What Pastor Jon Preached on Sunday, March 20, 2011

Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 12:1-4a • Psalm 121 • Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 • John 3:1-17

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ²He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” ³Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” ⁴Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ ⁸The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ⁹Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? ¹¹ Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. ¹²If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. ¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ¹⁷Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

Parents, I have a question for you: do you have trouble getting your child to bed at bedtime? The challenge of making children go to bed at their bedtime is a story that every parent is probably familiar with, and it’s one that I read a particular example of this week. There was a child who was adamant about not going to bed when his dad told him he had to. He kept pleading but his dad would not give in. Finally he became so frustrated that he said, “Daddy, I hate you!” The Dad, whose graciousness was greater than most of us could claim, said, “I’m sorry you feel that way, son, but I love you.” Startled, the child replied, “Hey! Don’t say that!” To which the Dad repeated, “But I love you, son.” As the child kept asking him to stop, the Dad said, “Listen to me, son. I love you…like it or not!” (Lose)

That is the kind of gracious love that God loves the world with: love that looks out for us, love that wants us to give our best, love that will come to us whether we like it or not. That is the love that God proclaims in one of the most famous of all the verses in the Bible, John 3:16. Notice that verse is not, “For God so loves us…only if we do what God tells us to do.” It doesn’t say, “For God so loved…those privileged enough to be at the top of society.” It says, “For God so loved the world”—the whole world, everyone!—“that God gave God’s only Son.” God didn’t wait for our permission, or deliberate about it with us first, God just goes out and loves us by sending God’s only Son, “so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (3:16)

We are in the second week of Lent, with our Lenten theme of “40 Days of Purpose” where we are being encouraged to discuss the questions, “Who are we as the church?” and “Why are we here?” As an ELCA Lutheran congregation, we cannot speak of ourselves as being Lutheran apart from God’s love that is so gracious it comes to us whether we like it or not. Where do we say that we see that happening most clearly as Lutherans? In baptism. In baptism God’s grace is poured out upon us as lavishly as Jesus promises in John 3:16. For many of us who were baptized as infants, we had no say in the matter, that is except for those like me who screamed at the top of my lungs throughout my whole baptism—and look where I ended up! The saving, healing love of God in Jesus comes to us through our baptism so lavishly that it does not require our permission first.

Lutheran Christians do, however, draw a line in the sand when it comes to what we believe about what God does in baptism. When we answer the question “Who are we as the church?”, we would not say that we believe baptism must be preceded by a personal, conscious decision for Christ—although that in itself is an entirely good thing! However we believe that the decision about who we are and whose we are has already been made, and it’s not by us, it’s by God, for us. Our identity is not rooted in a “decision theology” or a “believer’s baptism”, but in a theology of God’s love, that is so gracious that it comes, whether we like it or not, to drown our sins and evil desires and raise us to a new birth as forgiven and cleansed children of God. Whether we are adults, or children, we identify ourselves by our faith in God, not in ourselves, but in God, as the primary actor at work in bringing us to the waters of God’s gracious, saving deliverance in our baptism.

So what, then? Does God’s grace mean we are off the hook, that there’s nothing for us to do? No! Baptism doesn’t just leave us where we are. Baptism draws us into a lifelong relationship with God’s grace, and that is why we are here: to live in relationship with god and with one another—to respond to God’s great gift of grace that invites us to step out and testify to what amazing love God has loved us with in our baptism. Now for some of us, this journey of being able to share our faith takes no time at all. Look at Abraham, who in today’s first reading follows’g God’s call to step out in faith immediately. God says, “Go from your house to the land that I will show you, for I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you.” And all Genesis 12 says Abraham does in response is: “Abraham went.” For some, going to where God calls us to be witnesses to our faith in the world is that clear. But for others, sharing our faith is more of a lengthy process, which isn’t something that’s always appreciated because it is so much more ambiguous.

Today we lift up Nicodemus, from today’s gospel reading, as a model of what the process of becoming a servant and a witnesses to Christ can look like as we see him appear three times in John’s Gospel.We first see the religious expert Nicodemus, a Pharisee, coming to Jesus at night, perhaps because he is ashamed, perhaps because he doesn’t want the other Pharisees to know about his curiosity in who this Jesus person is. Whatever the reason, he doesn’t get it when Jesus says, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” (3:3) “How can we be born a second time?” he questions Jesus. After Jesus’ long testimony to the crowd that gathers around Nicodemus, we don’t see Nicodemus again until his second appearance in John 7, when he now advocates on Jesus’ behalf, questioning the religious leaders’ desire to want to persecute Jesus for claiming he is the Messiah without a public hearing. Finally, Nicodemus shows up at the tomb of Jesus, in John 19. Having gone from asking Jesus questions at night, to asking questions in public that seem to defend Jesus, Nicodemus now comes to Jesus’ tomb, the birthplace of God’s defeat of the power of death. He comes with aloe and myrrh to anoint Jesus’ dead body. For Nicodemus, faith in Jesus came because God stirred in him, and called him into an ongoing relationship with Jesus that followed the way of the cross. We could say that Nicodemus’ faith journey was like taking a long, slow, painful, but freeing trip down a birth canal—a trip that led to his accompanying Jesus through Jesus’ darkest hour.

We can look to Nicodemus for our inspiration as we s struggle, as we ask questions, and as we try not to be ashamed to name and claim our public identity as Lutheran Christians, as followers of Jesus, and as people who have been given a new birth in his death and resurrection. This is not a journey that the wider culture of today will support us with. The world today will not support our identity as people filled with the loving grace of Jesus in the way it may have—if it ever did—twenty-five or fifty years ago.

But this is an intentional journey of claiming and naming our faith in public that we can take, and that it is our joy to get to take. God equips us to be witnesses to the grace of God in Jesus today, in our day and age, in 2011! So as a way to support our identity as people blessed in the grace-filled waters of baptism, I invite us to take a moment to be what the church can be: a place where we bless one another wherever it is that we find ourselves in response to the grace of God in Jesus—whether we’re questioning Jesus in the cover of night, or whether we can come out to sit in devotion with him at the grave where our sins are buried forever.

I invite you to turn to your neighbor, look at them, and repeat this blessing to each other after me:

Child of God,
May you find delight
In the process
of bearing witness
to the gracious love of Jesus
in the world.

In everything that you do,
think, feel and say,
may you allow
the grace of God
that shines on the world
to shine through you
and carry you home,
whether you like it or not!
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.

What Pastor Jon Preached on Sunday, March 13, 2011

First Sunday in Lent
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 • Psalm 32 • Romans 5:12-19 • Matthew 4:1-11

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'" Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.


If there is any world today that parallels the tests that Adam and Eve and Jesus faced, it is the world of advertising. Advertising has undergone a transformation since way before I was born. Back in the 50’s and 60’s advertising was all about selling a quality product. Then for a while marketing focused on the right celebrity to market products. Now, buying a product doesn’t just promise us the thing itself, or the fame of the celebrity selling it, it also promises a complete lifestyle that we will become a part of when we buy this product.

The church can try and “sell” itself, too. But the story we advertise is a story that is not our own, but God’s story, as told in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

A recent marketing experiment shows us how much power the stories we believe in shape our lifestyle. Experimenters had two different sets of wine connoisseurs eat five course dinners with wine, and the only thing different for each of them was that they had different wine glasses. One group had a $200 pair of fine crystal wine glasses made by Ridel, a professional glass blowing company. According to wine experts, “the effect of [Ridel] glasses on fine wine is profound. I cannot emphasize enough what a difference they make.” The other group in the experiment had $5 wine glasses, say, from Target. No one in the experiment knew the value of the glass they were using.

We would think that the people who were served with the more expensive glasses would extol the virtues of the wine they drank to a much greater degree than those who were drinking with the cheap glasses. But…it made absolutely no difference. The reviewers gave the exact same feedback for the wine. It turns out that it wasn’t that the wine tasted better in the expensive Ridel glass; connoisseurs believed it tasted better because they believed the story behind the glass had an impact. That belief shaped their experience of the wine. (Seth Godin, All Marketers Are Liars)

It’s important to say that it’s not that the wine glass—or anything else that we buy—is bad in itself. But it’s that we expect too much from what we buy. We expect it to give us the sense of meaning and purpose that we are craving. We expect it to give us an identity, and that it will make us feel less alone, and less unfulfilled. Marketers know what we need—we need to fill that hole that lies inside all of us. It’s a hole that craves a life of meaning, of purpose, of relationships...and a life that has an identity. It’s a hole that we try desperately to fill with any identity besides the identity that God gives us in baptism. No marketing campaign, no celebrity, no product purchase—nothing—can rob us of our God-given identity as beloved children.

Why, do you ask? Because in his life, death and resurrection, Jesus has faced those temptations and overcome them on our behalf. Jesus has already won our identity as child of God. He knows what temptation in the wilderness is like. He knows what it’s like to be crucified just for being who we are. He goes to these places ahead of us, to take away the power of all the evil forces that try and defy God’s promise that claims us as beloved children forever.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus claims his identity as child of God to the devil three times not by boasting about his powers that he chooses not to use. Jesus resists the Tempter by confessing. He confesses not who he is, but whose he is. Jesus has just been baptized by John when God broke through the clouds to name him as “My Son. I am very well pleased with him!” (Mt. 3:17) The Tempter, perhaps knowing what has just happened, challenges Jesus’ identity as he tempts him: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread… If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down this cliff…” (Mt 4:3, 6) Each time, Jesus confesses who he belongs to. He belongs to God. He confesses, I live by what God provides for me; I do not pretend to worship myself when I am not god; I worship and serve God and no one else.

So as we celebrate Jesus’ supper, and drink his blood, the wine with his real presence, what do we confess to? Do we confess that when we drink from the cup, that we commune with God’s forgiveness of sins that was won for us by Jesus on the cross because of the kind of cup the wine is in? No, when we drink from this cup, we confess, regardless of what holds it, that Christ’s blood fills that God-shaped hole in us with heavenly mercy. That is the promise we believe we are drinking when we drink from that cup, and that promise shapes the identity and purpose of who we have been called to be as part of God’s church. We are people who are forgiven; we are people sent to forgive others; we are people joined by a belief that comes from outside ourselves—from God, whom we belong to.

Taking this practice of confession with us into the world is not easy. Confessing carries with it the naked reality of our brokenness. It’s not an easy thing to admit fault to our neighbor, partner, friend or to a stranger. It’s not easy when we’ve messed up, or need to mend a broken relationship. But when we confess we also admit that we are not God. In our speaking the truth we confess that it is only through the grace of God that we can forgive one another. We too can confess when we miss the mark and face temptations that want to rob us of our identity. At the same time, we trust in Jesus who seals our identity as God’s beloved with his precious life.

Lutherans take seriously that we make confession a part of worship. It is something we do together in public, and it shapes us into a confessing community. As a confessing community we are aware of our limitations, but aware that there is one source for our common life, and that is God’s embrace of the world on the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Let us now put into practice that communal confession and promise of forgiveness that we take with us into the world today, by saying together the confession printed on our bulletins:

Congregation: God in whom alone we find rest, we confess that we often turn from the gifts of identity, purpose, and meaning that you would give us.
Instead of serving others, we serve ourselves.
Instead of being motivated by love, we are motivated by fear.
Instead of seeking wisdom, we seek possessions.
Instead of working for peace, we work for security.
Instead of seeking our good in you, we look to so many other places, trading your abundant and enduring love for the shiny things of this world.
Draw us back to you, O God, and remind us that all that we have and need we find in relationship with you and with each other. This we pray in the name of Jesus, who came as one of us, tempted as we are, yet without forsaking trust in you.

