A “ONE-ANOTHER” FAITH for a ONE-AGAINST-THE-OTHER WORLD
Romans 12: 9-18; Galatians 5: 13-15;26; 6:1-2; and John 17: 11b-19
By Pastor Mark E. Becker
Saint Paul Lutheran Church
Stillwater, Minnesota
May 23, 2009

Have you ever happened upon someone engaged in private prayer?  Overhearing another’s prayer – for health or guidance – or for a loved one - is a very vulnerable and poignant moment. Once I remember – at a former church – accidentally walking in on a colleague who was praying fervently.  His door was open and I just stuck my head around the corner – and was about to say something when I noticed that his head was bowed, hands folded, and he was deep in prayer. It felt like an awkward moment, a moment not to be interrupted, and so I backed quietly out of the room. I don’t think he ever realized that I had been there.   I didn’t actually hear the words of his prayer, but I felt to be in the presence of one who was intimately sharing his heart with God – and God was in the room.  Overhearing one in prayer is both a holy and vulnerable moment.

Today we overhear Jesus as He prays, in preparation for his death and resurrection, with the ascension to follow. Jesus prays for all who follow him and he prays not only for the disciples present but for the followers who will believe because of their words. In truth, then, Jesus is praying for you and for me. Here we see into the heart of Jesus, and there He spells out His will and His hope for us, a hope that we now know and, because we know it through the sharing of John’s Gospel, it is a truth that is meant to shape our lives.  Here is his heartfelt prayer: Jesus wants us to be ONE in Him, united around His word of love. Jesus wants us to be ONE regardless of human brokenness and in spite of human disagreements and feelings. His will is that together we might be ONE in the spirit of love, just as He and God are ONE.

Jesus prays, “Holy Father, keep them that they may be one, even as we are one.”  A question we might ask is “Why did Jesus feel the need to pray as He did?” It is a prayer, after all, that asks for action and for intervention. Might it be that, it is not really our nature to be people who are in community and at peace with one another? Might it be that it takes intentional effort and God’s help to be ONE with each other? Might it be that this High Priestly Prayer (as it is called) is in Jesus’ heart because He knows that our human nature is BY NATURE more divisive and fragmented and easily broken?  There is, after all, something in each of us that wants to be independent, and call our own shots, and have our own way with things, something called original sin.

Yes, Jesus knows us well and understands us. As he felt the powerful forces of fragmentation that virtually destroyed his own little community on the night of his arrest, as he watched his followers flee in fear and deny him and betray him in his hour of greatest need, Jesus knows how much we need help to be ONE and at peace with each other through all the difficulties that life brings. Jesus knows us well and understands our need to be united in our community of faith.  There is a foundational truth here in Jesus’ prayer.  The Christian faith is never only personal, never just between God and me. It can never be an individualistic faith without community for the New Testament says over and over again that ours is a “ONE-ANOTHER FAITH”. This is in contrast to the world that is really ONE-AGAINST-THE-OTHER, where life tends to be more individualist and more competitive than co-operative. The New Testament, as a journal of those who sought to live as Jesus wills and prays, is however, full of great examples that mean to contradict this “ONE-AGAINST-THE-OTHER” approach of the world.
Jesus and those who then wrote about him are intent on replacing the ONE-AGAINST-ANOTHER approach with the “ONE-ANOTHER” life style.

Listen to some of the “ONE-ANOTHER” commands of the New Testament – fulfilling the prayer of Jesus that we overhear in today’s Gospel reading: Just listen:  Love one another (John 13: 34-35) Love one another with mutual affection and outdo one another in showing honor (Romans 12:10); Rejoice with one another (Romans 12:15) 
Weep with one another (Romans 12:15); Don’t judge one another (Romans 14:13)
Welcome one another (Romans 15:7) Instruct one another (Romans 15:14)
Greet one another with a holy kiss (Romans 16:16) Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)
Be kind to one another (Ephesians 4:32) Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
Forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32 and Colossians 3:13)
Build one another up (1 Thessalonians 5:11) Submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21)
Be tenderhearted toward one-another (Ephesians 4:32)
As each has received a gift, employ it for one another (1 Peter 4:10)
Don’t speak evil against one another. (James 4:11);
Confess your sin to one another (James 5:16) Pray for one another (James 5: 16)
Bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2) Comfort one another (1 Thessalonians 4:18)
Just listen to how many “ONE-ANOTHER” COMMANDS there are in the New Testament. Can you hear how important Christian community and unity is to Jesus and to the first Christians as they sought to live in the spirit of Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer.  Imagine the difference these ONE-ANOTHER commands made in the first century church. Imagine the difference they can (and need) to make for us.

How would our lives and our ministry here be different had we always lived by these ONE-ANOTHER commands? As with any church, we can’t change the past.  But the present and the future are filled with hope as we seek to live as Jesus prays:  “Holy Father, keep them one, even as you and I are one.”   Help them to love one another, and to comfort one another, and to bear one another’s burdens. Help them to forgive one another and to be kind and tenderhearted toward one another. Help them to BE ONE Holy Father in this “ONE-AGAINST-THE-OTHER” world.

