Pastor's Notes

The Song “Shallow” sung by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in the movie “A Star is Born” has as one of its lines a question, “Tell me, girl, are you happy in this modern world?” Well, let me ask you that question? Are you happy in this modern world?

The word modern is possibly the operative word in that question. I hear so many statements of frustration that begin with something like, “In today’s world” or “Not today”. Even those most content with the modern world miss some things from the way we once lived and operated. Change brings with it new and exciting things. It also brings with it a certain degree of loss.

What you and I most often fail to understand is that the world has always been modern. The only difference between yesterday’s version of modern and today’s version is what forms modern takes. Once upon a time a horse-pulled combine was a modern machine. We are currently in a modern era where petroleum fueled cars are fast becoming something of the past, not the modern times.

I remember being surprised when visiting Norway, a significant oil producing nation, that it was the oil companies behind much of the pursuit of alternative energy in that nation. When I asked one of the oil company’s representatives why they were working to put themselves out of business he had an interesting response. “We have never viewed ourselves as oil companies” he answered. “We see ourselves as producers of energy and energy constantly changes and evolves. Once fire was a major source of energy. Then water. Windmills have pumped water for generations. Coal has had its time and oil is now able to see its ending. We know whatever sources become future suppliers of energy will have their time until something else comes along.”

Yes, the description of what is modern changes. Today’s modern will be next year’s, or at least next generation’s understanding of old, out of date, and anything but modern. Followers of Jesus need to worry less about what is modern and more about how we live in this modern world and use its modern ways. Will we use them in ways that serve others or ways that help only ourselves and might even do some harm to someone else?

It might seem odd to think of Jesus as living in the modern world. Yet, Jesus did live in the modern world of his time. Unlike many of Jesus’ day, it seems Jesus could read and write. He had a grasp of the scripture of his day and gave his understanding of it out freely and openly so much so that his words continue to resonate with many in today’s modern world.

We Christians need not fear the modern world. Instead, we need to try and understand what it does well and what it does poorly and work with it and against it when needed, to see to it that modern does not mean harmful.

Are you happy in this modern world? We who believe in new life can look for places where the modern world brings a new and better life. Look for places where modern brings something harmful. I think of the alienation and loneliness among young adults which I continue to read about and hear from our own students that comes in part from spending so much time on technology instead of being in person with others. Work to be more personally relational, for example.

Don’t let modern be a bad word nor assume anything modern is an improvement over something old. A task for followers of Jesus is to strive to make modern an improvement.

There is a neglected part of our humanity when we talk about faith. The overlooked element is our body. Weekly in worship the word body appears in the Apostle’s Creed. It is also used in the distribution of bread during the reception of Holy Communion. Regarding faith we seem to much more frequently talk about our hearts, our minds, or our spirits, too often ignoring the vessel within which these operate.

We humans have various feelings concerning our bodies. Some look upon them with pride and do everything they can to make their body appear well. Some may be less concerned about appearance and more concerned about performance and work hard with diet and exercise to care for their body. Others may feel inferior regarding appearance or are frustrated by health issues with their body or some part of their body.

We are fully aware Jesus had a physical body like ours. We know the stories of death on a cross and a display of wounds following the resurrection. We are aware Jesus was tired and slept in the stern of a boat or had to get away from the crowds. We know, of course, Jesus ate and drank.

Yes, Jesus had a body. Paul contends not only had but continues to have a body. Paul calls the church “The Body of Christ”. Like human bodies it is visible. One can see it, one can touch it, and one can be touched by it. When one member of the body ails, the entire body can be affected. It is a very human body that lives and breathes, rejoices and suffers.

Preaching at the dedication of a new sanctuary of a church I was serving, the bishop challenged the members to do two things in this new worship space: 1. Sit in different places each week, 2. Attend everyone’s funerals/memorial services. The bishop never once used the word body but both challenges were incumbent upon behaving as a body. Get to know the body, its strengths and its weaknesses and be willing to struggle a bit with the body when one part of it ails.

It has always struck me when a congregation leaves a denomination that there is little if any recognition of the church as a body. Typically, there is some disagreement with a position on an issue, often an issue Jesus never addressed. Those leaving fail to realize they are leaving all the people in their denomination, all the congregations in their faith. What have they done to those who have left? Can’t the body struggle along with some disagreement? I have seen similar attitudes with those in congregations who leave as well. What has the entire community done to them? In both cases, where is the sense of being part of something much larger than oneself? Where is the understanding of being part of a body knowing sometimes part of that body does not function well? Do they understand they are rejecting more than an issue, but an entire community is being rejected?

In the season of Easter, we proclaim loudly and joyously “Jesus is risen!” The body of that risen Jesus lives on in the church, all the church. When Roman priests or TV evangelists are involved in scandal, or Lutheran pastors cross moral and/or legal boundaries, all the church is affected. It is a mark against the entire church, the entire body. Like the body of the risen Christ, the church today and all times carries wounds. These wounds have never stopped God from doing redemptive work. We might even say it is due to such wounds God does God’s redemptive work. I do believe in the resurrection of the body. I have seen it and lived within it.

The Bible says! The Bible says! Over and over, we hear this from Christians and their leadership. It is often used in a manner to cut off all further discussion or comment on some issue. What I have often noticed is when some say this the Bible does not even say or support their paraphrased quote. I remember someone telling me the Bible is against bi-racial marriage. Really? Where does the Bible say this? Where is even race of any kind mentioned?

