Ephesians 5:15-20, Psalm 111, & John 6:51-58 on August 18th, 2024
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
Below is transcript pulled from the video and formatted by artificial intelligence. There may be inconsistencies or errors.
Grace Mercy and peace to you in the name of our Lord, our Savior Jesus the Christ, amen.
About five years into my ordained ministry, I had the opportunity to serve Gettysburg College, one of our ELCA colleges as a chaplain. And when I got on campus, I met Debbie. Debbie was a senior at the time. She was the president of the Student Council. She was the daughter of an IBM executive from upstate New York. Now Gettysburg College was an expensive private college. And a lot of kids with a lot of money went there and they got a good education to go out and get a good job or go on to a master's degree and whatever level of professional work they were going to serve.
Debbie, however, decided that her heart and her mind were being trained to serve Jesus. And she decided to join the Lutheran Volunteer Corps. Anyone know of the Lutheran Volunteer Corps? Back in the 1980s, when I was a college chaplain, students could volunteer for the Lutheran Volunteer Corps and they would be assigned to an urban area where they would work in an agency that was understaffed and the people were underpaid and they had wonderful work to do. These Lutheran Volunteer Corps members would live together in a house. They would be given a stipend that basically paid for their expenses for month to month. But they made no money for their two-year commitment.
Debbie did that and was assigned to Washington, D.C. where her particular role was to work with people who had been in jail and who had been released and who needed to know how to navigate the water so that they could get employment and they could live and not return to whatever. The life of crime they had prior. Debbie did that well.
In about 18 months into her two-year assignment, I got an invitation in the mail to Debbie's wedding. She had met and become engaged to another Lutheran Volunteer and they were going to get married in a church in Washington, D.C. I wanted to be the church my mother attended when she worked during World War II at the Navy Department. So I thought this is great. I'm going to go to the wedding.
I took the Chaplain's Assistant, the Secretary at the Chapel along with me. Because we didn't know on a Saturday what traffic we might encounter, we left with plenty of time, and we were the first people at the church. We sat in the back, and that was kind of interesting because it gave us the opportunity to see the different wedding guests come in. And as we sat there, well, we saw all of the friends of the bride's family come in and their IBM finery, beautiful suits and dresses and hats, and they all kind of took their places in the pews. And we saw the people that probably were served by the Lutheran Volunteer Corps who came in in the best wedding attire they had, maybe jeans, maybe flannel shirts, but they kind of went in and took their seats to 1980s. Didn't always see jeans and flannel shirts in church, but you did that day. And you saw the Lutheran volunteers come in, young people, all washed nice and clean, rosy cheeks and optimistic, and they came in and they took their places. And you saw some people who lived on the streets, who came in quietly, found a place among the people, sat down, and then there are a couple ladies that I think walked the streets, and they were dressed for their vocation. And they came in and they were seated, and I looked around me at this diverse, every economic strata, every color of the rainbow, every kind of situation represented at this wedding.
And after the valves were exchanged, we went up for Holy Communion, and it was served one loaf of bread, pieces torn off, one by one as the guests came up, and a common cup from which every guest drank. And I went back to my pew after that, and I thought, I think I just got a taste of the feast that is to come. If you talk about heaven as a heavenly feast, I just experienced what heaven's going to be here on earth. It was marvelous. And I look forward to that kind of a marriage feast that has no end that awaits us.
But you know the old joke. Heaven is so wonderful, people are just dying to get there. When we put all of the emphasis on the feast that is to come, we miss the living bread on which we feast each day. When we think that our faith practice is all about building a resume, whether or not we're going to make it in, if we're worthy, if we're good enough, if we will be among those not left behind. If we do all that, the motive for our love is rather self-centered, isn't it? Everything we do is kind of ultimately with the end game that we're going to be saved. And we forget who the Savior is.
Because Jesus wants us to know, it's not about building a resume. Our life with Him is about building a relationship. This is the faith that we share. It's what Jesus is trying to teach the people throughout this chapter of John that we've now been reading for weeks. When He says, I am the living bread, I am in you, I am one with you, I sustain you, I go with you. Jesus wants us to have a relationship, not just a set of rules or a recipe to follow, so that we get to some place at the end of this life. Jesus is in this moment.
Relationships that let us know none of us are worthy, and yet Jesus finds us worthy enough to spread out His arms and diapers. A relationship that says we are all different, and we can compare ourselves, but in the end, as Martin Luther would say, we are all beggars, all needing the mercy of God. And on that, we can be sure, because He comes. The Father has sent Him to speak to us and let us know that while we had not yet chosen Him, Jesus had chosen us.
This became very clear to me when I have the privilege of becoming a mother. Like an epiphany, it all became clear, because from the moment that I realized I had been given a part in the miracle of creation, and this little life was being carried, and I looked down and I would say, oh, this is my baby, and this baby is wonderful, and I love this baby. And you know what the baby did? Well, first it gave me heartburn. Maybe worse. Then I didn't fit in my clothing, and then yes, it kicked me and stirred and kept me awake. And made me so uncomfortable I thought my ribs would break before I could get the next breath. And then you know what happened? First, there's a reason they call it labor. And you go through the pain and you go through the sweat, and you don't like anybody. But you think this baby, this wonderful baby is on its way, I'm going to hold my baby, and then the baby is born. And you look down at this wrinkled little face, and you think is there ever been a more wonderful baby, this child of my creation, I love you, I love you, and you know what the baby does? Poops in your hand. Needs diapers changed, spits up, keeps you up all night, cries and screams, and does nothing to earn that love. And you think, I love this baby, and you get up all night, and you change the diapers, and one day you're holding that baby and a little hand wraps around your finger. And you say, I've been hummed, I've been hummed, this baby loves me.
It's bringing tears to my eyes, because I think that's how it is with God. God lovingly creates each and every one of us and has to put up with all the stuff we do, all the crying, all the messes, all the selfishness. God loves us indeed, you did not choose me, but I chose you, you are mine, and I love you. God feeds us, and God holds us and comforts us, and God is there for us whenever we have the need. And then comes that day when we realized we're loved and we do something in response to love God back, and God feels that pinky hug and goes, ah, my child loves me, and how God must delight in that hug.
We don't wait for heaven to experience life with the eternal one, and my professor taught me whenever you read about eternal life in the gospel of John, slip that around, it's not eternal life, which sounds to you and me like what happens with death. It is life with the eternal one, which happens with life. When you hear John talk about eternal life, life with the eternal one, stop and think that that's yours right now. Even when you're messing up, even when you're whining and complaining and crying, even when you're selfishly just doing it your own way and don't much care about God, God is there saying, that's my beloved, how special that child is to me, and reaches out and takes you and continues to hold you and nurture you so that again you love back. God, how can I return love? God, how can I serve? You don't have to be in the Luther volunteer core to know that there's a way to work for love and justice and serve those who are around you. And every time you do, God gets that pinky hug.
Eternal life is a wondrous thing. It's great to know that we will have that feast that will no, no end, and that every color, every economic strata, all of us belong at Jesus' table. But we don't have to wait. The table is set again today. We are nurtured for each and every day. And we go out to serve life with the eternal one. Hallelujah. Amen.