Christ the King A Matt 25:31-46

Today is a busy day for us. It is Christ the King Sunday, the day that we think about Christ as our leader, guide and master and we are meant to reflect on what kind of king he is. How he compares with other kings, presidents, and leaders. It is also the Sunday before Thanksgiving, a time when we are called to give great thanks to God who provides for us. It is also the last day of the church year. The day before we begin advent and start looking forward to the coming of Christ among us at Christmas. And it is a day when our gospel lesson has this refrain: When did we see you? This is a lot to fit in, lets see how we do, you guys can keep score. I'll start with a story.

Some of you might not realize this about me but I am rather short in stature. In fact, I often end up on my tip-toes at some point during my sermons because I'm not quite tall enough for most pulpits. And like most other people who are short, this shortness is not new to me. I have always been on the smaller side of things. I remember as a child having a very hard time with it. Adults, you might know, tend to overlook children as it is. Turn a blind eye to them, filter them out, whatever. And I think the smaller the child the easier this is to do.

So as I became a pre-teen with an allowance and was old enough to do some things for myself, buy items, ask questions and the like, I was often frustrated and hurt by the way I would be overlooked or flat out ignored by people in authority, shop keepers, librarians, whomever. It was like they didn't even see me. I think this is the experience of most children short or tall but I felt like I must have been even easier to dismiss, because of my size.

But every once in a while there was some remarkable grown-up who could pick me out of the fray. Who would look past all of the big tall, important adults around. Who would look past business suits and credit cards down to me with my 50 cents for a candy bar or two dollars for some little treasure. This magical adult who could see me when no one else could, would reach out to me with kindness and I would feel like the most important person in the world even if I was only a 4' 9" little girl in the midst of a bunch of grown ups.

Looking back I remember very clearly a few of these people who saw me when no one else did. I think my parents, watching from a distance might remember one or two as well, being moved by my excitement to take notice. But I doubt seriously that any of them remember me, I doubt that most of them realized, even in the moment, that they were reaching out to someone that no one else could see. Their eyes were so trained with love or compassion or fairness or respect that they didn't even know how remarkable it was to notice a kid in a grown up world.

I was watching a TV drama about police recently on which an officer was newly assigned to be a detective. On her first day out the other detectives are trying to help her learn how to do her new job and they tell her that she needs to have "soft eyes". She needs to learn to look at things in a new way. Look at the same streets that she has always been on, the same types of homes that she has always been in, the same sort of people that she has always seen and notice new and different things, a little bit like each time she looks is the very first time she ever has. She has to learn how to see, to train her eyes in a new way.

In our gospel lesson today Jesus is talking to people about how they see. About what kind of eyes they have. There are two groups of people. One group with the right kind of eyes and one group without. Jesus tells both groups that they encountered him many times in life that he was in the midst of the hungry and the thirsty, the naked and those in prisons of all kinds. Both groups were exposed to these people throughout the years and both groups had no idea at all that they had seen Jesus.

So the difference between the two groups was what they did see. The first group saw the hungry, thirsty, naked and those in prison and they treated them with love and compassion. Once they saw them they cared for them. Jesus tells them that by doing so to those, little ones, those overlooked ones they were acting toward him as well. The second group, it seems, didn't even see those in need. They looked right through them or around them or past them. They didn't have the right kind of eyes. They needed gospel eyes. Eyes that were so sure of the message of God's love that love spilled over wherever they looked.

The two groups here are both in shock when Jesus tells them about themselves, the ones who saw and the ones who didn't. So clearly no one was trying to see. No one was trying to earn merit with God or be the ones who did the best job of caring for Christ so how is it that the one group knew how to see and the other didn't?

For that we need to go back to the text. It turns out that it was not the looking, the seeing or the doing that designated children of God in this story. It was being children of God that opened their eyes. It was knowing the message of the gospel. Those who saw were already identified as children of God before any mention of what they did. The seeing was a gift given to them, an ability apparent in them because of who their leader was.

That is where one of our themes for the day comes in. Today is meant to teach us about Christ as our king and leader and the lesson we get is all about taking care of the least among us. Kings in Christ's day, and other rulers for that matter, like governors and feudal Lords were all known for taking things from the people. Tax collecting was the chief endeavor of a king, taxes were collected in order to get enough money to run the state, to ensure lasting power, to fund wars and to live in comfort. So collecting both money and goods from people was common. In fact, even the first fruits of the harvest that were given to temples as a thanksgiving sacrifice to God or to some Gods were subject to confiscation by both the Greeks and Romans around Jesus' time. The king was paid even when people were giving thanks to God. Kings took what they wanted and sometimes they were benevolent and good to the people and sometimes they were greedy and cruel.

But on Christ the King Sunday we don't hear about the King taking from us, only what the king gives for his people.

The king is chief among us to have gospel eyes. Chief among us to see the least, the smallest, the neediest, the littlest. A good king even in Jesus' day would have dealt fairly with the people returning them protection in accordance to what they paid. Offering them freedoms in line with their tax bracket. But our great king sees those whom everyone else overlooks and instead of taking from those littlest ones gives them the kingdom. Gives them his mandate for peace to share with the nations, gives them his great bounty to celebrate at the harvest and most of all gives them one another and eyes with which to see both the love of God and the needs of God's people.

This is the close of the church year. We started with a baby, tiny, meek and fragile who was welcomed like a king and now on this last day we are welcomed by the great King of Kings to see like him and to be like him and to care for all those who are tiny, meek and fragile. This is a great gift, let us give thanks to God. Amen

All Saints A Matt 5:1-12

Today is All Saints Day. It is a day set aside by the church for us to think about the saints. Not just the big ones like Saint Peter or Saint Paul or Saint Stephen but all of them. So what's a saint?

In some traditions a saint is one who acts on our behalf toward God, intercedes for us and provides us with someone less daunting to share our woes with. Certainly 500 years ago that was a very common way to think of the faithful departed. But we don't really need saints for this because we believe that any mediating that needs to be done on our behalf has already been done by Christ.

Another way to think about what saints do is to consider them great examples of faith. I was at the East Greenbush Library book sale on Friday and I came across a book called 365 Saints. It was a devotional with a page for everyday of the year and each day told you about the saint or shared with you a writing by them or about them and then ended with a prayer. Many times the prayers had to do with how a saint was martyred. How they died in the faith and it asked you to reflect on how you can grow in whatever faith area that involved. This is not a problem. It is great to have role models for your faith and the Catholic church has set aside some very remarkable people to fill this role. But this also isn't exactly the best way to think about saints.

For us the greatest example that a saint can provide is not how great their faith was but how great the faith was that God had in them. That God has in us all.

This is part of the reason that when we talk about saints in this church we don't just talk about folks who have been canonized by Rome but instead we talk about all baptized believing Christians who now enjoy communion with God. We consider all Christians who have died in the faith saints. Our New Testament text calls them those who have been through the great ordeal.

Those who have come through death and now stand washed clean in the presence of the Lord. But death isn't the only great ordeal, they all, any human person who lives, have been through a great many ordeals here on earth through which God and their faith carried them and all of those ordeals, along with all the people they knew and all the lives they touched are part of their identity now as saints.

This year, as a parish we have celebrated the lives of several saints who lived among us and finally finished their great ordeal. Between them we had a range of ages, a range of experience. Many of them were great examples of people who lived with faith but they all provide us with examples of God's faith for us, and in us, even in the midst of great trials.

Looking back over the year I was surprised to remember how many people who passed away this year had lost children when they were young adults. At least one in a tragic accident, several others to sickness and disease. They would have been the first to tell you that that is one of the very worst ordeals that a person can come through but they also seemed keenly aware that God was with them even in the midst of it. That when it was hardest to have faith they were bolstered up by the faith that God had in them, the faith that God provided them with.

Then, we had a funeral at Trinity for one young man whose life had barely started. Who was just into his adulthood and died suddenly, heartbreakingly in an accident. Having maybe just started to come through the throes of youthful rebellion but in the midst of quiet family pain and a huge church funeral there were witnesses to God's faithfulness even in that tragedy.

We had a funeral for sweet Dorthy ______ who came through the great ordeal of slowing losing grasp on reality, a painful and terrifying thing but God remained faithful to her even in those days when having faith by herself became difficult, if not impossible, she was wrapped in the promise of faith from God.

We had a funeral for a St. Stephen's member who died suddenly and without pain after
a full life of 97 years, he was a blessed example of another kind of faithfulness. His great ordeal was simply living long enough to lose so many others, to nurse a sick wife until she finally passed. To live beyond even having many friends or family to attend his funeral but God ever faithful, never left him.

How do I know that God never left and remained ever-faithful to Walter, or Dorthy, Chris or Ed, Julia or so many more? In part, I know because it was evident in who they were and how they are remembered, that is one of the great gifts of the saints, showing us how God has been faithful in lives even after they have ended. But I also know because I know that we were sent the great gift of Christ among us. Who died to win for us a place with God and who rose again as the greatest sign of God's faithfulness to us even in death. We were baptized in his name, sealed with the cross and marked with Christ forever, which is the church's way of saying with words what God is promising with God's whole self, that we are ever-beloved, ever-blessed and ever promised the gift of faith which leads to everlasting union with our God.

We get the beatitudes as the gospel text for this day, a list from Jesus' lips of who all is blessed, when, why and how. One of the Blessings it mentions is this:

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

We who mourn, who throughout our lives have, and will, mourn the deaths of so many are blessed not only because the pain will lessen as time goes on and our hearts will heal. But, we are blessed because in the memory of each saint we learn about the love and faithfulness of God and because on this day especially we are promised that with all the saints who have gone before, those we knew and loved and those multitudes we never knew we will at the last stand washed clean of all great ordeals in presence and union with our God.

We will have time in a short while to remember those who have departed this year and those who died longer ago but that our hearts still ache for. As you do, remember not only who
they were to you but who they are to God. Beloved Children and now blessed saints and give thanks for their lives, the good and bad, the easy and the impossible knowing that God was with them all along, leading them in faith when they were weak and using them as examples of faith when they were strong and that God offers that same promise of faithfulness to all of us and provides us with the saints when we need reassurance and proof. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Pentecost 22 A Matt 22:1-14

In our gospel lesson today we hear about a wedding feast. In these days wedding feasts were a huge deal! They are a big deal now in many cases but they were a huge deal then. They lasted for a week. There were certain codes about what people should wear and how they would act and most importantly for our puposes it brought great shame if no one came. So the man holding the feast, a king, the father of the groom in this case did all that he should have, he invited people in advance, those people RSVP'd, they said they would come. But then the day of the feast came and the food was cooking and the flowers were out and everything was decorated and the bride and groom were ready. But no one came. And the host was getting anxious. What shame that no one would come, what kinds of friends were those anyway. He sent messengers out to check on people. They each made an excuse. I have to work, I'll be away for the week, that kind of thing. Some even chased the messengers away and gave no answer.

So the messengers came back dejected. Sad and unsuccessful they told the host that no one was going to come. After his rage had passed he said, "well then, we will invite the common people. We're still going to celebrate with great joy." He says to his messengers alright, go down to main street. You will find good people and bad people there, people in all walks of life and all stations. Bring them all! We will have the most fantastic feast. It will be filled with people, together we will express our love and well wishes for my good son and together we will share what we have to give each other, our time, our goodwill, our love and our possessions.

So the messengers brought people to the door and as they showed up gave them each a clean, new garment to wear. It was tradition to have garments provided at weddings for all those who didn't come in proper attire, there was a certain, uniform and ritual way that they were all supposed to look. In this case the clean garment did a little something different, it made them all equal in the eyes of the one holding the feast and in the eyes of all who were there. They were no longer there as rich or poor, as people who wore their occupation on their sleeves, as people who had a questionable history or even as people who had an important role in society, they were all just there to share in generosity and fellowship.

So they were all were ushered in, they were all seated and feed.

What a feast they must have had, a refined man who had planned an elegant feast now had a banquet filled with unrefined and unknown people but out of great love for his son he feed them, wined and dined them as if they were kings and queens. And we are led to believe that he was quite happy about it and so were they.

This story comes as a parable in a series that Jesus uses to put the Pharisees, the religious elite in their places. To explain to them that the kingdom of God comes in unusual ways, not just to the usual people but to all people, especially those people who are left behind and left out. But this parable unlike the ones that came before it focuses on the messengers. Those who go out and bring people into the wedding feast and who offer them the new garments to wear.
Luther says, remember that we're going to have a little bit of Luther every week for a while. Luther says in this case we are the messengers, we members of the church who go out in the main streets and invite any and everyone up to feast with us. The ones who call out to all people around us asking them to join us in the great joy of knowing God's love. He also says that, in the case of this story, the garment that everyone put on is Christ. That unlike a normal wedding feast the people here were brought in by messengers instead of by invitations that they had earned by their own merit and instead of silk or satin to wear they were offered the love of God as a common garment.

The whole thing is a reversal of the normal wedding rites and rituals.
Instead of elaborate invitations and qualifications all are welcome into this feast right off the street.

Instead of fine wedding garb of silk or satin all are made equal wearing the same clean garment.

Instead of a gathering of the elite, the proud and the important, the poor and hungry and those longing for comfort are brought together and fed the fine food and drink.

Instead of wedding gifts of gold and fine fabrics what is needful is provided to those in need.

Jesus says that this is what the kingdom of God is like. This is a picture of what it means to put on Christ. As messengers of the kingdom of God we respond to the love of God and the great gifts that we have been given by putting on this new garment that Christ offers and by offering it to other people. Mother Theresa, as she did work with the poor in India encountered many people putting on Christ in many ways but she tells a great story about one couple that she met trading in earthly wedding garments for the garments of messengers of Christ.

"Just a few days before I left Calcutta, a young couple came to our house and they gave me lots of money to feed the poor. In Calcutta every day we cook for 7,000 people. If we don't cook, they don't eat. And so these young people gave, me this money and I asked them, "Where did you get so much money?" And they said, "Before marriage—we have been married just two days—but before marriage we decided that we will not buy wedding clothes, we will not have wedding feast, that we'll give you the money to feed the people." And I asked them, "But why? Why did you do like that?" Because that's a scandal for us in India not to have the wedding clothes, not to have the wedding feast. [It is] one of the most beautiful days in their lives. And they gave me a most extraordinary answer: "Out of love for each other, we loved each other so tenderly that we wanted to give each other something special. And that was our love for the poor. We gave that love for each other by making that sacrifice." See, this is something so wonderful. To show that tender love for each other, they made that big sacrifice. Every day I get something like that from all over the world. You would be surprised what people write. And you must have experienced it yourselves if you have all worked for the beautiful project of the house.
Jesus made Himself Bread of Life to satisfy our hunger for His love, and then He makes Himself the hungry one so that you and I can satisfy His hunger for our Love. That is why I ask you [to] ask your priests to teach you to pray. Ask them to give you the beautiful opportunity to be alone with Jesus in adoration. Ask them to help you to come as close as possible to Jesus in the Eucharist. And often during the day say: "Jesus, in my heart I believe in your tender love for me, I love you." God Bless you."

This is what it looks like to be a messenger of Christ. this is what we are called to when we are called to love our neighbor. This is how we should live out our baptisms with the promise that just as often as we invite others into the love of God we ourselves are invited in as well. This is good news, Thanks be to God. Amen

You can find the text of this speech from Mother Theresa in several places, I used the version in this speech: http://www.ualberta.ca/ALUMNI/history/speeches/82autteresa.htm

Pentecost 19 A A

Our old testament lesson today is great,there is a lot of humor in it and Jonah is mad that God sent him all the way to a city that he doesn't like filled with people that he has no love or respect for and makes him announce that God is angry at what they were doing. And then much to Jonah's dismay the people repent. They repent and God forgives them and Jonah yells at God.

He yells at God, "I knew it! I knew you were gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." I knew it you jerk! It isn't Fair! And so God looks down an Jonah and asks what business it is of his who God forgives and how God doles out his love.

It is easy to laugh at Jonah, we are meant to, anything with the language God appointed a bush is meant to make us giggle. but I have another story for you.