On the other hand, there are those who dismiss the Bible as fantasy, as fairy tale, and find it irrelevant. Really? A book where there are stories of murder, lust, scheming, torture, death, evil seeming to have the upper hand? The Bible to me, at times, seems more like the front page of a newspaper (or these days news website) than fantasy or fiction.

I wonder if we approached the Bible with this question in mind, how we might see the Bible’s relevance and authority for us: “How does the Bible seem to understand human life in this world?” Might this change our perspective a bit?

Of course, we need to lift our sights quite a bit. The Bible is more than about us and our lives. It is about God and God’s record of relating to God’s people and God’s world. It is a continual saga of God hanging in there with God’s rebellious people. It is a series of stories of failure, alienation, rebellion, and redemption. Shakespeare might be able to spin better prose, but he could not improve upon many of the story lines. In fact, I tend to see the Bible as having more in common with Tom Sawyer, Catcher in the Rye, and other such books that seem to understand some aspect of human life so well.

If I were to sum up the Bible in a single word, it would be “authentic.” It is an authentic depiction of human life long ago and today. It is the Bible’s authenticity that gives the Bible its authority. It is the Bible’s depiction of human life and a God that won’t let go of that life that makes it authoritative.

The Bible is not a law book, though many laws and expectations by God for human living are in it. Neither is it a warm and fuzzy book, which we also many times like to quote, that says all will be well. It is a picture for today of how God enters into human life often and especially at its worst and works to redeem it.

The Bible says. Yes, the Bible says God is a loving God, relating to God’s rebellious people in love.

Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen, Indeed! So we say and repeat each and every Easter Sunday. We might say those three words are the ultimate Easter sermon. However, a word of caution to any of my colleagues who might read these words I am writing.

Some years ago when I was a pastor in Colorado, a Lutheran colleague of mine decided to have a rather short Easter sermon for what I recall was his second Easter with them. When it came time in the Easter Sunday worship for the sermon, he stood up, said, “Christ is Risen!” After a brief pause he then said, “Amen” and sat down. On to the hymn of the day! That was his Easter sermon.

Whatever point he was trying to make was lost on his congregation. About a year later he was no longer their pastor.

While it is certainly true those three words sum up Easter and the Christian faith, there is a bit more to say. There is a reason there is not one Easter sermon repeated yearly. There is not one life, one world that is the same each year. The sameness is worry, anxiety, joy, sin, goodness, natural beauty and natural disasters and all that human life and nature bring to the world.

Now we are dealing with Ukraine, political division that is quite frightening, on-going school shootings met with indifferent thoughts and prayers and no action, tornadoes, floods, and our own personal situations. This world and our lives could use a little rising. This world and our lives could use a little new life. I don’t know what next Easter will bring, but I don’t have to be a fortune teller to say it will bring a world and lives that need rising and new life.

So, we pastors stumble and mumble, we try our best to do something with this Easter story to bring it into the current day and present lives. We are inadequate to the task to be sure, but somehow God finds ways to use some of our efforts to shed some new light and bring some new life into dark and deadly places. This is God’s sermon each and every Easter. We might even say this is God’s sermon each and every day as God continues to break into our lives and make them new.

Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen, indeed! Amen!

Holy Week. St. Augustine first called Maundy Thursday through Easter Sunday, “The Three Days”. Many faiths, including some Lutheran congregations host a lonnnggg Saturday evening worship called “Easter Vigil” where the service begins in darkness and ends in light with joyous song.

All of this is at the very heart of our Christian faith. I hope you can be with us in some way by your presence in worship or virtually online. You will notice, as always, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday have no benediction. One leads to another until both lead to Easter where worship concludes with a benediction. All three are part of a whole. We can’t tell one part of the story without the other. All together we might say it is THE Story. New life makes no sense if there had not first been death. Without death, new life is just optimism.

I can’t recall when I last preached at a Good Friday worship. I don’t think I have ever done so here. I’m not sure I did in my last congregation, either. In my second congregation I preached as one of seven Lutheran pastors (14 actually took part in the worship) during a noontime to 1:30pm all Lutheran worship, but did not preach for our own evening worship.

It is not that I was lazy or very busy with multiple Holy Week and Easter services. I had associates to share in these. It was instead the sense that no one is preacher enough to improve upon or expound the story that is Good Friday. It is the one service where Jesus needs to speak and we need to hear Jesus speak. We don’t need some other saying, “What Jesus meant was”; or “What Jesus intended was”; or “Here is how this touches us today.” The meanings are clear and strong and it has been, is and will be, a story that touches us.

“Father, forgive them”, “I thirst”, “Behold your mother”, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, “Today you will be with me in Paradise”, “Into your hands, I commend my spirit!” “It is finished”. What could speak more plainly than these about the experience of Jesus on the cross? What could be improved or expounded on such speech?

Holy Week is full of images that are unpleasant, uncomfortable, and deadly. Some avoid it because of that, but in so doing, miss the very point of Holy Week. Such a trek through these days make the joy of Easter all the deeper and the gratitude and relief all the stronger. If Jesus chose to go through this, can you and I choose to go through a bit of sadness at the hearing of this story?

I invite you: Come be abandoned and betrayed with Jesus. Come be forsaken with Jesus. Come and hear how the one being put to death yet offers forgiveness to his executioners and to a thief. Come, hope and trust that forgiveness is for you as well. Come, experience the joy of Easter!