All Saints - Except maybe you in the third row

Luke 6:20–31
Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
"Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
"Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
"Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
"But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
"Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
"Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
"Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
"But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

I sometimes think that preaching on All Saints is strangely mundane.
“You are all saints...” Doh!
Of course, it is true. Priesthood of all believers and all that.
And, I guess, if I paid close attention, I could find all sorts of preaching possibilities in these texts. . .
hmmmm
Here’s some good stuff from a sermon by F Dean Lueking

Here Jesus addresses his followers-who-would-be-saints. It is not a template for how society works. It is the pattern of life where saints are in the making.

. . . Taking his place in the midst of that brawling crowd, Jesus "looked up" at the disciples. Apparently they were bystanders, as I would have been too. They were not with Jesus, kneeling down in the wretched thick of it, but off to the side as onlookers.
Saints are sideline onlookers who are moved to "come down" with Jesus to where the needs are raw and the realities untidy. Saints are not always serene, dauntless and inexhaustible. But those pronounced blessed by Jesus are able to stay with him in the thick of it because that is where he is continually found. The saintly ones remember that the kingdom belongs to the impoverished before God, who hunger for his fullness and weep when his righteousness is spurned. The harsh kickback of reviling and defaming goes with the territory; saints are tough-skinned and can’t be taken completely off guard.
Saints are given a clarity about what passes for the good life but is phony at the core. They can hear Jesus’ pronouncement on those who would appear to have anything but woes: "you who are rich. . . who are full now. . . who laugh now. . . who are well spoken of by all." Why woes on these? The good life portrayed here is detached from its foundation in God. These ideals of life have become idols, ends in themselves which finally bring not blessing but blight.

Well, blessings on ya.
We have first communion on Sunday, and my oldest receives her first communon. WOOO HOOOO!

Reform? There's nothing wrong with my form!

John 8:31-36
Then 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.

Reformation Sunday!!!
Sometimes I will read stuff by this or that guy (almost always a guy) and he will be saying something about how “the Church NEEDS to go through another reformation!”
There are often 2 things that attend that call for reformation
1. They have a specific idea of exactly how that reformation needs to take place - and the attendant wrong-ness of the Church as is.
2. They irritate the crap out of me.

I suspect that - as often as not - it is the certitude (and often self righteousness) that goes with this that annoys me.

But is there not also a part of me that wants to respond...

“We are heirs of Martin Luther! Heirs of THE Reformation! Reformation is our middle name. I don’t need a new anything, (unless it is a new pair of shoes)”

or some variation.

I’m not sure what any of that means but that is my blog entry for Reformation Sunday, and I think you can see that I need more help than usual so please weigh in on this.

One more thing. Why do a good many of the folks who talk about Christian freedom give me the willies?

Waiting for Justice

Luke 18:1–8
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

I wonder... This story seems sorta - . . . negative.
Where is God in this parable? While I’ve heard it suggested that God is like - not the judge, but the widow - it seems to me, that is sorta a stretch.
I doubt any allegorical reading will help.
But, this parable makes me think.
A man is dying.
Much too young.
He signed up for Hospice. So he can get the care he needs. . . So he can seek to live his final days with his eyes wide open to whatever blessings these days will hold.
His wife got him to quit Hospice.
She figures they need to keep hoping for a miracle.
That’s the sort of idiotic piety that has been nurtured here for 20 years.
Lotta good it’s doing them.
Might this parable remind us - that the answers to our prayers sometimes are not what we want - that the faith that waits for justice sometimes waits and waits? And that the faith that the Son of Man will find is a faith that waits on what God does, and not on the prescribed path of healing and prosperity that we have laid out for God?
I don’t know.
I’m mostly just sad for these folks, and thankful to those who have pointed me to the theology of the cross. God is here. Not in the way we hoped. But in the God who hides Godself in suffering and death.

Servants with Puny Faith

Luke 17: 5 – 10
"5The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" 6The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. 7Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'? 8Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? 9Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"

“Increase our faith !” After what the disciples have been hearing and learning about the demands of discipleship and the trials and pitfalls of living faithfully amidst their context – they felt puny of faith…that their faith was sorely inadequate. Is Jesus trying to "pump up their faith ?" He seems to be saying that puny faith is faith enough. Eugene Peterson (The Message) puts it this way, “There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith.” The parable in verses 7-10 speaks to the disciple’s attitude about serving. The example employed here is the one of slave & master. Simply put, the slaves’s (servant's) time and labor belong to the master. The slave has no claim on the master for duties rendered.

If we put these streams of thought together in this Gospel (faith/servanthood) we could say that the call to discipleship is a call to be "servants with puny faith." The hymn quoted in Paul's letter to the Philippians comes to mind (Phil. 2: 5- 11.) Christ emptied self, served and died. Might we say that what God has exalted is self denying service for others to the point of death....with no eye upon a reward ? Yet, we are stuck on rewards for our efforts. Puny faith...worthless slaves.. Puny of faith and worthless slaves are not ways/attitudes which we would choose to describe ourselves in relationship towards God. Yet they seem to be lifted up here. Puny faith is enough faith. Faith enough to do mighty deeds for God. Our time and labor all belong to God (master). We slaves/servants have no claim on the master for duties rendered. Now, where is the good news here ?

A Vast Chasm

Luke 16:19–31

There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24 He called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' 25 But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' 27 He said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house — 28 for I have five brothers — that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' 29 Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' 30 He said, 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' 31 He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

This one leaves me short.
Hard to be glib - funny - light hearted with a parable like this.
Especially after checking on the web site globalrichlist.com and seeing that an annual income of $50K puts one in the top 1% in the world.
Try placing yourself in Lazarus’ shoes now. Not that Lazarus had any shoes. . .
The chasm is deeper than we can imagine, and I find it hard to look too closely at this parable. A bit like staring at the sun.
Interestingly, in his excellent book on parables, Bernard Brandon Scott skips this one. [edit - I thought it did - it doesn't. . . BBS sees here a call to solidarity. . . ]
Maybe I will too.
Or not.
PNT in a sermon on this text works with image of the chasm - chasms of disparity in wealth, chasms in relationships (I’m playing fast and loose with PNT’s much more nuanced read I must confess.) The core chasm, though - he suggests - is the chasm that allows these disparities in the first place. It is a theology that says that the rich get what they deserve and the poor do as well.
He quotes this line: “When money is our idol being poor is a sin.” hmmmm.
God helps those who help themselves.
And yet, in this only parable where someone has a name, it is the poor one who is named, and Lazarus means “God helps.”
God helps those who cannot help themselves.
Blasphemy!
Away with anyone who would suggest such a thing!

Shrewd Discipleship

Luke 16:1-13

16:1 Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 16:2 So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' 16:3 Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 16:4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.' 16:5 So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' 16:6 He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' 16:7 Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.' 16:8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 16:9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. 16:10 "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 16:11 If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 16:12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 16:13 No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

What a wild text! What in the world is Jesus' point? Does he seriously want us to start ripping people off?

What's interesting is Jesus' use of this worldly situation. Jesus' tells a story about a crooked conniver in order to open our imaginations to creative living as disciples.

Eugene Peterson's paraphrase (from The Massage) of verses 8 and 9 help me:

8 "Now here's a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. 9 I want you to be smart in the same way - but for what is right - using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you'll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior."

What does this "creative survival" and "bare essentials" look like? How is this fleshed out? Illustrations, people!

Furthermore, I think verses 10-13 are Luke's interpretation of Jesus parable in verses 1-9. So, I'm more interested in verses 1-9. Word.

Feeling Sheepish?

Luke 15:1–10

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."
So he told them this parable: Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

I remember being at an event with Rich Omland, and it was time to eat. He led grace, with a line that went something like, “God, we know that your son Jesus sat down and ate with sinners, and that’s a good thing, ‘cause there’s a gathering of them right here...”
I know some folks who wouldn’t have appreciated that. . .
We all know these parables so well. . . what do we say?
In a marvelous sermon, “Clean Sweep” Jennifer Copeland of Duke, suggests that “a broom carries as much weight as a shepherd’s staff for symbolizing God’s care. The point of both stories, of course, is that God will seek us by any means available until we are found.”
She has some great turns of phrase:

In the sweeping, God searches, but also cleanses. I like to imagine God, broom in hand, patiently sweeping away the dirt from our lives and restoring us to our God-given image. In this way we are each uniquely found by God, since we each have our own unique ways of being lost.

and her concluding paragraph touches on something that had not occurred to me

The lost sheep and the lost coin are more than the prized possessions of their owners; they are also parts of a whole. The sheep belongs to the flock and the coin to the purse; without them the whole is not complete. The search, then, is a quest for restoration and wholeness. In this sense, all of us who are part of God’s creation should be just as anxious as God until the lost are restored and we are made whole again by their presence. Then, with brooms in hand, we can answer God’s call, "Rejoice with me.”

