"Bring the wine, eternal life is mine!"

11-10-19

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.

When I was in seminary, I did my “field education” at a church that was made up of about half social justice-passionate white retirees, and half first- and second-generation immigrants from Ethiopia and Eritrea. One year we went on a women’s retreat, where I learned that after marriage, women in these two countries traditionally retained their last names, and secretly laughed at the still-popular tradition or assumption of American women to take their new husband’s last name. These Ethiopian and Eritrean women thought the irony particularly funny. 

It’s funny, because there are also plenty of grown-up shirts out there targeted to brides that say things like “pop the champagne, I’m taking his last name” or “bring the wine, his last name is mine!” Which is cute and funny, until these brides find themselves standing in the slow line at the DMV with their 6 points of legal identification in order to “make his last name theirs” on their driver’s license. Bring the wine, indeed.

We are about to embark on a deep dive into some marriage practices that are going to seem very surprising to us… and then we are going to explore how this is actually a red herring. Buckle up, we’re about to get nerdy.

Luke chapter 20 begins with some of Jesus’ opponents questioning his authority, like a big game of “Stump the Savior.” Enter the Sadducees – who are not “sad you see” because they don’t believe in the resurrection, but perhaps because they’re branch of Judaism was not the one that survived to this day. The Sadducees were a group within the Jewish faith that were well-educated and well-connected to those in political power – meaning the Romans.

They also knew their Torah, but rejected the idea of the resurrection - and to play “stump the savior” by asking a question that has no “right” answer. It’s like imagining that in heaven there was a game show going on called, “will the real husband please stand up?” where this woman gets to pick which one of her seven husbands will be her husband in the resurrection. "First up is Greg! Oh, no, Greg - we have video footage of you putting an empty milk carton back in the fridge and never once doing the dishes. Husband number 1, you're not it!” BZZZZZZT!

It was a silly scene that came from a real practice, though… in fact, one of Jesus’ own ancestors was someone caught in this type of situation, known in history as “levirate marriage.” Her name was Tamar (Gen. 38), daughter in law of Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. You may not have heard of her, since this story gets left out of pretty much every Sunday School curriculum. When Judah’s son – Tamar’s husband – dies without Tamar having a son, Tamar’s brother in law was legally obligated to marry her, and their first born would be considered her first husband’s son and heir. But… that’s not exactly what happens……when the second son dies, Judah is reluctant to wed her to his last son… so she literally has no status and no place. Instead, she tricks Judah into making her pregnant, does have a son, and secures her future…. Thanks to her father-in-law. Yes, not everything in the Bible is rated PG.  

Tamar put up with this – and used it to her advantage - because she had nowhere else to go. Levirate marriage – one of MANY versions of “biblical” marriage, was a deeply flaw solution to an incredibly unjust system, where childless widows literally had no place – they had no place with their in-laws, and yet, she could not go back to her family of origin and be “marriageable” again. This was the only way that women like Tamar had a shot at eternal life – in a world where having sons was the only way to leave a legacy behind, to have your name live on forever.

Fast forward to her great something Grandson Jesus, who was clearly following his trickster Grandma Tamar’s footsteps. In Advent we will be changing from the year of Luke to the Year of Matthew, where Matthew records’ Jesus’s lineage… including Tamar as one of 5 amazing women of faith listed (Matthew 1). Like Grandma Tamar, Jesus flips expectations upside down.

Jesus knew that this wasn’t really about marriage… or Moses…. Or even what happens to us after we die. Levirate marriage wasn’t even being practiced at this time. So Jesus does what he does best… turns the tables and uses their best and most clever arguments against them.

At her death of this theoretical woman, Jesus assured the Sadducees that she would be no man’s property. She isn’t going to spend all of eternity as a the wife of brother A, B, C, D, E, F, or G… she’s going to spend it as a beloved child of God, first and foremost. That is the identity that will define her – and all of us – in the age to come. Not by who’s last name she has, or whether or not she has a son. … the wrong question is “whose wife will she be?” and the right question is, “Whose child is she? And who loves her?”

