Reflections on Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo: Implications for Faith Communities

 

Last Wednesday evening, just before midnight, the Supreme Court of the United State (SCOTUS) released its decision in the matter of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, New York v. Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor of New York.  In this case the Court sided with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and the Agaduth Israel of America organization by enjoining New York Governor Andrew Cuomo from restricting the rights of these two religious groups to hold congregate, in-person worship services, as a matter of public health during the pandemic.

Two things were notable about this injunction.    First, the Court reversed itself in terms of how it ruled in two similar cases brought by other religious groups earlier in 2020.   Second, this was the first case in which Justice Amy Coney Barrett (who had replaced the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginzburg) changed the outcome of this case before the nation’s highest court.

Not surprisingly, this SCOTUS ruling was greeted with praise by conservative pastor Franklin Graham who tweeted:   “This Thanksgiving I’m thankful for President Trump’s appointment of 3 conservative #SCOTUS justices who ruled last night in favor of churches & against gov't overreach in the state of New York.”    Graham’s sentiments were echoed by the editors of National Review magazine who opined that, in its November 25^th decision, “the Supreme Court got church restrictions right.”

Predictably, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, offered an alternative viewpoint:   “The Supreme Court’s order misuses religious freedom and endangers the public health of everyone in New York. With coronavirus cases spiking across the country, we should be heeding the advice of public health experts who recommend limiting large gatherings. COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate between religious and secular gatherings; on numerous occasions, infections at houses of worship have led to major outbreaks in surrounding communities….”[1]

The attention given to this SCOTUS decision led me to look at the actual decision,[2] along with the comments of the justices who concurred with or dissented from it.   Doing so has left me puzzled and troubled about the implications this decision is likely to have across the United States.

First, Justice Neal Gorsuch (in a concurring opinion)  proposed the notion that anti-religious bias, not concern for public safety, was Governor Cuomo’s primary motive in this matter.   “Who knew public health would so perfectly align with secular convenience?” Gorsuch asked, before concluding that  “the only explanation for treating religious places differently [from secular places]  seems to be a judgment that what happens there [in religious gatherings] just isn’t as ‘essential’ as what happens in secular spaces.”   

Gorsuch also seems to propose that Governor Cuomo personally (and capriciously?) decided to alter the pandemic “threat level” affecting congregations of the Brooklyn Diocese:   “The State has effectively sought to ban all traditional forms of worship in affected ‘zones’ whenever the Governor decrees and for as long as he chooses…..[And] just the other day, the Governor changed his color code for Brooklyn and Queens where the plaintiffs are  located….” (emphasis added).[3]

Surely, one would hope, Justice Gorsuch realizes that public health conditions during the pandemic are often changing as the coronavirus ebbs and flows!    Or does he?    It seems to me that the virus itself—not Gov. Cuomo or any other elected official—is the “culprit” here, in terms of determining when a geographical area is deemed to be a “hot spot.”

Justice Gorsuch also muddies the water when comparing religious organizations to non-religious organizations.   So he criticizes Gov. Cuomo for alleging that “it may be unsafe to go to church, but it is always fine to pick up another bottle of wine, shop for a new bike, or spend the afternoon exploring your distal points and meridians.”[4]    In other words, Gorsuch contends that liquor stores, bike shops and acupuncturist clinics are comparable to congregations of religious believers.    

Nothing could be farther from the truth!  As Justice Sonia Sotomayor (in her clear and thoughtful dissent from the decision) helpfully points out, “[state officials] may restrict attendance at houses of worship so long as comparable secular institutions face restrictions that are at least equally as strict.”      Sotomayor identifies such organizations as those that offer “lectures, concerts, movie showings, spectator sports, and theatrical performances, where large groups of people gather in close proximity for extended periods of time.”[5]

Now, gentle reader, you may be wondering why a retired Lutheran pastor living half-a-continent away from New York City would even care about these issues.   In short:  I’m passionately concerned that this decision by SCOTUS may increase the likelihood that the Coronavirus will cause more illness and take more lives.   That’s because all across the nation—including rural areas that make up so much of the Upper Midwest—we have local faith communities that are struggling to live by the public health measures (face-masking, social distancing, avoiding congregate in-person worship) designed to stem the tide of the pandemic.    Sadly, too many folks in these scattered rural religious communities struggle to take the coronavirus as seriously as is necessary, to safeguard the health and wellness of them and their neighbors.

