Passing On What Was First Given To Us

There is something about a new baby that melts even the hardest and most cynical of hearts.
I believe it is that in new babies we see the promise of tomorrow.
When we are around babies there is the sense that all the wrongs can be righted because this new life has such hope and possibility.
I know as a parent I often project onto my children all my greatest hopes.
I hope they will someday grow up to help those in need, create beauty, and undo past injustices.
I hope they will be astronauts, lawyers, politicians, teachers, or play center field for the Boston Red Sox.
This Christmas I bought my son Charlie his first t-ball set in hopes that he will fulfill my dream of someday playing for the Boston Red Sox.
What we wonder when we see babies is what will they be?
They are filled with limitless possibilities.
Today is about those possibilities for Thomas Christian Forsberg.
It is about what will God make him to be as he grows in his faith?
All of the readings we read this morning are about the calling of people of God.
We read about the call of Isaiah, St. Paul, and Peter.
All of these people share that they felt unprepared for their calling.
But we remember them today as the pillars of faith.
We know Isaiah as the most important prophet of the Old Testament.
So important that he is quoted in the New Testament more than any other person in the Old Testament.
We remember Paul as a Saint and that Christianity never would have grown without Paul’s mission to the Gentiles.
We remember Peter as the greatest of the disciples and the Rock on which Jesus built the church.

Now we might be thinking that we are not like Isaiah, Paul, and Peter.
But I think we are.
We are under the wrong assumption that it is pastors, bishops, and really godly people that are the ones who serve God while the rest of us simply go on living overly sinful lives.
Notice what Paul says to the people of the church of Corinth that he “handed on to them as of first importance what I in turn had received.”
All Paul’s calling was about was helping others see Jesus in their lives.
And all of us are called to do the same with whoever is in our lives.
With all due respect to some of the Pastors I have had in my life my faith has been most affected by people who were not pastors.
It was shaped by many people that will not be remembered on any official church calendar.

First, my life of faith was shaped by my parents.
Neither of them where pastors.
My mom is a nurse, and my Dad sold lawn and garden supplies at Sears.
They are certainly not perfect people, but what I learned from them was that in the contexts of everyday life it is important to have faith in God.
I learned that when it is hard to the pay the bills God is there for us.
I learned that when we experience death our faith tells us that there is eternal life.
I learned that being faithful in marriage is more important than always being happy.
I learned that our faith shapes how we live and what we do.
This morning I hope that all of you who are parents realize how important you are to shaping your children in their faith life.
They might not always like it or want it, but someday they will thank you for passing on to them what you already know that Jesus died for us and rose again so that we too might have eternal life.
Christian and Kelly I know that you will pass on to Thomas your faith, and show him the importance of knowing Jesus as his Lord and savior.
I know that you will live up to the promises you make this morning to teach Thomas the foundations of faith.

But parents cannot do it alone.
I also was shaped by the community of believers in my home congregation.
I was shaped not only by the Pastor but by people who gave of their time to pass along what they knew about Jesus.
This week in our congregation we said good bye for now to Judy Hartgen.
Judy was a teacher.
Teaching was one of her passions.
And she touched many children with her love of God through her teaching.
Especially in congregations where she served as a Sunday School teacher.
Also, this week Pat Peters died.
I know that none of you know who Pat Peters is but she was one of my Sunday School teachers.
She was one of the people in church who would risk talking to me when I was a malcontented teenager.
She was in my book a great saint of God, and so was Judy Hartgen.
They were both people who lived their faith and took time to share it with others.
Today as we baptize Thomas we as a congregation must remember our responsibility to share our faith with him as he grows in his own faith.
We must remember to tell him that he is God’s special Child.
And someday when he is walking around church as a malcontent teenager we must remember to say to him.
I was there at your baptism, “God loves you a lot.”

Because someone did that for us.
Someone cared enough about us to share their faith with us and to pass it on so that we could become the person that God calls us to be.
Each one of us in our baptism is called by God to be something special in the world.
Today God calls Thomas Christian Forsberg to be his special child.
None of us knows for sure what that will be practically.
We don’t know if Thomas will be a teacher, a lawyer, a salesman.
What we do know is that whatever it is God will call him to do it as one of God’s children.

