The Gifts We Bring Epiphany Sermon on Matthew 2:1-12 January 9, 2019

There are people with the love language of giving and receiving gifts, like my sister and my son. They both of that knack of picking out just the right thoughtful object with a personal touch complete with impeccable gift wrap. I, on the other hand, am not a good gift giver. At Christmas time and for birthdays for my friends and family, I literally freeze up with indecision on what to purchase or offer. And usually it’s lame. I personally love the invention of gift cards, as then I can let other people pick out what they want, but this also feels hallow, insincere and impersonal, even when I don’t intend it to be. And my presents always look like a three year old wrapped them-and now that my kids are grown and I can’t pass it off that I had them help me.

Gifts are important-not for the material objects that are traded back and forth, but for the personal connections that they signal. The proclamation of the deep and abiding relationship that exists between the giver and the receiver. Receiving gifts can be tricky as well. When I receive a tangible gift, my first reaction is almost always guilt. Guilt that I could never come up with as thoughtful a gift as was offered, or was what I offered as thoughtful or equal? Or the worst-I receive a gift from someone whom I never expected and I didn’t have anything to offer in return. Ugh.

Gifts are the center of our Christmas and Epiphany season. Yes, the tangible gifts we give and receive, but the unexpected gift of God’s love made flesh in Jesus. A gift that we tend to take for granted in the Church and yet, when I reflect, meditate and ponder on this gift-occupational hazard-I realize how incomprehensible it is that God would take the form of a BABY. That God would take on human skin, human joys, human sorrows, human sickness, human messiness and human death-all to be with us, redeem us and love us.

And what do I offer in return? Everything I have seems inadequate in comparison to the gift of Jesus-and yet, I’m always stunned by this story of the Magi and how they enthusiastically, reverently and unswervingly simply offered what they had. Gifts that don’t match what a baby or a young family need. Gifts that in many ways seem useless and frivolous. Gifts that we might say (except maybe gold) “now what am I going to do with that?” Even with just straight up gold, you have to go through a process to have it translate into anything useful-a gold bar or necklace isn’t going to buy your groceries without some work.

And we simultaneously get hung up on the monetary value of the gifts-these were not cheap, chinzy, dollar store gifts-these gifts had some value as well as meaning in Jesus’ time. It makes me wonder-what gifts would I bring to Jesus today? How do we respond to the greatest gift we’ve ever received in God’s love incarnate? Do my gifts need to be flashy and expensive? What if we look at these gifts from a different perspective?

Gold was the first gift mentioned: possessing value in nearly every time and culture. Giving money in our time and context has become common place and can distance us from ministry. I can placate myself by saying “well I gave money to the rescue mission, so maybe I don’t have to actually go down there where it’s dirty and feels less safe.” But what if the real treasure is the giving of our hearts to God’s people, what if the true gold is the risk of allowing our hearts to be broken open and offered wholly to God’s people for the sake of sharing the gift of heart moments-deep relational connections?

Bev (8:15) and Keri (10:30) will walk forward at this point and will put an object by the manger that represents their heart work/ministry and say “I offer my gift of connecting my heart with other people’s hearts to be with them on the journey.”

We all have hearts of gold to offer God and God’s people.

The second gift is the perfume, frankincense. It was used in religious worship in the time of Jesus and is still used as an essential healing oil. Traditionally, it is also affiliated with wisdom and spirit. What wisdom do we offer God’s world as disciples? I know that the wisdom of God is often at odds with the wisdom of the world. The apostle Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians. The wisdom of loving one’s neighbor as much as ourselves is in direct opposition of a world that says worry about yourself first, fear anyone who isn’t like you and we must be autonomous and able to take care of ourselves. But like perfume wafts over us and we all breathe in the same fragrance, so the Holy Spirit fills us all and connects us with love, grace and mercy-God’s wisdom that can heal the world. How does God’s wisdom change the world?

Doug (8:15) and Josh (10:30) will walk forward at this point and then place their symbolic object at the manger and use the microphone to say something like: “I offer my gift of connecting with God’s wisdom and the Holy Spirit so that all people know God’s healing love, grace and mercy.”

We all share in God’s wisdom and Holy Spirit to change the world.

Then there is myrrh. This gift is one that points us from life to death. Myrrh is a spice/oil that was used in preparation of bodies for burial. It’s mentioned in John 19 and Mark 15 at the death and burial of Jesus. This embalming oil offered to baby or really toddler Jesus, is a dark reminder of what is to come. Death on a cross, burial in a dark tomb. But it also points us to the resurrection, life eternal with God. God overcomes death, all the little deaths of our daily lives and the finality of the end of this existence to point us to the promise of life without end, life in wholeness, life in love and life in the light of God. Myrrh also heralds that God holds nothing from us and the life of Jesus draws us all back into the life of God. And not just for us individually, or for a certain few, but for all. When we live our lives for God, people notice, even if we don’t say a word about God.  People notice that there is something different, that we aren’t focused on the same things as everyone else, we have different priorities. Our lives are not for us alone but for others. This is hard as we are in some ways wired for self-preservation too. But when we recognize our lives as already belonging to God, what changes? And so how is it that we offer our lives, our whole lives to God too?

Evan (8:15) and Brian (10:30) come forward at this point to the manger and place the symbolic object at the manger and say something like “I offer the gift of my life to God’s work with God’s people so that they will know God’s promises of life, love and light forever.”

We all share in the promises of life forever with God and in the call to live our lives for others.

Gifts. We all have them. God has given each of us something unique and important to share that the world needs. The gift of our hearts, the gift of our spirits that connect with God’s Holy Spirit and the gift of our very lives to live not for ourselves but for others. We have these gifts from God through Jesus. God gave God’s heart, spirit and life in the coming of Christ to reveal that we are part of this great gift, we are offered this great gift unconditionally, and we are free to respond. God doesn’t offer this gift expecting reciprocation, as the honest truth is that we can’t fully reciprocate the splendor of God’s grace and love for and with us forever. But we can respond. We can respond with our hearts, spirits and lives in overt and subtle ways. We respond with a diaper drive for Inner City Health Center, we respond with the Souper Bowl of Caring to feed the hungry, we respond with college and military care packages, we respond by building a Habitat House, we respond by supporting refugees and immigrants seeking safety and stability with our partner churches. We respond with our actions and voices to say “NO” to systemic injustices such as racism, gender and sexual orientation discrimination and like the Magi defying Herod’s order to return to him, we follow God’s way and not the way of powers and principalities. The most powerful response to hate in the world we have as followers of Jesus is radical, risky all-in love and acceptance of all people. Jesus always responded to people with love and so we are called to do the same. We have the gifts the world needs, God has made sure of that. If you think that you don’t have anything to offer, let me assure that you do. And like the Magi, we don’t stay at the manger, we go back to our homes, communities, work places and daily life, bolstered by the gift of God’s love that we receive and we give.  Amen.

*We have a prayer station as part of our Epiphany celebration in the fellowship hall. You can take a star and write the gift you offer to God and place it on the banner. We will fill the banner with our gifts to God!

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Good News of Great Joy!Sermon for Christmas Eve 2018 December 28, 2018

This sermon was preached on Dec. 20 at 5 p.m. and Dec. 24 and 7 pm. Both can be found on http://www.bethanylive.org

The text was Luke 2: 1-20

Children’s sermon: Bring the children forward and have a plain amazon box.

I’m sure you recognize this! It’s an Amazon box! We seemed to have many of these come to our door this week! And I’m sure you did too! Every time a box came to our home, it was a reminder that someone who lived far away in our family or from our friends was thinking of us! Now, the plain box itself is one thing, but then when we open it, the gifts inside are decorated with fun paper or bows, like this, on them. When we wrap gifts, we often think of how special that person is to us and we hope that the gift we send makes them happy. But it’s not really about the gifts. Maybe in the past you’ve received a toy that you really wanted, fun new pajamas, a new bike or gaming system and that made you happy. But toys break, we outgrow pajamas or bikes and technology will stop working. Does that mean that the person who gave you those things no longer loves you? NO! Those things made us happy, being loved never stops and that is what joy is all about. Joy is about being connected to love: people who love us: moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, friends, teachers, and that we love all of those people too.

In our Christmas story tonight we heard an angel tell the shepherds good news of great joy for ALL people. What was that good news? Jesus was born!!! God loves us so much that God came to us as baby Jesus, to connect us to God’s love and to each other and this is great joy! Everyone, you, me, everyone here, everyone in the world, is connected to God and God’s love and are filled with Great Joy! God wanted the shepherds, Mary, Joseph and us to know that we are loved, and are God’s Great Joy. We are part of God forever. And God’s Great Joy can’t be put in a box or under our tree, It’s so big that it covers the whole world! And so as people who are God’s Great Joy-our job is to tell everyone we see that they are God’s Great Joy too! Just like we put bows on presents to remind the person that they are special, I have a bow for each of you tonight to remind you that you are special, connected to God and God’s Great Joy forever!

It’s easy to feel isolated and alone in our world today. Between long hours at work, everyday tasks at home, child care, caring for aging parents, and the list goes on and on, it’s difficult to find time to deeply connect with friends, family or even ourselves. Researchers have found that we are more isolated than ever in our modern times, despite technology that can connect us instantly. The greatest threat to the health of people over the age of 65 is loneliness. But loneliness isn’t only about geography, not being able to leave your home. Life situations can also make us feel lonely. Have you ever felt alone in a crowded room such as this one tonight? Things like divorce, job difficulties, money issues, health issues, depression, can all make us feel alone and can be isolating.  I remember the loneliness of being at home with very young children who didn’t speak in complete sentences and all I wanted most days was another adult to talk to about anything. I loved playgroups and my Mothers of Preschoolers group where I could actually hear sentences that consisted of more than three words about topics besides Cheerios. I loved being with my children, yet it’s hard to be a parent in the best of situations and I sometimes struggled. Going to MOPS connected me with other moms and they shared their struggles with me and we all felt less alone.

We are wired for connection as human beings. This is not an accident or a coincidence. As humans, each one of us, created in God’s own image, God embedded in our hearts, minds and bodies the need to be together in community. This is the heart of our Christmas story tonight. I can only imagine the loneliness of Mary and Joseph as just the two of them trudged along for miles with a donkey-only to arrive in a town where no one knew them or would welcome them in. The loneliness and fear of having a baby with no mother or mother-in-law, aunt or grandma to hold your hand as a family of two became three. Or the loneliness of the shepherds out in the middle of nowhere, outcast and looked down upon from society because of their vocation with smelly animals. Yes, perhaps two or three of them worked together, but it was still lonely work.

But then, it all changed. An angel appeared out of the dark and proclaimed that loneliness is dispelled, there is good news! God has come to be with you! You are not alone! God’s love, God’s great joy connects you to God and to all of God’s people, no matter what you do for a job, no matter who you are, no matter how much money you make, how much you do or don’t struggle, how large your family is, or where you live. Go and see that you are connected with God’s great love and joy! And the shepherds went to Bethlehem, to connect with Mary and Joseph, to let them know that they are not alone either, that God is connecting unlikely people, in unlikely ways, for great purpose of sharing God’s Great Joy with all the earth!

