Nov. 20, 2022, Christ The King Sunday

Luke 23:33-43  (The Message)   

33 When they got to the place called Skull Hill, they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right, the other on his left.

34-35 Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Dividing up his clothes, they threw dice for them. The people stood there staring at Jesus, and the ringleaders made faces, taunting, “He saved others. Let’s see him save himself! The Messiah of God—ha! The Chosen—ha!”

36-37 The soldiers also came up and poked fun at him, making a game of it. They toasted him with sour wine: “So you’re King of the Jews! Save yourself!”

38 Printed over him was a sign: this is the king of the jews.

39 One of the criminals hanging alongside cursed him: “Some Messiah you are! Save yourself! Save us!”

40-41 But the other one made him shut up: “Have you no fear of God? You’re getting the same as him. We deserve this, but not him—he did nothing to deserve this.”

42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.”

43 He said, “Don’t worry, I will. Today you will join me in paradise.”

What ever we say about Jesus and his Kingdom, however we try to understand the manifestation of power and glory which was his as the King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right; how ever much we are moved by the powerful words of the Hallelujah Chorus which shouts “King of Kings and Lord of Lords, forever!”   We are reminded today that Jesus Kingdom is not of this world and is not like anything else in this world.  It is not made up of that which makes up our kingdoms.  it is as different as night is from day.  

For it is not a matter of power politics; nor of deceptive promises.  It is not a matter of domination and manipulation.  Jesus Kingdom is made up of compassion, kindness, gentleness, forgiveness, joy, peace and is found in places of weakness and foolishness, where the power and wisdom of God is revealed in all its power  and glory.

Robert MacAfee Brown relates the following life experience.

“The story is a true one.  It takes place on the roof of one of the crematoria at Birkenau, the death camp of Auschwitz, on a gray, cheerless day in the summer of 1979.

A group of us are standing on ruins the Germans tried (unsuccessfully) to obliterate, to hide evidence that six million Jews had been shot and gassed and burned in such places, solely because they were Jews.

I reflect: if Golgotha revealed the sense of God-forsakenness of one Jew, Birkenau multiplies that anguish at least three and a half million times.  For the rest of my life, this crematorium will represent the most powerful case against God;  the spot where one could - with justice - denounce, deny, or (worst of all) ignore God, the God who was silent.

On what use are words as such a time?  So many cried out to God at this spot and were not heard.  Human silence today seems the only appropriate response to divine silence yesterday.

We remain silent.  Our silence is deafening.

And then it comes - first from the lips of one man, Elie Wiesel (standing in the camp where thirty-fife years earlier his life and family and faith were destroyed), and then in a mounting chorus from others, mostly Jews, the great affirmation:  ‘Shema Yisroel, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai echod, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.’ “ 

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, may your kingdom come this week, this day, this hour, in and through me your unworthy servant.”  Amen

Nov. 13, 2022, 23rd Sunday After Pentecost

 Luke 21: 5-19 (The Message)

5-6 One day people were standing around talking about the Temple, remarking how beautiful it was, the splendor of its stonework and memorial gifts. Jesus said, “All this you’re admiring so much—the time is coming when every stone in that building will end up in a heap of rubble.”

7 They asked him, “Teacher, when is this going to happen? What clue will we get that it’s about to take place?”

8-9 He said, “Watch out for the doomsday deceivers. Many leaders are going to show up with forged identities claiming, ‘I’m the One,’ or, ‘The end is near.’ Don’t fall for any of that. When you hear of wars and uprisings, keep your head and don’t panic. This is routine history and no sign of the end.”

10-11 He went on, “Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. Huge earthquakes will occur in various places. There will be famines. You’ll think at times that the very sky is falling.

12-15 “But before any of this happens, they’ll arrest you, hunt you down, and drag you to court and jail. It will go from bad to worse, dog-eat-dog, everyone at your throat because you carry my name. You’ll end up on the witness stand, called to testify. Make up your mind right now not to worry about it. I’ll give you the words and wisdom that will reduce all your accusers to stammers and stutters.

16-19 “You’ll even be turned in by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. Some of you will be killed. There’s no telling who will hate you because of me. Even so, every detail of your body and soul—even the hairs of your head!—is in my care; nothing of you will be lost. Staying with it—that’s what is required. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry; you’ll be saved.

The American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald once said:

“The test of first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.  One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them better.”

This certainly is the mark of faith which often has to hope against hope and act in love in spite of all the hate.  This is what this text is all about.

It is about the faith which is sure of what it hopes for and certain of what it cannot see.

It is about the love which dares to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, 

endure all things.

It is about being witness to the truth in the face of evil and daring to believe that not a hair on our heads will perish.

 It is not the evil which shall prevail; it is faith in the goodness of God which will prevail! 

Indeed, not a hair will perish of what God wants to preserve!

“Christ risen from the dead shows that 

there is nothing rebellious creation 

can do to cause something to perish 

that God wants to preserve.”

Anonymous 

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to hang on when all seems hopeless.  Help me to trust Your endless love when all seems lost.  Amen”

Nov. 6, 2022, All Saints Sunday

Matthew 5:1-12  (The Message)

5 When Jesus[a] saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

All Saints Sunday has to do with our hearts.  “Blessed are the pure of heart, (those who have opened their hearts to the redeeming goodness of God’s love) for they will see God.”(  Matt. 5:8) And they will be a blessing.  It will be said of them “He/she had a good heart!”

Heart.  The word appears 872 times in the Bible.

It is an all inclusive word which captures all that we are and means everything we are, the very center our our being, the very soul of our existence.  In the O.T. as well as new and even today, “the ‘heart’ is at the center of a person’s motivations and actions.  It is the deepest fiber and sinew of the human will power”   John S. McClure

As Jesus says a bit further in the sermon on the Mount:

“The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.”  Lk. 6:45

How is it with your heart?

Believe it or not, want it or not,  God would, through Word and Sacrament search us, cleanse us, call us, equip us, change us, enrich us, forgive us, so that from the heart we might “be merciful, just as (our God) is merciful.”  Mt. 6:36

It makes all the difference in the world when our hearts are turned towards God and God’s grace is at work in our hearts, taking the worst which happens to us and making it a blessing; and taking the best that happens to us and making that a blessing too, not just for us but for others too, who need to know they also are loved by God.

Then we are numbered with the Saints for a Saint is someone with a “good heart”.  A heart which has been captured by the awesome love of God! 

 

“The heart has its reasons, 

which reason does not know.”

Blaise Pascal

Prayer thought for the week:  “Purge my heart of evil and fill it with love so I too can be a blessing, and even a Saint!”

Oct. 30, 2022, Reformation Sunday

John 8:31-36 (The Message)

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

    33 They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants[a] and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

    34 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

The Reformation is about change.  We don’t like change.  We even use the Bible to keep us from change.  God wants to make a new covenant with us.  We don’t want it.  We want the old covenant where we know what to expect and are more in charge.

God’s Word is an instrument of change and will, if we let it, change the way we look at things. It “is the source of all that is creative in the life of the Church.”  (Luther)  It sets us free to be new and different people.  People who put love at the center of life and let nothing keep it from doing its thing.

Today the Reformation calls us to dare be different.  To dare risk letting go of the way it was and seek to make a difference in the way it is.  To confess that we didn’t do everything right, nor did we know with certainty what God’s will was for us. To change the way we look at the world, and everyone in it.

Listen carefully to these words from Henri Nouwen, Catholic priest and theologian of the 20th century.  They call us to make the Reformation real for our day.

   

"You are Christian only...so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society you live in, so long as you emphasize the need of conversion both for yourself and for the world, ...so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come.  You are Christian only when you believe you have a
role to play in the realization of this new Kingdom, and when you urge everyone you meet with holy unrest to make haste so that the promise might soon be fulfilled."

Henri Nouwen, "Circles of Love”

Oct. 23, 2022, 20th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 18:9-14  (The Message)

9-12 He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’

13 “Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’”

14 Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”

This parable seems to be simple, black or white, right or wrong.

But it isn’t.  And we have to see ourselves in both; take the good with the bad.

For there is good and bad in both, and in us.

The pharisee is everything we might wish to be in terms of religious commitment and dedication.  But it carries him to self righteousness, the last thing we want to be.  

The Tax Collector  is everything we don’t want to be in terms of life style yet his prayer of the heart is the best he or we can pray.

Both need God’s grace; neither deserve it;  both need it.  One appreciates it.  The other is too set on his own goodness to see his need of it.  Let’s be like the tax collector!  For to live in God’s grace is to never stop praying his prayer even as I live with the zeal of the pharisee - knowing that a God of grace will “never let me down, never let me go, nor never let me off.”

