A Warm Up Visit

A WARM UP VISIT

 

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost – July 7, 2013

Isaiah 66: 10-14

Galatians 6: 1-16

Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20

 

                Well, it has been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, my hometown.  The streets and houses all seem to be deserted.  There’s still traffic on Main Street, but no one ever stops.  It’s summer people, travelling from the twin cities to their headwaters camp in northern Minnesota.  They don’t even blink an eye when they pass through Lake Wobegon.  They think Bud’s prices for gas at the Sinclair station are way too high, but Bud has to pay a hefty price to get the gas delivered.  They’re all in too much of a hurry to stop at Bertha’s Bagel and Brew; where you can get a bagel and coffee for breakfast, a bagel and root beer for lunch, and a bagel and a Wendy’s beer for dinner.  So Bertha has threatened to move her shop to St. Cloud.  That would be just another on the long list of businesses that have either left town for greener pastures or just gone under.

                There aren’t many Lake Wobegonians left in town either.  With the Fourth of July holiday in the middle of the week, folks took the whole week off and headed for their camps along the lake where it’s just a little bit cooler than the pavement and sidewalks in town.  Yes, it does get hot in central Minnesota.  They say we have two seasons: winter, from September to May when it’s not unusual to have consecutive weeks of temperatures below 0 degrees; and road construction season, June through August, when 90 degree temperatures and 90% humidity will melt the winter fat out your pores like Minnehaha Falls.

                Clarence Bunson, out at his camp on the lake, cranked up the radio when he heard “Hot town, summer in the city,” thinking John Sebastian must have visited Lake Wobegon  when he wrote that.  And he pretended that he felt a little bit cooler, even though there was no breeze coming off the lake.

                Those left in town weren’t opening their doors or coming out of their homes, and it wasn’t just because they had their air conditioners pumping away.  Telephones were ringing all around town as the rumor spread that the JWs were canvassing, you know – the Jehovah’s Witnesses, going from house to house, knocking on doors or ringing door bells.  Or maybe it was the Mormons?  They couldn’t tell them apart.  In any case, the German Catholics of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility and the Norwegian Lutherans of Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church were in united cooperation of pretending they weren’t home.

                But the visitors were never fooled.  They could hear the conversations behind closed doors.  Mothers would yell at their children, “Don’t open the door!”  Kids would ask, “Why not?”  Mothers would answer, “Because they are proselytizers.”  Kids would say, “What’s that?”  Mothers would answer, “They are a threat to our religion.”  Kids would say, “But we never even go to church.”  Mothers would say, “If we don’t answer, they’ll eventually leave.”

                And so it went on.  It sure was quiet in Lake Wobegon.

                David Engqvist is now retired three years from his 38 year tenure as the pastor at Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church.  He and his wife, Judy, still live in town, but he tries not to interfere much with the ministry of the new pastor, Pastor Liz, a young (oh, oh) woman (boo) from New Jersey (oh God!).  He’s filled in for her when she’s away on vacation, but mostly he lets her make her own mistakes, learning the way he did from his.

                Pastor Engqvist always wanted someone to coming knocking at his door, but in all that time it never happened.  It was as if the proselytizers knew the field of Lake Wobegon wasn’t ripe for the harvest, even though there was a lot of white on the top of the stalks, doncha know.  But now, that rumored couple was coming up his sidewalk and about to ring his door bell.

                Pastor Engqvist opened his front door and was surprised to see Al and Jean Swanson standing there.  He remembered when Al and Jean joined Lake Wobegon Lutheran about four years ago.  They were both recently retired and moved to Lake Wobegon to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.  No one ever told him they had become Jehovah’s Witnesses.

                “Why, Pastor Engqvist!” said Al, “We didn’t know this is where you and Mrs. Engqvist lived.  Well, I guess we don’t need to share much with you.”

                But the pastor was hoping they would stay and talk.  He had prepared for this moment for so long.  His plan was to first invite them to pray together, because Jehovah’s Witnesses aren’t allowed to pray with heathens.  Pastor Engqvist remembered his youth in the Wisconsin Synod of the Lutheran Church when he had been taught to never recite the Lord’s Prayer in public because even some who called themselves Lutheran weren’t truly-believing Lutherans.  So they would have to explain why they couldn’t pray together and he would be ready for that.  Then, using his limited memory of Biblical Hebrew, he would explain how there really was no such word as ‘Jehovah’; that it was a trans-scripted combination of the consonants of the name of ‘Yahweh’ and the vowel points of the word ‘Adonai,’ reminding faithful Jews not to pronounce the divine name, but read ‘Lord God’ instead.  That would shock them.  Then he would counter their dark, apocalyptic theology of the sinful world and God’s final destruction with the good news of the love and forgiveness of Jesus and the promise of eternal life to all.

                “Please, come inside.  I will pour you a cup of coffee and we’ll talk,” invited Pastor Engqvist.  “Oh, no coffee for us,” said Jean.  “That’s right!” thought David, “They probably don’t do caffeine.”  “It’s too hot for coffee,” Jean continued, “How about some lemonade?”