I fear that reports about the Diocese of Brooklyn v. Governor Cuomo case could provide “ammunition” to religious congregants who are already pushing back on their pastors, church councils, and local governmental leaders as they seek to “be church” in the midst of this pandemic.    What everyone needs to be clear about is that a large group of people gathering, speaking, and singing in close proximity indoors for extended periods of time—an apt description of a “normal” congregational worship gathering--is one of the most dangerous settings for spreading the coronavirus.

I am deeply grateful for our nation’s constitutional commitment to the free exercise of religion—and I long for the day when we can again bask in this freedom, without needing to follow the difficult public health remedies that have been prescribed for us.    We must be clear, however, that the U.S. Constitution is not—in the immortal words of former Justice Robert Jackson—a suicide pact.  In other words, restrictions that may temporarily need to be made with respect to rights like freedom of religion must be balanced against the need for survival of the state and its people. 

Lawrence R. Wohlrabe

November 29, 2020

 

 

 

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[1] Supreme Court Undermines Religious Freedom And Public Health By Ruling Against New York Health Order  | Americans United for Separation of Church and State (au.org).    Quotes in this blogpost not otherwise credited are taken from this document.

[2] Available at https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/20a87_4g15.pdf

[3] In the SCOTUS decision itself, the New York state regulation is said to “single out houses of worship for especially harsh treatment.” (emphasis added)

[4] “Distal points and meridians” have to do with acupuncture.

[5] Ironically, by the time the SCOTUS issued its decision in this matter, the course of the coronavirus had already made it possible for the pandemic threat level in the neighborhoods comprising the Diocese of Brooklyn and Agudath Israel of America to no longer be classified as orange or red “hot zones.”

Pivoting to Our Next Hybridized "Normal"

 

Pivoting to Our Next Hybridized “Normal”

Thanks to the pandemic, we’ve been forced to reimagine just about everything in our world—and without the chance to do so at the kind of measured, thoughtful, cautious pace we’d normally prefer.   No wonder we’re exhausted as we feel the pinch of what renowned epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm has labeled “pandemic fatigue” plus “pandemic anger.”

Such fatigue+anger is emerging because the pandemic doesn’t “stay in its lane” (whatever that might mean)—but relentlessly spills over into every facet of life.  No wonder it’s so hard to pause and catch our breath.

I’ve been pondering how the pandemic has been affecting churches in my part of North America.   I do so from the vantage point of having served on the staff of three “middle judicatories” of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)—most recently as interim bishop of the Eastern North Dakota Synod, ELCA (from January 15 to October 31 of 2020). 

I had served in this temporary role for less than two months when the pandemic hit.  And shortly thereafter, in rapid succession, three other “pandemics” piled on:   civil unrest in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, environmental chaos reflected in a staggering succession of “extreme weather events,” and an economic recession triggered by all four “pandemics.”

How have faith communities responded to this unprecedented cascade of crises?  Three phrases—questions, really--capture what I’ve been observing from my unique perch:

            Are we…

·       Pining for our old “normal” or pursuing our next “normal?”

·       Creating new tools or pivoting with existing tools?

·       Focusing on a singular mode of response or envisioning a “hybridization” of responses?

Old Normal…New Normal…or Next Normal?

Quite soon after congregations closed the doors of their buildings and made provisions for fulfilling their primary functions via “virtual” means I was struck by how quickly church members started articulating a desire to “return to normal.”  Such expressions of impatience with the conditions forced upon us by the coronavirus struck me as strikingly premature.

What surprised me even more was my own kneejerk response to such grousing:  “We won’t be returning to normal anytime soon—and even when that happens we’ll notice that the old ‘normal’ we hanker for no longer exists.”

As someone who usually avoids brash pronouncements, I asked myself why—in this instance, at least--was I going out on such a limb?  The answer:  glib talk about “returning to normal” seemed to be seriously dishonest.    Those who started complaining—so soon!--about the emergency closure of our church buildings appeared oblivious to the deadliness of the pandemic itself.

