Love One Another

John 13 31-35

April 24, 2016

There is a history of my seminary,

Philadelphia, playing

Gettysburg Seminary and eventually

other seminaries in a flag football game.

Each team would get t shirts for the game.

Philadelphia got them in purple with white writing.

And when we got there we realized,

another team had the same exact color of tee shirt.

It was a very confusing game.

We couldn’t identify who was who.

Likewise, it’s hard to identify Christians in the world.

We don’t wear particular clothes, or eat certain foods,

We don’t only interact with certain people,

We aren’t really commanded to do much that is outwardly different.

Christians basically blend in with everyone else.

I think we’re meant to do just that.

So how do we tell ourselves from others?

Jesus tells his disciples that we will be known by our love.

By the way we love one another.

So we won’t be known for 

going to church on Sunday morning,

or wearing a cross around our necks

or praying before meals.

We will be known for our love.

That will make us distinct.

Love one another as I have loved you, Jesus said.

This is what will make us famous and well know.

This is what people will talk about.

Jesus gave this command during his last supper.

Right before this, he told them that one of his disciples was going to betray him.

And right after this he tells Peter that he would deny even knowing him.

It must have been a very painful meal for Jesus in many ways.

And yet in this same dinner, he washes the feet of the disciples.

An act of humble servitude to his students and followers

and betrayers and deniers.

That is the kind of love that Jesus is talking about

The self sacrificing, self denying kind of love.

The kind of love that isn’t stopped by pride

the kind of love that includes all, even those not worthy of it

Jesus tells the disciples to love one another,

He addresses this to the disciples at a private meal

and it could be understood as an internal kind of thing,

just to share inside our churches

and between disciples and among members.

But Jesus is talking about the kind of love that crosses

boundaries, it doesn’t make more boundaries.

This is Jesus last request, this is Jesus new commandment.

This has surely been a struggle for Jesus church

both inside and out.

Sometimes the church is better known for

it’s infighting and squabbling with one another.

What gets in the news are

denominational spats and theological wrangling.

And sometimes the church is known better for it’s

hate and admonition of those who are different.

But most Christians are just trying our best to

take Jesus words seriously and love one another

and the people around us.

If you read anything about the very beginning

of the church, the startling thing is how fast it grew.

Christianity wasn’t very organized,

it wasn’t a unified institution.
Worshipping Jesus was not part of the main stream,

it was not the government authorized religion,

it was sometimes dangerous for most people to be a part of it.

But even under oppression and threats, the church grew big and fast.

And many scholars have said that the reason is

because it was the different way that

Christians treated each other.

At the time, the world was arranged in

strict hierarchy that was supported by Roman religion.

The rich were higher than the poor,

the men were higher than the women,

the masters were higher than the slaves

It was all ordained by the gods,

And people acted and were treated accordingly.

But in Christians tried to treat everyone the same.
Everyone got the same respect and dignity,

everyone was given responsibilities,

women and slaves were leaders.

everyone was treated with the same kind of love as everyone else.

And they showed that love to others too.

they fed the poor with the collection they got during church.

They gave food and company to those who were imprisoned.

They visited the sick and helped them too.

They treated the forgotten people with dignity and kindness.

They shared their love inside the community and outside.

Their growth wasn’t about worship services

or music or preaching or children’s programs.        

It was what happened when they got outside

of that worship service that made the difference.

It was what happened the rest of the week

that inspired others.

The things that define us as Christians

aren’t the things we do in here,

it’s the things we do out there.

Tony Campolo the popular Methodist pastor

tells a wonderful story.

Before he was a pastor, he was a sociologist.

And he was presenting a paper in Honolulu.

He flew there from the East Coast and it was time to go to sleep,

but he couldn’t because of the jet lag.

So was sitting in a coffee shop at about 3:30am.

it was the only place open and it was very sleazy.

There were a few people in the place

and a group of prostitutes came in.

He was sitting at the counter and they all

sat around him.

He was basically in the middle of the conversation

and the one who’s name was Agnes said that it

was her birthday tomorrow.

She was going to be 39.

One of her friends said,

“What do you want me to do, throw you a party?”

She said,

"Why do you have to be so mean? I was just telling you, that's all.

Why do you have to put me down?

I was just telling you it was my birthday.

I don't want anything from you.

I mean, why should you give me a birthday party?

I've never had a birthday party in my whole life.

Why should I have one now?"

After she left the place with her friend,

Tony asked the owner of the place

if she was in there every night

and he said yes, right at 3:30 they always came in.

