Getting Out of Church

Faith Lutheran Church, Pelican Rapids, MN

April 27, 2014
John 20:19-31
Easter 2, Confirmation Sunday

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Happy Easter!   It’s still OK to say that, you know, because Easter just STARTED last Sunday…and the whole blooming season of Easter runs for a full 50 days…the greatest season of the year for Christians and for all people.

The longer I live, the more amazed I am at how much there is in this rich, rich story of Jesus’ liberating death and his hope-engendering resurrection.

Last Sunday, as I listened to a great Easter sermon from my pastor in Moorhead, I was reminded about one of the peculiar little cul-de-sacs in this whole, amazing story.

I was reminded that Matthew’s gospel includes a detail that the other three gospels don’t mention:  that on the Saturday after Good Friday some of the same religious leaders who sought Jesus’ crucifixion convinced Pilate, the Roman governor, to seal up Jesus’ tomb—for fear that Jesus’ followers would come and steal away Jesus’ dead body in order to claim—falsely!—that Jesus had arisen from the dead.

So in this weird scene at the tail-end of Matthew, chapter 27  Pilate agrees that Jesus’ tomb should be sealed up, tight as a drum, so no troublemakers even have a chance to steal his body.   Pilate even dispatches a bunch of Roman soldiers to stand guard--to prevent any monkey business from happening there in the cemetery.

We can picture them—a whole cohort of Roman soldiers--tough guys, packing heat, their backs to the tomb, peering outward, scanning the horizon for marauding grave robbers lurking in the shadows!

Here those grave-guarders thought the danger was “out there” somewhere—Jesus’ followers trying to pull a fast one and bust their way INTO Jesus’ tomb!

But what the soldiers failed to realize was that the danger wasn’t “out there.”  The danger was inside the tomb!

These tough-guy Roman soldiers were dumbstruck when a “grave robbery” actually DID take place on Easter morning—not because some rowdy outsiders got into the grave, but because Jesus, the Resurrected Insider got out of the grave!

Now, this morning, something very much like that is repeated here in John’s story of the first Easter evening.  

We come upon another “tomb” of sorts…..a room in Jerusalem where Jesus’ closest followers are holed up, all the windows shuttered, all the doors locked-tight so that the same enemies who demanded Jesus’ death don’t come after them, too!

Jesus’ disciples, on that first Easter evening, imagined the biggest danger they faced was “out there”--the same mob who condemned Jesus and orchestrated his execution on trumped up charges.   

The disciples were terrified of the dangers that lurked outside their safe house—which left them flabbergasted when they discovered that the Danger was actually on the inside the room with them.

Because all at once, the Risen Lord Jesus Christ just appeared in their midst.   Jesus, the Living One, paid no never-mind to barred windows or locked doors!!

…and that could only mean trouble for his disciples—scared rabbits who all turned tail and ran for their lives  when Jesus was arrested.  Jesus’ disciples had good reason to fear him showing up in their midst—they had let him down.  They deserved condemnation from the lips of the Risen Christ.

But that’s not what they got.   Jesus’ first word to them was such a welcome surprise:  “Peace be with you!”  

The cowardly disciples deserved a blistering attack by the Risen Christ—but instead, they heard him from his lips the sweetest word imaginable:  “Shalom!  Peace to the n-th degree!”

The Danger that showed up in their midst was unsettling….but in a way that broke open life for them, that offered a fresh future beyond their imagination.   Jesus not only freed them from their guilt—but re-enlisted them to continue his mission of piecing back together the whole broken creation, one sorry sinner at a time.   “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.  Receive the Holy Spirit.”   Get going and proclaim my peace, announce my forgiveness!

These two stories…the story of Roman soldiers in Matthew 27  trying in vain to keep Jesus in his grave….and the story of Jesus’ followers trying to keep trouble out of their safe house here in John 20….

These two stories have gotten me thinking about us, our “tombs,” the “safe houses” we try to hole up inside so that the danger out there doesn’t “get” us.

Why, sometimes we even make the church into a fortress where we hide, lest we be tainted by all the evil that’s “out there.”    Sometimes we imagine we’ll be safe if we just shutter our windows, lock our doors, huddle up and seek protection from whatever or whoever might try to lead us astray.

But that’s not how the Resurrected Jesus looks at things---not at all. 

The Risen and Living Jesus is all about breaking out of whatever tight, closed, place—whatever tomb, whatever sealed room—we try to put him inside of.

