Preaching, Sermons

Holding Space and Being Held on Christmas Eve – Luke 2:1-20

**sermon art: Guatemalan Nativity by John Giuliani (1990s)

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on December 24, 2024 at 11 a.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m., and 7 p.m.

[sermon begins after the Bible story of Christmas – it’s 20 verses, hang in there]

Luke 2:1-20  In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

  8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

 

[sermon begins]

Has it ever happened to you that someone suddenly handed you a baby and said, “Here, hold them for a second?” You and the baby stare at each other in shock and wonder what just happened. There’s a little bit of panic on both sides to see how this is going to go. As a pediatric nurse and now a pastor, these baby-holding times can be as daunting as they are precious. A startled baby can be tricky. In related news, I DO often ask if littles are willing to BE held. Just last week, a one-year-old let me hold her for a bit while her parents and I talked about her baptism. She was squishy and solid and clamped onto my shoulder and hip in the way of one-year-olds. She was also herself – wide-eyed, thoughtful, super chill, taking everything in. The four of us walked into this Sanctuary with her still in my arms, and I showed her the baptismal font. IT. WAS. AWESOME! And it made me think about holding space and being held.

There was nothing but space out in the fields where the shepherds were keeping their sheep. Wide open space for the sheep to eat and the shepherds to sleep. Until…until…awakened in terror by light shattering the certainty of the dark night, their wide-open space descended upon by the angel who woke them up, told them not to be afraid, and announced good news of great JOY for ALL the people. News SO good that they raced to Bethlehem to see this good news baby for themselves and to tell his mom and dad all about it.

Mary began her adventure as Jesus’ mom by consenting to hold space for a pregnancy of epic proportions. Orthodox Christians call Mary, Theotokos, which means God-bearer. Her body literally expanded and stretched to hold the divine. How daring and determined and fierce Mary must have been to hold space for Love to be risked and shaped and birthed. While Joseph’s mind and heart expanded and stretched to hold space for his new bride and his adopted son.

Then there was the space to be born. Room with the animals. Space in their feeding trough, the manger, to hold the newborn Jesus who embodied God’s Love. A manger made by human hands would be imperfect, a sliver here and a splintered peg there. But the manger would perfectly reveal the Love that was born on Christmas – “A baby, wrapped in bands of cloth, and lying in manger.” The manger is much like the Bible in which the story of Jesus’ birth is told. A sacred story written by human hands, imperfect but revealing the Christ perfectly. The manger and scripture holding space in and around them for human imperfection to meet the unconditional grace of divine Love. Holding space to reveal Jesus, the One who made God’s Love real in his ministry on earth. The One who leads us to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Perhaps a more immediate and literally concrete example of holding space would help us get the gist of it. Just down the street, on donated land from this congregation, Augustana Homes are being built by Habitat for Humanity and hundreds of volunteers from around the city. Affordable homes that hold space in the form of three-to-four-bedroom townhomes for working families to call home. Going from a baby born in a manger because there was no room in the inn, to families who will have a way into homeownership, may be a leap of faith, but it also makes perfect sense when told alongside the Christmas story.

On Christmas, holding space and being held happen simultaneously. We are held in this moment in time. We could be anywhere else, and yet we are here. There are many reasons to end up at church on Christmas Eve. As many reasons as there are people here. Maybe it’s your habit or annual tradition. Maybe it’s easier to be here with family than to be somewhere else without family. Maybe your family is fractured, and you wandered in wondering if community can be found. Maybe your faith calls you here in gratitude. Maybe your life has become such a hot mess that church on Christmas Eve feels like a last-ditch attempt to find a way through. Maybe the peace of candlelight is good for your heart. Or maybe you just simply love the collective effervescence of singing together in this Sanctuary.

Whatever draws you here in this moment in time, you are held in the cradle of this Sanctuary. Sacred space where thousands of people have gathered across time for baptisms, weddings, funerals, Christmases, Easters, and Sunday mornings. Sinner-saints held by a sacred space as we gather to remind each other of what’s so easy to forget in the anxiety of life, the disarray of politics, and the competition of culture. We remind each other that God’s welcome through this congregation includes everyone. At a time when the surgeon general declared an epidemic of loneliness, we are a community of hope, who support each other through suffering as we celebrate our joys and serve locally and globally. Being human is complicated. Being yourself shouldn’t be. You are welcome here.

If even that is too much to get our heads around, let’s try our hands. When you come forward for communion, your hands held together and facing up make a manger of sorts as you hold space for the bread given to you, imperfectly cradling Jesus’ presence with hands that may have a sliver here or a bent finger there, and with fragile bodies as we eat. Despite our imperfections or, just maybe, because of them, the perfect presence of Jesus dwells within us, and we are held by the One who taught us that there is nothing we can do or not do to make God love us any more or any less. This is definitely good news of great joy for all people, which also means that it is good news for you. Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

Preaching, Sermons

Good That Will Last – Luke 3:7-18 and Philippians 4:4-7

Good That Will Last

Pastor Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on December 15, 2024

[sermon begins after two Bible readings]

Philippians 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Luke 3:7-18 he wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 11 In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”
15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

[sermon begins]

John’s speech has a sideline quality. An American football sideline. Picture the guy striding up and down among the other players. Arms flapping, mouth flapping, hair flapping, there is name calling, yelling. The speech takes people to the next level. Ups their game on the field. So much is still possible because there’s time on the clock. An expectation that with a positive mindset, perfect timing, and the right mix of skills at the right time keeps the win is in sight.

Sitting on the sideline means different things to different people. Defense may be on the field protecting the end-zone while offense is reviewing plays and resting up. Back-up players are also suited up who are lucky enough to take the field once a season. Regardless of why players are on the sideline, they are powerless there. The players on the field do the actual work. The sideline is a bit of wilderness. There is wandering around. Sitting down. Very little appears organized. BUT those are just appearances. Check out a game. Maybe around 2 o’clock today when lots of people will be watching a particular game. Take a gander at those sidelines. Chances are good you will see a John the Baptist type – arms flapping, mouth flapping, hair flapping, name calling, and yelling.

John is worked up. He’s a wilderness guy. This is his terrain. And the crowds come.  Not just any crowds. Crowds of brood-of-viper riff-raff – extortionists masked as mercenaries, tax collectors, and people with too many coats. These crowds of riff-raff are people. People come to see a man about a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. John yells at them, calls them names, and challenges them to find a new perspective, a new way. He yells, “Bear fruits worthy of repentance!”  The crowd asks, “What shall we do?” John hollers at them about playing fair and giving away their extra coats. John’s answers are not earth shattering.  The crowd’s question, though, is compelling, “What shall we do?”

John tells those riff-raff what to do. The crowd is apparently hanging onto more than they need, the tax collectors are collecting for Rome but lining their own pockets by overcharging, and the soldiers of the time are mercenary bullies, extorting money from the people. In short, John tells them to share, play fair, and be kind. This is not rocket science. It’s a new perspective. It’s repentance. This is standing with your neighbor rather than against them.[1]

We so easily stand apart from the crowd, the tax collectors, and the soldiers, feeling grateful that those aren’t our particular sins. However, I see us smack in the middle of this crowd, wondering why we came in today only to hear John’s words push against us, too. After all, it’s difficult to fully celebrate the arrival of a savior if you don’t see much need for one from the start.

John’s sideline coaching to the tax collectors and soldiers can be applied to the rest of us. The Bible tells story after story about deeply flawed people who regularly hurt other people or hurt themselves. But it doesn’t take a 2,000-year-old look back in time to see this play out. Our lives reveal a truth that we don’t often share with ourselves and try to avoid sharing with anyone else. Despite our best intentions to “do better next time,” despite the reassurances that we give ourselves about being “good people.” Despite the best efforts of wild-haired guy on the sidelines, here’s the reality on the football field. There will be an interception. There will be a fumble. There will be a missed field goal. There will be failure to protect the blind side.

What are fruits worthy of repentance? The most helpful answer locates our behavior in the realm of worship, an act of praise. Behavior that points us and other people to the good news of Jesus, not to ourselves. John the Baptist does this beautifully – yelling notwithstanding. He is often depicted in art with his finger literally pointing towards Jesus. Listen to the end of the Bible reading one more time:

16 John answered [the expectations of the crowd] by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 18 So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.”