                While Pastor Engqvist poured three lemonades, Al began his well-rehearsed speech, “As you know, we are going from house to house in Lake Wobegon…”  “Oh, yes,” Pastor Engqvist interrupted, “Word is getting around that the Jehovah’s Witnesses are in town.”

                Al and Jean looked at each other and nervously chuckled, “Jehovah’s Witnesses?  No, we’re from Lake Wobegon Lutheran.  You know that.”

                “Then why this door to door thing?” asked the perplexed pastor.  “Lutherans don’t do that kind of thing!”

                Al then explained, “Pastor Liz shared with our Bible study group the Gospel story of Jesus sending out the seventy in pairs to spread the message of Jesus, and she thought that we could try that right here in Lake Wobegon.  She was hoping that 70 people would come to her training session, but Jean and I were the only ones to show up.  But we still wanted to do it, even if by ourselves, because we’ve always been, well, impressed with folks like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons who are so convicted about their beliefs and who follow the Biblical example that Jesus himself offered.”

                Now Pastor Engqvist was curious, “But why do that in Lake Wobegon where everybody is already either Lutheran or Catholic, or those Sanctified Brethren in the barn outside of town and none of them are going to change?”

                “First,” said Al, “It’s not about proselytizing and conversion.  It’s about invitation and offering help to meet the needs in our community.  We’re really proud of our little church.  You established a long-lasting foundation of faithfulness and now Pastor Liz is challenging us with some new ideas and new ways of doing things.  It’s really quite exciting to be part of Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church.  Pastor Liz described this as more of a survey to find out what people are looking for from our church and how we can meet their needs and concerns.  She calls it ‘Together to Gather.’  Pretty clever, isn’t it?”

                “And second,” added Jean, “More and more people, even in Lake Wobegon, don’t have any church connection at all.  And we want people to know that Jesus and Lake Wobegon Lutheran cares about them too.  But it sure is hard to share the word when no one is home.”

                “Oh, they’re home,” said Pastor Engqvist, “Just give me a chance to make a few phone calls and I think you’’ see more doors being opened unto you.”

                And with that hope, Al and Jean went on to the next house.

                “Maybe Liz is right,” thought the old pastor, “It’s a different world out there today.  We could all learn a lesson, not from the door-knockers and bell-pushers, but from Jesus to be missionaries of invitation and assistance to those who strayed from the path.”

                As David cranked up his air conditioner, he yelled across the room to his wife, Judy, “It seems like things might start to heat up around here!”

 

And that’s the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.  AMEN.

In memory of BARBARA J. CORETTY

 

Colossians 3: 12-17

Romans 8: 18-30

John 14: 1-6, 18-21

 

                Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,  Amen.

 

                Ted left this message for me: “Could you stop by the house and visit with Mom?  She’s finding her way.”  Barbara had taken a visible change from managing-day-to-day to the-end-is-near.  Her body was failing; her breathing short but steady; her eyelids heavy.  But Barbara was still very much in control.  As with all of her life, she would be as much in control as she was able.  As she had done throughout her life, Barbara would be “finding her own way” through death.

                As I listened to Stacey and Ted recall memories from her life, fondly and with great affection; it seemed to me that Barbara lived through various stages or chapters in her life.

                From the pursuit of academic excellence in her own youthful studies to expecting excellence out of the students she taught, balancing the expectations of being the wife of an Episcopalian priest with the demands of motherhood, then completely recreating herself in a new life out on Long Island working with and caring for the elderly, all the while deliberately and methodically and frugally preparing for her retirement years, then completely reinventing herself in life at Castle Hill in Castleton and her volunteer service at The Anchor; each chapter was new and different.  In each episode, Barbara was finding her way.

                But you and I know, as indeed Barbara knew, that you can’t control everything.  Life has its ups and often lot of downs that catch us by surprise.  When determination failed, that’s when hope took over.  And even in her lowest experiences, Barbara never gave up hope, or faith, or love.  So Ted wanted to use a reading from I Corinthians 13 at today’s service: “So faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”

                But Barbara gave us other instructions!  The first reading shared from the epistle to the Colossians was printed on a bookmarker buried in her Bible.  It describes love as not just an emotion, but rather as a way of life.  Love defines how you treat others and yourself because it is grounded in the knowledge of the reality of God’s love for us.

                Then a ribbon was firmly fixed at the eighth chapter of Romans.  Beginning with suffering, a suffering that Barbara experienced, St. Paul proceeded to hope in the knowledge that God has a plan and purpose for all of us.  Battling against cancer, Barbara’s suffering could never deter her determination nor defeat her hope.

                Perhaps we all like to think that we’re in control of our lives.  We may even be obsessive/compulsive about it!  But we never really find our way until we let go and trust in the One who said: “I am the way and the truth and the life.”  In Jesus, life and eternal life are a free gift, given and shared unconditionally.  Did you hear that, Barbara?  It’s free!

                This complicated, but wonderful, journey of life that we’re on – FREE!

