Luke 4:1-13

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the Accuser. Jesus ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. 3 The Accuser said to Jesus, “Since you’re the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” 4 Jesus answered the Accuser, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”

  5 Then the Accuser led Jesus up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.

6 And the Accuser said to Jesus, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered the Accuser, “It is written, 

 ‘Worship the Lord your God,

  and serve only the Lord.’”

  9 Then the Accuser took Jesus to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “Since you’re the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written, 

 ‘God will command the angels concerning you,

  to protect you,’

11 and 

 ‘On their hands they will bear you up,

  so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

12 Jesus answered the Accuser, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 Having finished every test, the Accuser departed from Jesus until an opportune time.

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Please pray with me this morning, church:

Holy God,

So much weighs on us these days.

We carry around so much with us and it is heavy.

We come to you, seeking relief this morning.

Help us to unburden.

Lighten our loads so we can help others with theirs.

Amen.

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When I was in high school, about 16 or 17, I had the opportunity to spend 2 weeks out of my summer backpacking in the foothills of the Rockies in New Mexico, at Philmont Scout Ranch. It’s a pilgrimage, of sorts, for most Boy Scouts, at least it was then, so I was very grateful to get to go. You spend almost the full 2 weeks out on the trail, averaging 5-6 miles a day…certainly not for the faint of heart, and I’m not exactly sure these knees could handle it anymore…sleeping in tents, under the stars, showers few and far between, meals cooked on fires or camp stoves, mostly canned meats and MREs (meals ready to eat)…

I told you, not for the faint of heart.

You get your first stomach grumble about day 2.5 or 3. I’m not sure I’ve ever had such an overwhelming urge for a Snickers as I did on that trail.

I didn’t exactly know what I was hungry for, I just knew that I was hungry.

While you’re on the trail, there’s also this kind of overwhelming sense of just wanting relief. All of you are hiking around with 40lbs. or so on your back, and after a certain amount of time, you just want to set it down. Take a break. Get a little bit of relief.

You figure out pretty quickly that the easiest way to get relief is actually not to take your backpack all the way off. See, then you have unstrap it, take it off, set it down…but then when you get ready to go again, you have to sling it back up on your back, hoist it up on your shoulders, strap it down, and cinch it up again. No, the quickest and easiest way to get relief is to find a tall rock and rest your backpack on it and let your butt hang down. Then you don’t have to readjust any of your straps, but your shoulders and back get instant and substantial relief. #ProTip

After his baptism, Jesus is led into the wilderness by the Spirit and is tempted for 40 days while he fasts. 40 days is a long time to do anything, certainly to go without food, so you can imagine, at this point, that Jesus just wants some relief, just a bit of easing of the harshness. Jesus is ripe for temptation after these 40 days.

Do you ever notice that? Do you ever notice within yourself how it’s when things seem to be going their worst for you that it feels like the obstacles and the stumbling blocks and the temptations crop up the most? It’s the most inopportune time… It’s like when things are already going poorly and you’re at the end of your rope, that it feels like someone is pulling that rope the most forcefully, trying to yank it out of your hand…like you’ve already got such a large pile of stuff and it’s just then that the universe seems to be conspiring against you to add more and more stuff to that pile. 

When you’re already feeling heavy, it feels like the addition of just. one. more. thing. is going to break you. You just want some relief.

The temptation is to give into that struggle. To throw up your hands and stop trying so damn hard to fight because it doesn’t seem like it’s making that big of a difference anyway.

It’s when we feel like we’re at our weakest that the temptation seems strongest to give in to easy ways out, to lean into hoisting blame onto others, or to fall back onto our basest fears and judgments.

Whatever language you want to use…devil, tempter…I think this is what the Accuser was after with Jesus in the wilderness. Offering Jesus an easy way out…seeding doubt and feeding on and preying on that doubt that maybe Jesus isn’t who people say he is. “Maybe you’re not God’s beloved, Jesus… Where is your God to help you?”

Certainly Jesus is wanting just a little bit of relief.

Those are the doubts and the fears that prey on us, too. “Maybe you’re not who you say you are. Maybe you’re not all the good things others say about you. Maybe you’re not all that exceptional.” Or even more insidious, “Maybe you’re not who God says you are…”

These are the fears and temptations we wrestle with as a congregation, as well, make no mistake. You look around and you see fewer people than you remember, and those fears and doubt start to creep in, and the temptation is to give into those fears and doubts. “Are they ever coming back? Where is everyone? What are we doing launching a Capital Campaign at a time like this?”

And the thing is, church, it’s precisely for a time like this that the church exists. It’s precisely when things are most dismal, precisely when hope seems lost, precisely when doubts and fears arise, that the church is at it’s best. Because it is our call to shoulder those burdens for one another. Not to gloss things over and bury our head in the sand and pretend as if all these realities aren’t present…but to to be reminded and to remind one another that the whole reason we’re here is because of the promise of the resurrection—God brings life from things that die. God’s desire, dear people, is life and life abundant. And as long as we’re leaning into the call that God has placed on this congregation, as long as we’re aligning our mission and ministry with the work God has called us to…I trust that we’ll be ok, I have faith that God keeps God’s promises.

This is precisely what Building on Hope is reminding us. I can’t wait to share with you all the incredible work that you’re making possible and all the incredible ministry that will happen because of your faithfulness. Please make plans to be here on our Commitment Sunday, March 20, when we’ll also celebrate the Grand Re-Opening of our Community Center…I promise you, you’re not going to want to miss it.

This season of Lent we’re exploring the theme Unburden. We’re reflecting on the heaviness of our world and the weightiness of all the extra things that we carry around with us. We’re exploring how it feels like in recent years we’ve grown further and further apart from one another—ideologically, socially, spiritually—and we’re inviting you to live into an expansive idea of Lent this year. One that invites you to set down some of the heavy things you’re carrying around. An expansive Lent that creates more space, fills you up, draws you closer to God and closer to your neighbor. And expansive Lent that reminds this congregation that God is a God of life and God keeps God’s promises. An expansive idea Lent that reminds that you are exactly who God says that you are…dear beloved child.

We’ll talk about unburdening ourselves from unrealistic expectations, from our propensity to shovel blame onto others, and from our fears that wrap us up and consume us. 

My prayer is that rather than a trudge that seems to get heavier with each step, that you would find yourself lighter as you journey through Lent this year. We’ve got a lot, friends, that we’ve built up over the past couple of years. This Lenten season, you’ll be invited to set it down. Here. At the foot of the cross. Where mercy and compassion flow forth. Where grace is poured out. Where love doesn’t give death the last word, but instead cultivates and nurtures life. Life and love that is birthed out of a wounded side.

Throughout his tempting ordeal, Jesus’ response to these offers from the Accuser was to return to that which formed him—his Bible. Instead of shouting down the devil or trying to out-argue the tempter with eloquent well-outlined rhetorical arguments, Jesus quotes scripture.

Seeking relief, Jesus returned to that which formed him.

Just a couple of days ago, on Ash Wednesday, you heard that you are dust, o mortal one. Beautiful, gleaming, magnificent stardust. And to dust you will return.

You were formed from dust.

God breathed life into your dusty self.

Unburden yourself this Lent, dear church.

Return to that which formed you.

Return to God.

Luke 9:28-43a

28 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30 Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to Jesus. 31 They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw the glory of Jesus and the two men who stood with him.

33 Just as the men were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said.

34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” 36 When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

  37 On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met Jesus.

38 Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. 39 Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. 40 I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” 41 Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” 42 While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43a And all were astounded at the greatness of God.

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Please pray with me this morning, church:

God of glory,

Your brilliance illumines our lives

and sometimes we struggle to be

the people you have called us to be.

