Pretension Busters: Agony

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...

http://stmartiesplace.blogspot.com/2010/06/pretension-busters-agony.html

Of Sow's Ears and Silk Purses

2010-06-27 05 Pentecost C, part 1

Being "fit" for the kingdom of God is not a matter of how straight one can plow. It's not a matter of plowing at all. The difference between sinner and saint, between the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God, is qualitative not quantitative. There ain't gonna be no sinners on their best behavior in heaven!

Readings: 1 Kings 19:15--16, 19--21 Psalm 16 Galatians 5:1, 13--25 Luke 9:51--62

The Truth Can Do What?

010-06-20 04 Pentecost C
The transformative truth takes sinners naked before God and mad with sin to clothe them and put in them a right mind; between the two there's a death and resurrection--first Jesus', then ours.
Lectionary Readings:
Isaiah 65:1--9
Psalm 22:19--28
Galatians 3:23--29
Luke 8:26--39

Pretension Busters: Adversity

check it out here:

St. Martie's Place

Bored and Curious

2010--06-13 03 Pentecost C
When Christ is preached again and again, Satan uses satiety and curiosity to tempt people to something new--a new and different word, perhaps? Succumbing to temptation, they violate the "one flesh"-ness of the body of Christ to which they've been conformed.
Lectionary Readings:
2 Samuel 11:26—12:10, 13–15
Psalm 32
Galatians 2:15–21
Luke 7:36—8:3

Life Out of Death

2010-06-06 02 Pentecost C
In the forgiveness of our sins Jesus Christ gives up his life and goes down to death so that we might have life brought out of our death in sin.
Lectionary Readings:
1 Kings 17:17–24
or 1 Kings 17:8–16 [17–24]
Psalm 30
or Psalm 146
Galatians 1:11–24
Luke 7:11–17

Boundaries by Choice: God's not Ours

2010-05-30 Holy Trinity Sunday C,
In the Anthanasian Creed we confess that God chooses us and puts limits on our idolatry, even our idolatry of the self and its works.
Lectionary Readings:
Proverbs 8:1–4, 22–31
Psalm 8
Romans 5:1–5
John 16:12–15

God's "Big Bird" Plan for Our Salvation

2010-05-23 Pentecost C
The Holy Spirit is one big bird plopped down on the entire earth yet anonymous--always pointing away from itself and saying, "Here's Jesus!"
Acts 2:1–21
or Genesis 11:1–9
Psalm 104:24–34, 35b

Glory, Unity, and Love

2010-05-16 07 Easter C
Jesus prays to the Father in the presence of the disciples so that they may know the Father answers prayer by granting a glory unrecognizable to the world, establishing a unity unachievable by effort, and giving a love so costly, it's deadly.
Lectionary Readings:
Acts 16:16–34
Psalm 97
Revelation 22:12–14, 16–17, 20–21
John 17:20–26

How's that "Love" Thing Working Out?

2010-05-09 06 Easter C
Not one of us sinners can love on command. In three and a half millenia since the establishment of the law, love has only been achieved by one person: Jesus Christ who establishes his peace in the midst of our striving.
Lectionary Readings:
Acts 16:9–15
Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10, 22—22:5
John 14:23–29

Life in Two Kingdoms

2010-05-02 05 Easter C

We are all immigrants receiving life--life in both the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of the next--receiving life as a gift. Yet one life obligates and demands of us that we prove who we are or lose it and to hide our sins while the other is always sheer gift with no demands for proof, no threats of loss, and no sin to hide.

Lectionary Readings:

Acts 11:1--18

Psalm 148

Revelation 21:1--6

John 13:31--35

Pretension Busters:

Achievement

www.despair.com

Arrogance cannot be avoided or true hope be present

unless the judgment of condemnation is feared in every work

--Martin Luther

(Heidelberg Disputation, Thesis 11)

Solomon ordered a temple to be built to honor the Lord, as well as a royal palace for himself. Solomon had 70,000 common laborers and 80,000 stonecutters in the hills, in addition to 3,600 supervisors.

2 Chronicles 2:1-2

Hank Lanknecht from Trinity Seminary once said in a sermon based on the apocryphal Daniel and the priests of Baal that "we give to God the things we most want to enjoy ourselves." Solomon satisfied his vision and his determination to "enjoy" honoring the Lord with the Temple by using the same tactics the Egyptians had used many generations before: conscription of those different--"put the aliens to work!" Furthermore, these "aliens" were the very ones Joshua had been ordered by the Lord to eradicate. Their existence was an ongoing reminder of the peoples' failure of obedience. Perhaps there is something sadly ironic that the very ones whom the Lord had ordered exterminated should be the ones building the temple to honor their would be exterminator. But my sense of irony is most aroused when I consider the warning the Lord gave to Solomon concerning his building of the Temple: the Lord's presence was contingent upon Solomon's obedience and lack of idolatry. (1 Kings 6:11-13) How Solomon could hear that warning and still go ahead and complete the Temple with labor whose very presence represented disobedience has to be one of the most ironic stories in scripture.

