Category Archives: Recent Sermons

October 15, 2012

“Everything? Truly I Tell You, Everything” Sermon 10.14.2012

By Bishop Craig Schweitzer

Mark 10:17-31 • 10/14/2012

Click here to hear an audio recording of this sermon.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.

A shepherd was tending his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new Cadillac Escalade appeared out of a dust cloud, raced toward him and came to a stop right in front of him as the tires screeched to a halt. The driver was a well-groomed and well-dressed young man wearing all the latest in fashion. His suit alone was worth more money than the shepherd had seen in his entire life. This Cadillac driving, designer suit-wearing man leaned out the window and asked the shepherd, “If I can tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?”

The shepherd looked at the young man, then at his peacefully grazing flock, and calmly answered, “Sure.”

The young man parked the Escalade, whipped out his Macbook Pro computer, connected it to his iPhone, surfed over to a NASA website where he called up a GPS satellite navigation system and scanned the area in which the flock of sheep were grazing. He then opened up a database and created a few spreadsheets with complex formulas.

Finally – he printed out a 150 page report on his miniaturized wireless printer, turned around to the shepherd and said, “You have exactly 1,586 sheep in your flock!”

“Amazing! That’s correct!” said the shepherd. “Like I agreed, you can take one of my sheep.”

The shepherd watched the man make a selection and bundle it into his Escalade. When he was finished the shepherd said, “If I can tell you exactly what you do for a living, where you’re from and who you work for, will you give me my sheep back?”

“OK, why not,” answered the young man.

“You work for an agricultural consulting firm from Palm Beach and you have never actually worked in agriculture in any way, shape, or form outside of a corporate board room,” said the shepherd.

“Wow! I guess that’s correct,” said the young man. “How did you ever know that?”

“Easy,” answered the shepherd. “Nobody called you, but you showed up here anyway. You want to be paid for providing a solution to a question I already knew the answer to. And you clearly don’t know squat about agriculture, especially shepherding sheep. Now…can I have my dog back?”

Have you ever tried to be a consultant for God? Showed up out of the blue and asked God a list of questions concerning things that you want or need – or at least think you need. You expect answers from God, of course, even though you have already formulated the answers you are planning to hear long before you even bothered to ask the question?

Or does something like this sound familiar, “OK God, just get me out of this jam that I’m in and I’ll be in church every Sunday for the rest of my life.”

I think the rich man in our gospel reading today is being genuine when he approaches Jesus. He kneels before Jesus after all as he asks the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He is a successful person in the community. And a large measure of his success has probably been because he’s had complete control in most of the decisions he’s made. I don’t think the intent of his question is to trap Jesus like the Pharisees do when they ask him questions. I think this man is genuinely interested in his relationship with God. I think he really is seeking to become a follower of Jesus. He wants to know what he has to do. By doing something though, he remains in control – not only of his stuff, but also of his eternal life. After all, he seems to have maintained pretty good control when it came to keeping the law – why can’t he do the same with eternal life? But Jesus knows there is something in the way. You and I and the rich man have things like wealth that constantly get in the way of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Jesus tells the man to go and sell everything he owns. The point Jesus is making is that you can’t do something to inherit eternal life. You can only receive.

Author and Pastor Max Lucado once put it this way as he envisioned what Jesus might say to the rich man. I think his thoughts speak to you and me today too. Lucado wrote, “What you want costs far more than what you can pay. You don’t need a system, you need a Savior. You don’t need a resume, you need a Redeemer…God does not save us because of what we’ve done. Only a puny god could be bought with tithes. Only an egotistical god would be impressed with our pain. Only a temperamental god could be satisfied by sacrifices. Only a heartless god would sell salvation to the highest bidders. And only a great God does for his children what they can’t do for themselves.”

The rich man’s wealth, and your wealth and my wealth too, can’t buy anything in God’s kingdom. All we can do as children of God is receive.

We have all probably heard the saying, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” It’s a thought that I see limiting our life in Christ in a very negative way. It simplifies our life in Christ to only be about a final journey to heaven. Heaven is some place “out there” or “up there” out of our reach or experience. And if we live good lives and are not bad little boys and girls, when we die, we will go to heaven.

Theologian Frederick Buechner said, “We think of eternal life, if we think of it at all, as what happens when life ends.” Buechner says this instead, “We would do better to think of it (eternal life) as what happens when life begins.” [Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC, Frederick Buechner, pg. 25-26]

Jesus was never controlled by possessions, as the rich man was, or as you and I often are, as our churches seem to be at times. The rich man in today’s gospel held so tightly to his stuff that his stuff had completely taken over who he was or would ever be. He couldn’t let go in order to simply receive what Jesus was offering.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, take note of what Jesus does in verse 21 of today’s gospel reading. Even though the rich man can’t let go of his stuff, Jesus looks at him and loves him. Jesus wasn’t adding to his burdens or wealth or possessions, he was offering him a loving and gracious invitation to begin life.

What’s possessing you today? Your wealth? Your job? The stuff in your garage? Needing to feel like you are in control of everything that happens? Jesus doesn’t want you to add more things to your life that burden and possess you. He simply wants you and everything that makes you, you – including the things that keep you from God, in order for you to live. And you know what – Jesus looks at you too. And loves you, simply for being you. Amen.

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October 1, 2012

“___ ___ ___ ___ __ __ _____” 09.30.2012 Sermon

By Bishop Craig Schweitzer

Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29, James 5:13-20  Mark 9:38-50 • September 30, 2012

Click ere to hear an audio recording of this sermon.

Brothers and sisters in Christ grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

I made a conscious decision when writing the liturgy for this week to include significantly more scripture than we typically read or hear during worship at Good Shepherd. I hope these readings help us reflect on how we live as children of God in this world. And even more specifically, children of God who are called to live out our faith and life in Christ – in community. That’s right, I just said a word that some of us may think is quite nasty, especially spoken in church – community.

More often than not, it seems to me that our life in Christ today doesn’t focus nearly enough attention on that word. In fact, I believe that the Americanized form of Christianity that we see so often today has little to do with living in community. Our relationship with God is about choices we make individually to love God or ladders of success that we try to climb so that God will notice us more than the person sitting next to us in the pew or at school or at work. Our relationship with God is about how hard we can pray in order to get what we think we deserve. You and I want to make sure that we’re looking out for number one after all. And we want everyone to know that our sins are not nearly as atrocious as the ones our neighbor next door is committing!

I offer a challenge to each of us as we receive these scripture readings today. I hope and pray that you open yourself up to a relationship that God is painting in our community of faith through these holy readings. This relationship is a much different picture than what we see if we only look at the world around us. The picture of relationship with God through our savior Jesus has little to do with your own accomplishments or spiritual achievements. The picture of relationship with God has everything to do with God’s unconditional love, mercy, and grace calling you and I in every time and in every place to live as God’s children in community. A challenge like that is usually easier said than lived out.

Professor Amy Oden of Wesley Theological Seminary says that, “Mark’s Jesus warns that finger-pointing and scrupulosity (meaning our guilt over moral or religious issues) about others can distract us so that we do harm and cause others to stumble. Jesus returns the focus back to our own behaviors, the ways we speak and live good news, and the ways we place obstacles in the way of that good news.”

But what does that mean? Good news. What is this good news that you and I hear about so often when we come to church? And how do others who are not active in the life of a Christian community see and hear this good news proclaimed and lived out through us? Especially when, I’m not sure that you and I, who are active in a Christian community, know what this good news is or how we are called to live it out in the world?

The cover story in The Christian Century a few weeks ago has caused me to wrestle with that a lot lately. [“The Gospel in Seven Words”, The Christian Century, September 5, 2012, pg. 20-25] The article was called, “The Gospel in Seven Words.” I think it offers great insight and connection with our scripture readings today.

In the article, dozens of pastors and theologians from across the country were asked to do something. To proclaim the Christian message, the gospel or good news of Jesus Christ, using a maximum of seven words.

What you see in the boxes that appear throughout your bulletin today are some of their responses.

In our first reading from Numbers, God has freed the Israelite nation from slavery and captivity and provided for them all they need as they journey through the wilderness toward the Promised Land. But that’s not good enough. They think they need more. Manna alone isn’t enough. They want meat. Even as the chosen and freed people of God, they still live life in captivity.

“He Led Captivity Captive” is how Professor Carol Zaleski describes the gospel in that Christian Century article. “God has broken our fetters (our chains);” she said, “it remains for us to shake them off and enlist in the service of self-giving love.”

Centuries later, the writer of James offers a bold call to action for early Christians regarding what self-giving love is like in Christian community. The letter challenges the Christian community, in the years immediately following the death and resurrection of Jesus, to pray for one another, to forgive one another’s sins, and to hold each other up as united and equal parts for the common good of the entire community. I believe that same call to action can transform Christian communities still today. I don’t know about you, but holding each other up as equal can be incredibly difficult for me to live out from time to time.

Princeton Professor Beverly Roberts Gaventa says, “In Christ, God’s Yes Defeats Our No.” “We belong to God’s love,” she said, “from which we cannot finally flee. Grasped by that love, we are enabled to love God and one another.”

And how about today’s exchange between Jesus and the disciples in Mark’s gospel. The disciples seem to be pretty concerned with someone stepping into their spotlight as members of the elite Jesus country club. They’re not celebrating the fact that the gospel of Jesus, the good news of life in Christ is beginning to spread. They’re concerned that it’s being spread by someone who’s not a member of their club. With that kind of concern, they actually get in the way of Jesus ministry to serve, bless, and save the world.

Lutheran Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber says, “We are Who God Says We Are.” She goes on to proclaim in the name of Jesus that “we are the forgiven, broken and blessed children of God; the ones to who God draws near. Nothing else gets to tell us who we are.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what seven words describe your life in Christ and who you are as part of the body of Christ? Presbyterian Pastor M. Craig Barnes only needed four words. “We Live by Grace” is what he said. “By grace the Holy Spirit binds us to this savior, includes us in the church, moves our chaos over to create beauty, and interrupts our plans with God’s dream that we too become gracious.”

What words, in the name of Jesus, would you place in the seven blank spaces that are the sermon title this week? Those seven words paint a picture of the good news of Jesus Christ that is alive in our world today through you? For those words we give God thanks anAmen.

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