Sermon for Sunday, August 8

Day of the Church Year: 11th Sunday after Pentecost

Scripture Passage: John 6:35, 41-51

Way back in Exodus chapter 3, Moses turns aside from his shepherding duties when he arrives at Mount Horeb—for a bush on the mountain burns but is not consumed. God calls out to Moses from the burning-yet-not-burning bush and instructs Moses to go to Pharaoh and deliver the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Moses is hesitant, of course, and asks several questions, one of which is: What is your name, God? And God replies: I am who I am. To be clear, if God were at a party and everyone wore nametags, God’s nametag would read: I Am who I am.

In Hebrew, God’s name, I am who I am, is pronounced Yahweh, simply a form of the verb “to be.” Out of reverence for God’s name, however, the word Yahweh typically does not appear in translations of the Bible. Instead, you may have noticed while reading the Old Testament that, quite often, the word Lord appears all in short capitals that are set apart from the rest of the typeface. This design of the word Lord denotes where, in Hebrew, the name Yahweh actually appears in scripture. Some of our Jewish sisters and brothers do not ever say the name Yahweh aloud, and some will not write it. In fact, this is how the word Jehovah began being used as a substitute name for God. Jehovah is actually the consonants of the word Yahweh combined with different vowels so is a word that does not appear in the original documents of scripture but used as a substitute for God’s name. I share all this to underline how reverently both Jews and Christians approach the name of God.

In the gospel of John, Jesus declares himself the bread of life, the way, the truth, the life, the good shepherd, the light of the world, the resurrection and the life, the vine. In each instance, he says: I am—the bread of life. I am—the way, the truth, the life. I am—the light of the world. Jesus is saying: I am God. So, this morning, when Jesus says: I am the bread of life, yes, he refers to the way he feeds us in Holy Communion. But that is not all. Jesus is saying: I am God, and my bodily presence, historically, concretely, tangibly is God’s presence. I am the One Moses met in the burning bush, the One who created the heavens and the earth, the One beloved by King David, the One who sent Jonah to Nineveh. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the One who calls disciples and is baptized by John.

Now, Jesus’ identity as God is not without controversy. Then and now.

Upon hearing Jesus’ claims, the Jewish leaders in today’s reading complain about Jesus and ask among themselves: Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’ Jesus’ human family is well known to the Jewish leaders, and they do not believe what Jesus says about himself. They, probably better than others, understand the implications of his “I am” statements for they know the Torah—the first five books of the Bible--with its story of Moses standing before the burning bush.

Three hundred to four hundred years later when the church fathers argued the core theological beliefs of the church in order to write the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed, this question about who Jesus is or was in relation to God was perhaps the most hotly debated of all questions. Some theologians thought Jesus was simply human, others that he was simply God and only appeared to be human. Some believed God adopted Jesus as God’s son at his baptism while others argued for what has become doctrine: that Jesus is fully human and fully divine.

Today, both theologians and people of faith at large wonder, just like the Jewish leaders and the church fathers: who is Jesus? Scads of theological articles and book chapters address this topic, and I hear people of faith from many corners discuss it—usually in hushed tones because to question Jesus’ identity feels a little scandalous. I cannot provide the “right” answer to this question for we are people of faith, not certainty. But this I know: in today’s reading and throughout the gospel of John, Jesus declared himself the I Am. Jesus declared that God entered time in a living, breathing, historical person. In the 4th century, St. John of Chrysostom preached most vividly on Christmas a vision of the incarnation. He preached:

God is now on earth, and man in heaven; on every side all things commingle. He became Flesh. He did not become God. He was God. Wherefore He became flesh, so that He Whom heaven did not contain, a manger would this day receive.

God is now on earth. St. John of Chrysostom’s words ring out: God came here to be with us in Jesus—and is with us still through the body of Christ on earth. This past week, I had the opportunity to visit people in the hospital, to pray with people over the phone, to sit on the floor of a front porch and discuss the struggles of this life. When we are unsure or scared, when we are weary or disoriented, there are no easy answers. I wish there were, but there are not. Instead, we mostly just don’t want to be alone. And my dear friends in Christ, we are not. We are not alone. God is now on earth, first in Jesus and still through the body of Christ. Today, Jesus says: I am the bread of life. What he means is: I Am God, and I am here. You are not alone. Thanks be to God! Amen.

