Tag Archives: Paul

More Than a Backup Plan [OR Jesus Cooks?!!!]

May 4, 2025 caitlin121608

Pastor Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on May 4, 2025

[sermon begins after two longish Bible stories, hang in there, they’re great stories; the Revelation and Psalm readings are at the end of the sermon.]

Acts 9:1-20 Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. ³ Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” ⁵ He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ⁶ But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” [⁷ The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. ⁹ For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
¹⁰ Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” ¹¹ The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, ¹² and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” ¹³ But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; ¹⁴ and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” ¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; ¹⁶ I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” ¹⁷ So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, ¹⁹ and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, ²⁰ and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”]

John 21:1-19 After [he appeared to his followers in Jerusalem,] Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. ² Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. ³ Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
⁴ Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵ Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” ⁶ He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. ⁷ That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. ⁸ But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.
⁹ When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. ¹⁰ Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” ¹¹ So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. ¹² Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. ¹³ Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. ¹⁴ This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
¹⁵ When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶ A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷ He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸ Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹ (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

[sermon begins]

When I left pediatric oncology nursing for seminary to be a pastor, my mother made me promise to keep up my nursing license in case the pastor gig didn’t work out. To this day, almost exactly 20 years after leaving the oncology unit at Children’s Hospital, I have an active Registered Nurse license in my wallet. You know, in case things don’t work out. It’s good to have a backup plan. I wonder if the disciples’ moms had similar advice after the crucifixion debacle: Well, child, the way of Jesus flamed out but fishing, now that’s dependable.

In his third recorded appearance after the resurrection, Jesus showed up lakeside to find the disciples backsliding into their backup plan. Fishing but catching nothing. So far, no good. But this is the Jesus of abundant life. Jesus who changed water into more fine wine than anyone could drink at that wedding in Cana.[1] Jesus who fed the 5,000.[2] In our resurrection story today, Jesus found his disciples after they’d caught nothing. They listened to him and caught sooo many fish. Then Jesus broiled them a fish and bread brunch over a charcoal fire.

What happens next is astonishing, Jesus doesn’t shame, blame, or forgive Peter for Peter’s denials at Jesus’ trial.[3] Jesus renews Peter’s call to follow him. Three times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. Three times Peter says, “Yes.” Three times, Jesus tells Peter to feed his sheep. Not Peter’s sheep. Jesus’ sheep. No one belongs to us. We all belong to God. It’s a beautiful call and response between Jesus and Peter that re-calls Peter to his discipleship.[4]

Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I do. Feed my lambs.

Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Tend my sheep.

Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know everything. Feed my sheep.

After this exchange, Jesus says to Peter, “Follow me.” In modern parlance, Jesus’ “Follow me” is a little like football quarterbacks encouraging their team with a “Let’s gooooo!”

This Easter season, there’s a similar re-calling to us, a re-calling to discipleship. Jesus’ first call to the disciples to follow him when his ministry began, is different than being called anew by the resurrected Jesus.[5] In Jesus’ farewell before he died, he told his disciples that there were things he couldn’t tell them because they’d be unable to bear them without the Holy Spirit.[6] Since his resurrection, they’ve received the gift of the Holy Spirit.[7] Because of the Holy Spirit, discipleship looks, feels, and sounds different on this side of the empty tomb.[8] What did renewed discipleship look like for them?

Let’s turn to the Acts reading for a hint in the story of Saul transformed into Paul, baptized by Ananias. A couple chapters ago, Saul was holding coats for the people stoning Stehen, a Jesus follower. In today’s story, Saul was en route to bind up other followers of the Way, Jesus’ Way, and bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he went along, he was transformed from righteous independence to stunned dependence, led by the hand into Damascus where our question about what renewed discipleship looks like plagued Ananias. He’s heard about Saul’s evil against the saints. Saul is a dangerous man. The Lord’s vision to Ananias called him to go to Saul to lay hands on him and baptize him. After his argument with the Lord, Anaias went. Remarkably, the first words out of his mouth were one of faithful connection. He greeted his feared enemy with, “Brother Saul…”[9]

Ananias’ faithful courage is an inspiration. He didn’t have a backup plan if things didn’t work out with Saul’s transformation. How many of us would be able to listen, react, and then respond to such an ask? Many of us might argue that someone else go see Saul. Others of us would question the vision itself. Was that really the Lord?? That’s an age-old question. How do we know WHAT God’s vision for anything is? Being human is a confusing mess.

Being an American human figuring out faith alongside patriotism that IS NOT Christian Nationalism is a hot mess these days. We throw phrases around like “separation of church and state” that are not in the Constitution; and misinterpret things that ARE in the Constitution like the First Amendment’s prohibition of laws establishing a religion in this country and the assurance of the law that everyone may practice their religion in freedom. We think we know what those things mean but it seems clear that we do not. Christ and country are conflated in astounding ways as if the Bible includes the words, “United States of America.” Spoiler alert. It doesn’t. BUT there are many examples of Jesus’ calling disciples for large and small actions to fulfill God’s vision for the world and for the people God loves.

God’s vision is what the reading from Revelation is about. Revelation is a feisty and cryptic book. It was written in symbols and language to give hope to an early Christian community oppressed by the Roman Empire. They would understand the coded language. We don’t. The Left Behind series and Hollywood haven’t done us any favors when it comes to understanding Revelation’s cryptic, hope-filled message. But there is a glimpse of clarity about God’s hopeful vision for humanity in the image of the Lamb.

In Revelation, the slaughtered Lamb is Jesus.[10] The Lamb is a person destroyed by the Empire to send a clear message about the Empire’s power. But somehow, the Lamb symbolizes a profound reversal of that power and God’s preferred future flows through the Lamb.[11] See what I mean? Revelation is rough going. But here’s a cool fun fact, the Canticle of Praise that we sing in worship this Easter season is from these verses in Revelation—”Worthy is Christ, the Lamb who was slain, whose blood set us free to be people of God…blessing and honor and glory and might be to God and the Lamb forever amen…” In this strange hymn from Revelation, we sing the hope of power’s reversal in Jesus. Jesus’ disciples have found courage in this reversal for centuries. Courage to speak truth to power while ministering to our burdened earth and the animals who live here with us. Courage to walk alongside: children who need our advocacy, people who do not have enough to live on, and illegally deported strangers. The list is growing. Be of good courage, pick people to advocate with, and work with others to do so.

Sometimes, the hardest courage to muster is witnessing to our own faith in Jesus. Here’s a pro-tip. Maybe don’t lead with the slaughtered Lamb. Grace is a good place to start. Grace for yourself and others as we muddle through this messy human life together, called by Jesus to leave hateful self-righteousness behind and to embody his risen life, giving hope to a wounded and weary world.

Jesus is more than a backup plan. Jesus is the humble Lamb.

Jesus, the one who re-calls us to discipleship in Easter is the wounded, risen Lamb;

the one who reverses earthly power through self-sacrifice and love by the power of the Holy Spirit;

the one who took the death-dealing ways of the Empire and showed that anyone can muscle their way into power over other people and stay for a time, but that true power dawns in the Lamb who is worthy of our alleluias.

_________________________________________

[1] John 2:1-11

[2] John 6:1-15

[3] Karoline Lewis, Professor of Biblical Preaching, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Sermon Brainwave for the Bible readings for May 4, 2025. #1021: Third Sunday of Easter – May 4, 2025 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Lewis, ibid.

[6] John 16:12-13

[7] John 20:19-23

[8] Lewis, ibid.

[9] Matt Skinner, Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Sermon Brainwave for the Bible readings for May 4, 2025. #1021: Third Sunday of Easter – May 4, 2025 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary.

[10] Skinner, ibid.

[11] Skinner, ibid.

________________________________________________

Rev 5:11-14 ¹¹ Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, ¹² singing with full voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”
¹³ Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing,
“To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might
forever and ever!”
¹⁴ And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

