When It Reigns

Sermon - When it Reigns

Matthew 22:15-22

Pr. Paul Cannon

Grace and Peace, Bethany Lutheran Church, from God our creator, the Holy Spirit that connects us, and Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord,

I was really in the mood this week to preach on something happy.  This whole last week and half of my life has really been a comedy of errors.  

It all kind of started last week on our way into the city to see a play, when our GPS had us driving in circles.  My in-laws were in town, and traffic was backed up terribly on the highways, so Google Maps told us that it would be faster to get off the freeways and use some city roads roads instead.  

I’ll never believe Google Maps again.  At one point, we literally came full circle, and passed the same school...twice.

Then last Sunday, my Cincinnati Bengals were poised to kick a game-winning 36 yard field goal in overtime to win the game … and the kicker missed it!  The game ended in a tie, which somehow felt worse than a ls

Then on Monday, when the office had the day off, I went with my wife, my brother and his wife and a few friends to go apple picking.  But when we were sitting down for lunch that day, I threw out a disk in my lower back.

It was one of those weeks that reminded me of the great quote from Mel Brook’s, Young Frankenstein, when one character says to the other “It could be worse!”  And the other one asks, “How?” And he says, “It could be raining!”

And I mean that literally, because right after I threw out my back, like in the movie, it started raining.

It was one of those weeks.

Yes, I could have really used something happy and light to preach about this week, but instead I got the story that has to do with taxes...When it rains...it pours.

Some religious leaders come up to Jesus, with a question that they hope is going to be a wedge issue - because no matter how Jesus answered it, it was going to make some folks mad.  

“Hey Jesus,” they asked him, “Should we pay our taxes?”  Nothing like a question about politics to get folks mad at you.

But Jesus answers in a roundabout way.  He asks one of them to take out a coin, and asks them who’s picture is on it.  And they answer him that it was the face of the emperor on the coin.

So Jesus tells them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.”

Good answer.

Let’s think about those words.  What belongs to the Caesar? The coin does.  It has Caesar’s image on it.  It must belong to him.

But the more interesting question is, what belongs to God?  Really.  What belongs to God?  If Caesar owns the coin because his image is on it, then where is God’s image?  

Genesis 1:27, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

We bear God’s image.  We belong to God.  “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.”  

Don’t just give of the coin, Jesus insists, give of yourself.  But, what do you give to the God who has everything?  What do you give back to the God who gave you everything, including the coin?  

If you are given everything, then maybe we should give back everything - time, talent, money, resources - all that stuff, yes.  But it’s really much deeper than that.  You give back your heart to God.  

Remember those three great Christian values we heard about in our reading from Thessalonians today? Faith, hope and love?  Those are the things that God truly desires from us.  That should be our offering to God every day.

And that’s a lot to ask, I know.  Because sometimes, we have weeks like I had this past week.  You get lost.  You feel like you are losing at life.  You find yourself in pain.  And then it starts to rain on you...literally or figuratively. When it rains, it pours.

Those days you don’t feel particularly loving.  Those are the days you don’t feel hopeful.  Those are the days you don’t feel faithful.  But it’s particularly when it’s hard - when life is pouring on you - that it matters most.  Your teenager is fighting with you at home?  Love them even more.  Struggling with your faith?  Go pray and talk to God about it.

And hope...hope is something that I think we could all use a dose of these days.  It’s been a tough couple months, here at Bethany. I know more than most. We said goodbye to a Pastor this summer.  We’ve had our fair share of change and conflict.  And at times it feels like we are getting rained on.

But all of this - all of us - belong to God.  We bear God’s image.  And where God is present, there is all kinds of hope.  And so hope is what God asks us to give back.

This summer on our mission trip, every night all the church groups would return from a long day of serving.  We would gather for worship.  And our site leaders from Youth Works, would lead us all in an exercise of hope that they just called “Yay God.”  

And these exhausted kids, who had every right to complain after a week of manual labor and sleeping on floors, would raise their hands, and offer for the group, where they had seen God that day. And when they finished, everybody would snap their fingers...and say...Yay God.  

