June 22, 2025 Good Samaritan and Mary & Martha Luke 10:25-42

 There are two stories in our gospel reading today and we’re going to look at three pieces of art for each.  The artists draw our attention to details and bring out challenges from the texts.

            The first story is the parable of the Good Samaritan. 

 

Our first piece of art is The Road Between Jerusalem and Jericho by Sir Hubert von Herkomer, 1849-1914 (United Kingdom).  He is trying to give a sense of the dangers of the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.  The scene is forbidding.  Travel was dangerous in general.  This particular road was particularly so.  Jerusalem and Jericho are 17 miles apart.  Jerusalem is 2500 feet above sea level while Jericho is 800 feet below sea level.  The road often descends steeply and has many rocky valleys and passes.  The hearers of Jesus’ parable would not have been surprised by a story of about a person traveling alone being attacked and robbed.

            At the center bottom of the piece we see the injured man being cared for by the Samaritan.  The Samaritan has tied his animal to a tree.  We realize that the helpful Samaritan is putting himself at risk as he is doing this.  Down the road we can easily make out one of the travelers who has passed by the injured man.  Farther down the road, and difficult to see, is the other traveler.

The second piece is by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh; painted in May of 1890.  Van Gogh is not interested in creating a realistic scene, but he has included many elements of the story.  Again, in the distance we see two travelers who have passed by the injured man.  An empty chest shows that the man has been robbed.  The Samaritan is depicted as strong and muscular as he is heaving the injured man onto his animal.  The face of the injured man shows pain. 

Jews and Samaritans were enemies.  They did not like each other and would not want to touch each other.  Here Van Gogh depicts a great amount of physical contact between these two enemies.  This depiction heightens the care and compassion of the Samaritan shows for his enemy.  Jesus taught this parable in response to the question, “Who is my neighbor?”  Our enemies are still our neighbors.  We are not to be stingy in offering them aid, but generous.  In the parable the Samaritan goes on to provide generously for the injured man’s ongoing needs.

 

          The next piece is Portrait of You as the Good Samaritan by James B. Janknegt, 2006  (America).  This piece depictes several aspects of the parable in the reverse.  Since you, the viewer, are the Samaritan who helps, you do not appear.  The piece begs the question, “What you will do now?”

On the left we see the two thieves – a young black man and a red-haired white woman.  They are fleeing on a bicycle.  They are carrying clothes and art supplies but they are spilling away.  In the background is an urban scene. 

Moving to the right we have a priest in clerical garb.  He is in front of a church and has a cross in one hand and an offering plate in the other.  He surely should have helped, but his priorities are different and he is resolutely walking away.

Next to the right is a bearded long-haired hippie carrying a guitar.  Surely this ‘peace and love’ person would help an injured man, but he has not.

Finally, on the right side of the piece is the injured man.  He is depicted as bloody and mangled.  His ethnicity is indeterminate.  We realize he is a painter.  There are paint brushes still in one hand.  By his other hand is what he was working on - a painting of Mary and Jesus.  What does it say that this artist was attacked while working on religious art?  And what does it say that his clothes and art supplies have been stolen but the art he was working on is left behind?

Again, this piece deliberately reverses many aspects of the parable.  The injured man has not been traveling on a desolate and dangerous road.  He has been stationary doing religious art in what should have been a safe suburb.  Notice in the background behind him there are nice homes with lawns.  A man is in his yard.  A sprinkler is watering the grass.  A dog sits in the shade of a tree.  No one seems to notice the crime that has been committed.  Therefore, what are you the viewer as the Samaritan now going to do?

This piece raises many questions.  If the suburbs are to be safe places where good, wholesome, hard-working people live, then why did this crime happen in the first place?  And why is everyone ignoring it?  What places in our society do we so surely assume to be safe that we overlook the horrible things that happen?

The parable of the Good Samaritan raises many questions.  They are worth taking time to consider.  For now, though, we move on. 

We have three pieces about the home of Martha and Mary.

 

First we have Christ in the Home of Martha and Mary by Johannes Vermeer, 17^th Century (Dutch).  This depiction of the scene depicts 17^th century Europeans in the roles of Jesus, Martha, and Mary.  Martha in the center is the highest character in the scene.  The moment depicted is when Martha appeals to Jesus for help from her sister with the household tasks.  But Jesus points to Mary as she is sitting at his feet listening to what he says.  We start with this piece because it gives a traditional understanding of Martha’s mistake.  She is worried about household tasks.  While hospitality and household tasks were very important in those days, the lesson we get from it is that Martha needs to shift her priorities to something even more important.  That was to listen to Jesus.  What is not depicted here, but will be depicted in the third piece, are some of the reasons for Martha’s misplaced priorities.  But before we get to the third piece, we have things to discover in a second.

