Reformation

This is my sermon from Reformation Sunday, 10/28/18, preached at Bemidji United Methodist Church, the second time I've preached there.

Hebrew Scripture: Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Gospel: Mark 10:46-52

Grace and Peace to you from God our Creator, who formed the universe and continues to create and reform, and from Jesus the Christ, Amen

Many scolded him, telling him to be quiet, but he shouted even louder, “Son of David, show me mercy!”

Show me mercy… Show me mercy, as a Lutheran who lives for such a day as this. Today is Reformation Sunday, for Lutherans and all children of the Reformation. Most of us in the Lutheran Church celebrate this Sunday as a kind of homecoming, a reminder of why we’re here, who we are as Lutherans and what those 95 theses on the door of the church mean for us, now 501 years later.
And, in a state of humility and honesty, I was surprised to see that Methodists such as yourselves remember such a day. Some of us Lutherans tend to forget that you folks are children of the Reformation yourselves.

Because being a Lutheran in a state like Minnesota is relatively easy. With towns throughout the state with more Lutheran churches than bars, with many public officials claiming Lutheran heritage… It’s easy to assume everyone’s Lutheran on a day like today. Last year was the biggest homecoming yet. It was the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 theses, the dawn of the Reformation. So much emphasis was placed on what happened when, and why… that some folks neglected to look forward to the 501st, and beyond.

Once your Church is 500 years old… well, then what? Then you start bringing your truth to the Methodists that’s what… Well, okay, maybe that’s not everybody’s plan, but here I am anyway.
Nah, you folks have your own reformers, John and Samuel Wesley, and many others. With a similar story to Luther, by leaving the Church of his upbringing and claiming ownership of a different set of beliefs, John Wesley helped lead a movement that would eventually become the United Methodist Church. By standing up for what they thought was right, they stood apart from the powers that be, and persecuted for that. They shouted out into the crowd, calling for their Savior, the Son of David, and the crowds rebuked them.

Therefore, I relent and find comfort on dust and ashes.

So God and Satan made a wager about Job, to see how much horror Job could manage. Throughout the book of Job, he loses all his stuff, piece by piece, and he spends the next chapters dialoguing with God about this and that, then God tells him what’s what, and Job finally tells God, that he’s had enough.

After losing practically everything, Job considers all that he had, and the power of God, and decides that no matter what, God’s got this. God’s got whatever is in store for Job, and Job still finds comfort in the dust and ashes.

Seeing this, God replaces everything for Job, doubles his possessions, and Job’s friends come to celebrate with everyone and everything that Job had received back. God re-formed all that Job had lost, because God might have been reformed herself.

But for the Jewish people, there was no second half to that story, metaphorically. In undergrad, I had a retired Jewish rabbi as my professor of religious studies, and he always said that he was alive because of an accident. That he wasn’t meant to be there, because if weaponized anti-semitism hadn’t almost succeeded, he wouldn’t have been there. As much as people can believe that racism died with the Civil Rights Act, people can believe that anti-semitism died with the Holocaust. Neither of which is true, as we saw this week with the attacks in Georgia and Pittsburgh.

With the realities of an increased surge of racism and anti-semitism over the last couple years, we cannot glaze over conversations about Luther and Wesley without acknowledging that their feelings about Jewish people were horrifically misplaced, and if you need examples, you have google searches at your fingertips when you get home. Let’s just say that one of those reformers had a treatise called “On the Jews and their Lies” and it wasn’t Wesley.

The Jewish people have had to live with the realities of dust and ashes since the beginning of the diaspora in the first century, but in a post-Holocaust world, they still live with the realities of anti-semitism. With the wide range of examples such as yesterday’s horrific attacks in Pittsburgh and Christian well-meaning conversations about Jesus’s disagreements with the Pharisees. Anti-semitism is still prolific and we need to acknowledge our part in that as Christians and children of the Reformation.

As Christians and children of the Reformation, we can acknowledge and live into the truth that our Abrahamic siblings, our Jewish and Muslim neighbors, see Jesus of Nazareth differently than we do, but we can and should all live side by side for each other in God’s glory. Because the Jesus narrative is important for us Christians, and we know that and profess that daily. As much as Jewish and Muslim faith practices are important and lived out daily for Jewish and Muslim folks. Jesus and the disciples lived in a pluralistic world. Jesus was a descendant of the Davidic line, and was a reformer of his time, reframing some laws, bending and breaking others for the needs of the people. Like Bartimaeus.

Many scolded him, telling him to be quiet, but he shouted even louder, “Son of David, show me mercy!”

Bartimaeus was blind. Probably an outcast his whole life. Probably known for his outbursts. Probably a student of scripture, who had been awaiting the Messiah to pass through town. It’s curious how the blind beggar references David, who kicked out the blind and lame from the Jerusalem Temple in 2 Samuel. Yet Jesus arrives in town and hears Bartimaeus’ cries, despite the crowd’s best effort to squelch them. Jesus calls him forward. Suddenly, the crowd changes their tune. “Be encouraged! Get up! He’s calling you.” they say. Huh. Funny how the bullies become the wise ones when the teacher comes around.

The standard healing story continues with the eventual healing and the restoration of sight because of his faith, which is honestly a difficult path to go down, and another different sermon based on that - but what I wanted to focus on was not the healing because of faith - but the voice crying out for a savior. Because in truth, healing stories like these in the Gospels are difficult to mesh with progressive mainline 21st century thought. Again, a different sermon for a different time, but what the Spirit is calling out to me is the yearning in Bartimaeus.

This yearning of a societal outcast, which in truth is a much more common story throughout scripture than healing, but is quite apparent even in a modern era. How many examples of our current news are there, of voices crying out for a savior, only for the people in power to squelch them?

What about the thousands of children in cages at the border, or the unfairly incarcerated prisoners throughout the country? Or the hundreds of fleeing refugees seeking asylum from a government destroyed - by the same country that will soon likely deny them asylum?

And then, a document circulates with the intention to disregard the legal rights of all transgender folks such as myself… when all these voices are crying out for help, for salvation from their horrors, and the cries all fall on leaders unwilling to listen… When will the message of this Gospel, of a Messiah who declares that the two commandments that supersede all other the others are these - to love God and to love your neighbor - when will that message break through the crowd trying to silence the outcasts? As the Psalmist writes, How Long O Lord?

As Christians and children of the Reformation, we believe and profess that all are saved by God’s freely given Grace, through our faith in Christ. We believe and profess that Christ lived and died to save us all from our own broken humanity. Our Messiah, the Son of David who came into this world to save us from ourselves.

Anti-semitism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia are all evils that we are called to fight against in the name of the one who sent us. So that we may in turn go out into the world and hear the cries of the people who lose everything and yet cling to what they have left, and be the voices to the voiceless. Christ showed God’s love so that we may in turn show our love for our neighbors.

It’s a big world, and it’s going to take more than Lutherans and Methodists do something about it. Together, we can begin our own reformation in Bemidji, where we continue and build upon previous work, to make our own corner of the world better for our neighbors. Paul and Babe were said to clear forests for people to have homes. Together, we can begin our reformation and continue making Bemidji a better home for us all.

Amen.

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This is my second sermon preached at New Salem Lutheran in Turtle River, MN, preached on 8/12/18.

Epistle: Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2
Gospel: John 6:35, 41-51

Grace and Peace to you from God, our Loving Creator, and from the Bread of Life, Jesus the Christ, Amen

Two young 7th graders were sitting in the back of science class, when one says to the other, “I’m sorry for all the wrongs I’ve ever caused you.” The other 7th grader looks befuddled, but thanks the first one anyway.

Robert is the first one’s name, and that might not have been the exact words he said to me, but it was something similar. You see, Robert grew up in a conservative denomination of Christianity known as the Apostolic Christians, and in order to become a baptized member of his church, he was to atone for every one of his sins by repenting to everyone he had wronged. This meant calling up relatives far away in other states, and as it happened, also classmates sitting next to him in science class.
Maybe to another 7th grader this wouldn’t have piqued their curiosity. But maybe another 7th grader wasn’t raised in the church from day one, and maybe another 7th grader wasn’t in desperate need for a friend.

So, rather than just thanking him and going on my merry way, I asked the best question. “Why?”... I asked him “Why” because I was curious. I didn’t think many other people in my grade went to church as often as I did.

Asking that question, followed by many other questions about his faith, and in turn telling him about mine, sparked a friendship that is still strong to this day, nearly 20 years later. Sure, we had done projects together before, and we knew each other well enough, as I knew most of the other kids in my grade pretty well. But it was in sharing a piece of ourselves that we found common ground.
This piece was the Bread of Life. We broke bread when we discussed our faiths, for the founder of our differing faiths was the same, Jesus the Christ, our Bread of Life.

“Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35 NRSV)

So this is week three of the infamous five week journey of bread. Remember last time I preached, and all I wanted to do was preach about Jesus feeding people with bread? Well, remember the week after, was when we actually talked about Jesus feeding people, and how we should all go out and help one another, and talk to one another, and be with one another. In this third week of the bread journey, the text focuses on the journey from Manna to Jesus, and Jesus gives the Jewish people context as to where he comes from. Jesus centers himself on the history of the Jewish people, his people, and says to them that when the Israelites were in the wilderness and they asked for Manna, they received it, but eventually died. Jesus offers the bread of life for all to have eternal life with God.

This passage is about hope and the freedom found in Christ, not for condemning non-believers. Because as the writer of our second lesson writes, “So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.” (Ephesians 4:25 NRSV) When the author was writing to the people of Ephesus, they were writing to a mixed audience of both Jewish and Greek people. A diverse crowd. So sensing the diversity, the author calls for unity in a few places, and reiterates in our lesson for today that this diversity does not have to be a point of contention, but rather a uniting factor. The author continues, “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.”

So what do we do when we hear a different thought than our own? How do we live in a plural existence like the people in Ephesus?

Because we all know that for some people, this time in our lives is the most politically divided time they’ve experienced. To the point that people can’t even bring up the word politics without people shuffling in their seats. I know this isn’t specific to our time right now, but isn’t the old axiom that one never brings up politics or religion at a social gathering?
Or in church?

The story I told about my friend Robert bringing up his religious beliefs is a safe story to tell, because Robert was coming from his Christian worldview. Albeit different than my Christian worldview… but either way, a story about a Christian sharing their beliefs with another Christian is a pretty safe story to tell in a sermon.

But I’ve had a few more faith conversations with other people from different religions and different religious worldviews. When I worked with Somali immigrant children in Saint Cloud, I’d ask my fellow Somali tutors about Islam, and I would in turn talk about my view on Christianity. Again, differing points of view, but we found surprising commonality. A friend of mine has gotten both local and national press because of the work she did on her pastoral internship, holding an interfaith dialogue between Christians and Muslim leaders in the small southern Minnesota town of Dawson. Pastor Mandy France invited her local doctor and the medical director of the hospital in Dawson, Dr. Aziz Virji to hold interfaith dialogue with members of the community.

She addressed the inflammatory rhetoric of rampant Islamophobia head on by holding peaceful conversations about Islam and Christianity. Sharing of one’s faith is important as Christians, and it is also equally important to listen and learn from our neighbors of different faiths.

“Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:31-32 NRSV)

So when we share our beliefs, our faith stories, our political beliefs with one another - we share a piece of ourselves that tells us something deeper than skin-deep. Sometimes you can look at other people and take a reasonable guess at their religious affiliation due to outward symbols, whether it’s a cross around a neck, a hijab around a face, a turban around a head or a kippah on top - along with many other religious symbols - but other times our religious beliefs aren’t so public.

Similarly, our political beliefs may be publicly known, especially if one is a public official, but nothing is certain. But when we go the extra mile and share these bits of ourselves with one another, we are breaking bread and holding the sacred in common with one another.

And, in reality, that’s what we do every Sunday here. We each have differing political and maybe even religious beliefs, but we cast all those aside when we come to the table. The celebration of Holy Communion is one of the Christian Church’s great equalizers, where we take what is different about ourselves, and cast it aside for the common practice of confessing our sins in public confession, and coming to the table together, to share in the Blood of Christ and the Bread of Life. That together with other Christians, we share in the physical manifestation of God’s freely given Grace. Grace that is bestowed to all of us, to save us from ourselves, for the glory of God.

Give us today our daily bread, we pray together. Our daily Bread of Life that goes beyond the physical bread in communion, goes beyond the sharing of ourselves to one another - but to our daily needs that make us who we are as human beings and as beloved Children of God. We have been given our Bread of Life to not only have for ourselves, but to share with one another, whatever we can give - for the benefit of one another.

One last thought - in this country, we share our political beliefs when we take action and vote. As a person standing in this pulpit, I cannot legally or in good conscience tell you who to vote for, but I can encourage you to share your political voice by voting on Tuesday. This Tuesday, share the Bread of Life by doing your duty as an American, and especially as a Minnesotan - and vote.

When those two kids shared their faith with one another in the back of science class, it birthed a great friendship. Robert and I have been friends for nearly 20 years, and today Robert turns 30. He’s celebrating it by breaking bread with some of his friends.

Vote on Tuesday. Share the Bread of Life.

Amen.

Justice and Righteousness

This is my sermon from 7/22/2018, preached at New Salem Lutheran in Turtle River, MN.

1st Lesson: Jeremiah 23:1-6
Gospel: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Grace and Peace to you from God our Loving Creator and from the Savior of the World, Jesus the Christ, Amen

When Pastor Terry asked me to preach for today, I of course obliged and congratulated him on finally taking a Sunday off. You can see how well that worked. But I looked up the Gospel text for today. Without noticing the giant chunk of missing text in between verse 34 and 56, I proceeded to read the entire second half of the chapter. It turns out that there’s a lovely text about Jesus feeding 5,000 people with a couple loaves of bread and a couple fish. Ever heard that story? Ever heard that sermon? Well, it turns out, according to the text in front of you and that I just read, this is not that text. Another sermon for another day. Today, we start with a call for us all from long ago:

 “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”
A righteous branch… When the Hebrew text uses both a “righteous” branch and that this king will execute justice and “righteousness” - it’s the same root word in Hebrew. This “righteous branch” that Jeremiah is prophesying about is the Messiah, and this phrase will come again in Jeremiah in 10 more chapters. The cool thing about this idea of righteousness is that in both Hebrew and Greek, the words for “Justice” and “Righteousness” can come from the same word.

So, Jeremiah prophesies the coming of a King/Messiah that will be just and righteous, and thus rule with justice and righteousness, along the line of David. As Christians, we believe and profess that this person descended from David, is our Messiah, Jesus the Christ.
Think about that for a bit - to be righteous in the face of God, is also to fight for justice for your fellow human being.

But what does justice and righteousness look like in 21st century Northern Minnesota? What does it look like for you in your life?

Jeremiah got to this prophecy with a warning. “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord.” He continues to talk about the people of Israel and how God will take care of them - and then pull in the home run - God will send a king for righteousness and justice.

And then we fast forward in the text to our Gospel lesson today, to that king for righteousness and justice. Jesus and his disciples were leaving for a deserted place, because they needed some rest. But people saw them coming, and arrived before the disciples were able to. As they got ashore, Jesus noticed the people, and he felt compassion for them. Like sheep without a shepherd, they were.

What does this king of righteousness and justice do? He heals their sick and gives them rest. In another sermon for another day, he takes some bread and fish and feeds 5,000 of them. But the Messiah’s work is never finished, because in the text, after he feeds them, he arrives in Genesserat and heals more people in need of his ministry. Jesus, the tireless shepherd for lost sheep.

Jeremiah warns of shepherds who destroy and scatter. Jesus heals, feeds, teaches those who the disciples would rather not worry about.

When I was in seminary, we were tasked with framing our future ministry around images of Jesus in the bible - such as - king, shepherd, savior, healer, feeder, teacher - and whatever we thought of as how Jesus was looked at in the bible. I believe my first answer to that question was shepherd, as one who walks alongside the flock and tends the flock. If you were to imagine your own leadership qualities, what archetype of Jesus would you be? I think if I were to imagine what archetype of Jesus I’d like to live into right now, and I’m not saying this is 100% accurate of how I actually lead, but maybe something to reach toward - is the Jesus that flips tables in the temple. The Jesus that gets thrown out of his hometown and almost off a cliff for telling the people to take care of the poor and blind folks.

That might not be where you imagine yourself, and it’s likely not how people imagine pastors. Or people wanting to be pastors… but either way, we each have an idea of how we see Jesus and the role of our own ministry in the world.

Because whether you are called to be a pastor, or a teacher or a firefighter or a tradesperson, a nurse or a logger or an artist… Or whatever your calling in life is - God calls us to go into the world and live out a life of justice and righteousness with the king of justice and righteousness as our guide.

So, I ask again, what does justice and righteousness look like in 21st century Northern Minnesota? One thing I’ve noticed in my six months of living up here, is the income disparity. You can see the disparity in a bunch of different ways, but one concrete way is the home prices in the area. Tiffany and I are in the process of buying our first house in Bemidji, and while looking at prices, the range of affordable and definitely not affordable was interesting to see. While houses in town were seemingly more affordable, houses around the lake and out of town were significantly out of our price range.

We’re a couple of millenials with master’s degrees and more student debt than average house prices… and a couple kids… We stay above water, for the most part. But 24% of Bemidji, (where Turtle River is factored into), is living under the poverty line.  For reference, the state of Minnesota sits at 9.9%, as of 2017. With the average salary of about $33,000, for a family of four with one income, it's just barely above the poverty line. Over 2000 people in Bemidji live under the poverty line, and according to statewide statistics, a majority of those impoverished folks are children. What does justice look like to them?

Or what about the question of the copper-nickel mining in the Iron Range, just an hour or two to the east? Or the oil pipeline running through Leech Lake? What does environmental justice look like in an impoverished area with need for higher paying jobs? What does racial justice look like for nearby communities with generations of racial trauma?

“When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.”

Jesus the shepherd of lost sheep, the healer of broken wounds, the calmer of stormy seas, the teacher of hope, the savior of nations… however you see and feel his presence, the truth is this: Jesus the Christ came into this world to save the world from the world, because we are God’s world, and you are a beloved child of God. Jesus the Christ was all these things because the world needed and still needs these things, for you and me and the great big birch trees… For us all. Jesus the Christ saves the world from the world through the unshakeable Grace, Love and Mercy of God, bestowed to us all. This truth was prophesied through Jeremiah and others, lived out in the Gospels, and continues to live on through the work of people and communities like New Salem.

I’ve only just begun my journey in this area, but I’m excited for what the future holds for me and our family. I’m excited to see what the future holds for New Salem, Bemidji, and the rest of Northern Minnesota.

Jeremiah warned against leaders who destroyed and scattered. Against leaders that build walls instead of bridges, separate rather than unite. Then foretold about a king that would bring justice and righteousness to the world. We are called as Christians in 21st century Northern Minnesota to love and learn from our neighbors, and fight for justice and righteousness in our communities. This is not an assignment, but a call for us all from long ago.

Amen.

Symbols

This is the sermon I preached at Bemidji United Methodist on 7/15/18. It was the first time I'd ever preached at a Methodist congregation, but they gave me a warm welcome all the same. 

Epistle: Ephesians 1:3-14

Gospel: Mark 6:14-29

Grace and Peace to you from God our Loving Creator, and from Jesus the Christ, Amen

Paul was traveling along the countryside, and taking breaks along the way to work his trade. In the villages and towns, his name usually preceded him. Many didn’t know where he was from, but his work ahead of him was clear. He had many companions, but when Paul found his most trusted companion one day, his companion stayed with him from then on. Many stories were told about him, but one thing is clear: Paul Bunyan has left his mark in this town.

Yes, it’s true. Many businesses bear his name in this town, and the giant statue on the waterfront helps. But Brainerd and Akeley have their own Paul Bunyans… and Mahnomen has St. Urho… Alexandria has Ole the Viking… And Blackduck has, well… a black duck. Symbols of pride for their community populate this great state of ours but beyond the giant ball of twine… Perhaps one of the more powerful symbols of this great northern state, is Paul and Babe.

When I was still in high school, and no, it wasn’t just last year -  I had lived in Huntington Beach, California for a year. It’s a long story as to why I was there and why I came back, but suffice it to say - Life’s an adventure and I love Minnesota. I had a gym teacher there who was also a cultured geography teacher. He would wear a combo of western boots, western suit jackets and t-shirts when he was teaching class. Anyway, one of the first things he asked me when I started school there, and told him I was from Minnesota - was what I knew about the great Paul Bunyan.

I think I told him about Paul Bunyan chopping down all the trees of western Minnesota and Babe getting in a tantrum and therefore creating all kinds of holes in Minnesota and how the lakes in Minnesota come from Babe’s tears… But it doesn’t really matter what I told him, I don’t think it mattered to him. I was knowledgeable and proud of my place of origin. He called me, “Minnesota” from then on.

When Paul the Apostle was on his journeys, he wrote letters to churches across the Roman and Greek territories, and some folks in his name, wrote letters as well. Paul’s name preceded him, and he usually had friends waiting for him. He was tossed from his horse, tossed in jail, and tossed into the sea. But he wasn’t just representing himself. He knew where he came from, but he also knew the purpose of his work. He brought with him a message of his own source of pride, Jesus the Christ, and proclaimed the Gospel to all he passed.

This Gospel that would change lives from then on, and frankly change the course of history. Paul the Apostle spoke about Jesus the Christ so You the Minnesotan, or You the American, or You the Citizen of the World - would know the Promise and the Fullness of God in the form of God Incarnate. This radical Gospel of Jesus the Christ that boldly proclaimed that God Loves You - because you are God’s beloved children, and that love is shown through the Grace that is freely given. That we are forgiven for our failures, because it’s God’s plan to bring us all together, no matter what we can or cannot do - who we are or who we are not.

This is the message that Paul so freely offered to all, and is present in our lesson today and written by the followers of Paul. A message that still conquers and divides to this day, with people using it to both fight and defend injustices, calm or enrage people with and without faith. Being a representative of Jesus the Christ, being an apostle, a follower, a Christian - Whether Methodist or Lutheran, Catholic or Protestant, East or West - We can all hold on to the Truth that Christ lived and died for you and me and the piles of trees Paul Bunyan cut and Johnny Appleseed re-planted.

Being a representative of Jesus the Christ can be risky. In today’s service, we only read the one text from Ephesians, but in the Revised Common Lectionary that most Mainline congregations use - the Gospel text for today has little to do with Jesus, but with his cousin John the Baptizer. I’ll read that text since you don’t have it in front of you - Mark 6:14-29

14 King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, “John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.”
15 But others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” 16 But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”
17 For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. 18 For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19 And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, 20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. 21 But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. 22 When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.” 23 And he solemnly swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” 24 She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the baptizer.” 25 Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” 26 The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. 27 Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, 28 brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. 29 When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb. (Mark 6:14-29 NRSV)

Faith is a fickle thing. How far do we take our faith? John the Baptizer was Jesus’ cousin, and had immense faith in him. So much - that he was willing to die for his faith in the Law, and his faith in Jesus. But what happens when that immense faith truly does become a matter of life and death? How far are we willing to take this faith of ours? Our faith in Jesus the Christ informs us that Jesus conquered death so that death has no sting. That Jesus was resurrected and therefore we also have a resurrection like his. This is the promise that we as Christians carry with us, that Paul and other Apostles brought to the known world, and that we must carry on through our words and our actions.

For if we truly believe in life after death, if we as an institutional church, and I’m not just saying Lutherans or Methodists or Catholics, but the entirety of American Christianity - if we truly believe in life after death then we must not fear the unknown. We as Christians rounding the end of the 2nd decade into the 21st century cannot look into the face of Herod and simply continue to shrug in the name of civility.

Jesus the Christ - who lived and served with a bunch of outcasts - was anything but civil. Jesus the Christ who bent or broke many laws of his day to reach the marginalized, those who were cast out of society for one reason or another. Jesus the Christ who calmed the storms and burst the fishing nets. Jesus the Christ - who after a time of being uncivil - was punished for his lack of civility by the civil authorities and suffered and died because of a broken humanity. That broken humanity holds us back from seeing Christ in one another, and from being Christlike for one another.

So we work on ways to engage our community and embrace our neighbors. I’ve heard that Bemidji United Methodist is already becoming that neighborhood church. We hold onto the truth that Christ saves us from our sins through God’s ever-flowing Grace, Love and Mercy. We learn from our neighbors, especially those who have ancestors predating our own and those who are just beginning their American journey.

Because our American journey may seem to be populated with figures like Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed, but in truth the American journey is one of hardship and hope, bondage and free, and truths that should be self-evident.

Paul Bunyan the Lumberjack may be what Bemidji is known for, but it is my hope as I begin my own journey in Bemidji, that Bemidji is also known for radically welcoming and embracing the stranger and the neighbor. So that as Christians, Christ continues to be our Love and our Light to shine for one another.

Paul Bunyan had Babe and his axe. Paul of Tarsus had Christ and his pen. (and what large letters he could write with it) You and Me and the rest of humanity have Christ and his love and justice to spread to one another. With or without civility.

Amen.

Trickle

I preached this sermon yesterday at Faith Lutheran in Bagley, MN and it was the second time I've preached there.

Epistle: 2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Gospel: Mark 4:35-41

Grace and Peace to you from God our Loving Creator, and our Peace when our world is anything but peaceful, Jesus the Christ, Amen


Out and about in a boat, Jesus and his friends crossed the sea of Galilee after “throwing around” parables for a while. They left in the evening, and Jesus had decided to take a nap. This guy never gets a rest for long, because soon into their journey, the disciples are scared for their lives and wake him up. Now, I’ve maybe been in a boat at night once. I don’t think I’d like to repeat that practice, but I can assume by the text that these disciples were rightfully scared. Jesus wakes up from his nap, yells to the storm, “Peace, be Still!”, and the winds cease. Right then and there, done. No more storm. Then he asks why they were afraid, and questions their faith. Why? Because immediately afterward, the disciples then wonder aloud to each other… ‘who is this wise guy that can suddenly calm storms?’ Yeah, Jesus. Where was their faith?


Where was their faith when Jesus told them about the reign of God just hours earlier? Where is our faith in a Christ that can save us from the turmoils of this world? Because these days, it seems like one of those times when we need a Savior to just yell to the world, “Peace, Be Still!”. When children are taken away and put into cages, and now their families along with them… Like some dystopian allusion to days we thought were behind us, the world’s realities of yesteryear seem ever present.

And speaking of yesterday’s problems seeming ever present, the last time I was up in this pulpit, I casually mentioned something about a supposed peace talk between North Korea and the United States, and how I had thought that it had somehow vanished from the news. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize and say that I was absolutely wrong in that thought, thinking that it was just something the President said offhand. Well… as it turns out, it seems I should be paying more attention to this idea of a Space Force.


Because it’s storm season, both literally and figuratively. Random little trickles that don’t seem all that important, sometimes turn into boat-rocking fury overnight. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus starts his ministry right away, there is no birth narrative in this Gospel. He hits the ground running after his baptism. Jesus gets into the boat with his disciples because for the last few chapters, he’s been preaching and teaching and ministering to the people almost non-stop. He got into the boat at night, because he wanted to rest. How convenient that these texts of Jesus being overworked and seeking out rest - happen in the summer, when full-time preachers are seeking rest from the work of Lent and Easter and the end of the school year, and when students and teachers take their summer breaks.

What started out as a trickle, of calling the first disciples and asking people to “follow me”, slowly turned into more and more people following him. If you notice in the text, the Gospel writer points out that Jesus’ boat was not the only boat. What started out as a trickle was now a crowd - and that crowd had joined them out in the water. What seemed like a storm for just the disciples, was a storm for the entire crowd, so taking that into account - the disciples waking Jesus - becomes that much more urgent.

The first amount of rest this man gets, and he wakes up with the storm beating down on him and all he has to do is speak to the storm, and the storm goes away. Who is this man that can control the storms… Who is this man that talks about the reign of God, who is this man who casts out demons, heals the sick, mends the broken, feeds the hungry… all with a few words? He is Jesus the Christ, the Messiah who lives in and through us all.

But what began as a trickle, as a man who taught and preached to the people and had people following him, started doing so on the wrong day, with the wrong people, in the wrong place, and people started to notice. Those that knew the laws, started taking issue with Jesus bending the laws, and breaking the laws. Jesus started breaking laws, and the storm of his destiny started to brew. And as he came closer to Jerusalem, the closer he came to his death. And then Jesus the Christ, who was teaching, preaching, feeding, healing, curing, comforting, loving and listening to all the wrong people at the wrong time on the wrong side of the street, was placed on the wrong side of a tree, and died for you and me.

What started out as a trickle, became the storm that rivaled all storms, and God Godself, said “Peace, be still”.




And Jesus the Christ, who died on that tree for us all, was still for one night, and then another night, and then rose again the next morning. The broken humanity, our broken humanity, that put him on that tree, is forgiven. Our brokenness is mended through God’s faithfulness, through the God-given Grace, Love and Mercy that is bestowed for you, for me, for us all.

And it is that Grace, Love and Mercy, that God gives us and Christ showed for us, that we must be open to - open to the Spirit flowing through us, to show and live out to and through one another. That we share that Grace, Love and Mercy to our neighbors. Our Native neighbors, our Latino neighbors, our neighbors of color, and our queer and trans neighbors. For we are called to build bridges between people, not walls or cages.

Because all of us are beloved children of God. We were all children once, and some of us have children or even grandchildren of our own. One of the many things childhood teaches us is that the world is so much bigger than we can ever imagine, but when that world is squashed by someone far away making a far-reaching decision… how small that world begins to feel. That’s one heck of a life-altering storm.


“Peace, be still!” our Savior cried out to the storm, and the storm ceased. Our prayers can ask for peace in the region, and in our region, and for whatever storm is in our way. That’s the funny thing about peace. We can do all things through Christ, even create peace in our world. When we work together, with the Spirit to guide us, peace and justice will prevail.

The Apostle Paul wrote in our Epistle for today, “...as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (2 Corinthians 4-10 NRSV)

With Christ guiding us through the storms of our lives, the Peace that we seek will form out of our willingness to work together, embracing our differences to spread God’s Grace, Love and Mercy to our neighbors.

Beyond all else, let Peace and Love shine through.

Amen.

Loved

This is my first sermon after my internship ended in November, my first pulpit supply in 2018, and my first time at Faith Lutheran in Bagley. Wonderful congregation, beautiful 50's style sanctuary complete with a Formica altar rail. A lot of small town charm in that church. It was affirming and good to get back to what I was called to do.

Epistle: Ephesians 2:1-10
Gospel: John 3:14-21

Grace and Peace to you from God our Creator, and from our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus the Christ - 
Amen

Spring is in the air. Never mind the snow, but looking ahead at this week, Spring is in the air. I love Spring. The warm weather, the trees, the grass, the sound of that first rain, the birds coming back… it's the season of my birthday, my son's birthday, Lent and Easter… even the word “Lent” itself means “spring” after all. Softball and baseball and the opening of fishing on open water… Planting season for the farmers, budding season for the plants… so much hope of new life is present in the world of spring… I just love Spring.

When we love something, or someone, we take care of them, and maintain that relationship. I try to spend more time outdoors in the springtime, and likewise spend more time with those I love. What are some of the ways that you express your love?

God’s expression of love is right here in today’s Gospel lesson. It’s the bible verse you see at baseball games, in parking lots, on bumper stickers, shirts and tattoos. “For God so loved the world that [God] gave [God’s] only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NRSV) Or something to that effect. Of the bible verses that we memorize as kids in Sunday School and Confirmation - this one is probably the most popular. Because we love this verse, as Christians. God loves us. God loves the world. God loves you and me and the apple tree and there’s nothing we can do about it. God loved the world so much that God gave us Jesus the Christ to experience humanity for Godself, to show us how to live and to love and to care for one another. To teach and preach and share and care and to serve. God loved the world so much that God bestowed on us a Savior, to save us from our own broken humanity.

As Christians, we hold onto this verse, put it everywhere so we remember. As Lutherans - we have a double treat for this week, with these verses from Ephesians 2. In particular, Ephesians 2:8-9 are the backbone of our Lutheran understanding of justification by faith. That we are saved from our sins because of God’s Grace, expressed through our faith. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NRSV)

Love, grace, faith, belief… words that depend on one another and that are the building blocks of our relationship with the divine and each other. We show our love to those we hold dear by spending time with them and cooking and cleaning and taking out the garbage for them. How do we show our love with our neighbors? Our co-workers, our classmates, our friends? We may not cook for them and clean for them, but we may offer them support in their time of need. Love is what holds the world together. Some may say that it’s money that makes the world go round, but it’s love that holds the world together.

Did you folks see this in the news the other day? For the briefest of moments, news outlets were reporting that the leaders of North Korea and the United States were going to engage in face-face conversation. First, South and North Korea joined together in the Winter Olympic games, and then started engaging in more talks of peace, and then, for the briefest of moments, a glimmer of hope for peace between our two countries. Then reality set in and whatever happened might not, and it all disappeared from the news cycle. Something else to talk about.

Love is what brings people together. Love is what brought God to humanity, in the form of Jesus the Christ. But when love falls apart, when relationships between people begin to fray, and connections are lost… Then our broken humanity falls in between. We have a God that loves the world, continuing to create and love you and me and the evergreen tree, and then our humanity gets in the way. We begin to look inward, or belly-button focused as an old professor used to say. We start pointing out how people are different than us, and how that makes them better or worse than ourselves. We forget about seeing God in humanity, seeing God in the face of our neighbors, and then start thinking that someone needs to be treated differently because of what they look like, who they love, how much their clothes or cars or houses cost… We lose sight of God in each other.

When we lose sight of God in each other, we turn inward, and lash outward. Sometimes, even to the point of death. To paraphrase Paul the Apostle, even death on a cross. Because God loves the world, and God gave humanity Jesus the Christ, God Incarnate… and when humanity did what humanity does, humanity lived, loved, and broke apart, and lashed outward, to the point of death.

That’s why we’re all here, right? Here in this season of Lent, we have hope of spring, even with the piles of snow everywhere, but we know it’s coming. And yet here we are, in the middle of Lent and as Lutheran Christians in Northern Minnesota awaiting Springtime, we know what comes at the end of Lent. Easter doesn’t come without Good Friday. Springtime doesn’t come without the long and drawn-out winter.

Love falls apart, relationships fall apart, humanity falls apart, and somewhere in between it all, Christ hangs in the balance. Between all that we hold dear and all that we dread, Christ hangs in the balance. God is there between light and shadow because no matter what, that love, and that grace that is poured out on Calvary awaits us. Because God loves the world, and God gave us God’s son to hang in the balance between light and shadow because we have God’s grace, freely bestowed on us all. The Gospel writer continues in verse 17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:17 NRSV).

You are loved by a God that gave us a son. You are loved by a God that saves us all from our broken humanity, our sin, our greed, our hate, our bigotry, and calls us to in turn love one another. And when our broken humanity gets in the way, when our sights turn inward, and we lash outward, we know that Christ hangs in the balance. We know that our love and grace and forgiveness are expressions of God’s love and grace and forgiveness through our faith in God.

Spring is almost here. Lent is in full swing and the birds have just started to come back. Remember that you are loved, and to share that love with one another.

Amen.

Roles

This is my last sermon as Living Waters' pastoral intern, preached on 11/19/17. Tying together a difficult text to preach on, my last Sunday as their intern and the end of Transgender Awareness Week, I preached on the roles that we live and the concept of living between multiple roles.

Gospel: Matthew 25:14-30

Grace and Peace to you from God our Loving Creator, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, Amen.

Sometimes you’re the master, and sometimes you’re the third slave. Sometimes you’re the teacher, and sometimes you’re the student. This is my last Sunday at Living Waters as your intern. Well, that sure went quick. Yes, I’ve only been here a few months. And for some of you, that time might have seemed quicker, because half of my time here was the summer, and you may have not been here much in the summer. And that’s okay, it seems very quick for me too. In all reality, I’ve only been here since May as your intern, and even then, it’s only been two weekends per month. This is my only my 7th sermon as your intern. If I were a called pastor by myself in a solo call, that would be a month and a half of Sunday sermons. Three months if I were Prs. Denise or Todd. And for almost that entire time of the last few months, Jesus has been teaching parables in our Gospel texts. Parable after parable after parable. Jesus ‘throwing around’ ideas about God and the kin-dom of God.

Reading today’s Gospel lesson again and again, trying to wrap my head around how the master can be so cruel to that third slave whom he called “wicked and lazy”. And then in the parable, the master adds, “For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.

It seems discordant in my head, how this parable throws the master in such a light, even after he doesn’t deny that he reaped where he didn’t sow and gathered where he didn’t spread seed… He punished the slave for noticing and knowing better.

I spent days contemplating this text, knowing that this was my last sermon as your intern, and how was I ever going to speak a word of Grace into this? How was the Holy Spirit going to breathe life into this text?

And then it hit me. I was sitting in the first meeting of Saint Cloud’s first Minnesota Transgender Alliance at Peace United Church, listening to the stories of people I just met. I was thinking to myself how much I wanted to hear more of their story, to sit and console them in their grief, and connect them with resources and pray for them and then... I stopped myself and realized… I wanted to be their pastor. In that moment right there, in a meeting of fellow trans-identified people in this community, I had taken myself out of the realm of fellow trans person in need of help, and wanted so desperately to say something. But I stopped myself, because it wasn’t my job. At that moment in time, that’s not what I was there for.

Because sometimes you’re the teacher, and sometimes you’re the student. And I think I’ve struggled with that distinction on this internship. I think I’ve struggled with that difference for a while. But I’m going to venture a guess that I’m not the only one that has trouble at grappling with the distinction.
If we go back to the Gospel lesson, and put ourselves in the role of the slavemaster - well okay, let’s reframe it as boss, and we as a boss have employees that we entrust our work and energy. We leave on a business trip, and ask three employees to do some tasks for us. We give one a bigger task, but expect more out of her. We give another one a smaller task, but expect great things from them as well. And with the third employee, well, we have something small we want done, but think he’s up to the task. When we return from our trip, the first employee, well she did a fantastic job of completing the task for us, and she gets a promotion. The second employee, they also did a fantastic job on their task for us, so we give them a promotion also. The third employee, went digging in our desk. And he saw that we had other things going on, maybe we were on a secret job interview while on this trip and he found out about it because instead of completing the task we asked of him, he dug in our desk and found our secret.

The truth is, we were indeed going on a job interview while on this business trip, but nobody was supposed to know. So this third employee found out about it, and told everyone. Do we like this guy? I don’t think we’d be too happy with him digging in our stuff and not completing his task. He apparently had more nefarious reasons for doing what he did, so we fire him. We’re leaving soon anyway, might as well finish the job while we’re there.




After coming up with that story, I don’t want to be a boss, ever. But I know I’m called to be one. I know God is calling me to be a pastor, and in some capacities, I’m going to have to hire and maybe even have the power to fire people. Maybe some of you have that power yourself. Maybe some of you related to that story pretty well. Maybe I didn’t have to spell it out for us all in an allegorical way. Maybe we all could use a little reframing of our brains as well.

Jesus was in the temple, as he has been for a while now, throwing around parables about God and the kin-dom of God. Was Jesus the teacher or student? In our parable for today, is God the slavemaster or slave? Boss or third employee? In what ways are you teacher? Or a student?

Maybe it’s hard to picture Jesus in a subservient role as a student, or God, or yourself. A year ago, Tiffany and I were both students, grad students finishing up the second-to-last semester of grad school. For the the grand majority of the last 7 years, I was taking classes for the eventual goal of becoming an ordained pastor such as these two lovely folks. As two grad students raising two kids and aiming to achieve that goal of being pastor and social worker, we had blood, sweat and tears to prove how devoted we were to the goal of becoming our dreams.

But dreams don’t always turn out exactly how you’d thought, or hoped. Star Trek called the future, “The undiscovered country”. Try as hard as you can, work on the tasks laid before you, and without voluntarily going down a wrong path, sometimes you still end up in the outer darkness.
And even in that outer darkness, Christ is still there. I can’t give you an answer on when you should be the student or teacher, the boss or employee, the storyteller or listener. I can tell you that there are times in our lives when both make sense. When the roles between student and teacher, boss and employee, storyteller and listener, and slave and free - are not so different. Because Christ is with us in the difference, in the bonds between and outside of the poles.

Christ is with us in our joys and sorrows. Christ is with the victims of abuse. Christ is with those who will gather in the coming days to remember the 25 people killed for their gender identity and expression. Christ is with us in our fears of the future, and our hopes for tomorrow. Christ is with us in our life and in our death, as the One who conquered death, so that we all may have life, through the Love and Grace of God. 

Tiffany and I did both earn our degrees, and one day we’ll achieve our dreams. From the beginning of summer to the end of fall, the Yes Network to Meals on Wheels, and Vacation Bible School to Sunday School. From the study on Accidental Saints to Adult studies on Justice, the basics of and reading the Bible. And from Easter to almost-Advent, God has been present throughout this short internship at Living Waters. Grace has been shown, fun has been had and the teachers and students met in the middle. Community was formed, relationships built, and the members at Living Waters will continue doing what you do best.

I’ll leave you with words of Paul the Apostle, writing in his letter to the Galatians: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

Go in Peace, Living Waters.
Amen.