First Lutheran Church

December 4, 2022 + The Second Sunday in Advent (A)

Isaiah 2:1, 3-4 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. … He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Isaiah 11:1, 6-10 1A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.. …6The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den 9They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.10On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Matthew 3:1-31In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ ”

Sermon

“Visualizing the Kingdom”

Pastor Greg Ronning

Today’s appointed Gospel for the Second Sunday in Advent exhorts us to prepare for the coming of Christ!  John the Baptist, that voice in the wilderness cries out, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

So it is, we are called “to prepare.”  I don’t know about you, but I don’t really get excited about preparing for things.  I can be a little lazy at times, I can procrastinate, and I’m not really afraid of “flying by the seat of my pants.”Being disciplined is not really one of my strongest suites, and honestly, I just don’t find the work of preparation very exciting.  Yet, I know it is important, even crucial, to taking advantage of the moments in life that come our way. As Thomas Edison once said, “Good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.”

So, how do we prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas? 

Well, the Christmas part is easy, - well at least easy to understand and define.  To be ready for Christmas is to clean and decorate your house, buy presents for loved ones, bake Christmas treats, make travel plans, and keep your calendar with all your Christmas events clearly marked and up to date.  That’s how you prepare for Christmas.   But preparing for the coming of Christ is really - a wholly different thing!

To be ready for Christ means to prepare “our hearts, our minds, and our souls” for something that is life changing, even disruptive.   Christ comes into this world with the Kingdom “to make all things new,” to give us an abundant life, and to inspire us in our divine calling in service to the Kingdom of God.  To be ready for the coming of Christ is to engage in nothing less than the really big questions of life, the questions of meaning and purpose, the questions of peace and justice, the questions of love and ultimate concern.  Something that’s just not as easy for which to prepare.

As I was reading last Sunday’s Old Testament reading from Isaiah, something jumped out and got my attention, something I read gave me a new insight into how one might prepare for the coming of Christ.  Isaiah chapter two, verse one reads, “The word that Isaiah son of Amozsaw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.”Note that in this particular instance, the prophet Isaiah did not “hear” the word of God, but rather he “saw” it!  Isaiah had a powerful “vision.”  And as they say, “Seeing is believing.”  And as the writer of proverbs tells us, “Where there is no vision, the people perish;…”(Proverbs 29:18 KJV)

It struck me in that moment, that one of the ways we prepare for the Coming of Christ, is by “seeing,”by “visualizing,” the coming of Christ, and the Kingdom of God.  We prepare for Christmas in the season of Advent by engaging our Holy Imagination.As Pastor Jennifer proclaimed last week, “God gave us imaginations for a reason!”  So it is, we are called to engage the wonderful “visions” of heaven described by the prophets, with our “own holy imaginations,” and in doing become active participants, ushering in the kingdom of God - right here, right now!   Too often all we see is the overwhelming problems, the hopelessness of the times, and the limits of the human condition.  We need to replace those fearful “visions” with a “faithful”“holy” vision, in order that we might have a clear picture of where God is leading us, and to what we have been called to do!

As some of you know, I like to golf.  I really like to golf. And professional golfers, and their sports psychologists, will tell you that one of the most important parts of hitting a good golf shot, - is “visualizing” the shot.  You need to clear your mind of every distraction and imagine the whole shot, from start to finish.There’s a great scene in the golf movie, “The Greatest Game Ever Played” that depicts this process.  The scene takes us into the mind of the English golfing legend Harry Vardon, as he prepares to hit his tee shot, in the 1913 US Open.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVpOhUo9DYk)

That’s how you do it!  That’s how you prepare for a golf shot, you imagine away all the distractions, you “see” the perfect shot, and then you do it!

*One more time, this is how good golfers like Harry Vardon, Tiger Woods, and Bob Carver play golf. Before they swing, they prepare by visualizing the perfect shot.  *They don’t see the tree that seems like it’s right in the way.  *They don’t have any concern for the water,(because they are not trying to hit it in the water.)*They are not concerned about the road and the trees on the left.  *All they see is the fairway, a big wide-open target.

Once again, “visualization”is the key to hitting a good shot, it’s critical.But even more important - is “what” you visualize!

Unfortunately, that’s my problem.  I can visualize my golf shot, but not in a helpful way.  My pre-shot routine, my preparationlooks more like this.  I step up to the tee box and I immediately become fully aware of all the potential problems that exist.  *I immediately see the tree.  *I notice the water, and by thinking about it, I bring it into play.  *And of course, I’m not going to let the road and trees on the left go unnoticed.   And suddenly, I can’t even begin to see the middle of the fairway!  I have only visualized all the problems, everything that might go wrong; and at this point, what will most likely - go wrong!

