Workin’ 8 to 5

Sunday, September 21, 2008
Preacher: Pastor Gary Johnson

Readings:

Jonah 3:10-4:11
Philippians 1:21-30

Matthew 20:1-16

Audio sermon link: http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/422/58D7D696-A6D0-8FAD-AD0F-137D918F06E3.mp3

Pastor Johnson started by mentioning that today’s Gospel lesson is often referred to as the Sermon of Affirmative Action. Hey, somebody’s getting’ somethin’ for nothin’. That ain’t fair!

We take pride in our work and our working, our having earned our keep. We define ourselves by “what we do”, by our “busy-ness”. In admiring our being busy, we buy into the adage that our value-added IS our value. THESE PEOPLE who show up at 5 o’clock? What’s with them?

And I’ve been here workin’ and sweatin’ you-know-what since 8!

But this is the Kingdom of Heaven … and there’s no accounting sheet here (see Pastor Mohn’s sermon from last week …). In here, it’s not about an hourly wage earned; it’s about forgiveness (10 times the number you speak times the number you speak), it’s about love, it’s about being there.

We see the Heavenly Father full of gleefulness if the Prodigal Son shows up at all!!! And if he doesn't show up, the Father will go out and look for him!

This IS your Father’s workplace!

As I listened to Pastor Johnson craftily weave the lesson and sermon with that of the Prodigal Son, I was reminded that I’ve heard sermons here before about how it’s “not about the son … it’s about the father”!

I was also taken over by a metaphor of an emergency: a burning building, a sinking ship. About how in times such as these, even when Mr. 5 O’clock shows up running for the elevator door or shows up just as the last life raft is about to cut loose … the Captain is ecstatic to see another person “in the SAVED column”. In that scenario, isn’t it just plausible we’d extend a hand to someone who “showed up at 5 o’clock and did ‘way less’ than we did to earn their passage”? Maybe, just maybe, at such a moment, we realize we never earn our passage anyway.

In the heat of the burning building, all the rules are changed. Would we push anyone out of the last staircase down to salvation?

Maybe, maybe not …. But in the regular old Monday Morning working world, when we show up at 8 o’clock everyday and work ourselves hard and we watch Mr. 5 o’clock waste away his inheritance, squandering his keep, lulling around and then show up at closing time, we sure don’t expect he’s going to ge the fatted calf killed for the likes of him. Just as Pastor Mohn skillfully weaved Field of Dreams into yet another sermon last week, I’ll have to borrow it “one (last?) more time this week. When we see Mr. 5 O’clock get what we get for working since 8, we yell out “Hey, what’s in it for me?”

I listened to the Voice, I did everything it told me to do and not once did I ask “What’s in it for me?”

Who’s this Terence Mann guy you just invite into the cornfield when I BUILT IT???

Our Mr. 8 O’clock is very recognizable. They’re the ones taking care of their aging parent, making sure they’re at their doctor’s appointments, taking their medicine; they’re there when they get sick, they’re the ones calling the distant brothers and sisters, they’re the one there when their aging parent dies, they’re holding the reins, day after hot and scorching day … they’re in the hot vineyard. And they're more than likely Ms. or Mrs. 8 o'clock. And then Mr. 5 O’clock flies in from California for the funeral. And when he walks in, the surviving parent, their Mom lights up like a Christmas tree and hugs them ‘til it hurts. And Mom says, “I’m SO glad you’re here”.

The dutiful 8 o’clock sister or brother of the 5 o’clock prodigal son says “You have no idea what working in the scorching sun is, do you?

And you get the same as I do?!? ”

Who’s this Terence Mann guy you just invite into the cornfield when I BUILT IT???

Sounds like Ray gets a little angry. Well, when the lost son is found, who can be angry with the Father for his joy in finding him again. No matter what kind of scoundrel the son is, who can fault a father for crying tears of joy when he finds him and pulls him into that lifeboat or from that burning building?

You see … at that moment, it might be a good time to just stop and think; to think about what has brought the brother home … because, Pastor Johnson reminds us, often it is from around a corner where they have bottomed out, realizing that “back home” is their ONLY option. They have had some moment of dire realization, of transformation. Their road out might have been filled with wine, women, and philanderin’, but their road back was a tougher one.

To us who think we’ve been working since 8, it isn’t fair. To Mr. 8 O'clock, he's been trying to earn his Father's love, not realizing he already had it all along. To Mr. 5 O'clock, it's a hard look in the mirror that brings him to realize that home's the only place he's got left, the only road to salvation. To God, it’s about EVERYBODY, Mr. 8 O’clock AND Mr. 5 O’clock getting a FULL measure of God’s grace.

Sieben Multipliziert mit seibzig … dann … Bangen!