God’s Great Joy is good news for us all tonight. God’s Great Joy through Jesus connects us, to God and to each other. We matter, our neighbors near and far matter as we are all connected to God’s work of love in the world. This Great Joy is pure gift, it doesn’t depend on what we do or don’t do, because like the angels came to the shepherds, this Great Joy finds us no matter where we are.

This Great Joy is so expansive that it can’t be contained to a manger, to a stable, to the shepherding fields, to the skies filled with angels, to a cross or an empty tomb. God’s Great Joy can’t be contained to you, me, this building, Denver or Colorado. God’s Great Joy blankets the earth and connects us all so that loneliness, darkness, despair and death are no more. Jesus, who is love, light and joy made flesh to be with humanity, is God’s promise that nothing disconnects us from God, or each other. This is grace. This is indeed Great Joy. This is for us all and it is for you.

Like the shepherds, we can’t hold this Great Joy inside, and so we go to glorify and praise God with our whole lives. We share this Great Joy when we offer a smile to a stranger, write a note to someone who needs affirmation, collect food for a those in need, say a prayer for those who suffer, take time to listen to an opinion different from our own, lift our voice for those who are voiceless in our world, or simply say “You are loved” to someone who needs to be reminded.

Good news of Great Joy: God came to us, to connect with us and to connect us to each other. Great Joy is from God and overflows and for all people. You are part of God’s Great Joy, now and forever. Glory to God in the highest.

Let Go to Prepare: Sermon on Luke 3: 1-6 Advent 1 December 2, 2018

This sermon was preached at Bethany Lutheran Church in Cherry Hills Village, CO on Dec. 2. It can be viewed at http://www.bethanylive.org.

The texts are Jeremiah 33: 14-16 and Luke 3: 1-6

Children’s message: Have a basket of balls (about the size of ball pit balls-the light plastic ones) and a volunteer. (I prefer to use adults as asking a child or youth on the spot is not really fair, or consent.) Explain that you are going to throw the balls one at a time to the other person to see if they can catch all of them (about 4-5 is plenty). Start pitching to the volunteer. They will probably be able to catch two but then will need to drop a ball to catch another one. “It’s hard to catch another ball when you already have something in your hands isn’t it? How could Jeff catch each one? By letting go of each ball after he catches it? Ok let’s try that! Have the catcher catch a ball and then put it down (have another basket for them so that they don’t roll). Hmmmm, (to the catcher) was that easier? Why? (Have them say that when they let go of the ball, they could be prepared for the next one coming their way.) yes! That is best isn’t it? Our life is like that too. Sometimes we have to let go of something in order to be ready for the next thing that God wants to give us. Maybe it’s letting go of being a first grader to get to go to second grade, or stop doing soccer to have time for ballet, or letting go of your room for a new baby brother or sister, or here in the Advent season we are preparing for Christmas and so we might let go of some space in our living rooms for a tree or let go of and give away toys that you are too old for and someone else can use, or let go of those delicious cookies your family makes to share with someone. In our Bible story today, John is telling people that in order to prepare for Jesus, they have to let go. They have to let go of worrying about if they are good enough, they have to let go of what people might think of them and they have to let go of worrying if they are keeping all the rules perfectly for God to love them. They have to drop those things so that they are prepared to catch all of the love and grace that is coming at them from Jesus. Just like Jeff’s hands were open and ready to catch a ball, our hearts have to be open and ready to catch God’s love from Jesus because God’s love is coming no matter what! Let’s pray:

Life can feel like we constantly have balls being thrown at us to catch. Balls to catch of expectations from others and of ourselves. This time of year, it seems that the expectations are high to have the perfectly decorated house, tree, perfect gifts, cards to send out, food prepared, and the list can go on and on of all the preparation expectations we feel from culture and we put on ourselves. Little secret: I haven’t sent Christmas cards in 14 years. It’s so freeing! Try it! I let it go. So much of life is letting go. There has been a lot in my life (besides Christmas cards) that I’ve had to let go of. Whether is was my childhood dream of being a professional violinist, letting go of my children as they have become young adults, letting go of the idea that our parents will be around forever, letting go of what my own aging and mid-life is like. And there have been many times that letting go was the scariest and hardest thing I did, and I was convinced that it was simply the end of everything. And then it wasn’t. When I let go of my fear and the story I was telling myself of what life should and would be like, I could be ready, open and prepared for what was actually happening next: and it was usually something I never expected.

We often think that preparation is a long task list of to-dos that we have to check off or is making sure that we have all of our ducks in a row. But John the Baptist offers the people and us a different view of preparation. Preparation for what is next, is really about letting go.

Luke gives us the setting for John’s ministry by providing a list of several of the rulers of the Roman Empire that were prominent in the region as well as the chief priests of the Jewish Temple Institution. Luke does this to remind us that there were indeed secular and religious powers at work whose main agenda was control over the population in order to maintain status quo. Luke then states of John that he is the son of Zechariah, a priest from the back country and that John, himself, is in the wilderness. John is a nobody from nowhere. But his proclamation is so compelling that people are flocking to him in the middle of nowhere. He baptizes them for the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness means letting go-letting go of sin-what separates them from God. He tells the people to let go of their sin because it’s not what defines them. And while you’re at it: let go of who the Roman Empire says you are, let go of who the Temple system says you are. Let go of those definitions of yourself. Let go of all of that because the Messiah is coming to proclaim the truth of who you are. You are more than your sin, the things you have done and left undone. You are more than your wealth or poverty, your ethnicity, your gender or status in the Empire. You are more than the sacrifices you offer at the Temple, or whether you are deemed clean or unclean. When you let go of those identities you can then be prepared for the gift that is coming to you: the gift of being the beloved child of God through Jesus and free to be who God created you to be.

