yesterday's sermon.

yesterday i preached at one of the episcopal churches on the hill. the priest said to me, "you might not believe this but one time there were 6 episcopal churches on the hill." i looked at him and said, "i am a lutheran from minnesota. it makes perfect sense to me."

i didn't love the lessons appointed for sunday. i didn't dislike them either. they weren't lessons that make me feel warm and fuzzy. but out of them i got a sermon i like.

Acts 17:22-31
1 Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21

here is the sermon:

April 27, 2008
Sixth Sunday After Easter
John 14:15-21

Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thank you for giving me the privilege of your pulpit today. I am always humbled by the weight of preaching and the gift of sharing God’s word with God’s people. Thank you.

I discovered when I worked for a language and cultural immersion program that I love to teach. I was the Head Cook and taught French culture through food. I loved teaching my staff how to cook and watching them get excited about successes in the kitchen. I discovered this fall that I also enjoy teaching confirmation. This was a bit more of a surprise. You see, at Reformation I have eight boys in confirmation! Only boys! When I found this out I was a little frightened of the challenge of teaching the Bible to boys. What do you talk to boys about? Soccer, football, and paintball to start with. Plus, they are the sweetest kids. I had nothing to worry about.

We began with the Old Testament. The boys grumbled about all the genealogies. “Why do we need to read another list of names?” They would say. “Well,” I would respond, “we need to know why these people are righteous. We need to know why these people are important. Do you remember that Abraham had a special promise? Well, when we know that all these people are related to Abraham, we know that they are inheriting that special promise.” The boys would grumble an assent to my answer. They still didn’t like reading the genealogies, but they understood the answer.

They thought they were done with family trees when we got to the New Testament in January. Nope. Not a chance. Little did they know that genealogies were in the near future. I decided that we would read the introductions to each Gospel and compare them.

Here is what we found:
Saint Mark gives us Jesus as a fully grown man. No genealogies there. Just a strange man that appears on the scene.
Next…
Saint Matthew begins, “An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Matthew gets more specific in the following verses and lists important ancestors. There also seem to be some numerical meanings to the genealogy, but that is for another day.

Saint Luke has a genealogy as well. He begins with Jesus and works back to, “Son of Cainan, son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.” Luke is also considered the author of the Book of Acts that we read today.

Saint John is a little different. He places Christ at the beginning. Which is also helpful for today’s conversation, but it is not technically a genealogy.

Back to confirmation class. The boys whined about more genealogies. I reminded them that these are important. I reminded them of Abraham and righteousness. Ah, yes. What does a genealogy mean? It means an author is proving the righteousness and legitimacy of a person.

In the reading from Acts today St. Paul says, “The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him- though indeed, he is not far from each one of us.”

Dearly Beloved, from one ancestor the Lord God made us all! The Lord God made you and Christ! Abraham trusted God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Because of this, everyone who came after him was considered blessed. Yet, St. Luke took Christ’s genealogy one step further. It was not just because of David or Abraham, but because of Christ being descended of Adam, who was truly Son of God.

Isn’t that a wonderful genealogy to ponder? Finally, any one of us could trace back to those first parents. Adam and Eve. And God created them. They claimed God as ancestor. You get to claim God as your ancestor. You get to say that on the top of your family tree is God the heavenly parent. It is a delightful way of imagining the world.

When Jesus says, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” It changes a little bit if we think about this like we are one giant family. Jesus is not leaving you an orphan. You are not being abandoned. And, Jesus is with his Father, who is also a part of you. It is a little strange to think about, but also quite incredible.

There is such a sense of family intimacy in this little passage. The love. The strange systems at work. Lets face it, families sometimes get a little entangled and messy. And certainly living in a person and having another person live in you sounds messy. Family systems are not always simple or healthy. Yet, we are called to love one another in the system. As the church we must broaden our system. Today we have broadened our view of the system by living into our ecumenical relationship. We must continue to broaden our view of our family system. In this way people will remember the family relationships that we encounter in God. The Gospel is messy. Yet, the love is real. And Jesus will not leave you orphaned. His family system is always there.

One more little story.

Last weekend I did the toddlers’ night at Reformation. I decided to talk with them about one of my favorite things: Baptism. I decided that since they are toddlers that I would keep it very concrete. I had water, oil, certificates, and a candle. All the fun stuff we have around to celebrate baptism.

As we finished our time together I told the boys (it seems Reformation only has boys around) one last delight of baptism. I told them that they were all my brothers and that I was their sister. A big shout of happiness came up. You see, I think this is one delight of baptism that we forget. We really are brothers and sisters. We really can go anywhere in creation and have family. We can trust that God has put family for us all over the place. The toddlers thought this was a great thing. And you know, it is. God does not leave us orphaned. God does not leave us as only children. God gives us so much community that we don’t always know what to do with it. Let’s take a lesson from the toddlers and shout with happiness for the giant family tree we have! Amen