Sermon Notes: Baptism and Forgiveness

We conclude our look at the sermon notes of our recent confirmation students with some thoughts on Baptism and forgiveness:

Baptism is one of the biggest things affecting our life of faith.  A lot of times we need to fill or forgive something or someone.  People look for this from the world but the world doesn't fulfill it right away.  We look to God to help us and show us the way.

Forgiveness can be the hardest thing.  But it's the base of everything we do thanks to Baptism.  Baptism helps me forgive my parents when maybe they decide something I don't really like.  I'm sure Baptism helps them forgive me when I may frustrate them.

Life is full of ups and downs.  People break up with you, hurt your feelings, go behind your back, and all sorts of other things.  But people also make you smile and laugh!  I experience plenty of competition in sports and sometimes even in school.  But no success or failure can define us or set us apart like grace can.  For example, grace gives us way more power than beating someone in sports!

We should always remember to keep our gifts close so we stay full of these great things.  And even when we forget, God will cover us.

I mean...my goodness.  What a statement of faith, simple and direct!  As I said when we started sharing these sermon notes with you, it's not a surprise to me that these youth come up with such thoughts.  The surprise is that everybody doesn't!  Would you rather think about the world in the "normal" way--full of stress and demands and tasks and judgment--or would the world be better if we all held onto these simple-yet-deep theological affirmations that our own children are sharing with us?  Where do we learn to think of the world differently than this young person has, and why do we allow it to happen?

We all choose what we learn from, which lessons we keep closest to our hearts.  You can learn from whatever you wish, but I'm choosing to learn from this kid!

Thanks to all of our confirmation students and all of the work and thoughts they put into these sermon notes!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Sermon Notes: Love

Another meditation from confirmation sermon notes.  This one's about love.

Love.  Such a small word with SO many different words to describe it.  Affection, commitment, sacrifices, persistence.  You have to keep forgiving and showing affection.  You have to keep up with people's lives and pay attention.  You have to trust them and trust yourself.  You have to know that they will be as faithful as you are with them.

Commitment is one of the most important characteristics of love.  If you don't fight tooth and nail to show you are committed, someone is going to get hurt.  Sacrifice is another important characteristic.  It's amazing how much you have to sacrifice for other people even if you don't love them.  You can very much dislike them, yet there are still sacrifices to be made.  Jesus on the cross was the obvious one.  Laying down your life like that is extreme.  Only the people who believe in him really understand his sacrifice.  But if we want to be recognized for our sacrifices we are hardly sacrificing at all.

If we are persistent with commitment and sacrifice we will usually be fine.  Fourteen years to soak up events going on around me isn't enough time to figure out love all the way...but that was my best try.

Hmmm...commitment even to people you don't know or like, self-sacrifice, persistence despite obstacles?  I think that's a pretty good definition of love for fourteen or forty or four hundred!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Sermon Notes: God With Us

Our march of sermon note thoughts from our recent confirmation class continues...

Everyone has days when all you want to do is talk to someone or be with someone who can help you with anything you need.  Jesus is one of those people.  We can't make Jesus just appear, but he is always there no matter what.

There are many ways to make God seem closer to us.  Church is one.  Even though we all know he is with us all the time it's sometimes hard to realize out in a world filled with distractions.  Sometimes you might think to yourself, "Am I really worthy of God?"  God guides us and leads even on those days when we feel worthless.  He shows you that you really aren't.

God is amazing.  He is always with us even when we feel lonely and afraid.  Even when I I'm feeling this way I remember I'm not alone even though I may feel empty. 

I'm very busy but I know that's no excuse.  I want to remember God and all the wonderful things he does for me and how he helps me on the journey to becoming someone wonderful.  

I also want to make a difference in at least one person's life.  I haven't quite figured out how but I'm going to no matter what it takes.  God will believe in me no matter what.  I really need that because when I share some of my ideas people just look at me like, "Yeah right.  That's not going to happen."  But I know God will be my support even when I don't have everyone else by my side.

God is everyone's best friend.

What encouraging words these are!  I think perhaps our young confirmation student has already made a difference in at least one person's life just by sharing them!  I hope they inspire you as much as they did me.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Confirmation Sermon Notes: Listening and Talking to God

Today we continue looking at the sermon notes of our recently-confirmed Confirmation Class.  This lesson is about listening to God...and being careful what you ask for.  Enjoy!

I have always been a very skeptical person.  I think about times where instead of taking a leap of faith and trusting, I let doubt hold me back.  Part of me wants to say, "Pfsh.  How many 'great leaps of faith' would a 14-year-old run into?"  But once God proved to me that he was there and always listening.

