Mark 1:9-14 - "The Lamb and the Beasts"

I had the chance to go and see the movie Red Tails on Friday evening. The movie screening included members of the Chicago Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, the African American Air force unit the movie was inspired by. The event was sponsored by the Veterans Memorial Hall for Black History Month. After the movie, I had the chance to meet two the veterans, Tuskegee Airmen Virgil Pool and Julius Jackson. When I shook their hands, I say what I say to every veteran which is “thank you for your service”; which Jackson said oh you don’t have to do that. Then I said to them both “thank you for your endurance”.

They have gone through the American wilderness of human inequality, with some experiencing that wilderness more like a desert than others, where there are more beasts than angels. We stand on this side of civil rights and we give God praise for the movement toward a world of human dignity and peace, knowing that we stand on this side of the desert. God has provided a way through the wilderness of American civil injustice.

In today’s reading from Mark, chapter 1, we see that the wilderness is surrounded by a baptism and the first preaching of good news. The journey begins with identity and baptism. Still wet from his baptism, Jesus hears, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” The commissioning means a conflict[1] for Jesus. Identity is so important when facing struggles. This identity doesn’t mean there will not be challenges! There are beasts out to devour Jesus in the wilderness!

The one who has declared who Jesus will now test him! Jesus will go beyond the comfort of warm water and be moved through the green grass lands of the river Jordan into the desert. He will move out toward the dark night of the soul. When Jesus entered the 40days, he didn’t know how long it would last! It will be the right amount of time. The reality is we don’t know how long the desert will be. We recall Moses didn’t know he was going to be 40 days on the mountain. Noah didn’t know the rain would last 40 days upon the Ark. How many animals did Moses bring on the ark? None! Noah did and Moses didn’t. Elijah didn’t plan to run and hide 40 days in his struggles. So we too enter the wilderness seasons and wonder how long will this dreadful period when we feel paralyzed by grief, fear or doubt! Perhaps because we know it will be 40 days, we may run away and hide and avoid such a wilderness!

So it is the Holy Spirit that in mark throws Jesus into the desert. We don’t want to enter the wilderness of testing and we don’t go willingly into struggles. Why? Because we know we will fail on our own as we are tempted to do it on our own. But this temptation is not toward a particular activity of sin! We are tempted not by what we cannot do but what we can do with the power of the Holy Spirit. The heart of the deception is an offer not to fall but to rise. We avoid the wilderness because we don’t want to recognize our complete dependence upon God! The tempter in the garden did not ask, "Do you wish to be as the devil?" but "Do you wish to be as God?" No self-respecting Satan would approach a person with offers of personal, social and professional ruin! We are tempted to think we are doing this on your own. Why then can’t they just pull themselves up by their bootstraps? They don’t have any boots? We believe that a rising tide will raise all boats unless you don’t have boat in the first place; then you die.

The thing we know about the wilderness is that Jesus encountered the wild beasts. There are two possibilities: Jesus encounters the wild beasts and masters them; gives them a noogy. Or we reflects upon Isaiah 11:6-9 – “The lion & the lamb shall lie down together” and we see that Jesus is with the wild beasts, and they do not harm him. It’s not because he puts them in a head lock but because both can exist together. Jesus is with the wild beasts because this is the beginning of the time that is fulfilled. The reign of God has come near. Something new, entirely new, has dawned.

It is in this place of the wilderness that we wrestle with the wild beasts that lie within each one of us; that dwells within our very culture and country. We see that all the beasts that we have wrestled with are still with us; taunting us to try and master them again. We can’t master them without the presence of the holy with us. Then we know because we are the beloved children of God, we can let them lay there with gentle lamb and experience God’s reign living within us; in our homes; community and world. The reign of God is ushered in when we know we can be together with the beasts all around us.

It is then that we see that God will send angels to serve us; to “Diakonia” us and provide for us all that we need. God provides for us in our testing by sending us messengers who are like angels who will serve us and care for us. In the midst of battles with the beasts of the world, we are promised that others will surround us and serve and care for us.

The greatest temptation is to run from the calling we have to celebrate that we are a mosaic community, sharing the grace of Christ with all. We shall night run away from that calling, with all the wild beasts that are within us. We know that at the end of Lent the desert of lonely abandonment will culminate in Jesus' cry on the cross and it is then that the reign of God will be ushered in, where creation and humanity will live in peace; where men and women of all races and creeds will live in harmony. Something new has begun and Jesus is announcing it as good news. The time is right! We are invited to repent and turn around this very day and see God is here. The time is here…

Let us pray:

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[1] Interpretation: Mark, Lamar Williamson, Jr. (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1983), pg 36-40

Luke 3:1-6 - "Prepared to Turn Around & Upside Down (12-6-09)

I chose to read the Gospel lesson from the back of the worship space today to get you turned around. With all the preparation for Christmas, it is so easy to lose focus on the real purpose of the season. With all the preparation and decorating, we can easily get turned around. John the Baptist was preparing the way for Christ. When John began his ministry, he arrived in a specific historical context that the word of the Lord came to John the Baptist. The mention of the emperor and leaders frames this preparation.

It was in our own historical context, that we remember in the year when George W. H. Bush was president, James Edgar was governor of Illinois, the Great Chicago Flood took place; Tiger Woods became the youngest PGA player at age 16; the American With Disabilities Act went into effect; and on this day Jerry Rice caught his at the time NFL record 101st touchdown.[1] It was in that context that word of the Lord came to the ELCA, to presiding Bishop Chilstrom, to the Mission Director Gary Wollersheim and to Pastor Dennis Heaney. The word of the Lord came to Pastor Heaney in the wilderness of this growing community to start a new church in Lake in the Hills and south Crystal Lake. It was on this day that they word of the Lord was first preached in 1992 at Living Waters at Crystal Lake South High School. We held our first worship service this day! The word of the Lord came to Pastor Heaney, to Pastor Wayne Stoutenburg, to me to come here in 1992 and will come to the Interim Pastor this week and to your new pastor in the year to come. Every year, we’ve had the opportunity to prepare again and again for the word of the Lord. Pastors, leaders and rulers will come and go but the word of the Lord will continue to be spoken in the wilderness of our lives.

The word of God came to John the Baptist in the wilderness! The wilderness is the place where the faith was formed for the people of God. After 40 years of preparation in the wilderness, they were ready to enter a promised land, not a perfect land, but a hoped for land. The word came to John the Baptist, the voice of God spoke to him and he listened. He repented and turned around and then warned others to prepare the way. John the Baptist proclaimed a Baptism of Repentance – turn around! Advent use to be the color of purple, the color of repentance.

What is the first thing you will do with the arrival of Christ in your preparation? Repent! The preparation calls us to turn around and hear the call of God to remember the real meaning and purpose of Christmas! I took my kids yesterday to see the movie “A Christmas Carol”. There were moments in those dreams of ghosts that reminded him and warned him to be set upon a path that leads to cold and hardness of heart.

We repent by turning away from the things that distract us in our daily lives, falling to our knees and asking God for mercy. We stand up and turn around in a new direction. Repentance sometimes means we get turned upside down! Our world view changes. Repentance acknowledges that we are lost in the forest and we are looking again for the path.

The word of God that is our salvation is near to us as we repent. When we are turned around and our world is turned upside down, God’s word speaks to us. This past week, I went out to look at the garage. As I looked at the incomplete garage, I thought about all the unfulfilled dreams and hopes for ministry that I will be surrendering. Some type of confession started falling out of me as I recall all that I have done and left undone. I then decided to go and walk the faith walk in the woods that Jordan Marshall started. It’s almost through to the back and as I walked out of the back part of the woods, I walked through the small pine trees that are growing a little taller. In the cold wilderness of an early December morning when I feel my world being turned around and upside down, I heard the word of God speaking to me again to turn around and see the salvation of the Lord is near.

One day St. Francis heard the coming of a great army against the city in which he resided. In the face of the anxiety which would naturally attend to such a rumor, St. Francis thought to himself how great this city was, how high its walls were, how strong the parapets. Then the voice of God spoke to him, “Francis”, it said, Go out of the city gates.” And Francis obeyed. Once outside the walls, the voice bade him, “Francis, turn around and look at the city.” Once again, Francis did as his inner voice told him. And once again he thought of how secure that city was with its great walls. Then the voice of God said, “Francis, stand on your head.” “What Lord, you want me to stand on my head?” he asked. “Francis stand on your head.” And once again Francis did as he was told. And as he stood on his head, he saw that great city outlined against the greater sky and the voice of God asked, “Francis, what would happen to the city if I did not keep it from falling into the sky?” Then Francis understood. Only by looking at the city upside down could he truly understood where his security rested.”

Let us pray: Gracious God, we come before you to be turned around and to that our salvation is near. Guide us today to hear your word speak to us in this wilderness; we pray in Jesus name, Amen.

[1] http://www.historyorb.com/events/date/1992

Luke 21:25-36 - "Leaning Into The Future (11-29-09)

Today’s lesson addresses the second coming of Christ. We believe that Christ has come; the Christ is here and that Christ will come again. This is a very apocalyptic passage that is one of prophesy and not prediction. Today, people question if we are living in the end times. We believe there is no rapture, where Jesus will come again a second, then seven more years and then he will come again a third time! People may think this apocalyptic passage reveals a secret clue and we must unravel it to find out when! Some may feel anxious about the end times. Revelation references in the Bible are not prediction.
The gospel lesson is a small apocalyptic future. Apo=off. Calyse = cover. Off with the cover. Off with cover and you look into the contents of the pan. Off with the cover and you see the contents of the future. It doesn't at first seem to instill us with any sense of hope at all. In fact, after reading this passage, we can be overwhelmed with a sense of hopelessness. We hear of these mysterious signs in the sun, moon and stars. There are images of people fainting. Heaven and earth pass away, there is talk of a trap, and our hope for escape, and by the end of the reading, it seems the walls are closing in on us. And yet, in the midst of the chaos, there are some words of hope in the midst of the confusion. When will it happen? We don’t know. Matthew, Mark, Luke and Paul all thought they were living in the last days but they were wrong. Only Jesus was right. He said in Matthew that “You do not know the hour or the day!” Stop trying to predict!
When that day comes, Jesus says to us, "When these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near . . . when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near." We are called to stand up, raise our heads and lean into the future.
When my children want to whisper something to me, and I can’t quite hear, what is the body’s response? I tend to lean into where the voice is coming from. So listen in and be prepared to stand up, raise your heads and lean into the future.
We are living in a new season in the life of the church. On this the first Sunday of Advent, you are leaning into the future of Living Waters and I am leaning into the future at Zion Lutheran in Rockford where I will start in the New Year. Martin Luther King, Jr said, “I don’t know what the future holds but I know who holds the future.” We have different futures in parish ministry as I prepare to leave Living Waters, but we serve the same heavenly Father.
Yesterday, Robert and Linda Gallet were married here at Living Waters. It was my last wedding service. Bob and Linda are 67 and 72 years old. When they got said “unto death parts us” they know what that means and yet they were leaning into the future with the love and hope of Christ.
This fall, as I’ve been looking out my window here at the church, I couldn’t help but notice the road construction on Frank Road. The process and progress was slow going as they tore off the old surface, redid the sidewalks, put new blacktop down and the painted on the various stripes on the road. What stands out for me is the sign facing Miller Road and the church, “Road Work Ahead: Expect Delays”. I had wanted to take a picture of that sign. It was a reminder of the season of my life and now the season for Living Waters. But then one day, the sign was gone. The road has been prepared and now completed for those to travel to and from this place for worship.
When we gather at this table (stand behind altar) and we eat of this feast, we say that this is the “foretasted of the feast to come”. We sing the words: “This is the feast of victory for our God… for the lamb who was slain has begun to reign!” This is the foretaste of the feast to come. When you come forward, I want you to lean into the words, “given and shed for you”. Trust in these promises as we all lean into and upon the promises of God.
Let us pray: Gracious God, we gather to lean upon your words and your promises. We gather to get just a foretaste of that feast to come. Grant us courage to lean upon you, in Jesus name, Amen.