So, for Jesus – and for us – “Whose wife will she be?” is 100% the wrong question. Jesus clearly separates marital status from resurrection status. Marriage is a human institution, created and sanctioned by God, but not made permanent in eternal perpetuity once you “put a ring on it.” At death “marital status” will never determine our eternal status.

As God was creating the beautiful and complex world that we live in, God did not just create one human being to be in charge, all alone. God created another person, and they in turn created other people, and that means we are created be in relationships with one another – spouses, parents, sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and our adopted family in the form of friendships too. We can’t help ourselves. It’s in our DNA.

We believe in a God who sent his son into our world to experience what we experience - not just the good and happy parts of life, but also suffering and pain, anxiety and grief. But over and over again, Jesus promises his followers that he will be with them, and he is also promising to be with us, as God’s beloved children, here and now. We are people of the resurrection, children of God, who put our hope in a God of the living, a God who IS alive… who has a relationship with us… and created us to be in relationship with one another, in many forms.

God delights in our relationships, and brings us together, and then promises to be present with us in those relationships in all their complexities, in all the ups and downs, on the good days and on the bad days…. Even in suffering, and even death. Because nothing can take away our “child of God” status - not our last name, not the suffering we have endured, not the mistakes we’ve made.

As one wise pastor wrote: “We are meant to be whole and complete in our relationships, all of our relationships, whether they are relationships between neighbors, friends, family members or spouses. We are meant to be able to treat others as they should be, and we are meant to be treated in the same way.” I think that is why we hear the “1 Corinthians love passage” at so many weddings: we strive for the eternal ideal of love in our pre-resurrection life as we will be able to achieve in our post-resurrection.

Living this type of stubborn, persistent love here on earth is a challenge ….But, of course, God will outstrip us all in the stubborn love department now, and in the life to come. Because our God is good, and God’s steadfast, stubborn, unrelenting love will stretch on forever. This love will never cease, not even in parting or death, not also long as God has created days for us to live. The love we have for one another is powerful, but it is only a small manifestation of the love that God has given us. Life is not endless or certain, but the love of God is both certain and endless. No matter where life brings us, love will be there. Love is here, with you and with me. Love is here today… but not just this day only. Love with be with us today, tomorrow, and always, in this life and the next, whatever that may look like. Thanks be to God, amen. 

Diamonds Aren't Forever, But Baptism Is.

2-3-19 Sermon, Trust

Grace and peace to you from God our father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.

“Love is a patient…. driver. Love merges kindly in traffic. Love does not envy the best parking spots… or boast on getting them. Love does not drive arrogantly or rudely. It does not insist on its right of way all the time; it is not easily irritated or resentful while stuck behind a slow driver; it does not rejoice when it sees other rude drivers getting pulled over. Love bears all traffic conditions, even snow and ice, believes in the best intentions of other drivers, hopes to get to its destination safely no matter how long it takes, and endures all things, even while riding shotgun.”

found at a store

Now, I would bet that you have never heard the “love poem” from First Corinthians in quite that way before. But, I believe, if Paul had a car, he might have chosen to write it like this.

The last time you heard the ORIGINAL passage from 1 Corinthians 13, it was probably in A church SOMEWHERE, (but not this one)… because the last time you heard this was likely at a wedding. … read way too fast or too quietly by a nervous relative of the bride or groom. In fact, there is sort of a joke among pastors that this reading has been so overused in weddings that it has become a cliché. 

But at this time of year, you might also see quotes from this passage in first Corinthians in cards, stores, and in posts on social media, pretty much from the moment that Christmas a New Year’s were over. Red hearts as far as the eye can see, ushering in the “season of love,” so to speak. Here, in the church, though, we’re still in the season of Epiphany, and doing our series on baptism

Today, we have gotten to the letter T in BAPTISM… So far, we have talk about how we are Born from Above, we are Affirmed and emPOWERED, and today, we’re talking about TRUST. Which is of course, very closely related to love… which is present and active in… guess what… our baptisms.

Parents of young children about to be baptized are called to both trust in the grace and love of God, and also are ENTRUSTED with responsibilities to raise their children learn to trust God. That’s all in the first page of our baptism liturgy.