                Drinks on your vacation to Hawaii?  COMPLIMENTARY!

The final crossing to Paradise? Paid for you by someone else, someone who gave his life for you in love.

Barbara, you probably like to think that you had the last word, that you were in control right to the very end, that you saved your last breath for when Ted and Stacey were not around, that out of love you were “finding a way” to spare them the pain.

But the truth is, the promise is, that when you found Jesus, or better put, when you trusted that Jesus found you, that’s when you found the way through this life to life everlasting.  Amen.

 

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.

 

Rev. James H. Slater

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church – Valatie, NY

Rockefeller Funeral Home – Rensselaer, NY

May 11, 2013

EASTER 2013

EASTER SUNDAY

Isaiah 65: 17-25

I Corinthians 15: 1-11

Luke 24: 1-12

NOT AN IDLE/IDOL TALE

 

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, or Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

 

                It used to be that if you said, “It is finished,” on Good Friday, almost everybody, certainly all of your friends and companions, would know that you were quoting Scripture about the crucifixion of Jesus.  Today, however, you may post that message on Facebook and receive back the oblivious reply, “What did you finish?”  Really?  While it may be a sad commentary on our otherwise distracted society, it is a perfect opportunity to witness to your faith and share the story of Jesus – and that is precisely how I saw it being addressed.

                Imagine posting on Facebook on Easter morning, “He is risen!” and receiving back the response, “It’s about time that lazy husband of your woke up.”  It’s gotten to the point where many people don’t know what we’re talking about and many people don’t care.  Oh, they’re grateful to have an Easter bunny with eggs and candy, they’re grateful for the renewal of springtime, they even vaguely remember that this used to be a holiday with some religious significance.  But the Biblical message of the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb now seems to far too many and idle tale.

                Did you hear that in today’s Gospel reading?  According to St. Luke’s account of Easter, it was the women of Jesus’ company who went to anoint the body of Jesus at early dawn and were greeted, not by a sealed tomb, but by an empty space where his body had been laid and by two angelic messengers who asked the haunting question, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” and proclaimed the very first resurrection announcement, “He is not here.  He has risen!”

                The women returned to the gathered disciples and share the first Easter message.  “But,” Luke writes, “these words seemed to them an idle tale and they did not believe them.”

                Maybe today is not all that different from that first Easter morning.  We have this jewel of good news.  God has acted on behalf of human imperfection.  God has broken the cyclical pattern of sin and death.  God has defeated the meaningless finality of death and brought about a new creation.  In raising Jesus from the dead God has fulfilled the completion of divine creation and promises to each one of us the perfection of eternal life in the Kingdom of God.  Jesus Christ is risen today!  He is risen, indeed!  And to that many may add an “alleluia!” today, but tomorrow return to their typical response of, “so what?”

                Believing it to be a cute story, but nothing more than an idle tale, they run off to pursue their own idol tales.  And now I have switched words from “idle”, meaning lazy, worthless and meaningless, to “idol”, meaning placing other worthless pursuits as gods in your life.  If God is not supreme in your life and the resurrection of Jesus not important enough to give thanks to God on every first day of the week, then you are guilty of listening to one or many idol tales.

                These last few weeks of Lent have been devastating for us.  We have dealt with untimely death, with undeserved disease, with undirected futures.  Without faith in our crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ, there would be no promise to live on, no hope for the future, and no purpose for today.

                But for those who are alive in Christ, for those who have smashed their egotistical idols to the ground, for those for whom the good news of Jesus’ resurrection is not an idle tale, but rather the foundation of their faith, they see hope in despair, they see a blessed future in a confusing present, they see life even in the face of death.  We, like Peter, need to run to that empty tomb and enter into the experience of the resurrection of Jesus Christ for ourselves.

                From the small group of women on Easter morning to the less than dozen disciples on that Easter evening, the message had changed from an apparent idle tale to the best news of their lives: good news that would forever change, forever improve, forever fulfill their lives.

                Allow me to share with you several of my Good Friday experiences.  I had wanted it to be an idle day for me, maybe rake the lawn of the winter debris, or start up that car that had been in the garage all winter with a dead battery.  But it was not to be.  I spent the morning at the home of a dying woman in hospice care, surrounded by her family.  The woman had been struggling with the belief that she deserved her pain and suffering and family members were reliving their unresolved life situations in her dying process.  I asked them some basic questions:

                “Do you believe God loves you?”  The dying woman and her family answered with an emphatic “Yes.”

                “Do you believe that Jesus died for you on this day?”  Again, they answered “Yes.”

                “Do you believe God forgives you?”  And they all answered “Yes.” 

                A sudden peace surrounded that woman and her family.  I guess the message of Jesus was far more than some idle tale!

                Then I spent the afternoon at the Northern Dutchess County Hospital in Rhinebeck with Pastor Mark Frickey as the patient.  His kidney/liver disease has flared up overnight.  As acting Dean, it was my responsibility to make sure that Good Friday services for his four congregations were taken care of and arrangements made for their Easter Sunday worship. 

                They would need help for the Easter services at Christ Lutheran Church in Viewmont.  I turned to Duane and Phyllis Keeler who anticipated an unusual Sunday off from all their preaching and worship leading responsibilities.  Their immediate response was, “Yes, of course!  Nothing could be better than to get the opportunity to preach the good news of the Easter resurrection of Jesus.”  They were willing to give up their free Sunday because preaching the Gospel would be no idle tale for them but a life-changing, hope-filling, promise fulfilling message.

                Then came our Good Friday worship here in this place.  With Scripture and hymn, darkness and prayer, we entered into the experience of the death of Jesus on the cross.  But that story and all the events of my Good Friday would be nothing more than an idle tale if not for this morning when the story continues with shouts of “Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!”

                May it not be for you today or tomorrow, in joy or in sorrow, in health or in sickness, in success or in failure, in life or in death just an idle tale.  But may it be for you the reason for all that you do.  May it be for you the basis for all you believe.  May it be for you the support for all your days.  May it be for you the joy of all your life!  AMEN.

 

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  AMEN.

 

Rev. James Slater

Emanuel Lutheran Church – Stuyvesant Falls

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church – Valatie

March 31, 2013

 

In memory of Andrew Ryan Schomaker

(February 1, 1992 – March 15, 2013)

Isaiah 55: 6-13

Revelation 21: 1-7

John 14: 1-7

 

                Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

                Although received as an adult member here at St. Luke’s, Andrew never participated in confirmation class.  So I thought I’d share some of the songs we use when we act out the funeral services for Bert and Ernie to better understand the concepts of death and resurrection in the Third Article of the Apostles Creed.  Plus, I thought Andrew might appreciate something from Eric Clapton, that masterful guitarist, who wrote the song, Tears in Heaven, when his four year old son, Conor, died after falling out of a 53^rd story window.  What strikes me so much about the song’s expression of grief, beyond the fact that it proclaims the promise of the 21^st chapter of the book of Revelation that there will be no more tears in heaven, is that, despite his overwhelming desire to be with his son, he strongly asserts that he does not belong in heaven.   I don’t believe that is based on not feeling worthy of heaven but that, while we believe that heaven is a place of peace and rest in God’s glory for those who die, it does not demean nor diminish the value of the gift of life that God grants us now.  He affirms the worth of each individual’s life now.

                Imagine the strength of conviction in the meaning and value of life to be able to commend your infant son to heaven’s glory, but to know that your place is still here – that there is more for you to do, that God still has a plan and purpose for your life.

                I know that for many people life is not easy, nor always enjoyable, nor ever understandable.  This may be as true for you as it was for Andrew and for so many people of Andrew’s age.  No longer a child, but not yet fully an adult; no longer just living life, but looking for meaning and purpose in life; no longer being led by others, but making your own choices and decisions for your future.

                It’s a natural process of maturation, of growing up.  It’s something we all struggle through.  And it’s best to do that with the support of family, friends, and faith.

                What does not belong in this natural process?  The abuse of drugs and alcohol.  They offer only an escape – not a solution.  They offer only an illusion – not a dealing with reality.  And we are gathered here today because they lead to death and not to life.  Voiced quite deliberately by Andrew’s grandmother and felt, I’m certain, by every family member is that Andrew’s death might have some good purpose to it if it serves as a wake up call to all his friends.  If you’re hooked on drugs – get help now.  If you’re not on drugs – don’t do it, ever.  And if you know someone who is on drugs, get them help even if they don’t ask for it.  There are no answers in drugs, only dead ends.

                Dead ends.  Wait, Clapton sings, “Beyond the door there’s peace I’m sure and I know there’ll be no more tears in heaven.”

                Today is not just a “scared straight” warning.  It’s also a hopeful celebration.  For none of life’s frustrations or temptations, not even disease or death, can destroy the promise of life that comes from a God of love and forgiveness, a God of mercy and grace, a God who gave His own Son to experience and to conquer every human temptation and sin, by whose death on a cross and Easter resurrection wins the victory of everlasting life.

                Looking for answers?  Looking for meaning and purpose in your life?  Jesus said, “I AM the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father but through me.”  Andrew was baptized into that faith and God’s promise can never be taken away from him by anyone or anything.  Some of you became a family for him at home, some at school, some at Senior High Camp, to help him always remember God’s promise.  At camp Andrew was a Counselor in Training, a CiT, and I thought I could do something with Andrew being a Child of God, a CoG, but I couldn’t get it to work well. 

That banner over the entryway to church indicates the involvement of our parish in a program called “cherish our children.”  Adults are assigned the names of all the baptized children of the parish and all the Sunday School children up to the age of 21 to hold up regularly in prayer.  Andrew was on my prayer list.  He was, and still is, a child I cherish.  I wish I could have done more than my prayers.  Perhaps many of you are thinking “I should have done more.”  I suppose there will always be more that we could have done, but we can only turn that over to God in confession and in the knowledge of our forgiveness.  But I know my prayers for Andrew were heard by God and answered; not in the way I would have preferred, but in the wisdom of Almighty God.  God’s divine purpose will be accomplished in Andrew’s life and in his death.

