The Pastor’s Words

Text:  Lord’s Prayer & Jeremiah 31:31-34
29 March 2009
Topic:  Lord, Teach us to Pray
 
1300 miles from here is Fargo, North Dakota.  If a person were to drive there it would take 23 hours of non-stop driving.  Fargo is under siege.  The Red River of the North is ready to burst its banks and flood the towns of Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota. 
These towns don’t mean much to you, but they are the towns I grew up in.  I went to high school in Fargo and college in Moorhead. People’s lives are at stake.  Property is at stake.  And, they are fighting.  College students and high school students, contractors and waitresses, pastors and parishioners are all working to save their towns and their lives.
Two months ago, our town of Coatesville made national news when 15 homes on Fleetwood Street were set on fire by an arsonist.  Prior to that, an arsonist set fire to a home in the west end that took the life of an elderly woman.  At that time over 60 fires had been documented in our town over the last 18 months with a total of 33 families displaced. 
These events touched the hearts of people from all over this country.  Police from local, state and federal agencies came together to solve these horrible crimes.  People’s lives were at stake.  Property was at stake.  And, thanks be to God, through the efforts of some really good police work, seven men from our area have been arrested.  Just perhaps, our town has been saved.
Whenever people’s lives are at stake, whenever our property – the things we hold dear – are threatened, we pray.  Whenever we are sick, or end up in the hospital, we pray.  When our families are in crisis, when our jobs are in jeopardy, when we don’t seem to have any other place to turn, we pray.
Today, we are giving our sojourners – those who are making the decision to be baptized or affirm their baptism on the Vigil of Easter, two weeks from now – a decorative copy of the Lord’s Prayer.  It’s the kind of thing they will be able to put into a frame and hang on a wall in their home.  The purpose of this gift is to encourage them to commit themselves to a life of prayer.
The folks in Fargo and Moorhead have been praying non-stop for over a week.  Some of those prayers have been actual words, but many more of those prayers have been put into action.  Thousands of people have loaded over a million sandbags and put them into dikes – all of it part of one gigantic prayer that will hopefully keep the Red River within its banks.
Here in Coatesville, we have also been praying.  And the city, county, state and federal officials who have worked so hard to solve the arsons within our midst have been answering our prayers.  In fact, their work has been a prayer.  For you see, sometimes prayer is not only words, their prayer has been their work. 
Prayer is something that comes from deep inside us, from a place which has been transformed.  Prayer is something that comes from a part of us that has been touched by the very presence of God.
The Lord spoke to Jeremiah in our first lesson for today and said, “The time will surely come when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and Judah.  It will be different from the agreement I made with their ancestors when I led them out of Egypt…..I will write my laws on their hearts and minds.  I will be their God and they will be my people.”  (Jeremiah 31:31-32a, 33b&c   CEV)
God was tired of people mouthing empty words and keeping laws that didn’t change their lives.  God decided to give us what we really needed.  Since we couldn’t get it done the way God wanted it done, and since we weren’t happy with things the way they were either, God decided to write God’s laws in our hearts and in our minds. 
God’s hope was that, when a new agreement would be revealed, lives would be transformed, lives would be changed, and lives would truly make a difference in the world in which we live.
God’s new agreement with us, as promised to us in Jeremiah, was fulfilled in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  Through Jesus, God makes it possible for us to live transformed lives and to call upon him day and night, with words, and with actions.
Jesus said in our gospel reading, “If you love your life, you will lose it.  [But] if you give it up in this world, you will be given eternal life.  If you serve me, you must go with me.  [For] my servants will be with me wherever I am.  If you serve me, my Father will honor you.”  (John 12:25-26  CEV)
Serving our Lord on this earth can be a form of prayer.  Serving our Lord may take the form of literally praying, maybe on our knees.  Serving our Lord may take the form of filling sand bags.  Serving our Lord may mean volunteering to become part of a town-watch at night to look for people up to no good.  Serving our Lord may mean caring for your family in the best way God has given you the ability.  Serving our Lord may mean committing yourself to a mission and ministry that you’ve never tried before. 
