April 6, 2025 Miracles and Grace Luke 8:22-56

             Today’s gospel reading is a quite a collection of miracles:  A storm is calmed.  A man who is violently demon possessed is cured and a herd of pigs is drowned.  A woman is healed.  And a girl is restored to life.  In these miracles Jesus shows he has power of the forces of nature.  He has the power to cure people’s mental and physical problems.  He even has the power to bring people back from the dead.  It’s enough to make us jealous.  Why can’t we have such things in our lives today?

            In the first book of the Harry Potter series Harry is told by Hagrid, a failed wizard, that he has magic powers and is to go to school to be trained on how to use them.  Harry asks that if there are still magicians everywhere why do they stay secret?  Hagrid replies, “Blimey, Harry, everyone’d be wantin’ magic solutions to their problems.  Nah, we’re best left alone.”

            Indeed, I would go for magic solutions to life’s problems.  I’d love to be able to wave a magic wand and have someone be cured from a painful ailment.  I’d love to have some magic that would make the check engine light go off in my car when it comes on.  It would be great to be able to fix a broken glass or clean up a mess with an incantation and the wave of a wand.  Also, wouldn’t it be great to be able to prevent earthquakes, calm hurricanes, and put out wildfires?

            I think we have every right to look at the biblical stories of Jesus’ miraculous powers and wish we could experience them ourselves.

            There have long been attempts to dismiss Jesus’ miracles.  For centuries rational thinkers have dismissed them as made up stories or wishful thinking.  They point out that many people in the ancient world across many faiths have been credited with miraculous abilities.  Jesus is just one more of them.

            They make a good point.  And yet, many critically thinking scholars do point out that given the diversity of sources and the variety of miracles Jesus is credit as doing, there has to be at least some measure of historical reality behind them.  In other words Jesus really did have the power to perform miracles.

            So our jealously is well founded.  When we see others hurting, or when we’re hurting ourselves, we want help.  Perhaps the problem has been caused by our own greed or stupidity.  That’s one thing.  We can accept that we’re not going to get help from God.  We’ll learn our lesson the hard way.  But there are too many things that are not at all our fault.  I’m reminded of the news story recently about a Rochester area high school senior who was hit by a drunk driver who was traveling at a high rate of speed.  The car was so badly damaged that it took emergency crews over an hour to get him out of the vehicle.  The boy was severely injured and went into surgery.  He is expected to recover fairly well, but he’s a track star and had received an athletic scholarship to a Division 1 school.  Those days are over.  The accident has ruined his athletic career and will impact the rest of his life.  If God has miraculous powers, where were they?  Why didn’t God prevent the accident?  Why didn’t God tweak the circumstances so he wasn’t injured as badly?  Or why didn’t God fix his injuries fully and completely?  And why should he suffer so much pain when it is in no way shape or form his fault?

            Even if we weren’t the recipients of miracles, wouldn’t credible stories about them strengthen our faith?  Wouldn’t it be great if living a faithful life made a measurable difference in a person’s health, well-being, standard of living, and all of that?  At best you can reach some slight conclusions to that effect, but you can also argue that authentic Christian faith is just living by healthy life-principles, and so statistically you could expect marginally better lives for people who live that way.

            Let’s put a philosophical twist on this.  We’ve traveled down this path in sermons before.  We’ve all been born.  There’s no debating that.  And somewhere along the line a sense of consciousness developed within us.  We know that we exist, and we can think about what it means to exist.  We also know that we are individuals, but in community with individuals.  And then like Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, God has given us a sense of time and eternity.  We know that the world existed before us.  It will exist after us.  We did not create it.  Something or Someone has created this universe and us in it.  We have no power over any of it.  We just came to be without any say so on our part.  But is there existence after death?  Is there eternal bliss?  Is there eternal damnation?  How do we please God so as to be sure God will be good to us?

            Good luck coming up with sure answers about any of that!  From a critical thinking perspective, we know we owe our eternal existence to a Being we cannot understand, control, or even influence in any certain way.  Yet all of this is ultimate for us!  Eternity depends upon it!

            Our American society today is a mess beyond all measure.  I’m not talking about the world of politics.  I’m saying that our society is a secular, wealth-oriented, shallow, pleasure-seeking pit of filthy over-consumption.  In the midst of this septic tank of vileness that we swim in, how do we know what is right and what is wrong?  Our society no longer has roots for meaningful ethical conversations.

I recently heard an interview with a former politician.  He was asked what he thought of President Trump undermining so much of current environmental protection policies.  He said it didn’t really matter all that much because we’ve never had meaningful environmental policies.  We just do token things to make us feel better about ourselves and ignore the mess we make.

So, how do we even know what is right?  How do we even know what God wants?  We regularly pray, “Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done,” but what does that mean?  How do we live that out?  Martin Luther’s morning prayer in the Small Catechism includes, “I ask that you would also protect me today from sin and all evil, so that my life and actions may please you.”  But what does that mean?  With our limited knowledge and the complete mess that we are as a species, how can we even begin to know that we are pleasing God?

Yes, we have every right to want miracles, and to want clear teachings from God.  And we have every right to be scared or mad because of the absence of them.  But unless you have an inside track into the mind of God that I don’t have, we’re all in the same boat here.

So thus enters the real truth that we need.  It is the truth of God’s grace.  God knows our needs and our yearnings.  God knows they are deep and that they are ultimate for us.  And yet God, in God’s infinite wisdom (or perhaps foolishness depending on your point of view) does not give us magic solutions to our problems.  Yet God does not let us wallow around abandoned in our mess either.

Grace is defined as unearned, or unmerited favor.  If God gave us miracles to turn us to Him, we’d be missing the whole point.  We’d turn to God because we wanted more, not because we felt loved.  And if God gave us clear answers to everything and the will-power to do it all on our own, then we’d be able to earn our way into deserving God’s love.

The only way our faith can be truly authentic and not coerced, is if it is based on grace.  Ironically we need to realize that we are in a mess that we cannot get out of.  We need to know that we are absolutely deprived of the ability to reach God or to do things that God wants.  If we could do those things we’d pat ourselves on the back for how good we are, or were capable of being.  But as it is, the only thing we can say for sure about the human condition is that we can mess things up particularly well.

What God truly wants from us, and what truly brings about God’s kingdom is not a righteous set of actions or a superior ethic, or a truly good environmental protection policy.  It is a relationship with God based on knowing that the goodness only ever flows one way – from God to us.  In the midst of our powerlessness, God invites us to trust in the power of his love.

Miraculous solutions to problems only builds a shallow consumptive love and a weak faith.  Crying to God in helplessness opens us to the amazingness that God loves us unconditionally.  If you plan to exploit that unconditional love you’ve missed the point.  If you can be in awe of it, then it becomes powerful in your life.  It is a source of true life and energy.

Yes, on one level I deeply want miracles to happen all around me.  But at a deeper level I’m glad they don’t.  Jesus performed miracles to prove that he indeed was the Son of God.  He was both divine and human.  But he did not perform miracles in order to convert people.  Over and over again he rejected those who wanted miracles and deeds of power from him.

Instead, well, you know the story well.  Instead he died in the midst of the mess we people make.  There was nothing miraculous there.  It is actually the powerlessness of our faith that is the strength of our faith.

So, cry out to God with the broken mess we live in.  Use that as a foundation to receive God’s grace.  And then, discover what it is to be truly fully human and alive.

March 30, 2025 Parable of the Sower Luke 8:1-21

 I was at St. John's in Lyons for the 10:30 worship service.  This is a little skit I put together to be used in place of the sermon.

Cast:    Jim and Gary using a microphone in front of the altar.

            Thomas using a microphone in the entrance room.

 

Jim and Gary walk to the front of the altar. 

Gary – Hey Jimbo, I’ve been thinking…

Jim – That’s a dangerous thing for you to do!

Gary (pointing to this script) – Pastor Jon gave us this thing to read while he’s away leading worship at Lyons.  Who’s to say we have to do it? 

Jim – “The cat’s away and the mice will play?” 

Gary – Exactly!  Instead of having a sermon, let’s just set up the projector and we’ll watch some YouTube videos of puppies and kittens.  That’ll be more fun than this drivel he writes for us to do!

Jim – I’ll do you one better.  Let’s skip the sermon altogether!  We’ll cut worship short and get to the truly important part of Sunday morning – the goodies at coffee hour!

Gary – Works for me.  I’m sure no one in the congregation will tell.

Thomas (with a big voice) - Jim and Gary!

Jim – Uh oh.

Gary – Is that you, Pastor Jon, coming to spy on us?

Thomas – Nope.

Jim – Is it you, God?  Have you hacked into our sound system?

Thomas – Am I God?  Maybe yes.  Maybe no.  But I’ve definitely hacked into your sound system!  You have no choice but to listen to me.

Gary – I guess the cat isn’t actually away!

Thomas – You just read the Parable of the Sower.  Are you guys good soil?

Jim – I know I am.  I don’t think Gary is though.

Gary – Me?!?  I know I’m good soil.  I don’t think Jim is though.

Thomas – Tell me about the good soil.

Jim – It produces a good crop.

Thomas – Is that all?

Jim – I think so.

Thomas – Gary, do you have a better answer?

Gary – I’m with Jim on this one!

Thomas – Read it again.  It says the good soil is the people who hold the word of God, “with an honest and good heart, and they bear fruit with patient endurance.”  Are you showing patient endurance today?

Jim – I guess not.

Gary (reluctantly) – No.

Thomas – Let’s look at the other soils.  The path are the ones who have heard, but the devil comes and snatches it away.  These days most people in America have heard of Jesus.  They know a bit but they aren’t interested.  To them, faith in Jesus is for people who are simpletons or who are ignorant.  Meanwhile, they think real, educated people don’t need Jesus.  For most people, following Jesus just gets in the way of what they want to do.  They don’t want to be bothered.

Gary – Whoever this Voice is, he’s got a point!

Jim – Yeah, I suppose we ought to hear what he has to say.

Thomas – The thing is, God hasn’t spread the seed of his Word into this world in order to make it boring or difficult.  God spread it because it is for our own good!  All of what God does is for our own good. 

Margaret Young was a singer and a comedian.  But she wasn’t joking when she said this decades ago:

“Often people attempt to live their lives backwards.  They try to have more things or more money in order to do more of what they want so that they’ll be happier.  The way it actually works is the reverse.  You must first be who you really are, then do what you really need to do, in order to have what you want.”

Who we really are is what God created us to be.  The good soil is productive because it knows that it was created by God to do good works and bear fruit.

Gary – Let’s not forget that God also has a sense of humor.  That’s why He created Jim!

Jim – …ha ha.  Voice, talk about the other soils.

Thomas – Those who are the rocky soil hear the Word better than those who are the path.  They receive it and are excited.  But then when the excitement wears off they go somewhere else.  They’re not really all that different than the path though.  It seems to be that many people don’t stick to anything long.  If something doesn’t fulfill them, just move on to the next thing.  Ultimately they’re just lost in life.  Lots of people who call themselves “spiritual but not religious,” are actually rocky soil.

Jim – William James said that most people never run far enough on their first wind to realize that they have a second!

Thomas – Indeed, sticking to something is the only way to become excellent at it.  Our pianist, Will is excellent.  Did he just crawl out of his crib one day and start playing his family’s piano with perfection?  Certainly not!  He’s worked, and studied, and practiced, and pushed through failures.  What we hear from the piano on a Sunday is the result of hours of work and many failures behind the scenes.

Gary – Well Jim, you might think you’re being fancy because you quoted William James.  I can do you one better!  Proverbs 21:5 says, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to want.”

Jim – (sarcastically) Ha!  We just read that in the service earlier.  You’re not clever.

Gary – At least that’s proof I was paying attention when the Bible readings were happening!

Thomas – (sternly) Gentlemen, discipline yourselves so we can move on!  The longer you bicker the longer it will take for us to get to coffee hour.  There’s one type of soil left to talk about.

Gary – Then proceed by all means!

Thomas – Finally is the seed that falls among the thorns.  Jesus says these are the ones who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 

These are people who think faith is a part of being a well-rounded person.  They do not make it the center of their lives.  They think being a Christian is just about morality. That way they can still call themselves good people but not actually be committed.

Also, we are all susceptible to this.  It is easy to let our lives be determined by how much money we make and the standard of living we want.  Or be driven by our retirement savings.  Or be driven by children’s activities.  Our world fills our lives with things that seem to be all-important.  But all of these are really just weeds that choke our faith.

Jim – Life can feel like a garden where we are constantly fighting back weeds.

Gary – If it’s not one thing it’s another.

Thomas – Exactly.  There are always lots of things that sap our energy and productivity.

Jim – So what would you say that we should do?

Thomas – It isn’t easy.  But if we want to truly bear fruit for God we remember that we live in a secular, wealth-oriented, pleasure-seeking society.  We should not follow the world because it will always just make weeds grow in our lives. Instead, just as Jesus said, we keep listening to God.  We remember that what the world promises is a lie. 

A life of faith needs patience, endurance, and ongoing listening to God.  These are the ways for our lives to produce a good harvest.

Jim – Not to sound: impatient, un-listening, and not having any endurance… but we can have fun too!

Thomas – Of course we can.  And we do!  Sundays especially are a time to be together as Christians, to worship together, …and to enjoy coffee hour too!

Gary – That sounds like a plan to me.

Jim – We’ve also been here long enough that we don’t have to lie to Pastor Jon about skipping a sermon!

Thomas – Let’s move along so that we can enjoy the fellowship God creates for us.

March 16, 2025 Who Is Jesus? Luke 7:18-35

     In our gospel reading John the Baptist basically asks, “Who is Jesus?”  You’ll remember that several weeks ago we read about John’s ministry of baptism.  It was one of fire and brimstone.  He was announcing that the Messiah was soon coming and people should repent.  John said to the crowds, “You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bear fruits that befit repentance.”  And later, “Even now the axe is laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”  John expects Jesus to come with ferocity and upend the world.

In today’s gospel reading we don’t actually meet John, but we hear that he’s sent disciples to Jesus to ask if Jesus is indeed the Messiah.  Word has gotten to John that Jesus is performing miracles.  That probably fit with what John expected.  But Jesus was not living up to other expectations.  While Jesus was also preaching repentance, where was the fire and brimstone?  Where was the judgment?  Where was the ferocity that God was going to drive out the bad guys and put the good guys permanently in charge?

As I’ve thought about this text it was immediately apparent that not everyone has the same idea of who Jesus is.  While there is great variety, I think people fall into one of two categories.  One category is people who want Jesus to be the sort of person who serves them and reinforces their world view.  The other category is the sort of person who looks to Jesus to give them direction in life.  We see these two categories at work in Jesus’ day as well.

I want to spend some minutes looking at each.  Which category we tend toward says a lot about our faith.

Let’s start with people who want Jesus to serve them and/or reinforce their world view.  In Jesus’ day we see numerous examples of people who wanted Jesus to serve them.  Early in the gospel we read about the way the people of Nazareth wanted Jesus to perform a miracle like he did in Capernaum.  The people of Capernaum wanted Jesus to stick around because he was performing miracles and healings.  It was as if Jesus would be a free and instant medical clinic for them.  In the story of the Feeding of the 5000 the crowds want Jesus to stick around to keep providing them with food.  It would surely have been a good thing to have someone always around who would provide free and unlimited food!

There are many stories in the Bible of people asking Jesus for a sign as proof.

These days people look to God for divine solutions to their problems.  People try to make deals with God:  “God, if you let me win the lottery then I’ll donate… such and such.”  “God, if you heal me I promise I’ll be a better person.”

These are selfish, but there are unselfish things as well.  Last week we read about the Roman centurion who asked for Jesus’ miraculous healing for a slave he loved.  These days people often pray for family members and friends who are going through difficult times.  We pray for God to help people nearby and far away who are suffering from wars or natural disasters.

I’m not saying that all of this is wrong.  Not at all.  But it is still all someone turning to God asking for something in their own agenda.

It is becoming a pet peeve of mine when I hear church leaders talk about Jesus, “speaking truth to power.”  They tend to want to turn Jesus into a social justice advocate who, as it turns out, they think has the same worldview they do.

Lots of people want to co-opt Jesus into helping them with their agenda or having Jesus endorse their agenda.  But regardless of whether the motives are obviously selfish or seemingly selfless, that’s getting things backwards.  Jesus should be setting the agenda for us, not us setting the agenda for Jesus.

The other category of people is people who look to Jesus to give them direction in life.  I suspect this is the sort of person John the Baptist was.  Luke’s gospel doesn’t explicitly tell us where John was when he sent his disciples to inquire about Jesus, but given that the last time we met John he had been put into prison by Herod, it’s pretty likely he was still there.  I have the feeling John knew he’d never be freed.  He’d angered and embarrassed Herod by publicly condemning him.  Herod had locked John up to silence him.  It seemed pretty likely John would be executed at some time or another, or be so neglected in prison that he died there. 

So, perhaps John was wondering if his life had been worth it.  Had he indeed followed what God was calling him to do?  Or was he wrong all along?

It would be a horrible thing to be approaching death and look back across your life and realize that what you did was wrong all along; or that your life had been a waste.  People in this category want to do things that are right, and good, and constructive, and meaningful.  They’ll work hard.  They’ll make big sacrifices for Jesus.  But they want to have some sense from him so they know they’re doing the right thing.

People in this category cry out to God that if only they could be certain about what God is calling them to do in life, and if only they were more certain of what Jesus would do, then they’d feel a lot more confident.

I suppose we don’t clearly fit exclusively into one category or the other.  There’s probably a bit of both in all of us.  We want things from God and we want to authentically serve God.  The thing is, it doesn’t seem to be that Jesus is interesting in fitting into any of our needs.

If you know the gospels well you know that the twelve apostles spent a lot of time with Jesus.  They, of all people, should have known who he was.  But they didn’t.  When it came to Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, they all fled.  They just couldn’t understand that is who Jesus is.

In our gospel reading Jesus sends word back to John of all the things he is doing: The blind receive their sight.  The lame walk.  Lepers are cleansed.  The deaf hear.  The dead are raised up.  The poor have good news preached to them.  That is all sending the message to John that Jesus is indeed the Messiah.  John has been right all along.  John’s life and ministry have been important.  His doubts should be relieved.

Yet all of this still could not have prepared John for what would eventually come to Jesus – the crucifixion.  Again, no one could foresee that.  No one knew what to do with it.

Who is Jesus?  The crucified one.  There’s no sense to that whatsoever.  Died.  Dead.  Followers scared and fled.  Talk about a wasted life! 

This is the incomprehensible nature of God’s love and the true nature of Jesus.  Jesus is indeed many things.  But he is first and foremost our crucified Savior.

So what does that do for us as we ask for who Jesus is?  Well, if you’re in the category that wants things from Jesus either for your own selfish agenda or even if it is for someone else, don’t expect Jesus to accomplish your purposes.  He’s not in the business of giving people wealth, prosperity, and supernatural protection from the realities of life.

If you’re in the category that looks to Jesus to give you guidance, don’t expect a crucified Lord to lay out a clear path of answers for you.  Life doesn’t work that way.  Christianity does not pretend to give clear answers when there aren’t clear answers.

When we can accept Jesus as the crucified one then we are fully aware of God’s love.  This is not a sappy sentimental love.  It is not cute and sweet and cuddly.  It is a ferociously powerful love.  Live by that love and your problems will not go away.  But that love will accompany you in them.  Live by that love and I don’t think life’s going to suddenly give you clear directions as to how to live.  But you’ll have the principles to know how God’s love works.

I can’t promise you that when it comes time to die that you’ll be able to look back across your life and see great accomplishments and deep contentment.  Perhaps that will be the case.  Perhaps not.  But I can promise you that when you live knowing God’s cruciform love for you, you’re life will have been well done.

Again, from the point of view of the crucifixion, the ministry of Jesus must have looked like foolishness and a waste.  But by it God did the most powerful thing ever, and changed the world.

May you feel God’s world-changing presence at work in your life this day and always.

March 9, 2025 A Tale of Two Healings Luke 7:1-17

Let’s call today’s gospel reading, “A Tale of Two Healings.”  First there was the remote healing of the slave of the Roman Centurion.  Then there was the healing of the widow’s son in Nain.  Even though these are both healing stories they couldn’t be more different.  I believe Luke puts them side by side to make a contrast between them.  And he puts them right after the Sermon on the Plain that we read last week to contrast against that.

To understand this we need to understand the patron/client system that was at work among people of power in that day.  The same is still true today.  We need only look at the worlds of business or politics to see it at work.

Let’s say you want to be elected to public office in the state government or the national government.  How do you go about doing that?  Do you just decide to fill out some paperwork before election season and make yourself a candidate?  Nope.  Not at all.  You can’t just start a political career from nowhere.  You start by making connections with existing people in power.  Maybe you donate to their own campaigns.  Maybe you lobby them for something.  Maybe you become an intern in their office.  By some means you get connected to people who are in power.  As you do so you’re basically showing them that you can be an asset to them.  You’ll give them money.  You’ll help with door-to-door canvassing.  You’ll help them to make connections to further their interests.

They in turn will do things for you.  Oh, it may not be what we’d call corruption, but you’ll get some value back.  Perhaps it’ll be making introductions to other people and connections.  Perhaps it’ll be giving you influence in legislation.  Perhaps it’ll be insider information.  Again, nothing nefarious, although that is possible, it is just giving you value for the value you are giving to them.  They are the patron.  You are the client.

If you aren’t getting something from the patron that furthers your life and interests you’ll leave them and find someone else.

Let’s change the example with a story.  I had a cousin who worked for a company that managed apartments for college students.  He was working at their complex at the University of West Virginia when there was a budget crunch.  He was told that his department had to cut spending severely for the upcoming year.  The only way he could do that was to not hire his usual amount of staff.  Which meant that he and his one associate had to do a lot more work themselves.  It became a twelve hour a day job and included working several hours on Saturday and Sunday.  They were loyal employees and got there division through the year on the reduced budget.  At the end of the year they were thanked for their commitment and given a small raise.  Then the blow fell because they were asked to do the same for the next year.  He balked.  He and his associate quit and the company had to hire five new people to replace them.  The moral of the story: You’re willing to do someone a favor.  And maybe you don’t expect a favor in return.  But if they keep asking for favors with no return at all, you quit.  You want a give and take relationship.  You do not want a relationship where you just give and give and give.

In Jesus’ day things were no different.  People in high places generally got there by doing favors for other people and having favors done for them.  If you were a person who was poor or weak you’d want to attach yourself to someone significant.  You’d support them.  They’d protect you.  And maybe they’d help you get a bit ahead in life.

In our gospel reading we meet a Roman centurion.  That’s a Roman military official commanding 100 soldiers.  It takes skill to command and lead 100 people.  Even though he could give orders he knew he could not afford to be a tyrant.  His men would balk, or at the very least drag their feet and not do things well.  He’s also either caring or shrewd with the people his forces are stationed in.  We’ve learned that he’s given support to build their synagogue.  Again, this may be authentic kindness or it may be shrewdness.  After all, if you’re leading military forces stationed in occupied territory it may make sense to befriend the locals.  They’re less likely to cause you trouble.

Whatever his motives, they’ve been effective.  The locals appreciate him.  When one of his highly valued slaves is very sick, he wants to see to the slaves needs.  He’s the patron.  The slave is his client.  Then, rather than travel to Jesus, he sends Jewish elders to contact Jesus.  Again, he’s the patron.  The Jews are his clients.  He’s done them favors.  Now they’re doing him a favor.  When the Jewish leaders encounter Jesus they immediately tell Jesus of how worthy their patron is.  Jesus should do something for him, and presumably the Jewish leaders would somehow do something for Jesus in return.

We’re not told of Jesus’ motives at this point, but he goes with them.  When he gets near the centurion’s home the centurion sends friends to him with the message, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you.  But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed.  For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.”

Notice the patron-client system at work all over the place.  The centurion has sent friends, not slaves, to Jesus.  These friends are doing him a favor.  He has certainly done things for them.  Then we hear the centurion’s message about his authority and how he himself is under authority.  It is a clear show of favors being exchanged, and friends seeing to each other’s needs.

Notice that the man himself never directly appeals to Jesus.  He, a Roman military official, would not directly enter into a patron-client relationship with Jesus, an itinerant Jewish rabbi.  Everything was done through his underlings.

Jesus remarks at this man’s faith.  The centurion is indeed a model of trust in Jesus.  But let’s not let that sidetrack our thoughts and miss what else is going on.

Jesus does not play the trading favors game.  Remember this from last week when Jesus preached, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners love those who love them.  If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners do the same.”  (6:32-33)

Does Jesus ask the centurion for a favor in return for healing his slave?  No.  It wouldn’t be correct to say that Jesus breaks down the patron-client system.  He does not break it down at all.  What he does is shift it from a person to person patron-client system to a God and person system.  God is our patron.  We are God’s clients who respond to what God has given to us.  We’ll explore that more in the weeks ahead.  For now we turn to the next story in our gospel reading.

Jesus goes into the town of Nain.  As he gets there he encounters a funeral procession of a dead man.  No one asks Jesus to do anything.  Jesus just acts.  And remember the previous story with the centurion when the centurion says, “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof,” that’s the centurion respecting the Jewish cleanliness laws.  He knows that to ask a Jew to enter his house would make the Jew ritually unclean.  He therefore respects Jesus’ cleanliness by telling him he doesn’t need to physically come.

But in the same way Jesus disregards the patron-client system Jesus also disregards the ritual cleanliness expectations.  Asked by no one, Jesus reaches out and touches the frame the corpse is being carried on.  This would make him unclean.  And also asked by no one, Jesus raises the dead man.

So let’s put this all together.  Immediately prior to the two healing stories we read this week, we read Jesus preaching to love our enemies and to do good for those who cannot repay us.  What does that mean?  What does that look like?  Talk is cheap.  We need to see words put into action.  So the very first story that follows is this story loaded with patron-client dynamics: a centurion, people he’s done favors for, people who owe him favors, and levels of command.  Jesus ignores all of that and just heals the slave from a distance expecting nothing in return.  Then the next scene pushes it further.  Here Jesus is not asked to help.  He just raises the dead man out of compassion for the man and his mother.  Nain is no place important.  These people cannot repay him.  He has not asked them to.  And besides, Jesus makes himself technically unclean in doing so.  It is yet another insignificant place where Jesus spends time and effort. 

Now we see what it looks like to love those who cannot pay us back.  It seems sweet, but it is hard.  It is difficult to invest time, skill, and money in people who will not do anything for us in return.  It can feel like we have many demands on our time, skill, and money; so many demands that there’s nothing left over to share.  There’s no easy way out of that.  But it is Jesus’ challenge to us to break from that system so as to be more open to God.

Ultimately God is our patron.  We are God’s clients.  That should free us from person-to-person dynamics.  God has given to us as a pure gift.  Therefore, we should give to others as pure gift too.  I’m not saying to ignore wisdom.  You’ll end up being an unhealthy enabler to people who exploit you.  But Jesus shows us that our chief motive should not be prioritizing those who can reciprocate.  It is prioritizing needs with compassion, and then acting on it – just as Jesus did that day.

March 2, 2025 Sermon on the Plain Luke 6:17-49

 (My role as the conference dean required me to be at the South Wedge Mission this Sunday.  I wrote this "letter" to be read in place of a sermon.)

To the brothers and sisters in Christ at St. John’s Lutheran Church of Victor,

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am thankful for the way we have been handling the difficult issues arising from our national leadership.  Tension and anger are running high across most of our nation.  I know that we hold different opinions and have different viewpoints.  It is good that we have not buried our head in the sand about these things.  Thus far we have been able to disagree in ways that feel constructive.  I pray that continues.  I will come back to that in a couple minutes.

First, I want to explain my absence today.  As you know, I am the dean of the Genesee-Finger Lakes Conference.  At the bishop’s request I am attending worship at the South Wedge Mission.  You’ll remember that we used to be a financial backer of it and included it in our prayers on Sundays.

For the last few years the mission has been working to leave mission status and be organized as a regular congregation.  That is proving to be difficult.  Many of the members of the mission have been hurt by churches in the past.  Many do not trust the church.  It is good that they have found the mission to be a place for their faith.  The problem is that when such people try to form a congregation they discover that many of the things they don’t like about the church are inescapable. 

The present status of the mission cannot continue indefinitely.  Bishop Miller has been in conversation with Rev. Matthew Nickoloff, the mission developer, for the past couple of years.  They have determined it would be best for Pastor Nickoloff to resign and work elsewhere.  Today is his last Sunday.  I have been asked to go as a show of support from the larger church.  There is a plan for the mission to become a regular congregation by the middle of this year.  While there are still issues to work out, there is no reason why that will not happen.

Now to our gospel reading.  This is called the “Sermon on the Plain” in Luke’s gospel.  It’s similar to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel.  Luke’s version is shorter, and he records it taking place on a level place rather than a mountain.  Here we have Jesus’ teaching of what living as his disciples looks like.  These are not words we like to hear though!  They upend just about everything in our lives.

Underneath all of what Jesus teaches is our need for God’s mercy.  It is easy for us to think that we can overcome evil.  Or that we can somehow become truly good by force of will.  We convince ourselves that moral living is truly possible.  All of these are misguided ideas.  The truth is that we are inescapably trapped in sin.  There is no way out.  We cannot get out by some form of superior morality.  We can’t get out by science.  We can’t get out through any sort of political or economic system.

Jesus said to take the log out of your own eye before you try to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.  The image hurts to think about!  But let’s look at a few logs in our own eyes.

Here’s one.  Many people want to live environmentally conscious lives.  That’s a good thing!  But what does that look like?  Driving an electric car?  Eating organic locally grown food?  Recycling all that you can?

According to geologist Scott Tinker we need to reduce our energy consumption by something like 94% in order to be truly environmentally sustainable.  More energy use than that puts the world on a path to irreversible disaster.  If he is even remotely close to correct, then we need to say goodbye to life as we know it:  Goodbye cars.  Goodbye computers and cell phones.  Goodbye air conditioning.  Goodbye to pretty much all medicine and medical care.

Here's a second log.  We easily believe that we can overcome any and every problem through science and engineering.  I certainly like to believe that!  But it has problems too.  We are reaching the limits of many things.  Computers are a great example.  Moore’s Law is that the speed and capability of computers will double every two years.   This ‘law’ has held true for several decades, but we’re reaching the limits.  Silicone computer chips are running up against quantum indeterminacy.  Some significant improvements are sure to come, but this is a reminder that the fabric of the universe has its limits.  It is impossible for us humans to get past them.

And a final third log.  I’ve shared this one in sermons recently.  Modern medicine pats itself on the back for the way vaccines and basic health care have caused child mortality rates across the world to plummet.  That’s great!  But… consider the African continent.  Now that many more children are growing up there isn’t enough food or water on the continent to support them.  So wars ensue which leads them to killing each other as adults.

Here's an ugly truth.  What we humans call “progress” always creates a vicious circle of destruction.  There’s no such thing as the ‘moral high ground’.  Both conservatives and liberals; both capitalists and socialists; both environmentalists and those who say, “Drill baby drill!” are all unable to escape it.

Such is the way evil wraps itself inextricably into our best intentions.  Such is the nature of sin.

I don’t write this to make us feel guilty.  I write it as a reminder to us that there’s no escape.  All sin and fall short of the glory of God.  When we see another person with whom we vehemently disagree, we still realize that we ourselves are also part of the mess and depend entirely on God’s grace.

Theologian R. Alan Culpepper notes, “Judging is the sin of those who are blind to their own faults.  It is the obsession of those who seek to make themselves better, not by lifting themselves up, but by bringing others down.  It is the mock justice of those who presume to know what others should do.  The log in our own eye hardly qualifies us to judge the faults of our brothers and sisters.”  (New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 9, Pg. 152)

Jesus preached about building a house on sand or on rock.  The house built on rock is the house of someone who dares to dig and dig and dig – dig deep enough to build their life on the bedrock truth of the need for God and nothing else.  When we build from there we are indestructible regardless of what comes.

Jesus also preached blessings to the poor and the woes to the rich.  Let’s make sure we understand what being rich means.  Jesus does not have threshold of wealth in mind based upon the value of your house or the balance of your retirement savings.  The rich are those who have the ability to reliably provide for themselves.  They can rely on money to buy them food, shelter, clothing, and safety.  In other words, the rich are those who can fool themselves into thinking they don’t need God to meet their basic needs. 

Pretty much all of us fall into Jesus’ category of the rich.  We make decisions based upon economic security.  We vote based on which leaders will be best for the economy.  Having money gives us choice over our living environment and the appearance we present to the outside world.  It is easy for money to become the dominant force in our lives.

Once again, we find that we have no way out of this.  We cannot leave the economy without becoming homeless and thus a burden upon others.  That’s not what Jesus wants from his disciples either!

What does faithful discipleship look like for us? 

When we build from our inescapable sinfulness it should not make us feel crippled and guilty and bad.  It is a strong recognition of reality.  It is the foundation of rock that our house of faith is built upon.  Jesus teaches trust in God, which leads to a discipleship that is robust.

Here's how it works.  In the sermon Jesus talks about a tree producing good fruit or bad fruit.  The root of producing good fruit with your life is trusting God and recognizing your need for God’s grace.  That gives you three things: humility, a good work ethic, and wisdom for action.  The answers will seldom be easy.  They may not always be clear.  But if you follow them you do discover what Jesus promises: a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

This is not a wealth accumulation strategy.  It is a strategy for an indestructible sense of self that God alone provides.  Nothing and no one can ever take that from you.  It is your blessing from God for all eternity.  There is no greater blessing.

As we move forward into the future, which is filled with uncertainties, we can be certain of God’s grace for us.  We will flourish as long as we depend upon it.  We will fail if we do not.  Through our own strength we can share the promises of God’s strength to others who are lost and failing.  God’s kingdom does indeed come, and it grows among us.  Amen.

February 23, 2025 Ministry with the Scared Luke 5:27-6:16

             In my professional circles I’ve heard many people say we need to, “Speak truth to power,” in response to many current actions of our federal government.  People who say this cite the Old Testament prophets and also Jesus as doing the same.  It is a rally cry to action.  As I’ve said before, I certainly have my concerns, but for the sake of a sermon and being faithful to the witness of the Bible, saying that Jesus spoke truth to power is a projection of current day dynamics onto Jesus; and turns him into an activist who agrees with you. 

I feel like I’ve said many times recently; if Jesus was really speaking truth to power he would have addressed the Romans, not the Jews.  And if he had done so he probably would have been championed by the Jewish leadership for what he was doing.  They certainly would not have called for his execution.  Interestingly, when Jesus was actually before Pontus Pilate, the Roman governor who did have power, Jesus was pretty silent.  Understanding what Jesus was actually doing is much more helpful for today.  Let’s get at that by reminding ourselves of a very big reality behind the gospel of Luke.

Any time we read from Luke’s gospel we need to keep in mind that we are reading something that was probably written around the year 80 but talking about events that happened in the 30s.  Between the 30s and the 80s, and especially in the 60s, there were a series of major Jewish revolts against the Romans.  They continued until Rome cracked down.  In the year 70 the Romans destroyed the city of Jerusalem.  That destruction included reducing the Jerusalem temple to rubble.  That temple was the center of Jewish faith. 

The Romans destroyed more than just property.  They also killed plenty of people.  The whole situation seems to have put an end to most sects within Judaism.  In the time of Jesus there appear to have been five major sects.  Four of the five show up in the Bible.  Those four are the: Sadducees, Pharisees, Herodians, and Zealots.  The fifth, the one that doesn’t show up in the Bible, is the Essenes.

I don’t know of any clear historical records as to exactly what happened, but after the destruction of the temple only one of the five still remained.  That sect was the Pharisees.  The Sadducees, Herodians, Zealots, and Essenes all disappeared from history.

The Pharisees probably survived because they were the ones who developed the idea of the synagogue.  Synagogues were centers for worship and learning.  Wherever a significant number of Pharisees lived they built a synagogue.  Most of the Jewish people Jesus interacted with in his public ministry were Pharisees.

If you were a Pharisee living after the year 70 you were weak, scared, and confused.  What had happened?  What went wrong?  Why did God allow all this to happen?  And, would your faith survive?

The crisis of the Pharisees had a precedent.  They looked to it for guidance in the current day.  600 years earlier the Babylonian Empire had also destroyed Jerusalem and its temple.  Thee Pharisees looked to that precedent for answers.  They survived that period of destruction by holding fast to their Jewish identity, which centered on keeping the religious laws of the Torah.  The Torah is what we Christians have as first five books of the Bible.  Jews believed they were given to Moses by God.  The Torah taught a Jewish person how to live in right relationship with God.  It gave directions for personal and religious life.  It taught how to make up for your sins and be forgiven.  It was the central scripture.

In the 80s (when Luke wrote his gospel) the Pharisees were clinging to this, the only hope they knew.  If they broke it they feared God would punish them even more for doing so.  Then, from the Pharisees point of view, in the midst of all of those fears and struggles to survive came a new radical upstart sect of the Nazarenes – or more and more being known as “Christians”.  This fast growing new religious sect appeared to be yet another threat to orthodox Jewish beliefs.  Christians claimed the Torah was not central to faith and was not what God really wanted.  From the point of view of the Pharisees, the Christians were teaching absurd heretical nonsense; that a man called Jesus from Nazareth was actually the Son of God and he was ignominiously executed by crucifixion.

I hope you can appreciate just how ludicrous Christian claims were to the Pharisees at the time Luke was writing.  For the Pharisees, there was no way God could have wanted what Christians claimed!

When we read Luke’s gospel we have to remember that Luke is addressing the reality of Jesus’ followers in the 80s as he’s writing about what happened with Jesus in the 30s.  I suppose you could say Luke is projecting his time onto the stories of Jesus.  So, when we read about Jesus being in conflict with the Pharisees, he is not speaking truth to power.  Jesus is speaking to scared powerless people who are clinging to the only thing they knew – staying faithful to the Torah.  Jesus has to convince them that is a misunderstanding of God’s will.

Be sure to recognize something in all of the gospels as they tell the story of Jesus.  Jesus never ever condemns the Torah as: bad, wrong, ignorant, or heretical.  In Matthew’s gospel Jesus outright praises it and recognizes its authority.  Throughout Luke’s gospel we’re reminded that Jesus himself lived like a faithful Jew, which meant he honored the Torah.

Jesus is not being a rebel.  He is not speaking truth to power.  He is not trying to start an uprising or revolt.  All of those ideas are ideas being imposed upon him by later peoples. 

Now, hear me clearly.  I’m not saying that what Jesus did in his lifetime is the correct formula for how we are to live today.  The times and situations are different.  What I am saying is not to impose our present time onto Jesus and make him into whatever it is we want him to be to accomplish our own agenda.  What we want to do is learn from Jesus in his time and then apply it to our present-day situations; whatever they may be.   Unfortunately for us this Sunday, the core teachings Jesus has for life are what we will read in worship next week.  That’s when we’ll read the “Sermon on the Plain” as it’s called in Luke’s gospel.  So you’ll have to stay tuned.  Even so, there is a very important thing in what we read for our lives today.  I’ll wrap up by looking at that.

When Jesus was eating dinner with Levi the tax collector he said, “No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new will not match the old.  And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”

That sounds simple enough.  Jesus is saying out with the old and in with the new.  But that’s not where Jesus ends.  He continues, “And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but says, ‘The old is good.’”

What does that mean?  Apparently out with the old and in with the new is not what Jesus meant!

Thus far in Luke’s gospel he has rooted us in Jewish history and shown how important it was – central to God’s designs in fact.  Luke has taught us that Jesus in no way intends to upend living by the Torah.  Luke does not want the Pharisees to think Jesus and the new sect of Christians are a threat at all.  Rather, Luke wants them (and us) to understand that deeply rooted within the old Jewish ways is God’s will and God’s excellence.  The problem with the Pharisees is that they’d gone a bit off track.  They were clinging to the wrong things for salvation.  Any time you think following rules and regulations puts you in right relationship with God you’re risking becoming arrogant.  It happens all the time, not just to the Pharisees.

I talked about this last week, and we’ll see it at work again next week.  It’s all about recognizing our brokenness before God and realizing we need God’s grace.  That’s where the Pharisees had gone wrong.  They were trying to build a relationship with God based upon technical following of the laws.  What they missed is that the laws were based on God’s mercy for fallen and broken people.

That is why Jesus is spending time with tax collectors like Levi.  That is why Jesus is healing these unimportant and powerless people in Judea.  That is why Jesus chooses the twelve disciples that he chooses.  They were not qualified because of their skills or education.  They were qualified because they were willing to accept their need for forgiveness from God.  They wouldn’t do that perfectly.  And Luke even reminds us that Judas Iscariot will be a traitor who brings the whole thing to an end.  What qualifies them, and all of us, for God’s service is the humility of recognizing our need for God’s mercy.

As we engage each other and people on the street and people in social media platforms, regardless of how righteous or horrible you may think another person is, begin your interaction with remembering your own limitations and imperfections.  You may not win any arguments.  You may not convince anyone of anything.  And I’m not saying that you should say nothing or not engage in current events.  To the contrary.  Work and act hard.  But do it with an eye on God’s mercy for you and God’s mercy for others.  That is the thing which unites us.