As we make our ways through

mountains and valleys, walk with us.

Transfigure and transform our hearts again this morning,

Help us to reflect your light in our lives.

Help us reflect your love in our world

Amen.

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I had my first taste in the Summer of 2000. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I knew I had to have more. I was hooked.

I could have had it again in the same way 3 years later, in the Summer of 2003, but opted to try it in a little different form. This way was even better! So I would do it again and again and again, 3 years in between each time. 2006…2009…I had to miss 2012, but I was able to pick it up again in 2015 and 2018…

It’s not hyperbole to say that the ELCA Youth Gathering is a fundamental cornerstone of my faith story. I was blessed to attend in 2000 as a participant, and while I was eligible to go as a participant again in 2003, I opted to try serving in a volunteer capacity that year, and in each subsequent Gathering year, as a Hotel Life or Community Life volunteer, and then later as an adult chaperone. My experiences of the ELCA Youth Gathering have fundamentally shaped my view and my experience of God, that it will be one of my singular missions as Pastor for as long as I serve, to do everything I can to help our young people attend the Gathering as they are able.

We would have been scheduled to go again in 2021, which got postponed to this year, 2022. And through a confluence of really unfortunate events, some of which were outside of the organization’s control, the Gathering team made the difficult decision to cancel the Youth Gathering for this cycle. But not to fear, because we’ll pick it back up again in 2024.

And I absolutely plan to be there. With our high schoolers.

When we get a taste of, when we glimpse, an experience of the mountaintop, our very natural reaction is to want to have that same experience again and to share it with others.

(*again*) When we have a mountaintop experience…our very natural reaction is to want to have that experience again and to share that experience with others.

The problem is…rarely are two mountaintop experiences the same, and rarely is the same event experienced the same way by two different people. And…if all we do is chase mountaintop experiences…where does that leave us in the inevitable in-between times and the valleys of our lives?

Peter’s reaction is so understandable and so typical of us… “Rabbi…permit us to build 3 dwellings here…one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Peter, James, and John are literally standing in the embodied presence of God, they are literally looking God in the face…of course Peter wants to preserve and memorialize this moment. This moment is so beautiful, so perfect, so unimaginable…there’s no way this moment can simply be relegated to only a memory…”Teacher, we want to preserve this experience, bottle it up, take it with us.”

The heartbreaking thing about mountaintop experiences is that they seem to happen so rarely and yet they make us feel so good. How cruel is it then, that those experiences are so fleeting?

What I appreciate about the Gospel accounts of the Transfiguration is that none of the authors let us dwell very long on top of this mountain. Perhaps more than the others, the author of Luke moves right on from the Transfiguration to coming down off of the mountain onto the healing of this young boy possessed by a demon. The call and the work…ministry…waits for no one. We have to get down off of this mountain because the mission continues, there is healing to be realized, work to be done, sight to be restored, and liberation to be proclaimed. Ministry must continue.

It’s one of the things you’ll hear from our own Danny Sigmon in just a few moments. As we claw our way through and out of this pandemic, God-willing, and we’re careful not to put things back in exactly the same way as they were before, the truth is, as we look to restart and reimagine ministries here at New Hope, we need your help to do it. It’s why for our Annual Stewardship Campaign we called it Reigniting Hope, and it’s why, along with a pledge card for your annual offering commitments, we also included a pledge card for how you’ll be involved with ministry at New Hope this year. The intention is to take time in discernment, to think on and pray about the gifts and abilities and time and resources God has blessed you with, and then to commit to offering those in tangible way to serving others and serving each other. Your gifts are needed here, church, to help ministry happen. We simply cannot do it without you. Ministry must and does continue, as it always has.

But don’t discount the sustaining power of mountaintop experiences.

As Peter rightly notes, “Teacher, it is good for us to be here.” Yes, Peter, it’s very good to be there, in the presence of Christ. And not just in the presence of Jesus, your Rabbi that you’ve been following around for a year or two at this point, but in the presence of Christ whose likeness is reflecting brilliantly the glory and majesty of God. A brilliant likeness, by the way, that is reflected in every single living thing that God has ever created. As St. Paul will remind us in 2 Corinthians, “All of us…are being transformed into that very same image from one degree of glory to another.” Every single beloved child reflects the very same radiance and brilliance that shone forth from Christ’s face. You…me…your neighbor…the oppressed, the marginalized, our LGBTQIA2+ siblings, especially our trans* siblings this week, Ukrainians, Russians, refugees, immigrants, indigenous people…there is not one single person on earth that isn’t made in God’s very own image and that doesn’t reflect God’s magnificent glory.

What Peter witnessed on top of that mountain is the same so many of us remember about our mountaintop experiences, the same so many of us hope to witness in the mountaintop experiences to come—God’s glory come to earth…the brilliant and moving image of God’s very self standing right in front of us.

That’s what it is for you about mountaintop experiences, right? They’re memorable and you long for them because if even for just a fleeting moment you have seen God. The same light that was called into being when the foundations of the world were being laid, the same brilliance that was called “very good,” is staring you in the face and it’s the most wonderful thing you’ve ever laid eyes on.

It’s why we chase them, these mountaintop experiences. It’s why we want more of them. It’s why we long for them. It’s why it pains us to wrestle with the reality that the entirety of our lives isn’t lived on top of that mountain. Because it is good to be there. It is good to behold the glory and power of God.

So how do we reconcile our very real and very good experiences on top of the mountain with the truth and reality of our lives that there are valleys, that all of life isn’t lived on the mountaintop?

What if we reframed our experiences of beholding the glory and majesty of God? What if instead of only on the mountaintops, we strove to see the image and likeness of God in every single person we encounter?

The good news, church, is that Jesus doesn’t stay on top of that mountain. Jesus descends with Peter and James and John and they get right back to the ministry to which they are called. But they are not the same as they were before. It is the transfigured Christ who goes with them. The glory of God and their experience of God’s majesty journey with them.

And so it is for us.

The transfigured, brilliant, shining-with-the-glory-and-majesty-of-God Jesus journeys with us. Up the mountain, down the mountain, on the plain, in the rough places, through the smooth patches, and especially into our valleys.

Whether your heart is in Ukraine today. Or with relatives in Russia. Or with a servicemember stationed in Eastern Europe… Whether your heart is at MD Anderson today. Or Houston Methodist. Or Memorial Hermann. Or wrestling with decisions about hospice… Whether your heart is breaking for your beloved friends and family who are trans*—who, again, unequivocally, are bearers of God’s divine image and who brilliantly radiate the transfigured glory of God. Or with friends and family who are struggling to get the resources they need. Or behind on their rent. Or struggling with the rising cost of food. Or wrestling with what your children or grandchildren are hearing in school—from bullies, from friends, from caretakers…

Wherever you are today…Christ is walking with you.

As we prepare to enter into our Lenten pilgrimage…as we continue in our Capital Campaign Building on Hope…as we discern the ministry to which God is calling us as New Hope Lutheran…this is where I’m drawing immense comfort. It’s where I implore you to seek comfort and refuge.

God has not abandoned God’s people. God does not abandon God’s people.

Mountains…valleys…and every place in between…

Yes, this journey down the mountain will ultimately take Jesus to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, and to the cross…but the journey does not end there. Because it will ultimately take Jesus to the tomb and through death to the glorious and brilliant joy of Easter. This journey does not end in a valley…but rather in resurrection. And in transformation.

And as we travel with Jesus, remember that we, too, are being changed as we journey…being transformed into the very same image of Christ, from one degree of glory to another, through the Spirit of God.

So we journey with faith.

We journey with hope.

We journey with Christ.

Luke 6:27-38

[Jesus said:] 27 “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.

  31 “Do to others as you would have them do to you? 32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, in order to receive as much again. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, who is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as God is merciful.

  37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

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Please pray with me this morning, church:

God of new and amazing things,

Sometimes we have difficulty seeing

The new thing you are calling us to.

Sometimes our inability to see

Comes from a lack of holy imagination.

Inspire us this morning.

Give us new eyes and new ears.

Give us a new spirit to dream a new thing with you.

Amen.

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Over at the Michaelis household, we’re not exactly garden people. We aspire to be, and we’re working on some plans to be, but look, I’ve talked before about my thumb and how it’s less green and more brown or black. We needed some space in our backyard along the fence and we recently had some trees removed and now we’ve got this wonderfully open space that gets a good bit of sun, perfect for some raised beds. And actually, Ollie and I put together a couple of raised beds yesterday. Like I said, we’ve got some plans in the works, so check back with me later to see how it’s all going.

The journey from seed to seedling to full blown plant is a long one. And if you’re like me, and extremely confident that at some point along the way you’re going to miss a step and really mess things up, it’s a journey fraught with a decent amount of anxiety and second-guessing, as well.

But when you stop to think about it, and you’re holding these seeds in your hand, and you look down at these little kernels of potential…I find it really difficult to conceivably imagine that this tiny, rigid casing could possibly become a cucumber, or a tomato, or a jalapeño, or a blueberry. The process seems so far outside my ability to imagine.

And yet…that’s precisely what happens. With a little good soil and some water and a healthy amount of sunlight, those little kernels germinate and sprout and grow and become something beautiful and wonderful, and in some cases, quite tasty. The process of growing something from seed to plant is to observe transformation in real time.

The whole idea behind transformation is that it’s something completely different. What it was before is not what it becomes, and in fact, is nothing like what it was before, it is wholly and fully and completely different.

When St. Paul is talking about the resurrection in our lesson from First Corinthians, he’s getting at this idea of transformation. “What about the resurrection of the dead? What does that look like? What kind of bodies will the resurrected have?” “Fools!” Paul says…“What you sow doesn’t come to life unless it dies…what is sown is perishable, what it raised is imperishable.” Paul is saying, “You’re asking about resurrection and bodies, and you’re missing the point entirely.” You’re asking the wrong question. The resurrection isn’t about what kind of bodies we’ll have. You’re wanting to know if you’ll have that limp in the resurrection. “Will I have that nagging arthritis? Will my knee still pop in that funny way when I stand up after the resurrection?” Or even more to the point…“Will I have cancer in the resurrection? Will I still have cataracts? Will my blindness, or my lameness, or my mental illness…will I still bear these sufferings in the resurrection?”

“Dear sweet child of God…that’s…the wrong question…” Paul replies.

Resurrection is transformation. What comes after is not anything like what came before. The resurrection isn’t about your body…the resurrection is something experienced apart from and outside of your physical body. It is wholly and fully and completely different.

Part of the difficulty with things like transformation is that we are, in many ways, constrained by what we see and what we know. We struggle to imagine something completely different because what was before might be all we’ve known. It’s difficult to imagine something wholly and fully and completely different that may not look like anything we’ve ever seen before.

But what if we allowed ourselves to dream? What if we challenged ourselves to imagine something outside of and beyond anything we’ve currently experienced? If you weren’t constrained by your experiences and conceptions of “the way things have looked” or “the way things have been done,” what new and amazing possibilities could you dream up?

This is the gift and challenge of transformation. Transformation exists beyond what we currently know and experience.

So in the gospel of Luke, as Jesus is continuing this morning with what we call the Sermon on the Plain, it’s like we talked about last week, the kingdom of God, the reign and dominion of God that Jesus is describing sets itself overagainst worldly kingdoms and empires, but it looks nothing like those worldly dominions either. The reign of God exists outside of the constraints and conceptions of the way empires are supposed to operate. Last week we heard that God’s vision of the world is one of leveling, where the powerful and the haves are brought low and the lowly, despised, outcast, and downtrodden are lifted up. This week, Jesus uses all these examples of how the world that we know operates, and flips them all on their head. “Love your enemies, and do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer your other. If anyone takes away your coat, give them your shirt, too. Give to everyone who asks of you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them back.”

Verse 31 is one of the most well known verses in all of Scripture. And interestingly, every single major world religion has some variation of this in their holy texts. On the Fort Bend Interfaith Council, of which New Hope is a member, we even have a subgroup of interfaith partners called the “Golden Rule Gang” and this group has taken under their specific charge seeking out ways to advocate for and be agents of tangible change in our community. Things like housing and food insecurity, rental and mortgage assistance, eviction cases, gun violence in schools… Advocacy…justice…protest…engaging elected officials… The Golden Rule Gang seeks out ways that our faith communities can add our voices to the public discourse to make real and lasting change for the betterment and health of our community.

But what’s interesting is that Jesus seems to take this idea even further. Some biblical scholars argue that verse 31 really belongs with the section below it, verses 32-34, and is really better posed as a rhetorical question. Hear it this way, the way I read it earlier: “Do to others as you would have them do to you? If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.”

“But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.”

Do more, Jesus is saying. St. Paul will echo this in Philippians: “Treat others as better than yourselves.”

Go beyond just what you would want for yourself. Be part of transformational change. Break the cycle of this for that, giving only to receive back as much. Live beyond the ways of being that are operative in the world. Be transformed and live transformed lives.

It’s not a way of living in the world that is this way or that way…it’s a way of discipleship that is completely separate from the way the world works. It’s a way of life that is completely different altogether.

“How is it a credit to you if you only like those who like you? If you only are good to someone because they were first good to you? If you only give to someone hoping that they’ll give it back to you someday?”

“Love your enemies. Do good. And give away, expecting nothing in return.”

It is a completely counter-cultural, counter-intuitive way of living. It’s unlike anything we could imagine or have experienced in our lives up to this point. It’s a pattern of life that exists outside of our ability to understand. It’s transformational.

When we dare to imagine or dream beyond what we’ve experienced, beyond our conceptions of the way things have always been or the way we’ve always done things, then we’re starting to dream about transformational ministry.

These are the questions put before us in our Capital Campaign, Building on Hope. What new thing is God calling New Hope to in this time? How can New Hope serve Missouri City, Stafford, Sugar Land, and Fort Bend County in a new way?

ESL classes? They’ve got full ones going on right now over at Armstrong. Do they need more space to hold classes?

Affordable after-school care? There’s a whole elementary school over there with kids whose parents are working two and three jobs to feed their babies and families.

Job training and flexible work space? There’s a whole new generation of entrepreneurs and business owners that have only known remote work untethered to an office, but it can be helpful to have a spot to crank out a few emails and gather together with other young professionals to bounce ideas off of.

Sports leagues. Meeting space. Cooking classes.

A Community Center.

We are truly only limited by our imagination.

This is how we are Building on Hope.

This is what you’re being invited into, church.

This is the transformational mission and ministry to which God is calling New Hope.

And this is the transformational work you’re being invited into by joining with us in Building on Hope.

Say yes to this invitation.

The work is long.

Tending a seed from kernel of incredible potential to germination to seedling to full blown plant requires patience, consistent watering, sunlight, and a healthy dose of love.

But oh, when it blossoms… Oh, when it blooms…

The transformation is so much more than our wildest imaginations.

Luke 6:17-26

17 Jesus came down with the twelve and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

  20 Then Jesus looked up at his disciples and said: 

 “Blessed are you who are poor,

  for yours is the dominion of God.

 21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now,

  for you will be filled.

 “Blessed are you who weep now,

  for you will laugh.

  22 “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son-of-Man. 23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

 24 “But woe to you who are rich,

  for you have received your consolation.

 25 “Woe to you who are full now,

  for you will be hungry.

