Sermon-Sunday-Feb 11, 2007

Luke 6:17-26 , 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 , Jeremiah 17:5-10
Brothers and Sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
So where do you fit in this collection of people whom Jesus is talking about today? Are you among those who Jesus says will be blessed, or are you among those who Jesus addresses a woe to. Surely you’d like to believe that you are among those who Jesus says are blessed, but are you? I mean look at this collection of people.
What we basically have in today’s Gospel lesson is an abridged version of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5. But in Matthew 5 Jesus talks about those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, or the peacemakers as being among those who will be blessed. And those make sense. We can see why Jesus would praise people for being merciful or for being peacemakers.
But in today’s Gospel lesson from Luke, Jesus is saying that the ranks of those who are blessed will include those who are hungry, those who are hated, reviled, and excluded, and those who weep. What’s that about? Aren’t these the things that we are to strive to avoid? When you get up in the morning, do you hope that you will be hated and reviled? Do you work 40+ hours per week in the hopes that you might experience a little hunger? Is that why some of you this summer will be spending most of your time on a combine, so that you can be hungry?
And then Jesus says woe to those who are rich, full, laughing, and those whom people are speaking well of. But isn’t that what we’re supposed to strive for in America? Isn’t this the land of opportunity where we can pursue our own happiness as we live out the American dream? Isn’t that why one of the highest rated shows on television is a show where the main star is Donald Trump?
So again, I’ll ask you where do you fit in here? Are you among those who people speak well of? Well who among you has not at some point in your lives at least, experienced exclusion or being reviled? It’s nearly impossible to make it through middle school or high school without experiencing at least a little ridicule and exclusion. And certainly you all know how difficult it can be at times to be able to put food on your own plate every day, let alone for a whole family. And while you certainly are all able to provide for yourselves, are you rich by today’s standards? Probably by not what most people would consider to be rich.
OK, so can you breathe a collective sigh of relief now because maybe you have convinced yourself that you are among the hated and the hungry and the poor who will be blessed? Well when you take a closer look at the word poor from today’s lesson you might be surprised at what you find.
The Greek word that poor is translated from is a word that is used to describe the most destitute and poverty stricken of all. It isn’t just those who can’t afford everything they want. It isn’t those who find themselves driving a used car when they would like a new car. It isn’t those who rent an apartment because they can’t afford to own a house. The Greek word used would probably better be translated as destitute, and would be used to describe those who have no job, no possessions and find themselves begging for even the most basic of needs. Basically, if you know of anyone who has less than you, then you are not among the poor that Jesus refers to here.
So why would Jesus tell you that you should strive to be among the destitute? Doesn’t Jesus want you to be happy? Doesn’t Jesus want you to be blessed? Yes, but the blessing that Jesus has in mind is completely different from what your culture would see as blessed.
Your culture tells you that you are blessed by what you can physically posses, by what you can hold in your hands, or see or touch, or by how much property you can put in your name. But Jesus says the exact opposite. Jesus says that the poor are blessed. Jesus says it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. The more focus you put on yourself, the more focus you put on your possessions. Everything that you have keeps you from seeing what you truly need.
Jesus’ woes go out to those who think they have no unmet needs. They go out to those who try to fulfill those needs with worldly possessions. And, it is in all of our nature to do just that, to look to ourselves first, and then to keep looking there. This isn’t so much about how much or how little you have; it’s about where your faith has been placed. Has it been placed in the temporary futility of worldly possessions or has it been placed in the eternal security of the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus?
Jeremiah makes it real simple for us in the Old Testament lesson for today where he writes that those who trust in mere mortals and make their flesh their strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord will be cursed. But those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord will be blessed.
And your trust is the Lord. Your trust is the Lord who came to you in baptism and claimed you as His own. The trust that Jeremiah refers to is the faith that saves, and it is the faith that you have been called to through the Gospel, and the faith that you have been baptized into.
It is the faith that you are called to in baptism where the death march of your sinful self begins as you are joined with Christ Jesus in His death where your sins are buried, and you join Christ Jesus in resurrection as the new creation emerges. This is where your faith has been placed; not in worldly possessions, but in Christ crucified and His resurrection. You’ll continue to resist death by clinging to the temporary futility of a world that rejects the promise of the resurrection.
But through word and sacrament and fellowship with other believers your Savior continues to nurture you in faith; faith in the promise that Paul writes of in today’s second lesson. Paul writes “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.”
