Sermon prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church
Auburn WA
by Gregory S. Kaurin, pastor
August, 29, 2010; 14th Sunday after Pentecost
Texts: Psalm 112 & Luke 14:1, 7-14
Live Graciously
Grace, mercy and peace be with you from God our Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Before I start, most of you know that last Sunday I was just out of the hospital. My family and I were very aware and thankful for all of your prayers and cards, and I was grateful for Pastor Jon’s visit and prayer with Pauline and me. Turned out that I passed what’s called a bile duct stone, followed by pancreatitis. I’ll never forget after the attempt on President Reagan’s life, everyone was so interested in seeing all the X-rays and images of his insides. So, I brought some color pictures and slides to share… not really.
But again, thank you. These things remind us how lucky we are to have a church family, and to see the signs of God’s grace lived out through your words and actions. And that is what we are called to be: living signs of God’s grace.
While he was here, we know that Jesus was from God because of what? How did he show us that he was from God? …miracles, signs. The disciples were amazed when he showed authority, even over winds and waves. He raised Lazarus as a sign of his authority over death and life.
By looking at Jesus and reading what he said, how he reached out to the outcast and sick, what have we learned about God? God is not the distant, judgmental, angry fisted God. Jesus taught us to pray to him as our loving Father. Jesus’ own actions were the signs of God’s love.
When Jesus saw Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree, and went and ate and spent time with him, Zaccheaus was so inspired and freed, that he announced that he was giving half his possessions to the poor and if he had cheated anyone, he promised to pay them back four times the amount. At that, Jesus announced that “Today, salvation has come to this house.” Did Jesus mean that in return for Zaccheaus’ sudden generosity salvation had come? No, Jesus was pointing to this sudden outpouring of generosity as signs, actions of love, signs of the freedom God had poured into Zaccheaus. God’s grace had inspired Zacchaeus to live graciously. Jesus was saying, "Look! See, salvation has entered this house and transformed it."
In the Bible, Jesus was asked by a rich young man how he might earn his way to heaven, and after reviewing the Ten Commandments, Jesus added one more thing. “Go, sell all you have, give it all to the poor, then follow me.” The young man walked away sadly. We can get so tied up in the money and the extreme thing Jesus was asking of him that we miss what Jesus was trying to do for him. The young man was so focused on himself, his life, his possessions, his soul, his salvation. It was not about his money, but his inaction and a lack of external compassion. "Let it go. Give to someone who needs."
A poor person can be just as self-absorbed and tied to what little he has. Live graciously, freed from being owned by our possessions or lack of them. Freed from fear of losing, or being too gracious with what God has given to us.
I was talking with one of our members, Will Lathrop, just yesterday. We were talking about how life situations or experiences can make us a bit timid, overly cautious, and Will said, “Live in fear, die in fear.” If you live by fear, then you are already dying in fear. Life is a gift. Eternal life and a relationship with God is a license to live joyously, freely, graciously.
One of the great Protestant proclamations: we are saved by…? Grace. Not by our…? Works. In the Bible, the letter of James, however, we sometimes focus on the seeming contradiction. James wrote that “faith without works... is dead.” If we get too distracted by this so-called contradiction, we can miss the consistent description of what those works are throughout his letter. The works that James calls us to do are all actions and signs of our love for others and world. Feed the hungry, give generously, pray for one another. “Be quick to listen,” he wrote, “slow to speak, and slow to anger. Care for the widow and orphan” (James 1:19, 27). He calls that care the height of worship. James summed it up by calling it the Law of Liberty, Freedom, or the Perfect Law. Paul in one of his letters said it this way, “I could have everything; I could do everything else, but without love, I have... nothing.”
Let me be clear, these loving actions are not how we get it or prove that we’ve got it: salvation, a relationship with God. They are signs of that salvation. And, it’s not just about charity, being nice and giving handouts—but about a lifechange, our lifesong, living graciously in the way we work. No one has to “become a pastor, priest, nun, or monk in order to dedicate [your] life to God. What the world needs is people being gracious wherever they work [and live].”
It is a call to allow that compassion to reach out to others. In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus was at a dinner watching folks try to jostle their ways up to seats of honor, presuming, angling, and gauging one another as competition. Instead, he suggested another approach. If you assume a more gracious attitude toward others, then you won’t ever have to be embarrassed. And to the hosts, he reminds them of God’s heart for those who weren’t invited at all.