That’s what unfolds here in these rich Resurrection stories:   Jesus will not be confined.  Jesus will not stay dead and buried.   Jesus will not stay put.   Jesus is always breaking out and getting loose in the world….

….and taking us with him, in the process!

So in the Easter stories of the four gospels, Jesus never just hangs around the Empty Tomb, chit-chatting with pilgrims, signing autographs, or taking “selfies” with his admirers.

No, in the gospels, Jesus is about getting out of the cemetery, running his race, way out ahead of us, leading us out into mission in the world.

Here in what we call the Doubting Thomas story, Jesus shows up inside that sealed room—only so that he can get himself and everybody else out of that room, only so that he can send his followers back into this dangerous world, in order to continue what Jesus began at his Cross and Empty Tomb.

That, my dear friends, is what this Easter season is all about…..and it’s also what this Confirmation Sunday means for us here at Faith Lutheran.

Whatever else happens here this morning with our five dear confirmands and all the rest of us—we’ll be reminded about just what happens here in churches like Faith….where the gift of faith is given in  Word and Sacrament….and where our doubts are heard and taken seriously, where God gives us reasons to keep on believing, just as our Risen Lord Jesus met Thomas in his doubts and restored him to a faith that proclaimed:  “My Lord and my God!”

It’s a matter of life and death, you see, that we come to church, to receive faith and have our doubts removed.  

And it’s just as crucial that we also get out of church!

What was that?   Every relative, every friend of our confirmands is probably worried about just that—that our young friends will “get out of church” now that they’re confirmed.

But I’m not talking about “getting out of church” as in ABANDONING the church.

I’m talking about getting out of church the way Jesus wanted his followers to get out of that locked room in Jerusalem.   I’m talking about getting out of church in the way Jesus talks about that here in John 20:  “As the Father has sent me so I send you.”

So please—I say this to our confirmands and to all of us:  please keep coming to church, so that you can keep getting out of church and returning to God’s world!

The Affirmation of Baptism promises in our confirmation liturgy pick up on that “come and go” rhythm of life…

Notice, please, how these promises include two COMINGS and three GOINGs:

You have made public profession of your faith.  Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in holy baptism: (and here they are…)

To live among God’s faithful people…that’s a COMING…

To hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper….another COMING…
To proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed….there’s the first GOING…
To serve all people, following the example of Jesus…another GOING…
And to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?....one more GOING.

Dear friends in Christ, may we all find here in God’s church a wonderful home, a nourishing haven, a place where we always feel as though we belong…

May we enter and re-enter this community of Christ, time and again…

But please, let’s not stay here.   If the church starts feeling too cozy, the Risen Jesus will come and along and push us out, into God’s world again.  And that’s a very good thing, because the whole human family needs what Jesus sends us to do:  to proclaim his good news, to serve all people, to speak up for justice and pursue peace because that is our God wants more than anything else—for us and for all people.

In the name of Jesus.   Amen.

The Sweet Swap

Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Moorhead, MN

Good Friday—April 18, 2014
II Cor. 5:16-21

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

“Every day do one thing that scares you.”

Eleanor Roosevelt said that, and I think it’s good advice—maybe especially for preachers. 

Preachers should preach so recklessly, ladle out God’s grace so dangerously, that periodically they ask themselves (as they prepare a sermon), “Can I really say that?  Did I just swerve over the center line, say more than I’m authorized to say?”

I wonder if, after writing these words here in his second letter to the Corinthians…I wonder if Paul stopped, in momentary terror, to ask himself:  “Have I finally gone too far?”

I wonder that especially about the last sentence in this text:   “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Did Paul realize what he was saying when he penned those words?   Did he make a mental note that perhaps he should come back and edit that sentence a bit, dial it back a notch or two?

No apparently Paul did not hesitate. 

He just put his head down and barreled ahead.  “’That’s my story and I’m sticking with it:’  for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Paul had other options here.  He could have talked about Jesus carrying sin, bearing sin, or (as we like to say) identifying himself with us in our sin.   Paul could have toned it down.

But instead Paul just came out and proclaimed it:  “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin…”

God made Jesus the sinless one into sin itself.   Jesus became my pride, your waywardness, our rebellion..   God fashioned Jesus into my apathy, your addiction, our stubborn determination to do it our own way—to give selfishness full reign.

Jesus actually became all of that. 

