Author: Chip Salzgeber

John 18:33-37

I wonder about Christ the King Sunday.

• I wonder about Christ the King Sunday because unlike Lent and holy week and Advent…
• Which have been celebrated for more than 1000 years.
• Christ the King has only been a part of the Liturgical calendar since the 1920s.
• And it was added for…I think…political reasons?
• In the fallout of World War One and amidst the Kaisers and Kings and Czars…
• It felt to the church that it was time to reassert that Czar Ferdinand or Kaiser Wilhelm is not king.
• It was time to assert that Christ is king.
• So…100 years ago…or so…Christ the King was added to the church year.
• So…I wonder about this day.

The Lord be with you

And I wonder about the reading from John’s Gospel because…to me…it is out of context.

• Every Sunday we speak of how on the night that Jesus was betrayed he gathered with his faltering friends for a meal that tasted of freedom.
• Well…on that same night…he then taught them and then prayed for them for a long time.
• And after the prayer he and his disciples went to a garden.
• And in the garden…knowing that Jesus would be there…
• Judas…with 30 pieces of silver rattling around in his pocket…
• Betrayed his friend and teacher and Lord.
• And brought with him a heavily armed detachment of soldiers and some police and religious authorities.

And Jesus asked who they were looking for.

• They answered “Jesus of Nazareth”
• And Jesus said: “I am he”.
• And they fell to the ground.
• Unarmed…with no money or status… Jesus said:
• I am he…and the police and soldiers fell to the ground.

But then Peter…the most vocally earnest follower of Jesus…

• Drew his sword and cut the ear off this man…by the name of Malchus…
• Who ended up being not even a police officer or soldier but the slave of the high priest.
• Then Jesus was arrested and subjected to brutal persecution and then brought to Pilate.
• And this is where our reading for this morning begins.
• Which is why the context matters.

So…Jesus…Pilate asks…are you a king or are you not a king?

• And Jesus says…my kingdom is not of this world.
• Well…no kidding.
• If we are going to celebrate a king today…
• At least it could be one who will wipe out all the racists and those who do violence to women…
• And those who hurt children…
• And everyone who is more interested in protecting the wealth of the rich than protecting the wellbeing of the poor.

I want Christ to be a king who can wipe out Isis and Al Qaeda and Hamas and Radicalized Zionists.

• And the people who messed with the Rays baseball team midseason…
• And those who cancelled Anne With An E after just three seasons.
• But considering the number of bombings and shootings and hate crimes that are daily events…
• Then…if Christ is my king…he is doing a lousy job of smiting my enemies.

But here’s the thing.

• The problem is that when that vengeance seeking…
• And violent part of me calls out to have a king who would destroy my enemies…
• I would be the one that same king would have to destroy.
• Since God is the God of all and I too am someone’s enemy.
• And where does that leave me?

That is…as much as I believe in non-violence…

• Does not mean that there is not also violence in myself.
• As much as I believe in non-violence it is simply unrealistic for me to believe that the only reason…
• I have not taken up arms is anything other than the fact that my privileged…
• Peaceful…educated…high standard of living is acquired by violence elsewhere…
• That is safely out of my sight.
• Since…let’s be honest…the life I lead of relative peace and prosperity is procured by child labor…sweat shops and military actions.

(Allow me to digress: I am thankful that I live in the USA and live a prosperous and peaceful life. I am a US patriot. I am thankful for those who serve my county and allow me to live in a legal system of laws and justice that is the envy of the world. I live in two kingdoms. One foot in the kingdom of the world and the other foot in the kingdom of God. Jesus…the Christ of God is the King of the Kingdom of God).

So…given the way my left foot benefits from violence.

• Given the fact that I too want my enemies to be destroyed…
• What this broken world needs is not a king with the greatest arsenal…
• Or a CEO who can protect our wealth.
• We need a Lord who saves us by refusing to play that game.

When Jesus says that his kingdom is not of this world…

• He is saying that His kingdom is not of this world because His power is not centered in our endless cycle of violence.
• Jesus is not a defender…a protector…a soldier…a police officer…a secretary of state.
• Jesus is a savior.
• A savior who knows that more violence will never save us from our addiction to violence.

Which brings me back to that garden that night.

• And that is…the only true hope…is not to be the betrayer.
• Or the one who draws the sword.
• The only true hope is to be one of those who falls to the ground…
• When the unarmed…and unimpressive Jesus of Nazareth says:
• I am he.

Because the violence in us that has been from the beginning…

• Since Cain killed Abel…
• That thing within the human heart that wishes to destroy the enemy…
• Is destroying us.
• So…we do not need any more kings of vengeance or of worldly power or kings closing the border.
• What we need is a King in a cradle.
• We do not need to throw up our fists.
• We need to fall on our knees.

For that is what we do before a king.

• Fall on our knees before a God whose love comes to us in delicate unprotected…unarmed…defenseless flesh.
• Fall on our knees before the one who loves without caution…
• Without measure…without concern for pre-existing conditions.
• Fall on our knees before the one who submitted to the very worst that humans are capable of.
• Who let the twisted thing in us…
• The betrayal and flogging…and violence and vengeance…to murder Him.
• And He did not say: “I am going to get you back.”
• But said: “you are forgiven.”

Fall on our knees.

• Because His kingdom is not of this world’s values.
• It is not a kingdom that guards its borders or arms its citizens or takes hostages or bombs theaters.

Christ is our king because the human violence competition…

• The need to be right and the need for everyone else to be wrong.
• And the belief that God favors us above all others…
• Is seen by Jesus for what it is: so…so small.
• This is why we need a savior who draws all people to himself…
• In the pure love of a crown of thorns and a throne of a cross.
• What can we do but spread our trophies at his pierced feet.
• And call him Lord of all.

Mark 13:1-8

Do not be alarmed.

• That’s the first thing I have to say about today’s gospel.
• And it’s the same thing Jesus told the disciples.
• “Do not be alarmed.”
• Do not be disturbed or troubled by all these things. Do not be frightened.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

Jesus also told the disciples that he’s not talking about an ending but about a beginning…the birthing of new life.

• He’s describing a movement toward wholeness…fullness…and completion.
• Today’s gospel theme is that of “making all things new.”
• And I think it’s exactly what we need to hear these days when it looks as if many things are coming apart at the seams.
• Today’s gospel overflows with good news.
• And yes…it is difficult and challenging.
• But it is worth all our attention and effort.

It’s a gospel about hope.

• It’s a gospel about opportunities and possibilities.
• It’s a gospel about finding meaning and new life.
• It’s a gospel about our future.
• And who among us does not sometimes wonder…worry…or even become alarmed about our future and the future of our world?

 

When I become alarmed about the future I am not really focused on the unknown and a time yet to come.

• I am more focused on the known and the present time.
• I want to know if the temples I have built will withstand the test of time.
• Will the center hold?
• Will my relationships endure?
• Will my attainments and accomplishments continue to give identity…meaning…and security?
• Will the order I have created for my life…well-being…and joy remain intact?
• Are the foundations and reference points of my life stable and strong enough to last?

 

That is…I am focused on the large stones and large buildings of my life.

• So…when I hear Jesus say:
• “Not one stone will be left upon another…all will be thrown down.”
• I get a bit twitchy.

 

Jesus says the very things that I am most focused on are coming down.

• I cannot help but wonder if I have missed the point and been distracted from what really matters.
• From the new life that is waiting and wanting to be birthed in me and through me.

 

I believe that is what is going on with the disciple who says to Jesus:

• “Look…Teacher…what large stones and what large buildings!”
• I think he has missed the point and has distracted himself from what really matters and is calling for attention.

 

What I mean is…what this disciple says does not make sense to me.

• This surely was not the first time this disciple…an adult Jewish man…had been to or seen the temple.
• He had grown up going to the temple.
• He had gone to the temple with Jesus at least twice before this day.
• The large stones and buildings of the temple were not new to him.
• He had seen it all before.
• It was not his first rodeo.

 

You see…there is a disconnect between what he says and what has just happened.

• Jesus and his disciples have just left the temple where they sat opposite the treasury watching the crowd put money into the treasury.
• Many rich people put in large sums.
• But a poor widow put in one penny…all she had.
• Jesus says to his disciples:
• “Truly I tell you…this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.”
• With those words Jesus has cracked the mortar between the stones of power…wealth…prestige…reputation…position and security.
• A separation has begun.

Jesus holds up the widow as an example.

• She is not the example the disciples or we would hold up.
• She has no wealth…no power…no position…no security.
• She is the one we overlook…ignore and sometimes abuse.
• And the first thing…the only thing…any disciple says is:
• “Wow! Look how big that building is.”
• They don’t get it.
• Do we get it?

 

Is this disciple trying to change the subject?

• Is this disciple trying to distract himself from what Jesus has just said?
• ..we have all done it.
• We change the subject or distract ourselves…
• So…we don’t have to deal with the elephant in the room.
• The vulnerable…painful and broken parts of our lives.
• Is that disciple looking at the large stones and buildings…
• So he does not have to look at himself in relationship to the widow?
• Is he feeling the large stones and buildings of his life beginning to shift and separate?

 

When have we felt that shift and separation?

• I felt it happening when I resigned a call without having another call.
• I feel it every time a loved one dies.
• In the beginning…I remember my temple coming down the day the bishop sent me a letter questioning my call to the ministry.
• It is all those times I look at what is happening outside of me instead of what is happening inside of me.
• It is there whenever I refuse to see…acknowledge and receive the widow and her way of life in my life.

 

Well…it is an uncomfortable place to be…and we have all been there.

• Jesus says it looks and sounds like “war and rumors of war. Nation will rise against nation…and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes and famines.”

 

Every one of those is an image of separation:

• Nation separated from nation…kingdom from kingdom…the earth from itself.
• Even the widow is an image of separation.
• She’s separated from her husband and the life she once had.
• Those images describe not only what is happening around us but also within us.
• It’s showing and telling us something we don’t want to see…hear…or deal with.
• It’s too frightening…painful and uncertain.

 

Let us then consider this:

• That they are not separations that destroy but separations that create and give birth.
• That they are an opening…a space…for something new to come to life.

 

And it is here that Jesus speaks with such tenderness and reassurance.

• “Do not be alarmed…this must take place…this is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”
• It’s as if he is saying: “Do not worry.
• This is normal. You’re going to be OK.
• I am the Midwife who will get you through this.”

 

What if…in these times when it feels like our lives are shifting and separating and everything is being thrown down…

• We trust the Divine Midwife and just push a little.
• Push with faith…push with hope…push with love…push with anticipation of something new.

 

The Divine Midwife next to us whispering:

• “Push…push…push.
• It is almost here.”
• What might be birthed?

Mark 12:38-44

Many years ago…I went back to visit and preach at my home congregation in Green Bay.

• The sending hymn concluded…I stood in the back of the sanctuary…next to the baptismal font…greeting worshipers.
• A woman…I recognized from growing up in the congregation…approached me.
• She was crying too hard for me to totally understand what she was saying.
• So…I hugged her instead…and asked if I could give her a blessing…which she accepted.
• And then…here is what she shared with me.

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

“As a lifelong Lutheran grace has been a part of my faith that I’ve never really noticed.

• Until recently…my fiancé was killed in a car accident on the way to our wedding rehearsal.
• Now I see God with tears running down His face when I am brought to my knees sobbing and I hear Him whisper in my ear:
• ‘Child…see what I have brought you’ …
• When someone drops off a casserole…or a gift card…or just scrubs my floor.
• And maybe that is the meaning of this awful storm.
• God is here and I feel Him like I never had before.”

 

What this young woman did not realize is that what she shared with me was the casserole from God I needed…saying:

• “Child…see what I brought you?”
• As it was during an exhausting part of my ministry when we were very short staffed in the large congregation I served.
• I was totally burned out and this pilgrimage back to my childhood congregation was a healing balm.
• And ever since I keep seeing these widow’s mites…
• These easily overlooked gifts…these casseroles from God in the form of simple things.

 

The young woman who had lost her fiancé reminded me of the thing I tend to forget all the time…

• Which is that God shows up in my life repeatedly…in the little things.
• And yet so often these little things are overlooked or under-appreciated by me…
• Because all I can see is what I wish I had…instead.
• My desires keep me from seeing the gifts of God in the present moment.
• A desire for an event to unfold in a certain way or my desire for a person to act in a certain way…
• Or my desire for things in my life to look a certain way.
• It is like I already have a picture painted of what everything should look like…and I hold that up against reality.
• And then judge reality according to how much it resembles the picture I painted.
• And every time I do this I miss something important…or beautiful…or redemptive.
• Because even though it is right in front of me…it was not what I was looking for…so I don’t see it.
• Or…all I can see is what is missing.

 

The story of the widow’s mite is one that is familiar to us.

• How often have we heard it used for sermons on the importance of giving.
• How…even when we are poor…we should be giving to the church.
• And how it is important to give sacrificially.
• But what really strikes me about this story has nothing to do with money.
• What strikes me is that Jesus notices the stuff we tend to not even see.
• The main action that day revolved around the scribes in their fancy robes and their fat wads of cash.
• It is so easy for us to only see the big…flashy fast-moving object.

And yet Jesus sees the smallish things: the tiny copper coin…the widow who is so easily ignored.

• Jesus sees what we hardly notice is there.
• The stuff he uses is not mountains and superheroes and massive SUVs.
• Instead…Jesus uses common…daily…almost unnoticeable things that are hardly worth mentioning.
• Coins…tiny little seeds…yeast.
• Jesus notices what we have a hard time seeing.
• It is…like…you know…turn the page and Jesus can pretty much always find Waldo right away.

 

Several months ago…when I was behind a brand new…shiny Cadillac SUV…the vanity plate read: bcauseIpray.

• Like we are all complete idiots and could easily have a Cadillac SUV if we just prayed hard enough.
• We recoil from this idea of God as divine vending machine…
• Who dispenses cash and prizes to the most righteous.
• But that’s not what I’m talking about here.
• What I am talking about are those stories that are so easily unnoticed…
• And the sneaky ways God brings us what we need.
• For me…those moments happen…the most…when I am smack in the middle of wallowing in self-pity.

A few moments ago…I shared that I had been suffering from burn out.

• And the reason that this journey back to my home congregation was so refreshing.
• I had been ministering for weeks on end without being able to withdraw.
• But the little things.
• My friend Jerry would come into my office and say:
• “Let’s get out of here…let’s go get a cup of coffee…I’ll buy.”
• Or someone would come into my office with a bag of butterfingers.
• They all knew I liked butterfingers.
• Or a family would call and say:
• “You and Susan come on over tonight…have some supper with us…and then we’ll put on a movie.”

That tiny piece of home…that casserole from God got me through the day.

• All I have needed thy hand hath provided.
• Our Lord God works through the small things we so easily do not even take notice of.
• The casseroles…the notes of encouragement just when we need them.
• Paul writes in Hebrews: “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers…for by so doing…some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it”.
• It is also true…that sometimes…we are the ones doing God’s desire for someone else…and we do not even know it.

We suddenly think:

• I’m going to reach out to that person.
• Or…I’m going do that kind thing for someone else.
• Or…I’m going to ask this person how they’re doing.
• Those nudges are meant to be paid attention to.
• For when we do these things we never know when unknowingly we are the casserole of God.
• We are the one being used to show God’s love to God’s child.

 

I have been given small kindnesses… casseroles…that mean a great deal to me…

• And the person who offered them has no idea.
• That tiny piece of home…gifts given…casseroles from God.
• Jesus uses little things…
• Daily things…almost unnoticeable things.
• Coins…tiny little seeds…yeast…
• A widow’s mite.

John 11:32-44

So…when I began thinking about this Sunday…All Saints Sunday…I thought about the baseball and football cards I collected when I was a boy.

• You remember…they had a picture of the athlete on the front and their stats on the back.
• And then a slice of bubble gum came with the card inside the wrapper.
• And…of course…we bought cards and traded them too…because we all had our favorite players and teams.

 

The Lord be with you

And also with you

 

So then…I thought…why not Saints Cards.

• Collecting cards with pictures of our favorite Saints…with their stats on the back.
• Instead of the number of home runs and touchdowns…the number of miracles and good deeds.
• Obvious…our cards would have Saint Frances and Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr…and Mother Teresa’s picture on them.
• The gum would be Juicy Fruit…you know…the fruits of the spirit.
• But my stack of Saint Cards would include vast numbers of saints who moved my life forward and nurtured me in positive ways.
• Including saints from the congregation I grew up in.
• Teachers and educators and coaches during my lifetime.
• And a host of saints who I had the privilege of being connected to during my ministry of Word and Sacrament.

 

Today is a day set aside in the church year to remember all these saints.

• But not just the ones who are on trading cards…
• Since it is All Saints Sunday and not just Some Saints Sunday.
• To be clear…this is not like a cult of saints or anything.
• We do not need special saints to intercede for us.
• Why? Because God does not listen to them more since they were better Christians than we are.

 

What we celebrate when we celebrate All Saints is not the superhuman faith and power of a select few.

• What we celebrate is God’s ability to use flawed people to do divine things.
• We celebrate all on whom God has acted in baptism…
• Sealing them…as Ephesians says…with the mark of the promised Holy Spirit.
• We celebrate the fact that God creates faith in God’s people.
• And those people…through ordinary acts of love…bring the Kingdom of Heaven closer to Earth.
• We celebrate that we have…in all who have gone before us…
• What St Paul calls such a great cloud of witnesses…
• And that the faithful departed are as much the body of Christ as we are.

 

It is quite a thing…really…that we are connected to so many.

• Connected to so much faith. So many stories. So much divine love.
• Especially in these days of alienation and trying to find community and belonging.
• I may think that the basis of me being connected to other people is in having theological or political beliefs…
• Or denominational affiliation…
• Or book clubs or musical groups…
• Or bowling or golf leagues…
• Or Facebook groups in common.
• But none of that is what connects us to the Body of Christ.
• What connects us to the body of Christ is not our piety or good works or theological beliefs.
• It is God…a God who gathers up all of God’s children into the church eternal.

 

So…today let us remember all the deeply faithful and deeply flawed saints of God’s church through whom the glory of God has been revealed…

• Is being revealed and will be revealed.
• Let us remember Mary Magdalena and Peter the fisherman and the glorious disciples.
• Let us remember St Frances and Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King Jr.
• Let us remember Trudy Crowder and Janet Alexander and Shirley Gioe.
• Today…let us thank God for gathering so many into the church eternal…some of whom still light our own paths.

 

O blest communion…fellowship divine!

• We feebly struggle…but they in glory shine…
• Yet all are one in Thee…for all are Thine.
• Alleluia…Alleluia!

 

We come here today to honor someone we have loved who has died.

• Our hearts are heavy with the loss of someone dear.
• We have our own beloved dead to remember this day.
• People who we would rather still have here in this sanctuary as a living person.
• And not as a name spoken at church the first Sunday of November.
• We would rather be standing behind them in line for communion than adding them to the litany of saints.

 

All Saints Sunday’s meaning is connected to being part of this mystic body of Christ because it means that death is never the final word.

• Because in both life and death we are connected to God and to one another.
• The letter to the Ephesians calls this the inheritance of the saints.
• That God gathers us all up into the divine love of Christ and makes us a body both now and in the life to come.
• That even those whose names are eventually forgotten are always and forever held in the light of God in glory.
• Because while death is a wrenching painful reality to us…it is meaningless to God.

 

Not that God is untouched by the pain of death…after all…

• Jesus had real friends who died…and he stood outside the tomb of Lazarus and wept.
• And then…he raised Lazarus from the grave…
• As though before Jesus was to defeat death for good…
• He needed first to give it a good slap in the face.
• God in Jesus was so moved by compassion and love for those like Trudy and Janet and Shirly that his hand is ever extended to them.
• A God who…in Jesus was so full of grace…that he went to a cross we built for him.
• A God who in Jesus descended to the dead as though to say to us: “even here I will find you and not let go.”
• Because death has no sting…death is rendered meaningless to a God of resurrection. 
• And lest we forget…it is a God of resurrection who we worship.

 

So…O Jerusalem…what can we do but also give thanks for this table we are about to gather around.

• A foretaste of the heavenly banquet around which the saints are already gathered.
• We give thanks that around this table we are tied to the whole communion of saints.
• United with all who have ever received bread and wine and told it was Jesus and it was for them.
• We are joined here with angels and arch angels…cherubim and seraphim.
• We are joined with the church on earth and the church in heaven.
• And all who have called on the name of God.

O blest communion…fellowship divine.

• We feebly struggle…but they in glory shine.
• Yet all are one in Thee…for all are Thine.
• Alleluia…Alleluia! Amen.

John 8:31-36

Reformation Sunday…a day in the liturgical year where we celebrate the protestant reformation…and there is indeed…a lot to celebrate.

• We’ve come a long way Baby.
• We are no longer under the Pope.
• Our clergy can marry…we let people read the Bible for themselves.
• We now ordain women.
• And so today we celebrate

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Yet…what do the texts assigned for today talk about?  Sin.

• What we get on Reformation Day is a lot of talk about sin and law.
• All sin and fall short of the glory of God and all who sin are slaves to sin and that through the law comes knowledge of sin. Sin…sin…sin.
• The people who decide what the readings are for things like…Reformation Sunday…
• Did not get the memo that what we are really celebrating is our own awesomeness…
• And how much cleverer we modern Christians are than those who came before us who naively believed in things like sin and Law.

Plus…in an age of self-care and therapy and high self-esteem…

• And especially in so-called progressive Christianity…sin is not such a popular topic.
• As a matter of fact…in the Lutheran church planting business these days…
• There is a trend toward eliminating the confession and absolution at the beginning of our liturgies.  Why?
• Because it is a downer and people do not want to hear they are sinners.

But Martin Luther had a way of talking about sin that makes a whole lot of sense.

• He reminds us that sin is bigger than simple immorality.
• Sin…according to Luther…is being curved in on self without a thought for God or the neighbor.
• In that case…sin is missing the mark…
• And it is all the ways we put ourselves in the place of God.
• Sin is the fact that my ideals and values are never enough to make me always do what I should.
• The “shoulds” in our lives are the things that make us see how far off the mark we are.

No matter what we think the “shoulds” are:

• Personal morality and family values and niceness and conservative political convictions…
• Or inclusivity and recycling and eating local and progressive political convictions…
• There is always…no matter how hard we try…a gap between our ideal self and our actual self.

And…only we know…just how short we fall from the glory of God.

• And in those moments…
• When we are beating ourselves up or trying to deny it…
• Or making promises of self-improvement…
• In those solitary moments we know.
• It looks like a social worker who does not actually look into the eyes of the homeless man he passes every day on the street corner.
• We all know what the law can do to us.
• How cruel the distance between our ideal self and our actual self can feel.
• And that feeling of not ever really hitting the mark.
• And that feeling…is the feeling of the Law convicting us.

Martin Luther knew what it felt like for the Law to convict him…accuse him…and leave him with nowhere to rest.

• And if you want to know what really sparked the Protestant Reformation it is this.
• Feeling this way…Luther read that passage we just heard from Romans:
• Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…they are now justified by his grace as a gift.

And he believed it to be true…

• And because he believed that God’s grace is a gift…
• He no longer accepted what the church had for so long taught:
• That we are really saved by the works of the Law.
• The medieval church had pawned off Law as Gospel and Luther dared to know the difference.
• And then he became a preacher of Grace and that changed everything.

But here’s the thing: pawning off Law as Gospel is not a medieval thing.

• And it is not a Roman Catholic thing.
• It is a human thing…and we do it all the time.
• The church does it…we do it…society does it.  It is like a disease.

So…in celebration of Reformation Sunday…I offer you a way to spot the difference between Law and Gospel:

• You can tell the Law because it is always an if-then proposition.
• If you follow all the rules in the Bible God then will love you and you will be happy.
• If you lose 20 pounds then you will be worthy to be loved.
• If you live a perfectly righteous Green eco lifestyle then you will be worthy of taking up space in the planet.
• If you never have a racist or sexist or homophobic thought then you will be worthy of calling other people out on their racism and sexism and homophobia.
• The Law is always conditional and it is never anything anyone can do perfectly.
• Under the Law there are only two options: pride and despair.
• When fulfilling the “shoulds” we are either prideful about our ability to follow the rules compared to others.
• Or we despair at our inability to perfectly do anything.
• Either way…is bondage.

The Gospel is different…the Gospel is a because because because because proposition.

Because God is our creator and because we rebel against the idea of being created beings and insist on trying to be God for ourselves…

• And because God will not play by our rules and because in the fullness of time when God had had quite enough of all of that…
• God became human in Jesus Christ to show us who God really is.
• And because when God came to God’s own and we received him not…
• And because God would not be deterred…
• God went so far as to hang from the cross we built and did not even lift a finger to condemn…
• But said forgive them they know not what they are doing.
• And because Jesus Christ defeated even death and the grave and rose on the third day…
• And because we all sin and fall short and are forever turned in on ourselves and forget that we belong to God…
• And because God loves God’s creation…
• God refuses for our sin and brokenness and inability to always do the right things to be the last word…
• Because God came to save and not to judge and therefore…
• Therefore…we are saved by grace as a gift and not by the works of the law…
• And this truth will set us free like no self-help plan or healthy living or social justice work “shoulds” can ever do.

This….is why we will never get rid of the confession and absolution in the liturgy.

• It is Law that puts us in the position of hearing Gospel.
• It is a moment when truth is spoken…without apology and without hesitation.
• And for the only time all week…it will crush us…it will break us…and then put us back together.
• It re-forms us…it is re-formation.
• And this is most certainly true.

Mark 10:35-45

In today’s lesson…Jesus’ disciples…pay no attention to Jesus’ words.

• Instead…James and John…frequently called the sons of Zebedee…change the subject completely.
• They try to arrange a great eternal future for themselves.
• They want to sit on the left and right of the soon-to-be-risen Christ’s heavenly throne.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

It is a crude…inappropriate and self-centered request.

• But it should remind us that eternal life is a gift of grace from God.
• Meaning that we can do nothing to earn it.
• So…Jesus responds to James and John by telling them that such a high heavenly position of sitting next to the throne is not his to give.
• But he first asks them something about this life:
• Are they able “to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
• Can they suffer the way that Jesus is about to suffer?
• The flight of the disciples at Gethsemane will show that James and John’s confident ‘We can’ response is overly optimistic.”

 

In many ways…this story is also a challenge to Christians alive today to be all in on following Jesus.

• But at the same time…to be realistic about our inevitable failures to do just that.
• We once resolved to be generous with our time…talent and money.
• But then we allowed ourselves to get overcommitted to our golf game…to our professional club.
• And to a mortgage required to buy a house that is bigger than we need.
• We promised our children that we would be there to love them…teach them…support them.
• But then we got overscheduled.
• And didn’t have much time to talk to them regularly about what they’re learning in school.
• We ended up missing a lot of their sporting events…their dance recitals and their questions about life’s purpose.

 

The lesson here is not to let less-important interests and commitments eat up our time so that our commitment to Christ gets downgraded.

• So…John and James…with misplaced priorities…thought it would be a great goal to sit at Christ’s side in eternity.
• But by focusing so much on heaven…they risked being no earthly good.

 

When Jesus tells James and John that they will be baptized into the suffering that Jesus was baptized into…

• And will drink the cup of sorrow that Jesus will drink.
• He is simply warning them of all the trouble that is ahead of them because they have committed themselves to being his followers.
• In the case of Zebedee’s boys…what they got wrong was their self-centered desire to become favored citizens in eternity…
• Sitting next to the throne.
• What is it or what will it be that we get wrong?

 

The good news is that we are promised God’s forgiveness for getting things wrong.

• It is what the old hymn calls “Amazing Grace.”

 

When James and John focus on an imagined future of glory for themselves…

• Jesus knows that they are missing the point not only of his life and ministry but also of their own lives.
• And what is that point?
• OK…Jesus says: “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant…and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”
• We see that same counter-cultural approach in the Beatitudes…
• Where Jesus says that the weak shall inherit the Earth and that the kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are poor in spirit.
• And later in the same chapter of Matthew Jesus tells us to love our enemies and to pray for people who persecute us.

 

Now this is precious…multiple pastors…in the Southern Baptist Convention…

• Have reported that congregants have objected to their preaching about Christ’s Sermon on the Mount…
• Because they believe that “love your enemies” is a liberal talking point that does not work anymore.
• I would love to hear a response to that directly from Jesus.
• The fact is that Christ’s whole life and purpose constituted a response to that.
• He told everyone that if they want to follow him…they must take up their cross.
• And surely it can be a cross to love your enemies.
• And…frankly…sometimes even to love your friends and family.

 

But trying to love our enemies can be enormously liberating.

• It means we are freed from debasing others.
• It means we need not fight fire with fire.
• If…instead of wanting to sit at Christ’s side throughout eternity…
• We simply commit ourselves to loving others the way Jesus loved…
• We will be so busy comforting the afflicted…
• As well as sometimes afflicting the comfortable…
• That we will not have time to worry about where we will be in eternity.
• And that can make the present feel a lot more like heaven than it does today.
• Now…one final thought.
• Again… What is it or what will it be that we get wrong?

 

I was only 18 years old.

• Late one night I got a call from a close friend.
• “My dad is on the way to the hospital” he said. “It’s really bad.” His voice was shaking.

 

I was shocked. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to do.

• I told my friend that I was so sorry.
• I told him I would pray for him.
• And then I went to sleep.
• I called my friend the next morning. No answer.
• I asked around.
• He was at the hospital.

 

The same pattern repeated for two long days:

• I would call. No answer.
• I’d ask about him and find out he was at the hospital.
• But I did not go.
• I remember feeling some irrational confidence that his father would be fine.
• I remember being busy.
• I remember feeling not quite prepared to face such pain and loss.
• Then I got the call: My friend’s father had died.

 

I did go to the visitation. I knew that is what friends do.

• What happened next is burned into my heart.
• When I walked in the door…my friend came up to me…looked at me with immense hurt and said:
• “Where were you?”

 

I had no answer then. I have no answer now.

• I failed…and the older I get the better I understand the magnitude of my failure.
• I had violated the first commandment of friendship: presence.
• Simply being there was all that had been required.
• I could not pass even that one simple test.

 

The most Christ-like service we can offer is simply “being there.

• To be the “servant” envisioned by Jesus means putting aside our own needs to extend the compassion of Jesus to another.
• Jesus acknowledged that what he is asking is not easy.
• Emptying ourselves of our own sense of self for the sake of others demands a great deal from us.
• But there is also a promise here:
• That when we resolve to imitate Jesus’ compassion…
• The grace of God’s wisdom and strength will be upon us.
• It starts with loving enough to “be there.

Mark 10:17-31

He was any parents’ dream match for their daughter.

• He was rich…he was successful…he was intelligent…he was religious…he was moral.
• What more could you ask for?
• He was respectful…he knew when to speak…when to keep silent.
• Anyone would have been glad to have him as a husband for his or her daughter.
• Yet this man…full of promise and used to being in the good graces of those around him…
• Came to Jesus happy and left sad.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

He was the only man in the gospels who spoke with Jesus…

• And when the conversation was over…
• Left sorrowful and disheartened.

 

This man referred to as the “rich young ruler” from the composite picture of him from Matthew…Mark and Luke…

• Came to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life.
• He came with various assumptions.

 

His first assumption was that something was missing in his life.

• Looking at his very successful life he realized that there had to be more.
• Perhaps he saw people with far less stuff than he had…
• And yet they seemed more content than he was.
• Happier…more joy filled.

 

It is as if he had hit the lottery big.

• Promising him great happiness.
• But stories abound of those who indeed hit it big.
• Only to lose it all and be far less happy than before.
• This man…for all his wealth… realized there was something lacking in his life.

 

His second assumption was that Jesus had the answer he was looking for.

• “Good teacher…what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
• While Jesus said “good” was an attribute only for God…
• He did answer the man’s question.

 

But the man came to Jesus that day with some mistaken assumptions too.

• “What must I do?”
• Living a prosperous life…this man apparently had discovered a formula for success.
• The gospels do not tell us how he became rich.
• But we can speculate from the formulas that lead to riches today:
• “Buy low…sell high.”
• “Work harder than everyone else.”
• “See a need and fill it.”

 

Whatever his formula was…it worked for him.

• So…it was only natural that he would apply this same formula to his spiritual life.
• Jesus had an answer for this assumption:
• “It’s not what you do…
• But what I do.”

 

Another mistaken assumption was that he would get credit for what he had already done.

• He came to Jesus with impeccable credentials.
• He looked at the Ten Commandments…
• Well…those from the second half of the list anyway…
• And said that he had already accomplished them.
• He had learned the commandments and had kept them all since he was a boy.

 

A third mistaken assumption this man brought to Jesus was that God is pleased by good people who do not do anything wrong.

• Who keep their name off the front page of the newspaper.
• Who pay their taxes.
• Who are decent neighbors.

 

This assumption lives as strong as ever today.

• If you ask someone walking down the street:
• “If there is a heaven…why do you think you will go there?”
• Their answer will be:
• “Well…I’m a pretty good person…
• I mean…it’s not like I’m going out and robbing or killing people.
• So…yeah…I think I’m going to heaven.”

 

At first glance…Jesus’ response to this man seems to be right on target.

• The man asked what he must do…
• And Jesus told him:
• “Go…sell everything you have and give it to the poor…”

 

The command by Jesus to go and sell everything was guided by Jesus’ love for him.

• “Jesus…looking at him…loved him.”

 

What Jesus was asking of the man was that he remember the first two Commandments.

• You shall have no other gods before me.
• You shall have no idols.

 

Jesus was not telling him what to do.

• He was telling him that he had too many gods!
• The way to enter the kingdom of God…
• And to inherit eternal life…
• Is to have no other gods before God.
• Jesus rightly identified the man’s god.

 

The rich young man’s brief encounter with Jesus quickly revealed his god:

• “He went away sad…because he had great wealth.”

 

In a world where the goal for many is to live well and behave morally…

• As this young man did…
• It’s easy to say:
• “I’m doing okay by myself.
• I’ve got enough stuff to see me through.
• I know there’s something missing…
• But just don’t ask me to give up what I’ve got.”

 

When the disciples asked Jesus:

• “Who then can be saved?”
• Jesus told them this could only happen with God.
• When the disciples said they had already given up everything…
• Jesus reminded them that whatever they had given up or left behind…
• Paled in comparison to what they would gain in the age to come.

 

 

Like the rich young ruler…we are challenged by Jesus too.

• Not to do more…
• But to bein the presence of the risen Christ.
• By following him and trusting in him alone.
• By gladly surrendering our whole self to him.
• And living by faith and joy?
• Now this is something to sing about!

 

Mark 10: 2-16

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) died over 60 years ago.

• Born in Ireland and educated in England…he lost his mother at an early age.
• He served in World War I…
• Turned to atheism for answers.
• He spent his life in academia and was ultimately…as he put it in the title of his autobiography…Surprised by Joy.

 

The Lord be with you

And also with you

 

CS Lewis’ return to Christianity led to a stream of Christian books that continue to challenge…inspire and convert many skeptics to this day.

• Toward the end of his sojourn on earth…he met the love of his life…Joy Davidman (1915-1960).
• Joy was an American admirer who sought him out.
• Their love story was capped with her heroic struggle against cancer…
• And after her death in 1960…Lewis wrote one of his greatest works…a slim volume titled A Grief Observed.
• The book was so personal Lewis published it under a pseudonym.
• His friends…observing first-hand his struggles with grief…
• Gave him copies of his own book…hoping it would provide him with comfort.

 

The one jarring note in this love story was the struggle Lewis and Joy Davidman had in getting married during Joy’s battle with cancer.

• Davidman was a divorcee…and many clergy…some of them Lewis’ close personal friends…
• Refused to perform the marriage ceremony because of Jesus’ words regarding divorce and remarriage.
• At last…though…the couple found a sympathetic clergyman and the two were married before Joy’s death.

 

Perhaps no words by Jesus have been interpreted so literally and so misinterpreted so painfully.

• Women who flee brutal domestic violence are nevertheless told they cannot remarry.
• And must remain single parents…necessitating working two or three jobs.
• Some Christians who divorce and remarry discover they are not welcome in the church they loved.
• Others attend church but do so as second-class citizens…
• Unable to become full members or to take part in certain aspects in the life of the church.
• Some feel driven away from Christianity entirely.

 

OK then…here’s the thing:

• Some Pharisees asked Jesus: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
• According to Mark…they asked the question to test Jesus.
• To trap him…those asking the question were not interested in the issue of divorce.
• They were interested in spinning any answer Jesus might give to make him look bad…to trap him.

 

So…Jesus answered their question with a question:

• “What did Moses command you?”
• Their response gets to the heart of the matter.
• They said: “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.”

 

“Moses” was a term used to refer to the Torah…the first five books of our Bible…Genesis through Deuteronomy.

• There are…starting with the Ten Commandments…612 laws in those books of the Bible.
• Some…like the ten commandments…are foundational.
• Some expand on the ten.
• And some are what are known as case law…written to address specific cases…and not necessarily every instance.

 

So…what was Moses addressing in that statement?

• In Deuteronomy it says: “Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman…
• But she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her…
• So…he writes her a certificate of divorce…puts it in her hand…and sends her out of his house.
• She then leaves his house and goes off to become another man’s wife.”

 

Well…straight forward and cut and dried…right?

• Please the man or get out.
• Indeed…there are some men who would use this law to become tyrants in their homes…
• With a biblical warrant for their actions.
• But the devil is in the details.

 

That word “objectionable” whose translation of this passage appears in the Word Biblical Commentary…reads:

• “Because he finds in her some shamefully expressed thing or an obnoxious thing or a naked thing.”
• What seems to be implied is public…lewd activity…
• Not some question of whether dinner is served at 5:05 instead of 5:00 o’clock sharp.

The Deuteronomy passage is an item of case law designed to address a specific problem.

• And not meant to be used universally or literally for all marriages.
• And the text assumes that it is normal and natural for the woman to remarry.
• Jesus knew they were quoting this so far out of context that they might as well be operating from another religion’s book altogether.

 

OK…this is important…the passage assumes that the wife will marry another.

• She is not barred from further marriage.
• And now listen…there are additional words in this passage that directly address abuse by men:
• “Then suppose the second man dislikes her…
• Writes her a certificate of divorce…puts it in her hand…
• And sends her out of his house.
• Her first husband…who sent her away…is not permitted to take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled.
• For that would be abhorrent to the Lord…
• And you shall not bring guilt on the land that the LORD your God is giving you as a possession.”

 

So then…men cannot divorce and remarry their spouses as a way of swapping wives…nor as a way of draft dodging.

• What? Let’s read the next verse:
• “When a man is newly married…he shall not go out with the army or be charged with any related duty.
• He shall be free at home one year…to be happy with the wife whom he has married.”

 

You hear that? You don’t marry a woman…get a year free from military service…

• Swap wives so you get another year’s exemption.
• And then remarry your first spouse so that you get yet another free pass.
• And perhaps by this time the war is over anyway.

 

So…there it is…since women were in a vulnerable position in first-century Judea…Jesus created a case law of his own:

• Stop abusing women by misusing Deuteronomy.
• Instead…care for your spouse.

 

When Jesus says we need to become like a little child…he is suggesting we ought to stop having such a high opinion of ourselves…

• Thinking we are God’s gift to humanity…and to stop acting like dictators.
• Our value comes from God’s eyes.
• And fortunately…God’s eyes are the eyes of love.

 

Jesus himself is a model of how this should be done:

• When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well…
• Divorced five times and living with her current companion…
• He saw her as someone who could hold up her end of a complex dialog.
• An outcast who had the potential to evangelize her whole village.

No one should go into marriage thinking: “At the first sign of trouble I’m bailing.”

• Yet…there are abusers and users…tyrants and those who want to drag others into their damnation.
• But most of all…if we believe in death and resurrection…
• Then the death of divorce should lead to hope and new life.
• Offering grace…hope and love to the vulnerable among us.
• That is what I call gospel.
• That is what I call Good News.

Mark 9:38-50

Growing up I was scared stiff of these verses in Mark’s Gospel that we just heard…

• Where Jesus says that if your hand causes you to sin cut it off…
• And if your foot causes you to sin cut that off too.
• And if your eye causes you to sin gauge it out.
• I remember when I was 5 years old…I stole candy from the little mom & pop store across the street from my house.
• And then hid it under my bed.
• And I remember hearing this passage soon after that and thinking how my hand had indeed caused me to sin.
• And then and there I decided to never steal again lest Jesus insist I hack off my hand.
• Well…Jesus did not hack off my hand.
• But my mom made me give the candy back to the store owner and apologize for stealing his candy.

 

The Lord be with you

And also with you

 

Here’s the thing though: My hand and my eye and my foot cannot be blamed for my stumbling.

• To find the culprit behind my sin do not look at my hand.
• Look at my heart…my poor feet just do what they are told.
• But…it would seem…based on this text from Mark’s Gospel…this is what discipleship looks like.
• Being willing to mutilate yourself to avoid sin.
• This is a text of terror for children.
• It’s like the Gospel according to Beetlejuice.

 

The reading we just heard talks of stumbling…not of sin.

• So…I started getting curious about the word stumble.
• Stumble in Greek is scandalizo from the word group scandalon…from which we get scandal.
• So…then we might think of this text as saying we need to cut from us the things that trip us up.
• The things that cause scandals and dramas?

 

Since it is political campaign season…I was thinking about what the word scandal means in the political world.

• Scandals are when everything stops so that something small can be made into something huge…
• So that no one will pay attention anymore to the real story.
• Scandals are always a distraction from the main thing.
• And no one seems to love a scandal…a stumbling block…more than Americans do.

 

So…I wonder…rather than suggesting we literally hack off our own limbs…

• If Jesus is making a strong point about how critical it is to remember what the real story is.
• Maybe his warning against stumbling is a warning against focusing too much on anything that is not the main thing.
• And this is really a simple definition of sin:
• Placing something or someone or some accomplishment at the center…
• And making it…and not God…the source of our identity.
• It is loving something…as God…that is not God.
• It is giving our heart to that…which cannot love us like God can.

 

When these things feel like the main thing…they need to be cut away.

• Sometimes we might have the insight and will to cut from ourselves the things…the scandals…that distract us from the main thing.
• Perhaps…we may know the thing that needs to be cut out of our life…
• And we may even have the fortitude to do it.

But sometimes these things get ripped from us by God.

• I have had acquaintances tell me things like:
• “I still cannot believe I actually am coming to church.”
• Meaning: “My resentment toward religion and how it has hurt me is no longer the main thing.
• That scandal has been cut from me enough that I am now part of a spiritual community again.
• And I am happy it happened.”

 

Or someone says to me:

• “I cannot believe I am going to seminary.”
• “I can’t believe I am giving away 10 percent of my income.”
• “I can’t believe I see my work in corporate America as a Christian vocation now.”
• “I can’t believe that I no longer hate some of the people I use to love to hate.”
• “I can’t believe it. “

 

When we say: “I cannot believe such and such has changed in my life”…pay attention to that.

• Because our bafflement at this stuff is called being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
• It’s called living as a person of faith.
• I thought all this stuff about following Jesus was a matter of mustering up enough self-discipline to amputate my own limb.
• We figure that we are the ones who must hack off our hands and feet…
• And gouge out our own eyes and give away all our possessions…
• And shrink our camel-sized selves down to needle-eye size.
• But in fact…it tends to be God who does this for us…
• Who prunes us…feeds us…cuts us and our bank accounts down to size and shapes us.

 

This is why we gather every single week and tell the same story.

• We gather as the people of God and tell the same story because THAT STORY is THE STORY.
• And we simply must be reminded of it again and again because we are so easily distracted.

 

And here’s the thing:

• THAT STORY of God’s redeeming work for all of creation that happens in the birth…life…death…and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we tell every single week.
• THAT STORY is an axe.

 

And anything that we put in the center:

• Job…relationship…money…status…pride…accomplishments…politics… security.
• The things that lure us with promises that can only be given by God.
• The things that cause us to stumble.
• The promise in the Gospel text is this:
• All that stands in the place of…
• And all that would keep us from God will be burned away.

 

My confession is this:

• I do not go to church to have my needs met.
• I go to church to have my needs changed.
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ will never meet my needs.
• But watch out.
• Because it WILL change our needs.
• And that is the most beautiful thing I can tell you.

Mark 9:30-37

Miss Susan and I raised four children…and they are all wonderful adults…

• But we must tell you…that children really are a mess.
• And yet it is children who Jesus uses to teach us today in our Gospel reading.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

So…here is what is happening:

• Jesus and his disciples are on the road…and he starts talking some nonsense about how he will be betrayed and killed and raised from the dead and his disciples had no idea what that meant.
• But they were too faint-hearted to ask…so instead…they just start trash talking with each other.

 

And then when they go inside Jesus just kind of stretched his arms out…yawned and said:

• So… what were you guys arguing about on the road.
• And they all totally freeze up…guilt stricken…
• Since they were not exactly talking about how to care for the poor.
• Or who might need some extra prayer.
• They were talking about themselves…
• And like insecure high school boys they were arguing about who was the greatest among them.
• And then they were ashamed to tell the truth about that.

 

To which Jesus says: whoever wants to be great must be least.

• So…he takes a small child and places that child among them.
• And he takes the child into his arms and says: whoever welcomes such a child as this in his name welcomes him…and indeed…welcomes God.

 

But here is a caution.

• Lest…when we hear this story…we picture a cute little well-dressed kid from an ad for the Gap.
• We should consider how differently children were treated and perceived in Jesus’ day.
• It is difficult to remember that the sentimentality we Westerners attach to childhood is a recent thing.
• It really was not until the 18^th century that children were viewed as innocent and angelic.
• These days our images of children come from Norman Rockwell paintings emblazoned in our minds.
• But it was not like that in the first century.
• In Jesus’ time…there was not a growing market for adorableness like there is today.

 

These children did not take bubble baths before being tucked into their Sesame Street bed sheets and read The Cat and The Hat.

• There was no sentimentality about childhood because childhood was a time of terror.
• Children in those days only had value as replacement adults.
• Children were more like mongrel dogs than they were beloved members of a family.
• Children died all the time.
• Children were dirty and useless and often unwanted.
• And to teach his disciples about greatness and hospitality…Jesus puts not a chubby-faced angel…
• But this kind of child in the center.
• Folds this kind of child into his arms and says…
• When you welcome the likes of this child you welcome me.

 

That is a serious lesson in Christian welcome that Jesus is teaching us.

• And we…like the disciples…should welcome the messy reality of having children among us as if we are welcoming God’s own self.
• I often wonder if the distracting noise of children in worship is more pleasing to the ears of our Lord than even the most perfect choir anthem.

 

OK…here’s the thing:

• What if the child is a stand-in for us…not a generic us…I mean us…here…in this place.
• I started to wonder why it was…earlier in the story…that the disciples did not ask Jesus some simple clarifying questions.
• Why were they having an argument about who was the greatest?
• And why could they not admit to it later when he asked what they were talking about?
• And that made me think about times when I had been too afraid to ask a question about something.
• Feeling others would think it was a stupid question.
• I thought about the times when I had been showoff-y like the disciples.
• And the times when I was too ashamed to admit the truth about my smallness.

 

What I want to say is this:

• I want to say that it is the parts of us that differ very little from 1^st century children which are welcomed into the arms of our loving savior.
• The parts of us that are like a useless child who has dried mucus wiped across his unwashed face.
• A child who cannot understand Jesus’ teaching at all.
• A child who has nothing to offer.
• Who no one else wants around.
• Who no one else even notices is there.
• A child who has zero ability to make himself worthy.
• These are the very parts of us that Jesus folds into his arms and says…welcome.

 

Jesus folds us into his loving arms…that which is messy and worthless and unable to help itself…and God says “welcome”.

• We are placed in the center and are held in the arms of Jesus…
• And are welcomed into the life of God and God’s people.
• God bless the children.