The Word Made Flesh

Scripture: John 1:1-18

Admittedly, John’s Gospel is one of my favorite gospels. Probably because it is littered with imagery and symbolism. While other gospels, like Matthew and Luke, may open with genealogies and the nativity story, or Mark opens right up with Jesus’ baptism – John’s Gospel is more cosmic and sweeping. It takes us back to those first words of Genesis – in the beginning – and reminds us that what God is doing involves the whole of creation. That this is the God who speaks life in the midst of darkness.

That the God we are about to hear about is the same God whose Word brought everything into existence.

If you remember back to Genesis – God’s creative acts were always prefaced by, “And God said…” and God has continued to speak ever since. He has continued to speak into our world. He has continued to speak into our lives.

From the very beginning, God’s relationship with humanity has been centered around communication.

So the question of course that Genesis raises is: what happens when that life-giving communication between the creation and the divine breaks down?
If you think about it – the vast majority of all relationship problems are about communication. There are misunderstandings, unintended meanings… we just don’t communicate well with each other much of the time because we have many selfish things that drive what we are hearing and what we are saying.

Our relationship with God isn’t much different. It’s just as broken. It’s just as misunderstood.

But communication is also the way in which we build relationship. It’s the way in which we are able to mend relationships as much as it breaks them.

O Come, O Come Immanuel

Scripture: Daniel 3

Now I have to admit – the first time I saw this story was what was scheduled to be our first week of Advent text, my reaction was… “huh?” How on earth does the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being thrown in the fiery furnace have ANYTHING to do with the first week of Advent? I mean – I guess they both involve fire.

Then I realized it might be helpful to recognize the context of the book of Daniel. As we’ve been going through this Narrative Lectionary, we’ve been following the trials and tribulations of the people of God. Last week, Pastor Meg talked about the Prophet Jeremiah, who was one of the prophets who was alive during the time of the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah by the Babylonian Empire and were taken away as exiles into Babylon.

Daniel is a book that takes a look at what happened during their time in Exile – in fact, many scholars believe it was the last book of the Old Testament to be written – and they believe it was written as a book of hope that looked back at their time in Babylonian exile while living under the oppression of what was known as the Seleucid Empire – which was about 100 years before Jesus’ birth.

A book that addresses issues of faith in the midst of oppression and difficult circumstances. Faith in a time when it seemed God wasn’t really listening to His people. It’s a book that deals with issues of hope in the midst of despair. Hope in the midst of oppression. Hope in the midst of exile.

Imperfect Saints

Scripture: 1 Kings 19:1-18

On this All Saints Sunday, I think there is no more fitting story one could tell than the story of Elijah. An important prophet of God, revered throughout the scriptures as one of the most important prophets that ever lived… is one of the two prophets who appear at Jesus’ transfiguration… and at this moment in his story…

He says, “It’s enough. Take my life away.” I have done enough – and it’s over.

He’s lying under a broom tree, begging God to kill him. He’s given up. He doesn’t want to be the prophet anymore. He’s sick of it. He did what was asked of him – now he just wants to die in peace. How can God continue to ask him to keep going when the battle is a futile battle?

Not quite what we expect when we think of one of the greatest of all prophets.

We're Broken - So Now What?

Scripture: 1 Kings 5:1-5, 8:1-13; John 2:19-22

I am sure most of you are aware of the movement across the country that says “I love Jesus, but not the church.”

It's a movement that says they like the Jesus of the Bible and his teachings, but that we Christians are a bunch of hypocritical, homophobic, judgmental people that are always asking for money. That the “church” as an institution is broken and sometimes corrupt.

And they’d be right. The church… as an institution… is all that, and more. It’s full of broken people who make bad decisions, have misunderstandings, are selfish… in short – the church is full of sinful people.

So why do we bother? If we’re so broken, why do we keep insisting on coming together every week?

The Binding of Isaac

Scripture: Genesis 22:1-14

Every time I read this story – I always have the same thought that crosses my mind. What on earth did Isaac have to be thinking?

“Yeah, sure – hey dad, let’s go on this trip and make a sacrifice. We’ve got ourselves some wood, some fire, some… ummm… hey, dad… uh… where’s the sacrifice? Where’s the ram, or the goat, or the lamb that we’re supposed to be using?

Oh, God will provide. Ok. Cool… but… wait… ummm… why exactly are you binding my hands and feet? And putting me on top of the wood, and lighting the fire… and pulling out that knife … uh… hey! Wait a second!!”

Many will say this is a story about how God tested Abraham’s faith – though you have to admit, Isaac’s kinda up there on the whole faith thing, too, in this story. Not sure how willingly I’d allow myself to be bound and tossed upon a pile of burning wood.

Jesus is Coming... Look Busy!

Scripture: Luke 12:32-40; Genesis 15:1-6, Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

As a kid, my favorite thing in the whole world was to go swimming. At a friend’s pool, at the lake, the ocean – didn’t matter. I loved going swimming. So when my parents would promise me that we were going to go swimming – my response was normally to run around and get ready so when they got home for work or errands or whatever they were doing – I was all ready to go. Swimsuit was on – pool accessories were packed. I’d even cleaned the kitchen and done some chores around the house so that when my parents got home – they’d have less work to do so we could leave sooner.

So it makes me wonder… if I’m so ready and eager and running around getting things ready just so I can go swimming… why do I not spend more time running around, getting things ready for God’s coming Kingdom?
I mean, it’s kind of the same thing, isn’t? God’s made us a promise – that it is His good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. What a promise. That all God wants to do is give us His Kingdom.

And yet – we spend so little of our time preparing for that coming Kingdom. Preparing for Christ’s return. And then I realized – part of the problem is, do we really even know HOW to prepare for the coming Kingdom? Do we really even, if we’re honest, look forward to it?

Messy Grace

Scripture: Luke 8:26-39; Galatians 3:23-29

I remember my first summer here at First Lutheran I went on the National Youth Gathering to New Orleans with the kids and several of the adult chaperones. I was a recent seminary graduate… had spent most of my life in other fields of work. For 36 years of my life, I had been known simply as “Rebecca.”

So when one of the chaperones was trying to get my attention, she kept saying “Pastor! Pastor!”

I didn’t respond. Didn’t turn to look at her – nothing.

Because I still did not identify myself with that name, that label. It was not, in my mind, a part of my identity yet.

I think she yelled that for a good five minutes before she had to resort to using my name to get my attention.
But that’s what we do – we use a variety of different labels to identify each other. Sometimes we’re identified by our occupations or our abilities…

“Hey, you know Jan?” “Jan?” “The lawyer?” “Oh yeah…”

Other times, we’re instead known and labeled by our inabilities and failures. By things we can’t do – or that we are prevented from doing.

Which is what is going on in our Gospel story for today.

Fearing Failure

I remember taking my first geometry quiz on theorems when I was a sophomore in High School. It was a pretty dismal day. I think I got 24 out of 100 questions right.

Needless to say – Geometry was not my thing. In fact, I was a downright failure at understanding Geometry theorems. I passed the class, but to this day, I could still not tell you the point of a theorem.

I tried golfing for a while, too. Parents made me take lessons, the whole thing. Let’s just say the trees around the fairways are a lot healthier and retain a lot more of their bark when I don’t play golf.

Truth is – I’m a failure at quite a bit in my life. Some failures I’m willing to share… others not so much.

I’m not as willing to share some of the bigger failures, because…well, we don’t like that term in our culture. Failure. We don’t like to talk about the things we’ve failed at.

The Call To Journey

This is the first sermon in a five-part Lenten mid-week sermon series, "Faith Journey through Middle Earth"

Scripture: Exodus 4:1-17, Luke 5:1-11

Through the next five weeks, we’re going to be exploring the Gospel story through the illustration of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, one of the most well-known fantasy sagas of our time. If you’ve never seen the movies or read the books, that’s ok. You don’t need to in order to follow along.

Today's message will focus on “The Hobbit” and our theme is “the call to journey.” To give a little background – in author JRR Tolkein’s world, there are many different forms of life - humans, elves, dwarves… and hobbits.

Hobbits are quiet, unassuming “Halflings” that live in a place called “the Shire.” They don’t bother others, and typically, others don’t bother them. Few hobbits ever even venture outside the Shire, because they know it’s safe just staying right where they are.