Sermon prepared by Gregory S. Kaurin, pastor
for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA, 5/16/10
Text John 17:20-26
The Sticking Place
Do you know why I’m here; why I’m fully here?
There are a lot of things that led me to seminary, including a desire to give back to the church institution which I believe helped me survive at least a minor depression through my junior and high school years. The truth is, though, that I just kinda’ followed my nose through college into seminary, through whatever doors seemed most open to me. (Now, I realize that it was the Holy Spirit who had me by the nose.)
However, I want to tell you why I’m fully here as a pastor: body mind and spirit. I was finally grabbed and knew that this is what I wanted and where I wanted to be, and that I was being called, because of at least two experiences I had during my summer chaplaincy. In seminary, we were required to spend a summer as chaplains in hospitals or similar places. I spent the summer at St. Luke’s Hospital in Fargo, N.D., and was assigned to the oncology floor, to the pediatric wing and to the intensive care nursery.
I got to know one family whose newborn baby spent several months in the nursery fighting for his life in an incubator. Finally, he died. There was a memorial service led by their pastor, and I was there as the chaplain. The family members, Mom and Dad were able to finally hold the body of their baby boy outside the incubator without gloves as they each said their good-byes. I remember hearing Dad say, “I just wanted to take him fishing.”
It was Grandma, then, who (God bless her) said something that really set my teeth on edge. I heard her say, “God must have wanted him, and took him.”
I wanted to yell, “No! God can hold us where we are; he doesn’t need to take babies from their parents!” Afterward, my supervisor helped me see that Grandma was trying to hold on to her faith that God was still in control. She didn’t understand, but had to trust that God was still good and wouldn’t let this be a meaningless death.
The second isn’t so heart wrenching, perhaps, but was tough, nonetheless. I was on-call for the emergency room, and after being called in, I was sitting late at night with a mom and siblings of a young man who was having emergency surgery after a serious accident. All was calm for awhile, but suddenly Mom broke down, crying, “It’s my fault; it’s all my fault!”
“You were nowhere near,” I said, “What do you mean?”
And she started saying, “It’s my smoking. I’ve been trying to quit and I just keep blowing it, and…” then she started listing a whole number of trivial and several more serious sins and burdens she had been carrying, and saying, “So, now, God is punishing me by hurting my son. If only I were a better person!”
And I wanted to yell, “No! that is not the God I know!”
I believe in a God who embraces, promises his presence through times like these, not one who causes them. No: God did not “take” your baby, your husband or mother or friend. God has prepared mansions and rooms for them, and for you. He does promise incredible mercy, grace and justice. I believe he does often provide peaceful ends when he can. But he doesn’t “take” people away.
And he doesn’t “send” disease or cancer. He doesn’t make you or your loved ones suffer in order to punish you. Throw all the scripture you want at me, but in that same Bible I will show you a better and deeper truth. I know my God doesn’t spank his children with disease and death. Instead, through Jesus Christ, who suffered and was nailed to the cross, God is found in suffering, with those who hurt. And from his own resurrection, he is the God promising final and ultimate eternal health and healing. Since the beginning of time, God is not neutral to life and death, but has always been on the side of Life against Death, on the side of healing from hurt.
In this world of horrendous accidents and natural disasters, suffering caused by chance or human evil, in this world of sin, including rape, neglect, incest, and adultery—adultery which includes workaholism and anything that steals time and energy from the family you promised to support and love—in this world of lost virginity, bullies and depression, in this world of racism, alcoholism, sexism, social positioning, and religious arrogance, God came in Jesus to say “No!” to all of that. He came in order to embrace his children where we are, and who we are. He came to forgive us, and offer us a promise of eternal life, eternal and ultimate joy. So now, in the middle of all this, we can live a new way of Peace, of Joy, while we work to announce this same Grace and offer Comfort to others.
Why am I here, fully, as a pastor? It is to catch you now with that message, before you are in the hospital or by the graveside, to preach to you now—above all other things—about God’s Grace, his Love, unearned Forgiveness, and eternal life now. I want to be a messenger of that Word of God. To be a messenger.
And I love the Greek work for message in the Bible: angelos… angel! What do angels say, time and again, when they visited Mary and Joseph and Zechariah? Each had a specific message, but all of them started with the same declaration: “Be not afraid.” That is the central message of God’s messengers, the central message of his Word: “Be not afraid.” Take courage, Christians!
Last week at the 9:30 service the Messiah Chorale brought tears to my eyes, and I’m so glad they’re singing it again today at the 8:15 service. They sang the prayer attributed to St. Francis, “Lord, Let Me Be an Instrument of Your Peace.” I needed to hear and be reminded of that, because that is what I want to be:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, let me speak of pardon; when there is doubt, let me inspire faith; or for despair, let me bring hope; in places of darkness, let me bring some light; and where there is sadness, let me be an instrument of your joy!
That’s what I’m here for… as your pastor!
And members of Messiah Lutheran Church: that is why you are here:
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, let us proclaim pardon; where there is doubt; let us bring faith; where there is despair, let us offer hope; where there is darkness, let us show your light; and where there is sadness, Lord, let us be instruments for joy.
Or, as those angels say: “Don’t be afraid. I’m here. We’re here! Are you hungry? We’re here with food. Do you need a quilt? We’ll send one. Have you lost a loved one? We’re here! Do you need a family, a church family? We’re here… and so—by his name—is Jesus Christ.
We are his Body, united not by our similarities, united not by our perfect doctrine or reading of scripture, but united as diverse fingers and toes and ears and eyes, united as brothers and sisters in Christ in order—in our unique and different approaches and beliefs and imperfect attempts—to reach people with Jesus Christ as he has shown himself to us.
I started by asking why I am here as a pastor, but specifically let me tell you why I am here at Messiah Lutheran Church. I am wholly yours, your pastor, so long as God allows. I know that from many experiences and moments. Let me mention just a couple, including when Pauline and I first got to know Pastor Sigmar and Svava. I started in 1998 as your regular guest preacher; before I was called a year later, Eric and Svava had us in their home for dinner.
In that dinner we could sense the deep love and passion they had for this congregation, and we developed an immediate and deep bond with them. My love for them is a part of what has bound me here. In the last several days, I’ve looked through our last pictorial directory and have noticed how many changes have already occurred, all the folks who are no longer with us. Since that dinner with Eric and Svava, I have been in your homes, I have baptized your children and grandchildren, and have married some of them. In these last 10 plus years, I have buried well over a hundred people. This is family.
But what really seals it for both Pauline and me, why we throw ourselves fully to Christ here at Messiah Lutheran Church: it’s seeing our boys with you, and you with our boys. God willing, I want to see Mac and Trevan grow up here. I want to see the boys and men you will help them to become.
And as I reflect on our recent loss of Pastor Emeritus Eric Sigmar, one memory that comes to mind isn’t my own. Erv Steinle talks about watching him come to work, driving up, throwing his car door open, and skipping across the parking lot, whistling some tune. He was so happy coming to work here, for this church, the Messiah’s Church.
We’ve been through lot since 1966 when Eric was called to Messiah Lutheran. (I’m using the royal “we” here.) We’ve been through social changes and world leaders, denominational changes and challenges regarding race, abortion, nuclear arms, homosexuality, and dramatic differences over beliefs and doctrines. Through all this, we have been united by our trust in God’s grace, our salvation though Christ, and our primary commission to care, and to love, and to baptize and grow in God’s grace.
It would be a shame, it would be crazy, it would be a sin to ever let this congregation languish or even limp along. We have so much more to do and give. We have the incredible energy of the Holy Spirit.
I titled this sermon, “The Sticking Place.” Kind of obscure, I know. It comes from Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Macbeth where Macbeth is getting cold feet over what he and his wife, Lady Macbeth, are about to do. He’s worried about all the possible obstacles and ramifications, finally asking…
Macbeth: If we should fail?
Lady Macbeth: We fail! But [she says,] screw your courage to the sticking place, and we’ll not fail.
No one is exactly sure what Shakespeare meant by this “sticking place,” but some think it’s a wooden musical peg that you twist and tighten until it’s stuck, or something like that. The point that she made was for Macbeth to choose this moment to take his stand and commit. Having done so, even if the plan “fails,” he has not failed in his commitment. Granted, in Macbeth, it’s a dastardly deed that he is trying to find the courage to do.
But for us Christians, our “sticking place” is the gospel of Jesus Christ. His Body is the Sticking Place. I can screw my courage to his Body and Grace, and in doing so, I cannot fail, because the Body of Christ will not fail.
Members of Messiah Lutheran Church, do not be afraid. Screw your courage where you are—bodily, financially, and spiritually—to this sticking place, to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And come out skipping. We have work to do!
