sermon – Page 22

What’s In a Name?

January 1, 2024 By Pr. Joseph Crippen

Be Christ Jesus, share the same mind and heart, because you share the same name.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Name of Jesus
Texts: Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 2:15-21

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 parents disagreed about whom I was named for.

One said it was for the husband of Mary. The other – and I never remember which said which – said I was named for the son of Jacob. I wasn’t happy with the ambiguity.

But as an adult I realized I was deeply drawn to a third Joseph, the man from Arimathea, who takes the body of Jesus and, with the help of Nicodemus, buries Christ in his own tomb. So awhile ago I decided Joseph of Arimathea was the saint whose name I carried.

Names matter. Maybe you carry the name of your parent or grandparent. Maybe your parent gave you a biblical name, or a famous one. Maybe you even identify with that person for whom you are named. But they do matter.

Today we celebrate an important day for Jesus.

On the eighth day of his life he was circumcised, according to the law. On this day he joined the covenant of Israel, was bound in his own blood to the covenant promise God made with the chosen people. This is very like our baptism, where we are joined in water and the Spirit to the covenant promise of God in Christ.

And it was also the day he got his name. Jesus, in Greek. Yeshua in Aramaic. He was named after the successor to Moses, Joshua. “I-Am-Who-I-Am saves” is what the name means. A powerful name for the One who is God-with-us, the One who actually will bring about the healing and salvation of all things.

But lots of little boys got that name. It was and is a pretty popular biblical name. For this little baby, the name was important, but it was only a sign of something greater. And that something is the most important thing.

That’s Paul’s point to the Philippians.

He says that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. It’s why many here bow their heads every time the name of Jesus is spoken in liturgy.

But it’s not Paul’s main point. The name Jesus carries – “I-Am-Who-I-Am saves” – is a sign pointing to who Jesus actually is, what Jesus will actually do, that Jesus is God-with-us, the salvation of the Triune God in this world.

It’s not the name itself that matters. It’s how Jesus lives into this name.

And today Paul invites you to live into the name Jesus.

To become part of God’s saving. “Let the same mind in you that was in Christ Jesus,” Paul says. Become like Jesus, the eternal Son of God, one of the Three in the Trinity, who let go of it all to become human among us, to lead us back into the arms of God, into the dance of the Trinity, into the love that holds the universe together.

Have the same mind as that, Paul says, the same mind as Christ. The same heart as Christ. The same self-giving love as Christ. The same life as Christ. That’s Paul’s invitation on this day.

To take the path this child walked, a path that was signaled by this name.

Be who you are named after. That’s the call.

It’s why I chose Joseph of Arimathea. What drew me to him was that he was a person of privilege, wealthy by the world’s standards, who kept his faith private, to himself. But he learned he needed to become open in his life about his faith. So he risked exposure and ostracism from his peers to openly declare his allegiance to this Jesus of Nazareth, and offered his own place of burial for him.

I need to be challenged to risk my privilege and what I have to step out publicly and be the love of God in the world. And so Joseph points me to Paul, who says, “have the same mind and heart as Christ.”

Bowing your head when the name of Jesus is spoken is a holy and good devotion.

But living your life as Christ is far more what Paul hopes you’ll take from his words.

In the end, the reason the angels told Mary and Joseph to name him Yeshua, “I-Am-Who-I-Am saves,” is because this child was God and would save all things.

But that’s why you bear the name of Christ Jesus, too. Because through you, and me, and all who bear this name, this heart and life of the Triune God, God will bring healing and life to all things. It’s what you were named to be.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Seeing Salvation

December 31, 2023 By Vicar at Mount Olive

In this passage the Temple is functioning the way it was supposed to and God’s salvation is seen in many different dimensions.

Vicar Lauren Mildahl
First Sunday of Christmas, year B
Texts: Isaiah 61:10-62:3, Luke 2:22-40

God’s beloved, grace to you and peace in the name of the Father, and of the ☩ Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

When we think of Jesus in the Temple, we often think of flipping tables.