And today, despite grief and guilt, we celebrate that Andrew is a child of God, that he will leave a lasting impression on our lives, and that he has been carried on angel wings to heavenly peace and rest where there will be no more tears.  AMEN

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord unto life everlasting.  AMEN.

Rev. James H. Slater

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church – Valatie

March 21, 2013

 

In memory of Raymond Frederick Seiger

(June 1, 1962 – March 13, 2013)

Psalm 130

I Thessalonians 4:13—5:11

John 11: 17-26

                Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

                Scripture tells us that God never gives us anything beyond what we are able to handle.  Many people find great comfort and strength from that promise.  It gives them the confidence to face each new day, one day at a time, one step at a time.

                But others – too many others – find the promise lacking in their lives.  They feel overwhelmed by difficult situations.  The suffering of consequences due to poor choices force them into a downward  spiral of increasingly bad decisions until it seems to them like a well too deep to climb out of.  They are trapped by addictions over which they can gain no control.  This was the negative side of Freddy’s life.

                But there was a wonderful, positive side as well.  He grew up with adoptive parents who chose him to be their own and raised him with equal measures of military discipline and unconditional love.  He knew the family relationship of having two sisters.  He fathered children who are now growing to the age of making their own life choices and deciding which part of their father they will work to redeem and what parts of Freddy they will cherish and treasure.  He always had best intentions and sincere desire to turn his life around and make something of himself.  And from time to time Freddy would return to worship, to acknowledge the God he had learned about in church and through the teaching and examples of his family.

                Then why, after fifty years, did it seem more than he could handle?  Why, after fifty years, did his life come to an end?  Often we assign blame to three separate sources.

                It may come as no surprise to you at all that the first place we go to is to blame ourselves.  Have you said to yourself in the days after Freddy’s death, “If only I would have…?”  There is always more we each could have done.  We need to confess that before God and rely on our Savior’s love and forgiveness.  If there is something you did that led Freddy in the path of temptation and destruction of his body, then that’s between you and God.  But ultimately, Freddy was responsible for himself and his own choices.

                So, secondly, it’s only natural to direct the blame towards him.  “Poor Fred was just too weak, too susceptible, too faithless.  He refused to hold on to the good and the positive influences in his life,” we may be saying.  But if that is what we’re thinking, then we don’t fully understand the power of addiction – that it is not simply a matter of moral will but it is physical and it is physiological.  And it begins to control you; and it begins to destroy you.

                The, thirdly, out of frustration more than anything else, we blame God.  Even Martha, one of the sisters of Lazarus, accused Jesus saying, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.”  And yet God never prevents us from dying.  That is a fact of human finiteness.  We will all die.  Even Lazarus, raised from the dead by Jesus, would still die.

                Instead, Jesus had a message, a promise, for Martha and Mary beyond human death that pointed to resurrection life.  “Your brother will rise again,” he said to Martha, “because I AM the resurrection and the life.  All who have faith in me, even though dead, yet shall live.  And all who live in faith in me will never die the death of hell and destruction.”

                Now there are some who would want you to believe that faith is something you have to do: that Jesus offers us salvation but, unless we grab on to it, we will forfeit it.  I find that disturbing and quite hopeless because none of us are able to fully live out the life God would have us lead.

                When Jesus confronted Satan in the wilderness and three times resisted the temptations of the devil, he did not mean for the message to be, “If I can do it, then you can do it.”  Instead it was, “I did it because I know that you cannot.”  That’s why he took up the cross, bore it for our sakes, and willingly gave his life so that we, who never could, would never be expected to.

                I have deliberately chosen Scripture today that affirms God’s unconditional love, grace and salvation for all of us; whether Deadheads, or Alive in Christ, or Deadheads for Jesus.  Jerry Garcia knew of God’s “Amazing Grace” and was able to sing about it, and now lives in it.  Freddy knew about God’s “Amazing Grace” and now lives in it in heavenly peace and rest from his troubles.  And we know about God’s “Amazing Grace.”  Can we now live in it?  Not just in the future; but now; in the choices we make, with the family and friends we love, with the demons and temptations we face.  Trusting in the promise of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we can live our lives in the confidence of the prophet Isaiah: “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"?  ²⁸Have you not known?  Have you not heard?  The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.  ²⁹He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.  ³⁰Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; ³¹but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40: 27-31)  AMEN.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord unto life everlasting.  AMEN.

Rev. James H. Slater

Emanuel Lutheran Church – Stuyvesant Falls

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church – Valatie

March 19, 2013

 

The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

October 7,2012

READ - Genesis 2: 18-24                                Hebrews 1: 1-4; 2: 5-12                  Mark 10: 2-16

 

IT’S ALL ABOUT __________

 

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

                It’s all about relationship.

                Yesterday’s Apple Festival at Emanuel, do you think that was all about raising money?  Well, we certainly need it!  We’re $6,000 in the hole at the end of September.  But if it’s primary purpose is raising money, then we would be the first to be fired by Donald Trump.  No, it’s about relationships; relationships with the community around us and relationship with one another in our service.