The GLOW Show: How Can I Keep From Singing with Lori

Over summer 2021 on The GLOW Show, we hear about the favorite hymns and songs of members of the Grace community. Hymnody and praise music are two ways we articulate our faith and have our faith formed. If you would like to share about your favorite hymn or praise song, please be in touch with Pastor Sarah. Today, Grace member Lori Cecil shares about her favorite hymn, How Great Thou Art. Enjoy!

Community Building Goal

During August and September, our community building goal is to call each other by our first names any time we are here at church, and we all have a free pass at asking what someone’s name is. No guilt, no shame!

50th Anniversary of Women's Ordination

The ELCA—the church body of which Grace is a part—and its predecessor church bodies have ordained women since 1970. Last year, the ELCA celebrated 50 years of ordaining women to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament, to the role of pastor. If you would like to read stories of God’s call by female pastors of the ELCA in celebration of this anniversary, click on the link below.

Proclaiming_Reforming_Celebrating_Stories.pdf (elca.org)

The GLOW Show: How Can I Keep From Singing

Over summer 2021 on The GLOW Show, we hear about the favorite hymns and songs of members of the Grace community. Hymnody and praise music are two ways we articulate our faith and have our faith formed. If you would like to share about your favorite hymn or praise song, please be in touch with Pastor Sarah. Today, Pastor Sarah raises up hymns that inspire hope shared by members of Grace Andrea Sigala and John & Linda Erickson, This Is My Father’s World and Abide With Me, respectively. Enjoy!

Mask Use Required

Following the guidance of the CDC, the Grace council has decided that we will require the use of masks over the nose and mouth while inside church buildings, regardless of activity, in order to help stop the spread of the Covid-19 delta variant. For those who remain unvaccinated, please speak with your doctor about your questions and concerns regarding the vaccines and consider getting vaccinated. This is one simple way we can love our neighbor as receiving the vaccine protects others as well as ourselves.

Sermon for Sunday, July 25

 Day of the Church Year: 9th Sunday after Pentecost

Scripture Passage: John 6:1-21

Today, we begin a 5-Sunday exploration of John’s Bread of Life discourse.  In the gospel of John, Jesus always has a lot to say about...everything, and over the next 4 weeks, we will hear Jesus speak at length about today’s feeding of the 5,000 story.  The feeding of the 5,000 is one of the few stories that appears in all four gospels, but the details of the story and the meaning ascribed to them is very different in John compared to Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke regard the feeding of the 5,000 as a miracle in response to the physical hunger of a crowd who gathers to listen to and receive healing from Jesus.  In John, the feeding of the 5,000 is a sign, and signs in the gospel of John point people to the presence of God.  From the gospel of John’s perspective, Jesus feeds the crowd not because they are physically hungry but because they are spiritually hungry to see and know and love God.  Jesus feeds the crowd not barley loaves and dried fish but, instead, himself.  Jesus does not wait until the night before his death to pour out his body and blood as he does in Matthew, Mark, and Luke through the last supper but instead gives of himself throughout his life, including in the feeding of the 5,000.  (Some scholars call this story John’s Last Supper.)

When Jesus feeds the crowd barley loaves and dried fish, when he himself distributes the food to the masses, God shows up to the crowd.  Contrary to Matthew, Mark, and Luke where God is most clearly revealed in the cross, in John, God is most clearly revealed in signs throughout Jesus’ life.  The feeding of the 5,000, sight given to the man born blind, water turned to wine, the healing of a boy, the raising of Lazarus from the dead point to God’s presence in Jesus.  It is in living life, doing ministry, loving people that God is revealed in Jesus.  Yes, of course, at the end of John’s gospel, Jesus dies, but while on the cross, he says: It is finished.  The incarnation of God is finished.  God shows up in the life of Jesus, not the death of Jesus in the gospel of John.  And so, the signs in John’s gospel take on greater importance than similar kinds of stories of healing and feeding in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  For the feeding of the 5,000 is not just a nice story about a gracious God who tends to the physical needs of those living in poverty or even about a community who share with each other.  The feeding of the 5,000 is about a God who shows up in the daily lives of people who feel forgotten and abandoned.  The feeding of the 5,000 is about a God who gives of God’s own self for the sake of ordinary people.  The feeding of the 5,000 is about a God who is here, now, present not in some distant, heavenly, or spiritual realm but really, fully present right where we are.     

