Download worship folder for Sunday, September 22, 2024.
Presiding: Pastor Joseph Crippen
Preaching: Vicar Natalie Wussler
Readings and prayers: James E. Berka, lector; Tricia Van Ee, assisting minister
Organist: Robert Buckley Farlee
Download next Sunday’s readings for this Tuesday’s noon Bible study.
Download worship folder for this liturgy, September 21, 2024, 2:00 p.m.
Presiding and Preaching: Pr. Joseph Crippen
Readings and prayers: Irene Campbell, lector; Kathy Thurston, assisting minister
Organist: Robert Buckley Farlee
By office
We are all called to the path of Christ together, sustained and transformed by the love of Christ who leads and is beside us on the path.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 24 B
Texts: Mark 8:27-38; Isaiah 50:4-9a
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
“God has trained my tongue so I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.”
That’s what Isaiah claims, and what a gift that would be for any of us dealing with each other in this world. Because we are often weary.
We’re weary that there is so much polarization and so much anger and so much entrenched opinion in the world, while our neighbors here and around the world are still suffering. We don’t know what to do. It’s wearying to wake up every day and face that helplessness.
And we’re weary that as much as we know the call to love our neighbor, even to pray for our enemies, as much as we hope to bear God’s love in the world, we struggle doing it. It’s wearying to wake up every day and face disappointment over how we live.
So if there is a sustaining word in our Scripture today, it would be worth knowing.
Instead, we hear Peter rebuked by God’s Son, called Satan, told he’s in the way. It’s not a terribly sustaining Gospel reading. Especially when it ends with God-with-us talking about being ashamed of us.
But there’s a lot more to this story than rebuke and shame.
To begin with, Peter isn’t rebuked for failing as a follower but for blocking Jesus.
Peter’s just proclaimed Jesus as God’s Anointed, God’s Messiah. Jesus sternly orders him and the others to keep quiet about that. And proceeds to say his path is leading toward Jerusalem, toward rejection and death. And yes, toward resurrection, but Jesus kind of buries that lede.
So Peter takes Jesus aside and says, “that’s not the way a Messiah should go.” Whatever Peter understood when he called Jesus the Anointed, he was pretty sure it didn’t involve humiliating death.
And that’s when Jesus rebukes Peter. Because Jesus is going to go on this path, whether anyone likes it or not. Jesus, God-with-us, is going to bear the love of God for the world, reject violence and power, and keep bearing that love even if he is killed by those that love threatens.
And nothing can get in his way. In Matthew’s account, Jesus adds that Peter is a stumbling block. That’s what “Satan” means in Hebrew: someone who opposes and obstructs. And Jesus can’t have anyone stop him from this path of self-giving, vulnerable love. Not even one of his trusted leaders.
Of course, if Jesus is going on this path, he’s going to invite folks to follow.
Peter might’ve only reacted to how Jesus understands he will be Messiah, but very quickly Jesus says, “where I go, you go. That is, if you’re going to follow me.”
Now, we don’t know what drew Peter to follow Jesus in the first place. We don’t know why Peter and Andrew dropped their nets, or why the sons of Zebedee did. We don’t know what motivated Susanna or Joanna to follow Jesus, or Thomas or Philip. We intuit Mary Magdalene’s reason – Jesus healed her of demonic possession. And maybe Matthew followed because he was treated with respect and kindness by a Jewish rabbi, something he as a tax collector wasn’t used to.
But here Jesus says to the women and men who are his disciples, whatever reasons you had for following, for being here, now we need to get on the same page. There might be 40 or 50 or more following Jesus at this point, with 40 or 50 or more reasons. Now there is only one: to take up the cross of suffering love, of sacrificial love, that God-with-us is taking, and follow.
No matter if they came for the meals or the miracles, or if they really loved listening to Jesus talk. If they’re going to keep following, this is now their shared path.
But that’s also our first sustaining word.
Because it is first Jesus’ path. This love that heals the world, a love of forgiveness, grace, and welcome, a love that crosses boundaries and sees all as God’s children, that sacrifices comfort and safety to embrace a neighbor in need, this cross-shaped path of being Christ is the path Jesus first walked and wouldn’t be stopped from. So Jesus – now risen from the dead – can walk with you and me and give us strength and courage for our journey.
Morning by morning, Isaiah declares today, God wakes me up and teaches me, opens my ears to listen, shows me the way. And the way Isaiah describes is very much Jesus’ cross-shaped path: not fighting those who strike you, not hiding from those who despise you and spit at you. But Isaiah says the God who teaches you, morning by morning, day by day, will make sure you’re not disgraced, will vindicate and strengthen you so no one can stop the love of God you bear.
Yes, if you follow Christ on this path it’ll be hard. You’ll struggle and fail at times. But you have God’s guidance and strength and grace with you. Christ transforms you with the Spirit’s courage and always walks at your side. And through your love on this path, and mine, the suffering that makes us and the world so weary will be changed and healing will come.
Now, go back to Peter and you’ll find even more sustaining hope.
If I’d been a disciple and was called Satan, an obstruction to God’s way, by Christ himself, I’d have been devastated. I imagine Peter keeping to the fringes of the crowd surrounding Jesus, keeping his head down. Apart from the humiliation, believing you’ve failed and been publicly called out had to be brutal.
But only six days later, as Jesus prepares to go up a mountain in prayer, where he will be transfigured, as early that morning he walks among all these women and men who love and follow him, he taps James and John and Peter and says, “Come along with me. I need you.” Can you imagine Peter’s relief? He was still important to Jesus, an amazing grace and welcome.
See, no matter how often you stumble, no matter how frustrated you are at your discipleship, or dismayed on the days you seem to take two steps back, Jesus still needs you. Loves you. Wants you by his side on the path. Christ may challenge you at times, but always in love. And will always invite you to follow once again, transforming you in the Spirit as you go.
Morning by morning God wakens you, to open you up to listen and follow.
So today you’ve woken, you’re listening for God. What do you hear? How is God calling you to this path of Christ just for today? However it goes, you’re embraced in God’s love and given what you need to do that. And tomorrow God will waken you again.
But this is Jesus’ urgency today, that we all come together on the same page as Christ’s people on Christ’s path, no matter how we started. But that means we’re all in this together, transformed together. And nothing can stop the love of God in Christ from healing this world. Even when you and I carry it.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Jesus Christ on the cross tells us that the present pain, death, and shame is powerless. But when the pain of this world feels too heavy, His scars tell us that’s okay.
Vicar Natalie Wussler
Holy Cross Day
Texts: Numbers 21:4b-9; Psalm 98:1-4; 1 Corinthians 1:18-24; John 3:13-17
Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Hungry, tired, longing for rest, the Israelites did what many of us might do, they complained. They said their chains back in Egypt sounded like refuge compared to this wilderness. And instead of getting a solution to their problems, they received snakes. Snakes that bit and killed many Israelites. These people felt scared. Their lives were in danger. Some felt hopeless and believed that these snakes would be their end. But others turned to God, declaring their trust that they could be delivered.
And God, in love and mercy, did. A bronze serpent lifted high offered healing to all those who had been bitten by just looking at it. God didn’t take away these snakes, their venom or even the pain from the bite. What God did do was take away the snakes’ capacity to kill. These snakes still bit and it still hurt, venom did still enter the people’s bodies, but with the bronze serpent lifted high, the Israelites had found a saving grace. Perhaps now, in the presence of these snakes, the Israleites felt less fear. Maybe when the serpents bit, the Israelites didn’t panic and fear imminent death as they once did. God gave them the promise that these snakes would not be their demise. Through God, the Israelites no longer had to fear their death by snakes, and were assured that God would sustain their life another day.
Cut several thousand years in the future, and Jesus is doing a similar thing. With God’s love for you and for me fully realized, Jesus Christ, the word of God incarnate, was lifted high on a cross, and died a criminal’s death. He rose from the grave, and all at once defeated death. Our gospel reading today says that all people who believe in Jesus will not perish, will not be lost, will not truly die, but will live eternally. Like the sting of snake bites having no hold over the Israelites, because of Christ crucified and risen, the sting of death has no hold over you. Yes, your body will die and you will feel pain in this life, but, if you look to Jesus and believe in Him, you too will be healed, from death, from sin, and all that separates you from God and from your neighbors.
You get to enjoy the resurrection, and once this life passes onto the next, you will have a seat at the feast that has no ending. AND, while you live this temporary life, you get to live in relationship with the Triune God. God’s spirit dwells within you, giving you a new nature. Daily you can lean on the Holy Spirit to direct your path, rather than relying on your own self-serving inclinations. Your new nature directs you to an abundant life of love for God and for all people.
This isn’t just some blessed assurance for after you die. It’s an invitation to daily die to the inclinations of this world and rise in Christ until you finally return to your heavenly home with the Triune God and all the saints that have gone before.
Though death, sin, and the pain of this world might sting now, they truly have no power, against the backdrop of Christ crucified and risen.
And, that sounds great, right?
Until we feel pain.
Until someone we love dies.
Until we feel the shame of our sin.
Until we feel betrayed by a friend, or receive life-shattering news.
Until life hurts.
Yes, God’s promises through the cross of Christ are true, but in the face of a tragedy or any kind of trial this world throws at you, a victorious Christ might not feel like the balm for your wounds. If in the midst of a personal crisis, someone said to you, “Oh, the present pain doesn’t matter, because it has no power. Rejoice! Christ is victorious over everything. You’re going to live forever,” this kind of statement might feel they’re minimizing your pain, because even though we do have those promises, and they can sustain us, life still stings. Sometimes, we can feel like the Israelites in the wilderness being bitten by the snakes prior to the bronze serpent–alone, scared, hopeless, hurting, and in the midst of a whole lot of suffering. And, church, that’s okay.
Jesus definitely has something to say about this. Jesus, God made flesh, lived a human life and experienced the world as we do. He felt weariness, anger, despair, and anxiety. Jesus was denied and betrayed by his closest friends. He died a human death, an excruciating one. The life and death he led left their marks on him, even after the resurrection. Fully redeemed and resurrected, Jesus’ body still bears the scars of the crucifixion. If Jesus’ very life was restored to his body, don’t you think the holes in His hands and feet and the wound in his side could have also been healed, too? Maybe, just maybe these wounds were meant to show us that life’s pain is not outside of the eternal, abundant life God has for us on earth. We can be risen with Christ, and attentive to the ways we and others hurt.
God does not need you to check your pain at the door. God wants all of you. Yes, Jesus defeated sin and death, but death still scarred his body. It’s by touching these scars, and bearing witness to the trauma Jesus endured that the disciple Thomas comes to believe in the resurrection and good news, and it’s by believing in these same scars on the resurrected Christ that we can come to know God’s love for us. Jesus’ scars show us that he has been through the most difficult parts of life. Jesus knows pain. The word of God made flesh knows what a human life feels like. Through Jesus, the Triune God understands and empathizes with the way the world hurts. The Triune God understands and empathizes with the way that you hurt. Your pain matters to God. The Triune God cares so deeply about you and is with you through your hardest moments. There is nothing that you could ever experience that God won’t understand.
And in the midst of your hardest moments, God assures you that though pain may wound you, it is not the end of your story. Because to every Good Friday moment, we have a resurrection on Easter Morning. We still have hope that sustains us through this life. We have hope to live a life centered on Christ, hope that we can learn to walk in Christ’s ways better everyday, hope that we will live after our bodies die, hope that our present suffering doesn’t have the final say. It’s a hope that does not deny suffering. In fact, it looks suffering straight in the face, and assures us that this is not the end for us. As people of Christ, we can affirm our pain and Christ’s promises at the time, discounting neither. We can be bearers of this same hope to others. Sitting with people on their Good Friday’s, so that Easter morning’s hope might come.
Some days, you may need the image of a victorious Christ, who lives now and forever, who went to the grave and came out the other side, who redeems all your pain and declares it powerless, who sustains you until you’re on the other side of eternity. Yet other days, you might need the image of a suffering Jesus, the one who was lifted high on the cross, with his blood and agony visible for all to see; whose body, though resurrected, is still scarred, and sits with you in your pain. Yet other days, you may need a Jesus that lives in the liminal spaces between resurrection and suffering. Our resurrected yet scarred savior abides in all these places, declaring that there is hope for wherever you are. Look to Jesus Christ lifted high on the cross.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
MOUNT OLIVE LUTHERAN CHURCH
3045 Chicago Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55407
612-827-5919
welcome@mountolivechurch.org
