Sermon for July 30th

The reading 

Ephesians 4:1-16

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,  making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.  But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift.  Therefore it is said, "When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people."  (When it says, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?  He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.)  The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.  We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.  But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love

The message

This can be a very difficult reading.  I do not say that a lot. Usually, I reserve the word difficult for scripture passages like Jesus telling the crowds “"If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple”, or the sexual violence throughout the story of Lot and his family. Those are the types of readings I call difficult.  Comparatively, Ephesians 4 might not sound that challenging.  Today’s reading is simply a description of what church should be like, the unity we should live with in God’s church.  The difficult part of this reading is just how far we are away from that vision. There is a great amount of dissonance when we say “there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all, and look at how divided, angry and separated the family of God is.

The church is separated by race and ethnic identity.  Back in the 1950s Billy Graham stated to readers digest “Sunday morning at 11:00 am was the most segregated hour in America” (Later on this quote was used by Martin Luther King many times and often gets attributed to him).  Over the next decades, this has not changed much.  Even here today, I often refer to the churches that share our space with us by their ethnic identity, the Indonesian church is having a special event, the Filipino church will be in from 7 to 10,  I am teaching the English program for the Fujianese church for the next few weeks.  The church is divided by theological differences like what happens in Baptism, what the role of Mary and the Saints are, the source of the Holy Spirit (this one led to the great schism in 1054 that split the Roman Catholic and Orthodox church) the meaning of Holy Communion (that’s why I’m officially not welcome to receive Communion in the Roman Catholic church I grew up in or a Missouri Synod Lutheran church with whom we share the word Lutheran), what the authority of the church is (this one led to the Protestant Reformation)  or the inspiration and inerrancy of scripture (this one is what lead our church, along with 1000s of others, to leave the Missori Synod in 1974) . The church is divided by political affiliations (to see this one, just pick up a newspaper or check the news feed on your phone) . The church is divided by social issues, perhaps we have the same goals, but we certainly have different priorities and ideas on how to get there.    

In Ephesians 4, we get to the logical conclusion of Paul’s attack on division, an argument about God’s radical welcome and acceptance.  Paul gives 7 reasons why the church should be united and work together.  They are that there is one body and one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. To be united is to share the Gospel by being organized in a way that points to one Spirit, one faith, one God.   All people have God’s gift of salvation through Christ’s death and resurrection.  It does not stop there, all people have value, all people have something to say, to contribute and share, Today, we live in a divided world where religion, economics, space, education, technology and history separate us as well.  We are divided by a sense of individualism, There are many people fond of saying “there is no I in team” during motivational speeches but someone will quietly think “but there is a me, its right there, just take that last letter and second letter and you have me ”. The difficult part is that church needs to be a place where “its not about you”. Church is not about us, it’s about Jesus, it’s not about one person, it’s about a community, it’s not about one place, it’s about the kingdom of God.  That is where our attention should be.

My time and attention has been divided. I have been all over the place this week. I have spent the week dealing with the fire alarm and people keep telling me it’s urgent (expect the person repairing it, he’s not in a hurry).  One of the churches that share the space with us held a large special event on Friday night and Saturday. As we moved people around to make room, I was reminded that this event was a large investment of their limited resources and things going well was urgent.  I got an email a few days ago from Rainbow, letting me know new vendex reports may be due, we need to be ready to fill then out immediately, Its urgent.  I have been announcing that the 150th anniversary journal is being assembled and if you want something included, it has to be done as soon as possible. Again, its urgent.  Like my week, this sermon was all over the place going on from page to page and tangent to tangent, with a whole page of great stories, that didn’t really say anything. (even now, I wonder why I spent so much time explaining the world is divided, I mean, was that news to anyone).  There is a local answer to all this division, there is a daily way each of us can live out all people are undeserving sinners saved by God’s grace,

 It’s a single word, awareness.  I need to be aware that sharing the Gospel is urgent.  I need to show you its urgent.  when I go out of my to explain to new people, I’m not one of those “Christians”, if you call them that, who thinks all gay people are going to hell, Jesus died so you can be rich or a community of special people that excludes all others.  Its important to me to say that, so people know.  I also need to realize that is increasing division.  I need to be aware that I can be wrong (not about God’s love but how churches work, how it’s lived out). We need to be aware that everyone has something meaningful to contribute. 

