The Good in Front of Us

I rarely appreciate the last three Sundays of the church year. I understand why their texts are full of the eschatological end of the world. The non-festival half of the church year is laid out from beginning to culmination, from Pentecost to Judgement. So, spending 3 out of 25 Sundays on last things doesn’t seem terribly out of proportion. The problem is honestly two-fold which I think the Apostle Paul gets around to addressing as he closes our Epistle lesson this week (2 Thessalonians 3:1-13). First, the “last things” – death, judgement, heaven and hell – are just too interesting. We know little about them, only what has been revealed by the prophets and Jesus. And even then most of that is in apocalyptic language which is always tough to decipher. But people repeatedly lose sight of what is before them while pondering those last things. And that is the two-fold problem: losing sight of what is before us because of things outside of our control or even understanding.

In both letters to the Thessalonians – letters which are assumed to be the first written parts of the New Testament – Paul has to address concerns about death, judgement, heaven and hell. People who accepted the faith have died. Did they miss something? Why did Christ not come back and take us? Where are they? Will we see them or did they miss out? Lots of tough important questions that had not been answered. And honestly the inherited Jewish tradition just didn’t have elaborate answers. Jesus himself gives an “eschatological sermon.” Our gospel lesson is the start of that from Luke. But unlike our popular fiction – say the Late Great Planet Earth or Left Behind or even Pope Francis’ favorite 19^th century Lord of the World – what Jesus says just doesn’t slake our desire to know. So we tend to collect the equivalent of the National Enquirer. What Paul says at the start of today’s epistle is the foundation of all Biblical apocalypse. “The LORD is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one (2 Thessalonians 3:3).” The promises of God are good. Whatever comes, your life, your eternal life, is safe with Christ. The various tyrants will rage at that, but they can do nothing but speed you on your way to God.

That truth should allow us to turn our attention away from those fascinating and foreboding end things. We know how it ends. Christ wins. We win with Christ. Knowing the end, should allow us to pay attention to what is before us. But we so often don’t. Paul addresses a problem among the Thessalonians. The Christians were the first to create a “community chest”, a food bank to support those down on their luck. But as in all these things people figure out ways to abuse it. In this case some of the Thessalonians, so fascinated by the last things, had given up work to prepare for them. They were relying on the food bank to support their fascination. “For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, nor bust at work, but busybodies (2 Thessalonians 3:11).” And the people of God are remarkably generous. It feels wrong to deny charity to someone in need regardless of the reason. We get this all the time in our political fights. “If you were a real Christian, you’d support this.”

The Apostle doesn’t have much time for such arguments. “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat…now such persons we command and encourage in the LORD Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living (2 Thessalonians 3:10,12).” Don’t lose sight of what is in front of you because of things outside of our control. You can’t control the end, although you know who does – Jesus. And he’s got you. The Christian has no religious debt to support those who won’t work.

At the same time though things are placed before us. “As for you, brothers, do no grow weary in doing good (2 Thessalonian 3:13).” Not everything can be dismissed as idleness. And even if you are supporting the idle, their fault does not steal the intent, the goodness, of the charity. We all have enough to do in one day without worrying about the next. Have faith in Jesus for the next. Do the good placed before you today.

Keep Awake

Biblical Text: Mark 13:24-37

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The last Sunday of the Church Year. The gospel reading was the second half of Jesus’ Apocalypse. It is in this part that I think Jesus is doing two things. First he is more fully answering the disciples two questions. After shocking them with the revelation that the temple would be destroyed, the disciples asked two questions. 1) When and 2) What are the signs? There is a base sense that everything Jesus says can be taken as answers to those questions. The second thing that Jesus is doing is letting that destruction of the Temple – the End of A World – stand in for the End of The World. And the reality that Jesus is revealing is that we all meet the End of A world. This sermon expands on that. Those experiences he calls the tribulation. “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened… (Mk. 13:24 ESV).” After the tribulation comes the end. We ask for the signs in the hope of skipping or mitigating the tribulation. But that isn’t what it is for. The tribulation is there so we might learn to trust God and his faithfulness. The sermon also expands on that. Instead, how do we live in such times? Jesus ends his apocalypse with the parable. “A man is going on a journey, and he leaves his servants in charge of the house, each to his own work…”. How do we live? We do the work of the house. When Jesus says stay awake, that is what he means. The sermon also expands on this, that we might stay awake.

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Better than Fairness

Biblical Text: Matthew 20:1-16 (Fuller text: Matthew 19-20)

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The entire life of Jesus is a revelation of the heart of God, so the Matthew 19 text is a glimpse into how Jesus treats all of his children which is as individual souls and mindful of their eternal fate. Which is nothing like our modern obsessions with care and fairness. And I don’t really want to be too hard on care and fairness. Because it is not that God doesn’t care, or that he isn’t fair. It is that his care and fairness so exceed ours as to make us look like barbarians.

God’s care is not about indulging our temporal and usually spiritual desires. God’s care is his eternal faithfulness. When God promises something, you can take it to the bank. Hell is perfectly fair. The punishment always fits the crime. God is graceful, granting to us what we don’t deserve.

So in this time of work, this time under the cross, God’s care and fairness and seem contrary to ours. But that is because we don’t understand what we have been given. We don’t understand the joy of working in THE vineyard. That is what this sermon attempts to think about. How God has given us so much more and better than what our hard hearts would demand.

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God’s Work; Our Growth

Biblical Text: Mark 4:26-34
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The year preaching on the Gospel according to Mark is one of the most interesting. Mark’s gospel has the most cryptic and odd parts. It is no wonder that the current reigning academic model puts Mark as the earliest. It makes sense that some thing like today’s parable or last Sunday’s visit by Mary would be smoothed out later. It makes sense, but I’m not personally convinced. Of the four gospels Mark simply seems to have a sense of the absurd. How crazy and paradoxical and wonderful at the same time life and the God of life actually is. This sermon attempts to ponder the odder of the seed parables. “The earth produces by itself.” It invites you to think of it as a parable of the work of the Spirit. God doesn’t seem to know what he is doing – “he sleeps and rise night and day”, “he scatters everywhere” – but the plants grow and produce a harvest. The Kingdom of God can be absurd that way, but it is God’s work. And he grants us the growth.

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Loaded Camels

Biblical Text: Mark 10:23-31
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This sermon is the continuation of last week’s gospel lesson (Mark 10:17-22). The focus in the text is on the difference, the astonishing reversal of the values of the Kingdom of God. That reversal gets everyone’s attention, but that reversal is put to sharp use. The full weight of the law is brought to bear in the saying “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom.” What wealth really does, as the lesson for the day from Ecclesiastes knows, is increase our responsibilities. The weight of the law becomes greater. The camel gets its full load. At the same time we become convinced that we are good at this, after all look at all we have. Jesus call out the huge mistake in that thinking. But he then tells us what the eye of the needle is. It is his promise. All things are possible for God. You will have treasure in heaven. You will be paid back 100-fold. Not in a prosperity gospel way. In this appointed time that comes with persecutions, but in the age to come eternal life. We enter life because God is good, and he has made salvation available by faith. Trusting in the work of Jesus and not our work. He is so good that he has extended to us the change to participate in that gospel. And that participation is part of our proof, part of the return.

Program Note: This is a re-recording. I messed up the original. So you don’t get any of the great hymns we sang. My guess is that you wouldn’t hear these at most American congregations. They are gems of the faith, but supposedly not what is “relevant”. Although given the text the are spot on. We opened with Lutheran Service Book 730 – What is the World to Me. The hymn of the day, was Lutheran Service Book 753 – All for Christ I have Forsaken. That link is not a informative because it is a newer hymn. But here is another congregation singing this haunting hymn from you tube.

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Text of Funeral Sermon for Charlie Gruschow

I almost didn’t get through this one…

Biblical Texts: Isaiah 49:13-16, Romans 5:1-5 and Matthew 11:28-30
Introduction
Charlie Gruschow was a fixture here at St. Mark’s. And I say that in more ways than one. He was a fixture as a greeter handing out bulletins on Sunday morning. Being the youngest of a large family, he was a great talker with a twinkle in his eye. A bit of rogue-ish charm. The family name is on the stained glass windows right there. He was never a junior, but Charles is also on there. And there is a great story about that organ. Charlie saw the bank account going down and took it upon himself to, and I’m quoting, “get something before the buffoons spent it all”. Charlie’s in the fixtures, and I’ve often reflected that when I stumbled across something fine or of good quality, Charlie was behind it. He didn’t go for junk.

He didn’t do that around church. Charlie didn’t do that in jobs he did. He was always willing to help and do the work.

Now I suppose that same unabashedness and charm combined with those high standards might have led to some confrontations over his years. Charlie was his own man and had his own opinions. That conflict continued in some ways in his later years as instead of battling things external Charlie started battling his own body. When work – like mowers and blades and tractors – that you’ve lined up just can’t be done, it grated. It sucks, when your own gait can’t measure up to your standards.

Gospel in the Life

But let me suggest that Charlie understood something very important.

Peace didn’t come easily to Charlie, he worked. He expected to work. I expect that was why he was here, even hobbling, almost every Sunday. In the midst of a life of work, He knew he needed the grace. In an era full of cheap grace – lowered standards, denial of culpability – Charlie would have none of it. He was plainspoken, even if the plain speech pointed at himself. He might not have shared that with everyone, he was a man of his time, but he didn’t spare himself. And he needed the real grace – the grace that is only available through Jesus Christ.
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God.” Charlie needed that. When the work was beyond him, he was strong enough to take God’s peace declared on that cross. And due to his standards he knew the full measure of what that cross offered…of what that cross offers you.

Conclusion
I have to admit something, my prayers for older folks who have major surgery are often two-fold. Typically I ask for healing and restoration, but I also usually ask that God’s peace might be with them. My prayers were selfish with Charlie, I wanted him back. One more story, a couple of months ago at men’s club, Charlie started telling of one of those confrontations that happened roughly 20 years ago. An elder of the congregation had stopped by and somehow had expressed the thought or feeling that he was fine if God took him. That offended Charlie and that day that elder was practically thrown out of Charlie’s house. But at this retelling I got the feeling Charlie was telling it not as a saga of old, but as a current reflection.

Charlie’s passing was a shock – to the doctors and to us. I was too engrossed in my selfish prayers. But Charlie heard Jesus – “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He was willing to put down the yoke he had pulled so long.

Charlie put that down, not in weakness, but in hope. Suffering produces endurance, and endurance character, and character hope. And Charlie was full of hope. Charlie knew that we who are buried with Christ in baptism will also be raised with him. We are engraved in the palm of His hand, and our walls our bodies will stand before Him. Resurrected bodies no longer bent by the work, but eternal dwellings full of grace.

So, the work remains our task, and we do not have Charlie to pull it anymore. But his witness remains with us as well. In the grace of Jesus, we stand. In the Hope of the Glory of God, we rejoice. (Rom 5:2) Amen.