First Lesson: Isaiah 62: 1-5 Responsive Reading: Psalm 36: 5-10 Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11 Gospel Lesson: John 2: 1-11 Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Last Sunday afternoon, I was sitting in Minneapolis in six below weather for upwards of three hours. Twenty- some seconds left in the game, and it looked like everything would soon come to fruition as Vikings kicker Blair Walsh lined up to probably win the game. Disaster soon strikes as Walsh misses a kick that kickers make 99% percent of the time. The Lord’s name was invoked last Sunday in my presence, only the words spoken were not words of praise. Leaving the stadium and walking back to the car, I heard a barrage of cuss words that will not be topped in the next year no matter where I go or who I see. Hope and celebration had quickly turned to nastiest of pessimism. This week, at confirmation, I had kids who have grown up in Minnesota tell me how they knew that he was going to miss that kick because they were the Vikings. Was the outcome disappointing? Yes. Did I sit at my seat with my hands held on my head in silence for several minutes? Sure. But in the midst of a mere Football game came a sign of hope[1]. The hope came from a room of 1st graders at Northpoint Elementary in Blaine. The teacher saw a mortal man who cried after the game on Sunday struggling before the world. So she assigned her student’s letters as a way to teach about empathy and forgiveness. One student wrote “Dear Blair Walsh, I know that it can be hard to get through things that are sad. But you have to try and try again. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. One time I made a mistake when I was doing a cartwheel. I felt embarrassed. You can still help the Vikings win the Super Bowl next year. Your Fan, Sophia Doffin.” PS. You are the best kicker that I know[2]. The rest of the story is Blair Walsh this week visited that classroom of first graders, because they were will sticking by him in not only the ups, but also the downs of life. Whenever we proclaim grace whether we are in first grade or nearing one-hundred, we ultimately bring people hope. The tale of Blair Walsh and the first-graders brings us to Today’s Gospel. Today’s Gospel lesson is another story about bringing grace and hope in a time of despair. Our lesson comes to us from the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry as he performs his first miracle at the Wedding at Cana[3]. I want everyone this morning to reflect upon a few different things regarding this story. Point One: Where Jesus performed his first miracle. Cana was a small village. Archaeologists even today debate Cana’s location because of its puny size. Galilee the part of Israel where the miracle was performed would have been known as a backwoods/hick outpost. There was nothing extraordinary about this wedding. The wedding probably took place at a non-extraordinary venue like the Reunion Hall. We don’t even know the names of the people getting married because they weren’t in all probability either rich or powerful. The crowd at this wedding was made up of normal people. The people gathered on this day had seen God act only a certain way in the previous generations. They assume God was doing big things somewhere other then a wedding in their rinky-dink little town of Cana. They assumed God was only going to act in a far, away glamorous place like Jerusalem. They assumed that God might only act in the lives of the rich, the young, and the powerful. God had different ideas though as he went to the wedding on this day. The thing about weddings in Jesus’ day is that food and wine were served by a pecking order[4]. The best guests got the best wine. And on this day, the wine ran out. The people assumed that it was time to go home. Jesus had different plans though as he asked for ordinary jars of water so that he may turn them into the finest wine that these guests were ever going to receive. Point two: Jesus didn’t want to initially act. Jesus proclaims “My time has not yet come”. My belief is that Jesus had every intention of acting. He waited for someone to set the process in motion. Mary refuses to sit ideally by on the sidelines. The role Mary plays in this story is quite important. Mary was bold in this story. Mary stepped out. Mary risked rejection. Mary risked getting nowhere. Mary risked failure. Mary risked frustration. Mary risked banging her head against the wall. Mary realized something important about outreach though that it has the potential to change not only your life, but the lives of those around you. I have a friend from seminary named that I’ll call Ted. People didn’t always know what to make of Ted. Ted would get a bit rowdy from time to time. Ted was no stranger to getting embarrassed. People would often talk about Ted because of it. Ted goes through life not caring what other people think about him. Ted believes that what he has was worth selling. Eventually a girl comes to Luther Seminary that I’ll call Rebecca. Every guy at Luther Seminary wanted to date Rebecca. Rebecca was the total package: pretty, smart, and personable. Ted initially asks Rebecca out and gets nowhere. People would tell Rebecca all sorts of reasons to stay away from Ted. Ted remained calm because he believed himself to be a great catch. Rebecca eventually says “yes” to Ted. They get married and are both pastors in SW Minnesota. Think of how much Ted would have missed out on, if he embraced the defeatist attitude that everyone thought that he