September 8 — Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Listen to this sermon HERE.

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Celebrating 25 years as a church that rolls up its sleeves and gets to work, members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will participate in “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday, Sept. 8 -- a dedicated day of service in which this church’s 4 million members can observe the anniversary by playing a critical part in addressing the needs of their neighborhoods and communities….

...At Advent Lutheran Church in Mentor, Ohio, members created service projects for all ages to participate in the day of service. The congregation plans to bake and distribute cookies to police and firefighters, build and repair picnic tables for a local homeless shelter, write letters to military personnel and veterans and perform random acts of kindness around the community.
…In Palatine, Ill., three ELCA congregations will combine efforts to help make a difference in their community. [They] will take part in many activities which include visiting shut-ins, preparing a Habitat for Humanity house for rehab, quilting prayer shawls, assembling and stocking shelves at the local food pantry, and helping with house chores and yard work for seniors in the area.
     “This is a way for our congregation to intentionally show our corner of the world who we are and what we do. But it’s not just here; there’s this great spirit around the country. It’s great to be part of a church that celebrates its anniversary by sharing God’s love with the world by going out into the world,” said the Rev. Seth Moland-Kovash, pastor of All Saints Lutheran Church.
     Additional service projects include:

+ Redeemer Lutheran Church in Penndel, Pa., plans to create 100 care packets for a local hospital to distribute to families who have loved ones in intensive-care or cardiac-care units.
+ Ballard First Lutheran Church in Seattle will kick-off a year of learning and service, helping educate members about the many opportunities to serve in the community.
+ Kihei Lutheran Church in Kihei, Hawaii, has collected more than 1,500 pounds of canned goods for the community food pantry and for low-income school children who may not have weekend meals.
+ Lord of Light Lutheran Church in Ann Arbor, Mich., will collect non-perishable food items for low-income students who may not have regular meals during extended breaks from school.
     “We are working very hard to help our congregation members see the need in our community, as well as (in) the world. Our congregation also pushes us as leaders to find ways to put our faith into action,” said Leslie Fort, council president at Lord of Light Lutheran Church.
   

  “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday is designed to emphasize this church’s commitment to participate in the work of restoring and reconciling communities, and pursuing peace and justice.    
     Fort says her congregation embraces this calling within their community and beyond. “We are not afraid to be Christ's hands in our community. We aren't afraid to face the realities of brokenness, loss and poverty in our world. We aren't afraid to sweat or end up covered in dirt or exhaust ourselves with tough work. We aren't afraid to look a hurting person in the eyes, to hold their hand, to see their soul as a reflection of ours, to help them through in Jesus' name.”

Add all of this to our list of 10+ churches here in San Diego, with whom we’re invited to connect with today.  It’s wonderful to think of all the service that is being offered around the nation in celebration of God’s goodness to our church body. 

Jesus talks today, in no unclear terms, about discipleship, about taking up our crosses and following.  About rejecting our own families if they stand in the way of the path of discipleship.  Once again, this is a harsh word.  The church overall is getting smaller — we know this from reports and statistics.  Frankly sometimes I’m surprised when we have lessons like this that it’s as large as it is.  Jesus is looking for serious followers.  Courageous and loyal followers.   Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his famous book called The Cost of Discipleship about cheap grace:

“We have gathered like eagles around the carcass of cheap grace, and there we have drunk of the poison that has killed the life of following Christ…We poured forth unending streams of grace.  But the call to follow Jesus was hardly ever heard.”

I hope we hear the call to follow Jesus today.   Pastor George Johnson, in his book Beyond Guilt, discusses a movement “from belief to following” (p. 18).

Jesus calls us, that’s the Good News.  Jesus snaps us out of our funks and puts us on a clear path, that’s the Good News.  There’s never the right time to give up everything and follow, so that makes now the right time.  What is Jesus asking of you this week?  [pause]

Jesus tells us to give up our stuff...Do we own our things or do our things own us?  Jesus frees us from all that by calling us, being honest with us — the road will be rocky and hard — and clearing a way for us to serve.

You are God’s most beloved child.  Now God continues to mold you and shape you.  God continues to call you and need you.  It’s never too late.  And we don’t go about this alone.  With each other here at SVLC, with other churches around the country, and with the whole body of Christ, we serve together.  This is grace too.  AMEN.

—

Prayers:

For the protection of people “affected by the fighting in Syria” and for “all who are working for peace: international leaders, politicians, religious leaders and ordinary citizens” and that “all of us be strengthened by the hope of a future built on love and justice for all.”

September 1 — Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Listen to this sermon HERE.