All four gospels include an account of the “Cleansing of the Temple,” when Jesus drove out the money changers and the merchants. Mark and Matthew include the detail of overturning the tables and in John’s gospel Jesus even has a whip! This encounter lives large in our imaginations and it means that the Temple in Jerusalem, the very center of Jewish faith and religious practice, is primarily associated with Jesus’ righteous fury. Often we only think of it as a place of exploitation and consumerism and corruption.

But in our gospel passage today, we see the Temple in a very different light.

This encounter, like so much of the Nativity story, is only included in Luke’s gospel. And it is a very different account of Jesus in the Temple. There are no whips, no overturned tables, no mention of money-changers. Instead, we see the Temple functioning beautifully, the way it was supposed to.

You can see it with the prophet Anna.

We don’t know much about her, we don’t even get to hear her speak, but we know that she was a widow and that she had lived for a long time without a husband to provide for her. For decades and decades. And we are told that she “never left the Temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day.” Which prompts the question, who was taking care of her? Who was making sure she had what she needed and was holding her in love and respect? In the Temple the answer must be: her neighbors.

Because the Temple was supposed to be the place where the two Great Commandments – to love God and love your neighbor, were fully in effect. Where you could expect the laws commanding care for orphans and foreigners and widows were followed. And where Anna could deliver her prophetic words of critique and comfort and be fed and sheltered. That’s how the Temple should be and, in this story, that’s how it was.

And you can see it in how the young family, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, are welcomed.

They enter the Temple as strangers in Jerusalem, following the law, and presenting their firstborn son to God. They are too poor to offer a lamb, so Mary and Joseph bring a pair of birds to sacrifice, the most they could afford. Yet they are welcomed. Simeon and Anna rejoice over their baby. And their family is held not only in joy, but in pain as well, when Simeon acknowledges Mary’s coming grief, the sword that will pierce her soul. Just as they are, they are seen and embraced.

The Temple was supposed to be a place where everyone could come as they are. Elders and babies, rich and poor, men and women, Jews and Gentiles, gathering at the Temple to rejoice or fast or pray or wait or make an offering or receive a blessing. That’s how the Temple should be and, in this story, that’s how it was.

And you can see with Simeon.

Simeon is promised that he “will not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.” And when the time comes, the Holy Spirit guides him to the Temple. I imagine that the Spirit could have led Simeon to any place to meet Jesus. But Simeon is guided to the Temple.

Because most of all, the Temple was supposed to be a place to have encounters with God, a place where people were expecting God to show up. And when God showed up as the Messiah, not in the shape of a warrior, but incredibly in the shape of a child, Simeon saw! Simeon and Anna were looking for God and they found Jesus. And then they told everyone who would listen, everyone who was looking for God, everyone who was waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. “Look! God is here!” That’s how the Temple should be and, in this story, that’s how it was.

And here’s the point. When the Temple is what it should be – salvation is seen!

Simeon sees. “My eyes have seen your salvation,” he says, and in the context of this encounter in the Temple (with the Temple functioning the way it’s supposed to) we see it too. We see God’s salvation – and in many different dimensions.

We see the cosmic and eternal dimension of salvation.

Simeon is holding God in his arms! God, enfleshed and alive! Simeon recognizes God-with-us in this baby, who has come to reach us, to be made known to us, to love us, to suffer with us, to forgive us, and to save us. So that our broken selves won’t be this way forever, but instead every tear will be wiped away and every child of God will be restored to glory. This is God’s redeeming work to reconcile with humanity, to make all things new forever and always, and bring us into eternal life in the Spirit. And Simeon saw it face to face.

And this salvation is multidimensional!

Not only personal and eternal, but collective and immediate. Not just for you singular sometime in the future, but for you plural, now.

