How is that Good News?

Here's a question for you to ponder. If you are willing to share your thoughts that would be great and hopefully we can help one another come to an answer. Here's the question:

The word Gospel literally means "good news." In all four of the gospels, we hear Jesus calling the disciples to a radical new life. It is a new life in which we are held to a higher standard of the law than before, we are called to show hospitality to all, we are called to love even those that despise us. We are called to live more simply, so others may simply live. In other words, we are told to give up those extra material things so we can use the money we would have spent on those items, to help feed the hungry and heal the sick. We are told that we will be blessed when we are persecuted for our faith. In short, the Gospels call us to a life of self-denial and suffering. So how it is, that this call to suffering and self-denial is Good News?

So love

The following is a sermon I preached this morning on John 3:1-17.

“For God so loved the world…”

Have you ever stopped long enough to ponder what “so love” is?

“For God so loved the world…”

So love is hard to define, but it’s easy for us to recognize. To help us understand so love, I want to share a few stories with you.

There was a young girl who was sick and needed a blood transfusion. Her slightly older brother had the same blood type so the parents and doctors gently explain the situation to the boy and asked if he would be willing to let them take blood from him to give to his sister. The boy silently pondered the situation for several moments and then with a resolute look on his face, agreed. The doctors performed the transfusion while proud and hopeful parents looked on. Afterwards the boy timidly asked the doctors “how long till I die?” The boy thought he had to give all of his blood to his sister. “So love.”

During WWII in the Nazi death camps, if one prisoner escaped 10 others were randomly selected and executed. On one such occasion one of the 10 men selected cried out that he had a wife and children and begged for his life to be spared. Much to the shock of the prisoners and guards, a fellow prisoner stepped forward and willing died in place of the chosen man. “So love.”

A son gently told he must be humiliated, tortured, and eventually killed for the sake of all, even those that despise him. After much anguish he obediently gives him self for others, and father and son weep together. “So love.”

“So love” is hard to define, yet easy to recognize. We have all heard countless stories like these. We have all heard countless stories of “so love” because humanity, made in the image of a so loving God, is also capable of “so love”. And as I came to this realization I began to wonder, not whether or not we so love, because we all so love. But I began to wonder what do we so love? For example:

There was a loyal husband and father of four who was convicted of embezzlement. It is the scandal of the small country church. The congregation whispered for months “Can you believe the finance officer has stolen thousands of dollars from our church?? From us?? Hadn’t we always wondered how he lived so lavishly?” Meanwhile the innocent wife and children slowly withdraw and eventually leave the church, completely unnoticed. What do we so love? Our money or our neighbors?

Untold numbers of men, women, teenagers, and children get hooked on drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling or countless other things every day because they are looking to fill a void. And we turn our back on them. We decide they aren’t the kind of people we want around. They might steal from us, or mess up our building, or perhaps we are worried that just by having them around somehow our own family and friends might be infected by them. What do we so love? Our comfort zones or our neighbors?

As you can tell from these stories, as well as the stories from your own lives, so love is an incredibly powerful thing. In fact, it is so powerful that it transforms us. Sometimes slowly and imperceptibly, little by little, and other times we are transformed quickly by leaps and bounds. But fast or slow, so love is transforming.

The verse doesn’t just say that God so loved the world, it says God so loved the world that God sent God’s one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Many wonderful, deeply religious, well-meaning, well-intending people have used this verse to tell others that if they would only believe in Jesus Christ all their sins would be forgiven and they would be able to escape hell and spend a blissful eternity in heaven. But to reduce this verse to simply what happens after we die is to miss the point entirely.

In the Gospel of John, eternal life is used to describe a change in life caused by belief in Jesus. Eternal life is used to describe not simply a long period of time but rather continually living in the presence of God. Eternal life isn’t about just about knowing where we go after we die, It’s about the here and now, it’s about being willing to enter into the presence of God and to live our transformed lives there. Eternal life starts now, in the present. It’s about being willing to accept the invitation to believe and to share in the life of a loving relational God.

The invitation to believe is an invitation to be transformed by so love. God intends to transform the world with so love. God intends to redeem the world with so love. That’s why God sent Jesus in the first place. That’s why Jesus’ ministry was so profound and provocative because he lived a life of so love. This transforming power of so love is why we try to emulate Jesus, it’s why we come to church, it’s why we put so much time, energy, and effort into ushering in the kingdom of God, it is because we hope to transform ourselves and the world through God’s so love.

The offer of new life that Jesus extends to Nicodemus flows out of God’s abundant love for the world. God so loved the world, and Jesus, the son of God, the incarnation and personification of God’s love also so loved the world. Jesus’ embodiment of so love is what made his life and ministry so profound. It is what makes his words still resonate with us even today.

But this offer of new life, is an invitation to new life that begins right now. We don’t have to wait till we die to experience the new life offered by Jesus. Because Jesus is more than salvation from death. Jesus is an incredible example of the transforming power of so love, right now. Just take a look around. See how far reaching the effect of his so love is. Hundreds of denominations created, hundreds of thousands of churches in existence, millions of lives touched in one way or another, a world in the process of transformation. And while none of us are the savior of the world, we all hold this transforming power of so love because we are all made in the image of a so loving God.

We all so love something. It’s a love that transforms us and overflows into the world around us. But here’s the thing. What we so love determines how we are transformed. When we so love money we become more and more like the tax collectors. When we so love theology we become more and more like the Pharisees. When we so love our comfort zones we become more and more conformed to society around us. But when we so love God, when we choose to be born anothen, to be born again and to be born from above, we become more and more like Christ. When we so love our neighbors we allow the love of God to permeate our lives so fully that it shines out of us and transforms the world around us.

During this season of lent, as you consider the things that tempt you, I encourage you to remember this: For God so loved the world. For God so loves us.

What do we so love?

Amen.

Homecomings

The following is a sermon I preached tonight at the Ash Wednesday Service on Joel 2:1-2, 12-17:

Homecomings

In recent years, I have begun to receive invitations to my High School reunions. And with those invitations to reunions, I have experienced the mixed bag of emotions that goes along with it. For some people, going to reunions is an activity that is eagerly looked forward to. They want to see all their friends, they want to catch up with people and be caughten up with. For others, reunions are preceded by intense dieting, strenuous exercise programs, frantic calls to find a date, and generally just large amounts of stress. They worry about what people will think of them and whether or not they lived up the expectations others had for them. But my guess is that most people, experience a mixture of these emotions. There’s excitement to see how people are doing, and the chance to reconnect with old friends. But that is also mixed with a bit of nervousness, a bit of wanting to impress people with how far you’ve come in life and how much you’ve accomplished. Reunions are indeed a mixed bag of emotions

These various emotions associated with reunions and homecomings are due to the underlying process of rediscovery. As we are intentional about gathering together and seeking out one another, we find that time and circumstance has changed us. We have each become new and different people than we were years ago. We have learned and grown, made mistakes, been hurt, our passions and priorities have changed and we are only a shadow of our past selves.

When we change, our relationships also change. The change in us changes the way we perceive others. It changes the way we understand the world around us, and this new perception and understanding alters how we choose to interact with others. But we often don’t recognize this change in ourselves, because it is gradual and happens over time, so we don’t realize how much we’ve actually changed until we get together with someone we haven’t seen in awhile. And then we find that the process of rediscovering who they are, leads us to rediscovering who we are.

This process of rediscovery is what we are invited to during the season of lent. Lent is a time when we are invited to be intentional about rediscovering God and ourselves. In Joel we hear God’s earnestly invitation for us to come to a reunion, we hear God earnestly calling us home. Listen again to verse 13: Return to the Lord your God, for [God] is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and relents from punishing. What a wonderful invitation to return to God, to come to a reunion with God.

When Joel spoke these words to the Israelites, there was a famine in the land. People were hurting, and hungry. Some scholars believe the Israelites must have sinned and brought this destruction upon themselves, that this destruction is actually punishment from God. Other scholars point to the lack of any direct accusation of sin in the text to suggest that the Israelites sin is not to blame for this famine. The debate is not whether or not the Isrealites sinned. The Israelites were sinful to be sure. We all are. We all have moments where we don’t live up to the standards God has set for us. The presence of sin in this situation is not in questions. Rather, the debate here is whether or not this destruction, this famine, is punishment from God for the Israelites’ sin. Some scholars say yes, others say no. We certainly have biblical support for both sides of the debate. And we have support for both sides of the debate in our own lives. We know that our own brokenness and hurtful actions have consequences, that we hurt ourselves and those around us when we act in inappropriate and selfish ways. But we also know that not all destruction can be contributed to the sins of people. Sometimes disaster strikes in our individual and corporate lives and we are left wondering what is to blame. And we know the bad things certainly do happen to good people.

I personally think it’s a good thing that the text is ambiguous about the cause of the famine. It allows this text to touch and speak to more people. Whether or not the people’s sin has accounted for the famine, God sees the hurt and hunger of the people. And God calls out to them, inviting them to rediscover who God is. Regardless of if you are experiencing the hurt and brokenness that sin causes in your life, or if you are hurting from things way beyond your control, God calls you and invites you to rediscover who God is. God hasn’t changed. God is still gracious and merciful. God is still slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. God hasn’t changed but the people have. The Israelites are not the same as they were last year, and so God invited them to come home, to rediscover who God is.

Like the Israelites, we are not the same as we were last year. We have changed and so our understanding of God and our relationship with God has also changed, even though God is still the same. So each year we are invited to intentionally rediscover who God is. We start our journey in lent with reflecting on our current understanding of God, because it is through knowing God, that we come to know ourselves. It is in rediscovering God that we rediscover who we are called to be. And it is through relationship with God that we are able to come to terms with the tension between who we are and who we are called to be.

As a result, Lent is also a time to reflect on who we have become. We are asked to be honest with ourselves about the areas of our lives that have changed. And in light of our new understanding of God, we are asked to be honest with ourselves about what areas in our life we need to change. Because all of us still have growing to do, all of us are still trying to rediscover and live into the image of God within us.

So as we set out on our journey of rediscovery, we are given a physical sign, a physical reminder of our identity to help guide us in the process. We are marked with a cross of ashes. The ashes come from burning last year’s palm branches. On the one hand, they remind us of our own mortality. They remind us that we are formed by God from the dust and one day our bodies will return to dust. But the ashes also remind us how quickly our Palm Sunday praises fade into shouts of condemnation. They remind us that we still have sin in our lives. That we still act in ways that are contrary to what God wills for us.

But the ashes also help us remember our baptism. Like the water or oil that was used in your baptism, the ashes are placed in the sign of the cross on our foreheads. The ashes make the cross visible for us to be reminded that we have been incorporated into the body of Christ. The visible cross reminds us that we children of God and we have been incorporate in the death and resurrection of Jesus. This visible cross calls us to be continually striving to live more fully into the image of God within us. These ashes are for us a visible reminder of the tension between who we are and who we are called to be.

So tonight, and during these six-weeks of Lent, I invite you to intentionally come home. Return to God and rediscover who you are.

Amen.

Confounding Wisdom

Well it's now Tuesday afternoon and I have yet to start actually writing my sermon for tomorrow's Ash Wednesday service. But as I sit down to focus on that, I find my mind wandering back to this blog because I have been doing my usual sermon prep and I have been struck by the powerful imagery used in the Ash Wednesday service.

In the church year, we move from ashes to fire. We move from the Ashes of our own mortality on Ash Wednesday, through the season of Lent as we reflect on our lives and what things we need to improve on in our relationship with God and one another. We see the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, and a few days later celebrate the power of God's love and grace in the resurrection of Christ. We witness the resurrected Christ in our midsts during the season of Easter and then on Pentecost sunday, what all began in the ashes of our own mortailty is now on fire with the love and grace of God. What was once a rag-tag group of people, is now one body, united in the triune God who loves us so much that we are made new, and not just new, but we are made whole.

This part of the church year goes contrary to our usual way of thinking. We usually experience fire that burns for a while and then dies out, leaving only a pile of ashes behind. And yet God confounds our wisdom and refuses that. Instead God brings life and passionate fire, where there was once only death and ashes.

As I thought about this I was reminded of a prayer I journaled awhile back. I thought I would share it with you:

Confounding Wisdom

You are confounding wisdom
overturning worldly knowledge
Your teachings confuse us
your example convicts us.

You speak of death leading to life
of liberation in servanthood
of power in weakness
of rebirth and life from above.

You are confounding wisdom
the world cannot comprehend you
We so often misunderstand you
even limit you to our preconceived notions of impossibilities

Confound our wisdom this day!
Turn these ashes into fire
Reveal your truth
and expand the realm of possibilities.

We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, whose obedience liberates.
Amen.

More than Monuments

The following is a sermon I preach this morning on Matthew 17:1-9:

Today is Transfiguration Sunday, one of those turning points in the church year where we move from one season to another. Actually, everything in the church year so far can be seen as leading up to this moment. All the waiting in advent, the celebration of Christ’s birth on Christmas, and the many large and small revelations of God in our midst during Epiphany have been moving us towards this day. In today’s scripture we see, for a brief moment, Christ’s identity as fully as we are able to. Christ as human and yet as light radiant, God with us. Not only God with us but God for us.

Then as quick as we see it, the moment is gone and we move forward in the journey of Lent. Jesus, God for us is at work for our redemption but that redemption is still a long road ahead. There’s still much ministry to be done, and the shadow of the cross still lingers over the road ahead. Redemption will not be achieved while Jesus shines in glory on the mountain. Instead it will be the result of a long road of suffering. Yet today we get a small glimpse of how this story turns out. We see past the suffering, past the cross and we get a little glimpse of the resurrected Christ in all his glory.

This passage is a wonderful reassuring gift to us. In this story we see God’s commitment to the resurrection and are assured that the suffering which lies ahead will not overcome the light of God in our midst. But this passage is a hard one for many of us to understand. That’s due in part to the large amount of symbolism wrapped up in this story. There’s the mountain top which reminds us of God giving Moses the law on top of Mt. Sinai. Then there’s the appearance of Moses and Elijah, who represent the law and the prophets. The simple mention of their names reminds us of Jesus’ connection with the long history of Israel and God’s acts of deliverance on behalf of Israel. The cloud from which God speaks reminds us of the pillar of cloud that symbolized God’s abiding presence with the Israelites in the wilderness. And there are many more elements of symbolism embedded in this text.

There’s so much symbolism that it is easy for us to get bogged down in it as we read this story. But even without such rich symbolism, I think this passage would still be hard for us to understand. I think that’s in large part because the event itself, transfiguration, is difficult for us to imagine. Occasionally the movies will help us imagine what transfiguration might look like but even then, transfiguration seems to happen only as the rare exception. In movies, we see ordinary people transformed into angry hulks, superhero-crime fighters with spider traits, or even an occasional princess turning into a loveable ogre. In movies transfiguration is the exception rather than the rule.

But transfiguration also happens in real life, right in our midst, and often we just don’t recognize it as that. Each year, right in our own congregation we see youth and mentors transfigured before us as they journey through confirmation. The confirmands and mentors come to know God on a deeper level, and they begin to form a faith that is their own, that’s not simply their parents’ faith, or even their pastors’ faith. We see transfiguration each time a group comes back from a mission trip and is on fire with the Holy Spirit. These groups have experienced the powerful ways that God is at work around the world, and in desperate situations. They have experienced the deep, passionate faith of others, and as a result something inside them changes. Those who are involved in intensive bible study inevitably find themselves face to face with the word of God, and wrestling with it as they try to figure out how to live their lives in light of their new found knowledge of God. There are countless other ways that transfiguration happens right here in our midst because for Christians, transfiguration is not something that happens only to an elite few.

Based on the reading of this scripture passage, it’s easy for us to think that transfiguration is something that only happens to Jesus. After all, Jesus is the one who is transfigured and we don’t witness much immediate or obvious change in the disciples. It is Jesus who is transfigured, not the disciples. So what does this passage have to do with us, Christ’s modern disciples, and our transfiguration? After Christ’s resurrection and ascension to heaven, the church is the body of Christ in the world. And as such, the transfiguration of Jesus points to the transfiguration of each one of us.

Our transfiguration is not the exact same as what happened to Jesus on that Mountain with the disciples. Most of us will probably not become all radiant and shiny and most of us will probably not find ourselves talking with Moses and Elijah. But each one of us was made in the image of God, and with each transfiguration we go through, the light of God shines that much stronger through us.

Transfiguration happens often, and in a variety of ways. But one thing that is true of all transfigurations, is once you’ve changed. There’s no going back. Those who have been transfigured will never be the same. Something has changed in them, and it is a change that is intended to propel us ever deeper into God’s mission in the world.

That’s the real importance of every transfiguration. The importance of the experience on that mountain-top or the experience of confirmation, or mission trips, or bible study or any other transforming experience lies not in the experience itself but rather in the way that experience affects the rest of our faith and the rest of our lives. While we don’t see any instantaneous change in the disciples in this passage, I do think it is striking that the same disciples that were present for the transfiguration are the ones Jesus takes with him into the garden of Gethsemane. On the mountain, these disciples witness the joy and glory of God in human form. And it prepares them for the cost of God in the form of suffering servant, it prepares them for all that will happen in the garden and on the cross.

And so it is with us. Our transfigurations help prepare us for the work of God’s mission in the world. In fact, the transfigurations not only prepare us for God’s mission but propel us ever deeper into God’s mission. One whose life is the same after confirmation as it was before has missed the point of transfiguration. And one whose life is the same after a mission trip as it was before, has missed the point of transfiguration. The same goes for those involved in intensive bible study. If our life is the same after the study as it was before, then we have missed the point. None of these activities, and the transfiguration that happens in us as a result, is an end in itself. Instead all of these things should lead us into caring for the sick, declaring justice and righteousness for all, and proclaiming the freedom and forgiveness we find in Jesus.

But for some of us, that is not our immediate response. Sometimes we, like the disciples, would simply rather build monuments to honor and remember the transfiguration. It certainly is easier to try to live in the glory of that moment than it is to live out the costly discipleship we are called to.

Yet these transforming experiences are not intended to be a monument, a sign of our achievement, but rather are intended to provide us with greater momentum in serving God and our neighbors. The excitement, and energy, and enthusiasm that we get from transfiguration moments should be channeled into the serving God in the world.

As we enter into the season of Lent, I encourage you to look back over your life and try to identify some of the moments of transfiguration you have experienced or witnessed. But don’t just stop there. Once you have identified them, consider what those moments of transfiguration have prepared you for, and what aspects of God’s mission in the world you are being called into. What aspects of God’s mission in the world are you being called into?

Amen.