This seems so simple and yet it is the most difficult thing that we can do. To let go of what we think has value in our lives or gives us value: our jobs, homes, cars, family members, what we wear, eat, where we live, our hobbies, our opinions is to prepare for what God values: us just as we are and God comes to us over and over again with this message of love, wholeness and grace. This message indeed levels the playing field: valleys and mountains, rough places and crooked paths are no match for God’s love. But in our culture, this word of the Lord that tells us to let go of what doesn’t give us true life can seem like the words of a lunatic, a crackpot or a lonely voice crying out in the wilderness where no one wants to be. That voice is one that is hard to hear.

A spiritual practice I began a few years ago was to at the beginning of each new liturgical year, to choose a word or short phrase that would help me to hear the voice of God in my life. Last year my word was “breathe,” as I found when I was stressed or anxious, I held my breath instead of breathing in and connecting with the Holy Spirit. I even had a bracelet I wore with that word on it so that I could be reminded. This text made me realize that my phrase for this year will be “letting go.” What do I need to let go of to hear the voice of God? What do I need to let go of in order to be my true and authentic self? Maybe it’s letting go what other people think of me, what the world says I should be, expectations of others, perfectionism, my ego? Maybe it’s letting go of whatever keeps me from truly connecting with others. Letting go is not just about me. Letting go means being open to people around me who think differently, act differently, live differently. The world wants us to hold on tightly to the lie of power, status quo, control and homogeny for the sake of our self-preservation. It’s letting go of my vision of righteousness and justice and, as Jeremiah proclaimed to the Israelites, and being open to God’s vision of wholeness for all people-or as Isaiah says: all flesh. In the love of God through Jesus Christ, I am prepared to let go of bias, bigotry and fear and can be open to receiving the truth that God’s power, righteousness and justice straightens the pathways, levels the valleys and mountains and draws us all into a loving relationship with God and one another.

Letting go will be a powerful spiritual practice for me this year. I invite you to into this spiritual practice and choose a word or phrase that orients you to God’s presence, love and grace.  In Advent, we prepare indeed for this gift from God by letting go of what separates us from God and each other and opening our hands and hearts to receive this unconditional and eternal love through Jesus Christ freely. Amen.

 

 

Consider the Lilies? Yeah, THEY don’t have a mortgage… November 29, 2018

This sermon was preached on Wednesday November 21 at Bethany Lutheran Church in Cherry Hills Village, CO and can be viewed at http://www.bethanylive.org.

 

The text is Matthew 6: 25-33

 

 

“Do not worry,” Jesus says. Yeah, right. I’m a worrier. I worry about everything: my kids and Mike, my job, how to keep everyone happy, should I buy only organic, do I use too much plastic, do I use too much water, retirement, how to stay healthy. Then there’s climate change, the melting polar ice caps, what will the penguins do. And the existential worries: am I a good person, what is my purpose and the classic, do I worry too much because worrying isn’t good for you and Jesus says to not do it…I might drive Mike crazy. But I don’t think I’m alone! The levels of anxiety in our culture and in the US have sky rocketed. Worry does have its uses: worry helps us to make good decisions, to not act impulsively or to plan for the future and not leave everything to chance.

Anxiety is big business in the US: Media and marketers know that we try and tackle these worries with the idea of certainty and trying to control as much of our world as we can. So, they hire celebrities to market products to us that will solve all of our problems and we can stop worrying about things. We can buy our way out of worry and uncertainty. Sounds pretty good to us all doesn’t it? And we’ve ALL fallen for it at one point or another. When we lived in OR, we were convinced by media that we needed a home alarm system, so we had one installed. In reality, it made me MORE nervous having it, using it, setting it, worrying if it would go off, so much so that we deactivated it just a few months later and we’ve never had one since. Owning a home alarm made me more worried about someone breaking in! I had never thought about it much until we put in the alarm and after we deactivated it, my worry went back to nothing. For one thing, we don’t own anything worth stealing so a burglar would quickly figure out that they were in the wrong house….

Worry and anxiety can be paralyzing as it often focuses on ourselves. Worry about our lives, our stuff and ourselves gives us blinders to what is really going on in the world. Worry can skew our perspectives as well as triggering our egocentric tendencies. Fear is the root of worry. How do we live without fear? Jesus is addressing this in our passage tonight. These words are towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus has laid out a litany of faith practices and faith challenges. The verse right before our scripture reading is the oft misrepresented “you cannot serve God and wealth.” Jesus is on a roll about what matters in your life and how we are to live. If you’re constantly in fear and worried about yourself and your stuff, what are you missing? Who are you missing?

We can wax poetic about how the birds and the lilies don’t worry and all is well, but let’s remember that birds don’t always have enough to eat and do die as do the lilies after a few days of no rain. Reality is that we may not always have enough: lay-offs, medical bills, health crisis, recessions, famines, fires, floods. Jesus isn’t saying that there aren’t real reasons to worry, Jesus is saying, will you live in fear or freedom? Who will you focus on in good times and in challenges? Yourself? Or God?

