Post Thanksgiving Day Friday Five

Ah, the day after Thanksgiving--groan! Fortunately, I love Thanksgiving leftovers.

Thanksgiving is the American holiday when the greatest number of people travel somewhere else to celebrate. I am posting this from my son’s home in Minnesota where we are recovering from the food shopping and the preparations and the meal and the clean up. It is difficult to think of anything requiring much energy today, and I am enjoying my sweet baby granddaughter, so I will keep it simple.

For those of you not in the USA, I apologize for the nationalistic tone of
this Friday Five!

1. Did you go elsewhere for the day, or did you have visitors at your place instead? How was it?
We drove to my parents' farm in Nebraska, where we had a great Thanksgiving Supper with the whole family: myself, my younger brother and his family, my youngest brother and his girlfriend, my parents and my Grandma Janke.

2. Main course: If it was the turkey, the whole turkey, and nothing but the turkey, was it prepared in an unusual way? Or did you throw tradition to the winds and do something different?
Because my mom worked yesterday morning, we decided to just keep things simple, so we didn't do a "whole turkey" dinner. Mom had a turkey roast ready for heating, we kids brought pies and Butterfinger dessert, and we made potatoes and green bean casserole and dressing yesterday afternoon after everyone arrived. Someday when we host Thanksgiving we'll do something wild and crazy, but simple is great, too. In our house, it's the family stuff that counts; the food is just, well, extra.

3. Other than the meal, do you have any Thanksgiving customs that you observe every year?
Those of us who have the day off will sit down later this morning to watch the football game between the University of Nebraska (my alma mater) and the University of Colorado. When I was a kid, the day after Thanksgiving was reserved for the Nebraska - Oklahoma game, but money and conference regulations interrupted that wonderful tradition about fifteen years ago. It's not the same, but it's not so bad, either. And it could be worse: my baby brother has to work today.

4. The day after Thanksgiving is considered a major Christmas shopping day by most US retailers. Do you go out bargain hunting and shop ‘till you drop, or do you stay indoors with the blinds closed? Or something in between?
You wouldn't catch me within throwing distance of a mall or a store today. I don't care how good the bargains are - I'm too stuffed to move and I re-he-he-he-he-HEALLY don't like the Christmas shopping crowds. Last year I did all my gift shopping online and it was wonderful - think I'll do the same this year.

5. Let the HOLIDAY SEASON commence! When will your Christmas decorations go up?
Most likely the day that Kristin and I have our traditional "It's Christmas - NO, IT'S ADVENT" argument, at which point I usually wind up feeling like a Scrooge and put up the first of the decorations as a peace offering. "It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas..."

Simply Thankful

I don't have much for which to be thankful this year, do I?

Yeah, 'nuff said. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

A Sermon for Thanksgiving 2007 - "Abundant Joy"

Preaching Texts

The most incredible celebration I've ever experienced was in August 2004. My wife and I had been married for three months, but we delayed our honeymoon in order to fly to Germany for her exchange-brother Sven's wedding at Hohenstein Castle outside of Coburg. We drove to the castle the day of the wedding, where we checked into our room and enjoyed the view of the rolling Bavarian countryside. At 3:00 we witnessed the official wedding service at the chapel just outside the castle walls, followed by hors'd' oeuvres and champagne in the courtyard until the feast began.

At 6:00 we were escorted into the dining hall and served the first course, with wine and beer glasses that never ran dry. The second course was served at 7:00, the third at eight and the dessert at nine – a four hour feast. The food was exquisite, the wine superb. But the reason we will never forget that night had very little to do with food and drink. What made that night unforgettable was the incredible experience of being with a group of people who were experiencing and sharing abundant joy.

Now, I speak only a little bit of German – just enough to get into trouble, I like to say. My wife, Kristin, speaks even less, and that little bit very poorly. But thanks to some new friends who sat across the table from us, we were able to laugh and cry with our friends Sven and Eva as they toasted, ridiculed and celebrated the gift of each other and the new life together into which they were embarking that night. The shared joy in that banquet hall was so strong it was almost palpable. You could feel the abundance of love shared among the friends, even when you couldn’t understand a word of what was being said, and the food and drink didn’t matter: we could have been feasting on pizza and Mountain Dew and it would have been just as joyful.

I’ve thought of that feast often in the three years since we’ve seen Sven & Eva. I’ve wondered why it is that our shared life as God’s children isn’t more like it. Those of you who read The Lutheran probably saw the article in the September issue about the happy and sad Danes in Ringsted, Iowa: frankly, I thought the whole thing was sad. Joy, it seems, is an elusive quality for us, and not just recently: in the 1800s the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was so unimpressed by the lives of the people he knew growing up in a pastor’s household that he lost his faith. He once said that “[Jesus’] disciples should look more redeemed.” I’m pretty sure that he was right.

Paul Tillich, a German theologian who emigrated to America in the 1930s, once said, "As Christians we know our inner conflicts about accepting or rejecting joy…We know that we should be free for joy, that as Paul says, "all is ours," but our courage is inferior to our knowledge. We do not dare to affirm our world and ourselves; and if we dare to, in a moment of courage, we try to atone for it by self-reproaches and self-punishments, and we draw upon ourselves malicious criticism by those who never have dared. Therefore, many Christians try to compromise. They try to hide their feeling of joy, or they try to avoid joys which are too intense, in order to avoid self-accusations which are too harsh. Such an experience of the suppression of joy, and guilt about joy in Christian groups, almost drove me to a break with Christianity. What passes for joy in these groups is an emaciated, intentionally childish, unexciting, unecstatic thing, without color and danger, without heights and depths."[1]

A life without joy is not the life to which we are called. A life without joy is not the life for which we were created. A life without joy is not a life lived in the image of our Maker. When God finished the creation on the sixth day, how did God describe God’s work? “God saw everything he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” The creation is a cause for joy in the mind and heart of God – and thus it should be in ours as well. We were created out of the joy of a gracious and loving Creator – and thus our lives in that creation should be lives filled with abundant joy.