Sometimes they would lift up somebody who went the extra mile to help that day. Yay God (snap).  Sometimes they would lift up the way they saw God at work in the faces of the community.  Yay God! (snap)  Other times it was the way that God was accomplishing work - fixing broken homes, spending time with the sick, the old and the young.  Yay God! (snap)

They were moments of hope.  They were “Yay God” moments.

We have those too.  This week, I got a call in the evening at home from an unknown number, which is usually a bad sign.  But it was Sharon Saunders, who we’ve been praying for, to tell me that the doctors hadn’t found any cancer at her latest bouts with Chemo. Yay God. (snap)

In our God, we find hope in the most peculiar places - none more peculiar than the cross.  Through an instrument of capital punishment, as Christians, we proclaim our greatest hope for life.

That’s what I would like us all to do today. We need to start practicing a little bit of hope in the rainy times.  We need some “Yay God” here at Bethany and in our lives. 

Think of a "Yay God" moment in your life. Write it down.  Give thanks to God even in tough times.

You’ll be amazed at the incredible ways that God is working in and among you despite all the stuff that’s happened this past year.  There is so much hope - too much, to not be hopeful in our God.

There are days, and sometimes weeks and even years where it rains, and when it rains, it pours.  But as those who bear the image of God, it is our job offer hope back to this world  - especially in the rainy times.  So let faith, love and hope be your offerings.  Because in our God, faith, love and hope reign eternal.  

Yay God.

Romans 13:8-14 - Urgent Notice

Rally Sunday, Sept. 7th, 2014

Urgent Notice

Pr. Paul Cannon

Grace and Peace, Bethany Lutheran Church, from God our creator, the Holy Spirit, and our Lord Jesus Christ,

I am very excited to be with you all right now on this very important day in the year.  I know that many of us have been waiting, anticipating and preparing for this day to get here, and for most of us, it didn’t come soon enough.

We’ve got flags up, you’ll see some special decorations, and most importantly, we have our favorite snacks ready.

Hallelujah, the day has finally come! It is ... FOOTBALL season.  It starts today.  Well technically, if you’re a Packer’s fan, the season started on Thursday (I’m sorry to bring that up), but if you’re a fan of the Bears or any other team, the season starts today.

I have the unfortunate distinction of being a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals – a team that hasn’t won a playoff game in over 20 years.  And yet, like many fans out there, when the clock hits 12 on Sunday, I’m usually itching to get home (I’m in the wrong line of work, by the way) – just so I can be there for the most boring play in all sports – the kickoff.

After all, there’s only 16 games in a season, so I better catch every second of it! I joke, but the NFL is certainly America’s sport.  And one of the reasons I think it’s become so popular for many of us fans, is because every game feels significant.  

Even more than that, it passes the two tests for something to feel urgent -  that feeling where something not only has to get done, but it has to get done right now.

1. Test one: Is it important? If it’s not important, it’s not urgent right? Judging by the number of jersey’s I see on Sundays, I know football is important to a lot of you! So it passes test one of being urgent.

2. Test two: Is there time?  If have too much time, there’s no urgency. The fact that NFL teams play only 16 games, gives them a condensed time frame to work with.  So it passes test two for being urgent.  

You put those two things together, and you get folks like me who get antsy at 12pm on Sundays.  

The same principal is true for almost all aspects of our lives.  The more important the matter, and the shorter the time frame, the more urgent the need for action.  

It’s why advertisements on TV tell you to call in the next 10 minutes for a very special offer!   It’s why boxes of old junk end up getting piled up in our basements and garages - because you feel like you can always get to them later. It’s why when we’re late for work, we drive faster than normal.

In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome today, we hear that same sense of urgency in his voice.  What he’s about to say can’t wait. It’s urgent - so not only is it important, but it also needs to start immediately.

He begins with the most important commandment, urging his church to love one another.  “Love” he says, “Because love does no wrong.”

It’s the most important thing you can do.  Love is what brought Christ to the cross.  Love fulfills the entire law - all the commandments. It changes lives - its presence or its absence shapes who we are and who we become.  

I don’t think I can overstate how important it is for us to love one another. But does it merit the urgency in Paul’s voice? Does it pass test number two? We have a lifetime to do this right?  There’s time, isn’t there?

He writes to the Romans, “You know what time it is, how it is now - it is now - the moment for you to wake from sleep.”  

The moment is now, Paul says. He doesn’t even give us 10 minutes like the advertisers on TV do.  Now is the moment for us to wake up.  Now is the moment for us to get our act together.  

But if you are a procrastinator like myself, you read this and say, “Whoa Whoa Whoa. Slow down Paul. I’ve got plenty of time here...no rush...what’s the hurry?”

Good Question!  Why does all this have to happen immediately?  Why the urgency?

Paul continues, “For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone and the day is near.”  Wait a second?  Salvation is near to us?  I thought that was a long ways off.  I thought salvation was what happened to us when we died!

Not so for Paul.  “The night is far gone,” he writes, “and the day is near.”  It’s an interesting way to put it.  You see, for Paul, the moment that God breaks into our lives isn’t some far off distant point on the horizon. It’s in baptism.  It’s here!  It’s now!  We’ve been baptized.  We’ve already been saved. “Where two or three are gathered in my name,” Jesus says, “I am there.”

The night is over. The dawn is coming!  Time’s up.  And so Paul’s conclusion to this is that we ought to start living like it.  “Let us live honorably” he writes, “as in the day.”

Our Gospel today echoes those sentiments.  Jesus tells his followers, “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out their fault.”  Don’t wait for it to blow over.  Go and seek healing and forgiveness. This is important, so go work it out!

Stop quarrelling with one another (Paul says).  Let’s not waste this precious gift of Christ by being jealous of what the guy across the street has. And of course, Jesus reminds us that when we do screw up - when relationships break down, don’t waste time stewing in your anger.  Go find healing and forgiveness if not with your neighbor, then with God.

Of course, this urgency isn’t just for when you’re mad at somebody though.  Living Christ-like lives is always urgent.

On Wednesday, we had our orientation meeting for Confirmation. And I asked them, “Why is this important to you?  Why are you here tonight? Why show up?”  It’s a good question for Rally Day right? The parents and students talked it over at their tables and they came up with some really great answers.

One table said, “Because I want my kids to be able to connect faith in their daily lives.”  Another table spoke up saying, “Because I want these traditions to be passed on to the next generation.” Another added, “Because I want them to have space to ask questions about their faith.”  And yet another said, “Because I want them to be surrounded by a community that loves them.”

These are more than just important things.  They are urgent matters of God.  

Salvation is near, Paul tells us. The dawn is is coming. In baptism, God has made us a part of his family.  He’s already saved us, and so the only thing left to do is live for the people around you.

All that’s left for us to do is to love one another.  That’s the work of the people of God every day.  

That is what is so urgent.  

Thanks be to God,  

Amen

Sermon for Sunday, June 1st 2014

Sermon – Luke 24:44-53

June 1^st, 2014

The Destination and the Journey

  

Grace and Peace Bethany Lutheran Church, from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

Today is Ascension Sunday in the church calendar – the day we remember Jesus being taken up into heaven 40 days after the resurrection.

Though, technically, last Thursday was actually Ascension Day because that marked 40 days after Easter, but we were pretty sure nobody wanted to come to church on a Thursday evening, so we celebrate it today!

We learned from our reading in Acts, that after Jesus was resurrected on Easter, he stayed around for another 40 days with his disciples.  When those days were up, Jesus was lifted up into a cloud (hence, ascension) and just like that (snap) he was gone.

I’m sure it was a little hard for the disciples to see Jesus depart from them. He had just died and been resurrected. And here he was being taken up into heaven, leaving them to build his church without him.

You can imagine how nervous they were to strike out into the real world without their teacher at their side.

And I wonder if the disciples suddenly felt like graduates out in the real world. They had the whole world in front of them, which was probably liberating and terrifying at the same time.

That’s why, in a lot of ways, the ascension strikes me as being very appropriate for a Sunday when we celebrate the graduates in our community. These students are also in a place where they have the world at their fingertips.

But when they finally graduate from college, get a job and start their own families, they are going to look back and realize something. All the classes they took, Calculus, physics, Spanish, etc. and they are going to realize … that they don’t remember any of it.

When that happens, they will ask themselves “What was the point?” All that studying … all those nights cramming for a math final … all the time that looking through endless rows of flash cards … will seem, like a colossal waste of time.

Trust me. I am an expert both in forgetting things AND wasting time. I took physics in college, but today I could barely tell you any of Newton’s laws. I took Calc I and Calc II, but I had to look up what a derivative was on google as a refresher.

I took Norwegian in college.  Can jeg snakke Norsk? Can I speak Norwegian? No.  No I can no longer speak any Norwegian besides that phrase and a few choice swear words my Grandma taught me as a kid.

Believe me when I say, 99% of the things learned are going to be gone. It’s a depressing thought.  I know. 

The disciples must have felt that way too.  None of them were scholars.  They were fishermen and tax people and common laborers. 

Our reading said that Jesus opened up the scriptures to them, but I’m sure like many of you, the disciples then promptly forgot it all.

Their job was to go out into the world and tell people about Jesus – not translate the Hebrew scriptures into Greek. 

They were building churches and spreading the good news of a resurrected Jesus.  They didn’t need to memorize all 613 laws that are in the Old Testament, and I’m guessing they didn’t.

So then…What was the point?  Why stuff so much information into your head if it’s going to slip out again? Why not just skip to the end?

They could have saved 3 years and lot of heartache if Jesus just taught them to build churches.  Just like our graduates could have saved four years and a lot of #2 pencils if they had just trained for jobs. 

Of course, if that’s all there was to school, it would be a colossal waste of time ... but we all know there’s more to it than that. 

Hopefully most of us realize that school is about more than getting a good job. It’s about more than cramming information down our heads. It’s about more than getting A’s on essays and homework assignments.  

School is about shaping minds so that you can unleash your potential on the world.  Or, to use an appropriate cliché here, it’s not so much about the destination, but about the journey, and how that journey shapes who you are.

The math classes these graduates took trained them to think logically.  The books they read for English classes inspire them to unleash their creativity on the world.  And the foreign language classes? I’m assuming most of them picked up a few choice words that will help them on their way.

And I think the same thing is true for church and religion, except instead of shaping minds, I think God is far more interested in shaping hearts. 

Often, people assume that church is about being really good so that when we die, God will lift us up into heaven like he did for Jesus in our scripture today.  

But our Lutheran tradition in particular says that, in fact, we already have eternal life in Jesus Christ.  We are connected to Christ through our baptisms.

And if we already have hope of the resurrection, then it’s not about how much religious stuff we know. 

Like the disciples, technically we don’t need to memorize all 613 laws in the Old Testament.  We don’t even need to memorize the 10 commandments.  We don’t need to go to church at all!  How often do you hear your pastor say that?

But just as school is about more than getting a job, following Jesus is about so much more than getting into heaven. Even the disciples fell into the trap of thinking it’s about their destination rather than the journey.

In the book of Acts, Jesus sets them straight.  His last action before being lifted up was to send them out to make sure they had a purpose.  And so he sends them to “all the ends of the earth.” 

It was his commencement speech.  Now, go and do some good.  Don’t just wait around until you die and float up to heaven, go out and do some good.

Then, if that weren’t enough, as the disciples were looking up into the clouds where Jesus had gone, two men in white robes appeared by them.

The men asked the disciples a funny question.  “Why are you looking up towards heaven?”  Why are you looking up? It was as if to say, you aren’t going to find Jesus up in the clouds.  Look forward, or better yet, look around you.  

As Christians, we don’t find Jesus in the clouds, we find him in the faces of the people in need – of those all around us.

It’s not about the destination.  It’s not about getting up there (point) with Jesus.  It’s about the journey. It’s about the people we travel with.  It’s about loving the people around us.

That’s God’s word of grace to us all. The end game has been taken care of.  All that’s left for us is to love the people God puts in front of us. 

It’s a lot harder than it sounds, but this is where you start practicing.  I said earlier that you don’t need to go to church to be a Christian, and that’s true!  But church is where we come to have our eyes opened and our hearts shaped by God. 

Just like we need school to train our minds to think logically, we need church to train our hearts to love properly – to love as Jesus loved the world. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Church is merely a beginning – a starting point.  Like our graduates, we have a long road ahead of us, so let us not look up towards heaven, but around towards our neighbors.

We start here by learning to love one another, then we can go out into the world and learn to love asGod first loved us.

Amen

Sermon for June 5, 2013: Worth It

Sermon for June 2, 2013

Second Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 7:1-10

Preacher: Pastor Carrie Smith

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

Ask any of our neighbors, and they’re likely to tell you they’re just waiting for us to put up a yard sign that says “Smith Family Bed and Breakfast”. Our kids don’t bat an eye when I tell them “Better clean up the basement today” but instead come right back with “Who’s staying with us this time, and what country are they from?” Just in the last year we’ve hosted a group of Palestinian teenagers, three girls from a Ugandan children’s choir, a priest from Bethlehem, a professional singer, a random British stranger on a bicycle tour across the U.S. (I preached about that experience last year!), an old seminary friend and her entire family, and of course a constant stream of Chicago friends seeking a respite from the city. 

We love hosting guests in our home, and consider it our Christian responsibility to show hospitality. Most of the time, we clean up a bit first. Last week we even bought a new mattress before Chicago friends came to stay. We noticed they hadn’t been out to visit for awhile, and then we remembered how much they hated our blow-up air bed. We put two and two together…and headed to the mattress store.

We’ve received many guests at our home, but there was one scheduled visitor who made me question if we were even worthy of his presence.

His name was Calvin Morris, and he was to be the speaker at the FaithBridge Interfaith MLK breakfast. As an eager new member of the MLK breakfast committee, I of course raised my hand and said, “Sure! I have room to host him at my house!” 

It wasn’t until I Googled the invited speaker that I started to question my eagerness to volunteer. I learned that the Rev. Dr. Calvin Morris was the national coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Operation Breadbasket from 1967 to 1971. After leaving there, he was the executive director of Atlanta's Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change, working directly with Coretta Scott King. As I read more of his impressive resume, I realized Dr. Morris was truly a history-maker—someone we might read about in a textbook on the Civil Rights movement. 

Suddenly, I wondered if it had been wise to offer to put this man in my basement. What would he think of that patch of carpet the dog chewed up? Did he even like dogs—or teenagers? Will our house meet his standards? Then, another panicked thought: This man is a community activist and an urban dweller—maybe he’ll be offended by my suburban existence! Maybe my house is too big!

In other words: I suddenly saw my home and my life with new eyes, and I judged myself completely unworthy. I wanted to forget the whole thing, and book the Rev. Dr. Morris a room at the Country Inn & Suites.  

Have you felt unworthy lately?

Feeling unworthy was apparently a new emotion for the Roman centurion in today’s Gospel reading. Here was a man who was accustomed to getting what he needed, when he needed it. He had a fair amount of power and privilege: servants working for him, soldiers under his authority, and an esteemed reputation within the community, cultivated after building a synagogue for his Jewish neighbors.

So when his beloved servant was ill, the centurion’s instinct was to use that power, privilege and accumulated respect to bring Jesus, a healer, to his home. He of course called upon the Jewish elders who had benefitted from his good deeds to visit Jesus, a Jewish man. 

Sure enough, when the elders reached Jesus they had only good things to say about the centurion. “He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.” Having received this good recommendation, Jesus set out to see the centurion and, apparently, to heal the slave, when something surprising happened.

It’s not clear from the text what exactly occurred, but it seems that sometime after sending the messengers out, the centurion had second thoughts. Maybe, like me, he looked around his house and saw the chewed-up carpet. Maybe, as some scholars suggest, he was making a political move, expressing false humility to gain an even better reputation.

Or—maybe this Roman leader recognized that this Jesus, who was about to arrive at his house, possessed a different kind of authority; was working under a different system of values; would perhaps be unimpressed by a centurion’s status, privilege, or military might. This Jesus, after all, was said to be a miracle-worker, a healer, a prophet, and even more: the Son of God.

So the centurion sent out some friends with a different message: “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed.” 

These words stopped Jesus in his tracks—literally. He stopped in the road and turned, telling the crowd that was always following him, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” Jesus never made it to the centurion’s home, but when the centurion’s friends returned, they found the slave had been healed.

This centurion, because of his humility and surprising recognition of Jesus’ authority, has been lifted up as an example of great faith. But I must say that I struggle with this text, because what I don’t want you to hear today is one more reason to say to yourself “I’m not worthy.” I think we do enough of that already:

I’m not worthy of God’s love.

I’m not worthy of having a healthy relationship—this is the best I deserve.

I’m not worth being treated right at school or having friends.

I don’t have anything to contribute to the discussion.

Why would God listen to my prayers, after all the mistakes I’ve made?

I cringe when I think of teenagers, or a spouse in an abusive relationship, or someone who has never known God’s forgiving and redeeming love, hearing this story and thinking: “See? I’m right in thinking of myself as unworthy. Jesus even blessed this way of thinking.” 

But I don’t believe this is a story about Jesus blessing the kind of self-hate we are so good at cultivating. This is not a case study on how to beat yourself down so you are worthy of God’s attention. Humility is a virtue, but self-loathing is not. 

Instead, I believe the story of the faithful centurion is about authority. It’s about recognizing who has authority in our lives, and therefore who judges your worthiness.

When the centurion first called for Jesus, it was not “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear”, but more like “What a solution I have in Jesus, all my problems to solve.” He sought an answer to his problem—a sick slave—using the authority he had at hand: power, privilege, money, position, reputation. According to this system, he judged himself worthy of having his request honored, his needs met, and his slave healed.  

The centurion was therefore not a person of faith at the moment he called upon Jesus—but it didn’t matter, because the religious leaders also seemed to agree with his judgment. “He’s a good guy!” they said. “You should totally do this for him, Jesus.”  

And you know what? The faith of the centurion didn’t seem to matter to Jesus, either. In the telling of this story, we often forget that Jesus was already on his way to visit the centurion when he received that message: “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.” Jesus was already on the road to the centurion, well before the centurion was on the road to faith. 

But the faith of the centurion is amazing, and surprising, and worthy of note, because it was he, an outsider, who was able to proclaim the truth. When even the religious leaders believed the lie that “If I am a good person and work hard, God will hear my prayers”, the centurion was the one who proclaimed: “Lord, nothing that I have and nothing that I have done has made me worthy of your visit. No matter what I bring to the table, Lord—you alone say who is worthy and not worthy. Your judgment matters, and no one else’s.” 

Sisters and brothers, I hope you are hearing today that the story of the faithful centurion is about just how worthy you are in the eyes of God. Here we encounter a Jesus who places no value on power or privilege, who doesn’t care how many soldiers we command or how big our house is, who never sees the chewed up carpet or the size of our credit card debt or the number on the scale. This is about a God who, through Jesus Christ, sees instead our faith alone and deems us worthy. And in fact, in this story we meet the Jesus who starts the journey toward you before you have any faith at all—because you are worth it.

In the book “Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion”, Father Gregory Boyle tells of ministering to a 15 year old gang member in a county detention facility. Father Greg asked about his family. 

“That’s my mom over there.” the boy said. “There’s no one like her. I’ve been locked up for more than a year and half. She comes to see me every Sunday. You know how many buses she takes every Sunday—to see my sorry self?”

He paused for moment, and then gasping through tears, he said, “Seven buses. She takes…seven…buses. Imagine.” 

What better way is there to explain the expansive love of God? How better to describe how God sees us, through the eyes of Jesus: You, Child of God, are worth a seven bus journey for a 15 minute visit. You are worthy of love, worthy of respect, worthy of hope and a future—not because of anything you have, or anything you have done—but because of Jesus and the cross. And Jesus says: you are worth even that. 

Amen.