And it wasn’t some sort of sleight-of hand magic trick, either.  This “becoming sin” didn’t happen in one instant in time.

No, from the moment Jesus showed up among us he started taking on sin, becoming sin, every step of his journey.

When Jesus got in line with all those sinners who came out to the wilderness to hear John the Baptist preach, he was becoming sin.

When Jesus went down under the muddy water of the Jordan River, he was becoming sin.

When Jesus sought out and hung around all the wrong people, he was becoming sin.

When Jesus healed lepers, fashioned mudpacks for blind eyes, touched the dead, he was becoming sin.

When Jesus brazenly forgave sinner, he was becoming sin.

When Jesus got under people’s skin—especially good, upright folks who said they hated sin—when Jesus went after them, he was becoming sin.

Whenever Jesus seemed to be going soft on sinners, too willing to sit with them, too eager to extend mercy to them, too reckless about inviting them to follow him, he was becoming sin.

And it just kept happening until, on the Cross--for all the world to see--it became fully apparent that Jesus had become sin.

God made the sinless one to be full of sin, to be sin itself.

Which is why Jesus had to die, because we good folks who say we hate sin, could not allow sin to live any longer.  We killed Jesus, this one who had become sin before our eyes.  We proclaimed and we acted on the assumption that sin could not continue, sin had to go!

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin….”   Somebody went too far here in II Cor. 5:21.  

But it wasn’t the author of these words, Paul.   No, the One who went too far was God himself.

But that’s just the first shocking thing here in this verse.  

It gets worse:  “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Jesus became sin—and as a result of that we became the righteousness of God.  

We didn’t just get a little better.  Our condition didn’t merely improve a notch or two.   We didn’t just put on some nice new clothing to cover up our shame, guilt and grief.

No, in this strange economy of God, we beneficiaries of the Cross became the righteousness of God.   We became the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness that God has always been looking for.   We became the change, God’s startling change, worked out on Calvary for us and our salvation.

This incredible transaction that plays out before our faces, reaches its culmination, its destination on the Cross:   Jesus becomes our sin, and we become God’s righteousness, we become all that God created us to be.

Martin Luther called this the “happy exchange.”   A latter day follower of Luther has called it “the sweet swap!”   Jesus tells us, “Here, I’m going to become your sin, and you’re going to become my righteousness, and that will be that!”

We’re never, ever going to receive another proposition as sweet as that!  This is a game-changer, a life-changer for us and all people.

Have you ever been asked for the date and the hour you were saved?  Whatever you do, please never, never say that it happened when you hit bottom in a seedy motel, a bottle of pills in one hand and a Gideon Bible in the other.

No one was ever saved in a Super 8 motel.

But the whole world was saved around the middle of a Friday afternoon, just outside Jerusalem, two thousand years ago.   The happy exchange reached its climax when Jesus, the sinless one, fully and completely became sin….so that we who’re caught up in Jesus’ story might become what we now in fact are: the righteousness of God.

There’s nothing we can add to that.  Jesus bit the bullet, Jesus did all the lifting here, for us and for our salvation..

We can’t improve upon any of that!

All we can do is to bask in the light of it, live the rest of our lives in that light and—please, God!—reflect that light as we walk with others toward God’s future.

Along that path we will take our cues from Jesus, who always walks ahead of us.  Pope Francis, whose little book I’ve been reading this Lenten season, talks about being a “dirty church.”  Some think Francis is going too far, but I think he’s getting it just right.

“I prefer a Church,” writes Francis, “…I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security….More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us:  ‘Give them something to eat’ (Mk 6:37).”   (The Joy of the Gospel, par. 49).

A Church, a people of God who are bruised, hurting and dirty….doesn’t that sound like the church of One who became sin?  Doesn’t that sound like the embassy of the One who has worked his “happy exchange” in our lives?   Doesn’t that sound like the kind of “sweet swap” that’s the game-changer for us and all people who have, in the mercy of Christ, become the righteousness of God?

Doesn’t that sound exactly like the way to move from Good Friday to Easter?

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Disruptive Grace--How Sweet the Sound!

Disruptive Grace—How Sweet the Sound!

John 9:1-41
Hope Lutheran Church, Fergus Falls, MN
Lent 4—March 30, 2014

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Let’s start with a multiple choice quiz.    Which of the following statements comes closest to the truth?

    A. Having Jesus come into your life makes everything better.

B.  Having Jesus come into your life disrupts everything.

C. Both A. and B.

I wonder how this man in our gospel lesson would do on this quiz.

