Holy Week: Palm Sunday / Sunday of the Passion

It's Sunday of the Split Identity. We shout "Hosanna!" at the beginning of worship, and "Crucify him!" shortly thereafter. Not totally unlike our ever-imperfect discipleship, is it?



Entree a Jerusalem by Macha Chmakoff


Lectionary texts:
Matthew 21:1-11 (processional gospel with palm branches)
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Matthew 26:14 - 27:66


"Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord....Who is this?" (Matthew 21:9-10)

Weekly beauty: Signs of spring

It's been chilly again this week, but thanks be to God for growing green things and longer days. Lots of funerals around here lately; we need signs of life.

I took this picture after worship at Dale a couple weeks ago. It was probably 8:30 p.m. and it wasn't dark yet. Glorious.




And this one isn't quite as pretty as the sunset, but those hints of green are signs of hope! It's been so long since I saw these plants next to my driveway that I can't even remember what they are, but I'll soon find out.

A Lenten tradition

Just had to take a minute to celebrate the glorious Lenten tradition of...the soup supper.

Soup suppers before mid-week Lenten worship have been very common among congregations with which I've been involved, both here and elsewhere. It's a great way for people to connect for fellowship outside of Sunday morning, when they might be busy with adult classes or Sunday school or altar guild duties or any number of other things.

I was at Hegre for half of Lent this year, and they host a delightful soup supper: a couple kinds of soup, a couple kinds of bread, and a dessert. Simple, effective, delicious.

Big birthday back home

My dad turned 60 on Saturday, so I made a quick trip home for part of the weekend (back for Sunday, of course). I took my grandma with me, and my brother, sister-in-law, and niece were there as well. It was magnificent to hang out all together since we don't get to do that often.

This is the sight that greeted me upon my arrival. That is one happy grandpa!




We went to a lovely dinner at The Class Act, which baby Dayla didn't enjoy quite as much as the rest of us. But her grandma seemed to find the odd position that satisfied the princess for a while.




We were the picture of contentment after our wonderful meal, except Dayla.




It's so fun to see how much she's changed already since I saw her in February.




My dad certainly deserves to be celebrated on such a momentous occasion! So, despite appearances, it wasn't all about Dayla, and I think he was pleased with the festivities. It was a wonderful trip.

April 10 sermon

Text: John 11:1-45
Preached April 10 at First Lutheran


Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Lazarus of Bethany was ill. I bet you know what it’s like to be ill.
Lazarus’s sisters, Mary and Martha, were distraught and grieving. I bet you know what it’s like to be distraught and to grieve.
Lazarus died. He was bound in cloths and laid in his grave. Perhaps you don’t know what it’s like to die and to lay in your grave.

But I bet you can imagine it. I think there are plenty of graves to be found in our lives.

When you feel the weight of your many sins and your inability to correct them, doesn’t it feel like you’re bound in your own weakness and lying in your grave?

When you’re very sick, or intensely lonely, doesn’t it feel like you’re bound in sorrow and lying in your grave?

When your family is collapsing or you’re watching helplessly as someone you love suffers, doesn’t it feel like you’re bound in despair and lying in your grave?

I think we do know what it’s like to lie in our graves, just like Lazarus.

It’s a good thing, then, that God is not afraid of graveyards. “Come and see,” say the mourners when Jesus asks where Lazarus is laid. So Jesus goes. Jesus is not one to deny the reality of death and grief. He doesn’t hesitate to face even the stench of death, which lingers in the grave with Lazarus.

Of course, death is not what Jesus is really about, is it? Jesus is about resurrection and life—Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Jesus tells Martha exactly this, but neither she nor her sister knew what this meant for Lazarus yet, did they?

At this point, Jesus doesn’t seem much like resurrection or life. After all, they sent word to him when Lazarus was ill, but he waited two days before going to Bethany! By the time he got there, Lazarus had been dead four days. Mary and Martha certainly wouldn’t have expected that from this Jesus who loved them and their brother.

When have you felt like God was tarrying? Like God was absent? Like, just when you needed him most, God was refusing to show up and do something? I know I’ve had this experience, and perhaps you have too. Turns out resurrection and life doesn’t always come on our schedule, nor does it always look like what we expect.

But we are not alone in our grief. God is present, whether it feels that way or not. Jesus is Emmanuel—God with us—and he suffers with us in our sorrow.