Sunday, September 14, 2008
Preacher: Pastor Kendra Mohn

Genesis 50:15-21

Romans 14:1-12

Matthew 18:21-35

Audio sermon link: http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/292/32745F1F-5C26-C20E-8EA4-C6B1EE86EF1B.mp3

Pastor Mohn pointed out a realization that often hits “the crowd” (perhaps) more often than “the Pastor” – that sometimes the three Scriptural texts seem to bear no common theme. Not so today. Today the three texts have a resounding emphasis on forgiveness – one of the most difficult things to face. In Genesis, we hear of the story of Joseph and his brothers and the sins of favoritism and jealousy. In Romans, the sins of conflict and disagreement.

Pastor Mohn pointed out that she was listening to the speeches at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions weeks ago and was struck when Barack Obama mentioned it was an election about small and big things. So, she felt, was partly the message on forgiveness. We often fight about the smallest things. Pastor Mohn shared a story about a church committee arguing over the choice of hymn for Mission Sunday – how it got so heated the decision had to be tabled. Remember the book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”?

We so often do. And God calls us to think of our petty grievances in a larger context.
We do not live or die to ourselves and the small things. If we live, we live to the Lord and if we die, we die to the Lord. So often the arguments are about what we eat, what hymn we’re going to sing. Today Jesus is saying “Why sweat the small stuff … when the big stuff’s already been taken care of for you?”

Pastor Mohn also shared that while last week’s text was her wedding text, this week’s is her funeral text … for reasons that in it:

Forgiveness is a matter of perspective.

There’s a new play called Seventy Times Seven then Pow! in which a husband keeps a chalkboard checking off the 490 forgivenesses he’s called to offer his wife. Presumably, he’s off the hook after that. Pastor Mohn offered the sense that we often seek the literal accounting, "in the German sense". We want to know EXACTLY what’s expected of us – how many times to forgive, precisely. We want a tally, a chalkboard. But make no mistake ... when we sin, we come to God with conditions … the extenuating circumstances that brought us to give into temptation – a rationalization, a host of excuses and reasons for transgressions beyond our control. We want understanding for the circumstantial nature of the evidence against us, that brought us to fall victim to sin. We’re victims, you see, when we sin. But when we’re sinned against? Well, thems different apples all together. Then we want a full accounting by the letter of the law. We want the tally in minute detail. So … if we forgive, we want tit for tat; we want equal forgiveness.

What happens when we’re confronted? Jesus told us how to handle conflict two weeks ago in the scripture readings. But after that thoughful progression of confrontation, Jesus says then let go. But that goes against our sense of fairness. It’s not attractive, it’s not fair and it goes against our sensibilities. When the “seventy times seven” message collided with the tally sheet analogy, I wondered if what Jesus meant was not even just “seventy times seven”. What the questioners in Scripture does is “pose a number” (an accounting we can see and taste and touch!). What if what Jesus is saying is “It’s (always) ten times the number you mention times the number you mention” ?? By that reckoning, when the husband gets to 490 “I forgive you’s”, the number turns to 4900 times that. Just as Pastor Johnson said two weeks back, the number God has in mind is “beyond our imagining”. It’s always bigger and bigger than we can ever write down or reach. And no matter how big it is, Jesus sacrifice for us all is bigger still.

What God seeks from us is a change in perspective, to see a bigger picture, a picture bigger than ourselves.

At the end of the movie Field of Dreams, Ray Kinsella, who’s listened dutifully to The Voice and built The Field at great cost to himself and his family, sees the ballplayers invite Terrence Mann into the cornfield, but not Ray, who says “Why him? I built this field!” … to which the player responds, “What are you saying, Ray?” Are you saying what’s in it for you?”. And Ray says that he has done “exactly as he’s been told”, he’s forgiven seven times seventy times. And he bellows “Im saying …

’What’s in it for me?’

Well, Jesus has the answer today. What’s in it for us?

Nothing ……

We’re no more righteous than the next guy, no more deserving. You can’t “build-a-cornfield-your-way-into-heaven”. You have that gift, you had it … before you tried to earn it and build-your-way-in. That’s why Shoeless Joe Jackson tells Ray, “You better stay here, Ray … If you build it, He will come.”

What you get for putting down your clipboard, your accounting and balance sheet is this: freedom.

God put the clipboard down on each of us on the cross.

Everytime … EVERY time you forgive someone, you thank God for forgiving you

... for everything you’ve ever done wrong … and that tally sheet’s a mile long.

How ‘bout we stop fighting over that hymn for Mission Sunday? How ‘bout we stop crying “What’s in it for me?”

If we live, we do not live to ourselves. If we die, we do not die to ourselves. We are called to see “a bigger picture”, something bigger than ourselves. We are called to “build it” so “they will come” … by building it, we earn nothing, not even entrée for ourselves. That price’s already been paid in full. And He who paid it asks this: for us to live as brothers and sisters, to bask in the forgiveness we can never fully understand … and we are called to extend it to others, so we can live in the grace of God.

Kumbayada_yada_yada

Sunday, August 31, 2008
Preacher: Pastor Kendra Mohn

Jeremiah 15:15-21

Romans 12:9-21

Matthew 16:21-28

Audio sermon link: http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/422/8093FB0B-D6F7-C829-028D-F66A5C8CAD69.mp3

Pastor Mohn glibly passes on to us that Pastor Johnson has left the task to her to expound upon “Who Jesus is” this week. She launched into how in Bible Study often someone, after reading a particularly intriguing text from Scripture, will add, “I wish Jesus were here to explain this to us. I wish Jesus could be here to “pull up a chair” and lend us His take on this. She admitted feeling similarly, but not, she said, with this today’s Gospel! When this text comes up, she confesses, she doesn’t want Jesus anywhere near her … for fear of what He might say.

Jesus has high expectations, as He does of Peter today, and he does not shy away from letting us know.

While “the wishing for Jesus” is a natural thing, actually getting Him would be a mixed bag. As with Peter, He may be quite complimentary one minute. The next, we’re no better than Satan. Would we really want Jesus to be with us in all His honesty & up-front-ness, really? After all, He does call a spade a spade. He calls it as it is … pretty much always. And we’re not always comfortable with that.

Pastor Mohn admitted that having been tasked with addressing who Jesus is, she asked several people. And what you find out is there are as many Jesuses as there are people you can ask. No matter who you ask, a person’s perception of Jesus is shaped by who they are, where they’ve been, what they’ve seen – their Jesus is their perception of Jesus, as unique as their experiences, based on their individual stories, their hopes, their fears.

No matter what, it’s safe to say that the question of “Who Jesus is?” is a pretty complicated one. And the answer will not be what you expect. It will not be our mind’s Jesus.

At summer camp, Pastor Mohn confessed to coming to campfire each night resolutely committed to NOT singing Kumbaya. It was old, cheesy, all too accepting-with-open-arms and not confrontational. Or as Wikipedia puts it:

Kumbaya was originally associated with unity and closeness, but more recently is also alluded to sarcastically to connote a blandly pious and naively optimistic view of the world and human nature.

Pastor Mohn admitted “they don’t say ‘come by’ in NW Iowa. Would we ask Jesus to “stop by”, only to stay a very short stint and move on? Wouldn’t we want Jesus to “pull up a chair” and join us by the fire for awhile? Well sometimes we want God to stop by so we can vent, dump it all out and have Him say “What a bummer!”, to listen to our cares and concerns and feel compassion and kinship with us. Also, we’d like to share what we’ve done that’s good and get our checkmark.

But to REALLY ask Jesus to “come by” is something more … it’s riskier than that because He doesn’t just listen, He speaks. And He will say things we won’t expect, we can’t control, and we won’t like. He’ll weigh in on what we’re doing and He’ll task us and challenge us.

Pastor Mohn shared with us that today’s text from Romans was her and Erik’s wedding text:

9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.[a] Do not be conceited.
17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"[b]says the Lord. 20On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."[c] 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.


The heap of burning coals was quite dramatic, she admits, but she shared that she felt that it might be weighing in on a point Jesus wants to make:

When you’re kind when you don’t have to be, you change the rules.

You leave the person who’s been cruel unsure of what’s supposed to happen next. A devotional I read one day suggested that Jesus didn’t really want disciples who impressed people more than he wanted disciples who surprised people! Left them second-guessing. And Romans offers a litany of “How to’s” on this front. But it’s not a checklist you might aspire to attempt to complete. That would probably drive you crazy, Pastor Mohn admits.

Rather, it’s prescription of how one might try to live ... it's the result of a transformed soul and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Seeing the world this way, as Jesus does, is Who Jesus is. It’s about putting something else - other than self – first. When this Jesus is present, you see the world an entirely different way. And it’s not always comfortable for us. We’re not going to like it all the time.

When Christ is present, there’s room to treat the world in a way that doesn’t make sense – one that allows for God to work. And it will get dicey, sticky; it’ll offend some people, you can be sure.

When we invite God to “come by”, we have to be prepared for Him not just to listen, but to speak. With this invitation comes a burden – the burden that comes with seeking peace and justice – and that exacts a price. This is a costly invitation, one that the campfire song no longer seems to connote.

This was a heavy sermon, Pastor Mohn admits – but the texts are heavy – about God’s great gift and how we each can embody it … by singing Kumbaya … and taking the risk that comes with the offer for Jesus to truly “Come by” ...