This is my sermon for Maundy Thursday, based on the lesson, John 19:23-30.
 

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus was his mother.
Watching someone die is a horribly painful and difficult thing to do.
When I served as a hospital chaplain, I was with several families when their loved ones passed away.
I was there when both of my parents died.
It is an emotionally draining and devastating experience.
Being there when your parents die is painful, but it is part of the normal course of life. But to watch your child die must be an unimaginable trauma. Then for that person to be executed must just keep adding to the pain.
Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus was his mother.
Jesus’ mother is never named in John’s Gospel. She appears only twice, here, and at the beginning of his ministry, at the wedding in Cana.
She was invited to the wedding, as were Jesus and his disciples. She told Jesus that the hosts had run out of wine. She didn’t mind when he told her that his time had not yet come.
She told the servants to do what ever Jesus told them.
She was the mover and motivator behind his first sign. Why? What did she know? Did she know what Jesus could do? Did she know who he was?
John’s Gospel doesn’t have a birth story. John begins with the cosmic origins of Jesus. We first encounter him with John the Baptist and his followers. We know nothing about him
But she does. She knows he has abilities, or she wouldn’t bring the problem to his attention.
While he says, My time has not yet come, he still turns an excessive amount of water into high-quality wine.
Something during his time growing up, before he encounters the Baptist, has told her that her son is special.
She knew that people should do whatever Jesus said.
So when she sees him on the cross, is she thinking that he can get himself out of this? He has saved others, why doesn’t he save himself.
Jesus sees her. He sees the beloved disciple. Then, from the cross, Jesus entrusts her care to his most trusted follower. The one who was faithful to Jesus would be faithful to his mother.
“Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”
She knew that people should do whatever Jesus said.
From that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
By handing her care over to another, she knew that Jesus was handing himself over to this fate.
His time had finally come, his time to die.
She knew that people should do whatever Jesus said.
This is what Jesus has said:

• Come and see. Follow me.
• God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him isn’t judged.
• Whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles up into eternal life
• I have sent you to harvest what you didn’t work for; others worked, and you will share in their work.
• I assure you that whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and won’t come under judgment but has passed from death into life.
• This is what God requires, that you believe in him whom God sent.
• I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
• Whoever hasn’t sinned should throw the first stone.
• I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
• I’m not from this world. If you don’t believe that I Am, you will die in your sins.
• You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teaching. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
• I assure you that everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
• This happened so that God’s mighty works might be displayed.
• I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life. They will never die.
• I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
• Whoever serves me must follow me. Wherever I am, there my servant will also be.
• If people hear my words and don’t keep them, I don’t judge them. I didn’t come to judge the world but to save it. Whoever rejects me and doesn’t receive my words will be judged at the last day by the word I have spoken.
• Unless I wash you, you won’t have a place with me.
• I have given you an example: just as I have done, you also must do.
• I assure you that whoever receives someone I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
• I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.
• I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
• Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
• If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
• Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too.
• I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything.
• This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends.
• I’m not praying only for them but also for those who believe in me because of their word. I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
• My kingdom doesn’t originate from this world.
• I was born and came into the world for this reason: to testify to the truth. Whoever accepts the truth listens to my voice.

She knew that people should listen to whatever Jesus said

• Destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up.

This is the text of my message for Palm Sunday, March 25 using the Narrative Lectionary lessons of John 12:12-27, the Triumphal Entry, and John 19:16b-22, the writing of the charge against Jesus.


Our lessons for today intentionally provide a clash of contexts. We continue with our Lenten readings of the Passion and Suffering of Christ from chapters 18 and 19 of John‘s Gospel. But we also celebrate Palm Sunday, and remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. They are connected because in each, Jesus is called the King of Israel.

Hosanna!  Crucify!  Hosanna!  Crucify!  Hosanna!  Crucify!

How did so much go so wrong so fast?

It is the Sunday before Passover; Jesus enters Jerusalem, a top a young donkey, a sign of the anointed leader of Israel.

It is just days after Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead, and Jerusalem still buzzing about that. Now, with the Passover festival approaching, Jesus comes into the capital city. The people greet him as a potential king.

Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of The Lord. Blessed is the King of Israel. Hosanna!  Crucify!

It is the day before Passover, and it was the practice of the Roman Empire to make a crucifixion a public example. Should you dare to defy the Empire, this will be your fate. So to inflict terror to the community, the crime these pour souls were charged with was placed above their heads.

Pilate had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

Crucify! We have no king but Caesar!
Hosanna!  Blessed is the King of Israel!

It is Sunday, and the people of Jerusalem are thrilled by the possible promised Messiah. Could this be the one the Scriptures have prophesied? Hosanna! They have seen his signs.

This is the third time Jesus has come to Jerusalem. The people of Jerusalem know Jesus. They know of his signs. He fed 5,000 with what one would eat for lunch. He has healed the blind, the crippled. He has raised the dead.

They wave palm branches as a sign of a conquering hero, just as we would wave flags on the 4th of July, or school colors at a game. Hosanna!

All that is needed is for the Temple leaders to signal their support. But they have already rejected Jesus. They have already decided that he must die.

He cannot be the Messiah. He doesn't do things the way they expect. He doesn't act how they want the Messiah to act. So they lead the call against him. Take him away! Crucify! Crucify him!

It is Friday, and the people have rejected this possible Messiah, calling instead for the rebel bandit Barabbas.

The man who was hailed as king on Sunday has been rejected. The crowd’s claim of being the King of Israel is now the charge of which Pontius Pilate has placed above Jesus’ head. Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

The Temple leaders complain, that's what he said. It's not what we said. It is not what we have said about him. That is what we want to avoid. Pilate tells them he has made his decision; What I have written I have written.

Hosanna! It is Sunday and travellers from Greece fight through the crowds to seek out Jesus. His disciples allow them to meet the celebrated hero. He says that it is the time for his glory.

But he says that the glory will come as that of a single grain of wheat. When it dies and is buried, it flourishes and provides countless grains. Much fruit comes from one who dies.  He, and his followers, must be willing to set aside their lives, to be willing to live for others, and die to themselves. His followers must be willing to go where he goes, and do what he does.

As we move from Palm Sunday to Good Friday, we move from celebration to condemnation. As we move from Palm Sunday to Good Friday, we move from praise to rejection. As we move from Palm Sunday to Good Friday, we move from Hosanna! to Crucify!

As we move from Palm Sunday to Good Friday, how far are we willing to follow Christ? What are we willing to give up? What are we willing to risk? How far are we willing to go?

Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

If we are the disciples we claim to be, we will follow our teacher, our rabbi, our master. But how far will we follow?
As the King of Israel, the Son of God went without resistance to the cross. He knew that his crucifixion and resurrection would bring glory to God. He knew the price. He paid the cost.

He calls us to follow him. He calls us to leave the comfortable and take up the challenge. He calls us to live out the values and priorities we speak out.

While we may not lead the call to crucify, we simply stay silent or fade away. While we remember that Judas betrayed him, and Peter denied him, we often forget that the other disciples simply stayed away.

Unlike the Temple leaders, we do not reject Jesus, but we resist him. They rejected Jesus because he wasn't the Messiah they expected. We resist because the Messiah expects too much of us. He calls us out of our comfort zone.

But his words to the visiting Greeks ring in my ears.

Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

What are we willing to do to bear much fruit?

What are we willing to risk?

How far are we willing to follow Christ?

This is my sermon from Sunday, March 18. The lesson from the Narrative Lectionary is John 19:1-16a.

The ways of framing this theological concepts is taken from Nadia Bolz-Weber’s video, Cross, from Augsburg Fortress’ video series, animate: Faith.

Why did Jesus have to die?

I’ll be honest; this question doesn’t directly flow from this text. This lesson may better phrase the question of “Why do these people want Jesus to die?” I’ll answer that question after explaining why Jesus had to die. And it won’t be for the reasons that you have probably heard most of your life.
Here are some of the reasons that have been used to explain why Jesus had to die.

Jesus had to die because God the Father was mad at us because we are sinful and sin filled, bad and evil. God chose to punish Jesus in place of punishing all of humanity. This makes God to be a cosmic child abuser, and Jesus is an enabler in this depiction of divine wrath and retribution. This is also referred to as sacrificial atonement, because, as was the case in the Jewish Temple system, a lamb, here The Lamb of God, is sacrificed for the accumulated sins.

Jesus had to die to pay for our sins. It views our sins as a transaction; the more we sin, the more indebted we are to God for our disobedience. We cannot pay off this indebtedness or work it off with our piety and good works. This portrays God as a debt collector, or that God is somehow indebted to the forces of evil. Someone has to pay for all of this sin, and God let it be Jesus, the one person who never added to the final total. This is called the ransom or satisfaction atonement.
Jesus had to die in order to defeat death and sin. By living without sin, and by being raised from the dead, Jesus has defeated the forces of evil, specifically sin and death. Since they have no power over Jesus, they have been defeated for once and for good, for you and for me. Christ’s death and resurrection liberate us from our bondage to sin and death, and set us free. This describes God as having to battle to defeat evil, and is known as the Christus Victor, or Victorious Christ theory of atonement.

But none of these reflect a loving, all-powerful God.  They show God as vengeful, petty and with limited powers. They show God with human frailties and faults. These theories take parts of our behavior, our characteristics and say that since we act this way, God must act the same way.

They depict God standing above the cross, judging us. Instead, God hangs from the cross, refusing to judge or condemn, refusing to stop what could easily be halted.

Let me offer an alternative. Jesus CHOSE to die, and to die on a cross as a rejection of the violence and self-absorption of our way of life and as a presentation of an alternate love-filled, other-focused, service-centered way of life. A life full of actions and teachings consistent with our understanding of the God who wanted God’s people to be blessed in order to be a blessing to the whole world.

Jesus CHOSE to die to show us that not even killing the Son of God, the Word of God made Flesh, the Light that has come into the World, can stop God from loving us. He was raised from the dead to show us that not even dying can separate us from the love of God. Sin and death have no power over God. They are a part of this world, but they, as are all things, are subject to the will of God.
John’s Gospel shows this idea most clearly.

Jesus surrenders himself to the forces of the Temple leaders. He isn’t seized by them, he hands himself over to them. To the leaders of the Temple, who see him as a threat to their understanding of how to love and serve God, he doesn’t confront them. Instead, he asks them to judge him by what he has said and done.  They find that his message of taking care of those in need threatens their way of life, and for that he must die.

Jesus submits to the rule of Rome and the power of Pontius Pilate. He doesn’t challenge Pilate or his authority, but he challenges Pilate’s understandings of who Jesus is and what he has done. He challenges Pilate’s understanding of true power, and from where power is derived.

Jesus accepts the brutal beating, mockery and bullying of the Roman soldiers. He does not resist, or rebel, but allows those who want to abuse the limited power they have to have their way with him. His stoic attitude as he is abused and mistreated stands as a rejection of the human cruelty that we display toward one another too often.

Jesus takes the rejection of those whom he came to save. The people whom God chose to be God’s own, the ones whom God blessed so they could be a blessing to the world, reject and repudiate him. Those who were His own did not know him and instead called for a bandit and murderer to be released in his stead. They use language from a hymn of worship, “We have no king but God,” and use that to pledge allegiance to Rome, “We have no king but Caesar.”

Jesus chooses to die. Jesus chooses to go to the cross. He does this because by doing so, from the cross, Jesus Christ loves the violent, loves the abuser, loves the betrayer, loves the denier, loves the God-killer in all of us. Only a God who becomes truly human and suffers our abuse, insults and rejection showing only love and mercy can save us from ourselves.

Having suffered the rejection, abuse, denial, injustice, torture and judgment of this society, and of the world, Jesus Christ chose to go to the cross. From the cross, he judges our violent ways and our spiteful values.

And the judgment is forgiveness.

That is why Jesus had to die. For us to, hopefully, finally see, that no matter what we do, or do not do, we are forgiven.
AMEN.

The lesson we hear today is at the heart of the telling of the Passion, or Suffering, of Jesus Christ. It is a key scene in any depiction of the last day of Jesus. I think of the various movies about the life of Jesus, and all of them feature this scene.

In one of my favorite depictions, the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, the song Trial Before Pilate is one of the turning points in the play. It takes the lessons we hear today and next week, showing how Jesus is abandoned by the very people he came to. It calls back to the opening prologue in John’s Gospel, “He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.”

Pilate who is used to fighting against the leaders of the Temple, now finds they bring him one of their own, wanting Pilate to crucify Jesus. They give no accusations, only claiming that Jesus is a criminal who needs to be put to death.

Pilate wants Jesus to explain himself, and asks Jesus if he is the King of the Jews. This isn’t the charge given by the Temple authorities. It is of Pilate’s own invention. Or perhaps that is what his intelligence gathering has picked up on; that the people of Israel hope that Jesus is the Messiah, the one who will restore the Nation of Israel.

Jesus challenges Pilate right back, asking what difference it makes. Pilate says that your own people have turned you over to me, and asks Jesus, “What have you done?”

Jesus answers Pilate. “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

Here is where I want to focus. I’ve said previously that I prefer to think of God’s reign, not of God’s kingdom, because we tend to think of a kingdom as a place. God’s reign is when and where God’s authority and God’s rules are lived out. A reign is an attitude. A reign is a way of life.

Jesus’ kingdom is not a place. Jesus’ kingdom is wherever his followers live out the commands and demands of being his follower.

It is where love prevails, and where hatred fails.

It is where the hungry are fed, and where we trust we will wake when we are dead.

It is where the poor have provisions, and where unity ends our divisions.

It is where the sick are cared for, and where peace triumphs over war.

Jesus’ says that “If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over.” We have heard that and understood that to be that if his arrest happened IN his kingdom, that his followers would be fighting to liberate him.

But what if he is telling Pilate that he, and his followers, reject the violent ways of this world?

It isn’t that followers from his kingdom would fight for him, but that because his kingdom is not of this world, because his reign is one of love, justice and peace, his followers will not fight.

What if he is telling Pilate, his followers and the world that he has come to reject our system of violence and retribution?

What if Christ’s surrendering himself to the Temple authorities and to the Roman Governor is his judgment on their system of violent justice?

What if the Word of God made Flesh came to show us how we treat a man with a message of love?

What if we were shown that not even putting the Son of God to death on a cross can separate us from God’s love?

What SHOULD we learn from that?

In declaring that his kingdom is not of this world, Jesus is declaring that his kingdom, his reign, will not use the tools and mechanisms of earthly kingdoms. He rejects control by terror, divide and conquer, victim blaming, the politics of shaming, we verses them, the power of fear, might makes right and the politics of division that have been used from the time of Pilate up to this very day.

Instead, he calls for the truth. It is his reason for being. It is “for this I was born, and for this I came into the world,” that he would speak, and live out, God’s love for the world. A love shown in that for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

The truth is that you cannot drive out hate by out hating your enemy or opposition. In his book, Strength to Love, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. And hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

The kingdom, the reign the Christ comes from, will return to, and will bring to earth, the kingdom and reign, we as his disciples are called to work toward is one that renounces violence, hatred, division and retribution. We are called to work toward peace, love, unity and forgiveness.

In the ongoing trial between forces of light and forces of darkness, we need to choose our side.
At the end, Pilate wants to release Jesus. In the song I referenced earlier, Pilate screams, “I need a crime!”

In the end, the crime was that Jesus is King of a Kingdom that is yet to come. A kingdom where God’s will shall be done. A kingdom that shall reign as Heaven on Earth. A kingdom where God’s power is shown in love, God’s glory is done in mercy and forgiveness, forever and ever. AMEN.

Below is the sermon text for Sunday, February 25. The lesson is John 13:1-17, where Jesus washes his disciples feet.

When is the last time someone washed you? Or when was the last time that you washed someone?

Washing someone is an intimate act. If you think of someone washing you, it probably makes you feel uncomfortable. It is a familiarity that is beyond what we are used to. To wash, or to be washed, requires a certain trust. It is done out of a sense of love, or out of duty.
A mother washes her baby or infant, and they bond. A child washes their parent, or grandparent when the ability to do it oneself proves too challenging. We get our hair washed before it is cut and styled to pamper ourselves. A nurse gives us a sponge bath as part of our care in a hospital.

Washing someone isn’t something that happens normally. And it didn’t in Jesus time either. As a sign of hospitality, a host would provide a basin of water and a towel for visitors to use to wash their feet. It was a welcome to someone who had traveled across dusty and dirty roads, clad only in sandals to come to your home. If the hosts were affluent enough, and the guests were worthy, they may have a female servant or slave wash the guest’s feet.

It would only be in extremely rare circumstances that someone other than a female servant would lower themselves to wash someone else’s feet.

One time occurred during the week before Jesus was crucified. A few days after raising Lazarus from the dead, his sisters Martha and Mary had a dinner for Jesus and his disciples. During the meal, Mary took a pound of expensive, pungent nard, and used it do anoint Jesus’ feet, wiping them with her hair. She did this out of love and devotion to Jesus.

And that is the reason that Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. As a sign of love and devotion to them.
It is Thursday of Holy Week, and Jesus and his disciples are gathered for what will be their final meal. In the middle of the meal, Jesus gets up and prepares to wash his disciples feet.

Simon Peter doesn’t understand, first refusing to let Jesus wash his feet, then inviting him to wash his whole body. Simon Peter doesn’t understand what the gesture means.

His teacher, his rabbi, his lord, is showing the degree of servitude, love and devotion that he has. John records this event in this Last Supper, and not the sharing of bread and wine that Mark, Matthew and Luke do. But both events are designed to show, and to remind us, of the sacrifice that Jesus will do in the hours to come.

It is one thing to say, “I will give up my life for you.” It is another to see it acted out in doing an act servants rarely lower themselves to do. It is another to see it shown by being told that bread and wine represent the giving up of one’s life.

For both the sharing of the bread and wine, and for the foot washing, all twelve disciples are there, and all partake. Jesus washes Peter’s feet, and Christ gives him his body and blood. Jesus washes Judas’ feet, and Christ gives him his body and blood.

Later in John’s telling of this Last Supper, Jesus gives his disciples his final, and newest commandment. He tells them, and us, to “Love one another, just as I have loved you.”

The challenge of following that command has troubled Jesus’ followers since he gave it. How do we show love to such a degree that means we would give up our lives for the sake of others? It means putting the importance of others, rather than on ourselves.

Unfortunately, an example came into our world just eleven days ago. During the tragedy of the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a coach, the athletic director and several student put themselves between the shooter and students. To protect others, they stepped, or stayed, in the bath of the bullets.

As someone who spent seventeen years in public education, that doesn’t surprise me. After the shooting, I read a message from a teacher who wrote, “My worst fear isn’t that I’ll die in a school shooting. It’s that I won’t be able to jump in front of my students fast enough.”

I read that, I could picture so many people saying that. It is a horrible thought, and an extreme example, but that is the love that Christ calls us to show.

Jesus Christ, the Word that was with God, the Word that IS God, through whom all things came into being, came into the world. The true light which enlightens everyone came into the world to give all who believe in him the power to become the children of God.

And as children of God, he commands us to take the role of servant, to love others the way that he loves us.

How can you show that love to someone who needs to hear it today? Or tomorrow? Or this week? Or for the rest of your life?

“Servants are not greater than their master, nor are those who are sent out greater than the one who sent them. If you understand this, you will be blessed if you do them.”  AMEN.

February 14, 2018
 
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
After much prayer, thought and consideration, I write to inform you that I have accepted another call, and will be leaving the churches of the ONE in Christ Lutheran Parish after Easter Sunday. The Covenant Lutheran Churches of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma have voted to call me to be their pastor, and I have accepted that call.
Several times, I have shared with quote from the Apostle Paul when he encountered the Risen Christ on the road the Damascus. It is the quote from one of the chapel windows at the Seminary in Gettysburg, and I have had it tattooed on my left forearm. Paul asks, “Lord, what wouldst thou have me do?” I include that question in my prayers several times daily. I now feel that this is the time for me to follow the answer that Christ gives to Paul in Acts 9:6, “Arise, and go into the city.” (KJV)
This has not been an easy decision, but the three churches that make up the Covenant Lutheran Churches will allow me to pursue my dream of urban ministry. They are a mix of urban and suburban churches in diverse metropolis of over 1.5 million people. They are ethnically diverse, community oriented, and looking for a leader who can help them share the Good News in word and deed. I hope I can be the pastor for whom they seek.
I value the time that I have spent with all of you, and believe that we have done a great deal of good work here. I believe that the three church parish arrangement will continue to be fruitful to all. While each of Our Savior’s, Nazareth and Emmanuel are separate and unique churches, you can cooperate and work together for your mutual benefit, and as well as for the good of your communities.
There is the potential for great things to come from the three churches. I believe that potential will best be lead from the leaders within the churches, and a new pastor to work with you. The staff of the Northwest Synod of Wisconsin office will help to find your new pastor.
I thank you for the support that you have shown me, and the joys and sorrows that we have shared. I will work with the leadership of the parish and of the churches to make this transition as smooth as possible. I have informed Bishop Rick Hoyme, and he and his staff are preparing to work with church leaders to move the ONE in Christ Parish into the next phase of ministry.
I will work with the Parish Council to determine when will be my last day, and to ensure that all of my duties are covered. This summer will be a busy one, and I pray that members of the churches will serve to ensure everything gets done.
Please feel free to call or email me if you have any questions, or if you would like to talk.
God Bless You,
 
 
Pastor Brian Robert Campbell

Here is my article from the February newsletter. It will be updated as new information on giving opportunities at the ELCA Youth Gathering arise.

Information on the ELCA's Global Farm Challenge is here. A pdf brochure is here.
A flyer on the Blast off for Books program is here, and the Amazon wish list link is here.
Information on all of the offering opportunities at the Gathering is here.

Giving for the Gathering & Yourself
Pastor’s Ponderings
I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. – Genesis 12:2-3

On the first page of this month’s newsletter, there is an article about special giving opportunities for Lent.

Starting from the bottom, we are going to ask you to participate in the 40 Days – 40 Items offering during Lent. It is a great time to get a head start on your Spring cleaning, but more than that, it really exemplifies what God told Abraham in the above passage from Genesis. From the blessings that God has given you, what can you give up to be a blessing to others. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, we will have reminders and garbage bags for you to pick up and use. It would be wonderful to see Easter Sunday being celebrated with a huge offering that our brothers and sisters at Emmanuel can share during their Free Garage Sales.

Blast Off For Books is the in-kind offering that the ELCA Youth Gathering is doing to directly help the children of Houston. They have put together a list of 40 books targeted at elementary aged students in the Houston Public Schools. A link to the list of books, and an Amazon wish list is ABOVE. Literacy statistics from Houston are staggering. One in four students do not meet the reading standards at grade 3. One in five Houston adults are functionally illiterate. As someone who spend much of his summers checking out books from the library, and as a son of a school librarian, this project hits close to home.

The main Gathering Offering, and what our Blue Jugs will be out collecting for is the ELCA’s World Hunger’s Global Farm Challenge.  It should come as no surprise to no one in our area that 80% of the world’s food is produced on small farms, and that these farms rely mainly on family labor. But half of the world’s 815 million people who are undernourished LIVE on farms themselves.

The noisy offering we will collect from Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday will go to the Global Farm Challenge. Our Luther League will bring this offerings to the Gathering. At the Interactive Learning Space in the NRG Center, youth and young adult leaders will have a chance to participate in an unforgettable experience designed to immerse them in what it's like to be a smallholder farmer around the world.

We are familiar with what the ELCA World Hunger program does. It supports projects in more than 60 countries around the world, including inside the United States. Many of these projects help provide livestock, tools and training for farm families. They work to address areas where families suffer from food-insecurity, that means they often do not know where, or if, their next meal will come from.

For these two causes at the Gathering, the ELCA has set a goal of 100,000 books and $500,000.

I am asking you to meet a goal of donating 50 books from the Blast Off For Books list, and to have a donation of $1,500 for the Global Farm Challenge.

Here is the point where I provide the incentive.

For the Detroit Gathering, it was for me to wear a Packer jersey when we turned in the donation (which was $1,236.29 – and that’s before we added Nazareth) and when we went to Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions. Other challenges have included me wearing a Packer stole or cheese head.

For this challenge, my incentive to you is to give.

Give because God has blessed you. Give because these people are in need. Give because these causes resonate with you. Give because you want to make our kids feel good when we turn in the books and money. Give because I’m asking you to.

Just give.

Don’t give so that I’m embarrassing myself. Give so that we are thrilled by our collective generosity.
Give, because by giving from God’s blessings to you, the whole world may be blessed.

God’s Blessings Be With You All,
Pastor Brian

This is my sermon manuscript for December 31. The lesson is John 1:19-34.
A recording may be posted after this auto-posts.

Over this extended weekend, many people will begin an annual ritual. You take down the Christmas decorations, and bring out your workout gear, or make the exercise bike, or treadmill accessible. We end one season, and begin the season of resolutions.

However, like Christmas, the season of resolutions lasts about 12 days. By mid-January, the exercise bike has resumed its role as secondary coat rack.

But the end of a year, and the beginning of a new one provides us with the opportunity to reflect on what we have been doing, and look at, and maybe even pursue, a new way of doing things.

That is what is going on in our Gospel lesson. God is doing a new thing, and the leaders of Israel’s Jewish community don’t like it.

John the Baptizer has created a great deal of controversy. He is baptizing people in the Jordan River. He is quoting the words of the prophet Isaiah, that he is “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, to make straight the way of the Lord.” He is warning the people of Israel that God’s promised Messiah is coming, and they need to get their act together.

Which upsets the leaders of Israel, and so the Temple leaders send priests and Levites to John to find out what he is up to. “Who are you?” “Who sent you?” “Who gave you the authority to do this?”

They are trying to frame what he is doing in Old Testament language. First, they ask if he is the Messiah, the Promised Anointed One? Then, is he Elijah, the great prophet who was taken up into heaven? If not Elijah, is he one of the other great prophets? If John is one of these, they know how to act and what to do. But if not, they don’t know how to proceed.

John tells them that he isn't the one they should be concerned about. He is simply preparing the way for another. One who is greater than he is, one of whom John is unworthy to tie his sandal.

The next day, John describes this person, and uses Old Testament language to describe him. “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

This is a different form of leadership, one of self-sacrifice. If John, or the One for whom he was preparing the way was a prophet, the priests and Levites would be asking them “What is the will of God?” Then the challenge would be if they would do it? Israel didn’t have a great track record of listening and following what prophets told them to do.

But the Lamb of God is different. With the Lamb of God, there is nothing for you to do but understand and accept.

In the sacrificial system, in the language of Passover, sins are cast onto the lamb, and it is in their death that the sins are taken away. Things are about to get different.

Here, we get into proper names, titles with capital letters. God has sent the capital L Lamb of God who will take away the capital S Sin (singular) of the world. This is a gift from God. Capital S singular Sin is not the things you have done wrong. Those are sins. Capital S singular Sin is the broken relationship you have, or don’t have, with God. The Capital L Lamb of God is here to take away the damaged, estranged relationship and to restore that connection to God.

The Capital W Word of God that has become a person has come to Earth to remove any barriers between people and God. By taking on our nature, by becoming a person, Jesus Christ has come to demonstrate and live out a life in perfect relationship to God, a life of loving others, a life of giving to and for others, a life of self-sacrifice. The life of the Capital L Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This is something BRAND NEW for the priests and Levites, for the people of Israel and for the world. This is God redefining our relationship. This is God saying, “All of that stuff that keeps you from me; your sins, your guilt, your shame, your unworthiness – all of that I am taking away. Be with me.”
That is an unbreakable resolution. On God’s end.

How do we react? Do we realize that the Son of God has become a person to show us that God wants us to feel free to turn to God whenever and wherever we need to? That while we are sinners, and while we are unworthy, God doesn’t care.

And if, somehow, we can accept that God accepts our unacceptability, can we accept others knowing that they are accepted in their unacceptability as well?

God, through Jesus Christ, the Capital L Lamb who comes to take away the capital S Sin (singular) of the world, has resolved to have a new relationship with the world. Can we be resolved to accept this gift of grace, and share the love God gives us with others? Or will this fade like other resolutions of the New Year?