Jesus, destined to cause “the falling and rising of many,” flipped the tables that needed flipping. When the Temple wasn’t functioning like it was supposed to, Jesus brought salvation, driving out all who oppressed and exploited. So that there might be salvation for the poor – like Mary and Joseph, and salvation for the desperate – like Simeon, for the lonely and dependent – like Anna, and salvation for the outsiders – like the Gentiles that Simon sings of. This is the salvation which topples tyrants and lifts up the lowly, and tears down the barriers between us.

And this is the quiet and ordinary salvation of flourishing and abundant life. The kind of salvation that Simeon might have seen in the Temple that day even if Jesus hadn’t been there. But it was there, when Simeon was holding a child from a poor family, who were just going about their ordinary business of loving God and loving their neighbors, there he saw salvation.

This is why we gather, not anymore at the Temple, but as the church, week after week.

So that like Simeon, we can see all these many different dimensions of God’s salvation. Salvation on the scale of the universe, and on the scale of your own heart. And everything in between. At all scales, God is at work. Salvation is happening everywhere all the time. And we gather so that we can see it. So we can tell each other about what we have seen.

Isaiah imagined God’s salvation shining out like the dawn or like a burning torch so that the nations could see. But the dawn can be easy to miss. If you aren’t looking for it, you probably won’t see it. But God wants to be seen. God wants you to see salvation. God wants to guide you right to it. God wants you to hold Jesus in your arms.

We gather not in the Temple, but as the Temple, so that all are loved and welcomed and cared for, so that we can encounter God and see salvation. The way it’s supposed to be.

In the name of the Father, of the ☩ Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Made Known

December 25, 2023 By Pr. Joseph Crippen

The Light has come and has shown you God’s heart: that you share that heart and bear the Light into the world.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Nativity of Our Lord
Text: John 1:1-14, add 18

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

The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness can’t understand it, John says.

But can you? Do you?

God’s Light, through whom all things came into being, entered our world as a human, but the world did not know him, John says. The Light came to his own people, whom he made, and they did not accept him.

Do you?

We have a problem with our vision and understanding, John says, when it comes to God. Everything we are and have is of God’s Light, made and graced by the Triune God.

But we struggle to see. To understand. To know. We want God’s light to shine on the shadows of evil in this world, to restore the creation, to bring all into the light of God’s loving embrace. We want what John today says about the Light of the World, about Christ.

But can you see it? Do you understand it?

The problem might be that we don’t appear to hope for the answer God is bringing.

When you imagine God solving the problem of world hunger, what do you imagine? A miraculous intervention changing all the deserts into fertile land? A power move overturning corrupt governments that deprive their people of needed resources?

When you imagine God stopping evil in this world, what do you imagine? God intervening with power in every terrorist act? God destroying those who live their lives to harm others? God going into Gaza or the Ukraine and taking away all the weapons and bombs?

That’s what we really want to see. But it’s not the way God works. And if you are devastated by the carnage and destruction that is happening in this world, know that God is even more. But God still is going to bring healing and wholeness another way.

This Child who is born shows you and the world the heart of God.

This Light of the World, this Word-made-flesh, John says, gives us inside knowledge of God’s true heart for the world. “No one has ever seen God,” John says. “It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made God known.”

Because of Jesus the world no longer needs to speculate as to the nature of God, the heart of God. We never have to look at a natural disaster again and wonder, “was God angry with those people?” We never have to face a tragedy of evil and ask if it was punishment from God. We never can claim violence and killing as the way of God. Because now we’ve seen God’s heart in the face of Christ Jesus. The heart of the Triune God is and always will be love.

But God’s answer for the pain of this world is and always will be love, too. It’s the only way to stop the evil and insanity.

This is the only true light that can end the darkness.

Coming in person revealed God’s heart as love, and, because the shadows of evil rose up against Christ Jesus, hanging him on a cross, this in-person love also showed the power of God in losing, the strength of God in self-giving. Rather than fight the shadows of this world by destruction and force, the Triune God entered the shadows to transform them from within.

God said, “I’ll open myself up to evil and it will do all it can to me, and light will still win.” When God doesn’t fight evil but stands in its way on our behalf, stands even in our way as we make evil, God brings a light that darkness cannot understand or overcome.

