Let God Worry: Sermon on Healing for Epiphany 5

The following is my most recent sermon on Healing. Enjoy!

In Jesus,
Josiah

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Wisdom

All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above. So, thank the Lord. Oh, thank the Lord, for all His love. 

Poet Christian Wiman says, "I don't want to think about eternity. That word just makes my mind go blank and I have nothing to imagine. We need to be concerned with the here and now."

I have been deeply concerned, as of late, with the getting of wisdom.

I believe I have arrived at something of value:

The most wisdom you will ever have is just to stand and stare out the frost-bitten window and let your heart swell with gratitude.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Amen.

Rough Seas: A Reflection on Mystery and Avoidance

I know it has been a good long while, my friends, and for that, I apologize. But, I have returned. The truth be told, it has been a rough several months. The following is what I have written to help make sense of the rough seas my wife, Cari, and I have traveled lately:

Behold, the Mystery of Faith:

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.


When we say these words, we are confessing that we don't have it figured out.

Embrace the Mystery.


My biggest concern is that I will always reject the mystery of the skies by staring at the pavement and getting lost in the concrete nature of it all.

Sure, incarnation is flesh, but it is equally mystery.

What does one do with the unexplained? The unexplained, the unanswered questions, leave us dry and hurting. Spinning our wheels. The rejection, the betrayal we feel. The end of one kind of life. The clear "No." The voices of judgment that ring so loudly in our head with the fiery voice of Satan.

Recently, I was kicked to the curb. The end of a dream. Broken relationships. Recognition of my own sin and my own culpability in the hurt of God's community, of God's world. What St. Paul or St. John might call "sins" with a lower case s, extensions of the greater "Sin," that is, unbelief.

Acting in unbelief. Wounding God's people. Wounding myself. Sin. sins.

Forgiveness, reconciliation, reparation. All things that do not take time for our sacred Lord. These things, you will find, DO take time for human people.

And in all of the dirty, raw, bloody, sinful fleshiness of it all, Christ is present.

It was the Evangelical community of my childhood that taught me to deeply love the Christian Scriptures and God. It was the Lutheran community that taught me to deeply love Christ, his Gospel, and gave me the theological foundation to live and proclaim Christ to the broken world.

But, admittedly, neither of these communities gave me language or insight enough to deeply love the Mystery of Faith.

My brother-in-law, a wise, gentle soul named Kyle, has talked with me about mystery. We sat at my dining room table in Philadelphia and talked about mystery and its powerful, haunting, and grace-filled reality in our lives. What Kyle helps me to see is that there is GRACE in mystery. There is GOSPEL in mystery.

Mystery often makes me feel abandoned by God.

My recognition of the mystery often comes along, unfortunately, after I have been hurt or after I have hurt someone else, when some crisis has arisen, or when something has just gone horribly wrong in my life or in the lives of those I love.

As Brennan Manning (RIP) will remind us, "All is grace. If the things we do and say are not rooted in the grace of Jesus then all we have is a bunch of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Sound + Fury = Nothing.

The grace comes in. It is is non-formulaic and it is shrouded in Mystery, BUT, not just in any mystery...this isn't Sherlock Holmes.

This Mystery is the Mystery of Faith. It is the Mystery in the breaking of the bread, the gulp of wine, and in the splash of water.

It is the Mystery in the forgiveness offered to you when you know you are a total shit and you don't deserve it.

It is the Mystery of the rich, liturgical numinous.

It is the Mystery as your beautiful wife, Cari, stands at your side on your wedding day and speaks the deepest love and grace you have ever experienced into your frightened, ashamed, broken heart. It is the Grace of Christ, making us whole again.

It is the Mystery of unexplained things. The beauty of creation. The chill of fall.

Young people have visions.

Old people dream dreams.

I am leaving the Lutheran community, just as I left the evangelical community of my childhood. I will recover. But it will take time.

In the meantime, I will wear my Episcopal Service Cross, love my wife, and embrace the Mystery.

