October 9 -- 17th Sunday after Pentecost

You are invited to God’s banquet here on earth…and even beyond this earth! You are invited. Come in! I don’t care, says God, if you’re new to the banquet family or if you’ve been here the whole time. I don’t care if you’ve committed all kinds of terrible deeds in your life, or had all kinds of terrible thoughts. You are invited to the banquet!

“You are invited to the banquet of my grace,” God tells us today! “It is yours to enjoy. Yours to savor. Yours. Take some and pass it around the table, like it was your favorite dish. Feast at this holy banquet,” God says. “This is your party, and by you I mean all who live and breathe upon this planet, which means you. Come to the banquet, the feast of the universe!”

“This is how much I love you, how much I forgive you, how much you mean to me. Look, I made your favorite thing! Can I get you some more to drink?” God’s banquet is here and now spread out before us. God’s grace and God’s love fills us. It connects us to one another and gives us peace. Thanks be to God for this banquet that you are invited to.

The question is, are you going to accept the invitation? Or like the characters in the story Jesus tells us today, are you going to make light of it? One is too busy and too shortsighted to recognize the big picture of God’s all-encompassing grace, and he goes back to his field to farm for himself. Another goes back to his business. How we can be consumed by our business, so much that we can’t even stop to enjoy the party that God has thrown for us.

I don’t want to compare the big banquet that we here at Shepherd of the Valley threw a few weeks ago, to the banquet of God’s grace, because even that beautiful event doesn’t even compare. But I can’t help reflect on it, as I ponder this text and this banquet image. And one of the things that was so wonderful for me, was the opportunity to take the long view. As those of you who were there may recall, I likened the evening to a mountain top experience, particularly because it’s a rare thing to take such a long view – 50 years into this congregation’s past, dreaming and gazing into God’s future for this church. Most of my time in this congregation is spent, not taking the long view, but just being in the day-to-day. Business around the office, farming in the fields as I go out meet with some of you, and some who are not yet a part of this family of faith. It’s hard to get the big picture, when you’re not on the mountain top. But the banquet is a symbol for the big picture. A huge table, plenty of food. And all are welcome to it.

And all you have to do is accept the invitation to this long view, this big picture. And what an absolute, undeserved gift it is—this grace—spread out like a picnic blanket over God’s green universe!

And it is for you to accept, to open your hands and heart and enjoy.

But if you do accept and come to God’s banquet, are you going to wear the garments provided for you? This is where our text gets particularly Matthean. This story, when it’s repeated in the Gospel of Luke, doesn’t include this next part…(Luke’s community was more interested in unpacking the radical welcome of all people.)

Matthew’s community is more interested in the purity of heart of the invited. And if the invited are not participating in response to the invitation, then they never really got it, and OUT THEY GO!

The part about the one caught without his proper wedding garment: this is really something! It doesn’t mean, that we have to go buy the right thing to wear for God’s party.

That outfit is given to us for free, in our baptism, in the Word of God that we hear Sunday after Sunday, in the Communion that we share, all of that is putting on Christ Jesus. That’s the garment that we are given when we accept the invitation and walk in the door. But we have to let that garment go on us and stay on us, as we live our lives as though we are truly at God’s banquet!

Have you ever had the nightmare that you show up to an event wearing the wrong thing…or worse yet…nothing?

This welcome that God has is to be stewarded – which means we have to trust that God will provide the best outfit, the best garments. Let’s not show up wearing the wrong thing. When God invites us to a banquet and gives us even the clothes to wear, we don’t show up in flip flops and a tee shirt!

The question that keeps recurring for me about God’s banquet is “Are you coming to the party, or are you COMING TO THE PARTY.”

I don’t know if you’ve ever had this experience, but when you throw a party there are some people who come to the party, and then there are others who really COME TO THE PARTY.

Some just kind of show up, but they don’t take interest in anyone, I was at a dinner party the other day, and one of my friends was off in the corner texting almost as soon as he arrived. They were somewhere else.

Maybe that’s a helpful image: are you off in the corner just communicating with your little circle of friends, completely unattached to the stranger, to the new face at the party, unconnected to the bigger, wider picture of God’s welcome…just kind of at the party.

So much has happened this last week, amidst it all, we in the church honor the life of Henry Muhlenberg on October 7. First Lutheran pastor in America, 1787. “Satan will allow a lot of external things like going to church as long as there is no true turning from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to complete freedom in and through the Son of God.”

