Questions and Reflections

July 2019

Ask and It Will: Prayer Reveals Who God Is [Sermon Manuscript]

[Jesus] was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial." 

And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' And he answers from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

"So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

Luke 11:1-13

Pastor Marc's sermon on the 7th Sunday after Pentecost (July 28, 2019) on Luke 11:1-13. Listen to the recording here or read my manuscript below. 

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You would think, by this point in my life, that I would be pretty good at recognizing when a sixth month old needed to go to sleep. I should, now that I’m on kid number three, be able to notice when she’s only a few minutes away from needing to fall asleep. My real-life training should enable me to swoop in, pick her up, and know exactly what to do so that, after only a few minutes, she’s embraced her naptime zzzs. But there are times when my baby-sleeping skills are not as strong as I expect them to be. I’ll catch her rubbing her eyes and thinking she’s ready for a nap. I pick her up, get her all setup to safely rest for a few hours, and I start carrying her around the house. I then start imagining all the stuff I can get done once she finally falls asleep. Yet that’s when I discover that I didn’t read her correctly. She’s not as tired as I thought she was and since I’m now holding her, she doesn’t want to be put down. The moment I planned to help her fall asleep turns into minutes and maybe hours. It’s not long before I lose feeling right arm while she’s happily talking at me and looking around. It’s not long before the deadpan look of a child needing to fall asleep that I expected to see on her face - is now actually on mine. I end up feeling as if I’m in a sort of a trance, walking around my house and not really seeing what’s in front of me. And it’s at that moment when my sixth month starts getting to work. She’s able to see what I can’t and so, before I know it, she’s grabbing everything that she can. She’s snatching the take-out menus we’ve left out on the counter, the toys scattered on the dinning room table, and all the hand towels and random clothing left around the house. I keep finding her holding things in her hands even though I never see her pick anything up. I swear there are times when I’m pretty sure she’s grabbed stuff that I don’t even own. Yet, when I’m caught up in my own stuff, unable to pay attention to everything that’s around me, she’s still wide-eyed and looking for all the things I can no longer see. She’s able to pay attention when I cannot - and her awareness becomes a defining part of who she is. The ability to always be paying attention is one of the things I think Jesus was trying to get at in our reading from the gospel according to Luke. Today’s passage isn’t only about prayer. Jesus also shared with his friends and with all of us - an insight into what God sees and what God is holding onto in our lives. 


Now, we could spend time today digging into the nuts and bolts of Luke’s version of the Lord’s prayer. This text and it’s counterpart in the gospel according to Matthew is the foundation for what we’ll recite later in our worship service. But, at this moment, I’m drawn to what starts this whole reading off. After praying in a certain place, one of Jesus’ disciples asked: “Lord, teach us how to pray.” Scripture doesn’t tell us the name of the person who made this request but I’m pretty sure everyone had it in mind. Jesus, the Son of God, was literally walking with them so it made sense to ask him what his prayer life was all about. How does he, the One who was there when everything was created - talk, communicate, and connect with the Father and the Holy Spirit? The “how” in that question seems to imply that the disciples were asking a technical question. They, we think, were looking for some training on what techniques they should use in their own prayer life. That training could, we imagine, be used to make our prayers feel more substantial, proper, and holy. Now, since Jesus followed the disciples’ request with a version of the Lord’s prayer, our interpretation of this passage as some kind of technical manual seems to make sense. And if Jesus had stopped talking at verse 4, then Jesus’ answer would be exactly what we were looking for. The Lord’s Prayer could be seen as some kind of technical training that defined how we connect to the creator of the universe. It could then be like a recipe or a list of magic words that convince us that, if we said the right thing in the right order, then God truly would hear our prayers. 


But that kind of guarantee isn’t a very strong one. Because we end up thinking that the Lord’s Prayer is somehow needed to get God to do something. Prayer, then, becomes a way for us to activate God; to make God move towards us - but only on our terms and after we’ve said the magic words. That kind of God is a God that only works on-demand and who remains pretty silent and pretty quiet until we need them. Yet a God who waits for us to move isn’t really the God we get. Instead, as we remember today on this Christmas in July Sunday, Jesus didn’t wait for us to be ready before Jesus, finally, showed up. There was no one magic word or statement or belief that made God live as a human being on earth. And there was no magic word or something or belief that made Jesus show up in your life. Jesus always comes on his terms - because there is no moment when God’s love isn’t on the move. That’s why, I think, Jesus didn’t stop his words with verse 4. Instead, he continued and his answer stopped being technical. Jesus told a parable about an unexpected guest showing up in the middle of the night. And instead of waiting until the morning to take care of them, Jesus admitted how we might shamelessly, and persistently, do whatever we could to take care of them. We didn’t ask that friend to show up. But since they did - we freely and abundantly serve and love them. 


