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Submit Your Own! Is 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 Against Welfare? By David von Schlichten Sermon on 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 At St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA On Sunday, November 14, 2010, 25th Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, The Reverend Dr. David von Schlichten
Is 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 Against Welfare? (word count: 921)
Do you know anyone on welfare? Have you ever been on welfare? Many argue that welfare is beneficial because it provides financial support for people who cannot work, but others argue that welfare encourages laziness and puts a financial burden upon tax-payers. Our reading from 2 Thessalonians 3 proclaims that people who don’t work shouldn’t eat. That sounds simple enough. “If you do not earn your keep by working, then you should not be allowed to eat. Period.” It would be easy to conclude that this passage is against the welfare system. Giving money to those not working, you could argue, goes against 2 Thessalonians 3, which asserts that we are not to provide such support for people not working. You’re not working? Then you shouldn’t receive food, and you shouldn’t receive money to buy food. No hand-outs. No money for nothing. No free lunch. You wanna eat? You gotta work. End of story. Not so fast. You know as well as I do that both the Bible and everyday life are not that simple. Yes, 2 Thessalonians 3 says that people who don’t work shouldn’t eat, but the Bible also calls upon us Christians, the communion of saints, to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the imprisoned and those in the hospital. Jesus does not say, “Feed the hungry who are not lazy,” or, “Feed the hungry who deserve your help.” He simply says, “Feed the hungry.” Over and over, throughout the Bible, God exhorts us, the baptized communion of saints, to help the widow and orphan, to tend to the sick, to welcome the stranger, to take care of the poor. Actually, several scholars believe that 2 Thessalonians 3 is scolding those who aren’t working because they think that Christ was returning any minute. In other words, there were people in the time of 2 Thessalonians 3 who were sitting around idle, waiting for Christ to come back. So when 2 Thessalonians 3 proclaims, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat,” it’s basically saying, “Stop waiting for Christ to return and get busy living as Christians.” Given this interpretation and given the Bible’s loud concern for the poor, it is incorrect to say that this passage from 2 Thessalonians 3 is anti-welfare. “But Pastor, one of the problems with welfare is that people cheat the system.” True, there are people who cheat the system, just as there are people who exceed the speed limit. Whenever you have a system, you always have people who cheat it. That fact, however, does not mean that we should not have any welfare system whatsoever. After all, there are people in genuine need, and the Bible commands us to care for people in need. Besides, the whole issue of people cheating the system is complex. For instance, let’s imagine someone on welfare. This is no one in particular; I am making up a person based on my experience. So, this person is on welfare. She is making more on welfare than she would if she had a job. She watches TV all day. She’s lazy, and most of us are quick to look down on her. “Lazy bum. Why doesn’t she get a job? That’s what’s wrong with welfare. It rewards laziness.” Then we find out why she’s lazy. You see, what a lot of us don’t understand about laziness is that it is always a symptom of a deeper problem. In this case, we find out that this woman was raped by her alcoholic father repeatedly as a child. In addition, she has an undiagnosed learning disability; as a result, she never learned how to read. She thinks she is too stupid to go to school or hold down a job. She is so afraid of failure and the world that she chooses to hide out in her house and watch TV all day. She says she’s happy, because she is too ashamed to admit the truth. She feels worthless and disgusting because of the abuse she endured, and she is embarrassed about her inability to read. So she hides, and the world shakes its head and labels her a no-good, lazy bum who cheats the system. Is that woman taking advantage of the system? Yes. Is she lazy? Yes. Is she a person in dire need of help? Yes. Does Jesus call upon us to do what we can to help her? You bet. Look, I don’t have all the answers. My point is simply this. It is easy to look down on people who take advantage of welfare and label them as worthless or lazy, but the situation is always more complicated. I’ve spent a lot of time with the poor. Those people, like the rest of us, are a mix of good and bad. Simply to say “We shouldn’t have welfare,” or “Those who don’t work shouldn’t eat,” or “People on welfare are cheating the system” is unchristian and simplistic. It is easy to be dismissive of others, but Christ calls us Christians to un-other one another. Christ exhorts us to value the well-being of every person. After all, Christ values each of us. We humans have tried to cheat God in that all of us have sinned against God over and over. None of us deserves eternal life, yet Christ has not given up on us. Christ has died and risen. Christ has said, “Even though you don’t deserve it, you will live in my mansion with me forever.” Sermon for All Saints' Sunday By David von Schlichten ALSO SCROLL DOWN TO READ RICK BRAND'S SERMON. Sermon on All Saints’ Sunday At St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA On Sunday, November 7, 2010, All Saints’ Sunday, Year C, The Reverend Dr. David von Schlichten
Baptism is Canonization (word count: 589)
Do you know the date of your baptism? Mine is July 27, 1969. I was only a month old, so I don’t remember my baptism. However, even though I was too young to understand what was going on, my baptism was still a date of vast importance. After all, it was on that date that, through God’s mercy, I received, as the Book of Concord teaches us, “[ . . . ] forgiveness of sins, [redemption] from death and the devil, and [ ] eternal salvation [ . . . ]” ( reprinted in ELW, 1165). The same goes for you, for all of us in the Church. Our baptism is crucial, because, on our baptism, God rescues us by joining us to Christ’s death and resurrection. On our baptism, we become holy, and the Bible’s word for a holy person is “saint.” Through baptism, we become saints. Many of us tend to think that the term saint should be reserved for exceptionally virtuous people, but, in the Bible, the term saint refers to all the baptized. Your baptism is your canonization. In other words, saint-status is not something you earn by being a good person. Saint-status is an identity God gives you through baptism into Christ. Saint-status is not something you try to get; it is something you already have that you respond to. So then, yes, we, the baptized, are all saints, all part of the communion of saints. Being part of the communion of saints is a glorious miracle for which to praise God daily. God loves and cares for all 6.8 billion people and indeed for every living creature, but God offers special care for us, the baptized, the communion of saints. Think about it. Because you are part of the baptized, the communion of saints, you have the guarantee of forgiveness. No matter what you do wrong and no matter how many times, when you ask God for forgiveness and mean it, God forgives you, because of Christ. Because you are part of the baptized, the communion of saints, you receive holy communion, which the Book of Concord teaches us is the true body and blood of Christ, the real presence. As I said to the first communion students last week, the body and blood of Christ strengthen our souls. One reason God feeds you the body and blood is to strengthen your soul. Because you are part of the baptized, the communion of saints, you are a member of this sacred family, the Church, and the Holy Spirit uses us to support each other. Best of all, because you are part of the baptized, the communion of saints, you have eternal life. There is a house in heaven with your name on the mailbox, and Christ has already paid the mortgage. Our loved ones who have died are part of that communion of saints and are waiting for us to arrive in heaven, where no one ever has to say good-bye again. Think of it. All of those blessings and more you and I have because we are the baptized, we are part of the communion of saints, thanks be to Christ. No matter how bad the economy, no matter how painful our relationships, no matter how fierce our addictions, no matter how self-destructive our habits, no matter who is in office – all of those issues are serious, but none of them changes the fact that you and I, because of our baptism into Christ, are part of the communion of saints forever. Whose Wife? By rick brand Apparently I am off on a different track than most.
Text: Luke 20:27-38 “Whose Wife? November 7, 2010 Brookston Presbyterian Church Young Memorial Presbyterian Church Supply What do you make of that debate between Jesus and the Sadducees? Almost sounds as stupid as some of the press conferences I have heard on television. What it reminds me of is a bunch of kindergarten children sitting around a table trying to think up a really impossible situation. What if you had 46 million bees swarming round you heard, and you were up to your chest in quick sand, and your hands were tied behind your back and you cell phone battery was dead, and you were in the middle of a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific ocean, how would you get out? You see the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. You lived on in your family and in the blood of your heirs. There was no life after death in their view. You really did only go round once. So they sit around and try to make up the most impossible situation to make the idea of the resurrection look stupid. What if there were seven brothers, and the first one died without a son, and so according to the law, the second brother was supposed to take the wife of the first brother and have a child with her to be the son of the first brother. That law is not part of our family value debate in our discussion about Biblical marriage, but it is part of the Bible. But the second does what he is supposed to do, he marries her, but he dies without producing a child. The third brother takes and fails to produce a son. And so on and so on. It is not a pretty story. No sons. And the question the Sadducees ask is which brother gets stuck with this jink of a woman in the resurrection? Jesus does not dispute the description of the obligation of the brothers on earth. They do what they should have done. But Jesus simply says that the Sadducees make very common and wrong assumption. That Heaven will be like earth. The assumption is that the way things are here on earth are going to be the way things are in Heaven. Jesus just points out that the Resurrection life will be different from the life we now know. The relationships and the commitments that are necessary for life, community, and joy on earth are not necessary or appropriate for the new reality in the Resurrection. Now most of us have a very hard time thinking about something that is outside of our experiences. And after all, all we have to use to think about something are the words we have which are words for the things around us. Somebody wondered how they ever described a tornado before there were trains. So most of the time we talk about heaven as more of what is on earth only different. Like the Jump Start cartoon that has the mother say to her child that heaven will be the place where all the doughnuts have no calories. Heaven is like earth only better. The same but different. G.K. Chesterton exactly a hundred years ago was debating with a Suffragette in England the comment made by a woman that it was obvious that there was no sex in the soul. Chesterton was convinced that there is sex was a part of our spiritual identity. They were just continuing a long debate. St. Augustine suggested Heaven will be wonderful because all the sick, injured, crippled, blind, deaf and mutilated bodies will be made perfect. In fact, St. Augustine says we will all have beautiful naked bodies. You and I will be better looking than Leonardo de Capria and Angeline Jolie, or Tom Cruise and Catherine Zeta Jones. The only trouble is nobody will care because Augustine was convinced that there was no sex in heaven. We finally get those perfect bodies and nobody cares. Same but different. Heaven is also for us the place where all of the sorrows of this world are supposed to be corrected and compensated for. In heaven, All God’s Children have shoes. In Heaven, Lazarus is given what he did not have one earth. Sorrows are comforted, evil is corrected and punished. Our images and our hopes of heaven get defined in terms of this world only different. Yet Jesus replays that the Resurrection brings us into a whole new condition of life. The resurrected life is not even close to the life on earth. No Marriage in heaven because there is no need for that kind of relationship. There we will all be the living children of a gracious God. There probably is no better example of what Jesus is talking about than the miracle of our own physical birth. It you had a chance to talk to a child in the womb, the dark, wet, cramped womb, and asked him what he thought the new world into which he was going to be birthed would be like, the child in the womb would talk about life dark, wet and cramped. If we were to mention to him about sun light, about walking around on his feet, about the fact that most of what he would learn would be coming through his eyes, he would not know what we were talking about. His whole nine months of life have been in the dark with his eyes shut. If we were to tell him about the wonderful taste of food through his mouth, about chewing and about nursing, it would be incredible to him because all his food has come to a hole in his stomach. If you were to mention a second parent, or maybe siblings, about all the excitement and activities that will be possible for him, he would not have a clue what we are talking about. He has been alone in the wet darkness all his life. And yet what a sudden and dramatic change happens in a moment. Yet all that has gone before has been necessary preparation for the life that was to come. The first nine months are critical for life, but they are so completely different that there is no way that thinking in the first nine months about what it will be like in the next ninety years is very helpful at all. Why do we think that the images we have for the next adventure in the love of God will be anything like this present joy and excitement? Heaven is the new creation, a life everlasting. The one who has planned all this for us is the same one who has given us His Son and shown us the promise of a resurrection. The same one who invites us to this table. To come and to share fellowship with him now so that we may be prepared to share fellowship with Him in the life that is yet to come. Come to the table of our Lord.
Reformation 2010 Sermon on Psalm 46:10 By David von Schlichten Sermon on Psalm 46:10 At St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA On Sunday, October 31, 2010, Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, The Reverend Dr. David von Schlichten
Freed to Be Still (word count: 890) Children: Halloween; haunted house; we held on; show pictures
Our psalm this morning is number 46, which inspired Martin Luther to write the hymn, “A Mighty Fortress.” Both the psalm and the hymn remind us that, no matter who or what threatens us, we still have salvation, thanks be to God. No matter what happens, Jesus Christ has still died for us. Christ is still risen. The tomb is empty. No matter what terrorists do; no matter how bad the economy is; no matter who hurts us in our personal lives. We may have plenty of troubles, but, through it all, we never lose the eternal life we receive from Jesus Christ. We will live forever in heaven, and the love of God will feed and hold us in this life. Through holy communion, baptism, preaching, the Bible, and the support of each other, God continues to be our mighty fortress, and no one, not even Satan, can take that Good News away from us. We do not deserve this unshakable grace-power from God. As it declares in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Back in sixteenth-century Germany, Martin Luther devoted his life, his sweat and safety, to the basic truth that, even though we do not deserve eternal life or any other gift from God, we receive those gifts anyway. God lays on the table before us eternal life, forgiveness, healing and care in this life, even though we are unworthy and always will be unworthy. Martin Luther risked his life to tell others that we have God’s mighty fortress-grace always and all ways, even though – and this is crucial – we do not deserve it. No wonder we call God’s grace “amazing.” With its assurance of God’s tremendous grace-power, Psalm 46 comforts and emboldens us. Psalm 46 puts her arm around you and says, “Come on, God is your mighty fortress, so be strong. Do not give up. Be of good courage, for God has called you, and your labor in the Lord shall not be in vain.” Psalm 46 inspires our confidence, just as its descendent-hymn “A Mighty Fortress” does. “The kingdom’s ours forever,” not because we deserve it, but because God, through Christ, has given it to us, the baptized. What a relief. Given that God, through Christ, gives us, the baptized, eternal life, forgiveness, and strength for this life as a gift, even though we are unworthy, and given that no one, not even Satan, can take that gift away from us, we are free, then, to focus on other things, like taking care of the planet and loving one another. Yes? If God has given us salvation and strength for free, and if we do not have to worry about losing those things because no one can take them from us, then we are freed to turn our attention to other matters. Christ commands us to love one another, so let’s turn our attention to that, knowing that God is with us to help us love one another. My favorite verse from Psalm 46 addresses that very issue of loving one another. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Since the verses right before Psalm 46:10 tells us that God destroys weapons, it makes sense to understand that “Be still, and know that I am God” means, “Quit your fighting, and know that I am God.” Quit your fighting, quit your bickering, your wars, rumors, backstabbing, vengeance, hatred, prejudice, abuse. Quit it all, and concentrate on God, the one who gives us amazing grace even though we are unworthy. Quit your fighting, be still, and know that God is God, the one who pours on us grace, mercy, we do not deserve. God has saved us and cares for us, and nobody can take that grace from us. Therefore, we are freed up to focus on other things. We are freed up to focus on loving one another. We are freed up to be still, to stop the stupid fighting, and know that God is God. Quitting fighting does not mean that we never disagree. We will and may disagree, but when we descend into nastiness, failing to extend to each other the grace that God has extended to us, we are losing sight of what God is truly about, which is showing undeserved grace, love. I think about Psalm 46:10 when I think about the issue of homosexuality in the Church. I understand that homosexuality is an important and controversial issue, so we should discuss it. Indeed, we are free to disagree, but when we become nasty and cruel toward each other over that issue, we are not being still, and knowing that God is God. “Be still, and know that I am God.” There is an important reform to make, the reform that is being committed to being still, stopping the fighting, and knowing that God is God. Let’s reform the Church by working extra hard at stopping the fighting and knowing that God is God. After all, we can. Christ has freed us from worrying about our salvation and God’s presence. We have both, even though we are unworthy, so we are now freed likewise to extend grace to each other, to be still, and know that God is God, that the kingdom is open to all of us forever. Sermon on Luke 18:9-14 for October 24, 2010 By David von Schlichten Sermon on Luke 18:9-14 At St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA On Sunday, October 24, 2010, Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, The Reverend Dr. David von Schlichten
