Baptized we Live: “A Way of Hearing”

Sermon Series #2 June 18, 23

Pastor Deb - BRCC

Last week, we explored the question: How do we find God…CAN we find God? And the answer is NO. No matter how hard we try, our need to grasp…tame…hold onto God always leads to a form of idolatry. We find ourselves worshiping an “image” of what we think God is like the Israelites did with a golden calf; or a power or experience that we think we can claim like a spiritual high that we can obtain through submission or sacrifice; or a form of control over others, like the Romans who worshiped Caesar as their god. Today…there are lots of false gods of fear, greed, political or economic power. For you see, when Humans set out to “capture” God…We end up worshiping ourselves.

God cannot be FOUND. In holiness beyond human comprehension, God is hidden and beyond our understanding and control. But the GOOD news is that God…finds…us! God meets us at the Cross. In Jesus, we are given a way of SEEING that completely upends our human expectations. God Finds us in our brokenness and vulnerability…and shows us God’s self at the heart of HUMAN REALITY. In the vulnerability of a humble birth… see God made flesh. Upon a terrible cross of forsakenness and suffering, we see the heart of God. And in a resurrection of victory and the gift of an ETERNAL presence through a living and sustaining Holy Spirit, we see the dream of God for ALL humankind. And now, within the very STUFF of daily bread and hope, God continues to MEET us and OPEN God’s self to be seen.

Once our eyes can see, God can be seen in all things. In the waters of baptism and the bread and wine of a meal of remembrance…EYES see what the Heart of humankind was created to desire: A REAL PRESENCE AND RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LIVING GOD, REVEALED, KNOWN, AND FOREVER AVAILABLE IN THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST.

Today, we explore A WAY OF HEARING and understanding God. For we were given more than just eyes to see…we were given ears to hear and respond. Our senses are vitally important in our human walk on this earth. I can see leaves tremble and trees bend, and dark clouds cover the sky…but when I also hear the wind and rain…feel it upon my skin…I have a deeper understanding of the storm that is unfolding. I can run for cover…or batten down the hatches…or raise my face to the gentle falling rain to receive its nourishment.

So it is with God’s word. It is meant to be experienced. It is meant to change us and bring forth a response from us. It is meant to LIVE…not just exist. The word of God revealed in the Bible is not some DEAD language of the past, but a LIVING ADDRESS THROUGH STORY AND WITNESS meant to KEEP ON GIVING AND ELICITING A RESPONSE. That is why at the heart of our Lutheran liturgy and worship, is the reading and preaching of the WORD.

Now we live in a world where the Bible is often in dispute as a source of authority and a means of “capturing” and attaining God. In our current cultural experience, we define this dispute as a clash between conservative fundamentalism and liberal progressive theology. And as we watch day after day…this age-old clash of how we hear God’s Word and understand what it means for how we live together on this earth…ITS A VERY BIG THING! That’s why it is so important for us to understand that we CANNOT find God…but rather, open ourselves to God to be FOUND.

Let me try to give you a metaphor to help understand this phenomenon. Let’s say you are having a very special guest in your home and you want to make the finest meal possible to welcome them. One approach to making the best meal possible is to search for the PERFECT RECIPE. Hours might be spent looking at all the finest cookbooks by some of the world’s most famous chefs, and gathering the most exotic ingredients. Time is spent following explicit directions to beat the eggs just right; check the temperature of the fluids and prepare every step of that recipe to perfection. So much energy is put into getting that recipe just right that the focus is on the outcome of the food and presentation…and the guest is almost an afterthought. Will it be good enough? What will the guest think of me and my efforts?

Another approach is to consider the guest rather than the food or the outcome. What would give them pleasure and create a space for us to enjoy this time together? What will meet their bodily needs for health and wellbeing? What would make the time together joyful and nourishing…an experience where the guest felt valued and loved? A quick trip to a farmer’s market to get the freshest vegetables; a bottle of good wine; freshly baked bread; ripe and delicious fruit…a few flowers to say welcome. Throw it together and be ready…the guest is coming…let’s have a party and enjoy one another!

Let’s apply that metaphor to a way of HEARING God’s Word in the Bible. One approach is to HEAR the Word as a DEMAND. These are the rules. This is HOW one pleases God and gains salvation. The Bible is dictated to us by God and we should NEVER question it…it is the inerrant WORD…told ONCE, and never to be understood any other way that just as it is read. We are to make propositions of TRUTH that we teach our children and hold them to it, or they will be lost. For in this option, only those who live within the recipe of this way of living a devout religious life are worthy of God’s merit. We must argue…defend… and lead others to this truth or we are not good Christians.

Another approach is to TRUST the Bible as the LIVING WORD. Its truth comes alive and is made new and available through the HEARING “event” encountered through stories, parables, and witness. Truth breaks into our lives, into our shared history and shared experiences, often shattering old ways and barriers and creating NEW life, NEW values, NEW Commitment. WHY? Because The LIVING Word is an encounter with the LIVING God who walks beside us. Whose Holy Spirit CALLS, GATHERS, ENLIGHTENS, and SENDS us forth to love the world just as it is…not as WE think it should be. That is why within our Lutheran understanding of worship, we come to be changed and made new. We acknowledge that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves, but that as we come and HEAR the Word of Forgiveness and Grace spoken; and God’s Holy Scriptures read and proclaimed; and receive the nourishing presence of Christ within the sacraments….ALL ARE WELCOME…no one is denied access or forgiveness; grace and peace.

Fifty three years ago this June, Dale Birkeland asked me to marry him. It was a big step for him as I was a bit younger…a college student who might have other dreams than becoming his wife…but our story had been unfolding…the possibilities of loving one another enough to marry were there. I realized that an affirmative response to his declaration of LOVE would change the rest of my life….and so did he. That encounter with his invitation and my response IS just like a LIVING Word. Our STORY that could have gone one way…or another. I could have laid out conditions…told him I wanted a specific life style, a certain future…I could have said…Sorry, not interested. But I didn’t. Rather, I said yes. And we married. And neither one of us would change the journey we have been on together, the good and the not so good, as it has been evolving and changing as we age.

This is why we teach that the Word of God is a LIVING ADDRESS…a living invitation…AN ACT AND ENCOUNTER with a pursuing LOVE. It is a HEARING of God’s calling upon our hearts that asks for RADICAL RESPONSE…CHANGE… and NEWNESS OF LIFE.

So if we say that the WORD comes to us as the living address of God, then how should we view the Bible? It it a DEAD document of past history that becomes a plumb line to hold us in place, or a living encounter that keeps us focused on the Christ?

At Bethlehem, Jesus the Christ was placed and held in a simple manger, a feedbox for animals. Martin Luther has taught us to see and hear the Bible as a manger of scripture that HOLDS the Christ…and opens our eyes to see…and our ears to HEAR God’s call and God’s dream, and God’s plan for us. When the Holy Spirit opens our ears to HEAR, and we believe the Bible is the LIVING WORD, illusions are shattered, old ways that create barriers to God’s grace are rejected, New life is born; enemies are reconciled and a family is created where ALL are welcome and empowered to be disciples and heed the call of Jesus….FOLLOW ME! Amen.