We ask God to prove himself to us by giving us everything we want but we don't realize he already has.  Then when things don't go exactly our way, we cross our arms and turn our backs on Him.

My mom and I used to say prayers every night.  We'd go through everyone in our family and bless them.  In first grade I want out of school really, really bad.  The only way I could get out is if I was sick.  So one night when we were naming off names and my mom said my name I cut her off and said, "NO!  Don't bless me!"

The next night when she was approaching my name she looked at me and I shook my head.  Again I got skipped.  I don't think I really expected anything to happen.  But the morning after I woke up and it was the worst I had ever felt!  It was probably one of the worst times ever.  I will remember it even when I'm eighty-seven!

I haven't been that sick since.  I've learned my lesson!  Since then I've tried not to doubt God.  I got what I asked for from him but it turned out to be one of the worst experiences of my life!

It's never a question of whether God is listening to you, but if you are listening to him.

Words to live by from one of our youngsters!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Tuesday Morning Sermon Notes

We continue this week's reflections on sermons from our recently-confirmed confirmation class.  Enjoy the theological musings of our young folks!
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You mentioned that church and God can be different, that people tend to go to church without actually being there.

I know what you mean because I used to do this all the time when I was little.  I would go to church because it would make my mom happy.  At the time that was all that really mattered because if she was in a good mood, that would give me greater odds when it came to debating nap-time.  I was never really into church until I was about 11.  That was when I started really paying attention and it was interesting.  I would always think about the sermons as if they were stories and I would apply them to myself in my mind.

Sometimes people just space out and pray when told but never actually connect or fully engage themselves in the service.  But if you aren't going to church to be with God, why go?  Sometimes we go to make people happy or for fellowship or to play with friends.

A point you made which made me laugh was, "Bring the Spirit and the Tasks will take care of themselves."  I love this.  I'm not 100% sure why but it just makes me smile.  If you get jazzy with the things you do and you forget about the long list of things you have to do when the party (or whatever) is done, it'll make the tasks so much easier.  You will know you had a good time doing it.  That's what matters, right?

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Indeed.  Words to live by.  Here's hoping that all who participate in church--for whatever reason--devote themselves fully to that reason and that the Spirit will bless it, translating our efforts into something bigger than all of us.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Monday Morning Sermon (Notes)

Those of you who were with us on Sunday witnessed six young members of our church affirm their baptism after having completed two years of confirmation classes.  One of the high points of the service was hearing them read statements of faith that they had written, talking about their perception of God and his work in the world and their lives.

Several folks pointed out how wonderfully confident and brilliant these young theologians sounded.  I agree, but I wasn't that surprised.  I've been hearing them for a couple years now.  All of them have expressed their deep thoughts at one point or another.  In fact their curiosity and prowess influenced me to change confirmation this year, just for them.

One of the requirements for confirmation is filling out sermon notes:  reflections on the gospel and the message of the day.  Each year they're in confirmation they have to turn in 16.  They have a sheet to fill out each time.  You've probably seen them doing so.

This year I changed the requirement to only 12 sermon notes.  But only 9 of those were from the normal sheets.  I asked them to do 3 sermon notes where they went home and reflected on the message, then wrote a page about how it affected their lives.  At first they were like, "Whoa!  What?  That sounds too hard!"  But all of them did it and man...was I blessed to get to read their thoughts!

So this week, instead of sharing my own thoughts, I'm going to share excerpts from the sermon notes of our confirmands.  I've agreed to keep the actual quotes anonymous, as some of them are personal.  But I wanted you to see how these young folks think...how they process sermons and life and God.  Keep in mind, now, these are 14-16 year old kids.  In many places nobody would be listening to them, let alone asking them to share or teach their thoughts.  Read the posts this week and see if you don't think we should listen to them more!  Part of the experience is you getting a look at what we do in confirmation, but part of it is also realizing that these kids really do think deeply about God and life...and wondering why the rest of us don't do it more often.

Here's our first sermon note excerpt:

God is here or not here.  He is with us or not.  I say that to myself all the time.  God is with me but he must not be with that person because they are not like me!  But if I become friends with that person, they are holy and a part of God and he loves them.  But then as soon as we have a fight, God is on my side.  For me, people are godly and then not so fast that I can't even keep up with it.  But that isn't the right way to think about these things.

Calling myself "right" or saying that I am the only one that is near God doesn't actually MEAN I'm near God.  It actually puts me farther than those other people I've been telling myself are away from God.

Understanding this sermon was really hard for me because I do so many of the things that you gave an example to.  I tell myself they're right.  So when you said they were wrong, I was like, "WHAT?"  And so I told myself that the people believing you were wrong.  Then I would get confused and switch again.  And again.  And again.  I was afraid my head might explode.

A few days after Sunday, probably about Wednesday, I was in school and somebody talked up and the teacher didn't yell at him.  This triggered the same reaction I had to the sermon.  He was not right to do that.  I would never do that.  Just because he does it and doesn't get in trouble doesn't mean that I won't.  That isn't right.  It drove me crazy.  And then the sermon actually sunk in.  And I was like, well, I'm not going to do that thing, but just because he did doesn't mean he's without God and that he's a totally miserable person.  And that was that.  No more arguing with myself in my head!

I'm very judgmental.  People get on my nerves and, in my mind, they are the DEVIL.  But they aren't.  And now that it all has sunk in, or at least most of it, I've been trying to see the good in everyone and make myself believe that they are part of God too.  They are part of God's vine.  They too are the branches.

I read that (a slightly longer version, but still) and I went, "Wow."

Personal reflection here:  Reading this pretty much made me cry.  I mean, not that I'm the crying type, mind you.  I'm a big burly manly-man pastor!!!  Rrrawwwrr!  But we big burly manly-men pastors (and the other types too) seldom get feedback on anything we say.  I preach a sermon and pray that the Spirit will wing its way to everybody and help translate it into something meaningful and useful.  But you never know.  I pretty much preach into a void.  Other than the occasional, "Nice sermon, Pastor" I never know the effect my words have.  It requires a lot of trust and faith to get up there and preach under those conditions.  It's also pretty lonely...like you're eternally saying the most important things you can think of and you're not sure anybody hears.

So all it took was this student saying, "A few days after Sunday, probably about Wednesday" to make me say, "Oh my gosh!  Somebody thought about one of my sermons on a non-Sunday!  Somebody heard something from the gospel and used it!"  Hey...even if it was just an assignment, I'll take it!  Right there I misted up.  But then I re-read the whole thing top to bottom and thought how magnificent it was that somebody squeezed that much meaning out of scripture and married it to their own life in that moment.  It's the kind of thing you pray for, and yet here it was spelled out on paper...the wonder and beauty and struggle and triumph of life with God distilled into one sermon and a few minutes in class.  This is the way it's supposed to be.

I hope you feel as privileged to read those reflections as I did.  And they're not done!  We have many more pearls of wisdom from our young theologians this week, so stay tuned!  And congratulations and thank you to all of our confirmation students!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Sermon Note Questions: Serving Others

This Sunday's sermon on Matthew 25: 31-46 brought out an interesting question from one of our Confirmation students:

We talk about serving people but some people are independent and don't want to be helped.  How do we serve them?

The best way to answer this question is with a question:  Who gets to decide what "serving" is?

When you say "some people are independent and don't want to be helped" you're implying that "serving" means doing something for someone else in a way that doesn't let them participate fully or take ownership of the work.  It's almost like saying, "You just sit yourself down there, helpless person, and let me do this for you."  Most people aren't going to want to be served like that!  And you're right, some people hear exactly that message when we offer to help.

That's why the most important part of serving your neighbor is knowing your neighbor.  Many people of faith make the mistake of making service all about completing tasks.  This is understandable because service almost always involves some task or other.  But service isn't really about tasks, it's about people!  When we make service about tasks we're like a Boy Scout trying to complete his merit badge and not letting anybody get in the way of his goal.  We're going to help that old lady across the street whether she wants to go or not because darn it, we need to serve her!!!  Pulling grandma across the crosswalk isn't really service unless you know her, know she wants to go, and know that she appreciates the hand, right? Otherwise it's just selfishness ("I have to serve and earn my reward!") disguised as service.

Service to our neighbor is just an extension of loving our neighbor.  Loving our neighbor means taking the time to get to know them and letting them define how we can serve them.  Sometimes that might mean doing something for them while they sit and watch.  But sometimes the best service we can give is to affirm that they are independent and strong, to encourage them and cheer them on as they do the things they want and need to do.  Saying, "Your lawn looks so nice today!" can be as big of a service as going and raking all of their leaves ourselves.  It just depends on the person and what they need.

To tell the difference all you need to remember is this:  defining service by tasks makes it all about you and what you have to give, defining service by people makes it about them and what they really need.  In the first case they have to shape their lives around you, to accommodate your need to serve and feel good about yourself.  In the second case you change your life and your service to reflect them.  Service defined by a task doesn't matter much after that task is completed.  Service defined by your deep relationship with a person can lift someone's spirit for a lifetime.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Confirmation Student Questions: Hurt, Part 2

Last week we shared the first of two important Sermon Note questions from our confirmation students regarding the November 6th sermon on blessings and the Beatitudes.  Here is the second question:

If God blesses us through hard times, why doesn't he just stop people from suffering altogether?

It's a fantastic question, one which theologians have struggled to answer since the beginning of forever.  If you ask most people today you're probably going to get some kind of unsatisfactory lecture on "free will" which will imply that suffering is all about your choices and not God's fault at all.  We know this isn't true for a couple of reasons.  First, people often suffer well beyond anything they've chosen.  We don't live in a world where only good things happen to the nicest people and all the bad things happen to selfish jerks.  Some of the most innocent among us suffer the most.  Second, God just standing by while we exercise our "free will" puts us in charge of everything instead of him.  That's never a good idea.  God doesn't follow our will, we follow his.

It's always dangerous to try and guess the mind of God, but my hunch is the answer to your question has less to do with punishment, justice, and will of any sort and more to do with love.

Go back way to the beginning of time.  When Adam and Eve bit the fruit they ruined all creation.  The world was imperfect.  They were imperfect.  You can tell this by all the things that came into existence the moment the deed was done:  shame, blame, accusations, toil and thorns, pain and power struggles...all that yucky stuff you read about in Genesis 3.  These things were well outside God's perfect design for his creation.  The world was broken.

At that point God had a choice.  He could have the perfect creation he had originally intended but he'd have to start over again to make it happen...or at least make it happen right then.  In essence he would have had to crumple up this world and make a new one, complete with new plants, new sky, new animals, and a new Adam and Eve (perhaps Benny and Felicia this time).  The new world would have been perfect but it would have been without the old Adam and Eve.  They'd have been destroyed along with everything else in the re-start.

Despite how easy re-creating the world would have been for God--just a few words required--he didn't do it.  Why?  There's only one possible answer.  He loved Adam and Eve too much to lose them.  They weren't perfect anymore.  The world wasn't perfect anymore.  But he loved them anyway.  So God decided to live with their mistake, to fix it in his own way over time, no matter how much pain he and we would have to endure in the meantime.  Faced with a choice between perfection and us, he chose us.

If you could go back and interview God it might sound like this:

You:  God, you can have a spotless, shiny world right now.  It's right there for the creating.

God:  Will [insert your name here] be in it?

You:  Well, no.  You'd have to wipe away all the descendants of Adam and Eve and the sin they bear.

God:  Then I don't want it.

You:  But God, you can have new people!  Better people!  People who don't make mistakes!

God:  Don't want it.

You :  But these people are going to keep messing up.  This is going to cost lifetimes of suffering.  You'll watch them struggle generation after generation, feel their pain, see them make horrible mistakes and hurt each other badly and undergo pain and hardship.  They're not going to understand you.  Sometimes when they suffer they're going to get angry at you, question you, hate you.  They're even going to kill your own Son when you send him to help!

God:  But I still get to keep them and call them my own, right?  I still get to love them and be their father?

You:  I guess.

God:  Deal.

Now THAT is love, right?  And when God made that decision to keep us he also made the decision to keep everything that we bring, good and bad.  That means he chose to endure suffering himself and to walk alongside us when we endure suffering no matter how painful it got.  In essence he chose to bless us during suffering instead of getting rid of it...and us.

Of course God doesn't let suffering have the final word.  The end of all suffering is death. God sent his Son so that even the road to death would lead us back to him...to heaven.  In heaven there will be no more suffering or tears.  Things will be perfect again.  So God does do what we ask...he does put an end to suffering.  It's just in a little more roundabout way than we envision...a way that lets us live instead of wiping us away.

So you see, in an odd way the fact that God doesn't just eliminate our suffering shows that he is still keeping that promise, making that decision for us instead of against us.  It's weird, but even suffering becomes a sign that he still loves us.  He won't destroy us in order to make the world perfect.  Instead he'll wait and walk with us until we've lived our lives--until however many generations are coming after us have lived their lives--and then he'll show us the true fulfillment of that promise by giving us his perfection at the end of our imperfect road.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Sermon Note Questions

One of the great privileges I have is to read sermon notes taken by the Confirmation students.  They help me understand how my words are perceived and keep me on my toes! One of the most important things we have them do is write down a question about the sermon or the scripture, something they'd like to understand more about.

From time to time I'll share with you some of their best questions and my best attempt at a reply.  I won't reveal who wrote them because I want the students to feel confident writing whatever they wish on those pages.  But these are real questions, asked by real students in our church.  You might be surprised how much they reflect your own!

This question regards last Sunday's sermon on love and the Law:

Though we know we can't always keep the Law, should we feel guilty every time?

Click through below to hear the reply...