Sunday Sermon: Manchester, Memorial Day & the Ascension

Sermon of Christ Lutheran Church, Staunton VA

May 28, 2017

Pastor Robert McCarty

Preaching Texts:  1 Peter 4: 12-14; 5: 6-11 Luke 24: 44-53

You rejoice in Christ your savior.  We rejoice in Christ while we gather and lament.  Though even as we lament, we rejoice in the glory that is to come from our savior who reigns in heaven and on earth.

You saw this week the power that sin has in the world.  It seems that sin and hate have become an epidemic, but then our nation is no stranger to sin and hate.  We have had our own experiences, many of them internal fights.  History reminds us of the Trail of Tears, the Civil War, Civil Rights March, Desegregation of Schools, Vietnam protests, Oklahoma City Bombing.  Moments that make us say woe and remind us of the power of sin.  And we realize, you realize, that Manchester is not alone.

Photos and video images pull on our heartstrings.  I saw video footage from Manchester this week.  I usually don’t look, but I watched the evening news on Tuesday night and so I saw footage from a parking garage of the flash and the sound of the explosion.  I saw people climbing over railings rushing to get out and first responders doing triage.  Then a few pictures of victims identified and the sadness and anger of grief began for people I never met.  

Earlier in the day, Tuesday, while driving to a Legacy Board retreat, I heard them talk about how popular this concert was with young girls, how parents were waiting outside to meet their daughters.  Another reminder that children are vulnerable.  It made me think of Oklahoma City where the rental truck was parked by the building’s day care.  This all made me think of the Church’s Festival of the Holy Innocents. 

The Festival of the Holy Innocents occurs on December 28.  It remembers the young boys killed by Herod around Bethlehem because they happened to be born close to when Jesus was born.  These boys weren’t Christian, may not have even been Jewish.  May have been born to pagan families, and yet the church remembers them as martyrs of the faith.  The festival serves the church as a Memorial Day in our conflict with sin and power and hate.

My reflection on the Holy Innocents continued as I started reflecting on our scripture for this Sunday.  1 Peter, our second lesson, also happens to be the second lesson for the Festival in December.  Three verses for this Sunday overlap with three verses on December 28.  They read:

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice insofar as you are sharing in Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.”  1 Peter 4: 12-14

God knows that sin tests us.  God created a perfect garden where sin had no power over humans, but man and woman chose something different.  They chose poorly.  And sin tested them, and sin has tested every generation since then, and sin tests us as well.  And as sin tests us, God grieves.  

I suppose I accept this suffering that we have to endure—Christ’s sufferings that we share—but I know that I do not rejoice in it.  Though to be clear, the scripture calls on us to rejoice in the sharing, not rejoice in the suffering.  That we can come here and lament together, there is kernel of love in our gathering for that purpose that is worth celebrating.  If nothing else on this memorial day weekend, I want you to hear that distinction to rejoice not in the suffering, but in the sharing—in the sharing of the cross.

We do not rejoice in the suffering.  In fact, we take stands against the suffering against the sin and the hate.  We take a stand against the fiery ordeal that takes place amongst us and tests us.  And as we take these stands, God stands with us.  We teach that murder is sin.  That hate is sin.  We teach that evil exists and that hating someone because of what they believe, or hating someone because of what they do not believe is also wrong and sinful.  And I believe and have said this before that Jesus’ teachings clearly shows us that a lack of compassion is the worst of sins.  

While we do not rejoice in the suffering, we recognize the beauty of coming together around the cross as we lament and grieve and we share that grief with one another.  We know that some have already, if not forgotten about Manchester, moved it to the back burner of their consciousness.  Others still feel helpless about it.  Others feel sadness or anger as I mention it.  Also, this is Memorial Day Weekend, a time when we remember other wars that our nation has fought.  And a time when people often decorate graves of those they have loved and lost. 

[And that love,] love is what we want to have power over us.  That love leads this congregation to say (as our mission statement) that “The Holy Spirit leads Christ Lutheran to love and serve all.”  We love, because with some people love comes easy to us. And (we love) because Christ taught us to love even when it does not come easy to us—to love those who are difficult to love.  Those folks are included in the love and serve all statement.

Interesting story, the heroes of Manchester are two homeless men who had hunkered down in the railway station for the evening, to get some sleep.  When the bomb went off the instinct is to run off, run away, but then both Stephen Jones and Chris Parker turned and ran into the chaos.  They wiped blood away from faces, they pulled shrapnel off of wounds and covered wounds with souvenir t-shirts that lay on the ground.  They reassured people until help arrived, even held a women while she died.

Jones said, “Just because I am homeless doesn’t mean I haven’t got a heart, or I’m not human still,” he told ITV News. “I’d like to think someone would come and help me if I needed the help.”  Since Monday, the people of England have responded to help the two of them as well as the families of those killed and injured.

The cost of love is grief, but we do not, none of us grieve alone.  And in the midst of lament and grief, we gather together and remind one another of the victory won for us by Christ our savior.  With the victory comes the freedom to love and the freedom to gather and the freedom to hope.  We remind one another that between dying and ascending to heaven, Jesus returned to us on earth and not only spoke of his power over death, he promised that we shall not be alone, and that Christ shall come again and reveal his glory in full and bring us together into that glory.

This is Memorial Day weekend, a three day holiday that marks the start of summer.  A weekend that has the joy of children at the end of school, the gathering of communities and picnics and commemorations.  [A weekend set aside] when we remember those who responded to the call to serve, and tend to the graves of those who have died before us, even if they did not serve in the military.   A weekend with a full spectrum of emotions and love.

We share this weekend together, with both its pains and its joys because we are community.  Despite sin in the world, we know the power of love in our community is strong and in that we rejoice.  And we know that the victory won by Jesus has power to make love stronger than death.  In this we rejoice fully and we praise the risen Christ together with heart and soul and voice.  

Amen

Sunday Sermon: Connect to the Father's Love

Sermon of Christ Lutheran Church, Staunton VA

May 21, 2017

Pastor Robert McCarty

Preaching Texts:  John 14: 15-21

I have three points for today.

I will remind you what the word agape means.  

I want you to know that you are not orphaned.  

And I want you to see how Christ reveals the Father’s love.  

This all comes to you today from the very last verse of the Gospel lesson:  “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”  (John 14:21)

You hear in that passage of scripture four times variations on the verb to love.  The word in Greek is variations on the word agape—one of the Greek words for love.  Agape means selfless love, community love, and unconditional love.  The Biblical Greek language has two other words we understand as “love” besides agape.  Philos which means brotherly love.  You could think of Philadelphia which means city of brotherly love, a city named by William Penn, a Christian and a member of The Society of Friends.  The third Greek word for love, besides agape and philos, is eros, which people often think of as romantic love, or emotional love.    

You may have heard about agape before today. To help further reflect on the word I have a definition from Christianity Today magazine:  “Agape is “deliberate and unconditional love that is the result of choices and behaviors rather than feelings and emotions.  [In that regard] Agape love is about the values we embrace as a way of life, and [our] determination to behave in a certain way that stems from our regard for other human beings, regardless of how we may feel about them.”  

It sounds unromantic to think about love as a deliberate choice, but that of course is an important point.  Agape is not romantic love, Agape is not being swept off your feet.  Also, I must say, Agape does not mean you treat everyone the same.  You can treat everyone the same and still be a jerk or still be aloof.  Agape/love is about treating people with compassionate values.  

Agape is being gracious to those who may not deserve it.  Being gracious to all, even telemarketers when you mistakenly pick up the phone.  That meaning of Agape guides the rest of our reflection this morning.

“They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me;

Love is actually the only thing the Jesus commands in the Gospel of John.  I give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  (John 13:34)

Jesus gives other commands elsewhere in other gospels.  For example “you are to love your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might and your neighbor as yourself,” comes from Matthew 22 and Mark 12. The same is true about “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto the lord the things that are the Lords.”  (Also Matthew 22 and Mark 12)  Also not John.  Even the commands of Jesus on which we base the sacraments—“Go and Baptize” along with “Do this in remembrance of me”— are not found in John.  

Now, there might be a command in the foot washing event.  That seems to depend on the translation.  If you wanted to argue that as another command in the Gospel of John, I would not argue against you.  And at the end of John, Jesus commands Peter to feed my sheep and many have embraced this instruction of Jesus.  But the formula in John 13 is distinct, I give you a new command.  You are to love others as I have loved you.”  In the gospel of John, Love, agape, is both the central command as well as our central connection to the Father.

Our second is another observation from our scripture this morning.  There are people out there who still feel orphaned from God.  Orphaned, fatherless.  Detached.  Some of them depressed.  Some of them not.  I do not want you feeling orphaned from the Father.

I thought of that as I was reading verse from Jesus.  “I will not leave you orphaned.  I will come to you.”  Jesus said that and today he says that to you.  “I will not leave you orphaned.  I will come to you.”

You and I seek out and watch for that which makes God real in our lives.  And the realness of God is more than the reality of God.  We believe!  It is not a question about whether or not God exists.  but where is that which makes God real in your life rather than some far out entity that watches from a distance, or a far out entity that doesn’t even watch.  You look and search for that which makes you feel connected, connected to God, and reminders of Christ’s promise to come to you.  And those reminders, and that connection brings you in to the realness of the love of God.  Many of you practice daily devotions.  In that act of stopping and reading scripture and praying, you feel connected to God.  You feel not orphaned.  

Orphaned.  I will not leave you orphaned as spoken by Jesus, what does that mean.  It means that Jesus connects us, connects you, to the Father’s love.  And Jesus says that quite plainly in the last verse.  “those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”  To feel orphaned is to feel disconnected from the love of the Father. 

Third, in my own reflection and devotion, especially around preaching, I have focused on revelation lately—the revelation of God to us.  I do not want you feeling orphaned.  I do not want you feeling disconnected or detached from God.  I want you to be able to see reminders of Jesus promise that “I will come to you” and to share these reminders with other people.

How does Jesus connect you to the Father?  Through word, through meal, through prayers answered and compassion given, By sending the Holy Spirit to you.  Christ in many ways connects you to the heavenly Father.  Most of all, however, by dying and rising again.

You see and know of course, agape is costly, Love is generous, love/agape is sacrificial.  Love is frightening.  In Jesus act of cross and tomb once and for all Jesus reveals His and His Father’s agape truly, and for all the world, and for you.  We celebrate that moment of cross and tomb as if it happened just last month.  

Through our actions today, we make Jesus’ victory timeless and for everyone throughout time.  We gather today in worship as an act of agape for the whole world so they to might know of Jesus death for them, and our victory over the grave. Amen

Sunday Sermon: Good bye and Hello

Sermon of Christ Lutheran Church, Staunton VA

May 14, 2017

Pastor Robert McCarty

Preaching Texts:  Acts 7: 55-60 John 14: 1-14

“Good bye.”  

Jesus says “good bye” to his followers in this Gospel reading today.  Actually, in the flow of John’s gospel, he says “good bye” as he approaches Jerusalem and approaches  the final week of …. Well, the final week that leads to the crucifixion.  Which has a sense of finality to it, even though we know otherwise.  This has a “good bye” with a glorious “hello” three days later.

Good bye can be like that.  Sometimes in hindsight “good bye” seems ominous, final, and other times “good bye” is a common salutation, that often means, “‘till I see you again,”  even though it has a sense of finality to it.  Truly there are many ways we say “good bye” to one another.  Farewell and Godspeed, so long, ciao, sayonara, Shalom, Aloha.  All ways of saying “good bye” in different places at different times.  

You probably do not remember the first time you left your mother to go to school.  Your mother may or may not have taken a picture of it.  That moment has a sense of good bye to it.  It ends a phase of childhood, but it also begins a new phase of life.

Or how about that first good bye when you took off with the keys to the car.  A transition of independence for your mother to get use to.  

The Good bye as you leave after getting married, or go to college.  A “good bye” said after visiting for a week.  [You know] Not every good bye is final. 

We call this scripture passage Jesus’ farewell address—this speech in John that occurs before Jesus enter Jerusalem for the final time, for the most important time.  And we read it this week just a little bit before we celebrate the ascension of Jesus.  The feast of the Ascension takes place always on a Thursday—May 25th this year.  Some congregations will acknowledge the Ascension next Sunday and other congregations, including us here at Christ, will celebrate the Ascension readings in two weeks.  

We read this passage this week before the ascension to know that even as Jesus says “good bye,” his going prepares for another “hello.”  He goes to prepare a place for us.  He goes a way that we will one day travel and he intends to be there ahead of us.

Good byes and hellos have a way of balancing themselves out.  A child leaves in the morning for school and you say “good bye.”  A child returns home at the end of the school day a little bit wiser and you say “hello.”  A teenager leaves with the keys to the car, and you have taught them to be safe, to buckle up, to drive on the right side of the street.  We get a little more nervous with this good bye, and yet thousands of times that “good bye drive safe” is balanced out with “I’m home” and “hello” and a hug. 

A daughter gets married.  That “good bye” is balanced out with a “hello” to a new son.  Or vice versa if a son gets married. Either way you have “good bye” and “hello” in a beautiful movement of life and love.

Nine years ago, you sort of said “good bye” to the C____ family.  They moved to the other side of the sate..  Now many of you heard but lets make sure you all know, the family returns to the area.  We look forward to saying “hello” again to them.  Hello and good bye do indeed balance out.

Jesus says “farewell,” “I am going,” “Good bye.”  But he also assures us that he will see us again.  That he will see you again.  Jesus reassures us that this “good bye” is balanced out with a future “hello.”  And the “Hello!” that he anticipates includes not just himself but his Father, Our Heavenly Father, as well.  I guess that would be more than balanced out.  Our Heavenly Father’s “Hello!” would be shared with trumpets heralding and angels singing. Glorious!

I know today is a day that can run the gamut of emotions.  That some of you have buried mothers and that some of you have buried children.  And those “good byes” seem fresh today.  Others however, still live in the joy of active parenthood.  And you have plans today to celebrate with families and grow the relationships with another set of “hellos.” 

To all of these emotions, Jesus gives the image of home and being welcomed and having a place.  A stable place, a peaceful place, in the presence of the divine and with Christ.  An eternal and everlasting “Hello!”  God grants a final hello that has no good bye to balance it out. 

So on behalf of God and Christ today, I say to you “Hello and welcome.  I am glad you are here.  I am glad you are safe.  You belong in this house and with these people.  Hello.”

Amen.

Sunday Sermon: Revelation of Christ

Sermon of Christ Lutheran Church, Staunton, VA April 30, 2017

Pastor Robert McCarty

Preaching Texts:  Acts 2: 14a, 36-41     Luke 24: 13-35

Sadly, many people believe that God has stopped revealing himself to the world.  We have this wonderful, mystical experience in scripture today of Jesus walking on the road to Emmaus with two of his followers.  But some view this piece of scripture as an antiquated story of how it use to be with Jesus. 

Too often, way too often, we approach this story from Emmaus as a historical moment.  One of a handful of post resurrection appearance stories captured by scripture.  Actually, each of the last three weeks, we have had one of those amazing stories placed before us.

First, two weeks ago, Jesus appears to the women at the empty tomb.  They touch his feet and worship him; and he instructs them to go tell his followers that he will meet them in Galilee.

Last week you heard the story from John of the upper room.  One week Thomas missed out.  The next week he gathers with them again, and Jesus appears.  To all of these followers, Jesus breathes on them a Spirit of peace.

This week, you hear the story of the Road to Emmaus and two followers that we know little about, neither of them truly apostles.  Jesus appears to them and instructs them and makes himself known in the breaking of bread.  

When you focus on the appearance of Jesus rather than the revelation of Jesus Christ, you sell the story short.  You date the story in the moment of the past.  These stories go beyond simple appearance and begin the process of revelation.  When you hear this story as a story of revelation, then you can hear what Jesus began that continues today.  The many and varied ways that God and Christ Jesus reveals himself to you, to us, and to the world. 

The revelation of Jesus Christ continues in the 21st Century.  Imagine that.  Be amazed by that.  The revelation of Jesus Christ continues in the 21st Century, two thousand years after the resurrection and the ascension.  God continues to reveal—Christ Jesus continues to reveal—himself to you and to the world.

You come and you worship here because you believe that God reveals himself in this space and place and at this time.  As Jesus revealed himself to his followers, you believe that Jesus reveals himself to you.  We believe in that revelation and that revelation inspires people.  (We teach people not to expect the appearance of Christ).  We teach people how to look for the revelation of Christ.  Because the revelation reminds us that (yes) Christ Jesus is in the world.  That (yes) Christ Jesus works in your life.  And that (yes) the world stands better because of Christ’s revelation.  

The church teaches you to listen for the revelation of God in the reading of Holy Scripture.  So when Peter stands up and preaches to the crowd, God also speaks these words to you.  Peter’s words are for you.  “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ to that your sins may be forgiven.”  Don’t stop listening, because Peter is just getting warmed up.  “And you,” he says, “and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.”  

The words of Peter for you hold in them the revelation of Christ for your life.  You can take the Acts reading from today and mull it over for the week ahead.  Christ gave the gift of the Holy Spirit for you and for your children.  Peter’s words still have meaning today.  Just like Jesus blessing of peace resonated upon you last week.  This is revelation.

The church teaches you to listen for the revelation of God in the words of contemporary voices, from Peter we go to the example Mother Theresa, who said, 

"I see God in every human being.  When I wash the leper’s wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself.  Is it not a beautiful experience?"

Though truthfully, when Mother Theresa compares Jesus to a leper, she is not saying anything that Jesus did not already say himself.  “When you do this unto the least of these,” Jesus said in the parable of the sheep and goats, “you do it unto me.”  Her words echo Jesus’ own words of where to look for him.

Even Mahatma Gandhi, although Hindu and not Christian, recognized this same truth.  He said,

"I am endeavouring to see God through service of humanity; for I know that God is neither in heaven, nor down below, but in everyone." 

In light of these quotes, I think about the quilts that the ladies have on display this morning.  And I think of them in this way.  We send those quilts to Jesus who we cannot see, but is revealed to us.  Remember last weeks scripture passage, “bless those who have not seen but yet have come to believe.”  We send those quilts to Jesus who we cannot see.  And people receive those quilts from Jesus who they cannot see.  (Maybe even people who have yet to hear about Christ Jesus.)  In this exchange of quilts, or food, or prayers, we place Jesus in the middle of it.  He is in the midst of humanity even still today.  Revelation.

I have one more revelation of Jesus for today.  Our scripture tells us, “And he made himself known in the breaking of bread.”  Pastor Kate Costa up in Culpepper Virginia had this experience, which she shared with me and others in the synod.  She writes.

