Readings for 3rd Sunday after Pentecost, June 21, 2020

• Genesis 21:8-21 and Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17  
• Romans 6:1b-11  
• Matthew 10:24-39

"Sinners Anonymous," Sermon by Rev. Fred Kinsey
Welcome to Sinner’s Anonymous!  No, not Alcoholics Anonymous, not AA, but SA, Sinner’s Anonymous.  A church that welcomes all who have sinned, because, as St. Paul says, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. 
 
Of course, most of the time, we don’t think of church this way.  Usually when we walk into a worship service, we like to, put our best foot forward.  We naturally want to portray our most attractive selves.  We assume that, to be accepted, we have to be, good people. 
 
But church is really supposed to be about people who acknowledge that they are sinners, and are clear about that.  We can never fully shed our human condition of sin, but, at SA (Sinners Anonymous), we are always in recovery.  We can never be perfect, except in so far as we turn around, walk in a new direction, and give ourselves over, to our life of baptism in Christ. 
 
1bShould we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? 2By no means, (says Paul)! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
 
We know we sin, but we’re trying to live into a new reality, the dawning of the kingdom, that Christ brought us.  To live an honest life that acknowledges the problems we face, so that we can work through the “steps” that help us live into God’s forgiveness and grace.  Going out and sinning more, so that grace may abound, is not honest, and will only deliver us into the hands of Beelzebul, the Evil One’s hands. 

When we begin worship with corporate confession, that’s really what we’re doing.  We’re standing up, as baptized people, and saying out loud: Hi, my name is Fred. I’m a sinner.  Last week I sinned, and participated in structures of sin, like racism, in the following ways.  And we say the Confession together, admitting to our condition of sin.  Then we sit down, having unburdened ourselves, and begin working at living into the promise of God’s forgiveness in Christ, spoken by the presiding minister, on Christ’s behalf.  It’s our weekly meeting.  And then we gather round the coffee pot afterwards – as long as there’s no pandemic.
 
Not everyone is ready to come to Sinner’s Anonymous.  Sometimes we have to hit rock bottom before we’re ready to admit our sin.  Before we’re ready to be buried with Christ.  The hardest to fall, are usually those on top of society’s hierarchy.  The high and the mighty.  The rich and famous.  Perhaps you can think of some examples. 
 
I’m thinking of Abraham and Sarah – the patriarch and matriarch of our faith.  Paul, of course, deals with them theologically.  How they are our parents in the faith.  Great examples for us to live by.  But the details of their life, as parents of God’s chosen people, are much more fraught.  They are, actually, great candidates for SA, Sinner’s Anonymous!
 
When we pick up the story in Genesis today, God has already visited Abraham and Sarah a few times.  The original call to them was a promise of a new land, and a progeny, that would be more in number than the stars of the sky.  But after 10 years, already in their old age, they wavered in their faith that God could do this for them. 
 
And since Sarah was beyond her childbearing years, she decided that God must have meant for them to have a child some other way, and Sarah suggests to Abraham that he could take their Egyptian servant girl, Hagar, as another wife, to bear a child for them!  Abraham, being the macho Patriarch, that he no doubt was, doesn’t give it another thought, before doing just that, and soon, Hagar is visibly, with child. 
 
Hagar, enjoys her new status as the woman who, in place of Sarah, will give birth to Abraham’s first child, and makes no bones about rubbing it into Sarah’s face whenever she can.  When Sarah feels slighted, she goes to Abraham to complain, who, in his elite and aloof way, absolves himself from responsibility, telling Sarah she has the power to do with their servant Hagar, as she wishes.
 
So Sarah, with this permission from Abraham, uses her freedom, not for grace, but to sin more, harassing and humiliating Hagar, who then runs away.  But God visits Hagar and tells her to return, for through her son Ishmael, God will bless them with descendants beyond counting – much like the promise to Abraham and Sarah. 
 
So Hagar returns to her life of bondage, gives birth to Ishmael, who God also said, would be “a wild ass of a man,” which later, will come in handy!
 
In due time, God comes ‘round again, one more time, to remind Abraham and Sarah, that God is giving them a child, of their very own.  Sarah will give birth – which she does, within the year.  And they call him Isaac, or “he will laugh.”  Which is where we pick up the story in our reading today. 
 
Isaac grew, it says in Genesis, and when he was weaned, Abraham was so proud, that he threw a great feast for him.  But, Sarah was looking further down the road at the dilemma they were soon to be in.  Ishmael, as the firstborn son, had a right, to double the family inheritance.  And Sarah demanded that Abraham should not allow this – “a slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac,” she insists. 
 
