The Pastor’s Words

Text:  Matthew 4:12-33
27 January 2008
Topic:  Christian Companionship
 
Last week, you heard the gospel reading from John in which some people were asking Jesus whether He was the Messiah or not.  Jesus, instead of setting them down and pulling out his credentials, or quoting scripture to them, said simply, “Come and see.” 
Sometimes, we learn a whole lot more by packing our bags, getting on a plane, and checking out the stories for ourselves.  Sometimes, we need to leave our comfort zones, and go somewhere we’ve never been, and do what Jesus told them people in John’s gospel, “Come and see.”
Today is Companionship Sunday across our synod.  For those of you who don’t know what this is all about, it’s about our synod, the 170 congregations that make up the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in the five county area surrounding and including Philadelphia, having a “companionship relationship” with the North Eastern Diocese of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. 
Ten years ago, our synod covenanted with Christians in Tanzania to pray for each other, study Scripture together, learn from each other, help each other, and together find ways we can jointly serve our Lord on this earth.
Two and a half years ago, this congregation sent me and Hanny White to Soni, Tanzania where we met our partner congregation and its members in the foothills of the Usambara Mountains.  There, we found a people wonderfully blessed, powerfully charged with the Spirit of God, and eager to share in the gospel ministry we were embarking upon together. 
Sadly, a year ago, the pastor of that congregation was mistakenly murdered by people who were hired to kill someone else.  This has put a damper on our connection over there, but, we are still connected, we still email to various members, and we hope we can renew our relationship when a new pastor is chosen to lead that congregation.  For now, we are continuing to pray with and for our Christian sisters and brothers in Soni, Tanzania.
At least a dozen other congregations in our synod have a similar relationship with other congregations in the North Eastern Diocese.  Some are very actively involved with each other.  Other congregations, like us, are still building a relationship.
Some of what Hanny and I discovered in Tanzania is that the Lutherans in Tanzania listen to the same gospel readings as you and I do each Sunday.  Seven hours ago, which is the amount of time zone changes there are between here and there, the Lutherans in Soni heard the same gospel reading.  They heard Jesus say, “Turn back to God.  The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.  Come with me!  I will teach you how to bring in people instead of fish.”  
And, no doubt, they would have heard a sermon based on this gospel reading and would have been admonished to figure out for themselves, in their own context, what it means to “turn back to God,” and to “bring in people instead of fish.” 
Obviously, their context is very different from ours.  Tanzania is one of the poorest nations in the world.   America is one of the top.  Thirty percent of Tanzanians are Christian, with another thirty percent being Muslim.  In America, eighty percent of us claim to be Christian, with less than one percent being Muslim.  Today, Tanzanians worry about the killings in Kenya, the “democratic” country immediately to the north of them, and they continue to deal with refugees from the ethnic killings that took place in Rwanda a few years ago, the country immediately to the west of them.  In North America, we are safe from warfare on our entire continent.
I don’t believe this is an overstatement, but in Africa, when people are affiliated with the Christian church, it is their life.  Our former bishop, Roy Almquist, once asked a Liberian African Christian man who had come to study for the ministry at the Lutheran seminary in Philadelphia what the chief difference between being a Christian in America is like compared to being a Christian back home.  The pastor thought very briefly and then said, “In Africa, being a Christian is everything in a person’s life.  In America, being a Christian is ‘part of’ a person’s life.”
I believe we can learn a lot from those who take to heart the words of Jesus, “Come with me!  I will teach you how to bring in people instead of fish.”  For indeed, except for places in China, the African Christian church has been growing faster than any other place on earth, and this includes the Lutheran church!  If they have learned how to “bring in people” like Jesus bids us do, then we need to listen.
Last weekend, five of us from this congregation, went to Seattle to learn from other Christians about how to “bring in people, instead of fish.”  We did, as Jesus said last week when he said, “Come and see.” 
Carole Thomas, Pam Taylor, Muriel Rose, Pat Polilli and I attended a weekend conference on how to reach people with the gospel in today’s ever-changing and increasingly busy world.  We went to Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church in Seattle and learned that even in a city where 90% of the people are unchurched, they are growing and making a big difference in peoples’ lives, both young and old alike.
They are doing this in a tried and true way, by expecting more from the people who are coming to faith.  We learned that we need to ask people to grow deep in their faith and not apologize for it.  
There are places in the world, in China, in Africa, and yes, in America, where the Christian Church is vibrantly growing people’s faith.  It’s truly not about increasing the membership of this or any other congregation, but it is about helping people grow deeper in faith, which leads others to say, “Hey, I want some of what makes you tick.  I want some of that faith stuff that seems to make your life work better for you.”
Jesus was always connecting strangers to one another.  He said, “Come with me,” and they followed him to places they’d never been to before, they met people they’d never met before, they ended up doing things that never seemed possible before.  I mean, just think of it, fishermen with no particular theological or faith formation ended up following Jesus to the cross and beyond.  They ended up helping transform the religious landscape of this earth.
Is it possible for us?  Is it possible for us to follow Jesus?  Is it possible for us to learn about how to “bring in people?”  Yes it is.  And not only that, it is expected of us.
Today, we link arms and prayers with all who are seeking to bring people into a life changing, life invigorating relationship with Christ and the Church.  Today, we sing hymns they are singing in Tanzania.  Today, we are praying prayers they are praying in Soni.
Believing in Christ has no borders.  This is really good news.  Believing in Christ leads us to new places, to new people and to new visions.  We value our relationship with the North Eastern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, and in particular, our relationship with those at Soni Lutheran Parish in Tanzania. 
May God bless our common response to Jesus’ admonition to follow him and offer to people a new way of living, a new way of experiencing a relationship with Christ and the Church.  AMEN