Because we have been chosen by God, claimed as beloved, we can TRUST in God’s promises to forgive our sins, give us new life, and to be with us always. We can rely on God’s guidance and presence forever. In other words, we can trust God, because God loves us.

Our baptism DO NOT guarantee us and easy life as we seek to follow Jesus … We, as children of God, have been called to love other people… and loving people is HARD! I struggle to love people I don’t know, and especially when they do something that I get annoyed with, like not using their turn signal or parallel parking poorly.

I am not a patient driver, and I have a feeling that others might have this struggle too. Had Paul been writing now, he probably should include “If I have the best driving skills in the world, and can parallel park on a dime, but have not love, I am just a honking car horn.”

And that’s just driving. Think about all the other interactions with have with people throughout our day – with our parents, siblings, and spouses. With our children. With our coworkers. With the people in the grocery store and at the bank and at church. How can we show love to all these different kinds of people, especially when they irritate me in all kinds of different ways?

In the words of a slightly different translation of 1 Corinthians 13, “Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always ‘me first,’ doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others… Jesus reveals that God’s love puts up with us, always looks for the best, never looks back, and keeps going to the end.” (The Message Translation)

The bottom line is, God IS love, and God loves you. That love never gets tired of going in search of you, and then grabbing hold of you in the most stubborn grip.  And God loves us so much that God revealed that love to us as love with a body. A person that shows love in all that he says and does.

Just over a month ago at Christmas – wow time flies – we celebrated the coming of this love revealed as helpless infant born in a manger – meaning Jesus. But, of course, Jesus didn’t stay a cute baby. He grew up, and he began to preach, and continued to reveal that God is Love, that God Loves Everyone, and God’s Love is on the MOVE.

Last week, we heard Jesus say that Love releases the captives and preached good news to the people who are forgotten and left behind. That day, the people in Jesus’s hometown wanted to hear that they are God’s beloved favorites. But instead, in his very first sermon, Jesus had the audacity to remind them that God has the annoying habit of showing love to people who are on the outside.  Like helping the widow of the “wrong” nationality and a general from a rival army, when there were plenty of people in need who were more “deserving” of God’s love.

And this is only Luke chapter 4, so Jesus is just getting started. Jesus heals, hangs out with, feeds, and blesses all those people who were considered to be disqualified from God’s love. For those on the outside, this is very good news indeed! But for those on the inside, this was a dangerous message, and must be hushed up.

Little, it seems, has changed since Jesus time. In our human selfish brokenness, we live in a world where some of us are given preferential treatment because of gender, skin color, orientation, education, or economic standing. The people in Jesus’ hometown didn’t want to hear that THEY were not the ONLY people that God loves…  and we don’t want to hear this message either. We would rather go on believe that we, by our own goodness and merit, have earned God’s love. But this is just another sneaky way that we trust in ourselves and not in God.

Martin Luther talked a lot about how we do not have to earn our salvation, and so we are freed to use that energy to help our neighbors. He also once reputedly said that said that our spouses were our closest neighbor. …. So maybe using 1 Corinthians as a text for weddings is not actually that weird.

Love is the basis of trust. And we can trust in our God, who loved us so much that his son Jesus came down to understand how complicated it is to be human. Which sounds like a pretty irrational thing to do. And frankly, so is marriage.  What is more ridiculous that spending thousands of dollars on invitations and  flowers and cake and a dress you’ll only wear once… to stand up in front of your family and friends and say “till death do us part”? Love makes us do some pretty funny things, doesn’t it?

Love is about sacrifice, but nobody wants to hear THAT on their wedding day. This is what I WISH I could say in each and every wedding homily I give from here on out:

Me doing my brother's wedding, which was
really fun!

The feeling that we interpret as being “in love” will fade… so don’t trust it. Trust God instead. Trust that God has chosen you. Trust that God always acts patiently and kindly, God is never rude or arrogant or jealous or resentful. Trust that God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things… including the limitations of OUR capacity to love.

People will fail us, but God never will. Relationships break, our dearest loved ones will reject us or hurt us, but God will always be faithful.

Love and trust hold hands, and form an unbreakable bond, more certain and more permanent than the promise of any wedding ring. Diamonds aren’t forever, but the promises of baptism are. And this is something we can hold on to, as long as we all shall live. Thanks be to God. Amen.

HWJD - How Would Jesus Drive?

Sermon 1- 31-16

(I read from both last week's and this week's Gospel reading, since we had a snow day last Sunday!)

Grace and peace to you from God our father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.

“Love is a patient driver. Love merges kindly in traffic. Love does not envy the best parking spots, or boast on getting them. Love does not drive arrogantly or rudely. It does not insist on its right of way; it is not easily irritated or resentful while driving in snow; it does not rejoice when it sees other rude drivers getting what they might deserve - like getting pulled over - but rejoices that everyone arrives safely. Love bears all traffic conditions, even snow and ice, believes in the best intentions of other drivers, hopes to get to its destination if not on time then at least safely, and endures all things, even if in the passenger seat.” (yes, I totally made that up myself.)

Now, I would bet that you have never heard the “love poem” from First Corinthians in quite that way before.

The last time you hear it, it was probably in a church, (but not this one.) And it was probably read by a nervous relative as the bride and groom gazed lovingly into each other eyes, nodding along. Thinking to themselves, yes, of course I will always be patient and kind, will never be rude or irritable or resentful AT ANY POINT in the entire course of our married life. And the rest of us think, “Gosh that is a really pretty poem about love.” And then wonder what will be in the buffet at the reception.

My brother, who got married last October, naturally wanted to include these verses from First Corinthians. And as his older sister, I naturally had to include at least one embarrassing story in my sermon at his wedding.

Remember that we’re from a dairy farm in rural WI? When we were all kids, we thought it would be a great idea for my brother to try to jump on and ride the calves we had startled as they jumped out of their calf huts. He almost always fell off, but he kept trying. At his wedding, I told him to use that stubbornness to hold on to their relationship in the midst of a world that often stacked against real love.  I told him to stubbornly hang on to love as if it is a jumping calf.

But I also reminded them that God is even more stubborn in the love department, as described in Paul’s love poem.

After all, as Paul writes this letter, he is not thinking about married couples. No, Paul wrote a poem about love that isn’t about pretty words; love that does things. Love that gets put to work, time and time again.

Love is active - love acts patiently and kindly. Love does not behave rudely or selfishly, irritably, or resentfully.  Love seeks justice and truth. Love bears, believes in, hopes in, and endures all things. 

God IS love, and God loves you. That love never gets tired of going in search of you, and then grabbing hold of you in the most stubborn grip.  And God loves us so much that God revealed that love to us as love with a body.

Just over a month ago at Christmas – wow time flies – we celebrated the coming of this love as a light in our darkness, love as the power of God in the form of a powerless infant. But of course that infant didn’t stay an adorable baby. He grew up, and he began to preach, and got started on God’s mission:

Jesus came to reveal exactly who God IS – love in the flesh. 

Jesus came to reveal exactly who God LOVES - young, old, rich, poor, gay, straight, black, white, glad, depressed, immigrant, citizen, single, married, insiders and outsiders. Sinners and slightly less bad sinners. You and me.

Jesus came to reveal exactly what that love DOES – that “Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always ‘me first,’ doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others… Jesus reveals that God’s love puts up with us, always looks for the best, never looks back, and keeps going to the end.” (The Message Translation)

That day, the people in Jesus’s hometown wanted to hear that they are God’s beloved favorites. But instead, in his very first sermon, Jesus had the audacity to remind them that God has the annoying habit of showing love to people who are on the outside.  Like helping the widow of the “wrong” nationality and a general from a rival army, when there were plenty of people in need who were more “deserving” of God’s love.

And this is only Luke chapter 4, so Jesus is just getting started. Jesus heals, hangs out with, feeds, and blesses all those people who were considered to be disqualified from God’s love. For those on the outside, this is very good news indeed! But for those on the inside, this was a dangerous message, and must be hushed up.

This has not changed since Jesus time. In our human selfish brokenness, we live in a world where some of us are given preferential treatment because of gender, skin color, orientation, education, or economic standing. And too many people get left on the outside, while other people benefit.

