Happy Birthday

I just got through a funeral today, followed by a reception back at the church. It's a beautiful day today but with all the snow melt the cemetery was a sloppy mess. I need to wash my alb anyway.

On the way to the cemetery I realized what day it is. My dad and my brother have their birthday today. Mom and dad are in Myrtle Beach for a couple of weeks. I'll have to call him sometime tonight. Dad's 76 today. Brother took yesterday and today off work. I don't know if he's at home or doing something special for the day. It's nice enough to take the bike out I think. Brother is 38 today.

I'm a bachelor for a couple of days. It's March Break so the kids are off school this week. My wife and kids left this morning for Burlington. They'll stay at my parents' place since they're out of town and spend some time with my in-laws. I'll be joining them in a couple of days. The my wife and the girls and I have tickets for "We Will Rock You" in Toronto on Friday. It's a musical using songs by Queen. We'll drop the boys off at my brother's place when we go. They'll probably play video games all evening.

TTFN

Repent

I wrote this sermon when I was in Seminary. I think I even wrote it for one of my homiletics courses but I don't remember which one. I think I preached it in 2001 while I was on my internship and then again in 2004 in my current congregation. I'm not preaching it again, just sharing it with anybody who reads my blog.

3rd Sunday in Lent
Luke 13.1-9
Thomas Arth

No doubt you've asked,
at one time or another,
"Why me?"
"Why me?"
"Why did this have to happen?"
"What did I do to deserve this?"

"Why did those kids have to die in that car accident?"
"Why did my father get cancer?"
"Why can't we get pregnant?"
So many things happen, that don't make sense
or that make us wonder why they have to happen.
"Why were those Galileans killed
just when they were at the altar making their sacrifices?"
"Were they worse sinners than any other Galileans?"
"Why were those eighteen workers killed
when the tower of Siloam fell?"
"Were they the biggest sinners in Jerusalem at the time?"

Let's face it. They're common questions.
You wonder, from time to time, when bad things happen,
whether or not it's punishment for something bad you've done.

Jesus gives the short answer.
Flat out
"No!"

But what's with the qualifier that he adds on?
In both cases he senses what's behind the people's questions.
"Were they worse sinners than all others?"
"Were they worse offenders than all the others?"
And his answer is what appears to be a plain and simple "No!"
But it's not so plain and simple.

His answer to the question about the punishment deserved is
"No, I tell you; but unless you repent,
you will all perish as they did."
How does that fit?

A few summers ago there was a car accident.
Three teenagers were hit
when the jeep they were driving ran a stop sign.
Two were killed, and the one left alive was paralyzed.
He asked the hospital chaplain "Why?"
The chaplain could do little more than look down
and shrug his shoulders.
You turn on the news and see reports of these things all the time.
But for most of us, life goes on.
Maybe we tsk at the waste of it all.
Maybe we say a quick prayer for our loved ones
who are out on the road.
But then life goes on.
They seem like random calamities.
Did they deserve what happened to them?
"No, I tell you;
but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did[?]"
How does that fit?

Then Jesus told a parable.
Maybe the parable would clear things up.
Well a fig tree grows in a vineyard.
In the Bible, to sit under one's vine and fig
was a symbol of peace
and the serenity of a peasant farmers life.
So, the owner of this vineyard comes to find some fruit on his tree.
And what do you know, there is none.
For three years this tree has produced no figs.
It's no better than a weed, wouldn't you say?
Taking up space, hogging sunlight, drinking from the soil
and producing no fruit.

So cut it down!
It doesn't deserve the care, and the water,
and the nourishment that it's getting.
Another plant could just as well be growing here.
Maybe more grapes
at least they're producing.

But the gardener is thinking.
"The owner doesn't work here day after day.
The sun can get hot.
And without the shade of this tree
at least to eat my lunch under,
and maybe to take a noon hour siesta,
this plot of land would be unbearable to work on.
Who knew he wanted figs anyway?
I work like a dog tending these grapes
and I bring him a good harvest.
His wine is renowned.
It's the first to be served at all the local banquets
and today he comes looking for figs."
So the gardener says, "Sir, let it alone for one more year,
until I dig around it and put manure on it.
If it bears fruit next year, well and good;
but if not, you can cut it down."
"I can turn this thing around.
It can change from a waste of space
to a fruitful tree."

