Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
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.

This Gospel reading and the reading from Romans today have me thinking about the wonderful serenity prayer that is used by the recovery community:

“God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.”

I love this prayer. I think we should all probably be praying it at least once a day right now. There’s so much we can’t change in this life, so much we can’t change about this difficult time. Yet it’s such a human tendency to want to be in control of situations, to try to fix everything, to seek to avoid suffering at all cost.

I think that’s what’s going on for Peter in our Gospel reading today. When Jesus says he’s going to suffer and die, Peter freaks out saying, “God forbid, this must not happen, this cannot be.” Peter just can’t accept that Jesus’ radical way of love is going to get him killed. Peter rages against the thought of it. Peter sounds a lot like us when we hear the news these days and throw up our hands

in disgust and exasperation, saying, “Enough already, this has to stop, this can’t be.”

The thing is: Raging against derechos, hurricanes, rising case counts, being stuck at home, and all those difficult people doesn’t really help. I know this well from lived experience. It doesn’t help to resist things that just can’t be changed, to strive to be in control of circumstances that are beyond our power, to try to force life to feel normal, or to grasp for what we’re sure we must have in order to feel OK. These are all very human tendencies, very human ways to try to save and secure our own lives in the face of suffering. Yet, Jesus says when we try to save our lives, we lose them. We get stuck trying to protect and defend ourselves, attempting to take charge, striving after the unattainable. We find we lose out on actually living the full, abundant life that God intends for us to have.

Jesus calls us to lose our lives. The Greek word he uses here also means let go. Jesus calls us to let go of trying to secure our lives, to let go of grasping and clinging, trying to be in control and seeking to avoid suffering. Let go, Jesus says, and you will find life.

During the Good Shepherd Bible study on Thursday we heard so many examples of how this has been happening during the pandemic. One woman was so frustrated that she couldn’t travel to an important conference and do a key internship. Yet when she let go of expecting things to be different, she found she had so much more time and energy to accomplish other crucial tasks. One couple’s daughter has been in some form of lockdown during most of the pandemic as part of her overseas job. The daughter is practicing acceptance of what she can’t change and is thriving even in lockdown. This happens in big ways and small. One man shared that he and his wife give away huge numbers of tomatoes each year. He used to get so frustrated that people weren’t using them, that they were going to waste. He’s now practicing letting go of this thing he cannot change and is finding that giving the gift of tomatoes is much more life-giving for him.

Those who let go of their lives will find them.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, to let go of my tight grip on what I think I need and deserve, what I think should happen. And God, grant me the courage to change the things I can. There is so much beyond our control, but we do have agency in how we chose to respond to the challenging things in our world.

Our passage from Romans offers guidance about a courageous way of living that does bring change in this world. Reg read this passage for us earlier. Let’s hear it again as it’s such a powerful message for us today:

“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰ love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. ¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. ¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰ No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

We can choose how we respond to challenging circumstances and difficult people. We can work for policies that contribute to racial equity in our schools, police forces and communities. We can change racist ideas and practices within ourselves and our institutions. We can work to address the climate change that is making hurricanes, inland storms and wildfires more severe. We can advocate for policies that are in line with God’s care for immigrants and others who are poor and marginalized.

Of course, none of this is easy to do. And what we want to do, we often do not do. The Apostle Paul writes about this in another part of the book of Romans. Thankfully, we don’t have to do these things on our own. Our Gospel reading for today makes it clear that we shouldn’t try to do these things through our own striving or effort. Rather, we can do them most fully through following Jesus. Following Jesus means surrendering to God through prayer and worship, letting go of our need to be in control, and trusting Jesus who is humble and who gives fully of himself. Following Jesus is the way we can experience full, abundant, courageous lives – lives that bring helpful change and healing to this world.

Jesus let go of his life in order to be fully present with us, with you, in all the suffering of this life. Jesus surrendered control so that God’s abundant life might prevail in and through him for you, for us, for this whole hurting world. Following Jesus is how we can live the serenity prayer. It’s how we can experience the life that really is life.

“God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer.

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
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.

This week, a phrase on a morning news show caught my attention. Every morning I listen to a short podcast produced by National Public Radio called “Up First.”  Each show is just about 12 minutes long and includes three top news stories from that morning’s headlines. Every day the hosts of the show say something like, “We’ve got the news you need to start your day.” That phrase caught my attention this week. Is this really the news I need to start my day? Do I need to enter the   morning hearing that yet another school moved online due to COVID outbreaks? Do I need to be reminded of record unemployment before I’ve even had coffee? Is it essential that I learn about protests in Belarus first thing? I want to be informed. I want to be a good global citizen, but is this the news I need as the day begins?

As we head into school or work in the midst of a pandemic; as we face another long day stuck at home; as we worry about loved ones, our country and our world; what news do we really need to start the day well? What message will help us begin again with a sense of hope and courage? The church is entrusted with sharing good news that we all need each day – good news that in Christ Jesus, God is active in our world bringing life, freedom, justice, well-being.

In our reading from Matthew today, Jesus talks about the church for the first time and gives us the authority to share that good news. Jesus says he will give the church the keys to the kingdom of heaven. That can sound like Jesus is saying the church will determine who gets into the pearly gates of a glorious afterlife. Sometimes it has been understood that way.

Yet, when Jesus talks about heaven, he isn’t talking about a place we’ll go after we die. He’s talking about the life that God intends for us to know on earth – a life of justice, mercy and peace ordered by God. Heaven is God’s realm, God’s kingdom coming on earth. Jesus is giving us the keys to that. Which is to say, Jesus is entrusting us with helping people to enter into God’s presence – helping people to experience God’s love and mercy.

We do this by bearing witness to the good news that God is at work, that God is with us, that God does not abandon us, that God forgives us. Sometimes we bear witness to this with words, some- times with actions; but the church’s role is to help people know and experience the good news of God’s active presence in the world.

Jesus also gives us the task of binding and loosing. Binding can look like wrapping people close in the promises of God that hold us together, assuring people that we belong to God. Loosing can look like setting people free of fear, anxiety, guilt and shame. The church shares this good news with you and all people: You belong to God; God loves you and sets you free; you need not fear; you can give of yourself in love.

This is news we need to start the day.

And oh, the world is hungry for good news these days. For an eight-week period at the beginning of the pandemic, actor John Krasinski had a great show on YouTube called Some Good News. He made it his mission to share uplifting stories: A taxi driver in Italy who donated hours of his time driving COVID patients to the hospital; a man who sang to his wife every day outside the window of her nursing home room; a car parade for a teenage cancer survivor after she finished chemo; and so many other heartwarming stories. Krasinski also created good news. He did an online wedding, offered a fun prom experience for high schoolers, and hosted a virtual graduation in which seniors got to talk with their heroes. One of the graduates offered a poem that brought me hope for weeks. The show was a huge hit – almost three-million people subscribed to the YouTube channel. I loved the show, every episode brought me to tears. When it ended after just eight episodes as lockdowns and stay at home orders were ending, I was devastated. Surely, we still needed good news – as the spring of 2020 turned to summer, we needed it more than ever. Yet, maybe the weight of all the bad news in the world was just too great. The small anecdotes about some people’s acts of kindness were just not enough in the face of all the challenges in front of us.

This is why we need the church. The work of the church is to share good news in every season, in every time, day in and day out. The work of the church is to interpret small acts of kindness as glimpses of how God intends all of life to be when God’s kingdom comes on earth – as signs that God is at work through all of humanity to bring healing and hope. The work of the church is to set people free from despair, guilt and fear so that we can give of ourselves in these acts of kindness and service.

Jesus has given us this task. He’s also given us a promise – a promise that the church is built upon a rock and that nothing will prevail upon it, not even Hades, the place of death and desolation. At times it feels like the gates to that place are wide open, assaulting our world. Yet, Jesus promises that the church will prevail – even when buildings are closed, even when things look different. The message of the church will get through and will set people free.

Christ has promised to be present and at work in and through the church always.

Through the church, Christ speaks good news to you today.

You are set free to hope, to serve, to give of yourself in love.

You are set free to show good news to the world.