To be one with another is to extend the soul or human spirit to reach out with understanding. It is to try to live with humility and compassion and vulnerability, so that life is then shared with loving empathy and gentle grace. Once at a piano recital, I saw something that (I think) speaks of that oneness for which Jesus prayed. It was a recital for one of our own children, but included many others.  Part of the way through the program, as a young girl (whom we did not know) was playing, my wife (Judy) leaned over to me and said: “Can you tell which one is the mother?” I looked around, and sure enough, it was easy to tell.  The girl’s mother was sitting a few rows ahead of us and to the right. Her hands folded in front of her chin, and with every beat of the music, there was a nod of the mom’s head.

You could tell, it wasn’t the first time she had heard this piece either. Mother and child were one in intensity and passion for the music and the pressure on the daughter was the same pressure on mom. Daughter’s hands played while mother’s heart raced.  Mistakes were moments of pain, shared by both. Hesitations in rhythm seemed agonizingly long and were reflected in the body language of the mother. And when the music ended and the pressure was off, relief and pride of accomplishment were evident in the face of both. They were one, you see.

There is, in that image, a vision of the oneness of Jesus and God and in that vision,  the Oneness that God has with us, through our relationship to Jesus Christ.   This is also a vision of the oneness (for which Jesus prays) for those who follow Him.
Taking our cues from Jesus, we look to each other and listen for pain. We pick up the concerns and “bear one another’s burdens”. When one hurts, all feel the pain.  When one weeps, all weep, when one rejoices, all rejoice. That is the way we are called to live as followers of Jesus. This is part of the vision for community, for which our Lord prays, and that means being vulnerable at times when you wouldn’t have to be, compassionate and concerned when apathy might just be more comfortable.  That oneness means sometimes marching to the beat of a different drummer, caring about things that you may not normally want to think about. It means sometimes nodding along with someone else’s beat, not because its your music, but because you are trying to show love to the other person in Jesus Christ – because you are ONE with them in faith.

In our community there are issues and struggles that some have and that others do not have. There are issues of illness and health, and issues of grief over the loss of a loved one. There are issues of loss of a job, and there are financial worries for some. There are concerns about parenting – and there are concerns about getting older. There are concerns in this community of faith (as well as in the greater Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) about issues like sexism and racism and ageism and homosexuality – not just theoretical concerns - but concerns that are personal and sometimes isolating and painful. As any community has, we have concerns represented here beyond which I can mention.

In one way – as we are a ONE-ANOTHER community and not A ONE-AGAINST-THE – OTHER community, the concerns that weigh heavily upon one of our brothers or sisters in the faith, also are meant to be borne by each of us – and borne with compassion.

The will of Jesus for us – you see – is to really live in the power of His prayer that we all might be ONE in HIM and that we are there for each other. But this oneness isn’t the oneness of a club that confines itself to concern for only those like us or around us. It is also a oneness that –following Jesus – reaches out especially to others who are not like us and who may suffer in ways that we don’t yet understand. The way of Jesus is an alternative way to live in THIS ONE-AGAINST-THE-OTHER WORLD, and that is the Good News of the Gospel
AMEN

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THE DEFEAT OF DEATH!
By Pastor Mark E. Becker
Saint Paul Lutheran Church
Stillwater, Minnesota
The Resurrection of Our Lord
Isaiah 25: 8a and 1 Corinthians 15: 54b -56
April 12, 2009

The snow on Palm Sunday last week reminded me of another Palm Sunday, many years ago. On that particular Sunday, it was snowing as we processed with the Palms and then turned our attention to the sad observance of the crucifixion. It was almost as if the snow was covering up the premature hopes of a people who were hungry for new life.   Then next day, on Monday, my day off, the warm sunshine made it perfect for building a snow man in our back yard. Our children were young then (the youngest was about 3 years old I think) and we all went out and had a lot of fun building Frosty, complete with a carrot nose and charcoal eyes. Frosty was a good sturdy fellow, a good “hunk” you might say – or maybe you’d say “chunck”.   But then my kids said, “It’s not good that man should be alone,” or something like that.  So we started to roll out another member of the species, though somewhat daintier.  It must be said though that she was a pretty good chunck too. And so it was that Frosty and Frosta stood together in our backyard.

There was a lot of joy in that day for us – and that snowman and snow woman on the first day of April – had their pictures taken with the kids – and uh, in fact with me as I – uh - performed the wedding. Around them we danced, and we hugged them and patted them on the head, and it was a great time. I remember it as if it were yesterday, as Frosty and Frosta became almost real while we played and laughed. These two had become our friends.

But it WAS a nice warm sunny day, and 3 or 4 hours later, when I looked out,  their heads and a good part of their bodies had slipped off the back. I felt disappointed, and so did we all. But the reaction of my youngest was most profound. His - was sort of a delayed reaction, but it was heartfelt. He noticed the deterioration, became sort of quiet, and then went over to his mother. He got her attention, pointed out the window, and cried and sobbed as he buried his head in her lap.

As a Dad, I have always wanted to protect my children from such grief and from the powers of death, and I have wanted to avoid it myself, but it is something that I have not been able to do. In our family, we have lost people we have loved, and all of my children have had good friends die, two of which were friends of their own age.

I have not been able to protect my children, nor can I protect anyone, and certainly not myself. Yesterday morning I received a phone call telling me that a long-time beloved friend had died in his sleep during the night, so grief is fresh and real as I preach today.

Grief and the power of death is a part of life, and we feel it every day. It is at work even before you breathe your last breath. All you have to do is read the newspaper and learn of earthquakes and fires and war and tragic accidents, and the impact of the economic crisis. All of that is the power of death at work. Death’s power attacks us in illness, in broken relationships, in dependencies and addictions, through chaos in nature like storms and floods, through financial difficulties and the loss of a job, and through all kinds of disappointments and sorrows that we sometimes hide under anger. The power of death is at work in our lives – and it is easy, as mortal creatures, to get caught in a rut of hopelessness if there is no place to turn for hope. Today it is my task (and my privilege) to bring you that word of hope. But first let’s together recognize that there are forces that work against the Good News that we gather here today to share.

There is a movement in our culture that is rising like floodwaters, threatening to erode the foundation of our hope in God with meaning that has only temporary significance.   In recent years, we have become a more secular society where faith in God is sometimes dismissed as outdated or shunned as unenlightened.

On Good Friday morning I got into my car and the radio was tuned to the same station as the Twins broadcast. This new station doesn’t often have programming that I appreciate.  That morning there were a couple of guys talking about people who didn’t believe in God and they were telling of a recent report that the number of people who admit to being atheist or agnostics in this country has grown from about 10% to 15%, and they were sounding like they thought this was a good thing. One of the men speaking, who I think, is a sports reporter for the Star Tribune, revealed his own bias when he said,  “I call them realistic.” I wondered what he thought was real. I could probably guess that if - he couldn’t see it - or touch it - or hear it - or understand it in some way that made sense to him, he might have a hard time admitting that something was real. I understand that, as I have been in that place a time or two in my own life. But now it seems that some of those who get to that place, simply don’t want to look any further. Some speak of “moving on” and look at faith with disdain, and the secular culture supports that. I don’t really want to return to the 50’s and the good old days of religion in America, but I can’t deny that there is a movement today that actively dismisses the reality of God, and it has become a voice that has some power to shape lives. You can see the movement in the statistic that reports that in the last 60 years, the population of our country has doubled, but the average church attendance has dropped.

It is a fact that there are people who have lost interest, some because of negative experiences, some because of boredom in an age of entertainment, and some because they don’t want to trust that which they can’t see or hear or touch. I know there are some here today, who really wish they weren’t here, and to whom this hour feels – not just tedious – but almost painful. They would rather be doing other things, like reading the Sunday paper or sleeping in or hanging out with family and friends. A lot of good people feel these feelings, and there is that permission in today’s culture to go with that feeling and simply ignore the place of faith in life.   But I am concerned because the reality of death is real for everyone, and if you are one of those who dismiss the presence of God and the power of the Resurrection in your life, what will you do when it death seems to have its way with you, or with someone you love?

The mortality rate of every single one of us, the mortality rate of every newborn child and every person of every age is still - 100%. Add a few years onto most of us, and there will be no more time, no more sports activities, no more concerts, no more art, no more snowmobiling and no more fishing, - no more of the temporary pastimes and pleasures that sometimes take the place of faith. Add a couple of months to some of us or even just an hour, and life might be over. The question for all of us then: atheist, agnostic, faithful Christian, doubter, seeker, just everyday people, is “where do you find hope when you must face the power of death?” And – remember this - if you say there is no God, then you will also have to say there is no heaven, and no life beyond this life, and no place where love and hope can continue once you have breathed your last breath.   The idea of life after death (for anyone) only begins in faith that there is a God who cares.

Today I come to you IN THIS CULTURE (fully aware of all of the challenges) and I come to you with a message that I have heard and I believe, a message that (I trust) is actually from God. This message is that Death – though powerful – is finally defeated by God in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.   Whether you are interested or bored silly, whether you are dismissive of faith and unconvinced or hungry to be encouraged, this Word is for each and every one here.

Jesus Christ is Risen from the dead, and because He has risen,  we too can have hope for new life. The GOOD NEWS of the Easter message is that DEATH IS DEFEATED. That is the powerful message that comes to us today as we read all of the lessons from the Bible and especially as we read the 15th Chapter of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. There Paul says, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O Death is your victory? Where, O Death is your sting? ,,,.Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is the message I want you to hear clearly today, and I want you to take that with you so that it shapes the rest of your life with a positive and hopeful outlook. This Easter Gospel of Resurrection is meant to bring hope to your life and joy that will carry you beyond death’s power.

I remember reading about “a man who was a prisoner in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. He told the story of an amazing change in the atmosphere of the camp…when one of the prisoners somehow got access to a short wave radio and learned of the collapse of the Japanese war effort in 1945. Although everyone in the camp still remained prisoners, they now knew that their enemy had been beaten, and that it would only be a matter of time before they too were released. With that information , suddenly life was different, and the change was dramatic. Downtrodden prisoners began to laugh and cry as if they were already free. They had begun to live, you see, in the light of victory. (“In the Light of Victory” by Allister E. McGrath, Bread and Wine, Readings for Lent and Easter. The Plough Publishing House, copyright 2003, page 274

Today I want you to move out from under the shadow of death’s power and out into the light of victory. Through this scripture reading we live in the light of victory that has come to us like a shortwave radio transmission down through the ages.  Even though it may not seem that way at times, the enemy called Death IS defeated. There is no greater truth for your life, and this power over death is a victory that you cannot achieve for yourself. In Christ, God has done it for you.

Life is going to have a lot of stuff that is difficult for all of us, and some of us have already had some very difficult things to handle. But the Resurrection of Jesus says that this is not the stuff that defines us. This does not need to be the reality that shapes us.  In Jesus Christ, we now know the end of the story, and the end of our story is all about the defeat of the power of death, and the new life with god that is a gift. Because God has made us for eternity, this victory is God’s action on our behalf, and one of the most important truths of this Easter Sunday is that we depend on God to make it so.

Gerhard Frost writes:
“I remember a moment long ago in a small town restaurant. We’d played away from home and won, and we were in a celebrative mood. I was fourteen and not very good, nor was our team, and this made the victory sweeter still. As we crowded into a booth, I jauntily said, “Well, we won!” Quick as a flash of a knife came the remembered words: “What do you mean “we”? You didn’t play.”
I can’t forget the words or the one who spoke them, but I can turn to other words sounding in my soul. My Lord says, “Baptized into the death of Christ,  I die in Him to rise again.”   With no part in the victory, I’m still invited to say “WE WON!”  (Seasons of a Lifetime, by Gerhard Frost, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, page 51)

Death is the enemy and its defeat is assured because Jesus has won that victory for us.  Take that word of assurance with you today. It is a word that can be trusted, and if you trust it, you will find that your life is shaped by hope beyond which you can find in anything else. AMEN

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SEEING FOR REAL
2 Corinthians 4; 3-6 AND Mark 9: 2-9
By Pastor Mark E. Becker
Saint Paul Lutheran Church, Stillwater, Minnesota
February 22, 2009
Transfiguration Sunday

Today’s lessons are all about perspective and how we look at life and faith.  At some point we all have wondered if this life is only that which we can see, or hear, or touch. Only that is real, we sometimes assume. It is a common arrogance that believes that my experience defines reality and if I cannot see, nor hear nor touch – why then it must not be real. Many turn off the possibility of God and the grace of Jesus Christ for just that reason. But God is used to that and is persistent with love.

Because of human arrogance, God has been very patient and persistent, trying to break through, trying to get us to see that there is a greater reality, a spiritual reality that we cannot see, nor hear, nor touch, - a reality that is all around us and stretches into eternity; and this is a reality that is more available to us than we think. God has been very persistent throughout the centuries and the whole purpose of scripture and the sacraments, the whole reason for the human, physical, incarnational presence of Jesus Christ in our world is to BREAK THROUGH THAT ARROGANCE and help the human begin to SEE FOR REAL.

“What is truth” - Pontius Pilate asked Jesus as he stood before him – and Pilate was blind as a bat. He saw power, but he could not see the greater power of the reality of God. “Give us a sign” say the Pharisee, “a sign form heaven,” they say. But their eyes are clouded by layers of the law. The letter to the Corinthians speaks of a veil that is over the mind of all unbelievers, a veil that blocks out the light of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Then, the Gospel of Mark is full of short-sighted, unseeing people who just don’t get the Gospel that Jesus is trying to bring. Even the disciples – and perhaps especially the disciples just don’t “see for real” until after the Resurrection. They are constantly missing the point, falling asleep when they should be awake, overlooking the holy, and forgetting that which has already been revealed to them. And dare I say, the writer of Mark wants us to see that those disciples are really like us (the reader) much of the time; befuddled, sleepy, arrogant, and forgetful. The Gospel of Mark is written to try to open our eyes so that we SEE FOR REAL – just as we are told about Jesus’ persistent effort to open the eyes of the first century followers.

This section of the Gospel of Mark, which contains the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus, falls between 2 stories – stories of the healing of blind men. This is a bracketing technique by the writer of the Gospel of Mark, or as Dr. James Boyce said in our Adult Forum, “a sandwiching technique.” In arranging his Gospel (as one would write a sermon with stories and illustrations) Mark is using this method to say that everything in between these 2 stories is intended to open our eyes to the spiritual reality of Jesus,  a reality that is all around us. The disciples and you and I are being shown that Jesus is surrounded by and fulfilled by Moses and Elijah – which is another way of saying that the law and the prophets of the Old Testament (that all truth as we know it) is pointing to Jesus and to Jesus alone. Mark want us to see this and therefore, to BEGIN TO SEE FOR REAL.

