The Heart of a Pastor

Desperate

This past Christmas my wife gave me the seven volume set of the "Complete Sermons of Martin Luther".  Every once in a while I will check these out and see how Luther preached a particular text or a particular church holiday/season.  This Sunday (May 11) is Pentecost Sunday so I decided so check out what Luther said about this day.  The follow is an excerpt from his Pentecost sermon in 1534:

"We desperately need this Pentecost sermon of the Holy Spirit, so that he may give us a courageous heart, so that we, too, may persevere, regardless of who is offended, regardless of how much people may slander us.  And even if cults and sects arise, we will also ignore that.  That's the kind of courage we need, a courage that remains undisturbed by any of these things and simply continues fearlessly to confess and publicly proclaim Christ, who was so grossly misjudged, condemned and killed." (The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, vol. VI, pg. 163)

Up to this point Luther talks about these scared, timid, uncertain, disciples who, upon the Holy Spirit filling them, started proclaiming to the people (and the powers that be) that the one they condemned and crucified has been raised and is Lord of all.  This One is none other than Jesus Christ.  This proclamation was a bold one and took an incredible amount of courage.  This courage came from the Holy Spirit that allowed them to see that nothing of this world can take away the gift that we have from God through Jesus Christ.  And once they realized this; that nothing of this world could harm them, the disciples boldly proclaimed the Good News.

We too need this courage (as Luther states) and that is why this Pentecost message (the one proclaimed by the disciples on that first Pentecost Day) is so important.  We need to hear a message that gives us strength because this world needs courageous Christians.  This world needs people willing to share their faith no matter what others think.  This world needs people willing to stand up and speak against injustices.  This world needs people to take their faith into the "Monday through Saturday" world.  This world needs people who are firm in their faith knowing there is hope beyond all the crap going on around us.  This world needs courageous Christians; the world is desperate for them.

We need to constantly and continually preach this Good News.  We need to affirm in people the promise of God through Jesus Christ.  We need to proclaim this hope we all have.  We need to be strong, forward, unashamed and bold.  We need to know and/or be reminded that because Jesus died and rose from the grave; conquering death; and giving us victory, we need not be afraid. 

So boldly go and preach the Good News through word and deed.  Speak out against injustices.  Take your faith into the "Monday through Saturday" world.  Make that unpopular decision to say "no" to Sunday sports and say "yes" to worship.  Dare to give more than you "think" you can afford.  Be courageous.  Be courageous because there is nothing in this world that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Dare to say..."JESUS IS LORD!" Amen.

-edh-

Luther and Dogs (Scooby Doo)

Diane over at Faith in Community posted a fun piece titled, Luther on Dogs, part II.  Being the dog lover she is, this is very appropriate.  But as I was reading her post I could not help but chuckle (don't worry, Diane, I wasn't laughing at you).  What made me chuckle was the scene on my shelf to my left...

I guess Martin and Katie DID love dogs.  Scooby dooby dooooooo.... :)

-edh-

Happy Birthday, Martin Luther!

To anyone who cares or even knows who Luther is or has the slightest interest -- today is Martin Luther's 524th birthday.  Actually, maybe it is more appropriate to say that Luther was born 524 years ago, in 1483, since Luther is obviously not alive today to celebrate another year.  In any case...there you have it.  You can almost hear the chorus of singers singing "Happy Birthday!"

I am not sure why, but my wife has rolled her eyes at me a number of times upon hearing that I have Luther's birthday recorded in my Palm Pilot so I won't forget.  And who knows...maybe you are rolling your eyes at me as well or smiling because you, too, have Luther's birthday written down or you may be still wondering "What is the big deal...the guy's been dead for nearly 5 centuries." 

I could go on and on talking about who Luther is and what he did for the church, but I am far from a Luther scholar.  What I can say is that Luther started a series of events that forever changed the church and how we relate to God.  Luther preached freedom through Christ. Luther, through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, set people free (much to the chagrin of the Catholic Church of the day).  And there is more.  Just Google "Martin Luther" and you will find a plethora of information or you could visit blogs such as Christ in my Life for postings on Martin Luther.  I personally would find some blogs because they are a lot more personal than your run of the mill web site.

So join, if you will, in raising a glass, singing "Happy Birthday", or whatever else trips your trigger and wish good ole Marty a Happy 524th birthday.

-edh-

Text study - John 8:31-36

Greetings one and all.  I know I am a little late this week, but I guess better late than never.  Being gone most of the week really threw things off for me.  Posting text study posts really help me to get focused in writing the sermon God wants me to preach.  This week I had to make some adjustments.  So instead on pondering on what I might preach, today I will be pondering on what I am 99% sure I will preach on (you just never know what God will do between now and Sunday.  See Monday randomness for more on that).  So anyway...barring a "1% incident" here is what I am pondering...

The Gospel text for this Sunday (Reformation Sunday) comes from John 8:31-36.  Allow me to include that text for you:

"To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"  Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

The word "free" really stands out for me.  Last year I talked about truth, but this year the word "freedom" stands out.  Questions that come to mind are: (1) What is freedom? and (2) What does freedom mean for you?  I think freedom means different things for different people.  It all depends on who you are, when you lived, where you live and the circumstances surrounding your life.  I think freedom sounds different with a 19th century slave as opposed to a 21st century middle aged parent.  Freedom for a low income family living in the Phillips Neighborhood of Minneapolis looks different than for a high school senior.  Freedom carries with it a variety of definitions.

For people living in the early 16th century, freedom was something far different than we can imagine today.  When Martin Luther came along, people were in bondage to human traditions made by a Church that ruled with an iron fist.  No grace, no mercy...unless of course you were of the upper class, royalty or clergy.  The common man knew nothing of THE Truth...until Luther came along.

Now for the first time people were hearing a Truth that simply blew them away:  Put your trust in God's love; we are made righteous through Christ; you are saved by grace through faith; Forgiveness is yours, no matter who you are or what you have done, when you confess.  The grace of God through Jesus Christ is all encompassing and all accepting.  Wow!  That is indeed Good News.  The Truth...it set people free, much to the chagrin of the Church at the time.

What does this mean today?  I think there are a number of things to think about: (1) As Christians today we too often take freedom for granted.  We don't really ponder WHAT Jesus did and therefor we don't praise and thank God as we should. (2) Too many people don't know about this freedom.  The greatest gift of all time, a Truth like no other.  If we know this Truth, how can we keep it to ourselves. (3) As Christians we often take freedom too far.  "I don't have to go to church.  God will forgive me".  We live by the mantra of "Cheap grace" not realizing how costly this grace really was - the very life of Jesus Christ. (4) Or...we know about this freedom, but choose to embrace bondage.  After the Civil War the slaves were set free, but many of them choose to stay put.  They would rather stay "slaves" than to embrace the freedom they were given.  They didn't know what to do with that freedom.  I wonder if, as Christians, we like our bondage to sin because sin is more fun and freedom is "scary".

There is a lot to think about when it comes to freedom.  But one thing we need to do as Christians is to keep proclaiming this freedom AND keep listening and learning about this freedom.  We may have good memories, but they are often very, very short.  Through Jesus Christ we have been given the greatest gift of all.  Embrace your freedom and praise God always and forever.  Amen!

-edh-

God's bare voice

"And this is the glory of faith, namely, not to know where you are going, what you are doing, what you are suffering, and, after taking everything captive -- perception and understanding, strength and will -- to follow the bare voice of God and to be led and driven rather than to drive." (From Luther's commentary on Hebrews)

A friend of mine from seminary wanted to propose the preceding statement, from Luther's commentary on Hebrews, as a tag line on seminary diplomas.  Given that the Gospel text for Sunday (5th Sunday after Pentecost) is about discipleship the preceding excerpt (which is taped to my computer monitor) serves as a great reminder to me of my call.  It is a scary thing to not know where you are going or what you are doing or what you are suffering.  We want to be in the know.  But when we can turn things over to Jesus the ride is always much more fun than with us at the wheel.  When it comes right down to it...we don't know how to drive.

Dear God, help me to hear and listen to your "bare voice" so I may be led and driven. The journey is too treacherous for me to handle alone.  Please take control and drive.  Amen!

-edh-