"Grace isn’t a gift for getting it         

right but for getting it wrong!"   

Richard Rohr

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to be as humble as the tax man and as zealous as the Pharisee in the living out of your love and grace.”  Amen

Oct.16, 2022, 19th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 18:1-8  (The Message) 

18 1-3 Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit. He said, “There was once a judge in some city who never gave God a thought and cared nothing for people. A widow in that city kept after him: ‘My rights are being violated. Protect me!’

4-5 “He never gave her the time of day. But after this went on and on he said to himself, ‘I care nothing what God thinks, even less what people think. But because this widow won’t quit badgering me, I’d better do something and see that she gets justice—otherwise I’m going to end up beaten black-and-blue by her pounding.’”

6-8 Then the Master said, “Do you hear what that judge, corrupt as he is, is saying? So what makes you think God won’t step in and work justice for his chosen people, who continue to cry out for help? Won’t he stick up for them? I assure you, he will. He will not drag his feet. But how much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when he returns?”

This parable is not about God and how God answers prayer.  It is about us and how we pray.  It is not about God and what God will do for us if we beg him long and hard enough;  it is about us and what we can do to not lose heart, when all around us goes smash.

We can pray!  And keep on praying until something good happens!  And it will!

It may not be a healing: it may be the strength and faith to match the burden.

It may not be a solution to a problem, solving it for us; it may be the strength, insight and determination to solve the problem ourselves.

It may not be a bolt of lighting, like Martin Luther; but it may be a gradual awareness of a pull and tug towards God’s will for our lives which will not stop until we go with it.

It takes persistent faith to pray persistently .  Faith which will not give up, give in, or throw in the towel no matter how impossible things seem to be.  

The faith which is able to hang in there, persisting in God’s goodness, justice, fairness, love, mercy and kindness even when there seems to be no evidence that God even exists!

As it was for Elie Wiesel and many other Jews in Nazi Germany.  He writes:

“There were many periods in our past when we had every right in the world to turn to God and say, ‘Enough.  Since You seem to approve of all these persecutions, all these outrages, have it Your way: let Your world go on without Jews. Either You are our partner in history, or You are not.  If you are, do Your share; if You are not, we consider ourselves free of past commitments.  Since You choose to break the Covenant, so be it.”

“And yet, and yet...We went on believing, hoping, invoking His name...We did not give up on Him...For this is the essence of being Jewish; never to give up--never to yield to despair.”  A Jew Today, p. 164

This is also the essence of being a Christian!  To never give up no matter how bad it gets.  To persistently confess with the unknown person in a cellar in Cologne during the bombing of WW II: 

“I believe in the Sun even             

when it is not shining;

I believe in love even 

when I feel it not,

I believe in God even 

when He is silent.”  

Unknown

Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, I believe, help me to never not believe in Your

love, or despair over what seems too much to endure.”

Oct. 9, 2022, 18th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 17:11-19  (The Message)

It happened that as he made his way toward Jerusalem, he crossed over the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten men, all lepers, met him. They kept their distance but raised their voices, calling out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

Taking a good look at them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”

They went, and while still on their way, became clean. One of them, when he realized that he was healed, turned around and came back, shouting his gratitude, glorifying God. He kneeled at Jesus’ feet, so grateful. He couldn’t thank him enough—and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus said, “Were not ten healed? Where are the nine? Can none be found to come back and give glory to God except this outsider?” Then he said to him, “Get up. On your way. Your faith has healed and saved you.”

Life tastes better when we are thankful.  It takes the bitterness out of life.

The one who returned was not only healed; he was also made thankful.

He was made whole.  Jesus healing touched not only his body but also his heart.

He knew he didn’t deserve what he was given.  It was a gift.  And the only response was to turn back and give thanks.  His heart was healed as well as his body.  He felt good…happy…whole again.  That is the way it it is with  God’s healing grace.  It does more than we ask for and it never fails to make a difference in our lives.  Even if the difference is facing our illness with hope in our hearts because God is with us and no matter what happens, we cannot loose!

So turn back and thank God. Be happy for God’s healing grace where ever and however you have experienced it in your life.

 

"The best and most beautiful 

things in the world cannot be 

seen or even touched.  

They must be felt with the heart."  

Helen Keller

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to see that life and all that is precious in it is first of all a gift which warms the heart before it can be said to be a right, which enrages the mind.  Keep me thankful for the giftedness of life and Your healing grace.  A gift indeed!”