I like that idea, that the lost are parts of a whole. I have, over the years, been so enamored of the reading that points to these parables as pictures of God as so very reckless in loving, leaving behind the 99, throwing a big party after the sweeping search. There is plenty in that read, it is true, but Copeland reminds me that there is a richness in recalling that we who are each uniquely lost are uniquely found in Jesus Christ.

CHOOSE LIFE

Luke 14:25–33

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

“Choose life so that you and your descendants may live”
At least two questions immediately come to mind. First: Who would choose anything else? Second: Why do I choose so many other things?
As I have wondered homiletically for the coming Rally Sunday, I wonder at how we might preach Jesus’ call to carry your cross. . .
Over and over, as I read reflections for this coming Sunday, commentators want to speak of the cost of discipleship.
I’m not sure that is the most profitable way to look at it. (pun intended) Seems priceless to me.
Is Jesus’ call to carry your cross, a call for the journey? A journey which we make in the company of Jesus? This is not a knowledge thing, it is not a place one arrives at. This is an invitation to a pilgrimage, but not to some Holy Land, but to self giving love. It might well be difficult, since Jesus is the one who gives his life for the world, and pronounces forgiveness to all, even those who persecute him.
In a nice insight, Loader speaks of the call to carry your cross as one that is not a call to fanaticism that ends up “running roughshod over people for its cause...” It is a call to “engagement in a radically inclusive love, living from the life of the God of love...”
Choose life. Hate Family. Take up your cross and die. Give up all your possessions.
All these impossible requirements might well cause despair, or they might throw us on the grace of God alone.

Can I Sit a Bit Closer to the Front?

Luke 14:1, 7–14

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, 'Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

I’m not sure I’ve let this text work on me as I should. I read it, and immediately seek to “do something with it.” What’s it doing to me?
Well, here’s a few lines I’ve run across that are interesting:
Loader concludes his excellent remarks with this line:
“These are potentially very dangerous texts - but full of blessing.”
Earlier, Loader really works with the striking fact that Jesus sits at table with the Pharisees. He says:

So Jesus eats with leading Pharisees?! Not just with toll collectors and sinners. To imagine this we must assume that Jesus must have given the impression that he was an acceptable guest, ie. that he observed Torah strictly. Either Luke is making something up here or he is reflecting what was likely to have been the case: Jesus’ greatest conflicts were with those closest to him: the Pharisees.

hmmmm
I suspect we are, at times, too comfortable with “the last shall be first” talk...
More Loader:

Try losing and see how much you win! If we hear these words like this and not as a serious strategy, which would reduce them to just a more creative way of exploiting others for your own good, then Jesus is subverting the whole enterprise which was driving his culture and its values. It has huge application for today.

Willimon has a nice turn of phrase. . .

And even if you are now large, and on your way up, and mobile, insightful, life has its means of making you crippled, lame, and blind. Everybody, even the congenitally exalted, get to be humble someday. And what then in a world that worships power, success?

In a nice sermon, Martha Sterne opens with: “The most precisely regulated social order that I’ve experienced was junior high school.” The question of which rules deserved to be followed is interesting...
One more Willimon comment:

With all the really big problems in the world – sexism, racism, militarism - fussiness over behavior at table may seem trivial. But not to Jesus.

One more sermon from Christian Century: Christine Pohl:

The freedom that comes with knowing we are loved and sustained by God is a freedom to give generously of ourselves and our resources, to give the best place to others without concern. Because of our confidence in God’s larger purposes, followers of Jesus can take risks and remain secure, welcome status reversals and live without fear.

My brother emailed some funny bumper stickers. One, not as funny as some people think, says “who would Jesus torture?” I have been saddened, as I’ve thought about that one. . . It crosses my mind to say that “fear is the root of all sorts of evil”. . .
How does Jesus call us to set aside fear, and to live into God’s grace and love? To quit striving, and to start caring?

Sabbath Observance - or not

Luke 13:10-17
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And just then there appeared a women with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your aliment." 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day." 15 But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?" 17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

I'd hate for there to be no post for two weeks - we might want to look back on some of this in sermon prep in the future...
Here's a little bit for yesterday...

Mary Hinkle Shore, in her blog, quotes from Sharon Ringe -(whoever she might be) that the core question of this story “is not whether to keep the sabbath, but how to keep it.”
That is an interesting way to go, but I like Loader’s suggestion that the synagogue leader and Jesus have two quite different ways of viewing God. Perhaps the deeper question is “what sort of God do we serve?”
Loader:

The theology which informs Jesus’ attitude appears to be diametrically opposed to the theology reflected in the leader of the synagogue. Both would affirm that we must love God with the whole heart and soul and strength and that this needs to show itself in action. For the leader this meant: keeping the commandments...

. . . What is God really like? What if God’s chief concern is not to be obeyed, but something else? What if God’s chief focus is love and care for people and for the creation? Then the focus moves from God’s commands to God’s people and world. It is as though God is telling us to get our priorities right. Commandments, rules, guidelines, traditions, laws, scriptures are also subordinate to that purpose: love. God’s focus is not self-aggrandisement as it is with so many who have power and wealth and want to keep it, but generosity and giving, restoration and healing, encouraging and renewing. When any of these means (commandments, laws, scriptures) cease to be seen in that light, they become ends and we find people in absurd conflicts about whether they help someone in need or obey God. When those become alternatives, something has gone terribly wrong, IF you believe God’s chief concern is caring concern for people.

Fear the Thief

Luke 12:32-40

12:32 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

12:33 Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

12:34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

12:35 "Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit;

12:36 be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks.

12:37 Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them.

12:38 If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

12:39 "But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.

12:40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."

Jesus is thick into teaching about the role of wealth and material possessions. Last week he dealt with two brothers who were feuding over their dead father's belt buckle collection by telling them the story of the greedy farmer who should have been rich toward God rather than toward his own self. In between that and this Sunday's text are Jesus' teachings urging Christians not to strive for or worry about what they will eat or wear (God takes care of us just like he does the birds of the air and the flowers of the field). Strive for God's kingdom rather than these things which God already is providing.

This Sunday's text is also about material possessions. Willimon is blogging on it at Theolog. I appreciate what he has to say. Especially his attention to the fact that God can be like a thief, breaking into our lives and robbing us. Something to think about these days when God is supposed to be so fricking affirming and nice. Willimon recognizes that in Jesus' words "Have no fear little flock," and connecting that to selling all of our stuff and giving away our money he is getting to the heart of the matter. What a scary thought! Getting rid of all that security! But this sense of detachment is part of getting ready for the Lord.

And what if we don't get ready? The Lord will show up anyway, and it just might be in the form of a thief to take away all that we have. I think of those whose places are threatened by the fires. . .

Anyways, whose up for this Old Testament fear of God thing-- dogs and cats sleeping together-- wrath of God, etc? God is hidden some of the time; some of the time God is hidden. How could we preach on this thieving God in a way that would lead to discussing the role of the cross in our lives? How can we talk about God in a way that takes the Anfechtung experience seriously? How can we preach a God who the 35-W'ers could relate to?

I Need MORE!

Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." 14But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" 15And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." 16Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17And he thought to himself, 'What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' 18Then he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' 20But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' 21So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

I like the title that Bernard Brandon Scott gives to this parable: “How to Mismanage a Miracle.” He reads it as a stewardship/idolatry issue of the man claiming ownership of that which has been given to him as gift to benefit not just him, but the community.
“The parable cleverly equates the mismanagement of the miraculous harvest with idolatry.” Hear Then the Parable p. 140

In preaching on this text 3 years ago, I quoted this, I think from DJ Hall: “is it Christianity that has taught us to love consumption, over-abundance and waste?”

Loader opens with this line:

“The passage begins with the exchange about inheritance which serves as an introduction to Jesus’ warnings about greed (12:13-15). We might imagine that the reasons for attacking greed are because it deprives others. These are reasons enough. Here, however, the focus is what makes for a meaningful life. What is abundance in life?”

Willimon has a good sermon on this: http://www.chapel.duke.edu/worship/sunday/viewsermon.aspx?id=7
One could do a lot worse than take this sermon, and add some Gospel proclamation. . . perhaps focused on the abundance of God’s generosity. . . (That wasn’t a very generous thing to say, was it?)

here are some extensive quotes from Willimon

Christianity [has the goal] not to quench all desire, but rather to kindle your desire for the right thing.
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rest in you.” These words begin Augustine’s autobiography of redirected passion, Augustine’s Confessions. Only God can satisfy because we are created by God to love God. Nothing else can ever satisfy the depth of that longing.
Our problem as humans is not that we are full of desire, burning with unfulfillment. Our problem is that we long for that which is unfulfilling. We attempt to be content with that which never satisfies. As C. S. Lewis says we are far too easily pleased.
...Our burning desire testifies that God has created us for himself, and we burn to be fulfilled. Our desire is boundless because it is meant to find its rest — that is, its perfect source and object--in God. Without the God for whom we were created, we are insignificant, nothing, therefore we relentlessly grab for this and for that, hoping to insulate ourselves from our nothingness.
...And the Christian faith reiterates that the problem is not that we desire but that we desire too little. Having no proper object for our desires, we breathlessly run toward everything. In our state of disordered desire, we transmute love into lust, achievement into acquisitiveness, and vocation into drudgery. Having no Creator tempts us to make our lives our creations, Unable to rest easy in God’s good creation, to see our lives as God’s good creation, we have much to do. (“I know what I will do. I will tear down my barns and fill new ones. I will say to my soul, take ease…”)

Might we say that this is a stewardship text?
Stewardship of life.
Stewardship of the Gospel.
A call to live in the abundant grace of God, and for that life to spill over into the lives of others.

It's Hot

10:38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

10:39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying.

10:40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me."

10:41 But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;

10:42 there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

Willimon is the current blogger for the Christia Century's Theolog. His post for this text focuses more on Jesus than on Mary and Martha. I think I like that approach. Click here to read his full version.

Here's a good quote:

On his way to his costly work in Jerusalem, Jesus has paused for an evening with these two women. Whatever work he is doing, he has decided to do that work with the two of them. He disrupts the home—a place of refuge, retreat and renewal. Then he claims the home—where two women work and care for the needs of each other—as space where he cares for them. He seeks out, speaks to and instructs women, who are often relegated to the private space of the home, confined within the boundaries of domesticity. He treats them as full-fledged disciples, giving them himself and his teaching without reserve.

So, as I agree with Willimon, I think a good strategy for preaching this text would be to proclaim Jesus as showing up in our homes or wherever we are and being with us. It would be good also to talk about the confrontational ways of Jesus too. When he shows up in our homes, what does he do or say that make us want to kill him? As well, proclaim the boundary-crossing Jesus who seeks out the over-looked or excluded.

One can't overlook Jesus's praise of Mary though. This picture of her, sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to him is helpful for us as we ask our what-must-I-do-to-inherit-eternal-life questions: How should I be as a Christian? What should I do: Show mercy (like the Good Samaritan) and sit at the feet of Jesus (like Mary). His presence-- showing up in our homes and lives-- is enough to restore us.

Howdy Neighbor

For July 15th

Luke 10:25-37
Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ 36* Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

I wasn’t going to post anything, but I figure that Magy needs some help for his sermon on Sunday. You’re preaching at Pella the 15th, aren’t ya?
Have a wonderful wedding and honeymoon JM!!!!!

THE PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN
What can one say about this parable that will be heard?
The parable itself rings so loudly. And, one might suggest, we listen in such a way that we do not hear a call to change our ways, but we hear an affirmation of what sniggling generosity we exercise toward others. . . (heck, when someone does the littlest favor for a stranger they’re called a “good Samaritan”)
I have taken the tack of suggesting that originally, Jesus told a story about a Priest, a Levite and a Samaritan, and that Jesus’ hearers would have expected a different 3rd person. It’s like telling a joke about a Priest, a Minister and a Rabbi, but having a Priest, a Minister and a Frenchman. The hearers would not have identified with any of the three. They would have been left with identifying with the wounded traveler, and the savior is the least expected. . . (From Hear Then the Parable by Bernard Brandon Scott)
hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
I just re-read a powerful article by Brueggemann. The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity from the Christian Century 1999.
http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=533
He opens with this paragraph

The majority of the world's resources pour into the United States. And as we Americans grow more and more wealthy, money is becoming a kind of narcotic for us. We hardly notice our own prosperity or the poverty of so many others. The great contradiction is that we have more and more money and less and less generosity - less and less public money for the needy, less charity for the neighbor.

later, Brueggemann says this:

Telling parables was one of Jesus' revolutionary activities, for parables are subversive re-imagining of reality. The ideology devoted to encouraging consumption wants to shrivel our imaginations so that we cannot conceive of living in any way that would be less profitable for the dominant corporate structures. But Jesus tells us that we can change the world. The Christian community performs a vital service by keeping the parables alive. These stories haunt us and push us in directions we never thought we would go.

Maybe it is instructive to think about how the lawyer asked a question of Jesus, and he answered with a slightly different question. He redirects our eyes to see all in need as those whom God cares for, and he invites you to see yourself as neighbor. Perhaps we need to be redirected. No longer seeing ourselves as the savior, but as the neighbor in need.

This is, perhaps, enough to get us thinking a bit about this powerful story, and how we might invite one another to “Go and do likewise.”

Called, Gathered, Sent

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
1 After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2 He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ 6 And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7 Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’
16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” 17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” 18 He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19 See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

As the “Pete Is So Awesome” Tour heads to a new city, we have a text that speaks of the call to reach out with the Good News of the Kingdom. This seems to me a text that might well call for us to speak of the priesthood of all believers.
I wonder, sometimes, at the talk of “leadership.” I think of Forde’s line, “beware of ship words.” Or the title of that Dilbert book, “Don’t Step in the Leadership.” Do faith communities that reach out well in the name of Christ benefit from excellent leadership, or faithful followership?
I like this in Willimon’s blog entry on the Xian Century site. He riffs off of the second lesson, then moves to the Gospel:

...suddenly, in mid-diatribe, Paul asserts, “Now you are the body of Christ.”
Really? This forlorn conglomeration of inept hangers-on, they are the body of Christ? It’s outrageous for Jesus Christ to so limit himself in such a lousy body. Alas, that’s the way this God works.
Let’s first agree that God can do anything, anywhere, anytime God wants. Self-sufficient omnipotence is the very essence of deity? Right?
Wrong.
There is something about the Trinity that refuses to work alone. One of the medieval rabbis, in his commentary on the Exodus, stood amazed that Yahweh refused to work wonders without Israel. The Creator of the Universe needs help? Whatever God wants to do for the world, God chooses a ragtag family like Israel to do it. Though God does not need Israel or anybody else to work wonders, something in this God desires to work synergistically.

Later, he has this great line

It takes a great God to stoop to work through little people like us.

The Preaching Peace people see this text as a call to proclaim a message in keeping with their Girardian read on the Gospel: “Peace to this house” “The Kingdom is near”
Mary Hinkle’s blog has some good stuff quoting from Richard Lischer

"In a culture obsessed with self-improvement, preaching speaks an eschatological word. It announces God’s open future that has broken into time in Jesus Christ. …
"The sermon participates in something larger than improvement, the reality of which is hard to put into words and whose end cannot be seen. In Luke 10 after Jesus sends out the Seventy, they return with glowing reports of their success. The Lord replies in an eschatological non sequitur, 'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.' What we see in our parishes is improvements and setbacks; he sees on our behalf what is the beginning of a whole new age (pp. 178-9)."
Richard A. Lischer, "The Interrupted Sermon," © Interpretation 50 (1996) : 169-81.
She says:
Perhaps it works to say that Jesus sees the beginning of a whole new age in our lives together as well as our congregational life together? If that is true, and if preaching is indeed the strange language that communicates the transformed future that has broken into time in Jesus Christ, then preaching could also be described as the proclamation of what Jesus sees.

What does Jesus see when Jesus looks at us? Those through whom God has elected to work with to bring God’s peace to this world in need?

He set his face to go to Jerusalem

Luke 9: 51-62
51"When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 53but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" 55But he turned and rebuked them. 56Then they went on to another village.
57As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." 59To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." 60But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." 61Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." 62Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Here we have the “Purpose Driven” Jesus. Jesus is singled minded, courageous, steely, steadfast and resolved to go to Jerusalem. What does it mean to “set one’s face” to something ? William Willimon writes, Two roads diverged, one led back to Galilee (peace, a haven, safety, a home) and another to Jerusalem (suffering and death). Can you see him hesitating a moment before those divergent roads ? The choices of safety and peril ? He was tempted all the way there. His face, hard set, met inhospitality, rejection and suffering. So what drove him ? What would drive any of us to follow where Jesus calls us ? Could it possibly be love ? Crazy..divine love ? Willimon shares a story told by George Buttrick: Some years ago there was a newspaper account of two men coming down a factory staircase and of one of them flinging the lighted end of a cigarette into what he thought was a fire bucket filled with water. The water proved to be gasoline. There was a sudden spurt of flame. And one youth instinctively, ran dowstairs to save his own skin. The other, just as instinctively ran upstairs to warn the people working in the factory floor above him. Which self takes over in such a time ? The self-preserving downstairs self ? Or the upstairs self ? The Galilee self ? Or the Jerusalem self ? My instinct is like those in the text… “First let me…..then I will follow.” Is this divine, sacrificial love so powerful so as to include me ? Is grace and faith sufficient enough to help me put my hand to the plow and not look back long enough to take the easy way out rather than to face the struggle…the cross ?

Legion - That’s like a whole bunch, isn’t it?

Luke 8:26-39
Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me"-- for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion"; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you. " So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

This is one of those texts that has so many possibilities I begin to feel immobilized at the thought of where to go with it. There are so many directions one can follow

- demons - tombs - “opposite Galilee” - bound - legion - healed/in his right mind -
- reject Jesus - “seized with great fear” -

All that, not to mention the pigs, nor, for that matter, what might be most interesting, the man begging to go with Jesus, and Jesus giving him a mission with those very people who had marginalized him. . .
Mary W. Anderson has a real nice sermon on that, titled: “Stay and Follow”
Read that. I can’t top it. http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=645
I wonder if my sense of being overwhelmed by the homiletical task here might mirror the sense of being overwhelmed that we all have in our lives. There are so many choices, so many directions to go. We become caught up in lives of busy-ness, and fail to live the lives we desire, or the lives to which God calls us. The options/possibilities/challenges are legion.
I’m not sure we need to de-mythologize the possession of this unfortunate man all that much.
“What ails you?”
“Where do I begin?” “Legion”
Jesus steps into our lives of quiet desperation, and casts out
- what -
alienation, fear, death and the devil...
Jesus doesn’t stop there.
“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you. . . “
As Forde liked to say The real question isn't "are you saved?" it is "What are you saved for?" For your neighbor.

I Heard It, But I Didn’t Understand

John 16:12–15
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

In one of his stories from Lake Wobegon, G. Keillor tells of the priest at Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility Parish, who, in a move that he realizes was clearly a mistake, forms a worship committee. The committee installs bright lights in the sanctuary.
In a comical scene, he disables the lights the night before Easter.
Keillor says that the priest doesn’t like the bright lights, they remove mystery. He says the priest “always thought the Lutherans wanted to do away with mystery altogether.”
hmmmmmmm
I collect quotes. Mostly one or two lines. . . don’t want to go beyond my attention span. . .
Here’s a few

To try to deny the Trinity endangers your salvation, to try to comprehend the Trinity endangers your sanity." Martin Luther

I realize that the only time the church is really sufferable is when it is at prayer. When it talks, it claims too much for itself. Reinhold Niebuhr

I wonder if we make the mistake of addressing the Trinity as a problem to be solved, rather than a mystery with which we are called to live. A truth given to us to inspire wonder.
I suspect that Niebuhr is spot on about most of our explanations of the Trinity. I could probably simply say - about most of our explanations.

In a marvelous sermon - “So Explain It To Me” - colleague Mary W. Anderson (anybody know her? I like her stuff) says:

Yet how important is it to explain the mystery of God revealed to us in three distinct ways? Mysteries explained cease to be mysteries, don't they? Perhaps the doctrine of the Trinity challenges our secret wish to know God fully and eliminate all mystery. This, after all, was the burning desire of our first parents in the Garden, a desire that ultimately caused them to fall from grace. Does this temptation to dispel all mystery still burn within us?

I haven’t even touched on Trinity as relationship, etc. etc.
One last quote:

God tends to confound, astonish and flabbergast. A Bethlehem stable, a Roman cross, an empty garden tomb. We might as well reconcile ourselves to the fact that God's truth often turns up in ways we don't expect. - Sue Monk Kidd

DID YOU HEAR THAT?

John 14:8–17, 25–27

Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
25 I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

Last week opened with an I statement
“I frickin hate preaching on this passage.”
How about another I statement -
“I don't know what the heck to do with Pentecost.”

I think, in part, that we make a mistake.
We read Pentecost as a Power Event.
We are empowered by the Spirit.
Yet, this is the Gospel we're talking about.
Forgiveness. Love. Not power.
Is it, instead, a learning event?
I know, stated that way it sounds a bit flaccid, but a learning event as in being informed and renewed by a vision of God who is for you, and for you in a particular way, and sends you into the world to be for the world in the same way.
I know that we say that knowledge is power, but. . .
Well, I like the suggestion by Edmund Steimle that the miracle of Pentecost is the hearing. "And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?”

We have a hearing problem at my house.
It resides - most irritatingly and obviously - in my 5 year old.
I will say to him. "Don't do - - - ."
He then does it.
I will then say to him "Did you hear me say, 'Don't do - - - ?'"
"Yes" he will say.
Then why did you do it?
"I don't know."
Come to think of it.
That's not a hearing problem, is it?
hmmmmmm
I digress.

I like the suggestion that the miracle of Pentecost is that one would hear the Good News.
Let me quote from a sermon by Jim Callahan, from the Christian Century, May 2000. I linked to this on textweek.com.

Some call Pentecost the "birthday of the church." I disagree. I sense that the church was born on Good Friday when Jesus, "just hanging around," as Robert Capon stunningly puts it, asked the Father to forgive us, and a few bewildered, broken-hearted women and men wandered off wondering how they were going to live with that. Pentecost was the day they got their answer: with great joy, and with wind and fire and Spirit, making them look like a bunch of happy drunks in the midst of a numbingly sober and sour world. At last they knew that they were God’s -- every last one of them -- and that God was Love, not just in poetic theory but in palpable fact. They learned that in belonging to God they belonged also to each other. The joy derived from their trusting contained power, power not only to gladden but also to heal and redeem.

Here’s a true miracle of the Spirit - that we should believe - that we should hear this Good News - that we should become a part of Jesus' mission of loving the world to the end.
Here’s a true miracle of the Spirit - that we should be forgiven, that we should do greater works than Jesus. How greater? Greater in that the love which Jesus has unleashed, should go to the ends of the earth - borne by disciples who will hear the call to take up their cross and will in their own, halting and half hearted ways, follow this one who gave his life for the world. . .

The One Campaign

John 17: 20-26
20 "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

Let me start with an "I statement." I frickin hate preaching on this passage.

Remember "The Concordat?" The debate surrounding it was at its height during my internship year which I spent in the NW WA Synod. At its Synod Assembly, a resolution against "The Concordat" was being debated. Speaking in favor of "The Concordat" one pastor said something like: "In John 17 Jesus prayed for the unity of the Church. Vote for 'The Concordat' and help fulfill his prayer."

Then I read or heard a statement by Luther Sem. prof David Frederickson who stated that Jesus was not talking about the "big church" in John 17. Jesus was talking about individual congregations. I prefer Frederickson's take.

I am reading a book by Peter Steinke-- Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times: Being Calm and Courageous No Matter What. In a chapter titled "The Leader's Challenge" (and on page 108) he writes about what church leaders can do during times of conflict to harness the good that can come out of the conflicted time. Introducing this theme he writes some good stuff that I would like us to ramble on. I'm not sure what this has to do with preaching; maybe it will help our thinking on this painful to preach on text.

A conflict-free congregation is incongruent not only with reality but even more with biblical theology. Jesus upset many people emotionally. The life of Jesus takes place against a backdrop of suspicion, opposition, and crucifixion. The Christian story is underlined with conflict. Early on, we encounter the emotional reactivity of the religious leaders, who see Jesus as a threat to their authority and belief system. Eventually the tension between the roaming preacher and the established religious order comes to a dramatic point. Tension leads to crucifixion.

The church has had divisions from its inception. No doubt, it has fought senseless battles, squandered its resources on frivolous issues, sent negative signals to society, shattered its unity, and forfeited chances to share its goodwill. Some churches work through the reactive period and emerge stronger. Others shuffle from crisis to crisis. What makes the difference in outcomes?

Nowhere in the Bible is tranquility preferred to truth or harmony to justice. Certainly reconciliation is the goal of the gospel, yet seldom is reconciliation an immediate result. If people believe the Holy Spirit is directing the congregation into the truth, wouldn't this alone encourage Christians who have differing notions to grapple with issues respectfully, lovingly, and responsively? If potent issues are avoided because they might divide the community, what type of witness is the congregation to the pursuit of truth?