Tony suggested to the owner that maybe they could throw

her a party since it was her birthday.

The owner thought it was a great idea

and got his wife who was the cook involved.

Agnes was a nice person and he would love to be a part.

Tony said he would get the decorations and even bring a cake.

The owner said that he would make the cake.

The next night they decorated the place and

by 3:15, the place was full of prostitutes

At 3:30 Agnes and her friends came in.

Everyone yelled out surprise and sang Happy Birthday.

She looked completely flabbergasted.

And then the owner of the diner gave her the cake

it said “Happy Birthday Agnes” on it

it had candles on it.

She was crying at the sight of it.

Everyone told her to blow out the candles.

She blew out the candles

and then the owner gave her a knife

and told her to cut the cake.

She said to the owner,
“Harry, if it’s all right with you,

I don’t want to cut the cake right now.”

He told her it was okay.

She said, “Is it okay if we just keep the cake a little while,

I just live a couple of doors down, would it be okay

if I just took the cake to my apartment and I’ll be back?”

She left the diner holding the cake like the Holy Grail.

There was kind of a stunned silence at this point.

and no one knew what to do

So, Tony suggested that they pray.

So they did.

He said, “looking back on it now, it seems more than strange for a sociologist to be leading a prayer meeting with a bunch of prostitutes in a diner in Honolulu at 3:30 in the morning.

But then it just felt like the right thing to do."

When he finished, Harry leaned over the counter

and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he said,

"Hey! You never told me you were a preacher.

What kind of church do you belong to?"

In one of those moments when just the right words came, 

I answered, "I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for

prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning."

Harry waited a moment and then almost sneered as he answered,

"No you don't. There's no church like that.

If there was, I'd join it. I'd join a church like that!"

Jesus said,

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,

if you have love for one another.”

Christ is alive and with us today.

Let us be the church that is gathered around that miracle.

Let us be the ones who are known by our love.

The Voice of Jesus

John 10:22-30 

April 17, 2016

Jesus Solomon's Portico

We’re flashing back to a moment 

during Jesus ministry.

Jesus is walking through the portico of Solomon

a covered walk way around 

the temple in Jerusalem.

and as usual, he’s attracting a crowd

People want to see him and talk to him.

This time some people want him to tell them

who the heck he is and what he’s doing.

They say 

“how long are you going to keep us in suspense.”

Some say that that phrase is better translated,

“How long are you going to annoy us?”
In other words stop using all these metaphors

and stories and figures of speech.

Just tell us plainly if you’re the Messiah.

Give us the absolute sign. Let us know.

Now, undoubtedly, some of these people

are trying to catch Jesus and trap him

and get him in trouble with the authorities.

Some of them are probably hostile to what Jesus represents,

And some might be naturally skeptical,

But I’m sure that some of the people

asking Jesus are really searching and hoping

and wanting and waiting for the Messiah

they want to hear that Jesus is the Messiah.

And in response, Jesus tells them,

My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.

 

Sheep do get to know their own shepherd’s voice.

Each shepherd would have a hundred or so sheep.

And there were always other flocks of sheep around

and they tend to all look alike.

Sometimes the shepherds and their flocks

would meet to go to sleep

and they would all get mixed up at night.

But in the morning, the shepherds

could call their flock and the sheep would instinctively

follow their own shepherds voice.

Sheep know their shepherd’s voice.

Jesus was saying that the ones who will be

Jesus followers will just know him.

They will hear his voice and follow.

Flash forward a couple of thousand years,

Today if you are a church person,

or you hang around church people enough,

or read any information about the church,

the discussion often goes to the decline

of Christianity.

People just aren’t going to church,

If you read some of the more panicked articles,

all Christian churches are closing next week.

We know that’s not true.

But people’s lives just don’t seem to be centered around

Christianity or the church as much as it was

as it did fifty or even 20 years ago.

There are some people these days are hostile to Christianity

they like to catch the church doing something

wrong or contrary, or fouling up and they don’t

hesitate to point it out at every turn.

But like those people that were talking to Jesus,

some people haven’t really heard Jesus voice speaking to them.

I think there are a lot of people who are still searching

for their shepherd’s voice. But what are they hearing?

For a culture that is experiencing a decline in

Church attendance, God and Christ are still

pretty widely talked about, even outside of church.

Our politicians feel they have to invoke God,

and prove their faithfulness to get elected,

and lots of messages come out

with God’s name attached to it,

But is that message that people are hearing?

From Christians, I have heard hateful rhetoric

about immigrants and refugees,

especially our Muslim brothers and sisters.

Some Christians say terrible things about the poor,

and the homeless too.

Is that the voice of Jesus talking?

Donald Trump says his favorite bible verse

is an “eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth”

completely forgetting that Jesus followed it up

by saying “I say turn the other cheek”

I can’t say that I’m too surprised,

But are some hearing this as Jesus message?

 

And these crazy laws that are predominate now

in the south, that pass themselves off as

“religious freedom laws” touted by Christians and

by Christian politicians,

giving Christians license to discriminate

against gay, lesbian, and transgender people, and really anyone

it’s was used to defend throwing an interracial couple

out of a trailer park.

Some people are hearing this as the voice of Jesus.

The Westboro Baptist church is still

getting their 15 years of fame in by being

horrible and picketing at inappropriate events.

And some Christians spend an inordinate amount

of their time mercilessly yelling hurtful things

at young women going into Planned Parenthood to

getting low cost health care

because they might possibly be considering an abortion.

Is this the voice of Jesus?

Now we might know that these voices

are not the voice of Jesus.

But people who aren’t as intimate

with Jesus life and stories, how would they know?

Even if we agreed with the message

that some of these people are committed to,

We know that this was not at all the way

that Jesus would speak to other people or confront injustice or sin.

Jesus got most irate with religious leaders who were

misleading other people.

He didn’t yell at poor people or young women.

But those who don’t know about

Christ’s way, how would they know?

These are the voices, these are the messages

that are filling the airways and getting in the news

and filling the ears of people.

Even Pope Francis is struggling

to get his message to rise above

this din of hate and exclusion .

And I think that a lot of people

have heard these messages for so long

that they believe that it is Jesus voice

and they want no part of that.

I know a lot of my friends from my past

are in that boat right now.

They can’t get around  all the voices

of fear and hate and exclusion

to hear Jesus real voice.

And I can’t say that I blame them.

We know that Jesus is not a voice of hate

Jesus voice is a voice of life, of resurrection,

of welcome at the table, embracing those who are different,

eating with sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes,

loving your enemies, praying for those who persecute you,

lifting up the poor and unfortunate.

We at Gethsemane know that is the shepherd’s voice.

And I believe that people are waiting to hear that voice,

they are longing to know that shepherd.

But, of course, we’re Lutheran and we mutter it

or hope that people will read our minds.

But Jesus said, when my sheep hear my voice they will follow.

They will never perish.  No one will snatch them out of my hand.

The good news today is that Jesus won’t stop calling

those sheep over and over again.

Jesus won’t stop just because we didn’t hear the first time

or because the noise of the world is too loud,

or his followers don’t have the courage to speak up.

The good shepherd knows that there are lots of people

just waiting to hear that story, that message and that voice

the voice of the living word of God, the voice of forgiveness,

The voice that we have followed here this morning,

And Jesus won’t stop calling until all creation has come home.

Resurrection of Peter

John 21:1-19 / Easter 3 / April 14, 2013

Have you ever failed after telling

everyone what you were going to do?

I was a first year pastor and one of the things my senior pastor wanted to do was start lots of small groups.

He actually wanted me to start 8 small groups in the first 6 months

I was there. If I had known what I was doing at the time,

I would have argued that that was not a realistic goal.

But instead I was like, I’ve got this, no problem.

I can do anything because I just graduated seminary.

Then I talked to the last person who tried to start a few small groups

and she said, “this church doesn’t take very well to small groups. I think you’re going to have a problem with it.”

And, had I known what I was doing,

I would have listened to her hard and had her help me.

but instead I was like, I’ve got this, no problem.

Then I announced it to the congregation that we were going to start Eight small groups in six months and everyone should join.

First thing the new pastor was doing.

And people looked like they were interested and

they put their names on a list and

I got books and leaders and we had a meeting and

some people showed up to their groups the first time.

Then the second time the groups met fewer people showed up.

And then the next time, four of the groups decided

not to meet again, and on and on.

So in 6 months, I had started 8 groups, but 8 groups had also died.

I was mortified.

For years whenever anyone asked me about small groups,

I would feel like I wanted to crawl into a hole.

Part of it was the failure, but part of it was that I had told everyone

and I was so sure of myself, naively confident.

Peter told Jesus and everyone very proudly

almost smugly, what he was going to do.

At the last supper, Peter told Jesus that he would

gladly give up his life for Jesus.

I’m sure he meant it when he said it.

His head and his heart were filled with

bravado and security in his own will.

I’m sure he felt the loyalty and dedication to Jesus

the gratitude for Jesus trusting him.

Jesus had picked Peter out

and called him out of the monotonous, soul-crushing

and debt ridden life of commercial fishing and

called him into a life of abundance, living on God’s grace,

spiritual depth, wonder, and service to others.

I’m sure that Peter was feeling gratitude about that

when he made that promise to Jesus.

I’m sure that he meant it when he said:

“I will follow you to death.”

Of course, Jesus knew better.

He told Peter he would deny even knowing Jesus.

Not once or twice, but three times.

And sure enough, that’s what happened.

After Jesus was arrested, when Peter was identified

as one of Jesus disciples,

Peter denied it three times before the cock crowed.

He wouldn’t even admit he knew Jesus to a harmless servant girl.

  

And this whole thing was probably

running through Peter’s head

when he saw Jesus risen from the dead in that upper room.

He was surely excited about seeing Jesus,

he was probably also thinking:

“Jesus knows how I failed him and everyone.

Jesus knows what a chicken I am.

Jesus knows how I don’t deserve the life he gave me.”

So Peter and the others decided to go back to fishing.

Back into the crushing, dead-end life that they came from.

It was what Peter knew how to do

It’s probably all he thought he deserved.

And they’re in the middle of returning to that life

Jesus calls out to them from the shore again.

Now according to the story,

Peter is fishing naked and, for some reason,

decides to put his clothes on to swim to the shore.

In the bible studies I was in this week, that got a lot of attention.

I might look into preaching about that next time,

But trust me though, don’t look up “fishing naked” on the internet

and expect that you’re going to find something about this story.

Regardless, Peter is excited to see Jesus.

And after they eat breakfast together Jesus talks to Peter.

Surely, the weight of Peter’s failure was hanging between them.

Notice that when they talk,

Jesus doesn’t call him “Peter”, the name Jesus gave

him when he became his disciple.

he calls him by his given name,

“Simon, son of John” his name in his old life,

the life that he’s decided to return to.

He asks Simon son of John a question,

“Do you love me more than these?”

Now what Jesus meant by “these” we’re not sure.

We can’t really tell from the English,

But we can tell the Greek word “these” that Jesus uses is neutral,

which means that it wasn’t referring to people, but to things.

So Jesus is asking Simon if he loves Jesus more than

he loves these things,

maybe Jesus means the fish and the

boats and the job of his old life.

Maybe it doesn’t matter.

And Simon son of John says,
“Of course, you know I love you.”

And Jesus gives him a simple reply,

a simple request, a simple call.

“Feed my lambs.”

Three times Peter denied Jesus.

Three times Peter chickened out,

Three times Jesus asks the question, “Do you love me?”

Three times Simon says he does…

And three times, Jesus calls Simon out from his old life again

“Feed my lambs”, “Tend my sheep”, “Feed my sheep”

Three times, Jesus calls Simon back into ministry with him -

the life of abundance and wonder, spiritual depth

to leadership and service.

Three times, Simon son of John is more than forgiven by Jesus,

He is called out again, to be Peter, the Rock.

Once Peter was dead, but Jesus raised him up.

Feed my sheep. Follow me.

We are all as fallible as Peter,

we have been scarred and broken and lost.

We’ve all gone smugly into something, just to fail

or get scared, or become disillusioned,

or bored, some of us have just made the wrong choices.

We might think that the best thing for God to do

would be to let us go, let us crawl into a hole

and find someone else who’s better

or more qualified.

But the truth is, we are God’s entire ministry plan

We are it. There is no back up.

There is no other option for God.

There are no alternatives.

No other less-fallible super-humans waiting in the wings.

God has put all his trust into people like Peter.

And God has bet everything on us.

As we think today about caring for creation,

it might feel like we’ve let God down in our call to do that.

Our waters are polluted some are poisonous,

the bees are disappearing, the air is harsh,

the ice caps are melting.

In some ways it seems like we have failed.

But we are God’s whole plan. All God has are

fallible, wasteful, sometimes selfish humans.

And we are called back into service again and again.

Called to care for this world and the things in it.

To feed the lambs and all of the other creation

God has given us.

 As broken and broken

and as faulty as we can be,

God will use us.

Maybe we feel like we’ve let God or others down.

God sees past all that, and just sees our potential.

All God needs is our love.

And everything else will come out of that.

As many times as we mess up

and don’t live up to our own expectations,

we are called to a life of abundance, depth and service to others

We are called over and over into a new life with God.

Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.

Jesus says, follow me.