June 21, 2021

“In the Storms…Peace, Be Still”

By Bishop Craig Schweitzer

A sermon offered by Bishop Craig at First Lutheran Church in Williston, ND on June 20, 2021.

Mark 4:35-41 • June 20, 2021

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

First of all, Happy Father’s Day! Happy Father’s day to my dad as well as my father-in-law. Happy Father’s day to everyone who has been a blessing to me as a father figure. And even, Happy Father’s Day to all the dads who struggle to be a dad. All of us get this dad-duty wrong from time to time. And some, get it wrong more often than they get it right. You are not alone if I’m speaking to you. There are many ways you and I can grow and get better at being a dad most especially by surrounding ourselves with other dads along the journey.

So…to all the dads…Happy Father’s Day!

Second, this may just be my least favorite time of the year. We celebrate the Summer Solstice this weekend. For those of us who live this far north in the hemisphere, the solstice is the beginning of the end. It is. It’s the start of shorter days, which all too quickly bring us back to the darkness and cold of winter.

And for some reason – I’ll let you pick whatever reason you’d like to pick – this year it seems even more significant that summer is already on its way out. It’s all downhill from here folks…snow shovels and winter coats will soon be part of our everyday life on the prairie once again.

Third, it is a great joy to be with you in worship again. I am so excited to be celebrating the installation of Pastor Madsen – albeit a bit delayed because of all of the storms we’ve faced in the past year – so, this day, without question, is a great day of celebration. Thank you, for the invitation to be with you!

Finally, I do this at every opportunity I have, I bring greetings on behalf of your brothers and sisters across the Western North Dakota Synod – more than 160 congregations; I bring you greetings on behalf of your brothers and sisters who are part of the more than 9,000 congregations within our Lutheran Christian denomination of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; and, I bring greetings on behalf of the Lutheran World Federation, of which we are the only Lutheran body represented from the United States. LWF encompasses 148 Lutheran churches, more than 77 million children of God serving in 99 countries around the world.

 The gospel before us today involves boats and fishermen; storms and the power of God; and, the faith of people who claim to follow Jesus – or lack of faith as we just heard a few minutes ago.

Certainly, storms are something we can all relate to as people of the prairie. I live in a house that overlooks the Missouri River valley. My backyard has an amazing view of the western horizon. As I look west, the view of storms rolling in is incredible – regardless of the season.

Being a native of the North Dakota prairie, I find myself more often than not, standing in my backyard looking across the valley, watching a storm roll in, even when I probably should be taking shelter in a safer location like the inside of my house.

This week’s gospel is found in three of the four gospels. In Mark’s telling of the story, I’ve always been struck by verse 36 that says “other boats were with him.” Why is that little piece of information important to Mark and not to Matthew or Luke?

Well…one theologian believes that it helps us see that we are in the “other boats” as we are called to faith by God. From the very earliest days of Jesus’ ministry among the first disciples and through-out our own life of faith as Jesus’ followers, we are invited to come along.

After all, you and I believe that Jesus, the Son of God, is not merely a first-century miracle worker. We believe that Jesus is the very presence of God conquering evil from the beginning of time and through any and all storms that we will travel through in our own lifetime.

Over the past year, and probably even since I was last with you just a few short months ago, you and I have faced storms.

Storms that have affected our families.

Storms that have impacted the communities in which we live like greater Williston and Williams County areas.

You all had a pretty intense thunderstorm in Williams county just a few days ago.

Other storms that have maybe have even happened within First Lutheran Church’s mission and ministry over its long history in this community.

Or storms, that are often the most painful kind, storms that happen within our individual lives.

We can identify some of these storms easily as things like addiction, broken relationships, a global pandemic, sluggish energy prices and an uncertain future, drought that is directly impacting ever part of our state’s economic engine, or any of the -isms you can think of that occupy news headlines and social media pages this days, like racism, sexism, nationalism, ageism, elitism, etc.

As you and I sit in this boat, that the church of today calls a sanctuary, with all of the storms that rage within us and around us, how are you doing? Are you panicking? Are you asleep? Are you afraid? Have you reached a point where you have yelled out to Jesus because we are perishing!?!

