Affirmation of Baptism Sermon

Confirmation: What Was That About?

Pr. Paul Cannon

John 15

 

Grace and Peace Bethany Lutheran!

And to all of you who are about to complete your Confirmation experience.  Congratulations!

For many of you, this has been a long and confusing two years.  Over your time, we’ve tried to teach each one of you what Lutheranism is about – what Christianity is all about.  So we’ve talked about the Apostle’s Creed.  We’ve talked about the Lord’s Prayer.  We went over the ten commandments and talked about Baptism and Communion.

And I’m sure that we veered off on quite a few tangents as well. 

In fact, some of my favorite time that I spent with all of you was when we went off on a tangent, talking about the things that you wanted to talk about in our small groups. 

I would be talking about the Lord’s prayer, when somebody like Jarrett would raise his hand and ask some great question like “Can Muslim’s go to heaven?” or Luke would raise his hand and ask how dinosaurs fit into the creation story. And then we would be off on that seemingly random topic for the rest of the class. 

It’s funny because most of the time, when you brought up these excellent questions, I would throw it back at you and say, “Well, what do you think?” I know – not very helpful.  But that question is my favorite question to ask whenever I have a group of kids like you all, because more often than not, you all give as good of an answer as I could. 

Even though you might not have known it, you were being theologians. And we have a lot of different types of theologians in the group. Robbie would raise his hand to say something and then Ethan or Morgan would raise their hands with a different perspective. 

I loved to hear the diversity of opinions you all would share. You asked really good questions – about God, and life and how everything fits together.  You became Theologians.  You talked about God and wrestled with your faith and what it means to you.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that you’re experts.  If you are like me, you take a test or you write an essay and immediately afterwards forget every that you just learned.   Can anybody tell me what the parts of the Old Testament are?  I didn’t think so!

So I’m sure that some of you are now wondering after two years, with all that learning slipping away already – you’re wondering what this whole Confirmation thing has been about.  Why did you go to classes every single Wednesday night for two years?  What were you supposed to get out of all that?

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Confirmation is the process of making something ridiculously simple – really complex.  Because I can pretty much sum up everything that we learned into one word.  All those theological discussions,  all the tests and essays that I had you write – all the sermon notes that you took and service hours that you put in can be summed up in one little word – Love.

In fact, the student who summed it up the best in his faith statement was Caleb Smith who wrote simply “I believe that God loves everybody.” 

If that is the one thing that you get out of Confirmation – that God loves everybody – then I will be a happy pastor.  That’s why I chose our Gospel text from the book John today, because Jesus says it straight out, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” 

Love is a simple word – that is amazingly hard to do sometimes. When you see the sinner come out of somebody, and they hurt your feelings, it makes it hard to see the lovable saint.

And I’m proud to say that I’ve seen glimpses of the saint in each one of them as they have learned to love their neighbor and love God. Not perfectly – the way that Jesus has loved us – but in fits and starts.  In the last year I’ve spent with these students, I’ve seen glimpses of them learning to love like God loves.

That’s why we want to have all our kids go to camp.  Most of them arrive not knowing each other (let alone loving each other), but by the end of the week they are exchanging phone numbers. When we took kids to Lutherdale over the summer, it wasn’t so much about getting on the high ropes course, or doing the Bible Studies or even playing gaga ball - it was about our kids learning to love each other.

And we saw that!  Kendall, Sarah, Logan, Caleb and Tyler might not choose to use the L word – because they would call it awkward – but they were figuring out how to love each other - How to live in a community - What friendship really means.

And even more than that, these kids learned to love through serving their community and their church.  Meghan, Jarrett, Chase and William have all been spending the last few weeks as helpers for our Sunday School program as a part of their confirmation project.  And I know the teachers love having them as much as the kids love having them to look up to.

Then there is Ryan and Nathaniel who sewed together a few dozen backpacks and filled them with school supplies for kids half-way across the world.  That’s loving your neighbor without even knowing who they are!

In class, the students learn that all of us, are 100% sinners.  And yes, at times all of you have done your fair share of it.  But they also learned that through the loving act of Jesus on the cross, a gift of grace given to us through baptism, we are also 100% saints. 

It’s one of Martin Luther’s famous paradoxes.  And while it’s easy to look at any person and see the sinner, all these kids that are affirming their baptism, have been proving their sainthood through all the acts of love that they have shown.

What’s it all been about then?  All the rules you have to follow for confirmation, all the sermon notes you had to take and service hours that you have to fulfill – what’s it all been about?

Let me answer that, finally, with Jesus words as we heard in our reading today, “ I am giving you these commands,” he said, “so that you may love one another.”

That’s what it’s all about.

Thanks be to God,

Amen.

Sunday, October 20th - Genesis 32:

On Jacob, Wrestling and Marathons

Pr. Paul Cannon

October 20th, 2013 

Genesis 32 

Grace and Peace Bethany Lutheran!

The first story that we heard today was about a man named Jacob who wrestled with God and walked away with a limp and a blessing. 

After running my first ever half-marathon last weekend, I’ve learned a thing or two about blessings – and yes – a few things about limping as well.

I’ve never really considered myself to be a runner until I recently started to train for this half marathon.  In fact, I never really considered actually signing up for a race of any kind until my twin brother signed up and ran one the year before – which I took as a personal challenge. 

Of course, being a twin, we’re competitive at everything, so even walking to the mailbox together usually turns into a race … so the fact he ran one before me was humiliating.  I’m the older brother (by four minutes)!  I do everything first!  I was born first!

Thus, I convinced Kirstin to sign up for this race thinking “Eh, Neal’s done it.  It can’t be that hard.”

It was.  In fact, it might have been one of the most painful self-inflicted experiences of my life.

I started the race by making the mistake of running with my brother.  He began the race at a breakneck pace, and being the “older” brother, I had to keep up.

I was doing alright for the first 6 miles or so. But then we got to about mile 9, and then 10, and then 11, and my legs started to feel heavy, as if lead weights … that had just been pulled out of a furnace were clamped to my quads.  And in every single step, I could feel my legs burn just a little bit more as each step got progressively heavier.  And not only that, but time itself started to slow down.  Ten seconds of running might as well have been an hour.

Then came the last mile and as I approached the finish line, I kicked it into high gear – sprinting to the end – to the protest of every single muscle in my body, and finally cross the finish line.  And for those of you who are curious, I beat Neal by about 20 seconds…not that it’s important or anything.

And as I slow down, I began to realize that I was literally so tired that I wasn’t able to walk in a straight line!  I could barely stand.  I had to prop myself up against the snack table as I gulped chomped down a half a banana, washing it down with a paper cup full of Powerade. 

This is where the limping comes in. The next day, I was about as physically sore as I’ve ever been in my entire life and of course, that morning we had to load up in the car and drive the 7 hours back home to Illinois. 

Everything was in pain.  My shoulders even hurt!  I didn’t expect that!  On the drive home, everytime we stopped to get out of the car, I’m sure I looked like a wounded animal trying to escape a predator, just dragging one leg behind the other.

Here’s the funny thing though: Now, about a week later, I look back on the whole experience and all I can think is “That was awesome! Running 13 miles was so fun!”  I look back on it like a blessing because somehow, in and through it all, there was something redeeming about the struggle, and coming through the other side with a limp.

And to me, that’s the story of Jacob wrestling with God in a nutshell.

The first reading that we heard from Genesis today is a pivotal story in the Old Testament, but we need to back up a little bit to tell it properly.

Jacob, if you remember, was the grandson of Abraham and the son of Isaac. Some of you might remember that Jacob was a twin (thumbs up) to his brother Esau, but maybe more importantly, he was a conniving trickster.

Earlier in Genesis, as his hungry brother Esau was returning from a long hunt in the woods Jacob first tricks him into trading him his birthright for a bowl of stew. Then the story goes, that Jacob tricked his father Isaac into giving him a blessing meant for Esau.  At this point, Isaac was old and blind, so Jacob dressed up like his brother, put camel hair on his arms, and asked Isaac for his all important, non-refundable blessing.

Esau wasn’t happy about this – in fact he wanted to kill Jacob – and he ends us chasing his brother away into exile.  Years go by, and Jacob gets married, has some kids, and then gets into trouble (again!) with the people whom he was living with. 

So he decides this time to flee back home. Back to the only place that might take him in. Back to the land of his father.  Back to face his brother Esau, who the last time we heard, wanted to kill him. 

And that’s where we pick up in our story today.  Jacob is coming home with is wives and his kids.  He’s understandably a little nervous meeting his brother –when in the middle of the night, as he’s all alone, a strange man appears and starts to wrestle with him. 

I know that spontaneous wrestling sounds strange to some of you … who have never lived with brothers before, but I assure you, it happens all the time.

Regardless, we don’t know why they start wrestling, but they do.  They wrestle all night long, until the sun is about to come up. Then this God/angel person, or whoever it is, injures Jacob’s hip socket to slow him down, but it doesn’t work! Jacob refuses to quit.

So this wrestler, who we now presume is God, says to Jacob “Let me go, the sun is about to come up.”

In typical Jacob fashion, not only does he keep wrestling – but he sees an opportunity.  And Jacob says to God “I will not let you go until you bless me.”  I will not let you go. He’s like the little kid who clings onto your leg when you’re trying to walk.  He demands that this wrestler give him a blessing or he won’t let go!

So God asks Jacob, “What is your name?” And he tells him “Jacob.”  And God does something curious. He says, “No, it’s not.  Not anymore.  From now on, your name isn’t going to be Jacob – your name is Israel – because you have struggled with God and with humans, and have overcome.”

From that point on, Jacob becomes synonymous with Israel.  From that day, Jacob takes on the identity of the entire nation that was promised to his grandfather Abraham.

This story is one of the most talked about texts in the Bible and there is a lot of things that we could say about it.   It’s vague enough to be open to a lot of different interpretations and it lends itself to becoming a metaphor for faith.  Maybe you’ve heard people use the phrase “wrestling with God” before, and now you know where it comes from.

But the most interesting thing to me about this text isn’t that Jacob wrestled with God.  I think that we all wrestle with God at some points of our lives as we all struggle to figure out what this faith thing is really about. 

Even Mother Theresea, in her personal journals, wrote about how at times God felt distant to her, even as she was doing God’s work in India, caring for the sick and impoverished in India.  – We all wrestle with God.

To me, what’s fascinating is that Jacob didn’t walk away from this encounter with God unscathed.  Jacob walked with a limp for the rest of his life.  To me, that’s the most incredible metaphor for what our lives as Christians are like.  That when we encounter the living and breathing God – we don’t walk away unscathed. 

When we truly pursue God, it affects the way we walk. It affects the way we breathe.  It affects the way we live.   Encountering God isn’t always about traveling up to the mountain top and have an ecstatic experience of love.  Encountering God can leave us deeply affected.  Maybe even disturbed. Limping.

That’s the opposite of the popular image of God that we have in today’s age and in today’s culture.  When there are preachers out there who preach a prosperity gospel – a word that says that if you pray hard enough, God will make you rich, happy and healthy.  This story about Jacob wrestling with God says a different word. Jacob comes away limping.

But he doesn’t come away empty handed.  Jacob receives a blessing from God.  He receives a new name.  God calls him Israel.  It’s a new identity for a man who has been run out of town in the last two places he’s lived.  It’s a fresh start.  It’s grace.  It’s forgiveness for Jacob’s shady past.

And through Jesus, we receive these same blessings daily. When you wrestle with the resurrected Jesus, he won’t let you leave untouched by grace. A grace that changes who you are and how you walk.  Encountering Jesus will affect the way you breathe and the way you interact with your neighbors and your friends.

The Christian story, and in particular our Lutheran understanding of Christianity, points us to a God who meets us when we’re down and out, like Jacob was, and brings us a word of grace.

It’s a word about God’s character – a God who struggles for you.  A God who died on a cross and came out on the other side resurrected as a blessing for the entire world. 

That’s where we find our blessing as Christians.  When we encounter the risen Christ in the bread, the wine and the water, we too receive those blessings given to Jacob.  We receive a new name “Child of God.” We receive a fresh start. We receive grace.  We receive forgiveness.

And we too limp away with a blessing.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Reformation Day Sermon: Sunday, October 27, 2013

Reformation Day Sermon: October 27, 2013

PREACHER: Pastor Carrie Smith

Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Yesterday, I was in Chicago for the wedding of a dear friend. At the reception, I mentioned that I would be going home soon to finish my sermon for Reformation Sunday. There were a few blank stares from the non-clergy in the room. “You know, Reformation Day,” I said, “It’s kind of a big deal.”

One friend-- an Episcopal priest—responded: “Preaching on Reformation Day shouldn’t be too hard! I mean, isn’t it just “Grace, Luther, Bible, Beer, and repeat?” Another clergy friend helpfully offered, “The best sermon ever is ‘God loves you—pay attention—Amen.’”

To which Luther might respond: “This is most certainly true!”