The Rev. Matthew Skinner, professor at Luther Seminary, recently wrote, “everything about a prayer reveals something about what the pray-er thinks God is like.” And according to Jesus, our God is anything but technical. Our God, instead, is in the business of knowing who we are, where we’ve been, what brings us our greatest joys, and what it is that keeps us up late at night. Our God doesn’t wait for us to say some magic word before getting active in our lives. And that, I think, is one of the reasons why we pray. Not because our words will somehow get God to do whatever it is we want but because God has already made the decision to be with us, no matter what. In our baptism and in our faith, we are united with a Jesus who chose to see us as we truly are. When we are caught up in the busyness of our everyday life, plotting through without the time or the energy to reflect on where we’ve been, where we are going, or where we are right now - we have a Jesus who is already there, holding onto all the things we need to help carry us through. Even when we can’t see it, Jesus is making sure that God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s forgiveness, and God’s love is being given to you. The God who made you, who came into the world for you, who died for you- sees you, values you, and is already listening to you. Your prayers and your silences are not going unheard because God will, shamelessly and persistently, always love you. 

Amen. 
 

 

*Questions from - Kristin Berkey-Abbott email on July 15, 2019 from the Christian Century “Sunday's Coming: Putting ourselves in Martha, Mary, and Jesus’ shoes” 



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Reflection: Live/Walk/Move/Engage

I'm going to invite you to do something you might not have done before. I want you to translate a tiny piece of scripture. Now, I'm assuming you do not know Koine Greek, the language the New Testament was written in. And even though I took a semester of Greek in seminary, most of what I learned has faded away. You and I both need other people who are skilled in translating Greek into English and the othe languages that we know. Yet the art of translation isn't an exact science. Since our language changes over time, our translations of the New Testament need to change too. Every translator of Scripture has to make a choice about which word (or words) to use in their work. Usually, only one word or phrase truly matches what the New Testament is getting at. But there are times when other options are available. In today's reading from the letter to the Colossians 2:6-19, we hear the author begin with: “as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him..." The phrase "to live your lives" is one the church has used to describe our relationship with Christ. We are, through baptism and faith, united with him and that unity impacts every aspect of our life. As we live, we live intimately connected to Jesus.


But that phrase "to live your lives" might feel a little too abstract. We might need something a little more concrete, tangible, or physical to inform how we live our life in Christ. The Koine Greek word there is peripateite which literally means "to walk/walking" It's a word that, in Paul's time, pointed the followers of Jesus to the reality of baptism. Through baptism that we are empowered with God's wisdom to "'walk' in the way of righteousness and live in alignment with paths of justice."* This passage in Colossians is inviting us to recognize how our baptism connects us to the source of new life. The spiritual experiences we have in our life are not what define our relationship with God. God is already with us; we just need to pay attention to the ways God's wisdom is changing us for the better.

When it comes to describing our relationship with Christ, it might be enough to say we "live our lives" in him. But we could translate verse 6 differently. We might make verse 6 to read something like "as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue walking in him" or "continue walking with him" or "continue walking with and in him." But if the word walking doesn't seem to stick, I invite you to paraphrase the passage in a way that speaks to you. What word or words describe what it's like for you to know that Christ is already in your life? And when you know Christ is in your life, how can you describe the impact he makes in everyone of your life's moments?

*Professor Lois Malcolm, Workin Preacher.org



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Watch Your Tone: what we give Jesus [Sermon Manuscript]

Now as [Jesus and his disciples] went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:38-42

Pastor Marc's sermon on the 6th Sunday after Pentecost (July 21, 2019) on Luke 10:38-42. Listen to the recording here, watch the worship service here, or read my manuscript below. 

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So I know it’s hot. And I bet, even if you’re sitting by the fans, you’re feeling pretty warm because we’ve already done some stand ups, sit downs, and other liturgical warmups. I’m pretty sure my usual 12 minute sermon, where I talk at you, isn’t going to work on a day like this. But I also know, based on my experience at our mid-week summer worship, that we don’t always mind the heat when we spend our time talking to each other. So that’s what we’re going to do in a few minutes. I’m going to ask you to break into small groups to talk about today’s reading from the gospel according to Luke. And I’m going to invite you to focus on one part of today’s reading - and that’s Jesus’ response to Martha. 

