"What Can We Do?"

Scripture: Luke 3:7-18

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to start a sermon off by going “You brood of vipers!”

Eric typically starts his sermons off with a prayer that says something similar to “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you” that comes from Psalm 19.

Pastor Meg frequently starts hers off with the standard Pauline greeting, “Grace and peace to you from our God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ…”

I don’t typically have a standard opening to my sermons, but I was thinking maybe I could adopt John’s. “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Can I get an “Amen”?

(Surprisingly, the congregation at all three services gave me a resounding "Amen!" Hmmm... perhaps I should actually look into this preaching style)

But in all seriousness… I guess starting your sermons off that way was more popular back in John’s day. And their definition of good news was apparently a little different, too.

Unlikely...But True.

Scripture: Luke 21:25-36

I don’t know how I keep getting all the apocalyptic end of the world type texts to preach on but here we go again. It always seems such an odd pairing – as we get ready for Christmas, we hear these earth-shaking, somewhat disturbing texts about the second coming. You expect more baby Jesus, cute and cuddly type texts rather than talk of war and destruction.

Yet, that is indeed what advent is about – awaiting the coming of God into our very tumultuous and frightening world. It’s what Christmas is about – God entering into our world, entering into the human experience and becoming like one of us so that he might save each and every one of us. An unlikely – but true event. A fantastic event that is difficult at times to believe – so much so many continue to reject its validity.

Because it sounds like sheer fantasy. Too good to be true. Beyond our understanding. Yet, we Christians not only believe it, we still wait with the hopeful expectation of the fulfillment of these fantastic and unlikely promises of God.

Today we once again hear about the promise of Jesus’ return. That there will be extremely distressing events and people will react with fear because they do not understand what it all means. We’re actually going to pick up that idea for our Wednesday night mid-week services – talking about how we fight fear with faith so we hope you join us at 6:30 on Wednesdays starting this week.

But Jesus’ point is that while most people will indeed react with fear to such events, it should not be fearful for those who know and trust in God, because it simply means that their redemption is drawing near. Christ’s coming in all his glory will arrive soon.

The problem is, we focus on the disaster element so much because I think it’s hard for us to imagine such a scene. It just seems so… fantastic. So… transcendent and other-worldly. I mean, how do you picture this occurring? How do we envision Jesus arriving on a cloud? As a baby… ok. But a cloud?

Are You Ready?

Scripture: Mark 13:1-8

I don’t know how many of you tend to watch the National Geographic channel, but they have a fun little show on Tuesday nights called “Doomsday Preppers.” People who stockpile food, weapons and medicine in the event of a “doomsday” event of some sort. On the one hand, I find the show fascinating. How all these people are preparing for some big “end of civilization as we know it” event and all the work they put into it. On the other hand, I think, “Gee… now I know where you stockpile all your food and weapons so I know right where to go, thanks.”

But in all seriousness… it highlights something very real and very disturbing about us. How we try and retain some kind of control in a world we never had control of in the first place. To try and pretend like we can do something to make our lives more “secure” from outside forces. Security from the government, from an economic crises, from other nations, from medical issues, even from our neighbors. Maybe if we stockpile enough guns, food and medicine, we can keep these forces at bay. That we can somehow escape or protect ourselves from whatever calamity the future might hold.

The Great Divorce

Scripture: Genesis 2:18-24; Mark 10:2-16

What if everyone actually had only one soul mate, a random person somewhere in the world?
That question was asked in the “what if” section of the XKCD.com website. They broke it down basically to this:

Assuming your soul mate lives at the same time as you and, to keep things from getting creepy, we’ll assume they’re within a few years of your age… most of us have a pool of around half a billion potential matches. And let’s say you meet 50,000 people in your lifetime – the odds of finding that one soul mate are one life out of every 10,000 lives.

So… odds are – most of us who are married aren’t married to our soul mates. Sorry. Given the stats, it’s actually a wonder that any of us get married.

Soul mate or not, people actually still do get married in this world. And… when people get married, that means, some people also get divorced. When I realized I was the one preaching this week’s lectionary texts, I thought this is either a tremendous teaching opportunity – or a tremendous disaster in the making. Because let’s face it - it’s a delicate and controversial topic, and I have seen this text get utilized on more than one occasion to bludgeon someone over the head with why they either need to stay in a bad or even an abusive marriage or used it to condemn someone who has gone through a divorce.

No matter how you want to frame it, no matter whether it was a divorce that “needed” to happen or not – it is never an easy process – and it hurts. A lot. It hurts the two people involved, it hurts their children if there are any, it hurts their families, it hurts their friends. When that one flesh that you were joined into gets torn and ripped apart – that doesn’t heal easily. A part of you is going to be damaged and changed forever because of whatever happened in that relationship that led to tearing the two of you apart. But flesh does not rip apart by itself. Something has to pull it apart. Divorce does not just “happen” – something forces two people apart. Something has happened that is so hurtful or so beyond repair. Some sin has run amok.

A Funeral Sermon for Delores

Scripture Readings: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, John 11:20-17

A man once asked his wife, “What would you like for your birthday?” She answered, “I’d like to be ten again.”

On the morning of her birthday – he got her up early and took her to an amusement park, put her on all the rides, The Death Slide, the Screaming Loop… everything there was, she had a go. They ate all the fried heart-burn-causing foods that are at amusement parks. She staggered out of the park a few hours later – her head reeling and stomach upside down. He then took her to McDonalds and got her a Happy Meal.
Went to the theater to see a special showing of Star Wars – where they again feasted on popcorn, cola and sweets.

When she finally got home she collapsed into bed, utterly exhausted and feeling horrible from all the food. Her husband leaned over and asked, “So, what was it like to be ten again?”

With only one eye opened and groaning she replied, “I meant the dress size.”

Give Us More!!

Scripture: John 6:24-35
Like many of you, I frequent the I-80 corridor between Kearney and Lincoln. There are usually a lot of signs pointing us to one place or another. Signs that tell us when we’re nearing an exit for a town. Signs that tell us about interesting places to visit.

I think Pioneer Village starts their signs not too far out of Lincoln, telling you how many hundred miles you have to go still to get to Minden.

But we like signs. They point us somewhere. In fact, one of the definitions of a “sign” is “something that suggests the presence or existence of a fact, condition, or quality.”

For those who are managers or bosses, when you have a project due from one of your subordinates, you usually like to see some “sign” that something has been done to work on it. Some evidence that they’re not just waiting until the last minute to put together some half-brained piece of work.

We too tend to look for signs that God is at work in our world today. Some evidence that he’s actually there. Huge debates exist about whether that evidence and those signs are present or merely conjured up by human imagination.

Life Interrupted

Scripture: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

You’ve heard the saying, “life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

Let’s just say – life happened a lot for Jesus. None of his vacation plans ever seemed to work out quite the way he intended. He tries to go out into the desert wilderness for a little R&R… the crowds follow him. He tries to take a nice little cruise across the lake… they’re waiting for him on the other side. He couldn’t even go have dinner at one of his disciple’s houses without having to cure an ailing mother-in-law.

If only shutting out the world’s problems for a day were as easy as turning off his i-phone or saying “Sorry, you don’t have an appointment.” Human hurt doesn’t seem to ever give consideration to date-books and office hours. And have you ever noticed, it’s never just one thing at a time? Always seems to be a bunch of things that happen all at once. The weight of your own problems intermingled with other people’s sometimes just seems too much to handle.

The Mystery of God's Kingdom

Scripture: Mark 4:26-34
Ok – so, let’s spend a few minutes talking about the kingdom of God.

What comes to mind? Come on. Just describe the Kingdom of God.

Kind of something hard to picture, isn’t it? Even harder to describe.

Jesus attempts several times to explain what the kingdom of God is like – the problem is, from what angle do you approach it? What aspect of the Kingdom of God are we going to talk about? Why not use literal descriptions? Golden streets, pearly gates… wouldn’t that be easier?

Instead, we get these parables. In fact, there are over 37 total parables throughout the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. (Jesus kinda liked parables) Six of them are used to try and describe the Kingdom of God.

Palm Sunday and... "The Hunger Games"?

This week I went and I saw the movie “The Hunger Games.” In short, it’s a futuristic story about an unjust society that has a government that every year demands two tributes, or sacrifices, from each of its districts to fight to death in an attempt to remind the people who is really in control. Very reminiscent of the Gladiatorial fights of ancient Rome – where slaves and criminals were forced to fight to the death for the amusement and entertainment of the elite and powerful - and a reminder to everyone else... the Capitol was in charge.

There’s a scene in this movie where the heroine and the other boy from her district are brought into the Capitol city in a chariot, with people waving, cheering and applauding their arrival. Excited about the upcoming games that will be played. The main character, Katniss, has this sense of both awe, and revulsion, at the fact that all these people are cheering for her at this moment, knowing that in just a few short days, they will be cheering not for her amazing entrance or for who she is as a person – but will be cheering and rooting for her death.

As I watched that scene on the movie screen, I couldn’t help seeing the similarity in what happened to Jesus on Palm Sunday – the people were cheering and shouting and praising Jesus as he enters through the city. For the people of Judah, finally – the messiah had come. Finally, here is the savior of Israel that will get their nation back on track.

Take Up Your Cross

Scripture: Mark 8:31-38

I ran into a friend at the store earlier this week, and we were discussing some of my back issues and other things on in our lives. Jokingly, I said something about “I guess it’s just my cross to bear.” But as I thought about it, I realized what an empty and false statement that really was. So I followed it up with – “Although, I’m pretty sure my back pain isn’t quite what Jesus was talking about.”

While we hear it constantly – that whatever suffering we’re personally going through at the moment is the “cross” we’re bearing – we utterly miss Jesus’ point when we make that statement. The cross is not something natural. The cross is not something that just is our natural fate in this world. We don’t have much of a choice when it comes to our physical, emotional, or even mental ailments. Those things aren’t our crosses – they’re simply a part of our failing bodies that remind us we won’t live forever.

Jesus was talking about something completely different when he commanded his followers to “pick up their crosses and follow him.” Suffering the natural ailments of life in general – wasn’t his point.

Taking up the cross means you’re putting something or someone ahead of yourself. That you’re submitting and subjecting yourself to perform God’s will in this world. To lay your life down for the sake of another.

And there is nothing natural about it.

Whatever It Takes

Now that I have a teenager in the house, I’m starting to get used to the looks and phrases parents of teenagers get all the time from their daughters... you know, the eye-roll and the phrase, “Whatever.” Could you pick the mess you just made on the floor up? “Whatever.” Could you unload the dishwasher? “Whatever.” How about an attitude change? “Whatever.”

Sometimes… I feel like that’s kind of how we approach our faith lives – like a petulant, annoyed teen who just doesn’t want to have to do whatever it is the parent or – in this case, God – is asking of us. We kind of roll our eyes at God and go, “whatever – I’ve got better things to do right now.”

For example…

Jesus said love your neighbor…. “Whatever – Jesus didn’t have MY particularly annoying neighbor.”

Jesus said love your enemies…. “Whatever – like that’s realistic.”

Jesus said, “do unto the least of these as you would have done unto me.” …. “Whatever. People just need to learn to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”

Jesus said “may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” …. “Whatever. I don’t like the way things are being done, so I’m just going to leave.”

Living in a "Schizo" World

Scripture: Mark 1:1-11

Given it’s “Baptism of our Lord” Sunday, I was really tempted to talk about the process of pickling again, but… I figured that’s one of those sermons you really can’t give twice – people remember it a little too well.

So instead – I’m going to talk about how the “baptism of our Lord” has created a “schizo” world.

Because in our Gospel reading for this morning, that’s the word that is used to describe what happened at Jesus’ baptism. The word that we have translated in English as “torn apart” is actually “schizo” in Greek. To split, to tear, to divide. To “rend” or “rip apart.” Literally, God is tearing apart the heavens, creating a “schism.”