Bishop Craig Schweitzer

Click here to hear the audio recording of this sermon.

Matthew 18:15-20 • September 4, 2011

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

I know one week is a long time, but I hope some of you remember what the Gospel Reading was last week in worship. If not, let me refresh your memory a bit.

The disciple Peter has just confessed that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” after that a short exchange happens between Peter and Jesus resulting in Jesus telling Peter to “Get behind me, Satan.” And then Jesus turning to the disciples and saying “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

I think it’s no accident, and I’m actually thankful, that today we head to Matthew 18. It’s a text that many of us know, but far fewer of us seem to have a clue as to what we are supposed to do with it.

To take up our cross and follow Jesus was last week. In light of the gospel reading before us today, does any of that change? I think it is often easier for you and me to say “I Love You” to someone than to say “I forgive you.” Or maybe even more directly, easier to say “I love you” rather than say “I am sorry.”

Do you know that this text from Matthew 18 appears in nearly every constitution of congregations in the ELCA and many congregations outside of our denomination? It is also one of the most significant ways in which we are called to engage each other during conflict as it arises between staff, pastors, or committee members that serve in those congregations. If this is true, which it most definitely is in the life of our own congregation, why is it so difficult to actually do?

Maybe it’s the somewhat hypothetical questions that are brought forth in Jesus teaching today. The first question is – “If another member of the church sins against you” or another translation from the Greek is “if your brother sins against you.” The second question is “If the member (brother) refuses to listen…”

I like the intimacy that the translation of brother or sister offers in those questions. It moves us from relationships among only members of churches into all relationships of our lives. I don’t believe that it’s a matter of “if”, it’s a matter of “when” these questions will need to be addressed in human relationships.
What Jesus is saying here about relationships is significant, not because we don’t know what we’re doing – but because we don’t always understand the depth and importance of relationships to our life in Christ. Jesus is not talking about us as individuals who constantly seek to control relationships. Jesus is lifting up the fact that all children of God are called to live in community and that all of our relationships are deeply connected together and deeply affect the life of the entire community.

So Jesus is giving us a bit of a guide today for times when relationships aren’t working well or not always filled with happiness and joy. When those times come, more often than not, our response is to simply and strongly point a finger at the other person and let them know what is wrong with them. Is that what Jesus is talking about here? Pointing fingers at our brothers and sisters in Christ?

I don’t use a lot of props in my preaching, but I thought I’d use one today. My brother and I used to play crochet in our backyard growing up. We were fairly competitive when we played, especially if there were other kids from the neighborhood playing. One day, and I honestly can’t remember why – I think it’s one of those memories I’ve repressed into the deepest recesses of my memory. Anyway, on this particular day we were playing crochet in the backyard when all of sudden we are running around the yard and through the house, me in front – my brother chasing behind me swinging the crochet mallet at me.

Needless to say our father wasn’t too happy to witness this activity taking place, he grabbed both of us in a fatherly way that demonstrated clearly what he thought of the entire situation, and sent us to our rooms for the remainder of day. Eventually my brother and I apologized to one another and I don’t think we ever played another game of crochet together again.

I make light of this a little, but I also lift it up in all seriousness. That experience had a impact on the community of my family that day, whether my brother and I knew it then or not. I think it changed our relationship in that community forever. We eventually figured out that what we had done was wrong, but I’m not sure we will ever know the impact or hurt it may have caused our father. The community of family is not easy. It requires active participation from everyone involved.

The community of being church is not easy either. Sometimes it’s about playing fun games with kids or celebrating new life in baptism. At other times it’s about death of people we love and loss of things and programs that we will miss forever.

What other communities and relationships are important to you?

Jesus doesn’t promise us that the relationships we experience in community will always be easy or that everything will go the way we expect it to go or that we will all get along with each other all the time and nobody will ever disagree. What Jesus does promise is that he will be with us in all of those relationships, in all of those communities, and in all of those times. In verse 20 of today’s gospel, Jesus says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

I think that life in community as brothers and sisters in Christ is not found in the fact that inevitably something bad will happen or a struggle will take place or that eventually a treasured relationship that we have will fall apart and require reconciliation between both parties. Life in community as brothers and sisters in Christ happens through the presence of our risen savior. Christ’s presence in our relationships and the communities in which we live invites you and I to experience times that I believe are a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven on earth in a most incredible and beautiful way.

And on this first weekend in September, following some of the most challenging times that many communities in which you and I participate in have ever faced, we gather as a Christian community in worship, children of God who are forgiven and freed to become the people God wants us to become. My prayer on this day is simply this – Good and gracious God, may your kingdom come. Amen.

Click here to hear the audio recording of this sermon.

