|
|
|
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Wausau, Wisconsin
The Day of Pentecost
May 23, 2010
Receive the Holy Spirit
Acts of the Apostles 2: 1-21
The Rev. Gary L. Froseth
Dear friends: Grace be to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
How can I know?
How can I know whether this mornings confirmands have learned the lessons that I have tried to teach them over these past two years. I can drill them with questions (and I have). I might test them (but I havent done very much testing this year). I could conduct the kind of public examination that many of you endured (but I wont). For none of those techniques really helps us to know know in the sense of a confidence in the grace of God that might change their lives.
How can I know.
How can I know whether the promises that this mornings confirmands will make are really their promises before God? Or, are they just some words that the preacher requires and that their parents insist on to get them, finally, out of this every-Wednesday-evening/every-Sunday-morning confirmation merry-go-round. Coming before the altar of God, they will speak words of promise like so many do in this room (all parents and sponsors of the newly baptized, all new husbands and wives, every person who affiliates with this congregation). But, as often as you have been at worship and heard the words spoken, neither you nor I can really know whether the words will work in peoples hearts to change their lives or not.
How can we know?
How can we know when the Spirit of God is at work in our lives? When we read the biblical accounts, the Spirits work in peoples lives seems to be very obvious. Were told that the disciples heard the sound of the wind, that they acquired an ability to speak in a way that was understood by people from many other parts of the world.
Imagine the ease of witness when the words can be understood by those who speak Spanish or Hmong or French or German or Japanese. In their preaching, they found that they suddenly had an enthusiasm for the gospel that led non-believers to dismiss them as, somehow, drunk. But, through eyes of faith, the biblical witness provides us with the conclusion that all this was evidence of their having been filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.
What about with us? How can we know when the Spirit of God is at work in our lives?
Maybe it is when God stirs faith in the parents of a young infant to bring him/her into the life of the Church through the sacrament of Holy Baptism.
Maybe it is when God gives perseverance to five of our young people to engage in a course of Christian education for two years until they come to a point where they can affirm for themselves the promises that were received for them at the time of their baptism.
Maybe it is on any Sunday when God moves a person to attend worship who has not experienced that as a part of his/her regular, weekly routine.
Might it be that we see the power of the Spirit of God moving through this room on numerous occasions when children are brought forward for baptism.
Might it be that we will see the power of the Spirit of God move through this room to rekindle faith in these five young people.
Might it be that each of us will allow our faith to be so warmed by what we see here that we will long to remain amongst the coals that God has established as the Church.
I hope so. I hope that every Sunday even every day in the life of a Christian is a day when eyes of faith are open to see the work of the Spirit of God.
I like the imagery of fire and coals and kindling that accompany our talk of the work of the Holy Spirit. The story is told of a pastoral visit that Martin Luther made to the home of one of his parishioners on a cold, German evening. Apparently, the parishioner told Dr. Luther that he really had no need for worship or the Church to keep his faith alive. I dont know if the conversation got around to the hypocrisy in the Church, might it might have.
Interestingly, the explosive Dr. Luther made no reply. Instead, he got up, picked up one of the mans fireplace implements, used it to take one of the coals out of the fire, and placed that coal by itself up on the mantel. Luther sat back down and, without any words spoken with his host, watched as the fire went out of the separated coal and it grew cold.
I know how much easier it seems to be to resist that persistent invitation from Gods Holy Spirit than it is to submit to the invitation, to come into the community of the Church, and to worship the Christ. As time slips away from us in the conduct of our busy lives (Im going to get to Church when things calm down, I think, ah, maybe, next week). As time slips away from us in the conduct of our busy lives, it can quickly become apparent that we have been away from worship for months, then years not just weeks and the desire to return gets all tangled-up in the guilt of having stayed away.
In our tendency to put things off, we find that our children have grown to be several years old not just several months old and the desire to bring them to the services of Gods house where they can learn the Lords Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments becomes more and more of a risk. Ive been away for so long, what will people think? We set up such conflict in our minds that we become almost afraid to return.
