Devotion - Thursday, December 11

Empty rituals.  Don't you just hate them?  And God hates them too. A few weeks back I referred to the verses in Amos/Hosea in which God's displeasure at "solemn feasts" was noted.  

The interesting thing is that a ritual might be "empty" for one, and full of meaning and purpose for another.

This morning I was reading from Luke 22. Here, Jesus sends his disciples into Jerusalem to prepare for Passover.  If you haven't been to a Seder, it is a lot of ritual. When share Passover with the Jewish ministry, some of our students start to loose interest around the 75th minute.  "Empty" might be whispered among them.  But the ritual of Passover gives rise to the ritual of Eucharist.  Hardly an empty event.

Rituals become empty when we engage in them without purpose.  Rituals are despised when they are merely checking off a box, as in "done it!"  Rituals are pregnant and full of purpose when we remember them as opportunities to encounter that which is greater than the events themselves; more meaningful than the words which are spoken and the actions which are taken.  The purpose of rituals is to connect us or re-connect us to that which is larger than our ordinary routine.

You are likely to be engaged in many rituals over the next couple of weeks. Some will be shared with a wide circle, others may involve only your immediate family.  I was always intrigued to see which rituals my children looked forward to when they returned home for Christmas break.  I could see the importance of the ritual when I allowed myself to look through their eyes.

You are connected to those things which are larger and greater.  The rituals of Sunday worship, Christmas Eve worship, opening the doors on an Advent calendar, writing a Christmas note - all of these are ways to be reminded and to celebrate those connections.

My prayer is that God will bless your rituals and you through them.  

See you in January!

Devotion - Wednesday, December 10

The story of the woman brought to Jesus so that the Pharisees can entrap him, is one of those stories known by active church people and by many in the general population.  This is the story in which the Pharisees remind Jesus that the Law says a woman caught in adultery is to be stoned to death.  Jesus says, "Let the one without sin cast the first stone."  They crowd departs; there is no one to condemn this woman.

Read it for yourself in John 7:53-8:11.

There is a detail here that mystifies many.  When they come to Jesus, and ask him what they should do, Jesus "bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground."  After a while, he stands up and that is when the says, "Let the one who is without sin......."  Then he "once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground."  This writing on the ground seems a strange thing to do; a strange thing for the Gospel writer to include.  He continues to write, until everyone of the woman's accusers have dropped their stones and returned to their own home.  

Some have speculated that he wrote the names and sins of the accusers.  Others that he merely wrote the various commands and as folks saw the list they became aware of their transgressions.  Still others have seen his writing with his finger on the ground as a reminder that we are all dust and dirt and nothing (even our transgressions) lasts forever.  Maybe he was just showing his impatience with them and their petty attempts to entrap him.  Maybe the action is some sort of forgotten, symbolic behavior - like exposing the bottom of your shoe to a middle-eastern resident.

I have chosen to think that Jesus wrote some sampling of the various laws contained in the books of Moses which the people had decided to ignore.  There are plenty of them; and there are many instances in which we pick and choose which laws MUST be obeyed and which can be ignored.  It is even likely that Jesus wrote some of those which pertained to the elevating of the sins and punishments pertaining to women while ignoring the instructions that might be read as specifically for men.  

We still tend to do this.  We are all very sensitive to using the name of God in vain.  (Of course, by that, we generally limit our observance to not saying "G-- D---", while Luther reminds us it is as great a transgression when we use God's name in order to claim that what we say is "right.")  We are sensitive to this, because we know it is considered such a grievous sin by some.  But we have no second thoughts about buying that second coat, when we know how many people in the world don't have one.

"Who is here to condemn you?"  Jesus asks the woman.  "No one," she replies.  

Condemnation is so easy to speak of; but it must be applied with great care.

Devotion - Tuesday, December 9

Forgive me for my lack of originality, but this reading from my devotional guide seemed too good not to send your way.

Written by Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf - lecture at the Moravian chapel in London in 1746

Whoever is a true disciple, whoever is a child of God, is kind and obliging; he is a comfort to all and burdensome to none; he never asks much of anyone, but he rejoices when he can do much for another.  He easily finds an excuse for his neighbor, should he make a mistake; and if someone begins a dispute with him concerning temporal and spiritual matters, then he always supposes the other to be right.  If he is wronged, then he always thinks, haven't I also done something which makes it my fault? ....One is removed from all vainglory, from exalting oneself above others, from insisting on being in the right.  If one is spoken or written against or opposed, then one is the first among the readers and hearers to help the slanderers and persecutors to the point by which they appear more innocent and equitable, thinking that the accusations were perhaps not without foundation.  Indeed, one thinks before another thought arises, by what means did I give occasion for that?  "Dear Father, do forgive the fault that is mine in that book, that slander, in that persecution."  This is always the first thought of a heart that has received grace.

Devotion - Monday, December 8

It seems appropriate that this morning's devotion focus on the realities of the week you are facing.  It is exam week.  And there are many stresses which come with these next five days.

The educational style into which we have fallen makes final exams a part of the process.  But I can assure you that most professors are just as stressed by the process as you are.  I am yet to meet a professor who looks forward to the opportunity to trip up a student by means of a single, difficult to complete, final.  They, like you, are more concerned with the development in thinking process and the increases in the ability to understand.

Perhaps remembering that the professors have been in the classroom with you all semester because they care about you and they want you to learn and they seek your success will help you as you face the stress of turning in to them that final.  Remember that they are a bag of stress, too.  And find it in your heart to see their humanity, thus allowing them to respond to your own.

In re-thinking the sermon I preached yesterday, I realize that my mantra "God is Here!" should have been more directly applied to the week you are facing.  Know that God is here - that God will be with you.  The concrete expressions of that presence include a) a non-anxious presence (Jesus is often called "The Prince of Peace"), and b) a reminder that in light of all eternity, what is a few hours in an exam room, or even a few weeks in a course?  Your person-hood is not determined by how well you do in your exams.

God is here!  God is with you.  And so are God's followers.  Draw strength from one another; draw calm from those who are aware of the larger picture of your life and the eternity into which you have been called.

Sermon - Advent 2

Mark 1:1-8, Isaiah 40:1-11
“The Beginning of the Good News” 

Mark probably didn’t realize that he was coining a new word when he penned the first verse of his letter.  He probably thought that was what he was doing, just writing a letter.  He probably had determined the message, or underlying theme of this letter, so it is no accident that as he begins he uses an appropriate phrase to describe what he is attempting to do.  But it is doubtful that he knew that phrase would become a word synonymous with the message itself.   

Mark writes:  “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.” 

“Good News”.  In Greek the word is εὐαγγέλιον (euaggelion).  And it was just a word, until it gets used by Mark.  Then it becomes a title, even a summary statement. It turns into the short-hand for the whole of the rest of everything that Mark writes, and after him what Matthew and Luke and John writes.  It becomes the message of the Christian Church.   

“The good news of Jesus Christ.” 

It is good news, isn’t it?  A news that is so broad, so enormous, so intricate and complicated that it is in most instances it is better to use a summary statement than to try to condense that good news into a five page document or even an eleven minute sermon.  It is the news that brought you here today; it is the news that will support you in all of your tomorrows.

 “The good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

 I am going to talk about this good news, and how it might be described, but before I do, I don’t want to cut short the diversity of how that good news is experienced in your life.  So, we are going to do one of those things where you turn and talk to your neighbor.  Start to consider who can speak with.  Make sure to look around you and behind you so that no one sitting alone fails to have a conversation partner.  But I do want you to take 30 seconds to speak with your own words what the “good news” means.  So turn to someone and tell them - turn to someone and hear from them – how do you experience the “good news of Jesus Christ” in your life?

 I would love to hear your words regarding good news; and for those to be shared.  But my experience with Children Sermons has taught me not to ask questions if you are not prepared for ALL the answers.  I did start a Facebook chain yesterday afternoon.  You could check that out, if you want to see some of the replies and share your own.  I want to do this morning is shift through the appointed lessons for the day, and mine from them an expressions of the “good news” which remains consistent for all of us.

 I am going to start with the reading from Isaiah.  So take out your bibles, and turn to Isaiah 40.  If you have a study bible, you need to look at the footnote.  Mine notes “Chapters 40-55:  Book of the Consolation of Israel.”  These chapters recount the events that come decades after the events spoken of in the opening verses of Isaiah.  The opening chapters were words of warning.  Those chapters told Israel that because of her transgression, they would lose their home, their temple would be destroyed, and they would face exile.  All those things have come to pass.  Now, during the time of the reign of Cyrus of Persia, a new message is spoken.  And this new message is a message of comfort and assurance.  It is good news to a people down beaten and exiled.

 Isaiah 40:  “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.”  See that word “cry,” in verse 2?  It could be translated “preach,” as in “preach it brother!”  Preach the good news! Speak tenderly to my people!  Proclaim that Jerusalem has “served her term.”  Her “penalty is paid.”  

 That sounds like “good news,” wouldn’t you agree?  If you were one of the Israelites living in Assyria, wouldn’t you hear these words as good news?  If you were one of the few left behind, to rummage through the ruins of the destroyed Temple, wouldn’t you hear these words as good news?

