Sermons
11/9/07
TWENTY FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
November 11, 2007
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Belair, Maryland
We begin today where with must always begin with our Lord Christ Jesus. He is after all, the source of all of our blessings, all that we are and all that we possess. There are many descriptions of Christ, but in my estimation, one of the most powerful is “The first fruit.” Thus we read in 1 Thes. 5: 20But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.
What does this mean for us today? As Christ is the first fruit we, being His beloved children, are heirs of this first fruit. This is why our Second Reading identifies us as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit. As such, the Spirit leads us to follow our Lord’s own example of sacrificial service to others. What a moving example we have before us on this very day. For today is Veteran’s Day. A time when we recall the hundreds of thousands who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country that we might enjoy the fruits of justice and freedom.
But now I would like to raise up two other challenges for sacrifice. They fall under the heading of stretch giving. Stretch giving means going the extra mile in support of the ministry of Christ Jesus on earth, the work of the church. I want to look at two aspects of this stretch giving in terms of financial stewardship.
The first manifestation of stretch giving is in terms of a large lifetime gift. Now while everyone should begin to pray on being open to the possibility of doing this, it is not for everyone. But the Spirit cannot be restricted in a predetermined manner. Sometimes it is the very people who initially rejected this idea who nevertheless are led by the Spirit to do what was first considered impossible. Let me offer an example.
In 2006, Manhattan’s Asian Cultural Council was pleasantly surprised to receive a gift of over $ 1 million to support its work. Was this due to the generosity of one of the titans of Wall Street? Not at all. Rather it came from Nobuko Kajetani, who is a textile conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a position that sounds more impressive than the salary it commands. How did a woman of relatively modest means find the ability to make such a generous gift? Ms. Kajetani is a careful steward of her financial resources. Among other practices, she walks to work and uses recycled shopping bags. But she had a great love of the mission of the Cultural Council and hence was moved to be so generous.
Why do I share her story? Because there are a few of you who have already felt the stirrings of the Spirit to do something very special for the wonderful ministry offered by the congregation of Good Shepherd. I do not know who exactly you are, but I know some of you have been praying for a sign to take the next steps in making this stirring a reality. And I pray that God will use my message as a means of encouragement for you to do this.
We talk about being blessed to be a blessing. I have heard of some of the wonderful outreach at Good Shepherd. Each year you help over 40 families through your Christmas Basket project. You provide blankets for Lutheran World Relief on Mother’s Day and Tools for Habitat on Father’s Day. Your confirmands are actively involved in service projects ranging from playing bingo with local nursing home residents to park clean up’s. And I know you hope to grow in this area. Such large gifts make new vision in growing these ministries of service in the name of our Lord possible.
But there is a second aspect to the concept of stretch giving which has a much broader application. This is growing your financial support of the church just a bit beyond what you had intended. This is something for everyone to prayerfully consider. Most of us have some form of commitment in mind. Stretch giving challenges us to seek the strength of the Holy Spirit to grow beyond that comfort point. To do something extra, even if it might seem relatively modest because sometimes the most modest of gifts, when offered in faith, have dramatic results. A true parable.
In the middle of the 19th century, a young waif screwed up her courage and went to register at the Sunday School of a prestigious downtown Philadelphia church. Looking down at this sad little child dressed in little more than rags, the secretary shook his head. She would not fit in with the generally well-heeled congregation. Almost in tears, she turned to go, but as the Spirit willed, she ran into the Senior Pastor. He heard her story and his heart was moved. Retuning to the secretary he said he was sure there was some mistake, a place could be found for this enthusiastic young Christian. The secretary was unhappy, but what could he do.
For the next few years the little girl came virtually every week and rejoiced in her growing faith. But these were unforgiving times. One winter the little one feel ill with pneumonia and quickly died. When they took her lifeless body from the mattress, they discovered all of her earthly treasurers. A doll, some needles and thread, and 57 cents mostly in pennies with a note, “That other little children can learn about Jesus.”
