Celebrate!

This week at Vacation Bible School we were telling stories to the kids about Jesus ministry.
The kids heard the story about Jesus’ birth, turning water into wine, having his feet washed by a sinful woman, finding lost sheep, and blessing the little children.
What do all these stories have in common?
They all end with people celebrating or rejoicing.
At Jesus birth the shepherds rejoice at the news of Jesus being born.
At the wedding the people celebrate because the best wine was still available and the party could go on.
The woman rejoices because her sins are forgiven.
Jesus tells us that God rejoices when someone is lost and then found.
And Jesus celebrates that the children come to him.
Today’s Gospel is also about rejoicing.
Today Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath in the synagogue and the people rejoice because the synagogue has been returned to what it was meant to be a place of great joy that God has healed and saved us.
There is a lot of rejoicing in the stories about Jesus.
This is why we have all come to worship this morning to celebrate that God cares about us and loves us.
We have come to sing songs of praise to our God who forgives sins, heals us, sets us free, saves us, searches for us, and blesses us.
We have come to pray in thankfulness for the many blessings the God has given us.

I always think that sometimes we don’t celebrate enough in worship.
We make worship about acting the right way or doing the right thing, in the right order.
Instead of keeping our focus on what worship is really about it is about what God has done for us, not about what we do for God.
And God through Jesus has shown us a great love and a saving love.
Jesus came to reclaim what the Torah teaches that God’s love is abundant and wide.
Today we have some of my favorite Biblical passages of the Old Testament.
From The psalmist we hear that God is “full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
What wonderful beautiful words.
It sums up the Gospel message for us.
This is what Jesus came to show us and give to us a God not of anger and vengefulness.
Not a God concerned with over legalist man made rules, but a God of compassion and mercy.
This is not to say that God’s law is bad.
It is to say that the law was given so that we might know God’s love and mercy, not so that we can use against one another, or hinder the work of the Gospel.

In Isaiah we hear how the lord leads us to be repairers of the breach the breach that separates us from one another and from God.
The breach that separates us from God has been filled by Jesus coming to us to show us God’s love.
Now we are called to repair that breach for one another.

This week at Vacation Bible School we have been on the Gospel train.
And since we have been on a train this whole week I thought I would tell a train story.
This is a story based on a true story.
It happened June 15th 2009 in Pittsfield, MA.
I say based because it was told to me this week and I could not confirm it on the internet without shelling out some money.
Anyway…it is based on a true story.
On June 15th of 2009 there was a huge storm in Pittsfield MA.
There was massive flooding in the area that flooded out part of the train tracks.
But on this day the train that always traveled through the area was right on time.
Only the engineer did not know that down the track the floods from the storm had totally washed out the track.
There (we will call him Bob) was a man in town who was a train enthusiast.
Bob studied the movement of the trains and knew the schedule like the back of his hand.
On this day Bob was listening to the radio and heard about the flood.
He then realized that the train was headed for this huge breach in the track.
He ran from his house to the railroad track.
And he managed to flag down the train before it reached the breach and its demise.
Now I don’t know for sure but my guess is that the engineer, conductor and other people on that train where mighty glad that Bob had managed to warn them before they went over the breach in the track.
My guess is they celebrated their saving that day.

This story is a great train story.
And it can be used in a variety of ways.
Jesus is the one who knows how everything runs.
He knows all the wash outs and all the floods and dangers up ahead.
Jesus is the one we count on to save us from the breach to be the one who repairs it and helps us on our way.
But also Jesus is the one who gives us the ability, power, passion to help others from falling into the breach.
Jesus gives us the power to know the track and the train and to help others.
Either way we win!
Either way you look at it we are saved from eventual doom.

We don’t always know the dangers ahead.
We don’t always know what will happen around the next bend.
But in faith we stay on the tracks knowing that our God cares about us.

Indeed our God is a compassionate God slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
And that is cause to celebrate!
In fact it is the best news that I ever heard in my life.
It is Good News!

This morning I wish for you to hear that news too!
To celebrate that God cares about you and your life.
That God through Jesus Christ is here to forgive you, save you, bless you, and heal you.
That today Good News has come to this place of worship.
That we too like the crowd in the synagogue that morning can rejoice at all the wonderful things that Jesus is doing in our lives.