I’m not sure we should give Abraham a pass, when he feigns sadness, here.  He has not been attentive to God’s plan anymore than Sarah.  But God steps in for them both, reminding them that God will keep his promise of a great nation through Isaac.  But also letting them in on his promise to Hagar, that from Ishmael shall come a great nation too.  Which we know today, as the seed of Muhammed, and the people of Islam. 
 
In the bittersweet ending to this story, we see Hagar and Ishmael being escorted by Abraham, off the property, with meager provisions, bread and water, for a journey to the wilderness of Beersheba, surely to die.  Yet God will provide. 
 
Just when Hagar is about to give up, God hears their cries, and opens her eyes to see a well in the bushes, and, the water is cool, and they survive.  And God was with the boy Ishmael, and he grew and thrived as a bowman in the desert wilderness – he was a wild ass of a man, after all!  And Hagar “got a wife for him from the land of Egypt,” her home.  Ishmael will show up one last time in Genesis – when Abraham dies – for Ishmael and Isaac will come together, to help bury their father.
 
Abraham and Sarah are our parents, our father and mother in the faith, in all their flawed humanity – no different than you and I.  But when God promises, God follows through.  God doesn’t wait for these sinners, these chosen people, to perfect themselves.  ‘Should they continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means!’  
 
God promises, and picks Abraham and Sarah, even in their flawed state.  God also promises blessings to Hagar and Ishmael – not God’s elect, but the outcast and underclass – whom God loves, all the same. God saves us, even when we were sinners – all of us! 
 
What the world still longs for today, of course, is the redemption of Hagar and Ishmael, the cast-out ones, the rejected.  Phyllis Trible speaks eloquently about her condition of powerlessness.  Hagar is, “The resident alien without legal recourse, the black woman used by the male and abused by the female of the ruling class, and the indigent relying upon handouts from the power structures.” (Trible, Terror, 28)  But she is always equally entitled to God’s grace.
 
So, Welcome to Sinners Anonymous – where everyone in recovery from their sinfulness, and reaching for the best in humanity, as God gives us power by the Holy Spirit – gather each week. 
 
We cannot do it alone, which is why we Confess corporately – together.  “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master,” said Jesus to the Disciples; 25“it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master.”  Jesus, is in it with us, expecting our SA (Sinners Anonymous) group to be egalitarian and equitable.  ‘If your leaders call me Beelzebul,’ says Jesus, ‘how much more will they malign those of my household,’ i.e., us?! 
 
We know that Jesus is not, Beelzebul – prince of demons, chief among sinners – but the font of forgiveness.  We can’t do it, without him.  Jesus walks alongside us, in our recovery, in our baptisms, one day, one step, at a time. 
 
And that’s the promise we need, and can count on! 

Readings for Second Sunday after Pentecost, June 14, 2020
​

• Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7) and Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19  • 


• Exodus 19:2-8a and Psalm 100  • 


• Romans 5:1-8  • 


• Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

Readings for Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 17, 2020

• Acts 17:22-31  
• Psalm 66:8-20  
• 1 Peter 3:13-22  
• John 14:15-21

IN COURT Sermon by Pastor Fred
In the highest Courts of democracy in Athens, Paul testifies about Jesus.  Okay, it was also the court of their religion.  They didn’t separate the two institutions like we do.  But Paul was certainly far from Jerusalem and Antioch, when he was dropped in, to the heart of western philosophy and the birthplace of democracy. 
 
This was the city of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.  The city that welcomed, and craved new ideas, and debated them lustily.  It was the place of the Parthenon, and every other famous shrine to the Greek pagan gods, much of which still stands today. 
 
There in Athens, Paul will get in trouble for his preaching, as he so often did.  He will also gain some new followers, even some of their important leaders, according to Acts, like Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris.  Actually, he’s already in trouble before that. 
 
Paul starts by reaching out to the Jewish community in Athens, like he does in every city, before visiting the famous Agora, the marketplace, to engage the citizens of Athens, people just shopping and hanging out, if you can remember what that’s like!  And one day, some philosophers of the popular Epicurean and Stoic schools, stepped in to debate him as well.  And it’s around these conversations that apparently some take offense at Paul.  On the one hand, they derogatorily call him a “babbler,” that is, somebody who’s picking up and relating various bits of arguments to puff himself up, while trying to sell them something.  Like your wild west snake oil salesman, or a contemporary Reality TV personality.
 
But others have a more serious charge, that he is a proclaimer of foreign deities – very similar to the charge brought against Socrates himself, 5 centuries earlier.  Though some also think Resurrection, in addition to Jesus, is one of the deities he’s peddling!  Jews, of course, wouldn’t make that mistake, even if they rejected Paul’s message.  But the Athenians, so steeped in a pantheon of gods represented in the many gold, silver and stone statues all around them in the marketplace, confuse Resurrection — the power of salvation, and, font of new life – with just one more possible god they should consider worshipping. 
 
