Christ’s Promising Word

February 22, 2009
Transfiguration of our Lord
Seeing the Light
2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Paul Was “in the Dark”

Today we see the Transfiguration of Jesus through the eyes and ears of a man who wasn’t there originally.

Saint Paul wasn’t there where Peter, James and John first saw Jesus transfigured in all his glory. It didn’t happen to the Apostle Paul until he had a face-to-face with the Risen Lord three or four years after Christ’s death and resurrection.

But it changed Paul. It changed and it transfigured him, even more than it did those first three disciples.

Looking back at his former life as a “religious nut,” a Pharisee, Paul would say that his eyes were totally blind and that he was “in the dark.” And so is anybody else that looks for God “in the wrong place.”

He was looking for God in the Ten Commandments, in the laws of Moses and the Prophets. “Moses and Elijah” would be another way of putting it.

Blinded by the “god” of this World

But Paul later saw that that was nothing more than a bit of “self-promotion.” It put him on a little pedestal—high above all others.

It made him “religiously” superior. For in the laws of Moses, he thought he saw so clearly—God’s way for “right living.”

But, looking back years later, he saw he was “blinded.” Blinded by the “god of this world.”

Little “g” god. Did you notice that in the worship folder as I read the Gospel lesson? That it was a little “g” god. Not the big “G” God.

And all too often that “little god of this world” is ourselves. We make a “god” of our own self. And we “proclaim” and we “promote” ourselves. Good PR for us…for our person and agendas.

We want “our” way. We want the “glory way.” We do not want the cross. We do not want the cross way. We want the glory. We do not want the cross. It is too weak & wimpy.

Those Cut Off from the Cross of Christ are Perishing

But those who cut themselves off from the cross of Christ are perishing. That is the point that Paul would like to make.

If you cut yourself off from the cross of Christ, then you are cutting yourself off from the way that God really works in this world of ours. And so, you are cutting yourself off from God’s Light and Life.

And it’s like a veil or a piece of cloth being draped over a plant. You leave it there long enough and that plant with whither and die. But, take that cloth off. And let that “plant” bask in the full sunshine of God & that plant will grow and thrive.

Confronted by the Risen Christ

That’s what Paul came to see in his own personal one-on-one encounter with Jesus Christ. For all of us there is a moment when we come to see Jesus face-to-face.

For every one of us, there is a moment in our lives when it is just me and Jesus. It’s me, Jesus and a cross and resurrection. We are confronted with the Lord. Christ our Lord and God, big “G” now, crucified and raised.

For Paul it happened as he traveled from Jerusalem to Damascus to arrest some Christians. To us it happens whenever we hear the Gospel word. But, it happens.

We are confronted with the Risen Lord, the glorified Lord. The one who died and rose for us. And it is just Jesus and us. Face-to-face.

And Jesus looks us in the eyes and says to us, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” And Jesus knocks us off our “high horse.” And Jesus throws us to the ground. But, then he lifts us up. And invites us to call him “Lord.” “God,” with the big “G.”

“I am Rescuing You”

And he turns our life around 180°. And he sends us out to serve others. “I am rescuing you,” Jesus says to Saul who now becomes Paul. “I am rescuing you.”

“And I am sending you to others to open their eyes…so that they may turn from darkness to light…and from the power of Satan to the power of God…and so that they may receive the forgiveness of sins…and have a place, among my people of the Light.

And suddenly, we see what God is up to in Jesus Christ. God is ruling the world through the cross. God is not lording it over us, like the self-promoters do.

God is not blasting us with righteous indignation. God is not coming with the handcuffs to arrest us and imprison us for usurping God’s role and neglecting our duties.

We See the Light

We look at Jesus and his cross. And a veil is lifted. And we see “the Light.”

That is Jesus on the cross “for me.” That is my sins that he is dying for. That is God’s mercy to me. I am the one who was persecuting him through my self-promoting ways.

But he died and rose again to knock me down from my “high horse” and to lift me again to his own purpose for my life.

The same power that God used to create the heavens and the earth when God first said, “Let there be light.” And the same power that God used to free Israel from its dark exile, when God said, “Rise, shine for your light has come.”

That is the very same creative and life-giving power that God gives to us to go out and to be “a light to the nations” so that we might shine the Light of Christ into the hearts of others.

God’s Servant People

If Jesus is the “Lord,” the “God of this world” (God with a big “G” not a little one) then that position is taken. And there is only one job left for us. And that is to be God’s servant-people.

We give up our PR, our self-promotion. No longer do we proclaim ourselves. Rather, we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as servants to others for Jesus sake.

And is good. That is so very good. For not only is Jesus much better at being God than we are, but he is also gentler and much kinder. And so are we, we are gentler and we are kinder when we see the Light, and reach out in love to those who are our neighbors.

Through our mission and our ministry to the world we become the face of Jesus, the image of God, so that others may also have their own personal encounter with the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, face-to-face.

For in the end, Jesus is the image of God. Jesus is what God is up to in this world of ours. Jesus is the way. He is the Light.

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster

February 15, 2009
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
Self Control
1 Corinthians 9:24-27

The Discipline of Athletes

One feature I enjoy in sports coverage, especially at the time of the Olympics, is the background stories on the athletes—the inside look at how they got to where they are today.

And what always amazes me is their discipline. Their discipline in diet, in exercise, in practice and in rest. They reach their goal through discipline. Iron-willed self-control.

Jimmy Connors, a tennis player (my childhood hero), once said he practiced certain shots hundreds of time even though he would use them no more than once or twice in any match. Each shot was that important. Jimmy played to win.

Run! Obtain the Prize!

This matter about self-control, self-discipline, is raised for us this morning by the Apostle Paul in a little pep talk he gives to the Corinthians at the end of chapter 9. “Run!” he tells us, “Run!! Obtain the prize!”

But, let us be a little thoughtful before we jump to quick conclusions.

This is not a command to go out and “Jog for Jesus.” Nor, is it the “great commission” that many think they have to follow sports religiously, especially on the Sabbath Day.

This is not an excuse to play hooky on Sunday morning because we’re out doing a sport, like playing golf. Basketball and bowling are not the kind of activities Paul has in mind when he tell the church to run. Paul is talking about the Christian life.

We Beat Ourselves

“Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.” Listen to athletes after a loss and you will usually hear a similar refrain: “We beat ourselves,” they will say. I heard some of the Arizona Cardinals say that right after the Super Bowl. “We beat ourselves.”

And much the same happens on the playing field of faith. There is a sinful self who is opposed to Christ. The “flesh,” Saint Paul called it. Our sinful “flesh.” And we all know its weakness.

Christ has died to offer us the free gift of his forgiveness. And yet, the “flesh” would like to seize that gift and make it something it merits and deserves, a chunk of its entitlement.

Christ fought with sin and death to win a Resurrection victory. But, the “flesh” only blames God for its losses, while thinking that it fights all by itself in the center ring.

Christ coaches us in faithful service. Drills us in a life of praise. While the “flesh” rebels against this kind of exercise.

Christ has made brothers and sisters out of our neighbors. But the “flesh” can only make of them competitors and is out to score points against them at their expense.

Start as Christ’s Disciple

That is why for anyone to be disciplined, they must start first as Christ’s disciple. Jesus has freed us from our sinful “flesh.” We may always beat ourselves, but the victory is won by Christ.

And through his ministry he identifies with all the losers of the world, us folk who are our own worst enemy, and then he offers up his life, so that we might walk away winners, the winners of his grace.

We are free from everything that makes us opposed to God. Our selfish will and self-determination. Our urge for empire…to conquer and destroy. Our desire to be number one. Our want for name and fame.

Christ has freed us from our self-defeating self. We are his disciples now. And our training is for Life, God’s own eternal life. That is our goal. And disciples are always disciplined.

Disciples are Disciplined

Just look at any athlete. They possess a whole host of freedoms that they never use. A pro football player can run in any direction that he chooses. Yet, a running back’s concern is only with the yards, the feet, the inches that take him to the goal.

A boxer is free to swing his fists and beat the air, but he conserves his energy to make contact with the punch that counts.

A race car driver is free to ride the outside track. But if you ever asked him, he only wants the lead position on that narrow path that’s called “the groove.”

And that is true of the Christian life as well. The conduct which best trains for eternal life is that behavior which does not roam all over the field, but presses forward on the most efficient track of what is beneficial, the narrow path, the “groove.”

Christians are free to do almost anything. But it doesn’t count much unless they are headed towards the goal.

A Steady Diet of Word & Sacrament

For example, we Lutherans have great freedom in attending worship. We do not have days of obligation like the Catholics do. And yet, just because we have this freedom, doesn’t mean that any use of it is beneficial.

No athlete would ever start the day without a solid breakfast. And no Christian can expect to exercise faith on an empty spirit. And I can tell in time of crisis, who has had a steady diet of Word & Sacrament and who has been coasting on an empty stomach.

A champion weight-lifter once described his breakfast as 4 eggs, 2 steaks, 6 pancakes, 2 slices of toast, milk & orange juice. How can we expect to bear a heavy-weight burden on a diet of Word & Sacrament that’s anything less than that?

And supplement that diet now with a discipline like prayer and bible study. We are not Muslims who require specific prayers five times a day, but what a difference it can make when we get down into that “groove” of frequent prayer and bible readings.

And we are not Jews for whom tithing, financial giving, is not an option, but a requirement. For a Jew, tithing is a “mitzvah.” A command. A requirement…from God himself. It is not optional. And the community can hold him or her accountable.

But what a beneficial blessing it is for us and others, when we discipline our spending and our debt load. And we get those dollars where they can work in Christian ministry.

Which is exactly what I am seeing here in this congregation, by the way. Despite tough economic times, you folks are funding the ministry of Jesus that you see to be so critical and vital. And what a blessing that is, when disciples, like you, have that kind of self-control and discipline!

No Greater Prize

We could go on and on. The point is this. We are in training for Life. Jesus has given us a great and precious freedom. The freedom to be shaped as Christ’s disciple. And there is no greater prize than that.

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster

February 8, 2009
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
All Things to All People
1 Corinthains 9:16-23

Our A New Baby

Last Sunday it was my great joy to join the people of Rejoice! Lutheran Church for the dedication of their new church building. Everybody there had a happy face on.

Rejoice! is the new mission start of ours (the Northeastern Ohio Synod) in Hudson, Ohio. And I wish I could have bottled up and brought home to you their energy and spirit.

After ten years of struggle, two pastors and three moves to three different temporary quarters, they are finally in their own building. And was just like the excitement that young parents have after the birth of a child

Yes, the labor was long and hard. Yes, there were aches and pains and frustrations along the way. But who cares?

The baby is here now. And all those aches and pains go away and it is worth it. Boy, is it worth it! You can tell by all the beaming smiles on the faces.

We are a Church for Others

And one common “mantra” they kept saying along the way was “We are a church for others because without others we would not be here.”

Twenty-six different congregations of the NEOS partnered up with them to give birth to this new baby. Support from the synod at large. In other words, our mission dollars. The Mission Investment Fund of which we are a part. Mission Builders—retired folk who travel up from the south and west over the summer to do much of the framing and carpentry work.

“We are a church for others because without others we would not be here.” That is true. That is literally true.

And so, for the offering last Sunday (the offering for their dedication), they took it not for themselves, but for Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church which is the new mission start (our latest one) in North Ridgeville.

And every third Sunday of the month, they take their loose plate offering and give it away to some designated benevolence on top of their ELCA Mission Support…because they are a church for others for without others they would not exist. They know it. They know it. They know in their bones.