The power of Pentecost is on fire just under the surface of this Advent text.[2] The Holy Spirit, at work in Mary’s pregnancy, has more in mind than the gentrified quiet of a nativity scene. The Holy Spirit has us in mind, my friends. John’s proclamation that “the one who is coming…will baptize you with fire and the Holy Spirit,” is indeed good news. John interprets this wild promise beginning with the distinction between the wheat and the chaff. Each of us IS one of those grains – a grain sitting warm and cozy within the unusable chaff that surrounds it.

We get used to our chaff. Some might even argue that we’ve made peace too easily with our chaff, our sin. But part of the promise is that our repentance, our surrender to the one who has the power to forgive us, is that the sin gets called out by truth, gets forgiven and we are set free. Once that happens, look out! IT IS a salvation day in the here and now! Salvation that transforms us by the goodness of God into what God first created good. Salvation that frees us into a new future, one not defined by past sins or social class.

God’s freedom unleashed by the power of the Holy Spirit can also look more subtle. It looks like people who rage, gossip, gloat, hoard, cheat and bully, in both clever and unaware ways, and those same people walking up to bread and wine, surrendering to the Holy Spirit’s forgiveness and power. In short, it looks like people in need of a Savior, people who may or may not see or understand this need, and who celebrate his birth.

We are a people who need a Savior and who celebrate our Savior’s arrival. Because we do not have a God who uses power to do us harm out of anger. Rather, we have a God who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, came among us in skin and solidarity, and now comes among us in Word, water, bread and wine – forgiving us and refining us by the power of the same Spirit. And we are prepared by the same Spirit to receive our Savior in this Advent time.

And still we ask from the sidelines, “What shall we do?” We start with worship. We are drawn through worship into this faith community call to do all kinds of good for our neighbor in the name of Jesus. We confess the faith of Jesus Christ and, in our mission statement, we say, “Celebrating God’s grace, we welcome everyone to worship Jesus, grow in faith, and go serve in the world.”

The congregation of Augustana regularly points to Christ, first and foremost through our repentant confession at the beginning of worship that is immediately met with the good news of God’s unconditional grace, forgiveness, and love. We commune everyone, all ages, abilities, and attributes, in Jesus’ name. We baptize, bury, and welcome new members in Jesus’ name. We care for the sick and poor in spirit in Jesus’ name through Home Communion, Pastoral Care, Health Ministry, and our Faith Community Nurse. We care for children in Jesus’ name through the Augustana Early Learning Center, Children-Youth-and-Family Ministry, Faith Formation, and Choirs. We worship and sing praise in Jesus’ name through our hymn singing, Choir, Music Ministry, and more.

Like John the Baptist, frank about our shortcomings and, in spite of them, we take action to help other people. Our Compassion and Action with our Neighbors ministry, CAN Ministry for short, IS worship, fruit worthy of repentance that shifts our perspective. We help people eat in Jesus’ name through grocery gift cards, Metro Caring, ELCA World Hunger, and buying Advent farms for people to self-sustain. We care for the stranger in Jesus’ name through our advocacy efforts, Refugee Support Teams and organizing Personal Care Kits for refugees overseas. We care for people in prison in Jesus’ name through New Beginnings Worshiping Community in the women’s prison. And we care for creation, our earthly home that cares for us all. As church, CAN ministry is an embodied act of prayer and thanksgiving. Embodied action that points us and other people to the good news of Jesus, not to ourselves.

Our generosity in Jesus’ name starts in worship as Christ turns us towards God, each other, and the world for the good of our neighbor. Sometimes we hit the mark, sometimes not, while trusting and celebrating God’s grace. With the apostle Paul, we trust that the Lord is near, rejoicing in the Lord, always, not worrying but worshiping and praying – “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”[3] Amen.

__________________________________________

[1] Neighbor is a fully-loaded theological term from the Bible meaning the person in the next room, the next town, or around the world.  Anyone who is not you is your neighbor.

[2] Karoline Lewis, WorkingPreacher.com, “Sermon Brainwave #267 – Lectionary Texts for December 16, 2012.”

[3] From today’s reading in Philippians 4:4-7.

Preaching, Sermons

Songs and a Story – Personal and Real [Advent/Christmas Bless the Years Worship for Home-Centered Folks] Luke 2:1-20

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on December 12, 2024

[sermon begins after Bible reading]

Luke 2:1-20  In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

[sermon begins]

Put us all together and, between us, we know A LOT of Christmas music. We could hear a medley of carols and know most of them. At the very least, we know the music enough to be comfortable with it, to play with it, to hum along with it. Part of today’s Bless the Years is taking a moment to celebrate with Sue Ann on her retirement from a long nursing career and from five years with us as Augustana’s Faith Community Nurse. Many of us have her voice in our heads, singing our favorite hymn from the heart. Maybe she has sung a hymn with you or for you as she communed in your home or hospital. When I was diagnosed last year, I called Sue Ann and, at my request, she sang my favorite hymn to me over the phone as I sat in my car and cried. It was personal and real.

I encourage us to honor her work among us by continuing to sing hymns every day. Especially at this time of year when the songs are so glorious. In the kitchen or humming as we tuck in for the night, our caroling is as imperfect as it is joyous. Our spontaneous carols likely have flaws, but they’re sung from the heart. They’re real. And these carols tell a story. A story that gathers us together here today. A story that had its first tellers long ago. Storytellers for whom the story was personal and real.

The first storytellers were the shepherds in the field. The men who heard the angels sing were people considered suspicious and were on the fringe of their community. THESE are the people for whom the heavenly host sang. They are given first dibs on the story by the angel who tells them – “to you is born this day…a Savior…a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”[1] The shepherds head out fast to go see this baby, this Savior. After all, THEY clearly need one. When they get to the manger, they tell their story from the heart, the story about what’s been told to them. Imagine for a moment the way they tell the story. At best, they tell it in a way that’s personal and real; at best, they tell the story because it’s first and foremost for them. The shepherds need a Savior; it’s obvious to them that they need one – a Savior on their side, a Savior for them.

So, because the Savior is for them, the shepherds tell Mary and Joseph the story, and apparently anyone else who will listen, because, “…all who heard it were amazed.”[2] What amazes them? The story itself? That the shepherds are the ones telling it? That a Savior is born? That angels came, spoke, AND sang? It’s pretty much all amazing! The truly amazing part is that Mary gave a full hearing to the shepherds. The Bible story says, “All who heard it were amazed but Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”[3] She’d just had a baby in a barn, laid that squishy, squeaky baby in a manger used for animal food, and she treasured the words of these wild, shady shepherds in her heart.

Who does that?! For Mary, this story told by the shepherds somehow made sense. At best, perhaps because she heard it in a way that’s personal and real; at best, because…just maybe…it’s a story for her too. Perhaps Mary needs a Savior, a Savior on her side, a Savior for her.

The Bible tells story after story about deeply flawed people whose lives are oh so real. People who regularly hurt other people or hurt themselves. But it doesn’t take a 2,000-year-old look back in time to see this play out. Our lives reveal a truth that we don’t often share with ourselves and try to avoid sharing with anyone else. Despite our best intentions to “do better next time,” despite the reassurances that we give ourselves about being “good people,” the truth remains: anywhere people show up, so do flaws…personal and real.

Into the mix of flawed people, God shows up. God shows up, of all places, in a manger. A manger that has a splinter here and a cracked peg there – a manger that is flawed and real; a manger that cradles and reveals God showing up in Jesus. The manger that reveals the Savior who came under a star in skin and solidarity, into a fragile humanity, to show up personally in our very real lives.

On the first Christmas, God showed up as a baby, a living and breathing hope.  “…hope [that] rests not in what we have done, nor can do, but in all that God is,” has done and is doing.[4] That’s the hope we cling to by faith, even if sometimes it’s by the barest thread with the tips of our fingernails. Regardless of how tightly you cling, the reality is that Jesus holds on to YOU.

In fragile, unexpected places like today in the manger of communion bread and wine, Jesus’ presence is promised to you as a gift of grace this Christmas. We imperfectly cradle his presence with our hands as we receive communion, and with our bodies as we eat. Despite our flaws or, just maybe, because of them, the perfect presence of Jesus dwells with us – personal and real.

For this and for all that God is doing right now and right here, we can say Merry Christmas and amen!

Song after the sermon: What Child is This?

