We Are All Aliens!

We are all aliens.

We are all Foreigners in this land and place.

We often don’t think of ourselves this way.

Especially, if we were born in the United States, and lived here all our lives we think of ourselves as insiders.

In our current body politic we talk about things this way.

There are immigrants, illegal immigrants, refugees, and then the rest of us who have been since birth.

Let us remember that all of us, unless we are Native Americans, come from immigrants.

Every one of our ancestors traversed the sea and came to live here for one reason or another.

My Great Grandfather, Pastor Albert Laurell, came to this country from Sweden.

He came when he was 15 ½ .

He came to attend Upsala University and then go to seminary, and eventually to become a pastor.

He came here because his single parent mother could not support him, so he came to live with his uncle who helped support him financially and emotionally.

When he was in seminary he would go to school for a year, then work for a year to earn enough money, until he was done with his schooling.

I am sure that if any of you traced your family history you could tell a similar story.

When my grandmother would tell me about my great grandfather I would wonder how he found the strength to not only survive but also to thrive in this new world.

What sustained him in his life was the relationship he had with God.

Our alienation is not just about being an immigrant.

It is also about being alienated from our true selves.

We are always searching for our homeland.

Spiritually we are on the journey to find out were we belong.

Our reading from Deuteronomy represents the end of one journey for the people of Israel.

For forty years they had wandered in the desert.

Before that their ancestors had wandered looking for a home.

They wandered looking not to be alienated from themselves and their neighbors.

When they come into the land, cultivated it, and brought forth riches from this land “flowing of milk and honey”, they need to remember that it was God who brought them here.

That just because they have this land that does not mean that they are not still aliens.

“Remember that your forefather was a wondering Armean.”

They don’t really belong here.

As good as it seems this land is not their salvation.

What brings them true salvation is the God who has been there through all their journeys.

Here is the thing about these journeys.

They were not pleasant ones.

Abraham had to wait years to have his promised son.

During the time he was waiting for his son he was wandering from here to there  going to Egypt were he disobeyed God by lying about Sarah not being his wife.

Likewise the story of Jacob is a difficult story.

It is filled with betrayal, with sin, with heartache, and pain.

Jacob steals his brother’s birthright.

Jacob’s sons pretend to kill one of their brothers.

They go to Egypt for food only to become slaves.

Yes, the Israelites where rescued from slavery, but before they came to the promised land they had to toil in the dessert for forty years.

And yet when we read the creed from Deuteronomy it sounds like everything went great that there were no problems.

And the reason for that is because even in the dessert, or sin, or tough times on the journey the Israelites believe that God is with them.

This creed confirms that even in the most difficult of times God’s hand at work.

In that way we are not aliens, because our true home is not a piece of land.

It is not a physical house.

It is not a country, city, or community.

Our true home is with God.

When we feel alienated it is because we have disconnected ourselves from God.

We have begun to think that the land, the richness of the fruit belongs to us and our hard work.

We have become dependent on temporal things for our comfort and security.

The truth is that all of those things can be gone.

We can loose a number of things in our lives that make us feel lost and wondering in the desert.

That is the great thing about God we can never lose God.

God is always there for us.

When we are feeling like we are aliens wandering about it is God who connects to our true home.

When we are wondering, “How did my life turn out this way?”

This is a question the Israelites asked themselves often in the desert.

Why did God bring us out here to die, and be miserable?

How did it end up this way?

They had forgotten that there home was not about place or having certain items, but it was in God who was leading them to the Promised Land.

It is an old saying but it is true that as Christians “we are in this world, but not of this world.”

We exist in this world, and we experience all the pain and hurt that anyone else would feel, but our vision is not only of our current pain it is longer and deeper than that.

It is looking beyond our current circumstances to know that God is leading us to a land flowing of milk and honey.

While wandering in the desert this is the kind of faith that the Israelites had to have.

God never wants them to forget it.

That even though they have now come to the Promised Land they should never forget that they are still aliens, and their true home is with God.

Because my great grandfather went through all of the hard times in his life, my life has been easier, but it is just as important for me to remember that God is my true home.

God is where I belong.

