El Tercer Domingo de Cuaresma

Juan 4:5-42

I first preached this sermon in Spanish; the English translation is below.

Oremos…
Que las palabras de mi boca y las meditaciones de nuestros corazones sean aceptables ante ti, Señor, fortaleza y redentor nuestro. Amén.
 
Ayer por la mañana, estaba en mi estudio en casa cuando oí que se abría la puerta y dos voces en el porche. Nuestros perros empezaron a ladrar y alguien toco la puerta. En lugar de responder, le envié un mensaje a Jamie, que estaba afuera en su garaje, y le pregunté si esperaba a alguien. Dijo que no. Me quedé en mi escritorio y finalmente oí que las voces se alejaban.
 
Quizás puedan adivinar lo que estaba sucediendo. Una de las congregaciones locales estaba dejando información sobre su servicio del Jueves Santo. Encontré una invitación escondida en la puerta cuando salí más tarde. Si hubiera abierto la puerta, quiza podríamos haber tenido una conversación interesante sobre Jesús, la fe y la adoración.
 
En Shelby conocí a una mujer viuda que solía sentarse a conversar con los evangelistas que llamaban a su puerta porque eran compañeros de conversación amigables y ella apreciaba ese regalo de su tiempo.
 
Cuando yo estudiaba en el ministerio universitario, solíamos recorrer los vecindarios, tocando puertas, con la esperanza de ofrecer una palabra de animo a personas que no estaban conectadas a ninguna iglesia o congregación.
 
Sin duda, ir de puerta en puerta es un modelo de evangelización.
 
Otro modelo es el que el pastor Mark guía a las personas los miércoles por la noche aquí en Grace.
 
Como quizá recuerden el momento de ministerio en el que presento nuestro tema de Cuaresma, "¡Escucha!", nos centramos en escuchar. En nuestras Escrituras durante la Cuaresma, hay una serie de conversaciones aque ocurren:
Jesús y el tentador, Jesús y Nicodemo, y esta semana, Jesús y la mujer en el pozo.
 
Cuando escuchamos bien, aprendemos algo sobre la otra persona. Aquí compartimos una historia común: la historia de Dios, pero la forma en que nos hemos encontrado con Dios es diferente para cada uno de nosotros. Puedo contar mi historia, pero también puedo aprender sobre Dios al escucharte contar la tuya.
 
Las historias de Nicodemo y la mujer en el pozo comienzan con un encuentro. Aunque los hemos escuchado durante dos semanas, su cercanía en el evangelio de Juan invita a compararlas y al debate sobre lo que comparten y sus diferencias.
 
Nicodemo, por supuesto, es hombre y se le menciona por sunnombre. Esto no siempre ocurre, y es aún más raro en el caso de las mujeres. Además, es fariseo, un líder religioso de Jerusalén. Esto significa que tiene agencia, influencia y poder.
La mujer en el pozo, por supuesto, no es un hombre. No se nos dice su nombre. Lo primero que sabemos de ella es que es samaritana. Y Juan señala que judíos y samaritanos no compartían cosas en común. Los estudiosos enfatizan que no se trata solo de que no compartieran cosas; evitaban activamente, deliberadamente y cuidadosamente estar en el mismo lugar al mismo tiempo.
 
También sabemos que la mujer se había casado cinco veces. Juan no incluye este detalle para avergonzarla ni para invitarnos a juzgarla. Es un hecho, y recordando las creencias y prácticas del Israel del primer siglo, también nos dice que probablemente habría sido considerada maldita por haber sufrido tanta pérdida. ¿Recuerdan la historia que escuchamos más tarde en Juan sobre "el hombre que nació ciego"? Incluso entonces, los discípulos le preguntan a Jesús: "¿Quién pecó, este hombre o sus padres, para que naciera ciego?".
En el mundo antiguo, ese era el entendimiento común de la enfermedad o padecimiento, la esterilidad y la aflicción; el sufrimiento debía ser el resultado de una acción pecaminosa.
 
Esta mujer, por razones que desconocemos, se había casado y separado cinco veces, ya sea por muerte o divorcio, y ahora dependía de otro hombre para sus necesidades básicas.
 