Jesus just said that when we host a dinner party…

How many of us have ever invited a homeless person to our dinner?  Homeless are still kind of a social untouchable in our world today too aren’t they? 

How many of us plan to do this because we just heard it when the pastor brought the Bible down and read it on a Sunday morning in church?  

Does this book have the power to transforms our lives and our dinner party plans, or do we plan to go back to whatever we were doing before we came and heard it?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on changing my plans very much because of some Scripture reading I heard.  I’m looking forward to relaxing later with the people I love...and like.  Not with strangers.  And certainly not with strangers who smell and have sad stories.  I’m just being honest.  

How many are with me on that?  Let’s forget about this particular passage in the Bible.  Let’s take care of ourselves.  And let’s plan on going back to our week, after church here, and doing what we do.  If I’ve got a little change left over, maybe I’ll give that to a homeless person.  Or if I’ve got a little food in a to-go box, sometimes I’ve given that away to someone begging on the street outside the restaurant. 

This passage doesn’t register.  I mean, we can understand it intellectually, and sing a song or two about it, but we don’t really need to act on it, do we?

For Luke to record this account for his early church community implied that there were people with wealth in the early church — people who were capable of helping their neighbors in need.  There were people like us.  Jesus’ searing words zero right in on us today, 2000 years later.  So now it’s time to rationalize and explain to God why we don’t share our riches more.  Why we take care of ourselves.

I’m not going to do that out loud up here (too ashamed).  I think we can all explain pretty well why we don’t just “sell our possessions and give the money to the poor” (which Jesus says too over and over)...  

What I am going to tell you, is that even while we stumble in this way (and so many ways), our God does not.  

We have a God who always invites the poor and the lame, the blind and crippled.  In spite of my selfishness and my laziness and my ignorance, I can still stand here tell you in faith and in freedom and in confidence that God always has a homeless person at the dinner party!  And not just one — not just a token homeless person — to make a cool statement.  God has all homeless people to the table.  And not just people with no money, God also invites people with no health care, and people with no health!  People who have no legs, who can’t see.  People with breathing machines.  People coughing and infected with all kinds of disgusting diseases.  God invites them to the banquet!  And not just the sick and the poor, God invites people who you and me would call weird.  [I’ll let you fill in the blanks there.]  Different hair colors, different skin colors, different ways of decorating their bodies, different relationships, different politics, different heroes than you and I have, different hopes and dreams and allegiances.  Are you getting a picture of this?  God invites the whole spectrum to the party!  

God invites people who don’t go to church every Sunday.   God invites people who don’t go to church any Sunday.  God even invites people who don’t even believe!  God invites people who believe a different way!  Did you know that?   They’re there too!

God invites people who have committed crimes.  [pause]

God invites people who have careers and bosses that call on them to do awful things, immoral things, hurtful things to themselves and to others, and to the world.  And God invites their bosses too.

I might not want to invite them.  You might not want to invite them, but God does.  Our love and our welcome might be imperfect, but God’s is perfect.  Are you getting a picture of this banquet hall?  Can you see it?!  Oktoberfest’s got nothing on this party!  

God invites the quiet types on the outskirts.  Those who feel alone and afraid — those who would rather look at their phone than talk to you.  God goes over to the corners...and invites them.  

God even invites the our non-human neighbors.  Dogs and cats, pigs and rats, elephants and bats!  Did you know that?  We don’t like animals at our dinner tables, but God’s arms open wide to welcome them.  Dan Erlander, one of the previous pastors here, draws and writes about a word that is used in the book of Ephesians: ana-kephal-ai-o-sas-thai.   

“Beautiful word which the writer of Ephesians used to celebrate what God is doing in the universe - uniting, gathering up, bringing together everything with Christ as head.  The word (translated “gather up”) comes from ancient mathematics.  The total of many separate numbers was called the anakephalaiosasthai. This number gathered all of the other numbers into itself.  This is the work of Jesus Christ - to gather together every part of the universe to bring everything together in one harmonious household.”

God invites the animals...and the plants...and even the dry earth that won’t grow anything but cactus.  

And what about you?  What about me?  Can you see yourself there too?  Are we welcome at this feast, even though we might struggle to invite pretty much any of these others on this list to our dinner parties?   Is there a chair for us too?  Are welcome too?

You bet we are.  AMEN.

August 25 — Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Listen to this sermon HERE.


[Chloe, ashamed]

It’s a powerful image this week as we gather around the story of the woman who was bent down, pushed down for 18 years.  