____________________________________

[1] Luke 2:11-12

[2] Luke 2:18

[3] Luke 2:19

[4] W. Dennis Tucher Jr., “Lectionary for November 27, 2011: Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19.”  http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx

Preaching, Sermons

Are You Ready? As We’ll Ever Be. [OR Thank God for the Holy Spirit!] Luke 1 and 3 and in between

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on December 8, 2024

[sermon begins after two Bible readings]

Luke 3:1-6  In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

Luke 1:67-79 Then [John’s] father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy:
 68“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
 for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
 69He has raised up a mighty savior for us
 in the house of his servant David,
 70as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
 71that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
 72Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
 and has remembered his holy covenant,
 73the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
 to grant us 74that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
 might serve him without fear, 75in holiness and righteousness
 before him all our days.
 76And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
 for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
 77to give knowledge of salvation to his people
 by the forgiveness of their sins.
 78By the tender mercy of our God,
 the dawn from on high will break upon us,
 79to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
 to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

[sermon begins]

“Are you ready?” My fellow gym rats and I are questioned about this on the regular. When Coach asks, “Are you ready,” they mean is everyone in place with the gear that we need and the weights that we’re going to start lifting because that clock is gonna start, and we’re supposed to start moving along with it. Whenever I hear that question at the gym, the answer in my mind is, “As we’ll ever be.” Some days I even say it out loud, “As we’ll ever be, Coach!” That answer reminds me that I’m ready enough to at least start moving even if I’m not sure how much energy is in the tank. Our reaction to the readiness question depends entirely on the circumstances.

Over the past year, Sue Ann, our Faith Community Nurse, has been asking herself whether she’s ready to retire. Summer had her celebrating a BIG birthday, almost exactly five years from when Sue Ann started as the nurse of our congregation in 2019. Many of you have received her visits in the hospital or at home, shared communion, or sang your favorite hymn with her or listened as she sang to you. Some of you told her your story of loss in the Grief Support Groups that she led. Some of you have sat in her office with a health issue that needed a referral to heal your body, mind, or spirit. Others of you have served with her on E4 Mental Health or Knitters ministry.

After months of deliberation, Sue Ann decided that her summer birthday was a time on the clock that made retirement make sense. She set the date for Sunday, December 15th. Next Sunday, we’re going to celebrate her career as a nurse and her time with our congregation. We’ll say prayers of gratitude and blessing during both worship services. Health Ministry and 60 + Ministry, with whom Sue Ann worked so closely, are hosting a brunch for all of us between worship services. Please fill out the worship slip and let us know you can be there to celebrate her faithful compassion and professionalism among us. Is Sue Ann ready? Are we ready? As we’ll ever be.

In the Luke reading, John the Baptist calls on people to be ready using the words of the prophet Isaiah. John said:

“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

We Coloradans may not like the sound of lowering the mountains or filling valleys. We like our trails steep, crooked, and rocky, thank you very much. Or we may see the magnitude of the metaphor and think preparation is futile. But John is talking about a clear sight line to God for everyone. All flesh. All people seeing what God has done – the saving that God is doing in our transformation by God through the power of the Holy Spirit. The first three chapters of Luke’s Gospel are full of people who are full of the Holy Spirit and ready as they’ll ever be.

You may have noticed that our psalm today in worship is actually from Luke’s first chapter. Psalms are a form of song and poetry in the Bible. They aren’t only a location in one book of the Bible. In our psalm today, Zechariah prophecies by the power of the Holy Spirit. The opening verse to the psalm, verse 67, goes like this, “Then [John’s] father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy…” Zechariah then speaks the psalm we chanted in worship today. Zechariah prophecies while filled with the Holy Spirit.

On the fourth Sunday in Advent, two weeks from today, we’ll hear about John’s mother, Elizabeth – “And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry [to Mary], ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.’” On that same Sunday, we’ll hear Mary’s consent to God’s will by the power of the Holy Spirit. Then there’s John the Baptist himself, “…even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Two of my favorite Bible characters are Simeon and Anna – both elderly prophets in the Jerusalem Temple. Also in Luke’s second chapter, the Holy Spirit rested on Simeon, and he was guided by the Spirit to prophecy as Anna praised God and talked about Jesus to everyone in earshot. They were as ready to see God as they would ever be, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is a major actor in the Gospel of Luke. The Holy Spirit opened sight lines to God and the people had a lot to say about what God was doing for an oblivious world. The Holy Spirit prepared each one of those people and then they said something about God. It wasn’t always tidy or easy though.  Zechariah, our psalmist and John the Baptist’s father, had a tough time on the way to his prophecy by the power of the Holy Spirit. He didn’t believe that he and Elizabeth would have the baby John at their advanced age. The angel Gabriel pushed the mute button on him and Zechariah couldn’t make a peep until John was born. His first words after John’s birth are found in his psalm.

Why does any of this matter? Because this is the selfsame Spirit that empowers and refines us through the water of baptism. The selfsame Spirit who feeds us holiness through bread and wine. The selfsame Spirit who opens our eyes to God’s action on our behalf so that we see, talk, and act in the world differently. The selfsame Spirit who prepares us, who fills valleys, flattens mountains, and who straightens and levels the way – the way of God to us through Jesus.  Are we ready? As we’ll ever be.

On Friday, the Welcome 150 Workgroup and a few of us stragglers went on a field trip to Risen Christ Catholic Church over on South Monaco. The congregation of Risen Christ just completed a Sanctuary renovation that includes ramp accessibility to the newly redesigned altar and ADA restrooms. Sound familiar? The architect, project manager, and Father Scott gave us the tour and talked about their multi-year process and an almost equivalent capital campaign goal. I asked Father Scott if there was anything that he wished he knew ahead of time going into their construction project. He couldn’t answer me right away but emailed me later that afternoon. He said he wished that he’d known how long the pre-building process would take – schematic drawings, building diagrams, construction documents, and city approval all took longer than he thought.

We have a little taste of that timeline watching construction of the affordable housing of Augustana Homes. Thankfully, our Welcome 150 Workgroup has experience with construction timelines through their various professions, so they’ll be helping the rest of us understand these things. While our capital campaign thus far allows us to commit to the Priority 1 projects. It strikes me that it’s our own Advent story of sorts. Each step of Welcome 150 preparing the way, preparing us as the people, to more clearly tell OUR congregation’s experience of the gospel – connecting us more deeply with God, each other, and our community so that God’s welcome is our welcome. And we are guided by the selfsame Spirit who opens our eyes to God’s action on our behalf so that we see, speak, and act faithfully in the world. Are we ready? As we’ll ever be.

Preparation by the Spirit who also opens our eyes to see as Zechariah saw. He described it like this:

“By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Zechariah prophesied in the temple about God’s promises that fill us, transforming our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. The promises of God’s mercy, redemption, holiness, and peace in Jesus. Zechariah reminds us that as the world gets loud and busy, time together in sacred space allows us to pause together and be prepared by the One for whom we wait.

The Holy Spirit prepares us to see light in the darkness and in the shadow of death as our feet are guided into the way of peace. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are given eyes to see and ears to listen to Jesus who prepares us by his Spirit whether we’re old and faithful like Simeon and Anna, young and fierce like Mary, joyful and diligent like Elizabeth, dubious and dunderheaded like Zechariah, or wild and outspoken like John. Are we ready? As we’ll ever be. Because Jesus prepares us during this time and across time with the power of the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God.  And amen.

Preaching, Sermons

What is Truth? [OR Christian Nationalism is Neither Faithful nor Patriotic]

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on November 24, 2024 – Christ the King Sunday

[sermon begins after the Bible reading]

John 18:33-38 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” 35Pilate 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?” 36Jesus 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.” 37Pilate 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.” 38Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”

[sermon begins]

Jesus, Jesus, he’s our man, if he can’t do it, no one can! These high holy Jesus days like Christ the King have an odd quality to them because Jesus can become a super-Jesus only vaguely resembling Jesus’ biblical ministry. This means it’s a good day to take a good, close look at Jesus in the Gospel of John. We can still cheer on Jesus, but it may sound differently when we do.

Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate in court. They debated truth as time stood oddly still. It mattered how Jesus answered Pilate because there were religious leaders who’d had it with him and simply wanted him to go away. Here’s a sampling of the accusations against him in the Gospel of John…

…Jesus attended a wedding, irritated by his mom but does what she says anyway – turning water into the finest wine as the first of his signs. [1]

…Jesus wielded a whip, clearing the temple of vendors who swindled those who lived in poverty. [2]

…Jesus talked about new life with a fearful Pharisee in the middle of the night. [3]

…Jesus met a shady woman in the light of the noonday sun, breaking gender rules in his tradition. [4]

…Jesus healed many and fed over 5,000; walked on water and was alternately called the Word made flesh, the lamb of God, the Son of God, the King of the Jews, the bread of life, the good shepherd, the light of the world, and the truth.

…Jesus quietly forgave then saved the woman caught in adultery from being executed by stoning and sent her on her way while indicting her accusers. [5]

…Jesus cried with his friends Mary and Martha then raised Lazarus from the dead. [6]

… Jesus’ feet dripped with oil poured by Mary, anointing him both as king and as one soon to die. [7]

…Jesus rode on a donkey into Jerusalem, then stripped down to his skivvies to wash his friends’ feet, before praying for his disciples.[8]

Jesus was criminalized for vulnerable acts so powerful that he threatened the status quo of the most powerful. Jesus found himself standing in front Pontius Pilate arguing about truth before he was sentenced to death by crucifixion as the King of the Jews.

There were a number of problems with Jesus being and doing any ONE of those things, much less ALL of them. The time had come to face the music. He stood in front of Pontius Pilate. Pilate was on the emperor’s payroll. He was not much interested in the petty, internal squabbles of the Jewish religious leaders. He was, however, very interested in keeping the peace. Uprisings were costly and Pilate would pay the piper for upsetting emperor. Sacrificing Jesus was a lesser of the evils in his book and his self-interest was staying alive. What did it matter that the Truth was standing right in front of Pilate as he asked, “What is truth?”

We tend to think of truth as telling a story accurately. We don’t tend to think of truth as the story itself. We rarely think of truth in terms of a person. If each of us IS a “truth” claim, then what is that truth? In other words, each moment of my life reveals what I think is important in terms of other people, myself, time, money, and God. What would that look like? What could you learn about the truth that is me or the truth that is you? We’re all invested in different things. We could even say we’re ruled by different things, justifying our choices until we make some kind of sense to ourselves. Reflection of this kind reveals what runs and rules our lives, revealing our actual king.

I’d like to pause and point out what just happened here because I think it happens a lot. We start out talking about Jesus and we end up talking about ourselves. The sermon began with parts of Jesus’ story from the Gospel of John and how he ended up in front of Pilate. Talking about Pilate turns us toward the topic of self. Naturally. Pilate is a classic human example of what not to do in the name of self-interest. It’s hard to resist distancing ourselves from him even as we ask in our own day, “What is truth?”

Adoration is part of Christ the King Sunday but it’s not the whole story.  The Feast of Christ the King is young in the church calendar. Begun in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, its purpose is to compel our hearts, minds, and lives into the reign of God on earth, over and above the pull of power in the world. [9] Not a bad idea in the 1920s given the devastation of World War I as fascism was on the rise in Germany and Italy. Not a bad idea given the timeless appeal of trading grace and love of neighbor for power. Lutherans waited until the 1970s to celebrate it. Christ the King Sunday is to the church calendar a bit like New Year’s Eve is to the Common Era Gregorian calendar that we use every day.

And just like New Year’s Eve, we can be tempted to put on a happy face and look away from the things that make us uncomfortable. Or, in times of division we can be tempted to confront others in ways that demean and degrade our shared humanity. We either mute ourselves or we scream back. Things have gotten even more complicated these days as some other Christian denominations are the face of public Christianity, believing that Jesus is only on our country’s side and NOT on the side of the whole world so loved by God. [10] The desire to distance from those Christians and to go quiet is understandable. But Christianity has always been practiced by a wide variety of people.

In the United States, our Founders separated the church and state with the belief that King George wasn’t any more divine than anyone else. Because of the Founders’ efforts, we are free to speak our minds and free to practice any religion in this country we call home. The first Amendment to the United States Constitution protects freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. As Jesus’ followers and as United States’ citizens, we are two things at once. It’s helpful that Christian theology makes space for being two things at once – saint and sinner, bound and free, fearful and courageous, weak and strong, wise and foolish. Being a faithful citizen fits nicely into the Founder’s framework, too. Things go awry when faithful people decide that the country must be a theocracy, that it must be Christian under divine authority. This is called Christian Nationalism and its neither faithful nor patriotic.

Our Christian church year ends with a day to remind us that we have a king, one who ended up on trial as a threat to power. Like Pilate, we are challenged by the question of Jesus’ kingship while he awaits judgment. Let’s assume for the moment that we’re all cool with the idea of Jesus as king, as Christ the King. By his own admission to Pilate, Jesus’ kingdom is not from this world. It’s not about power or prestige. It’s a kingship that’s obedient as he listens to his mother at a wedding; it’s a kingship that’s grace-full as he hangs out with the shady woman at high noon; it’s a kingship that forgives unforgiveable human failing; it’s a kingship that cries with compassion at the pain of loss; it’s a kingship that’s non-violent through trial and execution, raising not one hand in violence against the people who inflict it; and, ultimately, it’s a kingship emptied out in self-sacrifice on a cross revealing the breadth of divine power in the depth of divine love. [11]

Christ’s kingship is the exact opposite of earthly power, calling us to obedience through the command to love our neighbors as ourselves when it does NOT serve our own self-interest, and to testify before governors and kings on behalf of people without power (see last week’s sermon). A different reason to cheer on Jesus, indeed! Jesus, Jesus he’s our king, has a different kind of ring.

John’s gospel proclaims that Christ’s kingship was born in skin and solidarity, as the Word made flesh, which means that Jesus is God and God is Jesus. [12] On this Christian New Year’s Eve, we are on the cusp of a new church year that begins next Sunday with Advent. During Advent, we await the sweet baby Jesus’ birth. A child who would grow up to stand trial in front of Pontius Pilate as embodied truth and hope for a weary world. Thanks be to God and amen.

____________________________________________

[1] John 2:1-11

[2] John 2:13-25

[3] John 3:1-21

[4] John 4:1-42

[5] John 8:1-11

[6] John 11:1-57

[7] John 12:1-8

[8] John 12:12-13:11

[9] Lucy Lind Hogan, Hugh Latimer Elderdice Professor of Preaching and Worship, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington D.C.  Commentary on John 18:33-37 for November 25, 2018.   https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3885 AND Frank C. Senn, 2007. The Not-So-Ancient Origins of Christ the King Sunday — Lutheran Forum

[10] John 3:16-17

[11] Koester, course notes, 12/1/2010.  For further study see: Craig R. Koester, The Word of Life: A Theology of John’s Gospel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008).

[12] John 1:1-5, 14-18

Preaching, Sermons

Inflection Points and Intention Sunday [OR May God’s Welcome Be Our Welcome] Mark 13:1-8[9-10]

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on November 17, 2024

[sermon begins after two Bible readings; Titus and Psalm readings are at the end of the sermon]

Mark 13:1-8[9-10] As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” 2Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
3When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, 4Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished? 5Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. 6Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. 7When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.
9As for yourselves, beware; for they will hand you over to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them. 10And the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations.

Hebrews 10:19-25 Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

[sermon begins]

Did anyone else note the irony of a gospel reading about the destruction of the temple on Intention Sunday? Intention Sunday, the very same day that we’re stating our intentions to give towards sustaining Augustana’s ministries AND renewing our building. Believe you me, I thought long and hard about changing this reading to something with more pizazz. But the more I sat with it, the more it became the perfect reading for today because we’re living at an inflection point in the human story – an inflection point of rapid change. An inflection point that defies predictable outcomes. While our moment in time is unique, we share similarities with Jesus followers across time who experienced other historic inflection points. Other contentious and confusing times. Other simultaneous death-and-life moments when there are endings and beginnings all over the place.

Mark’s gospel was written around the time the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome, about 35 years after Jesus died. In the Bible story itself, Jesus’ disciples were reacting to his teachings about the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. Whether Jesus was looking ahead to an inevitable outcome or Mark was situating Jesus’ teachings for his readers isn’t knowable. But for first century Jesus followers, the destruction of the temple was an inflection point. Rome was on the rampage, annihilating Jews and the earliest Gentile and Jewish Christians. It’s truly a wonder that the early church lived through Rome’s campaign against them. It was a contentious time of confusion and fear. A simultaneous death-and-life moment right before the crescendo of Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection on Easter morning. And what did Jesus tell his disciples to do at that inflection point? Verse 9 – give testimony to governors and kings. Verse 10 – and the good news must be proclaimed to all nations. Give testimony and proclaim the gospel.