 The exchange in verses 3 – 9 needs some work with punctuation.  God is the speaker in verse 6 who issues the order “Cry out!”  The whole of the next two verses voices the reluctance of the preacher to preach these words.  The one asked to preach asks, “What shall I cry?  All people are grass.. the grass withers.. surely the people are grass.”  Why bother?  We have languished toward extinction from one generation to the next. “Why bother?”  All of that is the voice of realism, the voice of experience, the complaint of the worn-out preacher who has had very little good news to proclaim.  

 Then comes God’s answer.  “Get up to a high mountain… (God says) lift up your voice.. O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings.. say to the cities of Judah, ‘Here is your God!’”

 “Here is your God!”  That is the good news, the εὐαγγέλιον.  The good news, the best possible news is that God is here!

 God is here.  And he will feed his sheep like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms.

 Sounds like good news to me.  It probably sounds a lot like the examples of good news you shared with one another a bit earlier.  Whatever else might be said about “good news” surely there is a piece or part of it that comes back around to the promise that God is here, that God is in our lives, that God has set aside the heavens (wherever or whatever they may be) in order to say to us – “What happens here – right here – matters to me!”

 The poetic imagery of Isaiah 40:3-4 is picked up in Mark 1.  The most direct route from Assyria to Jerusalem is daunting.  There are mountains and valleys, there are dangers and obstacles.  To get there, one would have to take a long and circuitous route to the north, then west and finally south.  God is so eager to be with us that God will not put up with such delays.  “Level the mountains!  Fill in the valleys!”  “Here is your God!”  (Somebody, somewhere ought to say, “Preach it!”)

 Of course, “crying out” the message does not immediately make it so.  And I want to make sure that I don’t overlook the response Andrew Nichols gave as we studied these texts together on Tuesday.  “Seems sort of nebulous,” I think he said.  And the promise of God’s arrival is rather weak when contrasted with the undeniable strength of heartbreak, or rejection, or cancer, or death.  That promise can seem, in the face of such things, in need of a lot more substance and strength.

 I think that is why Mark was wise enough to call his writings the BEGINNING of the good news.  He knew that more would need to come; he knew that more would come; and he invites us to not merely read of his experience of this good news but to begin to live it in our own lives and to share the experiences with those hungering and thirsting for its assurances.  The “good news” becomes εὐαγγέλιον when it is shared one with another, when it is given witnesses in our own day and time.

 Thursday was not particularly a good day for me.  I wondered, at various times, how I would stand before you this day and speak of the “good news.”  Those feelings on Thursday was a complete shift in direction from my day on Wednesday, when I had found myself being the one to offer encouragement to another.  The good news of which I was so confident on Wednesday seemed an idle tale to me the very next day.  Then I sat at coffee with a few fellow travelers and with their witness I gained the strength to make it through my day on Thursday and into the delightful day that Friday became.

 The assurance of God’s presence is nebulous until it takes flesh and blood in the words, the hugs, and the mere presence of those who have experienced that presence and are prepared to speak of it.  When they say to me, “Here is your God!”  I know that it is true.  

 “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.”  Where this beginning will take us, only we can determine.  How this ending will find root in the lives of those around us, only we can decide.

 Turn to someone sitting around you.  Say to them, “Your God is here!”  Allow them to experience the assurance that whatever the day may bring, they are not alone.  God has come to them; and God has sent you to wait with them until that presence has its world-altering effect on their lives.

 Amen.

Devotion - Thursday, December 4

During last night's Farewell Eucharist, the homily was given by Ryan.  He referred to his talk as the "Greatest Speech Ever," and it may have come close.  I wanted to reiterate one of the things he said.

He referred to Good-byes and Deaths as twin siblings. And that is what they are.

We are forced to say many good-byes in our lives.  Some are small, like giving up on a worn out pair of jeans.  Others are more profound, like moving to a new home or finishing our college years.  In each there is a good-bye which prepares us, or can prepare us, for the larger good-byes.  Death is perhaps the largest of all.

We can learn to say good-bye well, as we face the smaller instances, so that we are better prepared for the big ones.

Several of our group have been forced to say good-bye this fall.  Deaths have come to fathers, to grandfathers, to friends.  All of us are being forced to say good-bye to classmates graduating after this term.  How well are we prepared.

In John 14 Jesus tells his disciples good-bye.  And he does tell them good-bye.  There will come a new thing when the good-bye is complete, but that new thing can only come when the good-bye is done well.  Later in the story he tells Mary not to attempt to hold on to him.  When we say good-bye, we open ourselves us to what comes next.  Until we say good-bye, we are trapped in the futile attempt to re-live or re-capture the past.

The end of the semester is a good-bye.  Small in most instances; larger in other.  Use it well.  Learn from it.  And know that in our good-byes we open the door to the new thing that God is ready to do.