The same is true of each of us.
Each one of us here this morning is called by God to live out our Christian lives in the context of everyday faith.
We are called to preach the good news to the world.
I know you might be thinking what Isaiah, Paul, and Peter were thinking that you are not worthy or not good enough, or not strong enough, or not faithful enough.
But I tell you that it is not about you, it is about what God is going to do through you.
It is about God’s power to use your life to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes Baptisms are about how cute the baby is?
In Baptism something is going on much more important.
For in Baptism we are handing over to someone else what was given to us the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That is what is happening today for Thomas.
Thomas parents Christian and Kelly are handing over to Thomas what was first given to them in their Baptism that Christ died for our sins in accordance with scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day.
What this means that Thomas life will not be about what he will become.
Rather it will be about what God will make him into.

Today I want all of us to think about that.
What is it that God has made you into?
What is it that God is calling you to be?
How are you living out your faith every day?
How are you passing on what was first given to you?

When we answer those questions then we are able to not merely be salesmen, nurses, lawyers, business people, but we are able to be disciples, apostles, and prophets.
This is the life that we as the body of Christ pass on to Thomas.
We give him the life of Jesus Christ that calls him out to be something special.
We look at this baby and we see the hope of a better tomorrow.
Perhaps he will right some of the wrongs.
But the greatest thing he will ever do is be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
The greatest thing he will ever do is pass on what was first given to him.

Let us go this morning and pass on what was given to us that Jesus Christ in accordance with the scripture died for our sins and was resurrected for our life.
Amen

Preacher's Are Like Whales

There is an old saying, “Preachers are like whales. They don’t get harpooned until they start spouting off.”
A saying that this morning I am all too aware off, because this morning’s Gospel from Luke is about Jesus spouting off and upsetting some good religious folks in his hometown of Nazareth.
See Jesus sermon had been going well.
“Everyone spoke well of him”
He told the good people of Nazareth that the Good News that they had hoped for had been fulfilled in their hearing.
That God had “Brought Good News to the poor and release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
The poor people of Nazareth who had been enslaved by the Romans welcomed this good news Jesus brought to the synagogue that morning at worship.
What they didn’t like was Jesus then telling them that the message was not only for them, but it was for the Gentiles too.
That God in the time of Elijah and Elisha had saved Gentiles as well as Jews.

Now it was not merely that the good people of Nazareth were prejudice.
It was that they believed the Gentiles to be a sinful people.
They were dirty, and did unclean things that the law of God strictly forbade.
They ate the wrong food, did not wash properly, worked on the Sabbath, and were not the chosen ones of God.
Jesus correction is that God always chooses whom God wills.
Jesus reminds us that we can never put human conditions on God even when it comes to the law that we often ascribe to God.
Because of Jesus sermon that morning the good religious folks of Nazareth were so mad wanted to throw Jesus off a cliff.
That is how enraged they were by what Jesus preached about that morning.

My question for all of you this morning the good people of Concordia Lutheran Church is who do you want to keep out?
All of us to some degree or another have someone in our mind who is not worthy of God’s attention.
And sometimes we even use the Bible to do it.
We use the word of God to show that our prejudice or our own self righteousness is justified.
Who is it for you?
Muslims?
Blacks?
Gays?
Whoever it is we have to be careful because God always surprises us.
The Good News of Jesus Christ is not just for us, but for all the people we think unworthy.

One of the great issues of our day is homosexuality.
It is not a new thing of course.
But because it is out in our society it has been hotly debated.
This past summer the ELCA once again debated this issue at our national church wide assembly.
As of January first gay marriage became legal in the state of New Hampshire.
This morning I want us to put aside the issue of gay marriage or clergy being allowed to serve congregations who are in committed same gendered relationships.
I want us to put those issues on the back burner.
I think that they are political issues and they have no place in my mind in pulpit.
If you want to ask me about my position on these issues as a citizen of this country I will give it to you.
What we are here to do this morning is to hear God’s word.
And what that word says to us is that there is no one that God excludes.
There are people that we exclude, but God will chose whom God wills.
If God wants to pick a widow in Sidon to save his prophet God will.
If God wants to save Naaman of Syrian from leprosy God will.
The Good News of God is not just for us who think we are holy it is for everyone, and especially for those we think are not.

