Pastor Jon's Farewell Sermon, Preached Sunday, February 12, 2012

A Service of Dedication, Thanksgiving and Blessing
Philippians 1:1-11
Psalm 30
Luke 21:5-19

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ⁶“As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” ⁷They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” ⁸And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them. ⁹“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” ¹⁰Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; ¹¹there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. ¹²“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. ¹³This will give you an opportunity to testify. ¹⁴So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; ¹⁵for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. ¹⁶You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷You will be hated by all because of my name. ¹⁸But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹By your endurance you will gain your souls

You may be wondering why we are hearing this Gospel text on a Sunday when a tower is being dedicated. What could such a Scripture have to say to us, when Jesus’ words about the stones of the Jerusalem Temple foretell nothing but destruction. Let me paint the scene for you of when this Scripture was last heard in this sanctuary.

The day was Sunday, November 14, 2010, the 25th Sunday after Pentecost. The Scriptures for this day were for the thirty-third week of “ordinary time” in the church year, the Sunday before the last Sunday of the church year, Christ the King Sunday. The day previously, Council President Zan Lofgren had sent an email to myself and other leaders of the church leaders that gave an update on the work that had already begun on tuckpointing the tower. It read in part, “Not looking good. Some of it (the tower) or most of it will have to come down.” Then, the next day in worship, came these words of Jesus that came from the appointed lectionary readings of the day: “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” (Luke 21:6)

The congregation would not find out about these changes until a week later, but for the leaders who knew the tower was so structurally weak it would need to be rebuilt or lowered, this text could not have been more poignant. It’s moments like this that make us say to God, “are you kidding me?” It’s moments like this that are not just mere coincidence…more than pure happenstance. It’s a moment in time that we could call a kairos moment. Kairos is one of the two Greek words for time. While chronos time means quantitative, sequential time; kairos signifies a time “in between”, an intermediate time in which the sacred breaks in…and speaks. (“Kronos”, www.wikipedia.org) It’s this kairos time that I hope becomes the central story that is remembered about these tower repairs…not that it was not a trial to go through, but indeed it was a time when God interrupted what was happening chronologically, to say something qualitatively about what was going on.

What was it that we heard God saying through this kairos time, when, amidst the dismantling of a literal pillar of the congregation, we tried to make sense of this challenge? What did we hear God saying that we had heard before but now with fresh ears, or perhaps heard anew? Did we hear God say…the church is more than a building? Did we hear God say…temporary times of trial will not keep God’s eternal merciful embrace from is? Did we hear God say through Jesus' words: “By your endurance, you will gain your souls”? (Luke 21:19) Did we hear God call us...to a renewed stewardship of our whole lives around God's most priceless gift of Jesus' grace? Did we hear God say…we can trust God’s promises that mean we will not live by sight but by faith in God alone? Did we hear God still speaking to us?

Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes is the answer to each of those questions! No matter what dimension of it was that you heard, God indeed spoke into this “chronos” time with a “kairos” message that testified to the sufficiency of God’s grace, the power of God’s Word, and the possibility of faith turning God’s vision into a reality. God did not just speak that November 2010 Sunday when a few people knew the hilarious way that God was trying to say something through that appointed Gospel reading. But God has been expanding our hearts and minds in faith to see this crisis not only as a time of struggle but also of opportunity.

It’s that same God that also God spoke to me when you extended the call to serve you. God spoke to me when I began here of the commitment you have to this church and its people. God spoke to me of your blessed desire to listen for and follow God’s will in loving your neighbors with all your mind, body and soul. God spoke to me of the blessing you are to the world by the countless ways in which you give of your time, energy and resources for others despite all the other demands on your lives.

God’s holy embrace spoke to me even through the challenges of learning the ropes of what being a pastor is all about, through the process of admitting mistakes and through growing in getting to know you better. I know I may not have met all the expectations you had when you called me here…I think we all hungered and desired to see the church grow and become renewed in its mission and vision. We did grow, maybe not in all the ways we hoped, but we did…by learning to welcome new young adult members, by trying new ministries and by working together to adopt a vision for the future. Perhaps the need to grow numerically was more urgent than I had first thought…and there were chronos times when I felt I did not have the experience with church renewal to give the kind of leadership this church needed to move even further towards growth. But through it all I heard God's kairos message speaking, asking me to be authentic, and to give my all. Despite my fear of being judged that can seem to put up a wall to others…God still was able to find ways to break through and hold us together...through the Word of life, and through the holy food of abundant life at our Lord's table. God spoke to us in the promise of the gospel that is bigger than any one pastor or any one person.

And now…the God who has spoken to us before we met—who did so during our partnership, and who will continue to hold us together in Christ's body—that God will continue to speak. Several years ago the United Church of Christ began a denominational marketing campaign for its church that prominently featured the slogan: “God is still speaking.” The logo for that campaign was a big, black, large comma. That is what God is saying to us as we transition from this day forward. God will continue to speak to you. We can have the courage to listen to God, to follow where God sends us, and tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.

