Pastor's Greetings

Dear Saints,

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Christian pastor, professor and teacher in the Confessing Church in Germany during World War II.  On April 9, 1945, at the age of 39, Bonhoeffer became a Christian martyr or witness for Jesus Christ when he was put to death by the Nazis.  Bonhoeffer is well known for his book, The Cost of Discipleship.  He also wrote a gem of a book entitled Life Together.  Recently I have been re-reading this book which discusses what it means to live with Christ in community.  Bonhoeffer writes; “It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us…Therefore, let him who until now has had the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let them thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.” (p. 20 Life Together)

I take the fact that I can gather with other Christians for granted.  So many people around the world cannot gather publicly to worship Jesus Christ.  Many would give their all to be able to attend Church and worship our Lord together.  I also realize that I cannot grow as a Christian apart from all of you as members of Christ’s body.  Jesus gives us what we need through one another.  Jesus is tangible in the life of another sister or brother in Christ who is filled with the same Holy Spirit.

When I think I can live the Christian life alone I am fooling myself.  A pastor shared with me that this is like a branch of a tree saying to the rest of the tree; “I love flowering and producing fruit but I do not want to be part of the tree.”  It would be crazy of course to think that the branch could exist and live, let alone produce fruit, apart from the rest of the tree.

In a similar way St. Paul writes that we are a part of one another as we are all members of the body of Christ. (see 1 Corinthians 12)  If I am the elbow, I cannot say to the wrist that because I am not a wrist, I do not belong to the body.  Both the elbow and the wrist need each other in order to function and do their part for the sake of the whole body.  In the same way when one of us suffers, we all suffer and when one of us rejoices, we are blessed to rejoice with that person.

I am thankful for the body of Christ and for Jesus calling me into community for as Bonhoeffer writes; “Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ” for the Christian life is impossible apart from Christian Community.

With thanksgiving that God has called us into Christian community,

Pastor Barbara Elizabeth+

Sermon April 15, 2012

Sermon: April 15, 2012, The Second Sunday of Easter

Ron Olsen

1 John 1:9

I’ve been preaching since 1996.  In preparing today’s sermon I thought maybe a refresher on preaching would be in order.  So I typed in “What makes a good sermon”  Google came back with 30 million 5 hundred thousand responses. 

Well organized, easy to follow, Bible centered.  But I could have saved my time and just headed Charlie Merkins’ advice as all agreed on one  point: “keep it short.”  The majority also said to keep it on topic, but I ask your indulgence… in my quick internet search, a serendipitous occurrence happened. One seminary instructor defined his position citing: TV, the internet and now textings for shortening our attention span.  He compared this to a 45 minute long sermon (of a 19^th century preacher) he’d recorded on LibriVox dot org,.

The Serendipity: LibriVox is a site that is not well known outside the publishing industry, a site that provides free audio of books in the public domain - a site creation of Hugh McGuire, my brother in law.  

I also typed in “preaching” and found out preaching comes from a Greek word which I can’t pronounce, it is spelled “k-e-r-y” “g-m-a” (Kerygma) which means “preach the resurrection.” 

I’m going to preach from the second reading, the first letter of John.  A little background: The letter is written to the early church, specifically those who advocated that Jesus was God but didn’t really become human and only pretended to suffer. Note: the “we” isn’t an affectation, a ‘royal’ we, but John writing on behalf of the teachers and leaders of the early church.

Unlike Thomas, they can’t see for themselves.  John asks them to believe him and the others who had first hand knowledge.   Besides asking this group to believe, John lays out the relationship we have – or should have – with God.

John starts by using the metaphor of light and darkness. Some understand it to mean that God is light, that is, God is without sin, and we can’t be living evilly, unethically and claim to be walking in the light.  On our own, humans walk in darkness – some darker than others.

 We can also understand light to be the revelation of God’s presence and plan.  Central to his plan, is God’s willingness to forgive us when we admit our sins – reveal ourselves for who we are – we might as will confess since God knows anyway. Should we sin, Jesus will intercede on our behalf with the Father, as our “advocate”. Jesus, through the cross, brings us into unison with God – as he does for all who will believe.

I’ve never studied comparative religions, but one of the resources I read – Daniel Wallace – stated, “One of the most remarkable things about Christianity is this fellowship with God. We don't read of fellowship with God even in the Old Testament. The difference is not a lowering of God's standard, but an elevation of the believer: we are hoisted up to heaven on the cross of Christ.”

Wallace continued to tell us that, “The cross provides access to the Father: it gives us a new birth so that we are indeed the children of God. Yet, we still sin. Even though we are God's children, we often don't walk with God as we should.  It is through the cross that our sins are forgiven.”

Over the years, I’ve learned that if you dig deep enough you can find disagreement and altering views of even what seems like the simplest of scripture.  Chapter 1 verse 9 is one of those lines:  “⁹If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Come to find out there is confusion over what confession involves.

If you are ever a contestant on Jeopardy and you get the word “Greek,” the answer is “what causes all the confusion and disagreement among Bible scholars?” 

Some have argued that the word used here for "confess," I’m going to spell it cause I can’t pronounce it: oi mo lo ge vw (oJmologevw), means “only to name your sins to God.” It does not mean to “renounce your sins." So day after day you can just list out your sins without penance – because it would be blasphemy to reject God’s grace… pretty sweet, but I suspect we can tuck the 1 John 1.9 defense away with the Twinkie defense.  (a diminished capacity defense based on high sugar diet – used in the Dan White’s 1978 trial for murdering George Moscone and Harvey White.)

First and foremost, then, confession of sins is an admission of guilt--an admission which we affirm both in word and heart. Thus, confession always involves belief.

Second, confession of sin involves a recognition of our inadequacy and our need.  We need God’s grace, because we can’t do it on our own.  From prayers of the people form VI (6), “so uphold us by your Spirit that we may live and serve you  in newness of life,” … that with God’s help we change.   That we change our sinful ways – stop doing what we shouldn’t and start doing what we should.

And finally the recognition that Christ paid the price for our sins, we only have to believe in him.  We do this by keeping his law – love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and our neighbors as our self.  

Alleluia. Christ is risen… the Lord is risen indeed.  Alleluia.