My grandparents taught me a great deal about the issue of homosexuality.
They taught me about God’s love and tolerance.
You see my grandmother’s brother Karl was gay.
My grandmother grew up in a very strict pietistic Swedish Lutheran home.
Her father, my great grandfather, was a Lutheran minister.
My Grandmother was not allowed to play cards or dance.
And being gay was out of the question in her household.
So my uncle Karl did what was expected of him.
He got married, had kids, and tried to be “normal”.
The only problem was that he was who he was.
He ended up getting divorced, becoming estranged from his children, and becoming an alcoholic.
He died a lonely man, except for the love and support my grandparents continued to give him.

Now, one could quote seven biblical passages about the sin of my great uncle Karl.
You could use the Bible to suggest that he deserved what he got in life.
But what I think Jesus challenged the people within the synagogue that morning and the one I am challenging with you today is what about the rest of the Biblical witness.
What about the passages like we read from Paul’s letter this morning that speaks of love.
In fact, Paul tells us that nothing is more important than love.
Consider this translation from Eugene Peterson’s The message,
1 Corinthians 13
The Way of Love
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

12We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

We can follow the letter of the law, be the best person in the world, have all the faith, and understand all the mysteries and if we don’t have love then it all means nothing.
That is what I am asking us to consider this morning.
That God’s love has no bounds.
That the person you can’t stand, the person whose behavior is abhorrent to you, is also loved by God.
And that person you are called to love as well.

You see people are not political issues, they are not meant to be debated on television, or in church halls.
People are people meant to be loved and cared for.
My grandparents are not moral crusaders for some gay agenda, they simply loved and cared for someone in their life and taught their children and grandchildren to do the same.
This is the stronger message in the Bible.
It does not negate sin it only suggests that God’s love is bigger than sin.

And thank God because my sin is pretty bad.
I want God to forgive my sin why would I negate that from someone else.
That is what St. Paul is trying to get the church at Corinth to understand, it is what Jesus is trying to get the good people of Nazareth to understand.
It is what we as God’s people here need to constantly remind ourselves.
Church is not about taking theological stands and then stubbornly defending them until we get our way or leave because not enough people agree with us.
It is about the relationships we form with one another and our God.
It is about how well we welcome into our midst the stranger and the outsider.
Henri Nouwen the great spiritual writer says it this way:
Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them a space where change can take place.
It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines.
It is not to lead our neighbor into a corner where there are no alternatives left, but to open a wide spectrum of options for choice and commitment.
This is what I hope for our church.
Is that we as the people of God will offer space for all of us to experience God.
That we can do that without always judging the worthiness of someone else, but just offer space for them to be themselves and to know God’s love.
This does not mean that everyone does whatever they want it means that our lives are governed by the ethics of love, understanding, and peace.
This sermon might make you mad, or you might not think this is an appropriate topic to talk about.
But the topic this morning is about who God loves and cares about.
The answer is everyone.
That is the clear message of Jesus sermon to the good religious folks of Nazareth.
I worried about this sermon.
In the end I decided to trust all of you.
That you would hear the message as intended not as some conspiracy to get you to think a certain way, but as an invitation to expand your thinking about God’s vision and love for all people.
This morning I would have to risk getting harpooned because God’s love is for all people, and that might seem easy to accept until we hear who those other people are.
This morning let us share the good news with all people.
Let us love as God has loved us.
Let us know that God’s love is bigger than our prejudice or our sin. Ame

People of Concordia

 

With One Heart

When I read the reading appointed for this morning I instantly thought how appropriate it was that on the day when we are going to have our annual meeting we read from St. Paul’s letter to Corinthians about the importance of unity in the body of Christ.
In my mind nothing is more important to our life together then an understanding of our unity.
First of all we should say that our unity is not about all of us agreeing on everything.
There is no way two people let alone eighty people will ever think exactly alike on any subject.
If you want proof, simply talk to someone who is married and they will tell you how hard it is for two people to agree on issues.
Notice in Paul’s description of the body there are many parts of the body all doing different things.
The hand and eye are not the same, and do not have the same function.
But they work together for the same purpose.
In our life together we might not always agree on every little thing.
What we have to agree on is the big thing.
What we are here to do is serve the same God.
What we are here to do is show others Jesus Christ, and help them grow in their faith.