But this is indeed Reformation Sunday, and it is kind of a big deal for Christians in the Lutheran tradition. This is the day we remember how, on October 31, 1517, a priest named Martin Luther posted 95 talking points (we call them the 95 Theses) on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. He posted them to start a conversation, and instead started a movement. Luther’s ideas, combined with the invention of the printing press and the advent of general unease with the excesses of the church across Europe, resulted in what is known as the Reformation. We, who call ourselves Lutherans, are Christians whose ways of worshipping, reading the Bible, and structuring ourselves as a church, spring directly from this period in history. We are a Reformation church, still proclaiming 500 years later “ecclesia semper reformanda est”—the church is always to be reformed. Amen!

I love Reformation Day, and not just because we get to sing “A Mighty Fortress” and hang the Luther Rose banner and witness fifteen of our young people affirming their baptisms at this afternoon’s Confirmation service. I love Reformation Day because it’s an opportunity to preach, loud and proud, about God’s gift of grace. This is the day when I get to stand here and say, along with the author of Romans: “There is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift”; and again, “We hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law”; and, with John’s Gospel, I get to proclaim to all my brothers and sisters in Christ, ““If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free!”

Sisters and brothers, say it with me: Grace alone, Faith alone, Word alone.

As a church of the Reformation we proclaim that we are saved by grace alone, faith alone, and Word alone. This is the saving truth that changed Martin Luther’s life and began a reforming movement within the Christian church: that no human being is made right with God by being good or following the rules, but that we are good and acceptable and worthy of being loved because God said so. In fact, God’s opinion on the subject of you and your worthiness is made clear on the cross, where our brother Jesus, Son of God, willingly gave his life for the sake of the world. This is grace, given as a gift, and revealed to us again and again through the Word. Jesus said, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Amen!

But the truth revealed to us through the Holy Scriptures is just so good we can hardly believe it! The gift of grace is so beautiful, so bountiful, and so boundless that we spend our lives making up rules, laws, excuses and exceptions to explain it away.

It’s like this: Do you know that annoying commercial that comes on every year (In fact, starting in about a week…) where the husband goes out to get the morning paper and finds a luxury car sitting in the driveway with a giant bow on top? Or maybe you know the one where the wife goes to get an ornament off the Christmas tree and finds a diamond ring? Or, most annoying of all, the one where the kids come downstairs to find a perfectly adorable puppy under the tree with a set of tickets to Disneyland in its mouth? 

Are you with me? Well, I hate those commercials. I hate what they do to our brains and hearts, how they change our expectations of Christmas and gift-giving. I hate them because then, on Christmas or a birthday, when we present our friends and family a lovingly knitted scarf or a carefully chosen sweater or whatever other gift we can truly afford to give, somewhere in the back of our minds we are thinking “It should have been a puppy. Or a car. Or a car with a puppy in it.”

These commercials are crazy, and especially crazy is the way they undermine our appreciation of every reasonable, thoughtful, and true gift given or received in love.

But here’s the thing: what we do with God’s grace is the exact opposite. God has already given us the gift to beat all gifts. God has given us the luxury car with the bow, complete with the puppy in the front seat and carrying the tickets to Disneyland, and what we say is “Dear God, thank you SO much for the new car floor mats. They’re just what I wanted.”

Can’t you just hear God saying, “Wait, what? Didn’t you see the car? And the puppy? And the Disney tickets?”

And we just respond, “Well, I saw all that, but I didn’t think that was for ME.”

Friends, God has given the world this amazing gift of grace for all through the cross of Jesus Christ, and we look right at it and say “Thanks for loving all the good people, God.” We even read it in Scripture and don’t believe it. We think “Yeah, it says that, but that can’t be for ME.” 

So we make up our own rules:

“God loves everyone: but I can’t kick that addiction, so I’m the exception. Jesus is present in the bread and wine: but I’m not sure how that works, so he must not be there for me. Jesus died to save the world: except for my neighbor, because he’s a real jerk. I know grace is free: but I’m gonna earn it, gosh darn it.”

But friends, on this day of all days we can remember that Martin Luther (along with so many others) has already been down that road. He struggled with those same questions and tried to follow those same rules and even made up a few of his own. But it was through diligent prayer and study of Scripture that he was convinced of the magnitude of God’s gift of grace. He was so convinced that he stood in front of princes and church authorities to say, “Here I stand!” I cannot and will not take it back! For this Good News is just too good to ignore. It’s too good to hide. It’s too good not to share.