Matthew 16:21-28 • August 28, 2011

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

My guess is that most of you who call Good Shepherd your church home did not choose this congregation based upon the fact that the ELCA, to which this congregation belongs, meets every other year for something called a Churchwide Assembly. I know that wasn’t the slightest reason why my family and I started worshiping here more than a decade ago.

I offer a word of thanksgiving to each of you who do call Good Shepherd your church home today. I recently returned from the 2011 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I was one of six musicians from across this church who were invited to provide music & worship leadership during the assembly. It was a blessing to serve in this capacity as the ELCA, which consists of more than 10,000 congregations and 4 million members, met in Orlando, FL. The ELCA met to dream, to plan, and to experience the ways in which God is active in this church. I would not have been able to be part of this leadership team without your prayer, encouragement, and financial support. Thank you.

That’s all fine and good, but you may be asking what does the ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly and the 16^th chapter of Matthew’s gospel have to do with one another. Well – quite a bit, actually.

In the few verses before today’s gospel, Peter confesses who Jesus is when Peter says to Jesus, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” This is one of the most significant confessions of belief in who Jesus is, in the entire New Testament.

But then just a few verses later Jesus is turning to this same Peter and saying to him, “Get behind me, Satan!” And then turning to the disciples and saying, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

Those are strong words from Jesus. Listen to another translation of these verses from Pastor Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of scripture called The Message. Peterson writes, “Peter, get out of my way. Satan, get lost. Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat, I am.”

The image in your bulletin (or screen) is a huge tapestry that hung in the main lobby of the convention center where the Churchwide Assembly was meeting. Freed in Christ to Serve gave focus to our gathering. It’s a theme of belief, of doing, and of remembering that Jesus is leading.

I didn’t know much about Churchwide Assemblies before I left Bismarck. My first thought was that the voting membership would be quite boring and largely be led by Robert’s Rules of Order and parliamentary procedure. Their work would be grounded in order and rules, rather than what God may be doing in the church.

Granted there are rules and regulations at the assembly. There are approximately 1,000 voting members who have been elected to attend the Churchwide Assembly by their Synod. Every one of these voting members actively participates in the ministry of a local ELCA congregation. But way more profound than the organization and structure and rules, is the almost overwhelming presence of God. The voting members would adjourn their meeting in the middle of the day so that all assembly participants could gather around Word and Sacrament in worship and celebration of Holy Communion. Outside of worship, prayers are shared in the middle of busy hotel hallways, stories of faith are celebrated on couches in lobbies, and hopes and dreams for God’s future mission of the ELCA are explored over a turkey sandwich that is shared during afternoon lunch break.

The ELCA’s Biennial Churchwide Assembly is far less about rules and order and far more about trying to follow where Jesus is leading.

I want to highlight three initiatives that came out of the assembly where I felt Jesus leading. There is information on these initiatives on a table in the Narthex or on the ELCA’s website.

First, the ELCA Malaria Campaign officially launched. Over the next four years, the ELCA will seek to raise $15 million dollars for treatment, prevention, and education in an effort to eradicate malaria in several sub-Saharan African nations. Malaria claims more than 800,000 lives each year. A tragic number of lives given the treatable nature of Malaria. I’m excited to see how Good Shepherd will take an active role in the Malaria campaign over the next several years.

Second, the assembly approved the 11^th Social Statement of the ELCA. This one called Genetics, Faith and Responsibility. Social Statements are teaching and policy documents, that assist the ELCA in reaching informed judgments on social issues from a faith perspective.

And third, the assembly approved the results of the LIFT Task Force, or Living into the Future Together. The LIFT Task Force has been and will continue to ask two very significant questions to every ELCA congregation, and every brother or sister in Christ who calls one of these congregations their church home. What is God calling this church to be and do in the future? And, what changes are in order to help us respond most faithfully?

Concordia College’s Campus Pastor Tim Megordan wrote this about today’s gospel reading, “To follow Jesus is a believing and doing journey.”

I think Pastor Megordan is right. To believe in Jesus doesn’t insolate us or give us a free ticket to ignore the suffering that exists in our own lives, in our neighborhoods, or in other parts of the world. To follow Jesus is also not about doing an endless list of things expecting that God will love us more if we do them. To follow Jesus is a believing and doing journey. Freed in Christ to Serve is how the 2011 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America sought to follow Jesus.

I think the greatest challenge that I’ve worried about since returning is this. The Malaria Campaign, the latest ELCA Social Statement, or the LIFT Task Force can all come to a very abrupt and quiet ending today if we forget who is leading. I hope and pray that won’t be the case. You and I are freed in Christ to serve – to believe and do as we follow this savior named Jesus. May Christ richly bless and keep us as you and I get out of the way and let Jesus lead. Amen.