In your own journey as a child of God, follower of Jesus, which has been greater in your recent faith life…fear of the storm or fear of the power of God?? Because fear is at the heart of everything that tears us away from being in relationship with the God of all creation.

Notice that Jesus doesn’t fear the storm that has come upon the boats they are in. If we look at the rest of the story of Jesus that we have in the gospels, Jesus doesn’t fear any of the storms he faces.

And, as we see over and over and over again, he definitely doesn’t fear the power of God.

In fact, throughout the gospels, Jesus embraces the power of God in order for God’s power to be a blessing to God’s children.

Jesus’ clarity about God’s power keeps his head above the swirling waters of anxiety and fear that submerge his disciples. Faith – not lack of care – is what drives Jesus’ character.

As faith communities, our churches act like the disciples on that boat all too often, don’t we?

Do we allow God’s power to bring peace in the middle of the storms that rage around us?

Or, do we continue to allow destructive behaviors to persist in our lives and the communities in which we live that feed storms with fear. Fear that strengthens their ability to destroy our relationships with each other and with God?

A good friend of mine offered a blog post early in the pandemic of 2020 called “My House Has Seen A Lot of Days.” He has lived for the past 20 years in a house in small eastern Pennsylvania town that was built around 1860. That’s before North Dakota was even a state. He was reflecting on all the things his house has experienced – the Civil War, two World Wars, assassinations of legendary leaders with names like Kennedy and King, the civil rights movement, two waves of the Spanish Flu.

As he pondered the stories the walls of his house contain as he wrote, “We can search ourselves, finding ways to contribute and change the world for the better. Or we can sit around pushing disproven conspiracy theories and inflammatory garbage on social media. We can approach our problems and each other with the intention of finding both solutions and unity. Or we can come at everything and everyone with a shield of self-righteousness: ready to fight, be right, and win.

Our outcomes are not guaranteed.” he wrote. “What we say or don’t say matters. What we do or don’t do matters.

Years from now people will sit around in what’s currently my living room, talking about these extraordinary times, what it must have been like to live through them, and how we reacted to our situation. If part of me is somehow still there in spirit, I hope I can listen in proudly.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue our journey of faith together as brothers and sisters in Christ of First Lutheran Church in Williston, North Dakota, called into ministry and mission together as the Western North Dakota Synod, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran World Federation, remember always that Jesus is with us.

When storms rage around us that stand in the way of God’s mission and ministry for us in this time and place, Jesus is there to rebuke the wind.

When storms rage that cause us to cower in fear, Jesus is with us, Jesus is there to say Peace, be still…to the waves and to our fear-filled bodies.

When storms rage that try to convince us that the power of God is not with us, Jesus is with us to us that the power of God is always with us to bring blessing.

Will future generations of the Lutheran Christian tradition believe that we actually lived out our faith confident that Jesus was with us? If we could hear their conversations taking place in our boat 10, 20, 100, 500 years from now, what will you and I  hear them say?

In a few minutes, we will have an opportunity to exchange the peace of Christ. Take note that for followers of Jesus, this isn’t another opportunity to say good morning to one another. This isn’t a simple greeting to friends we know well who are sitting next to us only to ignore friends we don’t know who are also sitting next to us.

The greeting of peace within a Christian worship service – whether you are online or in-person today – is our opportunity to fully live into who we are as  Christian community. A community that is unlike any other community we are part of, because this community believes that Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the one who can command the storms of our lives to be still.

Sisters and brothers in Christ of First Lutheran Church in Williston, North Dakota, Jesus is saying to any storm that may be raging in your life or in this congregation today…peace, be still. Peace, be still. Amen.

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June 16, 2021

Love God. Love People. Love Self.

By Bishop Craig Schweitzer

Just catching up on things after failing to post on the blog in a while. Here is a sermon offered during the Opening Worship of the 2021 Western North Dakota Synod Assembly.