This week as you go about your lives search out the things that Jesus is doing for you.
Look for the ways that Jesus works in your life.
They might be small like your kids telling you that they love you for no reason.
Or it might be something big like Jesus waving you down right before you fall over a breach in the tracks.
Whatever it is look for it and take a moment to celebrate it!
Truth is that we don’t celebrate enough.
We take too much time in our lives to find who is to blame for something, or complain about things we have no control over.
Instead of celebrating that Jesus is in our midst ready to heal we sometimes want to play the legalist and think of all the reasons why it would be inappropriate.
Truth is that God wants us to rejoice!
God wants us to celebrate!

Especially on Sunday mornings
Because on Sunday mornings we are together as the people of God, and Jesus is here with us.
Jesus is here speaking wonderful words to us telling us that we are forgiven, healed, saved, set free, loved, and blessed.
Jesus is telling us that God has repaired the breach through him.
That God is abounding in steadfast love, mercy, and compassion.

So this morning let us rejoice together in all God’s goodness.
Let us praise God for sending Jesus Christ to reclaim the synagogue and preach the Good News of God’s love, saving, forgiveness, and healing.
Amen

I Came to Bring Division

“Do you think that I came to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”
Jesus bringing division is not the usual way we think of Jesus.
For many of us Jesus brings comfort into our uncertain lives.
Jesus is the rock that centers our lives, the one who calms stormy waters.
Certainly this is partly true of our lives of faith.
But what Jesus talks about this morning is the other side.
It is the Jesus who challenges us.
Jesus calls us to a life of discipleship and that brings division and struggle.
This whole summer and into the fall we are hearing Jesus teaching about what it means to be a disciple on his way to Jerusalem and the cross.
Some of these teaching are challenging for us.
They are not always words of comfort to us.
Jesus comes to bring divine divisions as he challenges us to be burned in the fire and have our lives refined.

What I thought I might do this morning is call out a series of divisive issues that we are facing in our day and have people stand up for what side of the issue they are on.
Have all the people who are pro-choice stand up, and then all the people who are pro-life stand up….
Have all the people for gay marriage stand up, and all the people against it stand up.
After thinking about it I decided against it.
But the point I wanted to make is this we don’t all agree in this congregation.
We might have love for one another, but there are divisions.
In fact, as your pastor for this last year what I have experienced sometime is divisions.
There have been times when people did not like my approach to certain topics or issues.
There have been other times when there were disagreements over the best way to do ministry.
And that is ok because part of being church together is working through our differences to find what God is calling us to do together.
I don’t know any pastor who walks into a church and thinks, “I am here to bring division.”
All the pastors I know want to work with a congregation and have a passion for the Gospel.
What we all discover is that it is impossible not to create some divisions because the Gospel is always challenging us.
The Gospel is always calling us to some new and difficult place.
That is the just the nature of Church.
It is not something we often talk about.
We like to pretend that everything is fine.
But perhaps the problem is not that we have divisions, but that we keep them secret.
The problem is that we don’t talk about what divides us enough.
We do it in the name of peace, but in the long run we really don’t create true peace we create resentment and mistrust.
I have found in my short time on this earth that when we talk about our divisions something happens to us we grow, we change, we evolve.
I can guarantee you that when my call is up at this congregation I will be a different person because of all of you, and you will be different because of me.
Changing is good because it refines us as human beings.
This is why Jesus wished the fire was already here.
Jesus wishes that we were already being refined and changed into who God has called us to be.

The Gospel is about refining us as we are called deeper into our baptismal life.
The Gospel is a call to a radical love and self giving that I don’t think sits well with most people.
And therefore it does create division.
We might not like the idea that Jesus calls us to forgive all sins as many as 7 time 70 times.
It is hard to forgive someone one time forget doing that many times.
We might not like the idea that we are called to radically giving of our possessions for others.
You are supposed to with joy give away at least ten percent of whatever you own.
Lots of people don’t like that idea.
You might not like the idea that the Gospel is best heard from the vantage point of the poor.
The Gospel of Luke has a preferential option for the poor.
Jesus very mission is to bring Good News to the poor.
Not the middle class, not the rich, not the good Christian folks like you and me.
Sometimes that idea is uncomfortable and controversial.
I was once at a wedding one of the guest was telling me that it was the religious folks who were messing up this country because we were too easy on the poor.
Not everyone likes the Gospel message.
Jesus calls us to love even our enemies, and tells us true discipleship is not found merely loving those people that love us back.
Perhaps we want there to be more rules for following Christ.
We would appreciate it if God was not so generous to people who sinned, unlike ourselves who do everything right.
We can see that the Gospel has lots of demands on us.
It brings division in our lives and sets us against the world that tells us that poor people are poor because they deserve it, or that this or that that person is not as good as you are.
The world tells us that what we earn we deserve and we should be out there to get ours.
It is the world that tells us that some people are more worthy then others.
The world tells us that we get three strikes and then we are out.
The Gospel brings division because it is so challenging to our way of thinking and doing things.

