Sermon Lent 2 [a week late]

To hear the sermon see http://soundcloud.com/tigerowl/lent-2nd-sunday-christ

Dear friends, we have three rather distinctive lessons given to us today. Maybe I didn’t work hard enough this week, but I had difficulty seeing them linked together in one message.  It’s almost like they are separate acts in a long running play and the author forgot to put together a coda or that final epilogue that pulls the story together.  Or maybe it’s just that I have seen two great movies this past month in LINCOLN and LIFE OF PI.  They both are captivating stories so if you watch the Oscars tonight you might get a glimpse of both.

ACT 1.  Abraham had been promised to be the father of a great nation.  He knew that he was already an old man.  His wife Sarah had not produced a child, a male child, let alone any heir.  He had relations with one of his slaves; remember that this was culturally acceptable in his time.  This relationship had produced a child, but not an heir.  Yet in his vision, he has heard God tell him that the child of his slave is not his issue.  This has got to be one of those times where I have to set aside my 21^st century sense of right and wrong.  I have to ignore a prejudice of God toward the relationship of Abraham and his slave that the child is not being his issue and thus not an heir.  God continues in the vision that Abraham is to count the stars. If he is able to do that, the number will equal the number of his descendants.  I keep having to tell myself that this IS ABRAHAM’S VISION.  There is nothing that says this is the WORD of GOD.

Actually the lesson for this congregation on this day may be in the second half of this passage from Genesis.  I brought you out of Ur of Chaldea.  I have given you land to possess.  I will give you work to do and I will make a covenant with you.  I will be your God and you will be my people.

In many ways twenty years ago, a new pastor came to this church.  There was a change in style of worship, there was a change in the emphasis of ministry, there was a call for the ministers, that is, the people in the pew to see that the kingdom of God was not necessarily up there, but right down here.  The mission field was not in some far off place, but it was literally and figuratively across the street. 

That ministry has borne fruit and still exists and calls for this congregation and the institutions it has formed to continue to be a point of outreach to a community that continues to change and challenge the resources of this congregation.  I keep asking you to look on the back cover page of the bulletin to note that you are the ministers of this congregation.  You are the ones who provide the ministry of outreach and internal service to the members of the congregation and the community.  I really see my task as one of continuing to motivate you to be the ministers, to provide the service or support those who do.  In many ways you may need to make covenant with God, that not only has he placed you here in this ministry, God covenants with you to provide the pathways that will make for support of the ministry.

Act 2 from Philippians:  Perhaps I found a connection between the lessons, but I will try to walk the fine line between advocacy and political activity.  I have in some minute ways described the ministry that this congregation is directly involved in providing.  Increasingly I am being confronted by the ways that the services that were supported by community and governmental resources are continually being tweaked, cut, or curtailed.  Recently, we were informed that Job Corps will not be having registrations at the church until funding is restored.  They are unable to place applicants in programs with the diminishing funds. 

We see food insufficiency on a weekly basis by the number of people who use Phil-abundance and the additional number people who ask us for information on emergency food supplies.  Unlike the letter to Philippi, I don’t want to presume that the decision makers on budgets are enemies of the Cross of Christ, but their decisions do have negative effects on significant numbers of people we serve.

I think that like the opening line in letter to Philippi I want to invite decision-makers to spend an hour on Friday mornings to observe food insufficiency in this micro setting.  I would invite them to define entitlements to those who stand in line in the cold for over an hour, even when they know that the serving starts at 10:30 am.

Even with a letter of invitation I know that “…our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”  But Luther nearly 500 years ago said that the members of the church are still citizens of society and that we have responsibilities in both realms.  I’m not saying how you write to those who make decisions, but I am asking that you join me in letting them know what we see in our neighborhood, and in the world we serve.

Act three. Luke 13.  We will see an earlier part of this chapter next week.  In all reality Jesus is confirming that he is on a path to Jerusalem to die.  He knows that Herod wants to kill him, but there is ministry to be done, while he is on the way.  ‘Demons and cures are on the agenda for today and tomorrow and the third day I will finish my work, HERE.’  He is bound and determined to get to Jerusalem to fulfill the prophecy and there is nothing any of us can do to stop him.

Maybe it’s here that my mind takes a turn away from a direct relationship to the lesson and move to a slightly only related issue.  The lesson reads: “See, your house is left to you.”  I want to address some issues of this house.  In October in closing out the ministry of your pastor, there were some arrangements made that gave the congregation some debt and the church council suggested a special offering on the third Sunday of the month to address that financial concern.  That concern still faces the congregation and your leadership.  In the midst of this winter season the furnace which looks like it was installed before my boys were born and they are 42 and 37 decided that it was going to have some major problems.  One that is identified is that there is a steam leak that is going up the chimney.  The fissure is not fixable.  It means that the furnace needs to be replaced.  We are getting bids for its replacement, but we need to see if we can get through the winter season before that happens.  This is not the kind of unit that someone has just waiting for us in a warehouse.

Remember this is our house that has been left to us.  It is used nearly six days a week.  We are unable shut down the church for a week.  Every day there are children in the after school program, there are folks coming to learn English.  There are parenting classes, church meetings, etc., etc.  And we have yet to tell you what the overall cost will be, but begin to think 5 figures.  We wish it was as easy as replacing a phone system or a new computer, it’s not.  In the midst of our challenges, there is still ministry to be done.

So there it is a three act sermon.  In part one: we are challenged to see the growth of the church through the vision of Abraham, who says that it is a message to him from God.  In part two we are called upon by your preacher to see what you can do to assist with the ministry needs that are always ringing the bells at our doors.  And you are being asked to contact our governmental and community leaders, to see that we are a place that provides services for the needs of the communities for which they are called to serve.  In act three, there are some hard realities that we face to meet the demands of ministry as it presents itself at 7240 Walnut Street. 

Maybe this three act ministerial reflection will stay with you as you do your mid-week Lenten devotion or as you walk the Stations of the Cross.  We have thirty days to go.  'Blessed is the one who comes, prays and walks in the name of the Lord’.  AMEN.