 “Woe to you who are laughing now,

  for you will mourn and weep.

  26 “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”

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Please pray with me this morning, church:

Generous God,

We feel very blessed today, and we are.

Which might mean we find ourselves

Listed among your woes more often than not.

Remind us, again, of your incredible

Generosity toward us.

Help us to live generous lives

In response to your gift.

Amen.

———————-

When I was applying to seminary, I was invited to participate in a scholarship process that eventually awarded me quite a bit of aid for my entire 4 years of seminary. It would end up being a significant amount of debt that I didn’t have to take on. When it came to being assigned our ministry learning parishes during our second year, I got my first choice, exactly the site I wanted to learn at. Same with my Chaplaincy Internship, exactly where I wanted to serve. Same with my Internship, my first choice that was exactly the setting I wanted to serve in.

Do you ever get this foreboding sense in your life that things have just been going too well for too long, and you get nervous about the next choice you have to make because you just know that at some point the other shoe’s going to drop and your luck is going to run out…?

As we approached the end of my 4 years of seminary and got ready to release my paperwork out into the ELCA world, as we approached the time when the Bishops would get together and decide which seminary Candidates were going to be assigned to which geographical areas…I just knew that it was going to be that time that other shoe was going to drop. Like, of course it would happen during Assignment, this time after my 4 years of study that would literally decide where my family and I would move…a group of Bishops sitting in a room, in many ways deciding my family’s fate, at least in terms of where we would live. I’ve never felt so unlucky as I did during those couple of weeks.

It did end up working out. Quite well, I think. I ended up here, with all of you lovely people, and it has been extraordinarily good for my family. So, thank you. But have you ever felt that? Like at some point, that the blessings are going to run dry and you’ll get caught up in this cycle of woes that you’ll have to physically claw your way out of.

When things are going well for me, it seems as if all I can focus on is some indeterminate time in the future when they will stop. During my seasons of struggle, it seems as if I can only see how great everything is for everyone else around me, how much everyone else isn’t struggling.

So is it true that we are either blessed or not? Is it as cut-and-dry as it seems that the author of Luke is suggesting, either “blessed are you” or “woe to you”?

I don’t think so. I think there’s a lot of nuance.

But our lived experiences certainly would have us feel as if things are either “this” or “that.”

This section from the Gospel of Luke mirrors a similar section from the Gospel of Matthew. It’s a collection of sayings from Jesus, likely not all said at the same time except it makes for good storytelling, so the authors pulled all these stories and sayings together and structured them as if Jesus is preaching, and so we call it a sermon. For the author of Matthew this occurs on the side of a mountain, so taken all together we call it the Sermon on the Mount. The author of Luke writes that just before this Jesus goes up on a mountain to pray and choose twelve apostles from among the many disciples, and then Jesus comes down from the mountain and stands “on a level place”…and so this is known as the Sermon on the Plain.

This level place is important in the Gospel of Luke. Throughout the gospel, Jesus is constantly speaking to this great leveling—from Mary’s Magnificat where the lowly are lifted up and the powerful are brought low, John the baptizer being cast in the same vein as the prophet Isaiah “…crying out in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord and make the Lord’s paths direct. Every valley filled and every mountain brought low, the crooked places aligned and the rough places made smooth,’” to Jesus’ first words in the synagogue also from the prophet Isaiah “the spirit of the Lord has sent me to proclaim good news to the poor and release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind and the year of the Lord’s favor, the year of Jubilee,” to Luke’s version of the Beatitudes this morning where the kingdom of God belongs to the poor, the hungry are filled, the mournful laugh, and the reviled are given a great reward in heaven…but woe to the rich and the full and the carefree and the well-liked.

For Jesus, in the Gospel of Luke, the kingdom of God—God’s promised future and the fullness of God’s vision for the world—stands diametrically opposed to the kingdoms of the world, specifically overagainst the Roman Empire, but also stands overagainst our empires in our time. The kingdom of God is at odds with worldly powers. Worldly empires exalt the rich and famous and lift up the haves…the kingdom of God lifts up the lowly and the outcast, the hungry, the material poor, the housing and food insecure, the downtrodden, and the destitute. The kingdom of God is good news for the have-nots.

And if, like me, you find yourself in positions of relative comfort, just kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop amidst what is, quite truthfully, a fairly charmed life…it sounds like not-so-good news…

But, as I said earlier, what if the reign of God isn’t as cut-and-dry, this-or-that as we experience so much in our world? While the kingdom of God stands diametrically opposed to the kingdoms of this world, what if life within this promised future isn’t such a dichotomy?

In First Corinthians, St. Paul lays out his rhetorical argument that the resurrection is the key to everything. It’s a lot to try and work through and Paul doesn’t make it easy with the way he writes, but essentially, Paul is saying that for the Christian, resurrection is everything. “If there is no resurrection then Christ wasn’t raised, and if Christ wasn’t raised then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” If there is no resurrection of Christ or resurrection of the dead, then faith is nothing. The whole point is the resurrection.

God’s desire for God’s creation is resurrection, which is to say that God’s desire for the world is transformation, a journey and a through-line from death to life. God desires life for you and God desires life for your neighbors, and when your neighbor is suffering or is living a less than full life or a life that is anything less than abundant and thriving, then God’s desire for you is that you do what you can with what you have to help your neighbor live the abundant and thriving life that God intends for them. When each of us looks not to our interests, but to the interests of others, as St. Paul will say in Philippians, then everyone is looking out for everyone else, and collectively, we are doing what we can to ensure that everyone is living a full and abundant and thriving life that God intends.

This isn’t some strange ideology of a fringe remote commune, this is God’s vision for the world as laid out in the scriptures. This is exactly how the first Christ-believing communities lived—“they held all things together in common and they distributed to all as any had need.” Common good…sharing of resources…true equality…a great leveling…a truly level playing field…

And church, this is the kind of community we are called to be. This is what is means to live together in community, to live for the sake of one another. This is the kind of community that we are created for.

It’s the kind of community we’re seeking to nurture through our Building on Hope Capital Campaign. Through this Campaign, we’re seeking to make significant improvements to our campus and facilities in order to best serve our neighborhood and community. Our hope is for New Hope to truly be a center for our community. We’re imagining basketball leagues, youth groups, Scout troops, civic and community organizations…we’re reaching out to folks in our community who are looking for flexible work space; with the adoption and prevalence of remote work, we’re looking at renting out some of our unused space as work space for a new generation of entrepreneur and business owner…with some upgrades our kitchen could be used for cooking classes for young people and low-income families, food preparation for food trucks, and so much more.

Church, our vision, not just for our Community Center, but for our campus, is that New Hope re-commit ourselves…re-establish ourselves…re-root ourselves…here. To say New Hope is here…to stay…we’re not going anywhere… New Hope is in this community…for good.

Over the next few weeks, you’re going to hear a lot of talk about stewardship and generosity. That’s just the nature of a Capital Campaign. But more than that, I hope you keep your eyes and your ears open to the ways God is moving and active amidst all these conversations. Where do you notice God at work? What needs in our community do you see? Where can New Hope come alongside our neighbors to be a place of healing, a place of caring, and a place of love?

Ultimately the generosity we’re talking about is a generosity of yourself. Recognize where God and others have been generous to you, and work out what your response is to that generosity in your life.

We are created for generosity.

When we are all living generous lives, all are able to live the kind of abundant and thriving life that God intends.

When we respond to generosity with generosity, there’s no waiting for the other shoe to drop, because all are being truly blessed.

By one another.

By God.

Luke 4:17-30

17 [T]he scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Jesus, and Jesus unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

  because the Lord has anointed me

   to bring good news to the poor.

 The Lord has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

  and recovery of sight to the blind,

   to let the oppressed go free,

 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 And Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then Jesus began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 All spoke well of Jesus and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23 Jesus said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’ ” 24 And Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove Jesus out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But Jesus passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

———————-

Please pray with me this morning, church:

God of love,

Without love, our words fall flat.

Without love, our deeds and our actions are nothing.

Remind us again, this morning, the truth about ourselves.

That we are yours.

That we are loved.

Amen.

———————-

Sometimes I have a bit of a short fuse. I try and catch myself, but I’m not always successful. It comes out a lot when I’m driving, actually. Like earlier this month, myself and everyone around me were all driving on our way down 59. I wasn’t the slowest car in the right lane, but I wasn’t the fastest in the left lane either. And this other car cuts across, like, 3 lanes of traffic to try and catch the exit they were about to miss. And everyone in all the lanes on the highway had to brake pretty hard as this other car was cutting across. And after I kind of shouted a few choice words that I wouldn’t be too proud to tell Jesus, I’ll tell you, church, that, like, ruined my day for, like, 5 minutes. Seriously…and in retrospect, it wasn’t really that big of a deal, but in the moment, you would have thought this person committed a grievous offense against me personally.

Sometimes that’s how much some of these incidents affect me. It’s like I get so angry at such a small, seemingly insignificant thing. It’s really strange, and it’s probably not very healthy, and I know this about myself so I’m trying to work on it, but still.

In the moment that kind of vengeful anger feels a little good, if I’m being honest. But when I reflect on that moment later, I know that’s not a healthy emotion.

Upon reflection, I feel convicted by the truth about myself behind that experience.

Sometimes the truth about ourselves has a funny way of doing that to us. So very often the truth exposes something about us that we’d rather not have widely known and it makes us uncomfortable. You work so hard to display how great your life is and how wonderful everything is to your friends and family and coworkers…we curate these displays on our social media pages, our facebooks and instagrams…we build up this beautiful façade…that when you start to see cracks in that façade or when you think that others can see right through the perfect veneer to the foundation that might be less than perfect, we feel shame about that. And shame is a powerful emotion.

Sometimes the truth about ourselves can do that. It can make you uncomfortable because it causes shame to rise up in you. “What if everyone can see this?” “What if everyone can see right past this and they knew that things aren’t quite as perfect as I make them out to be?” “What would they think of me then?”

Sometimes when you have the mirror turned back upon yourself in reflection, you don’t like what you see very much. The truth can be a convicting thing. And maybe you don’t like being called out on your stuff. Because maybe it means you were wrong once, or have been wrong a few times. And if you were wrong about this one thing, what else might you have been wrong about?

And so you get angry. It’s a defense mechanism…this defensive posture. It’s a form of self-preservation. You scoff, “I’m not like that!”

Our Gospel from Luke today picks up where we left off last week. Jesus is in the synagogue on the Sabbath and he gets up to read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and Jesus unrolls the scroll to what we know as Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring Gospel—good news, eungelion—to the poor. The Lord has sent me to proclaim release to those who are imprisoned and bound up and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of Jubilee—the year of the Lord’s favor, every 50 years, in which all slaves are to be set free, all fields are to be returned to their rightful owners, all debts are to be forgiven.”

And Jesus rolls up the scroll, gives it back to the attendant, and quite authoritatively says, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” And the whole assembly just kind of stares at Jesus wide-eyed, with their mouths slightly open, just astounded…”Isn’t this Joseph’s kid? The carpenter…? Such authority he preaches with!” It’d be like one of New Hope’s youth from like 15 or 20 years ago getting up here and preaching. You might be quite amazed at her authority, but some of you in the back of your mind would still be seeing that young Confirmation-aged and high school young girl. You’d still be seeing the young woman who grew up here, maybe even some of you had changed her diapers or babysat her before. She speaks and she preaches with authority…but that authority is just a little bit muted…because you remember the child that she was, and maybe part of you still thinks of her in that way…

So Jesus gets a little antagonistic, a little provocative: “No doubt you’ll say to me, ‘Physician, cure yourself!’ Do here in Nazareth what it is we heard you did in Capernaum…healing those people, setting those in captivity to their ailments free.” “You want me to do the thing, right?” Jesus goes on, “You want me to do the magic tricks. Prove it to you that I am who others say I am, right?” Jesus is needling them, egging them on. Jesus is getting under their skin. “Very truly I tell you, no prophet is welcomed in the prophet’s own hometown.” The hometown doesn’t want to hear the words of challenge that the prophet has for them. The hometown just wants the show, the magic tricks. “Give me all the goods and blessings, but spare me your words of challenge and condemnation and change.” The hometown crowd wants the healings and the blessings from God, but they don’t want to hear about how far they’ve strayed in their relationship to God.

Sometimes the truth gets a little too close for our comfort. Sometimes the truth gets a little too close to the actual truth. And those feelings of shame creep up, and anger creeps up. And how dare this person whose diapers I changed challenge me, and tell me how far I’ve strayed from God. And who do they think they are anyway? Who gave them the authority anyway?

But Jesus keeps on, “The truth is, people—oh you who think you’re so great, oh you who think you’ve got it all put together, oh you who think you’re so beyond reproach—the truth is there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, and yet, Elijah was sent to none of them except the one in Zarephath in Sidon…you know, the non-Israelite, the outsider, the one who wasn’t part of the covenant. There were many unclean people in Israel in the time of Elisha, but Elisha wasn’t sent to any of them, Elisha was sent to Naaman the Syrian…the non-Israelite, the outsider, the one outside the covenant. Don’t you see God’s preference here? Don’t you see God’s preference for the outsider, the ones who aren’t the hometown crowd, the ones who don’t have their perfect façades, or at least are honest and upfront about the cracks in the foundation?”

Don’t you see, church?!

Well if you don’t have your hackles up by now, if you haven’t yet started bristling at Jesus’ words, you certainly are there now. Ready to throw Jesus right off that cliff along with the crowd from Nazareth.

If Jesus’ words in scripture haven’t bothered you, if there aren’t Gospel messages that have deeply convicted you, I’m not sure you’ve been listening.

Who among us hasn’t wanted to throw Jesus off of a cliff for having the audacity to say something true? Something true about me? Something true about how I haven’t been living up to God’s standards, those standards and that way of living that I was called to in my baptism?

I have a colleague who, about this time 5 years ago, got up to read the Gospel appointed for that day, from the Gospel of Matthew: “Jesus began to preach, ‘Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are the ones who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers.” My colleague sat down and the congregation continued on with the Hymn of the Day. And later my colleague got several emails that they were being too political and they needed to keep that stuff out of the Sanctuary.

We heard that Gospel here in this Sanctuary, too, by the way, on that same Sunday. It was the Gospel appointed for that Sunday in the Revised Common Lectionary. I got a couple of those emails, too.

Prophets don’t tell the future. Prophets in the biblical tradition tell the truth about God and the truth about God’s people. It’s the unenviable task of the prophet to tell people, to demonstrate to them, how far they’ve veered in their walk with God and what it will take to bring that back.

Prophets tell the truth.

And sometimes that truth gets a little too close to home. Sometimes that truth is a little too true. And shame about just how far you’ve wandered starts to rise up. And anger starts to manifest. And that truth can make you angry.

Which is why it’s important to remember what we’re created for. We are created for community. To be in relationship with one another. A relationship, as St. Paul describes it in First Corinthians, rooted in love. “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I’m a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and knowledge, and have faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”

Without love…these words…are nothing. Apart from a relationship rooted in love these words are nothing. We can’t hear the truth about ourselves outside of a loving and mutual relationship. Those truths will fall flat. Doesn’t mean they’re not still true…just means that we can’t hear them.

Church, we are called to be a community that’s honest, a community that tells the truth, about ourselves, about our neighborhood, about one another. And we are called to do so in a relationship formed in love and mutual care and affection.

We are called to recognize the numerous times in scripture that the word of God came not to those on the inside, not to the ones who said they had it all figured out or put up a shiny veneer, but rather came to those on the outside, the outcast and the marginalized, the ones thought of as less than. the ones who don’t pretend that there aren’t some cracks in the façade.

Because while there might be some cracks, while the veneer might be dull and less than perfect, the foundation’s still good, the bones are still good.

Next week we’ll hear all about how we can keep building on this foundation and these bones. Next week, at the long-awaited kickoff of our Capital Campaign, we’ll hear a vision that we’ve talked about for a number of years now about how this foundation and these bones still have a difference to make in our neighborhood and our community. Join us next week for worship as we celebrate all God has done here at New Hope and all God is calling us to well into the future.

Come join us for worship next week as we continue Building on Hope.

Here’s what else is true about you, church.

You have strayed. We all…have veered.

But God constantly and continuously seeks us out.

The Holy Spirit never stops trying to blow us back on course.

There are cracks in your façade. But God loves that imperfect veneer.

God knows it’s not all perfect. But that’s not what God is interested in anyway.

God’s interested in your foundation, in your bones, and in your heart.

You are beloved.

That’s what true.

Luke 4:14-21

14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to the Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 Jesus began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

  16 When Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. And he stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. Jesus unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

  because the Lord has anointed me

   to bring good news to the poor.

 The Lord has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

  and recovery of sight to the blind,

   to let the oppressed go free,

 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 And Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then Jesus began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

———————-

Please pray with me this morning, church:

Generous God,

Everything we have comes from you,

And you have given us all we need.

Give us eyes to see with your vision.

Help us to see that to which you are calling us.

Make us bold. Help us be flexible.

Remind us what we are created for.

Amen.

———————-

A couple of weeks ago, a group of our friends, like 14 in total, all huddled around our devices as we were throwing out ideas for a big group trip that we’re planning for 2023. And since this is a group of our friends from college, only like 10 minutes total were dedicated to actually talking specifics about the trip and the rest of the hour or more was spent cracking jokes or having a good laugh at the expense of one another. Typically, we would have found a restaurant or a brewery to gather together, of course making allowances for those of our friends who don’t live in Houston, and originally, when we planned this conversation back in December, that was the plan. But we had to adapt and change and shift as the pandemic shifted yet again, and a good number of us actually were infected by COVID-19.

In very much the same way, the church, we, have had to adapt and change and shift over the course of the past 2 years as we seek to respond to an ever-evolving landscape—not just from a pandemic perspective, mind you, but also socially, religiously, politically, culturally…you name it. If you haven’t felt the ground shifting around you, certainly over the past 2 years, but I would argue over the past 5 to 7 to 10 years or more, I’m not sure you’ve been paying attention.

And this kind of shifting and change can really throw a community off its game and bring to the fore some things that had been hiding under the surface. So when I say that this pandemic has clarified things for us as a congregation, as a people, and as a community…what I mean is that we’ve all had the opportunity to explore and discern what’s truly important in our lives. And ultimately, whatever is truly important to you is where you will invest your time and your energy.

Whatever is truly important to you…is where you will invest your time and your energy…and yes, your resources.

What has this pandemic clarified for you, church? Over the past 2 years, what have you come to determine is important to you?

Over the next few weeks, during this season of Epiphany, which is time in between the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord and the season of Lent, our readings in worship will all be from St. Paul’s letter First Corinthians and our Gospel readings from the Gospel of Luke which will all be from the early parts of Jesus’ earthly ministry. And with these readings we’ll have the opportunity to talk about community—and what do we mean by “community”, and what kind of community are we seeking to nurture here, and what are the communities (plural) that we believe God is calling New Hope to in this time…

Quite simply…

What are we created for?

What are you created for?

Who are we created to be for?

As we figure out how to live with this virus…as, God-willing, we start to feel more and more comfortable resuming or restarting life as we remember it from before the pandemic…it’s important to recognize the ways in which we are not the same people that we were 2 years ago. We’ve grown, we’ve changed, maybe your values and what you believe to be important have evolved.

We are not the same community of faith that we were. I see it, I’m not ignorant. I know you see it. You see who’s here…and you see who’s not here. You talk to your friends, you know who’s going somewhere else and who just maybe hasn’t stepped back in. I’m not ignorant of this, church, I can see just as well as you can. But I also see who hasn’t been here…yet. I also look around our neighborhood and I see people yearning to hear good news, some of whom have never heard about New Hope, some of whom maybe haven’t heard the name Jesus yet. Who’s going to tell them, church?

And here’s where it would be easy for a lot folks to get super-discouraged, right? “Oh, my friends went over there,” or “All I see is our community shrinking, and I don’t see the new people or the visitors we used to see,” or “Where is everybody?” And look, I’ll be honest, I’ve said some of these same things, but I’m not discouraged.

Because, here’s why…in the midst of all this, I find a lot to be excited about. It’s absolutely going to be hard. It’s 100% going to be a heavy lift. But I’m excited and I’m energized and I have faith.

I have faith in what St. Paul lays out in our reading from First Corinthians…that all the members together make up the body of Christ, and every single member is important to make that body work. And it’s actually the members that are thought of as weaker that are the most indispensable, Paul says. In the one Spirit, we were all baptized, and the body doesn’t consist of one member, but of many. Friends, the body of Christ is many and varied, and every single member is important. We’re not all hands, we’re not all fingers or toes, we’re not all ears or eyes…some are fingernails, some are feet, some are knees, some are noses…and yes…someone’s gotta be the armpit…and if you’re wondering if it’s you…ehhhh…… I’m just kidding…but seriously… But here’s the thing, with all of these members—all the hands and feet and ears and eyes and mouth and shoulders and legs and the 6-pack abs—with all of the members…Christ is the head. Christ is the head of the body.

And as long as we remember that…as long as we remember that we are not the point of our ministry…our call as disciples and baptized followers of Christ, our call as New Hope Lutheran Church, is to stay faithful to the ministry Christ has entrusted to us.

And if you’re wondering what that ministry is, look no further than our Gospel reading from today. These verses from Luke 4 come just after Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan. So, like we said last week, if baptism is the movement and the arrival of God’s spirit, if baptism is the beginning of that call on our lives, then our gospel from Luke 4 is that call starting to take shape for Jesus.

This week, we hear a clear statement from Jesus about how he understands his mission. This excerpt that Jesus reads in Luke 4, from Isaiah 61, is Jesus’ manifesto. This is how Jesus understands his mission and his call from God. This is Jesus’ mission and vision statement. And we should note, then, that Jesus understands his ministry as being explicitly and expressly focused on the oppressed and the marginalized, the ones of no account—the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed, the prisoner, and those suffering under the weight of debt.

And friends, if this is how Jesus understands his mission, how are we, then, to understand our mission and our work as disciples of Jesus and as a community of faith who follows Jesus?

It stands to reason that our work and our mission would be aligned with those same things as well.

Next week we’ll have our Congregational Meeting and the biggest piece of business will be to pass our budget for 2022. This week and next week you’ll have an opportunity to see and ask questions of Council about that budget, but I’ll tell you that one of the things I take from that budget is a faithfulness and trust in God’s abundance and a vision for what New Hope can be for the future. At our Congregational Meeting next week, I’ll also get a chance to share my thoughts on some things I think we can do this year to start to plug folks back in to mission and ministry here. Things like bible studies and small groups, evangelism, new partner organizations, a new focus on hospitality and welcome and inclusion, and more.