Why I Left Facebook: "You Always Hurt the Ones You Love"

"Kindness is a beautiful human attribute. When we say, 'She is a kind person' or 'He surely was kind to me,' we express a very warm feeling. In our competitive and often violent world, kindness is not the most frequent response. But when we encounter it we know that we are blessed. Is it possible to grow in kindness, to become a kind person? Yes, but it requires discipline. To be kind means to treat another person as your 'kin,' your intimate relative. We say, 'We are kin' or 'He is next of kin.' To be kind is to reach out to someone as being of 'kindred' spirit.
Here is the great challenge: All people, whatever their color, religion, or sex, belong to humankind and are called to be kind to one another, treating one another as brothers and sisters. There is hardly a day in our lives in which we are not called to this." ~Henri Nouwen from Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith


Dialogue from Ash Wednesday 2011

Josiah: I'm thinking about giving up smoking for Lent.

Josiah's Pastor: Oh really? That's nice.

J: I think so. I mean, isn't that an obvious one?

P: I don't know, Joe. How about you give up being an asshole, instead?

J: (In a bit of shock) Are you serious??

P: Totally.

The Actual Blog Post

Good morning, friends!

So, I have a confession to make:

Sometimes, I am a boxer. I know it sounds too badass to be true, ESPECIALLY for me, but it's true. I like to imagine my pale, awkwardly shaped, nerdy body being tansformed into a cut, fit weapon. I am dripping sweat and bouncing around in shorts and gloves, with that familiar look of bloodlust in my eyes.

You will notice I used the word "familiar." Sadly, this is true. Raging Bull becomes Raging Theologian, or really, just Raging Christian.

One of my mentors and dearly loved professors in college, Dr. Jon Case (the Dark Lord of Theology, as I like to call him), was known for ALWAYS saying things that hit you in the gut. Case would refer to these moments as "a chicken bone caught in the throat." You can't exactly explain what it was you experienced or why you felt that way, but you knew you were deeply affected, and oftentimes, you found that your life would begin to change. One such moment was in our Christianity and Postmodernism class. Case told us that Christian theologians are "taught to go down swinging." He concluded his mini-sermon (he IS a pastor, after all) by saying that this "does VIOLENCE to the Gospel."

Christian people fighting? Christian people doing violence to the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Wait....that's us.

That's you!

That's...me!

If it is NOT you, and you don't identify as a Christian person, then I am SURE you have witnessed and/or experienced a Christian behaving like a boxer.

(Chicken bone lodges itself in throat)

But...wait...what ARE we fighting about? WHY are we fighting? WHO are we fighting?

In the words of Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes, "Let's Not Sh*t Ourselves." We are fighting because we want to be right. We are fighting because we HONESTLY BELIEVE that we ARE right and, as logic would have it, EVERYONE else is WRONG.

So, strap on those boxing gloves, Christian people!

CONFESSION TIME:

I have a temper. I come from a long and deep Scotch (not the drink, the people) heritage. As a Scotsman, when I am bothered (bothered is such a nice word, isn't it?), a fierce William Wallace drenched in drunken anger and smeared in body paint tries to crawl out of my skin. I am an actor, so I have a flair for the theatrical and the dramatic. I am vocally trained, so my deep voice projects quite well. When I yell, I am loud. When I curse, it is colorful, offensive, and wounding.

You see, I carry my own swords around in my mouth. There's something about that in the Bible somewhere, isn't there?

There is a train that I jump on, and before anyone else can jump on and join me, I have left the station. And that train moves QUICKLY. It goes and goes and goes and JUST. DOESN'T. STOP. Ask Cari. She has tried to catch that train numerous times. God Almighty, I am indebted to Cari's graciousness!

My confession to God and to you, the good people of the Blog, is that I need help. I am not a kind person, by nature. I am an angry, temperamental, self-righteous, arrogant ASSHOLE. I came into this world an ASSHOLE and I will most likely die an ASSHOLE.