In short, many of us quickly came to regard March 11, 2020[1] as a date that would henceforth mark one of the great “continental divides” in world history.  Others weren’t so sure the pandemic was that big a thing, and some (as we learned during the election of 2020) even harbored the conviction that it was nothing more than a clever hoax.

So instead of pining for a speedy “return to normal,” some of us talked about anticipating a “new normal.”    We did so, convinced that the “normal” we once knew—the “old normal” in which the possibility of a viral pandemic never even crossed our minds--was gone for good.   Henceforth, whatever awaits us, we will live into a world that realizes viruses like Covid19 can appear out of the blue, at any time.

So when I heard persons wishing out loud for a “return to normal,” I started speaking in terms of a “new normal.”

And that lasted for about one day!....

….because if the vaunted “new normal” we longed for allowed us—even for a nanosecond—to lower our guard and settle into a fresh experience of stasis, such a “new normal” could prove to be as dangerous as our old normal.

It was at this point that I decided to speak, instead, about the “next normal”….a chance to catch our breath and recuperate until the next big global challenge comes along and calls forth the sorts of concerted, focused, imaginative responses that we’re witnessing day by day, all around us.

And such talk about a “next normal” applies not only to the public health issue of the coronavirus pandemic.   What about those other “pandemics” that have come after us this year?  If “returning to normal” means making peace with systemic racism, snoozing while global climate change takes its toll on our precious environment or looking the other way while economic injustice gets by with murder—then I want nothing to do with such an “old normal.”

And I trust that I’m not the only one who sees things that way!

So please, let us set aside all the silly talk about “returning to normal.”   Let us, instead, pray and plead and work for the next normal that will surely prove to be a gracious gift from God.

Creating from Scratch—or “Pivoting” With What’s at Hand?

When the news media began paying attention to the pandemic, reporters often stressed that we were facing a novel coronavirus, i.e. a new virus for which no treatment or cure existed.   The resulting terror that gripped us was compounded by the fact that this virus was airborne, making Covid19 astonishingly easy to contract.

Christian congregations were especially vulnerable, given the fact that, as Bishop N.T. Wright has noted, “Christianity is a team sport. It’s something we do together. Think of the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, graciousness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22–23). All of those are things we do together. You can’t be practicing them apart from one another.”[2]

As scientists were racing to create a new vaccine to combat a new virus, churches also hastened to create—seemingly “from scratch”--new ways of “doing church” under the difficult conditions created by the pandemic.  How could we still worship, extend care for one another, teach the faith, organize ourselves to serve God’s mission in a new environment in which simply being in close quarters could kill us?

As sobering as that challenge seemed to be, church folk responded with amazing speed and imagination.   As we did so we discovered that instead of “creating from scratch” the novel tools we’d need, we already had many promising resources in our “toolkit.”   We didn’t need so much to create, as we were being called to “pivot” with approaches that were already in use.

Case-in-point:   the rapid, widespread embrace of corporate worship using digital/electronic  means like Zoom, Facebook Live, YouTube, etc.   Fortunately we had many congregations that were already live-streaming their worship services, and these early adopters quickly became teachers and examples to the rest of us.    Better yet--some of our finest resource persons turned out to be younger believers—those in the first third of life!

In a similar vein, “virtual” meetings soon replaced in-person gatherings such as church council discussions, congregational meetings, and in eleven of the ELCA’s 65 synods, all-digital synod assemblies complete with elections of new bishops.

Hybridizing Ways of “Being Church Together”

As I write this blogpost Americans are basking in early, positive reports about potential vaccines for the coronavirus.   Such promising news not only cheers us up, but also points us ahead to a time when the coronavirus will no longer be first and foremost on our minds—when the pandemic will cease to cause sickness and premature death.

When that much-anticipated time comes, what will we do with the new tools for ministry that helped us weather the pandemic?   Tuck them away in mothballs, in case we ever need them again?

I don’t think so.   I foresee churches moving ahead with various “hybridizing” arrangements that wed familiar ways of ministering in-person with one another with the emerging remote or virtual tools that have helped us survive the pandemic.   For example:

·       Live-streaming public worship services will become more common, making it possible for those who can’t attend worship “in-person” on a regular basis—whether because of health concerns, inclement weather,  living in remote areas, tending sick family members—to still worship via digital means.

