Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, May 26, 2019
Romans 5:1-11

Faith, peace, grace, love, hope…Paul offers so many positive words of encouragement for us as Christians in this passage from Romans. I love the book of Romans – it is my favorite book! I have to be careful not to “geek out” and get way over your heads with interesting commentary notes and linguistic details when I preach on this book. This book was monumental for Martin Luther, and it is important to many of us as Christians as it includes some of the most foundational passages for our beliefs. Yet…there are also words that challenge us in this passage from Romans today: suffering, boasting, endurance, death, wrath, enemies of God. These difficult words, too, are contained in Paul’s letter to the Romans. These, too, are a part of our experience of faith.
More than ever, I am aware of our tendency as American Christians to trivialize beautiful words like faith, hope, peace, and love and dismiss more difficult words like death, suffering, and endurance. We like easy solutions and quick fixes. We like happy endings and feeling good. We strive for success and perfection, and we don’t like being reminded that those things are impossible to attain. Even as Christians – we don’t want to hear that we can’t have our cake and eat it, too. Yet Paul gives us these powerful words, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners, Christ died for us.” Let’s pause, for a minute, to reflect on that power of that statement…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That’s how God loves us.
The thing is, as much as we like happy endings and quick fixes, a lot of us are walking around trying to numb ourselves from the pain of reality, the reality that we and the world are not perfect. We can easily come up with all the ways we do not deserve to be loved by God…we are destroying the planet, we have people being killed across the world and across the street, opioid and other addictions are on the rise, our church’s finances are a mess and Christian churches all over our country are experiencing dramatic decline in membership and attendance. Some would say we are crazy to have hope. We are crazy to talk about faith. And, how can God possibly love us since we are a part (usually) of causing all of these problems in the first place? How can God love a world as messed up as it is?
Here’s where Paul’s words take root in the lives of Christians who are trying to live out a genuine faith in the midst of the world going to hell in a handbasket…”We know that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” We as Christians sometimes buy in too easily to the American lie that an abundant and fulfilling grace-filled God-given life is free of pain, suffering, and death. Somehow, the world tries to convince us that our lives ought to be perfect as Christians, otherwise something must be wrong with our God and with our faith. Yet, at the center of our faith is a Christ who is willing to suffer and die for us while we were still sinners. Throughout scripture, we have stories of people, including Paul, who endured suffering in spite of great faith, and often because of their faith. We are given the difficult task of having faith, hoping, working for peace, and accepting God’s grace even when we experience suffering, and have to endure, have to admit we are weak, have to acknowledge we are still sinners.
Let me give you an example. Recently, I was talking with someone who was talking to me about being a parent of an adult child who struggles with serious anxiety and depression. “At first,” he said, “I thought, it’s just a phase adjusting to the stress and social pressures of college. And then I thought, we’ll get her on the right medications and connected to a good psychologist, and she’ll get over it. That was eight years ago, and some days are still really, really tough. I used to not want to talk about it, but now I do, because I find other people are going through the same kind of thing, and we can share what we’re going through, and I can share how God is helping me deal with it.” Suffering. Endurance. Character. Hope. We can’t explain why God allows mental illness to exist, or diabetes, or cancer, or any number of chronic illnesses we and our loved ones are dealing with. But we can say with great hope and faith that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. While we were addicted, divorced, mentally ill, verbally or physically abusive, overconsumers,– you put your label, your deepest confession of your worst to God and your quiet, personal suffering there, and know that in that mess, God loved you right there. Nothing you did to deserve it, or earn it. Maybe you are enduring, just like that father is enduring. It is God’s peace, God’s love, God’s grace that allows us to endure and to have hope. Let’s not kid ourselves, God is our only hope, if we’re truly honest about ourselves and about the state of this world.
And so, in the midst of our anxieties about the future of our church, and perhaps our personal anxieties about our silent sufferings, flaws, and hang-ups, God gives us hope. We put these God sightings you share in the newsletter, and I know some of you read them, but some of you don’t, and if you do, there are some really exceptional ways God gives us hope and shows, still today, how much God loves us when it is simply not logical to do so. I just looked back at the last few months and was blown away by God at work in the midst of our mess. Let me share some of these with you: people helping their neighbors dig out after a blizzard. A grandson getting his Eagle Scout. Beautiful spring blooming after a long winter. Farmers helping other farmers through the flood. Several of you actually boasted of yourselves in a really good way – helping a customer find a significant sum of lost money, helping someone get their car started. Todd Davis’s brother had very successful liver transplant surgery! Vinne Chonis, Mary Kay’s friend who is just 18 miraculously came out of a life-threatening coma. Ethan Newell, who we were praying for awhile miraculously started walking after a spinal cord injury. Steve Kraft’s friend Teresa lost her house to the floods but has gotten through just fine by the grace of God, Crossroads prison ministry for all of you able to experience that May 5 you know what an amazing sign of hope and grace that was. And someone wrote just last week that my brother – who I haven’t heard from in four years – called me this week and started the conversation with “I’m sorry.” These aren’t stories of quick fixes and artificial happy endings. These are stories of suffering, endurance, character, and hope. These are stories that know the mess that we’re in and yet these are our stories of God’s love poured out for us, not with our deserving, but because of God’s grace.
We have hope in a God who does not disappoint us, “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” There will be trials and temptations. Certainly our church’s situation alone will continue to require suffering, endurance, character, and hope. We place our hope ultimately not in a quick fix or a temporary building or people that will pass away, but we place our hope in Christ who promises to endure with us, put up with us, here and now and evermore. Thanks be to God. Amen!

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Matthew 28:11-20

“All for one and one for all!” Many of you are familiar with the motto of the Three Musketeers from Alexander Dumas’ novel and subsequent movie adaptations. But this could also be a motto for Christians who have received Jesus’ Great Commission to “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” Jesus calls all of us, all of us who call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ as Christians, to be committed to the one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and make more disciples, baptizing and teaching them: all for one. And Jesus the Christ, given authority by God the Father, has died and risen from the grave for us all, for all nations: everyone you meet, far and near, as the Message version puts it. Jesus is One for all.
We began this journey through the book of Matthew with the birth of Jesus at the beginning of the year, and today, we see how it ends – Jesus is risen and greets his disciples with these encouraging words to continue doing God’s work until the end of the age. All for one and one for all! In fact, in our Lutheran understanding, we reverse the order, putting God’s action first. We could read the gospel of Matthew backwards, starting with the last verse: “I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age,” Jesus says. We start with the end, which is also the beginning – Christ’s incarnation in the birth of Jesus (Immanuel, God-with-us) and his resurrected presence both point to the truth that Jesus is always with us. This knowledge gives us the courage to have faith even when we have doubts, and to take risks sake of God’s mission in the world. Jesus promises to walk with us every day, helping us do the work he’s instructed us to do. The women and the disciples do not just find an empty tomb, they encounter the risen Jesus in the flesh following his resurrection, present with them! As Jesus’ modern-day disciples, we don’t just talk about an empty tomb, we share our experiences, our “God sightings,” of how Jesus is with us every day – always!
We start with the end – the reminder that Jesus is our One for us all, because all of us know at times we have striven to give our all for God (all for One) and failed. For example, when I meet with a new couple for premarital counseling, one of the things we talk about is the idea of “idealistic distortion” in a relationship. To put it more simply, all couples go through a “honeymoon,” period where they see each other with rose-colored glasses. They might say things like, “Every new thing I have learned about my partner has pleased me.” “My partner has all the qualities I’ve always wanted in a mate.” “My partner always gives me the love and affection I need.” Now, those of us who have been married awhile may laugh a little bit at some of these statements or look back fondly at our honeymoon period with our spouse. My goal in talking with couples about our tendency to be idealistic early on in a relationship is not to burst their romantic bubble of feelings about each other, but to teach them that marriage is hard work, and none of us are perfect – part of being in a relationship is loving someone in spite of their flaws and learning to forgive and build a deeper relationship.
By the end of the gospel of Matthew, the disciples are at the point with Jesus where the honeymoon is over. They are trying to figure out how they can follow the risen Christ and make disciples of all nations flawed as they are. They have sought to follow him faithfully and give God their “all,” but even still Matthew notes that some doubt, some struggle to “risk themselves totally.” Peter denied Jesus, Judas betrayed him, Thomas doubted. Our absolute commitment to God often falls short – this is part of the truth that we see in Christ’s crucifixion – we try to give our lives fully to God, but sometimes we fail. We get distracted, we have doubts, we don’t know what God’s will is, we make up excuses. We do not love God as fully as we ought. Matthew’s gospel points us to Jesus who is the only one who truly can confidently say, “All authority, on heaven and on earth, has been given to me.” And then Jesus says, “I am with you always.” We can trust in Jesus’ absolutes – that his unwavering commitment and love for us will never end, that his presence will never leave us even when we don’t give our all like we’ve intended, or make disciples of ALL nations like we had striven to do.
There’s a second piece to Jesus’ reassurance that he is with us always: his job description of a disciple, which is to follow his lead, putting Christ first. Basically, Jesus is telling us to do what he does, teach what he has taught us, just as he has been given authority from God the Father, and we strive to give God our all with the humility that we don’t always get it right. We refer to this passage as “The Great Commission,” and “command” is almost a synonym. It is true that in Matthew we also find “The Great Commandment:” “Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Sometimes we separate the Great Commission and the Great Commandment between evangelism and service – the Great Commission is about going and telling others the good news, bringing people to baptism, and the Great Commandment is about loving your neighbors as you love yourself generally by doing good things for them. But we also love God and our neighbors when we share good news that God loves them, too, that Jesus is with us always; and certainly in teaching others what Jesus has taught us, we include providing acts of healing and service as a part of the Great Commission.
The word “commission” is significant in another way. While “command” has a connotation of “do this, or else,” even if the command is about loving, those of us with authority issues may have some resistance to being told what to do. If you break down the word “commission,” it is simply a co-mission. We are in mission with God to heal a broken world, to proclaim good news to ALL nations in word and in deed. Jesus is in co-mission with us always, to the end of the age. Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection makes us one body in him, one for all and all for one. This is what makes this particular commission so great – Jesus doesn’t ask us to do anything that he hasn’t already done. Jesus promises to teach the disciples and to never leave them, “right up to the end of the age.” We are not just called to obedience, although obeying a law of love is the best command I could ask God to give us; we are called to be partners, co-workers with God in a common mission for the sake of the WHOLE WORLD, no exceptions.
In this partnership, this co-mission, the resurrected Jesus encourages his disciples to train everyone they meet, near and far, in this way of life – or in another version, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them. There are no exceptions to whom we are supposed to be in mission with and for – everyone you meet, Jesus says. So, you could think about or even write down everyone you meet in a day, and think about how God’s mission could include them: your next-door neighbor, your coffee buddies, co-workers, your doctor, friends or your kids’ friends and their parents, grocery store and gas station attendants…everyone you meet. As we strive to give Christ our all in following him, we pray for the humility to admit when we fall short of our “all for God,” and we come before God today and every day, thanking God that through his son Jesus, we have One who died and was raised for us all. Now, go make disciples, teaching them that good news. Amen.