You might think that rather theatrical paragraph I just typed (see directly above) is ridiculous. But, I am okay with confessing that I'm an asshole. I am okay with this confession because of something the "good doctor" Martin Luther calls Simul Justus et Peccator. This is a Latin phrase that means, literally, simultaneously justified and sinner. Or, as we like to say in Lutheran circles, simultaneously Sinner and Saint. Because of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and by virtue of our baptism, we are constantly living in that tension between Sinner and Saint. And THAT is the Gospel. As Charles Spurgeon once said (paraphrase), "If your sin is small, then your Savior will be small. If your sin is great, then your Savior must be great to save you from it."

So yes, I am an asshole.

But, God is good.

God knows and sees that I am an asshole and yet, God calls me righteous. We call this GRACE. It is something I NEED and something I am absolutely addicted to! I HIGHLY recommend reading Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber's spiritual memoir, Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner and Saint or Pastor Jay Bakker's book, Fall To Grace, if you have any questions about what Grace looks like played out in our lives. Or you could read Kierkegaard. There's also Luther (of COURSE). But...there's also St. Augustine of Hippo (Luther WAS a Catholic monk AND we Lutherans ARE an Augustinian Tradition, after all). But...most importantly...there's the Scriptures. Ya know...the writings of St. Paul...particularly Galatians and Romans...and also...you can thumb through the Gospel accounts again.

Let the words of Jesus soak into your skin and deliver grace like a care package to your wounded, seething, raging, broken heart.

So, yes, I'm an asshole. Vicar Josiah is a big ol' asshole. And THAT sin of mine (yes, it IS SIN and no, I will NOT apologize for using that word. I am an Augustinian Christian after all.) has been the root of MANY other sins and problems in my life. I have wounded the ones I love very deeply. 

You know that song, "You Always Hurt the Ones You Love?" Well, in the Derek Cianfrance fillm, Blue Valentine, Ryan Gosling's character Dean sings it to great and GOOFY effect, strumming away on the ukulele and directing his singing towards a lovely tap-dancing Michelle Williams...the very woman he loves...the very woman he will deeply hurt. Blue Valentine, as a film, is the PERFECT and tragic example of people's deep sin uprooting and destroying something beautiful and good, Relationship.

In the days leading up to World War II, a very young pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote what I think is his masterpiece. It's called Life Together and it is an examination of Christians living together in community. If you have NOT read this book, just do it. Stop making excuses. Treat yourself. Just go do it.

If I were to write a companion piece to this book, I would call it, Life Apart. My book would be about how Bonhoeffer's plea for Christian community which is entirely rooted in the message and mission of the Gospel has been wounded by Christians who spend a great deal of their time using Facebook. The newly elected bishop of my synod, Rev. John Macholz, says that "Church people need to learn how to use Facebook as a tool instead of letting Facebook turn Church people into a bunch of tools!" Oversharing. Airing dirty laundry. Starting fights. Exposing secrets. Manipulating entire communities. All of this, and more, happens on Facebook daily. 

Facebook: Making Tools out of People Since 2003.

NOW, let me be clear: 

I am NOT Anti-Facebook! I think Social Media is, as Rev. Macholz would say, a wonderful tool IF used appropriately and responsibly (whatever THAT means). There are several Christian leaders who are very gifted at guiding the Church through responsible ways of using the gift of Social Media to tell our stories and connect with the world, because of the Gospel. One of those people is Rev. Keith Anderson. Please look him up and read his stuff! He has good words for you culturally savvy Christian nerdlings!

I left Facebook because I'm an asshole. I left Facebook because the shit that other people spread makes me want to spread shit. I left Facebook because you always hurt the ones you love. It makes me jealous. It makes me angry. It leaves me with a permanent lump in my throat. It makes me fight with other people who I have never met. It makes me do violence to the Gospel. 

It forces me into a corner and hands me boxing gloves. 

Shit...I'm a boxer again.

The Lutheran doctrine of Theology of the Cross (theologia crucis) indicates that "God ALWAYS shows up in the last place you would EVER reasonably think to look." A prime example of this would be the Cross. So, if theology of the Cross is like, a legit thing then that means God is at work in Facebook and I am very grateful for that. But, God is also at work in our hearts, changing us and renewing us and allowing chicken bones to get caught in our throats, scaring us just enough to change us. Yeah. God's kind of a bastard sometimes. 

