Meeting the Risen Christ, Easter 4A, April 30, 2023

Somehow, the disciple Thomas follows me wherever I go. Emmanuel, Spirit of Joy and for this sermon, Pilgrim. I was supposed to preach my final Ministry In Context field placement sermon at Pilgrim Lutheran Church and School in Chicago on Good Shepherd Sunday, Easter 4A. But since a guest preacher wanted that text the Sunday after Easter, we flipped and picked up Thomas on Easter 4.

Slide 1 (Title slide)

What DO you believe in?

What do you believe in so completely that it would be difficult if not impossible to shake it? What events, principles and institutions do you trust so thoroughly that you would stake your life on them?

After the past few years, I think that list has dwindled for many of us. We’ve struggled to keep our faith in things we once considered trustworthy beyond question:

• After nearly 7 million people died from Covid-19, many of us no longer trust institutions like the Centers for Disease Control, or even trust our neighbors to do what is necessary to keep us safe during a deadly pandemic.
• After so many mass shootings in this country, with no end in sight, we don’t trust that our elected officials are acting in our best interests.
• With most scientific minds in agreement that we’re going to need to change the way we behave to have a livable planet, we don’t trust that our children and grandchildren will have the same opportunities and a better life than we had.
• With our media pandering to the left and to the right, we don’t trust that our news reports represent the truth.

That’s my short list. I imagine you have a list like this, too.

So I ask again, what DO you believe in?

Today’s gospel asks us to ponder that question. We find ourselves with Jesus’ closest followers: on Easter night, most of them were gathered in Jerusalem. It is three days after Jesus, their teacher was crucified. A few women said they saw Jesus early this morning, and he said he was going on to meet the disciples in Galilee; Peter had gone into the tomb and he reports seeing the discarded grave cloths. Cleopas and another follower just ran back all the way from Emmaus where they believe they met Jesus in the breaking of the bread.

Mind you, these are folks who are still on edge – their fears are very real. It the Romans could crucify Jesus for riling up the city, what will they do if these disciples start spreading the news that this Jesus rose from the dead? No doubt, their conversations center on what they believe, and what will they do with their beliefs.

Slide 2

Suddenly, Jesus is standing there with them.

This group of disciples saw the risen Christ – saw him, heard him, felt his presence among them. They had no doubt Christ had risen, risen as he said he would. What a celebration that must have been!

Somehow, though, Thomas missed out. Our text doesn’t tell us where Thomas was, just that he wasn’t with the other 10. If we remember our last words with Thomas, he was the one that convinced the disciples to leave the Jordan for Bethany and Jerusalem, even if it meant dying with Jesus. So, some people have suggested Thomas was out looking for his Lord. Just the kinda guy Thomas was. Whatever the explanation for his absence, Thomas missed it. The Celebration. The Rejoicing. The Big Reveal.

So, I think Thomas gets a terribly bad rap from gospel writer John, who tells us that Thomas insisted on seeing Jesus’ wounds before he would believe. That and Jesus’ response have given Thomas a dreadful nickname through the church’s history: Doubting Thomas. Completely unwarranted in my book. Wouldn’t you want to know for sure if you were among the disciples? The others saw Jesus, touched his wounds. Why would we expect anything different from Thomas?

Slide 3

So, a week later, Thomas is with them. And Jesus joins them again. And you hear something from Thomas that is missing from the week before – a testimony: Thomas recognizes Jesus, sees his wounds and exclaims: “My Lord and My God!” No holding back. No uncertainty. No doubts. A declaration of faith in five words: “My Lord and My God.” No one else had that kind of immediate, profound response. So I’ve always preferred to call Thomas “Faithful Thomas.” “Believing Thomas.” “Trusting Thomas.”

So where does that leave us, nearly two millennia after the Resurrection? The ones who saw the empty tomb and the Risen Savior have been long gone since the early second century. We can’t talk to anyone who knew Jesus, much less reach out and touch Jesus’ hands and feet and side. Twenty generations have passed between us and those who saw the resurrected Jesus.

Perhaps it was not Thomas, but disciples like us that Jesus was addressing when he said “Blessed are those who have not seen but yet have come to believe.”

Blessed are we, who come together, week after week, to worship the Risen Christ that we confess, though we have never seen him…

…Or have we? Have we never seen Jesus?