The text says it was a physical ailment, but the people of that time and the many people today too, believe that our physical ailments are so often only manifestations of much deeper spiritual ailments — stress, pent-up anger, bitterness, shame…

And the way those religious leaders were used doing business, there’s no question in my mind that they spoke to the people in tones similar to how I speak to Chloe when she’s misbehaved:  “N-n-n-no.”  And that woman cowered physically for 18 long years (half a lifetime for most in those days).  Can you imagine?  

We religious ones had better be careful how we speak to those who are not in and of the religious establishment...because that imposition of shame, I’m afraid, is not outdated.  (Pew study about a year ago: top words associated with Christians — judgmental, hypocritical, anti-gay). I’ve got relatives myself, who aren’t afraid in the least to shame you if you haven’t been to church in a long time.   (Now, I happen to think everyone should go to church every Sunday too, but not because they’ll go to hell or something if they don’t.  I just think the church always needs you, and you always need the church.  We are the church; it’s really not an us in here and them out there...the church is the people.)  

But as soon as we get up on our high horses about church or spirituality or religion or non-religion, and push others down — the one we follow and call Jesus has no time for that.  
There’s an amazing reversal in this Gospel text for today — very characteristic for the Gospel of Luke.  Holy flipping.  Jesus takes the poor and the lowly, sick and the sorrowing, the outcast and the stranger, the weak and the bent down...and Jesus raises them up.  Think of poor, young Mary; the 10 lepers; the Samaritan.  Jesus takes them and raises them up.

And Jesus takes the proud and the strong, the rich and the showy, the arrogant and the judgmental…and he brings them down.  The text today says, “he puts them to shame.”  The one who’s ashamed is lifted up, and the one who is used to shaming others is brought down.

In other words, Jesus has no time for compassion to go by the wayside.  Whenever mercy is not being shown, Jesus steps in.  Our God is a God of mercy and compassion — showering down on us and on this world like an ever-flowing stream.  And woe be to the one who’s getting caught up in judging and shaming others, especially the weak and the lowly, the sick and the forgotten.  It’s like Jesus has this radar for judgmental and powerful types.  And he hones right in on them, and he eats with them, and he teaches them.  He stays with them.  

I think we all have our moments in both camps, don’t we?  Sometimes we are pressed down with shame and pain, and even our own self obsession, unable to stand up straight and look around to see our neighbors in need.  (Luther’s definition of sin: self curved inward.)  Can’t see anyone else...

And other times, oh, we can see others just fine.  We can see them mis-behaving, we can see them being lazy or irresponsible, or not going to church, or not being Christian enough — basically not being as good of people as we are.  
Yeah, we’re not curved inward, we’re out and up in everyone else’s business.  And failing to take a deeper look at our own lives and souls.  I think we all have moments in both camps.
And that’s where Jesus moves in.  He levels us when we’re full of ourselves, pious, hard-working, little “holier than thou’s”.  He says, “Hey, cool it, let it go, come down here with us.”  Maybe there’s someone in your life for whom your good judgment seems perfectly appropriate, but your anger and frustration with them is so overwhelming, you’re so high up on your horse, you’re so right...That’s when Jesus steps in and says: “Hey, cool it; let it go, come down here with us.”  Jesus brings the temple leaders down, he shames them, and in so doing perhaps there’s even a hidden gift there.  “You guys are getting so obsessed with the law that you’re starting to use it as a weapon.”  Remember: they were only defending the Sabbath.  Nothing wrong with that.  But they had started to skew it.  When the keeping the Sabbath is a weapon not a gift, Christ steps in.  When the Bible is used as a weapon, not a gift, Christ steps in, and says, “Where is mercy, where is compassion?”  I wonder if there’s any way Jesus was actually giving a gift to those high-and-mighty religious leaders, even if they failed to see it right away.  And Jesus brings us down too — has no patience for our lack of compassion and mercy showing toward our neighbor.  Jesus steps in to crush our pride and to lift up those we have hurt.

Thank God.  There is forgiveness for the sinner, for the proud and the arrogant, and the rich, and the nosey; there is forgiveness for the judgmental and the cruel.  

And there is hope for us when we’re down.  When we’re bent so low by life.  Burdened by sorrow and pain, spiritually crippled, physically hunched over, hurting and longing for a better day.  Jesus steps in and gives us peace.  Jesus steps in and calls us what we are:  “Daughter of Abraham, child of God, stand up straight.  Look around.  You are set free of what ails you.”  

