2nd Sunday after Epiphany: January 19, 2014

Sermon for Sunday, January 19, 2014 (Second Sunday after Epiphany)

Preacher: Pastor Carrie Smith

John 1:29-42

"The E-Word"

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

On Tuesday night, the Bethany Lutheran Church ministry teams met for the first time in 2014. It was very exciting to see new faces, and to have every table filled with ideas and energy for the New Year! Thanks be to God for all the ways in which you, my sisters and brothers in Christ, serve God and others through the work of this Church. Amen!

There was one ministry team, of course, that could have used a little love, and that was the “E-Team”. Some members have gone south for the winter, and some were sick. But the truth is, even on a good night, this is the ministry table that’s hardest to fill. While the Finance team is overflowing and actually needs to expand to more than one table, sometimes the E-Team could do without a table altogether. This week, they might have been fine with just a chair! We call this group the “E-Team” for short, I suppose to make people feel more comfortable about volunteering, but clearly folks are on to our little scheme. They know that “E” really stands for “Evangelism.”

Ah yes—Evangelism! Every Lutheran’s favorite subject! In case you think I’m picking on our church in particular, be assured that ours is not the only congregation that struggles with lack of excitement about evangelism. It seems to have become part of our culture as mainline, Protestant Christians to be, at best, indirect in our evangelism strategies. The funny thing is, that scary word, “Evangelism”, comes from the word “Euangelion” which simply means “Good News”. That means that we, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, could conceivably call ourselves the “Good News Lutheran Church in America.” So why are we, the Good News Church, so uncomfortable sharing the Good News about Jesus with others?

After all, we love to share our experiences, epiphanies, and revelations about almost everything else:

“Oh my gosh, you HAVE to see that new movie. It was amazing!”

“Have you been to that new restaurant? The food is just great!”

“Oh, you have the new iPhone? I prefer Android. Now let me tell you why you should definitely switch.”

“Have you tried Weight Watchers? It totally changed my life! You should come with me next week.”

“Did you hear that story on NPR this morning? The one about why bananas are radioactive? Let me tell you about it, even though I can’t remember all the facts and will probably just make parts of it up.”

“I am reading the MOST AMAZING book. Let me tell you the entire plot while you’re trying to get into your car with that bag of groceries.”

We love to share our thoughts, experiences, and revelations about nearly everything in our lives. So what is it about our faith in Jesus that makes us want to keep the news to ourselves?

I suspect one reason has something to do with our common stereotypes of evangelists, Bible thumpers, door-to-door salesmen, and missionaries on bicycles. No one likes to be convinced or debated or interrogated on her doorstep, and therefore no one wants to be seen as the convincer, the debater, or the interrogator. So, instead of talking about Jesus to our friends, or inviting someone to church, we work on making the inside of the church welcoming, comfortable, and attractive, on the off chance that someone stumbles in here by accident.

Another reason we might be uncomfortable sharing the Good News is we worry we won’t know what to say. What if someone asks a question about the Bible or about Jesus that I can’t answer? What if I offend them? What if I sound silly? Didn’t someone say it’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open our mouths and remove all doubt?

I can relate very well to this feeling of not knowing what to say. When I was in seminary (the first time around, in Minnesota), Robert and I worked as telefundraisers for the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. We did this for a whole summer, attending intensive Biblical Greek classes during the day and making fundraising calls in the evenings. I remember being so nervous to make those calls. What if they hung up on me? What if I offended them when I asked for money? What if they asked me something I didn’t know? We had a script we were supposed to stick to, of course, but that didn’t help to take away the feeling that I was selling something I knew nothing about, to people I knew nothing about.

And then a wonderful thing happened: the Guthrie Theater people gave us all free tickets to attend a production of “The Importance of Being Earnest,” with a champagne reception beforehand. So Robert and I emerged from our call center cubicles with the rest of the telefundraising crew, all dressed, and hobnobbed for one night with the theater crowd. And it was amazing! The actors were great. The show was hilarious. The theater itself was (and is) a gem in the middle of the city. We had a great time.

And the next day, when I got on the phone, things were very different.