“God, I Thank You that I Am Not Like that Politician Over There.” (word count: 886)
We just heard the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee brags about how he is morally superior to the tax collector. By contrast, the tax collector does no bragging or self-justifying. He just prays, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Jesus concludes by averring that the tax collector, and not the Pharisee, receives forgiveness. The message is clear, but we often are guilty of not following it. Sure, we know we are not supposed to regard ourselves as better than others, but we do it anyway. I do. We do it when we hear this parable. We hear about the Pharisee, and often our response is, “Thank God I’m not a proud jerk like that Pharisee.” You see? We are not to do this. We are not to fixate on our moral superiority over others. “But Pastor, we are morally superior to others. That’s just the way it is. Sure, God may love all of us equally, but let’s face it, some of us are just morally better people than others.” There’s a bit of truth here. Many of you folks are morally better than some others. This is a room full of good, decent, law-abiding, church-going people, and there are legions of people out there who do drugs, drink too much, abuse others, sleep around, and never attend church. You could indeed claim that you are morally superior to at least some other people, just as the Pharisee claimed moral superiority over the tax collector, and what’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with claiming moral superiority over another person? If it’s the truth, why not admit it? According to Luke 8:9-14, there are at least two things wrong with the Pharisee’s claim of moral superiority. One is that he thinks that his moral superiority means that he does not need to repent of his sins. Did you notice that? The tax collector begs God for mercy, for forgiveness, while the Pharisee does not. The Pharisee appears to think that he does not need to ask for forgiveness, that he is so great, so wonderful, that he does not need to beg for God’s mercy. Jesus then states that the Pharisee ends up not justified, not forgiven. So then, it is not wrong for me to pray, “Thank you, God, making me a good Christian.” What is wrong is thinking that we do not need forgiveness. We always need forgiveness. 1 John 1 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Likewise, next Sunday, on Reformation Day, we will hear Paul declare in Romans 3, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” You and I may be good people, but we still need forgiveness. Indeed, as we will hear to a greater degree next Sunday, none of us can get to heaven on the power of our moral goodness. You could be a better Christian than Mother Teresa and still not get even to the front lawn of heaven, because the only way to get to heaven is through believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, period. More on that next Sunday. So one problem with the Pharisee’s claim of morally superiority is that he thinks that his moral goodness means that he does not need forgiveness. The second problem with the Pharisee’s claim of moral superiority is that his high view of himself is resulting in him not caring for the tax collector. Rather than thinking, “I am so much better than that tax collector over there,” the Pharisee should be saying, “How can I help that tax collector over there?” The Pharisee’s focus is on his greatness and not on the needs of the tax collector. The same holds true for us. There is nothing wrong with thanking God for our moral goodness. You may be a morally good person, and you may thank the Holy Spirit for making you so through baptism and a lifetime of sanctification. However, it would be sinful of us to conclude that we do not need forgiveness, and it would be sinful of us to focus so much on our superiority that we neglect to help others. With these truths in mind, ask yourself, “Whom do I see myself as morally superior to, and how can I change my focus so that I am helping that person instead of condemning her?” One group most of us see ourselves as morally superior to is politicians. We tend to stereotype politicians as corrupt. That’s how they used to stereotype tax collectors in Jesus’ day. Corrupt, no good, worthless. “Lord, thank you that I am not like those awful, corrupt politicians. I am morally superior.” Ah, but the parable challenges us to stop fixating on our moral superiority and to start fixating on repentance and helping the corrupt. The focus is to be on, not superiority, but serving. Serving, not superiority. Jesus focuses on, not superiority, but serving. Jesus is superior to us all. He could have said, “Those humans. They’re all corrupt, greedy, violent, sinful,” and not bothered with us. However, instead of focusing on his superiority over us, he served us. He hung on the cross and said, “Forgive them, Father; they know not what they do.” [First Page] [Prev] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 [Next] [Last Page] Return |