 

This is Martha and Mary by He Qi, 21^st Century (China/America).  Qi’s art frequently combines geometric shapes with the sight lines to add extra dimensions to the piece.  Here Jesus is slightly to the right of center.  He is looking straight at Martha, who has her head bowed from his criticism.  Mary is on the right.  She is lower than Jesus but she is not looking up at him.  Her head is also lowered in respect to Jesus’ authority.  The Holy Spirit, abstractly depicted as a descending dove, is coming upon Mary.  By contrast, nothing is coming down upon Martha.  Martha is high in the piece, standing above her tasks and retaining power by being in control of them.  There is no room for the Spirit on Martha’s side.   Again in contrast, Mary claims no such power for herself.  She is simply open to Jesus. 

Another of Qi’s pieces, Supper at Emmaus is on page 89 in the front of the Red Hymnal.

 

The final piece is At the Home of Martha and Mary, Ain Vares, 21^st Century (Estonia).  Martha dominates the scene.  Her back is to us but her head appears to be turned somewhat to Jesus.  Martha’s arms hold her many burdens: shopping bags, a rambunctious child and a demanding one, laundry, dishes, exercise equipment, and a whole house are the burdens she bears.  Is this not what many a parent bears in our society today?  How can there be time for Jesus when life’s demands are so great and so constant?  Careers, child care, kid’s sports, maintaining a home, and much more all create exhaustion.  Having time for faith, and the commitments of Christianity, just feel like more burdens.  They are therefore neglected.

Yet Jesus, depicted calmly and simply, sits on the right side.  Mary, having the correct priorities, listens to Jesus with face upturned.  She is serene and open.

This piece reminds us that doing all of life’s tasks, essential as they may seem, do not save us.  Jesus does.  With Jesus at the center and a life built around faith the rest of life’s tasks take their proper perspective.  Many burdens will simply be released.  Others will get different priority.  But all of them will take on their true purpose.  Jesus came not to add to the burdens of life.  Jesus gives us the right perspective for them.

All of these pieces are available online.  They will all be posted in pastor’s sermon blog.  Look them up and spend more time with them.  Each is worth contemplating.  Let them enrich your faith in the days to come.

 

June 15, 2025 The Holy Trinity, John 16:12-15

            A little girl who lived next door to a cemetery had an old teddy bear that was care worn and ragged.  It had been repaired many times but it had deteriorated to the point where the stuffing was just bursting out everywhere and no new stitches would hold.  The girl - sadly, reluctantly – knew that the bear had reached the end of its life.  She felt that the most appropriate thing to do would be to give it a proper burial.  Living next door to a cemetery she had overheard many a funeral.  She confidently set out to do what she knew how to do.  She selected a nice spot in the yard.  She dug a little hole for the bear to be buried in.  Then she had a little funeral service saying the kinds of things she’d heard in funerals, concluding with, “In the name of the Father and of the Son, and into the hole he goes!”

            This silly mistake in the understanding of the Trinity sets us up to understand the much more important way the Trinity and theology affect our lives.

            As I said at the beginning of the service, this is Holy Trinity Sunday.  It falls the Sunday after Pentecost and it is a Sunday I almost always ignore.  Why?  Because preaching a sermon on the Trinity is tough.  The doctrine of the Trinity is hard to understand, seems barely relevant to our lives, and is dull to talk about.  About the only interesting thing I’ve ever come across about the nature of the Trinity is the YouTube video St. Patrick’s Bad Analogies.  (We’ve seen it in worship and I can show it again at coffee hour.)

            Yet we do not do well to completely ignore the doctrine of the Trinity.  So this year being the 1700^th anniversary of the Council of Nicea is a good time to give it some attention.

The Trinity is an immensely complex theological construct and basically impossible to understand.  How can Christians say that there is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet not three gods but one God?  First grade math teaches you that one plus one plus one equals three.  But in theology one plus one plus one still equals one.  And then there’s our understanding of Jesus, one of three personalities in the one God.  We say that Jesus is one being with two natures – divine and human.  So, with theological math concerning the whole Trinity one plus one plus one equals one.  And then within one third of that Trinity one plus one also still equals one.  With this kind of logic its little wonder why churches are declining many people in our society think Christianity is absurd!