So they bring Paul to a kind of pre-trial discovery hearing to stand before the Areopagus.  Like our word church, meaning both the people and the building, the Areopagus could mean its democratic body of elected’s, or the actual Areopagus building – or maybe both.  In any case, that Paul has spent time discussing religion with Athenians of every stripe, in the days leading up to this moment, must have been, suddenly, very helpful.  And he decides not to give his regular stump speech, but is able to tailor his remarks to his audience. 
 
"Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way,” Paul begins (flattery, will get you everywhere!).  “For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’” 
 
Pretty clever, picking up on that one, I thought, among the dozens of gods.  But it makes for something he has in common with them, a starting-off place for Paul’s message.  “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.  24The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.” 
 
This was pretty bold for Paul to proclaim, even given, that it was true!  There he stood, surrounded by the shrines of Greek religion, housed in some of the most magnificent monuments anywhere, and in so many words, said they were small and inconsequential, compared to the living God and creator of all things! 
 
So, Paul was tactful, but he didn’t mince words.  In his more secular approach, he didn’t slight or misrepresent the glory and grace of the King of kings, and Lord of lords.  And like all good leaders, he ends on a decision point.  “God overlooked our past misunderstandings about religion as long as we didn’t know any better,” said Paul – “but that time is past.  The unknown is now known, and God’s calling for a radical life-change.  God has set a day when the entire human race will be judged and everything set right.  And God has already appointed the judge, confirming him before everyone by raising him from the dead.”  (trans: The Message)
 
In his whole speech, Paul never even uses the name Jesus, or his title, the Christ.  But he has made a strong case for him in the minds of his listeners.  In his pre-trial appearance, he has given them all they need to know, to make a decision.  He has set the stage for those who hear the word, and who will follow, when Paul will have another chance to deepen their faith, and move them toward baptism in Christ. 
 
We also are on trial in this time of COVID-19.  This is our pre-trial in the Agora, in courts of democracy, waning as they are.  We need to bring it to the sacred halls at every level.  The foundations of our faithfulness in Christ are being shaken, as if by an earthquake.  Are the meek to inherit the earth, as Jesus proclaimed?  Are the poor to receive the kingdom of God coming down out of heaven like a bride to meet her bridegroom?  Are those who mourn to be comforted? 
 
Like the earthquake that shook the jail in Philippi, the city that Paul and his companions had recently left, they could have sat stunned and frozen in fear, or they could open their eyes to the possibility starring them in the face – which is what they chose.  They took it as an opportunity to save all those with them, the imprisoned and the jailer.  They lived out their faith in the God who was creator of all, slave and free, and even of earthquakes; they feared not, and continued on faithfully with the opportunity that was afforded them.  Such a trusting and simple choice resulted in the adoration of the jailer, who took them home, fed and clothed them, and he and all his household received the gift of baptism from Paul. 
 
Covid-19 is our earthquake, from which we can choose to act faithfully, or in fear.  The pagan pantheon of false gods that has ruled almost every part of our lives, impoverishing us, pitting us against each other, and filling our heads with propaganda – like we can’t live faithfully in community and support one another in love, that it’s all up to us individually to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps – has been clearly exposed.  Healthcare, housing, and schools, banking, jobs, and our food supply, have all been shaken to the core, and are crumbling in this earthquake, due to the ‘American-Areopagus-Philosophers of austerity,’ who invest in the dead gods of gold and silver.  We were only barely getting by, before.  Now in this earthquake of a pandemic, we can see with clearer eyes – we can’t go back; we cannot go back, to normal.  And why would we want to?! 
 
“God will not leave us orphaned,” Jesus says in our gospel reading.  Indeed, he will send us another in his place, the Spirit of truth, one who will Advocate for us, and abide in, and with us, always. 
 
Jesus provides halls of justice for us.  He has shown us how very near God is, “indeed, God is not far from each one of us,” Paul says.  And having been made God’s “offspring,” he continues, “we live and move and have our being” in God.  In Jesus’ court, the world will be made right and just, through the power of love that is stronger than gold and silver shrines made by human hands, attempting to enshrine themselves. 
 
The power of the Resurrection is not a deity – a mere statuette.  But Jesus, who once was dead, is now alive, and ruling over all – our in-court Advocate – judging with forgiveness, grace and mercy. 
 
Let us bring this message to all the courts of God’s world, until the living One has redeemed and made us right, in the kingdom and realm of God. 

Readings for the 4th Sunday of Easter, GOOD SHEPHERD Sunday, May 3, 2020

• Acts 2:42-47  
• Psalm 23  
• 1 Peter 2:19-25  
• John 10:1-10

"Healthy Shepherding," by Pastor Fred
 7So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.
 
John, we know, uses a lot of shepherd and sheep metaphors in his gospel.  Jesus is the Good Shepherd.  Jesus is the Lamb of God.  And here, Jesus is the gate to the sheepfold. 
 
