I hope you're having a great Tuesday morning! It's been a busy past few days, tracking all over the state in my '04 Oldsmobile Alero - first to Cannon Falls for Thanksgiving, then up to Grand Rapids for my cousin's wedding, then to Marcell for a day, and finally back to Pelican Rapids where I can stay for awhile. While away, I had the opportunity to worship again at my first year teaching parish, St. Andrew's Lutheran, and got to connect with a good friend from that community, who I had also served with at Holden Village. I had the privilege to preach at my community's Thanksgiving Eve service before taking off for home. This is my sermon from that service.
Sisters and
brothers, grace to you and peace from God our Creator and the Giver of Life,
Jesus the Christ. Amen.
This past weekend, three adult leaders had the
chance to take five of our youth from Zion to a Northwestern Minnesota Synod
youth gathering in Bemidji, Minnesota, where they joined in with 300 other
middle schoolers and participated in worship, assemblies, and breakout sessions
talking about homelessness, how God works in our lives, and other important
pieces that matter to our lives of faith. It was an extraordinarily formative
weekend, both for the kids, and, dare I say, the leaders, too. The theme of the
gathering was “You Take God’s Breath Away”, and conversation centered around
that – what does it look like, exactly, to make God stop and go, “Wow! I
created him or her in my image, and that takes my breath away.”
We
talked about our gifts in one session – some identified gifts of kindness,
others had gifts of listening, others gifts of curiosity, others were great
athletes, musicians, and the list went on and on and on. We talked about how
God gives us those gifts to lean in to the world. We shared devotionals
together where we called each youth by name and reminded them of how they take
God’s breath away. About, how, through simply believing in the faith that they
have been called to, God is amazed by them. Through no work of their own.
This
seems odd, though, right? How, with all the stuff going on in the world today,
with all of the sin and lawlessness and chaos, could God be amazed at who we
are? In the midst of the stuff of our lives, in our brokenness, it can be hard
to see how God could be well pleased with how we’re turned out. How could God
give us such abundance freely? There’s so much law. Surely we need to do
something, you may be thinking. This is the perfect time to ask – where is the
Gospel?
This
is exactly what the disciples wanted to know from Jesus in our text from the
Gospel of John. They wanted to know, exactly, what they needed to do – “What
must we do to perform the works of God?” they asked. What do they need to do,
in order to live as God commanded, to obtain eternal life? Jesus, as always,
answers so simply, so succinctly, “This is the work of God that you believe in
him whom he has sent.” – essentially, that you believe in Jesus as the One sent
by God. This was really weird for the disciples to hear – they wanted signs
from Jesus, they felt like they needed to do
something, anything, to follow God. Jesus tells them to just believe? To
eat of the true bread from heaven that sustains? What’s that? What does that
mean, I’m sure they were thinking.
Instead,
friends, we remember that our faith is totally a gift. Something that is freely
bestowed from the Spirit at our baptism. We take God’s breath away to the point
that God gives us the true bread of life – faith and eternal life – so that we
will never be spiritually hungry. We receive this through no work of our own.
It’s hard to hear, especially looking at today’s earthly realities. That’s why
it’s so amazing. Our kids took that away this weekend – that faith is a gift
given to them – and it was such an inspiring, amazing thing to see.
Sisters
and brothers, Thanksgiving is tomorrow. We will gather around turkey, stuffing,
cranberry sauce and pie. We will gather with family, friends, and loved ones,
and celebrate the abundance found in our lives. We will probably watch football
and fall asleep in the sofa or armchair after our meals. I would ask, too, that
you give thanks for the gifts found in your own life – for the gift of faith
freely bestowed, and for the quiet gifts of your being – kindness, love,
listening – whatever they may be. Give thanks for the promises of eternal life.
Give thanks for each other, and notice how you take God’s breath away. At times
it may not seem like we our worthy, but know that indeed, we are loved and
cherished by God beyond our wildest imagining. God has already had God’s breath
taken away by the person you were, the person you are, and the person that you
will grow to become. God has given us the Bread of Life, Jesus the Christ. Let
us celebrate. Amen.
Dean
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