                The now-infamous infield-fly-rule game, do I think many people care that my Braves got cheated in their loss to St. Louis?  No, I get mercilessly teased because it’s all about relationships; with my friends and fellow baseball enthusiasts.

                When I counsel a couple in preparation for their wedding day, do I tell them that theirs will be a match made in heaven and that God has brought together the only two people in the world meant to be with each other?  No, because then God wouldn’t have a very impressive track record.  Instead, I tell them that marriage is about relationship, and commitment to one another, and the need to constantly work at keeping the vows of promise for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, unless those vows are irrevocably broken.

                Attending worship every Sunday, do you think it’s about obligation?  That line isn’t even working in the Roman Catholic community anymore.  Do you think it’s about obedience to God’s command?  Then a lot of people are simply going to hell.  And I think a good portion of our society has resigned itself to that fate.  I presided at a wedding at St. Luke’s with over 150 people in attendance.  Communion was offered, and is 20 people came forwards to receive, that was a lot.  The rest seemed too embarrassed about their lack of church attendance and participation to think they could…or should.

                Do you think worship is about getting something out of it?  Like, if you’re not spiritually moved, then it wasn’t really worth it.  Or if you’re not sufficiently entertained…heaven forbid it should seem boring!  No, it’s about relationships.  It’s about gathering together as the people of God, as the family of God, to enter into the mutual consolation of the saints, to bring something into the worship experience rather than demand to get something out of it.  Perhaps you will provide the hope and the comfort for someone going through a particularly hard time.  Maybe you, and not necessarily the preacher, will share the Gospel Word of good news that can change someone’s life.  We enter into a covenant with our fellow brothers and sisters to serve one another and to pool our resources and talents to serve others in need.  We are each an integral part of the body of Christ; and when missing, the entire body suffers and is diminished.  It’s all about relationships.

                Jesus’ death on the cross, do you think that was about appeasing an angry God, that God requires blood, sacrifice, and death in order to finally forgive humanity the collective burden of its sin and thereby qualify for salvation?  Oh, I admit that sounds correct and often I fall into the trap of similar words.  But is that really what we think God is like?  A god like that might just as easily decide that the death of Jesus is not sufficient, and extract of us an even higher price to pay.

                No, it’s all about relationships.  The author of the book of Hebrews tries to explain that relationship.

                The apostle writes: Jesus is “the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.”  The first relationship is the one between Jesus and God.  Jesus isn’t just the best possible human being, he is to God as a son is to a father.  Ah yes, it takes a human relationship as imperfect as that at times may be to illustrate and help us to understand the perfect, divine relationship.

                Then the apostle writes: “The one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father, therefore Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”  The second relationship is between Jesus and us.  Jesus isn’t a distant, transcendent God; he is one of us, God in human flesh, completely and truly human.  God isn’t angry or upset with us or requiring mortal compensation, for rather we hear that we have been “Crowned with glory and honor.”  Now that sounds beloved!

                The third relationship is between God and us.  The apostle writes again: “We can’t see everything, but we can see Jesus, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”  What bridges the gap between human and divine, between temporality and eternity, between this life and eternal life?  Is it not death?  But not death as punishment, not death as appeasement; but death and resurrection, death that ushers in new life.

 

                So what does all this have to do with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the creation story in the second chapter of Genesis?  And what does all this have to do with the teachings of Jesus on marriage and divorce and the suffering of little children?  (as the KJV puts it: “Suffer the little children to come unto me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.”)

                It’s all about ____________ (that right, relationship).  Ha Adam, the man, in solitude was incomplete and impotent.  Other animals, birds and every living creature ultimately failed to complete him.  Man’s perfection could only be accomplished through his own complimentary nature.  So, as the Yahwist writer illustrates for us, out of Adam’s rib God creates woman, Woman from Man, Ishah from Ish, not in subjected or secondary status, but as the man’s own reciprocal being; a helpmate, a partner; a relationship is created.

                It is significant and revealing that the Hebrew word for physical and sexual intimacy is the word “yadah,” which is correctly translated as “to know.”  And Adam “knew” his wife, Eve.  I remember as a teen, we used to wink at one another when we would respond to the question of whether we knew someone with “Do you mean “to know” in the Biblical sense?”  Yadah is a word of intimacy.  It’s all about relationship.  Such human intimacy remains for us, a sit was for Jesus, the closest illustration of our relationship with the Almighty.

                When Jesus chastises divorce, do you think it is because he wants to excommunicate people from the Church?  Do you think it’s because he wants to establish a Biblical definition of marriage?  No, it’s about relationship.  Divorce is so devastating to anyone involved because it creates a division of relationship.  It admits that even our closest illustration of relationship with the divine is flawed.  It is the separation of relation that breaks the Sixth Commandment.  And once sin separates, then what can possibly bind us back together?

