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Sermons
PASTOR BECKER'S SERMONS
M. Becker
Lead Pastor
St. Paul Lutheran Church -
FROM NOBODY TO SOMEBODY
1 Peter 2: 10
“Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
By Pastor Mark E. Becker
St. Paul Lutheran Church, Stillwater, Minnesota
April 20, 2008
These words of God are powerful words. They speak to a people who need to hear them, As Gentiles, these first readers of this letter were nobodies. They had no identity – for they were not like the people of the covenant. They weren’t Jews – whose identity was shaped by history and tradition. Their lives were not intertwined with the community that was shaped by God as God’s people. These were Gentiles who were nobodies in a world of some-bodies.
But now – it is GOD’S WORD THAT (IN FACT) MAKES THEM SOMEBODY.
“Once you were no people – but now you are God’s people. These are shaping words, words of identity and belonging, which are two of the basic longings of the human heart. I used to love the Peanuts comic strip, and so I am glad that I can still find it in the Gazette whenever I want.. In one strip, Charlie Brown was talking to his friend Linus. “You see, Linus, “ he says, “It goes all the way back to the beginning. The moment I was born and set foot on the stage of life, they took one look at me and said, “NOT RIGHT FOR THE PART.” Poor Charlie Brown. He longs to feel “right for the part” on the stage of life. He longs to belong and fit it.
Yesterday on the way to Stillwater, I saw swarms of motorcycle riders, some on the road and some stopped at the gas station in Lake Elmo. It must have been a day of organized touring. What interested me though, as I was thinking about this longing to belong, was the fact that they all looked alike. Here was a group that I associate with the desire to be different, renegades perhaps, rebels in a conformist world. And yet, there was a definite sameness about the appearance of almost every single one of them. There was a lot of similarity in facial hair, for example, with some degree of variation. But the variation also had its repetition in styles of beard or mustache.. Then, there was a lot of similarity in the hair on top also, with some long and flowing, some shaved heads, and a lot of bandana’s. And, of course, for these rugged individualists - who want to declare their non-conformity, there certainly was a lot of leather in that group, so much so that all looked a bit like they were wearing uniforms. Leather is for safety, I know. But, isn’t it interesting how the longing to belong gets expressed even in those who want to make a fashion statement about being renegades. We all have the desire to belong, and to know who we are and how we fit on this stage of life.
Have you not had times, as I have, when you just felt like you didn’t belong. I think it is easy sometimes to get that feeling, especially in a town like Stillwater, where so many people have lived for such a long time, and where so many are related or connected in some way to each other. Who am I here, and how do I fit in? I think that is a common feeling here, especially among new people.
As a newcomer I have felt that a bit, but because I am a pastor, I have been warmly welcomed and am beginning to feel – at church anyway – that I have a place and that the people here really want to include me in. But – I am the pastor – and lots of people aren’t. It could be very easy to feel like a nobody in a town of somebodies.
That is how the Gentiles felt to whom this first letter of Peter was first written. They felt like they were strangers, Gentiles – outside of the covenant, like nobodies, and that isn’t a good feeling. And so this letter is an affirmation for them as baptized children of God. They ARE somebody because they are baptized into Christ. They are, says Peter, ”GOD’S OWN PEOPLE…ONCE YOU WERE NOT A PEOPLE, BUT NOW YOU ARE GOD’S PEOPLE; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Beginning with Holy Baptism – the intention of God in the life of every Christian is to bestow this identity of one who is a Child of God. This was the message to those who first received this letter of Peter, and it is the message that comes to us today. You were baptized into Jesus Christ, and therefore once you were nobody – but now you are somebody. You belong as a child of God, and you belong to the people of God. Baptism into Jesus Christ brings us all we need to know about our identity and belonging.
A very simple truth that we can take from this today then - is that an important part of our mission as a Church is to help each other to remember who we are and to whom we belong. Since we do baptize (as Jesus commanded) and since this is such an important part of our life together, our mission grows from this simple act.
There is not one of us here who has not – at some time – asked the question, “Who am I?
It perhaps doesn’t always sound like that, but we want to know where and how we fit. All along the way, at each stage of life, we ask the question.
-A child going off to Kindergarten for the first time is asking.
-Someone going into a new school or a new group is asking.
A child whose parents are divorcing is asking: “Who am I now, and how do I fit in?
A middle school student or junior high student is asking as he or she goes from being the big shot at the elementary school to being littlest and youngest once again.
A teenager beginning to date is asking. The young person being pressured by peers to experiment with alcohol or chemicals or sexuality is asking the question of identity:
“Who am I and what does that mean for my behavior?”
