September 25th Readings

First Reading:
Amos 6:1a, 4-7 (NIV)

Woe to the Complacent

6 Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,
    and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
you notable men of the foremost nation,
    to whom the people of Israel come!

⁴ You lie on beds adorned with ivory
    and lounge on your couches.
You dine on choice lambs
    and fattened calves.
⁵ You strum away on your harps like David
    and improvise on musical instruments.
⁶ You drink wine by the bowlful
    and use the finest lotions,
    but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
⁷ Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile;
    your feasting and lounging will end.

Second Reading:

1 Timothy 6:6-19 (NIV)

⁶ But godliness with contentment is great gain. ⁷ For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. ⁸ But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. ⁹ Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
¹¹ But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. ¹² Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³ In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you ¹⁴ to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶ who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

¹⁷ Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸ Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. ¹⁹ In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

September 18th Readings

First reading
Amos 8:4-7New International Version (NIV)

⁴ Hear this, you who trample the needy
    and do away with the poor of the land,

⁵ saying,

“When will the New Moon be over
    that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
    that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
    boosting the price
    and cheating with dishonest scales,
⁶ buying the poor with silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals,
    selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

⁷ The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.

Second Reading

1 Timothy 2:1-7New International Version (NIV)

Instructions on Worship

2 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— ² for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ³ This is good, and pleases God our Savior, ⁴ who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. ⁵ For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶ who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. ⁷ And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.

September 11the Readings

First Reading
Exodus 32:7-14New International Version (NIV)
⁷ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. ⁸ They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
⁹ “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
¹¹ But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. ¹³ Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” ¹⁴ Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.


Second Reading

The Lord’s Grace to Paul

¹² I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. ¹³ Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. ¹⁴ The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
¹⁵ Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. ¹⁶ But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. ¹⁷ Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Scripture Reveals Itself

We had a great experience in our Wednesday morning Women's Bible Study this week.  It's a fantastic example of how Scripture speaks to us, revealing God's Spirit in new and interesting ways.  (It's also a fantastic example of why Bible Studies are enriching and irreplaceable.)

We were reading through the 7th chapter of the Gospel of Mark when we came across this story:

31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.

33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

We had 500 questions about the proceedings here.  Why did Jesus pull the man away privately?  Jesus had performed plenty of miracles in Mark before this.  Some took but a word.  For some the recipient wasn't even present.  What was with the touching and the saliva and the extra words in this miracle?  Was it all a show?  What's up with Jesus commanding the man not to tell anyone and then the man blabbing anyway?

We answered these questions the best we could but we mostly left them with a shrug.  "Oh well.  It was an interesting story.  Maybe we'll never quite 'get it'.  It's nice that the guy was healed, though.  Onward!"

Proceeding onward into Chapter 8 we found a miracle of many people fed, one of several arguments between Jesus and the Pharisees, and then we read this story:

22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

Wait a minute!  This miracle involves saliva as well.  Plus it took two applications of Jesus' power to get it right!  There's got to be more to this story.  It's too much coincidence for spit to show up twice in a row during miracles.

So we began drawing connections.  The saliva provided the first clue.  These two miracle stories are chained together.  That was the purpose of spitting...not that Jesus needed the saliva to perform the miracle, but to show us that these miracles were linked, two parts of a set.  Cool!

Knowing that the miracles were meant to be compared, we then started to look at details.

Each miracle starts with an important geographical designation.  The first saliva application happened in Decapolis, on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee.  This was Gentile territory.  People here would not have grown up with the Jewish Law and the Jewish faith that Jesus and his disciples shared.  They would not have known about God the same way the Jews did.  To the Jews they were foreigners, heathens, the unfaithful.

The second miracle happened in Bethsaida, among the Jews.  This was home territory compared to Decapolis, Tyre and Sidon.  People here would have been expected to know and accept God's word.

The first saliva miracle happened among outsiders, among people the Jews would have considered the non-dominant, non-favored culture.  The second happened among insiders, the "right" people.

Now consider the affliction in each story.  The Gentile man--the foreigner, the outsider--could not hear and could not speak.  There's a theological component to this physical ailment.  The outside group had never heard God's word.  Obviously they could not be messengers of it either, having not received it.  The "faithful" folks would not have bothered sharing it with them.  They were outsiders, the wrong people!  Ironically the inside group would then blame the outsiders for not being people of God.  It was the religious equivalent of a community denying a person any kind of job and then blaming that person for not having enough money, food to eat, or a roof over his head.  "They're ignorant of scripture because they're Gentiles!"  No, they're ignorant of scripture because you refuse to share it with them, because you make yourselves the privileged, knowledgeable ones by denying everybody who's not you.

But look at the affliction of the faithful, "inside" man.  It's blindness!  His problem isn't that he hasn't heard or can't speak the word.  His problem is that having heard and spoken, he still doesn't get it!  He doesn't see.  He can't make proper use of what he knows.  This is the fault of the dominant group.  They've got the power but they have no idea how to use it for goodness because they assume it exists only to support them, to keep them dominant and privileged.

Look now at the process of each miracle.  How easy was it for Jesus to cure the deaf, mute man?  It happened instantly.  Jesus' presence, a touch, and a word: "Be opened!"  The man's life was opened.  Not only did he hear again, he began to speak and started a tidal wave of acclaim and amazement directed towards Jesus.  He became an evangelist, just like that!  He shared the good news, it couldn't be stopped (even by Jesus himself), and many came to know God's mercy through this "outsider".

How easy was it to heal the blind man?  He had to do it twice.  You never see that happening in scripture.  Having Jesus "redo" the miracle isn't just an indication that it was twice as hard.  It makes this operation uniquely difficult.  Curing the blindness of the inside group is a far greater challenge than rectifying whatever might be wrong with the outside group.  Changing the behavior of the oppressors and setting them on the right track is nigh impossible compared to uplifting the oppressed even though the former are consider the "right" group and the latter the "wrong" one.