In the midst of our inflection point, what’s our task? Testimony and proclamation. Why do we exist as a church? Testimony and proclamation of the good news of Jesus. What does our worship do? Proclaim the good news. What does the Chancel Choir’s singing do? Proclaims the good news. What does our Human Dignity Delegate ministry do? Give testimony about the good news. What does generosity towards a building renewal campaign and sustaining ministries with our offerings do? Stewards our church of proclamation and testimony about the good news of Jesus.

Welcome 150 is more than a convenient chance to celebrate Augustana’s 150th birthday and make the floors shiny by 2028.[1] Welcome 150 connects us to God, each other, and our community. Welcome 150 is about Jesus and a world deeply in need of God’s unconditional love. A love so powerful that darkness is transformed into light.[2] A love so powerful that hate is driven out and hope is welcomed in. This is not a syrupy sentiment. Unconditional Love fuels courage and is the only power that inspires transformation resembling Jesus and his ever-expanding circle of welcome into the love of God. The power of that love is why Jesus was so dangerous to Rome and the local religious leaders. The power of that love is ultimately why he was hung on that cross. Jesus, his love and his teachings, were just too threatening.

Jesus’ teaching gave his followers an assignment during an inflection point. Testimony and proclamation. Jesus’ teaching also gives us, his followers today, something to do during an inflection point. Testimony and proclamation of the good news of Jesus in our day-to-day lives. The reading from Hebrews also suggests a thing or two for the Jesus follower to do during an inflection point. Listen to these verses from Hebrews once more:

“Approach [God] with a true heart in assurance of faith;

Hold fast to the confession of our hope;

And provoke one another to love and good deeds.

not neglecting to meet together…but encouraging one another.”[3]

Hmmm….faith, hope, and love…the trifecta of what remains as God makes all things new.[4] In Hebrews, faith in what God is doing on our behalf and on behalf of all creation, opens up our approach to God with confidence won through Jesus Christ. We’re invited into the bold, humble confidence of Jesus’ ministry and Christ’s victory. These glimpses of God through the window of Christ inspire us to what the Hebrews preacher calls “holding fast to the confession of our hope while we provoke one another to love and good deeds.”

Six weeks ago, Welcome 150 launched with a capital campaign and 2025 giving appeal. Some of you were provoked to deliver inspiration bags to other members while others of you were provoked to open your door to them. (No small things for the introverts among us.) Some of you were provoked to write generosity stories that ended up in those bags. Here’s one story about those inspiration bag deliveries. Pastor Kent had preached that morning and was delivering bags that afternoon. At one apartment address, the woman who answered the door exclaimed, “I just saw you preach on the livestream!” She’s had a difficult time getting to worship and is able to stay connected with the proclamation. This conversation and connection would not have happened had we not been provoked by our campaign consultant.

When it comes to provocations, we tend to align ourselves with the role of provocateur who provokes love and good deeds.  We generally like to be the sender rather than the receiver who is provoked. Here’s the deal though, the preacher of Hebrews is provoking us to regularly meet together, encouraging each other. One reason to meet together is that it’s tough to provoke and be provoked outside of ongoing relationships. It’s easy to forget that the One ultimately provoking us is the One who’s promising the radical healing of creation. The assurance of faith and the confession of hope comes to us through the Love of this One who provokes us to love – Jesus the Christ.

Last Sunday at the All-Congregation Brunch, Katrina Crook spoke. She chairs the Welcome 150 Steering Team. She is also part of a multigenerational Augustana family. Katrina provoked us to good deeds through Welcome 150 and our 2025 offerings by saying, “We know the outcome for Augustana if we do nothing; Now is the time to renew our building so that our ministry momentum may continue for future generations.” She has the authority to provoke us because we all regularly meet together and encourage one another.

In this inflection point that defies predictable outcomes, we’re called into testimony and proclamation of the good news of Jesus. Good news in which Jesus teaches us to love God, love our neighbors as ourselves, care for orphans and widows, welcome strangers, share resources, free the oppressed, feed the hungry, and pray for our enemies.[5] Our Augustana congregation has named our latest response to God’s grace and Jesus’ call, Welcome 150, as we ask for the courage to let God’s welcome be our welcome for children and adults of all ages, abilities, and attributes; and for the sake of those longing for unconditional love and the provocation to good deeds.

In a moment we’ll sing a hymn together. While we sing, you’re invited to bring forward your Statement of Intent cards, placing them in a basket with other cards to symbolize the impact of combining our gifts. Each verse will end with a few measures of organ music before the next verse begins allowing time for walking, for praying, and for singing our testimony and proclamation.

As church, we try to heed God’s call and hope we’re following God’s imagination over and above the management of our own fears. The world is rapidly changing, and the worldwide church is changing right along with it. No one knows what the outcome of any of those changes will be. Augustana has emerged from the pandemic with the momentum to live anew, so we’re going to err on the side of aligning with that momentum.  As church, we’re called by the gospel to proclaim the gospel and give our testimony in the ways we’ve been gifted by the Holy Spirit to do so. By that same Spirit, we’re reassured of God’s love and grace as our efforts and our offerings unite to renew Augustana for God’s purposes now and in the generations to come.

________________________________________________

[1] Read more about Welcome 150 here: augustanadenver.org/welcome-150/

[2] John 1:5

[3] Hebrews 10:22-25

[4] 1 Corinthians 13:12-13

[5] This list is a compilation of Jesus’ teachings in the Bible.

_________________________________________________

Titus 3:4-5 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 16:5-11 The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;
 you hold my lot.
 6The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
 I have a goodly heritage.
 7I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;
 in the night also my heart instructs me.
 8I keep the LORD always before me;
 because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
 9Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
 my body also rests secure.
 10For you do not give me up to Sheol,
 or let your faithful one see the Pit.
 11You show me the path of life.
 In your presence there is fullness of joy;
 in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Preaching, Sermons

Free Indeed! (OR A Sermon for Reformation Sunday) John 8:31-36, Romans 3:19-28, Psalm 46 (a.k.a. A Mighty Fortress is Our God)

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on October 27, 2024

[sermon begins after two Bible readings Psalm are at the end of the sermon]

John 8:31-36 Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”
34 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

Romans 3:19-28 Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For “no human being will be justified in his sight” by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
21 But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; 26 it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.
27 Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.

[sermon begins]

When we say we’re doing something “for the sake of the gospel,” what do we mean? There are fancy ways to give answers to this question and there are simple ways. None of them are easy. Jesus tried it this way, “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” Free indeed. I like the sound of that. He’s not talking about political freedom or financial freedom. Two big topics in the world right now. He’s talking about the freedom that he offers through himself.  Some people describe Jesus’ freedom like this, “There is nothing you can do or not do to make God love you any more or any less.” That’s simple. Freeing. “There is nothing you can do or not do to make God love you any more or any less.” That is good news in a world that pressurizes the human experience in almost every conceivable way. God’s unconditional love can be a difficult message to trust, in part because the Bible can be compared to peeling layers of an onion and never arriving at the center. People want to make what God offers contingent on a human action, what Jesus calls “the law,” rather than focusing on God’s actions that bring the freedom Jesus describes. We tend to overestimate our own power and underestimate God’s. Free indeed.

“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” Free. Most people want to be free and we’re at a point in the United States’ election process when the word is bandied about willy nilly. At this time of year, we tend to think of freedom as political in terms of who has governing authority. Our government’s democracy wouldn’t compute for people back in Jesus’ day during the Roman Empire. That didn’t stop Jesus from weighing in on troubling aspects of life, religion, and politics in the 1st century. And it certainly didn’t stop Martin Luther in the 16th century from pushing on the regional princes to do right by their people especially related to hunger and livelihood. As we vote, it’s easy to forget that we Jesus followers already have a savior. Candidates for elected office argue that their way is the only way. But Christians through the centuries realize that the subversive way of Jesus commands us to love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves – both of which do freely in response to God’s love for us, no matter who holds elected office. Free indeed.