Now, when the gospel of Luke was first written down, it came into being maybe 40 or 50 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. For over a generation, Jesus’ words and stories were shared by people literally talking to each other. So when we read the gospels today, we need to remember that the authors assumed that our talking to each other would be the primary way we shared Jesus’ words and stories. These words were meant to be heard which means how we read these words actually matters. The tone of voice that we give to scripture, the characters, and even Jesus himself can inform, modify, and change what we think these stories mean. If we let Jesus sound only like some kind of college professor, then everything he says becomes a life lesson stored in our brain. Or if we let make Jesus sound like a new age spiritual teacher, then everything he says sounds like its a little mystical and maybe a little too far out. If Jesus’s voice, to us, always sounds stern, then every word he utters feels like a judgement. And if we make Jesus sound too serene, then we might wonder if God is really paying attention to the messiness and suffering in our lives. The tone we let Jesus use influences the meaning we give to his words. 

In groups of maybe 3 or 4 - I want you to spend time with Jesus’ response to Martha. Martha was doing exactly what she and Jesus expected. She was offering hospitality to Jesus and his entire encouraged while welcoming him into her home. Yet she also felt frustrated and she asked Jesus to tell her sister, Mary, to help. So the Lord answered her by repeating her name - twice. And the tone we hear Jesus use in that moment is going to influence what we think Jesus actually said. Each person in your group will read the story out loud but give Jesus’ voice a different tone. Make sure one of your Jesus’ sounds stern, another exhausted and annoyed, and another almost quiet and non-threatening. After each reading, spend a few moments asking each other if the tone influenced what you heard in the story. Once every group is done, we’ll come back together and see if this exercise made any difference. 

After the conversation. 

The story of Martha and Mary and Jesus is a story that invites us to see ourselves in it. We don’t have to make a decision to say we’re only a Martha or a Mary. We can, instead, admit that there are times when flip from one to the other. And that there might even be moments when we are called to be like Jesus among those two sisters. Jesus invites us to ask ourselves questions like, “How do you determine which work is important and which work isn’t? And “how do you hear God’s voice amid the noise of the chores?” He invites us to wonder, “Who is it that’s doing work so that you have the time to sit with important issues?” And how can each of us “defuse anger and frustration?” The answers we give to those questions are influenced not only by what’s happened in our lives but also, I think, they’re influenced by the tone we give to Jesus. We have to make sure that we don’t limit who Jesus is because our imagination of him is too small. So I’m going to invite you to stretch your legs of faith a little bit by, every once in awhile, listening to Jesus speak to you in a slightly different tone. Because that might be how Jesus chooses to reveal to you a new thought, a new experience, or a new reality of your faith that ends up informing and influencing everything else that you do. 

Amen.

 

*Questions from - Kristin Berkey-Abbott email on July 15, 2019 from the Christian Century “Sunday's Coming: Putting ourselves in Martha, Mary, and Jesus’ shoes” 



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Reflection: Image Of

What does it mean for you to think about Christ as the image of the invisible God? Our first reading today (Colossians 1:15-28) continues what we heard last week. The author of the letter to the Colossians is writing to the faith community in the town of Colossae, a city in western Turkey. The author is hoping to strengthen their faith by inviting them to live their life in a new way. Since they are now part of the body of Christ (i.e. the church), they no longer have to live life as if everything depends on them. Instead, they are free to embrace their identity as followers of Jesus. This identity makes a difference in their everyday life because it makes love the central thing we are called to do. Our faith isn’t something that stays only in our head; faith is always lived in what we say and do.

But it’s not always easy to live out our faith, especially when it feels as if God’s face is turned away from us. When we are hurting, suffering, or in pain, we can wonder if God has turned against us. When we are caught up in the busyness of everyday life, we even forget to take a moment to spend time with God through prayer, worship, and study. I’m sure there are moments in your life when you wish you could see God face-to-face, hoping that the creator of the universe would offer you some guidance, hope, or encouragement. We want to see God – but we’re not always sure where God is.

That’s why verse 15 is such an important verse for our life of faith. God showed up in Jesus which makes his entire ministry a roadmap showing us where God is. God is there when people are hungry, inviting us to feed them. God is there when children cry out, inviting us to welcome them. God is there when people make a personal sacrifice so that others, including strangers, may have a better chance at life. God is there when we feel forgotten and when we, selfishly, push others to the side. God was there when we, unwilling to realize what God’s love is all about, nailed Jesus to the cross. God is there because love always has the final word. As followers of Jesus, we see God through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. And God makes a promise to be visibly present when we gather to worship in Jesus’ name, when we share in the feast of holy communion, and when we love each other like God first loved us. 