Jesus comes to you this day sisters and brothers in Christ, Jesus arrives in this place in wheat and wine, water and Word, and offers us new life, a new day.  The resurrection is real.  You have been raised with Christ, buried with him and therefore raised with him — not just after you die, but right now.  God has turned the world on its head, through Christ Jesus!  We are given new life this day, and even you are free of your ailments — free to live in hope, free to live in trust that God is with us, that God forgives us, and that nothing can separate us from the love that God has for us.  We no longer have to shame others or cower (like Chloe) in fear, for we are children of God, released to live as the people that God has molded us to be in this world, for this world.  Alleluia!  AMEN.  

August 11 — Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Grace to you and peace…

I’m a fan of Rick Steves.           Haven’t always been —   
too cheerful.                 But he’s grown on me

Gotten a little more political, he’s very thorough and thoughtful, he’s open to lots of different kinds of people, and he’s a Lutheran from the West Coast… (I actually invited him here once!)

Now I watch his shows, podcast his radio program, I’ve bought a few of his books.  And apparently, we have the same taste in castles:  I saw it first in a coffee table book.  Burg Elz, and then found out it’s Steves’ favorite in all of Europe…

But one of my favorite things of his is his whole philosophy on light packing — whether 3 days or 3 weeks he packs the exact same thing in just a simple backpack.  I’ve watched that little how-I-pack segment about ½ dozen times...because it’s just not how I’ve packed before, especially for overseas travel.  It means, doing your research on weather and climate, wearing the same stuff over, and washing, but the goods outnumber the bads, in my experience! 

And as Rick Steves points out, no one ever comes home from a trip saying, “That was a great trip, but you know, I wish I had lugged around more.”

Packing light.  Shedding the excess.  Being nimble.  Ready to go...at a moment’s notice.  These are themes in our Gospel text today.

It’s almost like a mini-Advent theme this week:  Be on your guard.  Sell you possessions, Jesus says.  Give them away, following up on last week.  Let go of stuff, because it can drag you down.  Do you think that’s true?  Shed the excess, so that you can travel light. 

And I’m intrigued—and have been pondering this week—the connection between this idea of “traveling light” and how we treat people.   It looks like there is a correlation between traveling light and caring for and receiving care from neighbor with kindness and grace:  this “Rick Steves” cheerfulness connects to going light…

(In other words, I don’t think Rick Steves would be as cheerful a person if he travelled with tons and tons of stuff.  I actually think that Jesus is giving us a gift, rather than a daunting task, by saying, “Sell your possessions, give up your stuff.”  At first glance it sounds like this terribly unrealistic command, right?  But I believe it’s a gift that Christ gives us today.  I think of all the couples that downsize in their later years.  They always seem happier, they don’t miss all the piles and the clutter and the extra garage space.  They have everything they need (in their 1 Bedroom, 2B condo/apt.).

How do we stay light on our feet for the Gospel?  Agile in our lives and our ministries, among our families, friends and in the world?  How are we ballet dancers of the Gospel?

I love that ballet move where they run and jump with their legs split almost parallel to the earth.  And then just as quickly and gently, smiling all the while, they come back down, and it looks so soft and easy to do.  [pause]  Or a running back in football — who so gracefully hurdles the defensive line at the goal line and does that beautiful landing roll into the end zone….(they’ve gotta be smiling under that helmet).  (Or Mohammed Ali: “Fly like a….”

God creates us acrobatic too, sisters and brother in Christ! Literally that word: “up on our toes, climbing high”.  Perhaps not physically (like a ballerina or a running back) but as human beings, as baptized-blessed-and-sent children of God, we are created  to connect and relate and serve one another...acrobatically.  We are blessed to go light and cheerfully...like how Rick Steves travels.  [pause/marinate]

[Roll-with-the-punches story.  Interaction this week.  Quick to forgive.  Beat me to the punch.]

Following Jesus, remaining with the Christian community (the church), continuing along the way with Christ is acrobatics. 
It is jumping and landing, falling and rolling.  It is laughing and partnering.  It is trusting one another.  And all of that reflects our trusting in God.  How do we “ballet the Gospel”, the good news of God’s love and grace and abundance in our lives?  

Because it is easy to see work, life in general, our many and various ministries in the church and beyond the church as solo drudgery —   
Heavy footed or slumped over in the doorway (Jesus’ images from the Gospel text about the master returning), or perhaps forgetting the master’s return all together.  [pause]

But we “light-footed dancers of the Gospel”, on the other hand, live and work and care for one another and wait with energetic anticipation.

Christ moves among us, sisters and brothers, preparing for us a better country (2^nd reading from Hebrews), a feast to come, blessings that outnumber the stars; and serving us all the while, beckoning us to shed our possessions, and to join ever more the dance of ministry, the dance of Trinity, the dance of loving and serving our neighbor with joy.   Christ moves among us like a butterfly, announcing grace and peace, hope and joy.  Christ encircles us, leaps above us, dives below us and powers through us, in spite of us.  

This One-in-Three upon whom we cannot place our finger, but only put our trust, will sustain us, will forgive us, and will draw us back into the fold, back upon the road and free of our load.  Have no fear.  We are marching in the light of God (know that hymn? sing it?), and we are marching light, we are dancing light, we are singing light.  

And now, we are feasting light.  Filled to the brim and ready to move.  AMEN.

August 4 — Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Listen to this sermon HERE.


Two brothers fighting it out.  [whining] “Tell my brother to give me that.”  But these are not little boys fighting and whining.  They’re grown men.  And they’re not fighting over a toy; they’re fighting over the family inheritance.”  Trying to draw Jesus into it.  (Remember triangulation with the two sisters?)

There are many things that are instructive about this Gospel text today, but what occurs to me is that the one who’s getting treated unfairly, the one who actually has a case, I think, the one who’s getting none of the family inheritance, is the one who prompts Jesus‘ parable.  The corrective story is for the brother who’s getting the raw end of the deal!  I think you and I could figure out some ways we are that brother, the one getting cheated.  

Think about it for a moment:  How many ways are you getting the short end of the stick in this life?  How have you been sucker punched in this economic boxing ring?  

I don’t know about you, by my prayer to God can sometimes sound a lot like this brother who’s getting stiffed.  “God, tell the government to give me my fair share of my paycheck.  God, tell the housing market to give me my fair share of the equity.  Jesus, tell the credit card companies, the banks to give me my fair share of interest — which would be way more than what I’m getting now.  Teacher, tell that shop keeper and that grocer and that barber to stop jacking up their prices and give me what I want for a fair price!”

Can we be as whiny in our prayer life as this brother who simply wants his fair share...and who goes to the source to ask for it?  I mean, we can write some pretty articulate and eloquent prayers, but can their content be just as whiny?

But Jesus doesn’t get roped into arbitration.  He seizes upon the bigger picture.  When this man and (if we’re honest) you and me are caught up in this act, in this lifestyle of pining and whining for what we don’t have, for what’s owed to us, for how we got wronged and how others deserve a scolding and more, then we are getting caught in what Ecclesiastes calls the “unhappy business” of life...then we are no longer “on guard,” as Jesus would warn, “against all kin‘a greed.”  

Your life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, Jesus reminds us.  Your life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.  Beware of storing up treasures.

The Rich Fool  •  30"X40"   •  oil/canvas   •  by James B. Janknegt

And here’s the good news:  God through Jesus has freed us in the life hereafter and even in this life, even today — God through Christ has freed us from the “unhappy business” of pining and whining...because we have been promised something much greater in our baptism:  richness toward God — faith.

Faith is a gift given to us in baptism.  It’s nothing you have to buy, it’s nothing you have to earn.  It’s just given freely to you and to me.  And this is a antibody against the virus of greed: FAITH.  This will protect us from pining and whining, sisters and brothers in Christ!  

This “word of God, word of life” today is like finding a most wonderful letter in the attic, or the closet, or top shelf of the garage hidden among all the junk.  Colossians: You have been buried and raised with Christ, so you don’t have to keep living in a state of fear and scarcity and sadness and bitterness and clenching on to tightly to what you have, even if you have very little.  Because you have been buried (first) and then raised with Christ, this long-lost letter says, because you have been given this greatest treasure that is faith, then you are renewed this day, free to live in the image of God who created you!  

How do we cultivate a field of gratitude, when there are fields and fields of “pining and whining” all around us?  How, sisters and brothers in Christ, can we be even better farmers of thanksgiving?  (I say even better because there is so much generosity in this place.  I have learned so much about giving from you.  We had our young adult camping trip this weekend, and we spent some time around the campfire talking and laughing about this place.  And it was about the people here —Anita and Dusty and Rodney and Stephanie.  And it was to me a celebration of how generous you people are at Shepherd of the Valley, from the eyes of young adults in their 20s and 30s.  We’re watching.)  It’s not that we’re not already farmers of thanksgiving, cultivating fields and lives of generosity and seeing the abundance even when times are lean.  This text is calling us back, and challenging us even more in our generosity, that is, in our “joyful releasing”.  How can we even better share our gifts, our treasures, our inheritances, our possessions...rather than locking so much up in our barns...like that man with lots of money in the parable?   And what are ways that we can remain generous, gracious and thankful even when that same generosity and fairness doesn’t seem to be extended to us by the world? 

