August 31st ~ "Life Is The Art of an Encounter" - Pope Francis

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Sirach 3:17-29

Psalm 112

Hebrews 12:18-24

Luke 14:1, 7-14

Sermon by Pastor Ronald Nelson

(filling in for Pastor Joel)

The only thing that makes me similar to Jesus, is that Jesus also liked to eat. Jesus loved banquets. We never heard that he refused the offer of a good meal. Once he was at the table, He would transform the table into a space for quick and witty comments with the people about God and life. Yes, Jesus firmly practiced “word and witness.”

While we usually operate with the idea of ‘quid pro quo,’ that is, “everything we should do should be an investment from which we can expect to reap some return.” Love for love, favours for favours, reward for our efforts, benefit for virtue. We build up our entire life, including our ego and sense of self. We keep score and feel a kind of entitlement, even before God. Think about all the time and energy people devote to keeping track of their/our personal ‘quid pro quo.’

Well, in today’s Gospel we can imagine Jesus wryly observing as people vied to position themselves for the best seat in the house.

They all wanted to be in a place of honour. You can just see him smiling as each guest preened to appear more distinguished than others. Aware of the learning capacity of his audience, Jesus first offered advice about how to avoid humiliation, “choose the lowliest place and nobody else can put you down.” Maybe a few of them actually understood his words of wisdom.

But Jesus did not stop there. The people had gathered for an ordinary Sabbath meal. Into that setting Jesus told a story about a wedding banquet. It was pretty obvious that Jesus was talking about a lot more than the evening’s dinner. Wedding banquets were one of his favourite symbols for the reign of God. A wedding celebrates something new and full of potential. It symbolizes the bonds of love and new relationships that at least in some cases can transform an entire community.

Many years ago, I remember a church just south of the Manitoba border, in Minnesota which sat out in the country and would have weddings where the people would camp on the church grounds and would celebrate all weekend. In Niagara falls, we had weddings at our regular Sunday morning worship. So in our Gospel today, Jesus addressed his fellow guests as probable hosts of future dinners, “when it is your turn, break free of that old mold that has your guest list written in stone.” He tells them to get out of the rut of having everyone in the same position, repeating well-worn conversations, with the venue being the only thing that has changed.

[My first parish was in a rural Danish community and birthdays were a big thing. You could almost go to a birthday party every day and the food would be the same, very good and very rich, and the conversations would also be the same. In 3+ years I do not remember any change. Let us be honest, a new pastor trying to make changes, even at a birthday party would not go over very well. They were great people, but as I think about it, a lack of change, maybe that is why we moved just after three years.]

In our story in the Gospel, Jesus talks about a new guest list, rather than  new clothes and fancy foods. Well that surely got their attention, even if they thought he was joking. Jesus went on to suggest that they invite the most unlikely characters in the area. Yes, Jesus wanted to startle the self-impressed diners into some imaginative creativity. What if everybody at the table decided to take Jesus up on the suggestion? Instead of inviting each other to the next banquet, what if they found some eclectic group of well known but far less prestigious people to invite? What if you invited the butcher and the baker, and the candlestick maker and a homeless person or even more than one and offered them a bath and new clothes? Maybe you even send out someone to literally carry them in, and then even go so far as to invite each guest to invite another guest as well?  Now imagine the unexpected table conversation! What would happen?

Maybe the guests would help the regulars feel like they have really entered into the sacrament of the table, where eating together would be a living expression of shared humanity. Now the common enjoyment of the fruits of the earth, would become a celebration of the gifts of smell and taste and beauty and a sign of common dependence on one another.

The variety of people and perspectives around the table would remind them/us that God’s creation brims with luxurious diversity,

And the enjoyment increases to the degree that all of the above is shared. After such an event, maybe when the group gathered again in a few weeks, there might be new stories about what had happened and they would forget about where they needed to sit and what food needed to be served and they would just be reliving the fun they had at the last dinner.