Remember it is in the Gospel of Luke that the people from his hometown want to throw Jesus off a cliff, because he suggested that God’s love was for Gentiles as well as Jews.
It is in Luke’s Gospel that the Pharisees and Sadducees.
The religious establishment starts plotting Jesus death since the start of his ministry when he would heal people on the Sabbath.
Jesus ministry is not about peace, and it does bring division because the Gospel is about refining us and making us into the image of God.

Learning to love your enemies takes time and lots of refining.
Learning to give away ten percent of your income takes lots of internal struggle and sacrifice.
Learning to care for the poor takes us out of our normal comfort zone.
Learning to forgive those who sin against us takes lots of broken relationships.
The thing about fires is that when we step into it we get hurt, but it is in the burning that we are refined.

What are the ways that you need to be refined this morning?
What are the ways Jesus is challenging you in your faith journey?
What are the ways that we as Concordia Lutheran Church are being refined and burned with fire?

These are questions that are good to ask ourselves.
They are questions that we might not like what Jesus has to say.
But perhaps the problem in the Lutheran Church in the year 2010 is that we are not on fire.
For too long we have been too complacent in our ministry.
In an effort to keep peace we have forgotten that the Gospel does bring divisions and difficult conversations.

You know there has never been a time in the history of the Church where everyone got along, and everything went really well.
From the time of Jesus resurrection and ascension we have been arguing about what it meant to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
There have always been divisions and there probably always will be.
Because what Jesus brought into our lives was a radical love and self giving that often brings division.
Through these divisions Jesus challenges us each and every day to grow and change to be refined in the fire.

So let us not hide our divisions, but rather use them as ways to be refined.
When necessary let us stand up for the Gospel even when it is uncomfortable.
Let us stand up for the poor, the sinners, and the lost.
So that we might burn with fire and be refined into God’s people.
Amen

All I got!

This week I had a visit from a friend who I have not seen in 19 years.
We were close when we worked at camp together back when we were teenagers.
She has been through some things in her life since that time.
She has lived a lot and seen a lot.
She got married, had a kid, and got divorced.
For a while she was homeless, or lots of times on the brink of being homeless.
Currently she got remarried, and is working as an administrator at a Church in North Carolina that does a lot of work with the homeless.
She sees things that you and I might never see she has experienced things that you and I might never experience.
When she was hear visiting we started to talk about our faith and she asked me how we continue to have faith in circumstances where everything seems hopeless and lost.
In her daily work she sees a lot of unhappy endings.
She sees people who don’t make it or who don’t get better.
Where is our faith in God in such times?
She told me it was easy when we were 17 or 18 to have faith at camp calumet.
It was easy to feel like everything would work out surrounded by love, but in the real world well faith is not that easy.
Our conversation really challenged me, because the simple answers we often give in such times seemed to be too shallow and trite.

I have a week now to think about that conversation.
And I have had a week of reading and thinking about our text for this morning.
All of them about faith in difficult circumstances.
Our first reading is about the promise of God to Abram.
The problem is that the promise is that Abram will have many offspring and he and his wife are very old.
For Abram there can be no more important thing in life than having a child with Sara, but it seems impossible now.
How can he believe God is such circumstances?
This seems like an impossible situation.
In the Gospel Jesus speaks words of comfort to his disciples while on his way to Jerusalem.
The disciples do not know what is about to happen.
They do not know how much they will need to cling to these words about not being afraid in uncertain times.
Finally in the letter to the Hebrews the writer tells us to keep faith even though all things seem to the contrary.
And in Hebrews we get the best definition of faith.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

“The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
To my friend this is the answer to her question.
We don’t know why or how everything works out.
We can’t see it.
We have faith anyway.
We have faith because we believe that God is faithful.
I don’t know if that is the most satisfying answer but it is all I got.

