Thursday, February 15th Daily Lent Reading

First Reading
Daniel 9:15-25 
15 “Now, Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. 16 Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.
17 “Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. 18 Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 19 Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”
The Seventy “Sevens”
20 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill— 21 while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. 23 As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision:
24 “Seventy ‘sevens’[a] are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish[b] transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.[c]

25 “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One,[d] the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.

Second Reading
2 Timothy 4:1-5 
4 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

Sermon: Martin Luther and the Difference He Made

The Gospel for this Sunday came from the first passages of the Gospel of John, the famous description of Jesus as the Word made flesh, present at the beginning of all things yet dwelling among us, full of grace and truth.  John explained how Jesus came to his own people but they knew him not.  Yet his light shone through the darkness and the darkness could not overcome it.

This Gospel dovetailed nicely with the beginning of our Lutheran Basics course, starting next Sunday following worship.  Luther's theology had its deepest roots in the writings of Paul but the first chapter of John could have been a handbook of affirmations of our faith.  For instance, did you know that we believe these things?

• Jesus is singular, unique.  He's the only person who ever lived who could do what he did.  None of us could accomplish our own salvation no matter how hard we tried?
• Nothing in all creation stands apart from, or is able to escape, God.  We can fool ourselves into thinking we're running from God or overpowering him with our choices but fooling ourselves is all we're doing.  The tragedy of sin is not that we misuse our own things, rather that we misuse things that belong to God and are meant for goodness and life.
• No shortcoming of ours is more powerful than God's work and intention.
• Our job is not to create goodness.  We aren't capable of doing that.  Rather our job is to testify to and celebrate the goodness that God has created, especially among people who could use some good news.
• We are not capable of knowing God on our own terms.  Even realizing his presence is a sign that he loves us and has gifted us.
• We are not capable of understanding God nor understanding righteousness, at least not through our own nature.  Looking right at God we still don't recognize him.  But God inspires us to see beyond our inadequate definitions, transforms us from blindness to freedom.
• We are not simply followers of God, as if he were a doctrine.  We are God's children, heirs of salvation and eternal goodness through Jesus Christ, our brother.
• God never stops giving.
• Law and judgment are inadequate measures.  They cannot define how much God loves us.  They only show us how limited our vision and righteousness are.
• Over and above Law and judgment God gives us grace upon grace, transforming us from what we were into what we're meant to be.

Caught in the crucible of violent, confused, and fast-moving times, Martin Luther came to understand all this and more in  the words of scripture.  We also live in violent, confused, and fast-moving times, yet many of us have forgotten these things, or even if we remember them we don't know why and how they matter.

That's why this Lutheran Basics course is a big deal.  It's not a "rah rah, here's what to believe, Lutherans are right so adhere to doctrine" experience.  That stuff is a waste of time.  This is an inspirational, transformational moment in which we come to understand God and our mission in a deeper, more vital way.  It's not just about what we believe but why and how that makes a difference in our lives.  It's also the amazing story of one troubled, mixed-up monk working in the midst of chaos and despair who somehow found himself graced to deliver a message that enlightened the world.

The course will start on Sunday and continue the next few weeks after church.  You won't want to miss it.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Speaking With Authority

The wonderful Wednesday morning Women's Bible Study has embarked on a journey through the Gospel of Mark.  In the very first chapter of that gospel we found a curious concept.  Verses 21 and 22 say:

21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 

And again in verse 27 we read:

27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority!

This brought up the question, "What does it mean to speak or teach with 'authority'?"

Authority is a tricky concept.  We know it when we sense it but it's hard to define in the abstract.  In English the word has connotations of power, expertise and knowledge, reliability.  It derives from the Latin word for invention, advice, command.  In Greek the word means the power to act, to move in accordance with God's design.  Authority is the difference between being a prophet--directly conveying God's word--and being a mimic, simply repeating the words that somebody else has already taught.

When Jesus says "the Kingdom of God is near" at the beginning of Mark he's actually bringing the Kingdom, enacting it before the people, rather than just reporting on something that's already happened.  A weatherman talks about rain that might or might not happen.  If that weatherman actually made it rain with his voice, just by speaking the forecast, that would be the kind of authority being spoken of here.

Jesus is the source, the inventor, the maker...he doesn't just talk about God's word, he embodies God's word and makes it real among us.  The scribes spoke of God's word as something apart from them, a second-hand account with cemented definitions, dry and brittle, favoring their lifestyle and opinions.  Jesus brought God's word, made it alive, poured it out upon everyone he met like a living fountain.  That's authority.

What does that mean to us?  Authority is not just a matter of speaking about something, even if that speaking is done in fine style and with reasonable accuracy.  Authority comes when you embody that which you are speaking about, demonstrating it and enacting it for the world.  Last Sunday we acclaimed as a church that the Knights of Columbus had authority that morning, cutting short our worship service in order to participate in their breakfast benefit for Grayson Esser.  We stopped talking about God and lived him out instead.  In doing so we became part of that authority that we were following, making a difference to our neighbors.  As hundreds of people gathered for the same purpose, they became part of that authority themselves, following it and sharing it at the same time.  Gathering together we were fed.  Gathering together we also fed each other, supporting the event.  Most importantly we supported the Essers, giving to something beyond ourselves.  Our small action conveyed a big message.  That's authority.

In our modern culture we tend to ascribe authority to those who agree with us.  We claim authority for those who sound good, who speak well, whether or not there's substance behind their words.  These definitions bring us nothing that we didn't have already and thus don't make a difference in the world.  They don't move us or change us.  We settle for being pleased instead of being transformed.

Jesus did just the opposite.  His authority didn't please people, it moved them.  It brought them into new and right relationship with God as he lived it out and explained it to them.  It shook up their lives, changing fishermen and tax collectors into disciples, changing sinners and prostitutes into Children of God, changing "good" people into blind fools in need of discipline.  Ultimately Jesus' authority changed dead people into living as he gave his life on the cross and rose again three days later, breaking the power of death and opening the path to everlasting life.  That's authority.

We, too, have transforming authority as long as we walk that path, following Our Lord and living out his teachings in word and deed.  That authority doesn't always come wrapped in a sermon.  It comes when peace is shared, food is donated, neighbors are uplifted, sins are forgiven, power and privilege are put aside for the sake of someone in need.  Authority doesn't shove aside the beggar and the leper, saying, "I have the power to be better than you."  Authority comes when we put on the clothes of the poor and the ill and vow we will walk beside them no matter what comes, no matter where the path leads.  In doing so we create a new path, brighter and more powerful than illness or misfortune.  We help create a new life in Jesus Christ just as he creates a new life in us.  In those moments the Kingdom of God is near for us too.

In the end authority doesn't just mean power, knowledge, or the ability to command.  Authority is the gift of making the heavenly reality of God alive here on earth among God's people as we practice his disciplines of forgiveness, healing, teaching, and sharing his love.  Authority is the ability to live out that which is real in a world obsessed with too many things that aren't.

What authority will your words and actions carry today?  Something worth thinking about...

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)