The Lutheran Podcast: Recent Episodes
ericthelutheran
I'm Rev. Eric Wolf, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Sudbury, MA (https://www.stjohnsudburyma.org), and the sermons preached there, and a few other thoughts as they might seem relevant, or maybe smart remarks related to ministry and life. I believe strongly that the task of preaching is to use the passages from Scripture as a mirror held up to our lives so that we can confront what we see with integrity. This mirror image helps us to understand what it means to be Children of God; gain perspective of what it means that our primary citizenship and allegiance belongs to God’s Kingdom; and discover how the love of God transforms what we see in the mirror when we look at ourselves, the people in our lives, and the world that God so loves.
There's a cliché that "bad things happen for a reason," and another, "God makes everything work out for good." Of the two, the first is kind of false unless the reason is, "sometimes things suck and people are evil." The second is more true, but also needs the caveat that the bad things aren't what God designs or wants — as far as I know, and I hold that to be very little on average.
Ten years after the martyrdom of the Emanuel 9, I had the opportunity to be a guest preacher at Sanctuary South Shore in Plymouth, MA, and participate in the sermon series ONE, which this week was about how we find unity in tragedy and attempted division, and come to a deeper understanding of God, ourselves, and each other by giving up on our differences in ways that divide us, and digging into our differences in ways that bring us closer in our common humanity.
Sanctuary's a young congregation, around fifteen years old, and the newest thriving mission plant in the New England Synod. What they do well is a lot, but in terms of worship, they do a great job at reflecting the depth of liturgical worship-done-well in a supremely casual way. It was wonderful to be there!
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Today’s gospel is one in which we find some stunning decisions. Some lead to great increase and new responsibility; others lead to a no good very bad terrible day.
The Gospel isn’t concerned with what we produce, but that we use what we’re given somehow. The talents given are grace-filled opportunities to do what we can with what we have. How will you respond?
Psalm 46 speaks of the desolations God brings to the earth, and it’s our habit to think of floods and disasters. What God desolates is the implements of war — the bow, the spear, the chariots — the M-16, the Tomahawk Missile, the tank.
The ongoing work of reforming our hearts is the never ending process of tearing our wars apart.
Jesus calls us to see God’s kingdom, not as a place of easy living, but of living together in good times and in bad.
What does this vision inspire in you?
What does it mean to apologize; to forgive; to reconcile?
How do we judge the value of these things, and how do we recognize sincerity?
God offers us grace without any price, but grace always comes at the cost of settling for new opportunities for renewed relationship rather than an evening of the scales.
How do we find what God proclaims to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus for our sake, the joy of forgiveness without any expectation that we'll return the favor?
What does it mean to apologize; to forgive; to reconcile?
How do we judge the value of these things, and how do we recognize sincerity?
God offers us grace without any price, but grace always comes at the cost of settling for new opportunities for renewed relationship rather than an evening of the scales.
How do we find what God proclaims to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus for our sake, the joy of forgiveness without any expectation that we'll return the favor?
This sermon takes place the week after a challenging congregational meeting. I don't mean "challenging", as in code for "look, the roof is fire and the floor is fire and everything is fire!". I mean it in the sense that we had a couple of important decisions to make, and a member spoke from the depths of their heart and then left the meeting when the vote went another way.
It was challenging. But challenging is healthy, and we need to do the hard things sometimes.
During the week between these Sundays, I was in a person's house with whom I'd had a "challenging" conflict in September 2021. In this case, I mean "challenging" as code for "look, the roof is fire and the floor is fire and everything is fire!". The exceedingly short version is during this visit they disclosed to me that I hurt them deeply, that they felt ignored and marginalized after. More, I followed up ineffective attempts at reconciliation by accepting the terrible advice to "let it lie so it will settle". this made them feel like I didn't even find them important enough to worry about, and deepened their hurt and anger.
As people of God, we're called not to hold grudges. In that vein, I don't believe this person is holding a grudge. I believe they're still wounded, and I believe I left it open and seeping by not pushing harder to help them dictate what healing looks like.
All that to say this:
So I wrote a sermon, and all this is its context.
Grace & Peace,
pew
Gospel: Matthew 9:35-10:8The Holy Gospel according to Matthew, the ninth chapter.
Glory to you, O Lord!
35Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
10:1Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
5These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. 9Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, 10no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. 11Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave.
12As you enter the house, greet it. 13If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. 15Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
16“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ!
Plenty, but of what?It feels like we’re interrupting something in all three scriptures today.
In Exodus, Moses and the Israelites were camping out at the base of Mt. Sinai. They left Egypt ate manna, and though Moses went up to the Lord on Mt. Sinai, they won’t receive the 10 Commandments for a little while yet.
Paul begins this passage with the phrase “Since we are justified by faith…”. This being Paul, we arrive at the beginning of Chapter Five knowing that Paul spent the entire first four chapters of this letter setting up all that follows “Since”. But what does it mean to be justified? What is this faith? Where does it come from?
Jesus went around cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news, curing illnesses and casting out demons — but who is this they, anyway? What’s the deal with laborers and harvests? What in the world is Jesus doing sending his disciples out alone with next to nothing like sheep among wolves?
Honestly, it’s been a whole world of interruptions lately.
We’re in the middle of graduations and new beginnings for those graduates and their families. We’re are in the middle of breakups and heartache. We’re in the middle between active addiction and recovery. We’re in the middle the latest test or screening and receiving the results. And sometimes, it just feels like we’re in the middle of the water, treading for all we’re worth.
My own family’s in the middle this week. On Wednesday morning I’ll fly to South Carolina to pick up my aunt and drive her to our house to live with us, and my br
I'm experimenting with some different things, and one of them is moving to manuscript preaching after not using them in about fifteen years, except rarely. This sermon focuses on the idea that our own stories and the stories of those around us make a real difference, well beyond what we'd typically consider.
December 2020. Now that’s a month to tell stories about.