Second, all parts of the body are important.
Everyone has a job to do, and the body does not function without its parts.
Every person in this congregation is important to me.
I believe that God put you here for some reason.
To accomplish some task within the body of Christ.
I don’t believe that any of us are here merely by accident, but that God arranged the body of Christ for a reason.
Where would we be without one another?
Where would our congregation be with Joann Willmansen?
We would not be able to sing as wonderfully and beautifully as we do.
Our choir would not have its wonderful spirit and joyful noise that it makes to the Lord.
One the other hand where would Joann Willamsen be without the choir?
Where would she be with Jean, Phil, Betsy, Sally, Andi, or any of the other people who sing in the choir?
Each voice is important and adds to the wonderfully beautiful singing we get to hear.
Where would our congregation be without Alva Hauser?
The table of the Lord would not be set.
Worship would come to a complete hault.
Alva Makes sure that someone is ready to set up the altar each week.
To change the paraments according to the liturgical season, and to make sure the bread and wine are set out.
But where would she be without all the people who help her?
Where would she be without Phyllis, faith, Virginia, Judith, Kate or Joyce?
Indeed we all need one another.
We need each other because together our gifts taken as a whole add up to the body of Jesus Christ.

Where would be without our ushers, communion assistants, worship assistants?
There would be no worship on Sunday morning.
Where would be without our church council?
Where would be without Phil Joseph who puts his heart and soul into doing God’s work?
Where would be without Bill Hauser who keeps us on track?
Where would be without Edwina who takes minutes?
Or Jennifer Buck and Bob Hunton who count the money and pay the bills?
Now there might some of you out there who I haven’t mentioned yet.
And it would appear that perhaps those there are some who do less.
But just coming to worship every week is something that is important to the body of Christ.
Imagine if I had no one to preach to.
Imagine if no one heard the word of God?
We need people who hear, who take it to heart and who live it out in their everyday lives.
You are important to the body of Christ too.
Not everyone should serve on the Church council.
Not everyone should sing in the choir.
In fact, there might be some of you who come and then do something for the Lord that none of us sees.
Is not serving your community also the Lord’s work?
Some of you might be scout leaders, coaches, teachers, police officers, nurses, doctors…
All of those things are important part of what we do here at Concordia.
As long as you see those things as all being part of your calling to serve God by serving your neighbors they are important to our common ministry.

So we see that we all matter that everyone of us is called by God to play some part in this body of Christ.
It is important to keep in mind at a congregational meeting so that we do not get lost in the details of running the institution of the Church.
Because ultimately what our congregational is about, and what the church is about, is relationships.
The relationship each of us has with God.
And the relationship each of us has with other parts of the body of Christ.

Someone once suggested to me that I take this too personally.
I want you to know that I do take this calling of mine personally.
Because for me church is about our relationship to one another.
I care about each and every one of you.
Sometimes I wish that I didn’t.
I wish I could just let go of those people that disagree with me.
I can’t because I think you are important to this endeavor.
It matters that you are here even if we disagree.
We are the body of Christ and everyone here matters.

And if one of us suffers….we all suffer.
If you are suffering for whatever reason I suffer with you.
I want you all to know Christ personally and we do that through one another.
It is why your problems become my problems.
It is why what happens to you matters.
It is why it is so painful when we don’t talk out our issues.
On the flip side your joys are my joys.
When one rejoices….we all rejoice.
Your triumphs are mine and vise versa.
This is why we have to root for one another to be successful.

The success of a church is determined by how well the people involved work with one another.
If everyone is going in the same direction with the same mission in mind then things go well.
When there is division, rancor, and hostility with everyone doing their own thing then well things are not so good.

We are the body of Christ together.
We need one another.
We suffer together…we rejoice together.
And together we serve as Jesus presence to others here in Concordia.
As we gather for our annual meeting let us remember our unity in Christ.
Let us remember our gifts that we use to serve Jesus in this place and time.
Amen

What Will Be The Story That You Tell?