But, today, on the birthday of the Church, the Spirit has taken the initiative for you, taken the coal that is each of us off the mantel and returned it into the fire of worship.
Many of the promises that are made in the front of this room are promises about worship. Parents and sponsors promise to bring their children, faithfully, to the services of Gods house. We pray that, by coming with those children, parents and sponsors might teach them by example as well as by their words. In a few moments, five of our number will come to the rail and promise to live among Gods faithful people, to hear (Gods) Word and (to) share in (the Lords) supper. It is the same promise made by every person who accepts membership in this congregation.
A lot of talk about worship. For some it will only be talk and I will miss them after today we will all miss them. But I am convinced as I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit that others will feel the bellows of that Spirit blowing across them and the ember within them will become a blazing fire.
Oh, that everyone of us might feel the warmth of faith. I believe that to be the reason for Gods creation of the Church to be Gods instrument in stirring those of us who have grown cold during the course of a week out in the world, to bring us back into the center of the fire.
Many of those in this room have been committed to provide that stirring for each other for many, many years and we recommit ourselves to that work again this morning. It is our work as the people of God gathered to be the Church. What better birthday present can we give? What better birthday present can we have? Amen.
Copyright © 2010 The Rev. Gary L. Froseth
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Wausau, Wisconsin
The Seventh Sunday of Easter
May 16, 2010
We Have (Already) Been Saved
Acts of the Apostles 16:16-34
The Rev. Gary L. Froseth
Dear friends: Grace be to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Wednesdays headline in USA Today read: Oil Spill Testimony to Congress: Dont Blame Us. Three executives from huge international firms couldnt wait to point the finger of blame at anyone other than themselves. Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming expressed his frustration with the testimony of the executives with these words: I hear one message, and that message is: Dont blame me.
Im not sure that passing the buck is limited to high-powered corporate executives. I have a sense that it has become a characteristic of our culture. Those of you who are old enough to remember Flip Wilson, probably also remember the blame line that he made famous. Nothing was ever his fault, instead, he said, the devil made me do it.
If I hadnt gone public with my intention to preach from the Acts of the Apostles during this Easter season, I might have ignored todays First Lesson. The sermon has not come easily this week. My struggle with the passage has been in trying to figure out what is the level of guilt in our society. My initial, gut reaction was that we have lost a healthy sense of guilt, that we have become unwilling to take personal responsibility for all the ways in which we fall short of Jesus standard that we love God and love our neighbor.
But, while I think that is true for a segment of the population even in our churches, I guess Im not willing to cast it as an indictment over the whole of society.
The portion of this text that draws my attention is the jailers frantic question of Paul and Silas: Sirs, what must I do to be saved. It interests me because Im not sure whether it is a question that most people ask anymore. But am I reading too much into the question. I read the question through my Lutheran perspective. Because it is in the Bible, I read the question theologically. Yet, after some considerable thought and struggle this week, I think I have come to the conclusion that it was not posed as a theological question. I dont believe that the jailer was asking about how to get to heaven.
The jailer was worried about his job. He was worried about losing his life. Apparently, Roman law mandated that if a prisoner escaped, then the jailer must suffer the penalty that the prisoner would have suffered. Therefore, if anyone inside his jail had been convicted of a capital offense, the jailer faced the very real possibility of losing his life in the event of a mass escape.
Pauls immediate concern was to stop this man from taking his own life. The damage that the earthquake caused in his jail, had filled the man with a fear of what would happen to him had there been a mass escape. And so, I think that his question had more to do with the real-life consequences of his failure as a jailer than it had to do with life in the Kingdom of God.
What must I do to be saved? Luther approached the question out of his own sensitive, introspective conscience. He felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. He felt besieged by the power of the devil. He could take Flip Wilsons comedy and write a treatise about how the devil was stealing away his very soul. When Luther explained the meaning of each of the Ten Commandments, his focus was to convict us of our sin. He wanted to raise an awareness of guilt within us so that we might be overwhelmed with gratitude for the great sacrifice of Jesus on the cross accomplished especially for each one of us.