should embrace. Think how much we might miss out on in life if only assume things will go like they’ve gone before. Mary had never seen Jesus turn water into wine before this wedding, but this wasn’t going to stop her from asking. How might God be acting? What can we possibly do? These are the questions that come before us on this day? I’ve been in the news a bit as of late. Let me tell you what happened. Peggi Potter upon hearing about the idle at Northshore Mining wanted to act. The reality of mining is that it affects everyone who lives here even beyond those who work down there, it affects those who contract with the mine, it affects those who work with the city or the school, and it affects those who try to earn a living all over town. We all benefit from Taconite Tax. Peggi wanted to put on meals for the whole community during these uncertain times. My initial reaction was to try to say “no” because the challenge seemed way too large. I then realized that we cannot embrace the mindset of God necessarily acting like he’s always acted before. In the past few weeks, I’ve heard plenty of objections: how it’s never been done that way before, how people don’t need our help, how we much run out of food. The thing is every one of these critics might be right. The thing is the cost of inaction is often greater than the cost of action. You can go through life free of risk never saying anything to which people may object or even leaving the house. Big changes in life, only begin with big risks. Big changes only begin when we realize that God might not always act in our lives like he has before[5]. What the Wedding at Cana shows us is that wine doesn’t necessarily run out. How God’s grace is never going to be ordinary or occur by any sort of book. If a congregation is not creating new ways to reach the community around it, it will soon cease to influence the community in which it serves. Today we begin a new year of ministry as a congregation[6]. The mindset that I want us to adopt as a congregation that we need to think of what we can possibly be, rather than what we can’t be. Each of us is getting older, many of us have longed for change that we have been unable to witness. Yet what our story reminds us is that our God will respond to the needs of his people. As we look out to the community before us, there are all sorts of people on this day longing for connection. They are longing to hear a person say that I want to be a part of “your life”. They are longing for friendship, they are longing for grace, they are longing for forgiveness. There is not one person waking up in Silver Bay this morning that doesn’t want to see their life change for the better because they encounter the Christian Gospel. There is not one person on this day that does not yearn for resurrection. There is not one person on this day who does not desire to see God turn water into wine before their very eyes. What our community needs to hear on this day is that you do not go through life alone. Our God shall work in ways that might not always be evident based on what you see on the nightly news. In our lesson for today, Jesus hour had not yet come. I do believe that our hour has not yet come. There are two ways that we can look towards the future of the congregation on this day. We can look at it through our ages, we can look at it by how many of our friends have dyed off, we can look it at through decades of decline. I know my friend Ted from Seminary wouldn’t look at it this way though. Instead we could possibly see something different. We could see a God who attends weddings. A God who creates hope in the midst of despair. It is this God who stands alongside us on this day as we receive his heavenly supper. It is this God who creates miracles every day as sinners are embraced by the power of forgiveness. It is this God who brings us hope perhaps when we least expect it like those attending that Wedding in Cana on this day. Our God is bringing about all sorts of mini-resurrections as we wait the day of final resurrection. The great hope guiding us into the year ahead is that chances to impact lives will stand before us. Think of the one person you know who longs for people to support them as they go through life. I believe that miracles will take place among us as a people in the years ahead. We cannot even begin to imagine what these miracles might look like on this day. As long as we’re breathing, we will have the chance just like Blair Walsh to “kick it again”. Our God will keep pouring out upon us “grace” upon “grace”. Water will be turned into Wine. Amen [1] Sawkar, Vinetta. “First-graders offer Vikings Kicker Blair Walsh words of encouragement”. Minneapolis Star Tribune. 13.Jan.2016. Web. Jan.14.2016 [2] Sawkar, Vinetta. “First-graders offer Vikings Kicker Blair Walsh words of encouragement.” [3] John 2:1-11 [4] Perez, Alvarez, Eliseo. “Commentary on John 2:1-11”. Working Preacher. Luther Seminary. Saint Paul, MN. 17.Jan.2016. Web. Jan.13.2016. [5] Lewis, Karoline. “Embodied Ephanies”. Working Preacher. Luther Seminary. Saint Paul, MN. 17.Jan.2016. Web. Jan.13.2016. [6] This comes from the date of the 2016 Sychar Annual Meeting. First Lesson: Acts 2: 1-21 Responsive Reading: Psalm 104: 24-35 Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 12: 3-13 Gospel Lesson: John 20: 19-23 Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
