Pr. Joseph Crippen

Midweek Lenten devotions, April 1, 2020

April 1, 2020 By Pr. Joseph Crippen

Grace and peace, beloved in Christ!

For our Lenten midweek worship we normally celebrate Eucharist at noon and Vespers in the evening. I encourage you to find whatever way of praying works for you, together or alone. Here’s a page with a possible Prayer for the Day, plus the readings and psalm we chose for this Wednesday in Lent. https://files.constantcontact.com/75414de0501/4fb8e143-b8a2-427b-bb5a-8cce1137e7bb.pdf

Here is a link to my reflections on these texts: https://youtu.be/66t6I_2g8JY

On July 9, 2017, the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, lectionary 14 A, Mount Olive sang, with Cantor Cherwien at the organ: All My Hope on God Is Founded, ELW 757: https://soundcloud.com/user-214043717/elw-757-all-my-hope-on-god-is-founded-9-july-2017-pentecost-5a

Grace and peace be with you all in this journey, and may the witness of Mary help us find our home in Christ.

Midweek Lent, 2020 + Meeting Jesus

April 1, 2020 By Pr. Joseph Crippen

Week 5: Mary Magdalene finds home in Jesus

“Home”

Pastor Joseph G. Crippen
Texts: John 20:1, 1-18; Romans 8:31-39

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Mary Magdalene shows you where your home is.

St. Augustine prayed, “Our hearts are restless, till they find their rest in you.” That’s Mary’s life in Christ. She found her rest, her home with the Triune God, in Jesus.

But it was more than a restless heart for Mary. Luke tells us seven demons tore through Mary’s mind, broke her life, her relationships, filled her with pain. Until she met Jesus. He gave her life back, raised her from a life of death. He brought her home.

Literally, of course. As someone possessed, she likely didn’t live at home, but on the fringes of her society. Possessed or mentally ill people were often shunned, sent away from their families. Torn from all the ties that gave them life and joy. When Jesus restored Mary, he gave her both home and family back.

It isn’t hard to grasp the enormity of this gift. We all are affected by the pain and suffering of mental illness, whether our own or that of ones we love. Maybe Mary literally had evil spirits within her. Maybe she was dealing with a devastating and debilitating mental illness. In either case, can you imagine the joy of having your own thoughts and mind back? It would be resurrection.

But Mary doesn’t go back to her former home. “Home” is now wherever Jesus is.

That’s why she’s still there at the end. At the cross, watching that horror, when so many of his friends and followers ran. Waiting and watching as Nicodemus and Joseph carefully took his body away and put it in a tomb. Being the only one whom all four Gospels agree was at the tomb Sunday morning. The person who meant the most to her, who was her home, her life, was dead. And though she couldn’t do anything about it, she wanted to be where he was. Cling to him. Cling to home.

And isn’t this what the others we’ve met in John’s Gospel experienced, too?

Or were offered? Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the accused woman, Thomas, Mary and Martha of Bethany, the blind man – they all found in Jesus God’s love and healing and an invitation to a new way of living and loving others in the life of God. A life at home, wherever they were.

Living in God’s abundant life now, John says, is being at home, for all who trust that Jesus is God-with-us. The Incarnation is restoration of that loving relationship with God our Creator had in mind from the beginning, a loving relationship that then transforms how we live with each other, with our neighbor. Loving as we have been loved.

Like Mary, you have healing of mind and heart from Jesus. Jesus is your true home.

When you pray, read Scripture, live in our community of faith, when we worship the Triune God together, you are palpably at home. The more your life centers around the undying love of God for you, the more you cling to God in Christ through the worst of life, the more you know God’s life. The more you know home.

It might feel in these times as if you’re separated from everything that matters to you. It’s not just that we can’t have liturgy all together in that holy space that so calls to us. It’s everything. Fear of loved ones getting sick, of the death toll rising, of the length of this crisis, of the possibility of more waves of it.

But isn’t that where Mary was on that early Sunday morning in the garden? She didn’t know how God was going to be with her. She thought she’d lost everything that tied her to life, to home.

But because she stubbornly clung to Jesus’ side, even when he was dead behind a stone wall, she was first to see what changed everything. She saw Christ Jesus raised from the dead. She heard her name called and knew she was home again.

She knew she was still loved by God, still called to be that love in the world.

Mary shows you where your home is.

As she invited the other disciples to see Jesus alive for themselves, she invites you: Come and see!

Come and see – the risen Christ is your true home in God, where you’ll find God’s abundant life, be filled with resurrection love, and God’s Spirit will pour through you, making you a living witness to that love by your life.

So that everyone will one day know they, too have life, and unlimited love from God. A true home.

In the name of Jesus. Amen

Fifth Sunday in Lent, March 29, 2020

March 29, 2020 By Pr. Joseph Crippen

Grace and peace, beloved in Christ!

Attached are links to help us all worship in the home, much as the ancient Church did (though without the Internet!).

Here is a pdf of a page with the liturgy, with a possible order for your worship, and the prayer of the day, readings, and hymn texts. You might want to open each link in a separate tab in your browser, otherwise you won’t be able to have the liturgical sheets open and also easily click on the video and audio. The links are all cued in these liturgy pages. 5 Lent A – 03-29-20

For the anthem by Cantorei, “Spirit Moving Over Chaos,” here is a link to listen: https://soundcloud.com/user-214043717/spirit-moving-over-chaos

Here is a link to a video of the Prayer of the Day and the Scripture readings for today: https://youtu.be/Omv3Pavtyiw

Pr. Crippen preaches today. Here is a link to his sermon: https://youtu.be/Nsytyz2-KU8

The hymn of the day, “Out of the Depths I Cry to You”, is heard at this link: https://soundcloud.com/user-214043717/elw-600-out-of-the-depths-i-cry-to-you

The last hymn, “What Wondrous Love Is This,” is heard at this link: https://soundcloud.com/user-214043717/elw-666-what-wondrous-love-is-this

Grace and peace be with you all in this journey, until we gather together physically, God’s love and grace be with you all!

Watch

March 29, 2020 By Pr. Joseph Crippen

With Ezekiel, Paul’s Romans, and Mary and Martha, the disciples, and the crowd, we wait for God’s promised life to come, and see God’s face saying, “Do you trust me to watch for this and give you life?”

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Fifth Sunday in Lent, year A – recorded for preaching online during COVID-19 restrictions
Texts: John 11:1-45; Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:6-11

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

My soul waits for God more than those who keep watch for the morning. More than those who keep watch for the morning.

Today the psalmist has such longing within, such waiting for God, that it needs to be sung twice or it’s not enough: My waiting is like sentinels who sit for hours in darkness watching for the sun to come up. Like sentinels who sit for hours in darkness watching for the sun to come up.

And so is our waiting. We wait for when this “stay at home” order will be lifted. We wait for when we might be able to gather together again for worship, even gather with our families and friends. We wait for these things more than those who watch for the morning. More than those who watch for the morning.

But we wait for so much more. We wait for the relief from other pain and suffering we or those we love endure, beyond this virus. We wait for when our society will be just and whole for all. We wait for when our national government will serve all people and honor the rule of law. We wait for these things more than those who watch for the morning. More than those who watch for the morning.

And everyone we meet in God’s Word today shares our painful longing.

Ezekiel and the other Jewish exiles long for God to bring them home. Paul longs for his Roman churches to experience the truth of being Christ together and so heal their divisions, set aside their self-righteousness. Mary and Martha wait for Jesus with pain that we can still feel 2,000 years later.

When will morning come? Can you see it?

Well, there is a glimmer of the dawn in today’s Word.

The psalmist assures Israel that with the God who is named I AM WHO I AM there is steadfast love and redemption.

Ezekiel sees a vision of a field full of dry bones. No hope, no possibility of life, and he’s asked: “can these bones live?” And he sees a possible new life for God’s people, a making of living, breathing, bodies from the bones of their exile.

Paul sees what being the body of Christ could be for his Roman friends, bringing different cultures together not by diluting into sameness, but by honoring and loving their differences in the deeper truth of their being one in Christ.

Jesus does show up for the Bethany sisters. He asks, “Do you trust me? I am Resurrection and Life, right now, for you.” He asks what God asks Ezekiel: do you think the dead can live?

My soul waits for God more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.

Today there is a promise of something worth watching for.

Today God’s word asks you: can you trust the GOD WHO IS to give you life?

Three times Ezekiel is told that by God’s restoration “you shall know that I am the ONE WHO IS, who has spoken and who will act.” If they will trust God, Ezekiel and his people will know God’s life.

Paul is convinced the Spirit who raised Jesus from death lives in his people, has made them the body of Christ. Even in their mortal bodies, in this life. Right now. If they will trust the Spirit in them, they will know God’s life.

Jesus invites the disciples, Mary and Martha, and the crowd today, to see in him the life the Triune God is pouring into the world. Martha already trusts what you and I trust, that her brother will live again on the last day. But Jesus says, “right now, I can be abundant life for you.” If they all can trust Jesus to be that, they will know God’s life.

My soul waits for God more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning. God’s Word tells you today if you watch for what God is doing, right now, you could trust not only that morning is coming, but that even in the darkness you can have God’s life in you. A life that restores dry bones, knits a community together, even raises the dead.

What will it take for you to trust that God is worthy to watch for, that morning is coming, that even in the night you are not alone?

Before you answer, notice that in today’s Word, knowing and trusting are invited before any healing happens. Ezekiel’s people are still in exile, and all Ezekiel has is a vision. The Roman churches are still divided, and all Paul has is a vision. Martha and Mary are still in mourning, the disciples and crowd are still confused, and Jesus stands before them as a vision of God’s life.

If you are waiting for God more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning, know this: you’re like all people of faith everywhere. You’re asked to trust that your life, the world’s life, is in the Triune God’s loving hands, even if there’s little evidence yet.

That’s where you are, where we all are, on this day.

So hear this: The Triune God is the GOD WHO IS. Who has spoken love and acted love for you and the creation. Christ is alive, death has no power and God’s Spirit lives in you. You are loved forever by God.

So keep watch. This health crisis will abate, and we’ll be back together. Your other pains and sufferings may last the rest of your life, but they are held in God’s compassion and grace. Our society and world are being healed and brought together through God’s people of many faiths, through you acting as Christ. You may not see the full morning of any of this now. But if you look, there’s a glimmer on the horizon.

And yes, that glimmer can be as hard to see some days as a path out of exile. As hard to hope for as the healing of a community in division. As hard to trust as life when a loved one dies.

But the Triune God’s face looks at you through the eyes of Jesus, and says, “I can be life for you now, even in this world filled with death. I can fill you with morning light even in the darkness of your reality. Do you trust me, dear one?”

In the name of Jesus. Amen

Midweek Lent 2020 + Meeting Jesus

March 18, 2020 By Pr. Joseph Crippen

Week 3: Mary of Bethany pours out her love for Jesus

“Heart”

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
Texts: Romans 12:1-2, 9-13; John 12:1-8

It was easy to criticize Mary.

She took an astonishingly expensive thing and poured it out. If the value really was 300 denarii, that’s worth nearly a year’s wages for a common worker. Whatever you might think of Judas, he has a point. It’s doubtful the disciples’ common purse ever had three hundred denarii in it. Many could have been blessed with that.

It’s easy to criticize Jesus, too. He seems to devalue caring for those who are poor in favor of caring for him. “You always have the poor with you” sounds a little callous.

But the criticism is easy only if we don’t enter Mary’s heart and Jesus’ wisdom. Paul pleads with his Roman churches to live with transformed minds, being completely different people in the life in Christ that the Spirit gave them. Lives filled with genuine love, care for each other, patience, joy, generosity for each other and for strangers.

Mary is living such a transformed mind because her heart was re-made. This pouring out was the only response she could make from her heart. Jesus knows that, sees this new heart. And publicly gives thanks for it.

Mary’s heart and mind were transformed by her life with Jesus.

Transformed by her time sitting at his feet listening, soaking in his grace, the love of God he lived and proclaimed. Transformed by her life with him as his friend, hosting him in the home she shared with her sister Martha and her brother Lazarus. Transformed by her profound experience at her brother’s death, when this beloved Master and Healer wept with her, shared her grief. Opened his heart to her, which she had come to know was the heart of God.

Mary lived in the abundant life Jesus came to bring all. She experienced new life when she was with him, the life in God’s reign Jesus said was now in the world. When she came to this moment, her heart was different and her understanding, her mind, was transformed.

Mary’s new heart gave her deep empathy.

This is a week before Jesus’ death. He’d warned the disciples, and John tells us they feared he’d be killed if he came to Jerusalem. But they seem oblivious to what Jesus is feeling.

Not Mary. Does she know he will die soon? Maybe. But she clearly senses his inner pain, his fear. Her new heart is drawn to his heart, and she feels his grief. She gets this costly perfume and pours out her empathy, her love, her heart, over his feet, and wipes them with her now-fragrant hair.

Living in Christ’s abundant life, with new heart and transformed mind, the only thing she knew to do was to love Jesus in the most abundant and gracious way she could. Little wonder others were confused and even critical. If they didn’t share her heart, how could they share her love?

Mary’s new heart also gave her new math, new values.

Seen logically, pouring nearly a year’s wages on the floor for any reason is criminally wasteful. These were not wealthy people. The math doesn’t work. If you care for those who are poor, and share your wealth with all so that all have enough, whether friend or stranger in need, this gift doesn’t add up.

But Mary’s new heart and transformed mind have a completely different value system, not driven by cost figures or rational argument. When you see differently, understand differently, feel in your heart differently, your priorities and values add up differently.

Far differently than some of her fellow disciples. It’s as if she was speaking a different language, acting according to a different set of cultural expectations. Not just marching to a different drummer, but singing with an entirely different set of musical rules and structures and voices.

This new heart and mind is your gift in the Spirit, too, if you want to live in it.

Meeting the heart of the Triune God in Christ, walking with Christ, transforms your mind, re-makes your heart.

In that new heart and mind, you share Mary’s empathy. Feeling not only God’s pain over the world’s suffering, but the suffering of all God’s children. That’s the wisdom Jesus has in his words about the poor. Mary only had that one week left to care for Jesus. But he made it clear that caring for all those in need, “the least of these,” as he said, from then on was where his followers would care for him. With transformed mind and re-made heart, you have Christ’s empathy, can pour yourself out in love for others whose needs will always be with you. Your Christ heart can feel that pain and offer healing perfume and loving abundant grace.

And in that new heart and mind, you have Mary’s new math and values. We’re learning that in this current health crisis. Suddenly doing things the way we want, the way we like, just isn’t good enough. We sacrifice things that are deeply important to us because we carry Christ’s heart for our neighbors and friends. But we’ve been learning this all along, too. That wealth we share for the sake of others is always a blessing, far beyond tax breaks or investment strategies. That helping someone might not make good business sense but always makes sense in our hearts. That seeing abundance instead of scarcity gives us courage to share in ways others might not understand, might criticize.

I appeal to you, Paul says, be transformed in Christ.

Let the Spirit open your mind to new possibilities, remake your heart into one like the Triune God’s. It’s a whole new world, but it’s life abundant, Mary reveals. And it’s what Christ longs for you to know and pour out into this frightened and broken world.

God’s peace be with you, beloved, in this time we are apart, but still together in God’s love.