Jesus reminds us that God is at all times and in all places, focusing on you. God is the God of relationship. God is in relationship with the birds, the flowers and yes— you. Jesus knows that fear and worry are real and the fact that God is there in our worry, is also real. Jesus also knows that false gods are shouting at us that they can appease our worry with the latest technology, trend, fad, or object. Hearing God’s voice above the false gods voices of the culture has been humanity’s challenge for thousands of years. False gods tell us to afraid and to worry, to worry about me, myself and I. False gods feed us the lies that it’s all about us. False gods create a culture of fear that there won’t be enough, and so don’t share time, spaces or materials with people different from us.

But our God, the one true God that the writer of 1 Timothy proclaims, creates a culture of unity, wholeness and abundance. God cares for us, knows our needs and calls us to trust in Jesus over the background noise of fear, culture, celebrities, those who fancy themselves in worldly authority and power. Jesus calls us to lift our heads and hearts above our own worries and fears to see the needs of our neighbor and creation, Jesus calls us to see God’s abundance and not live out of a fear of scarcity, calls us to live in trust and to give thanks for the promise of God’s eternal presence with us. Not because then our lives will have certainty, no, we listen to this call to live with joy and freedom in the uncertainty.

Living in fear and worrying doesn’t add anything to our lives or the lives of our neighbors. We lose sight of the beauty of what is right in front of us: like this lily. This lily will die, but there will be more lilies, more life. There will be death, there will be hardship, but that is not the last word in God’s kingdom, there will be life. Life and life abundant is the promise over and over again. There is a lot that the world wants us to worry about. Jesus says, trust in God’s presence, love and care for you and all people in this life and forever. Consider the lilies and Thanksgiving to God, indeed.

 

 

“Who Are You?” Sermon on Reformation and Repentance October 31, 2018

This sermon was preached at Bethany Lutheran Church at Cherry Hills Village, CO on October 28, 2018. It can be viewed at http://www.bethanylive.org.

The texts were Jeremiah 31: 31-34, Romans 3: 19-28 and John 8: 31-36.

Gather the children after the reading of the gospel. Put on the Halloween Cat ears headband! “I love Halloween! It’s fun to pretend to be someone or something else, isn’t it? What are you all going for as Halloween? Wow! Great ideas! Do you ever or did you when you were younger, play dress up? Why do you think it’s fun to be someone different, or try something new? Yep! It’s fun to explore different pieces of our selves, be silly and have fun! But I can wear cat ears all day long and I’ll never be a cat! But have you ever pretended to be someone you’re not to be someone’s friend or have people like you? Or do you hide something about yourself so that people will think that you are a certain way? Such as pretending to like a song, or movie or an activity? Or even pretending to NOT like someone or something? How do you feel when you aren’t really being yourself? Is it hard? We all do this, even or maybe especially adults. If you’re pretending to be someone you’re not, you have to remember to act a certain way, to say certain things all the time and it can feel like your caught in only pretending and not the truth of who you are. Jesus was talking to some people who were pretending to be someone they weren’t. They told Jesus that they were children of Abraham, and forgot some of their past. You see they were really people of God. They had forgotten the truth that they were God’s people and should be acting like God’s people by taking care of and loving each other. The truth is that no matter who we pretend to be: whether is for fun for Halloween or we’re trying to fit in with friends, is that we are children of God first and God loves us always. And the makes us free from worrying about who will like us or not, or who we should be nice to or not because as children of God, who are always loved, then who do we love? Everyone! So that they know the truth of who they are and that they are free in love too! God gives this gift to us all no matter what! I do really love Halloween because it’s silly and fun. So, here’s a little Halloween treat for each of you. But first let’s pray.

As we talked about with the kids, it’s easy to want to pretend to be something we’re not. Many of us probably have stories of pretending to be someone we weren’t. When I was in the 7^th grade, I spent about a week pretending I didn’t need glasses. I am very near sighted and a couple of other issues, and I spent a week not being able to see more than about 2 feet in front of me. But you see, I wanted to be someone else, one of the popular kids at school, and none of the cool, popular kids wore glasses and so it seemed to fit in, I shouldn’t either. Now, it turns out, neither did they play the violin, like Barry Manilow as much as I did, were 4 ft 8, were in advanced classes, or were as church nerdy as I was, but somehow I thought my lack of being with the popular kids had to do with my glasses….yeah. I tried to be something I actually wasn’t and, according to my children, will never be: cool. Nope. No matter how hard I try. I’ll always be a bit nerdy, straight laced, blaring Barry down I-25. I was hoping our hymn of the day could be Copacabana…But it’s who I truly am and I did indeed have friends, friends who knew my heart and liked me for who I was, glasses and all.

Part of being human is experimenting and wrestling with our identity, who we see ourselves to be, who we aspire to be, what we want others to see about us. We convince ourselves that our true selves aren’t lovable and that no one will like us as we really are. We want to belong, even if it means not being true to ourselves, owning our identity and revealing our heart. And this can enslave us in many ways.