In our baptisms what we receive is a promise from God.
It is not a promise that says for the rest of our lives everything will be perfect.
We don’t know what life has in store for us.
We don’t know all the paths we will walk.
We don’t know if we will dream big dreams that someday come true, or if we will have some really hard times.
What we do know today for certain is that God promises to be there with and for us always.
What we are given in our baptism is hope in things yet unseen.

Someday we might be having a problem a dilemma.
Someday we might be in some trouble that we can’t fix.
And in that moments we might feel guilty like we have failed.
Don’t do that to yourself.
Don’t blame yourself because life is not perfect.
Not everything in life is someone’s fault.
Not everything is about choices we make.
So don’t carry all that guilt around because it is just not helpful or productive.
Instead remember Jesus words.
“Do not be afraid little flock.”
Instead of feeling guilty or blaming others simply have faith in God.
Deal with the consequences of your actions in a responsible way, learn from it and grow in faith from it.
Remember the promises God makes to you everyday.
They are promises of life and life in abundance.
Have faith that God has something wonderful in store for you.
Have faith that God is teaching you something in this very moment.
Remember in your baptism God made a promise to you have faith in that promise.
Faith is what we receive today as we gather to ask God to be with us in whatever condition we find our lives.

Faith is all any of us really have.
It is what we all cling to deep in our souls.
Because without faith we become cynical about the world and others.
Without faith we are lost to sin and death.
Without faith what we see in the world is the end of the story.
People are born, they pay taxes, and die.
That is a life without faith.
With faith we see that our true home is not here it is in heaven with God.
With faith we see purpose and meaning even in the pain and hurt.
With faith we live not as mortals but as immortal.

This morning here the words of Jesus again, “Do not be afraid little flock.”
Do not be afraid.
All of us who have come to this place this morning Jesus is speaking to us and telling us not to be afraid of all that life is throwing at us.
Instead have faith that indeed it is God’s pleasure to give us the kingdom of God.

Faith this is the only answer I got.
I don’t know if it is good enough to convince anyone of anything.
I don’t know if someone whose life has been real hard will buy into it.
Because the thing is I can’t give you proof that God is working all the time.
Faith is believing in the promise of what cannot be seen.
That is always the dilemma we are in with faith.
When someone says, “yeah all that God stuff is great but show it to me. Prove that things will work out.”
We can’t show anything.
All we can do is believe through the Holy Spirit in what God’s word tells us.
All we can do is have faith that God will come through for us and the world.
What I do know is that a life with faith is better without.
Even now that I am older and I have seen and lived some things I still cling to my faith in God.

As I was talking to my friend I told her that we all have some scars on us in the last 19 years.
We are not as optimistic as we were back in our teenage days.
However, I believe we still have God.
We still believe in that promise that God made to Abram, that Jesus makes to us, and that the Holy Spirit continues to whisper in our ear.
The promise that was poured over us in the water of our baptism.
The promise that tells us not to be afraid.
The promise that the psalmist sings this morning, “Let your steadfast love , O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.”

So let us continue to have faith.
Let us continue to have assurance in the things hoped for, conviction in the things not seen.
So that we may always know the love of God and hear the words of Jesus, “do not be afraid little flock.”
Amen

Keep the Core, Change Everything Else.

This week I am having the joy of being the Chaplain at Camp Calumet.
It is a place that has meant a lot to my faith journey over the years.
Since I have been on Long Island for the last six years I have not been able to be the chaplain at Camp Calumet and see the day to day operations.
In the two days I have been here so far I have come to see that some things stay the same and some things change.
Camp is still enthusiastic, energetic, beautiful, and filled with young people finding faith and making friends.
These things have not changed and are ingrained into the DNA of this very special place.
Some things have changed.
Free period is now before lunch instead of before dinner.
The day starts with "Ra, Ray, Ray Theme of the Day", instead of quiet time.
Unit time is after discovery time, which in my day used to be called learning groups.
These are improvements.
I see more counselors doing better discovery times then when I was a counselor.
I see more kids participating in free time.
I see lots of improvements.

The point is that this is the way The Church should and could be.
Instead of arguing over what color paint the new bathroom should be.
We should be figuring out what are the things that are core to what and who we are.
We should also figure out what is it that we could or should change because things run better when we change them.
What is core to us as Christians is the grace and love of God of given in Jesus Christ.
What can change is the all the other stuff.
We change things not for the sake of change but because things might run better if we try a different path.

In fact, this can also be true of our individual lives.
What are the things that are core to who we are?
What are the things that we could/should change so that our lives are more fulfilling?
Some things should stay the same.
Some things should be ingrained in our DNA.
Other things, well...they should be up for and welcome change so that things run a bit smoother.

The Last Ditch Effort

One of the hard things about preaching this summer is that all the Gospel readings we are going to encounter are about discipleship.
This is hard only because I try in my preaching to vary the message so that some weeks we hear Jesus tell us hard truths about our behavior, and other weeks we can simply bask in the glow of God’s grace together.
I don’t think that every week we come to worship we need to hear about how much we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, or how much more we need to do for Jesus.
Although, those sermons have their time and place (I have preached them before and will again) I think that we can have too many of them.
So today when the story of the Good Sanitarian was our Gospel reading I wanted to find some other way into the story.
By now we have all heard the sermon on having mercy for everyone regardless of race, religion, or nationality.
So this morning I want us to examine a character in the story that we often ignore.
I want us to think about the man who fell among the robbers, was beaten, and left for dead.
I want us to think about this man who is lying in a ditch and is about to die.
It might be easy for us to think of ourselves as the “Hero” of this story.
We want to think of ourselves as the privileged person who can come and save those hurting.
As Americans we love a story about a hero who saves the day and helps the little guy.
But sometimes in our lives we are not the hero.
In fact, I bet that all of us have that moment.
The ditch moment.
We all have that moment when everything in our lives seems hard, or lost, or just not right.
We all have had that moment when things seem to go from bad to worse.

I know that some of you who are here this morning are dealing with some really hard things in life.
Some of you are dealing with aged parents who you have to take care of.
Some of you are dealing with serious medical conditions.
Some of you are dealing with loss of a job.
Some of you are dealing with pretty heavy life changes.
This morning might be your ditch moment.
And perhaps you are trying on last ditch effort to get your life back on track.
But here is where out man in the ditch comes in.
He is in the ditch robbed, beaten, and left for dead.
There is no more ditch efforts on his part.
All he has is to rely on the mercy of those that are passing by on the road.
He had to put his life into the hands of others.
That is the only chance he has.
Perhaps for us we don’t do this enough.
We fully believe that we can simply make it on our own.
We can find a way out of no way.
In the process of doing that we miss the opportunity to rely on the mercy of others.
Our last ditch effort is one of surrender.
Surrendering into the mercy of God, into the love that others people show us.
When we surrender we give others the opportunity to shine.
We give God a chance to work in our lives.

This week I was in line at a gas station to buy a cup of tea.
The woman in front of me told me I could go ahead of her because I had only one item.
Trying to be the hero I told her that she only had three items and it was no big deal.
Then she said, “Have you ever had a really bad day and being nice to someone was a way to make it better. That is all I am trying to do. I thought by letting you go first my day would be a little better.”
I went first.
Allowing others to give of themselves enriches everyone.
Thank God that we are not created to be self sufficient.
Thank God that everyday in ways we don’t even fully understand we have to rely on the mercy of others.

What happens to us when we forget this is bad for us.
What if the man in the ditch had told the Samaritan, “No thanks I will find a way out of this myself.”
He would have died.
No other way.
His last ditch effort was to rely on the mercy of this stranger.
We too do well to rely on the mercy of others.
We do well to let go and surrender ourselves to God’s grace and love.
Not doing so leads us to look down on others who need help.
I hear people say this a lot.
I hear people talk about how self-sufficient they are and how they made it without anyone helping them, or making exceptions for them.
I remember this one woman who came here from Russia telling me that we should not help new immigrants because no one helped her and she made it all on her own.
The truth is that she did rely on others.
Someone else paid for her to get to the United States after WWII.
Her aunt and uncle allowed her to live in their house.
A friendly neighbor would help her learn English at night after the kids had gone to bed.
She was not as self-reliant as she thought, but for some reason she could not have mercy on others who simply needed the same kind of help she had received.

We forget that all of us depend upon other people for our lives.
All of us would not be here if not for the mercy of our parents.
We would not survive on a daily basis unless others gave us a hand.
We are all in that ditch.
We are all robbed, beaten, and left for dead.
But then God sends us neighbors.
God sends us other people that stop what they are doing.
They take time to listen, to bandage our wounds and help us to safety.
They give time, energy, and money to make us better.
What a great gift from God.

This week think of all things that you rely on others for.
For example, when you are at the supermarket think of all the people that have had to work very hard so you can go and buy that food you are going to eat.
Think of the person who keeps care of the animals, or the person who slaughters them, or the person who works behind the counter to make sure the meat stays fresh.
Think of the people who are growing the fruit and vegetables we eat.
This is just one small example, I am sure you can think of a million others.

We are not always the hero, sometimes we are the victim.
Sometimes we are the ones crying from the ditch for others to come by and notice our pain.
Sometimes we need saving.

God has provided you today with a neighbor.
God has provided someone to do God’s work on earth.
So that when we are in that ditch someone will be there to bandage our wounds, and take us to a safe place.

Jesus in this wonderfully rich and powerful parable shows us more than merely a morality play on the way Christians should behave in the world; he gives us an example of God’s love and concern for us.
God will not pass us by.
God will be there for us in our ditch moments.
God will lift us up and get us to safety.

This week I got a Facebook message from a friend who is going through some really hard things death, sickness, and feeling like God has left him to die.
“I am trying to find this god who is so good.”
He wrote.
Jesus this morning shows us that God’s actions come through mercy and love of others.
The answer Jesus gives the lawyer is that God’s actions are shown through the mercy and love of neighbors.
Of one person to another.
God’s love and mercy was being poured out to my friend through a Facebook conversation of one friend to another showing love by being concerned.
It is not so much that God will miraculously cure all of our diseases; it is that God’s mercy comes when we surrender and experience in others God’s compassionate heart.

Today is our last ditch effort.
Today is our day to surrender.
Today is our day to give up trying to be the hero all the time and to start living in the ditch by giving our lives over to God and one another.
Amen

Setting Our Face Towards the Horizon

Before a child turns one they have to have their car seats in facing away from the front out the back window.
One day I picked up another pastor friend of mine with my daughter Phoebe in the back in her car seat looking out the back window.
He looked at her and said, “Reminds me of my congregation knows where they have been but has no idea of where they are going.”
Jesus this morning in the Gospel reminds us that Christianity is a forward looking faith.
It is a faith that sets its face towards the future.
Not our future but God’s future, and then it does not look back.
It does not retreat to take care of old business left undone like the man who wanted to go and bury his father.
It does not allow us to look back at old grievousness done to us, like the village of Samaritans that reject Jesus.
It does not allow us to recount the things that we have lost, like the man who Jesus warns about not having anything left when we follows him.
Following Jesus means setting our face towards the horizon, towards the future action of God.

The Bible was not merely written for Pastors.
It was written for everyday Christians like yourselves trying to figure out how to follow Jesus.
I say this because one might read today’s Gospel and think that is somehow about the calling of a certain few people to follow Jesus.
But notice that Jesus calls many people to follow him.
I want you to know that everyday Jesus is asking you to follow him.
Jesus is asking you to set your sights towards the horizon, towards a tomorrow that God has prepared for you.

In this morning’s Gospel Jesus has turned his face towards Jerusalem.
Jesus is not looking behind him to the early success of his ministry, but is now focused on what God has called him to do.
I want you to consider this morning what God is calling you this day to do.
What is the tomorrow that God calls you into?
How do you follow Jesus in your life?
We have all heard the sermon about making God the priority in our lives as we follow Jesus in faith.
We have all heard the sermon about following the first commandment.
We have heard pleas from the pastor about coming to Church instead of shopping, sporting events, or other things that pull at our time.
Usually these sermons make us feel guilty.
They make us feel that we have not given enough to church, have not been in Church enough, or have not made our children more Christian.
I know that we all have lots of things in our lives that compete for our time and attention.
I know that coming to worship is just another thing on the list.
So I am not giving that sermon.
I don’t think that is what Jesus is calling us to do.
Jesus is not calling us to add God to the long list of things that we have to do.
Jesus’ call to us is about making our entire life about God.
It is about God encompassing everything we do.
How are we Christians at the ball game?
How are we Christians while we are at the shopping mall?
How are we Christians at our Children’s play?
How are we Christians at our work?
How are we Christians when we are on a date?
At our homes?
If you have every heard me preach you will know that this is a theme I am obsessed with.
Because for too long we came to “Church” for religion, or for God.
But Jesus does not want our lives for only one hour a week.
Jesus wants our lives all the time.
It is why he asks the people who are going to follow him if they are really sure that is what they want.
Because it is easy to come to church once a week, sing a few of our favorite hymns, hear a sermon, drink some coffee, and then be on our way.
What is much harder is living out our faith everyday.
And that is why Jesus warns people that following him will be hard.
Not because we add Jesus to our long list of priorities in our lives, but because Jesus will then be part of everything we do.
And everything we do will be called into question.
How do we spend our money?
How do we spend our time?
What really matters in life?
What should we really care about?
What are things that we are doing that are pulling us away from what really matters?

This is why we are so reluctant to follow Jesus.
This is why we have a tendency to want to look back.
This is why we want to remember a different day when things seemed easier or more successful.
Because we don’t want to deal with today’s problems they are too messy and hard.
We don’t want to think about how God is asking things of us today.
It is more secure to live in the past of things that we know and are comfortable with.

When I was in Germany we went and saw a lot of really beautiful church buildings.
They were awesome to look at.
People would come in and take pictures of the wonderful organ, handcrafted altars, and magnificent pulpits.
In each one of these churches would be a booth with a person behind a plate glass wall selling programs, mugs, postcards, and other things.
The Church was not a place of ministry.
It was not a place where people were coming and going working on the kingdom together.
It was a museum a place to take pictures, and remember the old days.

What a shame.
I wonder about our lives sometimes and if we too don’t become stagnant in our faith.
We become comfortable about what we are doing.
We settle into a groove.
We look back and remember, but our faces are no longer set to the horizon.
We do the thing we did yesterday, we tell stories about the good old days, but we forget about today, and tomorrow.
I know I will fall into this sometimes.
I will wonder why my life is not like it was when I was 8, 16, or 21.
I will look back with fondness on the time when I was young and life seemed uncomplicated.
In fact the other day I was telling someone I missed the days when I did not care about the stock market did.

We all miss days when we were younger, skinnier, in better shape, more healthy, more free, happier, less busy, more at ease.
But today is the day that God has made.
Today is the day we are called to live.
And this day belongs to God.
If you are dying today is still God’s day.
If you are driving your kids to a birthday party, baseball game, to sleep over night at friends house, the movie theater, or whatever this is God’s day.
If you are fighting with your wife today is the day God is asking for your love, patience, self control, gentleness, and forgiveness.
If you are facing something difficult in your life today is the day that God has given you to face it.
Don’t look back.
Don’t dream of a different life.
Set your hands to the plow and look for the kingdom of God.
For in God’s kingdom there is life and life in abundance.
In God’s kingdom there is love.
In God’s kingdom we live to follow Jesus.

Jesus’ face is set towards Jerusalem.
Jesus is looking ahead.
Jesus is heading toward the Kingdom of God, and inviting us to come along.
Jesus is calling us to follow.
Where?
I am not sure.
But with trust and faith we take those steps towards another day, and an uncertain future.
There is no time to look back.
No time for petty retribution, no time mourn the dead, no time to wish that things were different.
There is only time to follow Jesus Christ in faith and trust.
Amen

Who is this who even forgives sins?

Who is this who even forgives sins?
In our Gospel story for this morning I think we would like to think of ourselves as Jesus.
The truth is that far too often we are more like the Pharisees.
Too often we are the ones who are looking with judgmental eyes on those around us.
Too often we are able to see the grace of God in our lives but are unable to allow its possibility in the lives of others.
We seem unable to believe that Jesus forgives sins.
All sins.
Big sins and small sins.
What we end up with is a Church filled not with followers of Jesus Christ who are ready, willing, and able to see the wonder and beauty in God’s grace offered to all, but instead we end up with a Church filled with hypocrites.

Last week I was reading the book “what’s so amazing about Grace” by Phillip Yancey.
He tells the story of a prostitute who is down on her luck.
In desperation she goes to church to ask for help.
She tells the minister that she needs money so bad that she has been renting out her two year old daughter to men with sexual perversions.
The minister then suggest that perhaps she should come to church.
The woman looks him in the eye and says, “Church why would I go to church I feel bad about myself already.”
She knows that people at Church would judge her.
That Church is no place to find God’s grace.
That is sad to me.
And I know it is sad to many of you.

