Where are the lion’s in your life?

Today’s second lesson struck me as especially powerful today. It comes from 1 Peter and is found in  4:12-14 and 5:6-11. The lesson starts with “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” The refiners fire is strange and uncomfortable, so hold on we are about to jump into the crucible.

Take a moment to visualize fire… some it is a fire in the fireplace, some the candles that adorn the alter, some may have more horrific images of wildfires or even a devastating house fire. Yes fire is a forced with which to be reckoned. Fire and heat also has a purifying element. Think of how we make iron and steal and how we “burn” away the impurities that are left in the metal – making a harder substance. This kind of “fire” is what Peter was talking about. Christianity is like the “refiners fire” – it is a process by which we come to know the glory of God. The ordeal of being a Christian was very important to first century Christians as they faced much public humiliation and degradation.

 

A message like this coming from Peter was not something that was ill timed – I think it is truly ponent that it speaks to Christians across all of time. To often we get caught up in America in occupying the moral majority as Christians. We very comfortably can exercise our faith and do not need to hid as the Jew’s did in Nazi Germany. That is not to say that their are not people in the world who are suffering for their Christian faith today. I am reminded of Christians in Palestine, India, and Africa who face open persecution for their faith. These are easy Brothers and Sister’s in Christ to remember, but what about those that are persecuted right here in America. What about our Brother’s and Sister’s in Christ who are “illegally” in this country, who are divorced and put off by their particular Christian institution, who love a member of the same sex – yes I said it, the people out occupy the “marginalized” space in our culture, may – just may be one of our fellow Brother’s and Sisters. How different is their ordeal in coming through the fire then our own?

As we share in this refining process we should be aware of the presence of sin and temptation. “Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.” Nice imagery going on there. Devil prowling…. How are you setting yourself up to be devoured? The temptations are all around us everyday, which is why it is important to remember that we practice our faith not in a vacuum but in the presence of one another. Reach out to the community of believers for support, we find strength in one another. We should (as the Puapa New Guinea Synod taught me) “cast our burden’s unto Jesus, for he cares for you….”

Who let the sheep out? Whoot whoot

I – unlike my father, am going to stay away from the 1 Peter reading for this week. I don’t feel confident enough in my writing – or dare i say preaching – yet to address it fully and without stumbling around the issue.

Today’s Gospel we hear of how Jesus Christ brings us into the “fold” of God. We hear a parable about a Shepard who calls to his flock and in response the sheep are moved. The children experienced this first hand this morning when they went to one of our member’s farm and stood at the fence and tried to “call” to the sheep. God bless them they tried so hard to bring those sheep closer to them, but all they could do was stand at the fence in vain. It wasn’t until Kathy (our good Shepard and Council President) stood at the fence and called them over – “here sheep” – that they came, some came with great haste, others got a little distracted along the way, but all came at the sound of her voice.

I wonder how Jesus stands at your pen and calls your name…. of course i can’t say that without immediatly thinking about the hymn “softly and tenderly jesus is calling… ” and i have issues with that, sometimes jesus does call softly – other times it seems that he hits you over the head with his voice. Either way he is calling all of us to a life of abundance sealed in his death and resurection. I know for myself i sometimes am like the sheep who get distracted easily on the way to the sheapard. I hear the voice calling and see the nice patch of grass i would rather be eating…..

Don’t just shake my hand… SHARE THE PEACE

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe”

Doubt… miss-trust…. fear….

We all walk around with it everyday. We see it on our neighbor’s face as they struggle through rounds of radiation treatment in their battle with cancer; we see it on a child’s face as they leave school only to know they are going home to deal with abuse; we see it on a mother’s face as she confronts her child dealing with addictions; we deal with it when we are let down by our community; we see it on our politician’s faces as they face difficult decisions; we see it around the world in poverty, hunger, and disease. We all deal with fear and doubt in one way or another every day.