Having Jesus come into his life certainly made everything better.  Here he was a man “blind from birth.”   Jesus comes into his life, fashions a mudpack for his useless eyes, sends him to wash off this mudpack in a pool known for its healing qualities.  And when the man does that—lo and behold!--he can see for the first time in his life!

I’d call that a very good day—to be blind from birth and then—all of a sudden, able to behold everything and everyone, whiter whites, brighter brights, the whole amazing universe suddenly alive and in focus!  Amazing!

Yesiree—when Jesus comes into your life everything gets better!

But wait.  There’s more here in John 9.  

What should have been the best day in this blind man’s life got very complicated. 

·      For all at once his life became a topic of interest, a source of speculation for his nosy neighbors.

·      His healing was brought to the attention of the local authorities who opened up an investigation and interrogated the blind man repeatedly.
·      His parents even got dragged into the situation and badgered by the powers-that-be.
·      The upshot of all this consternation is that the blind man winds up excommunicated from his community of faith--all because Jesus healed him, all because the man told the truth about the great thing that had happened to him.

Wow!  Having Jesus come into your life can disrupt everything, all in a day!

And Jesus himself—who’s off-stage for much of this long story—sums it up this way:"I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind."

The answer to our little multiple choice question is “C” don’t you see?   Jesus coming into our life makes everything better….but only because Jesus disrupts everything, first.

And thank God for that!

Because, you see, there are all sorts of things in our lives that need disrupting.  

First of all, our “natural” assumptions about how the world works and how God does business with us need to be disrupted.   That is apparent right at the start of this story when the disciples notice the blind man and ask:  “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

The disciples give voice to what I like to call “Maude theology.”  Maude, you’ll recall, was a TV show back in the ‘70s about a blunt, outspoken woman whose catch-line was:  “God’ll get you for that!”

God’ll get you for that!   Left to our own devices, that’s how we think of God—as a law-and-order, demanding Boss whose job is to keep us on our toes and under his thumb.

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" the disciples ask.  Their question allows them to keep their distance from this blind man.  They and everyone else took no notice of the real, live human being in their midst.  What the blind man’s neighbors knew best was his diagnosis—he was a man infected by sin and therefore "blind from birth."

No wonder the man’s neighbors seemed confused about his identity after he was healed.  They’d been so focused on his condition that they never saw him as a brother in their midst.

Does anything about that sound familiar to our ears?   Who are we oblivious to, even though we may stumble over them every day?  Who do we know as a diagnosis but not a person?

Jesus came along and disrupted that mindset.  Jesus’ healing action forced folks to notice a man they really didn’t know that much about.

But there’s more that Jesus disrupts here in this story.  The local religious authorities, rather than rejoicing in the miracle of new sight, became obsessed with the where and the when of the healing miracle.  

For it was the Sabbath day, the day to cease all work and activity in the world.   Folks were hung up on that when Jesus walked the earth.

In fact they worked very hard to make sure and everyone avoided work on the day of rest!  They transformed the gracious gift of rest into a huge cause for anxiety!

Does that sound familiar to us?   We know that obeying the rules and doing good works can’t make God love us any more than God already loves us…but really, don’t we still like to keep a few accomplishments tucked tucked away in our pockets, “just in case.”  

That needed disrupting, too—all the ways we turn God’s good gifts into do-it-yourself projects.  That cock-eyed way of thinking needs disrupting in our lives too.

And then there’s the fixation here in John 9 on the question of community—Who’s in and who’s out of our community of faith?   

This story in John 9 winds up with a man who’d been left out of the circle of community because of his disability…and in the end he’s bookted out of his community of faith, purely because he happened to be in the path of the Son of God, who heals all our diseases and makes all things new.

The blind man ran afoul of a religious community hell-bent on being an enclave of the like-minded, who agreed that “anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.”

That inward-focused, self-centered, “one-bad-apple-spoils-the-whole-bunch,” pinched view of God’s people needed to be disrupted….even as it needs to be disrupted in our time and place.

I love the story about Ole the Norwegian who was stranded on a desert island for 30 years.   When he was finally discovered by persons on a passing ship, they were amazed to see how Ole had constructed a whole village on his tiny island—complete with stores, a school and a church.   But as Ole’s rescuers toured his “village,” they noticed another church building, just a few yards away.

“What’s that?” they asked Ole.