So it’s perhaps no wonder that Jesus was nearly thrown off a cliff that day by the people of his own home town for this message of love he embodied.

It’s perhaps no wonder that Jesus was rejected, betrayed, abandoned, and then nailed to a cross for this message of love he embodied.

It’s perhaps no wonder that we don’t want to hear this message either, because that means that we too are called to share a message of love that could possibly cause us to be questioned, misunderstood, disliked, or even rejected or abandoned. At our baptisms, each of us were welcomed into the body of Christ, but we were also called to share his mission: to bear God’s redeeming word to all the world of God’s love and forgiveness. Which sounds super daunting. If it were all up to me, there is no way racism would be dismantled or wars be ended. But as Mother Teresa once said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

Fortunately it isn’t all up to me, but there is still plenty of ways to live out this mission of love in my everyday life, to do small things with great love. But it isn’t easy. I’ll share with you one example of something that I struggle with to do lovingly: Driving.

I am not a patient driver. I easily get irritable with OTHER PEOPLE driving poorly. I secretly rejoice in the superiority in my own driving. I have a feeling that others might have this struggle too. Had Paul been writing now, probably should include “If I have the best driving skills in the world, and can parallel park on a dime, but have not love, I am just a honking car horn.”

And that’s just driving. Think about all the other interactions with have with people throughout our day – with our spouses. With our children. With our coworkers. With the people in the grocery store and at the bank and at church.

But how can we do these small things with great love? Well, for once the consumer culture might be able to help us.

In the church, we’re still in the season of Epiphany. But elsewhere, the decorations for Valentine’s Day have been up and everywhere since just after Christmas, ushering in the “season of love,” so to speak. Hearts and the color red are everywhere. In a sense, this makes our jobs of remembering to love a little easier, at least, for the time being.

So in the next few weeks, very time you see a heart, I want you to do 3 things:

-         Remember that you are loved by God.

-         Remember that God loves all the other people out there, too.

-         Remember that you are the agents of God’s love in the world.

That means that each of you, with the help of God and Jesus leading the way, can be the love of God in a body. And the world certainly needs us to show it a lot of love right now. Be love, show love, do love. And don’t forget to DRIVE love, too. And the God of Love accompany us on our way. Amen. 

All Saints Sermon - Out of the Tomb

All Saints, Nov. 1st, 2015

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and all the saints, Amen.

Two weeks ago, on our way to the cheese factory to stock up on cheese curds, my sister, my mom, and I first made a stop at the cemetery.  My grandpa - my dad’s dad, who died two years ago last September – is buried there next to the church I grew up in, and I go “visit” him and Grandma in there every time I’m in Wisconsin.

Myron Wittmann, saint

In the very same cemetery is the grave of the father of a friend and pastor here in New Jersey. And that very day we went to the cemetery, my friend’s wife texted to ask if I would go to his father’s grave too. I let her know I found his headstone, and she replied that the thought of me being meant a great deal to them.

Just a few days before that, on a clear and sunny 48 degree day, my brother and his now wife said their vows in that very same church. They made their marriage promise surrounded by those of us present, and also surrounded by the cloud of witnesses of family members who have died, including my grandma and grandpa, buried just yards away.

Loma Jean and Raymond Posselt, saints

Some of the stones in the cemetery, like my friends’ father and my grandpa’s, are fairly recent additions, with fresh stones and fresh grief. Others were buried so long ago the headstones are leaning and the writing unreadable. Regardless, these stones stand as reminders to what we have lost. They stand to mark the place where the earth swallowed up Grandpa, and we would see him no more. They stand as witness to our grief which also swallows us whole.

Raymond Posselt, saint

When you last heard many of today’s texts, you might have been in grief’s grip as you and your family stood graveside. Perhaps you still have yet to emerge from under that grief’s heavy shroud. For many of us, we wonder, along with Mary and Martha, where Jesus is when our loved ones have died and all we are able do is sit at the tomb and weep.

This episode in the Gospel of John began with Mary and Martha sending word to their dear friend Jesus that their brother Lazarus is ill. They assume, as we all would, that being friends with Jesus might also come with the “benefits” of miraculous healing. So they must have expected him to show up in a hurry. 

