The Mega-millions lottery jackpot peaked at $1.6 billion dollars this week. I didn't win but I, and maybe you, had fun dreaming about what we'd do if we won. We planned to help friends, pay down debts, and start a hundred new non-profits to help feed the world. The big jackpot allowed me to spend the week quoting my dad ("you can't win if you play") and reminding everyone, if they win, to tithe. Lotteries are big business in the United States. In 2016, they generated over $72 billion in ticket sales. States used the money to pay for programs or, in the case of New Jersey, to help pay their state pension problems. The lotteries are a form of gambling even if the wager feels pretty small. And like all gambling, it can be a form of personal entertainment or grow into something destructive. Winning the lottery shouldn't be our retirement plan but, for some, the lottery might feel like their only hope for a better future. A lotto ticket, in some ways, is like a prayer. 

We sometimes believe prayer is like winning the lottery. Our words become our ticket to get God to work on our behalf. It's a plea to God to just do something. But our prayer during worship is more than an attempt to win this "divine" lottery. Prayer is, first and foremost, rooted in our relationship with Jesus Christ. When we pray for the church, we ask God to make the Christian community as life-giving as Jesus' own body is to us. When we pray for the earth, we ask God to renew the goodness that's around us. When we pray for each other, we want people close to us to be made whole. And when we pray for our elected officials and other leaders, we're not asking for their will to be done. We are asking, instead, for God to rekindle their commitment to justice, humility, and mercy. God already wants all these things. God is actively working on these things. And our prayers, spoken and unspoken, are already heard. But when we name these prayers out loud, we also remind ourselves of what the Christian life is all about. Our prayers for healing remind us of our call to heal. Our prayers for the earth are a reminder that we, as stewards, can take care of our environment. Our prayers for the church invite us to share our faith in Jesus. And our prayers for our leaders are a reminder of the ways we all promise to commit ourselves to love, honor, and help one another. 

Jesus knows that prayer can be hard. There are days when we don't want to pray and there are moments when we feel as if we can't. Jesus wants us to pray for those it's easy to pray for and to pray for those we don't want to pray for. And if we can't, that's okay. That's why we pray, in worship, together. Trust that the people next to you will pray the prayers you can't. And make sure you're here to pray the prayers that are hard for them. Our prayers are not about trying to win the lottery. Our prayers are about trying to live into the love Jesus already gave us. And unlike our really low chance at winning the lottery, prayer does more than just connect us with God. Prayer also repairs, renews, and revives our souls. 

0 comments

Last week, I was asked about John 20:22-23. In that passage, Jesus shows up when the disciples have locked themselves in a room. Jesus walks through the locked door, offers them peace, and then "breathes" the Holy Spirit onto them. It's an interesting piece of scripture especially since the beginning of Acts 2 shares how the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples after Jesus' resurrection. Acts 2 and John 20 seem to announce the specific historic moment when the Holy Spirit enters the world. Both episodes seem to contradict each other. 

I think it's important to remember that we have 4 different gospel stories rather than one. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are texts written by specific people to specific faith-filled communities. The Holy Spirit gave each author words revealing how Jesus mattered to them, their communities, and everyone who came after them. Each text describes different aspects of who Jesus is and what Jesus does. Each text also describes different experiences of the Trinity. This includes the Holy Spirit. Luke (who wrote the book of Acts), sees the Holy Spirit as something bombastic. The Holy Spirit inspires believers to preach life-giving words to their neighbors, friends, and even strangers. The Holy Spirit compelled Peter, Paul, and the other apostles to bring Jesus to far flung place. In Luke-Acts, the Holy Spirit inspired believers to move and not be silent about their faith.

In John, however, another aspect of the Holy Spirit is highlighted. John calls the Holy Spirit the parakletos which can be translated as advocate, comforter, helper, or intercessor. In the words of Rev. Karoline Lewis, "The Holy Spirit, according to John, is the one who is called to be alongside us." In John 14, we are introduced to the Holy Spirit in the middle of Jesus' last sermon to his disciples. Jesus knows Good Friday is coming. He knows he'll die, rise, and ascend to heaven. The disciples do not fully understand what's about to come. Jesus' final sermon is a way for Jesus to bring comfort to his followers. He promises to send them "another Advocate." So who was their first advocate? Well, their first advocate was Jesus. The Spirit, according to John, is a manifestation of the promises Jesus makes. Jesus will not orphan the disciples because "the Spirit will now accompany them." In John, the Spirit is very personal. The Spirit is a quieter encounter but an encounter that promises all of God's people that they'll never be abandoned no matter where in life (or death) they go. 

The Holy Spirit doesn't appear in only one historical moment in Scripture. The Holy Spirit is the multitude of ways God makes God's promises known to us. The Spirit grants us a new life held in God's abundant love. The Spirit was there when the universe was created and is there when we are baptized. The Spirit is always present but is experienced in our lives in many personal, amazing, and breathtaking ways. 

0 comments

From our June 2016 Newsletter

Did you notice that we celebrated Easter a month before our Jewish friends and neighbors celebrated passover? Several people asked me why that is since so much of the story around Easter (The Lord's Supper, Good Friday, Easter Sunday) take place during the passover celebration. After doing some research, here's what I found:

In 325 AD (or CE), Emperor Constantine of the Roman Empire brought together bishops and church leaders to meet and talk about their differences. One of the issues this First Council of Nicaea debated was the date of Easter. Prior to this council, different churches in different places celebrated Easter on different dates. Many celebrated Easter after Passover and relied on the local Jewish communities to calculate when Passover would take place. But some felt that this calculation wasn't correct. Since the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar (a little more than 354 days long), some calculation and adjustments were needed to help it fit a solar year (1 trip around the sun). This means that calculating Passover was tricky and that the date moves around. Sometimes this caused Passover to take place before the spring equinox (around March 21) and Easter would not fall on a Sunday. This didn't work for other Christians. After debate, the council resolved to calculate Easter on their own and not rely on the Jewish calendar. Not everyone agreed to this (we have sermons from the late 300s attacking the practice) and the actual calculation for Easter wasn't agreed on. It would take several more centuries for this to be sorted out. The church decided that March 21 will be its starting point. The formula is that Easter will be the first Sunday after the Full Moon following March 21 unless that Full Moon falls on a Sunday (in which case Easter would be the following Sunday). 

So why do churches in the West (Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Baptist) usually celebrate Easter on different dates than Eastern churches (Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox)? It's because of the calendar we use. In 46 BC (or BCE), Julius Caesar implemented a new calendar system called the Julian calendar. Each year has 365 days with an extra day added to the calendar every 4 years (leap years). In a Julian calendar, the average year is 365.25 days long. However, scientists know that it takes less than 365.25 days for the earth to travel around the sun (365.24 days). This isn't much but, after centuries, the calendar starts to move away from where the Earth is in its rotation around the Sun. Eventually, the Spring Equinox wasn't in March anymore! So, in 1582, a new calendar was introduced (Gregorian). That's the calendar we're used to and matches how most governments keep dates. But the Eastern churches still use a Julian calendar to calculate their religious festivals. Currently, there's about a 13 day difference between the Gregorian calendar and the Julian. Eastern and Western churches do, sometimes, celebrate Easter on the same day but due to different calendars, Easter is celebrated at different times. 

0 comments

When the confirmation students (i.e. confirmands) first dissect the Apostles' Creed, the first question I ask them is just what a creed is anyways. Each Sunday, we recite one of three creeds. I usually introduce our recitation with the words "Let us confess our faith in the words of..." But creed (besides being a rock band from the 90s) is a word we don't usually use. So what's a creed? A creed is simply a group's statement about who God is and how God acts. In other words, a creed is what we teach, preach, and teach. It is a condensed explanation of the mystery of faith and who God is. 

It wasn't long before creeds started to show up in the early church. Some creeds appear in Scripture. Deuteronomy 6:4 ("Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone") is a creed. It is a statement about God and who God is. "God is love" is another one. Creeds are everywhere and help us explore just who God is. 

Our Apostles' Creed started to take shape in 215 AD/CE. During the 100s, the church was struggling with the mystery of God. Different views took shape and  different kinds of Christianites developed. As the groups engaged, argued, and talked with each other, there arouse a desire to lay a foundation on what our faith says. A Roman named Hippolytus wrote a creed that looks a bit like our Apostle's Creed. Overtime it was refined and reshaped as new experiences, conversations, and controversies arose. A legend developed that each clause in the apostles' creed was composed by one of the original apostles. Our current version of the creed was mostly formalized by the year 800. The English translation we use in worship today was translated and composed in 1988 by "English Language Liturgical Consultation," a group representing english speaking churches and denominations Lutheran, Anglican, Roman Catholic, and more)from all over the world. 

I was asked recently about why the current translation dropped the word "again," in line 12 of the creed ("and he [Jesus] will come to judge the living and the dead.") The word again was included in the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW - the Green Book) from 1978. I wasn't able to discover the notes behind the translation choices but I believe the word "again" was dropped because of the flow of the text. That paragraph of the creed describes Jesus: where he came from, what happened to him, where he is now, and where he will be tomorrow. At the end of the paragraph, we hear how Jesus ascended to heaven (after Easter) and is sitting at the right hand of the Father. That is where Jesus sits, at the point of God's power, able to pierce into our lives, transforming us, so we can live into God's future. And that's what the last line of the paragraph is about: God's future. Jesus will come, from God's hand, to judge the living and the dead. An older translation of the Apostles' Creed, from 1941, highlights this point: "From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead." From Jesus' present location, God's future and Will will be done. 

Of course, we know and experience Jesus in our lives right now. In holy communion, holy fellowship, and in the holy moments of our lives, we discover a Jesus who comes over and over again. And, through us, God blesses the world. Creeds aren't designed to wipe away God's mystery, making faith a set of thoughts we just agree to. Creeds highlight the mystery because God loves us, Christ walks with us, and the Spirit works through us, even when we're doubt and struggle to believe. That's an amazing mystery that can never be reduced. It can only be pointed to, celebrated, and leave us in awe.

0 comments

Two folks at CLC recently asked about "the good thief" in Luke 23:39-43. Jesus, on the cross, is surrounded by two crucified criminals (or thieves). One joins with the Roman soldiers, mocking Jesus. The good thief does the opposite. He recognizes Jesus' innocence and asks for Jesus to remember him when "you come into your kingdom." Jesus tells this criminal that, today, he will join Jesus in Paradise. 

But did Jesus really mean "today?" And how does that work when we assert in the Apostles' Creed that Jesus will return "to judge the living and the dead?" Did the thief go to heaven or is he somewhere else, waiting to be judged? And hidden under this question is another one: when we die, do we go to heaven right away or will we wait for some judgment in the future?

One way to think about this conversation between Luke and the Creed is about the experience of time. We tend to experience time in a very linear way. Friday is followed by Saturday, our 20th year is followed by our 21st, and grade 11 is followed by grade 12. Much of our lives follow a step-by-step process and we experience time in that way. We live a linear experience of history.

The episode with the good thief expresses is an event caught in history. Jesus and the thief are at the end of their lives. This conversation is the last one that Jesus will have with another person before his resurrection. The good thief expresses a sudden understanding that Jesus is innocent and that he has a kingdom in heaven. He asks to be remembered by this king when Jesus dies and Jesus's promises even more. Jesus promises this thief a relationship with Jesus in the fullest expression of heaven that there can possibly be: complete communion with God forever. The Creed also asserts this experience of time for Jesus is described as returning, in the future, to cast some final judgment, and unite earth and heaven forever. 

So we can see that Luke knows that we live lives caught in linear history. But he also asserts that God doesn't because, for Luke, everything after Jesus' death is a unified and timeless event. It's important to know that Acts is part 2 of the Luke story as was written by the same author. We see in both texts Jesus ascending multiple times and he's continually interacting with the apostles' at different places at almost the exact same time. Jesus and God are not bounded by time or our experiences of time. We are still living life in a linear way but God and Jesus are not. Jesus, instead, is interrupting our linear experience of time by proclaiming promises that invert our step-by-step experience of life. When we are claimed in our baptism, God isn't waiting for us to take a few steps before claiming us as God's own. No, God interrupts and intervenes immediately and asserts God's love and grace for us. God's grace isn't something we work for; it's something that is given. And this grace, and love, is timeless. 

I believe the Creed asserts this as well. Although we can read that line about future judgment in a linear way, I hear a promise for today. Like Luke, we're in the time after Jesus' death. We're in this wild time where Jesus' promises, rather than our experiences of time, are absolute. Our life is no longer defined by the steps we take or the ladder we try to take to God. Instead, our life is defined by the promises God makes through Jesus. Jesus told that thief that today, he will experience paradise, because Jesus's journey through the Cross is a victory offered to all. The Creed promises that God is in control. By asserting that Jesus will return, we trust that we are not journeying through our lives alone or in isolation. We are, instead, wrapped up in a journey where God's love and grace will finally win. The Creed isn't contradicting Jesus's words. It is, instead, supporting them. It is confessing that we place our ultimate trust in God through Jesus. What Jesus says, goes. Jesus promised that thief paradise and relationship with him on that literal day. Jesus promises us paradise and relationship today as well. Jesus' authority and mercy is the timeless truth that we are caught up in. The good thief story isn't really about this criminal's sudden change of heart. It is, instead, a story about Jesus' goodness and love. Jesus came to set free the oppressed and he does that for all of us - including that thief. 

_______________________

^*The background for this comes from Raymond Brown's wonderful two volume work: The Death of the Messiah. It's a great overview of Jesus' death and a great introduction to a massive amount of scholarly research. I recommend it if you're looking for something really meaty and academic to start your deep journey into the passion narrative of Jesus.  

0 comments