Rally Sunday, September 16, 2018

2 Timothy 3:14-17

I was born to be a pastor.

I learned to be a good teacher.

Both are important and both are a part of who I am.

Which is why today is so dog-gone important to me. Because on this day: Rally Day, we are all called to rally ourselves, to rally our minds and our spirits around the Word of God. On this day we remember and we embrace that we are called to enter into a discipline of learning and teaching. We need to know and to understand what it means to be a child of God; we need to k now and to understand what it means to be God’s servants in the world.

A scholar wrote about the verses I just read from 2 Timothy:

The purpose of Scripture is the purpose of good schooling—to produce the well-instructed and disciplined adult, proficient and well equipped in the graces and skills required for a positive role in church and society…

                                    (The New Interpreter’s Bible vol. 11, p. 852)

Which is just a fancy way of saying we want to grow good kids here, and we want to have understanding adults. We want our adults to understand holy scripture, to understand Lutheran tradition, to understand the things we need to know as followers of Christ so we can teach our children.

Learning is lifelong.

Which is why we begin today a journey we are calling AB-Yes!

AB:

Affirmation of Baptism.

To affirm is to say “yes” to something. To affirm our baptism is to say yes to what God has done in our lives.

Saying “yes” to baptism is to say “uh huh!” Saying “yes” to baptism is to say “I want to be a child of God. Saying “yes” to baptism is to say I want to be a follower of Christ. Saying “yes” to baptism is to say I celebrate that I have been washed in the waters of baptism; I celebrate that God has cleansed me of my sin. Saying “uh huh” is to say that I know God forgives me and I revel in that forgiveness.

AB-Yes! is a process I have designed for use here at Our Savior’s, a learning process that one can begin in third grade, if one chooses, or later if one wants. AB-Yes! is a learning process anyone at any age can take part in. AB-Yes! takes the place of what was once known as confirmation, and it takes the place of what was once known as Sunday School. AB-Yes! is our attempt to embrace the needs of modern families while at the same time calling all of us at all ages to think about our need to learn about our faith and our need to affirm our faith—to say “yes!” to God and God’s gracious activity again and again and again.

We begin AB-Yes! this morning, with this sermon and with the intergenerational learning experience I will lead in Fellowship Hall, beginning at 10:30am. It will end by 11am.

I was thinking about my own experiences as a child, growing up in a traditional Lutheran family, going to worship and to Sunday School every week. I was trying to remember what Sunday School was like for me, what we did.

I actually began remembering a lot of things: memorizing bible verses, singing songs, collecting offerings to send overseas, doing crafts. I remember high school Sunday School, my teacher and the books we read together and the incredible conversations we had. My favorite memory was from when I was in Sunday School as a youngster. I remember my classmates and myself sitting around a kidney shaped table. I remember looking across the huge room at other children sitting at other kidney shaped tables. I remember seeing another member of my family leaning with his/her head under the table, picking his/her nose. I remember feeling mortified! And amused.

Learning in the context of a congregation is vital. We need to learn what our faith tells us about what it means to live in this world. We need to learn what scripture teaches us about ourselves and about others. We need to learn what God expects of us as God’s children—whatever our age.

Most importantly, we need to learn all the different ways God expresses God’s love for us and for the world.

This is why we rally today.

This is why we gather. To hear. To learn. To know. To believe. To share. To have hope in God’s wonderful promises.

Amen.

Thinking in “We”

Pentecost 16, 2016
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Our Savior’s Lutheran, La Crosse

Thinking in “We”

Tuesday I called my brother up on the phone to wish him a happy birthday. It is a tradition between some of us in our family, when we call to say happy birthday we actually sing it to whoever is celebrating their birthday. So, when my brother answered the phone I sang to him.

Thursday, my brother and his daughter called me up to sing happy birthday to me. I was out for dinner with my niece’s family so I let it go to voicemail and listened to them sing later, at home. My parents called, as well. What a blessing to listen to my 82 year old mother and 89 year old father sing to me.

At the end of my brother and niece’s birthday message to me, I heard my niece say, “Now let’s call Diane!”

Diane is my twin sister. She and I shared text messages during the day on Thursday. But I hadn’t talked to her so I called her after listening to my brother and niece. When she answered I began to sing Happy Birthday. I sang “Happy birthday to we…”

When a person is a twin or triplet or quadruplet, the person lives his or her life thinking in “we.” Even after years of separation, marriages, families, jobs, different geographic locations—twins/triplets/quadruplets—there is always a “we” that transcends space and time.

We don’t live in a “we” world, we live in a “me” world.

When we hear someone say “Me, me me…” we know the person is talking about him or herself, not practicing vocals.

Thursday, when I sang “Happy birthday to we…” to my sister we both started to laugh and said at the same time “Wee, wee, wee, all the way home.” We were both thinking of the little pig going home from the market… Both of us, thinking the same thing, although there was over a hundred miles separating us.

We were thinking in “we.”

In the reading Sheila read from Deuteronomy, Moses was giving his farewell address to the Israelites. He had traveled with the Israelites out of slavery. They had wandered through the wilderness for years. In this reading, they had a bird’s eye view of the Promised Land.

Moses knew he wouldn’t be traveling any further with his people. He had a few last words to share, including a choice: Life or death.

You might hear the words of Moses and think the choices he offers the Israelites are choices for each one of them, as individuals. You might think each one of the travelers is being asked to choose life or death, to receive blessings or curses, to experience prosperity or adversity. You might be thinking that because it is the way people think in our world, in this society: people think in “me,” not “We.”

Moses was addressing the community. Moses was addressing the Israelites as a people, not as persons. Moses was saying to his community of faith, to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: you people have a choice. As a community, you have a choice. The Israelites would have known that because they lived as a community of “we,” not “me.” They survived as a community of “We,” not as a bunch of individual “me, me, me-s.”

It is called the Deuteronomic Code.

If the people of Israel, Abraham’s descendants, chose life they would receive blessings. Choosing life meant choosing to love God. Choosing life meant choosing to obey God. Choosing life meant choosing to hold fast to God, to cling to God.

Choosing death was to choose to be disobedient. Choosing death was to choose to be separate from God—to either love other gods or to simply step out of having any love for God, at all. To choose death was to choose to let go of God, creating a distant relationship.

Terence Fretheim, a Lutheran scholar suggests that we need to know that the people of Israel were not looking ahead to a relationship with God they might have if they made the right choice, they were looking at sustaining a life they already had (Deuteronomy 30:15-20, www.workingpreacher.org). The Israelites were living in community with one another and with God. Moses was encouraging them to sustain that relationship, to continue to be obedient to God, to continue to love God, to continue to cling to God.

What does this mean?

The answer is difficult.

I say it is difficult because the answer demands that we, living in the 21st century, take on a way of thinking that is thousands of years old.

I say it is difficult because the answer demands that we “think in we” rather than thinking in me.

Everything in our world tells us to think “me.” I need to think about “me” myself, and I. I need to do what’s best for me. I need to protect my best interests. I need to choose between life and prosperity, or death and adversity.

This reading, read from the proper context, wants us to ignore me and think “we.”

Do we choose life or death? Love or separation? Obedience or disobedience? Relationship or individualism? Do we cling or do we let go?

This isn’t about us as individuals or about us as a congregation, this is about putting ourselves in the context of a congregation that exists in a larger context, a context bigger than who we are in this place, bigger than who we are in our synod, bigger than who we are as Lutherans… this is about who we are as Christians.

It is much easier to think about me, because I have some level of control over my relationship with God.

It is much easier to think about us as a congregation because we have a structure in place for thinking that way.

It is easy to think about ourselves as part of a synod, or as Lutherans, because we have structures and doctrines that guide that kind of thinking.

How do we think as Christian people, as a global Christian family? Knowing all of the differences that exist within Christianity—how do we even begin to think about ourselves as a family? As a huge, global, diverse family?

I look to my own family for ideas. What do we do to sustain who we are: we talk, we get together, we play, we sing…

Those are things we can do in a larger context. If we are choosing life, as Christian people living in community, we are asking God to be with us and to guide us as we talk with others, as we get together with others, as we play with others, as we sing together new songs, singing in “we” rather than me.

Thinking in “we.”

Living in “we.”

Amen.

Pentecost 9 C 2016 – Pastor Jolivette Retirement

PENTECOST 9 C 2016

JULY 17, 2016 OSLC

RETIREMENT SERVICE OF PASTOR JOLIVETTE

 

I stand here this morning wondering what to say and how to say it all:

 

Let me start by saying, I am in awe of people who in their 90’s drive to church every Sunday.

 

And I am in awe of people who come to church the Sunday after a family member dies.

 

I am in awe of people who do not let a little thing like cancer keep them from worship.

 

I am in awe of people who put together menus of great food week after week and serve it for free to an audience which may or may not appreciate the gourmet feast they are eating.

 

I am in awe of people who get up early on a Tuesday to be at church at 7 am for Bible Study.

 

I am in awe of parents who bring children to worship and train them to join in the singing and the praying.

 

I am in awe of children who run down in front with joy to be cheerful givers.

 

I am in awe of children who say table prayers in school cafeterias.

 

I am in awe of altar guild members who come in on so many Saturdays to prepare for our worship needs.

 

I am in awe of ladies who serve funeral lunch after funeral lunch.

 

I am in awe of people who mow the church lawn on a hot summer day.

 

I am awe at the incredible sounds that our organists produce.

 

I am in awe of all the beautiful people God has put in this place.

 

I am in awe of a God who can take all of our burdens, including finding a new pastor, into God’s care.

 

I am in awe of our God who gives us far more than we can think or ask.

 

I am in awe of Jesus who picks ordinary people to be ambassadors to the world of God’s forever kingdom.

 

I am in awe of God who has let me try to tell God’s stories while feeling that I still have so much yet to learn.

 

I am in awe of Jesus who would not let a little opposition, or a lot, or wandering minds, or social norms, or etiquette, get in the way of a chance to be authentically and fully God to us and for us in our world.

 

So today we have a Gospel story we think we know well, the story of Mary and Martha with Jesus coming into their home.  Something out of the ordinary is going on.  These two adult women are apparently not married. They must be from an early Lake Wobegon,  precursors to Norwegian bachelor women, a bachelor family with a brother Lazarus thrown in on other stories.  How else can you explain 3 unmarried people living in this house?  That clearly wasn’t normal in Jesus’ day. I have met some of  their kin living  in some coulees around here.  And in Jesus’ day, a man didn’t enter an unmarried woman’s house.  But Jesus did.  He actually seemed to think that He belonged there. There are other times in Scripture when Jesus came to this family.  Sometimes it happened in a place called Bethany just east of Jerusalem, but this episode as Luke tells it seems to happen up north in Galilee some place.  So not all the details are clear about who Martha and Mary really are or where they live,   but Jesus shows up.  And He was not alone.

Did you hear the start of the story? “Now as they went on their way…” it begins. Clearly they means a group of some kind.  So what would you be doing if a group of people decided to descend into your living room?  You’d put out something to eat, of course. Hospitality would be the concern of the day. Maybe it’s stories like what happened to Martha that inhibit us now from inviting people to our houses.  There’s a whole lot of work involved. And cost.  There is also more than a little risk in offering hospitality.  Martha and Mary had just been put to the test.

A bag of potato chips would be easy, some oreo cookies put on a nice platter just fine, but this was Jesus, and special company needs something special.  So you would go into the kitchen and cook something up, right, and hope you had stuff at hand in the pantry.  Or if not cook, at least put a nice cheese tray together, with some nuts and berries maybe, because it would always be helpful to impress the Big Guy with something tasty and healthy.

So you’d be right there with Martha, wouldn’t you?? Of course you would.

I don’t think this is a story about good choices and bad choices, good Mary, bad Martha.   I don’t think Martha gets a big put down from Jesus. I don’t think this is a story about Mary being a winner and Martha a loser in Jesus’ estimation.  I think Jesus breaks the rules, comes into the house of single women, because this is about the kingdom and God. Martha gets a great big invitation, which is this:  Please stop worrying about hors d’ouevres and come eat the main course with me. I want you at the table right next to me, you and Mary together.

This is the One who sent disciples out 2 by 2 to announce peace and the kingdom of God, and 35 pairs went out to prepare the way for Jesus.  And their amateur hour turned into a night of stories and joy, of celebration that demons were sent packing and Satan fell from the sky like lightning, of doors opening in advance for Jesus to come to their village.

And when some wanted to take detours from heading toward Jerusalem and the cross and all that Jesus had laid out for them, he had told them to let the dead bury the dead, and not to go hang out with friends at parties before they left families and friends.  They weren’t to look back, but ahead.

And they were told about opening their heart and soul and mind and strength to God and equally to their neighbor, and then given a story about the Samaritan who opened a charge account to pay for all the medical costs of the enemy he found lying by the side of the road, with a promise to come back and check in on him regularly. And Jesus would become the Good Samaritan, offering an open charge account to care for all, including his enemies.

Jesus was calling disciples to go all in, not to go halfway, and Jesus was constantly inviting and calling and instructing those whom he would soon leave behind about all this. As I have been going through these last few weeks of Luke’s stories about Jesus’ last weeks and months, I have been clearly thinking about what it means to invite people and train people and get ready to leave them. Today’s Gospel is one more story in a string of stories about Jesus offering a group pushed to the side an equal participation in His work.  Today’s Gospel is about two women, a focus on women in a day when women didn’t study at the feet of any rabbi,  and they are asked to be disciples, with everything that involves.  Today’s Gospel is Luke’s reminder that the church is an open house built with all people, no exclusions,  sitting down for the main course with Jesus, and then living out the story they have been told.

Here was Martha, getting those cheddar slices all lined up nicely, and he wanted her to hear about the kingdom; not just hear, but announce it, and be in it.  He wanted both Mary and Martha to be His disciples.

Jesus is still calling disciples, I hope you know, and frankly, Jesus wants you right next to Him. Jesus would like us to eat the main course with him and then take that walk to Jerusalem with Him.

I am in awe of Jesus who was so intent on including everyone in this incredible opportunity that he stopped at this house and made sure all its inhabitants were onboard.

I am in awe of a congregation who wants everyone to be invited to be part of this journey.

I am in awe of God who wants no exceptions to our participation.

I am in awe of God who can take one who threw the first stone to kill one of the first deacons of the Christian church and turn him into an unrivaled missionary.

And that missionary named Paul writes a letter to a bunch of adults who have just been baptized into the salvation story of this Jesus, the story Mary and Martha had just joined. These new Christians were now disciples with Martha and Mary and Lazarus.  The letter is called Colossians, and in it Paul is so excited to talk about Jesus whose cross they now wear and whose name has become their new identity that he writes in great big run- sentences.  He is just pumped to tell them about Jesus. It sounds something like this:

Jesus is the one who makes God known to us, the image of the invisible God, and what he did was to create everything and then hold it all together.  But he didn’t stop there.  He founded his church, and he is the head of this church, and he is the bridge pulling heaven and earth back together.  He is the reconciler, the one who brings peace between God and all people, even those who have been wicked and fought against the church. And he has given you faith to believe in his story and he has been working so that you will never stop believing that story. Even when I am suffering, I will not stop talking about this story. God commissioned me to keep telling this story, even when life is not fair or easy.  And I have the joy of telling you the great mystery, hidden for years and years and ages and ages.  Jesus made it clear. God chose to make God’s-self known to you who didn’t grow up as believers or as insiders who already knew about God.  And it will always be my job to help you understand this mystery.  I can’t wait to tell you more about our great Lord Jesus. And if I can’t make it clear, Jesus will do it Himself.”

Paul was so in awe of what Jesus had done for him that he couldn’t wait to have more baptisms and more adult inquiry classes and more deep, deep discussions with anyone about the greatest mystery of all – God opening the doors of the kingdom through Jesus to all people.

I am in awe of a church which feels this joy that Paul felt.

I am in awe of a God who called me to join Paul, commissioned me to join Paul, to tell this story to all who will listen.

I am in awe of a church that can write our welcome statement and mean it. Read it with me one more time:  All are welcome in this church!  The Good News of God’s grace is for all, regardless of age, abilities, physical & mental health, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, education, income or strength of faith.  There is nothing we do, have done or will do that can separate us from the love of God.  God makes no exceptions, nor do we.  Come join us in praise, prayer and the work of our Lord!

 

And I am so awe that you, my dear brothers and sisters, invited me to help lead the story telling right here.  I am counting on all who come to this place to join Martha and Mary in receiving the main course that Jesus offers.  I am confident that we, fed by Jesus, will never stop feeding our community with the rich food which Jesus brings.

 

 

TRINITY SUNDAY MAY 22, 2016 – LEVI POWERS, SEMINARIAN

People of God,
Math has never been my strong-suit. And, as I disclose this to you, I do not want you to hear that I am anti-math. Or, to think that it is shameful to struggle with math. There is no math-shaming here. However, when I was in college at UW-L, I had to take remedial math. During the week I would spend maybe two hours a night with the math tutors. They were very astute and helpful people. Thankfully, after some hard work, I succeeded and made it through the class. Today we will explore a realm where math will not make sense. And, that is okay. It is the Church’s feast day and celebration of the Holy Trinity. This is the day we confess there is one God in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If I asked my diligent math tutors to help me add they would certainly assure me that 1+1+1=3. But, when it comes to the Trinity, God confounds my math skills. For here, that does not equal three. Here, 1+1+1=1. (Then, try counting with fingers and the words, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” three persons, one God). The reason we confess this is because Christianity has
always been a monotheistic religion—we believe there is one God. This is a gift that we inherited from our Jewish brothers and sisters. That’s why we do not say that we have three gods. Therefore, the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet they are not three Gods, but one God.
Boiled down, we say the Trinity is “one God in three persons.” Scripture gives names to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Giving them names implies that there is something distinct and personal about each of them. Each person of the Trinity shares the same essence that makes them God. A helpful way I can describe what I mean by “essence” is that it is something about God that is substantial to who God is. Think of it like this, we all have our own essence as human beings—our humanity—all that it means to be human—is that essence. Even though we share our humanity with each other, we each have particular characteristics that make us unique. I’m Levi, there is something about me that is me. If you took that away then I wouldn’t be the Levi you know. This is how it is with God. This is
good news because the God who is unique and creator of heaven and earth, also created us to be uniquely us. God’s creation has not stopped but is continually being made new in our lives.
Certainly, this means that we as individuals matter to God. We matter to God because the Trinity itself is relational. We see that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have relationship with each other. The Son is begotten of the Father before eternity. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. It’s the relational reality inherent within God that matters to us. For this Triune God seeks to be intimately in our life
Today’s readings bring out the relational nature of God. The scripture tells us that we are made right with God through faith, and thus we have peace with God. God has established a relationship with us. God seeks to bring peace about in our lives. Romans informs us that through Jesus Christ we have access to the grace of God—out of sheer grace, nothing makes us any better than anyone else. Romans points us to hope, so we can be glad in our suffering—knowing that our suffering is reframed for
us in the hope given by Christ and this hope is poured out as God’s love for us in the person of the Holy Spirit.
I want to talk about each of the persons and their relationship to us. God the Father is typically who we talk about first. This does not mean that God the Father is somehow above the Son or the Spirit—rather, they are all three equal in glory and majesty. Also, by saying God is Father, we are not saying that God is some man in the sky with a grey beard. God in fact, is beyond gender. Rather, saying God the Father is the way that we talk about his relationship to the Son and the Holy Spirit (it says something that the model of Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier does not quite capture). A better term to designate for Father has not yet been found or agreed upon within the Church. The important thing to know about God the Father is that this person of the Trinity is “creator of heaven and earth.” (pause) The confession that God the Father is creator of heaven and earth means that it is God who creates us and gives us all we have.
Our food, our clothing, a roof to protect us, a job to sustain us, spouse, friends, societal peace, even our very life.
For all this we give thanks and praise to God. And, yet in our society we take these things for granted. We get so worried about ourselves we forget about our hungry neighbor—whether in La Crosse—or throughout the world. It reminds me of the liturgy of confession when we confess that we have sinned by what have done, and by what we have left undone. Confession is like a mirror, it shows our alienation from one another and from God. God is calling us to be a means by which God feeds all the world. If we all recognized that we are created brothers, sisters, siblings of one another, I think our world would be in a better place than it is now. The kingdom of heaven would be that much closer. The person of God the Father has a gracious heart and desires all to be protected, loved, cherished, and at peace.
This brings me to how God the Father accomplishes this peace in our lives. God brings about peace in our lives through the Son. Jesus is the mirror of the Father’s heart—which,
remember, is a gracious and kind heart. We know in this world that often there is not peace, not enough food, not enough jobs. This is so often perpetrated by racism or transphobia, or Western elitism. We do not recognize each other as brothers and sisters. Yet, God continues to reconcile people to each other and to Godself. Through Jesus, we have access to this grace. And, because we believe we have a gracious God on account of Jesus, we can be glad even in our suffering. Now, when I first read this passage in Romans and realized it was talking about being glad in suffering, I was put off a bit. Too often suffering has been glorified in the Church to the detriment of many. It is important that when we talk about suffering in the Church that we be clear that we do not mean that we want to suffer, want others to suffer, or go out looking for ways to suffer. Rather, suffering, or another translation would be “troubles”–are a part of our life in an imperfect world. God seeks to reframe our troubles from despair to hope. And, this hope is a “sure promise” in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, regardless of how
contrary and gloomy life is or seems, or if we have felt like we have been dealt cards unfairly—we have hope. For God in Christ reframes our troubles so we need not despair or be afraid. God, in Christ, reframes our troubles so that we may have endurance and character all wrapped up in hope—even if it is just feeble. God’s promise of peace is something that we can trust—this hope will not disappoint us.
So, then, if God the Father has given us all creation, and God the Son has reframed our story from despair to hope, what then, does the God the Spirit do? It is the Holy Spirit who reveals God’s promises and teaches us every good thing. Through the Spirit, God gives all that Christ has accomplished for us. So, that we have hope, healing, and wholeness. Without the Spirit this would not be possible. The Spirit pours into our hearts God’s love through the Word and Sacraments. The Word can be found in the words Holy Scriptures, in the words I preach, even in the words of a friend. (pause) It is the Holy Spirit who uses words as a way to communicate God’s unconditional love for us in Jesus Christ. In
Holy Baptism, the Spirit pours out her love for us through the words and the water. In Holy Communion, the Spirit pours out his love for us in the words, bread, and wine. In God’s holy community on earth, the Spirit pours out God’s love into our hearts through peace, reconciliation, kindness, feeding one other, loving our neighbor and our enemy. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, God is reframing our lives and our world to one where all people have hope, dignity and peace.
The relationality of the Trinity matters. We do not always have to have all the answers, like, for why 1+1+1=1 instead of 3. What matters is that this God we confess as, “one God in three persons,” is a God who deeply cares about our life, and seeks to bring about a true, lasting peace, and gives us hope that this will indeed be the case. (pause) God the Father gives us all creation, Christ all his redemptive works, the Spirit all his gifts. Thanks be to God.

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