And, all of it, in one way or another, can be a form of prayer.
May we accept the new agreement God has made with us. May we pray as much and as often as we can.  May we pray with our words, and pray with our actions.  Amen.
 

Text: John 3:14-21
22 March 2009
Topic:  The Cross that Saves  
 
Take a look at the crucifix above the altar.  Take a good look. 
This cross is probably the first thing you saw as you entered this sanctuary for the first time.  People, who come here from other churches, particularly those from non-Roman Catholic churches, are amazed to see the size and realistic features of this crucifix.  Whenever I describe our church’s interior, I say, “Outside of Lutheran cathedral churches in Europe, our church has the largest crucifix I have ever seen in a Lutheran church, and I’ve been in a whole lot of Lutheran churches in my lifetime.”
We see crosses everywhere.  People wear them around their necks as jewelry.  People wear them as pins, or pendants.  Lots of people have crosses tattooed on their bodies.  Last weekend, on our way to Charlotte, North Carolina for a wedding, we saw in Virginia, alongside Interstate Route 81, a huge steel framed cross that had to be 50 feet tall.  On top of a mountain near Rio de Janeiro is a statue of a cruciformed, resurrected Christ. 
Crosses are so commonplace we sometimes forget their original purpose were as instruments of torture and death.
In today’s liturgy we will be asking the sojourners among us to renounce evil.  We will also be giving them a cross. 
You will recall that in our liturgy for Holy Baptism, we ask parents and sponsors to renounce evil.  We ask,
“Do you renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God?”
“Do you renounce the powers of this world that rebel against God?”
“Do you renounce the ways of sin that draw you from God?”
Now, a lot of people ask, “What does that word ‘renounce’ mean anyway?”
To renounce is to refuse to follow.  So, in Holy Baptism, we ask those who have come for Holy Baptism, “Do you refuse to follow the devil and all the forces to that defy God?  Do you refuse to follow the powers of this world that rebel against God?  Do you refuse to follow the ways of sin that draw you away from God?”  And the answer, of course, is “I renounce them.  I refuse to follow them.”
People who want to be followers of Jesus are choosing to follow Jesus, and not the forces of evil that surround us.  People who want to be followers of Jesus look at the cross of Jesus and see in it the power and hope of the resurrection.
In one of my visits to shut-ins this past week, I spoke with Helen Kuch.  She is not actually a member of ours but is the wife of one of our members who died some years ago.  Helen was born in the United States to parents who were originally from the Czech portion of Czechoslovakia.  Helen’s father was a coal miner in Pennsylvania but the work was hard and didn’t pay much at all.  So, Helen’s father packed up his family and moved them back to the motherland for 15 years between the years 1923 and 1938.
As you know, that was a very difficult time in central Europe.  Rumors of war were propagating everywhere.  One of Helen’s aunts had gone to live in the United States and several of Helen’s younger siblings had come to live with her.  Helen had a job in Czechoslovakia and wanted to stay, but when Sudetenland, the German sections of Czechoslovakia, was going to be annexed onto Germany, she decided to pack her bags and come to the United States as well.
On the night of September 29, 1938, she boarded a train for France.  On that train were many Czech people, and many Jewish people, all of them running for their lives.  She told me the train traveled without any lights.  It was their hope that if they traveled without any lights, they could travel without being noticed and reach their destination. 
It’s hard to believe a train could actually do this, but, she said, “We were really scared, and they asked us to not use any lights for fear of being stopped.”
She made it to America.  But the scars have remained.  Helen is 90 years old, but she told me her story as if it happened yesterday.  On that train ride, she said she prayed and prayed and prayed some more.  It was a time when evil was as real as the clatter of the train’s wheels beneath her.
Helen came to America and continued her faith in the Roman Catholic Church.  She fled what she believed was going to be a very evil and difficult situation in which to live.  And she lived to tell about it.
