Resurrection Life

Change For What You Believe In: A Sermon for 23 Pentecost 2009

23 Pentecost 2009.doc

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Through the River: Understanding Your Assumptions About Truth by Jon & Mindy Hiebert with Dr. Paul Hiebert: A Review

I like the way people like Jon and Mindy Hurst work. I appreciate people who can take complicated and misused or abused concepts and place them in a context in which they might be rationally considered, discussed, and enacted. The Hurst's have done this with the hot-button concept of truth in their book Through the River. From Pilate's question to the arrested Jesus, "What is truth?" to our post-modern contemporary skirmishes between individuals and denominations, truth is a concept that often resists the close scrutiny we assume we must have all given it at some point in our lives. The Hurst's have come along with the analogy of River Town and the three populations that represent three distinct ways of looking at the truth. Assumptions that we make about ourselves and others views are the basis for many of the tensions that arise between people. The Hurst's ability to describe the philosophical areas of Positivism, Instrumentalism, and Critical Realism are a great launching point for serious communities to learn to engage each other with love to truly advance the cause of Christ.

I am, of course, concerned that those who most NEED this book will not be the ones who READ this book but one can always pray, right?

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Have you checked out Mt. Olivet Plymouth's new Wednesday night worship and education yet?

We have had a wonderful October with an all-new Wednesday evening schedule that includes a meal, worship and education. I am putting some pictures up from our worship time which is led by Jacy Pelstring and Eli Elstad and their band Clarety Drive.

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Simple Life: Time, Relationships, Money, God by Thom and Art Rainier: A Review

Simple Life is a big book. That was my first impression. My second was this: those authors must have a sense of humor if they think I have the time to read this book on creating a Simple Life!

The reality is this, something is wrong with how people are living life and the Rainer's (father and son) have not only put their finger on the problem, as many have, but, have even done research into the issue with a strong sample and a margin of error of 2.9%.

Their research showed them four areas that people generally find themselves yearning for something simpler: Time, Relationships, Money, and God. The interesting thing about people who are mired in the morass of busyness is this: what of what they are doing can truly be called bad? Work to provide for family? Sports to stay healthy and active? Schoolwork to get good grades and get into college? These are the very issues that church pastors and leaders bump up against all the time... and your members' level of church involvement is not going to figure large into their future earnings or the school their child is going to get into... so what we are left with is a diagnosis that we hear all the time as church leaders. We're TOO BUSY! So, what to do about it? Yell louder, lay bigger guilt trips? Close up shop?

Well, first thing, get this book... read it. Yes, it is thick; but it reads fast. Even the analogies make sense; I'm sure a couple of them will show up in a future sermon or two.

The authors have four core ideas around which the four areas for simplification circle. The foundational key is to remember that this process is a *journey* and that in itself is a freeing idea!

The first idea is *clarity*. Clarity means we know where we are going. The authors challenge the readers to develop an actual plan, when one follows a plan change results. When we don't the status quo reigns supreme.

The second idea is *movement*. Congestion is bad. A congested sinus will get infected. Congested traffic causes heart attacks. The authors show the readers how to use intentionality and incrementality to knock down the roadblocks to change and simplification. We all know that one big systemic change is way too tiring and scary to attempt and here is a way to get at real change in small, noticeable ways.

The third idea is *alignment*. Lives get out of alignment slowly and usually unnoticeably. Debt doesn't just show up overnight just like my spare tire didn't. You don't get overbusy in one day either. Eliminating some of the GOOD STUFF is key to aligning our lives around what really matters to us!

The final idea is *focus*. Focus means that some things just don't get done no matter how good they are.

The entire book is written about the dash. The dash. You know, that hash mark between your birth and death date that will appear on your grave marker one day? How are you going to live your life in that dash? And, when the sleep of blessed death comes to you one day, how will you be remembered? As one who was overbusy or one who learned how to life a life that mattered, a life that was lived according to why God created us in the first place?

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The Rise and Fall of the Christian Coalition by Joel Vaughn: A Review

The Rise and Fall of the Christian Coalition by Joel Vaughn is an insider's account of the political machine known as the Christian Coalition. The Coalition experienced a meteoric rise in popularity and power in the 1990's under the leadership of Ralph Reed and Pat Robertson. Vaughn's book is an insider's tale that is great for those who truly enjoy "inside baseball" in the world of politics and the Christian conservative movement.

I found this book to be not only engaging but it is replete with teachable moments in regards to a. anyone thinking of starting a political movement b. anyone who works in the grey areas of church and politics and c. yet another warning to anyone involved in an organization that is personality driven on the necessity for succession planning years in advance.