Our Reformation celebration today in worship is one specific to Lutheran Christians. Lutheran Christians get our name from a 16th century German Catholic priest named Martin Luther – an ornery academic priest. His writings ignited the people’s imagination like wildfire. Luther started with his own crisis of faith. He was never certain that God forgave him enough to be received by God. He stumbled into the meaning of grace in a dark night of the soul. Luther confronted the Bible again and again, finally discovering that God’s grace must be utterly unconditional because otherwise we could never trust that we’d received it. And if God’s grace is unconditional, then no one controls it – not me, not you, not politicians, not the church. No one. Since no one controls it, the radical grace of Jesus is subversive and unpredictable. Free indeed.

Martin Luther was the Reformer who lived to tell the tale of grace. Others before him were put to death. Luther survived because he was hidden away by a sympathetic prince who protected him. His story survived because of printing press inventors and his bestie Melancthon who negotiated the theology of grace with other pastors in wider church circles. Otherwise, Luther could have been just another pastor who posted good ideas on a church bulletin board that no one ever read – his ideas swallowed up by the 300,000 revolutionaries fighting the German Peasants’ War in 1525. But his ideas lived on in pamphlets, catechisms, and Bibles in the common language. Local pastors, sly politicians, and faithful parents joined the sweeping history in real-time that pulsed with new life and grace. There are Protestants in Christianity because there were meddling Lutherans who held the church of Rome accountable to its theology and the people hurt by it. In fairness to our Catholic siblings in faith, many of Luther’s reforms have long since been put into place by the Roman Catholic Church. Remember, a little subversive grace goes a long way over the course of time. Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself. Free indeed.

Digging into the back-story of the Reformation is similar detective work to digging into the Bible like Luther did. The Bible includes many people and their stories pulsing together into the larger one. The highs and lows of our ancient Jewish cousins in the faith swooping into the 1st Century story of Jesus, a Jewish rabbi from a backwater town, and the ragtag men and women who followed him as disciples. It would take many lifetimes to exhaust the riches of God’s love story for the world, through Jesus who called himself the “truth” in the Bible reading from John. Which brings us to today. This moment. Us. And especially you who are affirming the promises of baptism in the milestone that we call Confirmation.

Just last week, our Confirmation youth and I talked about unconditional grace. Grace is the opposite of how things work with grades in school. There’s no A+ that brings us closer to God because God is already with us. We don’t earn our way to God. There is peace in realizing that God is present with us regardless of how we’re doing as disciples. If there’s any doubt, read the Bible stories about disciples getting Jesus’ way wrong time and again. Luther was convinced that there is much we can disagree about in the Bible. Those permissible disagreements are called adiaphora. Christian theologians love arguing about whether something is adiaphora or not. Sounds simple, but try this one. What we say about Jesus isn’t Jesus. Only Jesus is Jesus. That’s why faith in Jesus is more like trust than it is an intellectual belief. Free indeed.

One of Luther’s gifts to the church is that Jesus’ grace is at the heart of faith. This grace doesn’t birth just any old freedom and it’s more than poetry. It is freedom through the love and grace of Jesus. When Jesus says that sin enslaves us and he sets us free, it’s difficult to understand what that means. We have a harder time admitting that we sin much less confessing it and our need for the very freedom Jesus offers through grace. But we know this much, we are free to ask questions for the sake of the gospel. Free to ask questions about the Bible, about history, about the church, about Jesus, about our faith and our doubt, about the mystery of God. You name it and we are free to ask it. No one, not even you with your questions, controls the radical grace of the God who is love. Free indeed!

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Song after the sermon:

 

 

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Psalm 46 (a.k.a. A Mighty Fortress is Our God)

God is our refuge and strength,
 a very present help in trouble.
 2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
 though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
 3though its waters roar and foam,
 though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
Selah
 4There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
 the holy habitation of the Most High.
 5God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
 God will help it when the morning dawns.
 6The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
 he utters his voice, the earth melts.
 7The LORD of hosts is with us;
 the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Selah
 8Come, behold the works of the LORD;
 see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
 9He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
 he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
 he burns the shields with fire.
 10“Be still, and know that I am God!
 I am exalted among the nations,
 I am exalted in the earth.”
 11The LORD of hosts is with us;
 the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Preaching, Sermons

From Managing to Imagining [OR Children Can See What Grownups Can’t] Mark 10:17-31 and Titus 3:4-5

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on October 13, 2024

[sermon begins after two Bible readings]

Mark 10:17-31 As [Jesus] was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” 21Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 22When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. 23Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” 27Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” 28Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” 29Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Titus 3:4-5 When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
[sermon begins]

Children are storytellers. It’s one of my favorite things about talking with kids. Conversations can range from their morning cereal to a favorite picture book to a fairy tale that they’ve made up in their head. What I can tell you from hanging out with them as a pediatric oncology nurse, as a parent, and as a pastor, is that children believe in possibility more than grownups do. They spend a lot less time managing their fears and expectations, and more time imagining what could happen. Of course, there are a million developmental reasons why that’s true. But it’s worth wondering what Jesus is saying about children in the verses leading up to todays’ Bible story of the rich man. Children had a lesser social status in the 1st century than they do in the 21st. Regardless, Jesus taught his disciples that welcoming children in his name meant welcoming God (Mark 9:36-37). He cautioned against putting stumbling blocks in front of children’s faith (Mark 9:42). And he taught them to receive the kingdom as a child and ended that teaching by taking the children up in his arms and blessing them (Mark 10:13-16). We’ve heard these stories over the past three Sundays.

One verse later, we come to the rich man and Jesus. Jesus had put the children down and was going on a journey when the man ran up to him, knelt, and asked him about what he must do to inherit eternal life. The man thought he knew the answer to his own question. He had kept the 10 commandments. Jesus shattered him when he told the man to sell everything and give it to the poor. The man left grieving. It was a step too far. We end up managing this story in all kinds of ways trying to figure out how we’re not like the man.[1] But let’s cut to the chase and save ourselves a heap ton of self-justification. We are ALL that man.

Being human is hard as often, or maybe more often, than it’s easy. There are limits and blind spots that we try to ignore, explain, and control. They cannot be managed individually. They can only be grieved as the man grieved walking away from Jesus. We’re never told what happens to this man. Whether or not he had a changed heart, or followed Jesus to the cross, or was at the birth of the church at Pentecost. We’re left with his grief. But we’re also left with something else.

The rich man is the only person in Mark’s Gospel who is described as “loved” by Jesus.[2] The only other place in Mark that love is used is in chapter 12 when Jesus passed the scribe’s test about the greatest commandment based on Old Testament Levitical law and Deuteronomic code.[3] Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God; the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus’ love for the rich man is as much a declaration as it is a relief. The man couldn’t manage Jesus’ demand. And the disciples couldn’t manage to understand it.

I have to admit that when I saw that this Bible story coincided with the launch of our Welcome 150 Capital Campaign and 2025 Annual Ministry Appeal it took a lot not to change the gospel reading to something easier. Preachers are not locked into the assigned lectionary readings. We can change them. But this story of command, money, love, grief, human limitations, and God’s imagination was ultimately too good to pass up.

Last fall, our congregation’s Council voted to investigate the possibility of a Capital Campaign. Our Property Committee had been keeping a list of needed projects for this beautiful 1959 mid-century modern building – Augustana’s third church building and location. Our Transition Team had been collecting and synthesizing many of your comments about who we think God is calling us to be and how our building, staff, and members fit into God’s call to welcome children and adults of all ages, abilities, and attributes.

Our mission statement developed a few years ago celebrates God’s grace and WELCOMES everyone to worship Jesus. It’s been almost 150 years since Swedish immigrants founded this congregation in 1878. With all those things coming together, Council caught the vision of what might be possible. While Welcome 150 is launching with a capital campaign, the Welcome 150 vision is “to deepen our relationships with God and each other, foster new relationships in the wider community, and intentionally renovate our facilities to create a welcoming and enduring space.”

Last January, church members with a range of personal skills and professional expertise started a methodical process of meeting, and talking, and dreaming, agreeing and disagreeing (remember: we celebrate unity, not uniformity), and imagining what might be possible both by way of projects and priorities and by way of raising the money to do them. Rather than relocating to a fourth church building, we are renewing our campus with projects related to energy efficiency, hospitality, accessibility, flexibility, theology, and more, in keeping with its mid-century modern form. Many people in our congregation are working on Welcome 150 from a variety of angles as we move forward together to each next right step. It’s inspiring to witness their faithful imagination as the momentum builds.