But the plan was never meant to stop with Jesus.

From the beginning of creation God’s plan has always been to care for the world through the children of God. So, to those who see this Light of the World, who trust in Christ, John says, God gives power to become children of God themselves.

God’s solution to everything that ails this planet, everything we wish God would fix, everything wicked and ruined and oppressive, all comes down to this. God will bring healing through you, through me, through all God’s children, across this globe.

We are children of God; so we, like Jesus, bear God’s heart in the world. We, like Jesus, become people who are always love, all the time. We, like Jesus, become people who stand as light in darkness not with power but with a willingness to lose, like God.

Even divine power able to create universes couldn’t fix God’s greatest pain about this world: the hearts of God’s children were cold and selfish, the root of all that is wrong in this world.

Change the hearts and you’ve got something, God thought. You’ve got changed people. And then a changed world, because these people are going to go out there and make a new creation with God’s Spirit giving them grace to do it.

In the coming of this Child, now you can see the truth clearly, and trust it.

Jesus, the Light of the World, the Word made flesh, has made God’s heart known to you. Now you, a child of God yourself, get to reveal that same heart, that same love, to the world, and see God’s healing begin.

And God’s light will shine in you. And no shadows, no darkness, will be able to stop it.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Living In the Fields

December 24, 2023 By Pr. Joseph Crippen

God can’t do this without you because there is no “this” without you.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Eve of the Nativity of Our Lord
Texts: Luke 2:1-20; Isaiah 9:2-7

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

If you look carefully tonight, you’ll see signs of what God is really doing.

You’ll see ordinary people, living in the fields where they work. You’ll see ordinary villagers, engaged to be married like millions of others, anticipating their coming life together.

You’ll see another family of villagers inviting this pregnant couple into their home, but, with no room in their guest room on the roof, having them settle in on the main floor amongst the rest of the family and the family’s animals.

You’ll see a perfectly normal human birth, with the cries of the mother in pain, and blood and mess, and with an experienced aunt as midwife, the tension and release back and forth, leading up to the final arrival.

When the Magi looked for this child, they went straight to the seat of power, Herod’s court. As well as they could read the sky and stars, they missed these other details. They missed that, for God, the plan from the beginning was always about ordinary people.

There’s no secret to what the Triune God is hoping for with this birth.

Peace on earth to all of God’s people, those working shepherds were told. A Prince of Peace, Isaiah says, who will establish endless peace, a reign of justice and righteousness. A light to shine in the darkest shadows of this world, Isaiah says.

From the beginning, our Scriptures say, this was always God’s dream: a creation living in peace and harmony, with humans in charge of caring for the garden and each other and all God’s creatures. Everything God tries to do with all humanity, and eventually the chosen people, throughout the Hebrew Bible, is to get people back to this original dream and hope of God’s.

Coming as an ordinary human being, a poor one in an oppressed country, was just the next step of this plan. To live among us and show us the path that had been laid out since the beginning. Love God and love neighbor. Share the abundance of this creation so all are filled and safe and the creation blooms.

And God’s plan only works if everyone, all God’s children, are a part of it. Including you.

We sometimes think the whole point of God’s coming in Christ was to forgive us.

Certainly, the Son of God made it clear that you are forever loved and forgiven by God. Clearly, in Jesus’ death and resurrection you have the promise of that forgiveness and restoration. A love is revealed that will not stop until all are found and brought home in grace.

But forgiveness happens throughout the Scriptures long before Jesus’ death and resurrection. God repeatedly forgives God’s people, again and again, individually and collectively. God didn’t need to be born as a human being to forgive you, or me. The Scriptures are clear about that.

That’s what you need to understand tonight: God’s plan all hinges on what God can do and what God can’t do. God can and does forgive. All the time.

What God can’t do is make you love.

Force you be a peacemaker. Make you care for others and this creation. God’s greatest hope and dream depends on you, and me, and everyone, choosing to obey, to love, to walk the path of God.