Jesus says, "repent, or you will all perish."
The gardener says, "let it alone for one more year,
then if it doesn't bear fruit cut it down."

A tree that doesn't bear fruit, is liable to get cut down.
A life of sin without repentance?
Well there's liable to be consequences for that too.

Jesus was quick to reject the idea
that a person's sin was the cause of their suffering.
The people killed by Pilate
or by the fall of the tower of Siloam
or the kids killed in the car crash
were not such great sinners that they were being punished by death.

That rejection was nothing new.
That's what the book of Job was saying
long before Jesus showed up.
But the view that specific sins bring specific judgment
was alive and well.
We probably don't hold to that view.
We don't imagine God to be a vindictive and angry God
lurking in the shadows
ready to pounce on sinful people
waiting to dole out well deserved punishment?
We believe in the merciful God revealed in the cross.

But there must be some kind of relationship between sin and judgment.
"unless you repent, you will all perish."
But is that a warning of impending judgment
or the wisdom of seeing it like it is.
If you play with fire, you're liable to get burned.
If you live by the sword, you'll die by the sword.
If you keep on sinning, nothing good will come of it.

So repent.
Turn yourself around.

No doubt you've heard or read testimony from people
who were on the path to disaster and turned their lives around.
The man, addicted to drugs.
First he made up excuses,
borrowed money from family and friends.
Then his wife's jewelry started disappearing.
After a while his problem had him living on the streets.
His family couldn't put up with the way he was living
and what it was doing to them.
He hadn't been able to do his job properly for months
and he'd missed so much time at work
they'd had it with him too.
So he ended up stealing to support his habit.
He had his share of run-ins with the law.
He got himself beat up a few times too.
Finally he came to himself.
He saw that the way he was living would lead to his destruction.
He had to turn his life around.
Repent.

How bad does it have to get, though,
before you see the error in your ways?
Do you only wake up when you end up in those kinds of dire straits?
Or is it enough that your kids stopped asking you
to help with their homework
because you were too busy the last 10 times they asked.
Is your life producing fruit,
or is it time to repent?

That is what the fig tree parable implies.
Fruits are expected.
And they come from a repentant life.
We're told to get rid of anger, wrath,
malice, slander,
and abusive language.
Instead we should clothe ourselves with
compassion, kindness,
humility, meekness,
and patience.
Bear with one another,
forgive one another,
and love.

Good thing we're not growing these fruits on our own.
Thank God for the gardener.
And for the owner,
who's in no hurry to cut us down.
Amen.

Lament

I was reminded to acknowledge my sources when I borrow from someone in my sermons. If and when I fail to give credit where it is due, it's not intentional. I usually read through a number of commentaries and sermons in preparation for writing my sermons. Sometimes I forget the source of an illustration, sometimes I just forget to give credit. I'm not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. In the sermon below I have borrowed some illustrations and ideas from a couple of sermons by Rev. Charles Hoffacker (lament illustrations) and Rev. David Zersen (fox and hen illustration) and from Fred Craddock's commentary on Luke (regarding Pharisees).

2nd Sunday in Lent
March 4, 2007
Luke 13:31-35
Thomas Arth

No doubt, you’ve heard the latest sensational news about Jesus.
If you haven’t heard, apparently, according to some people
with money to make from their books and movies,
Jesus didn’t rise from the dead.
Apparently he did marry Mary Magdalene.
Apparently they had a son.
And apparently they were all buried together
in a family tomb in Jerusalem.

The story that these people are trying to sell is full of holes,
and ought to sink nearly as quickly as the Titanic.
I’m not going to go through a lot of the details
of just how wrong their reasoning is.
If you have internet access
and want to read an intelligent refutation of this Jesus family story
by a renowned New Testament scholar
you can check out Ben Witherington’s weblog.
I can give you the web address after worship.

If Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension were a hoax
then our faith is in vain.
And the deaths of so many martyrs throughout history
were also in vain.
If the apostles who lived with Jesus
and witnessed his resurrection and ascension
were a part of this hoax,
then why did they put their lives on the line?
I’m not big on conspiracy theories.
I read The DaVinci Code and for me it was a fun-to-read mystery,
but a work of fiction.