I was concluding an interim at The Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer in Foxboro — I have a feeling y’all might be familiar with that town for some reason or another. I was working full time as a hospice chaplain in Fall River, and preparing to begin my call as pastor here at St. John. On Christmas Eve I led four services, two in Foxboro and two at St. John, then drove all night to see Lauren and Willoughby in South Carolina so I could spend Christmas with the rest of my family.
It was a hard moment, because I began my time in Foxboro as a supply preacher in November 2019. Their pastor began medical leave in an effort to recover from an illness he’d been fighting for over two long years; an illness that the congregation had walked through with him, and as irascible as that man was, those people loved him even when they didn’t all always like him. After about two weeks, the medical leave became a medical retirement, and in the summer of 2020, he died.
That funeral was something to tell stories about.
It wasn’t just a funeral for an old pastor, though in my experience those are some of the most powerful services I’ve ever attended — and St. John does not disappoint in that regard — this was a funeral for a pastor who was teaching confirmation, preaching, visiting the sick, and tending his flock even in failing health until only a very short six months before.
But those months? We’ll be telling stories about those months for the rest of our lives, because just after Ash Wednesday 2020, the world ended for all of us.
I know, it sounds dramatic. Honestly, if I told Past Eric that week that the world had just ended, I’d’ve laughed it off by saying something like, “It’s only going to be two weeks, a month tops. How long do you think this could really last?”. How long could the end of the world really last? A lot longer than you’d think, apparently.
It wasn’t hard to leave Foxboro, but it was hard to leave those people in that pandemic foxhole who welcomed my family in a moment when we were still reeling and grieving and adjusting to life after a move from South Carolina to have our Great Adventure. It was hard to leave those people in that pandemic foxhole who I nurtured and came to love when they were still reeling and grieving and adjusting after their most recent loss in their great adventure.
But I remember reading the paperwork for this congregation around July or August 2020. I remember the interviews by ZOOM, and the unparalleled awkwardness of preaching for the call committee from a side room in our house over zoom. I remember realizing that I was once again following Larry Wolff, and nearly fell out of my chair laughing at the fact that I’d been doing that in one way or another my entire career.
And I remember telling Lauren that there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that St. John is a place we’ll tell some amazing stories about.
I met this congregation in earnest for the first time on Christmas Eve, 2020. For the first time since Ash Wednesday — March, y’all! — the congregation gathered for worship in person. We stood in the parking lot, and I described the order of worship this way, “all we’re going to do is pray, read the Christmas Gospel, maybe I’ll say something, then we’ll pray, and we’re going to sing Silent Night by candlelight at Noon and seven”. That’s what we did. I believe most of us cried in that parking lot that Christmas Eve.
Now that’s one heck of a story.
It’s a story of faithful resilience; courage in the face of fear. It’s the
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr wrote in his “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” that his opinion had become that the white moderate was the biggest obstacle to the cause of justice for black and brown people. He defines them, not by their ideology, but by their actions that frustrate the advancement of civil rights and prolong the suffering of black and brown people because the white moderate is more devoted to “order” than justice; prefers a negative peace which is lack of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; approves of the cause, but not direct action; sets a timetable according to a myth that liberation must wait for a “more convenient season”.
In a season of temptation to leave well enough alone, the Church is called to stand at the front of the cause of justice to be, in King’s words, the headlights rather than the tail lights on this ride to justice.
The Transfiguration is a moment that gives a foretaste of completion — not just of the Law and the Prophets, but of an old covenant as the disciples witness the birth pangs of a new one and wonder what they’ve really become a part of in following Jesus.
And the voice says, “Listen to him”.
And we, as ever, are bad at this.
And now here we are, faced with a new reality that God is not only creating us, but we learn that God always was, is, and will be planning to make this deal much more one-sided. Jesus is the completion of the Law and the Prophets. Now we’re living in the after.
Jesus raises the bar for what it means to love each other and to live in community by saying that words can kill, men can’t wantonly discard their wives, and putting a finer point on our accountability for what we promise and how.
Life in God’s community means a deeper consideration of our role as saints and sinners, and what it means to be both. Though we flip flop between the two, God remains constant.
This is a song I wrote for Christmas this year. It’s a rough recording, but love cone down is always a little rough — and even more welcome for its roughness.
Merry Christmas!
I’ll post the lyrics later.
So often our belief and understanding of love is limited to our own fragile capacity.
God’s love is not fragile.
What difference can this make?
We spend a lot of time looking up, forward, and backward trying to figure out what will happen in a future we aren’t guaranteed from the perspective of events and pasts we can’t change. Jesus reminds us that God is here with us, and knows what to do with us even if we don’t know what to do with ourselves.
My plan for Christ the King’s sermon was much different before waking up to news of the tragedy at Club Q. This didn’t happen in a vacuum, but it the predictable result of increasingly bigoted rhetoric in our cultural, political, and even religious dialogues.
Every day is the right time to say plainly that love leaves no room for any ideology that leaves no room for someone else.
We often think hope to be a function of love. It is. Yet hope in the midst of loss isn't something that always heals. Sometimes it has a dampening effect on our healing because it feels like a gloss over our woundedness for the easing of the present's awkwardness rather than a soothing balm for our wounded heart.
Love sits in pain, cleanses the wound, and walks forward with us. Jesus' pronouncements of blessedness in times of trouble aren't meant to offer easy fixes, but invite us into a deeper consideration of what reality is in the reign of God.
Ten lepers were cleansed, one returned to give thanks.
There’s something about being sick, either chronically or terminally, that robs a person of an identity separate from that illness. In a world where we often mistake cures for healing, this story forced us to explore what makes the one who returned well in a way the other nine somehow missed.
“The Pharisees, who we’re lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him.”