Psalm 23, gets right to the point.  “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.” 
 
One of the earliest artistic renderings of Jesus, is, Jesus as the Shepherd, found in the catacombs. It’s the picture of Jesus with the lamb around his shoulders.  So, almost from the beginning, Jesus is known as the Good Shepherd, a descendant of David the shepherd boy, and our ultimate protector and savior – the healer of our every ill. 
 
And that’s what I want to talk with you about today – Jesus as our healer.  Jesus as our healthcare provider.  For the word for health, comes from the Greek word sotor, or Savior, and soteria, or salvation, meaning healing and wholeness, and also one who redeems, restores, sets free, and delivers from.
 
So when Jesus says, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who came before me are thieves and bandits; … Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture,” Jesus is talking about protecting them from the false shepherds, and offering them the wholeness of salvation – a healing for all their oppressions and illnesses. 
 
They could go inside the gate and be safe.  But what’s more, they could – in their new found health and wholeness in Jesus – go out and find safe pasture.  Just as in Psalm 23:  2The Lord makes me lie down in green pastures, and leads me beside still waters. 3You restore my soul, O Lord, and guide me along right pathways for your name’s sake.
 
ELCA Pastor, Samuel Cruz says, “In Jesus’ day, those [elites] who could afford good healthcare and medicine, were not happy when the marginalized received good healthcare and medicine, from Jesus.”  We have thieves and bandits today, just like they did back then, and there is always a struggle for who is in control of healthcare. 
 
Jesus was nothing if not a healer in his ministry.  A quick search, in Matthew’s gospel alone, reveals how universal and inclusive his appeal, as healer and bringer of salvation, was. 

In Matthew 8.3-13
3He stretched out his hand and touched [the man with leprosy], saying, …Be made clean!’ Immediately his leprosy* was cleansed. 
And in the very next verse:
5 When [Jesus] entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him 6and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible distress.’ 7And [Jesus] said to him, ‘I will come and cure him.’ 8The centurion answered, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed… 10When Jesus heard him, he was amazed  …13And to the centurion Jesus said, ‘Go; let it be done for you according to your faith.’ And the servant was healed in that hour.
 
In Mt. Chapter 14;
34 When [Jesus and the disciples] had crossed over [Lake Galilee], they came to land at Gennesaret. 35After the people of that place recognized him, they sent word throughout the region and brought all who were sick to him, 36and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
 
And in the very next chapter, (Mt. 15):
30Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them, 31so that the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.
 
Every healthcare system is a reflection of its morals and beliefs.  How a society treats its sick and elderly, says everything about its values.  And the systems of healing, are at the same time, all about who gets healed, and who’s worth saving.  Even before the pandemic, our American healthcare was really, just a triage system of care.
 
Jesus preached and lived his healthcare values, when he made healing the sick, the lame, the rejected and the dying, central to his vision of the dawning kingdom of God, as he journeyed to Jerusalem, and toward his own suffering and death.  Fundamental to his message, was that, Healthcare was a human right; salvation is a gift from God; and there are always opposing systems and powers to such a belief, which he confronted and revealed.  In fact, his healings and exorcisms have been called, enacted parables, because of how they demonstrably reveal the life-giving power of the kingdom of God, in the presence of our enemies – as Psalm 23 says. 
 
When it comes to people’s health, Jesus seems to be saying, you don’t cut corners, and you don’t ration care!  You raise-up those who are forgotten.  You include those who are left out.  You heal everyone, rich and poor.  Jesus’ health plan was universal, a gift of salvation and redemption for all. 
 
On the other hand, public health scientist, Dr. Edgar Rivera Colón, painted a stark picture of our current system in America.  “The deaths that we're seeing today [in this pandemic] are directly related to the model of health care that's based upon just-in-time production.  You have as little inventory as you can and you cut costs as much as you can,” Colón said.  But, “You can't do that with healthcare without killing people. Throughout the last 40 years,” he says, “hospital beds have been cut, healthcare has been privatized more in this country, health care workers have been treated poorly. Very simply, [the American system] of healthcare [is] kill[ing] people.” 
 
Jesus’ system is – Everyone in, no one out!  Jesus is the gate-keeper.  He invites all to come into his sheep-pen to find safety and protection.  He heals us, and equips us to live, his life – a life of deep faith and spirituality, a life of active non-violence and speaking truth to the powers of evil, so that we can go out into green pastures as the people of God, knowing that baptized in Christ Jesus, we’ve already been made as dead as we ever can be, and so, we’re un-afraid to live in this world, as examples of love, healing, and wholeness. 
 
Jesus our Good Shepherd, protects and heals us, leads us beside still waters and guides us into pathways of justice and righteousness, all our days. 
 