The Senior Pastor shared her story at the funeral and all who heard it were moved to tears, except for the wealthiest member of the congregation who seemed to register no emotion at all. Now as the fates would have it, this same wealthy member owned a building that was up for sale. The congregation was hoping to expand their school and this building would be perfect. Its just that the price was too high and the Senior Pastor was sure that the man, know for his business acumen, would never lower it. Later that week the Pastor was surprised to receive a visit from the same man. “Pastor,” he began in his usual brisk way, “you know I have a building up for sale. I heard you are interested. Do you want to buy it or not?” The Pastor shook his head sadly. “We would love to have the building to expand our school, but we cannot afford the price.” “You did not ask me the price,” the man replied. “What is it?” For the first time that anyone could remember, the man allowed himself a small smile. “The price is 57 cents.”
The story continues. The church used that building to not only expand its Sunday school, but to grow in other educational areas. Eventually, a college was started that took the name of the church, Temple Baptist Church. And that, dear friends, is how Temple University was started.
Allow the Spirit to stir your hearts, therefore to go that extra mile for the ministry of Christ Jesus. Given the grace of God, even a small step in growth may lead to results beyond your wildest imagination. Amen.
11/9/07
ALL SAINTS SUNDAY
REMEMBERING
Today is one of those special Sunday’s in the life of the church. It is called All Saints Sunday and it is time when we recall those beloved Christians who have influenced our lives and who now rest from their labors. If I had to summarize the basic theme of this day in a single word, it would be remembering. So let’s look at some of the implications of remembering those loved ones who are no longer physically with us.
In the first place, it is important to remember. In our increasingly active and demanding society, it sometimes seems that virtually all of our energies are concentrated on the future. How can I deal with the next crisis that lies ahead? But it is important to remember the witness of those special saints in the church and in our lives. This is true for several reasons. When we recall these saints, especially loved ones, we preserve their memories and the love they have shared with us. Also, recalling their wonderful witness often gives us the extra strength we urgently require in those difficult points of our lives. How often have we said what would Dad or Mom or my spouse have done in this situation? Just the thought of their reassuring presence often gives us the depth of perception and calmness of thought that we need. And in preserving their memories, we honor them in a unique way. A little over 100 years ago, over 1,000 Lutherans perished in the General Slocum steamship disaster in New York. Incredible one of the survivors, Catherine Gallagher who was 11 at the time, lived to be 109. To her final days, however, she urged her family, “Don’t forget. Don’t let it fade away.”
We must realize, however, that recalling our memories is often a bittersweet process. This is especially the case when we remember those who have been closest to us. On one hand, we often find great comfort and strength in remembering those special times we spent together, how helpful that other person was in our lives at some many points. And yet, almost of necessity, any truly significant relationship has been marked with some challenging periods. Inevitably, those not so pleasant memories come to the surface again. And often we play the challenging game of what if. What if, I had made a different decision? What if, I did not have that last fight? What if, we had sought different medical advice? The human condition is a complicated one. It should not come as a surprise, therefore, that our memories are sometime complicated as well.
Perhaps this is one reason why we are having such problems attempting to come up with a meaningful memorial at the sites of 9/11, particularly at Ground Zero. It seemed to be easier 100 years ago. At the gravesite of the 61 unidentified remains from the General Slocum disaster there is a monument with an angel swooping down to snatch up a perfect little child. This provided great meaning and comfort in the early 1900’s. Today it seems overly sentimental. We have changed. And so we struggle to find some way to convey the incredible pain that characterized Ground Zero on that terrible day six years ago, and yet offer hope and peace.
Finally, we must remember that ultimately, death for Christians is but a passing stage of life. We go from life temporal to life eternal. God, you see, holds us all in His memory. God never forgets a single one of his beloved creations. And because we are held in God’s memory we become a part of God. And because God is love and was willing to offer even His only begotten Son, Christ Jesus on the cross to remove the stain of our sin, we also gain the eternal life that is part of the essence of God and is His alone to grant to His beloved children.
