Isaiah 55:1-5 - “Real Thirst: God’s Blood:Water Mission”

7th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 13) (Year A - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Saturday, July 30, and Sunday, July 31, 2011

Come, come those who are hot and tired, those who need relief from the heat and humidity, come and cool off, come and cool off at no cost to you, come to the free pool, come to the free beach, come to the cooling centers opened by the county. Come, come get much needed relief from the heat.

That’s the invitation made by people and agencies in our communities, people who are concerned for others.

But then from the sidelines over here someplace, watching this invitation to pools and beaches and cooling centers, someplace over here on the sidelines comes the impatient question like I saw in last Sunday’s Chicago Tribune letters to the Editor: “I find it funny that so many people are going to pools and the beach to ‘beat’ the heat wave. I prefer to stay inside in my air-conditioned home!” (Chicago Tribune, “Voice of the People,” July 24, 2011).

That’s a great impatience of understanding, a way of just not getting it. I mean, not everyone has air conditioning. People flock to pools and beaches because they need some relief. You need to know the stories of people who can’t afford air conditioning, and then it makes sense that they’d go to the beach when it’s hot.

Again, we here an invitation in the world, an invitation to those who are struggling. This time the invitation is in Africa:

Come, come those who don’t have water. Come, come to the new well we’ll drill for your community. Come, come to the well we’ll repair for your community. Come and drink water without cost. Come to the free well, come to the well that’s a gift to your community. Come, come drink water and be refreshed. Come, come drink water that gives you life.

But again, from off there someplace, off someplace on the sidelines comes an impatient question: Why do these communities in Africa need people to give them free wells? Why do they need others to come and drill wells or come and repair wells? Why don’t they just find their own water? Why don’t they just turn on the faucet in their homes? What’s wrong with the water they do have?

That’s a great impatience of understanding, a way of just not getting it. Not everyone has indoor plumbing, not every community in the world has a water tower and water treatment plant and water pipes running to every house. Not everyone can trust that they’re going to have a clean, affordable source of water. You need to know the stories of people who don’t have water, and then it makes sense that they need others to help them. You need to know they have real thirst.

On the insert in today’s bulletin, you have some information about an organization called Blood:Water Mission. Started by the Chrtistian band Jars of Clay, it’s an organization that has been working to help with the AIDS/HIV crisis and the water crisis in Africa. Here’s one of the stories about what Blood:Water Mission has been doing, what they have been doing for the real thirst in Africa:

In semi-arid northern Kenya, water is precious and closely guarded. As the saying goes, "Water is life." Before October 2010, the Arapal community (2,000 people) relied on a water source nearly 12 km away (that’s about 7½ miles), and gaining enough access to the water source often produced conflict with neighboring communities. Also, the Arapal community did not have a latrine, and whenever rain comes, human waste washed into the water source, contaminating the water. For them, water was not life-giving.

Between October and December 2010, Blood:Water Mission's partner in Kenya helped the Arapal community by rehabilitating the water source with a gravity system, installing a water tank for the community, and laying pipes to connect school tanks to the main water point. In addition, this partner agency constructed three pit latrines with two doors each, washing rooms, six hand washing facilities near the latrines or kitchen, and a trough for livestock (so that they do not contaminate drinking water).

These changes transformed the Arapal community, both inside and out. Along the way, the Kenyan agency educated community members on the importance of good hygiene and latrine use. Since the construction of the three latrines, at least six people have started to build their own latrines out of local materials. Relationships outside of the community are better, too. The area chief said, "Initially, there used to be a lot of animosity amongst communities living around us. Right now we are comfortable sharing water with them because it is a lot. As you can see, it is overflowing." Now, not only does water bring life, but water also brings peace.

When you know the story of the Arapal community, now it makes more sense why they need help, why they need someone to help them fix their water system. When you know the story of these people, now it makes sense that they need an invitation: “Come all you who are thirsty! Come to the waters.” Now the invitation makes sense: “Come, come to the well we’ll repair for your community. Come and drink water without cost.”

And that’s the invitation, then, in Isaiah chapter 55, that’s the invitation to the people of Israel, that’s the invitation to a people who are being taken over by an empire, taken over so that their sources of water and food, their sources that sustain life, their sources are no longer their own, no longer available, no longer free or affordable. That’s the invitation. God the Father speaking through the prophet Isaiah is saying that God’s going to provide for them, God’s going to support them, He’s going to drill a new well, He’s going to repair the well, He’s going to give them clean water for their community.

And at first, it sounds like God’s just talking about water and food, just talking about basic necessities of life, just talking about pools and beaches and cooling centers. It sounds like God’s just talking about the basic needs that people have to get through life, and so maybe this passage is just about going out and drilling new wells in Africa and opening up cooling centers in Chicago.

But God’s also talking about the real thirst, the thirst underneath it all, the thirst that goes to the core of our being. And the invitation comes to all of us.

Come, come those who are searching in their souls, those who need relief from their sins and failures, come and find peace, come and find forgiveness at no cost to you, come to the refreshing waters of God’s Word, come to the free grace of Jesus Christ, come to the cross and resurrection, come get much needed relief from sin, death, and the devil. Come, come drink the water of life and be refreshed. Come, come drink the Gospel, the Good News that gives you life.

But off to the side again will be the impatient question. Maybe it’s from someone else, someone observing you going to church and believing in God. Or maybe it’s from inside of you. But that impatient question arises: Why don’t you just find peace in yourselves? Why do you need some outside supply of peace and comfort? Why not forgive yourselves? Why do you need God to get you through? What about taking responsibility for your own lives? Why can’t you just face your own fears and get over it?

That’s a great impatience of understanding, a way of just not getting it. Not seeing that we can’t do this thing called life on our own. We can’t find peace and comfort inside of ourselves. We can’t be so sure of ourselves that we never ever doubt ourselves. We can’t get to a place where we’re so sure that we’re good enough. We need a cooling center for the heat of our fears. We need clean, affordable water to quench our spiritual thirst. We need someone other than our own thoughts and feelings to get us through the day. We need something besides what we’ve found in ourselves.