Jesus frees us to let go...of our possessions.  They were never ours in the first place.  And if you died tomorrow, which could happen to any of us here, if you died tomorrow, would you have shared your things in this life in a way that reflects the God who loves and creates you anew?  Jesus frees us from greed.  And fear.  Jesus‘ gift of faith, given freely in baptism, is the antidote to our anger and our bitterness. 

Pastor Tod Bolsinger offers a few suggestions on his blog for cultivating generosity:  “Hang out with generous people.  It will rub off on you.”  I suppose that implies the opposite then too:  keep an emotional distance from those who are not farmers of thanksgiving.  I’ve noticed that bitter people can rub off on me also.  Hang out with generous people.  (Looks like you’re in the right place.)    

He also suggests practicing generosity (fake it ‘til you make it, I suppose.  Studies: this works with self-confidence...how about generosity?):  “Leave a big tip when you go out to dinner.  Buy [fair trade coffee] and give it to your neighbors.  Buy a struggling young man a new suit or offer to pay the rent for someone who needs a helping hand.  And then thank them. Tell them that you are doing it for yourself, and that they are doing you a favor. Then find something that you are hanging on to a little too tight and just give it to someone.  Give away your [porcelain doll collection, or your baseball cards, or favorite shirt], or whatever.  Empty your wallet in the offering plate just for the experience of doing so.  Write the biggest check you can ever imagine to some work of God in the world, and watch how there is still food on your table.  And don’t ask for any recognition for it, because this is helping you.  Reorganize your finances so that the first tenth of every bit of income that comes in your door goes to the work of God.  I mean really tithe.  Look at it as a whole lot better deal than the rich [landlord] got.”   

How is this sitting with you?  I don’t really like it these suggestions.  Because I’m kind of stingy.  But I’m trying to trust in the gift that’s been given to me — faith, “richness toward God”.  Let’s stick together, sisters and brothers in Christ, let’s encourage one another and keep practicing generosity together, knowing that God stays with us through it all!  AMEN.

July 28 — Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Listen to this sermon HERE.


When my brother puts me on hold, when I’m talking with him on the phone, if I have to wait longer than 10 or 20 seconds, I hang up.  Patience?  Don’t have it, there.

Maybe this says more about me and my relationship with my brother (actually is a good one), than it does about our overall culture, but I have this sneaking suspicion that I’m not the only one who wants what I want...NOW.

In a recent review of company slogans, immediacy and instant satisfaction were dominant themes.  “Have it your way,” Burger King says.  Results, answers, what I want, right NOW — this is how you sell things.

And when we don’t get it NOW, we’re done with you.  We’re done with your conversation, we’re done with your business, with your restaurant, we’re done with your church, we’re done with you because you couldn’t give me what I wanted and quickly.

I wonder if this happens as we relate to God also…

“Here’s what I want God...”  And we make our list of demands as if we’re sitting at the drive-thru.  [pause] And as we pull around life’s next corner, what happens if we don’t get it, as we just ordered it from God...and get it quickly?  [pause]

I’ve heard stories like this from people who have given up on the church, given up on God.  Maybe you’ve been tempted to leave, because you didn’t get what you wanted.  This is part of who are, who we’ve become... 

But today Christ teaches us to pray…(the prayer we say every Sunday).  What’s interesting, is that Christ teaches to pray for the things we need over and over: Daily bread (as opposed to the biggies).  
Jesus teaches us to ask that God gives us this day our daily bread (which is lots of things, acc. to Luther = bread, shelter, breath, even peace, hope, the ability to trust God...all of these are daily bread).  

Now daily bread:  for most of us in this place, we might think, we pretty much have got those covered on our own.  Most of us can get our own food, and our own shelter and transportation, and even our own joy and hope.  It’s easy to forget to ask God for those daily things, for our daily bread.  

But by praying for them, each time we pray, which is what Jesus says (“When you pray, say this…”), by praying for these daily needs, we are remembering that God is the one who provides us with everything.  And there is a religious experience that happens when we admit that.  We give ourselves back to God, when we pray, “You know what?  Even my daily needs today: I am completely indebted to you, Gracious God!  Please provide me with what I need for tomorrow.”  This is at the heart of the Lord’s Prayer.     

And we go back and offer this prayer over and over.  It’s a totally different kind of ask, than the one we do at the drive-thru.  We aren’t admitting that by ordering a hamburger at a restaurant, we couldn’t live and move and have our being.  We aren’t remembering all the things that that the hamburger joint has done for us, in our ordering another burger.  But by asking God to give and forgive us, we are coming back to remembering that without God’s love and grace, we couldn’t exist.  That is God’s daily bread, given freely to you and me.  In praying for it, we are remembering that God has been providing it all along, and will continue giving us enough.

