2024

Sermon 12/29/2024 – The Wonders of His Love

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

The Prophetic Lesson                                                      Isaiah 61:10-62:3

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my whole being shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its shoots and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn and her salvation like a burning torch. The nations shall see your vindication and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a beautiful crown in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

Sermon Text

As we gather together for the first Sunday of Christmas, we turn from the things that Christ’s coming require of us, to a more foundational reality of what God’s presence means. As God’s people, called by God’s grace to be a part of the Church, the list of expectations we have can seem overwhelming. While we can sum them up in the words “Love God and Love Neighbor,” we have seen over the past few weeks how complicated that calculation can be. It requires us to change ourselves, to weigh the best options for action in any circumstance, it requires everything of us – as God has called us to give again and again.

However, we must understand that while there is not a reciprocal economy within God’s grace, there are benefits that come from our entry into God’s kingdom. This is one of the key things that I think allows us to evaluate aspects of our life and determine whether they are truly in line with God. The things that are Godly are not always the easiest thing, sometimes they might even cause trouble for a person, but they are always edifying to the person who takes part in them. It may not be popular to show the radical love of God, it may court scorn to embrace the crestfallen of the world, but it will make the person who does it a better person. The community that comes from mutual understandings of our beloved identity in Christ is a better and stronger sort of community. When we live out what God places upon us to do, we see benefits even in the midst of hardship.

In philosophy, one of the key questions for any worldview is “What is the Good?” This is a capital “G,” Good, the absolute Good that all moral and ethical ideas attain toward. In Christianity we acknowledge that God is the greatest Good, the source of Goodness. The argument that arises is whether or not God is Good because God is God, or God is Good because God perfectly embodies the aspects of “Good,” which are intrinsic to the Divine Nature.

Now, I could wax poetic about how A leads to B necessitating C, but no one in this room would benefit from me going down that particular rabbit hole. I will simply summarize my idea with this short idea – God is Good, all the time; and all the time, God is Good. Not only do I mean that God is beneficent – giving good gifts – nor that God does what is right – doing good things. I mean that God is the definition of Goodness, the ideal of Goodness, and the ultimate goal of all things that aspire to be Good therefore aspire to be more like God.

Our scripture today is found in the final part of Isaiah, when the prophet looks ahead to a world after the people of Judea return to their homeland. After decades of displacement, the chance to rediscover the homeland of their grandparents was given to them. The people dreamed of a future in the land they once knew as their home. The prophet assures them that God will give them that and more, that righteousness will flourish and the people of God will be a proud people once again. The opportunity came through the return to the area, the work of Ezra and of Nehemiah, the rebuilding of a people who had become diffused and had lost themselves.

Unfortunately, the return was not the full restoration that they had hoped for. Though God is a God who brings about righteousness and who transforms simple things into miraculous ones, humanity is allowed to have their say in their own fate. The people returned to the land and did not learn the lessons of the prophets. Though Jeremiah had begun to tear down the separating walls between their people and the other nations of the world, the Exilic community tried to secure their future by clinging close to themselves. Their distant relatives who remained in the land were written off as “impure,” in comparison to the returning exiles. The Babylonian women who many of them had married were seen as polluting the bloodlines of the Exilic community, and so they expelled mother and child into the wilderness to fend for themselves. They were given a spring of righteousness in God’s teachings, and they rejected all but the most restrictive.

I simplify things slightly in my telling of the Exilic Return, but you see my point. As Isaiah told the people that God was working hard to bring about righteousness and more than that wonderful good for God’s people, they still fell short of that ideal. God had given them the means to live into a full life together with their neighbors and their own community. Yet, quickly, the Goodness of God was rejected for political security. So often, we trade what we know is right for power and security, and in so doing we lose sight of the Goodness of God.

That Goodness is an expansion of community, a network of support that transforms everyone who is a part of it. It gives us the ability to do more than we ever have. It makes our hearts soften to the hardships of those around us. It bends our prayers toward the needs of the people we now know through what God has done. The light shining in the darkness, the work of God through the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ is made full when we acknowledge that doing the work of God is ultimately the best thing we can do for ourselves and for others.

The high ideals of scripture are not meant to be unattainable, they are always within our grasp. God did not place the ways we should live far away from us. “It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.”[1] The word of God is near to us, and it is something that can change us.

So if we believe that God is Good, and that God’s Goodness changes us for the Good… Then people of God, ought we not to aspire to that goodness? Do all that you can to do what is right, and let this new year transform you like never before. – Amen.

[1] Deuteronomy 30:12-14

Sermon 12/22/2024 – The Coming Justice

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

The Gospel Lesson                                                                     Luke 1:39-56

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.

And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name; indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. He has come to the aid of his child Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Sermon Text

Throughout this month we have been looking at the way that Christ’s coming into the world, and Christ’s resulting Kingdom, bring us into a new way of being. By first acknowledging that Hope we are given in God’s promise that those who stay alert have nothing to fear. By then seeing the promise God made long ago that our Baptism would give us new ways to bring Peace into the world through our repentance. Culminating in a call to consider how we might redeem the world through transforming ourselves, and in so doing bring Joy where previously there was none. Now today, we look to the thing that must undergird all of this – Love, pure and all encompassing, that lives itself out in Justice.

Justice is usually used in our day to day life to describe acts of retaliation. In other words, we use them to mean “punitive,” measures applied to people after they’ve done something wrong to punish them for doing something they should not have. This is the model our society uses most often after all. You commit a crime, you’re arrested, and then you are fined or imprisoned to “serve your time.” This vision of justice is grim. There is a price to pay, and after it has been paid, then you can return to a lesser kind of freedom than you had before. This is not the kind of Justice that God dreams of.

Justice is defined in two roughly equivalent terms across the Greek and Hebrew Scripture. In Hebrew it is called (“tzedakah,”) and in Hebrew “δικαιοσύνη,” (“dikaiosune.”) The words differ from our concept of justice in that both of them have a focus on right relationship to the people around you and to God. For the Hebrew scriptures there was an emphasis placed on Covenant loyalty to God and in the Greek culture there was an emphasis on working for the good of the culture and city around you. Christianity fused these two ideas and added an additional emphasis, to embrace fully the sacrificial love which Jesus epitomized in his ministry.

The first place where Jesus’s love was first described was not in John’s proclaiming repentance to the people gathered around the Jordan nor in Jesus first reading the scroll in his hometown synagogue. Instead, it was found when Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, and the infant John the Baptist first jumped for joy to meet the Messiah. Mary, who had been chased out of her hometown by rumors and worries, had finally found confirmation that her child was everything she had been promised he would be. The result is a song of unbroken praise, where she proclaims just how God’s loving mercy makes Justice roll like a river through this world.

Firstly, she acknowledges that God chose to work through her to achieve something this wonderful. She, a poor teenager in a backwater village in an underdeveloped corner of the Roman empire, was going to be the one through whom the salvation of the world would come. “Now all people will call me blessed,” is not a statement of vanity, but of humility. She, through nothing but God’s Grace, was made to be the first evangelist – sending Christ into the world to save it from itself. Though she would give everything, her first-born son whom she loved in the process, she received the blessing of being part of God’s grand plan of redemption.

