Philippians 3:4-14 - "Pressure Is Off" (10-5-08)

For those Cub fans today, the pressure is off. They don’t have to worry about not winning a World Series for one hundred years anymore. Of course the Sox fans have the pressure of winning this afternoon or go home. But for today, we look back and realize that the pressure is off of us to try to make up for our past or relish in our past accomplishments.

Today, we celebrate that there is a great harvest in the vineyard of our faith. This vineyard in today’s gospel lesson is different than from Isaiah, chapter five, where the entire vineyard is growing wild grapes. Now, the grapes are abundant and the harvest is plentiful. A new community is being formed and new leadership has been called upon to serve in this vineyard as stewards of the vineyard and not as owners.

The vineyard was planted, a wall was placed around it and a watchtower built. The tenants shifted from being the tenants or stewards to wanting to be the owners. Once these stewards thought they owned it all, they controlled the vineyard and the faith traditions. Yet today we read how the vineyard is growing great but the stewards only are going to be kicked out. A great judgment was upon their heads for not managing these gifts and for killing the messenger. There was great pressure for those tending to the vineyard that led them to think that they now owned what belongs to only God.[1]

Well we’ve had our own challenges and pressures lately: illness, falls, unemployment, cancer, grief and pain. We gather today because we know pressure. On Tuesday, it will be the one year memorial after my mom passed away October 7, 2007. There are many of life’s pressures all around us. There is also the pressure of past failures and their impact on current relationships. There is the pressure of past success that someone impacts the expectations of our lifestyle today and into the future. Sometimes the pressures of our failures press upon us to try and make up for the past. Sometimes the pressures of our past success press upon us to do even more to earn favor and appreciation from family, friends or peers.

Yet today, we gather because the pressure is off of us and placed upon Christ. In the letter to the people living in the town of Philippi; Paul is encouraging them to press on toward the goals in life. He recounts his own credentials of being the most orthodox of Jewish leaders keeping the 600 plus laws to prove it. He even admits to persecuting and killing Christians before he had become one himself. He acknowledges his past success as a Jewish leader and his past failures as one who authorized the killing of Christian. Yet he counts all the past success or failures as rubbish. The word rubbish means to throw to the dogs, the way I would hand the lima beans to our dog growing up under the table. All of this other stuff is rubbish, even the Cubs. Paul understands his value is rooted not in position, past failures or success, but as loss. He views it as rubbish and not worth the far surpassing value of knowing Christ. Not only is it knowing Christ but being found in Christ and the power of the resurrection; which means knowing the sufferings and sharing in the sufferings.

Whatever our failures or accomplishments, we lay them aside that we may know Christ and that is only through the sufferings we experience and the sufferings we share with those around us. When we lay them aside we find rest and peace. We feel that pressure in our bodies all day long and when we lay down, our backs rest. I can tell this happens in the morning when I look in the rearview mirror. I actually have to adjust my mirror up in the morning because my back actually feels relieved of the pressures of the past day and I sit and stand up more.

So we forget what lies behind in the rearview mirrors of our lives Because of God's grace and the forgiveness made possible through Jesus Christ, Paul then says that we are to, "forget what lies behind," and "... Press on toward the goal..." The word “press” is dioko and the word Diakonia comes from this word. Press on means to seek after, pursue and strive toward sharing the grace of Christ. Paul calls us to look ahead!

We are called to forget what lies behind. There is nothing you can do to earn forgiveness from the past mistakes. There is nothing you can do about the past failures to make God love you more. There is also nothing in the past that you have done well at that will help you earn God’s grace either. None of those things matter. When we look back on our lives we won’t be defined by the failures and success! Yes, we look back to learn from our mistakes and accomplishments. Be we are called to look forward because we trust whose we belong to!

We are called to press on toward the goal of knowing and sharing the grace of Christ in this world and then the next. The Christian life is about discipline and maturing through prayer, Bible study and generosity. The Christian life is about sharing the grace of Christ with those around us and dying to what we want them to do! The Christian life is future-directed: seeks forgiveness and peace with those around us that they may see this new life. The prize is being called up to God – heavenly realm that a glimpse is seen here and brought to completion then. We look at the past and hear God say, “Forget about it.” We press on.

Yesterday afternoon I went to the funeral of Pastor Robert Edlen. He was a pastor for sixty-two years and married for sixty-two years. He died September 23^rd at the age of 87 years old. I worked with Bob from 1994-1998 while I was the Associate Pastor and he was a visitation Pastor. He was so kind and gentle. He pressed upon me the compassionate presence of Christ in all that he did as a Pastor and friend.

We forget what we have accomplished or where we have failed. We cannot do anything about them! We press on to know Christ. We "forget what lies behind," and "Press on toward the goal." Let us pray,

Gracious God, we gather with so many pressures from the past to either succeed or make up for past failures. You call us to rest in the knowledge of Christ, for he took upon himself the pressures of us all when he died on the cross that we would be set free to press on toward the goal of knowing and sharing that grace. Grant us rest today as we forget what lies behind and press on. Press upon us your presence in, with and under all that we do, in Jesus name, Amen.

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[1] Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew, Interpretation Commentary, (1993), 248-251

Matthew 21:23-32 - "Powerful Word of God" (9-28-08)

It was only Monday of Holy Week when Jesus is greeted on by these religious leaders. There was a slow leak taking place in the power of the religious leaders. So they confronted this road hazard Jesus who threatened their power as God was doing something new in growing the vineyard bigger than they could imagine.

Jesus was teaching in the temple without any seminary training. The kingdom vineyard was expanding beyond the traditional expectations. The religious leaders felt deflated with this frontal attack by Jesus on the practices and rituals of a faith rooted not in the promises of God’s word but in the practices. Was Jesus from heaven or from man? The week had only just begun.

Who do you think you are? By what authority do you preach? We should be cautious if someone were to just come up front in the middle of the worship service and start preaching. We would think that is rather odd if someone would boldly claim to have a word from God.

Yet the vineyard of faith was growing and they didn’t know how this could happen? They are driven to drive Jesus off the cliff; knock him off the road because Jesus calls into question the very authority by which they have based their entire system of beliefs. God was acting and they were going to focus only on that past experience with God; doubting that God will act again.

So they ask Jesus where he got his authority. Jesus then asked them about John the Baptist – was he from God or from man. For John the Baptist, repentance was free; John’s message was heard and accepted by two groups whom the temple authorities and the people believed to be outcasts: tax collectors and the harlots. They were left speechless; deflated; and without a spare. They don’t want to answer and Jesus said he will not answer them. Yet this is not a judgment against Israel but against religious leaders. They were a small percentage of the Jews living in the entire middle east and Mediterranean basin.

I had doubts about today when Tammy left to teach a class at McHenry Community College this morning. She informed me that the van had a flat. I figured if I could just take care of it by 1pm and finish to get back to church by 2pm to prepare for our once a month Saturday night worship service, I’d be fine in my preparation. So after breakfast and three different games this morning with the kids, I sought to change the tire and have it fixed. It was flat. The spare took me an hour to get out from underneath the car because the cable and the piece that held it up wasn’t releasing. I laid there and said, “Dear God help.” The first thought was to call my father in law. He would help. But I then studied it more and could tell the piece of metal seemed rusted ant not releasing. So I moved my face from the path where the tired would descend and started pulling on a screwdriver I had wedge in there. Finally it did release and it was replaced. By then it was 12:30pm. I took it to NTB with Nathan where we walked to Chili’s to use up Nathan’s gift certificate for lunch. I returned one hour later. I arrived home by 3:15pm – five hours for a flat tire change and repair. I needed to repent and turn around, even though I did the will of my wife.

So there were two sons called by the father to work in the vineyard. God is calling us to work in the vineyards. One said yes and didn’t - law givers perhaps kept the letter but not the spirit of law. One said no and then did: Tax collectors and prostitutes were the sinful Jewish folks. Yet they were seeing that God was doing something new. Religious leaders are challenged to give up the security which their job as leaders supplied. We are called to look afresh at how this vineyard is called to grow. Our vested interests are called to grow the kingdom. Authority and power are re-defined in terms of the new tradition Jesus would demonstrate

We are called today even when we say NO to God. We believe that it is the Holy Spirit that inspires us to say YES. When we stray – God calls us back through the word! When we stray – the word is powerful gift of Grace. When we stray – the power of God’s word reminds us that we are week and deflated. Paul said, the power of God is made perfect in weakness. When we admit we don’t have any strength to work in the vineyard yet again this next week, God provides. We stake our claim to a unique mission, a mission that relinquishes power in order the share the grace of Christ to those around us. That means we must relinquish power over others and over what God is doing in the world. Christ relinquished power in bringing himself to the world. It was only Monday and we know how it ended on Good Friday. But we are here on Easter again. To believe the word is living and powerful, we must still believe that God is not finished with us.

Matthew 20:1-16 - Balancing the Book (9-21-08)

I never could balance my checkbook down to the penny. Like many of you I usually balance it down to close to a penny so that I wouldn’t bounce a check. Well maybe a bounce a couple. However, once Microsoft money software was available, I balanced the checkbook down to the penny. I keep track on line of our debit card expenses and keep every penny accounted for on a monthly basis. There isn’t a month that goes by that I know what the balance is in the account. I know the upcoming expenses that chart them for me in the software and pay them on time without delay. It’s important to be responsible in balancing income to expenses.

This image of balancing the books comes from the image of the ledger that listed income in the front and the expenses in the back. If things weren’t balanced, that wasn’t good. It seems as if our government is trying to balance the books of the economy of whatever it takes to make a quick buck.

While everyone else this week is balancing the books of the economy, we are called to balance the book of faith as we focus again on the book of faith initiative of the ELCA. We are called to open the Bible and join the conversation. So how is their balance in this book? Well we look at how we understand the Bible today. First of all, Jesus is the living word of God as revealed in scriptures. Secondly, and the focus today, we Lutheran-Christian view the Bible as law and Gospel. Law and Gospel; but it is not a balancing act between one and the other.

So I ask you to open your Bibles under the chairs to the table of contents. You see that there is the Old Testament and the New Testament. Many times people believe the Old Testament is the Law and the New Testament is the Gospel. God is mean in the Old Testament and God is finally nice in the New Testament. Yet the Bible is unified in expressing law and gospel everywhere. When you read Genesis 1 and it says that God created everything, you can get a deep sense of grace in the smelling of a flower like this one I hold in my hand. This is good news. But you could hear this as law if you hear it like this, “God made it all and you didn’t, you can’t take anything with you when you die.” That same passage can be heard as law as well. Yet take the 23^rd Psalm when you read “Even if you walk through the valley of the shadow of death I am with you.”

So when we talk about the law, it is a way that God says you shall do this for yourself. The law is created to deal with the sin in which we are born into and give order to the chaos of life. There are two uses of the law. It provides good order (civil) and convicts us of sin (like a mirror).

The Gospel is what God says God will do this for us since we can’t do it for ourselves. God has been trying to balance the books of our sin since creation. We sometimes think that we have to keep track of the good and the bad we’ve done so we are rewarded appropriately. Many see the law in the scales of good and bad that have to be balanced more toward the good or you will not make it to heaven. You see there has been an accounting problem in our relationship with God. God is inviting us to see the imbalance in our accounting and receive grace.

Martin Luther said, “These, then, are the two works of God, praised many times in Scripture; God kills and gives life; God wounds and heals; God destroys and helps; God condemns and saves; God humbles and elevates; God disgraces and honors.” [1]

So we find ourselves tipped toward grace today. Jesus tells a story about grace in the story of the Vineyard Owner Seeking Workers. The workday is from sunrise to sunset. The harvest was ready and in prime condition for harvesting. The investments made all season are ripe for picking. So the owner of the vineyard started going out and finding workers in the marketplace where people who had no farms would seek day labor. It was the monster.com place or more like the walmart or home depot where migrant workers seek work.

When the day was over, they were all paid the agreed upon amount. They were then all paid what they all agreed upon, which was a denarii, a day’s wages. So the person who just started got one coin like this Eisenhower Dollar; the person who worked half a day and then the person who worked the whole day. Some people complained about how gracious God is to those who didn’t follow Jesus as long as others. Perhaps we don’t like it when others receive more recognition than we have been serving longer or invested longer.

Then Jesus said, “Are you envious because I am generous?” To paraphrase this statement, “is your eye evil because I am generous”. Then the vineyard owner said, “Take what belong to you and go” – this is a statement of no relationship and bitterness. If you want to still justify yourself by the law, Jesus is bidding us good luck doing that on your own without grace. If you want to hold onto how unfair it is that God treats people with grace, then leave and work your way into heaven.

A Lutheran campus pastor was teaching a college course on the life and teachings of Jesus. As the date for the final exam approached, the class spent several hours reviewing the material. Some students requested extra individualized time with the pastor. Other students met in peer study groups, cramming for the test. One student, realizing she had to be gone the day of the exam, arranged for a make-up exam, only to be told that the make-up test would be much more difficult. The day of the exam arrived; students sleepily filed into the room, obviously tired from a night of little sleep and lots of study. The campus pastor walked in, looking very serious. “Before we begin, I would like to read a passage from the Gospel of Matthew.” The parable of the laborers in the vineyard was read. The pastor closed the Bible and said, “This reading says that it’s all a gift – it’s all grace. So you’ve all made an A on your exam, and you’re free to go.” The students sat, stunned, for a moment; and then something unexpected began to happen. A murmur arose from the class – a murmur of discontent. “You mean we studied all this time for nothing, and those who didn’t study or even show up today get an A too? You’ve got to be kidding! It’s just not fair!” [2]

“Life is not fair, which is why it seems all that much more important that God should be”.[3] But if grace were deserved, it wouldn't be grace. Grace deserved is called a reward. We gather to ask God to bring healing and peace to that kind of resentment.

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[1] Martin Luther, Volume 39, page 188

[2] Daily Discipleship Written by John and Robin McCullough-Bade Copyright © 2005

[3]Barbara B. Taylor, “Beginning at The End” - Prof. Thomas Long handout