Y, sin embargo, por muy diferentes que sean estas dos personas, tanto Nicodemo como la mujer samaritana se encuentran con Jesús.
 
Nicodemo acude a él de noche, envuelto en la oscuridad. La mujer samaritana lo encuentra inesperadamente, cuando va al pozo de Jacob al mediodía, cuando el sol estaba alto y cayendo con fuerza sobre ellos
 
En el evangelio de Juan, la luz y la oscuridad son sinónimos de creencia e incredulidad.
 
Vemos cómo Nicodemo lucha por comprender y lo oímos preguntar: "¿Cómo puede ser esto?" (3:9), intentando reconciliar la verdad que Jesús ha dicho con su comprensión del mundo.
 
La muje samaritana escucha a Jesús hablar del agua viva y responde, captando la invitación en sus palabras. Pregunta: "¿De dónde sacas esa agua viva?" (4:11) y luego le pide a Jesús: "Señor, dame esa agua para que nunca más tenga sed ni tenga que venir aquí a sacarla".
 
En sentido literal, ninguna de las dos será cierta; por supuesto que volverá a tener sed y, por supuesto, seguirá necesitando ir al pozo, pero ella entiende que él no esta hablando literalmente y que le promete alivio.
 
Él le promete una relación continua con Dios, la presencia consoladora de Dios en su vida
y la Palabra de Dios a la que aferrarse cuando se siente rechazada o desesperada.
 
Y al encontrarse con Jesús, conversar con él y entablar una relación con él resulta en una transformación.
 
Juan nos habla de la mujer samaritana, que al mediodía fue al pozo a sacar agua, cuando sabe que puede evitar que hablen de ella, deja su cántaro allí y regresa a la ciudad, donde comienza a  contarle a la gente acerca de Jesús.
 
Y así, ella se convierte en la primera testigo, junto a Juan el Bautista, en este evangelio.
 
En lugar de esconderse, ahora proclama lo que Dios ha hecho en Jesús.
Y las personas a quienes se lo cuenta pasan de la indiferencia y la incredulidad a la fe.
 
Ahora ellos desean lo que ella tiene. Desean conocer a Jesús, escuchar la palabra de Dios y ser transformados. Desean dejar atrás las cargas que han llevado y ser libres para vivir en la fe en Dios.
 
Oremos.
Dios Santo, gracias por el amor transformador que nos das y por la presencia redentora de tu Hijo Jesús. Ayúdanos a escuchar tu Palabra e invitación. Muéstranos qué necesitamos dejar o soltar y cómo podemos servirte. Ayúdanos a seguirte fielmente.
Amén.

John 4:5-42

Let us pray…

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Yesterday morning, I was in my study at home when I heard our gate open and two voices on our porch. Our dogs started barking and someone knocked on the door. Instead of answering, I texted Jamie who was outside in his garage and asked if he was expecting anyone. He said no. I stayed at my desk, and eventually heard the voices move away.

You may be able to guess what was happening. One of the local congregations was dropping off information for their Maundy Thursday worship. I found an invitation tucked into our door when I went outside later. If I’d answered the door, we might have had an interesting conversation about Jesus, faith and worship. In Shelby I knew a widowed woman who often sat and talked with the evangelists who knocked on her door because they were friendly conversation partners and she appreciated their gift of time.

When I was a student in campus ministry, we often canvased neighborhoods, knocking on doors, hoping we could offer a word of encouragement to people who weren’t connected with a church or congregation.

Certainly, going door to door is one model for evangelism.

Another model is what Pastor Mark is leading people through on Wednesday nights here at Grace.

As you may remember from his ministry moment introducing our Lenten theme, “Listen Up!” we are focused on listening. In our Scripture during Lent, there are a series of conversations happening: Jesus and the tempter, Jesus and Nicodemus, and this week, Jesus and the woman at the well.

When we listen well, we learn something about the other person. Here we share a common story - God’s story – but how we have encountered God is different for each of us. I can tell my story, but I can also learn about God by listening to you tell your story.

