Shake Down Sunday!

Yesterday I was having breakfast with some friends.

I was talking about my sermon for this morning and how it is for us Stewardship Sunday.

One of my friends said, “Oh, you mean shake down Sunday”.

I admit that it can often feel like that.

The pastor gets up and gives a sermon about how we are not doing enough, and that we need to give more.

I know because there have been times I have given that sermon.

I once gave a sermon in my first congregation where I pointed out that I as a first year pastor was making as much money as the pastor who had been there for 14 years previous.

I chastised them for failing to pay her properly.

I may have been right, but later I regretted it.

Talking to people later about it I realized that it did not make anyone in that congregation more generous.

It just made them feel ashamed.

So this morning I want to start by doing something that is unusual for Lutherans.

I am going to brag about all of you.

I am going to commend you for being very generous people.

I am going to tell you that I am often overwhelmed with how generous you can be.

I want to tell just one story that illustrates this point.

Every year our congregation collects health kits to send to Church World Service that serves poor communities around the world.

This year we again had people give very generously to that.

When we do that program we have to pay about $300.00 for the shipping.

This last year I had two people that both wanted to pay for that shipping cost.

I won’t say they fought over it, but one of them was disappointed that they didn’t get to give the $300.00

This story shows that generosity is contagious.

Think about all the generosity going on in that story.

We had the generosity of people giving the supplies, and on top of that we had two people that wanted very badly to give to ship the supplies.

We had more than we needed.

In this story we had abundance.

When we think about God I hope that what we think about is abundance.

Our Gospel for this morning is a great example of abundance.

Jesus is being crucified.

That is horrible in and of itself.

But on top of that humiliation he is being mocked and derided.

His whole life, and all the great things he did, is being is called into question.

Think about how extraordinary it is that while this is going on Jesus responds with forgiveness.

How easily are we offended?

 How easily do we walk away because we have been disrespected?

How many relationships have we given up on because we felt that we just were not treated correctly, or for minor things?

Jesus is being crucified!

Jesus is being made to look foolish, and he is still forgiving others.

“Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

It is an abundance of grace.

It is over the top.

We would not ask any one we know to act the way Jesus does here.

But this is what separates us from Jesus.

We cannot be as abundantly giving as he is.

We are limited in what we can do for others.

We are limited in the amount of chances we are willing to give.

We are limited in the amount of abuse we are willing to take before we want to get revenge.

Jesus has no reservations about offering grace to those who hate him, torture him, mock him, and cast him aside.

We can never duplicate that.

What we can do is live a life of a steward.

We can live a life that recognizes the great gift we have been given.

We can use that life to help others, to give of ourselves in small but meaningful ways.

It will never be as glorious as what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

But it will be glorious.

And our generous spirit will encourage others to have the same spirit.

My father in law was telling me how he learned to be generous.

He was telling me that when he would go out to eat his father would tip 30%. And he would tell his father that he didn’t understand why he gave so much.

His father told him, “They have to eat too”.

Generosity breads generosity.

It helps us to see in the other person their God given importance.

The reason we have stewardship Sunday is not to shake you all down.

It is not to have you give money to the Church.

It is not about paying my salary.

It is not to have you part with your hard earned money.

It is to acknowledge the gift.

Today we acknowledge that we have been given by God something that no amount of money can pay back.

We acknowledge that God has been abundantly generous to us, and we desire to do the same.

We also acknowledge that we are not alone, and that others have to eat too.

I am aware that this is counter intuitive to us in many ways.

We are used to a system that is based more on our personnel satisfaction and desires.

A system that tells us to get what we can while we can.

A system where we get what we deserve.

I get it.

I live in that world too.

How beautiful it is to see the abundance God’s grace in Jesus Christ.

To see how much God has done for us through Jesus Christ.

How wonderful that people are willing to give up $300.00 so we can send health kits to people in another country.

How wonderful that we give to that without knowing if the people who will receive it are worthy.

We don’t know anything about them.

We don’t know if they are Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, good or bad people.

All we know is that there is a need and we can help.

I have been thinking a lot about the election as I am sure you all have been too.

And last week I was at the Bishop Convocation where I talked about the election a lot.

And I want to offer something that will bridge the divide between people.

I want to say something that will make my Gay friend feel less scared about losing his rights.

I want to say something to the refugees and immigrants living here in Concord who are being told that they are not as good as the real Americans.

I want to say something to my Black/African Americans friends who are worried about all the racist words being used.

I want to say something to the Trump support who feel hopeful, vindicated and proud at the outcome of the election.

I want to say something that will make us all feel better, and will bring us back together.

I will admit that I have not found those magic words.

(This is not easy to say for a preacher.)

I don’t know if they exist.

What I do know is that what is true today was true before this election.

God calls on all of us, regardless of who we voted for, to a life of abundant giving, to a life of abundant grace.

Not because it is the right thing to do, but because the God we know in Jesus Christ did it for you.

God gave all he had so that you will be “rescued from the power of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, and the forgiveness of sins.”

Our God is abundantly generous.

I thank God today that all of you are abundantly generous too.

I thank God you are generous with your time, your money, your lives.

May we continue to grow in our generosity, and continue to show others the power of God’s generous grace through our stewardship.

Amen

Trust God Not the Election!

Every Tuesday I go to Bible study with other Lutheran pastors from New Hampshire.

It is one of the things I do to prepare to preach on Sunday.

This week I told my colleagues that I planned to preach on the election.

They all said, “It was nice knowing you”.

Even my kids tried to talk me out of it.

When I told them I was going to preach about the election they both said, “Dad, don’t do it!”

It is true that our politics have become so toxic, and this particular political season so bad, that we can’t even talk about it anymore.

Despite the warnings from colleagues and my kids I am going to talk about the election.

I am going to do it for two reasons.

One, I trust you all.

I trust that you are all adults, and as adults can have conversations with people with whom you disagree.

I trust that we are a congregation that is centered on Jesus Christ and not our political views.

Second, I was always taught that you preach with the Bible in one hand, and the New York Times in the other.

The word of God must have an application to what is happening in the world.

And what is happening in our country is that on Tuesday we are going to have an election.

So everyone get ready, buckle your seat belt, put on a helmet, here comes my sermon on the election.

On Monday’s at Bible study we are studying the book of Daniel.

It just so happens that our first reading for this morning is from Daniel.

It is a part in the book of Daniel where Daniel has a dream about four beasts that rise out of the sea.

As all dreams are symbolic so is this one.

The Four beasts represent four dynastic empires Babylon, Medes, Persians, and the Greeks.

They are all empires that committed crimes against the people of Israel.

They ruled with fear and intimidation.

The book of Daniel has two major themes.

One is that all empires fall, and the only true king/empire is God.

All others that claim to be great are false gods.

The second is that we are called as God’s people to remain faithful under the rule of such empires.

Our role is to remain faithful to the kingdom of God and not the kingdom of the earth.

This election has been prophesied by both political parties as the end of the world.

No matter who wins it will be catastrophe.

As people of faith we don’t believe it, because if this was the end of the world then it would be in God’s hands and not ours.

As people of faith if it is in God’s hands we know we will be fine.

Something else is going on, something that happens every election but seems to be getting worse, or is bothering me more this election.

We are taking sides based on our religious beliefs.

And I think that is dangerous.

As followers of Jesus Christ we are not married to either of these political parties.

We are called to follow Jesus.

Yes, we should vote, we should do our duty as citizens of this country, we should use our minds and hearts to vote for who we think would be the best president, senator, congressperson, but our destiny is not about who wins this election, or any election.

It is tied up with the kingdom of God and not of the kingdom of this world.

Think about the words that Jesus speaks this morning in his sermon on the plain from Luke’s Gospel.

“Blessed are the poor for your is the kingdom of God”

“Woe to you who are rich now….”

“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled”

“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.”

These are not the words of a politician trying to win an election.

They are the words of our savior telling us that the kingdom is beyond our imaginations.

I was thinking about these words this week.

We simply don’t here politicians talk this way.

And we should not be fooled by any of them.

No matter whom they are or what party they belong to none of them is about God’s kingdom.

None of them can solve the problems you have right now.

None of them can save a marriage, get you a job, save your life, care for your children.

Or do the million things we all have to do to get through a day.

Politics is all a show.

It is all fake.

And that is what the book of Daniel shows us.

Earthly powers are always fleeting.

Only God’s power is forever.

Politicians that promise us peace and prosperity are always lying, because only God can bring peace and prosperity.

I have read a lot this election about people in our country who are feeling left out of the political process.

Poor, uneducated whites, in rural parts of our country that no politicians go to visit, feel left out.

African Americans who are statistical disproportionately jailed more often than whites, who are executed by the death penalty, and who are killed more often by police.

In this election Latinos have been caricatured as lazy and criminals.

There are Muslims being called terrorist.

What I believe is that all these people have more in common than they think.

They are being divided by politicians looking for power.

And that is exactly the way the rich and powerful want it.

And we are being divided by people telling us that your side is righteous and the other horrible human beings.

How many times does a Facebook post have to start with, “Conservatives hate poor people.” Or “liberals don’t want people to work.”

(Or add your own insult here.)

We have forgotten that we are all children of the same God.

We have forgotten what Jesus teaches us this morning, “Love you enemies, do good to those who hate you.”

When was the last time you heard a politician talk like that?

Never.

Today is All Saints Sunday.

And today we are not celebrating super Christian people that were perfect.

We are celebrating a collection of people that together were more than they were individually.

Today we remember that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses.

We are surrounded by people from other times and places that have gone before us, people that set an example of what it means to live a faithful life in a often mean and cruel world.

People that crossed oceans, learned a new language, worked hard, raised a family, lived through great depressions, evil manic dictators hell bent on killing everyone, fear of nuclear annihilation, racial prejudice, women’s suffrage, gay and lesbian rights.

We remember today people that knew real hunger and injustice, but who held on to God for dear life, people who saw empires rise and fall.

And those saints speak to us today.

They remind us that God is true and faithful, that life is about following Jesus.

It is about helping out each other, and especially those at the bottom.

Whatever happens on Tuesday we have to remember that God is still our hope and our guide just like he was for the saints that came before us.

That we believe in God’s kingdom come.

And that no election can change that truth.

I will be praying on Tuesday for our country.

I will be praying for all of you as you vote.

But most of all I will be praying that we remember that our allegiance is always to God first.

It is always to Jesus Christ.

And that is where we put our hopes and our lives, and not in an election.

Amen

A New Thing That Reminds us of an Old Truth

For those that don’t know next year is the 500 year anniversary of the Reformation.

It is a big deal.

Our congregation is going to begin celebrating that anniversary January 2017.

We will be having special events, educational opportunities, and worship to celebrate all next year.

It is also a big deal because it means that things are shifting.

Every 500 years the Church has a yard sale.

There is some shift in the ground, and things change.

Before the reformation we had the great Schism.

Before that we had the reform of the sixth century as we started the dark ages, was the monastic period of the Church.

So we are going through what some people have called the great Emergence.

Christianity is going from the dominant religion, to a smaller more counter cultural phenomenon.

We will notice today that all of our readings take place in times of change.

In our reading from Jeremiah God is about to do a new thing.

Israel had lost the temple, and their home.

They didn’t know where to locate God anymore.

God was making a new covenant where God would be written on their hearts.

Jesus was a new thing that God had done.

In Jesus God walks on the earth, God teaches us what it means to be a person of God.

In Jesus God becomes flesh, and God makes a new covenant with blood and flesh.

It is a covenant of truth that leads to freedom.

And in Paul God extends an invitation to know God to the Gentiles.

Paul reinterprets the tradition of the law in light of what Jesus did, and in light of what the mission is of the Church.

My point is that God is always doing a new thing.

God is always adjusting for us.

God is helping us to see the truth.

God is writing on our heart.

For a summer I did clinical pastoral education.

Every seminary has to do it.

I did mine in Hartford, Connecticut.

I was on call and I got a call to go and visit someone who had just been admitted.

The person told me that they were addicted to drugs and had HIV.

They told me that there life was a mess, and that they were no good.

After hearing the story and talking for a while.

I told the person that God loved them beyond their story.

That no matter what they had done God loved and cared for them.

I then read a couple of Bible passages to them.

I can’t tell you the expression of joy and appreciation that came over the person’s face as I read those Bible passages that confirmed God’s love.

I had never experienced someone hearing the Gospel for the very first time.

This person threw their tears said to me, “you will never know how good it was to hear those words.”

I wish we all had that same reaction every time we heard the good news of God.

I wish I did.

I must admit that it is something that I simply take for granted now.

I think to some extent we all do.

It is an idea that has been around for at least 500 years, but really one that was around since the creation of the world.

It is one that we simply continue to forget and need reminding of all the time.

The Reformation was not a radical idea.

It was a return to the idea that the Church at that time had simply forgotten.

Or one that the Church took for granted.

In our Gospel for this morning people have taken it for granted, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone.”

But I would like to say that underneath our ambivalence is a yearning for the good news.

That is what happened in the time of Jesus.

People were unsettled by what was happening around them.

They were upset because Rome had taken over their land, and ruled them with unfair and unjust laws.

The religious people had given up what was important and started to help the Romans in their oppression.

There was a yearning for something new.

And Jesus gave it to them.

Jesus gave them God’s love that they had forgotten or taken for granted.

Luther did the same thing.

The Lutheran theologian Martin Marty said this week, “Luther Couldn’t have done it if it weren’t for a great disquiet of people hoping something new would happen.”

I think we too live in a time of disquiet.

We too are hoping something new will break forward.

What will it be?

Lots of people seem to say something like, “The Church is changing but I don’t know what it is.”

I am getting a little tired of hearing that.

So I am going to take a chance this morning and tell you what I think it is.

I think the disquiet is that we are tired of living fake lives.

We are tired of trying to be perfect, and lead perfect lives.

We are tired of the lie of perfection.

We are tired of trying to have it all, and end up with nothing.

We are tired of having religion sold to us as a self help program.

Instead we are yearning for an authentic experience with God.

We want an honest relationship with God.

A relationship where we can be ourselves, we can be who we are with all of our messes.

Jesus offers it to us this morning.

“You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

There are lots of ways I could talk about this.

I want to illustrate the power of this using the example of happiness.

We are told that the key to life is happiness.

That is what we strive for to be happy.

In fact, when people around us are unhappy it sometimes makes us uncomfortable.

On top of this we believe that we have to be happy all the time.

We are told by society to, “put on a happy face”.

I think this is very dangerous.

Just as one example people no longer want to have funerals.

They want to have, “A celebration of life”.

And part of this is they don’t want anyone to cry.

They don’t want people to be upset.

My friends, the whole reason for a funeral is so that people can be sad!

That is why we have them.

They are meant to be cathartic.

Crying and being sad is how we know we loved someone.

I am telling you that if I die suddenly please come to my funeral and cry!

I hope you are sad, because it means that we meant something to each other.

We need to be sad sometimes.

Not only that but if we don’t acknowledge death we take away the power of the message of the Gospel that God loves us beyond death.

Maybe we are so unhappy because we don’t allow ourselves times of sadness.

We are so busy repressing it that we don’t feel the grace of God.

And the reformation we need to have is to recall the wonder and awe of the Gospel.

We have lost it, because we can’t admit that anything is wrong, sad, or bad.

It would be great if we had the same reaction as a drug addict with HIV who hears for the first time that he is loved by God.

Perhaps we would be able to recapture the joy in knowing God’s power in our lives.

It would be a power to not have to pretend anymore, to be who we are.

The power to be set free to truly live an authentic life full of sadness, joy, sin, redemption, hardship, relief, messiness, in perfection, loss and gain.

To be set free to live an authentic life that is not lived to be a show, but lived under the grace and mercy of God.

That is the reformation of our time.

It is still based on remembering God’s love.

God like in times past is doing a new thing that reminds us of an old truth that brings life and freedom.

That truth is that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that all those that believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Amen