March 8, 2015 - Third Sunday of Lent (Revised Common Lectionary) Exodus 20:1-17 - Psalm 19 - 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 - John 2:13-22 Third Lutheran – Louisville, KY Austin Newberry

As the psalmist says this morning “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and redeemer”. Amen.

Given any number of popular shows on TV, it would seem that most of us enjoy watching an argument.

·        From paternity tests on weekday TV   to the Sunday morning talk shows, verbal (and sometimes even physical) sparring seems to rule the airways.

·        But most of us, when the conflict moves from the television to our living room, quickly become uncomfortable.

When trying to diminish the intensity of a quarrel, we often find ourselves suggesting that the issue at hand is “just a misunderstanding”.

·        In saying this we’re attempting to distinguish between bad will, dislike, and hate on the one hand and a mistake, misinformation, or ignorance on the other.

·        According to this point of view, it’s far more excusable to be wrong than it is to be hateful.

I think we all understand the logic of that but I’m just not so sure that it holds up.

·        We human beings are far more complicated than a simple distinction between mind and heart might indicate.

·        Even if it’s really possible to separate the two, to make the mind less culpable than the heart is dangerous because it allows us to make excuses for unacceptable, even evil, behavior done by us or by others.

By now you’re probably asking yourselves what on earth any of this philosophical speculation about the motives behind our actions has to do with today’s lessons.

·        If you’ll bear with me, I’d like to suggest that each of our readings is, in its own way, about misunderstandings rather than ill will.

·        A theology professor of mine used to often say that “Christians have a remarkable proclivity for missing the point”.

·        I might even go so far as to suggest “missing the point” as the very definition of sin.

In fact, the Hebrew word for sin literally means to “miss the mark.”

In the lesson from Exodus, God gives the commandments to Israel because of a growing misunderstanding.

Note the first commandment.

Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. (Ex 20:1-3)

The people had obviously become mistaken about who God is, what God had done for them in the exodus from Egypt, and what was required of them in return.

·        All the other commandments that follow are elaborations on the first.

·        In other words, what we understand about God has consequences far beyond intellectual theology.

·        If we fail to understand that God is the source and goal of all that we have and are, then we cannot love God and neighbor as we ought.

·        We might even dare to say that every sin is idolatry, a sin against the first commandment.

In First Corinthians there is a misunderstanding about the nature of the cross which, ultimately, is once again a misunderstanding about who God is and what God is doing in the world in and through Jesus the Christ.

·        To choose human wisdom over divine wisdom is another way of describing idolatry.

In the Gospel lesson from John we are shown, once again, a misunderstanding of the nature of the temple as a house of prayer and, as in First Corinthians, a misunderstanding about what God is up to in and through Jesus.

·        To believe that the business of the temple is business and not prayer is idolatry.

·        To prioritize the temple building over God made flesh in Jesus, is for John, idolatry.

The fundamental human condition which Lutheran theology has traditionally referred to as original sin is, it seems to me, a basic inability to understand who God is and the subsequent creation and worship of gods of our own choosing – idolatry.

We miss the point, we misunderstand, we miss the mark.

·        When we believe that we will ultimately be made safe by killing, we pay homage to the false god of death.

·        When we believe that we will be made happy by accumulation of wealth and goods, mistaking want for need, we bow down to the false god of consumption.

·        When we turn to food, drink, drugs, and sex as cures for loneliness and pain, we have given ourselves over to the false gods of immediate gratification.

·        When we believe ourselves, our culture, our race, our gender and even our sexuality to be superior to that of others, we have forsaken the God of the universe for the false gods of home and tribe.

·        When we reject the poor, the marginalized, the homeless, the mentally ill, the public sinner, and all whom Jesus called the least of these, we reject the Christ who is made present in them for the false gods of self-righteousness, self-help, and the self-made person.

·        And yes, when we insist on erecting monuments to the 10 commandments as a way of marginalizing those who do not share our religious tradition we turn the commandments themselves, as well as the bible itself, into a false god.

·        The list of these idols and the ways in which we worship them, of course, goes on and on.

This is the sad history of our human response to God’s goodness, love and mercy.

·        This friends is not really news to any of us.

·        It’s the story of Exodus, it’s the story of the buyers and the sellers in the temple, and it’s the story of the search for wonders and wisdom rather than the cross.

·        We admit as much in the declaration of our sin at the confession at the beginning of worship week after week.

·        God has given the law as gift so that we can see our failure with clear eyes.

·        We are forced to acknowledge that our idolatry has real life negative consequences for us and for people all over the world.

So where is the good news this morning?

As the Presbyterian theologian and popular writer Fredrick Buechner has said, “the good news is always bad news first” and we have plenty of that.

·        But, as Buechner’s statement implies, There is indeed good news for us today as well.

In a recent article in The Lutheran, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton reminds her readers that we focus on our sins and their negative consequences during lent as a first step in recognizing God’s goodness and mercy, not to feel guilty and even less as a reason to start a program of self-improvement.

·        In this holy season we are right to turn our attention to the misery and, yes, sadly, even the death that is caused by our devotion to false gods, but to think that we can somehow fix ourselves is just one more form of idolatry.

The good news is that God’s gracious redemptive activity in creation does not require that we get it right.

·        We cannot, thank God, misunderstand our way out of God’s love, grace, and forgiveness.

The idols lined up on the altars of our hearts are, in the end, no match for the God of Abraham and Sarah, the God of Moses, the God of our lord and savior Jesus Christ.

·        Just as Jesus cleansed the temple, so Jesus cleanses our hearts time and time again.

Just as God raised up the torn down temple of Jesus’ body, so too God brings new life to those places and people harmed by our idolatry.

Yes, the whole of sacred scripture contains the story of our human foolishness, our misunderstandings, our idolatry and sin.

But, dear friends in Christ, the bible is not ultimately about us – we are but bit players – rather, the bible is about God, the one true God, a God who time and time again offers only love, grace, and forgiveness to those who miss the mark.

In choosing with the Apostle Paul to proclaim Christ crucified, we proclaim the sign of God’s extravagant grace and the wisdom of a God who is a fool for love of us.

That extravagant grace and foolish love is indeed good news for us and for our world on this third Sunday of Lent.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday

People love Ash Wednesday for a variety of reasons and folks who never appear in church any other time often show up for the distribution of ashes. Perhaps, deep down, people who are pushed about by the whims of our consumer driven culture, desire a moment of austerity, a reality check if you will. But my friends, Ash Wednesday cannot be just about death and still be Christian. As the mid-twentieth century monk and mystic Thomas Merton warned, we cannot turn the distribution of ashes into some sort of “sacrament of death as if such a thing were even possible”.

The ashes themselves say all that needs to be said about death. Let them speak their power. Perhaps though rather than the traditional "remember mortal that  you are dust and dust you shall return", we are better served by the optional words at distribution “Repent and believe in the Gospel” or, in other words, turn around and believe the good news. Use the days ahead to turn around.

Turn around and see the whole history of God’s covenant love and salvific will at work in the world. Turn around and see the saving life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Turn around and see the Spirit at work blowing away the dust and ashes of death and breathing new life into dry bones. Spend some time during these forty days sitting with Sacred Scripture. Believe that the triune God is at work in the world for you and for all – for the whole of creation.

Turn around and see the messes you have made in your life and in the lives of others. Turn around and see the trail of tears left behind by deeds done in our name by both church and country. Turn around and see the abuse we have afflicted on our dear mother earth. Spend some time during these forty days in introspection and deep soul-searching examining your conscience for those things done and undone that contribute to death rather than life. Believe that all of this baggage can be left behind and that God offers forgiveness and new life for you and for all – for the whole of creation.

Turn around and see the marvels God has wrought in and through you on your journey of life. Turn around and see God's love for you expressed in love shown to you by others, in the peace that has come unexpectedly at just the right time, and in events that we can only in all humility call miraculous. Turn around and see, if you will, those famous footprints in the sand. Believe that you are God's beloved, a small but no less important part of God's beloved creation.

In various places the liturgical texts for lent dare to call this special time of year, God’s gift to us and, yes, a joyful season. Our turning is God’s grace at work in us. Our believing is God’s work in us. God's work is indeed marvelous and joyful to behold.

We are indeed dust and ashes, but dust and ashes loved beyond all understanding and destined to be re-formed as citizens of the new heaven and the new earth.

Repent and believe in the Gospel!

Turn around and believe the good news!

Amen.