The stories of Nicodemus and the woman at the well begin with an encounter. While we have heard them over two weeks, their proximity in John’s gospel prompts comparison and discussion of what they share and how they are different.

Nicodemus of course is a man, and he is named. That doesn’t always happen, and it happens even more rarely for women. And he is a Pharisee, a religious leader in Jerusalem. That means he has agency, influence and power.

The woman at the well of course is not a man. We are not told her name. What we know about her is first that she is a Samaritan. And John makes the point that Jews and Samaritans did not share things in common. Scholars emphasize it’s more than just that they didn’t share things in common; they would have actively, deliberately and carefully avoided being in the same place at the same time.

We also know that the woman has been married five times. John doesn’t include this detail to shame the woman and invite us to judge her. It’s a fact and remembering the beliefs and practices of first century Israel, it also tells us that she would likely have been considered cursed to have suffered so much loss. Remember the story we hear later from John about “the man born blind”? Even then the disciples ask Jesus,

“Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

In the ancient world, that was the common understanding of illness or disease, barrenness and affliction – the suffering must have been the result of sinful action.

This woman, for reasons we cannot know, had been married and separated either by death or divorce five times, and now was dependent on yet another man for her basic needs.

And yet, as different as each person is,

both Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman encounter Jesus.

Nicodemus goes to him at night, cloaked in darkness. The Samaritan woman meets him unexpectedly, when she goes to Jacob’s well at noon, when the sun was high overhead and beating down on them.

In John’s gospel, light and dark are synonyms for belief and unbelief.

We see how Nicodemus struggles to understand and we hear him ask “How can this be?” (3:9), trying to reconcile the truth Jesus has spoken with his understanding of the world.

The Samaritan woman listens to Jesus talking about living water and responds, hearing the invitation in his words. She asks, “Where do get that living water?” (4:11) and then asks Jesus, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

In a literal sense, neither of those will be true; of course, she will become thirsty and of course, she will continue to need to go to the well,

but she understands he is not speaking literally,

and she understands

he is promising her relief.

He is promising her continued relationship with God,

the comforting presence of God in her life

and God’s Word to hold onto when she is rejected or despairing.

And encountering Jesus, engaging in conversation with him and entering into relationship results in transformation.

John tells us the Samaritan woman

who has come at noon to the well to draw water

when she knows she can avoid people talking about her,

leaves her bucket there and goes back to the city,

where she begins telling people about Jesus.

And so,

she becomes the first witness,

besides John the baptizer,

in this gospel.

Instead of hiding she is now proclaiming what God has done in Jesus.

And the people she tells move from disregard and disbelief to belief.

They now want what she has. They want to meet Jesus and listen to God’s word and be changed. They want to leave behind the burdens they have carried and be freed to live in faith in God.

Let us pray.

Holy God,

Thank you for the transforming love you give us,

and for the redeeming presence of your Son Jesus

Help us listen to your Word and invitation.

Show us what we need to put down or let go and

and how we can serve you.

Help us follow you faithfully.

Amen.

 

First Sunday in Lent

Matthew 4:1-11

On Wednesday morning, someone coming into the building for a meeting saw our sign directing folks here to the sanctuary for Ash Wednesday worship and bravely, and curiously, asked, “What is Ash Wednesday?”

That same morning, I told the preschool children that we were beginning the season of Lent and explained how this “season” was different from winter or spring.

You may remember that in November I told you how surprised I was that the grocery stores had moved from Halloween to Christmas so quickly. Well, this time, it was the heart-shaped boxes of Valentine’s chocolate that were being replaced with Easter’s marshmallow Peeps just as rapidly.

Stopping

and

observing

this season of Lent is counter-cultural,

certainly, in the secular world,

but even in other Christian traditions.  

And as I reflected on this six-week season, our theme “Listen Up” and our texts for this morning, I was filled with gratitude,

because Lent lets us pause.

It invites us into reflection.

And it helps us learn how to live as citizens of the kingdom of God.

Our readings today tell a story that moves from

Adam and Eve’s disobedience, choosing a way that is in opposition to God wants;

to the psalmist’s vivid description of the burden of carrying our sin and trying to hide from God,

and the liberation received in confession and forgiveness;

to the gift of God’s grace and the righteousness given to us through faith;

and finally, to Jesus in Matthew’s gospel.