But like I said, that great impatience of understanding, that can come from someone observing your faith or it can come from inside, it can be a knock on your faith or it can be a nagging struggle inside your heart, but no matter what, that impatience of understanding, that’s like saying people should just stay in their air conditioned homes, that people in Africa should just use the water they have. That great impatience of understanding is saying that you should just try to get through life without God.

But that leaves you thirsty. That leaves you hungry.

And so the invitation comes. The invitation from God.

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.”

And so the invitation comes, and it’s more than invitation for water and food, more than an invitation for sustaining our day-to-day lives. It’s an invitation from God to sustain our souls, an invitation from God to revive our souls, renew our souls, feed our souls, give life to our dead spirits, give us life forever after death. God’s Blood:Water Mission, God’s mission comes through the blood of Christ and the water of life, comes through the Lord’s Supper and Holy Baptism. The organization Blood:Water Mission which not only provides education and wells for the crises in Africa, but also points to the hope we can have in Christ, well. They do this because God’s Blood:Water Mission speaks to our daily needs, provides for us in our day-to-day needs, but He also reaches into our core, reaches into our souls, reaches that place in us that needs more than water and food, that place in us that needs the food of His Word and His life-giving water, that place that needs more than loaves of bread and a few fish, that place that needs to be sustained in our very souls. God’s Blood:Water Mission reaches into that place in us, and He invites us to come to Him, invites us to hear Him, invites us to receive from Him all that we need for eternal life.

And so in our arid spiritual lives, a word of hope is precious and closely guarded. But mainly it seems we rely on sources of hope that are extremely distant, and getting enough hope produces conflict with others. Our spiritual lives are contaminated by sin. For us, the hope we find in the world is not life-giving.

But then God’s Blood:Water Mission in Christ comes rehabilitating the source of hope, installing a water tank, the Word of God, the tank of life-giving water in our community. He forgives us for the ways we contaminate the world; He promises to protect our souls from the contamination around us. He trains us by His Holy Spirit, so that we live for Him, bringing less contamination into the world.

These changes transform us, inside and out. They cause us to see how the hope of God overflows, the hope of God overflows so that we are able to share that with those around us. Now, not only does water bring life, but water also brings peace.

God’s Blood:Water Mission, God’s mission agency has set itself up in your community, has established itself right here in your midst. His Word, His Holy Spirit have come to bring you great relief. God’s Blood:Water Mission invites you in.

Come, come those who are searching in their souls, those who need relief from their sins and failures, come and find peace, come and find forgiveness at no cost to you, come to the refreshing waters of God’s Word, come to the free grace of Jesus Christ, come to the cross and resurrection, come get much needed relief from sin, death, and the devil. Come, come drink the water of life and be refreshed. Come, come drink the Gospel, the Good News that gives you life.

Matthew 13:44-52 - “The Kingdom of Heaven”

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 12) (Year A - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Saturday, July 23, and Sunday, July 24, 2011

Pinch yourself. Pinch yourself, because I want you to realize you’re here. I want you to realize that you’re really here. Pinch yourself, because I want you to realize you’re really here, and here is where the message of God is coming to you today, here is where the message comes into your life, here and now is where the Lord meets you and is working in your life.

Pinch yourself, because you’re going to be tempted, in fact you probably already were tempted to think that you’re not really here, or at least tempted to think that you’re not really meeting God right here. There’s part of you that’s thinking that meeting God is something that will happen up there (point to the sky), something that will happen later, when you die. And you were tempted to think that because of the Gospel reading, because the Gospel reading from the book of Matthew has those parables of Jesus, those stories of Jesus about the kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sold everything and bought a field so that he could have a treasure. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who sold everything and bought a great pearl.

When Jesus says that He’s talking about the kingdom of heaven in these parables, what do you think He’s talking about? What is the kingdom of heaven? Where is in the kingdom of heaven? What does it have to do with us?

I’m gonna guess that if you’re like me, when you hear Jesus use the phrase “kingdom of heaven” you’re thinking about something up there (point to the sky)—that’s where it is. You’re thinking about something that we’ll be a part of when we die. That’s the kingdom of heaven—up there with God when we die.

Of course, does that change if we realize that John the Baptist—the prophet who pointed to Jesus—was preaching, “The kingdom of heaven is near.” He was saying that the kingdom of heaven was coming to the people in the person of Jesus.

Then when Jesus started preaching, He, too, said, “The kingdom of heaven is near.” In other words, the kingdom of heaven is coming to the people through Him.

Then when Jesus sent out the disciples to preach, He told them to say, “The kingdom of heaven is near.” They were to tell people that the kingdom of heaven had come into the world through Jesus.

If the kingdom of heaven is about what Jesus is doing in the world, if the kingdom of heaven came near to us when Jesus began His ministry, well, now it starts to seem less like something that happens up there when we die. It starts to seem like something that might be here. . .now. Pinch yourself. You’re really here, and it just might be that the kingdom of heaven is here, too.

What if I told you that a better translation of the phrase “kingdom of heaven,” a better translation from the Greek might be “reign of heaven,” if that’s a better translation, how does that change your understanding? “Reign of heaven” helps us to realize that Jesus isn’t really talking about a place, He’s not talking about someplace we’re going to go. He’s talking about the ruling of God, the power of God over all things, the gracious working of God in the world, the way God brings about His plan into the world. “Reign of heaven” is the gracious work of salvation in the person of Jesus Christ.

So that means that these parables we heard today, the parable of the treasure in the field and the parable of the great pearl, these parables aren’t about something up there when we die. These parables are about something that might be here. . .now. These parables are about God’s gracious work in the person of Jesus Christ, His gracious work in our lives right now. These parables are about what Jesus is doing in your life from day to day, they’re about God doing things in your life—your heart, mind, soul, and body—doing things in your life right now. The reign of heaven isn’t just something up there for later; the reign of heaven has come to Earth in the person of Jesus Christ and is transforming our lives every day. Pinch yourself. You’re really here. You’re really here where the reign of heaven is working in the world. Pinch yourself, stay awake for this, pinch yourself, because the reign of heaven is here and now.

But why pinch yourself, why make sure you’re here, why make sure you’re awake for this? I mean, frankly, the way I’ve often heard people talk about these parables makes me sleepy, makes me want to slink away. Often people have talked about the parable of treasure in the field and the parable of the great pearl, they’ve talked about them as being about us, our actions, about being disciples, about striving to get the kingdom of heaven, about selling everything we have, give up everything we have in order to get the kingdom of heaven.

And when I hear that, I don’t want to pinch myself, I don’t want to be awake, I don’t want to be here for that, because it sounds like too much, it sounds like something I won’t be able to do, something I won’t be able to achieve. I don’t think I’m the man who bought the field. I don’t think I’m the merchant who bought the pearl. I don’t think I can be those guys. Don’t pinch me if that’s the message, because if that’s the message, I want to go asleep, I want to slink away, I want to sneak out the backdoor and be out of here.

And if that’s what these parables were about, I’d be right there with you, leaving as quickly as I could, done with this whole church thing, done with this whole Christian thing, done with this, because it’d just be another message of doing more, doing more, doing more, and never feeling like I could make it by my actions. It’d just be another message of something I could never achieve, and I don’t need to come to church for that kind of message. There are plenty of reminders in day-to-day life that show me that I’m not good enough, I don’t measure up, I fail. I wouldn’t need church, I wouldn’t need God if the only thing I’m going to learn is that I’ve got to do more to be good, do more to get near God. If that’s the message of the parables, well, frankly, I’m out of here.

But now pinch yourself, pinch yourself, make sure you realize you’re here, make sure you’re awake, make sure you’re paying attention. Pinch yourself, and smile, because there’s actually some better news about the reign of heaven, better news than just pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps, there’s some better news than what you might have heard about these parables, some better news than what you might have heard others say about the Christian faith.

Pinch yourself, because here’s the thing: you aren’t the man buying the field. You aren’t the merchant buying the pearl. Jesus is the man buying the field. Jesus is the merchant buying the pearl. Jesus is doing the action in these parables. Jesus is the One going to great lengths, Jesus is the One selling everything He has to buy the field, to buy the pearl, Jesus is the One giving up everything.

There’s no reason to think that we’re the man buying the field or the merchant buying the pearl, because in every other parable like these in Matthew, in every other parable where there’s a central person doing the action, that central person symbolizes God or Jesus. There’s no reason to think we’re the ones doing the action in these parables, because that’s not how any of the other kingdom of heaven parables works in Matthew. No, the way to interpret these parables is to see that Jesus is the man buying the field, Jesus is the merchant buying the pearl, Jesus is doing the action.

And that makes complete sense, that makes complete sense knowing what we know about what Jesus goes on to do. When Jesus tells this parables, He knows that He’s going to eventually be handed over to be killed, He knows that He’s headed for death, He knows that He’s going to die and then rise again, He knows that He’s going to give up everything—including His life. Jesus knows that He’s the man buying the field. Jesus knows that He’s the merchant buying the pearl.

But where does that leave us? Where are we in these parables? Pinch yourself, because it might be hard to believe, it might be hard to believe that you’re really hearing this. Pinch yourself, and make sure you’re awake for this.

Where are we in these parables? (pause for answers) We’re the treasure in the field. We’re the great pearl.

Now that’s a reason to pinch yourself, because maybe you’re not feeling like you’re a treasure, maybe you’re not feeling like a great pearl. But that’s exactly how God sees you. God doesn’t see all of your foibles, all of your faults, all of your imperfections, all of your sins. God doesn’t see that. When God looks at you, He sees His wonderful Creation, He sees His children, He sees a treasure, He sees a great pearl, He sees someone that He’s prepared to do everything and anything necessary in order to buy you back from death, buy you back from sin, buy you back so that you can be with Him forever.

That’s a reason to pinch yourself. That’s a reason to make sure you’re with me here. That’s a reason to be awake. Pinch yourself, because you just heard Jesus tell two parables about how you are an object of great value, an object so valuable that He’s willing to go to the cross and die for you, He’s willing to give up everything including His life for you. You are a treasure. You are a pearl.

There’s an old Steven Curtis Chapman song that gets this right. The song, “Treasure of You,” talks about how we’re all heartsick, trying to disguise how we feel inside, how we feel like we’re worth a very small price, but that actually, “there’s a pearl inside.” We’re “God’s greatest treasure, worth more than the sun and the moon and the stars, God’s greatest treasure is the treasure of you.”

Pinch yourself; you’re God’s greatest treasure. You are the treasure hidden in the field. You are the pearl of great price. Jesus left His place in heaven to come and reign on Earth for you. Jesus lived a holy life on Earth for you. Jesus died on the cross to buy you back. Jesus rose again and conquered death for you. Jesus did all of that for you—His treasure, His pearl. “God’s greatest treasure is the treasure of you.”

Pinch yourself, make sure you heard this today, make sure you are listening: there’s assurance and comfort in these two parables. There’s assurance and comfort knowing that a man bought a whole field to dig you up as a treasure. There’s assurance and comfort knowing that merchant sold everything he had to buy you, a pearl of incredible value. There’s assurance and comfort knowing that Jesus has brought the reign of heaven to work in the world, brought gracious working of God into the world now. . .here, brought the reign of heaven into your life. There’s assurance and comfort knowing that no matter how heartsick you are, no matter how you feel about yourself, no matter how you feel deep down, that you are God’s greatest treasure. There’s assurance and comfort knowing that you aren’t being called to be the man or the merchant, you’re not being called upon to try to get the kingdom of heaven by your actions, there’s assurance and comfort knowing that Jesus is the One who sold everything He had in order to buy you.

You are God’s greatest treasure. You are the pearl of great price. You are God’s by the gracious work of His reign in the world through Jesus Christ.


I am indebted to Dr. Jeff Gibbs and his commentary, Matthew 11:2-20:34 (Concordia) for the insights into the “reign of heaven” and the interpretation of the parables.

Psalm 119:57-64 - “The Sought Ought”

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 11) (Year A - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Saturday, July 16, and Sunday, July 17, 2011

A major portion of the opening of this sermon is inspired by and taken from Gabe Lyons’ The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America (New York: Doubleday, 2010).

Do you know who you are?

Do you know who you are? Today’s worship has reminded you in multiple ways. We started with the Invocation—“In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Who are you? You are God’s baptized children, children of the kingdom. We continued with Confession and Absolution—“I forgive you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Who are you? You are God’s forgiven people, forgiven of all your sins.

Do you know who you are? You are God’s children, His forgiven people.

Today we’re going to talk about the reading from Psalm 119, we’re going to talk about a desire to be more Christlike in the world, a yearning for our actions to be more in line with God’s will, but as we talk about this desire, this yearning, this hope that our lives will change and become more like what God wants them to be, as we talk about this, I want you always to remember who you already are.

To help us remember that, let’s use the eternal candle as our reminder today. The eternal candle is here to represent that God is always present, always with us. Today, though, let’s point to the eternal candle as the reminder of who we already are, so when we’re talking about who we might become, as we talk about striving to do God’s will, as we talk about making changes in our actions and changes in the world around us, let’s use that candle as the reminder that our identity is already secure. Through Christ, we are already God’s children, His forgiven, redeemed, saved people. (point to the candle) Do you know who you are? You are God’s children. (point to the candle)

When you think I’m talking about our identity in Christ, when you think I’m talking about who we are because of what God has done for us, when I’m talking about being God’s people because of the cross and resurrection, I want you to help me remember to point to the candle. (point to the candle)

I want us to do this, because when we start talking about making changes in our lives, when we start talking about following God’s law and instruction, when we start talking about Psalm 119, we can forget that our identity is already secure, our identity is already changed, our identity is already sure—we are God’s children (point to the candle). So even though we want to change our actions, even though we want to grow as God’s people, and even though we will sometimes fail to live according to God’s instructions, that doesn’t change the fact that Jesus died and rose again for us, died and rose again to make us His children (point to the candle).

Ready?

Then let’s contemplate what it means to be a Psalm 119 Christian, what it means to let God’s instruction transform your life, and to do that we’ve got to take a look at some new Christians, a new generation of Christians, sometimes called the next Christians, Christians who know who they are in Christ, who know they are God’s children (point to the candle), but who also know they want their lives and the world around them to be transformed.

The next Christians are starting to make changes in the way the Church looks in America. It’s a new generation of Christians who aren’t content with the way things have always been, and they’re not content with the way things are around them. It’s a growing movement of Christians, nothing official, nothing organized, nothing you can put a finger on necessarily—just a change in attitude, change in outlook. It’s a growing movement of Christians, and maybe you know some of them. Maybe you’re one of them. The next Christians “think, believe, live, and see the world in terms of fighting for how things ought to be. It’s synonymous with their commitment to renewing and restoring all things” (Lyons 2010, 62-63).

Psalm 119 is about that commitment, about renewing and restoring all things, about living and fighting for how things ought to be. You see, things ought to be the way God intended them to be, ought to be according to His ways, ought to be done following His law, His instructions, His teachings.

And rather than hearing Psalm 119 as a condemnation, a damning of our sinfulness, we can hear it as a yearning of our souls—our new souls, our new lives in Christ. According to our new natures, according to our lives in Christ (point to the candle), we yearn for how things ought to be. As God’s people, as His children, as His redeemed, forgiven, and saved people (point to the candle), we desire for God’s will to be done on Earth as it is in heaven.

And that’s what Psalm 119 is all about. It’s about the sought ought. It’s about the sought ought, the seeking for the way things ought to be, the seeking for God’s ways in the middle of this life. As the psalm says, “I have sought your face with all my heart.” I have sought the ought, sought God’s ought, sought God’s face in the midst of the struggle, I have sought the ought, sought God’s restoration for this life. That’s the sought ought. That’s the yearning of the new heart.

Where’s that yearning come from? That yearning comes from the fact that you’re God’s children, you’re God’s loved, redeemed, restored, saved children (point to the candle). That yearning in Psalm 119, that yearning to know God’s teachings, to do His will, to follow His ways, that yearning isn’t about trying to make yourself into God’s child, isn’t about making yourself right with God. That yearning comes from the fact that you are God’s child, you are His people, you are saved through Jesus (point to the candle). In other words, you already know who you are, and so now you’re responding, now you’re yearning, now you’re seeking, now you’re looking to see where God can do His restoration in the world through you.

Psalm 119 says, “You are my portion, O Lord; I have promised to obey your words.” That’s the yearning to do God’s will. The psalmist says, “I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes.” There’s the yearning of the new life in you. Psalm 119 says, “I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands… At midnight I rise to give you thanks for your righteous laws.” That’s your yearning as a child of God to live the way Your Father has called you to live, the yearning for the ought in your life, the sought ought, the seeking for the way things ought to be. This section of the psalm concludes with that seeking, “The earth is filled with your love, O LORD; teach me your decrees.”

The sought ought, the seeking for the way things ought to be, the seeking for God’s will, that’s the yearning, that’s the yearning in this psalm when we hear phrases like “sought with all my heart,” “considered and turned,” “hasten and not delay.” It’s a seeking, it’s a searching, it’s a yearning for God’s will to be done in our lives and in the world around us. It’s the prayer—“Thy will be done.” It’s the ache in our new hearts, an ache for things to be transformed around us, an ache for our actions to be transformed into acts of righteousness, acts of God’s love.

Remember what I said about the next Christians, the next generation of believers who are making changes in the Church? The next Christians “think, believe, live, and see the world in terms of fighting for how things ought to be. It’s synonymous with their commitment to renewing and restoring all things” (Lyons 2010, 62-63). The next Christians are living out Psalm 119, because they’re living out their identity as Christians, their identity as God’s children (point to the candle). They’re focused on who they are in Christ—His forgiven, redeemed, loved, saved people (point to the candle)—and so they can move forward to live out Psalm 119, to live with a yearning for God’s ways, a yearning to renew and restore the world around them.

In his book, The Next Christians, Gabe Lyons tells the story of one such Christian who saw how things ought to be and set out to make restoration possible. I think it’s helpful to hear her story and see the sought ought, to see that Christ-led impulse to bring renewal and restoration into the world around her.

“At the age of twenty-seven, ‘Cat’ (as her friends affectionately call her) had reached the pinnacle of her career. She was a Wall Street investor who had taken the venture capital world by storm, so you can imagine why she felt a little out of place when a friend invited her to tour a ‘correctional facility’ in Texas….Being free-spirited and adventurous, Cat accepted the invitation. She had no idea how much her life as a high-powered executive was about to be turned upside down.

“When she arrived at the prison, Cat realized that this was not going to be just another field trip. Walls decorated with barbed wire surrounding a towering facility that seemed to scream ‘Keep out.’…

“As she walked down the aisle between cells exchanging glances with the inmates, her preconceptions began to fracture. Instead of seeing ‘wild, caged animals,’ she sensed unlimited possibility. Instead of hardened criminals, she met children without fathers and guilt-ridden men. Hopelessness seemed to reign in their expressions. Many inmates fit the classic profile of a sinner in need of salvation—that was obvious. But more than this, Cat could see something most others never did—glimmers of God’s image radiating from their eyes. Instead of seeing the situation as it was, she had trained her mind to see things as they ought to be.

“As a venture capitalist, she was one of the best at spotting raw business talent. Usually it came in the form of a future CEO presenting a three-hundred-plus-page business plan. Today it was showing up on the prison yard. In a moment of inspiration, Cat recognized that most criminals are really just great entrepreneurs acting as CEOs in an underground world. In their past, they’ve had to be good at recruitment, buying low and selling high, creating distribution channels, and managing their competition. Granted, most applied their skills in all the wrong places—like theft and unsophisticated drug dealing—but even in those instances they inherently understood key business concepts such as risk management and profitability. It’s the way the criminal mind works.

“She got excited imagining what could happen if inmates who were committed to their own transformation were equipped to start and run legitimate companies. What if she could convince seasoned executive leaders throughout corporate America to unearth the buried abilities possessed by convicted felons?

“Motivated by the power of the ought to change lives, Cat launched a business plan competition in the middle of a Texas State prison. To her surprise, over fifty-five inmates enrolled. She recruited fifteen world-class executives to tutor, mentor, and coach her new protégés through the process. Within just nine months, these inmates were wearing caps and gowns for graduations—proudly displaying their hard-earned diplomas from the Prison Entrepreneurship Program. With a little imagination, a sensitivity to notice something broken, and the courage to try to fix it, [Cat] was able to start what has become one of the most successful rehabilitation programs in the country” (Lyons 2010, 63-65).

Cat knows who she is in Christ, knows her identity as a forgiven, redeemed, saved child of God (point to the candle), and with that in mind, she steps out as a Psalm 119 Christian, seeking the ought in the world, seeking to renew and restore the lives of people around her. Prison Entrepreneurship Program is the sought ought. It’s a way of seeing God-possibilities in others. It’s a way of yearning to bring God’s ways into the world.

Psalm 119 is your yearning as a child of God, as someone whose identity is secure in the cross and resurrection (point to the candle). Because you know who you are, now you can step forward, now you can transform your world, now you can go forward on the restorative impulse, now you can go forward and bring change in your life and the lives of the people around you, you can seek to do God’s will. You can be a Psalm 119 Christian.

Let me give you one on the ground example, one small way that I saw a restorative impulse working in our community this week, one way the sought ought showed up right on our street.

After Monday’s storm, maybe you saw some neighborly actions, too, ways that people acted out God’s will, God’s will that we love one another. I saw it in the actions of some guys from McClure’s Garage here in Gurnee. Not long after the storm they came over here in their pickup truck, just around the corner from church at the house of one of our members, Norm. They saw that trees were down in Norm’s yard blocking his driveway, so they jumped out, grabbed a chainsaw, and made quick work on that tree, making enough room for Norm to get his van out of his garage. When Norm tried to pay them for their help, they refused, and they moved on down the road to help more people.

That’s loving your neighbor as yourself. That’s working to bring about love and order into a disrupted world. That’s a Psalm 119 kind of action.

Go out as God’s forgiven, redeemed, saved people (point to the candle). Go out with Psalm 119 actions. Go out with a restorative impulse, an impulse to bring about change in the world, change according to God’s will. Go out and serve the Lord as you serve others. Go out and seek the ought in your world.

Isaiah 55:10-13 - “The Smell of Hope”

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 10) (Year A - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Saturday, July 9, and Sunday, July 10, 2011

Paper and vinyl. It’s that combination of smells in the air that brings hope. You walk into a library, and there’s a smell that hits you right away, and if you’re like me, they bring back a flood of memories. It’s the smell of paper in all of those books. It’s the smell of vinyl, the plastic covers on the books. Those smells work strongly on us, tugging into a world of imagination and hope, other worlds, other stories, other voices.

I go into any library now, and the smells bring me right back to growing up, going to the Hennepin County Library in Minnesota. My mom would take my sister and me there, and it at least seemed like we spent hours there, exploring all of the books, finding new adventures, and stacking up a whole collection of things to take home. The smell of books, the smell of paper and vinyl, bring back clear memories of the children’s area, with its rows of shelves to search, with its huge chair shaped like a hand that was perfect for lying on with a newfound book.

All it takes is the smell of books, the smell of paper and vinyl, and I’m back in that place, that place of hope and promise, that place of imagination and joy, that place that could transport me beyond the cares of the world and into a new place.

Isaiah chapter 55 has that smell of hope, tugging us into imagining a new world of hope, another world, another story, another voice.

Isaiah chapter 55 is written to a people about to go into exile, written to Israelites about to be taken away from Jerusalem by a foreign empire, taken away to Babylon. Isaiah had been sent by God to warn them that this destruction was coming, that God was going to let them experience judgment for their sins. Isaiah chapter 55 is written to a people who are staring war and destruction and devastation in the face.

So how it can have the smell of hope? That’s where imagination comes into it. God is opening up a story of hope, a story of what will be, a new world that will come about through the power of His Word.

Isaiah chapter 55 wasn’t written to people who could already see God’s Word doing great things in their lives. It wasn’t written to people who were already going out in joy and being led forth in peace. It wasn’t written to people whose lives looked like thorns being turned into beautiful pine trees.

Isaiah chapter 55 was written to people who were facing the worst experience imaginable. It was written to people who wondered whether God’s Word had any power. It was written to people without joy and without peace. It was written to people very much stuck in thorns and briers.

So how it can have the smell of hope? That’s where imagination comes into it. That’s why it’s like the smell of paper and vinyl in the library. It’s the smell of a new world, a new world imagined by God, a new world that He’s opening up before the people, a new world that He’s presenting to them as a real possibility, a real possibility despite what they’re seeing all around them. When God says that His Word is like the rain and snow, that it does what it sets out to do, that it will not return to Him empty, God’s talking about the power of His Word to transform this world, to transform people, to bring about a complete overhaul of the world, to bring new life out of the old life, to bring life out of death, to bring joy out of the despair.

Well, at first glance, maybe God was just talking to the people in Isaiah’s day and to the people of Israel, maybe He was just talking to the people who would be taken into exile into Babylon, maybe God was just talking about the hope that they could have that they would be brought back from exile, brought back to Israel, given new life in Jerusalem again. Maybe.

But notice the smell of paper and vinyl. Notice the smell of hope. Notice the great wide open space of imagination, the great wide open space of God’s imagination, the beyond-this-world kind of picture, the beyond-anything-we-can imagine kind of picture that Isaiah chapter 55 describes. I mean, even when the people of Israel were released from exile, there were still thorns and briers, there was still pain and war, there was sin and death. Isaiah chapter 55’s describing something that goes beyond the return from exile, goes beyond any momentary solutions, any short-lived peace and joy. Isaiah chapter 55’s describing a wholesale change, an incredible turnabout, a complete transformation.

So we’re talking about something more than the return from the Babylonian Exile; we’re talking about something that hasn’t happened yet.

Isaiah chapter 55 has the smell of paper and vinyl, the smell of a library, the smell of worlds and imaginations and hopes and dreams, the smell of something-beyond-what-we-can-see, the smell of something-too-incredible-for-words. Isaiah chapter 55 has the smell of. . .the resurrection. The smell of Jesus raised on the third day, the smell of life raised from the dead, the smell of the promise of our resurrection, the smell of new life, the smell of the New Creation, the smell of Jesus returning and bringing us to be with Him forever. It’s the smell of hope.

That’s why Isaiah chapter 55 takes imagination, because it isn’t talking about any kind of transformation that we can see today, it’s not talking about something that we can sense and know and see right before our eyes. Isaiah chapter 55 takes imagination, imagination to see a world transformed, to see thorns become pine trees, to see briers become flowering myrtle trees, to see despairing people go out in joy and peace, to see the broken land burst forth in the songs of nature, to see the stunted trees stretch out and clap their hands, to see this despairing world become what it yearns to be—God’s restored Creation, God’s beautiful Creation, God’s Creation that is good and will be good for eternity, God’s people raised to life through Jesus.

That takes imagination, because it’s nothing like what we normally see. Normally we see thorns and briers. Normally we see a fight between humans and Creation, a push-and-pull, a plowing under and rocks hitting the plow, a dried up land, a torn apart land, a devastated land.

Isaiah chapter 55 takes imagination, because it’s nothing like what we normally see. Normally we see fighting and harsh words. Normally we see a struggle between people, a push-and-pull, a way of people getting plowed under by the ambitions of others. Normally we see dried up love, a torn apart compassion, a devastated peace and joy.

Isaiah chapter 55 takes imagination, because it’s nothing like a failing economy, nothing like continuous wars, nothing like political fights, nothing like ruthless crime, nothing like poverty and divorce and abortion and layoffs and HIV and cancer and greed and tornados and floods. Isaiah chapter 55 takes imagination, because it’s nothing like what we normally see. It’s nothing like the pain that pulls our world apart.

In Isaiah chapter 55, God brings us the smell of paper and vinyl, the smell of books, the smell that conjures up worlds unknown, the smell that brings about adventures and incredible destinations, the smell that causes hope and joy to rush into our lives. Isaiah chapter 55 is the smell of hope, but it takes imagination. . .an imagination that believes that God’s Word is powerful, was powerful enough to raise Jesus from the dead, is powerful enough to raise us from the dead, is so powerful that it can transform our lives and our world, an imagination that believes God’s Word will not return to Him empty, will not return as empty words, but believes that God’s Word has the power to do what He says.

In the imagination of our hearts, in the imagination of our hearts led by the Holy Spirit, we believe that God’s Word had the power to create this world out of nothing. We believe that God spoke and brought this world into being. He spoke and the world appeared. The Creation happened through the power of God’s Word.

Well, here in Isaiah chapter 55 we see that God is saying that His Word is still that powerful, His Word still has the power to do what He says, His Word can bring about things that are beyond our imagination. Smell the hope, smell the transformation, as God declares that His Word is powerful enough to transform our lives through Jesus, to transform our world, to recreate this world into the world He meant it to be, to change thorns into pine trees, to change briers into flowers, to change despair into joy, to change death into life. Smell the hope, smell the transformation, because right there on the pages of Isaiah chapter 55, right there in God’s Word, right there God is imagining for you the great things that He’s going to do through the cross and resurrection, imagining right there what we couldn’t possibly imagine for ourselves, imagining right there the one day hope of life after death, of death raised to new life, of a broken world healed, of an old world becoming a new world, imagining right there the one day hope of God’s people being with Him forever.

I sat for what seemed like hours in that Hennepin County Library, sat there reading about the Hardy Boys and the Boxcar Children and Bilbo Baggins. I sat there imagining worlds I would never see, all the while developing my sense of the world and life that could be, the world and life that I could experience.

Oh, I suppose in some ways those days in the library, those days spent among the books, those days of smelling the paper and vinyl, I suppose it was an escape, a retreat from the world. It was an escape from a hot summer day to the air-conditioned library. It was an escape from the normal day-to-day life to the adventures of characters in stories. It was an escape from whatever was bothering me in my life, an escape to a life I could only dream to live.

But in those escapes, in those stories, in those characters, I discovered something about myself, discovered something about how I wanted my life to be, the shape I wanted my life to have. Through my imagination, I discovered something true. Yes, that’s it, through my imagination, I discovered something true.

And that’s what I mean when I say that Isaiah chapter 55 takes imagination, that it’s like stepping into a library, that it has the smell of paper and vinyl, that it carries us to a new world, a world that we can only imagine. I don’t mean in any way to say that it isn’t real. No, rather through our imaginations, through the picture that God has given us, through this imagined world, we discover something true. Through our imaginations, through the imagined world of Isaiah chapter 55, through the picture of thorns into pines and briers into flowers, through that, we discover something true, discover the truth that God will give us this new life, that God will lay out before us the incredibly true, beyond-our-world, beyond-anything-we-can-imagine hope.

So smell the paper and vinyl, smell the hope, smell the transformation, and don’t be afraid of your imagination. Isaiah chapter 55 invites you to imagine, invites you to imagine something beyond what you can see, something beyond what you’re experiencing now, something beyond this world. Isaiah chapter 55 invites you into this new world—the new world that will become yours through Jesus Christ, become yours when Christ returns.

Romans 7:14-25a - “Protect Me From What I Want”

3rd Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 9) (Year A - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Saturday, July 2, and Sunday, July 3, 2011

Romans 7 is a rather confusing little passage. Perhaps you got a little lost when you were listening to those words, “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”

Paul goes round and round with what he does and what he doesn’t want to do. It can make your head spin. Paul says, “I do not understand what I do,” but maybe you’re thinking, “I don’t understand Paul.” So in case you’re like me and find that you don’t understand what Paul is saying, I took a look at a bunch of different translations and put together those versions to maybe make verses 15-19 a bit easier to understand. See if the version that is on the insert helps.

“I don’t understand myself at all, for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, but I agree that God’s standards are good. So I am no longer the one who is doing the things I hate, but sin that lives in me is doing them. I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. I don’t do the good I want to do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.”

Paul is describing the inner conflict that Christians have. On the one hand, because we know Christ, we have a desire to serve Christ, to follow His ways. That’s what Paul says he’d like to do. On the other hand, though, we still have a sinful nature that wants to go against God, that is selfish, wants to do its own thing. That’s where Paul admits that he’s rotten through and through. The struggle between the Christ-like nature and the sinful nature, that’s the struggle we all face as believers in Christ.

I think one of the best ways of describing this struggle comes from an artist named Jenny Holzer. Holzer wrote a bunch of statements, what she calls “truisms,” which are rather pointed thoughts directed towards our true motives and values. In 1986, she was able to place these truisms on the electronic sign at Times Square in New York and Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. You’ve got a picture there of her truism on the board at Caesar’s Palace. That’s not an altered picture; Holzer’s phrase, “Protect me from what I want,” really flashed at night on the Las Vegas strip. As people went to casinos to gamble and indulgence in other vices, there was Holzer’s phrase to get people to stop and think—Are these things I want really the best for me? Will my desire to get rich or get high or whatever, will those things end up being bad for me?

Holzer’s truisms aren’t necessarily Christian, but I think that statement, “Protect me from what I want,” comes awfully close to putting this passage from Romans 7 into one sentence. It’s the prayer of a Christian struggling with sin. Lord, protect me from what I want. Protect me from the sin I want to do. Protect me from my sinful desires—my lusts, my addictions, my need for revenge. Protect me from the things that my sinful nature wants to do.

I actually first ran across this phrase as the title of a song by the band Placebo. They sing “protect me what I want” as the chorus of a song about the end of a relationship, where the speaker knows that it is better that the relationship is over but there’s still this desire to get back together. Protect me from what I want, indeed. The speaker knows that the relationship is leading no place good, but still he thinks about continuing to be with this person. In that same way, we know that our relationship with sin and the devil is leading no place good, but still we think about continuing to follow sin, to follow the devil’s ways.

So really I can imagine Paul being on the Las Vegas strip, looking up at the Caesar’s Palace signboard, seeing Holzer’s truism, and thinking, “Yes, that’s it exactly.”

I don’t know what sins Paul struggled with, but he’s extremely honest here in saying that there’s a constant battle going on in him between good and evil, between God’s will and sin, between the new nature and the sinful nature. Paul is admitting that he needs protection from those sinful desires, and that protection is only going to come from Christ.

Remember, even as Paul admits his struggle with sin, this passage leads to Paul declaring that Christ has saved him and all of us from this struggle, this wretched body of death. Christ has not promised to one day give us victory over sin, to give us life forever where there will not be the sinful nature anymore. So even as Paul talks about these sins that fight for his attention, his action, his life, he also knows that Christ forgives and conquers all sin.

