Monday Morning Sermon Part 2: Pastor Dave's List of Non-Time Wasters

Yesterday we talked about Matthew 25: 14-30 and how it's perfectly possible to squander your God-given gifts by remaining busy with things that don't matter as much as you'd think.  The post included a list of potential time-wasters.  Today we look at the flip side with...

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Monday Morning Sermon: November 14th, 2011

This Sunday's gospel was Matthew 25: 14-30.  It's too long to post but you can read it here. The NIV version talks about "bags of gold" instead of "talents" but the story is the same.  It's the famous parable of the servants to whom the master bequeathed resources in various amounts.  The servant given five units of money made five more to return to the master when he came.  The servant given two made two more.  The servant given one buried it in the ground and did nothing.  When the master returned the servant returned the single talent with a screed about not wanting to work for a harsh master who just takes the proceeds of your work...as if the talent was his to begin with and hadn't just been given to him by the master!  The first two servants were favored and given even more.  The third got yelled at and cast out for being lazy, wicked, ultimately un-inventive and unproductive with the gifts given to him...monetary and otherwise.

The message here is pretty simple:  God doesn't like it when we squander our time and the gifts he has given us.  This is tricky because the disease of the modern era is having too much to do.  Our lives are rushed, stuffed like never before with options and demands.
Too often, though, we confuse being busy with being productive and doing well.  Sometimes the things we're busy with--things which occupy our time and energy--are the equivalent of the un-inventive, unproductive servant's talent burial.  Instead of being an avenue to good and the Kingdom of God they become a buffer between us and meaningful progress.

Reflecting upon all this in practical terms I came up with a couple of lists detailing things to embrace and things to beware of when deciding how to occupy your time.  You can read the first after the "Read More" jump.  The second will come tomorrow.

Confirmation Student Questions: Hurt

Today we continue our look at questions submitted by our church's Confirmation students through their sermon notes.  This is the first of two questions we'll field on the sermon from last Sunday on blessings. (The Monday morning version can be found here.)

If God is with us and blessing us, why do we still feel hurt?

In the beginning of all things, back in the Garden of Eden, everything was perfect.  Nobody knew pain or suffering or loss of any kind.  Then Adam and Eve bit the fruit and brought sin into the world.  The Bible tells us that sin didn't just break them, it broke the whole world and their relationship with it.  Thorns came upon the ground, we experienced physical pain for the first time, people started blaming and accusing each other and hurting with words, death became a part of our reality.  The world wasn't the way it was meant to be anymore.  We made it that way through sin.

You don't have to look very far to see the world is still broken.  People at school often fight and say mean things about each other instead of getting along.  Some people in a community have plenty to eat, others have little or none.  Nobody knows who to vote for in the presidential elections because all of the candidates seem self-centered and out of touch.  Racism, war, famine, disease, natural disasters...these things afflict the world every day, causing people to suffer.

The hurt we feel is a response to this "brokenness".  I don't know if you've ever known anyone whose nerve endings have been deadened.  It happens sometimes either because of a birth condition or some kind of accident.  Not having any feeling in a part of your body creates an incredibly difficult challenge.  The biggest problem is that you can't feel pain.  If you have no feeling in your foot you could step on a nail and it'll just drive right through you without you knowing.  I've heard of people without feeling in a hand who actually burned it on the stove and only knew it when they started smelling their skin burning, long after the damage was done.

Imagine having that same thing in your spirit.  If you never hurt you'd be viewing things like racism, poverty, illness, suffering from natural disasters and you just...wouldn't...care.  Hurt is your indicator that something is going wrong, something you should pay attention to.  When somebody calls you a name or treats you badly the hurt you feel tells you that this isn't right...the same way stubbing your toe on something tells you that you weren't walking right.  Hurt reminds us that the world isn't perfect and that we need to change things for the better.  Hurt reminds us not to do wrong things to each other or to put up with wrong things being done to us.  Hurt isn't pleasant but it's necessary in this way.

Even the best things in life involve hurting.  Giving birth to a child involves a fair amount of physical pain.  No matter how much you love that child, they grow really quickly!  From a parent's perspective the baby whom you were just cradling in your arms runs off to college in just the blink of an eye.  Every time you look at your adorable three-year-old you realize that he won't be three forever--not even for long--and that all of these moments are temporary.  Your best moments involve that kind of sadness.  Realizing that nothing in this life lasts forever helps you treasure those moments though.  That pain reminds you to make the most of every moment you have.  Again, hurt fills an important role in our lives even though it's unpleasant.

The hurt that comes from this broken, temporary world also reminds us to look forward to God's ultimate gift:  a return to life the way it was meant to be.  We hurt now, but we won't hurt forever.  God has promised us that we will be with him and every tear will be wiped dry.  As it turns out, the good things in this life really are forever!  Only the pain really passes away.  But we have to hold on through a fair amount of that pain in order to see the promise come true.

Every time we get together in church to celebrate we also pray for people who are suffering.  We pray for God to be with them and that he would use us to help them...not to take away their pain but to let them know that they're not alone as they deal with it.  That's probably the most important message we can bring.  I'd never take away your pain.   That would make your life a real tragedy.  But you don't have to feel alone as you bear it.  Whether it's a passing pain like a fight with a friend or an enduring pain like abuse or having a loved one die, someone's here who cares about you and is willing to walk beside you and hold your hand through it.  That walking and hand-holding is a little reflection of the heavenly healing to come.  It's a gift we give to each other as people of faith until that day when God bestows his ultimate gift on all of us.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Bible Study Reflections: November 10th, 2011

This weeks Bible Study reflection comes from the inaugural edition of Theology on Tap.  Last Saturday 14 formidable theologians got together and discussed the most appropriate question we could think of given the circumstances:  Is drinking a sin?

Addressing this question necessitated a definition of sin itself.  In the course of the conversation we managed at least six different criteria identifying sin:

1.  The Word of God provides the foundation for our moral compass, our sense of right and wrong. There's no arguing that.

The Word of God is read by, and works through, people.  People can't help but exist in a specific context which allows them to understand the Word.  Therefore we brought up several contextual touch-points which aid us in discerning sin.

2.  The effect on one's community helps identify sin.  In some cases the Bible appears to say a couple different things about the same act.  Proverbs, for instance, warns us about the dangers of drinking and compares imbibing to foolishness.  But the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus created immaculate-tasting (and much appreciated) wine at a wedding festival.  Place, time, and company seemed to determine the appropriateness of the act as much as the wine itself.

3.  Effect on the self is a contributing factor.  It's possible to harm or short-change yourself any number of ways, overeating otherwise good food being one of the more obvious.  Drinking can be misused this way as well.

4.  Pangs of guilt or conscience were mentioned as identifying factors.

5.  A person's intent can be important, though we hastened to add that sometimes intentions can be good even for acts that ultimately turn out bad.

6.  God's transformational power is a strong force, not to be put aside lightly.  Thinking big-picture, if you gather for a good purpose and hold to that, can a few ounces of a fermented beverage overcome that good purpose and his intent for you?

Obviously not all of this came out in systematic fashion.  We discussed, debated, shared stories and examples, asked questions of each other while exploring these things.  And even after all of that we didn't come up with a definitive answer!  "What?!?" you say.  "Then what was the point???"

Find out by clicking "Read More" below...