And it should be no surprise that this struggle unfolds in our biblical witness. The Israelites have this identity crisis in spades in our John passage this morning, and we don’t have time in one sermon to unpack it. But let’s suffice to sum it up this way: When they tried to be anyone other than the people of God, it went awry, as it does for us all. Slaves in Egypt, captured by Assyria and Babylon, destruction of the temple, occupation by Rome. It’s a mess. Oh no, we’ve never been slaves, they tell Jesus. I sometimes wonder how many times Jesus rolled his eyes and if he ever worried that they might stick that way. RIIIIIGGHHHTTTTT, you’ve never been slaves. Ok. Fine. Then who are you? Are you more concerned with your image or with your relationship with God? Because God is more concerned about a relationship with you, than anything else, Jesus says, to those whom John simply called the Jews, but were probably some of the religious elite. And we should be careful to not think disparagingly of them, as are we no better in this kind of self-deceit? This is why Jesus is trying to reveal to them and us that our true identity as a child of God, even with a bumpy past, is truly our freedom. This is the freedom that Martin Luther came to know after years of trying to be something he could never be: a person who never sinned. This truth of simply being a beloved child of God, free from fear of displeasing God, free from trying to earn God’s love, and free from rules from the Church, spurred Luther to proclaim this epiphany to all who would listen. Luther didn’t want people to confuse church with God and that being the best cobbler, farmer, parent, or whatever, is doing God’s work in the world. We are free in God’s grace to be whomever God calls us to be and no one should judge. But even Luther recognized that “freedom” is tricky.

Freedom in God’s kingdom is very different than our western, 21^st century concept of freedom. Freedom isn’t about self-realization, self sufficiency, individuality or the ability to do whatever you want. Freedom isn’t only about you and you alone. Freedom is linked to relationship with God and so also to your neighbor. Freedom is vulnerability to show your heart, to admit that you need renewal, and to simply be you. You, and each of us, created in the image of God. Freedom is belonging to community, in God’s family, as Jesus says. Jesus shows us that freedom means revealing who we truly are as God’s people. We are people freed to feed, clothe and house those who are unhoused, to comfort those who come to our land seeking safety, peace and a better future. Jesus shows us that freedom is ensuring that our siblings are not harmed or erased by racism, anti-Semitism, or homophobia. Jesus always included in God’s grace people whom the rest of the world dismissed, freeing them from labels and marginalization. Jesus was clear that true freedom is to adhere to the law of love, not just of self, but of your neighbor. Our first graders have spent the last two weeks learning about this freedom in the law of love and will share that today in worship. True freedom is to allow God’s love and grace to transform and reform our hearts and lives daily for the sake of the world. We pray with our Jewish siblings, as we all lament the senseless loss of life of 11 beloved children of God. We must also confess the sin of anti-Semitism that has been perpetuated in the past by our denomination and reform ourselves to do so no more.  May our hearts and lives be transformed and reformed so that we all seek peace, harmony and the abundant life that Jesus offers for all people.

This is heart of the Reformation story from our past and for the Reformation story that we continue to write today. Reformation isn’t a historical action that is completed but is a truth about God’s continuing actions in our lives and in the world today. Reformation is the truth of the soul of God’s Church on earth. Reformation demands that we stop pretending to be anyone but whom God created us to be. Reformation demands that we pour our gifts and hearts into the world despite the risk, despite fear, despite differences, to reveal our true identity as imperfect, broken yet beloved people of God, called to invite all people have an experience of this God who gifts grace, love and mercy unconditionally. Reformation is an invitation to all people to trust in the promises and freedom in God. God’s promises free us to be Reformation people, always being made new, so that we can live into the truth of who we are, and whose we are. As God promised in Jeremiah, God will always be our God and we will always be God’s people, we simply can’t be anyone else. And it’s enough. Thanks be to God.

 

Broken Pieces Sermon on Mark 10: 2-16 October 9, 2018

This sermon was preached at Bethany Lutheran Church on Oct. 7, 2018. It can be viewed on http://www.bethanylive.org.

The texts for this Sunday were Mark 10: 2-16 and Genesis 2: 18-24

Gather the children up front and ask them if they have ever had a favorite toy or other object break. How did they feel about they broken toy/object? Was it able to be fixed? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Not all things can be fixed. This is a bracelet that a dear friend made for me about 14 years ago. I loved it so much and wore it all the time! But then it broke. I didn’t fix it but I’ve kept all the pieces all these years. I sometimes feel like this bracelet looks, all scattered in lots of pieces. Do you ever feel that way? Feel like one of your broken toys? What helps you to feel better?  We all get sad about things breaking, friends moving, or someone no longer being our friend. Things break, sometimes our friendships break and our hearts break too. In our Bible story this morning, there were some people who wanted to Jesus to tell them that some people are too broken for God to love and accept. Jesus instead says that God is all about putting us and our broken hearts back together. Jesus says God wants our hearts, our lives and US to be whole, to be loved and to know that we are important to God. In our Genesis story we heard about God creating people to be together. I handed out to some of you pieces of a big puzzle, let’s put it together: it’s a big heart! We needed all the pieces to make a whole heart! What happens if I take a piece away….yep, it’s not whole. We all matter to God, God understands that our hearts get broken and sent us Jesus show us how God’s love makes us whole again. God, through Jesus, takes broken people and the broken world and makes us whole. We tell each other about this promise of God, like Jesus did in our story, by giving blessings. Jesus blessed the children by a safe touch-on the head or hand-and said words of love to them. Can we say words of love to each other this morning? How about “you matter and are loved by me and by God.” As you go back to you seat, tell the adults around you “you matter and are loved by me and by God.”