Perhaps none of us were there that night, but, for one, I know I’ve seen Jesus. I’ve had the privilege of serving the past eight months at Pilgrim, working alongside you, sharing conversations and building relationships. And while I’ve been here, I’ve seen Jesus. I have. I’d like to tell you where that’s happened:  

• I’ve seen Jesus in people who week after week gather to prepare hot meals for people who are hungry, not only for food, but also for a kind word, a place to belong. I know I’ve seen Jesus at Hot Meals.
• I’ve seen Jesus in people who care deeply about worship – people who practice and lead music, who bake bread and prepare communion. I’ve seen Jesus in our young people who faithfully show up to carry the cross and serve as acolytes. I’ve seen Jesus in multimedia technicians who work behind the scenes to carry our worship to those who cannot get to this place. I’ve seen Jesus in our worship.
•  I’ve seen Jesus in people who make sure people who have mobility challenges get to worship and are taken Holy Communion in their homes and hospital beds. I’ve seen Jesus in the way that you care for the least, the longing, the lonely. I’ve seen Jesus among the Care Team. 
• I’ve seen Jesus in our staff: in our pastor who is sometimes sending emails after midnight and with his family have opened their home to people, teaching hospitality without preaching a word. I see Jesus in the diligence of each of our staff: the mix of seriousness and joy in their work. I see Jesus in two interim school administrators who stepped up when they were needed, and in every teacher who puts in a full day here, then goes home and grades papers and creates projects and participates in fund-raising and service projects. Pilgrim staff – I’ve seen Jesus in you.

I could do this all day but indulge me just one more sighting: I’ve seen Jesus on Zoom. Yes, Jesus on Zoom! I’ve seen Jesus in a group who assembles every single Saturday morning to pray for the ministries of this congregation, for our kids, Pilgrim School, people who are sick or in need, for the needs of the community, the nation and the world. I have never experienced anything like it, and if you’ve never logged on, you should make time some Saturday morning at 8:30. Prayer team – I’ve seen Jesus in you.

I suspect that there have been a few Jesus sightings among you as well. Places where the Risen Christ is present for you. Here, in the body of Christ, gathered to worship, to serve, to build relationships. We occasionally hear “Jesus sightings” in Mission Moments and Testimonies. Perhaps “Jesus sightings” need to be a regular part of our life together as Easter People.

That’s because I am convinced that the way that our Christian faith is sustained in this age, this time in which our faith in so many other things is shaken, is through our relationships with others. Other Christ-followers who have seen the risen Christ. And those who need to hear about those Jesus sightings to grow and sustain their faith. We feed each other every time we gather, at the Lord’s table and around the fellowship table. At our Bible studies and at choir practice. At church council and at the quilting group. This is why we can’t do our Christian faith alone To become Jesus’ disciples, we need one another.

Slide 4

Pastor Kyle Childress explained it this way: 

"Sometimes we have to keep at it in order to get it. We keep talking, keep showing up in worship, keep praying, keep singing hymns, keep forgiving and receiving forgiveness, keep feeding the hungry and giving a cup of cool water in his name, keep practicing the Way of Jesus and we too will see the Risen Jesus. By our continuing dialogue with Jesus, we are trained and taught by him in how to see him. It is as if the scales slowly fall from our eyes, and one day we look up and we recognize the Risen Christ in ways and places we never had before. He was in front of our noses the whole time. "

Final Slide (Title Slide Again)

Pilgrim, my time with you is growing short. So just a few more thoughts for you:

Keep loving each other and loving the world. Keep worshiping together and welcoming everyone, including those the world struggles to include. Keep doing life together, even when it’s challenging. Keep forgiving one another, because we are all broken and in need of grace. And while we keep walking the Way of Jesus, day by day, moment by moment, look around. Look around and see the Risen Christ in this place, and in each other.

Amen.

Dirty Feet, Holy Week, Pilgrim Chapel, April 6, 2023

During my Ministry in Context Field Placement at Pilgrim Lutheran Church and School, I was fortunate to speak to the Pilgrim School students during Holy Week on the Maundy Thursday text about Jesus washing the disciples' feet.

Slide 1

Feet. Dirty Feet.

You would think that in chapel during Holy Week, there would be a different scripture than one that describes Jesus Washing Dirty Feet! Something that sounds a little more sacred. OK, something a little cleaner and prettier. There’s four whole gospels to pick from, and today, our scripture is about Washing Dirty Feet!??

