Sermon For Easter Sunday, April 16, 2017 – “Practicing Resurrection”

The Resurrection of Our Lord, Easter Day
April 16, 2017
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, the life of the world.

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary go to see the tomb. They go to see where their friend is buried, perhaps hoping to come to terms with the reality of it all. Their hope has been killed. Death and fear have prevailed.

At the tomb, more fearful things happen. There’s an earthquake as a terrifying angel rolls the stone of the tomb away. The angel is so frightening that the guards shake and collapse. Fear prevails.

But the angel gives the two women a message: Do not be afraid. Jesus is not here. He has been raised. Go and tell the disciples that he is going ahead of you.

After they receive this message, the women leave the tomb quickly with fear and great joy. The fear is still there but now it is accompanied by joy. Something new arises. They experience joy; they know new life within themselves. Resurrection happens, not only to Jesus, but to them. It happens not only for the one inside the tomb, but also for the women standing outside the tomb.

Which means – resurrection is not only what happens to Jesus, and to us, after we die. Resurrection is not only for those who have died an earthly death. It happens to us, now. It is for us, for the living.

Resurrection is for us who stand at the graves of those we love. It is for us who wonder if fear and death will prevail, for us who are not in the tomb and yet experience death in so many ways even as we live – deaths that come in the form of grief, betrayals, broken relationships, shattered dreams, violated trust, diminished capacities, loss of purpose, terror, despair about the state of the world.

Resurrection is for us who are experiencing death outside the tomb, like the women on that first Easter.

Resurrection happens to them through the message the angel has for them.

Today there is a resurrection message for all of us as well: Do not be afraid. Jesus is raised and goes ahead of you leading you into new life – a life marked, yes, by fear but also by great joy. Resurrection does not mean that pain and fear disappear. It means that hope and joy arise for you and within you, that new life emerges from you for the sake of the world. Resurrection means that even though they seem so strong, death and fear have not won, will not prevail. God cannot be stopped from breathing new life, from responding to death with resurrection.

Resurrection is for you. It is for you to experience, for you to live into, now. You can claim this resurrection for yourself as those women did long ago. You can walk into it, act on it, leave here still afraid but also full of great joy. You can share new life with others as the women did for the disciples. Resurrection happens to you, resurrection is for you.

But how do we experience resurrection? What does it mean to be a people who live into resurrection? People who claim this message for ourselves?

It means we look for resurrection like children scouring the house for Easter eggs. We look for life emerging, joy arising, for God breathing new life into all things. We practice rising up when life has knocked us flat.

We notice, name and nurture signs of the new life God brings. We point out when resurrection happens and practice living into it.

Resurrection happens when something breaks open our hearts and healing tears flow. We claim it when we listen to poet Wendell Berry and choose to, “be joyful though we have considered all the facts.”

We see resurrection as daffodils emerge through the soil, new buds appear on trees and the sun warms our grateful faces. We practice it when we raise our faces up, sun or no, to look around, to smile at one another. We undergo resurrection in baptism and when we remember what happens in those waters – we die to sin, we’re raised to new life and we’re called beloved of God. We live into resurrection when we choose to treat each person as beloved of God.

We experience resurrection when someone speaks gracious words of truth that open up new possibilities in our thinking. We claim resurrection for ourselves when we choose to listen, to soften, to seek understanding.

Resurrection happens when we hear words of forgiveness after every single confession – as we are set free from sin and raised to new life. We taste resurrection when we take the bread and the cup – signs of Jesus’ death – and put them in our bodies, making us into the body of Christ for the sake of God’s world. We practice it when we offer forgiveness and offer ourselves in love for God’s world.

We experience resurrection after we’ve lost patience with a child and the next morning begins with their unconditional love. We practice resurrection when we say “yes” to another attempt at a difficult relationship, when we bring a meal, plant a tree, or fold the laundry of someone experiencing death.

