NotaBen

Sunday, November 20, 2011 (Christ the King) "Godspell"

Christ the King

Sunday, November 20, 2011 

Gospel: Matthew 25:31–46

Jesus compares himself to a king who moves among his subjects to see how he is treated: what is done for the least of those who belong to his family is truly done for him.

³¹When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.  ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,  ³³and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.  ³⁴Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;  ³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,  ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’  ³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?  ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?  ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’  ⁴⁰And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’  ⁴¹Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;  ⁴²for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,  ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’  ⁴⁴Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’  ⁴⁵Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’  ⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

³¹Οταν δὲ ἔλθῃ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐν τῇ δόξῃ αὐτοῦ καὶ πάντες οἱ ἄγγελοι μετ’ αὐτοῦ, τότε καθίσει ἐπὶ θρόνου δόξης αὐτοῦ: ³²καὶ συναχθήσονται ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, καὶ ἀφορίσει αὐτοὺς ἀπ’ ἀλλήλων, ὥσπερ ὁ ποιμὴν ἀφορίζει τὰ πρόβατα ἀπὸ τῶν ἐρίφων, ³³καὶ στήσει τὰ μὲν πρόβατα ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ τὰ δὲ ἐρίφια ἐξ εὐωνύμων. ³⁴τότε ἐρεῖ ὁ βασιλεὺς τοῖς ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ, Δεῦτε, οἱ εὐλογημένοι τοῦ πατρός μου, κληρονομήσατε τὴν ἡτοιμασμένην ὑμῖν βασιλείαν ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου: ³⁵ἐπείνασα γὰρ καὶ ἐδώκατέ μοι φαγεῖν, ἐδίψησα καὶ ἐποτίσατέ με, ξένος ἤμην καὶ συνηγάγετέ με, ³⁶γυμνὸς καὶ περιεβάλετέ με, ἠσθένησα καὶ ἐπεσκέψασθέ με, ἐν φυλακῇ ἤμην καὶ ἤλθατε πρός με. ³⁷τότε ἀποκριθήσονται αὐτῷ οἱ δίκαιοι λέγοντες, Κύριε, πότε σε εἴδομεν πεινῶντα καὶ ἐθρέψαμεν, ἢ διψῶντα καὶ ἐποτίσαμεν; ³⁸πότε δέ σε εἴδομεν ξένον καὶ συνηγάγομεν, ἢ γυμνὸν καὶ περιεβάλομεν; ³⁹πότε δέ σε εἴδομεν ἀσθενοῦντα ἢ ἐν φυλακῇ καὶ ἤλθομεν πρός σε; ⁴⁰καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐρεῖ αὐτοῖς, Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐφ’ ὅσον ἐποιήσατε ἑνὶ τούτων τῶν ἀδελφῶν μου τῶν ἐλαχίστων, ἐμοὶ ἐποιήσατε. ⁴¹Τότε ἐρεῖ καὶ τοῖς ἐξ εὐωνύμων, Πορεύεσθε ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ [οἱ] κατηραμένοι εἰς τὸ πῦρ τὸ αἰώνιον τὸ ἡτοιμασμένον τῷ διαβόλῳ καὶ τοῖς ἀγγέλοις αὐτοῦ: ⁴²ἐπείνασα γὰρ καὶ οὐκ ἐδώκατέ μοι φαγεῖν, ἐδίψησα καὶ οὐκ ἐποτίσατέ με, ⁴³ξένος ἤμην καὶ οὐ συνηγάγετέ με, γυμνὸς καὶ οὐ περιεβάλετέ με, ἀσθενὴς καὶ ἐν φυλακῇ καὶ οὐκ ἐπεσκέψασθέ με. ⁴⁴τότε ἀποκριθήσονται καὶ αὐτοὶ λέγοντες, Κύριε, πότε σε εἴδομεν πεινῶντα ἢ διψῶντα ἢ ξένον ἢ γυμνὸν ἢ ἀσθενῆ ἢ ἐν φυλακῇ καὶ οὐ διηκονήσαμέν σοι; ⁴⁵τότε ἀποκριθήσεται αὐτοῖς λέγων, Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐφ’ ὅσον οὐκ ἐποιήσατε ἑνὶ τούτων τῶν ἐλαχίστων, οὐδὲ ἐμοὶ ἐποιήσατε. ⁴⁶καὶ ἀπελεύσονται οὗτοι εἰς κόλασιν αἰώνιον, οἱ δὲ δίκαιοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον.

+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

Standing in the middle of the round stage with his followers before him, 24 year-old Hunter Parrish (playing the part of Jesus) begins telling a story,

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats …”

The followers of Jesus, young actors —  intelligent, exuberant, thoughtful, playful, hopeful, loving men and women — take on the role of sheep and goats, bleating and baa-ing as they act out before the audience the parable you just heard as it was read in our midst on this Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the Church Year.

But I experienced this parable and in fact much more of the story of Jesus and his followers, over a week ago, sitting in the audience at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York.  It was the first revival of Godspell on Broadway since it appeared in 1971 the musical gift of lyricist and composer Stephen Schwartz and the late playwright John-Michael Tebelak … and it was simply delightful, pulling the audience into the drama, at times watchful and listening, at time fully participatory — as when the audience was invited to the stage at intermission for some grape-juice … Jesus having just ended the first act by the meal we call the Last Supper.  It was hard to tell the actors from the audience as they blended together in happiness over little plastic cups and words and hugs and smiles …

… rather like the Sunday morning Service, or shall we say, rather like the Sunday morning Service when loving and hopeful celebration replaces the pain and suffering of the world … when the Sunday morning Service departs from anxiety of liturgical correctness and plunges into the depth of that Anglo-Saxon word Godspell meaning “God-story” or “good-story” or as we have come to know it gospel.

Few people know that John-Michael Tebelak originally produced Godspell at age 22 as his masters thesis project at Carnegie Mellon University in 1970.

He had been studying Greek and Roman mythology, with the deadline for his thesis two weeks away, but became fascinated by the joy he found in the Gospels. He attended an Easter Vigil service in 1970 at Pittsburgh’s St. Paul Cathedral, wearing his usual overalls and T-shirt. A police officer frisked him for drugs after the service. He wrote of this experience, “I left with the feeling that, rather than rolling the rock away from the Tomb, they were piling more on. I went home, took out my manuscript, and worked it to completion in a non-stop frenzy.”[1]

Few people also know that while some of the lyrics are original, much is from the Bible (both parts, the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian New Testament) or from traditional hymns in the 1940 Episcopal Hymnal.  Tebelak, until his untimely death in 1985, was a member of the Episcopal Church.

Few people also know that the parable of the “Sheep and the Goats” appears only one time in the Bible and in only one place … near the end of Matthew’s Gospel.  As that grand Gospel-Storyteller Matthew puts it together, it takes place just before the rapid-fire series of events before Jesus is arrested and put on trial and crucified.

Biblical literalists tend to make this parable into a personal judgment, mostly of condemnation.  But the musical Godspell got it right, it’s a story with a point.  That’s the definition of parable.  The point, when you hear the story, is not to look around at your neighbors in nearby pews and say quietly, “Hmm, goats …” or “Thank God I’m a sheep!” or in true Lutheran fashion, “How many times today was I a sheep or a goat … let me count the ways.”

The story is a vision of judgment.  And, thereby the point of the story is warning and teaching.  And … we must add, what matters is not our status, not our rank, not our privileges … what matters is our constant willingness to let the life and love of God be lived through us … what matters is our love for people.[2]

Are we givers or are we … takers?

In the end the only thing that matters, says Matthew, is love … and love is always personified … love always is a verb, it comes through another, and it is (for Matthew) always a participation in Jesus’ love.  When we do the practice of following Jesus, as we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, take care of the sick, and visit those in prison … and every other think like that, we must add … when this is our practice, we do these things as if we are doing them to Jesus … not because it makes us more holy or righteous or anything … it makes us more like Jesus, and when we are more like Jesus, we are givers not takers, we are lovers not haters, we are makers of peace, not makers of war, we are lives personified by acts of compassion, not lives personified by building gates of indifference around us.

A “Gospel” that speaks only of rules and doctrines and legislations and punishments is in the end (and at the beginning) (and all the way through) … is no Gospel.  Those things breed fear, and fear buries love in the ground.[3]

When we follow Jesus, we come to understand that Jesus is the way God is.  Jesus is, for us who claim discipleship with him, the closest touch we have with God, and touching Jesus means we touch forgiveness, acceptance, inclusion, hope, love, and the end of fear.  And touching those things we are propelled to bring all that into the world … that is, into the human condition … that is, into our neighbor, whomever that neighbor may be.

It is fitting and proper and a really good thing to remember all this on the last Sunday of the Church Year, which we give to Christ, the King of love.

At 8 o’clock, the Sermon ends here moving directly to the Apostles’ Creed.

***

What a gift we have in our two Confirmands, Martín and Sarah!  What a treasure they are to their parents, to their families, to their friends, and this morning we say especially to us, their congregation, their church.

What began as a small seed now blooms into … well, what?  … Faith?  Hope? Joy? Love? … the Gospel?  Being an adult member of the congregation?

All that and so much more.

It is a privilege to have them join us here in the Chancel, at the Altar, in the Eucharist, and especially as they confirm their faith and make those five promises that we all make when we take full responsibility as followers of Jesus, to: “live among God's faithful people, hear God's Word and share in God's supper, proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, serve all people, following the example of our Lord Jesus, and strive for justice and peace in all the earth.”

Sarah and Martín, may God continue in you the good work God began at your birth as together with us you strive to bring the Good News of Jesus into all the world.

APOSTLES CREED

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.  On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Deo Gratias (+)

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church
Santa Fe, NM

 

---

[1] Wikipedia article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John-Michael_Tebelak

 

[2] Again, thank you to William Loader (First Thoughts on Passages from Matthew in the Lectionary: Christ the King), internet citation.

[3] Again, thanks to Loader, more or less … a bit more me in this paragraph, but Loader’s “Bury love in the ground” is priceless!

All Saints Sunday, November 6, 2011: The Ongoing Gospel of Love

Gospel: Matthew 5:1–12

In the beatitudes, Jesus provides a unique description of those who are blessed with God's favor. His teaching is surprising and shocking to those who seek wealth, fame, and control over others.

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.  ²Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

             ³"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

             ⁴"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

             ⁵"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

             ⁶"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

             ⁷"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

             ⁸"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

             ⁹"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

             ¹⁰"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

             ¹¹"Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account  ¹²Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

¹Ἰδὼν δὲ τοὺς ὄχλους ἀνέβη εἰς τὸ ὄρος: καὶ καθίσαντος αὐτοῦ προσῆλθαν αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ: ²καὶ ἀνοίξας τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ ἐδίδασκεν αὐτοὺς λέγων, ³Μακάριοι οἱ πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι, ὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. ⁴μακάριοι οἱ πενθοῦντες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ παρακληθήσονται. ⁵μακάριοι οἱ πραεῖς, ὅτι αὐτοὶ κληρονομήσουσιν τὴν γῆν. ⁶μακάριοι οἱ πεινῶντες καὶ διψῶντες τὴν δικαιοσύνην, ὅτι αὐτοὶ χορτασθήσονται. ⁷μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται. ⁸μακάριοι οἱ καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ, ὅτι αὐτοὶ τὸν θεὸν ὄψονται. ⁹μακάριοι οἱ εἰρηνοποιοί, ὅτι αὐτοὶ υἱοὶ θεοῦ κληθήσονται. ¹⁰μακάριοι οἱ δεδιωγμένοι ἕνεκεν δικαιοσύνης, ὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. ¹¹μακάριοί ἐστε ὅταν ὀνειδίσωσιν ὑμᾶς καὶ διώξωσιν καὶ εἴπωσιν πᾶν πονηρὸν καθ' ὑμῶν [ψευδόμενοι] ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ: ¹²χαίρετε καὶ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε, ὅτι ὁ μισθὸς ὑμῶν πολὺς ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς: οὕτως γὰρ ἐδίωξαν τοὺς προφήτας τοὺς πρὸ ὑμῶν.

“The Ongoing Gospel of Love”

+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

By the 9^th Decade of the 1^st Century, or shall we say, 60 years after the death of Jesus, the Gospel Writer we call Matthew collected the accumulating stories about Jesus of Nazareth and put them into a narrative that was used – as all the Gospels were used – not only as the formulating story of a community gathered around that narrative, but also (and we would say most importantly) as the continuing story of that community of the followers of Jesus who were seeking to understand how it could be that after all the things that had happened under the Roman occupation culminating in the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem 20 years before … how it could be that God, said Jesus, was making a new and renewing reign of authority, a βασιλεία as Matthew called it in Greek … a kingdom, a ruling where God’s love, God’s gentleness, God’s peace would rule in the lives of all people.  How could this be?  What would this look like?  Where would it take place?  And most importantly, when would it happen?

***

It’s hard for me to believe that when I wrote that little introduction, it turned into a single paragraph – the words running on beyond themselves into the future … and yet, when I read Matthew’s Gospel-Story that’s the sense I get from it.  I see it as an “Ongoing Gospel of Love” rather than a literal newscast … a Story that penetrates reality, human reality, my reality, your reality and so penetrating takes what we see as ordinary, fragile, impossible, dull, meaningless, hopeless, fearful, and without purpose … and re-shapes all that into just the opposite: reality that is extraordinary, possible, shining, full of meaning, full of hope, full of peace and full of life.

It’s why I come to Church; to hear the Good News that even though I think my sins are as scarlet, and that some days I am not worth very much, and that looking into the darkness (especially this time of the year) there’s only darkness beyond the darkness … even though … the Good News I hear is that I am forgiven, I am good enough … maybe even more, and there is light … lovely loving light whose spark ignites hope and sometimes even laughter inside … and can even bring that light into the most desperate of human conditions, the ugliest of human conversations … even peace in our world, peace in our homes and communities, peace to soothe all the nastiness and hatred and violence that rises up like a dragon … instead a world of respect and tolerance and understanding and welcoming.  That’s why I come to Church.

So very often people say to me when they find out who I am and what I do, “Well, I don’t believe in organized religion.”  My answer is always, “Neither do I.  Neither did Jesus.  That’s not what we celebrate when we get together … that we’re organized.  What we celebrate is the true meaning of that word “religion” from the Latin religare … it means “to be bound fast” … connected, attached … we celebrate that we are bound fast to the Eternal Presence that fills every living thing, and that we are bound fast to each other in ways that are so profound that we experience the warmth of embrace, the power of healing, the binding up of what is broken … and we are bound fast to our neighbors whoever they may be to bring love and not hate into their lives, into this world.  That’s what we do, when we gather together, to follow Jesus, and be “religious.””

I’ve never had anyone change their mind about their view of Church because of what I just said, but it’s still true.

It is in fact what Matthew is on about as that wonderful Gospel Storyteller has Jesus go up a little hill and teach the folks who were following him around, just like we do … we follow Jesus around as it were.

Blessed are the poor in spirit … Blessed are those who mourn …

Ah, that’s where it hits us today, doesn’t it?  All Saints Sunday, the remembering of those who have gone before us, whom we have lost (we say) ‘tho they are not lost to the Eternal, rather they have found their way into the timelessness of God … but our hearts ache, our eyes fill up as we think of them and the empty place beside us where they once were and now longer are …

… Blessed are those who mourn …

How, what, where, when …?  We ask.

By the words themselves, and by the collective embrace of the community … it is how the Holy One works … not in some distant way or place … not in some internal spirituality, but through human beings, through created human beings, through each one of us.  Often we have no words … right?  Often all we have is our presence.  It is enough, it is holy enough.  And when it takes place in our mourning, in our grieving, then we are able to carry the cup of our grief, because others help us carry it.  That’s what Blessed are those who mourn means.

And Jesus was right.  It’s not in doctrine, it’s not in dogma, it’s not in committees and constitutions and (as Luther would have said) in the Councils of the Church … it is in the Living Presence of the Holy One who inhabits that embrace of caring which we exchange with one another … so powerful is that exchange that it can not only heal a broken heart, it can end a war … and not only end a war, but heal a broken heart.

There’s more of course, Blessed are the meek, the hungering and thirsting for justice, the merciful, the pure in heart, the ones who are persecuted unjustly, and the peacemakers … they are all, says Matthew, says Jesus, says God … Blessed. 

You don’t get that from organized religion, but you do get it in the binding fast of God’s love and hope, bound fast to each one of us because we are cared for that much, and even more … we are precious that much and even more. 

From that little hill in the Galilee, from Matthew’s Story that becomes our Story, is spoken today to each of us how precious are all the saints, all the loved ones … as are we, precious and holy and embraced in the gentle Spirit of God.

***

Way back in the 5^th Century an entire Council of the Church worked hard to put all that into a statement which – like all church statements – can come alive not in the words, but in the doing.  I like to think of the Nicene Creed as a church hymn, which when we say it together, even though its theology and construct are often very foreign to us today, and the churchly battles of the 5^th Century are not our battles at all … it is a kind of hymn that we sing together with those ancestors of ours who, just like us, got up every morning in the darkness and yearned once again to see the light of hopefulness in a God who they believed appeared to them as Father, Son, and Spirit.

Let us say together:

NICENE CREED

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Deo Gratias (+)

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church
Santa Fe, NM

 

Sermon for Reformation Sunday, October 30, 2011

Reformation Sunday

Sunday, October 30, 2011

 

Gospel: John 8:31–36

Jesus speaks of truth and freedom as spiritual realities known through his word. He reveals the truth that sets people free from sin.

³¹Then Jesus said to the [Judeans] who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples;  ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  ³³They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”

³⁴Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.  ³⁵The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever.  ³⁶So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

³¹Ἔλεγεν οὖν ὁ Ἰησοῦς πρὸς τοὺς πεπιστευκότας αὐτῷ Ἰουδαίους, Ἐὰν ὑμεῖς μείνητε ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τῷ ἐμῷ, ἀληθῶς μαθηταί μού ἐστε, ³²καὶ γνώσεσθε τὴν ἀλήθειαν, καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια ἐλευθερώσει ὑμᾶς. ³³ἀπεκρίθησαν πρὸς αὐτόν, Σπέρμα Ἀβραάμ ἐσμεν καὶ οὐδενὶ δεδουλεύκαμεν πώποτε: πῶς σὺ λέγεις ὅτι Ἐλεύθεροι γενήσεσθε; ³⁴ἀπεκρίθη αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς, Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν δοῦλός ἐστιν τῆς ἁμαρτίας. ³⁵ὁ δὲ δοῦλος οὐ μένει ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα: ὁ υἱὸς μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. ³⁶ἐὰν οὖν ὁ υἱὸς ὑμᾶς ἐλευθερώσῃ, ὄντως ἐλεύθεροι ἔσεσθε.

“Free Indeed, Free In Deed”

+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

The Ghost of Reformation Past came to haunt me last week.  Replete as I was with full determination to come up with something so different about the meaning of the Reformation, something so remarkable, so memorable such that all of you would say for years to come, “Now that was a Reformation Sermon!” … it didn’t happen that way, and the Ghost of Reformation Past kept finding his way into my head.

It all began when he sang that Lutheran Sunday School ditty that people in my generation learned on those glorious late autumn Sundays in October when the air was crisp and we had Halloween on our minds more than anything else.  On those Reformation Sundays of the Past, one of the Senior High Girls would take her place at the old piano that always sat at the front of the Sunday School Room and begin to play while we all joined in with:

Good ol’ Marty Luther,

Good ol’ Marty Luther,

Played by the Reformation Band.

His five-and-ninety Theses,

Just tore the Pope to pieces,

We think the Reformation’s gr-an-de,

O Marty Luther,

O Marty Luther,

Played by the Reformation Band.

O Marty Luther,

O Marty Luther,

We think the Reformation’s gr-an-de!

I have to say that given all the hard work that was accomplished at the turn of the last Century (1999) ecumenically between Roman Catholics and Lutherans[1] that resulted in the glorious Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification[2] … all 15 pages of which you can see on the Table in the Zaguan this morning … given the years of rebuilding the broken wall of the 16^th Century breach between Roman Catholics and the Evangelical Churches of the Reformation that became known as Lutherans … somehow that ditty seems a bit outdated.

And yet, the Ghost of Reformation Past kept that music coming into my head like a bad tune of a TV commercial … “We think the Reformation’s gr-an-de!”

Well, let’s admit it, we do think the Reformation is grand!  Not because we have in front of our imaginations the Legend of that Augustinian Monk Become Priest Martin Luther nailing to the double wooden door of the Castle Church (Schlosskirche) in Wittenberg, Germany his 95 Articles for Debate about the Sale of Indulgences in the Church … that icon of Lutheranism will not go away … even though it’s most likely that the eminent Reverend Doctor Martin Luther had one of his students from the University just walk down the street to perform the deed … Oh, we will forever see that image of Luther clutching a hammer and a six-penny medieval nail, tacking up the parchment …

… but, really, that’s not why we think the Reformation is grand … no, we find the meaning of the Reformation where Luther himself searched … within the pages of Holy Scripture … the Bible … the Sacred Story.

Yes, the Medieval Church of Luther’s time and much before was a Church Gone Wild with power, amassing land, impoverishing people, promulgating fear and obedience. 

But Luther was not the first to address the abuses of that Church … John Wycliffe in England around 1381 (long before the 95 Theses were tacked to the church door in Germany in 1517) had done so, opposing papal authority being used to influence secular power, insisting on the Bible being translated into the common language of the people … and then there was Jan Hus around the year 1412 at the University in Prague who publicly condemned the sale of Indulgences, quoting directly from Wycliffe’s writings, adding that for the church to take up the sword (as in Crusade) was to violate the whole meaning of the Gospel … Hus condemned at the Council of Constance in 1414 was burned at the stake for his “heresy.”

No, Luther was certainly not the first to propose a reshaping, a reforming of the Church around the body of Christ, and for his own actions and words he also was excommunicated by his Pope (Leo X, one of the Medicis) in 1520, saved from execution only by the intervention of Luther’s prince, Frederich the Wise back in Wittenberg.

But all that is a long other story …

The Reformation was a movement that came from the thinking and reasoning population of clergy and laypersons seeking to make the Church look and act like the one it claimed to follow, Jesus from Nazareth.

Luther’s genius – if we may call it that – was to search for the meaning, not within the doctrines of assembled Councils of the Church, not within the proclamations of Popes and the ruling of Bishops … but to look within the Story itself.

And in the Story itself, he found the answer.  It was the Story of grace, of renewal, of forgiveness, of hope, of the manifest love of God … nothing more and nothing less.

Which is why on Reformation Sunday we read those three selections every year:

From Jeremiah, where God is more interested in forgiving and forgetting, the renewal of the Covenant always in the center of things, the loving of neighbor always in the result of the renewal of the Covenant.

From Paul’s Letter to the Romans, that God’s grace is generous permitting forgiveness and reconciliation, even for those of us who do not merit such grace.

And from the Gospel of John, where Jesus makes the greatest declaration of Freedom, that the Story of God’s love is always a Story that frees the individual, the community, the nation, the church … to be free indeed, and to be free in … deed.  That forgiving freedom from God means that those so forgiven will go and forgive others and make a new creation upon the earth.

Reformation Sunday does NOT mean that we try harder to be more Lutheran, although singing these wonderful hymns is rather fun, and we love drinking Coffee, and wearing Red is nice …

By the way, my stole this morning comes from my past.  It is one of four that was especially made by a weaver local to the community near St. Luke’s in Dublin, Pennsylvania … commissioned by The Rev. Paul J. Kidd (may he rest in peace).  I saw this stole every Reformation Sunday and every Saint’s Day when I grew up in that congregation … and when that congregation died this past Spring, those four stoles were given away to four of the six pastors who came out of that congregation, we are known fondly as the Sons of St. Luke, and I was fortunate enough to receive this one I am wearing today.

In a visible way, I feel united to that past where I learned the Story not of God’s anger and wrath, but of God’s free love and gentleness that for me comes in the Story of Jesus, who leads me and you into a continual reshaping and reforming of the Church to look like his loving body and act like his loving body in the world.

If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed … and free in … deed.

Now, let us rise and together confess our faith as we say together that ancient Creed of our Baptism, the Creed which tells us the Story of God the Creator, the Redeemer, the Sanctifier, who loves and forgives us and sets us free to love each other and our neighbor and reshape and reform not only our Church, but our world.

APOSTLES CREED

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.  On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Deo Gratias (+)

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church
Santa Fe, NM

 

 

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[1] The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF now has 145 member churches in 79 countries all over the world representing over 70 million Christians.

[2] http://www.lutheranworld.org/Special_Events/LWF-Special_Events-Justification.html

 

Sermon for Sunday, September 4, 2011 "The Blue Denim Work Shirt"

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Sunday, September 4, 2011

 

SECOND READING: Romans 13:8-14

⁸Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  ⁹The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  ¹⁰Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

¹¹Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers;  ¹²the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;  ¹³let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.  ¹⁴Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

 

²¹Ἀπὸ τότε ἤρξατο ὁ Ἰησοῦς δεικνύειν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ ὅτι δεῖ αὐτὸν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα ἀπελθεῖν καὶ πολλὰ παθεῖν ἀπὸ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων καὶ ἀρχιερέων καὶ γραμματέων καὶ ἀποκτανθῆναι καὶ τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἐγερθῆναι. ²²καὶ προσλαβόμενος αὐτὸν ὁ Πέτρος ἤρξατο ἐπιτιμᾶν αὐτῷ λέγων, Ιλεώς σοι, κύριε: οὐ μὴ ἔσται σοι τοῦτο. ²³ὁ δὲ στραφεὶς εἶπεν τῷ Πέτρῳ, Υπαγε ὀπίσω μου, Σατανᾶ: σκάνδαλον εἶ ἐμοῦ, ὅτι οὐ φρονεῖς τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων. ²⁴Τότε ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ, Εἴ τις θέλει ὀπίσω μου ἐλθεῖν, ἀπαρνησάσθω ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἀράτω τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀκολουθείτω μοι. ²⁵ὃς γὰρ ἐὰν θέλῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ σῶσαι ἀπολέσει αὐτήν: ὃς δ’ ἂν ἀπολέσῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ εὑρήσει αὐτήν. ²⁶τί γὰρ ὠφεληθήσεται ἄνθρωπος ἐὰν τὸν κόσμον ὅλον κερδήσῃ τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ζημιωθῇ; ἢ τί δώσει ἄνθρωπος ἀντάλλαγμα τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ; ²⁷μέλλει γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἔρχεσθαι ἐν τῇ δόξῃ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ, καὶ τότε ἀποδώσει ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὴν πρᾶξιν αὐτοῦ. ²⁸ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι εἰσίν τινες τῶν ὧδε ἑστώτων οἵτινες οὐ μὴ γεύσωνται θανάτου ἕως ἂν ἴδωσιν τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐρχόμενον ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ αὐτοῦ.

 

 

“The Blue Denim Work-shirt”

+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

The year was 1969, and I was in my second year at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  In addition to taking endless classes in systematic theology, church history, liturgy, homiletics, Old and New Testament … I was employed as one of the school bus drivers for the Gettysburg Area School District.

It was the fashion in those days, that the male students of the Seminary (which, in those days, were all but one of the whole student population … yes, in the time I was at Seminary we had only one female student[1]) … it was fashionable to wear blue denim work-shirts.  The work-shirts came in long-sleeve and short-sleeve versions; they were dark blue and light blue and in-between blue and often they were washed several times to make them look as if they were really used hard.

 

One of my fellow students starched his, especially the collar, and ironed it every time he wore it because he wanted to have the effect of a work-shirt without the actual pre-determining qualification of using it for labour.  Odd … but his shirt had a real snappy look about it.

The shirts were worn as a kind of uniform.  It was the time of Peace Marches, especially to Washington, D.C. in an effort to make the peoples’ voice heard that the War (in 1969 it was Vietnam) should come to an end, that soldiers (mostly all male in that decade) should be brought home, and we should work on our problems here in this nation … helping poor people find employment and health-care and child-care, that everyone, especially women and what we called “minorities” in those days should have equal opportunity and for all people there should be universal education and clean-water and a safe environment, especially for children.

(hmmm …)

To wear a blue denim work-shirt was to wear a symbol of solidarity, to demonstrate by our clothing that we believed in the worker and the rights of laborers … in fact in the rights, the human rights, the civil rights of all people.

So one weekend when I went home, back to our farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania,  I asked my mother what she had done with my work-shirts.  She looked at me as if I had been spending too much time in Hebrew Class, “Well,” she answered, “They’re on my sewing table.  I was going to cut them up and make them into something useful.”

IN a leftover adolescent exclamation I exuded, “What‽ My workshirts‽ I need them!”

“Well,” said Mom, “I think there’s one left.  You can have it, if you really want it.”

Down the steps to the basement and Mom’s Table … a kind of Magic Kingdom™ of its own.  Rustling around piles of various articles I found the work-shirt.

“Where’s the iron?” I called upstairs.  My Mother went to the top of the stairs and in all saintly motherhood asked, “You want to iron a work-shirt?”

“And the spray-starch stuff, where is that?” I asked.

***

When I returned to Seminary that Sunday night, I carefully hung the shirt on a hanger ready to go the following morning.  After chapel I was the center of a small group of friends who gathered to admire my shirt.  One of my friends said, “How many times did you wash that thing? … to get it so faded.”

“Hundreds of times,” I said.  And then I explained that this blue denim work-shirt had actually been used for … work.  I was an item of envy.

***

We seminarians believed that the Gospel was nothing less than the following of Jesus into the world to raise up the poor, lift up the oppressed, bring peace where there is conflict, and stand up for the rights of all laborers, including those human beings who were coming across our borders seeking a better life and freedom.  Wearing our denim blue work-shirts was, I guess, a way that we “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” … a way that we wore Christ into the world … literally.

***

It’s Labor Day Weekend.  That is not a liturgical time in the Church Year; it is, however, a weekend when we honor, pray for, uphold, and stand with all workers … for their dignity and worth, for the justice of their fair wages, for their rights and protection, and – in thankfulness – for their part in human life and community.

The first Labor Day was in 1882 on September 5, in New York City, and was observed by the Central Labor Union of that city.

Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894, when, following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland reconciled with the labor movement.

Last Wednesday noon, many of our clergy and laypeople here in Santa Fe met at St. John’s United Methodist Church for a gathering sponsored by the Interfaith Workers Justice organization.  Among many other issues, we hear and talked about and worried about the plight of workers here in our own community … especially the sin of wage theft, where owners and administrators refuse to pay minimum wage, or ask workers to work off the clock, or refuse to pay for benefits and on and on and on.

I have joined the IWJ and invite you to do the same if you are of such a conscience.

http://www.iwj.org/template/index.cfm

Or by telephone: 773-728-8400

Or by mail:

INTERFAITH WORKERS JUSTICE

1020 W BRYN MAWR AVE
CHICAGO IL  60660-4627

***

“Love your neighbor as yourself,” wrote the common laborer Paul of Tarsus become missionary for the Good News. 

[We often think of the missionary Saint Paul traveling around with a little portable desk upon which he wrote his epistles to all those congregations, a man of leisure and letters (literally).  But Paul, the tradition goes, was a worker … he made tents, shelters for others.  It was his trade.  He understood the calluses on the hands of one who labors.]

Addressing the little congregation in Rome from afar, he taught that the Gospel is a lifestyle, a living of grace in love for others who are in need of that graceful love.  Followers of the Crucified One follow him into the world and into the places where voices are so tiny that they cannot be heard by the Pharaohs of various times and ages.  Followers of the Crucified One follow him into the world and into the lives of those who are in need of healing, in need of companionship, in need of support, in need of having the abundance of all shared equally so that all may equally share.

I can hear it now, someone is about to say, “Oh no, here comes another social justice gospel Sermon …”

Well … what other Gospel is there?

The only Gospel there is, is the one that beckons us to leave the thought of a private personal relationship with God (the me and God thing) and move into the world for the good of others.  The Gospel is always a Gospel for others.

It is what gathers us together here each week.  It is what we share in the sacred Story and around this Table and as we embrace one another with words of Peace.  It is what fills us, what is spoken into us, breathed into us … and it is just so that which we take with us into the world, every week, every day as followers of the Crucified One.

***

Let us pray.

God of love and justice,
we come to You asking for Your
presence and guidance.
You have asked us to walk with our brothers and sisters
and told us there are no strangers

among us. 
You have given us to love one another as we love ourselves.

God, as we remember those who

are struggling and organizing

for a living wage, healthcare,

and human dignity in their

workplaces, remind us this

that You have

called us to walk in

solidarity with our

brothers and

sisters, and live gracefully

in the world with love and justice.

In the name of Jesus our Brother.  Amen.[2]

 

Deo Gratias (+)

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church
Santa Fe, NM

 

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[1] Now, as with all of our Lutheran Seminaries, the male/female ratio of students is at least 50%/50%.

[2] The Prayer comes (with some editing) from the AFL/CIO

Sunday, August 28, 2011 "A Time for Burning"

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Sunday, August 28, 2011

 

GOSPEL: Matthew 16.21-28

²¹From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. ²²And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” ²³But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

²⁴Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. ²⁶For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

²⁷For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. ²⁸Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

           

²¹Ἀπὸ τότε ἤρξατο ὁ Ἰησοῦς δεικνύειν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ ὅτι δεῖ αὐτὸν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα ἀπελθεῖν καὶ πολλὰ παθεῖν ἀπὸ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων καὶ ἀρχιερέων καὶ γραμματέων καὶ ἀποκτανθῆναι καὶ τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἐγερθῆναι. ²²καὶ προσλαβόμενος αὐτὸν ὁ Πέτρος ἤρξατο ἐπιτιμᾶν αὐτῷ λέγων, Ιλεώς σοι, κύριε: οὐ μὴ ἔσται σοι τοῦτο. ²³ὁ δὲ στραφεὶς εἶπεν τῷ Πέτρῳ, Υπαγε ὀπίσω μου, Σατανᾶ: σκάνδαλον εἶ ἐμοῦ, ὅτι οὐ φρονεῖς τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων. ²⁴Τότε ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ, Εἴ τις θέλει ὀπίσω μου ἐλθεῖν, ἀπαρνησάσθω ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἀράτω τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀκολουθείτω μοι. ²⁵ὃς γὰρ ἐὰν θέλῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ σῶσαι ἀπολέσει αὐτήν: ὃς δ’ ἂν ἀπολέσῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ εὑρήσει αὐτήν. ²⁶τί γὰρ ὠφεληθήσεται ἄνθρωπος ἐὰν τὸν κόσμον ὅλον κερδήσῃ τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ζημιωθῇ; ἢ τί δώσει ἄνθρωπος ἀντάλλαγμα τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ; ²⁷μέλλει γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἔρχεσθαι ἐν τῇ δόξῃ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ, καὶ τότε ἀποδώσει ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὴν πρᾶξιν αὐτοῦ. ²⁸ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι εἰσίν τινες τῶν ὧδε ἑστώτων οἵτινες οὐ μὴ γεύσωνται θανάτου ἕως ἂν ἴδωσιν τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐρχόμενον ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ αὐτοῦ.

 

“A Time for Burning”

+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

I had never seen the movie A Time for Burning[1] although I certainly lived through the time itself.  I have Ruth Hoffman[2] to thank who several weeks ago told me about the film and that it was available through Netflix.  I placed it in my Queue and last week it arrived. 

Made in 1966 by filmmaker Bill Jersey, it received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Documentary Feature in 1967, has been called “the best civil rights film ever made” and was produced by the late Robert E. A. Lee who from 1954 until 1988 was the executive secretary of Lutheran Film Associates.  You may remember Mr. Lee from the 1950’s film Martin Luther that many of us saw in our congregations during that time.

A Time for Burning tells of a searing chapter in the life of the Rev. William Youngdahl, the Lutheran pastor of an all-white congregation in Omaha. Seeking to promote fellowship between races, Pastor Youngdahl proposed a program in which 10 couples from Augustana Lutheran Church would visit 10 couples in all-black Lutheran churches in the area.  The film includes a meeting between Youngdahl and a black barber named Ernie Chambers who tells the minister that his Jesus is “contaminated.”

Chambers, a passionate civil-rights activist, was elected to the State Senate of Nebraska and served for 38 years from 1971 until 2009 until a term limits law was passed in 2000.  It is agreed that he would easily have won re-election.

I watched the film twice.  You will be able to see it sometime within the next several weeks when we revive the Christ Lutheran Church Social Action Film Night.  Watch for the announcements.

In 56 minutes of cinema-verité (where filming takes place just as it happens) encounters and conversations between persons of colour — both black and white — wrought within the time in our nation’s history of civil rights legislation and the life that followed in every single community … those encounters and conversations hold you to your seat. 

The conversion of one of the members, perhaps he was the chair of the social ministry committee, is particularly poignant.  He moves from someone who was a declared “Christian” to someone who in two weeks is able to talk about “standing before Jesus” who will ask him how he has led his life in love to his neighbors.

I shall never forget Homer (I believe that was his name) a member of the Church Council who when Pastor Youngdahl insists that this is the calmest proposal one could ever make, to have 10 white couples from Augustana visit with 10 black couples in the neighborhoods, tells the pastor over and over again:

“This is not good.”

“The timing is not good.”

“The climate is not good right now.”

Things come to a head when completely incidental to the Pastor’s proposal, young people from one of the black congregations show up one Sunday because of a youth exchange.

One of the members of Augustana reports, that she saw them there, and simply turned her car around that Sunday and went home.

Long-held prejudice prevails, and Pastor Youngdahl is forced to resign.

The film is quite stirring and upsetting.  It speaks to the past, and still to the present.

I remember when our congregation was the only Reconciling in Christ congregation in our Synod, back in 1993, not that long ago.  I was asked by our Bishop to co-chair a synodical committee that would continue the conversation about ministry together with persons who are Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT).  Steve Helmrich, another member with me on the Synod Council, and himself a member of Peace Lutheran Church in Las Cruces was the other co-chair.

I think it was in 1995 at the Synod Assembly that I announced that after one of our plenary sessions we were going to hold a gathering in a vacant room, and if anyone wanted to join us and find out about “ministry with gays and lesbians” and how to become a Reconciling in Christ congregation, they were welcome.

Steve and I figured the attendance would be between 0 and 8.  Over 60 people walked into the room.  And for the next hour, a few pastors and many, many lay people began to tell their stories … painful stories, yearning stories, stories of need, stories of love, stories of faith.

In the years following when the “Committee” as we called it, because we didn’t what else to call it … when the “Committee” gathered for discussions … and I would tell the story of Christ Lutheran Church in Santa Fe … a frequent statement to me by other pastors would be, “Well, you know, I agree with what you’re doing, but you know we’re just not ready, the time is not right.”

To which I nearly always answered, “Well, when would it be a good time … next Tuesday?”

Homer lives on in many ways and in many people.

By the way, Augustana Lutheran Church in Omaha, NE is today a Reconciling in Christ congregation of the ELCA, it’s pastor is Susan Butler, and the phrase beneath the words Augustana Lutheran Church read: “Progressive Christian Thinking.”

***

I have always pondered the twin stories of Jesus and Peter.  In last week’s Gospel portion, Peter confesses, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!”  And Jesus tells him, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.”

In the next three verses, our Gospel portion this morning, in response to Peter’s insistence that Jesus should not go to Jerusalem and tempt the fate that surely will befall him, Jesus says, “Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me.”  The word in Greek that Matthew employs is σκάνδαλον   (scandal is the word that comes from it into our English).

And then Jesus goes on to explain the price of obedience, the cost of discipleship (as Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it in his Letters from Prison shortly before he was hung by the Nazis just two weeks before the Flossenberg Prison in Germany was taken over by the Allies in World War II and the war came to an end.).

Jesus calls us … You, me, Pastor Youngdahl, the black barber become state senator, the converted member of a social ministry committee, the recalcitrant member of a church council, this congregation in Santa Fe striving to be Reconciling and open and welcoming … calls us to costly obedience.

Discipleship comes with a price tag shaped in the form of a cross. 

Following Jesus means following him.  And that means following him into places sometimes we would rather not go, or rather delay because “the timing is not good.”  Following Jesus means stepping into conversations of understanding when people take opposite sides.  Following Jesus means walking into the hospital rooms where a sister or brother lies dying.  Following Jesus means helping carry food from the Food  Depot to the Food Pantry and then following Jesus means helping to put food into grocery bags and then handing out those bags to people who are hungry … and talking with those people … in love.  Following Jesus means sharing from the heart, listening to another’s sorrow, embracing the shoulder of one who is grieving. 

Following Jesus means going into other congregations to learn and share and understand and grow.

Following Jesus means letting the Good News of God fill this room and then inhale it, absorb it, become so caught by it that it flowers here and flows through us into the world so that what is broken can be mended, what is wounded can be healed, and what is torn asunder can be put back together.

That’s what it means to follow Jesus.

Let us pray.

O God, give us grace to set a good example to all among whom we live, to be just and true in all our dealings, to be strict and conscientious in the discharge of every duty; pure and temperate in all enjoyment, gracious and generous and courteous toward all; so that the mind of Jesus Christ may be formed in us and all may know that we are his disciples; in whose name we pray.  Amen.

+Deo Gratia

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III

Pastor

 

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[1] See Wikipedia article  at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Time_for_Burning

 

[2] Director of  Lutheran Advocacy Ministry – New Mexico and member of our congregation.

Friday, August 26, 2011

PARSHAH RE’EH

Friday, August 26, 2011

26 Av 5771)

 

“Open Your Hand and Your Heart”

It was August, four years ago, that a little band of Jews and Christians were making their interfaith way through the cities and towns of Israel.  The purpose of the journey was to experience together — side-by-side, hand-in-hand, shoulder-to-shoulder — our Story … and to experience our Story by being placed ever so gently and lovingly into the locations where the roots of our Story are found.   Like Moses, who in the readings in our congregation of last Sunday, is given his name by the Egyptian Princess, “… because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.” … we were pulled out of the rivers of our own joys and sorrows, from our individual wants and needs, from the things we wonder about and the things that make us laugh and cry and oftentimes weep even more rivers of tears … and placed together into embracing the mystery of our faith. 

One Friday night as the sun was setting we celebrated Shabbat along the shore of the Mediterranean and remembered that night the one-year anniversary of the passing of the spouse of one of our group … this family of interfaith-ed-ness (one could say) co-joined to the history of the place of holiness, and co-joined to one another in a relationship of compassion and love … the very things to which our Story, each side of it, each part of it … brings us.

Tel Aviv, Haifa, Caesarea, Nazareth, the Galilee (Genesseret), Golan Heights, the Banias Spring, Mount Horeb, Masada, Bethlehem, Kibbutz Tzuba, Qumran, Jericho, and so many other places … and Jerusalem … each a holy name in its own way, where in its own time and place brought the sight of our roots and the insight, the understanding of each other … and what is that but a religious experience‽

It was somewhere along that journey that I last read with a great deal of depth this week’s Torah Portion, Re’eh. 

For the members of my congregation, Re’eh is the first word of the section in Deuteronomy, that begins in Chapter 11, verse 26.

Deuteronomy is of course from the Greek word Δευτερονόμιον which itself comes from two Greek words deuteros and nomos meaning “second law” … in Hebrew of course דְּבָרִים  … “Words” in particular the words of Moses, the speeches, the sermons which according to the Story, he delivered to the people collected along the Plains of Moab as they were waiting to cross over the Jordan and into the Promised Land.

So this portion of the Torah, is the continuing of Moses’ Sermon to the people where Moses speaks on behalf of God.  It begins with the word Re’eh which means “See!”  as in “See (!), this day I set before you blessing and curse: blessing, if you obey the commandments of ADONAI … and curse, if you don’t …”

The whole section is about what makes for blessing and what does not, and there is  warning … in fact a lot of warning about idolatrous practices; and there is a repeated emphasis on the place which ADONAI will choose for the people to worship … an obvious reference to Jerusalem. 

There is a whole section on what you can eat and what you can’t. 

I remember asking your Rabbi about bats and Hoopoes … clearly forbidden.  I said, “I cannot imagine eating a bat under any circumstance, and I have no idea what a hoopoe is” (though from Wikipedia I now know it’s a rather colourful bird with a fancy crest that is found across Afro-Eurasia and is from the family Upupidae) … but at the time I said, “Hoopoe doesn’t sound like chicken to me.” And my question was, “Why are those things included in the prohibitions?”

And his answer, “If it’s there, you can be sure someone did it … the practice is prohibited, because someone had the practice!”

Moving on from other things you can’t eat like eagles, vultures, falcons, and buzzards … in my tradition we say Deo Gratia! … you come to a whole section warning against false prophets and other magicians who might try to woo God’s people into worshiping other gods … and what punishment should be inflicted upon them.  There’s a piece about mourning customs, that you’re not allowed to shave the front of your hair or cut yourself in your grief.

Then there’s a lot about sharing … especially the tithe, so that no one will go wanting or hungry or in need.

And there’s the organization of the rituals … things taken today for granted.  There’s the commandment of the three Feasts:  The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Pesach), the Feast of Weeks (counting the Omer, counting the seven weeks to  Shavuot (for our side of the text, Pentecost), and of course the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths (Sukkot). 

And let us not forget the seventh year is to be a year of remission of debts, of forgiveness.

***

Probably one of the most significant parts of this portion of the Torah is that of opening your hand.  Let me quote it for you, “If, however, there is a needy person among you … do not harden your heart and shut your hand … Rather, you must open your hand and lend that one sufficient for whatever is needed.”[1]

And why?

“For there will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy …”[2]

***

When I think of the Story we share, when I think of the faithful existence of this congregation and my own congregation who have lived in this community together for so many years, when I think of the service of your Rabbi, and all those people honoured this weekend, when I think of the learning and sharing and teaching and understanding, when I think of the love offered to me and my wife in a very personal way in our time of mourning, when I think of the seemingly little things we do together, the sharing of food and a wreath each year, and the planting of trees, when I think of the work we do together … not hardening our heart and shutting our hand to the homeless and hungry … when I think of all these things I know that this Torah Portion is especially significant for you and for us, together. 

The word that begins this long reading is not the word we would expect.  We don’t expect Re’eh … we would expect Shema …. “hear” … Shema is a word quite central to faith.  But Shema is but one part of obedience, the other part of obedience is to “see” … to look with eyes of understanding so that what we hear can be brought alive, brought into being, made to happen … the opening of the hand, the opening of the heart to each other and to all in need … That is how you are led, that is what you do, that is who you are, that is what you teach and share … and to us, and to the Holy One, I believe, I know it is a blessing.

Amen.

Deo Gratias (+)

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church
Santa Fe, NM

 

 

---

[1] Deut. 15.7 … my wording

[2] Deut 15.11

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Sunday, August 21, 2011 

 

 GOSPEL: Matthew 16:13-20

13Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  14And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  15He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  17And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.  18And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.  19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  20Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

¹³Ἐλθὼν δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἰς τὰ μέρη Καισαρείας τῆς Φιλίππου ἠρώτα τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ λέγων, Τίνα λέγουσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι εἶναι τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου; ¹⁴οἱ δὲ εἶπαν, Οἱ μὲν Ἰωάννην τὸν βαπτιστήν, ἄλλοι δὲ Ἠλίαν, ἕτεροι δὲ Ἰερεμίαν ἢ ἕνα τῶν προφητῶν. ¹⁵λέγει αὐτοῖς, Ὑμεῖς δὲ τίνα με λέγετε εἶναι; ¹⁶ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ Σίμων Πέτρος εἶπεν, Σὺ εἶ ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος. ¹⁷ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτῷ, Μακάριος εἶ, Σίμων Βαριωνᾶ, ὅτι σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα οὐκ ἀπεκάλυψέν σοι ἀλλ’ ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. ¹⁸κἀγὼ δέ σοι λέγω ὅτι σὺ εἶ Πέτρος, καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέτρᾳ οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ πύλαι ἅ|δου οὐ κατισχύσουσιν αὐτῆς. ¹⁹δώσω σοι τὰς κλεῖδας τῆς βασιλείας τῶν οὐρανῶν, καὶ ὃ ἐὰν δήσῃς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἔσται δεδεμένον ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, καὶ ὃ ἐὰν λύσῃς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἔσται λελυμένον ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. ²⁰τότε διεστείλατο τοῖς μαθηταῖς ἵνα μηδενὶ εἴπωσιν ὅτι αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ Χριστός.

“Banias”

+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

As with all things in arid regions of the world, it’s all about water.

One day in the Summer of 2007 when our small inter-faith group journeyed to Israel, we made our way along the northern part of the Sea of Galilee to the Golan Heights.  We visited the bunker where the Syrian troops had been dislodged by Israeli forces on the last day of the Six Day War (June 10, 1967).  While we were there we met part of the present day Israeli Defense Force who were gathering that day on this ridge … because it is there that the incoming men and women of the IDF Armored Division take their vow of allegiance. 

We looked from that ridge of the Golan Heights down to the valley below … rich, green, fertile with crops … the Hula Valley, Israel’s richest agricultural area.  It is fed by the Banyas river which flows through this valley and into the Jordan River, the lifeblood of the Holy Lands.

Leaving the Golan Heights our mini-van and driver and guide took us to the Banias itself.  It is an archaeological site by the ancient city of Caesarea Philippi, at the foot of Mount Hermon.  Banias is the Hebrew way (בניאס ) of pronouncing the Greek word Πανειάς .When you are there, you are looking at the headwaters of the Jordan River, in distant past a giant spring gushed from a cave set in the limestone bedrock … today it only seeps from the bedrock below.  But it is a beautiful place, and you can walk from the parking lot along the stream that flows from the Banias back to a cave set in the side of the mountain. 

When you get there you come to that ancient place … the cave with surrounding ancient shrine, temple, courtyards, grotto … you have arrived at the ritual place dedicated to a Greek deity … the goat-footed god of victory in battle, isolated rural areas, music, goat herds, hunting, herding, and sexual and spiritual possession … the god Pan … the god of everything, worshiped by the Romans … thus the Panias … pronounced in Hebrew Banias.

***

It is here that Jesus and his disciples came one day according to the portion of Matthew’s Gospel that we read just a few moments ago.  Sitting on the limestone rocks, taking refreshment from the stream, and shelter from the sun in the shade of the trees alongside the water … amid the many others who came regularly to that place for water, for worship, maybe just for a family picnic (as people were doing in 2007 for the Banias is a nature preserve in modern time) … the place sprinkled with more than a few Roman soldiers in Jesus’ time … making their ritual sacrifices to Pan or, more likely, taking their leave time just hanging out in the coolness (I can’t imagine it was much fun being a Roman Soldier wearing loincloth, socks, leg wrappings, trousers, tunic (linen in summer, wool in winter), belt, leather apron, helmet, the manica (arm protector), cloak, and of course sandals in the summer, boots in the winter.  And that’s without the shield, sword, spear and whatever else the Centurion told you to carry that day …).

So, at the foot of Mount Hermon, by the spring gushing from the limestone cave, near the pagan shrine of Pan, sitting alongside the refreshing stream, Jesus asks his friends,

“Let’s talk about the Son of Man.  Who do people say that is?”

The answers come from the disciples.

Andrew, drinking from his hand which he has just placed into the stream to cup some water, and slurping a bit says, “That’s easy, teacher, some say he’s John the Baptizer.”

Thaddeus muttered, “Well, Elijah at least, not John.”

Everyone knew that before the Messiah could come, Elijah the Prophet had to appear first … and John the Baptist sure looked, and dressed and acted like Elijah.

“No,” said James, son of Alphaeus, “Jeremiah … some folks think he’s Jeremiah.”

Two other disciples sitting on a fallen log and playing tic-tac-toe in the sand offered aloud, “Or one of the other Prophets.”

The group concurred, “Sure some prophet, at least.”

And then Jesus went for it.  “How about you?  Who do you think I am?”

Peter (the rock, Πέτρος) stood up and made his famous reply, his confession of faith, his statement of belief in this man, this Jesus, this Teacher, this Χριστὸς .

***

Later on that same trip I was standing near the High Altar in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  Below me — tradition says — are the bones of the one who answered Jesus that day at the Banias Spring.  Above me around the giant dome are the words, in Latin, of the Teacher’s response:

“Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam mean et tibi dabo claves regni caelorum.”

It’s all a play on words, both in the Greek of Matthew’s Gospel  Πέτρος and πέτρᾳ  and in the Roman Latin of the Church that sprang forth from that statement … Petrus Rock (the name) and Petram Rock (the strength).

In the Banias … that oasis, that place symbolic of new life and fertility … there it is that Jesus is proclaimed the Christos, the anointed one, the anticipated one, the watched and waited for one, the presence of God for love and peace in the middle of a Roman Occupation … offering up the strength of faith not in the armament of deadly force, but in the armor of faith that springs up, like living water from a cave at the foot of a holy mountain … faith that enables peace to flow down like waters.

***

Leaping ahead from 1^st Century Israel and from 17^th Century Italy … and from the Golan Heights and Rome to Orlando, FL … I found myself on Wednesday of last week sitting in the visitors section of the ELCA Churchwide Assembly.

I was thinking about the Gospel for today, and making some mental notes about this and that around the reading from Matthew, wondering if I had anything much to say about this question and answer period of Jesus and his followers at the Banias Spring.  I was thinking about how the Church confesses Jesus as the Christos today, how we speak in his name, how we follow him.

***

The discussion on the floor at the moment was about a Memorial that had risen from many synods of our Church to the Assembly itself.   I think the Memorials Committee had decided to refer the whole thing to more discussion and thinking and studying … which is a way of saying, “We really don’t want to talk about this!”

Lutherans Concerned/North America – the group to which we belong as a Reconciling in Christ congregation of the ELCA … Lutherans Concerned, officially recognized by the ELCA, had been working to change that and to bring the matter to a vote on the floor of the Assembly.

The Memorial was about anti-bullying.  I want to read two of the speeches given by the four young people who rose to speak in favor of this Memorial.  (13% of the ELCA Assembly were young people, under 30).

***

Speaking FOR the recommendation: David Bukowy, Jr, New England Synod

“Bullying is a big part of people’s lives today.  I once was a victim of bullying.  I can remember 5th grade year as if it were yesterday.  “Big Nose”… and “Crooked Mouth”… were two names I had been called as a child for many years -- both stemming from things I couldn’t control: my big nose from my dad, or, as I call it, the Polish gene, and my lip which had an underdeveloped muscle which caused it to slant to one side.  It was mid-winter, and I was on safety patrol.  While I was walking back in from my post, passed by me was one of two bullies I received these names from.  From behind me I heard my name, so as I turned to see who called, my jaw was met with an ice ball.  I was admitted to the hospital for a broken jaw, told to see a psychiatrist, and told by the school system to be home-schooled for the remainder of the 5th grade, for my “safety.”  I share this story to enlighten you on what one case of name calling can lead to.  It is crucial that we, as a church, take a stance to fight against bullying, to not only say you are welcome, but you are also safe.”

FOR Travis VanHorn, Oregon Synod

“While education is an essential part of growing up, school can be an intimidating place, full of pressures from both the classroom and students in it.   If you are different, you are an outcast.  I followed the crowd, trying to remain just like everyone else. Hoping that no one would suspect I was anything but normal.  However, I knew I was different.  I had known for some time that I felt an attraction towards the same-sex.  An ultimate red flag in schools was to be gay.  The most common expressions were “that’s so gay” and “no homo,” as well as refusing to go within a ten-foot radius of anyone what was known or suspected to be gay.  I felt that the only way I would be able to carry out a normal life, would be to to hide my feelings.  However, I had been taught by the church to stand up for myself, my beliefs, and to welcome diversity as an essential part of any community.  And on those principles, I made the decision to come out when I was 16.  I was shut out by many friends, and the people that talked to me only did so to call me things… not really appropriate to say in front of this assembly, and for a time I became depressed and suicidal.  I remember feeling like there was nowhere to turn, and I don’t want any other youth to have to feel that way, regardless of whether it be because of their sexuality, ethnic background, gender and gender identity, disabilities, social class, or any other unique attributes.  Youth and people of all ages need to know that their ELCA church will work to end bullying, harassment and related violence whenever and wherever it occurs.  I ask you to join me in supporting this memorial.”

The question was called…

VOTE 870-85 to call the question (end debate)

Main Motion before the house

VOTE 932-23 adopted A1, the anti-bullying motion

 

There it was … and is.  A name calling that is anti-bullying … speaking in such a way that the voice of Christ speaks through his followers … a voice that proclaims love, peace, hope … not retribution, vengeance, wrath … a voice that announces the Gospel, the Good News, that wherever and whenever someone (some government, some people …) begin to bully … those who love God and love neighbor will rise to speak against it.

The little rectangle of a pin that was attached to my VISITORS NAME HANGING DEVICE has the rainbow flag printed upon it and over that the words ‘PROUD TO BE ELCA.”  I am.  It is a new Church, and a renewed Church … where Mission and Ministry are the words of the day.  The Mission is love, and the Ministry is the embrace of Christ.

Deo Gratias (+)

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church
Santa Fe, NM

 

Saturday, August 20, 2011

What an incredible ELCA Assembly it was!  The feel is that it is a "new Church", free to engage in Gospel-Life, Ministry, Mission ... unshackled from the bondage of periods of darkness.  Deo Gratia!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

ELCA Assembly, Day Three
Wednesday, August 17    

Again, this is written the day after, so it's really Day Four of the Assembly.  But here is what happened yesterday; I'll let Phil Soucy, media person of Lutherans Concerned speak again ... a great summary:

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, met in biennial churchwide assembly in Orlando, Florida, passed a resolution submitted by 37 of its 65 synods that seeks to join the church at all levels in efforts to seek out, curb and work to eliminate bullying in church, school and society.

 

The assembly heard from a series of young people who have been bullied or seen the consequences of bullying.  The assembly heard them speak of being attacked for physical attributes that can't be changed, of being vilified because of their sexual orientation, of not knowing what to do when friends are bullied, and of losing a friend to a violent attack.

 

By a 932-23 vote, the assembly voted to "encourage new partnerships among the churchwide organization, synods, congregations, campus and outdoor ministries, Lutheran School Associations, Lutherans Concerned/North America, Lutheran Social Services organizations, public schools, counseling centers, and other governmental organizations in order to support the prevention of bullying, harassment, and other related violence."

 

These partnerships are to join or create programs that utilize positive, inclusive, empowering and developmentally appropriate materials;       raise participants' awareness about the issue; focus on prevention; seek to change bystander behavior into ally behavior - that is, to stop the bullying at its source and when it happens.  These partnerships are to be intergenerational, involving youth and adults, and to specifically address the use and abuse of social media as they are used to bully and harass.

Emily Eastwood, Executive Director, Lutherans Concerned/North America, said, "It was amazing to see so many young people at the microphones addressing this important issue from their particular contexts in youth groups, schools and neighborhoods.  Bullying cuts through every demographic line, but victims from groups most oppressed in society at large are at particular risk.  For those of us in LC/NA who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, we know first-hand the damage that bullying on the basis of real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity can do.  We applaud this action of the denomination in churchwide assembly and pledge our partnership and collaboration in creation of resources and trainings for congregations, youth groups, and Lutheran schools."

Peace and Blessing,
Pastor Ben +

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

ELCA Assembly, Day Two
Tuesday, August 16    

I'm actually writing this on the morning of Day Three.  And I borrow from Phil Soucy (of Lutherans Concerned/North America) and his summary of Day Two:

The Presiding Bishop's Report began with "I come to this assembly more hopeful, more grateful for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, than I ever have been.  The reason is simple: we are a church with clarity about who we are."  He said he was grateful for the way leadership in the church was shared, and for the commitment we as Lutherans make to the work of the church.  He expressed gratitude for the work of the church to eliminate poverty and to work for justice and peace.

He is grateful for the mission support sent in by congregations for the aggregated work at the synodical and churchwide mission areas.  And he is grateful for all of us, living out Lutheranism in truth and faith.  Living out Lutheranism means having clarity about who we are and where God is leading us.

"We are Lutherans; that means that at the heart of who we are is the good news that in Christ we are free."  He continued, "Free from bondage to sin and guilt, free from the power of death and evil."  He said we are free of fear, "fear of the stranger, fear of failure, and fear of discord, disease and disaster... and, for some, fear of deportation."  He said that we are free to be bound, bound to the world as peacemakers and justice seekers.  "We are freed to live as everyday evangelists."

He said we were living out being Lutherans in a world where lines were being drawn, increasingly cast in concrete: lines that divide, exclude, and demean.  To live Lutheran in that context means to embody reconciliation in Christ.  For Lutherans living in this context means, as Luther said, living "in service to the neighbor."

Christ was nailed to a cross "for having the audacity to cross the lines that are drawn by the protectors of religious purity and political power."  He said that this church should be known not just for serving the poor, but for tirelessly striving to end poverty.

"The good news is that this is Christ's church; there is a place for you here."  We welcome the stranger including the new immigrants in our communities.  He said this assembly could continue the work of the previous assembly for fair and just immigration by calling on Congress to pass the Dream Act.

Then he said, "This is Christ's church; there is a place for you here.  What a powerful witness this assembly can make, by joining our collective voice to that of 39 synods by saying to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and all who are verbally battered by the bitter winds of bullying, 'Not in this church... for there is a place for you here, Child of God.'  There's a place for you here, Child of God, a place of respect and dignity and welcome, where the winds of the Holy Spirit blow, bringing healing and hope.  There's a place for you here..."

Following the Session, the Assembly gathered for another incredible service of Holy Communion and then during the afternoon and evening turned its attention to Bible Study and Mission.

It was a delightful plus to be sitting near the front of the meeting room to hear presentations from the Church in China, the multi-cultural expressions of the Church in the Pacifica (Southern California and Hawaii) Synod, and the Philadelphia Choir from Immanuel/Faith congregation in Center City Philadelphia.  Afterwards I had the chance to speak with Bp. Claire Birkat of the SE Pennsylvania Synod and the demise of my parish of origin (St. Luke's, Dublin, PA).  She remarked, "You're the one who has the Baptismal Font [from the old church]!"  (see me next Sunday for the full story.)

Peace and Blessing,
Pastor Ben +