And in making the ask over and over again, we are staying connected.  We are staying connected with the One who never hangs up or gives up on us.  

Jesus teaches us to keep asking, keep pleading, keep coming back, keep connected?  (That’s Jesus’ illustration of the knocking.)  Are we willing to stay, to show up over and over again?

There are church members out there who get upset and disappear after the first (or last) thing happens that they don’t like.  Much like any of us who walk out of a restaurant if the service is terrible, and never come back.  And then there are church members who — we have now idea — if they are/have been upset or not.  They just keep showing up, over and over and over.  They are a reminder to me of God’s grace, and the Lord’s Prayer.  They don’t hang up, they keep pleading with God and staying connected to their sometimes broken, sometimes wonderful community.  “Stay with me,” Jesus says.  That’s how you pray.

“Keep pleading.  Keep asking.  Keep knocking.  Never hang up.  Never give up,” Jesus says. 

When was the last time you pleaded and pleaded, and even argued with God, like Abraham did?  I’m more likely to treat God like my brother on phone, and if God puts me on hold for too long...click.      

But Jesus invites us to stay with the One who never leaves us.

This is not so much about annoying God with the same ad nauseam request, like our kids can really annoy us — “I want it, I want it.  Why, why?  Why?”  Rather it’s about staying, about not giving up.  Prayer is about showing up.  Persistence is being present, answering the door, even at the most ungodly hour.  Sticking with it, through thick and thin.  

A sports analogy I heard recently (lean toward baseball):  “Football is an affair, but baseball is a marriage.”  Not just fireworks prayers once a week, but 9 slow innings every day.  Jesus teaches us that prayer is about showing up:  being with God, who is with us, through thick and thin.

We tend to pray for others.  But Jesus teaches us here to pray for ourselves.  ...to pray that we can stick...that we not lose track; that we not stop trusting that God will provide enough; and that we not forget that God has been providing enough; that we not stop opening ourselves to God’s forgiveness; and that we not stop hearing God’s call to go now and forgive others.  

How’s all that sound for a sermon?  Pretty churchy?  Pretty nice?
Let me slap this ancient, powerful prayer into a real world example (and I encourage you to do the same during the week—or let’s talk about it together—but here’s my example):  Last night, actually this morning, at 2am, a sheriff knocked on our door and informed us that someone had broken into my car.    [pause]

Now how do I pray, Lord?  (my old iPod was stolen, my bluetooth, and some important wires to connect those devices)

I use these little things all the time, so dealing with that is a decent inconvenience...not to mention losing sleep, not to mention the sense of violation that happens when you get robbed.  Talk about trespasses.  We had a trespasser last night.  

So now how do I pray now, Lord? 

"Lord, teach us to pray."

Let’s put some flesh on this prayer.  (And my car being broken into is just one case study, but it snaps us into the present.)  Jesus teaches us in Luke to pray like this, “Our Father, hallowed be your name.”  In other words, God is here with us right now, even as my car is being broken into.  Luke’s version leaves out “who art in heaven”, emphasizing God is right here with us.  “Your kingdom come.”  Luther reminds us that we don’t will God’s kingdom to arrive, it’s already here.  This petition is to say, “Help us put on different glasses so that we can see your kingdom here with us...even as our cars are being broken into.”  “Give today our daily bread.”  You’ve given us everything we need, God, even as our cars are being broken into, you’ve kept us safe this far along the way.  “Forgive us this day, as we forgive others.”  This is how Christ teaches us to pray.  This is how we should pray, even when our cars get broken into.  We are forgiven, sisters and brother in Christ, for all the ways that we have fallen short.  Thanks be to God for that.  “Now, God, help us to go and forgive.  Help us to stay with you, as you have always, always stayed with us.  Thank you, for not giving up on us.”  AMEN.

July 21 — Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Listen to this sermon HERE.


Grace to you and peace…from Jesus, who is with us.  Amen.

Sisters and brothers in Christ, we are distracted by many things.  Often times when this text comes up or this story is told, we are invited to think about whether we are Mary’s — sitting at the feet of Jesus, or Martha’s — worried and distracted by many things.  [It’s true, we can be both Mary and Martha at different times in our lives.]  But today, for the sake of this sermon, I’m going to just assume that we’re all Martha’s — worried and distracted by many things.  Yes, there’s a little Mary in each one of us too, but in this day-in-age, we are almost programmed to pick up and respond to distractions...  

I’d like to just take a moment and ask you to jot down about 10 things things that are distracting you right now…in this place and in your life.  