The tomb that figures so prominently in this weeks news
was found nearly 30 years ago
but nobody made such a big deal about it then.
The writers and film makers who have now been all over the news
might be riding on the coat tales
of the DaVinci Code hype and popularity.
If they wanted to be taken seriously
they ought to have had reputable archeologists, theologians,
historians, and other scholars review and verify their claims.
Instead they make press releases
and get themselves lead stories on TV newscasts.

Now, I’ve been chastised before
for painting all of the news media with the same brush and,
to be honest the hype I was hearing about this story
has been on TV.
The news media is neither inherently good or bad,
it’s how different people use it that can make it good or bad.
The whole Jesus family tomb story
probably wouldn’t receive nearly this much attention
if it wasn’t a very famous movie director
who had made this documentary.
But I also think the hype has something to do
with secular animosity toward Christianity as well.
Our faith is frequently portrayed in a negative light.
And when some TV outlets do ask
for a Christian viewpoint on something,
rarely will they ask a Lutheran, Anglican,
Methodist, or Roman Catholic leader,
they always seem to go to Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson,
or other high profile Christian leaders
who are really on the fringes of mainstream Christianity.
Maybe it’s because they’re easier to ridicule
and perhaps that’s an underlying motive.

As I said, I’m not one to see conspiracies behind everything.
It was just that this week,
with the news about this Jesus family tomb being so prominent,
I had to wonder why this kind of baloney
receives such attention.
Then this week, as I was reading today’s Gospel lesson
in preparation for my sermon,
I saw a connection between the opposition that Jesus faced,
and the opposition that his church faces.

Some Pharisees came to Jesus and said,
"You had better get away from here!
Herod wants to kill you."
Usually when we hear the word Pharisee it comes across negatively.
Most times that Jesus encountered Pharisees
they were engaging him
in some sort of debate or controversy.
They usually differed strongly with Jesus
when it came to interpreting the law.
But some Pharisees also seemed to be open to Jesus.
In Acts it’s a Pharisee that is a moderating voice
when the Jewish council is dealing with the early church.
Acts even says that some Pharisees
were members of the church.
Paul himself, near the close of his ministry, acknowledges,
not "I was a Pharisee" but "I am a Pharisee."
In any case, here some Pharisees warn Jesus away
because Herod wants to kill him.
There’s no reason to think there’s any ulterior motive
behind their warning.

Jesus responds by calling Herod a fox.
"Go tell that fox, ‘I am going to force out demons and heal people...
I must be on my way...
After all, Jerusalem is the place
where prophets are killed.’"
And then Jesus bursts forth into public lamentation,
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem!
Your people have killed the prophets
and have stoned the messengers who were sent to you.
I have often wanted to gather your people,
as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.
But you wouldn’t let me."

We don’t do lament very much these days.
At least not publicly.
We keep it inside.
It doesn’t seem dignified to let out or show our sadness.
Maybe you’ve had this experience.
You attend a visitation at a funeral home,
and the place is crowded.
People are gathered in small groups,
engaged in animated conversation.
It looks and feels like any other successful social event.
People are usually dressed up a little
so if you had drinks in your hand
it could almost be a cocktail party,
except instead of a bar at the end of the room
there’s a coffin and flowers.
I’m not saying one can’t enjoy a visit with people.
At a visitation or funeral
often you meet people you haven’t seen in a long time
and you spend some time catching up.
That’s fine.
And I’m not saying that every visitation
looks like the one I’ve described,
but some, perhaps many, are.

Have you ever been with a group of friends,
and somebody says that a particular couple,
well known to all of you,
is getting a divorce?
There’s an awkward silence.
Facial expressions turn serious.
Then somebody brings up a different subject,
and the conversation rolls along.

What’s missing from these two scenes is public lamentation.
In one case, somebody has died.
In the other, a marriage has collapsed.
In both cases there’s acknowledgment of what has happened,
but no public lamentation.
By lamentation I don’t mean that everyone has to begin wailing
and beating their chests,
but some kind of public acknowledgment is appropriate.
In the psalms there are songs of lamentation.
There’s a book in the Bible called Lamentations.
I was a seminary student on September 11, 2001
and one of the professors took her class to the chapel that day
and simply read through that book of the Bible.
Our new worship book has all 150 of the psalms.
LBW left a number of them out
and many of the missing ones were psalms of lament.
You may know that the hymns in the worship book
are group in various categories
that are printed at the tops of the pages,
and in the new book there is a small section of 8 hymns
categorized as lament.