Start in Genesis and keep going, and you’ll see. God always reaches out to ordinary people and calls them to follow, to care for strangers, to end oppression and poverty, to love God and neighbor. But God’s whole dream is that people do this willingly. So God has to wait and see who will.

Now you see why ordinary people are key to tonight’s story.

The shepherds likely weren’t expecting God to do much to fix the world. They just lived and worked their lives. But it was to them, not the royal court, that God sent heavenly messengers. And after seeing, they returned to their fields “glorifying and praising God” for all they’d heard and seen. Telling others. The message got to the people God needed, ordinary people who’d come to find the path of peace and love and walk it. And tell others.

The same for Mary and Joseph, their family in Bethlehem and their family in Nazareth. Coming amongst common folks meant that the plan from the beginning remained: God would not use power over anyone to force love. So it’s no surprise God avoids Herod’s power and starts a love insurgency from the ground up, with an ordinary but holy child. It’s the only way God will do it.

Ultimately, it’s the only way true peace on earth will ever happen.

Isaiah promises tonight that in this coming peace of God, “all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.”

But if God’s not planning a bigger army to destroy the warring armies of this world, which Scripture clearly says God will not do, how will army boots and bloody uniforms become fuel for furnaces to keep people warm?

Only when the soldiers themselves take off their own boots and uniforms and toss them onto the burn pile. This peace God dreams of, this world of justice and mercy, will only happen, can only happen with the consent and participation of all God’s people. When we all put down our weapons and throw our violence onto the burn pile and start loving God and neighbor as God always dreamed we would.

God can’t do this without you because there is no “this” without you.

That’s the joy of God’s coming for you tonight. The shepherds were critical because they, too, were God’s children, and needed to be invited and called. But the only answer God needs here tonight is ours. Yours. Mine. Peace on earth to all God’s beloved, that’s the plan. You are critical to it.

So, should we go to Bethlehem and see this thing God has done for us and for the world? It might change you. In fact, God’s counting on that.

But let’s go.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

An Impossible Situation

December 24, 2023 By Vicar at Mount Olive

Mary was in an impossible situation and it is the same situation that we are in, to bear Christ to the World. Thankfully, nothing is impossible with God.

Vicar Lauren Mildahl
Fourth Sunday of Advent, year B
Texts: Luke 1:46b-55, Luke 1:26-38

Greetings, favored ones, grace to you and peace in the name of the Father, and of the ☩ Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Mary only asks one question.

Most people, I think, if they had been in Mary’s shoes, would have asked more questions. I certainly would have. I would have wanted to know at least a few more details about this crazy thing that was about to happen to me. But when Gabriel tells her she will bear the Christ, a baby she will name Jesus, the Son of the Most High, Mary only asks: “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”

And the common interpretation, when we hear this question, is that Mary is wondering about the biology of this whole thing. As if she was fixated on the clinical impossibilities of an immaculate conception. As if she’s asking, “Excuse me, Gabriel, can you explain exactly how this embryo will be fertilized? Where will the other half of this baby’s DNA come from? I need to know how this works, medically speaking.”

But what if that wasn’t what she was worried about?

What if she didn’t actually think it would be much of a miracle for the God who created everything that is out of the chaotic void, to manifest one more life. Maybe she didn’t think it would be a big deal for the God who breathes life into everything to breathe life into her womb. After all, she doesn’t sing, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God who miraculously impregnates!” She actually doesn’t mention that part in her song at all.

So maybe she was thinking about something else. Maybe when she asked her one question, “How can this be since I am a virgin?” she meant something more like, “Do you really know what you’re asking me?! I’m not married yet. Don’t you know how hard it is here for single mothers?”

Because she didn’t know, yet. She didn’t know that Joseph would step up and stick around, great guy, or that her relatives and her community would support their family. She didn’t know, yet, that complete strangers would show up with expensive gifts from the East!

At this point, all she knew for sure was that if she said yes, she might have to do this alone. And she knew what an impossible situation that might be.

And as if being a single mother weren’t hard enough, what about being a mother to God?!

Mary might well have been asking Gabriel, “Do you know what you are asking me? I don’t know how to raise a MESSIAH! I’m just a kid!” Because there she was, not all that far from childhood herself, just a poor girl from a small village, tasked to raise a king of whose kingdom there will be no end! A king to sit on David’s throne forever! A king who is GOD INCARNATE. Is there a person on Earth qualified for that?! How was she supposed to know what to do?

Another layer of impossible.

Or, you know, maybe Mary was just not sure she really wanted to bring a baby into this broken world.

She knew about thrones, about the mighty, and the proud, she did sing about them. And maybe in that first moment of contemplating motherhood, she just couldn’t fathom bringing any more life, any more precious and vulnerable and beloved life into this world that wasn’t yet put right. She was just a virgin, just an unmarried young woman living in an occupied nation, thoroughly and in every way cut off from political and economic power – how could she protect him?

Because even knowing that her baby boy was God incarnate, in this world not yet made right, she would have known what would happen to anybody who went around preaching possibility and hope, justice and redistribution, and all those things that might topple a tyrant. She might have guessed already that she would have to do the most impossible thing of all for a mother: watch her son die.

Let’s give Mary some credit.

And let’s imagine that she knew all the many dimensions of impossibility surrounding the scenario that Gabriel was presenting, and that maybe the part about the virgin pregnancy wasn’t even the top of the list. So she asks her one question, overwhelmed for a moment, by impossibility:

“How can this be?”

And I don’t blame her. It seems like a reasonable response to a unique and impossible task.

Although, it’s not truly unique at all, is it?

A young woman and an unplanned pregnancy? Not unique. Powerless and terrorized people longing for liberty and restoration? Not unique. Sinners and sinned against waiting for a savior? Not unique. This story repeats and echoes through the generations, in impossible situation after impossible situation. It repeats in us. Ordinary people, encountering the divine and answering the call to bear Christ into the world.

Because although we don’t have the same physical experience that Mary had, our calling is the same.

We are all called to bear Christ, to experience divine love growing within ourselves, to labor and birth Christ anew again and again for the world.

We bear Christ so that every single person can know that they are favored and completely loved by God.

We bear Christ so that God’s justice can be accomplished, so that the mighty may be cast down, the proud may be scattered, the rich may be sent away empty. So that every unjust social structure built on oppression and exploitation and violence can be overturned, by the strength of God’s arm.

We bear Christ so that all life can flourish. That the lowly may be lifted up, that the hungry may be filled with good things. So that every single person can be fed and housed and cared for and welcomed.

And you know what? That can feel pretty impossible sometimes. Overwhelmed, we also might want to respond with just one question of our own: How can this be, God? How can we do all the things you call us to do?

And then Gabriel’s words echo through the centuries, answering not just Mary’s question, but our own desperate wonderings.

The angel said: “Nothing is impossible with God.”

Nothing will stand in the way between God and us. Not the powers of this world, not our own inadequacies and certainly not biology. God will go over or around or under or straight through any obstacle to save us.

And every impossible situation you can think of, any impossible situation that you may be facing right now, God is already there. The tenderness of Divine Love is already there, turning impossible into possible.

God is in the business of possible, of new beginnings, new life, ways from no way. In a word, hope. After all, what is hope, if not possibility? When we are called to bear Christ we are sharing a future pregnant with possibility! It is not easy (pregnancy and labor aren’t easy), but it is never impossible.

With God, nothing is impossible.

This was the only answer Mary needed to her question.

“Here am I,” she says, “the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

And then she sings. The song that echoes through every Christ bearer and that is our song too:

Our souls proclaim the greatness of our Lord!

And our spirits rejoice in God our Savior!

Our God of infinite possibility. Thanks be to God!

In the name of the Father, of the ☩ Son, and of the Holy Spirit.