Archive for April, 2008

Sermon - April 20, 2008

Friday, April 25th, 2008
Texts:  Acts 7:55-60, I Peter 2:2-10, John 14:1-14
20 April 2008
Topic:  Everyone has a gift to share
 
Look at your hand.  Look at your fingers.  Look closely at each finger, and each fingerprint.  You are looking at something that is one of a kind. We’ve been taught this from very early on, but I wonder if we really believe it.  Your fingerprints are not like mine.  They’re not like your neighbor’s.  They’re not even like your parents. 
You are one of a kind.  There is no one just like you.  When you were made, the mold was broken, never to be reconstructed again.  Even with cloning, there will never, ever, be another you.
What’s my point?  Simply this.  God made you, uniquely you.  God made you in His image.  God made you in a very special way, with special gifts, and with special abilities.  And, sometime, somehow, somewhere, God has a special purpose for you and for me. 
I’m not saying you and I are destined or predestined to do, or be anything.  But I am saying, God made you and God made me unique and God wants each of us use our unique gifts to His honor and glory.


In our first reading for today, Stephen is dragged out of the city of Jerusalem and stoned to death thus making him the first Christian martyr.  It’s not exactly the kind of story any of us who have made a decision to professionally follow the teachings of Christ like to hear.  But, sometimes, when we say ‘yes’ to the teachings of Christ, we have no idea where that decision is going to take us.  So, pay attention to what I’m saying today.
So, who was this fellow Stephen?  If we look in the sixth chapter of the Book of Acts, we find that an argument had arisen in the early church over how much food was being given to one set of people over against another set of people.  The earliest disciples said ‘we don’t want any part of this argument’.  Let’s find somebody else who can take care of this so we can keep doing what God has called us to do, namely, preaching and teaching and praying. (Acts 6:1-6) 
And that’s what they did.  They got out of the food handling business and found seven lay people to tend to these matters.  One of them was Stephen.  He was a lay person who received training to care for the needs of the congregation that was growing up in and around Jerusalem, a training that continues even to this day.
You have heard us talk about the Stephen Ministry program in our church.  It gets its name from this very man.  Over the last six months, eight of our members, lay people just like you, have been taking a class here at church, a class very ably taught by Carole Thomas, preparing them to begin their ministries of caring, of listening, of praying with folks who are in need.  And very soon, six weeks from now on June 1st, they will be officially commissioned, and they will begin to expand the caring ministry of this congregation. 


These eight people said ‘yes’ to the call of the Spirit.   And very soon they will become known to us as Stephen Ministers.  These eight people looked at the unique gifts with which God has blessed them, and they said ‘yes’ to the call.
What about the rest of us?  Well, most recently, we needed 30 lay people, people just like you, to serve as companions in faith for sojourners amongst us, sojourners who were seeking a closer relationship to Christ and to the Church. 
And guess what, we found 30 willing lay people to walk with, companion with, these sojourners who then were received into membership at the Vigil of Easter last month.  It was, and continues to be, a most wonderful experience of lay people saying ‘yes’ to the call of the Holy Spirit.
Coming up, in two weeks, we will be having our semi-annual congregational meeting at which we will be hearing reports of committees and electing new members to the congregation council.  We are going to need at least eight people to say ‘yes’ to the call of the Spirit and allow their names to be placed in nomination for this most important work in this congregation.  We have five who’ve said ‘yes’ but we need at least three more. 


Ask yourself: Is God calling me to serve?  Is God calling me to move out of my comfort zone in the pew and extend myself in a new venture of service? 
Yes, ask yourself.  You are uniquely gifted.  You have special abilities no else has.  What is God calling you to be doing with your life and your call to ministry?
When St. Peter wrote his epistle he reminded the earliest Christians that they were God’s chosen people, highly honored, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people. 
These words of Peter were taken to heart by Martin Luther some 1500 years later when, in contrast to the Roman Catholic Church glorification of clergy, Luther developed the doctrine of the Apriesthood of all believers.  For Luther, he said all [meaning everyone sitting in the pews today] are priests and ministers [ordained people like me] are chosen from among us to do all [we] are [called] to do.  (from Luther’s Babylonian Captivity of the Church)  And again Luther said, “Through Baptism all of us [clergy and laity alike] are consecrated to the priesthood” and there is no difference at all [between clergy and laity] but that of office. (from Luther’s Open Letter to the Christian Nobility) 
Luther affirmed each person’s uniqueness.  Luther affirmed yours and my baptism into Christ.  Luther affirmed that each and every one of us is gifted for ministry and that it’s up to us to find that unique way of service in the Church and in the world in which we live.


Finally, look at the gospel for today.  Here we have the words of Jesus, given to his own disciples shortly before his own death.  These words were spoken to his disciples on the night of his betrayal, when he knew he wouldn’t be with them for very much longer. 
Here’s part of what he said to them, and to you and me, “Have faith in me..If you have faith in me, you will do the same things I am doing.  [In fact,] you will do even greater things, now that I am going back to the Father”.  (John 14:11-12  CEV) 
We know how much Jesus did in three short years he was on this earth.  We know how much his ministry changed the world in which he was living and the entire world which has followed.  And yet, Jesus says, you will do even greater things than I. 
How can this be possible?  How can we possibly do anything greater than our Lord?  Because you and I have been made in the image of God, just like Jesus.  Because you and I have been uniquely gifted, with the only set of fingerprints among billions here on earth.  Because you and I have been baptized and chosen by God to be servants of Christ in this world, in this time, and in this place. 
You and I have special abilities and special gifts that God wants us to use, not just for anything, but for God’s purposes, for the sake of the kingdom of God.
So, what is your prayer?  What is your calling?  What are you asking God to help you decide? 