And it hit me as I was sitting there: this is exactly the way our founders must have felt back in 1929 when they established this church and in 1931 when finally this building was dedicated. They must have had that same kind of passion and vision for mission and for ministry and for outreach.

And Harold Sayles, the first pastor, must have stood up here (well, actually over there) and said, “We are a church for others because without others we would not exist.”

Paul’s Mission Method

We are in chapter 9 of Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians this day where he lays out his “mission method.” And what he says is that he is always in tune…he is attentive…to the other person.

He doesn’t impose his own personal preferences and traditions and lifestyle on them. Rather he pays attention to them and he becomes like they are.

“To the Jews,” he said, “I became as a Jew.” And to the god-fearers (that is, to non-Jews who were attracted to Judaism) he became like those god-fearers. And to the gentiles, he became like the gentiles.

And the reason that he did it was “for the sake of the gospel” so that he might win some. “I have become all things to all people,” he says. “I have become all things to all people, so that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share with others in its blessings.”

And there you have it from the Apostle Paul himself: “We are a church for others because without others we would not exist.” Especially that one “other,” that one special “other,” Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Jesus Gives Birth to Us for the Sake of Others

It is so simple. We are the body of Christ. Without Jesus we would not exist. Jesus is the one who gave “birth” to us through the hard labor of his death and resurrection.

And he did it, not so that we might be a baby wrapped up in ourselves, but rather so that we may share his blessing with the various communities and the different kinds of people immediately around us to the ends of the earth.

And so like the Apostle Paul we are entrusted with this charge. We are given this commission. We have no choice but to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. And to do so as powerfully…and as spiritedly…and as winsomely…and persuasively as we can.

Revisioning For the Sake of the Gospel

In two more weeks our Strategic Planning Ministry will be leading an Adult Retreat. And the question before us is: How can we best be a church, not for ourselves, but rather a church “for others?”

How can we recapture the vision and the passion that our own founders once had—those folks in 1929?

How can we be more like Jesus and more like Paul who went and become like others—and who did not impose on gentiles the “ethnic” traditions of their backgrounds—but who rather  created a whole “new thing,” a whole “new baby?”

What are the barriers that must come down? What reluctance and resistances do we have in welcoming other people in who are different from us? What can we do to open our doors, not just so that folks can come in to us, but also, so that we can go out to meet them where they are, like Jesus did?

This is the kind of re-visioning that people in every congregation must do every three to five years or so, if they are to remain a living and vital congregation. And it is time for us to do it again. We invite you to be a part of this process.

And the reason that we do it is because of what Christ has done to us. “We are a church for others because without that One Other, Jesus Christ, we would not exist.”

We do it for the sake of the gospel, so that we may share with others in its blessings.

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster

February 1, 2009
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Love Builds Up
1 Corinthians 8:1-8

Big Heads Still Around

Meat offered to idols is hardly a “hot-button” issue in churches anymore these days. I’ve never been at a church meeting where the #1 issue was “meat offered to idols.”

But I have been to meetings where there are “big heads” and “hot heads.” People who think “they-know-it-all.” And I have been at church meetings where a “strong” majority has been insensitive to a “weak” minority. That  I have seen.

We are still at the church of Corinth on the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany of our Lord. And one of the “hot-button” issues at Corinth was “meat offered to idols.”

There was a certain segment in the congregation, the “strong” Saint Paul calls them (who were probably richer and better educated than most of the others), who correctly thought that eating meat offered to idols would not hurt them.

They took Jesus at his word that it was not what went “into” their mouth that defiled a person, but rather what came out. It wasn’t what they ate that made them good or bad. Idols were not real “gods” who could hurt or harm you.

And so they wanted to use their advanced spiritual learning and their “freedom in the Gospel” to go to social gatherings at Greek temples to celebrate birthdays, healings, weddings and the like—where it would have been a terrible insult to refuse the food and meat offered by one’s host.