The jailer wasnt there yet. At the point of Pauls intervention, he was still afraid for his job and for his life. His desire, I think, was to be saved from his boss.
We get that dont we? What must I do to be saved? might just be the question asked by 10.6% of the people in Marathon County who are unemployed and dont know how they are going to scrap up enough money for the mortgage or the rent or what they will do if they are faced with a health crisis before they get back on their employers group health plan. Salvation most-times is a real-life question.
What must I do to be saved? might just be the question asked by the high school student who struggles to get grades that will be good enough to get him/her into college. I think that kids face a kind of pressure that is far greater than what I experienced at that age. What is required for people to like me? What grade point average is necessary for my life to be meaningful? How and where do I fit in? Salvation is a real-life question.
What must I do to be saved? might just be the question asked by either the husband or wife in a marriage gone bad. What happens between the bliss of the wedding ceremony and the brokenness of separation and divorce. No matter how much we try to assign blame, sometimes it is just life that happens. Only the most conniving of men and women go into a marriage thinking that it will fail. Instead, jobs are demanding. Money if there is enough of it is hard to manage. Egos get in the way of compromise. Communication breaks down. Raising children is not an easy task. When joy gives way to frustration and anger, once again, salvation is a real-life question.
So how does the Church deal with the real-life questions of 21st century people. If Acts is about how ministry is done, about how Christ is proclaimed in the world, then what does this text teach us about the real-life question that confronts Paul and Silas in their jail cell?
Paul responds on two levels both to the immediacy of the mans fear and then to the theological implications of his life on this earth. The immediate level of response is: dont overreact. The mans first impulse was to take his own life. But Paul corrects the assumptions that are causing the jailer to panic. Sometimes, we are tempted by negativity which makes real-life seem worse than it really is:
Even though there may be only a very little light on the horizon, job losses arent forever. Economies do improve. There are social safety-nets to help us through difficult times. And, maybe, it is an opportunity to change the focus of ones life.
A failure on this weeks math test does not mean that one is a failure as a person, there are tutors who can help work through stuff that his hard-to-understand.
The presence of conflict does not imply the absence of love. Quite the opposite. Any meaningful relationship, by definition, is going to include conflict. What is important is marriage is keeping the conflict at a healthy level and getting help to learn how to resolve conflicts that might threaten the love that brought a couple together in the first place.
Salvation is possible in real-life situations when we can prevent people from over-reacting, change assumptions that are not true, and provide a more positive way to think about what faces us.
Then, when the immediacy of the crisis is controlled, Paul responds on a theological level. What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus. Not everybody gets it. OK, Pastor, Ill just note that on my resume and Im sure that the job offers will come pouring in. It feels irrelevant when Im a jailer who is faced with the possibility of a death sentence because an earthquake shook off the chains of my prisoners.
But the salvation that is ours in Jesus Christ is totally relevant once we can begin to embrace the beauty of baptism. Luthers great contribution was to remind us of the truth of Romans 3:24 where Paul writes that we are now (saved Pauls uses the word justified but they mean the same thing, saved) by (Gods) grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
It is a salvation that reminds us that our value is not dependent upon whether we have gainful employment. It is a salvation that reminds us that our value is not dependent on how we do in school, that reminds us that our value is not dependent on our success or failure in human relationships.
Just like the pagan jailer of Philippi, we are baptized children of God. We have already been saved. Taking the blame is no big deal for us because we have already been washed in the blood of the lamb. When we come forward to the table of the Lord in a few moments, we will receive the gifts of his body and blood which have been given and shed for the forgiveness of our sin. Guilt need trouble us no longer. For by the grace of almighty God, we have (already) been saved. Amen
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Wausau, Wisconsin
The Fourth Sunday of Easter
April 22/25, 2010
Dare We
Acts of the Apostles 9:36-43
The Rev. Gary L. Froseth
Dear friends: Grace be to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
When Mohandas Gandhi returned to his native India in 1915, he was determined to do something about the social stratification of Indias caste system. The caste system was a method of segregating the Indian population into about 3,000 different social classes. At the bottom of that system were the so-called Untouchables. Gandhi renamed them harijans or children of God.
Imagine the life of one who was labeled as untouchable. They were not allowed to enter into places of worship. They were not allowed to use the same wells as those in the higher castes. They were not allowed to touch those who were higher than themselves. In fact, they were required to sit at a distance. They were not allowed to come into contact even with the shadow of one in the higher castes.
I bring up untouchables as a way to connect you with those in this mornings First Lesson who are the focus of Tabithas ministry. First century widows were in an awful fix. Old Testament law attempted to protect a woman by ensuring that she was always connected with a man first her father, then her husband, after that maybe her sons, or even her husbands brothers.
That connection was the only way for her to survive. She had no way to provide for herself. A woman by herself widows in this text would have a terrible time just trying to stay alive.
Dorcas was their benefactor. I will use the names Tabitha and Dorcas interchangeably today to refer to the same person. The name means Gazelle: called Tabitha in Hebrew or Aramaic and Dorcas in the Greek language.
The text tells us that she was devoted to good works and acts of charity. The description of her as disciple in this text is the only time anywhere in the biblical story that disciple appears in its feminine form.
Her sudden death caused a sense of panic among the members of her church (referred to as the saints in this text). It caused a sense of panic among the widows who she has sustained in her ministry.
They prepare her body for burial but do not take that final step. It is as if her departure from them is too terrible to imagine. They place her cleansed body in an upper room and they send for Peter, asking that he come to them without delay.
When Peter arrives, the widows show him (they dont tell him they show him) the importance of Tabitha for the ministry of the church. They show him the clothing that Dorcas has made for them. Understand, they are not bringing Peter to any clothes closet. The very clothes that they are wearing have only been made available to them because of Dorcas. Their weeping is not just an expression of their grief over the loss of their benefactor. They dont know, at this moment, what is going to become of them. They dont know how they are going to survive.
At this point in Acts, Peter is the embodiment of the Church of Jesus Christ and this story is a parable of the importance of our ministry to those who are on the very edges of society, to those who dont know from one day to the next whether they have the wherewithal to survive.
Mary talked about it on that marvelous day when she announced her pregnancy to cousin, Elizabeth:
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
. . . He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and has sent the rich away empty.
Jesus talked about it in his very first sermon ever:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lords favor.
We get confused sometimes about what church is. I suspect that it has nothing to do with the building of buildings. We think that church is something that we go to, that ministry is limited to what happens in this room.
That is so far removed from everything that Mary believed about church or that Jesus believed about church or that Dorcas believed about being a disciple in the Church of Jesus Christ at Joppa. The Old Testament prophet Amos said:
I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them; . . . .
Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters, And righteousness like an everflowing stream.
God isnt terribly impressed with what we do in this room. It doesnt matter whether we sing the Kyrie or use Setting 243 of the ELW. It doesnt matter if the reader mispronounces a word or if Mrs. Jones didnt dress very well today. The Church doesnt exist for the sake of those of us in this room.
Every congregation I have ever known about has had a Dorcas Circle. We honor her because of the way she took the Church out of the building and made it real in the lives of those who were the most vulnerable. That happens here. Every Thursday, there is a devoted corps of µ±è ôñéá (that is the Greek feminine for disciple ) of µ±è ôñéá who, by the end of this week, will have made another 300 quilts for the sake of those who find themselves vulnerable for reasons that we may never know.
But I wonder whether a ministry to the most vulnerable among us can be the very reason for our existence. Jesus came into the world and called us to be his own presence in this place because the world isnt fair, because a voice is needed on behalf of those who live in circumstances that cause God to grieve because, in Gods eyes, all people count for something whether they be untouchables or widows or tax collectors or sinners or the working poor or the homeless or those with persistent illness all people count for something. There are no throwaways.
Can Jesus own mission be the reason for the existence of the whole Church on earth and, especially, for this congregation.
Dare we speak the Word of the Lord, even when it makes people squirm.
Dare we allow ordinary people to proclaim truth to those who are powerful.
Dare we change peoples lives.
Dare we celebrate what is lowly and despised in the world to bring to naught the things that are.
Dare we be Jesus for those most vulnerable among us.
Dare we be Tabitha: disciples who are so committed to those Jesus loves that worship is more than sitting through a one hour service, instead . . .
it is making quilts,
it is serving food,
it is calling legislators,
it is entering into relationship with those who we dont really want to be our friends.
it is abandoning popularity for the sake of what we know to be right.
Dare we be any of those things for the sake of this community?
When Peter came to Tabithas bedside, he did more than just kneel down and pray. He spoke words of encouragement to her, encouraging words, Tabitha, get up. Then, he gave her his hand and helped her up.
Today we have been given a parable of the life-changing ministry of the Church. Peter and Dorcas show us a Church that comes to those in its community who are most at risk. Then this Church stands beside them, prays for them, takes them by the hand and helps them up.
Dare we be that church for this community? Amen.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Wausau, Wisconsin
The Second Sunday of Easter
April 8/11, 2010
Courage, Principle, Action
Acts of the Apostles 5:27-32
The Rev. Gary L. Froseth
Dear friends: Grace be to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Todays First Lesson picks up a story that has been going on for at least 15 verses. Were you confused by the opening line of this lesson: When they had brought them? It is the kind of beginning that leaves listeners with no idea about who the writer is talking about. Who are the theys and who are the thems? It is an important story. Let me bring you up-to-date.
Acts advances the story from where the church is liturgically. But, since I want to spend some time in Acts during these weeks, I hope you will be patient if, liturgically, we wait for a number of weeks before celebrating Jesus Ascension into heaven (32 days from now) and the arrival of Gods gift of the Holy Spirit (42 days from now), while in my sermons I pretend as if those things have already happened.
By the time we get to Acts, chapter 5, those things have already happened: Jesus has already left this earth and the Holy Spirit has already empowered the Church. By the time we get to Acts, chapter 5, the apostles are gaining some notoriety for their work in Jerusalem. Verse 15 reports that people have carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peters shadow might fall on some of them as he came by.
The authorities fear some future trouble. Verse 17 reports that the high priest took action. He arrests the apostles and puts them in jail because they are in violation of the instructions he gave them back in chapter 4 when he ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
Here, I think, is where the story will come back to you. In the 10 verses before todays First Lesson, an angel releases the apostles from their prison cell and instructs them to go back out and tell the people the whole message about (Jesus) life. They do exactly that. And so the they in todays lesson is the temple police. The them is the apostles. Now, they are back in front of the council for their refusal to stop telling the story of Jesus.
Are the apostles intimidated by this summons from the powerful and learned council? They probably should have been. Even the members of the council (we learn early in chapter 4) recognized that these leaders of the Church were uneducated and ordinary men.
Yet the apostles were not at all intimidated by this turn of events. Because they saw in this arrest, and they saw in this trial, and they saw in this attempt to silence them and put them under the control of the local authorities, they saw an opportunity to preach the gospel even to their persecutors. The saw this as another manifestation of the work of the Holy Spirit who had placed them in this situation and placed them in the midst of these, particular people, for the purpose of testifying to all that God had done in the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, of Jesus of Christ.
What tremendous courage they displayed, what tremendous courage. After getting thrown into jail, the command to go straight back and continue to preach in the Temple, to go straight back and do the very thing that you were ordered not to do, to go straight back and do the very thing that got you thrown into jail in the first place, to go straight back and do that again sounds, to a prudent mind, to be almost incredible, almost incredible. And yet they went. And yet they went.
Can we bring that same kind of courage to our witness? I think, with confidence in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be just as courageous as any Christian has ever been in the whole history of the Church. I think we can. I think we can.
Sometimes, what causes us to pray for courage is perceived by others as simple hospitality, or as an act of friendship, or as an openness to care. We gather up our courage just to introduce ourselves to one who we havent noticed at worship before because . . . what if . . . they have been a member here for 30 years and are offended? Its OK, theyll tell you. It wont hurt.