And so as Christians, we are free to recall these precious memories of loved ones who now rest from their labors because we know that the separation we now endure is temporary. In the fullness of time, God will call us home to be with Him and with them. We know that we shall be reunited with those whose death we still grieve. And in the victory of Christ Jesus, we also know that we shall never be separated again. This is the promise of All Saints that gives us comfort and the strength to go out and continue to serve Him as instruments of that same all conquering love and life. Amen
11/20/07
TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
November 16, 2007
PARADOXICAL ESCHATOLOGY
Malachi 4:1-2a
2 Thessalonians 3:3-13
Luke 21:5-19
1And now, O priests, this command is for you. 2If you will not listen, if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse on you and I will curse your blessings.
6Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us.
5When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6“As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”
You will not be surprised when I tell you that today we encounter one of the most solemn sets of lessons in the whole year. But I will confess to you, amid all this gloom and doom, I was delighted to mediate on our Second Reading for in it St. Paul offers a classic tension that we would do well to consider.
On one hand, we have to realize how temporary everything really is. For the Jews who were living in the time of Jesus’ active ministry on earth, perhaps 27 to 30 AD, the Temple represented the ultimate symbol of stability. It dominated the old city of Jerusalem and enjoyed the finest of craftsmanship and appointments. Yet Jesus words were uncannily prophetic. Less than 40 years later, the Temple itself would be destroyed, the appointments plundered and many of those beautiful stones recycled in other projects including new temples to pagan gods or to Caesar himself.
I suppose one of the many advantages of maturing is that you have seen many changes and lived to tell the tale. You realize that some of these changes are personally difficult, but also come to appreciate how everything is in the process of change. Some of these we will miss because they have been an important part of our upbringing but others represent a significant improvement. For instance, look how far we have come with health care. Year ago, very few cancers were treatable, while today over 50% of people diagnosed with the disease go on to lead long and normal lives. But look at the potential that lies ahead. Those little ones who have been born in the last few years will have an average life span that will far exceed our own.
This tension between what is and what is coming into fruition has a technical name in theology. Paradoxical eschatology. Simply put, this doctrine reminds us we live between the already now and the not yet. We already have Christ is our midst to give us His strength and love, but we know that at the second coming He will bring this presence to a new conclusion when we shall be made perfect as He is perfect. The best is yet to come.
In the interim, there is much that remains for us to do. This is why I love our Second Reading. It reminds us that while we live within the challenges of change and the limitations of our own sinful human nature, we should nevertheless keep forging ahead. 10For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat…12Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. 13Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right. What marvelous practical advice. Who knows when our Lord will return? But in the interim, we forge ahead. This we elect new leaders for the congregation, in some cases serving five years terms. If you visited our Great Room earlier, you would have seen Thanksgiving dinners for over 125 families waiting for distribution. At our 11 o’clock service we celebrate a Baptism with the probability this tot will be an active Christian 8 or more decades from now.
Paradoxical eschatology. We live in the time between the times. But in God we gain the strength to do those seemingly mundane but vital tasks until that day when our Lord returns and we celebrate a new heaven and a new earth eternally. Amen.
THANKSGIVING VESPERS
November 21, 2007
IT’S A QUESTION OF ATTITUDE
John 6:25-35
I think many of us make a key mistake when we consider thanksgiving. We ask ourselves, “What should I be thankful for?” We then tend to list the things with which God has blessed us. Mind you, it’s not a bad question. Too often all we do is complain. But I wonder if this is not selling out to the world’s love of material things. To quote one aging rock star, “I’m a material girl in a material world.” Or to venture into the realm of more contemporary usage, “bling, bling is the thing.”
In thinking about it, I realized the whole question of thanksgiving is not a matter of material things but of attitude, not a question of what we have, but whose we are. Our Gospel for this evening illustrates this nicely. Jesus, being a keen judge of human character, sees the crowds who now follow Him but our Lord is not led astray. He knows why they are there, what attitude lies deep in their hearts and it is greed, not adoration. 26Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. But rather than dismissing them out of hand however, He uses this occasion to teach them. 32Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Ultimately, if we allow the Spirit to change our attitude and our relationship to the Lord, to become part of Christ Himself, we shall be granted all that we will ever need.