As a child of God, what are you choosing to do with your life? 
Stephen said yes.   Peter said we are all priests.  And Jesus said he’s got work for us to do.  So, what will it be?  How are you and I going to serve our Lord?  How are we going to let the world know that we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people?   We’ve got decisions to make.  Don’t fret.  Instead, pray.  AMEN

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Sermon - April 8, 2008

Friday, April 25th, 2008

Text:  Luke 24:13-35
6 April 2008
Topic:  Eating and Drinking is Believing
 
Last fall, I went back to my native land, the Midwest, to attend my 40th high school reunion.  I hadn’t been back for a reunion since my first year out of school.  So, it was a real thrill for me to see old faces again, old names recalled to my mind, old memories brought back into a present context became very satisfying.
The gathering took place in Minneapolis, not the location of my high school, Oak Grove Lutheran High School, which was in Fargo, North Dakota.  Instead, we met in Minneapolis because so many could attend if we met there.  So, we did.  We rented a city park pavilion for the afternoon, put out our food and our drink, and simply starting telling stories.  Most of the 25 of us in attendance were like me, we hadn’t been in touch for well over 35 years.  It was a most amazing encounter.
I remember feeling closer to these people at that gathering more than I ever was close to them when we were in high school.  It was – well – it was like family getting back together again – or better yet – it was like getting together for the very first time!
In our gospel for today, Jesus went back for a reunion with his disciples.  The setting was that first Easter Sunday evening.  It had been a grueling three days.  He had been with his disciples for one last meal, he had washed their feet, he had watched Judas leave the room.  In the next day, he had been ridiculed and beaten severely, strung up on a cross, died, laid in a tomb, and sometime later that night had risen from the dead – all this in three long and gruesome days. 
Now, it was Sunday evening.  Sometime earlier in the wee hours of that same day, he had risen from the dead and he longed to have a reunion with his disciples.  He wanted to see them again.  He wanted to talk to them, to tell them he was okay, and that they’d be okay too.
In his attempt to see his disciples, he came upon Cleopas and probably his wife who had been in Jerusalem that past week.  They were beginning their journey home to their house in Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem, probably a two and a half hour walk.  (In Tanzania, that’s how far some of the parishioners in churches there still walk, an hour, two hours, sometimes more, just to get to church on a Sunday morning.)
Jesus joined Cleopas and his wife on their way to Emmaus.  And for the next two and a half hours, they walked and they talked.
Now, it’s hardly news to you that today, we barely spend five minutes in conversation with one another.  Our lives are so busy, so filled with stuff, we just don’t have the time to walk and talk like Jesus was able to do that day.  That’s what made my reunion so special last fall.   All we did was talk, and talk, and talk.  It made old connections new, and new connections seem like old ones.
In the course of that long conversation to Emmaus, Jesus let them know he was a man with compassion and a man with an interest in their pain and suffering, that he was a man of faith, a man who knew his Bible, and a man who was willing to go the distance with them.  He didn’t just show up for a while and then disappear.  He saved that for later.
On that walk, Cleopas and his wife didn’t recognize Jesus for who he was.  There must have been something very different about him at that moment in time.  Somehow, the resurrection changed him and they simply didn’t know that the one whom they were mourning was, in fact, the one they were walking with.
It wasn’t until they got to the home of Cleopas and his wife, when they sat at table, and they began to break bread together, that they recognized Jesus.  For two and a half hours, they talked with Jesus.  For two and a half hours, they listened to his exposition of the scriptures, and his re-telling of the events of the past week, and still they didn’t recognize him.
What was the difference here?  What was it in the breaking of the bread, that caused their eyes to be opened?
I don’t really know, but I can tell you, when I went back to Minneapolis that day for my reunion, I never expected to come away feeling closer to my high school classmates.  I never expected to have a warmer attachment to them.  In fact, I went out there rather skeptical, even wondering why I was spending so much time and money to go back and see people I’d probably never see again.
But something happened that day in the park.  Something happened in Emmaus that day.   As we ate and drank, as they ate and drank, the common became sacred, the ordinary became holy, the simple acts of eating and drinking together, the most ordinary elements in life, became the stuff of God’s revelation. 
A light went on.  In our communion with one another, in our eating and in our drinking, in our willingness to risk revealing ourselves by simply showing up, we discovered that God was not only present, but revealed in others. 
God was not, and is not, some far off entity.  God is as close as the person next to us in the pew.  God is as close to us as the bread and wine that we will share today.
In the first reading today, Peter, yes, the same Peter who two months before had denied ever knowing who Jesus was, is now standing tall, preaching and telling the Good News of the resurrection.  And he’s doing such an incredible job that 3000 people came to faith through baptism. 
But notice what they immediately began doing.   Verse 42 in our first lesson tells us “they spent their time learning from the apostles, and they were like family to each other.”  And then, it says, “They also broke bread and prayed together.”  (Acts 2:42 CEV)  
Very early on, the earliest converts realized that Jesus is revealed in the community of faith, in the breaking of bread and in prayer.
By spending time together, learning, and being connected, sharing the Meal of Christ and praying together, they grew to know Christ and his mission for them in the world.  And if you read the earliest accounts of early Christianity, they were “on fire” with the Spirit, and they were “not ashamed of the Gospel.”  And guess what, because of this, the Church grew and grew and grew.
Cleopas and his wife took the risk of talking to a stranger that day on their way home.  They took an even bigger risk of inviting this same stranger into their home for a meal and lodging.  And lo, and behold, in their risk taking, in their openness to the Spirit, they encountered the living Christ, they recognized Jesus, their Lord, in the bread and wine at their very own table.
So, come today, to this table, ready to meet the risen Lord.  Come and receive the Living Christ.  AMEN

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