Sermon 7/20: On Waiting

Proper 11A

Messiah Lutheran Church

July 20, 2008

 

Who here likes to wait?

Go on, raise your hand if you enjoy the experience

of standing in line,

or idling in traffic,

or sitting and twiddling your thumbs while your computer starts up.

Not even one?

I didn’t think so.

It’s hard to wait,

and especially in our culture,

there’s nothing that’s less annoying than waiting.

I ought to be able to have everything now,

and preferably before now,

so that I can get on with all the other things I have to do.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons waiting is so difficult,

because it seems that there is more and more to pack into a day, a year, a life,

that I am wasting my time waiting for something that I need to do

before I move on to the next thing.

So I don’t particularly enjoy waiting, either.

But waiting is a necessary skill to have.

It is necessary because so much of our life is spent waiting.

To do anything of value

takes a lot of time.

The successful athlete, craftsman, or artist –

the successful person in rehab or on a diet

must painstakingly perform the same tasks over and over

and not lose hope,

not become despondent at the seeming lack of result

over a long period of time.

Waiting is a necessary skill to have,

not only for our undertakings but also for our faith life,

and perhaps especially for our faith life.

That’s why having a Lenten fast can be so beneficial –

it’s not something that we do to prove to God that we’re holy,

but it’s an spiritual exercise in learning how to wait in faithful hope

for God to give every good thing,

instead of what we usually do, which is try and take for ourselves.

 

Both our readings from Paul’s letter to the Romans

and Matthew’s Gospel

deal with this idea of waiting today.

Jesus tells a parable to those who are waiting for the fullness of the kingdom

and are confused as to the presence of evil people

not outside the church,

but inside the church.

Last week we had the seed that fell on good soil,

growing and producing thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.

But mixed in, Jesus says,

are these things that in the King James Version are called “tares”

and the New Revised Standard calls “weeds.”

The commentaries will tell you that they are these things

that look like wheat when they start out

but when they are full grown, are most assuredly inedible,

and will ruin the wheat if they are mixed together.

Remember, Jesus is not giving gardening advice here.

I would advise you to weed your garden if you have weeds.

The Bible is not a agricultural manual,

it is a book of faith,

and Jesus tells the parable

to tell us something about life in the kingdom of heaven.

The fact is that even though the kingdom of heaven has come in Jesus,

we still have to wait – even almost two thousand years after the fact -

for there to be a perfect society,

a perfect church.

And the fact is that it is sometimes hard to be patient

with each other,

with those who seem to not get it,

with those who are hypocrites,

with those who are wolves in sheep’s clothing,

using their positions in the church to fleece other sheep.

 

Our partner synod, the Lower Susquehanna, recently underwent a great breach of trust.

The former synod treasurer has been indicted

on charges of stealing over a million dollars

over a period of eleven years.

He got away with it for so long because he didn’t take from the operating budget,

but from money that was meant for mission overseas.

The Roman Catholic church is still healing from its sex abuse scandal,

and don’t think that clergy sexual abuse is a problem limited to Catholic priests.

And there are many other instances in history where,

under the cloak of Christ,

the unscrupulous have used the Church’s power for personal gain of whatever kind.

When these things happen,

there is usually a reaction of anger and betrayal

and an impulse to root out the evil in the midst of God’s garden.

Jesus’ advice is to wait.

Now he doesn’t mean to ignore obvious wrongdoing,

but once we start with judgment as our default position,

we start judging other people even in the absence of wrongdoing,

we start questioning their motives,

we begin to take God’s place as judge –

and we sinful people are not very good at judging.

Wait – Jesus says –

that’s part of being in the kingdom is to wait for the harvest –

the day when God separates those destined to shine in his glory

from those who will be cast from his presence.

And it’s also part of being in the kingdom to hope that in that day

God will judge more mercifully than we would –

that God will rescue those who have abused their trust –

that he would show them their sin and bring them to their knees

so that he might raise them up.

For Christians who believe that their salvation

is not because of any works they have done,

but by God’s grace alone,

it is permitted, no, commanded,

that they pray for the salvation of even their enemies:

“Forgive us our trespasses

as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

 

But what of those who have borne the wounds of suffering

from those, inside and outside the church,

who decide that what they need, they must take from another?

What of us who have to live with those who abuse our trust and our patience?

For us, St. Paul says, “I consider that the sufferings of the present time

are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed to us.”

For us, our Lord Jesus says, “Then the righteous shall shine like the sun

in the kingdom of their Father.” 

For us is given the seemingly unheroic task of waiting:

but waiting is much easier when there is something wonderful to anticipate.

The athlete anticipates the victory,

the farmer the crop,

the person in rehab the day she walks through that hospital exit.

And we who are children of God

anticipate that day

when God untangles the good from the evil in the world,

when God brings all to fruition and fulfills all our hope.

Who knows?

Perhaps that day is delayed only for the sake of those

over whom God the gardener still bends in patient hope,

that out of weeds may come wheat,

that out of evil may come good,

that out of sadness may come joy.

Lord, have mercy upon us and upon all!

Amen.

 

Sermon 7/13/2008 – The Seed is the Word of the Kingdom

Proper 10A (Pentecost 9)

Messiah Lutheran Church

13 July 2008

 

Green is the liturgical color for the season after Pentecost.

It represents growth,

the growth of God’s life within us

as we are nourished in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We are reminded of our Lord’s parable of the sower,

where he speaks of the seed which fell on good soil,

that grew and produced a great harvest,

an abundant crop.

 

Of course, our Lord is not intending to give us gardening tips.

His original audience would have known quite well

that seed that falls on a hard, stony path

does not produce and is bird feed,

that plants can dry out quickly without deep roots to reach underground water,

that weeds can choke out and starve other growing things.

Jesus speaks about seeds, and birds, and plants, and the green things of the world

to speak about something that is not so visible –

how the Word of God

produces the life of the Spirit within human beings –

and even sometimes why it doesn’t.

I’m sure his disciples wondered

why it was that the one whom they had followed

couldn’t get some others to follow him.

Was it some deficiency on his part?  Was he having an off day preaching?

Was it that the Word was not as effective as they thought?

Or was it something else?

 

Jesus identifies three causes of spiritual crop failure:

the first, when people don’t understand the word.

The Greek word is actually more like “putting it together.”

I like that.

When people hear God’s Word but they don’t put it together in their head,

it is of no use to them.

When we say “understand,” we often think of it like a flash of insight,

as if it comes automatically.

But if we say, “putting it together,” that’s a little bit more intentional,

a little bit more of a long-term process.

It involves a little activity on our part.

So that’s the one reason for spiritual crop failure:

a failure to put the Word together.

 

 

But there’s a second reason:

The second reason for spiritual crop failure

is that when God speaks his Word to us,

we become accountable to it,

and that can lead us into situations where we are asked to choose

between easy living without the Word

and harder living with it.

These choices can be as simple as

“Am I going to get up this morning and go to church?”

For me, I have to get up on Sunday morning and go to church –

you’d miss me if I didn’t.

Maybe I miss you when you are not in church,

or maybe someone else misses you –

or maybe God misses you because he longs to speak the Word to you,

because he wants you to come to the table and receive the body and blood of Christ.

But we have to choose sometimes, if we don’t have a job at church,

whether or not we are going to show up

because we might miss something in the world if we do –

like sleep, or the opportunity to get some other stuff done, or something fun.

Now I don’t have that choice because I have to show up on Sunday,

but I do have a choice other times,

when I choose whether or not I am going to do the routine of my daily prayers.

There are all sorts of choices I have:

I could be reading a book, or surfing the Internet,

or getting some stuff done that I need to get done,

or sleeping a little longer

And sometimes I choose those.

I don’t want it to seem like I’m a good person for always showing up at church.

Like I said, I have to be here.

But we all have that struggle,

and of course when Christ talks about persecution,

he’s talking about a lot more than this.

Isn’t this the same thing, though,

that life is harder and difficult if we’re taking God’s Word seriously

than if we are not?

And if we can’t make the so-called easy decisions like encountering the Word

and coming to listen when God wants us to hear,

how would we ever stand up under real persecution?

 

The third reason for spiritual crop failure is the cares of the world

and the lure of wealth.

If we don’t consider ourselves particularly rich,

and most of us don’t,

we might think we’re immune to this particular blight.

But let’s be careful.

A life that revolves around the problems and possibilities of money,

no matter how much or how little the actual amount is,

is a life that risks failure of the crop.

 

So we’ve identified three reasons for spiritual crop failure,

and one of course for success:

hearing the Word and understanding it.

But we haven’t even considered these questions:

Where do we hear God speaking,

and what is the Word which he wants us to hear?

 

The simple answer is that the Bible is the Word of God,

and that answer has the advantage of being true.

But there’s a little more to it than that.

Just to belabor the obvious,

when Jesus was talking about the Word,

there was no such thing as the Gospel of Matthew or the New Testament.

So it cannot be just that.

 

Lutherans have always said that we hear the word of God in preaching.

But not just any preaching, as if I could stand up here and say anything

and it would be the Word of God.

It is the preaching of the Gospel which is God’s Word,

the sending forth of the good news

that though we are sinners, God rescues us in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.

It is preaching like in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans,

“There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

The Bible contains that message,

therefore it is the written Word of God.

 

But there is yet more.

What does the Bible tell us in the first chapter of John?

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God…

And the Word became flesh and lived among us,

and we have seen his glory,

the glory as of a father’s only son,

full of grace and truth.

Jesus himself is the Word of God.

When God the Father wished to speak once-and-for-all

to humankind,

he clothed his Son Christ Jesus in flesh

so that his life would be the speech of God to us and to all people.

The Bible, the written Word, brings us Jesus, the living Word, the Word-made-flesh.

 

 

That is why it is so important for us as Christians to read and understand the Bible,

because it holds Christ, like the manger held him in Bethlehem,

and Christ is the living Word we need to hear.

You may have heard that we ELCA Lutherans

are trying a nationwide initiative called “Book of Faith.”

This has come about partially because we have lost our biblical literacy as a church.

About two-thirds of Lutheran youth come to confirmation classes and are confirmed.

Thereafter, only about one-fifth of us participate in Christian education.

We’re a lot better at doing things when we’re expected to show up.

So we have decided, as a church,

that we need to read the Bible.

But immediately, the excuses come, even from pastors:

“It’s too hard to understand,”

and, “What if people think I’m strange,”

and, “There are so many other things in my life, I’m too busy.”

Sounds like a recipe for spiritual crop failure.

Sounds like Jesus knew a thing or two about what keeps us

from growing and thriving in the life of the Spirit.

 

But for those who take the time

to “put things together,”

to stand under the Word until they understand it,

to clear away all that would choke it,

and allow God to root the Word deep within the self,

God promises a harvest,

a growth that will come in his time

and by his good pleasure.

May God grant us the grace

now and always to hear his Word and understand it,

that we might be an abundant harvest in his name and for his glory. 

 

Amen

Sermon 7/6/2008: On America, Freedom, and Paul

Proper 9A

Messiah Lutheran Church

July 6, 2008

 

I consider myself a pretty patriotic person.

I love to play Sousa marches on my stereo.

I sing the national anthem, with my hand over my heart, facing the Stars and Stripes,

and to that flag I pledge allegiance with the best of them.

So I consider myself a pretty patriotic person

on the Fourth of July and anytime.

I value the freedoms we enjoy in our country.

The freedoms of assembly and speech, which we are enjoying right now.

The freedom to pursue happiness in the way I choose.

The freedom to be tried by my peers, although I hope I never have to exercise that right.

But truth be told, there is something that is uncomfortable

about this word, “freedom,”

of which we are so rightly proud.

There is the fact that freedoms that have been granted some have been denied to others,

but that is not primarily what I am thinking about.

There is also the fact that we as Americans cannot agree upon

how the concept of freedom should work in practice –

for example, some hold that the practice of abortion

is an essential part of liberty,

and others decry it as deprivation of life to the most helpless among us.

While some see the right to own a handgun as a manifestation of freedom,

others see that as simply a threat to life.

We are not all agreed on the meaning of American freedom,

or to whom it extends and how.

But when I think of the word “freedom,” I always remember that,

in our American definition,

it means “freedom to” do things.

It also in the second sense means “freedom from,” in the sense

of being free from foreign domination.

But even if we are free to do whatever we wish,

and we are free from the lordship of a foreign king or power,

Americans remain, as all people, captives.

 

The history books tell us that when the first colonists

came to what would one day be called the United States,

they came in search of “religious freedom.”

We assume we know what that means –

that they came to be able to set up a Methodist church on one corner

and a Lutheran church on the other

and a Catholic church down the block.

But that’s not what it means at all.

In fact, the colony of Pennsylvania was different from most of the other colonies

in the sense that its original charter

allowed for the exercise of differing religions within its borders.

But when those whom we know as Pilgrims and Puritans arrived in the 1600’s,

they came in order to make a “new” England,

not simply a freedom from religious domination,

but a place where they could live a holy life,

set up a holy commonwealth,

realize the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

Indeed, throughout American history there have been many such attempts,

from the Shaker communities

to the Mormon church,

from the flower children of the 60’s

to Hal Lindsey and The Late Great Planet Earth,

from the People’s Temple of  Jim Jones,

to the folks who tried to escape on the Hale-Bopp comet,

America has been fertile ground for those trying to achieve a perfect society,

those that believe that on this soil

there can be escape from the systems that bind us.

 

They should have read Romans 7.

They should have considered that others before them had thought of this.

They should have considered that St. Paul had already discovered

that the true enemy was not outside,

the sinners around us or the sinners ruling over us,

but inside,

the sin ruling over the flesh

and enslaving even the one devoted to the law of God,

so that even God’s holy law could not free one from sin.

 

This proves doubly ironic for Paul.

For Paul had always thought that the Ten Commandments and the laws like it

were God’s best gift to his chosen people, the Israelites,

freeing them from the tyranny of sin,

setting them apart from outsiders.

Don’t a lot of Americans, too, who think we need a religious revival

talk a lot about the Ten Commandments,

demanding that they should be posted in schools

and other public buildings?

I would settle for them being posted in our churches and in our homes,

where we are indeed free to do so.

But the ironic part for Paul

was that the more he knew the commandments,

the more he knew that he did not keep them with a whole heart.

Indeed in some sense he knew that there was war inside of him,

a revolt against his self which delighted in God’s law.

Most gallingly,

he found that the law even provoked sin in him,

for the law suggested trespasses that he hadn’t even thought of.

He wouldn’t have known what it was to covet, to be jealous of what someone else had;

But God’s law told him “Do not covet,”

Suddenly he is filled with all sorts of jealousy!

And so it is that given all the tools to be free,

knowing what God desires,

even wanting to do what God desires,

Paul finds it impossible to be anything but a slave to sin,

not enjoying the liberty for which he is made.

He needs a rescuer, for he finds himself in a constant state of civil war.

 

We Americans regularly celebrate our freedoms,

without wondering what ends we use our freedoms for.

We celebrate that we have been free since 1776 from foreign domination,

neglecting the fact that even if we stand unconquered for one thousand years,

each of us individually and together as a nation

are still in need of rescue from outside,

for there dwells within us a foreign power who would keep us captive

and make us servants of a rebellious spirit which seeks all freedom for itself

and slavery for all other creatures.

 

Lutherans understand Romans 7

to mean that our true enemies are not political, but spiritual.

That while we would prefer that we were free in every way,

the only freedom that truly matters

is the freedom that only Christ can give,

the freedom from sin and death that Jesus gives as a gift.

St. Paul says, “Wretched man that I am!

Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

When they are being Lutherans, Lutherans know that Paul is right –

the rescue from the inner enemy that keeps us captive

means that all outer circumstances, while important, become relative.

Whether American or no, whether free or under oppression,

there is a freedom which is known in the Spirit

that our political freedom is unrelated to.

 

So it is that neither patriotism or political change

are generally the subjects of Lutheran sermons.

Neither the Rev. Jerry Falwell nor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright

would fit in comfortably in a Lutheran pulpit.

Their understanding is that in order to have the kingdom of God

you have to have the right political conditions.

A Lutheran understanding says that even under the best political conditions

you still have the basic problem of needing to be rescued from sin and death.

We don’t preach about how wonderful America is

or how America needs to change

but about how wonderful God in Christ is

and how we need to change.

And that’s a message that can apply to Americans, Europeans,

Africans, Asians, any person under any condition

in the whole world.

 

But as Christians who hold the rights and responsibilities of American citizenship,

we do have a tremendous opportunity.

We can rightly be grateful, and proud,

that in the United States of America

we have the privilege of exercising our best judgment,

as voters, as citizens, as members of the government,

as to how best our neighbors can be served and protected.

With our political freedoms intact,

we may spend our days seeking that spiritual freedom

which, despite the sin that infects our lives,

we Christians know to be found in Christ.

 

So I consider myself to be a pretty patriotic person.

I am glad and proud to have been born an American citizen,

but I am even more greatly humbled to have been baptized a Christian,

and to know that though sin infects my life,

I have found in Christ a remedy which truly frees me

in a way that no earthly citizenship could have.