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What We Do: Pastor Marc's article in the Messenger, our Monthly Newsletter, for Summer 2019

What is it that makes Christ Lutheran Church what it is?

I’ve been thinking about that question quite a bit as we near our 60th Anniversary. This church on the corner of Pascack Road and Dam Road (which is what Church Road used to be call) first met in the local school house before purchasing the land it now sits on. The land used to be an apple orchard with a farmhouse that might have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. After receiving seed money from a church in Brooklyn, we have spent the last 60 years showing what God’s love, grace and kindness are all about. Countless people have been fed through worship, study, and through the many social action ministries (like the Genesis Garden) that help all people thrive. We are, I believe, a community that spiritually and physically feeds others. When the church council looked around to see what other faith communities we should support with our 60th anniversary thank offering, we used our own history as a guide. We looked for a developing congregation active in feeding people’s spiritual and physical needs. Santa Isabel Lutheran Church in Elizabeth is feeding not only the Latinx community in its neighborhood but is also meeting an unmet spiritual need for those currently in the Elizabeth Immigrant Detention Center. We see in Jesus’ own ministry a model for our own. The way we feed others is just one of the parts that make Christ Lutheran Church what we are.

This August, we’re going to try an experiment during worship on Sunday mornings. Each Sunday, we’ll participate in a “prayer exchange.” You’ll be invited to make a commitment to intentionally pray for someone else in the congregation. You’ll be given a name (chosen at random) and asked to pray for them during your daily prayers. If you are able, we ask that you connect with that person during coffee hour to ask them what they need prayer for. We invite you to only share what you are comfortable sharing and to respect the sacred responsibility that comes with prayer.

One of the ways we feed the faith life of the people around us is by praying for them. I’m looking forward to trying something new with you this summer.

See you in church!
Pastor Marc



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Recognize: Defining Community (Sermon Manuscript)

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live." But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Luke 10:25-37

Pastor Marc's sermon on the 5th Sunday after Pentecost (July 14, 2019) on Luke 10:25-37. Listen to the recording here or read my manuscript below. 

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Amy-Jill Levine is a professor of New Testament at Vanderbilt University. She’s a prolific writer, speaks often at conferences and in churches, and she’s a member of an orthodox Jewish synagogue. Recently, she was asked why she, a Jewish scholar, “came to focus on the New Testament? What [was it] ...about Jesus that drew [her] in?” She said, “I think Jesus is fascinating. Plus he’s Jewish, so he’s one of ours. The more I read not only the words attributed to him but also the stories told about him, the more intriguing I find the material.” That phrase, “he’s one of ours” is one of the reasons why Professor Levine worked on understanding the people who first met Jesus and how they responded to his words and his ministry. So for today’s sermon, I’m going to use her work to shape one possible interpretation of today’s story from the gospel according to Luke. Now for those of us who have been in the church for some time, the parable of the Good Samaritan is a story we’re pretty familiar with it. Even if we struggle to remember all its details, we’re pretty sure we could share its message with others. The Good Samaritan was the one who showed mercy while the religious professionals, a priest and Levite, passed by on the other side. It’s a powerful story because the question, “who is my neighbor?” is one that never goes out of style. Jesus’ words mean that we cannot ignore this question or let someone else answer it for us. We are, according to Jesus, called to treat everyone as our neighbor - including those we try to separate and push away. 

Now, the parables of Jesus do more than use simple stories to explain a point. They also contain elements that surprise us because they take our assumptions about the world and about God and show how those are untrue. Parables, then, are designed to shock us into seeing the world in a different way. So, in the time of Jesus, what part of the parable of the Good Samaritan who shock someone who was Jewish? This isn’t an easy question to answer because the world Jesus inhabited is a bit different from our own. Even Judaism, as a faith and a people, has changed over these last 2000 years. And that community was heavily defined by events that happened a generation after Jesus’ death - when the Roman Empire destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, sending its many religious leaders and teachers into exile. Yet there are certain things that have, over time, stayed relatively consistent. And we can use those insights to try and reverse engineer what a 1st century Jewish person might have viewed as shocking. According to Professor Levine, the default behavior for every Jewish person was, and is, to treat everyone as their neighbor. The neighbor includes the people who look and sound like you but also the sojourner, the stranger, and the alien  who lives among you. So if we looked at the actions of each character in Jesus’ parable, what the good Samaritan did was the default expectation for everyone in the community. That expectation, then, might encourage us to give the priest and the Levite some kind of motivation to explain why they didn’t do what they were supposed to. We typically do that by saying that those two were worried about touching someone who was dying. If the person who was hurt was actually dead, the priest and the Levite could become ritually impure - meaning they couldn’t do the religious jobs - leading worship, saying prayers, and the like - the community expected of them. But that might not necessarily be what Jesus is trying to highlight. Because, according to Professor Levine, the issue of ritual purity doesn’t really apply to this text. Scholars have uncovered a lot of documentation showing how all Jewish people, regardless of their status as a priest or a Levite, who would be concerned about seeing someone suffering. Nowhere are Levites really restricted from touching the dead and the priest, in this case, was not going to Jerusalem so any so-called impurity wouldn’t actually interfere with his religious work. The priest and the Levite do not act neighborly - but their actions might not be why they are included in the story. Rather, Jesus uses them as part of a giant setup - one that those listening to Jesus would expect and that would use to, ultimately, up end that expectation. 