I think of a homeless man who would stop in for clothes, prayer, someone to talk to and any support.  He would often stop in during very inconvenient times, when I was in the middle of doing 15 different things. Of course none of those things were as important as following Jesus command to care for the least of us, but they all felt like they were.  One morning he stopped in and I was in the middle of fixing this cabinet in the church kitchen for the 20^th time.  A piece of wood had fallen off and I was trying to put it back on.  I tried all different things and nothing worked for more than a day or two, Everyone was complaining about it and I hated looking at it. It was almost Easter so I wanted to make sure it was fixed by then.  He saw me trying to nail this piece in and asked “what are you doing”. I said “this stupid thing keeps falling off, I tried everything”. He looked at it for minute and said “why don’t you just get a good wood glue and put it around the edge”.  I thought “whatever, that won’t work”.  A few days later, the piece fell off again so I tried the glue. It’s now been up for 2 years plus.

It is about how we see each other, as children of the same one, loving God. When we do that, things change.    

Sermon for July 23

The reading

Ephesians 2:11-22

  

So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called "the uncircumcision" by those who are called "the circumcision"—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace,  and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near;  for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord;  in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

The message

Last week, we had an introduction to Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. To review quickly, this letter was meant for more than one community (as it does not address any specific issues or share any information about a particular church). It was also likely written by a student or a new Christian converted  by hearing Paul rather than Paul himself (about half of Paul’s letters in the bible were written in his name).

The letter focuses on Christian unity and the conflict between good and evil. In terms of unity, Paul shocks, disturbs and angers society when he declares that being joined to the death and resurrection of Christ is more important than social standing, citizenship, race, gender and status (like being free or slave, rich or poor, priest or non-priest).  All people were sinners, saved by God’s gift of grace. That identity is what matters.   Next week, as we finish our time with Ephesians, we will look at this cosmic battle between good and evil, one where Paul invites believers to “Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”.

Today, I want to look at what exactly it means to belong, to be part of a group where all people are equal in value, in giving as you can and receiving as you need. It’s as strange and counter cultural today as it was almost 2000 years ago.  We do a lot to set ourselves apart from others.  The good news that to God, everyone is the same, that we all , belong in the kingdom of God, can be a hard thing to actually live out.  I’d like to share a few personal stories to illustrate what this can mean for us.    

 First, there is something that happened Monday night, something that does not make Jen or I seem too bright.  It was about 8:00 O’clock and one of my friends came to pick me up for an event.  I was ready to go and then we realized that the cat was missing.  We saw her out in the yard next door (we let outside a few hours a day and sometimes she finds her way places she should not be).  We tried the usual lures, shaking the treat can, calling her, opening the garage door (the sound usually scares here back into the house).  We lost sight of her for a few minutes and then kept running back and forth to the yard and the front of the house, trying to take down part of the fence and then walking around the block to see if she got out. (while my friend is sort of impatiently waiting and amused by us running around ).  After a half hour or so, my friend left and we continued looking in the yard for the cat.  It started to get dark so we were getting worried, A few minutes after that, Jen asks me a simple question “did you look upstairs under the bed”.  I said no, we saw her in the yard and didn’t see her come in the house.  We search a few more minutes and then check under the bed, where, we find the cat, sleeping where she always is around 9 pm..  We wasted a lot of time and energy and stressed out because we were looking in the wrong place.   

I hear a lot of people talk about struggling to find where they belong and  often people get caught in looking in the wrong places.  Often people get stuck in bad situations, gangs, addiction to drugs, alcohol or gambling, abusive relationships, hate groups,  cults, bad behaviors, loneliness and boredom.   A lot of that can be different if church is truly a place for everyone (perhaps the only one in the world).    

The church is not yet that different. I was not born Lutheran, I didn’t really know what Lutherans were until half way through college.   As I started seminary, many of the students were lifers, youth leaders, synod life, could sing, knew each other.   Early on I met an Italian pastor, who had been around a long time and worked at a very wealthy church in one of the East coasts most affluent areas.  As we talked, he told me if anyone bothers you or gives you any trouble about who you are, let me know and ill help, we have to watch out for each other.   It was a kind offer and it helped knowing someone was on my side, but really left me wondering, is that going to be necessary, what did I get myself into.   Years later, I was at a clergy event and was talking to a group of pastors I never meet before.   I wound up with a group of less formal and serious pastors who said not quite proper stuff, (we tend to find each other).   We were talking about different issues on inclusion in the church and I happened  to say “sometimes I don’t even feel like I belong” and we moved on to other topics.    One of the pastors in the group came back a few hours later and said “you belong”.  It took me a moment to figure out what he was talking about but I believed him. 

The churches Paul writes to would have rapidly made 1^st calss, 2^nd class and 3^rd class Christians, based on property, wealth, family, who baptized you or time of participation. They often tried to.  Condemned as it was, it would happen again and again.  We have to see and try to stop the same thing here.   