Does this make sense?  The difference between John’s telling of the story and Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s telling? 

When I was in seminary and taking a class on the gospels, we discovered with stark clarity the differences between each of them—to the point that our exams included verses whose origin we had to identify just by looking at the content of the verse.  After receiving clarity between these different visions of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection presented in the four gospels, I remember one of my classmates raising their hand and asking our professor, David Rhodes, “Do you mean to say that we will preach different theology based on whether we are preaching from Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John?  Will we preach Matthew’s theology on a passage from Matthew, Mark’s theology on a passage from Mark, and so on?   How do we do that?  How do we make sense of multiple theologies and remain Lutheran?”  And Dr. Rhodes replied: “I don’t teach that class.” 

As Lutherans, we believe the Bible is the inspired and authoritative word of God, so what do we do with the multiple visions of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection offered to us in the four gospels?  The differences are not simply a matter of detail but instead wholly different conceptions of what it means to follow Jesus, believe in God, and be led by the Spirit. 

What helps me is to realize that the diversity of visions has always been present within Christianity.  Multiple meanings of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection lie at the very heart of our religion, in our scripture.  Those inspired by God to write Jesus stories passed down orally were inspired to tell different stories with different meanings about the One we call Son of God and Savior.  These multiple meanings have always been present within Christian community.  We need not agree in order to follow Jesus, and in fact, multiple meanings enrich and widen our faith.

Jesus offers himself as food and drink to the crowd.  God shows up in real time among people sick and hungry and tired to offer life, life abundant.  In Holy Communion, in the word proclaimed, in the embrace of community, God shows up among us, today, here, now.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

The GLOW Show: How Can I Keep From Singing with Joe

Over summer 2021 on The GLOW Show, we hear about the favorite hymns and songs of members of the Grace community. Hymnody and praise music are two ways we articulate our faith and have our faith formed. If you would like to share about your favorite hymn or praise song, please be in touch with Pastor Sarah. Today, we hear from long-time member of Grace and vocalist in the praise band Joe Dani. Enjoy!

The GLOW Show: How Can I Keep From Singing with Chad

Over summer 2021 on The GLOW Show, we hear about the favorite hymns and songs of members of the Grace community. Hymnody and praise music are two ways we articulate our faith and have our faith formed. If you would like to share about your favorite hymn or praise song, please be in touch with Pastor Sarah. Today, we hear from our praise band leader and A/V guru Chad Hernandez-Cole. Enjoy!

Sermon for Sunday, July 11

Day of the Church Year: 7th Sunday after Pentecost

Scripture Passages: Amos 7:7-15, Mark 6:14-29

I think the average Christian is pretty familiar with the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the narratives of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  We are also aware of the basic stories of Genesis and Exodus: God’s creation of heaven and earth, Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, Sarah and Abraham, Jacob, Leah, and Rachel, and then Moses, the burning bush, the plagues, let my people go, the Red Sea crossing, and the Ten Commandments.  We each likely have a favorite verse, psalm, or story from years of coming to worship, reading the Bible at home, attending Bible study, or going to camp, confirmation, or prayer retreat.  Beyond that, except for those of us who have done concentrated Bible study or Bible reading, the Bible is somewhat shrouded in mystery.  Today’s Old Testament story is from one of those short books at the end of the Old Testament, one of those books we can’t find unless we turn first to the Table of Contents in our Bibles.  Amos is between Joel and Obadiah, near the beginning of the minor prophet section of the Old Testament.  The minor prophets are minor not because they lack importance but because their writing is short—compared to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel whose writing is much longer. 

Amos writes and prophecies in the 700s before the common era, before the Babylonian exile, during a time of relative peace and security in Judah and Israel.  Amos writes after the time of the united kingdom of Israel, after King Saul, King David, and King Solomon, writes after Israel is divided into two kingdoms: the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.  Amos writes from Israel, the northern kingdom, where Jeroboam reigns as king.  For the record, in today’s prophetic passage, Amos declares that he is no prophet but instead an ordinary person, a shepherd, a gardener, but nonetheless a person chosen by God at this particular time to share a message with the nations and more specifically the leaders of Israel. 

Notice the heading at the beginning of Amos chapter 1: Judgment on Israel’s Neighbors, neighbors like Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, the Ammonites, and Moab.  And then, notice the next heading: Judgment on Judah and then, Judgment on Israel.  Amos writes short speeches of punishment to the neighbors of Israel and Judah.  For these neighbors betray kinship and fail to show grace and bring violence onto enemy nations.  Per Amos’ prophecy, God judges Judah because they reject the law of God.  But God’s judgment of Israel, God’s declaration against Amos’ own people and especially the leaders of Israel, is most severe and continues throughout the rest of the book of Amos.  The leaders of Israel “sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals,” meaning they thoughtlessly exploit others in order to obtain silver and footwear.  They “oppress the poor” and “crush the needy.”  The nation of Israel had created systems of injustice, widening the gap between those who are wealthy and those who are poor.  By the time we get to Amos chapter 7, today’s reading, the priest in Bethel named Amaziah warns King Jeroboam of this fiesty prophet Amos and tells Amos: Leave!  Go to Judah.  I don’t want to hear what you have to say!  For what Amos has to tell the leaders of Israel is very difficult.  The priest Amaziah assumes that the words Amos shares are his own, not God’s word, but Amos tells him differently: “The Lord said to me: Go, prophecy to my people Israel.”  And the prophecy is judgment because of injustice.  Indeed, Amos 5:24, the central message of his prophecy reads: But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

No nation is perfect as has been made crystal clear in the prophecy of Amos where he shares a running list of other nations’ sins, but the judgment on a nation that practices systemic, socio-economic injustice is most severe.  And both the priest Amaziah and the king Jeroboam don’t want to hear it.  Nearly to the end, Amos shares the hard truth of God, news of destruction that is a consequence of the systemic injustice they practice.  Only in the last chapter does God remember all that God has done for the people, the ways God had rescued them time and again, and God promises to do so again one day.  Then, the word of the Lord comes to Amos, a word of repair, rebuilding, restoration to the nation of Israel.    

In today’s gospel, we hear the story of John the Baptist’s murder by King Herod.  And the gospel writer Mark makes clear that Jesus’ ministry is so similar to John’s that a consequence akin to John’s murder will result.  Both John and Jesus come in the line of the Old Testament prophets.  They question systemic injustice, and Jesus teaches and preaches more about wealth and poverty in the gospels than any other topic including the kingdom of God.  Both John and Jesus build community with people hurt by injustice and blatantly identify not with those who hold power but with those most vulnerable.       

I hardly need describe the ways Amos, John the Baptist, and Jesus’ urgent concern about socio-economic injustice remains relevant to us in Phoenix, Arizona in July 2021.  Lack of affordable housing, sky-rocketing rent and home prices, and the ways our criminal justice system impacts a person’s socio-economic viability after conviction or imprisonment are just the beginning of a long list of current problems.  I am not an economist and do not claim to understand the full complexity of how socio-economic inequality has developed in our nation, but we all know that, in the United States, we have long privileged some over others, suppressed, enslaved, compelled into indentured servitude, and straight up killed people of particular groups.  As a nation, we have practiced legal discrimination in countless ways, ways that add up to systems that continue to favor white, well-educated people from economically privileged backgrounds.  Even as our leaders pass legislation that tries to repair our broken system, even as progress is made, even as we the people of the United States more fully engage in the democratic process and work to end discrimination and inequality in all its forms. 

Today, the stories of Amos, John, and Jesus compel us, simply, to hear the hard truth of socio-economic inequality, to not avoid it, and to hear also God’s urgent desire for justice.  God sends Amos to the leaders of Israel, to king Jeroboam, to the priest Amaziah because they have the capacity to change a broken system.  Amos and those who truly hear him and act on the word of the Lord are part of God’s response to the cries of those who hunger and thirst in that age.  And we, when we hear both the hard truth of injustice in our world and God’s urgent desire for justice for all people, we too become part of God’s response to the cries of the world.  People of God, let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Prior to the sharing of this sermon, I invited our community to put our faith in motion by signing up for the Lutheran Advocacy Ministry of Arizona newsletter (Lutheran Advocacy Ministry Arizona (lamaz.org)) and ELCA Advocacy Action Alerts (Advocacy - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (elca.org)) which help us communicate with our state and federal lawmakers about particular legislation and matters of public policy on issues we value as people of faith, in particular caring for those most vulnerable in our society. We get to be part of God’s response to the cries of the world.

2021 Heat Respite Update

The first full month of Heat Respite has come to an end. Please continue to pray for the people in need of relief. Thankfully, we are experiencing little miracles and lots of love at Grace. For the people who rely on the space we provide, we are continuing to actively have an impact. In this unique community program, volunteers are welcomed to show up on any day and get involved. Daily, Heat Respite participants are also willing to help organize and keep the peace. Please enjoy pictures from some of the activities during week 4. To share needed items or help out, please contact our Outreach Coordinators (Phyllis and Adrienne) at outreach@graceinthecity.com or (602)258-3787.

The GLOW Show: How Can I Keep From Singing with Ruth

Over summer 2021 on The GLOW Show, we hear about the favorite hymns and songs of members of the Grace community. Hymnody and praise music are two ways we articulate our faith and have our faith formed. If you would like to share about your favorite hymn or praise song, please be in touch with Pastor Sarah. Today, we hear from Ruth Erdmann who lifts up the hymn Children of the Heavenly Father, hymn #781 from Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Enjoy!

Sermon for Sunday, July 4

Day of the Church Year: 6th Sunday after Pentecost

Scripture Passage: Mark 6:1-13

Several years ago, I had a conversation with a young adult who had struggled mightily in her early life, someone who had legitimately caused trouble for her parents and teachers, someone who made choices that caused her suffering and difficulty.  At the time of our conversation, she had decided to finally be honest, to make different, healthier choices, to listen to those who were trying to help her.  And I remember her being frustrated because, she said, “People won’t let me be different.  Even when I am trying to do the right thing, people expect me to do what I’ve always done.  They don’t believe me when I say that I am trying.” 

When others have hurt us, the cynical, wounded part of each of us probably has a hard time allowing for the possibility of real growth and change in the person in question.  Just like everyone else, I hate to be disappointed when people tell me they are ready for change...but then continue in their old, hurtful, harmful patterns.  We want to wise and realistic and keen to others’ tricks.  Sometimes, it is not just others but we who hurt ourselves, who disappoint ourselves, who continue in old, hurtful, harmful patterns.  Yet how do we or others make change, grow and thrive, and follow the call of God if we expect only that we humans will take the same, broken path we “always” have?

If any of this sounds familiar, you will understand the people of Nazareth from today’s Jesus story.  As we well know, Jesus is born in Bethlehem, but he grows up in Nazareth, a village in the backwater of Galilee.  The people of Nazareth cannot understand how Jesus says what he says, does what he does, claim what he claims.  The people of Nazareth have known him from the beginning.  They know his mother Mary, his brothers James and Joses, Judas and Simon, and his sisters.  They know he is a carpenter by trade.  And while the gospel writer Mark does not say so explicitly, the Greek word that is translated as “take offense” implies that the people of Nazareth remember the scandal of Christmas 30 years earlier.  They remember—or maybe their parents told them the local gossip about how Mary was pregnant prior to marriage.  They remember the ridiculous story about the so-called angel Gabriel and the Holy Spirit.  They remember the shame brought to this family.  And now, this illegitimate child is teaching in the synagogue on the sabbath.  This carpenter is preaching about the kingdom of God, healing people, and raising people from the dead.  This hometown kid is countering the wisdom of the Pharisees and outrightly breaking the sabbath.  The good, faithful people of Nazareth, the ones who knew Jesus as a child, as a teenager, as a young man, take offense at him.  They are scandalized.  Though Jesus cures a few sick people among them, the gospel writer Mark tells us that Jesus does no deeds of power there, that he is amazed at the people’s unbelief.  (But, honestly, doesn’t the people’s unbelief make sense?)