One of the most memorable scenes from Thorton Wilder’s play “Our Town” is when Emily – having died at the age of 26 – is given the opportunity to return to earth to relive one day of her life. She can choose the day and relive it, but she cannot change it. She chooses to come back on the day of her twelfth birthday. Now, with the perspective of eternity and heightened sensitivity, she is affected deeply by even the simplest events of that day. Her father comes in from work and is exhausted. Her mother is fussing about the kitchen getting the meal ready and baking the cake. In the midst of it, Emily pleads:   “Mama, just look at me for one minute as though you really saw me.” Of course no one hears Emily as she is just experiencing – and not changing – her already lived day.   But it becomes too much for Emily and she cries out, “I can’t. I can’t go on. I didn’t realize….all that was going on, and we never noticed.” Then she turns to the stage manager – who is a character in Wilder’s play and asks through her tears:  “Do any human beings ever realize life – while they live it ….every, every minute?”
That line has always haunted me and made me try to realize the value of each moment.  In other words, DOES ANYONE EVER REALLY SEE FOR REAL - with the eyes of faith? Does anyone really appreciate all of life as a gift from God?

We can be like characters in the play, all wrapped up in the present, fussing about this or that, rushing here and there, sometimes overwhelmed by it all, but seeing only the surface of life and looking no further than the immediate demands of the moment…………….. or seeing no more than that which satisfies an appetite or provides a cheap thrill.  DOES ANYONE EVER REALIZE LIFE WHLE THEY LIVE IT…DOES ANYONE EVER REALLY SEE FOR REAL? Or as poet Gerhard Frost would have said, “Does anyone ever see how “blessed is the ordinary”? - how holy is the present?   - how precious is the given moment?

The Gospel of Mark knows and shows that Jesus wants us to see for real. Though we might live in a broken and sinful world, Mark wants us to see life while we live it, to see it with the eyes of faith and hope because of the Good News that he (Mark) sees in this Jesus whom he proclaims. He want us to see what Jesus would have us see, that life is good and rich and full and redeemed in the power of a loving God.

I have always liked what St. Augustine said: “Do not seek to understand in order to believe. Rather, believe and then you will understand.” When you try to measure faith in human terms and get it all to fit in a little box that adjusts to your brain, when you try to wipe out all the doubts and prove the reality of God before you allow for the possibility of faith, then you NEVER SEE FOR REAL. But when you take the leap of faith, when you trust the reality that Jesus reveals, when you accept that you are accepted by God and loved and that Jesus fills to the brim your empty cup of meaning and worth, then YOU CAN BEGIN TO SEE LIFE IN A WHOLE NEW AND HOPEFUL WAY.   “Do not seek to understand this in order to believe it. Rather believe it and then you will understand.” Believe and you will look at the world through new lenses, through a new set of glasses that opens your eyes to beauty and joy and peace….even though you still must walk in the valley of the Shadow of Death. Believe in Jesus and you will begin to SEE FOR REAL.

This is the purpose of the Transfiguration story in the Gospel of Mark. It is to help all who look to Jesus see the hope of victory over death before going through the reality of suffering. Jesus is transfigured. He is changed in appearance for the sake of the disciples. And for our sake, Mark reports the change. As Jesus is transfigured, Mark wants us to be transformed, to be transformed into new people who have hope through even the most difficult times.

In the play, The Music Man, perhaps you remember how Professor Harold Hill is transformed by Marian the Librarian. He is a cynical con artist who comes to town to swindle people. But when he meets Marian, he is transformed and sees the world in a whole new way. Remember the song he sings: “There were bells on the hills but I never heard them ringing, no I never heard them at all, till there was you.
There were stars in the sky,” he sings, “but I never saw them shining. No, I never saw them at all, till there was you.”

When you meet Jesus and see in Him the power and hope of a loving God, when you believe in Him and trust Him as the truth that can set you free, when you lay your sins upon Him and realize that you are now free and without regret, without guilt, without shame…when you see Jesus as the Resurrection and the life that is the defeat of the power of death in this world…then you begin to see yourself (and all of life) in a brand new and hopeful way.

Sometimes the things within ourselves – like arrogance or like cynicism or like significant pain from the past, or any reason for distrust – can get in the way of a new and hopeful vision, however. One story tells of an old man who had a piece of limburger cheese lodged in his mustache. First he blamed his food for the bad smell.   Then he thought that the restaurant had a horrible odor. Then, when he went outside, he said that the world smelled rotten.

Sometimes we can be awfully cynical and grumpy. This is terrible… that is bad…the world is getting worse and worse…Ain’t it awful?…ain’t it awful? It is a natural human reaction that we do well to suppress. Notice how cynicism and grumpiness become a way of life that is nurtured mostly by that which is within us. Maybe it is a distrust that we have clung to - perhaps an old injury that we won’t forget or refuse to forgive. Maybe it’s an opinion that makes us think we have got to be in charge or have all the answers. If we think that God’s world stinks, maybe there is something within us that is the problem.

Seeing Jesus FOR REAL is, however, seeing everything with a different perspective. When your BEGIN TO SEE FOR REAL by faith in Jesus Christ, you begin to look at the world as that which God loves – instead of as a stinking place in which to live. When you begin to SEE FOR REAL through faith in Jesus, you look at people (including yourself) as redeemed and redeemable, not as rotten and unsalvageable.

What is it that makes one person say “the world is getting worse all the time,”   while another is able to say (even in hard times) that the world is a beautiful place?  What is it that makes one person despair and give up, while another is able to face suffering and even death with courage and hope?   What is it that makes life fearful for one and an adventure for another?

It is vision…..it is perspective…it is SEEING FOR REAL  It is moving from the seeing life from the perspective of “what you see is what you get”
to seeing life though the eyes of faith in Jesus Christ where hope tells you that “things are not always as they seem.” Jesus can and does change your perspective if you take the leap of faith and trust Him. The Transfiguration of Jesus means to show us the vision of Christ – as the fulfillment of all of scripture (law and prophets) so that we can adjust the picture in our mind’s eye and be transformed from people of fear to people of hope and courage.

Do you remember that famous speech that Martin Luther King gave on the last night of his life? It is a Transfiguration, a transformative moment in Dr. King’s life.  He said: “I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me…because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I’ve looked over. I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight.   I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any (one). Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Today, the Transfiguration of Jesus – reported by the Gospel of Mark – is meant to raise before you and me a vision of hope upon which we can count, a vision that helps us to begin to SEE ALL OF LIFE FOR REAL. Because Jesus is transfigured, we are meant to be transformed into people who can face whatever life brings with hope and peace. AMEN

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EVERYONE IS SEARCHING
Mark 1: 29-39
By Pastor Mark Becker
Saint Paul Lutheran Church
Stillwater, Minnesota
February 8, 2009

“When they found Him, they said to Him: ‘Everyone is searching for you.” Mark 1:37

The characters that first caught my attention in this Gospel story were the people of the city of Capernaum. It says in the reading, that, after Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law, “the whole city gathered around the door….THE WHOLE CITY! Something big is happening at Simon Peter’s house and it’s all about Jesus.

In fact, the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark sounds like the whole Bible is starting over. “This is THE BEGINNING OF THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST,” Mark declares. Then, with a reference to the prophetic voice, (implying that Jesus is the fulfillment of all that has been hoped for) Mark gets down to business. He describes the baptism of Jesus as an anointing of a Servant King; he tells of the testing of this Servant King in the wilderness; and then he tells of how Jesus calls a new community into being, beginning with the disciples along the Sea of Galilee.

Then, Jesus and that first group go to Capernaum, and it’s kind of like His first day on the job. Jesus teaches, and people notice. Their impressed because this isn’t a normal teacher who has to have foot notes. His truth comes not from officially authorized dogma, but from somewhere inside of Himself. They are astonished and begin to talk about Him, and the word spreads. Then Jesus shows power over spirits and demons which destroy health and distort relationships. Again they are amazed when he stops to bring a wasted outcast back to sanity enabling him to re-enter the community and find his place with others. The word spreads throughout the region of Galilee, Mark reports, and though it is his first day on the job, Jesus is really making an impact.

Then He leaves the synagogue and goes to a private home, and it belongs to Simon Peter, and Peter’s mother-in-law is there and she has a fever and is really sick, perhaps sick unto death. Jesus goes to her and lifts her out of her demise and restores her to her place in the community. Being the Sabbath, it is possible that some of the strictest among them wondered whether this restoration should have taken place. But there is amazing power here that they could not resist, and as soon as the Sabbath is over at sundown, they bring any and all who also need to be healed and restored. What a picture it must have been!  Crutches, cots, bandages, broken, limping, needy people – and then some – gathered at the door. The WHOLE CITY HAS COME OUT SEARCHING AND SEEKING HELP.

For Jesus, it must have been an amazing, exhausting day, for the next morning finds Jesus looking for some space and some time to pray. But even then he was pursued, it says, and when they find Him, they say, “Jesus – Everyone is searching for you.” THAT IS WHAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION! Perhaps it is a bit of an overstatement. I don’t know. But Mark wants us to see what a holy commotion Jesus has caused. Even in the pre-dawn darkness of the next day, “EVERYONE IS SEARCHING” because there is suffering and brokenness in each life. Is this the way it is? Is this true? Everyone? Is no one untouched by the things that twist and distort the goodness of life? Does no one escape? Is there no one who doesn’t – at some point – think “life has wounded me”?  Do we all have that nagging feeling that life just isn’t what I expected it to be?

Yes, Capernaum is, I think, typical – typical of all humanity. Everyone (without exception) is searching. Everyone is searching for something or someone to save them in some way and make life better. Everyone longs for the day when problems are fixed and when life is ideal – as we thought it might be or should be. We hear it and feel it ourselves as people speak of that day when life will be better; when their ship comes in; when they get that job; when the economy turns around; when the housing market stabilizes; or when they graduate; or when they get married, or have kids, or when the kids are older or out of college; or when they finally can retire, or have grandchildren. THEN they will be happy. THEN life will be better.

Everyone figuratively…no…everyone literally is searching. Pick up any newspaper and you’ll quickly find a whole host of people who are searching. Just from yesterday’s paper alone I saw many examples:  Nadya Suleman, the 33 year old single mother of 14, who recently had octuplets……… is searching.  Michael Phelps, winner of many Olympic gold medals – but recently pictured smoking marijuana….is searching.  Nadine Haobsch – writer of a new book entitled “Confessions of a Beauty Addict” ....... is searching.  Nea Marshall Kudi – a man pictured as a drag queen ….is searching.  And from the business section, Bernie Madoff – perpetrator of a scheme that cheated many out of millions and billions of dollars is searching…as were his clients who lost money because they were trying to make big money from the scheme. They all are searching. (from the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Saturday, February 7, 2009)

And truth be known, you and I ….are searching. The world is full of people who are searching and though most don’t realize it, EVERYONE IS SEARCHING FOR JESUS –  JUST LIKE THE PEOPLE OF CAPERNAUM.

While many look for their problems to be solved before they’ll let themselves be happy or content…while many look for their heaven on earth…while many strive for perfect health or perfect bodies…or for harmonious families…or for that perfect job…or perfect church…while many look for money or security or control or even peace on earth as signs of salvation to give them hope…the Word of God is clear: It is the one who “waits for the Lord” who finds true peace. And says the Gospel of Mark, it is the one who looks to Jesus Christ who will find THE KINGDOM OF GOD and that finally is the source of all peace and hope.

EVERYONE IS SEARCHING FOR JESUS WHETHER THEY REALIZE IT OR NOT!  Everyone is really searching for the Kingdom of God and evangelism really means that it is our job as Christians to help others see that this gentle and peaceable kingdom is what Jesus brings. We pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy Kingdom Come” and for Jesus the Kingdom is a world of shalom (peace). This shalom or peace brings wholeness and health and justice where there is enough of the world’s goods and food to meet everyone’s need and where no one has more than they need. The Kingdom of Jesus is a place where sins are forgiven and where people are reconciled and unhealthy powers are cast out and chaos in nature is replaced with calm and order. This Kingdom is where people love God with all the heart and soul and mind and strength and where people also love their neighbors as they love themselves. Mark later is clear in painting this verbal picture of Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom.

In the Gospel reading today everyone is searching…searching for Jesus…but not everyone who searches for Jesus is searching for a Kingdom such as the one Jesus brings. Some are searching for a different kind of Kingdom, perhaps the Kingdom of “LITTLE ME” instead of the Kingdom of God. In Capernaum, Jesus could detect that. He could see that not everyone was searching for a relationship to Him which might have anything to do with wholeness and health and justice and loving God and neighbor. Some who sought him were seeking a Kingdom unto themselves, a Kingdom of LITTLE ME. It is not unusual for people to simply want to use Jesus and so, when his disciples tell him that everyone is searching for him, he tells them: Let’s get going. Let’s move on to the neighboring towns. It seems that Jesus doesn’t want to just appease the crowds and settle for a hero status right then and there.

In fact, it is interesting that the Gospel of Mark shows us that Jesus is very guarded about letting something here and now take the place of something greater and forever. Jesus is cautious about letting anyone get too excited about simply USING HIM to solve earthly problems without getting to know God and the full implications of the Kingdom of God for peace and justice. Notice that – in the Gospel of Mark – there is something called the “Messianic Secret”, where Jesus often commands silence about His power. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells the demons NOT to speak and next week, we will read of Jesus healing a man with leprosy, and Jesus gives a warning to that man NOT to tell anyone of his healing. That might sound rather strange to our ears. But what is likely going on here is that Jesus doesn’t want the people to get carried away with His divine power before he completes his eternal mission of bringing the Kingdom of God through the Cross and Resurrection. That is the ultimate expression of God’s unconditional and sacrificial love. So Jesus often is telling people to be quiet for the moment. He doesn’t want people to just “USE” Him to fix the Kingdom of “LITTLE ME”. Mark wants us to see in this part of his Gospel that Jesus wants people to move from pursuing the Kingdom of “LITTLE ME” to a new vision of justice and peace and joy in the Kingdom of God.

Everyone is searching, SEARCHING FOR JESUS, though many don’t realize what they are really looking for. Can you see in your life the signs of searching? And can you see that the reality that Jesus brings is really that hope and truth and life for which you and the world long? Don’t wait to be happy or at peace from any other source. AMEN

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THE BEST SERMON EVER
The Book of Jonah
By Pastor Mark E. Becker
Saint Paul Lutheran Church, Stillwater, Minnesota
January 25, 2009

As a preacher – with an ego – I kind of like this particular sermon title.  But don’t count on it – not from me today.  Because THE BEST SERMON EVER – not counting Jesus – was preached by Jonah.  Here it is: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Basically that’s it.  It was short – to the point – clearly stating God’s will for repentance – and then EVERYBODY DID REPENT – everybody from the king to the cattle.   This had to be THE BEST SERMON EVER – and one short statement said it all.

Interestingly, this was a sermon preached by a preacher who didn’t want to be there, who didn’t like the people he was talking to, and who didn’t want God to forgive them.  It was a sermon preached with no passion and with no oratorical skills, no alliteration to catch the ear, no stories nor poems nor metaphors to paint the picture, and no desire to make them hear nor consider God’s love to which they could turn.
This was a sermon preached in the sincere hope that (indeed) “FORTY DAYS, AND NINEVEH WOULD BE NO MORE.”  And yet there is good reason to call this THE BEST SERMON EVER PREACHED.

Hear my reasoning: First, the sermon did declare God’s will – and not Jonah’s.  Now one of the first things you learn in seminary about preaching is that the sermon isn’t about you. It’s not about what you want, nor about your pet peeve nor your latest passion.  It’s about God – about God’s will and passion – and that passion is a great love for ALL PEOPLE. Jonah’s passion, on the other hand, was most definitely NOT for the people of Nineveh. Jonah really didn’t like God’s will because these were the Assyrians, the Ninevites.   They were the enemies, pagans who harassed the Israelites and sent them into exile.

Actually this Jonah story is really a story meant to challenge the unloving attitudes of the Israelites toward their neighbors. The “story is actually satire,” says Old Testament scholar James Ackerman. It is written or told to the people of Israel who are very hard-hearted after experiencing the horrors of the exile. It makes the point that – yes, God’s love is available to all people – even to enemies – even to people like the Ninevites. Ackermann says that the story of Jonah is meant to challenge assumptions and attitudes.

The book of Jonah is a prophetic book, but the prophet himself is more like a character in a comic book, a type of Paul Bunyan perhaps. I myself really don’t regard Jonah as history but as a story with a purpose, and the point is about the love of God for all people, even for people who seem like enemies or adversaries. The prophetic word here is really a word to people who know and count on the Grace and Mercy of God for themselves, but don’t want it available to the scoundrels that really seem bad to them. That’s not so unusual is it? It’s easy for us to feel that way sometimes.

Mary W. Anderson, in an article in the Christian Century, said that our common belief is that “Bad things should happen to bad people, and good things should happen to good people. Everybody Jonah had ever lived with, worked with or had lunch with seemed to see the world in the same way – everybody, that is, except the God of the universe.”  (The Christian Century, Thy Will Be Done, page 15, Mary W. Anderson, Jan 5-12, 2000)

Where do you suppose Nineveh would be for us: Moscow, Beijing, Afghanistan, Iraq?  It’s interesting to me that there is –in fact – a Nineveh province in Iraq. I just saw it referenced in the paper this week. In fact, the historic city of Nineveh was likely in Iraq, and it doesn’t take too much of a logical step to let the Word of God speak to us as it did to the people of Israel. Isn’t it true that the God of the universe also loves people who are so different from us (different in culture and religion), and even people who have seemed at times like our enemies?

So, how far does God go to get us to love those we don’t want to love? Jonah was offended by God’s Grace for Nineveh. He had wanted to count the Ninevites out so much that he got in a boat to flee from God, and so everything that follows in this exciting and humorous story is about God’s persistence and Jonah’s resistance. First there is the storm and Jonah gets thrown overboard by a reluctant crew, and the storm stops. Then the big fish swallows Jonah and he is in the belly of the fish, which is usually an uninhabitable place for a human being, and he is there for three days. Can you imagine it? Somehow he lives in that stinky place, and even writes a type of psalm in there and – as far as we know – the fish doesn’t even get heartburn.

Or maybe it does, for the story says that the fish vomited Jonah on the beach.   Our translation says “spewed Jonah out” but the word actually means vomit…not a pretty thought. OK – you’ve been spit up on the beach, been in the fish for 3 days, through a terrible storm and God says, “Get up now and go to Nineveh?” What are you going to do?   Your going to go!!! But your going with an attitude. Your going to get in there,
say your piece, and get out of there as fast as you can, and that is what Jonah tried to do.  “FORTY DAYS MORE AND NINEVAH WILL BE NO MORE,” he said.   Five Hebrew words; short and to the point; THE BEST SERMON EVER.

This is THE BEST SERMON EVER because it was God’s will that people know and have time to change, and THE BEST SERMON EVER because it got results. That’s exactly what they did; they changed. Wow – that would be almost scary to get that kind of an immediate reaction for a preacher. Judged by its effectiveness, this WAS a great sermon. The people believed and proclaimed a fast. The king heard of it and repented, and he declared that all people and even the herd and the flock should participate in the fast of repentance. Do you hear the humor in this satirical story? Even the cows and the chickens got religion – so thorough was this repentance. What a sermon! What a God!

In the Gospel today, Jesus tells his disciples to leave the comfortable and known and to follow him in fishing for people. Were I to preach on Jesus’ call to discipleship and preach in the method of the story of Jonah, it wouldn’t be “40 days and Nineveh would be no more.”
But it might be something like “Saint Paul Lutheran, you’ve got to invite people to church or your church will be no more.” And then I would sit down and shut up as Jonah did, and see what would happen. Then we would have to see how good this sermon really is. The truly effective sermon depends not on how it sounds, but on the impact it has in the in the lives of the people who hear it. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
I hope we don’t have to wait too long. AMEN