In joy God the Creator has given you this life, this day, this hour, this breath. You are, in the words of Psalm 139, wonderfully and fearfully made in God’s great love. So Paul’s words, then, cannot ring falsely in our ears. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice.” Each breath is a cause for rejoicing, for God has made you and shaped you and provides for you in ways we cannot begin to understand or fully appreciate. So, then, knowing that we cannot express our thanks to God, respond by seeing the same joyful creation in those around us: as Paul says, “Let your gentleness be known to everyone.” Your neighbor is a gift of God, even when she doesn’t realize it. The stranger you meet at the gas station is, like you, fearfully and wonderfully made. The friend in the pew behind you that you haven’t seen in a while? Joyfully made in God’s image: shall we not, then be gentle with one another so that we might reflect the love in which God created us?

Paul continues: “The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” In other words, Paul says, “You are not alone. God hears your prayers.” In the book of Romans Paul puts it another way: “…the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” Even the groans of our darkest night are known and understood by our gracious, loving God. He is not distant or absent: God is as close as your next heartbeat and will never leave you or forsake you.

“Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Paul gives a reminder that we have far more for which we should rejoice than we imagine. Is there darkness in this world? Yes. Does sin threaten us with despair and denial of faith? Absolutely. Will death take us in the end? Of course: just today our congregation said goodbye to another brother in Christ whose life had run its course. But these things are not ours to fight or command: our strength is not equal to the fight against sin, death and the powers of darkness. But there is one whose strength is more than equal to that fight, and it is His promises, His grace, His steadfast love which gives us the promise of abundant joy. It is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has already fought the battle against sin, death and despair, and through His forgiveness we need not fear these things ever again. If anything in this world is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent and worthy of praise, it comes from our Lord Jesus, the Word who was in the beginning and through whom all things are made. He is the promise of abundant joy, in whom you and I may rejoice always – and again I say, Rejoice!

Last night I was in a Bible study with some members of our congregation and we were talking about the lives of those who we considered our “elders” in the faith. One of the people in our group said something I’ll never forget. When talking about the elders who had inspired her own faith, she claimed it wasn’t their words that convinced her, but their lives. "You see their faith working," she said. That, friends, is what abundant joy looks like: faith that works so strongly in the lives of the saints that it’s visible to the people around them. When the people came to Jesus for bread, he didn’t criticize them because they were looking in the wrong place – Jesus criticized them because they asked for far too little of Him. “Why seek the food that rots,” Jesus said, “when I can give you so much more?”

It’s a scary thing, asking God to fill us with the abundant joy that Jesus promises, because it changes everything about us. Instead of coming to church for just enough religion to get by, we begin to hunger and thirst for a deep faith that impacts every moment of the day. Instead of being filled with just enough happiness to get through the day, we begin to sense a deep, awe-inspiring, overwhelming joy at the sheer wonder of the life God has given us. Instead of looking at the church building or the financial report and wondering, “How are we going to keep the congregation going,” we begin to look around and see an opportunity for ministry around every corner and in every conversation. Whether it’s donuts and coffee in the café or a four-course meal in a castle in Coburg, the moment is abundantly joyful because God is in it and we know that it all comes to us as a gift.

This is our service of Thanksgiving tonight. We gather together to remind one another that it is God to whom we give thanks, for the food we eat, for the friends we love, for the air we breathe. But I hope your Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow is filled with more than turkey and cranberries – I hope your Thanksgiving celebration is filled with the abundant joy that comes from seeing the hand of God in all that surrounds you. I hope you look around you, whether you’re surrounded with your families or enjoying a quiet meal alone, and sense that your life itself is a gift from God, and I hope you’re filled with such abundant joy that you feel like your heart might burst. If you do, don’t suppress it, don’t compromise it, don’t be scared of it: just let it come. The promise of abundant joy is given to you by a loving God who is happy to receive your tears of Thanksgiving. Just follow Paul’s advice, and rejoice in the Lord, always. And again, I say, rejoice. Amen.

---

[1] The New Being. Tillich, Paul. Ch. 19: "The Meaning of Joy" http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=375&C=32

Sermon for the 25th Sunday after Pentecost - "Pain, Suffering and Enduring Souls"

Preaching Texts

Earlier this year some a small furor erupted when the private diaries of Mother Theresa were published. It was discovered that Mother Theresa, the champion of the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, India, the tiny woman who had given her entire life in service to God and God’s children, had struggled to sense the presence of God throughout her life. She once wrote to a spiritual confidant, “"Jesus has a very special love for you. [But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me — that I let Him have [a] free hand."[1]

It is so hard to think that such a faithful person would struggle so much with her faith. There is a constant desire within us to eliminate all struggles and alleviate all discomfort. We want our security assured, our lives to be constantly improving without sacrifice, and our institutions to be permanent and everlasting. We like our saints clean and our sinners clearly identified, so that we can be found with the first and avoid the second. But like my friend Nate’s dad always says, “wish in one hand, spit in the other and see which one fills up first.” Wishing for security and permanence in the stuff we create ourselves just isn’t going to work – and Jesus knew this was true. He never pretended otherwise, and neither should we. Let us pray: Loving Savior, you remind us that the things we create, even in service to You, are not eternal: only You are eternal. Forgive us when we follow astray, when we wish for things that cannot be, when we put our hopes for eternity in stuff that will wither and die. You also promise us fulfillment beyond everything for which we could hope: keep that hope alive in us today, and help us build our endurance and our trust in you. Amen.

When we read the gospels, we would do well to know and remember that each of the gospels were written many years after the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and each of the gospel writers addressed their audience in their own way when writing their accounts of the story of Jesus of Nazareth. They were a few generations removed from the actual eyewitnesses who lived with and learned from Jesus, and in those generations other world events happened which needed explaining. The destruction of Jerusalem was one of those events.