It is not hard to imagine Jesus then saying, “this is what it is like in the reign of God.” Pope Francis once said, “human beings are so made that they cannot live, develop and find fulfillment except in the sincere gift of self to others.” It is interesting that, after several years, governments and companies are beginning to require workers to come back to the offices. Why? Because there is value in group dynamics. Our scriptures invite us to eat and drink in the presence of others and to enter into mutually nourishing and transforming interchange. In the meantime we in the church have allowed ourselves to drift apart. Seminaries are training their pastors by internet??? And I guess I am talking myself out of a job on zoom,  eh?

Going back to where I started today about eating, I really enjoy football both CFL and NFL and university but not in a stadium often filled with drunks, [sorry if I offend season ticket holders. I was one at Calgary,  Hamilton, and Winnipeg but it just got too loud and rowdy.]

Now I enjoy the game at home in front of a TV. Yet for me, there is almost nothing more enjoyable than sitting around a table eating and enjoying the banter with others. When we dine out I always try to bring the servers into our conversation and inevitably they always enjoy sharing something about themselves.

Yes, Jesus and Francis offered us to be on an adventure. Francis went on to say, “life, for all its confrontations, is the art of an encounter.”  No, it is not “the art of a deal.” We,  as people should be passionate , as meeting others, seeking points of contact, building bridges and planning projects that include others. Francis also said, “this could be our aspiration and style of life.” Jesus called it, “the Resurrection.”

Sometimes we think the whole idea of loving one another just started with Jesus. But we ignore the Hebrew scriptures at our peril. Five hundred years before the Christian scriptures we had the Torah, “scriptures’ first five books”  And then other books like Sirach that we heard today, humility, wisdom, and alms giving were always playing a part in the story.

And then the letters like Hebrews came along and said we can actually touch God in the ordinary events of our lives.  Yes, when we put these ideas together we find ‘the Resurrection,’ we find ‘Metanoia.’ When we do not do that, then we are like what Paul said in Corinthians, “we are going through life, as the most ridiculous of all people.” Yes, many of us are going through life without hearing the music which gives meaning to life.

Let us go now to the banquet,

To the feast of the universe.

The table is set and a place is waiting,

Come, everyone,

With your gifts to share.

I will rise in the early morning,

The community’s waiting for me

With a spring in my step

I’m walking with my friends and family.

God invites all the poor and hungry

To the banquet of justice and good

Where the harvest will not be hoarded

So that no one will lack for food.

May we build such a place among us

Where all people are equal in love.

God has called us to work together

And to share everything we have.

Let us go now to the banquet,

To the feast of the universe.

The table is set and a place is waiting,

Come, everyone,

With your gifts to share.

[ELW 523]

Gracious God, we pray for the awareness to be ever alert to those in need. Grant us the humility to put their needs before our own, and to be willing to serve them with our whole being. All of the above sounds easier than it is, which is why we are still talking about it.  Amen.

August 24th ~ is our table as open as God's?

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Isaiah 66:18-21

Psalm 117

Hebrews 12:5-13

Luke 13:22-30

Sermon by Pastor Ronald Nelson

(filling in for Pastor Joel)

We Christians have often tried to make Jesus out to be something more than he was. For instance, a birth in a manger with animals and shepherds came to be a sterilized scene with no smells. But instead let us get real, Pat Marrin in looking at the Gospel story today said; “the word today invoked in me the memory of a classic tune written by Lou reed. The lyrics to ‘Take a Walk on the Wild Side’ invited me to reflect on just how radical Jesus must have seemed to his contemporaries.

Jesus was a poet and a storyteller who came from outside the theological establishment. He quickly gained a questionable reputation for associating with the society’s misfits and outcasts, and he had the audacity to say that God sought them out and loved them.” Do not worry, I am not going to repeat Lou reed’s lyrics.