It was not just something done for her though, God was fulfilling a complete rerouting of human history through Jesus’s birth, life, death, and resurrection. The strong arm of God, reaching out into the world was prepared to scatter the powerful people of the world. Within two years of his birth, the King of Judea, a tyrant who had tried to keep power through theft and intrigue, assassination and manipulation, would be brought to the edge by the news of his existence. Powerful priests from far off lands would bow before him, understanding something his own people could not. Even the full might of Rome would be nothing to him, as the nails and spear they placed into his flesh would give way to resurrected life.

God’s opposition to power was not completed in simply opposing the kings and rulers of the land though, it was found in the must fundamental and revolutionary aspect of the Kingdom of God. This is, of course, in the community of mutual care that God brings to fruition wherever the Spirit rests. The hungry are fed and those who had withheld food from them are turned away. In other words, God sees the scales of this world tipped so far in favor of the rich, that God pushes God’s support fully behind the needs of the poor. Pushing the scale into balance through preference to those in need. God promises Justice through lifting of the lowly, opposition to the rich, and refusal to concede to the evils of the powers that be.

When we read this prophecy of Mary, all that God will achieve through her son, then we should quickly realize that we do not epitomize this Justice which God has asked us to take part in. We are not fully sold out for the needs of the people around us, nor do we oppose the powerful – no we usually fawn over them in one way or another. We fail to acknowledge God as our King, we fail to see the strangers among us as our siblings, we fail to be an obedient church. Yet, there is always hope for us.

Christmas, the day just a few sleeps away from us, is the day that God set into motion the complete reconciliation of all creation to the divine. When the total divinity of God’s eternal Word would take on the form of a poor human baby, ultimate power suddenly becoming poor, defenseless, and weak… When this took place, all the order of the world was turned on its head. The lessons taught by Moses and the prophets found their fulfillment in this. God was no longer content to bend Heaven to Earth, but sought to join the two forever. Through our baptism into the Kingdom, through the complete transformation of our lives, we are allowed to see beyond ourselves into something grander. God’s Justice, born in love, is breaking out among us. What will we do to take part in it? That is the question we all must weigh in our hearts this Christmastide. – Amen.

Sermon 12/15/2024 – The Coming Redemption

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Sermon Text

Last week we dug into Malachi’s prediction of John the Baptist’s coming, the promise of peace that comes from abandoning violence. We focused on Matthew’s version of his ministry last week, but this week we go into Luke’s version. Luke gives us a big crumb to chew on though. It sounds a lot like what we talked about, but that nugget really changes everything. Last week we were given a map to peace through repentance, but this week we talk about the work of redemption. How do you make good on God’s commandments in a world that so often works against God’s will.

I’m speaking specifically here about something we addressed on Christ the King Sunday. In an imperfect world, where we cannot change easily change the systems we are a part of, how can we do what is right, honor God, and further God’s kingdom? The answer comes in different forms depending on what kind of work we’re doing, but I truly believe there is an answer for how to do God’s work no matter the circumstances we find ourselves in. It just means that we have to think through what we do and how.

I’ll give you a question to chew on before we go into the scriptures. Imagine that you worked in retail, something many of us probably did at some point. You are paid commission based upon how many people you can get to sign up for the credit card your company offers. Not only that, but part of your performance review includes signing people up for these cards. You will lose opportunities to be put on the work schedule, you will not be considered for promotion, and you will not receive any addition pay if you do not regularly enroll people in this credit program. One day, someone comes through the line and their bank card declines. They could afford their purchase if they signed up for the card, receiving a 50% credit on their first purchase. Do you sign them up… Or do you let them pass? We’ll come back to this question later.

John the Baptist, as we discussed last week, preached a message of repentance to all who would hear him. This repentance was not open to a few people, but to all people. This openness meant that the people who heard it needed instruction on how to live out their repentance in their own life and circumstances. A general teaching, “Bear fruit worthy or repentance,” works just fine on paper, but “bearing fruit,” means different things in different circumstances. While John only answers three questions in our scripture today, we can extrapolate a great deal from them.

 Firstly, John makes a simple demand of his followers. “If you have more than you need, share it.” I don’t think I need to say much about this, but it is important to note exactly what it means. It is never optional for us to give to those in need, to live alongside people who may be different than us in more ways than one. We are always called to be in community with other people, and that community has to be built on a willingness to lend a hand when it is needed. We also cannot pretend that our help is only meant to be at a distance – we are called to give of ourselves, in time and in resources both, to ensure all people have what they need to not only survive, but to thrive.

The next admonition he gives is specific to two given professions. Firstly, of a tax collector he says they should take only what they are required to take, and of a soldier he demands that they not use their power to exploit the people around them. These both require a bit more context to understand fully. Judea, you see, was an occupied nation. Rome had ruled over the kingdom for about one hundred years by the time John was preaching by the Jordan. Soldiers were taken from all over the empire and placed in just as many places across it. They wielded not only a sword, but the complete mechanism of the Roman empire behind them. If a soldier threatened you, you had no recourse but to give them what they wanted – they ruled the whole world after all.

Likewise, tax collectors were instruments of the Empire and its oppression. The people were made to pay to fund not only their own local governments, but the larger imperial systems. The people were made to pay for the opulence of the Emperor and the continued oppression of their own people. Tax collectors, again shielded from consequence through their proximity to power, would often take more than was required of the people. If the tax was two days wages, then they would take 4 – keeping the extra money taken for themselves. Add to this the tendency for tax collectors to be hired from the local population and you had people who not only were stealing, but stealing from their friends, family, and neighbors.

John asked those who came to him to give up, not only their personal sins, but their participation in greater evils. When a solider was stationed in a foreign land, it was expected they would use the power they had to get what they wanted out of the locals. When a tax collector took money, they were expected to take something for themselves. John looked both in the eye and said that, regardless of expectations and regardless of earthly consequences, God demanded they be better than the systems they were a part of.

A sad reality of the world as it is, is that we cannot work for just about any large company or group without having to take part – either directly or indirectly – in something that feeds into human suffering. No multinational corporation exists that does not abuse some people or group somewhere down the chain of supplies or management. No business exists that does not extort money from people for their services on some level. Unless you work in a local business, you will find yourself a part of a system that seeks to put profits over people, and even then we must always be careful what we contribute into, even in the smaller world of Clarksburg, of Harrison County, of West Virginia.

We can easily give up hope then, to say that since this world is fallen and we all have dirt under our nails, that we should just give in and lean into the filth a bit more. John, and scripture as a whole, does not afford us that option. We have an obligation, even if it is expected we will take advantage or do harm to people, to choose the better path. While it is often unavoidable to be caught up in the mess that is this world, we are still called to rise about those circumstances. The soldier and the tax collector both worked under Rome, but the circumstances that put them into these roles did not need to define them. If they did their duty and nothing more, it would give them space to do what is right. By learning how not to do harm, they could begin to learn to do good. For us who have far more freedom, even more must be expected of us.

