Why Are We Blessed?

Scripture: Luke 16:19-31

Well, it’s pretty obvious that for many of us… this is a disturbing text—on many levels. One, it’s disturbing because it suggests that once you’re across that chasm, all hope of redemption is completely gone. Two, it’s disturbing because my guess is very few of us sitting here today can identify with Lazarus.

There’s a saying regarding the Bible – every passage contains both Law and Gospel – whether you hear it as law or as gospel, depends on who you are and how you identify with the story. If we were all Lazarus’ – it would indeed be good news. But… if we see ourselves more like the rich man... not so good news.

Martha, Martha...

Scripture: Luke 10:38-42

I remember hearing a sermon on this text one time with my mom. The sermon talked about how Mary was doing the better thing by studying and listening to Jesus rather than doing the work that Martha thought needed to be done in order to be a good hostess.

After church, my mom and I came walking out, got in the car, and she sat there for a moment, a rather perturbed look on her face, and went, “Hmmph. I guess you’re the Mary and I’m the Martha.”

I wasn’t honestly sure how to take that comment… as I don’t think it was totally meant as a compliment – despite what the sermon had said. The sermon unfortunately fostered a lot of resentment – that my mother’s gifts of organization and cleaning, etc. were somehow being shot down and pushed to the side as less meaningful and less necessary gifts than the seemingly more “lazy” Mary who just sat at the feet of the Jesus and listened. Now I’ll grant you – it’s obvious Mary and Martha had different priorities. My mom and I frequently also had different priorities – but was one priority more pressing than another? Should Martha have not been a good hostess and cleaned her house, made food, etc. for her guests?

A Funeral Sermon for Adeline

Scripture: Romans 8:31-39

Let us open in prayer,

Gracious and heavenly Lord, we thank you for the gift of Adeline – for the lives that she touched, for what she meant to both her family and to this congregation. May we find comfort in your words of promise and hope this day as you take our grief and sorrow and turn it into rejoicing. Amen.

I unfortunately did not have the privilege of getting to know Adeline the way many of the people here remember her. I know she was an active member of our congregation for many years who helped out with our children’s and women’s ministries. We have Vacation Bible School going on right now in case you hadn’t noticed from all the decorations, and her family felt that it was very fitting to have her funeral during a time when it could be represented by the ministries she loved so much.

But I think the two things that have stood out for me as I have listened to people talk about her was her deep faith and gift of hospitality.

Adeline was usually the first person to greet a new member and invite them over for coffee. Her relationship with God was lived out through her relationship to others. Inviting and welcoming, and being Christ to those who encountered her.

Her daughter, Marcia, stated that she used to serve our Golden Agers group… even when she, herself, was well into being a Golden Ager. She continued to show up to tie quilts with the Priscilla circle – one of the women’s circle groups here at church – even when she could no longer physically actually do the work.

As certain faculties were slowly taken away from Adeline – her hearing, her sight, her mobility, and eventually her memory – some things just could not be removed. The ability to always be the gracious hostess never left her. Even though she could no longer get up and make that cup of coffee – she still would feel she should.

And though she never knew who I was exactly or would remember who I was from one visit to the next, even I noticed this gracious sense of hospitality in Adeline. Whenever I would visit and then go to leave – she would smile, pat my hand and say, “Thank you for coming.”

And as many from our visitation ministry, our HATS group, know – Adeline’s faith ran very deep and was a central part of her being. While her dementia may have robbed her of many things – her faith was not one of them. If you started to say the Lord’s prayer, Adeline would jump right in there and lead that prayer with a bold and firm confidence. Nothing could separate her from her faith and love of God, nor His love for her.

Which brings to mind the Romans text we just read. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

It’s hard for us to remember these words sometimes when we see the people we love being separated from us – especially bit by bit. For many, Adeline’s failing memory and inability to see and hear clearly caused them to feel they had lost Adeline long ago. That they had been separated from the Adeline they had known for so long. Upon her passing from life into death – that separation seems as though it is now complete.

But Paul reminds us – this is not the case. While many things in this world seek to separate us from God and one another – nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing – not even death itself. The separation we now feel from Adeline – that’s temporary.

We are reminded in this letter to the Romans that God’s love is the ultimate security. That the cross is the strong evidence of how much we are loved. It is in this love that we find our identity. It is in God’s love that we find what we thought was lost, what we thought was being taken from us - is actually being restored.

Adeline knew she was loved by God, that she was embraced by the God who made heaven and earth. A love that calls across the dark intervals of meaning, reaches into the depths of human despair, embraces those who live in the shadow of death, that challenges the rulers of the world and shows them up as a sham. A love that looks at the present with clear faith and at the future with sure hope. A love that overpowers all powers that might get in the way and declares to the world that God is God, that Jesus is the world’s true Lord, and that in him love has won the victory – the victory over all powers in the world – including death itself.

Paul points out to us and asks many questions: “Who is to condemn? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution or famine, or nakedness or peril, or sword?” Paul’s answer is always the same – none of these things – whether cosmic or worldly – has more power than God’s love for us. We have Christ who intercedes on our behalf when it comes to all these things that seek to separate us. He joins us back together with Christ. That which is broken, he heals and puts back together.

So while it may have felt as though Adeline was slowly being taken away, that we were being robbed of her gifts and presence here with us – Paul assures us of the exact opposite. That while, yes – these things happen to us during our pilgrimage in this world – God is at work creating anew – that none of these things – not even death itself – can separate us from his love and from the power of the resurrection.

Paul asks in his first letter to the Corinthians, “Where o death is your victory? Where o death is your sting?”  For death, dementia, blindness, deafness, memory loss – all these things have been swallowed up in Jesus Christ. They will be remembered no more.

Adeline’s faith kept her connected to God so that nothing could ever separate her from Him.

Adeline knew this to the very marrow of her being – and would pray with confidence and certainty – “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Her last words to her family were in the form of this prayer. Her final utterances were about her sure and certain hope in God’s love and God’s kingdom… something she could never be separated from.

I know we will pray it again later in the service – but I feel it only fitting that we should now, again, together, pray the prayer that she was never separated from:

Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever, amen.

Everyone Sins... So Who Cares?

Scripture: 2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15 and Luke 7:36-50

This week we have two very different texts from our Old Testament and New Testament. On the one hand, we have the story of David and Bathsheba and God’s anger at the sinful actions of David. On the other, we have a much more loving view of God that forgives. However, I think we need both stories in order to get the fuller picture of what is going on.

In case you don’t remember the whole story of David and Bathsheba – essentially, it went like this. David was roaming his palace – being a pretty poor military leader actually. He was at home living it up while his men were out fighting and dying in battle. It’s late afternoon, and he goes out on the roof of his home, which was naturally higher than any other house in all of Judah – and he spies a woman taking a bath. Deciding he must have this woman, he summons her, sleeps with her, and gets her pregnant. His private little escapade is now about to become extremely public.

Lord of Compassion

Scripture: 1 Kings 17:17-24 & Luke 7:11-17

I have to admit – I don’t honestly know how I would react if I were at a funeral, and the deceased suddenly rose up from his or her coffin and started talking. A miracle – yes. Frightening? Oh yeah. I imagine when Jesus raised this young man from the dead, there were probably a few people who screamed, probably fainted – and it’s something of another miracle that someone didn’t have a heart attack that Jesus would have needed to heal as well.

We read these stories sometimes with the eyes of familiarity – yeah, okay, so Jesus walks in, raises the dead, and moves on. I think we’ve removed the shocking nature of this resurrection story. Someone who is dead is now alive. I just want you to picture it for a moment. You’re here in First Lutheran, attending funeral of someone you love and care about. Suddenly, some stranger walks, orders that person to get up – and… they DO! They sit up and just – start talking.

Three in One: The Mystery of the Trinity

Scripture: John 16:12-15

There are two things in the Christian faith that are the most difficult concepts to wrap your mind around. 

The first is eternity – the mere idea of eternity is something that boggles our mind. We have no concept of it, we cannot grasp it – because for our reality – there is always a beginning, and always a middle, and always an ending. But not so with eternity. Yet – the idea of eternal community with God is the cornerstone of the hope we have in Christ. Even though we can scarcely comprehend it.

The second concept that we seem unable to comprehend is the trinity. Seems only fitting that an eternal God would Himself be just as incomprehensible as his longevity. This idea of “three in one.” 

Now before you yawn and go to sleep – I’m not going to attempt to shove all kinds of Trinitarian doctrines down your throat that will probably fall flat – or try to come up with an analogy that will ultimately wind up being a heresy because it can never accurately demonstrate or illustrate the true nature of the trinity – I’m simply going to talk about the trinity in terms of how we experience God, of how God has revealed Himself to us – as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Where Are We Headed?

Scriptures: John 14:23-29; Acts 16:9-5; Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5

We Christians tend to live in difficult times. We aren’t part of that early church movement that got to experience the ministry of Jesus, like in our John text, or even experience the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and how it moved and shaped the early church like it does in our Acts text. Nor are we at the end, seeing the glorious Holy City where God and Christ dwell among us fully and completely – God’s presence in our lives being a tangible reality.

No, instead, we are – somewhere in between. The church has been well-established for over 2000 years. The vision of Revelation 21 and 22 is something that is yet to come.