Indeed, to an outsider it is a complex mess.  Read the Qur’an and you’ll see how Muhammed, encountering Christianity late in the 6^th century, thought Christians worshipped three gods.  You certainly can’t explain the Trinity to someone in the length of an elevator ride.  You can’t explain the Trinity if you have hours to do so!

We may also ask ourselves why does any of it matter?  Isn’t simple faith in Jesus enough?  Aren’t we saved by grace?  If we have to have a thorough intellectual understanding of the Trinity in order to be saved then we’re all in big trouble!

There’s also the weakness of theology itself.  Theology means a word about God.  But can God be understood or explained at all?  It only takes one sentence to completely undermine any and every theological system that could ever be created.  Here’s the sentence:  If God can do anything, then can God create a rock so heavy that God can’t lift it?

Right there, and as simple as that, and you’ve completely jammed any headway theology could ever possibly make!  The truth is that the human mind cannot begin to comprehend God.  God is so far beyond us that we can’t understand anything about God at all.  That then give us a foundation for Christian beliefs.  Christianity claims that in Jesus God does enter into creation as a human in order to reveal God’s nature to us in a way that we can understand.  We cannot understand God, so God comes to us in a way we can understand; at least in part.

Simple as that belief is, it quickly gets complicated.  What is the nature of Jesus?  What was he before he was born?  Did he exist at all?  And how can he be both God and human?  If he is God then how can he die?  And if God has died then how can God be resurrected?  Is there something greater than God and death that can do that?  Questions like these quickly spiral out of control.

The Council of Nicea was the first time where leaders from across Christianity officially gathered to codify some official beliefs.  Prior to that there were gatherings here and there, and there were many letters written that show the early Christians were wrestling with many things, but they were never able to openly come together to hash things through.

The emperor Constantine called the Council of Nicea in order to deal with many issues, and one issue in particular.  That issue was the belief that has become known as Arianism.  Arius was a priest in Alexandria, Egypt late in the third and early in the fourth centuries.  From his thinking and reading of early Christian writings (Remember, the Bible hadn’t yet been defined.) he struggled with an understanding of the nature of Jesus.  He argued that since only God the Father could be said to be the only absolute, unbegotten, eternity then Jesus had to be in some sense subordinate and inferior to the Father.  Arius’ ideas were ultimately rejected and considered heresy, but let’s not look down upon him too harshly.  He was wrestling with deep things and struggling to come up with reasonable explanations.

I’m not going to bore you (or intellectually exhaust you) with the intricacies of the arguments but if you spin out Arius’ thoughts you come up with an understanding of Jesus where Jesus was some sort of an intermediate being created by God who was never really divine nor fully a creature.  Understood this way, Jesus is odd and weak.  God as Father remains aloof.  The whole point of the crucifixion, how forgiveness works, the nature of divine love, and a whole host of other problems creep in.

Records indicate that the debates at the Council of Nicea were ferocious.  There are even some records, albeit questionable in their reliability, that say the council sometimes turned violent.

Ultimately however, the Council of Nicea began to hammer out the understanding of the Trinity that we have today.  The Nicene Creed is often cited as being created by the Council of Nicea.  Strictly speaking that is not true.  The Nicene Creed in the form we have it today does not come about until decades later at the Council of Constantinople in 381.  However, forerunners of the Nicene Creed were indeed created at the council.

As I pointed out in my article in the June newsletter the Nicene Creed is full of obscure words and strange concepts.  Who cares whether Jesus was, “begotten not made”?  And yet here’s the thing.  Every word of the Nicene Creed – and I mean EVERY word – has been painstakingly chosen and argued over.  Study that creed carefully sometime and you discover that it is a highly complex set of logical tensions that create a very delicate balancing act stretching the very limits of what the human brain can comprehend.

Why do we say that creed in worship?  Because it is the only worldwide statement of faith all churches (or almost all churches) agree to.  While we say that the Bible is the rule and norm for faith it is actually the Nicene Creed which gives us a guide for how to interpret the Bible.  Take away the Nicene Creed and Christianity as we know it falls apart.

We may not understand that creed, but we understand God from its perspective, we study the Bible from its perspective, we preach and teach from its perspective, we pray from its perspective, and we live out our daily lives from its perspective.