Psalm 30

¹ I will exalt you, O Lord, because you have lift- ^| ed me up
and have not let my enemies triumph ^| over me.
² O Lord my God, I cried ^| out to you,
and you restored ^| me to health.
³ You brought me up, O Lord, ^| from the dead;
you restored my life as I was going down ^| to the grave.
⁴ Sing praise to the Lord, ^| all you faithful;
give thanks in ho- ^| ly remembrance. R
⁵ God’s wrath is short; God’s favor ^| lasts a lifetime.
Weeping spends the night, but joy comes ^| in the morning.
⁶ While I felt se- ^| cure, I said,
“I shall never ^| be disturbed.
⁷ You, Lord, with your favor, made me as strong ^| as the mountains.”
Then you hid your face, and I was ^| filled with fear.
⁸ I cried to ^| you, O Lord;
I pleaded with ^| my Lord, saying,
⁹ “What profit is there in my blood, if I go down ^| to the pit?
Will the dust praise you or de- ^| clare your faithfulness?
¹⁰ Hear, O Lord, and have mer- ^| cy upon me;
O Lord, ^| be my helper.” R
¹¹ You have turned my wailing ^| into dancing;
you have put off my sackcloth and clothed ^| me with joy.
¹² Therefore my heart sings to you ^| without ceasing;
O Lord my God, I will give you ^| thanks forever. R ¹ I will exalt you, O Lord, because you have lift- ^| ed me up
and have not let my enemies triumph ^| over me.
² O Lord my God, I cried ^| out to you,
and you restored ^| me to health.
³ You brought me up, O Lord, ^| from the dead;
you restored my life as I was going down ^| to the grave.
⁴ Sing praise to the Lord, ^| all you faithful;
give thanks in ho- ^| ly remembrance. R
⁵ God’s wrath is short; God’s favor ^| lasts a lifetime.
Weeping spends the night, but joy comes ^| in the morning.
⁶ While I felt se- ^| cure, I said,
“I shall never ^| be disturbed.
⁷ You, Lord, with your favor, made me as strong ^| as the mountains.”
Then you hid your face, and I was ^| filled with fear.
⁸ I cried to ^| you, O Lord;
I pleaded with ^| my Lord, saying,
⁹ “What profit is there in my blood, if I go down ^| to the pit?
Will the dust praise you or de- ^| clare your faithfulness?
¹⁰ Hear, O Lord, and have mer- ^| cy upon me;
O Lord, ^| be my helper.” R
¹¹ You have turned my wailing ^| into dancing;
you have put off my sackcloth and clothed ^| me with joy.
¹² Therefore my heart sings to you ^| without ceasing;
O Lord my God, I will give you ^| thanks forever. R

Preaching, Sermons

Giving God the Stink-Eye [OR Taking a Leap of Faith] Matthew 20:1-16, Jonah 3:10-4:11, and Philippians 1:21-30

September 24, 2023 caitlin121608

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on September 24, 2023

[sermon begins after three Bible readings]

Matthew 20:1-16 [Jesus said to the disciples:] ¹“The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ²After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. ³When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; ⁴and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. ⁵When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. ⁶And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ ⁷They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ ⁸When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ ⁹When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. ¹⁰Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. ¹¹And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, ¹²saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ ¹³But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? ¹⁴Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. ¹⁵Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ¹⁶So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Jonah 3:10-4:11 When God saw what [the people of Ninevah] did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

Philippians 1:21-30 For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. ²²If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. ²³I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; ²⁴but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. ²⁵Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, ²⁶so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again.
²⁷Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, ²⁸and are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God’s doing. ²⁹For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well—³⁰since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

[sermon begins]

Sometimes all we have is a leap of faith. A leap of faith means that we don’t know what’s going to happen. For some people, leaping in faith means getting out of bed in the morning. For others, leaping in faith means changing careers. Heck, life is a leap of faith. Life choices and events beyond our control all take leaps of faith. In Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, a.k.a. the Bible book of Philippians, he took a leap of faith in sending that letter. He encoded it with words that the Roman authorities would see as meaningless – gospel of Christ, faith, salvation, grace, joy and suffering.1 The church folks would know the hidden code, that God turns things upside down. Paul was writing from prison to people who had everything taken away from them by Rome. They knew that suffering didn’t have the last word. Challenging times make it difficult to feel joy much less acknowledge joy. But there’s Paul talking about joy in faith and their faith in the gospel. Trust is essential for experiencing joy in the middle of trauma, political or otherwise. Many people tell me that they don’t know how they would live life without their faith. I know that my faith and the faith of so many others kept me going over the last few months.

The faith that claims us is of a God who “is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” While the psalmist is praising God for those qualities, Jonah gives God the stink eye, accusing God of grace, mercy, patience, and steadfast love.2 How dare God be God with those horrific enemies?! How dare God extend beauty to people Jonah can’t stand, even if they did repent of their murderous ways? Jonah’s stink-eyed grievance is legit. As non-Jews, the Philippians may not have known the story of Jonah, but Paul as a Jewish Christian did know the story of Jonah. He planted churches with faith in Jesus who revealed God’s grace, mercy, patience, and steadfast love. Paul formed these churches as a leap of faith in circumstances that were less than favorable because he believed in the God of his ancestors from whom Jesus was embodied, took flesh, and launched a ministry of grace and God’s kingdom. Jesus wasn’t a professor in front of a classroom. He taught his followers as life presented itself.

Parables were part of Jesus’ teachings. Parables are stories that are open to interpretation and slippery when it comes to direct answers. Just before our parable today in the Matthew reading, Peter had asked Jesus what the benefits of following him were. Jesus gave a convoluted answer but then launched into a parable to try to explain his answer. “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner…” Then Jesus goes on to say that the landowner hires several groups of people in town. The first group he hires early in the morning committing to paying them a daily wage. The next three groups he hired with the promise that he’d “pay what is right.” At the end of the day, he hires the last bunch without one word about payment. We know the drill. The landowner starts with that last bunch who worked an hour by paying them a full daily wage. The story is absurd. No landowner would have stayed in business if word got out that you could make a daily wage working for an hour.

Let’s go with it for a minute though. Imagine the last hour workers’ joy being able to feed their families for a few days. Imagine their joy. But each group was paid a daily wage, and the early morning group was furious. They were angry. If we read closely, we hear their reason, they said to the landowner, “…you have made them equal to us.” “You have made them equal to us.” A scathing rebuke from the workers to the landowner. It gets better. The landowner questions the workers, “Are you envious because I am generous?” In the Greek, this question more precisely asks, “Is your eye evil because I am good?” In other words, the landowner asks, “Are you giving me the stink eye because I’m good?”

Does anyone relate to the stink eye wielding workers? Maybe a teacher gave everyone an “A” after you studied, actually got an “A,” and they didn’t. Maybe your gifts and skills aren’t recognized or reimbursed in a way that leaves you feeling overlooked and undervalued. Are we inclined to give the stink eye to people who haven’t worked as hard as we have or, even better, to give the stink eye to God for God’s generosity or to people who keep harping on God’s generosity?

We could read this parable and argue for workers’ rights, tying the United Auto Workers’ and The Writers Guild’s strikes against corporate greed to the lesson today. We could also argue that this parable isn’t practical guidance but theological argument for God’s grace available in Jesus Christ to all people at all times. I’m more interested in arguing that we are like the workers – skeptical, cynical, and worried about being declared equal to other people who aren’t. This may be part of the reason we get concerned about helping people. We can think that if we help them too much it won’t be good for them. That rabbit hole contains sticking points that make it hard to leap in faith.

I’ve gone back and forth about talking about Augustana Homes and Bless the Build as a leap of faith, but I think it’s worth the risk. Construction begins in October and this afternoon at 1 p.m. in the Sanctuary we’ll have a brief program that ends in Augustana’s Community Park, right next to the site of future affordable homes built by Habitat for Humanity Metro Denver on land leased to them by you, the Augustana congregation. The land lease keeps the cost of the homes affordable. The project began five years ago.

In March of 2018, four Augustana folks went to a breakfast hosted by Interfaith Alliance and heard about the Congregation Land Campaign. Interns at Interfaith Alliance had been assigned the task of calculating how many unused acres of land in Metro Denver were available on faith community properties. 5,000. 5,000 acres across Metro Denver that could be used to build affordable housing as one piece of Denver’s housing puzzle. After the breakfast, these four folks met with the pastors to share what they learned. Each tiny, incremental step, the congregation’s team made headway, led by retired Pastor Ann Hultquist. A team was formed in the congregation to imagine the use of this land for housing. In 2019, over a year after the Interfaith Alliance breakfast, the congregation voted for the project. With other options to sell the land, I call that a leap of faith. By December 2019, we selected Habitat for Humanity as our construction partner out of three possibilities. And we all know what happened in March of 2020 when the world shut down.

While the pandemic slowed the progress, the team persisted, engaging the congregation and neighbors in ongoing discussions for updates and feedback. There were behind-the-scenes tasks that Habitat and the congregation picked away at with the city and the neighborhood association – rezoning, water issues, build size, you know, the fun stuff. Why all these details? Because ultimately families will have affordable homes because of the inspiration to dream and the determination to see the dream through the details. Families will have homes. That’s the dream. Today is as much about celebrating breaking ground on Augustana Homes as it is about inspiring other people to dream about other empty land with potential for homes. If we can make this audacious leap of faith as a large-ish, reserved, and responsible congregation then maybe other faith communities can dream it too. Building affordable homes is one piece of the housing puzzle in Denver. For the eight families who will own Augustana Homes, it’s THE piece that will make their dream a reality.

It would have been easy, and perhaps even advisable, for the congregation to make a different decision. In light of today’s readings, we could argue that the leap of faith we’re taking is the kind of thing that we’re called to do. We can argue it till kingdom come. In the meantime, we’ll catch glimpses of the kingdom that is like a landowner whose generosity earns the occasional stink eye when generosity is on the line. Thanks be to God. And amen.