·       Deliberative bodies within the church will continue to “meet” in-person and/or via virtual means—reducing travel time and expense, drawing in members who maintain dual residences (e.g. “snow-birds” from the Upper Midwest who spend their winters in warmer climes), and not allowing inclement weather to postpone vital opportunities for corporate decision-making.

·       Opening up church-based classes, forums, discussion groups, or gatherings  for inquirers/seekers/religiously curious folks to be offered via both in-person formats and digital formats could actually attract persons to explore the Christian faith and consider joining a congregation. 

Above all, whenever this current pandemic is history, I pray that churches across the world will set aside time for prayerful reflection and earnest conversation about what we learned about “being church together” in the year 2020.

Lawrence R. Wohlrabe

November 13, 2020

Moorhead, Minnesota

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[1] The date the World Health Organization declared the existence of the Covid19 pandemic.

[2] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/july-web-only/god-pandemic-nt-wright-coronavirus-aftermath.html?fbclid=IwAR382Yt8VLW_gazRAzdjjUyhULXe90U-vQiGvv55x_4o9S29RCEz8ReAMaE

"But now..."

 

St Matthew’s Lutheran Church, Thompson, ND/Reformation Sunday/October 25, 2020 (online)

Affirmation of Baptism & Installation of Pastor Tawanda Murinda

Romans 3:19-28

 In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

 This morning I have three different kinds of news for you.

 First, the bad news…but then the good news….and finally—wait for it!—I’ll share the best news of all!

     1.     First the bad news:   we’re stuck and we can’t get ourselves unstuck.

 We’re stuck—oh boy are we stuck!   This morning, as if we need to be reminded, most of us are stuck at home or wherever else we’re catching this online worship service.

 And the reason we’re stuck somewhere else than in our  beloved church home in Thompson, ND, is that we and everyone else in this world are stuck in a viral pandemic, the likes of which  we haven’t seen in a century!

 This coronavirus that has snaked its way across the whole globe is the freshest proof  that we live in a world that’s simply not what its Creator intended it to be….proof that the creation itself is groaning in pain and anticipation of the new creation God is preparing for us all.

 But for now, we’re stuck,  and we can’t get ourselves unstuck….and as if the pandemic itself wasn’t awful enough—our inability to come together, agree with one another, and take  some fairly easy steps that could defeat this virus—the fact that we human beings haven’t gotten our act together globally places the responsibility for our “stuckness” squarely on our own shoulders…

 …while also exposing all sorts of other ways we’re stuck and cannot get ourselves unstuck, like:

·       Being stuck in age-old prejudices over race, ethnicity, language and culture;

·       Or being stuck in economic systems that don’t give everyone a fair shake;

·       Or being stuck on a planet experiencing climate change at a frightening pace, marked by “extreme weather events”—wild fires and hurricanes, for example, that keep hitting us with astonishing frequency and force.

 And why are we stuck in all these ways?   It’s because we and the whole human race are stuck in sin:  sin, understood not just in terms of  unlawful or hurtful things we say or do, but in terms of a condition, a force with a life of its own, causing us to be “curved in on ourselves”  (as Martin Luther liked to say).

 Today’s bad news is that we’re stuck in sin and all the disastrous effects of sin—and we can’t get ourselves unstuck…which is why we hope for and cry out for a path out of this wretched situation.  It’s why we’re starving to hear even a shred of good news.

 2.     And--thanks be to God!--there is good news:   God has already opened up for us a path, a solution, a way forward to get unstuck!

 And you already know, I’m guessing, where this is leading:  which is to  Jesus, of course!

This good news has nothing to do with what you and I think or say or do.  It is, rather, simply bestowed on us—out of the clear blue.  It descends like gentle rain on parched earth.  It “happens” to us when we least expect it.

That certainly is how it happened for our Lutheran church’s namesake, Martin Luther, who was born in 1483.

Growing up in Germany during the Middle Ages, Martin Luther wrestled with his own brand of stuckness.   He was stuck in a feverish, desperate attempt to make himself acceptable to a God whom he feared more than he loved—a God whose church in that time offered 101 ways to “get right” with the Almighty.

If anyone could have pulled that off—it was Martin Luther.  Day after day he labored—performing good works, confessing all his sins, making amends for those sins. 

 Luther became so obsessed with “going to confession,” that one day his frustrated priest-confessor turned him away at the door into the confessional—commanding Luther not to come back until he had some real, serious sins to confess!

So instead, at the end of his rope, Luther dove deeply into the Word of God…searching, seeking, trying to find a way out of his stuckness in sin…

….until one fine day “that way out” found Luther!--right here in the words of today’s Second Lesson from Romans chapter three. 

God’s good news burst into Luther’s life through just two words:    “but now!”

Those might be the two sweetest words in the whole Bible:  “But now”—something new bursts forth, a turning point arrives…something other than “trying just a bit harder” to live our lives well.

But now—a path opened up that Martin Luther wasn’t even looking for.  It just appeared—taking Luther completely by surprise.

“But now,” sings St. Paul here in Romans chapter 3, “but now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed…the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”

Here Luther thought that being right with God, being aligned with God’s Kingdom, was something he had to pursue with every fiber of his being….

…”but now”—lo and behold!—it dawned on Luther that God’s righteousness had been pursuing him, all along.

Following in Luther’s footsteps, we 21^st century Lutherans, have come to know and trust that God’s righteousness—that is, God’s way of making the world right again--is never our do-it-yourself project.  It is God’s good work, from start to finish.   It is God rescuing us—completely “free of charge.”

And here’s the best thing:  God delights in simply forking it over, letting it wash over us, covering all our sinfulness and waywardness with the saving water of our baptism into Christ Jesus.

This gracious water of Baptism into Christ sweeps away all obstacles in our path, pulls us out of our stuckness, and catches us up in the gracious current, the glorious under-tow of God’s Good News.

3.     Which brings us to the best news of all!   God’s way of making us and the whole world right again in Jesus Christ, isn’t just a bright idea or a  “live option”—an alternative God cooked up for us in the spur of the moment—a rescue plan that just might do the trick, if we’re smart enough to choose it.

No, the best news of all is that this way, Jesus’ way is what God has had in mind all along.  

As Paul puts it in our text, Jesus “disclosed” what God has always been about.   Jesus discloses that God’s righteousness isn’t God’s possession—but rather, it is God’s modus operandi—God’s way of  being God for us, played out in real time in this world. 

God is, always has been, and always will be in the business of setting things to right—making you and me and the whole creation NEW once again!

God doesn’t come to us, hat in hand, to make us an offer he hopes we’ll accept.

No, but rather:  God rolls up his sleeves and goes to work in us, in order to open us up to this goodness.   God chooses to accomplish  this way in our lives.  It is our destiny!

Before the first star began to twinkle, God was thinking of you.  Before God created anything, God was already envisioning a Cross and an Empty Grave at the very center of human history.   Before the first sunrise ever took place, God had designs on you--to name you and claim you and never let you go.

That, my dear young friends—Ava, Reese, Kate, Zakary, Drew and Zane—it’s what the six of you are affirming today.   You’re saying your own Yes to the Yes God said to you when you were baptized.

And because all of this is God’s gift to you—you are free from everything that makes you stuck.  

In Jesus Christ, we’re simply set free:  free to float in God’s mercy.  

Years ago I got to know Raymond Lucker the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of New Ulm MN until cancer stole him away.  In his last days Ray often visited a little farm place he owned near Renville, MN. 

One day a friend found Ray, sitting in a lawn chair in the bright sunshine of a Minnesota summer morning.  “What are you doing?” a friend asked.   “Nothing,” Bishop Lucker replied.  “I’m just sitting here, letting God hold me.”

Reformation Day is about floating on the sheer grace of God, living in the confidence that before you and I ever lifted a finger to do one good thing for God, God had already done all good things for us, in Christ Jesus. 

And where does that leave us? 

It leaves us free from all our “stuckness”…free to say thank you….and free to  live the life we were created for:  trusting God, loving our neighbors, and caring for this good earth. 

It doesn’t get any better than that.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

 

 

Giving to God What Already Belongs to God

Goose River Lutheran Church, Hatton, ND

October 18, 2020 (Celebration of Ministry/Holy Closure)

Pentecost 20/Matthew 22:15-22

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

“Public figure accosted by rival groups of critics”

No, that’s not the latest newspaper headline in this wild and wooly political campaign of 2020!

It is, rather, a lens for exploring our gospel lesson from Matthew 22 which begins on this ominous note: “Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap [Jesus] in what he said…”

Not unlike nosy reporters or pushy political operatives in this autumn of 2020, the Pharisees want Jesus to go on record saying something that will come back to haunt him.  They were plotting how to trick Jesus into making himself look bad—just as he moves through the same fateful week in which He will face a treacherous betrayal, a crooked trial, and a brutal crucifixion

The Pharisees, in this case at least, had allies:  a rival Jewish group, known as the Herodians.

Normally these two Jewish “parties” were at odds with one another, especially over how they related to the Romans who had conquered their nation.  Eking out an existence under the harsh thumb of their far-off Roman emperor, the Pharisees tended to oppose the Romans, while the Herodians tended to collude with the Romans.

But what united these rival groups, in our gospel today, was their shared suspicion of Jesus, which is why they posed this ticking time bomb of a question to him:  “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the [Roman] emperor or not?”  

Can a devout, God-fearing Jew pay the required “poll tax” demanded by the Roman emperor?

Seeing right through their ruse, Jesus asks his questioners why they’re “putting him to the test.”  And then he asks them to show him one of the Roman coins used to pay the poll tax—a tax that signified the Jews’ subjugation to Rome, a tax that raised revenue to support Rome’s oppressive government.

Jesus’ questioners were surprisingly quick to produce one of the denarius coins they used to meet their tax obligations to the Romans.  

But now it was Jesus who put his opponents under a microscope, by asking them to read  the inscription on the coin.  Archaeologists suggest the inscription may have read like this:   “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus, majestic son of the majestic God.”

What’s too bad here is that all we have are the words Jesus uttered—with no hint of his tone of voice or any gestures he might have made.   

I picture Jesus holding up that Roman coin—to show how small and inconsequential it was!--as if to say:   “give to the emperor exactly what you owe—about a day’s wages, and not a penny more.”

Jesus acknowledges that Caesar has a rightful claim on all his subjects—to bear the cost of running his entirely earthly empire.   Give this little man his little bit!

And then I picture Jesus stretching out his arms as far as he could, as he goes on to say:  “And give to God—God the Maker of all, God the First and the Last---give to God what belongs to God!”

…which included, by the way, all those tiny coins destined for the emperor’s treasury--for the emperor’s poll tax was also part of God’s “everything!”

Well that shut them up—these Pharisees and the Herodians—who, “when they heard this…were amazed; and they left Jesus and went away.”

But I bet they were still pondering, still turning over in their minds how Jesus had responded to their “gotcha” question…..and I especially wonder how they might have reflected on that second question:    What did Jesus have in mind  when he commanded them to give to God what is God’s?

That, my dear friends, is the question I hope you and I will also take home with us today.

What is Jesus asking of us and everyone else, when he says: “Give to God what belongs to God?”

…to which the short, sweet answer is: “Everything!”

If (as it says in Psalm 24:1)…if ‘the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it’--then we are duty bound to give everything to God…

…and while that certainly includes lots of stuff, it also encompasses realities that, though intangible, matter more than all the things we can see, touch, or hold!

·      Give God all your loyalty…100% of your allegiance.

·      Give God all your love…every drop of devotion you can muster.

·      Give God all your gratitude…every last “thank you” that flows from your lips!

·      Give God your deepest trust and your most ardent faith!

·      Give God—and God alone!--all the glory and praise God deserves.

That’s a pretty tall order, though, isn’t it?

On our own, the very last thing we want to do is give God everything that belongs to God.    On our own we’d just as soon keep it all for ourselves—so self-centered, so  “curved in upon ourselves” that we are.

But God has not let us languish in such a sorry, selfish state!   God came to earth and walked among us in Jesus Christ to pry us loose from ourselves….to die for our selfish waywardness…and thus to open us up to live as the precious daughters and sons whom God created us to be.

This great good news—news we never tire of hearing—news that’s as essential as food, clothing and shelter—this great good news is why Goose River Lutheran Church, has existed for 136 years!

For you see, although each individual believer is precious in God’s sight…we individuals proclaim God’s surpassing goodness best by coming together.  

So when Steele County ND  was being settled by waves of Norwegian immigrants in the late 19^th century, it was only natural that they banded together in congregations designed to become beacons of  God’s light  here on the ND prairie.

So your congregation was founded in 1884, when some of these new citizens of the USA gathered at the Halvor Berg farm and—in an act of profound faith in God--began meeting together in local country school houses until your first church building was erected in 1888.

Goose River Lutheran Church’s “birth story” is a powerful reminder that nearly all of our ND rural congregations existed as communities of people, long before they became identified with a building….or, in your case, a series of buildings—thanks to the tornado and the fire that destroyed your first two church buildings (!)

What led your forebears to establish this congregation was a profound act of faith, trusting that God deserves our “everything”—and that a living, breathing congregation is what best equips us to praise God, spread the gospel, raise our children in faith, serve our needy neighbors, and extend our Christian witness across the globe:  joyfully proclaiming that there is a God who has given us everything so that, in faith we might return that everything to the One who made us and in Jesus Christ remade us to be God’s people.

And now, if I may share with you a pastoral word as you approach the holy closure of your congregation:   I urge you to take this step in the confidence that bringing your corporate existence to conclusion is just as much of an act of  profound faith as was the establishing of your congregation back in 1884.

The reason I say that is that the Church, the eternal community of Jesus Christ is always being enfleshed in an ever-changing world. 

My dear friends, you don’t need me to remind you of how much has changed over the last 136 years. 

Looking at the demographics of this area, we notice that Steele County peaked in 1910 with a population of 7600 persons…and we also notice that today’s Steele County has a quarter of the population the county had in 1910.

Despite facts like population decline in rural areas, we may still struggle to acknowledge it’s time to bring the mission of this congregation to its conclusion.   We could even blame ourselves, imagining that if we had just believed a little harder or worked more energetically—we could restore this congregation to its original size , scope and level of energy.

As people who believe that God has given us everything, freeing us to give back to God our “everything,” we know that we’ll continue living out our Christian faith and witness, even after this congregation is dissolved and the doors of this precious building are closed.

It is an act of profound faith to do so:  an act of trust that the same God who has made everything will draw you into new circles of fellowship with other believers, so that you’ll continue to give back to God all your devotion, all your love for one another, and all your determination to keep sharing the Good News of Christ wherever you go, through whatever fresh faith community welcomes you into its fold.  

In the name of Jesus.   Amen.

An Open Watercourse for Divine Love

 

Eastern North Dakota Synod Assembly

Opening Worship on August 14, 2020

John 4:5-42

 

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

 

“Before” and “After” pictures are standard tools employed by advertisers—especially those who peddle weight-loss remedies, wrinkle-removers, and exercise equipment.    Google the phrase “before-and-after pictures” and about 4 billion “hits” will pop up—that’s 4 billion with a “B!”

I share this because, as I’ve been pondering this story from John 4, I’ve been wondering: “What might this Samaritan woman’s ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures have looked like?”

I imagine a “before” picture that depicts a woman with a downcast expression, eyes averted, trying to make herself as small and easy-to-ignore as possible.  

And the “after” picture?   I see this same woman, but now with bright shining eyes, gazing outward, her arms opened wide as if to embrace the whole world!

What a transformation—between these “before” and “after” pictures of this unnamed Samaritan woman…not because she had a facelift or lost 50 pounds…

…but because of a chance encounter she had with a total stranger beside Jacob’s Well, her village’s ancient water-source.

Here she was, going about her daily routine, lugging her water-bucket to the well at high noon—the best time of the day to avoid all the other townswomen with their buckets…

So imagine her dismay when, approaching the well, she sees that an unexpected Stranger was already there!

Tempted to turn on her heels and return home, the woman--for some mysterious reason--still felt drawn to her destination and that Stranger whom she noticed was both a man and a Jew.

Hopefully he’d pretend she wasn’t there…but then it happened.  The man spoke to her:  “Give me a drink…”

The Stranger at the well thus, in effect, said to her:“I see you!”

“How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” the woman responds, saying in effect to the Stranger:  “I see you!”