Actually, we talk about dirty feet, not because of the washing, but because of the person who does the washing. Jesus.

Slide 2

Get ready to imagine with me for a minute. This is the night that Pastor talks about every week in worship, during communion. He says, “In the night in which Jesus was betrayed.” This is THAT night, Holy Thursday, the night before Good Friday. Jesus is having dinner with his 12 disciples, all by themselves. No servants. Jesus knows this will be the last time he can eat and talk with them before he is arrested, then put to death on a cross. That’s why we sometimes call it “The Last Supper.”

Now, 2,000 years ago, people usually wore robes and sandals. And the roads and sidewalks in Jerusalem weren’t all paved like they are in Chicago. By evening, people’s feet were sweaty and dirty. And so, before dinner, they would take off their sandals, and get their feet washed.

Usually, there was someone around to do this: maybe a servant or a kid. But tonight it was just them, Jesus and the disciples. All of them were sitting near the table. No one went to fill the basin. Because whatever disciple did it was doing a dirty job. The other disciples would think less of that disciple. So no one moved.

Imagine you were Jesus, watching and waiting for a disciple to do the right thing. He had been teaching them for three years that love meant humbling yourself and serving others. And his disciples STILL didn’t get it. In his first teaching, he said Blessed are the poor, and the merciful, and the meek. Those who aren’t powerful are the ones who are blessed. And he kept on saying it. Just a little while back, Jesus had to set John and James straight about wanting to be the star disciples, the ones that sat next to him in heaven. He told them the LAST would be FIRST. And here they are, their last night with Jesus, and still, nobody had understood Jesus’ lesson about serving. I’m pretty sure Jesus was disappointed in them.

Slide 3

And so on his last night with his disciples, Jesus, the teacher, taught them one last time what love was like. He got up, filled the basin, grabbed a towel, and washed 12 mens’ sweaty, stinky, dirty, dusty FEET.

Imagine now that you were one of the disciples. You didn’t want to get the basin because you didn’t want to admit you were the least important of the disciples. And now your teacher, Jesus, is washing your feet. Do you feel bad that you didn’t get up sooner and do the job? Peter must have. He stops Jesus -- “Lord, are you going to wash MY feet? …You will never wash my feet.”

Jesus tells him he must. And Peter goes overboard – “Then wash my hands and my head too!” What was Peter asking? When in church do we wash someone’s head? That’s right – Peter wanted Jesus to baptize him! And Jesus had to tell him no – that wasn’t what this was about. He then told the disciples – I’ve washed your feet, from now on, wash each other’s feet.

Slide 4

Today, we don’t wash people’s feet when they come to dinner. (But that would be funny, wouldn’t it?) Can you think of a dirty job that needs to be done, maybe around your house? Something that needs to be done, but nobody likes doing it, because it’s a dirty job: 

• Cleaning the toilet 
• Taking out the trash 
• Changing your baby brother or sister’s diaper 
• Washing dishes or loading the dishwasher 
• Mopping the floor
• Doing the laundry
• Cleaning the cat’s litter box
• Washing the dog when he goes out in the mud or rain?

Jesus said, “So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”

Slide 5

There are going to be dirty jobs to do in this world. Jesus was telling us that we aren’t supposed to consider ourselves as being too good – or sometimes we use the world “privileged” – we shouldn’t believe we’re too privileged to do the dirty work that needs to be done. We need to care for one another – our families, our classmates, our teachers, our neighbors – and do the dirty and hard jobs in this world, serving each other, to be the kind of people Jesus wants us to be. Loving and serving. That’s something we all can do.

And all God’s kids said: AMEN!

 

He Came By Night, Pilgrim, Lent 2A, March 5, 2023

This was my third sermon at my Ministry in Context Field Placement at Pilgrim Lutheran Church and School in my third year at LSTC.

Children's Sermon

Did you ever have a question about God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

· Where does God hang out?

· What was Jesus like as a little boy?

· Why do people talk about God as up there?

· Does God hear all our prayers?

· Will my dog or cat go to heaven?

· Why aren’t dinosaurs in the Bible?

· What will heaven be like?

· Did God write the Bible?