“I remember bringing communion once to M____, a woman who had been blind since her early 40's. When I placed the bread in her hand, she made (what I thought was) an unusual request, "Tell me what this Jesus looks like." I awkwardly told her about the bread, dark and crumbly, baked by a member of the congregation, and confessed that it was a bit burnt on one side. She said, "Ah yes, I see him now. Perfect but scarred. I always like to see Jesus so I know what I'm going to become."

And as Pastor Costa concludes she equates this revelation with another appearance.  

“God appeared to her in that very bread. Through that bread, she was becoming perfect even with her scars. She would become Jesus, sent out to serve him in the world. All that she had came from God, and everything she could give back only reflected that grace more. Jesus had appeared to her.… And Jesus has appeared to us.”

Pastor Costa and  M____ share a 21st Century appearance that reassures you that yes those appearances of Jesus still happen.  Yes, Jesus is in the world.  Yes, Jesus Christ works in your life.  Yes, the world stands better because of the revelation of Christ Jesus.  

And Pastor Costa offers this prayer for you.  “God of Grace, you appear to us in the breaking of bread.  Guide us as we lead and serve, so that all we do may give glory to you.”  

Amen.

Sunday Sermon: To Be At Peace

Sermon of Christ Lutheran Church, Staunton, VA April 23, 2017

Pastor Robert McCarty

Preaching Texts:  1 Peter 1: 3-9 John 20: 19-31

"Blessed be the G-d and Father of our L-rd Jesus Christ!"  (1 Peter 1:3). "Bless are [you] who have not seen and yet have come to believe."  (John 20: 29b). "Peace be with you."  (John 20: 21b).  Our scripture today grants you blessing and faith, patience and peace.  And you need all of this in the world today.

Peace in your heart differs from peace in the world.  Which I guess is fortunate for us.  We can have peace in our hearts even when chaos and uncertainty surround us.  Today, you hear of Jesus entering into the presence of his followers.  His followers gather in an upper room and lock the door for fear.  Their world has been turned upside down, and to maintain their faith comes with risk.  Their belief in Jesus that inspires them to raise his mantle and follow him comes with mortal risk.  Threats come from those outside the faith, and threats come from the Roman government who will persecute these followers as well.  Confusion and violence reign in the world, and yet Jesus breathes on them a word of peace, a spirit of peace.  

Undoubtedly, Andrew and James gathered in that upper room.  The apostle Andrew would travel and evangelize as far north as Kiev in what is now the Ukraine.  The apostle James, according to legend, went to Spain.  Even the late arriving Thomas would receive Jesus' peace.  The apostle Thomas would travel east to India.  James is the only apostle whose death is recorded in the New Testament, in Acts Chapter 12.  Thomas and Andrew also died for their faith.  Most of the apostles died for their faith.  

This peace Jesus brings does not lessen the confusion in the world.  It does not, at least not right away, make the world a safer place.  Not all of the followers in the upper room are named, but legend has it that only one apostle, John, lives to die of natural causes. Jesus breathes on his believers a word of peace, and only through their actions will the world change, and it will change slowly.  

The Greek word for “peace” is eirene (pronounced "a RRa na" with all long A vowel sounds).  It has a slightly nuanced meaning a bit different from the Hebrew word shalom.  Peace, eirene, for the Christian intimates the way of salvation.  Such peace implies confidence and also contentment.  Your confidence in Jesus' victory that assures your future and contentment with what life sets before you.  This peace rests in your heart and in your spirit. As it rests on you, such peace guides your actions and your life.  

Inner peace exists (confidence and contentment exist) in a world that struggles to understand peace.  That shift between individual peace and global peace often confuses people, because we use different words to define peace globally.  We define global peace by a lack of violence.  If you prefer a positive spin, then we define global peace by a sense of harmony.  Actually, defining global peace (or community peace) by harmony points to our nation’s internal struggle.  We lack harmony as much as the world lacks peace.  

Thankfully, Jesus breathes peace onto you, which creates confidence and contentedness.  You learn to trust with this peace.  You learn patience.  You learn hope.  I know that people struggle with this.  You struggle to practice patience when others get to be rash.  You struggle to say a kind word when others get to hurl around insults.  The rash even get to insult you and those people you respect.  You struggle to be faithful when others use Sunday morning for a leisurely bike ride.  Or they sleep in so they can stay up late and party hard Saturday night.  Faith begins with you, with us, and it begins here Sunday morning.

Martin Luther King Junior and the civil rights movement serves as a modern day reminder of the struggle of the peace of Christ.  He taught non-aggression.  His followers could not hurl insults; they could not fight back.  They were taught ideally love, but loving is hard in the chaos of anger thrown at you.  The movement taught followers patience, but also to crave and sacrifice for justice.  

King gave this definition for faith.  “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”  Martin Luther King Junior, and many others took that first step and many more.  And I guess we need to admit they are still seeking out that peace.  We still seek that peace with them.  Voices and actions of hate still push against our desire for racial peace in our country and peace in the world.

April 3 next year will mark the 50th anniversary of King's death.  Another martyr like the apostles gathered in this upper room.  Jesus breathes on them peace and they go out and change the world.

Peace, patience, justice, faith (faith and belief): all of these attributes lie in our scripture readings from 1 Peter and John: gifts for you today.  Peace, patience, justice.  I know it helps to speak of peace as confidence and contentment to make peace more real for you.  Because patience takes confidence that what you do means something.  You need confidence that your faith-inspired actions have a positive result even when you cannot see it.

Confidence, contentment, patience, justice, belief: you too can change the world just like those followers in the upper room.  And that desire and power to change the world begins right here in worship.  The power to change the world begins in this variation of the upper room in which we gather.  And the power to change the world begins especially on this day, when the Gospel tells the story of Christ, your savior, reaching across time and blessing you who believe and yet cannot see.  

Thomas comes and sees the wound.  He wants to touch the wound, but you hear that just seeing his L-rd and Savior (seeing) was enough for him.  And in the affirmation of Thomas, Jesus reaches across time and blesses you.  “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”  Jesus knows that belief is a blessing; faith is a blessing.  As that belief rests in your heart, the blessing of peace also falls on you.  The blessing includes confidence and contentment.

You folks have received the blessing of G-d: confidence in Christ, varying levels of contentment.  Although I imagine that contentment ebbs and flows.  You can change the world, and changing the world begins right here in worship.  Changing the world begins in  this our variation on the upper room.  Things may not always be harmonious, but we create a space full of blessing and safety and security.  We work through our differences and change the world a little bit by little bit with our confidence in Christ Jesus.  His peace and presence prepares you for the week in a chaotic world.  Because you do indeed live in a chaotic world.  Do not forget that Jesus works through you in this world.  That itself can be frightening.  Because we mess up.  That is okay, because right now the world needs people willing to admit their mistakes.  And yes, Jesus chooses you to live out his peace in this world.

That Jesus allows patience means we have time to correct our mistakes and get better at living with confidence and contentment.  Because little by little Jesus is changing the world through you and through us.  What you do and how you live this out matters.  Remember, not every marcher in the civil rights movement was able to keep their mouth shut in the face of insults.  But the movement kept on marching.    And they learned, with practice they learned.

Faith you remember is taking that first step even when you cannot see the whole staircase.  "Blessed are those who believe and yet have not seen" the end of the staircase.  Faith as that first step includes being here Sunday morning.  Because, believe it or not, your presence here changes the world, even if you cannot see the good you create.  Blessed are those who have not seen and come to believe.  The world needs more people who have Jesus' peace in their hearts.  The world is lifted up by G-d every time someone hears Jesus bless their lives.

Blessed be the G-d and Father of our L-rd Jesus Christ.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for believing.

Amen.

Sunday Sermon: On Trusting God

Sermon of Christ Lutheran Church, Staunton, VA March 26, 2017

Pastor Robert McCarty

Preaching Texts:  1 Samuel 16: 1-13 John 9: 1-41

Making sense of how God works is not the same as trusting God.

God does not always work in ways that makes sense to you or me.  Actually Samuel seems somewhat confused in today’s first lesson.  Here you have a prophet, an esteemed prophet, confused.  He recognizes, wrongly, Eliab, son of Jesse and brother to David, as the Lord’s anointed and future King.  Again I say wrongly. I am not sure what Samuel started to do in the selection of Eliab, but God instructs him “do not look on his appearance or height or stature.”  God does not select Eliab one of seven sons of Jesse, despite his height or good looks.  

A different pattern repeats in the Gospel when the disciples ask Jesus, “who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind.”  The disciples confuse a physical limitation as a punishment from God.  And the disciples seek to justify God by saying this man deserved it because of his parents, or because God knew ahead of time a sin this man would commit later in life.  For some reason we think all of this should make sense.  Of course, if we think clearly about miracles, what makes them amazing is that they do not make sense.

God does not always work in ways that make sense to you or me.  Making sense of how God works is not the same as trusting God.  Samuel judges David’s brother based on outward appearances.  We know a favorable outward appearance has benefits.  We also know that good looking is not exactly the most important quality for a king to have.  The disciples judge the blind man on his lack of sight.  We know that those who are blind, face challenges, but we have learned from Jesus to look for God in the strength to overcome those challenges.  We learn from Jesus the man was born blind so that the glory of God could shine in him and through him.  And this glory shines in the healing, but even more so does the glory shine in the man’s confession of Jesus as the “Son of Man,” especially against the opposition of these Pharisees.

The Pharisees have every advantage, position in the community, typically wealth, and definitely the knowledge of scripture.  And yet the Pharisees are the ones who stumble.  The Pharisees learn of something they cannot explain, a man born blind now sees.  And their scripture gives no account of this happening before.  They know the signs God has laid out in the past to reveal his activity and show his presence.  No where is scripture does God give sight to a blind man.  A new sign has happened and they need to decide what it means.  The activity of God does not make sense to them either.  It did not make sense to Samuel, it did not make sense to the disciples, it does not make sense to the Pharisees.  

All of this confusion still exists today.  Some people believe God dislikes them.  They look at the moments of misery and suffering in their life and they wonder what in the world have I done to deserve this.  They blame cancer, or poverty, or the misfortune of the day as an act of God.  The same thing use to happen with natural disasters.  We have stopped calling hurricanes and tornados “acts of God,” but still people wonder.  That is like the disciples confusing sin for the reason why the man cannot see.

The reverse is true as well.  Often people see good fortune as a sign of God’s favor.  To be born in the United States, or to be born rich, to be born with athletic ability or musical talent, or to be born to loving parents means that you have or perhaps will do something good to earn the favor from God.  And it is not just these accidents of birth, but success later in life.  You have a good job, good family, good investments, community standing.  Depending on how you want to look at it, we all deserve success, or no one deserves success.  Some give credit to hard work, but I know people who work their tails off only to fall short of just breaking even.  You know people like this too.  I also know people who make success look easy.   

Of course that is like Samuel mistaking Eliab for the chosen of God based on his good looks. I give thanks to God for my good fortune, but I do not confuse myself into believing that I have somehow deserved this.  Such a prayer should be more than just thanks, thank you God, but also keep me from messing this up.

And in the midst of whatever misfortune we can pray, help me God.  I trust that you are with me.  I believe.  Or maybe, in our more honest moments, I believe, help my unbelief.  That is actually a biblical prayer.  “I believe.  Help my unbelief.”   (cf. Mark 9: 23-24)

Samuel trusts God.  Samuel thought wrong.  God corrected him.  Life moves on.

Some of you have probably had those types of moments.  When you think you know what God is up to, and you think it makes sense, and then it doesn’t.  You learn that you are pregnant and then just as suddenly, you are not.  You think you have a job lined up and then if falls through.  This does not always make sense.  Then again, making sense of what God is doing is not the same as trusting God.

Trusting God, learning to trust God.  It happens in ways that catch us by surprise.    (True Story)  Jacob, in another southern state, receives a cancer diagnosis.  He and even more so his wife remain adamant.  They will fight this.  They will fight cancer with everything they have got.  They are adamant and persistent and aggressive.  Knowing full well how the aggressive treatment will eat away at his body, they are adamant and persistent, and they fight.  Their pastor is faithful in the journey with them.  Which becomes more important when the treatment proves ineffective.  His pastor comes to visit Jacob, lying in his bed, facing the reality of dying.  He shares with his pastor, “I give thanks for my cancer.  It is through my cancer that I have truly gotten to know God.”

Maybe that makes sense to some of you.  Maybe not to everyone.  Making sense again, though is not the same as trusting God, having faith.  That God can take something broken and do something new.

The Pharisees fail to trust God, and I guess we all fail to do that one time or another.  Samuel even in his wisdom fails to make sense of what God is doing, but he moves forward with the will of God as it is revealed to him and the young boy is anointed to be the future king.  

And the man born blind.  He sees clearly that God has done something new in him through Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed Chosen one to save us from not just our sin, but our doubt of God, and our confusion of things not making sense.  Even as the young man gets tossed out, driven out of the temple and the Jewish faith, and pronounced a sinner and a heretic of false teaching.  He believes clearly in what God does through Jesus Christ.  That Jesus is the Son of Man and worthy of our worship.  The man who now sees, sees clearly and worships Jesus openly.

Miracles amaze us.  Maybe faith should amaze us as well, that kind of faith that even when things do not make sense, people trust God and believe in God.  Such faith stands as a miracle in its own right.  You gather each week in such faith.  You trust God.  Each week you stand in the midst of this amazement.  

Amen

Sunday Sermon: February 5

Sermon of Christ Lutheran Church, Staunton, VA February 5, 2017

Pastor Robert McCarty

Preaching Texts: Isaiah 58: 1-12 Matthew 5: 13-20

Being right with the law is a good thing, but it will not save you.  Being right with the law is not the same as being right with G-d.

And yet being right with the law is a good thing.  Jesus reminds those who will listen today, Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets, I have not come to abolish, but fulfill.

Undoubtedly you hear the nuance, the law and the prophets, which includes all of the Hebrew Scriptures, all of the Old Testament, which includes the commandments and yet so much more.  

The gospel lesson today, paired with the Isaiah reading, gives you a glimpse of what the righteousness of G-d looks like and what the righteousness of G-d does not look like.  

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount explains the righteousness of G-d in ways that many struggle with.  This gospel passage today continues the sermon that began last week with the Beatitudes.  Today, you hear that you can break aspects of the Holy law and even teach others to do the same and still be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven.  You get in; at least.  The passage ends with the reality that you can dedicate your life to keeping the fine details of the Holy Law and still miss out on the Kingdom of Heaven.  Good works that glorify G-d means something more than dedicating your life to the law.  What righteousness is not. 

Again, that nuance of Law and Prophets stands out.  In the Hebrew Scriptures you will find the story of G-d acting with justice and mercy, faithfulness and grace.  Even within his commands, you can find the gift of the Father’s compassion.  You can find passages within the Old Testament that are both law and grace.  That mixture makes up the righteousness of G-d.

I will show you two example of how to see G-d’s compassion and grace even within his commands and law.  The first example comes from the book of Leviticus, a book largely associate with the Law.  Leviticus is full of commands and instructions.  Sadly, we hardly look at more than a few of them.  Then I will show you a second example from one of the prophets.  Actually, it comes from todays Isaiah reading.

You will find in the book of Leviticus this command regarding the harvest.  “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap the corners of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the L-rd your G-d.”  (Lev 23:22).  This is a command of G-d and you could ask the question how big of an area counts as the corner.  How much area in the corner can I not harvest?  Does that include the edges of the field? because that is actually another way of translating the word for corner.  Can my reapers place their basket on the ground to catch some of the heads of grain that fall?  That is being concerned with the details of law.  But to ask those questions is to miss the point of this command, which the text states plainly, “you shall leave them for the poor and the alien.”  G-d is compassionate toward the poor and the foreigner.  The Pharisees seek to honor G-d by making sure they honor the edges and the corners.  But they ask the wrong question.  The question they ask is “How small can I make my corners and edges and still honor G-d?”  Jesus and Isaiah seek to help all people see the poor  and foreigner who glean and collect what is left.  This verse of Law in Leviticus reveals not G-d’s love of the law, but his concern for the vulnerable, the poor and those without a land to call their own.  The passage reveals divine grace and mercy, which seeks to change the question to “How much of my field can I leave so that the glory and grace of God can be seen in this field?”  This difference begins to describe the righteousness described in the Sermon on the Mount. 

You see this again in our Isaiah passage, most obviously when the prophet talks about fasting.  To those who fast and feels like G-d does not notice (verse 3), the prophet responds for G-d, “Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,”

And then on the top of the next page

Is this not the fast I choose:

to loose the bonds of injustice

to undo the thongs of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?

Is it onto to share your bread with the hungry,

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked to cover them,

and not hide yourself from your own kin?

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,

and your healing shall spring up quickly;

(Isaiah 58: 6-8)

To fast just to deny yourself food and honor G-d misses the point.  Fasting seeks to build awareness towards the poor and to build up hunger for justice and righteousness for all people.  For the Israelites, the fast connects them to their past and reminds them that they were a foreigner in the land of Egypt and G-d lead them out with a mighty hand and an outstretched hand.  

You can also see this on our Souper Bowl table.  We have a table set up with the Patriots logo on one half and the Falcons logo on the other half.  And we have invited you to bring cans of food and place them on the table of either your favorite team of the two, or the team you think is going to win the game tonight.  I really do not care how you choose where to place your cans.  You hate Matt Ryan so you place your cans on the Patriots, great.  You walked in and placed your cans on the Falcons because they are closest to the door when you walked in.  Not a problem.  Your best friend is cheering for the Falcons, and you really do not care, so you placed your cans on the Patriots with a big grin on your face just to kid them, push their buttons a little.  Good for you.  This is only in part about the game, but what it is truly about, just like the Leviticus, is sharing in G-d’s concern for those who are hungry.  What this is truly about is helping place food in the hands of the hungry and giving G-d the glory.  And if we can do that with a smile on our face, all the more better.  Righteousness is not about picking the winning team.  Righteousness is about the table and the banquet.  If you believe the Kingdom of Heaven has a banquet table, then you have to know that God wants those who will eat there to eat here on earth.  

Returning to the Sermon on the Mount, the Kingdom of Heaven is now.  Wherever Jesus is, there stands the Kingdom of Heaven.  Our gospel today continues the lesson Jesus shared last week when you heard the Beatitudes.  (You might want to go back and read the beginning of Chapter 5 this afternoon.)  In the Beatitudes, Jesus lists those blessed by G-d, and the blessing of G-d had nothing to do with the Law.  Jesus explained that the blessing of G-d comes to the persecuted, the peacemakers, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and even at the beginning the poor of spirit.  Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  The Kingdom of Heaven happens now as well as in you future.  Wherever you find Jesus, there stands the Kingdom of Heaven.  And when the blessed gather and where the blessed gather and reveal both the glory of God and the compassion of God, in that moment righteousness happens.  Salvation comes from Christ; His righteousness lives in you.  

Amen