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This Month Archive
St. Mark's Lutheran Church

 

 2016

 Sermons



Dez 25 - The Gift

Dez 24 - God's Love Changes Everything

Dez 18 - Lonely?

Dez 18 - Getting Ready

Dez 11 - The Desert Shall Bloom

Dez 4 - A Spirited Shoot

Nov 27 - Comin' Round the Mountain

Nov 20 - Power on parade

Nov 13 - Warnings and Love

Nov 6 - Saints Among Us

Okt 30 - Reformation in Catechesis

Okt 23 - The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

Okt 16 - The Word of God at the Center of Life

Okt 9 - Continuing Thanks

Okt 8 - The Cord of Three

Okt 2 - Tools for God’s Work

Sep 25 - Rich?

Sep 23 - With a Word and a Song

Sep 18 - To Grace How Great a Debtor

Sep 11 - See the Gifts and Use Them Well

Sep 4 - Hear a Hard Word from Jesus

Aug 28 - Who is worthy?

Aug 21 - Just a Cripple?

Aug 14 - Not an Easy life with Christ

Aug 6 - By Faith

Jul 31 - You can't take it with you

Jul 25 - Companions

Jul 24 - Our Father

Jul 18 - Hospitality

Jul 17 - Priorities

Jul 11 - Giving

Jul 10 - Giving and receiving mercy

Jul 3 - Go!

Jun 26 - With urgency!

Jun 19 - Adopted

Jun 12 - A Tale of Two Sinners

Jun 5 - The Laughter of Surprise

Mai 29 - By Whose Authority?

Mai 22 - Why are we here?

Mai 15 - The Spirit Helps Us

Mai 8 - Free or Bound?

Mai 1 - Let All the People Praise You

Apr 24 - A New Thing

Apr 17 - A Great Multitude

Apr 10 - Transformed

Apr 3 - Here and There

Mrz 27 - The Hour

Mrz 26 - Dark yet?

Mrz 25 - The Long Defeat?

Mrz 25 - Appearances

Mrz 24 - Is it I?

Mrz 20 - Bridging the Distance

Mrz 16 - Singing the Catechism: Holy Communion

Mrz 13 - What is important

Mrz 9 - Singing the Catechism: Holy Baptism

Mrz 6 - What did he say?

Mrz 2 - Singing the Catechism: The Lord's Prayer

Feb 28 - Pantocrator

Feb 24 - Singing the Catechism: the Creeds

Feb 21 - What kind of church, promise, and God?

Feb 17 - The Catechism in Song: Ten Commandments

Feb 14 - Available to All

Feb 12 - Home

Feb 10 - The Catechism in Song: Confession and Forgiveness

Feb 7 - Befuddled, and that is OK

Jan 31 - That We May Speak

Jan 24 - The Power of the Word

Jan 17 - Surprised by the Spirit

Jan 10 - Exiles

Jan 3 - The Big Picture: our Christmas—Easter faith



2017 Sermons      

      2015 Sermons

What kind of church, promise, and God?

Read: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

 
Second Sunday in Lent - February 21, 2016

The Rev. Kenneth R. Elkin 

 

We begin with a theological statement and an equally theological question:

(1)      All that we have and are is a gift of God.

(2)      So what?

That is about the shortest possible reflection on our first lesson today, yet with implications and conversations that go in all directions.

We can only pick up a few of them today.

 

When we study Genesis, we hear the narratives of Abraham and the succeeding generations.

We hear over and over again the promise made to him and his descendants.

The promise has three parts, emphasized differently in the various tellings:

(1)      The promise of place, land, room to live and grow up.

(2)      The promise of descendants, of people to live in that space.

(3)      The promise that they are to be a blessings to other nations.

It is on this third part that attention must be focused.

Land and descendants seem to be clear and straightforward – but to be a blessing...?

What does that mean?

No matter if it is difficult, a working understanding of this third part of the promise must be operating or else the first and second parts lose their focus.