Theologian and food writer Robert Farrar Capon, who passed away just a few weeks ago, said this about the Reformation:

“The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar full of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two-hundred proof Grace–bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the Gospel–after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your bootstraps–suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started…Grace has to be drunk straight: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale; neither goodness, nor badness, not the flowers that bloom in the spring of super spirituality could be allowed to enter into the case.”

 (― Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon & Three: Romance, Law & the Outrage of Grace)

Sisters and brothers, my message to you this morning is that being Lutheran has nothing to do with Jello or casseroles or upper-midwestern culture. It actually has nothing to do with beer, either! Our understanding of God’s grace is the true gift and heritage of the reformation. We are Lutherans when we live into that grace. We are evangelical Lutherans when we share it with others! And we are truly free when we can look at ourselves and say “I’m not perfect, but I’m enough, because I am loved by God. Jesus has it covered. And this truth sets me free! I am free to love, free to live, free to appreciate each day I am given. I am free to drink deeply from the never-ending well of grace, and to bring others who are thirsty to the same waters. For if the Son sets me free, I am free indeed!

Today, on this Reformation Day, we gather to receive again God’s gift of grace through Jesus Christ. Together, we sing God’s praise, and pray that the gift of grace would continue to be a reforming presence in our lives, in the church, and in the world. This is what it means to be a Reformation people. This is what it is to be a Lutheran. This is most certainly true. Amen.

Sermon for Global Church Sunday: October 6, 2013

 Sermon for Global Church Sunday

October 6, 2013

PREACHER: The Rev. Dr. Robert Smith from ELCA Global Mission

Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ!

It is a pleasure to be with you today to celebrate Global Church Sunday. As Christians in the United States, we are strengthened by our engagement with sisters and brothers in Christ around the globe. Since its beginning 25 years ago, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has constantly sought to answer God’s call to participate in God’s mission of reconciliation and to touch people’s lives to promote the flourishing of human community.

With the 10,000 congregations in the ELCA, Bethany Lutheran has been responding to that call. 2013 marks the tenth anniversary of Bethany's relationship with the Kiutu Parish in Tanzania. This relationship has deeply enriched the lives of both communities, mutually building our capacities to participate in God’s mission of reconciliation.

 

Pastors from the ELCT prepare for the worship service honoring the 50th anniversary of the church. Photo by H. Martinussen, LWF Learn more here: 50th anniversary

I am privileged to serve in the Global Mission unit of the ELCA’s churchwide organization. Part of our responsibility is to maintain the church-to-church relationship between the ELCA and Christian companion churches throughout the world. Another focus is to build the capacities of congregations and synods to best accompany parishes and churches outside the United States.

So what is this all about then? Why do we work so hard to establish and maintain relationships with congregations and churches across time zones and continents? Is it all about charity and sharing the best of what we have with less fortunate people? And if that’s the point, don’t we have enough to do here at home?

For me and for the ELCA as a whole, the answer is simple: the God we are called to serve is a God of relationships. The Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is a God of everlasting and essential relationships. Through the Good News of Jesus Christ, this God calls us into relationship with the very being of God, catching us up into divine reality. But it is not just for us alone. Our divine parent calls the entire world into loving and reconciling relationship, making all of us into sisters and brothers. The God we serve is a God of relationships.

The Bible uses several images to describe our relationship with other believers. Hebrews says that we are connected with all saints past and present in a “great cloud of witnesses.” Paul makes it even more intimate, saying that we are all part of the same body, the Body of Christ. Just as God exists in intimately connected relationship, Paul reminds us that “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it” (1 Cor. 12.26).

Our bond is most apparent in Holy Baptism. Today [at the 10:45 service], Oliver and Jordyn are being baptized. In this sacrament, Oliver and Jordyn will be joined both to the death and resurrection of Jesus and to the global Body of Christ. Our God is a God of relationships!

Most of you probably know me as Pastor Carrie’s Husband. You may not know what I do outside the home. I’m a pastor in the ELCA serving in ELCA Global Mission as Area Secretary for the Middle East and North Africa. You might want to know what in the world that means! In short, it means I am responsible for maintaining ELCA relationships in the Middle East as well as supervising our mission personnel serving in the region, including Danae and Steve Hudson in Jerusalem, who are sponsored by this congregation.

In addition to that primary role, I work closely with colleagues in the Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches. All of this means I have become intimately involved in the lives of Arab and Middle Eastern Christians, especially in recent years as they have experienced the deep optimism and deep disappointments of the so-called Arab Spring.

But I am not the only member of this congregation involved in our denomination’s global work. We are blessed to have Bishop Emeritus Rafael Malpica Padilla, Executive Director for ELCA Global Mission, along with the entire Malpica family, as long-term members of Bethany. The global reach of Bethany Lutheran is extended and deepened through Rafael’s life and work.

All of this is important for you to know since your offering dollars directly support the work Rafael and I do on your behalf. When Rafael is hosting international guests for yesterday’s installation of PresidingBishop Elizabeth Eaton or visiting church leaders in Papua New Guinea with our colleague Franklin Ishida, or when I am in Geneva meeting with Christian leaders from Iraq, Bethany Lutheran Church is present. Our God is a God of relationships!

 

Rafael and Franklin on their most recent trip to Papua New Guinea

Now, through the 25^th Anniversary Campaign of the ELCA, congregations have the opportunity to participate even more directly in global work. In the Global Church section of the campaign, we have the opportunity to identify and support women leaders around the world, to help establish a new Lutheran church in the new country of South Sudan, and (my personal favorite!) help build the capacity for religious education among Protestant Christians throughout the Middle East.

Our God is a God of relationships. Ideally, our global relationships are informed by the call to shared suffering and rejoicing with fellow members of the Body of Christ. As we experience together the radical hospitality of Jesus, we accompany one another in the journey of discipleship. While our communities may experience different needs in different ways, we are not defined by what we lack but by the riches we have in Christ Jesus. In my work with Christians around the world, I have found tremendous riches in the midst of what most of us would describe as profound need.

In Russia, I have sat with Lutheran Christians still struggling to overcome the effects of Communism. The Cathedral in St. Petersburg was converted into a competition diving pool, but the community is persevering throughout Russia’s vast land.

Slovak and Hungarian Lutherans experienced Communism as well, but remember just as well the difficulties of the counter-Reformation and Ottoman occupation. Today, they are joining efforts throughout Europe to stand up for the civil rights of their Roma neighbors, a persecuted group still known by some as Gypsies. Remembering their own experiences of oppression, they are lending their voice to those who have no voice. Our God is a God of relationships!

In Palestine, I have seen how the Evangelical Lutheran Churchin Jordan and the Holy Land—by their own admission a poor church, a small church—provides a powerful witness for the wellbeing of all communities trapped by political conflicts. I have seen Palestinian Lutherans proclaim that creativity will overcome destruction, that relationships will overcome political divides. Our God is a God of relationships!

Our relationships are not only with Lutherans. I am still amazed at the relationship I have developed with His Eminence Jean Kawak, Archbishop for the Syriac Orthodox Church in Damascus. Because of the civil war now tearing the fabric of his country, this church is for the first time in the position of seeking assistance from others. The ELCA has responded to the needs of Syrians with over one million dollars in assistance. But remember what I said about churches possessing profound riches in the midst of great need: the Syriac Church is intensely proud that it is the bearer of one of the most ancient forms of Christian worship: the Liturgy of St. James, the brother of Jesus, chanted in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. In that liturgy, which is very similar to our own, we are joined to all centuries of Christian life. Our God is a God of relationships!

And of course our relationships are not with just Christians alone. In Senegal, the far western tip of Africa, I was privileged to accompany Senegalese Lutherans to a meeting with a Sufi Muslim leader. The Sufi Caliph closed our meeting by saying, “I would love for you to become good Sufi Muslims like us. But since that is not likely to happen, I pray that we will live as cousins every day” and then smiled broadly when the invitation was returned that he could also become a good Lutheran Christian. In a world where US military might is used every day to secure oil to support our lifestyles of excess, we have much to learn from a context where a profound lack of natural resources has led to strong relationships between Muslims and Christians. Our God is a God of relationships!

And then finally, during a conference this past week inWashington, DC, I encountered the strangest Other of them all: the pastoral staff of Willow Creek. Even in my deep suspicion and (I must admit) my envy of mega-church success, I was humbled and inspired by how these faithful leaders were supplementing their traditional pro-Israel commitments with genuine love for followers of Jesus in both Israel and Palestine and committing to political action for peace with justice. We will continue working together. Our God is a God of relationships!

As the prophet Habakkuk saw, “destruction and violence are before” us and our companions. The law has become slack “and justice never prevails.” Our call as members of the Body of Christ is to carry one another’s burdens, so that “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” In this suffering and rejoicing, the ELCA is a global church committed to global relationships since our God is a God of relationships. Amen!