Even though I am settled and had more financial security than my great grandfather it is still God who sustains me.

The reason why Jesus is able to resist the temptations of the devil is because Jesus knows where he belongs.

Jesus vision is beyond the immediate gratification of the moment.

Jesus knows that this current desert wandering he is going through only serves to strengthen him for the journey ahead, the journey that takes him to the cross.

Jesus knows that putting his life into God the Father’s is better then temporarily having his belly full, ruling nations, or controlling a religious institution.

Jesus knows that it is better to rely on God than anything else for his substance and life.

We can share in Jesus’ vision and have faith to know that God carries us through the troubles of this day.

So even though we are aliens, we don’t have to be alienated from ourselves.

As long as we remember that it is a loving God who carries us through the desert into the Promised Land.

As long as we remember that we come from people who have always wandered, but who ultimately found their home in God.

Like my great grandfather, and like all of our immigrant ancestors.

I hope in your Lenten journey you come to see God as your home.

You come to see God leading you through whatever you might be dealing with at this time in your life.

So that you don’t feel alienated, but united with God who is always with us leading us to the Promised Land.

Amen

Turning Up To Eleven!

I don’t know how many of you know Nigel Tufnell.

He was the guitarist from the fictional band Spinal Tap.

In the movie about a fake Rock n Roll band Nigel shows the interviewer his guitar collection.

He then goes on to explain one of the reasons why his band, Spinal Tap, is better than other bands.

He shows the interviewer from this fake documentary their speakers.

“If you can see all the numbers go to eleven….It’s one louder than ten.”

I was watching this clip from the movie this week because it was Nigel’s birthday.

And it reminded me of the transfiguration.

It is Jesus way of turning up the volume to eleven.

Up to this point it is unclear who exactly Jesus is.

His disciples have some notion that something extraordinary is happening with their rabbi.

He has cured the sick, preached good news to the poor, cast out demons, even stilled a storm.

Peter has confessed that he is the messiah, but the disciples are not clear what that means.

And then we have Jesus go up a mountain, and become transfigured before John, James, and Peter.

Jesus just turned the volume up to eleven.

God’s own voice tells the three disciples, “This is my son, my Chosen listen to him.”

Jesus goes from one of many rabbi’s, to the person whose words carry the weight of being the words of God.

This story seems like it is about Jesus, but I wonder if it really is not about the disciples.

I wonder how they are changed from this experience.

Jesus was transfigured, but it us the disciples that are transformed.

It is the disciples who have a whole new perspective about Jesus after this event.

They come down the mountain with Jesus and see him in a different light.

His words take on more meaning, his actions have more importance.

When Jesus eats with sinners it is not just a teacher trying to get his students to understand an important lesson about inclusion.

Now it is God’s very self coming to eat and be with sinners.

It is a statement about what God would do, and what God would have us do.

I have a good friend and we always argue about the divinity of Jesus.

My friend’s basic point is that most people struggle with Jesus divinity.

So instead of worrying about that part of Jesus we should just focus our attention on what Jesus taught us about how to live.

There are many theological problems when we take away Jesus divinity, but here is my main argument.

The things that Jesus taught us about loving others, about giving of ourselves, about not being judgmental, about forgiveness, those are divine things.

They have weight because it is not just some great teacher saying those things.

They have weight because we believe that God came down to teach us these things.

Therefore when Jesus dies on a cross it is not just another great prophet who dies because their teaching are unorthodox, it is Jesus telling us that God’s very nature is to give up everything for the love of his people.

Sure the death of Socrates is heroic and noble, but it is not divine.

Socrates doesn’t drink the hemlock so we can know the love of God, he does it so his life has integrity.

Jesus life, his teaching, his death, and his resurrection, makes no sense without his divinity.

But that is not enough, because Jesus divinity makes no sense without his humanity.

Jesus teaches us that the most human thing we can do is love, is to forgive, is to accept others.

In his humanity Jesus also shows us his divinity.

The transfiguration is about turning the volume up to eleven.

It is about seeing in Jesus’ humanity the divine work of God, and about seeing Jesus as divine so we might better understand his humanity.

And in the process Jesus’ disciples are changed from the experience.

And so are we.

I am wondering this morning how many times in our lives we are transformed by an encounter with the divine.

How much our humanity is transfigured because we know and have listened to this person called Jesus?

If we are going to listen to Jesus then we might have to come to the conclusion that some things we think about God might not be true.

For example, I never like the idea that God somehow decides who is going to win the Super Bowl, or some other sporting event.

And yet ¼ of people in the United States believe that God picks the winners of the Super Bowl.

The reason I don’t think God picks the winner is because Jesus never taught us that God is on the side of the winners.

A comedian once said, “How come the losing team never goes on television and says, “I want to thank Jesus for making me fumble”.

If we really want to listen to Jesus then we have to believe that God is on the side of those who lose.

You will not find God in the dancing, preaching, and praying on the winning team; you might find God in the broken hearts of those that lost.

Jesus’ disciples want to be on the winning team, they want to play in the Rock band that turns up the volume to eleven.

And yet at every turn Jesus trumps these expectations.

Jesus is not on the team that has the most money, weapons, power, or the best quarterback.

That is the paradoxical nature of Jesus.

Even as he reveals his divine nature in this spectacular way, it is not understood fully until he reveals God who dies on a cross for the sins of the world.

God turns up the volume to eleven but not so that we can be the best, but so we can understand the losers.

This past week a Missouri synod pastor was reprimanded for praying in an interfaith service after the tragedy in Newtown, CT.

(For those who do not know the Missouri synod is another Lutheran denomination.)

What is saddest about this whole story is the idea that Jesus is the winner/victor over the other religions.

That Jesus is the best and therefore we cannot mingle with other religions because it might give the impression that they are on equal footing with Christianity.

Is that what Christianity is about?

Is it about gaining the most points so we can be the best?

If it is I don’t want any part of it.

Because the God taught to me in Jesus Christ is the God who enters fully into our humanity, the God who comes into our pain and suffering fully.

It is the God who does not care about who is praying with whom, only that people are suffering.

You see we need to listen to Jesus.

We can’t listen to the world any longer.

The world tells us that life is all about winning, being the best.

Jesus tells us that life is about so much more.

It is about giving up our lives for others, loving sinners (even ourselves), forgiving others, having mercy for those that don’t win, and seeing God in the suffering and pain of ourselves and others.

We are about to enter our Lenten season.

And today we are challenged by God to listen to Jesus.

To be transformed by what Jesus has to tell us about God.

Jesus has turned the volume up to eleven so we can hear him better.

Are we ready to leave the mountain, and enter again into the world?

Are we ready to listen to Jesus?

When we do we become transfigured.

We change, and are more willing ready and able to give and love.

In that giving and loving we become like Christ even more human and more divine.

Amen

Thrown Off A Cliff!

“Good Sermon pastor”

I hear this at least a couple of times on any given Sunday.

I always appreciate it.

It makes me feel good that the message I have worked on all week hits home for somebody in some way.

I am happy to bring the good news of Jesus to people and have them respond well to it.

I am happy that I can lift someone up, give them hope, or just say a word that might comfort.

But what about the other sermons the ones that get us thrown off cliffs, the ones where we take risks and jump off cliffs, the ones where no one says, “Good Sermon Pastor.”

The sermons that do not make us feel good or comfort us, but the ones that challenge us.

It is clear the Jesus hometown synagogue had settled in for the first kind of sermon.

They were ready for the comfort and hope.

Jesus had just told them he came to bring good news to the poor, make the blind see, and set the captives free.

All things they wanted to hear.

Yes, tell us about how God cares about us, and love us, tell us that you are going to be the one to set us free.

They were settling in for the sermon of comfort.

It turns out different doesn’t.

Because Jesus sermon turns into a reminder that God’s love, comfort, and hope are not just for them, but for others.

Jesus reminds them of two stories from their sacred writing’s about the way two of their most revered prophets went to help not the people of Israel, but outsiders.

Jesus reminds them of their own tradition that says, God’s activity is bigger than clan and nationality.

When they here that message that is uncomfortable and challenging to the way they have ordered life, well….it goes from “good sermon pastor” to… a mob who wants to throw Jesus off the cliff.

A friend told me this story about going to church and hearing a sermon that really disturbed him.

On Monday morning he called the pastor and expressed his concern over the content of the message.

The pastor listened to the concern and then responded, “I guess it was a good sermon then because you still are thinking about it today. And it is still challenging you.

It disturbed so much that you are still thinking about it.”

The word of God is not always easy.

It does not always say what we wish it said, or what we wanted it to say.

The word of God does not always confirm for us what we think.

I am finding this is one of the more challenging things about Bible Study.

People want the Bible to confirm for them the feel good messages they receive from pop psychology we consume in our culture.

They want to say things that well it just doesn’t say.

Just as an example.

People will say something like this, “I am a good person and therefore I am ok.”

That is a nice thought but it is not the biblical thought.

Jesus never talks about people being good.

He talks about God being good.

He talks about God being in places that we don’t expect, in ways that we don’t expect, and with people we don’t expect.

But Jesus never says, “Just be a good person and everything will be ok.”

Jesus says to us that we are not as good as we think we are.

That despite appearances we harbor ill will towards others, that we are not always honest with ourselves about our prejudices, and that we don’t always treat others in the way that God would like us to.

It is a disturbing message, because it breaks down our façade about who we think we are.

We can’t just be good people.

We need God for that.

We need God to challenge us and teach us, and mold us, so that we really learn what it means to love others.

This is what St. Paul is talking about this morning in our reading from Corinthians.

That to grow up in faith is to come to a more radical idea of what loving others really means.

My college chaplain, Nils Johnson, always would say to me that we could never really teach the Bible in our public schools.

People think that if we teach the Bible this will somehow make people more moral, our kids better behaved.

But the Bible message is to radical it upsets too many people, and breaks away the walls we construct to keep up the appearance that we are safe, and that we are good.

Nils used to say that we could never really teach the Good Samaritan story, because no one would think it would be a good idea to take a stranger and put them in your car, drive them to the hospital, and then pay all their medical expenses.

Not only that the many of the Biblical stories are complex, the characters do not always do the right thing.

Instead, it is only because of God’s intervention that things are set right.

The Bible challenges us to break from conventional thought and reach out in a radical way.

It messages is dangerous.

Jesus found that out after his sermon in Nazareth.

The message of God’s activity for all people is so dangerous that it almost gets him killed that day.

Eventually, it will.

Jesus message is that God shows up for the sinner among us.

God shows up for the person who doesn’t deserve it.

God shows up in ways that break our ideas of decency and good manners.

The city of Concord wants to pass some laws to stop people from pan handling.

Now if you ask my advice I would say that not to give money to people who are standing by Market Basket with a sign asking for money.

I am convinced that the money will be used for them to buy alcohol or drugs.

However, the people who are flying those signs do need help.

They are people in desperate need.

And even if we don’t give them money we should never lose our mercy and compassion for them.

The reason they want to pass a law is so we can feel better about ourselves.

So we don’t have to look at people in need.

So we are not disturbed as we leave the grocery store with our cars filled with food.

The law they want to pass might make us feel better, but it is not a good solution to the real problem.

The real problem is poverty, it is addiction, it is lack of good affordable housing, it is mental illness, it is not enough good paying jobs, and it is unfair distribution of goods.

Why not put our efforts into those things, because that means doing some hard work of reaching out, and touching the pain of another.

It is because we would rather just keep unpleasant things at bay.

We can’t just put everyone in jail, and then believe that all things are taken care of.

And perhaps that is the disturbing thing about the Bible, it challenges us to reach out beyond what we think or know.

It challenges us to believe that people not in our neighborhood or city are also the children of G1od.

A person who we have deemed unworthy Jesus tells us are the people God is here to save.

If you are mad this morning, then perhaps I have done my job.

Perhaps the best result of a sermon is people wanting to throw you off the cliff.

Hearing “good sermon pastor” is satisfying, but not always the most helpful for our spiritual growth.

So may you all be disturbed by God enough to grow into a radical love that encourages us to touch our own sins and those of others.

Amen