Someone else said, “when Jesus was asked a question it was like the line, “a man walked into a bar…” In other words, we should get ready for a story that turns expectations inside out. Just think how easy it would have been to reject Jesus, this strange yet charismatic person when he came to Jerusalem and stirred things up. He called out the temple priesthood by disrupting the money exchangers and the animal market. And, in doing so, he provoked the Roman authorities, who took their cut from the revenue earned in the temple. [is it not sad to hear how so many of the American Christians today suck up to the government in power?]

Today’s story in the gospel spotlights a fellow whose inquiry subtly suggests that few people [other than himself] will be saved. But Jesus circumvents the discussion of numbers by switching the focus to the difficulty of gaining entrance to the master’s mansion. This story is a good example of just when we think we have this Jesus/God all figured out, things change. In today’s gospel, Jesus addresses the challenge of entering God’s kingdom through the “narrow gate”, and then said that many sinners would get in while those who thought they had an automatic pass would be too proud to fit through the gate. It is a curious image for me because it comes from someone who seemed to throw the gates of “heaven” wide open to anyone seeking God’s unconditional love, and yet it suggests a whole set of paradoxes that describe God’s mysterious ways. The first will be last and the last will be first, mercy and compassion, not sacrifice or legal purity seem to be what gets God’s attention. Have I just presumed God’s mercy without doing anything on my part? Ironically the “narrow gate/door” for entering God’s kingdom among us revolves around our developing a very “broad mind.”

Well as I said earlier, these lessons, including next Sunday’s have not made for a relaxing summer. [for the St. Peter’s congregation - the good news is next Sunday will be my last.] Now of course, God blesses virtue and discipline because they make for an orderly life. I will never forget a teacher, Mr. Woehl, at my school in Erskine, MN. He was different than the one Jon mentioned. He was a very active Christian and really just a ‘good guy’, but he could not handle a seventh grader coming to school with a “green head”, so I spent my lunch hour in his room at the school. You see Mr. Woehl’s version of life did not include that, God is also looking for the lost and the broken-hearted, life’s chaotic radicals, troublemakers, and yes, even crazy teenagers with green hair. Jesus’ many parables imagine God heading out into the night to roam the steamy underground of forbidden and dangerous haunts to retrieve a beloved son, a reckless daughter, or an abused child. But Jesus did do the above, and thus he became an outcast himself.

I could never listen to, The Lou Reeds, the Ozzy Osbournes and a host of others, [Willie Nelson and Frank Sinatra are ‘bad’ enough for me. But I have to admit, “What Made Milwaukee Famous Made a Loser Out of Me” is one of my favourites.] You see these ‘musicians?’ were/are using their music to invite listeners to consider the humanity of those left outside the mainstream. In the same way, Jesus’, God’s probe into the shadow side of human nature, went to the wild side to take upon himself the rejection that made his death on the cross inevitable. But he also did it/ does it for every one of us. Jesus sat at an ever-open table and encouraged people to keep knocking on the locked door, and to trust that someone would open the door for them/us. And we say, about the story, “what is up?” This story becomes even more comprehensible when we recall that the author of Luke wrote the gospel not as a documentary, but to help a practicing Christian community to deepen their living faith. In that context, we realize that the story focuses on teaching, eating and drinking, which are the key elements of the celebration of the eucharist. I apologize that you are not having the eucharist today. I hope your congregation and the ELCIC will figure out that not having an ordained pastor in the building will not destroy communion nor bring lighting bolts down from heaven.

Yes, in 2025 we still find ways to hinder the good news. It has taken us a lot of years to realize that the theme of the eucharist subtly permeates the whole gospel of Luke. From the hungry being fed in Mary’s Magnificat through the beatitudes and the teaching surrounding the lord’s prayer, which we heard on July 27, the writer of Luke emphasizes God’s role in feeding the hungry. Yes, the banquets that Jesus describes in the gospel are images of the reign of God. Whenever Jesus eats with the people and/or the disciples we have come to see, in the breaking of the bread, a symbol of the eucharist. The problem is we often make the eucharist more formal than it needs to be. Having said the above we must ask ourselves; What happens then when we hear, “we ate and drank with you and you taught us.” And yet the ‘master’ said, “I do not know where you are from.” Could it be a warning for all of us that it will never be enough to say, “I sat through those sermons and received communion every Sunday, is that not enough?”

In our first reading from third Isaiah we hear God say, “I know your works and thoughts.” God did not say, “I saw your church attendance card.” In Isaiah, just like Jesus in Luke, we hear the promise that all people of all nations will participate in the joy of the reign of God. In this last chapter of Isaiah, we hear God calling all the nations, not just a chosen people. The writer of Isaiah wants the people to come back to their home with a new mentality toward the gentiles. They must now understand God includes all people in his/her plan of salvation. Before that, priests and Levites were granted their special offices by privileges of birth. I am sure many pious Jews would have petitioned the bishop – had one existed back then – to have this writer of Isaiah declared a heretic. Quite simply the prophet was now demanding the people to be open to God working with all people. All of these lessons are telling us that “eating and drinking” with God is only genuine when our “table” is as open, and as welcoming as God’s table is. So our gospel today began with a question about “how many would be saved?”  A question that always implies ‘exclusion.’  Jesus replied by talking about how we get into the mansion. What he said was it is not a question of competing for limited spaces. What he was saying was; We need to understand how to be ready to enter into the banquet hall to which we have all been invited. Being known by God is not because we have followed some ritual. It is because we have listened so deeply that God’s word lives in us. It is us who must live and reflect and represent God in the context and the content of our lives. It is Luke’s version of, “I know mine and mine know me.”  What Jesus said to the questioner, who asked; “will many be saved?” was “are you seeking my way of life or a prestigious status?”

It is so amazing for me to see how we in Canada, highlighted by our premiers and prime minister, have come to realize that together we can do something. How long will it last? I do not know. But for now we are truly a nation from, sea, to sea, to sea. The basic message is that one cannot save oneself. We as Christians have such a basic message of the “good news.” Going through Jesus’ narrow gate we find ourselves beyond self-concern and into the realm of knowing we are loved and therefore we are free to love any and everyone else. It is not then, “how many will be saved,” it is “how many of us will let it happen to us?” Today’s readings remind us that not everyone in the church, or in the community, or in Canada, or even in the world responds the same way. Living in the gospel, and living in Canada, is a joy and a privilege. But we know there is no guarantee of a smooth journey. It might not be for everyone. All we can do is to embrace what we have been given and pray that countless others will join us when they are ready. You see, saying the right prayers or knowing all the rules and regulations will not save us.

The Jesus of Luke said, “people will come from the east and the west, and from the north and the south and will sit at the table of the lord.” “Some are last who will be first, and some who are first will be last.” Jesus says, “carpe diem. Seize the day.”  God’s desire is to gather everybody from every part of the world, evangelists and pagans, hostages, refugees, and yes even the U.S. immigration and customs enforcement agents [ICE], to eat at the banquet table prepared by God. What Jesus is asking of each of us is that we share in the banquet God prepares for all. Yes, Jesus offers communion to all. Do we have the desire to love as God loves?

Merciful God, you share your love with all people. Help us to be compassionate toward even those who choose not to accept your invitation. Help us to be steadfast in our commitment and strengthen us when we falter.  Amen.

August 17th ~ Let Us Run the Race that is Set Before Us.

Click above to listen to a recording of Sunday's Sermon

Jeremiah 38:4-10

Psalm 82

Hebrews 11:29—12:2

Luke 12:49-56

Sermon by Pastor Ronald Nelson

(filling in for Pastor Joel)

As I said a couple of weeks ago, our summer Sunday scripture lessons do not allow us to take the summer off. Just when we thought it could not get any more challenging, we hear in today's Gospel; "Jesus said to his disciples, 'I came to bring fire to the earth.'"  Forget those nice Holy cards that you can buy at a "Christian bookstore." Jesus was no wimp! And above all he was not apolitical. In using the Gospel of Luke as our main Gospel reading for this year, we passed a dividing line. We may not have noticed it, but the Gospel became more intense when we used Luke 9: 51-62 on Sunday, June 29, when we heard, "when the time came that Jesus would be taken up, Jesus steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem."

Remember also that Luke was written to the gentiles. Luke is the Gospel most used by liberation theologians. In Luke 4: 18-19, Jesus is portrayed reading from the prophet Isaiah. Jesus says, "he is to preach the good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour." Not long after Jesus first told the disciples that the mission they were sharing would entail suffering and death, Jesus purposely set out to confront his fate in Jerusalem. The Gospel of John tells us when Jesus decided to go to Jerusalem, Thomas looked at the other disciples and said,"let us also go to die with him." In other words, they had no reason to think that the rest of the story would be a picnic. Jesus and everyone identified with him were headed toward the inevitable conflict with the religious and the civil authorities. So, it should not be surprising that we often will disagree, not with only the politicians, but also with religious leaders. Yes, fidelity to the Gospel is going to cause conflict with the ways of the world. Do we stand up for God or do we meekly give into the bullies and blend in with the crowd? Quite simply, Christianity cannot align itself with the establishment, and yet we often do, because God has brought down the powerful from the thrones and lifted up the lowly.

In our Gospel today, by this stage in his life, Jesus must have known full well, that his message threatened the most powerful people. How did he know? Why did he know? Because Jesus knew the Jewish scriptures, he would have known that prophets never fared well with anyone whose plans and schemes do not prioritize the common good. In reading the New Testament, we see the Jewish community usually turned to the prophet Isaiah to help them try to understand Jesus. But today we hear from Jeremiah. I would think if you asked my wife Dina what prophet would be Ron's favourite, she would say, Jeremiah. Why? Because Jeremiah was the"best" complainer among the prophets of Israel. Yes, Jonah did his share of whining, but his story is more of a comic caricature than serious prophecy. As we meet Jeremiah today, he has been dealing with a king who wanted to know God's will, but the king lacked the courage to obey it. Jeremiah knows and tells his people that they are in a losing war. For saying that, the military leaders decide to get rid of Jeremiah, as his truth-telling is demoralizing and they prefer lies rather than reality. (In someway that helps me understand how the greatest liar ever known can still be the president of the USA.) It is weird, but telling the truth is often frowned upon. Our lesson today is but one of the many times that Jeremiah was persecuted or nearly killed because he preached the truth.

Dianne Bergant comments on Jeremiah's predicament by saying; "here is an instance in which the word of God spoken by a prophet and the policies of a nation are in deadly conflict. In such a situation, the one who speaks in God's name is likely to pay a price." So, what gives a prophet the ability to defy mortal threats and to tell the truth. Well maybe our second lesson from Hebrews tells us something."Brothers and sisters, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us." According to Rabbi Abraham Heschel, the God of Israel is never impersonal or dispassionate. Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson says,"God is dynamically engaged in every level of creation, passionately urging us to ethical greatness." That then is where Jesus gets his fire. Remember Bishop Oscar Romero who died because he defended the poor against the corrupt leaders of his day. Bishop Romero and many others, were motivated by what Hebrews called,"the race that is set before us." Their conviction was, that living the values of the reign of God is worth any cost. Yes, their motivation and conviction may have been religious, but as people of religion, they were acting for the common good. They were inevitably involved in the political as well. People who heed God's urging toward ethical greatness share God's passion for the good of the world. Their reward? They suffer with God when people prevent movement toward good. Remember Jeremiah protested that God had"seduced" him and made prophecy like a fire in his heart [Jeremiah 10].

Yes, people who have been captivated by God share Jesus' passion for goodness and justice. They know Jesus' anguish as they wait for God's reign of love to rule on earth. Think of Greta Thunberg whose efforts have brought immense attention to the crisis of the earth. For that, she has been the object of derision, criticized as mentally unstable, and a child of a deeply disturbed family. Vladimir Putin himself weighed in, calling her kind and sincere, but poorly informed. Think of Greta's Muslim contemporary; Malala Yousafzai, who began her advocacy for girls' education at the age of 11. The Taliban shot her for her efforts, which actually increased her fame and power. For people like those I mentioned above, two things can be true at once. A message of justice and peace can also cause conflict on both personal and social levels. 

We Lutherans have always had trouble with the letter of James because as James tells us,"faith without works is a sham." So when we ask what are these readings saying to us today, we might take Jesus' opening line in combination with a phrase from"the letter to the Hebrews." Jesus said,"I have come to bring fire to the earth," and Hebrews explains that the cloud of witnesses ran the race with their eyes fixed on Jesus who endured everything"for the sake of the joy that lay before him." It seems that the joy of a) an earth on fire with the love of God, and b) an earth on fire with God's justice, was the vision that drew Jesus out into the world. So, our lessons today, invite us to seek inspiration from the cloud of witnesses fired with a joyful vision of God's reign on earth, and our liturgy as a whole reminds us that faith demands action for the common good – no matter the risk.

Yes, the Gospel of peace and love will cause conflict and division between generations before it achieves its goal of unity in diversity, reconciliation and forgiveness, within the human family. Jesus' own mother foresaw that Jesus would be a sign of contradiction and a sword of sorrow. Jesus knew that suffering was the cost of transformation, and he longed for it to be over. To be a part of this future, each of us will face our own baptism of fire; to separate truth from illusion, and love from selfishness. Normally we expect our biblical authors to tear into us for not listening to the prophets and carrying out the prophets' words. But today the author of Hebrews and the Gospel of Luke, look at prophecy from the other side. Both Hebrews and Luke tear into us for not being brave enough to proclaim even the small bit of God's word that the Spirit has gifted us. Though the vast majority of us are not"full-time" prophets, many of us have experienced conflict around our faith or religious beliefs. But we have not paid the price of discipleship in blood. So how do our conflicts reflect what Jesus told us to expect?  Are our experiences merely uncomfortable or inconvenient? Do they reflect the seriousness of our commitment to the Gospel? 

Yes, it is jarring to remember that discipleship can disturb our peace and divide us from one another. As other Christs we frequently run into situations in which we say nothing, where something should be said. Well, we do not have to pretend to be overly pious, but especially with family and friends.  Neither should we hesitate to confront racial, sexual or prejudicial remarks. Faith in Jesus the Christ leaves no room for complacency in a world of injustice, and 'boy' do we have such a world today.  The writer Dostoevsky wrote that "love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing."  Yes, he said that just when you think that in spite of your efforts, you are further from your goal than ever. But then "you will suddenly reach your goal and will clearly behold… the wonder-working power of the Lord who all the while has been loving you… and mysteriously guiding you." Today, in much of the world, the policies of nations and often just plain bullies are in deadly conflict with the word of God. When we hear Jesus say, "I came to bring fire to the earth," he is asking if we are ready to burn with his zeal and face the peril it entails. We pray, "by your cross and resurrection you have set us free." Are we free enough to share in Christ's passion?

God, be the love to search and keep me,

God, be the prayer to move my voice,

God, be the strength to now uphold me.

O Christ, surround me,

O Christ, surround me.

Bind to myself the name of Holy,

Great cloud of witnesses enfold,

Prophets, apostles, angels witness,

O Christ, surround me,

O Christ, surround me,

[ACS 1084 v. 1 & 2]

God our protector, stand with us as we commit to living as faithful followers of Jesus the Christ. Help us to love and respect those who do not understand our values, and our choices. Strengthen us when we waver. We pray in the name of Jesus, who called us to baptism and discipleship.

Amen.