Doubt and fear is a scary topic to talk about. It leaves people uncomfortable – it forces people to deal with a theology of God that isn’t so pretty and nice and clean. I think in some ways it was even scarier for the apostles immediately following the death of Christ. Their world had crumbled around them – their strong leader had suddenly been executed and his body was miraculously raised from the dead. Talk about too much drama for one week – I can only imagine the amount of fear that the Apostles must have been feeling. Then something interesting happens. The presence of Christ shows up and simply says “peace be with you” a simple act that we do as part of our everyday liturgy, “peace be with you”. The disciples where facing emanate persecution, they were hiding in a room, fearful for their very lives, and Jesus shows up and says “peace be with you”, I don’t know about you but I probably would have told Jesus where he could put his “peace be with you”.

This is the RISEN CHRIST – and this is exactly how he comes to us in our everyday lives, “peace be with you”. Stop, slow down, do not worry and know that I am with you, “peace be with you”. We experience this peace when we worship, when we celebrate the sacraments, when we greet each other as Christ greeted the Apostles in that room that night, “peace be with you”. Know that through the Holy Spirit I am with you always and I am sending you out just as my Father sent me, “peace be with you”.

God’s peace is amazing and I wonder how often we stop to see that Christ’s peace that he shared with the Apostles that night is with us today.

“….In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith–being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire–may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

Trials of faith are interesting events, I know that I personally go through them a lot and wonder how many other individuals go through so called “crisis of faith” situations. I continue to turn my back on the “peace of Christ” and let the real world get me down. I struggle to find Christ’s peace in a world full of pain and suffering. I too, am like Thomas. I doubt in a world full of so much hatred that I find it hard to see the Risen Christ in everyone and everywhere I look. I struggle to find the hope in a world that is so full of malice and war, hunger, disease, suffering.

“Peace be with you” – for by his Resurrection and re-birth we too are given a new life. A new life free from pain and suffering, from disease and affliction, we have faith in a death like his so that we can share in a Resurrection like his – and this gives us HOPE. Through the deepening of our faith we share in the HOPE of the world to come, a world where there is no more afflictions, no more abuse, no more disease. This HOPE becomes our LIVING HOPE that we share right now with the world around us, we share a RISEN CHRIST.

I think we were better before we started…..

 

As we start this journey to the cross I am moved to write about my reading that I am preparing for our Easter Vigil that we are having on Saturday night. My assigned reading comes to us as the story of the Israelites crossing the Sea of Reed’s with Pharaoh’s army in hot pursuit. We hear the words coming to us in what can only be described as coming from the pages of God’s and Angels of an epic battle with unforeseen odds. The mighty Egyptian army is in pursuit of the Israelites as they flee their rule. The Egyptian people doubt their journey into the wilderness and cry out to their leadership…. “why have you lead us into the desert to die…”

In that act of desperation is where I come to you tonight, at the end of a Lenten journey that has caused us to prepare ourselves for a journey with Christ I wonder how many among us are like the Israelites ready to throw up our arms and say “why…..”

In the mist of a country with a decreasing economy, a war without a seeming end, and with the threat of world hunger, poverty, and what seems like a hopeless world condition I think that we can all stand and say “why….”

As I prepare to go on a journey toward ordained ministry I can’t help but sympathize with Moses, after all it wasn’t a path that he chose for his life, he him self said to send his brother. Moses didn’t posses the powers of speech or persuasion and probably wished he would have gone the other way so that he wouldn’t have found that burning bush. But this is where God encounters us. In the place where we least expect it and when we feel that we are not able to be the victor in the situation. We encounter a God who is with us throughout our journey and when we call on him is able to do miraculous things. “The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to keep still”.

As we prepare to go through the Easter season and join in a death like Christ’s we are reminded that through him, in him, and with him we are able to achieve the final victory. It is through him, in him, and with him that we will be able to close the waters on the enemies.It is through the waters that he calls us all to be with him as well. The salvation that comes to us through the waters of baptism are a gift freely given to all. I am reminded of this as I review the draft statement on sexuality that the ELCA has put forth. Just as God has delivered his people out of captivity, God delivers each of us into eternal salvation. This gift is given to EVERYONE regardless of background, personal beliefs, or particular sexual situation; I would even venture to say that the gift of baptism would have been given to the Egyptians – shocking I know.