As Jesus approaches Lazarus’s grave, three times we hear that he is greatly disturbed and even moved to tears at the sorrow that surrounds him. Jesus knows exactly what he’s about to do. Jesus knows he will call Lazarus forth from death and back into life. And still he weeps. God suffers when his people suffer.

And God does something about that suffering, although it isn’t always what we expect. In fact, sometimes it looks more like death than like resurrection and life. But even when God’s action looks a lot like death, we know that death does not have the last word.

As the mourners gathered around Lazarus’s tomb, they heard Jesus’ command: “Lazarus, come out.” And they saw Lazarus emerge from his grave, bound in the linen cloths in which they had wrapped him!

Jesus said Lazarus’s illness did not lead to death, even though Lazarus died. Jesus knows the difference between illness or pain or grief that leads to death and illness or pain or grief that leads through death. After all, there can be no resurrection unless there is death.

And, in Christ, there is resurrection. There is new life. In our baptism, God called us out of our graves, raising us from sin and death to new life in Christ. And someday all who have died in Christ will hear his call to come out of their graves to enjoy the final resurrection and eternal life with God, the perfection of God’s good creation where there will be no more sin, no more death, no more sorrow.

So how do we respond to this Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life? How do we faithfully await the fulfillment of this great promise?

We take a cue from the psalmist, who pours out both sorrow and hope. “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!” This psalmist knows the despair of death that precedes resurrection.

“I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.” This psalmist also knows the hope that comes from trusting in God, trusting that God is both willing and able to act, knowing that God can and does bring life from death.

Mary and Martha echo the psalmist as they approach Jesus in their grief. Each sister says the same thing to Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Is there anger in their voices? Is there accusation of Jesus’ absence and doubt about his love? Are they crying out to Jesus in their pain as the psalmist does? Perhaps they are.

They are also expressing deep faith in Jesus even in the midst of despair. Martha says, “But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus didn’t show up when Martha needed him, and her brother died. Now there seems to be no reason for hope, but still Martha hopes. Even when the miracle hadn’t yet happened, and Martha didn’t know that it would happen, she confesses faith in Jesus, the resurrection and the life.

How else do we await God’s promise of resurrection and life? We hear that promise over and over, lest we forget it. And we embrace the resurrection and life that God brings us here and now.

For, even as we await the future fullness of God’s kingdom, God is calling us out of our graves. Sometimes God brings healing when all hope seemed lost. Sometimes God sends just the person we needed to support us in our suffering. Sometimes God renews struggling families and it is nothing short of miraculous. The new life that God brings through Jesus Christ can and does break into our lives even now.

God forgives the sin that binds us in our grave. God soothes the sorrow that covers our tomb like a stone. God wipes away the tears of despair that blind us. God is a God of resurrection and life, revealed and given to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Soon after he returns to life, Lazarus finds himself at the table sharing a meal with Jesus and other loved ones. Each week when we gather, we find ourselves at the table, sharing a meal with Jesus and other loved ones. We are the beloved of God in this place, and the beloved of God of all times and all places, united at one table. At this meal our faith is reborn as we receive Christ himself with the bread and wine and the words, “given and shed for you.” This is resurrection and life here and now.

So we embrace it and, at God’s invitation, we share it. At the grave of Lazarus, Jesus commanded the mourners to take away the stone. When Lazarus emerged, raised to new life, Jesus commanded them to unbind him and let him go. God raised Lazarus, but Lazarus certainly couldn’t unbind himself. Jesus invited the community into the miraculous work of God.

How do we participate in this work of God as the body of Christ? How do we affirm life in the face of death? How do we share the hope we have in Christ, who is the resurrection and the life? How do we help unbind those whom God has called from their graves so that they may enjoy the abundance of their new life?

We can start by forgiving others as we have been forgiven. We can say “thank you” and “I’m sorry” and “how can I help?” We can give of our time and money to support the work of God’s kingdom. We can work for justice for all of God’s people. And we can proclaim to those around us the love and mercy of the living God made known in Christ, who calls us from our graves and into new life.

Our God is not afraid of graveyards, and he meets us there again and again. Through our baptism, through the word, through the meal, God calls us to rise up, come out of our graves, and live anew in Christ. God calls us not merely to survival but to joyful and abundant life, full of hope in God’s presence, because where God is present, death does not have the final word. In Christ, we have life, to the glory of God. Amen.

Weekly beauty: Eagles

This video has really been getting publicity, so you may have seen it by now. It's a live webcam in the nest of a pair of bald eagles in Decorah, Iowa.