Now, go on the back side of your insert. As Paul describes this inner conflict between God and sin, really he’s also saying that his actions sometimes contradict his beliefs or his words. Paul says that he believes in Jesus, but he doesn’t always live like it. Paul preaches about following Christ, but he doesn’t always follow Christ with his actions, his words, or his thoughts. Paul contradicts himself; he acts contrary to what he believes and says.

Paul isn’t bringing this up to condemn other people. Paul’s not saying, “Oh, I can’t believe these people who talk about Jesus on Sunday but then go out sinning during the week.” Sometimes people have implied to me that others don’t have a right to be in church if they’re going to be such sinners during the week. Yet, that’s not what Paul is saying at all. In fact, Paul says, “I am doing the very things I hate. I am rotten. I don’t do the good I want to do.” Paul is talking about himself. Paul is saying that he is no different, he shares in this common struggle that Christians face.

So really this passage in Romans 7 isn’t meant to be used by us to condemn others. This passage is about each of us admitting ourselves that we are like this, that we don’t do what our new nature tells us to do, that we do the evil that we hate, that we struggle against sin even though we believe in Jesus. This passage is about all of us looking at that Caesar’s Palace signboard and realizing that Jenny Holzer’s phrase applies to us, “Protect me from what I want.”

So this passage isn’t so that we can look at each other. It’s a look in the mirror. Paul talks about this inner conflict, because he wanted his readers to understand that their struggle isn’t unique. Maybe that’s why we’re quick to see the contradictions in our fellow Christians, but not always so quick to see it in ourselves, maybe we don’t like to see that contradiction in ourselves, because we’re afraid that we’re the only ones, we’re the only Christian in the room who still has some big struggles with sin.

So this passage is a look in the mirror. It’s a way for each of us to see that “I am doing the very things I hate. I am rotten. I don’t do the good I want to do.” Yet, Paul talks about his own struggle with this, so that we can know that we’re not alone. If we’re afraid of being the only one, this passage in Romans helps us to know that the greatest Christian missionary, the writer of 13 books of the New Testament, Paul himself had this same struggle. We might still be afraid to admit it, but there’s not a Christian around who doesn’t have to say, “Lord, protect me from what I want.”

And this isn’t a crisis of faith. Perhaps it would seem like if we admit that we struggle back and forth between God and sin, if we admit that sinful desires still are raging in our mind and body, perhaps it would seem like if we admit this that we’re somehow admitting that we’ve lost faith in Christ.

Again, though, that’s not what this passage is about. This isn’t a crisis of faith. In fact, it’s actually a crisis for sin. Sure, we’re admitting that we still have sinful desires, but we’re also saying that because of Christ, there’s victory over sin. It’s a crisis for sin, because sin will be defeated. We’re admitting that we don’t always do what God wants us to do, but we’re also saying that because of Christ, we know His will, we have a desire to serve Him, we have a new life. It’s a crisis for sin, because we have a new nature that recognizes sin, we have a new nature that wants to do away with the old, do away with the sinful nature. It’s a crisis for sin, because sin’s days are numbered. Christ will give us victory over sin.

Since Christ has conquered sin, since Christ forgives us instead of condemning us, since we are not alone in this struggle, since this isn’t a crisis of faith, then when we hear Paul talk about this inner conflict between God and sin, when we see Jenny Holzer’s truism, “Protect me from what I want,” it’s not a panic situation. It’s not a time when we have to panic and try to rid ourselves of all of this sin in order to still be a Christian. Paul brought this up so that we could know that we are able to bring these things before God, bring our sins and struggles before Him, and ask for His strength, guidance, and support as we learn to choose good over evil.

So, then, without panicking, we can list before God the things our sinful nature wants, the things that we have trouble ignoring or getting rid of. Holzer says, “Protect me from what I want.” What do you need God to protect you from? What needs to be fenced off? What sinful desires do you need God’s protection from?

Maybe not right now, maybe you don’t feel comfortable writing them down right now, but I’ve left you space on that bulletin insert to write down the sinful desires that you need God to fence off. Each of us have different addictions, vices, habits, sins we’re lazy about, sins that are easier to keep around. Those are the things that we need protection from. We need God to put up a fence in our minds and bodies against those things. We need God to put up a huge, barbed-wire topped fence, separate those things from our lives. We need God to stop us when we cut through the fence, when we climb over the fence. We need God’s Holy Spirit to work in our hearts, in our lives, to keep us from those sins.

Sometimes, by the grace and power of God, we’ll be able to leave those sins on the other side of the fence. Sometimes we won’t. Either way, remember this is a crisis for sin not a crisis of faith. It is a crisis for sin, because Christ has given us the eyes to see sin. We are starting to recognize sin for what it is. Sin is a dead end road, a road that leads to death. We want some sins so bad, but they won’t do us any good. We now know that those sins belong on the other side of the fence.

Remember this is a crisis for sin not a crisis of faith. You haven’t lost faith when you struggle against your sinful desires, and your salvation wasn’t defeated when you climbed over that fence. The victory of Christ conquers all of our sins—our actions, words, thoughts, and even the times when we sin by not doing something. Forgiveness for our sins applies to all of our sins.

When you pray, “Lord, protect me from what I want,” please know that Christ has given you the ultimate protection. What we wanted in our sinful natures was to follow our own road, to wind up on that dead end, but Christ came to put up the fence. Christ came to save us from that dead end. Christ has come to give us eternal protection from sin, death, and the devil. There is no shame in admitting to your fellow Christians that you have struggles with sin, that you have things that still need to be fenced off. There’s no shame in this, because in admitting it, you are admitting that you need the salvation of Christ, the forgiveness of Christ, and the eternal protection of Christ. Who will save us from our bodies of death? Jesus Christ our Lord! God be praised that He sent Jesus to protect us from the sin we want.