It is in this hope of saving waters that we bring about change in the world. We join in the waters of baptism to fight world hunger, to end war, to bring about peace and bring the Promised Land not just to the Israelites but to all people so that they too may be delivered to eternal salvation.

 So how do you stretch out your hand over the waters? 

How to achieve Justification without really trying….

 

So this week we are faced with the incredibly founding principle of grace…. something that is near and dear to me and many of my fellow Lutherans. I am reminded of a story I heard in North Carolina to describe grace in a way that every southerner will understand. A pastor from a church in Pennsylvania is coming to a conference at Southern Seminary, on the way he stops for breakfast at a roadside dinner that can only be described as having come straight from an episode of Dinner’s and Dives. He asks the waitress for a cup of coffee and then orders pancakes, eggs, and sausage. When his food comes, he inquires to the waitress – “excuse me miss, this isn’t what I ordered” pointing to the white steaming bowl of grits. The waitress replied with “honey, you don’t order grits, they just come…” and turned around and walked away.

See grace in a way is just like that… you don’t ask for it, it just comes… So how does it come and what do we do in response of that grace?

If you are like our for-fathers in this country you believed that by divine providence God was showing us the way to the Promised Land and that it was our manifest destiny to become the greatest nation in the world. The early founders of America were escaping religious persecution and went a different way – found a new land, founded on a moral order and a “right” way to live. They had brought with them their identify; the same way that we keep our own identity today in the context of the new worlds that we encounter.

We strike out into unfamiliar worlds all the time, we go off to school, we go to work new jobs, we take job relocations, we find ways that God takes us out of our comfort zones and puts us into places that challenge us and our beliefs. My challenge and change was going to college and being confronted with people that didn’t accept my homosexuality. It was a constant struggle for me to see how God was working in all of this. I was struggling to find out how God speaks to us through so much adversity.

I was being confronted with people who where living in the law, people who said that these types of actions are against what God wants. The law for them was how they lived their life.  To limit God to just the law, or just these laws greatly misses the salvation we have in Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the law.

We hear in today’s reading from Roman’s how Paul rectifies the law to our system of works righteousness. Luther tried all his life to make his life here on earth worthy in the sight of the lord, and no matter how hard he tried fell short in the terms of the overwhelming gift we receive in eternal life through the grace of God. 

God’s greatest gift was his son which he sent to die for us. The only way for us to be saved like him is for us to share in a salvation like his. We remember this every time we celebrate communion – by taking the body and the blood – we are united in humanity with him and will share in a resurrection like his. The only way Jesus says to have the kingdom is to be born again – born again a gift of grace freely given to all – we in tern through faith are empowered to act as Christ in this world.

Any good Lutheran can recite that mantra after confirmation class, “for we are saved by grace through faith….” And this is not of our own doing but by the power of the Holy Spirit.  It truly is a very liberating thing once you stop and realize this fundamental part about salvation. You can stop running the race of who does enough for the homeless, who donates the most to charities, who teaches the most Sunday school, or who has done the most terms on council. All of these works righteous efforts are for not, if you don’t do them with the right heart. These actions should be done out of faith and love of Christ and not out of the “this will get me to heaven faster” mantra I see so many people undertake. This isn’t a race people – it’s a re-birth a re-orientation of your heart for God. And that may just be the greatest journey ever – that truly is the promised land….  

Transformers? or transformational power…..

Today was a transforming day – today was my initial interview with the candidacy committee. I think that it is appropriate that it comes on the eve of transformation Sunday, a day where we celebrate the awesome and indescribably wonder that is god in our lives. In my interview today I had been expressing my reluctance for a call to Pastor Knicely and how I feel that i have discerned gifts that i think are suited for ministry but that i feel that there is a lot of things standing in my way when I look at “actually” going into the ministry that i am left throwing my hands up and saying “God why me?” She simply responded “why not you?”