We meet Jesus in the wilderness immediately after his baptism in the Jordan River where he was declared God’s beloved Son.

Often, when we hear the story of Jesus being tested, we focus on the temptations themselves or who the devil or Satan is in this story, but today, I want to focus on Jesus’ response. 

Again and again, Jesus refuses to believe the lies or tricks of the tempter, and responds, “It is written” as he rebuffs the devil with words that have been given to him by God.

He isn’t carrying a pocket Old Testament or a Bible app on a smartphone. He knows the words because they are written on his heart.

Jesus rejects sin – that which is not of God – and instead responds to temptation with Scripture and faithful obedience to God.

In Judaism, there is a prayer that is practiced every morning and every night. It’s found in Deuteronomy 6, and it begins with the command,

“Hear, O Israel”!

The prayer is,

⁴ HEAR O Israel. The Lord is our God. The Lord is one. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your HEART and with all your SOUL and with all your STRENGTH.

It begins with the Hebrew word “Shema”

– “Hear” or “Listen” -

and then after describing how we are to love God,

the text continues,

urging God’s people to write God’s words not only in holy books,

but on our hearts.

But that’s not all.

In Hebrew, there isn’t a different word for “Obey”.

In SHEMA, hearing, listening and obedience are all related.

In the same way, our practice of

hearing God’s Word,

listening to God’s commands and promises, and

being obedient to God,

are all integrated into our lives of faith.

 

When Adam and Eve are tested and offered the deceptive chance to become like God with the knowledge of good and evil,

they choose to distrust God’s Word - what they had heard –

and be disobedient. And they were separated from God.

In his response to temptation and the tests that he faces,

Jesus embodies faithfulness,

choosing God

instead of acting outside of what God wants and promises.

In his confrontation with the lies the tempter offers,

Jesus shows us how we are to respond

 

by virtue of our baptism,

when we were named beloved children of God,

and made righteous – in right standing with God –

by the gift of the Holy Spirit,

 

and by virtue of our faith in Jesus

whose obedience, all the way to the cross,

is stronger than Adam’s disobedience and failure.

 

We are to choose God,

to submit to what God wants,

and to humbly trust in God’s future for us.

Amen.

Images from from The Bible Project https://bibleproject.com/videos/shema-listen/

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 21:5-19 

I don’t know why, but I was surprised when I went to the grocery store last week and there were candy canes and Christmas decorations. Halloween was two weeks ago and seemingly overnight, while the trick or treaters were sprawled on the living room floors at home, trading for their favorite sweets,

the stores got ready for Christmas,

bypassing the whole month of November,

when the focus is on gratitude and giving thanks for the abundant life we have.

So, in today’s gospel, when I heard Jesus admonish his followers, “Beware that you are not led astray” I heard a warning, urging us not to get swept up in worldly distractions. Don’t get distracted by the bright lights, the tinsel and the ornaments; they’re beautiful and festive, but they are not our focus.  

Let’s remember where we are in Luke’s gospel. In the previous chapter, the religious leaders questioned Jesus’ authority and Jesus responded, calling out the teachers who “devour widows’ houses” (20:47).  

This chapter began with a scene where we witnessed a widow offering “all she had to live on” (21:4) And then Jesus rebuffed the Sadducees when they tried to trap him with a question about the resurrection.

Jesus has been telling his followers how the systems and institutions are imperfect and demonstrating how they exploit some of their most vulnerable neighbors, and still, here, in today’s gospel, when the disciples and he are outside the temple, they are gushing about its rich façade and splendor, impressed by the temple’s grandeur and outward appearance.

And instead of echoing their praise,

Jesus tells them it’s all about to fall and be destroyed.

We can imagine their shock and surprise.

Their panic.

The urgency they may have felt to stop what now appeared inevitable. 

Just as Jesus’ announcement may have prompted panic and urgency in his audience, today’s news and headlines often carry a “drumbeat of finality” that appears to demand an immediate response.[i]

It’s not a new experience.