Does the Nicene Creed give us a full and correct understanding of the nature God?  I would say not.  Nothing can do that and humans aren’t capable of it.  But that creed does give us an understanding of God that helps us live a meaningful relationship with God and with each other.  The math of the Trinity and the nature of Jesus does not work at all.  But the tensions give us something we can live by.

Ultimately we give thanks for those church leaders 1700 years ago who were wresting with these concepts.  They had no framework to go by, but by the Holy Spirit they came up with something that works.  We inherit a complex, rich, and wonderfully developed faith.  We do well to appreciate that.  And even if we don’t understand it, we can live it as fully as possible and enjoy the confidence of God’s love.

June 8, 2025 Pentecost Luke 10:1-24

            I’ve heard it said that we spend our whole lives working to pay for all the labor-saving devices that we buy.  It’s a silly thought, but one that carries a good deal of truth to it.  How many things do we buy that we really don’t use all that often?  And how many things do we buy that don’t last all that long, or don’t give us lasting value?  How many things do we buy simply because it is what everyone else is doing, and we somehow convince ourselves that therefore it must be good and we should have it too? 

Sometimes I get the feeling that societies are like cattle on a cattle drive.  They’re all moving in a group without any real sense of where they’re going.  I suppose we could then ask who are the cowboys?  Some would blame “influencers” or major corporations, or government leaders, or (in the past) religions.  But I think people just have a restlessness that wants cool new things and also, acceptance from peers. 

Never underestimate how powerful peer pressure is, at just about every age.  We are a social species.  We want to have a group and be accepted by it.  Psychologist Gurwinder Bhogal brings up the idea of FIBs- Fashionably Irrational Beliefs.  (YouTube – Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things).  These aren’t believing outright lies.  But they are the way we shape our beliefs and values so that we can fit in with our social group or tribe.  We generally chose to fit in rather than critically examining evidence.

That takes us to our gospel reading, and the reading from Acts 2 where the Holy Spirit dramatically comes upon the crowd of disciples with tongues of fire and a sound of wind.  Think critically about what’s going on in the gospel and in the Acts text.  Then imagine having a casual conversation about that stuff in public.  These are not ordinary conversation topics of polite and cultured people!: 

-miraculously understanding different languages,

-tongues of fire,

-sounds of wind,

-Jesus sending 70 followers out on a door-to-door missionary trip without any provisions whatsoever and warning them it will be dangerous,

-Jesus speaking woes to various cities: Chorazin, Bethsaida, and even Capernaum, which was his home base for most of his ministry,

-demon possession and exorcisms

-treading on snakes and scorpions and not being harmed,

-seeing Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning,

-and wrapping it all up by Jesus thanking the Father for hiding all these things from the wise and intelligent and revealing it to infants because it was the Father’s will.

            If you go to a restaurant for lunch after worship and have a somewhat loud conversation about these things and people would think you are a nut!

            All of this is in scripture, which we call true and authoritative for faith.  And none of this fits into what polite cultured church goers do. 

So we don’t do it.   And we don’t talk about it!

            Perhaps there is some evangelism savvy to our reluctance.  We are smart enough to know that saying and doing things like this is unlikely to bring people to know the love of God.  You’ll come off as some out of touch mystical weirdo!  So I don’t think we should be too harsh on ourselves.  And yet, we do well to not lose our nerve.

            Earlier I said about society being like cattle and not really engaging in critical thinking.  People often don’t know what’s best for them, or if they do they still don’t do it.

Here’s a silly example I’ve used before, but it’s one of my favorites.  You may remember the Coke vs. Pepsi taste tests years ago.  People were invited to taste each without knowing which was which and then choosing their favorite.  If I remember correctly Pepsi won, but Coke solidly kept market dominance despite not being the preferred product.  That’s odd.  But it gets worse.  Retired biblical scholar David Lose liked to point out that in an across-the-board taste test of various colas people’s favorite was not Coke, nor Pepsi, but actually RC Cola.  So why does the brand with the best product remain so obscure? 

It’s about marketing and having the right perception of your product in public.

            As we have the Pentecost text and the gospel reading in the back of our minds let us think about all of this and the public perception of the church.

            Whether true or not, the perception is that 50 years ago American society largely revolved around the church.  It seemed that most everyone belonged to a church.  It seemed that most everyone went to church almost every week.  Churches built big buildings that would be regularly filled with people.  Nothing except church things were scheduled on Sundays.  Often a week night, Wednesday, was reserved by society for church events.  Church denominations and church leaders held political and business authority.  Corporations with unethical business practices were often called out by churches, boycotted, and then changed their ways.  Children went to Sunday school, got confirmed, did things in youth group; and when they grew up they got married in the church, started their own family, and the cycle continued.

            But somehow societal perceptions shifted.  The church went from the center to the sidelines.  It wasn’t exactly sudden, but it was pretty rapid.  Though many people raise all sorts of theories, I find most of those theories fall into the category of “fashionably irrational beliefs”.  They suit the agenda of the person or group promoting them.  The unfashionable rational truth is what no one wants to hear.  I’ve mentioned this before.  I find hints of it in biblical commentaries published right after World War 2.  There they say that the widespread post war prosperity that was arising was so antithetical to the teachings of Jesus that the church is in serious trouble.

            I feel like the church has become like RC Cola in society.  We have the best overall product out there, but people aren’t interested.  True, we have biblical texts like those we read today, that are filled with ideas and concepts that sound like they’ve come from some ignorant past.  And true, the world view of the authors of scripture is very different from our own.  That does not make them wrong at all, however.  It just means there’s a gap in the world views. 

            That should not frighten us off from the task of evangelism.  We have a great product in faith and the church.  Though largely ignored, the church is the best place to raise children and give them a foundation of basic morality.  The church teaches all ages who they are, what their place in the world is, what their value is, and what God’s promises for the future are.  The church is a place where people of all political persuasions and all sorts of beliefs can come together regularly and respectfully.  The church teaches healthy priorities for life.  The church is intergenerational, and gives value to all.  The church is accepting, knowing that all people are sinners in need of God’s grace.  The church continues to bring good things to the poor, the neglected, the dispossessed, and the hopeless.  The church provides: quality, truth, authenticity, and hope.  And finally, the church gives everything the perspective of eternal life.  This life is important.  That is true.  But Christianity teaches to shape it in light of God’s promises of eternity.  That provides healthy living, mental health, and emotional robustness.

            There is every reason for us to be evangelists for the gospel.  The church may be fashionably out of date, but that does not mean it lacks health and truth.  The truth is, yes, the church is not perfect.  Like all institutions it has its problems and errors.  But it is the healthiest, most well rounded, best prioritied thing you can make a commitment to.  Jesus’ teachings are sound and universal.  We should not fear them.

            And, if I can mix faith with the cola taste test, if people laugh at you or scorn you because Christian faith is like drinking RC Cola while they drink whatever fashionably irrational thing they drink, then so what?  You’re still drinking the best tasting thing out there!

            So work, pray, play, and do all things through Christ our Lord.  You will enjoy a full and fulfilling life now, have strength to face whatever problems come along, and die with the promise of God’s eternal life.

June 1, 2025 7th Sunday of Easter Luke 9:46-62

             If this sermon works well then I will probably offend all of you before I’m done, and then add to that by giving a depressing message.  But only then can we truly be in a place to understand God’s grace and know how to joyfully live in forgiveness.

            I’ve long read the Bible passages about the disciples arguing among themselves as who was the greatest as if they were adolescent boys posturing for dominance in some toxic masculinity sort of way.  I’ve wondered how shallow and selfish they must have been!  How did Jesus put up with them, and why did Jesus select this bunch of nitwits?  Surely there were better people that he could have selected.  But more recently I’ve begun to question these ideas.  Have I been turning them into caricatures I could easily cast aside instead of realizing their dynamics are very common today?  Perhaps they were actually as bad as I’m apt to caricaturize them, but I suspect not.

            Something that has been growing worse for decades, but it has gotten especially prominent since the last presidential election, is moral posturing and virtue signaling.  And are not moral posturing and virtue signaling any different than arguing over who is the greatest?  All sides seem to do it, and in doing so all sides miss the truth.  Here is where I’m likely to offend all of you. 

Many on the conservative side of things praise President Trump.  However, as conservative author David Brooks pointed out in his recent address to the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, this is a fundamental mistake.  Trump is not conservative.  He is anti-liberal.  His policies are irrational and inconsistent.  They’re dangerous and weaken the nation at home and abroad.  You cannot undermine the legislative and judicial branches of government by declaring everything to be an emergency.  At the very beginning of his term his surrogates called the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America a money-laundering organization.  He has wreaked havoc in our social service programs, immigrant resettlement programs, and threatens our mission work worldwide.  People the Lutheran church used to care for nationally and internationally are dying because of him.  So called government efficiency is, as far as I can tell, excuses to go after everything an anti-liberal doesn’t like.  There is serious fear within the Rochester area by Lutheran pastors.  I have not personally been threatened by federal officials, but colleagues in the area have.

            Perhaps you are a conservative who is opposed to Trump.  There are plenty of people like that.  They’ve gone pretty quiet lately out of fear.  But rarely do I meet conservatives like David Brooks who can also critique conservativism.  Conservative approaches can stall progress, create divisions, and not recognize that systems cause problems powerless people cannot get out of.  Trump supporter, or conservative against Trump, it easily comes in line with the disciples arguing for who is the greatest.

            But if you’re on the liberal side of things the same dynamics are happening.  The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is truly on the liberal side of things.  Most of its policies reflect the attitudes of the educated elite.  Fancy words and sophisticated concepts are thrown around all the time.  They site endless studies and claim to what they call unbiased do scientific research, but their perspectives show ignorance of: hard manual labor, the dynamics of rural communities, commercial production, and present-day agriculture.  Liberals have become great at virtue signaling.  Clothes and cars are chosen to send the message of their so-called enlightenment.  They shop at stores and farmers buying locally sourced organic produce, and ethically sourced commercial goods, claiming they are good environmentalists, good humanitarians, and stewards of the earth.  They’ll write letters, attend rallies, create policies, and fight on behalf of whatever minority happens to be the shiny object of the moment, yet never be willing to do hard tedious manual labor, and think themselves good people.  Is this also not arguing who is the greatest?

            Have I managed to offend you yet?  All sides seem to create caricatures of the other and then hole up within their self-built righteousness.

            Now that I’ve offended you, it is time to depress you.  Evil is clever, very clever.  It is thrilled to have us pointing at each other.  While each side has merits to its case it also does have evil elements.  Evil is thrilled to have us consume our time and efforts pointing fingers and arguing over who is the greatest.  Doing so keeps us from seeing the real problems.  We try to take the speck out of our neighbor’s eye and miss the log in our own.

            Evil is truly clever.  Among its more clever things is to turn good into a destructive bad.  Last year one of my doctoral courses had best-selling author Joanna Penn as a guest.  She’s written over 40 books of multiple types.  She’s a British author, and like many British authors she is particularly adept at creating villains.  I asked her how she went about creating an evil character.  She said she started by finding something good within herself.  And then she’d push that good just a little too far until it became destructive.  In one of her books there is a woman who has a heart for saving the environment.  After much soul-searching the woman realizes the only way to truly ensure environmental safety is to cause the extinction of one particular species – humans.

Here's a trick of evil.  I think we’d all agree that health care is a good thing.  We’d also agree that we should care for the elderly, the weak, and the disabled.  We don’t kill off a person as soon as he or she consumes more from society than they give to society.  And yet, the greater the health care the weaker humans become.  In the natural world those who are not fit and vital die quickly.  They do not become a burden.

For one of my son’s recent college classes they used computer models and artificial intelligence to speculate about what good health care does to human genetics.  Good healthcare undermines one of the fundamental dynamics of evolutionary health.  It allows the weak the opportunity to pass on their genetics.  It should be no surprise when I tell you that my son’s computer models predict humans will quickly become less physically strong and less intelligent. 

Is healthcare therefore bad?  Yet it is undeniably dooming us!  Actually, we don’t have to worry about that.  Our level of health and way of life will collapse long before we become genetically weak.  I’ve preached in the recent past that according to geologist Scott Tinker we need to reduce our energy consumption by 93% if we want the planet to survive.  That means immediately stopping life as we know it.  We also need to eliminate at least 6 billion people from the earth because the earth cannot sustain the human population.  From what I understand we’ve already passed the tipping point.  There is no going back.  The damage is done and things will only get worse.

            To withhold basic care from a suffering and struggling human is evil.  The Bible tells us over and over again to offer care.  Yet providing it is destroying us and so is ultimately evil as well.

            Do you see how clever evil is?  And this is just one example.  It happens all the time.  Yet as long as we keep our moral posturing arguing over who is the greatest, evil (in is subtlest form) is allowed to run unchecked.

            Simple fact.  We’re in a mess.  We can’t get out of it.  We’ve all contributed to it.  We’re ruining God’s good creation and we have no good options before us.  I told you at the beginning I would make you angry and then depress you.

            In our gospel reading James and John wanted to call down divine wrath upon towns of foreigners who didn’t accept Jesus.  Then several would-be followers wanted to follow Jesus.  They each had rational excuses for a delay.  Jesus rejected them.  Jesus was focused on Jerusalem and his crucifixion that would happen there.  That would be the price of defeating evil.  By all worldly judgements and perspectives it was nonsense; but all worldly judgements and perspectives end up having evil weave itself into them.

            So here’s the truth.  Only when we can go to God realizing that we are trapped, helpless, and broken are we truly in a place to be amazed by God’s grace.  Only when we realize how trapped, helpless, and broken we are are we able to have the authentic humility needed to work in God’s kingdom for the future.  Our culture: its conservatives, liberals, and any philosophical perspective that thinks it has the ultimate answers, does not like the truth of evil or the cross it leads Jesus to.

            A happy future, and the happy ending to a dark sermon, is to be in awe of God’s boundless forgiveness for us.  It is to know that God loves us, and delights in us, even as we endlessly make messes of everything we touch.

            What do we then do?  How do we act?  How do we work through messes that even our best efforts cause, things like the side effects of having basic healthcare for sick people? 

            We endlessly root ourselves in the humility of our sinfulness.  Martin Luther’s ever famous quote in a letter to Philip Melanchthon comes to mind: “Sin and sin boldly, but rejoice in Christ more boldly still.”  It is not by dwelling in our sinfulness that gets us out of it.  It is by rejoicing in Christ that we have the perspective we need to be able to engage evil.  Again from Martin Luther, the words of the hymn A Mighty Fortress.  This is a German to English translation from centuries ago:

“For still our ancient foe, forsworn to work us woe, with guile and dreadful might is armed to wage the fight: on earth there is no equal.

“If we in our own strength confide, our striving turns to losing; the righteous one fights by our side, the one of God’s own choosing.

“…Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; though all of these be gone, they yet have nothing won.  The kingdom’s our forever!”

            Luther’s truthful thoughts are an expression of complete humility yet absolutely bold defiance because of the security of God’s love.  It is helplessness that is rooted in hope that is beyond us.  When that perspective is applied to the world’s problems the answers are neither flashy nor easy (and they are never popular or will be widely embraced by humanity) but they are the end of evil and the beginning of God’s kingdom. 

            This will never be fully realized in the world.  God alone can bring it about.  But it lets us live with bold defiance with faith in God’s promises.   It gives us hope in the face of hopelessness, and can let us navigate the inevitable mess of evil with true love.

May 18, 2025 5th Sunday of Easter Luke 9:18-27

             If you ever travel on the Thru-Way from the Victor exit to the Canandaigua exit you know that the right hand lane is so rough that it feels like pieces of your car are going to start falling of here there and everywhere.  In the over 25 years I’ve lived in this area that lane has always been rough, despite several attempts by the Thru-Way to fix it.  I’m curious if the current repaving project will finally set it to rights.

            While I would argue that far right lane is an example of either truly flawed design or very sloppy inspection of the road base before paving, it does remind me of something else.  In college I worked a few semesters as a co-op student with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in their Bureau of Environmental Quality.  For much of that time I shared office space with an experienced engineer who had spent his career designing highways.  I remember talking with him about some of the most problematic highway projects at the time.  He would become frustrated.  One time he pointed to a coffee mug on his desk and said, “People are never satisfied.  If I were to design a road so smooth that you could put that mug on the dashboard of your car and have it not spill a drop all too soon people would complain and want something better.”  While I will maintain that the right lane of the Thruway between Victor and Canandaigua is a truly abysmal bit of highway, I believe he had a point.

            God made us to be highly capable and creative beings.  We can do many amazing things.  Among them is that we can shape our environment to make it safer and more comfortable for ourselves.  There’s nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but at what point do we go too far?  At what point are we just never satisfied and so we expend endless thought and resources making things ever more comfortable?

            That takes us to the very uncomfortable teaching in our gospel reading where Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”  Ouch.  We don’t like to hear that.  And there’s more. 

The gospels record Jesus saying things like this any number of times.  This one stands out for having a word added – daily.  “Let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

That one additional word here makes a big difference.

Of course the idea of taking up a cross is not a pleasant one.  Crucifixion was shameful, extremely painful, and of course, results in death.  No one in their right mind would want to willingly do such a thing!  But the image is easily symbolized.  Taking up your cross is adapting a way of life that is counter to the ways of the world.  Instead of looking to your own interest, which is the way of the world; it is investing your whole self in the betterment of others and the world at large.  Why do such a foolish thing?  Because when your value is held securely by God you don’t rely on the world.  And because you discover your fullest self when you are absolutely giving of yourself.  The ironic truth is that the more you give of yourself the more yourself you become.  Even so, this symbolic meaning can easily be distorted. 

We live in turbulent political times.  The country has become increasingly polarized in recent decades.  I have my own fears, concerns, and angers.  The situation is far more complex than most people are willing to admit, but there are many calls for action.  People of all political persuasions attend rallies, protests, demonstrations and the like.  That’s fine.  Citizens have every right to do so, and such things do have a place in creating change.  But in and of themselves they accomplish little to nothing.  If you want political change and all you do is attend rallies, and if you send some money to election campaigns, then all you’re really doing are the charismatic things and avoiding the real work.

Some people may think that being met with anger for their activism work, and possibly being arrested, for is a cross that they are bearing.  Perhaps so.  But again, that’s an approach that is charismatic, loves the spotlight, and is nothing more than moral posturing.  If you want to make real change then you have to work and work hard.  That work is often very boring and overlooked.

Taking up your cross daily means a way of life.  It is not execution.  It is not charismatic.  It is a way of life that is driven by hard working love.  It is not afraid to be obscure, unrecognized, and even scoffed at.

In a week and a day many communities across America will be having Memorial Day parades.  Victor has a Memorial Day parade.  Canandaigua does too.  It is a good time to remember those who have died in service to their country; those who have given their lives so that many others can enjoy a good life.  I think it is safe to say that in almost every one of those parades there will be fire trucks.  Kids love fire trucks.  They’re big.  They’re loud.  They’re shiny and bright.  Fire trucks signify a crisis, and that people who are skilled and brave are heading into that crisis, possibly risking their lives, for the betterment of the community.  We do well to celebrate our fire fighters.

            If you’ve heard me preach like this before you know what I’m going to say next.  How many garbage trucks will be in the Memorial Day parades across the nation?  Also, Canandaigua has a big truck with a giant drain snake on it that is used to keep the sewer lines clear.  Do you think that truck will be in the parade?

            Do not our garbage collectors and our sewage treatment workers also do dangerous stuff on a daily basis?  Are they not also skilled?  Do they not handle toxic chemicals, sharp objects, and dangerous things?  If they did not do their work, would we continue to live in safe places?  Wouldn’t the garbage and filth quickly pile up into a national health crisis far bigger than a burning building?

            Of course I deeply appreciate the many fire fighters and emergency medical technicians in our communities.  Having fire trucks in a Memorial Day parade is fun!  Having garbage trucks would be disgusting.  But still, if there was a, “Take Up Your Cross Daily,” award, I’d be giving it to the garbagemen.  (Perhaps I should organize a political protest demanding equal representation in Memorial Day parades.  For every fire truck there must be a garbage truck or sewage service vehicle!)

            I started by talking about people never being satisfied and always wanting better roads, and better everything.  We want comforts, conveniences, entertainment; and ever more.  We also like things that are charismatic and attention getting.  These are all parts of our human nature.  We live in a culture that celebrates these things and craves these things.  Yet each and every one of these things is antithetical to what our Lord Jesus taught.

            When he said to take up your cross daily and follow him he was not teaching that people should embrace pain and misery.  But he was teaching the truth about wholeness of life.  If all you ever think about is more comforts and conveniences… if all you ever think about is doing things that are exciting and charismatic, then you will never be satisfied.  You will miss most of life.  You will lose sight of who you are and what your purpose is.  I think that is the biggest crisis our nation is facing.  We’ve been able to indulge too much thinking it will make us happier and more fulfilled, when all it does is leave us empty.

            Jesus said that for those who want to save their life they will lose it.  But those who lose their life will find it.  That goes for not only eternal life, but also life now.

            So, don’t expect God to call you to dramatic and exciting things.  Perhaps you’ll do some of that, but most of it will be meaningful things.  It will be doing routine tasks; caring for others; using your time, talents, and money not in systematic ways, but in careful person-to-person ways.  Taking up your cross builds relationships.  Those who do so are blessed to see the kingdom of God coming into their midst.