Once during my first year of college, I had this instructor who was pretty demanding especially for someone teaching a freshman class. We had a lot of reading and a lot of papers due. Our final exam was an in class essay exam. We would have to write four one-two page answers to four questions about the reading for the semester. We didn't know which readings and so we had to know it all. Some people set up studies group and traded the papers that they had written over the semester to review, others reread many of the required texts. Some just kind of thought back over things and crossed their fingers, having ended up too busy to do too much studying. If I recall correctly this final would be 40% of our grade. So test day came. We got to class first. We waited for the instructor to walk in. He came a little late. He had his hands full, a briefcase full of what we could only assume were the test questions and a bag. He apologized for being late to the final session of our class. He set his briefcase down and he wrote a name and date on the board. There was panic, no one knew what he meant by it, it wasn't from the class material unless we'd missed it. There were nervous glances around. Then he turned to his desk and took the contents out of his bag, juice and cookies. Then he handed out sheets of paper to everyone in class and we each got a pack of crayons.

Finally he went back to the front of the room and explained that, in honor of the birth of his new baby son the day before, hence the name on the board, we were all excused from taking the final but instead invited to remain for class session, have some refreshments and our only requirement for the final grade was that we draw a picture of any scene from any of the literature that we had read during the class and post it on the board. Stick people were okay, we would not be graded on quality. Easiest A I ever received.

But once we were dismissed from class and the instructor was out of earshot a funny thing happened. People started to grumble. They were mad that the birth of the instructor's son had made us all equal in his eyes. The people who had prepared the most complained the most. Especially those who hadn't kept up with the reading all semester had gone back over the last week and worked very hard to get caught up. The only people who seemed genuinely happy were the ones who walked into the classroom sure that they weren't going to do well enough on the final to get a decent grade. This had been a moment of pure grace for them, undeserved pardon for their short comings. In the end the truth was that we all probably got better grades in the class than we were going to, after all, well prepared or not it is hard to be absolutely perfect. Still people were mad, it wasn't fair!

I have a third story about this. It is the one Jesus tells his disciples about the same theme.

There was a man who needed workers for his vineyard and he went out early and he found some eager and ready workers, he negotiated a wage with them and they went to the field. Then later he saw more workers, we don't know where they were in the morning, maybe they were there, maybe they weren't but he sent them out to the field anyway and again later he did the same. What this resulted in was some people working a very full day, some working a half day and some working only for about an hour. But when time came to be paid, he paid them all the same! The same wage that he had negotiated for a full day's work with the ones who worked in the hot sun all day. And he paid the ones who worked the least first, in front of everyone else! And he paid them just as much! It wasn't fair!

Jesus says it is like this with the kingdom of God. This is how God reigns in our lives.

People hate this! They get angry at God about this, they try to make certain rules that everyone has to follow no matter what so that everyone gets the same. But this isn't how God works. God welcomes in the new folks with the old. God offers complete love and grace and forgiveness to the most eager and the most reluctant of us. God offers love and grace and forgiveness to the most frustrating of us. This isn't fair. It is hard to hear. But Jesus doesn't really care about that.

This is the scandal of the gospel for us. It is the reason we make so many unspoken and spoken rules about what a Christian looks or acts like. Why we are happy to welcome certain people through our doors and ready to exclude others. It is because we feel like we are the ones who prepared for the test and gosh darn it why should God be willing to love and pardon everyone the same? Why does God have to keep loving someone who unfairly moved ahead of me in the line for a promotion? Why does God have to keep loving a spouse who had an affair? Why does God have to keep loving someone who hurt my son or daughter or mother or father or me? Why does God love people who do terrible damage to our world just as much as God loves those who work for peace and health? It isn't fair! God isn't fair.

But God also isn't wrong. God knows how much it means for someone who couldn't find work at all day after day, after day some much that he is worn down, weak and tired to once get a full days' wage for just an hour's work. God knows how much it meant to a city condemned, without chance of pardon to be given a second chance. God knows how much it means to someone who came completely unprepared and overstressed to pass a test with an A. God knows how much it means to us on the day that we are that unrepentant city, or that jobless laborer or that misled soul; on that day, that we are completely unable to be worthy or ready for grace, love or pardon to receive it anyway.

As Lutherans we say that we are saved by grace. Grace isn't something that we feel like we need every single day of our lives but that isn't why it is there, it is there to save us on the one day of our life that we really need it, the day when it is all that we get to fall back on. When it is more than we ever deserved or expected. Grace is unfair because grace is God's gift to those who don't deserve it. I know that you are worried so I will say Grace doesn't give us an excuse to get off the hook, to stop doing what we know is required of us by God. I would have been a fool to never prepare for a final exam again, I wouldn't have made it far in college but on that one day I experienced pure grace. And I learned how to share grace with others. We would all be fools to remain lost and distant from God because we believe in grace but on the days in our lives when we can't find hope no matter how we search, we have the promise of pure grace. And on the days when we need it less we have it as a gift to share, we get to speak the words of pardon or of hope or of love. We get to be, we have to be, the man who pays all of the laborers the same in the name of our graceful God.

This is good news. Thanks be to God. Amen

Pentecost 17 A A

Where two or three are gathered truly I am among them. This is a great saying. we use it often to comfort ourselves when we have only a few present for something, low attendance, few people at a meeting, not many people at a funeral. And in those cases it is comforting but have you ever wondered about the phrase?

I mean it is great if God is present when we gather together but what about when we are alone? Aren't we assured that God is always with us? Maybe especially when we feel the most alone, the most without help or hope? So what's with the gathering of two or more?

I have a story to start with that might help us figure that out. It is about a popular topic this week, school! Ah...the beginning of the school year...filled with...tension! I know not everyone here has school aged children in their homes, I certainly don't but you didn't need to this week in order to pick up on the tension in the air. I could actually hear it out my window, now keep in mind that the area around the parsonage is a popular pathway for many school kids of all ages. Well as the day that school started got closer the noise outside my window got more and more interesting. All summer long we could hear kids at all hours but now there was a lot more little bickering.

Kids fighting over skateboards, quarters, basketballs, dirty looks, you name it. But the funny thing about these bickering kids is that for the most part they were self-regulating. The fights never got very far. Most times it was because a third or fourth party would step in. not another parent, not an authority figure per se but another kid, a peer. This other kid would walk up and be a mediator or a distraction, in some cases a tie breaker. What really happened is that the extra kid coming out to play reminded the first two what they were doing there in the first place. They were playing, together, because they were friends because they love and enjoy one another.

It worked in positive ways too, sometimes two kids would just be bored wandering around outside clearly with no real plan but hoping to soak up the rest of summer, when a couple more kids would wander up and suddenly they would have enough for a game or an adventure of some sort. Just the presence of the other kids would bring them back to themselves and their kid nature, ready to have fun and be creative.

This third kid idea is straight from the bible, at least in a sense. Our text today is, strictly speaking, all about conflict, discipline and forgiveness. But on a deeper level it is about the idea of community. It starts out by telling us how to handle conflict and make peace within our communities. If we have a conflict with someone it says that we should name that conflict, tell the person. But if we continue to have trouble we should bring one or two witnesses with us and to help sort it out. The third kid idea. Bring someone in to remind everyone of the bigger picture and see what happens. In this case the bigger picture is God and the Christian community.

And then a little later we are reminded that this is because: "Where two or three are gathered truly [God] is among them.

Which could mean of course that God is present when there are more of us than one. It could mean that we have special power to punish or forgive when we are in bigger groups, that would be related to the text. But it isn't just letting us know that it is okay to have two or three gathered together but indeed we need to be gathered and have fellowship with each other. Our community needs it. We need each other! Which is certainly why we worship and spend time together, why we are taking special time to eat and play together after this service.

But today as we people from two congregations across Schodack worship together for the first regular worship service in nearly a year I think of how we need each other as congregations, like those kids outside this week.

We remind each other of our very nature. We remind each other what it is to be church. I missed the very early relationship between you two congregations but I suspect that it was a bit awkward. No one knew just where to be or what to say. Then names started to be remembered. A pastor was called. Then came time to actually work together.

An activity for the kids here, a visit to one another's place for a fund raiser there. And now we have gotten to a point where we revitalize one another. We feed each other.

A great example of that is operation Christmas Child, something that St. Stephen's does very well. The kids from Trinity were invited last year and it was a wonderful event, a record number of boxes were packed to be sent away. Kids got to see what it means to give and to share and they were excited about it, people talked about it for weeks. Somehow pictures of it made it into the paper twice! And there must have been some special blessing there too because for the first time ever children who received the boxes responded as you heard earlier. Where two congregations are gathered together God is truly present.

So now we have a new tradition, something that we will do together with each side collecting items and money and then pooling their resources to share in fellowship and do a great thing for children half way around the world.

And St. Stephen's has borrowed from Trinity too, Trinity has a great system for worship planning. Where a group of five or six musically minded people and one pastor get together and look over the upcoming season. Together we all choose hymns, share input, sing little bars, get someone to play a piece on the piano once in a while in order to convince the crowd of a choice. It is a great system, fun, orderly sometimes and a little chaotic at others but it gets the job done and with fellowship. Recently St. Stephen's has participated in this. Leslie, jumped right into the fellowship and chaos and was welcomed warmly. Now because of that both places have just ever so slightly more diverse worship music and they share it! So sometimes that hymn that makes you tear up just a little might have been chosen by a brother or sister at the opposite congregation. And on most mornings though our worship is separate we are singing the same songs in the same spirit. What a lovely way that we can participate together in worship at both places!

These are not huge things, they are little baby steps but they are also just examples. I hear two things most commonly when these two congregations talk about each other. Number one is "how is the other congregation doing, we should get together more" and the other is "Hey! Why is St. Stephen's doing that and we aren't or why is Trinity doing that and we aren't! We want to do that too!" And so new ministries are born and the love of God is shared in new ways!

We need each other, not for financial reasons, not for support, not in order to share a pastor but because Jesus tells us that where two or more are gathered in his name there God is truly present. We make God present for one another, like that third kid wandering out on to the Street to remind the others how to play like kids. Trinity reminds St. Stephen's of it's very nature as a part of the church of Christ and St. Stephen's reminds Trinity of the gift of God's love that it was created to share.

Just as we need each other, as our Sunday Schools need their students and teachers and parents, as our congregations need our singers and musicians, and vice versa, as our buildings need our property people. As our families need one another. We congregations and people alike need each other. And because we have each other and are gathered together, Christ is truly present with us in new, different and exciting ways all of the time. This is good news, thanks be to God!

Pentecost 16 A A

I was sitting in the Empire Plaza this week and there were a few preschool groups wandering around. You've seen the kind I'm talking about, about twenty, three year-olds all holding hands or paired off in two or threes and walking together. Well one of the groups was just clearly having a bad day. They weren't staying in line, some were crying, none seemed to be listening. So the leaders got them into a different sort of line and had them play follow the leader. You probably remember the game from when you were a kid, you would all walk in a line, then the leader would skip and so everyone would skip. Then the leader would run and so everyone would run. This is what they were doing, it went on for a while, they had the kids doing some pretty funny stuff, walking like ducks, mooing like cows. Like Simon Says but the leaders were just as into it as the kids and there was no way to end up "out". By the time the game was over all of the criers were laughing, the line was perfect and everyone was listening. So they paired back up and off they went on their way.

In our lesson today Peter tries to change the direction that Jesus is going in and Jesus says no. You can't redirect me. As much as you want to, as painful as it is for you, as much as you just want to sit down in the path and cry. We won't have any of that. To highlight how serious he is Jesus then says "get behind me Satan" to Peter. A famous and well known phrase. Peter who just last week was called the rock, the rock upon whom the church would be built now gets a stern rebuke, get behind me Satan.

Here's the thing though Jesus wasn't telling Peter to leave and never come back. He also wasn't saying, by calling him Satan, that Peter was capable of only evil. Instead he was saying to Peter that it was time to follow and to do just what he was told for a while, no matter how strange and awkward it might look.

As adults we don't really play follow the leader anymore because while it holds the rapt attention of a three year old, if we all tried to play we would be bored out of our minds and possibly falling all over ourselves. But we learned something important from our Kindergarten teachers by playing that game. The same lesson that Peter learns in the gospel text for today.

Sometimes when things are overwhelmingly impossible what a person really needs to do is locate the leader and start following for a while. In fact we play grown up follow the leader all of the time. I was in a small group led by Bishop Burkat of the Southeast Pa Synod, at a synod event recently. She was talking about how we do effective work in the church. She claimed that almost anything that a church needs a leader for can be taught to a member of a congregation with little to none of the terrifying implications that taking over a task carries with it. You do it by following the leader and there is all kinds of evidence for this method in the Old and New testaments, including the in the lesson we read today.

The process starts like this: First you find someone doing what you need to learn and you watch once. Then you do it side by side with them once with them leading. Next you lead and do the task side by side again. Finally you do it by yourself and the former leader watches. You repeat this as many times and you need and poof you're ready to go, even to lead others. Follow the leader church style, for grown ups!

We can use this model to learn how to run a coffee hour up in the fellowship hall, we can use this model to learn to teach Sunday School, we can use this model to learn to preach. Jesus used a similar model to show his disciples how to teach, how to preach and how to heal. When he said follow me he meant it and he taught them how.

That might have actually been why Peter was so afraid in our lesson. He felt like he was on top of the world with Jesus there to lead him. He was the rock of the church. He had the power to heal, he could literally walk on water! But what Jesus was talking about in this lesson was not being there anymore. At least that is what Peter heard. He heard Jesus say I'm going to die and that is the last thing Peter heard. I'm willing to bet that Jesus wasn't even done speaking when Peter started to rebuke him. To scold him and plead with him to change what he was saying.

All of this because he had a very real concern. His leader was going away. He wouldn't be able to see him anymore. What happens when you are playing follow the leader and then, suddenly, you can't see the leader anymore?

A few things in this case.

First you have to change what you're following. If you can't follow the literal steps and motions of the leader you have to listen to their voice to see where they are going and where they are leading you. If Peter had listened closer he would have heard the good news that was directly linked to the bad news that Jesus was sharing. Yes Jesus said that he would die but he also said that through him death would be overcome. He said that within Peter's very lifetime he would see death overcome and subsequently the kingdom of God alive and growing here on earth.

In order to listen like that though there is an element of letting go that needs to happen. Peter was much too occupied with his own needs and concerns to even leave room to hear Jesus speaking.

In explaining more to Peter Jesus says pick up your cross and follow me for those who want to save their life must lose it. Essentially he is telling Peter to put down as much of himself, his own insignificant worries, pains, fears and concerns as he needs to in order to be able to listen and follow.

At one of the camps that I was at the summer we took a night hike around the perimeter of the camp. Through the forest and a meadow, over a couple of little streams. And it was very dark. No lights, just a sliver of a moon. But the leader had been over the terrain many times and she lead the line holding a hand of the person behind her and we all took hold of the hand of the person in front of us and were led through the dark. The leader could tell the people around her where there was a bump or drop or some other kind of hazard and the message would get passed along. She would squeeze the hand of the person behind her to indicate a need for caution and the message would go down the line.

As you might imagine holding both a hand of the person in front of you and of the person behind you meant that you really couldn't carry anything that you didn't need for the hike. Water bottles, sunscreen, toys, papers etc. all had to be put aside so total attention could go to following the leader and keeping the followers behind you safe and directed.

We also had to put aside any disputes that we were having, any dislike for the people around us, any worries that would keep us from paying attention, any fear of the unknown, of trying a new thing, of learning from someone else had to go too, because you really needed to walk with confidence. This is what Jesus meant when he said put down yourself, your life and take up the cross.

He wasn't asking that you lead a life of unimaginable suffering just for the sake of it, quite the opposite. He was asking that you put aside all of the obstacles that distract you and weigh you down. Anything that keeps you from living fully into his love. Anything that closes your ears to the good news of the resurrection and the coming of the kingdom of God. These words are a call to put down anything that keeps you from following the leader. Let go of anything that keeps you from hearing his voice in the night and walking on the path that he shows you. Amen

Pentecost12 A Matt 14:13-21

Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.

We're going to work through our gospel story backward this morning but I'm going to start by telling you a story.

I used to ride my bike past a tiny storefront church when I lived in Philadelphia called "the church of the broken pieces". I would ride by and wonder what they meant by that, what broken pieces? Were they referring to themselves? Did they all come with terrible traumatic stuff to the church and find some kind of healing and peace there? Was it a reflection on how they had been treated in society? I pictured a group of people all broken but uniquely fit to
eachother like origami folded together so that they were made whole. A nice picture but I never knew what exactly they meant and never asked. Then this lesson came up in the lectionary one Sunday. Saying: And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.

It says that there was so much abundance after Jesus fed a hungry crowd that the disciples went out and filled 12 baskets with the broken pieces of fish and of bread likely to send out into the world to keep feeding people who needed it.

The church of the broken pieces was talking about this. They were it turns out talking about themselves when they took the name broken pieces. But they weren't just broken pieces of humanity. They were signs of God's abundance. Signs that when God seeks to feed a crowd from just a few loaves and fishes, to break bread with us, to provide for us, his love is so abundant that even the scraps are overflowing with God's abundance.

Sure the people of the church were broken. We're all broken, sometimes by pain, fear, anger, grief, addiction and loss but this lesson made them realize that there is good in the broken parts. That even the broken parts were loved by God and precious enough to be gathered together and made into something new and nourishing. And that those broken pieces bear the message of God's love.

Now going back in the story a little there was broken bread and fish to pick up, ultimately, because Jesus had himself been feeling broken.

It all started at the beginning of our lesson with Jesus heavy laden with dark thoughts
and grief. The people closest to him, those who believed the most in him were
being swayed by popular opinion and were doubting his motivations and his
calling. And most present in his mind is that fact that his cousin and dear
friend, John the Baptist, has been beheaded by King Herod. Jesus'
closest companion is dead. And so he withdraws from the crowds to be by himself.
He wants to be alone. He wants some quiet time. He wants to mourn and be sad. He
wants a break from being the one that is in charge and the one people rely on.

The people of God who are following Jesus seemed to feel called in a different direction though. Just as he is seeking to be alone, trying to escape the eyes of the crowd for a short while they come to find him. They gather together in search of him, some of them healthy and able, others of them in hard places in life and in need of healing.

So the text says that when he saw them Jesus had compassion for them. He felt their pain with them, maybe even because of the pain that he had just been experiencing. And so he went to them and he taught them and he healed them and he brought God's love to them.
There is a kind of mutual ministry going on here. Jesus
was broken, sad and seeking to be alone after his cousin's death but the
Father saw that perhaps this wasn't best and so the crowds and the
disciples show up to "minister to Him" with their own brokenness.

I had an experience a few weeks ago that is a great example of this same type of mutual ministry.
I was visiting a member of another church in the hospital because her pastor was out of town. A woman who husband had suddenly become very ill and was in intensive care. I showed up with my little communion kit ready to help but when I got there someone else was already sitting with her, holding her hand and praying. After a bit of talking I learned that the gentleman sitting with her was not a realitive. He was not a close friend, he didn't really even know her that well. He was a fellow church member who has seen her situation and had compassion on her.

He explained that having recently lost both of his parents he was keenly aware of what a long hard thing it is to do, to wait in hospitals for days with little rest, little information and little companionship. So he decided that the best way to work through the painand brokeness that he still felt from that experience was not to bear it alone but to turn it into ministry to other people. So he takes it upon himself, when a fellow church member or friend has a very sick relative and few other people to be near them, to sit with them in the hospital.

He explained that he doesn't have much to say and what he does say might not be that great so he isn't really there to talk, certianly not to do any heavy lifting on the faith or the medical side of things. He doesn't have any trianing in either. Really he is just there because he knows what it is like to have no one and he is sure that God would want someone to be there. So he said he had little to offer.

That was his side of the story anyway. The report that I got from the woman with a sick husband was much different. In her eyes she had no one, she lives very far away. She was stuck and alone. Lonely, scared and broken down when he walked in. The walking, talking, love of God right there. She was the one who had so little but God took it and blessed it and multiplied it in this other child of God.

She says now there is enough love and peace in her heart that when the whole experience is over there will still be love, ministry and support to share. Broken pieces to pick up and gather together and send out again.

In his grief, Jesus took compassion on the people who were feeling pain like his own. He taught and healed them and when they were ready to leave hungry he took five little loaves, and two little fish and he made them so abundant that there were baskets full of precious broken pieces to gather together.

So too does God comfort and care for us and then gather us together, whole and broken, hungry and satisfied and make us signs for each other of His abundant love for us. Amen

Pentecost 11 A Matt 13:31-52

The kingdom of God is like....In our lesson today we get a series tiny, quick, short, little parables from Jesus, all describing different things about the kingdom of God. Little, short notes about what God is and does and how God works. If you were to update them a bit they might go like this:

What is impressive to you? What is a mystery to you?

For people in Jesus' time it was the mustard seed. But it seems a lot harder to answer that question today than it was back then. Jesus talks about how tiny a mustard seed is but with modern science we can see things that are millions of times tinier. We can almost map everything about us that makes us human. Our DNA, little variations in DNA, how they work, what they do.

There used to be a phrase that people used about how many angels could fit on the head of a pin. This was a great mystery and a great feat of God for people. We know now that all the things that make a human can fit on the head of pin. One cell that carries the map of who we are. Several cells dividing in a womb that if they continue to divide will be a person someday, can fit on the head of a pin. Something so tiny that you almost have to imagine because you can't see it. Certainly a thing that you have to imagine growing and working and changing because you can't see it and you won't even see their results for a very long time.

Jesus says the kingdom of God is like that. Like something so tiny that you could over look it or that you can't even see at first. Like a seed that you put in the ground and forget about. But it grows. It becomes a living thing, it dictates it's own direction and has it's own needs and value.

Next: What is a mystery to you. Again with modern science we know so much about how so many things work. For Jesus a mystery was a woman making bread, yeast was both mysterious and rather treacherous or dangerous seeming to people in Jesus' time. So the woman hides some leaven in flour and puts it aside and before you know it there is a loaf, there is food to eat, there is the warm smell of bread baking. There is fellowship for the family around this fresh homemade loaf.

Maybe this doesn't need updated even though we know know how yeast works. Bread is bread, we still have to eat to survive and after all these years bread is the most basic and essential part of our diet. And it is still amazing how adding just a little life, yeast is living in a sense, I was always mystified as a small child by how the little grains of yeast would jump around just a tiny bit and cling to the spoons and other cooking utensils. You add just this little bit of life to flour, maybe with a little sugar or salt and water and just like the seed you forget about it for a while. It is hidden and a mystery, you leave it alone but then before you know it everything about the flour has changed. It has become something new, all of it's own, unlike anything else.

The Kingdom of God is like this. So very everyday but a mystery that carries with it the very basic necessities of life and can transform us completely.

Next: The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Or the Kingdom is like a very, very expensive pearl that a merchant sells everything he has in order to be able to buy.

Ah treasure and the Pearl. I'm not sure that these need to be updated either. We are in quite the credit crisis in America right now because too many people have felt this way about too many things. People have been willing to bet the farm, so to speak, to go into great debt, spend their lives paying on certain things. Houses are the major part of this equation. The need to provide, to have a safe, reasonable place for the family to live has caused people to promise all that they will make working for many, many years. But with many people it has gone farther than this, a new car, new furniture, the newest and best television, expensive recreational equipment, the best decorative items, from fancy antique spittoons to famous works of art. It is like they are controlled by a desire to have these things. Like they are willing to put their whole lives on the line just in order to posses these things. Like they would sell everything they owned, forsake everything else to own a field where this great treasure is buried. Like these things have taken possession of them.

This is how the kingdom of God is, we pursue it and pursue it and pursue it. We want to have God, we want to know God, we want to control God, we want to tell God what to do and what we need. But at some point we finally realize that we don't posses the treasure. It possess us. This is how the kingdom of God works.

I have a parable of my own to add to this. It might be blasphemous to say that the kingdom of God is like the TV series Lost but it seems to fit right in with the things that Jesus is saying.

I don't know how many of you watch Lost but it is about a magical island. It really doesn't seem so hokey until you say that out loud but yes, a magical island. An island where a plane crash lands. And the island provides for the survivors of this crash everything that they need. Food, shelter, companionship, even healing, the magic of the island can make the lame walk and the sick well. That is the seed or yeast bit of the parable. The people who have crashed don't know how the island works. It is small and mysterious, even scary to them but it becomes their whole world. It provides them with every need and it's influence on them grows and grows like yeast or a seed. But the tension in the show comes from people on the outside who know the very thing about this island that is such a mysterious surprise to the survivors of the plane crash. They know that stumbling upon the island is like coming across a great treasure when plowing a field. And so they give up all they have, they sell the things they own, they devote all of their resources to possessing the island. It becomes an obsession and a competition to them. They have seen how it seems so innocent and natural but it contains the power of life. And so nothing else in the world matters as much as to them as having that island.

Now the series isn't over yet and I don't know how it will end but here is the thing, here is how the Kingdom of God is different from Lost, or from a beautiful pearl or from a field with buried treasure. The kingdom of God is a free gift to all of us. We can't buy it nor can we possess it but we can live as part of it and invite as many people as we choose to it and there will always be room. It doesn't need to be hidden and it can't be bought. But it will provide us with more good things, more things like healing, like sustainence, like fellowship, even like warm, wonderful, life sustaining bread, or tiny seeds producing lovely nourishing plants than anything else we will ever come across.

And we can't own it no matter how hard we try because it already owns each and every one or us. It already knows each of our names and calls to us.

The kingdom of God, the kingdom that possesses us in spite of all the work that we try to do to possess it, isn't just an island somewhere that we happened upon or that a few elite people are fighting over. It is everywhere in all time, opening it's doors to us, growing and changing, providing us with mystery and awe, riches and joy and eternal union with God and one another.

Thank God that the kingdom is not a treasure buried in a field or a seed hidden in the ground but rather a free gift in the Holy Spirit all around us. Amen

Pentecost 5 A Matthew 9:35-10:8

This week some members of the congregation and I attended synod assembly the annual gathering of the ELCA in upstate New York. We got together to address church matters, to conduct business and to learn and to worship as a church body. The theme for the week was vocation. Vocation is a bit of catch word in the church right now that refers to our calling in the world and our mission from God. The place where our passions and gifts meet to guide us in the ministry of the everyday. The idea behind Christian Vocation is that we are all given certain talents and abilities and we are all called to work in God's kingdom and that work will be best done and we will be happiest and most successful if we figure out a way to match up work in the kingdom with our own talents and gifts.

At Synod Assembly there were speeches, videos and workshops that tried to answer the question: Why are Lutherans excited about vocation? How do we as Lutherans manage to consider the work that we do in our employment, in our churches, in our homes, in our friendships and today being father's day we should mention even, as parents and children, how do we consider all that more than work but vocation?

The best answer that I heard this question was: That we do it because our baptisms mean something! They are an assurance from God that we will be cared for, a promise from God that we will be equipped to do good work and a call from God to care for his people.

We are excited about vocation because our baptisms mean something.

With that in mind I'm going to re-read a little portion of today's gospel lesson:
When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness...[skipping ahead] and these twelve Jesus sent out.

There is something great and a little trickey going on here. Jesus saw that the sheep needed a shepherd. His people needed things and he had great compassion and he asked the disciples to pray that God would send some people out. Then in just about the same breath Jesus himself called and sent the very disciples that he had just asked to pray, out to do what they were asking God for. Now maybe this all happened so quickly because Jesus had a extra-fast line to God and knew right away the answer to the disciples' prayers or maybe this happened in the way that, sometimes, when we are interested in seeing something happen, we ask for volunteers, no one steps up and we realize that if it is going to happen we are going to have to at least start the work ourselves.

This is part of how vocation works. How do you find your calling? Well, what do you find yourself praying for most often? If you are praying for the sick is your calling to visit the sick? If you are praying for the children in the community is your calling to be a teacher or mentor. If you are praying for a relationship that you have are you being called to work on that relationship? Again vocation is tied to passion so we get clues from what we care most about.

Let me tell you a story about a group of people who found their vocation in a pretty everyday way.

There was a wheat farmer. In a town called Othello near where I lived two harvest seasons ago. This farmer died very suddenly just after he planted the wheat fields in the spring. He was gone but the wheat kept growing. And as summer ended just like every year the wheat was ready for harvest. Now perhaps some of you farm here or have lived on a farm at some point and so you know what it is like for a farm family come harvest time. It takes up a lot of time and energy, it is the central event for the family. I know some families where a daughter or son is known to come home more reliably during harvest time than even for the holidays. It is hard work but there is also some excitement in the air, something strong and familiar, it is full not only of urgency but also memory and thoughts about the future. And harvest time is also the livelihood of the family. No harvest, no income and you lose whatever you put down on the fields to begin with. So, as harvest grew nearer it must have been very hard to be a widow with the wheat ready to harvest but no farmer around to do so.

The community must have thought so too because they went to church Sunday after Sunday for weeks and prayed and asked the people to pray for her and her farm. The prayer must have sounded similar to what Jesus told his disciples to pray, the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, Lord send people to work those fields and care for that family.

Well God listened in that same funny way that he listened to the prayers of the disciples and when it came around to harvest time there, those same people who had prayed, were, getting their instructions and heading out into the widow's fields. One morning after a simple prayer an army of combines from the whole community set out to harvest the wheat of the deceased farmer while an army of loving friends set out to create new harvest memories with a the farmer’s wife. The men driving the combines were not preaching about God’s love, they did not sit down and gather anyone around to hear about what it means to reach out to a neighbor in the name of God. Instead quietly and efficiently they did so. The served this widow when she was most vulnerable and they filled an entire community with the love of God. It only took one morning and a bit of gasoline.

They didn’t do it because they thought that they would get a better place in heaven if they did the other thing our baptisms tell us is that we are saved not by work but by God's grace. They did it out of love for a friend and fellow farmer now gone and out of love and compassion for his wife. This is what it means to have vocation, it isn't foreign or uncomfortable. The best ministry is reflexive. It is doing what you are moved to do and what you are confident about.

In the case of this community the most everyday service was an extraordinary ministry. They figured out the call of their baptisms, to care for people in the ways that they understood, with a vocation they already knew together and with the help of God.

Jesus asked his disciples to pray for those upon whom he took compassion and then Jesus raised up people to care for them. Jesus asks us to pray for his people, and then he sends us out to care for them. This is what we are promised at our baptisms, that we will be given unique gifts, a unique call, the Holy Spirit among us and an entire community of people of God to work beside us.

The really good news here about baptism and vocation is not that we are sent but that God sends. Sometimes we are the shepherds, sometimes we are the lost sheep. Sometimes we help and sometimes we need help and God sends workers to bring in the harvest when we can't. Helpers to carry us through when we are weak and sheep for us to lead when we are strong.

God sends, because our baptisms mean something. Amen

Pentecost 4 A Matthew 9:9-13; 18-26

As many of you know for years I worked as a barista (that's someone who makes fancy coffee drinks) and then a supervisor for a Starbucks Coffee Shop. And while I know I am here in the land of Dunkin Doughnuts you’ll forgive my story about Starbucks as the king of coffee for a little while.

Starbucks as a corporation has been immensely successful. It grows faster than almost any other restaurant or coffee chain. The Starbucks Latte has replaced the McDonald's Big Mac in the economic world as an indicator of global pricing standards. Groups from churches to major banking and electronic firms have studied the Starbucks model to try to improve their own operation and appeal.

And how did they do it? What built this Starbucks craze? In very large part it was atmosphere. The atmosphere that they strive for inside stores is something that business advisers and training manuals call the third place. The entire job of a Starbucks employee is to create a unique welcoming atmosphere a place where the world stops. In the midst of the noise and commotion of daily life, in spite of all of the pulls and worries of the world around. Where you are looked at face to face, where your name is known and your needs are addressed where there is peace and quiet, relationships and joy. A place entirely different from the hustle and worry of work or home. A third place.

And this third place model works. People notice it without ever naming it. They feel safe, loved, understood and comfortable in the cafes. At least they did. As soon as the company started moving away from the “third place” model customers stopped coming back.

A third place. I think this is an amazing model for a church. To be a third place for people. A place of peace and comfort, hospitality, relationships and joy. But I don’t think that because I used to work for Starbucks. I don’t think that because I think churches should follow business models. I don’t think that because I’m afraid the customers will stop coming back. I think it because I think that whether we know it or not, whether we name it or not our Lord spent his ministry creating a third place.

A unique place, a place where every person in his midst even the least among them was looked at face to face, called by name and made whole. We call that third place the kingdom of God and this is what it looks like:

Our gospel lesson today has a LOT of commotion in it. The everyday hustle and bustle plus some. First Jesus calls Matthew to follow him. There is a great feast with sinners and tax collectors (who had a lot of money and knew how to throw a party). Then in the middle of this feast, the Pharisees come and question Jesus. He who claims to be a teacher from God is eating with all kinds of people who are ritually unclean. At that point Jesus stands up in the middle of the meal and tells everyone present that he came for the sake of the sick, of the sinner of those that society left behind. But this is just the beginning of the commotion because...

Then suddenly a leader of the synagogue runs in and says that his daughter has died and he needs Jesus to help him. All this commotion, imagine the scene everyone talking, eating, people yelling, pulling Jesus every which way and then suddenly they are off walking quickly through a busy marketplace with vendors and animals and lots of people buying and selling. And then, all of a sudden, everything stops.

Suddenly the focus shifts to a quiet woman who saw Jesus go by and thought to herself, "If I only but touch the hem of Jesus' garment I will be made well." What we didn't notice in all the busy commotion, what none of Jesus' disciples noticed in all the busy commotion was that, quietly without even a word this woman crept up and touched Jesus as he was walking by. And she was healed.

Jesus' companions didn't notice and we the reader didn't notice, but, Jesus turns around in the middle of all the commotion in the midst of some very important people and en route to a very important task. And asks who touched my cloak? Who was in need of healing. Who silently walked up to me believing that just my presence could do them well?

He apparently didn’t need to be told that she needed healing or why she needed it. He knew when he looked at her what was wrong and that she had already been healed. What he needed was to look at her. To see her face to face.

In the middle of all his concerns and all of the concerns of those who were with him, in the center of his “real” work. He stopped to see the face of someone who really needed to be healed. Someone quiet and afraid, someone otherwise completely unnoticed. And he called to her, welcomed her to him and made her whole.

This is the Kingdom of God this is our third place.

The presence of Christ among us creates a third place where all are welcome, rich or poor, happy or sad, well dressed or in rags, clean or dirty, healthy or sick, saint or sinner and we are all made clean in the same water and feed with the same rich food and held in the same loving embrace. Like the woman in the crowd, our needs are known and we are looked at face to face.

Unlike Starbucks or any business, our third place is not limited to these walls. The kingdom of God is with us always breaking into the world around us even as we welcome strangers and care for the least among us. We take it with us, into our homes, into our work places and just as Jesus followed the leader of the synagogue whose daughter had died out of love and mercy for this man, so the kingdom follows us.

This is good news. Thanks be to God. Amen

Holy Trinity A

The gospel for today is another one of those texts with a great deal of movement in it. It starts out with off stage movement. You might recall from Easter morning that messengers at the empty tomb met some of Jesus' female disciples. First the messengers asked the women to COME, look at the empty tomb. Next they told them to GO, quickly and tell the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee. So they went quickly up the road and as they were walking Jesus met them on the way. And reminded them again that they must GO to the disciples and then to have the disciples GO to meet him. Next, when we meet the disciples today they are GOING up the mountain where Jesus told them to go in Galilee.

Then finally, after all the going, the disciples SAW Jesus and the WORSHIPED him. All of the movement had paid off. The disciples finally got what they had been moving toward ever since the women first approached the tomb.

I think of another mountain top experience in the bible when I hear this. I am reminded of the mount of Transfiguration when Jesus took a few disciples up to the top of a mountain and they were washed shining white and they heard a voice from heaven say about Jesus, "this is my son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him."

The disciples were so moved by this experience that they wanted to stay on the mountain top. They asked Jesus if they could build dwelling places for each person there so that they could remain in that shining warm glory of God. But Jesus said no, this is just the beginning. This is how our ministry is to start now we have to go back down the mountain and actually spread this news and live into this gift from God.

The disciples must have felt just like this on the day that we meet them in our lesson. They had been through a harrowing experience. They'd been hiding out through the crucifixion and entombment of Christ. Then they had had to do so much listening, traveling and moving. But finally they had heard the voice of God and seen God face to face. Jesus the resurrected had come to dwell with them. Surely they should make dwelling places and stay there forever.

But no, no the lifestyle of movement was just beginning for the disciples because while they were on the mountain top, again, instead of new homes to live in, they got a new commandment that involved a lot of movement.

Jesus commanded them to go to world and to teach what Jesus had taught them and to baptize people in the name of the father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In the name of the Trinity they were to baptize. That is actually why we have this as our lesson today. Because it is Holy Trinity Sunday. But what a good lesson for today as we bless the children in the congregation and as we prepare to baptize a child of God in just a few minutes. And what a good day for it as it is the day we celebrate what it means to call ourselves Trintiy Lutheran Church.

But just like the disciples the message for us today, the message of the Trinity is one of movement. In the name of the Triune God. We are called to GO be in the world, to SPREAD the word of God and the good news that all people are beloved children of God and to INVITE those children into our community through baptism.

And not only that but even baptism is an act that requires movement. We will baptize Jordan today but then we are called as a whole community of believers to TEACH him, to HELP him, to FORGIVE him, to LOVE him and to GUIDE him. Just like we are called to teach and love, care for and lead all of the children of this congregation. That is why we have a day like today where we lift up our ministry to children and it is why we are so grateful for all of the people who work to make this a welcoming and fulfilling place for children.

Baptism is a beginning. The first movement in a lifelong journey.

How great to be to baptizing Jordan on a day that we are called to baptize in the name of the father and son and Holy spirit. And how great to be baptized people on this day!

Because just like the call to care for the baptized is a dynamic one, so to is the life of all baptized people. A life full of movement. It is for this reason that we baptize in the name of God father son and Holy Spirit. For this calling we need a God in three persons, we need all three to LEAD, to TEACH, to ACCOMPANY and to LOVE us and to GIVE us REST when the journey is too strenuous. It is through this quality of God that Jesus assures us in our lesson today that in all our journeys, in all of our movement as baptized people of God, we will never be alone even to the end of the age. We move after all not by our own power but by the power of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Pentecost A

(Preached several days after the Cyclone in Myanmar)

Our lesson today starts with a great rush of wind, with fire and power and might. Some things that have been in too much abundance the past few weeks if you ask me. At least too much abundance in certain parts of the world. Tens of thousands of people are living in makeshift camps right now in Myanmar. Their homes and lives in pieces. Many people are dead, more are sick and dying. What a terrible rush of wind and show of the power and might of nature.

It is hard with this in mind to think about the good in such a show of force. It is hard to find a good message in it, except when we start to think about just where the great and mighty rush of the spirit came from on the day of Pentecost. And what its purpose was.

The story in our text today came from a time when everything seemed broken. When the whole world seemed to be falling apart. A time after Jesus was gone from the earth, the joy and glow of Easter was fading and the disciples were trying to figure out how to make it on their own, trying to find direction, trying to start a church from scratch. No model, no directions.

And so they all went to their old church. All the apostles and many other people went to the temple for a festival that happened that time of year. It was a first fruits festival actually where people took some of the very best from the first crops that they had grown that Spring and offered them to the Lord. So as they were all gathered in the temple, giving thanks for what they had been given, all of a sudden a great rush of wind came through the place, there were bright lights like fire all around and suddenly everyone present could hear the word of God spoken in their own language. There were people here from all over the place. Imagine. People who spoke Manderin and Thai, people who spoke English and Russian, people who spoke Swahili and Greek all in one place and suddenly they could hear the voice of the Spirit each in his or her own language. Clear as a bell, no translator needed. How fantastic. How amazing and unbelievable.

The funny thing about this story though is that it is all about being spoken to and hearing but we never find out just what was said. Just what people heard. At the end of this chapter as Peter is explaining what happened he encourages everyone to be baptized but that apparently isn't what they heard in their own languages. He also quotes the old testament but that apparently isn't what they heard in their own languages. So what did they hear?

I think we get a clue by looking back at the gospel for today. In the gospel lesson for today Jesus finds the disciples hiding out in an upper room after the crucifixion (we go back in time a little so we're before the resurrection again). The disciples were hiding in the upper room afraid, not willing to go out and be part of the world. Not willing to teach or preach for fear that a fate similar to that of Jesus will befall them. Then Jesus appears, a stranger whom they don't recognize suddenly in their midst and they are afraid. But once he is inside the room Jesus says simply, "Peace be with you". Don't be afraid have peace.

The disciples calm down when they hear. He shows them who he is, his wounds, proof that he was on the cross. And the disciples finally recognize him and they are get excited because all of their work hasn't been for nothing. Jesus is back and he's going to take care of everything right?!

Then again Jesus says peace be with you. Same words but this time they meant something different. Maybe this time to calm them down a little. To explain that his being back means the opposite of what they think. It doesn't mean that they have nothing to do from that point forward. No, with this second greeting of peace Jesus calls the disciples to be leaders and caregivers of the people of God. And the disciples did what they were told. At least they tried. They stopped staying behind a locked door. They started going out into the world again.

It was after this that they went to the temple to the festival of first fruits to give thanks for their time with Jesus and to begin the mission he had sent them on. I believe that after Jesus left though the disciples were still pretty directionless until the day of Pentecost. I think that might even be why they went to the temple. They thought they might as well go to worship to try to figure out what they were going to do next in this crazy mission.

In this state, confused and unsure of their next step, the disciples heard the words of Christ again. Peace be with you. But this time, this time the the disciples weren't the only ones who heard. The message was spoken to all within listening range. And even though the words were the same, again this time, "Peace be with you" told the disciples something entirely new.

It told them that they weren't the only ones that the message was for. It was for all people in the temple and outside of the temple. All people who were already members of the temple and those who had never been inside. Those people who spoke their native language and those they couldn't understand.

The disciples suddenly knew just what to say. They said the spirit is here. They said peace be with you. They said be not afraid. Though we have been persecuted. Though we are just starting out. Though we are not sure where to turn and we don't know what to do. Let us be not afraid because we know that we are not alone.

And I do think that Peace be with you might just be what each person heard the Spirit say, I believe that they heard many things, each one of them a unique thing.

Peter and the disciples likely heard: Peace be with you...now you know where to start your ministry.

Those who were brand new to the story of Jesus heard peace be with...don't be afraid, my church will care for you and show you where to go.

The priests in the temple heard: Peace be with you...I love you even though you haven't believed.

And the same thing happens today at Pentecost. We hear the spirit softly calling. It says the same words but means different things.

People in the U.S.A today worried about war and the economy and the elections and hear: Peace by with...I will give you strength.

People in all safe places hear: Peace be with you. Help those in need of peace and hope, food and water.

People in churches hear: Peace be with you, now share a sign of peace with your neighbors in and outside of these walls.

People in Myanmar and all other places where it feels like that world is coming down around them hear: Peace be with you I have not abandoned you even here.

And may the peace of the Lord be with us and bless us to hear and see and feel the Holy spirit moving in our lives this season of Pentecost and teach us what "Peace be with you" means in this age, in this place, and for these people around us.

Amen, peace be with you.

Now before the hymn, with a renewed understanding of the Spirit's peace, Let us share a sign of peace with the people around us.

The Ascension

Did you know that a big part of the training of guide dogs is getting them to look up? They are great at looking all round, waiting at crosswalks is no problem, leading blind people around fences and potholes is no problem but they are so focused on the world right around them that it never occurs to them to look up for low hanging branches and the like. They are so sure that their work is before them right at ground level that they don't feel a need to look up.

In our lesson from the book of Acts today the disciples have exactly the opposite problem. They are with Jesus getting some final instructions and then they watch as he ascends to heaven in a cloud. And they continue to watch,... and they continue to watch,.. and as they are still watching, finally, some messengers of the Lord appear and ask the disciples why they are standing there staring.

Now at first this seems like a silly question. They are staring because Jesus just went away in that cloud and they would really like to be where Jesus is. But when we you look back even at this very lesson the question why are you just standing there staring into heaven is a good question.

It is a good question because the last thing Jesus said to them, not an hour before was "you are to be my witnesses in the world". Jesus really wasn't interested in followers who contemplated heaven all the time. Who sat around doing nothing waiting for the kingdom to come, Jesus wanted his disciples to be doers, people who would show the world the kingdom of God already in existence.

Just before our gospel text, right before he went to the cross to die Jesus said a prayer for his disciples and included in it an assurance they they could and would know him even as he was absent from them. Ministry was never meant to be something that the disciples did alone. It was meant to be something they did with the knowledge that Jesus was there with them supporting them and guiding them. This is why the messengers wanted to know why the disciples were standing there staring, wanting Jesus to come back when they were told many times that Jesus would be present in God's people on earth if only they would look to the world around them.

I remember a sister church to one that I worked at in Philadelphia. The church, called Reformation, was dying. It had a small number of very affluent members who gave plenty to keep the church budget going and the church had a large endowment that increased significantly each year with the interest that it made. So the small congregation at Reformation was very comfortable. They wanted to come to church on Sunday, sing a little, pray a little, look toward heaven and go home with light hearts and minds.

But they were losing members and no one who came to visit wanted to stay people felt disconnected from the church and from God. So people at Refomation began to get concerned and because the membership was aging and wouldn't be around forever they decided to try one last ditch effort at surviving as a church, they figured if it worked great, if not they would go out with a bang.

The effort was based on the realization that, as a church, they had been looking up for too long looking into the clouds after Jesus and had forgotten to be the church on earth. The one that Jesus called to feed his sheep and minister to the world. So the church decided to work hard to stop looking up at the sky after a distant Christ and started to look to the community around them.

They made a five year plan. The plan included giving 50% of their yearly income to mission support. 50 %, this a lot for a church that had been pretty happy to use their budget for very nice Easter dinners and Christmas pageants. It was hard work at first, people had to think about what they did with church money and they had to dig a little deeper to give a little more.

But it turned out people loved it! they loved giving away what they had sought after for so long, it gave them energy and all of a sudden they wanted to give more.

First they started to support two missionaries. They liked that but wanted to do more. They made a pledge to support any young person in their sister synod in Africa who makes it into secondary school by offering aid with tuition and living expenses, guaranteeing each young person in that synod a good education.

They even started a recycling program in their community, deciding that they must be stewards not just of money and possessions but of the very earth.

It turns out that they are in need of a building project. They need more space, because as their ministry came to life in the world around them so did their little church! But they learned their lesson about spending money in the place of listening to God's call, so, instead of rushing the project or simply finding the cheapest bid or even looking to spend their money on something a little extravagant. They have determined that they will wait a while, do a lot of research and build the most eco-friendly and energy efficient building that they can.

Every action that this church is involved in is steeped in the needs and concerns of the world around it, they don't spend a lot of time looking up but any one of them will tell you that they have seen Christ. They have encounterd him so many times in the people that they have met by being witnesses of the kingdom of God in the world around them.

That was the real point that the messengers of God were trying to make when they asked what the disciples were doing looking up into heaven. There was nothing wrong with looking for Jesus, but the truth that Jesus left them with, the truth that Reformation has learned, is that Jesus is present in all that we do in the world around us. Jesus is most discernibly present when we witness his kingdom on earth.

I think that the modern day equivalent to gazing up into the sky after Jesus is looking ahead to the point that it prevents us from acting today. When we want to do something as a church or as individuals like
start a new ministry
hire a new person
go back to school
start a new job that will be more fulfilling and more to the glory of God

we get so caught up wondering and worrying about how we will ever be able to maintain it, whether or not there will be people to staff it, how others will receive it, what they will think of us if we change who we are to do it, and if we even have enough to pay for it, that we never start planning. We never allow ourselves to believe that Christ will be with us, not in some far off future but here, right now in our every step and move.

The problem with the disciples wasn't that they were looking at the sky. It is that they weren't willing to see Jesus anywhere else. It was keeping them from the great mystery that is Jesus at our side when we are waking and Jesus walking before us as we act.

How great it is to know our savior here on earth with us today even as we look forward to his return. What a great gift it is to see him in our children, in our leaders, in our friends and in perfect strangers. And what a shame to miss it while we watch for a distant God in the clouds. So by all means let us celebrate our gift of eternal life by looking around, not simply gazing upward. Surely this is where we will see Christ today. This is good news.

Thanks be to God. Amen