Devotion - Wednesday, December 3

Today's readings give opportunity to address something that I often speak of, but don't think I have written about.  

The first reading for today is Isaiah 2:1-4.  Here the promise of what will come in the latter days includes:  "For our of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem."  "The word" is something more than the written words of the prophet or the written words in the Books of Moses.  

The second reading for today is I Thessalonians 2:13-20.  Here, Paul congratulates the Church on having "received the word of God."  They "accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God."

The word of God is God's self-expression.  The word of God is God's creative presence in the cosmos.  The word of God is something greater and more significant than all the words which have been written about God or for God.

The word of God is spoken in our midst, in order to encourage us and to instruct us.

The word of God is lived in our lives when we show forth the compassion and care for which Jesus was well known.

The word of God is received by us whenever we grasp the significance of a god who sets aside the comforts of heaven in order to make his home among us.

The word of God is greater than the words we read or the words we speak.  It is the content of our faith.  Our beliefs depend upon the words we read or hear.  We experience the word of God, and thus we find the courage to follow.

Devotion - Tuesday, December 2

Luke 20 is the parable in which a landowner plants a vineyard and let it out to tenets.  When he sends servants to collect his share of the produce, they turn them away.  He tries this three times, with the same result.  Finally, he sends his son.  This time the tenets kill the one who was sent.

Jesus tells the parable to the leaders of the Jewish people.  He is exposing their history of ignoring the one sent by God to remind the people that God is the one who created them, the one who gave them their place, the one who established all upon which they depend.

How does this parable speak to us?  

I fear that sometimes the one who speaks the truth in our lives is shunned.  I worry that we might turn away the messenger out of an attempt to ignore the message.

This is a temptation in my own life as your pastor.  I shy away from telling you things, out of a fear that if I were to speak honestly, you might stop coming.  When positive comments follow a sermon, I tend to preach on similar themes in the future.  Am I even aware when I am shunning the truth for the sake of being popular?

Remaining fully committed to God can be a lonely experience.  Jesus died alone, so did many of the initial twelve disciples.  But there must be some satisfaction in knowing that while others may turn from us, we remain united with God.  If this were not the case, how would Paul and Timothy and Dorcas have found the courage to follow where Jesus and those first twelve had lead?

Be alert!  Be awake!  Be prepared to recognize the messengers of God when they arrive.  And do not - do not - turn them away or fail to listen to them.  It may not be the pleasing word which flows like sugar syrup from the "all Christmas" radio station, but it is likely to be the nourishment our bodies must have.

Devotion - Monday, December 1

We have started a new year!  The Church Year begins with the First Sunday in Advent - yesterday.  So today is the second day of the new year.

During this season we prepare.  We prepare for the arrival of Messiah.  How do you prepare for guests?  How did your family prepare for any guests who came for dinner last Thursday?

The prophet Isaiah tells Israel to prepare by returning to the ways of God.  The opening chapter of Isaiah acknowledges that Israel goes through the motions (holding solemn assemblies, carrying out religious holidays) but Israel has neglected the weightier matters.  Here is what he says:

When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you;

even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.

Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes;

cease to do evil, learn to do good;

seek justice, correct oppression;

defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Those last three lines are the ones which caught my attention this morning.  There are many many more intent on teaching us to do evil rather than attendees at classes learning to do the good.  Where is the justice in Furgenson, MO - and I am not stating an opinion on the Grand Jury decision but addressing the underlying racism which made those events such a flash-point.  Our Lutheran Social Services is working with the unaccompanied minors coming across the boarder and the stories these "fatherless" children tell break the hearts of their caseworkers - but few of us lift up our voices in defense of them.

It is said that young adults are leaving the Church in droves.  I guess that is true; I see so many of you each day that it is tough for me to be the judge of what is happening across the country.  When i do hear the questions of "Why are they leaving?" the answer I have experienced is that the Church has become a place of solemn assemblies and empty professions.  "Where is the passion?  Where is the action, associated with the stated beliefs?"

This is both a warning a a plea:

First, the warning - unless we prepare and receive Messiah anew the Church will arrive at the same future as the Israel to which Isaiah spoke.  They were overtaken, their Temple destroyed, their witness so lost that when Ezra and Nehemiah found the ancient books of Moses they had trouble interpreting them.

Second, the plea - do not allow your devotion to become empty.  Never separate your following of Messiah from your beliefs about Messiah.  Jesus' first followers were called "The Way."  It was the way they lived their lives which distinguished them.  

Many will work to teach you "evil."  It is all around us.  Together, we can learn to do good.  But we will have to work at it, and we will have to be intentional about it.