I am literally watching Facebook destroy Christian community. Rev. Keith Anderson believes that Facebook is doing the exact opposite. Sometimes, I think Keith and I come from different worlds. Thank God for Keith and for his positive energy! I need that!

But, for now, Facebook is not a part of my life and, ya know what? It feels AMAZING! God is cleaning me out and making something new. I am TRYING to hang my boxing gloves up in my closet and LEAVE them there.

But...but....sometimes...they are just sooooo...red....and shiny...and awesome...and I just CAN'T resist them....

Love God. Love People. Nothing Else Matters.: Sermon for the Third Sunday in Easter

Vicar Josiah R. Armstrong

Zion Lutheran Church and St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

The Third Sunday of Easter

4 May 2014

Love God. Love People. Nothing Else Matters.

The Gospel of St. Luke 24.13-35

“We all need to eat and drink to stay alive. But having a meal is more than eating and drinking. It is celebrating the gifts of life we share. A meal together is one of the most intimate and sacred human events. Around the table we become vulnerable, filling one another’s plates and cups and encouraging one another to eat and drink. Much more happens at a meal than satisfying hunger and quenching thirst. Around the table we become family, friends, community, yes, a body.

That is why it is so important to “set” the table. Flowers, candles, colorful napkins all help us to say to one another, ‘This is a very special time for us, let’s enjoy it!’” - Henri Nouwen

Grace, Mercy, and Peace are yours in the Name of our Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

           

Imagine with me for a minute that someone approaches you and asks you to describe what it means to be a Christian. What would you say? Where would your mind go first? We Christians are often very hard-pressed to find a simple answer when it comes to describing what our faith in Jesus Christ actually looks like, aren’t we? Someone has asked you to answer the question, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” in ten words or less. I want you to think about what your answer might be. 

Bart Campolo is a pastor. He has done extensive work with children who are the victims of domestic violence and founded a wonderful ministry called Mission Year. Pastor Bart came out to my college when I was a freshman and he spoke in our chapel. Pastor Bart was asked that question: “What does it mean to be a Christian, in ten words or less?” His response? “Love God. Love people. Nothing else matters.” 

Love God. 

Love people. 

Nothing else matters. 

NOTHING else matters. 

Nothing else matters but love. 

After Pastor Bart spoke at chapel, several of the students were furious. They were angry that Pastor Bart simplified the beliefs of Christianity down to one word: love. To this day, I am pretty certain that what bothered my fellow students the most about this, was that it took control AWAY from them. If God is calling us to love God and our neighbor, then THAT means we don’t get to decide who is WORTHY of that love! If you search the Scriptures, you will see that it is LOVE that is at the VERY center, the VERY HEART of EVERYTHING we believe about Jesus and the world. Sure, you can talk about faith, hope, peace, grace, mercy, healing, reconciliation, and salvation until you are blue in the face, but we don’t GET THOSE THINGS WITHOUT LOVE. As 1 John 4: 7 and 8 says, “Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. That person who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

            If it is correct that the simplified explanation of Christian belief is “Love God. Love people. Nothing else matters,” then the question we Christian people are faced with is, “How does that work, exactly? How do WE baptized children of God, saved through the grace of Jesus Christ, show the world that love? What, exactly, does that look like?” You might be surprised by my answer, but I think it all comes down to eating. Yes, eating food. Eating food together. 

And what I ACTUALLY mean by “eating food together” is “welcoming the stranger.” 

All throughout the Scriptures, from the beginning of Genesis in the Old Testament to the very end of Revelation in the New Testament, the Bible is FULL of strangers. Moses was a “stranger in a strange land” with a horrible speech impediment. 

Adam and Eve are kicked out of the Garden. 

The Hebrew children are held as slaves and THEN forced to journey for 40 years in a desert. 

Once they reach the other side of the desert, they are forced into EXILE. 

The prophets were a bunch of nutcases with terrible personality disorders. 

Noah was a drunk, 

Abraham was too old, 

Jacob was a liar, 

Leah was ugly, 

Joseph was abused, 

Gideon was a coward, 

Samson was a womanizer, 

Rahab was a prostitute, 

Jeremiah and Timothy were too young, 

David cheated on his wife and was a murderer, 

Elijah was suicidal, 

Isaiah preached naked, 

Jonah ran from God, 

Naomi was a widow, 

Job LOST EVERYTHING, 

Peter denied Christ, 

The Disciples fell asleep while praying, 

The Samaritan woman was a divorcee, 

Zaccheus was too short, 

Timothy had ulcers, 

Thomas was a doubter, 

Paul was a religious zealot and a terrorist, 

and LAZARUS WAS DEAD! 

And yet, my friends, God STILL welcomed ALL of these oddballs, outcasts, sinners, and strangers to perform His labor of love in this fallen world! (Pause) The list of folks I just mentioned are commonly called “heroes of the faith,” but these people were ANYTHING BUT heroes! They were strangers. They were weirdos! They looked NOTHING like the religious elite of the day! What they NEEDED was to be welcomed. What they needed was for God to welcome them to His table, for God to welcome them to the GREAT FEAST of his love! Jesus himself says in the story of the sheep and the goats from Matthew that when you welcome a stranger to your table, you are actually welcoming God.

            Our Gospel text for today is the well-known Road to Emmaus story. It is preached on and discussed EVERY year around Easter time. Its themes have become worn out and over-used, in a way. But there is one part about this story that caught my eye and I just can’t shake it. Jesus has died and has come back from the dead. Jesus is walking around in his resurrected body, meeting with his loved ones and revealing his Glory and Love to them. The two disciples who are walking the road to Emmaus have NOT witnessed Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. They are looking to start over with their lives. So, they are making the seven mile trek on foot to the next town. Sure, the two Marys at the tomb have told them that Jesus has left the tomb, but, they are confused and distressed by this news. They feel like strangers and outcasts. They are skipping town to begin again. The Resurrected Jesus meets them on the road and walks with them. He joins their discussion and walks with them. No matter HOW MANY hints Jesus drops them, they simply do NOT recognize him as their Lord and Savior! This passage is PACKED full of theological and political questions. 

Who is Jesus now? 

Who are WE now, if Jesus is dead? 

Who are we NOW, if Jesus is truly alive? 

And IF Jesus is alive, WHERE IS HE?

            

At the end of their journey together, the two disciples welcome Jesus, who they only see as a stranger, to their table to eat with them. And the text says that when Jesus is sitting at dinner with them, he says a prayer before they eat and breaks the bread to pass it. SUDDENLY they recognize the “stranger” for who he REALLY is. He is Jesus, their Lord and Savior. The last line of the passage says that Jesus was “made known to them in the breaking of the bread.” ALL of the theological questions in the WORLD could not reveal Jesus to them. But when they SAT DOWN and ATE together, Jesus became known to them! And, my friends, when we, the people of Zion/St. John’s, welcome strangers to our table and eat together, Jesus becomes known to us! WHY do you think we continue to celebrate communion in our churches THOUSANDS of years later?? YOU have been welcomed to THIS table, sinners and strangers that you are! And because of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, he is CONTINUALLY made known to us in the breaking of the bread! (Pause)

            On October 2, 2006, a tragic event occurred in this country which the majority of us seem to have moved on from. But, when it happened, it rocked the little Amish community of Nickel Mines, a town just outside of Lancaster, PA to its core. A local milkman and friend of the Amish who lived with his wife, children, and parents, Charles Carl Roberts IV, entered the local one room school house with a loaded gun and shot 10 little girls executioner style, killing 5 of them, before he committed suicide. The media swept in and made a HAY DAY of the event, drawing a great deal of unnecessary attention to this quiet and peaceful little Amish community. While the press was covering the story, several of the family members of the little girls were asked what they were going to do about this. The answer was the same every time. “We will cling to our faith in God,” they said. After the media left Nickel Mines, the close-knit community was left to mourn and grieve the loss of their precious little girls, working towards healing. But, the most important part of this story is what happened AFTER the media left Nickel Mines. The wife, children, and parents of Carl Charles Roberts decided that it was time for them to pack up their bags and leave the town that they loved, the town they had lived in the whole lives. Carl’s wife approached the local church and told her Amish friends that the family was leaving Nickel Mines. They simply could not remain there any longer and be a CONSTANT reminder to the Amish community of the tragedy that had occurred. They felt too much shame and guilt to stay. They felt like strangers, now.  The Amish community came together and agreed to extend forgiveness and love to the family of Carl Charles Roberts IV. Amish ladies prepared meals for them and invited them to eat at their tables. Forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation were happening all around them. When the community of Nickel Mines told the media that they would “cling to their faith in God,” they meant it. You will notice that the Amish families invited the family of Roberts to sit and eat with them. “And Jesus was known to them in the breaking of the bread.” 

            The Amish community of Nickel Mines took the unconditional love of Jesus Christ seriously. They loved God. They loved people. They recognized that nothing else mattered. They invited strangers to their table and they ATE TOGETHER. They responded and continue to respond to the grace and love God has shown them in Jesus Christ by showing grace and love to others. They don’t do this because they HAVE to, but because it is their response to the LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST that was first shown to them. To the Amish community of Nickel Mines, this is just how they have been called to live. WE have been called to live in the same way. But know this: When you screw up and exclude people from your table, God continues to forgive you time and time again. Now THAT is love. The love of Christ. Love WITHOUT conditions. 

            This past Easter Sunday, I was reminded of the fact that LAST Easter Sunday was the very last time my grandfather, Pastor Howard Armstrong, preached a sermon to his congregation. I thought about my Poppy ALL day. And it struck me as I was writing today’s sermon, that the last text he preached on was the story of The Road to Emmaus. I had always had a very close relationship with my Poppy, but we had our differences. He was very excited that I was becoming a pastor, but he was not too thrilled by the fact that I had become a Lutheran. I think he felt I had taken a step in the wrong direction. I hadn’t seen him for months because I had been away at seminary, but when I came home for Easter break, my dad announced to the family that we were all going to his church to hear him preach because this would probably be the last time.  For the first time in years, my entire family went to North Urbana Chapel in Hammondsport together and watched as my Poppy, frail from his cancer, wheeled himself in his wheelchair towards the front of the sanctuary and whispered his hour-long sermon into a microphone. I will NEVER forget his words that day. My Poppy, the great Rev. Howard Armstrong, said to the congregation he had served for over 20 years and loved so dearly, “My ministry has come to an end. And with that, I want you to know from me what the MOST IMPORTANT thing about our faith is. It’s love,” he said, “it’s love.” And THEN, he said those words I NEVER thought I would hear him say. He said, “Love God. Love people. Nothing else matters.” Following his sermon, we gathered as a family for the last time, and ate Easter dinner together. And Jesus was made known to us in the breaking of the bread.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

iLent: A Musical Playlist for Lenten Liturgy

Greetings, theo-types, hypocrites, and dragon-slayers!

This is a brief post, I know.

I would like to share with you the iTunes playlist I have compiled for the sake of prayer, writing, driving, cooking, reading, and song during the Lenten season.

May it be well with your musical souls!

iLent: A Musical Playlist for Lenten Liturgy

1. Comrade - Volcano Choir (Processional)
2. Rejoice and Lament - Josh Garrels
3. Wolf Am I! (And Shadow) - mewithoutYou (Remembrance of Baptism)
4. Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens (Confession and Forgiveness)
5. Rox in the Box - The Decemberists (Ash Wednesday)
6. Open - Rhye
7. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi - Radiohead
8. The King Beetle on a Coconut Estate - mewithoutYou (Sermon)
9. (Don't) Tremble - The Low Anthem (Communion)
10. Take Me to Church - Hozier (Creed)
11. I Am Mountain - Gungor
12. Southern Point - Grizzly Bear
13. Montezuma - Fleet Foxes
14. My Exit, Unfair - mewithoutYou (Prayers of the People)
15. The First Taste - Fiona Apple
16. Under Serious Attack - Emery
17. Needle in the Hay - Elliott Smith
18. Wedding Dress - Derek Webb (Kyrie Eleison)
19. All Circles - mewithoutYou
20. Effigy - Andrew Bird
21. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - Arcade Fire
22. Nantes - Beirut
23. Perth - Bon Iver
24. We Lay in Caves - Campfire OK
25. Sleeping Sickness - City and Colour
26. Saint John - Cold War Kids
27. Chin Up - Copeland (Recessional)

Use these songs as you will and in whatever order you desire during our Lenten season. I have found that it helps to have music to nourish your soul while you are thirsty in the desert.

I'm thirsty, folks.

Grace, Peace + Rocknroll,

Vicar Josiah and Rabbi 

Sermon: A Blessing for Travelers

Vicar Josiah R. Armstrong

Zion Lutheran Church and St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

The Second Sunday in Lent

15 March 2014

Hearing the Psalms: A Blessing for Travelers

Psalm 121

Grace, Mercy, and Peace are yours in the Name of the Crucified Jesus Christ. Amen.

            In 1960, Jack Kerouac, famed beatnik and writer of American novels and poetry said “Nothing else matters in the world but the kindness of grace, God’s gift to suffering mortals.” Kerouac said this in response to all of the intentional journeying he had done during his life. Kerouac had seen almost all of America in his lifetime, cut short by cancer at the age of 44. He wrote about his travels in several books, the most notable being the American classic On the Road. Jack Kerouac was an inspired and adventurous individual who blessed the world with a contagious desire for travel. In a way, he made his prolific journey OUR journey. He welcomed us to go on the many road trips with him. Along the way, as in the quote I just shared with you, Jack experienced something. He experienced what he calls “the kindness of grace, God’s gift to suffering mortals.” I don’t share Jack’s story with you because it requires some kind of explanation, but because it is true. (Pause) Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor says in her book The Preaching Life that “we are all born seekers.” And I say that our natural sense of seeking and questioning, our natural search for life’s questions and answers takes us on many adventures, many travels, and many journeys. Lent is the perfect season for talking about this journey, the journey we ALL take with our Savior. 

The journey of life isn’t always a sunny road trip to Florida, is it? 

            

What about those times when life’s journey take us down unexpected twists and turns? What if tragedy and unspeakable frustration happen along the way? Those are the moments when we experience the FULL extent of our humanity. Sometimes, life’s journey gets ugly. On the rough, muddy road of life, we might find ourselves, at times, stuck on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere with NO Triple A, with a flat tire and with no one to help us. 

We might ask ourselves, “Where can I look for help?” 

            Psalms 120-134 are called, in the Hebrew, shir-hamma’a lot, or “Songs of Ascent.” All of the songs of ascent are written as direct prayers to God or priestly blessings. In our Psalm for today, Psalm 121, it is believed by Biblical scholars that we actually have TWO speakers in this Psalm. Verses 1 and 2 are spoken by the Psalmist, a traveler. The traveler, while on his/her journey, first asks THAT question: “I lift my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come?” Now, let’s ask Walter Brueggeman’s question from last week: “Who do you image could talk like that?” 

Life’s journey is FULL of many dangers and trials, isn’t it? 

 Old Testament scholar Rolf Jacobsen breaks the dangers on life’s journey into three parts: 1. The Physical  2. The Ecomonic and 3. The Spiritual.  Now, stop and think for a minute: Where are YOU on life’s journey? What do you NEED help with? In what area of your life do you feel like you need to ask for help? 

 If you give someone the chance to share their story about life’s journey, they will probably end up with a laundry list of anxieties as long as the Amazon River! Don’t kid yourselves, folks. There are things you wish could change. There are things that you need help with.  

            After the Traveler asks his question, he makes a confession. In the midst of all of his doubts and questions, he tells the world that, “My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” The Traveler KNOWS this to be true. He knows God is a God who accompanies him on life’s journey. Please note that this is NOT a confession to be taken lightly. The Traveler is acknowledging that the FULL EXTENT of his help in THIS lifetime comes from God. This is a God who is NOT some FAR OFF God. 

THIS God meets us WHERE WE ARE on life’s journey, and rescues us. 

In our Gospel reading for today, Jesus explains to Nicodemus what God’s salvation LOOKS LIKE. And, guess what…? Nicodemus DOESN’T GET IT! (Pause) And you know what? YOU don't get it, either! The point is NOT in complete understanding. The point is in our God entering our VERY human lives and journeying WITH US. THIS is how salvation, how RESCUE happens.

            The SECOND speaker in Psalm 121 is believed to be a Priest of some kind. The Traveler asks his question and then makes his confession of faith. FOLLOWING the Traveler’s confession, the Priest takes the REST of the Psalm to sing a BLESSING over him as he continues on his journey. 

And here is your BLESSING:

3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.  

Now…what did you hear? 

What did you hear the Priest say about our God? About the God who meets us on life’s journey? Our God, the God of Jesus Christ, in Cross and Resurrection, is our KEEPER. God is our PROTECTOR. And MOST importantly, God is a God who MAKES His beloved children PROMISES. God has MADE YOU A PROMISE, people of Zion/St. John’s, that He WILL continue to watch over you, keep you, protect you, shield, and guard you. Remember your baptism, my friends. God met you in the waters of your baptism, in the midst of life’s journey, and RESCUED YOU! And now, God KEEPS you, PROTECTS you, and HELPS you. That HELP might not look like what we think it SHOULD look like, but it DOES come, nevertheless. 

The Rev. Dr. Noah Hepler, a Lutheran pastor and theologian in Philadelphia, says that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be summed up in a few words. Here is what Pastor Noah says: 

“Despite all evidence to the contrary, God loves you.”  

Despite ALL evidence to the contrary…God LOVES you. 

            As you travel along life’s journey, and you “lift your eyes to the hills,” you might feel alone, scared, and helpless. But, in the midst of that darkness, God is present. God, your KEEPER, is present. And THAT God is rescuing you. Perhaps the GREATEST blessing we could offer our fellow travelers on life’s journey would be to remind them of this TRUTH: 

“Despite all evidence to the contrary, God loves you.” 

And, my friends, you have an assignment! Find someone this week to speak that blessing to. See how they respond.

            When I was a kid, my Dad took my brother and our dog on a hike through the woods. My Dad has always loved the outdoors. It was right when winter was coming screeching to a halt, and the creeks were all frozen over. Well, as they were hiking along their path, taking their journey together, my little brother wandered out onto the ice. The ice broke and he fell through. My Dad raced after him, dragged him out of the freezing water, and carried him all the way back up the hill they had hiked to warm him up in the car. My Dad, while carrying my brother up the hill, hurt his back and exhausted himself to the point of nausea. My brother, when he fell through that ice, probably looked around him. ALL of the evidence, in that scary moment, suggested that he was helpless and that he would freeze and drown. But our Father reached in and rescued his boy. My Dad loved his son SO much that he put himself in danger and even hurt himself in order to save him. Now, what does this sound like? This sounds like the conclusion of our Gospel passage, doesn’t it?  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

            Despite ALL evidence to the contrary, in THAT moment, my brother was COMPLETELY loved and COMPLETELY safe. Our God does NOT throw us a life raft! Our God does not keep His distance. God does NOT wait to see if we will make the choice to grab the “inner tube.” NO! That is NOT love and I am SICK TO DEATH of preachers and Christians who continue to say we have some kind of CHOICE in our rescue! Garbage! BULLSH*T! That is NOT love! If my Dad had stood on the bank and tossed my brother an inner tube and shouted to him, “I love you and I really hope you grab that tube,” he would have been an asshole and that is NOT an Abba God that I will worship. That is NOT the Gospel. That is NOT Good News. It might just be News, and it’s probably BAD News. Our God joins us on our journey through the woods, and jumps in the freezing water WITH us, delivering us from evil. THIS is the God who journeys with us and KEEPS us along the many roads we travel. Zion Lutheran Church/St. John’s, 

HERE is the Gospel: Despite ALL evidence to the contrary, God loves you. 

Despite ALL evidence to the contrary

…ALL EVIDENCE…

God loves you. 

God loves you. 

God loves YOU.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.