Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
February 10, 2019
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

Click here to read scripture passages for the day.

Beloved, once again, I invite you to take a deep breath to quiet your mind and open your heart … We pray in the words of scripture, “Speak Lord, your servants are listening.”

Simon, James and John have fished all night long. Again and again, they’ve cast their nets, and their hopes, upon the waters. They’ve thrown themselves into their work, trying to drown out the question that gnaws at them every night, “Will we catch enough to survive another day?” They are barely subsisting, barely providing for their families. Every single cast of the net carries so much weight. Every time the net comes up empty, their hearts and their hopes sink further and further down

Certainly, our lives differ greatly from theirs. Yet, we too know what it is to work late into the night with nothing to show for it when day breaks. We know what it is to pour ourselves into a project, a person, a plan that does not pan out. We know what it is to cast our hopes out into the world only to come up empty – and how very heavy that emptiness feels.

Simon, James and John finally decide it’s time to give up, time to cut their losses, wash their nets and head home. But then Jesus shows up and commands their boat in order to teach a huge crowd of people. When he’s done speaking, he turns to Simon and says, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”

Simon is hesitant, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

What comes up brings Simon to his knees – abundance beyond measure, a lavish, extravagant catch. Now it is not their spirits that are sinking, but their boat – it is overflowing with fish. Now these fishermen’s most pressing question is not, “Will we catch enough to survive another day?”, but “Who will help us take in all this abundance?” The central question of their lives changes from “Will there be enough” to “How can more people experience this?” As author Jan Richardson puts it, “Fish aren’t the only catch of the day; Simon and his companions are hooked. Captivated. Called.”

Simon feels sinful and unworthy in the face of all this, yet Jesus says to him, “Do not be afraid.” In me, Jesus says, you have enough, you are enough. You can receive this abundance. You even can participate in it and draw others into it. Leave behind a life of worry and scarcity, let go of the single-minded focus on your own survival. Simon, James and John listen and follow and they are fed as they become part of something so much larger than themselves.

This is what Jesus does then and still today. Jesus shows up in the heavy, empty places of scarcity and fear. He shows up where we have given up, where we have stopped expecting anything. He meets us in our need and feed us he draws us into something so much larger. We, too, become participants in God’s abundance.

Jesus does this again and again and here today. Jesus comes to you in the simple gifts of bread and wine, word and song, and the gathered community. He says to you, there is abundance here that you did not expect. Put out your nets into these deep waters and draw this all into your small boat.

Look to others here to help you. You will be filled in body, mind and spirit, and you will be lifted.  You will be drawn into God’s lavish, extravagant care.

This abundance will change you. Like Simon, James and John, you will be caught up and drawn into what God is doing in the world. The questions you ask will change. Your purpose will be reframed.

You may feel unworthy, sinful, overwhelmed, like Simon. Yet Jesus says to you, again and again, “Do not be afraid.” You have enough, you are enough. You, too, can receive this abundance and draw others into it. Leave behind worry and scarcity. Let go of that tight, heavy focus on your own survival.

You will be fed as you are drawn into something so much larger than yourself.

Beloved, God’s abundance is for you and for all people Draw it in and let it flow through you for the sake of the world.

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer.

As we pray, I invite you to close your eyes and notice your breath.  Notice that your breath is waiting for you in each moment – pure gift. As you breathe in, draw in God’s abundance for you. As you breathe out, let go of worry and fear. We’ll breathe and pray together for a few moments.

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
February 3, 2019
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

Click here to read scripture passages for the day.

Beloved of God, grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus, God’s love made flesh.

I have attended or presided at A LOT of weddings. My spouse and I have good friends from high school, college, seminary and our summers working at Bible camps, as well as large extended families which means lots of weddings. The church I served right after seminary has a long center aisle, impressive stained-glass windows and a gorgeous altar up front. It’s also located in the heart of Minnesota lake country. Those things added up to a whole lot of weddings in my first call. Then I served at Luther College where lots of people fall in love and ask their campus pastors to help them get married. All of this is to say that I’m quite familiar with our second reading from 1 Corinthians, chapter 13 – that passage on love that is so often read at weddings.

It’s a beautiful passage, but it’s hard to preach it at a wedding, especially because the apostle Paul wrote it to a community that was facing conflict and having a hard time staying together.

