Everyday Lutherans

Sermon - 2018 - 02 - 21 - Wednesday Lent On Sunday’s sermon, I ended with the question, “What are we as a church here for?”  It is a question that truly no one person can answer. However, throughout the ages, the church has been known as a safe place to be in, a welcoming place, and a  place to experience God. It is something for many of us, we perhaps do not even realize unless you are drawn to it, someone points it out or it is something that we think about but then get focused on other things in our lives. Now the way a church is designed and laid out, says a lot without even a single word being mentioned.  When we think of a church, many of us may think of an old European church. The old Gothic style that was made of stone.  These buildings were huge in their construction and design so that as a person entered into the building. They would be able to feel the vastness of God and be reminded that they are entering the presence of something so much bigger than themselves.  The front

Sermon - 2018-02-18 - First Sunday in Lent After being Baptized, Jesus goes into the Wilderness to be tempted by Satan.  Why does the Holy Spirit send Jesus there? Why doesn’t Jesus simply powerfully save us all from evil in the world? Just like in our own life, after we are Baptized, we are also sent right back into this world.  The world around us is not transformed. We are the ones who are transformed. Now we have the promise, we know what it means but now we are called to face evil and do something about it. Last week, when we were together, we talked about the importance of a mountain top experience.  That in the wilderness we can bear witness to God’s Work. To be in awe and amazed at God’s Love for the world.  These moments are so very important but if we stay in those moments for too long then we find ourselves unaware of the reality, the dangers and the evil of this world.   For many of us, as we turned on the news, we are reminded of the wilderness and the evil that is still p

Ash Wednesday Lent is my favorite season of the year.  No, it does not have the fanfare of Christmas, the costumes of Halloween, or the fireworks of the 4th of July.  But what it does have is something more meaningful and more applicable within our daily lives. In Lent, we have the true and whole understanding of our own salvation.  How it comes from Jesus Christ and is a full and complete gift given to us. In the season of Lent, we hear of the events in which Christ suffered for our sake.  We are reminded of our created self, our need for God, and our very mortality. How one day, a day in the future, a day when we will no longer walk this earth. Now is the time to think about what it is. we are truly doing with our lives. What are we teaching our children, grandchildren, and others around us in this community?  Who are we and what have we been given? Now, I am not telling you to do this through the whole season of Lent, but take some time to think about yourself, your life, and those

How many of you remember your Baptism?  For some of us, we are able to remember that day, we were old enough to see, hear and speak for our own sake.  We remember the people who were there. We remember having the water poured over us or being dipped in and pulled back out.  This day and date are something that we remember. For others of us, our Baptism was done when we are infants. Yet it was our parents who made the promise that we would be raised in the faith.  Thus it is our Baptism that we should be teaching and sharing with our children so that the importance of it can understood. Which draws us to a crucial question for any Christian, how does Baptism shape you? This often brings up the very debate among Christians of believer’s baptism or infant baptism.  Yet truly, instead of an “or” we should really be looking at an “and”. Our focus should be always on welcoming and caring for people of every age and every part of the journey of life and faith that they are on.  A believer’s B

Today, we continue our journey in Advent.  The journey is one that involves us to realize that God is doing something within our life.  To wake up and get out of the darkness and the distractions of our life. Advent opens our eyes to the bitterness of this world but to the realization that God is renewing the Earth and we are able to to be a part of it.  Some of this is done through hearing what God is doing and calling us to be. Some of this is done by an examination of yourself. Still, some of this is done by how we are in a community of people. Last week as we talked about Hope, it is something that wakes us up to realize that God is indeed in our life.  The ways in which God is part of our life and do we become aware of that. Indeed, God does need to break into our lives in order for us to realize where to go and what to do.  Yet it is through this gift of Hope that we continue to return back to being God’s People. For it is only through God that we are able to bear witness and und

Happy New Year, one and all.  Granted last night there was no ball drop, there was no concert of popular musicians to welcome us into the new year.  Not even Dick Clark or Ryan Seacrest was there. Our new year ends not with the dropping of a ball but with the raising of the King to be seating at the right hand of the Father.  However, today we return. We long for Christ to return so that we can speak directly to him so that we may know exactly where he is leading us, teaching us, and helping us. During the season of Advent, we gather once again as a people who are waiting.  We are waiting for the coming of the Messiah. We place our hope, trust, and our very lives into the hands of God.  The one who created us sustains us and guides us. We wait but also we hope and search for meaning in the world. Along with that, each year, early in the fall, the voices begin clamoring to tell us what we want and need in order to be satisfied with our lives. We cannot go shopping, read the newspaper, l

We don’t know the day or the hour.  Oh, how different we would live our lives if we did know the day and the hour of the end.  The rhetoric that we hear on the even news stirs within us a reminder that we are mortal. That even here in the United States of America, we are not free the power of death.  The tragedies of fatal shootings, stabbings, and other violence comes over the news and we are stricken with fear. For many of us, we begin to look back at the good old days.  It was not like this years ago. Remember the days when the children would play down at the park, that people would get together and really care about their neighbors and those days when everyone went to church.   Why is the nation so bad right now and what it we can do to take it back there? Then comes the finger pointing of where are we to point the blame. Who or what is the problem in our nation. Yet, none of this truly solves the problem.  None of this truly brings about a change for the better in our community, n

Today throughout the church, people around the world are stopping to honor the Saints who have gone before us.  It is on this Sunday that the church has set apart to be reminded that the church is made up of the people throughout time.  It is a reminder that each and every one of our journey’s of life and faith has an impact on others not only in our lives but for generations to come.  However, at that same moment, if we do not learn and grow into that faith, it can only take one generation to fall away from the church. For each and every one of you that are here today had someone in your life tell you that faith was important.  Perhaps that person sat down with you over the course of years to remind you over and over again, the meaning of God in your life, the depth of God’s love, and the unending grace that comes from God.  Or perhaps you merely had someone who gave you the line, “You are going!” Whatever the situation you have had, I want you to think of that person. Think about it

Today is a very special day in the Lutheran church.  Today, we are commemorating 500 years since the time that Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses.  This was a monumental occasion that even still influences us today. From worshiping in our own language, going to school, and even some would argue, the way that we live as a society.  As we are here today, we also look back. We have been learning about the historical events of the Reformation. However, Luther was not the last of the Reformers. Truly any Christian denomination that is not Catholic has formed because of the work that Martin Luther did.  He laid the groundwork that is still the Re-formation of the church and society today. Yet the reason that Luther wanted to have these changes or their rippled effects was because he felt that the people in the pew were not actually understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  They did not understand what does it mean to be a Christian. Which makes me wonder today, do you as people in the pew u

Growing up, I learned a lot from my parents.  One of the key lessons that I learned was an understanding of right and wrong.  It was something that they taught me over the course of months, years, and probably a lot of mistakes.  I am sure that there were many moments of them saying, “What is wrong with this kid?” Along with even more moments of, “God, please help this child.”  As many of you have realized that sometimes, it takes us all more time than we would like, to learn a lesson, and then even more time to actually begin to live out that lesson. It is one reason that we in the church actually spend time talking about things over and over and over again.  It may get to the point where you begin to say to yourself, “Yep, I know this story. When are we going to cover something new? OR for that matter when are we going to cover something more relevant to me?!?!”  Yet I would like everyone who is gathered here today to stop and listen to the lesson and if you have heard this one befor

This parable that is given to us today is a continuation of the parable that we heard last week.  The parable of the two sons, how one son says no to his father but then goes and does the work in the vineyard and the other son who says he will go but does not do any work.  The Pharisees were the ones whom Jesus was telling the parable to but he could tell that they did not understand the message that he was telling them. So Jesus tries again with another parable.  This parable. Now Jesus paints the picture even more and in such a way that people standing right before they could walk down the street and know exactly what he was talking about.  “There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower.” This was absolutely everything that they would need to care and tend the vineyard.  Everything they would need, they were given. It would be like today, hiring someone to work the land that you own and providing the tractor, the ti

Leighton Farrell was the minister of Highland Park Church in Dallas for many years. He tells of a man in the church who once made a covenant with a former pastor to tithe ten percent of his income every year. He and his wife were both young and neither of them had much money. But things changed. The man tithed one thousand dollars the year he earned ten thousand, ten thousand dollars the year he earned one-hundred thousand, and one- hundred thousand dollars the year he earned one million. But the year he earned six million dollars he just could not bring himself to write out that check for six-hundred thousand dollars to the Church. He telephoned the minister, long since having moved to another church, and asked to see him. Walking into the pastor's office the man begged to be let out of the covenant, saying, "This tithing business has to stop. It was fine when my tithe was one thousand dollars, but I just cannot afford six-hundred thousand dollars. You've got to do someth

Last week when we gathered together, we talked about the process to forgive someone.   Jesus lays out in some rather clear steps, what it is we should do. Who it is we should involve.  But above all that we should never give up on someone. Now it is in this process that we often have to say some rather difficult words I’m sorry, to be the bigger person to realize that there is more to a relationship than to be right. These are not easy words to speak and also a difficult process in the midst of our own pride. It is this process that can be needed for our family, our friends, or even someone in our work world.  Yes, our Christian faith influences who we are as people within our whole life, not just Sunday morning. Peter is the one who asks Jesus the question, you know for a friend who may have that problem...but it is certainly not him….. I think that we can all relate though to Peter.  How many times Lord do we need to forgive someone?? How many times do we have to forgive our brother

When we first read today’s gospel lesson, it seems a little odd since today is our God’s Work, Our Hands celebration.  As we are looking more about how we can serve others in our community, how we can be the hands and feet of God into the world.  Our focus is upon others and their needs. It is probably so much of our desire, we want to help others and when others help us, it perhaps will make us feel weak.  As though they have something that we do not. We then in our society or culture have an idea that for many of us that we should not receive help from others. We are comfortable in giving to others but to receive help is something that we struggle with. Perhaps it is good that as we are so focused upon the community and others, Jesus reminds us that first, we need to be reminded of our own self.  Our Gospel today confronts us truly about what it should look like for us to resolve our conflicts of opinions, emotions, or words that are said without thinking of the listener.  Here in th

In our society, we push ourselves and our loved ones to be the best.  For many of us, we watch the Olympics and we see the athletes stand upon the three level stands of First, Second and Third.  We hear the national anthem of the first place. Everyone can clearly see who is the best and who should have the honor. We look and see who is the fastest runner, the fastest swimmer, and even the best at whatever the competition is about.  We have competitions to bear witness of which person and where the honor should be. However, have you every really stopped to think about the competitions that we have and what really they do for us in life? We have competitions to see who is the fastest?  Fastest swimmer? Why? Why not just get into a car or a boat?  That would make so much more sense right? Or how about other sports, baseball, football, soccer, hockey, or even tennis.  What is the purpose of the sport? Yet there is something about watching and bearing witness to someone working so hard and

Who are you? For many of us, this is something that we are forced to wrestle with as we are growing.  We are asked to define who we are, what we enjoy and truly what is it that we are going to do and be in the world.  It is in the midst of school, while children are learning and growing that we encourage them to begin to explore who they are. It is especially noticeable in middle school.  Here in the merging of schools, children seem to gather together into defined groups that are united based on hobbies, excellence in an area, or even more defined through the public accolades of athletics.  Yes, I am talking about the band geeks. I am talking about the Mathletes. Yes, I am talking about the football team. These groups and paths shape us and form us into having characteristics that while leading us through the beginning of life but they shape so much more than that, they also shape how we will live out our life here on Earth. Asking the big questions of life and what it is you are doin

When I was growing up, I knew my great grandparents, when I went to visit them, they would always call me by my father’s name.  When they saw me, they did not think that it was possible that they were seeing someone three generations after them. Now perhaps you have other reminders,  you have aunts or uncles who will look at you and say by you are so much like your mom or dad. Through the ways, you look or even the ways that you act. Now for many of us, when we hear that, it is something that we try to get away from.  What do you mean I look like them?!?! Do I look that old? I mean they are nearly 40. While we are growing up, we want to be better, to know more than our parents, to accomplish more than our parents.  Yet soon as we grow up, we begin to realize that we do have our parent’s features, their good qualities and yes even some of their bad ones. The old adage of: “An apple does not fall too far from a tree” is something that though we have heard it over and over again, now we r

Today we bear witness to one of the most important days of anyone’s life, our Baptismal day.  This is the day that we are called, claimed, and declared a child of God. Just as the disciples were called by name, so are we. It is from this day and forward that we are on our journey of life and faith   It is also from this day, that we begin with the question, ok, now how am I supposed to live differently? I still need to eat, sleep, have a job, and so much else so truly what is different about me and how I shall be living my life? Now growing up, we learn from others what is right and what has worked for them.  It is Jesus himself who takes the disciples with him to show them and teach them. Today, within our gospel, we hear of the way that Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray.  This has become known as the Lord’s Prayer. Yet we often speak the words, but we should also be reminded of what those words really mean for each and every one of us that say them. Martin Luther emphasized and

