John 14:1-14 - "Gazing To Heaven" (4-20-08)

Sing and invite others to sing) “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen. Nobody knows my sorrow. Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen. Nobody but Jesus.” We’ve all seen troubles and Jesus says to us, “Let not your hearts be troubled, let not them be afraid.” I’ve spoken those words at every funeral here at Living Waters these ten years. Why? We’ve all seen troubles, struggles and pain in our lives and in the lives of those around us and in the world.

These troubles distract us from keeping our eyes on the ball. There are so many things that distract us, so many troubles that cause us to be afraid and to loose our vision and direction. We gathered together yesterday at the Rookie baseball field to play and enjoy a nice afternoon and our first baseball game of the season. As an assistant coach, it was my role to stand in very shallow right center to help out our five outfielders. They would easily be distracted by other things, such as the dirt, an airplane going over head and the clouds. “Watch the ball”, I would say and then a few moments later they are gazing up to heaven (slowly turn and look upwards, kicking feet; repeat a few times). They were gazing up to heaven.

Stephen was gazing up to heaven in the lesson from chapter seven of the book of Acts. He gave this long sermon and they didn’t seem to like what he had to say. They are about to kill him when he gazes up to the skies and sees a vision of the Lord. His gaze was upon God as God’s gaze was upon Stephen during that troubling time. Stephen was about to go to that mansion in the sky where a room had been prepared for him and he offers the way of forgiveness to those who were killing him.

This is the way of Jesus. One commentary said that the way of Jesus brings these two things, truth and life. This way reminds us of the truth about ourselves and our human condition and the truth about God’s mercy and grace in Christ our Lord. This way also leads us out of greed and consumerism into life, abundant life. This is the way that leads us out of trying to do life on our own; just trying to be good enough to earn God’s favor. On our way home, we gather in the dwelling place of faith so that we may be strengthened in the dwelling in the world.

We gather in this dwelling place of community and Christian fellowship because Jesus said in John 14:2, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” It’s not that heaven has all these compartmentalized rooms where this group will live and that group that thinks they are the only ones in heaven will live. The dwelling place is about a gathering of people, as we remember many middle eastern homes at the time of Christ were one room homes where they all dwelt. We live now in a household of faith even as we dwell together even when we are apart. Yet there is a metropolis of places to reside and dwell in heaven and Jesus has prepared a place for us. The bed is made; the homecoming is set and the place to dwell has been prepared for us who are following the way. We dwell together along the journey in communion with God and with one another.

Doctor friend of Ravi Zackarius[i] from Norwalk, Ohio and his teenager daughter was coming from South America going through Miami airport; this young girl in her early teens; checking to see what time her flight comes; older man comes along side this teenager and asked her, “Can I help you.” She nervously said she was going to Detroit and he helped her find the flight and gate. He walked with her. You going to Detroit, me too. As they sit there he asked, What are you doing in Detroit. She said, “I don’t stay in Detroit; I’m going to Norwalk, Ohio.” He said, funny, I live in Norwalk too. She thought this stranger is up to mischief. “How are you coming to Norwalk?” My father is coming to pick me up. He said, “I have a car in Detroit; call you father and tell him I’ll drive you home.” She said, “No sir that’s alright.” He then asked her what is your dad’s name! He told her the name! Are you Stacy? Stacy I know your dad. I’m the doctor who delivered you as a baby. She couldn’t believe it. She hurriedly called her dad; he laughed and threw his head back and asked to talk with his own friend on the phone.

In all of life God is with us and has prepared a place for us. The one who has created us and brought us forth in birth will drive us to our final destination where we will be reunited with all those who gather in the household of God. We can relax and laugh because we are in good hands.

Let us pray: Gracious God, Jesus Christ is showing us the way, the way that brings the truth about us and you; the way that bring us abundant life. You prepare a place for us, in the eternal home. Draw us more deeply into yourself, through scripture read, water splashed, bread broken, wine poured, so that when our hearts are troubled, we will know that your gaze is upon us, drawing us to look upon the grace of Christ who bring us life, in Jesus name we pray, Amen.

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[i] http://htod.cdncon.com/o2/rzimht/MP3/LMPT/LMPTCD124-2.mp3

John 10:1-10 - "Feeder System" (4-13-08)

My son’s opening ceremonies for Rookie baseball is this Saturday at 8am. He’s learning all the important things about baseball, like where the bases are located. Of course this rookie baseball is but a feeder program for the high school teams and eventually the minor and major leagues. Not too many will probably reach that level, but we are all learning along the way.

In the Christian faith, we are all in feeder system as sheep. We are hungry in many and various ways and the Shepherd of the world feeds us. We are all sheep being fed and learning in the journey. Psalm 23 is a great reminder that we are sheep and God is the great Shepherd. The Psalms are all great songs that feed us in our lives. I haven’t taught you how to find the Psalms in the new Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnals we’ve recently purchased. So please take one out from under your chairs. A quick overview is warranted. The small numbers on the bottom outside of the page is in the front section of the hymnal and it is where the prayers and various orders of worship. If you go to the back, the large hymnal numbers are on the top of the page. Please go to hymn #151 in this section. If you turn back just a few pages, you will find psalm 150, reminding us that our hymns continue in a line of songs we have sung starting with the psalms. The psalms are after the front section with small numbers at the bottom and the hymn section with large numbers on the top. I wish they would have made it easier to find pages with one numbering system, but here we are learning. So, go to Psalm 23. There are little red marks in the psalms for canting and I know you can cant. So let’s try this back and forth with this tone. I will sing odd verses and you will sing even verses acappella.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. There is a program on television that is a feeder system for musicians. This show is watched religiously, it’s American Idol. This was the week for "Idol Gives Back", where they have raised over $60 million this week for social service programs. Well on Wednesday, the eight finalists sang the worship song, “Shout to the Lord” and they sang all the original lyrics, except they left "Jesus" out of the picture and sang, “My Shepherd, my savior, Lord there is none like you”. When the contestants sang the song again near the end of Thursday's results show, many were pleasantly surprised to hear them sing, after much feedback, “My Jesus, my savior, Lord there is none like you." For those who got upset about this, the question became whether it should by Jesus or Shepherd. The answer is both! Jesus is the Shepherd.

Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. The image of God as shepherd is throughout the Bible and the characteristics described of the shepherd is that they have a distinct voice that the sheep can understand. When the sheep get all mixed up with other sheep during the week, the sheep hear the voice of the shepherd calling they back, by name. The shepherd is also a gate keeper, lying between the open areas of rock that were used to make the wall. Jesus is the Gate, for the shepherd guards the sheep.

We are the sheep and for the most part, sheep are dumb. They would follow other sheep into water and drown or off a cliff or they would eat too much. We are the sheep. We are all like sheep that have gone astray. We don’t want to learn about following. In the movie Charlotte’s Web, John Cleese played SAMUEL in the movie and he was the main sheep of five. He’s the head sheep and the always say and do whatever he does in the movie.

Sometime the pastor is called the shepherd. Pastors are sheep also. I am not the shepherd. I am just a sheep. When I was in seminary, Professor David Rhoads helped me to understand this when I was concerned about becoming THE shepherd. He suggested that I try to become a smart sheep. So in my own hunger, I’m just trying to help show you and tell you as a smart sheep who is the shepherd. The word pastor comes from the Latin word, “to feed”, like the word pasture. Jesus said there will be one flock, one shepherd. He was not asking for applications. The position is filled. With that realization an extraordinary freedom is created regarding “the work of ministry without needing to be in control.”[i]

The shepherd is responsible for the sheep; not the sheep for the shepherd. The worst of it is that we sometimes think we are both the shepherd and the sheep, and that we have to both guide and follow. Happy are we when we realize that he is responsible, that the goodness and mercy of God shall follow as we continue in this feeder system of being disciples of Christ.

I’ve been teaching my son in the feeder baseball system about throwing. John Francis showed me that you want to teach kids how to throw correctly early on so they don’t’ put too much strain on the elbow. The kids turn sideways to where they are going to throw; point forward with their glove and point the ball backwards and then throw. This is the “T” position and it makes the sign of the cross. We are all learning to point to the shepherd and make the sign of the cross in this “T” position as we celebrate the shepherd who was willing to lay down his life for the sheep. Christ has risen! Christ has risen indeed!

Let us pray! God our shepherd, you know your sheep by name and lead us to safety through the valleys of death. Guide us by your voice that we may walk in certainty and security to the joyous feast prepared in your house, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

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[i] http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1960

Luke 24:13-35 - "Cut To The Heart" (4-6-08)

I gathered at the Medici Italian restaurant in Hyde Park on Friday for dinner with David, Jules and Gail. We were having a heart to heart talk that got right to the heart of things for us all and individually. We passed with revisions our oral exams for the doctorate in preaching program! One is from Minneapolis, one from Milwaukee and one from Cincinnati. We broke pizza bread and raised our glasses to toast the support of family, friends and churches that have helped us in this journey. Somewhere in the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the malt beverage, knowing that after graduation we will not see each other again, we saw Jesus appear… and then he was gone. Our hearts burned within us.

There were two men walking down the road with long faces. They had this long walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus that was about a seven mile walk or about a 2-3 hour journey. They were talking and walking when they met a stranger who asks what they were talking about. They stop. Are you the only one doesn’t know that the Cubs started out 1-3 this year? Well, they didn’t know why Jesus didn’t know what was going on in Jerusalem. They could not tell this stranger was Jesus either. Cleopas said that they were hoping that Jesus would liberate the people politically from the Romans and there is great disappointment. Some women say that he was raised but we don’t believe them. Jesus began to teach them in the journey that the messiah was suppose to be rejected in order to demonstrate the power of God in such a way that shows no one; no power could over throw God’s rule of love ever again. His death and resurrection would show a new powerful kingdom that breaks in now and is brought to completion then. Jesus taught them many things and then was about to walk on by when they invited him into their home for dinner. Stay with us! They gathered for a meal and then the bread is blessed and broken and Jesus appeared to them in communion and in this mystery of community. Their lives are full and they are inspired to run all the way back to Jerusalem to tell the others. The disciples in Jerusalem said that they too saw Jesus, he appeared to Peter. Were not our hearts burning inside!

This same Peter in Act 2:37 spoke to the crowd, “You knew him, you were there; you let him be killed.” Knowing Peter himself had also denied him. You and me; we did this and God wants us to turn back and receive grace. ^"Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Believe and call out to God for help and God will save you.

Now when it said that they were “cut” to the heart, it means to prick or stab or get to the point. It’s not like Steven’s sermon to the religious leaders later in Acts, where they felt like they got their heads cut off. Preaching for Lutherans is about “law and gospel”. Some of you have grown up in a faith tradition where it’s 95% law and 5% gospel. The sermon felt like you just got your head cut off. The law should always point you to the gospel not cut your head off. The law should convict you and not leave you with out arms that can respond with love and praise toward God and the neighbor.

This word may cut to the heart but it’s only a small pricking. The good news is not meant cut your head off with the bad news about who you are but a message that will cut to your heart because it will reveal how great God is to us in Christ. It’s not meant to be a mere flesh wound like the Monte Python movie that lops the arms off. The good news cuts to the heart and reminds you of God’s grace and mercy. That grace just shows up somehow in the breaking of the bread and the washing of one another’s feet.[i]

It showed up last night over chicken nuggets. Earlier in the day, I drove out of Chicago on Interstate 290. Just before I reached York Road, I could see Elmlawn Cemetery where my mom is buried. She had died last October and I had ordered the date on headstone and wanted to see if it was installed. When I found the headstone and the date, it made me remember that when she died last fall, I wasn’t sure if I would finish the paper for my Doctorate in Ministry Preaching program that I had to finish, but I knew she’d want me to graduate. As I walked away from the headstone, I said a little prayer. “Lord, I just need a little sign before I graduate.” After I got home, I played with the kids all afternoon, getting their bikes out and then feeding them dinner. With Tammy out at the women’s retreat, I fed them whatever they wanted and watched Ratatoullie dinner the meal. As we watched the movie and ate chicken nuggets and corndogs, we saw Chef Gusto and little Chef the rat. Chef Gusto is a figment of the rat’s imagination or some type of angel encouraging him. Nathan said to me, without me ever saying anything about the cemetery, “Dad, when you die, you’ll get to see Granny again.”

The word of God appeared and then it was gone. Indeed, Christ shows up as we break bread together, eat chicken nuggets or corndogs and then he’s gone. The presence of Christ is all around us in these ordinary ways, Praise God!

Let us pray; Gracious God, Christ makes himself known to all his disciples in the breaking of bread. Open the eyes of our faith, that we may see Christ present in, with and under all these ordinary times and things, in Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

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[i] Women’s Retreat took place Friday-Saturday prior to sermon and their topic was “The Footprints of Christ”