2021 Synod Assembly • June 4, 2021 • Matthew 22:34-40

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

To this year’s voting members – either joining us in person in Minot or via our digital community – and to everyone else joining us via the livestream, I bring greetings on behalf of your brothers and sisters across the WND Synod – more than 160 congregations, 10’s of thousands of brothers and sisters serving together in the western two-thirds of our beautiful state of North Dakota; I bring greetings on behalf of your brothers and sisters across the ELCA – 9,000 congregations, around 3 million brothers and sisters serving together across the United States and Caribbean; and, I bring you greetings on behalf of your brothers and sisters in the Lutheran World Federation, of which our denomination of the ELCA is the only representative of from the United States. LWF connects 148 Lutheran denominations, over 77 million children of God, in 99 different countries who, together, are sharing in God’s ministry and mission around the world.

Those greetings have become repetitive and second nature for me as I’ve traveled across our synod in these first few months serving as your Bishop. They are greetings that I believe are appropriate and important to offer every time I speak on behalf of the church or proclaim the gospel good news in worship.

I think they’re important, because often times we get stuck believing God’s work is only happening through the church when we can actually see it with our own eyes in our little corner of the world.

I also think those greetings are important because so often you and I live out our faith as Jesus commands us to do in today’s gospel by putting greater importance one part and less importance on other parts.

Jesus commands us to love God. Love people. Love self.

Love God – you bet – I get that.

Love self – absolutely – after all, you have to look out for number one, right?

Love neighbor – eh – if I have time or feel like doing it someday, I might get around to that one.

I’m not sure if this is only a condition for people who live in extremely affluent parts of the world like we do or if it’s just a part of the human condition in general.

Our love of self is always comes above everything else. Or, maybe I’m the only one who gets stuck in the darkness of the sin of self more often than I will admit in public. Maybe you never experience that.

I mean, you and I are okay with loving God – as long as God is the god we think God should be.

And, if we have the energy or time, we’ll love our neighbor.

Maybe.

But they better look like me. They better vote like me. They better have the same viewpoint about masks and covid-19 that I had. As long as they _________, you insert whatever you want…we all place conditions on what it means to love our neighbor.

Notice, Jesus’ doesn’t place any conditions or restrictions or qualifications on what loving our neighbor is all about.

If you’ve paid attention to anything I’ve written or spoken since September 1, 2020, you know that Jesus’ commands to us in the gospel of Saint Matthew have become kind of a theme verse for these early days serving in the Office of Bishop.

I’m not sure if they will always be central, but they will always be part of who I am – or at least who I’m trying to be – as a child of God who has been called into this holy and mysterious vocation of Bishop.

Let’s face it, these are easy words for us to hear. And at the same time, they are incredibly difficult words for us to live out. Maybe we could think about it like this…living our lives as Jesus commands us to live…takes practice.

After all, practice makes perfect, right?

Back in the early ‘90’s, psychologist Anders Ericsson conducted a research project. His research involved examining distinctions among piano students of differing abilities, including those who performed at elite levels and those who were merely average. His research suggested that the key difference between a musician capable of performing at Carnegie Hall and one who just plays as a hobby was the quality and quantity of practice.

I’m not sure if I’m ready to admit this or not yet, but one of my former teachers may have been right. Her name was Norma McNamara. She was my guitar teacher as a child. She loved to say to me “practice makes perfect. And, Craig, it’d be great if you could spend a little more time practicing this week.”

Now, Dr. Ericcson’s theories have been challenged and fine-tuned over the past three decades. Additional scientists have taken a closer look at elements of performance in music, athletics, language acquisition, etc. What they’ve discovered is that things like memory, physical characteristics, age of learning certain skills, and even how people deal with their mistakes can contribute to high achievement. What they’ve also discovered is the truth that repetition and careful practice remain critical elements. [www.christiancentury.org/article/living-word/October-20-30-a-matthew-2234-46]

Here’s the thing with repetition and careful practice as it relates to our faith journey and Jesus commandments in today’s gospel – Jesus’ words are not simply a moral saying or something that Jesus is okay with us only doing if we ever get around to feeling like doing it.

Embracing our faith and allowing God to work through us in the ways Jesus commands, takes practice – scripture study, worship, service, prayer, giving of ourselves physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially.

Jesus doesn’t give us a free pass, if we choose to ignore God’s commands to love God, love people, love self.

As Christians, practice focused on these things is at the core of who we are as followers of Jesus – especially if we look at it from the Lutheran branch of the Christian family tree. Don’t believe me – take a few minutes over the next few weeks  and review the promises made in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism as just one example.

Former ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson was asked the question “Why Lutheran?” at an event in 2010. Part of his answer to that question was, “To be Lutheran is to always define ourselves in relationship to others, not what sets us apart from others. We will relentlessly define ourselves in how we’re related to you, not what sets us apart from you.”

Bishop Hanson went on to say, “To be a Lutheran is to understand that the God who has named me and claimed me, called me by name in the waters of Baptism, has not chosen to develop a relationship that’s just with Mark Hanson, but is so gracious, that God always is restoring me to community.”

As we begin this journey into a world and a church that is quickly moving, and unfortunately forgetting, about the global pandemic that we’ve been through over the past year, let’s not move too fast.

Let’s take time to reflect on how God is restoring us to community.

And to get there, I believe we need to take time to confess – individually and communally within each of our local faith families.

To take time to confess the many ways we really didn’t care about being in community with others during this pandemic.

Confess the times when we really didn’t care about our neighbor – especially when we found out they voted differently than we did or because we disagreed on how society addressed the pandemic or because the other person Jesus thinks I should love has a different skin color than me or a different sexual orientation or gender than I am, and because of those things, not even Jesus can make me be loving toward them.

Notice, again, this isn’t how Jesus teaches us to behave as his followers – in these verses or in any other verse in the gospels.

In fact, if you can show me one verse of scripture when Jesus teaches us that we can pick and choose who our neighbor is, and how we do or don’t care from them, point that out to me – I’ll buy you lunch!

I’m pretty confident I won’t have to do that anytime soon.

At least not for that reason.

During this season of the church, maybe words from the 20th century church reformer and activist Dorothy Day can be helpful.

And maybe sting just a little too.

Day is often credited with saying, “I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.”

Sisters and brothers in Christ, take all the time…take all the time you think you and your congregations need in this season. But, I beg you, do not ignore taking time for the work of confession.

Receiving God’s unconditional and unmerited grace in forgiveness is the only way that we will move forward as children of God, as a church, as a human family.

Love God. Love people. Love self.

I believe this holy ritual of confession and forgiveness will be one of the grounding pieces that can help us move forward as followers of Jesus; unite us once again as communities of faith across the western North Dakota synod; renew us as one of the sixty-five synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; and restore us globally and eternally together as children of God in the one body of Christ; commanded by our savior to love God, love people and love self.

And finally, it is my hope and prayer that the 2021 Western North Dakota Synod Assembly provides each one of us with an idea or two – a little spark of the Holy Spirit’s inspiration – that will empower us to love God, love people, and love self in ways we’ve never dreamt of experiencing before.

Theologian Brian McLaren closes his most recent book, Faith After Doubt, with a blessing. I close my first sermon before a Synod Assembly with McLaren’s words.

Blessed are the curious, for their curiosity honors reality.

Blessed are the uncertain and those with second thoughts, for their minds are still open.

Blessed are the wonderers, for they shall find what is wonderful.

Blessed are those who question their answers, for their horizons will expand forever.

Blessed are those who often feel foolish, for they are wiser than those who always think themselves wise.

Blessed are those who are scolded, suspected, and labeled as heretics by the gatekeepers, for the prophets and mystics were treated in the same way by the gatekeepers of their day.

Blessed are those who know their unknowing, for they shall have the last laugh.

Blessed are the perplexed, for they have reached the frontiers of contemplation.

Blessed are they who become cynical about their cynicism and suspicious of their suspicion, for they will enter the second innocence.

Blessed are the doubters, for they shall see through false gods.

Blessed are the lovers, for they shall see God everywhere.

Whether you are in Minot or online for this year’s Synod Assembly, I’m glad you are here. May God bless our time together and keep us wrapped in the unconditional love of our savior Jesus.

Love God. Love people. Love self. Amen.

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