You can almost see Jesus looking at the Pharisees with whom he had argued in between these miracles stories and saying, "See?  Here's what all your 'rightness' has gotten you: a blindness that makes it impossible for you to understand me even when 'foreigners' and 'heathens' understand in an instant."

We have to be really careful as followers of Christ today.  In America we've been the "in" group since the founding of the country.  It might be less so in this new millennium than it has been in the past but if you asked people to identify just one religion which typifies and dominates our culture the answer would still be "Christianity" by a mile.  The classic approach is to claim that going to church makes us the wise, knowledgeable, powerful ones...the "right folks".  That's the same blindness the Pharisees had.  God has to work twice as hard to correct somebody who already thinks they've got it right as he does to guide somebody who has no clue.

We have to guard against keeping the Good News to ourselves.  Whatever power or grace or knowledge we've been given is for the purpose of uplifting and healing the world, not just preserving our own power and position.  We have to make sure we're not building walls to define "in" and "out" groups.  Where we see those walls--be they religious, cultural, economic, political, marked by gender or age or race or lifestyle--we have to do what Jesus did: cross through them in order to share love and grace on the other side...miracles more powerful and important than any barrier.  That's the mission, and the warning, spelled out by these two stories.

What a powerful realization!  I'm not sure any of us would have come to it on our own.  Mostly we would have scratched our heads about why Jesus was touching people with spit all of a sudden and moved on.  But together we were more powerful, more perceptive in the Spirit than any of us could have been individually.  What a wonderful revelation!  And that's why we do Bible Study.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Getting Through a Day

Stress can mount up quickly this time of year.  It seems like an opportune time to share Pastor Dave's Tips for Getting Through a Day.  This is more homespun wisdom than theological assertion, so take it as you will.  This is just how I try to make it through each day with some sense of graciousness as the wolves of worry are nipping at my heels.  I'm not claiming 100% success, but still...

Start Each Day New

In my experience, most stress comes in the form of baggage dragged with us from yesterday.  Failing that, we worry overmuch about tomorrow, as if we knew our future and could control it.  God's baptismal covenant promises that each day we are made new.  As we rise yesterday's burdens are washed away, drowned in the baptismal waters, and we are given new life.

This means every day is a fresh chance.  Old problems may follow us, but they don't have to have the same shape and weight they carried the day before.  If I worry all through the day, carry those problems with me through a restless sleep, and then wake up weighed down just as much as I was before, I haven't given the new day a chance.

Instead I wake up trying my hardest to trust that this day will be new and different.  If familiar problems arise, well, new opportunities will too.  I don't want to miss my calling in this day because I'm still carrying the last one front and center.  Each day when I wake up I say a quick prayer that God will relieve me of my burdens and show me what he wants me to do in this day.  Privately I also ask that he'll relieve me of the folly of forcing  every day to be exactly the same and then wondering why nothing ever changes.

Plan For Big Things

Part of acknowledging the new opportunities God gives us is admitting that they just might matter.  Even if I pretty much know what I'll be doing in a day--for better or worse we live by schedules and tasks--I don't assume that I know how all those things will go.  I'm prepared for them to make a big difference.  I'm ready for something significant to happen.  Maybe I meet a new person.  Maybe I see a person I've met before in a new way.  Maybe I'll say something, or hear something, that will change a life.  Maybe I'll be delighted or disappointed.  Whatever happens, I've never experienced this day before.  

Life is kind of like a board game in this way.  You know the basic forms of Monopoly or Yahtzee just like you know the basic pattern of your life.  You're familiar with the cards and categories.  But you never know how those elements will combine each time you play.  You can't predict how the dice will roll, how landing on a certain space or filling in a certain line on the sheet will change the game.  It's the same way with your life, your job, your relationships.  Each morning is like setting up a new game board.  I may know the rules and I may have seen most of the cards, but I'm going to be interested in how it plays out and I'm going to do my best to play well.  Who knows if this will be the round where something special happens, creating a story that will last a lifetime?

If the Big Things Don't Go Right, Make the Most of Little Things

Sometimes things don't work out like we hope.  Life falls apart.  Hopes go unanswered.  Worries come true.  Stress increases.  We don't always get good days.

When this happens my first thought is, "If I can't have a good day, can I maybe find a good 10 minutes in there somewhere?"  Even one or two things going right can give you something to lean on.  You have a cup of coffee with a friend.  You stop for an ice cream cone.  You hear a song that you love.  Somebody smiles at you unexpectedly or lets you cut ahead of them in a long grocery store line.  Even a small reminder of goodness can be enough to get you through a bad day.  Yucky stuff happening for 23 hours and 30 minutes doesn't rob us of the ability to appreciate the other half-hour.  Given a choice of what to build my life on, I'm going to take the good 10-minute experience over the yucky, day-long drag.  That good event still happened.  Goodness still exists.  If I hang on through the other stuff, even if it's a crushing, inexorable burden today, then eventually I'll find the good again.

If the Little Things Don't Go Right Either, Get a Hug and Pray

Sometimes things just don't go right in a day, not even one little bit.  Overwhelming bad news, unexpected sorrow, a series of unfortunate events, at times it's just too much.

In these situations I need a hug, maybe a pat on the back...just some kind of human contact.  I also need a little divine contact in the form of prayer, even if that prayer is just, "Help! I can't do it!"  Most folks see that as a sign of failure.  That's actually the purest, truest prayer we can offer to God.  "Help! I can't do it!" is the reason Jesus suffered and died on the cross for us.  None of us can do it even though we spend much of our life pretending we can.  When we couldn't do it ourselves, when we were lost beyond hope, Jesus came to us and saved us.  Those moments when we have nothing else end up being the moments we're closest to God.  We don't necessarily feel it, but it's true.

It should be mentioned that hugs and prayers are available in plentiful supply from your pastor and most of your friends at church too.

It's also interesting to note how many of those days come when we literally have nothing left but to get a hug and pray versus the number of days we call "bad".  For most people the former situation is far more rare than the latter.  Stress accelerates us down the ladder more quickly than circumstances do, which is why it's important to head back up to the top of the list and start each day fresh and new.

Here's hoping your stress level is low and your contentment-and-love level is off the charts during this holiday season.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Being Right vs. Being Loving

Last Sunday we read from Matthew, Chapter 3, in which John the Baptist prepared the way for the coming of Jesus.  The key concept from his message:  "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand."

We don't think about it much, but the two clauses of that sentence actually talk about conflicting impulses.

To "repent" means to "walk again", "pent" being the root of the word for walking.  "Repent" is another way of saying, "Turn around, do it over, change direction!"  Something is not quite right here.

This is part of our human story.  Most of us try to be good (especially this time of year with Santa just around the corner!)  Most of us want to do what's right.  But we always seem to mess it up.  Into our noblest, purest acts and intentions creeps some kind of selfishness or blindness.  What we want to do we don't actually end up doing, at least not perfectly.  Desiring the right, we can't manage to get there.

Most people read "repent" as saying, "Stop doing wrong!  Do right instead!"  That's not accurate.  In fact, it's impossible to fulfill that command.  Instead you should read "repent" as, "Give up on the idea that you are right and can be right.  Stop following yourself and your own flawed instincts and pretending that they are The Way."

The reason for this turn-around is simple.  The actual Way is at hand.  Contrary to popular belief, the kingdom of God does not mean just heaven or the afterlife.  That's part of the definition of kingdom, the final flower of it, but it's not the whole story.  The kingdom of God is a living presence, in John's case embodied physically in Jesus Christ.  The kingdom of God is present wherever love, grace, forgiveness, and joy are brought to life among us.  This is what we follow and walk towards, not what is "right" by our own definition but what is loving by God's definition, not our own example but his.

Theoretically "right" and "loving" should be the same thing.  What is loving should be what is right and vice versa.  In practice that only holds true for one being in the whole universe: God.  God is wholly right, completely loving.  There is no distinction between the two in him.

For the rest of us, though, sin clouds our vision, makes us short-sighted, causes us to fall short.  We have to choose.  We can either be right or we can be loving.  Every once in a while we're blessed with a great moment when the two impulses come together.  These are gifts from God, moments when we feel in tune with the world, the universe, heaven, and everything therein.  Those brief glimpses aside, we're forced to decide what will be the bedrock of our life: our own righteousness or God.  We cannot follow both.

Part of the reason we can't have both is that love and right require different actions and a different outlook.  Being right makes you stand still.  You've got it!  It's clear.  You are right.  Why move?  Being right causes you to stop your journey, build up walls, protect yourself from anyone who would change you, or even just try to change your mind.  If you're right there's no need to hear, no need to transform, and no need to follow.

Love, on the other hand, requires motion, attention, sacrifice.  Love moves you beyond what you were before, not just for your own sake, but for the sake of the one you are loving.  Love is nothing but hearing, nothing but transformation and growth, nothing but following...following God in dutiful service and following the person you're sharing love with.  After all, how do you know how to love someone if you don't follow them for a while, walk a mile in their shoes?

Being right always causes you to stop.  Loving always causes you to move.  The two cannot happen at the same time.

Scripture is pretty clear about which of these is the correct approach.  You can listen to Paul tell you, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" or you can listen to John say, "When we say we are without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."  Both are telling you the same thing.  You can't stop.  The moment you call a halt to the journey you have to make compromises with the sin that's within yourself and the shortcomings inherent in the place where you stopped to camp.  It would be like the people of Israel stopping in their wilderness journey.  They may find a nice oasis in the desert somewhere but it's not suitable for living forever; it's not the Promised Land.

We are not called to camp in a spot of our own choosing, but to keep journeying towards our ultimate destiny: the kingdom of God, perfect love and grace and forgiveness and joy.  When faced with a choice between right and loving, we choose loving.  Otherwise we miss the kingdom even when it stands right in front of us.

Understanding this, it becomes clear what John was asking his followers to repent of: not just their sins and wrongdoing, but their idea that they already knew what "right" means and that they were capable of achieving it themselves.  This is reinforced a couple verses later in Matthew 3 when John scolds the Pharisees, folks who followed the Law scrupulously but also thought that they knew (and were) right in every matter.  John calls them a "brood of vipers", snakes huddled in their nest, unwilling to come out, likely to bite anyone who tried to roust them.  That's exactly what happened when Jesus met the Pharisees.  They didn't see him as holy, nor did they care about his message.  Instead they plotted to kill him because he had the temerity to tell them that something in the universe was more important than them being right.

Right or love, which will you choose?  Each of us is confronted with this decision every day.  Those who are married know that the #1 rule of married life is that you can be right or you can be in love but you can't have both.  You'll either be right and sleeping on the couch or be loving and have a marriage.  The same holds true in different ways for relationships between parents and children, friends and neighbors, co-workers, and even strangers.

Turn on the radio or TV and you'll hear a host of people trying to convince you that they're right, that a certain point of view is right, that this is all you need in order to prosper in the world.  The ones you already agree with (better: who agree with you) seem quite seductive, quite "right".  Our culture will prod you mercilessly, convincing you that right is the answer: hold the right political opinion, invest in the right stock, buy the right Christmas present for somebody.  Funny, those never provide the answer...at least not the ultimate one.  Whatever happiness and security they bring is only temporary.  For the most part, they give way to more fear, more division.

Love is the way.  The kingdom of God is still at hand.  The problem isn't that it's disappeared, nor that it was only embodied in one person who lived 2000 years ago.  Jesus brought it to the world that it might grow through all of us, transforming our lives and the life of everyone we love.  The problem is, we don't see it.  We're too busy trying to be right.