We all know what it is like to be broken and we can feel like this bracelet. And we live in a society that tells us to throw away broken things as they don’t have any value and we then extrapolate that to ourselves. It’s been a long week for me of hearing about brokenness. I had jury duty on Monday and the case was sexual assault on a child and those of us in the jury pool were asked to disclose our personal or familial experiences with sexual assault or abuse. All day long stories of pain and brokenness were spoken. I wanted to cry at many points overwhelmed by the sheer preponderance of pain. Then there are the two young people who died by suicide this week from Arapahoe High School. We can only guess at the brokenness that those young people were experiencing and our hearts break with their families and friends. And then the Lutheran Church of Australia once again voted down the opportunity for women to be ordained revealing the brokenness of even religious institutions. And then there is the brokenness being played out on the national stage this week. No matter where you may be on the judicial hearings, we can all agree that this is human brokenness and pain spilling out into the hearts and minds of an entire nation and it’s not what God intends for anyone. I won’t lie, my pastor heart is weary this week.

We all want to have value, worth, to be heard and believed and so we work hard to hide our brokenness or pretend like we’re not. We cover up our pain with anger, blame of others, or we over work, over eat, over drink, over shop, over exercise, or over sleep. Yet, we have these passages this morning that make us look differently at what God does with broken pieces, our pain and systems that devalue some people while over valuing others.  Unfortunately, this Mark passage, as well as the Genesis text, has been misused in the Church and culture to perpetuate brokenness and pain. We forget that these are ancient texts from a particular time and place and aren’t meant to be taken literally in our context today. Marriage simply doesn’t work the way today that it did 2000 years ago, as it was about clan alignment and property.

It also helps to remember that these stories are a part of a bigger story, God’s love story to us. The creation story of humans in Genesis was never meant to form a hierarchy of importance or to limit what people or relationships could look like and our English translations aren’t overly accurate. “Helper” or Ezer in Hebrew, is used in the OT several times and most often refers to God. It means “divine help”, not subordinate help. And “partner” better translates to “correspondent” or “equal.” This is a story of the creation of togetherness in humanity. God takes a piece from the first human, adamah which means dirt, and isn’t actually gendered as male, and creates a second human. Only with the creation of the second human do we get the creation of gender. God creates community from pieces. The now male and female, created equal, are also created for one model togetherness, but not the only model of togetherness.

When the Pharisees asked Jesus questions about divorce, they are looking to test him about this “togetherness.” What happens in divorce Jesus? They were trying to isolate Jesus from gaining any more traction with the crowds, as Mark tells us that people are listening to Jesus and flocking toward him. Jesus’ ministry addresses the isolating pain of ordinary people’s everyday challenges, personal and systemic, head on-healing the sick, casting out demons, returning the unclean to community, providing abundant food from scarcity to fill bellies. Jesus is creating community, togetherness, and not just any kind of community, but community where all matter, all have a voice (especially those who are on the outside of society-women and children), no one is isolated by social or religious laws and brokenness and fear don’t have the last word. You see, Jesus takes the question of divorce and turns it into a statement about God’s desire for togetherness-for all people. In God’s definition of togetherness-all matter, all are needed to create the whole. There is not anyone who is outside of God’s community and it matters how we treat one another.

Jesus is also pointing the people and us to the cross. Jesus knows this is where he is headed because of the brokenness of humanity as both the Roman Empire and the religious institution are more concerned about power, authority and control than on the dignity and flourishing of God’s creation. When Jesus gathers the children to him for a blessing, Jesus is foreshadowing the gathering of all creation through the cross. Jesus himself will be bodily broken, holes in his feet and hands, pierced in his side. Jesus tells his disciples this fact at the last supper, when he says, this is my body broken for you. My body broken so that you and all of creation can be made whole. Redemption and reconciliation, means God using pieces, broken pieces of us, of our neighbor, of systems, to create wholeness, Shalom wholeness where all people know that they matter, that their brokenness does not make them outside the beloved community of God, but central to it. Our brokenness becomes the beautiful mosaic of creation where God is at work healing systems of injustice and pain bringing us together for the sake of the wholeness of one another. I am not whole without you, and you are not whole without me. We are not whole without the people in Denver, and they may not know it, but they are not whole without us. This is the blessing from Jesus, the words of love offered from a manger, from the cross and from the empty tomb. This is the blessing that Jesus gives the children and we are called to give each other and to all people no matter if we agree with them, can accept their brokenness and pain or not. We might feel like this bracelet today, but this brokenness is not the last word from our redeemer, healer and savior.  We are created for wholeness and to be together in love for the blessing of each other and the world. Hear Jesus say to you: You matter and are loved by me and God.

 

Don’t Be Distracted: Sermon on Mark 7: 24-37 September 10, 2018

This sermon was proclaimed at Bethany Lutheran Church in Cherry Hills Village, CO on September 9, 2018. It can be viewed at http://www.bethanylive.org

Distractions…Children’s sermon: Gather children and say that you have something really important to tell them. Then get a text, say “oh wait, let me look at this…ooo very cool. Do you all want to see this picture of the bouncy house outside? It’s so awesome! Oh look here’s more pictures of my daughter’s cat…oh wait a minute…are we supposed to be looking at pictures on my phone or doing something else? Oh that’s right! I wanted to tell you about Jesus but I got distracted by my phone! Does that ever happen to you? You go to do something or your mom, dad or teacher asks you to do something important and you then you walk by the tv, a game, or a toy and get distracted and don’t do that thing? Yep! It happens to everyone, even adults! What do you think is more important– these pictures on my phone or telling or showing you about the love of Jesus? Love of Jesus! In today’s bible stories, we are reminded not to get distracted by stuff going on in our lives from showing people that Jesus loves them. Sometimes we get distracted. Do you ever get distracted in school? Or by how people look, or act, or what they say, but Jesus wants us to remember that THE most important thing in our lives is to show everyone love by putting people first, not toys, games, or something that we want to do, but what our friends and families NEED us to do so that they feel loved. What are ways to show your friends and family Jesus’ love? Yep! I’m going to talk to the adults some more about that, but let’s pray first.

