Living in the beauty of Baptism and the struggle of the wilderness

For Lent 1, Mark 1:9-15 is the gospel. Only a few weeks ago parts of this lesson formed the gospel reading for the Baptism of our Lord and Epiphany 3.

As we begin our journey to the cross we begin with Jesus and his baptism. But the reading for this Sunday bridges from the baptism into the wilderness and then continues by celebrating Jesus first proclamations of the kingdom of God coming near.

When I look at this reading I am struck by the beautiful confirmation of purpose that is revealed in the voice from heaven, “You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.”

That beautiful confidence is immediately matched with the Spirit driving Jesus into the wilderness.

I think the God-seekers will struggle with this contrast. If Jesus is God why does he experience the wilderness? More importantly for us today, if he is God, why do we continue to experience so much of our lives in the wilderness?

In Mark 8:27ff Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”

They told him essentially that people think you are a sure thing hall of famer, you are a part of that super hero cast of characters from our past, you are “John the Baptist; and others say, ‘Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.”

The people were placing Jesus up on the pinnacle of humanity. But their answers show they struggled with imagining he could be more.

People saw the beauty of Jesus’ ministry. They could see in Jesus’ trail a path filled with victorious healings and exorcisms.

God-seekers try to understand the beauty and authority of Jesus with the struggle of the wilderness. Because I want Jesus, I want this mystical vision of Jesus that has the heavens opening up with the affirming voice of the heavenly father.d

But I know that when I look at those that have sought God, they still live in the wilderness. I hate the illusions of following God that make think that in Jesus everything is easy.

I struggle in the wilderness. I am pained by the loneliness of the deserted places. I do not know the authority of God as always present, because it seems like I keep experiencing the disobedience of my own flesh and the decadence of this world.

I find it easy to identify Jesus as the one that can reach to the heavenly father. He is the perfect, obedient one that does everything right. He is my comic book superhero. He is perfect, a hero, legendary.

But when Jesus goes from his baptism and the voice of God that splits the heavens into the wilderness, he is not just a Biblical superhero that can reach higher then the rest of us.

Little kids try to figure out Jesus as divine and human and so will pull out the trump card of Jesus. Who can throw a football better than Tom Brady, the kid answers, “Jesus can!” Hah! You got me. He can do everything better and more beautiful than anyone else.

But is the beauty of Jesus all that I need to trust in today as I go through the wilderness of my life?

I don’t just need Jesus who can reach higher than me. I need Jesus, the very hand of God, reaching into my life. I need to know that Jesus isn’t the only one that reach all the way up to God. I need to see in Jesus the very hand of God reaching into me.

So where does Jesus go? The Spirit drives him into the wilderness.

To the God-seeker that sees the heroics of Jesus, there may be a struggle to see God suffer in our own wildernesses.

Jesus asked his disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”

Peter answered with all of us a faithful answer, and it is an answer that finds a remarkable location. Where does the anointed one of God go? After Peter answered Jesus, Jesus told the disciples that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after the third day rise again.

If you are the Christ, Jesus why must you suffer? If you are the Christ, Jesus why must I suffer?

Why do we go from the beauty of the voice splitting the heavens and have to witness Jesus being driven into the wilderness?

I think the struggle with locating Jesus in the wilderness and in the suffering and dying and rising of the cross is because we want to have Jesus be either our superhero that does everything we can’t or try to add him simply as an add-on to a perfectly okay life. Good to have Jesus around. He can do great things. He is the beloved son after all. But do I really need him, or can I just add him to make my life a little better?

Jesus is not a super hero who we all watch on the journey with the detachment of an audience.

Jesus is not the compassionate friend that shows up to console us in our struggle but is actually so weak to not be able to do anything about our actual struggle.

He is the one who has the beauty of the voice from heaven confirming his mission. But we do not just stand as observers of this beauty. We don’t stand in faith with glassy eyed, fuzzy and glowing views of Jesus.

Jesus preached, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel.”

“Repent and believe” means it is time to refocus and trust Jesus. I need to daily refocus and look around. I stop looking with fuzzy, glowing view of what I wish life was like, instead I see what struggles I truly experience. When I look and seek the truth of my struggles, I thankfully trust that Jesus has come. I am glad because I am in a wilderness.

Even after repenting and believing in Jesus we will continue to journey in this wilderness. Even after seeing the beauty of Jesus, we will continue to see him driven into our wilderness.

So why do I keep experiencing the wilderness even after I have repented and believe in Jesus. In my own journey I experience the lonely desertion of the wilderness and I will never forget how necessary God is for living a vibrant life.

In the wilderness that God continues to allow us to experience we will never forget that can’t just have Jesus become our beautiful hand bag accessory.

The God-seeker wonders why we still experience the wilderness if Jesus is really God. The answer is that we can see in both the beauty of the baptism and in the struggle of the journey that God is present in both.

Thesis Proposal Turned–First Draft

I turned in on Monday evening my first draft of my thesis proposal. This proposal has sections in it that provide me an opportunity to demonstrate to my advisor that I do have a thesis worth completing.

Title
State the Question
Justification/Rationale
Biblical/Theological Framework
Literature Review
Method of Research
Bibliography

My working title is “Catechetical Preaching as Purposeful Piece of a Faith Formation Program in a Congregation.”

The catechism includes the six chief parts of the Christian faith: Ten Commandments, Apostles’ Creed, Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, Confession and Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper. Martin Luther wrote explanations for this chief parts of the Christian faith using the question, “What does this mean?” The question of the Small Catechism invites conversation.

Catechesis in preaching proclaims the Word of God and it is not simply teaching the classroom lessons in the pulpit. The unique contribution of catechesis in preaching is to provide the listeners an opportunity to engage in a conversation between the Word of God and the world with the benefit of joining the conversation of the church with the Word.

 

Jesus and the leper

Mark 1:40-45

A leper meets Jesus, he expects Jesus to heal him if Jesus wills it. This confident faith is measured with the mystery of God’s will at work in Jesus.

How can we understand the will of Jesus?

I may find how Jesus works in my life mysterious, but I will always know that He works for mercy. How can I have confident that Jesus seeks to work in the mercy of our lives? Jesus touched this leper and healed him. Wherever Jesus went to preach the good news He brought this good news into action.

Jesus’ command to the leper to keep this good work a secret is ignored by the leper who freely goes about preaching about what Jesus did.

Because of the fame that begins to surround Jesus, He is no longer able to go into the cities. Jesus is left with preaching out in the desolate places, but people from all directions still come out to Him.

There is an interesting reversal of place. The leper is cleansed and able to enter into the communities to preach. Jesus is forced out into the desolate places to preach.

I wonder what this means for our abilities to share the good news of Jesus? Maybe it is hard for us to imagine Jesus present in some places that we go, but nevertheless He does show up in these places. Jesus is never truly forced out into the desolate places because we share the good news of Him in our lives. We might imagine that Jesus is an outsider in our conversations but as we become witnesses to His good work we bring Him inside to our places and people.

Interesting day at church

How much do we expect miracles to happen when we come to church on Sunday morning?

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany – Mark 1:21-28

On the Sabbath day Jesus entered the synagogue in Capernaum and began to teach. Everyone was astonished at his teaching. To experience the teaching of Jesus face to face would be a miracle in and of itself.

Immediately there was a man with an unclean spirit in the synagogue. This might seem like the beginning of a Sunday school story. What I mean is that this seems like something that happened a long time ago. Sunday stories are nice for the kids, but for me, a rational and thinking adult, do they mean much to me?

The question of this man with the unclean spirit is an important question for me. I don’t think I have a head twisting evil spirit working through me, but dangerous and subtle yet still is my own unclean heart.

He asks, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know you are–the Holy One of God?”

What has Jesus come for? What does he desire to do with us sinners who have been made unclean through impure thoughts and wicked ways?

Exorcism stories might seem strange to you, I know that they are almost unreal stories for me. But I know the truth of what it means to live hostile in my heart against God’s desires for me. I know what I want to do according to my faith, but according to my body I seem to daily struggle. I understand the worry of the man with the unclean spirit. My God, I am a sinner. He should want to do remarkably horrible things to me. But Jesus told that unclean spirit, “Be silent, and come out of him!”

I have not been able to give that kind of command to myself. I have tried to tell myself to stop and start following God’s commands. It is the power of the Jesus’ words and works that I need. It is in that synagogue that I find the miracle of Jesus at work. He drives out sin and fills the space with his teaching.

May I obey my savior with my heart and with my deeds. Indeed it will only be by the word of Jesus that I will be made clean.

Fishing – Casting the nets and Restoring the nets

Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Mark 1:14-20

John is handed over to the authorities and Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming that the time is full and the kingdom of God is near. Jesus was preaching, “Repent and believe in the good news of God”

Why is the time full? Because Jesus is present.
Why is the kingdom of God at hand? Because Jesus is present.

How do we experience the fullness of time and the kingdom of God? Being in Christ. How do we share the fullness of the time of God’s promises and how do we share the in breaking into the world of the kingdom of God? We share Jesus and His message, “Repent and Believe in the good news of God!”

As Jesus calls His first disciples He sees them alongside the Sea of Galilee. Jesus comes along two sets of brothers. First Simon and Andrew and then immediately (Mark loves that word) Jesus calls James and John. In the sets of brothers that Jesus meets we find two parts of fishing. Jesus saw Simon and Andrew casting their nets into the sea. Makes sense to me since they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

So one thing is for certain. Fishing can be talked about only so much, at some point the nets have to be cast into the sea.

The next set of brothers Jesus comes up are James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They are in their boat with their father. They are mending the nets. Jesus called them and they immediately left their father Zebedee.

Mending the nets is important. If we spend all of our energy in casting the nets but never spend anytime taking care of the nets, well we will end up with a pretty messy tackle box.

Seelsorge is a German word that describes soul care. I think this word does a good job capturing the responsibility of the Christian to spend time mending the nets.

Of course I don’t mend my soul, just to mend it. I mend my soul so I can cast out into the world the good news of God. The Christian church is called out of the world to be sent to the world enriched with the good news of God.

Repent and Believe. This is the two-fold sermon of Jesus as he entered Galilee. Mending and Casting. I think in many ways all of my sermons should be both about mending our sin sick souls and casting the good news into the world.

Come and See–The Invitation of the Gospel

We started a journey through the gospel of Mark, with the Baptism of our Lord. But this Sunday we make a slight diversion over to the Gospel of John.

It is helpful to see our “next day” text from John in the context of what has happened in the other days with Jesus. Because you see John 1:43-51 is the third “next day” story in the first chapter of the Gospel of John.

The Gospel of John opens with the introduction of the Word of God made flesh and dwelling among us. In those days John is asked, “Who are you?” He confesses and does not deny, “I am not the Christ.”

They ask, “What then…”

He answers them, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness…”

Then the first “next day” is John pointing to Jesus and confessing, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

The second “next day” John again points to Jesus and says about him, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Two of John’s disciples heard him, and they followed Jesus. I always find the first words that Jesus speaks in a story important. Besides the first words in a particular event, we also hear his first words in the whole Gospel of John. Jesus asks them, “What are you seeking?” I want to think about what I am looking for when I follow Jesus. Am I looking for a teacher, a miracle worker, a mentor, savior, or something else?

These two answered, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” Jesus said, “Come and you will see.” These words from Jesus are words of invitation and promise. The invitation is to come and follow him. The promise is that they will see where he dwells. One of those two was Andrew, the brother of Peter. Andrews goes to find his brother and brings him to Jesus.

Now we arrive at our “next day.” Jesus found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Philip is going to follow Jesus, and he goes to share this good news with his friend, Nathanael. He shares with Nathanael the good news that they have found the one that Moses in the Law and the prophets wrote about.

But Nathanael is skeptical. Philip may have known what kind of response to expect from his friend. I wonder how any of us would have reacted to Nathanael’s scathing criticism. Remarkably, Philip responds with an invitation that is filled with trust.

“Come and See.”

The answer to Nathanael’s outlook that nothing good has been found, because nothing good is ever going to come out of Nazareth, is to respond with invitation and trust.

Philip shows to me that trust in the good news shall be my guide through even the most challenging of conversations. The answer to doubt and anger is to respond with invitation and trust that Jesus will reveal the truth.

I am not the one that will convert. I am not the one that will change the hearts of the hard-hearted. I must trust in Jesus to be the one that turns doubt towards trust.

Tearing Open the Heavens

Mark 1:4-11 is the gospel text this year for the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord.

Mark has an urgency in telling the good news of Jesus. There is no nativity. There is no Jesus when he is 12 years old and his parents can’t find him after their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The words of the text start even with an incomplete sentence. “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. [the Son of God]…” Rev. Travis Scholl writes about finding good news in this incomplete sentence.

Mark has an urgency that does not build out of his lack of grammatical skills. He shares the urgency that the world is hurting and desperately in need of the good news that Jesus brings to this world.

Mark shares the words of Malachi and Isaiah to root this beginning of good news in the words of promise that were planted in the prophets.

John appears and he is in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Baptism was not new to the Jews, but before this it had been a means for God-fearing gentiles to convert. Baptism was an rite of entrance into the Jewish community. But John is not proclaiming this baptism of repentance to God-fearing gentiles and calling upon them to convert. This baptism is drawing all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem out to him. People were confessing their sins. This baptism by John was for sinners, for people missing the mark, for those who were an offense to God.

John did not come as a culturally relevant hipster. He was counter cultural and he was calling upon people to enter these waters for a radical purpose.

John knows that his vocation is to point people to the coming messiah and that he himself is not the promised Christ. I think this is a wonderful reminder to every leader in a church, we are not the messiah but we are pointing people to the Christ.

In those days, while John was out there in the wilderness doing his thing for sinners, Jesus was baptized by John.

When Jesus came up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open. This is not a gentle or tame word. The heavens did not open like an elevator door. The heavens did not open like a curtain on opening night for a Broadway musical. The heavens were TORN OPEN.

The gap between heaven and earth, between all that is holy and clean and that which is unholy and unclean is being torn apart. Jesus, the true God and true man is entering our story of sin and struggle. He is coming into the raging waters of our sin. He is not preserving for himself a way to undo this plan of salvation. He will not ctrl-z this action, there will be no undo function. The heavens have torn open.

The Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

The urgency of Mark’s gospel is a part of the story for why Jesus has come into our world. We urgently need the savior that enters into our world of raging struggle.

I am glad that God has not introduced an undo button to his desire to save us from our sins. I can always count on Jesus seeking to be my savior. The heavens have been torn open. God does not want to close the door again on us.

Epiphany–Matthew 2:1-11

January 6 we celebrate the Feast of Epiphany. This feast rejoices that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. To me Epiphany is the revelation that God’s love in Jesus Christ is for all the world, even in a time of fear and self-serving grips on power.

The wise men saw a star rising and came looking for the king of the Jews to worship him.

Maybe these magi were familiar with Numbers 24:17,

I see him, but not now;
   I behold, but not near;
a star shall come of out Jacob,
   and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;
it shall crush the forehead of Moab
  and break down all the sons of Sheth.

We do not know how many wise men there were or what their names were, but the cathedral in Cologne has a shrine to the three kings, Caspar, Balthazar, and Melchoir. This shrine reportedly holds the bones of three men. I think the shrine is a beautiful piece of art, but it misses the point. The light of the star did not come to shine on these three men, but to shine for these three men to see Jesus.

Scripture does not record details of the names of these magi. I think that Matthew could have found out the names of these men and included these details. By not including the number or names of these men Matthew helps point us to their mission. Their mission was not to make a name for themselves. There mission was to see and to worship the one born King of the Jews.

The wise men went to Jerusalem. They went to the people of Judah, but found in Jerusalem fear instead of blessing. In Genesis 12 we can read about how God had blessed Abram and his offspring so that they could be a blessing to all the nations. In Isaiah 56:7 we find the reason God had given the people of Israel a place of worship and prayer was to be a light to all the nations, “for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Led by Herod the King, the city instead became a place of darkness and fear. The priests and scribes knew the answer of promise found in Micah. But the hope of Micah and all the prophets remained elusive because they were filled with fear. The people were experience the painful truth that in the darkness of our sin, we will not see Jesus with our own eyes.

I love how Matthew 2:9-10 says that when the wise men left Jerusalem they saw the star rising again and were rejoicing with very great joy. When we are seeking hope and finding only fear, we are filled with exceedingly great joy when God graciously guides us to hope.

I know that people are in dark times and look around finding that their lives have become a bunch of broken pieces. They want to put their lives back together but in the darkness of their shame and fear they do not know how to live with any joy or hope.

I pray that we continue to find light shining in our lives, even in times of deep despair. Because God is gracious and full of mercy, he sees the times of our despair. He sees us struggling to put all the pieces of our lives together and amazingly he sends his amazing grace to dwell among us.

Preaching from the Gospels in the New Year

In 2012 I will plan to preach more often on the gospel readings of the lectionary. I want to be able to teach the doctrines of the Christian Faith through sharing the life of Christ. I remember a classmate of mine from the seminary, Jeremy Gorline, said he spent one year just preaching from the Gospel lesson. He said it sounds like common sense and easy until you start hitting some of those texts that challenge us.

Jesus in the Scriptures is not always the same Jesus that we have constructed for ourselves. When we get challenged by the truth of Scripture it may feel easier for me to skip over to the Old Testament or Epistle lesson.

So on January 8 at St. Paul Lutheran Church we will celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus. The Gospel Lesson is Mark 1:4-11.

John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

(Mark 1:4-11 ESV)

How in this text do you find the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at work in bringing about your salvation?

God is united in his purposes for you.

Blessings of God

The words of the Benediction are not words that I say to close a service. They are the words of God that travel with us as we journey in the wilderness.

Numbers 6:22-27. The LORD gives words of blessings to the Israelites to daily share as they travel away from Mt. Sinai. The presence of the Lord is not going to be found only in the powerful spiritual moments that cause us see and hear amazing experiences. The presence and blessing of God is promised to with us.