But by the time Jesus arrives, he was four days late for the funeral. Mary and Martha are still grieving, and surrounded by supporters When they hear that Jesus has arrived into town, Martha got up and met him, while Mary stayed behind.

The very first words out of her mouth were “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” And later, when Mary confronts Jesus, she echoes Martha, and doesn’t even know it – “Lord, if you had been here, our brother would not have died.”

“Lord, if you had been there…”

We can all join in with Mary and Martha here, and ask where Jesus was… when the chemo stopped working, or when your parents got divorced, when your spouse lost their job, when your son became addicted to drugs or any number of things that happen to us. Lord, where were you when we were swallowed up by grief, loneliness, anxiety, depression, or regret? Lord, where are you, it’s been four day… four weeks… four years… four decades….?

Well, Jesus finally DID show up for Martha and Mary. And when leveled with this hurtful accusation, Jesus did not try to ignore their hurt feelings, make excuses for his delay, or leave in a huff, blaming their lack of faith.

Instead, Jesus wept.

Not just a couple of tears, hurriedly and discreetly dabbed away. This was some full-on sobbing – the completely consuming, can’t breathe, knocking you to the floor, eyes streaming, entire tissue box necessary type of crying. The type of crying when the grief is so immediate, so raw, so painful that it simply has to get out, no matter who is around or what people might think.

And this was JESUS… doing…the crying. In public. In front of Mary and Martha and all the others who were present.

Which made them all wonder – if Jesus cared about Lazarus so much, WHY the DELAY? What about the OTHER healings? Why did Jesus goof up Lazarus?

But, ignoring all that, Jesus, still full of emotion and grief, goes to the tomb where Lazarus lay. No to mourn and grieve, but instead to confront death head-on. And we know what happened next. Jesus – 1, Death - 0

This would not be the last time that Jesus and Death go toe-to-toe. In fact, in John, the raising of Lazarus is the last straw and sets into motion the events that lead to Jesus’ own death: his arrest, trial, suffering, his crucifixion, and burial in a borrowed tomb.

It seemed to everyone present that even Jesus could not escape being swallowed up by death. And a stone was rolled into place as a reminder and witness. Those who sealed Jesus’ tomb may have remembered Lazarus, and perhaps thought to themselves, “Maybe the one raised that Lazarus guy could have kept HIMSELF from dying. But I guess not.” Point, set, match. Death wins.

Three days later, another Mary came to his tomb to mourn. But she found there a surprise waiting for her: a tomb without a stone and a grave without a body. Death, so used to swallowing up people, had instead found itself swallowed up by Jesus, just as Isaiah said– he will destroy the shroud over all the peoples, and the sheet over all the nations, and he will even swallow up death forever. The way things were has been turned upside down. All things are being made new.

Like with his friends Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, Jesus does not stand by to watch our grief from a distance. Jesus, the one who cried, is the one who wipes away our tears. Jesus, the one who died, is the one who removes the bitterness of death to instead promise us a rich feast and an end to separation, grief, and pain.

Jesus, the one who rose, knows what the inside of a tomb looks like. He knows what it like to be inside whatever kind of tomb we may find ourselves in, swallowed up by death, grief, illness, and suffering.

But Jesus is also outside the tomb, ordering the removal of the stone, and calling us by name to “Come out!”

This is what it means to be called a saint on this day, All Saints Sunday. To be a saint is to be called out of death to be part of God’s abundant life, right here and right now. To be a saint means being surrounded by the great crowd of the faithful who have gone before us into the glorious feast that God promises us.

To be a saint does NOT mean being extra holy, or pure, or having an immaculate life. There is nothing we can do to earn our way into sainthood. Rather, being a saint means living and trusting this notion that God loves us like crazy, and would even swallow up death for us so that we might have life. Living this way might leave us a bit dinged up from time to time, left over from our stints in the tomb. But that never stops Jesus from calling our name, to get out of the tomb and to follow him on the way.