The opposite of faith is not doubt.  The opposite of faith is certainty.  Every moment we spend being less certain and more loving--every moment we sacrifice our selfish desire to stop the journey at a convenient place and instead walk it in love--is a moment faith becomes more alive in us. This is how we prepare the way of the Lord.

Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand...today, tomorrow, and always.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

The Blank Slate

In this morning's Women's Bible Study we got a chance to read the second chapter of Mark.  The 18th-22nd verses made us think particularly hard:

Mark 2: 18-22

18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”
19 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.
21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

In these passages Jesus chastises people who mistake outward signs of piety for true faith.  Folks assumed that since the Pharisees and the disciples of John fasted while Jesus' followers did not, the Pharisees and John were holier, more reverent, closer to God.  Jesus reminded them all that God can't be contained in any ritual or sign.  Rituals like fasting are meant to point to God, but they are not God.  God is with people who fast and people who don't.

Jesus follows this up with an interesting paragraph about not trying to repair old garments with new cloth, nor putting new wine in old wineskins.  Fasting (or the lack thereof) wasn't really the issue here.  The real problem was that people thought they already knew who God was and what he wanted so they weren't prepared to see or hear him when he showed up in a way they didn't expect.  They shoved God in a box too small for him.  When he slipped out and tapped them on the shoulder to say hello they wouldn't believe it was him because the were sure he was still in their box.

This short paragraph reminds us that we are supposed to approach God as a blank slate, ready to be written upon.  Our rituals, habits, and preconceptions can be useful in pointing us to God.  Ritual and habit remind us to go to church every Sunday, for instance.  But once we're actually together with God we have to be ready to change.  God transforms us.  He makes us new every day.  Refusing to be made new is the same as refusing God.  We cannot come before him saying, "It's good to see you but don't touch this, don't change this, and don't transform any of these six things."  When we do that, we're not really ready for God.  We already have one: all those things we're protecting.

When we approach God in the words of the Bible we should be prepared to read them new and fresh even if the words are familiar to us.  We don't open the Bible already knowing what it says, but asking what it's going to say to us today.  Each sermon should be an opportunity to think new things, to open new avenues of understanding and service.  Each time we come to the altar for communion we should regard that as a transformation, a fresh start.  We do all these things out of habit, but the substance of them is so much more.

This extends to our daily lives as well.  We shouldn't wake up each morning already knowing what we're going to do.  Even if we have a schedule and it's the same as it has been for as long as we can remember, we should be ready for God to touch us in new ways through familiar tasks.  We shouldn't assume we already know the people God sends into our lives, even those we are closest to.  We need to open our eyes, be prepared to see some new facet of them in this day.  We should not allow our relationships to get in ruts even if they're comfortable ones for all involved.  Here, too, refusing to be transformed is refusing to hear God's voice.

Each day is a new opportunity.  God calls us to see it that way and act accordingly.  The new wine is ours and the old, familiar wineskin of our lives won't hold it without bursting.  Maybe it's time to get a new skin, a little roomier, and take a fresh look at the world God has given us and the people therein as well.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

What Is Real?

This Sunday's gospel came from the 20th chapter of Luke:

27 Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 28 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless.30 The second 31 and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32 Finally, the woman died too. 33 Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
34 Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection.37 But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

This gospel is somewhat difficult for folks to understand.  The confusion is amplified because as soon as we read it we start asking questions about marriage and husbands and the like.  We don't realize that in doing so we're jumping on the train with the Sadducees who posed the question to Jesus instead of listening to Jesus himself.  Once headed in the wrong direction, we never find our way to the right.

The Sadducees were a clever bunch.  They did not believe in the resurrection of the body after death.  Holding this core conviction they came to Jesus looking to prove it.  In order to do so they created a logical problem out of the sacred texts of Moses...the Law that held together the fabric of their society.  That law said that if a man died childless his brother would have to marry and conceive a child with his widow.  That child would then be raised as the dead brother's heir.  So the Sadducees invented a scenario in which this happened seven times, then all seven brothers and the wife were resurrected in heaven.  She had married all seven brothers.  Whose wife would she be?

Having the brothers not marry the woman would have been against the law.  Having seven men married to the same woman in the afterlife would have been against the law.  The Sadducees thought this proved that there could be no resurrection.  Jesus was wrong, they were right.  End of story.

In his response to the Sadducees, Jesus pointed out their basic mistake.  It wasn't really a mistake about marriage.  That was just the cover topic they created to disguise it.  Instead their failure ran deeper, and it's a failure we all carry with us.

The error of the Sadducees was coming to Jesus thinking they already knew the truth instead of coming to Jesus listening and seeking to understand the truth.  They had their logic, their core beliefs, and their earthly experience.  They thought that this was enough to let them understand everything.  They expected the universe would conform to whatever they thought...up to and including the Son of God.  If he didn't conform to their beliefs, then obviously he wasn't the Son of God.

The world tells us many things are "real".  Money is real.  Jobs are real.  Weather is real.  Our worth is defined by numbers in a bank account or signatures on pieces of paper.  If we don't get ahead in life other people will trample over us.  The path to safety involves insulating ourselves from everything beyond our control, building shelters (house, family, church) in which we can hide when the storm rages.  Worry about how you look.  Worry about how many people think well of you.  Worry about retirement, keeping up with the Joneses, grades, winning, fashion, fame, and so on.  That stuff is REAL.  Faith?  That's a nice idea, helpful when it works...maybe something you get to when all that other stuff goes right.

In order to understand the Sadducees all you have to do is think, even for an instant, that church is nice enough but "real" life happens during the rest of the week.  All you have to do is hear something in church, think it's a good idea, then leave the building and not really do it.  Who among us has not done that?

The Sadducees assumed that what they knew of the world was real and nothing beyond existed (thus no resurrection).  Jesus explained that not only was this life not all of reality, it wasn't even the best part of reality.  We will be resurrected.  We will live a life of peace, love, and joy that does not end.  That is as certain as if it had already happened.  Indeed, if you pick apart the concept of time a little and pay close attention to what "eternity" means, it may already have happened.  That we are heavenly people is not in doubt.  The problem is, we spend our whole lives pretending we're not...pretending that something else matters (and defines us) more.

Instead of assuming that their current state, current knowledge, and current belief defined all of reality, the Sadducees should have known that they were something more than they could currently see.  That's what Jesus reminded them of.  We need to hear that reminder too.  Our job isn't to figure everything out and then make God conform to our beliefs.  Instead we need to trust in that heavenly life, understand that we're growing towards it, and change this life to conform as much as possible to that one: breaking bonds and abandoning beliefs that would deny God's reality and make us less than we were meant to be.

This is what the Law of Moses was doing when it talked about marriage.  If a brother, whom you love and to whom you are obligated, dies without anybody to carry on his name, memory, and inheritance you divert your life from where you thought it should go and give both him and his widow the gift of a son.  That may not be your human desire but in that culture it was a heavenly gift, brought to earth through your sacrifice.  To follow another way would put your selfish desire above the good of your brother and his family...following something unreal and abandoning the real and life-giving.

In church we are called to sacrifice, love, make peace, uplift, heal, and live a Godly life.  Some of these things call us to change our ways in our Monday through Saturday life too.  When we fail to do so we, too, put our selfish desires above the good of our neighbors, following the unreal and abandoning that which is solid and life-giving.

The world will tell you, "Faith is nice, but this is real life."  As people of God, we know the opposite is true.  Faith is the enduring truth.  Everything else is an illusion, temporary sand which will be blown away by the winds of time.

Without this understanding we approach Jesus the same way the Sadducees did: sure of our convictions, ready to follow God as long as he supports them.  We will never find God that way.  Headed in the wrong direction, we never find our way to light.

Instead we should be asking ourselves, "What is real?  Who defines reality?  Who am I really following?"  The answers to those questions will probably turn out disturbing to most of us, but they'll also set our feet back on the way of truth.

God is not the God of the dead, but the living, for to him all are alive.  Do we embrace that vision, living by its assurance, spending our days alive?  Or are we too busy worrying about something else, brushing aside God when he gets in the way of our "reality"?

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Unexpected Blessings

This weekend we crossed an irrevocable boundary in our household.  The kids' Nana and Papa came to visit from Boise...always a great event!  Because the Boise crew won't be here for birthdays or Christmas, Nana and Papa brought presents.  The kids got to open them early.  What fun!

The irrevocable boundary crossing came courtesy of Aunt Laurie, Careen's sister.  Derek and Ali opened their bags from her and saw twin boxes of...Legos.  We are not unfamiliar with building toys in our household.  Derek has some Tinker Toys.  Both the kids have the big, toddler version of Legos, the Mega Bloks.  Those are relatively harmless.  The pieces are big, easy to find and pick up.  Both the kids have a habit of leaving their Mega Bloks on the floor.  Clean-up sessions and the difficulty of keeping all the parts intact and in a single bag led us to decide that the time for tiny and numerous Legos was...not yet.

Except...Merry Christmas!  Happy Birthday!  And now we have Legos.  And of course both the kids love them.  What are you gonna do?  Prepare to sweep under beds for small parts, to hear rattling noises in your vacuum cleaner, and to hear constant choruses of, "Dad!  Can you help me build the thing in this picture?"

But you know what?  That's a good thing.  Even things you don't expect become teaching moments.  Like, "You know those pictures are just suggestions, right?  It's much cooler to build your own thing."  You don't have to be ready for something, let alone control it, in order to benefit from it.  Not everything in life happens in the way you expect.  Happiness and well-being don't depend on anticipating events correctly as much as how you deal with the events you didn't anticipate.

Legos are cool.  We're going to have hours of family fun with them.  I'll have even more fun watching Derek and Ali create with them.  No amount of small pieces in the vacuum cleaner can take that away.  Let the Lego Era begin!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)  

The Importance of Sabbath

Our Sunday School teachers met last week to discuss the Third Commandment.  Exodus 20 reads:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

In Hebrew, Sabbath means "stop" or "cease".  It's the day of ceasing, or as we call it, the day of rest.  The commandment asks us to do no work on this day...to complete our routine tasks in six days and put them aside on the seventh.

Nature itself speaks to the value of rest.  We sleep somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of our lives.  We awaken renewed and refreshed, capable of continuing.  It's not like we can just skip the sleep and keep doing our daily tasks.  You might make it for a day, but as sleep deprivation extends our ability to function--mentally, physically, emotionally--dwindles rapidly.  Pull one all-nighter studying for that big test and you might do better.  Pull two or more in a row and welcome to your lousy grade...and being cranky with everyone around you...and having to hunt to find where you put that #2 pencil...and falling asleep involuntarily while waiting for your lunch.  Rest helps us bear our burdens, sets us straight again, allows us to tackle our problems in the best possible way.

And speaking of, sometime when you're at church ask Jake S. how he builds muscle and helps U of I athletes do the same?  I'm guessing he will tell you that the first step is working those muscles: training and lifting daily.  But you know what comes after that?  You also have to rest.  The work actually damages them.  As you rest the body repairs itself, creating new, better, and bigger muscle tissue to meet the demands you're placing on those muscles.  If you train the same muscles every day without ever stopping you won't grow them, but damage them.  Rest isn't about starting all over again in the same fashion.  Rest allows for growth.

Theologically speaking, rest is a reminder that the universe doesn't depend on us, but on its Creator.  Once you get enmeshed in the work of the world getting out is hard.  Our daily tasks seduce us.  They appear to give us importance.  If we don't cook dinner nobody will eat!  If I don't drive my child to practice she'll be kicked off the team!  If I don't attend every single game my son will grow up thinking I'm a bad dad!  If I don't file these six reports in exactly the right way the office will fall apart and my boss will be mad and I'll be fired and we'll go broke and lose our home and life as we know it will be over!