Let us return to the scenario we began with. You are expected to sell people lines of credit, but it is obvious that the person in front of you needs anything but another source of debt. Do you push them to get the card so they can complete their purchase, or do you keep silent about the deal? I won’t answer that question for you, you should be able to answer it after all we’ve talked about. While it is asked of you to sell people on this line of credit, if the only thing it gets you is commission and preference – in other words things beyond your contract – then it is truly a discretionary matter. If we look across any work we do, I think we’ll find that discretion is often hiding in the midst of life’s impossible situations.

Think on what you do, if you’re actively employed or if you’re retired, if you volunteer or if you are in a paid position, and ask what you do that helps people and that hurts people. How can you identify the lines you are not willing to cross? What can you do to further the Good even in the midst of systems that often cause more harm than good?

We all have a part to play in dismantling evil around us, and John asks us to begin by not taking advantage of the situations we are in and not coming up with excuses about why evil is ok when we do it. Repent, bear fruit worthy of repentance, and be transformed. – Amen.

Sermon 12/08/24 – The Coming Peace

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Malachi 3:1-4

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

For he is like a refiner’s fire and like washers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years.

Sermon Text

Scripture defines our present age in many terms. We read about how sin has broken things down to their fundamental level, staining humanity and rendering even our best intentions far short of what they could be without the stain of wickedness upon us. We are prone to do wrong, this is clear to anyone who is ever honest with themselves. We are prone to cause harm; this is true to anyone who has suffered at the hands of friends or enemies. Yet, the word that I think defines scriptures witness about our current broken way of being – is violent.

When Adam and Eve left the garden, their children found no temptation to sin greater than the temptation to take what they wanted by force. Cain killed Abel, and we are told that humanity after that point became more and more violent, culminating in God’s erasure of the world in rains and floods. The new world, born of Noah and his children, was not the caricature of the ante-diluvian world that once was, but they still learned to fight against one another for their own advantage. As humanity spread across the world, as relationships became strained over time as they forgot one another, there came a point where violence once again was the most common of human sin.

Violence is not limited to bloodshed or physical threats either. Violence defines this world in the way that we tear each other down in words, how we wound ourselves with similar cruelty. We profane the image of God in ourselves, we profane the creation God has given us to care for and enjoy, and in all these things we commit a sort of violence that threatens, demeans, and ultimately destroys. The promise that God gives to purify this world is a promise to put away all violence and replace it with something more significant – more substantial – an eternal, all encompassing peace.

The promise of peace can seem far off, but it is found in the same place, the word of God, that we looked to last week to find our hope. We read how the prophet Malachi looked to a refining fire, a purifying presence coming into the world to prepare the way for God’s ultimate salvation. Before God’s salvation fully appeared within the world, a prophet would appear to give the people a way forward. This prophet would give a promise of peace that could only come from them giving away this violence in their heart and embracing instead God’s abundant goodness. A messenger comes to pave the way, and God would do wonders once they did.

We know that this messenger did indeed come, and he was called John the Baptist. In the wilderness of Judea he proclaimed salvation, not with a cheap call to come and suddenly find yourself on the right side of history, but an authentic call to be changed. He took water in his hands and called out to the people, “I baptize you with water for repentance!” The sign of the water was a sign of God calling the people to something more. God’s grace led them to him and called them to be covered in the cold, muddy water of the Jordan. The filth on their bodies left by the riverbed, ironically was the ultimate sign of their purification.

It was not a magical ritual though, the grace that led them to the river did not in itself erase the violence in their hearts. They had to desire to change, they had to keep moving with the inertia that had been given them. When his opponents came to receive God’s grace, John gave them an ultimatum. “Even now,” John cried, “the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” It was not enough to throw themselves into the water, nor enough to confess they had changed with only words. They had to show they had made a difference. They had to practice the preach that God had offered them, and cut themselves off completely from the stench of cruelty that they had previously been covered in.

Those of here who call ourselves Christians, must also give up on the violence we have taken as normal, internalized completely. We cannot be hungry to fight each other, nor can we desire to harm anyone or anything. We cannot speak cruelly of those around us or of ourselves. We have to accept the peace that God has offered us, and we have to accept it in every inch of our body. Light, life, newness and more are available to us if we can see what God is doing and go along with it. I think we all can admit that we take part in the evils of this world. We should also be able to see that that willingness to do wrong, despite knowing it is wrong, is one of the primary reasons this world is still as broken as it is.

How often do we say, “I shouldn’t say anything… but.”? How often do we have the chance to help, but decide not to out of convenience? How often is there a problem we could do something about, but we decide we benefit more from it going unresolved? I could go on and on, but the point remains, we are not only victims of the broken things of this world, we are participants in the cycle of sin and death. Luckily, the cycle has been broken, and we can enjoy the resurrection that frees us from it, as long as we willingly go along with it.

Stop aggression toward other people. Stop speaking ill of yourself too, you’ll never grow better in anything by hating yourself. Stop throwing away God’s good gifts and squandering the good things God has given you. Repent of all violence and find that the only thing left to take part in is peace.

Peace, in Hebrew, is Shalom, and this word is not simply the absence of trouble. Shalom is an ideal state of being, the completion and fulfillment of the self that allows for a person to be all that they are meant to be. The Greek equivalent (εἰρήνη, eirenay) is often used in a similar way. To take part in God’s peace is to accept a holistic approach to goodness. God sent us hope through the prophets, and through John the Baptist showed us the first step toward achieving the peace that God will someday complete in this world. To put away the violence we have toward ourselves, toward others, toward the world itself – and replace it with God’s divine guidance and goodness. People of God, bear fruit worthy of repentance and give up the fight. – Amen.

Sermon 12/01/2024 – The Coming Doom

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Luke 21:25-36

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Sermon Text

With the start of Advent, with our sanctuary decorated in the bright lights of hope and life, we acknowledge a dark aspect of this season we celebrate. Since the time of the prophets, God has cast a vision of a day when there would be an end to this present age of darkness and death. A light would break out suddenly and end the long night that had hung over creation since humanity’s first disobedient steps out of Eden. A day that would change everything, that would initiate eternity, and a day that was in itself terrible despite the hope it would bring. The Day of the Lord, the moment all things was to be set right, is cast as a frightening end to one chapter and the beautiful start of another.

We as a culture have an unhealthy obsession with the end of times, to the point that people are constantly wasting time and money fretting about it or spending money on it. The reality of our Christian witness is that we believe that the world will someday end, I’m not gonna pretend that is not the case. Scripture is pretty clear as well that the end of this present age is not an easy transition either – the chaos of what was must be fully excised after all. However, nowhere in scripture does it say the Church is to be worried about the coming of God’s kingdom. Instead, we are only ever asked to be ready.

Advent, the season we now find ourselves in, is meant to be a remembrance of the wait that creation endured before Christ was born, and the present wait we all take part in before Christ returns. It is a season where the mystery of the faith we recite during Communion become all the more meaningful, “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.” The divine and incarnate Word of God, having lived a fully human life, died and rose again that we might anticipate what his glory would look like when he returns to bring that same resurrection to all flesh. The day of God’s justice is coming, and we of the Church mark it year after year.

So, if we are not supposed to be fearful of God’s coming, nor to be too absorbed in the fact it will someday be here, what is the Church to do? As with anything we question in faith, the best place to start is in the scriptures that describe it. Here, today, we have read Luke’s version of what is often called Jesus’s “little Apocalypse.” Jesus describes signs in Heaven and chaos on the earth. Elsewhere we are told, “you will hear of wars and rumors of wars… but the end is not yet.”[1] All these occurrences are signs toward the end, but not the end in itself. Its those signs that I want us to reflect on.

Signs in the Heavens is a pretty broad topic. Eclipses – solar and lunar – happen fairly regularly and are usually specific to a part of the world, not the entire planet. Star and planets do sometimes align in significant ways, but only if you know what they look like normally. (Personally, I just wait for my astronomer friend to tell me what cool thing is going on.) Wars are constantly being fought and speculated about across the world, and chaos and natural disasters are, sadly, pretty commonplace as well. All the “signs,” of the end are everyday, commonplace, occurrences.

So is Jesus trying to trick or confuse us? We’re supposed to look for signs that are already everywhere? No, I don’t think so at all. Jesus moves from the broad description of the conditions of the world before its end to a parable of a fig tree. “When a fig tree looks ready to produce fruit,” Jesus says, “You know it will be time to pick that fruit soon.” The key idea here “soon, but not now.” I did some digging on fig tree ecology and found that the leaves on fig trees grow well ahead of the fruit becoming wipe. Scripture shows us this elsewhere in Jesus cursing a fig tree. Jesus sees the tree at a distance, goes to pick a fig from it, and finds that it is not fig season yet. He still curses to tree to never grow again, a prophetic lesson that clarifies Luke’s version of the story.[2]

The signs of Jesus’s coming, as described in scripture, are all commonplace yet horrific things. Wars are being waged now that are costing innocent people their lives and homes – in Yemen, Gaza, Sudan, the Ukraine, and beyond. Each year, as climate change becomes more pronounces, storms get worse and worse – hurricanes stronger, snow storms more long lasting, droughts followed by flooding all too common. Disaster, disease, desolation of all kind, all these things are always with us and yet always seem to be growing more and more ubiquitous. Every generation believes they are the last before the end, because every generation faces the real and present dangers of a world that is waiting to be reborn.

Jesus will return someday, amidst signs that are constantly being shown to us. We do not have to seek them out, we do not have to speculate whether this or that eclipse or this or that war are the true and final signs of that return. They all are equally signs that are meant to remind us to be alert to God’s presence in the world that is, and prepare for the world that is to come. We are always meant to be on the lookout, and we are meant to do so in a way that is rooted in the faith and the scriptures that tell us what to look for to begin with. We are told to be alert, watchful, and most important of all, to be active.

Christ elsewhere describes his return as a master returning to his household to find his servants either at work or slacking off. The lesson is, if you are always doing what you should be, then you don’t need to worry when the boss is coming. As we celebrate Advent, as we note the fact that doom surrounds us and awaits the world we inhabit, from what can we find hope?

Firstly, in the knowledge that Christ will return and set things right. Secondly, in the constant reminder that the present pain of this world is a sign that everything needs to be reborn, and will be reborn. Finally, in the work that Christ has given us in the meantime. To proclaim the Gospel that is our salvation. To care for those in need, to fight the good fight for our neighbors and our enemies well-being. To embody holiness not only in the hurtful things we choose not to do, but in the abundance of good we choose again and again to do.

God has asked us to be alert to Christ’s coming. Let us not fail to stay awake. God has given us the work we must do in the meantime, let us not fail to see it through to completion. God has asked us to hold onto Hope, let us never give into despair. Advent has begun, we wait to see what God will do in this world. Let us celebrate fully that we know God’s grace will always prevail, and that even when doom seems overpowering, God is not done with this world until it is fully born again. – Amen.

[1] Matthew 24:6-13 gives an idea of the kinds of things Jesus identifies as signs of his coming.

[2] Matthew 21:18-22

Sermon 11/24/24 – Christ the King Sunday

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

John 18: 33-37

Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?”

Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

Sermon Text

Christ the King Sunday began to be celebrated ninety-nine years ago. Beginning as a Catholic Feast celebrated in October, the feast was meant to be a response to several problems in this world.[1] Pope Pius XI saw a growing secularism in the world, Christians – and in his specific world, Catholics – were not putting Christ at the center of their lives. Ideology, greed, and personal gain were taking over where the teachings and work of Christ should have power. Specifically, Pius cited the following failings, among others:

“… the seeds of discord sown far and wide; those bitter enmities and rivalries between nations, which still hinder so much the cause of peace; that insatiable greed which is so often hidden under a pretense of public spirit and patriotism, and gives rise to so many private quarrels; a blind and immoderate selfishness, making men seek nothing but their own comfort and advantage…”

God’s people have always struggled with how to balance faith in God, devotion to God’s kingdom, and human authority. In the days of the Judges, rule was spread across tribal leaders who rose to power as needed. Throughout the book of Judges, however, a lament is raised again and again, “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.”[2] This lament was short lived however, as Kings fixed nothing for the people of God.

The prophet Samuel was the first to consecrate Kings to rule in Israel, and he did so under duress.[3] His warning to the people is long and varied, telling them that they are turning their back on God by taking up a ruler like what other nations have. Samuel said the King would take their money, their crops, their children, and as a reward for giving all this to the King the people would receive trouble after trouble after trouble. Saul failed as a King, David began in earnest and then failed repeatedly to do God’s will. Solomon was a “great,” king but also a slaver, a lecher, and a hoarder. His son, Rehoboam, would be the last to rule a united Kingdom, building on his father’s sin and not his virtues.

Kingdoms have risen and fallen, many claiming to be “Christian,” in their government and leadership. None have succeeded in bringing the Kingdom of God into the world. Following the Protestant Reformation, nations began to exist in a way they had not before. Each nation had a king, and each king claimed to worship God in the right way, and to serve God through their rule. None had a monopoly on what was right, nor on proper leadership.

In the United States, we were born of the English Reformation. Christians in England first rejected the Papacy, then for a time the monarchy, but settled back into a Church run by the King or Queen of England. When the revolution came, we made the bold decision to be a secular democracy, with no leadership by kings or claims to divine right to rule keeping us from progress. We were born out of the enlightenment, and because of that our founders had a dream of a largely secular government. Individual religious devotion would push the people to do what is right, and a detached government would ensure they had the right to do so, while not being caught up in the religious wars that had destroyed Europe again and again.