 

                Jesus then finds the perfect answer to his implied question right before his eyes.  Not cute and adorable; but noisy, bratty, disrespectful, vulgar, disgusting children are clamoring around Jesus and pulling at his robes and stepping on his toes.  The disciples are trying to chase them away.  (There is nothing worse and totally disruptive to a worship service than a crying baby – am I right?)  No!  Jesus gathers them in his arms as a mother hen gathers her chicks, lays his hands on them, plays with them, and blesses them.

                Let’s go back to the beginning.  Let’s go back to birth.  Let’s go back to creation.  It’s all about relationship!

                It is my prayer that each one of us may experience such a relationship with Jesus –

- to know what it is like to be gathered in his arms, (“to know”)

- to know what it is like to be touched with his healing hands,

- to experience the joy of playing with Jesus, and

- to know that through Jesus, his life, death and resurrection, we are blessed with a right and wonderful relationship with God.

                The writer of Hebrews ends our lesson for today: “In the midst of the congregation I will praise you!”

                And that, sharing in that God-blessed relationship, we may put aside all that separates us from one another; to not allow valid differences of who we are or what we hold important to us to divide us from one another; to not give sin the opportunity to divorce us from God’s love; but to enjoy living in the perfect relationship that God intends for us.”  AMEN.

 

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  AMEN.

 

Rev. James Slater

Emanuel Lutheran Church – Stuyvesant Falls, NY

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church – Valatie, NY

 

THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

August 26.2012

 

Joshua 24: 1-2, 14-8

Ephesians 6: 10-20

John 6: 56-69

TIME TO COME HOME

 

Well, it has been a quiet week in LAKE WOBEGON, my hometown.  You’d think that as summer reaches its peak in central MN and all the camps and cabins around the lake were full that the town itself would be hustling and bustling.  But it just isn’t so.  As soon as school closes for summer vacation in May, folks from the Twin Cities flock to LAKE WOBEGON.  The streets are full, the stores are crowded, as provisions are bought to stock the newly opened camp for another season.  But now, as another school year looms just around the corner, the lake camps are being shut down and the city folk are preparing to flock back home.  Every once in a while a pickup truck will drive into town to pick up sheets of plywood at the Bigger Hammer Hardware store.  You’ve heard their motto on radio commercials from WCOO, the call of the Loon, out of St. Cloud: “If at first you don’t succeed, try using a bigger hammer.  If you can’t find it at Bigger Hammer Hardware in LAKE WOBEGON, you didn’t really need it, now did ya.”  The plywood, nails and hammers are for boarding up the camps against the poSunday Schoolibility of another severe LAKE WOBEGON winter.  It’s the same with the locals.  They’re all out at their camps for the summer too.  So it’s been a really quiet week in LAKE WOBEGON. 

Don & Wendy Lundberg have a camp out by the point.  They were thinking about coming in to town for church last Sunday, but then noticed that the Gonzales family, from one of the Dales outside of St. Paul (Oakdale, Ferndale, Chippendale, they couldn’t remember) , who just this year bought the camp next to them, were putting up the plywood on the inside of their windows.  I gueSunday School they were kind of new to camp life and MN winters.  Don tried to be real patient as he explained that the wind blows from the outside, not from the inside.

So they miSunday Schooled church.  They were actually kind of curious to see what church was like in August.  Long before many people can remember, Val Tollefson, council president at LAKE WOBEGON Lutheran Church, had convinced the rest of the council that, since no one attends worship in August anyway, they should just shut down for the month and save on expenses by having the minister take his four week vacation then.  It started before David Ingqvist had been pastor there and that had been for 30 years.  Pastor Ingqvist never challenged the idea.  His own children had imagined that Jesus himself went on vacation during the month of August.  That’s why nothing exciting in the life of Jesus (you know, birth, death, resurrection) happens in the summer time.

But now Pr. Ingqvist had been transferred to be chaplain at the Mall of America and Pastor Liz, a young, female pastor from New Jersey, had taken over the pulpit of LAKE WOBEGON Lutheran.  She could not believe that a church would close down for a whole month and force her to take all four weeks of her vacation at that time.  So that was the first change she made.  She had argued that the summer lake people would want to come to church in August, but that never happened.  So the loyal remnant came, the Bunsens and Thorvaldsons, but that was about all.  Long-established habits are hard to change, even for the better.

As it happened, Pastor Liz did want one week off in August to go back home to New Jersey and visit her family.  She went to church with her parents last Sunday and was kind of caught by surprise when they sang “Onward, Christian Soldiers” as the hymn of the day.  Why she hadn’t sung that hymn in years.  It was considered far too militaristic an image among her Uppsala College and Philadelphia Lutheran Seminary communities.  But as she sang the hymn, memories came flooding into her mind of being one of the SUNDAY SCHOOL children, dressed in suits of armor, marching around the classroom, led by her mother who was her SUNDAY SCHOOL teacher.  “I don’t think children experience that anymore,” she pondered, “marching with the assurance that Jesus has conquered all the world’s evils and we can feel protected from sin and the devil by wearing the armor of God.  Was that really all so bad?  What confidence of faith do children have today with life seeming so much more complicated than it was then?”  But it wasn’t just the old hymn.  The Gospel lesson for the day spoke about Jesus teaching the people at the synagogue in Capernaum.  She had been there, stood in the ruins of that Cafer Nahum synagogue with her parents, on a trip to the Holy Land.  It was as if, after all those years, she could feel the presence of Jesus in the ruins of that holy place; and now, sitting next to her mother and father after all these years, she could still feel the spirit of God moving in her soul.