Good News, Preaching, Sermons

Rise and Sing Again [OR Mortality, Music, and Meaning] – Ash Wednesday Joel 2, 2 Corinthians 5, and Psalm 51

February 22, 2023 caitlin121608

sermon art: Ken Phillips, textiles, 2020

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on Ash Wednesday – February 22, 2023, 11:00 a.m. worship

[sermon begins after two Bible readings from the books of Joel and 2 Corinthians; Psalm 51 is at the end of the sermon]

Joel 2:12-17 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near—
²a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness spread upon the mountains
a great and powerful army comes;
their like has never been from of old,
nor will be again after them
in ages to come.
¹²Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
¹³rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
¹⁴Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
for the Lord, your God?
¹⁵Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
¹⁶gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation;
assemble the aged;
gather the children,
even infants at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her canopy.
¹⁷Between the vestibule and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep.
Let them say, “Spare your people, O Lord,
and do not make your heritage a mockery,
a byword among the nations.
Why should it be said among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’ ”

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
^6:¹As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. ²For he says,
“At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”
See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! ³We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, ⁴but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, ⁵beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; ⁶by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, ⁷truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; ⁸in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; ⁹as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; ¹⁰as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

[sermon begins]

How would you describe the way a favorite old hymn catches you off guard during a worship service? Or the way a new hymn immediately feels like an old favorite? For me, it runs the range of human emotion. Sometimes singing a hymn feels like joy so strong that it moves me to dance…or at least moves me to the less conspicuous swaying option. Sometimes hymn singing feels like inspiration that strengthens my resolve to love my neighbor and work for justice and peace. And sometimes hymn singing feels like deep grief, when the words get caught in my throat and like I won’t be able to breathe if I keep on singing or, at the very least, tears will dampen the sound. I could go on and on but the bottom line is that singing in this place with you all is food for the soul whether we’re exuberantly singing together on a tried-and-true hymn or bumbling along on a new one. There are very few places in which public singing happens. Concerts have their superfans who know all the songs by heart and include the rest of us slouches who may know the words to one or two of their popular songs. Baseball games have the 7^th Inning Stretch with the happy group singing of, “Take me out to the ball game!” But regular singing together happens less and less for people. Places of worship are the main places where songs are sung as a group.

In the reading from Joel, the people are assembled and gathered into a congregation – men and women, old and young, even the bride and groom. Everyone is called to return to God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Joel writes, “…rend your hearts, not your clothing…” We hear that the people assembled with hearts broken open before God. When the people gathered even in those days, there were songs to be sung. In the case of Joel’s story, the song was likely a psalm of lament and confession, a psalm that describes their open, penitent hearts and their trust in God’s grace, mercy, and steadfast love – perhaps Psalm 51, an Ash Wednesday classic. The Psalms are the Bible’s hymnal. There are songs to be found in other places in the Bible, to be sure, but the Psalms are a record of liturgical poetry accompanied by music.

The English term [psalm] title derives from the Greek psalmos, meaning “song accompanied by a stringed instrument.” In Hebrew, the book is known as Tehillim or “songs of praise.”[1]

As the people sang in Joel’s story, perhaps their throats closed as their tears fell…and as their hearts opened. Singing yet struggling in the midst of their suffering to trust that God is gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love. Suffering and yet still they sang.

In 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul lists the suffering that he and the other disciples had endured. It’s helpful that he begins the passage calling the readers to be reconciled to God because it could be argued that Paul reveled in his suffering just a bit much.[2] But the good part of listing his sufferings is that he’s drawing a complete picture of where God shows up in the darkest places of our humanity and how hardship can shape us for the good.[3] Not that suffering is lucky or somehow part of the bitter medicine we’re supposed to take. But because the apostle Paul might say, “It’s because of the ways that suffering conforms to the example of Christ crucified and new life coming out of that.”[4]

On Ash Wednesday, we’re acknowledging our fragility as humans, our mortality in these fragile bodies and we place our trust in God who meets us in our most fragile places – when our bodies betray us and when we betray ourselves and each other. Today is a day to be honest about the suffering we experience because it’s part of the human condition and also the suffering we inflict on ourselves and each other. Care needs to be taken that we don’t corrupt this theology into valorizing suffering and hardship. Rather, if you are going through “hardship, chronic pain, deep disappointment,” if the Beatitudes fit your story in this moment, God meets you there not because it’s a magic ticket to God but because it’s a place where God shows up.[5] God shows up and promises transformation and new life – the story of Lent through the glory of Easter.

Last Fall, I attended our Theological Conference for ministry leaders, pastors, and deacons. The topic was Trauma and Resilience. These beautiful banners in our Sanctuary today were lined up in the hotel ballroom where we met and worshipped together. The art was a visual prayer during that time as we talked about suffering and trauma and healing and research and mental health practitioners and where our faith was or wasn’t in those experiences. I wondered with someone afterwards if the artist might make them available to us during Lent.[6] From the psalmic poetry and the textile beauty, we chose our Lenten theme, “Rise and Sing Again.” It’s part of the words on the banner over by the baptismal font – a location of happy accident as the banners were laid out in the order the artist intended. The banners tell a story of feeling forsaken in suffering and rising to sing again. They start at this one by the pulpit and move backwards in order on this side of the Sanctuary and then forward on the organ side.

Rising and singing again is part of what our faith community does for each other over and over. We sing when the person next to us can’t. They sing when we can’t. We all sing when we can. Rising and singing again acknowledges this imperfect and messy world where suffering often has no explanation and is regularly the actual result of people hurting us through the sin of carelessness or maliciousness or, vice versa, us hurting other people through carelessness or maliciousness. In difficult times, people sometimes use the non-biblical, cultural expression, “Well, everything happens for a reason.” To which, in the right situations, I’ll respond, “Yes, and sometimes the reason is sin.”

Today is a day of penitence. A day to be honest about who we are as fragile, mortal creatures which includes the sin and suffering we endure and inflict on ourselves and others. A day to be honest about whether or not we’re ready to sing in the midst of it – as Paul says, “…sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.”

Today on Ash Wednesday, the ashes on our forehead remind us that mortality, suffering, and death do not have the last word. God does. And God meets our fragile, careless, and malicious humanity with grace, mercy, and steadfast love, transforming our lives with God’s promise of new life. For this and for all that God is doing, we can say thanks be to God and amen.

___________________________________________________

[1] Rabbi Or Rose. “The Book of Psalms.” https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-book-of-psalms/

[2] Matt Skinner, Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Sermon Brainwave Podcast for Ash Wednesday on February 22, 2023. www.workingpreacher.org/podcasts/889-ash-wednesday-february-22-2023

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.; Also, find Jesus’ teaching on the Beatitudes in Matthew 5…blessed are the poor in spirit, the grieving, etc.

[6] Ken Phillips, local Denver textile and liturgical artist. Read more about him here: www.regis.edu/news/2022/magazine/06/ken-phillips-weaves-a-tempest-in-tapestry

__________________________________________________

Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
³For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
⁴Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you pass judgment.
⁵Indeed, I was born guilty,
a sinner when my mother conceived me.
⁶You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
⁹Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
¹¹Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.
¹³Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
¹⁵O LORD, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶For you have no delight in sacrifice;
if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
¹⁷The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Preaching, Sermons

Peace for Today [OR Check Out Lydia’s Bible Story – She’s Cool] John 14:23-29 and Acts 16.9-15

May 22, 2022 caitlin121608

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on May 22, 2022

[sermon begins after two Bible readings]

John 14:23-29 Jesus answered [Judas (not Iscariot),] “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. ²⁴Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.
²⁵“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. ²⁶But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. ²⁷Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. ²⁸You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. ²⁹And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.”

Acts 16.9-15 During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. ¹¹We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, ¹²and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. ¹³On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. ¹⁵When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.

[sermon begins]

I want to follow up on something in my sermon from last Sunday when I talked about faith not protecting us from bad things happening. We can look around the room and around the world and see that that’s true. Bad stuff happens to faithful people as much as it happens to everyone else. We don’t know why. We just know it’s the way the world works. A lot of time and energy is spent on trying to answer the “why” question though. I’m more interested in the “what now” question. Maybe I gave that away when I went on to mention how faith strengthens us and gives us courage. When I read the scripture readings for this Sunday, Jesus’ words jumped out at me:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” Jesus’ words have been true for me. Not in a stoic way – as if emotions don’t happen or don’t matter. Not in a disengaged way – as if I now have permission to check out of the world’s troubles. Jesus’ words are true for me in a deep-down way – where life is intensely meaningful because it’s life. The other day I had one of those moments during the lunar eclipse. We had chairs lined up in our driveway and our neighbors set up a second row behind us. Watching the earth’s shadow cast itself slowly over the moon until the moon was fully shadowed, gave the moon a 3D look with a spooky reddish-brown color. It struck me, not for the first time, how odd and beautiful our existence is, not to mention our planet and our universe which transcends into the divine.

Jesus speaks from a divine abiding place when he talks about peace. He mentions the Father who will make a home with them as well as the Advocate, the Holy Spirit that will remind and teach – a combined transcendent power that coalesces in the person of Jesus. The mystery of the universe and the mystery of Jesus are similar mysteries to me. Sure, you can explain black holes and string theory to me while I explain theology and Christian ethics to you, but at the end of the day both the Blood Moon and the fully-human-fully-divine Jesus are ineffable. Our explanations simply can’t do justice to our experience of them.