That actually makes it a perfect passage to ponder during marriage. Marriage certainly involves conflict and times when it’s really challenging to keep on loving the other person, as is the case in any significant relationship. Love is hard work. Yet, that isn’t the message people really want to hear on a celebratory day as they stand in front of their family and friends.

It isn’t the message we want to hear about our church community either. We don’t want there to be conflict or difficulties. We want church to be a place where we feel welcomed, loved, connected, and a place where everyone gets along. Often congregations are that way – often Good Shepherd is.

Yet congregations are made up of human beings; so, conflicts and challenges are going to be part of the mix. And something powerful happens when we stick with each other, even when it’s hard. We experience so much growth, beauty and grace when we keep on showing up for each other even when we don’t feel particularly loving. That isn’t always possible – sometimes marriages, relation- ships and congregations become toxic and it isn’t good or safe to stay in them. Sometimes people need to change congregations in order to more fully love God and serve others. Yet, if it’s safe and possible, there is power in staying, in practicing love well after the honeymoon phase is over.

And love really does take practice, work, effort. Paul makes that clear in 1 Corinthians 13. He shows us that love is not really about feelings. It’s about concrete actions that we take for others and actions we avoid for the sake of others. His point gets lost in the English translation when we hear love is patient, love is kind, love is not irritable or rude – a long list of adjectives. That makes it sound like love means always feeling patient and kind, never feeling grumpy or annoyed.

But the way Paul actually wrote the passage, those words aren’t adjectives describing love in some flowery, abstract sense; those words are verbs. He uses sixteen verbs in a row to say what love does and does not do. Paul says to love is to be patient, to be kind, to not be jealous, not boast, not be arrogant, not be rude and not seek our own way, not be irritable, not be resentful and not rejoice in wrongdoing. To love is to rejoice in the truth, to bear all things, to believe all things, to hope all things, to endure all things. Paul is saying love is active and concrete. It takes work, it takes practice.

One of the gifts of healthy families, friendships and congregations is that they give us the chance to practice love when we feel good and when we don’t.

Recently, I read this passage at the funeral of a ninety-three-year-old member of Good Shepherd. These words I’ve heard and read at so many weddings came alive to me again as I considered how this woman and her beloved spouse lived out love for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health for over sixty-two years.

These words come alive for me again as I think about the concrete ways you all do love for others in our congregation and community – bringing meals, doing grocery shopping, driving immigrant neighbors to court hearings, and visiting people even when they no longer remember you. You do this when it feels good and when it is hard.

This passage comes alive for me again today as we head into our annual meeting after 60 years as a congregation. This congregation, like all congregations, has known great joy and deep sorrow, times of energy and vitality, times of struggle and conflict.

Often it feels really good to be together as we worship, sing, serve and share in fellowship. Other times, it is harder. There are times you may even have an urge to throw someone over a cliff – the way Jesus’ home congregation tried to do to him. Do resist that urge, of course. But even if you feel that way, it doesn’t mean you can’t love that person. Love means choosing to be patient, choosing to show kindness, choosing to look for the good in that person no matter how we feel.

This is hard. It’s why we need a lot of practice in families, in friendships, and congregations in order to learn to live out love.

It’s why we need God who chooses to love us always no matter what, why we need God who for- gives and heals and strengthens us always.

God comes to us in really concrete ways – in water and word, bread and wine, flesh and blood, in the body of Christ – to actively love us, to do love for us.

God knows and sees us fully and chooses to love us always. Because we are loved so deeply, we can love others no matter how we feel.

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer.

Third Sunday after Epiphany
January 27, 2019
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

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Beloved of God, grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus.

Our Gospel story today is the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. After his baptism, he spends forty days in the wilderness and then, filled with the power of the Spirit, he begins teaching and preaching.

That word, power, captured my attention this week. Maybe because we just watched a massive power struggle unfold in our country with the partial government shutdown. And it isn’t really over, yet. As those in power wrangle, the rest of the country hangs in the balance. It’s been heart- breaking to hear the stories of federal workers impacted by this – people working two extra jobs to pay the rent, people waiting to pick up their medications because they can’t afford the gas for the drive to the pharmacy. They feel powerless in the face of all this, as do so many Americans.

I am grateful that media outlets have been sharing these stories, as well as the stories of the ordinary people seeking asylum at our southern border. We need to focus on these people, on all the not-so-powerful people impacted by our government’s actions.

So much of our attention goes to those in power. It’s easy to get fixated on the actions of leaders like Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi, Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Putin. We do need to keep abreast of what these people are doing and how they are using power. It is good to be concerned about the rise of strongman rulers in many parts of the world.

Yet, our scriptures today direct our attention elsewhere. They also give us a new perspective on power.

Jesus comes, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and says that his power will be used for the sake of those who have no worldly power.

His ministry is for the sake of people who are poor and prisoners, for those who are blind, and all who are oppressed. Jesus focuses his attention on the people that society ignores – people who are viewed with pity if they are seen at all. By fixing his gaze on these people, Jesus says something powerful about God. Jesus declares that God sees all of us – not just those the world sees, but everyone. And God gives special care and attention to those whom the world doesn’t want to see.

The Apostle Paul says something similar in our second reading when he uses the metaphor of the body. That metaphor was used often in the ancient world. Politicians and philosophers used the image of the body to talk about families, households, cities or countries; but they used it to rein- force hierarchy and oppression. The body needs a head, the thinking went, and the head is most important; those who are the hands and feet must serve the head. Every other part of the body should seek to conform to the mandates of the head.

Paul turned this thinking on its head by stressing the importance of each part and encouraging us to show greatest honor to the parts of the body that seem least important.

Both Paul and Jesus call us to join them in turning our gaze away from the halls of power and towards those who live without worldly power. That is where God is focused, that is where God wants us all to focus.

In his preaching and teaching, Jesus also invites reflection on how power is used. Our culture often defines power as achieving our goals, controlling our destinies. You are powerful if you can get what you want, or better yet, get other people to do what you want.

Yet Jesus, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, does not use his power for himself. He doesn’t build himself up or claim power over others. Instead, his power is demonstrated by what he accomplishes for others. He uses his power to set others free, to raise others up.

Jesus call us to use our power the same way. We are to ask ourselves if we are using our lives and our power to lift others up, to make life better for other people.

We can do all this, beloved, because we too have been given the power of the Holy Spirit. We can see others, we can use our power for their sakes because that same power of God, the power that filled Jesus, is at work in us, in you. Filled by the Spirit of Jesus, we are not powerless. We can use our voices as citizens on behalf of those who have less power. We can turn our eyes away from the powerful and towards those Jesus sees. We can use our power to lift others up. As we do, we are also drawn into relationships that heal us and our world. We are saved from despair, we are lifted up as well.

We can do all this because God also sees and loves every part of each of us, every part of you. God sees and loves even the parts you would rather hide – the things that cause you shame, the things that make it hard for you to use your power for others. God sees all of that and gives special care and attention to those hard things.

Beloved, God’s power is at work to tend and work through all of who we are – everything strong and weak and beautiful and shameful within us and within our lives. With that power at work in us, we can pay attention to those without power. We can use our power for the sake of others, for the healing of this world that God so loves.

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer.

Second Sunday after Epiphany
January 20, 2019
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

Click here to read scripture passages for the day.

Beloved of God, grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus.

Mary is troubled that the wine is gone and goes to her son about it. Jesus responds, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me.” I want to say, “I’m not sure I like your tone here young man.” I think something got lost in translation yet still it sounds snippy!

Yet, I do think Mary might be blowing things out of proportion. Worrying about wine at a wedding seems pretty trivial when there are so many major problems in the world, then and now. That may be what Jesus is thinking when he says it isn’t his hour to reveal his glory. Maybe he’s anticipating bigger things – soon he will heal a man who is paralyzed, feed 5000, raise Lazarus from the dead, and then rise from the dead himself. Those things are certainly more important than not enough wine at a wedding. Seems to me that Jesus could sit this one out.

Yet, Mary knows better. Mary knows that wine at a wedding is really important. Weddings are the one time the people in her community don’t have to work, don’t have to wonder if they’ll have enough for the next meal. Weddings are much needed respites from the toil and strain of life under Roman occupation. They are week-long celebrations of family, community, faith. Wine plays a central role – not because people are drunk all the time but because wine is the sign of a good harvest, of God’s abundance. Wine represents joy and gladness. It’s a way to show hospitality. So, if the wine runs out, it’s like the blessing of the whole event run out.

Mary knows how important it is for her community to have some joy and gladness amidst the struggles of their daily lives. I would guess she knows that deep in her bones. She knows what people who suffer deeply know – joy has a way of defying the power suffering, of letting you rise above what wants to keep you down. Joy is a form of resistance. Besides, it sounds like this is just day three of seven days with all her friends and relatives. If the wine is gone already, it’s going to be a really long week. Mary knows people are gonna need some levity, some laughter, some joy.