This brief opening exchange is the last bit of chit-chat we hear in this narrative…

…because, starting with the Stranger’s simple request, a whole wide-ranging conversation began...

…a conversation that quickly delved deeper and deeper into vital business—deep realities--that would soon mark this day as a decisive turning point for this woman, for all her neighbors and eventually for millions more, including now you and me.

First the woman learns that, though lacking his own bucket, this Stranger has water, Living Water, water that quenches all thirst forever, water that “gushes up to eternal life”…

Second, the woman discovers that even though they’ve never met before, thse Stranger knows her—reads her like a book—and is aware of everything about her—including all the stuff she tried to keep in the shadows—all the complicated, awkward, gossip-engendering parts of her story that she normally kept to herself! 

But there’s more!  This Stranger who already knows her through and through, doesn’t use his knowledge of her to belittle her….but instead, he responds to her searching faith questions…thus refreshing her parched thirsty soul.

Which brings us to the woman’s third discovery.  She realizes that this Stranger wants, not simply to satisfy her curiosity about holy things, but to expand her entire imagination about God…to point her to this God who isn’t tied down to any geographic location….but is wild and free and utterly present wherever seekers like her worship God, in spirit and in truth.

Throughout this narrative, the New Testament’s longest recorded conversation between Jesus and another human being--through it all they keep delving deeper and deeper until it dawns on the woman that this Stranger is a prophet, a messenger who speaks the truth not just about herself but about God…and doesn’t merely speak this truth but embodies it in his very being.   

Connecting all the dots, the woman suddenly realizes that this Stranger is the One she and everyone else have been waiting for—God’s anointed One, the Messiah…

….and when that dawns on her, she grasps—in a second!—that such longed-for, liberating truth simply has to be shared with others.

So leaving her empty bucket at the well--she runs full-tilt back to her village, breathlessly stammering the Best Good News she had ever heard:  “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!  He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”

And then—miracle of miracles--this wall-flower woman boldly, jubilantly, arrestingly evangelized her whole town.  

This poor, misunderstood, ostracized woman—she, of all people!--opened the door for her neighbors themselves to meet the Stranger, to hear his Good News, and to become sharers of this Good News:  “It is no longer because of what [this woman] said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world!”

My beloved friends in Christ, this amazing story is not simply a “once upon a time” tale.

It is, rather, the Story of our lives, a Story meant to be heard and told and shared with others for as long as this old world keeps turning.

Even now, during this fearful pandemic--that seems to make a mockery of our assembly theme:   Living Well…

Even now as we recognize and strive to address other threats in our world:  threats like economic depression, racial strife, and global climate change….

Even now, when the possibility of “Living Well” seems so remote…we  gather to reclaim the greatest truth of all:  that there is One who knows us better than we know ourselves….and despite our sin, does not hesitate to declare to each of us and to all our neighbors across the world: 

·      “I see you”

·      And “I love you with an everlasting, undefeatable love that has gone to the Cross and the Grave for you,”

·      And I choose to have my Living Water--My Holy Spirit—flow TO you and flow THROUGH you, all of you, now and forever!

Here’s how a great American Lutheran church leader once put it:

"All that we Christians are called upon to do, all we can do, is to be an open watercourse for…divine love.  We do not create [such love]…and we must not blockade it…[but] we are simply to reflect it, back to [God] and out to [God’s] world.  Our calling is to give it free flow…[and our prayer must always be:] Lord, keep the conduit that leads through me from being clogged!"[1]

That—all of that—is what’s happening here in John chapter 4.  If Luke’s gospel shows us Jesus telling the parable of a Good Samaritan man, John’s gospel shows us Jesus creating the miracle of this Good Samaritan woman!

As we begin this historic, all-digital synod assembly, we do so, trusting that our Lord’s Living Water is still flowing, to us and through us here in our Eastern ND Synod:  freeing us to declare that God intends for us and all people to live well, as we gather around Christ the Living Well who is the Savior of the world!

In the name of Jesus.   Amen.

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[1] Franklin Clark Fry, “The Source and the Flow,” a 1967 stewardship article.   Quoted in For All the Saints: A Prayer Book For and By the Church, Volume II, p. 354f (American Lutheran Publicity Bureau 1996)