It’s not wrong to express our sadness and grief.
That’s one of the recurring themes in my funeral sermons.
We’re sad when someone dies.
It’s okay to be sad.
It’s normal to be sad.
And in passages like today’s gospel reading
we see that even Jesus was sad,
and he expressed that grief out loud.
I myself am one who easily expresses anger,
just ask my kids.
The news reports that I talked about earlier
initially made me angry, and they still do.
But perhaps they should make us sad.
Why must the church and the very things we believe in
always seem to come under attack and even ridicule?
I think that maybe the reason this week’s story
has received so much hype
is that so many people find it fun to pick on the church
and what we believe.

But that shouldn’t surprise us.
And we know what sadness is.
Our chief symbol, the cross,
is the instrument on which our Lord and God
suffered and died.
The image Jesus uses in his lament is striking.
"How often have I desired to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,
and you were not willing!"
I read something by a pastor who’s a city boy like me.
He didn’t know anything about farm life or chickens,
but he spent some time serving in Africa
and describes how he observed
the hen gathering her chicks.
He writes:
"I spent several months in Tanzania
where each day and night I passed the chicken house
on the way to and from the campus where I taught.
Regularly, mother hens had new broods of downy chicks
that stayed close as they pecked around in the grass.
At night, one by one they climbed under her breast
and you could see nothing but the hen on guard,
her chicks lost somewhere under her feathers.
When a fox attacked by night,
she could not run away.
Not a mother hen!
She bared her breast and the fox took her first.
In the morning,
there was nothing but clusters of feathers here and there,
and little chicks running around on the own.
The mother hen represents a new form of power and leadership,
the one for others,
the servant leader,
the one whose extravagant love
considers the welfare of her own foremost.
Thus the means of survival
over against the attack of the wily foxes of this world
is provided not by retaliation or brute force,
but by gathering the innocent, the victims,
into a community in which the love of the mother hen
lives on even after her death!"

We can lament, we don’t have to hide it.
We can express our sadness over a death,
over the collapse of a marriage.
This week in our Bible Study we were talking about justice issues
and discussion about the food bank came up.
I give thanks for the food bank
and for the faithful service of the volunteers who work there.
But I wish we didn’t need the food bank
or the Out of the Cold suppers.
When I see families with children
making use of these excellent programs
it makes me sad.

It’s okay to lament, to be sad,
even to ask "Why God?"
It’s okay because God suffers with us.
God feels our pain.
But we also receive hope and consolation from God.
Jesus does gather us as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.
And he gives himself in sacrifice
so that we can be saved from the assaults of the enemy.
Let us live our lives in that trust and confidence.
Amen

World Day of Prayer

This is my sermon for this afternoon's service.

World Day of Prayer
March 2, 2007
Genesis 18:1-15; Ephesians 4:1-16
Thomas Arth

How would you respond
if someone asked you if you're a gifted person?
Most of us have some sense of modesty
and we'd probably mumble some sort of denial.
"Oh, not me, I'm nothing special."
It might seem rude to go around describing ourselves as gifted
because we usually equate gifted with talented,
and since we usually think of being talented
as being better at something than most other people,
then we'd be bragging.

Abraham and Sarah were blessed by God,
they were given the gift of a new land
and the promise that they would be the parents of a great nation,
and that through them all of the world would be blessed.
The stories told about them in our Bibles
can make them out to be great heroes,
but I think we often use selective memory
Or skip over some points when we read the Bible.
Abraham is sometimes portrayed as a hero of faith,
but when he and Sarah travel through some dangerous territory
Abraham says, "Honey, the king of this land
might get jealous if he sees me
with such a beautiful woman.
If he does, just do what I tell you. Okay?"
When the time comes,
Abraham sends poor Sarah off to serve in the king's harem.
Lucky for her, the king catches on
and sends her back to her husband.