The college freshman is asking – perhaps in a first experience away from home.
The new person on the job is asking, regardless of age: Who am I now?
The newly married one is asking. The first time parent is asking, as is the parent of every teenager, and finally the one who is at home in an empty nest wonders, “Who am I now?”
The person in the midst of a mid-life crisis is frantically asking:
“WHO AM I NOW THAT LIFE SEEMS TO BE PASSING ME BY?”
And the one whose spouse has died – or the one going through a divorce wants to know
“Who am I now that I am single?”
The retired person who once found meaning and purpose in a job is asking,
“Now that my work is gone, what is my meaning, and where do I find purpose?”
As the stages of life come and go – as society shifts – as male and female roles change – as friends or loved ones move on or leave or die, we ask again and again: NOW WHO AM I ? AM I SOMEBODY - OR AM I NOBODY? Though sometimes more and sometimes less intense, the question is often on our mind. It is you see, a faith question. It is the question of meaning and identity, and it is therefore the question that grows out of the nature of those who are created in the image of God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is the German Lutheran pastor who resisted the Nazis – even to the point of participating in a failed plot to assassinate Hitler. He is a hero of mine, and he witnesses to me in his struggle with these same questions of identity as he sat in prison before his execution. Out of that terrible time and situation, where any of us would wonder – “Who am I now?” – Bonhoeffer wrote a beautiful and moving prayer.
He begins: “Who am I? They often tell me I would step from my cell’s confinement calmly, cheerfully, firmly, like a squire from his country-house. Who am I? They often tell me I would talk to my warders freely and friendly and clearly, as though it were mine to command. Who am I? They also tell me I would bear the days of misfortune equably, smilingly, proudly, like one accustomed to win. Am I then really all that which others tell of? Or am I only what I know of myself: restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage, struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat, yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds, thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness, trembling with anger at despotisms and petty humiliation, tossing in expectation of great events, powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance, weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making, faint, and ready to say farewell to it all? Who am I? This or the other? Am I one person today, and tomorrow another? Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others, and before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling? Or is something within me still like a beaten army, fleeing in disorder - from victory already achieved? WHO AM I? THEY MOCK ME, THESE LONELY QUESTIONS OF MINE. WHOEVER I AM, THOU KNOWEST, O GOD, I AM THINE.”
(from Creative Brooding, edited by Robert A. Raines, copyright 1966 by Robert A. Raines,
Collier Books, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, pages 23-24)
What power and solace there is for those who – by their baptism – know who they are and to whom they belong. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, God is clear. To God you are SOMEBODY. From Psalm 139 (from before you were born YOU WERE SOMEBODY “knit together” by God) to John 14 (after you die YOU ARE SOMEBODY for Jesus prepares a place for you. You don’t disappear and fade from existence. You don’t just return to being a nobody because after death Jesus assures you that you STILL ARE SOMEBODY FOREVER with a place in God’s kingdom.)
Our mission as a church, as people who follow Jesus Christ in baptizing and teaching,
is to help every single person here remember their identity as a baptized child of God – “WHOEVER I AM, THOU KNOWEST OF GOD, I AM THINE.”
This mission - is at the heart of our worship and Christian education and youth ministry. It is the foundation of our fellowship and it is our responsibility to all who come seeking a word from God. Everyone who walks in the door as a visitor and everyone we meet in the community must hear from us that they are welcome in this place, and that here they can find a home and belong – not because they are related to someone and not because they have lived here a for a while – but simply because they – like we – baptized into the world-wide community of Jesus Christ.
Who am I and to whom do I belong? It is clear that we have some answers that we are commanded to share by the Lord Jesus Christ. His mission to which we are called as disciples is to make people who feel like they are NOBODY - know by our actions that they are SOMEBODY, somebody of eternal worth and value, somebody who belongs. First of all, remember that for yourself – and then – share it with others. AMEN
This mission - is at the heart of our worship and Christian education and youth ministry. It is the foundation of our fellowship and it is our responsibility to all who come seeking a word from God. Everyone who walks in the door as a visitor and everyone we meet in the community must hear from us that they are welcome in this place, and that here they can find a home and belong – not because they are related to someone and not because they have lived here a for a while – but simply because they – like we – baptized into the world-wide community of Jesus Christ.
Who am I and to whom do I belong? It is clear that we have some answers that we are commanded to share by the Lord Jesus Christ. His mission to which we are called as disciples is to make people who feel like they are NOBODY - know by our actions that they are SOMEBODY, somebody of eternal worth and value, somebody who belongs. First of all, remember that for yourself – and then – share it with others. AMEN
The Power of the Word in Creation
By Mark E. Becker
Lent – March 12, 2008
St. Paul Lutheran Church, Stillwater, Minnesota
Science, Creation and Faith For Today
In the Gospel of John we learn that the “WORD” is about the power of God that is at work – and always - it is at work for our sake. This Word (with a capital W is a translation of the Greek noun logos)and it is that aspect or quality of God that makes things happen, and, of course, the first thing that happened by God’s action on our behalf is the creation of our world.
Tonight I want to talk about creation and about God’s action in that creation, and how that action is the same action that we see in the salvation of Jesus Christ.. Tonight I want to share my theology about how this act of Creation is NOT in conflict with scientific theories, including the theory of evolution. Many of you may wonder about the compatibility of the Bible and science, and specifically about the theory of evolution. Let me suggest to you, though, that it doesn’t matter how God chooses to create - as much as it matters that we believe that God is behind it as architect, engineer, and builder - all rolled into one. Using the concept of the Word that the Gospel of John teaches us, I want to suggest some important things that articulate a faith that can be consistent with scientific truth, for it is my firmly held belief that if something is true, it is God’s truth.
It is my belief and the belief of many in the theological community and scientific community that God is the Creator and that there is thoughtful planning and intention in the design of this world, and that starts with the concept of the Word – with a capital W as the Gospel of John teaches, the Word that is the action of God for our sake.
The first thing that the Gospel tells us is that this Word was WITH God in Creation (this Word that was the pre-existent Christ before the world was created). And then John tells us that this Word was the initiative and power that actually designed and then brought the world into being. John says, “All things came into being through him and without him not one thing came into being.” So here is where we begin. This Word is in fact POWER, and it is the POWER that brought this world into being.
The Bible begins with the first words of the book of Genesis in this way: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Notice that the means by which God created is - BY WORD
Listen: In the beginning “GOD SAID, Let there be light” And when God speaks, it happens. God’s Word is action. So, when God said “Let there be light. THERE WAS LIGHT! Now this doesn’t have to be seen as immediate or magical – but it happens by the will of God in whatever time it takes (time being a part of the created order along with space). The point is that creation was the RESULT of the Word of God, and - as today - we know that words have meaning and logic and order behind them, this Word had power behind it power that created meaning and logic and order from the mind of God..
Now I want you to consider with me how it really doesn’t matter whether the earth and all creation appeared in an instant, or whether it started to take shape and through a process of evolution became what it is. It doesn’t matter how God DOES the creative work, nor does it matter how LONG that creative work took. I think that evolution could be God’s choice of method, just as I could choose to bake a cake the conventional way – or in a microwave. How God did the act of Creation is not as important as the faithful understanding that God really IS THE POWER behind it all – and that there IS meaning and intention and logic and order in creation, and that it all is NOT some big accident.
The theology of Genesis – affirmed by the Gospel of John – declares that there is One who spoke that Word to bring something out of nothing…to bring order out of chaos, and to bring creation into being.
I have a wonderful book from the Templeton Foundation, called “The Hand of God”. This beautiful book is a collaboration of science and faith, juxtaposing truly awesome photography of the cosmos with the reflections of scientists, poets and theologians. Much of the incredible photography came from the Hubble space telescope, and quotations are from such thinkers as Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, Annie Dillard, Stephen Hawking, Galileo, Soren Kierkegaard, Jane Goodall, and astronauts John Glenn and James Irwin.
The opening essay, written by Sharon Begley, senior editor of Newsweek Magazine (and an award winning science writer) makes the point that the universe is not a cosmic accident. Showing how it has order and logic and that it is designed very precisely to create a place for human beings to live, Begley says this: “If the laws of physics were tweaked ever so slightly, the world as we see it would not exist. With just tiny changes in the values of some of the numbers that go into the laws, no one would be around to marvel and wonder at any of this. The cosmos,” she says, “seems fine-tuned for existence in an almost-too-good-to-be-true manner. To some, this ‘fine tuning’ of the laws that govern the universe is ….PROOF OF A DESIGNER.”
(The Hand of God, Thoughts and Images Reflecting the Spirit of the Universe, edited by Michael Reagan, copyright 1999, Lionheart Books LTD, page 16)
In the theology of Genesis and of the Gospel of John, I would add that this concept of being “fine-tuned for existence” is another way – from scientific observation – to say that there was a Word spoken IN THE ACT OF CREATION, a Word that makes things happen, an thoughtful Word by a personal God that had meaning and logic and order behind it. And with that Word of action came the Creation that we now try to observe through the lens of science.
Let me describe for you just one example of the fine tuning cited by Sharon Begley, that points to a designer or architect behind this creation. Begley who is a respected writer in the field of science says this: “Life is carbon-based. Carbon is one of the elements cooked up, inside stars through nuclear fusion. Yet the recipe for carbon is as unforgiving of error as the most finicky soufflé instructions. To form carbon,” she says, “three of the helium nuclei whizzing around a star need to collide simultaneous – same place, same time. That occurs even less frequently with nuclei than it does with three friends meeting at a multiplex; it just doesn’t happen (accidentally) that the three of you would show up at precisely the same moment. But when the carbon nuclei have a specific energy, called a resonance, the chance of a triple encounter rises significantly, much as three friends are more likely to assemble at the same instant if they all step off the same bus at the same time and walk at the same speed to their rendezvous point.”
(ibid. pages 18, 19, 20)
To try to put it simply, here is a scientist who is saying that there is good logic in the reasoning that says God is behind this phenomenon of creation and that it is not just some incredible accident. The author says it this way: “Someone has been turning the dials”, (and that Someone) has “frozen the knobs at just the precise points that will lead to stars, and planets, and life intelligent enough to wonder about it all.” (ibid. pages 19,20)
Later in this book, Sir Fred Hoyle, a British mathematician and astronomer, is quoted as saying “A common sense interpretation of the facts” (is) “that a super-intellect has (worked) with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces” at work in nature. (ibid. Page 35) Similar to this quotation, I know many scientists whose faith is strengthened and not compromised by their knowledge of science.
Though faith is always just that, a matter of faith which shouldn’t have to be proven in any way, it is still somehow encouraging to me when I hear scientists that support the same conclusions I as a Christian theologian take from the Bible, for all truth is God’s truth. “Someone turning the dials to create all that is” isn’t too far removed from “In the beginning God said”….and both are saying that there was power and order and design and purpose that brought all things into being.
Now with that in mind, consider again with me the first chapter of the Gospel of John.
It is clear that John is writing this Gospel to sound very much like the first verses of Genesis, and just like those first verses of the Bible, John writes: “In the Beginning”….”In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ Can you hear it? This is fleshing out the Old Testament. This is a new creation story, as John continues: “All things came into being through him and without him not one thing came into being.” Here is John’s confession of faith. He is saying that this one who was the Word become Flesh, this Christ of God, this one who was then born as Jesus of Nazareth, was and still is the very POWER THAT WAS IN CREATION. IN FACT, THAT CREATIVE POWER IS STILL AT WORK EVERY DAY, IN EVERY BREATH WE TAKE AND IN ALL THE WAYS THAT LIFE IS CREATED ANEW IN EACH OF US. Do you see why I want you to see this and hear this tonight? Jesus Christ is not just some first century religious leader like a Buddha or Muhammad. Jesus is not just a prophet or spiritual guru. Jesus is the Word and action of God for our salvation.
He is that Word that acted to create this world, and according to the Gospel of John, He is not only one with God as the power behind creation, but the Christ whom we have come to know as Jesus is also that power that moves among us right now as the Risen one who continues to make something out of nothing (in us) and life out of death.
I want you to know that this power is available to you tonight, and I want you to tap into it. It is for you in the Word that comes through the Bible, and that is available to you whenever you pick it up or hear it or read it. Now, the words of the Bible, of course, are human words, nouns and verbs, and adjectives and adverbs; and they are the stories of men and women who in their brokenness encountered this same Word as it took shape and acted in their lives.
But in these stories – that Word is still a power for you, a power meant to create in you the new creation of faith, and then that power means to live through you as the Living Word of God, the Body of Christ in the world today. So when you read or hear the Word, don’t’ just read it for curiosity. Read it and hear it, expecting it to shape you. Don’t just read it as a piece of literature or history. Read it, rather, as a Word that intends to do something with your life. Read it with expectation and with the question: What is God creating in me TODAY?
As you live and breathe and eat, God is saying “Let there be life in you today..” And as you read scripture God is saying, “Let there be faith and hope in this one that I love.” In the beginning and even now and into the future, God is the power behind all of creation, and behind the life and health in each of us, each and every day. As a pastor, I am convinced - science and theology can agree on that. AMEN
LIVING IN THE COMMANDS OF JESUS
Matthew 26:26-29 – John 13 and John 15
By Pastor Mark Becker
St. Paul Lutheran Church, Stillwater, Minnesota
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