Pentecost 20 Two brothers serving or not Matthew 22

Our Gospel story today is from Monday of the week Jesus' died.

He arrived in Jerusalem on Sunday as the crowd cheered, "Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." They waved palms and received him as a prophet laying robes and cloaks on the ground preparing the way to meet Jesus.

Jesus' first stop in Jerusalem was the temple. It was the very heart of his people's religious life. Jesus walked in, not in silence, but burning with passion. He drove out the money changers and those who sold doves for sacrifice.

He said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.” Matthew 21:13 (NIV)

He kicked over the cages that held the doves and the tables filled with money that the money changers used. Imagine doves and money scattered all over the temple court. It was chaos; holy blessed chaos in the Temple.

The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. Matthew 21:14-15 (NIV)

Anger bubbled up among the priests and others responsible for the temple: "Who is Jesus to teach like this?" Jesus boldly challenged them and they way they ran the temple. He was pushing, literally driving away the money changers and dove sellers, challenging the whole lot of them to see the temple as God's house and not a market. He said they were using the temple not as a market place but as a place to relate to God and to care about people.

Maybe you are uncomfortable with this real Jesus. He made people squirm because he saw right through their actions to the motives that lay behind. He does the same with us. We often picture God as loving and accepting of everything we do; but the true God has plans for our lives. The true God yearns for us to make the right choices to follow him with courage and faith. This is the real Jesus who calls us to faith and to live out that faith. This is not a baby you can control; this is the real God who seeks to lead you totally. This is the real God who asks you to put aside everything, even your very self, and follow him. After healing and teaching the crowd in the temple Jesus left and headed out to spend the night in Bethany a village near Jerusalem.

Our story picks up when Jesus returned to the temple and started teaching again on Monday. There was a crowd there just like when he'd arrived in town. They wanted to hear him speak and be healed by Jesus.

...the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Matthew 21:23 NRSV

Jesus wouldn't answer their question unless they would answer one of his: who gave John the Baptist his authority. The chief priests and elders couldn't or wouldn't answer. Jesus responded to the silence of the priests and elders with a story about a father and two sons. The father asked his boys to go work in the vineyard. One son said he wouldn't work and later changed his mind and did go out to help. The other agreed that he would go out to work, but he didn't. Jesus asked them,

Which of the two did the will of his father?”They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. Matthew 21:31-32 NRSV

Jesus understands, better than we think, just how much our lives effect the lives of others. Jesus faced death for his words in the temple. As a person of faith this story speaks volumes. Forget what looks good or sounds good. What matters is what you do not just what you say. He understands that your life's not about you as one person alone.

This is a story I heard from Rick Warren. Imagine if you and I were out in a boat. Maybe you were fishing off one side of the boat and you thought I had started fishing on the other end. You're having a good time, you get a couple of hard bites, you try to get the net out to land that lunker you've got on the line. And then you look over at me. And instead of fishing imagine that I started drilling a hole in the bottom of the boat. Are you going to still be able to fish? No way. What you do with your life effects mine and my life effects yours. God the Father sends us out into the world. He asks us not to live for ourselves but to live with and for others.

Today is Confirmation Sunday. Today you'll be asked what you'll do. Will you commit to a life of faith. You can see it on page 236 in Evangelical Lutheran Worship.
“Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in holy Baptism?
to live among God's faithful people
to hear the word of God and share in the Lord's supper
to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word a deed
to serve all people, following the example of Jesus,
to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?
The response to this question is,
“I do, and I ask God to Help and Guide Me.”

Jesus tells us plainly that the real deal isn't what you say you'll do; it's what you do. So what's life about, Jesus said that there are two things that matter above all else in this world,

”‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)

A relationship with God and your relationships with other people are the most important things in this world. Maybe you believe that what you do won't affect anybody else. But as part of the church we learn that we are in this together. The same goes for families; when one member is struggling or sinking in a storm everyone is effected. As a church we are called to uphold one another praying for each other in joyous and awful times. And the same goes for us as citizens. We don't live in isolated compartments. We live interconnected with the people, nation, and world around us.

People like to think that they can make in on their own. They believe that nothing can sink them and that all they have to do is look out for their own. Pastor Rick Warren used the example of the Titantic. It was supposed to be unsinkable because it was built with multiple compartments in the hull. That meant that the ship was supposed to be able to get a hole in the hull and still stay afloat. Water might rush into one compartment but it was supposed to be contained. The crew battened the hatches that connected the compartments and they thought that was enough. But soon the ship started to list and the water started to go over the walls at the top of one compartment quickly filling in the other compartments.

We need each other. God invites us not to live like we are the only ones that matter. He invites us to commit our lives. If we've turned away he always welcomes us back. He invites us to come and join him all other believers working as members of the body Christ. AMEN

Pentecost 17A What you need to be a church.