For instance, there’s a thing that happens to me when someone repeatedly comes to mind. I call it a Holy Spirit nudge because when I call and check in with that person there’s often a really good reason that the call’s timing was important. It’s never 100% reliable. (PSA: Don’t try this at home – call me if you need to talk with me.) I can’t explain the feeling but I’m familiar enough with it now that ignoring it feels uncomfortable, like I’m missing an important appointment. We could argue until kingdom come about whether that feeling is experience playing into instinct or whether it’s the Holy Spirit but my way of explaining the mystery of it is to call it the Holy Spirit.

I wonder if this is a bit like what the Apostle Paul and his friends experienced when they set sail after Paul’s vision of a man in Macedonia who begged them to come and help. Paul’s vision is a heck of lot more dramatic than my nagging feeling to give someone a call. This story in the book of Acts charts quite a course – from Troas to Samothrace to Neapolis until landing in Philippi located in the northeast of what is modern day Greece. Thank God for the Sabbath which gave Paul, Silas, and Timothy a chance to catch their breath, recentering themselves in a place of prayer outside the gate by the river. The place where they met Lydia. Her story is just a few verses so it’s slightly irrational how much I love it. There are a few gems worth noting. Lydia was likely an independent businesswoman since she and her household weren’t named with a husband. Purple cloth was difficult to make, highly prized by royalty, and quite expensive. Lydia was faithful and generous – hosting her new Jesus-following friends after she and her household were baptized. Lydia’s story is one of several in the Bible that describes household baptisms which are part of how the church included infant baptism in its practice.

I wonder how Lydia would have described her experience with the new guys at the place of prayer. She may not have had the churchy words to use at first, but I wonder if she was able to find more words looking back at her time before and after her river baptism. Or if the mystery of her experience was difficult to fully explain. Whatever her explanation, Lydia and her household’s baptisms were foundational to the church in Philippi. The church to which Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians. As I was writing this sermon, I read the opening of Paul’s letter to the Philippians and found that reading it in light of Lydia’s conversion changed my hearing of it. Next Sunday’s Acts reading tells one more significant story about Paul, Silas, and Timothy’s time in Philippi before departing to Thessalonica.

Man, I love the Bible. I love that we have these early stories at first only shared verbally and then finally written down to be shared across faith communities across time. Sometimes we get lost in the nitty gritty of the accuracy of the stories or the legitimacy of the claims. For me, teasing each story apart, putting it back together, and finding gems that apply to my life is the teaching and reminding work of the Holy Spirit that Jesus talks about in our reading today. We never fully arrive to a conclusion about a Bible story. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that a Bible story is never fully done with us. They are gifts that keep on giving across our lives. It took some courage for me to even begin my way back into the Bible as adult. I’d been out of its loop for about ten years and only very tentatively began to turn its pages. Jesus’ encouragement to have untroubled hearts, and to be fearless, are part of what has helped me enjoy the layers of meaning in any given verse or set of verses as well as the subtle perspective shifts and not so subtle disagreements between writers of the different books of the Bible.

I know that I say this in sermons with some regularity but it’s important to understand that God’s salvation in Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith is not based on our right thinking or on orthodoxy or doctrine. The words that we give our experiences by faith are important for sure. Paul and Lydia’s story is a case in point. But God’s power is greater than anything I might say or anything you might do. It’s one of the reasons I’m grateful that communion comes after the sermon. No matter what mess I may make of things from the pulpit, God gets the last word. That’s a life lesson too. No matter what mess I may make of my life, God gets the last word. Today, God’s last word comes from Jesus in a blessing of peace.

I don’t know about you, but I need Jesus’ peace this week. The divine peace that sustains existentially through the day-to-day joys, sorrows, and everything in between. Paradoxically, this is the very peace that’s needed to stay deeply engaged with the world and all its problems. As I’ve been connecting with people on a recent continuing ed trip to Montgomery (Alabama), then connecting with people in Loveland at Synod Assembly, here at church, at the gym, in my family, with my friends, I don’t think I’m the only one who needs Jesus’ peace. There’s an emotional defcon level across our culture that seems unsustainable. Those reactive emotions tend to dampen joy that’s ours because life is meaningful simply because it’s life. Today, in this very moment, and in the next month, and for life eternal, Jesus gives you peace by the power of the Holy Spirit through the mystery of an ineffable God. May God’s peace untrouble your hearts and give you strength and courage on this Sabbath day. Thanks be to God and amen.

Preaching, Sermons

Love Takes Practice [Or Mirabel: Truth-Telling Saves the Miracle] Luke 4:21-30 and 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

January 30, 2022 caitlin121608

sermon art: Madrigal family from the movie Encanto https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2953050/

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on January 30, 2022

[sermon begins after two Bible readings – reading the Corinthians reading is a real boost so go for it]

Luke 4:21-30 Then [Jesus] began to say to [all in the synagogue in Nazareth,] “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” ²²All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” ²³He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’ ” ²⁴And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. ²⁵But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; ²⁶yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. ²⁷There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. ²⁹They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. ³⁰But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ²And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
⁴Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
⁸Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. ⁹For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; ¹⁰but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. ¹²For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. ¹³And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

[sermon begins]

Mirabel had a problem. The Madrigals, Mirabel’s family in the animated movie Encanto, were so focused on protecting their home that they struggled to tell the truth about their challenges. Challenges big and small that meant the Madrigals weren’t perfect. Mirabel could see the problem. She could see that the family was struggling. She could see that their house, in which they all lived as one big generational family, was cracking under the pressure of this really big problem that no one would talk about. Luisa wasn’t as strong as everyone thought. Abuela wasn’t as certain. And Bruno’s visions of the truth were such a threat that he left the family, and no one talked about Bruno – no, no, no. The Madrigals story is an allegory about the pressures that immigrants face to excel and be perfect so that they can keep their new homes. Their story also applies to families more generally – who gets to speak, who gets heard, and how the truth is told or not told. While Bruno was the one with the visions, Mirabel ended up being the truth-teller. Even her Abuela, her grandmother, finally listens to her but it was a tough sell. Mirabel paid a heavy price for being the Madrigals’ truth-teller.

Truth-teller is another word for prophet. Biblical prophecy is more about truth-telling, God’s truth in particular, and not about seeing the future. Jesus knew this when he said to his friends and family in Nazareth, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.” Truth-tellers often bear the burden of push-back from people who don’t want to hear it, or in Jesus’ case, the threat of being pushed off a cliff. We heard the first part of Jesus’ story in the Nazarene synagogue last week when his friends and family were amazed to hear Jesus’ words and celebrated his teaching. Oh, how quickly the tide turned against him because he then said something they were not ready to hear. He changed gears on them, flipped the script, inverted the priorities (as Pastor Ann preached about last week). Jesus turned their expectations of him upside down and they were furious. Their rage had them ready to commit murder, to kill Jesus by hurling him off a cliff. The story is not clear how, “But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.” Truth-tellers attract painful encounters because people will go to great lengths to avoid and push-back at the truth.

One trick about telling the truth is not being a jerk about it. Part of Mirabel’s effectiveness in the movie story is how much she loves her family. Her love for them and their love for each other made space for the truth. Each member of the Madrigal family has a gift, even Mirabel. Their gifts each serve a greater purpose in the story than they’re able to see at the beginning. It becomes a story wider than just their family and greater than only saving their home. It kind of makes you wonder if the movie writers knew Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Tucked in the middle of Paul’s teaching about spiritual gifts in chapters 12 and 14, is this stunning section about love in chapter 13 – one of the most well-known parts of scripture because it’s often chosen as a reading at weddings. But Paul isn’t preaching at a wedding, he is writing to the church in Corinth. This Corinthian church had been arguing among themselves about all kinds of things, setting up hierarchies of leadership, gifts, and insiders and outsiders. Paul’s letter opens in gratitude for these wayward, faithful people and then unfolds a counter proposal to these hierarchies and their behavior around them. By nesting the love chapter within the gifts, Paul points to love as the reason for the gifts. Love is THE gift, the greatest of all. The gifts point to love. To paraphrase Paul, if I sing like an angel but without love, I’m just making noise; if I can solve every mystery and have oodles of faith but no love, it amounts to nothing; and if I give everything I own away without love, nothing is gained.