According to Professor Levine, Jews generally back then (and even now) fit into one of three groups: priests, Levites, and Israelites. The priests were those who were descended from Aaron - Moses’ brother - while the others were descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel. So when someone told a story, naming a priest and a levite, everyone in the crowd expected to hear the third. It’s sort of like a setup we might expect in a joke. Many of us have heard something along the lines of “a priest, a rabbi, and an atheist walk into a bar.” Once we hear “a priest and a rabbi,” we already expect who’s going to show up next. When Jesus’ audience heard him mention the priest and the Levite - they expected the Israelite to be the person who would show up next. But instead - it’s the Samaritan. And that’s what shocked those who first heard Jesus tell this story almost 2000 years ago. Because the Samaritan was a religious enemy of the Jewish people. For centuries, the two groups had argued about who God was and where God was to be worshiped. They had rioted against each other, tore up one another’s worship spaces, and did all that they could to not get along. Any story about a priest and a Levite wasn’t supposed to include the enemy at all. Yet there they were in Jesus’ story. And each person would then wonder where the Israelite was. As the story unfolded, and Jesus told each and every detail, the crowd would suddenly realize where they were in the story. The Isrealite, i.e. themselves, was the one who was hurt, left on the side of the road. And it’s the enemy, the one who they believe could only bring them harm, that actually showed what God’s love is all about. 

As much as this passage is about what we do for others, it’s also an invitation for us to expand our definition of community - because community might even include our enemy. It would be easy to make that last statement be pretty theoretical, something we merely say but that we don’t really truly consider. But Jesus’ words require us to take this statement seriously. And we do that by admitting all the people we define as our enemies. Who are the people you wouldn’t want living next to you? Who are the ones you wouldn’t want to even run into when you’re out and about on the road? Who are the folks that the voices you surround yourself with tell you should be ostracized and pushed aside? And who are the ones, who just by being here, make you feel afraid?  The parable of the Good Samaritan isn’t only an invitation for us to treat all people well. It’s a reminder that our definition of who is in and out of our community isn’t one we get to make. Because when Jesus was on the Cross, his arms were outstretched and opened to all. And that all - means all, including those we view as our enemy and those who see us as their enemy too. When we hear Jesus’ words today, we sometimes act as if we’re supposed to see ourselves as the Good Samaritan. But we’re also can also imagine ourselves as the one who needs help. Is our definition of community big enough to include seeing our so-called enemy as the one who might save us? And can we accept that our stereotypes and fears will not be the limit that God allows in God’s kingdom? 

 

Amen.

*Material from The Jewish Annotated New Testament, 2011. 



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Reflection: Trinity and Trinity

Letters in the ancient world followed a pattern. They began with a greeting, a prayer of thanks, and then the main content. Scholars are not 100% sure if Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians because its style and wording don't fit the other letters Paul wrote. However, people were comfortable attributing this letter to Paul because, in the ancient world, it wasn't considered negative to write in the name of someone else. These kinds of letters were assumed to have been composed with Paul's teaching and faith in mind. They were from Paul's "school of thought" and congregations were invited to treat it as such.

Today's first reading (Colossians 1:1-14) is a selection that focuses on the prayer of thanksgiving. The author began by naming the school of thought and who they were writing the letter to. The author had recently discovered that there was a Christian community in the town of Colossae, a city in western Turkey. The author had never been there but learned about this community through its founder, Epaphras. The Christians in Colossae had a strong faith in Jesus Christ; they loved one another; and they had a firm hope in the eternal life God has already given to them. Through the work of Epaphras and the Holy Spirit, they experienced God reorienting their lives through Jesus Christ. And now that their lives had changed, the author invited them to start living their new life, right now.

For the author of Colossians, the trinity of faith, love, and hope is matched by the trinity of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. These words were, in the ancient Roman world, focused on our everyday living. We live the way God wants us to live when we stay rooted in God's wisdom. But God's wisdom is not something that only stays in our head. God's wisdom is always lived out through the choices and decisions we make in our lives. It isn't enough to claim that loving our neighbors as ourselves works—in theory. We are, instead, called to make that kind of love a reality here on earth. We do this by reminding ourselves, every day, that through Christ, we have been rescued from living our life on our own. We are, through the Spirit, already being made wise. And when we stick with Jesus, we can finally discover how we can love this world as deeply as God loves each of us.



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Refection: I Watched Satan Fall

Think about the devil for a moment. What comes to mind? Do you see a creature with horns, a goatee, and hooves where his feet should be? Much of our imagination about Satan comes from pop culture. But the devil doesn't actually show up in scripture very much. So when he does appear, we should take notice. Let's spend time with verse Luke 10:18: "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning."

First off, we need to put this verse into context. Jesus was responding to the 70 disciples he sent out to bring peace to the world. When they returned to him, they shouted with joy because "even the demons" submitted to them. Jesus shared in their joy by responding with a very odd sentence. Now, we have a few interpretative choices to make when it comes to verse 18. We could assume Jesus was being a tad aloof, responding with a random statement that didn't fit the rest of the story. If we did that, we could let our imagination run wild. We could claim Jesus was present during some epic battle between God and Satan. Satan "lost" and was sent to hell. Even though Satan was defeated, evil wasn't destroyed. Satan could (and still does) influence the world. Verse 18, if read in this way, could be one way to rationalize why evil is still around us.

But there's another way to read verse 18. We could assume Jesus knew what he was saying, and he responded to the 70 in a specific way. The 70 were, for all intents and purposes, bringing Jesus to these different communities by offering Jesus' peace and healing. They were empowered to live out what it means when the kingdom of God comes near. Jesus, as he listened to them, affirmed their mission by deepening its meaning. Their journey was a cosmic event, showing God's kingdom breaking into their world. Jesus wasn't talking about an event that happened in the past. Jesus was talking about the present. Because the 70 were empowered to bring healing to the world, Jesus saw Satan fall. Satan wasn't destroyed but what he represents - alienation from God, a person's value being defined by what power they had, and the love of self-interest rather than neighbor - is no longer what defines the world. As we heard in Mary's song way back in chapter 1, Jesus is here to cast the mighty down so that God's kingdom is experienced in the here and now. God's kingdom is not centered in having power over others. Rather, it's about the lowly being lifted up (and the lowly might not even be us). We are called to imagine the world as God wants it to be. We are called to stay committed and grounded in love. And when we live out the gospel, building life giving relationships and doing the hard work of helping others thrive, we are continuing a mission that the 70 started so long ago.



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(Not) Alone: A Different Story (Sermon Manuscript)

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.' "Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!" He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

Luke 10:1-11,16-20 

Pastor Marc's sermon on the 4th Sunday after Pentecost (July 7, 2019) on Luke 10:1-11,16-20. Listen to the recording here or read my manuscript below. 

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When was the last time someone thanked you for wasting your time? 

 

I’ll admit that’s a bit of a weird question because I’m sure someone has told us, at least once, that we’ve wasted their time. So it’s strange to hear someone claim the reverse - and even thank us for it. We might wonder if they feel embarrassed - putting themselves down because they weren’t able to do what we helped them with. Or maybe they’re being sarcastic, passive aggressive, or just failing to land some kind of joke. Yet there are times when the person who thanks us is being serious - in their own way. Once, I went to visit someone whose apartment was in the memory care unit of an assisted living facility. Every door into and out of that building was locked, asking me to enter a passcode on a little keypad before each door would open. I had with me my bright orange messenger bag and it was filled with all the usual things - pens, papers, a prayer book, and my communion set. After finding the person I was hoping to see in one of the common living spaces, she asked to be wheeled back to her room. It was there where we talked about the weather, her health, and the people in the dozens of pictures that were hung on the wall. Now, I knew she was struggling with her memory. She didn’t always remember the people in the pictures and she sometimes didn’t use the right words in our conversation. Yet we were to talk - and, after a bit, I got ready to serve communion. Using her nightstand as an altar, I laid out two wafers and two little communion cups. I opened my little prayer book and started to read our communion liturgy. She no longer remembered the communal responses that we’ll do later on in today’s service. But by the time we got to the Lord’s Prayer, she was able to recite the rest. After naming the bread as Jesus’ body and the wine as Jesus’ blood, I offered her the wafer and the cup - but she didn’t, in that moment, seem to remember what to do with them. So I asked her permission to feed her - and then I fed myself. As I got read to say the post-communion prayer, she looked at me and with gratefulness in her voice, said “thank you for wasting your time.” 