Growing up people told me all kinds of things that it takes to have a church.

it takes a building

it takes a pastor

it takes a priest

it takes music

it takes an organ

it takes a band

as an kid growing up in a Catholic Church I was told that it takes the official approval of the Pope in Rome and the local Roman Catholic Bishop in order to have a legitimate church. But then I here Jesus say something so bold as,

It only takes 2 or 3.

That's all the people you need, 2or 3 people gathered in Jesus name and he's there in the middle of the meeting. He's there in the middle.

He's right there at the supper table or the breakfast table when people say, “Come Lord Jesus be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed. I was sitting at breakfast a few weeks ago with our girls and I asked them to imagine this prayer and who we are inviting in to sit with us right there at the breakfast table. Gracia asked where his plate and fork were. Faith said doesn't Jesus need a waffle. Jesus says he's there. Jesus the risen one. Jesus the one with holes in his hands and feet from where the spikes pierced him and a whole in his side where the sword went in. Jesus the risen one is right there in the middle of our everyday lives. Where two are three are gathered in his name he's right there.

Human beings, over the centuries, have made some enormous lists of the people and things they believe are required in order to have church and be church. But when I hear Jesus words at the end of our Gospel today and everything that I'd ever heard about all the people required to have a church or the special things that people were supposed to do went out the window.

On my internship I was 30 miles form a town devastated by a tornado. Two church buildings were destroyed. Another had only one standing wall and another was damaged, but still usable. The things we humans might look to and thing of that define a church were gone, but these two congregations were still church. The music was gone, the organ, the altar, the pews, the stained glass, the art. All of it was gone. But they were still church. They were still church a body of people gathered in Jesus name around the Word of God, bread, wine, and the water of Baptism.

We think that we need all kinds of extra things; but for those two congregations what mattered was being alive together. They were grateful to know that the other members of the church were still there. Homes were gone, farms were gone, the school was wiped off the map, businesses were destroyed; but they were still church together gathering in Jesus name.

Today, Rally Sunday, when we rededicate ourselves to worship and to children's ministry is a great day to remember that the church, at its core, starts small, with 2 or 3 gathered in Jesus name.

Church life starts with relationships. (Matthew 22:35-40 NIV)

an expert in the law, tested [Jesus] with this question: ^36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

^37 Jesus replied: ”‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ^38 This is the first and greatest commandment. ^39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ^40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In the first commandment God invites us into relationship with himself. Jesus taught that the second most important thing in this life are relationships with other people. Now the church is one place in our culture where people deal with one another. We live in a world of personal space and cocoons. We live in a world where we can be alone right in the middle of a big city. The church is uniquwe in our world because everyone regardless of age or status can be present in a church. Everyone—young or old—rich or poor—can be part of the church.

The TV lately has been full of election year rhetoric. One group tries to talk about another. One group labels another. There's no conversation. There's just opinion verses opinion. But if you watch Hardball or any other political talk show you aren't seeing Christian community. Jesus doesn't want us to search for ups or downs ins or outs. Jesus invites to think like family. He doesn't want us just to win arguments. He wants us to be church.

Jesus words in Matthew 18:15-17 are instructions for human beings trying to relate to one another in the church that we see on this earth. Some times we do well listening to one another. We live side by side as brothers and sisters. Other times we do terribly. We all have had times when we had a failure to communicate with one another.

Jesus invites us to meet each other face to face. He calls us to name the times we've been wronged. We are not to seek revenge; rather we should seek the ear of the neighbor who has wronged us. It's a painful time in ministry and fellowship when you turn to a brother or sister and tell them they've hurt you or let you down.

Jesus invites his followers not to seek a way to kick another out of fellowship but to restore them to fellowship first. Some will seek forgiveness. Some will grow enraged that they would be confronted. Some will just walk away facing the painful truth of what they have done. Its deeply painful, if you're the one who has been asked to sit down and listen as another shares their grievance with you. It's hard to listen but it your chance to be restored.

Bound together.
Jesus' words about casting someone out of fellowship are haunting. We are to treat the former member as a tax collector and sinner. We are to bind and lose them as members not only of a local church; but as part of the unseen mystical body of Christ. These words are not only about binding and releasing sin, they are about binding and releasing brothers and sisters.

We underestimate the organic and relational nature of the church. The church is Christ's body made up of living breathing believers called together by the Holy Spirit. We gather around the Word of God, water, bread, and wine. The Holy Spirit, people, and these 4 basic elements make up the true church. The church is not buildings or budgets. Pastors serving in established congregations might have buildings or budgets; but they are not and will never be the truly constitutive elements of the church.

The church will never be constrained by physical or monetary limits. Jesus is present when a few, maybe 2 or 3 people, gather in His name. We need no building or money. We need faith, hope, love: Gifts of the Spirit binding us together around the Word and Sacraments.