Sarah isn't perfect either.
When the Lord tells her she'll have a baby,
all she can do is laugh.
Besides, she was already convinced
that God wouldn't keep this promise
so she convinced Abraham to have a child with her servant
and then claimed the boy as her own.
The blessings that God promised and delivered to Abraham and Sarah
really were gifts that they didn't earn or deserve.

The reading we heard from Ephesians talks about gifts.
And I think the way St. Paul and the Bible talk about gifts
are not the same thing as being talented.
Abraham and Sarah were given gifts,
but they weren't super talented people
always doing what was right and good.
They seemed to mess up wherever they could.
Oh, we all might have one thing or another that we're kind of good at.
Maybe someone's a good cook or a good singer
but if you were really talented
then you'd be a world famous chef
or an opera star.
Not all of us are talented, but all of us are gifted.
"Each of us was given grace
according to the measure of Christ's gift.
The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles,
some prophets, some evangelists,
some pastors and teachers."
These examples are not the entire list of God's gifts.
There are only 5 gifts on that list:
apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.
But there are many, many ways to be gifted by God.

What are those gifts for?
Paul is clear.
The purpose of the gifts is
"for building up the body of Christ."
They're the raw materials and the tools that God gives
for a certain purpose.
And they're not gifts for our own benefit,
but for the benefit of others.
Whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever your circumstances,
whether you're multi-talented or un-talented,
you are gifted in some way
"for building up the body of Christ."

Our gifts are the raw material and tools God gives us
for living life and especially for living life in community.
We live in various communities
such as our own churches and denominations,
but we also are in community together today
where we can blur the lines that divide us
and celebrate what we have in common.
Our gifts are meant to build up the whole body of Christ
in the various expressions of the body where we find ourselves.
The gifts we have can be obvious things
like abilities, aptitudes, interests and enthusiasms.
But they can be less obvious as well.
We all come from different backgrounds.
There are different ethnic backgrounds,
there are different faith traditions,
there are different family backgrounds.
The way each one of us was raised is unique
and gives us different gifts for building up the body.
Where you come from, how you were raised,
affluence or poverty, education, addiction,
responsibility, abuse,
so many things affect who we are
and how we are gifted.
Our race, culture, economics, religion,
all of these are part of who we are
and what we have to work with in life.
And they are among our gifts
for building up the body of Christ.

Our personalities are also gifts.
I myself am fairly laid back and easy going.
Others are very high strung.
You may be happy, serious, depressed, concerned, anxious, eager,
funny, emotional, supportive, or confrontational.
These traits aren't necessarily ones we would all want
but they've been given to us for the business of life.
They are gifts God has set before us
and we need to figure out or decide how we're going to use them.
You may still be wondering what your gifts are
and how you can use them to build up the body of Christ.
Well, think about how Jesus would describe you.
Jesus knows you better than anyone else.
How would Jesus describe where you come from?
How would Jesus describe who you are now?
How would Jesus describe your desires?
Think of the way Jesus might describe you
and you'll begin to find out what your gifts are.

Sometimes we lament our meager gifts.
If only I could sing like...
If only I had the compassion of...
If only I were as smart as...
If only I had the confidence of...
If only I could speak like...
If only... If only...
Wishing is a waste of time.
There's a story from Jewish tradition about a man named Simon.
Simon always wanted to be more like Moses.
That was his constant worry.
He kept going to his Rabbi and saying,
"Rabbi I must lead my life
so that I may live more like Moses did."
The Rabbi finally told him, "Simon.
God will not ask you why you were not more like Moses.
God will ask you why you were not more like Simon."

We each have to live our own lives.
But we live them in relationship.
We are United Under God's Tent
and we need each other
and the gifts we have all been given.
I don't know why I have the gifts I have
and you have the gifts you have.
They are the gifts that God has given to each of us.
Because I don't have your gifts
and you don't have my gifts
we need one another.
The opportunities we have,
what is going on in our lives,
the relationships we have with one another
and with the community and world around us,
those are also gifts from God.
We are to use them to the Glory of God,
to the building up of the body of Christ.
We are to use them to make the world God loves
a better place.
Let us do that and we will be doing the business of life
and the business of our faith.
Amen