Being a saint also means joining Jesus at the promised banquet with Grandma and Grandpa, those who have died in the last year, Lazarus, Mary and Martha… but also with other flawed, imperfect, and perhaps “unacceptable” people that didn’t expect to be there, with their own cracks and scars and tales of tombs to share. And who knows, they might be just as surprised to see US there, too.

But before we get there, between now and then, Jesus continues to show up, wipe tears from our faces, and call us forth from our tombs. And we continue to remember the saints who are no longer with us, who have gone ahead of us. And we remember that the title of saint is a gift, to all who have been in one kind of tomb or another, to all who cling to Jesus as he calls us forth into life and makes all things new. AMEN.

An M.A. in marriage. :)

Six years. That's like getting your B.A. then going on for  your M.A, right? :) Believe me, we are no masters, but I think that we've done pretty well for ourselves making it to 6. Maybe we should think of it more like our marriage can now go to kindergarten!

We celebrated early by spending the 4th holiday in Philly, which was pretty cool beyond cool for these two mid-westerners. We sat outside of Independence Hall and watched the the festivities and dignitaries, which was surprisingly sparsely attended.  My theory is that all the locals stayed home, and the audience was full of non-jaded people like us, tourists or people not from the East Coast. It was fun to be there and see the commemorations, speeches by Mayor Nutter and his wife, and a performance by a marching band from Wisconsin and also Ben Taylor. Then came a parade that was fun - full of performances by cultural and ethnic groups around the city - but it never seemed to end! We had lunch nearby, and when we went back outside, it was still going on!

Later that night we were going to be at the big concert in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art - with the Roots!! and other bands. But it was so hot, and so crowded, and kind of smelled, and it was loud but we couldn't hear anything, so we went back to our cool, quiet hotel room, and watched it on TV. Great sound. Best decision ever.

The next day we went to Love Park - of course.

Last night we watched our wedding video, I think for the third time ever. Though we figured out that the service itself was actually only 50 minutes or so, we still apologize to everyone who was there for not shortening the communion liturgy and prayers! What were we thinking, including ALL the parts of "Now the Feast" in an un-air conditioned church service in July! But we promise, that was the only time we'll ever get married, and we'll never do it again. ;)

We still agree that our reception was the most fun reception we've ever been at, before or since (yes, we are probably biased). My maid of honor's toast was still the best: "...and to top it all off, she's LUTHERAN"! (she was quoting Beau). And yes, he is still my Mr. Darcy.

May God Bless You With Discomfort

WHAT A WEEKEND! I can't remember the last time since I did so much and saw so many people and states in just four days! And, after visiting both my Alma Maters too, I now understand the term. It really felt, in so many ways, that in this trip we were (at least briefly) going back in time, back into the womb, to different formative places from our past.

First: Luther, both first to be visited and most recent Alma. After getting over our shock and jealousy of seeing the new coffee shop, we could not get over the feeling that this place (actually the entire Twin Cities) felt like home. They say that you can't go back, and you really can't, but this is the closest we'll ever come. We only caught a few profs, but it was enough (one even said "ok, give me your elevator speech!" like she knew that we were seeing tons of people for a short time and saying the same thing, basically! Gotta love Mary Sue!) And the bookstore was like a mini-Christmas. We even sat in on a Pentateuch class that one of our friends was taking, and it was like the exact lecture I needed to hear, about the "J" source of all things. Sometimes I miss being a student (but not the homework!)

Being back in the Twin Cities was such a bizarre and somewhat heart-wrenching experience. You never really know how much a place feels like home until you leave it for a while... and then come back. But the very reason that we may want to go back is the very reason that we can't, at least not for a while. More about that later (it was sort of a theme of the trip). The overall feeling I got from being back in Minneapolis was... calm. People there aren't in as big of a rush there. Frankly, I was surprised at how much I missed it.

We stayed with some friends who had gotten back from the peace corps literally WEEKS after we moved to NJ, so it had been at least 3 years since we had seen them. We stayed at their house, helped them with a last harvest of their lovely garden and put it do bed. Did I mention it was freaking freezing in the Midwest? 80 to 49 as the high in the space of a day. Anyway, then we road down to Waverly IA for the wedding with them, the whole time talking nonstop about their years in Burkina Faso, our year in NJ, the weirdness of life and seminary, and why the church frustrates us sometimes.

