Uplift Life

Scripture: Genesis 32:22-31, Luke 18:1-8
Title: Hold On

**Sermons are meant to be heard, so listen along here**

What is justice?

Many of us hear this word and we immediately think of right and wrong, good and bad, legal and illegal.  
It’s the upholding of rules.
It’s fairness.
And in most of the ways we think of it – we think of a noun.
Like justice is a thing you hold.
Something you either have or don’t have.
Yet in today’s Gospel, the word justice isn’t a noun.
It’s a verb.
An action.

And through this parable that Jesus tells, we begin to understand exactly what kind of action it is.
For Luke, we get an understanding that justice is defined as fearing God and respecting others.
Because the unjust guy in today’s parable is defined as someone who didn’t fear God and had no respect for anyone.  

So what does that mean exactly – to fear God and to respect others?  
What would it look like if justice took into account these two things?
What does it look like in this day and age to really fear God and to really respect others?

Preaching professor and author Karoline Lewis said it powerfully this week when she asked some pointed questions to help us define just what Luke might be getting at. She asked:

Is there any fear of God left? Or have we so tamed the Almighty so that he is a mere aspect of our lives rather than the one who makes sense of our lives?

Is there any fear of God left? Or have we insisted that in order to preach or do theology, we need to have God all figured out?

Is there any fear of God left? Or have we decided that to fear God is a rather archaic phrase best left in the recesses of the Old Testament and certainly not binding on our lives now?

And, is there any respect left for the other? Or have we totally bought into the binaries of our society — that the other can only exist as our opposite?

Is there any respect left for the other? Or has fear completely crushed our compassion?

Is there any respect left for the other? Or has narcissism truly become as epidemic as it appears?

Yes, if fear of God and respect for the other were operative in our understandings of justice, justice might indeed look different.

It’s all comes down to justice.  

Not the noun, but the verb.
Fear of God and love of the other.
When those things are true – they bring about action.

As philosopher Cornel West says: “justice is what love looks like in public”

So Jesus steps into the midst of his disciples, right in between telling them he’s going to be gone soon and then going to the cross to show them what real love looks like – Jesus steps into their worry and panic and fear and tells a parable. One that Luke calls: “a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart”

And so Jesus tells a story about an unjust judge.  One that neither fears God nor respects people.
A woman comes to ask him for help.
Grant me justice. She says.
The Greek translated word for word here is grant me justice against the one who is anti-justice.
And he says no.
And really, only a jerk would say no right?
But we know this about him already so it’s not really a surprise.
But she continues.
She’s annoying him with her persistence.
And he caves.
This is the parable.
Jesus says how much more will God give justice to those who cry out to him?
This unjust jerk of a judge can do it, and he doesn’t even care.
But God cares.
So then this parable teaches us that God is bringing justice all the time to those whom he loves.

The question then becomes, who are we in this story?
That’s what we’re to do with parables right?
Are we the woman? Or are we maybe the unjust judge?

Because the parable is set for Jesus’ disciples, I thought I’d try my hand at parable writing this week, so here I have:

A new parable about our need to pray always and not to lose heart:

There once was a political system that neither feared God nor had respect for people.
There once was an education system that neither feared God nor had respect for people.
There once was an immigration system that neither feared God nor had respect for people.
There once was a legal system that neither feared God nor had respect for people.
There was once a church that neither feared God nor had respect for people.

In that system there was a person who kept coming and saying: Grant me justice.
A refugee in crisis.
A family in need of welfare.
A young black man.
A low income school district.

Grant me justice.

A homeless kid.
A Muslim man.
A single mom.
A sexual assault victim.
A gay teenager.

Grant me justice.

The systems responded: no.
I’m too busy.
You aren’t like me.
We don’t believe the same things.
I don’t have any extra.
I’m barely getting by as it is.
I don’t agree with you.
I think you’re wrong.
You got yourself into this.
Not my problem.

And yet they respond:
Grant me justice.
Grant me justice.

They keep pushing.
They didn’t give up their fight for justice.
For doing the right thing.

And eventually the systems collapsed.
They can’t take the pressure.
They get worn out trying to be what they’ve always been and do what they’ve always done.

And the parable ends there.
The parable ends with this reminder that God always fights for justice. On behalf not of the systems that have power but to the ones he loves who are being oppressed, overlooked, and forgotten. The ones hurting, crying, lost.  This is who God is working for.

And maybe at one point, that was you.
Maybe that’s you today. Maybe today you ARE the woman begging for justice.
If it is, make no mistake.
God has got you.
God is working for you, on your behalf.
Hold on. Don’t give up.
Keep asking for justice.

But if this is not you – if you don’t fall into those categories…if you aren’t being oppressed, then we have some big questions to ask ourselves.
Some hard questions.
Some questions we’d rather not have brought up at all.
If we’re not the oppressed – if it’s not us crying out, then that means we’re the unjust judge.
And if you just cringed. You’re not alone.
I really really don’t like thinking of myself as the jerk in this story.
The one who is annoyed at the people in need around them.
Because if we’re not in need of justice then we have the responsibility to use the power given to us in the system in which we find ourselves.  

We have been loved and freed and forgiven.
And now we use that freedom to work on behalf of those on the outside.
Those who aren’t being served by the systems of our world.

As Karoline Lewis wrote this week: “When you work for the Kingdom of God, the quest for justice is never over.”
The power of this story isn’t that the woman wore down the judge.  That she just tried really hard and he caved because she was annoying.
No, the power of this story is that it was someone with very little power or voice that simply asked for justice. Treat me like a human being.
She didn’t ask for money, power, or a higher place in the system, but simply to be seen and heard and treated with dignity and respect.

This woman. Who likely had none of those at her disposal, did not give up fighting for what was right.
And neither should we.
We also need to hold on. To keep fighting and pushing.
Because we’re the ones with the power in this world.
We have been given a certain amount of freedom, not just by our country, though that is true, but by our God.
We have been freed.
We no longer have to wonder if God is for us, we KNOW God has called us and claimed us.  

And yet we struggle with what to do with our freedom.  

So often, in my conversations with people of faith, I hear questions about purpose – why am I here?  What does my faith have to do with my daily life?
Sure I’ve been forgiven but now what?
This. This is what we are here for.
We are called to use our freedom on behalf of others.
On behalf of anyone who isn’t being treated as the beloved child of God that they are.
On behalf of anyone who isn’t being helped by the systems that have power in our world.

We are not the true judge. That’s God.
As Pr Chad has said before – deciding who is worthy of grace or judgement is above my paygrade.

And thank goodness it’s not our call.
Because we have a just God. A loving God.
A God who has worked on our behalf and continue to work on behalf of those who need it.

We are freed FOR the sake of justice. And we can no longer ignore it.  

http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/willing-to-bleed

Sermon Title: Get Real

**Sermons are meant to be heard, so listen along here**
How many of you have ever edited a picture before putting it online?
The way of online culture is that we are able to be selective in how we present ourselves to the world.
We post pictures of outings with our family, smiling and being generally adorable, (pic)but we don’t take pictures when everyone is tired and crabby and someone is crying.  (pic)

Be honest, when is the last time you posted a picture of your kid being anything but adorable or your own life being completely put together?

Real life is more than that.  
We do this off line too –
We see someone we know, either here at church or out of context, at Target or the grocery store, and conversation usually goes something like this:

Hi, how are you?
I’m good, how are you?
Good.
Good.