Among us today are Liberian people, people who in the last 15 years fled their homeland, just like Helen Kuch.  They, too, fled what they believed to be a very evil and difficult situation in which to live.  And they have come here to follow Jesus, all the way to the cross.
In today’s gospel reading, it says, “God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life.”  (John 3:16 CEV) 
God sent his Son, Jesus, to die on a cross for the all the people of this world – for German people and Czech people, for Liberian people and American people, for Chinese people and Tanzanian people, for literally everyone on this earth.  God sent his Son to save each and every one of us.  And this cross is a reminder, not only of how God allowed it to happen, but also, of the ultimate sacrifice his Son made for each of us.
As Helen was leaving her family’s homeland, as the Liberians among us today were leaving their homeland, they brought with them the hope and belief that the God who sent his Son to save us – on a cross just like this – would journey with them to this land as well.  And, thanks be to God, that’s exactly what happened.  God’s love traveled with them.
Crosses remind us of God’s love.  But because crosses are also instruments of torture and death, they remind us of the evil that exists in the world. 
And so, when we see this cross, or any cross, we need to remember that God’s love is stronger than the forces of evil.  We need to remember that we can renounce the forces of evil because God sent his Son to die on a cross and overcame death and the devil at Easter.  We need to remember our baptism because it was in baptism that we were buried with Christ and raised to new life again.
Crosses are more than jewelry.  They represent our salvation.  AMEN

Text:  Genesis 17:1-7,15-16 & Mark 8:31-38
8 March 2009
Topic:  Take up your cross and follow me
 
In our first lesson for today, God says to Abram and Sarai, “If you obey me and always do what is right, I will give you more descendents than can be counted.”  (Genesis 17:2  CEV). 
In our gospel for today, Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me.”  (Mark 8:34c  CEV)  
In both of these readings, God is getting people ready for a journey.
Today, we have welcomed 34 people into our congregation’s life and mission.  We have welcomed these sojourners amongst us as we continue the journey of Abraham’s descendents.  We have welcomed these fellow travelers as we try to follow the teachings of Jesus who also asks us to take up our cross and follow him.  We welcome these people into our midst, not because we know everything there is to know about the journey, but because we have been called to reach out to any and all who looking for the way.
A week ago, four friends went out fishing on the Gulf of Mexico.  They went out on a boat that seemed big enough for the waters they were fishing, but not big enough for the waves that soon would be crashing over them.   When 10 foot waves hit their boat, it capsized, and the four friends were thrown into the sea.
Last Monday, one of the friends was rescued.  He was found two days after the search for the four friends began, and was almost gone when they found him.  It is now reported all four had life jackets on when the waves hit, but that two of the men, only four hours after they capsized, took off their life jackets and simply floated away, never to be heard from again.  The other two men stayed together until one of them, probably delusional, thought he saw a light in the distance, took off his life jacket, and swam away into the deep.
These four friends, two of them professional football players, the other two college football players, set out for an enjoyable day out on the water.  It ended in the deaths of three very athletic, very capable men.  These men, who were not novices on the water, set out on a journey that looked easy enough, but they made some critical mistakes.  And it ended in tragedy.
Your life and mine is no less a journey.  Our life journeys look easy enough.  We have prepared ourselves as best we can, or so we think.  We might even have some kind of life jacket to keep us safe, or so we think. 
And then, the tough times roll in and we are left wondering if we can hold on.  The economy goes sour and we wonder if we have enough saved.  Our jobs begin to look vulnerable, and we hope there’s a silver lining out there somewhere.  We have problems with our kids, and other family members, and we wonder if we can keep our wits about us.  We have hopes and dreams, but a whole lot of things have come up to dash all of them. 
Our life journeys are not all that dis-similar from that of those four friends.  We think we have the right stuff to hold on, but when the really tough times hit us, are we ready?  Or, will we, too, make some really big mistakes and lose it all?