We are, locked-in, the sheep-pen of our homes now, in this pandemic.  But we also have the Good Shepherd by our side, deepening our faith as the baptized people of God, to make us ready to go out into a ‘new normal’ – to embrace our good news message, and live it fully and confidently for the sake of the world – including, for a universal healthcare, that Jesus lived and revealed to all, in his saving love and grace, as God’s anointed one. 
 
Jesus is our gate, watching over our coming in and our going out – healing us, redeeming us, restoring us, and bringing us salvation.  

Readings for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 22, 2020

• Psalm 23  
• Ephesians 5:8-14  
• John 9:1-41

My Favorite Thing about Sheep, sermon by Pastor Fred Kinsey
​I want to reflect with you on the 23rd Psalm this morning.  Normally, I would have chosen this gospel reading, perhaps my favorite story in John, of the man born blind.  But, this has not been a normal week!
 
The 23rd Psalm is everyone’s, most favorite Psalm – so beautiful, so comforting, so simple and direct.  It seems like divine intervention, that we have won in lectionary lottery, and been dealt Psalm 23 today! 
 
So then, sheep!  For me – when I think about it – the thing I like most about sheep is – wool sweaters!  Right?!  I’ve been wearing my favorite Marino Wool sweater almost all winter.  It’s so thin and sheer, and yet it’s so amazingly warm.  I love it!  And, it’s basic black, which is perfect for me.  So, thank you, Marino Sheep! 
 
But the 23rd Psalm isn’t about what we, or I, like about the sheep, but it’s all about imagining, we are the sheep, and God is our Good Shepherd.  David – who came from a family of sheep herders – is credited with writing this Psalm, and imagining he is part of the flock, he doesn’t just talk about God, but talks to God.  It’s personal for him.  “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want.” 
 
The thing about sheep is, they are not the sharpest tool in the shed in the animal kingdom!  Basically they love to graze – to eat all day.  And the reason sheep need a shepherd is because, on their own, they’ll ‘nibble themselves lost!’ James Howell  With their heads to the ground, they follow the greenest and most delicious grass wherever it goes.  And, they were known for walking off a cliff’s edge into a ravine, or wandering too far from the flock, where wolves might cash in their meal of mutton Groupon! 
 
Dog walkers today can use leashes, but with 50 or a 100 sheep, that’s not possible for Shepherds.  They used a rod or a staff to keep all of them together in safety – which David says, comforts me.  “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. The LORD makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters.”  David imagines himself beyond wanting, and beyond danger, because his Good Shepherd provides the perfect space, green pastures and cool still waters, for him.  It’s all good! 
 
And so, it’s in times such as these – the past couple of weeks that have been anything but serene, green pastures – that we need the comfort of the 23rd Psalm.  As we came closer and closer to the Governor’s decision, to Shelter in Place, and stay home, I don’t know about you, but I felt more and more anxiety about how to handle it all.  I’ve always worked at home at least one day a week.  But seeing everything shut down, and for me, changing the whole way we do worship and meeting together, put me on the ravine’s edge.
 
I know some, if not all of you, have had similar reactions and feelings.  There are so many unknowns!  This has never happened before!  How do we get our food now without having any human contact?  How do we negotiate the grocery store?  Or order out from the local restaurant?  How do we work from home?  How do we share our new home office with our partner or spouse – what are the boundaries?  How do we stay in touch with our friends and family while we can’t be with them in person?  Do I have to sanitize my own home? – is my food safe to eat?  How long will this last?  What if I’m laid off and will soon have no paycheck coming in?  Maybe this coronavirus really isn’t that contagious, as some suggest? 
 
Or just, how do I work this Zoom meeting??!!
 
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”  Even “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for You are with me…” 
 
If we haven’t quite yet - for this is still the beginning - I think we’ll come to see that in this confined and cocooned life, shuttered in place, cooped up with our feelings of insecurity and the unknown, God will become more real than ever.  In the depths of our despair, in this shadowy valley, God will enter thru the liminal crags of our yearning, our prayers, our wants.  
 
We desire the LORD to be our Good Shepherd.  What, or who else, can satisfy our deepest longings, wants, and desires?  Cut off from the marketplace – where we can never quite satisfy our wants anyway – we have time and space now to ask God once again to be our Good Shepherd.  To come and guide our lives, completely, always. 
 
So maybe this is a time to reassess what is most valuable in our lives – the things we surround ourselves with, both tangible and beyond our grasp.  “He leads me on pathways of justice,” David concludes.  And in the end, the road of our deepest desire is always to go home.  To return to what is the greatest comfort of our hopes and dreams, or, to have a second chance to right the wrongs, of home. 
 
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” 
 
For me, I hope, going home will be something like feeling surrounded by all my friends and family, and snuggling in my sheer warm Marino wool sweater/blanket – with an overflowing cup of wine – and the LORD as my Shepherd. 
 
In Psalm 23, these are the things God desires for us, even today, in the very presence of this enemy, this coronavirus, this shadow of death threatening to take away our green pastures and still waters. 
 
The Good Shepherd has herded us inside for now.  But, sheltered in place, we can still comfort one another with the promise that goodness and mercy wins.  Let us look forward to dwelling together on the other side of this pandemic.  And let us continue to faithfully trust in our Good Shepherd, whose rod and staff comforts us, and brings us home.  

Readings for the Third Sunday in Lent, March 15, 2020

• Exodus 17:1-7 
• Psalm 95 
• Romans 5:1-11 
• John 4:5-42

"Social Distancing," Rev. Fred Kinsey
Are Jesus and the woman at the well practicing social distancing?!  Jesus, for his part, stays behind at the well all by himself while his disciples trudge into town to get some lunch.  And the woman who comes to draw water – who remains nameless in this story – comes in the heat of mid-day, when she knows no one else will be coming.  She expects to be alone.  All the others will come early in the morning, or late in the afternoon. 
 
No doubt, Jesus and the woman, kept their distance at the well.  But their social distancing was not due to any Coronavirus outbreak.  Neither did they have leprosy, which by the laws of Leviticus demanded the shunned lepers shout out “unclean, unclean!” when approaching others, to warn them to keep their distance. 
 
We know, of course, there was a social distancing of men and women, in public places.  But in this story, most importantly, is the separation, and distancing, of Jews and Samaritans.  Ever since the death of King Solomon (10C BC) – when the kingdom of Israel split in two, and Samaritans no longer recognized Jerusalem as the capital, but worshiped on their own holy mountain, at She-chem, or what’s called here, Sychar – their social distancing hardened into a begrudging rift!  Jews considered Samaritans apostates, and they each became fierce cross-town rivals.  It only grew worse after the Exile to Babylon and Israel’s return in the 500’s, because the Samaritans had been able to hide out and stay in the hilly region of Samaria.  They didn’t suffer, Exile.  So by the time of Jesus in the 1st C. they were so rigidly separate, that John says matter-of-factly, “Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.” 
 
So like most Jews, Jesus and his family and clan, took the easier route along the Jordan valley, skirting Samaria, when traveling back and forth from Jerusalem to Galilee.  But not Jesus and his disciples!  They deliberately cut through Samaria, as if to provoke this encounter. 
 
So there Jesus sat, by the well, and as soon as the Samaritan woman appeared, he bids her ‘Give me a drink!’ – a gender, social distancing, no-no.  I hope he said please, but that’s probably just me!  You can tell by her response, though, that her biggest surprise is that he, a Jew, should even address her, a Samaritan!  Because of course, that bridge is closed.  But Jesus is not concerned about dead laws and customs that don’t serve God.  “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’” Jesus replies, “you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 
 
Unfazed and curious now, she replies, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep.  Where do you get that living water?”  And then she shows him she knows her stuff, “Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?”  Though they share the same scriptures, the strength of the Samaritan interpretation, is the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
 
No, not at all, says Jesus.  What I’m saying is, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 
 
I think that would have knocked my socks off, and right then and there, I would have fallen down and worshiped him!  But the woman’s not yet convinced, and she decides to call his bluff!  “Sir, give me this water, so that I many never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” 
 
But that leaves her caught in a kind of either/or bind.  ‘Water is life, and life is water!’  We need both: real tangible clean and delicious water to drink from the well.  And, the spiritual water that bubbles up from the life of Jesus.
 
To get to his point, Jesus changes the subject.  “Go, call your husband, and come back.”  She only says, “I have no husband,” perhaps distrustful where this is going.  And Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying , ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband…”  Aaha, says the woman, back on track, “I see that you are a prophet.”  And she continues challenging their differences between Jewish and Samaritan beliefs, noting that although she’s impressed he’s a prophet, they unfortunately worship separately at different locations – Shechem and Jerusalem – and who are either of them to change that?! 
 
But Jesus’ answer would have scandalized, both Samaritans, and Jews.  “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  …But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth…” 
 
“I know that Messiah is coming,” who is called Christ, said the woman.  “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”  It seems to be dawning on her now.  But to make it crystal clear, Jesus reveals that, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” 
 
Just then the disciples came back, astonished he was speaking with a Samaritan woman.  They don’t know the half of it!  But, at least they manage to hold their tongues from saying the derogatory and demeaning things on their minds, about her.
 
The woman leaves her water jar by the well, and turns to hurry back to the city.  Immediately she said to those in town, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”  And her testimony was so moving that they all joined her to go back and meet this Jesus.  And when they arrived at Jacob’s well, Jesus was talking to his disciples about ‘fields that were ripe for harvesting.’ 
 
“So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked Jesus to stay with them; and he stayed [in Sychar] two days.  And many more believed,” concluding for themselves now, that, “we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.” 
 
Once again, the disciples don’t come off especially good in this story!  Maybe as Deacon’s who do the grocery shopping, but the true evangelists here, are the enemy-Samaritans, the woman and her followers, whose lives are turned around and who become enthusiastic followers of Jesus. 
 
The woman at the well was the key to unlock this door.  She’s not only an evangelist, but a wonderful debating partner with Jesus!  She doesn’t give up or give in, but contributes and learns, through it all.  She leaves her old life behind, which is symbolized so well by forgetting her bucket at the well, which she no longer needs.  She has found the water that will truly quench her thirst, and has been baptized with the deep well-water that will save her life.  No more does she have to be, one more faithless man’s property, in a series of loveless marriages.  She has fallen in love with the Messiah who is called Christ. 
 
Perhaps, for the first time, she has found her true vocation in spreading the good news.  What if that’s what we all have found, those of us who believe, and who gather in Christ’s name?  Here, we find our true calling.  Here, and when we are Sent out into the world to put our faith into action, we are our most fulfilled selves. 
 
As Liz Goodman says, “…Imagine the church as a place where people who don’t fit their type, find a place for realizing their potential.  Imagine [church] as a people among whom each can find good purpose for power that is otherwise ill-fitting.  The church can’t be a context for conformity.  To follow Christ is to tap into some deep truth ourselves and to cultivate its growth, a process by which is built up, the beloved community of God’s reign.”
 
Perhaps we are a people who have already, felt, social distancing in our lives, long before COVID-19 arrived.  Perhaps we have more importantly found our good health and deepest love through this humble assembly, being baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, that has saved us, and made us one. 
 
So, let us go out – be Sent forth – to share the good news of this deep, deep, spring of water gushing up to life in the new age!  

Readings for First Sunday in Lent, March 1, 2020

• Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7  
• Psalm 32  
• Romans 5:12-19  
• Matthew 4:1-11

"The Devil Doesn't Come in Red Leotards," sermon by Pastor Fred
The best Halloween costume in our family growing up was, the Devil!  I mean, it was elaborate for its time, which was admittedly, some time ago.  Long before scary video games.  Long before the Joker came to life on the screen, back when Marvel Super Heroes were only available in comic book form! 
 
I don’t know where my mom got the Devil costume, but, it was so good, it was the only Halloween costume all of us kids took turns wearing.  It was a first-generation rubber mask, truly scary with its devilish horns.  And the full body costume was a fire-y red.  It even had a long tail to the suit, and a pitchfork that you carried. 
 
When my little brother was probably not even 10 years old, and I had the suit on getting ready for trick or treating, I scared the living stuffing’s out of him, when we met suddenly on the stairway!  He ran the other direction, screaming and balling, and afraid for years after that.  Which, of course, I felt bad about! 
 
No one really believes in the Devil like that, anymore – do they?  The Devil doesn’t come in red leotards carrying a pitchfork! 
 
The author of our Lutheran Sundays and Seasons resource wrote, “This Lent we are called to expunge the fantastical images of the devil from our minds and think seriously about the real presence of evil in our world. We know firsthand about the sin that caused, causes, and will cause suffering to us, our loved ones, our neighbors, our global communities, and creation itself.  Sin is real; suffering is real; evil is real; indeed, the devil is real.  This oppressive, tangible reality is as real as the air we breathe—felt but not always seen.  Greed, envy, rage, hatred, war, discrimination, and apathy are just some of the ways the devil’s forces wreak havoc upon us. These forces have one goal and one goal only: to turn us away from the will of God.” (Sundays & Seasons)
 
Every year on the first Sunday of Lent, we hear from one of the Synoptic Gospel Temptation-of-Jesus stories.  But what strikes me today in this Temptation by the Devil, from the gospel of Matthew’s account is: We are both like Jesus, and not like Jesus.
 
Certainly we are like Jesus when, after fasting for a long time, he is famished.  Most of us, I dare say, don’t go without our “3 squares” every day.  I remember the days when it seemed like, I could eat as much as I wanted and never gain a pound – and I never missed a meal!  So fasting can challenge our normal order, and perception of comfort, and taking for granted the good things we have.  The meaning and value of food on the table can become much deeper, and clearer.  Maybe some of you have fasted before.  Maybe some grew up poor and didn’t have enough, or like more and more students, even college athletes on scholarship, you have been food-insecure and survived on Ramen noodles or gone without meals sometimes.  Jesus knew hunger too, he was completely human in that way, but leaned into his belief that God’s word was more nourishing even, than daily bread. 
 
Jesus was human like us, in that he was subject to the laws of nature too.  Jumping off the top of a large building like the Temple, or a very high mountain, would be certain death.  God has created us mind, body and spirit, and given us this awesome and ‘very good’ physical world.  And God has formed boundaries for us that are meant to be life-giving, though they sometimes seem restrictive or unfair.  We may be tempted toward speeding down the highway, especially after a drink or two, to prove our – I don’t know what, more than human capacity, glorifying ourselves in some way – but of course, that can end badly, for you, or someone else.  Jesus decided not to jump – leaning into the laws of nature God set up for the world, and letting the Devil know, us followers will too. 
 
But we are also, not like Jesus.  We cannot fast for 40 days and 40 nights, I’m guessing.  We cannot turn stones into loaves of bread, as the Devil assumed the Son of God could.  We cannot command God’s angels to bear us up, if we’re bunging jumping and the cable snaps.  We cannot glimpse, even half the kingdoms of the world that the Devil showed to Jesus.  Though in our humanness we are certainly tempted to indulge in some of the ones we have seen – the love of money, the priveledge of popularity and white supremacy, the lure to eat-drink-and-be merry, for tomorrow we die! 
 
As Gil Bailie put it so well, “…the story of the wilderness temptations shows, the essence of [Jesus].  His triumph over demonic snares in the wilderness, [which] was a triumph over the glamour of [imitating the Devil], …an achievement made possible, not by Jesus’ strength of will, but by the superior strength of another [imitative] desire: the desire “to do his Father’s will,” to become the image and likeness of the One in whose image and likeness he knew himself to have been made.” (Violence Unveiled p. 207)
 
We are like Jesus – and, we are not like Jesus.  We are only human, not divine.  But we are made in God’s image, which is another way of saying, we have the same desire of Jesus’ more perfect obedience to God.  We can and do lean into our desire to imitate Jesus, who imitates God.  And the more we do, not just individually, but collectively, together as the ecclesia, the church and community of followers, the more we fulfill the justice and peace of the kingdom and realm of God, and the more we bring that kingdom on earth, as well as it is in heaven. 
 
Because the Devil is real, real in our temptation away from God’s will – and not just pious individual temptations to commit individual sins, for those can be used to pit us against each other for the benefit of the powerful and exploitation of the kingdoms of this world – but the Devil is real, as the power tempting us all to live in those ‘kingdoms of the world’ in ‘collective sin,’ like racism and sexism, like the love of money and excesses of Capitalism, like ill-begotten and unfettered power and the false holiness of war. 
 
The Devil doesn’t come in red leotards, we know, but is subtle, more than overt.  Evil often comes as temptations we already desire!  We see it in the gospel story 3 times: 1) Jesus is hungry – the Devil is prepared to step in and offer a quick fix, bread, that you can purchase right here on the corner from the PayDay Lender, at 400% APR.  2) And the devil knows that Jesus loves the Temple and wants to reform a corrupt religion – wouldn’t doing amazing tricks like being saved from a high-wire act gain him so many more followers?  If you but take the first step, the devil is ready to assist!  3) And Jesus, the Son of God, has been preaching the good news of the kingdom and realm of God arriving in his very person.  So, how about I give you all the kingdoms of the world, if you but worship me, says the devil! 
 
Diablos is there to give us everything we want – the easy way, in a moment.  Follow me, he says, I know some shortcuts!  Tired of all the rules of the world God has made for us?  The devil has an array of kingdoms of this world, more glitzy and attractive, free for indulging your libertarian self-pleasure.  
 
But the more the devil wins, the deeper in debt we become, like a millstone hung around our necks.  ‘Here, come up to this mountaintop and let me show you all the oil fields around the globe.  I’ll give you them all to burn up for energy, to build homes and cities and nations, and make a handful of you rich beyond your wildest dreams, Diablos said.  And now, with our addiction to oil, we are on the brink of a global climate crisis. 
 
But if we say, with Jesus, we will “worship the Lord our God, and serve God only,” we will be able to truly see, and follow in a new direction.  A life-giving direction.  Then, the devil will leave us, and suddenly angels will come and wait on us, begin to bind up our wounds, and open our eyes.  A change is gunna come!  The world is about to turn!  If we live by the grace of God.
 
As Lenny Duncan says, we are in the midst of a theological crisis, more than an economic or social crisis.  So first, we have to realize, and believe, that we are like Jesus, and, we’re not like Jesus – both at the same time.  Then, we will be able to laugh at all our temptations!  And we will begin to desire the kingdom of heaven. 
 
We are created in the image of God.  And God is working for our redemption already.  ?What did we promise in our baptism, but ‘to renounce all the forces that defy God, all the powers of this world that rebel against God, all the ways of sin that draw us from God?’  So, let us deepen our journey these 40 days, as followers of Jesus, who is God’s anointed one. 

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.