When our campaign consultant asked me a few weeks ago to write a prayer and choose a Bible verse that would reflect Welcome 150, I spent a lot of time in the Bible. It’s weird to dive into the Bible looking for something like that. I kept coming back to the language of renewal and who’s in charge of ours, eventually stumbling into the book of Titus. A letter likely written by one of Paul’s students a few decades after Paul’s first century ministry ended with his execution. Titus is a letter focused on the good works and structure of the church centered around God’s grace. A little like the book of James we just finished – similar in its intense demands from Jesus followers but oh so much more filled with grace.

Titus 3:4-5 reads this way:

“When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

These verses in Titus remind us that any good works we attempt are anchored and inspired by what God has first done for us by God’s mercy. Even though the church is called “the risen body of Christ in the world,” we need to take great care to remember that the only one who is actually Jesus IS Jesus.

As church, we try to heed God’s call and hope we’re following God’s imagination over and above the management of our own fears. The world is rapidly changing, and the church is changing right along with it. No one knows what the outcome of any of those changes will be. As church, we’re called by the gospel to proclaim the gospel in the ways we’ve been gifted by the Holy Spirit to do so. With Welcome 150, our congregation is committing to the faithful witness built by a few Swedish immigrants and seeing what’s possible much like they did. They started a church to welcome arriving immigrants and would be stunned to see this congregation now. We are waaaay beyond welcoming Swedes as we build on their foundation of faith and “we welcome everyone to worship Jesus.”

Jesus reminded his disciples that the limits of human management are no match for God’s imagination. Jesus called the disciples “children” as he taught them, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” Perhaps Jesus was inviting his disciples to imagine the possibilities as only children can. In that spirit, we’re reassured of God’s love and mercy as our efforts and our offerings unite to renew Augustana for God’s purposes now and in the generations to come. We hope and pray for the courage to let our welcome be God’s welcome. Thanks be to God, and amen.

__________________________________________________

[1] Sarah Hinlicky Wilson, Pastor, Tokyo Lutheran Church, Tokyo, Japan. Commentary on Mark 10:17-31 for October 13, 2024. Commentary on Mark 10:17-31 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

 

 

 

Preaching, Sermons

A Sermon for Mental Illness Awareness Week – Mark 9:38-50, James 5:13-20, and Psalm 19:7-14

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church, September 29, 2024

[sermon begins after the Bible reading; the other two readings follow the sermon]

Mark 9:38-50  ohn said to [Jesus], “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” 39But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40Whoever is not against us is for us. 41For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
42“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. 43If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. 47And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, 48where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
49“For everyone will be salted with fire. 50Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

[sermon begins]

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

Kids are silly and playful and smart. They inspire songs that get faster each time we sing them and one of them ends like this [wait just a sec, I have to show you this one], “Hip-hip-hip-o-potamus…hip hip hooray, God made all of us; hip-hip-hip-o-potamus…hip hip hooray, God made all of us!”

Every Wednesday here on the front floor in our Sanctuary, the kiddos of our (Augustana) Early Learning Center are led through Chapel by Deacon Shanna, Sue Ann, Pastor Karen, Andy, and me. We take turns week to week telling Bible stories, singing songs, and praying with the kids who have lots of their own stories to tell and questions to ask. Affordable and quality early childhood education and care are tough to come by in Denver and becoming tougher every day. But you all are a part of making it happen. The kids in chapel are adorable and challenging and they can be somewhat invisible on the protected first floor of the downhill hill side of our building – a full two stories below the level we’re on now. And yet they’re one of our congregation’s most significant outreaches to our community.

Last Sunday, in the verses just before our Mark reading this Sunday, Jesus took a child into his arms to teach his disciples that to be the greatest you must aspire to be the least and the last. In verse 37, Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” Jesus made the claim that children are sacramental, they are God among us.[1] He includes these vulnerable littles in God’s protection while he’s likely still holding that child.

He taught his disciples that it’s better to amputate, drown, or die than to put a stumbling block in between Jesus and the littles. By the way, those are not ways for us to hurt others. Jesus is commanding self-examination, not capital punishment. But that’s a whole other sermon. Equally as important, Jesus is not commanding self-mutilation or self-harm. That doesn’t jive with his teachings to love our neighbors as ourselves. This teaching, lit up with judgment, demands compassion from us – active compassion that shapes a world towards God’s vision of abundant life for vulnerable children and people. Children and people who are easily forgotten because they may not be in our line of sight, or we perceive them to be on a different level, or more to the point, on a lower level. Invisible in our day-to-day reality.

Invisibility brings me to the main point of the day as we spotlight Mental Illness Awareness Week coming up in the first week of October. Today our E4 Mental Health Team helps our congregation make the invisible visible. We light candles, pray, preach, and sing to focus on our loved ones’ and our own struggles with mental health. Next Sunday, our Health Ministry is inviting teens 14 years old and older, their parents, and other caring adults to watch My Sister Liv, a movie that spotlights one family’s story that includes Liv’s death by suicide. Research shows that talking about suicide reduces suicidal ideation which reduces attempts which reduces deaths. Subjects that end up off limits or taboo make healthy conversations about them more difficult. This is as true about mental illness as it is about money, sex, and politics. Healthy conversations start with at least being willing to raise the topic. It’s free to adult and teens over 14 years old. There will be childcare for those too young to be there. Come. Let Liv and her family teach us how to do things differently.

The movie will be followed by a short panel discussion that I’m on alongside mental health professionals. Why include a pastor in a panel about mental health? Because church has done a poor job on the issue of mental health. Some of that is because the culture hasn’t understood it either so there are Christians telling each other that all they have to do to get better is to have more faith or pray harder. Maybe even worse, Christians telling non-Christians that if only they had faith, then they wouldn’t be in the mental mess they’re in. Faith isn’t protective against mental illness. However, we do know that being part of a faith community offers relationships that strengthen our capacity to connect with each other about hard things like being mentally ill.

As church, we’re called to be a peculiar people who live a little differently into the future hope to which we’ve been called. God’s call into community is in stark opposition to the cultural value of rugged individualism that tells us we can fix ourselves through self-help. Which brings us to the fifth and final week of Bible readings from the book of James. James wrote about faith that makes demands of us. He was worried that if grace is too easy and too free, then the people most affected by our sin will be the powerless, the invisible.[2] There’s a reason why Lutheran Christians are partial to being saved by grace through faith. It’s because grace is God’s unconditional claim on us. We don’t make our way to God by any amount of do-goodery. If that were the case, how would we ever know if we’d been good enough? Trusting God’s grace IS the option. But James says, “Oh, so you have faith, good, nice, how about you show me.”[3] In our verses today, he’s done a solid job showing what faithful behavior looks like in the church. Pray for those who suffer. Sing with those who are happy. Anoint those who are sick. Forgive those who sin. Welcome back those who left.

None of us can do all the good things we’re called to do all of the time – to argue that we can is just absurd. But the beauty of the church is that we are a people who can take turns praying, singing, anointing, forgiving, and welcoming. This is as true for mental illness as it is for everything else. Opening up taboo topics acknowledges our whole selves before God and that God’s grace is enough to contain us. Talking about things that we’d rather didn’t exist reassures our children that we can talk about things that are true even if they’re hard. Our courage in talking about hard things means that our children don’t feel that they have to protect the grown-ups around them.

In the same breath, it’s also important that we help each other see the fullness of life. Sharing the events, relationships, and wonders that delight us and make us feel lucky to be alive are just as important to our well-being and the well-being of our children. The delight and wonder are an antidote to the overwhelming news from just about every part of the globe including here in the States. Delight and wonder don’t erase the challenges or the pain but they do remind us that life is a gift. They’re not rose-colored glasses. Delight and wonder are life illuminating glasses that reveal the goodness of life alongside the sorrow. The Hippo Song alongside the lament. The laughter of the small child embedded in the complexity of adulting.

We’re each differently equipped to offer help and support to those of us experiencing the lament of illness. If you yourself are struggling with mental illness, even still you can offer solidarity to someone else in a similar struggle – the laughter over a shared reality that is not at all funny is utterly priceless – a shared song that reminds us God is with us in the darkness and in the light.

In a minute, we’re going to sing a song not quite as silly as the Hippo Song but just as reassuring of God’s presence and love of us in the darkness and the light. During our song we have the choice to light candles that illuminate our prayers for the people we know who struggle with mental illness.

Our song reminds us that they are not alone, and neither are we. We are together and God is with us. Thanks be to God, and amen.