This was their response to the poorly named Parable of the Dishonest Manager, and was the reason Jesus told this parable about Lazarus and the Rich Man. It isn’t that Pharisees we’re particularly uncaring or insensitive, it’s more that they were comfortable as a social class, privileged as a religious class, and seemed to be people who thought more about systems than people. I often wonder if that’s why Jesus runs afoul dog them. I believe it’s reasonable to consider that Jesus is possibly a Pharisee or some other privileged member of the synagogue himself, given the fact that he preaches and teaches there without anyone asking why, so part of the Why is that we criticize the people most like ourselves the most. Also, Jesus preaches and teaches that people are more important than systems when the systems become a burden rather than a boon.
As some of the most wealthy people who ever lived on this planet, many Americans have more in common with the Rich Man than we do with Lazarus. How can we learn the lesson of Jesus that loving concern for others is more important than wealth or comfort when we too are often too comfortable to take this seriously?
When Jesus praises a dishonest manager, it brings about an uncomfortable moment that challenges the idea that Jesus brings morality — or at least a morality we understand.
This is a chance to reconsider what true currency is, what a proper relationship to wealth, and who God really favors.
When we hurt, it’s human nature to shy away, to blame, to react defensively. What we see through the witness of God through Christ, in the account of God’s people worshiping another God, from the example of David who engaged in deep repentance is that it’s only by turning into what hurts us with an open heart and mind that we can heal.
“What in the world are you doing?!?” are words we often hear during times of trouble. Less frequently, we hear the question, “why?”.
It doesn’t end there though, because too often we react to what happens rather than ask with true curiosity why someone might have done it, affording them the best of intentions.
Moving from what to why is the act of rehumanizing “them” AND us in order to learn what it really means to love.
Wherever there are people, there will be disagreements. One of the most unhealthy habits any community can exhibit is letting mean and hurtful comments in community spaces go unchallenged. Safe, loving space means the calling to let the consequences of hurtful words or actions rest on the one who say or do them, because to do otherwise is to comfort the offender while telling the wounded that it’s their problem because we don’t want the offender to feel bad.
The calling of the church is a calling to make this community a space where conflict is loving and humanizing, so we can learn to live together in the love that heals.
When God shows up, it doesn’t happen at convenient moments. In every instance of God appearing is an interruption.
The call to living a life of faith is also a call to be interruptible. We are called to be open to the concept of Sabbath that tells us not to be so concerned South what we want to do that we don’t miss what God is calling us to do.
Roberts was 51, and I never met him but his family made me feel like I’ve known him for years.
They wanted something less traditional for music, so we settled on me playing Imagine and Hallelujah For the prelude, Amazing Grace as a hymn, and Three Little Birds as closing hymn.
This will be a funeral and family thatI carry for a long time. Thanks be to God for the chance to carry this with me.
We hear words of challenge, and often stop listening when it becomes uncomfortable. Jesus says that he brings fire, but it’s a fire that heals and makes whole.
How do we encounter and embrace the wholeness that comes from what scares us and recognize the dangers of what it, on its face, comforting?
This passage begins with a word of comforting hope, but concludes with a warning to remain watchful. Even so, this warning was a word of hope.
Where does your hope reside in times of Covidian crap or the griefs that mark every life?
In the community of God’s presence and calling. God is most fully experienced together.
Today is the anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub massacre. June 17 is the anniversary of the murder and martyrdom of the Emanuel 9.
Human evil is ambitious in its reach, yet even so, God’s Breath of Life continues to inspire and resurrect what is lost to good purpose. What makes it love isn’t that God jumps into action, but the promise to dwell with us as we heal.
Uvalde and Buffalo are points of great pain.
The disappointing failure of Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton to name as racist the actions of the bishop and leadership of the Sierra Pacific Synod.
The joys and sorrows of change.
Healing grief requires attention, intention, and community.
“Love one another”. It’s simple but hard.
How do we love like God loves when it feels so foreign to us?
It’s okay not to be okay, and where we’re together in God’s love, just because we aren’t okay doesn’t mean we aren’t alright.
Whatever we do leaves its scent in the nostrils of those around us. Sometimes it's pleasing, sometimes not.
As people of faith, how can we leave God's aroma wherever we go?
Sometimes what's missing is louder to us than what's present.
This Sunday, we have the parable often called The Prodigal Son. What I often remember is the insistence of the Father, the looseness of the son, and the hardness of the older brother. This time around, I noticed the absence of the mother, the father's wife.
Lent is a time of exploration of mysteries. Today we explore the mystery of the mother's absence.
Since this is a manuscript sermon, the text is too long to paste in here. So this is a link to the manuscript in Google Docs!
This sermon is my attempt to communicate the most important parts of being the Church together, and address some of the things that hold us up along the way.
Here we are again: are we coming to the end of COVID or another beginning?
This isn't fun, and I'm done with it. But here we are again in a space of not knowing and wrestling with the anxiety, fear, and anger that go with it.
People are struggling. Now what?
The next few weeks we'll be dealing with John 6, which is called the Bread of Life series by pastors. In John 6, Jesus feeds five thousand people and drama ensues.
Jesus wrestles with what he's really called to do - are the signs and miracles the point, or is it something else? If it isn't the signs that are important, what really is?
The disciples wrestle with their exhaustion, their fear and disbelief, and face the real possibility that following Jesus won't lead them anywhere worth going when the crowds finally abandon him. Their test of faith leads to a climax in John 6:66-7.
The crowds are wrestling with their own hunger, physical and spiritual, and struggle mightily with the answer they hear.
Where were you twelve years ago?
Today we hear the story of two daughters who each were in much different positions twelve years ago. One is a daughter of an important temple official, who is twelve years old and dies by the end of the story. The other is a woman who has dealt with hemorrhaging for twelve long years, whose faith makes her well.
At the center of all of this appears to be Jesus, but what if it's not actually about Jesus at all, even though we experience the signs of God's kingdom through him?
Jesus leaves the wilderness and comes to the city to declare, "Time's up! The kingdom of God has come near, so repent and believe the good news!".