· Do you think grown-ups have questions too? Let’s find out…

In the Gospel today, we read a story about Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a pretty important guy. He was a Jewish leader, and a member of the council, called the Sanhedrin. He was the person people came to for answers. So he didn’t want people to know he had questions, so he went at night, when it was dark and no one was out and asked Jesus his questions.

So when you have questions about God and about your faith, it’s completely OK to ask them. You don’t have to be afraid to ask them, like Nicodemus. Because asking questions is the only way to learn, no matter if you are a kid or an adult.

Sermon

Title Slide

Let us pray,

Good and Gracious God, Help us live into the questions of our faith, trusting that while we can only know in part today, one day we will know you fully, just as we are fully known by you. Amen

“He came to Jesus by night.”

In his Gospel, John emphasizes the setting of this story of Nicodemus’ meeting with Jesus. As a Pharisee, and probably a member of the Jewish council known as the Sanhedrin, his appearance as an upstanding, faithful Jewish man would be beyond question. He would not want to be observed talking to the itinerant teacher who had just – at least in John’s version of events – caused a stir at a wedding in Cana then created chaos at the temple marketplace. But here he was, under the cover of nightfall, talking with Jesus of Nazareth.

I’ve always thought this story makes Nicodemus look a little foolish. Sneaking around, asking a couple of awkward questions, then disappearing into the night. Nicodemus shows up only in John’s gospel, where he manages three separate appearances.

Nicodemus is not celebrated as a saint in the Lutheran Church as he is in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. You won’t find Nicodemus on the Lutheran calendar of lesser festivals and commemorations. Some scholars and pastors believe that the story of Nicodemus never would have been included in the lectionary, the Bible passages we read in worship, except as a set-up to read John 3:16, which Martin Luther called “the Gospel in miniature”:

Slide

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

Certainly no verse in scripture has been learned by as many Christians – children and adults – as John 3:16. And no Bible verse has showed up as much in secular culture, from billboards to major sporting events. No matter your faith background or lack of it, we who live here in the United States are used to seeing John 3:16 signs on the news or while watching a playoff game.

But John 3:16 is far more than a trope. John 3:16 was a message of life and peace to a curious Jewish leader, and by extension, a message of life and peace to all of us.

Slide

Let’s examine this encounter a bit more closely. Nicodemus’ first statement to Jesus begins with a plural pronoun: “Rabbi, WE know that you are a teacher who has come from God…” Did Nicodemus come as the envoy for a group of Pharisees who were curious about this Jesus? Or was Nicodemus trying to ascribe more power to his questions by implying that he wasn’t acting alone? Jesus responds to Nicodemus individually, but his challenge is given in the plural you: “All y’all must be born again.”

As a Pharisee, Nicodemus certainly know about baptism. It had been used for centuries – although not universally – as a purification rite for Gentiles converting to Judaism, or for a ritually impure person to become clean again. So Nicodemus isn’t being sarcastic or disingenuous when he tells Jesus he can’t return to his mother’s womb. He’s trying to rule out what Jesus can’t be telling him: “Obviously, we can’t be physically born again, so that’s not what you’re saying. Be born again? How can I become a Jew when I’m already Jewish?” Jesus tells him, “No – not just immersion. Be born of water and the Spirit.”

By this point, Nicodemus must have been looking really puzzled, as Jesus describes how the Spirit moves. What had started as a curious question, a reassurance that Jesus was a prophet sent by God in whom Nicodemus could put his trust, Jesus had turned into a challenge: “All y’all must be born anew, born from above.”

By this time Nicodemus was really exasperated: “How can these things be?”

Jesus said the signs are there – Nicodemus and others merely need to open their eyes and minds. Short of taking them to heaven, he couldn’t make it clearer. Then he foreshadowed what was going to happen to him: “The Son must be lifted up,”

Slide

And then Jesus gives Nicodemus that well-known assurance: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” So much to unpack in one short verse:

· The whole world – in Greek, the Kosmos, so God loves all creation

· Jesus, God’s Son – the promise is fulfilled through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

· For everyone. This promise excludes no one.

· Eternal life. The promise that we will experience resurrection and everlasting life with God

· Believe. Since our faith is a gift from the Spirit, we just have to be open to believing.

The text doesn’t say that Nicodemus was baptized, or that he fell down on his knees before Jesus. The verses don’t even mention when he slipped back into the shadows. One can imagine that Nicodemus left, his head churning with new information, caught in the cognitive dissonance, the gap between what he thought he knew as a Pharisee and a Jewish leader, and who Jesus was claiming to be – God’s Son.