Christians have often become a source of "expendable labor"--or at least, expendable income--to those determined to 'give to God the things they most want to enjoy themselves.' The "Babel Syndrome" runs deep in all of us, I guess. Though the confusion of language may have been the end of the Babel culture, the Syndrome will only be eradicated when the Old Adam, the Old Eve, and this old, old creation pass away. Until then, we'll continue to be "expendable labor and income" to those with shiny visions and great determination to honor themselves in the guise of giving to the Lord.

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery.

(Galatians 5:1)

Pretension Busters

Accomplishment

www.despair.com

Arrogance cannot be avoided or true hope be present

unless the judgment of condemnation is feared in every work

--Martin Luther

(Heidelberg Disputation, Thesis 11)

"So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."

(Isaiah 55:11)

When it comes to having a "special effects" budget, God should have an unlimited--even infinite--repository upon which to draw. The sinner in us--the old Adam and the old Eve--knows this and covets God's special effects. The simple miracle of Faith In Christ insufficiently impresses this covetous desire. For, after all, what's so impressive about a washed-up, itinerant rabbi dying on a cross? Now, if he had come down from there and saved himself, that would have been an "accomplishment" worthy of his claim to be the Son of God!

Instead, God's special effects are hidden within the realm of nature, easily (or sometimes not) explainable by the laws of nature and easily dismissed by sinners covetous of the spectacular. God wraps his purpose in the plainness of his Word delivered by all too ordinary human means: a failed messiah-figure, a common preacher, an old, musty book. These too are easily dismissed by the old Adam and the old Eve. In their place the old sinner in us inserts the special effects of its own enthusiasm which--as long as its "budget" lasts--shows forth the accomplishment, not of Faith in Christ, but of faith in self.

Yet, when the Holy Spirit goes to work as God's Word gets delivered by those ordinary human means, God's purpose gets accomplished and prospers in the salvation of the world. By these simple means--Word and Sacrament--the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies and keeps those who hear in the one true faith--that is, in Jesus Christ our Lord.

No fooling!

Ephesians 3:8-12

To me – less than the least of all the saints – this grace was given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and to enlighten everyone about God’s secret plan – a secret that has been hidden for ages in God who has created all things. The purpose of this enlightenment is that through the church the multifaceted wisdom of God should now be disclosed to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realms. This was according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access to God because of Christ’s faithfulness.

Tell Us Plainly

2010-04-25 04 Easter C

Encountering the plain God, naked and not clothed in Christ Jesus, is as dramatic as discovering the hands of the herdsman can also be the hands of the butcher.

Lectionary Readings:

Acts 9:36--43

Psalm 23

Revelation 7:9--17

John 10:22--30

Robust Authority, Not Literal Tyranny

2010-04-11 Delivered to the Lutheran Free Conference at the Missouri/Yellowstone Confluence Center on April 11, 2010.

We had six presenters and five Lutheran denominations AND A LARGE CROWD!

We were pleasantly shocked by the standing room only gathering. I guess Lutherans are indeed concerned

about the authority of God's Word.

It's a New Day

2010-04-11 02 Easter C

On the Day of the Resurrection Jesus greets fearful disciples, gives gifts to them, welcoming them to a New Day--the 8th Day of Creation--Life in the kingdom of God.

John 20:19-31

Remember When

2010-04-04 The Resurrection of Our Lord C

Preached on the Sunday of Resurrection for Our Lord 2010; proclaiming that the living Lord is present where he has promised to be found--at the pulpit, the font, and the altar--where his command "Remember!" is fulfilled.

Tell Me Your Secret

2010-04-03

The funeral sermon for Ada Murie who, at age 93, had been the keeper of the community's memory and memorabilia for 75 years or so. No one will know how many quilts she made but she usually had four going at the same time: blocking, stitching, tying, and hemming. Thanks be to God for the life of this woman!

The Day the Mighty Maker Died

2010-04-02 Good Friday C
When Jesus gave up his spirit, the Word of God fell silent. Without the one through whom all things were created and in whom all things hold together, creation itself began to be overrun by chaos. Jesus went to his grave not just concerned for his own resurrection but risking the dissolution of the entire creation which had been made through him. I'd say it was a close run thing.

The "New" Commandment

2010-04-01 Maundy Thursday C

What's "new" in the new commandment Jesus gives? It's the "as I have loved you." How did Jesus love? Watch and hear.

Jesus Died for You

2010-03-28 Palm/Passion Sunday C, part 1 What you will hear today is a sermon written by Gerhardt Forde—a preacher, and a professor of systematic theology at Luther Seminary—a favorite professor of mine who understood the radical nature of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Presenting this sermon continues in the tradition established by Luther in which preachers accomplished in theology circulated sermons called "postiles" for less accomplished parish pastors to use. This was published in 2004 and contained in the "The More Radical Gospel." Transcribed from A More Radical Gospel: Essays on Eschatology, Authority, Atonement, and Ecumenism by Gerhard O. Forde; edited by Mark C. Mattes and Steven D. Paulson 2004 Lutheran Quarterly Books Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 255 Jefferson Ave. S. E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503

The Space between "From" and "To"

Arthur A. "Art" Link was committed to the ground from which he came on June 6th, 2010 in the Alexander Cemetery. The landscape was lush from the rain; the sun warmed us gently; and friends and family supported one another. The Word of God from Genesis 3 was declared: "You are dust and to dust you shall return." Into that little space between "from" and "to" God sows the the seed of his Word--Jesus Christ.