“Oh, dat!” Ole replied.  “Dat’s the shurch I USED to belong to!”

That way of thinking and imagining the church needs to be disrupted, which is precisely what Jesus does when he comes into our lives….calling into question our insulated tendency to associate only with persons who’re exactly like us—even in the church!

Pope Francis names this crucial reality when he says: “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security….More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us, 'Give them something to eat.'" [1]

When Jesus comes into our lives everything does get better….but only because when Jesus comes into our lives FIRST he disrupts everything—everything that needs to be disrupted, everything that distorts how we understand God and God’s way with us, everything that blinds us to the neighbor in our midst, everything that even hints we can play “let’s make a deal” with God, everything that causes us to become inner-directed, inwardly-focused on ourselves in the church.

All of those tired old dilapidated ways of thinking, seeing and believing…all of that needs to be disrupted, set aside, cleared from our path…so that Jesus might have room truly to walk in our midst, opening blind eyes, forgiving all our sin, and wooing us into a gracious, merciful community focused, laser-like on following Jesus in his mission to restore and bless the whole world.

This, my dear friends, is the rhythm of Lent, this wondrous season of preparation for the Easter joy that shall soon be ours.    Jesus still walks among us, upending all our rotten assumptions, and setting us free for the life and the future he intends for all his people.  

Jesus’ grace is amazing, but only because it first disrupts everything that needs to be disrupted--so that we might be set free, free for God, free for our neighbors, free for this good earth, free for the future that Jesus Christ is bringing to us as a sheer gift.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

---

[1] http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/11/26/pope-francis-poverty/3759005/

God Gives the Growth

Augustana Lutheran Church, Fergus Falls, MN
Epiphany 6/February 16, 2014
Installation of Pastor Benjamin Durbin
Deut. 30:15-20; I Cor. 3:1-9; Matt. 5:21-37

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

This morning, Pastor Ben, you become a permanent fixture in the history of Augustana Lutheran Church.  

For as long as anyone pays attention to Augustana, there’ll always be at least one line in this congregation’s narrative about you.   Your mug will be there, in ever collection of former pastors’ pictures!

Now that’s sort of a heady thing to think about…for one so fresh to the role of pastor.   It might even give you pause, to see your photo with a little brass plate that reads:    Pastor Benjamin Durbin, 2014-“whenever”!

If all of this is true, though, why does it matter?  What’s the point?   What are you here for?   Why does anything you might think or say or do make a difference?

You are here at Augustana, Ben, to stand on the side of life—God’s life, for the life of the world, and the vitality of this congregation...including everyone who’s impacted by Augustana.

It’s about life, Ben—the life God lavishes upon us in Christ Jesus, God’s beloved Son.

You are here to tend this full, free life in Christ…which is why I love the imagery of our Second Lesson for today.

I bet you appreciate this imagery too, because inside you lurks a farmer (I’ve seen your Facebook page!)

The Corinthian congregation was in a snit over which of their former pastors had been their shiniest penny!   Some liked their first pastor Paul, others were still gaga over that flashy preacher Apollos, others preferred some other former pastor….

Here in our Second Lesson the apostle cuts right to the chase and proclaims that all these pastors, with their gifts and personalities, collectively tended the life of God in the Corinthian church:  “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. …”   

Pastor Ben, a whole succession of “farmers” have cultivated this garden called  Augustana since 1877.  Today you fall in line with them…nurturing the life of this Christ-community for a few planting seasons.  The Holy Spirit got here ahead of you, Ben--and long after you’ve departed the same Spirit keep fussing with the folks here at Augustana.

You are here to stand on the side of life, Ben, inviting God’s people (in the words of our First Lesson from Deuteronomy) to “choose life,” to embrace even as they are embraced by the life of God in the world.

Moses still speaks to us from our First Lesson, as he pleads with the people of Israel who’re on the cusp of crossing over the Jordan River into their Promised Land.

Moses cajoles them to dive into the deep, rich life God is dying to give them:  “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him…” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

“Choose life!” Moses pleads….and how hard can that be?   Not much of a choice, really—life or death?   “I think I’ll take life if that’s OK,” we say to ourselves.

But therein lies the rub!

“Choosing life” is never as easy or natural or automatic as we imagine it to be.

For we are a self-focused people who consistently swerve toward death—whether or not we always realize it.    Even when we think we’re choosing life, in fact, it’s usually not the life that God wants to give us that we’re choosing.

When we choose life, we usually choose life on our terms, not God’s terms.   We suppose that life is within our grasp, something we can create for ourselves, fashion in our own likeness.

Which is to say that we’re almost always ready to settle for something far less than what God wants to give us.

So (shifting gears now to our Gospel lesson) we imagine that on our own we aren’t doing all that badly.   We choose life (we think) by keeping our noses clean, staying out of trouble, obeying the rules.

We may even be rather proud of ourselves:  “I haven’t committed first degree murder.  I’m still married to my first spouse.  Folks take me at my word” we tell ourselves.

But here in Matthew 5 Jesus barges in and pours cold water on all such self-satisfaction. 

In a relentless string of  “you have heard…but I say to you” declarations, Jesus demolishes all our self-satisfaction, leaving no one standing when he’s finished with us.

We may not have committed homicide…but have we displayed anger, hurled insults, resorted to name-calling?

We may not have committed adultery with our hands…but have our eyes wandered?  Has our lust overtaken our imagination?

We may have not sworn falsely…but have we ever “shaved the truth” or propped up our words with pious palaver?

When Jesus takes the Law into his own hands….no one is left standing!…

….which is the point, after all.   None of us ever “stands” on our own two feet, when all is said and done.  

If we stand, we stand in the strength and the confidence that always comes to us as sheer gift from God’s open hand.

If we stand, if we choose life, it is only because God has first chosen us for such life.  In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ God has gratuitously decided to bestow on us a Life we could never fashion on our own.

Pastor Ben, this is the life-giving, death-defying Word you are called to tend here, for the life of this congregation and all who are touched by its ministries.

You are called here to stand on the side of life, not a life of our own choosing, but God’s overflowing life.

That is why you’re taking your place here at Augustana this morning.

It is to hold forth the life that God desires for all people—a life that trusts God completely, loves our neighbors unreservedly, and cares for this good earth unstintingly.

And thank God, Pastor Ben, you’ve been given all the tools you need to do the job.

You’ve been given the gift of Baptism—your baptism and the baptism you’ll administer here, immersing God’s children in the new life only God can give.

You’ve been given the gift of the Word—that you might be able to speak here, not out of your own intelligence or cleverness, but as a messenger of Christ Jesus, delivering “the goods” that mean life for us sinners.

You’ve been given the gift of the Supper—because God never just plants seeds and forgets about them.  The Supper nourishes what God has begun in us, feeds us with Christ’s very presence, so that we might journey together toward that Final Day when God will make all things new.

You’ve been given the gift of this community—because there are no Robinson Crusoe Christians, because we can’t make it on our own.   So God comes to us in the guise of our neighbors, especially those closest to us, who share with us the rich, rich life of Christ.

You’ve been given the gift of God’s mission of redeeming and blessing the whole world in Jesus Christ.  That should keep you out of mischief, Ben, for as long as you serve here!   You and all these folks serve a missionary God who is forever sending us to bear his Light and woo others to choose the life of the God who has already graciously chosen them.

This is indeed heavy, heady stuff, Pastor Ben.  It is more than you or any mere mortal can handle—which is why God promises to supply you with all that you’ll need.

And these people of God—trust me on this!—they will both love you AND keep you humble.

Years ago I returned to the first congregation I pastored.   Celebrating a congregational anniversary, they’d invited back all the “old pastors” to join them.

Before worship service I encountered in the narthex my old friend Clarion who’d been my congregational president and fishing buddy.  We reconnected, laughed and shared a few stories.

Then I joined my wife in one of the pews.  Shortly thereafter Clarion and his wife sat down right behind us.  I knew that because I overheard him whispering to his wife:  “I just saw old what’s-his-name down in the narthex…..”

“Old  what’s-his-name?”   Here, I’d been his beloved pastor, dear friend, faithful fishing buddy—and he couldn’t even recall my name!

It was then, thank God, that Paul’s word came back to me:  “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. …”

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.  

A Pastoral Letter: Addressing the Peacetime Emergency

A Pastoral Letter from Bishop Wohlrabe

 

 

February 2, 2014

The Presentation of Our Lord

To:  The congregations, rostered leaders and members of the Northwestern Minnesota Synod ELCA

Dearly beloved in Christ,

May Jesus our true Light shine in your hearts and lives during this Epiphany Season.

From time to time we are called upon to address natural disasters that threaten the lives and well-being of our neighbors.    This brutal winter of 2014 has brought us into a peacetime emergency as announced by Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton last week.

Because the extended bitter cold snap has been exacerbated by a shortage of propane gas causing a sharp spike in fuel prices, many folks are being put at risk.   As usual the poor are most vulnerable.

In the last few days two ELCA members associated with Community Action Agencies on the territory of our synod have contacted me. 

Pastor Del Moen of Wadena, who serves on the board of the Mahube-Otwa Community Action Partnership, Inc. in Detroit Lakes, reported that propane prices have risen to three times the normal price (from roughly $2 per gallon to over $6 per gallon).   Mahube-Otwa has received over 600 calls from distressed residents, struggling to pay their heating bills under this intolerable set of conditions.

Mr. Joe Pederson (a member of Rollag Lutheran Church, Rollag) who directs the Lakes and Prairies Community Action Partnership in Moorhead  writes:  “This emergency is likely to become even more critical in the weeks to come. Propane suppliers in many cases have delivered propane to families/individuals who do not have the means to pay their bills. They [suppliers] are not in a position to continue to provide propane without payment.”

In response to this peacetime emergency, I urge members and congregations of the Northwestern Minnesota Synod ELCA to please respond in the following ways:

·        Remember those affected by this emergency in your daily prayers and in the weekly intercessions of our congregations;

·        Check on your neighbors (especially the frail elderly and others who are vulnerable) to make sure they are OK, staying warm, and living safely;

·        Open up your congregation’s or community’s “Good Samaritan” funds to supplement the strapped resources of agencies that provide fuel assistance; and

·        Make a special financial gift personally or from your congregation to a local agency that is offering help to poor people affected by this wintertime emergency.  (For information on your local Community Action Agency go to:   http://minncap.org/index.html.)    Recognizing the seriousness of this situation, Joy and I are making a personal gift, and I am requesting the synod executive committee to release some dollars from the NW MN Synod Disaster Relief Fund as well.

Let us pray:  Eternal God, amid all the turmoil and changes of the world your love is steadfast and your strength never fails.  In this time of danger brought on by bitter cold and a shortage of heating fuel, be to us a sure guardian and rock of defense.  Guide our  leaders with your wisdom, comfort and safeguard those in distress, and grant us courage and generosity to care for all who are in need; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.   (ELW, p. 76, adapted)

Your brother in Christ,

Lawrence R. Wohlrabe

Bishop, Northwestern Minnesota Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
God’s work.  Our hands.

Taking On Sin

Living Grace Lutheran Church, Hawley, MN
Installation of Pastor Hope Deutscher
January 12, 2014
Matthew 3:13-17

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Think back to a time in your life when you were the dirtiest you have ever been--when you were the dustiest, sootiest, muddiest you could imagine yourself every being.

I grew up on a farm in southern Minnesota, and farms are places where it’s easy to get dirty—on a regular basis, in fact.  

One of the dirtiest jobs I remember was when we sold our stored soybeans—often in the heat of summertime, eight or nine months after harvest.    I remember climbing into a hot, dusty grain bin….scooping the grain into the chute in the bottom of the bin that fed the augur that took the grain up into the truck we used to haul our harvest to the elevator in our little town.

The dust hung in the air and it clung to us, mixed with our own sweat, as we scooped and swept out each bin of soybeans.

We were so dirty—my mom, my dad and I—that we actually needed a pre-wash of sorts….we needed to hose ourselves down outdoors, lest we drag all that dirt into the bath tub in the house.

And even then, when we’d gotten the worst of the dirt off us outdoors, the bath water could get pretty nasty….which was bad news for whoever drew the short straw and was the last in line to use that bathwater…because in our modest farm home we took turns “getting clean” in water that we shared.

It’s pretty bad when bathwater gets so dirty that you’re not sure if you’ll come out of it any cleaner than when you went into it!

Hold that image, please, and look again at this gospel reading for today, the Baptism of our Lord.

Jesus comes from Galilee to the Jordan river—a river that was hardly clean to begin with, a river made even dirtier by all the sinners who were flocking out to hear John’s preaching and to be baptized by him, to wash their guilt and regret and mistakes and waywardness—to wash it all away.

When Jesus showed up by the Jordan, something in John knew it was all wrong.   And he gave voice to his apprehension:  “Wait a minute, Jesus.   You don’t belong here, and you certainly shouldn’t be the one getting washed by a miserable sinner like me.  By rights ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’   This is all wrong—there is nothing right, nothing righteous in you, Jesus, getting soiled, stained by the accumulated filth in this river!”