I am so easily distracted! How many of you here have picked up your phone to maybe text a family member and then get sucked in to social media or another message from someone else, put down your phone 30 minutes later only to realize you never actually sent the text/email you picked your phone up to do! I have found myself doing that.  It can make me worry I’m losing my mind! That’s rhetorical btw, you don’t get a vote on that. But I get distracted by the email or text that is right in front of me and so seems so urgent that I forget the first thing I wanted to do. I get tunnel vision and can miss what is truly important and has value.

We live in a time and culture where someone or something is always trying to pull our attention and distract us: media, technology, politics, hobbies, “to-do” lists,  sports, school activities, jobs and our social lives! And distractions aren’t bad, they can be good and wonderful things. But distractions can keep us from being present in the moment and can keep us from remembering what really matters.

Our scripture texts for today reorient us to what is important, although on the surface, we can get distracted by some other stuff going on. In Mark, it’s easy to get distracted by the uncomfortable exchange between the Syrophoenician woman and Jesus. Jesus makes a very harsh comment to this desperate mother who only wants to save her daughter. “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” I spent a great deal of time distracted this week trying to explain this away and make Jesus sound less harsh, as let’s be clear, this is an insult. We can’t pretty up that Jesus called her a dog. And I don’t think we should let Jesus off the hook either. Jesus is fully human and a product of his culture and time. And Jesus is in a foreign land, he is the outsider in Tyre and the woman is the insider, however, she knows that she shouldn’t speak to a strange man by herself, she knows that there are deep tensions between the Hellenized Gentiles in this region and the Jews that they regularly oppress. But she boldly asks for what she needs from Jesus, and it seems, this is exactly the response she expected because she had a quick comeback “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” She didn’t deny or argue with what Jesus said, she didn’t get distracted by the slur. She stood her ground, spoke her truth to the person in power and stayed focused on why she was there: She knew that Jesus could cast the demon out of her daughter. Fine, I’m a dog, whatever, save my child, this is what matters. You can do it Jesus. You’re the messiah!

Jesus was awakened from his own distractions by this woman and her bold, faithful actions. Yes, Jesus came to proclaim God’s redemption and God’s kingdom here on earth to the Israelites first, first being the important word here, but yes to Gentiles too. Please don’t forget that, the woman asks. Jesus had been distracted by the urgent need of the Israelites but now Jesus reorients to the vastness and inclusivity of God’s kingdom-and he doesn’t just say this, he acts on it by healing from afar. Jesus doesn’t even have to be near to heal and offer new life to the little girl.

And again, in the healing of the man who was deaf and couldn’t speak, Jesus doesn’t get distracted by the fact that this man too is a Gentile and therefore unclean, and not only touches him, but uses his own spit and touches the man’s tongue, (who here would do that?), to not only free him from his condition but also free him to be included back into the community. Despite Jesus saying not to speak of this healing, the man and his friends can’t help but to proclaim the power of Jesus. Their words affirm Jesus’ actions of risk, boundary crossing and faith. They can’t be distracted from what they have experienced in Jesus, their faith is focused on sharing the new life that Jesus offered this man.

I know that I often get distracted in my everyday life and in my faith life. I get caught, like Jesus, in the tunnel vision of the things I think are more important, or as the passage from James states, focusing on the people and things that are comfortable, easy and don’t challenge me. I can see suffering, hunger, loneliness, pain, and say, well, I’ll offer a word of hope and prayer, but I’ve got to get ready for Bible study, Rally Day, or this sermon or Confirmation. I’m distracted by what seems important at the time, but perhaps is not really what I should be focused on. James’ community is struggling with this too, the people are distracted by what is comfortable, easy and they don’t want to get their hands dirty. Certain people are given more importance, value and attention than others. Those who appear to have no worldly resources or status are pushed aside while the people are distracted by those who seem to have money and social status. I love that the writer of James names these worldly and cultural distractions for us so plainly and reminds us in these well-known and well discussed words “Faith without works is dead.”

This makes us itchy as Lutherans as we know that we are saved by God’s grace and not our own works, but we need the reminder, that just like we can’t let Jesus off the hook for his words, nor are we off the hook for ours. James brings us to task that what we actually DO matters. We can’t simply offer kind and trite words of “I’ll pray that you find food.” Or “I’ll pray that you get housing.” Or “I’ll pray that you aren’t judged by your gender, race or sexuality.” No, we are called, dear siblings in Christ, to bold, risky and loving actions for the sake of those whom society throws away and doesn’t value. Don’t be distracted by political rhetoric, don’t be distracted by wealth, don’t be distracted by those who seem to have power or authority, don’t be distracted by social status, don’t be distracted by your own comfort and wants, don’t be distracted by flattering words and don’t be distracted by harsh, critical words either. Stay focused on what matters: the kingdom of God, where God works through us, yes us, in bold and unexpected ways, to ensure that all people have voice, dignity, value, are included, are cared for and all people are deeply and unconditionally loved.  Faith is a loving gift from God and our works bring this faith alive in Christ for the sake of the world without distraction.

As we kick off a new program year today, may we as the people of Bethany stay focused on what matters, on what has true value. May we offer bold words that speak this truth to the powers that need to hear them and may our faithful actions  reveal the kingdom of God in our very midst. But most of all, may we live undistracted, undeterred and uninhibited in the grace of God’s love that is for us all people. Thanks be to God.