Love is as counter cultural as it gets right now in the United States – especially in public. It’s like there’s a $100 million dollar contest for who can be the meanest and most self-absorbed. It doesn’t help that most of our news sources dust up as much controversy as possible because there’s a very human inclination to find out what the fuss is about. And a riled-up, hateful community is more profitable than a calm, loving one. The algorithms, and the artificial intelligence behind the algorithms, lead us to topics that we’re already inclined to believe based on the choices we’ve been making, funneling us to ever more polarizing and agitating content. Here’s the thing. If we practice anger, we’re going to get really good at anger. Same thing with envy and arrogance. Want to be the best at being rude? Keep being rude. We’re not complicated creatures. We tend to do what we practice doing. Paul called his church folks to practice love based on Christ’s example because what they’d been doing was taking them down the wrong road. We’ve seen what it looks like when spiritual gifts are used to manipulate people. Charisma without love can rob people blind. It’s more than noisy gongs and clanging symbols. It’s dangerous. People will get hurt.[1]

Love is not ‘going along to get along.’ It’s neither unity through muting differences, nor is it giving up on finding solutions to problems because it’s too hard. Love means that each person is valuable. No one is expendable. Paul describes love as behavior. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love rejoices in the truth. Love bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things. Here’s your homework for the week. Take home your bulletin. Read 1 Corinthians 13. Underline verses and make notes in the margins. What does love already look like in your life? How has who God created you to be, including your gifts, help point you to love? How can you practice love this week? Here’s a pro-tip. Buy yourself time. Ask for time if the situation allows for it. Time between your first reaction to something and how you would respond in love. For some that means counting or praying in their heads. Others might set a timer on their phone. Others may take a literal time out and move to a different room or take a bathroom break. However you do it, make time between your instinctive reaction, the reaction that only you are privy to because it happens in your mind and body, and how you want to respond if love is indeed the greatest of all things. Our bodies can’t go where our mind hasn’t gone. Sometimes we must buy time for our minds to prioritize love before we can respond in love. It’s a choice. Love takes practice.

We don’t know what other people are going through. We can’t know their whole situation. We see other people’s situations dimly and see God even more dimly. Paul reminds us that someday we’ll see God but, in the meantime, we are fully known by God. In the mess of who you actually are, God promises to love you no matter what. One of the things we do at church is practice God’s love through Jesus, imitating it and reminding each other about it. We confess the truth of our flaws and fragility and hear God’s love and forgiveness in return. We listen to scripture and the preacher’s interpretation. We welcome children and listen to them. We share peace and then we share the communion meal to which everyone is invited, even the newest visitor among us may come to Christ’s table of bread and wine. We sing in prayer and praise to God who knows us fully and has always loved us because God loves the world.

God loves us first. From God’s promise of love, we’re asked to practice God’s love with each other, our neighbors and our enemies. A patient, kind, and truthful love that bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things – the greatest of all gifts indeed.

_____________________________________________________________

[1] Matt Skinner, Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Dear Working Preacher: Staggering Love (re: 1 Corinthians 13). January 23, 2022. https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/staggering-love

Sermons

Bit Parts, Cameos, and Congregation Land Campaign [OR Lydia – Small Role, Big Impact] Acts 16:9- John 14:23-29

May 26, 2019 caitlin121608

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on May 26, 2019

[sermon begins after the Bible reading from the Book of Acts; John reading is posted below the sermon]

Acts 16:9-15 During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. 11 We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. 13 On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. 14 A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. 15 When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.

[sermon begins]

There are these moments when you’re hanging out, watching a movie, and suddenly – BAM – someone famous is on the screen that you didn’t expect to see. But they’re on screen for such a brief moment that you weren’t sure it was them. Surprise cameos often make the difference between a good movie and a great movie. Those small moments catch us off guard and can flip the script in the middle of the action. Some actors are known for cameos. Samuel Jackson, Julie Andrews, Oprah Winfrey, and Dick Van Dyke are well known for adding that rare gem of gravitas in 30 seconds or less. Different but similar to cameos are bit parts. Bit parts are given to lesser known actors. Bit parts can also make the difference between a good movie and a great movie. By definition, cameos and bit parts are never the whole cast. All the parts, big and small, are needed to tell the whole story.

Bible stories, especially in the books of Acts, make me wonder how many great directors and screen writers marinated in Biblical preaching growing up. Sometimes, when I read certain parts of Acts, I wonder if I’ve ever read them before because they are wacky and surprise me all over again – like I never read them before. These stories in Acts are filled with main characters, cameos, and bit parts essential to God’s whole story. We’re well familiar with Paul. Former persecutor of the church. Murderer of Jesus’ followers.[1] He literally had a come-to-Jesus meeting and started preaching the gospel.[2] In the story today, a few chapters later, Paul has a vision. The man from Macedonia in the vision could be considered a bit part but a bit part with big impact, sending Paul and Silas sailing toward Philippi in Macedonia.

We never hear about the man in the vision again. Instead, Lydia shows up in her bit part. Paul and Silas went ♬down to the river to pray.♪ Lydia was already down at the river to pray with other women in a place of prayer. She’s from out of town too and also owns a business successful enough that she has her own household that gets baptized as well as hosts Paul and Silas. I wish we knew more than the bit part we get about Lydia. Her story, the one where she’s the main character, would be fascinating. But we don’t. The moment that stuck with me this time is the part about the Lord opening “her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul.” It stuck with me because it flips the script on how we usually think the gospel works. We often think that we take the gospel out of the church doors and somehow are in charge of it. We’re not far off. We ARE called to share the gospel – to communicate with our lives and voices the unconditional love and grace of Jesus for each and every person. What we tend to forget is how God goes ahead of us, guiding us with visions and opening our hearts, weaving the gospel story of bit parts with cameos of God’s own.

Here in Acts, we have the vision given to Paul and the Lord opening Lydia’s heart. In the story here today, this equates in the story to a gospel call, gospel shared, and gospel received. Bit parts showing that there’s no such thing as a small role in the unpredictable imagination of the Holy Spirit.

Last week, Pastor Ann preached that the “doors of the church are open” through Peter’s experience of being called by the gospel to eat with people that his coworkers in the gospel thought were problematic. When Peter was called to account for his reckless grace, he responded to his accusers with the memorable line, “Who am I to hinder God?” A few chapters later, we find Paul in similar circumstances. Sailing across the sea to Macedonia, encountering Lydia who was not from Macedonia but from Thyatira, also an out-of-towner. Brought together in a place of prayer by the gospel, by God. Neither one of those people could have imagined their encounter or the changes that would come from it. Lydia’s household was baptized and she became recorded in history for her hospitality and generosity. She’ll turn up one more time in next week’s Bible story from Acts after yet another plot twist for Paul and Silas. Stay tuned…

As we play our bit parts, the challenge for us becomes listening with open hearts prepared by God. We’ve all seen situations where the gospel has been used manipulatively to pump up egos and limit grace to a select few. Bit parts like Lydia’s remind us that the unlimited grace of God moves outside the boundary lines we draw for ourselves and other people. Paul meets her outside the city gate by the river, explicitly drawing us a picture of how the gospel works. The city gates and the doors of the church are indeed open. Much like today’s scripture, we can often get a glimpse of this reality by looking backwards to imagine forward.

Last spring, this congregation began a process to imagine where God might be calling us by the gospel. A group of people that included Pastor Ann and me began meeting to plan strategically. The congregation began talking and individually answering questions in the hopes of revealing common themes and a unified direction. One of the things identified in that process was the congregation’s decade long history of vacant land that was originally slated for senior housing. Congregation members long ago took out additional loans on their own homes to secure that land on behalf of the church’s commitment to the gospel. For a variety of reasons, including the city of Denver at the time, the vision of senior housing didn’t materialize. That very land continued to pulse with possibility even in its dormancy. Transforming that land became a goal. A few congregation members in powerful bit parts of their own, attended a breakfast last fall hosted by Interfaith Alliance and discovered the Congregation Land Campaign.[3] A Campaign that over the last few years identified almost 5,000 acres of unused land on faith community property that could be used for affordable housing. One acre of that land sits at the bottom of the hill here, next to and behind our park on the slope. New meetings began here in the congregation that dovetailed the goal of Transforming Our Vacant Land and the Congregation Land Campaign. Last week the congregation voted 98-7 to continue that process and figure out what Permanent Affordable Housing with a land lease could look like. Those Holy Spirit cameos are inspiring a whole lot of bit parts adding up to exciting, unimaginable times for Augustana’s hospitality meeting deep need for people in our city. Does it get any better than that?!

The Holy Spirit is already out of ahead of us. Imagining. Inspiring. Softening hearts. What we call a Strategic Plan is simply us trying to get a bead on where and how that’s happening. To get on board with what the Spirit is laying out ahead of us. Next week on June 2, there’s a meeting between worship services for ministries in the congregation to strategize boldly because we are emboldened by God’s grace to continue to see what the Holy Spirit is imagining ahead of us. Are we going to get it right? Hardly. Are we going to make every effort to be faithful? You betcha.

It would be easy to sentimentalize our faith into solely a personal experience or to fall into despair for the wounded world. We are made of stern stuff, my friends. In water, wine, and bread we become what we receive – the risen Christ in the world. We are emboldened by the grace of God into bit parts of the Spirit’s leading for the world God so loves.

Thanks be to God. Amen! And Allelulia!

__________________________________________________________

[1] Acts 7:54-8:1

[2] Acts 9:1-22

[3] Congregation Land Campaign is a partnership between Interfaith Alliance and Radian Architecture (non-profit). https://interfaithallianceco.org/clc

___________________________________________________________

John 14:23-29Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. 25 “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, “I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.