Recently religion has been in the news.
Brit Hume, the anchor from Fox news got in trouble recently when he suggested that Tiger Woods should convert to Christianity because there he would find forgiveness.
Brit took a beating from a lot of people about these remarks.
Some even suggesting that he was being narrow minded in his views.
This past week, Pat Robertson suggested that Haiti’s problems where due to a pack with the devil they made back during the slave revolt that lead to their independence from the French.
In my mind these two uses of religion and of our Christian faith are very different.
On the one hand Brit Hume was witnessing to his faith in Jesus Christ that it is about forgiveness and grace.
On the other hand Pat Robertson a pastor, who should know better, used his pulpit to spread what amounted to half-truths and misunderstanding when what was called for was God’s words of comfort, compassion, justice, healing, and hope.
Of course some folks used these two stories for political fodder in the public war over God, but this is not a political matter it is a religious and theological one about when and how we use God’s name.
It is about what stories we tell about how God relates to us in this world.

This morning’s Gospel reminds us that God always saves the best for last.
Just when we think everything is lost.
Just when we think all our lives are empty without hope, here comes Jesus Christ.
Into the middle of whatever situation we find ourselves Jesus comes.
This story of Jesus filling the water jugs with wine has always been a mystery to me.
Why is John telling us a story about a wedding that Jesus attends?
What is the point?
Then you read and reread it carefully.
What you see is Jesus acting with grace?
It might not be his time, but there is a need to fulfill.
His hour is our lost time.
The bride and groom need wine.
So he acts.
Jesus gives the good wine at a time not expected and a place not expected.
And what we discover is that God has saved the best for last.
Yes God rescued the people from slavery, led them to the Promised Land, yes God gave them the law and prophets.
But now God has done something even greater.
God has given his Son for us.
John’s entire Gospel is about what Jesus does for us on the cross.
The stories that he tells are not merely whimsical antidotes about things Jesus did.
They all point us to the grace of God given in his Son Jesus Christ.

Let me suggest that the stories we tell one another.
The way that we frame those stories are important.
Because, our stories of faith are a witness to the world about our faith in Jesus being the best for us, and for the world.
That is all Brit Hume was saying.
Was if you really want to be forgiven and know forgiveness I know know no better place then Jesus Christ.
He was asked what advice he would give Tiger to help him get over this difficult period.
Brit Hume told the story about God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ and offered it to Tiger Woods.
He was not putting down Buddhism by witnessing to his own faith.

On the other hand the story that Pat Robertson shared was one of half truth.
It was not about Jesus ability to save, comfort, or give grace.
It was about what he thought of the Haitian people and that is irrelevant to the conversation.
Whatever, sins they may have committed in the past has nothing to do with God’s love and care for them.
And to suggest otherwise is to totally miss read the Gospel.