Now, you are among those first fruits. You are among the first sheaf of the harvest given to the Lord, as it were. Through His death and resurrection, Christ Jesus has met all of your eternal needs. Now you have been freed to meet the needs of those who remain in need, be it their earthly needs through the sharing of the possessions that you have been entrusted with, or their spiritual needs through the proclaiming of the Gospel in faith.
This isn’t about abandoning everything that you own. It’s about the faith that you have been called to. It’s about proper discipleship and proper stewardship of what God has entrusted you with. It’s about being open to the re-ordering of priorities. It’s about understanding that you have been freed from the burden of the seduction of wealth and its temporary benefits. It’s about understanding discipleship not as a burden, but as a blessing where you have been freed to live in the light of God’s unconditional grace in Christ Jesus in the midst of a world that hates and reviles the Gospel, and you have been freed to trust your Lord for life’s sufficiency’s, as you reach out to the needy through proclaiming of the Gospel, and wise and sacrificial sharing, giving, and stewardship of your time, talents and possessions.
Amen

Sermon-Sunday-Feb 4, 2007

Luke 5:1-11, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 , Isaiah 6:1-8 (9-13)

Brothers and Sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The story from today’s Gospel lesson has traditionally been referred to as a “calling” story. And, indeed it has many of the elements of a good, biblical calling story. You’ve got Jesus with a crowd surrounding Him as He is teaching them. You have a group of fishermen out in the water tending to their nets. You got these same fishermen catching a whole bunch of fish after Jesus tells them where to cast out their nets, and then the fishermen drop everything and follow Jesus. Again, everything is there, it’s got all the elements of a good call story.
Except for one thing, the fulfillment of a calling is dependent on the one being called answering the call. But in this story, there is no calling; Jesus simply tells Simon that he would be “catching people”. He doesn’t even say “follow me,” as He said to Matthew, as Matthew sat at the publican’s table. He is not inviting Simon to be a disciple. Jesus is not offering Simon a job here. Jesus is declaring that Simon is a disciple. And Simon offers no resistance, it says that they left everything and followed Him.
This is completely contradictory to the individualistic, winner-take-all sort of values that we have come to embrace. This is not a story about Simon seeking his own destiny or pursuing the American dream. Simon’s fate has been decided for him by Jesus. He would be a disciple.
So how did Jesus know that He could do this? How did He know that He could simply tell Simon that he was going to be “catching people” and that Simon would follow? How did He know that Simon would simply leave everything behind and follow Jesus?
I believe that one reason He knew was because of what Simon had said just moments before, after seeing how many fish he and his brothers were able to catch after letting their nets down where Jesus had told them to. Upon seeing this, Simon said “Go away from me Lord for I am a sinful man.”
This was not a reaction to the huge catch of fish. Simon had been around Jesus before and had seen Jesus perform miracles. In the fourth chapter of Luke we read where Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law, and in the same chapter we read of Jesus healing all of the sick and demon-possessed who were brought to Him.
Simon was reacting to the realization of who Jesus is; God incarnate. And the closer you come to God, the more you feel your own sinfulness and unworthiness. Simon felt the same thing that Abraham felt when he heard the voice of God and proclaimed himself to be nothing but dust and ashes, or Job who, when he was in the presence of God declared that he despised himself, or Isaiah from today’s Old Testament lesson where he writes “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
It says that Simon and all who saw what Jesus did were amazed, but I think a better description of what Simon was feeling might be to say that he was alarmed. Being amazed at something that Jesus does, doesn’t necessarily lead to worship of Jesus or repentance such as what Simon showed. Simon was reacting to the revelation of his own unworthiness and his own sinfulness in light of God incarnate in Jesus.
The revelation of the holy does not attract you; it repels you because it reveals you to be the unworthy sinner that you are. And when Simon’s unworthiness was revealed to him, he wanted Jesus to go away, as if he could hide his sinfulness from Jesus. But Jesus, of course was well aware of Simon’s sinfulness, and Simon’s sinfulness does not stop Jesus. His sinfulness does not keep Jesus away.
And in the same way that Jesus was aware of Simon’s sinfulness, He is aware of yours. And in the same way that Jesus did not allow Simon’s sinfulness to keep Himself away from Simon, Jesus does not allow your sinfulness to keep Himself away from you. He continues to come to you in the proclaimed word, and in the sacraments and in fellowship with other believers.
What Simon experienced was a death. It was the death of his old self, of the old Adam as Luther called it. But Jesus does not leave Simon in death, He recognizes the fear that Simon is experiencing at the revelation of his own unworthiness, and Jesus brings about the emergence of the new creation in Simon by declaring Simon to be a disciple.
