A little over three years ago, while discerning a possible call to be your next Senior Pastor, I found myself poring over 15 pages of paperwork the Synod provided about St. John’s.

In it two particular items stood out. First, that this congregation, “seeks to exemplify God’s unconditional and inclusive love for people of all walks, stages and circumstances of life.”

And second, that this congregation was looking for a Pastor to “develop priorities to put new definition on underscoring our tagline, In the City For Good.”

When in conversation with the call committee, I found myself asking for more detail on both, wondering as any good Lutheran would –

What does this mean?

The call committee described St. John’s deep history of LGBTQ inclusion, feeding programs through our Connection Café Bridge partnership, and being a founding member of what would become Central Iowa Shelter & Services.

I learned too that the Connection Café serves lunch to people regardless of their sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nation of origin, immigration status, primary language, and whether or not they have a job or a home. They don’t ask for ID; they serve lunch to whoever shows up, no questions asked.

The call committee shared that we welcome and serve people here at St. John’s regardless of pretty much anything.

We then talked about practical ways we could build on that identity, and what that might look like in the coming years.

I found myself curious, excited about the possibility of serving a congregation with such lofty, Christlike ideals. And not just ideals. Because it sounded, to these ears, that this congregation was serious about intentionally living that out, together, as a people of faith.

Continued conversations between candidate and committee went well enough that, well, here we are.

Inclusion
Today we celebrate our one-year anniversary of becoming a Reconciling in Christ congregation. Today represents the culmination of some of our early work together to become a more intentionally inclusive church. While the Reconciling In Christ designation began over 40 years ago by prioritizing LGBTQ inclusion, who it includes is much, much broader. For All Are Welcome means all.

Our new Welcome Statement, ratified during our annual meeting last February, says it well:

At St. John’s Lutheran Church, we believe that all people are created in God’s image and that we honor and respect all that God has created. As a community of faith, our mission is to be a caring, loving people, actively engaged in God’s work.

We affirm, love, embrace, and invite all people in celebration of race, color, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, mental and physical abilities, cultural background, immigration status, education, and varied faith journeys. We respect and are committed to racial equality, anti-racism, and the promotion of social and economic justice.

We believe that God’s grace is unlimited. We strive to extend that grace as we welcome and encourage you, in person and virtually, to join the congregational life and ministries of St. John’s Lutheran Church: In the City…and beyond…for Good.

We approved this statement of welcome by a 98% yes vote. In other words This.Is.Us. As a congregation we agreed, almost universally, to it. Now comes the hard part: we are called to live these lofty ideals out.

Isaiah
Our lectionary text from Luke 4:14-21 speaks to these ideals well. In it Jesus had just returned from the wilderness after being tested for 40 days by Satan. Having eaten nothing, and being tempted to give it all up, he passes the tests. Jesus now has newfound resolve. He knew who he was. He knew what he came to earth to do.

It is with this backdrop Jesus gives his first public words recorded in Luke, an inaugural sermon in the synagogue. Jesus stood up, received the scroll, unrolled it, found a passage from Isaiah, and began to read. The passage proclaims:

• good news to the poor,
• release to the captives,
• sight to the blind,
• setting free the oppressed.

Similar to the beatitudes, the Greek word for poor can mean many things. It is to be poor in money, poor in power, to be spiritually bankrupt. Said differently, this brief passage proclaims good news, release, and freedom for all.

Jesus then rolled up the scroll, gave it to the attendant, and sat down. Today, he affirms, this scripture has been fulfilled.

It is the ultimate inclusion, spoken two millennia ago, by Christ.

Because God’s love, and radical embrace of us, no matter who we are, is universal.

While Jesus spoke, we’re told that the eyes of everyone in the room were fixed on him. Those gathered that day weren’t distracted. They weren’t looking away. As sometimes happens with sermons they weren’t even sleeping. Or drooling!

They were focused.

The implications of this text, and how we live that out, are something we grapple with to this day.

Now
Newly inaugurated President Donald Trump has been busy his first week in office. To date he has signed 32 Executive orders covering topics like human rights, climate change, and pardoning all January 6 rioters, regardless of the crimes they committed.

One of these orders rescinded a previous executive order that prevented discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. The order says the federal government will no longer recognize gender identity and classify people as either male or female.

Separately, multiple independent sources have confirmed Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds will introduce legislation to remove basic human rights protections from transgender Iowans.

Said differently, at both the state and national level our government seeks to define transgender Americans out of existence.

It is fair to wonder what rights our government might try to take from the LGBTQ community next.

Also this week, President Trump authorized Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to directly target courthouses, schools, hospitals, funerals, weddings, and churches. This action rolls back a previous policy, in place since 2011, that prohibited ICE from arresting suspected undocumented immigrants in these locations and gatherings.

Separately, there are reports of ICE agents, in plain clothes, visiting Des Moines hospitals this week. There are also reports that ICE has been confronting some unhoused individuals in the metro, particularly on the south side.

It is fair to wonder what else our government might try to do to install fear and inflict harm among the refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers in our lands. Many of whom are our neighbors, our church members, our friends.

Preach
This past Tuesday, at the National Cathedral inaugural prayer service in Washington DC, a day after President Trump’s inauguration, Episcopalian Bishop Miriann Budde preached on the three foundations of unity: 1) the inherent dignity of every human being, 2) honesty, and 3) humility.

As Bishop Budde neared the end of her sermon, she took a breath, looked directly at President Trump, and concluded her message by saying this:

Mr. President, millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families. Some who fear for their lives.

And the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes in restaurants, who work the night shifts in hospitals. They may not be citizens, nor have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches, mosques, synagogues and temples.

I ask you to have mercy Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands, to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.

In our text from Luke 4 today, the eyes of everyone in the room were fixed on Jesus as he spoke. But that is not what happened in the National Cathedral Tuesday. When this plea went out video of the service shows President Trump looked away. Many other newly elected leaders, their spouses and family members looked away too. When asked to show mercy to people, many of our elected officials couldn’t, or wouldn’t, look the preacher in the eye.

Here
People of God, know this: we are called to more.

We are called to have mercy and to welcome, include, serve and protect all of God’s children.

Here at St. John’s we will continue to baptize, confirm, marry and bury people regardless of their orientation, national origin or immigration status. We will continue to invite them into full participation in the life of this church and to be active as clergy, staff, lay leaders and members.

We will continue to refer to people using their pronouns, be it he/him, she/her, or they/them. We will continue to affirm and support our transgender and non-binary siblings in Christ. For they are, as we all are, fellow children of God.

We will continue to serve meals through Connection Café to whoever shows up, without documentation, no matter who they may be. We will continue to welcome all flavors of humanity to worship with us, regardless of their citizenship status, primary language, regardless of whether they slept at home the night before, or just outside our doors. For we were all once strangers in this land.

This week we will add signage to our doors indicating St. John’s is private property. And that unauthorized entry, including by ICE or Homeland Security, without a judicial warrant, is not allowed.

We will continue to welcome, care for, serve, include, love, show mercy and protect the dignity of all people who walk through our doors.

We do so unequivocally.
We do so without apology.
We can do no other.

This, my friends, is what means to share the Good News.

While the morality of our country continues to erode, we will not stand idly by.

This is a time to celebrate who we are a Reconciling in Christ church. It’s a big deal! Very few churches in our area are. This is also the time to live out what it means for us to be In The City For Good.

For we know who we are. And we know what Christ calls us here to do.  Amen.