Are you at the party…just going through the motions…or are you AT THE PARTY. Turning from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to complete freedom in and through the Son of God! Connecting, connecting, laughing, helping, paying attention to who is in and who’s left out. Have you ever seen someone like this at a party? I’m not talking about people who have to be the center of attention…I’m talking about the ones who are really present and participating. I know many of us are pretty introverted; I’m not saying we all need to force ourselves to be extroverted. But wearing God’s garment does mean that we are permanently changed to be reaching outward, reaching outward, which is the literal translation of extro-vert: “to be turned outward”.

Even the most introverted personality becomes extroverted to sharing God’s love and God’s grace with the world, after being clothed with Christ’s garment at the banquet.

Accidents – tragic and otherwise

New Members joining

Stewarding our welcome

Busy, misprints, barely getting by, etc.

50^th debriefing

October 2 -- 16th Sunday after Pentecost -- Blessing of the Animals

What in the world does this text have to do with the blessing of the animals? [re-tell?]

It’s our assigned Gospel reading for the day…AND I THINK IT’S PERFECT…as we reflect not just on how cute our little critters are, but as we consider again the ways that God has “leased” them and all creation to us human beings.

God is the land owner; we are the part-time tenants of this planet. And when the produce comes – how we tend to want to hog it all for ourselves! How we can be fooled into believing it’s all rightfully ours…and not God’s, the land owners…

So God sends servants to ask us to share – Martin Luther King, Jr., Oscar Romero, Francis of Assisi, Mother Theresa – and we call one a communist, another a lunatic and off his rocker, we assassinate another, and we let the last do her crazy work in some far off land, where we “admire” her from a distance, claiming that we could never do that…

So God sends more servants – children, animals – and how we can treat them in similar ways…Using them for our own purposes…

“Serve me, pet! Make me laugh. Comfort me, children, make me feel loved. Provide something for me.”

That’s my tendency…rather than letting children and animals teach me about God. About trusting God with everything. Children and pets can teach us that. They can teach me about knowing that all is in God’s hands. They’re not clueless and dumb. In the trusting of the trees and the children and the animals, lies the wisdom of God.

A day of Blessing of the Animals, really goes both ways. We can pronounce God’s blessing on these animals, but they don’t really need that from us. Like we said in the Psalm, they live their lives in a way that truly expresses God’s love and blessing for them. What’s really happening on this exciting day is that we are remembering that the animals are blessing us, with their wisdom, their ability to trust God.

And God, the land owner, who seems out of his mind – I mean, why does the land owner keep sending messengers to get killed? – but God, the land owner, keeps trying to get through to us: SHARE!

Share what you have. It’s not yours to begin with. Share with one another, and there will be enough to go around. I think that’s at the heart of Jesus’ instruction here. Take a longer view…and share.

Those wicked tenants, we wicked tenants, I’m afraid want it all and we want it now. The real sin of those tenants is that they have no vision and no ability to trust that they are in God’s hands, and so they try to take matters into their own hands, as if it’s their land.

As we reflect on God’s planet, how might we let the animals bless us, and teach us to have a greater vision, to see far in front of us? Native Americans talk/think regularly about 7 generations past themselves. How will their actions affect 7 generations beyond themselves? That kind of thinking might radically change our decisions.

Here’s the gift. God keeps sending messengers and as we look around this morning, we can see evidence of that – both human messengers and non-human! God is still trying to get through to us, God even sends his only Son to us. And even if he too was executed, not even death could stop him…and Christ is still coming into the vineyards we’re renting. Asking us to share, and loving us regardless. Calling us to be faithful, and accepting us even when we’re not. God is so generous – these animals are a sign of that. God is so faithful. And again asking us simply to trust.

Today’s a hard day for my family, because we miss Oscar, who was here this time last year...

Leave you with an image—Oscar trusting. On his back, loved to have his belly rubbed. Contrast that with Luther's definition of sin: self curve inward, unable to trust anyone, see much farther than yourself. But Oscar taught us about trusting completely.

May we too be so trusting. Because no matter what, God holds us, and comforts us…and always will. Amen.