The Jewish people revolted against Roman rule in 66 A.D., after a group of Greek citizens sacrificed birds in one of the Jewish synagogues and the local Roman commander did nothing to stop them. The Romans sent Vespasian, who would eventually become the emperor, to put down the revolt, and he did so quickly and with great destruction.

The siege of Jerusalem, the capital city, had begun early in the war, but had turned into a stalemate. Unable to breach the city's defenses, the Roman armies established a permanent camp just outside the city, digging a trench around the circumference of its walls and building a wall as high as the city walls themselves around Jerusalem. Anyone caught in the trench attempting to flee the city would be captured, crucified, and placed in lines on top of the dirt wall facing into Jerusalem. Tens of thousands of crucified bodies encircled Jerusalem by the end of the siege.[2] This is how the Jewish historian Josephus described the final destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple:

The roar of the flames streaming far and wide mingled with the groans of the falling victims; and, owing to the height of the hill and the mass of the burning pile, one would have thought that the whole city was ablaze. . . . With the cries on the hill were blended those of the multitude in the city below; and now many who were emaciated and tongue-tied from starvation, when they beheld the sanctuary on fire, gathered strength once more for lamentations and wailing. . . . Yet more awful than the uproar were the sufferings.[3]

The gospel of Luke was written about thirty years or so after the destruction of Jerusalem. Many people reading Luke’s account remembered the second Temple’s destruction, or had heard about it from their parents or grandparents, so when Jesus said, “the days will come when no one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down,” they knew it was true; they had lived in such times.

There is a fair amount of debate as to what Jesus was actually saying when he warned his listeners about the times that were coming. Was Jesus actually talking about the end of creation and the coming of the kingdom of God? Was Luke inserting a discussion of the First Jewish War in the story of Jesus?

However, we find, if we are honest with ourselves, that such questions are a distraction at best and a leading astray at worst. Whatever the circumstances may have been when Jesus said these words, and whatever the circumstances may have been when Luke set them within his narrative of Jesus’ life, the words ring true for all of us, including we ourselves in our present circumstances. Has there ever been a time in humanity’s history when nations have not risen against nations? Has there ever been a time without earthquakes, famines and plagues? Whenever we look at our history, we find bloodshed, persecution and death written into the very story we live, and if Jesus was right about these things, then we must admit that He was right about the rest of His warning as well. “They will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to religious authorities and prisons…You will be betrayed even by parents and siblings, by relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name.” This is what happened to Jesus himself. It is what happened to the disciples who followed Him. It is what happened to believers in Luke’s time and in all the years since. It is what is happening today. Why? Because these are signs of the end? No: because we cannot live without persecuting one another. Because we are both martyrs and executors, religious authorities and witnesses, those who testify and those who cannot bear to hear the truth spoken.

I’m convinced that Jesus warned his listeners about what was to come knowing full well that at some point in the future we would read these words and realize that we have both suffered for our faith and caused suffering because of our lack of faith. Jesus didn’t give these warnings as a means of knowing when God would bring about the end of the world: Jesus gave these warnings because He knew the sinfulness within us and the consequences of living a life of faith in opposition to that sinfulness. Jesus could see the grandeur of the Temple, but He could also see the emptiness within us that drives us to find faith and hope in things that perish instead of the true faith and hope found in a relationship with the living God. So Jesus warned His own listeners, Luke’s audience and we today that buildings crumble, that nations make war upon nations, that religion can easily become intolerance and persecution, that families turn upon one another, that life is always a struggle between what is right and what is easy. Jesus also made a promise: true life comes as a result of living faithfully and with great trust in God and in God alone – that the Spirit comes to strengthen our faith for the long haul, wherein we become truly human and more real than we could ever hope to be on our own.

When I was in seminary, I was required to spend a summer working in a hospital as a chaplain, a program called Clinical Pastoral Experience. For me, and for most of my fellow chaplains, the growing edge was learning to endure with our patients as they lived through their experiences in the hospital. Our supervisor described it as “descending into the depths” with our patients, alluding to the psalmist in Psalm 130 who writes, “Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord.” Sometimes we were called to help people go further into the abyss than they wanted to go, because as we avoid the struggle and pain we experience, we prevent ourselves from truly being healed. It is impossible to be fully healed while pretending we were never sick in the first place, and it is the same for those who seek signs to escape or explain away suffering: until we stop trying to escape our pain, we will never know what it means to be fully healed.

When Jesus told His listeners that the days would come when the Temple would be destroyed, He was asking them to be willing to live in faith through whatever would come. This is why He said, “make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance.” We’ve all seen and heard enough public speaking to know when a particularly eloquent phrase or well-parsed statement can cover the ugly truth hiding beneath the words. But Jesus doesn’t want us to hide from the ugly truth: He asked his listeners, then and now, to look the present square in the eye and trust that God holds the future in control and that no present darkness can take the light of the kingdom of God away from us. Will life be a struggle? Absolutely. Will things ever be permanent? Not ever. Will friends turn against us, will loved ones leave, will we hurt and suffer and wonder where God is in all this mess? Without a doubt. But, Jesus says, this is how we know we are truly living: when we can see the suffering all around us and remain confident that God will have the final word, that pain and sorrow and even death cannot take us beyond the reach of our loving Creator, who sent His Son to show us the enduring way through suffering and death to a life that is truly life.

In 1944 a young Jewish boy named Eliezer Wiesel was taken from a Jewish ghetto in Sighet, Hungary to the Auschwiz-Birkenau death camp, where he watched his mother and sister walk off into the night and never saw them again. He wrote a book, Night, which describes those days in harrowing detail:

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God himself. Never."[4]

Wiesel has gone on to become one of the world’s foremost peace activists and one of humanity’s most eloquent witnesses to the ongoing work of surviving the worst of what we do to one another. We think of people like Elie Wiesel and Mother Theresa as living saints, yet we see how they struggle with faith and God in the worst and darkest times of their lives. Should it be any different for us? Let us, then, live this life with enduring souls, confident not in our temples, our strength, our security or our wealth, but confident only in the lovingkindness of God our Creator, the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, our Savior, and the constant presence of the Holy Spirit, living and moving and breathing within us even when we can barely live and move and breathe for ourselves. Endurance is the willingness to go on in faith, sisters and brothers: let us endure together and find hope for our future in Christ alone. To God be the glory and honor and praise, now and forever: Amen.

---

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Theresa

[2] Jews, God and History by Max I. Dimont.

[3] Josephus, War of the Jews VI.271-275, as quoted in The Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament: Luke by David Tiede. © 1986 by Augsburg Publishing, Minneapolis. p. 359.

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elie_Wiesel

Friday Five: Think About These Things Edition

Songbird has the Friday Five this week:

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8, NRSV)

Friends, it's nearly Thanksgiving in the U.S. and it's the time of year when we are pressed to name things for which we are thankful. I want to offer a twist on the usual lists and use Paul's letter to the church at Philippi as a model. Name five things that are true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent or worthy of praise. These could be people, organizations, acts, ideas, works of art, pieces of music--whatever comes to mind for you.

Clearly, Molly the Blogging Dog belongs on such a list. Thanks to jo(e) for the great picture of Molly.

1. This week's sign that I'm now a parent: carrots & cheese in my daughter's hair don't bother me at all:

2. My English Teachers: Mrs. Heier, Mrs. Sundell, Miss Boeshart and even our local English guru/janitor/resident Baptist sojourner, Mr. Zdrazil, without whom I would not have identified the horrendous grammatical error in the following paragraph, lifted as is from amazon.com:

It was the cruelest of times. Under Herod's torturous reign, families struggled to survive and yet, in the midst of utter turmoil, a young woman's faith is put to the test. Join Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes) and Joseph (Oscar Isaac) on an incredible journey of hope and discovery. Epic in its scope, yet intimate in it's portrayal of this historical family, this "wonderful film" (Bill Zwecker, Chicago Sun Times) is "a family feature that will be cherished for years to come!" (Greg Russell, WMYD-TV, Detroit).

I'll be waiting to see who catches the error first - post it in the comments!

3. The ugliest birthday cake I've seen in a while, lovingly crafted by yours truly:



I mean, dang, that thing is hideous. In celebration of my wife's Eugene, Oregon roots, I attempted to bake a yellow cake with green frosting, which is complicated by said wife's lactose intolerance. You know, you can only do so much with vanilla cake mix, vanilla frosting and green food coloring. But it was a great birthday surprise nonetheless. Note that Ainsley gave Mommy a birthday card, too!

4. Our local high school musical, "Annie Get Your Gun" Opening night was last night and the kids were fantastic, as was the pit band if'n ya don't mind a bit of chest-thumping. I've had SUCH a blast playing with these kids over the past few weeks. Watching this group of seventy-some high school students work their tails off to put on a complicated, lengthy, demanding production (and do it really well) has reaffirmed my agreement with Garrison Keillor's statement: "Nothing you do for children is ever wasted."

Now if I could only get "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better" out of my head!

5. Nebraska quarterbacks Joe Ganz and Sam Keller. These guys were in a neck and neck battle for the starting job until the middle of August, when Keller was picked as the starter for the season opener. It's been a rough season for my beloved Huskers, but these two men have shown more class handling that rough season than anyone could have dared to hope they would show. Through success, failure, injury and rivalry, they've remained respectful of each other, their coaches, their team, the program and the entire state, and that, folks, is why sports can be really, really wonderful sometimes.

Somewhat Negative Bonus: I had a negative to contrast with all the positives here, but I decided not to think about it anymore. :-)

Positive Hometown Bonus: The Wakefield Trojans, my hometown high school, won the Nebraska Class C-2 Football Championship today, for the second year in a row. Go, Trojans!

A Public Service Announcement

Since we're starting to see Christmas advertisements already, we at the Society for the Preservation of Advent figured it was a good time to post a link to this excellent sermon by Fred Gaiser of Luther Seminary about St. Nicholas and our bondage to Christmas.

You're welcome.

Monday Meme +1

My sister-in-law sent me one of those "curious facts" emails last week - maybe it'll do for a meme this morning:

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? : The song “Watching Scotty Grow” was popular when my folks were expecting me.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? I think it was at my Grandma Johnson’s funeral

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Yup.
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Roast beef

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? One – a baby girl
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Given that I often prefer my own company to that of others, I suppose the answer would be yes.
7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Does the Pope wear Prada?
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS ? Yes

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? I'd rather go sky-diving.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Wheat Chex
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Always.
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Not as strong as I once was (300 lb. bench press)
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Mmmmm: Phish Food…
14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Huh? There’s people? J
15. RED OR PINK? Definitely red.
16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My beer belly – but not enough to stop drinking beer, of course.
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Larry Meyer – my mentor and good friend.
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Sure – why not?
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Olive green camping pants and black slippers.
20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? A bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats.
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Celtic music
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Forest Green.
23. FAVORITE SMELLS? Fresh-baked bread.
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you. Muuaahahahahahah… Actually, it’s one of three different people and I honestly can’t remember which one it is!
25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS? No, but she’s family (kidding!)
26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Football & Hockey
27. HAIR COLOR? Mostly blonde these days, when I’ve left enough to be seen.
28. EYE COLOR? Blue.
29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Every day.

30. FAVORITE FOOD? A good rib eye steak, cooked medium to medium well on a charcoal grill.
31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Scary movies – definitely more real.
32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? We Are Marshall
33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Red.
34. SUMMER OR WINTER? Autumn, please!
35. HUGS OR KISSES? Kisses.
36. FAVORITE DESSERT? Butterfinger dessert.
37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Being a blog, this question and the next are sort of, well, moot.
38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? ??
39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW? The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
40. What's ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Ummm, my mouse?
41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT? Last week’s episode of Heroes so I can watch this week’s episode while running on the treadmill tonight.
42. FAVORITE SOUND? My daughter’s laughter, followed closely by The Cornhusker Marching Band playing “Hail, Varsity!”
43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Can I say U2?
44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Wittenberg, Germany
45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? I can crack nearly any joint in my body whenever I want.
46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Wakefield, Nebraska.
47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK? Anyone else who wants to play
48. WHAT TIME IS IT NOW? 8:31 AM

Sermon for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost - "Threatened by Resurrection"

Preaching Texts

Our gospel reading for this morning comes from the last section of Jesus’ teaching and ministry in Jerusalem. In fact, this question from the Sadducees was the last question anyone asked Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Jerusalem has been described as a one-industry town: the Temple was as much a part of Jerusalem as the casinos are a part of modern-day Las Vegas, and like the casinos, Temple business was a part of everything that happened in Jerusalem. The Sadducees ran the Temple, so their power in Jerusalem was strong. But power and the games we play to hold on to power are worthless in the kingdom of God, so Jesus refused to play the game when the Sadducees came calling. There is no hypothetical “god of the dead;” but there is a God who is concerned for the living, and that God, Jesus said, is here with you right now. Let us pray:

Strong and mighty Lord, forgive us for the meaningless trivia and petty idolatries that seduce us and pull us away from Your goodness and righteousness. We try to hold on to power: You come bearing life that is truly life, in the kingdom to come and also right here and now. Destroy whatever distracts us from Your good life, so that we might live with You in goodness and mercy all of our days. In Your strong name we pray, Amen.

How many of you remember the children’s song, “I Just Wanna Be A Sheep – Baaaaaaa”? You know the verses, then:

I don’t wanna be a Pharisee / I don’t wanna be a Pharisee /

‘Cause they’re not very fair, you see / I just wanna be a sheep – baaaa!

I don’t wanna be a Sadducee / I don’t wanna be a Sadducee /

‘Cause they’re all so sad, you see / I just wanna be a sheep – baaaa!

Cute, for sure – but not very accurate. It may or may not be important, but as we enter our time together this morning, let’s take a moment to talk about Pharisees and Sadducees – it will be worth our investigation.

The Pharisees were a small sect within Judaism in the time of the New Testament. They are mentioned by Josephus, the Jewish historian who worked for the Roman government around the time of Christ, but other than Josephus there’s not much outside the New Testament to tell us who they were. The Pharisees believed that the Law, or Torah, came in two forms: the written Torah, preserved in the five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy in our Bibles); and the oral Torah, additional teachings based on the Torah as interpreted by elders and scribes all the way back to the time of Moses. The Pharisees believed these interpretations of the Torah were binding on all Jewish people, not just the priests, and they believed in strict observance of the Torah, both in its written form and in the oral form, which they described as “the way,” or “halakh” in Hebrew. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead, the eventual judgment of all people by God and in angels and spirits.

The Sadducees, on the other hand, were an even smaller sect within Judaism at the time of Christ. Josephus also mentions them, but like the Pharisees there’s not a lot of evidence about who they were and what they believed. We believe that the Sadducees were what you’d call the priestly aristocracy[1]: the Temple and much of its profit kept the Sadducees in power. During the last period of Irael’s freedom, about 160 – 60 B.C., the Sadducees were the “ruling party” because the Hasmonean dynasty respected the priests as the representatives of the people and the workers in the temple. When the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans, the Sadducees disappeared along with it. The Sadducees believed that Jews were required to observe only the written Torah, and they did not believe in angels or spirits, the judgment or the resurrection of the dead.

So when Jesus came teaching forgiveness and mercy, instead of strict observance of the Law and separation from the world around oneself, the Pharisees got pretty worked up. They had put all their trust in the belief that God had appointed Israel as a separate people, a nation that needed to focus on keeping away from the riff-raff and undesirables around them; but Jesus said, love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you, pray for those who abuse you. Jesus told the Pharisees to serve the foreigner and the outcast and the tax collector and all those people they had been so scrupulously avoiding for so long. And when Jesus came teaching that the Temple should be a house of prayer, not a den of robbers, the Sadducees found themselves confronted as well. Jesus attacked the very things upon which the Sadducees had based all of their power and social standing, and so in today’s reading from Luke the Sadducees tried to mount a challenge to what Jesus was teaching.

Some of you might have heard of the Gordian knot. Legend has it that a knot binding an old king’s chariot in the town of Gordium was blessed by the gods, and the one who untied the knot would be the king of the Persian Empire. According to the legend, Alexander the Great came to the town of Gordium in 333 B.C., and when he couldn’t untie the knot, he took his sword and sliced it right through the middle, thus “untying” the know. In some ways, the legal dilemma the Sadducees presented to Jesus was a Gordian knot – seemingly impossible to untie. But Jesus didn’t just cut right through the Gordian knot the Sadducees presented; Jesus used their own weapon against them – the Torah. In Exodus 3.6, God said to Moses “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” The Sadducees came to Jesus intending to trap him with the logical impossibility of the resurrection of the dead, but Jesus used the Torah to spring the trap and expose it.

But is this really about resurrection? Were the Sadducees genuinely concerned about the marital status of a woman who somehow managed to outlast a string of seven brothers? Of course not – the presenting issue is never the real issue. The issue for the Sadducees was power and control, like it was for the Pharisees, like it was for Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar in the book of Job, like it was for Job himself, like it is for us. Power and control are what we’re fighting to maintain, but Jesus says “The God of the living and the dead is in control – and the sooner you believe this, the sooner we can stop this charade and get down to what really matters.”

I mentioned Job just a minute ago – it’s worth our time to go to the reading from Job for today and consider its impact. Job was a man of great character; he is described by both God and Satan as a “blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.” But Satan argued that Job had reason to be so blameless and upright: after all, hadn’t God surrounded Job with every blessing imaginable? Take enough of those blessings away, insisted Satan, and Job will curse you to your face. And so it happened. Job lost all of his property, his children, and eventually his health. He became a man so pitiable that when his friends came to console him, they could only sit in silence with him so that he wouldn’t be alone. And if they had stopped there, things might have been okay. But even in the face of such unbelievable suffering, Job’s friends and even Job himself couldn’t leave power and control alone. Job’s friends started to insist that Job must have done something to deserve such punishment, while Job insisted otherwise and pleaded his case before God. Finally, we arrive at today’s lament from Job 19, where Job insisted that someday a Redeemer would find justice and fairness for his plight.

If we were telling this story, of course, that’s exactly what would happen. But Job doesn’t end like that. God does finally respond to Job’s complaints, but God never apologized and God never suggested that what happened to Job was fair. Job wanted vindication and revenge: God never allowed either one to happen. And at the same time, God said that Job was right about his situation and Job’s friends were wrong to try to find the cause of all Job’s suffering. Finally, God did restore good health and fortune to Job, but not as a vindication of Job’s suffering: God just up and did it because that’s what God does.

It’s a remarkable story in many ways, but what it draws out of our Gospel reading today are the issues of power and control. Like Job, the Sadducees were trying to assign fairness and justice to a situation which is dictated by neither of them. Like us, the Sadducees were trying to show Jesus how manifestly unfair it would be to resurrect the dead with no regard for what that might do to the social order. The Sadducees were threatened by the resurrection because they couldn’t control it and it wasn’t fair. Are we so different?

Life is not always a question of what’s fair and right. Yes, if you don’t steal you’ll never go to jail for robbery, but that doesn’t mean you’ll never get cancer or lose a house to a fire or something even worse. God Himself admits at the end of the book of Job that the creation isn’t fair. But life is good, and God has intended for life to be good, both now and in the life to come which God has promised.

The good news today is that resurrection does happen, even in the church! If we’re threatened by the resurrection, as the Sadducees and Pharisees of Jesus day seem to have been, it’s our problem, not God’s – and yet Jesus takes the problem upon Himself because it’s the only way to cut through the Gordian knot of our sinful bondage to power and control. “No, resurrection isn’t fair,” Jesus says, “but it’s yours nonetheless: what are you going to do with it?” Will you reject the gift because it threatens the life you’ve so carefully constructed? Will you turn away from God’s goodness because it offends your sense of who you are? Will you refuse the invitation to graceful living because of the company you might be forced to keep? These are the kind of things that God stirs up in us when God gets busy with resurrecting the dead and calling sinners to be saints. Resurrection threatens every power in our existence because it’s the one thing we cannot control, but only experience and, in the end, accept or deny. Resurrection is not always pretty, and it’s certainly not fair, but it is good. More importantly, resurrection is what God promises, and belief that God will deliver on that promise in the life to come makes the effects of that promise happen right here, right now. As we believe that God will raise us in the life to come, so we feel the power of the resurrection in the life we have now, and the more we believe, the more we surrender to its power and live the life God has always wanted us to live. The hope of the resurrection to come breaks all power and control over the live we live now, and that hope cannot be denied to those whom God has called through the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ.

So, today you are threatened with resurrection: how will you respond? Will you, like the Sadducees, insist on what’s fair and right and just and miss what is good? Or will you let the hope of what God has in store give you the goodness God wants for you now? I pray you’ll surrender to the God of the living who lives within you right now and promises grace and mercy in this life and in the life to come. And as the apostle Paul once wrote, “may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.” And all God’s people said, “AMEN.”

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[1] Dictionary of the Bible, John L. McKenzie, S.J. © 1965, MacMillan Publishing Company. p. 758

Passion, Pride and Character

This was the scene in Lincoln today:





76-39 over the Kansas State Wildcats. Joe Ganz's numbers: 30-40 for 510 yards and several touchdowns. Over 700 total yards of offense. A big win and much needed balm in the final home game of this tumultuous season. Just so everyone remembers what's been going on, here's what happened last week:





Yes, that's Kevin Cosgrove leaving the field in tears after the worst defensive performance by a Nebraska team. Ever. Anyone in Lincoln still want to complain about Kansas running up the score last week? Didn't think so.

Maintaining a sense of perspective has always been one of the most difficult aspects of being a Cornhusker born in the glory years of the Osborne era. Folks like me, who are too young to remember the lean years before the Bobfather arrived and turned the ship around, think that Nebraska fans have a right to 9 wins and a major bowl game every year, and that the coaches and players are letting US down when those rights aren't ensured. Well, folks, here's the truth: none of us have made it particularly easy for the Callahan era to be successful. The best you could say is that we reserved judgment; the worst that we undermined a group of guys who've poured everything they have into this program for the past four years.

Sure, the contract buyouts will be large, but don't you think the guys on that staff would trade every last dime for the kind of success we once took for granted? You don't leave the field in tears if you're just phoning it in - and whether you like the Callahan staff or not, we've all gotta admit they left everything they had on the field. Arrogant? Perhaps - but perhaps that arrogance is the flip side of the passion the current staff has for the game of football and the dreams they had for a Cornhusker resurgence. Maybe they will get pink-slipped after the Colorado game, and maybe that's for the best, but please, folks, can we regain the humanity and decency that was once THE hallmark of this program? Teach your kids what it means to be a Cornhusker:

Not the victory but the action.
Not the goal but the game.
In the deed the glory.

To illustrate, a final picture:


Thomas Rice is a fifth-year defensive end from Lincoln. Until today, he'd never played a down in his five years at Nebraska. Not one kickoff or punt return. Not one snap. But today he got called up, came in, and tackled an opposing receiver for a one-yard gain. That's passion. That's pride. That's character. That is the essence of what it means to be a Cornhusker. I don't care if you're 0-11, 5-6 or 11-0, character matters more than victory and somehow we've lost sight of it this year. Here's hoping we can get it back and truly "restore the order" in the near future.

Friday Five: Extravagant Unbusyness

Here's the Friday Five from Sally at RevGalBlogPals:

I am writing in my official capacity of grump!!! No seriously, with the shops and stores around us filling with Christmas gifts and decorations, the holiday season moving up on us quickly for many the time from Thanksgiving onwards will be spent in a headlong rush towards Christmas with hardly a time to breathe.... I am looking at the possibility of finding little gaps in the day or the week to spend in extravagant unbusyness ( a wonderful phrase coined by fellow revgal Michelle)...

So given those little gaps, name 5 things you would do to;
1.to care for your body
2. to care for your spirit
3. to care for your mind
4. to bring a sparkle to your eye
5. to place a spring in your step

Enjoy the time to indulge and dream.... and then for a bonus which one on the list are you determined to put into action?

Oooh, I'm already working on it! Beloved is off to a young women's gathering in the Twin Cities, so I get to spend the day with the Child. We're going to do some visits and see if we can't have lots of fun today!

I suppose that'll be #4 on my list, so here are the others:
1. Run. Hopefully our little one will go down for a nice long afternoon nap so I can get a good run in on the newly-repaired treadmill in the basement.
2. Play with young people. I'm in the pit band for our local high school's production of "Annie, Get Your Gun" and I'm having a blast. These kids have such great energy and enthusiasm for doing what they do - it's energizing for me and shows me that the generation growing up after me knows what it means to have joy and passion, to the contrary of much grumbling by those who won't take the time to understand them.
3. Catch up on the news. I usually read the newspaper front to back on a daily basis, and remembering some of what I read does tend to exercise the mind. If I lived in or near New York City, I would ROCK the Cash Cab!
4. See above.
5. Sleep. Just friggin' sleep, facryinoutloud!

Now, I'm putting all of them into action at some point today, but the one to which I'll commit right now is #5. No late night blog catchups - they can wait until tomorrow morning!

Good Monday Project

One item I neglected to mention in the previous post is my latest project in the shop: I'm building an Adirondack chair from scratch, using lumber I selected at our local Big Hardware Store and cut for myself from a pattern. This week I finished assembling the seat and I cut, sanded and started to assemble the back before realizing I need shorter screws. I had Beloved come out to the shop to get some 'action' shots:

Sanding the pieces for the seat

Screwing the crosspieces onto the legs

The Not-Quite-Finished Product:

Hopefully, it'll be warm enough Monday that I can shape the arms with my belt sander and finish assembling the back. I also need to replace the rear speakers in Beloved's car, so it could be a long day in the shop. Yeah, I know - twist my arm. But, hey, at least I'm using that tool belt once in a while!

Hey there Hi there Ho there!

So, um, yeah, haven't posted anything other than sermons in a while. Bet all my fans are missing me (yes, I do mean both of you.)!

We've been kinda crazy round here lately. It's pretty much been like this:
Wake up.
Play with the kid.
Run (or not).
Shower.
Go to the office.
Catch up on office stuff.
Make a visit/Read a journal/Prepare lessons for Confirmation-Adult Bible Study/Return phone calls/Plan worship/Write the newsletter article/Watch the kid so she doesn't electrocute herself at the not-so-childproof office.
Go home.
Run (or not).
Shower (or not).
Bowl of soup & sandwich for supper.
Pit Band Rehearsal for "Annie, Get Your Gun/Evening Meetings/Feed the kid/Put the kid to bed/Put the kid to bed AGAIN/Watch episodes of the new "Battlestar Galactica" while listening to the kid sleep.
Collapse.
Repeat.

But it's good nonetheless. Here's one example of what has become the highlight of my day:

Seriously, I'd just about light myself on fire to hear that laugh more often. :-)

We had family visit a few weekends ago, so we took them up to Inspiration Peak in west central Minnesota. Most years the colors are fabulous around the area, but with the dry weather we had all summer, colors weren't so good this year. The view, however, is still fabulous, and we had a great day for a family hike:





So, that's the update from here for right now - we're having fun in Minnesota!

Now, it's off to pit band rehearsal! Wheeeeeeeeee!

Sermon for All Saints' Sunday - "Change Is Coming"

I'd like to begin this morning with a piercing statement about the patently obvious: life changes constantly. One minute you're one thing, the next you're someone completely different. For Todd & Kim Lang, the birth of their daughter on Thursday marked the end of their life as just a married couple and the beginning of their life as a family. A year ago, my Kristin was getting really pregnant and we were starting to get really excited about the addition to our own family. Four years ago, Kolten Lee was a pipsqueak in confirmation who got me so frustrated I threw a dry-erase pen at him: now he's a senior planning a transition to college in the spring. Five years ago I was writing papers, finishing applications for my final candidacy meetings and thinking about finally getting out of school and getting a job, not to mention that cute brunette in the Lutheran Confessions course where I was a teaching assistant. Ten years ago I was still in Lincoln, but you all were making plans for an addition to the building and a drastic renovation of the Fellowship Room (I'll bet you don't miss the wood paneling!). Go back even farther in your lives and I’ll bet you can find milestones and moments where everything changed and nothing would ever be the same.

Because of the short history of our nation, we Americans don’t have a long collective memory. We know about Plymouth Rock, Jamestown, the Declaration of Independence and so on, but farther back than that our memory is fragmented. Those of us who descend from Scandinavian bloodlines have even shorter memories and deep ties to the lands from where our great-grandparents emigrated to this country.

Change in Jesus’ time was a much different matter, however. Jesus’ people, the people of Israel, had a collective story over 1,000 years old. They taught their children about the days of Abraham and Sarah, who lived 1,200 years before the days of Jesus and his family. Israelite children learned about Saul, David and Solomon, the three kings who reigned 900 years before Jesus’ time. Israelite children heard stories about Judas Maccabeus and his sons, the last revolutionaries who had fought for Israel’s independence 170 years before Jesus was born. With this deep history came cultural tendencies that kept people where their roots were deep: boys were apprenticed to their fathers, families kept land and trades in the family and the focus of the common people was always on survival. The upper class was firmly entrenched, and the thought of ‘upward mobility’ would not have been likely to occur. People believed that wealth was a sign of God’s blessing and poverty and disease were signs of God’s punishment for sins, known or unknown, things done or left undone. So as the rich stayed rich and the poor stayed poor, as Israel struggled along to survive after seventy years of Roman rule, a teacher from Nazareth in Galilee called twelve of the men who had been following Him and began to teach them new ideas and different ways of thinking about God’s world. And when Jesus started those twelve, He started changing everything.

What did these words mean to Jesus’ disciples? It’s hard to say. The command to love one another is found in the Old Testament, but was it understood the way Jesus taught it? Probably not. When one of the scribes asked Jesus about the greatest commandments, Jesus rightly answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your heart, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But the scribe replied, “Who is my neighbor?” The scribe’s question wasn’t about the depth of love he ought to show to his neighbor: the scribe asked, “Who is my neighbor?” The way to obey the commandment to love one’s neighbor was to define the neighbor and thus define who ought to be loved. But Jesus taught this commandment differently.

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus called the apostles out of a crowd of His disciples, after a night of prayer and meditation. After calling them, Jesus sat down before a great crowd who had come to Jesus for healing, and Jesus healed all of them. But as He healed, Jesus began to teach His apostles, and this is the first thing Jesus taught them: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh…But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep…But I say to you that listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you…Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Here’s a change: love is now defined by the giver, not the neighbor. The poor who are entrenched in their poverty will be rescued, while the rich who enjoy their prosperity will lose it all. But most of all, Jesus taught his apostles in ways that confounded and amazed them, and by doing so Jesus changed everything they ever thought about God and righteousness and life and salvation. Jesus taught them that God’s blessings were never reserved for those who were rich, but for those who listen to God’s voice! Notice how Jesus didn’t say if He was talking to the rich or the poor in today’s gospel; he said, “I say to you who listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…” If you’ve got ears, you’ve got the chance to receive God’s blessing, and if your ears don’t work, well, perhaps Jesus could do something about that, too.

But what do these words mean to us today? We listen, don’t we? We hear God’s voice, don’t we? Do we really? How are you doing at loving your enemies and doing good for those who hate you? I’ll admit that sometimes I don't much care for what Jesus said about my enemies and those who curse me. I don't react well to being cursed, being abused, being hated – who does? I'd much rather come out swinging and let the chips fall where they may. Others react to anger and abuse differently – some of us do come out swinging, some of us use passive-aggressive tactics (what my Old Testament professor in seminary called "the ice in Minnesota Nice"), and some of us just pretend that the offending behavior never happened and swallow our fear and our anger until it paralyzes our ability to feel any genuine emotion at all. I'll go even farther and tell you that one of the most frustrating aspects of being a pastor is the constant pressure to hold my temper in check. It's not natural for me, and sometimes I wonder if it might not be healthier to let it rip every once in a while rather than bottling it up. But Jesus says otherwise; at least, that's how it appears in the gospel reading for today. If we want to listen and obey what Jesus commands, if we want to be the descendants of the apostles, then loving our enemies is the way of discipleship, no matter how hard that road may seem and how it might change us along the way.

Thomas Nelson Publishers recently published a book by Brian McLaren entitled Everything Must Change. McLaren is also the author of a book I’ve read called A Generous Orthodoxy. One of his main points in all of his writing is that the church has abandoned a self-giving ministry to the world and chosen a self-protecting ministry to itself instead. He insists that we in the church must change and become willing to be changed by the world around us if we are to be authentic servants of God in our present circumstances. Now ask yourself: if you continue to hate your enemies, if you refuse to do good to those who hate you, if you refuse to pray for those who abuse you, is anyone in your situation going to change? You certainly aren’t going to change, and neither is your enemy. But, if you honestly tried to love your enemies, if you prayed for those who abuse you, if you did good to those who hate you, how might that affect you. How might it affect the one who was persecuting you? How might it affect the people around you who watch unseen?

How interesting that Jesus' instruction to love your enemies and do good to those who hate you should come on the festival of All Saints. In the early church, Christians would celebrate the anniversary of a martyr's death by serving an all-night vigil, then celebrating Holy Communion over their tomb or place of martyrdom. Sometimes, several Christians were martyred at once, so a joint remembrance was the natural response. Finally, during the reign of Diocletian, the last great persecutor of Christians, the number of martyrs rose so quickly that the church couldn't remember them all, so it was agreed that one event should be held to commemorate the lives of all the saints, especially those who had been martyred for their faith. It was in these circumstances that the festival of All Saints began to be observed. What, then, shall be the mark of the living saint? "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." This is what it means to be counted among the saints. This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

It’s not as though changing and living this way will be easy, mind you. The martyrs for which this festival day is named died horrible deaths, and sometimes those deaths were nothing more than an afterthought for those who watched. Evil remains a power in this world, as banal and petty as ever, and we struggle under its influence even as we seek to change and be changed by the power of the Holy Spirit into something closer to what God wills for us. But Jesus knew all of this as He was teaching His apostles. He could see the coming day when He would be asked to make the ultimate sacrifice to show the way of love He was teaching. As one of my seminary professors once wrote, "The Messiah is announcing the Law which He will fulfill."[1] Jesus knew this course would cost Him His life, but Jesus also knew that changing the world was worth the cost. So did the saints who died for their faith. Shall we follow in their footsteps today?

The festival of All Saints is not only a remembrance of those who have died: we pray also for the life we live here and now as God’s baptized saints. We pray for the strength to love our enemies. We ask God for the patience to endure the pain and sorrow of this life. We pray that our vices and our virtues might be burned away until nothing but the fire of God’s Holy Spirit remains. We pray that we might be used to bring comfort to the poor and compassion from the rich, to feed those who are hungry and help those who are full tend to their neighbor’s needs. Jesus says, “To all you who listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” Are you listening? Then be ready, for a change is coming. Amen.

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[1] Tiede, David. The Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament: Luke. © 19??, Augsburg Publishers, Minneapolis. p. 143.