Twentieth century theologian and author Howard Thurman told a story about Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth that went back to the early 1850s.[ii]

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery around 1818 in Maryland. He escaped in 1838 and eventually made his way to New York. He became a famous orator, writer and statesman.[iii]

Born into slavery in 1797 as Isabella Bomfree, Truth’s freedom was bought in 1827. By the early 1830s, she participated in the religious revivals that were sweeping the state and became a charismatic speaker. In 1843, she declared that the Spirit called on her to preach the truth, renaming herself Sojourner Truth.[iv]

A year after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had emboldened slave catchers and abolitionists were filled with despair, Douglass addressed an antislavery meeting. He delivered a bleak and somber assessment and wondered aloud whether there was any hope left for justice. It was at this point that Sojourner Truth, sitting in the audience rose and called out,

“Frederick, is God gone?”[v]

I believe that, like Sojourner Truth in her question to Frederick Douglass, Jesus is calling us back to the center,

helping us focus on God’s kingdom among us,

on what God is doing in the world with us and through us.

Our world is hurting.

There are real problems that should concern us and that as Christians we are called to respond to with compassion and love.

But we do not despair.

Lutheran pastor Kendra Mohn writes,

There is really no such thing as getting through unscathed. The question is how people of faith are to respond, and where we find our refuge.[vi]

In his essay titled “Every Day is not the Last Day”, pastor and executive director of The Ministry Collaborative, Mark Ramsey asks the question we wrestle with in tumultuous times:

How do faith communities hold both urgency and patience, responding to real crises without succumbing to perpetual crisis mode?[vii]

Jesus says that the temple’s destruction and all that will come before and after, will give the people “an opportunity to testify.” (v. 15) The word “testimony” means telling what we have seen.

It is bearing witness to our experience.

And before we can express our doubts about our eloquence or whether our words will matter, Jesus also says,

“I will give you words and a wisdom” (v. 16)

In these circumstances, our testimony will be inspired or given to us by God.

Remember that Luke’s gospel was written after the actual fall of the temple, so rather than hearing these words as harbingers of what is coming, Jesus is saying these things to help us understand what has happened, to make meaning of things that seem to defy reason and understanding.

Wesleyan minister Patrick Oden writes:

The destruction was not evidence of God’s rejection and disfavor. Rather, it was the fulfillment of God’s plan… What might bring terror should result instead in trust: Jesus said these things would happen.[viii]

That is Good News!

Martin Luther is often quoted as saying, “Even if I knew the world were going to end tomorrow, I would still plant an apple tree today.” Although the words haven’t been found in his writings or those of his peers, they nonetheless bear witness to the hopefulness that endures in our faith.

Ramsey, again, encourages us to “[act] with steady confidence that tomorrow is coming, and it will need faithful people who built wisely today.”[ix]

I wonder, how God might be inviting you to hope, beyond what your eyes see?

How will you give testimony or bear witness to God’s transforming presence and love in your life?

Even as we recognize challenges in our congregation, community and world, we also have opportunities to respond with compassion and love.

To have a holy imagination for what God is doing in our lives and through our words and actions.

And to sustain our hope because even when the news is bad, or things feel like they are falling apart,

God’s steadfast love for us will not go away.

Thanks be to God.

[i] Mark Ramsey, The Ministry Collective.

[ii] ibid

[iii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass

[iv] https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sojourner-truth

[v] Ramsey, ibid.

[vi] Kendra A. Mohn, workingpreacher.org

[vii] Ramsey, ibid.

[viii] Patrick Oden. Connections: A Lectionary Commentary Series. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2019.

[ix] Ramsey, ibid.

Vigésimo Segundo Domingo despues de Pentecostés

I first preached this sermon in Spanish; the English translation is below.

Lucas 20:27-38

Oremos… Que las palabras de mi boca y las meditaciones de nuestros corazones sean agradables a tus ojos, Señor, nuestra fortaleza y nuestro redentor. Amén.

Leyendo el evangelio de hoy, tan pronto después de la temporada de Halloween, con casas embrujadas y sustos, me dan ganas de gritar:

“¡Es una trampa!”,

para advertir a Jesús que se aleje de los saduceos.

Los saduceos eran líderes religiosos que se aferraban a la Torá —los primeros cinco libros de la Biblia— y no creían en la resurrección. Sin embargo, aquí le preguntan a Jesús sobre la resurrección.

No están haciendo preguntas porque quieran aprender de él; en realidad, le preguntan para tenderle una trampa y que diga algo con lo que puedan contradecirlo y desacreditarlo.

Cuando Martín Lutero escribió su catecismo, solía presentar una idea y luego preguntaba: “¿Qué significa esto?”. Eso es lo que hace Jesús aquí. Básicamente les dice a los saduceos: “Muy bien, si quieren hablar de la resurrección, esto es lo que significa”.

Jesús no cae en su trampa. En cambio, utiliza una historia del Éxodo,

de la Torá,

de las Escrituras que los saduceos afirman como autoridad.

Jesús les recuerda que cuando Moisés se encontró con la zarza ardiente, oyó la voz de Dios, y Dios dijo: “Yo soy el Dios de tu padre, el Dios de Abraham, el Dios de Isaac y el Dios de Jacob” (Éxodo 3:6). En el evangelio, Jesús argumenta que Dios no habría incluido a Abraham, Isaac y Jacob, todos muertos, a menos que estuvieran vivos para Dios (Stoffregen). Nuestra lectura termina con Jesús diciendo: “Él no es Dios de muertos, sino de vivos, porque para él todos viven” (20:38).

La promesa de la resurrección es que resucitaremos a una nueva vida en Cristo después de la muerte. Será una plenitud de vida que no podemos comprender con términos o ideas terrenales, lo cual es una de las razones por las que la pregunta que le hicieron a Jesús es tan absurda.

Al leer el Evangelio tan pronto después del fin de semana pasado, con motivo del Día de Todos los Santos, el Día de los Fieles Difuntos y el Día de los Muertos, soy muy consciente del vínculo especial que existe entre nuestras vidas y las de nuestros seres queridos que nos precedieron. Estos vínculos especiales son aquellos lugares donde podemos reconocer con mayor facilidad lo sagrado en nuestras vidas. A veces son lugares físicos, como la comunidad de Iona en Escocia, o un laberinto de oración. Pero creo que otras veces son momentos, lugares en el tiempo, como hoy, que celebramos el bautizo de Isael Andrés Solano.

Hoy estamos reunidos con todos los santos, incluyendo a su abuela Ana y a su bisabuelo Salatiel.

Esa es una de las imágenes que más valor del Día de los Muertos: que los santos de todos los tiempos anteriores están reunidos con nosotros. Juntos celebramos el don de la fe que Isael recibe de Dios, y nos regocijamos de que su fe, sembrada por sus antepasados, crezca aquí en nuestra comunidad, con sus padres, padrinos, familia, amigos y la Iglesia.

Al hacer promesas a Isael, a Josué y a Lilliana, reafirmamos nuestro compromiso de ser una comunidad que da vida, donde la fe está viva y se manifiesta en el amor.

¡Gracias a Dios!

Luke 20:27-38

Reading today’s gospel so soon after “spooky season” with haunted houses and scary tricks, I want to scream, “It’s a trap!”,

to warn Jesus away from the Sadducees.

The Sadducees were religious leaders who adhered to the Torah – the first five books of the Bible – and did not believe in the resurrection. And yet, here, they ask Jesus a question about the resurrection.

They aren’t asking questions because they want to learn from him; instead, they are asking trying to trap Jesus into saying something so they can disagree with him and discredit him.

When Martin Luther wrote his catechism, he would introduce an idea and then he would ask, “What does this mean?” That’s what Jesus does here. Basically he says to the Sadducees, “Okay, if you want to talk about the resurrection, this is what it means.”

Jesus doesn’t fall into their trap. Instead, he uses a story from Exodus,

from the Torah,

from the Scripture the Sadducees affirm.

Jesus reminds them that when Moses encountered the burning bush, he heard God speak, and God said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Exodus 3:6) In the gospel, Jesus argues that God wouldn’t have included Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, all of whom had died, unless they were alive to God. (Stoffregen) Our reading ends with Jesus saying, “he is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.” (20:38)

The resurrection promise is that we will be raised to new life in Christ after death. It will be a fullness of life that we cannot understand in earthly terms or ideas, which is one of the reasons why the question asked of Jesus is so absurd.

Reading the gospel so soon after last weekend’s All Saints Day, All Souls Day and Día de los Muertos, I am keenly aware of the “thin place” between our lives and the beloved people who lived before us. Thin places are those places where we can more readily recognize the holy in our lives. Sometimes they are physical places, like the community of Iona in Scotland, or a prayer labyrinth. But I think other times they are moments, places in time, like today, when we are celebrating the baptism of Isael Andres Solano.

Today, we are gathered with all the saints, including his grandmother Ana and his great-grandfather Salatiel. That is one of the images I cherish from Día de los Muertos; that the saints from all the times before us are gathered with us. Together we celebrate the gift of faith that Isael is receiving from God, and we rejoice that his faith, planted by his ancestors, will be nurtured here in our community, with his parents, godparents, family and friends and the church.

As we make promises to Isael and to Josue and Lilliana, we are affirming our commitment to be a life-giving community where faith is alive and active in love.

Thanks be to God.

"Living as the Beloved" Midweek Reflection (Week 7)

John 21:15-19

Colossians 3:12-17

The final chapter of Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved is where we discover the challenge of both living in the world and claiming the gift of God naming us “beloved.”

God sends each of us, wholly beloved by God, into the world and our lives becomes witnesses to God’s mighty works in and through us.

Not because of what we do,

but because of God who loves us and claims us as God’s own.

Because of God who equips us and sends us out.

God doesn’t only call us Beloved, God also asks, “Do You love me?”

And, like Peter in John’s gospel, we get to say,
“Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Nouwen writes, “…life is a God-given opportunity to become who we are…to say “Yes” to the One who calls us the Beloved.” (133)

That is the spiritual life that we are called to,
a life to which, as we hear in Luther’s explanation of the third article of the creed, “the Holy Spirit has called [us] by the Gospel, enlightened [us] with His gifts, sanctified and kept [us] in the true faith.”

Nouwen reminds us that “The Spirit of God, the Spirit that calls us the Beloved, is the Spirit that unites and makes whole.” And that we can recognize God’s Spirit in “moments of unification, healing, restoration, and reconciliation.” (135)

Living as the Beloved then is choosing the life of God’s Spirit each day and listening to that voice that calls me the Beloved. (139)

Reformation Sunday 2025

John 8:31-36

Let us pray…
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
 
Like the Israelites listening to Jesus in John’s gospel, many of us might balk at the notion that we ever have been, or are now, enslaved. Like them, we have short memories.
 
I say that because we often begin our worship with the rite of confession and forgiveness, saying to God, “we confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.” We name how sinfulness is the very nature of our human condition. And then we forget.
 
God doesn’t forget, but thankfully, God does not leave us there in the muck and mire of our sin. Because God loves us, God forgives our sin and frees us from bondage. It is completely God’s action for each of us, and it is pure gift.
 
Until we understand the size or volume of our sin, we cannot grasp the magnitude of God’s action for us. We fall back into thinking we need to believe more, do more and earn God’s favor.
 
Unless we accept that the cross upends the way we think the world should work, we will continue to underestimate what our freedom in Christ means for us, and for our neighbors.
 
Because freed from sin,
slaves to no one and to nothing,
we are called to be servants to all.
I often say faith is never only about me and Jesus. It is always a cross shaped relationship, between God and us, and between us and our neighbors, community and world.
 
Which brings me to my question for us today as we remember Luther’s teaching and the movement of the Reformation more than five hundred years ago:
“What does faith free us to do that we cannot do alone?”
 
Faith frees us from fear. One of the stories we hear about Martin Luther is how his understanding of who God is was transformed by his reading of Scripture. When he studied St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, his image of a vengeful and punishing God was replaced by a God of mercy and grace whose awesome gift for us is the righteousness of God flowing to us that brings us into God’s presence. We are to “love and fear God” not because God is wrathful but because God’s grace is beyond our comprehension.
 
Faith frees us to follow God’s will, keeping Christ at the center of our lives. When we accept our chosen-ness by God, and God’s abundant love for us, we can stop competing for approval in the world and its terms. We can, like Luther, stand up and boldly claim, “I am a baptized child of God” with confidence that God is with us in all of the ups and downs we experience. Abundant life in Christ is found in relationship.
 
Faith frees us to stand with our neighbors. At Grace we have a history of more than four decades of showing up in our community, partnering with ministries who provide food, shelter and assistance to people living without basic needs. In any given week, you can see Grace members volunteering at the Rescue Mission, at Interfaith Assistance Ministries, the Thrive Clubhouse, and Habitat for Humanity, as well as at Safelight, the Storehouse and the Free Clinics. In the book study we just wrapped up, we heard stories from the global church where faith has empowered communities to build schools, to provide health education and prevent diseases like malaria and to work across ecumenical and even interfaith divisions to address needs. Faith says that none of us are whole unless all of us are whole, and when one suffers, we all suffer. Faith frees us to love selflessly.
 
Today as we celebrate the freedom given to us in our faith in Christ Jesus, we are also celebrating the affirmation of baptism milestone for Dustin and Kaylee, young adults whose faith has been nurtured and formed here in our congregation and by their family. They completed their confirmation instruction but had not yet participated in the milestone and expressed a desire to do that.
 
On this Reformation Sunday, let us celebrate that we are joined together in faith and commit to living in the freedom faith gives us for the sake of the world God loves.
 
Amen.

"Given" Midweek Reflection (Week 6)

Mark 14:22

John 12:24-26

Throughout our study of Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved, we have been learning how to receive the gift of God naming us “beloved.”

Nouwen uses four words to describe the movement of the Spirit among us: taken or chosen, blessed, broken, and given. Tonight, my reflection is focused on this last word: given.

When I introduced these words, I shared that they echo the words used when we describe the Eucharist. At the Table, the bread - that is the Body of Christ - is taken, blessed, broken and given. And in our Christian lives, where we too are a part of the Body of Christ,
we are given.

Nouwen writes about the joy found in giving our lives and ourselves to others, saying that “our lives find fulfillment in giving ourselves to others.” (108) And not only fulfillment, but Nouwen says, “true joy, happiness, and inner peace.” (109)

He emphasizes that he is not talking about giving from what we have, or even what we can do, but making a gift of our presence.

When the North Carolina Synod had our leaders’ convocation last week, the keynote speaker told the story of having spent a year in Ethiopia where she learned to prioritize relationships over timetables and schedules. If she encountered a student on her way to class, they stopped and visited, and if that made her late, that was a cost she was willing to pay. It sounds foreign to many of us who may have heard as children, “If you arrive on time, you’re already late.”

But what would happen if we decided to prioritize our relationships ahead of the next task, appointment or meeting? What if we live as if we believe our presence is a gift, and the person in front of us is the recipient?

Nouwen writes, “When I ask myself, “Who helps me the most?” I must answer, “The one who is willing to share his or her life with me.” (113)

The second point Nouwen makes is that not only are our lives gifts, but also our deaths. It’s a startling claim at first, but he illustrates his point with the example of St. Francis, whose influence continues more than eight centuries after his death. “His life goes on bearing new fruit around the world. His spirit keeps descending upon us.” (121)

Listening to Nouwen and to John’s gospel, we are reminded that the fruitfulness of our own lives, the harvest of the fruit we bear, will likely be realized after our deaths.

Could we trust that our gifts are multiplied when we give them away? (123)

Like Elisha giving twenty loaves of barley to a crowd of more than one hundred and then gathering the leftovers (2 Kings 4:42-44) or the feeding of the five thousand that we hear in all four gospels (Matthew 14:13–21; Mark 6:31–44; Luke 9:12–17; John 6:1–14), God multiplies and God uses what we offer.

May we respond to the call to give ourselves for the sake of the world around us, and to give joyfully, without reluctance or hesitation.