Presider: In the name of Jesus, who suffered temptation and prevailed, who was crucified on the cross and raised on the third day, hear the word of the Gospel: you are a beloved child of God, forgiven, redeemed, renewed, and called to lives of wholeness and life. Therefore depart this place in peace to serve your neighbor in love.

All: Thanks be to God. Amen.

(Confession Source: “Into Temptation”, http://www.workingpreacher.org/dear_wp.aspx?article_id=462)

What Pastor Jon Preached on Sunday, March 9, 2011

Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 • Psalm 51:1-17 • 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 • Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.


Jesus could well have had the following true story in mind as he taught the disciples about living lives of integrity:

There once was a magistrate in a rural town in South Africa, to whom everyone brought a wide range of problems that needed solving. In the village there was a widow, trying hard to raise a teenage son. The child would not eat any healthy foods but only consumed candy full of sugar. The boy would not listen to his mother. So she brought him to the magistrate, and she asked him, “Will you talk to my son and tell him to stop eating sugar?” The man was silent for a moment and said, “Would you bring the boy back to me a week from now?” A week later, the woman brought the boy and asked again, “Will you now please tell my son to stop eating sugar?” But he replied, “I’m sorry. Would you please bring him back in another week?” A week passed, and the woman, desperate by now, came and again asked the man to talk with her son. This time he complied, and the problem was completely solved. He talked to the boy and told him it was imperative he stop eating sugar. When he was finished the woman took the magistrate aside and asked, “When we first came to you, you asked us to come back in a week. Then, when we came back, you asked us to come back in another week. Why?” He said, “Because I had not realized how difficult it would be for me to give up sugar.” (Rhodes, The Challenge of Diversity)

Jesus exposes the disciples and us to our hypocrisy just as quickly as this man’s integrity reflects a desire to have his inner values be in sync with his outer behavior. Both Jesus’ words from Matthew, spoken each Ash Wednesday, and this man’s story both confront us with our double standards, insincerity, and two-faced duplicity that we may try to avoid but cannot hide from.

However, hypocrisy has a broader reach than just us individually. Jesus also exposes the hypocrisy of the church community. The church will say it believes one thing, and then does another. The church professes to open its doors to all, and then closes them. When we say we go to church, I’m sure many of us have heard friends or neighbors or family respond, “Oh, church folk. They’re just a bunch of hypocrites.”

But as much as we put God out of the center of our lives, and as much as we take faith in Jesus out of the church’s way of operating, Jesus also always leaves the door of his heart open to us. When the faith of our lives and of the church is not as seamless as we would like them, Jesus opens the door to us, but does not lower the bar so we can get off lightly. Lent offers us a chance to see the door that Jesus has left open to the church—a chance to deepen our walk with him together, and so let him remove the rusted, ransacked parts of the body of Christ, and fill it with his forgiveness and his justice, so that the church can shine forth with the rich treasure of his grace.

Today begins the Lenten theme of United Lutheran Church for 2011: “40 Days of Purpose.” The goal of this Lenten season is to be able to have a collective answer when someone asks a member of this congregation, “So what is the identity of the church, anyways? Who are you, and why is your church here? Right now we all have good, faithful answers of what that is—but they are entirely different, and they are not questions the wider culture answers for us. Tonight begins a 40 day journey where United Lutherans will become grounded in study and prayer about who we are as Lutheran Christians, and what the purpose of church is. No matter how close or far we stray from the center who is Jesus, tonight we entrust ourselves to being filled with the treasure of who God makes us in the cross of Jesus Christ. This Lenten journey of “40 Days of Purpose” promises to be a rich and renewing time that enlivens our church’s vision of the community Jesus creates—community he creates tonight—not created by the depth of our integrity, or by how many people see the ashes on our foreheads, but by his grace and justice that flow tonight through his cross…to us…and into the world. Amen.