But Jesus just brushed away all that kind of talk.  “You’ve got this ‘righteousness’ business all wrong, John!   ‘Righteousness’ isn’t about possessing some kind of pristine purity—it’s not about keeping your distance from those who are dirty with sin.   No—righteousness is about making others right, right with God, right with one another, right with the good creation.   I need to be here, John, in the Jordan River, dirty as it is. ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’”  

So Jesus who’s clean as a hound’s tooth—Jesus who bears no sin of his own—Jesus insists on falling into line with all those sinners who came out to the Jordan to be washed by John the Baptist.

Jesus brings no sin, no dirt to the river….but he comes out of the river just covered in sin, covered by the dirt of others….because that is what he came for.

So it’s entirely right and proper that here—precisely here where sin and guilt and regret are all most palpable and real—it’s the perfect time for an epiphany, a “revealing” to take place as Jesus hears these words:  “"This—this sin-identifying, sin-embracing, sin-removing One--this is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

God in Christ never keeps a safe distance from sinners.   No-- God in Christ goes right toward sinners, gets close to sinners, so close that their sin rubs off on him.   That’s how it began at the River Jordan, and that’s how it would be throughout Jesus’ time on earth, and that’s how it would all end for him—on a sinner’s cross, where Jesus who (in Paul’s words) “became sin,” crucified sin once and for all—doing away with it for good—“so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  (II Corinthians 5:21)

Pastor Hope, I was so excited when I realized you’d be installed today, as we remember the Baptism of Our Lord, because this amazing gospel story is what pastoral ministry is all about—and, I think it’s what Living Grace Lutheran Church is all about.

A church is not a haven for the holy.   

A church is not a fortress for the righteous. 

A church is a hospital for the sick, a forgiving, healing place for persons who know their hands are empty, folks who realize they can do nothing to get on God’s good side, that they stand before God “guilty as charged.”

The church is not where we escape from, where we run from sin and sinners.   The church is where God the Beloved Son does what he does best—runs toward sinners, embraces sinners, forgives sinners, transforms sinners into new creations, and sends those redeemed, now righteous sinners into his royal service in the world.

Living Grace exists because there are in Hawley, Minnesota believers who get it—that God loves sinners unconditionally, that Jesus came to “take on sin,” and that a church worthy of his name will always open its arms to everyone, and I mean everyone, absolutely everyone!

Lately, no one has been giving voice to this vision of the church better than this amazing new pope, Francis.    In late November he released his first major encyclical, appropriately titled The Joy of the Gospel, in which Pope Francis laid bare his evangelical heart and set forth his approach to the mission of God in our world.

Francis wrote:  "I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security….I do not want a church concerned with being at the center and then ends up by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures….More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us, 'Give them something to eat.'"[1]

So, Pastor Hope, that’s what it’s all about.   No one shows us the way better than Jesus our Lord.   See where he locates himself here in this gospel lesson.

Jesus takes his place among sinners.   Jesus gets close to people who are lost, needing direction.   Jesus associates with the dirty, the dregs of this life.

Conventional wisdom says that “one bad apple spoils the whole bunch”—and yes, if we were responsible for the produce section of the local grocery store, we’d need to heed that warning on a daily basis.

But God calls you to tend people, not produce.   And in the amazing grace and abounding mercy of God another wisdom holds stray:  One Good Apple transforms the whole bunch….and the good apple I’m talking about is Jesus.

For Jesus “takes on” sin in order to undo sin, to take it away, to bear it to his Cross and Grave for you and me and all sinners everywhere.  

This is the Jesus whom you serve and whose forgiving, cleansing Word and presence you now bear as pastor of this faith community.

So walk in this Hawley community and move within this congregation as a sign and ambassador of the One who went down under the water of John’s baptism in the muddy Jordan River.   Get close to sinners—rub elbows with them every chance you get—and tell them, better yet show them, this Jesus who takes on sin in order to take away sin from us—as far as the east is from the west.

And then set them free to become signs and ambassadors of this Jesus, wherever they go.  For Jesus never saves us to make us fat and sassy and content with ourselves.  Jesus always saves us to send us into his great mission of redeeming and blessing all people and the whole creation.  Help and guide and encourage these folks and all who will come here simply to live in the grace that has found them.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

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[1] As reported by USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/11/26/pope-francis-poverty/3759005/