Brief history of our religious lineage established; I have to ask you all. Do you look at government, at our political climate, at anything we do and think, “That sure is a Christian.” I think the answer across the board is a pretty sharp, “No.”

Violence, greed, and selfishness dominate our world. Criminalizing the poor, prioritizing profits over people, and placing national pride above God’s call are deeply un-Christian behaviors, and yet they seem to rule the day. Reinhold Niebuhr, the last great public theologian in America, argued in Moral Man and Immoral Society that individuals can act morally, but groups—whether governments or societies—struggle to uphold Christian principles. Fear, greed, and the desire to “win” often override faithfulness to God’s values.

We just had an election. Some of us feel that the outcome was good, others that it was not. I will not equivocate the two parties and pretend their identical, nor will I take an explicitly partisan stance. Instead, I propose this reality. No matter who would have won – the Church has a duty to challenge those in power to embody the virtues we claim to put above all others – the only difference is in how that challenge would need to be offered.

The virtues we claim, by the way, are not the following – GDP, stock prices, the price of any consumer product, racial superiority, or vague sentiments of “civility.” Instead, they are as follows: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The things we should promote are the things that actively help others – to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, care for the sick, love the prisoner. We should remember all those in need, for Christ faced all human troubles to live alongside them – the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the migrant, the abused, and the murdered.

There is a problem in the Church. We have failed to understand when it is our duty to be political, and when we become political we are unfailingly partisan. In some regards it’s impossible not to be. Every two to four years we are given two parties to choose from and picking one or the other affects things greatly. A side often has to be taken, and sometimes the side we take will reveal itself to be the wrong one. Democracy is a beautiful thing, but it is dangerous. An old Latin Proverb explains the problem simply, “… those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness.” Democracy is a crowd seeking after the voice of God, and so often we give into madness rather than Godliness.

I can only give these few precepts for how we should conduct ourselves as Christians who are, by necessity, forced into scenarios in which we must engage in political and civic life. First, we must pray—for our nation, its leaders, and even those we see as our enemies. Prayer opens our hearts to God’s guidance and softens animosity. Second, we must reject bad faith arguments and misinformation, holding truth as sacred. Finally, we should speak, act, vote, and advocate for policies that reflect Christ’s love, even while accepting the imperfect nature of democracy.

Christ’s Kingship means that, in all things, we answer to him. Someday, every ruler will kneel before God’s throne and have to give an account for what they did with the power they had. I do not envy them that heavy responsibility. We as members of a democracy will likewise be held accountable for our participation in enacting policy, electing rulers, and promoting the good – I know that I will have things to answer for when I get there.

Christ is King, Lord of all Creation, and yet the Kingdom he built is not like others. His followers are told to put away weapons and take up tools to make the world better. We are told not to hate, but to love again and again. We are called to serve as slaves rather than ever allow ourselves to be called “kings,” and “rulers.” No wonder no truly Christian nation has ever existed – only one kingdom, and one King could ever truly achieve that status.

In Advent we look forward to what God’s coming into the world will do. On Christ the King Sunday we acknowledge that while the Kingdom of God is not fully existent yet, it still has begun. We as Christians, in democracies, dictatorships, and monarchies all, are called to serve one King above any other. May God guide us, as we enter the hope of Advent and the joy of Christmas, to remember what it means to live in our present, imperfect age, and still be called “the people of God.” – Amen.

[1] The full text of the Encyclical Quas Primas, which established this feast, is available here: https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius11/p11prima.htm

[2] Judges 18:1, and others

[3] 1 Samuel 8

Sermon 11/10/2024 – How Easily we Brag

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Mark 12:38-44

As [Jesus] taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Sermon Text

Pride is one of the most dangerous things that exists in this world. We’ve talked before about how our language does us a major disservice in not separating out, “pride,” as a sinful state of being from “pride,” as having high esteem for something good in our life. I think, however, that the two are more related than even I would like to admit. There is not a huge leap between legitimate feelings of happiness about something good in our lives and an unhealthy fixation on it. Sometimes even legitimate pride become an unwillingness to acknowledge our individual and corporate failings or even our to see our dependency on God.

Throughout scripture one of the most consistent opponents to God’s good work are prideful people of faith. The prophets were usually up against the priests and fellow prophets they had worked with their whole life. Ezra and Nehemiah were heroes and villains in their own time – butting up against other members of God’s people who they did not think had the right pedigree to be part of the exilic community. Jesus most of all is documented as fighting against some of the most important people in the religious community of his day. He opposed scribes, pharisees, and sadducees. These groups were not inherently evil, he did not oppose them out of principle, but because of what they so often let themselves become.

Scribes were the literate in society, and held power as legal recorders and lawyers. Pharisees were the pastors of their day, giving God’s word to the people and instructing them in daily life. Sadducees were tied to the Temple, and they provided a moderating presence – ensuring the Torah was respected and clung tightly too. Yet, in each of these positions, with power and influence on the line, people would often begin to sin simply by investing importance in themselves and their way of being and doing that ultimately only served their own interests. Pride snuck in, pride made them self-interested, and pride led them to destroy their community.

Jesus talks about the scribes in particular in our passage. He says they wear long robes – why does that matter? What do you think a long robe indicates? Besides having a lot of fabric, therefore being expensive to make – long robes make it impractical to do manual labor. To wear one in public makes it clear that you are not someone who has to dirty their hands. Long sleeves added to this affect, and it is widely believed that the “coat of many colors,” which Jospeh wore was meant to show his brothers that Joseph was too good for the maula labor they were made to do out in the fields.[1]

Scribes are also described as praying long prayers in public, seated with the best people in worship and at parties. This is a criticism levied at the Pharisees as well, who are also described as wearing large phylacteries known as tefillin. These boxes containing scripture tied to the wrists and forehead.[2] Jesus is not saying it is a sin to pray, or to dress in robes, or to wear outward signs of faith like the tefillin. The sin came in doing these things for the sake of appearances rather than faith. If you ask me, the average offender probably didn’t realize when the things they had done changed from something they were doing for God and what they were doing for themselves.

As Christians today, we often read these warnings with a quiet nod. We know what its like to meet those overblown, holier-than-thou types. They’re insufferable! There’s no way we would ever do anything like what they do… Unless, we already do it without thinking. Unless we’ve become so accustomed to our faith being a badge we wear to congratulate ourselves rather than a way of life we embody, that changes and challenges us.

Think though, of what Christian culture is so often about. We wear hats on our heads, bracelets on our wrist, loud and proud declarations of our faith. T-shirts convey messages that let people know that we are Good Christian folk. Everything we see on Facebook that tells us we need to share it or else we’re secretly ashamed of God has to be shared! We have to let people know we’re Christian and that we’re not like all those other people in the world! We’re better through our faith, we’re more proper and we believe exactly what we should.