Three eaglets have hatched in the last week, and they are adorable little fuzzballs! There are links on the Ustream site to YouTube videos of the hatches (the third hatch is especially fascinating).

I love watching the mama feed the babies and I love the way she moves around and nestles in almost like a cat. Enjoy!



Webcam chat at Ustream

Family history and awesome board games

Last weekend I hung out with some of my family who live in this area. We had a great time, and one of the coolest details of the evening was that we ate ice cream sundaes out of sundae dishes from the restaurant my great-grandparents used to own. It was like experiencing a little taste of my family history that I've only heard about in stories.





I knew my great-grandma, but not my great-grandpa, and they no longer had the restaurant by the time I came along. Incidentally, in yet another small-world twist, a woman from one of my congregations (the one with the hat collection and awesome garage door) used to cut this great-grandma's hair.

Meanwhile, I know you're noticing the sweet-looking board game behind the sundae. It's called Bermuda Triangle and the tag on it said it was from 1976. You try to move your ships around the board, collecting money at each port, while avoiding the storm could, which also moves around. If you get too close, the storm sucks up your ship with a magnet so it's history. Coolest thing ever!

Trip to synagogue

As I mentioned, last Friday I organized a trip to sabbath worship the people of my congregations. We had a group of 23 people, including several kids, which was a terrific response! We went to B'nai Israel Synagogue, a community associated with Reform Judaism that has a beautiful new building in Rochester.

Rabbi Michelle Werner was very gracious in familiarizing us with their space and worship service. She encouraged questions, and our folks asked some great ones. Then we joined them in worship, and I was so impressed with our kids!

Between the rabbi's discussion and the worship service, those kids stayed engaged and respectful for over two hours. They followed the English translation in their books (back to front) and they even sang in Hebrew.

Check out the beautiful worship space.


Front of the worship space. The eternal flame pendant fixture is a reminder of the constant presence of God. The beautiful cabinet-type fixture in the center is the ark, which contains the congregation's Torah (scripture) scrolls.

B'nai Israel has a Torah scroll from a village in Eastern Europe (I think the former Czechoslovakia but I can't remember with certainty) that was destroyed during World War II. It is over 350 years old, and is being restored by an expert. The hope is that someday it can be returned to its village if the Jewish population is re-established there.




Candles that were part of the blessing I referenced on Friday.




On the wall: the Shema, one of the central prayers of Judaism. It comes from Deuteronomy 6:4, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one."




I think everyone enjoyed the experience and found it educational and interesting, and we're so grateful for the hospitality of B'nai Israel!

Speech and silence

My April newsletter column for the churches...


We have four different accounts of Jesus’ life from four different authors: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each story is just a little different from the others, which doesn’t mean that they aren’t true. It just means that the authors write from different perspectives, focus on different themes, and notice different details of the same events.

On Easter Sunday, we usually hear John’s account of the resurrection of Jesus. And it’s a great story. Matthew and Luke each tell the Easter story beautifully as well, but I’ve developed a fondness for Mark’s version.

The way Mark tells the story of Jesus, his disciples are often confused. They fail to understand what Jesus is trying to teach them, and when he tells them to keep quiet about his work, they just can’t seem to do it. After he cured a deaf man, “Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it” (Mark 7:36).

Then, when the women find the empty tomb, the angel tells them to go and tell the disciples what they have seen. So what do they do? According to the shorter version of Mark’s ending, “they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (Mark 16:7-8).

So, in Mark’s gospel, the followers of Jesus can’t seem to keep quiet when told to do so, but neither can they manage to speak when they’re supposed to do that! (Of course, the women at the tomb eventually managed to tell the others what they had seen; otherwise the story wouldn’t have gotten to us.)

But isn’t it encouraging to know that God can work through such imperfect people? People who so often can’t get it right? People who speak when they should keep silence and keep silence when they should speak?

It’s a reminder that God can and does work through each of us, in spite of our failures and flaws. None of us gets it right all the time, but still God does his work, and we are each a part of it. I pray that the Spirit inspires you in telling the story of Jesus, and I wish you the joy of knowing that your imperfect efforts are never in vain.

Weekly beauty: Sabbath blessing

I'm off to sabbath worship tonight at B'Nai Israel Synagogue in Rochester, and taking almost 20 others with me. More on that later.

For now, here's a beautiful sabbath blessing. If my understanding is correct, this brief blessing of the candles would be used in a Jewish home or synagogue to begin observance of the sabbath.