Tag Archives: North Dakota

January 28, 2013

“It’s Fulfilled, So Now What?” 01.27.2013 Sermon

By Bishop Craig Schweitzer

christ-enters-synagogue

Luke 4:14-21 • January 27,2013

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 Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

Last week we heard the story of Jesus’ first act of public ministry from the gospel of John. Jesus’ hanging out at a wedding, turning water into wine. This week we return to Luke and hear of Jesus’ first act of public ministry according to Luke’s gospel. For Luke, it doesn’t take place at a wedding. In this gospel it takes place in the synagogue. And Jesus is not simply attending worship, quietly hiding in the back row pew as any good Lutheran, I mean, Jewish man would do on the Sabbath. Jesus is invited to read from the scroll and in so doing, the words that he reads from the prophet Isaiah set the stage in motion for the rest of Luke’s gospel – a gospel that we will spend a significant amount of time walking through in the next ten months or so.

There was an important speech offered in our country this past week. Did you hear it? It’s important, because it’s a speech that’s only offered every four years. You may or may not have listened to it or care one way or another about its content. It was the inaugural address of President Barack Obama. And just a few weeks ago North Dakota’s Governor Jack Dalrymple offered a similar speech called the State of the State to a joint session of the North Dakota Legislature. In both of these speeches, leaders of our civic life offer us insight into their vision, dreams, and hopes for our communities. Regardless of your feelings about these political leaders, the words these speeches contain are important. They’re not just words randomly picked out of the air. They are words that are carefully crafted and assembled to offer their vision to all of us who live together in community – whether that community is North Dakota or the United States.

Many theologians consider our gospel reading today in the fourth chapter of Luke to be Jesus’ Inaugural or State of the State address. In Luke’s gospel, these initial words of Jesus reveal his identity and vision for all of God’s children and for God’s community. Jesus concludes this first address by saying, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus words here are important. One can’t help but recognize that they must contain some significance for us who seek to follow this Jesus. And as we follow this Jesus, it’s not important to just hear these words. Because in hearing these words, we are called into relationship to live in community and sent into the world for action.

Pastor Dan Erlander describes the scene this way in his book Manna & Mercy, “In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus delivered his inaugural address. He opened the scroll to Isaiah and read about ‘good news to the poor’ and ‘the acceptable year of Yahweh.’ This was jubilee language, land reform language! After reading, he announced that this text was being fulfilled in their hearing. Could it be true? He was proclaiming the good news that God’s reign of justice and mercy, of land restored, slaves freed, and debts canceled had begun. Could it be true?” [pg. 43]

So what do you think? This scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, so now what? What does this fulfillment look like? Not 2,000 years ago. Today. Not 50 years ago as many of us long for the good old days. Today. And not in predictions of a distant future that none of us can see no matter how much we think we can. Today. What impact does this fulfillment have on our life and the world today?

But let’s pause for a moment and refresh our memory as to what Jesus says is actually being fulfilled. I know we just heard it a few minutes ago, but if you are anything like me, you may have already moved on to thinking about where you’re going to eat after worship. The scripture that Jesus reads is from the prophet Isaiah. Jesus proclaims, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as you hear these words take note that they are only good news if you are willing to admit that you are not the greatest human being to ever walk the face of planet Earth. Or are willing to admit that everything in your life is not always put together perfectly, even though you have become very good at pretending like you have everything together all of the time.

Professor David Lose challenges us this week by stating, “God offers words of comfort, but such words only mean something to those living with discomfort.”

In our gospel reading today, Jesus is ushering in the Kingdom of God. Ushering in a kingdom bringing good news to the poor. How are you experiencing poverty today? Jesus is ushering in a kingdom bringing good news to those who are captive. What do you need release from today? Jesus is ushering in a kingdom bringing good news to those who are blind. What are you failing to see? Jesus is ushering in a kingdom bringing good news to those who are oppressed. What longings for freedom do you have today?

This is not just a superficial kind of “good news” for people who call on God when they think they need a new car in their garage or that they deserve that really expensive new pair of shoes in the store because they’ve been working really hard lately. Are we worshiping today to fulfill our own expectations – which are usually pretty self-centered. Or are we worshiping today ready and open to receive the spirit of God that is showing up. Showing up with news so good that it lifts us out of every poverty; news so good that it breaks the chains of everything that is possessing us and holding us captive; news so good that all our blindness is destroyed by the light of a savior named Jesus.

Jesus says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Those are important words to hear today.

One of my favorite authors, Anne Lamott, offers an insight in one of my all-time favorite books that she wrote called, Plan B: Thoughts on Faith. Her thoughts on faith helped as I walked with our gospel reading this week.

Anne writes this in a chapter called Let Us Commence. “First find a path,” she says, “and a little light to see by. Then push up your sleeves and start helping.

You don’t have to go overseas. There are people in this country who are poor in spirit, worried, depressed, dancing as fast as they can; their kids are sick, or their retirement savings are gone. There is great loneliness among us, life-threatening loneliness. People have given up on peace, on equality. You do what you can, what good people have always done: you bring thirsty people water, you share your food, you try to help the homeless find shelter, you stand up for the underdog.” [Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, by Anne Lamott, pg. 307-308]

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus says that it’s fulfilled. Today. So now what?

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June 18, 2012

“Plant. Sleep. Harvest. Repeat.” 06.17.2012 Sermon

By Bishop Craig Schweitzer

Mark 4:26-34 • June 17, 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. Amen.

Happy Father’s Day. Being a father is the most challenging while at the same time rewarding vocation that any of us who are fathers will ever be invited to live out. I give thanks each day for this calling and pray for strength and guidance as only God our Father can give.

Author and commentator Garrison Keillor has an interesting insight that I can relate to as a father of daughters. I had to laugh when I first heard Keillor say, “The father of a daughter is nothing but a high-class hostage. A father turns a stony face to his sons, berates them, shakes his antlers, paws the ground, snorts, runs them off into the underbrush, but when his daughter puts her arm over his shoulder and says, ‘Daddy, I need to ask you something,’ he is a pat of butter in a hot frying pan.”

 It seems fitting on this Father’s Day weekend that our gospel reading comes from the fourth chapter of Mark. It’s sometimes known as the seed chapter because it contains three parables from Jesus that all involve seeds. I’m especially drawn to the second parable because it calls us to plant, to rest and let God do a little work, and then to harvest. But before we get too far into that, let’s ask a question that all of us have probably asked at one time or another – “What is a parable anyway??”

I like Pastor Eugene Peterson’s response to that question in his book Tell It Slant. Peterson wrote, “The parable is a form of speech that has a style all its own. It is a way of saying something that requires the imaginative participation of the listener. A parable is not ordinarily used to tell us something new but to get us to notice something that we have overlooked although it has been right there before us for years. Or it is used to get us to take seriously something we have dismissed as unimportant because we have never seen the point of it. Before we know it, we are involved.”

Too often, I think followers of Jesus use the parables as a way to solve a problem or set the record straight or prove a political or moral point for something. I don’t believe that’s how Jesus intended us to hear the parables or use them in our life of faith. I don’t believe that Jesus taught with parables in order to give us black and white answers to questions. I think Jesus taught in parables to invite us into deeper conversation and ever unfolding questions about life and faith and everything in between. I think Jesus taught in parables to invite us into deeper relationship with God and each other as children of God.

The second parable today is my favorite. It’s known as the Parable of the Growing Seed. It’s the shortest of all the parables and only found in the gospel of Mark. As with many parables, it has an agricultural theme, which to be honest, causes a bit of a stumbling block for many people, especially people like me who have little experience or understanding of anything dealing with agriculture.

But I think Jesus is calling us to plant in this parable. What does this parable have to do with the world in which you and I live today? Sometimes parables are like the story of a first grade classroom where the teacher is reading the story of the Three Little Pigs to her students. The teacher comes to the part of the story where the first pig is trying to gather building materials for his home.

The teacher reads, “…and so the little pig went up to the man with a wheel barrow full of straw and said ‘Pardon me sir, but might I have some of that straw to build my house with?’”

The teacher stops and asks the class, “And what do you think the man said?”

One enthusiastic boy in the class raises his hand and says, “I know! I know! The man said, ‘Holy smokes! A talking pig!’”

So if we can only follow Jesus by knowing how to plant seeds and harvest in the same way a farmer does, I, for one, am in trouble. I’d be the one at harvest time saying, “Holy smokes! It’s time for the lawn mower!” When in fact a combine may be what we need.

I never afraid to admit that I’m a city kid. In fact, my cousins from Napoleon often called me a city-slicker when we were growing up. I’m born and raised in western North Dakota, but only have a few memories that connect me directly to farming.

I remember checking cattle a few times with a friend of our family’s who’s an Angus rancher in Logan County. I never did figure out what we were checking on when we checked cattle or if what we were checking on ever did in fact get checked.

I’ve also spent a few afternoons checking wheat fields with my father-in-law. He farms several thousand acres of winter and spring wheat in north central Montana. I’m not sure I know any aspect of my life in as much detail as he knows every inch of every crop in every field that he farms.

And one of the most tragic experiences of farming in my life was my attempt one morning to milk cows on my uncle’s dairy farm near Kintyre, North Dakota. It is one of the longest and most difficult mornings that I can remember.

Even though I am a native of North Dakota and consider myself a child of the North Dakota prairie, my story is not centered in the world of farming and agriculture. My story involves reading books and teaching; playing guitar and enjoying music; or enjoying a good cup of coffee that’s accompanied with engaging conversation.

The culture in Jesus’ day was largely agrarian. The culture that you and I live in today is pretty removed from an agrarian culture like that of Jesus’ time.

You and I may not plant seeds like a farmer, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t plant seeds. As fathers, we’re invited to plant seeds all the time. As parents, Wendy and I are planting seeds constantly in our daughter’s lives. Seeds of forgiveness and love for all of God’s people. Seeds that model the importance of hard work, taking time for rest and play, and caring for God’s creation. Wendy and I can’t control how or when or why these seeds grow, but they do. And each and every day, we get to experience and celebrate the abundant harvest. A harvest in our children that is greater than anything we could have grown or constructed on our own.

People of the resurrection, you and I are called to plant seeds, to take time for rest and play, and to live in confidence that the harvest will come. The good news of the resurrection of our savior Jesus Christ is that the harvest comes. Brothers and sisters in Christ, never never stop planting. Amen.

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