Jesus goes on to say: “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.”  He calls the disciples and sends them out two by two to cure and to proclaim a message of repentance.  Jesus warns them that some of the folks they’ll meet on their journeys will not accept them—just as Jesus himself is not accepted in Nazareth.  And there are some good reasons others might take offense at them.  Jewish tax collectors worked for the Roman empire, exploited the poverty of their countrymen, and skimmed profits from the people’s taxes.  Fishermen, though more honorable in their profession, stank to high heaven of fish.  Despite the offense the disciples know they will cause, they go two by two anyway because Jesus calls them, and Jesus sends them. 

This Jesus story is easier than the stories of our lives.  For we can trust that Jesus is legit.  Despite his scandalous conception and birth, his law-breaking, his counter-cultural teaching, Jesus is finally revealed to be Son of God and full of honor.  Even the motley crew of disciples can be trusted because Jesus trusts them.  Even though they are constantly getting it wrong, at least they are trying to follow Jesus, trying to heal, trying to proclaim the message of repentance.  Two thousand years later, we might scoff at the people of Nazareth, shake our heads, and wonder how they could possibly question the words, deeds, and claims of Jesus Christ and his disciples.

But the stories of our lives make judgment and cynicism hard to avoid.  For probably all of our lives are populated by broken promises, lies, and hurts too big to forgive and forget.  Not only perpetrated by others but perpetrated by ourselves.  I know this is a hard sermon, and I’m not usually so dour.  But there is good news coming. 

No matter what we’ve done to ourselves or others, no matter what has been done to us, no matter the stories of our past, we are called by God, and we are sent by God into ministry.  I am not saying: stop being wise.  I am not saying: stop practicing good boundaries.  I am not saying: forget the past; no need to learn from it.  Please, please be wise, set and hold good boundaries, and learn from the past.  But no matter our past, no matter what we’ve done, no matter what’s been done to us, God calls us, and God sends us.  Every one of us.  God does not give up on us.  God does not give up on anyone.  Even when we cannot rally any more hope or any more chances for the people who have hurt us, God does.  Even when we despair of our own choices, our sordid pasts, God does not.  God calls each of us and sends us into ministry.  God gives us purpose, work to do, people to serve, regardless.  If today you are wondering if you are worthy to serve God and God’s people, the answer is yes.  If today you are wondering if there is any hope for a person you love but can no longer help, the answer is yes.  For the endless hope we know in God, we can say: Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Quarterly Pizza & Ministry Night 7/20 @ 6 pm

Join us for Quarterly Pizza & Ministry Night on Tuesday, July 20 at 6:00 pm for pizza and at 6:30 pm for the meeting in the North Room—or Hope Hall if more space is necessary. We will be discussing the organ electrical relay system for those who have questions about the issue upon which we will be voting during our congregational meeting the next Sunday, July 25. We will also discuss the continuing re-opening and re-formatting of our various programs, hear updates on collaborative ministries, and discuss any questions YOU bring. Anyone interested in the ministry of Grace is most welcome!

The GLOW Show: How Can I Keep From Singing with Fran

Over summer 2021 on The GLOW Show, we hear about the favorite hymns and songs of members of the Grace community. Hymnody and praise music are two ways we articulate our faith and have our faith formed. If you would like to share about your favorite hymn or praise song, please be in touch with Pastor Sarah. Today, we hear from Fran Fry who lifts up the hymn Thine The Amen, hymn #826 in the Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnal.