Mark 14-15 - Passion Sunday Sermon

Listen to the sermon here.

“Crucify Him!”  “Crucify Him!” 

Our cry has come a long way since we last shouted Hosanna in the courtyard.

Certainly a drastic change in tone.   And of all the Sunday mornings that we spend together in in this place of worship and praise, today’s service is by far the most complex when we consider the emotional whiplash of our liturgy.  A triumphant entry into Jerusalem turned to a strenuous eviction to Golgotha.  Excited shouts of Hosanna became gut-wrenching cries for crucifixion.  Cloaks that once paved the way for the one who comes in the name of the Lord are now being stripped from Jesus and he’s mocked with a cloak of royal color.  Palm branches becomes reeds for striking. Tears of joy turns to water from the mouth as the soldiers spit on Jesus.   Proclamation becomes accusation.  Hope burdened by fear.

Crucify him! Our cry has come a long way since we last shouted Hosanna in the courtyard.  There is an entire existence of emotion caught between those two cries.  The world’s deepest groans are found in today’s story.  “Hosanna in the highest!” “Crucify him.”  Our cries of grief and anger...our shouts for mercy and forgiveness...our pleas for guidance and understanding… our groans for justice and peace…  the storms of our hearts are swallowed up in this passion story as our souls join the whole body of Christ and all the saints in crying out to Jesus.  Whether we shout with hope, anger, or everything in between...Holy Week acknowledges the complexity of our deepest cries.  Holy Week empowers us to be vulnerable.  Hosanna in the highest.  We all have shouts.  Crucify him! We are all crying out.

A family displaced as their country is ravaged with war cries out.

A gentleman down the street begging for scraps cries out.

A teenage girl threatened as she wrestles with being young and pregnant cries out.

Neighbors who long for a bed over a park bench or highway bridge.  

The couple who has everything yet feels so alone.  

Minorities rallying to be seen,  let alone heard cry out.

Impoverished communities void of clean water or medical resources.  

Women speaking out against relentless oppression are crying out.  

Parents prematurely burying a child.  

Teenagers begging for change.

A loved one processing a new or relapsing diagnoses.   

The bullied, persecuted or oppressed.  

Those who live in fear, because to be themselves means to risk shame, ridicule, or worse.

In a song by Gungor called Dry Bones the lyrics say, “My soul cries out.  My soul cries out for you. 

“My soul cries out.  My soul cries out for you.
Jesus, you’re the one who saves us,
constantly creates us into something new
Jesus, surely you will find us;
surely our Messiah will make all things new.
Will make all things new.”

As we enter Holy Week our souls cry out.  With the saints of old and the whole body of Christ our souls cry out.  We cry out to Jesus with a longing.  We groan for hope.  We shout at the temptation of sin.  We cry out in fear.

There’s no denying the angst that stirs-up within us as we transition rather quickly, abruptly from palm Sunday to Passion Sunday.    Today’s gospel lesson lifts up parts of scripture that are hard to understand.  These two chapters in Mark are challenging and convicting.  They’re painful and gruesome.   But make no mistake… today’s text is an intricate piece of our Christian faith.  If we proclaim the death and resurrection of christ as foundational for our faith, then today’s text is a necessary read.  The passion text is a necessary read because it gives us a space to shout. To Groan. To cry out.

“My soul cries out.  My soul cries out for you.

These bones cry out. These dry bones cry for you. 

To live and move, ‘cause only you can raise the dead, can lift my head up

My soul cries out.  My soul cries out for you.”

As we shout our way to the cross this week, don’t hold back.   We enter Holy Week and its breadth of emotions only by sure hope, certain promise, and unfailing love of God in the resurrection of Jesus.  Thank God, that we enter Holy Week knowing that our cries are heard.  Thank God that we are not left fleeing, denying, and wandering alone.  Thank God that Jesus too will cry out to God.  Thank God that the groans of this world, the shouts of longing, the desperate please, and the cries of fear are nailed to the cross.  And thank God on the third day the tomb will echo as the good news is proclaimed .. “He is risen. He’s not here.”  

I know that today is a weird day for the church.  It’s an emotional and liturgical whiplash. And whatever it stirs up within you, embrace it.  Take comfort knowing that the Spirit is always stirring.  And a story this complex and comprehensive stirs differently for everyone.  If today’s text causes you wrestle...wrestle.  If it makes you tremble...then tremble.  After all, we only read these chapters of scripture during Holy Week.  After this week, you won’t hear them again for the rest of the church year.

Amen.

© Preached by Pastor Daniel Locke on 03.25.2018 @ St. Mark's Lutheran JAX, FL

John 3:16 - Sermon Lent 4B

Listen to the gospel and the sermon here. 

John 3:14-21

¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. ¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ¹⁷“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

John 3:16 is by far one of the most referenced and highly revered verses in all of scripture.  I honestly can not recall a time in my life when I was void of the phrase “John 3:16.”  I can picture roadside billboards when taking road trips as a kid.  I can see countless windshield flyers, door hangers, and handouts that plastered John 3:16!   I remember sidewalk chalk plastered all over campus at least once a week at college that said John 3:16!  I have a vivid memory of watching a football game and seeing a well-known quarterback with black stickers under his eyes advertising John 3:16.  Tattoos, t-shirts, bumper stickers, coasters….I even discovered an entire apparel line this week dedicated to John 3:16.  I suspect you all have had your own interactions, experiences, and encounters with John 3:16. 

Some might say that there is no greater verse in all of scripture than this...That God so loved the world...To be clear, the content of John 3:16 is a significant proclamation of the Christian faith, and a crucial understanding of God’s desire for the world.  It’s a crux for which most of Christianity stands on.  Even the dedicated website for John 3:16 describes it as “The gospel in a nutshell.” 

I have no issue with the branding and promotion of John 3:16...no issue with its prevalence in today’s world.  Certainly there are much worse things we could broadcast.  My only fear is how easy it is to hide behind John 3:16 as a brand, to proclaim the citation only, without every cracking the nutshell to hear, embrace, and embody the message of the verses.  Or more terrifyingly...to be changed by the words of the gospel nutshell, to feel affected, convicted, or empowered by its proclamation.  To be covered by the light of God and know that God loves the world so much that God would enter a world that has become partial to sin, not only to rid the world of sin and offer a better way, but to experience all the sin the world had to offer.  To experience pain.  To embody grief and sorry.  To embrace suffering.  To experience death.  It is more than a statement of faith, it’s a call to action.

For God so loved the world.  My fear is that we are not always ready to embrace who John 3:16 empowers us to be.  Does John 3:16 change you?  Does it change how we view, interact, live in the world that God so loves?

One of the traps of reading John 3:16 is that we ONLY read John 3:16.  We read, hear, and proclaim that God so loved the world that God gave Jesus so all who believe in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  Full stop.  If our affection for John 3:16 stops here then we risk conveying a message that says salvation is given by God through Jesus Christ purely out of God’s love for us, and therefore there is no need, no concern, no motivation, no purpose for our actions...word or deed.   No need to consider what kind of person we are, how we interact with others.  We risk conveying that the relationship between faith and salvation is simply to believe in the proclamation of John 3:16. 

I doubt many of us wrestle with the truthful proclamation of John 3:16 that God loved the world so much that God would conceive an incredibly generous and humble way to eternal life for all people.  But the greater and scarier truth is that John 3:16 is only the beginning of faith and faithful living.  God’s gracious and merciful act in Jesus Christ not only warrants, but demands a response.  A life-giving, and light-shining response - dare I say, good works.  

Here we can turn to our Ephesians text for some clarity. As John 3:16 is to Christianity, we might say Ephesians 2:8 is for Lutheranism.  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God - not the result of works, so that no one my boast.  Grace...not works...is one of Paul’s primary theological arguments, and it serves Luther as well during the reformation.  But the significance of this statement, for both Paul and Luther goes well beyond a discussion of grace over works.   

Paul writes to the church in Ephesus beginning with an extensive salutation claiming that God destined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ and elaborates on the promise granted to God’s children in the death and resurrection of Jesus.   He then prays, not so subtly, for the community of Ephesus.  He prays that God give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation….that their hearts be enlightened….and that they may know God’s immeasurable greatness for those who believe.

Now Paul reiterates that they were dead in their trspasses an sin.  They once lived according to the rulers and powers of the world, following the desires of the flesh.  But GOd...God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which God loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved.   For God so loved the world, even when you were dead in sin, that God gave God’s only son, and saved us by grace through faith, so that all who believe may have eternal life, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.  

For the Ephesians this would be there bumper-sticker, mouse-pad, T-shirt moment.  Ephesians 2:8, Saved by grace through faith.  The breath of fresh air as they are reminded that God saved God’s people, God saved the world freely..and you don’t have to do anything to earn that.  

That’s all good and well if Paul stopped there, but Paul never shies away from cracking open the nutshell.  He then says, “For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”  Created in Christ Jesus for good works, that is to be our way of life.  Truly I tell you that good works are not a prerequisite for God’s salvation in Christ Jesus.   Good works rather are an expression of God’s salvation through Christ. 

What Paul is truly expressing and will go on to explain is a way of life.  A behavior.  A change in our very being as a result of God’s salvation.  God’s gracious and merciful act in Jesus Christ not only warrants, but demands a response.  A life-giving, and light-shining response.  God’s salvation changes everything.

While John 3:16 indicates that no thing or no one is beyond the grasp of God’s salvation and promise to eternal life, The rest of John’s statement reminds us that God’s salvation does not permit us to simply stand idly by, comfortable and content.  For John, the message of God saving the world demands a reaction.  An active and willing choice to participate in God’s salvation in the world.

Active participation in a world that is partial to the darkness.  A world overwhelmed by temptations of the flesh...a world ravaged by self-interest and greed.  A world lost in the darkness of sin.

And the truth is friends that God so loved the world.  Not just you.  Not just me, but all of creation.   The object of God’s love is the world.  And we, the believing body of Christ, are fruits of God’s salvation.  Active and willing participants in God’s salvific plan for the world.  This means shining a light in a dark world through word and deed.  It means working to end hate and violence.  It means speaking out against injustice and oppression.  It means acting with compassion and love. It means pushing against the current to challenge oppressive systems of power and tear down the walls and barriers of life.

Make no mistake, For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son, not so those who believe may rest in comfort and complacency, turning a blind eye to the pervasiveness of sin in.  Apathy and indifference towards God’s salvation for the world only enhances the problem. 

Rather, God so loved the world, so that all who believe may have eternal life. The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

John 3:16 is a proclamation of hope and promise for that world, the first step in a faithful response.  We are called to embrace and embody the confession of John 3:16 and that means being changed.  Changed from people of darkness to people of light.  Empowered by God to choose good in this world.  To stand as witness in a world desperate for good news.

 © Pastor Daniel Locke, preached on March 11, 2018 at St. Mark's Lutheran JAX, FL.

God gifts a new way of life! - Sermon Lent 3B

Listen to the gospel and sermon here.

John 2:13-22

¹³The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. ¹⁵Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” ¹⁷His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” ¹⁸The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” ¹⁹Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹But he was speaking of the temple of his body. ²²After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

The story goes that there was a certain pastor of a large downtown church.  And due to the church’s size and location it was a very, very busy church.  The doors always seemed to be open, every room was booked weeks in advance for various groups, meetings, programs, organizations, classes, etc.  There was so much going on that it was near impossible to keep track, especially for the busy pastor. There were so many groups using the facility, it was getting out of control.   

Well the pastor began to notice that almost every Sunday before and after worship there would be at least 2 or three tables or booths set up in the narthex with 2 or three different groups or organizations would selling something.  Some were fundraisers.  Some were for profit.  Some were for the church, but most had nothing to do with the church.  There was always someone selling or peddling something.  He didn’t want to cause a scene, but week after week it weighed on him until his blood started to boil.  

Well on one particular Sunday, after a difficult week, he was in his office preparing for worship when his secretary knocked on the door.  Pastor, I just wanted to let you know that they just borrowed another table to set up in the Narthex.  Before she could finish her sentence he had had enough.  He threw down his Bible and lef this office with a purpose.  Where are you going?, the Secretary said?  I have had enough!  The church is not a marketplace or place of business and I am going to braid my whip and turn every last table in this church!  If Jesus can do, then God willing I can too!

He tossed open the door to the narthex and entered with a fury.  The secretary stood in the office door and waited.  A moment later the pastor returned to the office with his head down, looking both exhausted and defeated.  So, how’d it go? The secretary asked.  Did you channel your inner Jesus and kick them all out?  

No..he sighed...I couldn’t do it…and until Jesus comes back and turns over a table of Girl Scout Cookies they can stay.  

Jesus enters the temple mount this morning as the festival of The Passover approaches.   

The Passover was a major festival for the Jewish people, and at that time more than a hundred thousand people might journey to the temple to prepare for the festival. Thousands and thousands of people passing through the various temple gates.  People, animals, moneychangers, and merchants filling every corner, cove and portico.

So when Jesus steps into the outer porticos of the temple mount, it is busy busy busy with preparations.   Jesus’ blood begins to boil.  Now it’s worth noting that the business of The Passover preparations were all, for the most part, necessary.  

For the sacrifice of animals it was necessary that they be of a certain age, they had to be clean, and they had to be without blemish.  It was nearly impossible for a family to trek all the way to the temple with their animals while keeping them clean and without blemish.   So, for their convenience, the Temple was more than happy to sell you whatever animal you needed for the sacrificial rituals and traditions.  There might be a small convenience fee, but it would save the family a lot of effort.

But for many families who traveled from far away, they probably didn’t have the proper currency for acquiring such animals.   Well thank goodness for the moneychangers.   They were more than happy to exchange whatever you had into a proper currency. There might be a small surcharge, but they could work something out.  

So hundreds of thousands of Israelites journeyed to the Temple mount for The Passover, not only for tradition, but because the Temple is where God is.  So with money exchanged, a proper animal purchased, families were ready to celebrate The passover. What was intended to be a holy remembrance and ritual celebration had become an opportunity of commerce.   

And Jesus had seen enough.  The whole scene sets Jesus off and he braids a whip from chord and drives all the animals out of the Temple.  He flips tables.  Pours out the coins from their coffers.   In short, he causes a scene.  And it’s so intriguing because it’s not our “normal” Jesus.   He was upset because the Temple and the occasion had become a commercial, profitable event.  People were taking financial advantage of one other in the name of religious tradition.  And Jesus was clear to say that God’s house was NOT to be a marketplace.

So now I picture animals fleeing out the gates.  Coins bouncing like plastic cups in a cafeteria.  Tables and chairs clanging.  One by one the crowds stop what they’re doing to see what the fuss is all about.

And the Jews said to Jesus, “What the heck!? What sign can you show us for doing this?”   Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.  Now we have to respect how appalling that statement would sound.  

They’ve been building the temple brick by brick for nearly 50 years, and not only does Jesus suggest they destroy it, but also that he could rebuild it in three days.

In three days I will raise up God’s temple.  It’s easy for us to read this in light of the resurrection and see what Jesus was talking about.  But for the disciples, the Israelites, the Jewish leaders, the moneychangers, and merchants, they were unable to hear significance of Jesus’ statement.

In three days I will raise up God’s temple.  Jesus wasn’t suggesting that he could physically rebuild the temple mount, but rather in the great three days he would rebuild their understanding of faith in God.    Jesus Christ IS the temple of God.

For Jesus, God cannot and would not be confined to a temple.  For God’s temple is Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God, and in the resurrection of Jesus after the great three days, Jesus would reform their understanding of the temple from a physical place to a body, The body of Christ. God’s place in the world is in the body of Christ.  That’s us.

Through the waters of baptism we are welcomed into God’s temple...into the raised body...the body of Christ. The actions and works of God’s kingdom is in the body of Christ. The transactions carried out in Jesus name through the people of God.  Jesus was proclaiming a new understanding of God’s presence in the world.

God could not and would not be confined to the temple mount, nor is God confined to the church today. We might do well to remember that the church is not a building, it is a people.  A community of faith joined by God in water, word, and wine to be present in the world.  To recognize and participate in the new kingdom of God being built here and now.  To represent and re-present Christ in the world.  God re-forming God’s people. Instructing, giving, and offering a new way of being in community, a new way of living and worshiping God.  

After all, that is what God has always done, and will always do. Several hundred generations before Jesus ever entered the Temple mount, God was already offering  people a new way of life.  As the Israelites wandered through the wilderness and desert they were tired and hungry and annoyed.  Sure they’re free from slavery, but at least in Egypt they had some food and a place to sleep.  They grumbled with Moses and with God about their current situation.  And honestly, they were questioning what kind of God would save them only to leave them hungry and homeless and lost in the wilderness? Their disgruntledness was clouding their experience of God.

So God offers them a new way of life.  God gifts the ten commandments.  We don’t always hear the commandments as a gift. We tend to hear them as negatives or rules; thou shall not...thou shall not…But I think what God is offering them, and us, is not purely a set of rules, or laws on how to live, but rather a God gifts a new way of life.

Thou shall have no other gods...God says I am the one and only true God, the God who freed you from Exodus.   You call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.

Thou shall not murder...I, God, give you the gift of life

Thou shall not lie...I give you the gift of truth

Since the dawn of creation, God has always been about creating and recreating, gifting and regifting, forming and reforming.  From the commandments to the temple mount... from the resurrection to today...God continues to shape us into a new a community and a new way of life.  

In light of our texts today, we might consider two thoughts during our Lenten journey.

First, how is God shaping, reshaping, forming, and reforming your life.  As you wrestle with Lent and relationship with God, what tables is God turning in your life?  

Are their hindrances in between you and God?

Second, how is God at work in this community of faith.  Are we like the Temple Mount, busy with self-interest and personal gain...transacting the traditions of our faith, numb  the significance of God’s work. Do we misuse God’s gifts?   Do we grumble with the God who freed us and saved us?

And friends, I pray we hear these questions not as convictions of our faith and relationship with God, but rather that we hear them as opportunities for growth.  

While working at Lutheridge we were evaluated every week.  Every week we would write down a measurable goal, and on Saturday we would receive an evaluation.  At the bottom of that evaluation was a space the read “Opportunities for Growth.”  Rather than identifying and convicting shortcomings or failures, they would assess our individual and communal opportunities of growth.

Lent is a beautiful season to reflect on our opportunities for growth.  From Ash Wed. to the great Three days, we are empowered to wrestle with our individual and communal faith, acknowledging any shortcomings and self interests, confessing any sins or misuse of the gospel, all because we know through our baptism that on the third day Jesus rose from the dead for the forgiveness and mercy of all of God’s people.  

Make no mistake, Lent is a season of growth, and as God reshapes and reforms, God desires us to grow into communion with God and neighbor.  Grow into our new God-given community in the body of Christ.  To grow in our faith and understanding of God’s grace, forgiveness, mercy, and love.  

And the good news this day, in all of Lent, and always is that God never ceases in helping us grow in faith.  We are not alone nor are we ever on our own to grow in God’s kingdom.  We are the body of Christ, and together we are continuously and relentlessly being transformed by God.