(sometimes we might say busy, but my thoughts on why busy is not an answer to how are you is a sermon for another day)

We just say good.
Everything is always good.
Even if everything is not good.
Even if we’re not good.
Even if things are actually bad. Falling apart. If we’re barely holding it together.
We still say – Good.

All three of today’s Bible texts had one thing in common – they were about being together.
As we’ve been planning the fall one theme has come up over and over again, and that is why church?  
For me, this is answered in that word – together.

But not just being together, but being real together.
It’s about being not good together.
Because sometimes things ARE good.
But sometimes they aren’t.

And we need a place where we can be real together, be vulnerable together, and share together how our life isn’t going the way we thought it was going to go and how that’s not ok and how we don’t get it and we’re mad at God and we need people to sit with us and say yeah – me too.

Glennon Quote:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKD5A2cgw6V/

“We can choose to be perfect and admired or to be real and loved. We must decide.  If we choose to be perfect and admired we must send our representatives out to live our lives.  If we choose to be real and loved, we must send out our true, tender selves. That’s the only way. Because to be loved, we have to be known. If we choose to introduce our true selves to anyone, we will get hurt. But we will be hurt either way. There is pain in hiding and pain outside of hiding.  The pain outside is better, because nothing hurts as bad as not being known.”

To be loved, she says, we have to be known.

And, I’d venture to say that when we know each other, the real each other, and not just what we share on instagram and facebook but the “real life here’s who I am knowing” – it’s too hard to put people into categories and divide ourselves by who we agree with and who we don’t.

When we show up together, when we are real together, it makes us unique.
Because this is not how the world works anymore.

But here, in this community of faith, when we gather together, any time we gather together, something happens.

The Hebrews text was read at our last Ask the Pastors two weeks ago, and it was a good reminder of what it means to be in the community of faith.  
As people who have been washed with pure water – that is, baptized – we hold fast to the promises of God, the one who keeps his promises.  

And, as the Apostle Paul says, we do this by meeting with each other, provoking each other to love, and to encourage each other.

What an amazing picture of what it means to be the church.
Any time we gather, we have an opportunity to be real with each other.
Really real.

In the Gospel text today, when Jesus was nearing the end of his life, when he knew what was coming in the night ahead – he gathered his friends around a table, and broke bread, and they ate together.

And then, as they left their meal together, he brought them along with him.
He didn’t say I’ve got this.  He didn’t say he could do it on his own, he didn’t say he was good.
He said “my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow”
He was honest.
Real.

And even though his disciples didn’t know what to say in return, and even though they didn’t handle it in the best way (I mean, some of them did fall asleep), Jesus reminds us that there isn’t anything we have to do by ourselves. Jesus breaks bread with them anyway.  Jesus dies for them anyway.  
This is what we get to do together here at church.

We gather around a table, all of us, old and young, black and white, republican and democrat, happy and grieving, healthy and sick… all of us, and together we break bread, share a meal, and get real.

Where else does this happen?
Where else can you go and stand side by side with someone who doesn’t agree with you and together receive this unwarranted grace?

Nowhere.
God welcomes all of us to this table.
No matter how broken.
No matter what we believe.
No matter what you’re going through.
No matter how real you’ve been.
God knows the real you – and invites you, the real you here.

Jesus said that where two or more come together in his name then he is present. That doesn’t mean Jesus isn’t present when we’re by ourselves but that coming together does something that being by ourselves cannot do. So we come together, and we do life together.
Real. Life.

And God meets us there.

A little while ago, a POP member wrote a post about getting real with each other on her facebook page and with her permission I’d like to share it with you here. She said:

I had forgotten how powerful it is to witness someone’s story. Too often we just answer “fine” to “how are you?” but imagine the healing that could happen if we all started sharing a bit more of what’s really going on – the good, the bad and the painful. – L.W.

So we’re going to try it together today.

For three minutes, and it’ll be on the clock, I’d like you to turn to someone near you and we’re going to ask each other, “How are you” and answer honestly.  

For the last month or so, you’ve heard us talk about GroupLife in announcements.

You’ve heard both Chad and I talk about why you should sign up for a Group.  
And maybe you’ve thought that you don’t have time, or that this isn’t for you, or that you don’t know anyone so it’s scary.  And yes, all of those might be true.  
But what I do know, is that what being a part of a Group can do for you and your faith is powerful stuff.  When we bring our real, true, honest, broken selves to each other, things happen that just don’t happen anywhere else in this world.  
And I want you to be a part of it.  
I know this is not the only way, but it is the best way to be known and real and struggle together through this life of faith we are called into.  

Scripture: Hebrews 13:1-3, 5-8, Luke 14:1,7-14
Title: Table Politics

**Sermons are meant to be heard, so listen along here**

In the next few days and weeks, kids in MN are heading back to school.
I know.
It’s joy and agony at the same time.
(Agony for kids, joy for parents)

A new school year brings with it a combination of fear, excitement, and nervousness to the minds and stomachs of most kids.
The first day of school especially.
If you’re a student, you know this already, but for you adults in the room, take a minute and put yourself back there.
That first day in a new room. Maybe a new school.
There are new people. Not all friends yet.
A new teacher.
New places to sit.
A new locker.
And in study after study, when asked what is the main source of anxiety and fear on that first day of school, the largest percentage of students answer??
Not the new teacher or classroom or locker…but… Lunch.
Where am I going to sit in the lunchroom?

And while it might seem far away in our memory as adults, if we take a moment, we can remember feeling this way too. Maybe we’ve even felt it recently…
I went to a conference a few weeks ago and on my first day there had the same thoughts – will I know anyone?  Who am I going to sit with?
I was suddenly 13 again.
What’s my place?
Where do I fit?

Meals are important.
Gathering around a table is a significant part of how we build connections with each other.
It doesn’t have to just be our friends at school, but at home, with friends… sharing a meal, gathering around the table is significant.
It’s one of the reasons why we incorporate meals into important days, like holidays and birthdays.  
Eating together does something that can’t happen anywhere else.

So it’s no mistake that so much of Jesus’ ministry happens around tables.
It’s where he does the majority of his teaching.  
Meals in that time were filled with layers of additional meaning.
Usually, if you had a meal that you invited others to be a part of, they were often of the same social class as you.
If you were the host of the party and invited someone of a higher status, and they came, it was a big deal and they were shown a lot of honor (A NT scholar once said that if you wanted people to fawn over you, you would always accept the invitations from people lower than you on the social ladder).
If you invited someone lower than you, it was understood that you would likely be called upon later for a favor of some kind to pay it back.  A quid pro quo of sorts.
In a lot of ways, this system still operates in a lot of arenas today. It’s not completely out of the realm of our understanding.

So Jesus gathers for a meal with some followers and Pharisees.  
And the guests were all asking the same question internally – what’s my place?
They were wondering where they fit in the scheme of this dinner party.
And as they looked around for their place, they all did the same thing – they all chose the highest places.
Jesus takes note of this.
And then tells a parable.
Actually, I’d call it a “parable”
Because Jesus doesn’t really hide what he’s saying in too much metaphor.

He uses the example of a wedding banquet to help explain this other meal.
So this “parable” goes like this:  When you are invited to a wedding banquet, don’t sit at the highest place, because what if you’re not the most important one there?  Then when someone higher up than you comes, you’ll have to move lower, and wouldn’t that be embarrassing? Instead, sit at the lowest place, and then if your host sees you there and thinks you should be sitting higher, he’ll move you and that will really wow the crowd.

Jesus is basically telling people to stop thinking of themselves as the most important person in the room.

And then Jesus turns to his host, the one who made all the invitations and says:
14:12 – “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.”

Next time you do this don’t invite all these yahoos. They are here for what they can get for themselves. And you’re inviting them to get something in return.

You’re all operating in the quid pro quo mindset.

Jesus takes it one step further.  
Not only does he tell them to stop inviting the people who only want something in return, or people they can get something from later – but instead, start inviting the people on the fringes.

Alabama pastor Ron Lewis talked about this kind of thinking… Video: the guest list

Start thinking about the guest list – Jesus says.
Jesus wants us to stop thinking in terms of social capital and start thinking in terms of the Kingdom of God.
The world operates (then and now) in terms of power and position.

But as successful as this might be in terms of building social collateral – it’s not how God operates in the world.
While the world is scrambling and fighting to find a place at the top, God is down at the bottom – in the depths. Not sitting with the cool kids at all, but with those on the outside, on the fringes, those usually excluded.

And for those hearing this story – then and now – the parable is heard in two ways depending on social position;
1. If you were in a position of power, this parable is a call to humility.  

2. If you were a person on the fringes, this parable is pure hope – come on up! There’s a place for you.

In this parable today, Jesus reminds us to stop the fight to the top and instead look to the outside, the bottom of  the ladder, and it is there, in the encounters with the outcast and forgotten and stranger, it is there where we meet God.

And really this is because this is what the table is like when the host is God.
God doesn’t care where we sit.
We’re all invited, there’s a spot for everyone, and even better, God never, ever expects anything in return.
There is no quid pro quo in the Kingdom of God.

So I don’t know what brought you here today.
I don’t know if you are hurting, if you are anxious, if you are doing ok.
What I do know is that there’s a place at the table with your name on it.
No RSVP needed.
But what I do know is that not everyone in the world outside of this room knows that this table is big enough for them.
Not everyone out there knows that there’s a place at this table with THEIR name on it too.
So that’s our job.

Not to look around for the best and most beautiful to sit next to, but to find the people who don’t think they have a place here, who think they aren’t worthy or good enough or God doesn’t care or that there are some kind of steps or a certain prayer they have to say first… it’s our job to expose that for the lie it is.
All are worthy.
All are welcome.

Scripture: Jeremiah 23:23-29; Luke 12:49-56
Title: The Truth Hurts

**Sermons are meant to be heard, so listen along here**

By a show of hands – how many of you have ever responded to the question “how are you” with “good”
Now how many of you have ever responded with “good” when things weren’t good at all?

We have this tendency in the church, to put a gloss on our lives, to put our best foot forward, to say “I’m good” when inside we’re falling apart.

And I’m not sure why we’ve come to believe that being a Christian means everything gets better, that if we struggle somehow our faith is lacking, or if we don’t acknowledge our blessings (#blessed) we somehow aren’t faithful.  

Well that’s just crap.
There. I said it.
It’s total crap.
Because life is hard.
Things still go wrong every single day.
There’s still cancer, and mental illness, and violence, and hatred and division.

It doesn’t just go away because we follow Christ.  In fact, according to today’s Gospel, sometimes we are more divided than ever when Christ is breaking into our lives.  

So before I go any further, I want to be so incredibly clear that having those things as a part of our lives doesn’t mean our faith is somehow less than.

Both of our readings today remind us that when the Kingdom of God breaks into the world, it’s not always peaceful and pleasant.
The final verse that we heard from Jeremiah today set up the Gospel so well: “Is not my word like fire, and a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?”
The Kingdom of God is not easy or comfortable sometimes.
Jesus, who we call the Prince of Peace, who we picture as this gentle, kind, unassuming man, is the exact opposite in today’s Gospel text.

“Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?” He asks.

And then he lists all the ways in which the world will be divided.
Two against three and three against two.
Parent against child
Neighbor against neighbor
Republican against Democrat
Black against white

This list feels familiar.
Doesn’t it?

So what is Jesus saying here?
Division is good?
That we should promote division?
That we should fight and divide ourselves even more than we’re already doing?
No.

Jesus reminds us that the truth will set you free, but first it will probably make people mad.
Mad enough to divide and fight.
The Kingdom of God comes into the world and unseats the current powers-that-be.
And when this happens, there is ALWAYS pushback.

When Jesus says he has come to bring the Kingdom of God, we say YES – until we realize that that probably means we’re going to have to give up some things.

It means the current order of the world is going to be upset, and that does not always go over well.
What is the current order?
Power. Money. Being right at the cost of relationships.
This is the way the world works right now.
And when the Kingdom of God breaks into that, it’s not going to be sunshine and roses all the time.

Preaching professor Karoline Lewis wrote this week that

“Jesus’ words name the truth of our human truth: our leanings toward suspicion and discord, toward calling every person’s value into question, toward doubt and distrust of even those to whom we thought we were close. We assume apprehension when there could be alignment. We anticipate wariness when there could be agreement. We accept skepticism when there could be loyalty. Times of division demand that we reevaluate our assumptions, our anticipations, and accepted loyalties, so as to enter into an interrogation of our own unnamed allegiances.”

Sometimes, the truth hurts.

When we look at our divided world, what if instead of holding faster and stronger to our convictions we instead look honestly at ourselves and how we contribute to the problem?

What if we’re on the wrong side?

Again, Karoline Lewis said that

“Jesus’ message this week is not fuel for discord but asks us to enter into the roots of discord itself and call it out for what it is. Jesus’ naming of our human tendency toward disagreement is not to suggest that we identify it as a value of Christian interaction and discourse, but to remind us that the creating of the community of Christ relies on our commitment to listening. Jesus’ naming of our instinct toward self-preservation over mutuality and reciprocity is not to shame us but to call us toward a different vision of what the world can be — a world that is truly committed to bringing about the Kingdom of God here and now.

What if we’re fighting and dividing over the wrong things?
OR – what if God is working in and through both sides?

Sometimes, the truth hurts.
But still, here we are.
Gathered here today.
Coming together despite our divisions.
Confessing together, receiving grace together, singing together.
Together we are about to welcome Jack into this family of God, into this new life in Christ which we all share.
As we will say together in a few minutes – workers with us in the Kingdom of God.
New life in Christ begins here – but it doesn’t end here.
We are called to be workers with Christ and each other to help usher in the Kingdom of God.

As Lutheran Pastor Erick Thompson said “What ends in baptism is the consequence for our failure to live out those vocations. So, while joy is a fundamental emotion for baptism, it is joy because of the grace that we have been given, not because we will never experience pain again.

Life is hard.
Baptism doesn’t remove the ways that this world is broken.
But it does change us.
And with or without us God continues to break into this divided world and challenge the ways things are done and how we see each other.  

At the end of this Gospel passage today – Jesus says:
You feel the wind blow from the south and say “it’s going to be hot”
You see clouds in the west and say “rain is coming”
“You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and sky but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”

He basically says – you can accurately predict the weather by looking at the sky but you can’t look around at the world and see if for what it is?

Jesus says it’s obvious.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t think it’s always that obvious.
The Kingdom of God is always breaking in – everywhere, every time, always.

And yes sometimes it disrupts and divides.

But sometimes it does amazing things – and when we only focus on the ways we should be afraid, the ways we are different, the ways we are broken, we miss out on the ways the Kingdom of God is at work healing, restoring, redeeming, and renewing.

And those are everywhere too.  

By now you’ve probably all heard about the Refugee Swimmer Yusra Mardini, who swam for three hours in the Aegean Sea while pulling a boat of Refugees to shore.  It’s an incredible story but to me, the Kingdom of God story in it is that the whole time she was swimming, she was making faces at the face of a little 6 year old boy in the boat, so that he wouldn’t be afraid.

Well shoot.
If that’s not the Kingdom of God breaking in, I don’t know what is.

Before we continue on in the service, we’re going to take a few moments, and write down our moments, like my accident story, where we’ve seen the Kingdom of God breaking in.

They don’t have to be flashy or spectacular or miraculous.
But they need to be shared.

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23; Luke 12:13-21
Title: Big Barns

**Sermons are meant to be heard, so listen along here**  

To start today – I’d like you all to take a few minutes and get out that piece of paper you were handed on your way in, and I want you to write a list:

It’s not a to do list, or a shopping list – I’m calling it a life list.
So close your eyes – and think about the times in your life when you’ve been happiest, most full of life, the most you.

Now open your eyes, and write down who, what, etc came to mind.
Now, add to that list, if you need to, anything else that you might consider the most important in your life.

What kind of things are on your list?
People?
Pets?
Places?

Anyone have a tv on there?
A phone?
A car?
A big house?
Money?

Yeah – I didn’t think so.

In my avid podcast listening, I’ve now heard a few interviews with Joshua Becker, the founder of “becomingminimalist.com”

Joshua decided he had too much stuff, and wanted to do something about it.
On his website you can find his journey – but also this list of statistics that are pretty shocking about Americans and our relationship with our stuff.

Stats: (from becomingminimalist.com)

• The average size of the American home has tripled in the past 50 years
• (and yet) The fasted growing segment of commercial real estate in the past 4 decades is… storage units. (1 out of every 10 Americans has one)
• 25% of people with two-car garages don’t have room to park cars inside them and 32% only have room for one vehicle.
• the average 10-year-old owns 238 toys but plays with just 12 daily
• 3.1% of the world’s children live in America, but they own 40% of the toys consumed globally
• A majority of homes have more television sets than people.
• There are 300,000 items in the average American home
• Americans spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches ($100 billion) than on higher education
• Shopping malls outnumber high schools.
• Over the course of our lifetime, we will spend a total of 3,680 hours or 153 days searching for misplaced items.The research found we lose up to nine items every day—or 198,743 in a lifetime.

Whew.
We have a lot of stuff.
A lot.
And not just a lot of stuff, but a lot of stuff we don’t even use!
And, like we hear in the Gospel, we just keep buying bigger barns and storage units and the accumulation continues.
It’s kind of exhausting isn’t it?
And meaningless.
I mean, it’s just stuff.
In the text from Ecclesiastes this morning the author says “it’s all vanity” – or another way to say that is vapor.  It’s all vapor. Gone in a puff.

If you are thinking (unhappily) this is going to be a sermon about money – you are right.
I know, no one likes to talk about money. Even in the church we don’t like to talk about it.
We reserve a few Sundays in the fall to talk about it and call it “Stewardship” and then move quickly on.
And yet, the Bible talks about money more than almost any other topic.  

It’s important.
And it needs more than just a few Sundays a year.
Jesus speaks so clearly of money today – not using hyperbole or metaphors, just straight talk to make a point.  So we’re going to do the same.

But before we get into it – I want to put up three definitions that I think are important for us to have in front of us: Abundance: an extremely plentiful or over-sufficient quantity or supply
Wealth: an abundance of valuable possessions or money.
Greed: intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food.

So now we have those down – let’s go.
Jesus is asked to step into a family arguement about inheritance:
(verse 13) – “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me”
And instead of saying, yes, you’re right, that’s not fair, your brother should totally share with you – Jesus says, stop being greedy – and then turns to the crowd of people listening and tells a parable about greed.
Wow.
Sucks to be that guy.  

But what we know about parables is that Jesus uses them to clarify a point, to help a lesson hit home in a new way.
And right before he begins the parable, Jesus says
(verse 15) “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
Or, when we dig into the Greek a bit there, Jesus says, even when you have an abundance of possessions, that is not where life is found.
Life, Greek word Zoe. (zo-ay)
It means soul, life force, the stuff that makes us alive.
So Jesus says that the thing that makes us alive, our soul, cannot and does not exist in the stuff we accumulate.

And then he tells the parable:
Which I’m going to read from Eugene Peterson’s the message paraphrase, so you can hear it another way today:
“The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He talked to himself: ‘What can I do? My barn isn’t big enough for this harvest.’ Then he said, ‘Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll gather in all my grain and goods, and I’ll say to myself, Self, you’ve done well! You’ve got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!’

It’s clear from this parable that Jesus isn’t warning about wealth – that having abundance isn’t bad.  In fact, Jesus doesn’t say that the problem is storing up some of the extra.  That was actually a common thing in those days.  They were in a land that frequently had famines and droughts, so it was not a bad thing to store up some for the lean times.  

So the problem was not with wealth – but with how that wealth was viewed.
Look at verses 17 and 18.
HE thought to HIMself – what should I do for I have no place to store MY crops.
Then he said I will do this I will pull down MY barns and build larger ones and there I will store all MY grain and MY goods.
I I I
My my my
Me Me Me.

Even the start of verse 19 he says – I will say to my soul – soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years –
This guy is talking to himself.
(Not that there’s anything wrong with that)
but notice not ONE other person enters his mind.
Now there is no mention of a family (which he most definitely has), of a household (which he also definitely has), of any of the workers that helped plant, cultivate and harvest this crop (because no rich landowner is doing this on their own).
No.
It’s all about one guy.
One.

As a professor of mine said: He lives in a first person universe
He is all about himself.

And this is the problem.
This is the reason for Jesus’s parable.
It’s not that this guy is wealthy – but that he is greedy.
He has decided to use his financial gain for himself.
He is all about himself.
The thing he is missing, the thing that is noticeably missing in Jesus’ parable?
Others.
Relationships.
When Jesus says that life is not made up of the things we have – and then tells this parable with it’s shocking lack of any other people – he is making a big and clear and not at all subtle point.
Life is about relationships.
Not stuff.
We cannot and will not find life in our possessions.
But we do and can find life in God and in each other.

Now, this isn’t easy.
In fact, finding happiness and life in stuff is kind of the American way.
But that’s not God’s way.
And wooooeeee this is hard to hear.
A few years ago, when this text came up in our lectionary, David Lose said this:

“Moreover, materialism — or consumer-consumptionism or affluenza or whatever else you might want to call it — has one distinct advantage over the abundant life Jesus extols: it is immediately tangible. Relationships, community, purpose — the kinds of things that Jesus invites us to embrace and strive for — are much harder to lay our hands on. We know what a good relationship feels like, but it’s hard to point to or produce on a moment’s notice. And we know that wonderful feeling of being accepted into a community, but it’s not like you can run out to Walmart and buy it. And so we substitute material goods for immaterial ones because, well, they’re right there in front of us and we’ve got a whole culture telling us that this is the best there is.”

Earlier, we all made a list – so I want you to get that back out and take a look at it.
How many of the things on your list are possessions? Stuff?
When we think about the times in our lives that we are the most full of life – it’s rarely about the stuff.
It’s about the people, the pets, the relationships.
Sure – some might have material things attached to them.
But it’s rarely about that thing.

(story about Sonja bunny)

So many stories are wrapped up in this little bunny.
So it’s not about the bunny.
It’s about my relationship Layla
So much of my life is found there – in my kiddo.
In our life together.
And the danger is in thinking that it’s about the bunny.
Because it’s tangible. And physical.
But life isn’t there.

This is the core of what Jesus is telling us today.
That when we look to money or possessions for our life we are missing out.
And we aren’t really alive.
And God wants us to have life and have it abundantly.

That verse in John doesn’t say have stuff and have it abundantly – no – it’s have LIFE.
This parable is often called the “rich fool”
It’s a reminder that fools find their life in their stuff, and the wise know that life, abundant life is found in Christ.
God wants us to have abundant, overflowing, beautiful life.
And that kind of life is found in God and in each other.
That kind of grace-filled, love and mercy and community is found here.
And this morning we’ll gather around the baptismal font and be reminded just where that life begins.
We’ll hear those promises for Aubriella and be reminded of the time when those promises were spoken to us and for us.  
The cross placed on her forehead will remind us of the cross on our own, that we have been joined into the family of God, and given new life in Christ. Not new stuff, new life.

And for that we give thanks.

AMEN

Scripture: Col 1:15-23, Luke 10:38-42
Title: Better Thing?

**Sermons are meant to be heard, so listen to it here**

Today we hear about a pair of sisters, Mary and Martha.
How many of you have at least one sibling?
How many of you are older? Younger? Middle? Onlys?  

 I am the middle child. I have an older sister and a younger brother. (pic)
My siblings and I grew up in the middle of nowhere, in the woods by Collegeville, MN and we were pretty far away from any neighbors.  
Yes, it sounds idyllic now, but as a kid, my only playmates were my siblings, which wasn’t always my favorite thing.
I could often be heard to say to my oldest sister – “I don’t need a mother, I already have one”
And whenever my little brother and I would fight, I’d storm off, only to realize that he was the only one within miles that I could play with so I’d have to come back and ask if he wanted to play.
And yes, there was a fair amount of sibling rivalry.
If my sister did it, I did NOT want to do anything close.  
She played tennis.  
I did theater. (again, a shock I’m sure)
She was in band, I picked up the violin.
She played piano concertos, I learned pop tunes.  

So I find myself able to relate to the Gospel text today in a unique way.
The sibling rivalry between Martha and Mary is apparent, and Jesus doesn’t seem to make it any better.
Which is frustrating, upon first read.
Therefore, I have a confession to make:
I haven’t always loved this story.
Partly because it makes me feel uncomfortable, but mostly because I know that I’m the Martha in the story.
Oh I’d like to imagine I’m Mary, taking time to just sit and be still with Jesus, but in the real world, one where I have a job and a family and a house, I’m Martha.
Running around.
Feeling kind of chaotic.
And yes, seeing people sitting calmly doing the opposite things as me makes me want to tear my hair out.

Argh.

Don’t they have anything to do?!
Yeah. I’m totally Martha.
And Martha gets scolded.  By Jesus.
So I’ve always disliked this story because I don’t want to get scolded.
And I feel guilty after reading it because I’m know I’m not Mary.
I’m not a good sitter.
I don’t like being still.
Also, side note, why is it Martha that gets in trouble?
I mean, someone has to make sure that food is made and things get done.
Right?
And Jesus doesn’t say those things aren’t good, but that what Mary is doing is better.  
Really?
I’ve disliked this story because I don’t like that it has been used as a reason to not serve.
Jesus said I’m SUPPOSED to sit here.  He said it’s better.
I’ve disliked this story because it creates competition between women – and let me tell you, we lady types are doing just fine competing with each other on our own.  We don’t need words like “better” being thrown around by Jesus to make it worse.  Even though almost every Bible translation uses the word “better” here –  this sentence in the Greek says “Mary has chosen the good part.”

So what is this story about if it’s not comparative?
Because let’s be honest, this is the way we’ve read it for so long.
If it’s not about contemplation being better than service than what is Jesus trying to say?

I’m not alone in being frustrated with this story in Luke – commentary after commentary from professors and scholars this week spoke to this same thing.
It cannot be simplified to a story of comparison.
This story is about more than “better.”   

So it begins with Jesus coming to visit the home of Martha.  And Martha is doing “womanly” things, like taking care of the house and making food and serving.
It’s what’s expected of her.
Martha does exactly what she’s supposed to do.
But not Mary.
She dares to do something radical in this story.
She dares to break the convention – what is expected of her, and sit at the feet of Jesus instead.
That is not her place.
That is not where she’s supposed to be.
That is a place reserved for disciples, the closest followers of Jesus, and definitely not a woman.
But when Mary is called out for daring to do something different, daring to step out of the box she has been placed in, and called out by her SISTER, Jesus says that it’s good.
She chose the good part.

So if this text isn’t about one thing being better, maybe it’s really about seeing ourselves as something more.
Maybe, just maybe, this text is reminding us that we don’t have to continue to stay where the world has told us we need to be.
Maybe, just maybe, we can see ourselves as God sees us.
Disciples.
Children of God.
Worthy of a seat at the feet of Jesus.

One of the things that Jesus says to Martha is that she is distracted by many things, and that she really needs only one thing.
Luther Seminary Professor of Preaching Karoline Lewis wrote of the story of Mary and Martha this week and said that our problem is “An inherent, systemic, omnipresent, ingrained, intrinsic, dysfunctional, disturbing belief that not all are worthy of God’s regard and love. The conviction, as Paul Farmer says, “That not all are not equal in God’s eyes. That all are not made in the image of God.”

Our Martha qualities – the running around, the constant motion, the busyness, the falling in line with who we’ve been told we are – those are all distractions. Distractions from being able to sit at the feet of Jesus – and believing that we are allowed to be there. Those are the many things.
But there is something else – the ONE thing.  The belief that we are and always will be beloved children of God – made in God’s image.  Worthy of the place of honor at the feet of Jesus.

What if we lived and acted and served out of the ONE thing, instead of our worries and distractions about many things?  

My confession stands true.
I’m a Martha.
I make judgments all the time.
It’s pretty easy to do in this day and age.
I can look at someone and think they aren’t doing as much as me, they don’t care like I do, they don’t understand as well as me, they don’t know as much as me.
And it’s not true.
It’s distracting.
I’m Martha.
I run around and take on expectations and try to be everything to everyone and forget that it’s not what I do that makes me worthy but who I am.
This is the one thing.
Mary dared to believe that she was worthy of a place at the feet of Jesus.
She dared to step away from the place society told her she had to be, to step away from the things her culture told her she needed to do.
She dared to see herself as more.
She believed it was who she was that was the most important thing.
It was the ONE thing.
So the question for us today is can we do the same?
Can we stop the running around and the distractions and the going and the doing and being who we’re expected to be?
Can we see ourselves as more?  As who we really are?
And – here’s the kicker – can we do the same for others?
Can we see others as more than our preconceived expectations and judgments?
Can we recognize the divine in each and every person around us?  Can we see them as children of God too?

Jesus tells us today that there is need of only one thing:
To sit confidently in our identity as children of God.
And then Jesus tells Martha that Mary has chosen the good part.
She has broken out.
She has seen herself as something else – as a disciple as a child of God, and that can never be taken away from her.

Once we break out of the way things are and the way we’ve seen ourselves, we can never go back.
Oh the world will try to drag you back and place new labels and expectations and judgments on you, but who you are in God can never be taken away.
Never.

Amen

Scripture: Psalm 16, Galatians 5:1,13-25
Title: Alive in the Spirit
*Sermons are meant to be heard, so listen along here**

If you were here last week, you heard me speak about all the ways we seek to divide ourselves in this culture.  That we take every opportunity given to us to make sure that we know just where we stand in reference to some category that has been placed upon us or someone else.
And if you were here last week, you know that I pressed back on this idea quite forcefully.
We are not meant to be divided anymore.
We are meant to be one.

It is in our baptisms we have been clothed with Christ, and we no longer see the things that divide us but instead we see Jesus.  
We see brother and sister, we see beloved children of God, instead of a label or a category.  

And this is important to keep in our minds as we come back to Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia today.  

As I said last week, Paul is writing this letter to the struggling church in Galatia, and some of the things he says help us get an idea of what was happening in that new church community and why they needed Paul’s advice.  
Verse 15: If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Oh this little verse tells us so much.  It feels out of place because we don’t have the letter Paul is responding to – we don’t know what was said first – but we can make some pretty good guesses based on this one verse.  

Paul says that when we fight among ourselves, the end result can be the end of the church.  When we take bites out of each other, when we nitpick and infight, and decide who is in and out and raise ourselves higher than another, the church will not survive. It will devour itself and there will be nothing left.

So we know what’s happening in this little church in Galatia.
And we know Paul is going to talk about it more.
But Paul knows that he cannot begin to talk about this infighting and the things that are ruining this community of believers without first reminding them of who they are and who made them that way.

The text in front of us today begins with the following:

Verse 1: For freedom Christ has set us free.

There it is.
The Good News.
You have been set free.
You are forgiven.
You are no longer under the law that weighs you down, but instead you are under Christ – you are free.  

We Lutherans like to call this grace.
It’s freedom from having to take an active role in making ourselves right or good.

Grace.  

Nothing changes the promises we are given in baptism.  
Nothing.

And we could stop here, and it’s tempting to stop here, because comes next is so often interpreted as law.  As rules. As a set of “if you do these things, you are good, and in, if you do these things, you are bad, and out.
Paul is aware of the risk he takes in saying what he says.  It’s why he begins with this clear statement of grace. You are free.
I am aware of this same risk as I made the choice to continue to preach on this letter to the Galatians.  
Anytime there is a list given of virtues and vices, people in the church are going to take it as another way to divide.  To categorize as in or out.
So I’m going to ask you to hear this text differently today.
If you have always and forever heard this text as good people do this, bad people do this, then I’m asking you to try to set that aside.  
Put a pin in it.  If you want to pick it back up after I’m done, then it will still be there.  

Today Paul is talking about a life in community and what happens after we are baptised and brought into the community of faith.   
Baptism is the bearer of this grace for us.
And after our baptisms, after we are named and claimed and been set free, what happens next?
So let’s be very clear here that nothing that follows this first verse reminding us that we are free will change the fact that we are free.

Nothing.

But Paul wants us to know that our freedom (the grace we’ve been given) cannot simply be used for ourselves.
Verse 13: For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.
Paul is talking about community. Everything that follows this verse 13 is about community and how we love each other.
How we live together.
Which we already know the church in Galatia is struggling with.
Not that WE in the church now know what they are talking about.
We never struggle with how to live in community together.
We never have a hard time loving each other.
Am I Right?

Martin Luther read this verse in Galatians and it inspired his thinking on grace and works – which he wrote on in his work, Freedom of a Christian.  

In this work he wrote:

“A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant, subject to all.”  

Christian freedom is different than personal freedom.
And yet it’s the part that we have the hardest time with – because we want Christian freedom to be like personal freedom.
We want to be free to do what we want, to say what we want, to believe what we believe.
These are our rights! Right?
Paul isn’t talking about personal freedom, but freedom in Christ.
And Freedom in Christ means exactly what Paul and Luther both understood – we are now slaves to one another.
So then Paul produces these two lists of vices and virtues.
And yes, despite only two chapters earlier reminding us that there are no divisions anymore, Paul reminds us how difficult it is to live this way when our culture and the world around us make a clear distinction between life in the flesh and life in the Spirit.
So the life in the flesh, the Greek word there is sarx, meaning the most human basic focus on self and survival – are things that are “obvious” as Paul says.
But if you look at this list – which I’m going to have Nikk put up on the screen – these are all things that do one thing, in Paul’s definition – and that is destroy community.
They are all about self-indulgence, all things that come at the expense of others.  

In verse 21, Paul warns the community of faith in Galatia – about this list.  

The translation says “those who do these things” but it’s not what the original language says at all.
It really means those whose life is characterized by these things.
It’s not that you do this one thing one time and you’re out.
And thank goodness, because who can look at this list and say they’ve never done any of it?
Paul isn’t saying people who do these things are bad, Paul is instead warning against people whose entire life is characterized by these things.
Paul is asking – is your life characterized by things that are all about you at the expense of others?
Or is your life characterized by things that uphold and build up the community?  
Do you love your neighbor or hurt them?

Because the other part – Paul says, in contrast to a life lived for your own best interest – is a life alive in the Spirit.
The Spirit has been given to us and a life in the spirit does something – it produces fruit.
Now this is another list that people have misunderstood to mean if I do this, I’m good.
So this list of fruits of the Spirit becomes it’s own law.  A TO DO list of being in the Spirit.
And you  know how much we like our to do lists.
If I’m generous and gentle and kind then I’m in.  
I can act a certain way and then say I’m in the Spirit.  

That is not what Paul is saying here.
Because then wouldn’t we all just do our best to be these things?
I want to be closer to God, so I’ll be gentle.
I want to have a better faith or be a better Christian so I’m going to be more patient.
Doesn’t that just seem like more stuff to do?

Ugh.

We’ve been set free from that right?  Isn’t that what Paul said?
YES.
Paul is not freeing us from one law to give us another.
Instead, Paul says that fruit is what happens when you live a life in the Spirit.
A Spirit led life on the inside shows on the outside like this list of positive virtues.
These attributes are not things you can work to make happen, but happen when you are are living by the Spirit.   

Theologian Paul Hiebert came up with this way to understand this distinction between life in the spirit and life in the flesh that is not the way we’ve been taught.  He came up with this idea of Centered Set versus Bounded Set.
When we take these two lists and place them upon people as requirements or touchstones for which side we fall on, we are in a bounded set. (picture) You’re in or out. You’re on one side or another.

Sound familiar?
This is how we roll around here.
This is how we have often heard this text in Galatians… we hear those two lists and we try to figure out which side we’re on.  

If we do these things – we must be good.
If we do these other bad things – we must be bad.
We live our lives stuck here in the Bounded Set.

And it is brutal.  It is heavy.
It is NOT freedom.  

Hiebert believed that the life of faith is Centered Set.  And I think this is where Paul was going as well.  Where instead of being in or out, on the inside or outside, we are somewhere in relation to the center.  (picture)

So we’re not in or out, but somewhere on a continuum of sorts.
And a spirit filled life is one where we’re focused toward Christ.  We are fully engaged in following Christ and being a disciple, and when we do that – then what happens is fruit.  Those things that are so obviously God.  Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
But, as Heibert points out, we’re still human.  We’re not perfect.
Sometimes we’re focused in on Christ and living within the promises of our baptisms and loving those around us as Christ loved us.

And sometimes we’re not.
And sometimes we do both in the same minute.
Both exist in our world. Spirit and flesh.
Both exist within us – right now.
We can’t pretend they don’t both influence us.

One of my favorite Lutheran pastors Nadia Bolz Weber talked about this freedom and forgiveness and making mistakes and here she is to tell you about it:

Nadia clip: http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/loved-back-to-life (from 48 seconds to 3:20)

When we get things wrong, that isn’t what defines us.
That is the freedom that Paul is talking about today.
You are free.  You are a child of God.
You have been forgiven, already, for the ways in which you fall short.

Today Paul wants us to be fully aware of who we are, that we are named and claimed and beloved, but then when we inevitably fall short, Paul wants to be VERY clear about who that affects.
Because it doesn’t affect us.
We’ve been freed from that.
If affects the people around us.   

We are constantly surrounded by the ways of flesh.  The things that we do to make sure we take care of number one.
To make sure we survive.
We are human.
And sometimes we forget that in our freedom from ourselves we are still slaves to one another.
Sometimes we forget that we are called to love others as God loves us.
We get stuck in this world of flesh.
We’re not alone.
And we’re not unique in this either – That’s where the church was when Paul wrote them this letter.
And he said –

Verse 16: Live by the Spirit, I say, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

It’s a matter of focus.
Where do you focus your freedom?
On yourself?  On the flesh?
Or on others? By the Spirit?
When you focus on Christ – then the other stuff, the flesh – they lose their ability to have a say.
You have been made free. You.
You are God’s beloved child.
You are Gods. God is yours and You are free.

Christ died and rose to give you freedom from the law, freedom from the things that weigh you down,and freedom from the ways in which you have lost focus on Christ and put the focus back on yourself at the expense of others.  

You are free.

And today we ask how we can use our freedom for the sake of the other.  
How we are freed from working out our own bumps and darkness and instead focus on Christ. And when we do that – when we live in the Spirit, when we focus on Christ – then we will see fruit.  

And Fruit is always, always about building community.  Always about each other.
About taking care of each other, loving each other, and as I said last week, it is this kind of love that changes the world.  

Scripture: Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 8:26-39
Title: Boundaryless

**Sermons are meant to be heard, so listen along here**

Author, theologian and Yale Divinity School professor Barbara Brown Taylor begins her introductory religion classes by showing people a picture of yin and yang and asking a simple question – which I’m also asking you today:
True or false, this is a picture the battle between good and evil?

We live in world of dualism.
Us and them.
We always find ways to divide ourselves.
Coke and pepsi.
Crunchy and creamy.
Salt and pepper.
Male and female.
Republican and Democrat
Light and dark
Good and evil
Black and white
Christian and Non-Christian

I could go on and on
Because we never stop finding ways to divide ourselves into sides.
This week on twitter someone posted this: I could write “I love puppies” and people would be like “WHAT’S WRONG WITH KITTENS, YOU MONSTER???”

And that about says it all.
This week has been tough.
We turn on our computers, our televisions, even look at our phones, and the ways in which we are different are right there.
Right in front of us.
Either or, either or.
If you’re not with us you’re against us.
If you don’t agree with me then you are against me.
And if you’re against me then you are worthy of my hate.

So I stand here this morning to ask honestly – is this really what we’ve come to?
Is this what we want to be known for?

When 49 people are killed simply for being who they were created to be are we really going to turn it into a way to fight with each other? About everything anything?  This is what we’re about?

Dualism is killing us.
Literally killing us.
And Paul got this.
Even thousands of years ago as the church was just beginning to take shape, Paul understood that the things that divide us are what will be our downfall.
The early church in Galatia was struggling, was fighting, was deciding who was in or out based on categories given by the surrounding culture.

And Paul knew that the church would not survive it.
Verse 23: “Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed.”
We were held captive, under guard by The LAW.  This is what Pr Chad referred to last week the have to’s.  You have to say this, believe this, do this… and then you’ll be forgiven.  Then you’ll be good enough.
The law is what condemns us, it tells us we’re wrong, reminds us how sinful we are, it accuses, and it puts us into a category.
The law is dualism.
In or out.
Us or them.
Right or wrong
Every time you are put in a category, that is the law.
And Paul says what about the law?  It’s like a prison. It’s a disciplinarian.
This is no way to live.

In the Gospel today Jesus comes across a man who is known only by a label.
Legion.
He doesn’t even have a name, but all we know is that he is unwell, and so unwell that people have called him by his malady instead of by his humanity.  

He’s been categorized.
Placed outside.
Imprisoned by the law that was placed on him.
This is NO way to live.

But – there is something better.
Something that changes everything.

Verse 25 of Paul’s letter to the Galatian church: BUT – (see there it is) – but now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian.
Verse 26:for in Christ you are all children of God

No longer subject to a disciplinarian.
No longer under the law – and that means that nothing can stay the same as it was.
The old system, where we divide and categorize and pit ourselves against one another?  That is NO MORE.
It doesn’t count.  The old system is no longer how we are seen by God.
Jesus has come and created an entirely new system.
A new system.
And here’s how it works:

Verse 27: as many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ
Verse 28: There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female.

Why? Why are there no more distinctions?
FOR ALL OF YOU ARE ONE IN CHRIST JESUS
How did that happen?
Baptism.

When we look at at each other. We don’t see the things that make us different.
We’ve been clothed with Christ.
The Greek there literally means that we are covered, or that we put on Christ.
So when we see each other we see Christ.
Not race, not gender, not sexuality, not political position, not by any of the ways that we have chosen to divide ourselves – but we see Christ.

This is a NEW system.
Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton wrote a letter this week to address the Orlando shootings and said:

“We live in an increasingly divided and polarized society. Too often we sort ourselves into like-minded groups and sort others out. It is a short distance from division to demonization. Yesterday, we witnessed the tragic consequences of this.

There is another way. In Christ God has reconciled the world to God’s self. Jesus lived among us sharing our humanity. Jesus died for us to restore our humanity. God invites us into this reconciling work. This must be our witness as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The perpetrator of this hate crime did not come out of nowhere. He was shaped by our culture of division, which itself has been misshapen by the manipulation of our fears. That is not who we are.”

This is not who we are.
Prince of Peace.
This is NOT WHO WE ARE.

Mother Teresa once said, “If we have no peace it is because we have forgotten we belong to each other.”
We are the body of Christ.
We may be different but we are ONE.
What we do affects the whole.
What you do affects me.
What I do affects you.
We belong to each other.
We can no longer see each other by the things that make us different without doing damage to the whole.  

when Barbara Brown Taylor asks her class the question I asked you at the start of the message, they always say it’s true – this represents the battle between good and evil.

But it’s not true.
It’s false.
The YinYang shows balance between light and dark
Not the fight, but the balance.
But notice those two parts are inside of ONE thing.
One solid outline.
See, the things that divide us, those categories, they don’t go away.
They are still there. And they are still going to be the ways that we use to explain who we are.
But in the life of faith – those distinctions have no power.
They have no say
They have no role.
They do not count before God.  

Only one thing counts.
For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God.
You belong to Christ.
We are different, but we are one.
Hear me when I say it again – we are different but we are one.

You may have noticed that we didn’t do confession where we normally do it.  Have no fear, I didn’t skip it, but just moved it.
Because sometimes we just say it, and don’t think about what it means that we haven’t loved each other as ourselves.
We don’t think about the ways in which we firmly plant ourselves in one category or another.
So this morning, confession is here.
Right here.
Right before we come forward and hear who we are, and how much God loves us.
But first, we’re going to take time, to listen, to think, and then together, we’ll confess:

(song -Make Us One – Stefan VanVoorst)

(confession then communion)

End of worship Closing:

When Jesus healed the man known only as “Legion” he brought him back to life.  And the man asked Jesus if he could be with him, stay with him.
And Jesus replied: Go and declare how much God has done for you.
Jesus sent him away to go and tell.
I think the simple thing is to stay safely in our duality.  
Categories are comfortable.
They help our world make sense.
But they are killing us, and it’s time to go and tell.
Look at those around you and see only Christ.
This morning, you were reminded not only of who you are – A child of God – but then you were handed grace into your outstretched hand.
It doesn’t get better than this.
I mean really.
And this kind of grace and love and radical changing of the way things work in our messed up and broken world is what we need to be about.
We are better than duality.
We are one.  

Scripture: 1 Kings 8:22-23, 41-43,  Luke 7:1-10
Title: All In

**Sermons are meant to be heard, so listen along here**

By a show of hands, how many of you have heard this Gospel story before today?
It’s not very well-known.
And it’s not one of those stories we teach in Sunday School like the Good Samaritan or the Lost Sheep.  

Those are pretty simple stories that Jesus uses to illustrate a point about the grace of God. Today’s story is not quite as simple, but Luke takes the time to include it in his Gospel, and despite it not being one of the well remembered scenes in the Bible, it has a lot to say to us about our faith and our God.

Before we come across Jesus in this scene, he has just finished his sermon on the plain, which we find in Luke’s 6th chapter.  He was on the shores of the sea of Galilee, and gave an extended sermon to all those who were following him.  This sermon was about the way things were set up in the Kingdom of God.  Jesus covered things like who was on the receiving end of blessing, and how we were to love and not judge others.
It’s his TED talk of Luke’s Gospel.  His greatest hits.

One of my favorite authors Sarah Bessey said that she spent a whole year on Luke’s sermon on the plain, and felt that at the end of it she had finally met the real Jesus. So side note – if you are looking for an entry point to personal Bible Study, consider starting with Luke 6.  

So all that sets the scene to what I believe is the significant part of this story for us listening today –
The centurion hears Jesus is in town and asks some Jewish elders to go see if Jesus would heal his slave for him.
The elders go and speak to Jesus, on behalf of the centurion, and as they are on the way –
the centurion sends word to stop.  He says he still wants his slave healed, but he says he isn’t worthy of Jesus being with him.

Despite being on the outside, not knowing a lot about this Jesus guy, but knowing that he likely could be the difference between life or death for his slave, the centurion still feels this deep sense of unworthiness.

Go tell Jesus I am not worthy to have him come into my home, he says.  

This is where I want to focus today – on this unworthiness feeling –
Because if we’re honest – if we are really honest with ourselves and each other, – we have all been here.
We’ve all done things we aren’t proud of.
We’ve all said things we wish we could take back.
We’ve all acted in ways we knew weren’t our best versions.
If Jesus were on the way to our home right now, how many of us might feel this same way?  
Jesus stop – I’m not good enough for you to be with me.
In our confession this morning and every worship service we acknowledge these very things about ourselves.  

People have asked me what my favorite part of worship is, and I think the expected answer is the music or baptisms (I mean, I do love talking to babies) but my answer is always the same.
Confession.
Yes.
The part of worship that so many of us just rattle off in a mumbly monotone is my favorite part.  
Because it’s the moment where I remember how much I need God.  
Right?  I acknowledge the very things this centurion feels today.

I remember the ways in which I have fallen short.
I remember the things I wish I hadn’t done or said.
And together with everyone gathered, I bring them out into the light.

And we don’t just say them and that’s it.
We say them and then in response we hear the words of forgiveness.
It doesn’t matter how they are said or who says them, they are true because Christ has forgiven all your sins.

It’s already happened.  

But like I said two weeks ago, we need to hear the gospel every day because we forget it every day.  
I need confession every day and I need absolution on Sundays because I get caught up in my own feelings of unworthiness and I need Christ to remind me just who I am.

We all feel unworthy.
We all fall short, we all sin.
And yet, it doesn’t diminish anything about who God has declared me to be.  
And it doesn’t do anything to affect what God is able to do.
Despite the centurion’s feelings of unworthiness, Jesus still heals the slave.
And Jesus marvels that this man has such faith in what God can do, even from a distance.

This centurion guy may not quite know all there is to know about this Jesus guy, but he does know that Jesus is something special.
And he’s important: he’s the head of 100 soldiers, he’s respected in the Roman community and in the Jewish community he is occupying.  

He says it himself – “I’m a man with authority – I commands people to do stuff and they do it!”
He basically says “I’m kind of a big deal around here.”  
So when THIS guy, this big deal guy, says he is unworthy – he does something pretty profound –
He willingly places himself below this nobody rabbi guy from across the lake.
Not equal, but below.

“I’m not even worthy for him to come into my house, much less have him heal someone in it”- he says –  “I know how to give orders, and I know Jesus can give an order that is more important than mine.”

There’s a recognition of his place in the order of God’s world here.  
A place that is different than the world he is a part of.
And despite his understanding of his unworthiness, he still wants what Jesus can bring him and his household.
Again I think we can relate to this guy here too.
We too might not get all of what we hear about Jesus.
We might have those days where we just don’t buy it all.
But we DO know that it’s different.
Jesus is something significant – and we recognize that, even if we don’t always understand it.

If any of you have any history in the Catholic church, some of the words of the Centurion may have sounded familiar.
As a part of the communion mass, after the words of institution the congregation prepares to approach the table by saying the Lord’s Prayer and then together: “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.”
I love this.
I love the ways in which it’s similar to today’s text but also the ways in which it’s different.
The Catholic mass puts us in the place of the Centurion.  
Yes, it’s still about healing, but it’s OUR healing. Not the healing of someone else.
These words help us recognizing our own unworthiness for what is about to happen, but also acknowledging that whatever happens isn’t our call at all.
It’s all God.
Nothing we’ve done or haven’t done changes what is about to happen at this table.
Sure, we hold our our hands, but the work is all Gods.
Not mine.
Despite having strayed so far from the mother church, I still hear those words in my head when I take communion.
I still have them there to get me in the right frame of mind –
I am not worthy to receive what Christ gives me when I come up to the table.
But it doesn’t matter.

Christ has said the words.  
For you.
FOR YOU.
And you are healed.
You are made whole.
How do I know it?
Because I have hope.

Last week, Chad talked about Hope, hope in the hard times, hope when things are not going the way we want them to go … and here we are again, recognizing our unworthiness and trusting in the hope that God will make us new.  

Danielle Shroyer video “Christian Hope.”  – beginning to 1:41

Lord, I am not worthy to receive you – but only say the word and I shall be healed.
The good news today is that the word has been said.
God is, right now, at this moment, working to make things new and whole.
Working to restore the darkness in the world and the darkness in us and make it light.
The word has already been said, and will be said again.
The table is ready.
All are welcome.
Lord, we are not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and we shall be healed.

AMEN