Amazing

God of life, help us to recognize when you are at work around us, and lead us to share stories of your love with others. Amen.

God is pretty amazing.

A few years ago, I was working at church camp. A friend and I decided to bring our sleeping bags out to the dock one night so that we could fall asleep below the stars and wake up to the sunrise.

That sunrise was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

I was so glad I had thought to bring my camera out to the dock with me.

It was gorgeous – and even though sunrise finished about an hour earlier than my friend and I needed to be up for work, we couldn’t fall back to sleep after witnessing something so magnificent.

God can do awesome things.

Am I right?

A family friend was struggling with raising her four kids, three of whom had learning or developmental disabilities. This was long enough ago that resources were few and far between for kids with special needs.

         One day she heard a voice, asking her one simple question.

         Do you trust me?

Our friend did trust God, and despite the countless challenges that her children faced, they were able to thrive as their mother raised them according to God’s guidance.

God is pretty amazing.

In today’s story from First Kings, we hear about a truly awe-some thing that God does. After Elijah challenges all the prophets of Ba’al, and they and their god fail to perform a miracle of any size, Elijah steps up to the plate.

         It’s time for him to get his game on.

         Or, more accurately, it’s time for Elijah’s God to get in the game.

Elijah has so much faith in the power of his God that he puts on a ridiculous spectacle for the onlookers. He doesn’t just prepare an altar and an animal to sacrifice on it, but he douses the whole thing in water, three times, just to show how confident he is in God’s power.

I have no idea where all that water came from – they were three years into a severe drought.

But somehow, Elijah finds enough water to soak his altar and even create a moat around it. The people looking on must have been thinking, there’s no way that thing will light.

And then, in contrast to the prophets of Ba’al, who had been praying and crying out for hours on end with no results, Elijah offers up a simple prayer for God to show up.

And God does.

Elijah was right.

God doesn’t care how much water has been poured onto the altar – it’s still possible for our God to bring fire there.

God can do some awesome, spectacular, and amazing things.

Now, Elijah shows up in many more Bible stories, and we’ll hear a few of them in the coming weeks. But the inspiration for all of Elijah’s ministry comes from God – the God who Elijah knows to be powerful beyond measure.

Elijah is the prophet – the vehicle for God’s power to show up among the people. Elijah is the one who makes God known. He’s the storyteller.

         But God is the one who is truly amazing.

Don’t you think?

God’s power can be pretty amazing, even in our lives today.

The church staff has recently heard stories from some of the folks who have been included in our prayer list. Some of those people have experienced truly miraculous healing.

God performs incredible miracles sometimes.

And, of course, as you well know, some people do not experience the power of God through miraculous healing.

There are tragic stories of illness and death in every family.

Why does God respond with healing sometimes and not others?

There is no good answer to that question.

I can tell you a few things that I do know for sure.

Someone who does not receive what they ask for in prayer is not any less worthy than the next person. Each and every person is a beloved child of God and was created in God’s image. We are all equally worthy of seeing God’s power and miracles.

I also know that no one’s earthly life lasts forever. Whether someone’s time here feels too short or too long, whether it’s filled with happiness or pain, it’s just a drop in the bucket when compared to the eternal life that we have waiting for us in God’s presence.

And, I can tell you without question, that God has the power to do anything at all. The stories we’ve heard so far today can attest to that. Why God chooses to show off the power sometimes but not others is a mystery. It’s one that we can ask God when we are face-to-face, but until then, there are no good answers.

What we know is that God is powerful and has the ability to do awesome and amazing things. And sometimes, God chooses to do those things in ways that influence our daily lives. And when that happens, it’s a miracle.

Today’s Gospel story tells about another one of God’s miraculous moments.

In the society in which Jesus lived, there were powerful people – the Romans – and powerless people – the Jews. Jesus was one of the Jews. That’s partly why his ministry had such an impact – it came out of the section of society that tended to be dismissed as powerless and meaningless and worthless.

But a member of the ruling class, one of the Romans, sent messengers to Jesus asking him to heal his slave. And Jesus agreed. So he started heading to the guy’s house, because that’s how we usually see healings done – in person, with the healer touching the sick person physically as well as spiritually.

But that doesn’t happen in today’s story. The Roman soldier sends additional messengers to tell Jesus – hey, look. If you have the power to do this at all, I’m sure you can do it from a distance just as easily as in person. Don’t bother making the trip to my house. I just want this member of my household to be healed. 

And so Jesus performs this healing, across a physical distance but across an even wider social and religious and ideological distance.

What power!

It’s amazing.

Well, to us, the fact that Jesus heals is amazing.

To Jesus, the fact that a Roman would have such faith in a Jewish healer is the more amazing thing.

Taken together, we learn that God has the power to heal physical illness and also the power to repair broken relationships.

God is pretty incredible.

In today’s Bible stories, God does these spectacular things.

You’d think God was trying to get our attention or something!

“Hello, people! I’m over here!” God says. “I’m the one who made you, and I’m the one you’re supposed to worship.”

Why else would the Bible and our lives be filled with stories about God’s miraculous actions?

These stories remind us that nothing is as great as God is.

Money, power, beauty, love – these things are good. But they’re not as good as God. They don’t even come close.

Have you ever seen a great blue heron taking off? Those birds are so enormous, it’s a wonder they can fly at all. But they are so graceful. Every time I see one taking flight, I’m reminded of the power and miraculous grace of God.

Isn’t God awesome?

My mother’s father lived with Alzheimer’s for the last 17 years of his life. He forgot the names of his family long before he died. But I still remember when I visited him and my grandmother, and they were taking their afternoon nap while I read in the other room.

I heard Grandpa asking Grandma, who is it that’s visiting us today? And Grandma told him it was me.

And about 15 minutes later – well after Grandma had fallen asleep – I heard Grandpa calling out to me. His memory had lasted long enough for him to call me by name one last time.

God does awesome and amazing and wonderful and mysterious things.

And I know I’m not the only one in the room who has seen God’s power in action.

Haven’t you seen God’s power at work in the beauty of creation, or in the intimacy of human relationships? Haven’t you felt God’s healing power, or heard God’s voice when you needed strength?

          

I think it’s important that we get reminded about God’s beauty and power and awesomeness from time to time.

I’d like you to take a little time now to write down some ways in which you have seen God in your life.

Where have you seen God at work in the past week, or month, or year? When did you feel God’s presence most closely?

The ushers are passing out cards, one for each person, and there are pencils in the pews.

Can you think of a time when you have experienced God’s power?

It probably wasn’t as spectacular as the story about Elijah, or as boundary-breaking as the story from the Gospel of Luke.

But I know that God has been active in your life.

So take a moment now and write down a memory – or draw a picture of it.

And I’ll stop talking for a moment so we can hear some music while you write.

…

If you’re still working on putting down the ways that you’ve seen God in your life, that’s fine. You can take your time.

And when you’re done, I invite you to share your story with someone else.

         Take it home and have your family share their stories over lunch today.

Call up the person who showed God to you with their loving actions.

Find a way to share God’s awesomeness with other people.

The good news in today’s readings is that God is amazing!

And hopefully, each one of us has seen that for ourselves at some point in time.

But not everyone in the world knows about how amazing our God can be. And even those of us who do know, forget sometimes. We need to be reminded.

So the best way for us to respond to the good news of God’s power is to be like Elijah – to serve as prophet, as storyteller, as the vehicle of God’s grace.

If we make ourselves available for God to use, then soon the whole world will know and will remember how wonderful our God can be.

And that would be the best news of all.

Amen.

Pentecost 2C; 5/29/16

1 Kings 18:20-39; Luke 7:1-10

Fire

Spirit of God, bless us with your presence, help us to understand your purposes, and guide us to follow you with faith and courage. Amen.

The Spirit of God brings passion and new life and unity to the world.

That is what the Pentecost story is all about.

Through fire and wind, and through the very breath of life, God’s Spirit moves among us and helps us to change the world. 

As we well know, fire and wind have the capability to bring destruction as well as life.

The presence that the Spirit of God sends to us may not be easy to accept, and it certainly isn’t gentle. It may even frighten us. But it is passionate and powerful. And it is critically important for our future.

I spent the first summer of my college years working at Sky Ranch Lutheran Camp, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Right on the edge of the camp’s property, part of the forest had recently been destroyed in a forest fire. Any tree trunks that were still standing were charred and blackened. When I arrived in the spring, the burned landscape appeared to be lifeless and barren.

But as spring turned into summer, the scenery changed.

Baby trees started appearing among the charred remains of their parent plants.

Native plants that couldn’t get enough sun in the heavily forested areas were able to thrive in the sunny burn area.

Living there, I learned that fire is both healthy and necessary for a forest to thrive.

Trees like birch spring up quickly after a fire and provide shade and protection for the more long-lived trees that grow a little slower. Jack pines have seeds that will only open in the heat of a fire – if the forest never burned, that species of tree would become extinct.

Fire causes destruction, yes. If the old forest had been our home, our place of comfort, we wouldn’t have wanted to see it destroyed.

But it was going to be destroyed eventually, one way or another – nothing lasts forever. Destruction by fire was the only way to really ensure that what came next would be at least as wonderful as what was being left behind.

Now imagine that, instead of a forest, we are talking about the church. And instead of a literal forest fire, we are talking about the fire of the Holy Spirit.

On the first Pentecost, the disciples were torn away from their familiar surroundings and shoved into a new world in which, suddenly, they were to take Jesus’ place as teachers and healers to their community.

God’s work wasn’t something that they could expect Jesus to do for them any more – he had ascended into heaven, he was no longer with them.

God’s work was something that they were going to have to do with their own hands.

That is the Holy Spirit at work. The flames of passion tore the disciples from their old lives and pushed them toward something new.

That is how it is with us as well.

The Spirit comes into our lives unexpectedly, and completely changes us.

Suddenly we find ourselves living out our faith in unfamiliar surroundings – while the terrain seems familiar, all our old landmarks have been consumed by the Spirit’s fire, and so we need to create a new path through the wilderness.

Like that burn area in the forest, new life is all around us.

Like the disciples, we might be confused about where the Spirit is guiding us.

But at the end of the day, God’s Spirit brings passion to our lives and inspires us to love and serve in new ways.

Some of you probably saw the video that I posted on our church’s Facebook page yesterday. https://youtu.be/rmweXyEeoBw “It’s Pentecost”

Basically it said that, when the disciples were in dire straits – when they had no idea how to carry on after Jesus’ death and resurrection and ascension, when they were realizing that they had abandoned their families and their livelihoods to follow him, and now that chapter of their life was over – when the disciples wanted nothing more than a savior, the savior didn’t come.

Instead, the Holy Spirit showed up and created a new problem for them.

         The disciples had a story to tell, about Jesus.

         And the Holy Spirit wouldn’t let them not tell it.

On Pentecost, the disciples learned that staying behind closed doors, worrying about the future of their community, was not a faithful response to Jesus.

On Pentecost, the disciples learned that, as faithful followers of Jesus, they had no choice but to go out into the world, to serve and preach and care and teach and pray and love and invite others to be part of this community as well.

The passion, the fire, of the Spirit that showed up on Pentecost pushed them outside of their comfort zone and made them consider how to build a new future together, in Jesus’ name.

         That is what Pentecost is all about, for us as it was for the disciples.

There is nothing more Christian than welcoming a cycle of death and rebirth. We believe in a God who was born as a baby, lived a mostly normal human life, and was executed as a criminal – and then, we believe that our God was raised from the dead.

Our faith promises that when our earthly days have come to an end, we will be reborn into the kingdom of God, and that our eternal lives in God’s presence will begin only once our human selves have died.

The cycle of life, death, and rebirth that happens with fires in nature is reminiscent of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth that happens in our lives of faith when we let the Holy Spirit in.

There are some dangers with this analogy, I realize. Whenever we talk about fires in the church, we are moving into sensitive territory.

For example. Some of you are familiar with the Lutheran church two towns over. Several years ago, their original church building burned down.

That fire was not a good thing. Lives were endangered and property was lost.

But as a result of that fire, the congregation was able to rebuild in a new location. They now have a larger, more accessible building, that has been able to respond to the needs of their congregation and the community around them. They built on the growing edge of town, which gave them natural potential to reach out to their new neighbors.

The fire that consumed their building wasn’t a good thing, but as a result of the fire, many good things have happened.

In our country, unfortunately, our history of churches and fire has often been much darker than the story of our neighboring Lutheran church. Sometimes a church fire isn’t accidental and doesn’t seem to result in new life.

During the Civil Rights Movement, in the 1950s and 60s, a number of black churches were burned down across the South. These hate crimes were committed out of fear of loss and change.

In the 1990s, another wave of church burnings prompted new legislation and tougher punishment for people who intentionally set fire to places of worship.

Last year, more black churches in the South burned down, and while some were ruled to be accidental, some most certainly were not.

This legacy of church burnings is a tragic piece of our nation’s history. And I hope and pray that the pattern of burnings will remain there – in history – never to be repeated again.

The flames of the Holy Spirit are not the flames of hate crimes.

And yet.

God’s Spirit can work in the most mysterious of ways.

The most recent series of church burnings has resulted in many communities, including ours, starting a dialogue around race and prejudice in this country.

And that is good news, even in the midst of tragedy.

If that dialogue leads to more understanding, peace, and unity, that will be even better news.

Perhaps the only thing more impressive than the fiery passion of the Holy Spirit is the unity that can be created by that Spirit.

On the first Pentecost, the disciples began speaking in nearly every language in the known world, so that anyone around would be able to hear and understand.

It was a miracle.

It was God, speaking through the disciples.

The crowd asked themselves, “How can they be talking in so many languages at once? We are from Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, Iran and Iraq, Israel and many parts of Turkey, including near Istanbul and Ankara; some of us are from Egypt and northern Libya, or visiting from Rome in Italy, from the island of Crete or from Saudi Arabia. But still we all hear the apostles speaking about God’s deeds of power in our own languages!”   

(Updated locations, courtesy Katie Rohloff, via The Young Clergy Women Project)

The Holy Spirit breaks down the linguistic, cultural, ideological, and theological barriers that separate people from one another.

Today the headlines might say,

“We are Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims and conservative Christians, Nuer and Dinka, Boko Haram and Nigerian civilians, NRA leaders and pacifists. How is it that these people are speaking so that they make sense to all of us?”

The miracle of Pentecost is that God comes to everyone.

God speaks to everyone. And somehow, everyone can understand!

And not only can they understand – but everyone can relate, and take the inspiration of the Spirit to heart!

Imagine what it would be like to have the Spirit of God as the moderator of our presidential debates. With that level of understanding, cultural awareness, and sensitivity to each person’s needs – our political landscape would be turned on its head.

Now imagine what it would be like to have the passion of the fiery Spirit of God behind those politicians, and behind the structure of our society.

Instead of people getting up on their soapboxes and trying to steal the media spotlight from one another, you would actually have leaders who listen to one another and passionately work for the good of all people.

This is not the political structure that we have in our society.

But it is the structure that is possible with the Holy Spirit.

The disciples were in what they thought was a hopeless place. They had come to rely on Jesus while they were doing ministry with him, but since he had ascended to heaven, they were left without a guide.

Until the Spirit arrived.

And the Spirit told them, get up off your backsides and do something about it!

You have a story to tell, you have people to visit and a message to preach, neighbors to care for and brokenness to heal.

So get to it.

The disciples were filled with the unique passion and life of the Spirit of God.

And so are we.

From the unexpected fire of the Spirit comes forth incredible unity among all people.

That is what Pentecost is all about.

Thanks be to God. Amen. 

5/15/16 Pentecost Sunday
Acts 2:1-21