Are we relating to Martha yet?  (Distractions in the world, in your life, in the news, in the community...) And how when we’re busy/serving, it’s easy to be judgmental of those who aren’t?  “Huh, must be nice to go on vacation.”  “Huh, maybe someone ought to work a little harder.”  And then Martha pulls a classic triangulation with Jesus.  Do you know what triangulation is?  

Dr. Murray Bowen teaches about triangulation

Concept introduced by Dr. Murray Bowen.  (We see this all the time in the church:  Instead of going directly to the person with whom we’ve got a problem, we go to someone else, and try to rope them into our conflict and get them on our side… For example, if I’ve got a problem with another pastor in the area, instead of talking face-to-face with my brother or sister, I go to the bishop: “Tell him to behave...but don’t tell them..”  Another example: Husband and wife:  She’s very frustrated by her husband’s work habits:  long hours, time away from the children.  But instead of talking to him, she calls her sister, and tells her, but tells her not to say anything because she doesn’t want to damage her relationship with her husband.  Is triangulation a healthy way of communicating?)

Kacy Brown of the Well Counseling Center (just one of many resources out there) suggests some ways to avoid triangulation:  1) Go directly to the person with whom you have the conflict.  2) Avoid trying to draw others in and get them on your side behind the scenes.  3) And try as much as you can to de-triangulate...stay out of triangles.  Encourage others who are venting to you to go directly to the person with whom they have the conflict.  

This little side note on triangulation may be an unintended gift of this gospel text for us today, helping us communicate better with one another and reminding us of some unhealthy pitfalls in our communication styles, to which we’re all susceptible.

So, poor Martha.  Poor you and me.  Not only is she getting nicked just for being busy, but also for being a poor communicator.  Yep.

But here’s where Jesus gives her a gift:  “Martha, Martha, stop, sit down, breathe.”  “_____, _____, stop, sit down, breathe.”  Rather than getting hooked into the triangle Martha is trying to form, Jesus invites her to stop.  To breathe.  (Probably doesn’t help that he uses her sister as the example, but we do get an image of the human being from Mary...as opposed to the human doing.)   “Stop, sit down, breathe.”

How we too can be distracted by so many things in our lives, in our world, even as we sit here in the sanctuary on Sunday.    How we in the church can be all about church all the time, and yet never truly worship...even when we’re in worship.  

How is Jesus inviting you to stop, sit down and breathe?

This, Christ says, is the “better part”.  There is so much here that relates to us today.  We are called to listen, more than talk; to watch and wait, rather than run, run, run all the time.

But Christ invites us to rest this day.  To stop.  To center.  To listen.  And to know that God is God.  We are human beings, not human doings.  And Christ makes us that this day, Christ redeems us from our incessant doing-ness — making us fully human being.  In our busyness, in our fallen communication styles, in our running around we can almost loose a piece of our humanity, becoming like robots knocking tasks off our lists.  I heard a story this week about “a mother who coached, drove her kids around and volunteered for every school committee.  She was a supermom.  She loved her kids. Thing is, one of the kids [at church youth group], confided in [her pastor] that she hardly ever saw her mom. Her mom was so busy coaching, leading, volunteering ‘for her kids’, she was too busy to spend time with them.  This is a phenomenal lesson for those who are leaders in the church. We can become so obsessed with doing ‘God’s’ work, we lose track of God.” 

But Christ redeems us today.  Our humanity is restored, and we are offered a place and a time to center, and breathe and refocus.  Prayer, listening, centering — it’s precisely when we say we don’t have time for these things, that we know we need them.  It’s not that we shouldn’t serve, of course.  It’s that centering and listening, sitting at the feet of Jesus like Mary, must come before the serving so that we don’t loose sight of the vision.  (scrubbing the deck of the ship, but not at the wheel, so the ship crashes)

Jesus speaks gently to you this day.  Calls you by name.  Invites you to slow down for a change.  “There is need of only one thing,” Christ instructs us.  God is love.  In Christ, is our hope.  We are gathered this day back to the center, the ultimate concern.  And here at the center, we are forgiven and we are fed.  The time will come to go and serve.  But not before sitting at Christ’s feet, receiving God’s gifts, which are poured out for you in abundance.  God’s forgiveness washes over you in this time.  God’s peace shines upon you.  God’s presence fills every fiber of your being.   In a moment God’s very body, the bread of life, will fill your body, Christ’s own blood, will co-mingle with yours.  Stop, listen, watch, breath.  Christ’s own gifts are being poured out for you and for many.  There is peace and grace to go around, that never runs dry.  Come and rest, here at the wellspring of hope.  Here at the center.   Here at the feet of Jesus.  AMEN.