Sermon prepared by Gregory S. Kaurin, pastor
for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA, 6/27/10
Texts: Psalm 125, Galatians 5:1, 13-18
Our Christian Freedom, Pt. 2 - Church
Paul gives us this sentence that for freedom Christ has set us free, and last week we started talking about what our Christian freedom means in general and in our families. I’ll review Christian freedom a little bit, but this week we’ll talk about our freedom in this setting, in our congregation and in the wider church.
First, to review, this freedom is not talking about our civil freedom, the fact that you and I have certain rights, immunities or privileges. This freedom is also not what Martin Luther called a carnal freedom, or the idea that since works don’t save us, then we can do whatever we feel the urge to do.
What we are free from—to put it simply— is condemnation, and from the impossible task of trying to earn or prove our way into heaven. Since God gives us salvation and a relationship with him—even if the next moment kills me—I can trust my eternal soul in Jesus’ hands, and can begin being the kind of person God meant me to be, even doing the things he created me to do.
I don’t have to be afraid of making mistakes; I don’t have to be one of the so-called “frozen chosen.” As people who cling to Christ, even what we do is judged—not by the results or by the written law—but by our faith, our dependence on Jesus and our prayerful intention to be his loving people, showing the fruits of the Spirit that we talked about last week: love, patience, kindness, generosity and so on.
In other words, as you are faced with a difficult question or situation as a Christian, after you’ve looked at it, listened and thought about what truly is loving, pray and ask God to forgive you for Jesus’ sake, and take the action. He will forgive and use what we have done in good faith.
A preacher dies and, dressed in his clerical collar and whilte robes, waits in line at the Pearly Gates. Just ahead of him is a guy dressed in sunglasses, Hawaiian shirt, leather jacket, and jeans.
Saint Peter addresses this guy, "Who are you, so that I may know whether or not to admit you to the Kingdom of Heaven?"
The guy replies, "I'm Joe Green, taxi driver, of Noo Yawk City."
Saint Peter checks his list, smiles and says to the taxi driver, "Take this silk robe and gold staff, and welcome into the Kingdom."
The minister hears and sees this and is filled with confidence. He presents himself to Saint Peter and, without waiting to be asked, he proclaims, "I am Joseph Snow, head pastor of Hillsong Lutheran Church for the last forty-three years."
Saint Peter looks his list and says, "Take this woolen robe and wooden staff and enter by that side door to the Kingdom of Heaven."
The minister says, "Just a minute. That man was a taxi-driver, and you gave him a silk robe and gold staff. But I get wool and wood?"
Saint Peter says, "Up here, we go by results. While you preached, people slept; while he drove, people prayed. Who was the better shepherd?"
One would hope that what we’re talking about up here translates—not only outward—but also right here in the church, in our congregation. I know for myself, I am constantly aware and praying to God as one of your pastors that I am bringing more help than harm. I am very aware that churches are human; we have temptations and can be as sidetracked like any Christian family.
And even working in the kitchen, sitting in the youth room, or at a table in the administrative office, volunteers, AOB and Sunday school students, pastors and staff… how we conduct ourselves with each other is how we are treating Christ who always stands among us.
Being loving people, being patient, understanding our neighbors is not just about being nice and charitable to people outside Messiah Lutheran, or those who come and visit. It is also about being patient, forgiving, generous, joyful and self-controlled with each other here in the church.
And it is upon the fruits of the Spirit that our unity as a wider church also depend. When we confess our faith, we say that we believe in the Holy Spirit and the holy catholic Church. I often point out that we use a capital “C” for Church, and a lower case “c” for catholic. Catholic in our creed is an adjective which means whole or universal. In other words we believe in a Church that goes beyond denomination, beyond Catholicism or Lutheranism or any denomination.
Throughout the year I meet in a group with a dozen Auburn pastors of all kinds, Pentecostal, Foursquare, Methodist, non-denominational, Adventist. It has been a refreshing and needed change here in Auburn in just the last few years. A couple months ago, we talked about how we could debate our practices and beliefs, and prophesy against, devour and consume each other, until each one of us is an island against the other. Instead, we share our struggles and strengths. We pray for each other. And in the process we have gone from speaking and praying about our separate churches here in Auburn to talking and praying for the whole Church of Christ in Auburn and our surrounding communities. Do I have differences with them? You bet, we are very different parts of the same Body, but through our stress and standing firm on our unity in Christ as our head, and the fruits of the Spirit which draw and keep us together, we stand united against that power which would rather have us fall apart and tear each other down.
