Dear Paul

What is your most scandalous opinion? Well, it’s not really scandalous; it is just treating a serious subject lightly, but sometimes that is necessary. I could always elicit gasps and chuckles by saying “The Apostle Paul is just the best advice columnist of all time.” And then by defending the statement. Of course with the demise of papers and reading in general, the advice columnist has kinda disappeared. Ann Landers and Dear Abby are long gone along with their upper-middle-class striver pragmatism. I think Dead Prudie still writes over at Slate.com but it feels so 200X. And her questions and advice always left me muttering “sheep without a shepherd.” You were better off taking advice from blast from the past Dan Savage who wasn’t as insulated from the craters Prudie’s advice would create. He might still give you the same terrible advice, but he’s also leaven it with reality. I see that Tucker Carlson, as part of his new media adventure, has created an “ask Tucker” forum. His first answer to the Father who is worried about his daughter starting an Only Fans, oh my. But I promised to get around to the Apostle Paul.

We all know that Paul wrote letters. And if we have read those letters, we realize that Paul was in almost constant contact with his fledgling congregations. It wasn’t the USPS, but letters in the Roman world would get to their destination on good Roman roads. Most of Paul’s letters are not theological treatises that he made up. Maybe Romans is that. Romans is also a prospectus for investment in a missionary endeavor. “I preach the gospel, I want to go to Spain, please support me (Romans 15:24).” But most of Paul’s letters are responses to multiple letters asking “Dear Paul.”

Paul would answer at length two or three big questions. For example, in 1 First Thessalonians – probably the first book of the New Testament written – Paul reminds the Thessalonians of the Work of the Lord in their midst and how the Thessalonians are now the example for those around them (chapters 1-3). He then reminds them what that looks like and reinforces the hope of the resurrection (Chapter 4). You can imagine the questions. “Paul, how do we go about evangelism?” “Paul, what about those who have died?”

But then Paul has this stack of other questions and the letter is already feeling long. So what does he do? He does things like our short Epistle reading this week – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24. The world’s first lighting round of rapid fire advice answers.

Paul, what does Jesus really want from us anyway? “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Paul, my brother is always babbling about the Spirit this and the Spirit that. I’ve seen a vision brother. Please tell him to stop! “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast to what is good.”

Paul, to get ahead at work I occasionally have to do things that you probably wouldn’t approve of. Is there a way to get a dispensation or an indulgence? “Abstain from every form of evil.”

And like all good advice columnists, Paul’s missives are occasionally shocking. They are probably not the advice you want to hear. But they are good. They are good in the deep sense of that word. Paul wants the best for you. As he says in his sign off. “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.” That is what Paul’s advice wants for you. God has called, gathered and enlightened you. Keep running. God will also sanctify you and on That Day glorify you. It is Good advice.

Mary’s Song

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Biblical Text: Luke 1:46-55

This was our 2nd midweek advent. We took up the 2nd song in Luke 1 – Mary’s Song. Often called the Magnificat, which is simply the Latin for magnify. And that is the word that this meditation picks up and plays with. What exactly does it mean for a soul to magnify the Lord? And why would anyone do that?

(Note: Sorry about the recording, I don’t have one right now. All the copies left the building before I could grab one. When one comes back I’ll rip it.)

Her Warfare is Over

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Biblical Text: Isaiah 40:1-11

The jump from Isaiah 39 to Isaiah 40 is one of the big discontinuities of the Bible. With Hezekiah’s cynicism Isaiah turns to a far future generation. That got me thinking this week about some of my mystery verses. What I mean by that is verses that make simple sense, but that simple sense doesn’t make theological sense. At least not easy theological sense. This sermon is an attempt, through John the Baptist promised by Isaiah, to understand what might be called generational sin. When the weight of sin long neglected catches up with us, what do we do?

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Perfection

Part of the job of a pastor is encouragement to live the Christian life. Part of the problem is that encouragement can take many forms, and you are not always sure which one is needed. Is the encouragement more about finding lost sheep and calling the straying back to faith? That is the encouragement to pursue holiness. In our day and age there is a lot more of this. Maybe that is the truth in every age. Most of us are always willing to cut ourselves some slack. And pretty soon all we have is slack. But then you occasionally run across the striving sick soul. Maybe in the Christmas season we can understand the perfectionist better. We all are trying to be a little better. We all want that perfect Christmas. And then nobody cares, or nobody recognizes it, or something small happens and mars that perfection. This is Luther in his life as a monk. There are still those rare Christians who are attempting to “be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48).” And there are those who can be like the rich young man. “All these I have kept since I was a child. (Mark 10:20).” And their answer is more correct than we Lutherans might like to admit. After all Jesus looks at the man and loves him.

I know that not everyone appreciates sports examples, but a current one is just too perfect. The Florida State football team was perfect. They were pursuing perfection. But then in the game to get to 11-0 their star Quarterback goes out for the season with a gruesome leg injury. But they persevered. The back-up Quarterback stepped in and beat the instate rival Florida to get to 12-0. But in that game the backup got a concussion and was “placed in the protocol.” Going into the conference championship game they were down to a true freshman 3^rd string quarterback. They did everything you’d want in such a situation. The defense picked up the slack holding a team that has been scoring 30 a game to 6. The freshmen helped by a career game from a running back got them 16 points. They finished the season 13-0. Perfect. A more gracious God might have said well done faithful servant and recognized their deservedness. They did everything correct from early in the season, enduring the hardships and finding ways.

It didn’t matter. The playoff committee cut them. The judged perfection was not enough.

What is the encouragement? It is ultimately not about your record. Yes, the law demands perfection. But there has only been one perfect person in the history of the world, and where did he end up? On a cross. Perfection is overrated. What isn’t overrated is that cross. More than perfection, God asks you to trust Him. Pick up your cross and follow. Even perfection is going to look like a loss. It is going to feel like a loss. And by the world’s standards will be. You will be outside the playoffs. But as the Apostle Paul would say, “everything I was I count as loss.” Because winning by the rules of the world is still losing. This world and its playoff committees are passing away. Only the things placed on that cross will stay. Only the righteousness which comes through faith in Christ attains the resurrection.

Zechariah’s Song

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Biblical Text: Luke 1:57-79

It is a short Advent Midweek season. Made shorter by our choosing to go caroling on a hay ride for Advent 3. So just a two sermon series. Which makes it perfect to meditate on the songs in Luke 1: Zechariah’s Song and Mary’s Song. This evening was Zechariah’s which is a nice summary of the old testament promises and how they are fulfilled in our hearing.

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Advent Experiences

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Biblical Text: Isaiah 64:1-9

It is the first Sunday of Advent. I typically use the traditional text for the Gospel lesson of the day, the Triumphal Entry or Palm Sunday. All the best Advent hymns for the day are keyed to that text. The story being told is the welcoming of the King. But I chose the Old Testament text to preach from today. This text is from the “third Isaiah” which I simple think of as the portion the prophet addresses to the those who have returned from exile yet find the experience not what was hoped for.

Isaiah’s plea feels like the plea of all those who believe they have the answers but are ignored. “Would that you would rend the heavens and come down.” It is not the lament of unbelief, nor is it the prayer of those persecuted. It is the cry of the dismissed. It is the ask of those more zealous for the Lord than maybe the Lord himself. Think Joshua running to Moses about Eldad and Medad. Or James and John seeking fire from heaven on a volunteer disciple. The plea is not in itself sinful, but we should examine our motivations. Do we desire God’s presence that we might be proved right over our enemies? Or do we desire it for the sake of His promises? This sermon meditates on faith, the promises of God and our desire to seem them in power.

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Liminal Time

There is a word I love – liminal. Yes, nobody knows what it means. Or, you all do, just not as that word, but as a gut feeling. It means a sensory threshold. A liminal sound would be one that you can barely hear. A liminal vision is that one just on the horizon. But my favorite use, and probably its most common use, is in regards to things of the Spirit. A liminal space is that sense of walking on holy ground, or the other way might be “walking past the graveyard.” A liminal time is usually only noticed in hindsight. My middle child is in something of one right now in college applications. As an old guy I can recognize it. For him, it just expresses itself as procrastination. That’s a common way to know you are in a liminal state, you procrastinate. You are trying to stay in the known, not willing to give way to the unknown just yet. Liminal states are necessarily scary, because what is on the other side is unknown or at least unexperienced.

Advent for me has always been a liminal time. The old year is passing away; the new thing is coming. You have things like congregational meetings. You prepare budgets. Officers are renewed. In the church year sense the old has already passed away, but Advent is a strange season even on the church calendar. It was added as a season of preparation for the staggering mystery of the incarnation. Sometimes that preparation was penitential. John the Baptist appears twice in Advent with his calls to repent and warnings about what is to come. I often try to imagine what a John the Baptist would look like today and usually fail to come up with anything convincing. The Baptist is a liminal figure proclaiming things are about to change dramatically, repent in preparation. That penitential sense is usually captured in the purples of the season. But the liminal nature of Advent to me is not so much about those purples, which are constant in this life, as about the blues. They are the blues of right before dawn. It is still night, but the sun is just below the horizon. As we sang at the end of last Sunday, “The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns.”

And that is what the historic text for the first Sunday of Advent shows us, Jesus on Palm Sunday entering Jerusalem. Anytime the King arrives it is a liminal space because the King has absolute authority. His word is law. But approaching the King is always scary because you don’t know the ruling. But that is part of why Jesus presents himself twice. The first time humbly, riding a donkey. The first time toward the cross, which addresses all our sins, so that we know the judgement. The second time to set us free. To set us free from those sins that still encumber us. To set us free from our fears of this liminal space.

Advent is the season we ponder living in a liminal space. Knowing and seeing what is on the horizon – the judgement and the New Jerusalem, the King arriving in power not grace. Yet, that dawn is not yet. Today is still the day of grace. Today the King still comes humbly, as a little child, as that knocking at your heart. It is a liminal space that says “repent and believe, for you salvation comes quickly.” A liminal space that reminds us “all idols than shall perish and Satan’s lying cease, and Christ shall raise his scepter, decreeing endless peace.” A Great and Mighty wonder lies just beyond this liminal time.

I, I Myself Will Rescue

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Biblical Text: Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 20-24 (Matthew 25:31-46)

This was the Last Sunday of the church year. In the wordle picture over the last few weeks I’ve been making the green (the color of the season) darker and starting to bleed in the blues and purples of Advent. The Last Sunday is given over to the contemplation of Christ the King and more specifically the judgement. That is the Gospel lesson. But in this sermon I wanted to jump off of the Old Testament text from Ezekiel. The gospel message is clearer. God himself sets out to save. The picture in Ezekiel is the sheep of God – the people of Israel – who have been abused in every way possible by their leadership of every stripe such that they have been scattered. God himself promises to be the Shepherd and retrieve them from everywhere they have been driven. The sermon meditates on how this has been fulfilled and what remains by faith.

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Types of Thanksgiving

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, – 1 Timothy 2:1 ESV

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, officially the best American Holiday in my book. I say that mostly for all the cliched reasons. It’s a day of hearth and home and football. It is a day that connects me with a childhood soundtrack that includes farm reports on the local AM radio and the end of harvest worries. It’s a day that doesn’t demand much. Christmas always tries to bum rush everything before it. Today the only thing standing in its way are the ghouls of Halloween. I never thought I’d find myself cheering for the zombies. Given two months run up, what is under the tree, even if it is a literal golden horde, doesn’t meet the hype. With Easter the American commercialization machine tried with the Bunny and some Cadbury Eggs to Santa Claus the Holy Day, but it just wasn’t able. The Schools moved breaks such that if you get Good Friday off you are fortunate, which I took as the cultural white flag. Easter remains a Holy Day, not a holiday. But that also means it isn’t really shared other than within the church. All Thanksgiving ever promised was a good meal and a pause. A pause that you can fill with whatever wells up within you.

Thanksgiving itself is of course a completely natural expression of the faith. If the people of God would not bring forth praise and thanksgiving, the stones would cry out. But the American Holiday isn’t technically on the church calendar. So every year when I think about a Thanksgiving service it is mostly about those hymns of harvest, hearth and home. But the big book of strong suggestions – that Altar Book – provides at least three modes of thanksgiving. There are texts and prayers associated with a simple Harvest Observance. There are texts and prayers stipulated for a Day of Thanksgiving. And there are texts and prayers for a Day of Supplication and Prayer.

I take those three categories as general buckets of what wells up within us. There is an internet invective – “Touch Grass” – that I find funny. It is telling the too online to log off and go outside. We were made to tend a garden originally. Even for the most city mouse imaginable, there is good in being connected to the rhythms of life. And one of those rhythms is the harvest. Knowing that when you sow, you will also reap. Knowing that you plant a seed and we know not how but it germinates and grows and provides a harvest – 30, 60 even 100 fold. Unless we have cut ourselves off from all things vital, a harvest celebration wells up good things.

The Day of Thanksgiving is more official. If the harvest is bottoms up, the Day of Thanksgiving is tops down. The American Presidents have a tradition of issuing Thanksgiving Proclamations. They existed prior of course, but George Washington issued a famous one. And these are completely appropriate. We can get wrapped up in work and play and life – like the 9 lepers – that we never stop for a second to reflect and return. Jesus, the King himself asks “where are the other nine?” Having a leadership wise enough to say “today, stop, take stock, enjoy the blessings and return appropriate gratitude” is good and right.

It is the last category that maybe we – the children of materially fat years – pass over too quickly, that day of supplication and prayer. Satan’s tricks are many. We don’t think about it, but the Northern Kingdom of Israel was the worldly successful one. They were fat, dumb and happy. It is the world before the flood. It is Sodom knocking on Lot’s door, so attractive that his wife turned around in lament even knowing what would happen. It is the merchants crying over Babylon in Revelation. They are no longer connected to the source of the rain that produces their prosperity. They no longer have officials wise enough to remind them to give thanks. But the prophet Joel shows up and tells them, “Yet even now return to me with all your heart…the LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love…who knows whether he will not turn and relent and leave behind him a blessing, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God. (Joel 2:12-14).” Thanksgiving in prayer and supplication is a renewal of the covenant. And the providence of God is always enough for his people.

Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hands and voices,

Who wonderous things has done, in whom His world rejoices;

Who from our mother’s arms Has blest us on our way

With countless gifts of love and still is ours today.

Thanksgiving 2023

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Thanksgiving is an interesting holiday. It is very close to the bone of the religious impulse, yet it is not on the church calendar, but declared by the civil magistrate. The US has a long history of those declarations. This sermon listens to parts of a couple of them and their wisdom in line with Moses to the Israelites (Deuteronomy 8:1-10) about to cross the Jordan and Jesus to the 10 lepers he had just healed (Luke 17:11-19).

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