Baptism of the Lord 2015

Today we commemorate the Lord’s baptism in the Jordan by John.

To commemorate something is another way of talking about remembering.

For the Christian, to remember is not simply to recall, but to make real, to make present in the here and now, at this place and in this time.

This is the kind of remembering we do when we celebrate the sacraments.

This sacramental remembering is made powerful, not through our efforts which would be magic, but because of God’s promise, which is pure gospel. 

Having made the point that sacraments are not magic, I would ask you to bear with me as I suggest that we now turn our attention to the magical world of Harry Potter.

In the Potter books there is a magical device that, in the movies,  looks for all the world just like a baptismal font from a medieval church.

Called a penseive, the font is filled with a magical liquid in which memories are stored and through which they can be seen with clarity.

I would like to suggest dear friends, that the baptismal font we see here before us, is even more powerful and that this power comes not from the invocation of magic spells but from the proclamation of gospel to and for everyone who has or will be baptized.

Not only does the baptismal font enable us to see the past, it also provides us with a clear vision of the present and the future.

In this small bowl are all the Church’s past memories of water, memories freed of the need to be fact, so that they can be the truth.

• ·       The chaotic waters brooded over by the Spirit at the moment of creation as we heard in today’s first lesson.
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• ·        The river flowing out of Eden.
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• ·        All the rivers and oceans of the earth in their primal state before pollution and damns.
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• ·        The seas containing what one psalm translation delightfully calls “the monsters God made to play with”
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• ·        The ocean home of the great and terrible Leviathan.
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• ·        The cleansing flood of Noah’s day.
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• ·        The water flowing forth from the rock in the desert.
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• ·        The Red Sea through which God’s people passed out of slavery.
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• ·        The Jordan River which those same ex-slaves crossed over into the Promised Land.
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• ·        The Jordan River to which Elisha directed Naaman to wash and be cured of Leprosy.
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• ·        The raging waters and rivers through which God promises protection in the prophesy of Isaiah.
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• ·        The waters Ezekial saw flowing from the temple.
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• ·        The waters of justice and the everlasting stream of righteousness proclaimed by Amo.s
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• ·        The stormy sea into which Jonah was thrown.
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• ·        Again, the River Jordan where John the Baptist preached and into which Jesus descended into baptism.
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• ·        The Sea of Galilee so prominent in the Gospel narratives.
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• ·        The water turned into wine.
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• ·        The pool at Siloam where Jesus healed the blind man and the healing pool at Bethesda.
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• ·        The spittle of Jesus mixed with dirt to make healing mud.
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• ·        The water used to wash the disciples feet.
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• ·        The water and blood flowing from Jesus’ pierced side on the cross.
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• ·        The water into which countless saints, including most of us here today, have been baptized.
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• ·        The water we drink and which we use to grow crops, the water with which we bathe and with which we clean. And yes, even the water we waste while millions thirst.
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• ·        And last but not least, our own individual memories of lakes, streams, rivers and oceans as we’ve experienced them for good and for ill in our lives.

o   Picnics on the beach, a drowned cousin, fishing with Grandpa, the Christmas Tsunami – joy and sadness, refreshment and danger,life and death.

So many memories.

So much water.

So much truth about both the chaos and storms of sin, but also the healing and refreshment which is God’s promise to us..

Luther says that in Christ’s baptism all the waters of the earth have united to become one great flood.

Perhaps it’s a good thing we keep the lid on the font when not in use!

Unlike the penseive in the Harry Potter stories however, the baptismal font also gives us a vision of our future.

The font is a tomb into which those of us who have been baptized have as St. Paul insists, already died.

In baptism, we have died the only death that ultimately matters for, if we have died and been buried with Christ, so we also shall share in his resurrection.

And so the baptismal tomb is also a womb of rebirth from which the baptized are reborn into eternal life.

It is the womb of Sarah, of Hannah, and of Elizabeth who were barren but who gave birth to Isaac, Samuel, and John the Baptist, and the virgin womb of Mary who gave birth to the Christ, for nothing is impossible with God.

In the book of revelation we are given a vision of a new heaven and a new earth, a new temple in a New Jerusalem, out from which flows the river of the water of life.

No longer contained in the font, the lid removed once and for all, this river spills forth all the waters of our collective memory.

