Sermon for November 17, 2013: 26th Sunday after Pentecost (Stewardship Sunday)

Sermon for Sunday, November 17, 2013

Luke 21:5-19

PREACHER: Pastor Carrie Smith

The first thing that should be said about today’s Gospel text is that this is a speech for insiders. These words from Jesus are literally words meant for the choir – for the believers, the community of the faithful, those who are in the pews or the choir loft every Sunday; these are words for those disciples who have been with Jesus on the journey thus far and seem likely to continue on, come what may. This speech is not, then, a great tool for evangelism. I wouldn’t advise using this bit of Scripture for your “elevator speech” about Christianity, for example! And while it might be more accurate, it’s probably not a good idea for us to put these words on the front of our church, either. There’s probably a good reason we don’t see congregations named “By Your Endurance You Will Gain Your Souls Church” or church signs declaring: “Welcome to Church! Do you see these stones? All will be thrown down!” I think it’s also safe to say that next year’s stewardship campaign will likely not be based on Luke 21:17: “Jesus said, ‘You will be hated by all because of me.’ Please give generously.”

So this is not a warm and fuzzy, feel-good, Joel Osteen-style Scripture text! But this text does tell the truth. And sometimes, the truth hurts.

In this case, one truth Jesus wants to impart is that the things we think are permanent and immovable never really are. Temples, monuments, memorials, family traditions, and even this church will one day be gone. Scripture says “The grass withers and the flower fades; the Word of God stands forever.” It doesn’t say anything about the structures we erect, even those that are meant to honor God! We, like the disciples, admire the beautiful stones, stained glass, and new technology adorning our temples, and Jesus says: “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

On Friday, I was asked to attend the Board meeting of my alma mater, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, as part of the strategic planning committee. We spent the afternoon talking about how to increase enrollment, how to market the school, and how to ensure its viability for the coming years. And, of course, we talked about the building. The Board talked about plans for replacing air conditioners, upgrading technology, and caring for aging (and often crumbling) student apartments. There was also discussion about how to get decent Wifi in a building designed like a concrete bunker which I have heard called (lovingly by students and not-so-lovingly by the neighborhood) “the Darth Vader School”.

It was all very interesting to observe, but as I listened to the careful planning for the future of these buildings that still feel like a second home for me, I couldn’t help thinking about those pesky words of Jesus: “As for these things you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” This was especially on my mind when the strategic planning consultant asked us to imagine, not just success, but “wild success.” What would “wild success” look like for this Lutheran seminary?

Board members mentioned enrollment increases of 2 percent per year; becoming the “go-to school” where bishops would find their favorite new pastors; having a balanced budget with a surplus; and having a building that grows with our needs. All worthy goals.

But it was just one professor in the back of the room – a professor of church history, in his last year of teaching – who raised his hand to offer: “It seems to me, dear people, that ‘wild success’ would mean students leaving this place equipped to proclaim Christ crucified and risen.”

Well, duh! This seems obvious, doesn’t it? You could hear a collective groan from the Board members, who were just trying to do their important work. And yet, this back of the room comment shone light on a problem that we all can understand: we most often judge beauty, growth, and success as being signs both of our faithfulness and of God’s presence and favor in our lives. Big enrollment equals a successful seminary. Big worship attendance equals a faithful church. Big house equals a happy family.

And if we believe that beauty, growth, and success are signs of God’s presence or blessing in our lives and on our mission, then it follows that persecution, distress, suffering or pain are signs of God’s absence or abandonment. The closing of a seminary, for example, would mean failure. A church that isn’t growing must not be faithfully following Jesus. A family that loses its house must be doing something wrong. In the worst possible example of this logic, we hear of people being told that if they have cancer, they must not have enough faith, or must not have prayed hard enough.