My two criticisms of this book are that there are numerous typo and editorial gaffes (one being the misspelling of my former senator Rod Grams' name) and that, while organized along a timeline, the book itself seems unfocused at times. Vaughn sometimes seems to have an anecdote that had to be in the book and so he squeezed it in disrupting the natural flow of the story itself.

That being said, I was interested to see just how political, rather than religious, the Christian Coalition was. It truly showed me that in politics, which is a zero sum game, often the teaching and life of Jesus are supplanted by "issues" based movements. I wonder if Jesus would have been able to write this book, or start this movement, with chapters detailing how big his movement had become, which famous names had signed on, and how much money was coming into the downstairs countroom on a daily basis.

Vaughn did not intend his book to be about the religious and theological importance of the Christian Coalition, but as a pastor I have to step back and wonder just how useful it is for the Church to become involved in politics at all? It seems to me that it is the Church that gets used in those moments (and I'm talking about the liberal AND conservative churches and politicians) and left behind for whatever the next hot-button issue is or whichever organization will attract money and votes.

Regardless, I do find that this book was moderately insightful and definitely informative. This book would be a good read in a political science course of an undergraduate institution or by any leader who is building a movement of his or her own.

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What if? A Sermon on Acts 16

September 20, 2009

Acts 16: 25-34

Singing, Praying, Speaking the Word ‘til the Walls Come Down
Pastor Chris Enstad

Brothers and sisters, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

If you were thrown in prison under false charges and the walls of that prison were shaken by the hand of God so that your path to freedom lay right there in front of you, what would you? The answer to that question is at the very root and foundation of who we are being called to be as Christians in the world as individuals, families, and groups, from the very tiniest members of the body to the oldest.

The actions of Paul and Silas that we just heard read this morning are an example of two men with a faith that was alive, who were planting churches that they expected to be active in the world, and were representatives of a movement of a people who are grounded in the story of God and his Son Jesus Christ to the point that it had moved well out of the rational, head-located, knowledge based ideas of faith and theology into actual lives that lived in expectation that God was active in the world and that wherever God was stuff would happen. Amazing transformative stuff.. There is often a difference between hearing that Jesus died for you and seeing the result of that truth in someone’s life.

Paul and Silas had been thrown in prison for pulling a demon out of a young girl. That girl was being used to make money for her family by telling people their futures and so, by healing her, Paul and Silas were accused of taking away the family’s source of income… so, of to prison they were sent.

We come upon these two men in the text we just heard read singing hymns and praying to God. And the other prisoners were listening. Now, we don’t know much about how those songs were being sung or how those prayers were being prayed, but, I believe it is safe to infer that they were not singing and praying in fear and trembling because the scene of the other prisoners listening seems to suggest that there was at least a modicum of respect being shown these two men, again, falsely imprisoned, and singing hymns and praying to God.

The hand of God shook the prison so much so that not only were the doors rent from their hinges but the shackles fell off of the prisoners. They were free. And they stayed.

The guard, having dishonored his position, was prepared to kill himself when Paul and Silas called out. “We are still here!” Who are these men who, when the walls of their prison were torn down, and their shackles removed, had the courage and desire to stay right here? I mean, who does that?

Exactly. What kind of a person is so confident in their future, who is so sure of their status before God, who has placed their trust in their inheritance of everlasting life, that they would rather stay put then run. That they were prepared to speak the Word of Jesus Christ even to their guard who, if they had let him fall on his sword, would have made their escape even easier! What kind of person would be prepared to do such a thing?

Well, there is Paul. There is Silas. And, brothers and sisters, there is each and every one of you.

More on that in a moment.

After preaching to the guard he invited the two men to his house and had his entire household baptized that day. They shared a feast, the celebrated the conversion of the guard, a guard who, himself, had heard the word of God, seen its effect on how people live their lives, and his entire household was baptized that day.

Folks, when the Word of God is heard, read, preached, or taught, whether at church and even in our homes… stuff starts to happen. Lives are transformed, prison walls some falsely encaging us, some of our own making, start to shatter and fall, and rather than run, rather then let someone or something drive us hither and thither, we stay put to discern where God is going to use us, and all of that powerful stuff starts happening all over again.

Isn’t this an amazing God? Isn’t this an amazing story, a story of Jesus Christ that is a living Word, a Word that breaks into our lives with the power to create something new?

What if, what if we rose up people and families that had the power and presence to engage with the world like Paul and Silas did? What if we unleashed the members of this to truly take their authority as priests of God seriously and taught God’s word to their children, to themselves, and then went out into the world to share that Good News with others and made that service a priority ahead of all other priorities in their lives? What if?

Well, that is exactly what we are praying is going to start happening right here at Mount Olivet. Building on all of the great work that our families and staff have been doing for the past several years, this is the year we, as a family, are going to break out of the way things have always been done in the church, where the staff is the repository of all things Christian and we drop our kids off to receive this knowledge in the hopes not that they will be transformed as much as just that they learn to behave and be good kids. To a new, in fact old, way of being the church where we come to this place to worship God, to learn maybe something new about God, to hear and engage with this Living Word in community with each other, but then return to our homes to convert our very lives over to God and, in that conversion, engage with the world not out of our anxieties or tiredness or never-enoughness but with peace that passes all understanding, with joy and thanksgiving that God is active in the world saving others maybe even through our hands our hearts, and with the sense that all is good, there is always enough, and how could we not give to God the first fruits not just of our treasure but of our talents, our time, our hearts, and our hands each and every day?

Wouldn’t it be something for someone to walk into this place expecting to be spectators and instead they are invited to participate with us in our work together in God’s mission field?

Wouldn’t it be something for a youth to be a non-anxious presence in a kids life that isn’t one of the “cool” kids because they have little regard for what status others attach to them knowing that it is what God already thinks of him or her that really matters? And that they would live their lives that way?

We are inviting all of our families, young and old, with kids, empty nesters, our older wiser Lutherans, to join with each other in exploring new ways of finding the time, space, and priority to make God’s Word a regular part of our lives. Wherever God’s Word shows up, things start to happen. Is your family life really a picture of the walking dead? Is your marriage on cruise control? Are you spinning your wheels looking for purpose because you last child moved out and all of the sudden you have all of this time on your hands? Are you retired and feeling like you have so much to offer and no way to connect with these families that are moving so incredibly fast through life that they blow right by you?

Stay tuned, and show up.

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God helps those who canNOT help themselves

I occasionally like to remind folks that the phrase, "God helps those who help themselves," is nowhere to be found within Scripture. That phrase was coined by Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanack and unfortunately is the one thing NOT to be found in Scripture that has permeated itself into the essence of American Christianity. God helps those who canNOT help themselves. Lucky you and me first of all but as God's hands in the world we best re-examine our perspectives on the poor (in spirit, in treasure, in love, etc. etc.) from God's viewpoint and not Ben Franklin's. Why is it that this supposedly Christian nation has such a hard-time welcoming the alien among us? Illegal or not? Jesus couldn't even get into this country with the rules and regulations we have in place. Why is it that we have such a hard time giving up something in order to get all of our neighbors into some kind of health insurance coverage ensuring that they have access to the same quality of care as we do? And why are seniors so angry about anyone even daring to change social security or medicare when what they have right now is going to bankrupt their children and grandchildren very soon? Why?

God's Kind of Government Takeover: A Sermon

14 Pentecost 2009

Mark 7: 24-37

“God’s Kind of Government Takeover”
Pastor Chris Enstad

Brothers and sisters, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Gospel of Mark is an incredible narrative that moves lickety-split from Jesus’ Birth to his death on the cross and his resurrection. Unlike the other characters in the Gospel we get let in on the Jesus’ secret right from the beginning when Mark writes, “the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” I have told you this before but this is my favorite Gospel because of how Mark has structured this story to communicate to us the power and energy of Jesus Christ and how that power and energy went from literally spilling off of our savior when he healed a woman who merely touched his cloak to his death on the cross. Empty, crying out to God, Eloi eloi sabachthani, My God why has thou forsaken me. Gone were the crowds, the 4000, the 5000, gone were the disciples, He had been betrayed by Judas and denied by Peter. Left to hang on the cross, hanging there with all of our sin on him to the point that not even his Father could be in his presence… just the priests, elders, guards, and in the distance a couple of women including Mary who is identified by Mark not as the mother of Jesus but as the mother of his brother James. And the first person to get it, to tell us that we aren’t the only ones who know who Jesus is, is the Roman soldier.

This Good News drips with Gospel goodness. The Gospel pours out of Christ into the world to the point where he is completely emptied of life. He leads his disciples to the cross, showing them and us that we must lay down our lives in order to take them up. So much of Christianity is triumphant, haughty, unloving, and bigoted the way we live it today. It is like Jesus accused the Pharisees in Mark when the yinsisted on clinging to the traditions of their elders, “you are only honoring me with your lips and not your hearts. This power that is pouring off of me is just a glimpse of the kingdom takeover of creation, the world, that woman over there, this deaf man right here, and even you.” God’s kingdom is breaking into the world through his Son Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Mark not only tells the story, but, when one truly sits and lets this amazing Gospel wash over them one cannot help but get caught up in the amazing turning upside down of all of our assumptions about God, our lives, and each other.

To prove the point the text today is kind of a two-for-one example of just how Jesus went about his ministry. These texts, especially when taken together, usually only succeed in raising more questions rather than answers. What did Jesus mean when he called the woman’s daughter a dog? Kind of mean for Jesus right? What kind of demon was it that made that girl unclean? Weren’t all Gentiles considered unclean? Wasn’t it taboo for a woman to address a Jewish single man, and that in public? What about the deaf man, what was with all the spit and touching of this guy? And then, just after Jesus gave this guy his speech back he commands him to tell no one about it… why so much irony? And, why didn’t anyone listen to him? Don’t tell anyone he commanded and hey they said, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

Well, we could spend all day on just those questions but I am going to let you off the hook and not preach quite that long. I will say that I think there are two key points to look for here to get an idea of just what Jesus is up to, the first being that these stories come right after Jesus declared, basically, that all things that go into a person’s body are clean (going against thousands of years of church tradition mind you) stating that it is not about what goes in a person that concerns God but the things that come out are what defile a person. See God wants your heart not your unloving obedience to the rules. So, after that statement these two outsiders, unclean, people show up and Jesus heals them thereby stating, in his word and deed, that people are not unclean either by their status or label or how or where they were born.

That’s the first key point. The second, I believe, lies in Jesus’ never-ending request to “say nothing to anyone” about what he was doing. For some reason his miracles were not the main point he was here, he was asking people to stay tuned for something that would truly blow their minds and hearts.

Well, if miracles aren’t supposed to get us to go out and testify to Jesus as Lord just what is, the answer, for Mark and for us is the cross.

All of these things that happen between the first and last chapter of Mark are glimpses of the coming kingdom of God. That means the total takeover not just of government by God but of all creation, this earth, and each and every one of us. Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection are the first fruits of the inheritance that he won for us on the cross.

And so we see a Gentile woman, unclean by any stretch of the imagination… a Gentile, woman, begging a rabbi, a man, in public. And Jesus challenges her by saying, why should we feed the dogs? This is how Jews saw all non-Jews, as dogs, unworthy of God’s covenant. And the woman appears to accept his judgment and then calls his attention to the fact that even dogs get to eat the crumbs that fall from the children’s mouth. And Jesus heals her daughter from afar. The kingdom of God is coming for all people.

And that deaf man, unclean by virtue of his affliction and his inability to speak. He is different than everyone else and the assumption is that if you are unlike the majority there must be something wrong with you and if we can’t see why, well God must know.

And Jesus performs a very physical kind of miracle here doesn’t he? I mean Jesus goes to the man put his fingers in his ears; he touched his tongue. He physically came into contact with this unclean man, which would make Jesus unclean as well and restored the man's hearing and his speech.

Shh, Jesus says, don’t say anything though.

The miracles really aren’t the main point of Jesus’ coming to live with us are they? It’s as though Jesus presence as a fully human fully divine part of the life of the people where we he lived had consequences but those consequences weren’t even the main point. When the kingdom of God comes near, as in Jesus Christ, things start to happen. God takes control of disease, of misfortune, of all those who are excluded, forgotten, and brings them in.

But that’s not the end of the story. You see, Jesus didn’t want to draw attention to his miracles as the reason to put faith in him. His destiny was the cross. We get to know who Jesus is from the very beginning of this Gospel but the followers of Christ didn’t truly understand what Jesus meant about taking up their crosses and following him until they saw that for the sake of all he must die. In order for all to be saved, for all to be in, death itself must die and so to the cross went Jesus not just to die for our sins but to take all of our sins even the sting of death out of this world and to hand back to us our inheritance, everlasting life.

Our motto around here is Finding Ourselves in God’s Unfolding Story. The tricky part for us is that we not only know how our story began but we also know how it will end, in the presence of God and the Lamb. Between those two milestones comes a life and that life is not lived to ourselves, as though we get to decide or vote on what we are going to do with our lives, our hearts, our brains, our heads, our hands, our homes, our families, our very lives have been taken over by God once and for all. So Jesus isn’t here in person performing these miracles of declaring outsiders on the inside of physically touching those who have been shunned by the rest of culture in order to heal them and restore them to community and relationships with each other but you’re here! And when we send you forth from this place this morning to go, serve the Lord, in case you haven’t got that message yet, we mean it. Remember that the Syrophoenician woman speaks for all of us who deserve only the crumbs from God’s table and yet those crumbs are all it took to win you back. Doesn’t that person that no one else would die for deserve to hear, see, feel, know that Jesus did die for them?

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

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Theological Interpretation of Scripture by Stephen Fowl: A Review

Theological Interpretation of Scripture

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Three Myths & Three Truths: A sermon on Joshua 24

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