The words of the prophecy are worth rehearing.

·        Then the angel^* showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ²through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life^* with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Rev. 22, 1-3)

Here at the font then, is our future.

Finally, here also, is our present.

Here, over this font, God rips open the heavens and says to each of us here and now, no matter what we have done or failed to do,“You are my child, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

Here are the waters of grace for the forgiveness of our sins here, today, at First Lutheran.

Here are the waters of refreshment for lives poured out in ministry and service to neighbor, here in Columbus, IN, in 2015.

Here is water for healing, water for fishing for people, waters of justice and righteousness flowing through our witness and action.

Here in this font is the truth of our past, present and future. 

All in God’s hands. 

All grace. 

Amen. 

Alleluia

5th Sunday of Lent - Year B (John 12:20-33)

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  All of what we mean by pastoral ministry is summed up in this brief statement.  All the desire, all the desperate searching, all the hopes and fears of the people who knock on pastor’s doors, who look up from hospital beds, who focus on clerical collars across airport boarding areas; all of this and more is to be found in these few words.  And what is the only possible response for the pastor?  He or she has no choice but to show the seeker the cross.

If all the world’s searching can be summed up in one brief statement, then, of course, the end of that searching can be summed up in one image, the cross.  In the cross we find all our trouble, pain, and death to be sure, but also healing, community, judgment, and glory.  The Evangelist does not minimize the suffering of the cross.  He is not what Martin Luther would call, derogatorily, a theologian of glory.  But that being said, he sees the paschal mystery in its totality.  The passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus are all of a piece.  As such, the cross is indeed where we see Jesus most clearly and personally.

3rd Sunday of Lent - Year B (John 2:13-22)

Raised a Roman Catholic and attending parochial schools, I was constantly reminded as a child that my body was a temple of the Holy Spirit. If, indeed, our bodies are temples, then perhaps we might do well to see Lent as a time for inviting Jesus in to clean house.  Augustine’s famous prayer “make me chaste, but not yet” is a reminder of the disruption such a house cleaning might cause in our lives.

Are we prepared to have the tables of our consumerism and trust in wealth overturned?  What about the animals of our lust, gluttony, and lack of concern for their consequences on the earth?  And then there are the coins of the realm; good looks, prestige, class, intelligence and health.  Can we face a life without pockets full of these coins?

Jesus can change us – literally tear down the walls, towers, altars, and idols we have constructed and rebuild us in his own image.  It’s no wonder, really, that I’ve never liked Lent.

2nd Sunday of Lent - Year B (Mark 8: 31-38)

Unlike the Lucan and Matthean versions of Jesus’ forty days in the desert, the Markan version does not provide any details about Satan’s temptations.  In year B, then, we must wait for the Second Sunday of Lent to learn more about what temptation looks like for Mark’s community.  And what do you know; when Satan arrives on the scene in Chapter 8 there are no horns, no pointy tail, and no smell of sulfur.  There is only Peter.

The temptation to reject the cross, it seems, often comes from the inside, from within the church, sometimes from its very leaders.  Christians are always seeking the easy way out.  Over and over in its history the church has succumbed to triumphalism (which Luther calls the theology of glory).  And, interestingly enough, the motive is not fear, but pride.  We all want to be on the winning team but, unfortunately for us, both the Church and the individual Christian are only really winning when losing.  If we are “winning friends and influencing people” it might mean that we have turned away from the shameful way of the cross. 

1st Sunday of Lent - Year B (Mark 1:9-15)

It appears that for Mark, the baptism of Jesus and the divine affirmation of his status as the Beloved Son, are somehow related to Jesus’ immediate move to the wilderness.  While the lectionary relates this account to the story of Noah and the flood, it might have been more appropriate to pair it with Exodus.  After considering the idea of a parallel between the Jordan and Red Sea, I was struck with the idea that no, this is not a parallel story to that part of the exodus but, rather the symbolic opposite of Israel’s crossing of the Jordan into the promised land.

After his baptism in the Jordan, Jesus leaves the promised land of milk and honey for the wilderness.  It is in the wilderness that Jesus becomes the outsider.  This will, of course, be the pattern of Mark’s gospel.  Just two weeks ago we saw Jesus himself become unclean by touching the leper in order to heal him. This is the pattern of the cross which Peter will reject.