So now, Jesus has come to you in the word proclaimed, and the sacraments administered, and in fellowship with other believers. Have you experienced the death that Simon experienced? Are you alarmed? Does the revelation of your unworthiness cause you to hide from Jesus? Does it cause you to repent? Has Jesus declared you a disciple and begun to bring about the emergence of the new creation in you, or is there some part of the old life that you can’t let go of?
That is what it means to be a disciple of Christ; to let go of the old life. Or perhaps, better stated, to be set free from the old life. For Simon and his brothers, it meant leaving their nets and their boats, and their families behind. It meant leaving their livelihood behind. Now, in most cases, this doesn’t mean anything quite as dramatic as what Simon and his brothers did. It might, but that is not what is at the heart of this. What is at the heart of this is how Simon and his brothers would now be seen and identified. They would no longer be seen as fishermen, but as Disciples of Christ. Their identity was no longer found in themselves, but in their Savior.
In our Old Testament lesson we get another one of those images of God that might just make you a little uncomfortable. Isaiah writes of God wanting His people not to hear His word, and not to look with their eyes, and not to comprehend, and He wants their minds to be dulled, and He wants them not to be healed. And why would God not want you not to be healed? Because He wants more for you. He wants resurrection for you; He wants new life for you. And before resurrection, there must be death, and before the emergence of a new life or a new creation, the old life must be left behind.
You have been claimed by the Savior, and He does not leave you in your old life, and He does not leave you in death. He continues to come to you daily as you live in your baptism. He comes to you with words of promise and forgiveness. He comes to you in His Supper and in each other.
When you hear those words of promise and forgiveness, you know that your Savior wants you to hear them and comprehend them. When the Holy Spirit calls you to faith through the Gospel, like Simon you are made aware of your unworthiness and your sinfulness. But as Jesus said to Simon “Fear not!!” Fear not because there is one who came and took your place and your sin on the cross.
And, since you have been called to faith in Christ and His promise of forgiveness, He has declared you to be a disciple. As a baptized child of God, marked with the cross of Christ, you are an emerging new creation eagerly awaiting the promised return of Christ Jesus. As a new creation in Christ, you are not a farmer, or a teacher, or a banker, or whatever, you are a disciple. Your identity is not found in what you do, but in what has been done for you.
As disciples, we are called to proclaim the Gospel through word and deed to our neighbor. So drop everything, and go do it. Amen

Sermon-Sunday-Jan 28, 2007

Jeremiah 1:4-10 , 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 , Luke 4:21-30
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
Our Gospel lesson says “When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage.” What were they so mad about? Why would these people in the synagogue who had gathered to hear Jesus speak be so upset? At first, when Jesus spoke of the scripture that He read being fulfilled in their hearing, it says that they were amazed at His gracious words. But now they’re mad, they’re filled with rage. What happened?
This is the hometown boy, Jesus is returning to His hometown of Nazareth and He’s teaching in the local synagogue. This is a big moment. This is the realization of something that you would have to believe they had been anticipating for a long time. They had been hearing of all the miraculous deeds that Jesus had been performing. And now Jesus was coming home.
These Nazarenes had heard of some wonderful and miraculous things that Jesus had done in Capernaum. So if He was going to do all that for the people of Capernaum, then He must have had something truly wonderful in mind for the people of His hometown of Nazareth.
And if there was ever a city that was in need of good preaching, it was Nazareth. When Nathaniel said to Phillip “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” he wasn’t just expressing a personal agenda that he had against Nazareth. That was a remark that was based in reality. It was a remark that would have made a lot of sense to most people at that time. Nazareth was not a nice place.
There were people that would have been considered heathens all around Nazareth. There were Phonecians to the west and north, there were Samaritans to the south, and there were Greeks to the west. They were surrounded by idolatry and paganism and they were very far away from the good influence of Jerusalem. It would have been very hard to be a good, pious Jew in Nazareth.
But if anyone could turn the city around it was Jesus. The people of Nazareth were probably thinking that when Jesus came back home, he’ll get things going. He’ll get the good Hebrew people of Nazareth fired up.
So Jesus shows up. He goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath to teach. It’s standing room only. The place is packed, and people are beaming with pride at the return of the hometown hero. He reads from Isaiah. He says a few words, You can hear the murmurs in the crowd. “Isn’t this Joseph and Mary’s boy?” “They’ve done a really good. job” “They raised a really good boy.”
Then Jesus starts talking about miracles. He makes reference to the miraculous work that He had done recently in Capernaum. This is it. This is the big moment. Maybe he’ll start out with a little razzle-dazzle just to get the crowd going, and then He’d do some healings and some miracles and they would truly know that God’s power was there and they could finally clean up their city by going out and driving out the pagan Gentiles and their ungodly influences in the city. But, much to their surprise, Jesus does no miracles in Nazareth.
In fact what Jesus proceeds to say and do is just about the last thing that this crowd would have expected and wanted. Jesus tells them a story about the prophet Elijah being sent to a pagan widow, and God providing food for this pagan widow through Elijah. And then Jesus tells them about, in Elisha’s time, God healing Naaman, a Syrian, who had been struck with Leprosy.
That changes everything. In that moment, their pride turns to rage. This was not merely a situation where they were a little disappointed. This was not just a case of having great anticipation for something that, in the end, just doesn’t live up to the hype. This was not mere disappointment in a local boy who seemingly was not living up to His potential.
This was rage. And it was a rage that was so intense that it drove these people to fulfill what Jesus had previously told them; that no prophet was accepted in his hometown. And they drove Him out of town, and they tried to push Him off a cliff, but He just walked away. So again I ask you, what made them so mad?
Were they mad that He didn’t do miracles for them, like He did for the people of Capernaum?? Possibly. Did they maybe think that Jesus was saying that He loved the Gentiles more than His own people, and that made them mad? Possibly? Of course they would have been wrong. But at the heart of this is the fact that the people of Nazareth would not have expected Jesus to have any love at all for the pagans, or the Gentiles, or the heathens.
The fact that He did is what filled them with rage, because that went against every expectation that they had for Jesus. You have to understand, that when we’re talking about people that this ancient culture would have considered to be good, pious Jews as opposed to pagans, heathens and Gentiles, we’re not talking about something that would have been the equivalent, in contemporary culture to Protestants as opposed to Catholics, or Christians as opposed to Jews.
Jesus showing any love or compassion to pagans, Gentiles or heathens would have actually been the equivalent of someone today showing love or compassion to terrorists, or KuKluxKlansmen, or people who work in pornography or anyone else who we would consider to be on the dregs of society.
So how would you have acted? When you think about the idolatry and paganism that we see in our own culture, how do you think you would have reacted to what Jesus said? When you think about the lax morals in our society, or the rampant drug use, or the unwanted pregnancies, or the corporate corruption, or suicide bombers, terrorism, how would you react to someone telling you that you should be reaching out with love and compassion to people perpetuating all of those problems?
Understand, I am not talking about affirming, accepting, or approving any of those behaviors, I am talking about people who exhibit those behaviors; people who struggle with sin for the same reason that you do, because they are sinners. And it is for sinners, that Jesus came, and that is basically what He is telling these people, and that is what is making them mad.
If Jesus shows love to people on the margins of society then His disciples will be expected to do the same. That is what Jesus is telling those people in the Nazareth synagogue, and it’s what He tells you. This is about what it means to be a disciple of Christ, and what it means to follow in His footsteps.
As disciples of Christ we are called to bring the eternal message of hope and forgiveness in Christ Jesus to sinners. And the message we bring will be rejected. Time and time again it is rejected. But we keep going. We continue to reach out with the radical love that Paul writes of in our lesson from 1st Corinthians; love that is patient, kind, never envious, boastful or rude, love that focuses on the neighbor and does not dwell on the material.
So how do we keep going in the midst of a world that rejects the Gospel? Again Paul gives us the answer in the 1st Corinthians passage when he refers to love that rejoices in the truth. We rejoice in the truth that we are sinners in dire need of forgiveness and we have been given that forgiveness in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in the truth that the words that were expressed to Jeremiah in today’s Old Testament lesson are also expressed to us; where the Lord says “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
God knew you before you were born. God knew you to be the sinner that you are, and still He claimed you. In the waters of baptism, He claimed you as His own and marked you with the cross of Christ for all eternity.
Our place in God’s kingdom has been set for all eternity and for that reason we don’t need to dwell on the temporary and worldly. Martin Luther says this about our place in God’s kingdom..
Our citizenship or homeland, he says, is not here on earth, but in heaven; there we have our real existence and life. There Jesus Christ, the Lord, has something to do… There we are citizens and heirs of God, brothers and fellow heirs with Christ. Yes, we are already there with our hearts according to the spirit and faith; for we believe, as the children’s Creed teaches us, in “a holy Christian Church, resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.” Therefore we have this firm hope and confidently expect that on the Last Day we shall arise and possess eternal life.

That is the truth, now let us rejoice in it, by reaching out to our neighbors, to sinners, with radical love and the eternal promise of forgiveness in Christ Jesus.
Amen

Sermon-Sunday-Jan 21, 2007

Luke 4:14-21
Brothers and Sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today we have our annual parish meeting. Today we have a joint worship service. Today we will gather downstairs and enjoy a pot-luck feast together. And for some of us, today we will watch football. Perhaps for others, today you will go to Williston. And today, or more accurately tonight, some of you may go to the Captive Free concert at First Lutheran in Williston. But for all of you, all of that will be in the past, once tomorrow arrives.
Captive Free will be on their way to their next church. The football games will be over and we will know who will play in the Super Bowl, and the annual parish meeting will be over. But in today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus uses the word ‘today’ in a different sense when He says that ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’
The word ‘today’ is an important word in Luke’s Gospel. All through Luke’s gospel, the word is used in reference to monumental moments. The angel says to the shepherds “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you.” Jesus says to the thief on the cross “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Jesus tells Zachaeus “Today salvation has come to this house.” And of course, in this morning’s lesson Jesus says to those who had gathered in the synagogue “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” For Luke, today, quite often is a moment of radical change.
Jesus announces that He has come to bring good news to the poor, that He has been sent to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. The moment where Jesus announces that His arrival, particularly that moment that marks the beginning of His ministry when He announces that the scripture He just read has been fulfilled is fairly instantaneous, but what His arrival brings is eternal.
Jesus’ arrival did not mean recovery, freedom, release, and favor just for the people who had gathered in that synagogue, but people from all nations. It wasn’t just for that generation, it was for all the generations to come, and it wasn’t just for the Jews, but for all God’s people. The good news that Jesus brings with Him to that synagogue applies just as much to Christians in North Dakota as it did to those faithful Jews in Nazareth.
When Luke uses ‘today’ it is often in conjunction with a time of change brought about through an encounter with Jesus. This is what happens when Jesus enters into the picture. When Jesus bursts onto the scene, you are changed. The change may not reveal itself in a real dramatic fashion, and for some maybe it does. But make no mistake about it, when you encounter Christ Jesus, be it through Word, Sacrament, the love of Christ being shared with you, fellowship with God’s people or whatever, you are changed.
As this Gospel narrative continues, and we will hear more about this next Sunday, we realize that for those people in the synagogue, the Word that Jesus was proclaiming was terrifying. They had heard that prophetic text that Jesus read before. They eagerly awaited the fulfillment of that prophecy. They looked forward to it. They expected it would come with great pomp and circumstance and authority.
But when Jesus, the humble son of a carpenter announces that he is the fulfillment of that expectation, they are scared. They are scared because, as usual Jesus has taken human expectations and completely flipped them upside down. There were no flashing lights or anything. It was merely the humble son of a carpenter.
And every time you encounter Jesus in the Gospel, you are also terrified. You are terrified as your sin is exposed to you, and you are brought to the startling conclusion that you can’t do this on your own. You are terrified as the law condemns and accuses you to be the sinner that you are. You are terrified as the righteousness, innocence, and purity of the one who comes to redeem you exposes you as being among the poor who are in need of good news, you are among the captive to sin who need release, you are among the oppressed who desire freedom from the law, and you are among those who need sight to be rescued from blindness to sin.
But the arrival of the one who takes your sin and frees you from your bondage, blindness, poverty, captivity, and oppression has been fulfilled. In the waters of baptism you have been claimed by Him; the one who frees you, redeems you and forgives you, the one who comes to you in His word, in the sacraments and in His people, and that is good news.
But even the good news that Jesus brings terrifies you. It terrifies you because it calls you into action today, right now. The same Spirit of the Lord who was upon Jesus is also upon you, and has been upon you since that moment when you encountered Jesus in the waters of baptism. In that moment you were changed. In that moment you began to experience what Martin Luther calls in the small catechism, the calling, gathering, and enlightening through the Gospel into faith.
Paul reminds us in today’s lesson from 1st Corinthians that the same Spirit who calls us into faith, through baptism, also brings us into one body; the body of Christ. It is in the midst of that one body that the Spirit works through us to continue the recovery of sight, the freeing of the oppressed, the release of the captives, the proclamation of the Lord’s favor and of course the bringing of good news to the poor.
Paul reminds us that not only do we all have a place in the Body of Christ but the place that we have was not chosen by us but by God, when he writes “God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.” Paul then writes how the stronger members of the body are called to support and lift up the weaker members of the body. He writes that when one member suffers we all suffer.
We are the Body of Christ and that scares us. Not just because it challenges us to step outside our comfort-zone, but because it means that God is at work in our lives, as opposed to a distant God, outside of us, away from us who leaves us alone. The living Christ is present in each of us, messing with us, calling us and forgiving us.
The life-changing radical moments that Luke often pointed to by using the word ‘today’ now come through us in common, ordinary ways. We are the Body of Christ, and as such we are literally called to share Jesus with our neighbor through our words and action.
Jesus’ announcement in today’s Gospel lesson was about good news being brought to all of God’s people. In fact that was the very nature of the good news; that barriers were being broken and that all of God’s people were being freed, gathered and called together; that the one who would bring redemption and forgiveness for all of God’s people had arrived.
Now that work continues in you in whatever way the Spirit calls you to use your gifts; be it in reaching out to the oppressed around the world, or in your own country, or maybe to help the elderly, or maybe to volunteer at a soup-kitchen, or maybe to serve on church council, whatever.
Jesus has claimed, redeemed, freed and forgiven you, and until today passes into tomorrow at Jesus’ return then there are still captive, and oppressed who need to be freed and blind seeking their sight and of course, the poor who need good news, and wherever you have been placed in the Body of Christ, whatever gifts you have been blessed with, the Holy Spirit calls you into service. That in itself is good news.
Amen

Sermon-Sunday-Jan 14, 2007

Brothers and Sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today’s Gospel lesson is about transformation. Jesus transforms water into wine at the request of His mother Mary who realizes that the supply of wine at this wedding that they had all been invited to had run out. And the transforming of the water into wine is a wonderful miracle, and it wasn’t just about preventing the inconvenience of people not having wine to drink at a party. In other words, Mary’s appeal to Jesus when the wine ran out, although a very human request, was not as trivial as it might appear to be today.
In first-century Jewish culture, running out of wine at a wedding would not have been a minor inconvenience, it would have been a social disaster and a disgrace, and the family would have to live with the shame of it for a long time to come. So by fulfilling Mary’s request, Jesus wasn’t just preventing the supply of wine from running out, he was building and restoring relationships between all those who had gathered for the celebration, which would have been pretty much the whole community.
Nevertheless, the transformation that this passage points to and that John’s gospel continues to speak of, goes beyond the restoration of human relationships. The transformation that this lesson speaks of refers to the different dimension of reality that comes into being when Jesus is present, and when people, through faith, are transformed by that presence. It speaks of the coming together of Heaven and earth.
And in Mary you see a living example of this transformation taking place. We see just how much she has grown from being in the presence of the Word made flesh in Christ Jesus. We see just how far she has gone in the transformation that was being worked in her. She has been transformed from a young mother struggling with doubt and confusion to a faithful servant who appears to have no doubt whatsoever that Jesus will honor her request; so much so that she doesn’t even wait for Jesus to say yes or no, she simply tells the servants to do whatever he tells them.
Jesus honors her request, but he also lets it be known that he has a much bigger purpose, that he is bringing about a much bigger transformation than what his mother is asking him to do here, when he says to her “What concern is that to you and me, my hour has not yet come.”
Mary has come a long way in her own transformation, but she still doesn’t quite see the big picture. But we are told that this is the first of Jesus’ signs that reveal his glory. This event was a sign, not just in the fact that it verified that Jesus had these unique abilities, but more importantly it was a sign that pointed to something other than itself, something beyond itself, something bigger than itself.
The miracle that took place when Jesus changed the water into wine at the wedding at Cana was a sign that pointed to the ‘hour’ that Jesus referred to when he told Mary that his ‘hour’ had not yet arrived.
We see the arrival of this ‘hour,’ the very event which the wedding miracle points to in the second of the only two appearances of Jesus’ mother in John’s gospel. The second time we see Jesus’ mother is at the foot of the cross. The glory of Christ Jesus is fully and completely revealed, not in the miracles that he performs, or the exorcisms, or the healings, or not even in the raising of Lazarus.
All of those certainly show his glory, but we don’t see the complete revelation of his glory until he dies on the cross. That is the ultimate moment where Heaven and earth meet. It takes faith that can only come from being in the presence of the living Christ to see the glory of God hidden in the shame of an innocent man dying on the cross. This is the faith that we see in Jesus’ mother Mary, two women who were very close to Jesus’ mother, who probably also spent a great deal of time in the presence of Jesus, and John, the disciple who was considered to be beloved, as they travel with Jesus on those final steps to the cross.
This is the very faith that you are being filled with daily as you live in your baptism. As the Holy Spirit comes to you daily in God’s Word, as you come forward, in repentance to experience the real presence of the living Christ in the bread and the wine of His supper, faith is being created, nurtured and sustained in you.
This is the faith that was begun in you through the waters of baptism. This is the faith that enables you to look at the cross of Christ and see it for what it really is; the moment where Christ Jesus took your sin upon himself, where he paid the penalty you couldn’t pay, and gave you his righteousness.
This is the faith that fills you with the assurance that in the waters of baptism, the true old creature in you, who likes to go things your own way, and likes to define Jesus on your own terms, and put your interests before your neighbors, has died with Christ Jesus on the cross.
This faith also assures you that in the same way that Christ Jesus was resurrected anew three days later when He walked out of the tomb where He left your sin, He resurrects you as the new creation emerges in you daily in baptism. This is the faith that fills you with the peace that surpasses all understanding. This is the faith that frees you to serve your neighbor through word and deed. This is the faith that Paul writes of in the second lesson for this morning when he reminds us that no one can say that Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.
Paul also reminds us that the same Holy Spirit who calls you to faith in Christ Jesus, has called you to utilize the varieties of gifts that you have been blessed with. On Friday, I was reminded of how we are called to utilize these gifts that we are blessed with, when I walked into the conference room and I saw Carol Berg and Lavern Johnson working on what had to have been Annual Report budget auditing stuff. I just saw a bunch of numbers, and decimal points, and that’s all it took to confuse me.
But Carol and Lavern were in and out of there in what couldn’t have been longer than 15 minutes. Carol even left her car running. Not long after that, Evelene came into the office and told me that all of the numbers matched up, whatever that means. After that I couldn’t help but wonder, “If I had to do that how long would it have taken me, and how bad would I have messed it up?” But because two faithful servants were willing to utilize their gifts for this, it got done quickly and effectively.
No matter which of these varieties of gifts you have been blessed with, the Holy Spirit has a place for them in the Body of Christ. If you feel the Holy Spirit moving you to start a Bible-study then do so. If you feel the Holy-Spirit calling you to preach, then do so. Whatever your gifts, there is a calling for them in the church.
Mary’s request to Jesus at the wedding in Cana would lead to a sign that points to Jesus’ glory. Today, as the Body of Christ, we are called to be a sign pointing our neighbor to Christ Jesus. We are post-resurrection people eagerly awaiting Jesus’ return. So as a sign, we point both to the future of the promised return of Jesus, but also to the past of what Jesus has done for you and for your neighbor.
We are called to point our neighbors to the cross, where we see the complete revelation of the glory of Christ Jesus in what He has done for us. The Holy Spirit gives us the very gifts we need to be able to do this, and guides us as we do this. And the Holy Spirit gives us the faith in the eternal promise of what has already been done for us, and assurance that the Holy Spirit is at work in us, speaking through us, and transforming through us.
Amen

Sermon-Sunday-Jan 7, 2007

Brothers and Sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.,
The image of Jesus that John the Baptist speaks of in today’s Gospel lesson does not seem like a very nice image of Jesus. It’s certainly not a politically correct image of Jesus. To this crowd of people who had gathered on the banks to hear John preach, for various reasons, John describes Jesus as one who will come with a winnowing fork in His hand and He will clear the threshing floor so the wheat can be gathered into the granary, and the chaff can be burned with unquenchable fire.
You don’t have to be a biblical scholar to see here that John is talking about judgment. John says that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. John’s use of the word fire is what shows us that he is talking about judgment. Spirit and fire is used here in a way to show purification. A common analogy used to illustrate the type of fire that John is talking about is a refiner’s fire, which is a fire used to purify steel or metal. It’s the type of fire that would be used by a person who makes swords to heat up metal or steel, which would remove impure elements, before the metal or steel could then be shaped into a sword.
So, as you hear these words this morning, as if you were one of those people filled with expectation who had gathered to hear John preach on the banks of the river, I ask you, are you among the wheat or the chaff? What exactly does that mean anyway? What does John mean by saying that the wheat will be separated from the chaff? What does John mean by saying that Jesus comes with a winnowing fork? Well, some of you farmers are probably already familiar with the imagery that John is using. But I’ll articulate on it a little bit.
Wheat is separated from chaff by throwing it up into the air with a winnowing fork. The heavier wheat falls back down to the ground, and the wind blows the chaff away. So in that light, what John is saying to those people on the banks, and to you, is that the Messiah will preserve what is valuable and destroy what is worthless, just as a farmer does.
So, maybe this might prompt you think “Well that’s great, then I’m OK.” “If He brings destruction only for the worthless then that doesn’t include me.” “I am a good person.” “I go to church on Sunday, I tithe, I go to Bible-study, I serve on the council.” “Oh, I am not perfect, but certainly I must be valuable, I mean look at everything I do.”
Well, take into consideration that John the Baptist would have been considered by many to have been a righteous and pious man. He even had his own disciples. But, in terms of his own status John said that he was not even worthy to tie the thongs of the sandals that Jesus wore.
The tying of someone’s sandals would have been a task that would have been reserved for a slave or a servant. So, John considered himself to not even be worthy to be a slave or a servant of Jesus. So if John was someone that these people on the banks would have considered to be very righteous and pious, then what does this lowly and humble view of his own worthiness say about them? For that matter what does it say about you?
But again, this does not fit the image of Jesus that we like. This is not the image of Jesus that we have come to embrace. This is not the image of a Jesus who is going to bless us with a new house or a new car if we just sow the right seed. It’s not the image of a Jesus who is going to support our political agenda, be it liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat. And this is certainly not the image of a Jesus who is going to affirm every one of our innermost desires and orientations simply because we find them to be an expression of who we really are inside. Has Jesus come to judge and separate or to gather those who have responded to Jesus’ call for repentance? The answer is yes, or both.
Jesus has come to bring judgment, and He comes to gather those who have come to Him in faith and repentance. But God does not wait for us. In sin, we have already been found guilty, and try as we might, we cannot weasel our way out of this verdict. And in baptism, the verdict is carried through and the old sinful creature, or as Luther called it, the old Adam, is sentenced to death.
But thanks be to God, that is not the end of the story. Our Lord does not leave you in death. In His Son, He sends one who would come to take your place and carry your sin with Him to the grave and in exchange you receive His righteousness. And as the old creature is put to death, the new creation emerges. The new creation is called by name and claimed by Christ through the Holy Spirit, in the same way that Jesus Himself is called and claimed by His Father in today’s Gospel lesson when we hear the voice from heaven pronounce Jesus to be the Son of God in whom God is well pleased.
In baptism, the same claim is made on you. In baptism you are claimed as a Child of God in whom God is well pleased. And why is this claim made on you? Is it because of your faithful attendance? Is it because of your generous Spirit? Is it because of your creative energy? No. God has claimed you as His own because He loves you completely and unconditionally, and can’t bear the thought of spending eternity without you.
In Romans 6, Paul writes that “..all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. Therefore we have been buried with Him by baptism into death ,so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life.”
The newness of life does refer to the future resurrection when we will join Jesus in His eternal Kingdom. But the newness of life also refers to the daily resurrection that you experience daily as the Holy Spirit calls you through the Gospel.
As many of you know, this year we gave Christmas gift-plates to some of our nursing-home residents and other relocated members. And in the short time since we have done this I have already heard many sincere words of appreciation and gratitude from the people who received the plates. Also as a result of this, my visitation ministry was expanded, as I became aware through your contribution to this project, of people who, although they may not technically be members, they still have strong ties to our community.
This began with me reading the newsletter of another congregation and seeing that they did something like that also. So I decided to steal the idea. And had it not been for the generous contributions of so many of you, it would not have been possible. But had it not been for the Holy Spirit, I would have never even had the idea. The Holy Spirit took hold of it and turned it into something much bigger than an idea. The Holy Spirit turned it into the love of Christ being shared with people, some of whom, to be honest experienced quite a bit of loneliness over the Christmas season. The Holy Spirit expanded our visitation ministry with it, and who knows what else the Holy Spirit will do with it.
That is an example of the newness of life that the Holy Spirit is bringing about here daily as we live in baptism. I am not talking about John’s baptism, I am talking about the baptism that Jesus brought and experienced Himself as He was claimed by His Father as the son of God in whom God is well pleased.
In baptism, the same claim is made on you, and you are daily gathered with the wheat of the new creation and separated from the chaff of sin and purified with the refiner’s fire. This does not happen so you will claimed by Christ, but because you have been claimed by Christ, in whom you have been named as a child of God in whom God is well pleased.
Amen