Sermons

Equality Is Not False Moral Equivalency (OR Those Meddling Midwives) Exodus 1:8-20a Romans 12:1-18 Matthew 16:13-20

August 27, 2017 caitlin121608

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on August 27, 2017

[sermon begins after three Bible readings]

Exodus 1:8-20a Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13 The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them. 15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” 20 So God dealt well with the midwives

Romans 12:1-8 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

Matthew 16:13-20 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

[sermon begins]

Conversation about eclipse glasses started weeks ago. Mom would be visiting from Palm Springs so she’d offered to order enough for her, my family, and my sister’s family in Arvada. Nine altogether. Glasses in hand, she received the recall from Amazon that the glasses were bogus. A kerfuffle developed in my safety conscious family until my sister the math teach connected with a science teacher down the hall. Rest assured, these new ones would work. And work they did. I was here at the church during the eclipse. My mom and I stood outside the sanctuary with our certified eclipse glasses and looked up, taking in 93% of totality beyond the bell tower. Very cool. And very fun to share this moment with Mom.

At a dinner party this week we heard from people who had seen the eclipse in totality – 100% of the moon in front of the sun. They were able to remove their glasses for 2 ½ minutes and be wowed by the ring of the sun, solar flares, and a 360 degree sunset. It sounds amazing. One friend said that there is no comparison between totality and the 93% in town. So while Mom and I were having our moment, other people were having a completely different one. Apparently eclipse viewing is not created equal. To be honest, this idea of equality has been on my mind recently. No surprise that it would come to mind related to eclipse viewing.

It all started when a young friend of mine said to me a few weeks ago that he didn’t think people truly believed in equality. Equality meaning that all people are of equal value in the human story. Before these thoughts about equality were percolating, I’d already been thinking ahead about the Bible verses in Romans 12 and the Exodus story of the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah.[1]

The Romans letter gives us familiar reminders. In verse 4, “We, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” And, immediately in verse 5, “We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.” The Apostle Paul writes that we are “many” and “one” at the same time while also reminding us that we “differ.” We can almost hear the squabbling and power plays among those Roman Christians to whom Paul is writing.

As people of faith, Paul’s argument lays down a challenge for us. Do we believe in the equal value of prophets, ministers, teachers, exhorters, givers, leaders, and the compassionate as laid out in next verses? And, if we do believe in their equal value, how do not create false moral equivalencies? Moral equivalency means that we would hear everything that every prophet, minister, or teacher SAYS as having equal value. One of the ways that we do this is by saying things like, “Well, I’m a sinner so what right do I have to call out someone else’s sin?” Or, “Who do you think you are to decide who is on the side of right?” These are important and often faithful questions, to be sure. But let’s also think about the way scripture sets these questions in tension with clear moral outcomes. The midwives in Exodus are one such example.

The midwives’ story is the alternate first reading in the lectionary for this Sunday. Shiphrah and Puah are two of my favorite Bible characters. I simply can’t resist them when they pop up on the schedule. They are Hebrew midwives commanded by the Egyptian king to kill boy babies delivered by the Hebrew women. “But the midwives feared God…they let the boys live.”[2] The king confronts them and asks, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” Shiphrah and Puah reply, “[the Hebrew women] are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”[3] I laugh every time I hear their reply to the king. The midwives are called to the work of life and they find a way even when the king commands them to be instruments of death. There is no moral equivalency as told by this story. The king’s demand to kill the boy babies is wrong. The midwives saving these babies is right.

God calls us into the work of life, too. Like the apostle Peter, we follow “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). When we see death, God sees resurrection life. When others rationalize people’s suffering as something deserved or beyond anyone’s help, Jesus tells us that they are God-given neighbors for whom we are to care. Sometimes resurrection life means live-births midwifed by Shiphrah and Puah. Sometimes resurrection life means giving money for hungry people to both eat and work toward feeding themselves. Sometimes resurrection life means calling out white supremacy as an egregious legacy of chattel slavery in America.

As much as the U.S. Constitution and Christianity had to do with advancing Civil Rights in this country, the same could be said in the other direction. The U.S. Constitution and Christianity also keep the 400 year legacy of racism alive and well with embedded racial biases. I have no trouble claiming that paradox because I see myself as a microcosm of it. One of the confessional claims of our faith tradition is that we are simul iustus et peccator which means we are saint and sinner at the same time. Why wouldn’t it be so when it comes to racism as well?

René Girard was an atheist philosopher who converted to Christianity through his studies of mimetic theory, scapegoating, and the Bible.[4] He died in 2015 at the age of 91. Girard expected to find consistency between other ancient texts and the Bible when it came to scapegoating. Instead, he found the Bible unique in its rejection of it. He argued that scapegoating is a primitive urge for cathartic violence. This simply means we feel better when we get rid of our identified bad guy(s). Violence escalates as the scapegoat is more clearly identified as the problem. Peaceful feelings ensue once the scapegoat is removed or killed. Problem solved. Mr. Girard argued that Jesus is the ultimate scapegoat “condemned by all rightful authorities.”[5] He also argues that the cross reveals scapegoating for its lie. It doesn’t solve anything.

Let’s take scapegoating in our present moment. For white supremacists, the scapegoats are black and Jewish. For other white people like me, white supremacists make easy scapegoats. By focusing on white supremacists, we absolve ourselves from the subtle ways we maintain racial bias in religion, government, law enforcement, real estate, education, and commerce. The cross lifts a mirror towards all of us – convicting us of our own sin and turning us towards our neighbors. The cross of Christ levels the ground on which we stand. When we see hierarchy and power and race, God sees children – many children who make one body and who differ in their gifts by grace.

As God’s children, it’s good to wrestle with the question that Jesus asks, “…who do you say that I am?”[6] In fact, we are free to wrestle with that question because we are first and foremost children of God, baptized and set free. But God knows that the lives of our neighbors and, by extension, our own lives, are at stake in our answer to Jesus’ question. Later in the Gospel according to Matthew we are challenged by Jesus to see his face on the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the imprisoned, the sick, and the stranger – the scapegoats, if you will. Paul writes in Romans, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, that you might discern the will of God…”[7] The Apostle Paul knows that we need reminding because we forget that we have a living God who shows up whenever death is chosen over life.[8] Jesus asks us, “Who do you say that I am?” We confess and remind each other, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.”

Amen.

[1] Exodus 1:8-20a

[2] Exodus 1:17

[3] Exodus 1:19

[4] Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry. “The unlikely Christianity of René Girard” on November 10, 2015 for The Week (online). http://theweek.com/articles/587772/unlikely-christianity-ren-girard

[5] Ibid.

[6] Matthew 16:15

[7] Romans 12:2

[8] Karoline Lewis, Dear Working Preacher: “Speaking Up For A Living God.” On August 20, 2017 relating to lectionary Bible readings for August 27, 2017. http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=4955

Preaching

God’s Kingdom and Will? No sweat. (OR The Lord’s Prayer: Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven) John 18:33-38 Romans 5:1-10 Jeremiah 29:11-13a Psalm 145:8-17

July 30, 2017 caitlin121608

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on July 30, 2017

[sermon begins after two Bible readings; the two other readings may be found at the end of the sermon]

Romans 5:1-10 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.

John 18:33-38 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” 35 Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” 37 Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”

[sermon begins]

There’s a kind of conversation that happens when two people think they’re clear as a bell and really there are two different conversations happening at the same time. My husband and I had one of those just the other day. Rob had to leave the house early to meet clients in Cheyenne. Before he hopped in the shower, he said to me, “Don’t turn off the coffee pot, okay?” My clear-as-a-bell reply was, “How many cups of coffee have I had?” He tipped his head a bit at me with that classic expression that silently asks, “Whaaat?!” I made perfect sense to myself because I was wondering how likely it would be that I would even think about turning off the coffee at that early hour. Meanwhile, Rob just needed quick reassurance that the coffee pot would remain on while he rallied to leave. Twenty-seven years into our relationship and there are still moments of confusion in the small and big conversations.

The dialogue between Jesus and Pontius Pilate falls into the big conversation category. Any prior relationship or benefit of the doubt or warm laughter between them is unlikely. This is serious business. Jesus is on trial. Pilate summons him to a private conversation after questioning the people who brought him in. Jesus is brought to Pilate for a legal verdict. Honestly? He’s brought to Pilate for a guilty verdict. Pilate is caught between the crowd, Roman law, job security, and Jesus’ innocence. Whatever you may think of his actions, Pontius Pilate is a compelling character. His question about truth is compelling. And it’s a very old question. “What is truth?” Great question all on its own. Philosophers and neuroscientists have a field day talking about the origins of reality and truth.

“What is truth?” is also a great question when it comes to God’s kingdom and will. There are lots of people who invoke God’s will for all kinds of things. The good that happens? God’s will. The bad that happens? God’s will. I’m more cautious when it comes to claiming God’s will. This caution is due to something called bondage of the will. Bondage of the will means that the human inclination is to think about the self first and think about everything else second. Including God. Not only are we anthropocentric thinking that humans are the center of all reality; I am self-centered thinking that I am origin of truth. There’s a Latin expression for this self-centeredness. Incurvatus in se. The expression means that we are curved in on ourselves. In Christianity, we could say that the cross pulls our noses out of our belly buttons aligning us with God and God’s kingship.