Lands and descendants are not ends in themselves; rather, they are the building blocks of the web of relationships which God intends for us to have with God and everyone else.

The Genesis narratives say that the Spirit of God pushed back the waters of chaos so that there would be space for his people.

Then Abraham is called out, not because he is especially deserving, especially wise, or even especially pious.

It is just because God made a choice of one person with whom to begin his work.

600 years later, Isaiah summarized this with his purposeful picture of all the nations being called together at Mount Zion, where they will worship the Lord God and serve only him.

That is God's intent, and he takes it upon himself, the promise to see that this will happen.

This is the meaning of the strange ritual in Genesis 15, the cutting of the animals in half and the vision of the smoking fire-pot passing between them.

Makers of a covenant would walk between the halves of the sacrificial animals to pledge that if they did not keep the covenant, may it be with those persons as with the slain animals!

Notice that Abraham is not requested to walk between the halves: in his vision, it is only the smoking fire-pot which mysteriously passes through.

This is a visible symbol for the presence of God himself.

God gives the covenant to Abraham as a gift.

God makes the covenant with Abraham.

God intends to keep it, and will do what he needs in order to accomplish it.

 

With all this in mind, now we turn to our Lord Jesus.

He is the one who lives out God's promise fully in our sight.

His express intention to gather us together fits very well with the promise to Abraham and the vision of Isaiah.

It stands upon them and fulfills their intent in ways that many were not willing to hear.

So that in Holy Baptism we are called as his people, who are given place which is the body of Christ, the church, a web of relationships far more important than mere geography,

and sent out with a missionary task to say “Jesus is for you” to all who will listen.

We are to be a blessing” to everyone around us.

 

Just like Israel of old, we, too, would like to talk about people and place without blessing.

And what kind of church results when we do so?

--One who sing “Jesus loves me this I know” with a superior smile without at the same time saying “and he intends to love you, too” is is =n a religious club, not the church.

--One who says “My, this is a beautiful place” without at the same time asking “How can we use it to entice others to listen to Jesus?” is enjoying a museum, and not the church.

--One who says “The only thing which matters is feeding and sheltering people” without at the same time making available the bread of Life and the shelter of this company, is in a service club and not the church.

--One who says that the world is full of evil without at the same time confessing that the world is God's gift to us, is in some depressing organization other than the church.

You see, we need to hold all three parts of the promise together: land, people, and being a blessing.

Together they provide the setting and experience of life as God's gifts given to us with purpose.

What more of an answer to the so what? question could we want?

 

The implications are all encompassing:

1)Our first task is worshiping Jesus as Lord, no matter what the cost.

In the naming of the saints old and new each and every Sunday, we hear regularly just how costly it can be.

It is proper to say “thank you” for such a gift.

2)The church will be visible, a people to which others can point and say “See how they love one another, and us:

--they keep their promises,

--they tell the truth

--they care for the poor.

--and thereby show the amazing power of God to create community.

 

3)The church will not withdraw from the world, and will not be surprised when it encounters hostility of those who claim to be guarding a separation of church and state.

4)The church can cooperate with other organizations and movements against hunger, violence, and other inhumanity, but will announce them as only one of the results of its proclamation of the gospel.

5)The church will suffer, even as her Lord has suffered.

It will not be the same in all times and places, but let's be clear that receiving and holding onto these good gifts of God will be resented, misunderstood, and a cause of hatred, even unto death.

6)The church will be victorious, because her Lord is already victorious.

No power can ultimately stand against Jesus, not even the power of death.

No power can withstand Christ's resurrection, not even a hesitant and fearful church.

God's promises will be be fully true and completely realized, in his good time.

 

What good gifts they are!

And for what good purposes are they given!

Let's begin our joyful response:

Praise the Lord, rise up rejoicing. [LBW#196]

By this Eucharist declaring

Yours the final victory. Amen.

 

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.