Words at our 50th Anniversary Banquet, Sept. 24

What of the future? The future belongs to God –

There’s a story of a small congregation – not ours but in some ways similar – in which at the end of the service, no matter what the hymn, Harold, the oldest member of the church, slowly gets up and takes the acolyte candle snuffer from the back of the church and feebly walks three quarters of the way up the isle, step by step, at a speed befitting of his age…and then Harold hands the acolyte taper shakily to his 10-year-old down-syndrome great grandson Bobby. Bobby then in turn precariously goes to the altar with the candle snuffer, gets the light of Christ, snuffs out the candles, and then carries the light of Gospel out into the world. [pause]

I first heard this story from the Rev. Dr. Thomas Long, who then goes on to point out that watching this ritual Sunday after Sunday at his home congregation is like watching the whole story of the church through the years being played out right before his eyes. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is passed down from the feeble hands of one generation to the precarious hands of another. And it reminds me of the stories we’ve seen and heard this evening as we celebrate our congregation through the years. A similar scene takes place even in Scripture (we hear this story shortly after Christmas) when old Simeon finally gets to hold the baby Jesus in his ancient arms, blessing God in that moment – “my eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, a light to all people” – and then with shaky hands and wobbly knees Simeon leans forward and passes over the baby of Hope and Salvation for the entire world. He passes Jesus over to a precarious teenage girl, mother Mary.

I’m afraid that I can’t and I won’t dictate a detailed picture of the future for Shepherd of the Valley as your current pastor. I can’t and I won’t prescribe the future; but what I can do—as we briefly reflect on the future—is to ascribe that future to God. That’s my only vision—that the future of Shepherd of the Valley be God’s. My prayer is that as we move off this mountain top back down into the valley, that may we together lean and let go into God’s future, like the passing of the light of Christ in our worship service, entrusting it all–entrusting the life-saving Word and Meal—the Living Water that quenches our thirst and saturates us for faithfulness—the stories that we love to tell of Jesus and his love, handing it all over, perhaps with feeble and tired hands, passing it all over—the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the hands of our children and our grandchildren to be carried like a “light” into this dark world.

And as I look out this evening—a personal point of privilege—I want to thank you, all those who have leaned forward and passed the light of Christ over to me, entrusting me with this Gospel of Truth to be shared.

I’ve often heard that as Christians in this age, we’ve gotta do a better job of standing up/firm for our faith; there are so many pressures all around. To stand up for our faith we’ve gotta believe we’re right. But to lean instead into our faith and let go, then we have to believe there’s a God.* [pause] May we move into the future leaning, like Harold, and entrusting our whole selves and our congregation…to God. AMEN.

*Thomas Long, Sermon at the Festival of Homiletics 2010, Nashville, TN

September 18 -- 14th Sunday after Pentecost

There is a certain establishment I know, where mostly adult males, over the age of 21, and most of them closer to the age of 71, like to go during happy hour in San Diego. And in a world of TGIFriday’s and Chili’s Bar and Grills, this little non-descript watering hole stands as a beacon for all the old mom and pop spots that can barely stay afloat. Just a one-room bar, where the clientele and the staff all know each other. It’s better than any TV show, because it’s reality, and you get the sense that there’s actually a lot of genuine fellowship, I’d venture to say even “ministry”, that takes place there.

I never would have known about O’Brien’s had I not been introduced to it by a few of my more gregarious Lutheran pastor friends, some of whom frequent the spot monthly, sometimes from as far as Riverside County. I remember it almost felt like this rite of passage into the San Diego conference of pastors, when 2 of my new colleagues ushered me into the dim room, the air thick with frivolity, and treated me to my first locally-brewed O’Brien’s specialty, proudly introducing me to the owner and announcing to all that this was my first time.

On that visit I also learned of an elite group in that circle of middle-aged, middle-class fellows. A group of just a few dozen, who have their very own mug at O’Brien’s, which hangs in a row over the back counter, reflected and lit in the long saloon-style mirror for all to admire. When a mug owner comes in, the bartender grabs their special glass, and it’s almost like a celebrity has entered the room, as conversations stop and everyone turns to see the sacred goblet come down off the hook and get filled. The last time I was there, an old “Mugger” came and sat at a table next to mine. He might have been just a regular old guy to the rest of the world, but at O’Brien’s, he was a prince.

There’s a long, time-honored waiting list (over 100 names) that one must get on, in order to get a mug in this little community. And when one does achieve the seemingly impossible feat, after years of loyal patronage, the whole place celebrates, as a dusty old abandoned wall hanging transforms once again into a well-earned golden crown. Now I’ve only been there 2 or 3 times so I’ve not witnessed the coronation ceremony, but I imagine it must be glorious.