The Good News of which we preach is that God is with us.  Through the really tough times, our God is with us.
When God called Abram and Sarai (somewhere near modern day Baghdad) to leave their homeland and move to the Land of Canaan (modern day Israel), they had no real idea of what their journey was going to be like.  The only thing they could count on was that God promised to be with them. 
They expected hard times, and the hard times came.  Along the way to the Land of Canaan, Abraham and Sarah had to deal with jealous relatives, armies of people hell-bent on destroying them, darkness and uncertainty, and worst of all, infertility. 
If they were to be the ancestors of a great and holy nation, how could they do so without children?  But God promised them children, and so they believed it.   God promised to be with them, and they staked their lives on it.
When Jesus invited the fishermen, Peter, James and John to follow him, at first glance, following Jesus must have appeared to be as easy as snagging sun fish off of a foot bridge.  Being a fisherman out on choppy waters was hard, physical labor.  Walking around Galilee must have seemed like a lazy cruise on the open sea.
Peter had a plan.  He thought Jesus had a shot at becoming the political and military leader everyone was hoping would one day emerge from within Israel.  That was his plan.
But Jesus had another.  Jesus had a plan that included confusion, suffering, torture, death and a resurrection.  It wasn’t going to be the leisurely cruise Peter had envisioned.  And Jesus figured Peter had better realize this right now.
Like Abraham and Sarah, like Peter, James and John, and all the other disciples, we are all on a journey.  We never know what kinds of seas we are traveling upon.  We would be wise to put on our life jackets, and keep them on.
We never know what kinds of adversity and trauma awaits us in life.  We’d better get prepared and stay prepared.
We never know when the storms of life will overwhelm us.  Getting into a group, and staying within a group, is probably good advice. 
Weather forecasts abound, but we have to listen to them.   Admonitions from scripture are available, 24-7-365.
The Good News of which we preach is that our God, who promised Abraham and Sarah, a son, delivered on that promise.  The Good News of which we preach, is that Jesus, took up his cross and saved us.  The Good News of which we preach is that we are saved even before we venture out onto the seas of life.
But, in order for us to know this, to really live within the freedom God’s salvation offers, we need to get together with other folks and learn how it all works.  We need the life jacket of faith.  We need to put it on, and keep it on. 
And that comes from allowing God’s Spirit to nourish us and sustain us, day in and day out.  That life jacket of faith is talked about, and lived, right here, right now.  It’s all part of the journey we call faith. 
Welcome sojourners.  We’re in this together.  We’re in this together until we’re rescued.  AMEN

Text:  Genesis 9:8-17, Mark 1:9-15
1 March 2009
Topic:  Living with God’s Promises
 
Rainbows are wonderful.  We’re going to begin seeing them soon.  Well, maybe not real soon, but soon enough.  We’ll just have to get through a few more weeks of winter and then spring will be on its way and then summer when most rainbows appear.  Rainbows are a gift from God.  Rainbows remind us of God’s promise to keep chaos away.
Most of us are fascinated with rainbows, so much so, that some of us will even run to the other side of the house to see one, or crane our necks in the opposite direction just to see one.  Rainbows are beautiful.
From our first lesson, we have the story of the origin of rainbows and it goes like this:  God saw the destruction that followed the flood in which only Noah, his family and all the animals were saved.  It grieved God to see creation destroyed in this way and decided it would never happen again.  That’s why God put a rainbow in the sky to remind himself of his promise, to himself, to never again destroy the earth and its inhabitants.
When we read the story, it says that God decided to never again send floodwaters to destroy the earth.  But it’s a bigger promise than even that.  In fact, God promises in this first reading from Genesis that God won’t completely destroy the earth and its inhabitants in any way, or by any calamity, ever again.
When God created the heavens and the earth, God took the chaos that was present in the universe and separated it into two realms.  Light was separated from darkness, the waters-above were separated from the waters-below, land was separated from the oceans, night was separated from day, and chaos was excluded from the land of the living.