Compare the words of Pat Robertson to that of the parents of Ben Larson.
Theirs is another story about God’s work in Haiti.
Ben Larson was a seminary student from Wartburg seminary in Iowa. It is an ELCA seminary in Iowa.
Ben went to Haiti to help set up a new Lutheran Church by teaching lay leaders and pastors how to effectively spread the Gospel.
Unfortunately Ben Larson died when the building they he, his wife, and his cousin were working out of collapsed.
This is what Ben’s parents wrote about their sons passing.
“As an infant Benjamin Judd Ulring Splichal Larson was wrapped in the arms of God in the waters of baptism, and from those waters, his life was an outpouring of love and joy, laughter and play, in response to God first loving Ben.
Ben’s love of God, walking in accompaniment, passionately loving others, listening and learning from those who are poor across the globe, drove his serving.
We give thanks to God for the incredible joy of knowing Ben. His laughter, playfulness, passionate heart for those who are hurting was manifest in his daily life.
He delighted in the privilege of serving and knowing God, laying out his life in joy.
Most of the people who died in this deadly earthquake in Haiti are the poorest of the poor in this hemisphere.
Ben went to Haiti to teach theology and scripture in the new Lutheran Church of Haiti; but more deeply to learn from these people loved by God.
In his young death his life joins the bodies of the poor.
In the Haitian rubble Ben’s life joins these dear beloved people of God: all those parents crying for their children; young widows calling out for their husbands; new orphans searching for their parents.”
That is the true story of God’s work in Haiti, not some half baked theory based on an urban legend.
It is about God’s care for them in a time of great tragedy.
What will be the story that we tell about God in difficult times.
What will others say about us and our lives?
Will we tell stories of death and resurrection?
Of love and laughter.
Or will we tell stories of prejudice and half truth.
It makes all the difference because it will be the faith you witness to in the world.
What will be our faith and our witness to God as the people of Concordia Lutheran Church?
I pray we will be the people that speak of God’s forgiveness, and of his love for the poor of the world.
And we will sing songs about how God’s grace is always poured out into our empty vessels.
How God saves the best for last.
How God sent his son to be our grace and life.
The stories we tell make all the difference because it will be what people will say about us.
Since tomorrow is Martin Luther King day I am reminded of what he wrote about churches from the Birmingham Jail in 1963.
Dr. King wrote:
I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward.
I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking: "What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification?
Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred?
Where were their voices of support when bruised and weary black men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?"
What Dr. King was asking, and what I am asking this morning is what will we say to the world in need of the Churches moral leadership?
What will be the story we tell about our God?
This morning in the afterglow of Martin Luther King, in the tragedy of the earthquake in Haiti, in the disappointment that our supposed heroes are also fallen men and women, in our own lives often feeling empty and burned out, I say that our God has saved the best for last.
That this hour is God’s hour and he has come to all of us in the person of Jesus Christ.
God has come and given us grace and love, given us hope and resurrection.
And given us the power to speak and act for and with the poor amongst us.
May God continue to call us to acts of love.
Let us continue to tell others the story of our God who saved the best for last by giving his only son to die for us.
Amen

Formed by the Spirit

Traditionally Lutherans don’t talk about the Holy Spirit that much.
We are much more comfortable talking about Jesus, about the forgiveness and grace given to us through his life, death, and resurrection.
The Holy Spirit therefore usually takes a back seat.
Mostly I think because Jesus is easier to talk about.
Jesus was a real person who said things to us, and taught us about a Godly life.
The Holy Spirit is a much more nebulous kind of thing.
I cannot show you the Holy Spirit.
I cannot tell you this is what the Holy Spirit once did or said.
I cannot tell you a story about how the Holy Spirit once walked on water, or broke bread.
But this morning I want us to talk about the Holy Spirit, because it is an integral component of our faith life.

What we are reminded of this morning in the Gospel and the reading from Acts is that no baptism is complete without the Holy Spirit.
Jesus’ baptism is complete only when the Holy Spirit descends from heaven to claim him as God’s Son.
The apostles are sent to Samaria to lay hands on some Christian converts so that they will receive the Holy Spirit, because being baptized in the name of “the Lord Jesus was not enough.”
For us too it is not enough to only know Jesus we also have to pay attention to the Holy Spirit.

But what is it exactly that the Holy Spirit does?
What does the Holy Spirit do in our lives as God’s children?
I think it is helpful to start by looking at Jesus.
What is it that the Holy Spirit does for Jesus in his Baptism?
First, the Holy Spirit is what connects Jesus to the realm of heaven.
At least while he was a human it was the Holy Spirit that came and answered his prayers.
The Holy Spirit in our lives is what brings us to Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit is what gives us answers to our prayers, and our questions.
After we are baptized we grow in our faith.
What makes that growth possible is the Holy Spirit.
We do not come away from the font fully formed into the people God wants us to be, nor the people we want to be.
That takes years, decades.
And many, many prayers.
Only after we have gone through many things with God do we fully realize the power of faith and what it really means for our lives.

I have talked to a number of people who will say things like, “I can never go to church I am just not a good person.”
That is who church is for!!
That is what the Holy Spirit is for, to form us into God’s people.
The Church is for all of us who are not yet done having God work on us.
If you are a perfect person, or think you are, then Church is not for you.
Because here we experience the Holy Spirit as we are drawn to grow in faith, and know God better.
So the Holy Spirit is what connects our lives to heaven and to all the blessings of knowing God.

Second, the Holy Spirit prepares us for our mission in the world.
Jesus was Baptized because he was about to embark on a very important mission.
And Jesus needed the power of the Holy Spirit to be his guide.
It is the only explanation for Jesus’ Baptism.
Because Jesus is not baptized to have his sins forgiven, or to get salvation.
The same is true with our Baptism.
They prepare us for our work in the world.
Every single one of us is on a mission.
That mission is unique in some ways to all of us, but it is also the same in many ways.
Our mission is to show others God’s love by sharing our faith.
That happens in all sorts of ways.
God calls us all to do it in different ways, places, and times.
This might be the scariest thing about the Holy Spirit that once it get hold of your life you never know where it will lead.

Think about all the people that for whatever reason got the Holy Spirit into them that ended up traveling or doing something they never would have guessed because the Holy Spirit lead them there.
Think of St. Paul.
He would never thought that he would have traveled all over the world starting Churches in the name of Jesus Christ, except the Holy Spirit got a hold of his life and took him to unknowable places.
I once met a man who did the music for his congregation.
He told me how he was an addict, he never thought that this would be his life.
He never thought he would give up a Saturday to come to a Church conference on evangelism to play the piano.
But he said once he found God he can’t help himself.
Maybe that is part of the reason we don’t talk that much about the Holy Spirit because it is so unpredictable.
We never know what the Holy Spirit might call us to do next.
But whenever you get that sensation like something is taping you on the shoulder and calling you to do something that you never thought you would do it might be the Holy Spirit.
The next time you are thinking about doing something to help someone else or forgive someone you never thought you could that is the Holy Spirit.

For example, I once got a call from one of the shut-ins asking if I would go visit her.
I went and she told me about a dispute she was having with one of the other parishioners.
“What should I do?” She asked me.
“I think you should forgive her.”
We had a long talk about it.
We read scripture together, and then we prayed together.
At the end of our conversation she said, “I still don’t think I can forgive her pastor.”
But the next time I went and visited she told me that one night during her night time prayers she felt this need to forgive her.
That is the Holy Spirit at work in our lives.
The Holy Spirit calls us to the mission of love and forgiveness in the world.

Finally, the Holy Spirit is what claims us as God’s children.
In Jesus’ Baptism the voice from heaven gives Jesus his title and authority to live out his mission in the world.
“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
The same happens in each of our Baptism.
The Holy Spirit tells us that we too are God’s sons and daughters, beloved.
That is an important title for us because it defines who we are.
We are not lonely wonderers.
We are claimed by God to be God’s children.
It was important for Jesus because there would always be this question about who Jesus was and where he came from.
It is only by being claimed by God that we know that Jesus was the messiah, the anointed one sent to show us God, and baptize us with the Holy Spirit.
Being God’s children matters a lot.
It makes everything we do important to God.
Just as everything your children do is important to you.
The Holy Spirit is that constant reminder that we are not our own, but through our baptism belong to God forever.

So, we might not talk about the Holy Spirit that much but without it.
We would not know Jesus.
We would not know our mission in the world.
We would not know that we belong to God.

But because of the Holy Spirit we are drawn and formed by Jesus Christ.
We know our mission to let others know about God’s love by sharing our faith.
We know that we belong to God now and always.
So let us go out into the world led by the Holy Spirit to grow in faith, serve in love, all in the name of God our heavenly father.
Amen

2010 the year of light!

MSNBC did a poll asking people if they thought 2010 would be better than 2009.
70% of the people who responded said, “yes”.
Mostly because this last year was so lousy.
Here is a sample of some of the people said about the coming of the New Year.
“Worst year EVER; lost a parent, dog, house and filed bankruptcy, now got notice of IRS audit. 2010 can only be improvement...right?”
“I'm not a negative person, but this year and decade stunk.”
“It can't possibly be any worse...”
Many people are happy to see 2009 go.
And many people are happy to see another year come because there is at least a chance that it will be better.
I was wondering about all of you.
What was your year like?
Are you looking forward to 2010?
Are you hopeful?
Are you Pessimistic?

Regardless of how you feel about 2009 what should we be looking forward to in the New Year?
What is there to be hopeful about?
I would agree that it does not look good.
In our church, Less people are going to church than ever before.
The ELCA this year was in upheaval.
The national staff had to be cut because people are not giving as much.
In our country, terror is still the rule of the day as we were reminded on Christmas as a man tried to blow up a commercial airplane.
The economy seems to be getting better but it is not getting better very fast.
Many people are still out of work as the national unemployment is still around 10%.
We are still fighting two wars with little to no end in sight.
We have political shouting matches instead of reasoned statesmanship.

Christmas is the reminder to us that into the middle of all this Jesus comes.
This morning’s Christmas Gospel we are treated with the wonderful cosmic scene from John’s Gospel.
We are reminded that through Jesus the “Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
This is what we have to look forward to in 2010.
Not that things will get superficially better, but that we will grow spiritually.
That all the suffering we have endured in the last year was a way for us to grow closer to our families, become better stewards, and reexamine our relationship to God and others.
In 2010 what I hope is that we will grow to be able to see the light.
We are told that John was sent to testify to the light.
John was not the light.
His job was not to point to himself, or his life, but to point people towards Jesus.
To tell everyone that Jesus was the light they were missing in their lives.
Perhaps for us in 2010 we need to take John’s advice and look towards the light.
We need to stop obsessing about the darkness, about what is wrong, what does not work.
Instead, turn our collective attention to Jesus and see what it is that God is up to in our lives.

Here is the real problem with sin.
It is deceptive because it turns us in to only look at ourselves.
It makes us believe that we are the most important people in the world.
That all of our problems are too much.
And worse it makes us think that we can simply think our way out of our problems.
We can somehow make it all better.
That out there we have all the answers and it is only a matter of time before we find them.

What John pointed people to was that the only answer is Jesus.
Because Jesus is the light.
I think of that James Taylor song, “Can't get no light from the dollar bill
Don't give me no light from a TV screen”
We might search for light in other places but only in Jesus do we find the light.

What that light does for us is amazing.
It shines itself on our lives, and opens up new and glorious possibilities.
I know that this sounds great, but it does not come easy.
One of the truths Jesus gave us is that glory comes only after suffering.
Through suffering we come to understand ourselves better, we come to understand God better, and we come to grow in our understanding of the world.
It is why young people might be energetic and optimistic but not very wise.
They have not gleamed the understanding of what really goes into life.
That only when we suffer do we grow into the people God wants us to be.

I want to preface what I am about to say, I do not wish anyone harm or ill will.
If it were up to me no one would ever have anything bad happen to them.
But that is not reality.

I think that this last year with all of the suffering we have endured as individuals and as a country has a lot to teach us about ourselves, our country, our church, and our God.
There are lessons about what we should reasonably expect from our elected officials and our government.
There are lessons about how we should be good stewards of the resources we have.
There are lessons about what is really possible.
There are lessons about the power of our God.
When we suffer, when we go through bad times God is always there helping us learn about ourselves, and our world.
I am not saying God causes the bad things to happen.
I am saying God uses them to teach us, and help us grow.

Think about the lessons of cross.
There we learn about our own ability for sin.
We learn that we reject too often humility, mercy, and love.
We think of strength as bending others to our will.
But Jesus never bent others cohesively to his will.
He loved them and taught them.
We also learn that God overcomes death and sin to rise again.
To create something new and even more glorious.
Jesus is not dead but alive.

And in this new year as we look to Jesus who is the light we can look for ways that we will rise to newness of life.
We can look for the light instead of the darkness.
The light that shine always and beckons us towards it.
The light that is more powerful then the darkness.

For example, one of my good friend’s mother has been in the hospital for months.
She was there originally for aggressive chemo therapy to fight cancer.
While she was there she had a stroke.
At one point we all thought that this was the end of her life on earth.
On New Year’s eve we found out she was going home.
The prayers, the tears, the love prevailed.
The light shines in the darkness.

Last week I went to the celebration of life for Pastor Robert Robb.
I heard stories of a man who loved people, loved his family, loved God, and who went home to be with his Lord.
Because his faith, the faith he preached and taught about told him that death has been destroyed through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and so we were able to celebrate his life and not only mourn his passing.
The light shines in the darkness.

What is the story that you will tell.
What will be the ways in which Jesus Christ comes into your dark place and shines His light?
I am here to tell you to expect Jesus the light of the world to be in your life in 2010, and because of that it will only get better.
That even in the dark times God is there using it to form us and to help us grow in our faith and love for one another.

So happy New Year.
Happy 2010!
When the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overtake it.
Amen