Can you believe that our very own Mr. Ron Blake, our preschool director, once had a mug at O’Brien’s? He was actually one of the first when the place opened many years ago. And, I must tell you (maybe for the sake of his job as caretaker of our children), that he didn’t exactly earn it like all the others. Mr. Ron received special status because his long-time friend was the owner of the bar. You have to fill your “holy grail” at O’brien’s twice a month in order to maintain it, and even while he was proud and honored to have his mug displayed, Mr. Ron wasn’t keeping up.

And so he made the painstaking decision [slowly…] to give up…the mug!

And he decided—in true Mr. Ron style—to invite his owner friend to pick someone who was brand new on the list.

I have no idea how that transaction occurred, but I would have loved to see the newcomer randomly granted the surprise of grace, an absolute undeserved gift, right there for all to see. There must have been such a cocktail mix of celebration and mostly bitterness as the mug was taken off the hook and given to a newbie—probably didn’t even know what a big deal it was. “But that’s not fair,” I’m sure was the cry that went up, nearly splitting the happy tavern family, as a public display of abundant grace was bestowed…on the late-comer.

If I had to title my sermon today, I’d call it “In Your Face Grace”.

Because what strikes me about both our Old Testament reading of Jonah and Jesus’ parable of the workers that all got paid the same, is that God doesn’t hide the fact that it won’t be fair. And...grace flows abundantly.

Right in Jonah’s face, God changes God’s mind and forgives the people deserving of the greatest punishment. In your face!

Right in the early bird’s faces, those hard workers who got up at dawn and hustled out there for the jobs and the wages, right in their face, the landowner pays the latecomer. Why couldn’t he at least have paid the early birds first, let them go away satisfied, and then give the unfair wage to the slackers?

Maybe the mug deal at O’Brien's wasn’t such a public display, and rather O’brien himself just slipped Ron’s former mug under the bar to the latecomer on the waiting list…

But I hope it wasn’t! I hope it was a huge production of what “the kingdom of heaven looks like”! Where the last shall be first.

God’s grace is in your face, for you, and for everyone, sisters and brothers in Christ! If I was in control of bestowing grace to the least-deserving, I’d probably "slip it to them under the table", so that everyone wouldn’t get mad at me. I wouldn’t make a big deal about, just sneaking you a little grace. But God’s grace comes like a wedding announcement, like a status update in all caps! God’s grace comes pouring in, loud and clear. Free for all, the same for all. Deal with that, Jonahs!

Jonah was so mad: “C’mon God, I thought you were going to punish them!” Ever feel like that? “I thought they were going to get what they deserve, the dirty rotten Ninevite sinner scumbags. C’mon God, I thought we were on the same team. God, how can you be so reckless with your grace? How can you give so freely? How can you love so abundantly?!

"C'mon God...that’s like giving away a mug at O’brien’s to a first-time visitor! C’mon God, that’s not fair.”

But no one said that the kingdom of God would be fair. And just to burst our illusions that it is, God puts grace in our face, and then asks like in our reading from Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry?” God almost taunts us with love and grace. God makes a bush to shade Jonah for a little bit, only to “appoint a worm” (I love that translation!) that eats up the shade and makes Jonah even more miserable – now he's both angry and sunburned at God’s grace.

And there’s a lesson in it all. (I love Jonah!) God points out, “Hey, the shade bush was never a product of your doing in the first place, it’s all gift." Think about your shade bushes, the things that secure you, cover you from harm, keep you from getting burned: maybe it's family member/s, or the social status that you were born into, or being a citizen of this country that you were born into...maybe in your professional life, it's being in the right place at the right time: out of the sun. What are your shade bushes? — things or relationships or situations that you never really even worked for, things you never really pruned or watered, they just were there…to protect you. And yet you think it’s all rightfully yours to get all upset about when it’s gone. God says to Jonah, “You take it all this shade for granted, like it was ever yours in the first place!”

No one said that the kingdom of God would be fair.

Because if it was—here it comes—none of us would ever get in!

Truth is, we’ve all been given a mug that we didn’t earn!

We’ve all been bumped to the front of the list, paid more than we deserve, forgiven for our slacking off and being unfaithful. God’s forgiveness just flows and flows. It is abundant. It is amazing.

Jesus turns the world’s ideas of fairness and justice on their head and instead replaces them with God’s justice. God’s justice and the world’s fairness are radically opposed...

...because God’s justice means that we get a mug, we get a place, we get a welcome…

And so do our sisters and brothers who have wronged us. Doggonit! Amen.