Christ is coming, the Messiah is near!

Hello friends -

Just thought I would share this reflection - a piece I wrote for my community's December newsletter - as we begin to celebrate the holiday seasons and prepare for Advent and the announcement and birth of Christ.

Sisters and brothers, grace to you and peace from God our Creator and the Savior of Humanity Jesus the Christ. Amen. 

When I was little, I never really paid all that much attention to Advent. My brothers and I were only concerned about Christmas Eve – about getting our 4pm church service over with so we could return home, rush through dinner, and tear open our presents. My grandparents and parents wanted us to slow down, enjoy our food, and maybe even have us sit through dessert first, but the excitement in our young selves was almost too much to contain.

Now grown up and being an intern pastor en route to ordination, my perspective on this whole season – the beginning of our Church year – has changed. Advent, for me, has become a time of waiting and expectation about what is to come – Advent means literally “to come” – and what is to come is nothing less than the birth and announcement of the Savior of the whole world, Jesus Christ. It’s our human nature, I think, to have a hard time waiting for something to happen. It’s hard to live with anticipation or expectation. We want things now; we don’t wait to wait for things to come. Advent, for me, has become a way and practice to resist that way of thinking. The four weeks of Advent have become a time simply to dwell in the mystery of all that this is – the mystery of Jesus born to Mary, the mystery of Jesus’ work in our world, and how the world often wishes and wants for someone to come and set things right – and, guess what? We have that already fulfilled in Jesus.

As we begin to prepare for Advent, for the season of waiting, expectation, and promise of what is to come, I invite you to take a few moments to simply dwell. Come in early to the sanctuary on Sunday mornings during Advent. Have an extra cup of coffee before beginning your morning routine. Slow down just a bit. Pray, or not. Maybe just sit. Reflect on what the promise of Christ’s birth means for you. Where does the announcement of the Messiah show up and surprise you in your life? What does it mean for you to wait for what is to come? What does this mean for the world around us?

Friends, Advent is an exciting time. I’m overjoyed to be walking through Advent with you and alongside you – in the expectation, promise, and hope of Christ’s birth and announcement as Savior. In waiting for what is to come, we have received the One who forgives us all of our sins, reconciles us to God, and shows us the way of life everlasting. This is set into motion when we hear the words of Gabriel spoken to Mary in the Gospel of Luke, “He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” In the birth of Christ, our sin and death are ultimately defeated. The birth of Christ becomes the start of everything – of our new lives reborn in Jesus, of our relationships with each other, and the full promises of God for life eternal. Christ in God does indeed reign forever.

I’m looking forward to seeing you in worship this month. This is the beginning of it all. Let’s celebrate. I look forward to joining you in waiting and in hope as we see and join in what Christ is doing.

Let us wait in expectation – Christ is coming; the Messiah is near!

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Intern Pastor Dean

"For the Love of God" - a sermon for the community of Zion Lutheran Church

Hello friends -

It's gray and windy out today, this Monday morning. For some reason I've had to make twice the normal amount of coffee this morning to feel adequately awake.

I hope this post finds you well. It's been a full past few weeks here in Pelican Rapids. I returned home to Cannon Falls for a few days, had a life-giving candidacy retreat at Good Earth Village, and had a second bread ministry gathering at Zion - with 15 bakers, 10 loaves made, and all given away to the Pelican Rapids Area Food Shelf. The Pelican Press is planning a piece on our work, and we're in the midst of planning a December gathering - probably ordering a pizza and baking some holiday quick breads! If you're in the Pelican Rapids area, please consider joining us - Monday, December 7th, at 4pm. Shameless plug! :)

Our community also held Zion Lutheran's 3rd Annual Christmas Closet event on Saturday morning - something that we prepare for, it seems like, all year. Throughout the year we take donations of leftover or unused Christmas decorations - lights, stuffed bears, knick-knacks, etc. and then people bake caramel rolls and make coffee and bring baked goods and we host a morning with a bake sale and silent auction and invite people to come for rolls and coffee. This year we raised over $2,300 dollars to be sent to organizations worldwide.

This Sunday I preached on Hosea 11:1-9. As Hosea speaks of God as a parent to a child, God to Israel, and how God loves us even in the midst of our turning away, ingratitude, and missteps, I was able to tie in Paris, Beirut, and other things we do as humans that makes God angry.

Here's the text!

Sisters and brothers, grace to you and peace from God our Creator and God’s Son Jesus the Christ. Amen. 

I bet I can get the kids in the room to answer this in unanimous agreement – are you excited when school’s closed for the day? I remember those days well – the elation of waking up, looking out the window from my second floor bedroom, and seeing piles of snow that I hoped just had to be feet deep. The excitement of running downstairs and hearing those words from mom – school’s closed – and then either running back to bed or getting up and having breakfast. The world seemed slower those days, life a little more still.

I recall one of those such snow days when I was in fifth grade. I was young, and my dad and I wanted to go out sledding. This wasn’t going to be just racing down the hill sledding, though. Oh, no. This was the type of sledding where my dad told me to get on the four wheeler and tie the sled behind and then race around the yard and down the front hill. You know, so you can go faster. And maybe potentially hurt yourself. I was young, and I wasn’t thinking about those things. Anyway – we took off, my dad and I, with my young fifth grade self behind the wheel, my dad tied on behind.

You probably know where this is going. We went around the yard just fine, until we came to the hill. An icy patch was at the bottom, and it was too late. I slammed on the breaks and came to a fast stop. My dad crashed into the back of the four wheeler. Scared more than anything, he jumped up, grabbed me, yelled a few choice words, and walked away. I remember plainly that we avoided each other for almost the rest of the day, and how I was so afraid of his anger. However, at the end of the day, as it begin to get dark out, I apologized, and everything was made well.

This illustration of love – then anger – then love – that a mother or father feels for a child, even when they do something wrong, is exactly what Hosea in our text today is talking about. God uses the illustration of Israel, God’s chosen people, as God's child, saying, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” Continuing on, we see God’s steadfast care towards his people – even though they don’t understand God’s healing ways, when the people continue to sacrifice to Baal, when they offer incense to idols and not to God – God leads them out of their ways with cords of human kindness, with bands of love, as the text says. God here acts as a parent to a child, and it resounds even today – for what deeper love is there than that of a parent to their children?

Quite suddenly, though, God’s anger appears – just like my dad when we were sledding that snowy day. God’s love, so it seems in this text, can only be drawn out so far. Instead of continuing to nurture the people in the midst of their turning away, God hands them over to the very things they desire – kings, cities, power, and war – but this time, it appears to bring destruction. This is the beauty of God’s orientation towards God’s creation, however – that divine anger only lasts so long. Sooner rather than later, the people are brought back, and God’s own heart recoils – we hear that compassion grows and wrath ceases.

This text just goes to show that love, anger, mercy, divine suffering, and grace are ultimately themes of God’s behavior repeated towards God’s people, and it shows the very humanity, the very realness of God towards those who are claimed on his behalf. We see these themes fulfilled later in Jesus Christ as the ultimate sacrifice, who is 100% human and 100% God – who weeps with people and sits with sinners around the table but also heals and teaches us the ways of God. It is clear that throughout the Bible these are things that are called to be embodied, and that extends to us today – we don’t get to escape it, because God has already called us, and God already loves us without condition, like a parent to a child. Like my father to me.

It’s the truth to say that we as sinners and saints do things that make God weep, without a doubt. I’m not attempting to gloss over that. In Beirut, Lebanon on Thursday 43 people were killed in twin bombings in a Shia-majority area of the capital. In Paris, France, on Friday over 120 were killed and over 300 injured in a string of bombings and shootings on stadiums, restaurants, and concert halls. We do things against other humans that makes God angry – we murder, we show ingratitude for each other’s lives and each other’s bodies, and sometimes don’t think twice about displaying violence because in our anger it seems like the only proper course of action. We do things and say things that go against God’s design and intentions for the world. I’m sure this has happened even here at Zion Lutheran – we are a community living out God’s mission yet we know that at times we don’t get things right. But know this – when we screw up, when we do something wrong, when we wonder if God might be angry or wrathful or quick to execute justice – know that God has already welcomed us into God's kingdom, both those who have joined the saints above and us ourselves. We are welcomed as God’s people, and we are God’s church, flaws and sins and brokenness and all of it. God’s mercy, grace, and love are more than enough to cover the sins of humanity and more as well. As we wonder about the violence of this world, as we wonder about when did the state of things in God’s creation become seemingly so dire, we hear these words: “I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.” – we hear those words for Israel and also those words for us – God is indeed the Holy One in our midst – God is dwelling among us here and now, as a parent to a child, and God’s wrath will never be quickened.

My friends, I am thankful for our journey together. I am thankful for the ways in which we live out our mission as called by God – to be lovers of this world in the ways that Christ loved. Our journey in common mission is something that we all hold space for, and it gives us everything to be united by. We can indeed go and peace and love the Lord because we are free – we are free in that we know that the Holy One is in our midst; we know that God’s compassion is warm and tender; we know that God’s wrath has ceased and that despite our sin God still loves us, parent to child. We go knowing we are forgiven and we are made new thanks to our baptism in the Spirit and Christ’s sacrifice upon the cross. We go knowing that we live our lives for the sake of the other and our neighbors. For the love of the Holy One in our lives and for the love of God for the whole world I say, “Thanks be to God”. Amen.

God's Peace, friends!
Dean

"Who will you serve?" - a sermon for the community of Zion Lutheran Church

Good afternoon, friends -

Spike on our morning hike in Maplewood State Park!

It is cool and gray here in northwestern Minnesota. I'm working on my second Holy Spirit paper for class, and preparing to leave Pelican Rapids to return to Cannon Falls for a few days coming up. Parents and littlest brother were here this last weekend, and what a blast that ways - days filled with hiking, pumpkin carving, some bourbon, lots of laughing, cooking, and quiet moments. I'll be back in Cannon Falls, as I said, Wednesday through Saturday to attend a Southeastern Minnesota seminary candidacy retreat, and I'm looking forward to reconnecting with classmates away on internship as well as checking in with the bishop and my committee.

Some changes have been cropping up around my seminary timeline, too - I'm up for graduation next December, which bumps up the approval and assignment process to next summer and next fall, respectively, instead of over the course of a normal academic year. I've made some connections and had good conversation with the Bishop of the Alaska Synod, about interest in and assignment to Alaska. So, good things on those fronts.

I had the privilege and joy of leading worship and preaching solo for the first time at Zion on All Saints Sunday. We lit candles in remembrance of those who passed in 2015 from our congregation, and I preached on 1 Kings 12:1-17; 25-29.

Without further ado, here's the sermon from this past Sunday, November 1st.

Sisters and brothers, grace to you and peace from God our Creator and God’s Son Jesus the Christ. Amen.

 It was one of the most horrific eras to ever darken the doorstep of our human history – a time of oppression, murder, and deeply held beliefs that clashed. Most of you by now probably know what I’m taking about – the advent and carrying out of what is the Holocaust, which took place from 1939-1945 throughout countries occupied by the Nazi party led by Hitler. Determined to wipe the world of Jewish people and hail the Aryan race. Jewish people were not particularly well liked in Europe, so they were easy scapegoats. Aside from the gas chambers, ovens, mass executions, forced labor, and malnutrition that ran rampant in the concentration camps of Dachau, Auschwitz, and many others, there was another piece of the torturous era in history – the work of Dr. Josef Mengele, a German physician at Auschwitz who did awful, sickening experiments on the people in the camp. He would introduce himself to his children patients as “Uncle Mengele” and offer them candy before beginning his work, with no care for the health or life of the prisoners. He was interested in identical twins, dwarfs, and people with physical abnormalities. Mengele unnecessarily amputated limbs, infected people with typhus, and transfused blood. He injected chemicals into eyes of living patients to change eye colors. After about two weeks, many patients were sent to the gas chambers, regardless. This type of power over others – and the extreme abuse of it – shows the darkest, most evil, most sinful, side of humanity that I think any of us can conjure. Abuse of power, however, is, sadly, nothing unusual. Our text in the Bible speaks to the same abuse of power, the same oppression.

Today we find ourselves landing in the book of 1st Kings, which begins the narrative after the kingdoms split – Israel to the north and Judah to the south, divided over conflicts, wars, and revolts for power. In the midst of this, our text today is concerned with the leadership of Rehoboam, son of Solomon and grandson of King David, and his welding of power over the Israelite people – just like the Nazis over the Jewish people. When the people from the northern kingdom gather at the beginning of Rehoboam’s leadership, they have a simple request: “lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke that he placed on us, and we will serve you.” Flashbacks of not only Solomon’s forced labor but also service in Egypt by their ancestors are running parallel through the Israelite’s minds. Rehoboam consults with both older and younger advisors in determining his answer to their request. The older men think that the workload should be lightened, while the younger men think they need to be treated more harshly. Rehoboam acts harshly and swiftly upon the Israelite people as they gather to hear his verdict: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”, an assertion of power over the Israelites. After hearing these words of condemnation, the people are ultimately distrustful of the heritage and lineage of the kingship placed into motion by God – and sadly, this is nothing new. History is repeating itself – we see this same narrative of aggression and oppression in Solomon – and Rehoboam doesn’t realize his mistake. The Israelite people leave to their tents, and Rehoboam reigns.

We can bring this into our light today. The Holocaust is merely one example. We see this same story lived out today in our society – of people who abuse power to abuse groups of people, and it’s not right. It follows that abuse and discord brings division, not unity, in relationship. Ultimately, I think this story of absolute power asks the question, “Who are we going to serve?” Will we serve God, who intends for the Gospel to be lived out in our lives, or will we serve human ends, which is concerned with power and material and gain for our own means? Will we serve and live in a way that unifies, or divides? Rehoboam, so concerned with his own assumption of power and kingship over the people didn’t stop to consider what would have happened if he had lightened the workload for his people: they would have obeyed and lived peaceably together. They would have been more unified. Selfish interest triumphed over good news for the Israelites; so instead, they were divided – more so than they already were.

The story of Rehoboam and his treatment of the Israelite people is just one example of many in the Bible that show just how messy our very human life is. As always, though, there’s another side of the story, especially when God’s concerned. We can give thanks to God that we can rely on and have hope in God’s promises – that God, despite our human divisions and want for power, will unify us when all things are reconciled – every person and all of creation itself – unto God. When we are made whole, when brokenness and sin persists no more, there will be perfect unity. Today is All Saint’s Sunday, when we remember those who have joined the saints triumphant; when we remember those who have been unified in God’s perfect design. When we celebrate communion in a short while here, we are united with the saints as the whole Body of Christ. Yes, there is division and injustice in this world; plenty of it and more as well; but we can embody unity and justice precisely when we gather here and when we live our lives in the world in response to the Gospel that we are called to. In our world today, it’s hard to see it when people want to rule, when people want to serve the idol of power over nations – but that’s what makes our work, our service, in the Gospel so worth it – to simply be with others despite our differences; to love one another without conditions or demands or submission. To be the hands and feet of Christ in this world with each other and with all the saints above. It’s holy work, my friends, and God has called us. To working through divisions, to breaking down walls, and for serving together in unity and for loving one another for who you are, I say “Thanks be to God”. Amen.

God's peace, my friends -
Dean