Where have you experienced resurrection recently? What has helped you to claim it for yourself, to practice it? What do you need to be able to live into resurrection? I’d love to hear. This community would love to hear. Together, we practice resurrection. Together we hear a message for us, we are fed, we are assured that Jesus goes before us into life for us and for the world.

Resurrection is not just about what happens when we die.

Resurrection is about how we, as the people of God, live.

Let’s live into resurrection together.

Amen.

Sermon for Palm/Passion Sunday, April 9, 2017 – “Intent on Love”

Palm Sunday, Sunday of the Passion
April 9, 2017
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.

Jesus moved through our world very differently than we do. Often, we go through our days focused on making progress, advancing our cause, moving forward. We want to improve ourselves, our families, our communities, our world.

Some of those same impulses inspired people to march with Jesus into Jerusalem waving palm branches and chanting, Hosanna! They had long been oppressed by Rome and other powers. They saw Jesus as the one who would move them up in the world, who would advance the cause of the Kingdom of Israel.

Similar dynamics drive our politics today. Some wonder if a hard-driving business man can produce results. Others march, protest and organize hoping for different outcomes. We vote and work to make things better and sometimes despair that they never will be.

We all long for things to look up – even as we define “up” differently. We want God to move in our world to make things better.

We are so often disappointed. And we’re in good company. Those crowds that marched into Jerusalem with Jesus must have been so frustrated and angry with him just a few days later. They were swept up in all the excitement, all the hopes of forward movement, positive change.

But then, when it was time for Jesus to have a showdown with the powers that be, he was silent.

Jesus was silent and Rome killed him.

Jesus didn’t speak truth to power.

He didn’t actively resist the powers that be.

He didn’t make things better.

He was silent. And he died.

Jesus emptied himself, taking the form of a slave. He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.

It seems progress was not Jesus’ intention. Instead, love was his intention. Jesus embodied God’s subversive, life-giving love:

Love that refuses to get into a power struggle with evil;

Love that will not force its own agenda;

Love that endures whether we’re raising our voices hopefully or ready to crucify someone;

Love that persists in loving even when it leads to death.

This love opens another way for us, the way of dying and letting go so that new life might prevail – letting go of our agendas, our pride and our despair and opening to God’s life-giving presence, God’s presence that is with us and our enemies.

This love helps us focus not on moving up or advancing a cause but on daily and yearly cycles of dying to ourselves and rising to new life in Christ, of letting go and opening to love.

It allows us to move differently in the world – to engage ourselves, our communities, and even our politics with love, seeking the change that only love can bring.

So this Holy Week, we again walk with Jesus to the cross so that we might die and rise again to walk in love.

Let’s take a moment of silent prayer.

Sermon for Sunday, April 2, 2017 – “God Is Present”

Fifth Sunday in Lent
April 2, 2017
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.

When Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed where he was for two more days.

His dear friends, Mary and Martha, asked him to come and help their brother Lazarus, but he didn’t come. He didn’t move. We’re told, “even though Jesus loved Martha and her sister Mary and Lazarus, when he heard Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.” He stayed put. He remained where he was. What’s up with that Jesus?

The explanation in the text and the back story are not terribly satisfying. Apparently, Jesus sees in Lazarus’ death an opportunity for the in-breaking of God’s glory and he doesn’t want anyone to miss it. He doesn’t want anyone to think Lazarus is just mostly dead. Jesus wants people to know that Lazarus is totally, completely dead so that God’s glory can be shown more fully.

Except, Martha and Mary don’t know any of this. What they know is that Jesus doesn’t come right away.

Jesus doesn’t move quickly to help them when they ask. They know he could have done something and yet, he wasn’t there.

This is how many of us experience God. God seems absent, silent, unmoved by our pleas for help, unresponsive to human suffering.