We gather up our courage to invite a friend or a neighbor or a relative to come with us to worship because . . . what if . . . they attend at another church or they hate religion or they think Im some sort of religious nut, or whatever. Its OK, theyll tell you. It wont hurt.
We gather up our courage to stop and visit or bring a casserole or make a phone call to someone who has been ill or grieving or in need of some human companionship because . . . what if . . . they think Im nosy or they dont want anyone to know or they think Im some goody-two-shoes or something. Its Ok, they may or may not tell you. And, you will feel better for the effort.
None of it is going to get us sent off to jail. Usually, we just have to get over worrying about what other people will think of us and go out and do what we know is right, to do what God commands and expects of us. The apostles showed us that the ministry of the church is about courage.
Im also impressed with the way that the apostles remained true to their principles through this whole encounter. The principle that guided their behavior was: that in all circumstances obedience to God must come first. They never asked, is this course of action safe? Instead, they asked, is this what God wants me to do?
It amazes me how much there is in life that comes between us and what we already know that God wants us to do.
Jesus taught me to be concerned for the poor . . . but what if following that principle causes my tax bill to go up.
The 7th commandment instructs me to explain my neighbors actions in the kindest way . . . but, for some unexplained reason, it feels better to join with the rest of the group in criticizing everything that everybody else does.
Jesus was very clear about the necessity for people who have an abundance to share with those who do not. Remember what he said? Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise. But we let our economics get in the way of our Christian principles. We let our desire for stuff get in the way of our willingness to share. We shop as a type of leisure activity.
What would happen in our lives, what would happen in the world, if we evaluated our daily activities according to our Christian principles? What would happen if we lived according to what we say we believe? What would happen if our behavior was that, in all circumstances, obedience to God must come first. What would happen if our first question in every instance was simply, is this what God wants me to do? The apostles showed us that the ministry of the church is about remaining true to our principles.
There is one, final lesson that I gleaned from the actions of the apostles in this story. They had a clear idea of their function. They knew that they were witnesses for Christ and it was impossible to stop them because it is impossible to stop the truth.
Unfortunately, the lectionary jumps around the book of Acts during the Easter season so I need to clue you in on the reaction of one of the Pharisees in the paragraph that immediately follows todays text. It is the reaction of Gamaliel who, Acts tells us, is a teacher of the law, respected by all the people. He cautions the council to be careful in their handling of Peter and the apostles for this reason (from Acts 5:38b-39): if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them in that case you may even be found fighting against God! What a prophetic statement. Through 20 centuries now, the gospel message has not failed. To ignore it is, surely, and demonstrably, contrary to the will and plan of God.
Nothing short of his own death could stop Peter and the others from telling what they knew to be the truth: that Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know this man, . . . you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.
How many of us have that clear an idea of our function as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ? I pray regularly for that sense of clarity in my own life, in the life of this congregation, and in the lives of Christians throughout the world.
It is only because of the clarity of those apostles, only because of the clarity of generation after generation after generation of believers throughout the history of the world, only because of that commitment to the truth of the gospel, that I have been able to hear and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I know, from my study of history, that the light of the gospel has not always shined with the brilliance that it deserves. There are been times when the light has been dimmed by all kinds of different circumstances sometimes by the curse of affluence. There have been times when the light of truth has been forced underground. But it is impossible to stop the truth. Gamaliel could not have imagined the impact of his prophecy all of those centuries ago: if this proclamation is of God, it will not be stopped to attempt such a thing would cause a person to be found fighting against God!
The church of this new century has so much to learn from the ministries that have been recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. I am going to cherish the opportunity to preach from these texts during the next six weeks. I want, for us, the sense of passion and commitment that these first Christians showed after Jesus left them. I want for each of us the courage, the sense of principle, and the clarity of purpose that built a Church which has flourished through the centuries and has brought us to faith in Jesus of Nazareth, who God raised from the dead, and who continues to reign as Lord of each our lives. I want all of that for us. Amen.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Wausau, Wisconsin
The Resurrection of Our Lord
April 4, 2010
Remember
Luke 24: 1-12
The Rev. Gary L. Froseth
Dear friends: Grace be to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Do you ever get those chain e-mails that you must be over 40; or over 50; or over 60 if you remember certain things.
I havent gotten one in a while. Since chain e-mails dont usually avoid my delete button for very long, I dont actually have one to share with you. But, they are intended to bring back another time from your memory, like . .
Do you remember what you were doing when you heard that President Kennedy died or when President Roosevelt died?
Do you remember catching lightening bugs in a jar?
Do you remember sugar sandwiches?
Do you remember a milkman who delivered milk to your home in a glass bottle?
Do you remember, if I told you once, I told you a thousand times?
Do you remember . . .
star light, star bright, first star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.
Do you remember dialing a telephone?
I dont know about you but Im convinced that I never once heard the words, if I told you once, I told you a thousand times and decided that I would remember them. More likely, I later heard the words come out of my own lips and chuckled to myself about how I had become my own father.
Thats how it is with remembering. If I want to be sure to forget something, I need only to tell myself to be sure and remember it. It is those things that I never thought about remembering which today come back to bring richness and meaning to my life.
Apparently, that is also how it was with the women who made the journey to Jesus tomb on that first Easter morning. They saw something that they didnt understand and were immediately filled with fear. The body of their teacher, their leader, which they had so carefully entombed just prior to the Sabbath was not where they had laid it.
Something must have gone terribly wrong and they couldnt imagine what it could be. The men in the tomb, with their dazzling clothes could only have frightened them more. They found themselves on their knees with their faces in the ground when, suddenly, that most important of words was spoken to them: remember.
Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again. I wonder what came first to mind after they heard those words:
Maybe it was their own disbelief when Jesus first made the dramatic prediction.
Maybe it was the bold reaction of Peter when Jesus had to identify him as satanic to get Peter back into his proper place.
Maybe it was the general confusion that surrounded such a prediction as Jesus own followers struggled to understand the meaning of his words.
Whatever their reaction had been when Jesus first made those predictions of his passion, it was a prediction that, at the time, made no sense to them. It was a promise without any meaning. It was only after the promise had already been fulfilled, it was only after the events that Jesus predicted had already come to pass, it was only after their discovery of the empty tomb, that the eyes of these women could finally be opened, that they could remember the promise in a new way, and they could react with the joy of a people who have received the fullness of the grace of
God.
I believe that we hear the story of Jesus in much the same way as just a story. In all honesty, we are much more interested in the celebrations of our church festivals than in the stories that lay behind those festivals. We put up with the story of the manger so that we can get on with the celebration of Christmas. We take note of the story of the passion so that we can move quickly to the eggs of Easter. We put up with the quirks of the Church so that, through the rituals of the Church, we can mark the important events of our lives through baptisms, confirmations, weddings, and funerals. For the story is about a future promise and that doesnt always seem very real to those of us who deal with the uncertainties of life in the present.
Yet, even when their life together indicated to Jesus that his followers would not be able to understand the meaning of his words, he still shared the prediction of his passion with them. Again and again he told them. Not to answer their questions or to provide a theological explanation or even to bring them to faith.
He told them because, one day, they would need to remember. He told them for the sake of the day to come when the reality of fulfillment would help them to remember the promise under which they had lived for many years.
That is also the purpose of this day that is the reason for the existence of the Church: to tell the story.
We are here to say again that in the course of human history, God sent one into the world who we know as Jesus of Nazareth.
We are here to say again that this Jesus is the only person ever born who has lived a sinless life.
We are here to say again that, despite his godliness, Jesus was rejected, suffered a vicious execution, was buried, and on the third day was raised from the dead.
We are here to say again that the purpose of Jesus innocent suffering and death was in payment for our failings.
We are here to say again that because he lives, we too are heirs of Gods promise of life.