As I sat there in one of those moments that can only be described as God smacking you in the face, I realized how the spirit comes to dwell within and among us and how that changes are perspectives and lives. In this week’s readings we encounter two monumental figures Moses and Jesus going atop a mountain and experiencing God. While most of us will not climb to the top of a mountain to experience how God influences their lives I wonder how God is transforming our lives down off the mountain. I have seen the little ways and big ways that God has transforming powers in the world down off the mountain, it largely comes from us taking to heart what it means to be called members of Christ. It is our active part of enacting what God is doing in the world.

In the readings for this week there are several striking points that should be realized that at first glance you might skim over but deserve a closer look. First is what happened on the mountain – for most of us it is rather hard to believe that Moses and Jesus went up on a mountain and these figures appeared before him. It is just too hard to suspend disbelief here. I think that leaves us with one thing – it is for us then a matter of faith and not of fact. We need to focus on what Matthew is telling us, showing us, inviting for us to experience. We need to see that the disciples saw Jesus as a person transformed – in a moment of pure dwelling with the Lord we see him as something new. Something I think that we all experience when we encounter God, be it in a fellow human, scripture reading, prayer life, or out in the awesomeness of his creation. In this way God is reaching out to us, like he did in his voice to the disciples and saying be not afraid. His grandeur is amazing and I know that I am truly humbled by it. But we must realize that in that moment we too are transformed, we can not go back to the way things used to be. We must come down from the mountain changed and back out into the cold world of reality – away from that mountain top high.

So how do we come down from the mountain – i find it fitting that this weekend mom is at Winter Celebration celebrating holy Eucharist right now with 400 0r so of her favorite high schoolers and in the morning she will come down from her mountain top experience, so will the other 400 or so participants at that event. The world will quickly envelope them school will resume, mom will go back to work, the world will confront them in ways that they had not thought of. It’s a cold world and not at all a place where the warm fuzzy of God is shared at every corner. I know that those participants at Winter Celebration will be forever changed by that mountain top experience, I know that i was when i was going – they will encounter a world with a new perspective and new vigor and a new hope. This is the hope that I am facing you with today – a hope for a world transformed by you because of the transformational powers of Christ dwelling in each and everyone of you. So go my little transformers, just don’t be Christians in disguise.

Who do you invite to your mountain top?

 

Matthew 17:5 “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”

This coming weeks readings we hear several important stories from the bible. The first reading comes to us from Exodus and is the story of how Moses went up Mt. Sinai to receive the law.  A story about how God fulfills his commandments with his people and a special mountain top experience that Moses has with YHWH. The Gospel also tells of a mountain top experience – it tells the story of the Transfiguration of our Lord. Peter, James and John go with Jesus to the mountain to pray and in the midst of their mountain top experience the prophets Elijah and Moses appear before Jesus and we hear the voice of the Lord say “this is my son the beloved with whom I am pleased.” Scholarly research would incline one to say that this is another way that the author of Matthew uses to fulfill Jewish heritage in placing the three together – another way of fulfilling prophecy.

This all leads me to an interesting question though about mountain top experiences. Most often when you use that phrasing around the Virginia Synod we speak of our youth retreats at Eagle Eyre (which really is set on a mountain) where we come away with such an amazing high after dwelling with a community of believers for a mere three days. Mountain tops are also used as illusions for something we use as an obstacle to get over or goals to reach. Mountain tops are special places for us today just like they were for the early Jewish community; a place to be closer to God, a place of distinction and awe, a place to get a new perspective.

In the gospel we see that Jesus has brought Peter, James, and John with him to his mountain top experience. In Exodus Moses goes by himself to be with God. I wonder though who we bring with us to our mountain top experiences today? Who is welcome on our summit? Who do we include in those moments of our life when everything seems rosy and we share our victories with? Who accompanies us to the Mountain to morn? Who do we exclude from the mountain and don’t let into our lives?