When I was in High School, I had a friend named Matt. Matt like a lot of kids didn’t like school. Matt would rather have spent his time playing golf, driving cars, and making money. When other kids were deciding upon where they were planning to attend college. Matt didn’t want to go. Matt had to struggle with the idea that going to college was what a person is supposed to do after high school. One of Matt’s high school teachers told Matt “That he would never make anything of himself until he went to college." Matt never went to college. Matt worked a variety of jobs, mostly in sales working towards developing his craft. Matt is eventually selling cars, and Matt has become quite good at it. Matt’s now a Sales Manager at a Kia dealership in Mankato. Matt developed his gifts apart from the traditional way of college. Matt developed his gifts, in a way, different from everyone else around them. For Matt, this non-traditional approach worked. An interesting story about Matt, I was talking to him on the phone this week. Matt married a girl who graduated from Saint Olaf. Matt and his wife Heidi attended her college reunion where had the opportunity to catch up with many of his Heidi’s friends from Saint Olaf. As Matt talked to the Oles about where they were in life all, he heard was complaining. “I don’t like my job”, “I have too much debt." Matt can not help to feel vindicated by his going against the grain decision to skip college years earlier. Matt pointed out something important as we were talking about this “The issue isn’t how much money they are or should be making, the real issue is living a purposeless existence where you’re not doing something that you see as valuable.” What makes something that we do valuable? Matt’s story brings us to our lesson for today from 1st Corinthians. Let me begin by giving a brief summary of 1st Corinthians. The Apostle Paul wrote this book as a way of addressing a church conflict amongst the earliest believers. The Corinthians met in individual homes out of fear for persecution. The Corinthians probably did not have many people in their house church at any one time. So the Corinthians got to know each other quite well. Perhaps the Corinthians got to know each other too-well as they encountered the non-saintly aspects of their fellow Christians’ lives from the sexual immortality to their own our sense of selfishness played out in everything from food squabbles to power struggles. Paul wrote this chapter on Spiritual Gifts because the people in Corinth kept trying to create layers and artificial divisions amongst themselves based on what they thought they brought to the table. The story in Corinth is not the story of a unique church. The story of Corinth is the story of every church. When you bring sinning sinners together, sparks are always going fly within the midst. Paul wrote this letter to the Church in Corinth because he wanted to create a different type of religious culture. Paul wanted to unite the culture between the spiritual have and the have not, the athletic have and the have not, the intellectual have, and the have not, along with the financial haves and the have not. Paul wrote to the Corinthians as a way of trying to bring them together in the middle of their division that was threatening to devour them. Paul understood that a miracle of sort was taking place in Corinth. The miracle wasn’t that more people weren’t leaving the church in Corinth. The miracle was that people were coming to the church in Corinth at all. The Corinthians had experienced pastoral turmoil, the Corinthians fought over Roman politics and the Corinthians had endured all sorts of rude treatment at the hands of their fellow members even including lawsuits being filed against their fellow believers, yet they still gathered. The miracle was the Holy Spirit’s effectiveness as the Corinthians gathered together time after time to confess together that Jesus was their Lord and Savior. Paul wrote that the nature of the church is such that they were no longer a series of identities, but rather one identity brought together as the people of God in Christ Jesus. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the identity of their spiritual gifts, what Paul was seeking to remind the Corinthians is that their spiritual gifts didn’t just belong to their preacher; their spiritual gifts belonged to each and every member of the Corinthian church. What Paul is seeking to remind the Corinthians is their disputes are not between those who possess the Holy Spirit versus those who don’t. Rather we all serve together the same spirit, the same lord. Right before starting in the Seminary, I was asked perhaps the most important question that I’ve ever been asked in my life, “How do I know that it’s God, not the devil calling me into the ministry?” In being asked this question, I was forced to confront a struggle that we will all face as we seek to discern God’s direction for our life versus that of our own whims and wishes. What we are left with is asking ourselves: “Do our actions build unity or disunity amongst God’s people?” and “Do our actions seek to bring a word of comfort and forgiveness to our neighbor?” and “Do our actions proclaim the Gospel? We make excuses why these things with which Paul speaks don’t apply to us. People say that they might be too old to make a difference. People figure that what you are good at might not be that important. Let me tell you a story. There was a woman’s group at a Lutheran Church that had the same 10-15 woman meeting month after month for what seemed to be decades. The oldest member of the group was a woman named Catherine. When these women bickered, Catherine would always interrupt with her kind and gracious demeanor to give perspective. When the church was in conflict, the members fighting amongst themselves, Catherine would seek to bring people together for a greater purpose. When woman would start to gossip, Catherine would try to change the conversation a different direction. Catherine at ninety some years old brought a wisdom and knowledge to that group that at times kept it from falling apart. Once Catherine moved away, a void was going to be felt at every single meeting. Once Catherine moved away, the meetings started to get a little testier. Catherine’s grace and leadership were invaluable to all that came across her; it didn’t matter one iota what her age. “Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues – these are the gifts that Paul celebrates in our lesson for today. (1 Corinthians 12:8-10). These gifts come to us in many forms; healing can come to us in the forms of doctors and nurses whether it seems obvious to them at the time or not. Prophecy involves the ability to interpret how the past, will play out in the future. Tongues come to us when people become convicted that one of God’s people needs their prayer in a particular moment. Tongues come when people are overwhelmed in an unexplainable fashion by God’s own spirit. An important distinction for this morning is pointing out the difference between “ gift” versus “ talent” as it relates to our lesson. This week, the NBA Finals began between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs. The Heat’s Lebron James is arguably the greatest basketball player of all-time. Lebron James has the type of raw talent when it comes to things like speed, strength, passing ability, and footwork that might not be equaled by any other human being on the planet for the next one-hundred years. Lebron James possess earth-shattering talent; Lebron James’ talent has led to him making more money then generations of his ancestors will know how to spend. As Paul was writing to the Corinthians he wanted to let them know that a spiritual gift was even more valuable than talent. The thing about talent is that it only serves to better yourself, whereas a spiritual gift serves to better the whole community around you. Paul makes this distinction as the people of Corinth were infighting amongst themselves that their ministry needed to be focused inward, rather than outward for the sake of their own survival. Christ is not seen necessarily in one’s talents, whereas Christ can be seen through one’s gifts. To further illustrate the distinction between talents and gifts, I want to close this morning with the story of Alice the Maid, otherwise known as Alice from the TV Show The Brady Bunch. Alice was played by the actress Ann B. Davis. Ann B. Davis died last weekend. If you only know Ann. B. Davis as Alice the Maid you are missing a fascinating story. Right as the Brady Bunch drew to a close, Ann B. Davis became a born again Episcopalian. While doing a play in Denver, Co, Davis would become close friends with an Episcopalian Bishop William Frey. Davis then slowly transitions out of show-business by moving into a religious commune with twenty other people. When Davis got calls about job offers in Hollywood, she would often pass saying that she found something better. Davis spent the last years of her life traveling around the country speaking at various churches, singing in the church choir, taking seminary classes in her free-time while also doing laundry for an area homeless shelter. Reading a tribute of hers this week, someone said they never saw joy on her face like when Ann B. Davis would reunite stray socks while folding a load of laundry at a homeless shelter. What made Davis’s life so different from that of her fellow Brady Bunch cast members is that she found meaning in life for something much greater than chemical addiction, or illicit sexual liaisons. Davis found her meaning in life from how she served others in her own unique way. The message for Pentecost is that ministry doesn’t have to look a certain way. My friend Matt didn’t have to go to College to find success in life. If you lie awake in terror at the thought of public speaking, you don’t need to be a preacher. If you can’t boil water, you don’t need to work in the Kitchen. My point is not to make your life look like Alice the Maid’s. My point is rather to cultivate your own spiritual gifts. The more people and the more ways that we reach out, the more and more ideas that are brought to the table, the stronger we are as a faith community. My point is to consider the extent of the mission field that lies before you. How we live out our spiritual gifts cannot be separated from the Christian freedom won for us on the Cross. We are not defined by God because our lives look a certain way. We are instead claimed directly by God so that our lives may be given new meaning from the day of our Baptism forward. In Baptism we are reminded that our lives from every day forward are ultimately not about us anymore, but rather the one that we are called to serve. As we celebrate Pentecost today. We reflect on the meaning of our own spiritual gifts: diverse and varied. We possess gifts that God gives us to reach the world around us, gifts that God gives us to bring us together as the body of Christ. These were the gifts that were given to Jesus’ earliest of followers, the gifts that have been given to those before us to bring us to this place today. Amen . |
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