Day of Pentecost
May 20, 2018
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.

I love the Day of Pentecost at Good Shepherd.

I love the beautiful red paraments and gates, the red gladiola altar flowers, the kids in procession with pin-wheels, the great music – especially amazing today with band, choir, and kids. Today we also get to celebrate graduates and Sunday School teachers and nurture a hopeful future with our special gifts. It’s a wonderful, joyful day as we celebrate God’s Spirit being poured out upon the church.

But when the Spirit was poured out on those first followers of Jesus, I’m guessing that joy may not have been their dominant emotion. “Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind … Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”

I’m guessing that this may have been troubling for them before it was joyful. Much of the artwork over the centuries depicting this scene shows the apostles with fear-filled faces. They’d lost control of the situation and of themselves. They were speaking in languages that they’d never spoken, never studied, perhaps never even heard. Did they even understand what they were saying as they proclaimed God’s deeds of power in languages not their own?

That must have been a profoundly unsettling experience. Yet, sometimes, we need to be unsettled for our own good, for the sake of others, and for the sake of the creation that is groaning and longing for hope and good news.

For the first followers of Jesus, the outpouring of the Spirit led them beyond the boundaries of their language, their city, their country, even beyond the boundaries of their religion to speak the good news of God’s deeds of power to all nations.

It led them beyond what had always been most precious to them – the thing that they were still asking Jesus about even as his ministry with them was complete and he was ascending into heaven. “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” they asked. They were holding out hope that Jesus would reign over an earthly kingdom and that they, as his followers, would have power and prosperity. They were stuck on this question and on the question about who was the greatest. Jesus tells them, again, that those are the wrong quest- ions. He assures them that their future and the future of the world is in God’s hands. He tells them that the Holy Spirit will be given to them, that they will receive power to be his witnesses.

What had always been most important to them – their nation and its unique status as God’s chosen people – was set aside by the power of the Spirit. It was replaced by a new vision – a world where all people, all nations, would know God’s passionate love for everyone through their witness.

The Spirit unsettled them.

The Spirit still does the same for us. We are so often stuck in asking the wrong questions, pursuing our limited vision of our preferred future, in ‘us and them’ thinking, and in unhelpful patterns personally and collectively – after every school shooting the same rituals happen. We grasp at control and security.

But how’s that working out for us and for our world? Not so well. We need the Spirit to unsettle us and push us beyond our boundaries, out of our comfort zones.

Thankfully, the Spirit still does this for us. The Spirit draws us into worship that is meant to both trouble and com- fort us. We come together with other people which always has the potential to be troubling. We hear weird script- ure passages that don’t always fit with our worldview. We share in strange rituals – undergoing the waters of death and rebirth, eating Jesus’ body and blood. This is all meant, in part, to unsettle us.

Then we are sent out into the world where the Spirit leads us to be part of God’s work of troubling and healing the world.

This happens in big ways and small: When we stay in a difficult conversation, when we let go of control and allow someone else to help us, when we stretch ourselves to advocate for others, when we seek to remain open to a disturbing idea or person.

In all these ways, and so many others, the Spirit is at work to unsettle us so that we and others may experience good news, know hope and joy, and be part of the healing of creation. Thankfully, the Spirit doesn’t only unsettle us. The second reading today assures us that that the Spirit also intercedes for us. The Spirit prays for us and with- in us with sighs too deep for words. Which means, when we look at the world and feel despair, we can trust that the Spirit is using even our groans and sighs to pray within us.

Our Gospel reading today assures us that the Spirit is also our advocate and comforter – by our side, walking with us.

Whatever emotions you feel today, know that the Spirit is at work in you, for you and through you for the sake of the world. The Spirit is at work to unsettle us and heal us and send us out.

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer.

Seventh Sunday of Easter
May 13, 2018
Baptism of Menzi Nkambule and Joseph Tiegen
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and Luther College Ministries
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.

It is good to be together today – the Good Shepherd congregation and friends and College Ministries and Norsemen.

It is good and a little strange:

• This congregation loves to welcome Luther students but there aren’t usually quite this many!
• This is a wonderful day for College Ministries students as two of your leaders are baptized. And … you get to celebrate it with people you’ve never met.

