Readings for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, Feb. 16, 2020

• Deuteronomy 30:15-20 
• Psalm 119:1-8  
• 1 Corinthians 3:1-9  
• Matthew 5:21-37

Choose Life, sermon by Pastor Fred
The God of Israel cares about life — we see in our Deuteronomy passage – not only our lives, but also the life of the world. God is a God of life.
 
And then in our Gospel in Matthew – as we continue this week reading from the Sermon on the Mount – Jesus digs deeper into its meaning.  ‘How can we live together as God’s people, people who flow with God’s eternal life, pouring out blessing on all people?’  Jesus came, to fulfill the law and the prophets, not to abolish them – and to ‘tell us what it means to be people who choose life for the world.’  How can we live together as God’s people, people who flow with God’s eternal life?  That’s the question Pastor Isaac S. Villegas poses to our readings today.  (@Isaacsvillegas)   
 
Jesus – by the time of his public ministry – was steeped in the Law and the Prophets.  And the primary Meta story of the Torah, the first five books of the bible, is that Moses led the Israelites for 40 years wandering in the desert, out of Slavery into the freedom of the Promised Land.  In our reading today, they were finally on the verge of entering this land of ‘milk and honey.’  And so, in his penultimate Farewell Speech, Moses gives a passionate plea: “15See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, … then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you …17But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray …, 18I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.”
 
So Moses is about to set them free, to be the people of God, in the most awesome and powerful way!  Life, or death?  Prosperity, or adversity?  Your choice, says Moses – who is literally standing on the other side of the Jordan River, on the eastern bank, at the doorstep of the Promised Land, which he himself will not enter, his work now almost complete, and realizing a new work must be acknowledged by the Israelites, and re-covenanted with their God.  I say to you, says Moses, “Choose life!”  “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live… so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 
 
But the most curious thing ‘you never knew’ about this speech from Deuteronomy – the last of the Five Books of Moses, that started in the beginning with Genesis, and continued through Exodus, the exit from Egypt, through the Laws of Leviticus, and the census and number of sojourners recorded in Numbers, to finally, Deuteronomy, meaning “a second Law,”  …the most curious thing is that it was actually written 100’s of years later – almost 1,000 years – when they were exiled in Babylon!  Yes!  Though it was in development since the time of Moses, as an oral tradition, and some parts of Deuteronomy were written down even as the threat of destruction by Babylon was imminent, some decades prior to the Exile – these last chapters, from which we’ve read today, came together and were compiled in their final form, only when Israel had already been carted away, and so, had lost everything – their homes, their government, their land – and become captives once again, like they were in Egypt, this time, slaves to King Nebuchadnezzar, in Babylon. 
 
And what they needed then at that moment, most desperately, was somehow to have hope for the future, in the midst of this Exile, this second wilderness wandering, this loss and deep grief.  At this, their lowest ebb, was when  this theological speech was written, as a ‘salve’ to bind the wounds of their exile, to remember their God of promise and life.  Deuteronomy recalls how Moses, on the precipice of entering the Land God brought them back to, offered them a choice between life or death, to accept the gift of re-covenanting with God, and live lives of justice and peace – or, to turn their hearts, and lives, away.
 
Where do we get our hope today, to live for the future?  In the midst of this escalating slide into separate systems of truth, fueled by everyday modes of slick, but never-quite-satisfied social media bots and controversies, manipulated by elites within and without, by oligarchs dripping with ill-gotten wealth, threatening our 246 year experiment in democracy, and the very institutions of church and state – In the midst of this seemingly uncontrollable earthquake in our lives, and deep fissure shaking our social fabric – where do we get our hope to live for the future? 
 
The font of life and light of the world comes in the person and message who offers us a new interpretation of the Law – not to abolish it, but to fulfill it.  “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder…’ but I say to you” says Jesus, “that if you are angry… if you insult a brother or sister… if you say, ‘You fool,’” you have already violated the Commandment not to murder. 
 