Believe it or not, during her life, Mother Theresa was criticized by other Christians for her willingness to minister and provide care for men, women and children, regardless of who they were, or what they believed, and without insisting on conversion. She answered simply, “We treat all as children of God. They are our brothers and sisters. We show great respect for them.” It is no different than Jesus’ willingness to treat others, like Samaritans and Canaanites, as children of God.
800 years ago, St. Francis of Assisi established his order, saying, “Whoever may come to us, whether friend or foe, a thief or a robber, let him be kindly received. Should there be one anywhere in the world who has sinned, no matter how great, after seeing your face, let him not go away without having shown him mercy.” This doesn’t mean that anything goes, or that everything’s relative, or that it’s time to take down our prisons and dismantle the justice system. It means that even within these, there can be acts of mercy, kindness, human dignity …graciousness.
So, in our own lives, we’ve been saved; we have a relationship with this loving God, our Father through Jesus Christ; How will others know? Through signs, our actions and words--small or large--whenever we are gracious, especially when it’s undeserved and unexpected.
One of the books I read while in the hospital was by a pastor as he discovered the unconditioned love and grace of God, and he began to finally understand that salvation isn’t just about escaping from hell and getting into heaven. Salvation is a loving, growing and deepening relationship with God, and it is played out in the way we live in the world, signs of the grace given and within us, flowing out.
He wrote: “My perspective on the purpose of life changed. Salvation became as a lifelong adventure in which God is gently and patiently drawing us away from self-absorption and toward authentic relationship with God and one another. The point of life was no longer to get saved. The purpose of life was to live graciously.” [Live graciously.]
And later he says, “I’ve committed to living my life in such a way that others are drawn to God. …I was reminded when I was growing up that I might be the only Bible that someone ever reads.” For some people, the first bit of God’s Word they will ever encounter… is us. Let us be gracious words.
In our Psalm lesson that we read responsively, verse 4 reads, “They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright; they are gracious, merciful, and righteous.” Verses 8-9: “Their hearts are steady, they will not be afraid; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes. [That would be the forces of darkness, greed, hatred, injustice. Instead,] they have distributed freely, they have given to the poor, their righteousness, that righteousness, endures forever.” Righteousness, even the Hebrew word for righteous, tzedek, is almost synonymous with generosity and gracious living. What we do in this life does echoe in eternity, in the Kingdom of God.
We are called to be living signs of God’s grace…to believe and trust the grace in us so much that it spills out in the way we encounter and treat others, strangers, friends, family, husbands and wives, and people we don’t even like.
I heard about a heated council meeting in which two of the members, both good and respected were vehemently disagreeing. Finally, one of them stood up and stormed out. Everyone was a bit shocked; it was out of character. Fifteen minutes later, he came back with a basin of water, a towel over his shoulder, and in silence he knelt, removed his opponent’s shoes and socks, washed and dried his feet. Finally, he stood and said, “Please forgive me. I’ve treated you badly. I realized after I left that, if you are so passionate about this, you must have good reasons. I need to listen to you because, even if we disagree, your opinion is important. You matter to me” Living graciously. We don’t have to roll over, but we don’t have to win. It isn’t about the goal. It’s how we treat people on our way to it. We simply remember that the Creator’s fingerprints and love are found in every living being, and we act on that truth.
In the interest of converting others, some Christians will ask the question, “If you were to die tonight, where would you spend eternity?”
But here’s a question I’d like you to really think about… “If you live tomorrow, what kind of life will it be?”
May the peace which passes all understanding guard your hearts in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Let Go, Let God, pt. 2 - Letting God
Sermon prepared by Gregory S. Kaurin, pastor
for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA, 8/8/10
Texts: Genesis 15:1-6, Luke 12:32-40
Let Go, Let God, Pt. 2 – Letting God
In our Old Testament lesson, this was years after Abram was first told he’d have land and become the father of many nations. Now he was even older. If he was in a rut before, it should’ve been deeper. If he had doubts, they should’ve grown higher by now. Could he really trust this voice? This promise? This God? Once again God was dragging this old man Abram out and had him look at the stars, “Count them if you can; so shall your descendants be.”
And then the vision was over. He was still just old Abram married to old Sarai. No children dropped out of the sky that night. Everything was the same as the night before… except this, Genesis 15:6, “And [Abram] believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” I always thought “reckon” was a cowboy word, so it’s kind of funny reading it in the Bible. Reckon means calculate or figure, or—if you go back to the 1400’s—it meant to narrate. God looked at Abram, and saw that contrary to any evidence and contrary to the facts, he trusted God—that it would work out fine. He trusted God, and in God’s mathematics, his faith, his simple trust equaled righteousness, being right with God, a level relationship, a new story, a new path, a new kind of life.
That’s what changed. Abram let go, and he let God. He trusted God to do his work. It wasn’t that Abram laid back and did nothing from that day onward—far from it—but it was with a new attitude of trust, hope, and expectation. He still made mistakes, big ones. He still had scary, frustrating and challenging times ahead of him. But Abraham was going to face them head on, with a positive attitude, knowing that with God all things are possible.
That’s how to clear hurdles. And if by chance we take a tumble, that’s how to stand back up. We trust God, but not just some beliefs we have about him, not just some theology, but his love for us. So long as he trusted God, that God would remain faithful to his promises, Abraham knew that he was on a right path with God, no matter how crooked it got.
We are those descendants, those stars that Abraham couldn’t count. We are royal heirs of his kingdom. No matter how dented, tarnished, polished or straight, that crown is on your head. I don’t care how high or low, weak or strong, lost or found you are this morning; you belong, you belong to God. Believe his promises, that he has a destiny for you, and that he sees in you and in each of us a way to reach the world with his love and passion. You can stand back up… not by your own power, but by the strength of the Spirit. Faith heals, if not always the body, then at least the soul and the journey.
Hebrews, chapter 11 preaches about this faith of Abraham. I read a commentary on that chapter that said faith is grounded in a vision of God that is worthy of praise, a vision that is discerned by spiritual people and great minds, is authenticated, or given evidence, by signs, miracles, and the experiences of people right up to our time, a vision that is confirmed by millions of believers over thousands of years, and a vision of God that is nourished and sustained, here in a community of worship and praise. [*See end for the exact wording.] I like all those verbs: we have experienced and we preach a vision of God that is worthy, discerned, authenticated, confirmed, nourished and sustained. You can stand on that. You can make it through. We can stand. We can jump through hurdles, or knock them down.
One of our members went through a bitter divorce years ago. A little over a couple decades went by, and one of their kids was getting married. He knew he’d have to face his ex-wife, and even after all that time, he admitted still being deeply hurt and angry. How would he face her, deal with her, say anything to her. The whole trip he could imagine lashing out, or wishing he could get her to apologize or admit. But they arrived, and there she was, and instead he said a strength and power and peace came over him, gave him the strength to open his arms and give her a hug, a hug she somehow accepted. It isn’t that reality changed, it’s not that the hurts went away… but that faith can heal our relationship with God, and change the way we walk on this world, or into situations. Because of the faith given to him by God and nourished and sustained in his church, he found a different, more forgiving and healthy path. God brought a little life into a desolate desert.
That’s what I mean when I say that letting go and letting God isn’t about giving up, or floating through life. It is a lifelong prayer to face life with a more positive knowledge that we will make it through. This moment, no matter how good or bad is not the end of the matter. The end of the matter, even the end of the world or universe, is in the hand of a creative, loving and able God. We can stand, we can make it through, we can clear hurdles…only because we trust God to see us through them. By grace we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ. By the Spirit working through our faith in that gospel promise, we will find and create paths to reach others with the love of Christ.
This past Friday evening, I was watching a cartoon special with my wife and son. In the cartoon, Phineas and Ferb are a couple of young school boys who build amazing and impossible contraptions that provide all kinds of adventures and fun for themselves and the entire Danville community. They often end with some kind of musical montage, and it’s the lyrics that I really enjoyed in this last one:
Tell me what you want to do today
All we need is a place to start
If we have heart, we'll make it
'Cause we're not messing around.
Yes we can dream it, do it, build it, make it.
I know we can really take it to the limit
before the sun goes down
…At first it seemed implausible, but we did the impossible.
Time is what you make of it, so take a chance
Life is full of music, so you oughta’ dance.
Okay, parts of it seem corny, like childish idealism. But if so, then let’s enter this kingdom that Jesus talks about as children, trusting our God… not that I or we can do anything, but that with God, by the strength of his Spirit, and with the greater goals of reaching people, hungry people, or the next generation with positive, accepting, and forgiving love from our God. We need to trust this vision of God, so that we can pass it on.
Jesus started his parable of the Master’s return in the gospel lesson not with fear, but with the same words that God used with Abram in the first lesson, “Don’t be afraid.” “Don’t be afraid, little flock. For it’s your Father’s desire, his good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” We stay prepared for the coming of the master, if you caught it, by our faith in him, and by reflecting his generosity and his desire to give his kingdom away to others, by letting go of our stuff, using all of it for the sake of others, through almsgiving, generosity, acceptance, and positive actions in the world.
This is what I believe; it’s what keeps me going as a pastor, it’s what helps me find joy as a husband and father. I know we can do amazing things, and that God does and will do amazing things through us. Our faith is what gives us strength, inspires, binds and uses our gifts, and God reckons it to us as righteousness.
Tell me what you want to do today;
This is a place to start.
God gives us the heart, and we'll make it.
We can dream it, do it, build it, make it.
By his strength we can take it to new limits
before the sun finally goes down.
…At first it can seem implausible, but God did the impossible.
So this time is what you make of it, take a chance.
Life is full of music; join the dance.
[* Here’s the quote: “Faith is grounded in a divine revelation that is worthy of assent, that is discerned by spiritually sensitive faculties, that is authenticated by signs, wonders, miracles and the work of the Spirit, that is confirmed by cross-generational testimony, and by deliverance from sin, and that is nourished and sustained in a community of worship and praise. Such faith rightly provides…full assurance and lasting conviction. Faith is indeed ‘the assurance for things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen.’” – William J. Abraham, “Faith, Assurance, and Conviction” in Ex Auditu, 2003.]
for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA, 8/8/10
Texts: Genesis 15:1-6, Luke 12:32-40
Let Go, Let God, Pt. 2 – Letting God
In our Old Testament lesson, this was years after Abram was first told he’d have land and become the father of many nations. Now he was even older. If he was in a rut before, it should’ve been deeper. If he had doubts, they should’ve grown higher by now. Could he really trust this voice? This promise? This God? Once again God was dragging this old man Abram out and had him look at the stars, “Count them if you can; so shall your descendants be.”
And then the vision was over. He was still just old Abram married to old Sarai. No children dropped out of the sky that night. Everything was the same as the night before… except this, Genesis 15:6, “And [Abram] believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” I always thought “reckon” was a cowboy word, so it’s kind of funny reading it in the Bible. Reckon means calculate or figure, or—if you go back to the 1400’s—it meant to narrate. God looked at Abram, and saw that contrary to any evidence and contrary to the facts, he trusted God—that it would work out fine. He trusted God, and in God’s mathematics, his faith, his simple trust equaled righteousness, being right with God, a level relationship, a new story, a new path, a new kind of life.
That’s what changed. Abram let go, and he let God. He trusted God to do his work. It wasn’t that Abram laid back and did nothing from that day onward—far from it—but it was with a new attitude of trust, hope, and expectation. He still made mistakes, big ones. He still had scary, frustrating and challenging times ahead of him. But Abraham was going to face them head on, with a positive attitude, knowing that with God all things are possible.
That’s how to clear hurdles. And if by chance we take a tumble, that’s how to stand back up. We trust God, but not just some beliefs we have about him, not just some theology, but his love for us. So long as he trusted God, that God would remain faithful to his promises, Abraham knew that he was on a right path with God, no matter how crooked it got.
We are those descendants, those stars that Abraham couldn’t count. We are royal heirs of his kingdom. No matter how dented, tarnished, polished or straight, that crown is on your head. I don’t care how high or low, weak or strong, lost or found you are this morning; you belong, you belong to God. Believe his promises, that he has a destiny for you, and that he sees in you and in each of us a way to reach the world with his love and passion. You can stand back up… not by your own power, but by the strength of the Spirit. Faith heals, if not always the body, then at least the soul and the journey.
Hebrews, chapter 11 preaches about this faith of Abraham. I read a commentary on that chapter that said faith is grounded in a vision of God that is worthy of praise, a vision that is discerned by spiritual people and great minds, is authenticated, or given evidence, by signs, miracles, and the experiences of people right up to our time, a vision that is confirmed by millions of believers over thousands of years, and a vision of God that is nourished and sustained, here in a community of worship and praise. [*See end for the exact wording.] I like all those verbs: we have experienced and we preach a vision of God that is worthy, discerned, authenticated, confirmed, nourished and sustained. You can stand on that. You can make it through. We can stand. We can jump through hurdles, or knock them down.
One of our members went through a bitter divorce years ago. A little over a couple decades went by, and one of their kids was getting married. He knew he’d have to face his ex-wife, and even after all that time, he admitted still being deeply hurt and angry. How would he face her, deal with her, say anything to her. The whole trip he could imagine lashing out, or wishing he could get her to apologize or admit. But they arrived, and there she was, and instead he said a strength and power and peace came over him, gave him the strength to open his arms and give her a hug, a hug she somehow accepted. It isn’t that reality changed, it’s not that the hurts went away… but that faith can heal our relationship with God, and change the way we walk on this world, or into situations. Because of the faith given to him by God and nourished and sustained in his church, he found a different, more forgiving and healthy path. God brought a little life into a desolate desert.
That’s what I mean when I say that letting go and letting God isn’t about giving up, or floating through life. It is a lifelong prayer to face life with a more positive knowledge that we will make it through. This moment, no matter how good or bad is not the end of the matter. The end of the matter, even the end of the world or universe, is in the hand of a creative, loving and able God. We can stand, we can make it through, we can clear hurdles…only because we trust God to see us through them. By grace we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ. By the Spirit working through our faith in that gospel promise, we will find and create paths to reach others with the love of Christ.
This past Friday evening, I was watching a cartoon special with my wife and son. In the cartoon, Phineas and Ferb are a couple of young school boys who build amazing and impossible contraptions that provide all kinds of adventures and fun for themselves and the entire Danville community. They often end with some kind of musical montage, and it’s the lyrics that I really enjoyed in this last one:
Tell me what you want to do today
All we need is a place to start
If we have heart, we'll make it
'Cause we're not messing around.
Yes we can dream it, do it, build it, make it.
I know we can really take it to the limit
before the sun goes down
…At first it seemed implausible, but we did the impossible.
Time is what you make of it, so take a chance
Life is full of music, so you oughta’ dance.
Okay, parts of it seem corny, like childish idealism. But if so, then let’s enter this kingdom that Jesus talks about as children, trusting our God… not that I or we can do anything, but that with God, by the strength of his Spirit, and with the greater goals of reaching people, hungry people, or the next generation with positive, accepting, and forgiving love from our God. We need to trust this vision of God, so that we can pass it on.
Jesus started his parable of the Master’s return in the gospel lesson not with fear, but with the same words that God used with Abram in the first lesson, “Don’t be afraid.” “Don’t be afraid, little flock. For it’s your Father’s desire, his good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” We stay prepared for the coming of the master, if you caught it, by our faith in him, and by reflecting his generosity and his desire to give his kingdom away to others, by letting go of our stuff, using all of it for the sake of others, through almsgiving, generosity, acceptance, and positive actions in the world.
This is what I believe; it’s what keeps me going as a pastor, it’s what helps me find joy as a husband and father. I know we can do amazing things, and that God does and will do amazing things through us. Our faith is what gives us strength, inspires, binds and uses our gifts, and God reckons it to us as righteousness.
Tell me what you want to do today;
This is a place to start.
God gives us the heart, and we'll make it.
We can dream it, do it, build it, make it.
By his strength we can take it to new limits
before the sun finally goes down.
…At first it can seem implausible, but God did the impossible.
So this time is what you make of it, take a chance.
Life is full of music; join the dance.
[* Here’s the quote: “Faith is grounded in a divine revelation that is worthy of assent, that is discerned by spiritually sensitive faculties, that is authenticated by signs, wonders, miracles and the work of the Spirit, that is confirmed by cross-generational testimony, and by deliverance from sin, and that is nourished and sustained in a community of worship and praise. Such faith rightly provides…full assurance and lasting conviction. Faith is indeed ‘the assurance for things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen.’” – William J. Abraham, “Faith, Assurance, and Conviction” in Ex Auditu, 2003.]
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