How many of you have children or ggrandchildren who are constantly staring down at a device?  During the time of driving from one place to another, spending time for the holidays or perhaps some other event?  A person’s attention is on their phone and not the people who are surrounding them. The person may be talking to someone in the room through the device, perhaps several thousands of miles or even just in the next community.  Now relationships are important, to connect with another person and be able to share your thoughts, your dreams, your emotions, and who you are as a person is important to be healthy. However, when you are so busy with something that you are not honoring the people who are around you or the aspects of the world that may harm you, you are just too busy.  Especially when all of your truly does not lead to anything that productive. So perhaps you take a look at your own calendar.  What is it filled with? Work, meetings, sporting events, time with friends, time to

Today, we hear a rather familiar story that Jesus uses to make a point.  It is typically known as the Good Samaritan. With each of the characters, we learn a lot of what it is we should not and should do.  For the priest, passes by on the other side, now so we understand, if the priest would have stopped and helped man, the Jewish laws would have stated that the priest would be unclean to enter the temple and thus not help or care for the hundreds or thousands of people that would come to the Temple that day.  So for the priest, he would be thinking of the majority and not the indiviudal. The Levite, would be passing by but what reason would he not stop and help the man. Would it be because he was robbed and thus have no wealth and would be of no benefit to the rich man. Would he think of the wealth that he would lose by helping this man and what others in the town would think of him for helping this man.  Now it is the third man, the Samaritan that Jesus lifts up to the People of God

There are many lessons that we learn in life.  Some we learn very easily and others we learn and it is difficult.  When we are growing up, we learn how to cook, bake, clean and so many other things that we do not want to learn but truly it is for our own benefit to learn them.  Now there are other aspects of our life that happen over and over again and yet we do not learn anything from them. Generation after generation, decade after decade, we as a human people continue to engage in war.  A time in which all of our times, energy, money, and resources are devoted to the death and destruction of other people. Over and over again, we send our own children to the battlefield for a reason. Yet we do not learn that we can do more and achieve more through understanding one another one rather than through the use of violent means.  How many people must die before we learn that working together for the good of all is sometimes more important than achieving the process of getting there? Once aga

Today, we are confronted with two texts of Scripture that bring us an understanding of our faith and perhaps even the world around us.  In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we hear of Paul declaring that the Law is a disciplinarian. One that we have turned to over and over again BUT now that Christ has come.  We are no longer in need of the LAW. The Law guided us and bound us to what it was we were suppose to do through “Thou shalt…” It was the means by which we were called to show others that we were disciplined in doing what God calls us to do.  However, now that Christ, the Son of God, has now come before us. The law is no longer what we are striving for but it is faith in Jesus Christ. The law was the prison that kept us disciplined but Christ set us free. Yet there is another aspect that we must look at.  The Law, also kept us safe. It drew a line in the sand and we could easily see by the actions of people if they were following the Law. We could see if a person was saved or not sa

As we continue tonight, you may have noticed that we are continuing to go through the letter to the Galatians.  We are already in chapter two, and Paul is getting to the heart of the matter. Getting the people of Galatia to understand what they need, but also helping them and us identifying the constant distraction and path that we can so often feel that we are going down in our journey of faith.  For people sometimes assume that because of their birth, they are saved. Because I am Jewish, I am one of the chosen people of God. Because I was born into a Christian family and baptized, I am going to be saved. Just because you are or have done one of these things in your life, does not mean that you are saved and that salvation is secure.  No, it is not your doing that gives you salvation. It is the work of Jesus Christ. Paul speaks of the other distraction for our faith journey, that it is the law.  The law is so often lifted up as what it is we should do so that we shall be a Christian.

Today, I want to draw your attention back to the New Testament reading of Paul’s letter to the Galatians.  As Paul is introducing his letter to the people, he is reminding them by whose authority he has spoken to them and the origin or source of the words that were given to him and thus to them.  As Paul continues, he speaks about the way in which the people in Galatia have taken his words and thus God’s Word and changed it into what they wanted. For the people in Galatia were adding to the message of Jesus Christ things that would make them more accepted by others around them.  They would not be persecuted because they would be following the rules that would make them safe and feel that others around them would be following. Above all, Paul was calling the people to understand who they were pleasing and serving, was it God or was it people? This letter of Paul was written nearly two thousand years ago and yet it carries with it a message that speaks volumes to us today.  In the midst