So, Mary just ignores Jesus’ objection and tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” She is bold to ask for joy, to expect joy.

Jesus responds. Ordinary water is turned into the best wine. Worry and scarcity do not prevail.  Abundance and blessing flow.

This story becomes really significant – the first of seven signs that Jesus performs to show his glory, according to the Gospel of John. It gets in the top seven with all those seemingly more IMPORTANT things like healing people, feeding 5000 and raising Lazarus from the dead.

And the way the story is told in John, there are echoes of the resurrection too. The story begins, “On the third day there was a wedding”. We’re supposed to hear the resonance there – on the third day God raised Jesus from the dead.

So, it turns out Mary is right (as mothers often are!). Wine at a wedding, joy in the face of suffering is not so small. It is no less important than addressing the MAJOR PROBLEMS in our world. Joy has a lot in common with resurrection.

Joy says to suffering, oppression, sorrow, and grief, you do not have the last word, you cannot keep us down, life and hope will prevail for us, for our world. Joy is a form of resistance.

Yet, often it can feel like the wine of gladness and joy has run out – the jar emptied, the blessing depleted.

Thankfully, it is not up to us to manufacture joy on our own, to make sure we always have a ready supply of what brings gladness.

We have a savior who uses ordinary things to give us the gift of joy – bread, wine, water, words and community. Jesus uses these gifts to assure us of God’s abundance, to shower us with God’s blessings, to nurture our joy always.

The joy Jesus gives is not dependent upon our circumstances, not dependent upon our ability to feel happy or glad. We see it arise in the hospital room, at the funeral, after the natural disaster, in the prison cell.

The joy Jesus gives isn’t an individual gift either; it is given to the whole community. This means that even when joy seems out of reach for us personally, others can hold out hope for joy on our behalf – the way Mary did for the hosts of the wedding.

We can do this for others, as well, when they are enduring depleting circumstances like depression, grief, oppression or violence. We can ask for joy for them and trust in the hope of joy for them.

I see all this happening through the Neighbors Helping Neighbors initiative in our community. This initiative supports neighbors impacted by an immigration related crisis. It works to raise funds and to address crucial needs. But it hasn’t just raised funds, it hasn’t just addressed the MAJOR PROBLEMS.

This initiative has nurtured joy. The immigrant neighbors served have worked with other neighbors to gift our community with a Fat Tuesday Feast last February, the Immigration Fiesta at Pulpit Rock Brewery, and the Epiphany Fiesta earlier this month. These events have raised funds, but they’ve also been occasions of gladness and celebration.

God has worked through these events and through the gifts of tamales, beer, soup, bread and community. God has used these ordinary gifts to remind us of God’s abundance, to assure us that there is joy and blessing enough for all. We need not jealously guard our resources, we need not be afraid.

I see this joy happening in the Decorah Community Meals, as well. Those meals nourish gladness and laughter. People in need are fed, but the meals aren’t just about addressing the MAJOR PROBLEMS. They build up the community so that together we can have joy, together we can resist the forces that lead to hunger and the poverty of both body and spirit.

Joy is so essential, and God gives us joy in abundance.

Today, God comes to you in ordinary things to give you joy. God comes in the water of baptism, the bread and wine of communion, the peace shared, the promises spoken. God comes in the laughter of children, the music freely given, the fresh snow, the sunshine, the food in fellowship hour.

God gives you and each of us these gifts so that together we can hope, together we can resist, together we can nurture joy for one another and for our world.

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer.

Baptism of Our Lord
First Sunday after Epiphany
January 13, 2019
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa

Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

Click here to read scripture passages for the day.

Beloved of God, grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Both our first reading and our Gospel reading today talk about fire and water. Each of these things can be so very lovely and so very powerful.

Many of my happiest memories involve water. A few years ago, I got to spend my late October birthday canoeing the Upper Iowa River with my spouse Matt. It was a brilliant, crisp day – pure gift before dark November blew in. The sky was robin’s egg blue with not a cloud in sight. The water reflected the color of the sky and sparkled with the sun. I felt so content on the beautiful river we get to enjoy here in Decorah.

Yet, this summer someone drowned in our river. And, that river wreaked so much destruction and heartache in the floods of 2008 and 2016, to name just a few years of flooding.

Water nourishes and renews us, helps us relax, lets us play.
Water gives life. We all pass through the waters when we are born.
Water can also kill and destroy.

The same is true for fire. Some of the most meaningful conversations in my life have been held around a fire. When I was a camp counselor, I was amazed at what campers would share in that setting. Kids who never sang anywhere would join in during campfire worship. Yet I’ve rarely felt as frightened as when I had to help evacuate campers when a forest fire came too close to camp. The smoke, the smell, the black sky were all so terrifying.

Fire provides warmth and light, a feeling of coziness. It nurtures intimacy and community. It has fueled so much innovation. It too can kill, ravage, destroy as we saw so dramatically in the Camp Fire last November.

Water and fire are beautiful gifts with tremendous power. We should not take them lightly. John the Baptist tells us that Jesus will baptize us with water, fire and the Holy Spirit. I think this means that being baptized into Christ Jesus isn’t something that we should take lightly.

Baptism isn’t just a lovely entrance rite, not just a sweet ceremony with an infant, or a rite of passage for a youth.

Baptism is not just a ritual. It is a way that our active, powerful God works in our lives and our world.

The images of water and fire also help us to see what God does for us through the gift of baptism.

With baptism, God does for us what water does. We pass through the waters to be reborn and named beloved children of God. We are given new life, we’re renewed and nourished. Baptism also involves drowning and destruction. Our sinful selves are drowned; we die to sin and are raised to new life. We are marked with the sign of the cross, the sign of death and new life.

Through baptism, God also lights a fire within us – a fire of justice and mercy. We’re told to let our light shine, to let our life bring the warmth of love – the fire of fierce compassion. We are also drawn into intimacy and community with Christ and the whole body of Christ on earth. Through baptism, God also burns away the chaff within us. We don’t just get to sit around the campfire sing- ing “Kumbaya”. We are convicted of sin and called to repent. All that is unfruitful and empty within us is burned away. This fire renews us the way a wildfire renews a natural landscape, the way a prairie fire sparks new growth.

We see that baptism does these things through the witness of scripture and through the witness of people and communities of faith throughout the ages who have experienced the power of baptism.

I know it’s hard to believe that a ritual can do all these things, especially a ritual that many of us experienced as infants. But it isn’t the ritual that does all this. It is the power of God working through water and fire and the Word. God uses these physical things to get through to us and not just when we are first baptized. Baptism is a life-long gift. God uses these signs to get our attention, to wake us up, to draw us back to God – over and over again. God works through water, fire, the Spirit and the Word throughout our lives to assure us of what God has done and is doing for us.

This is why we keep the font central in our worship space and focus our attention there as we con- fess our sins and remember our baptisms.

It is why we light the paschal candle at baptisms and funerals – this candle that is first lit in the fire of the Easter Vigil. This candle reminds us that when we pass through the fires and flames of sin and even death, we will not be overwhelmed; God will bring us into new life.

If you haven’t been baptized, know that God is still at work in your life as well. God is always at work through the Holy Spirit. Yet, baptism is such a helpful gift for our lives of faith. It gives us physical assurance and physical reminders of God’s activity for us. It is so powerful to know, in our bones, that God has claimed us through water, fire and the word of promise, and that God will not let us go.

This week, I invite you to pay close attention to water. After you receive communion today, go to the font and use the water to make the sign of the cross on your forehead. During the rest of the week, when you shower or wash your face, remember the power of God to drown your sinful self and give you new life and your true identity – beloved child of God. Say to yourself – I am beloved,

I am forgiven, I am reborn.

I also invite you to pay attention to fire. Today, notice the fire burning on the paschal candle. Let yourself be drawn into the beauty, intimacy and the warmth of that fire. And, pay attention to what the fire needs to burn away within you.

During the rest of the week, notice what fire can do as you light gas burners on your stove or hear the combustion engine in a car fire up. Notice what fire can do and reflect that the tremendous power of fire doesn’t hold a candle to the power of Almighty God.

That amazing power is at work in you – let it burn, let it shine.  Let it empower you to live out the promises we make when we affirm our baptisms: 
To live among God’s faithful people,
To hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s Supper,
To proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed,
To serve all people, following the example of Jesus, and
To strive for justice and peace in all the earth.

God is at work today and always through the word and the Spirit, through water and fire, to do powerful things for you. God is at work to do powerful things for this congregation.

Beloved, you are reborn – let your light shine.

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer.