Fishernen and Repentance

Fishing is really fun and exciting when you catch a fish. The fishermen who Jesus called didn’t fish with a rod and reel but with nets and it was hard work. In some churches you can see boats hanging from the ceiling as a reminder to pray for those who are out at sea and to remind us that we are all fishers of people.

Fishermen and Repentance

In the late 1980’s a drought lowered the Sea of Galilee and two fisherman brothers found a boat in the mud. It was 27 feet long and 7 feet wide and made up of 10 types of wood. It has been called the Jesus Boat. http://www.jesusboat.com/boat.php


“The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe in the good news.” That is it brothers and sisters. The men Jesus called were not religious leaders or leaders of any kind. They were hardworking illiterate men. Why did he call these people? Perhaps it was because their lives following Jesus was going to be hard and he called people who were used to hard work. Perhaps it was because he knew that his message was going to be harsh and we need to get away and fishermen could get him away from the crowds and danger.

In the First Century there were the few, the many and the beggars. Jesus is showing that the Kingdom of Heaven is fro everyone, the many not only the few rich who could afford sacrifices. The real outsiders were the Gentiles, which is us, who were not worthy of forgiveness.

Repentance: Confession and Forgiveness always go together. Last year during Lent I invited everyone to come and see me for confession. Two people came and they did not confess anything juicy. It was very much like what a priest said about taking confession in the monastery—being stoned with popcorn. There is nothing that we confess that cannot be forgiven. John the Baptist began preaching repentance of sin for the many. It was a letting go of what we are hanging on to.

The Gospel of Mark begins with the Heavens being torn open; they are irrevocably changed. God is present with us and the Heaves will not close again. We are forever changed through the transforming power of Christ’s presence. This applies to us! Jesus is our leader. Illiterate fishermen are as good as if not even better leaders than the pre-existing leaders. We are all workers in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Today there is no spiritual or moral center in our culture. God is not very important to have a reformer like Martin Luther today. It is rather like the First Century. There was an interest in God, but what they thought was God wasn’t God. Jesus begins to move the spiritual and moral center into the world. There are people who are ready to move into that center. What we have here exists truly, it is the message Jesus brings is the true center of spirituality and morality.

My first sermon at Peace Lutheran

First Sunday of Christmas

For the past month, some radio stations have been playing “Christmas Music.” I don’t know about you, but I have heard more renditions of the song, “White Christmas” than any Christmas Hymn, such as, “Joy to The World.” We get to celebrate Christmas for 12 days, despite the fact that the stores and radio stations no longer play that so-called Christmas Music. Ironic, one of the songs I heard on the radio was “The 12 Days of Christmas,” yet once the Feast of St. Stephan arrived; the Christmas festivities come to a screeching halt. We, as good Lutherans, are still celebrating Christmas, and here we are on the Fourth Day of Christmas hearing from Luke about the baby Jesus in the Temple.
I consider Luke to be the best writer in the New Testament. Regardless of any literary criticism that I or anyone else bestows upon him, he certainly was the most prolific writer in the New Testament the author of the two-volume work called Luke and Acts. How the times have changed since the First Century when an entire Gospel could be read at worship gathering as opposed to how we modern Christians read “the best of” sections of the Gospel. There are reasons why our worship forms are the way they are and I will not beleaguer you with a dry historical rendering explaining why we sectionalize not only the Gospels but the whole Bible as well. It is suffice to say, it works. However, as an English Major, I cannot help but wonder what St. Luke thinks of how we approach the Gospel he wrote. Imagine if you will, meeting J.K. Rowling and telling her that you really like her work but are only are familiar with certain highlighted passages of the entire Harry Potter series. She would most likely tell you that you have missed the context in which those passages were delivered. Luke uses strong and rich images throughout his two-volume narrative to build a story that begins with John the Baptist and ends with Paul arriving in Rome.
Rich images are sprinkled throughout today’s Gospel text as well--images from Leviticus, Isaiah and a foreshadowing of events that occur later in Luke’s Gospel. From Leviticus, we see the how Mary is obedient to the Torah and Law of Moses. Be mindful that both Moses and the Law are mentioned repeatedly in the first part of the text. We hear a rendering of Isaiah from the prophetic words of Simeon, Isaiah 46:13”In Zion I shall grant deliverance for Israel my glory.” Isaiah 49:6 “I shall appoint you a light to the nations so that my salvation may reach the earth’s furthest bounds.” We hear Isaiah’s prophecy being fulfilled in the prophetic words of Simeon. And later in Luke’s Gospel we hear how Jesus was rejected, as Simeon also prophesied (Luke 4: 28) ”These words roused the whole congregation to a fury, they leapt up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which [the synagogue] was built, meaning to hurl him over the edge. “
Today’s Christmas text has a deeper impact on our faith and faithful living if seen in the greater context in which Luke delivers his Gospel narrative. Our faith journeys begin when we are openly presented before God and as God’s own children in baptism, for many of us this is our baptism as infants. In the Gospel reading today we see Jesus making his first appearance in the Temple to fulfill the Laws of Moses, which is a deep contrast to his last appearances in the Temple.

Luke 19: 45Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; 46and he said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.”
Luke 21: He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; 2he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. 3He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; 4for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”

Luke is telling us something. We are introduced to Jesus’ divinity early in his Gospel, which is a strong contrast to how Jesus is introduced as an adult to the people later in the narrative. Is our daily life so different? We know that Jesus Christ is divine, but what about those who don’t Jesus? They don’t always and usually don’t respond favorably to the Gospel message; the respond by shutting doors and walking away.
Luke is also telling us something about the Temple. In today’s reading we see the prophets Simeon and Anna praising God openly and boldly, just as we did when we read today’s Psalm. Although these events were written down after the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem, the setting of this part of the narrative is before the great revolt, which occurred after Herod the Great died. Before the Roman Empire fully occupied Judea, Judean priests, some of whom were from the tribe of Levi, ran the Temple. After Herod the Great died, Augustus Caesar appointed Herod’s son Philip to rule the Judeans and Galileans; the Judeans and Galileans in turn revolted. Philip could not contain, hinder nor stop the revolution so Publius Quintlius Varus, the governor of Syria, who Luke calls Quirinus—calling him Varus as he was known is like talking about Hitler to Holocaust survivors—Varus lead the Roman Army into Galilee and Judea, and crucified thousands. After this, the Romans fully occupied Judea and they appointed the priests. Would the Temple priests at the end of Jesus’ ministry allow a widow to live in the Temple fasting and praying? Could prophets freely prophesy in the Temple, a Temple that Jesus called a robbers den? It doesn’t sound like it. It seems that Luke is showing us how the Romans changed religious practices, and Jesus possesses the power and authority to reverse the damage the political priesthood caused. Furthermore, Luke is telling us that God’s love reaches beyond the four walls of the Temple and extends to all nations and not just the descendents of Israel, but the Gentiles as well, which means us.
Luke is also showing us how special Jesus is and letting us in on secret information. As a newborn, the angels sang about him, as an infant, prophets thank and praise God for him, but as an adult he is tossed out of his hometown as the people were filled with rage against his message. We are able to see Jesus’ divinity early on in Luke’s narrative, which clearly contrasts with how the people perceived and received Jesus. In this manner, we who hear and read this Gospel are brought into the inner circle of secret knowledge; we know that Jesus is divine, and we have the words of the prophet Simeon to help us understand Jesus and his ministry. We are the enlightened Gentiles of which Simeon prophesied, with the words: “For I have seen with my own eyes the deliverance you have made ready in full view of all nations; a light that will bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory to your people, Israel.”
In the First Century, there was tension and conflict between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians. The Jewish Christians emphasized the Torah and the rite of circumcision, whereas the Gentile Christians emphasized freedom from the Law in Jesus Christ who was the fulfillment of the Law. Luke is fusing these two understandings and reconciling the tensions and conflicts early on in his Gospel. We should be happy for the glory Jesus brings the people of Israel, but as Gentiles, Jesus brings us the light of revelation. We receive enlightenment.
Revelation is not the purpose or fulfillment of ministry but is the beginning of it. With the light comes understanding which leads to insight. We possess divine enlightenment through the Holy Spirit so that we know that Jesus is The Anointed One. We cannot pat ourselves on the back in a self-congratulatory manner because we have been imparted with the gift of Divine Wisdom; we have to do something with it. Whatever we do as we are called and directed to do, we cannot keep it to ourselves. Simeon and Anna loudly proclaimed what they knew to everyone in the Temple. We encounter Jesus as Lord not just as an infant, so how can we remain silent?
Here were are right now in the Sanctuary of Peace Lutheran Church and everyday we hear about the economic uncertainty facing our nation and our state. We live in a world filled with spiritual and emotional darkness--darkness of fear, anger, hatred and suffering. Have you paid attention to the news these past few days? What darkness lies within the hearts and minds of people of this world--Greed, jealousy, and envy, perhaps? All around us are people who are suffering in darkness—the throes of depression and despair.
We cannot fix all these problems. We can, however, let our light shine and allow God to use our feet, hands, and voices to reveal God’s light to all those we encounter. The people in the world, now more than ever before, need to know that Jesus is real and unfortunately for us, there are more obstructions to this message than ever before. There is a lot of misinformation regarding the Gospel of Jesus Christ being broadcast on the radio, television and being printed in books and let us not forget the Internet.
The genuine sincerity of helpfulness, kindness and caring that is Christianity has taken a backseat to the highly public and popular messages of worldly success and exclusivity, which have misconstrued the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, we can reach out those in the depths of despair with the light of hope, we just have to be mindful that saying we are Christians could cause the receivers of this message to shy away from us. We have to live our faith with our actions and deeds and less with our words.
We are mystically grafted into the Holy Trinity through our baptisms. As Luther says, “there is an indwelling of the Holy Trinity in us through our baptisms.” As Jesus was circumcised and named in God’s Temple, we too are named as God’s own through baptism. Just as the Holy Spirit directed Simeon to the Temple that day and that hour more than 2000 years ago, so does the Holy Spirit direct and guide us. We have to trust and believe and then let God guide the direction of our feet and the works of our hands. What better way to begin the works of our hands than to follow Anna’s example and position our hands in the act of prayer. Through prayer we are mystically communicating to God and we transmit and receive messages and directions to and from God. Prayer is the beginning of the work of faithfulness.
It is Christmas, the Mass for Christ, a winter celebration of Christ that was started around the Second Century. Although Christmas has a convoluted Pagan beginning we still need to celebrate the Christ Child’s arrival for Christ is the greatest of God’s gifts to all humanity.May that gift of God’s light always shine forth in all us and all baptized Christians in all the nations.

Reformation Sunday

What if God is a painter? What would that look like? He would paint creation. What if God wanted to repaint? He would paint a new creation. We are a new creation in Jesus Christ/

Today we are celebrating the 45th anniversary of Peace Lutheran Church. Although this congregation was organized in 1962 our corner stone date is 1963. Peace Lutheran began as mission congregation in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS). They project was a church building with a large piece of land, for the purpose of building a school. Our congregation was started with big ambitions; ambitions don’t get much higher than having a church and a school together. The LCMS was the first mainline protestant congregation to be targeted by the fundamentalist movement, In reaction to this the Concordia Seminary professors broke away and left the LCMS. They walked out over theological issues and began The Seminary in Exile later called Seminex. This created a loud discord within all the LCMS where the laity had to decide where they stood on these issues. This congregation was part of the 25-30 per cent of the LCMS that chose to follow the Seminex professors and became the Associated Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The main dispute was over the authority of the Bible. The Augsburg Confession begins with God. The Fundamentalists say that the Bible is the first authority. Jesus is the cornerstone and Jesus Christ is the Word of God. The Bible is important because it bares Jesus Christ to us. The AELC realized the futility of having yet another Lutheran denomination and they sought out unity with the LCA and the ALC, which were two distinctly different facets of Lutheranism. Finally, in 1988 all three Synods merged to form the ELCA which we are now.

After the beloved pastor Earl Merz left Peace Lutheran an explosion happened; a fight broke out. There was a large group the was hoping to return to the LCMS and when that didn’t happen they left in anything but a peaceful manner. The\y left and formed Christ our Savior LCMS. Later another group became angry over various issues and left and formed Good Shepherd ELCA who are having a ground breaking ceremony today. Finally the big dream died when the land was sold to Holland Christian Schools.

In the book, Unbinding the Gospel a former fundamentalist pastor who is now part of a mainline protestant congregation says that mainline Christians do not understand the power they have in the Gospel and they don’t share it. They have a case of Gospel Constipation. We like most mainline Christians are hesitant to talk about our faith.

We have communion every Sunday to see, taste and feel that Christ is truly here and truly leading us and truly present with us.

Walking in the Woods

Friday morning I took a short walk in Riley Woods. I walked across the footbridge in the morning sun and then walked to the far end of the pond there. The summer is a time for the beach the autumn is for the woods. It was quiet, peaceful and surprisingly stimulating.

I didn't think of much just walked and gazed around me with a lot of appreciation for the natural beauty that was all around me.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about John the Baptizer. Only in Luke's Gospel do we learn about his parentage and his family relation to Jesus. Funny how in Luke's Gospel, John does not baptize Jesus. The earlier Gospels of Mark and Matthew make it clear that John did indeed baptize Jesus which would make Jesus a disciple of John's or at best a co-worker with him.

In today's Gospel lesson we hear Jesus asking the temple priests "Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?" Even at the end of his ministry Jesus mentions John the Baptizer. I can only think that John's ministry was much more important than what the Christian Church indicates it to be. John could not have been just a simple fore runner to Jesus. His ministry was alive, active and deeply influential.

It is later in the First Century as the Jesus movement became Christianity that John takes the proverbial backseat to Jesus. I get the impression that during Jesus' ministry John was in the forefront.

The emphasis of John's ministry could very well be a part of the conflict between the Jerusalem followers of Jesus and the Gentile Christians. There were more points of disagreement than that, but how John was viewed in Acts is an indicator that Saul/Paul put the greater emphasis on Jesus while James in Jerusalem seemed to hold on to the ascetic views proclaimed by John.

There is something about sunlight reflecting on the water that seems so magical. This summer I was able to swim and splash in Lake Michigan with Evan and Nathan when the sunlight was reflecting as a large stream of light on the Lake. I took the time to float on my back and let the sunlight hit me as the water.

I had Nathan and Evan stand in the sunlight and they looked like little angles peaceful, full of happiness. We would have splash fights and the water would shine in the sun sparkle like a thousand diamonds.

The last day at the beach I took a few seconds to lie back and float in the Lake and just enjoy the peacefulness of feeling the refreshing water all around me and the warm sun beating down on me.

Water sustains life, it refreshes, gives enjoyment, creates wonders, it invigorates, fascinates, relaxes and amazes. It is the most spiritual element I have encountered.

Enlightenment leads to self-control

egkrateia (eng-krat'-i-ah) is the word in Galatians 5:22 that is translated as "self-control."

In what we call chapter four Paul talks about being children of Sarah not Hagar; so that those of us in the new convenient are free children not slaves. Chapter 5 opens with this statement: For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Of course, Paul is speaking of spiritual freedom and spiritual slavery. I have come to understand why the early Christians were willing to die for their faith. Feeling powerless under the rule of the Roman Empire, the Gospel message empowered them with the knowledge of Jesus Christ the Emperor of the Universe. Believing in Jesus, gave their lives a fresh and vibrant meaning. No longer were they feeling like pawns in the world. There was a lot that they could not change but they could chose not to bow their knees to the Emperor and they can chose not to act like everyone else.

When faced with the choice to either confess Jesus or continue to empower Rome with their allegiance they chose to confess Jesus and therefore chose death. Believing that Jesus is the Life they would have not feared death and would not have wanted to release their new found freedom.

The part of Paul's message that really hits me hard today is that today all of us have a level of freedom that our First Century brothers and sisters in Christ could not have even imagined. Today self-control does not mean just not bowing our knees to the Emperor. It means that we do not control or manipulate other people to do what we want. It means that we do not let other people control us. We do not submit to anyone but exercise our freedom in Christ and freedom as US citizens to follow Jesus as we are spiritually called to do.

Also it means that we control ourselves. We do not give into compulsive behaviors of any variety. This applies to all aspects of living. One of the fruit of the enlightenment, the Wisdom of The Holy Spirit is to get in control and remain in control of ourselves. We shouldn't let anyone dominate us and we should not submit our wills to any power in this world. It means that we should dominate over anyone else. We should be the voice of empowerment and freedom.

sunlight and water

Sunlight is wonderful. It gives definition and color to the visible world.

When sunlight reflects on moving water it creates a reflection of sparkles and slices of light moving and dancing on the water.

Water is magnificent. It sustains life and cannot be created nor destroyed. It is cures thirst, refreshes, stimulates, invigorates and is very dangerous.

Swimming in a large body of cool water on a hot summer day while the sunlight is reflecting on it is truly mystical and spiritual.


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