Now, I’ll admit I was surprised to hear that. And I made a mistake by choosing to engage her words rather than with the meaning behind them. I became defensive, saying I wasn’t wasting my time and that I was really glad to be there. She waited until I was done speaking and then said, “thank you for wasting your time.” I, again, chose to speak up - saying that sharing Jesus was never a waste of time. But she looked at me and said, “thank you for wasting your time.” It was then when I realized I needed to stop talking and instead - just listen. She knew exactly what she was trying to say even though the words weren’t coming out like I thought they should. She said the same sentence a few more times before letting me know she was tired. I said goodbye and left her room, knowing that the next time I saw her, there would be even less words she could use. 

John Swinton is a theologian, a priest, and a professor who specializes in the relationship between spirituality, health, and disability. He’s written quite a bit on God and faith for those living through a long term illness or through a mental health issues or who are differently abled. He’s also wondered where faith is for those living with dementia and memory loss. In a recent interview, he talked about how we all fear dementia because we see it as a condition that somehow takes away our, or our loved one’s, identity. We assume that the way we make sense of ourselves is through our ability to tell our own personal narrative. And when we suffer memory loss, we no longer can share the story about ourselves that we used to tell. We claim that our identity - the who we are - is wrapped up in our ability to tell the story of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we are going. But if we or our loved can no longer tell that story - we feel as if they’ve ceased to be. The continuity of our story feels as if its gone. And we watch as memories, words, and even the ability to recognize the people standing in front of us - gradually disappears. We’re left in grief - filled with frustration and anger - and without the words we need to lament. We end up being surrounded by a kind of sadness - while living in a world and even a church - that acts as if sadness is something we’re supposed to run away from. Too many moments end up feeling wasted - because the story we want to share is the one that can no longer be lived. 

Yet there’s another story each one of us has that does not depend on our ability to share it. And that’s the story of grace. Because everyone - regardless of what they can do, share, or even think - is first and foremost made in God’s own image. Their story isn’t defined by the story they choose to tell. Rather, their birth into this world means they are already part of God’s story. And for those of us who have been baptized into the body of Christ and now live through the gift of faith - we each have an identity that no illness or dementia or memory loss can ever truly take away. Your status as a beloved child of God does not depend on what you can do or remember. Rather, it depends only on God - and how God, through Christ, has claimed you as God’s own. Your value is not defined by the story you can tell about yourself or the story that other people tell about you. Your worth depends on the story God already given to you - one that began with your name written in heaven. Too often, we define ourselves by a story filled with what we’ve done. But we are called, I think, to remember that our story begins by what Jesus has done for each of us. We are who we are because God loved us too much to let us live our entire life - on our one. Every part of our story - the parts we can control and even the parts we cannot - are grounded in that reality. So what would happen if we let our story stay rooted in God’s story? How would each one of our relationships, interactions, and choices be if we saw ourselves, our neighbors, and everyone else in this world through the story God had already given them? Imagine what it would be like if we valued what God said was valuable - and if we strived to help all people, regardless of their ability, know what it’s like to be cared for and loved. We can, through the grace we are given, tell a different story - one that is big enough to hold all our grief, sadness, and fear. And we also can challenge and undo the hurtful ways we define someone’s value by what we think they should do. With grace, we can hold onto the story God has first given to us. And when we can’t, that’s when the church is called to remind us about what Jesus has already said: the entirety of our story - our history, our present, and our future - is always being held by God - and that will never, no matter what, be a waste of time. 

 

Amen.

 



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All Your Base (Sermon Manuscript)

When the days drew near for [Jesus] to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Luke 9:51-62

Pastor Marc's sermon on 3rd Sunday after Pentecost (June 30, 2019) on Luke 9:51-62. Listen to the recording here or read my manuscript below. 