Martha and Mary both cry out to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” So, many people throughout the ages, and so many of us, have raised similar laments. “Where are you God?” “Come quickly, Lord!” “Do something!” “Why don’t you act, O God?” These cries are found throughout scripture, especially in the Psalms. They are important, faithful things to say to God.

Yet, Martha and Mary don’t get answers to their laments. He doesn’t explain why he stayed put for two days. He doesn’t say, “well, even though I love you I had to stay put so that God’s glory could be revealed.”

They don’t get explanations; they don’t get answers. Instead, they get Jesus. They get Jesus and, they discover, Jesus really is present with them, even though their request for help isn’t answered the way they hoped. They get Jesus and his presence brings new life – not only within Lazarus, but also within Martha and Mary.

We don’t get answers either. We also don’t get our loved ones back from the tomb as Martha and Mary did. But, we do get Jesus. He is present with us. And, his presence gives us new life in much the same way he gave new life to Martha, Mary and Lazarus.

Jesus shows Martha and Mary that he is truly present with them in how he responds to their laments and grief. He doesn’t critique or correct them. He doesn’t turn aside or avoid their pain. Instead, he stays engaged and he is deeply moved by their pain.

When Martha says, “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died,” Jesus engages her in conversation. He assures her of God’s presence by telling her, “I AM, the resurrection and the life.” He uses the ancient name of God for himself and tells Martha that God, God the great I AM, is right there with her. He promises her that God is present and bringing new life now and forever, even when she can’t see it. These promises create faith in Martha; they create something new within her. They bring new life and hope where there was only grief and pain.

Those same promises and the presence of Jesus do the same for us each Sunday. They create faith within us; they breathe new life into us.

When Mary comes to Jesus with her lament and her tears, Jesus remains present to her and is deeply moved by her. We’re told that when Jesus sees Mary weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he is greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He doesn’t turn away. He doesn’t tell her everything will be OK. He begins to weep. Mary finds that she is not alone; Jesus is with her in her pain, sharing her tears. She is given comfort and hope – new life by Jesus’ presence.

Jesus is present with us sharing our tears and our sorrow as well. God does not turn away even in the face of deep anguish. God joins us.

Then, after being so present to Martha and Mary, Jesus shows that he can be present even to Lazarus, even though Lazarus is really, truly dead. Jesus can reach Lazarus – even in the tomb.
Nothing, not even death, can separate us from the presence of God.

Lazarus was brought back to life on earth for a time. He died an earthly death again. Yet, now he knew deep in his bones that God was always present for him and that God’s presence means life, now and forever.

God is always present for us even when we cannot see it, even when we have no answers. God stays with us. God remains true to us even when it seems God is delaying, even when we feel only absence. God stays present to us when we are angry, when we lament, when we think God is not acting, when sorrow is overpowering, when our loved ones die, when we die.

Nothing can separate us from the presence of God. This presence gives us new life, now and forever. This presence unbinds us and helps us to unbind others.

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer.

Sermon for Sunday, March 26, 2017 – “What God Does”

Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 26, 2017
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

Click here to read scripture passage for the day.

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

“Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Whose fault is it? As Jesus is walking along, he sees a man who was born blind. His disciples, however, are unable to really see the man. They see a problem and want to find someone to blame.

Who is to blame? We want to know.

Who’s to blame for the fighting this morning as families tried to get to church on time?

Whose fault is it that the marriage ended, that a child is struggling?

Who is to blame for institutional failings, for the polarization in our country?

Whose fault is it?

When things are hard and confusing, there’s some sick satisfaction in at least having someone to blame. Identifying fault gives us some sense of control. Jesus’ response to the disciples’ question doesn’t really help matters. He responds, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”

That sounds like maybe it’s God’s fault.

As if God made him to be born blind so that God could do something impressive? Is Jesus saying God causes suffering so that God can fix it and look good? Hmm … that doesn’t really help, Jesus.

There may be a translation problem.