Slide

There are people in the Bible who have spectacular conversion moments. God appears to Abram, and he and Sarai take their family and their livestock and go, believing in God’s promise. Jesus calls Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and immediately, they leave their nets and follow. Christian persecutor Saul gets hit by a lightning bolt and becomes Paul, apostle to the Gentiles. Even Martin Luther had a “come to Jesus” moment in a storm and gave up his dad’s dream for him to become a lawyer and took his priestly vows. It’s not hard to find stories of people who had instant conversions.

Slide

Nicodemus, I would suggest, is the patron saint of the rest of us.

· Those of us who left the faith after confirmation and came back in a midlife crisis.

· Those of us who had questions and were never given the space to ask, or worse, were reprimanded for asking.

· Those of us who never grew up with Christian parents and came to faith through an invitation.

· Those of us who went to Christian schools and eventually rediscovered the joy of learning and growing in faith.

· Those of us who were hurt by a church leader.

· Those of us who felt unheard, unloved, or rejected.

· Those of us who felt a call to serve but didn’t say “Yes” immediately.

· Those of us who wonder, who wander, who stumble, who seek.

Slide

You see, Nicodemus doesn’t leave this encounter, never to be seen or heard from again. John uses Nicodemus as the model of people who caught a spark of this movement, let it kindle within them, and eventually followed this Jesus. A few chapters later, when the Pharisees and chief priests first consider imprisoning him, it is none other than Nicodemus who defends Jesus, telling his colleagues that Jesus deserves a fair trial at the very least.

And Nicodemus continues to grow in faith and curiosity. When Jesus finally does come to trial and is sentenced to death by crucifixion, Nicodemus doesn’t abandon him. Instead, according to John, it was Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea who take Jesus’ body from the cross and cover it with spices to give him a proper burial.

Slide

So the next time you see John 3:16 on a sign – on a billboard, a bumper sticker, painted on an overpass or wherever it shows up – remember the promise. For everyone. For you. Say it with me:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

Final Slide

And remember that Jesus came for everyone, the whole world, to all who believe, no matter what our backgrounds, no matter how many questions we have, and no matter how long it takes us to get from “How can that be?” to “I believe.

 

Living Ready, Pilgrim, Advent 1A, Nov 27, 2022

My second sermon at Pilgrim Lutheran Church and School during my Ministry in Context Field Placement in 2022-23 during my third year at LSTC.

Title Slide

Happy New Year! Today is truly the New Year, for the church, as we joyfully await and prepare annually to welcome Immanuel, God With Us, our God who became human in order to show us the way of Love and Life!

The next few weeks are designed to help prepare our hearts and minds through themes of hope, peace, joy, and love for Jesus’s coming. We who live in the middle of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection 2,000 years ago, and Jesus’ return in the soon but not yet, know that the season of Advent touches on both the incarnation and the Second Coming

Gospel of Matthew slide

First, let’s meet our writer for the majority of the gospel lessons over the next year. The gospel of Matthew is traditionally ascribed to the disciple Matthew, for a community of Jewish Christians, written about 35-40 years after Jesus’ resurrection. They lived in eager anticipation of the return of Christ and expected it to happen in their lifetimes. And with every year that passed, people became more confused, complacent, or downright cynical about the idea that Jesus was coming back at all.

So, Matthew’s gospel spoke to his generation and the generations to come about preparing for that moment, that hour, that day, that much-awaited event. There’s an emphasis on time, both Kronos (or clock time) and Kairos (which means God’s time). And that’s where the text has taken on a life of its own:

Matthew 24:40-44

Then two will be in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken, and one will be left. Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Those verses have been used by faith leaders and writers to create anxiety, dread, and fear – pretty much anything but Hope, Peace, Joy and Love!

Preaching about the Rapture, sermons about the End Times, the Left Behind series of fiction novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, and similar apocalyptic writings have created among some Christians a culture and attitude of fear, of not being good enough to spend eternity with God.

I am convinced that Matthew had no agenda with this text to create fearful, paralyzed disciples of Jesus who were terrified about their loved ones being whisked away mid-sentence and being left behind because they weren’t prepared. These Christians in the latter part of the first century had enough to be frightened about.

Siege of Jerusalem slide:

In the year 70, the Roman empire destroyed the temple and overran Jerusalem. These followers’ lives were hard enough, believing in Jesus the Christ when other Jewish people still awaited the Messiah’s coming. We know they had challenges. We read in Paul’s letters when he and others were starting churches, they were collecting money for the church in Jerusalem.

So, when Matthew recalled the words of Jesus to be prepared, he was using them to rally the followers of The Way into joyous hope! Keep awake! Be ready! Jesus is coming soon! Really! Keep the faith!!!

What do we, as Christians, do with these texts in 2022, when Jesus still hasn’t come? Are we any different than Matthew’s early Christians? Aren’t some of us a little confused, complacent or downright cynical about the idea that Jesus could show up any day?

Save the Date slide

I know people who belong to churches whose leaders keep making predictions about the day of Jesus’ return. Many of those dates have passed. So the leaders read some more, recalculate, and give their followers a new date that Jesus is surely coming back. Talk about FOMO: the Fear of Missing Out.

But how did the Gospel today end: Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Every morning when I was young, my mom stood watch at our kitchen window, looking south over County Highway K, waiting for a glimpse of red flashing lights a mile and a half up the road, telling us it was time to run down our long driveway in time to catch the school bus. But there are no flashing lights, no billboards, no true predictions to tell us Jesus is coming. Nowhere in the Bible does it say when it will be. We have to live ready.

So what does “living ready” look like? I can think of three things that mark people who are living ready.

Living Ready 1 slide

First, people who live ready believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

OK, this seems obvious, but it’s a very serious matter. We asked our three confirmands about their belief in Jesus Christ just three weeks ago. We asked Camryn’s parents and sponsors last weekend at her baptism. As part of our worship, we profess our faith through the Apostles’ Creed almost every week. Why? It is ultimately a statement of belief AND belonging. As Ben Sternke put it:

“To say ‘I believe…’ is not so much to confess individual confidence but to confess corporate belonging and participation in the Church of Jesus Christ, across time and space. The communion of saints throughout the world and throughout the ages who belong to Christ and participate in the life of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

To say “I believe” is an act of faith that we need to practice regularly among people of faith. It is a communal building up – to increase our faith while we increase the faith of others.

Living Ready 2 slide

Second, people who live ready live as “set-apart people.”

They live in the world, but not of this world. They act upon their faith in how they live every day, not just under this roof. They live generous, thoughtful, helpful lives, because of who they are. From the people who allow someone with three items and three small children to go ahead of them in the grocery line, to the couple who set aside their lives for months to assure Mike and I were packed and moved to Chicago, they are considerate in things small and great. They consider their lives a gift, every action a way to use that gift.

Right now, think of one person who has modeled for you that Christ-like generosity, thoughtfulness, and helpfulness. Someone who is living in this world, but living set apart. Now on the count of three, we are going to shout those names together, in a burst of gratitude. Ready? One, two, three! ……

Living Ready 3 slide

And, third, people who live ready want everyone with them.

When that unexpected day comes, I couldn’t help but be disappointed if the crowd was underwhelming. I picture an uncountable mass of all people from all times and places. People who live ready want a party, a banquet for everyone on that day. They can’t help but share the Good News of God’s love and God’s grace for all people.

Many of you have heard the story of the anthropologist studying an African community who set a basket of candy by a tree and offered the candy to the child who could get to it first. The children joined hands, ran together and shared the candy. One child explained it to the anthropologist: “Ubuntu. How can I be happy if all the others are sad?” Ubuntu: I am because we ALL are.

In what seemed to me a twist on that Ubuntu story, a good friend of mine wrote about Life as a headlong race toward Home: sometimes picking up others along the way, sometimes being carried yourself when you fall or falter. Knowing that we are going to make it, she said, by the grand-slam that is God’s grace. And learning how to absolutely, positively, no-matter-what trust in that. That has become my own vision of what our hope, God’s kindom, looks like. Not something I win, not a date that I need to calculate, not something for which I sit passively in the window and wait, but living ready, running toward Home, holding hands with others until we all reach Home.

That, Pilgrim, is our hope this Advent season. Living ready means not living in fear, but living every day filled with hope. Believing in Jesus as Lord and Savior, living grateful, thoughtful, and helpful lives, and bringing everyone home.

Final Slide

That is our hope this Advent season. As we wait for the arrival of Immanuel, and as we wait for the return of Christ. As we prepare for Christmas parties and negotiate stores filled with impatient shoppers. As we try to hold space in our own lives and hearts for some much-needed Christmas peace. Stay awake, my friends. Stay awake, be prepared and live ready!

Dreamers Among Us, Pilgrim, Genesis 40-41, October 16, 2022

This was my first sermon at my MIC site, Pilgrim Lutheran Church and School in Chicago. Ministry In Context is a field placement for seminary students, intended to give them a light version of an internship. I was fortunate to be placed with Pastor Kristian Johnson, a gifted preacher, an encouraging supervisor, and continued mentor. This was the fourth part of a seven-part sermon series on Joseph. 

Children’s sermon

All of us have dreams. Sometimes those dreams are fun and happy. Sometimes they are scary and sometimes they even wake us in the middle of the night – they feel so real. Can you remember one dream that has stuck with you?

Sometimes, the Bible says, God tries to get our attention through our dreams. Remember a couple of weeks ago, Joseph had a couple of dreams and when he told his family, they weren’t very happy.

I admit, I’m not good at remembering my dreams. Sometimes I remember them for a few minutes when I wake up, but then I start thinking about school or work or making breakfast, and the memory of that dream just disappears. If God was giving me a dream, do you think God would make sure I remembered it?.

Once in a while. people have weird dreams that they don’t understand. Maybe someone has a dream that their feet are stuck to the ground and they can’t move. Or maybe they have a dream that they were swimming in deep, deep water. And the next morning, they wake up and say, “Wonder what THAT was about?” And when they tell someone, that person says, “Oh, I know!” You dreamed you were swimming in deep water, because you’re going through something kind of scary, and deep water can be scary too.

So, not only did God give Joseph dreams, God gave him the ability to understand other people’s dreams. God also gave all the people here dreams and abilities too. Not just the adults, but you, too. Different dreams, different abilities, because God knew our church would need many different dreams and abilities.

Thanks for coming up. I have a couple things for you to keep reminding you that God needs your dreams. And, on the way back to your seat or to Sunday school, can you tell one of those adults: God needs your dreams? They may need a reminder – and you’re so good at encouraging them!

Sermon, with image descriptions

Image: When we last left our hero:

As I thought about preaching my first sermon at Pilgrim at the midway point of the Joseph story, I was reminded of those multi-part action-adventure series when I was a kid. The announcer would start the weekly episode with something like “Previously …” or “When we last left our hero…” Every show ended with a cliffhanger. The hero or star faced serious danger.

So, in the spirit of that memory:

(Shift to narrator role and voice) “Previously on ‘Journeys with Joseph,’” as a youth, Joseph, his father’s favorite son, was given an ornate, beautiful cloak. After Joseph revealed that he had two dreams that his family would bow down to him, his fed-up brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt. For a short time, it appeared things might go well for Joseph, as he was sold to Potiphar, the head of Pharoah’s royal guard, and Potiphar came to trust him completely. However, last Sunday ended with Joseph in prison, unjustly accused of trying to go behind Potiphar’s back with Potiphar’s wife. Yet, even as a prisoner, Joseph gained favor with the warden as a man the warden could trust. And now, back to today’s story.”

Image: Joseph in his Coat of Many Colors

Joseph was no longer a teenager or 20-something as we reach today’s part of the story. Genesis gives us hints that he is older and more mature. The passage starts out with “Some time after this.” A couple of verses later, Joseph is put in charge of the Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and baker – the ruler’s personal attendants – who have gotten on the wrong side of Pharaoh, and “they continued for some time in custody.” Joseph is imprisoned with them long enough to know they are unusually disturbed following their own dreams. And after he interprets their dreams, two full years pass. We have to imagine Joseph as no longer an impetuous teenager, lording it over his brothers, but a thoughtful man, perhaps in his early 30s.

Image: Joseph in prison

This is the older and wiser version of Joseph. Older and wiser, perhaps, but certainly not all-knowing. In fact,

• Joseph likely had no idea God was working out a future for God’s people through him.
• Joseph had no idea that his dreams, and his ability to interpret others’ dreams, were a gift from God.
• And Joseph had no idea that God was using the gifts that God had given him, as a manager, as a keen observer of people, and as a visionary and interpreter of visions, time after time, in all of the places he landed.

How about us? Do we really understand the way God equips each of us with our unique capabilities as gifts? That your ability to provide hospitality, or your ability to sing or play music, or your ability to keep your home or business finances organized – those are gifts! And God specifically equipped you to fit into this world, into your own community, and into this congregation with those gifts.

It wasn’t so many years ago that the leaders of a congregation I belonged to were stressed. Chuck, a long-time member, was moving away. This person had filled lots of roles: treasurer, chair of the finance committee, audit committee member. Congregational leaders were really down about the hole he was leaving. However, it wasn’t too long after Chuck moved away that the congregation welcomed some new members, including a woman who was a retired accountant. It has happened too often in congregations I’ve been in to be coincidental – God provides the people and the gifts that are needed. It is up to us to find them and encourage them, and assure them their presence and work among us is the Body of Christ as it should be.

Now, that’s not to say that God always has us using our gifts in the same way. My bachelor’s degree is in journalism and mass communications. So, for the first 15 years of my career, I reported for community newspapers. But life changed and I went into human services work. In 2010, I joined a new congregation, and it wasn’t too long before my gifts led me to the communications ministry and into writing liturgy. And when God called me to seminary, those gifts didn’t go away.

Earlier this month, I looked at the calendar, and realized it was 36 years from my first day on the job with my first newspaper. And what was I doing at that moment? Sitting at my laptop, writing a feature story for the seminary’s Marketing and Communications Department. God is faithful, and the gifts that God gives us are meant to be put to good use.

That holds true no matter your age, your experiences, your skills, your length of time in the congregation. What a perfect message for today, when Pilgrim is holding its ministry fair. God called you here, and God finds ways for your gifts to shine: whether you are an accountant, a writer, or, even returning to our story, a dreamer or dream interpreter.

Image: Dream cloud

Dreams and visions – they keep showing up in Joseph’s story. Joseph had two dreams as a young person that he rather smugly shared with his 11 brothers and parents. Those dreams were pretty transparent: the sheaves in the field bowing down to his sheaf, the sun, moon and 11 stars bowing down to him.

Just as an aside, I come from a large family. I’m pretty certain that if one of my youngest brothers told our family a dream like that, there would have been repercussions.

But then Joseph’s story involves another pair of dreams: dreams by the Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker that Joseph was able to interpret in prison: that the cupbearer would be restored to the Pharaoh's good graces, while the baker would lose his life. And … spoiler alert … there are more dreams to come in Joseph’s story.

The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible says the ancients saw dreams as messages given in our sleep by deities, demons, or the dead. Many people of faith continue to believe dreams are one way God communicates with us. And “visions” serve the same role when we are awake.

Image: Scripture from Joel:

Every Pentecost Sunday, when we celebrate the Holy Spirit setting the Church on fire with the power of the Good News of the love of Jesus Christ, we use a passage of scripture from the prophet Joel:

“I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”

When the prophet spoke about people dreaming dreams and having visions, he wasn’t just talking about people in ancient times, or at the end of time. If we are open to them, I think that God gives people dreams and visions all the time. And God gives us the power to welcome and interpret those dreams and visions.

Last week, Pastor Kristian asked two questions:

• What is God’s vision for you?

• What is God’s vision for Pilgrim?

Some people would see those questions as “one-person questions.” God’s vision for me – that’s my question. And what’s God’s vision for Pilgrim – let’s leave that one for Pastor, or maybe our Church Council President.

But just as our dreamer Joseph had the gift to interpret the cupbearer and baker’s dreams, we are both dreamers and dream interpreters. Pilgrim would not have existed had people not envisioned a place to worship in this part of Chicago and made that vision a reality. Pilgrim School wouldn’t have started had Pilgrim members not dreamed of a place where their young people could grow in wisdom AND faith, and then put bricks on that dream to open the school.

So I ask you again:

• What is God's dream for you?
• What is God’s vision for Pilgrim?
• What dreams are your passions and God’s gifts stirring in you?
• What visions does Christ have for this congregation, in this community, in 2022?

I believe those dreams and visions are here, among us, today. I believe that God has given us the people and the gifts we need. I believe that Christ is calling us to be the dreamers and the dream interpreters, the ones who will share Christ’s love in new ways for such a time as this.

Amen.