Pentecost 18c 2007 a confirmation sermon

Dear Friends,
Grace and Peace from God our Father and Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

Psalm 146:1 Alleluia, Praise the Lord oh my soul.
I've been thinking some about our confirmation class for obvious reasons the last few weeks. I've been thinking what a neat group of people this class has turned into over time. I even found myself thanking God in prayer for having worked with a group like this one who've came not just to learn knowledge about God and church but who've come to serve God and to wrestle with huge questions about faith and God and justice and what it means to be part of the church in a world that belongs to God but that is so often separated from God.

2 I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

And it hit me sometime in the night on Wednesday into Thursday that I shouldn't just be thanking God for what he's done with this group so far; no what I realized when I saw two members of the class come to help with 7th grade confirmation this Wednesday is that we really have to be thankful for what God is going to do with all of our lives in they days to come. Maybe you think that confirmation day is the last day for church. After the party church is done and the parent's obligations to model faith for their children are over. But the party hasn't begun for any of us yet. God's got much more in store both in this life and in the life to come.

Our Gospel today is all about keeping your eyes open to see where God is leading you. If you ever wanted to really know what God is after, in your life, you just have to pay attention to Jesus' stories. And today we have a story that teaches very clearly what God is asking of us in this life. Jesus made many of his strongest points not by lecturing people about what they were doing wrong; but by telling stories that challenged them to start seeing the world differently. Jesus wasn't vaguely telling people stories with easy happy endings. He was inviting people 2000 years ago, and people today, to see the complex reality of human life. Jesus was concerned with more than just the world in general Jesus was most concerned with the way his hearers cared for the people around them, most especially the ones they walked past on any given day.

Jesus' story starts out talking about two men who lived right next to each other but who had very different lives. The one man owned a great place. The other man, Lazarus, was, physically, his closest neighbor. He lived right outside the gate of the rich man. The one man ate well and lived well. He was dressed in fine purple clothes, the color that the super rich and royalty wore, and fine linen. The other man, Lazarus, lived out in the gutter in front of his gates. He was just hoping for a scrap of bread from the table that would be tossed out for the dogs as part of the trash. The wealthy in those days used a piece of bread as their napkin to wipe their lips and clean their beards. The poor man sat outside the rich man's gate with weeping sores that dogs came by to lick hoping to get a scrap.

3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.
4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.

In this life the rich man had it all. He'd be the guy with the best of everything. He'd have the biggest house, the best boat, the best cars, everything that he had would be the best. And His neighbor, Lazarus, knew suffering right outside his door. And Jesus says that God saw it all. God saw one man's luxury and one man's pain right next to each other. Jesus said that Abraham, the man who received God's ancient promises welcomed him home to eternal rest. Abraham, the one God said would become the father of a great nation, more numerous than the stars or the grains of sand on the sea shore, welcomed Lazarus with open arms to eternal life. Across a great chasm from Lazarus and Abraham the rich man sat in the eternal fire just wishing that somebody would come to cool his tongue with one drop of water. Now he called for Lazarus, the poor man he ignored while they were neighbors, to come across that great chasm to serve him.

What catches me most is that the wealthy man would have walked over or arround the poor hurting Lazarus laying at his gates. Growing up in Minneapolis and going to good old South High just off Cedar Avenue and Lake Street we all figured out ways that made it possible to zip past the poorest places and the most hurting people. It was easy, we just hopped on the freeway and cruised right past the places where we'd see the homeless and the hurting. Now as a pastor in a bedroom town I can see that our subdivisions and our distance from other places can sometimes make it easy for us not to see the hurting people who are all around us. Sometimes just looking left or right, instead of straight ahead, is all that it takes to see what God sees as we drive around the poorest places or through them with our eyes straight ahead like we are in a tunnel.

5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
6 the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
the LORD, who remains faithful forever.

Jesus story tells us that God's involvement in this world involves us. We are invited to be the hands and feet that serve in God's name. We are invited to be the ones who carry a promise with us. Lazarus and the unnamed rich man were neighbors. They literally lived just next to each other; but to the rich man Lazarus wasn't worth reaching out to help. But now in the afterlife Jesus said that Lazarus and this man were separated by a great chasm. When they were both alive the rich man made this chasm real by going out the side door or stepping over Lazarus every day.

7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,
8 the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.
9 The LORD watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

What matters to God above all is that we act out of love. What God desires most is that we love and honor him freely and that we grow in His love in order that we might be able to care for others. Oh sure your words matter and all your actions matter; but what God is most hoping to see grow in each of us, whether your a tenth grader or your 80 is love for God and honest concern and compassion for the people around us.

But maybe you say the chasms between all of us are too deep. Maybe you look at the world and the evil that you can see all around and you're asking if God even cares. Truth is the world can very ugly; and its dangerous and risky to step out of comfort and meet a hurting person. But Jesus is challenging us to have a different perspective that includes our neighbors, most especially the one's who we'd rather look past. Maybe you've caught a glimpse of God at work; maybe you never have. Maybe you think that the reality of sin is too much for God to overcome. Maybe you once said that you believe in God but now you're not so sure that God's even there or if the church really matters at all.

About a month ago Time magazine published excerpts from several of Mother Theresa's letters. Many of you know who she was, the Saint of Calcutta who spent years caring for the most basic needs of the poor and sick in India. Her private letters that she exchanged with people she sought spiritual counsel from reveal the deep wrestling with God that lay beneath her faith.

Most surprising in the letters that she exchanged with spiritual leaders who tried to help her wrestle with her faith was her description of God's absence. She devoted her life to rescuing the dying homeless people from the gutters of Calcutta in order that their last days might be spent in dignity. Hundred's joined her caring for the poor. And all along people assumed that she must have seen Christ's face day after day; but no, instead she didn't see it for years on end. She knew and shared God's love and yet she experience God as real for years on end.

Jesus invites us to join him in this world and in the next. He invites us to follow when we see him and when we don't. He invites us to walk with him when our faith is strong and when our faith is gone. Jesus cross is the reason we gather here week after week. His life given for each of you bridges every gap and gives every one a chance to start over and to re-prioritize like eternity matters; like there's so much more than just today.

10 The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Hallelujah, Praise the LORD.

God's vision for us is eternal. He sees beyond one stage of life to every part of our human experience. And his promise to be God for us, revealed in the cross and grave, is good no matter what we've done or where we've been. There are many chasms we can never cross, but for God nothing is impossible

Pentecost 14c Sept 2 2007 Luke 14:1-14

There is no manuscript for this sermon
just notes

sometimes that's all I have to prepare

There's a rich unfolding of Jesus' plan for the kingdom of God in Luke 14:1-14. The unfolding work of God comes as Jesus gathers with others in the Pharisee's house to eat on the Sabbath.

He sees the guests come and he sees that someone else has come besides the desired guests. In Luke 14:2 the someone else in the story is a man with ὑδρωπικὸς translated by the NIV and NRSV as dropsy. The man lived with edema, with painful swelling in his body because his lymph system didn't work right. Luke says that Jesus looked at his host and the honorable guests asking them if it is right to θεραπευ̂σαι literally to offer therapy, to cure or treat this man on the Sabbath.

The host and guests gave no answer. Jesus healed the man sending him on his way.

Jesus offers us hope that we haven't earned and a promise that we don't deserve. He came to heal and to lift up us in our hurt and to move us to meet the hurting around us as ambassadors of his kingdom.

A week ago Friday five guys from church and headed over to Stockton, MN to help muck out houses. We worked alongside of home owners, their families, and a Mennonite group from Wisconsin ripping out soaked drywall, filling buckets and wheelbarrows with mud and sewage, pulling out ruined carpet, insulation, and furniture. There still much work to be done.

We were strangers in town received warmly by the families we helped. The sheriff took down our names and gave us wrist bands so they knew who we were. They welcomed us in and worked right along side of us.


In Luke Jesus saw the guests come and he saw that someone else has come besides the desired guests. Jesus looked at his host and the honorable guests asking them if it is right to θεραπευ̂σαι literally to offer therapy, to cure or treat this man on the Sabbath.

The host and guests gave no answer. Jesus healed the man sending him on his way.

The lectionary has left the story of the hurting man out of the reading for Sunday. Instead we focus in on Jesus' observations of the people and his vision for hospitality; but in this context we can see eve
The lectionary has left the story of the hurting man out of the reading for Sunday. Instead we focus in on Jesus' observations of the people and his vision for hospitality; but in this context we can see even better how important care for the hurting is in Jesus vision.

Jesus' parable about the wedding guests who took the higher seat, when it was not theirs to take, was bold. He spoke directly to the people in the room and called for humility. His vision of the kingdom was coming clear. The one who assumes the place of highest honor will be brought down so that the humble will be lifted up. He wasn't ambiguous or vague.

Leaving no room to doubt, Jesus gave the particulars of his vision away as he spoke to everyone there about who to invite to a banquet.

¹² Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”Luke 14:12-14 (NIV)

As Jesus moved towards Jerusalem he got bolder. He challenged a legalistic religion with a spirit of mercy. He challenged his hosts to invite those who couldn't pay him back. The same challenge exists for us. He challenges us to look around not for ways to gain advantage; but for ways to help others who are disadvantaged. The reading ends; but Luke's story leads to another parable about a great banquet.

^ When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” Luke 14:15 (NIV).

Jesus next parable of the great banquet invites us to see the generosity of God that is ready and poured out. The invitation to the banquet was rejected by the first guests on the list. They refused their invitations and in the parable the host sends out his servants looking not for the ones who rejected his generosity but for everyone, hurting or not, who hadn't been invited at all.

Jesus' invitation to serve is broad. By reading the whole of Luke 14:1-24 we see the magnitude of God's intended generosity. Jesus' vision of inviting the poor and hurting to a banquet is even more challenging when we think that others had rejected such invitations.

Jesus is calling for hospitality. We aren't called just to run to the poor with food; we're to welcome them in and receive them as guests; Jesus' vision is of a world turned upside down and where those who never expected the place of honor are given the highest honor.