*The prophets of Advent, like great golfers, were able to confidently and correctly  “visualize” the coming of Christ and the Kingdom of God.  They did not see the limitations imposedby fear but rather the possibilities made possible by faith. And thankfully, for us, these visions were written down, preserved as gifts for us to open as we embark on the advent journey.

In last Sunday’s reading Isaiah invited us to imagine a day when swords would be bent into plowshares, and spears would be reshaped into pruning hooks; a day when the weapons of war would become tools for growing and harvesting, instruments of peace and prosperity.  As we make the Advent journey, we are invited to set aside our fears, engage the vision; and reimagine, reform, and repurpose the things of war - into things that make for peace.  Can you “envision” the tip of the sword tilling the soil?

In this Sunday’s readingIsaiah points out that the lifeless Stump of Jesse has come back to life.  What once was thought dead is now springing up a new shoot, one that will bear the very fruit of our salvation, the life of Jesus.  As we make our Advent journey, we are invited to look back at the things we thought were dead, the parts of our life that we thought were over, the things that we had given up on, and find in them – new life.  We are invited to trust in the pattern of death and resurrection.  Can you “visualize” that tender new shoot unexpectedly rising up out of that useless dead stump?

Today’s reading fromIsaiah concludes with the prophet painting an amazing picture of peace and harmony: the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kind, the lion and the fatling, the cow and the bear;all living together, peacefully, side by side, led by a little child.  As we make our Advent journey we are invited to stop, even turn around, and to reconsider relationships that have been riddled with conflict, those who have been defined as enemies, those we fear will hurt us, those who are so different from us; and in doing so discover new relationships that will bring us closer and deeper into the kingdom of God.  Can you “visualize” your enemy standing by your side, together doing the work of the Kingdom?

Today we are invited to set aside our distractions, our fears, and the limits of the human condition so often imposed upon our horizons; and insteadto “see” the word of God, to “visualize” the Kingdom of God that is coming even now.  We are invited to engage the visions of the prophets of Advent with our own God gifted – inspired - holy imaginations; and in doing so prepare ourselves, - our hearts, our minds, and our souls, - for the coming of Christ.

May the “word” that Isaiah saw; swords being beaten into plowshares, spears reshaped into pruning hooks, new life emerging from what we thought were dead stumps, and peace and harmony replacing enmity and violence; May these words of God visualized, these words dared to be imagined anew, - fill our hearts with hope, engage us in the way of peace, fill us with the joy of the kingdom, and strengthen us with the love of God in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Sermon on Matthew 24:36-44

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

Blessed Advent, and a happy new church year!

Now that we’ve eaten our pumpkin pie and dusted off our greenery, we’re kicking off this new church year with a reading that doesn’t exactly scream holiday cheer.

In fact, it almost sounds like a horror movie: with your coworkers getting whisked away without warning or as if by closing your eyes even for a minute, you might be left behind.

It sounds kind of like the idea of the Rapture, an understanding of the end of the world developed a little over 150 years ago from a rather obscure passage in 1 Thessalonians that talks about people being “caught up in the clouds” to “meet the Lord in the air.”

Whether you’re familiar with The Late Great Planet Earth or the Left Behind series, the idea of the rapture and the apocalypse has captured the imagination of many in our culture over the years.

But like we talked about a couple weeks ago, “apocalypse” doesn’t mean “disaster” or even “the end of the world.” It means “unveiling” or “revealing.”

So, what’s revealed here?

Let’s start with Noah. Jesus reminds his followers of the people that lived while Noah was building the ark. They were going about their daily lives doing normal things, and then they were swept away.

A global flood is not a happy image, of course, but Jesus is using this story to illustrate that people won’t know the time of Jesus’ return. It’s not about the flood, but about not knowing when something big will happen.

When you consider the people who are working in the field and one is taken and one is left in light of the Noah story, the one who is taken is more like the contemporary of Noah who is swept away than some righteous person who has been raptured. The one who is taken is caught unawares, like the people who weren’t on the ark. The person who is left is still working in the field or is busy grinding meal, just like Noah was busy faithfully building the ark.

Maybe this is what Jesus is revealing here:

No one knows how much time we have left. Tomorrow is not promised to us.

And still, we trust in a loving God who does promise the coming of the Son of Man. In the Gospel of Matthew, the phrase “the coming of the Son of Man” is a way of saying “the fulfillment of the Reign of God” or that time when sin, death, and suffering will be no more, peace and justice will prevail, and God’s perfect love will have won.

These promises are a gift God gives to us. During this Advent, we’re going to get the chance to reflect on many of God’s gifts.

Gifts are signs of love. Part of the excitement of gifts is the anticipation: something good is hidden, and our imaginations run wild with the possibilities of what this sign of love will contain. Part of the joy is in the waiting—the waiting of the receiver of the gift and the waiting of the giver, who is anticipating the delight of the receiver.

Advent is a season of waiting—waiting to celebrate Jesus’ birth at Christmas and waiting for Christ’s coming to us again at the end of time.

But Bernard of Clairvaux from the 12th century wrote of another Advent: Christ’s presence in our lives every day.

As much as our Gospel reading talks about what is far past (the people who didn’t pay attention to Noah) and what will be at some unknown point in the future (the coming of the Son of Man), what Jesus is concerned about is how we spend our days.

Jesus warns his followers to keep watch—to be aware and focused on what matters.

And Jesus also describes people who are at work when he returns. He describes people farming or grinding grain—not people sitting around waiting for Jesus to show up.

Have you heard the tongue-in-cheek phrase about people who are so heavenly minded that they’re no earthly good?

That’s not to say that we shouldn’t meditate on the fulfillment of the Reign of God—far from it! God gave us imaginations for a reason, and how are we supposed to work with God to make earth more like it is in heaven if we can’t imagine what that would look like?

And also, God calls us to work for justice and peace and mercy and love in the world now. Someday, all will be well, but right now, people are suffering, and we are called to do what is in our power to alleviate that pain now.

So, God gives us promises that give us a sense of what the Reign of God will be like. They give us hope that things will be as they should be one day, and they give us a vision of how we can help get a little closer to that reality. These promises are God’s gifts to us.

If much of the delight of gifts is in the waiting, both for the giver and receiver, can you imagine God’s delight in making promises to us?

Listen again to these words from Isaiah and imagine God’s pure joy at sneaking God’s precious people a glimpse of what the Reign of God will be like:

 “2In days to come
  the mountain of the Lord’s house
 shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
  and shall be raised above the hills;
 all the nations shall stream to it.
  3Many peoples shall come and say,
 “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
  to the house of the God of Jacob;
 that he may teach us his ways
  and that we may walk in his paths.”
 For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
  and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
 4He shall judge between the nations,
  and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
 they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
  and their spears into pruning hooks;
 nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
  neither shall they learn war any more.”

Throughout scripture, God gifts promises to God’s people throughout time and space. God gives us hints at what the Reign of God will be like. God in Jesus gives us a sneak peek at how living into God’s mission in the world can transform our lives. The Holy Spirit gives us nudges and glimpses into how we can participate in making the world a little more as it is in heaven.

Along with God’s promises, God gives us an invitation to create with God a better, more just, more loving world.

Advent isn’t about an idle waiting, where we tap our feet and sigh and check our watches, waiting for Jesus to come back.

Advent is an active waiting—a clinging to God’s promises in the midst of the world’s suffering and putting our gardening gloves on each day to plant seeds of the Reign of God that will sprout in mercy, branch in justice, and fruit in love.

We don’t have to wait until December 25 to unwrap God’s promises to us. They are for us now. Let them flower in your heart as we work together with each other and God to plant seedlings of heaven here on earth.

First Lutheran Church

November 20, 2022 + Christ the King Sunday Year C

Thankoffering Sunday

Luke 23:33-43When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.  Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots to divide his clothing.  And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!"  The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!"  There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews."  One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!"  But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?  And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong."  Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."  He replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

Sermon

“The King on a Cross”

Pastor Greg Ronning

Next Sunday we begin a new church year with the Season of Advent.  But before we can do that, we must properly conclude this current liturgical church year, and as always, we do this by celebrating “Christ the King Sunday.”  Traditionally on this day the church celebrates the Kingdom of God and its King, Jesus the Christ, seated on the throne at the right hand of God, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the sovereign ruler over all creation.  Christ the King Sunday, a grand and majestic conclusion to the liturgical church year!

However, the Royal metaphor, kings and kingdoms, just doesn’t carry the weight it carried hundreds of years ago. As Americans we severed our relationship with Kings and Queens some 250 years ago.  As a nation we don’t have a king or a queen and we don’t really know what it means to have a literal “royal family,” it’s not part of our experience. 

Yet, in some ways, the royal image is still popular, the “myth” is still with us in our culture.  We love watching “The Crown” on Netflix. We still imagine and dream about “Camelot.”  Just down the road at Disney there are all kinds of Kings, Queens, Princes, and Princesses running around to the delight of everyone.  And with the recent passing of England’s Queen Elizabeth, we were able to witness all the tradition, all the majesty, all the pomp and circumstance, that goes along with having royalty.  Kings and Queens are still all around us.

So it is that on Christ the King Sunday, even though it is not part of our daily experience, our democratic system of government; we can begin to imagine Jesus as our King.  And given what we know from England, and shaped as we are by Disney, we might expect the appointed biblical readings for this Sunday to reflect some of that pomp and circumstance, some of that majesty, some of the qualities of “the magic kingdom,” the awe of Windsor Castle, and the wonder of fairy tales; all that we might imagine.

For instance …

Something from the Book of Revelation would be nice, like this description of the throne in chapter four, “At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne!  And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian (crystal), and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald. Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones are twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads. Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God, and in front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like crystal. ”Glorious!

The ninth chapter of Isaiah is majestic and poetic, “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Great will be his authority, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. ”Majestic!

And perhaps the Transfiguration story from the Gospel of Matthew, “Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became bright as light. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. …  suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”  Vivid and Incredible!

But that’s not what we get on Christ the King Sunday. Not even close!  We don’t get an incredible story, a majestic story, a glorious story; - No, we get the crucifixion.  We get someone who has been stripped of his clothes and his dignity, someone who is mocked and tortured, someone struggling in pain, someone who is about to die.  We get someone condemned by the state, someone hanging on a cross between two common criminals, a dead man walking.  We don’t get the fanfare of England, we don’t get the magic of Disney, we don’t get a fairy tale ending, - we get the so called “folly” of the cross.

Theologian Debbi Thomas writes, “Can we pause for a moment and contemplate the paradox that is at the heart of our faith?  This is our king.  This is our king.” 

Yet it is this paradox that saves us!  Because when it comes down to it, we don’t need royalty, we don’t need a King or a Queen, we don’t need a sovereign proxy to intercede on our behalf, we don’t need someone who pities us from up on high; - we need someone who is very present in the midst of our life!  I am not going to be saved by a crown of jewels, I need the crown of thorns.  I am not going to be saved by someone who doesn’t know the struggles of life, I need someone who knows what it’s like to struggle, to be alone, even to die.  I am not going to be saved by a royal proclamation, I need a radical divine incarnation, intervention, that begins in the dust where I live, is present beside me, reaches out to me, and lifts me up.  We need a God who knows what it’s like, a God who has suffered, a God who has endured despite the pain.  We need a God who reigns from the cross, who reigns in humility, suffering, and weakness.  We need a God who reigns in such “descent .”As St. Paul proclaimed, “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)

God’s people, the saints of old, have always found God present in such “folly,” in “descent, ”in the midst of life’s great struggles, in the midst of the human condition, in the midst of it all, in the heart of the cross. Mountain tops always seem to fade, but those who have been found by God, those who sense God’s strange peace and strong love in the midst of the hardest times, never forget that deep and strong presence.  Yes, God is present always, in our joys, in our everyday moments and places, but God is most profoundly present, encountered, and experienced when things are not going so well, even falling apart. So it is that God reigns from the cross.

Today’s “Christ the King” gospel reading comes to us unexpected and perhaps even unwanted.  We’d probably rather have the glory, the majesty, the pomp and circumstance, and the awe. Who wouldn’t, it’s the first impulse of our human nature.  Yet the promises that flow from the cross, the promises of love, grace, mercy, and hope; in the end are more wonderous and everlasting.

Listen to the promises found in today’s Gospel ….

 "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." A radical word of forgiveness for all of us still caught up in sin and brokenness, for all of us struggling to do the right thing, for all of us, a forgiveness, that is without condition, only a powerful word of love, a word of love that can truly set us free.

One of the criminals asks Jesus, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus replies, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."  How good it is that Jesus “remembers.”  Be assured that as you walk the road that is your life, a road that is full of ups and downs, a road that can be hard and long, a road the Jesus too has walked; -Jesus remembers you.  And in this re-membering you are gathered up, and re-membered into love, re-membered into relationship, re-membered into the Kingdom.

And of course, “Paradise.”  Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, holds all of life in his outstretched loving arms, and in those outstretched loving arms he will hold us in this life and in the next, now and forever. God has the last word, a word that conquers fear and death, a word that is life, a word for each of us, a word for all of us.

This morning God invites us to trust and believe in the paradox that is our faith; to trust and believe in Christ, who exchanged a golden crown for a cross made of wood.  Christ Jesus, who reigns from the cross, who reigns in humility, suffering, and weakness, who reigns deep among us in wonderous descent.  May we be blessed with the courage to do the same, to lay down, to enter into our own humility, suffering, and weakness, and in faith discover the God who awaits us with the fullness of abundant life.

Christ reigns from the cross.  Thanks be to God, Amen.