_____________________________________________________

[1] Philip Ruge-Jones, Associate Pastor, Grace Lutheran Church, Eau Claire, WI. Commentary on Mark 9:38-50 for September 29, 2024. Commentary on Mark 9:38-50 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

[2] Matt Skinner, Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Discussion about Bible readings for September 29, 2024. Working Preacher’s Sermon Brainwave: #984: Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Ord. 26B) – September 29, 2024 (libsyn.com)

[3] Ibid.

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James 5:13-20 Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. 14Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. 17Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.
19My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, 20you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Psalm 19:7-14

The teaching of the Lord is perfect and revives the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure and gives wisdom to the simple.
8The statutes of the Lord are just and rejoice the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear and gives light to the eyes.
9The fear of the Lord is clean and endures forever;
the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
10More to be desired are they than gold, more than much fine gold,
sweeter far than honey, than honey in the comb. 
11By them also is your servant enlightened,
and in keeping them there is great reward.
12Who can detect one’s own offenses?
Cleanse me from my secret faults.
13Above all, keep your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not get dominion over me;
then shall I be whole and sound, and innocent of a great offense.
14Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. 

Preaching, Sermons

Pure Gospel Comfort and Held Accountable by Love (Yup, both) Mark 7:24-37 and James 7:1-10, 14-17

Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on September 8, 2024

[sermon begins after two Bible readings]

Mark 7:24-37 [Jesus] set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice,25but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 28But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” 30So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
31Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

James 7:1-10, 14-17 My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” 4have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
8You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 9But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17So faith by itself, if it has no

[sermon begins]

A couple Sundays ago, we sang to Charlie after her baptism:

♫ Raindrops, oceans, lakes, and rivers, welcome child of God.

Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, welcome child of God.

When the world feels wide around you, when the dark of night surrounds you,

We are here to tend and guide you, welcome child of God. ♫

Pure gospel comfort. Those words. The lullaby-esque tune. The sweet sweet sound of so many of us singing together to the newly baptized. Whether 9 days or 99 years old, baptism is a powerful moment. We hear our truest name – child of God. “Child of God, you have been sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.” Child of God claimed and named by the God who is Love.[1]

Children of God grouped together are called the church. Ooof, that’s a bumpy landing The church, God’s utterly imperfect instrument of God’s movement in the world. Not God’s only instrument. There are lots of Bible stories about God working and moving wherever God wills, through whomever God calls. The church is never the only way God works. Phew, thanks be to God. But the church is a primary way that God works. Celebrating the grace of God, we are set apart for God’s purposes and called the church. One of those purposes is to comfort. To hold other people in God’s tender mercies. To be a people healed by Jesus at the soul level. To be compassionate and self-sacrificing.

Healed by the light of Christ way deep down in our darkest places, we become able to shine God’s loving light. A loving light that fills us with hope Sunday to Sunday, sustaining us through the pain in our own lives and the pain in the world. A loving light that we can share with other people in pain who may never again darken the door of a church. People whose church experiences haven’t gone well. Those of us who still go to church or have returned to the church have friends and family who resemble this remark. Their stories are difficult. Pain inflicted by well-intended Jesus-people is bad enough. Pain inflicted by malicious people in the name of Jesus is anathema to the way of Jesus. Our experience and example as church people, as Jesus’ people, mean hope for a hurting world. Especially in a world struggling with division, pain, and suffering.

“God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday implicates our church hands whether at work or school or hanging out with friends or repackaging rice and beans for Metro Caring’s grocery shelves.[2] It doesn’t get much more “God’s work. Our hands.” than Jesus’ second greatest commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus’ second greatest commandment, found in the Bible’s gospel books of Matthew, Mark, AND Luke, is quoted in the James’ reading today.[3] Except, here in James, it’s called “the royal law.” And goes on to say that “faith without works is dead.” This is a harsh teaching. Like I said last Sunday, if you were handed the book of James as your introduction to the Bible, it might give you pause. Even Martin Luther rejected James for its lack of explicit grace.

Regardless of Luther’s frustration with it, the book of James has its place in the Bible. It has its place when the need around us becomes too much, and the pressure collapses us inward towards despair – immobilizing the church in fear. The book of James has its place when our faith becomes a wall, blocking out other people for any reason. James is the persuasion that we sometimes need to keep going on behalf of our neighbor. It holds our faith accountable. James brooks no argument and accepts no excuses about faith revealed in good works. The implicit grace in James is that God’s law must be about love because other books in the Bible say that “God is love.” God’s love embedded in God’s law curbs the worst of our behavior and calls us into God’s good work of love in the world. Active, meaningful tasks are the very antidote for despair.[4] They don’t have to be grand gestures although those are cool. Augustana Homes being built down the street as affordable homes for families probably fit that category, as do rice and beans repackaging.[5] Mostly, God’s work is quiet, behind-the-scenes stuff – showing up for a friend in crisis, welcoming a stranger, feeding someone who’s hungry, donating blood to save a life…

Like our ancestors in the faith who wrote the Bible, today’s Christians often disagree about what God’s work in the world looks like. Interpretations of parables and stories vary wildly. Take James’ high standards for faithful good works and Mark’s story about Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman. To hear James tell it, the only way to live out Jesus’ call to us is by the purest good works on behalf of the neighbor in Jesus’ name. But the story in Mark argues that God’s purposes are manifested in the actions of unexpected people without a confession of faith.

The Syrophoenician woman was a Greek by religion and language who lived at the seashore miles away from Galilee where Jesus and his disciples were from. The Gospel of Matthew says she was a Canaanite but we’re not going to get hung up on that discrepancy.[6]  (Although, it’d be fun to argue whether or not that’s an important distinction.) The woman was a Gentile, a non-Jew, desperate for Jesus’ help to heal of her critically ill daughter. Jesus knew just what to say to draw this woman into speaking her mind.

Some people, including me, find it difficult to think that Jesus needed to learn anything and prefer thinking that Jesus had the whole interaction figured out as a teaching moment for his disciples. After all, he is the embodiment of a loving God and the way he calls her a dog sounds incredibly offensive. Regardless, she didn’t confess Jesus as Lord. She bowed to him and then argued that even dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the kids’ table. That was it. Does her faithful act of challenging Jesus qualify as a good work according to James? Jesus healed her daughter because of what she said. It’s such an odd and offensive story that theologians will likely debate it until kingdom come. Theology debates are fun and intense. But if all we do is talk, our neighbors, the ones we’re called to love, become obscured in the dust and debris of debate and help for them never sees the light of day much less the light of God.

One thing seems clear though. Jesus had an ever-expanding ministry that included unlikely people. It’s why some of us respond to the royal law in James, to love your neighbor as yourself, as the cross-laden hill we’re willing to die on. It’s the work we think Jesus calls us into through stories like the desperate Syrophoenician woman and her demon afflicted daughter.

There is going to be occasional conflict about what being a Jesus follower means or how we as the church work together to be God’s hands in the world or if it’s even right for us to try. Some of us may be more comfortable working with our neighbors in poverty. Some of us may be ready to dive into advocacy and legislative efforts. Some of us may have gifts for showing up for people in crisis. The list goes on and on. Regardless of specific tasks, it’s worth walking with the question as a church. Jesus is bigger than our arguments about what God’s work looks like and greater than our limited capacity to live it out in Christ-shaped lives. Which brings us back to love.

The wonder of this small, revolving planet that sustains our lives makes it hard to fathom how much God must love us. Us. Broken, misbehaving wonders of creation. Created good yet challenged to be good. Beloved yet disbelieving just how much we are loved. Our identity as baptized children of God means daily dying to the way we hurt ourselves and each other and rising into the way of Jesus who was the embodiment of God’s love. The world can feel way too wide and nights oh so terribly dark. We, the church, are called to tend and guild in faith, hope, and love. “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday reminds us to look to Jesus’ ways of loving our neighbors as ourselves wherever we encounter each other because we have been loved first by God.

Thanks be to God and amen.

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[1] 1 John 4:16a.

[2] www.metrocaring.org

[3] Jesus’ second greatest commandment can be found in Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31, and Luke 10:27.

[4] Adam Grant. “There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing. New York Times: April 19, 2021. Feeling Blah During the Pandemic? It’s Called Languishing – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

[5] www.augustanadenver.org/augustana-homes/

[6] Matthew 15:22

Pastor, Preacher, Speaker