I’m excited because then the next week, on February 6, we’ll finally formally launch our Capital Campaign that’s been on hold for 2 years. And I’m so thrilled to share the vision of our Capital Campaign Team and Leadership that has their sights set on how New Hope can reassert itself in our neighborhood as a place to truly be a center for our community. It involves a lot of work on our physical space and campus, but the opportunities to reach out even further into our community and neighborhood are so abundant.

And none of this is to even mention the two financial gifts we received last year that I talked about in my Christmas Eve sermon, and the ideas and possibilities for mission that come along with that windfall.

Church, I look out from our corner of 1092 and Lexington and I see fields that have been planted and watered. I see fields that are bursting forth with fruit. I see fields that are abundantly ripe for the harvest.

It takes a bit of work on our part. It takes quite a bit of faith and trust.

It takes a willingness to be adaptive and to try new things.

But most of all, it takes you. It takes your willingness to be part of this body.

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 With a winnowing fork in hand, he will clear the threshing floor and gather the wheat into his granary, burning the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

  21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

———————-

Please pray with me this morning, church:

Holy God,

It’s a lot… It’s a lot…right now…

Meet us where we are today.

Struggling…rejoicing…tired…energized…

And everywhere in between.

Remind us today, that you delight in us.

That we are your beloved.

Amen.

———————-

I want to start by saying thank you… Thank you to everyone who reached out, who called, who emailed, folks who literally just dropped food on our doorstep…thank you. Knowing that there are people out there who care so much about my family means a great deal to me. Thank you for the well-wishes. Most importantly, thank you for the prayers.

Everyone is doing much better, most especially Oliver. Obviously, he has been and continues to be our number 1 concern, but he is doing better and our prayer is that he continues to get better and healthier.

This was certainly not how I imagined the holidays going for us this year…but alas…here we are.

Again…thank you…so much…to everyone who reached out in the immediate aftermath with a call, an email, a text…during what was, honestly, a really scary time for us. Thank you. It means more to me than I can express…

It’s odd, in some ways…as a Pastor, I’m so often the one reaching out. I’ll call or text. When something significant happens in your life, part of my call, I feel, is to get in touch with you, ask you if there’s anything at all that I can do for you or your family, I’ll talk with you…and I’ll pray with you. I love those holy moments. I love praying with you.

Pastors are caregivers. And caregiving is one part of how I understand my call. But it’s a very strange feeling for me, a Pastor, to be on the other end of needing to receive care. Not because Pastors are superhumans or don’t ever have needs or anything like that, it’s just that usually, we don’t do it so publically…we have other folks who are part of our circle of care, usually, Pastors go through struggles a little bit more quietly than most…

So…again…thank you…

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been reminded more than a few times of what draws us together as a community of faith. It’s the mutual care and concern for one another. And not just for those that call themselves members, not just those that part of the club, but our life together is marked, is defined, by care and concern for others, for those who aren’t part of the group, care, and concern for those on the margins, those who aren’t thought of as much by the world’s standards, care, and concern for creation… Life together in the community of faith “weeps with those who are weeping and rejoices with those who are rejoicing.” Life together in the community of faith is one where we “bear one another’s burdens” and “lift one another up.”

This bond that’s shared in the community of faith is stronger than maybe even some family bonds that you know. We even sometimes say that about this community of faith…a family…family of faith…

Speaking of family, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say Happy Birthday to my mom today…she’s watching…Happy Birthday, Madre. I love you.

Family…of faith.

On this Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, I’m thinking about probably the single most important class of my entire 4 years of seminary—the Theology of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. taught by the incomparable—and of blessed memory—Reverend Doctor Pete Pero. Dr. Pero was a titan in Lutheran Theology, and specifically in Black Lutheran Theology…and Pete had this incredible lens through which he viewed the world and he had this saying he would repeat often…”Water is thicker than blood.”

Water is thicker than blood…

So often, when we think of our families, what we hear is that those family ties are what’s most important…you might have your problems, but that blood runs thick…it’s not easy to forsake one’s family…

But water is thicker than blood…

What Pete meant is that in the waters of baptism we are knit into this expansive, deep and wide, and ever-growing family. What draws you and I together as siblings, as members of the same body of Christ, is so much greater, so much stronger, than even the deepest family divisions.

Jesus goes out into the wilderness to be baptized by John, and as he’s coming up out of the water, “the heavens are opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in bodily form, like a dove.”

And a voice comes from heaven, “You are my son. You…are…my child. With you…I am so, so pleased…”

What if the thing we recognized about one another first, and above all else, was one another’s identity as a beloved child of God?

Might we be much less quick to cast stones and aspersions…might we be more willing to assume the best in each other, instead of always assuming the worst about people’s intentions…?

Throughout the season of Epiphany—which is what we call this time in between the Feast of the Epiphany, which we celebrated last week, and the season of Lent, which begins with Ash Wednesday—throughout this season our gospel stories will all be about Jesus growing in recognition about the kind of Messiah he’s called to be. And we’ll be pairing these gospel narratives with readings from 1st Corinthians, and talking about the struggles of a community and how it’s hard to stay together or even find commonality when times are really tough…all things that we would know nothing about, right…?

But this idea of call…and who we’re called to be…who God has called you to be…who God is calling New Hope to be…during this time… This is some of what we’ll be exploring over the next few weeks.

Friends, we’ve got a pretty good start, I’ve gotta say. We just finished up a wild year where so many of us had to rethink and reimagine what ministry looked like for us. But I really think that, by and large, we adapted pretty well. I want you to go to this week’s Anchor newsletter and look at the update from Armstrong Elementary. There’s a QR code up on your screen or you can go to your phone’s browser and type in linktr.ee/newhopelc and there’s a button on our Linktree page that will take you to this week’s newsletter. And I want you to scroll down and read the update from Armstrong.

Church, so. much. ministry. is happening with Armstrong right now. We’ve partnered with them in the Brighter Bites initiative, helping package fresh fruits and veggies for students and families that have very limited access to them. New Hope donated bikes to use as attendance awards.

Church, when we talk about what’s next…when we think about mission and we think about all the great work that New Hope has been instrumental in getting started and supporting over the years—Family Promise, East Fort Bend Human Needs Ministry, the New Hope Clinic—we often struggle imagining what’s next. Church, Armstrong is it. Don’t forget, this partnership is only a few years old. There’s so much opportunity for New Hope to be the hands and feet and heart of Christ over there.

And, I gotta say, a huge thank you to Joan Keahey, our current Armstrong Coordinator, and Monica Perin, who helped us get started over there, and Jim Uschkrat, who continues to help out as Missions Coordinator…and so many of you who volunteer your time and energy as mentors and reading buddies and ESL teachers and teacher aides…we are making a demonstrable impact in people’s lives.

So what else might God be calling us to this year?

Hospitality? Welcome? Inclusion? Justice? I’ll tell you, the opportunities are there and they are plentiful. The fields are ripe for the harvest, church. What ideas do you have? What opportunities do you see in our neighborhood?

I gotta tell you, family…I think we’ve got a pretty good start to build on.

You already do a wonderful job of reaching out in care. Your compassion shines through.

I see it. I’ve been the incredibly blessed recipient of it.

We’ve got a good foundation upon which to build.

Let’s get to work building this home.

Luke 2:41-52

41 Now every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. 43 When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. 44 Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 46 After three days they found Jesus in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard Jesus were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” 49 Jesus said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he said to them. 51 Then Jesus went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

  52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.

———————-

Please pray with me this morning, church:

Caring God,

You make your home here with us,

And in doing so, you choose us.

Help us to create spaces of affirmation and belonging.

Guide us to foster rich conversations

About your abundant mercy, hospitality, and love.

Amen.

———————-

Merry Christmas, church!

Did you have a joyful celebration? Nice time with family?

Anyone get gifts this year? Anyone get coal…? Be honest…

What was the most meaningful gift you received or gave this year?

It’s not rhetorical, so if you want to respond, please do. If not, maybe just write down the question there in your bulletin, and you can revisit it later.

What was the most meaningful gift you received or gave this year?

Throughout the seasons of Advent and Christmas, and onto Epiphany, we’re sticking with this series from A Sanctified Art called Close to Home. In this Christmas season, the focus shifts a bit from the longing after God that we explored during Advent, and into engaging questions of the difference that it makes for us that God chooses to make God’s home here with us.

Like what difference does it make…how are you different…knowing that God dwells here…with you…with us…in our midst…and in our world?

Where do you find God these days? Where do you see Jesus?

Mary and Joseph find Jesus in the temple this morning. Before this, they leave Jerusalem without Jesus and don’t realize it…kind of a 1st-century Palestinian version of Home Alone. They’re in Jerusalem for the Passover, they leave, they know Jesus isn’t with them but they assume he’s with some of their friends…they travel a full day’s journey before they decide maybe they should probably look for him, they don’t find him, go back to Jerusalem, and ultimately find Jesus in the temple having theological discussions with all the rabbis and scribes.

Now, I will grant you that it’s probably not the same kind of blockbuster that Macaulay Culkin and Catherine O’Hara bring…but…I’d probably watch it…for, like, a little bit… I’d at least preach on it…

There are homes we are born into, homes we are invited into, and homes we create—for ourselves and for others. Jesus has found a home, of sorts. Not forsaking his parents and the home he’s born into, but rather discovering a kind of chosen home. “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that surely I would be in God’s house…in my Father’s house…in my heavenly Parent’s house…?”

How can New Hope be a place that those who are seeking choose?

What kinds of rich discussions about God are being fostered here?

I mentioned in my Christmas Eve sermon about 2 remarkable gifts that were given to New Hope last week. Church, we must not squander these gifts and this opportunity. In that sermon I also lifted up what New Hope has historically been to this neighborhood and this community, because I firmly believe that this is our way forward. The gift and opportunity we have been given is to further bless and do good and fight for justice and equality in our community.

And doing this work will necessarily invite people to wonder about you.

Why do you do what you do? Why does your church support people like this? Why do you care so much about the downtrodden and cast aside and those that are thought of as less than? Tell me more about this God who loves me just as I am, regardless of who or how I love, regardless of any name or label that our world uses to divide. Tell me more about this incredible gift of grace…

Friends, if we want people to seek and find, we need to be doing something worth seeking out. We have been given an opportunity, and that opportunity means that there is work to be done and lives to be changed, and I need your help to do it.

African-American pastor, poet, and civil rights leader Howard Thurman writes a lovely poem for this post-nativity time we now find ourselves. It’s one of my favorites that I share often on the first Sunday after Christmas. It’s called The Work of Christmas, again by Howard Thurman.

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the the kings and the princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flocks,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among [siblings],

To make music in the heart.

The work of Christmas begins, church.

To continue building God’s home of love and acceptance here.

What an incredible gift it is to be called to this work.

Luke 2:1-20

1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

  8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,

  and on earth peace among those whom God favors!”

  15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child;

18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

———————-

Please pray with me this evening, church:

Holy God,

Through the birth of a child,

You show us what Love looks like.

Let that Love be born in us again tonight,

So that we might be Love for the world.

So that we would build your home of love here.

Amen.

———————-

On this very evening, 46 years ago, about 100 people from 30 families, plus a few neighbors and visitors gathered together in that building just next door for worship. On Christmas Eve in 1975, New Hope Lutheran Church had its very first worship service at this location.

In what is affectionately known as our Old Sanctuary, the dream of what this community of faith could become entered into a new chapter. Those incredible disciples that gathered here for worship 46 years ago took the next faithful steps to build a home for God’s people here in Missouri City…here in this place.

Throughout the Advent season, and now into the Christmas season, we’re using a worship series from the creative women of A Sanctified Art called Close to Home. This theme explores the depths of our longing after a God who chooses to make God’s home with us, here, in the person of Christ. What does it mean for us that the way God chooses to enter our world is through a tiny infant? What does home look like when the very definition of home for some is complicated, full of emotion, and not identical from one person to the next?

I want to express my thanks to our Church Council President, Dennis Kohn, who forwarded that newspaper clipping about New Hope’s first worship service here in this location. I’ve been thinking on it for a few weeks now, knowing that somehow it spoke to a sense of home for us, as a congregation…and maybe it speaks to a sense of home for you tonight. 

I think about the courage it takes to begin and nurture and cultivate a community of faith. I’m so immeasurably grateful for the faithfulness and tenacity of all those who came before me, who stood in this pulpit, and inspired so many faithful disciples, including so many of you, to take risks in building a place of love that exists for the sake of our neighborhood and community.

I’m reminded that building that community and strengthening those relationships isn’t always the easiest of tasks. Relationship-building is tough work, and it’s sometimes messy. And I think about the story we just heard and how for so many of us, we picture a quiet, serene still-life…a scene that is probably set up and played out in many of your homes—Mary and Joseph positioned just so, the shepherds and livestock off to one side, the magi and their gifts off to the other, an angel perched precariously on top, and the tiny baby Jesus delicately placed with eyes closed and mouth barely open…”no crying he makes,” right…?

And as lovely as those nativity scenes are, anyone who has ever welcomed a child into this world or been around livestock knows…there was surely nothing silent about that night…to say nothing of little drummer boys offering drum solos to the newborn king.

And maybe that’s more the kind of nativity we need in our lives anyway. Because you know that rarely are our lives full of silent nights. Rarely do you get a break to simply gather your thoughts, let alone get the house ready for family and friends to come over. Rarely, anymore, do we find ourselves drawn together amidst deep division to do the tough work of having difficult conversations and mending strained and broken relationships.

But it’s precisely for the messiness of our lives that God in Christ came to this world.

God came to this world so that we would have hope—hope that where we are is not where we will remain and that we have an active role in bringing about that promised future.

God came to this world to bring peace—a peace that isn’t avoidance or quietism, but rather a peace that strikes at the heart of injustice, holds the center across even the widest chasms, and lasts to the very end of the ages.

God came to this world that you would know joy—not a happiness that is dependent upon external forces, but a deeply-seeded joy that anchors you amidst all of life’s storms.

And God came to this world that you would be wrapped up in love—that you would know deep within yourself, in your heart of hearts, that you are loved, that you are cared for, that you are precious, and that you are cherished.

And even more than all of that, God came to this world as a tiny baby so that you would begin to make those dreams a possibility and a reality here, in this time, and in your own place. God came to this world as an infant so that you would cultivate hope, peace, joy, and love in our world.

God came to this world that we would cultivate hope, peace, joy, and love here…at New Hope.

I’m grateful for the vision that was cast here 46 years ago—a vision that lifts up the poor and downtrodden, a vision that feeds the hungry and cares for the sick, a vision that houses those without a place to lay their head—and I rejoice because last week, within the span of 48 hours, New Hope was given 2 financial gifts totaling almost $200,000 so that we would continue to build God’s home of love here in this place, for the sake of our community.

God makes God’s home here with us, so that you would join in building God’s home of love. To invite and welcome others. To rest and recharge when you need a break. To be fed and nourished so that you are strengthened for this work. And to be equipped and inspired to keep building where we can.

46 years ago, a dream and a vision were cultivated here.

We have been given a gift. We have been given a legacy. And it’s our turn to build.

A home for you. A home for those without. A home for those who aren’t here yet.

A home for all.

Merry Christmas, church.

Welcome home.