Is it wrong to wear a Christian slogan on a hat, or a bracelet, or a shirt? No, of course not. As long as it’s an actual good sentiment and not something antagonistic or improper. Is it wrong to share a prayer you read on Facebook that moves you? Absolutely not. Like the Pharisees of old, a Christian who shows their faith publicly is doing exactly what they should… Until they switch to showing off to people and not showing up for God. The shift from one to the other can be simple, slow, and yet it consumes us entirely.

How do we prevent that? How do we know which box we fall into? Firstly, I would say that self-awareness is always the first step to proper action. If we are willing to ask ourselves why we do the things we do, we will have a good answer. I’ve written out long posts on Facebook about my strong conviction as a person of faith… and then deleted them. Sermons likewise that I’ve thrown out, because I realized that I was not writing them for the good of God, but out of some strange sense of pride. I wear very plain clothes, only breaking out my clergy outfit when it matters that people know who I am.

True faith, true piety, true holiness that a person can be rightly proud of is self-evident. Prayer in public that comes from a natural belief God listens to our prayers and acts on them will be different than something we do to let the people know at the other tables around us that we’re good Christian folk. Sharing our faith for the purpose of glorifying God will look different than chasing down people and beating them with scripture.

Finally, I think that anything that truly inconveniences us bears the mark of an action that is hard to do out of selfish pride. If you have to give of yourself, and in ways that you truly find unpleasant, but you persist out of love of God and neighbor than it is hard to do that work out of pride. Christ humbled himself to the point of dying on the cross, and did so while actively dreading the terror ahead of him. While we do not face a cross, when we give till it hurts, that is a mark of our true faith.

The widow is at the close of this story, not to give us an excuse to give less to initiatives the Church is working on, but to remind us that there is a proportionality in faith. The widow gives very little to the offering, but to her that offering was a huge part of her livelihood. She felt that coin dropping in the plate, it was a real sacrifice that meant she had to go without. The rich who gave lavishly still had plenty to live off of, they didn’t feel a thing when they cut the cheque. How often are we willing to give till it hurts? Of money, of time, of resources. To do that is to humble ourselves, and to establish that we are doing the kind of work that is without pride, that is rooted in what God would have us do.

Thankless and difficult, that is often what the work that God calls us to do looks like. It does not demand others to look and laud us for it. It is quiet and humble, it does not insist upon itself. While others may see it and praise it, true pious action is often kept quiet. Seek to live a life that is full of God, full of actions that you can be proud of. Yet, do not let your hand slip from the pulse of your work, the authenticity of it, the true reason why you are embarking upon it. Let your piety be true, let your heart be humble, and do away with the parts of you that demands the approval of others. You will find Christ closer than ever in this. – Amen.

[1]

[2]

Sermon 11/03/2024 – All Saints’ Day 2024

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Isaiah 25:6-9

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.

And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the covering that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever.

Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, “See, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Sermon Text

Lately I’ve been thinking more about legacies. I guess part of having a child is thinking about what you are raising them to be – even if the most substantial thing you do most days is feed, change, and maybe read a storybook to them. Even in these early days, I’m becoming more and more aware that I have a new purpose in life, on top of anything else I do, and that is to leave something for my children to take up. Not necessarily the exact thing I devoted my life to, I hope they can find an easier way to be than being a minister. Not necessarily an inheritance to benefit from, they’ll be lucky to get a dime at this rate. No, the thing that we have to leave to those who follow us must be more significant than more work to do or more money to buy things with.

The reality that we have a finite amount of time on this earth is something that slowly grows in our hearts. As our bodies get weaker and our bones begin to strain against the weight of each day. As our friends become fewer around us and our ability to do diminishes. As time wears on, we are made to number our days with the knowledge that eternity stretches in front of us. We are left to either become frustrated or hopeful, to see in the limited time we have a great deal of potential or to see it as something taunting us. The choice has to be ours, whether we will lean toward one or the other, and scripture gives us a clear answer which we should dwell upon. I’ll cut the anticipation and tell you, hope and generativity have to win out over our concern for what might be.

From the time humanity left Eden we were aware that there was something broken with the world. It took less than one generation for humanity to go from simple disobedience to murder. It took only a handful of generations for the violence of the world to be so great that a flood was needed to set things right. The Flood didn’t do it, nor did the reign of the patriarchs or of the judges or of the kings and the prophets. No leadership ever fixed the problems in this world, never completely at least. Because of this, hope was born anew every generation for something new to happen in the world.

Our scripture today follows a promise that bad times were ahead for God’s people. Isaiah describes the complete destruction of the land around God’s people. It will be like in the days of Noah, where creation seems completely erased. Death will reign and no one will be able to rejoice again. Wine and songs will not cheer anyone up, disaster will be all that anyone knows. People will cry out to God, and they will feel in their bones that God just isn’t listening. This prophecy was fulfilled in the days of Isaiah when Babylon came into Judah and destroyed everything in front of them. Death was supreme, joy was nonexistent, God seemed far away.

Yet, as soon as God tells them that this disaster is on its way, there is a promise that follows for something different. The people will not always know death, because all the world will be brought together again. There will be food in abundance, there will be songs and joy and dancing again. Death, the specter that haunted the people since they had left Eden was going to end and life stretch on forever. There was hope that could not end, and it was coming just down the line. A day when Moab would be no more…

Wait… what was that last part? Moab? There is no Moab anymore, and yet there is still plenty of trouble. What’s the deal? Clearly this earthly kingdom was not the end of trouble for God’s people… So why is it mentioned at the end of a prophecy that promises an end to the troubles that all people face. The answer, comes down to perspective.

We cannot conceive of what stretches beyond ourselves. We sit and we fret and we worry about things that the generations after us don’t have to worry about. My father-in-law had a sister who had polio, and Grace and I live in a world where Polio is all but extinct. Measles, mumps, childhood diseases that once posed an existential threat to children erased by progress. Likewise, the daily anxiety of the Cold War ended and no longer does the fear of the USSR loom above the USA. Time has made problems that seemed all encompassing, as the only trouble that could possibly fill the horizon, simply disappear.

New problems, it is sad to say, have filled the void. The USSR is no longer an issue, but boy is Russia working hard to follow its legacy. Measle, mumps, and rubella may not be an issue, but we lived through a pandemic that proved diseases still can take us down. Wars and rumors of war rage all around, an election is to be held in two days that has filled all people with anxiety. Each era brings with it new problems, new opportunities, but somehow the same hope.

God promised the people deliverance in terms they understood. The people who threaten you, won’t anymore. For us today, God speaks in different terms of hope, but with the same basic promise under it all. There will be an end to all this trouble. There will be an end to death and destruction. There will be life for the people of God long after the last vestige of death has been wiped away from our tear stained eyes. The darkness that is, cannot withstand the light that is to be.

The thing that we pass on to our children and grandchildren, and to anyone who follows us ought to be how to better perfect the eternal qualities of life. We are brought into life to be taught three things that remain when all else fades. To have faith in God, to hope that there is an end to the present troubles, and that love equips us to help each other through this world in the meantime. I don’t mind what Jack will grow up to be, but I do want him to perfect these aspects of himself. I want him to have hope in the future, and to have faith in God, and to love all people as God first loved him.

Today, as we celebrate the Saints, the people we love who have left us for glory, we have a great many memories of them within ourselves. Think of them and notice that the things that stick are often the things that brought something deeper than just a smile or some tears into our life. Sure, the day my grandfather couldn’t find his clothes and wore my grandmother’s moo-moo around the house stands out in my mind. Yet, far more than any thing he did I remember the love he showed me, the love he taught me to show others.

The reality of our lives is that only a few generations will know us by name. Our money that we make will be gone, at best, within our children’s lifetime. Businesses we worked at will close or else forget us as soon as our desks are emptied. Most everything in life is extremely fleeting. If we want to invest our time smartly and really make a difference – we need to invest in things that last far beyond the material reality around us. We must invest in loving each other, in inspiring hope, in holding tightly to our faith. These things are what we received from the Saints we honor today and these things are what we too will pass on. Give richly to those who follow after us, give the gift of these eternal gifts of God. – Amen.

Sermon 08/04/24.2 – Lord Over Death

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

The Gospel Lesson                                                                  Luke 23:39-43

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

1 Corinthians 15:35-49

          But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen and to each kind of seed its own body. Not all flesh is alike, but there is one flesh for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory.

So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the physical and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven. As one of dust, so are those who are of the dust, and as one of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the one of dust, we will also bear the image of the one of heaven.

Sermon Text

We all die. That is something as obvious to us as our own birth. We do not often make it far into life without experiencing death. Whether it is of a family member, a friend, an animal, or even an overwatered plant, we have to face the fact of our limited lifespan at some time or another. We are some of the longest-lived creatures on earth, with only turtles and a few marine animals beating out our seventy some years of life. Yet, the slow degradation of our withering bones makes us face the end eventually. A final breath on one side of eternity bringing us into the other.

The question I was asked for our first question of our series is simply what we should expect when we die. Are we instantly taken up into Heaven? Do we enjoy a reunion with our loved ones? What is that like, and what can we expect in the future?

The Church has always proclaimed the teaching that there is a future date, far ahead of us, when we are going to enjoy a resurrection like what Jesus had. Our bodies will be raised up, our flesh made whole, and everything about us perfected. This transformation is like Jesus’s own resurrection was, and we will talk about that more fully in a moment.

However, until that moment when we are resurrected and enter into eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven, what do we do? According to Revelation and the wider canon of scripture, the resurrection is something that happens at the end of everything – when the current Heaven and Earth pass away and are reborn, so shall we be. That means there is something that in between now and then that we must take part in that is not the final resting place we all enjoy in the New Heaven and New Earth. This is a concept which is called, theologically, “The Intermediate State.”

This is talked about in the New Testament as the “Bosom of Abraham,” and as “Paradise,” the place where the righteous wait for God to set the world straight and initiate the New World. This is considered to be part of the general “realm of the dead.” In the Hebrew Bible it was called Sheol, in the New Testament it is called Hades, but generally speaking there is an idea that when we die, our souls leave our bodies and rest in a state not quite in Heaven but definitely not of earth. It is, essentially, a foretaste of what that final reunion of Heaven and Earth will be like. For those who will enjoy Heaven there is the presence of God and the feeling of peace, for those who were wicked there is the anticipation of Hell and perdition.

It is my opinion that this is what death means for us. Our soul leaves our body, our body becomes inert. We enter into the intermediate space, a waiting room for Heaven, and there we experience Jesus and the Communion of the Saints, though not in the fullness that we will at the end of history. Whether this intermediate state sees us in some sort of Heavenly Realm as we wait for the resurrection, or else some other place, I do not know, but I know that we are immediately with God, and with all the other righteous. I know this because Jesus promised the thief he would see him, “this day,” in Paradise. After all things are settled and Christ returns in final victory, Heaven, Earth, and our bodies will be reborn in a final and eternal resurrection, and we will enjoy the fullness of God’s blessings and eternal life.

We as Methodists have few documents that relate to what the intermediate state is truly like, indeed we are quick to point to the mystery of God when pressed about the question. However, John Wesley himself was clear in pointing to an intermediate state. Wesley spoke of the dead being fully present with God, and therefore being in Heaven, but also put the emphasis forward toward the coming reunion of the two worlds. The dead were able, in this between state, to continue to grow in love beyond what they achieved on earth. Death erased the last traces of sinful impulses in a person, but the renewed Spirit still was able to grow in love.[1]

            The intermediate state is an advantageous belief because it allows us to better see the continuity of God’s salvation, but it is also a distinction so slight in most cases that it is not worth agonizing over it. Those who die in the love of God go to be with God, and are therefore rightfully spoken of as being, “in Heaven.” Yet, we should hold onto a reunion with them that transcends death or life and is found only in the new creation of God. Those two ideas, more than any concept of terminology or theological maneuvering stand out above all others…

[The second question of the day is how we will recognize one another in the age to come. Paul is clear in our scripture that our resurrection is like that of Christ’s, and so anything we know about the resurrection we have to take from him and a few of his teachings. Jesus was recognizable to his disciples, but usually only after some event triggered their memory. For the disciples on Emmaus it was the breaking of bread, for the twelve it was the giving of peace and the catching of fish. Jesus was changed enough that it took some time to recognize him, but he was still very much Jesus.

Jesus carried with him the memories of his disciples, his love for them, the individual relationships he had with them. Jesus showed us that relationships went beyond the pall of death and into the eternity of God’s resurrection. In other words, there is a future we will have together in Heaven. There are some caveats to that though. Jesus is clear, for example, that marriage ends in death. We specifically have in our vows, “till death do us part,” because someday we will find ourselves cut off from our beloved and separated. Christ tells us that that separation makes us, no longer spouses, but fellow members of God’s eternal family.

Now, as I said we still retain our memories and life experiences and relationships. Therefore, I echo the sentiment of a liturgics professor I had once, who said, “In Heaven we are as angels, who do not marry, but I’m saving a seat for my husband right beside me even still!” Our relationships are transformed in resurrection, but they can never be erased. However, that works I am not worried, because I know I’ll be around those I love one way or another.

Heaven will, all the same, be populated with a countless multitude of people. We will be with saints from all time and space and from places we have never even heard of. All languages will be represented, all cultures, a diversity and numerousness we cannot begin to imagine. That means that we will not be in a room only of people we know, the whole of the New Jerusalem, of the new Heaven and Earth, will be opened up to us.

That means that the image of an immediate or organized reunion on the other side of this life is never mentioned in scripture. There is no singular, definite description of the saints we know sitting down together on the other side of this life. Yet, it seems impossible to me that God would keep people apart, or that in all of eternity we would not find one another again. If we want to give a quick and easy answer about how the Bible talks about what we will do, “When we all get to Heaven,” we will not find it. Yet a few things are clear.

God brings the dead to life, and God will have us all together in the new creation one day. This new life will include one another as a communion like what we know on Earth, albeit somewhat altered. We retain our personality in this new life, and given infinite time, it would be impossible to think we will not see each other again. Is there a welcoming committee in paradise of all our loved ones? I cannot say, but I know they are waiting for us, praying for us, and we will one day feast at the same table as them once more. That, in itself, is enough for me. – Amen.][2]

[1] John Wesley. Letter To Miss B-. The Works of the Rev. John Wesley. (New York, New York. J. & J. Harper.) 1827

[2] The latter part of this sermon is adapted from an early message, given on 08/21/2022

Sermon 08/04/2024.1 – Anger, Spite, and Other Considerations

/ John Langenstein / Leave a comment

Romans 12: 9-21

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Instead, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Sermon Text

Everyone is angry sometimes. There are few emotions so raw or deeply felt as anger is. The moment that something seems to overstep the bounds we have placed it in, something wells up inside up. Anger, a fire that floods through us, can quickly consume all sense and all wisdom, leaving us as an unchecked whirlwind of emotion, adrift in whatever setting we’ve sadly been pushed over the edge in. Anger is a dangerous thing, but, our question for today, is whether anger, and more specifically spite, have any use in our life.

There are few emotions that exist within us, I believe this strongly, that are exclusively negative. Anger, sadness, anxiety, fear – all of these things exist within us to help us live a safe and balanced life. If you lose something dear to you, you should be sad. If you are unsure of the future, anxiety can help us to plan a way to deal with some of that trouble. When we are faced with danger, fear allows us to protect ourselves however we can. The problem with any emotion is not its existence, but its prevalence, and more important even than that – what we do with it once we begin to feel it.

I’ve been open about my struggles with depression and very recently I had a flare up of my depressive symptoms. Typically, we think of depressed people as being sulky, sad sacks over in the corner crying about this or that. However, many times depression leads to a far more affecting response – irritation, frustration, and anger. Across the week or so that I had this flare us, it wasn’t just that I was unable to feel happy, it was that every little inconvenience and trouble was elevated. If I couldn’t find what I needed, if a plan didn’t go exactly as I hoped, if the dishwasher left a dish with some residual gunk… I was much more likely to snap at the inanimate object or person I was dealing with than I ever would be otherwise. Anger, a response born out of a legitimate feeling of frustration at my brain’s inability to produce the right chemicals, had left me in a place where I could cause real harm to my relationships if I was not considerate and careful.

Beyond issues of mental health though, we all can become angry. We all have something that just sets us off, and usually this is explained as us coming into a situation where we feel someone has crossed a line. We’re angry when people don’t follow the rules of life – they don’t drive correctly, they don’t put their cart away, they say something that’s rude, or they insert themselves into a situation where we feel they do not belong. We get angry, often times, from a legitimate feeling that something isn’t quite right. The problem becomes how we feed that anger once it is with us.

You see, anger can be a motivator to do something that needs to be done. Sometimes a relationship we have really has had some important boundaries broken, in those cases anger can bring us to confront the issue and do something about it. Likewise, when we see people being mistreated we should be angry, and that anger should inspire us to action. The thing that we must always be sure of is that we are equipped to process our emotions, our anger and all other feelings, in a way that ultimately helps the general state of the world rather than hurts it. Anger is a feeling that, if we encourage it, will consume much of our soul and eventually turn to hatred.

When I spoke a moment ago about my mental health, it would be so easy to write off anything I do while in a depressive episode as, “Just a thing that happens.” I can’t help my serotonin levels, so why shouldn’t I claim immunity to anything I say or do when I enter a funk? The answer should be obvious – while I cannot control the situation I find myself in, I do have some control over what I do with it once I’m there. I should be able to notice when I am getting unnecessarily irritated, when I’m being pushed by normal things as if they are serious, when I need to disengage and then return to a situation to handle it properly.

We all have moments we will respond angrily to things, and will do so in a way that is not productive. Thank God reconciliation is possible. Yet, the goal we live into is what Paul puts forward in today’s scripture. We should live a life so rooted in grace, that even in the midst of hardship and in the midst of people causing genuine harm to us, our core conviction to do what is right is not changed. We should hate what is evil, following our righteous anger to take action in this world, but we should only do things we know, “do not repay evil for evil.” Likewise, our response even to the most wicked people we know should be one of grace and mercy, we should be willing to feed those we disagree with, those we dislike even, and treat them with respect.

There was a component of the question I was offered which focused specifically on the idea of spite. “Can a Christian be motivated by spite?” To answer that, I think we need to find a working definition of the word. Spite is defined as a desire to “hurt, annoy, or offend.” In that sense, I think spite is a dangerous thing. When we are consumed by the idea of making someone else’s life worse, we will inevitably cause more harm than good. If, however, our spite is toward something ideological, we might be able to turn it into something useful to the life of a Christian.

Do we want to hurt people or do we want to strike out against the unjust things of the world? That I think is the central question we have to hold in our hearts when we consider what we are motivated by. If we hate the evil that is exclusion, then we will do all we can to fight against things that exclude other people. If we hate the evil that is criminalized poverty, then we will advocate for those around us. If we hate the evil that is cruelty of any kind, then we will practice kindness that seeks to erase that evil from the world. In practicing a life that is antithetical to evil, I cannot take up the tools of evil to get what I want, because anyone who uses an evil tool will eventually find that evil is far more enticing than moderation.

Paul tells us that a life lived in opposition to evil requires us to be consistent in our opposition to evil. We may be mistreated, but we do not do anything to mistreat other people. We are not to ever think of ourselves as above other people, but in all things we should be willing to walk alongside others as equals. We should not ever find ourselves consumed with anger so that we want to tear the world down, but we should feel our indignation turn to compassion, as we join Christ in trying to repair this broken world – not tear it apart further.

Elsewhere, the Apostle tells us that we should not “let the sun set on our anger,” in other words we should not hold onto grudges. That can be hard. When people do something that really irks us, or they strike at something that we care deeply about, it can be hard to let go of that anger. The truth, however, is that we are meant to cleanse ourselves each night of our anger, our fear, our anxiety, and face each new day with a renewed commitment to doing what is right. Our prayer as we lay down to sleep should be that God will quiet our anger, so that in the morning we may love more intensely than ever.

Christ put it another way. “If you come to offer a gift at the altar, and you remember that you have a problem with a neighbor, leave your gift and go reconcile with them.” We cannot be righteous, we cannot worship properly, if we are letting anger overtake us, conflict define us, and hatred consume us. If we have done wrong, if we have been wronged, we should be doing something to try and fix that situation. We will talk later this month about what reconciliation looks like, but today I want to make something clear. When we come to our time of Holy Communion, when we get to the passing of the peace, the intention of that time is not just to shake hands and hug. It is a time to bury the hatchet, to let go of anger, to be better together.

So when we come to this part of our service today – if you need to walk across the room, leave the room and make a call, or come to the altar and pray – whatever you need to do to make amends – do so. Your soul is worth more than the grudge you hold onto, and the process of reconciliation can start with you – if you let it start with you. – Amen.