CHAOS, in this sense, is anything that would ultimately destroy every living thing we know of.  When God put the rainbow in the sky, God made a promise to himself to never, ever, allow CHAOS to destroy the living things of this world ever again.  In fact, CHAOS would be excluded from this world.
Now, there may be floods, and there may be tornadoes, and hurricanes and fires that destroy all kinds of life on this earth, but they will be incidental and not total destruction.  Natural disasters will continue to happen, but total destruction of the entire earth, God says, will never, ever happen again.  The rainbow in the sky is God’s promise to us.
Thankfully, this past week, no fires in our community have made the news.  And, please don’t be superstitious and think that if we just stop talking about the fires, they’ll go away.   Christians are not superstitious and we believe we need to talk about the reality of sin and pain in our lives and deal with them openly.
What do we say to people who have experienced devastation in their lives due to fire or flood or storms of any kind?  We tell them the story of the rainbow.  We can tell them that God didn’t cause the fire, or the flood, or the storm, because God promised never again to destroy what God had created.
Nature may cause destruction.  Hurricane Katrina surely did.  People may cause destruction.  Roger Barlow and Mark Gilliam certainly did.  Storms disrupt our lives.  But through it all, God stays right beside us.  Indeed, God suffers with us. 
Those who have been frightened by the fires, those who have had sleepless nights due to the fires, had the Spirit of God sleeping with them, caring for them, day and night.  Angels have kept watch over those who have worried for their safety.
When we look at the gospel for today, we see that even Jesus encountered difficult circumstances and needed the angels of God to protect him.
Immediately upon his baptism, the gospel text tells us, “Right away, God’s Spirit made Jesus go into the desert.” (Mark 1:12 CEV)  And out there, for forty days and forty nights, he was tested by Satan.  He had to deal with the natural elements that were there.  He had to fend off the wild animals.  He had to search for food and shelter from the scorching heat.  And he was able to do it because, as it also says in that gospel reading, “angels took care of him.”  (Mark 1:13  CEV)
When the storms in our lives are seemingly overwhelming, we need to remember what God promised in the book of Genesis, “I will never, ever, again destroy what I have created.”  And we need to remember that God’s angels keep a constant watch over us.
Today is the beginning of the GIFT process at Good Shepherd.  The word GIFT stands for Growing In Faith Together.  It is the process, not a program, by which we are now receiving new members into this congregation.  We do this process once a year, during Lent, and those who are participating this year will be baptized, or affirm their baptism, at the Vigil of Easter on Saturday night, April 11.
Next week we will officially welcome the 37 adults, sojourners as we call them, who have presented themselves for this process.  As you know, each of the 37 sojourners will be given someone to sojourn with them, a companion in faith.  These 37 sojourners and 37 companions in faith met each other this morning during the Sunday School hour. 
Sojourners will be welcomed next week.  I would like for you to turn in your hymnals to look at the welcome we will be using.  Please turn to the red hymnal, page 232 in the front of your hymnal.  There, you will find the rite for “Welcome to Baptism.”  Just as Jesus was initiated into his ministry by being baptized, so too, sojourners will be initiated by being baptized or affirming their baptism at the Vigil of Easter.  The welcome you see before you will be used to begin that initiation process.
As we journey through the process of receiving new members, whom we hope will become more than members, and actual disciples of Christ, we are going to claim God’s promise to be with us, and  know that God will keep us safe throughout the GIFT process and indeed, throughout all of our life’s journeys. 
Rainbows are God’s reminder to never again destroy the earth.  In baptism, God promises to be with us forever.  And we, who are baptized, or will be baptized, or who will be affirming our baptism, promise to grow closer to Christ and to remain with Christ and the Church, as we are able.
Please pray for the GIFT process.  Please pray for those who are involved in the process.  And give thanks always for our God who promises to never destroy us, but instead, promises to care for us always.  AMEN