5th Sunday in Lent: March 25, 2012

“Lifted up He Draws Us All ”

Jeremiah 31:31-34 Hebrews 5:5-10 John 12:20-33

PREACHER: Pastor Erik Zingelman

Our gospel reading gives us a reference to how Jesus is to die - he is to be lifted up - he is to die on a cross. It is clear that this is God’s plan - Jesus must die on the cross and in his death and resurrection he will draw all of humankind to himself.

I. “Lifted up he draws us all” to the cross. He confronts us with our sin.

A. Jeremiah’s promise of a new covenant grows out of a judgment on the whole history of Israel. Israel’s total inability to listen and to accept correction becomes the very starting point for Jeremiah’s promise.

B. Lifted up upon the cross, Jesus draws the focus of our attention. He hangs there on the cross because of you and me. It is for our sins that he has died. He has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. He has bridged the gap between God and humankind. The very gap created by our state of sin. He has given us the mirror of the commandments - the first covenant - in which to look at the reflection of our lives. It takes no genius to see that we are no where near the people God created us to be.

II. “Lifted up he draws us all” to himself, to the God who loves us as we are, warts and all, the God who forgives and strengthens us, the God who from the cross makes Jeremiah’s promised new covenant a reality.

A. “...this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”

B. In love our God has paid the terrible price of the cross to make of us a new people. In baptism we are baptized with his death. We are made a new creation. We could not change our hearts, but God does change us. His Spirit works in us continually. We are made one with Christ. We are the brothers and sisters of our Lord, the children of the living God. He takes us as we are - he creates a new heart within us. Drawn to him as bees are drawn to honey, we become a new people.

III. “Lifted up he draws us all” to his victory. Now and forever, as victors in Christ, we gladly serve and glorify God as we serve others.

A. “Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world: Now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

B. The ruler of this world has been cast out. You and I are no longer under the power and control of sin, death and the power of the devil. In the cross and resurrection the name of God has been glorified.

C. We are called by our God to be his willing servants his witnesses to our world. There will be sacrifice called for as we move toward the goal of lifting high the cross of Jesus Christ. Given the gifts of love, joy, peace, forgiveness, strength, patience, and endurance we know we are prepared to meet the challenge behind any door that opens to us. As the children of God - brothers and sisters of our Lord, Jesus Christ, we know that the promise of eternal life is ours. This is the good news we share with our world.

She hadn't intended to speak. In fact, she had thought she could sneak quietly into the church after the service began, sit in an inconspicuous place, and leave before it ended. She had no way of knowing before she got inside how open and exposed all of the seats in the small sanctuary were, not at all like the huge churches they showed in TV shows and movies. All she had meant to do was sit quietly and somehow communicate to God her thankfulness that her son had been spared. But she had felt exposed ever since she sat down. She was afraid everyone was looking and wondering, "What is she doing here?" And then the pastor had asked if anyone had concerns and celebrations to share, and before she could control herself she found her hand raised, just like she was in grade school again.

The pastor nodded at her, as nearly every eye in the church turned to look at her in the back pew. She swallowed to try and wet the inside of her mouth, where her tongue felt as if it were glued down. But, as she pulled herself to her feet, she saw the kind, welcoming eyes of the woman from the hospital several rows ahead, and she knew what to say.

"Most of you know my name is Mary Paul. I've lived in this town all of my life, and this is the first time I ever set foot in this church. My brothers and I have run the Whistle Stop tavern ever since our dad died. Our family never had anything to do with church. Dad used to say it was a conflict of interest."

A smile twitched the corner of her mouth, but she kept it from fully forming. The friendly woman nodded, though, and Mary kept going.

"I came in here today because I wanted to say thank you to God for the life of my son. I think you all know that Steve smashed up his car out on Highway 33 last Tuesday night. He's been in intensive care ever since, and they didn't give me much hope that he'd pull through. This morning at 7:00 they said he turned the corner, and they think he'll live. Up until Saturday morning, I would have only thought to thank the doctors that he pulled through. But on Saturday, a member of this church called on Steve and me at the hospital."

Some of the eyes of the congregation turned away from Mary at that point, and rested on the friendly face that still smiled softly at her. Mary pushed onward.

"I never met this woman before Saturday. I think she said her name is Eleanor, and I see her sitting over there. Well, Eleanor came into the waiting room when all my family and the people I call my friends had gone, and talked to me just like I was her friend. She said how sorry she was about Steve, and how she heard that the accident wasn't his fault, which is just the opposite of what everyone else was either saying or thinking. She asked if we could go into his room in the ICU together so she could say a prayer for him.

"I'm not one for praying. What my life has been like is no secret in this town. But she was so nice, and her caring was so real, that I said yes, and when she touched Steve's hand, with all those tubes and needles hooked in it, and prayed to God that he would be all right, well, I prayed that, too. I prayed for the first time I can remember in my whole life. And this morning they tell me Steve is going to pull through."

The lump in her throat, that had taken the place of the dryness, choked off most of her last words. She looked down, embarrassed, when tears escaped from her eyes and began to run down her face and nose. It just wasn't like her to cry over anything. Then she remembered the point she was trying to make, ignored the tears, and looked directly back at the congregation, most of whom now looked surprised.

"Anyhow," Mary said, "on my way home I saw all the cars here, and I just felt like I should come in and say thank you to God for my son's life. And while I'm at it, thank you, Eleanor, for being there at the right time for me and Steve. People like you are what goodness is really about. If there were more like you, maybe I would have been brave enough to come in here and say thanks to God sooner."

Then Mary Paul reached for her purse and keys on the pew and stepped out into the aisle to leave. But when she turned, Eleanor was standing beside her, and took her arm and led her forward to the pew where she had been sitting. And through the rest of the service they shared a bulletin and a hymnal and Christ's peace.

Mary was in the third grade. Her parents never went to Sunday school or church, nor did they see to it that Mary got there. Mary listened with great interest as her little friend, Dottie, related to her what her Sunday School teacher told her. Dottie also shared with Mary many of the Bible stories she learned in Sunday School as well as her fascination with a man named Jesus.

This only intrigued Mary all the more. One day Dottie told Mary that they would be seeing a film about Jesus in Sunday School that very next Sunday. Mary sat quietly at the dinner table that evening until finally her mother said, “Mary, what’s the matter? You’ve hardly said a word and you haven’t eaten your dinner.” “Mother, I’m so excited about what Dottie tells me about her Sunday School and all the neat things they are leaning. This Sunday they’re having a film about Jesus. Will you and Daddy go with me to Sunday School? I want to see Jesus.”

Listen to What I say! Like Mary, and like the Greeks in our gospel, there are so many today who need to see Jesus. Have you seen him? Have you invited anyone else to see him?

4th Sunday in Lent: March 18, 2012

4^th Sunday in Lent: March 18, 2012

John 3:14-21

Preacher: Pr. Carrie B. Smith

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

In a certain January football game between the Denver Broncos and the Pittsburgh Steelers, some amazing things happened:

First, Tim Tebow passed for 316 yards against the Steelers and set an NFL playoff record with 31.6 yards per completion.

And if that wasn’t amazing enough, Tebow’s favorite receiver in that game was Demaryius Thomas, who was responsible for the game-winning touchdown in overtime. Thomas was born on Dec. 25, 1987. And who else has a birthday celebrated on Dec. 25? (hint: The answer is not Santa Claus…)

If you don’t know who Tim Tebow is (or if you haven’t watched television for the last 5 months), then you might not understand the connection, so here it is: Tim Tebow is a football player who has become famous for his open profession of the Christian faith—primarily in the form of kneeling in prayer on the field. He has even inspired a new word—“tebowing”—which means “to get down on a knee and start praying, even if everyone else around you is doing something completely different.”

Sports fans and Jesus fans alike took special note of the “3:16” connection in that particular January game, certain that it was proof of divine intervention. God must have been sending a message to the world via Tebow’s passing arm! And according to the tebowers, the message was this:

¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” John 3:16

I don’t know if the world got the message, but Google certainly did. That Sunday evening and into the next Monday morning, the most popular Google-searched phrase was “John 3:16”, as countless football fans tried to learn what all the fuss was about.

Many people may have needed to look it up on Google, but John 3:16 is still by far the most beloved verse of Scripture. It is memorized by Sunday School students, painted on posters, tattooed on arms, screen-printed on t-shirts, and, apparently, can even be found hidden in football statistics. It has become a sort of Christian tagline—an easy, one sentence sound bite that sums up more than 2,000 years of Christian history, theology, and practice. Do you want people to know you’re a Christian? Get a John 3:16 license plate! Do you want customers to know you’re a Christian business? Put John 3:16 on the bottom of your paper cups! (for the record, the In-N-Out Burger chain in California actually does this…)

If I sound a little cynical about the John 3:16 craze, it’s only because the extreme popularity of this verse has also contributed to the neglect and watering down of the Good News of God’s all-encompassing love for the entire world.

Let’s take those posters you see at sports events, for example. The poster-bearer may intend to send a message of hope and love via national television, but more often the message received is something like this: “I’ve got the world—and God—figured out, and so should you.” Or “I’m a crazy guy carrying a poster at a football game—please ignore me!’

Unfortunately, even though this verse has incredible, deep meaning for Christians who have learned it within a community of faith, outside of that experience John 3:16 can sound less like a love letter from God and more like a threat: “For God was so annoyed with the world that he gave you one chance to believe, and sent everyone else to hell. You’d better believe before this game is over.”

I doubt very much that anyone has been brought to faith in God and belief in Jesus Christ through a John 3:16 poster. And for this reason, I see those John 3:16 t-shirts, license plates, and other public witnesses as a matter of Christian pride rather than evangelism. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not advocating for Christians to stop having pride in their faith (in fact, telling Lutherans to be a little quieter about their faith is like telling Chicagoans to drink a little more beer on St. Patrick’s Day! Completely unnecessary.) But I do wonder if simply throwing this verse out there does justice to the awesome message of love we have from God in Christ Jesus.

Let’s look again at that familiar verse, but with its surrounding verses for a little context:

¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. ¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ¹⁷“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

“For God so loved the world.” The word for world in biblical Greek is kosmos, which is the root for our words like “cosmic” and “cosmology”. Properly understood, then, John 3:16 proclaims that God so loved the cosmos, that he gave his only Son. God doesn’t just love Lutherans, or Christians, or Americans, or the good people, or the beautiful people, or those pay their taxes on time, or those who vote a particular way. God sent Jesus into the world because God loved the cosmos—people, animals, plants, worms, birds, the earth, the moon, the stars, and the planets that have been shining so brightly in the skies the last few weeks.

This is a love that won’t fit on a poster or a bumper sticker. This is a love we can’t quite grasp—for our love is limited. Our human ability to love is bound by our sin, by our inward-turning nature, and by our affinity for those who are like us. But God’s love is bigger than we can imagine. God’s love is so great that God sent the Son to be born among us, to walk with us, to suffer just like us, to die for us, and to be raised for our sake. Twentieth-century Presbyterian theologian and writer Frederick Buechner said this about God’s love: “Turn around and believe that the good news that we are loved is better than we ever dared hope, and that to believe in that good news, to live out of it and toward it, to be in love with that good news, is of all glad things in this world the gladdest thing of all.”

God’s love is Good News for the universe, not for a limited few—which is one reason it’s so frustrating when John 3:16 is used –or heard—as a message of condemnation or a weapon of judgment. Perhaps it would help if we didn’t stop at verse 16, but made the effort to include verse 17 as well:

¹⁷“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

In other words, God isn’t playing games with us. We weren’t given the Son as a limited time offer, this week only, subject to availability and not guaranteed in all areas. God loved the entire universe God created, and sent the Son to save it…period. Amen!

Is there judgment? Indeed—in fact, verses 18 and 19 state that “those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” But condemnation and separation from God, rather than being an event that happens at the pearly gates of heaven if you have failed to believe in your lifetime, is visible here and now. Humans love darkness more than they love the light, and as a result many suffer in a hell of their own making. We may even have personal experience with the darkness and suffering of unbelief.

Unbelief does cause suffering. But belief isn’t about being theologically correct, or saying a magic prayer, or praying in the end zone after a winning game. Fredrick Buechner wrote: “Believing in him is not the same as believing things about him such as that he was born of a virgin and raised Lazarus from the dead. Instead, it is a matter of giving our hearts to him, of come hell or high water putting our money on him, the way a child believes in a mother or a father, the way a mother or a father believes in a child.”