Jesus this morning teaches us by his actions and through a parable that there is no sin that cannot be forgiven.
In fact, the bigger the sin that is forgiven the greater the love one shows in their own lives.
“The one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”
This is what Church should be a place for sinners to come.
It is a place for the imperfect people of the world.
If you are perfect then you have no need to be here this morning.
This is the place we come to hear again that God forgives our sins.
However great they are God forgives them.
We have trouble with that because we like to play judge.
We like to have God measure up to our standards, and our idea of what is fair and just.
So grace gets put on the back burner for our righteous indignation.

I have a friend who was teaching and introduction to Christian history class at St. John’s University in Queens.
He asked me to come and give a lecture on Lutheranism.
I told the class that Luther’s great idea was that we are saved only by God’s grace and nothing else.
I asked the class to name some things that someone might do that would turn God grace away from them.
“Murder”
No I said God can forgive murder.
“Rape”
No God can forgive rape.
“Suicide”
No God can forgive suicide.
I just want to be clear I am not saying that anyone should do any of these things.
I am not saying God wants us to do any of these things.
I am simply saying that God’s mercy and forgiveness does not conform to our view of what God should do.
Clearly the Pharisees thought that if Jesus was a true prophet he would have known what kind of woman this was that was washing his feet with her tears and hair.
But it was preciously because Jesus knew what kind of woman she was that he was welcoming her to the table.
Jesus was showing us the mercy of God.
Jesus was showing us the depths of God’s forgiveness.

After the lecture one of the students came up to me and said, “I think that was a bunch of hooey of course we need to act right for God to love us.”
I think that is often our reaction to the radical nature of God’s love that it does not sound right to us.
That it is just off of our “common sense”.

While at the synod assembly I was hanging out with some other pastors.
We were looking at the indoor pool at the Hotel we were staying at that was in the middle of the hotel rooms.
There was this sign that said if you went into the pool area between certain times an alarm would sound.
We started to wonder if that was true, or just a scare tactic.
When the security guard came around we asked him if it was true.
Then we started talking.
He asked us what it meant to be Lutheran.
We told him that it Luther believed that there was nothing we could do to earn God’s love.
That we didn’t have to do anything to be right with God.
That everything in our lives depended on God’s grace.
The security guard looked at us and said, “that ain’t right!”
Indeed it is so radical a notion that it does seem crazy.

It is the same reaction that the Pharisees had to Jesus.
Jesus who would eat with anybody.
Jesus who would allow a woman, a sinner, to touch him.
That Jesus would offer such a person forgiveness seemed out of whack.
It did not seem right to them.

I would say that to us to it does not seem right.
That our sense of what it fair and right is not always what God thinks about it.

We sometimes act like David.
Who is a sinner, and did a horrible thing, but cannot see it.
We act indignant when we hear of others sins.
How could they have done such a thing!!
Can you believe that!!!
I would never have done such a thing!!!
And yet it is Nathan saying to him, “you are the man!”
We are the people.
We are the sinners.
And thanks be to God that Jesus Christ forgives those sins.
Hopefully we who have sinned deeply also love deeply.
There is that old saying, “the church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners.”
We would do well to remember that we are the sinners.
We are the man or the woman!

Yes Jesus does have the ability to forgive sins.
Today if you are in hearing this sermon that is the message I want you to leave with.
God through Jesus has forgiven your sins.
Jesus Christ has shown God’s mercy to you.
And if you believe that then it is not such a far stretch to believe that Jesus also forgives those that are prostitutes, those that have cheated on the spouses.
Those who have committed murder, rape, or any other heinous crime.
Those who have done anything that you and I might find destitable.

I think that is a powerful witness in this world.
It is counter-cultural.
Because much of what we think and believe is based on the law.
It is based on results.
It is based on measuring ourselves against everyone else.
Here is the place we come not to measure ourselves, but to throw ourselves at the feet of our savior.
Here we come not to pretend but to admit who and what we are.
Here we come not as we ought, but as we are.
Here we come to have Jesus say to us, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Today let us go in peace knowing that our sins are forgiven and we are saved by Jesus Christ.
Let us offer that same grace to those we meet in the world, so that we might be a witness to God’s amazing grace. Amen