These things have a degree of truth to them, but we also need a day...a time to say "No" to all that.  The world can survive for one day without me being in charge of it.  The globe still spins, the sun still rises and sets, none of my friends and neighbors spun off into space today because I wasn't doing the same thing I do the other six days.  Maybe...just maybe...the most important realization is not that I do what I have to do, but that God takes care of us all no matter what we get done or don't.  Maybe the thing that binds us together isn't how well we perform for each other but our identity as Children of God.  We don't need to scramble to look or feel blessed and important through our daily tasks.  We are blessed and we are important because God loves us.  Knowing that, we can then approach our daily work in a different way: loving and serving through it instead of extracting and controlling.  We come to each day full instead of empty, looking for opportunities to give instead of validation.

That's a whole new approach to life...a perspective that only comes when you understand and respect the sanctity of the Sabbath, the ceasing and resting, the holy discipline of laying down the yoke and celebrating freedom.  It takes trust.  It takes commitment.  It even takes training people around you to accept something new...something friends and family might have a hard time understanding.  But setting aside a day for God, for renewal, for doing something different than the other six pays back in ways beyond mere time and rest.  That one day changes the other six and everything we do in them.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

What You Can Learn From Church in Just One Day: Part 4

Today we conclude this week's series on what you can learn in church in just one day...in this case last Sunday, October 27th.  We've already talked about some of the things we learned in Sunday School, Worship, and Confirmation.  But after all that came one more event.  The boys came trooping and driving up the hill to play D&D.

We actually didn't play at the church this Sunday.  Instead we carpooled down to Clarkston to play with our friend Grayson, who is staying there as his house in Genesee is remodeled.  It's always great to see Grayson and it's ten times as fun now that he's closer to home!  We gathered as friends, shared some pop and snacks, and got to playing!

D&D is a cooperative game.  The players don't play against each other, but against a scenario in the game.  The challenges they face can be tough!  Mostly it boils down to thinking ahead, communicating clearly with your team, and taking advantage of each player's strengths.  If you don't manage that--if even one person goes off the rail or is in it for themselves--the players usually end up in disaster.  When that happens they have to roll up another set of characters and start all over...sad face.  But when it all comes together, when the plan is good, and when they get just the right roll of the dice to make it work, cheers resound.

This Sunday was a pretty good day for the guys.  They started off a little random and rocky but by the end of the day they had gotten in the groove and managed to persevere.

In a way, what the players go through on a given day is not too different than what a family or workplace goes through.  You have a hundred different possible goals and a hundred ways of trying to achieve them.  The players have to come to a consensus agreeable to everyone.  One person holding out usually scuttles everything.  They talk, negotiate, then work hard together once the plan is set.  In the end it matters less if you agree with the plan or like the process that got you there.  Working together is the thing.  Everybody pursuing a less-than-ideal plan with good intentions and full commitment will usually end up better than people following a fantastic plan but only half of them committing.  I'm thinking that someday when these young men have children, jobs, and all that stuff in their lives they'll have already been prepared to work through the steps necessary to prosper.

We could go more into the things you learn in D&D but we won't make this too long.  The points of this whole series have been three:

1. You learn something from every experience at church.

2.  In each example we've cited, we've covered only one or two things people learned...not even scratching the surface.  Actually being there offered the opportunity for much more.

3.  Missing even one day means you miss a lot!  The process will repeat this Sunday with Sunday School, Worship, Fellowship, more D&D, and Girls' Discussion Group.  The beat goes on.

Don't forget Theology on Tap tonight (Saturday) at Brent and Verna's.  See you there!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

What You Can Learn From Church in Just One Day: Part 3

After learning things in Sunday School and worship, our series on the things you can learn in church in just one day marches on through Confirmation class.  We meet every other Sunday following worship.

The first lesson in last Sunday's class was how fun and tasty church could be.  Following our Latin American themed service we had south of the border snacks for fellowship.  Our Confirmation students got to sample fresh-made chips, salsas, and various dips and nachos.  They saw plenty of people gathering and laughing and lining up to eat...a powerful lesson about the joy being together brings us!  We had plenty of fun in the classroom seeing who could stand the super-hot salsa.

After that it was time to get down to work.  After going through the Old Testament last year, this year we're talking about Jesus and the effect he had on the world.  This Sunday we discussed his early ministry, the temptations in the wilderness and the Sermon on the Mount.

We learned how Satan tempted Jesus at his weakest point, after 40 days and nights of fasting in devotion to God.  We heard about the three temptations: making bread from stones, bowing down to receive control over the world, leaping from the temple roof to prove God would save you.  We heard Jesus reject all three, renouncing the devil three times just as we do at our baptism.  We also covered the positive affirmations that Jesus showed us by his resistance:  God will provide for us.  We do not have to use our power selfishly, to feed our own desires or in slavery to our needs.  We already have the gifts we need to live and prosper.  We don't have to bow down to other powers to try and gain more.  Those powers only bring us more emptiness and a longing that will never be filled.  We do not have to prove God to ourselves or anyone.  We can't.  All we can do is trust him and live our lives accordingly, knowing that we are his.

We learned that after Jesus emerged from the wilderness he began doing four important things:  preaching the Word of God, teaching people what it meant, healing their illnesses, and forgiving their sins.  We still do those four things in his name when we gather together, especially in church!

In the section on the Sermon on the Mount we first learned that the story was told twice, in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.  Matthew has Jesus preaching from a hilltop.  Luke has him speaking from the bottom of a dell, like an amphitheater. It's probably called the "Sermon on the Mount" because that sounds better than "Sermon in the Dip".

In this sermon Jesus shared with his followers the basic things they'd need to know in order to live out God's Word.

1.  The world considers certain people "blessed", or favored by God.  God doesn't see things on the world's terms.  He doesn't favor the rich more because they're rich or the powerful because of their influence.  God reaches out to and takes care of the poor, the humble, those who cry and mourn, those who are picked on and reviled because they do good.  His heart goes out to people in need.

2.  We are to love our brothers and sisters.  If we do not care about them we are not doing our best to serve God, for they are his children too.  We are to love even our enemies, not with a mushy feeling but in Christ's name.

3. If someone does evil to us we are not to respond in kind, as if evil were powerful.  Instead we are to respond to evil with good in order to show its power.

4.  We are not to pray or live out our Christian lives with arrogance to show the world how good we are.  Instead we are to talk to God humbly and pray that he will show the world how good he is.

5.  We do not have to worry.  God knows our needs and will provide, even as he provides for the lilys of the field and the birds of the air.  God will uphold and comfort us.

6.  In everything we are to do unto others as we'd want them to do unto us, not living by our selfish, base instincts and fears but living in God's mercy.

7.  Those who hear these words and base their lives on them are building their house on a solid foundation.  What they do will endure.  Those who base their lives on anything else are building on sand.  Whatever they construct will eventually fall apart.

We talked about the last moments of life, hearing people talk on their death bed.  In all my years of sitting with people at their moment of passing, I have never heard anyone say, "I'm so proud I had that fancy car and made tons of money."  The only thing people look back on--the only thing that matters--is whether they loved and were loved...whether they built grace-filled relationships and felt they did good in the world.  The Sermon on the Mount shows us how to do that.

Confirmation class is always profound, but this session in particular always gets me.  Jesus' words here are so heartfelt, simple yet far-reaching.  It's a good reminder for us in a world that seems to pull us in a hundred different directions and gives us a million commitments to cement us to each.  No matter where we go, no matter what we do, only one thing really matters: living out a godly life.

It's amazing how your life can change in just one day at church.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

What You Can Learn From Church in Just One Day: Part 1

This week we're doing a series on things you can learn in church in just one day.  It'll focus on last Sunday, the 27th of October.  We'll talk about the events our church hosted and some simple lessons that came from them.

Part 1 talks about Sunday School.  Though we're not talking about all of Sunday School.  Though all ages of kids met together this Sunday for a special event, our Adult Sunday School class still met separately.  So if you want to learn what they talked about you'll have to ask them!  It's worth noting, though, that even these stories only paint part of the picture.

Last Sunday our Sunday School students gathered for a special Halloween treat.  At 9:00 a.m. we all trooped over to Pastor Dave and Careen's house to watch Room on the Broom.  This short movie is based on a children's book of the same name.  It tells the story of a kind witch and her cat who apparently do everything together.  Their favorite activity is soaring high in the sky on the witch's broom.  But the witch also has a bad habit of losing anything that isn't stapled to her forehead.  In the course of a day's flying she manages to drop her hat, hair ribbon, and wand.  Each time the lost item is found by a different friend:  dog, bird, frog.  Each new friend asks if there's room on the witch's broom for them to go flying too.  Even though her cat strenuously objects, the kindhearted lady always says, "Yes!"  Eventually they deal with a broken broom, a looming dragon, and all sorts of adventures together.

The movie is filmed in wonderful British stop-action style.  The music, artwork, and voice acting are wonderful.  It's an amazing piece of work.

More importantly, we asked the students what this story might tell us about God.  Part of it was easy.  There's always "room on the broom" with God!  No matter how many friends we have, more are welcome.  The witch's unfailingly kind response to the animals reflects God's invitation to us.  "Of course, you're always welcome!"

The witch's cat provided even more insight into faith and church.  From the beginning, and nearly throughout the whole movie, the cat was opposed to the addition of new animals.  Kitty loved precedence, the relationship with the witch, the prime place on the broom!  Those other animals were messy, annoying, unwelcome.  Every time the witch said, "Yes!" to one of them the cat slapped his forehead in chagrin.  He immediately began ordering them to get out of his space on the broom, to sit towards the back, to stop making noise and fussing and messing up the ride.

Kitty can reflect our attitude about church.  We don't hate other people, we just love the way we do things!  We want to preserve that way and our special relationship with God.  Therefore we're tempted to cite precedence and tradition, to keep other people off the broom...or at least out of the driver's seat!

It's worth noting that as soon as each animal got permission to get on the broom, they quickly joined the cat's side when the next animal wanted on.  Cat said no to dog.  After dog got on anyway both dog and cat said no to bird, and so on.

We have to remember that God, our broom driver, keeps up his "Yes!" no matter what.  Our job isn't to talk him out of it in favor of keeping us special and exclusive, but to happily make "room on the broom" for all he might invite.  Kind and welcoming, ready to celebrate the amazing flight...that's our job description as people of faith.

This was a great lesson for all ages, from the youngest who mostly just enjoyed the movie and learned that kindness matters to the oldest who are exploring their own relationship with God and his church.  It's just ONE of the things that you can learn in just one day at church!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Faithful Endurance

This Sunday's gospel reading came from Luke 18: 1-8.  It centered around an interesting parable...

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Many folks, upon reading this, are troubled by two things:

Problem #1:  We're not used to hearing stories with unjust people as the main character in the Bible, especially when that story appears to justify nagging.

We have to remember here that the point of any parable is not contained in the story itself.  A parable points to a message beyond itself.  The parable of the sower is not about farmers and birds, but about how God's word hits us.  This parable is not about grumpy judges and persistent widows.  The Bible tells us what it's about before word one: always talking to God and never losing heart.

The unjust judge doesn't really exist.  You can tell he's a caricature by the way he's described: neither fearing God nor caring what people think.  He's the most darn dastardly judge there's ever been.  If this were a Western movie he'd be wearing a black hat.  He even describes himself this way!  "I am Black Bart, the judge who neither fears God nor respects other human beings!  Mwahahahahaaaa!"