God’s kingship brings us to the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer. “Thy kingdom come.” Martin Luther writes, “In fact, God’s kingdom comes on its own without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may also come to us.”[1] To think about the kingdom, we look at the king. Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus deflects the question by answering with a question. Pilate then asks Jesus, “What have you done?” Jesus responds, “My kingdom is not from this world…” Ah, Pilate thinks he has Jesus now. “So you ARE a king?” Again, Jesus hedges his answer by saying that he “came into this world to testify to the truth.” Once again, two people having two different conversations at the same time. Although, for our purposes today, Jesus does point us toward his kingdom.

Jesus’ kingdom talk is interesting. Pilate isn’t off-base asking about a king when Jesus testifies that his kingdom is not from this world. Asking for the identity of the king makes sense. The problem is that this king is unlike other kings. This king is standing trial in front of an insignificant governor of an obscure Roman outpost. This king isn’t rallying power to fight and win. This king is surrendering. He is preparing for the ultimate self-sacrifice on behalf of friends and enemies alike. This king reveals the breadth of divine power poured out in the depth of divine love.[2] Jesus testifies to his kingdom with unexpected behaviors for a king. Unexpected behaviors for a king but perhaps not unexpected behaviors for THIS king. Remember that this king spent his time on earth meeting with outcasts and strangers, healing the untouchables, feeding the hungry, and offending the powers that be by calling for love of God, neighbor, and enemy. Remember that he ends up offending almost everyone. Remember that he gets killed for his kingdom’s work, proclamation, and ministry.

In his ministry, Jesus teaches us to pray the third petition, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Martin Luther writes, “In fact, God’s good and gracious will comes about without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may also come in and among us.”[3] Dr. Alicia Vargas writes that this in this prayer “we acknowledge our obedience to divine authority.”[4] We pray that our own will yields to God’s will as sovereign, as king.

God’s kingdom and will seem to be revealed through Jesus’ kingdom ministry and inevitable execution which gives one possibility as we pray for God’s will. God’s will is for God to love us. God’s will is first about God and what God is doing through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. God creates, sustains, shows up, dies, and lives again in love for us. In verse 5 of the Romans reading, the Apostle Paul says it this way, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”[5] The love of God is revealed in and among us…the church…the body of Christ in the world. God commissions us through baptism to the ministry and proclamation of this good news.

So, God’s will is first for God to love us. Not just some of us. All of us. I remember when this became shockingly clear to me. Six or seven years ago I was at a middle school volleyball tournament. The seating for fans was in an oval one level above the game on the floor. It was packed. It was loud. I remember looking around at everyone there – mixed in age, race, and class, faces scrunched up and lungs unleashed in competitive intensity. And I remember thinking, God loves all you people. I found this remarkable. Stunning, really. Feel free to try this yourselves at any sporting event. Or at any time really. Look around school. God loves all those people. Look around work. Look around government. God loves all those people. Look around the grocery store and the gym. God loves all those people. Look around your neighborhood and your home. God loves all those people. You see them. God loves them.

Look around these pews. God loves all you people. Thanks be to God. Amen.

_______________________________________________________

[1] Martin Luther. Luther’s Small Catechism in Free Indeed: Devotions for Lent (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 2016), 44.

[2] Dr. Craig Koester said this repeatedly during in his class on The Gospel of John, Fall 2010. Luther Seminary.

[3] Martin Luther, 46.

[4] Alicia Vargas, The Third Petition in Free Indeed: Devotions for Lent (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 2016), 46.

[5] Romans 5:5

_________________________________________________________

Jeremiah 29:11-13a For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 12 Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13 When you search for me, you will find me.

Psalm 145:8-17 The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made. 10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you. 11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom, and tell of your power, 12 to make known to all people your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds. 14 The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down. 15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. 16 You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing. 17 The Lord is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings.

Preaching

People of Courage

September 4, 2016 caitlin121608

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on September 4, 2016

[sermon begins after 2 Bible readings]

Philemon 1:1-21 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our dear friend and co-worker, 2 to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 When I remember you in my prayers, I always thank my God 5 because I hear of your love for all the saints and your faith toward the Lord Jesus. 6 I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective when you perceive all the good that we may do for Christ. 7 I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my brother. 8 For this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, 9 yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love—and I, Paul, do this as an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. 10 I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment. 11 Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me. 12 I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. 13 I wanted to keep him with me, so that he might be of service to me in your place during my imprisonment for the gospel; 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent, in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced. 15 Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother—especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. 17 So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. 18 If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it. I say nothing about your owing me even your own self. 20 Yes, brother, let me have this benefit from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in Christ. 21 Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.

Luke 14:25-33 Now large crowds were traveling with [Jesus]; and he turned and said to them, 26 “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

[sermon begins]

What is your deepest prayer? The longing of your heart? Can you even put it into words? Some of us can and some of us can’t. My public prayers come out in a somewhat organized way so that others have a shot a following along. The silent prayers of my heart and mind? Not so much. Those prayers take flight like a hummingbird – first here, then there, then over there – a jumble of images, people’s faces, sentence fragments, sometimes just a single word. It’s why I occasionally pray prayers written by other people. Their words can chill out my search for words and help me let go into prayer.

Paul’s writings can land and lift like prayers. Certainly not every word he’s written, but there are moments. When I started reading Philemon a couple weeks ago it was that kind of experience. The way he opens in greeting with grace and peace giving thanks for his friends. His “appeal to [Philemon] on the basis of love” on behalf of Onesimus.[1] Challenging Philemon about who a co-worker in the gospel can be.

Paul’s words to Philemon flutter at us. There’s a sweetness on one side and steel on the other. Love, love, love and do, do, do. Paul loves Philemon AND Onesimus. He wants them to get along in a new way. In Christ. So he writes a letter. From prison. So many powerful words have come from sitting in captivity. Bonhoeffer wrote in a concentration camp, Dr. King in a Birmingham Jail, and, apparently, prison inspired Paul to write too.

Writing in prison is definitely a thing. In prison there’s time. A lot of time. When freedom is stripped away and there’s no room for choice, time opens up. These people that I just named wrote before they were in prison as well. It’s just that some of their most memorable writings came from prison. Prison’s stark reality seems to bring a different kind of clarity. If there’s little more to lose then for some people there seems to be even more to say.

I’d like to see Philemon’s response to Paul. And then I wish we had a transcript from Onesimus. I want to know what these three men are thinking as this negotiation takes shape. I can imagine all kinds of thing about Philemon. Just like I can imagine that Onesimus has a bunch of opinions too. Regardless, Paul has a lot to say to Philemon about changing his behavior.

How does someone stop doing something and start doing something else? What are the ways and means that that happens? Ideally, it comes from the inside. Self-awareness of something and then a strategy for change. There’s something more palatable about that process. I get to identify my problem. Wail and gnash teeth behind the scenes. Make a plan. And get going. It sounds so tidy. It’s part of the American ethos. I get to become a better version of myself and no one’s the wiser because the process is internal, mostly private.

Internal self-improvement and privacy don’t seem to be a part of the Kingdom of God in the scenario between Paul and Philemon. The letter is addressed to Philemon, some friends, and their church. Eugene Peterson, a retired pastor and writer, asks this question:

What does it mean to represent the Kingdom of God in a culture devoted to the Kingdom of the Self?[2]

Well, for one thing, it seems to mean not doing things perfectly. Representing the Kingdom of God looks like the cross that Jesus is talking about in Luke. Listen to what Jesus tells the people following him on the road to Jerusalem: “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” [3]

How many tower builders and kings do you think are in the crowd following Jesus on the road to Jerusalem? How many in the crowd know what it feels like to decide to go to war or to design a building? I’m going to guess with you that there aren’t many. The people in the crowd have a greater chance of working in the tower as it is being built or being sent to the front lines in battle. They’ve likely seen and known what it means when decisions about those things are made poorly. Because people die when a tower falls or war goes badly. It’s good for kings and tower architects to know what they’re doing. The people in the crowd know that much.

What the people in the crowd don’t know is the extent of what the cross means. They couldn’t. The cross is more like towers that fall and wars that are lost. Ironically, Jesus is talking to them about towers that stand and wars thoughtfully considered. The cross is a shameful end.

In the honor-shame culture of the first century, shame and avoiding it is something that the people know about. When Jesus asks them if they’re willing to hate their families, the word he uses for hate means disgrace rather the emotional state of hate we think of today.[4] There are first century letters from parents complaining about their son or daughter joining the Christians.[5] This was not good news in families.

I’ll say it again. The people in the crowd do not know what the cross means. Ironically, Jesus is talking to them about towers that stand and wars thoughtfully considered. Yet, the cross is a shameful end. More like towers that fall and wars that are lost. Picking up a cross is not a recipe for success. It’s a burden of shame.