As this pitcher is leaving your starting rotation, God is speaking to another pastoral candidate who, whether coming up from the minors or as a seasoned veteran from another team, when the kairos moment is right...God will break in and speak once again to them of the rich blessings that await serving your needs, and you will once again be blessed by God's guiding hands. I pray that God is preparing a pastor for you with the experience and skills to equip you for the ministry of renewal and evangelical witness to the gospel that this church now has envisioned so clearly for its future.

Let our word to God this day be a word of thanksgiving, a word of thanks for kairos moments, a word of thanks for God's faithfulness, a word of thanks that we share today with the apostle Paul, who wrote to his beloved in Philippi: “I thank my God every time I remember you... I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” (1:3,6) Thanks be to God, who is indeed...still speaking,

Amen.

What Pastor Jon Preached on Sunday, February 5, 2012

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

Isaiah 40:21-31
Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23
Mark 1:29-39

As soon as [Jesus and his disciples] left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Last fall several youth and parents from United Lutheran went to Lake View neighborhood to do a Night Walk with an organization called the Night Ministry. Before we broke out into teams to actually walk on the street and simulate what it would be like to be homeless, a Night Ministry staff person talked with us about what it means to be without a home. As part of this discussion, we were asked to say all the benefits that come with having a home. About 15 minutes later, there was a list of at least 50 things on the white board…and I’m sure we could have come up with 50 more. Some of the benefits were bigger things, like safety, protection, a place to cook food, eat, and hang out with family and friends, like many of us will do to watch the Super Bowl this afternoon. Some of the benefits were more hidden things that we take for granted: a mailing address, an internet connection, light to see and do things at night, a place to grow plants and vegetables. Put together, these all combine to give the over-arching benefit of a place that gives us identity. It was an eye-opening moment for us to see with new eyes all these seen and unseen privileges that come with living in a home.

That over-arching home benefit of receiving identity—a sense of self-worth, a sense of groundedness—is something that we may have come to see with deeper appreciation in recent years. Since the economic collapse of 2008, thousands upon thousands of homes in the U.S. have been foreclosed on. Many have found themselves without a job, without steady income, and without the resources to pay their mortgage. Even more than the economic impact this has had on these homeowners who had to walk away from their homes was the devastation of no longer having that identity, self-worth and stability that comes from living in a home. Not only did these people have to leave the place that gave them identity...they had to leave the whole web of relationships that surrounded their home—neighbors, their children's classmates, friends, their church community and nearby family members. Being torn apart from their homes meant rebuilding the whole foundation of their social lives...and rebuilding their connection to a new community.

It’s that kind of loss of connection that Jesus sought out immediately after his first act of public ministry in the Capernaum temple. If you’ll remember last week’s reading from Mark’s Gospel, Jesus healed an unclean, demon-possessed man right there in the temple—the very place where this man's uncleanliness had forbid him to enter. Now Jesus continues his campaign of renewal, his campaign of bringing the kingdom of God near to us, by going to one of the most ordinary places in our daily lives: our home.

Jesus did not begin his ministry by bringing his message of the good news of God’s renewal of God’s kingdom come near to the places of power in Israel. Jesus did not go right away to a city, where the richest and most politically powerful people and institutions in Israel were. Jesus went directly into a common setting, where everyday people lived everyday lives doing everyday kinds of work, in everyday kinds of homes. Jesus shows up in a home, a place that gave people as much an identity and connection to community as it does today.

But even moreso than blessing the structure of the home itself with his presence, by coming into a home so early in his ministry, Jesus gave his blessing to the relationships, the self-worth, and the grounded connection to the family and community that a home gives us.

When Jesus enter the home of Jesus' disciple Simon Peter, however, the health of the relationships there are being torn apart. His mother-in-law’s fever threatened to isolate her from the relationships in her home and community that were the lifeblood of her existence. Without her health, she could not function in the role that gave her an identity of who she was. Without her health, she was unclean, unacceptable and isolated to the rest of her community—a community that she had already been distanced from after her husband's death widowed her.

Jesus comes into this place and extends the reaches of his kingdom to this relationally void setting. Not only does he come there and heal this woman, he restores her calling within her home life. Immediately after her healing she builds on the relationship that has healed her, and begins to serve and minister to Jesus and his companions.

Last week, we heard that Jesus’ healing in the temple turned sacred spaces like this church into spaces where God turns us from unclean into acceptable in God's sight. Today, Jesus turns the ordinary space of homes like ours into spaces where God connects us to one another and to Jesus’ kingdom of restored relationship. Last week’s Gospel blessed us to re-imagine this place as a place where we can find healing. This week's Gospel blesses us to re-imagine the home as a setting where Jesus also longs to set up his kingdom in our lives. His presence there does not necessarily promise to fix whatever may try and isolate us from relationship to our community...but his is a presence that puts us in touch with his power that casts out the power that sickness, disease and death try to wield to keep Jesus and his kingdom at bay. This week Jesus sets up his kingdom in the most ordinary of places, to show that his transformation can turn any place—even a place of sickness—into a place of healing, a home and a community.

What could Jesus’ kingdom look like in the homes we live in? How can we take Jesus’ power over what keeps us from others into our homes? In what ways can Jesus' healing presence turn our homes into places of community and wholeness, just like it was for this widowed relative of Jesus’ disciple? Maybe Jesus' kingdom coming to our homes looks like a place where relationships with each other are surrounded and bathed by daily prayer, a practice that bathes us in closer relationship with God and one another. Even Jesus himself needed prayer, like when he goes alone to pray after healing his disciples' relative. Maybe Jesus' kingdom coming into our homes looks like a place where family bonds run deeper than blood, where strangers are welcomed as family, just like the Bread Breakers ministry at ULC that mixes up different people into homes for meals and fellowship. Maybe Jesus' kingdom coming into our homes looks like a place where Jesus’ Lordship dismantles our attempts to live for ourselves, and empowers us to instead serve one another. Maybe it looks like a place where no sickness, disease, stigma or fear keeps the compassion of others from coming in. Maybe it looks like a place where eyes are kept open for Jesus' healing to break in and mend the cracks that are bound to come between anyone living under the same roof.

Homes may be something that we take for granted. But Jesus’ second miracle in Mark shows his power equipping us to share his healing even in such an intimate and private setting as a home. Even there, being present to one another in our weakness—which is the definition of healing—becomes not just something Jesus gives us, but something Jesus gives us the power to be for each other.

Christian memoirist Sara Miles writes that Jesus’ healing “shows us how to enter into a way of life in which the broken and sick pieces are held in love, and given meaning…in which strangers literally touch each other, and [in] doing so make a community spacious enough for everyone…in which the deepest desires of our hearts draw us to health…” (Jesus Freak, 105) May each and every one of us discover Jesus’ healing way of life not just in this sacred space, but also in the ordinary that Jesus makes sacred through his healing presence that creates his kingdom in our homes.

Amen.

What Pastor Jon Preached on Sunday, January 29, 2012

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Deuteronomy 18:15-20 • Psalm 111 • 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 • Mark 1:21-28

[Jesus and his disciples] went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God." But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, "What is this? A new teaching--with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him." At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Believe it or not, Valentine’s Day is coming up on February 14^th, so please count this as your reminder to get your valentine a card or gift. Those days have a way of sneaking up on us sometimes. As we look towards that day in a few weeks, it got me thinking about what makes for a healthy relationship in married life, or in a dating relationship, or even what makes for a healthy friendship, one where there’s just lots of mutual affection and respect—not in a lubby dubby way, but in the best possible sense. And one of the things that is an ingredient in a healthy relationship, believe it or not, is something that’s actually counter-intuitive to what we’d think would make for health…and it’s conflict.

I was taught in seminary to always be wary of a couple coming in for pre-marital counseling that had never had a conflict before….because health in any relationship is not that there’s an absence of conflict, but that when it happens there’s a willingness to talk about it, and remain faithful to each other, and to forgive, so that the disagreement does not become a burden on what’s most important, which is the relationship—and not whatever it is the disagreement is about.

Another way we could say this is: “Staying connected in our relationships is not about who is right. It's not about keeping score.” When our spouse hasn’t taken out the trash in three weeks and it’s their job, and we go to them and they point out that we haven’t cleaned the toilets in four weeks, the way forwards in the relationship is not about keeping score. When a friend at school invites you over to play video games with a big group of friends and then doesn’t let you play as much as anyone else, and you ask them about it and they complain that you’re not good enough to possibly have a chance at beating them, the way forwards in the relationship is not about keeping score. When a parent who has been increasingly spending 3 and 4 nights a week at work finally asks their child if they would like to watch a movie for a family night at home, and the child says “no”, going on listing each time in the last few months when the parent called to say they couldn’t give them a ride to a friend’s house or to a play date because they had to stay at work…the way forwards in the relationship is not about keeping score.

When Jesus begins his public ministry in today’s reading from Mark’s Gospel, he paints a picture for us of how “not keeping score” is a fundamental part of how Jesus reforms and renews our relationships with each other in his kingdom. A few weeks ago we heard Jesus declare, after his baptism and his journey through the wilderness, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” (Mark 1:15) Today’s Gospel is our first picture of what the kingdom that Jesus comes to usher in looks like….and the scene where he steps into his public ministry is a scene where there is a whole lot of score keeping going on.

It’s the Sabbath day, a holy, sacred day for the Jews, and as Jesus begins interrupting their worship with his teaching, a “unclean” man, a man possessed by a demon, a man who by the score kept in the temple regulations should not have been there. But nevertheless, he comes inside this holiest of holy places. This man coming in to this temple changes the score that was usually kept in this sacred space: where the so-called “clean”, acceptable, privileged and powerful ones came and were affirmed for their “ritual pureness.” This sacred space was not supposed to be a place where people who were “unclean” came in and God made them acceptable.

But that’s the kind of kingdom Jesus wants to build. Jesus comes in and sees that the way forwards for him in his relationship with God’s people is not about keeping score of how unclean this person or that person is. Jesus comes to reform an unhealthy Temple system where people cannot or are not able to admit: all our lives are “unclean”, blemished and scarred.

In Jesus’ kingdom, everyone is unclean…not just this possessed man, but everyone…those inside and outside of God’s sacred space. Everyone faces evil powers that try to abuse and enslave us,whether it's addiction, greed, affluenza, sickness, workaholism... Whatever it is…no one gets a perfect score in the game called life. For Jesus to find a way to inaugurate his rule among us, his way forwards in his relationship with us, he chooses not to keep score of all the ways we are unclean. His rule comes so that when we gather in his name, lives are changed, and we who are unclean can discover that his rule makes us whole.

When Jesus comes to the Temple, he rebukes the power that keeping score of each other’s faults and good works has on us. When he gives us his healing power, he comes to the center of Israel's religious life to show us...he is Lord over even the most powerful systems and communities. His Lordship comes and rules over that which tries to possess this man, and us. His Lordship comes and exposes the way worldly powers keep their power—by keeping score. He comes in with a different kind of Lordship that unbinds the powers that try to Lord themselves over us...so that his rule of acceptance and mercy can rule in our hearts.

Jesus begins his rule in his kingdom with this miracle of an exorcism….a miracle that turns sacred space like this space here this morning…into a portrait of his kingdom… a kingdom where as our Lord, he doesn’t display his greatness through might, force or power. Jesus’ rule gives up his divine greatness for the sake of loving us. His rule gives up bullying us into submission and instead wins us over with his mercy. Jesus’ rule gives up power, to show that we can all have the power to be equal partners in his kingdom. In his kingdom, it’s not the score of winners and losers that matters; it’s not the score of our wrong or right behavior. It’s the giving away of his healing, gracious love, as we’ve been given…love that gives itself away for the sake of both the clean and the un-clean...that is what his kingdom looks like.

Why is it, though, that so many people persist in thinking that this place, and the church in general, is anything but a place where everyone gets to be in the picture of Jesus' kingdom? Why does the image persist that scores are kept here, rather than Jesus' making clean of us all? We see some of the common reasons why in an internet video campaign made last year called “Back to Church Sunday”. All the reasons people gave for not coming to church had something to do with viewing themselves like the possessed man in today’s Gospel did: as “unclean”...as people who were possessed by powers, perceptions and guilt that made them think God would not accept them in church. I'm going to recreate a few of these reasons with Lucy's help right now, where I'll share the reason someone gave for why they are “unclean”, and then an actual church-goer responds with the values of Jesus’ kingdom:

“I can’t come to church until I get my life together.”
“Church is how I got my life together….it’s a place for a new beginning.”

“Church is filled with a bunch of hypocrites.”
“And there’s always room for one more…imperfect people are welcome.”

“All they care about is your money.”
“[A CEO replies] They care about me, not about my money…people are priceless.”

“Church just makes me nervous.”
“I was nervous at first, but then I felt right at home….right where God wants you.”

“I’m not sure I believe everything you believe [in church].”
“But you can still belong…doubters are welcome.”

“Church is for whimpy, girly men.”
“[Big rough dudes with goatees and muscle shirts:] You want to say that again?”

“If you knew me, and what I’ve done…you wouldn’t want me.”

“If you knew me and what I’ve done, you wouldn’t be worried [about being a part of this community.]”

These are so many ways we can invite others not just into church...but into Jesus' kingdom....where scores are not kept, but relationships with each other, God and the world matter the most. Jesus changes the rules in his kingdom so that we are no longer bound by the powers that keep us from conneting with him and one another.

What’s occupying us, or our community, or our world that we need to be unbound from? What do we need to lift up to God to loosen its grip on our lives? Whatever “uncleanliness” it is that possesses us, Jesus' kingdom of compassion breaks us from them and rules over them all: even our failures, our hypocrisy, our finances, our doubts, and our stereotypes. Jesus’ kingdom comes, on earth just as it is in heaven, to rule over even the conflicts of our closest relationships…conflicts that are inevitably part of even the healthiest of relationships…conflicts where we can find a way forwards not by keeping score, but by giving up being right for the sake of staying connected to the other person. That may be not be the most popular message on this year's Valentine’s Day cards…but it’s the message of Jesus' inaugural miracle...a message that sets us under his rule...and that frees us from a life of keeping score to a life that lives his rule of love for the other.

Amen.

What Pastor Jon Preached on Sunday, January 22, 2012

Third Sunday after the Epiphany
Jonah 3:1-5, 10 • Psalm 62:5-12 • 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 • Mark 1:14-20

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God,and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him.As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

Is it the case in your home, as it is the case in many, that the younger the family member of friend there, the more likely they are to know how to operate your technology? Take for example, Peter, whose family had a twelve year old VCR—remember those? This VCR was malfunctioning so bad, it refused to rewind, fast forward, or even eject out the videotapes. Peter’s seventh grade son announced to his wife and him: “Mom and Dad, this is a really low-tech household.” So to remedy this situation, Peter went and bought a new DVD player that he said probably ushered them into the threshold of being at least a “medium-tech” household.

But a new problem arose as the result of this purchase. The family room table now had one more remote control device, bringing the total to three. Nobody could figure out how to operate this new one! It had more buttons than the cockpit of a Boeing 757 airplane. Even when they could figure out how to operate it, it wasn’t always easy to find it!

Several years ago the company Magnavox released a study indicating that more than half of all Americans lose their remote every week between one and five times. In 63% of these searches, it took at least five minutes to find the lost remote. Most people indicated they found their remote hiding in furniture or a nearby room. Six percent said they would usually find it in their refrigerator!

So who came up with this device that is so prone to being lost? Zenith engineer Gene Polley came up with the idea for the remote in 1955, hoping that we would be forever freed from the oppression of having to get up off our couch to change the channel.

But this simple little device is really about one thing…one thing that we want so desperately in our lives, but that slips through our fingers as quickly as we can lose this little rectangle of plastic in our home. What we really want with this device, and with our lives is control. Almost every marriage, or coupled relationship in the western world finds this device to be a bone of contention in the household. Perfectly loving, caring people can in an instant become set off with rage over whose fingers can control the channel, volume and when to hit the pause or mute buttons. As handy as this device is, it fuels a hunger we have to be the one in control of our life. (Marty, The Anatomy of Grace, 92-93)

Jesus’ call of his first disciples in Mark’s Gospel finds an extraordinary example of people who lose control over something much more precious than a remote control. When Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, Peter and John, they immediately, without hesitation, drop their fishing nets…and follow Jesus. In an instant, they let the “remote” out of their hands, and out of their lives: they drop the very thing that gives them life, their livelihood, their income, their food and their community. They even drop their nets to leave behind their families.

How could these disciples have possibly done this? What happened to the people who depended on their fish for food? What happened to their nets and boats? Did they just float away into the sea?

The disciples display an astonishing willingness to leave everything behind not for the sake of a secure, prosperous and easy future. Rather than being in control, they leave everything for the sake of following Jesus. They lose their life in the love and service of “fishing for people”, in order to save it.

Jesus’ invitation to follow him challenges us to ponder—what are we willing to give up control over to follow where he will lead us. As we enter deeper into this season of the church year, after we celebrate God’s coming into the world through Jesus, we get to enter deeper into the embodying our call from God to follow this incarnate Jesus. We heard last week about Samuel’s call to be one of God’s prophets. Samuel’s call came from God's voice that led him to a specific action: demanding accountability for the Temple priest’s sons who were stealing and abusing their power. There are times when we respond to God’s call for such a specific action. But there are also times for each of us where we are called by God to account for who is our Lord…to account for who we say we give our whole lives to, whom will we follow, who receives our utmost allegiance. No matter how much we stumble, no matter how much we drag our feet, no matter how much we may want to not let go of our control, Jesus asks us to let go...and follow.

Somehow, some way, the invitation that Jesus offers to these first disciples compels them, as it compels us, to answer that call to follow Jesus as their Lord. Somehow, some way…they trusted that what they left behind—all that was unfinished, all that was still to be done, all the people they loved and cared for—that those things were in God's hands. Somehow they trusted God would mend the nets of the parts of their lives that were now their former lives, the lives they had torn themselves apart from.

Perhaps in the end what compelled the disciples to leave everything and risk living a life they had no control over was that they really were not changing professions. Jesus told them instead of fishing for fish, they would be fishing for people. Instead of casting nets for fish, these fishermen would cast their nets to catch people and get them out of the waters that were drowning them with sickness, pain and suffering. These fishermen would confront those who wanted too many fish at the expense of others going hungry. These fishermen were asked to put Jesus as the captain of their fishing boat, even when doing so meant taking the risk that the powerful would stop at nothing to try and drown them.

The promise of Jesus’ call to us, to follow him as his disciples, is not a guarantee of a life where we are in control. It does not guarantee that life will be easier. But it does promise that our lives’ legacy will be lives of love, because the way of following Jesus always flows through the cross. The way of Jesus flows through responding to the world’s hurts with his compassion. The call to follow Jesus is the call to risk everything for the sake of letting Jesus' mercy loose on the world. His call is to follow him to the cross where he let go of his life, in order to give us life...and where his gnarled fingers opened just enough to find a couple of spikes being hammered through them. Living with our hands open means facing the threat of losing everything.

Rather than grasping for control over what gives us power—whether it's authority, status, or a remote control--we can answer his call to love as he loves us: by opening our hands. We can open our hands to something that’s much more low-tech than a remote control: we can open our hands to the flesh and blood hands of someone else. Living with open hands gets us in touch with Jesus' love that touches people's lives...and that has the power to cast out fears.

What do we need to let go of today, in order to follow Jesus’ call of open-handed compassion more closely? What do we need to get un-stuck from and hand over to our Lord, so we can partake of the rich life that finds power in letting go for the sake of love? That’s a question for us all to answer…but thankfully as people Jesus calls together to be the church…we don’t have to answer it alone. With Simon, Andrew, James, John and all who let go to follow Jesus, we get to answer his call together.

Today during the Lord’s Prayer I’d like to invite us to let go of whatever we are holding, and hold onto each other’s hands….and to together embody what living with our hands open looks like. Although it may be awkward…it’s no more awkward than it would be to give up bickering about who in our house gets to hold the remote control. Instead, it will be like anytime we let go of our desire for control: we'll find ourselves instead getting in touch the undeniably low-tech life of caring for the human family that following Jesus as our Lord is all about.

Amen.

What Pastor Jon Preached on Sunday, December 25, 2011

Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Day
Isaiah 52:7-10 • Psalm 98 • Hebrews 1:1-4, (5-12) • John 1:1-14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.

Some of you may know that I have become a runner. Many of you may not know that my preferred time to run is fairly early, 5:30 am or so, with a running group, which both gives good reason to get out of bed, and also provides for good company and encouragement. In a few weeks I will mark my first year of running this early in the morning.

Over the course of this year I have truly seen how different the light is that early in the morning. In the middle of summer, by 5:30am, the sun was up, and its rays were peeking over the tree tops as we got going. But now, in winter, it is dark, and it’s even still dark by the time I get back home. I’ve learned that in these winter months, this is all the more reason why it’s important to run with a group, because the rest of them seem to have something I don’t ever use...a light. Whether it's a head lamp, lit arm band, or brightly lit vest—they all have some way of being seen in the dark. Running around Oak Park and River Forest that early in the morning, believe it or not: there’s more than a few cars driving around. So in winter, without some kind of illumination, we would be in danger—we wouldn’t be seen until a car would come a few feet from us, which would be too late.

In the darkness, whether the darkness of running, or the darkness of navigating our way through our journey of life, it is a truth of our existance that we need light in order to see our way forwards. No matter whether our journey is smooth or full of obstacles, in order to not stumble, we all need lights that can help us spot danger, and enlighten the pathways that will lead us home. We especially need a light that can shine not just in the daytime, in our darkest hours--light that cannot be overcome by the dark.

The light that can illumine our way in life...the light that does shine its light on us as bright as the dawn of this morning’s sunrise...the light that comes to give us sight of God’s love for us...is nothing less than Jesus himself. John’s Gospel proclaims a profound connection between Jesus as our light, Jesus as the one who allows us to see God, Jesus as the one who makes our believing in God possible. In John’s Prologue, which is always the appointed reading for Christmas Day, Jesus, the Word, comes as God’s very life in human form, a life that gives “light to all people”, and a light that shines in our darkness and that darkness cannot not overcome. (1:4-5) Christ displays his light for us by showing us the character of God’s love for us.

Throughout John, the author of this Gospel shows Jesus exposing many who live in darkness and who believe they are bound to live without any light—people who do not see any way forwards, people denied access to the light of God’s acceptance. But time, and time again, those who trust that God is present in this Word made flesh called Jesus, they receive sight to see God. Light indeed has come to shine on them, and on the world. Nicodemus comes to Jesus questioning him under the darkness of night, but on the day of Jesus’ burial he steps out into the light of day to help keep watch over the burial the Son of God that had opened up God to him. A man born blind, a man whom everyone else had cast out of the Temple and into the darkness, steps out into God's light through the healing power of Jesus. Jesus goes to raise Lazarus from his dark tomb of death, to give him new life. Lazarus no longer has to stumble in the darkness of death, but can walk in plain sight alongside the one who came to give him life. Jesus comes to all of them, and to us, this Christmas and always, to give us the light of God’s saving love that shows God to us, and that illuminates our sight of the way forward.

But why did God have to send Jesus as our Light? Couldn’t God have just told us? Couldn’t God have guided, redeemed and brightened our lives without Jesus? Couldn’t God have given us that light through all the other ways God had spoken to us before Jesus, like making a new covenant, giving us an updated version of the law, appointing new judges and new kings, or calling new prophets?

God could have done those things. But Jesus comes to show us God’s light amidst our darkness because we wouldn’t love that light unless God wanted to win our trust...and the only way that we would freely be won over by God’s love, is through someone like us. Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once described the Incarnation as being like a royal king who fell in love with a lowly serving girl. He couldn’t earn her love by a show of power, or she would be intimidated. He couldn’t shower his wealth on her, or by his powers declare that she was his equal. Then she would not love him for who he really is, but for what he could give her. So the king decided to give up his kingship and become a humble servant like her in order to win her genuine love. So too, in Jesus, “the Word became flesh and lived among us”, not to intimidate or coerce us into trusting God, but for us to see in flesh and blood just who God really is and to be won over by his love. (Lose, Making Sense of the Christian Faith, 120-121)

But there’s another reason that the light of God’s love comes to guide and redeem our paths in Jesus. After all, we can understand God better through a human, but how can we trust that this Light of the world will lead us to safety? A story about a farmer’s husband can help us picture this. This farmer never went to church, but his wife went regularly. One cold and blustery Christmas Eve, after his wife had once again failed to convince him to come to church, he was reading comfortably by the fire when he heard a sudden thudding against the windows of their house. He saw that sparrows were crashing into the windows, trying to get out of the cold harsh wind and who had been attracted by the light and heat inside. Not wanting to be bothered, he covered the windows, but that didn’t work. So he went out to open his barn doors wide so the birds could find sanctuary there. But they wouldn’t come in. He tried spreading a trail of cracker crumbs, but they wouldn’t follow. He tried to shoo them in, but that only frightened them more. He thought, “If only I could become a sparrow for a little while, I could lead them into the barn to safety.” It was in that moment that he finally realized what Christmas was all about--the story of God being born a human was both the way for us to be brought into the Light, for us to recognize God. Jesus coming, the farmer realized, was also the way God could lead us to the Light that is our help and our safety, which is God’s saving grace in Jesus. (Lose, 121)

Jesus coming as our Light doesn’t just give us faith to step out from the darkness into his light by ourselves. His light gives us faith to see God as gracious towards all people. His coming gives us light to see that on our path, we are not alone, but we have companions on they way of life that follows God's light. God showers that light down on all, creating a circle of light, a circle of faith, a circle of trust that encompasses our sight of the world as a recipient of this Light. Our faith in Christ’s unfailing light means that we can join in circles of trust with others. In the midst of those circles of trust that gather in Christ’s name—whether they are ones like this circle here, gathered as the church, or a Bible study, small group, family, neighbors or friends—the Light of Christ shines with an embrace that allows our darker, shadow sides we may not be so proud of to come out into Christ’s light and be acknowledged without shame but with mercy. Christ’s light creates circles of trust with others that help us remember where it is we come from, and what relationships are most important to us. In the midst of trusted circles with others created by the light of God’s incarnation, healing can take place, so that we continue on our journey in the world more connected to God’s love than to our dehabilitating wounds. The light of Christ doesn’t just create faith, it creates sight to see the circles of trust that surround us, and remind us that we are never alone.

So we rejoice together this day. God’s light has come. We can step out of our darkness and behold the wonder of God made flesh. We join the Gospel of John’s hymn, to praise Christ who comes to give us sight of a gracious God who is always at work among us, nourishing us with Light to save us from the darkness of our journeys. We join in singing our own hymns this day. Together we join as a circle of trust created by God's faith in us to embody our own gracious response with hymns to God for the self-giving love we’ve been given. We join as people of the Light who have been given sight of the way of our future, the way of salvation, that shines brightly in Christ. We praise God's Light with praises like this stanza that we sang in “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,”:

“This flow’r,
whose fragrance tender fills the air,
dispels with glorious splendor
the darkness everywhere.
True man, and yet very God,
from sin and death he saves us,
and lightens every road.”

Rejoice, people of God! The Light that leads us home has dawned once again!

Amen.

What Pastor Jon Preached on Saturday, December 24, 2011

Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Eve
Isaiah 9:2-7 • Psalm 96 • Titus 2:11-14 • Luke 2:1-14, (15-20)

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see--I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!" When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

What picture of Christmas do you hold most dear? What vision of what this night means do you longingly come to seek refuge in, this holy night? Is it something like the crech manger scene in your living room, or on that one neighbor’s front lawn? Or perhaps it’s that Renaissance stylized portrait that shows the whole scene in its perfection: a barn with a window at just the right angle to light the manger by the moonlight; a young family with rosy colored cheeks staring lovingly at a happy, cooing babe; the eyes of the sheep, donkey, cattle and the magi’s camels all focused intently on the baby Jesus, as if ready to have a conversation with him.

These visions all come from the story we hear again tonight--the very familiar story of Jesus’ birth, a story in Luke that captures our imaginations...with its elegance, beauty and grandeur. For many of us this story’s familiarity fills us with the comforting picture of Christmas that we long for--of an infant surrounded by loving parents, guests and animals...an infant who is even favored by the voices emanating with songs from the skies.

But how accurate is that picture we hold on to so dearly? Have we edited the story to give us comfort? Today, we now have the technological power to doctor, edit, crop, paste, touch up and cover up any image to make it look how we would like. It’s called it “photoshoping” after the computer program of the same name. Although it is a more recent phenomena, in films this was a popularly done in the 1960‘s with movie stars like Doris Day or Grace Kelly, who would have close-ups softened so their facial curves were smooth, and blemishes were erased. Now with the convenience of digital cameras and personal computers, almost anyone can take a picture and cover up a pimple, remove a double chin, or shed a few pounds with just a few clicks. Image, as the TV ad used to say, after all, is everything.

But have we “photoshopped” the real Jesus out of his birth story? Is the beloved image of the nativity--and even of the beloved rituals that are a part of our home and family life which we look forward to so much each year--are they a little too perfect to be true? Have we rushed so quickly to escape from our everyday struggles and challenges that we have domesticated the incarnation of God to a neat and tidy corner of our lives?

The trouble is that a “photoshoped” Jesus is not the picture that these events in Luke’s Gospel paint of Jesus’ birth. If anyone has worked on a farm, they would know of the stench that surrounded this new family. If anyone has been near a baby’s delivery room, they would know it is anything but a meek and mild experience. Luke’s Mary is a frightened, unwed teenage mother, engaged to Joseph who is way over his head, having to take his family back home and search relentlessly for a place to stay. The shepherds whom the angels greet stand at the very bottom of society’s ladder. They would have brought their own dirt, grime and smell, along with their filthy flocks, to the birth barn. This night of Jesus’ birth was not a picturesque night.

So all of us can perhaps admit that we easily soften the edges of Christmas. But the messy, smelly, fragile and vulnerable scene is not what we want on Christmas, is it?! We have enough hard realities already in our daily lives. We don’t need any more realism, do we? It’s hard enough to keep our tenuous lives in tact, and stem the tide of chaos that threatens to turn our work, our home and our world upside down. It’s hard enough to turn on the news, or open a newspaper and have to see how mucky and messy our world is. Can’t we just clean Jesus up, keep him nice and tidy, and enjoy this little respite from the world's madness?

But even though the beautiful, precious and wonderful lives we work so hard to carefully manage do an excellent job of removing the blemishes in our lives....can we confess this Christmas night...that that life is still not fully, deep down satisfying? Are we willing to confess that our beautiful and wonderful lives are at the same time fragile, vulnerable and ultimately insufficient...

For that is exactly where Jesus comes to save us. He comes to up-end the ordered life that Herod tries to enforce by registering, counting and taxing everyone. Jesus comes far away from the centers of power, far from our efforts to protect our lives through achievement, acquisition and ego. Jesus is born at our most vulnerable fringes. He comes at the fringes to overturn an authoritative empire. He comes at the fringes of surviving a childbirth that could have cost him his life, to die at the fringes for us so that we would be born into his new life. He comes to the fringes where outsiders like common laborer shepherds become his messengers of the best news the world has ever heard.

Jesus comes at the fringes to reveal God does not condemn us for our broken lives, nor does he come to offer us life that is “just a little better” or “just a little more bearable”. Jesus comes at the fringes to completely transform, redeem and resurrect our lives precisely from our fragile center. His coming paints a picture of us that shows us what we look like through God’s eyes. God's view sees the fragile fringes where we reside in for most of our lives, but God hasn't photoshopped them. The view that God comes to see in us through Jesus saves us, and convinces us of God’s belief that we are completely and totally loveable.

I’m guessing that all of us have moments of our lives that contain blemishes we would prefer not to have others to see. A few times now, unfortunately, I have had the unfortunate experience of being videotaped doing something I would not exactly be proud of. Several times I have opened the day’s mail to see an envelope from the City of Chicago, telling me that I had to pay a $100 fine for running a red light. There is nothing more humiliating than going onto the website the city provides to watch a video of yourself breaking the law. There’s no denying it, no getting around it.

God’s tape of us runs much longer and much deeper into our lives--and it’s all because in coming to us in Jesus, there is no place in our experience that God’s presence cannot be found. No matter how fragile our life's videotape is, God comes to offer redemption to us, one and all--even those who disobey a traffic signal.

Despite the tape of our lives carrying warts, muck and blemishes...the image we come to watch and embrace this night is the image of a promise that comes at the fringes...to give us not just more of our same lives...but an abundant life...a redeemed life...a life that is saved for us by Christ. God goes through all the red lights we put up to make a way into to our broken lives.

At the risk of ruining a perfect Christmas escape from our troubles, we can invest our faith this Christmas not in the perfect escape, but in the Savior who was perfectly human and perfectly God-ly for our sake. We can come and seek the One who feeds us in the place deep down inside that wants something more. We can embrace Christ's promise that he has at the fringes to offer us the abundant life we seek, abundant life that shows his light through our cracks, abundant life that will seek us out until all can join in singing, “Let heaven and earth rejoice!”

Amen.