We say all of these words in the hope that one day, all who hear the words will remember them and, finally, will understand. For they are words of such impact for the course of individual lives that we cant possibly understand them when we hear them. They are much more like all those experiences we remember from childhood, the significance of which we couldnt possibly have guessed as we were living them. But in our remembrance of them, we now understand them to be the building blocks that helped us to develop into the individuals who we have each become.
This worship service seeks to offer that same promise to you: that the words which we repeat again today might stay with you during the course of your years on this earth until the day comes when it is time to remember. Then, your remembering will bring you the comfort, the joy, and the hope that will be waiting for you when you come to know that the tomb was emptied also for you.
May that be your remembrance from this Easter, 2010. Amen.
Copyright © 2010 The Rev. Gary L. Froseth. All rights reserved.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Wausau, Wisconsin
Good Friday
April 2, 2010
Youre in Good Hands
Luke 23:44-46
The Rev. Gary L. Froseth
Luke 23:44-46: It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the suns light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last.
Dear friends: Grace be to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
For many years, the Allstate Insurance Company has advertised themselves as the good hands people. Their slogan is, Youre in good hands with Allstate. Then, visually, they show us a pair of cupped hands with a miniature house and a miniature family nestled inside those hands.
What they mean to say, I think, is that we can trust them. They are asking us to believe that they wont pull one of those hands away and allow us to lose our support. They are asking us to believe that there is sufficient strength in those hands to provide a foundation for our homes, our cars, our health, and our very lives.
In this last word from the cross, Jesus gives himself over in a way that the Allstate advertising executive can only dream about.
Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Or, depending on your translation, I commit my spirit or I entrust my spirit.
Jesus always trusted God. He was the one person ever to walk the face of the earth who trusted God about all things.
But as events began carrying him faster and faster toward the moment of his death there were fewer and fewer earthly choices for him to place his trust.
The Jerusalem Allstate agent couldnt hold him any longer. His friends, his family, his followers, they all deserted him on this day. They chose not to go with him to this death and were powerless to do anything except to watch. His body the organs and bones and flesh that were his dwelling place during all the days of his life they couldnt sustain him anymore. No one on earth had the hands that could hold him.
And so he expressed his faith in God. Not in any unique way. Not in any way that we might latch onto as new, as Jesus own way.
Instead, he remembers a verse from his churchs songbook, probably a verse he heard many times in the weekly synagogue services that he attended to praise God and to find meaning for his life. He remembers a verse from the Psalms Psalm 31, verse 5: Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.
Just like us, Jesus gave himself over to death with the confidence of a person of faith. I cant tell you how often I have been in the company of the dying and watched their lips move with me in a recitation of the Lords Prayer or a simple song from Sunday School.
Jesus lived his life in the words of scripture, and in worship, and in faithful living. It was from that life short as it was that he came to who it is that has the hands that he could rely on that we can rely on the very hands of God.
In many ways, life wasnt very kind to Jesus. He was under a sentence of death almost from the moment of his birth. He was under constant attack from the authorities. It seemed like every day was a battle. He was executed like a common criminal.
Certainly he felt the anguish of the Psalmist from time-to-time. Again, from Psalm 31:
My eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also.
For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing;
My strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away.
Yet the gospels read like there was a certain calm about him. I never get the sense that he was on blood pressure medication.
Maybe it was because of the way that he relied upon the hands of God.
Today we hear his profound words of faith, through the centuries, even to our ears. They tell us that God is worthy of our trust; that no matter how heavy a burden we carry, Gods hands are strong enough to bear us up. The words tell us that God can be relied upon all the days of our lives and will still be there for us at the moment of our deaths.
I need to make the distinction now between an advertising slogan and the truth of the gospel. Which shall be puffery for me? And, more important, which shall I rely on?
Today I pray that I might entrust my days and my nights, my faith and my actions, my body and my soul to the steady hands of God so that at the moment of my death, I might join the prayer of my Lord . . .
Father into thy hands I commend my spirit. Amen.
Copyright © 2010 The Rev. Gary L. Froseth. All rights reserved.
|
Pastor's Blog
Sunday's Sermon