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So like many of us, I am a member of my town’s many facebook groups. Some of these groups are restricted to only those who have school aged children or are members of specific soccer teams or families with kids in specific graduating classes. Others, though, are a bit more open, filled with people interested in our local town history or in our rec department or folks who love talking about all of the town’s politics. These groups are great if you’re looking to unload a pile of toys your kids no longer use or if you have suggestions on how the entire town could be better. Yet these facebook groups are more than just a place where we can kvetch. Because if you spend enough time in them, you soon discover the many different kinds of bases that form the center of the communities we call home. These bases can be faith communities, family groups, civic organizations, or points of view. They are the places we turn to when we are going through a crisis or when we need to recharge and stay with what’s comfortable. And these bases really pop out when something unexpected tries to make our neighborhood their new home. For some time, my town was on coyote watch. Every day there were multiple posts from people who saw the coyote - or who didn’t see the coyote - or who expected to see the coyote and wanted to know what they should do when it showed up. Coyote watch wasn’t the first series of random animal facebook posts in my town and I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last. I’ve seen our town get facebook post happy about hawks, eagles, and foxes who make their holes in the nearby woods. The town’s base doesn’t plan or want or even accept that these animals are now a part of it. So when those creatures find a spot in our neighborhood to lay their heads, we can’t help but post about it. 

 

Today’s reading from the gospel according to Luke is a turning point in Luke’s version of Jesus’ story. His public ministry before this point was based in the northern part of Israel, around the Sea of Galilee. But as we hear in verse 51, Jesus knew it was time to head towards Jerusalem. Jesus was now heading towards the Cross - but he did it in a very meandering kind of way. As he left his homebase in Galilee, he showed up in the homebases of others. The village of Samaritans recognized that Jesus’ eyes were turned towards a place not central to their own faith. So they asked Jesus’ followers to, kindly, move along. Yet James and John refused to take this rejection well. They felt that the Samaritans’ response to them was actually a challenge to the base of their own faith. They asked Jesus for permission to cause an incredible amount of violence against them. But Jesus said, “no.” He refused to accept or tolerate violence done in his name. Instead, he kept moving - towards that moment when God’s love and mercy would be publicly visible to all. 

So as they traveled along the road, someone stopped Jesus and said, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Now, our text doesn’t give us any additional information about this person. We don’t know where they’re from, what they look like, or even why they want to follow Jesus in the first place. Yet they seem very eager - and you’d think Jesus would jump at the chance to have this person follow him. But instead he talked about the homes foxes and birds build; and how the Son of Man, i.e. himself, had no place to call his own. Even though Jesus had a hometown and a large extended family of his own choosing - his home base - that place or community that served as the center for everything else he did - wasn’t what the people around him expected. They believed that Jesus was on a journey taking him to someplace new. Jesus, they imagined, was heading towards a new destination - to a new home base where God’s kingdom of love and mercy would be at the center of everything that they did. Jesus, they thought, would take them out of their current reality and into God’s holy future. They were looking for Jesus to bring them to a new place they could call home - and Jesus, in his own way, said “no.”

Which, I’ll be honest, sounds weird. It’s odd to hear Jesus not encourage someone to join him on his journey. We so often frame our experience of faith as if we’re on a journey that is designed to take us somewhere else. We offer ourselves and others a destination - a place filled with peace, joy, connection, and hope. Our journey with Jesus, we believe, is meant to take us out of where we are now and instead into someplace new. Yet Jesus’ response to the unnamed eager almost follower is an opportunity for us to reimagine who, exactly, Jesus is. Because he isn’t only about taking us somewhere else. Rather, Jesus is about God choosing to enter our story where we are - right now. It’s as if God sees exactly who we are, where we are, and what we’ve decided to make the bases of our life - and God comes to us, anyways. It’s there, in the life and the journey that we’re already on, when God shows up - and points out that our true home base isn’t a neighborhood, a town, or a point of view. Our home base, the source of who we are and who we can become, is always Jesus himself. As baptized and beloved children of God, the goal of our spiritual life isn’t to end up somewhere else. Rather, we’re called to recognize how God is already with us - and how God’s home base is always on the move. 

The Kingdom of God - the environment where God’s love is actualized and made real - isn’t a place. Rather, it’s action - when our faith is less a thing we have and more like a verb compelling us to move just like Jesus did. This movement is centered in love and in hope which sustains us, regardless of the travels, journeys, and transitions that show up in our lives. When we find ourselves feeling defensive or unsettled because something new calls our base their new home; or when we want to turn back to what is comfortable rather than embracing the new challenge right in front of us - that’s when we need to be honest about what our bases actually are. What is it that we default to? What is at the primary center of our life? What is it that keeps us stuck on being comfortable? And what facebook post do we write when our base is disrupted? We are called to take all of that - all our hard truths - all those things we admit take priority over God - and we then lean on Jesus knowing that he is, even now, already with us. In our moments of transition; in our moments of disruption; in our  moments when fear is what we choose to default to - how would our life, our facebook groups, and our neighborhoods be - if, instead, we kept following Jesus who has already given us a new home base to center everything we do? 

 

Amen.

 



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