Finally, I  have to go way back, I was in 5^th grade.  My twin brother and I had just started a new school in 4^th grade when we moved to a different house. I never really fit in at the new school, with some bullying and just not making friends.   We had a field trip at the end of the school year, which can be an anxious thing when you don’t have a lot of friends.   It was an outdoor park but I don’t remember we went or who was there, but I remember being invited to play tag.  It was so exciting, as my time in elementary school winded down, I had a day when I felt like I belonged.  Invite others in, they might write you off, dismiss you, most people will be polite and a few will come in, desperate to belong. 

Sermon for July 16

The reading:

Ephesians 1:1-4

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus:  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,  just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.  He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,  as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;  this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people, to the praise of his glory.

 The message

Today we start a 4 week series on a letter that claims Paul wrote it to the church at Ephesus.  We have good reasons to doubt Paul himself wrote it and that it was written to people in Ephesus.  In the New Testament there are 14 letters attributed to Paul. Seven of these New Testament letters were almost certainly written by Paul himself: 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, Philippians, Philemon, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Romans. These letters were most likely written during the height of Paul’s missionary activity, between 50 and 58 a.d. which makes them the oldest writings in the New Testament (Mark, the oldest of the 4 Gospels was likely written between 60 and 70 ad). The other 7 letters  credited to Paul were probably written by co-missionaries or students of Paul (At the time, if you wrote something based on another person’s teachings and ideas, you didn’t just attribute it to them with a footnote or something, you put their name on it).  This division of books of by Paul and not by Paul is based on structure, use of language and content.  This is not something modern scholars made up with new science or some dark secret the church hid from people for centuries.  Since the second century, Christians divided Paul’s letters in this way, seeing both groups of letters as the inspired word of God, with good news in them.  Since the address to the Ephesians in this letter does not appear in the earliest manuscripts and it does not address any issues specific to a particular church, most people believe Paul’s letter to the Ephesians was meant to be a general circulating letter that went to the church in Ephesus but also to other churches and communities.

Ephesus was an important city, one of the major ports of the ancient world. It was located on the coast of Asia Minor (modern day Western Turkey).  It was home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.  (a few pieces of which still stand today) . Worship of Artemis, one of the Greek gods who took on a local character there, was an important part of life and commerce in Ephesus.  Paul’s successful evangelism  and conversion of people to Christianity, then called “the way” angers the priests and merchants who earned their living selling things related to the temple. Paul had visited Ephesus a few times and lived there for a while. In Acts 18:19-21 we learn Paul and his coworkers arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.  When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined.  But as he left, he promised, “I will come back if it is God’s will.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.

Paul also passes by Ephesus later on but does not stay, choosing instead to send for the leaders of  the leaders of the church in Ephesus and meet with them someplace else. Paul wanted to go directly to Jerusalem.  In Acts 21, we learn: Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost. From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church.  When they arrived, he said to them: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents.  You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. 

The Letter to the Ephesians presents and celebrates Paul’s vision for the church.  This vision is summarized by the last verse we just heard from Acts 21: I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus . Christ’s death and resurrection united Jews and non-Jews.  The Jewish law, outlined in the first 5 books of the Old Testament, served to separate and set apart those who followed it from those who did not.  The message revealed by Jesus teachings and the events of his life meant that the law was no longer necessary, people where connected to God by grace through faith, by the death and resurrection of Jesus, nothing else mattered, nothing else could bring the forgiveness of sins.

It’s hard to exaggerate how radical and strange this was to ancient Greek, Hebrew and Roman societies.  People laughed at the idea, people were scared by the idea, people were confused by the suggestion that everyone was the same.  To say the death and resurrection of Jesus was more important than how you were born, what group you belonged to or where your citizenship was,  that was crazy talk.  Societies at the time were highly divided, that was how social and political life functioned. There were patrons and clients, rich and poor, first born and later born, sick and healthy, clean and unclean, Jews and Gentile, male and female, slave and free, priests and not priests. These divisions were strong, seen as part of the natural world.  Going from one group to another was usually impossible or could only be done with a great amount of effort, luck and help.  Paul’s word that to God all people were the same, undeserving sinners saved by Grace, was hard news for people to hear.  Even people on the wrong side of these divisions struggled to accept this joyful news. In fact, a lot of Paul’s letters to churches criticize the communities for not living this equality out.     

Paul frequently uses this idea of adoption and inheritance to talk about what God has done through Jesus death and resurrection.  (This comes up in Galatians 4 and Romans 8 as well).  During Paul’s time, there were several words for adoption, each had a different meaning. When talking about being joined to Christ’s death and resurrection, Paul always uses the one that meant giving full and total status as a child to the one adopted. There are no classes of people in God’s kingdom, there is only saved by grace.  One of the most hateful and angry things I hear during difficult times in the life of a family is that step children, adopted children or estranged members are called “not real”, that somehow since they were born to different parents, screwed up in the past, or where not there to help, they did not  deserve a voice in planning a funeral, a spot in a service or a part of an inheritance.  The early church faces the same exact challenge, that natural inclination that we should get what’s fair, what we deserve.  God’s grace does not work that way, the church has no use for that way of thinking.    

In addition to radical inclusion, the other main focus in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians is the conflict between good and evil, the forces of God and the forces of demonic evil. This is a battle constantly fought but one that God has given us the power to win. We see look at this when we get to week 3 and 4. 

Sermon for July 9

The reading

Psalm 150

1 Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty

2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his surpassing greatness!

3 Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!

4 Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!

5 Praise him with clanging cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

6 Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

The message

Today is the last Sunday of our 5 week series with the Psalms.  Fittingly enough, we end the series with Psalm 150, the closing song in the book of Psalms.  Over the past weeks, we have heard Psalms of lament, praise, help, invitation and trust. We learned a little about the order and structure of the psalms, their role in worship and their expressive power.  As we met in class after worship each week, we looked at the psalms in depth, attempted to rewrite them for today and went off on lots of tangents, discussions about church today, faith and how we live out God’s gift of grace.  In many ways, those sorts of conversations are where the psalms come from, the experiences and trials lived through by people of faith, the things that happened in the daily lives of God’s people.   In translation from the original Hebrew many of the poetic aspects of the psalms like rhyming and alliteration are lost but this ancient songs for use in the temple worship still inspire patience, faith and trust in God.  

Psalm 150 is a call to worship, an invitation to communities to give praise and worship to God.  

There are several calls to worship in the collection of Psalms in the bible but Psalm 150 is different.  It is missing something found in all the other psalms that call people to worship.  Psalm 150 gives no reason to praise the Lord.  In all the other calls to worship, people are invited to worship God because God is great, because God is deserving of praise, because God has answered prayers, because God has saved an individual from a crisis, Because God has released someone from despair and loss or because God has rescued a community from suffering.   We heard the entire psalm and Psalm 150 offers none of those reasons or any other.  It is a call to worship and praise God, the community is invited to trust the singer, the reasons are personal,  left to the hearer to think about.  

Back in High School, I spent a few seasons on the school football team.  I was honestly never that good.  A lot of people (like my wife) see the game as a bunch of huge guys just running into each other to move a ball.  In some ways, that’s true, the point of the game is to the get the ball from one place to another. Beyond that, it’s actually a complicated game that has a lot of rules and regulations.  There are virtually limitless plays and patterns that the 22 people can have parts in. Playbooks for a team can have 1000s of possibilities and variations.  In addition, there are right ways to tackle, hold the ball, run, line up and put on equipment. There are rules about every aspect of play, what counts as a catch, what is out of bounds and what each player can do.  There are penalties when these rules are broken (and the violation is seen by the ref).  Each time you line up for a play, you need to be aware of many things, where they are on the field, where the opposing team is, what play is going to happen, where to line up and move, when the ball will be snapped and possible last second changes.  The good players were able to keep track of all that, could naturally incorporate all that stuff into their thinking and still get the ball from one place to another.  People like me got lost in the details, trying to get everything right and being too distracted. 

We could say many of those same things about church.  We have a lot of rules, the doctrines of the Reformation and the ELCA, what we believe, conflicts when those things differ, scripture, the history of a community, building and church, the relationships we have (or do not have) with the people in the seats next to us.  There is an order to lighting things, putting them out, reading and singing.  There are places assigned for everything. I have 15 or 20 of the thousands and thousands of books about worship.  Then there are the day to day management issues that come up, the oversight of a school, all different city agencies up in our business, there are checks to write, bills to pay, exemptions to maintain, mail to pick up, supplies to order, other congregations to work with, support, pray for and collect rent from, doors to open, roofs to fix and walls to paint.  There is community work, community groups and maintaining relationships. There are lots things I don’t like doing, was never trained to do or get me frustrated. Beyond all this, we are here to Worship God.   

The psalms are a gift given to us to help with that work.  It cannot only happen on Sunday morning though, all that other stuff can get in the way. A commentary on our reading tells us,  The psalms as a whole are not meant primarily to be sung in worship (despite what I have been saying for the past 5 weeks). Rather, we are invited to come to worship in order that we might sing the songs in daily life. So, when we are wallowing neck deep in the mire of life, we are invited to sing the songs of lament: O Lord, have mercy. When we are experiencing the grace and joy of life, we are invited to sing the songs of praise: Thank you God! When we are in a tough spot, but remember God's presence, we are invited to say, "I trust you O God, you are with me." And when we see God at work in the world, we are invited to point to God's invisible hand at work and say, "Praise the Lord!