Mountain tops are surrounded in mystery – Moses was surrounded by a cloud and Jesus wanted the apostles to tell nothing of the events from the mountain top. I wonder why though, it has always been a relatively hard concept for me to grasp. I always come down from “mountain top” experiences ready to tell the whole world. My guess though is that “mountain top” experiences are special and individual. They aren’t the heart and soul of the Gospel proclamation and thus shouldn’t be what we proclaim. Instead we should focus on the fulfillment of the prophecy that God would make his son incarnate and was sent to die for us for our redemption.

Who do you share your moments of revalation with?

Ephiphany III

Matthew 4:19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”

It’s hard to believe, but I do not particularly like to go fishing. I am sure that there is great quality male bonding that does happen when you are left alone on a boat in the middle of a lake or I am sure that it is a great place of solitude for some to get away from all that is our crazy modern life – fishing is not my idea of relaxation. My father has on numerous occasions tried to instill in me “normal” male activities, like fishing, hunting, an interest in sports – and as hard as he tries it seems that arts and academia appeal to me more so then these typical male bonding experiences. I am reminded today though how bonding with my father truly has special meaning and why I am ready to finally go fishing with him.

Today dad preached “from the bible” – which immediately sent my heart racing to try and figure out where he was going with this one. He started with a wonderful explanation of the Gospel of Matthew with its roots in “prophecy fulfillment”. Matthew’s author clearly shows to a Jewish community, rather convincingly, that Jesus is the one that God has appointed and sent to us to be our Savior. Dad pointed out the subtle differences and meanings that get lost in our contemporary mindset in the reading from Isaiah today. He showed that the word of God has come to God’s chosen people – the word made flesh and that incarnation has a very special call to all of us in our lives. You see God’s word is not a silent voice, one that I am very aware of as I continue this “call process”. In the Gospel today we heard the story of Jesus calling the disciples – “come follow me”. This has been one of those amazing biblical moments to me. It is a point where we see just how powerful the word of God must have been to these disciples. To drop their very lives to follow another man – maybe even a stranger – made what the author of Matthew reduces to “come follow me” into something so incredibly powerful.

I am reminded of a time when the family went to Fontana Dam for a time share vacation. One of those wonderful weeks in the American Iconography that can only be described as Griswald-isk. They had a pond, of sorts, with fish that for a few dollars you could rent fishing poles and some corn and go fishing. I don’t think that the fish had been fed in some time because my brother and I managed to pull out fish faster then my dad could put in the bucket. If it was that easy to go fishing I think I would have taken a hold to fishing. Most of the time though fishing is a waiting sport, and if you know anything about me patience is not one of my virtues. I think that fishing is an appropriate image to consider when considering how we fulfill our baptismal call in the world. Fishing has been part of sustaining life for thousands of years. Fishing communities have a language, customs, and feeling all their own. We too have a fishing community with a language, customs, and feelings of our own. We receive that culture through the word of God and we stand up and fulfill our own calling to go out into the world and “fish”. Paul writes about this purpose in his letter to the Corinthians. In fact he says we must not be divided in our mission to fishing – it is a united effort that we carry out as the community of believers. We should not worry about what Christians consider themselves Catholic Fishermen, Presbyterian Fisherman, Methodist Fisherman, or Lutheran Fisherman – Paul is telling us to loose that kind of mindset when looking at our baptismal calling. I think that Paul would even agree to carry it further by saying that we should stop fighting over being Latino fisherman, gay fisherman, republican fisherman, or pro-life fisherman. We are united in Christ – it is Christ who we encounter at the table, it is Christ that we celebrate in our community. The word of God is a powerful thing for our community, it is our nets that we use to help bring people to God, in our community we support each other in bringing in the nets, and at the end of the day we give thanks to God who has provided for us.

You won’t find us out in the middle of a lake somewhere; it’s a different kind of fishing that I do with my dad- one that I couldn’t be prouder to do with anyone else.