But there were others in the congregation (poorer, less educated folk) who were “offended” and “confused” by this practice. For didn’t their new baptismal life in Christ call them to give up their pagan ways? Weren’t they supposed to stay away from idols? And so, someone in Corinth wrote to Paul to mediate this issue.

Knowledge Puffs Up, But Love Builds Up

And his answer might surprise you. “Yes,” Paul says, “Yes, everybody knows that idols are nothing. The ‘strong’ are right. Eating food offered to idols will not defile you. I agree with you 100%.

BUT…you still shouldn’t do it if that becomes a stumbling stone to your poorer, weaker, less-educated brothers and sisters because it might cause them to fall back into their non-Christian ways.

And not only would that be a “sin against the whole community.” A breakdown of the church. But it would be a “sin against Christ.” “My God,” he says, “Christ died for them. And you can’t even change your diet? I would give up meat entirely. I would go vegan, if that is what it takes to keep my brother or sister from falling.”

“You may know a lot,” Paul says, “about food and gods and idols. But, hey pal, you don’t know nothing about love. Knowledge puffs up. Knowledge makes you proud…and arrogant…and rude. But love builds up.”

We Exist for Jesus

And there you have it. Paul’s ethics in a nutshell. We do not belong to ourselves. We come from God and we go to God. We exist for Jesus, our God and Lord. We do not exist for our own purposes.

And so, it is not about “me, me, me.” It is not about what “I” want, what “I” like, what “I” prefer. It is about what “builds up” the body of Christ in “love” for the sake of the world.

In order to draw a pagan world away from its deadly idolatry and towards the Christ, who is the only Lord and God there really is. “Though whom all things are. And through whom we exist.” Not only as the original creation, but also a new creation.

Listen to “Weak” Voices

On February 21 our Strategic Planning Ministry will be holding a Retreat to invite your participation in mapping out our future. And I urge you to go. We want you to reflect on our situation and add your voice to the shaping of our future.

But I also urge you to listen to other two voices that will “not present.” To listen to the voices of our “youth” and of the “community around us.”

As part of our ReVision survey, we surveyed our youth. And we surveyed the community, the context, into which God has placed us and planted us for the sake of his Gospel.

And our kids (our youth) are telling us that there is a strong, adult majority (I am guilty, I am part of it, too)that dominate life in this congregation and they would like some “space,” too.

We Want a Place in the Church, too

They want space “physically.” A room, a place to call their own. A place they can paint and decorate. Their eyes are on the stage.

And they want space in our “worship.” They want to hear the Gospel in their words, in their movements , in their motions, in their music. They do not want to remove the traditional. They like traditional. But they want to add to the traditional a stamp that is their own.

And they want a space in “acts of service.” They want to do service projects. They like doing things. They like helping others. They want mentors, organizers and guides who can help them do what they are eager and longing to do.

And come to the Adult Retreat. And tell me what you think. I almost hear the community around us saying some of the same things our youth are telling us.

And if we are to grow as wise, spiritual Christians, if we are to grow as a congregation, we must listen not only to those who are here, but also to those whom we wish were here.

If we want our youth to remain connected, we need to listen to them, even though they may only have a “weak” voice currently in congregational decision.

And if we want to draw to Jesus more of the unchurched around us, we need to listen to their voices, too, through every means at our disposal.

Christ Died for Them and You can’t even…

Otherwise, that Paul said to Corinth gets aimed at us, too: “Christ died for them. Christ died for our youth. Christ died for the community. And you can’t even create a space in worship or move some furniture around?”

It is not about us. We come from God and we go to God. It is about reflecting the love that God has shown to us.

And where there is love, there is always growth and hope, and not a knocking down of others, but a building up.

For love always builds. Knowledge puffs up. Knowledge makes us proud and arrogant and rude. But love does just the opposite. Love builds up.

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster