Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
February 12, 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.

Today’s portion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is one of those passages that can turn people off to Christianity. It can give us the impression that we have an angry God who’s ready to send us off to hell for calling someone a fool, a God who condemns those who know the pain of divorce. Christians have often used this reading, and others like it, to judge and to exclude people from community.

But is God really some controlling coach who will kick us off the team for thinking bad thoughts? Will we be voted off the island if we get a little angry? That’s the view many people have of Christianity.

Yet, if we dig a little deeper, Jesus’ words offer us a very different image of God and very different guidance about how to live in and as a community of faith.

Jesus first spoke these words to the Jewish people as they lived under Roman occupation. The people were divided about how best to deal with the oppressive Roman rule. A group called the Sadducees decided to collaborate with the Romans, a “go along to get along” approach. A group called the Zealots advocated taking up the sword and trying to overthrow the Romans. Most of the Pharisees decided their best bet was to separate themselves from the evil around them and maintain their identity as Jewish people with an intense focus on God’s law. They couldn’t change the oppressive structures but they could choose to be righteous.

Our circumstances are vastly different but we still see many of the same approaches to the challenges of our day: go along to get along, resist with violence, or retreat from it all and seek personal righteousness.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus challenges all these approaches.

In the first part, the Beatitudes, he challenges those who want to collaborate with power. He calls blessed those who are lowly, meek and persecuted by the powers of this world; he commends those who hunger, thirst and work for God’s peace and justice. In the part of the sermon we’ll hear next week, Jesus challenges those who would resort to violence by teaching us to love our enemies and turn the other cheek.

In the middle section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes on what righteousness truly looks like. First, he says righteousness is not about being isolated and separated from the world – he says we are to be salt and light for the world, we are to be engaged in making the world better. Jesus goes on to say that righteousness includes the law – he hasn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. But then, in the portion we heard today, Jesus reinterprets the law to highlight its true purpose. The law isn’t about making us personally righteous, separate and morally superior to others. It isn’t just about getting us to avoid things that are bad. It is about relationships. It’s about how we live together in community for the sake of the world.

God’s law isn’t just about refraining from murder. We should also treat each other with respect and not speak hateful words. We should not let anger consume us. We should seek reconciliation.

It isn’t just about refraining from dishonoring our bodies. We should also not objectify other persons and view them as ways to satisfy our physical desires.

It isn’t just about following the letter of the law regarding divorce. We shouldn’t treat people as disposable and should be concerned for the welfare of the most vulnerable. This was especially true in Jesus’ day when women were considered the property of their husbands and men could easily dispose of their wives with a simple note of divorce. Jesus challenges this and shows concern for the vulnerable.

And the law isn’t just about keeping ourselves from swearing falsely or lying to others. We should speak and act truthfully in all our dealings so that others know they can trust us.

One of my favorite cartoons is of Moses looking at a stone tablet that says, “The One Commandment: Don’t Be a Jerk”. Moses replies, “Hey, it works for me, but maybe you need to spell it out some more for all the jerks down here.” Apparently ten commandments weren’t enough for us; we need even more explanation from Jesus about how to live well with others. A need Martin Luther also addressed when he wrote his Small Catechism to teach the faith.

As Jesus reinterprets the law, he also restores it to its original intent- God’s law was given as a gift so that we would live well together and be a light for the world. It is given so that we can have the rich, full, good life God wants us all to have.

But what happens when we don’t live this way? Does God condemn us to hell? The references to hell in Jesus’ sermon seem more descriptive than prescriptive. If we live with anger, insulting others and calling them fools, we will experience the hell of isolation from the community God longs for us to know. If we let lust control us we will feed a fire that can become all consuming. If we are jerks, we will know the hell of being cut off from others, from life-giving relationships.

Throughout scripture we see that God longs for us to have good relationships and abundant life; and that God longs for relationship with us no matter how often we turn away. So God chooses to be in relationship with us despite all the ways we violate the commandments.

In many ways, the commandments and Jesus’ interpretation of them can drive us into relationship with God. They show us how much we fall short of what God intends for us and how much we need to be forgiven, how much we need God’s help.

And thankfully, God chooses to forgive us and restore us and renew us again and again. God doesn’t look at us and say you’re outta here, you’re off the team, you’ve been voted of the island. Instead, God looks at us with love and says get out there, go, love the world as you have first been loved.

As it turns out, this is ultimately what God’s righteousness looks like. God’s righteousness is about relationship, restoration, forgiveness and love. This is what God desires, and this is what God seeks to bring about in us.

This, too, is the strategy Jesus advises when living in a broken world. Don’t collaborate with power, don’t turn to violence, don’t isolate. Rather seek to love, forgive, and restore relationship. Be who you are, be salt and light for the world.

Let us take a moment for a silent prayer.

Sermon for Sunday, January 29, 2017 – “God in Pain”

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
January 29, 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.

Who do you picture when you hear the word ‘blessed’? Often we think about those who have a lot going for them – people who are, quote, “blessed with good looks, with smarts, with natural abilities.” On social media, friends and celebrities share pictures of happy families, fancy cars, extravagant homes, and use the hashtag, the identifier, #blessed. When things work out well for us we say, “I feel so blessed.” In the images and popular speak of our day, blessed are the beautiful people, the lucky people, those on top of their game.

It would be quite surprising to hear someone say, “I’m really poor in spirit and depressed, what a blessing”; “I’m so meek, people walk all over me – wow, am I blessed.” You’ll rarely see Facebook posts that read, “Feeling blessed to have yet another chance to show mercy to someone who hurt me”; or “Longing for righteousness here, getting pretty hungry and thirst for it actually – quite a blessing.” The people that Jesus says are blessed are not who you’d expect in our day or in his day. Jesus calls blessed those who are hurting, long suffering, passionate for righteousness, striving for peace and persecuted for doing the right thing.

Notice – These types of people all have one thing in common. They are all identified by pain – by their own pain or by their engagement with the world’s pain. They are not the well-off, the wealthy, the lucky. They are those marked by pain. And Jesus says they are blessed. We are so often uncomfortable with pain. It asks so much of us. It is a burden. We have all sorts of strategies to deal with pain – avoid it, ignore it, sweep it under the rug. We try to explain it away. We tell those who are too bothered by the pain of the world to gain a broader perspective. We don’t want to get too close to pain, our own and others.

Jesus doesn’t let us do that. In his Sermon on the Mount, his teaching to his disciples then and now,

Jesus directs our attention to the places of pain and struggle, to those wrestling with it all. He says look at them. God has chosen to bless and honor and love them. God has chosen to be identified with the pain of the world. This is radical. Often we think suffering means we have been abandoned by God. People and places scarred by pain are said to be godforsaken. When things are going well, we think God has blessed us; when things fall apart we don’t know what to think about God.

Jesus teaches us that God has chosen to bless and to be with those who face suffering – that God has chosen to be in pain. Jesus teaches this and then shows it by his death on the cross. In the cross we see that God has chosen to be in the pain of the world. God has chosen to not avoid or minimize the pain of the world, but to fully engage it for the sake of the healing of all creation.

Now still, we see God most clearly and consistently amid suffering – in the hospital room, the funeral home, the war zone, the refugee camp, the detention center. Many of us here have found that to be true in our own lives. We have known God’s presence most fully in times of grief or when we are walking with people who are in need. We have cried out, “Where are you God,” and have come to see that God is right there with us. God is in the pain, working, blessing, healing, and new life. When we see that those who are in pain are blessed by God’s presence, that God is with us in pain, this gives us a helpful way to view and engage the world. Rather than seeing the needs of our neighbors as a nuisance or something to be pitied, we can see need as a place to meet God. Rather than offering charity because we are so blessed and should give to those less fortunate, we can be with them in their need looking together for the blessing of God’s healing presence. Rather than feeling overwhelmed by the pain of the world, we can trust that God is at work in the suffering – that God gives us what we need to join that work.

In these days, many of God’s beloved children who are Muslim are in deep pain. Mosques are being attacked and burned, Muslim women are being harassed, Muslims seeking to enter the US are detained at airports this weekend and banned from entering the country. In these days our own Todd Green, Luther Professor and spouse of our member Tabita Green, also is in pain. Todd has been tirelessly advocating for respect and understanding for Muslims as Islamophobia grows. He is receiving verbal attacks and threats as he does his work; and now a recent article has taken aim at Tabita as well. Todd and Tabita are living the Beatitudes – they are hungering and thirsting for righteousness, they are showing mercy and they are being reviled for doing this.

Good Shepherd – How will we stand with Muslims who are experiencing this suffering and with those who have entered this pain like Todd and Tabita? As Christians we can and should have a variety of perspectives on politics and social issues. We can and should disagree. But we cannot be silent in the face of harassment, discrimination, and hatred – especially when hatred is being done in our name as American Christians. We need to stand up for our Muslim neighbors and for their advocates.

Together we need to do justice, love, show kindness and walk humbly with our God. There will be struggle, certainly, but we will meet God there. And as we do, we will find that God’s kingdom isn’t a place far away but is found whenever we honor each other as God’s children, bear each other’s burdens, bind each other’s wounds, and care for one another.

Let us pray.

Amen.

Third Sunday after Epiphany
January 22, 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.

This week I got to thinking that the author of our second reading today, the Apostle Paul, sounds a lot like I do at the end of multiple “no school due to ice” days. When Paul says, “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, be in agreement, let there be no divisions among you,” I hear, “Please be kind. Please everyone, stop arguing! Why can’t we all just get along?” Paul is making a much more complicated theological appeal than all that in his letter to a newly forming church at Corinth; but sometimes he sounds like a babysitter. Sometimes it feels like he’s just offering cliches like “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all”; “don’t rock the boat”; “go along to get along” – cliches that encourage us to just make nice.

People often think churches should follow these clichés – that everyone should be nice and friendly and not disagree to make sure that everything stays positive and upbeat. Paul’s words, “be of the same mind and of the same purpose”, can make us think we’re all supposed to get in line and conform to the dominant opinion. When there is conflict in churches, it is often interpreted to mean that we’re just a bunch of hypocrites who aren’t living what we believe.

From what I can tell, Good Shepherd has never much subscribed to these clichés. People here speak their minds freely and unabashedly and I’m so grateful. I grew up arguing faith and politics at the supper table, so I feel right at home here. But what do we make of Paul’s guidance to the Corinthians in a letter that the church has claimed as important for Christians throughout the ages? As a congregation, are we supposed to have differences of opinion? Are we supposed to disagree and argue, or should we always be of the same mind and of the same purpose? What does that mean and how would we do that?

Does this scripture have anything to say to us in our lives out in the world? How do we we live in a diverse country and among people who have a wide range of perspectives and views? Should we just try to avoid conflict, or are we supposed to be working to convince others of the truth of our perspective? Does this text mean Christians should all get in line behind an official point of view and work to get everyone else in line with it, too? Paul actually has something more powerful to offer us. When Paul says be of the same mind and the same purpose, he isn’t advocating uniformity. Later in his letters to the Corinthians he affirms the diversity within their community. Paul also isn’t advocating that we just conform to the dominant view of the community and try to get others to do the same. He was critical of leaders who were trying to get others to conform to their own agendas. And Paul certainly isn’t advocating niceness. There are lots of ways you could describe the Apostle Paul – nice isn’t one of them.

Instead, Paul is encouraging his readers, his first readers and now us, to find unity in remembering that we belong to Christ and that we are baptized into Christ. We belong to Christ – Christ who showed fierce, strong love; Christ who challenged leaders who were not living out God’s justice and mercy; Christ who also let go of power and control, humbled himself and loved to the end, even to the point of death. Belonging to Christ has nothing to do with niceness or groupthink.

Belonging to Christ is about death and resurrection. It is about dying to our own egos and our desires to be in control or to be liked – dying to all that and rising each new day to new life in Christ, life in which we live as the body of Christ and as part of Christ’s work of loving and healing the world.

This pattern of dying and rising begins in baptism. As Paul reminds us, we are baptized into Christ Jesus. In baptism we are made part of Christ’s body and united to Christ’s death and resurrection.

And each new day, we are called to die to sin and rise to new life by remembering that we have been baptized into Christ, that we belong to the fierce, loving Christ.

Dying and rising also happens to us in the midst of a congregation that has a variety of different opinions and perspectives. As we live in community and come up against people who drive us crazy, people who think we’re wrong, and people who won’t back down, we are also confronted with our own sin and brokenness. When this happens, rather than trying to avoid all the mess or trying to get other people to get in line, we are called to let go of our own egos and remember that we belong to Christ. We all are part of the body of Christ; we all are part of Christ’s fierce, loving work. We all have different roles in that work, we all have different functions and jobs to do as part of that body; but we have a common purpose – to love and heal the world.

In baptism, in daily dying and rising, in community, we are shaped into people who have the mind of Christ and a shared purpose. With this mind and this purpose, we can engage with each other in all our diversity, in all our disagreements, in all our joys and sorrow. We can practice kindness and forgiveness. With this mind and purpose, we can engage all the diversity of our world with a fierce love – a love that listens deeply and isn’t afraid to let go of our opinions, to change our minds; a love that challenges injustice and engages even when it is hard; a love that is lived out as an engaged citizen and community member.

We belong to Christ. This gives our lives so much purpose – purpose beyond our own agendas and opinions, a purpose formed by the one who gave himself to the whole world in love. This purpose, this life, is what Jesus called his first disciples into. It is what he calls us into each new day.

Let’s take a moment to pray.

Amen.

Sermon For Sunday, January 15, 2017 – “Seeing and Being Seen”

Second Sunday After Epiphany
January 15, 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.

Some pretty big things happen in this story and they all involve looking, seeing, noticing, paying attention.

• Twice John sees Jesus and tells his disciples to look.
• They pay attention and start following Jesus.
• Jesus says, “What are you looking for, what are you seeking?” and “come and see.”
• One of them, Andrew, brings his brother Simon to see Jesus. Jesus looks at him and gives him a new name – Cephas, Peter, which means The Rock.

Imagine for a moment what would have happened if John hadn’t noticed Jesus walking toward them; or, if he hadn’t pointed Jesus out because he didn’t want to share the spotlight with Jesus.

What if his disciples had dismissed John’s story about Jesus as crazy talk; or Andrew thought he had too many important things to do and couldn’t take the time to go get his brother and bring him to see Jesus. John wouldn’t have fulfilled his life’s purpose of pointing people to Jesus. Andrew and Simon would have missed out on seeing, being seen by Jesus, and finding their place with him.

Seeing, noticing and paying attention matters. I sometimes wonder – if Jesus came walking toward me today would I just pass him by with my mind racing through my to-do list, my focus on my cell phone or the icy sidewalks? I’m guessing there was something about Jesus that was hard to miss, probably something in his eyes. But then I think about how I can go for days without making eye contact with loved ones much less a total stranger. And actually, the risen Jesus is still walking around among us today in his body the church, in all of us. Yet, so often we miss him; we fail to notice. Paying attention matters.

When was the last time someone really took notice of you? When was the last time someone looked you in the eyes and gave you their full, undivided attention for a long time – without interrupting you or changing the subject, without multitasking, without being distracted by a device? When was the last time you did that for someone else, especially for someone of another ethnic or religious background, sexual orientation or gender identity, or someone who thinks very differently than you do? Powerful things can happen when we look, when we see, when we notice each other. We can see Jesus in one another. Yet, so often we miss out. We pass by Jesus.

Martin Luther taught that we miss seeing Jesus in others because we’re so curved in on ourselves – some describe it as navel-gazing. Of course, most of us don’t actually gaze at our belly buttons much; but we do spend a lot of time looking down at our calendars, our to-do lists, our computers and phones, our bank statements – curved in on ourselves. We get so focused on our own plans and worries. Given this, sometimes we’re relieved that other people don’t take too close a look at us because we’re not so proud of what they’d see. We don’t want all our brokenness and neuroses to be on full display. Other times, we don’t want people to notice us because they might ask for more than we’re willing to give. It can be uncomfortable to have people pay attention to us.

I’m guessing it wasn’t comfortable for Simon when Jesus looked deeply at him and said, “You are Simon, son of John. You are to be called Cephas, Peter.” Simon had just met Jesus and already Jesus knew all about him – his name, his father’s name. That must have been unnerving. And before they’d even exchanged pleasantries, already Jesus was saying you are to be called Cephas, Peter, which means Rock. If I were Peter I’d be thinking, “Wait a minute, slow down. Shouldn’t we at least talk about the weather before you bring me into your inner circle of friends and expect things of me?”

But there was something about Jesus and, I’m guessing, something about Jesus’ eyes. I bet when Simon looked into Jesus’ eyes wondering if this guy is for real, he saw that Jesus knew him through and through – insecurities, hang-ups, issues, sin and all. Simon saw that Jesus knew him fully but loved him even more fully. Jesus gazed at Simon and gave him a new name, an identity, and a role to play in God’s story. He was not just some screw-up; he was Peter, the rock. Peter didn’t always handle this with ease; sometimes the Rock was more like a stumbling block and Jesus called him as much. But, even after Peter had denied him three times, Jesus continued to gaze at him with love and entrusted Peter to feed his sheep.

Jesus looks closely at each of us, too. Every time we gather in worship, hear his Word, share in his body and blood, or serve those in need, we meet Jesus and he takes a good long look at us. When Jesus looks at us he knows us fully and he loves us even more fully. Jesus calls us by a new name, our true name – beloved of God. In his eyes, in God’s eyes, we are not defined by all the brokenness within or all that we accomplish. In God’s eyes, we are defined by the name we are given at baptism – beloved of God. In baptism, Jesus gives us a new name, a new identity, and a new role to play in God’s story. And each time we meet Jesus and are called by our new name, we are set free from being curved in on ourselves. We are set free to see and pay attention to others, to look at them with love and kindness, to see Jesus in them.

What a difference it would make in our world this week if we would seek to look at each person we meet with the eyes of love; if we would seek to see people not as a label or a race or a political party, but as beloved of God; if we would seek to see and welcome Jesus in them. What a difference it would make if we looked up from our self-centered pursuits and paid close attention to the pain, the struggles, the hopes and fears of others. This would help us to do what Jesus called Peter and each of us to do – to feed and care for his sheep, to feed and care for God’s people.

We can trust that God is looking on us all with a long, loving look and that God is at work to lift up our eyes so that we might see and that we might show love.

Let’s take a few moments to pray for that.

Amen.

Sermon For Sunday, January 8, 2017 – “Begin with Beloved”

First Sunday After Epiphany
Baptism of Our Lord
January 8, 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.

How do you begin something new – a new year, a new day, a new project? Do you make lists? Do you do a lot of research? Or do you just dive right in? As you start, do you wonder if you will measure up? Do you feel like it all depends upon you and what you can accomplish?

How will we begin this new year as a congregation with lots of plans and projects ahead of us?

How will we live as citizens in a divided nation at the beginning of a new president’s term? How do we begin? And what will help us to begin with a sense of hope and purpose rather than anxiety and despair? The story of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry gives us some insight. It begins with baptism.

Jesus’ ministry starts only after he enters the waters, the Spirit descends upon him, and God calls him Beloved. All four Gospels tell us that Jesus’ ministry begins with his baptism and all four tell us about it. Only two of the Gospels have accounts of Jesus birth; but very early on in each of the four Gospels, we hear about Jesus’ baptism. After the birth accounts in Luke and Matthew, we don’t hear much about Jesus until his baptism. Jesus lives a quiet life in obscurity until the day he is baptized and named God’s beloved Son. Baptism is where it all really starts for Jesus. His story begins the day he hears he is beloved.

And Jesus doesn’t have to do anything, or prove anything, or measure up before God calls him beloved. When God says, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased”, Jesus hasn’t yet done anything of note. He hasn’t accomplished anything that anyone found impressive enough to record. Before anything significant happens, God claims Jesus and gives him the identity – Beloved Son. The rest of Jesus’ ministry flows out of this identity. He loves, heals, preaches, teaches and redeems. Not so that he might measure up and gain God’s approval, but because he is secure in his identity that he is beloved.

We, too, are God’s beloved. This is the identity that God gives to us; it is not something we have to earn. The message that we are beloved is given to us in baptism. We are named “child of God”, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, and marked with the cross of Christ forever – signs to help us know who we are. All people are loved by God whether they are baptized or not; but baptism is a sign for us to return to again and again to remind us of our true identity.

For most of us, baptism is the beginning of our life of faith. Our faith stories begin the day we’re told we’re children of God. But what if we began everything with the assurance that we are beloved? What would it be like if we began each day, each project, each year with a reminder of our true identity and let that identity guide us? What if we began with beloved? So often we begin our days, our years, our tasks with a sense of anxiety – the worry that we don’t have enough, can’t do enough, aren’t enough. Many of our New Year’s Resolutions arise out of the sense that we aren’t enough and have to do or be more, be better.

Beginning with beloved reminds us that God calls us beloved before we have done anything to prove ourselves, before we have accomplished anything. This allows us to live with freedom and boldness rather than a focus on our own efforts and achievements. It allows us to focus on serving others and joining God’s work rather than proving ourselves. Sometimes, we begin things with a sense of isolation, feeling alone in the challenges we face. We carry the weight of the world on our shoulders and feel that it’s up to us alone to fix our families, help our church, heal our nation.

Beginning with beloved reminds us that we belong to God. We are part of something much bigger than ourselves and we are held in God’s love .Still other times, even as we begin, we feel despair, wondering if things will ever change despite our best efforts. Beginning with beloved grounds us in hope beyond our efforts, beyond results. It gives us purpose in the midst of discouraging realities. There is much we cannot change but we can focus on treating all people as God’s beloved. What a difference that would make in the world if we all lived with that focus.

As we begin a new year, let’s begin each day, each project, with the reminder that we are God’s beloved. Right after Jesus was baptized he was led out into the wilderness to face struggle, trial, temptation. He met it all with faith and courage, with the assurance that God was with him, and that he was beloved of God. Jesus began with beloved and he had what he needed. Beginning with that identity will give us what we need as well as we enter into our challenges, our own wildernesses, into all that the year will bring.

Author Jan Richardson offers a blessing for us:

Beloved Is Where We Begin

If you would enter
into the wilderness,
do not begin
without a blessing.
Do not leave
without hearing
who you are:
Beloved,
named by the One
who has traveled this path
before you.
Do not go
without letting it echo
in your ears,
and if you find
it is hard
to let it into your heart,
do not despair.
That is what
this journey is for.

I cannot promise
this blessing will free you
from danger,
from fear,
from hunger
or thirst,
from the scorching
of sun
or the fall
of the night.

But I can tell you
that on this path
there will be help.

I can tell you
that on this way
there will be rest.

I can tell you
that you will know
the strange graces
that come to our aid
only on a road
such as this,
that fly to meet us
bearing comfort
and strength,
that come alongside us
for no other cause
than to lean themselves
toward our ear
and with their
curious insistence
whisper our name:

Beloved.
Beloved.
Beloved.