Waverly.... had grown up. And there is no one left we know as a student on campus, so Beau and I only spend about half an hour wandering around campus (we did find Dr. Mrs. Black!!!). We realized that the specialness of Wartburg, like that of Luther Sem, is that of its people and relationships we build there. Really it is nothing more than some nice buildings - but the memories are the important thing.

The wedding was lovely and the reception fantastic as we literally danced the night away. Again, it was seeing the people we had not seen in 3-4 years that made all the difference.

We had breakfast one morning and later lunch with some past beloved Wartburg profs, which were right there with us as we shared with them the frustration and joys of ministry, but most especially we felt their support as we struggled with the location that God has placed us - that the East Coast is such a different animal than anything we've ever experienced. Even after a year, it's still hard some days. But as we attended St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Waverly on Sunday morning and heard the sermon, you can't go right from wheat to bread. The kernel must be broken open, ground up a bit, stretched with discomfort, and more before it can truly become bread, bread that God can used to feed people.

It is because of this desire to go back to what feels safe and comfortable is the very reason we can't leave yet. And that is a very hard thing.

And there's even more from the weekend. (I never promised that this would be a short post). I was able to reconnect to a camp friend I hadn't seen in 4+ years, and we had one of those deep conversations about life and God and peace, justice, and urban ministry, dissatisfaction with the sometimes rigidity of established religion. I hadn't realized how age-lonely it can be in the church, but it is friends like these who give me hope for the future.

It has been a lot to process, and I'm still processing. But I will end with a benediction from that Sunday, St. Francis Sunday, which is attributed to him:

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

AMEN. 

Midwest Weekend Madness!

I had to laugh - going through the Madison WI airport the TSA didn't say a word about my two things of venison sausage in my carry on. The reason I was pulled aside? Hairspray. Wisconsin for the win!


Remind me not to get up at 4:30 AM twice in one week again - though it was totally worth it. I blame it on Delta, not my dear friends Brett and Julie, who got married, nor my family. Thankfully all flights involved were uneventful, though for a little bit it looked like I might have gotten into Chicago a bit late. But I arrived on time and was greeted by the blushing bride herself and her lovely mom. Then it was off to the bachelorette party - lunch and mani-pedis in the afternoon, which is a brilliant idea. I had no idea that they give you a foot massage too! It was so relaxing I could have fallen asleep. Then we just hung out at the hotel before the rehearsal at Julie's home church. Seriously, this bride was as cool as a cucumber, and rightly so, since she had sent each of us a four-page itinerary of the weekend in advance! Doesn't she just look so lovely? I can't get over it. 

I got to see a whole bunch of my college friends, a few of whom were in the wedding too. It was such a beautiful service (no surprises there) and such a lovely day. Brett was on his (mostly) best behavior and Julie looked so radiant. The reception hall was gorgeous and the party processed in to the processional song from the end of Star Wars, and the groomsman I was partnered with and I had a mock "lightsaber" battle! The food was fantastic and the speeches epic - over all, a night to remember. This I think is one of the last weddings for my group of friends, so it may be a long time before I see many of them again. We also realized we must be getting "old" - we can't dance as much or stay up as late as we used to!!


The next day, my aunt who lives in the Chicago area had lunch with me and my mom and sister, who came all the way down to pick me up. Since I was in the area, I was able to spend the rest of the weekend with my family! Going back to Grace Lutheran was a treat - as much as I love St. Paul, I have to admit it IS nice to sit back and enjoy the service! I was a communion assistant, which was great to see all the familiar faces. I saw my Grandpa Posselt, and my Grandma and Grandpa Wittmann. I even took my dad and brother and sister out for supper one night at A&W (mmmm cheese curds!), and the whole family went for ice cream the next night! Whew! It was quite a whirlwind!


Now I am trying to get myself organized and figure out what to do with the rest of the summer - planning exciting things for the fall, mostly. I had been looking forward to these two events for such a long time, now I don't know what to do with myself! I'll find some way to keep busy, I'm sure. :)