desk

Faith Lutheran Church

From the Pastor's Desk

Appointed texts used in the September 6, 2009 sermon: Isiah 35:4-7a, Psalm 146, Mark 7:24-37
Hear again the first words of today's first reading and some of the last words of today's last reading also known as the Gospel reading. Isiah 35 opens with words addressed to those "with fearful hearst." And the Gospel reading, four verses from its conclusion sites Jesus' healing miracle. Jesus says, "Ephphatha" that is 'Be opened' and the deaf/speech impaired man could both hear and speak.
"To those with fearful hearts Jesus says, 'Be open' and works the dual miracles of hearing and speaking." How's that for a timely sermon...? Good Heavens! Just think about the timing of that message! Fearful hearts? Fearful hearts or pounding hearts. Just two and a half weeks ago the biennial church wide assembly of the ELCA met in Minneapolis to do the work of the national church. At the church wide assembly two thirds of the delegates voted to approve a social statement spelling out the ELCA's views on many, many issues of human sexuality. There, at that same meeting in Minneapolis, the delegates faced a weighty resolution regarding the ELCA members in lifelong, monogamous, same gender relationships. The delegates also faced two more weighty resolutions regarding the rostering of ELCA clergypersons in similar same gender relationships with similar commitments.
Two years ago we knew the ELCA would deal with those resolutions this year in Minneapolis...those resolutions regarding the church supporting gay and lesbian persons in such relationships and those resolutions regarding the rostering of gay and lesbian clergy in lifelong, monogamous, same gender relationships.
Going into Minneapolis many of us worried, "us" being people with opinions on both sides of the conversation. Going in those of us with fearful hearts worried about the unity of the ELCA because feelings, convictions, consciences on both sides were so firm.
Threats had been made in terms of leaving ELCA if the resolutions were passed OR is they were rejected. I have heard such sentiments expressed in the Vestry on Sunday mornings over coffee and goodies. "I won't be a member of a chuch that...(you fill in the blanks!) One of Faith's members has a friend who has already said she is quitting her home congregation in the protest over the passage of those resolutions in Minneapolis. That Faith parishioner looked at me and asked "Everythings going to all right, isn't it Pastor!" I answered from a heart more uncertain than fearful and said, "It's too early to tell."
Fearful hearts...some worry the church is going to be different and unfamiliar and unwelcoming. Fearful hearts...some worry the church is going to be the same and familiar and...unwelcoming.
Fearful hearts, perplexed hearts. 65 Roberts Street which until two weeks ago housed the Djerf Christian Pre-school, and which prior to the pre-school housed Trinity ?Lutheran Church is now unoccupied except for the church secretary and the pastor...one big building housing two little offices. Fearful hearts? Perplexed hearts? "What will we do with the building?" "What should we do with the building?" "Sell it?" "Keep it?" "New ministry there?" "What does our vision for Faith's future ministry say again?" "All my childhood memories and generations of family memories are still associated with the church at 65 Roberts Street. Will those memories be lost?" "Will that history, my history, my family's history be forgotten?" "It's an all but empty building. Can we afford to keep and maintain an almost vacant building that big?" We have to decide. The decision while not looming is forced upon us. "Will we make a right decision?" "Will we do what's best for Faith for the foreseeable future?" "Will we make the decision too quickly, or just as bad, too slowly?" "WIll we live to regret our decision? There's no going back!" Fearful hearts? Perplexed hearts?
We are left hanging...But only for a short while! The prophet Isaiah speaks antidotal words to our pounding hearts, our perplexerd hearts, our fearful hearts. Isaiah says, "Be strong, do not fear! hear if your Gpd" Now..the words, "Here is your God" from the mouth of a prophet sometimes meant, "Duck and cover. God is coming, and God is angry." But not here in Isaiah 35. Isaiah says, "Be strong, do not fear! (Because) God is coming to save you." Isaiah says, "God brings comfort for our fearful hearts." Isaiah says, "God applies strength and widsom informed by God's vision of the future. God applies God's strength and widsom where we have relied on our own devices...with very mixed results." Isaiah said what all God's prophets said to a people once confident, now perplexed...to a people once strong, now shaken, to a people once fiercely independent...to a fault. Isaiah said, "Our trust, our confidence, our accomplishments, our successes, our present and our future are best held up to the attention of and are best placed in the hands of the God Who brings all things into being, Who our psalm, Psalm 146 says, 'Who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them; who keeps faith for ever; ' Who values our lives as precious, Who acts to see God's will gets done on earth, just as God's will gets done in heaven."
As Isaiah speaks these words of comfort and encouragement to the likes of the entire corporate heart of the ELCA, a heart in something akin to cardiac fibrillation...its fibers working against each other...a heart beating out of synch within the one body over issues of same gender relationships and the ordination and rostering of gay and lesbian persons in similar pledged, monogamous relationships, Jesus says, "Ephphatha"..."Be open!"
As Isiah speaks those words of comfort and encouragement to the likes of the membership of Faith Lutheran Church on its way toward having to deal with the Faith Center as it impacts the future ministry of this congregation, Jesus says, "Ephphatha. Be open!" And with those words of Jesus to the ELCA and Faith Lutheran Church comes Jesus' power for us to hear and speak. And along with Jesus' power which gives us ears to hear and voices to speak and to listen to one another. And they urge us in Jesus' name for God's sake to be open both to saying what is on our hearts in intentionallly constructive and respectful ways, as well as being open to hearing what is on the heart of our sister or brother in Christ regardless of which side of these two or any other issues our sister or our brother might be on.
As Isaiah says to our fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear. Here is your God. He will come and save you." Jesus speaks that Aramaic word, "Ephphatha. Be open." and the Spirit prays that in the midst of our tachycardia our ears and our eyes and our hearts and our minds and our souls might, as Jesus' Church nationally and locally, be open to listening to what God has to say to us in the coming weeks and month. That same Spirit, She is praying constantly that we be moved to speak with empowered voices, emancipated voices, to be open to speak into the ear of God what our fears are, what our hopes are, what visions of the Church nationally and locally that Hold Spirit has blessed and burdened us with. Be open and assured as we listen and as we speak that our God will attend to God's Church, that our God will bless what we do well, and fix that which we have done poorly.

Pastor Rick Schulhaus

September 2009