The Greek translated here as “he was born blind so that God’s work might be revealed” can also be translated “he was born blind, as a result, God’s work might be revealed.” So maybe Jesus isn’t saying the man was born blind so that God could show off. Maybe he’s saying the man was just born blind but now, since that happened, God’s works can be revealed.

I like that possible translation more; it helps me with questions about God’s role in suffering even as it raises others. But what helps more is that Jesus doesn’t blame anyone. He doesn’t try to explain God. Instead, Jesus does the work of God. Jesus sees the man; Jesus gives him new life; and Jesus finds the man again after his community drives him out. Jesus does God’s work of seeing, recreating, and searching out all God’s beloved children.

In Jesus, we are given God’s response to the suffering of our broken world, to all our attempts to blame and find fault. There are always so many unanswered questions about God’s role in suffering, so many things we don’t and can’t understand. Yet in Jesus, we see God’s response to all the brokenness. God, in Jesus, comes near to us and gets into the dirt with us, God sees us, recreates us, and finds us again and again.

Jesus sees the man born blind when everyone else sees only a problem. Jesus stops and takes note; he doesn’t just pass by the man. Throughout scripture we see that God sees human suffering, God pays attention. God doesn’t just pass by us, God notices. And God calls us to see others not as problems, but as children of God.

Then, Jesus spits on the ground, makes mud with the saliva and spreads the mud on the man’s eyes. Jesus gets his hands dirty and gives the man a new start on life.

The way Jesus acts here has echoes of the second creation story in Genesis 2 – when God got down into the dirt to form human beings out of dust and give us life.

This is what Jesus does for the man born blind. He uses dirt to create sight and then gives the man new life by providing him with a sense of purpose. In his day, blindness would have prevented the man from most work and forced him to spend his life as a beggar focused on survival. Jesus changes all that by giving the man not only eyesight but also a mission. Jesus directs the man to wash in the pool of Siloam, which we are told means “sent.” The man is sent to witness that Jesus is sent by God. This provides him with purpose and hope.

We too are recreated; we too are given purpose and hope in Jesus. Sometimes this is as dramatic as a physically blind man being given sight. Much more often it is that our eyes are opened to how unhelpful it is to assign blame; our eyes are opened to God’s life-giving presence with us in the muck of our world.

Our eyes are opened to really see the people around us and to recognize the ways we can make a difference in a broken world.

The blind man is given new life and purpose and we are, too. However, the community is unable to accept what Jesus does for this man. It is too disruptive to their religious answers and their attempts at control.

Essentially, they blame the man born blind for challenging them and they drive him out of the community.

But Jesus seeks the man out and finds him. Jesus invites him into a deeper relationship and the man confesses his faith in Jesus. Others didn’t notice the man when he was blind and couldn’t deal with him when he could see. Jesus goes out searching for him. In Jesus he is found, he finds a home, and he is drawn close to God.

This, too, is what Jesus does for us: Jesus is the Good Shepherd who is always searching for us and always drawing us into relationship with God. When we feel lost – without purpose, without nurturing relationships, when we are stuck in patterns of fault finding – we are not alone. The Good Shepherd is still looking for us to draw us close to God.

In a world with lots of blame to go around, in a world full of suffering, in the midst of questions and doubts, Jesus does the work of God. Jesus sees us, gives us new life, and searches for us again and again.

When we are loved this deeply and profoundly, we too can do the work of God. Such love frees us from the need to find blame and sends us to see, love and search out others.

Let’s take a moment to pray. Our time of prayer will continue into the introduction to the hymn,

#452 Awake, O Sleeper, Rise From Death.

Sermon for Sunday, March 19, 2017 – “Thirst”

Third Sunday in Lent
March 19, 2017
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 who gives living water.

She has so many reasons to be thirsty as she approaches that well.

Day after day, night after night, she has swallowed salty tears, weeping until she is completely drained.

Five marriages have ended. Now she’s dependent on a man who has not married her – a tenuous situation in the ancient world. She’s at the mercy of harsh, battering winds – forces beyond her control.

She hadn’t gone to the well that morning, when it was still cool, with the other women. They must have talked and laughed and commiserated and found refreshment in one another. 

Instead she sets out for the well, alone, in the heat of the day. There, she’ll find water but not the deeper replenishment she needs.

Any quenching of her thirst will be temporary. She’ll have to return day after day, over and over and over again to fetch water and carry it home.

The repetition, the drudgery, the tediousness of it all leaves her depleted.

She has so many reasons to be thirsty.

What is depleting you? When do you notice your own thirst? Does it feel like loneliness, weariness, despair, grief? Are you longing for change, for connection? Are you drained by the daily grind, battered by forces beyond your control? As she approaches the well, she sees Jesus sitting there. There’s no reason to expect anything renewing from him. He is a Jew. He won’t talk to her or help her fill her jar. He’ll just ignore her, a woman of Samaria. Jews and Samaritans despise each other. He’ll think even God isn’t accessible to her – that she and her people worship God the wrong way. He’ll judge her.

What do you expect from Jesus? What do you expect from encounters with people who are very different from you, from people who worship God differently? Will you be replenished or further depleted?

She expects nothing but disdain. So, she’s startled when he asks her for a drink – when he wants something from her.

She starts asking questions of him. He engages her in a discussion about God Their conversation is lively, refreshing, renewing. He talks about living water – water that gives the deeper replenishment she needs.

He sees and names the pain of her relationships. He speaks of a new way to worship God – in spirit and truth. When she talks about the coming Messiah, he says, “I am he”; and, actually, the word “he” is not in the Greek text. He says, “I AM.”

Jesus claims the name used for God from the beginning of Jewish and Samaritan history – I AM. He uses the name he will use again and again in the Gospel of John: “I AM the Bread of Life, I AM the Resurrection and the Life, I AM the Good Shepherd….” She, the woman of Samaria, is the first person in the Gospel of John to learn Jesus’ deeper name.

There, among her thirst, her weariness, her questions about where to find God, she encounters God. God is standing there, right in front of her, asking her for a drink, engaging her in conversation.

In this unexpected encounter, she is given living water – water that flows into all the parched places of her life, all the emptiness, all the fatigue.

She is renewed from deep within. Today, God meets us here as well. Even when we show up with very low expectations; even when we’re full of questions, even when we’re depleted, even when our lives are a mess, even when we don’t want anyone to ask anything more of us. Even then, especially then, even now, God meets us here.

God engages us in conversation around the scriptures- in word and song. God comes to us in the body and blood of Jesus. God nourishes us with food and drink that flows into all the parched places of our lives.

And God shows up out in the world, as well, in unexpected ways. God shows up in the people who ask us for a drink of water, those who need something from us, and those who are different from us. As we give the cup of cold water, as we engage in conversation, as we ask for help, we encounter God.

After her encounter with Jesus, the woman of Samaria leaves her jar at the well and runs to share this living water she has received with her community. “Come and see,” she says. Those are the very same words Jesus uses when calling his disciples, “come and see.” She becomes the first person to share the good news of Jesus, the first evangelist.

Because of her testimony, other Samaritans do come and see. They ask Jesus to stay with them, to abide with them – something that the Gospel of John shows us is essential to Jesus’ ministry. She provides an opportunity for the people of her city to abide with Jesus. She helps them to encounter God, to drink deeply of living water themselves.

We too can invite others to come and see the ways God meets us – in worship, in conversation, in people in need. We can provide opportunities for others to abide with Jesus – to abide in hope and peace, to drink in his life-giving presence. We can engage people in conversations in which we see them and their thirst and wrestle together with big questions about God.

Of course, we aren’t always able to do this. There are times we simply need to be replenished. Yet over time, together, we are renewed and sent out to share living water.

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer. Our time of prayer will continue into the introduction of the hymn.