A sermon drawn, quite literally, from John 15:1-17 .  The message was prepared as part of a virtual sermon exchange this past weekend with good friend Pastor Sara Bishop.  Pastor Sara delivered this message to her congregation in Estonia, while I delivered a message she prepared for my congregation, Bethesda Lutheran, in Ames Iowa.  

What do you have to do to become Christ’s chosen one? The answer fortunately is simple: NOTHING.

So often we view relationship with our Creator as something to be worked for, to be earned. We find ourselves occasionally believing that to connect with the cosmos is an achievement, an act requiring considerable effort on our part. It’s almost as if we’re trying out to make the divinity football team, hoping our talents in running, passing, and ability to shoot on goal are enough to be chosen. Do you, right now, have what it takes to make the professional divinity team? If you answer no then more perhaps more practice is in order.

Fortunately this mindset, of the need to practice, to do works, all in the hopes of making the celestial All-Star divinity team that lands directly in the heavens, well, it just doesn’t jive with John 15. You did not choose me, but I chose you, Christ reminds us.

Transactions
And how refreshing that seems when much of our day-to-day is lived within a transactional framework. If you want something, usually, you have to give up something in return.
To earn money requires your time, your mental capacity, your physical body.
Other transactions involve not you, but things. Things that, if you have enough purchasing power, can be attained. To put food on the table you must give up some of those hard-earned wages. To have housing, have electricity, to access the internet, to give your children Christmas gifts, all of this involves trading one thing for another. Things are scarce resources, involve careful decision-making, all in the hopes they meet needs, for you, for loved ones. And, if you are lucky, sometimes you even get to acquire a few wants and throw those into the mix too.

And then there is my favorite type of transaction, one where not money is exchanged, only goods. A decade ago I had an old 1994 Volkswagen Jetta, and was looking to sell it. After advertising locally very few people were interested. I lived in South Florida at the time, a tropical climate, about three hours south of Disneyworld, and this car had no air conditioning. In the summer it got HOT.

Our family had already purchased another vehicle, and this old VW, gathering dust in the garage was essentially worthless to me. One day, after months of inaction, someone called and expressed interest in trading, one vehicle for another. He had a super sweet metallic-blue 1973 VW Super Beetle, the kind that’s air-cooled, engine in back, trunk in the front. He asked if I’d be interested; sure, I’ve always wanted one of those. We then prepared to exchange paperwork to make the trade official. But as we looked up the value of our Volkswagens it turns out his, even though 20 years older than mine, was worth about 500 dollars more.

Not wanting to spend money I asked if he liked video games. Why yes, he did, and an hour later he drove off in the ‘94 VW Jetta with a trunkload of Atari, Nintendo and Sega video games, leaving me that super sweet ‘73 Super Beetle. Transaction complete, we were both extremely happy.

Chosen Ones
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So instead of a to-do list with ample check-boxes needing to be crossed off we are instead given a blank slate, a clean, empty piece of paper. Already chosen children of God what then shall we do? We take that blank paper, and, just as a bright-eyed, high-energy child given a fresh, unused box of new crayons would do, we pick a few favorite colors and get to the business at hand: we create.

We draw, we doodle, we make masterpieces. Over time we grow into those masterpieces. But we are not left alone in this endeavor, the handbook containing all the tips and tricks of creating our life’s artwork is only an arm’s length away.  What handbook is this?  Ancient scripture, of course.  And the handbook’s author can hardly wait for us to turn divine revelation into here-and-now practice.

So what, dear child of God, a masterpiece in your own right, what masterpieces shall you, in this life, create? Today’s drawings come right out of the handbook of John 15.

Stay connected
First, from your box of crayons remove four colors; ready them for use: the blue, the green, the purple and the brown. Prepare to draw the first 8 verses of John 15.

God the Father is the vinegrower, we’re told, the gardener with endless skills. God waters, giving life, and prunes branches devoid of life too. Christ is the vine, growing alongside us, full of life, bearing much fruit. Abide with me, Christ beckons, for apart from me we can do nothing. As you begin to draw consider green for those branches with life, brown for those without. Pick up the blue crayon, create raindrops from the heavens, those drops spur the vine’s growth. Finally add in some purple, drawing fruit, hanging from the green branches, making them grapes, or berries, or the exquisitely exotic passionfruit.

Step back, consider your masterpiece. Reflect on how the handbook asks you to live into it. Prepare to be watered by your Creator, prepare to grow. Abide with Christ, stay close, for therein you yield fruit. And where branches wither be open to pruning, even if it hurts a little. Hint: It will hurt a little. Once pruned God’s celestial raindrops redirect to Christ’s life-giving branches, spurring new growth, new fruits, new beauty in your masterpiece.

Live (and Love) as Friends
Now turn the page, let’s color the next nine verses in the handbook of John 15. Jesus does something unprecedented, unique in scripture, he calls us not slaves, but friends. Draw yourself with Christ, perhaps you’re walking, or talking, or laughing. The word love is used *eight* times here in just a few sentences. Repetition signals importance, and here a command: love one another as I have loved you. Pick more crayons up and draw more friends. Connect those friends to you. Friends connected, in turn, to Christ. What about all that love? Perhaps a red crayon and hearts aplenty in this image are in order.

For as chosen ones, already the Son of God’s hand-picked elect, the spiritual activity of your days is not transactional in nature. And it isn’t spent seeking higher heavenly rank. Instead you are called to create a masterpiece, in the here and now, drawing on a deepening of relationship, between you, our Creator and our Savior. And equally as important you are called to connect to others, as friends, modeling the love, and the friendship, of Christ.  Amen.

A homily on the parable of the Good Samaritan of Luke 10:25-37, more recently called the parable of the Good Neighbor.

Ahh the story of the Good Samaritan, what a classic parable. The story is probably Jesus’ most familiar story in all of scripture. Kids, if this is the first time you’ve heard this one then get ready to hear it a lot more of it as you age. The story is told in Sunday school classes, is part of most children’s bibles, and widely preached on by pastors.

If you would, take a second and estimate how many times you’ve heard this story. Get that number in your head. Who thinks they’ve heard the story in one form or another: 5 times? 10? 25? 50? Even more?

Whatever your number it’s likely a lot, right?

Even the phrase Good Samaritan is so common that many a hospital goes by that name. And the phrase so common that laws are named after it here in the US. Those good laws protect people from being sued when they help another person.

The parable, and the phrase, are so common that I wonder if we recognize how shocking this story truly is. At a basic level the takeaway is fairly clear, the entire New Testament can essentially be summarized into the two commands found in Luke 10:27 –

• Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and
• Love your neighbor as yourself

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The lawyer in the text then asks Jesus who is my neighbor?  Jesus responds by telling the parable. You know the rest, someone is robbed and injured, left for dead. Three people pass the man on the road, and the least expected person of the lot is the one that helps out. And the helper, the one who showed kindness, at his own personal expense, *that* is the neighbor. That neighbor, that helper, that is who we are to emulate, even, or perhaps especially, when it costs us.

But it’s the nature of the three people walking down the road, and what they represent, it is the meaning contained *there* that may get lost on our modern ears. Sure we know what a priest is, but what’s a Levite? A Levite is a member of the tribe of Levi, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, that part I knew off hand. But beyond that I found myself looking for more information, trying to figure out why this particular person is included in the story.

And the term Samaritan? Heck, who knows, it must one of those ancient groups of people we don’t know much about anymore.  John 4:9, says, rather bluntly, that Jews and Samaritans don’t associate with each other. Theologian Karoline Lewis suggests this is perhaps the greatest understatement in the entire Bible. Jews and Samaritans, both culturally and religiously did not share much of anything in common at the time. The two groups generally got along so poorly that, if a Jew came in contact with a Samaritan, the Jew would be required to return to Jerusalem. And once arrived they’d need to undergo a ritual cleansing at the temple.

Yet here the Samaritan is, helping another, in the midst of what appears to be extreme religious tensions. That kind of seems like a big deal.

The Retelling
What I’d like to do is to retell this parable by swapping out the names of the three characters that walk down the road. The name used instead of priest likely won’t surprise you too much. But listen for what is used instead of the terms Levites and Samaritans. A Samaritan from this era was considered a religious outsider in an extreme way. If you would, consider for yourself what person or group you see often considered as a religious outsider, culturally, in the U.S., in 2017. I’ll use the term that comes to my mind in the retelling, tho keep your word in mind as you listen as well. Here we go.

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And Jesus said to the lawyer, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

The lawyer then asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers. The robbers stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance a pastor – not unlike myself or Pastor Bryan – was going down that road. And when the pastor saw the man, the pastor passed by on the other side.

So likewise a church musician – perhaps not too unlike those you see gathered here today – also came to the place and saw the injured man. And the church musician, too, passed by on the other side.

But then a Muslim, while traveling, came near the injured man; and when the Muslim saw him, he was moved with pity. The Muslim went to the injured man, bandaged his wounds, and poured oil and wine on them. Then the Muslim put the injured man on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day the Muslim took out two days of wages, right from out of his own pocket, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’

Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The lawyer replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

The Good Neighbor
With those more modern terms does the story hit you a little differently?

To be honest, my wife Kathi is a better helper when it comes to urgent medical care situations like this. She’s a trained nurse, and naturally dives right in. But this particular pastor? He’s a little slower at times, occasionally needing to be coaxed to action.

And how about the inclusion of church musicians in the tale? One of the roles of Levites, I learned earlier today, is to be temple musicians, who knew? But really, this new narrative shouldn’t be too much of a surprise – you may be church musicians, but you’re musicians all the same, and that’s a rather rough lot, sorry 🙂

And then there is the hero of the story, the religious outsider. The one we, as a society, treat as unclean. The one we, at times, fear. I used the term Muslim for this unexpected hero, as that’s the group that comes to mind, at least for me. Another group may have come to mind for you, and that’s just fine. Regardless of what group is used here the takeaway is the same: Christ asks us to emulate this person, that we love our neighbor as ourselves is at the very core of our faith.

The parable here, surprisingly, asks us to emulate someone not of our own religious tradition, to be a good neighbor as they are. To love them as we love ourselves. To care for them as we care for ourselves. And to even receive care from them, just the same as anyone else. We are to do all this regardless of their religion, be they Muslim, Jew, or Buddhist, Hindu, agnostic or atheist. And that, my friends, coming from the words of our savior, is downright shocking. Now go, Christ implores, and do likewise.  Amen.

Where is God? To help prepare for this message I typed those three words – where is God – into the Google search engine, just to see what would happen. Amazingly, to me at least, the top search result has a fairly clear, definitely concise answer: God is in Europe. No, I’m not kidding, hear me out. More specifically God is in Central Europe, in the country of Budapest. You were thinking Jerusalem or perhaps the Vatican, weren’t you? Nope! And more specifically than that God is the name of a town in Hungary, with a population of around 18,000. It’s about a 45 minute drive north, and slightly east, of Budapest, located right along the beautiful, historic, serene Danube River.

So if you’re looking for God, and have some time, and enough spending money for a transatlantic flight, well, you’re excused from the service – go, FIND GOD. It’s ok, you can go now. We just ask that you take some photos, collect some stories, and come back and share those experiences with us, that’d be kinda fun.

For the rest of us not traveling to Europe today, my apologies, we’ll have to talk about this notion of where God is a little longer. I’ll try to keep you awake as best I’m able 🙂

This week we begin a brief three week series on Jesus: who he was, who he is, who Jesus is to come. Today we’ll tackle the backstory, of who Jesus was. But before we do that we need head back even further in the family tree and start with God the Father.

God in the O.T.
Similar to a Google search result that answers the question Where is God, in Old Testament times God was location-specific. In Genesis chapter 3, God walks in the garden, right alongside Adam and Eve. But after original sin God arguably became less mobile, more elusive, more difficult to access for we humans. God was around, sure, but it depended on time, and place, and sometimes on who you knew. God was often in the mountains, which is where Moses was handed the 10 commandments. Or, if you’re a fan of Mel Brook’s 1981 film History of the World, Part I, perhaps there were originally 15 commandments. In that satiric story Moses drops one of the tablets, shattering it, before he can present them to his people.

Some of my favorite God spottings in the O.T. are event-based, in a specific spot, like in a burning bush, in Ezekiel’s dry bones, or where God speaks to God’s people through a talking donkey. And when God could be found consistently it was often in a single, isolated location, like a tent only Moses could enter, or the holy of holies. That’s an area of the temple only accessible once a year by the high priest. God was here, on earth, but it was a limited access deal.

God in the Neighborhood
The location of the divine, and how we can access it, changes, rather radically, with the arrival of God’s son Jesus. That’s the focus of today’s scripture from John chapter 1, a powerful, poetic text that offers a unique birth narrative for Jesus that doubles as the creation story too.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, John begins. Here the identity of God is inextricably linked to the Word, the first spoken, later written story of God and God’s people.

He was in the beginning with God, verse two continues. This ‘he’ reference here is to God’s son, the soon-to-be revealed Christ. Here John isn’t speaking of the earthly birth of Jesus, but instead ties it to the implied presence of Jesus with God, and alongside God, from all eternity.

The focal point of today’s text, and the turn that makes our gospels relevant, comes to us in verse 14.  And the Word became flesh and lived among us, we’re told, the glory of a father’s only son. I t is that moment, of Word become flesh, of God present with us, in the form of God’s son Jesus, both fully human and fully divine, that literally births Christianity. And it is that moment that unshackles our understanding of a limited access God, instead transforming it into a here and now, in the flesh, available to all through the life, death and resurrection of Christ kind-of-God.

In the Message, a modern biblical paraphrase that came out in 2002, author Eugene Peterson provides fresh, vivid language in verse 14, rendering it as the Word was made flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. I love that. God’s son Jesus as not only human, but neighbor. Not only walking the earth, but living locally. Not only a divine role model but someone residing next-door, someone you can literally break bread with.

Someone who removes, once and for all, this concept of a limited access God, expanding it to a God available to all tribes, all peoples, all social classes, accessible, in the flesh, right in your neighborhood. This was a colossal shift in understanding of the divine two thousand years ago, and it continues to inform us today.

God in Heaven
This notion of where God and Jesus can be found became more personal on February 29, 2016, when our 15 year-old dog, a rat terrier named Salsa, passed away. Our daughter, in kindergarten at the time, wanted to know where Salsa went. To heaven of course, Kathi and I replied, to be with God and Jesus. This explanation seemed to work for all of us; we found comfort knowing Salsa was safe and cared for. But saying goodnight to everyone at chez Arnold is part of our evening routine, and with Salsa no longer with us, well, this created a problem. Fortunately our daughter had the solution.

Each evening, after bath-time, story-time and the brushing of teeth, our family ends the day with a hug and a kiss. Our other terrier, Chips, who is 17 and still with us, joins in on this too; we humans give the hug, in return she often provides not a kiss but more of a lick. Shortly after Salsa passed away our daughter had the grand idea that, as part of our goodnight routine, we should do something similar for Salsa. So each night since then we now head out to the front porch, look to the heavens, notice the stars, search for the moon, and say goodnight to Salsa, and God, and Jesus. We then thank God and Jesus for taking care of Salsa. And then thank God and Jesus for taking care of us. For our family it’s a warm fuzzy moment.
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This worked well for the Arnold clan for about a year, at least until a few months ago, when the time came for us to move from South Florida to Ames Iowa. Three-year old Graham seemed worried, I noticed one night before bed, so I asked him what the matter was. “I don’t want to move away from Salsa and God and Jesus,” he replied, “because then I won’t be able to say goodnight to them…I’ll miss them!”

“No worries,” I respond, trying to provide some comfort, “Salsa and God and Jesus are moving with us. When we move they do too. We’ll be able to say goodnight to them from the porch of our new home. They will always be with us, and they’ll never leave us.” And for the last three months, each evening, from a new porch 1,500 miles northwest of the Florida one, our sacred evening ritual continues. God and Jesus have moved into our new neighborhood, and we can connect with them any time we like.

My takeaway from this, a lesson that came from our children, is that deep down, we want to be close to our creator, close to the provider of all we have. Close to those we care for, those with us now, those that have gone before. As we commemorate All Saints day during this service we experience that closeness, that presence of those we love, through memory, prayer and the lighting of a candle. It’s a presence that cuts across time and celestial distance, and it’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Close
So who was Jesus? Jesus was as John chapter 1 implies, the Word, with God, from the very beginning. And even more Jesus was Word became flesh, the Son of God that lived among us. The Son of God that desired to be so close to each of us that Jesus up and moved right into our local neighborhood. Jesus was, and is, in no small way, our divine next door neighbor.

As we close I’d like to end with a bit of song, you likely recognize this tune, it’s the theme from Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, the children’s television show that came out in 1967. The star of that show, and the author of this song, is Fred Rogers, who is also an ordained Presbyterian minister. As you listen to this familiar tune, I ask you consider it a bit differently, from the perspective of Jesus, speaking to you, as neighbor.

It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?…

So, let’s make the most of this beautiful day.
Since we’re together we might as well say:
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won’t you be my neighbor?
Won’t you please,
Won’t you please?
Please won’t you be my neighbor?

Good day, neighbor.  Amen.