and even death – all the things that we would rather edit out of lives. Jesus chooses to be with us in the unedited version of our stories, to reveal to us that our stories, as unfinished and rough as they are, are part of God’s story.

Jesus entered into that story on Christmas Day. And the good news today is that the light HAS dawned upon the world, that Christmas HAS come, because here we are. We made it – we “made it” to this day, but we did not “make it” happen. We don’t have to make, strive for, find, or “save” Christmas, contrary to all the popular Christmas movies on the hallmark channel and songs on the radio. Christmas arrives, whether we are ready or not. Christmas arrives and Jesus appears, and we get to witness it as it happens. Just as Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds all did.

We, though, are unable to jump in a time machine and go back to witness the actually birth of Jesus. But we are still able to witness the arrival of Christmas today. Like Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” with its spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, WE can say about Christmas that Christ came, Christ is coming to us now, and Christ will come again at the end of time. And in the present moment, Jesus is arriving all the time, all over the place. Think of these as the “Christmas Selfies” of Jesus, and our job is to find them, like a real life Christmas selfie scavenger hunt.

But what would these snapshots of Christmas arriving look like in our actual lives?

A Christmas selfie in real life might look like a friend of mine who, after witnessing a Kmart employee being chastised by a customer in the Layaway department, deciding to make an anonymous layaway payment for a stranger, and that made the Kmart employee’s day.

A Christmas selfie in real life might look like the time another friend had just started as the pastor of a church who agreed to make a meal and be a host overnight for a homelessness program, for the very first time, on the night of Christmas Day.

A Christmas selfie in real life might look like our Christmas pageant last Sunday, written by one of our own youth, when we witnessed a talking animal telling a scared and lonely foster child that “Christmas is the perfect time to welcome a stranger.”

These are just some of the selfies of Jesus shared with us in 2016. I’m sure that you all have witnessed others, and will be witnesses to many more in the years to come. You don’t need a smart phone or filters or fancy equipment to witness them. You don’t have to be completely ready or totally prepared in order for Christmas to arrive in our lives.

Christ was born for this. Christmas is HERE. Jesus happens. Every year. Every day. Right here and now. Amen.

ADVENT SELFIE HUNT 2015

ADVENT 

SELFIE HUNT

2015!

(Do be done in the local mall of your choice with teams of 4-5 with one adult)

#adventselfie15 

Stay Together!

Be respectful! Be creative!

Include everyone!

No running! Have fun!

TAKE A SELFIE WITH or DOING the following:

 biggest item/signs you can find that says “JOY,” “PEACE,” “HOPE,” or “LOVE”

 A big star and pretend to be the wise men/people following it

 The most unusual animal you can think of to be in a nativity scene (panda, elephant…etc)

 Ugliest holiday sweater you can find

 Corniest Christmas card with you and your teammates reading it with very serious faces.

 Symbols of other December Holidays (menorah, kwanza candles…) Hanukkah begins Dec. 6!

 Your team meditating on the meaning of Advent in front of TEAVANNA

 Stand under a lamp or bright light - “A light shines in the darkness…” (John 1:1)

 Act perplexed like Mary was in front of Motherhood Maternity - “How can this be?”(Luke 1:29)

 All of you pretending to be the “angels we have heard on high” while riding the down escalator

 Non-Caucasian (non-white) Nativity scene/set

 Look for the coming of Jesus underneath the “WATCH” sign

 A sign that says “Believe” and your team making crosses with your hands/arms

 A Christmas tree the color of the Advent season (hint – you were asked to wear it today!)

 A Christmas tree the color of the Christmas season (hint – it’s not red or green. Extra hint – it’s the same color as the season of Easter)

 A toy road and car set or a train set - “Prepare the way of the Lord” (Luke 3:4)

 “Swaddle” one of your teammates in your hats/ scarves/gloves/coats like Jesus was (Luke 2:12)

 Under a large potted plant, one of you is a shepherd caring for the rest of your team as sheep

 Magnifying glass – Mary sang that begins “My soul magnifies the Lord!” (Luke 1:46)

 Pretend to “make haste” (run in place) like the shepherds to see Jesus, the savior and Lord by the LORD & TAYLOR sign

 Act sleepy by Starbucks ‘cuz Joseph was told about Jesus in a dream, and we are to stay awake for when Jesus shows up!

 A (fake) fur coat and your best “John the Baptist” preaching poses

 Next to a tent – Jesus “pitched his tent” (dwelled) among us (John 1:14)

 Holding a baby doll, hold your nose & remember that baby Jesus filled his diaper too!

 Treasure chest – Mary treasured all these events in her heart (Luke 2:19)

 Make some peace signs in front of Justice to remember that Jesus came to bring peace and justice to the world

 A crown – Jesus is our “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6) (BONUS if you are FROM Prince of Peace Lutheran!)

 Shoes the color of Advent because Jesus will “guide our feet into the way of peace” (Lk. 1:79)

 Bread, since Bethlehem means “house of bread”

 Sparkly ring, since Mary and Joseph were engaged (but not married) (Luke 2:5)

 With “wise man” Yoda

 Key chains with names from the Christmas stories – Mary, Joseph, John (the Baptist), John’s parents Elizabeth & Zach (Zechariah), Harry (King Herod), Maggie (for the Magi), David (city of), Angela (for the heavenly host), Luke and Matthew (Gospels that tell the Christmas story as we know it)

 a JESUS name tag or Key chain

Social Media Sunday 2015 Resources!

Websites and Blogs to check out:

Enter The Bible
Her.menutics
Internet Monk
Rachel Held Evans
Nadia Bolz-Weber
Faith and Leadership
Common Prayer: a liturgy for ordinary radicals

Podcasts to listen to:

Krista Tippett, "On Being" Radio Broadcasts from 2015

Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber on NPR's "Fresh Air"

Rob Bell, Pastor and author


Videos to watch:

ELCA Youth Gathering in Detroit (Speakers, music, etc)

ELCA Discussion on Confronting Racism

"Super Soul Sunday" With Oprah: Barbara Brown Taylor

TED Talk; Brene Brown

Advent Photo-a-Day

I found this on Facebook, and thought it would be a great way to mark the passage of Advent. I'm planning on participating via social media, posting pictures on here, Instagram, and Facebook. The season of Advent is usually just too crazy to try to do a full-on devotional, and I really like the interactive nature of this idea, of being able to participate and craft my own meaning out of it. And it will be less fattening than chocolate. :)

Faith and Social Media (my two cents)

This was my article for our June newsletter.

In April, I attended a workshop held at Crossroads camp about engaging young adults in ministry. Now, you may be thinking, “But Pastor Lydia, YOU are in that category, right? Shouldn’t you naturally KNOW how to minister to your peers?” The trust is, I am rather an anomaly in my generation. While my confirmation class was the largest in my home church’s history (17), almost none of my fellow confirmands has been to church since. But it is also true that, like the rest of my generation (called “Millennials” by many social physiologists) I grew up navigating technologies that were unheard of even in my parent’s generation. 

We are living in a historic moment, where technology is exploding all around us and the world is changing faster than we can keep up with it. Where in the world is God in the mists of Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Pintrest, Pandora, iPhones, texting, and Twitter? 

I recently heard a story about two shoe salesmen who traveled to Africa during its colonial era. The first salesman, depressed that the local people went barefoot, wrote home “Bad news. No one here wears any shoes.” The second scribbled his letter home in excitement: “Great news! NO ONE here has shoes!” This story comes from a fantastic TED talk given by Benjamin Zander (click HERE), which can be found on the TED website (TED talks are short, interesting talks given by experts and creative people around the world), Though Zander‘s talk is about classical music, this story he used has much to say about the world that the church finds itself in today.

We can look around us in dismay and think about those “darn kids” on their phones all the time, or we can wonder along with them about how to use what is available to us to connect TO people. It is true, technology can be an isolating distraction, but it is also a powerful tool that connects and engages people. This workshop I attended opened my eyes to the awesome potential at our fingertips, and the possibilities for ministry with people of all ages. For example, I post my sermons on my blog: 

www.likealutheran.blogspot.com and I’ve been trying out Twitter and Instagram.

 God has endowed us with creativity, curiosity, and the desire for connection. I hope that you will be exploring, trying, failing, testing, wondering, and discovering along with me, and that we can all find ways to grow in our faith together. 

Upping my Tech

Beau and I just got back from an amazing workshop on ministry with young adults, which was fantastic and I'll write more about that once I've gathered my thoughts and can figure out what season I'm currently in (going from winter in WI to summer at Crossroads and now wet spring). But for now, I wanted to give a shout out and say that because of the workshop I have decided to take the plunge and sign up for twitter and instagram, and I've spruced up on my G+ as well.

Follow me on Twitter: @revlydianelson
Follow me on Instagram: lnelson001
Follow me on G+: Lydia Nelson