And so, four times in these verses, Matthew quotes Jesus using this same formula, “you have heard that it was said,” so and so… “but I say to you,” this and that…  This second interpretation of the Law, in Matthew – or third even, if you count Deuteronomy – was written at the end of the first century of the Common Era, addressed to a whole new crowd, a wider audience, a couple, 2 to 3 generations after Jesus. 
 
For those followers of Jesus who were then forming the church, this new interpretation of the 10 Commandments was meant to permeate their lives, and social institutions, rejecting all ‘nativism,’ with the practical-ideal of ‘the kingdom of heaven’ that Jesus had already ushered in.  “You have heard it said that you should not murder, but I say to you,” you should not even harm the reputation of your neighbors. 
- It’s not just actually stabbing someone that breaks my covenant of love and life, says Jesus, but stabbing someone in the back!
         - It’s not just anger, but the hate in the anger, and cutting someone down with your words. 
          - It’s not just pushing someone off a cliff, but bullying and crushing the very light, salt and spirit out of them.
          - It’s not just speaking falsely against your neighbor, as Martin Luther explained in the Small Catechism, but failing to take responsibility to put the best construction on their intentions. 
The Command against killing, doesn’t just avoid being an axe murderer.  It creates the law of Love, and shows no hostility.    
 
Jesus took the “thou shalt not’s,” of the Ten Commandments – that in our time in some quarters, have come to be used as a bludgeon against each other in the name of God – and transformed them into a New Covenant that placed the responsibility for life in the midst of the ‘people of faith,’ to live as ‘lights and salt’ for the world.  “Choose Life, so that you and your descendants may live, …”
 
Finally, Jesus’ re-do of Deuteronomy – created an opening for a new Covenant, between God and the Gentiles.  It was built on the original rock-solid Hebrew foundation, but sprang up again from the root of Jesse, in the self-giving grace of the cross, so that it could not fail to bring new life.  And so it continues to teach us to build on those foundations of justice and love. 
 
Jesus, light of the world, shines and exposes the deep, hidden places we don’t want to look at, because sin isn’t pretty, and we don’t like that look on us!  But in Jesus sin is no longer the last word.  Where once the punishment for making a wrong choice, for falling off the path with God, was death, Jesus comes to us as the new covenant – a washing in baptism, and present-gracious-gift-of-life in bread and wine.
 
Jesus writes the new covenant, the will of God for our lives in the flesh, in the deep red of his own blood, and pours it out for us even today, for the forgiveness of sins.  As the anointed one, Jesus not only teaches us the way, but models for us on the cross, the consequences of human-inability to choose well, so we can be picked-up when we falter and fail, and choose life. 
 
And so, in the light of Epiphany, we can begin to see that ‘Jesus came not to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them.’  He asked us to live every aspect of our lives built on the foundation of justice and love, leaning-in to the gift of life God offers us in the kingdom of heaven – right now.  In a word, Jesus says – from the cross, and journeying with us by the power of the Holy Spirit – “Choose life.”  

Readings for 5th Sunday after Epiphany, 2/9/2020

• Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12)  
• Psalm 112:1-9 (10)  
• 1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)  
• Matthew 5:13-20

Salt and Light, sermon by Pastor Fred Kinsey
I have a friend that loves using salt on his food.  Whatever fine dining establishment or self-serve joint we go to, he always asks for the salt shaker.  The thing is, he has borderline high blood-pressure, so it’s not a particularly healthy choice!  And his boyfriend always intervenes, saying, no, that’s enough!  You know you’re not supposed to do that!  Stop it right now!  Please, for me?!? 
 
But he can’t help himself.  The taste of food for him is just not the same without more salt! – dinner would lose its taste and its value for him, he just can’t stop himself!  He puts it on his pasta and his salad, on his chicken and his brisket, on his vegetables, and, I’ve even seen him put it on tortillas chips, that are needless to say, already very salty! 
 
I gave up salting my food long ago.  And I found that it doesn’t take that long for your palate to get used to the change.  In due time you begin to appreciate the intrinsic flavors of the actual food you’re eating.  You begin desiring all the spices that are found in the many and various ethnic cuisines, that are so readily available all over this diverse restaurant city.  Your palate begins to discover savory, and sweet, and spicy flavors, much deeper and surprising-delicious, than you knew imaginable!  But my aforementioned friend is sticking to the saltiness of salt!
 
Salt, of course, way back when, before refrigeration, was used mostly to preserve meats, and fish, from spoiling.  It was a treasured and valuable commodity, and absolutely necessary to feed the multitudes in 1st century Palestine.  It was also used as an antiseptic, and even as the currency, Roman soldiers were paid in. 
 
If salt were to lose its saltiness, become dissipated or diluted, a very important commodity was lost.  And then, you might as well throw it out on the ground and let people trample it, Jesus said.
 
And so, with this image, Jesus calls us, to be salt – a salt that doesn’t lose its potency, but remains tasty and valuable.  To be salt – like it is for the food chain – a salvation for the world. 
 
And then Jesus also said, ‘you are the light of the world.’  Don’t hide your lamp underneath a big bushel-basket, shutting it off from the world!  You must put your lamp on the lampstand where it can light up the whole house.  (Or course, compared to us, they had rather small houses, two millennia ago!) 
 
I’m calling you to a high calling, says Jesus.  ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.  …For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’ 
 
It’s a wonder that anyone is a follower of Jesus!  What, with Jesus’ railing against Jerusalem’s leadership and accusing them of hypocrisy – on the one hand.  And then this, holding all the rest of us, to the impossible standards, of the Sermon on the Mount!
 
How can we – today’s disciples – fulfill the law and the prophets? 
 
Barbara Lundblad understood the difficulty of this passage, when she commented recently: “For Jesus, salt and light came out of a long tradition of biblical teaching: salt and light were images for the law of God.  Salt and light must take us back to the fullness of the law and the prophets, and the fullness of Jesus’ radical teaching in this Sermon on the Mount.  The prophets plead for fullness of life: freedom from oppression, bread for the hungry, homes for those who have none, clothing for the naked (as in our reading today from the prophet Isaiah).  
Is this not what it means to be the salt of the earth, to keep this prophetic word alive in the midst of our world?  If we lose this vision, if we give in to other values, if we forget God’s longing for justice, our salt has lost its taste.  
If you think Jesus’ call is impossible, remember that the One who is our bread is with us and within us, empowering us to be salt and light in this world.”  From ELCA Sundays & Seasons, 2/9/2020
 
God gives us the will and the tools to be salt that stays valuable, and light that shines brightly in our world.  So it is not us who do it – but God in us.  Like the bread of Holy Communion that we chew and take in, God is with us, and within us, always. 
 
And this gives us the room and confidence we need to be salty-lights! – for our God is big enough to enter all our realities, all our good days and bad ones too.  God’s gift of love and grace is unending, in Christ’s empting himself for the life of the world. 
 
This is captured well, I think, in a recent meditation by Kat Banakis, “Sometimes the worst things that we can imagine actually do happen, and when they do there are moments when we do indeed lose our saltiness and the light goes out.  There are moments when we are in need of basic care, when we are not up to showing up and certainly could not imagine leading the revolution.  … sometimes we are hungry and thirsty just to get through the day.  In those moments, we need one another to nurse us back to life, singing songs when we cannot make a sound on our own behalf.  … Sometimes we need to let rage and sadness enter (to speak their truth) and to sit with those inevitable realities as well.” Kat Banakis CC, January 21, 2020
 
 
We cannot always be the light for the world.  Sometimes, we are the oppressed and downtrodden Jesus loves, just where we are.  Sometimes our health lets us down, whether we’re young or old, and we cannot be the light and salt we so desperately want to be.  Sometimes we try and we fail, and we are afraid of God’s judgement.  Sometimes we are not strong enough to speak up against the injustices we see all around us.  Sometimes we cannot imagine leading the revolution Jesus calls us to. 
 