“Hello, Mrs. Anderson? This is Carrie, calling on behalf of the Guthrie Theater. I just saw the new production of The Importance Being Earnest last night. Have you seen it yet? Let me tell you, it is just great. The acting, the sets, the theater itself, are just a treasure for our city. Don’t you agree?”

And this, I believe, is the secret of evangelism: Stick to what you know. Share only what you have experienced. Don’t worry about the script—speak from the heart.

 This is what John did in the Gospel lesson for today. The text says John declared, testified, and then exclaimed to anyone who would listen: “Here is the Lamb of God! That guy over there, he’s the one I’ve been talking about! Let me tell you how I baptized him, and how I saw the Spirit come down like a dove, and how even though I didn’t know who he was before, now I do know him! This Jesus is the One we’ve been waiting for!” Amen!

John had experienced something at Jesus’ baptism that changed him, and he just had to share it. But notice what he didn’t do: he didn’t write a dissertation or outline a systematic theology or debate anyone about what exactly it meant when the Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove. He didn’t have a script, and he didn’t try to sell anything to anyone. He simply pointed others in the direction of Jesus and shared what he knew to be true: “This Jesus is special. And my life is different now that I know him.”

And then it was Jesus who took over from there. The next part of today’s Gospel lesson tells how two disciples who heard John’s testimony started following Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he invited them into conversation, asking: “What are you looking for?” They in turn asked: “Teacher, where are you staying?” And Jesus said: “Come and see.”

“Come and see.” It was John who got their attention, but it was Jesus who invited people to experience the Good News for themselves. It is Jesus, crucified and risen, who does the real work of evangelism, sisters and brothers. It’s Jesus who calls to us from Scripture, saying “Come and see the path I have walked.” It’s Jesus who calls to us from the bread and the wine, saying “Come and see the healing and forgiveness I have to offer.” It’s Jesus who calls to us from the waters of baptism, saying “Come and see how much God loves you!”

Perhaps Evangelism isn’t so scary when we remember that we don’t have to be Jesus – but we do get to be John!

We get to be John, sharing our love for God and pointing others to Jesus, who has made all the difference for us. We get to be John, singing out loud and proud, what we know to be true: that Jesus Christ, through his teachings, his death, and his resurrection, has brought us light and life, purpose and joy, healing and forgiveness like no one else could. Amen!

And so, sisters and brothers in Christ, it is our right, our duty and our joy, to tell the story, to share the Good News, to sing songs and write poems and make art and sew quilts and serve the homeless and participate in international peace talks and balance the church budget and give hugs and advocate for the poor and forgive one another and maybe (just maybe) – serve on the Evangelism Team—not so we can change the minds of others, but because Jesus has changed us. And that is very Good News, indeed. Amen. 

The Lord is My Light and My Salvation

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 Sunday, July 7, 2013: You are not Alone

Sermon Sunday July 7^th, 2013

Gospel: You are not alone.

Pr. Paul Cannon

Good Morning Bethany Lutheran!

As many of you know, I grew up out in the wild west known as Utah.  And if Utah is famous for any one thing, it’s famous for being the central hub of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – known as the LDS church aka, the Mormon church.

And I have to tell ya, that being a Lutheran in Utah gets kind of lonely.  There was like 3 or 4 kids in my confirmation class and two of them were me and my brother. So my parents, being the wise, and gentle people that they are (and I’m not just saying that because they are here this morning…wink wink) sent me off to college in MN to learn my Lutheran roots, or as my mother secretly wished, to marry a Lutheran girl!  Mission accomplished.

It was a good move on my parent’s part, not just because I married a Pastor’s daughter, but because up in Minnesota Lutherans are like ants – they were everywhere.  You couldn’t look under a rock without finding a Lutheran eating a hot-dish (dontcha know).

The opposite is true in Utah.  The state is well over 50% Mormon, so though I’m not an expert on Mormonism, I have learned a lot about them just by living there. About half the kids in my school were Mormon, we had Mormon neighbors and Mormon teachers.  Most of our politicians and even the newscasters were all Mormon. 

A lot people in this part of the world don’t know much about the LDS church.  Maybe you have a neighbor who is Mormon, or maybe your doorbell has been rung once or twice by a couple of goofy-looking teenagers on bikes.  You know the ones I’m talking about.  They wear white button-downs, black ties, black pants and they have those name tags that have the ironic title “elder” printed on them.

Well, one thing I can say from my experience is that the LDS community in Utah is that on the one hand they really take care and look after one another.  But on the other hand, they can also be very closed off.  Often the Mormon kids would only hang out with each other, so living there sometimes felt very isolated and lonely as a Christian.  Our family wasn’t ever invited to a Mormon neighbor’s house and I never really hung out with LDS kids because they were only supposed to hang out with each other.

I bring all this up because today we are talking about community & mission.  And those are two things that the LDS church simultaneously really good at, and really bad at.

And it starts today with our Gospel. Mormons take the Bible passage we read today about as seriously – and if I’m being blantantly honest, more seriously – than most Christians take it.

The story comes from the Gospel of Luke.  Jesus had been traveling across the countryside, visiting towns and acquiring more and more disciples. In our story today, he gathers a group of seventy of his followers and then sends them out in pairs ahead of him to proclaim the good news to all the villages they come across.

And this is the model the Mormon church has picked up on. They send their young 19-20 year old male missionaries out in pairs.  And that’s why whenever you see LDS Missionaries there are two of them – because Jesus sent out the seventy in pairs.

There’s a lot of good reasons to go out in pairs and perhaps most significantly, going out in pairs sends the message, “You’re not alone.” You’re not alone. Those missionaries always know that they don’t have to go knocking on doors by themselves.  They have a partner – somebody who has their back. 

Time and time again, our scripture tells us the same thing: that we were never meant to do it all by ourselves.  In the Garden of Eden, God looked at Adam and said, “It is not good that man should be alone.”  Then what did he do? God made Adam a partner. 

In the first chapter of Matthew, an Angel appears to Joseph and tells him “’Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ And what does Emmanuel mean? … ‘God with us.’”

It’s interesting because on the one hand, the LDS church models this really well. They send all their missionaries in pairs so they aren’t alone. Their tight-knit communities look after one another.  And those are great traits to have in a church.  But our family’s experience (and I know the experience of many Utah Christians is similar) was that they often did it to the exclusion of outsiders – to the exclusion of their neighbors.

That’s not a reflection of God’s Kingdom.  God reaches out to the lonely.  He speaks through the outcasts.  Jesus didn’t exclude people he deemed unworthy.  He built his church on them.

It’s not just the LDS church that does this.  Lutherans can be guilty of it as well.  Too often we reflect the world we live in, rather than God’s Kingdom. Our world is one that asks “Why should I care?” “It’s not my problem if my neighbor can’t afford health insurance.” “It’s not my problem if people are dying of Malaria in Africa.” “It’s not my problem if the new kid at school doesn’t have somebody to talk to.”  It’s just not my problem.

As a church, we need to be counter-cultural to this.  We are called to go out in pairs supporting one another in God’s mission.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, breathe easy, I have no plans to send you out door to door with cheesy pamphlets explaining how to be Lutheran. I’m not even sure what would be on a pamphlet like that. How to be a Lutheran: Step one: Receive God’s grace.  Step Two: Receive God’s grace.  Step three (optional): Eat hotdish.  No.  Not all of us are called to be evangelical missionaries.

(Hotdish is the Midwest term for a casserole that contains basically everything you can find in your pantry/freezer.  mmmm...hotdish).

However everybody has a calling.  Let me say that again.  Everybody has a calling.  Sometimes we have this faulty assumption that it’s only the Pastors who are quote “called” to things.  But that’s not how Martin Luther saw it.  He believed that all people are called into their stations in life. So whether your calling is as an accountant, a teacher, a stay-at-home parent, a student, a retired grandparent or a customer service rep, God has called you to be where you are.

And all of us are called in whatever we do to stand with others against injustice.  We are all called to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. We are all called to be God’s hands and feet in the world. And that can be a daunting task!  There are a lot of hungry people!  There is a lot of injustice in the world!

But the grace in all of this is that God doesn’t leave you alone to do these things by yourself. Isn’t that what we heard Paul write to the community in Galatia this morning?  He begs them to “bear one another’s burdens.”  Bear one another’s burdens. It’s both a calling and a blessing.  

We are called to bear our neighbor’s struggles.  So it is our problem if our neighbor’s can’t afford to send their sick kid to the doctor.  It is our problem every time a person dies of a preventable disease in Africa.  It is our problem when the new kid in school doesn’t have anybody to talk to.

The blessing is that you are not alone. You have a community here at Bethany that wants to support you. You have a God that has promised in Baptism to be Emmanuel – God with you. So when your burdens get heavy – when you lose your job or are fighting depression or trying to kick an addiction – you have a community that will help you bear those heavy loads.

This community exists to support one another and God’s entire creation. It’s what God calls us to do.  God’s mission for this church is not only that we can support you in your struggles, but that we look outside of ourselves as well. 

So, people of God, I say to you,

“Go in peace, and know that you do not go alone.”

Amen

Easter Sunday Sermon 2013

Easter Sunday Sermon: March 31, 2013

John 20:1-18

Preacher: Pastor Carrie Smith

Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia!

As preparations were being made for this amazing Easter celebration, coordinating the details of all the volunteers and the music and the dancers that would make it a day worthy of the Good News of the resurrection, our organist Allison and I had a pretty unusual email exchange. 

Now the message I received said something like this:

“Pastor, Kristin and I want to do “Dinosaur Glory” for Easter Sunday. Is that ok?”

Dinosaur glory. Dinosaur glory… It took me several minutes, and then it came to me:

“Din-o-saur Glo-ry, risen and conquering Son…”

Yes, thank you, iPhone autocorrect for that laugh! And you’re welcome, my friends, because some of you will now be humming that tune throughout the rest of my sermon.

Now with that story in mind, you might be able to understand why I suspected some kind of conspiracy to confuse the pastor when, a few days later, I had the opportunity to teach the Bethany Preschool children about the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We sat right here on the step and I read from a story Bible about how Jesus, the Son of God, died on a cross out of love for us, and on the third day he rose again, which is what we celebrate on Easter. Things started out just fine, but very soon the conversation drifted to Easter bunnies. And then to chocolate. And then to chocolate eggs. And then to eggs in general, and finally…to dinosaur eggs. And suddenly, we were in the midst of a full-on discussion of dinosaurs and all their glory.

Now why do you suppose a conversation with preschoolers could move so quickly from the death and resurrection of Jesus to dinosaurs? Maybe it’s because they’re a bit mysterious. After all, we can’t see them, but we believe in them! Maybe because they’re larger than life, kind of like Jesus. Maybe…well maybe just because dinosaurs are AWESOME and so is Jesus! Amen?

There is perhaps no better way to experience anew the strangeness of the Easter story than to try and explain it to preschoolers. And on this beautiful morning, a morning when the flowers and bells, choirs and brass, the organ and dancers are all assembled to proclaim the joy of the resurrection, it’s easy to forget just how radical the message of Easter really is. After all, we are here to celebrate a story that most would say is unbelievable: that Jesus died, in front of his friends, in a public execution; that his body was laid in a tomb, and a large stone was rolled in front of the entrance; and that the third day, the first day of the week, he walked out of the tomb, very much alive!

Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia!

The resurrection is unbelievably Good News. But if preschoolers so easily put the resurrection of Jesus into the same category as dinosaurs, then maybe we have a clue as to how unbelievable it really was for Mary, Peter, and the disciple Jesus loved, on that very first Easter.

The way the Gospel of John tells it, it was Mary Magdalene who was at the tomb that morning. It was still dark, but she could see enough to know the stone blocking the entrance to Jesus’ tomb had been moved. She was also smart enough to know not to hang around to see if the people who moved it were still lurking nearby! Instead, she ran to get Simon Peter and the beloved disciple, and she told them what she believed to be true: That someone had stolen Jesus’ body.

One by one, they each encountered the empty tomb—first Mary, then the disciple Jesus loved, and then Peter. And one by one, they each came to the same conclusion: Jesus had been taken from the tomb. All three of them believed, based on the evidence available, that the powers and principalities that had put Jesus in the tomb had now taken him away. It was a perfectly reasonable conclusion, based on what life had taught them so far: that fear, judgment, prejudice, and death always have the last word.  

It’s a conclusion we might come to, as well. After all, isn’t that what we’ve experienced? Isn’t that what the world has offered us so far? All around us, from Aurora to Newtown, from Syria to Chicago’s south side, from the halls of Congress to the children’s cancer ward, we have these facts to contend with: Violence no longer shocks us. Fear is our primary motivation. The gap between rich and poor, between healthy and uninsured, between those with a future and those without, gets larger by the day. And people we love dearly have died and are dying. Based on this information, an empty tomb is just that: an empty tomb. End of story.

And yet, here we are, on this Easter morning, celebrating with Christians around the globe the unbelievably Good News that the empty tomb was just the beginning!  We sing and pray and proclaim to all who will listen, that God has done something new! “In fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. And since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being…the last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, alleluia!

But just how do we come to believe the unbelievable? How do millions of people like you and me come to base their lives on this radical tale of resurrection and new life?

For Mary Magdalene, it happened when Jesus called her name.

She didn’t believe when she saw the stone rolled away. She didn’t believe when two angels all in white spoke to her from inside the tomb. And she didn’t even believe when a gardener—who looked strikingly like Jesus—popped up behind her and started asking her questions.

No…she believed the moment she heard that one word: “Mary.” Jesus spoke her name in love, and with that one word called her out of despair and into the resurrection life. This is, in fact, how each of us is called from death to life, from despair to joy, from unbelief to faithful proclamation. God calls us by name, and brings us to new life.

If it sounds too simple, I will tell you a story: I heard Jesus call my name once.

Yes, I said it: Jesus spoke to me. I know, I know, this isn’t the sort of thing a Lutheran generally shares in polite company, but it’s true. It was a terrible day; a day when I was on the way to the doctor’s office to receive what I was certain was bad news. In fact, I was so certain of this bad news that I had worked myself into an absolute mess: Not eating. Not sleeping. Google-diagnosing myself (never a good idea) and, by the time we got into the car, very nearly hyperventilating.

And then, it happened. Jesus called my name, plain as day, while I sat in the front seat of the car. And what he said was, “Carrie! It’s going to be ok.”

We might hope that if we were to receive a message from the divine it would be something a bit more eloquent or poetic. But at that moment, it was exactly what I needed to hear. I needed to know it would be ok—no matter what the news from the doctor turned out to be. I needed to hear Jesus calling me by name. And I needed to remember that my life—my resurrection life—was in his hands.

Sisters and brothers in Christ, we know that God calls each of us by name in baptism. Last night, we were blessed to witness that moment for five brand-new saints: Olivia, Brock, Brody, Corrine, and Nikolas. We rejoice that through water and the Word, these children of God have been called by name and have been made alive in Christ! Amen!

And on this Easter morning, it is my joy to proclaim to you that God does not stop speaking on the day of your baptism! Because he has been raised, Jesus continues to call you by name: through the Holy Scriptures, through prayer, through music and art and dance, through the liturgy, and especially in these few, powerful words: This is my body, given FOR YOU. This is my blood, shed FOR YOU. These words call us daily from death to life, from fear to joy, and from unbelief to faithful proclamation.

And now…back to dinosaurs.

No, really!

There are those who would call the church a dinosaur. It has been called, more than once, a relic of the past, unsustainable and irrelevant to the life of people today.

But, my dear people, as long as there are people who need to hear their names spoken in love; as long as there are those whose names even the church refuses to say out loud; as long as there are those who live in fear of death and have not heard the resurrection news; and until the Lord has destroyed every ruler and every authority and every power and has put all his enemies under his feet—the Church, my friends, is no dinosaur.

The Church of Jesus Christ is now, and ever will be, the living, breathing, always renewing, ever-reforming, resurrected body of Christ, sent into the world for the sake of others.

Join me, sisters and brothers, with Mary Magdalene and Peter and all the witnesses of the resurrection, and with the whole church across the world, in proclaiming to all who have ears to hear: I have seen the Lord!

Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Easter Vigil Reflection on Matthew 28

EASTER VIGIL REFLECTION on Matthew 28:1-10

Preacher: Pastor Carrie Smith

Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia!

^“So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.”

Fear and joy, which at first seem quite unrelated, can sometimes become mingled into one stomach-churning emotion.

I think of the day when, at age 20, I boarded an airplane by myself and flew across the ocean to study in Germany for a year. I had never flown by myself, much less to another country. But there I was, fearfully and joyfully flying toward this new life, with all my belongings packed into one suitcase, and my hair teased and sprayed into an impressive 90’s “poof” that I was sure would be a hit in Europe. (It wasn’t!)

Fear and great joy also propelled me down the aisle of the church on my wedding day, and accompanied me in those first terrifying and exciting days of motherhood.

Maybe you can recall some of those fearful/joyful moments, too. Do you remember how it felt when you, the new kid, walked into school that first day? How about your first day without a drink; the first time you said “I love you” and really meant it; or your first day on the job? I’ll never forget walking through the door that said “Pastor’s office” at my first call, and how the fear and joy together nearly brought me to my knees.

Fear mixes with joy in these moments because new life is both exciting and scary. The old life is more manageable. We know it better! We feel comfortable there—even when the old life promises only dead-ends, disappointment, and death.

And this is why, after learning of the resurrection, the women at the tomb didn’t stand around joyfully singing “alleluia”, but instead ran away with both fear and great joy. This Good News, this new life, was a radical departure from anything they had ever known, and it sent Mary Magdalene and the other Mary running with mixed emotions from the empty tomb.

An angel had sent them on their way, of course, charging them with the responsibility to go quickly and share the Good News with the disciples. One could assume that’s what they intended to do. But perhaps Jesus knew how quickly fear can overtake even great joy, because partway down the path he suddenly appeared to the women.

As if they weren’t scared before, can you imagine what it was like to see Jesus suddenly popping up in the roadway? Pop goes the Savior! “Greetings!” he said. Subtlety really isn’t God’s strong suit…

But after the women had recovered, the very first words from the risen Christ are: “Do not be afraid.” 

Do not be afraid, he said. It really is me! Now go, and tell the others that you’ve seen me!

Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Romans chapter 6 proclaims: “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. …So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” You, sisters and brothers, are alive in Christ Jesus. The resurrection life is your new life! And the first thing the risen Christ wants us to know about our new life in him is this: Do not be afraid.

Easy enough for him to say, right?

There will always be moments in life when fear is part of the equation. But what would it mean to live a life motivated not by fear, but by joy?

Too often, the Easter message comes across as “Christ is risen! Alleluia! Now go, quickly, and follow the rules! And try not to get into trouble!”

But what if living in the light of the resurrection isn’t about staying on the path, following the rules, or living in fear of each mistake?

What if the resurrection life liberates us to speak the truth, love generously, accept difference, embrace change, and remain open to possibilities? What if this new life releases us from living dangerously and frees us to take risks?

After all….What are you afraid of?

Embarrassment? Losing face or losing friends? Being seen as foolish? Being wrong? Or is it the fear of death that holds you back?

Sisters and brothers, the Good News of Easter liberates us from all these fears, especially the fear of death. Now that Jesus has broken the bonds of death and has been raised, we have nothing left to fear. “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” From now on, no matter where life leads us—even through the valley of the shadow of death—we go with these words of Jesus ringing in our ears:  Be not afraid!

That’s what this night and this Easter Vigil liturgy is all about, after all.

From the creation to the flood, from the parting of the sea to the fiery furnace, the message is the same: Be not afraid! God is with you!

This is what we want our children to know deep in their hearts, isn’t it? This is why we teach them these stories! This is why we raise them in the church! This is why we sing these songs, pray these prayers, and gather at this table—so that our children and our children’s children will know they need not be afraid.

Tonight, as we celebrate with five brand–new saints who have come to be baptized into Christ, my hope is that they hear these words, loud and clear. 

And if they aren’t old enough to remember, then you, my sisters and brothers, will be promising in a few moments to share these words until they are written on their hearts:

Do not be afraid, Brock, because God created the whole world, and called it good—and that includes you!

Do not be afraid, Brody, because goodness is stronger than evil.

Do not be afraid, Nikolas, because with God all things are possible.

Do not be afraid, Corrine, because you are never alone. God is with you!

Do not be afraid, Olivia, because no matter what anyone else says, you will always be Olivia, Child of God.

Friends in Christ, children of God, Easter people, do not be afraid, for Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia!