Month: October 2019

Sinner and Holy

 

Romans 3:19-28  John 8:31-36

October 27, 2019  Reformation Sunday

 

You will know the truth, Jesus says.  Was truth as muddy and confusing then as it is now?  Postmodernism rejects universal truths.  We question everything, and for good reason. Facts seem to change.  Pluto was a full- fledged planet.  Now demoted to a dwarf planet. I had learned that there were three states of matter, solid, liquid and gas.  Then plasma was discovered, and now there are four.  Eggs were good for you, then they weren’t, now they are. Don’t even get me started on the dinosaur brontosaurus.  Even the fact-checking web site Snopes contains misinformation.  But that may not be true.  What is truth?

If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.  Just prior to this encounter, while speaking of his impending death, Jesus declared, “The one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” Jesus invites us into the truth that does not change with new discoveries, the truth revealed in Christ Jesus, God’s truth of salvation, grace, forgiveness, reconciliation, life and freedom.  The people listening to Jesus were offended, and cried out, “What are you talking about? We are descendants of Abraham, and we have never been slaves to anyone!” They had forgotten the little matter of Egypt and Pharaoh.  They dismissed their present subjugation to Rome. Their truth, it seems, differed from reality.

Martin Luther pointed to the truth that we deceive ourselves, and that we let the world deceive us. (The media is taking advantage of this.) We deceive ourselves thinking that we can do everything on our own, that power is important, and that money will make us happy. Can we say out loud in front of other people that our life is not perfect?  Can we admit that we need friends and family, and God? As long as we seek to secure our own future, or even our present, instead of trusting God, we live our lives in pretense.  That which drives us to seek our own salvation also chains us to sin.  We cannot set ourselves free from that bondage. To acknowledge the truth that we are in sin, and we cannot save ourselves, gives us freedom in the one who gives us salvation, not because we deserve it, but simply through grace.  Our life comes through Jesus Christ.

To live any other way than being our authentic selves is exhausting!  Did you know that the most popular social media platforms increase negative feeling in users?  Looking on FaceBook at everyone’s idyllic life causes us to feel that our life isn’t as good as everyone else’s.  So we hide the parts of our lives and ourselves that we think are inferior to others.  Portraying a perfect life, or pretending we ourselves are perfect, will not redeem us.  Being wealthy, or educated, beautiful or popular does not change God’s love for us.  In the words of St. Paul, we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

This is true, not only for us, but for the church.  Martin Luther pointed to what he saw as errors in the theology and practices of the Catholic Church, but he and Lutherans have been mistaken, too.  Not just mistaken; we have sinned grievously.  Lutherans have since apologized for our denomination’s wrongs.  The ELCA issued a formal apology for Luther’s writings against the Jews.  After 500 years of bloody persecution, Lutherans repented for their persecution of Anabaptists, which includes Mennonites.  Most recently, the ELCA issued a declaration of apology, writing:

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) apologizes to people of African descent for its historical complicity in slavery and its enduring legacy of racism in the United States and globally. We lament the white church’s failure to work for the abolition of slavery and the perpetuation of racism in this church. We confess, repent and repudiate the times when this church has been silent in the face of racial injustice. [1]

Despite this apology, Lutherans remain the whitest mainline denomination in America.  We are sinners, individually and corporately. That we are saved by faith through grace alone is at the heart of our Lutheran doctrine, and the Reformation reminds us that our faith is about God’s relationship with us.

Jesus is God’s truth made flesh.  Knowing the truth means knowing Jesus.   We are free from having to justify ourselves, and free for a relationship with God and each other.  Luther said that anything that is not God’s son will not make us free.  How ironic that the freedom that gives us life is one of dependence. Isn’t that just like God to turn our truth upside-down?  This day, and every day, may the truth we encounter, and the truth we believe, be God.

~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin

[1] https://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/Slavery_Apology_Explanation.pdf

Sinner and Holy

 

Romans 3:19-28  John 8:31-36

October 27, 2019  Reformation Sunday

 

You will know the truth, Jesus says.  Was truth as muddy and confusing then as it is now?  Postmodernism rejects universal truths.  We question everything, and for good reason. Facts seem to change.  Pluto was a full- fledged planet.  Now demoted to a dwarf planet. I had learned that there were three states of matter, solid, liquid and gas.  Then plasma was discovered, and now there are four.  Eggs were good for you, then they weren’t, now they are. Don’t even get me started on the dinosaur brontosaurus.  Even the fact-checking web site Snopes contains misinformation.  But that may not be true.  What is truth?

If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.  Just prior to this encounter, while speaking of his impending death, Jesus declared, “The one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” Jesus invites us into the truth that does not change with new discoveries, the truth revealed in Christ Jesus, God’s truth of salvation, grace, forgiveness, reconciliation, life and freedom.  The people listening to Jesus were offended, and cried out, “What are you talking about? We are descendants of Abraham, and we have never been slaves to anyone!” They had forgotten the little matter of Egypt and Pharaoh.  They dismissed their present subjugation to Rome. Their truth, it seems, differed from reality.

Martin Luther pointed to the truth that we deceive ourselves, and that we let the world deceive us. (The media is taking advantage of this.) We deceive ourselves thinking that we can do everything on our own, that power is important, and that money will make us happy. Can we say out loud in front of other people that our life is not perfect?  Can we admit that we need friends and family, and God? As long as we seek to secure our own future, or even our present, instead of trusting God, we live our lives in pretense.  That which drives us to seek our own salvation also chains us to sin.  We cannot set ourselves free from that bondage. To acknowledge the truth that we are in sin, and we cannot save ourselves, gives us freedom in the one who gives us salvation, not because we deserve it, but simply through grace.  Our life comes through Jesus Christ.

To live any other way than being our authentic selves is exhausting!  Did you know that the most popular social media platforms increase negative feeling in users?  Looking on FaceBook at everyone’s idyllic life causes us to feel that our life isn’t as good as everyone else’s.  So we hide the parts of our lives and ourselves that we think are inferior to others.  Portraying a perfect life, or pretending we ourselves are perfect, will not redeem us.  Being wealthy, or educated, beautiful or popular does not change God’s love for us.  In the words of St. Paul, we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

This is true, not only for us, but for the church.  Martin Luther pointed to what he saw as errors in the theology and practices of the Catholic Church, but he and Lutherans have been mistaken, too.  Not just mistaken; we have sinned grievously.  Lutherans have since apologized for our denomination’s wrongs.  The ELCA issued a formal apology for Luther’s writings against the Jews.  After 500 years of bloody persecution, Lutherans repented for their persecution of Anabaptists, which includes Mennonites.  Most recently, the ELCA issued a declaration of apology, writing:

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) apologizes to people of African descent for its historical complicity in slavery and its enduring legacy of racism in the United States and globally. We lament the white church’s failure to work for the abolition of slavery and the perpetuation of racism in this church. We confess, repent and repudiate the times when this church has been silent in the face of racial injustice. [1]

Despite this apology, Lutherans remain the whitest mainline denomination in America.  We are sinners, individually and corporately. That we are saved by faith through grace alone is at the heart of our Lutheran doctrine, and the Reformation reminds us that our faith is about God’s relationship with us.

Jesus is God’s truth made flesh.  Knowing the truth means knowing Jesus.   We are free from having to justify ourselves, and free for a relationship with God and with each other.  Luther said that anything that is not God’s son will not make us free.  How ironic that the freedom that gives us life is one of dependence. Isn’t that just like God to turn our truth upside-down?  This day, and every day, may the truth we encounter, and the truth we believe, be God.

~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin

 

[1] https://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/Slavery_Apology_Explanation.pdf

Assumptions

Luke 18:1-8

Lectionary 29    19th Sunday after Pentecost

 

How did you hear this story?  What characteristics did you ascribe to the judge?  How about the widow?  What things were we actually told about the judge, and about the widow?  Sometimes, our brain takes perceived information and turns it into “facts.” To illustrate this, I am sharing a story, which you may have already heard, but listen again.

Standing in line to check out at the store was a young mother, Susie, with her toddler. Behind her was a well-dressed couple.  In front of her was a woman struggling to get everything onto the conveyer belt and keep an eye on her five children. Susie heard the couple behind her say, “How many baby daddies do you think she has?  She can’t even dress those kids properly.  Just wait for it, she’s going to whip out food stamps. Our tax dollars at work.”

Susie’s gaze turned to the family in front of her. Two children had blonde hair like their mom. They wore jackets and long pants. Three of the children had dark hair, and brown, sad eyes.  Despite the cold weather, they had no coats or proper shoes.  Managing purchases and the food stamp card flustered the woman.  Susie stepped forward to help her, and the two women spoke quietly together for a bit.

After the family left, the young mother turned to the well-dressed couple behind her.   “Those children?” she said to them. “They lost the right to live with their parents just days ago. Those clothes? Probably the only clothes they own, or got to leave their home with. THAT woman? She opened her home to kids — kids that needed a safe place to go, when the one they lived in no longer proved safe enough or secure enough for them. The food stamps, something health and welfare does to help feed three new mouths. There are not nearly enough women or people like her this world.”

There were obvious and differing suppositions made by people in this story. The assumption made by the well-dressed couple led to their harsh judgment of the woman with five children. They were closed to other possibilities.  Have you ever been wrongly judged?  Have you ever made false assumptions? Are you human?  Then you have.  We all do.

So, I’m curious. How did you interpret our gospel reading? What assumptions did you make when you heard the story?  Do you remember what we are told about the judge?  He was unjust. He neither feared God nor had respect for people.  He answered the widow only to keep her from bothering him. She was getting on his nerves.  What do we know about the widow?  She sought justice. It was so important to her that she persisted in seeking it.  Just like the rising sun, she showed up every morning.

Jesus states that this parable is about the need to pray always, and not to lose heart.  The widow shows us what that looks like; she was tenacious in her quest for justice.  Her prayers had gone unanswered for so long, yet every day she went before the judge.  The widow models God’s desire for us to be stubborn, dedicated, and persistent in our prayers.

The judge said,“…yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”  The widow seems to have gotten on the judge’s last nerve!  To think that God answers prayers only because we have been so irritating, and that God looks forward to our not showing up, does not sound like the God I know.  Neither does the description “unjust.”

Who are you in this parable? We might assume that we are the widow, the one who has been wronged, the one seeking justice.  While I would like to think that I persistently pursue God’s justice, I know that I have lapses where I focus only on the people I know and love, and ignore the real plight of others.  I best identify with the judge who doesn’t always fear God, nor had respect for people. Most days, I do respect people.  Catch me on a day when I don’t feel my best, there are too many things to accomplish, and the driver in front of me slows down for no apparent reason.  When I act as the unjust judge, just wanting people to go away, God is most like the widow, annoying me with righteousness.

The widow was seeking justice. So does Jesus.  Jesus sees it as our responsibility to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, take care of the sick and visit the prisoners. Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me, Jesus said.[1]  Jesus is not just present with those who are marginalized and in need.  He is them.  He is the widow.

There are hungry, and homeless people, people who cannot afford medicines and doctors.  There are people who are not only alone, but are also lonely.  There are children who live with wounds inflicted upon them by the mothers and fathers who are too broken to love them. God comes to us every day, just as the rising sun, reminding us that there is still justice to be worked out, and asking us to do something about it.  How often do we assume we can’t make a difference, or that someone else will do it?

Jesus ends this parable with a haunting question.  I end with the same one. When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?

~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin

[1] Matthew 25:40

How Much Faith Is Enough?

Luke 17:5-10

17th Sunday after Pentecost  ~  Lectionary 27

 “Moderation is for monks,” my husband says.  “More is better!” is his motto.  This explains the shrubs in my yard are burnt by fertilizer.  Do we ever have enough?  Do we think in terms of and focus more on scarcity than we do abundance?  Do we wrestle with deficits instead recognizing gifts?  How often do we feel inadequate?  Couldn’t we benefit from more?  Perhaps we could profit from a better ability to speak in public, greater engagement with other people, more knowledge, or greater faith.

Today we hear the disciples cry “Increase our faith! If only we had more! Everything would be wonderful if just had more faith.” Maybe we need to back up to right before this morning’s reading begins. Jesus had told them that they would stumble.  He said that if they caused one new to the faith to trip up, they’d be better off with a boulder tied around their neck and thrown into the sea to sink to the bottom and drown.  He told them they needed to forgive the repentant as many times as they said they were sorry.  In response, they gave their honest gut-reaction to Jesus’ frightening statements.  They cried, “Increase our faith!”

How many times have we said that?  Like the father of an ill little boy in the Gospel of Mark, I have cried out, “Lord, I believe!  Help my unbelief!” [Mark 9:24].  I boldly say you have, too.  Increase our faith!

Where does faith come from?  Martin Luther, in his explanation of the third article of the Apostle’s Creed states:

I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, made me holy and kept me in the true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one common, true faith.[1]

Faith is a gift.  We think having more faith is a desirable and beneficial thing, but Jesus’ response to them is harsh!  He says that a speck of faith would move a mulberry tree into the sea.  He tells the disciples to think of themselves as worthless slaves.  Jesus can be so difficult!  We know that he is exaggerating to drive his point home, but what is really wrong with wanting more faith?

Thinking about that, what do we mean by “having faith?”  When is it that we don’t feel I have enough of it? Is it when something happens that we perceive is negatively impacting our life?  If our faith is strong enough, we will get that job, or  won’t get sick. We will be happier, and successful.   Fill in the blank. Is this faith? Is our concept of faith about our ability to manipulate God, or self-centered magic?

But maybe our longing for more faith has more to do with feeling like a pseudo-Christian because we have doubts.  We are confused, or can’t articulate our faith.  Maybe we can’t conceive of a virgin birth, “Increase our faith,” we cry.  Maybe what we want is for discipleship, and the life of faith to be easy.

“If you had faith the size of a mustard seed,” Jesus replied to the disciples, and to us.  What he is saying is, “If you had faith, and you do!”  This Greek conditional clause translates that way.  Jesus wasn’t ranking the disciples according to their faith.  They had seen Jesus heal Jairus’ daughter, heard him pronounce forgiveness in God’ name to the woman weeping at his feet, and cleanse a leper.  They heard his teaching to love enemies, and pronounce blessing to these who are poor. Their experience of Jesus sparked their belief in him, and their trust. They believed he had the power to increase their faith.  They recognized their inability to believe on their own.

God’s call to and hope for us is use the faith that we have, no matter how much or how little, to do those things that God calls us to do.  To do them, not to receive honor or reward, but as a response to our love for God.   We are called to pass along God’s grace and love that flows so deep through the dark depths of our lives, and do so because we cannot imagine life without it.  More faith isn’t better faith.

“Faith is the ‘assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,’ says the Letter to the Hebrews (1:11),” Frederick Buechner reminds us. “Faith is laughter at the promise of a child called Laughter. Faith is better understood as a verb than as a noun, as a process than as a possession.”[2]

We already have what we need, more than enough as a matter of fact, to do faith.  It’s a gift from our God of abundance.

~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin

[1] Wengert, Timothy, translator.  By Heart: Conversations with Luther’s Small Catechism.  Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2017. 92.

[2] Buechner, Frederick.  Beyond Words:  Daily Readings in the ABC’s of Faith.  New York:  HarperCollins Publishers.  2004.  109.