But that’s when our community of faith steps up for us – and we know they’re our community when we can ask them!  That’s when we become the Body of Christ together, one the feet, another the eyes, another the ears, and so on – and we learn to wrestle with our value, as salt and light together, led by the Spirit. 
 
And, after this past week, we need each other more than ever!  We now know (some would say, once again!) that the bones of our social fabric, the salt of our elected leaders, have truly lost their saltiness, and it’s left – I’m guessing – a bad taste in our mouths.  Our Constitutional rule of law has been put under a bushel – its light has lost its luster.  The separation of powers, of our government, has been made a mockery of. 
 
Now we know, we have ourselves, alone – the communities God has given us – to trust.  We have the high calling of being God’s lights in the world, of being salty and valuable, for the sake of Christ’s mission, in our neighborhoods, and country, and world.  “For truly I tell you,” said Jesus, “until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all is accomplished.” 
 
‘Let your light’ – our light – ‘shine [for the world], so that they may see y/our good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.’  We are valuable!  And as God’s people, we have a calling that only we can accomplish together – a mission that God will work through us, for us, and with us – Christ’s mission of righteousness and justice, that is announcing the arrival of the kingdom of heaven – in our midst!  

Readings for Presentation of Our Lord, 02/02/2020

• Malachi 3:1-4  
• Psalm 84 
• Hebrews 2:14-18  
• Luke 2:22-40

​Last Christmas Present, sermon by Pastor Fred KInsey
Our favorite place for camping ever, was at TRNP – Tedi Roosevelt National Park, which is the smaller section of the Badlands, up in North Dakota.  Back when Kim and I used to visit, it was one of the most under-used of our national parks. 
 
We used to go the 2nd week of October, just after the camping services for RV’s were shut down for the season, and we’d have the place almost entirely to ourselves.  I remember one week we were there during a full moon, and when we turned in for the night, and snuggled into our sleeping bags, our tent was lit up as bright as day!  You could see the moon rising right through the nylon domed ceiling.  And through the front screen door, you could see the deer as they quietly walked down to the Little Missouri River, shimmering in the moonlight, for a cool evening drink.  The light shining in our darkness was a magical revelation!
 
It reminds me of the verse from Psalm 139, “even the darkness in not dark to you (O LORD); the night is as bright as the day, for darkness, is as light to you.” 
 
Today, we have brought out the hand-held Christmas candles, one last time, lighting them up for this festival that always fall on February 2.  The Presentation of Our Lord has been called, the last day of the Christmas season – even though it’s, now, clearly, the season of Epiphany!  But our gospel reading today, directing our liturgy, is chosen from the birth narratives of Luke, to shamelessly orient us back to the time of Christmas! 
 
It was on the 40th day, not quite 6 weeks after Jesus’ birth, that Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus, went to the Temple in Jerusalem to fulfill all that is written in the law of Moses – for Mary’s purification, and to present Jesus as the first-born son with a thank offering to the Lord.  They offered – what was the option prescribed for the poor – a pair of turtledoves or pigeons, instead of a young lamb.  Or, maybe because Jesus is the Lamb of God, and his sacrifice, as such, will come later, at the gospel’s end.
 
But there is another way in which Jesus is blessed on this day, not from fulfilling the requirements of the traditions, but from the moving of the Holy Spirit, made visible in the gracious presence of the prophets, Simeon and Anna. 
 
Simeon is introduced as one who is righteous and devout, and, like at Jesus’ baptism, the ‘Holy Spirit’ rested on him – and it is the Spirit is the One who revealed to Simeon that he would not see death before he had seen the LORD’s Messiah!  Three times Luke tells us how the Holy Spirit is with Simeon, and then, how he just happened to be in the Temple that day when Mary and Joseph came.  And when Simeon happens to run into them, he was so excited, he asked to hold little Jesus.  This was the one, he knew!  This child!  And Simeon, cradling Jesus in his arms, praised God, saying, my eyes have seen your salvation… a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.  Thank you my Master, for dismissing me, your servant, to go in peace! 
 
