Pentecost 8c July 22 2007

Slide 1: Paul wrote Collosians 1:21
At one time you were separated from God. You were his enemies in your minds, and the evil things you did were against God. The Holy Bible : New Century Version

The Apostle Paul, in a letter to the church in Collosae, wrote boldly about his relationship with God and about all humanities' relationship with God revealed in Jesus. Paul said, up until meeting Jesus, he was God's enemy. Be honest; that goes for all of us, at some point in time we are God's enemies (Collosians 1:21). Paul is so very right about this. Even after we meet Jesus, we still often kick and scream, fighting hard against God in our sin and pride; but all that is beside the point that Paul is making here. In Jesus we meet the God who overcame human resistance in the cross and who overcomes our sin and pride so that He can do something completely new with us. We are no longer God's enemies. Instead we are the one's who Jesus came to save from meaninglessness and hopeless -- giving us the promise of something greater -- life beyond death.

Slide 2: In Christ the Good News became everything for Paul, Collosians 1:25, “I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,”

Paul's new life in Christ came with a commission. No longer God's enemy, he spread the Good News that God wanted his glory to shine in every person's life. Paul sees Christians as courageous followers of Jesus going into all the world with a message of hope. Gone are the barriers of ethnicity and class. Gone are all the old divisions of Jew and Gentile. Gone is the animosity between God and humanity. God's glory becomes clear in Jesus. Sin could not stop Jesus coming, the cross and death could not stop him from reaching into our lives.

Slide 3: In Christ the Good News becomes everything. Collosians 1:26
“the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints.” The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version,

God's glory was hidden from most of the world's people before Jesus. Paul word's to describe the situation (Collosians 1:26 & 2:2) μυστηρίου literally meant God's glory was a mystery, a secret just hidden from view. God's glory was revealed to ancient Israel; but the rest of the world's people knew only God's care for all the world, not God's personal care for them as individuals. In Jesus the glory of God is revealed for people of all ethnicities and creeds. In Jesus the secret is out; God's glory is revealed and God intends for that glory to reflect in each of our lives.

Slide 4: Image: Earth

OK. You might be saying. Sure up in heaven, in the sweet by and by, God intends to do something big and maybe its possible that he could use any of us to show his glory. But look around, you might say, we still live here on this earth. One wise Christian put it to me this way, “Forget the mumbo-jumbo about God's glory shining in us and tell us what it looks like when it happens.” He's so right. We have God who is involved in what happens on this earth and we should start talking about how God is going to do something in real life. We live in an age that knows war, violence, sin, and death. They are constant reminders for all of us that the Kingdom of God is only now coming into being. We, the church need to be courageous and live because eternity matters, neighbors matter, and God matters for us and for the whole world.

The Kingdom of God it hasn't yet been fully realized in anyone's life. Sure, we in this church have heard about God's care for all creation; but we have our eyes open. Evil is real. Sin, death, and the Devil are constant reminders that God's glory is still hidden from many. Even worse many around us have never sat long enough in God's presence to know the peace that comes only from God and from no place in this world.

Slide 5: Christ's mission--Collosians 1:28 It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. New Revised Standard Version,

Paul wrote to the church who live in the real world. He wrote to a church that wrestles with what it means to follow Christ when there are so many lesser gods to follow. He said that we proclaim Jesus so that people will be ready to meet him, not in the sweet by and by, but right now. Our challenge as Christians is to go into the world faithful and hopeful. We need to act in small ways and enormous ways that let God's love out for all the world. God can and will do incredible things in our lives and for all that God can do for the people around us.

Slide 6: Words: Get to work? Image: mop and broom

In our Gospel story from Luke 10:38-42 two sisters bickered about what to do when Jesus came to their home. One sister, Martha, worried about serving their guests. She was the one with the apron on getting glasses ready and making preparations to serve her guest. Mary, the other sister, sat down with Jesus. The serving sister, Martha, complained. “Come on Jesus, make her help.” Jesus tells her that Mary has chosen better. Mary was sitting with Jesus, taking in his glory. Martha was up fussing.

We live in a world of distractions. Truth is people have always been distracted. Martin Luther Told a story about his dog watching a treat on the table with total concentration saying to his companions at supper,
“Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish, or hope.”1

Many people know that we have a new dog at home and Martin is so right. Our little Dog is so focussed on whatever he is doing in the moment. But we are more complex and way more distracted than our dogs.

Slide 7: Image: Church words: Called to service? Called to worship?

Jesus challenged Martha to stop being so busy and to sit down and live in the kingdom. Jesus challenged his hearers over and over in very different situations to pick one good thing from many. In this moment Jesus glory is the greatest thing; but Martha felt the need keep working to host Jesus; she did not feel the freedom to sit down and listen.

A week ago my wife and I stayed with a friend whose life is very busy. She's a stay at home mom with 2 kids at home and 1 on the way. She's very active running a small business on the side and serving in church as a Bible study leader and a key Sunday School volunteer. She and her husband played on the church softball team and are part of a small group.

Our friend told us that she read a book about prayer thinking it would help her pray more; and she found herself praying less. She read another book about getting enthused about the Bible and faith and she said she wanted to read her Bible even less.

Jesus doesn't want us just to be busy. He wants us to be in his presence. If you need to sit with him and weep he will receive you. If you want to come to him singing in thanksgiving and praise he will receive you. If you come tired and just wanting to sit he will receive you. If you come in prayer with a question he might challenge you or comfort you or confront you. If the time is right and you see a neighbor in need he's calling you to serve.

Slide 8 Image: Church Words: Called to Christ

We live in a world of distractions. Truth is people have always been distracted. And Jesus goes with us into this world of distraction. He comes along side us when he hear the Good News and when we share it. He comes along side challenging us to give to our neighbors and to receive in return from God. He comes not because its the right time for us, but this is the right time for God. If you need to just sit with him sit today. If you need to sing with him sing today. If you need to serve with him do it. Jesus came so that the kingdom of God would come near to us.

Pentecost 6C July 8 2007

Slide 1 What moves you:

Jesus came with a message, that the kingdom of God has come near. As his followers our lives are about spreading the message. The hard part is not getting distracted from the main message. 2000 years ago there was plenty of distraction for the church in Galatia. The early church was moved to debate and Paul thought that the debate about circumcision was dividing and distracting.


Slide 2 Divisions

One side of the crowd believed that everybody who wanted to follow Jesus had to be Jew just like Jesus was from birth. For Jesus' own people circumcision was a defining characteristic of faithfulness. For 2000 years the men of Israel had a small part of their bodies removed as a sign of their faithfulness to God. The ancient physical mark of circumcision defined a man as in or out of the nation of Israel. Paul told the church in Galatia that Jesus came to make a new creation. There was no longer circumcised or un-circumcised in Jesus. Just a new creation in Christ. The church in Galatia got off track debating who was in the kingdom of God and who was outside of God's grace.

Slide 3: Paul, In Christ there is a new creation.
Paul jumped into the fracas feet first. He wasn't going to see the church divided between old and new believers. We wouldn't watch new believers in Jesus forced be circumcised first. The rituals weren't as important to Paul as the faith lived out by each one who believed. Paul said that the old categories were over and done. Jesus came to begin a new creation. This is the very best news. In Jesus' day, just like ours, there were all sorts of different ways of dividing and categorizing people. Paul told them, and all of us, that the old marks that separated us are gone.

There's a temptation in the church to separate again from those who are in the kingdom and those who are out. But Jesus came for all.

A preacher decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon.

Four worms were placed into four separate jars.

The first worm was put into alcohol.

The second was put in a container of cigarette smoke.

The third was put into chocolate syrup.

The fourth worm was put into good clean soil.

At the conclusion of the sermon, the preacher Minister reported the following results:

The first worm in alcohol Dead.

The second worm in cigarette smoke Dead .

Third worm in chocolate syrup - Dead .

Fourth worm in good clean soil - Alive.

So the Minister asked the congregation - What can you learn from this demonstration?

Maxine was sitting in the back,quickly raised her hand and said, "As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won't have worms!"

Slide 4 Divisions no more: We are a new creation

We seek to divide between in and out, good and bad, worthy and unworthy. Paul said that Christ's coming put an end to divisions. Craig Koester wrote boldly that Christ puts to an end all the differences between:

Jews and Greeks, slave and free, male and female. Jews observed the Mosaic law; Gentiles did not; some laws were for slaves and some for free people; circumcision was for men and other statutes applied to women. But now the old distinctions had given way before a greater unity in Christ. Paul does not even say that in Christ are both Jew and Greek; he says that there is neither Jew nor Greek. Baptism, unlike circumcision, transcends the distinctions between Jew and Gentile, male and female, and gives all people a new identity. Christians are people with a rich heritage, who through Christ share in the inheritance promised to Abraham.http://www.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/9-2_Mental_Health/9-2_Koester.pdf¹

Jesus came so that human categories wouldn't be enough to divide us one group from another. He came to make all of us into a new creation. This is the Good News. Its the news that easily gets overwhelmed in our world by all kinds of other information and by all kinds of human expectations. Think about the information that comes into your life everyday. You turn on the TV or radio and what do you hear. Maybe you read a newspapers or story on the internet. What's it about. Perhaps you had a conversation with friends next door or maybe miles away on the phone. All the technology brings us information and opinion. Some people say that we live in a world that's overloaded with information. There's more and more talking and less and less listening. And the most important things can get lost in all the extra words.

Slide 5 Keep first things first.

Families are struggling in this world to keep first things first. I spoke with a Grandma who worries about her grandson this week. He spends time on the computer and watching TV and he has a hard time helping anybody. His parents took him along to help somebody in the family with a project and she said, “It was like he was under duress.” She worries that he's forgotten to put first things first. She worries that he's gotten two and every gadget and that he's never know want and now he doesn't know how to help another and how to care for his own family.

Lots of families are struggling today to keep first things first in a world full of distraction. .

My wife and I got word from two old friends from Wisconsin this week. The first friends brought good news when the called. They are traveling this way for a wedding and hope to meet. The second call came from other friends. The news was not so good this time. Bob and Ruth Melzer, a couple from our last church were hit while riding their bicycles Sunday afternoon. He died about 6 hours later. She was clinging to life in the same hospital were our girls were born just a block from where they were hit by a drunk driver. Bob and Ruth were wonderful people. I remember stringing lights with him on the float for the July 3^rd parade in Neenah for two years. Bob and Ruth would try anything to help the church. Ruth and Bob painted the Sunday School Area based on different stories that she wanted the kids to know.

Slide 6 What moves you?

News moves us to action. Bad news moves us to console those who grieve and worry. Better news moves us to cheer and the celebrate. There are many things to get excited about in this life. Everything from a great baseball team to a great job could be the reason that you're moved to celebrate. And there are are plenty of other reasons why we might be moved. Tough, tragic news moves us to action just as much, maybe sometimes even more, than the good news that moves us to rejoice. Our faith is about action and trust, our faith is about being moved by the word of God into the world in love for God and in love for our neighbors. Jesus sent 70 people out to spread the good news. At fist glance sending out 70 (or maybe 72) people looks like a reason to celebrate and to rejoice. 70 people went out to announce the good-news to heal the sick and to caste out daemons. But there was plenty of reason to worry. Jesus said that they would be like lambs among wolves.

The true church, the body of Christ, made up of believers in mission is not guaranteed of a future beyond faith. But by faith we know that something bigger and better is coming for us. Jesus plan for the church isn't that we be secure and certain in this life. His plan is so very different. His plan is eternal. He sent his followers out empty handed with limit instruction and training, “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.” Luke 10:4. NRSV. He told them to go; and when they stopped he told the 70 to announce peace at each house. Where they were not accepted he told them to wipe the dust off of their feet in judgment.

Slide 7: We are not the church in residence, we are the church in Mission

Jesus sends the true church out into the world. He wants us to travel light. He wants us to be ready to meet God like a thief in the night who comes without warning. We are encumbered by all sorts of things. Jobs, homes, hobbies, toys, recreation, status can all hold us in place. But Jesus wants us to be ready to move in mission. Jesus plan for each of us in the church is to see incredible things happen. The 70 he sent out witnessed things that they hadn't before imagined. He said to the 70 when they returned, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. ^19 See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. ^20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:18-20 NRSV

We have a home and it isn't on this earth. We have a family and we haven't seen every member of it yet. “...rejoice” Jesus said, “that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:20 NRSV Rejoice because even when our life on this earth is over something better is still to come.

In our days we can get caught up in living and in Christ we meet God who calls us to live today not like we are here forever but as if we were each on our way. He calls us to live out his love as part of the new creation. AMEN.

1CRAIG KOESTER Opportunity to Do Good: The Letter to the Galatians, Page 188 in Word & World 9/2 (1989) TEXTS IN CONTEXT” Copyright © 1989 by Word & World, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. All rights reserved. Page 183-189 http://www.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/9-2_Mental_Health/9-2_Koester.pdf