And yet, this is not the truth Jesus was laying out for the disciples in today’s preaching text, is it? Here we have Jesus making his own back-of-the-room comment, attempting to draw the disciples’ attention away from their beautifully adorned temple and instead preparing them for the path ahead. He said:

“Watch out for the doomsday deceivers. Many leaders are going to show up with forged identities claiming, ‘I’m the One,’ or, ‘The end is near.’ Don’t fall for any of that. When you hear of wars and uprisings, keep your head and don’t panic. (Keep Calm, and Carry On!) This is routine history and no sign of the end.” He went on, “Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. Huge earthquakes will occur in various places. There will be famines. You’ll think at times that the very sky is falling.

“But before any of this happens, they’ll arrest you, hunt you down, and drag you to court and jail. It will go from bad to worse, dog-eat-dog, everyone at your throat because you carry my name. You’ll end up on the witness stand, called to testify. Make up your mind right now not to worry about it. I’ll give you the words and wisdom that will reduce all your accusers to stammers and stutters.

“You’ll even be turned in by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. Some of you will be killed. There’s no telling who will hate you because of me. Even so, every detail of your body and soul—even the hairs of your head!—is in my care; nothing of you will be lost. Staying with it—that’s what is required. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry; you’ll be saved.”

Conflict, legal problems, family strife, and death—this probably isn’t the vision of “wild success” the seminary’s strategic planning consultant had in mind! And it’s probably not on your wish list for your life, your family, or your church, either. And yet, as believers, when we encounter tragedy or persecution, we do not start shouting loud predictions of the end-times. We do not lose hope! Rather, we stand firm and endure, trusting in our Lord Jesus, who promises that by our endurance we will gain our souls.

As I said before, this is not a feel-good piece of Scripture. But it is a feeling-the-truth kind of Scripture. And the truth, while it can hurt, also sets us free.

Sisters and brothers, the truth which sets us free is this: God loves you! And bad things will happen. Bad things very well may happen because you proclaim Christ, because you speak about him and try to follow him. But even this does not indicate the end, or show in any way that God is not with you. Frederick Buechner said it this way: “Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us.”

And this is why, as believers, we see the present time, with all its difficulty and tragedy, with economic and employment struggles, health crises, and a culture hostile to the Gospel, as being a time ripe for prayer, watchfulness, and endurance, and yes: testimony. This is the time to share our stories of struggle and of enduring faith! This is the time to come out of the closet as believers and followers of Jesus! This is the time to sing to the Lord, for he has done marvelous things! Amen!

So, for a Lutheran seminary, “wild success” might not mean a growing enrollment or faculty or building. But it certainly means growing faithful pastors equipped to boldly proclaim Christ in both good times and in bad.

For a church, “wild success” might mean packing the pews and outgrowing the building and embarking on a capital campaign. It could happen! But it also might mean banding together in the face of a crisis, or faithfully embracing and adapting to a changing culture, or giving ourselves and our resources away as food for the poor.

And I would submit that for Bethany’s 2014 stewardship campaign, “wild success” would not be merely having enough dollars to pay the salaries and cover the bills, but rather means coming together, as a community, to proclaim Christ crucified and risen through the use of our time and talents and treasures. At the end of the day—and at the end of times, when even these walls we love so dearly have come tumbling down, and when the Son of Man comes again to judge the world with righteousness—I believe “wild success” will be judged to be the extent to which we have sent people forth from this place, equipped to testify to the goodness of God, in good times, and in bad.  

So stand firm, sisters and brothers! Do not weary in doing what is right! For by your endurance you will gain your souls. 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

Sunday, January 13, 2013: Baptism of Our Lord

Sermon for Sunday, January 13, 2013: Baptism of Our Lord

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

 PREACHER: Pastor Paul Cannon

Good morning!  I don’t know if any of you have yet caught on to the irony that today is Baptism Sunday, but that we do not – in fact – have a baptism today. Now, the pastor side of me was looking forward to today because if there had been one scheduled, it would have been my very first baptism.  So that side of me wants to look out at all of you and say, “Come on people, you need to start making more babies! I need some dunking practice!!!” 

But then I think about the 28-year-old-married-without-children-who-has-parents-that-are-getting-a-little-anxious-for-grandchildren side of me that is simultaneously screaming “Noooooo thank you!  I am not ready for that kind of commitment.  I can barely keep my dog alive, let alone a human baby! Plus, there is only so much poop that I can bare cleaning up after in one day!”  Which is all to say that “No, you will not find me admonishing anybody here to have more children, less I become the object of scrutiny amongst you.”

But it is my duty and honor as a pastor to talk with you all about what Baptism is all about.  Now, I’m sure that there are some of you who have been raised in the faith, and perhaps know more about Baptism than I could possibly explain.  But my guess, is that more than we would like to admit, there are a lot of us here that have really only a vague notion of what Baptism is and why we do it. So today, is going to be primarily a day about teaching what us ELCA Lutherans think about this ancient rite, and why we do things the way that we do them.

Now, there are many, many things that we could say about Baptism.  In the readings today, there are images of water and fire, there’s a dove coming down from the sky, John the Baptist talks about repentance and fruit, there’s some allusions to hell-fire and salvation, etc etc – and this is all just a small cross-section of what the Bible has to say about Baptism. 

But today, I want to break it down into three things that as Lutherans, we think are the important – and the first one is grace.  If there is one thing, and one thing only that I hope you remember today about baptism, it’s that it is first and foremost God’s grace being poured out onto all of us.  The Lutheran Church confesses that baptism is entirely God’s work. And that means, it is not about how much we believe and it is not about us making a decision to follow Christ, it is about God bestowing on us the gift of grace.  And that’s the reason that, unlike many Christian churches, the Lutheran church baptizes infants: we think that baptism is about God making a decision for us, not us making a decision for God.

Some people might ask, “Why on earth would a little tiny baby need grace?” Aren’t they perfectly innocent little creatures whose only job it is to love us and make cute cooing sounds?  Now, this might sound a little bit harsh to some of you, but here me out before you get angry: Babies are selfish.  In fact, they might be the most selfish creatures on the planet.  And I don’t have to be a parent myself to know that this is true.  All I have to do is to see the haunted look in my mother’s eyes when I ask her what my twin brother and I were like as babies. 

Now, my mother loves my brother and I about as much as a parent can love a child.  And even though she would never say a bad word about either of us, she can’t help but let a few details slip.  Things like “You and your brother used to take turns waking up in the middle of the night.”  Or “you were both over eight pounds at birth.”  Or even “I stopped being able to sleep in after you two were born.”  From these little details, I know for a fact, that my brother and I were pretty darn selfish as babies.  We caused my parents many a sleepless night, we made messes in quite a few pairs of diapers, and we never cleaned up after ourselves.

All of that is simply to say this: that from the very beginning – even as babies – we need grace.  And like my parents who loved us unconditionally – despite us being the headaches that we were slash are – in Baptism God declares his own unconditional love and grace for all of us.

The second Lutheran understanding of Baptism might be a little startling if you aren’t used to this kind of language, but I’ll just go ahead and say it in the most straightforward way that I can: in baptism, what we receive … is death.

Now, this is confusing and hard to hear for a lot of reasons, but one thing that Martin Luther stressed was that we ought to “call a thing what it is” or in other words, we strive to be as straightforward and honest as we can be.  We live in a broken world.  All around us every day we are witnesses to people hurting each other.  On the news we see image after image of unimaginable violence.  We experience brokenness in our own communities when we see people experiencing homelessness.  We experience brokenness in our own families when we can’t even speak to each other during the holidays.  We experience brokenness in our friendships when we bury our hurts for the sake of keeping the peace.

And God’s response to all of this is to say that this needs to change.  And the kind of change that is required isn’t about tweaking who we are like in self-help books.  It’s not about sweeping the bad parts of ourselves under the rug and saying everything is “okay.” The kind of change that God requires is total and complete change.  The kind of change that comes first from death – more specifically, the death of Jesus on the cross.  That’s why the apostle Paul asks in his letter to the Romans, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” “Therefore…” He writes, “just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” 
And that is exactly what the last part of baptism is all about: resurrection.  The great mystery isn’t that we die in the waters of baptism, but that God creates new life. I want to be clear though that this doesn’t happen in some mystical sense, but it happens in a way that we can feel and see and even touch.  God is actually making something happen in baptism.

Most importantly, when God raises a baptizee up from the waters, that person becomes a part of God’s family – God’s church.  In my experience, this has been particularly true.  A lot of you know by now that I was actually baptized right here at Bethany in 1984. We moved when I was only five, so I have very few memories of Bethany or Crystal Lake. It was 23 years before we came back.  We moved to Ohio for my grade school years, and then out to Utah for Jr. and Sr. High.  Afterwards, I went to college up in Minnesota and finally to Seminary in the Twin Cities. 

And in all my travels, I never dreamed that I would be back in Crystal Lake, much less Bethany Lutheran church.  I certainly didn’t think that anybody would remember me.  Yet when I was called here, I was welcomed back like an old member of the family. You invited me into your homes, some of you brought out old pictures of me as a kid, and you swamped my wife and me with baskets full of food!

And that’s exactly the kind of tangible baptismal experience that I’m talking about.  Even if you are the kind of person that has strayed away from your baptismal roots; even if you haven’t seen the inside of a church building for the past 23 years because you’ve been addicted to alcohol and too ashamed to come; even if you have depression and feel like you are unworthy and that nobody could possibly remember you – in God’s family, you are always known and loved and remembered.

After Jesus himself was baptized in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit comes down and God announces from heaven “You are my son, the beloved; with you I am will pleased.”  Or in another translation from The Message “You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life.”

And those are the very same words that God utters at every baptism. And at your own baptism, when you came up out of the waters as a completely new person, God said to you “You are my Son or daughter, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life.”  And no matter how far you stray or what you might do, that can’t be taken away from you.  God will always love and remember you. 

Amen.

5th Sunday of Easter: May 6, 2012

PREACHER: Pastor Carrie B. Smith

John 15:1-8

Jesus the True Vine

‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples"

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

“Where are you from?” It seems like such a simple question, and yet it has always been a difficult one for me to answer. New acquaintances must think I’m being evasive or secretive as I struggle to find the right words. I remember one such conversation, shortly after I moved to Chicago, going something like this:

“Where are you from?”

“Well, it’s kind of hard to say.”

“Well, where did you move here from?”

“Texas.”

“Where do your parents live?”

“On the other side of Texas.”

“So you’re from Texas!”

“No…not at all, really.”

“Where were you born?”

“I was born in Iowa, but moved to Nebraska when I was about 10.”

“Did you graduate high school in Nebraska?”

“No, I went to high school in Oklahoma.”

“Didn’t you say your husband is from Oklahoma too?”

“Yes.”

“Ah ha!  So you must be an Okie!”

“Um, no…actually my husband and I met in Germany.”

At this point, my potential new friend usually changes the subject—or, if I’m lucky, sits down for a glass of wine to hear the whole story.

Where are you from? What I have learned from moving so often is that home isn’t really a place at all. Home is wherever you find comfort and safety. Home is where you are fed and are able to grow. Home is life-giving. But in my experience, those things have more to do with people than with place. Bloom where you are planted, someone once said. I would add: bloom with whom you are planted.

Today’s Gospel text from the 15^th chapter of John encourages us to make our home—and to bloom—with Jesus. “Abide in me, as I abide in you” Jesus says. If we abide in Jesus, staying close to him, then we will not only bloom but will bear much fruit. Home, sweet home.

And this is a lovely thought, except that some of these verses sound a bit like a threat. “Abide in me, or else!” Jesus seems to say. All that stuff about pruning and being thrown into the fire is disturbing. “Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”  Ouch! When you put it that way, abiding on the vine sounds more like a safety measure than living in a “home, sweet home.”

Jesus clearly wants us to make our home in him, as the branch abides in the vine. But here is where I not only get stuck on the image of God’s great bonfire, but I also can’t stop thinking about those wayward branches. The way Jesus describes horticulture, one would think that branches are leaping from one tree to another, choosing to be a magnolia one day and an elm the next. It is well-known that I have a black thumb instead of a green one, but even I know this isn’t how it works.

To the best of my knowledge, branches do indeed “bloom where they are planted.” Branches can’t just choose to take up residence on another vine! They sprout and grow from their original source—and this is not so much a choice as a fact. Telling a bunch of branches to “abide in me” makes as much sense as telling a bunch of Lutherans to sit still and stop clapping during the hymns.

 Therefore, instead of hearing these verses as an imperative to “abide in me or else”, consider that Jesus may be making a point about our absolute dependence on God and on each other. 

“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.” In American culture, it’s not at all popular to talk about dependence on anyone or anything. We’d like to think we are, above all else, free agents: pioneers, cowboys, mavericks, always pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We proudly declare our independence, along with liberty and justice for all.

And yet, hear again the words of Jesus, who says: “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” Jesus wants us to make a declaration of dependence—on God, the source of all life, and on the Word, which nourishes and sustains us. We are invited to make ourselves at home—and even unpack the last few boxes—and recognize that apart from God, we would be lost. And the blessing is that those who abide in him, Jesus says, will bear much fruit. 

Last week I experienced a perfect example of what it looks like for a community to bear fruit. It happened a week ago Thursday, when I received a phone call from Buck Pearson’s neighbor. This neighbor hadn’t seen Buck for awhile, and though he had no contact information for his family, he remembered that Buck attended Bethany, and thought to call the church.

I happened to answer the phone that day, and instantly my stomach dropped. Buck is 96 years old. His neighbor reported there were two newspapers in front of his garage. There was no answer on Buck’s home phone or cell phone. When I arrived at his home, waiting for the police and fire department to arrive, I fervently prayed for a better outcome than I feared.

The fire department soon broke down the door, and I was given a face mask to wear as we entered. I was told to wait at the bottom of the stairs while the team investigated. And I will never forget the look on the officer’s face as he poked his head around the corner and yelled to me, “He’s taking a bath! And he’s talking to us!”

Thanks be to God! Buck Pearson is a very strong man. He had been in a bathtub of icy water for two days—much to the chagrin of his cat Tigger, who had been visiting him periodically to demand dinner. But Buck was alive.

At the hospital, Buck surprised me again by asking, “Where’s your husband?” Knowing his body temperature was under 90 degrees, I wasn’t sure Buck even knew who he was talking to, so I answered simply, “He’s at home.” Buried under a pile of heated blankets, Buck’s quick answer was, “Wasn’t he just in Jerusalem?” 

Buck not only knew who I was and where he was, but he knew where my husband was, which is no small feat! 

Abide in me, as I abide in you. Those who abide in me will bear much fruit. 

Buck gave me permission to share his story today because I told him I would be preaching on what it means to depend on God and on one another—and to bear much fruit (although he might not like to think that he is the fruit in this story!) 

Buck is a strong and independent man. But Buck wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t for his connections with his neighbors and his church community. He wouldn’t be here if his community didn’t bear fruit.

Buck’s neighbors bore the fruit of love when they reached out to check on his welfare. I have no idea if they are Christians, but their actions are witness to the fact that the Word of God abides in them: “Love your neighbor as yourself” and “Love one another as I have loved you” come to mind. 

And this community bore fruit in their responses after hearing the news. Buck’s neighbors knew Buck was connected to this branch—the Bethany branch on the vine of the church of Jesus Christ. And they knew that if they called the church, we would take action. We would bear fruit. We would pray, we would visit, and we would lovingly tend to his needs. And that is what happened: prayers, visitors, and lovingly knitted prayer shawls flooded in to the hospital.

Buck Pearson, 96 years old, is now facing a move. After rehabilitation, it’s likely he will be living in a new place with a little more day to day help. But the Good News is that Buck will always be at home. He will always abide in Jesus Christ, as Christ abides in him. Even when things change—when we move, when our homes are taken from us, when our loved ones are gone, or when the entire landscape looks different—we remain on the vine. We are the branches, Jesus is the vine, and God is the good gardener who planted the garden in the first place. Home, sweet home.

20^th Century saint and activist Dorothy Day once wrote, “We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”  Today, I join Buck in giving thanks to God for good neighbors, and for the Bethany community, who abide in the Word and bear the fruit of love. Amen.