Sermon For Sunday, March 5, 2017 – “Wilderness Vulnerability”

First Sunday in Lent
March 5, 2017
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

Click here to read scripture passages for the day.

Beloved of God, grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus.

When you think about the wilderness, what images come to mind for you? Do you picture trips to the Boundary Waters, backpacking in the mountains, African safaris? Do you see the wilderness as an inviting place, away from all the noise of our daily lives?

Or does the wilderness seem overwhelming and intimidating, a place where life is challenging? After all, there’s always the threat of dangerous weather, dangerous animals and even dangerous bugs. And, there’s always the chance of getting lost.

The Jewish people in Jesus’ day saw the wilderness as a terrifying place. Of course, they didn’t have bug spray, good footwear and Gore-Tex jackets to protect them. But more importantly, their ancient stories of times in the wilderness were stories of struggle and hardship – including forty years wandering in the desert after they left slavery in Egypt.

So when Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us about Jesus’ time in the wilderness, they aren’t saying Jesus had a peaceful, “let’s get away from it all and enjoy the wide-open spaces” moment. They’re saying he spent forty days in a dry, barren, foreboding space. Jesus endured the kind of wilderness experience that is more imposed than chosen, a kind we often do our best to avoid.

Yet all of us, personally and collectively, experience these types of wilderness times within our souls – times when we feel vulnerable, exposed, raw, at the mercy of forces beyond our control.

In our personal lives, many triggers can bring about a wilderness time – aging, transitions, loss, health issues, betrayals, to name just a few.

There are wilderness times in our collective lives as well. It seems we’re in one now as we watch the brutal war in Syria rage on for years and feel powerless to help, as the world refugee crisis grows, as our climate becomes increasingly volatile, as the divisions in our nation deepen.

In times like these, it is tempting to do try to avoid the vulnerability of the wilderness experience. We’re tempted, as Jesus was. Perhaps the temptations come from an actual Satan, a tempter. More likely they come from within us, but that’s beside the point. When Jesus was vulnerable and famished in the wilder- ness, he was tempted to choose a quick fix – to just turn stones into bread.

We have all sorts of opportunities for instant gratification. In our vulnerable, wilderness times they can seem even more appealing: buy something, eat something, get away on vacation, try these five simple steps and you’ll feel better. Sign an online petition or post something on Facebook and you’ll change the world.

Our culture trains us to want to seek immediate solutions but that is rarely the most helpful response.

We’re discovering this in the White Privilege conversations that are happening in Decorah right now.

They make us feel vulnerable and uncomfortable and we want to do something to make this all better.

Yet a quick fix would let us skip over the internal work we need to do in the wilderness of our own psyches. Sometimes we need to be uncomfortable and unclear, so that there is more space within us for God to bring change, so that our hunger for God’s guidance can grow.

In the wilderness Jesus rejected the quick fix and instead relied upon God’s word. As he did, his com- mitment to God’s ways and his trust in God deepened. The same thing can happen for us in wilderness times.

Except, notice that even as Jesus trusted God, he also didn’t just take a blind leap of faith. Satan tempted Jesus to just throw himself off a high pinnacle and trust God to catch him. Jesus discerned that this was a test and remembered that scripture says, “don’t put God to the test.”

We often get the impression that trusting God means turning off our brains, abdicating personal respons- ibility and putting everything into God’s hands – a leap of faith. But God gave us agency and intellect and God expects us to use them. Especially in wilderness times, personally and collectively, it isn’t helpful to say, “just leave it to God.”

We put God to the test if we simply pray for healing, peace, and justice and then fall back and expect God to fix everything in our lives and our world. I think we’ll be in the wilderness a lot longer if we do that.

We’re called to look to God’s word, discern God’s guidance, pray and act.

Authors Shane Claiborne and Jonathon Wilson-Hartgrove wrote a book called Becoming the Answer to our Prayers. They say, “Prayer is not so much about convincing God to do what we want God to do as it is about convincing ourselves to do what God wants us to do.” Wilderness times can help us to become the answer to our prayers. They can give us space to listen for what God wants us to do and they can reveal how lost we get when we don’t follow in God’s ways.

We especially get lost if we seek to use power and control rather than follow God’s way of love. This is a major temptation when we feel vulnerable. We want to go on the attack, stop our opponents, win argu- ments, prove others wrong – we want to put ourselves above others. Jesus also faced the temptation when he was in the wilderness. Satan showed him all the kingdoms of the world and promised Jesus could rule over them all if only he made a deal with the devil. Instead of claiming power, Jesus remained faithful to God’s ways of self-giving love. In him we see that change doesn’t come through power over others; it comes through being vulnerable and practicing love for ourselves and others.

When we find ourselves in wilderness times, it is so tempting to try to protect ourselves and avoid feel- ings of vulnerability and uncertainty. Yet the wilderness times can teach us to trust, to discern, and to live God’s ways of love. Wilderness times can be a powerful gift and during the season of Lent, the church intentionally enters the wilderness together. We practice hungering for God’s justice, we increase our times of prayer and we recommit to following Jesus in acts of mercy and love.

Let us join in a time of silent prayer now. Today our time of prayer will continue into the introduction to the Hymn of the Day. That hymn has changed to #319 O Lord, throughout These Forty Days; so I invite you to turn to that now and then join in prayer.

Let us pray.

Sermon For Ash Wednesday, March 1, 2017 – “Beautiful Dust”

Ash Wednesday 2017
March 1, 2017
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

Click here to read scripture passages for the day.

Beloved of God, grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus.

Tonight, we will be marked by ashes and told, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

Often around Ash Wednesday, I reflect on an experience I had with dust and ashes. I found new meaning in it again this year as I thought back.

I was at one of my favorite places in the world, my family cabin; but this time it wasn’t for vacation. This time I was frantically digging in the dirt for my father’s ashes before the cabin was sold.

Both my parents were cremated and we buried their ashes at their cabin. Some years after their deaths our whole extended family couldn’t afford to keep the cabin, so we had to put it up for sale.

My aunt went up there one weekend to dig up my parents’ ashes so we could move them to a new burial site. She found my mom’s ashes but couldn’t find my dad’s. I was troubled by the thought of leaving his ashes behind. So, when we went up there to pack up before the sale, I decided I needed to go search again.

It soon became obvious that this was no simple task.

• I realized the wooden box the ashes had been in had probably deteriorated.
• The rock we’d used for a burial marker had been moved in my aunt’s earlier searches and now there was just a huge hole.
• The ashes could be anywhere around or below that big hole – I had no idea where to begin.

But I was feeling desperate so I just attacked that dirt. Within minutes I was drenched with sweat, covered in dirt and surrounded by mosquitos; but I was determined not to rest until I found those ashes.

I dug for over an hour. All the sadness I felt about selling the cabin, all the anger and regret, all the grief about my parents’ deaths – all of that was being channeled into my frantic searching and I was getting nowhere.

When have you found yourself stuck, digging yourself into an ever bigger hole, unable to stop? When have you been consumed by anger and regret? When have you desperately tried to fix a situation through your own effort? All of that was going on for me there in the dust.

Slowly, I began to realize that my frantic activity, desperation and frustration were getting me nowhere.

Slowly, I realized I needed to pray, forgive my aunt and let go of all the anger and anxiety I was pouring into the search. So, I prayed, I took some deep breaths, I let go.

As I prayed, I began to experience deep peace. I realized I could search a little longer without all the angst.

And then, amazingly, within a few moments I found the ashes.

But I believe that whether I’d found the ashes or not, God gave me what I needed there in the dust. As I look back, I see that God met me there and changed me.

God in Jesus has entered into all the dust, the dirt, the struggle and sorrow of our lives and now meets us there, meets us here. Jesus meets us in the dust and reminds us who we are.

We are dust, we are utterly dependent upon God. Left to our own devices we will find ourselves stuck in sin and shame. All our striving, all our frantic activity will only lead us into deeper holes.

We are dust, and…God makes beautiful things out of dust.

In the beginning, God formed us all from dust of the earth and breathed into us the breath of life.

Still now, God continually gives us breath. In each moment, a breath is given without us having to earn it or do anything, without us even having to remember to breathe. And when we take our last breath, God gathers us up and raises us to new life eternally. God makes beautiful things out of dust. God also breathes the Holy Spirit into us, a new and right Spirit, as we prayed in Psalm 51 today. The word for spirit in Greek and Hebrew is the same as the word for breath. God’s spirit is as close to us as our breath and available to us in every moment.

Often, instead of breathing deeply of God’s Spirit, we inhale the toxic fumes of anger, anxiety, despair, pride, shame. We get filled up with things that leave us depleted and gasping for air.

God seeks always to cleanse us from all of this and to breathe into us the Holy Spirit. God does this for us personally and as a community all the time, but Lent allows us to intentionally seek that cleansing and renewing through practices of confession, fasting, prayer and giving.

The Lenten practices are not meant to get us more focused on ourselves, how we’re doing, how we look.

They’re intended to open us to the life-giving Spirit of God which is as close to us as our very breath.

They’re intended to draw us more fully into God’s work of breathing new life into the whole world – the work of loosening the bonds of injustice, letting the oppressed go free and breaking every yoke.

In Lent, God works to renew us from the inside out and turns us toward the rest of this God-breathed, God-loved world. We are set free from a focus on self so that we might serve others – an insight Martin Luther lifted up from scripture that we will hear about throughout our Lenten journey.

In Lent, God works to make us who are dust a blessing to the world. Remember that you are dust. Remember, God makes beautiful things out of dust.

Let’s take a moment now to pray. Our prayer time will continue into the introduction to the Hymn of the Day.

Thanks be to God.

Transfiguration of Our Lord
February 26, 2017
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

Click here to read scripture passages for the day.

Beloved of God, grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus.

Peter’s time on the mountaintop with Jesus is a confusing, tumultuous time – not unlike the times we are living in now as a country. Of course, what happens to Peter, James and John on the mountain is a wondrous, unique experience. They see Jesus shining like the sun and talking with ancient heroes of the faith. Very few people have experienced anything that glorious. I don’t intend to draw parallels to that event but rather to the range of emotions and thoughts Peter must have had.

We are living in confusing, tumultuous times as a country. Some here are pleased by what’s happening, some dread it, yet all of us are living in a time of great disruption and change. So, the words spoken to Peter, James and John on the mountain are important for us today as well: Listen to Jesus, get up, do not be afraid.

Right before Peter heads up the mountain with Jesus, he confesses that Jesus is the “Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” He’s the first person to do this; Jesus praises and blesses him. But then Jesus starts talking about how the Messiah will suffer and die. This makes no sense to Peter so he rebukes Jesus. Jesus turns to him and says, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me.” Talk about a roller coaster of emotions. Peter totally nails it and then falls flat on his face.

Soon after this, Peter, James and John go up the mountain with Jesus and he is transfigured right in front of them. He is still himself but he is shining like the sun. Then the great heroes Moses and Elijah show up and start talking with Jesus.

Peter is not at all sure how to respond to all this. He overreacts by trying to build dwelling places for Jesus, Moses and Elijah, but also seems reluctant to act – he seems to want to just stay on the mountain with Jesus.

In the middle of Peter’s confusion, God interrupts to say, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples hear this, they fall to the ground and are overcome by fear. But then Jesus comes and touches them and says, “Get up and do not be afraid.”

So, all told, on the mountain the disciples hear three messages: Listen to him, get up, do not be afraid.

These are words we need to hear now as well.

First, “listen to him.” When things are in flux and unclear, we need to try to hear what God is saying to us personally and as a community – God is still speaking and guiding us today. Of course, it is no small task to discern what God is saying; but the guidance God gives the disciples on the mountain is still true for us today. To understand God, we need to look to Jesus and listen to him. We need to pay attention to what Jesus says and does and to those he notices and helps. As a community, we will see and hear different things as we do this, we will disagree; but if we stay in conversation with each other we will get a fuller sense of what God wants to say to us through Jesus.

The second thing the disciples hear on the mountain is “get up.” Except it’s not just “get up,” like get off the ground. The Greek verb here is the one used to describe Jesus being raised from the dead. So, what Jesus actually says to the disciples on the mountain is “be raised up;” or even, “be resurrected.” When the disciples are overcome by the fear of God’s voice and by all the tumult they’re facing, Jesus touches them and resurrects them. He raises them into new life, into participation in God’s abundant life.

Jesus does the same thing for us when we meet him in his word, in worship, in one another, in those the world sees as the least and the last, and in holy communion as we meet him in his body and blood. He touches us and resurrects us and calls us beloved. He raises us up to share in God’s abundant life and to live out God’s love for all the world.

Finally, the disciples hear, “do not be afraid.” This is the most consistent message in scripture, it’s what the disciples needed to hear on the mountain and what we need to hear now more than ever.

We all have different reasons to be afraid – the threat of terrorism, potential deportation of friends, health benefits and medical concerns, changes facing state employees and Luther faculty and staff – to name just a few. To each of these different fears, the message of scripture is the same: God is with us and always at work to raise us up and bring new life; we need not fear.

This week at the Congregation Council retreat, our Vice President Megan Buckingham shared part of a Wendell Berry poem that encourages us to “practice resurrection.”

In times of tumult, we are called to practice resurrection by listening to Jesus, by being raised up and not being afraid. We are called to practice resurrection by praying a Psalm for Spring while surrounded by snow, remembering we have been touched by the palm of Jesus’ hand and raised to new life, and by praying Send Me, Jesus and then following where he leads.

Let’s take a moment for prayer now.