William Barclay mentions in his commentary that it seems that churches who place the grace of God at their heart and in their actions find themselves free to help the larger Body, and those that place the law of God at the center find themselves enslaved to that law, and divided from all the others.
And here at Messiah Lutheran, God doesn’t, and I certainly don’t expect perfection when I ask you to live and do your part in this church family. We will fall. We will step on each other’s toes. We will say wrong things, have different opinions, and lose our tempers, just like in a family. Perhaps you’ve been hurt here, or you’ve volunteered and given your time and you felt it went unappreciated or critiqued. Maybe something happened to you or a family member and no one visited or called. Or maybe some of the things that you look for or love in worship or at church have gone missing. I pray that forgiveness can help you keep your peace and joy. This freedom in Christ allows us to seek reconciliation with each other, and to forgive, or sometimes even to let go of what needs letting go in order to move forward.
But let’s practice, and I mean that word literally; practice the fruits of the Spirit here on each other. More important than getting it right, is being thankful and loving. More important than being pure, is being generous, forgiving and patient with each other.
In another place of scripture, Paul offered a more excellent way, and he wrote that we might have tongues of ecstasy, wisdom or prophecy, we could try to sacrifice all of our time, treasures, or even our bodies, we could be perfect in every other way, but without the love for one another that unites us, we’ve got nothing. Faith, hope and love abide, these three, and the greatest is love.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Our Christian Freedom, pt. 1
Sermon prepared by Gregory S. Kaurin, pastor
for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA
& Elbe Evangelical Lutheran Church, 6/20/10
Texts – Galatians 5:1, 19-26; Matthew 18:18-22
Our Christian Freedom, pt. 1
Freed for Family
[The Bible encounters life, it deals it, and whether we’ve had very good or very bad experiences with our fathers, or an absence of them, then it seemed at least an option this Father’s Day to talk about our heavenly Father who perfectly parents.]
I love my dad; he’s a neat guy. I’ll never catch up to him for being such a wonderful people-person. I grew up with some of the classic father-son issues. There are at least three things in my life that have helped me get over these: first, I have two sons of my own now; second, the mirror. These are brutally honest, and I am glad to be my father’s son.
The third thing is that my wife seems to love me this way.
Men, let me pick on us for a bit. Some parts of being boys and men are hard and challenging; but in other parts of our lives we are used to being coddled and humored. Boys will be boys. Especially when it comes to spirituality and relationships, some of us leave all that stuff to the wife, or religious geeks like pastors. But when it comes to our relationship with God, standing in front of his throne, we don’t get to say, “I’m with her.”
God’s grace is free. Our relationship with our Heavenly Father is given to us. But that does not mean that it is effortless, that nothing is expected from us. Like any other relationship, it needs communication—God wants to see and hear that we love him. We stray down wrong paths, but God still longs for faithfulness from all of us. Perhaps the missing card on Father’s Day is the one we could send to God, the Father who loves us, accepts us, forgives us, and never lets go. And maybe this is the day for some of us to let go of the old habits that get in the way of growing closer and more mature in our relationship with God through Christ.
For the next three weeks we’re going to focus on our Christian freedom using this verse from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, chapter 5, verse 1: “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” This Christian freedom is not exactly the kind of freedom we celebrate on Independence Day in two weeks. It is, in fact, even bigger and a more true independence from oppressive powers.
But Paul suggests that it is a freedom that has struggles. This is not a freedom that lets us just sit back and relax. Listen to that first verse again. He’s talking about a way of living that is not easy. Paul wrote that we need to “Stand firm.” Christ set you free for freedom, for the cause of Christian freedom, to be advocates for Christian freedom. So, stand firm, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. So what is this freedom? And if we’re going to stand firm, I also hope to make clear what yoke of slavery we are to stand against.
We talk about the two commandments that summarize all of God’s law: we are to love the Lord our God with what?… all our heart, mind, soul and strength (basically, with everything we’ve got). Second, we are to love our neighbor as? …our self. If you want to obey all the commandments, just do these two: love God with everything we are, and our neighbor as ourselves? How easy is that? Very hard. If our salvation, if our relationship with God, and our eternal life depend on this, if I am obeying God to get into heaven, then for whom am I really working, about whom am I most concerned? Can we actually love God and neighbor? Whom am I putting as number one? Who is my God? And that is why trying to earn God’s love and salvation actually breaks the first commandment. We can’t have a relationship with God if we are afraid of him, or of his fist.
See, God is really smart. He figured this out, from the very beginning, that we need Jesus… That way, if a price needs to be paid for our sins, Jesus, the very blood of God, pays it. God gives us forgiveness, pays the price, gives us salvation, and a relationship with him. So, if I don’t need to earn my relationship with God, if I don’t have to achieve salvation, if I’m not worried about me anymore, now can I love God? Can I love my neighbor? Can I do loving things for them?
You see, the freedom we are talking about is a freedom that finally lets us obey God, with our hearts, without fear. We will make mistakes, but can trust him and his bond with us to be stronger than our mistakes and sins. We can let go of ourselves, let go of being afraid of God, or of death, or of hell and the devil… Freedom.
But our greatest weakness, I think, at least mine, is a return to self-absorption. Both the Proverbs and St. Paul will talk about a dog’s tendency to return to its own vomit. These are our old sins even after we’ve rejected them, either because we still are tempted to do them, or we haven’t let go of the shame. That’s what the list of sins in our lesson was all about. When Paul talks about fleshy sins, he’s not just talking about lust or greed or gluttony. Sin is anything that hurts, gets in the way or breaks down our relationship with God, or with people, and creation. Sin keeps us from trusting, and is anything that takes time and energy away from our primary callings as Christians, as husbands or wives, family, church, neighbors.
For instance, take the first thing in Paul’s list of sins in verse 19 from today’s reading: fornication. Sexual relations, as expressions of love between two committed adults, can be a beautiful gift. But a focus on sex, abuse, pornography, any flesh trade, pedophilia is objectifying someone else for yourself, gratifying your needs. It is destructive to relationships. It takes the time, energy and affections that rightly belong to the people with whom we’ve made promises. It is adultery and unfaithfulness. It enslaves the one who does it, and those who are caught up in it. But even the monks and others who set up extreme rules against sexuality, even those who are prudish and pious, with such an extreme focus and infatuation on the issue are still falling prey to the sin of making it into something that destroys instead of the gift it was meant to be to express spousal affection, love, mutual and lasting commitment.
Or, take the fifth thing on the list. Our translation calls it sorcery; others call it witchcraft, and you might be tempted to think that it’s got nothing to do with us. Who believes in that hocus-pocus. But I like that Martin Luther, back in the 1500’s understood this sorcery to mean anyone who uses their power or influence to lead astray or to use others, especially children, for their own benefit. It wasn’t just about magic for him. And William Barclay in the last century connected witchcraft with the use of potions, poisons, hallucinogens to control or abuse others, or ourselves…in other words, addictions and those who profit from addiction. Those who use others’ weaknesses, or avoid facing real life and people, once again, are destroying, taking time and energy from the relationships like our family, which should matter most, through self-medication and self indulgence.
But before we try to make one sin more horrible than the other, these things also break down the kingdom: jealousy, heated anger, arguing, envy. All of these are breaking faith. All of these get in the way of our family life, taking energy, breaking it apart. How we live affects others, and most especially the people nearest to us.
It isn’t that we are called to obey this or that specific commandment. Instead, we have been called into a new covenant, a new way of living. We are called to express the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. When we find ourselves in situations, or temptations, we have to ask ourselves, what would be the loving thing to do, how can we show more patience, or self-control.
In other words we seek to be more like God, more like Jesus. Jesus didn’t obey God because of written laws. He obeyed God because he loved God, and us. And we pray to the Holy Spirit to give these new attitudes to us, to write this new covenant, this new way of living on our hearts. And that starts with family. Loving the neighbor is not just about being nice to Jim Bob or Mary Ellen down the street, but about being faithful to the nearest neighbors God has given us, our given or chosen family members. It’s with them we can begin to allow and see these changes first. And if and when we do this, as soon as we ask, I promise God flies to us, blesses and works through us.
We will fall. And all he asks us to do is to grab his hand, and stand back up. You have been forgiven; you are now free to forgive and let go of old hurts, or come to a kind of peace with them, putting them in God’s hands for now us. We cannot make others forgive us. We cannot change history, but if we allow God’s Spirit to work on us, on the parts that are rough or dark and cold, if we let him, others will begin to notice changes in us. God isn’t done with me yet.
God’s faithfulness, love, patience and joy for us, are how we will stand firm, and why we need to stand firm. Others need to see and hear this message of gospel salvation. We cannot allow our mistakes or other preachers to knock down God’s baptismal promises. We cannot submit to guilt or to those who want us to be afraid of God again. God our Father is our perfect parent. He will never let you go or reject you. Don’t ever let anyone tell you different, or cause you to doubt God’s love or his claim on you. Stand firm.
In the meantime, knowing that your salvation is secure, and that you are safe: take a moment and choose today just one area of your family life that continues to bother you, something you’re not proud of, pray about it, and let God love you there. Just a moment to think about that. Give him time, I know from personal experience that it sometimes takes patience, and thank God, our Heavenly Father has lots of it.
May the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA
& Elbe Evangelical Lutheran Church, 6/20/10
Texts – Galatians 5:1, 19-26; Matthew 18:18-22
Our Christian Freedom, pt. 1
Freed for Family
[The Bible encounters life, it deals it, and whether we’ve had very good or very bad experiences with our fathers, or an absence of them, then it seemed at least an option this Father’s Day to talk about our heavenly Father who perfectly parents.]
I love my dad; he’s a neat guy. I’ll never catch up to him for being such a wonderful people-person. I grew up with some of the classic father-son issues. There are at least three things in my life that have helped me get over these: first, I have two sons of my own now; second, the mirror. These are brutally honest, and I am glad to be my father’s son.
The third thing is that my wife seems to love me this way.
Men, let me pick on us for a bit. Some parts of being boys and men are hard and challenging; but in other parts of our lives we are used to being coddled and humored. Boys will be boys. Especially when it comes to spirituality and relationships, some of us leave all that stuff to the wife, or religious geeks like pastors. But when it comes to our relationship with God, standing in front of his throne, we don’t get to say, “I’m with her.”
God’s grace is free. Our relationship with our Heavenly Father is given to us. But that does not mean that it is effortless, that nothing is expected from us. Like any other relationship, it needs communication—God wants to see and hear that we love him. We stray down wrong paths, but God still longs for faithfulness from all of us. Perhaps the missing card on Father’s Day is the one we could send to God, the Father who loves us, accepts us, forgives us, and never lets go. And maybe this is the day for some of us to let go of the old habits that get in the way of growing closer and more mature in our relationship with God through Christ.
For the next three weeks we’re going to focus on our Christian freedom using this verse from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, chapter 5, verse 1: “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” This Christian freedom is not exactly the kind of freedom we celebrate on Independence Day in two weeks. It is, in fact, even bigger and a more true independence from oppressive powers.
But Paul suggests that it is a freedom that has struggles. This is not a freedom that lets us just sit back and relax. Listen to that first verse again. He’s talking about a way of living that is not easy. Paul wrote that we need to “Stand firm.” Christ set you free for freedom, for the cause of Christian freedom, to be advocates for Christian freedom. So, stand firm, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. So what is this freedom? And if we’re going to stand firm, I also hope to make clear what yoke of slavery we are to stand against.
We talk about the two commandments that summarize all of God’s law: we are to love the Lord our God with what?… all our heart, mind, soul and strength (basically, with everything we’ve got). Second, we are to love our neighbor as? …our self. If you want to obey all the commandments, just do these two: love God with everything we are, and our neighbor as ourselves? How easy is that? Very hard. If our salvation, if our relationship with God, and our eternal life depend on this, if I am obeying God to get into heaven, then for whom am I really working, about whom am I most concerned? Can we actually love God and neighbor? Whom am I putting as number one? Who is my God? And that is why trying to earn God’s love and salvation actually breaks the first commandment. We can’t have a relationship with God if we are afraid of him, or of his fist.
See, God is really smart. He figured this out, from the very beginning, that we need Jesus… That way, if a price needs to be paid for our sins, Jesus, the very blood of God, pays it. God gives us forgiveness, pays the price, gives us salvation, and a relationship with him. So, if I don’t need to earn my relationship with God, if I don’t have to achieve salvation, if I’m not worried about me anymore, now can I love God? Can I love my neighbor? Can I do loving things for them?
You see, the freedom we are talking about is a freedom that finally lets us obey God, with our hearts, without fear. We will make mistakes, but can trust him and his bond with us to be stronger than our mistakes and sins. We can let go of ourselves, let go of being afraid of God, or of death, or of hell and the devil… Freedom.
But our greatest weakness, I think, at least mine, is a return to self-absorption. Both the Proverbs and St. Paul will talk about a dog’s tendency to return to its own vomit. These are our old sins even after we’ve rejected them, either because we still are tempted to do them, or we haven’t let go of the shame. That’s what the list of sins in our lesson was all about. When Paul talks about fleshy sins, he’s not just talking about lust or greed or gluttony. Sin is anything that hurts, gets in the way or breaks down our relationship with God, or with people, and creation. Sin keeps us from trusting, and is anything that takes time and energy away from our primary callings as Christians, as husbands or wives, family, church, neighbors.
For instance, take the first thing in Paul’s list of sins in verse 19 from today’s reading: fornication. Sexual relations, as expressions of love between two committed adults, can be a beautiful gift. But a focus on sex, abuse, pornography, any flesh trade, pedophilia is objectifying someone else for yourself, gratifying your needs. It is destructive to relationships. It takes the time, energy and affections that rightly belong to the people with whom we’ve made promises. It is adultery and unfaithfulness. It enslaves the one who does it, and those who are caught up in it. But even the monks and others who set up extreme rules against sexuality, even those who are prudish and pious, with such an extreme focus and infatuation on the issue are still falling prey to the sin of making it into something that destroys instead of the gift it was meant to be to express spousal affection, love, mutual and lasting commitment.
Or, take the fifth thing on the list. Our translation calls it sorcery; others call it witchcraft, and you might be tempted to think that it’s got nothing to do with us. Who believes in that hocus-pocus. But I like that Martin Luther, back in the 1500’s understood this sorcery to mean anyone who uses their power or influence to lead astray or to use others, especially children, for their own benefit. It wasn’t just about magic for him. And William Barclay in the last century connected witchcraft with the use of potions, poisons, hallucinogens to control or abuse others, or ourselves…in other words, addictions and those who profit from addiction. Those who use others’ weaknesses, or avoid facing real life and people, once again, are destroying, taking time and energy from the relationships like our family, which should matter most, through self-medication and self indulgence.
But before we try to make one sin more horrible than the other, these things also break down the kingdom: jealousy, heated anger, arguing, envy. All of these are breaking faith. All of these get in the way of our family life, taking energy, breaking it apart. How we live affects others, and most especially the people nearest to us.
It isn’t that we are called to obey this or that specific commandment. Instead, we have been called into a new covenant, a new way of living. We are called to express the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. When we find ourselves in situations, or temptations, we have to ask ourselves, what would be the loving thing to do, how can we show more patience, or self-control.
In other words we seek to be more like God, more like Jesus. Jesus didn’t obey God because of written laws. He obeyed God because he loved God, and us. And we pray to the Holy Spirit to give these new attitudes to us, to write this new covenant, this new way of living on our hearts. And that starts with family. Loving the neighbor is not just about being nice to Jim Bob or Mary Ellen down the street, but about being faithful to the nearest neighbors God has given us, our given or chosen family members. It’s with them we can begin to allow and see these changes first. And if and when we do this, as soon as we ask, I promise God flies to us, blesses and works through us.
We will fall. And all he asks us to do is to grab his hand, and stand back up. You have been forgiven; you are now free to forgive and let go of old hurts, or come to a kind of peace with them, putting them in God’s hands for now us. We cannot make others forgive us. We cannot change history, but if we allow God’s Spirit to work on us, on the parts that are rough or dark and cold, if we let him, others will begin to notice changes in us. God isn’t done with me yet.
God’s faithfulness, love, patience and joy for us, are how we will stand firm, and why we need to stand firm. Others need to see and hear this message of gospel salvation. We cannot allow our mistakes or other preachers to knock down God’s baptismal promises. We cannot submit to guilt or to those who want us to be afraid of God again. God our Father is our perfect parent. He will never let you go or reject you. Don’t ever let anyone tell you different, or cause you to doubt God’s love or his claim on you. Stand firm.
In the meantime, knowing that your salvation is secure, and that you are safe: take a moment and choose today just one area of your family life that continues to bother you, something you’re not proud of, pray about it, and let God love you there. Just a moment to think about that. Give him time, I know from personal experience that it sometimes takes patience, and thank God, our Heavenly Father has lots of it.
May the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
When God Listens...
Sermon prepared by Gregory S. Kaurin, pastor
for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA, 6/6/10
Text 1 Kings 17:(8-16) 17-24, & Luke 7:11-17
When God Listens…
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
If you had the choice, how many of you would name your daughter Jezebel? She was the daughter of a Phoenician King from the city of Sidon, a foreign princess who became wife of the king of Israel, King Ahab. Jezebel’s name meant “Ba’al is god.”
The Bible says that when King Ahab came to power in Israel he did more evil in the sight of the Lord than any king ever before him. After marrying Jezebel, King Ahab joined her in worshiping Ba’al and raised a pole to worship Asherah, a goddess of fertility. What is the first of the Ten Commandments? “I am the Lord your God… you shall have no other.” Things were not good in the land of Israel.
Enter the prophet Elijah. Elijah came to King Ahab to warn him that, in the face of these gods, Ba’al and Asherah, gods of rain and fertility, the land of Israel was going to become dry and desolate. After he said those words, God sent Elijah into hiding first to the east to an oasis where he was fed by ravens. Then, of all places, God sent Elijah to stay with a widow in the little town of Zarephath on the outskirts of Sidon, Jezebel’s home. In other words, while Queen Jezebel was down south with King Ahab causing trouble in the palaces of Israel, God sent Elijah up north to a modest little house in Queen Jezebel’s home country where there was a poor widow with her only son.
When Elijah finds her, this widow was getting ready to bake the last of their grain and oil, preparing the last loaf of bread, but Elijah promised that as his God lived, she and her son would not go hungry. It’s hard to believe that, in such desperate times based only on Elijah’s word, she would do such a thing, feed this strange man first. This was more than good hospitality.
Usually we think of desperate people as being without hope. But there comes, if you can imagine it, a kind of desperate hope, willing to try just about anything, especially for her son’s life. Miraculously, the grain and oil was replenished, and never ran out until the drought was over. There was always enough for one more meal. Sounds like a happy ending to our story, but it wasn’t. The story took a very strange turn.
Let’s page back to our first lesson. 1 Kings 17:17 says, “After this,” (after all the back story I’ve just told you about Jezebel and Ahab, the drought and miracle of the grain and oil) “after this the son of the woman… became ill…There was no breath left in him.” The widow turned pretty harsh on Elijah, but I totally get her reaction, and so did Elijah for that matter. Just when he had restored a little hope to her life that something could go right, that something was good in the world, just when she had a glimmer of faith and joy, her greatest treasure, only son was taken from her.
Then what was the point of the miracle with the grain and oil, if this was the result? Elijah didn’t scold her, didn’t try to defend himself. “Give me your son,” he said. And what makes this so real for me is verse 20 when Elijah got to the upper room, carrying the boy’s body, he cried out to God, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity upon the widow” our translation calls it a calamity. The Hebrew word was more like a ruining, or literally a breaking, “have you ruined this widow, have you broken her, by killing her son?” In other words, Elijah yelled at God with his frustration and pain; but there is, in that prayer, a desperate hope and faith. “God you can’t, don’t leave it here. She’s already been hurt at every other turn in her life. Do something different.”
Verse 22 says that God listened to Elijah’s voice, to his cries, and he did as Elijah asked. In the last verse, the widow herself is finally convinced, not only that Elijah is a man of a true living God, not like the ba’als and asherahs of her land, and that this living God worked through Elijah’s mouth and words.
God listens. God has compassion. These are the promises of prayer. And with the Holy Spirit living within us, working through us, we are also promised that God listens and acts… through us.
This past week, one of our members lost a baby grandson. Many people with all degrees of faith were praying for the little baby boy…and he died. Wasn’t God listening? Did God lack compassion? It is painful and wrong to try to figure out what went wrong with us, or with our prayers, or what might be wrong with God, or to try to make something so sad into some kind of blessing. It’s not. Only this: God listens to us, and weeps just as Christ did; his Spirit is present, his promises remain. In the meantime we are sent to each other to comfort, to listen, to be vessels of compassion, healing, and hope.
There is a book out that is titled, Letters to a Bullied Girl. It is a story and a collection of letters about a young girl named Olivia. After she had an epileptic seizure, classmates who didn’t understand began to bully Olivia, and others joined in. The bullying got worse, even in a new school because they put it on the web to make sure it followed her. Olivia’s mother loved her, reminded her that she was a child of God, but was forced to watch as her daughter began to sink away into a deep dark place, depression and suicidal thoughts.
But finally, word of this got to two sisters in a nearby town, Sarah and Emily, and they thought it was horrible, so they wrote loving and supportive letters to Olivia, but they didn’t stop there. They told others about it, and their friends and others started to write to Olivia, more and more from further and further away. Some told her about their stories, how they survived, found happiness again. Slowly, Olivia began to heal, quite literally from the edge of death, just when all her breath had nearly gone. Now, Olivia is helping others.
[I am grateful to the Kate Huey's entry "Courageous Compassion" in the "Weekly Seeds" of www.i.ucc.org for highlighting the above story and its application to this text.]
At the worst possible times, thrown into darkest depressions, and worst losses, hope can penetrate our hearts. Empty broken hearts somehow can find room to cling to God, even when everything else has been taken. What it takes is the compassion of a few loving hearts, to insist and act on the belief that the world can be different, as Walter Brueggeman says, “concretely, decisively different” (in A Testimony to Otherwise). The world can be different. Let thy Kingdom come; thy will be done: on earth just as in heaven.
We are in this living conversation, and what we do or don’t do changes the world. God listens to us. It is probably the first most loving thing he does. And then he acts through many ways; you might miss them. Usually it’s by sending people or small signs that help us through to the other side, out of darkness to a new life.
It tends to start in small homes and towns like Zarapheth outside of Sidon, or when two young girls decide to counter bullying with their blessings, or when someone sits down to listen to a grieving mother. Or, whenever young or old Christians decide that their title, as a child of God, means something; whenever we decide to forgive, or reach out, or hold, or pray, then dark powers must give way, and we prove once again that God listens. He hears. God is in our ears first, and then in our mouths and words, our hands and actions.
We, as Christians, have been given grace, the 100% free gift in which God gives himself to us, God gives us forgiveness and a relationship with him forever, so that we are freed from worrying about ourselves, our place, or our future. We have been freed for one reason, so that we can start showing others that there is a new way to live, a new hope, a greater force than desolation. Kingdoms pass. Politics come and go. Theology and wise sayings will fall silent. After a lot of hard work, money, blame and time, oil slicks will be dissolved. But love and loving actions, these never end.
[Insert prayer at 8:15 / Speak off-the-cuff to Affirmands at 10:45]
May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA, 6/6/10
Text 1 Kings 17:(8-16) 17-24, & Luke 7:11-17
When God Listens…
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
If you had the choice, how many of you would name your daughter Jezebel? She was the daughter of a Phoenician King from the city of Sidon, a foreign princess who became wife of the king of Israel, King Ahab. Jezebel’s name meant “Ba’al is god.”
The Bible says that when King Ahab came to power in Israel he did more evil in the sight of the Lord than any king ever before him. After marrying Jezebel, King Ahab joined her in worshiping Ba’al and raised a pole to worship Asherah, a goddess of fertility. What is the first of the Ten Commandments? “I am the Lord your God… you shall have no other.” Things were not good in the land of Israel.
Enter the prophet Elijah. Elijah came to King Ahab to warn him that, in the face of these gods, Ba’al and Asherah, gods of rain and fertility, the land of Israel was going to become dry and desolate. After he said those words, God sent Elijah into hiding first to the east to an oasis where he was fed by ravens. Then, of all places, God sent Elijah to stay with a widow in the little town of Zarephath on the outskirts of Sidon, Jezebel’s home. In other words, while Queen Jezebel was down south with King Ahab causing trouble in the palaces of Israel, God sent Elijah up north to a modest little house in Queen Jezebel’s home country where there was a poor widow with her only son.
When Elijah finds her, this widow was getting ready to bake the last of their grain and oil, preparing the last loaf of bread, but Elijah promised that as his God lived, she and her son would not go hungry. It’s hard to believe that, in such desperate times based only on Elijah’s word, she would do such a thing, feed this strange man first. This was more than good hospitality.
Usually we think of desperate people as being without hope. But there comes, if you can imagine it, a kind of desperate hope, willing to try just about anything, especially for her son’s life. Miraculously, the grain and oil was replenished, and never ran out until the drought was over. There was always enough for one more meal. Sounds like a happy ending to our story, but it wasn’t. The story took a very strange turn.
Let’s page back to our first lesson. 1 Kings 17:17 says, “After this,” (after all the back story I’ve just told you about Jezebel and Ahab, the drought and miracle of the grain and oil) “after this the son of the woman… became ill…There was no breath left in him.” The widow turned pretty harsh on Elijah, but I totally get her reaction, and so did Elijah for that matter. Just when he had restored a little hope to her life that something could go right, that something was good in the world, just when she had a glimmer of faith and joy, her greatest treasure, only son was taken from her.
Then what was the point of the miracle with the grain and oil, if this was the result? Elijah didn’t scold her, didn’t try to defend himself. “Give me your son,” he said. And what makes this so real for me is verse 20 when Elijah got to the upper room, carrying the boy’s body, he cried out to God, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity upon the widow” our translation calls it a calamity. The Hebrew word was more like a ruining, or literally a breaking, “have you ruined this widow, have you broken her, by killing her son?” In other words, Elijah yelled at God with his frustration and pain; but there is, in that prayer, a desperate hope and faith. “God you can’t, don’t leave it here. She’s already been hurt at every other turn in her life. Do something different.”
Verse 22 says that God listened to Elijah’s voice, to his cries, and he did as Elijah asked. In the last verse, the widow herself is finally convinced, not only that Elijah is a man of a true living God, not like the ba’als and asherahs of her land, and that this living God worked through Elijah’s mouth and words.
God listens. God has compassion. These are the promises of prayer. And with the Holy Spirit living within us, working through us, we are also promised that God listens and acts… through us.
This past week, one of our members lost a baby grandson. Many people with all degrees of faith were praying for the little baby boy…and he died. Wasn’t God listening? Did God lack compassion? It is painful and wrong to try to figure out what went wrong with us, or with our prayers, or what might be wrong with God, or to try to make something so sad into some kind of blessing. It’s not. Only this: God listens to us, and weeps just as Christ did; his Spirit is present, his promises remain. In the meantime we are sent to each other to comfort, to listen, to be vessels of compassion, healing, and hope.
There is a book out that is titled, Letters to a Bullied Girl. It is a story and a collection of letters about a young girl named Olivia. After she had an epileptic seizure, classmates who didn’t understand began to bully Olivia, and others joined in. The bullying got worse, even in a new school because they put it on the web to make sure it followed her. Olivia’s mother loved her, reminded her that she was a child of God, but was forced to watch as her daughter began to sink away into a deep dark place, depression and suicidal thoughts.
But finally, word of this got to two sisters in a nearby town, Sarah and Emily, and they thought it was horrible, so they wrote loving and supportive letters to Olivia, but they didn’t stop there. They told others about it, and their friends and others started to write to Olivia, more and more from further and further away. Some told her about their stories, how they survived, found happiness again. Slowly, Olivia began to heal, quite literally from the edge of death, just when all her breath had nearly gone. Now, Olivia is helping others.
[I am grateful to the Kate Huey's entry "Courageous Compassion" in the "Weekly Seeds" of www.i.ucc.org for highlighting the above story and its application to this text.]
At the worst possible times, thrown into darkest depressions, and worst losses, hope can penetrate our hearts. Empty broken hearts somehow can find room to cling to God, even when everything else has been taken. What it takes is the compassion of a few loving hearts, to insist and act on the belief that the world can be different, as Walter Brueggeman says, “concretely, decisively different” (in A Testimony to Otherwise). The world can be different. Let thy Kingdom come; thy will be done: on earth just as in heaven.
We are in this living conversation, and what we do or don’t do changes the world. God listens to us. It is probably the first most loving thing he does. And then he acts through many ways; you might miss them. Usually it’s by sending people or small signs that help us through to the other side, out of darkness to a new life.
It tends to start in small homes and towns like Zarapheth outside of Sidon, or when two young girls decide to counter bullying with their blessings, or when someone sits down to listen to a grieving mother. Or, whenever young or old Christians decide that their title, as a child of God, means something; whenever we decide to forgive, or reach out, or hold, or pray, then dark powers must give way, and we prove once again that God listens. He hears. God is in our ears first, and then in our mouths and words, our hands and actions.
We, as Christians, have been given grace, the 100% free gift in which God gives himself to us, God gives us forgiveness and a relationship with him forever, so that we are freed from worrying about ourselves, our place, or our future. We have been freed for one reason, so that we can start showing others that there is a new way to live, a new hope, a greater force than desolation. Kingdoms pass. Politics come and go. Theology and wise sayings will fall silent. After a lot of hard work, money, blame and time, oil slicks will be dissolved. But love and loving actions, these never end.
[Insert prayer at 8:15 / Speak off-the-cuff to Affirmands at 10:45]
May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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