What if, instead of tuning it out because it’s so familiar, we heard John 3:16 in this way?

“God’s love is cosmic. God didn’t send Jesus to condemn us, but to save us from a life of darkness and futility. Giving our heart to Jesus means living a whole and lasting life.”

This is the message of John 3:16, after all—but maybe all of that won’t fit on a bumper sticker! And this is really the point of this sermon: That God’s love is too big for a sound bite, and too important to entrust to the guys who bring their Bible posters to football games.

God’s love is amazing—and it’s too good not to share. This week, as we enter the 4^th week of Lent, inching closer to Holy Week and the story of Jesus’ passion on the cross, consider the greatness of God’s love. Consider how it has changed you. Consider those in your life who are not yet living in the light of God’s love, and how you can bring that light closer. Here’s a hint: you probably don’t need to make a poster.

One more time, a few words from Pastor Fredrick Buechner to close out the sermon:

“Who knows how the awareness of God’s love first hits people? Every person has his own tale to tell, including the person who would not believe in God if you paid him. Some moment happens in your life that makes you say Yes right up to the roots of your hair, that makes it worth having been born just to have happen. Laughing with somebody till the tears run down your cheeks. Waking up to the first snow. Being in bed with somebody you love. Whether you thank God for such a moment or thank your lucky stars, it is a moment that is trying to open up your whole life. If you try to turn your back on such a moment and hurry along to Business as Usual, it may lose you the whole ball game. If you throw your arms around such a moment and hug it like crazy, it may save your soul. How about the person you know who as far as you can possibly tell has never had such a moment? Maybe for that person the moment that has to happen is you.” (quoted from “Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals” by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilsobn-Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoro, p. 286)

3rd Sunday in Lent: March 11, 2012

3^rd Sunday in Lent: March 11, 2012

John 2: Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Preacher: Pastor Carrie B. Smith

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

I rarely watch the morning news shows anymore, having grown tired of hearing about the latest ways to stay thin, the season’s hottest new look, and the toys my kids will be begging for this Christmas. But a few days ago I found myself trapped in an armchair, weighed down by a cat, and therefore had the opportunity to take in all the “most important” news of the day.

That particular day, these were some of the top stories:

A clothing company in the UK has been selling men’s pants with a label inside featuring these cleaning instructions: “Dry clean only—or give to your woman. It’s her job.”

Forbes magazine’s newest female billionaire is the woman who invented Spanx undergarments (men, if you don’t know what these are, just ignore this part of the sermon.)

A soccer mom in New Jersey has been busted for running a brothel out of her home.

A notorious radio personality became a top story after using a string of nasty names and lewd comments to describe female college student.

Oh…and Snooki is having a baby.

Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem, the news is that Jesus went a little crazy in the temple, after finding it had been made into a marketplace.

This week’s Gospel text usually lends itself to a fantastic sermon opportunity on Christian consumerism and how we misuse our modern day temples. But this week, what screams out to me from television, from radio, from billboards, and from political pundits, is how the temple of the human body (and in particular, the female body) has become a marketplace.

According to Genesis, we are all Imago Dei, made in the image of God:

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:27)

And according to 1 Corinthians 6:19, we are temples of the Holy Spirit:

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19)

Scripture also says that Jesus himself abides in us, as we abide in him. Furthermore, our bodies are not our own, but have been bought with a price, and should therefore glorify the body.

But instead of being glorified or honored as temples, our bodies have become marketplaces. Moneychangers have moved right in, appropriating sacred space and making it their own.

Women’s bodies in particular sell everything from blue jeans to toilet bowl cleaners. Those annoying pants labels I mentioned, sexist as they are, achieved just what they were designed for: a few angry protests from women, and tons of media attention. Sara Blakely has made a billion dollars selling us special underwear—underwear that promises to shape us into more perfect versions of ourselves (because we all know our bodies are wild animals to be tamed, not temples of the Holy Spirit!). That New Jersey madam made millions selling other women to high-profile businessmen through her suburban brothel. MTV is rightfully concerned with how much money it will lose, now that a pregnant Snooki won’t be enticing viewers with her usual Jersey Shore partying. And as for the political pundits who use women’s bodies and women’s health as pawns in their game? They hope to use our bodies to buy a few votes.

All of this misuse of the human body seems so normal and such an everyday part of our lives that we may wonder: “What’s the big deal? Isn’t this just the way the world works?”

But then we turn back to Scripture and to that scene where an angry Jesus clears the moneychangers out of the temple:

The Jesus we meet in the temple isn’t gentle Jesus, meek and mild. This isn’t the little Lord Jesus asleep in the hay. This is Jesus, angry prophet, driving out every last one of the moneychangers, dove-sellers, and cattle rustlers with a whip of cords in his hand. In his zeal to clean up the place, he even overturns tables and pours money onto the floor.

What angered Jesus so much was arriving at the temple of the Lord—the dwelling place of God and the holiest spot in Jerusalem—and finding that it had been invaded by businessmen with their own agendas. This wasn’t just a falafel stand at the entrance of the temple or a lemonade stand at the entrance of a church. These were folks who had moved right in to sacred space, ignoring the presence of God in favor of making a profit. “Take these things out of here!” Jesus shouted. “Stop making my Father’s house into a marketplace!”

You see, a temple isn’t just a building. It is the dwelling place of God. It is holy ground, and a sacred refuge. A temple isn’t intended to be a place of commerce or of unholy transactions.

If you had walked into church this morning and were greeted with signs announcing “This sermon sponsored by Microsoft” or “All communion wine offered by Gallo Wineries”, or even “We use only Dasani brand water in our baptismal font”, you might feel a similar outrage. It’s easy to understand how this kind of commerce has no place in a house of worship.

But if our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, made in God’s image, and if Jesus himself abides in us, then it also offends God when human bodies are used for personal profit.

Jesus was consumed with zeal for his Father’s house and cleansed the temple of the moneychangers who had invaded it. Today, we are called to the same zeal wherever we see sacred spaces, holy places, and especially human faces being used, abused, and destroyed.

Wherever women are raped, human sex trafficking is tolerated, or blatant sexism is a joke; wherever the right to receive health care for our own bodies becomes a matter of politics; wherever the female body is used as an advertising gimmick; wherever black bodies are lynched, undocumented bodies labor for our benefit, or child soldiers are used to fight an unholy war—Jesus calls us to zealously speak out and actively overturn the tables of injustice. Every human body is made in the image of God, a temple of the Holy Spirit which deserves to be treated with reverence and honor.

Followers of Jesus are called and empowered to speak out as he did in the temple that day. We can do much to change the way human bodies—male and female, young and old, white, black or brown—are treated.

But when Jesus challenged the abusive systems in place in the temple that day, he also issued a prophecy: “You may destroy this temple, but in 3 days I will raise it up.” Those in power thought he was talking about the building. Even the disciples didn’t understand until later what he meant.

Of course what Jesus was prophesying was the cross and his own death. He knew where he was headed. He knew that to speak out against the powers and principalities which made the temple a marketplace, kept food from the hungry, and kept poor people in the gutters, was to write his own death warrant.

But he also proclaimed that the cross wouldn’t be the end of the story.

Jesus promises that wherever temples are destroyed, God will bring new life and resurrection. The cross of Christ is our promise that God will always bring life out of death, freedom out of oppression, hope out of despair, righteousness out of sin, and love out of hate. We glory in the cross, which is our promise that God restores relationships, recovers innocence, heals bodies and cleanses temples. For the message of the cross is foolishness for those who are perishing, but for those who are being saved, it is the power of God!

This is God’s Good News for all those who have suffered rape, abuse, bullying, or persecution of any kind. It is Good News for those who have seen addictions or cancers move in and invade their bodies. The cross is God’s Good News for every person whose body has been into a marketplace, used for profit instead of honored as a dwelling place of the divine.

Because of the cross of Christ, we can not only speak up when we see human bodies being defiled—but we ourselves can also stand in the shadow of the cross, and say to the powers and principalities who would dishonor our bodies:

“No matter what you say about this temple…no matter how you desecrate it or try to destroy it…no matter what you do to this place where God the Father dwells…It will be raised up.”