And Mary and Joseph were amazed!  This was not a revelation about their child which they could have gotten through the traditions prescribed by the religious laws.  And as if to confirm this prophetic announcement, Anna, who lived in the temple as a widow, for maybe 60 years – she was now 84 – she too praised God and spoke about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. 
 
Jesus is a light for revelation to the Gentiles!  We light our candles today, as a token to Christ’s light!  Even as an infant, Jesus is hailed as our Savior, and the glory of Israel.  Jesus is born into the world as a great and saving light. 
 
But we also discover, that not all will react with joy, and praise the Lord!  In the midst of this mind-blowing good news, Simeon takes Mary and Joseph aside, to also, give them a warning.  “This child,” says Simeon, “is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” 
 
Jesus, it seems, is a polarizing figure.  The coming of the Messiah is a light to all the nations, a Savior of the world.  There is no darkness, in the coming age that Jesus announces, for ‘darkness and light are both alike’ to him.  The Messiah has come to reconcile us! 
 
But at the same time, some will be rankled at his presence, and to them, he will appear as a sign to be opposed.  He comes to raise us up, yet some will stumble and fall, through arrogance and fear.  His gift of pure love and grace will reveal and expose our innermost thoughts.  A sword of truth will pierce our deepest souls.  And we will learn to follow, or not. 
 
And so this infant narrative about the baby Jesus, already points us forward toward the Good Friday ending.  Jesus, the Lamb of God, knowing his opponents, and indeed, having confronted them and offered a way out, goes uncomplaining forth to the cross, offers himself in pure love for the sake of the world.  And we, looking up at his tree, will have our conscience pierced, and our inner thoughts nakedly revealed.  And the world was enabled to see in a new way, as if for the first time, our sin and our bondage – as a whole people – to our stubborn hubris and self-destructive ways.  This ‘sign’ of Jesus can be a gift of faith, or a rock-hard refusal, to see. 
 
This is the way Robert Powers in “Overstory,” in our last Book Discussion, described the characters.  That, there were those protagonists of the story who could see in the darkness what was right in front of us all, plain as daylight – how we are destroying our eco-system in the de-forestation of the planet, and all the rest – and yet, we seem to walk blindly into the valley of death.
 
What holds us back?  That’s the question many are asking this last week, in the Impeachment hearings too, I’m sure.  Our President is also a polarizing figure, but in false and manipulating ways.  Not as a light to the nations, not as a Messiah – contrary to what some preachers have proclaimed.  But now that the truth has been illuminated in the Senate trial, our conscience has been pierced, and the inner thoughts of many are being revealed. 
 
We know that God is bigger, much bigger than our short-sightedness, and God’s Light, will prevail, even as we scratch our heads and worry that the country’s traditions and rule of law, are failing and falling. 
 
We see in Luke’s gospel, how the family of Jesus took God’s laws and traditions seriously.  In going to the Temple, they did all they could to follow in God’s ways.  And at the same time, God sends the gift of the Holy Spirit, in Simeon and Anna, to enlighten us, and to creatively use us, to shine forth, and be God’s people in the world.  Jesus himself, as the anointed Messiah of God, does not escape the pain of this world, and even endures an agonizing death.  His light shines more brightly than any candle, and yet it was opposed. 
 
But in his cross and resurrection, our conscience is pierced, and our eyes are opened, and we see, as if for the first time, that the path forward, the lamp-Light, illuminating our steps, is never the way of using force or coercion, never a path of unjust hierarchies, or lording it over others, just to insure our own pleasures and self-serving desires. 
 
Jesus is the law of love.  The way of pure light.  And we see too, that night is as bright as the day!  And in that, we can be dismissed in peace, and serve one another, with joy.