As I continued to read Philemon during the last few weeks, I was drawn to what Paul isn’t saying. He isn’t saying slavery is wrong. He isn’t challenging the status quo of owning people. He is challenging Philemon to treat his slave as a brother in Christ. Upwards of 35-40% of people were enslaved in the 1st century Greco-Roman world.[6]

Turns out the letter to Philemon and others of Paul’s writings were more recently used in history to support over 250 years of American Christian ownership of slaves.[7] Even as a representative of the Kingdom of God, Paul’s reveals the limitations of his own humanity. There is confession of sorts in Paul’s letter. He can see only so far into kingdom freedom for Onesimus and Philemon.

As Jesus asks those following him to count the costs, he also knows our limitations. Our comfort with the status quo can blind us to the suffering we inflict on ourselves and each other. If Jesus’ death on the cross says anything it shows just how far we’ll go to keep things the same.

Jesus know this about us and gives us to each other like Paul, Onesimus, and Philemon – appealing to each other in love. Not a sappy, sentimental kind of love. The hard kind of love that inspires the courage both to speak and to listen. The kind of love that saturates the life of Jesus, that leads to the self-sacrificing love of Jesus on a cross. The same cross that shatters a culture devoted to the Kingdom of Self. The cross that heralds the Kingdom of God and draws us toward each other through the love of Jesus.

Thanks be to God.

[1] Philemon 1:9

[2] Eugene H. Peterson. Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Co., 1992), 50.

[3] Luke 14:27

[4] John Petty. Pentecost 16:::Luke 14:25-33 Commentary for September 4, 2016 http://www.progressiveinvolvement.com/progressive_involvement/2016/08/pentecost-16-luke-14-25-33.html

[5] Ibid.

[6] Christian A. Eberhart, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Houston. Commentary on Philemon for September 4, 2016 at WorkingPreacher.org http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1767

[7] Peter Gomes. The Good Book. (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1996), 89.

Sharon Draper. Timeline of Slavery in America: 1501-1865. https://sharondraper.com/timeline.pdf

[8] Eugene H. Peterson. Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Co., 1992), 50.

Sermons

We Begin at the End [OR “YOU Are The Man”] Galatians 2:15-21; Luke 7:36-8:3; Psalm 32; and 2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15

June 12, 2016 caitlin121608

Pastor Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on June 12, 2016

[sermon begins after 2 Bible readings; the King David story and the Psalm are at the end of sermon]

Galatians 2:15-21 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. 17 But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; 20 and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

Luke 7:36-8:3 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. 37 And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. 38 She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.” 40 Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “speak.” 41 “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” 48 Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
8:1 Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, 2 as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.

My mother has given each of us kids many things over the years. There is one gift that is relevant today. It’s a Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language. I and my siblings each have one. Included with the gift is a metal or wooden book stand to put it on. People walk into my living room, see the huge book on its wrought iron stand and assume it’s an old family Bible. Easy mistake when you walk into a pastor’s home. It’s not a Bible. But the dictionary came in at a close second to the Bible in my family.

When we’d hear a word and didn’t know what it meant, Mom would send us to the dictionary, always opened on the book stand, with a quick, “Go look it up.” The equivalent of an old school web search except with legs and paper. Off we’d go and come back to report our findings. Words are a memorable part of my childhood. Now words are the tools of my trade in the pulpit and beyond.

In the Galatians reading, we find Paul emphasizing certain words through repetition. Paul redirects the church in Galatia using words like justification, law, works, and faith over-and-over. Much as they were for Paul, these four words are tools of the trade for Lutheran preachers, too. Justification. Law. Works. Faith. Four words that make sense when, off we go, to look up and find Christ on the heavy wood of the cross. To paraphrase Martin Luther in the introductory words of his Galatians lectures, we begin at the end.[1]

We begin at the end and the end is our justification – being made right with God through what God did in Christ. This is passive on our parts.[2] Simply receiving by faith what God has already done for us.

Luther argues this about Paul’s purpose in the letter to the Galatians: “Paul wants to establish the doctrine of faith, grace, the forgiveness of sins or Christian righteousness, so that we may have a perfect knowledge and know the difference between Christian righteousness and all other kinds of righteousness.”

Then Luther goes on to list various kinds of righteousness including:

Political righteousness that politicians, philosophers, and lawyers consider in regards to guilt, innocence, and justice.

Ceremonial righteousness that Christians consider in regards to preaching, worship, and sacraments.

Lastly, Luther emphasizes the righteousness of the Law, the commandments – righteous, indeed, but only after the passiveness of faith is given.

I care so much about this passive gift of justification we receive by faith. I care about it personally for myself and for people like me who were raised in different faith traditions in which you never knew if you were good with God. A lot of how God and I were doing had to do with how well I could keep up with my own active righteousness in the Law. I care a lot about it for people who have grown up in with the message of passive justification by grace through faith and leave the tradition without understanding the magnitude of this promise.

Here’s Luther again on this topic:

“Thus human reason cannot refrain from looking at active righteousness, that is, its own righteousness…”[3] We’re an active people, after all. Passive is a word used in the world that is often given a negative meaning. But passive in terms of justification is something to revel in – floating in that baptismal promise until we get all pruny.

If there one thing I know, it’s people and their sin. I’m difficult to surprise with the ways people hurt themselves, each other, and the planet. If there’s one thing I know better, it’s me and my own sin. I also know what Luther is talking about as he warns about how easily we fall into trusting our own works, our own active righteousness by which we try to justify ourselves.[4]

In the snippet of the story from Second Samuel, King David stands accused by Nathan. David wants the woman who is married to Uriah. He sends Uriah to battle in the front lines with the knowledge that he would die. Then he marries Uriah’s wife. Nathan is sent to challenge David with the truth. Nathan tells him a story about a man who has acted unjustly. So unjustly has the man acted that David’s “anger was greatly kindled against the man.”[5] Nathan turns to him and says, “YOU are the man.”[6]

“YOU are the man.” It’s crushing to stand accused and have the accusation be true. It’s easy to try to explain it away even when our own culpability is so obvious. Last week Pastor Ann preached about compassion. She used the example of the mother whose child ended up in the gorilla enclosure and how quickly the critique and defense began – self-righteousness pouring in from all sides in the news and social media storm. Pastor Ann encouraged us to remove ourselves from the bandwagon of accusing, pointing fingers. Slow down our rush to judgment and consider ourselves – our reactions, our own moments of culpability.

This week many of us can’t look away from a rape trial that happened on the prestigious Stanford campus. The accused is obviously guilty and his father’s justification for a lenient sentence is splattered across the media. The hue and cry is so great that Congress plans to read the woman’s letter to the rapist into the congressional record.

The thing that gets me about this case is it’s irrefutable. The crime was public, witnessed. The heroes caught the perpetrator and stayed with the woman while awaiting emergency personnel. There is no he-said-she-said confusion on this one. If Nathan were standing with the accused, he might say to him, “YOU are the man.”

The last few weeks, much has been discussed in public about rape on college campuses that includes the sexual assault scandal at Baylor University along with the separate incident at Stanford. As recently as yesterday, a missing 18 year old woman was found dead in Larimer County – her ex-boyfriend the suspect. The sense of entitlement that wounds and kills women is appalling. The temptation to be Nathan and the Pharisee with accusing, pointing fingers is great. I’ve certainly indulged in my own finger pointing along this line.

There is a challenge here from the scripture. Jesus says to Simon the Pharisee, “Do you see this woman?” It’s a convicting question. “Do you see this woman?” Simon, so quick to point out the woman’s sin and shame, overlooks his own. There are many ways we do this pointing and shaming similarly. Actively justifying our goodness in the world. “Active righteousness” as Luther would call it. Stacking up the good-wins in a column. What would happen if we put our efforts to name ourselves righteous to the side? Put our fingers away for a moment. Specifically, confessing the ways that we as both men and women participate in a culture and a world that preys on women.

What would happen if our starting place is passive righteousness? As Paul says it in verse from Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” What would happen? Would Christ in us free us to confess our culpability in this culture that preys on women? Would we become part of a culture shift? Would we find the relief that the psalmist describes so well? The Psalmist writes, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin… You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.”[7]

Passive righteousness is the end that serves as our beginning. From there we begin living lives of courage. We begin at the end – no longer content to let our own sin go unspoken. This kind of courage is a bit thin in the culture at the moment and is an oh-so-desperately-needed gift. This is a gift Christ offers through us for the sake of the world. Claim the promise as you move through your week. Say to yourself, “It is not I, but Christ who lives in me.” This is most certainly true.

[1] Martin Luther. Introductory paragraph to Lectures on Galatians in Luther’s Works Volume 26, 1535. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1963), [3].

[2] Martin Luther, [4]

[3] Martin Luther, 5.

[4] Martin Luther, 9.

[5] 2 Samuel 12:5

[6] 2 Samuel 12:7

[7] Psalm 32:5, 7

Psalm 32 Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. (Selah) 5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Selah) 6 Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to you; at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them. 7 You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance. (Selah) 8 I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. 9 Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you. 10 Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord. 11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15 When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. 27 When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord,
12:1 and the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds; 3 but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. 4 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.” 5 Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; 6 he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.” 7 Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; 8 I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more. 9 Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan said to David, “Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child that is born to you shall die.” 15 Then Nathan went to his house. The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became very ill.

Pastor, Preacher, Speaker