A Baptism of our Lord
Text:  Matthew 3:13-17
13 January 2008
Topic:  Chaos and Affirmation

Chaos.   It’s a word we use to describe our lives when everything is going wrong.  It’s a word that comes naturally to us when life is out of control, when nothing is going right. 

The opposite of chaos is order and beauty, happiness and health, freedom and joy.  Sadly, very few of us live in this latter world.  It’s not that our worlds are always in chaos, but generally, there’s always something that’s keeping us from truly enjoying the life God has graciously given to each of us.

Some of us are dealing with health issues, some of us are hurting because of some family issue, some have lost their job, or are afraid they’re going to lose it.  Still others are simply bogged down by the daily grind of life.

All of us, at one time or another, feel the chaos of this world, feel the disconnection that comes with chaos.  I’m going to tell the true story of someone who encountered chaos in a very big, and personal way.  And yet, this story is about a man who, in the midst of his chaos, found a way to joy and peace.

Many of you will remember the name Terry Anderson.  Twenty years ago, he was an Associated Press journalist assigned to Beirut when he was abducted by Hezbollah Shiite Muslims in 1985.  He spent the better part of seven years in captivity.  Seven years is a long time.  Sometimes he was treated badly.  His captors sometimes held a pistol to his head and told him that they intended to kill him.  Not a very pleasant way to spend seven years.

But that experience changed his life.  When he was finally freed, he talked about the change.  He said:  “Before my capture, I was a brusque, arrogant, restless man.  Now I have changed.”

Brusque, arrogant and restless!  Some people might count brusque as a strength.  They might even count arrogance as a strength.  But the key to understanding Terry Anderson before his capture, I think, is that word restless.  He was a brusque, arrogant, and restless man, living only for himself.  But he had been raised as a Christian.  Even though he hadn’t practiced his faith for many years, there was enough of God in his heart to make him restless.  He sensed that there was something wrong with his life, and it made him restless.

But then he was abducted and crammed in the trunk of a car and imprisoned.  He remained in captivity for nearly seven years.  During those seven years, he changed.  He requested a Bible, and his captors gave him one.  He read that Bible over and over again.  One of the other captives was a Catholic priest, so Anderson asked to talk to him.  The priest, Father Lawrence Jenco, heard his confession.  By the time he had finished, they were both in tears. 

After his release, Anderson said, “Now, I have changed.”  And he had.  He had really changed.  His life before captivity was devoted only to himself.  His life after his captivity has been devoted to others.  He founded a charity to build schools in Vietnam.  He started a foundation to honor his friend, Father Jenco.  And just four years ago, he ran for the state senate in Ohio.  He lost, but, he is still giving of himself to others.

Terry Anderson explains what happened to him this way.  He says: “We come closer to God at our lowest moments.  It’s easiest to hear God when you are stripped of pride and arrogance, when you have nothing to rely on except God.  It’s pretty painful to get to that point, but when you do, God’s there.”

Terry Anderson experienced the grace of God in the midst of his chaos.  In his prison cell, in his loneliness and solitude, he experienced the affirmation of a loving God who put his life into a positive light that continues to lead him to this day.

Sometimes, when life is out of control, when our health is really on the line, when family issues are really getting us down, when there seems to be nowhere else to turn, like Terry Anderson, we pray.

It’s okay.  God would like us to pray even when we not in a crisis, but, it’s okay to pray when all we see around us is chaos.  But be listening.  Because just as God affirmed Jesus in his baptism, he will affirm us in ours.

As our gospel tells us, God proclaimed at the baptism of his Son, and to the entire world, “This is my Son, my own dear Son.  And I want you to know, I am very pleased with him.” 

Because of our sin, 2000 years ago, God could have dismissed the world and walked away from us.  But God is loving and kind.  God is steadfast and faithful.  And God decided to enter the chaos of this world by sending his Son to redeem it.  Indeed, God sees the chaos of our lives today and sends his Son to redeem us, even now.

In a few moments, we will be affirming our baptismal covenant with God.  We will re-commit our lives to the one who saves us.  Along with Terry Anderson, we will declare our absolute dependence upon the One who hears our prayers and keeps us from falling deeper into the chaos that surrounds us. 

In our affirmation of baptism, we will once again re-connect with the God who forgives us.  We will re-connect with the One who loves us in spite of our sin and shows us new ways of living.  In our affirmation of baptism, we will discover that, along with Jesus, we, too, are pleasing to God, not because of anything we have done to deserve it, but simply and purely because God loved us so much he sent his beloved Son to die for us and, through his Son, gives his stamp of approval. 

He did this for Terry Anderson.  He will do it for us as well.  Celebrate your baptism.  Celebrate your connection with God.  AMEN

Text:  Matthew 2:1-12
6 January 2008
Topic:  Curious Foreigners

Today is Epiphany, the day the Church celebrates the arrival in Bethlehem of the three wise men from the east.  These three visitors have been referred to as astrologers, as magii, and as kings.  We don’t’ really know who they were nor where they really came from.  All we really know is that they made their way from distant lands to the little town where Jesus was born.  There, they paid homage to the one whose star led them on a two year journey.

The shepherds, Jewish boys tending their animals in the fields which surrounded Bethlehem, were the first recorded visitors to the stable where Jesus was born.  These wise men, Gentiles from the east, were the second to lay eyes on Jesus.  This would be a foreshadowing of things to come.  Later on, it would be Jesus who would say to his Jewish audience, they would be the first to hear his message, but eventually, as it was with the wise men, it would spread to the Gentiles as well.
The wise men were “foreigners.”  Now, in some circles, that’s not a very nice term.  We hear it today, in these United States, in reference to illegal aliens, in reference to people from the Middle East whom we imagine to be terrorists. 

In truth, anyone who is from another country journeying in another land is a foreigner.  Americans are foreigners in Mexico.  Americans are foreigners in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Americans are foreigners in every land but our own.  So the word, “foreigner,” is not a dirty word.  It’s simply a word that tells us something about where someone is from.

The wise men were foreigners and God used them for a very holy purpose, namely, to demonstrate that the birth of His Son was not for Jewish people only, but his birth was for the entire world, for Jews and Gentiles alike. 

In a perfect world, God would have sent his Son to everyone, without distinction.  But in the imperfect world into which Jesus was actually born, it needed to be stated for everyone to see and hear, this baby, soon to become Savior of the world, was born not only for the original chosen, but for those whom God would also choose, namely for the likes of you and me.  The really Good News for us today is that because of the wise men’s visit, you and I have a Savior.  You and I have all the grace and mercy we will ever need in this life and the next.