But the good news about what? What's so good about this news, anyway, in a world beset by greed, anger, violence, death, and all the things that scare us? The good news is that when we recognize the voice of our Creator calling out to us, all those things fall away and we experience something new.
Can anything good come out of this place?
Can anything good come out of me?
Jesus answers by inviting us into the heart and mind of God so we can see in us what God sees.
A different Gospel for this day because this text grew on me this week. All Saints is a day when we commemorate the joyous hope of the resurrection, remember those we love and have lost, and ponder the mystery that God is present at all times and places.
Jesus held a coin struck with the face of the Emperor and an impossible questions from the good church folks, who knew that whatever he answered would get him in trouble: either with the the crowds who resented spending a dime in taxes to their Roman oppressors, or with the Roman authority who made it very clear that they expected people to pay them whether they wanted to or not.
Paul found himself in the mountains for what may have been an attempt to relax, but unable to do so, preached so powerfully that people began to believe in Jesus before the locals tossed him out.
Like the coin in Jesus' hand, there are lots of competing forces that brought it into being, but our task as people who follow Jesus is to identify whose minting truly defines us.
We hear a story of Ezekiel, who found himself brought to a valley of dry bones by the Spirit of the Lord and asked the question, "mortal, can these bones live?".
We hear of the death of Lazarus, and witness Jesus meeting Martha and then Mary in the road to abide with them in their grief.
Throughout Scripture, joy and sorrow messily mingle, yet we see that God doesn't hurry either of them. God is the One Who Abides.
In this moment of forced abiding, we stand in a space between the world as it was and the world as it will be, or could be. How do we dwell in this space and learn from what it has to teach about both joy and sorrow?
Phil, Sergey, & Pastor Eric gathered for worship this morning. This is for those who aren’t able to attend worship in person.
What do we do when everything is crazy and we don't know which way to turn?
We give thanks that even when everything has changed around us, God is with us.
Scriptures:
Psalm 23
John Chapter 9 (all of it)
Phil, Sergey, & Pastor Eric gathered for worship Sunday morning. This is for those who aren’t able to attend worship in person. Please sing along, pray along, and worship along with us!
Scriptures:
Psalm 23
John Chapter 9 (all of it)
Music:
Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone
Precious Lord, Take My Hand
Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross
Join us in giving thanks to God in worship, trusting in God’s mercy and love.
This is Part 2 of a two-part sermon. While you can listen to either one and have a “whole” sermon, part 1 is handily titled “Nick at Night (Part 1 of 2)”.
(Here’s a link to Part 1: https://www.buzzsprout.com/132881/2958247)
Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, and he had some hard questions for Jesus.
His most significant struggle was how to deal with Jesus’ statement that he needs to be born again from above, and by water and Spirit, in order to enter the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus asks some heavy questions of Jesus trying to get him to bring some clarity to this whole situation.
How can we hope to understand when someone who grew up in this culture couldn’t even get it?
What if light is so foreign to us that we can’t even recognize what it is?
This is Part 1 of a two-part sermon, handily identifiable by the label, “Part 2”.
(Here’s a link to Part 2: https://www.buzzsprout.com/132881/2958346)
Nicodemus went to see Jesus at night. Part of what he was looking for was whether this was a crazy guy who just drove people out of the temple due to his own delusions of grandeur, or whether this was the principled action of someone sent by God to call people to some renewed sense of faithfulness.
I don’t know that Nicodemus went in “believing in” Jesus, but I do think that he went in with a mind that had an openness to hope that perhaps Jesus was someone bringing renewal and restoration to God’s people living under the oppressive Roman regime.
Sometimes in the deepest night, even a glimmer of hope is enough.
Yeah, I said it: Temptation is tempting.
What?
It is; otherwise it would be called “the thing that I saw but didn’t feel compelled to take even a second look”; and part of what makes the temptation of Jesus an event worth mentioning is that in order for it to be called “the temptation of Jesus”, temptation has to be something that’s tempting for him, too. Yes, the fact that the Divine and Human natures both exist within Jesus means that he has a capacity to resist temptation and fully trust in God’s providence that we don’t, but it’s important that Jesus was tempted because it allows us to know a crucial thing about the love God has for us: God finds it important to share our experience.
It’s a good thing for us that God’s love is strong; nothing fragile could stand in the face of our brokenness without collapsing.
Today’s teaching is challenging for those of us who are human beings because it cuts to the heart of the most damaging and lasting effects of Sin and how it affects every aspect of our lives. This is a text where Jesus speaks clearly about divorce, but it’s spoken in the cultural context of his time and place. Jesus speaks clearly about anger and swearing, and when we dig in deeper, we see that this is more complex than we might otherwise imagine.
Moses urges his people to “choose life”.
When we hear the law, often what we hear is the word of conviction, the word of shame, the word of guilt — words of death.
How in the world can the law be seen as giving us words of life and hope?
How do we live into the spirit of the law while not removing its letter?
Late post...this is from February 9...oops. :)
When we hear that Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, it can fill us with some rightful dread because usually when someone talks about God’s laws, it isn’t because they plan to regale us with tales of God’s love for creation.
Jesus says in the Gospel that he didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. What IS the law that Jesus fulfills? How can we ever live into the righteousness of God when we so often rebel against this law of which Jesus IS the fulfillment?
Late post...this is from February 9...oops. :)
When we hear that Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, it can fill us with some rightful dread because usually when someone talks about God’s laws, it isn’t because they plan to regale us with tales of God’s love for creation.
Jesus says in the Gospel that he didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. What IS the law that Jesus fulfills? How can we ever live into the righteousness of God when we so often rebel against this law of which Jesus IS the fulfillment?
We’re a results-oriented society, and it’s often challenging to think about doing things that we can’t see to completion.
This week we celebrated The Presentation of Our Lord, a minor feast day that commemorates the presentation of Jesus to the Temple, and Simeon and Anna were there to see him. Simeon was promised that he wouldn’t die until he saw the Messiah. Anna was a widow who had served the temple for many years following the death of her husband. Both saw Jesus and rejoiced, seeing that generations of hope and faith in the promise of Messiah had been fulfilled in their own generation!
We have many things that we’re a part of that won’t end, but we take part in them anyway. We think of people like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, who is prominently featured in this sermon. He joined the long and continuing work of striving for equality for all people, and speaks poignantly about the fact that, like Moses, he wouldn’t live to see the Promised Land, but that from the mountain top he can see the glory of the coming of the Lord.
We too can see the hope of new life from the mountaintop; some of the fruit of this land is fruit we will taste, and some we will not. Even so, we follow faithfully. We share the faith faithfully, knowing that one day we’ll all get there.
*Correction
Nunc Dimittis means “Now you are dismissing”, not “Now Lord”. I’m bad at words.
This is from the 1030 service, and apparently my microphone failed. Thus, enjoy the unplugged version, featuring occasional pocket scratches and strange noises that I choose to interpret as the rustling of the Spirit... :)
When we choose anything, we also choose against other options. One of the most challenging parts of discipleship isn’t choosing those things that we like over and above the things we don’t like, but making the choices that force us to choose against things we want — sometimes things we’ve wanted our whole lives.
The disciples chose to follow Jesus, and in doing so they left behind their careers, their families, their old lives — and sometimes even their names — and engaged in a new risky venture with this new teacher who was taking on the mantle of John the Baptist’s ministry.
How do you choose when it’s hard? What’s something you might need to choose to give up in order to choose to follow the calling of God in your life?
When we choose anything, we also choose against other options. One of the most challenging parts of discipleship isn’t choosing those things that we like over and above the things we don’t like, but making the choices that force us to choose against things we want — sometimes things we’ve wanted our whole lives.
The disciples chose to follow Jesus, and in doing so they left behind their careers, their families, their old lives — and sometimes even their names — and engaged in a new risky venture with this new teacher who was taking on the mantle of John the Baptist’s ministry.
How do you choose when it’s hard? What’s something you might need to choose to give up in order to choose to follow the calling of God in your life?
This Sunday of Christmas we commemorate the slaughter of the innocents, the dreams that lead the Holy Family to flee to Egypt, and wrestle with the ways human nature hasn’t changed as much as we’d like...and maybe neither had our situation.
We try so hard to make everything live up to the hype, but life sometimes disappoints; people disappoint; life just doesn’t seem to live up to what’s advertised. At Christmas we look to the promise of Messiah and wonder — can God’s promises made over generations and millennia live up to the hype?
When we meet God, it never goes like we expect. The good news is that God’s faithfulness always lives up to the hype.
We try so hard to make everything live up to the hype, but life sometimes disappoints; people disappoint; life just doesn’t seem to live up to what’s advertised. At Christmas we look to the promise of Messiah and wonder — can God’s promises made over generations and millennia live up to the hype?
When we meet God, it never goes like we expect. The good news is that God’s faithfulness always lives up to the hype.
So often we think of family as being the people we’re born with. In God’s family, and throughout the whole of Scripture, we see something different: we are the family of God though adoption, and the miracle of Christmas is the final adoption of creation by God as Jesus adopts human flesh to become one of us.
The Fourth Sunday of Advent offers a more subtle Christmas miracle though, that through Joseph’s faithfulness, humanity adopts God right back.
In Christ through baptism, we enter God’s family through adoption, and it’s a family in which water is thicker than blood.
Jesus hears from John the Baptist a question: “are you the one, or are we supposed to keep waiting for someone else?”. Jesus answers by pointing to healings, signs, and miracles — and then takes a direct shot at the powers of the world with a message that the Kingdom of God is not some reed easily shaken, but robust and blooming even in the least hospitable places.
How do we respond to the Messiah we have when we’re challenged by the one that we want?
What about all these questions we continue to have?
God is enough to handle these struggles and more. God is not so easily shaken.
John the Baptist was more than some strange desert guy who preached about fire and repentance to a few people, he was more than some strange desert guy who preached about fire and repentance to huge crowds from across the countryside.
How does this message of repentance from so long ago relate to us today in a day when what we want is almost singularly important?
How do we hear this message of fire and forgiveness in a world that tells us that our sins exclude us from being able to be a part of the culture?
The love of God is a refining fire, not an all-consuming one. How do we deal with this in an all or nothing world?
We find ourselves conflicted about a lot of articles of faith, not the least of which is the resurrection of the body.
In a world that’s so contentious, knowing that our humanity permeates even the Church where we think we’re supposed to be somehow “better” than we are everywhere else (prepare to be disappointed), somehow conflict remains a reality of our lives.
How can we trust in the promises of God when we can’t even trust ourselves not to be jerks?
Preached for the funeral of Mike Taylor at Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, Foxboro on Saturday November 9, 2019.
There is so much we want to know but can’t ever be certain about, and one of the most prevalent issues we face is the understanding of the Christian belief in the resurrection of the body.
What’s that mean? What age body, what health of the body, what’s healed and what remains?
Sometimes we get no answers, but trusting in the fact that God is faithful leads us into the ability to be certain without clutching for answers. When we trust God, even though we might not know, we can gain a comfort in the certainty that God is faithful.
Loss changes us, grief changes us, and the way we feel compelled to keep our humanity secret changes us in ways that eat away at our hearts. How can we live in the joy and sorrow that exist together and speak the truth that our world needs to hear?
We are not alone. God is with us and has given us to each other in community so that whether we’re laughing or crying, we never do it alone.
When we hear that someone is a saint, we get all sorts of different images. When we find ourselves on the wrong side of love it often makes us feel like that kind of holiness is out of our reach. While it goes against our every impulse, we know that one thing remains true about Jesus and his enemies: he loves them, and this love changes everything.
How can this love change you?
We live in a culture that has its own measure of time and meaning that takes place away from the Church. How do we reform our understanding and thinking in a way that helps us engage a culture that doesn’t seem to be made for all of us to tell them that God is creating a world that is made for us — all of us — even if we don’t know how to see it?
What do a widow fighting with an unjust judge, Jacob using his family as protection against a brother who might still want to murder him, and Dunkin Donuts all have in common?
This Sunday I could spend weeks unpacking the texts from the Bible, but I stopped at Dunks for a sandwich and met Jesus out front, and it changed everything I had planned.
We meet Jesus in the strangest places, but we always find him at the point where our humanity leaves us open to the experience of the Divine, whose love causes a powerlessness that only makes sense when viewed through the lens of the cross.
What do a widow fighting with an unjust judge, Jacob using his family as protection against a brother who might still want to murder him, and Dunkin Donuts all have in common?
This Sunday I could spend weeks unpacking the texts from the Bible, but I stopped at Dunks for a sandwich and met Jesus out front, and it changed everything I had planned.
We meet Jesus in the strangest places, but we always find him at the point where our humanity leaves us open to the experience of the Divine, whose love causes a powerlessness that only makes sense when viewed through the lens of the cross.
We make a lot of assumptions about ourselves and the people around us. For instance, we assume that just because we grew up in a place we understand it better than just about anyone else. Sometimes familiarity doesn’t make us the experts we think it does, but it takes someone from the outside to help us gain a more true perspective on things.
Today, we learn from the Samaritan who returned to give thanks for healing and from the Syrian general Naaman (who washed in the Jordan and was cleansed of his leprosy) that there’s a lot we can learn about the Kingdom of God from strangers.
What can we learn about the Kingdom of God from the strangers God puts in our lives?
Sometimes the choices we make dictate the kind of response we get. Through the sayings of Jesus we learn many things, and today we learn that even when all we have is a little, God can make it enough.
“Increase our faith”, said the disciples. They must have known that making a request like this of Jesus is a risky proposition. The law tells us that we have to guard what we have because it’s likely to run out. The Gospel tells us that when all we have is a little, God will make it enough.
This is probably the last sermon I'll preach as a pastor in the South Carolina Synod or as an assistant to the bishop. It's weird to think of this ending because I feel like I still have plenty to do, but then I saw this Gospel reading and remembered that it's not really about my plans, but about what God has planned for me.
How do we respond to the times in life where what we want conflicts with what God has prepared? How do we reconcile the cold reality that lays waste to our plans?
The question "Who is my neighbor?" is a stunningly relevant question today, as the US immigration services prepare to deport members of some 2000 families over the next few days. More, it's stunningly relevant to our lives, as we continue to struggle with how we can care for "those people" whoever they might be when they make us so mad, frustrated, frightened, or stressed.
Fortunately for us, the question "Who is my neighbor?" is answered for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus — everyone is my neighbor. Unfortunately for us, the challenge Jesus levels at the lawyer is "How do YOU act like neighbor?" when Jesus tells the man, "Go and do likewise".
This is not only the struggle of our age, but a central issue for the Church for the better part of 2000 years.
"There was a father who had two sons", the story goes. A question this week shaped how I hear this story, "who is missing?". As I wrestled with that question, another thought came to my mind: we live in an Older Brother culture.
How do we begin to deal with this fact, and how can we begin to overcome the jealous judgementalism that gets in our way when it comes to accepting the unfair love of God, who calls us to the feast with "those people" who we know are not deserving?
We often think of God as the most powerful being in the universe, but God teaches us that powerful leadership looks like service. What if God is not the landowner, but the Gardener?
Have you ever wondered why God called you, or how you could possibly be worthy of a calling? Yeah...me too...and Isaiah too...and Paul too...and Peter too.
God equips us to do what we're called to do in surprising ways!
I'm not particularly known for nuance or sensitivity, and when I describe my guitar playing I often tell people that God gave me only two tools, a hammer and a guitar, and I'm likely as not to use both together.
Having said that, here's a fingerpicked version of Silent Night.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or whatever floats your boat and increases your love for yourself, other people, and helps reveal to you the mystery of the Divine.
We live in a nation that lifts up our individuality as an idol, and pushes an angry guy false god as the deity of a cultural religion that has many people convinced that to be Christian means to pick and choose who's in and who's out. This false god is vengeful, and even its love looks like wrath.
What would it look like if we professed the one true God whose love looks loving as loudly as those who declare that false god who is just waiting to beat us down and punish us forever?
Do we even dare to hope for a God whose love looks like love?
When we do, the Spirit stirs something powerful inside of us. So powerful was this stirring that a LUTHERAN spoke and answered questions during the sermon that I expected to be rhetorical!
If Christ is King, we can hope for even greater things than these!
We are called to do many things in our lifetime. Some of them are wonderful, like eating steak; others are not, like eating salad. As we approach Thanksgiving, a holiday that for me has always been more about food and family than the generosity of Native Americans toward the struggling Pilgrims, we explore the purpose of suffering, something against which I have a general policy.
In our suffering, in our doubt, in our failures, in our grieving, God is not a fair weather friend. God is with us, and chooses to sit in that space with us rather than cheapening it with quick fixes or platitudes designed to ease the anxiety of that space.
Through baptism, we hear God’s promise that in this family water is thicker than blood, and though the world may laugh with us but abandon us in our tears, God is always with us.
In a world where we try to possess everything, how do live in the knowledge that EVERYTHING belongs to God, and that we follow God - who gives everything away leaving nothing behind, and calls us to do the same?
Preached at St. Timothy’s in Midland, Michigan (I’m the North/West Lower Michigan Synod) because the pastor there got sick and we had an abundance of pastors present at the first ever Mitten Synod Youth Summit!
Thanks to Trinity, Midland for hosting us this weekend and to Pastors Danielle and Megan for your hospitality!
Faith is about more than being a good person, it's about finding freedom from the things that enslave us. How do we embrace the love that sets us free?
so often we hear the words of the Bible as law — what we HAVE to do. How do we change the way we hear these verses that discuss things like divorce so that we can instead hear them as words of promise about who we were created to be, about relationship, about love, and about hope so that we can dwell in the love that only God has to offer?
We learn to approach God and each other more honestly and openly every day, and every day, God welcomes us home.
Carl Barth instructed us to preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, but what do we do when the newspaper has stories like it did this week? How do we in the Church live out the culture of Jesus Christ in a world where the culture of society is so different? How do we live lives that love and respect others when we're told so many people are disposable?
The audio is terrible because of pocket noise despite the microphone, I apologize!!!
We all experience times when our hearts are closed off, when our hearts are racing and we don’t know what to do because were afraid or anxious, when we find ourselves trapped by our opinions or preconceive notion‘s. How do we answer the call of God who commands us to be open even when we think the matter is settled?
Jesus sees the crowds return after feeding them and realizes a hard truth: they don't get it, and they never will. Why are WE seeking Jesus: because our bellies are full, or because we have caught a glimpse of the Kingdom of God?
When God calls, it's often to places that make us uncomfortable. How can we answer God's call faithfully when we usually want to be comfortable more than anything else?
In this moment of uncertainty and growing conflict, the truth people tell about the world is a truth we're tempted to believe. Through the waters of baptism, God calls us to believe a new truth: that this broken world is a place that God loves; a place for which God has a plan. How will you be a part of this new truth and live into your part of God's plan?
Preaching at our home congregation while Pastor Tim is away, I pondered what it means that Reformation is a Reconciling in Christ congregation, and am convinced that in order to be a congregation or a Christian who is reconciling in Christ, we must be reconciled to Christ our King.
How do we deal with a king in a land where we proclaim democracy?
How can we live into the values that our King commands?
How do we reconcile with our goatish nature in a kingdom built for sheep?
scsynod #elca #chirsttheking #christourking
How do we handle an unfair justice or undeserved mercy? Living in the Kingdom of God is like this.
The editing tool is broken. The sermon begins at around 10 minutes with "I think we may have a future pastor in here".
Jesus's Parable of the Sower is widely known, but how do we fit in? What kind of soil is my heart? And who will hear this without ears?
What are we called to do as the Church? Leave our buildings and be in the world, share the love of God and the good news that the Kingdom is near.
The Gospel text was John 8:31-36.
Each year at LCY Convention, the president delivers our sermon at Sunday worship. This year was President Ben Bernstein, completing his second term, who have a word of hope and grace, clearly digging deep into the experience and maturity he's gained over the last two years.
This is definitely worth listening to! #sclcy #standfree #scsynod #elca
When we hear of the miracles in the Bible, we often mistake why they're important. Miracles are important because they reveal the glory of God in a language our hearts can comprehend.
How will you reveal God's glory in a way others can understand and be the miracle of God's love in your life?
It was a pleasure to join the fine Lutherans at Good Shepherd, Swansea for the installation of Rev. Michele Fischer. What is this relationship between pastor and congregation about? Is it about looking each other and making each other happy, or is it about something more real, more lasting, more holy?
scsynod #elca
How do we experience the presence of God? It helps to know where to look. #scsynod #elca
The identity of Jesus is something that affects Christians and non-Christians alike. How does who we believe Jesus to be affect the way we understand the world's and ourselves? #PalmSunday #scsynod #elca #unilu
Remaining faithful in the face of temptation is hard...that's why it's called temptation. How do we live in God's Kingdom when we know we're weak? Where we are weak, God is strong.
Forgive the rustling noises, new mic is on the way!
We hear Jesus' command to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us and want to ignore it. But this is central to the call to the Christian life. In this, we discover the true presence and love of God. #loveyourhaters
I'm a world that gives us the equivalent of cultural and spiritual candy, sink your teeth into truth. #chooselife #elca #scsynod #meatisgood
How do we deal with not knowing, not being in control, not feeling like enough? We embrace this as the reality in which we live and trust in God's presence and mercy to handle what we can't know, control, or handle. #giveitup #scsynod #elca
What would you do to hear God's words of love spoken into your life? #baptism #scsynod #elca
An angel tells Joseph not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife. What if fear isn't his first emotion? How do we recover from the pain of relationships and fear of broken trust? #Advent #Godwithus #scsynod #elca
This sermon is different than I planned, it's a more personal reflection on the danger of giving into the idea of a wrathful god when the God who loves us is the true God than I intended originally.
What does it look like to reimagine our preconceptions about the "End Times" in light of the long history we have with misunderstanding the Messiah, God's plans for creation, and what it means to be the Church?
elca #scsynod #Advent #apocalypse #endoftheworldasweknowit #ifeelfine
This was a sermon for worship at our Hand in Hand service camp for SCLCY (South Carolina Lutheran Church Youth). We wrestled with the question of what it means to worship the King who calls us into community in a nation that values freedom as individuals?
Following the most divisive election in maybe any of our lifetimes, when identity politics and character assassination was the normal routine rather than issues, who are we?
Children's sermon at the end.
Recognizing our pain, brokenness, and need for repentance is a challenge in a world that encourages us to boast and show off – especially since some of us are prone to do this anyway. What does it mean to live in humility and seek to increase God's plan, not our fame?
What new things is God doing in us? Joining in with what God's doing in the world in and through us. #reformation #elca #scsynod
What do we do when we're sucking to keep our head above water and we just can't cling to Faith? Let go, trust God.
wrestling #elca #scsynod
What does it mean to have faith? How do we trust God? Can we even be faithful?
God is able. #scsynod #elca #mustardseed #faith
We all respond to tragedy differently, but one trait we share is a desire for justice; the problem is that justice doesn't satisfy like vengeance. How do we balance our desire for vengeance with Jesus' command to love and God's example of sacrifice? #remember911 #neverforget #elca #scsynod
Children's sermon is at the end
How do we answer the call to share the good news boldly without it all going to our head?
How do we avoid fear when there are so many scary things?
God is with us, and though we fear, we hope.
I was asked to speak at this service of healing in the wake of another the slaying of police officers and the more unarmed black men on behalf of Bishop Yoos.
The topic was a response to violence in faith. What I realized is that in order to respond faithfully we most first put down our faith in and faithfulness to violent ideology.
How can we put down the sword and take up the cross?
"Who is my neighbor?", asks a lawyer looking for a loophole. Jesus' response is both high challenge and good news - everyone.
What does this hard teaching mean?
The children's sermon is at the end. There's a deep theological discussion about Batman and whether he needs neighbors.
helloneighbor #scsynod #elca
In Christ we stand free from our desires and free to do God's will. #scsynod #elca #standfree
After the sermon (~19:15) is the children's sermon, where I was helped by an enthusiastic child, probably a future pastor.
Every year the President of South Carolina Lutheran Church Youth preaches at our annual convention.
This is his excellent sermon, "I Don't Get It, God", given on Sunday June 19 at Wiles Chapel at Newberry College.
sclcy #dolovewalk #standfree #scsynod #elca
Jesus possesses the authority to heal and bless whether nearby or far away. How do we, who like to be in charge deal with the fact that all power belongs to God? #elca #scsynod #power #itallbelongstoGod
The Trinity is one of the great mysteries of our faith. How do we give it the attention it deserves without falling into the pitfalls of bad Theology?
The answer is all about relationship.
Funeral Sermon for Grace Weed (Christus Victor, Columbia)
God's house has many rooms, and they're all chock full of God's people living and breathing as the hands and feet of Jesus. As we remember Grace, we remember that her favorite story to tell is the story of Jesus.
We all long to hear words of grace in times of trouble, and those are sometimes the hardest words for is to believe. God calls us by name and loves every part of us, even when we're convinced there's not much worth loving. #scsynod #elca #fishingnaked
God's love is the story of love that does not die, that calls us out of our fear and into me life. #fishingnaked #scsynod #elca
We all want to build booths and monuments to those times in life when the veil drops and we experience those moments of heaven on earth. How do we learn to cow with the call to return to daily life when we just want to stay in that moment?
What is the love that will last? How do we find it, how do we keep it? #scsynod #elca #love
The family of God is a strong family, with all the beauty and hardships that come with it. #scsynod
In baptism we're given new life. As God's children, we show the world the fave of God in all we do and say.
How does this creation story speak to us in ways that make a difference today? #elca #scsynod #christmas
Great Expectations, Great Disappointments
John laps for joy in his mother's womb when Mary arrives pregnant, but would be new this excited if he knew the Messiah that God sent is different than the one for whom he hoped?
elca #scsynod #advent
We find the brokenness within us to be so much more convincing than the truth of our value. We desire easy answers — or if not easy, at least one we can find.
But God calls to us in relationship and relationship is always messy. God calls us to a faith of seeking and questioning in a World that values answers.
Life in the Wilderness is a lie that's pretty or of control. How do we find peace, wholeness, and meaning in places where we feel so empty?
God is With Us (Holy Spirit, Charleston — Advent 1)
The promise of God is that in all times, God is with us, even when it costs God everything.
Transformational Leadership is the week's theme, using the story of Moses. Moses is renowned as one of our Faith's heroes, but this wasn't always the case. At the start, Moses was on the run, working a hard job, and living with his in-laws. God transformed him into the man we know. How will God transform us in ways we may not yet be able to imagine?
God calls and even the dead respond. On All Saints Day we celebrate the new life we have in Christ. We remember those we lost and remember that Christ is with us. In the family of God, nobody cries alone.
What we think we want is whatever we want, but what we want often ends up not being at all what we need. Coping with the desire to have our own way is one of the hardest posts of a faith that tells us to want it God's way.
We draw our identity from so many things — cars, houses, money, joins, roles — and that's just what they are, things. Jess challenges us to rest our identity in God and follow him.
What's left when you lay down your things and pick up your cross?
A lot of times we feel like we're wondering, lost, and alone, but we must realize that in the life of a Christian we are always following God. How do we learn to experience the presence of God even in those spaces where we feel like God couldn't possibly be there?
"Who do you say that I am?" is maybe the most important question of my out faith. Depending on how we answer this question, we experience a very different understanding of God.
Does who you say Jesus is allow enough room for God to be God?
The Children's Sermon follows the sermon due to editing, but preceded the sermon during worship.
newkindofhero
"I am the bread come down from heaven. Those who eat my body and drink my blood will have eternal life".
Jesus spoke these words to a crowd who was hoping for bread and fish, hoping to feed them something much more substantial. Something they could really sink their teeth into.
crunchyJesus #scsynod #dolovewalk
At Grace Lutheran Church in Gilbert, SC.
Jesus feeds 5,000 people with food for the heart.
Where is God? Outside Lafayette Coney Island #riseupSC #riseupelca #teamawesome #scsynod
Where is God? #riseupSC #riseupelca #teamawesome #scsynod #riseupNC with Lutherans Resting Creation
Presiding Bishop Liz Eaton was so gracious to accept an interview with the "Who are you, where are you from, and where do you see God at the Gathering" interview!
Where is God? Right here! #riseupSC #riseupelca #teamawesome #scsynod
Where is God?
Morning Star Lutheran, Monroe, WA. Pastor Cara Holmquist talking about her youth raising money for a staff position at a local emergency homeless shelter!
riseupSC #riseupelca #teamawesome #scsynod
Where is God?
God's with SC LCM building Habitat Houses for 4 families in Detroit! RP Austin #riseupSC #riseupelca #teamawesome #scsynod
Herod chopped off John the Baptist's head and then worries he's been haunted. He is, but not on the way he thinks.
At St. Luke's, Summerville
Herod got talked into executing John the Baptist, and struggled with it after.
At St. Luke's, Summerville
Still in the wake of the Charleston shooting, we hear the Gospel that God is at work for reconciliation even in our most broken places.
At St. John's Lutheran Church in Irmo, SC on 7/5/2015.