It is a little strange, maybe even a little uncomfortable – especially for the Norsemen way in the back there on folding chairs.

But really, every Sunday it’s a little strange that we gather for worship with people who are very different from us. These days, most of us spend most of our time with folks who are a lot like us – people in our own age and racial group, who share our political views and values.

Some of those separations still play out when we worship. Unfortunately, Sunday morning is one of the most segregated times of the week, but worship does bring together a pretty varied mix of people. Teenagers, toddlers, people in their nineties; conservatives and liberals; queer folks and straight folks; hunters and vegans all gather together. At times that can feel uncomfortable.

Yet the thing is – we need each other. Jesus knows that and he prays that we will be one.

In our Gospel reading today, we get to hear Jesus pray for his disciples, including us. Jesus prays not only for those first disciples but for those who will believe because of their word, which means we’re included in Jesus’ prayer.

As Jesus prays for us all, he doesn’t ask for things to get easier for us. He doesn’t pray that we’ll escape the challenges and struggles in our lives. Jesus knows there’s no easy way out. On a bear hunt and in life, “We can’t go over it, can’t go under it, gotta go through it”. We gotta go through the waters, through fire, through pain, through death; but God is always at work to bring us through it all and into fullness of life.

So, Jesus doesn’t pray for an escape route. He prays that God would strengthen and protect us for the journey. He prays that God would bring us together, because community is one of God’s gifts to get us through.

We need each other as we face all the obstacles and challenges in our lives, our country, and our world today. Sometimes, some of us charge forward too fast and don’t notice the quicksand just ahead. Others have to say wait, look, go through this way. Sometimes, some of us stand at the river bank, paralyzed by fear, and others have to provide a push, some encouragement. Most of the time, we need to work together to build bridges across barriers, to forge a new path when it seems there is no way forward. We need the contributions of each person and we have to help each other through, or we all are diminished.

We need each other. So, Jesus prays that we would be one.

Which doesn’t mean that he prays we will all be the same. If we were all the same, we wouldn’t have what we need to get through. We need diverse gifts and strengths to face the obstacles; we need a wide range of people – all created in the image of God.

Jesus doesn’t pray we would all be the same. Instead, he prays that we would be one, just as he and his Father are one. Jesus and the Father are different from one another and they have different roles. What makes them one is not uniformity but rather a loving relationship built on generosity. In his prayer, Jesus speaks about all things the Father has given him and that he gives back to the Father. They are in a mutual relationship of give and take. This is the kind of unity that Jesus prays for us to experience.

We are being given an experience of this unity today in our joint worship service as we share in the baptism of Joseph from North Dakota and Menzi from the Kingdom of Swaziland. We get to witness two
people going through the waters into new life. Their journeys of faith and service are an inspiration to the rest of us; and our presence here today is encouragement for them along the way. What a beautiful
experience of unity.

This wonderful day has involved give and take, generosity and mutuality. College Ministries folks moved out of your comfort zone into a new location, and came to worship earlier than usual. Norsemen had a really early call time. Good Shepherd folks moved a huge table, set up many extra chairs, and prepared to host lots more people than usual in the Fellowship Hour – all signs of generosity and mutuality.

God is at work in all of this to strengthen our hope and renew our joy. As we go through a time of so much fear, division, and despair in our culture, this experience of unity is a gift of God. This day assures that God is at work to bring us and our whole world through all the pain and into new life.

We can carry on, together.

Thanks be to God.

Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 6, 2018
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. Amen.

So, you know that saying, “There are two gifts we should give our children, one is roots, the other is wings.” Such a beautiful saying – it is, of course, much, much easier said than done.

Whatever your experience in your own family, the good news is that God, the ultimate parent, provides us all with roots and wings. We hear about them in our scripture readings today.

We hear about what roots and grounds us – the love of God. We are called to abide in that love, to sink down into it and let it nurture us so that we will bear the fruit of love. We are to be rooted in God’s commandments, which shape and form us to be people who love.

We also hear about what gives us wings, what propels us out of the nest, helps us to take risks and enter the unknown – that is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit often appears as a dove, so there are even some actual wings involved. But much more importantly, the Spirit empowers us to face change and uncertainty.

We need both of these things in order to be loving, faithful people in this tumultuous, challenging time.

It’s easy to get cozy and lazy as we abide in God’s love when really it should propel us outward. We need the spirit to push us out of our comfort zones.

That’s what happens for the Apostle Peter in our first reading today. The Spirit pushes him out into relationship with people he thought were wrong and unclean. We heard just a bit of the story today, but it is such an important story that I want to tell you more of it.

So, Peter is a faithful Jew, rooted in the commandments and in Jesus’ love. He’s bearing fruit – preaching about Jesus’ resurrection to other Jews.

But then Peter has a strange vision when he’s praying. He sees a sheet coming down from the heavens filled with all the animals that good Jews are commanded not even to touch, much less eat. A voice tells him to kill and eat these animals. He protests; he’s never eaten anything profane or unclean! The voice says, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This happens three times.

Right then, some men show up looking for Peter. They’ve been sent by a Roman soldier named Cornelius.

Cornelius is a person of faith and prayer, but he’s a Gentile, not Jewish. Cornelius has also had a vision in which he’s been told to send for the Apostle Peter.

The Spirit leads Peter to go with these men.

When Peter arrives, he tells Cornelius and other Gentiles gathered, “You know it’s against Jewish law for me to be at your house or even associate with you, but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.” Then Cornelius tells Peter about his vision. Peter is convinced it’s the real deal, from God. So, Peter starts preaching to share about this God who gave Cornelius visions. 

But, before Peter can finish his sermon, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon everyone gathered – even the Gentiles. Cornelius and the other Gentiles experience joy, connection to God, and the life-giving power of the Spirit.

Peter, wisely, stops preaching and starts baptizing. The Gentiles invite Peter to stay for many days. That is huge – there were major barriers between Jews and Gentiles, centuries of division and hostility. Yet, the Spirit goes ahead of Peter and pushes Peter into a relationship that helps him to learn and grow. He finds that his understanding of what God is doing in the world is too narrow. His heart and mind are opened.

When Peter later explains this to other Jews, it’s clear that his roots – in prayer, in Jesus’ teachings, the love of God – make it possible for him to follow the Spirit into all of this.

If we are to be loving and faithful in tumultuous and uncertain times, we need to learn from Peter’s experience. We need to be grounded in those same ways as individuals and as a congregation. We also need to pay attention to where the Spirit is leading us.

Here at Good Shepherd, as we ground ourselves in love and scripture, we continue to be drawn into relationship with our refugee and immigrant neighbors, especially as division and hostility against them is flamed. Scripture is so clear that God’s vision of a just society includes welcoming and advocating for strangers, refugees and immigrants. The Postville Summons event this Friday is another opportunity to do this work.

The Spirit has also led this congregation to be public and explicit about God’s welcome of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. This congregation has been so richly blessed by articulating that welcome. We are nurtured and led by people of deep faith who are viewed as unclean in other Christian settings. But God has shown us to call no one profane or unclean. We must not harm God’s children this way and the church needs the gifts of these beloved people. Let’s be even more public about our welcome this Saturday at the Pride Parade.

Here, the Spirit leads each of as individuals beyond partisan divisions into relationships with people who disagree with us. Those relationships happen here at Good Shepherd. As we love and learn from others here who see things differently, we are more able to do that in the larger world.

The Spirit also leads us back to be more rooted and grounded in prayer so that we can be as open as Peter. Sunday Worship, the upcoming Service of Prayers for Healing, the Spiritual Gifts Workshop, and Faith5 Potlucks that we’ll have this summer are some of the ways we can do this.

As we head into God’s future for us here at Good Shepherd, where else will we be led? We need to be grounded in God’s love for all people and open to the Spirit’s guiding. We need both roots and wings. Thanks be to God that we have been given them.

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer.

Fifth Sunday of Easter – Confirmation Sunday
April 29, 2018
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.

We heard in our second reading today: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” So, love is good; we should love. But what does it mean to love others? How do we actually live out love?

Five Good Shepherd youth and I talked about that a lot when we participated in an Urban Immersion Service Retreat last weekend in Minneapolis. Our three confirmands, Mara, Kristi and Nathan, took part, along with Ava Holland and Erik Johnson. We spent a day serving in a shelter for families who don’t have homes. We had learning sessions about poverty and racism in the US. One session was a poverty simulation. This involved imagining that we were the parents of a family of five liv- ing in poverty. We had to figure out how to house, feed, clothe and care for three children with very limited resources. Throughout the service and learning times, we talked a lot about the difference between charity and justice and the need to work for both if we are to love others as God calls us to love.

In our last learning session, we heard a story that’s often told in trainings about poverty – a story that helped us to think about these issues. The youth and I thought it would be good to share this story with all of you as well. Once upon a time there was a small village on the edge of a river. The people there were good and life in the village was good. One day a villager noticed a baby floating down the river. The villager quickly swam out to save the baby from drowning. The next day this same villager noticed two babies in the river. He called for help and both babies were rescued from the swift waters. The following day four babies were seen caught in the turbulent current. And then eight, then more, and still more!

The villagers organized themselves quickly, setting up watchtowers and training teams of swimmers who could resist the swift waters and rescue babies. Rescue squads were soon working 24 hours a day, snatching many children each day. While not all could be rescued, the villagers felt they were doing well to rescue as many as they could. Indeed, the village elders blessed them for their good work. And life in the village continued on that basis.

One day, someone raised the question: “But where are all these babies coming from? Let’s organize a team to head upstream to find out why all these babies are ending up in the river in the first place!” The community elders countered: “If we go upstream who will operate the rescue operations? We need every concerned person here!” “But don’t you see,” cried the one lone voice, “if we find out what’s happening upstream, perhaps we can keep the babies out of the river!” “It’s too risky,” said the village elders. And so, the numbers of babies found floating in the river increase daily. Those saved increase, but those who drown increase even more. In this story, the work of the villagers is a charity response. It’s an important and loving response – when people are suffering we need to help. As one Good Shepherd youth said, “It was good to be at that shelter because people matter and I want them to know that they matter, that they belong.” Throughout scripture, God calls us to care for others when they are in need.

The question that lone voice raised is a justice response focused on addressing the aspects of society that allow harm to happen in the first place. Throughout scripture, God also calls us to work for justice. Justice is how love is made known on a large scale so that all people and all creation have what is needed for life to flourish.

This story is really powerful and led us to great conversations about what love looks like. It requires both charity and justice.

But there are limitations to this story as well. The way it’s told, the people in the river are hopeless victims, babies. Unfortunately, that’s often how we treat adults and children impacted by poverty, violence and hardship – as if they are hopeless infants. We ignore the gifts, resources, wisdom and strength they have. This story also asks us to imagine ourselves as rescuers, and as the only ones who can change things upstream. Acting as if others are helpless and incapable, as if we are their saviors, is not at all loving or truthful.

Jesus offers us a different image for how we can live out love in the world – the image of a vine and branches.

We are all branches on a vine – branches that are interwoven with one another and dependent on the vine. We all need care and nurture, even as we all need to bear the fruit that is love. None of us branches can survive on our own, much less help others or show love on our own. We need to be connected to the source of life and growth and love – the vine. We need to be pruned and cleansed because there are so many things that prevent us from bearing love – our fears, prejudices, insecurities and egos.

Jesus assures us that he is our vine, our source, that as we remain in Jesus we will be pruned and nurtured and tended so that we can both receive and give love. This is the promise for you confirmands, today; it is the promise for all of us. You are never alone, you are branches on Jesus’ vine.

You are connected to the vine that cannot be stopped from loving you and all people.

Jesus the vine will hold you throughout your life, in every situation you face. Sometimes you’ll find yourself standing secure on the side of the river, able to extend a hand to someone who is drown- ing. Sometimes you’ll be the lone voice asking hard questions. Still other times, you’ll be in the river, barely keeping afloat. In all of this, and in all else, you are not alone. Jesus the vine has a hold of you and will not let you go. Because you are held now and always, you can love others as you are loved.

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer.

Fourth Sunday of Easter
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Preacher:  Daniel Grainger

Beloved of God, grace to you and peace from the one in whom we live and move and have our being.

How far are we willing to go?

This was the mantra running through my head last week after sitting in a conference room full of seminarians, listening to Law Enforcement officers walking us through an Active Shooter drill. It was the first time the Seminary had ever participated in this kind of training.

The presentation included a history of mass shootings since Columbine and an overview of how the tactics of Law Enforcement has evolved over the years in response to such violence. The law enforcement officers were not shy in lamenting with us in the militarization of our police and first responders.

How far are we willing to go?

How far must we go?

How far can we go?

As I reflected on these questions, I began to ponder our survival instincts: to “Fight, Flight, or Freeze,” – the adrenaline that kicks in during situations of high anxiety, trauma, or when danger is looming – eliciting one of three reactions (often unknowingly or without thinking) from us.

How far are we willing to go?

How far are we able to go – to survive?

Though we certainly can’t argue that our survival instincts have served us well throughout history, these same instincts kick in our daily lives. Of course, this is certainly not in response to danger and violence each and every day, but this same strategy and instinct for survival (fight, flight, or freeze) is often what we turn to (perhaps our default) when we need hope.

We need hope daily (big and small) in order to function; to successfully navigate our way through this world. But it doesn’t take long to realize that hope in our own capacities fall short all too often…

Today is the 48^th occurrence of Earth Day, an annual event celebrated worldwide honoring the Earth and promoting environmental stewardship. The theme for Earth Day 2018 is “End Plastic Pollution” – raising awareness of how plastic waste is polluting and poisoning the oceans and land, causing incredible harm to flora and fauna, and having a devastating impact on our own health in ways we are just beginning to understand.

As our society faces this threat (and many others) to our natural world, we can see how our “Fight, Flight, and Freeze” instinct serves as effective metaphor for our varied responses to these mounting perils.

If we fight, we aim to harness all our reason and strength and will to survive – to overcome or defeat the threat – to trust that OUR collective human capacities for change will win the day and save our planet from the utter ruin of our recklessness and greed.

If we flee, we seek to avoid the threat; to minimize its proximity to us. We seek to mitigate its power over us by distancing ourselves from the problem – We trust OUR resourcefulness in creating barriers and levies between us and the threats.

If we freeze, we resign ourselves to our fate – “come what may.” Overwhelmed by the sense of doom and danger, we give up. Why bother if we can’t avoid the inevitable? We have no hope. Let’s hope that we were wrong or that the danger will pass.

We often find ourselves wrestling with how to begin addressing and confronting the threats to the environment and many, many other injustices and evil that permeate our world.

As Christians, we know that we have been called to respond to the violence and injustice perpetrated amongst ourselves and against God’s creation. Yet, too often (if not daily) we fall short in living up to the task. Our fears and anxieties take over and we place misplace or lose hope.

In today’s Gospel reading, on this 4^th Sunday of Easter, we receive the Good Shepherd metaphor from Jesus, who says, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.”

The Good Shepherd knows the sheep, and thus – the sheep know the shepherd.

This mutual knowledge, which begins with the Shepherd, does not absolve us of our responsibility to be stewards of God’s creation, to love and care for our neighbor, to seek justice and peace in the world – but rather points to the authority and agency of the shepherd.

The sheep know their shepherd because the shepherd acts on their behalf.

In hearing Jesus’ metaphor of the Good Shepherd, we catch a glimpse of the extent to which the shepherd is willing to go to care for, serve, and protect the sheep from harm.

The Good shepherd does not fight, does not flee, and does not freeze.

The good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep.

As we live in the ongoing mystery of Christ’s resurrection, we receive new life through the Good Shepherd, who has laid his life down for us, not to absolve us of God’s commandments, but to fulfill them for our sake.

As followers of Christ, we are brought together as one flock, one body, through the Word of God, through the breaking of the bread, and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In this sacred and holy flock, we are Christ, our hope is not about how far WE’RE willing and able to go. Rather, it’s about how far is God willing to go for us and with us.

“How far IS God willing to go?”

To the cross – to the grave – to raise us with Christ into a new life we cannot fully understand or imagine but is none-the-less promised.

Alleluia – Christ is Risen!