I’ve always been a curious person.  I want to know how things work.  I used to take things apart and put them back together, just to see if I could.  I want to see what’s behind the closed door.  I want to know what somebody doesn’t want me to know.  I want to find out the “why” and “what” of everything around me, which is why I always had a hard time waiting for Christmas.  I just couldn’t stand the suspense of not knowing what I might be getting.

Later in life, I was amazed to discover that some people are never curious.  There are actually some people who are content to accept life and it various parameters and never venture beyond. 

That’s not me.  I don’t know where I got it from, probably from my parents, most likely from my upbringing, or from my Midwest roots.  When people describe me, they often use the word, curious.

The wise men were curious.  They saw something strange in the sky and they decided to follow it.  They weren’t content until they found out the “why” and the “what” of that shiny star in the sky.  And so they packed their bags and set out on a journey – to where – they did not know.

Now, whether you and I like it or not, we are the descendents of these curious foreigners.  Whether we like it or not, we are the offspring of a people who were willing to take risks.  We have, as part of our genetic roots, the desire to explore worlds beyond the one right in front of us.  We have, as part of our religious DNA, to follow a star wherever it may lead us.   And so it is no surprise that a congregation like ours is currently engaged in a quest for a new vision for a new mission.  We are following a star that is leading us to places yet unknown, to ministries yet untried.
Imagine if the wise men had looked up in the sky, saw a bright light, and didn’t react?  Imagine if the wise men had observed something they’d never seen before and then went back to work as if nothing had happened?   Imagine if God spoke only Hebrew and Greek and couldn’t understand or relate to the modern languages of today?

Imagine if a congregation of people saw the community around them changing and didn’t react? Imagine if a congregation observed that the very people with whom they have been worshiping for lo these many years is now different and didn’t adopt some new ways of being and doing things?

Thank God the wise men were curious.  Thank God the wise men took the risk of a two year journey.  Can we do any less?  Can we, as a congregation, as individuals within this congregation, do anything less than explore what it might mean to know, to live, and the share God’s Word in the context of this changing community in which we live?

Right now, we are offering two very important courses to our members and friends that could potentially change the very fabric of this congregation and the way we do ministry in this place.  We are offering a course on how to be a “companion in faith” to those who are seeking faith and a faith community.  Further, we are offering the opportunity to “discover who we are” through a course called “LifeKeys.”  Completing the course called LifeKeys will not only give you a better handle on “who you are” but also a direction in which to start traveling.

But, to participate in either or both of these courses is to take a risk.  To dare to look at one’s faith, to examine who we are in light of the Gospel, is to follow a star that just might change us.

Thankfully, the wise men were not content to stay in the same place.  And because of them, the world was never the same, ever again.  Because of them, Gentiles, folks like you and me, came to hear God’s Good News, and now we are here, happily here, and ready to follow the stars that shine before us, if we dare, if have the faith to follow them.   AMEN
 
 
 

Christmas Eve 2007
Text:  Luke 2:1-20
Topic:  Christ was born for me

(For website readers, the following hymn, a Polish carol from the 19^th Century, was sung.)
Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
1          Infant holy, infant lowly,
            for his bed a cattle stall;
            oxen lowing, little knowing
            Christ the child is Lord of all.
            Swiftly winging, angels singing,
            bells are ringing, tidings bringing:
            Christ the child is Lord of all!
            Christ the child is Lord of all!
 
2          Flocks were sleeping, shepherds keeping
            vigil till the morning new
            saw the glory, heard the story,
            tidings of a gospel true.
            Thus rejoicing, free from sorrow,
            praises voicing, greet the morrow:
            Christ the child was born for you!
            Christ the child was born for you!
 
 
 
Christ the child was born for you!  Christ the child was born for me!  That’s the Good News for tonight!  This tiny, little baby was born with you in mind.  This one-of-a-kind baby was born with you and me in the center of his eye.  This infant child, cuddly and cute, diapered and all, had a purpose for being born.  His purpose was to save you from your sin.  His purpose was to save me from my sin.  His name was Jesus and he lived up to it’s meaning, “the Lord will save us.”

There are all kinds of people in the world, rich and poor, noble and not-so-noble, faithful and faithless, young and old.  And all of them could wear a sign that says, “Christ was born for me!”Remember what the angel said to the shepherds, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be for all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord.”  (Luke 2:10-11  KJV)