Since hardly anybody would be at worship at LAKE WOBEGON Lutheran anyway, Pastor Liz had asked Pr. Ingqvist to fill in for her.  Maybe some of the old timers would come out to welcome him back.  But there weren’t many in the pews to hear Pr. Ingqvist preach on the Joshua text for the day.  He called their attention to a quilt hanging on the church wall.  Many years ago, all the families of the church were encouraged to submit a square that would represent their family to be woven together into a big quilt.  Pr. Ingqvist had created a square with a picture of a church and its steeple surrounded by the names David, his wife, Judy, and the two kids and then on the bottom he wrote Joshua 24: 15, which if you looked it up would read “as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”  He rambled on about how he wished he and Judy would have had nine sons who would all become pastors and then they could form a barnstorming clergy baseball team to play during the month of August, when there was no church anyway.  And they could establish a Lutheran dynasty to equal the Boumans or the Wangerins or the Martys.  But that never happened.  It was hard being PKs (preacher’s kids) and having to sit in the front pew of church with their mother, while Dad preached against the evils of the world from above their heads, sometimes feeling the spray of his spit if he got really worked up about something.  Now both his kids are grown up and doing well with families of their own, but they hardly ever attend church.  At best they are C&E Christians; Christmas and Easter, doncha know.

He wondered if that’s how Jesus felt when he preached at the synagogue in what Pr. Ingqvist pronounced as Caperni-um.  Jesus’ first real effort at outreach, feeding over 5,000 hungry people, had resulted in everybody turning away from him.  Jesus, in teaching about eating his body and drinking his blood for everlasting life, had been an evangelism failure, go figure.  People wanted and believed that they deserved food to fill their bellies, while Jesus was offering undeserved grace to feed their souls.  Then Pr. Ingqvist grew very serious.  He said that the trouble with people today is that so many believe that what they have is what they deserve, what they have worked hard for, and don’t acknowledge or appreciate that we live in community and that we depend on one another.  That was in the heart of those lost Norwegian explorers who settled LAKE WOBEGON and established this church in that same pioneer spirit.  Now everybody does their own thing and that does nothing but reduce a community of thousands to one.  That’s why so many churches today have to have plywood nailed over their stained glass windows because there is no spirit blowing on the inside.

When the disciples of Jesus were confronted with such decline they realized that they, alone and left to their own devices, could do nothing to change the trend.  It is Peter who finally realizes when Jesus asks if they also want to leave him, “Lord, to whom else shall we go?  You alone have the words of eternal life.”  That was not what they deserved or worked hard to earn, but that was what Jesus had to offer for free for all who trusted in him – eternal life.  “The danger,” preached David in a power he had never before displayed, “is not to the Church.  The Church belongs to God and will always be what God wants it to be.  No the danger is to each one of us; that we become lonely, isolated and self-serving.  The Church will exist wherever the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed.  The Church will exist wherever the praises of the Lord are sung.  The Church will exist wherever those in need are served as Christ would serve them.  Within the community of God’s Church you will find meaning and purpose.  Within the community of God’s church you will find your hope and your future.  Within the community of God’s Church you will find Jesus alive and working among his people.  (He was starting to spray a little now)  Within the community of God’s Church you will find your home.”  Then he sat down and thought to himself, “Woah! Where did that come from?” and wished Arnold Thorvaldson would have been awake for it and more would have been there to hear it.

Yesterday Pastor Liz flew from Newark to Minneapolis/St. Paul  and then drove her car north to LAKE WOBEGON.  The traffic heading south from the lakes of Minnesota was bumper to bumper.  All the summer folk were heading home.  And she was going in the opposite direction.  “No,” she thought, that’s not really true.  Although I’m returning from visiting my family in New Jersey, I’m also on my way home…home to LAKE WOBEGON.”  She pulled up to her home and as she began unpacking her car, Wendy Lundberg and her three girls walked by.  “Hey, Pastor Liz,” she greeted,” welcome home.  How was your trip?  Hey, when does SUNDAY SCHOOL start again?”

Pastor Liz replied, “September 9, first Sunday after Labor Day weekend.  That will be our Rally Day.”

“Good, we’ll be there,” said Wendy, “We’re back home from camp now.”

Yes, thought Pastor Liz, someday we’ll all be back home.  Then she started thinking about Rally Day.  Maybe she’ll have all the SUNDAY SCHOOL children create armor and shields out of construction paper and march around the church singing “Onward, Christian Soldiers.”  I betcha that’s something they would never forget.

And that’s the news from LAKE WOBEGON, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.

AMEN.