Here we have a rather stunning example in those few who gathered at that first Thanksgiving feast so long ago. We have painted a rather romantic picture through the years, but the reality was very different. Disease and starvation had cut down over 40% of those initial settlers during their first winter in New England, and now a second winter was approaching. Uncertainty still reigned. Who knows who would be alive come spring? And yet they understood it was not a question of what they had, or lacked, but to whom they belonged. They realized that they belonged to God and for this primarily, they gathered to give thanks. Not so much for the earthly food, as important as this was, but in thanksgiving that He who is the bread of life was in their midst. We are so much more fortunately than they were. We do not have to worry about starving to death this winter. As a matter of fact statistics tell us that on average we will gain about 8 pounds over the next 8 weeks. But let us always remember the ultimate source of our thanksgiving, even Christ Jesus in whose holy name we gather. Amen
CHRIST THE KING
November 25, 2007
CHARACTERISTICS OF KINGSHIP
Colossians 1:11-20
Luke 23:33-43
Today we reach the conclusion of another church year with the celebration of Christ the King. A basic question I would like to address therefore is what does it mean to be the King? Since Christ’s kingship is quite different from that of earthly rulers, I believe that we find one very appropriate answer in the 18th verse of the 1st Chapter of Colossians. So let’s get to work.
He is the head of the body, the church. A very basic question with which the church has struggled through the centuries is the source of our authority. This day of Christ the King reminds us that our authority comes from the Lord. And from where does He derive His authority? He gains this authority from His obedience to the Father through selfless service. This year, as in most others, people ask me why we are suddenly reading a portion of the Passion account just before Christmas. This was a deliberate decision of the framers of our lectionary to remind us that our Lord’s earthly throne was a cross and it was from the thorny throne that He established His Kingship by dying for our sake.
This truth, in turn, has profound implications for the church today. I still remember an observation that Father Ken Aldrich, the former Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church made a number of years ago. He noticed that the Assembly of God congregation that originally occupied the municipal building across the street from us was closing, while Reformation was growing. “Every study says that conservative evangelicals like the Assembly of God should be flourishing while established main line denominations like Lutherans should be declining. Why is your congregation different?” An excellent question. And I think it has to do with our mission statement, “Praise God, serve others.” We continue to grow because we take both parts of this statement seriously. We try to live out the reality that Christ truly is the head of the body, the church and we follow our King’s own example of selfless service. One way we do this is by our setting aside a portion of our financial assets, which is our minted time, our minted love to seek to serve others by sharing the Gospel through both word and deed.
He is the beginning. These are deceptively simple words because they have profound implications. Since Christ is the beginning, He constantly allows us new beginnings as well. Think about what this means for a moment. If you are like everyone else this preacher included, you have made some serious mistakes in your life. By the grace of God, most of these mistakes did not lead to the worse possible consequences. But in a few cases, we had to face the music for the foolish or downright nasty things that we have done. The pain of these experiences remains with us, especially if it involved someone very close to us. And so does the rather desperate desire to be able to start over. “If I could turn back time,” Cher sings. Sometimes the world, or the one we offended does not allow us to do this. But when it comes to our relationship with the King, Christ Jesus is always willing to forgive and grant us the gift of a fresh start. These endless new beginnings mark an incredible blessing.
(He is) the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. Of all the characteristics of our King, this is the most critical. You see our King has the power to grant life itself. The repentant thief recognized this fact. Thus he requests, Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom. And what a Kingdom our King rules. I have recently been reading the five books of The Pendragon Cycle by Stephen Lawhead. I commend them to your attention. They deal with the legends surrounding King Arthur and the Holy Grail. Lawhead constantly refers to the Kingdom of Summer that is for him a perfect kingdom where peace and justice reign and where life spans stretch for a number of additional decades. It is a beautiful and moving image of the full potential of the human condition. How much greater is the Kingdom Christ has promised to us, where we gain not only perfect joy, but will have it to all eternity. This is the ultimate power of the King we worship today. And because of this power we gain the strength to continue to serve our King in our less than perfect world in our faltering ways until that day when He returns and grants us all a precious place in His everlasting realm. Amen.