The widow doesn't exist either.  All we know about her is that she is a widow, which means she's probably poor, neglected, of little standing.  We have no idea of the merits of her court case.  Her adversary isn't named.  She just calls him "my adversary".  We do know that she won't stop asking the judge for justice no matter what.  She bothers him day and night to get whatever she's in desperate need of.

Neither character is the center of the story.  Rather the judge's conclusion is.  He doesn't care about her, about her case, about justice at all.  He just wants to get her off his back.  So he grants her request, if nothing else to hush her up!  This dispensing of justice by the Worst Judge in the World is the main act, the tipping point of the story.

The message here gets explained by Jesus himself.  If the worst black-hatted guy in the world will grant justice to a woman of no standing just because she needs it enough to keep asking (to not give up) won't God grant his children justice as well?  After all God is the best being in the universe, not the worst.  If even the lowest common denominator person does this, how much more will God?

Problem #2:  At first glance the story appears to say, "Ask for anything you want and you'll get it, just as long as you ask every day!"

This bugs us even more than the first.  Each of us has a story of wanting a pony more than anything else in the world when we were little, of asking and asking, but never getting it.  Broken hearts, getting sick, people dying, and a hundred other things all appear to give the lie to this story.  We're tempted to be cynical or to express our anger by saying, "I didn't get what I needed, Jesus!  None of this is true.  If you really cared you would have helped me!"

Really, though, this isn't a parable about getting everything you want.  This is a story about what happens precisely when you don't get everything you want...when those prayers appear to go unanswered.

Lots of people say--or at least imply--that faith is about winning.  If you get rich, stay healthy, appear to live a charmed life then God has blessed you.  That's his job, to make you happy.  That's the "reward" you earn for your "faith".  Plenty of churches and individuals trade on this message.  "We have the super secret way to get God to bless you!  You can be a winner too!"

Faith isn't about winning.  We know this because none of us wins!  Nobody gets out of this life alive.  Nobody gets out of this life without getting hurt really badly either.  From that first broken heart to the last goodbye, the world seems to be in the business of emptying us out and roughing us up.  No amount of money or distraction will let us avoid that reality.

In the theological sense, none of us remains sinless throughout our lives.  It's impossible.  If we claim it, we're fibbing.  Jesus Christ died on the cross not for the winners, but the losers...those destined to perish without him.  That's all of us.

Faith isn't about winning.  Faith is what happens when you lose.  Jesus defines faith at the end of this gospel by asking how much he'll find on earth.  But he's not asking how many winning, holy-seeming people with charmed lives he'll find.  He's asking how many people he'll find who haven't given up despite their hardships.  He's not asking how many people he'll find whose prayers have been answered; he's asking how many people he'll find with enough trust and courage to ask anyway even if they thing they're not getting a response.

This gospel reading isn't for the magically charmed, the holier-than-everybody.  It's for everybody who has cried out in the night with a problem impossible to solve.  It's for everybody who's mourned something that's never coming back this side of heaven.  It's for everybody who's ever looked at themselves and seen a flawed, unworthy person...anything less than beautiful.   The message is simple: hang on.  God is coming.  And he will deliver justice.  He will uplift you.  It's real and it's yours.  There will be a life of peace, love, and joy for us and for our loved ones.  Nothing will stain that life, nothing bad will remain, and it will never, ever end.  We will get glimpses of it in earthly joy and earthly justice, but even those are only temporary reflections.  Justice is on its way.  Truth will prevail.  Love conquers all.  None of that is in doubt.  The only question is whether we'll remember to believe in that promise...whether our hope for a brighter day will endure and whether we'll remember to keep asking for it to come.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

The Most Important Christian Discipline

Somebody asked me the other day what I thought the most important Christian discipline was.  I actually kind of hate that sort of question because faith isn't about tips and tricks, nor going through a handy list of "things to do".  You can be technically good at a lot of things that look holy and still not be very faithful.  Thus the injunction in Matthew, Chapter 6 where Jesus says, "When you fast and pray, do not...(etc.)".  Nevertheless I want to honor the question, so here you go.

I think the most valuable Christian discipline a normal person can pursue is one suggested by Martin Luther in response to the commandment about bearing false witness.  As part of following this commandment he urged people to explain the actions of their neighbors in the kindest possible way.  Whatever your neighbors do or say, interpret it in the most charitable way possible and react accordingly.

This seems easy, but it actually requires you to exercise most of the major faith muscles.  It involves forgiveness, reaching out to understand and care about others, sacrificing oneself and one's prerogatives, abandoning the "holier than thou" and "my way or the highway" attitudes, sharing Good News instead of bad, viewing others with graceful eyes, and trusting in God and the people around you.  Just doing this one thing you learn to do just about everything needed to witness the life of faith.

Conversely failing to do this thing reveals a lack of trust, a willingness to promote oneself at the expense of others, a tendency to regard one's own opinion and outlook as the definition of "right" and "good", failure to recognize that God has made us important and beautiful, grasping at that importance and beauty through other means, defining others by their shortcomings, holding grudges, and making the world worse by bringing it down to the lowest possible definition.

How you interpret, explain, and witness about your neighbors' actions says far more about you than it does about them.  It reveals the core of your faith and your relationship with God in a way that no amount of fasting or church attendance (or any other discipline) can change.  The litmus test isn't whether you're right about your neighbors or faith or anything else.  None of us is ever completely right.  The test is what you'll do  in your not-right state.

Will you continue to be graceful to others, pouring as much love, understanding, and forgiveness into your relationships as possible, binding people together despite their shortcomings and differences?  Or do you prefer to define people by those shortcomings and differences, explain things in the worst way possible, and drive folks apart?

In the very next chapter of Matthew, in verses 7: 1-2, we read:

7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

It doesn't say we're never to judge anything.  It says the way we judge other people (i.e. talk about and interpret their actions) is also the way God will judge us.

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking charitable is the way to go here.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)